Chapter 120: 120

Retaliation (1)

Seoul, Seo Jin-Wook’s residence.

Secretary Kim hummed while making a business report on his absence.

It was about the things to report when the Guild Master returns from his absence for the Chinese dungeon exploration.

“Heh-heh. It really drives me to get working these days!”

He couldn’t have expected that the situations they experienced would turn out the way they did just a year ago. Since they first met, it had already been expected that his ability as a hunter would be spectacular. However, Seo Jin-Wook was already mentally unstable back then, and t was questionable if he would be able to function as a decent human being.

When he looked back at those memories, such concerns felt so distant. Seo Jin-Wook, who was inaugurated as the Guild Master, had immediately achieved the SS-Rank and was making the Celestial Dragon thrive at a frightening pace. What made it even better was the fact that nobody held back their praise towards him doing so.

The Celestial Dragon, which was already Korea’s No. 1, had firmly established a position that no one could overlook. Not only quantitative growth but also qualitative growth was evident within the guild, with the number of top-tier hunters, including Adam of SSS-Class, constantly increasing.

‘Whether that may be the media or the internet when it comes to the Celestial Dragon, they’re busy praising it.’

The popularity of the guild had exponentially risen because they had found more Gates than any other guilds.

At the center of all those changes, the interest in the extraordinary Awakened had skyrocketed beyond belief.

What’s more, the achievement they gained from the Australian dungeon could be considered as one of its peak points.

‘And from that position, the Guild Master will become the representative of the Earth. From the perspective of the aliens, he will be considered as the ambassador of Earth. It’s an achievement that no other hunter had done before!’

However, at that moment–

The breaking news was broadcasted on the TV that he had just turned on.

As he turned his head, news about the dungeon in which Seo Jin-Wook entered was being reported. Secretary Kim immediately turned up the volume.

– This is breaking news. It has already been four days now since the top-tier international hunters had gathered to form a Chinese dungeon exploration team. After such a long wait, we are finally going to be able to hear the awaited good news.

“Could it be?!”

Before the Chinese Awakened, including Ray Chen, revealed their evil plan, the ones outside had already noticed that the dungeon Clear was over, causing them to act quickly into using that information as news content.

– According to the Gate’s message, it has been identified that the exploration team sent to the corresponding dungeon has completed the dungeon Clear smoothly.

“He must have finished it already!”

According to the news, the SS-Class dungeon was Cleared in 4 days.

Even if they considered the team composition, they still did it at such an extraordinary pace.

– The number of survivors currently indicated by the message is 30. Therefore, it means that there is not a single casualty among the expedition members!

Fortunately, there must have been no accidents.

While Secretary Kim let out a sigh of relief-

Thud!

The door opened, allowing a giant beyond human limits to come inside. He had to lower his body and slouch to be able to go through the doorway.

His hard, muscle-covered physique barely managed to pass through the narrow door.

“Hey, long time no see.”

“Mr. Abrams!”

It was Adam who returned after quite a long time. Secretary Kim greeted him warmly.

“How long has it been? You must have been quite busy to not report in for quite a long time.”

“A bit, yes.”

“Did your business work out well?

Secretary Kim, who didn’t know the exact reason for his absence, asked him courteously.

But then, Adam’s face hardened a bit.

“No.”

“Oh, my…”

Even though Secretary Kim did not know what was going on, he made a pitiful expression.

“Is there any part of it that the guild’s support team can help you with? Would there be any major setback in your plans…”

“Well, I can’t really disclose a lot of things about it in detail, but I think it will become a little troublesome soon. I will need to talk to Seo Jin-Wook about the specifics. Where is he right now?”

“I can’t help but assume you don’t even have the time to watch the news. He’s gone there.”

Secretary Kim pointed at the TV screen which was broadcasting the news.

“China?”

As Adam also looks at the TV with an unenthusiastic face-

“… Huh?!”

At that moment, the subtitle at the lower portion of the news screen had changed.

Secretary Kim’s face turned pale as he read through it.

The anchor was looking at the teleprompter with a stiff expression.

– Yes, a piece of breaking news had just been delivered to us right at this moment. There’s been an update regarding the number of survivors in the Chinese Gate. According to the information it’s providing, it had already been Cleared by the team inside. However, the number of entrants, which used to be 30 has dwindled down to 26…. Ah, as we speak, it is reported that it decreased even more!

The change was being broadcasted in real-time.

Cold sweat dripped down on Secretary Kim’s forehead.

“What in the world!”

Adam gazed vacantly at Secretary Kim, who was restless.

“What’s with the fuss?”

He spoke in a tone that made him seem like he couldn’t empathize with what he was feeling.

Secretary Kim shouted as his face became darker.

