146 - 150

Chapter 146: Chapter 146

Camera flashes went off every few seconds as a slim woman with natural black hair assumed several different poses.

"Good, that's good."

A wide grin didn't want to leave the face of the photographer as he snapped away with his camera.

Click!

The final click of the shutter rang out and the photographer raised his head.

"This is great. Nicely done."

Cousin/older sister of Yu Jin-Ho, as well as his best friend, Yu Soo-Hyun, smiled brightly and bowed her head to the director.

"Thank you for your hard work!"

"You too, Miss Soo-Hyun."

All thanks to Yu Soo-Hyun's rather affable personality, the photo shoots she participated in were always filled with jovial laughter.

It was to such an extent that, even those photographers previously unwilling to work with her because of her image as the daughter of a chaebol family, would actively seek her out for more photo shoots after working with her just once.

"Thank you."

"Thanks for your work today."

With a bright expression, Yu Soo-Hyun thanked the photographer and other staff members of the shoot, before trotting over to her coordinator who also happened to be her manager as well.

"Unni, did Jin-Hui call me back?" (TL: Unni = honorific to denote older female by another female, usually younger)

The coordinator shook her head, her expression one of worry.

Yu Soo-Hyun had tried to call her cousin four times already. She could only pout unhappily at the fact that her diligence hadn't been rewarded with a reply so far.

'She's supposed to be back in the country since yesterday, so how come I can't get in touch with her?'

Yu Soo-Hyun heard the news of her cousin, studying abroad, briefly making a trip home around yesterday morning.

She had been involved in a photo shoot that lasted the whole night and was fast asleep when her cousin's call came through. Who'd have thought that missing one phone call would lead to such a hassle?

There was utterly not a peep from her cousin since then.

'Did something happen to her?'

No, that couldn't be. Yu Soo-Hyun shook her head.

That girl was none other than Yu Jin-Hui, the eldest daughter of Yu Myung-Han – the owner of the biggest corporation in South Korea. The odds of something bad happening to her was about the same as a rank S Hunter entering a dungeon only to meet with a grisly end.

"Unni, gimme my phone back for a sec, please."

Yu Soo-Hyun took the phone back, thinking that she'd try her luck again. But then, her phone suddenly began vibrating and a bright expression immediately formed on her face.

'Is this from Jin-Hui?'

However, she began pouting again after confirming who the caller was.

– Idiot

'.....'

Yu Soo-Hyun tapped on the 'Answer' icon and spoke in an annoyed voice.

"Hello?"

– "Noona!" (TL: honorific to denote older female by a younger male)

It was from Yu Jin-Ho, regrettably.

Yu Soo-Hyun was well aware of the fact that this kid would only call her 'noona' if he wanted something from her. She spat out a grand sigh in her heart and asked him.

"Do you know by any chance where Jin-Hui is right now?"

– "Noona? What about my noona? Wait, is she in Korea??"

"….."

Now that she thought about it for a sec, didn't this kid get chased out of his own home after rejecting his father's order of becoming the Yujin Guild's Master? Indeed, this cousin of hers proved to be of no help whatsoever, even now.

"No, never mind. Okay, so what did you call me for?"

Surely, he wouldn't be calling her for another drinking binge like the last time. It was then, Yu Jin-Ho's rather exhilarated voice came out of the phone.

– "Noona, don't you want to join our Guild?"

What on earth was he on about, out of the blue?

A thin frown formed for a second there on Yu Soo-Hyun's fine, smooth forehead.

"Your Guild?"

She was so dumbfounded that she simply had to ask again.

– "Instead of getting dragged to my father's Guild and acting like its public relations mouthpiece, don't you think it'll be a lot better for you to leave your name on our Guild's employee list and do whatever you want?"

….And this was the rather remarkable reply she got in return.

Yu Soo-Hyun's voice became quite low as she got more and more suspicious.

"And why do you need my name in the first place?"

– "We're still short of one last Guild founding member, you see."

"Wait, are you telling me to join a Guild that's not even a real thing yet??"

– "Yeah!"

Yu Jin-Ho answered back oh-so-innocently.

Yu Soo-Hyun felt her head slowly develop a pulsing migraine simply from wondering just what this kid believed in to become such an optimistic human being.

'No, besides all that…. Just who could be the other person, then?'

Rather than the 'idiot' asking her to put her name down as one of the Guild's founding members, she was getting a lot more suspicious of the other person's reasoning for wanting to make a Guild with this 'idiot', instead.

"You, you aren't acting like this 'cuz some shady character sweet-talked you into it, right?"

Who'd want to create a Guild with a rank D Hunter possessing a negligible amount of hunting experience other than swindlers? However, Yu Jin-Ho's response was rather different from her expectations.

– "Fut."

From the other side of the phone line, the sound of a chuckle formed when the corner of one's lips arched up came out, followed soon after by a relaxed voice.

– "You'll be shocked if you find out who that 'shady character' is, you know?"

"Okay, who is it?"

– "Fut."

"I'm hanging up."

– "Ah! Hold on, waiiiit!"

Her hand moving towards the 'End Call' icon stopped as that desperately pleading voice came out of the speaker. Yu Soo-Hyun smirked and placed the phone back against her ear.

"I'm giving you three seconds to tell me. Three, two…."

– "Seong Jin-Woo!!"

'….Seong Jin-Woo?'

Yu Soo-Hyun's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets after hearing that rather unexpected name.

"You mean, that Hunter Seong Jin-Woo??"

– "Fut."

"You mean, that rank S Hunter who single-handedly smashed apart Rhee Min-Seong's press conference before suddenly disappearing from everyone's view?"

– "…..I think you're being surprised by the wrong thing here, though?"

"Are you really telling me that it's him?"

Regardless of what Yu Jin-Ho's retort was like, Seong Jin-Woo would forever be the rank S Hunter who stepped on the pride of that arrogant jerk-off Rhee Min-Seong in Yu Soo-Hyun's eyes.

Just how refreshed did she feel back then? A lot.

– "Fufufu!"

If what Yu Jin-Ho said was true, then it was not that difficult to understand that bottomless, sky-high confidence of his.

'Well, Jin-Ho might like to put on airs sometimes, but he's not the type to lie, so…'

Yu Soo-Hyun pondered for a second or two, before asking her cousin again.

"Can we meet up and talk?"

– "Of course! Why don't you come to our office? Hyung-nim said he'd be stopping by later, too."

"What's the address?"

Yu Soo-Hyun took a post-it note from nearby and quickly jotted down the address. She did her best to calm her bubbling excitement down and made her reply.

"I'm on my way right now."

– "See you later, noona!"

Click.

That's where the conversation came to its end. The coordinator, 'accidentally' overhearing the contents of the call, sent out a probing question.

"Do you need to go somewhere? Are you even planning to drop out of the afterparty?"

Nod, nod.

Yu Soo-Hyun rapidly swapped out of her modelling clothes and packed her belongings as if she didn't even have the time to explain herself.

"There's someone I wanted to meet, you see."

"Who….?"

"I'll explain later."

Yu Soo-Hyun tried to brush it aside and was about to leave the shoot location, but the coordinator hurriedly called out and stopped her.

"Please tell me who it is! I need to know who it is so I can report back to the Chairman!"

Yu Soo-Hyun's father was the Chairman of the XX Pharmaceuticals. When his daughter told him that she wanted to work in the entertainment industry, he came up with a single condition. And that would be her being accompanied around by a chaperone all the time.

Naturally, the coordinator was hired by Yu Soo-Hyun's father. Meaning, she was Yu Soo-Hyun's coordinator, her manager, as well as her monitor.

Yu Soo-Hyun belatedly remembered that her coordinator unni would get scolded by her father if she left without saying a single word like this. So, she turned around and grinned refreshingly before making her reply.

"It's Mister Seong Jin-Woo!"

Yu Soo-Hyun quickly ran off after that. The coordinator's expression was slowly filling up with worry as she watched the distancing back of her charge.

"The Chairman will throw a fit when he learns of his daughter meeting a man without permission…."

The coordinator tutted for a little while, before she began recalling what Yu Soo-Hyun had said.

'Wait….. Who did she say she was meeting again?'

Didn't the coordinator hear that person's name before somewhere?

She carefully combed through her memories only for her brows to shoot up in surprise. She quickly swivelled her head towards the exit Yu Soo-Hyun used only a moment ago.

"Who did you say it was again?!"

***

'It's not here… not here, either….'

Yu Jin-Ho stared daggers at the computer screen while chewing on his fingernails.

'Not here…. It's not here, too…..'

From a certain point in time, all thread forums and posts slagging his dear hyung-nim off had vanished from the view. But, then again, such a thing wasn't that hard to understand why.

His hyung-nim rescued rank S Hunters from Jeju Island. He then closed a rank B Gate in double time and cleared up the heavy traffic. And yesterday, he saved the lives of a whole bunch of high school students as well.

So, it'd be far stranger to find someone trying to badmouth hyung-nim now.

Those persistently annoying anti-hyung-nim idiots had been mostly driven away into oblivion, all due to Yu Jin-Ho's own concerted efforts as well as everything hyung-nim had done so far.

Even those rarer-than-rare negative comments that cropped up on articles concerning hyung-nim couldn't endure against the concentrated cross-fire of other commenters, and would eventually get deleted.

This was excellent news. Indeed, it was a great development.

