Chapter 108
Chapter 108
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 108
Chapter Title: Chaos at Lotte World
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Lotte World, nestled in Jamsil.
What could possibly be happening there?
Even before lunchtime, Jong-hyun and Jeong-won from the Demon Dragon Squad, along with the Poison Witch and Dancer from the Soul Ghost Extermination, stepped into the Lotte World theme park.
"Ugh, isn't there way too many people?"
The Poison Witch let out a deep sigh after barely escaping the throng of crowds.
Jong-hyun flashed her a smile in response.
"What do you expect from Lotte World? It's our fault for coming on a weekend."
Lotte World on weekends was hellish even just to ride the attractions.
Due to the massive crowds, popular rides required hours-long lines just for one go, cementing the park's infamous reputation on weekends and holidays.
So why had they come here?
"What choice do we have? The guy only works weekends."
"No way..."
"Even the Demon Dragon Squad...?"
That's right. They weren't here for fun.
It was a casting call to assemble the Demon Dragon Squad and Soul Ghost Extermination team on the Supreme One's orders.
"Damn it, Dancer! Let's shadow-jump ahead first!"
With the same goal in mind, even allies fighting side-by-side were enemies in this moment.
"Cheating! Sis! That's cheating!"
Jeong-won reached out toward Dancer, pleading desperately.
Dancer responded with an awkward smile, scratching her cheek with her index finger.
"Even as the top spirit sorceress, I can't teleport to places I've never been..."
"Yes! Jeong-won! Let's go!"
At Dancer's words that teleportation was impossible, Jong-hyun kicked off the ground.
"We're first!"
The Poison Witch clenched her fist tight as she watched Jeong-won shoot off after Jong-hyun.
"Ch-cheating! Damn it..."
The Demon Dragon Squad's speed, honed purely through martial arts training, was beyond even the Soul Ghost Extermination's Ghost Soul.
Their specialty was stealth and silent kills, not raw speed or power.
"Dancer!"
The Poison Witch called out venomously at the Demon Dragon Squad's retreating figures in the distance.
But when Dancer turned around, the Poison Witch lost all will to fight.
"Dan...cer?"
"Isn't this cute?"
Sometime between, Dancer had donned a cat-eared headband sold at Lotte World.
Seeing her like that drained all strength from the Poison Witch's body.
"Dancer!!"
= = =
"Maybe I should just quit this crap and join a guild..."
In the bustling heart of Lotte World,
a man standing midway in the long line at the food court sighed deeply.
For him, who spent six days a week as Lotte World's weekend food court supervisor, weekends were pure torture.
"Kyahahahaha!"
"Mom! That one! I wanna eat that! Mom!!!"
"Waaahhh!"
"Pew pew! Bang! Hiya!"
Laughing kids, crying kids, kids trying to smash everything.
"No!"
"If you don't hold hands, you won't see Mom and Dad again!"
"Jung-hyun! Lee Jung-hyun!!"
And the parents, dark circles under their eyes from dealing with it all.
Unlike weekdays, weekends doubled the visitors, turning Lotte World into a gateway to hell.
And right in the middle of that hell, the man doing his job let out one final sigh, shook his head, and moved to the next food stall.
"Kang Jin-mo?"
Just then, as Kang Jin-mo tried to head to the next stall, someone grabbed his shoulder.
"Not interested."
But as a B-Rank Hunter classified among Korea's high-rankers, Jin-mo answered without looking—this wasn't his first or second time.
He knew what they wanted without asking.
'Something like, "Why not join our guild? We'll pay you this much. What're you doing as a hunter? No ambition?"'
It was obvious, so Jin-mo ignored them and kept walking to the next stall.
As he entered, the voice called out again.
"Let's talk."
Already annoyed by the open hellgate, now with some persistent guy added, his irritation boiled over.
Jin-mo turned and yelled.
"I'm not doing hunter work. I didn't study hard to risk my life!"
But true to his long service industry experience, his face wore a customer-service smile.
No matter how pushy, they were customers at Lotte World.
As an employee paid by the park, he couldn't snap at a customer.
"A B-Rank Hunter not doing hunter jobs?"
He'd heard this ten times before.
"Yeah, monsters scare me. Can't even kill cockroaches."
His go-to deflection worked.
"We're not a guild."
Not a guild...
Unfamiliar, but he'd heard variations five times or more.
