Chapter 35
"You've got some guts. You're the first one besides Se-ah to make demands right to my face. No wonder you're pulling off all those ridiculous stunts like calling yourself guild master or whatever."
"I took your opening words that way, Chairman. That I've lined up with the right people? And since I'm grabbing a hand anyway, why not skip the messy ones and latch onto something solid. That's how it sounded to me."
"I like that you don't beat around the bush. Se-ah's brought in a decent worker."
Tae Jin-seong nodded in satisfaction.
"What do you want? Withdraw the guild name change? Scrap the move to North Pocheon? Name your price."
"A guild name change or moving house? Do as you please. But in exchange..."
"......"
"I have just one demand. You're going after goblins? Make sure you fail spectacularly."
"!!"
Kang Moo-hyuk gritted his teeth, then relaxed his jaw and asked back.
"What level of failure are we talking about?"
"People need to die for Se-ah to snap out of it. She's seen plenty of death since she was a kid, so one or two won't faze her. At least half wiped out should do it. She needs to see firsthand what her recklessness brings."
A hot surge boiled up in Kang Moo-hyuk's chest. His cool head heated up.
'Don't get mad yet. Anger won't solve anything.'
He repeated it to himself over and over, lowering his eyes. He avoided meeting Tae Jin-seong's gaze, afraid his boiling rage would show.
He steadied his breathing in secret and spoke.
"Is all this hassle really necessary? Why not just disband the guild?"
"What, you don't want to?"
"When you're bargaining with lives, you stake your own too. I'm afraid my head might roll with Joo Se-ah after this. As you know, she's Korea's top hunter. Even if you protect me, Chairman, she's not someone I can dodge."
"You sure know how to find excuses to bail. But do you know what? Before worrying about dodging Se-ah, you should worry about getting out of here alive."
No sooner had Tae Jin-seong finished than the man who looked like his bodyguard glared at Kang Moo-hyuk. He stood at a distance, but that piercing stare sent chills down the spine.
Kang Moo-hyuk felt his skin prickle. His body twitched faintly in response to the pressure. He sensed mana flow.
'A hunter.'
Far from some average joe.
Among the hunters he'd met, few had this kind of presence.
Kang Moo-hyuk still wasn't fully used to sensing mana, but the guy wasn't hiding it, and with that much mana, it was impossible not to notice without even trying.
'At least A- rank. Probably?'
Tae Jin-seong, who the world said had no interest in guilds, kept a high-rank hunter at his side.
'Guess he's not just some old man uninterested in the hunter business.'
Kang Moo-hyuk realized he needed to revise his assessment of the chairman.
"If you're accepting, get out and head to Pocheon as planned. Do exactly as I say there. Got it?"
Kang Moo-hyuk quickly sorted his thoughts.
What was his best move right now?
Refuse, and he might really die here.
A hunter's involvement meant they could make him vanish without a trace.
Toss him to some mountain monster, and not even bones would remain.
Monsters were the perfect accomplices for body disposal.
'Playing along with lies won't work either. It might get me through this moment, but not the fallout.'
Big corps couldn't easily meddle in the hunter world, but with Iron Will under Taeseong Group, they weren't free. Tae Jin-seong could sabotage them in countless ways.
He needed a way to counter it.
As Kang Moo-hyuk's mind raced, Tae Jin-seong nodded toward him.
"If that's settled, get going. Jeong Sil-jang, see the guest out."
The hunter moved at the dismissal.
The moment Kang Moo-hyuk felt the compulsion that he couldn't back down like this, lightning flashed in his mind.
He dropped to his knees in haste and said,
"Wait, Chairman. I need something out of this too if I'm taking the risk, right?"
"Heh, even now you're scheming for your cut. Betraying your boss, and no guilty conscience?"
"If that's the role you want from me, then yeah, I have to."
"Fine. What do you want?"
The conversation reached its end, and a chilling voice pinned Kang Moo-hyuk down.
He gathered his swirling thoughts and spoke.
"The guild master seat, obviously. At minimum, I need your promise to secure my position as raid leader."
Silence fell briefly, then Tae Jin-seong spoke.
"Show results first."
'Results... He calls people dying 'results'?'
"Show results, and the rewards follow."
Tae Jin-seong added, and resolve lit Kang Moo-hyuk's eyes.
"Results. I'll show you. In my own way."
Dozens of trailer trucks rumbled down the national highway.
The dreary city streets lacked any buzz.
A few ventured out for late lunches, proving it wasn't a ghost town.
People's eyes were drawn to the trailers filling the road.
Soon they spotted "Iron Will Guild" plastered on the sides and rears.
"It's Iron Will!"
"Finally..."
Koreans, more obsessed with Taeseong Guild news than anyone, recognized the new name instantly.
Pocheon citizens believed Iron Will would bring hope to the city.
In the lead SUV assigned to guide the trailers, Kang Moo-hyuk tapped away at his tablet PC, double-checking plans repeatedly.
"How's it looking? Confident?"
Joo Se-ah glanced over from the passenger seat.
"I've never been confident making hunting plans. I just devise the optimal strategy with my best effort, prepare contingencies for failures, and improvise new ones if those flop. That's it."
"Sigh~ What am I supposed to do when you take a light comment so seriously."
Ignoring her grumble, Kang Moo-hyuk absorbed the North Pocheon map.
He scrutinized the area around Sanjeong Lake especially.
It was a monster ecology map built from freelancer hunters' testimonies during special activity zone hunts.
'Goblin village confirmed, activity range estimated from sightings... but the info's too outdated. Hunters stopped hunting nearby at some point, so no updates.'
The reason was obvious.
Tough monsters clustered south of Sanjeong Lake, along the Sahyangsan and Gwaneumsan lines.
