Chapter 45
Chapter 45
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 45
Chapter Title: Time to Pay for Touching My Family
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"Haa... haa..."
His breath raced furiously, filling right up to his throat.
He hadn't run this hard even during the Audit Department's executive exam.
Yet at the sight before him, Section Chief Lee Jong-min felt relief hit him before any sense of exhaustion.
"Damn it, we missed him."
Lee Jong-min hated that phrase more than anything.
But today, those words couldn't have sounded sweeter.
"It's okay. It's okay. You did great."
He comforted the Audit Department hunters, who were gasping for breath and looking disappointed.
But the ones who arrived first ruffled their hair in frustration and pointed around.
"So what now?"
Reaper Guild members lay sprawled on the ground, blood pouring from both sides.
At the gruesome scene, every Audit Department hunter turned to Lee Jong-min.
Wearing his usual irritated scowl, he punched a nearby wall unnecessarily.
"What do you mean, what? Overtime until we find the perp or some evidence pinning them down."
"Aw, man..."
"Quit griping and get to it. Looks like the upper floors are the same mess."
"Got it."
Despite the fresh corpses they'd just seen, the Audit Department hunters showed no change in expression as they began their investigation with annoyed faces.
I brought my soundly sleeping family back home.
But everything had already been cleaned up, returned to its original state, leaving Yong-un puzzled.
I laid my family members one by one in their respective rooms.
Stepping outside, I came face-to-face with an unexpected figure.
"You've returned."
"What happened? You're sure nothing went wrong?"
It was Myung-su, the special inspector who had provided crucial help this time.
"I'm sorry. I took a private jet and came straight away, but I was still too late."
Myung-su bowed deeply, his face full of regret.
But if not for him, things could have turned disastrous, so Yong-un smiled warmly.
"Thanks to you, nothing happened. I just owe Sword Tiger my thanks now."
Before departing, Yong-un had sensed it from afar.
Amid the clash of energies unfolding right in front of the house.
The unique inner energy of Garosu Guild defending the home, and the full-force aura of their casting director.
'If they hadn't bought time, it really would have been bad.'
It had been a split-second moment.
Ten seconds—no, even five seconds late, and his father Jung-hwan's throat would have been severed by the dark hand leader's strike.
A horrific scenario just to imagine.
Thanks to Sword Tiger's request and Myung-su's swift aid, the worst had been averted, so Yong-un patted Myung-su's shoulder.
"I never forget revenge... nor do I forget favors."
"No, you've repaid the favor to me. Haven't you already piled favors on me?"
"Ah..."
I'd thought he wouldn't remember.
The memory surfaced: Bupyeong Station demon gate.
Pulling Myung-su out just as the cleared gate was collapsing.
"If you hadn't pulled me out then, I'd have vanished with the gate. Thank you again."
Myung-su bowed deeply once more.
"I figured you wouldn't remember. You passed out right after we got out."
Yong-un gave a faint smile at Myung-su's sincere gratitude.
"I heard everything, saw everything. I just couldn't move my body by my own will... If you hadn't forced me out then, I'd be gone with that gate. Thank you from the bottom of my heart, once more."
The value of a life saved.
Yong-un knew it well.
How grateful it was, and how joyful to repay such a debt.
Perhaps that's why.
The faint smile on Yong-un's face chilled, his eyes turning cold.
"Favors breed more favors... and revenge breeds more revenge."
"Pardon?"
"You can think you've repaid it, but I can see it as a new favor."
"You don't have to..."
"Something urgent just came to mind while talking. Sorry, but mind if I head out first?"
He cut off Myung-su's protesting wave.
Myung-su knew the full situation, so instead of confusion, he offered a gift.
"Head to Jangam-dong."
"Jangam-dong?"
"You'll know when you go straight there."
At the sudden gift, Yong-un stared silently at Myung-su.
"You're looking for the Night Slaughter Society, right? Searching all of Seoul would take forever."
"No one knew... how did you...?"
"Trade secret."
Myung-su smiled faintly and nodded once.
Yong-un chuckled softly, drew up his demonic energy, and lowered into stance.
"Another favor owed. Thanks."
Myung-su shook his head at Yong-un's gratitude over something so small.
But in the blink of an eye, Yong-un vanished, leaving Myung-su to murmur his intended words to himself.
"You may not realize it, but you've already repaid the favor."
A massive department store in bustling Jangam-dong.
Inside, crowds shopped happily, laughing and chatting.
Who could know?
That beneath the B5 parking lot lurked a secret B6 level no one knew of.
And that many were dying there.
Boom!
Maze-like walls exploded, a man slamming into one he couldn't break through.
Dust parted as Yong-un strode out from the long tunnel.
The black-masked assassin embedded in the wall slowly pried free and floated into the air.
"Myung-su was right."
No one knew of the slaughter underground.
Nor that the Night Slaughter Society hid here.
Not even their client, Reaper Guild.
To track them, Yong-un had sifted Reaper Guild memories via soul-searching.
Even trying to extract the dark hand leader's memories before he died.
But no contact method to the Night Slaughter Society in that building.
'How did they know?'
Doubt crept in, but Yong-un shook it off, dismissing suspicions of Myung-su.
'What does it matter, whatever the reason.'
Like this...
He'd caught the bastards who touched his family.
A thick smile spread as he pulled out the presence from his memory.
Black-masked assassins emerged en masse from the maze walls.
Bang! Rat-a-tat-tat!
No orders given, bullets rained down; Yong-un raised a demonic energy wall.
No idea where they got the guns, but they kept firing relentlessly.
Yet the demonic wall held firm.
Not even modern weaponry's pinnacle—bullets—could pierce it.
"Y-You... won't get anything... from me."
