Chapter 34
Chapter 34
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 34
Chapter Title: Delayed Awakening
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The brown-haired man, whose consciousness returned belatedly, still felt his head ringing as if he had collided with something somewhere.
“Ugh…….”
The brown-haired man let out a groan as he began to gradually take stock of his current situation.
The shattered bar door and the siren blaring noisily beyond it.
The sight of police checking on his fallen comrades made it clear things hadn’t gone well.
But it wasn’t a total failure.
“You should’ve picked your targets more carefully before causing a scene.”
A detective with short sporty hair and a worn jacket approached the brown-haired man with a sigh.
The detective brushed the dust off his clothes by hand, treating him not like a suspect but an old friend.
“Damn…… Did you at least catch that bastard?”
The brown-haired man stood up, letting the detective’s hand guide him without resistance.
No matter how he looked around, the person he was searching for wasn’t there.
“That bastard? Who are you looking for?”
“Who else? The guy who turned this place into shit, obviously.”
“You’re saying just one guy did this to all of you?”
The brown-haired man bit his lip and muttered a curse under his breath, unable to answer the question.
Even to him, suffering such a crushing defeat against just one opponent was an ego-bruising reality.
It was a humiliating outcome that would be lucky not to draw mockery wherever he went.
“Just tell me if you caught him or not.”
“He got away. You guys were the only ones left here.”
The brown-haired man couldn’t hide his disbelief at the detective’s response.
“W-what? You cops couldn’t catch one guy?”
“You eight Hunters, armed to the teeth with expensive gear from your organization, got wiped out, and you’re saying that?”
“Ugh.”
The detective’s words left the brown-haired man speechless.
Sure, they were only C-rank Hunters, but they were a group equipped with high-end items backed by their organization.
With numbers on their side, they could’ve taken down even a B-rank Hunter with ease.
“You guys usually pick your jobs so carefully—what got into you this time?”
“You didn’t see the woman he had with him, Detective.”
“What nonsense is that? Was she so gorgeous you lost all reason?”
The brown-haired man answered with a firm “Yes.”
“If we’d caught that bitch, we could’ve quit this life and moved up the ladder.”
Having trafficked and sold countless women as merchandise, he was certain.
That woman was undoubtedly the finest prize he’d ever laid eyes on.
Watching the brown-haired man speak with such conviction, the detective smacked his lips in regret.
“Then you should’ve done better.”
“What was I supposed to do? We got unlucky and ran into an A-rank Hunter.”
In the brown-haired man’s mind, the opponent was at least A-rank, no matter how low he estimated.
Otherwise, getting utterly demolished without landing a single hit didn’t make sense.
The detective shared the same view.
He handed some pre-prepared documents to the brown-haired man and headed toward the shattered door.
“I’ll handle the guys outside for a bit, so figure out who hit this place from those files.”
“How long do you expect me to go through all this? My head’s still pounding from the beating.”
“If it bugs you that much, just take the L.”
“……I can’t do that.”
The brown-haired man ground his teeth.
He couldn’t let it go without landing a hit on the guy who did this.
“Alright, good luck.”
The detective moved to help his subordinates transport the injured Hunters.
Officially, it was for investigation, but they’d all be released by morning at the latest.
They had contingencies for this sort of thing.
As long as a few kept their mouths shut, the Hunters who’d tried to grab one woman would flip into victims.
And the one who fought back would turn into the bloodied assailant who beat up innocent people.
“Thanks to this, I’ll get a nice payout.”
The detective felt no guilt whatsoever about framing the innocent.
If he could pocket some cash from this and treat himself to beef for once, he’d be satisfied.
“That damn bastard…… I’ll find you.”
The brown-haired man rifled through the list of A-rank Hunters the detective had given him, desperately searching for info on his target.
But no matter how many times he flipped through, Kang Jin-hyuk’s face didn’t even peek out.
“Fuck, where is it?”
Convinced he’d overlooked something, the brown-haired man scrutinized the documents again.
The guy’s shabby appearance didn’t scream A-rank Hunter, but his skills were the real deal.
That’s why the man was sure Kang Jin-hyuk had to be on this list.
“What the hell, why isn’t he here?!”
Contrary to expectations, he couldn’t find a single match in the detective’s files.
“Maybe he’s a recent promotion and not on the list yet?”
Clutching at straws, the brown-haired man checked the update date on the documents.
To his disappointment, it was the latest data, refreshed just two hours ago.
“Fuck. The slacker does his job this thoroughly.”
With his last hope dashed, the brown-haired man vented his frustration at the absent detective.
“The face feels kinda familiar…….”
Kang Jin-hyuk didn’t seem like a total stranger—there was something oddly familiar about him.
