Chapter 47
Chapter 47
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 047
Chapter Title: Leberk
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Just two hours ago.
When he first received information about the "Mafia Butcher" from the support team, Rain couldn't help but let out a hollow laugh.
"Involved in capturing multiple top-priority fugitives, repelled a bearwolf, killed a great bloodkin, and on top of that? Survived the devil?"
What a joke.
This was beyond blatant propaganda—it was downright childish.
Rain scowled and tossed the tablet onto the table.
"You expect me to believe this crap?"
Cassie from the support team clicked her tongue inwardly at his reaction.
To begin with, the man in front of her was hearing about the Butcher's existence for the first time, so maybe this was a natural response.
In this era, mass media control was a given.
The 8th Special District had long been Dun City's cancerous blight and dark secret.
Incidents and accidents there were rarely reported to other administrative districts, which were under strict protection—no such leaks in decades.
Gossip from underground press floating around the 8th District's deep web never seeped out either.
Moreover, the Intelligence Agency handled information on a highly restricted basis—even by department or internal team.
Your colleague next door might not know what cases they were handling or what intel they had. That's how it was here.
For tactical teams like his, the information provided was even more limited.
Anything beyond mission essentials was withheld for security reasons.
It made sense, in a way.
Field agents were the easiest to capture by the enemy.
Cassie swallowed a slight sigh and continued.
"Some details are still unverified, but most are confirmed facts."
"What?"
"And whether you believe it or not, that guy's joining this op. Just so you know."
Rain slammed the table at those fighting words.
"Hey! This is our turf! Who the hell decided that!?"
"It's the department head's orders too."
"Ha!"
He let out a disbelieving laugh.
"You guys fed him bullshit, didn't you? The department head."
The support team, Cassie included, fell silent at Rain's question.
Seeing that, he couldn't stop his lips from trembling in anger.
"You clueless fucks on this op...!"
"Don't forget—if clueless fucks like us weren't here, you wouldn't have survived your missions unscathed all this time."
"Shut your trap. What do you know, tapping away at keyboards in your cozy rooms? You rejects with no background or skills—we've been playing nice, and now you think we're pushovers?"
"Doesn't matter if you acknowledge us or not."
Cassie pushed up her glasses and said,
"Our job is to do everything we can to maximize op success rates—not kiss your asses."
"So just shut up on the field and do what you're told?"
"I guarantee it, Team Leader Rain."
Cassie leaned forward, hands on the table, smiling at him.
"You'll thank me later."
And now, Rain bitterly understood what she meant.
"What... the hell..."
Hundreds of ferocious, merciless monsters frozen in terror—it was unbelievable, even with his own eyes.
"How is this possible?"
He'd worked at the Intelligence Agency long enough to face monsters occasionally.
But in all his life, he'd never seen those merciless beasts act like this.
They backed away bit by bit, as if something utterly untouchable stood before them.
Rain and Mask watched Kyle ahead with trembling eyes.
"What... the hell is that guy?"
At that moment, Rain recalled the info Cassie had given him flashing through his mind.
"No way... those exaggerated records were..."
True?
Kyle, who had used [Basilisk's Eyes] at the center of the lightning flash, quietly spoke as it spread around the clearing.
"Go on. I'll give you the chance."
"!!"
The monsters flinched as if understanding his words, glancing at each other.
The summoner controlling them was already knocked out by [Thunder Bolt].
With only animal instinct left, they had no reason to attack the human before them despite the pressure.
"Kieeeek!"
Starting with the largest Unitas, hundreds of demons fled in a stampede.
Rain could only gape at the bizarre sight of demonic beasts routing from one human.
Kyle clicked his tongue briefly and turned around.
For a split second, the response team's two members felt their breath catch at his chilling gaze.
"Sh-shit...!"
"This guy's the real deal."
Convinced the prisoner before them transcended human limits, they could only tremble.
"...?"
Kyle merely narrowed his eyes.
"What's with them?"
[Basilisk's Eyes] had little effect on humans.
"Not like I used [Amon's Fear Curse] or anything."
