Chapter 180. Missing, Survival Unconfirmed
Chapter 180. Missing, Survival Unconfirmed
The usual WWE with the viewers.
He'd packed a chill talk stream, a variety game, and a collab all into one tight window.
And he'd picked up some content ideas too.
"Alaska to see the aurora, camping... huh? South Pole, Sejong Station...?"
He jotted down all sorts of suggestions into his notepad.
"Anyway, great work today, everyone."
[Still not over it, you bastards... hssss hssss...]
[Market's about to open, please...]
"You heroes and brave souls worked hard too."
His closing remark brought a flood of swear words pouring into the chat.
He turned off the monitor, took a slow breath, and headed to bed.
---
A few days after the auction ended, on a morning when the weather was finally starting to warm.
With final exams also wrapping up, his schedule now had plenty of gaps.
"Hoon, eat up!"
Seated at the table, he was making his way through the neat side dishes Laila had prepared.
Then, a news anchor's voice drifted from the TV on the wall.
- U.S. stocks continued their intraday decline, triggering institutional circuit breakers.
His spoon stopped.
He remembered his broadcast from a few days ago.
"Ah... come to think of it, weren't the viewers going on about some crash or something?"
Just then, he heard Laila's gentle voice as she smiled at him from across the table.
"Hoon... you really shouldn't do anything reckless with stocks, you know...?"
That was Laila for you.
He'd seen this scenario too many times before.
Examples of married men taking out secret loans and going broke from stock trading...
"I don't even know how to do that kind of thing in the first place."
"Huhu."
At his answer, Laila let out a deeply meaningful laugh.
Then she puffed out her chest and declared proudly.
"For our household, I'm the one handling the investments, you know? You don't need to worry, Hoon. Just love me a lot!"
"But don't we already have enough money?"
"Come on, you never know what happens in life~"
"Heh heh... I don't know whose wife she is, but she's cute enough to kill."
At his words, Laila gave an enchanting smile.
"In that case... would you like to spoil me a little right now?"
The moment she rose from her seat mid-meal and started stepping lightly toward him.
- Continuing with breaking news. The U.S. Treasury Department has stated that an unknown capital outflow has been detected for consecutive days, and...
- While numerous conspiracy theories are spreading through social media, authorities have called for restraint regarding speculative remarks.
The news broadcast shifted the atmosphere again.
And beneath it, a blinking caption scrolled across the screen.
'Dow plunges -15.2%', 'Panic selling continues', 'Level 2 circuit breaker triggered'.
At the anchor's words, Laila's expression turned rather serious.
He, too, tilted his head and looked at the TV.
"If it's this bad, something really must be going on, right?"
"Hmm... the United States is like the Everheim Empire, isn't it?"
"Well... it holds that kind of standing, yes."
Circuit breakers in the U.S.
As far as he knew, aside from 9/11 and Black Monday, that had never happened.
That was when it happened.
The phone he had tossed onto the sofa rang. He immediately grabbed it and checked.
Seeing the name 'Max' on the screen, he answered with a puzzled look.
"Oh, Max?"
A low, subdued voice came through the receiver.
"Hoon, are you watching the news right now too?"
"Yeah. Said the U.S. stock market crashed hard? That's why my viewers are crying and screaming in a frenzy too."
But in the next moment, Max said nothing.
An oddly heavy silence.
"Max?"
"...If you're doing any kind of investing too, pull out fast or... think it over carefully one more time."
"I don't really know stocks that well, but... isn't that just how they are? Up and down?"
At that, Max let out a deep breath.
"...This time, it might take a long time to recover. Maybe years. Worse than the crash from financial firm bankruptcies or terrorism..."
There was a strange weight to his voice, unlike the usual hearty Max.
He asked casually.
"What's going on? If it's enough for you to call me directly..."
Again, a moment of silence.
He heard the sound of lips pressing together and parting, and then Max suddenly laughed.
But that laugh was clumsy and forced.
"Haha, never mind! I just... called because I hate seeing a friend lose money, that's all!"
"...Is that so?"
Click.
Even after hanging up, he stared at the phone screen for a long moment.
"..."
No matter how clueless he was, there was no way he couldn't tell something was unfolding.
He placed a call immediately.
To the highest authority in this country.
---
In front of the entrance.
The night air seeped into the house as if leaking through the cracks of the door. Max silently looked down at the phone in his hand.
Behind him, along with his infant child's breathing, he heard his wife's footsteps approaching.
Emilia Crawford.
Now Emilia Morgan, Max's wife.
"Boss, just... how about asking Hunter Song Hoon for help..."
Emilia's voice was low and cautious.
But as if realizing it herself the moment the words left her mouth, she hastily tried to take them back.
"Ah, I'm... sorry. I said something unnecessary..."
Before she could finish, Max slowly turned his head and gave a soft smile.
He walked over gently and brushed back Emilia's hair.
With one hand still gripping the phone.
Then he placed a brief, quiet kiss on her forehead.
At Max's gesture, Emilia bit her lip and looked up at him.
In that moment, Max raised his head again.
His gaze seemed fixed on some faraway place.
- Korea's influence has grown too large.
- With it already beyond control, if we ask for help again...
- We must handle this with domestic forces alone.
Politics, diplomacy, pride.
"Heh heh, maybe because I'm ignorant... I really just cannot understand the thinking of those old men at the top."
