Chapter 184
Chapter 184
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 184
Chapter Title: A Terrifying Truth
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GHO had accepted the request from Polant, the leader of Death Demon Cry.
Under the guidance of Daisy, the head of GHO's Korea branch, they loaded Polant and all of Death Demon Cry onto a plane and sent them off.
I couldn't tear my eyes away from the plane departing for England.
Myung-su, who had been standing beside Yong-un with a grave expression, finally spoke the words he'd been holding back.
"Do you think it's true?"
Yong-un pulled his gaze from the receding plane and looked around.
The members of Ghost Soul Annihilation, worried about Cheon-il and Barum, hadn't followed them here.
Polant's request to share top-secret information about England played a part, but it was mainly due to Yong-un's order to shield them from any potential shock.
Yong-un patted Myung-su's shoulder as he gazed at the man left alone.
"It probably is."
"Then... what do we do?"
"There's nothing to do. We just watch closely from the sidelines."
"I... see."
Myung-su's face grew not just grave, but downright gloomy.
Even Myung-su, trained as an assassin to control his expressions, seemed overwhelmed by this.
Yong-un simply patted his shoulder without a word.
Sometimes, the hidden truth is more frightening than any lie.
As Yong-un returned to the main house, Polant's face from before boarding the plane floated vividly in his mind.
Wearing mana-sealing handcuffs designed for hunters, Polant had shared the top-secret information with Yong-un.
「Zero One and Sky One are what we call the first-generation Demon Cries. They were born from experiments started by GHO and finalized in England...」
Polant glanced around mid-sentence and beckoned Yong-un closer.
As Yong-un approached, Polant whispered in his ear.
「Like Zero One, Sky One is also contracted with a different duke-level demon. For the exact details, go to the research lab on sublevel 4 of GHO's U.S. headquarters. That's where the info on the first-generation Demon Cries is kept.」
A hunter contracted with a duke-level demon.
The words spilling from Polant's mouth were enough to shake the world, horrify it, and draw universal condemnation.
'GHO U.S. headquarters, sublevel 4...'
As Polant's fading image overlapped with Young-il's, who had barely managed to pass on information before dying.
'A demon that doesn't heed the Demon King's rune script...'
It hadn't even been two full years since Yong-un returned to this reality.
He'd prided himself on learning so much.
But hubris had turned to arrogance, striking him hard on the back of the head.
"In the end, I was the frog in the well."
As his faction grew stronger and his unrivaled power from the martial world advanced further, overconfidence had crept in.
And the leisure and arrogance born from believing he knew everything and could protect it all had led to this situation.
Even in the martial world, he'd warned so many not to get arrogant.
Now, all those condemnations and lessons spun back like arrows, piercing his reality.
He stared blankly at the ceiling only briefly.
Then, as if resolved, Yong-un shot to his feet.
He fixed his gaze on the door leading outside, steeling his eyes.
"One mistake is enough. I'll move twice as fast to make up for lost time. That's..."
The path to protecting everyone.
Yong-un took a single heavy, resolute step forward.
Whoosh.
And vanished from the empty main house living room, leaving no trace.
Thanks to Yong-un's divine might, the world had escaped a massive threat.
But since he'd handled it alone with no witnesses, no one in Korea knew about the incident.
They only sensed that something strange had happened.
"Director Lee Jong-min!"
At Korea's Hunter Management Agency.
Director Lee Jong-min of the Audit Department was hurrying down the hallway.
Over ten agency staff trailed behind him, practically running to keep up.
"Director Lee Jong-min!!"
When one staffer called out urgently but he didn't stop, another shouted.
He halted abruptly.
Lee Jong-min glared at the staffer who had desperately called after him.
The staffer, finally able to report now that their eyes met, poured out his words as if he'd been waiting.
"Something's wrong! Gate generation rates in Seongbuk-gu are over three times higher..."
Lee Jong-min listened quietly.
"I know!!!"
"...Wh-what?!"
His face flushed red with fury as he bellowed at the staffer.
The startled staffer flinched, eyes wide.
"I know!! How many normal things are there right now!?"
The staffer shot pleading looks at the surrounding colleagues.
But they returned only sharp, stinging glares like Lee Jong-min's.
"You fuck, if even one more victim pops up because of these 10 seconds I wasted on you, I'll fucking cut your balls off somehow! What are you doing!? Run your ass off!"
After jabbing a finger wildly and berating the staffer, Lee Jong-min spun around and stormed down the hall even faster.
"Hic!"
The terrified staffer, hiccuping in shock and on the verge of tears, stared after him with a pitiful face.
The voices of the other staff following Lee Jong-min drifted into his ears.
"Clueless fuck."
"This is why rookies are a problem. Even if the boss told you to report, you gotta read the room. Sigh."
"Thanks to that fuck, he's gonna get chewed out by the boss. Grabbing the Audit Director's ankle during Red Alert? Tsk tsk."
At those fading words in the distance, the staffer finally collapsed and burst into tears.
"Minister!"
The door to Minister Baek Myung-hee's office flew open, and Lee Jong-min, the last executive from the Red Alert conference room, rushed in panting.
"Sit down, quickly."
"Yes!"
Over thirty people were gathered around the table in the center of Baek Myung-hee's office.
The executives wore serious expressions.
Baek Myung-hee scanned them once before diving straight into the meeting.
"We've identified the source and epicenter of all these phenomena. Gate Management Director Pyo Bon-seok, give your briefing."
At her words, the man seated in the middle stood.
"Ahem."
As he cleared his throat to speak, the minister glared and snapped.
"Don't stand. Brief us as concisely and quickly as possible from your seat."