But sometimes, the situation itself bred fear beyond skill effects.
"I-is it over?"
"...For now?"
"What's with the sudden formal speech?"
Kyle twitched an eyebrow at Rain's abruptly polite demeanor.
"Uh, if you go straight that way, the summoner's probably down. Let's grab him first."
"I'll go, boss!"
Mask bolted toward where [Thunder Bolt] had struck.
"That punk bailed."
Rain inwardly cursed, then pointed to the hideout.
"Then... let's grab the informant and pull out."
"Drop the formal talk, like before."
"Uh, y-yeah... haha."
Back at the hideout, a woman still trembling was there.
"Hic... sniff, hic."
Rain approached, helping the informant up.
"It's all over. Let's go."
"A-all over?"
"Yes. All done."
"......"
As they led her out, Kyle suddenly spoke.
"By the way."
"Y-yeah?"
He glanced at Rain and the informant.
"This was obviously a trap, right?"
Rain's expression turned serious.
"...Probably."
The ambush was clearly a planned encirclement—not spontaneous.
Rain spoke.
"They likely used the informant as bait to lure us from the start."
"Why?"
"Huh?"
"You just said they used her as bait to draw us in."
Kyle stopped and turned to him.
"So why bother?"
"...!"
Rain felt his breath catch.
He was right.
If someone set a deliberate trap with the informant as bait, they had a target.
"Now that I think about it..."
Rain's brow furrowed.
"They were after our rapid response team?"
But field agents like them always assumed the worst, and their intel was severely limited.
Capturing one wouldn't yield much.
"No, using monsters from the start means they never planned to take prisoners."
This pointed to total annihilation.
But was wiping one response team worth this hassle?
Rain flinched involuntarily.
"No, from the beginning."
His gaze shifted to the prisoner ahead.
"What if the response team wasn't the goal?"
"Funny, I was just thinking the same."
Kyle smirked.
"Interesting."
His eyes narrowed.
"Only a handful in Intelligence know I'm on this op—excluding Joseph, the 141's commander."
"!!"
Just then, Mask returned to the clearing, blinking.
"...What happened?"
"Mask."
"Y-yes, boss."
Rain swallowed and asked,
"Who first recommended this guy for the op?"
"...The support team leader, right?"
"Support team leader?"
Kyle asked, and Mask nodded quickly.
"Y-yes. Support Team Leader Samuel Miller."
Samuel Miller.
The glasses-wearing guy who'd come to 141 personally to pitch the op.
"He told me something different. Said the support team pushed it, so he passed it to me."
"Uh..."
Mask rolled his eyes briefly before answering.
"No, the support team leader was the one who first brought it up..."
"Ah, got it."
Kyle grabbed the informant's hair, yanking her head back sharply.
"Right?"
"?!"
"What the hell are you—!"
He stopped them with a raised hand, staring into the beautiful informant's eyes.
"Samuel Miller. Yeah?"
"!!"
Finally grasping Kyle's meaning, Rain shouted, backing from the informant.
"Mask, fall back!!"
Almost simultaneously, Kyle detonated lightning in his hand.
Kwajijik, kwararararang—!!!
A brilliant yellow flash shot down without charge, striking her head.
"Aaaaahhh!!!"
A shrill scream echoed through the black forest.
But Kyle didn't stop.
In one bound, his fist slammed into the informant's solar plexus, unleashing a massive shockwave across the clearing.
Kwararararang—!!
As the response team's eyes widened at the unimaginable power,
a ragged coughing rose from the dust cloud.
"Cough, cough... H-how the hell did you figure it out?"
The revealed figure was hardly human.
Peeling, charred skin revealed black reptilian hide beneath.
Rain swallowed hard.
"Chimera...!"
Precisely, a human-beast fusion chimera.
Kyle answered readily.
"The bait was too perfect, but more importantly, her nails were too clean."
"...!!"
He'd noticed first when she clutched his clothes pretending fear.
Meant to lower his guard with pitiful acting, but it failed on Kyle.
