Chapter 15 – Entering the City

Episode 14

Snug-
A hidden house in the Daegu Yeomyeong Guild. A chandelier made of ceiling crystal, a large luxurious wooden table, and gorgeous decorations that make you wonder if you can breathe in this space.
It was an extravagant space that made the word “Safe house” Go unnoticed.

“Failed?”
The man sitting alone at the huge table and cooking the steak didn’t look awkward at all in this gorgeous space, as if I were the owner of this place.

“I’m sorry!”
A person who did not fit into such a seemingly flawless space was trembling on his knees.

“The reason is?”
“Well, according to the story of our staff, it suddenly disappeared.”
“So you don’t know why?”

He was slicing the steak indifferently, not watching in horror as he made his excuses.

“Lord, I have sinned to death!”
Thump-!

The man turned his head nonchalantly to the one with thick muscles who hit him on the head with the feeling that he would break the floor. The man said as he watched him hit his head even as he was bleeding.
“Stop”
“Huh, uh uh…Lord, I have committed a mortal sin…”
Knock… Knock…
The blood dripping from his head fell drop by drop onto the pure white marble.
“So… Do you think you’ve committed a mortal sin?”
“Ah yes! Sorry! Only once! If you give me one more chance-!”
“Okay? Then you must die.”
“Yes yes…? Gagging-!”

Slow-!
Big, big, big…

The man cut his throat with the knife he was holding as he was kneeling.

Dump-!

A red color spread over the pure white marble. The man sliced ​​the steak again with the bloodstained knife, not even looking at the man who fell while biting into the foam.

“Take this away”
Sussuk…

In a large space with no space to hide, people who did not know where they came from popped out and grabbed the fallen corpse by the neck.

Among them, the one who seemed to be the leader stood silently next to the man who was still eating and waited in silence.

“So, why exactly did it disappear?”

After eating for about 30 minutes, the man who had a greasy mouth with a sip of wine wiped his mouth with a napkin before opening his mouth.

“I don’t know the exact reason, but there’s one thing I’m guessing.”
“What?”
“According to Du Blanc, who is in Seoul, at some point he felt a chilling power. That time…”
“Does that time overlap with when the name suddenly disappeared?”
“Yes… I’m guessing he died fighting someone unknown.”

The subject of the question and answer between the leader in black and the man was the name, Killian. Those who did not know the fight between Killian and Yoochun and the result concluded that Named was killed by someone.

“Tsk…”
The man looked displeased when he heard that the name was killed by someone unknown.

“And it is said that Lee Do-gyeong, Lee Man-seong, and even Yang Ha-yeon headed there.”
“Right…”
Even though Lee Do-gyeong and Lee Man-seong only mentioned it to a few of their direct subordinates, the black man’s subordinates knew about it, and the man also took it for granted.

“This was a good opportunity to put a leash on the association.”

The man felt displeased that the three major guilds had missed a golden opportunity to dominate the association.

“My lord, with all due respect… Did you have to kill him earlier?”
“Hmm?”
The man turned his head to the question of the subordinate who was standing there silently.

“This one failed, but it was useful enough. In fact, he was also the one who negotiated with Manho, Youngsan, and Dongyang Group in that short time and drafted the agreement to tie the association together.”

Surprisingly, the man who died miserably was the schemer who made Lee Man-seong lament. If Lee Man-seong had known that such a great man had met such an insignificant death, he would not have been astonished.
The man killed such an outstanding man without hesitation.

“No, even if he survived, he would have failed again.”
“…”
He wondered why he thought so, but his subordinate listened. Because he knew that the person he served was never wrong.
The man who read the question clicked his tongue, but unlike the dead man, Lee was an amputee who had been with him from the central world. He could not be treated the same.

‘If I need to be away, it’s this guy who has to take care of this place.’

His loyalty and popularity are unquestioned, but he didn’t like how he didn’t know the mindset of those who were still on top.

“… Let me explain it just once. Those who roll their heads have a common habit. What do you think it might be?”

“…I do not know. Sorry.”

“Tsk… Listen, they interpret and judge things as they please. Don’t ask me one What if I forgive you for your failure and give you another chance?”

