Butterfly Effect (6)
Go Ju-hun’s brow furrowed at the dead phone line. Whoever had called himself the Purple Devil had just claimed he’d wiped out the entire Dio Guild.
“...How dare he.”
Go Ju-hun rarely showed emotion in front of other people, but this time, sheer rage seized him by the throat. The phone in his fist crushed apart with a sharp snap.
“That arrogant piece of shit!”
He had been born into wealth, awakened early in his teens, and risen to S-class hunter status while still young. Inheriting the Dio Guild his father had founded, Go Ju-hun had built a kingdom of his own. He was overflowing with pride in the life he’d made for himself.
His father had always told him the same thing.
“Ju-hun. We are special. Never forget that.”
Raised from childhood on an education that taught him he was exceptional, Go Ju-hun had grown into a man saturated with narcissism. In front of the public, he put on a display of modesty, but in truth he believed himself superior to everyone else. If there was something he wanted, he had to have it, and anyone who stood in his way was disposed of by any means necessary.
Go Ju-hun stared down at the shattered phone.
Come to think of it, the call had come through Lee Yu-seol’s phone. Had she died too?
Well. Doesn’t matter.
Lee Yu-seol meant nothing to him. What mattered to a man with narcissistic personality disorder was only status, success, and the attention of those around him.
His empathy for other people was hopelessly underdeveloped, so losing a subordinate did not move him much.
Replacing a part is easy enough. More importantly...
Go Ju-hun stood before the bookshelf in his office. When he pressed the hidden button in the wall, he heard a locking mechanism click open, and the bookcase slid aside. Behind it stood a gleaming suit.
It had been a special order from Seosan Group, the conglomerate that cooperated with the Dio Guild.
It’s been a while.
The last time Go Ju-hun had entered a Gate was half a year ago. Since becoming the guild’s representative, there had been no need for him to go out and personally slaughter monsters.
He finished suiting up. Because it had been custom-made to order, the suit clung to his body with exact precision, not a single millimeter out of place.
“Hhh.”
Go Ju-hun focused and drew up his mana.
A gust of wind swept through the office, scattering the furnishings.
Goooooo.
He curled his fist and lifted the corners of his mouth.
Yes. That’s it.
What was a hunter, anyway? A person who blocked Gates and protected the city? A person who defended civilians from monsters?
Everyone had a different definition.
But the one Go Ju-hun had named was this:
A hunter was someone born to hunt, to kill, and to grow stronger through slaughter.
Because he had neglected training lately, his combat instincts had grown dull. He’d wasted too much time meeting useless celebrities in pursuit of a political career, and that had left him with little time to sharpen himself.
Perfect. This works out even better.
This was a chance to show what he could do after a long time. The anger that had flared up because of the Purple Devil slowly changed into a hunter’s fighting spirit.
Even including Go Ju-hun, there were fewer than ten S-class hunters in Korea. And even they made excuses about injuries and avoided fighting others of their level.
When was the last time I fought someone with everything I had?
When was the last time I was in a life-or-death battle?
More than twenty people had been dispatched to the Ilsan Hunter Facility. Among them had been B-class hunters and Lee Yu-seol, along with the twins from the upper A-class tier.
To say he had annihilated them in an instant meant...
At least S-class.
Go Ju-hun’s heart pounded hard at the prospect of an equal.
He picked up the office phone and called his secretary.
“Yes, sir.”
“Issue Code X.”
The Dio Guild had several emergency code names for different crises. Code X meant that all forces were to switch to combat readiness in preparation for an outside attack.
“R-right now?”
“Do I need to say it twice?”
Go Ju-hun’s tone lost all warmth as he issued the order in a cold voice.
“Understood! I’ll carry it out immediately.”
“Open the rooftop too.”
“Yes, sir.”
As Go Ju-hun left his office, he made up his mind.
I’ll change the plan.
Originally, he had intended to recruit the Purple Devil into the Dio Guild. But now that he knew the man’s strength, every part of the plan had changed.
I’ll use him as prey.
Go Ju-hun’s talent was Predation.
