As soon as the members of the Meeting of Nine came into view, I activated my Insight skill.
As they were top rankers, their skills were already famous, but the Insight skill couldn’t be wrong like rumors often could.
Their skills were:
Melee Skills:
Park Hyun-chul – Flame attribute attack and defense skill with a sword.
Choi Woo-min – Ax and berserk skill.
Kim Seung-hyun – Attack skill using gauntlets and movement speed buff.
Magic and Healing Skills:
Kim Mi-eun – Binding-type attack and defense skills.
Lee Soo-jung – Ice-type attack and defense skills.
Kim Jung-hee – Wide-area healing and throwing poisoned dagger attack skill.
Lee Geun-gu – Attack skill using a crossbow.
In particular, Park Hyun-chul was the one to watch. He had the title of ‘Ruler of the Battlefield’ and a buff skill that strengthened his party members' attack and defense power by 30%.
The title overlapped with his buff skill to increase that buff by an additional 10%, for a total of 40%.
The others also had a number of titles that assisted in offense and defense, but the only one that bothered me was Park Hyun-chul's.
Park Hyun-chul and Kim Seung-hyun had already buffed them before they left the meeting room.
[I can sense the same energy I felt from Kim Gangsuk.]
‘I guess they took Angel Dust too. I'm still confident.'
[Confidence and arrogance are two different things. Don't let your guard down. Even tigers give it their all when hunting.]
I nodded slightly and switched up my weapon before we clashed.
“Take him alive!”
Park Hyun-chul shouted as soon as he noticed me getting ready.
To start it off, branches and vines rose from the floor to restrain me. That was Kim Mi-eun's binding skill.
I dodged them with the Heavenly Demon Replication and, at the same time, cut them away with the fake Demonic Dragon Blade.
Kim Mi-eun looked surprised. Contrary to her expectations, my movements were quick, and the branches severed too quickly.
“He uses Sword Aura. Combine your attacks!”
She yelled after looking at the black-colored Blade Energy on my weapon. She could only say that because they hadn’t seen the true Strong Sword Energy.
However, a joint attack would be difficult in this narrow space.
Besides, they didn't even have a primary battle arrangement, probably because they had thought it would be easy to deal with me.
Park Hyun-chul, despite being a part of the melee group, was at the back, and Kim Jung-hee, who had healing skills, was in the front row.
Since they were hunters who could clear Gates by themselves individually, they probably didn't think much of teamwork.
'I'll have to deal with that damn couple, Kim Seung-hyun and Kim Jung-hee.'
[Looks like you don’t have any good memories about them.]
‘That too, but their morale will decrease if I get rid of their wide-area healing skills and buffs first.’
[You’re right.]
Sasasasak-
I performed the Heavenly Demon Replication and swung the fake Demonic Dragon Blade.
Sgung-
"Kyaaaaaaaah!"
Kim Jung-hee lost both legs and collapsed with a scream.
“H-How can he move like that?!”
Lee Geun-gu cried out, astonished. His eyes could only track my afterimages.
“Get out into the open.”
Park Hyun-chul, initially trying to capture me with the pride of a ranker, now changed his strategy having seen my movements.
He knew now it wouldn’t be easy.
In the confined space within this building, their large numbers couldn’t effectively work together.
However, there was no way those words would make it to Kim Seung-hyun, who had seen Kim Jung-hee collapse.
“Jung-hee!”
He lost his mind.
As expected, he gave in to his fury and attacked me with his fists.
“You son of a bitch!”
Before my regression, Kim Jung-hee had treated me, an E-Rank hunter, like a servant.
I had to please her to make a living, but I was humiliated countless times.
In particular, Kim Jung-hee made me handle many of her personal affairs, and because of that, I didn't have a good relationship with Kim Seung-hyun of the Turbo Guild.
There were many things related to Kim Seung-hyun in those requests.
It was a thing of the past, but my bitter feelings had remained. Even now, low-rankers of the Phoenix Guild suffered the same way I did in the past.
But even if it weren’t for these old feelings or a desire for justice, they were still a target to get rid of now.
I shook off her attack with the fake Demonic Dragon Blade.
Clank!-
Pow!-
“Aaaaaaaaa!”
I deflected Kim Seung-hyun's energy into the fallen Kim Jung-hee.
