Chapter 55
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“Long time no see.”
“It seems this is the first time since then.”
The reception room of SW Technology headquarters.
Lee Hyejin, met here, looked somewhat different from before.
A bit tired, perhaps?
Ha Dojin looked at her and waited for her to speak.
If she had suddenly come looking for him like this, there must have been some reason.
Hyejin hesitated for a moment, then said,
“Do you know Kang Seungho, the master of Red Circle?”
“Is there anyone in South Korea who doesn’t know the hunter Kang Seungho?”
Master of Red Circle, one of Korea’s three major guilds.
And truly the strongest hunter.
Everyone already knew of Kang Seungho’s reputation.
But there was only one reason she would suddenly ask such a question.
“It seems Kang Seungho is targeting you, Hunter Ha Dojin.”
Even in the time since Dojin was away.
Hyejin had been keeping a close eye on Red Circle’s trends.
They had hit rock bottom, recording minus numbers in every indicator.
Yet strangely, the movements seemed more focused on finding Dojin rather than solving the issue.
Hyejin continued.
“You should be careful. Their movements seem suspicious.”
“I know.”
“…Eh?”
Hyejin’s eyes widened at Dojin’s reply.
The strongest hunter in the country was targeting him, and he wasn’t even surprised?
Dojin said,
“If the bastard isn’t a fool, he’ll have already figured out who I am. You already know that too, right, Hunter Lee Hyejin?”
The incident at Red Capital after Red Circle’s hunter was killed.
And the evidence, or lack thereof, pointed to everything that followed being tied to Dojin.
Hyejin pressed her lips together at Dojin’s words.
His expression remained unchanged, unlike the gravity of the situation.
Hyejin asked,
“…Is there something I’m curious about? Can I ask one question?”
“What is it?”
“Why are you fighting against the Red Circle Guild?”
Of course, Red Circle wasn’t a good guild by any stretch.
Outwardly, it was one of Korea’s three major guilds, but beneath the surface…
‘They’re doing things so filthy no one can even imagine.’
Hyejin knew that.
How deeply Red Circle was involved in the filth.
Yet Dojin had awakened this year as a hunter.
There was no reason he should have any connection to them.
But Dojin looked at Hyejin and said,
“It’s a personal matter. I can’t tell you about that.”
“Sorry.”
“However, there is one thing I can say…”
“…?”
Hyejin tilted her head at Dojin’s words.
Dojin continued,
“We can never coexist.”
A calm yet resolute voice.
That was why it felt even more ominous now.
One of them had to disappear.
Hyejin thought,
‘Maybe in this fight between the two, it’ll be…
“Thank you for the time.”
Hyejin stood up as if fleeing.
Somehow,
‘I’ve never seen such killing intent in his eyes before.’
“…”
Hyejin turned her head, looking at the goosebumps on her arms.
She could be certain.
Soon,
‘An unprecedented storm will blow through this underworld.’
She didn’t know what changes it would bring,
but Hyejin hurried back to the guild.
Because something had to be done.
* * *
Jang Junyeong had watched Dojin enter the office building.
It had been two days now.
He had started monitoring right after finding out where he lived.
But five days had passed since he disappeared.
And strangely, he couldn’t find any trace of those five days.
As if someone had deliberately erased them.
‘What exactly… did he do while he was gone?’
And why had he erased every single trace so perfectly?
But one thing was certain.
SW Technology was truly extraordinary.
Not just weapons.
He hadn’t expected them to handle so many things so cleanly across so many fields.
‘I wasn’t even worried because it wasn’t a hunter guild…
But now I understand why Kang Seungho kept trying to contact them.’
Hunter items had huge visibility, meaning they had a wide reach in the hunter world.
And in terms of capital, they were clearly the best in Korea.
The influence they poured out with that massive capital was impossible to ignore.
Especially for Red Circle, whose money line was already running dry.
“I don’t know what that bastard has to do with SW Technology…
But I’ll find out one piece at a time.”
Junyeong took out a cigarette and put it in his mouth while staring at the lit-up office building.
* * *
Swish.
Dojin entered the office building and looked outside through the curtains.
No one was visible, but he knew he was still there.
“Two days, huh.”
An excellent guy.
The reason he knew was simple: he had changed his pursuit method in just one day.
The fact that he could move so discreetly…
“Must be Jang Junyeong.”
Was there someone else who could do this tracking at this time?
Dojin shook his head.
The one who could do this kind of tracking was only this guy.
Dojin recalled his last meeting with Jang Junyeong.
The previous life.
The massive battle where he met his death at Kang Seungho’s hands.
Jang Junyeong had been there too.
Dojin closed the lights after remembering Jang Junyeong’s face.
The dark room.
It oddly felt calming.
“Just a little longer and I’ll be done watching.”
He wasn’t the kind of guy who could be underestimated so easily.
So be even more careful.
There was still time.