“I would have thoroughly prepared for the following in order not to fail and appreciate the grace of my lord.”

“Yes, you would, but not him.”
The man wet his throat with wine and opened his mouth again.

“Such people must say the same thing as you. I will be thoroughly prepared next time. But deep inside I think differently. The reason he survived was because he was competent. Even the lord knows that this happened because of bad luck. You will judge yourself like that, become arrogant, and then fail even more. That’s why I killed him.”

“…”

“The bottom line is, if you manage this place while I’m gone, don’t put your trust in those who roll their brains. Guys are tools. Tools that must be disposed of when they break down after use. Did you understand?”

“Thank you for your teaching.”

“Yeah, now it’s a joke. Decided to rectify the failure. If it had gone according to the original plan, it would not have ended with tying up Lee Man-seong, but it could have turned this country into a mess.”

Contrary to Lee Man-seong’s thoughts, the man’s original plan was not only to put a leash on Lee Man-seong after the named subjugation, but also to tear the guilds of this country to pieces, creating mayhem.
So, I sent Moon Hye-mi to a meeting she would never have been able to go to. If it were her, she’d take care of it without needing to use another hand, and it would have made her relationship worse.
And finally, the local war between the guilds, and the countless deaths that occurred there, was the man’s final goal.

“That the name suddenly died there… I really didn’t think of it.”

However, because of the sudden death of the name, the man who is the actual ruler of the dawn has a handshake to make an enemy called the golden bird.

“What do you think? Tell me once”

“My lord… I can’t figure out how to get out of this situation…”

“I didn’t ask your head. You asked your intuition. Because your intuition has always been specialized in poking at gaps that cannot be judged by reason.”

‘If it wasn’t for this guy, he probably wouldn’t have come this far alive.’

The man turned his head to look at his loyal subordinate, who was bowing his head on one knee.

“Tell me where your senses are headed. Where and how can I turn this situation around?”

The subordinate closed his eyes. He told me not to think, so he emptied everything in his head and only felt where his senses were headed.
The man quietly sipped his wine. When he opened his eyes about 10 minutes later, his subordinate’s brow was frowned as if he was worried.
Because one of the three things my intuition told me was a big problem.

‘It’s not something I’m worried about. The decision is solely up to the lord.”
The man finally made up his mind.

“Haewon and shadow. In addition… I need the water of the Holy Spirit that my lord has…”

“…You need holy water?”

“Sorry…”

The man who thought he would be calm no matter what happened, his face crumpled at the last words of his subordinate, and the subordinate lowered his head.

‘The water of the Holy Spirit… The water of the Holy Spirit… The water of the Holy Spirit…’

‘Spiritual water’ It is holy water that is created when the creator of the past, who is difficult to count, still remains in the world and soaks up the aftermath of the descent with extreme probability. It is the highest grade sacred object that is said to be summoned unless one dies, no, even if one dies and crosses the underworld, one does not reincarnate. Even if it’s not that, it’s also the best elixir.

Value… Needless to say. Before the destruction, the man’s family was a prestigious place in the central world, so hundreds of years ago, it was possible to get a tongue-in-cheek amount.

However, the subordinate’s intuition told him that such a holy relic was needed in the current situation.

A subordinate’s intuition is not a foreknowledge of the future. Clearly, with the information in my head, my intuition naturally draws conclusions.

‘Resolve, Darkness, and… Holy Spirit Water’
‘I knew what I needed. All I need now is to put them together…’

The man put the ingredients into the information he had collected and stored in his head and put them together.
And until the sun above his head went over the mountain, the subordinate closed his eyes and stood by the thinking master’s side.
And after opening my eyes,

“Okay… I think it’s worth a try.”
The man laughed for the first time.

*

‘As expected, power is the best’

With the help of Lee Man-seong, the “Chairman of the Awakened Persons Association,” And Lee Do-kyung, the “Mana Observation Device Director,” Yoochun, who passed the Seoul barrier that required strict identity checks, felt that he needed power to live comfortably.

