Ripples (5)
After the press conference, I headed to Dio Guild.
The prosecution had named me as the hunter who would assist in the investigation.
With Gyeongso Daejeon still leaving both firefighters and police in chaos, hunters were stepping in to handle what the police should have been doing themselves.
Before Ryu Su-hon and I parted ways, he said, “Let’s bring two more hunters. We can’t afford to be short-handed.”
The official operation title the media had picked up was War Against Villains.
And I was the face of it.
But even aside from that, I needed people with me if I wanted the operation to run smoothly.
There was no reason to look far away.
I decided to find them close to home.
First up on the list was...
“What are you looking at?”
Na Sang-min growled like a mad dog.
Ever since the last Dirty Kraken incident, he’d become hyper-sensitive about being exposed to the media.
He didn’t mind little stuff like flower mukbangs and other harmless publicity events.
If I told him we were going after Quarter, he’d obviously refuse.
And since he’d be in the support position, there was no chance he’d agree anyway.
He’d throw a complete shit fit, too.
Besides, Na Sang-min was Dio Guild’s strongest fighter.
If a Gate happened to open while he was away, there’d be a hole in the guild’s defenses.
As far as I remembered, no monster on the level of an end-of-the-world threat was supposed to show up around now.
Still, there was no harm in being careful.
For the safety and peace of Seoul’s citizens, I decided to leave Na Sang-min out of it.
“Where’s Lee Ji-jun?”
“No idea. He’s in the hospital.”
What a charming bastard, answering so faithfully even while claiming not to know.
“Right, that’s true.”
Lee Ji-jun had been undergoing treatment after his recent health checkup revealed abnormal red blood cell levels.
It wasn’t anything severe, but...
He probably overdid it because he fired too many Blood Arrows.
He’d pushed himself because he was so stubborn about competing with me.
When a hunter got injured, recovery had to come before fieldwork.
Which meant Lee Ji-jun would have to rest in the hospital for a while.
That left my next option.
While I was still thinking it over, someone entered the training room.
“Hyung!”
A broad-shouldered young man with a simple, honest face came in.
My peer, Bang Su-hwan.
“Oh? Hunter Na is here too. Good to see you, sir. Hunter Na!”
“Yeah. I’m off.”
Na Sang-min stretched his arms wide and left the training room.
Once we were alone, Bang Su-hwan started sputtering excitedly.
“Hyung! I saw the broadcast. Someday, I’ll definitely...”
Bang Su-hwan frowned and mimicked my voice.
“I’ll arrest that bastard, too. Damn, your eyes were terrifying.”
“Yeah. Thanks. ...Bang Su-hwan, what do you think of Purple Devil?”
“Well... isn’t he some insanely strong psycho who broke out of a mental hospital?”
“......”
His skills had improved lately, too. Maybe I should spar with him sometime.
“Anyway, congratulations, Hyung. It’s pretty damn satisfying to see you doing so well. I should build up some achievements, too, and actually be useful to the guild.”
Bang Su-hwan scratched the back of his head.
He was B+ rank.
He hadn’t done anything especially notable since Dirty Kraken, but he’d been training hard to climb the rankings.
“Want to go to Jeju Island with me?”
“Oh. Sure.”
As usual, Bang Su-hwan, who was absurdly loyal to me, accepted without even asking what for.
“You free?”
“If I say I’m going with Hyung, the guild will approve it no matter what.”
Thanks to the Dirty Kraken incident, my standing inside the guild had risen quite a bit.
Though that wasn’t the only reason.
I’m the one with the real authority, after all.
Since I held the chairmanship of Dio Guild, I could handle everything from behind the scenes through Lee Yu-seol.
I got a playful idea and said, “What if the guild doesn’t approve it?”
“Then I’ll use my annual leave and vacation days. Or, I dunno...”
Bang Su-hwan grinned.
“I’ll just go AWOL from my assigned security zone.”
He’d gone through all that misery in Busan, and now he was still willing to follow me again.
What a good guy.
“Fine. You’re in.”
“Yes!”
I wasn’t asking him just because we were friends.