Every time he killed a powerful opponent, his stats surged upward in a dramatic leap. The reason he hadn’t been able to climb one step higher all this time was simple: he had never met a foe worthy of him.
Maybe this really was the perfect opportunity.
The position he had been forced to abandon after hitting a wall for so long...
This time, I’ll finally reach SS-class.
Go Ju-hun headed for the top floor of the building via the emergency stairs.
Lee Yu-seol drove the truck onto Gangnam-daero, turning the wheel with practiced ease. For a hunter, driving well at this level was probably basic equipment.
Since I’d been kicked to the ground and rolled across the pavement, my clothes were a filthy mess, and one cheek had been scraped raw. But I didn’t have the headspace to care about something that trivial.
Lee Yu-seol’s hands trembled on the steering wheel.
A fake bomb collar or something like that wouldn’t have been necessary. She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye.
“Are you seriously going to meet Go Ju-hun?”
Raindrops pattered against the windshield.
My face reflected faintly in the glass, blurred by streaming water. I had thrown a factory raincoat over my suit to hide my identity, and with the hood pulled up, I probably looked like some kind of mage in a robe.
“...He’s a lot stronger than I am. And he’s cold-blooded. If you don’t back down, he won’t let you leave gently.”
For some reason, Lee Yu-seol was trying to talk me out of it.
“I know Go Ju-hun well. Better to drop to your knees and beg for forgiveness. He’ll let it slide.”
When I didn’t answer, she turned her head toward me.
“A single apology. Then join the Dio Guild. That’s the end of it. Why are you making this so difficult?”
Human beings were not rational animals.
They were creatures that rationalized their actions after the fact.
Lee Yu-seol had threatened the entire facility just because I’d attacked Seo Gwang-pal, and now she’d somehow forgotten that completely and was criticizing my behavior instead.
Of course, I was no different. I was a rationalizing creature too.
By my own standards, Seo Gwang-pal was a thoroughly rotten bastard.
I had no regrets about killing him.
Even if a petty incident snowballed into a butterfly effect and threatened my life, I would still stand and fight those bastards.
“If you don’t stop now, you’ll definitely regret it...”
“Hey.”
“Shut up. Before I start regretting letting you live.”
At the guttural warning in my voice, Lee Yu-seol shrank back again.
Only then did I fully understand.
Judgment of the Superhuman was a powerful skill, but it was a double-edged sword.
Depending on what I decided to do, I could turn a monster like Big Laba into a lump of meat and save people.
Or I could turn a person’s skull into paste and kill them instead.
My talent, Purchase, could buy the abilities of the heroes I admired.
But the system didn’t care how I used that fraudulent power. Even if I sided with evil, it wouldn’t interfere.
In the end, what kind of hero I became depended entirely on...
my choice.
The truck came to a stop in front of the building. A Dio Guild agent approached us.
“You can’t park here. Move the truck. Now!”
His tone was high-handed and arrogant.
Lee Yu-seol lowered the window and took off the hat she’d been wearing low over her face. His reaction changed immediately.
“Team Leader Lee? What brings you here? Weren’t you supposed to be out on a dispatch today?”
His gaze shifted to the building. Armed members of the Dio Guild were guarding the entrance. There had to be at least fifty of them.
Lee Yu-seol said, “What’s going on?”
“I’m not sure. I was told the representative issued Code X.”
“...”
Lee Yu-seol opened the truck door.
“Take the truck to the parking lot.”
“Understood.”
The agent obediently followed her order.
I got out of the truck and stepped into the rain with Lee Yu-seol. The cold drops on my face were growing heavier by the second.
The building’s entrance was a revolving door. Everyone passing through it was subjected to a strict identity check. The armed guards at the front all wore suits.
“See? From here on out, no outsiders are allowed in. It’s an emergency, so security’s tighter than usual.”
She darted a careful look at me.
“I can go in, but you can’t. The representative’s office is in the penthouse. Which means if you want to get there, you’ll have to go through everyone standing here. That’s why I told you earlier to give it up.”
On the way here, I’d thought about it over and over.
