Chapter 22

Strange. It was truly strange.

How had they known Siyoon’s apartment had exploded and come running?

The more he thought about it, the stranger it felt.

‘The timing of their arrival was too perfect.’

No—had they even come to find him in the first place?

The explosion had occurred after Siyoon dealt with all the assassins.

But Min Seolah had been positioned on a rooftop overlooking his studio apartment.

‘…Could it be.’

At that moment, a thought crossed his mind.

It was an intuition that Min Seolah had orchestrated everything.

It was a hypothesis that had surfaced suddenly, but precisely because of that, it carried all the more credibility.

‘If you assume Min Seolah was the one who sent the assassins, everything falls into place.’

The fact that the assassins had somehow obtained information about him.

The fact that she had been watching the scene unfold.

It all made sense.

Staying at the scene until the very end was perfectly in character for Min Seolah, who valued certainty above all else.

She had probably intended to confirm the kill herself if necessary.

But this alone wasn’t enough.

What reason would Min Seolah have to kill him?

The thoughts continued.

Finding the answer within them wasn’t difficult.

Unlike before, the hints available to him were plentiful.

‘The mastermind behind this incident is Haind.’

Once he factored Haind in, the picture became much simpler.

The company that had originally commissioned Siyoon was Haind.

The one who had connected him to them was Min Seolah.

When he linked the two together?

‘The decision to kill the commission’s executor was made from the very beginning. Regardless of who it was.’

This explained all of Min Seolah’s actions.

It had been a double commission from the start.

She was simply carrying out her assignment.

‘The conclusion is that Min Seolah used Haind as a tool to kill me. And she even squeezed profit out of the commission in the process.’

Typical Min Seolah.

“Hah…”

As the full picture came into focus, a bitter laugh escaped him.

His own foolish behavior came rushing back.

‘I was too arrogant.’

Why had he been so careless?

He had known better than anyone how insane this world was.

On the surface it seemed peaceful, but incidents like this were commonplace—that was the reality of the present.

Corporations and guilds had expanded their power, exploiting the weakened government’s inability to act.

As a result, law and ethics existed in name only.

Ordinary citizens caught in the crossfire of power struggles went unprotected.

It was in that insane world that Siyoon had Awakened.

He had lived his entire life as an ordinary person.

That was precisely why it had been so hard to believe.

That was why he had tested the BB Gun’s power and then gone hunting magic beasts.

If he hadn’t Awakened, he would never have gone anywhere near magic beasts.

But Siyoon had ultimately succeeded in hunting them.

And he had come to understand his power precisely.

Perhaps that was why—it must have started around then.

The feeling that he had become different from everyone else.

It showed in his behavior.

Before, he would have stayed alert even while walking down the street.

After becoming a hunter, he had walked far more carelessly.

Even if a sudden accident occurred, he now had power unlike before.

He had believed he could handle whatever came his way.

But the price of that indifference had come back as a devastating consequence.

Wasn’t that very consequence right before his eyes?

Hwarreuk.

Siyoon’s studio apartment, still ablaze from the explosion.

It was a chilling sight.

If he hadn’t used the assassin’s equipment to Conceal himself, he would probably be dead.

Once Min Seolah learned that Siyoon had survived, she would never have let him go.

‘…To truly become a hunter, I can’t afford to be careless. I need to stay sharp even outside the hunting grounds.’

This time, he had survived only because multiple strokes of luck had overlapped.

Strictly speaking, he hadn’t survived through his own abilities.

Thus, the conclusion was simple.

‘I need to think more intensely and act more carefully.’

Siyoon clenched his fist.

You couldn’t survive on luck forever.

The carelessness and stupidity of the past had to be discarded.

To do that, he would also have to make choices that were half-foolish.

‘To survive… I need to take revenge against Min Seolah, who tried to kill me.’

He had to take revenge against Min Seolah.

Even if it meant putting his own life at risk.

To live as a hunter in this world, it was ultimately necessary.

And so, what he needed to do was already decided.

Revenge.

* * *

He had no intention of becoming an avenger, blindly lashing out in rage without thought for consequence.

The taciturn man didn’t have that kind of personality to begin with.

‘First, I need to observe.’

There was an old saying: know yourself and know your enemy, and you will win every battle.

It meant that understanding both your enemy and yourself guaranteed victory.

Siyoon genuinely agreed with this sentiment.

After all, something similar had happened not long ago.

‘When I faced Kim Chulwon—what if I had prepared more thoroughly?’

At the time, Siyoon had gone in relying solely on his skill and sniper rifle.

Looking back, it was utterly careless.

What hunter in the world went on a commission without a backup weapon?

