Chapter 72

【 Anonymous Forum 】

[Title: I Found Out Who He Is]

[Details:

The person mentioned in that eyewitness account—

Isn’t this the same guy??

This is a screenshot of an article I saved a while ago.

It was published on the day Jung Haseong cleared the EX-Class gate.

They said the report was false back then...

(Images attached)]

[Comments (9)]

[Anonymous: Whoa.]

[Anonymous: It really does look like him. The press photo is pixelated, but the hair color and length are almost identical.]

[Anonymous: So that article was true too...?]

[ㄴAnonymous: Looks like it.]

[ㄴAnonymous: Exactly. Jung Haseong probably looked like that because he took a serious beating inside the gate.]

[ㄴAnonymous: Terrifying. What kind of person goes up against an S-Class hunter?;;]

[Administrator: Posts containing unverified speculation about hunters violate forum regulations. Please review the notice.]

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Around the time a small ripple began spreading through the sea of information—

“Hmm.”

Wednesday.

An apartment in Seoul.

After returning from work, Seonwoo Yeon opened a box of tea leaves she had brought back from her hometown.

“Where did I put the new tea set...?”

It was the same premium green tea gift set she had given Kim Kiryeo as a reward.

Although she had told them it was unnecessary, her relatives in Hadong had still insisted on sending her home with several boxes.

‘Aunt and Uncle... They both looked healthy.’

Seonwoo Yeon became lost in thought as she brewed the tea.

After the Dungeon Shock incident, she had avoided returning to her hometown for personal reasons.

‘Whenever I saw the green tea fields, I remembered that terrible incident. So I left my parents’ business to my aunt and uncle and ran away to Seoul.’

This had been her first visit to Hadong in quite some time.

Surprisingly, it had been all right.

The memories had not hurt as much as they once had.

Perhaps time truly was the only medicine capable of healing certain wounds.

‘I should visit home more often from now on.’

None of this would have been possible without Kim Kiryeo’s support.

Seonwoo Yeon slowly savored the freshly brewed green tea, immersed in thought.

Come to think of it, he had seemed to love the tea she gave him.

—Wow, this is delicious! Why would anyone drink coffee when something like this exists?

After tasting the Ujeon tea, Kim Kiryeo had praised it so enthusiastically that he nearly wore his mouth out.

A faint smile appeared on Seonwoo Yeon’s lips as she recalled that moment.

However, whenever she thought about that awakener, her thoughts inevitably grew more complicated.

“Hmm.”

Just what kind of person was Hunter Kim Kiryeo...?

Seonwoo Yeon had been pondering that question frequently of late.

After witnessing him argue with Korea’s highest-ranked hunter in front of the emergency room a few days ago, her curiosity had only intensified.

Kim Kiryeo.

Judging solely from his behavior, it was difficult to believe that he was a rookie who had awakened only the previous year.

He carried himself like someone who had worked as a hunter for at least several years.

‘Where was he before his name first appeared in the Hunter Association’s records?’

The man’s obscure background stirred her curiosity.

Moreover, hadn’t Kim Kiryeo once casually said something rather strange?

—What’s the point of active duty if you waste all your time like this?

He had said it during the search for the missing people in Eunpyeong-gu.

At the time, Seonwoo Yeon had been too busy to pay much attention to it.

But now that she thought back on those words, they seemed strangely significant.

‘He talks... like some sort of retired soldier.’

Waste.

It was a word that seemed oddly out of place when spoken by Kim Kiryeo.

Seonwoo Yeon allowed her imagination to run wild for a moment.

Could Kim Kiryeo have suffered some terrible injury that forced him to withdraw from the front lines?

Something like what happened in the movies.

Perhaps he had once belonged to a secret organization, enduring countless hardships before deciding to live quietly while pretending to be an F-Class hunter.

‘Maybe he really isn’t an ordinary person...’

She might not know the details, but there was no doubt in her mind that his past carried some complicated and heavy burden.