Hunters hunting those had no need to venture north.
Monsters that should have stayed farther north by prior intel.
Their habitats had shifted south.
'Pushed out. By the goblins.'
North Pocheon was a demon realm teeming with monsters even hunters couldn't ignore: Watusi snakes, flying squirrels, Ilundria.
For those beasts to be displaced, how massive was the goblin tribe?
'No, size isn't the issue. No matter how many rabbits, they can't beat a tiger. The rabbits evolved into wolves. Packs of them. Even tigers get pushed out.'
Scattered intel confirmed it: goblins varied slightly in appearance.
Early encounters differed from sightings years later in build and features.
Intelligent, tribal monsters evolving across generations, adapting to their environment—their traits shone through.
Kang Moo-hyuk looked up from the tablet and asked Joo Se-ah,
"How ready are the hunters?"
"Party formation's smooth. As long as it's not 5-star monsters. Honestly, overall level's low, so even 4-stars are iffy."
"Raid hunting?"
"Way below your standards, Raid Leader Kang."
"Can't factor them in reliably, then."
"They lack proper hunting experience, mostly."
After pondering the map, Kang Moo-hyuk decided.
"We'll test intel gathering first. Then decide on party formations or direct assault."
A season one step deeper into midsummer.
Cicada cries turned the forest into a noisy concert hall.
Green-skinned dwarves trudged through the woods in small groups.
Triangular ears drooped long backward. Hooked noses, faces wart-covered. Beady eyes like marbles, height around 160 cm. Unlike scrawny kin, they were sturdy, muscled. Weapons weren't crude poison darts or stone axes—proper iron swords and shields.
'Definitely bulkier than average goblins.'
Eyes gleamed from wind-shaken grass.
As goblins passed, the watching hunter whispered into his earset.
"HQ, this is Alpha Three. Five goblins moving from Yeou-bong toward Green Pension. Soldier types."
> Fox Pass Road?
"Yes. Moving along the road."
> New group, then. Assigning ID 'A6'. Return to base camp after 17:00 shift change.
"Roger."
The hunter finished his report and hunkered back under camouflage.
He didn't forget to spray mud leech juice concoction to mask human scent.
The forest fell quiet again, cicadas only.
"Five goblin soldiers on west Yeou Pass Road."
At Kang Moo-hyuk's order, the ops room operator manipulated controls. A green circle marked "5" appeared on the 120-inch monitor.
'89 scout groups outside so far. Range expanded beyond lake to Mang-bong and Yeou-bong. Excluding flat west, nearly 4 km radius. Tribe's bigger than intel suggested.'
Kang Moo-hyuk eyed the map centered on base camp.
Camp at Nogok-ri Elementary, 7.5 km south of Sanjeong Lake.
Heavy mana distortion north disrupted comms, so temp antennas on Gwaneumsan (left gate) and Sahyangsan (right).
Courtesy of An Ji-il maintaining C Warehouse gear.
His efforts covered northeast Yeou-bong to central Sanjeong Lake.
'Iron Will lacks many telepathy skills. Popular ones monopolized by top guilds. Without Team Leader An's years of R&D, this op would've been harder.'
Kang Moo-hyuk believed hunting's future lay in the C Project.
"Why run scouts, Raid Leader? Gear team's got drones."
Gong Du-ri asked from the corner of the old staff room ops center, fiddling with gear.
"Low-grade mana stones per flight. Efficiency's poor—20 minutes max."
"Low-grade? Wow, money-eating drones."
"Plus, drones just heighten goblin alertness. Camp's south, not west by lake entry, to stay out of sight."
Paths to Sanjeong Lake: east-west Hwy 78, north-south Hwy 387.
Goblins sealed narrow east-southeast-north, freely patrolled open west.
Pattern alone showed high goblin intelligence.
'Hobgoblins for sure. Maybe goblin chief or clan head.'
Organized large tribe.
Sanjeong Lake goblin clan tougher than expected.
"Gather intel a few more days, compile to DB, share on outer boards..."
As Kang Moo-hyuk instructed—
"This is Delta Two! Flying squirrels! Flying squirrels incoming!"
The urgent radio voice blared.
Kang Moo-hyuk responded calmly, contrasting it.
"Report properly. Stay calm, follow protocol."
> S-sorry. Flying squirrel pack gathering. Looks like heading south soon. About twenty.
"Delta Two position compromised?"
> No. They haven't noticed yet.
"Distance?"
Gong Du-ri smartly displayed Delta Two on monitor as Kang Moo-hyuk watched.
'Sahyangsan entrance, 2 km. Walking 30 min, but squirrels cover in under 10.'
Kang Moo-hyuk assessed and ordered.
"Delta Two, hold position. Monitor for follow-ups."
> Roger.
"Team Leader Gong, tell one-deal blockers and outposts to withdraw."
"On it."
Kang Moo-hyuk grabbed another mic from ops gear, brought it to his lips.
Button press: short alarm blared camp-wide.
Hunters and staff flinched.
Then Kang Moo-hyuk's voice rang out.
⊳ At least 20 flying squirrels heading south from north of Hwy 387.
⊳ Enter camp defense posture.
⊳ End transmission.
Kang Moo-hyuk exited the staff room immediately to check hunter readiness.
The hallway bustled as he reached the central entrance.
Joo Se-ah was already there.
She scowled surveying the grounds. Kang Moo-hyuk's expression beside her was no better.
"They can't get it together. Over just twenty flying squirrels."
"Toughest of 3-stars, but... yeah, this is a problem."
Joo Se-ah sighed at the flailing hunters. At least they staggered to positions—small mercy.
Kang Moo-hyuk felt a heavier stone on his chest than her sigh.
'At this rate, even without Tae Jin-seong's demand, the goblins will wipe us.'