"Yes, sorry."
"Go ahead."
"The epicenter was none other than the alley in front of Hunter Yong-un's residence."
The sudden mention of Hunter Yong-un left all the executives stunned.
The minister immediately turned to Lee Jong-min, who had just arrived.
"Audit Director?"
"Yes, I was late finishing the confirmation. From what we found... there were massive traces of battle at the site."
As Lee Jong-min stood, the beam projector activated.
The alley in front of Yong-un's main house lit up before the executives' eyes.
"Please look here."
Lee Jong-min pointed a laser at the dented pavement at the photo's edge.
"Dozens of gates appeared here... and then vanished."
"Dozens!?"
"Insane..."
"Ahem."
"This is serious."
Even one or two would be shocking.
But dozens of gates in that narrow alley, appearing and disappearing?
Yet the shocking revelations didn't end there.
"And when we scanned the traces with the mana detector..."
Lee Jong-min swept his gaze over the executives before fixing on the minister.
"We detected mana from an immeasurable-grade demon."
Around the same time unusual phenomena were occurring near Seongbuk-gu, where Yong-un's main house was located.
Yong-un appeared before Daisy, the branch chief who had sent Death Demon Cry leader Polant to England.
In the center of the branch chief's office atop GHO Korea headquarters.
Yong-un stood before Daisy without sitting on the sofa.
"Do you have business..."
"Can you arrange a talk with the War God?"
"You mean War God...? Why all of a sudden..."
"It's urgent. I'll explain later—just contact the War God for me."
"I can, but... what should I say..."
"Tell him I'll head to GHO headquarters in two hours. Meet at the Washington Dome where we first met."
"Pardon?! Did I hear that wrong?"
"Just pass it on. Then..."
"Wait!"
Flash.
Yong-un vanished before Daisy could finish.
No wind, no sound of movement.
Just a blink, and he was gone like he'd never been there.
Witnessing this divine feat, Daisy stood frozen, hand outstretched in awe.
"Washington... in two hours? He's a magic-type hunter, right? I'm not mistaken about that?"
Mulling over Yong-un's words, Daisy shook her head to clear her thoughts.
"First... I should make the call."
Fully aware that even the GHO-sent Death Demon Cry had been effortlessly obliterated by this common sense-defying monster, Daisy rushed to her desk and punched a button on the phone.
"Connect me to GHO headquarters right now."
Back at GHO U.S. headquarters, the War God returned with a relieved smile, as if a massive burden had lifted.
Across from him, Deputy Director Charlie sipped tea and asked,
"Did you catch Yong-un?"
The War God's response:
"No. He got away."
Charlie paused mid-sip, glaring at the War God's brazen words.
"Got away...? Then what's this about Death Demon Cry being intercepted and returning to England?"
"Well, against Yong-un, they never stood a chance."
"You were the one who called them in. Yet you return unscathed without a fight. How should I interpret that?"
The War God shrugged at Charlie's sharp question.
"Exactly what it sounds like—I let him slip away."
"War God!"
"You said it yourself back then."
The War God, who had been playful, suddenly hardened his expression and glared at Charlie.
"The Mercenary King got away."
Charlie smirked, set down his tea.
"Exactly—he slipped away."
"That's exactly what happened to me."
"No, you let him go. You released a Demon Cry that threatens the world."
Charlie's eyes widened in fury.
The World Hunter Organization GHO was a vast kingdom in the hunter era dominated by gates.
Within that kingdom's sphere of influence across nations, Charlie sat as the No. 2 right beside the throne of world power.
"This alone is grounds to punish you."
The kingdom's No. 2 wielded enough power to apprehend even the strongest hunter, the War God.
Aware of this, the War God had always followed Deputy Director Charlie's orders.
But this time, he defied him.
Staring straight into his eyes, he voiced his refusal boldly.
"I have no choice. I must punish you."
Charlie raised the blade of authority.
The War God met his gaze squarely.
"Then you should be punished too, Deputy Director."
Twitch.
Charlie's eyebrow twitched.
"What did you say?"
"Still making me repeat myself, I see."
"Have you lost your mind?"
"No, I'm more sane than ever."
The War God snatched the teacup Charlie had set down and declared,
"You let the Mercenary King go too."
He downed the tea in one gulp and slammed the cup down.
"You're mad."
"You're the mad one. Isn't it ridiculous? When I said we had to catch him at all costs, you brushed it off with 'he got away.' Now I do the same, and you rage about punishment? What's not contradictory about that?"
"You know the reason full well."
The War God and Charlie shouted in unison.
"Royal Class."
"Because it's Royal Class?"
Charlie nodded, staring at the teacup.
"Royal Class power is indispensable to humanity. Without it, we can't overcome the world's great threats—we have no choice but to coexist."
The War God, who had been glaring, let out a scoff.
Leaning back into the sofa, he said,
"Then we coexist."
Smirk.
"With Yong-un too."
Charlie's eyebrow twitched a second time.
"What did you say?"
"Second time—Royal Class level power."
The War God's smirk widened into a bright grin.
"Yong-un has it too."
"...?!"
"How could an S-Rank hunter like me beat a Royal Class? I didn't release him—I lost him."
Thud thud.
Just then, the deputy director's office door opened, and a staffer entered.
"War God, sir. A summons from GHO Korea branch chief."
"Got it. On my way."
Scoffing through his nose, the massive War God rose.
Gazing down at the pensive Charlie, he turned.
"I'll be rooting for you. Go ahead and try touching him—the seventh Royal Class..."
Thud.
With that, the door slammed shut behind the War God and staffer.