'But, why am I….?'

Why was he feeling so empty right now?

It felt like the things he could do was decreasing one by one, what with things going like this.

Click, click….

Yu Jin-Ho formed a saddened expression and operated his mouse. In the meantime, the office's door quietly opened up. Jin-Woo was entering the premise.

Yu Jin-Ho's complexion brightened up after confirming Jin-Woo's face, and he quickly stood up to bow his head.

"You came, hyung-nim?"

"Yeah."

Jin-Woo looked quite fatigued. But, that was rather understandable, really. He had been staying next to Jin-Ah's side from last night till this morning. He briefly stopped by his home to get a quick wash-up before showing up here.

In case a rank A Gate suddenly popped up in the hospital, he even left Beru in her shadow to deal with all the threats coming from there.

Yu Jin-Ho asked in an anxious voice.

"Hyung-nim, is your sister doing okay?"

"Fortunately, yeah."

Jin-Woo kept his answer short. He was trying hard to show that everything was fine, but then, he was still her older brother and couldn't stop worrying about her.

Even the doctor in charge recommended that she needed to be in close observation for the time being, as the mental shock she suffered would have been quite serious.

'I hope she can quickly overcome this….'

After all, she was a bright, energetic kid to begin with. All Jin-Woo could do now was to cheer her on in his heart.

It was then.

"Oh my gosh!! You were telling the truth!"

The surprised voice of a woman came from Jin-Woo's side. He turned around to find Yu Soo-Hyun exiting from the conference suite with a pair of very large eyes staring back at him.

Jin-Woo shifted his gaze over to Yu Jin-Ho and silently asked him.

'And she is?'

Yu Jin-Ho replied with a pair of tense eyes.

'It's her, hyung-nim.'

Before arriving here, Jin-Woo had already heard the gist of the situation from Yu Jin-Ho.

["There is this one person that perfectly fits your criteria, hyung-nim! How about meeting her, at least once?"]

Someone who carried around a Hunter licence but couldn't be bothered about the matters of the Guild, yet worthy of their trust.

'And, she's even a rank A Hunter, too….'

Her rank wasn't all that important, though.

In any case, the first impression she gave off was not bad at all, perhaps owing to her clear eyes and her bright smile. They shared quick and simple introductions.

"Excuse me."

Before they could sign the contract, Jin-Woo decided to ask her about something he was curious about.

"If you do this, your relationship with your uncle might get a lot more tricky. Will that be fine with you?"

"That's still better than getting mixed up with Yu Jin-Seong, you know."

"Yu Jin-Seong?"

Jin-Woo looked back to Yu Jin-Ho, and the latter embarrassedly scratched the back of his head.

"He's my older brother, hyung-nim."

'Ahh, that bad-personality older brother he talked about. Right, Yu Jin-Seong was supposed to take over the Guild if Yu Jin-Ho failed to cut the mustard, wasn't it?'

Jin-Woo quietly nodded his head.

This wouldn't have happened if Yu Jin-Ho did as he was told and took over the Yujin Guild. In a way, Yu Soo-Hyun was another victim of the choice Yu Jin-Ho made.

'Because of this kid, many people are being greatly inconvenienced, aren't they….?'

Jin-Woo shifted his slightly narrowed eyes over to Yu Jin-Ho. The latter formed a happy smile, not knowing what was in the former's mind.

'.....'

While Jin-Woo was groaning inwardly, Yu Soo-Hyun cautiously walked up to him.

"Uhm, excuse me…."

"Yes?"

She was blushing just a little bit. It seemed like she had something important to say to him, judging from how her eyes were quietly trembling like that. Jin-Woo also formed a serious expression.

"Is there something you'd like to ask me?"

Yu Soo-Hyun hesitated slightly but after hearing his words, she worked up enough courage to ask him. Her eyes even began sparkling.

"Can we take a selfie together? I wish to upload it to my SNS profile."

***

The Chairman's office of the XX Pharmaceuticals.

The younger brother of Yu Myung-Han, Yu Seok-Ho's expression was far more grave and serious than ever before.

"Are you telling me the truth?"

"Yes, sir."

The coordinator nodded her head. She looked quite scared at the moment.

"My little girl is meeting up with Hunter Seong Jin-Woo?"

"That's correct, Mister Chairman."

"Can it be another man with the same name?"

"I was also feeling unsure about that, but this…."

The coordinator rummaged through her pockets and cautiously pulled out her phone. Yu Soo-Hyun's SNS profile was displayed on the phone's screen.

Yu Seok-Ho's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets after he saw the last uploaded image. Wasn't that really the face of the Hunter that kept showing up in the news lately?!

'This, this is…..!'

Yu Seok-Ho glared daggers until he could almost bore a hole through the photo, but eventually, he began massaging his forehead and spat out a soft groan.

"…Huh."

"A-are you alright, sir?"

"….Please leave me alone for a while."

"P-pardon me?"

���Uh-huh! Didn't I say to leave me alone?"

Yu Seok-Ho returned the phone back to the coordinator and almost literally chased her out of his office. And then, having made sure she was gone for good, he quickly switched on his computer to read every article concerning Jin-Woo online.

⸢[Hunter Seong Jin-Woo, what could be his true worth?]⸥

⸢[Propositions flooding in from every country in the world! What will Hunter Seong Jin-Woo choose to do next?]

⸢[Chairman Park Jong-Su of the Knight Order Guild: "Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's abilities are impossible to evaluate."]⸥

⸢[Hunter Seong Jin-Woo: Did the Americans contact him in secret already?]⸥

⸢[Experts describe Hunter Seong Jin-Woo as the walking, talking large corporation….]⸥

Public's interest in that Hunter had gone through the roof ever since the raid on Jeju Island. The clear indication of that was all these articles found online.

As Chairman Yu Seok-Ho continued to read the articles one at the time, the look of admiration formed on his face.

"Huh-uh, huh-uh….!"

Two hours passed by like that.

He leaned back against his chair as his fatigued eyes ached rhythmically. He had been concentrating so hard that his forehead was soaked completely in sweat.

He dabbed his forehead with a handkerchief and put a cigarette between his lips. But, before he could light it up, he remembered something. He put the cigarette down and picked up his phone instead.

Ring…. Ring…..

Click.

– "Is it you, dear?"

A voice of a middle-aged woman came from the phone.

– "It's rare for you to call me at this time of the day. What's the matter?"

"Huhuh, dear. Do you happen to know who our little girl is getting acquainted with lately?"

– "Excuse me?"

"I'm telling you, my dear. I sure have raised our girl properly, haven't I?"

– "What are you even talking about all of a sudden?"

Chairman Yu Seok-Ho was utterly sure of it.

Just who was his little girl, Soo-Hyun? Wasn't she his daughter who did not lack for anything when it came to her looks, her background, and even her academic achievements?

Even if he supposed that these two young people were nothing more than just acquaintances now, it was only a matter of time before they developed a far more intimate relationship.

– "What's gotten into you, dear?"

The voice of his wife coming out of the phone's speaker sounded puzzled now.

– "You hated the idea of a boy sitting next to our Soo-Hyun, so didn't you go and speak to her school's administrators every single year until her graduation to make sure she'd be paired up with only girls….?"

"Huhuhuh. Did I really do that?"

– "Just who is she seeing that you're behaving this way? Stop building up the suspense and please tell me already."

Yu Seok-Ho suddenly guffawed loudly enough to almost shake the chairman's office.

"You'd be just as surprised as me when you find out, ahahahahaha!"

Chapter 147: Chapter 147

"You will acknowledge summoned creatures as members of a raid team?! Do you think such a thing even makes sense?"

Nam Joon-Wook yelled out at the top of his lungs.

Formerly a prosecutor, he now served as a member of the National Assembly. No one in this country came remotely close to this man's ability to sniff out and latch onto a person's wrongdoings.

The Association President Goh Gun-Hui maintained his silence as he sat on the opposite side of such a man.

Nam Joon-Wook was actually smiling inside as he was staring at his current verbal sparring partner.

'Indeed, even if you had ten mouths, you'd not have anything to say.'

The victor had been decided already. No matter who it was, they would say this was Association President Goh Gun-Hui going too far. He must've known this too, because he showed absolutely no signs of counterattacking yet.

'However….'

Nam Joon-Wook was not thinking of easing up here.

His style was to keep up the pressure when the enemy was on the back foot. He'd push his opponents hard until they were driven to the edge of a cliff.

Veins bulged in his neck as he raised his voice high, not at Goh Gun-Hui, but at the entirety of the third conference hall, currently filled to the brim with the interested parties and a cordon of reporters.

"Hunter Seong Jin-Woo has barely finished creating his Guild, yet you already wish to pass this nonsensical regulation? If this isn't the case of preferential treatment, then what is?"

The Hunter's Association, a supposedly-neutral organisation, was actively getting behind Hunter Seong Jin-Woo. There was such a rumour doing the rounds already, yet the so-called new regulation was this nonsensical? It was no wonder serious questions were being raised regarding this matter.

Today's hearing was convened in order to hear the reasonings, but for some reason, Association President Goh Gun-Hui was resolutely keeping his mouth shut.

'Very good.'

Nam Joon-Wook sensed his impending victory.

