Chapter 55
Chapter 55
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: The Stolen Antidote
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The one who contacted Kang Jin-hyuk was Seo Sang-ho's secretary.
Thanks to exchanging numbers during the previous large-scale air raid, her contact was still saved in his phone.
“What’s going on?”
[Are you there right now, Guild Master?]
The secretary's voice coming through the receiver was trembling severely.
It felt like she was barely holding up a body that could collapse at any moment.
Was this an act?
Or were her barely suppressed emotions leaking out?
“Do you have the antidote?”
[Yes! I have it! You're there, right?]
In the off chance that Seo Sang-ho's secretary was on the same side as the guild members chasing him, his life would be over.
But Kang Jin-hyuk thought that if it was someone who would die anyway even if left alone, he had to take the gamble.
“I'm at my house, so hurry over. We don't have much time left.”
Having heard the reply, the secretary immediately ended the call.
And then, as if she'd been nearby from the start, she pounded fiercely on the front door in less than five minutes.
When he opened the door, the secretary rushed inside in a disheveled state—hair undone and stockings laddered.
“Where is the Guild Master!? Is he in that room!?”
“Calm down and wait here for a bit.”
Kang Jin-hyuk sat the secretary in a living room chair and went up to the attic alone, locking the door from inside.
“There's no benefit in telling her about the dungeon.”
Seo Sang-ho had been on the verge of death, so there was no choice, but Kang Jin-hyuk had never intended to reveal anything about the dungeon to anyone from the start.
Moreover, it would be foolish to disclose his most important secret to a woman whose allegiance was uncertain.
Kang Jin-hyuk entered the dungeon alone and hurriedly returned to the workshop.
The dwarf looked puzzled at Kang Jin-hyuk, who had come back after only five minutes outside.
“What? You already found the antidote?”
“Yeah. She came on her own.”
“What kind of nonsense is that?”
“No time to explain. I'll tell you later.”
Kang Jin-hyuk hoisted Seo Sang-ho onto his back and raced out of the dungeon.
With only about ten minutes left, he had to move even faster.
Kang Jin-hyuk burst out of the attic door, breathing hard from running at full speed.
The secretary, who had been sitting anxiously in the chair, jumped up the moment she saw Seo Sang-ho's face.
“Sang-ho!”
Seeing the secretary run over calling him by name, Kang Jin-hyuk felt relieved.
'So they're that kind of relationship.'
If it wasn't just boss and subordinate feelings, there was no need to worry about betrayal.
Kang Jin-hyuk carefully laid Seo Sang-ho down on the living room floor.
In front of the life-hanging Seo Sang-ho, the secretary shed silent tears.
Kang Jin-hyuk understood her feelings, but there was no time for that now.
“We don't have much time left. You need to administer the antidote quickly.”
The secretary, unable to speak properly with a parched throat, nodded.
She pulled out the prepared antidote and a disposable syringe from her bag.
“Do you know how to inject it?”
The secretary flashed a look as if to say not to treat her like an amateur.
She jabbed the syringe filled with antidote into his arm, and color immediately returned to Seo Sang-ho's face, which had looked ready to give out his last breath.
Confirming he had passed the critical point, the secretary sighed in relief, patting her chest.
“Really…… thank you.”
As time passed and her emotions settled, the secretary bowed politely to Kang Jin-hyuk.
“I won't forget this favor. I will definitely repay it.”
“It's a bit early to talk like it's all over.”
As Kang Jin-hyuk said, it was still too soon to relax.
The antidote had been administered, but for proper treatment, he needed to be moved to appropriate facilities.
However, pursuers were still swarming nearby.
If he showed himself carelessly, they would unleash a total assault.
“I'm sorry, but could you help just a little more? I'll make sure to compensate you.”
“…….”
Kang Jin-hyuk didn't want to get deeply involved in another guild's affairs.
But with her swallowing tears and pleading for help, he couldn't heartlessly refuse—it stung too much.
“Alright. Since we've come this far, I'll see it through to the end.”
“Thank you.”
“But I have a condition.”
“What condition? I'll do anything possible.”
The condition Kang Jin-hyuk presented to the secretary was simple.
“Tell me everything without hiding anything about what's happened. I don't want to get dragged in blind.”
“Understood…….”
Before starting the long story, the secretary took a deep breath.
* * *
The hotel where Seo Sang-ho's welcome ceremony was to be held was in absolute chaos.
Even with the deadly poison administered, the opponent was S-rank Hunter Seo Sang-ho.
He wasn't someone to take lightly.
“Hahaha. I never imagined you'd land a hit on me in that condition.”
Beside the grim-faced Han Young-seok, another S-rank Hunter, Kang Jun-tae, burst into hearty laughter.
“You're laughing in this situation?!”
“Will crying or getting angry fix things? It's already happened—might as well enjoy it.”
Kang Jun-tae gently rubbed his abdomen, where Seo Sang-ho had struck him.
Even as his body was going numb, Seo Sang-ho had swung a fist strong enough to send him flying far away.
That willpower alone was truly admirable.
