The Hatching
……
Nothing remained of the ruins but ash and rubble.
Tap!
Jang Lee-hyun stepped quietly onto the scorched ground.
“That ended too easily.”
With everything over, the heat in his head finally began to cool.
He had originally planned to capture Heo Jae-woon and pry information out of him, but seeing Go Jin-woo injured had flipped a switch inside him.
You have taken out the [■■be■■ ■■■r’s Fossil].
Jang Lee-hyun quietly retrieved the fossil from his inventory, along with the Rune Staff.
Why had Heo Jae-woon valued these two items so highly? And why had he reduced Go Jin-woo to such a pitiful state?
Thud.
He tapped the fossil with the Rune Staff, but nothing happened.
‘There must be more pieces to collect. I’ll have to think about it once I get back.’
Either way, Jang Lee-hyun had no intention of ending things with the Myeongga family here. Their headquarters still wouldn’t know what had happened at the black market, so the place would be empty.
Plenty of things would turn up once he robbed the empty house.
‘The cartel could show up at any moment, too.’
Just as he was about to move, a burst of light exploded from the fossil.
“……!?”
Jang Lee-hyun hurriedly gathered his mana to brace for the unexpected, but the fossil paid him no mind. It simply wrapped itself in light and floated into the air.
The stone dust clinging to its surface began to fall away.
Pat-pat……
What emerged was an egg the size of an ostrich egg—smooth, unmarked, and plain.
The [■■be■■ ■■■r’s Fossil] has received the blessing of runes and reveals its original form after countless years!
[■■be■■ ■■■r’s Egg]
An egg left behind by an ancient lifeform. Its identity and secrets remain unknown.
- Type: Unknown.
- Origin: Unknown.
“What the……?”
But the surprises didn’t end there. The egg suddenly shot higher into the sky.
The [■■be■■ ■■■r’s Egg] seeks the nutrients required for hatching!
Crack-crack-crack!
With a sound like the warehouse district’s atmosphere twisting, countless corpses and pools of blood scattered across the floor rose into the air.
They let out horrifying wails as they ascended.
“……!”
The bodies tore apart and mixed with the blood. A vortex of crimson surged toward the egg at terrifying speed.
Following the current, the souls of the dead appeared and screamed.
「N-no……!」
「Save me……!」
「I don’t want to be dragged in like this……!」
The spirits struggled desperately to resist, but the torrent swept them away in an instant.
「What the hell is going on!?」
Sun Wukong and Sa Oh-jeong rushed over after hearing the commotion.
“I’m not entirely sure either. The egg woke up and suddenly started acting like this.”
「That’s the egg from back then, right?」
“Yes.”
「Hmm? It seems to be devouring the spirits of the dead……? Is it using them as nourishment?」
While the other two stood dumbfounded, only Sa Oh-jeong watched with an intrigued expression.
「You! You woke the egg! Without permission!」
At that moment, one of the souls shrieked in fury.
It was Heo Jae-woon’s spirit.
「If you awaken it without any preparation, it will bring disaster……!」
Jang Lee-hyun tried to listen, hoping for a hint, but the spirit couldn’t hold on and vanished along with the others.
Crack-crack-crack!
When the absorption finally ended, not a single corpse remained on the ground—only the scars of the earlier bombardment.
And then—
Sss……
Faint patterns began to appear across the egg’s surface, resembling the runes etched on the Rune Staff.
Thud.
Jang Lee-hyun barely managed to catch the egg as it lost its strength and fell. It had gone quiet, as if the earlier chaos had never happened.
……
……
For some reason, it reminded him of a baby that had eaten its fill and fallen asleep.
「Interesting creature. I’ve seen countless eggs in my time, but this is the first one that woke from a fossil and moved with such vitality.」
Sun Wukong twisted his lips.
「Should I make some meringue later and turn it into an egg tart? Looks like it’ll yield quite a lot.」
「……Even after watching it devour corpses and spirits like that, that’s what comes to your mind, Senior Brother?」
「There’s no sin before food.」
「You truly are an incomprehensible man. And that thing has likely awakened some degree of self-awareness by now. Therefore, it would be wise not to make such jokes.」
Jang Lee-hyun stored the egg in his inventory for now. He could examine it later.
Right now, he had other guests to attend to.
‘I didn’t expect to waste this much time here.’
He had planned to finish off the Myeongga family and leave the dungeon immediately, but the egg had caused a delay—and now someone he didn’t want to meet had appeared.
A new presence has appeared!
Boom!
With a thunderous roar, over a dozen shadows descended onto the ruins.
Whoosh!
“I knew it was a mess, but this…… This is outright sabotage, isn’t it?”
As the dust cloud cleared, figures in black suits appeared. They gave off an oppressive aura far stronger than any impression of neatness.
Especially the South American woman standing at the center—she had left three buttons of her shirt undone, radiating a wild, unrestrained vibe.
‘The cartel…… And Camila too? She’s still in charge of the Asia-Pacific branch?’
The City Cartel—the higher organization above the black market and the security forces. The dark-world emperor that had subjugated every cartel in South and Central America. Their influence reached far beyond the underworld, touching politics and finance across the globe.
It was a massive power on par with China’s Central Hero Committee.
During his Cheongroe days, Jang Lee-hyun had encountered Camila, a cartel executive, several times. Coordinating with them had occasionally been necessary for external operations, and she had always been the one sent as their representative.
‘Unlike the others who were all brute force, she at least moved rationally. Still, a gangster is a gangster.’
He never expected to run into her here. She was also a skilled ranker.
