Chapter 475: Unprecedented Moves (1)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 475: Unprecedented Moves (1)
It was a scene of absolute devastation.
Red Moon.
The colossal guild that represented all of Incheon.
Red Moon, a faction growing so rapidly that rumors whispered they would soon expand into Seoul, had been utterly obliterated. And by a single person. Everywhere one looked, corpses littered the floor. Their twisted forms told a grisly story of desperate, futile struggles to escape the building in their final moments, yet none had made it more than a few steps toward the exit.
But that wasn't the most shocking part.
The commander of the Directly Controlled Unit, Lee Tae-seong, approached with a grim expression.
"We found Cha Dong-cheol's body. However..."
He trailed off, his face pale.
The state of Cha Dong-cheol's corpse revealed a horrifying truth.
"Based on the marks left on the body, it appears Cha Dong-cheol was brutally tortured before he died."
"Tortured?"
"Yes. We don't know the reason, but the gruesome wound gouged into his abdomen couldn't possibly be the result of a mid-combat exchange. If that's the case, we have a major problem on our hands. As you know, Cha Dong-cheol was highly skilled. To unilaterally massacre the entirety of Red Moon, including a powerhouse like him... this unidentified Peak Hunter must have a massive faction backing him. One man simply doesn't possess this kind of power."
He asserted his conclusion firmly.
Lee Tae-seong was a Peak Hunter himself. For someone who intimately understood the depths of Cha Dong-cheol's strength, this defied all common sense.
Kim Jun-hyeok silently agreed. The sheer scale of the carnage before them was too devastating to be the work of a lone wolf.
‘...A faction.’
A massive headache began to throb behind his temples.
An unidentified powerhouse backed by a hidden organization. He had fully intended to recruit the man by any means necessary, but if he already had a faction behind him, there might be dark, ulterior motives at play that Kim Jun-hyeok couldn't begin to fathom.
Massaging his temples, Kim Jun-hyeok reached into his pocket out of pure habit and pulled out a cigarette.
Flick, flick.
" Haaah. "
He exhaled a thick cloud of smoke, letting the nicotine settle deep into his lungs.
Not yet. It was too early to jump to conclusions. While they had to prepare for the worst-case scenario, the corpses strewn across the blood-soaked floor couldn't speak the truth.
Just then, one of the Directly Controlled Unit members called out, his voice trembling with excitement.
"Sir! We've secured the CCTV footage! Everything that happened is recorded right here!"
* * *
They immediately relocated to a secure monitoring room.
The unit member tapped the keyboard. "The audio is gone, likely destroyed by an external shockwave. However, the video feed is perfectly intact."
"Play it."
"Yes, sir."
The CCTV screen flickered to life.
Soon, the footage displayed the moments right before the massacre, when the Peak Hunter first stepped foot inside the Red Moon building.
It completely shattered their expectations.
Though Lee Tae-seong had been certain the man would bring an army, the Peak Hunter strolled into the enemy stronghold accompanied by no one but Kang Min-ho.
The atmosphere inside the lobby was incredibly tense. Perhaps because the truth behind Go Sang-ho's death had already come to light, Red Moon guild members swarmed around the duo like a pack of wolves. Although they were guided to a reception room, the hostility radiating from the screen was so palpable that a bloodbath could have erupted at any second.
Even without audio, the situation was crystal clear.
The aggressive whispering between guild members. Go Sang-min's flushed, furious face. The way the men constantly fidgeted with the hilts of their weapons—it all proved that the Peak Hunter was a highly unwelcome guest.
Finally, Cha Dong-cheol appeared.
From that moment on, the situation escalated at a breakneck pace. Cha Dong-cheol barked an order with a ferocious scowl, and at his signal, the Red Moon guild members surged forward all at once.
"...No way."
Kim Jun-hyeok's eyes widened in disbelief.
His prediction had been dead wrong. The catastrophic outcome he assumed could only be achieved by a massive group was currently being forged by the Peak Hunter entirely on his own.
Kang Min-ho didn't even lift a finger. He merely stood a few steps back like a casual bystander, leaving the Peak Hunter to face the tidal wave of Red Moon guild members rushing in from all directions.
It wasn't a battle. It was a one-sided slaughter.