"Really? I prefer guilds anyway."
"You could join one."
He'd gotten this follow-up twice.
Surprised at first, but now he was immune.
"If it's a Lotte World guild, sure."
"Not quite... We have two guilds."
"Two?"
What? Why would a party recruiter run two guilds?
This new response piqued Jin-mo's interest.
But the next words cooled his spark instantly.
"What guilds?"
"Garosu Guild and Unwoo Guild. Pick whichever you want..."
"No thanks."
What? Garosu and Unwoo, two of the top five guilds?
And he could choose either?
'Scammers.'
If Sword Tiger or Yong-un came personally, maybe.
But strangers saying this? Anyone would think the same as Jin-mo.
Interest gone, he fully ignored them and entered the food stall.
"Busy, right?"
At Jin-mo's words, the staff inside fanned themselves.
"You can see that."
With the crowded interior, the supervisor plastered on a business smile and headed to the kitchen.
Then, a staffer at the entrance yelled inside.
"Supervisor's coming in!"
"Kang Jin-mo?"
The kitchen buzzed at the heads-up.
Normally, he'd give them time to tidy since they knew each other, but with the two scammers tailing him, he had to barge right in.
No other way to shake them.
"Huh?"
He immediately locked eyes with the head chef hiding dirty dishes.
In that awkward moment,
"I'll pretend I didn't see. Inspection's done. Just tell me the back exit."
"O-over there..."
"Yeah, keep working."
Following the chef's gesture, Jin-mo bolted out without looking back.
"Whew, that was close..."
Unaware of Jin-mo's plight, the chef just patted his chest in relief.
= = =
Slipping out the back door, Jin-mo quickly activated his skill to form rabbit legs.
He then tried to flee the food court at speeds invisible to normal eyes.
'Wh-what?'
But the scammers casually kept pace with his B-Rank speed, shocking Jin-mo.
'Not ordinary scammers.'
His speed and strength were his biggest assets.
Especially speed—he prided himself as the fastest among B-Ranks.
Yet they matched it effortlessly, leaving him deeply rattled.
"No choice."
To avoid capture, Jin-mo donned a mascot head and approached a Lotte World mascot wandering the park, transforming his face into a matching rabbit feral form.
'They won't find me like this.'
The scammers knew he was a food supervisor.
They'd surely pass by someone working as a mascot.
"Found you!"
But someone grabbed his hand.
Not the sweaty male scammers, but two stunning unknown women.
"Y-yes...?"
Stunned, Jin-mo froze.
Then, the two scammers he thought wouldn't recognize him approached and grabbed his other arm.
"Jin-mo!"
His shock was brief.
Accomplices to the scammers?
The beautiful women yelled at the scammers.
"We found him first!"
"No! We were talking to him first!"
"Does that matter? We grabbed him first, so we get to talk first."
The Soul Ghost Extermination's Poison Witch and Dancer smiled.
"Jong-hyun bro, let them talk first. Can't stop Poison Witch sis when she flips out."
"So close..."
The Demon Dragon Squad's Jong-hyun and Jeong-won pursuing Jin-mo stepped back.
"Heh."
With a victorious smirk, the Poison Witch looked up at the now-taller Jin-mo in feral form.
She then yelled loudly and yanked his ear.
"Kim Gu!"
"Aaaack!!"
The Poison Witch's grip yanked his ear upward like she was tearing it off.
But the rabbit ears from feral form were still his.
In agony, Jin-mo screamed and clutched his ear.
"Wh-what the hell!"
"Kim Gu? Sis, you're looking for a Kim Gu?"
Ignoring Jin-mo's pain,
Jeong-won chimed in, eyeing the Poison Witch.
She looked flustered.
"Huh...? Not a mascot...?"
"Of course not! Feral Form's my skill! These are my ears! And I'm not Kim Gu—I'm Kang Jin-mo!"
At Jin-mo's teary voice, the Poison Witch backed away.
"N-not Kim Gu? Then..."
She creakily turned her head.
There stood Dancer, beaming with her cat headband, holding the mascot's arm.
"This guy's Kim Gu."
Dancer pulled off the mascot's head.
"Huh?"
The startled promo part-timer scrambled for the head.
"If that's Kim Gu... then this guy's..."
The Poison Witch released Jin-mo's arm.
And backed away.
