Chapter 90

“A week off?”

“Yes. Exactly as you heard.”

Team Leader Choi’s call that evening had been unexpected.

A whole week off? Had something happened to the Guild?

When my thoughts reached that point, I suddenly remembered something.

“Uh, you didn’t have a problem with Sangdong Guild, did you?”

“Sangdong Guild?”

“I mean, because of the Im Changsoo situation…”

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about that. The Guild house remodeling is supposed to be finished in a week.”

It was a relief to hear that nothing had happened. But did people really stop raiding because of Guild house remodeling?

It’s nice to hear I’m getting a whole week off.

For the past seven years, I had lived with my eyes fixed straight ahead, running without rest. Lately, I had been going back and forth between the Murim and reality, spending my days without a moment to breathe.

Honestly, I wanted to re—no. This was precisely when I needed to work harder. I spoke in a voice filled with determination.

“Team Leader. I want to work.”

“Ah, but you’ll still receive your full salary during your vacation.”

“Then I’ll see you in a week.”

“……”

“I’m hanging up. I need to eat dinner.”

“…Yes.”

As soon as I ended the call, Hayeon came hurrying over and bowed politely.

“Oppa. The evening meal has been prepared.”

“……Could you stop speaking like that? It’s giving me goose bumps.”

“Switching to casual mode requires a paid purchase.”

“You make asking for allowance sound so complicated.”

When I held out two 50,000-won bills, Hayeon flashed a wide grin.

“Mom says dinner’s ready.”

“Oh, what’s on the menu?”

“Beef bulgogi. And bean sprout soup that I made.”

“Beef bulgogi sounds good.”

“Mom says my bean sprout soup is good. She praised me.”

“Mom’s homemade beef bulgogi never lets you down. It’s always fresh, the best, thrilling.”

“……”

My younger sister was thoroughly pissed off, and the table was covered with Mom’s cooking.

What was so special about vacation? I would eat and sleep to my heart’s content at home.

Tap.

Choi Minwoo set down his smartphone after ending the call. Butler Kim, seated across the table from him, asked,

“What did he say?”

“He was worried too. About Sangdong Guild.”

“The more I see of him, the more interesting that young man becomes. He seems to act without thinking, yet he’s quick to grasp the situation.”

Choi Minwoo tapped the table with his long fingers.

Even after some time had passed, the sudden appearance of Jin Taekyung remained a mystery.

When they had first met, Taekyung had seemed like nothing more or less than a diligent F-rank Hunter. Yet yesterday, he had single-handedly swept through a B-rank Gate.

He’s getting stronger.

As of yesterday, his suspicions had turned into certainty.

Jin Taekyung was getting stronger. And he was doing so incredibly fast.

“Is there no additional information about Jin Taekyung?”

“No. I’ve repeatedly reconfirmed everything, but nothing has turned up.”

Butler Kim was a man who handled his work thoroughly. But this time was different. Choi Minwoo carefully opened his mouth.

“Butler Kim.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

“Could you perhaps look for cases of Hunters who awakened a third time?”

“What?”

Butler Kim’s eyebrows twitched.

A third awakening? It was a term he had never heard or seen in his entire life. If a Hunter like that had existed, no one would have used the word reawakening.

A reawakening was called a reawakening because there was nothing after it.

“Young Master, that…”

Just as Butler Kim was about to express his difficulty, a name flashed through his mind.

Jin Taekyung. If it’s that young man, who knows?

Butler Kim was a living witness who had experienced the Great Cataclysm firsthand. He had accomplished brilliant feats and participated in countless battles.

Yet even to his eyes, Jin Taekyung was special.

Those movements… They were truly remarkable.

Sometimes forceful, sometimes fluid. His transitions between offense and defense were efficient, and he possessed an innate combat sense that told him when to advance and when to retreat.

When Butler Kim watched Jin Taekyung fight, the only word that came to mind was overwhelming.

