Chapter 17 - Stratagem (計略)
Stratagem (計略)
[You have overturned the ‘fate of death’ assigned to Choi Eun-ha.]
[As a reward, ‘???’ has been granted.]
A system message floated before his eyes.
Bzzz—.
A gray mosaic layered over it.
It looked like a malfunctioning television.
Moments later, the reward that had been nothing but question marks changed.
[As a reward, ‘10,000 good karma’ has been granted.]
Ten thousand.
Not a hundred.
Not a thousand.
A full five-digit amount of good karma.
‘This is insane.’
Lee Jeon-seok was genuinely shocked.
And understandably so.
No matter how much it increased, good karma usually rose in increments of two or three thousand at most.
Even the department store terror attack—the most critical turning point of his previous life—had only given him five thousand.
And now, out of nowhere, ten thousand?
‘…It said I twisted a fate of death.’
Lee Jeon-seok repeated the system’s wording in his mind.
Then he recalled past events.
When he had saved people in Yeongdeungpo.
There had been no system message then.
The same was true on Bukhansan.
Even though Choi Eun-ha had been there as well, the system hadn’t intervened directly like this.
Fate.
Was it because she wasn’t meant to die on Bukhansan anyway?
‘In my previous life, Choi Eun-ha didn’t die on Bukhansan but at the Paradise of Devourers. And because I changed that fate, the system intervened?’
It was a plausible hypothesis.
But—
That raised another question.
The system.
Why did it want to change Choi Eun-ha’s fate?
One thing came to mind.
Hwasan.
The guild Choi Eun-ha belonged to.
In the not-so-distant future, they would stage a coup.
Countless civilian casualties would result.
Perhaps the system judged that Choi Eun-ha’s existence could act as a suppressor.
Questions surfaced endlessly, only to disappear again.
“……”
He didn’t know the system’s intentions.
Why it intervened directly.
Why it wanted Choi Eun-ha to live.
Could it be related to his regression?
He still didn’t know what the system truly wanted.
But—
‘If it wants to use me… fine. I’ll play along.’
Did the system possess reason?
Intelligence? Will? Consciousness?
He didn’t know.
He didn’t care.
If it was planning something through him, then all he had to do was exploit it just as thoroughly.
More importantly—
‘This works out perfectly.’
Hwasan would attempt a coup in the near future.
He had been wondering how to deal with that.
And then—
Choi Eun-ha appeared.
Whether that too was the system’s intention, he didn’t know, and it didn’t matter.
What mattered was that if he used her, he could bring Hwasan down in a much more natural way.
And in a way that benefited him.
“Let’s exit the dungeon first.”
“Ah—yes.”
After that—
The two of them passed through the gate and exited the dungeon.
And just as they stepped outside—
“Oh, by the way, could I get your business card again?”
Lee Jeon-seok asked awkwardly.
※ ※ ※
A skyscraper towering as if looking down upon the world.
At its very top floor—
A man sat cross-legged on a sofa, trimming his nails.
He had bizarre, dark-reddish pupils.
A black snake tattoo was etched into the back of his neck.
Click—.
He clipped his thumbnail, then used a long file to smooth the rough edges.
Hoo—.
He finished by blowing the dust away.
Then—
“I’ll clean this up.”
The elderly woman standing beside him began tidying the table.
The man merely nodded, as if this were routine.
The woman left the office carrying the trash.
‘…He’s late.’
His gaze shifted to the wall clock.
He seemed to be waiting for someone.
A thick irritation crept into his expression.
‘How long does it take to kill a single unawakened person?’
Unawakened.
He was referring to Choi Eun-ha.
Just a few hours earlier—
The man had ordered her assassination.
The reason was simple.
A typical power struggle.
Choi Eun-ha had already fallen far down the line of succession, but in this world, there was always the possibility of “what if.”
He intended to eliminate that possibility early.
However, the assassin he had hired hadn’t contacted him for an unusually long time.
‘They said he was the best from the training facility… all lies.’
Choi Seung-cheol.
A direct blood relative of the Hwasan Guild, he clicked his tongue in annoyance.
Of course, it wasn’t that there had been no contact at all.
━Succeeded in separating Choi Eun-ha from her teammates.
━Eliminated Choi Eun-ha’s team members.
Just two lines.
A text message on his phone.
The problem was—nothing after that.
‘Did he fail?’
A possibility he didn’t want to consider.
Failure.
The word Choi Seung-cheol hated most.
“Young master.”
At that moment—
The elderly woman who had taken out the trash returned.
She was Park Min-sun—his secretary and caretaker.
“What is it?”
“You should take this call.”
Instead of answering, Park Min-sun held out her phone.
The screen showed an ongoing call.
Kim In-cheol.
An F-rank dungeon—Paradise of Devourers.
The hunter guarding that gate.
Commonly called a “gatekeeper.”
Within Hwasan, he was well known as part of Choi Seung-cheol’s faction.
Naturally, he had been informed in advance—
About Choi Eun-ha and the assassin sent to kill her.
Perhaps that was why Choi Seung-cheol answered the call immediately upon seeing the name.
A voice came through.
━Y-young master Seung-cheol?
The voice on the other end was trembling.
Not from simple nervousness.
There was fear soaked into the tone.
Sensing something had gone wrong, Choi Seung-cheol issued a short command.
“Explain.”
━W-well… Miss Eun-ha exited the dungeon safely, so I checked inside briefly and…
Gulp—.