Bang Su-hwan had the physique and reliability of a solid tank.
He would definitely be useful on site.
“We need one more person. Who would be good? What about Ha Rang-in?”
“He’s just a chick. Peep, peep.”
“Yeah, fair enough.”
Jin Ha-rang was only D-rank.
He was still too inexperienced to be of much use in the field.
“He’s inexperienced, and if something goes wrong...”
Bang Su-hwan spoke seriously.
“He could get badly hurt.”
I understood what he meant instantly.
It was the softened version, too.
Quarter was not weak.
He was strong and vicious enough to wipe out the leadership of villain organizations across the country in a short time.
To put it bluntly:
He could die.
I couldn’t just drag anyone along with me.
“Skill matters first. Someone who meshes well with you and me would be best.”
“Exactly, Hyung. ...Oh, and speaking of members, have you ever been to Jeju Island?”
“No.”
In my previous life, I’d spent my days working myself to death in a factory.
I hadn’t even been overseas, much less to Jeju Island.
“Hmm. That’s a problem. I haven’t either.”
After Gates began appearing, Jeju Island—because it was separated from the mainland—had suffered especially severe chaos.
Some areas were still so dangerous that the roads remained restricted.
So it wasn’t uncommon for people unfamiliar with Jeju to get lost, get hurt, or vanish altogether.
“Oh, right!”
Bang Su-hwan clapped his hands.
“I know the perfect person. She’s so perfect that it’s basically impossible to go without her!”
“Who?”
Bang Su-hwan rubbed his chin, then spoke.
“Hang on.”
Then he called someone.
“Noona! What are you doing? I got hurt during training. My guts are spilling out of my stomach right now... Ugh. I’m gonna die. It’s urgent, so hurry up and come! Seriously, this is an emergency!”
A little while later, someone rushed into the training room.
She wore her hair in a ponytail, and her body had a taut, athletic curve to it.
Ha Se-na, my second peer.
“Where? Where are you hurt?”
She was panting hard, as if she’d sprinted all the way here without stopping.
Sweat dotted her forehead.
Bang Su-hwan clutched his stomach and ran over to greet her.
“Ta-da! I was lying.”
“......”
Killing intent rose in ripples from Ha Se-na’s mana.
“C-Calm down, Noona. It was an emergency, all right. We’re going out on an operation, and we’re short one member.”
“What kind of nonsense is that? You pig!”
Ha Se-na kicked Bang Su-hwan in the stomach with a front kick.
“Guh! How does a healer hit this hard?”
It had been a long time since I’d worked with Ha Se-na, too.
She’d recently been promoted to A-rank healer.
Her skills had improved dramatically after receiving instruction from the commander of the Geumwi guards in Busan.
At least in terms of healing, there wasn’t anyone in Dio Guild who could match her.
If Ha Se-na was willing to come, I’d naturally welcome her with open arms.
But still...
Was there any reason it had to be Ha Se-na?
She turned around.
“You’re dragging me into something trivial when I’m busy enough to die already.”
“H-Hold on!”
Bang Su-hwan hurriedly called after her.
“Do you know where we’re going?”
“I don’t care.”
I answered for him.
“Jeju Island.”
Ha Se-na stopped just before the door.
She slowly turned back.
“Really?”
Bang Su-hwan stepped in to explain.
“Yeah. You’re from Jeju, right? Come with us and help guide us around.”
I hadn’t known that.
Since I usually ran around with Na Sang-min, I hadn’t had much room to pay attention to the other members.
If we had a guide while moving through that ruined island, it would definitely be an advantage.
Ha Se-na was exactly the kind of person we needed.
I stepped forward and held out my hand.
“Hunter Ha. I’m asking for your help.”
“What’s the pay?”
I snorted.
I liked her cool attitude. A relationship built on money was cleaner than one based on sentiment anyway.
“We’re working with government officials, so the budget’s tight...”
“I’m expensive.”
Ha Se-na said it primly.
I pointed at my own chest with my thumb.
“I’ll cover you generously out of my own pocket if I have to.”
