Chapter 438: Lustful Search (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 438: Lustful Search (1)
Late morning was drawing to a close.
Kim Tae-yang stormed into the Sejin Group headquarters, located in the heart of Gangnam, his face a mask of fury.
It was an open secret that he and the Sejin Group were closely connected.
No one blocked his path; they simply parted to let him through.
He arrived at the Executive Director's office on the 13th floor.
He threw the door open so violently it seemed ready to fly off its hinges. Inside, a man with a serpentine air sat at a desk.
The man’s name was Park Se-jun.
The second son of the current chairman of Sejin Group.
“What brings you here? Coming to see me this early in the… Gack!”
Despite Kim Tae-yang’s forceful entrance, Park Se-jun had been about to greet him with his usual beaming smile, but he couldn't finish his sentence, instead sucking in a sharp breath.
Kim Tae-yang had marched right up to the desk, reached out, and violently grabbed him by the collar.
“Cough… What the hell are you doing?”
His face scrunching up in annoyance, he asked in a bewildered tone. Kim Tae-yang tightened his grip, shook him, and growled.
“That’s what I want to ask you, you son of a bitch. What the hell were you thinking, giving me that thing…!”
“Ah.”
A bright smile spread across Park Se-jun’s lips as he listened.
“You did it, didn’t you? Right? Heh heh… How was it? Fucking amazing, wasn’t it?”
“……!”
Kim Tae-yang was left speechless by the man’s nonchalant reaction to his outburst.
At his question, the massive wave of emotion he had felt a few days ago crashed over him once more.
It was an immense pleasure he had never experienced before—not when he slept with dozens of women at once, not even when he brutally took a wife in front of her husband.
And the vitality that surged through his entire body.
A thirst to feel it again constricted his throat.
Even knowing that to feel that fleeting emotion, another person’s death was required.
It was enough to make him think that any guilt he felt for the dead woman didn’t matter in the slightest.
He shook his head violently, trying to cast the feeling aside, and asked.
“What’s the reason?”
“Reason? What reason?”
When Park Se-jun feigned ignorance, Kim Tae-yang, his irritation boiling over, shouted.
“I’m asking why you gave me this shit, you bastard…!”
“Ah~ that reason?”
The reason was incredibly simple.
“Because you’re a fucking weakling, you prick.”
“…What?”
“Do you have any idea how disappointed my father was with you this time? Huh?”
“……”
Kim Tae-yang fell silent.
He had expected it.
The Sejin Group only backed him because he had power.
Son Si-woo, Han Ju-hee, Namgung Hyeok, and the others.
It didn’t matter if he fell behind other S-rank Hunters.
They had reached S-rank before him and had accomplished equally great feats.
But the opponent he had lost to this time was an A-rank on the verge of becoming S-rank.
Meaning, as someone who had reached S-rank years ago, he was an opponent he should never have lost to.
As Kim Tae-yang’s face twisted in humiliation, Park Se-jun continued.
“My father is even thinking of kicking you out and putting Kim Do-jin in your place. No, it’s not just a thought. He’s already acting on it. He even sent an expensive gift to that bastard’s house recently.”
“What…!”
Kim Tae-yang’s face contorted in shock.
He felt a profound sense of betrayal.
After everything I’ve done for them, those fucking bastards…!
It was true that the Sejin Group had supported him in every way possible.
But all that support hadn’t been out of pure goodwill.
He had worked for it.
He had dirtied his hands for them countless times, never shying away from the filthy tasks that couldn’t be exposed to the public.
And now they were trying to cast him aside just because he lost to a junior once!
Kim Tae-yang’s grip naturally loosened. Freed, Park Se-jun approached him with a sly grin, patting his shoulder in a show of comfort.
“Pisses you off, right? But Tae-yang, think about it. Why do you think this is happening?”
He answered through gritted teeth.
“…Because I lost to that bastard.”
“Yes, that’s it! All of this is happening because you lost to him.”
After his passionate outburst, Park Se-jun wrapped an arm around Kim Tae-yang’s shoulders and asked again.
“Are you just going to step aside and let that bastard take everything you’ve enjoyed?”
In truth, he wouldn’t be ruined even if he lost the Sejin Group’s sponsorship.
An S-rank Hunter is still an S-rank, after all.
But that’s how people are.
Instead of calmly assessing what they have left, they’re too busy lamenting what they’ve lost.
Especially if what they lost ends up in the hands of their enemy.
His face would be superimposed over all the days he had lived until now.
“Like hell…!” Kim Tae-yang spat, seething with rage.
Seeing this, Park Se-jun grinned and stoked his emotions.
“Let’s not take the hard road when there’s an easy one, Tae-yang. I’ll take care of the aftermath, so you just focus on getting stronger.”
