The Wound
Thud. Thud.
Hanul walked forward at an unhurried pace.
Guild Leader Park Isak stood frozen in a half-crouch. Once an S-class Hunter of the same rank as Kang Hanul, a fellow member of the Veteran Guild—a comrade. Or rather, a man Hanul had once believed to be one.
The feet that had been about to flee refused to move, as if glued to the floor. Choi Palbong and Lee Deukchun trembled like aspen leaves, paralyzed by sheer terror.
"You have to pay the price for gnawing away at my brother's life and carving my body into pieces to sell."
"No—I tried everything I could to save you—ghk!"
"You felt what I saw. And you're still lying?"
The ugly schemes that had tormented his brother, Kang Junwu. The plans to butcher Hanul's own flesh with scalpels. And that had not even been the end of it.
"You were originally going to wait just one year for my return, is that right?"
Hanul's voice dropped low. Park Isak's pupils shook with raw horror.
"I'll wait a year for you as well. Fair is fair. The year it takes for your bodies to rot and fall apart."
Hanul traced a grotesque sigil in the empty air. Black chains snaked around the entire bodies of Park Isak, Choi Palbong, and Lee Deukchun. In an instant their muscles locked and their nervous systems shut down.
Thud. Thud.
The three old men crumpled to the floor like sheets of paper. Not a single finger could twitch. Their consciousness, however, remained perfectly clear. Unable even to roll their eyes, they stared up at Hanul in utter despair.
"Break free of my bindings yourselves and stand up within a year. And if you can't?"
The corner of Hanul's mouth twisted.
"I'll dig through your insides the same way you put scalpels to my body. While you're still alive."
Hatchery, who had been standing beside him, eyes glittering, skipped closer. She tapped Park Isak's cheek with a fingertip and smiled with wicked delight.
"Master, then give those old men to me later. I want to remodel them into magic beasts. It'd be so fun to take their arms and legs off and stick them back on!"
"Do as you like."
Hatchery beamed—then immediately pouted.
"But Master, their spirit bodies are fine, so isn't the punishment too weak? Waiting a whole year? You're being way too generous~"
"As if this would be the end. The punishment for killing my brother is separate."
Hanul stretched out his hand toward the three fallen men once more. Another dark magic spell.
Nightmare Reaper
"Half of every day, you will be forced into sleep. And in those dreams, you will die over and over—torn apart alive by magic beasts."
Unspeakable terror flooded Park Isak's eyes. Locked in a vegetative state, he could not even scream. An irresistible torrent of mana dragged their minds down into an abyss that wore the name of sleep.
"In the dream, you are nothing but helpless humans. Savor every minute, every second of your organs being ripped out and your bones crushed to powder."
The three men's eyelids slowly closed. Their bodies remained paralyzed and rigid. But their consciousness? It had already reached the threshold of a hellish dream.
Dark, damp air. The stench of blood thick enough to sting the nose. When Park Isak opened his eyes, he found himself dumped at the entrance of an unfamiliar dungeon. Beside him, Choi Palbong and Lee Deukchun sat staring blankly into space.
"W-where are we?"
Lee Deukchun asked in a trembling voice. Park Isak instinctively sprinted for the exit—only to slam into an invisible wall hanging in midair. No matter how hard he pounded, the door would not open.
"Open it! Open it right now!"
Park Isak screamed. A sudden wave of déjà vu washed over him. The scene of the day they had shoved Kang Junwu and his wife into a dungeon and locked the door behind them. Now they were the ones standing in that place.
Grrrrr—
A grotesque sound rose from the darkness. Dozens of magic beasts advanced, eyes gleaming.
"You monster bastards—do you know who I am?!"
He was the leader of one of the top ten guilds. But not a scrap of power answered at his fingertips. In the dream, he was no Hunter. Just a frail old man with brittle bones.
"W-why? Why is my mana—!"
Choi Palbong and Lee Deukchun shrieked as well. The power and authority they had enjoyed their entire lives vanished like a mirage. A Goat Demon seized Park Isak by the shoulder.
"AAAAAARGH!"
A spear blade punched through his thigh. Blunt teeth ground into Choi Palbong's arm and twisted. The pain was vivid. No—sharper than reality, boring straight into the brain. Organs spilled. Bones shattered. Screams drowned in bloody foam and faded.
Death. The moment they believed was perfect annihilation.
"Hah— hah—!"
Park Isak opened his eyes again at the dungeon entrance. His body was whole. But the sensation of the death he had just endured was branded into his soul like a tattoo.
"No, please… stop!"
Once more the magic beasts emerged from the dark. An eternal cycle of slaughter. They howled and begged, but the prison that held them knew no mercy.
Crackle—
A colossal eye flared open in the empty air. Hanul was observing their dreams through the Abyss Spectrum.
Abyss Spectrum
"Still not enough for proper karma. Keep rolling for another year."
Having watched his fill, Hanul withdrew his gaze and returned his consciousness to reality.
"……"
The conference room lay drowned in silence. The three living corpses sprawled on the floor would now die every single day. And then Hanul turned his head. His attention shifted to the two people still standing there, paralyzed and trembling—Baek Hayan and Seo Jihun.
Snap!