No matter how much stronger I had become, I still couldn’t fight the entire Dio Guild head-on.
My ability came with a restriction.
The restriction called Awakener’s Balance.
If I started a war with everyone here, my balance would be drained to zero in no time.
So I need a plan.
The building before me was a tower of Babel in every sense of the word. This wasn’t some two-story thug’s hideout; it was a skyscraper on an entirely different level. I couldn’t even imagine sneaking in through a window with wires.
As I lifted my head to examine the building, I spotted something.
“What’s that?”
At the very top of the building, a red light was flashing.
Following my gaze, Lee Yu-seol’s expression changed.
“Ah... The green light is the normal setting. Red means a wartime situation. You know about the Gangnam Sky Gate incident three years ago, right? This is the first time they’ve opened the rooftop since then.”
The Gangnam Sky Gate.
A Gate had opened in the sky. It had been a catastrophe on a historic scale, with all kinds of flying monsters appearing, along with a dragon.
Since there had been no hunter in Korea who could fly, countless people had been helplessly sacrificed.
Go Ju-hun had participated in the battle then too, and by slaughtering a number of pterosaur-type monsters, he had risen to S-class.
Lee Yu-seol pointed toward the tip of the spire.
“Representative Go Ju-hun is probably up there.”
He’d prepared a battlefield for a one-on-one fight with me. Was that what this meant?
Did he assume I’d fight my way up after crushing his troops?
Or was it a sign that he wanted a duel with me, nothing more?
At least I’d gotten a rough read on Go Ju-hun’s personality.
Pretty confident, huh.
People moved through the revolving door in a steady stream.
“How many floors?”
“Eighty-eight. The rooftop is above that.”
Infinite Acceleration had a limit of one kilometer per activation.
Enough.
I lowered my stance and completed the purchase.
Infinite Acceleration activated.
“I’m going on ahead.”
“What? Where? Wait, hold on—”
Lee Yu-seol shut her eyes tight. She must have been activating her ability to track my position.
It was too late already.
Thud.
The moment I drove off with one foot, I broke into a sprint.
The Dio Guild members didn’t even register my existence. I had already passed through the revolving door and started climbing the emergency stairs instead of taking the elevator.
Crash, crash, crash!!!
I stepped on thousands of flights, then thousands more.
“Ghk!”
My calves and thighs screamed in protest, and my heart pounded so violently it felt like it might burst. Using Infinite Acceleration more than twice in a single day put a real strain on the body.
Maybe my body still couldn’t fully endure a hero’s power.
My stomach rumbled like thunder.
...I’m hungry.
For a moment, I had the absurd sensation that my skin was sticking to my bones. My metabolism had accelerated, and the food in my stomach had been burned through in an instant. That, too, was exactly in line with Speeder’s settings.
Wobbling with exhaustion, I finally stopped walking. There was nowhere higher to go.
“...Hah, huff.”
At last, I reached the eighty-eighth floor.
All that remained was the steel door leading to the roof.
Without hesitation, I gripped the handle and pulled it open.
Whooooosh.
Violent rain and wind slapped at my face. In the blur ahead, I made out a figure standing in the middle of the helipad.
I threw off my cloak and walked toward him with wet, dragging footsteps.
The other man spoke first.
“Purple Devil. We finally meet.”
Go Ju-hun wore full protective armor just like I did.
If my own suit was a clumsy homemade job, his was cutting-edge.
At a glance, it was obvious this wasn’t mass-produced equipment.
...A special order, huh.
I shook my head to clear myself of occupational habit.
Focus.
My opponent was an S-class hunter.
The strongest person I had ever faced.
Ssshhh.
The downpour intensified.
Mana rolled off Go Ju-hun’s body in a vicious, ominous shimmer.
“Before I kill you, I’ll give you a little courtesy.”
He grinned and pointed at a puddle collected on the roof.
“Kneel. You arrogant little bastard.”
I’d found the common thread among the Dio Guild types.
When things didn’t go their way, they showed their true colors immediately.
“Let’s see who kneels.”
In the pounding rain, two beasts lunged at each other.