Chapter 46
Chapter 46
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 46
Chapter Title: The Assassin's Notebook
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Kang Jin-hyuk approached Yoon Song-ho and rummaged through his outer clothes.
Touching a dead body felt deeply unsettling, but now wasn't the time to worry about that.
"Found it."
Kang Jin-hyuk located Yoon Song-ho's inventory and stuffed all the scrolls he had brought inside it.
Yoon Song-ho's inventory, now packed with demolition scrolls, made it look like he was the mastermind behind every explosion in this building.
A frame job, so to speak.
But Kang Jin-hyuk had no qualms about pinning the blame on Yoon Song-ho.
He wasn't some innocent victim—he was the guy who had tried to take Kang Jin-hyuk's life.
So, getting used like this was just karma, nothing more.
"Huh? What's this?"
While shoving in the scrolls, Kang Jin-hyuk found something suspicious inside the inventory.
He pulled it out and saw a notebook with a pitch-black cover, secured with a lock to prevent it from being opened.
"It looks shady as hell at first glance."
Kang Jin-hyuk set the notebook on the ground and smashed the lock with his baseball bat.
As he picked it up again to check the contents, a 'click' sounded from inside the notebook, like a mechanism activating.
"Huh?"
Before he could even open it, the notebook suddenly burst into flames with a whoosh.
Startled, Kang Jin-hyuk stumbled back and dropped it.
The notebook hit the floor and burned rapidly, turning to ash.
"Trying to keep secrets, huh?"
Snapping to attention, Kang Jin-hyuk rummaged through his own inventory and pulled out a bunch of potions.
He didn't have any water on hand, so he planned to douse the flames with these.
It pained him to waste the potions' cost, but info worth hiding this thoroughly was worth it.
"I can save at least half of it now."
Sizzle.
Pouring a large quantity of potions extinguished the fire in an instant.
Instead, it produced a thick cloud of smoke that stung his lungs.
"Cough! Cough!"
Kang Jin-hyuk waved his hands to disperse the smoke.
The notebook, soaked in potion, had taken on a reddish tint.
He flipped it open before the pages could stick together, and unexpected contents came into view.
"This is..."
The notebook contained photos of people on each page, along with their personal details.
Where they lived, family relations.
Even frequent haunts and average return-home times were meticulously recorded.
"Why note it all down in such detail? Planning to target them next?"
Flipping through, Kang Jin-hyuk spotted an X mark on one photo and paused.
Beneath the X-marked photo, something was written in red ink.
The potion had smeared it a bit, but it was still readable.
"Punishment."
Pondering the word's meaning, a sudden realization hit Kang Jin-hyuk.
"Now that I think about it, this guy! He's the one from that internet article recently!"
Kang Jin-hyuk recalled the article about a hunter killed by a murderer.
Altron's B-rank Hunter 'Kang Jae-hyuk.'
The similar name had made him memorable.
The notebook had other figures with X marks too.
If this assassin lying here was the one who killed the people listed...
It explained why his karma was so sky-high.
"Who would've thought that crazy murderer was this guy."
Kang Jin-hyuk pulled paper from his inventory and began copying down all the names from the notebook.
With his smartphone busted, he'd search them up properly once he got home.
* * *
"Why hasn't he shown up yet?"
Despite finishing all his tasks, Jeong Dae-yoon still hadn't arrived, leaving Kang Jin-hyuk visibly uneasy.
He'd planned meticulously, but it was all useless without backup.
If Jeong Dae-yoon didn't cooperate, he'd have to scrap everything.
"He didn't seem like the backstabbing type. I can trust him, right?"
His karma was low enough to count as a good person.
As Kang Jin-hyuk tried to shake off his anxiety, he heard footsteps at the building entrance.
Turning with a mix of hope and worry, he saw Lucia and Jeong Dae-yoon approaching one after another.
Jeong Dae-yoon waved cheerfully as he walked, but froze when he spotted the body at Kang Jin-hyuk's feet, shoulders twitching.
"Who's this?"
"The guy tailing me."
"Oh, the stealthy one you were chasing."
Lucia wasn't surprised; she'd known about the tail from the start.
"If you were gonna catch him anyway, why not take him out early instead of luring him here?"
"He had his uses."
"What use? Looting the corpse?"
Kang Jin-hyuk realized Lucia was eyeing the inventory he held.
"No, that's not why I took it."
He waved his hands away quickly, like a thief caught red-handed.
"I'm pinning everything that happened here on this guy."
"That excuse makes you sound even shadier."
In a way, framing a dead man for your crimes seemed worse than just looting a body.
Kang Jin-hyuk ignored that and justified himself.
"He was chasing me to kill me. How I use him is up to me."
"Well, true, but... it's still creepy."
Lucia could understand, but it wasn't something to brag about.
Hadn't he paid enough by dying? Did he really need to frame him too?
Kang Jin-hyuk answered the question Lucia hadn't voiced yet.
"This is the best way to avoid a war breaking out here."
"A war...? Between guilds?"
Guilds existed in Lucia's world too.
But the guilds she knew weren't profit-driven alliances.
They were organizations to control rowdy adventurers.
So she couldn't wrap her head around guilds warring with each other.
"Isn't hunting monsters your hunters' job? Why fight among yourselves?"
"Tell me about it. I'm curious too."
