52. A Class-1 Classified Individual

Tsuuu-tsut!

A pristine white light spilled from Alisa's hands.

The pile of freshly trimmed chicken stacked before her soaked up the glow, and the turbid energy within it simply melted away.

"Good. Nice work."

Oh Hyeon-seong gave her head a few gentle pats. She seemed used to his touch by now — no awkward fidgeting this time, just quiet acceptance — before she popped into light and vanished.

"We've definitely gotten closer than at first... Is she just naturally tight-lipped, I wonder?"

Shrugging, Oh Hyeon-seong gathered up the purified chicken and shouldered a huge sack as he stepped outside.

His destination was the small storage shed beside the strawberry farm.

He already had a storage room inside the house, but growing every crop he needed for self-sufficiency meant he required a great deal of extra space. So when he'd built the strawberry farm, he'd put up a warehouse right next to it.

On the outside, it looked like a perfectly respectable, ordinary storage shed. He'd even fitted it with refrigerators and freezers, and all the wild boar meat from last time had been stored there as well.

Still, the total size of the shed is small, and for properly storing all the crops I'll be producing from now on... it's honestly a bit lacking.

In a word, it needed to be expanded.

Construction was never a simple affair, of course. Inside the barrier, farming strawberries was the whole point of his existence — throwing up an absurdly enormous warehouse might well have raised eyebrows.

But with Merz around, there was nothing to worry about.

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Thud.

Oh Hyeon-seong pressed his palm against the shed floor and closed his eyes for a moment, gauging the rough area. When his calculations were done, he borrowed the spirits' power.

Kugugugung!

A heavy rumble rolled through the ground below. The floor where he'd planted his hand sank inward, revealing a passage. He descended the newly made stairs, and a spacious underground chamber opened up before him.

"Mm. Been a while, but the handiwork hasn't rusted."

He nodded down at his right hand, where a brown-hued energy was shimmering in his grip.

This space should have been solid rock and earth. He had briefly summoned Merz, the High Spirit of Earth, into his hand and carved out this vast chamber by manipulating the ground itself.

Alright then — shall we actually shape this place?

Kugugugung!

With every sweep of his hand, the floor hollowed out and walls rose or slid backward. For a High Spirit of Earth, it was trivial work. All that remained was to fine-tune the space with a bit of spatial awareness and precise mana control.

New rooms and corridors bloomed out of the once-empty, boxy space, and the facility expanded further still.

It might be a pain to keep coming all the way out here, so I should cut a secret passage from the house too, and disguise it so nothing stands out.

Kugung!

He went on building, entirely to his own taste, shaping nothing less than a massive underground facility. At each entrance he crafted thick doors to keep out any unwanted visitors — camouflaged barriers that would only open in response to his mana, leaving no trace that anything lay beyond. From the outside, no naked eye could ever detect them.

The framework's just about done.

He looked around the pitch-dark space. It had come together properly, but not a single ray of light reached inside — normally he would have had to run electrical power down here to illuminate it. Never mind the cost and the time; more importantly, it would be a weak point in terms of keeping the place secret.

But unlike in the past, he now had Alisa.

Faaaah!

Spirit-lights conjured by Alisa drifted up and suffused the chamber with a soft glow. They illuminated the main space and every last corner of each room, and since her lights could shine for years on end without faltering, the entire underground would stay lit for an extraordinarily long time — with not one watt of electricity spent.

"Now it's your turn."

Oh Hyeon-seong stood in the middle of the broad room and spoke. Behind him, Alvern, the High Spirit of Water, appeared and gave a nod, breathing out a breath of pure white frost.

A chill swept through and filled the room — not the extreme cold that would flash-freeze everything on the spot, but a measured chill meant to last a long, long time. A spirit-made freezer. Oh Hyeon-seong moved the meat inside it.

"There we go. All finished."

Dusting off his hands, he broke into an easy smile.

The difference between chilled meat and frozen meat was enormous — but when Alvern froze something, that was another story entirely. Alvern could thaw what he had frozen back to its original state, returning the meat with its flavor completely intact.

And I can expand this place as much as I like, so the storage problem is finally solved for good. Electricity prices have been climbing lately, too — this is pure profit.

