The Assassin Hunter Slips Away
Creak.
As he stepped out of the airport, the scorching air rushed in alongside the thick sunlight.
Libya.
A country attached to Egypt, boasting a vast expanse of land but with habitable area comprising less than seven percent.
Ha Dojin inhaled the acrid scent permeating the air.
Not familiar, yet not entirely foreign.
Soon, a man descended from a black SUV and approached Dojin.
“Ha Dojin Hunter-nim?”
“Yes.”
“I am Kim Insik from SW Technology’s Middle East branch. We’ve been waiting for you.”
Apparently he had already received the supplies, so the man handed over the equipment to Dojin.
“Please board. I’ll explain while we move.”
“Yes.”
Dojin took the passenger seat.
As the car began to move, Insik spoke.
“I received a direct call from Secretary Kim Gyeongtaek. He said to treat you with utmost respect because you’re an important person.”
Insik was a man of easygoing nature.
Starting with small talk, he gently eased the awkwardness.
Eventually, Insik spoke again.
“We’re heading to the place you mentioned, but… we can’t drive deep into the area. To be precise, entry is impossible because of the military’s border zone.”
“It’s fine. Just take me as far as we can go.”
“Have you been here before?”
“Yes… a very long time ago.”
Dojin absorbed the rapidly passing scenery outside the window.
Insik seemed like the taciturn type and didn’t rush his words.
“It’ll take about three hours to get there. You must be tired from the long flight; why don’t you rest a little?”
“Yes.”
After that, silence settled inside the car.
It wasn’t particularly uncomfortable.
Asking questions wouldn’t help, since there was nothing he could say in response.
Insik knew that as well, so he simply drove cautiously over the bumpy road.
According to Insik, roughly three hours passed.
The wide paved road gradually disappeared, replaced by a narrow unpaved one.
The car rattled, but neither man paid it much mind.
“Stop! Stop!”
Now, soldiers armed with rifles stood in front, controlling the vehicle like a checkpoint.
Insik lowered his window and exchanged a few words with them.
The conversation with Chairman Gu Jinmo had already concluded.
As expected, the soldiers signaled him to pass.
“From here on, this is a region the government will not take responsibility for.”
All that remained visible was an unpaved road through the wasteland, yet the weight of Insik’s words was heavy.
Squeak!
The car stopped.
This was the entrance leading into the mountains.
“This is as far as I can take you. If I go any deeper, the bastards will spot us and fire an RPG right away.”
“RPG-7.”
Portable anti-tank rocket launcher.
For us, the word “bazooka” is more familiar.
Dojin got out of the car and looked at Insik.
“Thank you.”
“I’ll wait at the position where the soldiers are. I’ll move the moment I get the signal, since communication is available.”
It was a twenty-minute walk from the soldiers’ location.
Dojin nodded.
As Insik’s car drove away, Dojin checked his walkie-talkie and watch.
Swish.
Next, Dojin looked up at the sky and noted the sun’s position.
Approximately two hours remained until night fell completely.
‘…The nights in Libya aren’t dark.’
The temperature drop was drastic; the weather grew quite cold.
Dojin settled into a hidden spot and waited for the sun to set.
Two hours later, darkness descended.
One by one, distant lights appeared.
That was the hideout where they were.
“Here….”
The true reason he had come all the way to this distant land in Libya.
Dojin’s final card against Kang Seungho.
That was why the key was located here.
Yang Sua.
Yang Taesan’s lost daughter.
‘In the end, he died without knowing everything.’
Dojin had learned about Sua only when he detected the strange circumstances surrounding Seungho.
Just as doubt began to form about him.
How he was training the people who followed him.
Whether he kept his promises.
In the process, he learned a great deal.
Actually, the guy had never intended to keep his promises to the people who followed him in the first place.
‘A man who used even the determination to change the world just to fill his own greed….’
Obviously so.
But this time it was different.
He had already changed many things, but he still planned to snatch even the last one.
Creak.
Dojin took a step forward.
Even for him, this task was not easy.
But it was something he had to do.
Perhaps the most important one he had ever done in his life so far.
Never… fail.
Dojin’s figure melted into the darkness.
* * *
“Fuck, those bastards.”
“Haha, Mark. Lost something again?”
Mark, the Libyan mercenary called that, spat a thick wad of phlegm onto the ground.
“We lost everything, you fucking idiot.”
In this boring place, gambling was their main entertainment.
They had occasionally taken kidnapped women and enjoyed them, but problems had arisen so it became prohibited.
Seeing Mark’s angry expression, Ali asked.
“How’s the job going?”
“Well, I guess it’ll wrap up in a couple of months.”
Mark answered nonchalantly.
They had been here for three months already.
Originally he had thought it was a six-month job, but progress was surprisingly fast.
The drug factory.
It wasn’t their original main duty, but the pay was decent, so they accepted it.
