Chapter 18. Mercenary (4)
The boss Orc itself had never been a dangerous opponent.
Its skin was hard as steel.
And judging by its enormous body, it probably possessed incredible destructive power.
But it was trapped by the red light.
And I had enough strength to cut through steel.
The green energy that emerged after its death, however...
That was different.
For the first time, my survival instinct had warned me.
“...Plague.”
I had never believed my meeting with Death was a dream.
It had been far too vivid.
More importantly, this world and my changed body were proof.
But until now, I had known absolutely nothing about Plague.
“...So you really exist.”
Now I could feel it clearly.
The target of my revenge existed in this world.
Once the boss died and the Gate began closing...
“I'll do anything you tell me to...!”
Choi Yoon-seo begged again and again.
Well, considering he'd almost died, I could understand why he was desperate.
But the Gate had already been cleared.
Wasn't he overdoing it a little?
There was something else I needed from him.
“About the distribution.”
“...! D-Distribution, sir?”
Choi Yoon-seo and the other party members looked as though the moment they feared had finally arrived.
Then, sweating heavily, they put on determined expressions.
“...We've committed a sin worthy of death. Truly...”
A sin worthy of death?
“Distribution? Absolutely not! All the mana stones belong to you, Hunter!”
“...?”
I stared at Choi Yoon-seo.
Earlier, when he thought the mana stones were missing, he'd made a huge fuss.
Why was he suddenly giving me all of them?
Was he insane?
“Are you crazy?”
“Eek! N-No, I'm sorry! T-Take the bag too!”
Hadn't he said that thing was expensive?
“Are you in your right mind?”
“Ah! You can have all this equipment too! A-And I have a little money saved up. If you spare me, I'll convert it to Coins and send it to you immediately!”
“U-Us too!”
“Please...”
Honestly.
They're decent people.
So what if they were a little reckless because they were young?
I'd seen plenty of humans worse than animals.
People who survived only because someone helped them, then blamed the person who saved them.
People who pulled knives on their rescuers.
Choi Yoon-seo's party was different.
“If there's anything you want, just tell us...!”
They hadn't changed their attitude just because they survived.
They sincerely wanted to express their gratitude.
“I only need my share of the mana stones.”
I didn't want excessive compensation.
So I said that.
Then...
“Ah...”
Why did everyone turn pale?
Just then, the Gate fully closed.
Space began shifting.
“...He really has no intention of letting us live.”
I thought I heard Choi Yoon-seo muttering something strange.
Then gray disappeared.
Blue sky appeared.
Fresh air that wasn't filled with smoke wrapped around me.
We were outside the Gate.
I had already experienced being automatically moved outside when a Gate closed, so that wasn't surprising.
What surprised me were the people waiting there.
“H-Hunter Kim Si-hyeon!”
“Choi Ji-woong?”
A familiar face.
Choi Ji-woong from the Special Division.
And he wasn't alone.
“Hunter Kim Si-hyeon!”
Special Division Director Park Min-ho.
Several other Special Division Hunters were with them.
Why is everyone here?
Then...
“...It's over. We're finished. I'm sorry, everyone. ...Huh?”
Choi Yoon-seo emerged from the Gate while muttering something.
He stopped when he saw the Special Division.
The party members behind him did the same.
“Gasp! The Special Division!”
They looked shocked.
Then relief appeared on their faces.
That made me strangely proud.
Even after surviving the Gate, they had remained anxious and restless.
But the instant they saw the Special Division, they relaxed.
“We're alive! We're alive!”
So this was how much trust people placed in Association Special Division Hunters?
“It's the Special Division!”
“The real Special Division!”
“Park Min-ho is here too!”
I felt proud.
“S-Save—”
Choi Yoon-seo tried to shout something toward Park Min-ho.
Then...
Thud.
Park Min-ho approached me and dropped to his knees.
“...?”
“...?”
“Hmm?”
I was confused.
So were Choi Yoon-seo and the others.
“Hunter Kim Si-hyeon. If we've done something wrong, please punish us. If there's anything lacking, please tell us!”
Then...
Thud!
Choi Ji-woong knelt beside him.
“I'm sorry I failed to properly support you! Hunter Kim Si-hyeon, please... don't leave us!”
What was happening?
Apparently, I wasn't the only person who didn't understand.
“...Huh?”
Choi Yoon-seo and the party stared.
“...Why are the Special Division Hunters...?”
They seemed just as confused about the Special Division kneeling in front of me.
Since I didn't understand either, I asked Park Min-ho.
“What are you doing?”
Park Min-ho flinched.
Then he tried to bow his head all the way to the ground.
Startled, I grabbed him and pulled him back up.
“Hunter Kim Si-hyeon...! Please don't abandon us...!”
“What are you talking about? Didn't you see my note?”
I had definitely left a note.
A note explaining that I was stepping out temporarily to earn money.
I'd even properly submitted annual leave.
“...Money?”
“So you saw it.”
“If it's money, we've prepared it.”
Park Min-ho spoke with determination.
“We've drastically increased the amount you'll receive. Yoo-seong has also agreed to sponsor you!”
“Yoo-seong?”
“We know that still isn't enough. But if you leave now, we're dead.”
Park Min-ho pulled his arm from my grip and knelt again.
“We'll give you everything we have! Please... please! Spare us!”
“Please spare us!”
“Huuuh?!”
The Special Division's cries made Choi Yoon-seo's entire party collapse in terror.
Park Min-ho was genuinely relieved.
If Kim Si-hyeon had truly left or become a Hunter for another country, it would have been a catastrophe.
At the moment, Kim Si-hyeon's existence remained classified.
