The Crow’s Test
Two men walked down a dark corridor.
There was the silence of an escort and the one being escorted.
The man walking ahead glanced back over his shoulder.
The figure cloaked from head to toe in a black robe followed quietly, and though this was surely his first time here, he didn’t bother looking around.
The man’s gaze dropped to his chest.
There, pinned over his heart, was a mushroom-shaped gold brooch.
The gold brooch.
It was the proof that he belonged to Crowd, the terrorist organization operating across the world, and that he was one of its executives.
“Got something you want to ask?”
The question came out of nowhere.
The man who had been sneaking glances back and forth turned red. Being caught peeping was humiliating enough to make his ears burn.
He said, almost defensively, “Sorry. I didn’t expect a member of Crowd to come in person to meet our boss.”
“Is that so?”
“I mean, I did think a day like this might come. Our boss is strong as a monster, after all.”
“As a monster, huh?”
“Yes. Really, like a monster...”
His words trailed off, and his whole body shuddered.
It wasn’t fear etched into his face so much as fear carved into his body.
Seeing that, Mushroom curved his lips in a slight smile.
The man never saw it.
Before long, the guide’s escort ended at a massive door.
“The boss and the executives are waiting inside.”
“Thanks for the escort.”
Mushroom dipped his head.
The man gave an awkward smile and left the door behind. As the guide, he didn’t have the standing to enter.
Left alone, Mushroom reached out to open the door.
The two panels swung open before his hand even touched them.
Someone had opened them from inside.
Two broad-shouldered men stood holding each side of the door and bowed their heads.
Mushroom ignored their greeting and stepped inside.
The room was large enough to suit the enormous door, and just as large, there were many people waiting for him.
It looked as though they were bracing for an attack.
“...”
Without hesitation, Mushroom walked forward and sat down on the sofa that seemed to have been prepared for him.
Across from him sat three people: one man in the middle, and two women pressed against his sides, clinging to his arms.
It was Lee Jeong-geun, the boss of the guild Canis in the other world.
Lee Jeong-geun didn’t even glance at Mushroom, only kept alternately tasting the lips of the women at his sides.
Thirty seconds passed. Then one minute. Then five.
At last, Lee Jeong-geun withdrew the arms that had been wrapped around the two women.
“Boring.”
“Done already, Mister Lee Jeong-geun, the Mad Dog?”
Mushroom asked with a smile.
Lee Jeong-geun scratched his head and leaned forward.
“Right, so you’re from Crowd?”
“Yes.”
“What brought you here? I heard you’ve been playing around with the Libra bunch lately. Is that why you came?”
“Ah, no. I’m here for another matter. Baek Do-woon-”
“Fine, I’ll handle it.”
“Yes...?”
The instant he said he’d do it, Mushroom shut his mouth.
The man, who had calmly watched a woman’s lips for five minutes straight, was now the one looking flustered.
Lee Jeong-geun grinned as if he liked that.
“If Crowd is asking me for something, then of course I should take care of it.”
“That’s refreshingly straightforward.”
“However.”
Of course there was a catch.
Mushroom nodded inwardly.
“However, what?”
“If you’re really Crowd.”
“Sorry?”
After hearing the condition, Mushroom found himself asking back.
It was such an absurd thing to say.
What kind of joke was it to slap a condition like “if you’re Crowd” onto the real Crowd?
Lee Jeong-geun, who had been leaning toward him, now sank back against the sofa.
“I’ve got my years in this business too. I’ve crossed paths with Crowd a few times.”
“So?”
“Every one of them smelled the same. A very, very dangerous smell.”
“A smell, huh? You really are a dog.”
It was an insult.
He was mocking the man known by the nickname Mad Dog.
The Canis men standing against the walls knew it too, and flames seemed to flare in their eyes.
The way they glared as if they wanted to kill Mushroom on the spot made it clear they’d leap at a single command from their boss.
They looked like a pack of obedient hounds, loyal to the bone.
“Keh, kekek.”
Lee Jeong-geun’s laughter echoed through the room.