Even though it had been weakened by the collision with the fake Demonic Dragon Blade, it was still enough to shatter Kim Jung-hee's shoulder.
She began to writhe and scream in agony as a new wave of pain swept over her.
"Huh? Jung-hee!”
Kim Seung-hyun was taken aback by her sudden screams, and I didn’t miss that moment.
“How dare you get distracted?”
Fuwaaaaaaaaaaa!-
The fake Demonic Dragon Blade fell vertically, carving a straight red line from the top of his head to his groin.
Kim Seung-hyun was cut in half with his eyes wide open.
“Aaah! Honey!"
Seeing that, Kim Jung-hee passed out.
The rest of the Meeting of Nine watched on in disbelief.
Park Hyun-chul shouted while pushing the rest back.
“Block the passage with your skills! Let’s quickly move to a wide area and combine our attacks.”
At his command, Lee Geun-gu kept me in check by firing mana arrows with his crossbow, while Lee Soo-jung blocked my path with the Ice Wall skill, and Kim Mi-eun used Wood Barrier.
However, I quickly obliterated all that with the fake Demonic Dragon Blade.
It took only a brief moment, but the members of the Meeting of Nine had already vacated the building.
Their movements were swift, befitting the Top Ten.
As I followed, Lee Geun-gu and Lee Soo-jung started pouring their attack skills toward me, using Ice Storm and Arrow Rain.
Backed by Park Hyun-chul's buff, I felt their powerful energy approach.
When this attack abated, Park Hyun-chul and Choi Woo-min worked together with Kim Mi-eun's binding skill.
“Enhancement, Mana Shield”
I prepared for the counterattack by casting both skills and spreading a shield over me.
As expected, the moment the wide-area skills ended, branches rose from the floor, and Park Hyun-chul and Choi Woo-min rushed in.
I moved out of range of the binding skill with the Heavenly Demon Replication, dodged Park Hyun-chul's sword, and then struck Choi Woo-min's axe away.
Choi Woo-min's axe had a subtle energy coating it, but I had formed Strong Energy when I spread the shield.
Slash-
“Aahh!”
The fake Demonic Dragon Blade's Strong Energy severed Choi Woo-min's wrist and shattered the axe.
Following it up with the following form of the Demonic Dragon’s Eight-Blade Style, I split him diagonally from his shoulder down.
Roaring!-
At that moment, I felt a flash of heat behind me.
Park Hyun-chul had fired off his attack skill, the Flame Sword, from a distance.
I dodged his skill and soared into the air, moving into the Demonic Dragon Power form.
Park Hyun-chul freaked out and rolled away to dodge.
The Heavenly Demon clicked his tongue.
[Tsk, tsk, that’s a move a martial artist would never do.]
There was no way Park Hyun-chul could hear his disappointment, though.
He quickly stood.
“Do you think such an attack will work?!”
"You think it won’t work? I did that on purpose."
“What?”
It was true. I had intentionally made my movements bigger to give him a chance to escape since my targets were Lee Geun-gu and Lee Soo-jung.
As soon as I landed, I kicked off the ground and performed the Heavenly Demon Replication.
“D-Dodge it!”
It was already too late.
Using the Demonic Dragon Force with Strong Energy, I hit Lee Geun-gu and Lee Soo-jung.
Rumble, boom!-
An explosion rang out.
Once it settled, I saw Kim Mi-eun bent over and sprinting away from the battlefield.
"Ha!"
[What’s wrong?]
“I knew that woman would eventually run away.”
I didn't want to miss out on anyone. Especially not her.
I closed the gap with the Heavenly Demon Replication and struck her pressure point. Kim Mi-eun, her body going rigid, hit the ground. She was only able to move her eyes now.
“I’ll take care of you later.”
[Looks like you have bad memories of this woman too. How much of a loser were you before you came back?]
The Heavenly Demon taunted me as I spun around without taking her life. I had nothing to say about that.
As the dust settled, Park Hyun-chul, wearing his shock clearly, came into view.
“What the hell are you?”
Park Hyun-chul shouted.
What he saw now were bodies that had been crushed beyond recognition and the figure of Kim Mi-eun as still as a statue.
Lee Geun-gu and Lee Soo-jung were so entangled that it was impossible to tell them apart.
“Why do you ask if you know the answer?”
Park Hyun-chul grimaced when I sneered.
