#302. Now Is the Perfect Time.
The Table Mountain Raid was the operation that made the name Kang Moo-hyuk known to the strategic team leaders of major guilds.
Most strategic team leaders were former hunters themselves, so aside from a few with foresight like Slayer's Seong Seon-je, the general consensus was that they were fairly ordinary people.
Looking back at Titan's subsequent growth and Kang Moo-hyuk's rise, it went without saying that this operation had a massive impact on Korea's hunter world—an achievement anyone would acknowledge.
The guild tackling that gate at the time had discovered the boss monster perched atop a flat summit like a table, with sheer cliffs dropping away on all sides. They committed their elites to scaling Table Mountain.
But before they could even establish a formation at the top, the boss ambushed them. Numerous hunters plummeted from the peak, losing their lives.
With their forces decimated and on the verge of abandoning the gate conquest, the newly appointed strategic team leader, Kang Moo-hyuk, proposed a joint raid with Titan to that guild.
He succeeded in the raid with a radical tactic: detonating the mana stone mine at the mountain's base to bring the boss crashing down.
Titan Guild not only solidified its status as a firm A-rank guild through this raid but also laid the groundwork for advancing to tier status.
What made the Table Mountain Raid particularly infamous was the opportunity cost it incinerated—running into the trillions.
They'd unhesitatingly torched a massive vein of mana stone ore that could have generated enormous profits, all for one boss kill.
In that sense, Kang Moo-hyuk had also played a role in dropping jaws across every guild's finance teams.
"At this point, shouldn't we suspect he's a former demolition expert? Or a terrorist? Same with the orc thing—he's always blowing stuff up."
No Song-rin thought it wasn't Go Eul-ji's place to say that, considering she was the one who'd personally smashed the dam during the orc tribe war. But he kept it to himself. What intrigued him more was how this connected to C Warehouse.
So he'd tracked down Hyeon Jeong-geon again.
"If you already know about Seo Dae-gil, don't you know everything? I don't have much to add."
"There's something that doesn't add up. And nowhere else to ask."
"Hm. What doesn't add up?"
"This operation. It was a huge deal, right? But aside from a single blurb about one hunter dying, why no articles at all?"
"Oh, that? Nothing special. It was on Guild Master Kang's orders."
"Guild Master's?"
"I wasn't in the strategic team yet back then, so I don't know the details firsthand. But I heard later he clamped down to prevent it from harming guild unity."
No Song-rin looked even more baffled.
"Setting aside the money issue, objectively, this raid was a smashing success. They took over a raid on the brink of failure, lost just one guy, and wrapped it up? Best possible outcome. Harming guild unity? In this line of work where success makes everything fine? Something smells fishy."
"That's where the story of Seo Dae-gil, C Warehouse, and Seo Dae-chi begins."
"What story?"
"That's—"
"That's?"
"For the next guy."
"What?"
"I don't know everything. Like I said, it happened before I worked under the guild master. All I know is what's in the documents—raid plans and such. By the time I joined, the strategic team staff had all turned over."
No Song-rin eyed Hyeon Jeong-geon suspiciously.
This guy's definitely holding something back. What's with the drip-feeding info? Not like we're playing games here.
Hyeon Jeong-geon was just toying with him like a game, but to No Song-rin—who didn't know his personality—it looked like some shady ulterior motive.
Feeling like he'd get played if he kept talking, No Song-rin threw out his final question.
"Fine. Just give me a hint. Who do I go to next?"
"Pyo Beom-hee."
"Hey, you bastard!"
"What?"
"You joking? I asked Team Leader Pyo and got chewed out, so I came to you. Now you're sending me back to her?"
"Uncle No. Let's just shake this guy down. It'll come spilling out, right?"
As Go Eul-ji clenched her fist in fury, Hyeon Jeong-geon waved his hands awkwardly and backed away.
"No joke. Mention the Seo brothers to Team Leader Pyo. She won't chase you off harshly, even seeing them."
No Song-rin stared at Hyeon Jeong-geon. He recalled what Kang Moo-hyuk had told him in Sinuiju—advice about trusting the ex-assassin.