Goh Gun-Hui's fame had skyrocketed recently due to him pulling off the Jeju Island raid so brilliantly. But now, Nam Joon-Wook got to deal two powerful blows to that man, with the recent high school dungeon break incident, and the controversy surrounding the preferential treatment Hunter Seong Jin-Woo had received.

Basically, politics was a turf war of sorts.

If he got to bring down Goh Gun-Hui, a man standing at the opposite end of the political battlefield, then Nam Joon-Wook would get to enjoy his share of the benefits sooner rather than later.

He imagined himself dominating the front pages of tomorrow's newspapers and glared at Goh Gun-Hui with an arrogant expression etched on his face.

"Please say something, Association President Goh Gun-Hui!"

Wuuong.

For the first time today, Goh Gun-Hui's mic was turned on.

Tap, tap.

Goh Gun-Hui lightly tapped on the end of the mic to confirm that it was working properly, and brought his lips closer to it.

"Just what is it that you wish to hear from me?"

Nam Joon-Wook's eyes narrowed to a slit.

'What a thick-faced geezer….'

He expected Goh Gun-Hui to start by offering up an apology. But, could it be that the old man still had some things to say?

Nam Joon-Wook raised his voice even higher.

"The new regulation you put into place! Is this a preferential treatment for Hunter Seong Jin-Woo or not??"

'So, now – how will you dodge this one?'

Nam Joon-Wook was waiting for a cowardly excuse but then, Goh Gun-Hui went and threw a wet blanket on his parade.

"Yes, it is preferential treatment."

His answer was short, but the impact it carried was enormous.

Noisy, noisy….

Not just the spectators in the gallery, but also the reporters and politicians were busy exchanging knowing or shocked glances with people sitting next to them, which only served to further add fuel to the chaos.

Of course, the one most surprised among them was Nam Joon-Wook.

'Did this geezer finally go senile??'

Goh Gun-Hui was supposed to deny everything till the end, or start grovelling for mercy when things went sideways, yet he came out and straightforwardly admitted to his wrongdoing. However, his eyes were far too calm for someone making a confession.

Such a calm and audacious demeanour only managed to bring up a sense of an inexplicable nervousness in Nam Joon-Wook.

Gulp.

Dry saliva painfully slid down his throat.

And sure enough, Goh Gun-Hui began speaking again.

"There is one thing I'd like to ask everyone that has gathered here today."

He possessed an overwhelming presence. As if everyone had made a prior agreement, they all shut their mouths at once when Goh Gun-Hui spoke up.

"An assault team comprising of 20 rank A Hunters, or an assault team comprising of just one person, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo."

Goh Gun-Hui slowly stood up and swept his gaze over the faces of every attendee present as he continued on with his speech.

"If you were to accompany either one of those teams during a dungeon break, which one will you choose?"

No one could offer up an answer.

Because, it was pretty much the same thing as the answer already being set in stone. There was no reason to answer back at all.

"….."

"….."

Everyone tried to avoid meeting Goh Gun-Hui's gaze, and soon, the Association President's head stopped moving in the direction of Nam Joon-Wook.

"…."

Even Nam Joon-Wook himself couldn't utter a single thing.

Perhaps thinking that he got a satisfying enough reaction from the crowd, a smile floated up on Goh Gun-Hui's lips.

"Do you still believe the preferential treatment given to Hunter Seong Jin-Woo is unfair?"

A Hunter who could ably execute the role of an elite raid team from a large Guild all by himself – Goh Gun-Hui was now asking the crowd if they should hold back such an individual with a regulation that didn't even apply to him anymore.

Nam Joon-Wook was about to say something. But before he could, Goh Gun-Hui was a step faster and continued on.

"A total of 21 countries, including the United States, Japan, China, etc., have demanded more information on Hunter Seong."

Goh Gun-Hui waved around thick official documents for all to see.

"Every single one of them is hell-bent on stealing away Hunter Seong to their countries."

Goh Gun-Hui took some time to look at the cordon of reporters, before shifting his gaze back over to the member of National Assembly, Nam Joon-Wook.

"Our current situation is like this, yet are you really telling me that you want Hunter Seong to remain in our country even though you are not willing to do a favour this small for him?"

"….."

Nam Joon-Wook's complexion was getting darker and darker. He could definitely sense that the tide had turned against him now. Unfortunately, Goh Gun-Hui wasn't thinking of letting his opponent go this easily. He kept his gaze firmly locked on Nam Joon-Wook before throwing another question.

"Let me ask you this – do you wish to see a repeat of the incident of Hwang Dong-Su abandoning us for America?"

'Euhk.'

Nam Joon-Wook bit his lower lip.

As Goh Gun-Hui put the documents down, he was now overflowing with a certain relaxed air, something he had kept hidden until then.

Nam Joon-Wook knew what that look signified. That was the look of the victor he used to make often, just as he was closing in on yet another political victory for himself in situations similar to this one.

Nam Joon-Wook gritted his teeth and tried to raise his objection.

"However, you still need fairness in….."

"This is why I'm raising this point right now."

Goh Gun-Hui cut Nam Joon-Wook's words right off.

"Honourable member Nam Joon-Wook, didn't you move house recently to a brand new apartment building located near the Hunters Guild?"

Nam Joon-Wook's face reddened so much that even a casual glance could detect the change.

"What was your reason for changing your residence to a location where the cost of the real estate is several times more expensive than the surrounding area?"

"…."

If only his opponent wasn't a rank S Hunter – Nam Joon-Wook's would've run over there and punched the old man in the face. His own face was now in the alternating shades of red and blue as seconds ticked on.

Too bad, Goh Gun-Hui also knew how to deal with an opponent that was on his back foot, perhaps even better than Nam Joon-Wook himself.

"I'd like to urge you to think about this carefully. If and when another rank S Gate appears in our land, just who will step up to protect your life?"

And with these following words, Goh Gun-Hui finished the proceedings off.

"You will not be able to buy back your life even if you are willing to pay hundreds of times, no, make that thousands of times the price you paid for your new residence."

***

Standing before a rank A Gate for the first time ever in his life, Yu Jin-Ho's bulging eyes were trying to look up at the top of this enormously tall Gate.

"Heok…"

He needed to look really high up just to barely spot it.

Seeing how Yu Jin-Ho couldn't close his mouth for the last 20 minutes or so, Jin-Woo began thinking that his own reaction of seeing the rank A Gate back then was perhaps too reserved for a first timer.

"Hey, Jin-Ho? Your jaw will come loose if you keep doing that."

"Sorry? Ah, yes. My bad, hyung-nim. It's just that, I've never seen a Gate this big before."

How would he even react if he saw the Gwang-an-ri Gate, then? Jin-Woo smirked softly to himself.

Yu Jin-Ho scratched his head as if he felt embarrassed for being so shocked by the Gate's size.

"Hyung-nim, will it be really okay to not hire any retrieval teams or mining teams?"

"Nah, it'll be fine."

Jin-Woo summoned 30 of the elite grade Shadow Soldiers that had been with him the longest.

"These guys will carry out those jobs."

Yu Jin-Ho flinched just a little after all those Shadow Soldiers suddenly appeared behind Jin-Woo, but eventually, he began nodding his head.

"Aha!!"

These guys with black armours and their black eyes. They always seemed to be overflowing with dense pressure whenever Yu Jin-Ho looked at them.

With excellent timing, the employees dispatched from the Association approached them from afar. One of them happened to be a rather familiar face, as well.

"Good day, Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim."

"Hello, Section Chief Woo."

The Chief of the Monitoring Division, Woo Jin-Cheol received the portable magic energy measuring device shaped like a speed gun from one of his subordinates.

"Will it be okay if I go ahead and measure them?"

"Please do."

Jin-Woo moved aside and the Shadow Soldiers all uniformly took a step forward. Woo Jin-Cheol began measuring the magic energy emission of each of the soldiers.

'Oh my god….'

His eyes were opening wider and wider as he checked every each one of these so-called soldiers. He thanked his lucky stars that no one got to see the look of sheer shock on his face due to the sunglasses he was currently wearing.

'All of his summons are either rank As or rank Bs.'

Indeed, Jin-Woo had easily exceeded the criteria for earning the raid permit for a rank A Gate such as this one. But then, these weren't all the summons Hunter Seong Jin-Woo could call out, were they?

If the remaining summons all possessed similar levels of magic energy, then…

The corners of Woo Jin-Cheol's lips arched up.

'All those people arguing over the preferential treatment or not are simply idiots.'

He smiled and lightly shook his head, before turning around to face Jin-Woo.

"I'm finished with the confirmation. There are no issues."

Nod.

Jin-Woo nodded his head with a smile, as well. And now, there should be nothing else that would get in his way of starting this raid. That's what he thought, but then….

"Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim!! Please look this way!"

"Please tell us how you feel regarding the very first raid of your Guild, Ah-Jin!"

"Was there a special reason for naming your Guild as Ah-Jin?"

"What is your relationship with the fellow founding member, Miss Yu Soo-Hyun?"

From just beyond the police line, the proverbial torrent of questions from countless reporters were barrelling down on Jin-Woo.

This was the first raid Jin-Woo's Guild was about to embark on. So, countless reporters camped out here since early morning to capture this historic moment with their cameras, and inevitably, there was no more space to even stand around near the Gate's vicinity.

If there was one thing different from other Guilds and their raids, then that would be the employees from the Association holding the reporters back, instead of a Guild's own personnel doing that job.

