Empty House Burglary (1)
I should have realized something was strange the moment he said the study was in the basement.
The study—no, the underground bunker—looked like a scene straight out of a movie about people preparing for nuclear war.
Guns and military blades lined the walls in staggering numbers. Storage sections packed with emergency rations and ammunition. A room where dozens of monitors clustered together like a honeycomb, resembling a tactical operations center.
But what left Lee Hyun the most speechless was the tank sitting brazenly in the middle of the circular bunker.
…It had been maintained so obsessively that the gun deck glistened with oil.
Tap. Tap.
Lee Hyun rapped the deck lightly with his hand and let out a hollow laugh.
“This isn’t a retired display model. Does it actually run?”
“Ahem! It’s just an old man’s hobby. You know how those Yankee fellows fill their garages with these things.”
“This is Korea, sir.”
“Heh heh. Exactly. Smuggling it in secretly took quite a bit of work.”
“……”
That wasn’t what he had meant.
“……Does your wife not complain?”
“She gave me an earful. Said I never grew up. But what can you do? It’s a man’s romance.”
Lee Hyun shook his head as though the man were beyond saving.
“Cool, isn’t it?”
“Ah, yes, well… But more importantly—”
Lee Hyun couldn’t bring himself to dampen his mentor’s slightly puffed-up pride, so he shifted his gaze to the other side of the bunker instead. His eyes sank deeply.
“What… is that?”
A laboratory had been set up in one corner. Among the array of experimental tools stood a glass preservation case. Inside it rested a single hand.
It possessed blue skin, so it clearly didn’t belong to a human, yet it looked far too soft to be a monster’s limb. The real issue was how it kept stimulating Lee Hyun’s senses.
Combat Sense (B) is receiving a familiar yet alien stimulus.
The narrative held within the magic power is reacting little by little.
The magic power kept wanting to reach toward it. A chill seemed to radiate from the hand.
“You need to know about that.”
“……No way?”
“It is the Snow Queen’s left hand.”
“……!”
Lee Hyun whipped around to stare at Lee Gun-san in shock. The older man smiled bitterly.
“I thought that continued research might yield a clue to lifting your curse.”
“General.”
Lee Hyun’s entire body went rigid. Lee Gun-san was one of only seven High-Rankers in the entire country. His class was Alchemist—a master of pharmaceutical synthesis.
“Still, I’m truly relieved you returned safely. Really. To be honest, both my wife and I were going insane from the lack of progress these past few years.”
A fact Lee Hyun had never known. Emotion surged in his chest.
“How did you even manage to bring it out? The military would have guarded it strictly.”
“I processed it as lost before any report could be filed and diverted it in secret. The remaining parts were moved while still frozen, so they’re probably still researching them. Treated as war trophies, of course. That’s how those star bastards operate.”
Lee Hyun found himself at a loss for words. Lee Gun-san laughed and patted his shoulder.
“As long as the result is good, everything’s fine. Wait here. I’ll organize the materials and bring them over.”
While waiting for Lee Gun-san, Lee Hyun continued to stare at the Snow Queen’s hand as it steadily radiated cold. His expression remained complicated. His mind was crowded with thoughts.
Sun Wukong and Sha Wujing approached from the side. Sun Wukong glanced at Lee Hyun.
“…Yes.”
“Yes. I will. No—I definitely will.”
Lee Hyun nodded heavily. Sun Wukong chuckled and gave him a light pat. The gesture carried many layers of meaning.
Sun Wukong and Sha Wujing bickered without pause today as well. For some reason, Lee Hyun found the sight deeply comforting.
I retired from active duty several years ago, didn’t I? The data must have changed quite a bit since then, but the important parts probably haven’t.
It was a truth that the world’s major hunter guilds, including those in Korea, vaguely knew but had never truly felt.
National intelligence agencies and special forces were constantly watching them.
Since the dawn of the modern nation-state, the state had maintained a monopoly on violence. But the birth of ability users that began with the appearance of dungeons had once again allowed citizens to privatize violence.
To prevent social chaos, the state had no choice but to keep these guilds in check.
‘Otherwise it would become as tangled as the battle lines in the Near East. That’s why they never slacken their surveillance and restraint of the guilds.’
Korea was no exception.
Lee Hyun tightened his grip on the documents he had tucked inside his coat.
These are the materials my wife and I organized while researching the Snow Queen. You’ve regained your magic power so they may no longer be necessary, but they might still prove useful. Take them.
Consider it a gift for coming to see me after so long.
Investigation records concerning the Snow Queen. He hadn’t read them yet, but they would serve as major reference points for the Ice Jade Heart and its additional functions.
