Chapter 154
Chapter 154
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 154
Chapter Title: Disrupting the Black Ore Trade
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Jung Oh-hoon, stepping into the abandoned factory, plopped down on the floor without a hint of tension, yawning as he chewed his gum.
A heavy thud echoed as the factory door swung open.
"Jung Oh-hoon, right?"
A man in a worn leather coat and sunglasses, his face covered in a bushy beard, spoke toward Jung Oh-hoon.
Jung Oh-hoon slowly stood up, spat his gum onto the ground, and eyed the guy.
"What's with the casual tone right off the bat? You wanna get a hole drilled in your skull?"
At Jung Oh-hoon's words, the thugs standing beside the man immediately drew their guns. In that instant, a sharp ping cut through the air, and the weapons they'd just pulled shattered in a flash.
"...Mr. Jung. Sorry for the rudeness on our first meeting."
Jung Oh-hoon was inwardly impressed by the man's lightning-quick shift in attitude. To survive long in this world, reflexes and situational judgment were essential, after all.
"No need for fancy titles like 'mister' or 'teacher'."
In terms of age, the man before him had actually been born first.
"Let's get this over with quick."
With that, Jung Oh-hoon pulled something out—a fingerprint scanner. It was registered only to the specific party involved in this deal, to verify identities.
"Hand over your hand."
The man obediently extended his hand at Jung Oh-hoon's command. Jung first inspected it closely from all angles for anything suspicious, then pressed the device against it.
Beep. The words "Print Confirmed" appeared.
"Next up, the money."
Jung Oh-hoon grinned at the man as he said it.
"You brought the scale, right?"
With deals involving massive sums, counting it bill by bill was impossible. They'd verify no issues, then weigh it on the scale.
The man nodded and signaled to his subordinate behind him.
"Bring the scale..."
The moment the words left his mouth, an explosion rocked the air, and the factory door exploded inward. Jung Oh-hoon instantly whipped out a rifle from the shattered doorway and unleashed a barrage of mana bullets.
"What the fuck, you bastards! You messing with me?!"
Jung Oh-hoon stared at the black market dealer in utter disbelief.
"What are you talking about?! We didn't do shit!"
"You lot, we'll settle up after this mess is sorted."
Jung Oh-hoon swiftly pulled gear from his subspace. Beyond the wrecked door stood Yoo Chan-seok and Han Sang-ah, both masked.
Jung inwardly lamented his ill-fated destiny of getting thrashed by these two, but he took aim at them anyway.
"You bastards look familiar. The ones who fled the Play Chip Hotel."
The black market dealer's face twisted in shock at Jung Oh-hoon's words.
"I heard the rumors, but why the hell are they here?"
"Seems they're interested in the goods you want."
Jung Oh-hoon took a deep breath as he eyed them. Meanwhile, the masked Yoo Chan-seok and Han Sang-ah drew the same weapons they'd used at the Play Chip Hotel.
"You wanna fight? These crazy fuckers..."
In that instant, Yoo Chan-seok charged at Jung Oh-hoon, while Han Sang-ah moved on the others inside the warehouse.
Jung Oh-hoon aimed his gun barrel at the onrushing Yoo Chan-seok, thinking those thoughts.
The promised time had arrived. I'm right here before you. Humming an old song in my head, I began clashing with Jung Oh-hoon.
He's giving it his all. No intention of throwing the fight.
Jung Oh-hoon apparently hated the idea of just taking a beating. He resisted desperately.
Purposely losing wasn't hard. The trick was doing it without anyone else noticing.
Him charging full throttle without any acting made it look far more convincing to onlookers.
I deflected the hail of bullets with my fists, dodged, and closed in tight on Jung Oh-hoon.
"You punk, do you even know who I am?"
With those words, he leaped back lightly, trying to slide away. I grabbed his collar mid-move and hurled him into the wall. Jung Oh-hoon righted himself in midair as he flew.
While he and I fought, Han Sang-ah was swiftly mopping up the rest.
No need to drag this out long.
"Gah... hack!"
It wasn't that Jung Oh-hoon's skills had dropped; he was just up against me. After holding out decently for a while, my fist slammed into his gut.
A burst like something exploding rang out, and Jung Oh-hoon's body rocketed back at high speed, crashing into the floor. Cracks spiderwebbed across the ground as blood gushed from his mouth.
"..."
Kind of felt bad. I rifled through his crumpled form, grabbed the bag of fake black ore, and snapped my fingers to get Han Sang-ah's attention.
She nodded upon confirming the bag in my hand. We immediately vacated the premises, burned our masks and robes, and returned to our lodgings.
"Good work."
"No big deal."
As we exchanged brief words, Jung Oh-hoon finally staggered back in late.
"Good work."
"Thought I was gonna die. Damn, my body's still throbbing."
Jung Oh-hoon shot me a resentful glare. He'd apparently managed to restore his body to normal with a recovery potion.
Since nothing was broken, he could've skipped the hospital and healed right up with the potion.
Han Sang-ah brewed a cup of tea and handed it to him—a sort of apology.