Jin-Woo pointed to the reporters with his chin.

"I thought you were protecting my information?"

"Yes, we are indeed protecting your private information, but regretfully, there's not much we can do about the locations of Gates, Seong Hunter-nim."

Woo Jin-Cheol grinned and made his reply.

"We will hold the reporters back, so you can ignore them and simply focus on the raid, Hunter-nim."

"…."

Watching the Association employees giving their all to fight off the frenzied reporters, Jin-Woo thought that he could momentarily feel the considerate hands of the Association President patting him on the back.

"Please, express my gratitude to the President."

"Yes, I will definitely do so."

Woo Jin-Cheol bowed deeply and turned around to leave. And soon, all those uninvolved had left and the only people remaining in front of the Gate were Jin-Woo and Yu Jin-Ho. The former asked the latter.

"Are you really sure about this?"

"Yes, hyung-nim."

Yu Jin-Ho gritted his teeth and replied.

"Even if it's the ends of hell itself, I shall follow you wherever you go, hyung-nim."

Yu Jin-Ho sounded so gravely determined that Jin-Woo couldn't help but let a smirk escape from his lips.

"Alright."

Yu Jin-Ho was only a rank D Hunter. It was the same thing as committing suicide for a rank D to step inside a rank A dungeon.

Jin-Woo tried very hard to change Yu Jin-Ho's mind, but the kid insisted that he'd stay as his hyung-nim's porter. In the end, it was Jin-Woo who gave up first.

'Well, I can definitely protect this one guy, so it's not a problem.'

He was thinking that the kid would give up on his own volition after having a taste of a rank A dungeon. And also, he figured that it wouldn't be so bad to have someone to talk to inside the dungeon as well.

"Okay, so. Shall we get going, then?"

"Yes, hyung-nim."

"Indeed, let's get going."

The heads of Jin-Woo and Yu Jin-Ho simultaneously swivelled back after hearing that voice coming from behind them. And that's where they spotted Woo Jin-Cheol, his usual black business suit now replaced by various armours covering from head to toe.

"I thought you already left?"

Jin-Woo asked, puzzled.

"The Association President ordered me to find out if it is really safe during Seong Hunter-nim's raid."

Goh Gun-Hui was planning to use Woo Jin-Cheol as a witness if the issue with Jin-Woo going on solo raids was raised up again in the future.

"Is that why you want to come with us??"

Woo Jin-Cheol replied as his face reddened slightly. It was unknown whether that was due to him not being used to the armour or he was embarrassed by the current situation.

"….Will it be a problem for me to accompany you?"

Well, the guy was just doing his job, so was there reason not to let him tag along?

"It'll be fine as long as you don't try to hunt monsters."

"My department isn't called the Monitoring Division for nothing, Hunter-nim. I'll only monitor the situation quietly from the back."

"That'll be fine."

Jin-Woo easily agreed to it and Woo Jin-Cheol bowed his head again.

"Thank you very much, Hunter-nim."

"Well, in that case… let's get going."

Along with that declaration, Yu Jin-Ho and Woo Jin-Cheol stepped inside the Gate, Jin-Woo following closely behind them.

When he did, the System message welcomed him again along with the familiar mechanical beep.

Tti-ring.

[You have entered a dungeon.]

Chapter 148: Chapter 148

'The raid must've started by now.'

The Association President Goh Gun-Hui looked at his wristwatch and smiled softly to himself. The raid in question was, of course, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's.

If it was at all possible, he wanted to see for himself, but…. due to the nature of his job, it was simply not feasible, so all he could do was to send in an Association employee he trusted greatly as a proxy, instead.

He was getting all worked up already, thinking about what Section Chief Woo Jin-Cheol's report would entail.

'Ah, right. I shouldn't be doing this right now.'

Goh Gun-Hui shook his head lightly to get rid of the distracting thoughts. There were mountains of documents sitting on top of his desk right now. They were practically forming the towers of documents at this point.

Ever since the dungeon break inside the high school happened, this pile of documents didn't want to decrease no matter how hard he worked every single day. No, they seemed to get even taller, instead. That was how insanely busy he was, yet his interest in Hunter Seong Jin-Woo didn't wane one bit.

If only his body was healthy – wouldn't he have cleared some dungeons together with Hunter Seong, too?

'Huh, I'm also being hopeless, aren't I?'

Goh Gun-Hui shook his head one more time and returned to his work with a smile on his face.

And so, just how long did he concentrate on the documents?

Knock, knock.

He raised his head after hearing the knock on the door, and realised that three hours had flown by.

"It's Woo Jin-Cheol, sir."

The news he was waiting for had finally arrived. Without a single hint of fatigue visible on his countenance, Goh Gun-Hui welcomed Woo Jin-Cheol into the office.

"Please, come in."

Creak.

Goh Gun-Hui's eyes nearly popped out of their sockets after he saw Woo Jin-Cheol's face as the latter cautiously entered the office.

'What's this?'

He expected there to be no problems, yet Wool Jin-Cheol looked as if he got dragged through a wringer, instead.

'It's not just anybody but Hunter Seong Jin-Woo we are talking about here, so how come Chief Woo looks like that….??'

His confusion only lasted for a short while, though.

"May I sit down for a little while, sir?"

Woo Jin-Cheol sounded desperate, so Goh Gun-Hui quickly pointed to the couch.

"Of course, it's fine. Do take a seat."

He then got up from the President's chair behind the desk to settle down in the opposite side to Woo Jin-Cheol.

Plop.

Woo Jin-Cheol powerlessly sunk deep into the couch. He rubbed his face with his hands, showing how tired he was.

Just what happened inside the dungeon?

Even before Woo Jin-Cheol could start explaining himself, Goh Gun-Hui couldn't win against his curiosity and started first.

"What happened to you? Why does your face look like….?"

"Pardon? Is there something on my face, sir?"

"You look incredibly tired right now. As if you couldn't sleep a wink for the past few days."

"Ah….."

Nod, nod.

Woo Jin-Cheol wordlessly nodded his head a few times as if he could understand everything now.

"It's probably because I'm just too shocked, that's all. Sir."

"Shocked….? Please, tell me more in detail. My friend, didn't you accompany Hunter Seong Jin-Woo to observe his raid?"

Woo Jin-Cheol lowered his gaze and slowly shook his head.

"That, sir, that wasn't a raid. It was….."

"….It was?"

Woo Jin-Cheol raised his head, shock and fear still writ large in his trembling eyes.

"Sir, it was the scene of a massacre."

The charismatic leader of the Monitoring Division, Woo Jin-Cheol, often thought to be possessing an inborn heart of steel, was speaking with a voice that trembled ever so softly.

"A massacre, is it…..?"

Goh Gun-Hui swallowed his saliva.

Woo Jin-Cheol replied without hesitation, evidently not even thinking of changing or denying his description.

"Yes, sir."

Was there any other description that fit what happened in there? It was as the word suggested, a total massacre. Woo Jin-Cheol didn't hold back on anything and confessed to everything he saw at the behest of the Association President.

"The dungeon was a nest of Nagas, sir."

Goh Gun-Hui narrowed his eyes as he combed through his knowledge of various monsters.

'If it's a Naga….'

Creatures that resembled a hybrid of a human and a sea snake, preferred to live in damp areas, and experts of both melee and magic attacks, capable of giving many experienced Hunters a hard time – those points were the Nagas in a nutshell.

They were also known as really tough opponents to contend with as they moved around in large groups, even though they were high-ranked monsters.

However….

'But, someone of Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's level shouldn't be having a hard time against a handful of Nagas going around in groups?'

As if he had read Goh Gun-Hui's inner thoughts, Woo Jin-Cheol clarified himself.

"….I even felt sorry for the Nagas at some point, sir."

"…..!!"

Woo Jin-Cheol recalled the scenes back then. When a group of 30-strong Nagas suddenly made their appearance, he even momentarily forgot who was next to him and tensed up greatly. Nagas were dangerous enough existences to warrant such a reaction from him.

But then….

"….The surrounding areas suddenly became 'dark', sir."

Or, more specifically, he should have said that a massive black shadow suddenly extended out from beneath Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's feet.

All the hair on Woo Jin-Cheol's body stood up after he realised that something big was about to happen. And precisely at that moment, soldiers emerged above ground one by one from the extended shadow.

And the battle – no, a massacre, commenced.

– Kiiiaahk!

– Kiihhaaak!

– Kiiaaahhh-!!

Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's summoned creatures pounced forward and proceeded to mercilessly rip the Nagas apart into many bloody pieces.

"At least, those summons wearing black armours, like the humanoid types and the High Orcs types, were a bit more humane. But then….."

The summons resembling bears and ants were far too feral even for his tolerance level.

"Some of the ants even began eating the corpse of the monsters. Hunter Seong Jin-Woo became so incensed that he even physically kicked them."

Woo Jin-Cheol began shuddering after remembering this one ant that tried to sneak a dead Naga's head into its mouth, only to get discovered by irate Hunter Seong. It got splendidly buried deep into a wall from a powerful kick.

Although, he still couldn't tell whether he was shuddering from the horrifying summons, or from Jin-Woo who could unhesitatingly kick a summon like that into a wall.

Seeing the tense look on Woo Jin-Cheol's eyes, even Goh Gun-Hui became extra tense as well, dry saliva gliding down his throat.

"Were his summons strong?"