“Take this!”
His magic power rose rapidly beside him as soon as he finished speaking. The effect of Angel Dust exploded.
Slash-
“Gasp!”
When my fake Demonic Dragon Blade flashed, his and Choi Woo-min's right arms hit the ground with their weapons, and blood gushed from their shoulders.
It surged quite vigorously, perhaps because of their exploding magic power.
He shouted with bloodshot eyes.
“C-Coward!”
"I'm not a coward. You were stupid."
I wasn’t kind enough to wait for the effects of Angel Dust to appear in a battle.
“You were hiding your skills even during the ranking match. Why?”
‘Why? To stab people like you in the back.’
Anyway, he talked too much.
I wished he’d answer my questions like this. I swung my fake Demonic Dragon Blade again and cut off one of his legs.
“Aagh! Son of a bitch! Just kill me.”
"I'm not that mean."
I stopped Park Hyun-chul's wound from bleeding out by sealing the cut.
His eyes were once again stained with astonishment. He must have been curious, but now was the time for me to ask questions.
Dawn came up behind me, but it looked like the weather would be cloudy today.
***
Hunter Management Bureau.
It was still early in the morning, but the office was busy, thanks to the raid by Lee Byeong-gi and the BnS Guild the previous night.
In the director's office, Yoo So-eun reported to Director Koh Tae-wook about the official letter they had received yesterday afternoon.
It had been delayed due to the raid, but it was a necessary report.
“It can reliably detect within a radius of 1.5 km, though they say its max range is 3 km. The performance is pretty good.”
"Really? The entire metropolitan area can be covered with only a few.”
“Yes. It was already installed across important facilities and in areas with a large population, residential areas, and civilian control areas. Real-time monitoring is currently underway in the Management Bureau situation room.”
Koh Tae-wook received the report from Yoo So-eun that the Gate Detector system installation had been completed.
Finally, with the test operation of the Gate Detector completed, and its effectiveness proven, the Gate alarm system began operations.
“To think of making something like this, that fellow is amazing.”
“Isn’t that why the President is also particularly interested?”
“Would the President really be interested in Lee Byeong-gi just for that reason?”
Koh Tae-wook smiled at Yoo So-eun, and she hurriedly changed the topic as her face turned red.
“Ahem, ahem, I haven’t been able to contact Mr. Byeong-gi since the raid last night. Where the hell did you go... I will head over to the BnS Guild.”
She saluted and left the office.
Yoo So-eun had been excluded from the Oh Young-seok List case and the investigation into yesterday's raid. Despite the President's instructions, she readily agreed to the order for her and her team to protect Lee Byeong-gi, his family, and the BnS Guild.
'If it weren't for Lee Byeong-gi, I would never have taken my hand off this case.'
She was a strong-willed and responsible soldier with a straightforward personality. However, when it came to Lee Byeong-gi, she acted as if she had a screw loose.
This seemed strange to Koh Tae-wook, who had known Yoo So-eun since childhood.
Even if he had saved her life in Hyehwa-dong, it was because Yoo So-eun, who had no interest in men until now, showed an obsessive interest in Lee Byeong-gi.
Even though he considered her a nuisance, she continued with this obsession.
When she was with Lee Byeong-gi, she often showed her unique smile that she only showed to her father.
Since she’d grown up, not even her father got to see it anymore, actually.
'When she was young, she followed me so well....'
For some reason, Koh Tae-wook felt bitter.
Beep, beep-
The intercom rang.
-Director! The alarm system has detected a Gate.
"Where?"
-Yangjae-dong, near the Guild Association.
"Really? Since the Association is there, it’s no big worry.”
The hunters of the Guild Association were crowded nearby. There didn't seem to be a problem with leaving it to them.
Koh Tae-wook didn’t yet know what had happened in the Association.
-But the mana density in the air is too high.
At those words, Koh Tae-wook's expression changed.
According to Yoo So-eun's report, the Gates, which were only classified as small, medium, and large according to size, were reorganized into a system similar to a hunter rank according to their magic power density.
For example, if it was an A-Rank Gate, you must include at least one A-Rank hunter in a 5-person party to be able to clear it.
“With the reorganized classification system, what rank do you think it will be?”
-S-Rank, no, more than that.
"What?"
Director Koh Tae-wook's voice grew louder.
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