Seonwoo Yeon quietly resolved never to pry carelessly into the man’s history.

Of course, that resolution was entirely unnecessary.

“Yahoo! Quitting is the best! No more overtime for me!”

After all, the alien had reincarnated for the sole purpose of escaping his job.

What a dark and tragic past indeed.

All he remembered was endless overtime and never being allowed to leave work before sunset.

“Time for snacks and a movie on YouTube!”

Some things in this world simply remain beyond human understanding.

For example, the utterly unremarkable past of a certain archmage.

Or perhaps his personality.

Or even his ordinary daily life...

***

Maintaining a happy daily life required proper preparation.

Earthlings often spoke of the three basic necessities of life: food, clothing, and shelter.

And as of today, I could confidently say that I had secured the best living environment available to me.

“Heh.”

The Infinite Power Core.

I had planned this from the very moment the item fell into my hands.

The object I had obtained after defeating Grid was, in simple terms, an extremely high-capacity battery.

“As expected, there’s nothing I can’t do.”

The Infinite Power Core had many possible uses.

Preserving the temperature inside greenhouses.

Maintaining barriers.

Manifesting large-scale illusions over entire buildings.

In other words, it served as an energy source for installation-type spells—techniques designed to remain active continuously within a fixed area.

Naturally, I used the core to erect a new barrier around Kim Kiryeo’s home.

Thanks to it, even an F-Class hunter like me could maintain a powerful defensive spell.

The core continued supplying energy to the barrier without requiring the caster to replenish its mana.

—Thump, thump.

I tapped the outer boundary of the barrier and gave it one final inspection.

Detection of intruders.

Protection against magical attacks.

Protection against physical attacks.

Even after being downgraded to suit Earth’s level, it remained quite impressive.

‘At this strength, it should even withstand a dragon’s breath.’

Excellent.

Now all that remained was to concentrate on my research inside this comfortable little nest.

I had temporarily forgotten about the problem while busy manufacturing mana amplifiers and handling various other tasks.

At present, however, I was still facing a serious threat.

Some S-Class hunter was trying to kill me.

‘Damn it!’

I had only one objective for the foreseeable future.

Twelve months.

Before the core exhausted its energy in several months’ time, I had to find a way to defeat an S-Class magical beast.

“Ugh... Once I deal with this problem, I’m going to live as a wealthy unemployed man. I’ll spend every day having fun and never lift a finger again.”

Filled with determination, I sat down at my desk.

I longed for peaceful, uneventful days—days so quiet that I would eventually grow bored of them.

Research.

More research.

And then still more research...

—Clack.

How many days had passed since I shut myself inside my workshop?

—Crunch, crunch.

Day four.

I took out a few biscuits and ate them for breakfast.

Wake up.

Eat.

Research.

Sleep.

My recent life followed a mechanical routine, but personally, I had no major complaints.

I was accustomed to overwork.

—Bubble, bubble... Bubble!

Ah.

It seemed the water had boiled.

I poured the hot water from the electric kettle over the tea leaves, then glanced out the window.

A leisurely tea break beneath the morning sunlight.

It was like something out of a dream.

Yes.

It truly did feel like a dream.

Except that, because of one particularly annoying visitor, I had barely slept for four days and now felt ready to collapse from exhaustion.

“Haa...”

I stared blankly into the teacup in my hands.

—Crack, crack.

Actually, there had been some bad news during those four days.

—Crack, crack.

“Oh, what damned bastard keeps tampering with my barrier? Hey! You! Come out and show yourself!”

For several days now, an unidentified awakener had been repeatedly attempting to break into my home.

***

Mid-August.

The main temple of the pseudo-religious organization known as Rakshasa Temple.

“Master Su Yehwi, are you inside?”

“Yes. Come in.”

A massive painting hung inside the otherwise empty room.

It depicted a dragon slumped beneath a willow tree against a crimson field.

“What brings you here?”

The believer wearing a raincoat gazed intently at the painting before turning around.

The woman who had entered the room bowed deeply and delivered her report.