"They were really strong, sir."

There was no need to even mention it. Soldiers resembling humans, Orc-type soldiers, bears and ant type soldiers; not one of them could be called weak by any stretch of the imagination. But, the biggest highlight of them all was….

"There was this one summon with a red mane attached to its black helmet."

Woo Jin-Cheol raised his dipped head again and stared straight into Goh Gun-Hui's eyes.

"Would you believe me when I told you that particular summon could shoot lightning out of its sword every time it took a swing, sir?"

"Oh my god….."

Goh Gun-Hui was feeling completely astonished now. The lightning magic contained the destructive power of fire-based magic as well as the speedy nature of the light-based magic.

Because of that, only a handful of very high-class Mage-type Hunters could cast such magic spells. Even then, firing them consecutively was out of the question.

But then, a summon could shoot such magic all the time by swinging its sword around?

Goh Gun-Hui could only shake his head in helplessness. He definitely wouldn't have believed it if it weren't coming from the subordinate he deeply believed in. But then, the unbelievable story continued on even further.

"In my opinion, that particular summon should be above rank A in terms of power, sir."

"Are you serious??"

Goh Gun-Hui's voice rose up higher.

How could a single summon possess powers almost at the level of a rank S?!

Unfortunately, Woo Jin-Cheol guaranteed it. And he was right at the peak of rank A Hunters too, ability-wise, so he knew what he was talking about.

"If I were to fight that summon one on one…. Honestly, I'm not confident of winning, sir."

Indeed, if such an evaluation came out from Woo Jin-Cheol's mouth, someone with strong self-confidence, then it would be no problem to evaluate that summon as a rank S.

"Huh-uh…"

Goh Gun-Hui leaned against the couch's back.

He already had a good idea how capable Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was, but to think, each and every one of his summons would possess such a high level of power, too.

What a regretful thing it was, not being there to personally confirm it with his own two eyes.

Goh Gun-Hui was getting shocked just from hearing it second-hand, so how would Woo Jin-Cheol have felt as he was actually there? Suddenly, it became rather easier to understand the worn-down appearance of Woo Jin-Cheol. He must've been slapped in the face constantly with one surprise after another.

"However, sir, there was an even more shocking spectacle, sir."

Woo Jin-Cheol carried on as if that was not even the end of the tale.

"The ants…. they began 'working', sir."

Woo Jin-Cheol's eyes trembled again as he recalled those scenes.

Ants received pickaxes from the bag carried by Ah-Jin Guild's Vice-Master. And then, they proceeded to mine out the Mana Stones from the dungeon walls.

Ants were also in charge of carrying away the mined Mana Stones as well as the remains of the dead monsters. Woo Jin-Cheol simply couldn't tear his eyes away from the perfectly-organised ants and their unbelievably fast working speed. They were basically the incarnations of efficient 'operation'.

Woo Jin-Cheol was deeply astonished back then, and he was feeling admiration now.

"What I saw, sir, it wasn't something as simple as a one-man raid team. Not at all."

No, this one man was capable of clearing a dungeon, retrieving the remains, and also mining out the minerals, too.

Woo Jin-Cheol was definitely sure of it. And that would be – calling Hunter Seong a one-man raid team was actually insulting the man.

"No, sir. That man, he's actually an entire Guild rolled into one."

He was not a one-man raid team, but a one-man Guild, instead. Technically speaking, there was that not-that-helpful Vice Master too, but nothing would've changed even if he wasn't present, so Woo Jin-Cheol's assertion wasn't wrong at all.

Goh Gun-Hui slapped his knee.

'I knew it. My eyes weren't wrong!'

A broad smile didn't want to leave his face now.

Like how he had been anticipating it since the beginning, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo would definitely go on to become the brand-new ballast that keeps the balance neutral in the Korean Hunter community. But now, he began to think that the youth might even go on to change the map of the Hunters worldwide, too.

"And then…. we finally arrived at the boss chamber, sir."

The story hadn't ended yet??

Goh Gun-Hui quickly refocused on the tale once more. Woo Jin-Cheol carried on.

Normal Nagas would be around two, three times larger than regular human beings. But, he said that the boss Naga found within the boss room was easily four-times larger, and the pressure it emitted was incredible as well.

"Did Seong Hunter use his summons to quickly finish off the boss-level monsters?"

Woo Jin-Cheol slowly shook his head.

"No, sir. He actually cancelled the summoning altogether, except for those ants busy with retrieval and mining operations."

"What? But, why would he??"

Goh Gun-Hui gasped out in surprise, and Woo Jin-Cheol could only reply with a stiff face.

"I was also curious as to why, so I asked him. I questioned him why he would cancel the summoning when he was about to fight the boss."

Goh Gun-Hui was so invested in the tale that, unbeknownst to him, he had begun leaning forward.

"And what did he say?"

"Seong Jin-Woo Hunter-nim told me this…."

Woo Jin-Cheol took his time a little as if to drag out his unwilling memories to the surface, and cautiously opened his mouth.

"If he relied too much on his summons, then his….."

***

"….My instincts would become softer, you see."

Jin-Woo spoke up and took a step forward as the pair of 'Demon King's Shortsword' was grasped in his hands.

He didn't even need to call out his soldiers. There was only one boss-level monster and four others guarding said boss creature, after all.

Jin-Woo kicked the ground and dashed forward.

'Quicksilver!'

Even before any of the guardian monsters could react, he slipped past them and closed the distance with the giant Naga at the back.

'Violent Slash!!'

Dozens upon dozens of silvery light flickered and descended on the lower body of the boss monster.

Slice-slice-slice-slice!!

"Keuhaaaakk!!"

The boss writhed and screamed, and in the meantime, the guardians tried to pounce on Jin-Woo. But he simply used the head of one of the guards to jump straight upwards.

Taht!

And when his eyes drew level with the boss's way up above in the air, he swung his shortsword sideways.

SWISH-!!

"Kiiiahk!!"

The boss's head was sliced off clean and it flew away. At the same time, a new System message popped into his view.

Tti-ring.

[You have killed the owner of this dungeon.]

[Level up!]

Jin-Woo's expression brightened at once from that wonderful message.

'Ohh!!'

He landed softly back on the ground and spun around once. That caused all of the guard monsters trying to rush at him to collapse to the ground at the same time.

Strangely enough, the System messages didn't end there.

Tti-ring, tti-ring, tti-ring….!!

Suddenly, he was inundated with a constant barrage of mechanical beeps.

'What's this?!'

His fluster could only last for a short while, though.

[You have reached level 101.]

[Levels of all your Class-specific skills have risen.]

[Skill: 'Shadow Extraction' has levelled up.]

[Skill: 'Shadow Storage' has levelled up.]

[Skill: 'Sovereign's Territory' has levelled up.]

[Skill: 'Shadow Exchange' has levelled up.]

Jin-Woo's eyes almost bulged out of their sockets at the rising wall of messages.

Chapter 149: Chapter 149

'Huh…!'

He had been using his Class-specific skills constantly, but they showed no signs of budging until now. But then, their levels all went up in one go?!

Ba-thump, ba-thump!!

Jin-Woo's heart began pounding really hard for the first time in a while.

Currently, there were only two other people inside the boss chamber, and that would be Yu Jin-Ho and Woo Jin-Cheol. Since both of them weren't the type to needlessly complain about small matters, he decided to not to mind their presence and summoned out his Status Window.

'Stat Window.'

Tti-ring.

Along with the familiar mechanical bleep, all the information about him, starting from his level to every item he was wearing, and even his current physical status, appeared to fill up his view.

Jin-Woo's gaze stopped at the 'Class-specific Skills' list.

[Class-specific Skills]

Active Skills

– Shadow Extraction Lv. 2

– Shadow Storage Lv. 2

– Sovereign's Territory Lv. 2

– Shadow Exchange Lv. 2

'It's for real.'

Hearing about the truth and actually seeing it were two different things. Jin-Woo clenched his fist tighter, especially from the fact that the level for 'Shadow Exchange' had gone up.

'Nice!'

The Shadow Exchange skill possessed such an endless potential but he was feeling frustrated by the limitation posed by its lengthy cooldown time.

'The description said that cooldown will change according to the skill level, right?'

With this, his frustration should go down a little.

This was today's biggest gain for him. He was far more pleased about the skill Shadow Exchange being enhanced rather than his stalled level rising up again.

'Should I see how much of it has changed now?'

Feeling like a kid pulling the wrapping off his new present, Jin-Woo accessed the information on the skill Shadow Exchange.

Tti-ring.

[Skill: Shadow Exchange Lv. 2]

Class-specific….

….Once activated, you must wait two hours of 'cooldown' period before being able to use the skill again.

The 'cooldown' period will change according to the Skill's level.

'…..!!'

Reduction of one hour!!

Just by going up one level, the cooldown time had decreased by one-third. Jin-Woo could barely hide his excitement now.

'One hour's gone after going up one level.'

A simple calculation told him that there was a high possibility of yet another hour being chopped off from the cooldown time with the next level up of the skill. And, what if he raised the level of this skill one more time after that?

'It means, regardless of where I am, mom and Jin-Ah will never find themselves in trouble….'

Just thinking about that made his entire body shiver. That was the most important thing for Jin-Woo, after all. Maybe his excitement showed up on his face, Yu Jin-Ho asked him a question with a jovial smile.

