The Liar
Headquarters of the Hunter Association.
The staff there had been going about their day as usual only moments before.
CODE RED has been issued! A special-class incident is now unfolding in the Hannam-dong area! Hunters of C-rank and below, assist with civilian evacuation. Hunters of B-rank and above, deploy to the scene immediately!
But now, there wasn’t even time for a cup of coffee.
Phones rang without pause, and the agents scrambled out from their desks to share what little they knew, one urgent shout after another.
In an instant, the entire headquarters had turned into a madhouse.
“Damn it. What the hell is going on here?”
The director, finally arriving for work, stormed in with a roar.
Clamping his hands over his ears at the wailing sirens, he seized one of the agents who was running past.
“What is it? Why is everybody freaking out like this!?”
“D-director! This is bad. Hunters are fighting each other in Hannam-dong right now!”
“A fight? What do you mean—”
He trailed off.
To be honest, hunters fighting each other wasn’t that unusual. People could pick fights for any number of reasons.
The problem was that Code Red had never, not once, been issued over something like this.
So he had no choice but to assume he’d misunderstood.
“Where? Which guild is clashing with which?”
“I-it isn’t a guild… It’s one person.”
“What…?”
One person? They’d issued Code Red for a single hunter?
He couldn’t believe his ears.
“That makes no sense—”
With a blank look, he glanced around.
Even when an A-rank gate had appeared in the middle of the city, it hadn’t been this bad. This was the first time since he’d taken office that he’d seen anything like it.
“What the hell is happening…?”
The director fell silent as he stared at the hunter on the massive monitor.
*
Inside a building near the Hannam Five-way Intersection, more than ten hunters were lying in ambush, holding their breath.
“Alpha here. We’re commencing the operation now.”
At the signal, the hunters drew their weapons.
They were members of the Snake Guild, one of the five major guilds, just like the Orion Guild.
“Lee Seoyun’s current position is the northern intersection of the Hannam Five-way Intersection. There’s no need to fight him head-on. Our objective is surveillance and tracking. Buy time until the other S-rank hunters arrive.”
“Yes, sir!”
The hunters swiftly moved into their assigned positions.
As commander, Park Jinho didn’t miss a single movement Lee Seoyun made through the window.
“Lee Seoyun…”
Watching him with his back turned completely, Park Jinho tightened his grip on his weapon. He’d said they were only buying time, but the truth was he didn’t want to let this opportunity slip away.
The whole country was buzzing about Lee Seoyun right now. If he captured that man in front of everyone, he’d become a hero in an instant.
Not only would the rewards be enormous, but it would also be his golden chance to rise to S-rank.
Yeah. Keep rampaging just a little more.
That’ll drive your value up even further. Then I’ll be the one to drive a knife into your back.
That was when a truck passed in front of Lee Seoyun, blocking him from view.
“Huh?”
The next second, Lee Seoyun was gone.
“What the hell. Where’d that bastard go?”
He’d definitely been right there a moment ago. Where had he vanished to?
Park Jinho hurriedly turned on his radio.
“Bravo. Report the target’s position.”
“T-this is Bravo. We can’t see him on our end either. Looks like we lost hi—”
“…Bravo?”
But there was no answer after that.
Static crackled through the radio.
“Answer me, Bravo. Respond right now, damn it! Delta, go check on Bravo’s status.”
“Yes, sir!”
“And I’ll revise the operation. Everyone else, regroup here immediately.”
“Where exactly is here?”
Just then, a response came through Bravo’s radio.
But it wasn’t Bravo’s voice.
“Y-you… who are you…?”
Park Jinho asked, but all that came back over the radio was an unfamiliar, ragged breath.
Without meaning to, he looked toward the building opposite Bravo’s position.
And there, someone was staring straight back at him.
“Found you. I’ll be there soon.”
Click—and Bravo’s radio cut out.
What the hell had that been?
Park Jinho was still reeling when a frantic voice suddenly burst from the radio.
“D-Delta! We need backup right now! It’s h-he’s here. He’s right here—gh, aaaaaaagh!?”
Crk-crk-crunch—
With that sickening sound, Delta’s voice was cut off too.
Park Jinho clutched the radio with trembling fingers.
“D-Delta. Respond, Delta…”
“…”
“Anyone still alive, answer in order. That’s an order. Respond now. Anyone. I don’t care who it is—just say something!”
“…”
But no one answered.
He could only stare at the radio as if bewitched.
Step. Step.
Wet footsteps came from behind him.
Park Jinho set down the radio and let out a hollow laugh.
“Ha, hahaha…”
He didn’t even dare turn around. Someone had grabbed him by the head, and he couldn’t resist at all.
