Omen
Before anyone realized it, Hatchery had perched herself atop the neatly folded form of Fang Tian.
She swung her heels, slamming them into his torso again and again.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
With each impact, one side of Fang Tian’s ribs caved inward.
“S-Stop that! Do something about that devil’s antics! Isn’t she one of yours?!”
“W-Wang Special Envoy, let’s get out of here first.”
“Y-Yes, let’s!”
Wang Lei and Secretary Chen rose on trembling legs, only for Hatchery to plant herself squarely in the doorway.
“Where do you think you’re going-yong? You still have to keep negotiating, right-yong?”
“H-How are we supposed to negotiate in this atmosphere…?”
“Huh? From their side they said showing force is important in negotiations-yong? Isn’t that the case here too-yong?”
Before Hatchery had arrived, they themselves had been using Hunter Fang Tian to pressure the Korean side. They could not deny her words.
“Or would you two like to become cubes and negotiate that way-yong?”
They would end up like that too?
Crash— Special Envoy Wang Lei and Secretary Chen stumbled backward, tripped over a chair, and sprawled across the floor.
“Heh, just kidding-yong. Your bodies aren’t sturdy enough—you’d die if I did that.”
She’s insane. How the hell did Korea manage to tame a crazy bitch of a Hunter like this?
This was not human combat power. It was calamity itself. Wang Lei and Secretary Chen had no choice but to sit back down.
Meanwhile, Minister Lee Hyun-seok and Kang Jin-woo watched the entire spectacle in a daze.
“I-Is this really okay?”
“……”
Minister Lee Hyun-seok whispered to Deputy Director Oh Gwang-seok.
“I-I don’t know either. At this rate it looks like a crime…”
“I’m worried about the cleanup. If Hunter Fang Tian ends up like that, there will definitely be problems.”
But the problem had already erupted.
“Can’t we just deny everything? There’s no record left here. China was planning to deny it from the start when they went that far, right?”
“That would make us no better than them… More importantly, the state Hunter Fang Tian is in is on a completely different level of problem.”
“Aha! So that’s what you’re worried about-yong! Don’t worry-yong. When you leave, I’ll unfold him back for you-yong!”
Hatchery suddenly piped up with an answer. In her hands she had gathered the documents that had scattered across the floor and held them out with a little flourish.
Swoosh—
“You need these, right-yong! Hurry up and start the negotiations-yong! Those Chinese people over there are waiting too-yong!”
They knew she was on their side. Even so, facing Hatchery still sent a chill down their spines.
“Th-Thank you.”
“Ahem! Then let’s resume the negotiations.”
“Why hasn’t there been any contact from Fang Tian?”
“The contact time has already passed.”
Northern Gyeonggi Province on the Korean Peninsula, near Kaesong. A place that had greatly contributed to North Korea’s collapse when a massive Dungeon Impact erupted in the past. Now the dungeon had been cleared, and a magic stone mine stood in its place. Somewhere in its basement, several men waited.
“We can’t just keep waiting like this forever.”
“Maybe the talks are running long?”
“If they’re running long, there should at least be a report saying so.”
These were Hunters from the Black Dragon Guild’s northern Korean Peninsula branch. According to the original plan, a signal should already have come from Secretary Chen or Fang Tian. Yet there was still no news.
At that moment the man seated in the place of honor slowly opened his eyes. Zhao Wuliang, a Heaven-1 class Hunter dispatched from the Black Dragon Guild’s main headquarters on the Chinese mainland.
“Call that bastard.”
“Right away.”
The phone rang a few times, then connected with a click.
“Director Fang Tian? It’s time for you to inform us of the situation over there…”
“Hello-yong!”
What came through the receiver was a bright, cheerful girl’s voice.
“……Who the hell are you?”
“Me-yong? I’m Hatchery-yong!”
Click— And then the call was immediately cut off.
“What the…?”
“Could Hunter Fang Tian have been captured by the Korean bastards?”
“Don’t say something so stupid. That guy is Dragon-3 class. Dragon-1 or 2 might be one thing, but Dragon-3 is not a level this country’s Hunters can handle.”
Zhao Wuliang let out a sigh.
That idiot Fang Tian! He’s always been scatterbrained, and now he’s gone and lost his phone again.
Zhao Wuliang dismissed it as a civilian who had picked up the phone. Fang Tian had lost his phone before, after all. He rose from his seat.
“Forget it. Just start.”
“Right now? We still don’t have the details of the talks…”
“Just lay the foundation for the ritual. We can fine-tune the details after that idiot Fang Tian’s report comes in.”
“Yes, sir! You heard that? Everyone to your positions!”
A massive red magic circle began to take shape in the center of the mine. It was a forbidden ritual designed to forcibly summon an SSS-class Field Boss Monster that was originally supposed to appear several months later, advancing the timeline.
“But we don’t know which way the Field Boss Monster will go after it’s summoned…”
“Tsk. Do you think the higher-ups would issue an operation without even calculating that?”
First scenario: if the Field Boss Monster headed south as is and made for Seoul, Korea would have no choice but to request—no, beg—for Hunter deployments from neighboring countries. That was when China would step in. Of course, the real purpose of intervening was the plan to swallow the northern Korean Peninsula.
Even if the president stepped forward and the Korean government refused, it would not matter. If a dungeon occurred in a neighboring country and the resulting damage and aftereffects affected one’s own nation, international law allowed the deployment of Hunters to intervene.
No matter which way it goes, it’s a perfect scenario. The credit for taking the northern Korean Peninsula will be mine.
Crack-crack—
At the sound of something tearing, Zhao Wuliang furrowed his brow.
“What? Why is there a reaction already?”