A faint swallowing sound.
━The assassin you sent was found dead… with his head severed.
“Huh?”
Choi Seung-cheol’s expression stiffened.
Decapitated?
No matter what, the man was an assassin trained at the facility.
Hwasan’s training facility specialized in producing professional killers.
Any assassin that entered Hwasan through it was highly skilled.
And he died beheaded?
Impossible.
Even if today was his first mission…
“Choi Eun-ha.”
━Yes?
“Was there anyone else who exited the gate with her?”
━Ah, about that…
Kim In-cheol paused, recalling the scene.
Then he continued.
━There was one F-rank hunter with her.
At that, Choi Seung-cheol became certain.
‘That bastard did it.’
Without a doubt.
Choi Eun-ha’s teammates had already died.
And Choi Eun-ha herself?
A powerless civilian.
There was no way she could deal with an assassin trained at the facility.
Whoever it was—
‘They’ve seriously interfered with my plan.’
Choi Eun-ha’s survival.
And the loss of a valuable asset.
His plan had been significantly disrupted.
Tch—.
Choi Seung-cheol clicked his tongue and spoke into the phone.
“Give me a detailed description of the man who came out with Choi Eun-ha. Hair, eye color, facial features, overall impression, and what he was wearing—leave nothing out.”
━Y-yes! Understood.
Kim In-cheol carefully described the man’s appearance as he had seen it.
Based on that testimony, Choi Seung-cheol ordered Park Min-sun to investigate.
Afterward—
Park Min-sun left the office with her head bowed.
Left alone, Choi Seung-cheol ground his teeth.
‘To think that woman would even hire a bodyguard…’
Strictly speaking, he wasn’t a bodyguard.
Just someone she had met by chance.
Of course, Choi Seung-cheol had no way of knowing that.
All he knew was—
‘Whoever you are, you’ll pay for ruining my plans.’
※
Immediately after exiting the dungeon—
Choi Eun-ha hurried away from the scene.
She looked extremely anxious.
Leading Lee Jeon-seok into a deserted alley, she suddenly bowed deeply.
“I’m sorry. You got dragged into something like that because of me…”
By “that,” she meant the attack.
She looked genuinely remorseful.
But Lee Jeon-seok merely shrugged.
“If you’re really sorry, just grant me one favor later.”
“R-really? That’s enough?”
“If not, are you going to die in my place?”
“Th-that’s…”
Choi Eun-ha hesitated.
She couldn’t answer easily.
Of course, he hadn’t expected an answer.
Lee Jeon-seok continued.
“More importantly—what are you going to do now? You’re not going to report the murder to the Association, are you?”
“O-of course not! Anyone with half a brain wouldn’t do something like that.”
She vehemently denied it.
Right.
Only an idiot would do that.
There was no way to prove a crime inside a dungeon.
Electronic devices like cameras didn’t function there.
Recording was impossible.
And witness testimony?
That could be fabricated easily.
That was why, unless it was something massive, most hunters chose to bury incidents that happened in dungeons.
And Lee Jeon-seok and Choi Eun-ha were no different.
“I’m going to look for my teammates first.”
Teammates.
The word left a bitter taste.
They were already dead.
But Choi Eun-ha seemed firmly convinced they were alive.
“I’m really… sorry again, Lee Jeon-seok.”
How many times had she bowed now?
“I’ll be going then… If you need anything, please contact me anytime.”
With that, Choi Eun-ha hurried away.
As if afraid Lee Jeon-seok might get dragged in again.
Almost like she was fleeing.
Lee Jeon-seok watched her retreating figure, lost in thought.
‘…Didn’t expect to get entangled with Hwasan like this.’
He had entered the dungeon simply because he had nothing else to do.
Just to test his trait.
And yet—
He ended up entangled with Hwasan out of nowhere.
‘There’s no way this just passes as if nothing happened.’
They actively instigated power struggles and even targeted a fallen successor.
Someone like that wouldn’t simply ignore Lee Jeon-seok.
So—
‘They’ll try to deal with me before killing Choi Eun-ha.’
Carefully.
Meticulously.
But Lee Jeon-seok thought—
It was meaningless.
A confrontation with Hwasan.
He had already experienced it once.
He knew their methods all too well.
How they killed people.
How they toyed with them.
How bloated and grotesque their arrogance was.
Their tactics.
Their ideology.
He understood it all thoroughly.
‘The one who sent the assassin was probably Choi Seung-cheol.’
There was no one else in Hwasan who would do such a thing.
‘Given his personality, he’ll stay quiet for about a week before making a move.’
He wouldn’t act recklessly.
First would come information gathering.
Lee Jeon-seok knew his cautious nature better than anyone.
But—
A week was longer than it seemed.
By then, Lee Jeon-seok would already be contracted with the Association.
A mercenary of the Association.
Not someone they could touch easily.
Sending assassins?
That would be equivalent to attacking the Association itself.
The Association would immediately investigate Hwasan.
So Choi Seung-cheol couldn’t move rashly.
Whether Choi Eun-ha was connected to the Association.
Whether the Association had uncovered Hwasan’s secrets.
Those were the things he’d begin to worry about.
‘Which means they lose the turn.’
Just one turn.
A trivial mistake.
But battles were often decided by such small differences.
Therefore—
‘For now, I’ll focus solely on growing stronger.’
Lee Jeon-seok set his immediate goal.
Then—
Bzzzz—.
Right on cue, his phone alarm went off.