Ha Se-na lowered her gaze and muttered, “I never wanted to go there again...”
Then, as if she’d finally given in, she took my hand.
“You’re going after Quarter, right? Combat pay is separate.”
Heh. So she already knew.
My face had already been broadcast nationwide.
She’d been grumbling, but the moment she realized Bang Su-hwan had tricked her, she may already have decided to accept my offer.
I shook her hand.
“Looks like peers are the only ones you can rely on.”
The morning of departure for Jeju Island.
“Typhon. Hunter Choi Yongki. Confirmed.”
The Dio Guild staff member handed my ID back to me.
With a heavy mechanical clang, the reinforced steel door unlocked and slid open.
This was the Equipment Storage.
It held all kinds of weapons, artifacts, relics, and miscellaneous gear owned by Dio Guild.
Treasures hunters obtained from Gates became the guild’s property.
They could be converted to cash and split according to contract ratios.
Or the hunter could claim the right to keep them first.
Whereas this place...
...was all communal property.
Any hunter affiliated with Dio Guild could borrow from it freely.
I walked inside.
Under the blue lighting, all sorts of weapons lined the walls.
Katana, swords, daggers, whips, spears, axes, mana pistols—there was a wide variety.
But...
Nothing particularly worth taking.
That made sense.
The Equipment Storage was mainly used by low-rank hunters who didn’t have personal weapons of their own.
For someone like me, who had White Revenge and Heoksikdo, there wasn’t much reason to come here.
At least not for weapons.
I moved into the room next door.
Various artifacts were arranged on the shelves.
An invisible ring that made your clothes transparent when you put it on. A necklace that boosted magic resistance. Boots that increased movement speed. A glass cup that detoxified about half of a poison’s effects.
At first glance, they seemed fairly useful, but if you looked closely, they were all just junk.
That made sense, too.
If something was rare and expensive, there was no reason to leave it lying around in the Equipment Storage.
And yet there was something here that I could use.
Let’s see...
I slowly scanned the items on the shelf.
Something round and palm-sized caught my eye.
Found it.
A circular tool with a bronze edge etched in ancient patterns.
The center was a smooth silver sheen.
The infamous Witch Mirror.
It looked like something out of a fairy tale—Snow White, maybe—and its function was...
I held the mirror up to my face.
At a glance, it looked no different from an ordinary mirror.
“Who’s the strongest person I’ve met in the last week?”
Obviously, a fairy-tale mirror wasn’t going to answer me.
Instead...
Na Sang-min’s face appeared on the mirror.
Then the display changed.
A single shining dot sat against a black background.
North, south, east, and west were marked around it.
It matched the point where I was currently standing.
Which meant...
Na Sang-min was inside the Dio Guild building.
Exactly.
The Witch Mirror answered one predetermined question once a day.
It even told you the target’s exact location for half a day, like a tracking device.
There was one condition, though.
The person had to have come into physical contact with me.
The Witch Mirror was a highly effective tool for hunting Quarter.
I took the artifact and headed back outside.
“Hunter Choi. The Witch Mirror rental is complete. Please be sure to return it by the deadline.”
By the time I left the Equipment Storage, my phone had started ringing.
It was a message from Prosecutor Ryu Su-hon.
- Brother. I’ve arrived at the airport. Where are you?
I looked down at the mirror in my hand.
Among the villain executives who had recently been killed, the one in Busan had been S-rank.
Quarter had taken him out without any difficulty at all.
At least S+.
There was no doubt Quarter was an absurdly powerful Awakened.
This won’t be easy either.
No, it might turn into a fight where life and death were on the line.
Even so...
I have to go.
In this life, it was my fate and my duty to finish what the hero was meant to do before I died.
Besides, that bastard was the one who had killed my little brother.
I have to deal with him.
I looked down at the Witch Mirror and said, “Where is Quarter?”
The silver surface remained silent.
Partly because I’d already used up my question for the day.
And partly because I hadn’t even met Quarter yet.
But that was fine.
Soon enough, I’ll know the answer.
I tucked the Witch Mirror into my pocket and sent my reply.
- I’m on my way to the airport now.