Chapter 21
Go Deok-hyun.
He was once a C-rank hunter.
But now, he’s merely a third-class subject under the management of the Hunter Association.
Why?
Because he had just been released from prison five days ago.
‘There’s nowhere that will take me in, and in the end, this is all I can do.’
Go Deok-hyun shoved his hands deep into his pockets and scanned his surroundings.
The subway was full of people coming and going, and they were all Go Deok-hyun’s targets.
‘This place doesn’t look very promising. Should I go to a different station?’
After scanning the people’s appearances, Go Deok-hyun decided to move.
His main source of income was pickpocketing.
With his skills, the hand movements he’d honed through countless repetitions, and his experienced facial control, he could steal whenever and wherever he wanted.
‘Heh, if I use this skill, they won’t even notice when I take it.’
Go Deok-hyun possessed the skill ‘Perception Reduction’.
It was a skill that could dull a person’s perception in specific situations, preventing them from remembering what had happened.
Go Deok-hyun had found the perfect use for this skill: pickpocketing.
‘That lady over there has a really expensive bag.’
He picked his target.
There were three criteria:
Middle-aged, female, and carrying a luxury bag.
In his mind, the perfect pickpocketing target.
Step, step, step.
Thud.
“Oh, sorry about that.”
Go Deok-hyun lightly bumped into a middle-aged woman as he passed by, then apologized.
It wasn’t a hard bump, just enough to make them both stumble slightly.
“Oh my, I’m sorry too. Are you okay?”
The woman asked with concern.
Go Deok-hyun was short and skinny to the point that his cheekbones stood out, making him naturally draw sympathy.
His physical appearance also made it hard for people to imagine him as a pickpocket.
“I’m fine.”
Go Deok-hyun smiled warmly.
It wasn’t an act.
By then, the woman’s wallet was already in his pocket.
He quickly used his skill to blur her memory of his face and the wallet.
“Have a good day.”
Go Deok-hyun walked away, satisfied.
The woman’s wallet was a high-end luxury item.
Even if he ignored the contents, selling the wallet itself would bring in a hefty profit.
But then.
Snap.
“Ma’am!”
A man grabbed Go Deok-hyun’s arm and called out to the middle-aged woman.
“What the…?”
Go Deok-hyun tried to pull away, but the man, Do-jae, didn’t budge.
“Ma’am, does this wallet belong to you?”
Do-jae pulled the wallet from Go Deok-hyun’s pocket and waved it at the woman.
The middle-aged woman gasped in shock and quickly rushed over.
“Oh my goodness, when did I lose that…?”
Soon after, Go Deok-hyun was hauled off by the police with a mana-restricting shackle on his wrists.
Do-jae waited with the middle-aged woman until the police arrived, and she thanked him profusely.
“Young man, thank you so much.”
“If I hadn’t seen it, things could have been really bad for you. There’s been an increase in crimes by awakened individuals lately, so be careful.”
As the number of awakened people grew, so did the crime rate among them.
Awakened criminals were particularly troublesome since they used their skills as a tool for their crimes.
If it weren’t for Do-jae, the woman would have only realized her wallet was missing much later, and thanks to Go Deok-hyun’s skill, she wouldn’t have even remembered the situation correctly. She might have just assumed she’d dropped it somewhere.
“Yes, I really need to be more careful. Oh dear, how can I thank you properly for this…?”
“There’s no need to. I was just doing what anyone would.”
“Ah, what a good young man. How old are you?”
“I’m thirty.”
“Oh my! You’re the same age as my son. You’re so handsome and well-mannered, too.”
“Ha-ha, thank you.”
The middle-aged woman glanced at her smartphone.
On the screen was a photo of a man who appeared to be around Do-jae’s age.
After looking between the photo and Do-jae’s face a few times, the woman seemed to make a decision.
“You know, I’d really like to buy you a drink to thank you…”
“No, really, it’s okay. It’s not—”
Before Do-jae could finish, she was already pushing him along.
“Come on, it’ll only take a moment. Let’s go have a nice cold drink.”
