Chapter 97
Chapter 97
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 97
Chapter Title: Capturing the Iron Blood Group's Leader
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"We've struck the Iron Blood Group's base."
"What?"
At Shin Yu-hyun's words, everyone in the conference room froze in bewilderment.
Struck the Iron Blood Group's base?
What on earth did that mean?
Shin Yu-hyun flashed a smile at their stunned faces and spoke calmly.
"Shuv."
"Yes."
At his call, Shuv entered the conference room, gripping someone tightly by the scruff of the neck.
"No way... is that...?"
Shin Sung-hyun flinched in shock.
Shin Yu-hyun nodded to them.
"He's the leader of the Iron Blood Group."
"What?!"
His bombshell declaration sent gasps of astonishment rippling through the room.
The Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan was in an uproar once again.
All because Shin Yu-hyun had raided the Iron Blood Group's base single-handedly.
Originally, the clan had planned to dispatch superhumans.
They couldn't just let the Iron Blood Group—who had dared to attack the clan—get away with it.
But who could've imagined he'd go alone and wipe them out?
There were some grumblings about how reckless it was, but in the end, results spoke for themselves.
And Shin Yu-hyun had delivered the best possible outcome.
He'd crushed the Iron Blood Group by himself, secured half their intel on a USB drive, and—most impressively—taken their leader, Orca, alive.
It was an unparalleled feat.
'The spoils aren't half bad either.'
Shin Yu-hyun sat in the Black Tortoise Hall's office, a satisfied smile on his face.
In annihilating the base, he'd recovered the weapons used by their executives.
Exceptional Rare-grade gear like the Cursed Venom Darts, Frost Bow, and Thunderclap Sword, plus Rare-grade items: the Advance Spear and Brave Heart.
And that wasn't all—he'd also nabbed Madate Heitaro's and Ishii Hideki's weapons.
One was a standard halberd favored by warrior types, the other a set of gauntlets.
Both Rare-grade, but plain in performance—no special options or skills attached.
The Advance Spear Brave Heart was far superior, boasting a charge skill called Brave Overdrive.
He'd even collected the executives' heads.
Hand them over to the Hunter Association, and the bounties would roll in.
'Hmm.'
Leaning back in his office chair, Shin Yu-hyun drummed his fingers on the desk, lost in thought.
Shuv had carried out his orders to the letter.
He'd located the hidden submarine dock beneath the island and cut off their escape.
Thanks to that, they'd captured the researchers and the leader alive.
Now all that remained was prying info on the Ashen Church from them.
'And we caught the spy planted in the clan.'
Shin Yu-hyun's lips curled into a smirk.
There had been a nagging sense of information leaks, so he'd asked Shin Ji-ah and Ixia to keep an eye out.
He'd tapped Shin Ji-ah because the suspect was a warrior from the armory, and Ixia had prior experience in the Black Shadow Unit, specialists in espionage.
They'd confirmed the spy in action and nabbed him on the spot.
'Who would've thought it was the guard at the armory entrance.'
Shin Yu-hyun chuckled softly.
Every time he visited the armory, that guard would complain about the fingerprint scanner malfunctioning.
He'd even chided Shin Ji-ah about lax security.
But of all people, that faulty scanner guard turned out to be the spy.
'He was suspicious, though.'
Once or twice might've been coincidence, but the same glitch every single visit? Shin Yu-hyun had his doubts.
And sure enough, the guy was a spy.
'A big fish, at that.'
Shin Yu-hyun eyed the sleek black eyemask with silver patterns on the desk.
[Thousand Faces Mask, Persona]
Type: Mask
Grade: Exceptional Rare
Condition: Good
Description: A mask with a thousand faces.
Alters hairstyle and color, eyes, nose, mouth, head shape—everything.
'A Persona mask, of all things.'
Shin Yu-hyun let out a wry laugh.
Even in his previous life, it had belonged to a legendary spy whose identity—age, nationality, all of it—remained unknown, right up there with the magic beast researchers.
Known only by his codename: Persona.
And his secret was this mask. The Thousand Faces Mask, Persona, could completely transform the wearer's face into someone else's.
But he hadn't known Shin Ji-ah was watching the armory. That was his undoing.
Led by Shin Ji-ah's security team and Ixia's Black Shadow Unit, they'd caught him mid-secret transmission.
And Shin Ji-ah had quietly passed the mask to Shin Yu-hyun as thanks for his help.
'Ji-ah noona's got killer instincts.'
He smiled at the mask.
Shin Ji-ah had reported it to the clan as being stored in the armory.
So everyone thought it was safely locked away there.
'Now just wait for Father to return.'
The Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan's leader and his father, Shin Sung-il, would soon conquer the raid dungeon and come home.
And just as Shin Yu-hyun predicted, two days later, Shin Sung-il returned.
Returning to the clan, Shin Sung-il couldn't help but be stunned.