“Both you and I underestimated Seo Sang-ho too much. That was the mistake.”
“Yeah. There's truth to the saying even a rotting fish is still mackerel.”
“But we got a lesson out of it.”
Han Young-seok agreed with Kang Jun-tae.
Escaping here was unavoidable, but next time would be different.
Han Young-seok planned to mobilize all his power to finish Seo Sang-ho off.
“By the way, still no news from the search teams?”
“We've contacted the police and hospitals, but no sign yet.”
“Then he's hiding somewhere…….”
“We sent trackers, so word should come soon.”
Even as he spoke nonchalantly as if it were nothing, Han Young-seok was the most anxious.
The poison used on Seo Sang-ho was basilisk venom smuggled at astronomical cost.
By now, he should have been found as a corpse.
But none of the trackers sent to scour the area had found any trace of Seo Sang-ho.
“Big trouble!”
Seeing the guild member shout urgently, Han Young-seok instinctively knew it wasn't the news he wanted.
Reports starting like that were always headaches.
Welcome or not, as the person in charge, Han Young-seok had to hear the guild member's report.
“What happened?”
“One of the separately stored antidotes is missing!”
Han Young-seok couldn't close his gaping mouth upon hearing that.
Along with smuggling the basilisk venom, they had bought two antidotes just in case.
One missing meant almost certainly someone had taken it to Seo Sang-ho.
“We're screwed.”
Kang Jun-tae chuckled, fanning the flames on a burning house.
As his anger peaked, Han Young-seok felt himself calming instead.
After massaging his eyes with his hand for a moment, he opened his mouth with a sigh.
“So, do we know who took it?”
“It's Secretary Lee Hye-na.”
“That bitch after all…….”
The antidotes were under strict surveillance.
Excluding Han Young-seok and other executives, the only one with authority to bypass that surveillance was Seo Sang-ho's personal secretary, Lee Hye-na.
“Track that woman's whereabouts. Seo Sang-ho must be there too.”
“Understood.”
The guild member hurried off to relay the orders.
Han Young-seok picked a relatively intact chair and slumped into it powerlessly.
He hadn't expected things to go smoothly from the start.
But he never imagined it would tangle this badly.
Seo Sang-ho, thrashing in his near-corpse state, and Lee Hye-na, who somehow sniffed out the antidote.
Han Young-seok was convinced someone else had hidden Seo Sang-ho's whereabouts afterward.
No matter how cunning Lee Hye-na was, she would have learned of it only after Seo Sang-ho was hit.
During the time she obtained the antidote, Seo Sang-ho was defenseless.
“Hiding perfectly without a trace in his weakened state is impossible alone.”
“Any guesses?”
“I'm thinking now.”
Among Titan's eight executives, two hadn't joined this plan.
But it was unlikely those two helped Seo Sang-ho.
They had been confined to their homes with guild members in case they interfered.
Jammer signals blocked internet too, so they couldn't intervene outside.
“No matter how I think, it's an outsider, not from our guild.”
“Why do you think that?”
“How meticulously did I prepare this plan? Would I leave internal risks?”
Any guild members showing even slight favor to Seo Sang-ho had been thoroughly excluded from the plan.
“There could be traitors.”
“……Yeah. Possible.”
Once things blew up, some might cling to Seo Sang-ho out of fear.
To root out potential traitors, Han Young-seok contacted his direct subordinates.
[Find anyone even slightly suspicious or unaccounted for.]
Less than thirty minutes after the order, his subordinates dragged three guild members before Han Young-seok.
Two with battered faces and one with a broken arm.
They looked like they'd fought brutally somewhere.
“Their reports don't match their movements.”
“By how much.”
“About an hour gap.”
“That's plenty of time to scheme.”
Hearing Han Young-seok, the three guild members paled.
“W-Wait a minute!”
“It's a misunderstanding!”
The hunters realized they were being treated as traitors and grew desperate.
At this rate, they'd be tortured without proper defense.
“We just didn't report—it was nothing more!”
“If no ulterior motives, you'd have reported properly.”
“Th-That…….”
As the hunters hesitated, Kang Jun-tae grew irritated.
“Just beat one to death and start. No need to keep all three alive.”
Kang Jun-tae pulled out an iron rod, emphasizing he wasn't joking.
“W-Wait, please!”
“We'll tell everything!”
“Spare us, please!”
Thinking confession and reprimand better than hiding and dying, the hunters spilled the truth.
Discovering suspicious traces in front of Kang Jin-hyuk's house.
Attacking him and getting counterattacked.
Then thoroughly searching the house after barely getting permission.
The three hunters confessed everything without distortion.
“Fucking hell…….”
Having heard it all, Han Young-seok's face flushed red.
These were facts ridiculous enough to reset his anger limit.
How much blood and sweat had he poured into this plan?
His long-accumulated efforts and resolve were on the brink of ruin because of these three idiots and incompetents!
“Beat them to death.”
“Who?”
“All of them!”
Han Young-seok indifferently watched the pleading hunters die under Kang Jun-tae's iron rod.
Such useless trash had no place in Titan.