With one long-nagging issue neatly settled, Oh Hyeon-seong nodded to himself again and again, feeling thoroughly refreshed.

Light, earth, and water. Just spirits of those three attributes made this staggering range of work possible.

Just then, a knocking sounded from the main gate above. Faint as it was, he knew exactly who had come before he even bothered to check — he'd already been given notice.

"Right on time."

Taking the second passage that connected to the house, he emerged into a corner of the backyard and swung the gate wide open.

"Ah... it's an honor to see you, sir!"

Lee Gil-sang bowed his head, his face wound tight with tension.

So he really did come back obediently, without even trying to run.

Slightly surprised but nodding all the same, Oh Hyeon-seong waved him in. "Come on in."

Lee Gil-sang entered the house — and promptly dropped to his knees, casting an unbearably deferential glance up at him. Rather than endure the awkwardness, Oh Hyeon-seong steered things straight to business.

True to instructions, Lee Gil-sang had gathered a mountain of leads, and he spread out the documents he'd brought across the floor.

"Just as you ordered, I've investigated the origin of the rice seeds! My first priority was digging directly into the Russian mafia we'd dealt with, but it turned out they'd only resold something that had drifted into their hands by chance. Not much of a haul there, I'm afraid."

"So it was a bust?"

"Not at all. Please, take a look at this."

Lee Gil-sang handed over a bundle of photographs bound with a rubber band. Several of them showed seed samples that had leaked out of the country, and beneath them lay a whole stack of suspicious satellite shots — structures half-buried in brush, visible only as something like ventilation shafts poking through the foliage.

"The ten-plus strains of original seeds that leaked from somewhere are said to have already spread to nations all across the globe. And every one of these satellite photographs was taken in a single region of South Hamgyong Province."

"What? Photos taken in North Korea?"

Oh Hyeon-seong's brow knitted instantly. The photographs themselves looked unsettling enough, and none of them appeared doctored. Still, he found it hard to believe North Korea harbored some massive seed repository. He'd certainly never heard so much as a whisper of such a thing.

"You're sure this is solid?"

"Absolutely certain. It came from a trusted overseas information broker I've dealt with for years. Not the type to peddle nonsense."

"Hm... North Korea, huh. Worth checking out, but it's in a rather troublesome spot."

Oh Hyeon-seong let out a low hum. Lee Gil-sang had even dug up the coordinates of the suspected site, but actually getting there would be anything but easy.

After China became the worst hellscape on earth, the nation of North Korea had followed soon after, collapsing outright. Yet even with the enemy it once guarded against gone, crossing the border into the peninsula remained as difficult as ever. Travel was strictly forbidden without government authorization.

Going by way of Russia would have simplified matters considerably — except that word had come down recently that the Vladivostok border had been sealed off as well, thanks to a surge in monster populations. And routing around through Khabarovsk, outside the exclusion zone, added far too much distance.

"Heh heh, don't you worry about a thing, sir. I've prepared everything."

Lee Gil-sang beamed triumphantly and drew an envelope from inside his jacket. Inside were forged identity documents and special travel permits issued for research purposes — and, of course, the authorization papers themselves were brazen fakes.

Oh Hyeon-seong couldn't help but be impressed by how convincing they looked.

"You... you really were competent, weren't you?"

Having a chauffeur certainly is convenient.

Riding in Lee Gil-sang's car, Oh Hyeon-seong headed for Gangwon Province.

With Lee Gil-sang's concealment ability and Oh Hyeon-seong's own skills, sneaking across the border outright would have been entirely doable. But they intended to pass directly through a checkpoint.

The reason was simple: the car. Crossing the border was one thing, but they couldn't very well walk all the way up to South Hamgyong Province on foot. If the operation demanded it, sure, it was possible — but making that choice now would be nothing but a waste of time.

And so they made for the Eastern Gate, one of the three border checkpoints partially ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠open to civilians.

"I-I must admit, I'm a little nervous."

Lee Gil-sang swallowed hard. He had orchestrated countless smuggling operations in his day, but he'd never once come through this route himself. The border and the Northern Defense Line were nothing less than the direct jurisdiction of the Special Operations Command. Even the most ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠cautious criminal syndicates in the world rarely so much as hovered near the place.