While he was away, the clan had been attacked—and his second son, Shin Cheol-jin, killed.
If it'd been death in the clan heir selection battles, he'd have understood.
Candidates had died in those brutal contests before.
But murdered by outsiders?
Hearing the report, Shin Sung-il said nothing.
He simply unleashed his rage in silence.
Facing an empty mountain beyond the clan estate, he swung his sword once.
The result was cataclysmic.
The mountain split clean in two.
Immediately after, the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan's leader asked quietly,
"Who dared kill my son?"
They answered: a parasitic magic beast, tied to the Iron Blood Group.
In effect, the Iron Blood Group had killed Shin Cheol-jin.
And the clan's third son, Shin Yu-hyun, had handled them entirely.
After hearing every report from acting leader Shin Sung-hyun, Shin Sung-il said softly,
"Summon Shin Yu-hyun."
In the clan leader's office.
There, Shin Yu-hyun met alone with the Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan's leader—his father, Shin Sung-il—for the first time.
"I've heard the reports from Shin Sung-hyun. All true?"
"Yes."
Shin Yu-hyun nodded at his father's question.
He could tell Shin Sung-il was quietly furious.
'It's about the clan's honor.'
Shin Yu-hyun smirked inwardly with cynicism.
His father's anger wasn't purely familial.
The clan had been attacked in his absence, casualties taken—including his second son.
If word got out, the clan's reputation would suffer.
"Did Shin Cheol-jin go peacefully?"
"Pardon?"
"I heard you were there at the end. Did he go peacefully?"
Shin Yu-hyun was caught off guard.
He hadn't expected such a question from Shin Sung-il.
Why ask about Shin Cheol-jin's final moments?
And how should he answer?
"I'm not sure."
In the end, he stuck to the truth.
Shin Cheol-jin had been mindless, rampaging under the parasite's control.
No way to know if he'd passed peacefully.
"But it probably wasn't pleasant."
Because he hated me.
Shin Yu-hyun swallowed the last part.
Shin Sung-il surely knew as much.
"I see."
At the reply, Shin Sung-il closed his eyes and leaned back in his chair.
It looked for all the world like mourning his son.
'Is he grieving?'
Shin Yu-hyun watched his father.
Until now, he'd seen him as cold iron-blooded steel.
His previous life: cast out for lacking mana talent.
Yet here he was, saddened by Shin Cheol-jin's death.
'Talented sons dying hurts, but worthless ones? Not a blip?'
The thought twisted Shin Yu-hyun's lips into a sneer.
"Yu-hyun."
"Yes."
His father's sudden call snapped him to attention, head bowed.
"I know you and Cheol-jin didn't get along. But if he fell by your hand, he'd rest satisfied. Better than some outsider."
"...!"
Shin Yu-hyun's eyes widened. Astonishingly, it sounded like comfort from his father.
"Why the surprise? That I'd say such a thing? But you are my children. No parent doesn't worry for their kids, or grieve their loss."
Any who didn't? Just failures unfit to be parents.
"Then... why try to cast me out of the clan?"
His father's words ignited something; Shin Yu-hyun shouted before he could stop himself.
If parents worry for their children, why abandon him?
"You know why. What our clan is. Could you—without mana talent—survive here forever?"
"...!"
It hit like a blow to the head.
Shin Sung-il pressed on.
"No excuses for trying to exile you. But if you'd truly been talentless, I'd have forced you out of the superhuman world entirely. You know why."
The superhuman world was eat-or-be-eaten.
The Heaven-Splitting Sword Clan no different.
Powerless there? You'd be devoured.
In his past life, Shin Yu-hyun had clung to becoming a superhuman, suffering humiliations as a low-rank hunter.
Powerless.
So he'd resented the clan that abandoned him.
With their backing, no such humiliations.
But his father had wanted him out of that world?
"I wanted you to live as a normal person. Never dreamed your mana talent would awaken so late. And necromancer potential, no less."
His father gazed at him with a joyful smile.
Believing no talent, he'd tried to free him from the clan.
Never expecting a late-blooming gift.
"I didn't expect it to manifest so late either."
Talent my ass.
Shin Yu-hyun forced a bitter smile inwardly as he replied.
Without becoming the Immortal King's heir, he'd have been exiled like before.
No Vitality Awakening.
'He was looking out for me, all this time.'
The idea that his father had worried for him was unthinkable.
Past life: just discarded.
He'd been young then.
Now, with experience, he could glimpse his father's concern.
'But that changes nothing.'
Understanding didn't erase facts.
Whatever the reason, his father had tried to abandon him—and succeeded in the past life.
His path remained the same.
Extract and exploit the clan for all it was worth, per the original plan.
To avert the future cataclysm.
"I've heard you've done much for the clan this time. Rewards are in order. What do you want?"
Shin Sung-il asked what reward Shin Yu-hyun desired.
He smiled.
Time to squeeze the clan—no, his father—for everything possible.
"I want..."