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The association president’s office door opened, and Hwang Sangwook walked in. 

“You were looking for me?” Hwang Sangwook asked. 

“Did you find anything suspicious when you were interviewing Kang Hyuk?” 

“...What do you mean...?” 

“Like a hunter’s sixth sense kind of thing. Whether he’s weird, dangerous, or whatever.” answered the association president. 

“There wasn’t anything. He just seemed depressed because of his brother’s death,” replied Hwang Sangwook. 

Kang Chansoo looked at Hwang Sangwook with a serious expression on his face. 

“Did something happen, President? I’ll take care of it if you just tell me,” said Hwang Sangwook. 

“Contact all the hunters who fought Kang Min right now and tell them it’s an emergency.” 

“Huh? Why so suddenly?” asked Hwang Sangwook. 

“I’ll tell the details later when we’re all together, so tell them to come to the conference room.” 

“Understood.” 

After Hwang Sangwook left, Kang Chansoo fell into his thoughts. Just earlier, a strange hallucination had appeared midair in the office. The hallucination had a stange appearance and a cold voice. It was Kang Hyuk’s subordinate and the 7th legion’s captain, Dullhan, Lamur. He had met eyes with Kang Chansoo, blinking his gray eyes. Kang Chansoo had assumed who had made such a provocation to him based on his experience. Hallucination magic using Undead was a dark ability part of dark magic. Kang Chansoo thought about what Lamur had said. He definitely said the ones who had killed Kang Min... That means someone knows that Kang Min didn’t die because of an accident. After a while, he had an idea. Kang Hyuk. The older brother of Kang Min had requested files from the association after returning. Files related to Kang Min... 

Kang Chansoo had already gotten a report on what kind of files Kang Hyuk had requested from Hwang Sangwook. He looked through his memories. There’s nothing known about his ability... He recalled the hallucination of Lamur. What if he’s a necromancer? Those who can use the Undead to provoke him. That could only be a necromancer’s doing, but Lamur was a monster he had never seen before. What was that monster? It wasn’t a skeleton nor a zombie, but it also wasn’t Lich, using dark magic either. I would’ve known right away if it was that type of Undead. He was interested. Did he find something out about his dead brother using his necromancer ability? 

The interphone on his desk rang. 

“President, I’ve made the emergency calls.” 

Kang Chansoo’s eyes filled with a desire to kill. He threw his gaze out the window as he got up. How dare he provoke me in such a way? He should just try and adjust as a returner. I guess blood doesn’t lie. 

He opened the door and left the office. 

***

In a conference room of a building in Yeouido owned by the hunter association, the president Kang Chansoo and hunters were gathered around. 

“So to summarize the situation, the returner is the dead Kang Min’s older brother, and he wants to kill us?” asked one. 

“Gargoa Guild’s incineration plant got hit, and Goo Changwoo and an attack squad was murdered. This isn’t a light situation. What’s the reason behind these attacks?” 

“Kang Hyuk seems to think that his brother didn’t die because of an accident.” 

At Kang Chansoo’s response, the hunters all exchanged glances. 

“Not an accident? Do you mean to say he knows we killed Kang Min?” 

“How would he know when he hasn’t been on Earth?” 

“I haven’t figured that part out yet, but it’s certain that Kang Hyuk considers us an enemy. We must react immediately.” 

“What the hell has the Vice Master been doing while letting the situation get to this point?” 

Gargoa Guild right now was led by Vice Master as the second ranking after Kang Min’s death. 

“He’s being notified right now after his dungeon raid.” 

“Does he think he can just fool around in dungeons since he’s gonna automatically become leader of Gargoa Guild?” 

“There’s no way. He entered the dungeon before Kang Hyuk returned, and the dungeon just turned out to be more difficult than expected and thus took longer,” explained Kang Chansoo.

“Let’s stop arguing and please listen to me carefully. The association will hold a press conference about the Kang Hyuk issue, and we will publicly announce an order to kill Kang Hyuk.” 

The hunters in the conference room whispered to each other. 

“Kang Hyuk needs to have committed a grave crime in order for us to do that. What are you going to say he’s done for the public killing order?” 

“We can just make something up. Did Kang Min die because he committed a crime? Whether it’s before the awakening or now, history of humanity has been decided by the winners.” 

“What crime should we make up? According to the files here, he’s massacred Gargoa Guild’s incineration plant employees, Goo Changwoo and his attack squad, and the employees and guild members of the club.” 

The hunters had the basic information about Kang Hyuk when he had first arrived to the association. 

Kang Chansoo put a new condition to the killing order. “To get rid of Kang Hyuk, we will need a lot more hunters than we think. We have to recall the fight with Kang Min and move accordingly. In order to do that, we need a reward to motivate all the hunters of South Korea to kill Kang Hyuk when they see him.” 

“Hmm, we have a lot more than 40 million ability users right now. If we exclude the non-ability users, most of South Korea needs to go after Kang Hyuk... Would that work? Not all hunters enjoy murder without reason.” 

“If we put out an incredible reward, they will be interested. There are a lot of hunters who are freelancers in dungeons, and there wouldn’t be many who would risk danger for something unrelated to them.” 

Listening in on the conversation, Kang Chansoo spoke up. “Let’s say the reward is going to be the right of residence in Gangnam Castle.” 

“Right of residence in Gangnam Castle?” 