What if you could break them all? After that, all that would be left would be blood-soaked ashes.

“How are you? How does it feel to be in the city?”
“Good. I feel like I have become a human from a monkey.”

Yoochun smiled as a joke at Lee Manseong’s words. When I entered the place where people lived, I felt that my heart was full again.

“You two stay here. A staff member will come soon and give you a place to stay. I have to go down Let’s talk about it tomorrow because we have to go to curse at our Awakened who trained mutts.”
After leaving with a big smile, I asked the president of the association to do a good job and looked around.

The nameplate on the large desk reads, “Lee Man-seong, Chairman of the Awakened Persons Association.” This was Lee Man-seong’s office at the top of the association building.

Seoul was visible through the large glass windows on three sides. It was a strange feeling. There were cases where it was not taken for granted, and vice versa.

‘Bukhansan was really absurd…’

On the way, I asked why there was no Bukhansan Mountain, and except for Killian, who was sitting still, everyone looked at me with absurd faces.

How absurd must it have been, even Yang Ha-yeon, who had hardened her face at the serious condition of the woman he rescued from the villains’ hideout, said, ‘The loss of memory… I guess it wasn’t a lie…’

‘It’s embarrassing, but in a way, is it a good thing because it bought trust?’

They seemed to be half convinced of my theory of amnesia, which they had doubted because of that question.

‘No, but I didn’t know that the mountain exploded.’

Twenty years ago, by chance, 24 dungeons appeared simultaneously near Bukhansan Mountain. There were no rankers like now, and the power was much weaker compared to now, so Seoul was in an uproar.

Naturally, people left Seoul, and the government and guilds joined forces to form a total of 7 defense lines from Yongin to Busan to plan an operation to reduce the number of monsters.

But funny enough, all the dungeons exploded before the monsters appeared. The reason was because of a certain characteristic of the dungeon. Dungeons have a characteristic of trying to take root in the world. The problem is that if there are other dungeons in adjacent spaces, they try to eat each other.

In a word, 24 dungeons destroyed themselves while trying to eat each other, and Bukhan Mountain disappeared due to the explosion that occurred during self-destruction.

However, that incident brought about very big changes in many ways in Korea. There are many, but the biggest is the change in population density.

‘Seoul, Daegu, and Busan have almost the same population…’

It doesn’t matter if the Bukhan Mountain explosion occurred and everyone went back to their original places, but the problem was that many people didn’t leave.

There are 24 dungeons in a row, but who would want to go there?
As the number of people influences all aspects of life, the influence of the capital has declined in Korea.

Fortunately, the three rankers concentrated in Seoul were barely controlling the province.

Other than that, it was only minor compared to the previous one, such as the far-reaching barrier I had crossed, and the phone and car logos being different.

Those differences convinced Yoochun that this place was not a dream, but a different world. Depressed that this is not really where he lived, he blankly stared out at the setting sun.

-What are you staring at so blankly?
Yuchun turned around when he heard a voice calling him.

Two-button jeans and a white blouse for 70,000 won can be purchased up and down. But when she sees her, she feels that her fashion is completed by the person wearing it, not her luxury goods.

Legs stretched out on the table with braided hair, upper chest protruding slightly because even the spandex blouse couldn’t stop it, healthy-looking light brown skin above it, eyes resembling amethyst, and dark double eyelids.
Her appearance, which she couldn’t bear to see closely in her cave, made her heart pound as she forgot that she was a demon.

In Gangwon-do, things that were not visible because they were in a mess and hectic state began to be seen because they could afford it.

‘Fuck… He’s not human… He’s not human…’
Yuchun muttered to her inside, looking at her with her double meaning.
Looking at her Yuchun’s red face, she tilted her head and said.

– What else did I do wrong?
“Uh…? No? Why?”
-But why is your face so red? If…

Yoochun, who has not lost her petit bourgeois mentality yet, was nervous that she would catch the thought that he was going to see her and she was sweating profusely.

-Are you in heat?
“…”
-Um… Well, you were a male too.
“…”

Seeing Killian yawning with a satisfied smile, Yoochun thought. Let’s fix that fucking snout first.