Do-jae, wearing a slightly awkward expression, and the middle-aged woman, who seemed to have ulterior motives, headed toward a café inside the station.
**************
“Hahaha! Is that right?”
In an elegant study, a middle-aged man laughed heartily.
“Was this orchestrated by our side? Huh? I don’t know which fool did it, but it’s a welcome turn of events for us. Just to be safe, dig a little deeper. Investigate them thoroughly—every last relative. And secure the person named Mr. Choi. It may be too late already, but check once more.”
Click.
The Hunt Squadron, which had been getting more and more brazen lately.
If the news had reached their ears, then chaos must already be brewing internally.
“haha, serves them right.”
The man, usually solemn and dignified, couldn’t help but burst into laughter at how satisfying the situation was.
Because of this, the Hunt Squadron would be quiet for a while.
And not only that, their influence would continue to dwindle, and their voices would be drowned out more and more.
Knock-knock.
“Honey, what’s going on? What’s got you laughing like that?”
A middle-aged woman entered the study, holding a fork in her hand.
“It’s nothing. Things are just going well.”
The man had already returned to his usual stern, serious demeanor.
He always seemed distant and cold at home, for some reason.
“Really? I know you’re busy with work, but come down and have some apples. They’re sweet and delicious.”
A little while later, the man came down from his study and sat on the living room sofa.
As he took a bite of an apple slice, the woman spoke in a somewhat agitated voice.
“Honey, do you know what happened earlier today? I almost got pickpocketed!”
“A pickpocket? Was everything else okay?”
“Yes, but a young man helped me, so nothing bad happened.”
The man quietly sighed.
His position and name brought danger to those around him.
Especially his family.
That’s why he had been trying to keep his wife, who wasn’t awakened, from going out too much. But it’s impossible for someone to live without doing anything outside.
In the end, she experienced a minor, yet still troubling incident.
“Honey, take a look at this photo for a second.”
In the meantime, the woman showed him a picture on her smartphone.
It was a photo of a young man smiling brightly with a child.
“He’s tall, has a handsome face, and I thought maybe we could introduce him to our daughter. So, I got his number.”
“Really? As if she’d go along with that. You know she doesn’t like those kinds of things.”
The middle-aged man barely glanced at the photo as he spoke.
What father would like the idea of his daughter meeting another man?
Even if that man was someone he hadn’t met yet, it was a natural instinct to reject the idea.
“Oh, come on? You don’t know. Lately, she’s been feeling lonely, but you don’t even notice.”
“Enough. She’s already thirty. Should we still have to worry about her at that age? Leave her be. Our daughter knows what she’s doing.”
Though he said that, it wasn’t as if he wasn’t concerned.
No matter how well a child manages her life, parents will always be parents.
“Oh my? You stay up late worrying about your subordinates. I bet our daughter would feel neglected. Isn’t that right, Mr. Association President?”
“Just let her handle it on her own.”
“Tch. Fine. I’ll back off, but I was only trying to help her with her love life…”
Beep beep beep beep-
Beep beep beep-
Just then, the door opened at a perfectly timed moment.
A young woman, stylishly dressed, walked in.
“Mom, Dad, I’m home.”
Their pride and joy, their one and only precious daughter.
The middle-aged woman greeted her with a bright smile.
“Eun-hee, you’re home? Come have some apples.”
*********************
“Who is it? Get that bastard here right now! This instant!”
The commander of the undisclosed unit under the Subjugation Army* Intelligence Command, MID, was screaming at the top of his lungs, his face red with anger.
*(Subjugation Army – An organization tasked with hunting monsters and maintaining order post-cataclysm.)
“How long has it been?”
“Approximately three weeks….”
Crash-!
The commander slammed his fist down on the metal desk, causing it to collapse entirely.
Documents, the computer, and even the potted plant on top of it all came crashing down.
He didn’t care at all—his fury had reached its peak.
“You crazy bastard! Why are you reporting this just now?”