Despite the massive unprotected impact, the assassin's voice didn't waver.
Yong-un grinned.
"You know what? I have no intention of getting anything from you."
Blood soaked deeper into the mask.
Meeting Yong-un's eyes, the assassin's pupils trembled faintly.
"Monster..."
Perhaps facing the thick killing intent in Yong-un's eyes, the incarnation of vengeance.
Or sensing prey's terror at death's approach.
For the first time, fear flickered in the assassin's emotionless eyes.
"Do you regret it?"
Yong-un's cold voice.
The assassin couldn't respond, chilled.
Slowly lowering the floating figure to eye level, Yong-un whispered very, very slowly into his ear.
"You'll wish you could. Time isn't on your side."
Yong-un's hands gripped the assassin's feet.
Black demonic energy rose—the same demonic art that drove the dark hand leader mad.
Bone Pulverizing Technique crept from the feet, flaying flesh, grinding bones to dust upward.
"Gaaah! Gaaaaah!!!"
"Don't worry. As much time as you took to touch my family, I'll devote the same to you."
"Ugh, uwaaaah!!!"
The Night Slaughter Society assassin, who hadn't screamed under sudden attack, now twisted, tears, snot, and drool streaming like a child.
"Gaaaaah!!!"
The Night Slaughter Society assassins firing wildly flinched, halting their barrage at the black curtain.
The agonized scream pierced even the gunfire deafening the B6 level.
It chilled spines, making even these fear-implanters tremble.
The scream echoed and cut, repeated a dozen times.
The impenetrable black curtain began dissolving on its own.
Click!
Assassins gripped guns, aiming at the curtain.
The blocked space revealed hell.
"Ah..."
Yong-un stood drenched in blood, the assassin crumpled behind him.
Seeing the state, fellow assassins instinctively backed away.
The black mask was shredded; face smeared with tears, snot, saliva.
Dead, bleeding from every orifice, unable to even lie down.
Like sinners in hell.
"The price for touching my family..."
Whoosh.
Blood-soaked Yong-un's head snapped up.
His wild yaksha eyes swept over them.
"...is time to pay."
"Ugh, uwaaah!"
One assassin screamed, firing in terror.
Yong-un vanished; an assassin's head smashed into the wall by his hand.
Power surged—demonic energy boomed, body convulsing.
Splurt!
The corpse slid down the wall; horror deepened in others' eyes.
Bleeding grotesquely from every hole.
"Run if you want. I, Yong-un, will exact revenge no matter what."
"Ugh, uwaaaah!"
"Run! Uwaaah!"
Bang! Rat-a-tat-tat!
"Gaaaaah!"
Screams began; B6 filled with endless gunfire and cries.
Until one lucky assassin remained.
In the Korea Hunter Management Agency, Minister Baek Myung-hee's office.
Section Chief Lee Jong-min and Myung-su spoke with her.
"We had no leads to report, but the Reaper Guild massacre inside..."
"I know."
Lee Jong-min's serious words were cut by the minister.
"The Night Slaughter Society did it."
Dead wrong, Lee Jong-min jumped up.
"No! That's..."
"No. It'll be closed as their doing."
He raised his voice to correct, but Special Inspector Park Myung-su stopped him again.
"Pardon?"
Sensing oddity in Myung-su's tone, Lee Jong-min's eyes widened in shock.
"Close it that way. Also, the Night Slaughter Society in Jangam-dong should be cleaned up by now. Have Audit start there tomorrow morning and wrap it quietly."
At the minister's follow-up, Lee felt something off.
"Did you... know? That it was Hunter Yong-un?"
"You finally said it. I thought you of all people would know."
Myung-su's last words confirmed it for Lee Jong-min.
Both Park Myung-su and Minister Baek knew everything.
Yet forcing closure enraged him.
"Why cover it up?! Dozens of hunters died!"
"Then let me ask you."
Baek Myung-hee stared straight at the heated Lee Jong-min.
"Did you find proof Hunter Yong-un did it?"
"Proof? Because of that bastard's lack of proof! Don't you hate bad guys running wild too, Minister?!"
"I do. I despise them utterly. Bastards like Reaper Guild! Killing, kidnapping, treating hunters like dogs to get their way!"
Curse words flew from the always dignified, elegant minister.
Lee Jong-min's eyes bulged in shock at her vitriol.
But only briefly.
Listening intently, he couldn't respond.
"Then are those thug bastards' lives precious, while crushing Korea's hero—who nearly lost family to their greed—is right?"
"......"
"Then!! Is it right to punish Korea's hero—who dirtied his hands, ran on foot to protect his family—while letting thug scum's sins go unpaid?!"
Lee Jong-min's head slowly bowed at the minister's rare outburst.
"You're right. Murder can't be justified, no matter the reason. But if you were in Yong-un's shoes... with his power, could you swear you wouldn't have done the same?"
"......."
"I don't know your feelings or grudges against my words. But I dare say a righteous man with power strong enough to rush from afar against demon gates—who knows what villains might do next—is more precious than their lives. Especially one who elevated Korea to superpower status."
The quiet office grew noisy in an instant.
After her principled speech, silence returned; Baek Myung-hee sighed deeply.
"Sigh, sorry for losing my temper. Anyway, handle this per my orders. We can't punish Yong-un anyway. No clues, no entry/exit records. That's it—dismissed."
"Yes... Understood."
Lee Jong-min left with a thoughtful expression.
Baek Myung-hee pressed her aching forehead, elbow on chair.
The calm night like the eve of a storm.
She closed her eyes, recalling the many events.
Much had ended.
But much remained.
When Yong-un, rankings done, returned to Korea...
'The Korean hunter world, stable so long, will erupt...'
In the darkness behind closed eyes, she pondered deeply.