"Did everything go smoothly?"
Jung Oh-hoon nodded as he took the cup from her.
"After all that, how could it not?"
"Not suspicious why you didn't kill us?"
He nodded at my question, sank into the sofa, and let out a small dry heave.
"Was suspicious, but brushed it off easy. Used your name."
"Oh? How so?"
Jung Oh-hoon groaned in response.
"I'm part of the Headhunter crew, right? Told 'em whoever those masked guys were, they wouldn't wanna kill me and draw Yoo Chan-seok's pursuit."
A solid excuse even the black market dealer couldn't easily dismiss.
"Practically Truman Show level."
"That's the end of it. No more threats to my ex-wife from the black ore."
All the groundwork to tie up before the Gonsalok subjugation was done as of tonight.
Blue Wrench Scrap Dealers—big enough to distribute black ore and with the cred—had lost their main trading spot, and all their black ore stock destroyed.
Jung Oh-hoon's delivery of black ore was successfully wrecked without him taking any heat.
"Now the only thing left is the real Gonsalok subjugation."
Han Sang-ah fiddled with her phone before replying to me.
"All the big shots who need to attend the morning meeting are arriving in Nanning by 6 a.m."
"Lineup?"
She answered.
"General Secretary Rio Jun and Major General Woo Il-seop. Then Hope's List ranks 2 through 10, excluding the top predecessor, plus us three."
What a lineup. Hope's List 2-10 meant Choi Yeo-reum and Sung Si-hoon were confirmed.
On top of that, the heads of Korea's three major hunter companies—Taebaek, Mugunghwa, and Zanabi—were all attending.
"Zanabi's friendly, Taebaek's hostile... Mugunghwa's a mystery."
The balance of power felt oddly even. The issue was Wonder Club hunters led by Choi Yeo-reum piling on.
The command center's balance would tilt against me. But if Major General Woo Il-seop stayed neutral, it wouldn't wreck the internal equilibrium as badly as I'd feared.
"Gotta see how it flows. They probably won't put us in the main force anyway."
Our chances of joining the main advance through Hefei-Huacheng weren't high. No way they'd hand us over.
"Not much time left before the meeting, so rest up."
The black market takedown started at midnight, and it was already 2 a.m. Skip rest, and we'd drag into the first morning meeting exhausted.
The meeting itself would be a headache; no need to burn energy beforehand.
We dispersed to our rooms, crashed, then had breakfast the next morning. Menu was dumplings called dim sum.
"Hey."
As we sat eating, someone approached and took a seat at our table. I'd heard Zanabi was coming, so I figured Lee Se-eun—but it was someone unexpected.
"Hunter Choi Yeo-reum."
She gazed at me with a friendly smile playing on her lips.
"Mind if I join for breakfast?"
She was already seated before I could even approve.
"Nice seeing you like this."
"Yeah."
A dish called tangfun sat on Choi Yeo-reum's plate. She spoke as she ate.
"Rushed like hell, but didn't arrive till 4 a.m. Exhausted."
As if to prove it, her teacup held strong black coffee instead of tea.
"Sudden summons and all."
"You guys got here way earlier."
I let out an ah at that, took a sip of tea.
"Want a preview?"
She slid something toward me at my words. A fortune cookie. Cookie for foresight. Did she see me as some webtoon character?
"Even if... it's just two hours earlier."
Choi Yeo-reum chuckled softly.
"You know how crucial that is."
"That was my polite way of declining."
She smiled and glanced at Han Sang-ah and Jung Oh-hoon.
"Don't be so prickly. Like it or not, we're in the same boat."
And you want to shove me overboard. I'd expected mind games to start at the meeting, not over breakfast.
"Why not just ask them yourself?"
Choi Yeo-reum shook her head at Han Sang-ah's words.
"It's an unspoken rule. You guys arrived too early to matter, but the rest of us qualified hunters all showed up around the same time."
Her explanation: if one moved first to snag the ops plan, the rest would swarm immediately.
"Kills the point of sneaking a peek ahead."
We kept staring at her sullenly. She let out a small sigh.
"Listen up. The situation's not as simple as you think."
Might be worth hearing out.
"Some asshole picked a fight with me mid-broadcast, pushed me right to the brink of losing, and now my standing in Wonder Club's getting shaky."
We all knew exactly who that "some asshole" was. Her gaze was fixed on me, after all.
"Even Hunter Choi Yeo-reum's feet are getting a bit hot under her."
"Spot on. Honestly, I didn't wanna chat with you like this. You're the cause."
But doing the sse-sse-sse with her Wonder Club hunters wouldn't easily restore her previous position inside.
Time to think. If her story checked out, teaming up to punch through this mess wasn't bad. It'd balance the command center tilt against me, even if slightly.
Just had to mind the line carefully.
The moment she judged she'd recovered enough ground in this Gonsalok subjugation, she'd turn on us again.
"Fine."
It was info everyone would know naturally in two hours anyway. Nothing game-changing enough to hurt sharing as a truce gift.