Hanul flicked his fingers. The invisible chains binding the two of them unraveled and fell away.
"Hah—! Hah……"
Seo Jihun planted a hand on the floor and gasped for air. Baek Hayan barely kept her shaking legs under her as she stared at Hanul, her eyes a tangled mix of terror and awe.
Thud. Thud.
Hanul walked to the seat of honor that had belonged to Park Isak.
"The Veteran Guild Leader's seat is empty. I'll take it."
A casual declaration. But rather than recoiling from the words that had just been spoken, Office Manager Seo Jihun carefully asked,
"Is it truly…… truly possible that you are the S-class Hunter Kang Hanul who went missing thirty years ago?"
It was hard to believe. The man before them was young enough to make thirty years of time seem meaningless. But the conversation he had just held with Park Isak's group—and that overwhelming power—every circumstance pointed to one person.
"Yaaawn—"
Hatchery let out a short yawn. She looked back and forth between Seo Jihun and Baek Hayan, eyes narrowing.
"Master, those two talk too much. Should I just pull out their brains, reprogram them, and put them back in~?"
"……!"
Seo Jihun's face went paper-white. Baek Hayan instinctively drew up her mana—the pride of an S-class Hunter, one of the few remaining in the country after most had been siphoned overseas.
She dropped into a defensive stance and locked eyes with Hatchery. The instant their gazes met, a sensation like an invisible hand crushing her heart flooded her entire body.
"Ugh……!"
Baek Hayan's knees buckled. She collapsed to the floor with a heavy thud. Her S-class mana barrier shattered in a single breath. Terror raced through her veins.
"That's enough, Hatchery."
"Okaaay!"
"These two aren't the bad ones. They were the only brakes on Park Isak's nation-selling schemes. They're useful."
"Oh! So they were the good kids~!"
Hanul rose from his seat and held out a hand to Baek Hayan. A cold chill radiated from it—yet mixed into that cold was a strange sense of relief.
With Hanul's help, Baek Hayan managed to get back on her feet. Settling into the seat of honor once more, Hanul propped his chin on his hand and regarded Baek Hayan and Seo Jihun in silence.
"……Understood."
Office Manager Seo Jihun bowed his head.
"The previous Guild Leader is currently on long-term leave due to an unforeseen accident. He will likely remain bedridden. I will proceed with the formal succession of the Acting Guild Leader title."
He glanced sideways at Baek Hayan standing beside him. Under normal circumstances, she—as Vice Guild Leader—would have been first in line for succession. Baek Hayan nodded with a resolute expression.
"As Vice Guild Leader, I also agree with the Office Manager's decision."
"Kang Hanul, returned after thirty years, will serve as Acting Guild Leader for the time being. I will handle the administrative procedures."
A faint smile touched the corner of Hanul's mouth. The Veteran Guild. The place that had stabbed him in the back and, not content with that, tormented his brother. It was now in his hands.
He had originally planned to tear it apart. But his niece Eunha was trying to accomplish something great for the nation, was she not? The Veteran Guild would prove useful for that work. Of course, there was something he had to do first.
I'll have to weed out every last one of the China-infected bastards.
"Then let's begin at once."
While Office Manager Seo Jihun set the administrative procedures in motion, Hanul called over the remaining Vice Guild Leader, Baek Hayan.
"Vice Guild Leader Baek."
"Y-yes!"
"Show me around the building."
"Right now, sir? We haven't made the official announcement yet……"
"Doesn't matter. Lead the way."
"Understood. I'll send an internal email to the staff for now, as a stopgap."
Baek Hayan walked ahead, Hanul followed, and Hatchery trotted along beside them in high spirits. Ding— The elevator doors opened, and Hanul stepped into the office floor.
"I heard the Guild Leader and the executives got rushed to the hospital all of a sudden?"
"Apparently the new Acting Guild Leader is visiting the office—must be that guy."
The staff murmured among themselves. But with both the Vice Guild Leader and the Acting Guild Leader making a personal appearance—
"This is Kang Hanul, who has taken on the role of Acting Guild Leader in light of our guild's emergency. Everyone, please introduce yourselves."
At Vice Guild Leader Baek Hayan's declaration, the entire floor tensed. And then Hanul approached the first employee with an expressionless face and held out his hand.
"What's your name?"
"Lee Youngchang, General Affairs Manager. It's an honor to meet you, sir!"
As they shook hands, the spell activated.
Abyss Spectrum
Hanul swept through the interior of the man called General Affairs Manager Lee Youngchang.
Even with the Guild Leader and executives completely rotten, surprisingly, a General Affairs Manager never sold out to China.
Pass. Hanul released the hand after a brief moment.
On to the next employee. The man bowed so low it was almost servile as he took Hanul's hand.
"Park Sangmin, External Cooperation Manager! Acting Leader, I look forward to working with you!"
The spell flowed the instant their hands met. Abyss Spectrum. The memories etched into Manager Park's mind poured out—secret drinking sessions with Hunters from China's Black Dragon Guild. The thick wad of dirty money he had received in exchange for leaking the guild's confidential information.
"Enjoying Chinese money, are you?"
"Pardon? What do you mean……"
Manager Park's face drained to the color of dirt in an instant.