Chapter 85 (1/2)
Moths (1)
Grand Croix’s Guild Master, Kim Kyung-Rok, was screaming at his phone, “Does that make sense? Even if the CCTV at the spot where they’d found Ji-Hoon’s car was not working, what about other CCTVs? Were there really no traces found?!”
He talked about Kim Ji-Hoon, who was his brother and the only other S-Rank hunter in the guild, who went missing not long ago.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been keeping track of the situation through the police and the Hunter Department sources,” the guild member on the phone spoke with a dark tone, “They said that they really couldn’t find anything. Like as if he evaporated on the spot ···.”
Kim Kyung-Rok felt like his head was going to explode, and he was going to collapse.
‘The scene was clean with no sign of battle!’
Common sense suggested it was normal for people to leave even a small trace of being killed or kidnapped. Since there were none, it meant that an S-class hunter was one-sidedly attacked and failed to respond. Kim Kyung-Rok hung up the phone and continued to think while steaming with anger.
‘It’s possible with a large group of A-level Hunters, but no large crew can move cleanly without a trace like this. The opponent was definitely few in numbers. If they handled an S-Rank with only a few of them, it meant that at least an S or of a higher rank hunter is mixed in.’
No matter how hard he thought about it, only a limited number of suspects had the ability and motive to meet all these conditions. Kim Kyung-Rok gritted his teeth and muttered.
“For sure, this is an act by the Celestial Dragons, those bastards!”
It was clear that the Guild Master, Seo Jin-Wook, must have been involved.
“He took revenge for the trouble during the promotion review!”
In reality, it happened because Kim Ji-Hoon first taunted and even threatened his life. After his leg recovered, Kim Ji-Hoon himself rather publicly spoke that he would retaliate. To weigh the fault, his brother was obviously more guilty, but that was not important to Kim Kyung-Rok right now.
“Damn it; they have a clear suspect, and what is that bullshit that they can’t investigate!”
Grand Croix’s opinion, which pointed out Celestial Dragon as the culprit and demanded a thorough investigation, was silenced. In addition to the lack of evidence, Celestial Dragon’s top hunters, including Seo Jin-Wook, had a perfect alibi on the day.
“Yeah, it’s not a situation where we can rely on the public power anyway.”
For some time now, the government has blatantly been lenient to Celestial Dragon and Seo Jin-Wook. There have been complaints that it was discrimination against other guilds, but nothing had changed other than asking for some understanding.
“This leaves us no choice but for the Grand Croix to take revenge for ourselves!”
Kim Kyung-Rok’s heart was filled with deep feelings of loss and anger due to his blood-relative disappearance. Simultaneously, in his head, he was quickly judging and calculating the situation as a Guild Master.
“If this situation continues, Grand Croix will be overpowered by Celestial Dragon.”
His younger brother was both a precious blood relative and one of the hunters that represented the guild.
“Before it’s too late…”
Both the public and Awakened had already begun to recognize Celestial Dragon as the nation’s No. 1 guild. A critical move to flip the situation was needed. As Kim Kyung-Rok was desperately thinking about ways to grab both revenge and benefit into his hands, a voice called.
“Guild Master!” The door to the office opened, and a guild member rushed in.
“What is it?!”
“I think you should check the n-news!”
He quickly opened the hologram as if there was no room for further explanation. The news screen, which was being carried on as an emergency breaking news, filled the space.
– …As for that, neither the Celestial Dragon Guild nor Adam Abrams himself disclosed further explanation. Meanwhile, the British government has sent a formal letter of protest through its diplomatic channel, saying that no prior arrangements were made, and has expressed their position to sue them with unlawful exportation of hunters to the International Hunter Union. However, the precedent suggested no way to force the parties on both Adam Abrams and the Celestial Dragon Guild. Also…
Kim Kyung-Rok’s face became blank, ‘What were they talking about?’ The announcer’s words made their way to his ears, but the meaning did not properly settle in his head. Two phrases that reminded him of another were mentioned along with the news.
Adam Abrams, a British SSS-Rank hunter with the Celestial Dragon Guild of Korea.
Dumbfounded, he murmured, “What? Why were they on the same news?”
And the moment the announcer’s face disappeared in the hologram, and the photos of the Guild Master Seo Jin-Wook and Adam Abrams appeared as the reference data.
As the subtitles changed, unbelievable sentences were reflected in Kim Kyung-Rok’s eyes.
– Breaking news! Adam Abrams, a British SSS-Rank hunter, joins the Celestial Dragon Guild!
– Celestial Dragon; will become a large-scale international guild beyond being the no. 1 in Korea?
As Kim Kyung-Rok finally grasped the totality of the situation, his temples’ veins were protruding.
He shouted as if he had lost his mind, “What does this make sense?!” The following words were close to screaming, “Why does Adam Abrams sign up for Celestial Dragon right now?”
Clink!
Something flew, and the bulletproof window of the Grand Croix guild room was broken. It was already the second time that week.
*
I showed Adam the hologram after we moved to another place. Based on the system’s location information, the satellite image was taken by contracting with a company.
“This is the list that I have secured. Awakened from dimensions that were done with the tutorial.”
Adam whistled in admiration, “You got the Awakened location information without using a single point?”
Experience points were usually used to get this from the system in the first place, but he was amazed that I took care of this just with my words.
“How much did you overachieve to get this much reward? What have you done?”
I’d changed my words. I spoke while pointing at the pictures wherein most of them were camouflaged to seem familiar to humans.
“Anyway, do you know any being among them?”
I’d put the attempt to stalk the rest of the ones on the list without any good plans on hold. I thought, waiting for Adam’s reaction, ‘Adam noticed me even when I amplified the SS-class [Stealth] with an item. Other species might also be able to identify me in a way that I’m not aware of. I should avoid following them too close without knowing what they’re capable of.’
It was a lesson I learned from this incident. However, it wa not possible to leave them as they were when the list was in hand, so I was trying to get information through Adam.
He looked carefully at the picture on the map and said, “First of all, this guy, this guy, and this guy, and… oh, this guy.”
He quickly picked up six pictures from the map and the list, “Don’t touch these guys as much as possible. They’re 100% harmless to your world, so get your hands off them. Don’t follow them like you tried on me. Playing with the spark will turn into a wildfire.”
“Why?”
“These were the ‘eyes’ that the Union has planted on Earth,” He continued the explanation, “I didn’t know their fake identities. I get to find out through an unexpected path, huh. I see a pattern. Seeing that they’re arranged this way, it’s for sure.”
“When you say eyes, you mean that they were the watchers from the Union, right?”
Come to think of it, the position of the six was not concentrated at any point. They were scattered all over the globe at a certain distance. As if they were to divide this star into six zones and be responsible for each of them.
I remembered what the ministry spirit said.
– Based on their behavioral patterns, some were believed to have been dispatched with a mission as an observer.
‘That’s what it meant!’
Adam said, nodding his head, “Then, except for the six I picked, it meant that the rest of them were the problem.”
For a long time, those who stayed in this world, even when they were not aliens, were dispatched from the Union.
“There were no obvious characteristics like the eyes, so I didn’t know who they were from this point of view. They should have had their own reasons, just as I was here for a special reason.”
He turned his head and asked me, “Do you have any more detailed information about the alien you’re looking for?”