Chapter 27. King of the Back Alley (2)
“Waaaaaaaah!”
The roars of beasts filled the air.
The Back Alley existed outside ordinary civilization.
Gambling and alcohol were practically the only entertainment here.
So...
BOOM!
An execution hosted by Park Se-min was a major event.
Especially when...
“Kill him! Association bastard!”
“Die, Special Division dog!”
...the target was from the Association's Special Division.
“H-Hunter Kim Si-hyeon.”
Choi Yoon-seo's worried voice reached Kim Si-hyeon.
Yet for some reason...
“...”
Kim Si-hyeon's mind was becoming calm.
If everyone here had been zombies, he would've killed Park Se-min and escaped before the crowd gathered.
But these people were human.
And...
“Ho! Special Division brat, you're not afraid?”
“Why would I be?”
Because this was the Back Alley.
Step.
Kim Si-hyeon walked forward.
“A dog is barking. Why would that frighten me?”
“...What?”
“Exactly what I said.”
Before anyone realized it, Kim Si-hyeon had approached Park Se-min.
He looked directly at him and smiled faintly.
“I'm saying you're a dog.”
The insult was obvious.
Park Se-min's face twisted.
Ever since he became ruler of the Back Alley, nobody had been insane enough to curse him to his face.
Actually, nobody had dared even before then.
Park Se-min had always been strong.
“...Fucking Special Division bastards.”
Though irritated for a moment, Park Se-min soon smiled.
I'll make you kneel.
He could already imagine the result.
A Special Division Hunter who wasn't even Park Min-ho couldn't possibly be a match for an S-Rank like him.
There was only one thing that bothered him.
I can't see his mana.
Most S-Rank Hunters had enough sensitivity to mana to estimate an opponent's rank from their mana reserves.
But he couldn't sense anything from Kim Si-hyeon.
Doesn't matter.
High mana density could make it difficult to sense someone's power.
And usually...
When mana couldn't be detected at all, it simply meant the person didn't possess much of it.
“Hey, kid.”
BOOM.
Park Se-min took one heavy step forward.
Then asked,
“Have you ever killed a person?”
“Step on it!”
A bus carrying the entire Special Division raced toward Ganghwa Island.
If possible, they would've preferred a helicopter.
But flying one near Ganghwa Island, where the mana density was abnormally high, could cause a major accident.
And even if that wasn't an issue, they couldn't exactly fly an Association helicopter directly into the Ganghwa Back Alley.
Park Min-ho shouted at Choi Ji-woong behind the wheel.
“Drive faster!”
“I already am!”
There was a reason the entire Special Division was fully armed and heading toward Ganghwa.
Officially, it was because of Yang Chi-seok.
A Hunter was practically a living weapon.
Joining a Guild with a falsified identity was a serious crime.
And if Yang Chi-seok had managed to deceive both the Hunter Association's database and Baeksu Guild itself...
Then he had clearly been planning a crime.
Not some minor offense.
A large, deliberate one.
It was equivalent to a ticking bomb walking through the city.
The Special Division mobilizing wasn't strange at all.
However...
“We found Yang Chi-seok's location! The last place he headed was the Ganghwa Back Alley!”
That changed everything.
The Back Alley was a hornet's nest that even the Special Division had to approach carefully.
But that wasn't the real reason the entire Special Division was rushing there.
“Why...”
The true reason was a disaster far more dangerous than some identity-falsifying criminal.
“Why the hell—!”
They were trying to stop the real catastrophe.
“Why did Hunter Kim Si-hyeon go to the Ganghwa Back Alley?!”
Park Min-ho nearly fainted when he discovered Kim Si-hyeon had gone there.
When he heard Kim Si-hyeon had apparently kidnapped Choi Yoon-seo and gone with him...
He actually fainted.
Kim Si-hyeon had made him lose consciousness so many times lately that he was worried he'd develop some kind of chronic fainting disorder.
“Hey! Choi Ji-woong, are you insane?! Can't you manage your own team members?!”
Park Min-ho shouted while standing inside the speeding bus.
“You bastard! If you wanted to screw me over, couldn't you have done it another way?!”
“Who said I did it on purpose?!”
Choi Ji-woong shouted back.
Normally he would've repeatedly apologized whenever Park Min-ho yelled.
But not today.
“It was the Association President who put Hunter Kim Si-hyeon on my team! He told me to treat him like a real member!”
“Even then, one of you should've stayed with him!”
“That...”
Choi Ji-woong, who had been shouting confidently, suddenly shut his mouth.
He glanced toward Yoo Min-a and Oh Ha-seung.
Both immediately avoided his eyes.
“That...”
“What about it, bastard?!”
They were afraid.
Kim Si-hyeon's killing intent might be far weaker than before...
But his eyes were still scary.
His every movement was scary.
Especially because they knew how much power he possessed.
Yes.
Everyone on Special Division Team Three knew at least one person should remain with Kim Si-hyeon.
But they kept passing the responsibility to one another and pretended not to notice.
This was the result.
“Pathetic bastards. And you call yourselves the Special Division.”
“Then why don't you stay with him personally, Director?!”
“What?! What did you say?!”
“You can't do it either!”
“...Shut up, bastard!”
How had it come to this?
The mighty Special Division reduced to a childish argument because of one man.
Of course, Choi Ji-woong hadn't left Kim Si-hyeon alone solely because he was afraid.
Hunter Kim Si-hyeon is still a person too...
Choi Ji-woong had spent the most time with him.
He could vaguely tell that Kim Si-hyeon was genuinely trying to adapt to the Special Division.
So he'd thought the man might need some time alone.
It had been consideration.
So he could eat his cup noodles in peace.
But then...
Who knew he'd cause a disaster this big?!
They had left the investigation records open when they left, sure.
But how did Kim Si-hyeon find Choi Yoon-seo and apparently kidnap him too?
“...This could turn into something seriously bad.”