"Keep it together. Get past this checkpoint and we're home free."

Screech.

They ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠brought the car to a stop before the checkpoint's barrier. Befitting a major gate, the facility was enormous, with hunters in military fatigues radiating menace stationed at every corner. Anyone on sentry duty with the Special Operations Command was a high-level hunter in their own right.

When the approaching sentry rapped on the window, Lee Gil-sang rolled it down and plastered on a friendly smile.

"Heh heh, appreciate your service, officer."

"Do you have your documents?"

"Of course. Wouldn't dream of forgetting them."

"Hm... a researcher, are you? And the gentleman riding with you — who is he?"

"My bodyguard. If a man like me wandered outside the border alone, I'd be a dead man before I knew it, wouldn't I?"

Oh Hyeon-seong gave a light nod under the man's scrutinizing gaze as he peered into the vehicle. Flipping through the submitted documents, the sentry came to the forged ones filed under Oh Hyeon-seong's name.

Ah, so that's why only one guard. If the man really was the Rank 9-class hunter the papers claimed, he'd hardly be easy to kill.

But then the sentry paused mid-page and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"...Please wait one moment."

Leaving his post, the sentry walked into the checkpoint building. Not that it mattered — with hunters massed all around, any funny business was out of the question. Oh Hyeon-seong's eyes swept their surroundings, and he caught a bad vibe.

Something's... gone wrong, hasn't it.

"Kill the engine and step out of the vehicle."

Called it.

At the approaching sentry's words, Lee Gil-sang's face drained white. He looked to Oh Hyeon-seong in a silent panic — what do we do? — but Oh Hyeon-seong merely shrugged once and climbed out of the car first.

"I-is something the matter?"

"Yes, there is. This permit is dated three days ago — yet these forms were only changed last month, which you'd know if you'd attended the briefing."

A brittle silence settled over them.

"Ah! Th-that's..."

"What exactly are you two playing at?"

In an instant, Lee Gil-sang and Oh Hyeon-seong found themselves surrounded — and not only them. The eyes of every hunter at the gate swung toward the pair at once. The message was plain: make one suspicious move and you'll be riddled with holes.

"Wh-what do we do?"

"Haah... what do you mean, what do we do."

Letting out a long sigh, Oh Hyeon-seong obediently raised his hands. He had no desire to kick up a fuss here. Well — a fuss had already kicked itself up, but if he resisted arrest now, things would go far beyond an ordinary disturbance.

In the end, the two of them were subdued, forced to the ground, and clapped in handcuffs.

"You cyber-cultists too? One of those lunatics who believes there's a paradise waiting in China?"

"N-no, sir! We simply had business on the other side! We're not suspicious characters at all!"

Getting cuffed... it's been a while.

While Lee Gil-sang desperately protested their innocence, Oh Hyeon-seong lay face-down in perfect equanimity, a man utterly at peace with the world.

"Well, a records check will settle that."

The sentry pressed their outstretched fingers, one by one, against a tablet screen. Every awakened individual in the country was registered on the government's central database — affiliation and criminal record, of course, but also hunter grade and a detailed log of every gate conquest. A single fingerprint was all it took to pull up all of it.

"Huh...?"

But the sentry trying to verify Oh Hyeon-seong's identity froze mid-motion.

"Access denied... record classified...?"

Every hunter was registered in the database, and if someone wasn't a hunter at all, the screen simply read not registered. But classified?

In all his years of service, he had never once seen those words. Sensing something deeply wrong, the man reported it over the radio.

"What? Access denied? What the hell is that supposed to mean?"

"Ha... damn it. Hold on."

Lieutenant Colonel Choi took over the file and ran the verification himself, using his own credentials. But astonishingly, even he — a high-clearance authorized officer — could barely manage to view it. Nearly all the information was masked behind mosaic blocks.

"Wh... what is this?"

A single private individual's personnel file, classified at the very highest tier of national security. The name, the photograph — everything redacted.

Only a sliver of information had been decompiled for his clearance level, and what remained on the screen before him were figures so absurd he had never seen their like in his life.

Cold sweat trickled slowly down the forehead of the man who sat staring blankly at the display.

"H-hey, you idiot! Release that gentleman immediately!"