Chapter 112
Chapter 112
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 112
Chapter Title: Owl Hunt (3)
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-Click.
He opened the door to the interrogation room, which was protected by various holy relics.
‘I knew the Association had a facility like this in the basement, but this is my first time actually seeing it.’
Oh-jin whistled as he scanned the dreary interior.
“I'm here to question the criminals.”
“Yes, sir! Identity confirmed, Special Officer!”
He showed his ID to the Association member guarding the interrogation room, who saluted him crisply.
“Don't let anyone inside.”
“Understood!”
Creeak.
He opened the door and stepped inside.
“Mmph! Mmmph!”
“Mmph! Mmmmmmph!!”
Inside the interrogation room, nine Owls were tightly bound and restrained.
Cheon Woo-seong's direct subordinates.
They were some of the most elite members of the Owl faction, but they couldn't withstand the combined assault of the Valhalla Guild and the Association's Special Officers.
‘Then again, Cheon Woo-seong bolted the second the fight started.’
In a war, it was like their commander had fled, so it was no wonder they were so helplessly subdued.
“Twelve died during the fight, and only nine survived, huh.”
Oh-jin let out a smirk as he scanned the documents he'd received from Director Han.
‘Nine should be enough.’
One thing was certain: they had information about the Heukseonghoe's headquarters.
After all, the intel that there were 3,000 Heukseonghoe members at the headquarters had come from them.
‘Although, they're under a restriction that prevents them from revealing the location even if they wanted to.’
He had an idea of how to break the restriction.
‘The new ability I just acquired.’
He opened his status window and brought up the list of Heukcheon's traits.
【Heukcheon (黑天)】
1. Status: Four-Star Manifestation (四星改化)
2. Traits
① Seongheun Absorption (星痕 吸收): Absorbs the magic of a Seongheun and stores it within Heukcheon.
② Black Veil (黑幕): Conceals all auras, including Heukcheon's. Can be adjusted at the user's will.
③ Succession (傳承): Reads the records contained within a Seongheun. Affected by Heukcheon's manifestation stage.
④ All Rivers Return to the Sea (萬流歸宗): The proficiency of the primary Seongheun affects all other Seongheun.
⑤ Transformation (變形): Allows the user to freely change their physical form using the magic of a Seongheun.
⑥ Domination (支配): Allows the user to exert control over Awakeners with subjugated Seongheun.
The number of traits, which had started at only three, had somehow doubled.
He lightly tapped the trait labeled 'Domination', and a detailed description with a warning appeared.
[The higher the target's Star (星), the greater their resistance to Domination.]
[The more targets you attempt to dominate, the weaker the effect.]
[The target's psychological state can amplify the effect of Domination.]
The newly acquired ability, 'Domination'.
‘A restriction is just a form of domination, anyway.’
In that case.
There was no way he, someone who could use the same kind of ability, wouldn't be able to break it.
‘It said the effect is amplified depending on their psychological state.’
Then he would need to pressure his target until they could no longer think straight.
“Mmph! Mmmph!!”
He took one of the bound Owls and removed his gag.
“Gasp!”
The man, who had a menacing look, let out a ragged breath.
“Now, I have a few questions for you.”
“I already told you everything I know! What the hell else do you want to ask?!”
Even while captured, the man shouted, veins bulging in his neck.
“I can't tell you the headquarters' location even if I wanted to!!”
“Hmm. Is that so?”
Scraape.
He pulled a chair over, sat down in front of the man, and drew a dagger from the holster on his thigh.
“Wh-what?”
Flinch.
The man's shoulders trembled.
“Ha, you planning on threatening me with that? Go on, give it a shot if you think you can!”
He let out a bluffing laugh, a triumphant smile on his face.
“You're well aware of what will happen if it gets out that a government-affiliated public agency used violence during an interrogation, right?”
“Of course. I know very well.”
Though it wielded immense public authority, the Association was ultimately a public agency under direct government control.
If word got out that they had used torture or violence while interrogating a captured criminal, it would naturally become a problem.
“Heh heh. In that case, you should put that knife away—”
Shunk!!
Without hesitation, he plunged the knife into the back of the man's hand.
“Aaaaaaaaargh!!!”
A scream burst out.
The chair the man was tied to rattled violently as he thrashed in pain.
“Y-you bastards!! You think you'll get away with this?!”
“Why, you going to report me?”
Twist, twist.
He twisted the dagger embedded in the back of the man's hand.
“Aaaaaargh!! M-my rights! This is a human rights violation!!”
“A human rights violation?”
“Yes! I demand a fair trial! Call my lawyer, now!”
Surprisingly.
Even a terrorist who had unleashed monsters in the middle of a city and massacred hundreds of civilians officially had human rights.
The right to a trial following due process, the right to appoint a lawyer.
Of course.
'Officially,' that is.
“Human rights, my ass.”
Crack!
He twisted the dagger even more violently.
“Gyaaaargh!! Kack!!”
“Since when have you guys ever cared about human rights? Why bring it up now?”
“St-stop! Stooooop!!”
“The people you killed had human rights too, didn't they? Right?”
He tilted his head, bringing his face close.
“Hic, hic!”
“If you're going to trample on other people's lives, you should be prepared to have your own life trampled on, don't you think?”
“Krrrrgh!”
The man bit his lip, staring down at his hand from which blood was pouring.
“I-I will... definitely file a complaint with the Association... about this torture during the interrogation.”
It seemed.