Only then did the fierce light in the eyes of his men fade.
“Yeah, I am a dog.”
“Didn’t expect you to admit it so easily.”
“What’s so bad about being a dog? I like the nickname.”
“...”
“Anyway, I don’t trust that you’re really Crowd.”
“I thought the Violet Powder I gave you would prove it.”
“It came in handy.”
With that, Lee Jeong-geun glanced at the women.
The two women at his sides were slumped over, drooling.
Their pupils didn’t move.
They were dead.
“Did I feed them too much?”
“You gave that to ordinary people? That’s a drug for Awakened beings.”
“Feed them?”
He snapped his fingers.
At once, several men nearby stepped forward and carried the women away.
Watching that, he continued, “Anyone looking at this would think I forced it down their throats. They were begging for it, so I gave it to them.”
Lee Jeong-geun grinned.
Then he reached into his pocket and took out an empty envelope.
“Sorry to say this after I’ve used it up, but this isn’t proof.”
Plop.
The empty envelope that had once held the Violet Powder fell to the floor.
“Violet Powder is something you can pick up easily from an underground market, isn’t it?”
“Fine. Then how do I make you believe I’m Crowd?”
“You need to show me proof. Proof I can’t possibly doubt.”
Then Lee Jeong-geun rose from his seat.
Gray mana began to gather around him.
An enormous amount of mana condensed to the point that even the men around him seemed to struggle under it.
Moments later, with a series of crackling sounds, Lee Jeong-geun’s body transformed into that of a giant dog with three heads.
It looked like the guardian of the gates of hell from a myth.
“If you’re going to run, now’s the time. I won’t chase you.”
“You’re pretty good at lying. A hunting dog saying it won’t chase its prey?”
The ridiculousness of it made me laugh.
I couldn’t hold it in as I stood up.
“Might as well tell a dog to quit shitting.”
“Hah. You’re smart, I’ll give you that.”
“For a hunting dog.”
I took one step forward.
And then one by one, the men standing around Lee Jeong-geun began to collapse.
Lee Jeong-geun looked around in confusion.
He couldn’t understand why his subordinates were dropping like puppets with their strings cut.
“You dare defy the master who gave you that power?”
“What?”
“Lee Jeong-geun. You who have become the vassal of a vassal. Submit to me.”
“What in the world—”
Lee Jeong-geun never got the rest of the sentence out.
His vacant eyes looked as though he’d fallen under hypnosis.
“Sit.”
At the command, Lee Jeong-geun immediately folded his four legs.
He looked like a huge dog that had been trained well.
Apparently pleased, Mushroom burst out laughing.
“Wait there, Baek Do-woon!”
＊＊＊
Who’s talking about me?
Why does my ear keep itching like this?
I scratched inside my ear with my pinkie and stared at the notification window.
The mana obtained through World Tree Root this time totals 221,020.
90% remains until the first harvest.
For the life of me, I still had no idea what this so-called harvest was.
Even when I tapped on it, no explanation popped up.
On the way down, just in case, I used World Tree Root to hunt another Red Manticore, but no message window appeared.
Still, there was one change.
A harvest storage slot had appeared in the character window.
[Harvest Storage - 10% or more]
Something like that.
It was clear that gaining mana increased the harvest storage.
But when I hunted Red Manticores, it didn’t go up.
Did it rise only for certain kinds and not for others?
“No, seriously, are you saying he turned into a monster?”
A woman’s voice reached me.
I snapped back to reality and looked ahead. An employee from the Hunter Association was talking with Ji Sang-wook.
They were discussing what had happened at Hallasan Gate.
The association employee looked irritated, probably because her quitting time had come and gone and she still couldn’t leave.
“Yes, that’s right. I don’t know why it happened.”
“I’m the one who doesn’t know why you’re telling me this.”
I had asked the eleven hunters who’d been there to keep it secret.
They had agreed.
Only one of them, a hunter with a very neat-looking face, had said, “I think we should report this to the Association.”
I had no intention of hiding it from the Association itself, so I agreed with her.