"Hyung-nim? Did something good happen?"

"Mm?"

Only then did Jin-Woo realise that Yu Jin-Ho had come closer to him.

'I was too focused on the Status Window, wasn't I….?'

He also could see Section Chief Woo Jin-Cheol walking towards this way behind Yu Jin-Ho as well. Jin-Woo grinned and closed the Status Window. Even if these two men weren't the types to raise a fuss over every single thing, there was no reason for him to look like a madman to their eyes, either.

"Yeah, something like that."

"That's cool, hyung-nim."

Yu Jin-Ho's wits had become a lot quicker after following Jin-Woo around for a while, so he didn't try to dig in anymore. Instead, his attention shifted to the sight right next to them.

"Wowsers."

This would be Yu Jin-Ho's first time ever seeing an actual rank A dungeon's boss. This monster's upper torso looked human-ish, but the lower part looked like a sea snake.

It looked so nonsensically huge from afar, but now that he got to take a look up close, it seemed even bigger and really disgusting to behold, as well.

It was only natural that he couldn't close his slack jaw after seeing such a humongous monster.

'I know that hyung-nim has entered several other high-ranking dungeons prior to this one, so does that mean….'

Did that mean he killed creatures like this one every time he entered such a Gate?

Gulp.

Yu Jin-Ho swallowed some dry saliva. For some reason, his hyung-nim looked even more imposing and cool to his eyes today. And he felt incredibly proud of himself, as it was him and not someone else standing beside such an incredible man.

"Hyung-nim!!"

"Mm?"

"I respect you."

"What?"

"It's nothing."

'Silly kid.'

Jin-Woo stared wordlessly at Yu Jin-Ho, and the latter averted his gaze after realising how embarrassed he was feeling right now. Meanwhile, Woo Jin-Cheol next to them was also stewing in a bottomless shock at the moment.

'I knew Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's skills were amazing, but this….'

To think, he'd be able to easily take care of a boss-level Naga like this.

Other raid teams would begin tearing their hair out after seeing this spectacle. Especially when they would need the full participation of tankers, damage dealers, and Healers just to barely bring down a monster of this magnitude.

'.....'

Woo Jin-Cheol walked up close to the remains of the boss-level Naga and lightly tapped on the monster's scales. He could definitely sense the steel-like hardness through his fingertips.

Scales of Naga boasted amazing hardness and they were often used in the manufacturing of all sorts of defensive items, such as various armours and shields.

'But, such scales were….'

Some part of the scales on the lower torso of the monster were crushed and torn into pieces as if they were made out of paper. That was the aftermath left behind by Jin-Woo's skill, 'Violent Slash'.

'Being able to produce such devastating destructive power, while using nothing more than a couple of shortswords.'

Cold sweat formed on Woo Jin-Cheol's forehead as he observed the monster's corpse. What a great relief that the youth was their ally and not an enemy.

It was then, Jin-Woo's voice came from behind him.

"….Can you step aside for a bit, please?"

Woo Jin-Cheol was too deep in his thoughts and couldn't properly hear that, so he quickly looked behind him in a fluster.

"Y-yes?"

"I'm trying to create another summoned creature, but Chief Woo, you are too close, you see."

"Ah."

Yu Jin-Ho had already moved to a far enough location and was busy gesturing at Woo Jin-Cheol to come over there.

"M-my apologies."

Woo Jin-Cheol offered an appropriate-sounding apology and quickly stepped aside. He kept staring with great anticipation, though. He had seen how the summoned creatures were created during his trip here, but this would be the first time seeing a boss-level monster become a summon.

'Could this huge thing become a summoned creature as how it looks?'

Even Yu Jin-Ho's eyes were sparkling as he waited for the result. Even though he was subjected to two men's boiling anticipation, Jin-Woo was utterly relaxed as he activated Shadow Extraction.

'Rise up.'

The shadow of the boss-level monster answered the call of its new owner.

Kiiiaahhh-!!

A hand emerged out from the shadow and grabbed hold of the ground, before dragging its body out from the darkness. However, the newly summoned creature was way smaller in size than what the audience was expecting to see.

As a matter of fact, it was only about the same size as the summoned creatures created out of regular Nagas. Maybe, it was slightly larger, but that was about it.

'Haha….'

Woo Jin-Cheol was so tense that his palms were soaked in sweat, but now, he could let off a wry chuckle. This result was perhaps an inevitable one.

How could a summon created from borrowing the dead monster's powers be similar to the actual thing? That would be just about the right size, whether that criteria being its actual power or the physical size.

Woo Jin-Cheol felt relieved for some reason after seeing the summon and its comparatively miniaturised size.

'Maybe, Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's powers have a defined and clear ceiling?'

Even if that was the case, Hunter Seong's own combat abilities easily exceeded one's imaginations, so one could never see him as an easy opponent at all.

Quite different from Woo Jin-Cheol's thoughts, though, Jin-Woo was shouting out in elation at the unexpected jackpot he just stumbled onto.

[The Sovereign's voice has roused the fighting spirit of the deceased.]

[You have succeeded in strengthening the shadow!]

[The shadow's level will start from 13.]

'Nice!!'

Was this because of the Shadow Extraction had levelled up? For the first time since Igrit's case, the message regarding the strengthening of a shadow popped out. Jin-Woo quickly checked the new soldier's information.

[?? Lv. 13]

Elite Knight grade

It wasn't that surprising to see the grade 'Elite Knight' pop up like Fangs before since this guy used to be the boss of the rank A dungeon. However, its starting level was 13!!

Jin-Woo confirmed that level and could barely keep his happy chuckles in check.

'Is it because its level is so high? Its power is not all that different from the original.'

Unlike the soldiers he had extracted so far, he couldn't sense many discrepancies between this guy's stats and those of the dead original. He picked up on the massive magic energy hidden deep within its smaller body.

He was actually puzzled by its different size, but he could make one hypothesis here.

'Maybe, this is how it looked originally?'

That made sense, seeing that they were all Nagas, to begin with. So, how could the boss be that much bigger than the others? If it used magic like Fangs to balloon up its size, then that made perfect sense.

His hypothesis was supported by the fact that this new guy was ably controlling its own magic energy just like how Fangs did, and also from its great reserve of magic energy as well. That reserve wasn't as huge as Fangs, though.

It was then.

[Please assign the soldier's name.]

Just like before, the message urging him to name this new soldier popped up to his view. Jin-Woo didn't give it much thought and named it 'Jima'.

[Will you name the soldier 'Jima'?]

'That's right.'

And so, a powerful new mage had been added to his Shadow Army, as well as to his new Naga troops, as well. With the extraction process now over, Jin-Woo absorbed Jima back into his shadow.

Right on cue, the dungeon began sending out warning signals now that it no longer had an owner.

Rumble…..

A faint tremor rose up from the ground. It was the signal that the Gate would close in one hour. Yu Jin-Ho stopped staying back and quickly ran over to his hyung-nim's side.

"It's time for us to leave this place, hyung-nim."

"Right."

Yu Jin-Ho took one last sweeping look around him and smacked his lips as if he was feeling regretful over something.

"But, hyung-nim. This is a bit of a waste."

His gaze was now fixed on the corpse of the boss-level monster.

"That thing would've fetched a handsome amount on the market, you know?"

A Gate would close soon after the dungeon's boss was killed off. Meaning, one would have to take on a huge risk to bring out the body of the boss monster outside the dungeon.

If you made one mistake and got trapped in here, then you'd literally become 'missing in dungeon' forever, so to speak.

Perhaps that was why it was rare to see the corpses of boss monsters outside of the Gates. The first problem being, because they were so much bigger, transporting them itself posed a significant challenge.

Of course, their rarity ensured that the price they fetched was quite substantial, as well. Strangely enough, Jin-Woo replied nonchalantly to Yu Jin-Ho and his wistful longing.

"What's the problem? We'll just take it with us."

"Eh?"

Yu Jin-Ho's eyes opened up wider as he hastily asked a question.

"Hyung-nim, isn't that too big to take with us?"

Jin-Woo smirked softly.

"It's fine."

He didn't know how strong his guy was physically, but well, didn't he have someone on his side who was way bigger than that corpse?

'Come out.'

When Jin-Woo issued his order, a former High Orc Shaman Shadow Soldier decked out in a black robe made a soundless appearance.

Shururuk….

Fangs lowered his head as his greetings, and Jin-Woo pointed at the corpse with his chin.

'Go ahead.'

In the blink of an eye, Fangs grew back into a giant. He then began dragging out the boss-level Naga, which wasn't even half his size, out of the boss chamber.

"Heok!!"

Woo Jin-Cheol's eyes shook hard after witnessing such a shocking spectacle.

'Wasn't that thing…..??'

Without a doubt, that was the High Orc Shaman from the Hunters Guild raid not too long ago that Jin-Woo killed in one hit. He clearly witnessed it back then.

But now, that thing was at least twice the size than when it was still alive. And it wasn't just its size that had grown bigger, too. The emitted waves of magic energy coming from its body when it grew to that size was far, far scarier compared to back then as well.

Woo Jin-Cheol was genuinely astonished by this new development.

'What is this?! Didn't the monster's power drop when turning into a summon??'

If that was the case, then how should he go about explaining that summon created out from the High Orc Shaman?

Jin-Woo could create summons out of the boss monsters from rank A dungeons, and he could even strengthen them, too?