He wasn't quite ready to have his life trampled on just yet.
“Phhht! Really?”
Then again.
As if a few words could so easily change a person.
“Right now... a lawyer...”
“My friend here seems to be a real stickler for procedure, huh?”
In that case.
“I guess I'll have to follow proper procedure, too.”
He pulled the dagger from the back of the man's hand.
“Kugh!”
“Hey, friend, did you know?”
Wipe, wipe. He wiped the blood from the dagger and placed it in the man's hand.
“That if a Special Officer is attacked during an interrogation, they have the right to respond immediately.”
“...What do you mean.”
“Haven't you seen it in the movies? A criminal who secretly hid a weapon starts raising hell in the interrogation room?”
“I-I don't have a hidden weapon!”
“What do you mean you don't?”
He pointed to the dagger in the man's hand.
“There's a weapon right here.”
“D-don't be ridiculous, you son of a bitch! You're the one who put this in my—!”
“Whether it's ridiculous or not isn't for you to decide.”
He forcibly grabbed the man's hand, which was holding the dagger.
“Wh-wha?”
The man desperately twisted his body to pull his hand away, but there was no way he could overpower Oh-jin.
-Shunk.
The blade pressed against Oh-jin's temple.
He slowly dragged the hand down, slicing all the way to the tip of his chin.
It wasn't just a shallow cut, either.
The wound was so deep that bone was visible through the parted flesh.
Blood poured down his cheek, drenching his body.
“Y-you crazy bastard!”
This was no superficial wound meant to deceive.
It was a fatal wound; if the tip of the knife had gone just a few millimeters deeper, he could have died.
With a wound like this.
There was no need to wonder where the arrow of suspicion would point.
“So, what do you think? Doesn't this look like a perfectly valid case of self-defense?”
Soaked in his own blood, Oh-jin beamed.
The man's face turned deathly pale.
“Alright, then.”
Oh-jin took the knife back from the man's hand.
“Let's start over.”
Shunk!!!
“Aaaaaargh!!”
He began to slash wildly at the man's body with the knife.
“Ugh, ugh!! St-stop! Stooooop!!”
He wailed, letting out desperate screams.
He was completely cornered, psychologically.
Consumed by the emotion of 'fear', the man's eyes trembled pitifully.
Watching his reaction, Oh-jin's eyes gleamed.
‘Now.’
He grabbed the man's head with his hand.
A black cloud seeped from his palm and burrowed into the man's mind.
[Target's 'Star (星)' is high. Resisting Domination.]
As expected.
A direct subordinate of Cheon Woo-seong wouldn't succumb to Domination so easily.
However.
[Target's psychological state is extremely unstable. Resistance to Domination is decreased.]
[Domination successful!]
Just as planned.
It had been worth going a little overboard to instill such fear in him.
“Heh...”
Once the domination took hold, the man's eyes went slack.
“Now, are you ready to answer my questions?”
“Anything... please... ask...”
His words were halting.
The man who had been shouting with veins popping in his neck was now nodding obediently, like a gentle lamb.
“First, where is the Heukseonghoe headquarters?”
“Seoul... Yo-Yongsan... sir.”
“What?”
No fucking way.
Yongsan is right under our noses.
“How on earth were you hiding there?”
Yongsan was literally the heart of Seoul.
With the entire country on the lookout for the Heukseonghoe, there was no way over 3,000 people could remain hidden.
“There's... a Gate. A, a secretly hidden one.”
“Ah.”
In other words.
The Heukseonghoe's headquarters wasn't in Yongsan, but inside a Gate located in Yongsan.
‘In that case, it's possible they weren't discovered.’
Some small-scale Gates were no bigger than a bedroom door.
If they secretly concealed a Gate and built a base inside, hiding would be easy.
“In Yongsan... there's a seven-story building called the Changhyeon Building.”
He'd never heard of it.
“If you press the buttons in the elevator there in a specific sequence, you'll arrive on the 8th floor.”
“What the hell, is it the Konami Code?”
It wasn't a hidden stage, so what was this?
‘So that's why we couldn't find them.’
The darkest place is under the candlestick, as they say.
Honestly, even he hadn't imagined the entrance to the Heukseonghoe headquarters would be sitting right in the middle of Seoul.
‘I thought they'd be hiding in some mountain valley or an underground tunnel.’
To think the headquarters was inside a hidden Gate.
“Well, good.”
In any case, he now knew the location of their headquarters.
What he needed to find out next was.
“Where is Cheon Do-yoon?”
“He... has been out of contact for several weeks.”
“Out of contact?”
“Yes... He said he had important business and would be away for a few months.”
So that's why there had been no sign of Cheon Do-yoon.
“Hmm... So, did Cheon Do-yoon leave alone?”
“No. He left with the Night Hunters.”
“Night Hunters?”
What the hell is that?
“They are Lord Cheon Do-yoon's direct subordinates, all of them Senior Jeongmugwan or higher.”
“Like you guys?”
“Yes. But our skills are far inferior compared to theirs.”
Hmm.
Is that so.
‘Does that mean their core forces are all gone right now?’
Of course, he couldn't be certain based on one person's testimony alone.
He would need to dominate the remaining eight and cross-reference their stories.
‘But if what he said is true.’
Oh-jin's eyes sparkled.
“This might be... a chance to shatter the Owl faction in one fell swoop.”
Of course.
The shattered corpses of the Owls would serve as a fine meal to fill his stomach.