The hunters’ facial expressions soured. They resisted strongly against Kang Chansoo’s idea. “President, are you insane? How are you gonna deal with the consequences?” 

“It sure is something that will make the 40 million hunters willing to kill Kang Hyuk. If the president is confident he can take care of the consequences, that is.” 

“Will we need that many to kill Kang Hyuk? That’s a logically impossible reward. Gangnam Castle is a place only the chosen ones can enter. If we’re not careful about this, it may create an internal conflict amongst the hunters.” 

All of South Korea’s hunters wished to get into Seoul’s top paradise, ‘Gangnam Castle’. Kang Chansoo’s idea would definitely get Kang Hyuk killed, but the problem was after. 

“Let’s say the hunters killed Kang Hyuk. Who are we gonna give the right of residence for Gangnam Castle then?” 

“If we put up the right of residence for reward, the current residents of Gangnam Castle will start a war with us, but if we say that we can’t give out the reward, all the hunters will resist too.” 

“Then you as the president of the association will become a target for murder, and we also won’t be safe considering that Gangnam Castle’s connections are stronger with foreign nations than with Korea.” 

“What we need to do right now is to make Kang Hyuk unable to act any further,” replied Kang Chansoo. “Just dividing up attack squads to chase him is only giving him more time. It won’t be effective. This was his provocation to us. We need a strong response to make him regret ever returning to Earth.” 

“If all of the hunters of this nation act, Kang Hyuk is just as good as dead, but you need to have a solution as to how to deal with the consequences, don’t you think? We can’t just say, ‘Kill him, and we’ll let you into Gangnam Castle’. That might start a war between Gangnam Castle and the association. I don’t want that. Gangnam Castle right of residence should be the last resort.” 

“Alright. Then we’ll do this. I will hold a press conference and reveal all the crimes that Kang Hyuk committed in detail. I’ll make sure to paint him as someone who’s breaking the ability user society’s rules and committing chaos, so let’s see how people react first then talk again,” proposed Kang Chansoo. 

“I agree. We don’t even know Kang Hyuk’s powers exactly yet, so we must be careful. If we can take care of it on the guild’s end, we’ll do that, but if he’s stronger than we expect, then we’ll use the right of residence to draw in the nation’s hunters.” 

“Then we’ll put an end to the meeting for today. Mr. Hwang, I’ll hold a press conference right now, so get it going.” 

“Yes, sir!” 

***

In a building where the Charnel House Sect’s office was, there was blood of the gang members all over the hallway. The blood drops falling from the ceiling wet the bodies of the members on the floor. 

“Huff... huff...” A man of huge build with tattoos was holding his neck, moaning as if the air was escaping his lungs. Blood seeped out from in between his fingers, and his already-wet t-shirt had a bone blade stuck in it. 

A skeleton soldier walked towards him, and took out the bone blade from the man. 

“Keuk... Eugh...” Blood flowed from the side where the bone blade was taken out. 

There was another muscular hunter crawling aside the bleeding man. 

“Heugh... heugh...” One of his eyes was crushed, and the blood running from his broken nose wet his lips. A side of his head had a skin ripped apart, yet the hunter could not feel any pain. A sense of extreme fear was all that he could feel. He was struggling to crawl on the floor, putting his bursting upper-body muscles to shame. His two legs were gone. He had hurried to drink a healing potion, but that only stopped the bleeding. It did not bring back his two amputated legs. There was only thing he could do in this situation. I have to call them quick... Fuck... Where did such a monster come from...? 

He tossed away his already-broken smartphone and barely managed to pick up the walkie-talkie in front of him. With static noise, he could hear a message. He struggled to move the facial muscles around his mouth. Perhaps his sense of responsibility to save his fellow members had won over his instinct to survive. He turned on the walkie-talkie and spat, “Hyu-hyung-nim...” He moved his tongue, but he could not speak as he wanted to. He held onto his fading consciousness and wriggled his tongue muscles. 

“Run... Away... Heuk...” He breathed in air filled with the scent of blood as a blade was stabbed into his back without mercy. The one who had picked up the message from the walkie-talkie that the hunter refused to let go even in his last moments was the Charnel House Sect’s manager, Du Kyungtak. 

Punch! Crash! A muscular hunter’s head crashed into the window then out again. Patches of skin fell where it had been ripped by the broken glass pieces, and blood spattered on to the walls. A skeleton soldier held the hunter upside down then threw him onto the floor. 

A piece of white bone poked through the ripped skin of the hunter’s neck. Du Kyungtak watched as his last remaining subordinate died. He had instinctively kneeled on the floor, staring and shaking. When he heard footsteps approaching him, his gaze wavered. Kang Hyuk sat across from him on a couch. Du Kyungtak could not see Kang Hyuk; he felt like a being that Du Kyungtak should not look directly at. 

Du Kyungtak had lived all his life as part of a violent gang before awakening as a hunter. He had committed murder and violence like he smoked and drank. 

“Do you know why I’m here?” asked Kang Hyuk. 

The terror in Du Kyungtak’s eyes made him meet Kang Hyuk’s eyes. He recalled, for the first time, the last moments of the people he had murdered. Did those people see him like he was seeing Kang Hyuk right now? Du Kyungtak did not want to answer Kang Hyuk. He felt like he was going to die the moment he replied. What came out of his mouth was the last words of the people he had killed. 

“P-please save me.”