“I investigated what happened to Eunpyeong’s Teacher, as you instructed.”

“And the result?”

“Th-that is... Teacher Dae was killed in an attack by Kang Chang-ho. Several of our believers were also handed over to the police...”

Su Yehwi’s expression shifted with surprise.

‘That’s strange. Whatever else could be said about him, that teacher was skilled at hiding.’

But the surprises did not end there.

Just as in the previous incident, the mysterious F-Class hunter had once again been involved.

Using the testimonies of those organization members who had escaped Kang Chang-ho’s attack, Su Yehwi reconstructed what had occurred.

“I see. So Teacher Dae kidnapped this hunter in order to obtain the core, only for an S-Class hunter to appear unexpectedly. Is that correct?”

“Y-yes!”

Could this perhaps have been a trap?

Su Yehwi frowned as he examined the documents his subordinate had handed him.

Kim Kiryeo.

Who exactly was this man, and why did he keep interfering with everything?

It was also strange that he happened to be so closely connected to the S-Class hunter whom Pyo Nagil had tried to kill.

Then there was the matter of him taking the items Su Yehwi desperately needed.

Even now, believers were being arrested one after another because of that single individual.

“Didn’t I tell you to report to me in advance before bringing in high-ranking awakeners?”

Tsk, tsk.

Su Yehwi clicked his tongue.

Had he learned of this sooner, he would have given strict orders not to touch that hunter.

“E-excuse me, Master Su Yehwi.”

At that moment, the believer standing nearby cautiously spoke.

“But what will happen to our plan now that Teacher Dae failed to recover the core...?”

Su Yehwi shook his head, signaling that there was no need to worry.

“Nothing will happen. It’s fine. We can simply purchase the core we need with money.”

“Ah!”

“Do not be impatient, Sister.”

Su Yehwi was the second-highest-ranking member of Rakshasa Temple.

At the same time, he was also an exceptional researcher.

“Everything is proceeding exactly as it should.”

The artificial dungeon break.

The Eunpyeong-gu disappearance case.

The assault on Istanbul’s winter gate.

The truth behind all those acts of terror lay in Su Yehwi’s attempts to verify the fundamental characteristics of gates.

More precisely, his research sought to answer a single question:

“What are the minimum conditions required for a dungeon to exist?”

Through his investigation of that subject, Su Yehwi had achieved meaningful results.

Thanks to those discoveries, he had become capable of manipulating dungeon spaces to a certain extent according to his own will.

‘The hunter named Seonwoo Yeon was especially useful during the previous experiment. Thanks to him, I confirmed that no matter how the dungeon is altered, an exit will appear once the boss is killed.’

Su Yehwi tilted his head as he recalled his earlier experiments.

“Yes. The groundwork is complete. Now all that remains is preparation...”

A pseudo-religious organization worshipping a nonexistent god had obtained knowledge capable of controlling gates.

What could possibly be more terrifying?

Worse still, the ultimate objective of their plan was the death of every S-Class hunter.

They intended to carry out acts of terrorism on an even greater scale in the future.

“Ah, yes! I can hardly wait for the Day of Judgment!”

“Of course. When that day arrives, our dear Sister will surely ascend to heaven. You have donated so much, after all. You will undoubtedly be welcomed into paradise.”

Up to that point, the members of Rakshasa Temple appeared to be irrational madmen worshipping some sort of devil.

However, human beings were usually driven by far more ordinary desires.

Money.

Or power.

—Ding-dong♩

“Sister, you may leave now.”

“Yes.”

The moment Su Yehwi heard the doorbell, he strode quickly from the room.

Before long, he reached the entrance of the building.

After neatly removing his raincoat, the believer warmly welcomed the arriving guest.

“Welcome!”

“Ahem.”

“Thank you for coming.”

“Where is the leader?”

“Father is already waiting in the reception room.”

Su Yehwi addressed the man who had just entered the building.

“Then allow me to escort you there immediately, Representative Kim.”