At the very least, he should have prepared for close combat with a dagger or similar weapon.

‘With this kind of sloppy mindset, I’ll never survive.’

Siyoon took the incident as a lesson.

For revenge, he needed to be far more meticulous.

Therefore, the first thing Siyoon did was analyze Min Seolah.

The results of his analysis were not in his favor.

They were quite unfavorable.

As was well known, she was a highly capable agent.

An opponent who could never be taken lightly.

‘…Her security is extremely tight.’

Her bodyguards carried out their duties more discreetly and powerfully than expected.

There was always a bodyguard near Min Seolah.

Even when she appeared to be alone, a bodyguard was hidden nearby, watching over her.

This level of protection was consistent not only around her office building.

But outside as well.

‘So that’s how they conducted their security. That’s why the car was empty.’

Min Seolah’s outings were particularly impressive to observe.

During those times, her bodyguards followed in separate vehicles.

Maintaining a distance from which they could spring into action at any moment in an emergency.

But the bigger problem than the bodyguards was Min Seolah’s equipment.

‘Is every piece of equipment she carries a powerful magic tool?’

The various accessories adorning her neck and fingers.

All of them were defensive magic tools worth at least tens of billions of won.

They would probably deflect Siyoon’s attacks with a scoff.

‘A direct confrontation is completely off the table.’

A frontal assault against Min Seolah would be suicide.

But sniping was also problematic—the vehicle got in the way.

The black sedan she rode in.

It was bulletproof, a premium model that wouldn’t even scratch from ordinary attacks.

When even a single car was worth hundreds of billions of won.

Its performance went without saying.

‘Sniping is out of the question too. There’s no way that car model would be pierced by my sniper rifle.’

Even with Siyoon’s ‘RTB-201,’ he couldn’t be certain.

Of course, he could attempt it.

But the penalty for failing to penetrate would be too great.

At that point, Min Seolah’s defenses would only tighten further.

‘I can’t gamble.’

Even for an agency, her current level of security was pathologically solid.

Whether it was because Siyoon’s whereabouts were in question, or she had committed some other crime, he couldn’t tell.

‘Probably both.’

This wasn’t going to be easy.

But he didn’t want to give up like this.

‘Either way, if I don’t take revenge on Min Seolah, my life as a hunter will be difficult.’

Min Seolah had tried to kill him.

If she learned that Siyoon was alive, she would surely reach out through other channels.

He couldn’t leave such a risk factor unchecked.

Whatever else happened, Min Seolah had to die.

‘Let’s keep watching a while longer.’

He wouldn’t make a move just yet.

Instead, he would continue observing Min Seolah.

And then, at the moment she let her guard down the most.

He would seize the optimal timing and deliver her end.

* * *

While Siyoon observed.

Time passed quickly.

Over the course of about two weeks, the season passed autumn and grew steadily colder.

The brief autumn was fading, giving way to the threshold of winter.

“Huu.”

Min Seolah settled into the driver’s seat.

She had just secured a new commission.

As an agent renowned in the industry, she was always busy.

“Has it already been two weeks.”

Starting the engine, she checked the date.

Today marked exactly two weeks since that ‘explosion.’

‘This should be enough to consider him dead.’

Min Seolah felt slightly relieved.

She had been taking excessive safety precautions lately.

Because Siyoon’s whereabouts remained unclear.

Min Seolah had sent assassins to kill Siyoon.

It was to fulfill the contract to eliminate the commission’s executor.

But the explosion had erased all traces, making confirmation impossible.

The explosion had also occurred suspiciously after the assassins had died, which left her unsettled.

So she hadn’t been able to shake an uneasy feeling all this time.

But now, she could finally let her guard down a little.

‘If he were going to come after me, he would have done so by now.’

If Siyoon were alive, he would have figured out that Min Seolah was the culprit.

The causal relationship was clear.

She was also the only one who could have sent assassins in the first place.

Min Seolah was the only person who knew both Siyoon’s abilities and his address.

‘I should stop worrying about this and focus on work’

Even if he were alive, it didn’t matter.

What could someone like him possibly do?

Assassinating Min Seolah, wrapped in layers of defensive equipment, was impossible.

Well, if he grew stronger, he might be able to take revenge later.

But could he really grow without Min Seolah noticing?

She already had a comprehensive grasp of all information in the hunter industry.

The status of nearby exchanges and the flow of magic beast byproducts.

For dungeons, she simply needed to assign covert monitors.

Given his tendencies, he wouldn’t visit popular dungeons, so she only needed to keep tabs on the ones with little foot traffic.

In the end, there was nothing Siyoon could do.

That was what Min Seolah thought.

That was the moment.

Deolkeong!

“Gyaak!”