If the Association knew about it ahead of time, there wouldn’t be confusion later.
Asking them to keep it secret simply meant not to spread what had happened recklessly.
That was why we were at the Association now.
“Hunter Ji Sang-wook. You want me to believe that?”
“It’s true!”
“Haaah, I heard about it from Mr. Park.”
“Huh?”
“He’s been really worried, saying you’ve looked awful lately. Sounds like it’s true. Get some rest.”
“No, I—”
Ji Sang-wook clamped his mouth shut.
Right now, he looked gaunt, but otherwise perfectly human.
There was no proof that he had ever turned into a monster.
Without proof, there was nothing to persuade her with.
Thinking he’d experienced some kind of mental breakdown would be easier to believe.
No wonder the employee had said, “Get some rest.”
Maybe I should have come with the other hunters from the gate.
It would have been easier to convince her if he could transform into his Black Manticore form right here and now.
“All right, enough. Head back. And make sure you get some rest.”
Then Ji Sang-wook looked at me.
His downturned eyebrows seemed to ask what he was supposed to do now.
“Hyung-nim...”
Why was he suddenly calling me hyung-nim?
I only shrugged at the guy staring at me.
I didn’t have a sharp solution either.
Without evidence, what was there to persuade anyone with?
And bringing up Violet Violence would only make it harder to get her to understand.
It hadn’t been proven.
And I wasn’t a potion expert, so anything I said wouldn’t carry much weight anyway.
So I might as well prepare for whatever problem might come up later.
I held my smartphone out toward the Association employee.
“......?”
“Hunter Ji Sang-wook transformed into a monster, and Hunter Baek Do-woon returned him to normal. We clearly informed the Hunter Association’s Jeju branch, uh, Ms. Choi Eun-a.”
“No, what are you even recording with—”
“We clearly informed you?”
“Haaah. Yes, yes. You clearly did.”
She let out a long sigh as she answered.
Exhaustion was stamped all over her grim face.
Good.
Now, when someone asked why we hadn’t reported it in advance, I had a ready excuse.
I switched the phone screen.
Saessak, in its little sapling form, appeared again.
It looked cute and dignified at the same time.
“Huh? You’re leaving already?”
“What, were you planning to stay?”
“But...”
“If they don’t believe it, wasting time trying to convince them is pointless. We did what needed doing, that’s enough.”
Then I walked out of the Association building.
Ji Sang-wook hesitated over what to do, then followed me outside.
He must’ve figured there was nothing he could do if he stayed behind by himself.
“Hyung-nim, what are you going to do now?”
“......”
What happened to the guy who used to call my name every other sentence, always going “Baek Do-woon, Baek Do-woon”?
When I stared at him, Ji Sang-wook tilted his head and smiled.
“How about black pork? If it’s Jeju, it’s black pork, right?”
“Sounds good enough.”
“Then—”
“Can’t. I’ve got somewhere to go.”
“You do? Ah, are you going to see Lee Si-hyeong?”
Lee Si-hyeong.
That was the name of the Sitop TV producer.
Ji Sang-wook answered everything too, from her name to where she lived to her usual hangouts.
Of course he would. She was the benefactor who’d returned him from a monster’s body to his original form.
Still, he added, “I can take care of it for you.”
He meant he’d handle it without bothering me.
After hearing that, I figured he’d take care of it on his own.
The place I was heading now was a hospital.
“A hospital? Why are you going there?”
“Why do you think? Because of you.”
“Me?”
“Yeah. I need to make sure your body’s really all right.”
“Ah.”
Of course, there probably wouldn’t be any problem.
What I’d used to restore him from a monster’s body to a human one was none other than World Tree mana.
Still, I wanted him checked out in case there was some hidden issue.
Then a vibration ran through the hand holding my smartphone.
Yu Jae-i had sent me a message.
Come to the workshop...
Why did I get the feeling it had something to do with Violet Violence?
I looked at Ji Sang-wook.
“Change of destination.”
“Yes, I don’t mind. Where are we going?”
“Seoul.”
If she said come now, then I should go.