I can't trust the assassin Hyeon Jeong-geon, but I can trust Strategic Team Deputy Hyeon Jeong-geon. He doesn't half-ass things or take back his words. That's what he said. So which one is it now?
It's been ages since he quit assassinations, so Strategic Team Hyeon Jeong-geon now, huh?
No Song-rin nodded, realizing once more he had no eye for people.
"Fine. Worst case, I eat some poison. No big deal."
"That poison stings pretty bad, though."
Go Eul-ji shuddered, remembering her previous ordeal.
"Then bow out here."
"Argh! Now I get why Pandora opened the box. Let's go. What's a little human experimentation?"
"Seo Dae-chi... Seo Dae-gil?"
Pyo Beom-hee, greeting No Song-rin and Go Eul-ji, clamped her mouth shut.
Unlike their expectation of an immediate outburst, her silence emboldened No Song-rin to speak cautiously.
"We're not digging into Guild Master Kang's past on purpose. We just ended up here. Neither of us can stand not knowing."
"I think I can hold out."
"Betraying me now?"
"The guild master always said to have an exit strategy."
"Learned well, huh? I picked up something similar. Water ghost tactic. Dying alone's a loss. Let's go together."
"I may not do water ghosts, but I can make you an earth ghost."
"What're you saying?"
"Bury you."
"Fitting for a Ujungdo scholarship candidate."
"I'm not going there."
"The law will judge that."
As Go Eul-ji and No Song-rin devolved into mindless bickering, Pyo Beom-hee pulled out her Poison Well. They instantly behaved.
Pyo Beom-hee sighed.
"You won't quit, huh? Faster than I thought. If I don't tell you, you'll just bug someone else?"
"Probably."
"Might hear weird rumors elsewhere. Better from me. Seo Dae-chi, Seo Dae-gil, and C Warehouse. That's what you want, right?"
"Yes."
Pyo Beom-hee gathered her thoughts on where to start.
"No long stories—just the facts. First, the Table Mountain incident. As Party Leader No Song-rin said, the sole casualty was Hunter Seo Dae-gil. He was the older brother of our guild's Hunter Seo Dae-chi, who was a Titan reserve recruit."
"That raid. They said it was the guild master's work. Did Hunter Seo Dae-gil die because of a mistake by him?"
"That takes us deep.... My bad. Not a short story. You know Titan split into guild master and vice guild master factions, right, Party Leader No Song-rin?"
"Heard bits here and there, tangled with them a few times."
"Guild Master Kang—Team Leader Kang back then—was neutral. But Vice Guild Master Ma Tae-soo thought he was guild master-aligned. They were close, after all."
"Guild infighting affected the raid?"
"Gets complicated here. Back then, Titan had what we called the 'Kang Moo-hyuk Club' faction."
"Kang Moo-hyuk Club?"
No Song-rin tilted his head in confusion.
Kang Moo-hyuk despised guild politics. No Song-rin knew well from Taeseong days—how he'd crushed faction fights decisively.
So it didn't click that he'd build his own line at Titan.
Reading his mind, Pyo Beom-hee corrected it.
"Not really a faction. The Kang Moo-hyuk Club wasn't about office politics or profits. It started as young hunters and those with baggage inspired by Team Leader Kang's cause: monster extermination. Not just hunters—regular staff too. Truly the guild's tightest camaraderie group."
Pyo Beom-hee's eyes misted, recalling those days.
That was when she'd burned brightest too. After losing her family and wandering lost, it was her sole sanctuary.
"Table Mountain was the biggest win, but even before becoming strategic team leader, Team Leader Kang succeeded major Titan raids with clever ops. Great speaker too—never cowed by hunters despite being a civilian. Sharp political instincts balanced guild master and vice, stoking rivalry for growth. Pioneered new raid tactics, pushed advanced gear and premium ampoule kits—even vice guild master faction guys trusted his skills. That's how the club formed around his charisma. Hunter Seo Dae-gil was his most fervent supporter."
Pyo Beom-hee's mind drifted back to Titan days.