“What do you mean?! Everyone was already worried about China doing some sort of funny business… In the end, this happened! Those sons of bitches!”

As Adam watched the news, he quickly grasped the situation and nodded.

“I can draw the scenario without even looking at it. The Chinese must be getting beaten up after taunting them.”

Secretary Kim spoke in a manner as if he could not agree to that statement.

“If you look at the member composition, there are over 20 Chinese hunters! Almost all of them are of above SS-Ranks. Guild Master would become the victim!”

Then, Adam asked as if he genuinely could not understand.

“When the hell was the last time you roamed around and Cleared out dungeons with Seo Jin-Wook?”

Secretary Kim searched through his memories.

The first and last time he accompanied Seo Jin-wook in an expedition was during the Okcheon dungeon raid when the Guild Master was still an E-Rank hunter that had recently Awakened.

Secretary Kim understood what Adam was trying to say, but his worries did not fade away.

“Yes, I’m aware that the Guild Master is currently an SS-Rank. But the power difference is too…”

“What, wait. So after then, you have never seen how he fights?”

“… Yes.”

Then Adam shook his head, showing how much he didn’t feel the need to hold that conversation with him anymore.

“Keep your useless worries and anxiety out of your mind. If I were you, rather than Seo Jin-Wook, I would worry about China, as they will have to deal with his grudge.”

Secretary Kim could not understand Adam’s composure at all.

*

The news reported about the Gate message that continued to change every now and then. The number of survivors eventually dropped to seven before stopping, which was composed of the party of six of Seo Jin-Wook that remained in stage 2 and one Chinese soldier that returned to stage 1.

But at that point, the ordinary public had no way of knowing who the seven people were.

The Chinese leadership sent a rescue team to rescue the survivors, but it was all just for show. There was no intention of actually saving them, nor were they capable of doing so.

After three days, waiting calmly for six more survivors to be subtracted-

A change had occurred once more.

“… You’re saying that a message that the dungeon has been re-Cleared had appeared?!”

The gate message was clearly conveying a piece of information- That the ‘dungeon re-run’ had been accomplished.

In Beijing, an emergency meeting was held, and the participants did their best to exchange ideas amid the utter chaos.

“Must it not be the last struggle? The survivors that lived through the second stage had no way to return, so they must have expanded the dungeon just in case. With faint hope that among the additional rewards, there could be something that would aid in their escape, that is.”

“I mean, does that make sense to you?!”

Of course, it didn’t make sense.

It was an act that was difficult to assume the motives behind.

On the other hand, it was even incomprehensible how that was possible.

“They’ve Cleared the dungeon once again using only six people when it would’ve only been possible with 30 people. They indeed have enormous power.”

“If those kinds of people came back alive, there might just be a bloodbath in Beijing.”

What if they avoided being dimensionally lost because they hadn’t shut down the door to the second stage?

The foreign hunters that returned to China must’ve plotted for revenge, even if in conjunction with their governments.

Would they let them be when they attempted to enslave SSS-Rank hunters, and when that plan failed, they tried to kill them for good?

“…Yes, I’m glad at least the last bastion was successful.”

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And the news that continued right after-

“The number of survivors has begun to decrease one after another!”

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“What? As soon as they Cleared it?”

The news was delivered nearly in real-time.

A few minutes had passed in that state, the survivors indicated in the message had decreased precisely by six people.

That meant that only the rescue team member sent by the Chinese government remained in the dungeon.

However, the speed of the events and the situation itself was strange.

“To say that they all died one after the other as soon as they completed the dungeon re-run is a bit unbelievable.”

No matter how they thought about it, it was suspicious.

“… Indeed, since they’re in an environment where the returning stone doesn’t work, it can be only interpreted that way.”

Not all of the people gathered there were fools.

The evidence was too circumstantial for them to believe and merely move on.

An ominous chill clawed its way up everyone’s spines.

*

Paht!

After finishing the second Clearing of the dungeon, I entered the [Door of Hope] with the five survivors.

The destination was a house in Seoul.

“Ah! We’re home!”

It was the first building we returned to after a tiring run at the dungeon that lasted for more than a week. Nate broadly smiled as if he were excited.

Meanwhile, the place where Hibiki’s mind was focused was…

“I’ll go check on the cat to see if it’s well.”

Secretary Kim should be taking care of it, but she still seemed to be in a hurry since she hadn’t seen it for a long time.

“Alright, both of you get some rest, and let’s talk again tomorrow.”

Next, I looked at the three SSS-Class hunters that came along.

The news of everyone’s survival, including them, was not yet known to the media.

They looked at the blue Gate, still floating in the air as if they were possessed.

“An item that enables dimensional travels!”