A third awakening, huh.

It would take time, but it was worth investigating.

Butler Kim lowered his head.

“I’ll look into it.”

“Thank you. Ah, what are Sangdong Guild’s movements like?”

“They’ve deployed surveillance agents. They’ll probably obtain most of the information within a few days.”

It had not even been half a day since word came that Im Changsoo had been summoned to the Guild Master’s office and beaten like a dog, yet Sangdong Guild’s watchers had already latched on. They were moving faster than expected.

“The target is Jin Taekyung, then.”

“They must have marked him as a major figure. For now, they’ll analyze the entire Guild, though.”

“What about the other Guild members?”

“I’ve warned them in case someone follows them. But…”

Butler Kim hesitated before adding,

“Shouldn’t we tell Jin Taekyung as well?”

“It’s fine. In fact, I hope Sangdong Guild’s intelligence network is far better than ours.”

The person who was hardest to understand—and the person about whom the most had already been revealed.

It was like looking into a clear spring and still being unable to see what lay inside.

Choi Minwoo wanted to use Sangdong Guild’s power, if necessary, to get closer to Jin Taekyung’s true identity.

“More importantly, it seems Sangdong Guild’s Master is extremely angry.”

“He does seem much more cautious than before. If this were the past, he would have barged in and caused a scene by now.”

“Ah. Could it be?”

At Choi Minwoo’s reaction, Butler Kim smiled and nodded.

“I’m acquainted with Sangdong Guild’s Master.”

“An ill-fated relationship?”

“Who knows?”

Butler Kim’s smile deepened.

“What can I do for you?”

I answered the real estate agent, a man whose forehead shone brightly.

“I’d like to look at some houses.”

“Are you looking for a monthly rental? A jeonse lease? Or perhaps…”

“A house to buy.”

“Well, well. So you’re a young Boss. Sorry, but wait just a moment. Let me take care of this and I’ll be right back. It’s so urgent I can barely hold it.”

I wondered what he needed to take care of, then noticed the toilet paper in his hand.

If that was what he needed to take care of, he should hurry. When I nodded, the real estate agent dashed into the bathroom.

“Have something to eat while you wait on the sofa. There’s some mocha bread on the table. Gnnngh…”

Pfft. Pffft.

“……”

I wouldn’t be able to eat mocha bread ever again.

I lamented inwardly and leaned back against the sofa. On the television, which had already been turned on, a documentary about the Great Cataclysm was playing.

“Aaaah!”

“Crash! Boom!”

“This is an emergency bulletin. Mysterious phenomena are currently occurring across the country. In response, the government has declared martial law effective immediately…”

People scattered while screaming, buildings collapsed, and flames shot into the sky. News reports announcing the beginning of the Great Cataclysm flashed by one after another, until the exhausted face of the American president filled the screen.

“We have yet to determine their identity, but one thing is certain. They are our enemies. Not merely the enemies of the United States, but the enemies of the entire world and all of humanity. Even now, countless monsters are passing through Gates and invading Earth.”

Gate.

A Gate meant a door, quite literally. The Demon King Asmodeus had opened that door from beyond another dimension and descended upon Earth with an innumerable army of monsters.

After that, it went exactly as written in the textbooks.

Humanity had been helpless. Downtown areas, rural villages, mountains and seas, jungles… Gates appeared regardless of time or place, and the monsters pouring through them committed murder and destruction.

When the hellish period known as the Bloody Week ended after the Gates first opened, the casualties numbered in the tens of millions, while the property damage was so immense that it could not even be calculated accurately.

The Great Cataclysm: The Ten Most Horrific Years in Human History.

By the time the documentary reached its midpoint alongside the caption, the bathroom door flew open.

“Whew. I feel alive again.”

The real estate agent plopped down after wiping his sweat-slick forehead.

“Sorry to keep you waiting. You said you were looking to buy, right?”

“Yes.”