They kidnapped travelers from around the world to use as laborers in the factory.
Later, they could even negotiate ransom as hostages, so it was a win-win.
Ali nodded.
“So, do it carefully. If we end up leaving here empty-handed when the job is over, what then, heh heh.”
“Shut your mouth. I’ll take back exactly what Harid the bastard took from me.”
Mark smirked and adjusted the rifle in his hands.
Like Ali and Mark, ordinary mercenaries mostly used AK rifles.
Those in the inner area used their own weapons.
Since there were quite a few skilled awakened individuals, the Libyan government couldn’t easily interfere.
So they had just built a watchtower a few kilometers away and stood there like idiots.
For ordinary mercenaries like themselves, it was an easy job as long as they kept good watch.
Mark took out a cigarette and lit it.
The cigar, thicker than two fingers, looked expensive, but here it was as common as gum.
Mark cut the end of the cigar and lit it. But before he could even take one puff,
Thud!
Along with a dull sound, Mark’s body shook.
Thud.
A short dagger about two fingers thick was stuck in Ali’s forehead beside him.
Without even pausing to look back at the two men who had fallen at the same time,
Swish.
Dojin stepped out of the shadows and stepped on the fallen cigarette with his foot.
‘Are the awakened… inside?’
A settlement-like compound formed inside the low mountains.
Dojin looked toward the compound.
Even a quick glance showed a large number of boundary soldiers patrolling everywhere.
But they were all ordinary mercenaries.
The awakened ones would be inside.
‘First….’
He had to enter without being noticed.
It was advantageous not to cause unnecessary commotion.
Dojin walked with suppressed footsteps.
If someone saw him, they would be amazed, but it was just one of the familiar techniques for Dojin.
Soon, as he hid and approached the compound, he spotted other boundary soldiers.
‘…Three each… two teams.’
Another team was nearby.
He couldn’t kill them all at once with daggers, so he decided to take the closer ones with knives first, then the distant three with daggers.
His instincts had already finished the situation assessment.
Dojin moved.
Swish.
Dojin approached the compound wall, lowered his posture, and slipped behind the soldiers.
Poke! Poke! Poke!
Precisely piercing the lungs to prevent screams.
At the same time, he pulled out the daggers tied to his arms and hurled them toward the fallen soldiers.
Precisely hitting vital points, the soldiers collapsed.
Dojin slipped inside the compound and hid among the loosely arranged buildings.
If he went in like this….
But that was when.
“Hey… who are you?”
Suddenly, Spanish came from behind.
Dojin startled and turned his head.
Messy brown hair, as if he had just woken up.
His neat beard and sharp greenish-brown eyes formed a striking face.
His eyes were filled with mischief.
His lips curled up slightly as he said,
“A strange fellow came in.”
Unlike his smile, Dojin’s expression hardened.
His face in the moonlight was familiar to Dojin.
‘This guy… why here….’
Because it was the face he knew.
* * *
Antonio Rodriguez.
One of the ten hunters worldwide that Dojin knew.
But….
‘Was this guy a mercenary…?’
Dojin had learned about Antonio six years later.
If he hadn’t been in the awakened world at the time, he wouldn’t have known.
But that didn’t matter.
The problem was that the guy was here.
It was the worst variable Dojin had not expected.
Antonio saw Dojin.
“East Asian? Chinese? No, Korean?”
With a curious tone, the guy spoke to Dojin.
That was why he was wondering how he had entered here.
No matter how much the outer guards were ordinary mercenaries, they were all fierce and skilled individuals.
Antonio said,
“Ah, you don’t speak Spanish? Then… English is a little known, right?”
The guy spoke to Dojin in English.
“What’s your name?”
“…Dojin.”
“As expected, Korean.”
The guy seemed pleased that he had guessed right.
But soon Antonio’s gaze cooled.
One of Antonio’s peculiar habits.
He could be called a perversion that had made his name rise to the top of the world.
The habit of enjoying fights against strong opponents.
That was why he had felt curious about Dojin.
Antonio leaped lightly from the wall and stood in front of Dojin.
Antonio clenched his fist.
“If I land even one solid punch, I’ll let you go.”
Confidence in himself.
It could be called arrogance, but….
‘A guy backed by that much skill.’
Moreover, he was using his fists without pulling out a weapon, which meant capture rather than kill.
Dojin instinctively raised his hand to the dagger tied behind his waist, then picked up a short wooden stick on the ground.
Antonio’s eyes widened slightly.
“You’ll fight with a stick?”
“You’re fighting with bare hands too.”
“Hehehehehe, what a crafty kid.”
Antonio shook his shoulders and burst into laughter.
It was the first time someone had reacted to him like this. But….
“You’ll regret it.”
Soon, fierce killing intent erupted from his eyes.
In an instant, with a pressure that seemed to crush the entire body,
Swish!
Antonio charged toward Dojin.