As they finished moving around like robots according to my command to hold off the wave for three more days and even complete re-Clearing the dungeon, they seemed to realize how extraordinary the current situation was finally.

They looked at me with an awe-filled gaze.

“The method of fighting and the items you use are of a different level…. I was a frog in a well until now.”

Those words were spoken out by a Russian hunter while staring at me.

“The frog in the well applies to all three of us. No, beyond that, the entire human race doesn’t know yet the true nature of the kind of man you are.

“In a place that no one knew, you were going a few stages ahead!”

I was planning to let them stay there for a while.

“So, all three of you are still determined to take part in revenge, right?

At that moment, a fierce flash lingered in their eyes.

Giving the three of them contract-based instructions were intended to end the dungeon. If I swung the contract like a weapon, enslaving SSS-Class hunters, I would be no different from the Chinese. The demand for healing them from the poison and helping them return to Earth was expected to stop there.

But they asked me about my plans.

“Yes, Seo Jin-Wook, we can’t just pretend as if nothing happened. They were trying to shackle our necks and isolate us by getting us lost in a dimension. Those are all unpardonable atrocities against human beings! We must not only let the world know of this, but we must punish those who set this up!”

From that moment on, they joined me with their free will.

I reached out to Secretary Kim through the terminal.

“My god! Guild Masteeeer!”

Secretary Kim, who rushed to the scene after receiving my call and almost fainting, was surprised to see me in person.

“No, how on Earth did you make it out? What did you ride to Korea, and when did you arrive home?! What happened to you? The Chinese bastards are really…!”

I calmed him down and asked him to prepare living quarters for the three guests.

“It’s a secret that we’ve all survived for the time being. Don’t let it leak out, please.”

If they knew we’re back, our enemies would enter into a state of emergency beyond just being suspicious.

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It was never what I wanted.

*

The next day, I called Nate to request for the subordinate to be summoned.

“Rargh…”

It, who had been dead for only a few days, was the Chinese soldier that I killed after deliberately feeding an elixir to it to return it to its normal body state.

“It’s rather freshly dead compared to the rest of the subordinates, but it still does look like a zombie.”

I used magic right away.

[Polymorph!]

As the flash passed by the zombie, the remaining form was of an ordinary man who could never be seen as an undead. Warm light lingered on the pale skin, and the pupil that had lost its life became clear.

I spoke after I started recording the video in that manner.

“Nate, please.”

“Mmhmm!”

He invoked a subskill of his unique skill, [Footprints Across Boundaries].

The red Mana spread around like a fog.

[The Memories of the Dead]

The memories that the zombie had collected during its lifetime had started to transfer into Nate’s head slowly. He frowned slightly as if his temples were splitting.

“Preparation is done. What should I ask?”

I asked Nate what I wanted to know. He said that the skill stimulated the dead’s memories like a fishing line cast into muddy waters, fishing it out if he applied force.

“…”

As soon as Nate identified the information, he controlled the zombie for the content to be transferred to speech.

It made it look like it was confessing.

‘It would have been most effective to search the memory of expedition leader Ray Chen, but it’s a shame.’

Fortunately, however, most of the expedition members gathered with only SS-Class or higher held high positions in China’s special forces. Thanks to that, I was able to identify how the mission came down.

The same was true of that corpse who became a zombie and was being exploited of its memories.

“Oh, my. Its memory is more solid than I expected.”

So I found out all the names I needed and the whole story behind the incident.

“Well done!”

After finishing the memory search and recording, I called someone.

‘No matter how it may be, the opponent is the state. It’s dangerous to make a mess without support. Even if we attempt to assassinate assiduously, we’ll be identified as a suspect.’

So I even went through the troublesome act of recording, but it wasn’t enough.

Paht!

The call went through.

The Senator was staring at me in the hologram that came up.

Instead of greeting- I spoke cheerfully.

“Yes, Senator. I am alive!”

But the Senator answered indifferently.

“I didn’t ask.”

Hmm? I wasn’t expecting that kind of reaction.

Even though it was me that called, whose death was confirmed in the media worldwide, the Senator’s expression was sour.

“You’re not surprised at all?”

Then the Senator spoke as if he was muttering.

“I told you so many times not to go. However, when I saw you choose to go anyway, I thought you had the means to come back and had a solid plan. What a hotshot you are.”

He clicked his tongue.

“How about the other hunters? Who lived, and who died?”

“Except for the Chinese, everyone lived.”

Then the Senator smirked.

“It’s like the Chinese have killed themselves while they were acting like idiots. So, what are you going to do now? Seeing that you haven’t made a press announcement yet, I’m sure….”

I replied with a nod.

“Yes, we should retaliate. But this time, we will need a bit of help from the U.S.”

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