'How can this make any sort of logical sense…..??'

Jin-Woo asked a nonplussed question to Woo Jin-Cheol and his slack jaw.

"Chief Woo? Aren't you coming as well?"

"Ah…."

If one were to lose some of their lifespan through mental shocks, then Woo Jin-Cheol must've lost half of his life here today.

He had a mountain of questions he'd like to ask. But then, he was actually afraid of the kind of answers he might get, so he felt disinclined to ask them, as well.

Woo Jin-Cheol hesitated, but in the end, could only reply with a tired look on his face.

"…..Yes, let's get going."

***

Reporters were thinking of leaving for early lunch but then, their eyes nearly bulged out of their sockets after Jin-Woo leisurely walked out of the Gate.

"What the heck? Has he finished already?!"

"No way??"

He cleared a rank A dungeon in less than three hours?!

A big lightbulb got switched on inside the heads of the gathered reporters.

'This is a huge scoop! A jackpot!'

The reporters gripping their cameras tightly began flooding towards the Gate, fearing that they might miss Jin-Woo if they didn't hurry up. Too bad, the Hunters from the Monitoring Division waiting there quickly blocked their progress.

"Argh, let me go! We aren't going to interview him, you know??"

"I just want to snap a photo! What the heck, will you take responsibility if I get fired for failing to take a single picture today??"

"It's just one photo, so why are you all behaving like this??"

And just as the desperate scuffle between the reporters and the Monitoring Division's agents intensified….

THUD.

The sound of something heavy stepping on the ground resounded out.

"Uh…"

One of the reporters dropped his camera in an utter daze.

Crack.

He didn't even realise that his fallen camera was stepped on by other reporters. No, he could only point towards the Gate and stutter out in pure shock.

"L-look over there…"

Or, more specifically, he was pointing at the massive, hulking giant of a monster stepping outside the Gate.

"R-run away!! No, no wait! Take its pictures first! Hurry!"

"Are you filming this??"

"Ah, yes!!"

The reporters quickly forgot about the physical confrontation of a second ago and hurriedly began snapping away with their raised cameras.

They were inwardly fearful of the monster suddenly attacking them, but at the same time, their fingers continued to move at a blinding pace as if they had been bewitched by something.

Clickclickclickclickclickclick-!!!

Fangs was diligently dragging the boss-level Naga's corpse outside the Gate, but when he felt quite a lot of stares landing on his back, he slowly turned around to look.

'…..??'

And he found that, not just the reporters, but the police, Association employees, and even the passersby on the street stopped in their treks to look up at him.

Fangs was now suddenly overcome with embarrassment and sheepishly scratched the back of his head.

Chapter 150: Chapter 150

A certain man was sneaking into a large hospital.

There was only one reason why he was making d*mn sure that no one saw him. And that would be because of the jerry can full of petrol he was carrying at the moment.

In the past, one couldn't find any sort of desire or drive within this man's eyes. But now, they were burning with vigour.

'So, you dare to look down on me, huh?'

He was already resolved to die today.

This man wandered about silently for a long while, before finally choosing a suitable location. His steps came to a halt in one of the hospital's many corridors, although this particular one didn't seem to enjoy all that much foot traffic. He began cautiously pouring the petrol on the floor.

'You think I'll die all alone?'

It happened one week ago.

He got p*ss drunk and wandered around the streets, before picking a fight with some random passerby. And as a result, he got beaten up black and blue. So, he ended up in this hospital.

He regained his consciousness a bit later and declared to the doctor busy treating him. He said, 'I don't have enough money for the hospital fees, so might as well stop what you're doing and let me go'.

It happened then.

He saw it.

He saw the doctor's eyes, looking down on him as if he was a pathetic fool.

That d*mn doctor b*stard. This man couldn't quite remember the face of that doctor, but even after all this time, he could never forget those eyes.

That's why he made up his mind.

'I'll get my revenge on you.'

And that was his reason for seeking out the very hospital he once visited as its guest.

He wasn't planning to live any longer, anyway. So, he poured the petrol all over this corner of the hospital, and then, dumped what little remained on himself.

"We'll all go together."

His voice was thickly laden with spiteful rage.

Of course, this hospital was pretty d*mn huge, so something like this wouldn't even be able to burn it down completely. However, he should still be able to take a few with him. It'd be very good if a handful of doctors were included in that 'few', but if not, there's not much he could do about that.

He already ruined his life through gambling anyway. But, he wasn't planning to quietly disappear like everyone else.

He threw away the empty jerry can, and after rummaging through his pockets for a while, pulled out a lighter. The moment his thumb spins that flint, this f*cked-up life of his would come to an end.

"…."

He became expressionless and was about to press down with his thumb, but then, an eerie breeze suddenly brushed him by.

'….There's a breeze?'

The man felt something was off and scanned his vicinity. This corridor didn't even have any windows, so where could have that breeze come from?

'What was that?'

He tilted his head while looking around himself, only to abruptly realise that something felt rather empty down there. He lowered his gaze to his hand.

The lighter he held in his hand was gone.

'….!!'

What an incredibly puzzling thing that was.

He wondered if he dropped the lighter while he was preoccupied, so he carefully combed over the floor, but that turned out to be a waste of time.

'Just where did it disappear to….?'

Feeling utterly puzzled now, he raised his head and then spotted a large, black something standing right in front of his eyes.

It was an 'insect' with hands and legs.

The man was greatly taken by surprise, his eyes bulging out until they were almost popping out. Before he could scream, though, the 'insect' reached out and grabbed his mouth.

"Euph!!"

"Kiikiik."

The 'insect' raised the index finger of its free hand and pressed it against its mouth.

"Shush."

This human shouldn't raise a commotion like this. The human female his king told him to protect was sleeping in a room nearby, after all.

The man struggled bitterly, but he couldn't even budge a single finger of the monster off his face.

"Euph, eupphhh!!"

The man's eyes now saw the 'insect' – no, Beru's open mouth slowly growing closer towards him.

***

Why did 'it' happen on level 101?

As Jin-Woo drove back, he thought back to how his skills abruptly went up a level earlier in the day. Even though his mind was occupied with something else, his hands holding the steering wheel remained steady and controlled.

'It's not even level 100, too.'

He thought that, if something about him were to change because of the level ups, then that should happen on level 100. However, his expectation was a bit off the mark.

His Class-specific skills all got an upgrade after he reached level 101.

A few guesses fleeted in and out of his head, but currently, only two of them held the strongest possibilities of being right.

The first one was about what the number '1' signified. '1' meant a new beginning.

Could it be that, when his level reached 101, all restrictions on his Class-specific skills were removed and he was now free to upgrade them at will?

'If that's not it….'

Jin-Woo's expression hardened when he thought about the second theory. Personally, he'd have much preferred for this one to be wrong, though.

'Could it be because I got my Class at level 51…..?'

There was a possibility that the Skill levels rose up because he was exactly 50 levels higher than when he got his Class. Which also kind of implied that he needed to reach level 151 if he wanted to upgrade his Skills again.

'…..I don't want that.'

If he thought about his levelling up speed lately, then indeed, he could only dearly pray that this remained nothing more than his hypothesis.

Soon, the building with his Guild office came into his view. Jin-Woo drove the van into the underground parking lot. He was the only passenger riding on the trusty steed of the Ah-Jin Guild, 'Bonggo'. Yu Jin-Ho chose to stay back in the Gate's location, saying that he'd wrap up the proceedings before going back to the office.

The raid might have ended, but there was still one more step of handing over the recovered loot to the brokers to think about. Since it was Yu Jin-Ho who had contacted these brokers, it seemed that he wanted to personally take charge of handling this matter.

["Please, leave everything to me, hyung-nim!"]

Jin-Woo thought that he could still hear Yu Jin-Ho's voice filled with confidence even now.

'I wonder, will he be okay?'

It was all good and well for a Vice-Chair of the Guild to be full of drive and energy, but wouldn't it be better still to hire dedicated staff members for matters like this? Jin-Woo told himself to search for more employees and walked out of the underground parking lot.

But then….

'Mm?'

He spotted a familiar figure walking towards the Guild building from afar. And that familiar person also discovered Jin-Woo staring back at her.

"Ah…."

Her steps came to an abrupt halt right then and there.

Cha Hae-In formed a shocked expression and began to backtrack one step at a time before she turned around completely, and began running away.

'…HUH??'

Jin-Woo was utterly dumbstruck by what just happened.

The thing was, though – he could gloss over the reason why she suddenly started running away after seeing his face, but he simply couldn't….

'….You think you can escape from me because you started running?'

Just who did she think she was dealing with here?

Jin-Woo was suddenly overcome with a streak of stubbornness and pounced forward with everything he had after activating his 'Quicksilver' skill.

Time slowed down to a crawl, and only the background images seemed to move at a blinding pace. The distance between him and Cha Hae-In decreased quickly enough, and then he began thinking to himself.

'If I grab her from the back or try to touch her, she might get hurt, so….'

Jin-Woo lightly jumped up in the air, spun around once, and landed in front of Cha Hae-In's escaping figure.

'….!!'

Her eyes grew super wide in an instant.

Her escape route had been cut off, and before she could do anything else, her shoulders were caught by Jin-Woo's hands.

"Kyahk!"