But if another nation recruited him, they would have advertised it everywhere.
They would proudly announce that they had taken in a Returnee neglected by South Korea.
If the public learned that Korea had managed to secure a Returnee and then failed to keep him, the Association would face outrage across the entire country.
They would become the greatest traitors in modern history.
National-level garbage.
“Where's Hunter Kim Si-hyeon?”
“We escorted him back to the safe house.”
“Good.”
Park Min-ho and Choi Ji-woong looked at each other with the solemn expressions of people who had just cleared an S-Rank Gate.
“...Did you explain how much money he'll receive?”
“I only said it'll be a lot. I didn't want him thinking it was insufficient.”
“Good.”
Park Min-ho praised him sincerely.
“Let's meet whatever amount he wants. If we're short... I'll fight the Association President myself if I have to.”
“...I'm counting on you.”
Kim Si-hyeon.
They could never lose him.
The problem wasn't only that he was a Returnee.
Kim Si-hyeon was a dangerous Hunter worthy of the title Massacre.
If he became a Hunter for another country, this wouldn't simply be a loss of national resources.
It would be the equivalent of having a nuclear weapon stolen.
And if he became dissatisfied with Korea and turned hostile?
We're finished.
They needed to keep him close.
And stay on his side no matter what.
“The Association President won't hold back either. Thankfully, we also have Yoo-seong supporting us now.”
“That really is fortunate.”
This incident had revealed one more unusual thing about Kim Si-hyeon.
“...Abnormal Gates aren't usually this common.”
Three abnormal Gates in such a short time.
Every one of them was connected to Kim Si-hyeon.
The Yoo-seong incident could be considered an exception, since the Gate had changed before Kim Si-hyeon entered.
But...
The unrankable Gate.
And this abnormal Gate.
At first, Park Min-ho thought Kim Si-hyeon had returned through the unrankable Gate.
But after watching another Gate mutate once Kim Si-hyeon entered it, his thoughts changed.
Maybe that first Gate had become unrankable because Kim Si-hyeon was inside it.
Can this really be called coincidence?
Returnees were different from ordinary Hunters.
But Kim Si-hyeon seemed unusual even among Returnees.
Special.
And dangerous.
“...Anyway.”
Park Min-ho stopped thinking about Kim Si-hyeon for the moment and looked aside.
“What about them?”
He was looking at Choi Yoon-seo's party.
“Please! Please spare us! We'll give everything to him!”
“I-I have some money saved in Coins!”
“Please spare us! Waaah!”
They were the Hunters who had cleared the Gate with Kim Si-hyeon.
The investigation was already complete.
They had hired Kim Si-hyeon through a mercenary office.
“It looks like they hired Hunter Kim Si-hyeon as a porter.”
“...As a porter?”
They had guts.
Using the Massacre as a porter.
But it did make sense.
His fake registration card says D-Rank.
Kim Si-hyeon had faithfully used the fake identity card the Association gave him.
That was how the Special Division found him so quickly.
Apparently, Kim Si-hyeon hadn't truly been trying to leave the Special Division.
Rather, this had probably been a warning.
A reminder that he could disappear whenever he wanted, and they should treat him accordingly.
“But... they signed the porter under contribution-based distribution.”
“What?”
Park Min-ho's face twisted.
“If you put a porter on contribution-based distribution, you're basically saying you won't pay them anything. People still pull that garbage?”
“...Porters aren't used much anymore. And there's more.”
Choi Ji-woong lowered his voice.
“It looks like they obtained this Gate's clearing rights through a back channel.”
A back channel.
Meaning the rights had been acquired through an unofficial method.
Naturally illegal.
And dangerous.
“You crazy bastards!”
And they brought a porter into a Gate acquired illegally?
“If things went wrong, you planned to kill him inside and silence him, didn't you?”
Acquiring Gate clearing rights through back channels was illegal.
There had been cases where Hunters who became involved were blackmailed for money.
Or, when things went very wrong, killed to silence them.
“Well, after investigating them, they just seem like stupid kids. I don't think they were planning to go that far.”
“Ha.”
Park Min-ho laughed in disbelief.
Choi Yoon-seo's party flinched.
“W-We'll tell you everything! Please spare us!”
“We got the Gate clearing rights from the Baeksu Guild!”
“Seriously! We don't need anything! Give it all to Hunter Kim Si-hyeon!”
They were blurting out anything they could think of in an attempt to survive.
“Please... spare us.”
Choi Yoon-seo had never looked more desperate.
When he first escaped the Gate and saw the Special Division, he'd thought he was finally safe.
The Special Division was here.
Even the infamous demon Park Min-ho.
Naturally, he assumed they'd come to arrest Kim Si-hyeon.
A Hunter with that much killing intent had to be wanted.
But reality was different.
What the hell is that man?!
The Special Division Hunters were the ones begging Kim Si-hyeon for mercy.
They were even offering him tribute.
Choi Yoon-seo never imagined Kim Si-hyeon was actually a newly hired Special Division civil servant.
“Take them to the Association for questioning.”
“Yes, Director.”
Choi Yoon-seo and the other party members were dragged away like cattle being taken to a slaughterhouse.
But strangely, they looked relieved.
If they were being taken to the Association...
At least Kim Si-hyeon wouldn't kill them.
“What did you just say?”
There were ten Guilds considered the most powerful in South Korea.
They were known as the Top Ten Guilds.
Every one of them possessed an S-Rank Hunter.
They were indispensable to South Korea's national defense.
“...The Special Division arrested who?”
One of those ten...
The Baeksu Guild.
Its Guild Master, Baek Hyeong-gyu, released a vicious pressure as he asked.