With the lights off, Dojin sat in the chair and looked out the window.
* * *
It had been a week since Dojin had been coming to the SW Technology headquarters at the same time every day.
“You come every day?”
“Yes.”
“Huhu, it’s not like you at all… but it makes me curious.”
Chairman Gu Jinmo let out a small laugh at Kim Gyeongtaek’s reply.
‘Just’ was not a word for this man.
Every action of his had a reason, and those actions created major events.
The path Dojin had taken over the past few months was proof of that.
Even in Libya, he hadn’t done something ordinary.
“Are the two of them doing well?”
“Yes. I’ve secretly placed hunter security agents around them.”
“He has important people, so you should protect them well.”
Sohee and her mother.
Yang Sua and Fatima.
To Chairman Gu, they were all VIPs worth worrying about.
Who would have thought the man who had always been treated like royalty would care about anyone like this.
It was fresh and dynamic every day.
But…
“However, Chairman.”
“Speak.”
“Ha Dojin asked me for something.”
Kim Gyeongtaek reporting this to Chairman Gu meant it was something serious.
A playful smile spread across Gu Jinmo’s lips.
What could it be?
When Gu Jinmo looked at him, Kim Gyeongtaek continued.
“It seems we need to use some pressure on the upper echelon of the police hunters…”
“Looks like he wants to light up some trouble outside the dungeon, huh?”
“Probably… I think so.”
Dojin had been moving discreetly up until now.
Of course, most of his actions had nothing to do with police hunters.
The reason was simple.
He had handled everything too cleanly for them to notice.
But this time…
“Huhu, is that so?”
Chairman Gu looked at Kim Gyeongtaek and said,
“Contact President Jin. I’ll make the call myself.”
“Understood.”
Kim Gyeongtaek nodded and immediately dialed President Jin.
After a short call, Chairman Gu handed the phone back to Kim Gyeongtaek and said,
“I don’t know what he’s trying to do, but tell him to speak freely to Hunter Ha Dojin.”
A smile was in Chairman Gu’s eyes.
“Tell him he can do it without worry.”
Soon Kim Gyeongtaek left a message for Dojin along with his reply.
* * *
“Mr. Jang Junyeong?”
The information team’s meeting room.
Woo Seok, who had been under Yoo Hyerin, jumped in surprise and asked.
Yoo Hyerin nodded.
“We need to prioritize investigating that guy Ha Dojin. Find out who he’s connected to, what exactly he’s doing with SW Technology—everything.”
“If it’s about that… isn’t the outline already forming?”
The investigation into Ha Dojin had been going on for a while.
But at Woo Seok’s words, Yoo Hyerin frowned.
“Even more deeply. Find out what food he likes and what hobbies he has.”
Recently, they had even heard rumors that Ha Dojin was very close to Chairman Gu of SW Technology.
What kind of guy was he that he had connections with the world-famous Chairman Gu?
Yoo Hyerin said in a sharp voice,
“As the master personally ordered it, we have to finish it properly.”
If we didn’t…
Yoo Hyerin’s expression hardened.
Because it didn’t feel good.
The more they investigated him,
the more uneasy something felt related to him.
Of course, there wasn’t a clear reason.
It was just the instinct they had gained from working in the information team for a long time.
But…
“Even so, if Mr. Jang Junyeong is monitoring… wouldn’t that make me a little more at ease?”
“Hmm.”
It would be reassuring, but they had to consider if it was good for their own information team.
‘Mr. Jang Junyeong…’
Most executives who became hunters avoided dangerous dungeons or stopped working on-site.
But Jang Junyeong was different from the other executives.
Even now, when high-level dungeons appeared, he was the first to join the raid.
Because he said he needed to keep fighting to keep his senses sharp.
That was why he was one of the few hunters who could stand up to Master Kang Seungho in the guild.
‘He’s not very pleasant…
but his skill was real.’
And with stealth and ambush, no one in Red Circle could match him.
That was why they were worried.
Even if the entire information team couldn’t do it properly,
if he alone handled it completely…
“The master is currently in a very sensitive state, so we can’t afford to lose.”
If they messed up, the information team itself could disappear.
For himself, he could somehow transfer to another department and preserve his position.
‘But I can’t just throw away those guys who are finally listening to me.’
At Yoo Hyerin’s words, Woo Seok nodded.
“We’ll move as fast as possible.”
“Alright.”
Soon Woo Seok stood up and left the meeting room.
No, it was the moment he was about to leave.
Knock knock knock knock.
The meeting room door burst open with urgent knocks.
Yoo Hyerin frowned.
“What is it?”
“M-Master Yoo Hyerin!”
The employee who opened the door shouted urgently.
He was one of the team members who had been placed near the side where Jang Junyeong would find out something first.
Yoo Hyerin asked,
“What is it?”
With a serious expression,
she replied,
“J-Jang Junyeong…
Her words made Yoo Hyerin’s expression turn grave.