Determined to pinpoint why, the brown-haired man racked his brain desperately.
He squeezed his memory like a dry rag, pushing his mind to the limit, but no answer came.
“Maybe I should search online.”
He pulled out his phone from his pocket and grimaced.
The screen of his barely-out-of-contract phone was cracked like a spiderweb, fueling his resentment even more.
“That guy ruined everything…….”
The more he dwelled on it, the angrier he got.
It felt like Kang Jin-hyuk had robbed him of a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
Vowing to track him down and kill him, the brown-haired man turned on the phone.
But what he saw wasn’t the lit screen.
It was his right hand, pierced through by a dagger alongside the phone.
“……!”
Before the brown-haired man could scream, someone clamped his mouth shut.
He couldn’t struggle—the razor-sharp blade hovered right at his throat.
Whoever the ambusher was, any sudden move would mean instant death; the lethal intent was palpable.
When the brown-haired man, unwilling to die, gave up resisting, the voice whispered softly in his ear from behind.
“You’re a Hunter from the ‘Tyrant’ Guild, right?”
“?!”
The brown-haired man jolted in shock.
They weren’t officially in a guild as C-rank Hunters, but Tyrant had their backs and issued orders like this one.
“I didn’t believe Altron’s rival for the top spot would stoop to this…… until I saw it myself.”
The brown-haired man fell into deep thought.
His attacker knew something he shouldn’t.
If word got out that the Tyrant Guild was directly involved in human trafficking……
Everyone from him to all the C-rank Hunters tied to this would be killed to cut off loose ends.
By the hands of Tyrant themselves, the ones they’d trusted with their backs.
Better to act now than face Tyrant later—at least he had a shot at survival.
‘I just need to pull an item from my inventory……!’
The brown-haired man pinned his hopes on the rare item still in his inventory.
He believed the chains that could bind even an orc in one go would get him out of this.
But such obvious tricks didn’t work on his attacker, Yoon Song-ho.
As the man subtly moved his left hand, Yoon Song-ho drove the dagger into his throat.
“……!!”
With his windpipe pierced, no scream could escape his blocked mouth.
It was a full-throated yell, but sadly, it didn’t reach the people outside.
“Willing to risk your life to resist? Looks like the info I have checks out.”
That confirmation was all Yoon Song-ho needed.
Never intending to threaten or take hostages, he yanked the dagger back across the throat.
Slicing deep through the carotid, blood sprayed out like a fountain.
“Gurk……! Glrk!”
The brown-haired man clutched his throat with his pierced hand.
But it did nothing to stem the gushing blood.
The floor soaked red in seconds as he slowly lost consciousness.
Yoon Song-ho adjusted his mask and watched until the man fully expired.
“Didn’t expect someone to hit this place before me…… Someone else moved in?”
Muttering to himself, Yoon Song-ho shook his head.
His mission was to raid the bar and kill all the Hunters.
As far as he knew, no one else was assigned this.
“Leaving them alive without killing any means it wasn’t one of ours.”
They might spare someone briefly to extract info, but never let them all walk away injured.
Figuring it was a clash with another faction, Yoon Song-ho slipped away before the detective returned.
Once at a safe distance from the cops, the assailant double- and triple-checked that no one was around.
Then he pulled out a burner phone and dialed the stored number.
Exactly three rings later, the call connected.
“There’s a problem.”
[Did you fail?]
“Yes. Someone beat me to it.”
[Already cutting off tails?]
“Doesn’t seem like it.”
Yoon Song-ho explained everything he’d seen to the person on the line.
After a long silence, a faint tongue-click came through the receiver.
“What should I do?”
[What else? If it’s not tail-cutting, find out who did it.]
Guild conflict was the obvious suspect, but the voice on the line put no stock in it.
Only Altron could go to war with Tyrant.
But Altron was famous for avoiding contact with other guilds.
Their goal was the top spot through their own strength alone, no faction squabbles.
[Killing only Park Min-jae out of the two ringleaders is worrying too.]
The ‘Park Min-jae’ mentioned was the name of the brown-haired man whose throat he’d just slit.
[No clue on Choi Seo-hoon’s whereabouts?]
Choi Seo-hoon was the real key player in this crime, more so than Park Min-jae.
He disguised himself as a bartender, but his real job was human trafficking and guild contacts.
As a core operative, he surely had unique intel.
“Sorry. I searched the area, but Choi Seo-hoon’s gone without a trace.”
He wasn’t arrested by police or fleeing via known escape routes.
Vanishing without a hint amid this chaos was beyond a C-rank Hunter’s ability.
[I’ll provide a tracking item. Follow the trail to the end.]
“Understood.”
Yoon Song-ho ended the call and snapped the burner phone in his hand.