He was a man, but his wariness around beauties was always maxed.
"Looked like she'd desperately rolled through the forest fleeing, but her nails? Pristine."
Not short like a man's, but in a real crisis, they'd be chipped or dirty even through dirt.
She'd missed that detail.
Of course, that wasn't the only reason.
"About time for this."
His jinxes with beauties numbered three so far.
"Beauty dies, accident hits if you're near one,"
Kyle glared at her.
"Or the beauty's the culprit."
"Kuh...!"
The informant gnashed her teeth, stunned.
"A ploy to lure me from the start?"
He stepped toward her.
"Were you ever really an informant?"
"Th-that's..."
"Give up. You can't escape anyway."
She shattered a strange stone from her bosom, shouting,
"Fuck you!!"
A massive darkness enveloped the clearing instantly.
"...!"
She smirked.
"No idea how he handled all those monsters, but...!"
This barrier sealed all but the caster in total sensory darkness—no sight, no sound.
"This'll do it...!"
Even the Butcher couldn't counter!
She honed her steel-like claws and flanked Kyle in a flash.
"Die!!"
As her claws swung for his head—
[...!]
"?!"
A sudden gale hurled her body back.
"Aaaak!"
She tumbled across the dirt briefly.
"...!!"
Then chills erupted over her skin.
Someone had just stepped—thud—right in front of her.
"N-no way..."
This barrier blinded and deafened all inside.
Whatever that wind was,
even if she'd made noise, for a trapped foe to hear and approach...
As she slowly raised her trembling gaze—
"Found you."
With those chilling words, the Butcher loomed over her.
"?!"
A vise-like grip seized her collar.
"Told you. Give up."
"H-how...!"
Terrified, she stabbed claws into his chest.
Puk! Her heart-shattering strike.
Yet the unmoving Butcher made her eyes quiver helplessly.
"Done?"
"...!"
"Then talk."
He asked the informant again.
"Who's behind this."
"A-ahh...!!"
The informant's mouth opened.
After the barrier lifted, Rain and Mask looked around in bewilderment.
"J-just now..."
"A barrier...?"
Then they spotted Kyle standing alone at the clearing's center.
The informant lay collapsed before him.
Rain approached, asking,
"What the hell happened?"
"Figured it out."
"Wh-what?"
"Who’s behind this."
He looked up.
"Samuel Miller. And..."
Kyle's eyes narrowed.
"Leberk."
"Hahaha."
In a hideout in the 8th Special District,
Samuel Miller swirled his glass and said,
"It's probably over by now."
The robed man across from him chuckled.
"Thanks to you, it went smoothly. The Mafia Butcher spends most of his time in the cell block—hard to create the right situation."
"That's why I could help."
"Hahahaha! Exactly."
The robed man was Anton Leberk, a family member who once pushed the late Giryon Leberk's wheelchair.
Now aiding the current head, Walter Leberk, in secret dealings, he laughed.
"Even the Butcher can't handle endless monster waves forever."
He's human—mana and stamina would run dry eventually.
Then the beasts' fangs would find him.
"Even if not..."
The informant he was desperate to protect was the deadliest trap.
Unlike the summoner, she'd prepared with Al Kimia—a true assassin.
In the chaos of monster fighting, a backstab would end anyone.
"That dumb godfather botched it despite setting the board..."
He was different.
Samuel laughed along.
"Damn right."
He didn't care why the mage tower's magic family wanted the Butcher dead.
Civil servant pay sucked; as long as the tower paid fat stacks, that was it.
As they happily drained their glasses—
The intercom blared.
"Ah, hold on."
Samuel answered.
"What is it?"
His eyes bulged.
"What?!"
"What happened?"
To Leberk's question, Samuel replied with trembling eyes.
"Th-the Butcher's heading here."
"?!"
Anton Leberk shot to his feet.
The floor below.
Kwararang—!
Rain muttered watching the Butcher blast the door off its hinges.
"We shouldn't be doing this."
No choice.
He clicked his tongue into the in-ear comms.
"Support. Cover for this mess."