“Ugh! I can’t control the output! The mana reaction is strangely…”
The panicked cry of a subordinate Hunter. According to the design, the mana should have been filling up gradually. But now mana was pouring in like a waterfall.
“Who messed with it?! Stop it for now! I said stop!”
“I-I didn’t do anything! It shouldn’t be like this originally!”
The mana sensitivity was rising to bizarre levels by the second. Zhao Wuliang sensed something wrong.
What? The dimensional barrier is already this tattered…?!
When a gate opened, or when a Field Boss Monster crossed over this way, it had to pass through the dimensional barrier. What Zhao Wuliang and the Hunters were doing now was creating gaps in that barrier to weaken its durability. They had done similar things many times in Southeast Asia. Even when North Korea collapsed, they had done it near Manchuria and the Yalu or Tumen Rivers. So they were familiar with how much to tear and collapse the dimensional barrier.
And yet the dimensional barrier was already quite frayed—as if something massive was forcibly squeezing its way in and weakening it.
Impossible! What the hell?! If this goes any further, it’ll be unrecoverable.
Even Zhao Wuliang stepped in to try to close the dimensional rift they had opened, but it was beyond their power. That overwhelming mass was pouring through. Because he was busy trying to stop it, Zhao Wuliang never noticed the massive, translucent purple eyeball floating in the air, looking down on the entire situation.
“Damn it, it’s going to blow! Everyone take cover!”
In the end the entire mining base was swept up in a dimensional storm.
Crack-crack-crack— Crack-crack!
KWAANG—!
A red light pierced through the basement and the mine’s ceiling, soaring upward like a pillar of light into the sky.
Rick Hasset took Eunha’s proposal and pondered it carefully. The conditions were reasonable. However, if he took these conditions back to the United States they would surely be rejected. In the first place, the conditions President Doramf had told him to extract from Korea were absurd.
Haa, but with Sarah already being pushed back, I can’t just force things through recklessly either…
Before he knew it, Rick Hasset was desperately acting as if he had become the Korean side’s spokesperson, running his brain at two hundred percent as he tried somehow to find a point of compromise.
Meanwhile, beside him, Sarah Cameron glanced sideways at Hanul. Her eyes held a look of awe.
As for Hanul himself, he was simply watching his niece Eunha’s confident figure leading the talks with a pleased expression. At the same time he activated Abyss Spectrum and lightly probed Rick Hasset’s memories as well.
This was a rather delicate task. To Hanul, ordinary people were as fragile as pottery roughly made of clay. It was the work of examining what was inside without breaking it.
I hope some information that can help Eunha comes out… Hmm?
Fragments of confidential information appeared in Rick Hasset’s mind.
Information about China.
Information that China was manipulating gates in the northern Korean Peninsula—a scheme to advance the summoning timing of a Field Boss Monster and create a disaster. Hanul communicated with Hatchery.
Hatchery, there should be a Hunter named Fang Tian on the Chinese side. Does he have a phone?
-Yes, Master! Ah, a call just came in on this phone-yong?
That saves me the trouble of calling first from this end. Answer roughly and hang up.
-Yes! Got it-yong!
Using Hatchery as a medium, he mana-scanned the China-Korea negotiation venue.
Crack-crack—
Fang Tian’s smartphone also had mana calculations applied to it. By reverse-tracing that mana signal, Hanul pinpointed the location: the magic stone mine near Kaesong. They were gnawing away at the dimensional barrier.
Just then the conference room door opened, and a Korean-side secretary and an American-side attendant burst in simultaneously.
“Minister Kang, Deputy Director Park! It’s an emergency.”
“I told you to report later.”
“It’s urgent.”
The secretary whispered into the ears of Kang Eunha and Deputy Director Park Jin-cheol. Eunha’s eyes widened in shock.
“Officer Rick, urgent news!”
“Urgent news?”
The situation on Rick Hasset’s side was the same; he also looked startled. Since they seemed to have heard the same information, there was no need to pretend ignorance and probe. No—with Hanul right in front of him, Rick Hasset could not even think of pulling such a stunt.
“Did the United States also hear the news from the Kaesong side?”
“That’s right. I thought maybe, but I never expected the Chinese bastards would already set that off at this timing!”
Hanul slowly rose to his feet.
“Perfect timing. Let’s cut the negotiations here for today.”
“Well, of course in this situation the negotiations should be postponed…”
Hanul smirked.
“Wouldn’t it be more advantageous for your negotiations if we demonstrate our strength?”
“What do you mean by that…?”
“A Field Boss? It’s a good opportunity to show in real time that Korea can handle it on its own. I’ll be right back.”
Hanul spoke as if he were just going out for a stroll.
“Ah, right! I almost forgot to mention this. Since you’re already involved in that work and seem to have ambitions, do you plan to go into politics someday?”
If she had to say, of course Eunha also planned to advance into politics later—not out of lust for power, but for the future of this country.
“Yes. I do.”
Eunha nodded.
“I’ll tell you in advance. The SSS-class Field Monster will be subjugated immediately today—by a Returner and Korea’s first prospective SSS-class Hunter.”
“What?”
“The circumstances of the Field Boss Monster suddenly appearing, along with evidence of China’s schemes behind it, will also be captured.”
It felt like he was making a prophecy.
“Announce it at a press conference. You can take all the credit and show off as much as you want. Since this uncle is the one doing it.”
“Wait a minute! This is all so sudden…”
As Hanul was about to turn away, he added as if he had forgotten something.
“Ah, and one more thing! Do you know Robert Lee?”
“Robert Lee—of course I know him.”
“You can also announce that that guy is going to lose all his mana, renounce his American citizenship, and enlist as a private in the Korean military.”