Thud!
He had arrived at his destination.
‘Here?’
Lee Hyun looked up at the prestigious guild’s headquarters building. He was maintaining his stealth technique.
Shadow Step is becoming increasingly proficient. Proficiency has risen sharply, improving stealth and infiltration levels.
‘The headquarters doors are locked. They must have finally noticed the dungeon situation.’
It had already been half a day since contact with the guild master had been lost, so their reaction was only natural.
‘The cartel may be moving as well. Too much time has been wasted. I’m moving immediately.’
He had lost a great deal of time waiting for Madam to arrive and examine Go Jin-woo. Fortunately, the diagnosis was that there was no threat to his life and he would recover after several months of rest. Lee Hyun could now launch the new operation without worry.
‘The general also promised to support me from behind in various ways, so I can run wild without holding back.’
Infiltration initiated.
Lee Hyun moved silently, gripping the rune staff. Even with the doors locked, slipping through quietly posed no problem.
He passed the lobby and headed for the fifth floor. Security and surveillance devices capable of detecting stealth skills were scattered throughout, but—
‘All familiar patterns.’
Lee Hyun bypassed them all or obstructed their recognition with curse talismans. Every detail had been written in the materials Lee Gun-san provided.
‘Without the brigadier general’s help, there would have been many unnecessary clashes… It’s good that everything can be skipped.’
It was a glimpse into just how much comprehensive information the intelligence agency had gathered to keep the guilds in check. It also made Lee Hyun realize once again how remarkable a person Lee Gun-san was to have managed all of it.
‘No matter how strong I’ve become by wearing the One-legged Goblin set and regaining my legacy, taking on the entire Myeongga guild alone would still be difficult.’
Lee Hyun’s movement speed gradually increased.
‘But if I can penetrate this deep into the headquarters—into its very heart—with the general’s help,’
Shadow Step grows far more silent.
‘The story changes completely.’
Swish—
He frequently saw guild members running frantically through the corridors.
“Why the hell can’t we reach him?! What happened?!”
“What about the cartel? Have you contacted them?”
“The Korean branch has been unreachable for a while now too!”
“Then call the hotline straight to Mexico City!”
Some were trying to grasp the exact situation at the black market.
“What happened to the team that went to Uijeongbu?”
“They say the gate closed. The abandoned building disappeared along with it…”
“Damn it! The dungeon really was cleared! What are those cartel bastards hiding?!”
“Troops! How many hunters can we mobilize right now?”
“Director, you can’t be—!”
“Then are we just going to sit and watch? We should storm those druggie bastards’ headquarters and raise hell! Gather the raid members immediately!”
“Y-yes!”
On the other side, some were acting as if they were about to declare war on the cartel by gathering hunters.
‘A company is ultimately a battle of justification. The quick-witted ones are already securing the image they’ll show their employees.’
Myeongga was as large as its appetite. The greater the chaos, the better for Lee Hyun.
‘The funny thing is that even in this situation, no one dares touch the director’s office.’
Lee Hyun opened the door to the sixth-floor director’s office and stepped inside. The employee ID taken from the late Heo Jae-woon worked perfectly.
‘It should be around here… Here.’
Recalling Lee Gun-san’s materials, Lee Hyun felt along the wall and pressed a certain spot. A touchpad appeared as the wall split open.
Beep.
User authentication required.
It seemed an ID card wouldn’t work here. Lee Hyun placed his hand on it. An authentication failure message appeared, but—
‘I’m going to hit hard and leave quickly anyway. Shall we begin right away?’
Lee Hyun had never intended to move quietly in the first place. He had already downed plenty of mana potions, so his magic circuits were fully charged.
Keravnos is being drawn. White lightning pours down!
White lightning surged violently from his palm and shattered the security device in an instant.
Wiiiing—!
The moment the siren began to blare,
BOOM!!
The entire wall exploded, revealing a separately prepared secret vault inside.
Heo Jae-woon had stored all his cherished items and the company’s confidential documents here. The vault was massive—easily the size of an entire room.
“What was that sound?!”
“It’s the director’s office!”
“Run!!”
The sound of employees sprinting down the corridor reached him. By then, however, Lee Hyun had already swept up every important item and document and stored them in his high-capacity inventory. Lee Gun-san’s materials on Myeongga had even included a precise diagram of the secret vault’s layout.
It was a clear demonstration of how closely the intelligence agency monitored the guilds. For a brief moment Lee Hyun even wondered whether White Tiger was under the same surveillance.
Besides—
‘This is when the Fiery Golden Eyes are especially convenient.’