‘I don’t have much mana left. In that case—’
Jang Lee-hyun organized his thoughts and struck the Rune Staff against the ground once more.
Revealing your presence!
The effect of the curse incantation has been added, implanting a large-scale curse on the opponents.
“……So you want to fight? Even after we showed up, you’re baring your teeth?”
Camila smiled coldly, her fangs clearly visible. She was a born fighting dog—the more you provoked her, the more fiercely she would charge.
“Camila Duarte.”
Camila narrowed her eyes when she heard her real name from the strange masked man.
“The costume. You know me?”
“Of course. Aren’t you one of the Drug King’s favored fingers?”
Camila realized the opponent was someone she had met before.
“And you’re still acting this confident? Do I look that easy to you?”
“You’re saying exactly what I was about to say.”
“What?”
“I was wondering what kind of guts those Myeongga brats had to mess with Feng Jinghao’s gift. Turns out you were backing them?”
Camila instantly recalled Han Hyun-soo’s testimony—that the Myeongga family had tried to interfere with something belonging to Chairman Peng of China.
And now this man was interpreting it this way?
If taken at face value, it could be misunderstood as the cartel pressuring China’s Central Hero Committee.
Yet Camila felt a strange sense of dissonance.
It was as if someone had cleverly set up a board and she was being treated like a piece on it.
“You…… You really are Peng’s man, aren’t you……!”
Camila’s words were cut short. The storm of presence suddenly intensified and swept over her.
Whoosh!
“……!!”
“Watch your mouth. My patience for your antics ends here.”
“……Who the hell are you?”
Camila realized the man was not beneath her—perhaps even above. To still radiate this much pressure after committing such a massacre……
……She couldn’t imagine someone like this serving under anyone else.
Then a thought flashed through her mind.
‘The mask, the lightning, the pressure…… Could this be the one……?’
The reason she had turned her private jet around on the way to Cancun hadn’t been just because of the branch members’ corruption.
There had been information that Mukesh Ambani, India’s ranker and Indra’s apostle, had been killed by Zeus’s apostle.
With a chief god’s apostle appearing right in the middle of her jurisdiction, she couldn’t simply stand by.
She had come to uncover the truth……
And now he suddenly appeared here?
Wasn’t that too strange?
‘Wait. They said Cheong Shao was also at the place where Mukesh died. How could he be working with Chairman Peng?’
It was a contradiction.
That left two possibilities.
One: Chairman Peng had truly tried to obtain the item to seek reconciliation with this man.
Or—
‘……There’s another mastermind, or this man is trying to drive a wedge between our two factions for some reason.’
There was definitely something going on.
‘If I’d known it would come to this, I should’ve just killed those guys earlier.’
She would need to sit Han Hyun-soo and this man down for a proper interrogation to get the full story.
But the opponent was Zeus’s apostle. Acting rashly would only put herself in danger.
‘How do I catch him?’
While Camila’s mind raced—
「That woman isn’t falling for it?」
「Katkatkat. It seems she possesses strong resistance to mental interference, Apostle.」
‘Yes. She’s not as easy to fool as Han Hyun-soo. Still, this should be enough.’
Jang Lee-hyun read Camila’s wary yet suspicious gaze and smiled faintly.
What he had intended was simply to create confusion in the information. By planting multiple possibilities, he only needed to prevent them from discovering Go Jin-woo and himself—and that goal had already been achieved.
‘That said, it doesn’t completely erase suspicion toward Chairman Peng. The man himself was always full of deception.’
Simply planting the seed of doubt was enough. He could make use of it later.
Preparing the Footsteps of the Eodukseoni. The effect has been altered by mixing it appropriately with the Rage of the Dueoksi.
Jang Lee-hyun glanced upward as if receiving a message and spoke.
“I have plenty of questions for you lot about this incident as well…… but let’s leave it at this for now.”
“What?”
“I’ll hold Feng Jinghao and Nayeli Vargas separately accountable later.”
The arrogance of casually naming the two colossal powers of the world—the Central Hero Committee and the cartel.
At the same time—
Activating the Footsteps of the Eodukseoni and deploying stealth!
Crackle!
Jang Lee-hyun began to hide his body by pulling at the shadows of light. Thanks to the lightning, it looked as if a veil of light was covering him.
“Where do you think you’re going! We’re not done talking yet!”
Camila quickly ordered her subordinates to surround him. Even if it meant taking heavy losses, she needed to stop him first.
But all that returned was Jang Lee-hyun’s cold sneer.
“This doesn’t seem like a situation where you can afford to hold me down, does it?”
“What are you……!”
Right at that moment—
The dungeon quest has been cleared.
“……!?”
“W-what is this!”
“Inspector!”
The black market, which had been maintained for over twenty years, was suddenly closing—a bolt from the blue dungeon message.
Camila saw the twisted eyes of Jang Lee-hyun beyond the goblin mask and screamed.
“What the hell did you do to the dungeon!”
“Is that really important right now? If the dungeon closes, all the cartel’s assets and treasures here will disappear.”
“……!!”
Camila’s face turned pale. The cartel had invested at least tens of billions in maintaining this black market alone.
Of course, this wasn’t the only black market the cartel operated, but losing it so meaninglessly wasn’t something they could afford to ignore.
The scales in her mind began to tip.
The dungeon is beginning to close. All participants, please retreat to the safe zone.
[10]
“Choose for yourselves. Keep chasing me, or try to salvage the situation somehow.”
The countdown continued even now.
[9]
[8]
With his face and mask half-hidden behind the veil of light, Jang Lee-hyun looked at the trembling Camila and asked.
“Well? What are you going to do?”