If they'd united solely to hunt monsters, they wouldn't control hunting grounds.
Major guild hunters blocked other hunters' growth to protect their rice bowls.
As the saying goes, the haves are the worst offenders—the bigger the guild, the worse the bullying.
If those types suffered losses like today...
They wouldn't sit idly by.
"Anyway, we can't let Titan and Tyrant fight."
"Agreed. Who knows how many would get hurt if that happened."
Jeong Dae-yoon had watched Tyrant up close, knew what they'd do for gain, and spoke firmly.
"We must stop Tyrant from rampaging, no matter what."
"Yeah. That's why we're using this guy."
"How?"
"I told you. Frame everything here as his doing."
"Ah."
Now Lucia got it.
He planned to blame it all on Yoon Song-ho's corpse, derailing Tyrant's revenge.
They'd be furious at losing their outlet, but with blatant illegal acts exposed, they couldn't complain.
If things went to plan, they could close the case without casualties.
"Wait, hold on."
Lucia spotted a flaw.
"What if this guy's from another guild?"
"..."
"Even dead, after something this big, they'll investigate his identity."
"Probably."
"Then they'll find out he's from another guild. Doesn't change the outcome."
"It just shifts the war target."
Hearing Lucia, Jeong Dae-yoon grew grave too.
"Don't worry. That won't happen."
"How can you be sure?"
"I've got a hunch. Check his shoulder."
Yoon Song-ho's shoulder was bandaged where Kang Jin-hyuk pointed.
"What's that got to do with it?"
"Remember? Before coming here, you shot him with an arrow in front of your house."
"So what?"
Lucia had known from the start that the tail and this corpse were the same person.
It hadn't seemed crucial—just motive for pursuit—so she hadn't mentioned it.
But Kang Jin-hyuk focused on exactly that detail she'd dismissed.
"Think about it. What group sends a failed assassin—wounded, no less—back out the same day?"
"Maybe they were short-staffed."
"Or he's a lone operator."
With that, Kang Jin-hyuk handed the notebook he'd kept to Jeong Dae-yoon.
"What's this?"
"The hit list our assassin friend was carrying."
"What?"
Jeong Dae-yoon snatched it in shock and flipped it open.
He scanned each page rapidly yet meticulously, his face paling as he went.
"No way... This list includes deaths not even officially announced yet."
"No need to look further then."
The mad killer targeting major guild hunters—that was the assassin's identity.
"Tyrant will figure it out during their investigation. No war then."
You couldn't wage war on a dead murderer.
That's why Kang Jin-hyuk felt zero hesitation framing Yoon Song-ho.
"I don't get all the details, but no problem then?"
"Of course, things are going better than expected. Still can't let our guard down."
A lucky break had made the plan solid.
Now, only Jeong Dae-yoon's cooperation remained.
"You handled the outside?"
"Yes, as instructed."
"Phew. Good."
As Kang Jin-hyuk sighed in relief, Jeong Dae-yoon spoke worriedly.
"Don't relax yet. We need to leave before Tyrant's hunters arrive."
Lucia looked shocked.
"Huh? That wasn't a lie?"
"Blends better with some truth."
"How much did you mix in?"
"Half."
"Generous."
Tyrant hunters heading here was true.
Their imminent arrival? Pure lie.
The figures Titan members scouted were all Jeong Dae-yoon's illusions.
"Prestigious guild, my ass. Fell for a few illusions."
Tyrant's hunters had just left HQ.
Even top hunters needed over two hours to arrive.
Plenty of time to loot the Tyrant branch clean.
Han Young-seok would foam at the mouth if he knew.
"Fastest is still over an hour. Better hurry though."
"No need to fret. Prep's done."
"Then the rest is on me."
Kang Jin-hyuk met Jeong Dae-yoon's gaze.
His eyes looked deadly serious, like he'd steeled himself.
"You don't have to. Skip it if it's too much."
Kang Jin-hyuk felt uneasy.
What he was handing off could bring Jeong Dae-yoon serious harm.
If caught or it backfired, even his life wasn't safe.
Conscience pricked at assigning such risk.
"Who bails after hearing that?"
Jeong Dae-yoon chuckled.
Whether he read Kang Jin-hyuk's mind or just easing tension, unclear.
"Trust me. I want to stick it to these bastards too."
"Not that I don't trust you."
"I know."
Jeong Dae-yoon held up the notebook.
"Say the guildmaster got wiped but we caught a famous killer—they'll buy it."
Blame the killer for stealing the completed Alraune's illusion pill, causing the damage.
That was Jeong Dae-yoon's best cover story.
"One last question."
"Shoot."
"Did you grab the completed Alraune's illusion pill?"
Kang Jin-hyuk didn't answer, just gave a meaningful look.
Despite the silence, Jeong Dae-yoon nodded like he got it.
"Better anyone but Tyrant's hunters use it."
Jeong Dae-yoon didn't care who took it or for how much.
Selling an item fertilized by human lives? He'd never sleep soundly.
Kang Jin-hyuk felt similar disgust, but years as a nobody led elsewhere.
'Can't just toss this valuable thing.'
Use it himself or sell—either flipped his life.
Ditching it over queasiness was foolish.
For the dead, better to smash Tyrant with it.
That was Kang Jin-hyuk's conclusion.