Utilizing the sacred relic sped things up considerably. By the time the employees reached the director’s office, what they saw was a man wearing a goblin mask standing at the center of flickering white lightning.
“You had quite a lot of interesting things. No wonder you dared covet what belongs to me without knowing your place.”
“Who the hell are you?! Get out of there right now!”
The employees shouted but did not dare approach. The majesty of the white lightning was simply too overwhelming.
“I’ll teach you what happens when you don’t know your place—you invite death.”
Lee Hyun stamped the rune staff on the floor.
Vwoooong!
A wide white wave spread out, shaking the entire headquarters. At the same time, bolts of lightning rose above it.
White Tide strikes!
Rumble—
“The building—!”
“Run…!”
The employees’ screams were swallowed by the roar of thunder. The entire sixth-floor director’s office was dyed in pure white light before it exploded.
Crash—
Boom! Boomboomboom!
Rumble…!!
Every window shattered. The headquarters building shook as though it would collapse entirely. Bolts of lightning continuously shot upward and slammed back down. Similar scenes unfolded on every floor, plunging the building into chaos.
Lee Hyun’s goal had never been to kill guild members anyway. It was to destroy the building and drag the prestigious name of Myeongga through the mud in front of the entire world.
He wanted to plant the perception in society that one must not carelessly touch the apostle of Zeus.
‘The more infamy this identity accumulates, the more Jang Lee-hyun’s presence will fade.’
Chains of Lightning run amok!
Chains appeared one after another in the air, smashing walls and pillars and causing the building to tremble violently.
“Kyaaaak!”
“Outside! Get outside!”
“Aaaagh! The building! The building’s collapsing!”
Employees and hunters fled the structure. No one tried to stop Lee Hyun. With their director gone, there was no reason to throw their lives away.
Rumble…!
In the end the building collapsed straight down from the top. The employees who had fled outside, along with the onlookers drawn by the commotion, all witnessed the final moments of the Myeongga headquarters.
Rumble…
“……”
“……”
“…It really collapsed.”
“Myeongga… just like that…”
The witnesses watched with dazed expressions. Myeongga was one of Korea’s five major guilds. Its sudden end delivered an enormous shock.
But it wasn’t over.
White lightning surges above the collapsed concrete.
BOOOOM!
The rubble shook as the magician presumed to be the culprit appeared, stepping on a staircase woven from countless chains. A scorching hot wind and intense pressure swept outward.
Merely looking up at the figure standing atop the ruins sent chills down the onlookers’ spines.
“Raid Captain, what should we do?”
“We should step in and catch him now…!”
“No. We stand by.”
The six main raid parties that formed Myeongga’s core only hesitated. None dared move recklessly.
“But—!”
“This is someone who boldly infiltrated the heart of our headquarters and did this. And none of us noticed. It means his skill is already comparable to a High-Ranker.”
“……!”
“Moreover, the fact that he did this so openly means he possesses considerable confidence… If we rush in carelessly, we’ll only get ourselves hurt.”
“……”
“And—”
“There’s more?”
“I heard that the one who killed Mukeshi recently wore a mask like that.”
“W-was it true that Mukeshi died?”
“I thought it was just a rumor, but it seems it was real. The description matches perfectly, right down to the eerie white lightning.”
“……”
“So everyone stand by.”
“Order confirmed.”
“Order confirmed!”
The mysterious High-Ranker said to have one-shot Bazrahand. The hunters watched his appearance with tense, wary expressions.
Although a fair amount of misunderstanding caused by the deception Lee Hyun had intentionally spread was mixed in, the six raid captains had no intention of sacrificing themselves for a guild that was already finished.
‘Myeongga will find it difficult to recover anyway. In that case…!’
‘It would be better to take the members and go independent.’
‘Or maybe I should switch guilds? If an entire raid party moves together, we could demand a high price.’
With everyone lost in their own dreams, there was no way they could unite. Of course, this too was the result Lee Hyun had intended.
‘As expected. It’s a mess now just like it was before. Well, they were always empty on the inside anyway.’
After confirming no one was pursuing him, Lee Hyun waited until the atmosphere had sufficiently ripened before he spoke.
The golden eyes beyond the goblin mask spat out a chilling light—no, a lightning glare.
“……!”
“……!”
“……!!”
Flash—
After confirming that every witness had been rendered speechless, Lee Hyun thought, I also obtained plenty of data related to the fossil egg. This should be enough.
He erupted a cluster of light and quietly vanished.
Flash!
Even after Lee Hyun disappeared, the witnesses remained frozen in place for a long time.