"We'd complain 24 hours weren't enough, pulling all-nighters on hunt talk. Dae-gil never missed unless hunting."
"No, I mean, sticking to the old ways is pointless. It's just relying on hunters' ranks and skills. We need to cut casualties more, save more people. Time for real innovation. Right, Team Leader?"
Kang Moo-hyuk nodded at Seo Dae-gil's opinion, ignoring the canned beer on the desk.
"I agree with Hunter Seo Dae-gil. Habit. Don't know alternatives. Inertial hunting yields the same results. Vice Guild Master Ma Tae-soo wants top hunters for intensified training—but that's basic everywhere. We need beyond basics to reduce losses, but no one's finding it."
Pyo Beom-hee asked Kang Moo-hyuk.
"What's your 'beyond basics'?"
"Off the top: Open all guild monster conquest data to every hunter. That alone boosts survival for mid/small guilds and freelancers."
"Not just Titan?"
"Tons of guilds have richer data. Useless if they don't step up."
"Pipe dream. Tiers won't listen."
"Impossible now, sure. Need power. Titan hits tier minimum for industry voice and influence."
"What else?"
Seo Dae-gil lifted his beer.
"Next: Popularize message skills? Better comms mid-hunt eases coordination, simplifies kills. Most losses in blind dungeons or jungle gates from poor hunter talk."
"Skill books don't grow on trees. Fat-cat markets hoard 'em anyway."
"As Team Leader Pyo says, low odds. Pivot to alternatives."
"Alternatives?"
"Comm gear that works in gates or high-mana zones. Ideally linking to external command too."
"Oho, that's solid. But can we make it?"
"Theory checks out. Tech base exists."
"'Checked' means you're planning it?"
"Conceptual stage. Money's the issue. Dev and mass-prod costs aren't cheap. Scouting low-cost efficiency boosts."
Seo Dae-gil's eyes sparkled at Kang Moo-hyuk's words.
"Great idea. I lack message skill proficiency—super annoying. My brother's newly awakened; gear like that'd make his hunts easier."
"Oh yeah. Your brother. Checked him out—strong training scores. Career decided?"
"Why, Team Leader? Scouting for Titan?"
"Yes. Exactly."
"F-for real?"
"Register as reserve, train here. Numbers look promising. But if eval flops, revoked."
"Obviously. Hate connections over skill."
"Like vice guild master's brother?"
Seo Dae-gil waved awkwardly at Pyo Beom-hee's jab.
"Please don't link me to Vice Guild Master. Lowly hunter like me—what power?"
"Not all grunts equal. Guild master's eyeing you as prospect. Top growth stats ever. Vice said get close—pull you to his side. If he covets you, you're skilled. Guy's an ass, but spots talent."
Flattered by Pyo Beom-hee, Seo Dae-gil scratched his head, blushing.
He wanted to keep drinking, but an uninvited guest forced them to wrap up.
Titan Guild Master Lee Cheol-jung.
"Team Leader Kang, got time?"
"Hello, Guild Master!"
Seo Dae-gil bowed deeply; Pyo Beom-hee just nodded curtly.
"Hey. Dae-gil. Non-strategic guy always here. Way past quitting time. Young buck—obsess less on monsters. Date someone."
"No girlfriend."
"That's why rumors fly you're into Team Leader Kang. Like guys?"
Seo Dae-gil floundered at Lee Cheol-jung's tease. Kang Moo-hyuk stepped in.
"Sorry, Guild Master. I'm straight. No hobbies with men."
"You? Never seen you date. Got a home? Live here? Came 'cause figured you'd still be. Go home, Team Leader. Don't overwork into collapse—Guild Cooperation Office reports suck."
"I'll date when monsters vanish."
"Save lies for girlfriends. Means you'll die single."
"What brings you this late?"
Kang Moo-hyuk cut Lee Cheol-jung's rambling.
"Right, my bad. That raid plan you submitted. Run it. Feasible?"
Kang Moo-hyuk took the folder, noting the project name atop it.
Table Mountain Raid
"Yes. Now is the perfect time."