His sharp eyes pierced through Kim Tae-yang’s emotions.
He had caused far too much trouble.
If he lost his power, and someone appeared who could replace him, no one would call on him anymore.
Of course, most of the incidents and accidents he’d caused had been orchestrated by Park Se-jun himself.
He delivered his final words to the man who was now backed into a corner.
“This world is teeming with wretched things that no one would notice if they suddenly disappeared.”
His tongue, flicking like a serpent’s, gave Kim Tae-yang the final push off the cliff.
*
“Wh-who are you…?”
It wasn’t difficult to break down the wall a wary middle-aged woman had built around her heart.
“Hunter Kim Do-jin…!”
It was thanks to the police officer, who had been arguing with her, recognizing me.
Even if she didn’t know my face, she seemed to know my name. She immediately began explaining her situation.
Her daughter had said she was going out for the night and hadn’t returned for three days.
Her smartphone was off.
She had gone to her daughter’s university and waited aimlessly, grabbing a female student she vaguely remembered to ask about her whereabouts, but to no avail.
All she was told was that the last time anyone saw her was four days ago.
“Hmm…”
It seemed the mother and daughter had a good relationship.
Having lost her husband early, the two women had relied on each other and were said to be like friends.
Meaning, there was no reason for her to suddenly cut off contact and disappear on her own.
It seemed almost certain this was an abduction…
“I understand, ma’am. For now, please do as the officer says and go home. I understand it must be difficult to just sit at home, but… I’ll do my best to get you news of your daughter.”
“Please, Hunter-nim. Please… please find my daughter…!”
After sending the woman, who was bowing repeatedly to me and the officer, on her way, I left the police substation shortly after.
I didn’t say much else.
Hassling a substation with only two officers wouldn’t get anything done.
On the way home, I made a call.
“Director, it’s me.”
The recipient was Director Kim Seong-tae.
A director at the Hunter Association.
And a man currently in power, at that. He would surely have close ties with the police high command.
Through him, I would ask the police to expedite the investigation, and at the same time…
“And please include me and my kids in it.”
—…Are you planning to get involved directly?
“Yes, I have a bad feeling about this.”
—Hmm, I understand. I will take the necessary steps.
In truth, I didn’t feel anything at all.
How could I have a hunch when all I’d heard was that someone had disappeared without a single clue?
Whether the culprit in this case was an ordinary person or a villain…
“Just let me get my hands on you.”
I just wanted to personally punish the rotten bastard who had scorched the hearts of a daughter’s parents.
.
.
.
.
.
.
.
The next day.
I gathered all the guild members and told them about the case.
“So… for that reason, we will be cooperating with the police.”
The reaction wasn’t bad.
“…Not bad.”
“Kidnapping a woman… that’s the absolute worst.”
“The moment I see him, I’m smashing his junk with my shield!”
“I’ll do my best.”
They were all perverts in their own way, but they weren’t bad kids at heart.
And since a fellow woman was caught up in a crime, they must have felt even more empathetic.
However, there was one person who was fired up even more than them.
“To kidnap a woman…! I will burn my very body to catch the culprit!”
Yoon Si-hoo.
One of the new members who had joined the guild after distinguishing himself in the entrance exam disguised as a club tryout.
His actions and skills were clumsy and unrefined in every way, yet he was a diamond in the rough that somehow caught your eye.
He had gotten much better now, though.
In terms of Hunter rank, he seemed to have reached about D-rank.
“You idiot, get down from there. Can’t you see the seniors’ expressions?”
“Ah……”
Another rookie held him back.
Jin Ha-rin.
She was the real deal.
Top of her class at admission, and top of her class at the end of the year.
Her already outstanding talent had been further polished during the vacation’s special training.
If I had to assign her a rank, it would be roughly C-rank.
With a bit of luck, she was at a level where she could pass the qualification exam right now.
She asked me in a calm tone.
“Will we be participating in this investigation as well?”
“We’ll see.”
I hadn’t actually considered their participation.
They weren’t official Hunters yet, and they were lacking in many ways.
I was originally going to tell them to just keep training, but… I had a change of heart.
“You guys decide.”
I decided to leave the choice to them.
The two looked at each other, whispered something, and then answered with determined expressions.
“If we won’t be a burden, we’d like to participate too.”
“Please allow us to participate!”
Is that so?
“Okay, good.”
It wouldn’t be a bad idea to give them a preview.
What kind of work Hunters do.
What kind of threats they face.
And how they react in the midst of it all.
“You two, follow me.”
“Yes.”
“Understood!”
I led the two very different individuals, who were brimming with anticipation, out of the club room.