And so, the foot chase between two rank S Hunters came to a very anti-climatic end. Now that she was caught by him, she couldn't even bring herself to look into his eyes.

Jin-Woo continued to stare at her with deeply puzzled eyes, before calmly asking her the important question.

"Why did you run away after seeing me?"

"…"

Well, he could concede a bit here and say that it was possible for her to bolt like that. Fine.

"If you were going to run, then why did you even bother to come to my office?"

If she wanted to avoid him that much, then she shouldn't even come anywhere near him, no? Jin-Woo's pointed question elicited Cha Hae-In to reply in a voice that was smaller than a buzzing mosquito.

"My car is… still in your parking lot…."

'Ah. Right. There was an unfamiliar car parked in the lot for the last couple of days, wasn't there?'

That day, when Cha Hae-In came to the office, saying that she wanted to join his Guild….

After they 'teleported' directly to the Association's gymnasium from the Guild office, she forgot to take her car back and left it in the underground parking lot until now.

'Looks like she came sneaking back in to get her car back because our Guild was supposed to be on a raid today.'

Too bad for her, she couldn't have imagined that he'd only need a little over two hours to complete the raid of a rank A Gate. As a result, these two young people got to meet each other again. She quickly tried to get away from him, but in the end, was apprehended by him instead.

'.....'

Jin-Woo's wordless stare continued, and Cha Hae-In's head drooped lower and lower. He let out a helpless sigh and slowly let her shoulders go.

"There's no need to run away from me, you know."

Jin-Woo spoke as he formed an amiable smile.

"A person's mind can change all the time, am I right?"

Indeed, wouldn't people lose their interest, or suddenly gain interest when there was none, to begin with? Wasn't that how a person's heart operated? There was no reason for them to go out of their way to avoid each other like this.

"….."

However, Cha Hae-In didn't even try to refute him, her head still remaining lowered.

'Maybe, she doesn't even feel like talking to me?'

It was possible that she was unhappy about suddenly being grabbed like that.

"Well, then."

Jin-Woo turned around to leave with a little nod as his goodbye. No, he was going to turn around. But before he could, Cha Hae-In hurriedly held on to his sleeve.

"Excuse me….."

"….?"

By the time four, five question marks floated over Jin-Woo's head, she finally stopped hesitating and opened her lips to speak.

"Can you free up some time so we can talk for a little while?"

Only a minute ago she was fleeing for her dear life, but now, she wanted to speak to him?

Perhaps she sensed Jin-Woo's flustered confusion, Cha Hae-In quickly explained herself.

"Actually, Min Byung-Gu Hunter-nim wanted me to pass on a message to you."

Jin-Woo's expression changed once he heard that unexpected name come out of her mouth.

"A message for me?"

Nod, nod.

Cha Hae-In's head bobbed up and down.

"He said, there was something he wanted to say about your powers, Seong Hunter-nim."

But, how could that be? Jin-Woo didn't have any point of contact, private or otherwise, with Hunter Min Byung-Gu. And their one and only meeting came around when Jin-Woo revived Min Byung-Gu into a Shadow Soldier for a short while back then.

The deceased Hunter carried out his job perfectly and thanks to that, Cha Hae-In was able to survive. It was all due to that man's efforts that these two young people could talk to each other like this.

But then, just when did he have the time to leave a message behind?

Jin-Woo didn't display his power until the Jeju raid, and when he did, Min Byung-Gu was already long dead.

Something like that couldn't have happened.

Jin-Woo stared at her with a disbelieving expression. Cha Hae-In cautiously continued on.

"Your power, Seong Hunter-nim…."

But, when her words reached there, Jin-Woo quickly cut her off.

"Hold on, please."

Didn't matter if what she wanted to say was true or not, this topic didn't seem well suited to be discussed in the middle of the street.

Jin-Woo scanned his vicinity once, and then continued to speak to her.

"Let's continue our discussion somewhere more private, shall we?"

***

Chairman Yu Myung-Han received the files containing certain information from his Secretary Kim.

"These are?"

"They are information gathered from Seoul Il-Sin hospital, sir."

Il-Sin hospital was where Hunter Seong Jin-Woo's mother had been staying until recently. Yu Myung-Han's eyes sharpened instantly. Without saying anything else, he began reading the documents.

'The nurse entered in the morning and she was already wide awake? And Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was found right next to his mother?'

There was another strange thing mentioned in the file.

The hospital staff recommended an in-depth analysis of the patient's conditions to be carried out as they were concerned about her health, but Hunter Seong strongly demanded for her release, instead.

Chairman Yu Myung-Han unconsciously shook his head.

'That doesn't sound like him….'

That man possessed such a strong filial love that he risked his life and limb by entering dangerous raids in order to earn enough money for her hospital fees. However, such a man one-sidedly demanded his mother's release, when he couldn't have been sure of her physical condition?

'No, it's the exact opposite.'

This could only mean that Hunter Seong Jin-Woo had already confirmed his mother's status by then.

But, how did he do that?

The longer Yu Myung-Han read the data sent in from the hospital, the deeper the frowns on his forehead became.

Everything about Hunter Seong Jin-Woo was shrouded in mystery.

'The dual dungeon incident, his sudden Re-Awakening, his mother's abrupt recovery, and even his mysterious ability to create countless summoned creatures…..'

Wouldn't a series of serendipities eventually become inevitability?

There was definitely something here. There was absolutely no doubt about that. Yu Myung-Han's sharply-honed senses were telling him such. His resolution became even firmer than before.

"Looks like I'll have to talk to him face to face."

"I shall send over someone before the end of today, sir."

"No need for that."

Secretary Kim was taken aback from that reply.

"Sir, are you planning to go see him personally?"

"Secretary Kim. Who do you think the man I'm trying to meet is?"

"…."

That was enough to shut Secretary Kim's mouth.

It was then.

Vrrrr….

Secretary Kim's phone suddenly began vibrating. Chairman Yu Myung-Han returned his gaze back to the files and gave his permission.

"It's fine to answer it."

Secretary Kim bowed his head slightly and quickly checked his phone. It was a text message carrying urgent breaking news.

"Chairman, sir."

Yu Myung-Han raised his head again.

"There's breaking news coming from Japan as we speak. Would you like to see it, sir?"

Secretary Kim wasn't someone to get easily agitated over a simple matter. If he was asking you about whether you wanted to see something or not, then that was the same thing as you needing to see that something immediately.

Nod.

Yu Myung-Han nodded his head, and as if he was waiting for that, Secretary Kim quickly switched on the giant TV hanging on the wall.

– Yes, this is foreign correspondent Park Seong-Woo reporting. As you can see behind me…..

The real-time live broadcast of Japan's most bustling downtown area filled up the TV screen as the device flickered into life.

***

Shinjuku, located in Tokyo, Japan.

A gloomy shadow was being cast on the busiest, liveliest avenue in Tokyo, the one often referred to as the beating heart of Japan. That wasn't a simple figure of speech, though.

Every single car, bicycle, and person – didn't matter who or what, they were all standing still beneath this massive shade cast over them.

People began climbing out from their stopped vehicles one by one. The road was becoming uncontrollably clogged up, but not one honked their horns or yelled out in irritation.

It was as if everyone here had been bewitched by an unseen force.

Every single gaze was directed to one particular spot.

"Oh, my god…"

"Dear Lord…."

There was a Gate so huge that it blocked out the sky to cast an enormous shade onto the ground below.

The people below saw this common-sense-shattering Gate that easily matched a regular skyscraper in sheer size, and fell deep into the state of indescribable shock.

"…."

"….."

The avenue once bustling with overflowing people was now being gripped tighter and tighter by a silence so wretched that it almost induced some of the witnesses to start vomiting.

***

The atmosphere in the Japanese Prime Minister's official residence was rather poor, as well.

Slam!

The Prime Minister couldn't hold back his rising tide of anger and threw the remote control hard at the TV busy showing the breaking news.

"P-Prime Minister!"

His adjutants hurriedly got up, but they shut their mouths and sat back down once the Prime Minister's dagger-like eyes landed on them.

"Why isn't the Hunter's Association saying anything?"

The President of the Japanese Hunter's Association, Matsumoto Shigeo, weakly lowered his head. He had become a lot more haggard ever since returning from his trip to South Korea.

The Prime Minister's expression hardened.

"God d*mn it…."

Something that horrifying had appeared in the middle of Tokyo, yet the Association who should be in charge of such things, were keeping their mouths shut?!

"A rank S Gate has appeared right in the heart of Tokyo! But, do you think it makes any sort of sense for the Association to not have a single countermeasure in place? How??"

The Prime Minister cried out in anguish.

Unfortunately for him, everyone present kept their mouths shut as if they had agreed to do so beforehand. The Prime Minister's expression crumpled unsightly, like a man carrying the weight of all the suffering found in this world, before he collapsed down onto his chair.

"Be honest with me, Association President."

He then pointed at the cracked TV screen.

"What will happen if that thing opens up on us?"

"…..It'll be the end, sir."

As he thought – the Prime Minister hugged his head and muttered out helplessly.

"So, that's how it is….. Just one Gate, and the city of Tokyo is finished, is that it?"

"That's not what I'm saying, Prime Minister."

"….?"

The Prime Minister raised his head to look, and Association President Matsumoto Shigeo continued on with an emotionless voice.

"I meant to say that the entirety of Japan will be finished, sir."