The Peak Hunter butchered them the moment they entered his range. When Cha Dong-cheol launched a sudden, desperate ambush, the Hunter blocked it effortlessly.
Then came the clash with Cha Dong-cheol. The guild master unleashed the devastating attacks he was famous for, but he failed to land a single clean hit. In the blink of an eye, one of his arms was cleanly severed.
That was the end of it.
Cha Dong-cheol collapsed. Then began the Peak Hunter's torture.
As the massacre resumed after the Peak Hunter finally achieved whatever goal he had in mind, Kim Jun-hyeok forcefully tore his eyes away from the monitor.
"Mayor."
It was Lee Tae-seong. Kim Jun-hyeok knew exactly what heavy implications were loaded into that single word.
"Yes. This unidentified Peak Hunter is, without a doubt, an A-Rank. Otherwise, a result like this would be physically impossible."
Goosebumps erupted across his skin.
An A-Rank.
This unknown man was one of those transcendent existences. There were fewer than thirty of them in all of South Korea.
His mouth went completely dry. If he had ignored Kang Min-ho's warning and recklessly approached the Peak Hunter, the Incheon Government would have borne the full brunt of the wrath that had just leveled Red Moon.
But that raised an even more incomprehensible question: Where on earth had an A-Rank Hunter suddenly appeared from?
Even B-Rank Hunters were considered incredible talents that massive organizations scrambled and bled to recruit. An A-Rank was entirely beyond comparison. It was a position that commanded VIP treatment in any country on the planet. Even if they requested naturalization in superpowers like the USA or Russia, those nations would welcome an A-Rank Hunter with open arms and astronomical sums of money.
‘Inferring from the conversation with Kang Min-ho, the unidentified Peak Hunter is definitely unaffiliated. That must be why he gave us a one-month deadline. Should I report this to the Central Government? No... if the Central Government finds out about a rogue A-Rank Hunter, they will immediately dispatch their own people to recruit him.’
His mind raced.
This incident was not the Peak Hunter's fault. Though the sheer scale of the carnage would make it a nightmare to clean up, the CCTV footage clearly proved that Cha Dong-cheol had ordered the attack first. It was self-defense, albeit an incredibly extreme version of it.
The dilemma he was agonizing over now wasn't a matter of right or wrong.
Staring at the monitor, which had long since faded to a static black and white, Kim Jun-hyeok finally turned to Lee Tae-seong.
"Commander."
"Yes, sir."
"Is there any chance the truth of this incident will leak to the outside?"
"Not from within our ranks. The personnel monitoring the Peak Hunter belong exclusively to the Directly Controlled Unit, and all forces mobilized for this cleanup operation are also my men. The Directly Controlled Unit obeys absolutely no one but the Mayor of Incheon. If we keep our mouths shut, the fall of Red Moon will eventually be discovered by the public, but we can completely conceal who pulled the trigger."
"Then destroy the CCTV footage. We will announce the destruction of Red Moon to the public with a plausible cover story."
"...May I ask the reason?"
Flick, flick.
He lit another cigarette.
Hunters rarely smoked. They strictly avoided anything that might degrade their physical condition, but Kim Jun-hyeok, a normal human, was bound by no such restrictions.
He took a deep drag. With a slightly haggard face, his eyes flashed with sharp ambition.
"Isn't it obvious? We are going to recruit him before anyone else even learns that a new A-Rank Hunter exists."
* * *
Roman Dmitry returned to the villa.
Go Sang-ho's corpse had already been quietly cleared away by a Cleaner, and Kang Min-ho had arrived with the materials Roman Dmitry had requested.
"Here is the information you asked for. This is just the foundational knowledge for now; I will bring more detailed materials later."
The truth about Inheritors.
He needed to fully grasp this concept even before mastering the language of this world. It wasn't that he hadn't been studying, but since only a few days had passed since his arrival, he had been completely unaware of the existence of Dmitry's inheritance.
This was a necessary measure to prevent any future miscalculations.
Roman Dmitry carefully sifted through the documents, his eyes locking onto the details he deemed most critical.
First, the System.
[After The Absolute foretold the Great Disaster, humanity referred to the creation of a connection to the System as 'Awakening.' This game-like System grants specific rewards whenever monsters are defeated, and ordinary Hunters grow stronger through this method. While that applies to the vast majority, Inheritors and the Chosen Ones are highly exceptional existences, making up less than 0.01% of the Awakened population.]