That laugh was hearty.
But Emilia, better than anyone, understood the weight it carried inside.
And as if to tell the worried Emilia that it was nothing at all, he laughed in his own way.
"Don't worry. If something happens to me, do you think that guy's personality would let him sit still?"
With that, he stepped out the door.
Outside, the comrades he had entered gates with many times were already waiting.
"Boss."
"Is everyone here?"
"Yes. Word is the other guilds have already set out."
"Then let's go."
He opened the trunk silently and loaded his gear carefully.
As he packed his equipment, he muttered quietly to himself.
"Hoo... The Grand Canyon. It's been a long time."
An incident that once stained the entire United States with terror.
Two S-rank hunters the U.S. boasted of had died, along with numerous A-rank hunters.
By comparison, Max was miraculously unscathed relative to the other surviving hunters.
'...'
The tip of his hand trembled as he loaded the gear.
A minute reaction no one else would have noticed.
'He really was dealing with trauma himself...'
The trunk of the SUV closed with a thud.
And the black vehicles slowly set off into the darkness.
---
Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Blue House National Crisis Management Center, closed briefing room.
The Ministry of Economy, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of National Defense, and even the Chief Presidential Secretary.
"..."
South Korea, unable to ignore this shock, hurriedly arranged the meeting the very moment they received Song Hoon's call.
Abnormal signs were being detected in the global economic flow.
"It certainly is strange. Of course, it's natural for sensitive matters to be hidden at the national level, but still..."
Song Hoon tilted his head slightly and asked.
"It's definitely true that something has happened, correct?"
"...Yes."
The official hesitated in his answer, then nodded cautiously.
"However, we simply cannot determine what exactly that something is. Internally, they have it locked down tight."
At his words, a financial official added an explanation.
"The sell-off of U.S. assets by foreign investors... is accelerating rapidly."
"Feeling some kind of anxiety regarding the United States?"
"This kind of thing happens when there is terrorism, war, or a serious threat... and at the very least, it isn't terrorism or war."
The financial official spoke in a confident, assured tone.
"If something like that had occurred, the United States has no reason to hide it. Rather, they would expose it, propagandize it, and issue warnings globally. Just like that previous building incident..."
Everyone nodded at his words.
Yet America remained silent.
Too silent.
That, in turn, made everyone uneasy.
"If the U.S. collapses, the entire world shakes. In a situation where we depend on it for trade, finance, technology, energy, and even military affairs..."
At that moment, a high-ranking military general cautiously spoke up.
"...Is there any possibility this could be a large-scale gate incident... or perhaps an accident involving an S-rank hunter?"
Everyone fell quiet for a moment upon hearing those words.
What if it was not an external problem, but an internal one?
The Chief Presidential Secretary spoke in a low voice.
"We are investigating with that possibility in mind. Among the recent overseas disruption situations... there is one area where communications have been uniquely cut off."
"...?"
"It is the Grand Canyon."
Everyone's eyes sharpened.
It had been a long time since that place lost its meaning as a tourist attraction.
It was now transformed—not into a tourist site, but a memorial space.
At the Chief Secretary's words, the Minister of Foreign Affairs spoke again.
"The U.S. side maintains the position that it is a 'temporary communication disruption due to severe weather.'"
"Even satellite imagery is out because of bad weather?"
"That should not be possible... while bad weather could cause signal degradation... a complete communication blackout is rare."
The conference room inside the Blue House was engulfed in silence once more.
A crisis on a national scale.
But for now, there was neither information nor a countermeasure.
"Haa..."
That was when it happened.
— Thud!!
The conference room door burst open in haste.
"I-I'm sorry! There's something you need to see right now!"
The face, breathless and flushed, told everyone this was no ordinary report.
He rushed to the control table and turned on the large screen.
After a few seconds of darkness, a video file from somewhere started playing at the bottom.
"Th-the boss right now is... to be precise, he's entered the northern area... for our sake, he personally... w-who are you people...! You motherfuckers!!! Our boss is in there right now...!"
Soon after, the screen shook and went black.
The video quality looked quite degraded, likely pulled from an external platform like Nutube.
And in that instant, a line of red text appeared as a caption at the bottom.
[Breaking News]
U.S. S-rank Hunter Max Morgan, Missing.
Survival Cannot Be Confirmed.
As of 07:12 AM Local Time.
And just like that, the video was taken down for unknown reasons.
No one could continue speaking.
Some turned their heads to look at each other, some bowed their heads, and others simply shut their eyes completely.
No one had imagined this.
And right at that moment.
— Buzz...
— Buzz...
— Buzz...
A smartphone on the table began to ring.
Everyone's gaze snapped simultaneously toward it.
In front of the nameplate that read 'Song Hoon'.
He quietly reached out and picked up the phone.
"Yes, Miss Emilia..."
Having spoken at length with someone, Song Hoon ended the call.
Then he lifted his head, stared at the ceiling, and let out a sigh.
— CRACKLE— BZZT!!!
The sheer grip strength crushed the phone, and intense sparks began to fly, but he paid them no mind whatsoever.
Song Hoon rose from his seat without a single word and began to move.
"I apologize. I believe I need to leave urgently."
Reacting to his movement, Laila also hurriedly got up and followed after him.
"O-Hoon...!?"
But no one could stop his departure.
Because the expression on Song Hoon's face looked like a volcano about to erupt.