"Rabbit freak...?"
"Jin-mo!"
Jin-mo released his skill, reverting to normal.
"Kyaaack!"
The Poison Witch screamed and hid behind Dancer.
= = =
Amid the chaos of the Demon Dragon Squad, Soul Ghost Extermination, and their new recruits, Lotte World chugged along undisturbed.
"We'll talk after work," they said, leaving the groups stuck at the food court.
In not the cheeriest mood.
"You ditched us and left that fast?"
"Who tried to ditch us first with spirit sorcery?"
"Hah!"
Bad start, so acting leaders Jong-hyun and Poison Witch glared at each other.
Dancer and Jeong-won grabbed their arms to calm them.
"Bro, at least it's good. The hunters match what our bosses described. Yours is handsomer, so hold back."
"Poison Witch, we proved we're better in the end. Three Ghosts are super pretty, so bear it."
Jong-hyun and Poison Witch were indeed striking.
Jeong-won aside, Dancer was beautiful too, but Poison Witch fit modern beauty standards more.
Feeling the gathering stares, they forcibly humbled their pride and shrugged.
"True, ahem."
"Yeah? And I didn't even do makeup today."
Then, as if scripted, they said in unison.
"Fine, the handsome one yields."
"Fine, the pretty one yields."
Flattery from Jeong-won and Dancer worked briefly.
"Yielding, right?"
"Who yields to whom here?"
Realizing their identical lines, Jong-hyun and Poison Witch growled again.
"Sigh..."
"This is exhausting..."
Just when it seemed better, back to square one—Jeong-won and Dancer exchanged looks and shook their heads.
"Cute cat ears."
"Oh, got 'em there. Cute?"
"Muscle pig with nothing but martial arts in his head!"
"Thieving cat ninja!"
Jeong-won and Dancer bonded easily, chatting smoothly.
Unlike Jong-hyun and Poison Witch, growling like sworn enemies.
Sword Tiger, experts, or Yong-un would have scolded them.
The mood dragged on.
"Muscle pig!"
"Thieving cat!"
That's when,
Zzzing!
"...?!"
A sudden prickling sensation hit.
Jong-hyun, Jeong-won, Poison Witch, and Dancer froze, staring the same direction.
Then, all four yelled looking at each other.
"Gate overflow?"
Dancer immediately surged her mana and called to the shadows.
"I'll check. What's going on?"
A spirit sorceress rose from the shadows at her call.
"An incident inside a nearby gate. Overflow happened not far off."
"That close? Wasn't the Windhand Guild clearing a gate today?"
"Yes. It's a D-Rank gate; they sent twelve hunters. But none have exited."
Windhand Guild was legit.
Yet they couldn't clear a D-Rank with twelve hunters?
One word flashed in their minds.
"Gate mutation!?"
Extremely rare—maybe once or twice a year.
And when it happened, massive casualties followed.
Because the instant it mutated, the gate jumped to at least A-Rank, regardless of original.
An A-Rank gate meant...
"At least one demon noble."
"Shall I mobilize the assassins?"
The spirit sorceress bowed.
But before they could reply, all four heads tilted skyward.
"No, too late."
"..."
Perplexed by "too late," the sorceress soon understood.
Her gaze followed theirs upward.
A tiny black figure at the end.
"I'll withdraw per the Lord's orders."
"Yes, return and await commands."
"Then..."
The sorceress melted into shadows.
A demon plummeting fast from the sky.
For some reason, the four smiled darkly at the menacing sight.
"I'll handle it."
"What? Step off, muscle pig. This thieving—not, I'll clean it up."
"Sis? Sorry, but I can't back down this time. That's mine. Gotta test my new power!"
"Is that so? Sorry, I can't yield either."
Like a quiet cat claiming the stove first.
Dancer stuck out her tongue playfully, grinned, and vanished.
Void Assassination Arts deployed.
"Dancer bro! Mine!"
The Poison Witch screamed and vanished too.
The Soul Ghost Extermination's Ghost Souls signaled battle start.
"Not letting it slip this time!"
"Bro! Going ahead!"
"Hey! Jeong-won! You bastard!"
The eye-catching Demon Dragon Squad and Soul Ghost Extermination members,
now tossing cryptic words and vanishing one by one.
"Huh?"
"Weren't they just here?"
Leaving busy Jin-mo and Kim Gu behind.