Exceptional existences.
Inheritors were exactly as Cha Dong-cheol had described. While they were beings who received memories and power from beyond dimensions, the Chosen Ones were literally chosen.
[In addition to the original Absolute, there are other similar entities. They directly select Awakened individuals and bestow various gifts upon them to accelerate their growth. Because of this sponsor-like system, scholars studying the Great Disaster have speculated that this might all be nothing more than a twisted game for these absolute beings. What is certain is that the Chosen Ones fundamentally possess far more powerful abilities than Inheritors.]
The Absolute.
Chosen Ones.
It was a complex, tangled web of cosmic connections. These absolute beings had turned Earth into a testing ground, foretelling ten Great Disasters while simultaneously granting special abilities to help humanity survive them.
Perhaps the scholars were right. Perhaps this was indeed just their amusement. The method of offering both the carrot and the stick simultaneously was incomprehensible by any standard of human logic.
He verified all the fundamental aspects of this world. Although he could find no other connection to his past life besides the Dmitry Inheritor, Roman Dmitry reached a single, chilling conclusion.
‘During my Conquest of the Demon Realm, I learned that the demons had mirrored the unknown entities that once invaded them, treating their assault on the Earthly World as a mere game. This could be the exact same context. These absolute beings do not have some noble, righteous purpose like saving humanity; they are simply entities that derive pure entertainment from human catastrophe.’
Fragmented information couldn't reveal the whole truth.
What was certain, however, was that both the apocalyptic disasters and the power to stop them originated from the exact same source: these absolute beings.
And the fact that they possessed such heaven-defying power pointed to a very specific possibility.
Exactly that.
Roman Dmitry wanted that possibility.
* * *
He called for Kang Min-ho and asked a sudden question.
"The ten Great Disasters. Once you endure all of those devastating realities, what kind of future do you think awaits you?"
"...I'm not sure."
Kang Min-ho trailed off, his expression complicated.
The future after the Great Disasters. He had never dared to think deeply about it. Since they were constantly forced to resolve the immediate, life-threatening problems right in front of them, the future after the Great Disasters was nothing more than a fragile illusion that people dared not speak of aloud.
Of course, they desperately wished for such a peaceful future to arrive. However, because hope and despair were always proportional, he had no desire to feed his own despair with empty hope.
Roman Dmitry spoke smoothly.
"People all vaguely anticipate the future after the Great Disasters, foolishly thinking that a peaceful world will naturally return. And that may be true. If The Absolute orchestrated all of this purely for amusement, there would be no reason to slaughter humanity once the goal is achieved. Whether the lives of ants—which can be crushed with a single finger—perish or persist is of little consequence to a being of that magnitude."
The Absolute.
A god-like existence.
‘Every problem stems from The Absolute. The events currently unfolding on Earth prove that The Absolute is a god-like entity. With the power of The Absolute, it might be possible. Just as memories from beyond dimensions exert influence on Earth, the two worlds might be able to coexist without collapsing. If so, I must meet The Absolute. I must tear him down from his throne and use his power to forge the future I desire.’
A new purpose ignited within him. His direction in this life was officially set.
The Absolute.
The entity had never once shown itself since the first disaster. While there were records of similar entities appearing multiple times, the original Absolute had never manifested in any physical form.
In that case, there was only one way to force a meeting. Just as he had first appeared to declare the Great Disasters, there was an incredibly high probability he would show himself again once all ten Great Disasters were completely averted.
That would be his opportunity.
Roman Dmitry locked eyes with the man before him.
"I told you before. From the moment I decided to live in this world, I planned to establish my own territory. But I have changed my mind."
His aura swelled, suffocating the air in the room. Looking into Kang Min-ho's violently trembling eyes, Roman Dmitry revealed his true, domineering presence.
"I will rule this entire world. I will forge a banner for humanity to gather beneath, and I will be the one to stop all ten Great Disasters. I will make it a reality."
It was a radical, earth-shattering declaration.
It completely took Kang Min-ho's breath away. It was the kind of arrogant, god-defying statement that could not be accepted—no, was utterly unimaginable—in Kang Min-ho's world.