“Did you happen to visit somewhere else before coming here? There must’ve been plenty of real estate offices on the way.”

“No, this is my first stop.”

“Really?”

Judging by the way his eyes rolled around, he seemed to be deciding whether or not to take me for a fool. I pretended not to notice and held out the note I had prepared.

It had the address written on it.

“I’d prefer to see the property at this address, if possible.”

“With this address… that’s a safe zone.”

“Yes.”

“You really said you wanted to buy, right? Did I hear you wrong because I had to take a dump so badly?”

When I nodded, the man’s eyes traveled subtly up and down.

Jeans and a white T-shirt. A pair of 20,000-won sneakers bought at a market or online. No matter how you looked at it, I was not dressed like someone wealthy.

“What do you do for a living?”

“I run Gates.”

“Oh, a Hunter? I thought so. You’re young and already successful.”

A bright smile blossomed across the man’s face. Hunters were one of the most prominent high-income professions. It was hardly unusual for young, successful Hunters to buy expensive houses and cars.

He asked in a much friendlier tone,

“Have you checked the market prices?”

“I searched online on the way here.”

“Then you’re in luck. There actually happen to be a few listings available. Let’s see…”

Perhaps he was excited by the prospect of a sale, because the man began making calls to one person after another.

He hung up and called again, repeating the process. About five minutes later, he put away his smartphone and turned toward me.

“I found a listing that’s perfect for you, Boss. If you’re not busy, would you like to go take a look right now?”

“Sure. Why not?”

Since I was on vacation, I had no reason to refuse. When I stood up, the man broke into a huge smile.

Vroom.

I sat in the passenger seat of the sedan and watched the scenery pass by. Detached houses stood in rows, shops dotted the streets here and there, and playgrounds and schools appeared along the way.

“It’s changed a lot…”

The man glanced at me.

“Did you used to live around here?”

“When I was young.”

I had been in my third year of middle school—sixteen years old—so it had been exactly eleven years since then. I had been born and raised here, so in a way, this was my hometown.

“This area was redeveloped about ten years ago, so it must look pretty different. It used to be an old apartment complex, but when they heard an Association branch was going to be built within thirty minutes of here, they tore the whole thing down.”

“I see.”

I already knew that. As soon as news of the redevelopment spread, housing prices skyrocketed. We could not afford the jeonse deposit, which had risen by hundreds of millions of won, so we decided to move.

It was not long after my father died.

On the night before we moved, I saw Mom crying silently.

It was several years later that I learned the place had been my parents’ newlywed home.

“We’re here.”

The man’s voice brought me back to myself. When I opened the door and stepped outside, I saw a detached house with a yard.

“This is the address you gave me, Boss. The owner happens to be out, so let’s take a quick look around and get going.”

“Ah, just a moment.”

Maybe it was because of the memories. The old apartment complex had already been demolished, but the area still felt strangely familiar.

Still… I’m glad it hasn’t changed completely.

Some traces of the old scenery remained even after the redevelopment. The real estate agent smacked his lips as he watched me look around, lost in nostalgia.

“You must be happy to be back after all this time. Why don’t you take a lap around the neighborhood while you’re at it?”

“Is that okay?”

“You’re going to sign the contract, right?”

“No. I mean, yes.”

This house was something I had to buy, no matter what.

The man let out a quiet laugh and took out a cigarette.

“Then I should accommodate you. It won’t take long to walk around the neighborhood. I’ll stay here and smoke while I wait, so don’t worry about me.”

After offering him a brief word of thanks, I began walking slowly.

Is this the right way?

I passed through an alley and found the supermarket I had often visited as a child.

“When I was a kid, this place was my hangout. Back when I smoked like crazy in middle school, the old lady here was so old that…”

A gleaming foreign car was parked in front of the supermarket. A man and woman who had been talking together stopped when they saw me.

No—the man was the one who stopped.

He tilted his head, then approached me and asked,

“Do you know me?”