“I’m sorry! We’ve been searching for the missing staff member… It took time, and even getting him to talk was…”
“Don’t give me excuses! You call yourselves MID?”
The mana within him was boiling.
The commander’s hair began to turn a shade of red.
This was a sign that he was truly enraged.
The subordinate making the report didn’t dare raise his head, his voice trembling as he replied.
“I’ll submit my resignation…”
“Hah, resignation? Are you trying to avoid responsibility? Where do you think you’re running off to? I’ll give you one week. Resolve this within a week. If not, resigning won’t be enough to save you.”
“Yes, sir. Understood.”
“Get out!”
Thud-.
The commander, still seething, stood up from his chair and started pacing in circles.
The people he had hired, the ones he believed to be competent, had made a ridiculous mistake.
He couldn’t comprehend how this could have happened. It was baffling.
‘Do they have any idea what kind of stone that is?’
The missing stone from MID, known as the Transcendence Stone, had an official name: [Mana Limit Transcendence Stone].
It was different from the Awakening Stone used in forced awakenings.
This stone could draw out power beyond what a typical awakened person could normally access.
It was akin to doping, but the side effects were severe, and the success rate was low, making it a dangerous artifact.
‘Ugh, my head is pounding.’
The commander rubbed his temples in frustration.
The reason the Subjugation Army had grown strong enough to rival the Association was precisely because of the Transcendence Stone.
They had managed to produce B-rank, A-rank, and even S-rank individuals.
Although the quality of their forces might still be lacking, in terms of quantity, they now overwhelmed the Association.
Their trump card, the Transcendence Stone, had been leaked.
‘Was it an Association spy?’
The commander, wary, meticulously reviewed the report once more.
Even though they had done everything possible to screen out potential spies, finding a highly trained hunter-turned-spy was like finding a needle in a haystack.
If he started suspecting spies, it would only confuse him more.
However, he was confident that the individuals managing the Transcendence Stone had been thoroughly vetted and carefully selected.
While lower-level staff might have leaked information, those handling the stone itself could not possibly be spies.
‘Hmph, just having the Transcendence Stone isn’t enough.’
Whoever stole the stone must have been blinded by greed, thinking they could do something with it on their own. But such an important artifact couldn’t be handled by just one person.
The technology required to activate it was divided among several individuals, and they had ensured that even if it were stolen, no one could easily use it.
Without the proper facilities and equipment, it was merely a pretty rock.
‘There’s no suspicious activity with Choi Woo-seok.’
The report also included information on Choi Woo-seok.
He was just an ordinary merchant.
While his business had seen increased sales in recent years, it was merely due to the booming industry resulting from the growing number of monsters. There was nothing particularly unusual about him.
‘The mental probing is complete.’
They had swiftly conducted a mental probe using psychic skills.
Though it could be considered a violation of human rights, it was far more efficient than waiting for someone to confess during an interrogation.
Given the gravity of the situation, they couldn’t afford to wait for voluntary confessions.
The next part of the report concerned the man who had recently purchased the Transcendence Stone from Choi Woo-seok: Lee Do-jae.
‘Lee Do-jae… He’s been a hunter for a long time, but he doesn’t have much connection to the Association. So why did he buy the stone? And why did he join the Subjugation Army? Does he know something about the Transcendence Stone? But no matter how much of a hunter he is, he wouldn’t know just from having the stone.’
The details about Do-jae were laid out in the report.
Recently, he had enlisted as an officer in the Subjugation Army.
This alone was enough to raise suspicions.
However, the name of the unit Do-jae had joined made the commander uneasy.
‘Of all the places, it had to be that unit.’
Though lower in rank, the commander in charge of that unit had unmatched skills.
A man with a difficult personality who often clashed with him over various matters.
The commander picked up the fallen direct-line phone and made a call to someone.
“Hey, it’s me. I need you to keep an eye on someone I’m sending details of. Watch him 24/7.”
***************
*(T/L Note: I think the ‘Transcendence Stone’ is the half-sphered stone from Choi woo-seok’s shop, to which the golem heart of Do-Jae reacted to.) *
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