All he wanted was to wake up from this nightmare as fast as possible.
“Th-this damn—”
-BOOOOOOM!
With a thunderous crash, his vision went red.
Park Jinho was slammed into a wall and hurled through it, wall and all, out of the building.
He fell without even managing a scream.
“There! It’s Lee Seoyun!”
Hunters who spotted him shouted at once.
Where the wall had caved in, Lee Seoyun stood looking down at them with a cold, indifferent gaze.
“That bastard. How dare he look down on us like that!?”
“Wait. Isn’t that Park Jinho from the Snake Guild!? The A-rank prospect….”
One of them recognized Park Jinho and went pale with shock.
His face had already been shown on TV several times, and now his condition was grotesque beyond belief.
“H-healer! Somebody, anyone, get over here and heal him now!!”
“What the hell, this psycho. How many people does he need to beat up before he’s satisfied!?”
The hunters cursed in exasperation, their nerves frayed.
By now, he’d already taken out fifty hunters. The damage was needless to say.
And yet, no one rushed him, even after finding him.
Not only the B-ranks, but the A-ranks too could only look up at him helplessly.
“Damn it. Is he trying to start a war or what? Why is he doing this!?”
“When are the S-ranks getting here? We’re all going to die at this rate…”
While the hunters were frozen in fear, Lee Seoyun turned his gaze toward the direction of the Orion Guild.
He didn’t have any more time to waste here.
Just as he was about to move on, an arrow came flying from below the building.
He dodged the shot aimed at his forehead, then looked down at the hunter who’d fired it.
“Hey, Lee Seoyun. Where do you think you’re going?”
There, one hunter was drawing his bow and aiming at him.
“Why don’t you come down while I’m still talking nice? Unless you want a hole punched through you.”
“Hunter Ji Seonwoo!”
The expressions of the surrounding hunters brightened in an instant.
And they had reason to—he was one of the most popular S-rank hunters, second only to Yoon Seah in terms of fame and public attention.
Now that the most famous S-rank among them had arrived, the outcome was practically decided.
“You know, your life is over already. You’ll be eating prison food for the rest of it.”
“…”
“So, no, I’m not exactly telling you to surrender now or anything. But since you’re leaving anyway, why don’t you make yourself my stepping stone?”
Yoon Seah had been surging ahead lately and making things difficult, anyway.
Not just that woman, but he was also about to fall behind Cha Seojin too, so this worked out nicely.
Enjoying the flashes bursting all around him, Ji Seonwoo drew back his bowstring.
Whoosh—
He aimed straight for the head, but once again Lee Seoyun twisted away at the last second.
Then he jumped down and landed lightly on the ground.
“What, did you sell your weapon again? Damn, this isn’t really doing the scene any favors.”
“I’ll warn you once.”
At last, Lee Seoyun, who had remained silent until now, opened his mouth.
At that pressure, the hunters surrounding him stiffened on the spot, but Ji Seonwoo only sneered at him.
“Pfft. You still don’t understand the situation, do you? Warning me? What, are you about to say you’ll let me live?”
“…No.”
The next moment, Lee Seoyun vanished from the sight of every hunter there.
By the time they came to their senses, his finger was already right in front of Ji Seonwoo’s eye.
“Don’t die.”
Thwip.
With that razor-edged warning, excruciating pain crashed over Ji Seonwoo.
“Aaaaaaaagh!?”
He dropped the bow in his hands and clutched at his eye.
“My eye! My eyeeee!!”
“…”
“You bastard! I’ll kill you. I’ll kill you, you hear me!!”
The hunters who saw it couldn’t say a word.
They couldn’t even breathe properly, stunned by how fast it had happened.
“Healer. Where the hell is a healer, you stupid fucks!!”
“Seriously, to think he’s crying over something this small.”
It was obvious how easy the gates he’d been running must have been.
Lee Seoyun looked at him with disgust, as though he were trash, and even the weaponless Ji Seonwoo seemed pathetic now.
Looking around, it was already clear that the other hunters had long since lost their will to fight.
He started forward again. He still had something to do.
“Stop. Seoyun.”
But then an all-too-familiar voice made the corner of his eye twitch.
At some point, twelve S-rank hunters had arrived and surrounded him in an instant.
Among them, Kang Hanna looked at him with desperate eyes.
“Seoyun. Stop this now. Please. Don’t cross the line.”
She spoke from the heart.
She didn’t want to see the person she loved falling any further.
“…Cross the line?”
But Lee Seoyun, hearing that, let out a short laugh.
“Looks like you’ve got something backward.”
He picked up a dagger that had fallen to the ground and aimed it at her.
At the same time, he unleashed his full power.
“You crossed the line first.”