Chapter 232 – The Inside Story (3)

Well, there was the meddling of the Demon King and the others at the top, of course.

I started to work out.

I took some gym equipment out of my inventory and began to punish my muscles.

All living things breathe. If they can’t breathe, they die.

My muscles were no different. If I didn’t thrash them, it was like they couldn’t breathe and would just die.

“You crazy bastard. You’re pumping iron even in here?”

I ignored the background noise and focused on my training.

First, let’s think.

No matter how high-ranked a global hunter he was, no matter how much the Union’s stock had been soaring lately, coming to another country and opening fire was absurd.

Even if they evacuated the people nearby and blocked the CCTVs.

First off, it wasn’t the Director.

I’d extracted some of his memories after putting him in my inventory.

In other words, the Demon King wasn’t the only one involved in this. More people, a larger power, were at play.

It felt like everyone had joined hands just to drive me into a trap.

“It’s good that you’re training. We have nothing but time in here.”

I wasn’t even listening, but the commentary kept coming.

“Ever since I was captured by you and thrown in here, I’ve been training, dreaming of the day I’d get my revenge. Heh heh, what a shame. If it weren’t for these iron bars, I’d pay you back with the new power I’ve acquired.”

He sat with his legs crossed, glaring at me as if he wanted to eat me alive.

“Keep your monologues in your head, not out loud.”

“Don’t order me around, we’re both criminals. Looking at you now, it seems you can’t flaunt your precious privileges anymore.”

I stood up from my spot.

“Oh? Are you angry, Mr. Hero? What are you going to do about it? The iron bars between us are as solid as the border between North and South Korea. Pfft, you think pulling on them like that will do anything? Do you think those bars are made of aluminum or some—why are they bending? Wait a minute. Don’t touch my bars. My bars are precious, so don’t bend them. O-okay, I was wrong. I’ll never mess with you ag—gurk!”

I taught him a lesson in public etiquette.

I returned to my cell and restored the bars to their original state.

Seeing the once-noisy guy now huddled in a corner, I felt satisfied that I could focus on my workout in peace.

-Sir Hero.

Just as I turned off the local broadcast, a mental one began.

-First of all, the media is a mess. The Korean government is under immense pressure because you killed a global hunter. Public opinion seems to be swaying with the media’s narrative.

The public has always been vulnerable to the media.

When they all start chattering in unison, speculation flies everywhere. In the end, the truth gets buried under rumors.

-Director Shin Chae-ho of the Disaster Management Agency has also been arrested, with various corruption charges coming to light.

In the end, the Disaster Management Agency was collapsing.

-This branch of the agency will also be managed under the name of the Hunter Management Bureau.

Just as I expected.

-Members of parliament, corporate chairmen, legal professionals, and all sorts of prominent figures are all raising their voices in favor of your punishment.

It’s a relief that everyone has united by sacrificing me.

That was a joke, of course.

It was so unanimous it made me wonder if they had ever been this united before.

“So, who is it?”

No matter how much money Im Jae-joon managed while running his group, this wasn’t a scale he could move with his own pocket money.

-It’s a regressor.

I figured a regressor would be involved.

No, perhaps they joined hands with the Demon King.

“The power of healing?”

-That’s right.

They say there’s nothing that can’t be done with money. But there are many things that are impossible, no matter how much money you have.

Don’t they say you can’t buy health? But what if you could?

Hundreds of millions, billions. People would gladly empty their fortunes for it, seeing such amounts as trivial.

“Right, so he’s been making the rounds. He’s worked hard.”

A suspicious healing power.

With it, he must have tirelessly approached influential figures, eventually becoming an object of worship.

And the fact that I hadn’t received any intel about such a movement in the business world meant it had been blocked beforehand.

In other words, the regressor and the Demon King had joined forces.

“What do they gain by locking me up in here and tarnishing my name?”

-…Sir Hero. Let’s just stop.

Why did her voice suddenly drop?

-It was the same in the other world, wasn’t it? You know what kind of sacrifice is needed to break up a system where they’ve already formed their own stagnant clique and created a world for themselves.

Pouring a bucket of clean water into dirty water doesn’t make it clear.

You have to dig out the puddle. Purify it. Let clean water continuously flow to cleanse it.

-How about we return to our original dimension?

“Why should I?”

-There’s no need to protect people who are swayed by public opinion anyway.

“They’re swayed because they’re weak. It’s not that they’re intentionally malicious.”

-You’re so carefree.

Olivier’s reproach.

“Our kids are here too.”

-….

Olivier fell silent at my words. Then, a quiet sigh.

-Take them. No, drag them. If they say they don’t want to follow, just leave them here to be trampled by the Demon King’s army for all I care.

Her tone was harsh.

-And stop being so stubborn.

“Don’t use the kids to do anything pointless.”

-What are you talking about?

“Did you forget they’re all under a knight’s contract with me? You think I wouldn’t know?”

That Olivier… even when I was at the Disaster Management Agency, she had Seo Hyun-ji and Kim Tae-yang cause a scene.

In her own way, she probably thought she was diverting attention for my sake, but it was meaningless.

-That’s why you should have just run away then. Why did you have to kill those rankers so openly? Didn’t you know it was on purpose?

It wasn’t unexpected.

The Talismans. I had decided to kill all of them, those who flaunted power earned through the lives of others as if it were their own.

So I simply carried it out.

-Let’s just forget about it and close the book on this world. I’ll… I mean…

Olivier hesitated for a moment.

-I mean, I’ll follow you if you want. No, if you bow your head and ask, I could deign to accompany you. We could find a house there, and, well…

She was stammering through some silly nonsense.

Just then, a guard came by on patrol.

“Warden! No, Guard! That man tore his straitjacket! Thrash him with a tougher one! No, I mean, give him one!”

The villain shouted at the guard, then glanced nervously at me.

They looked at me, having freed myself from the straitjacket. Then they quietly took out a new one.

Seeing this, the villain’s expression twisted with glee.

He certainly changes his mood quickly.

“A new straitjacket, sir.”

The guard pushed the straitjacket into my cell. Then he continued.

“Please, just hold onto it.”

The guard’s expression was a mixture of apology and shame.

“None of the guards like seeing a hero treated like this because of the higher-ups’ schemes.”

Though he had done nothing wrong, his face was filled with guilt.

I gave a bitter smile.

“Right now, petitions are flooding in, demanding proof of your innocence, Hunter Lee Hyunbin.”

This person likely had no connection to me, yet here he was, saying such things.

“They won’t be able to hide the sky with the palm of their hand. Witnesses to the situation that day are starting to come forward, one by one. So if you just wait a little longer…”

This is why I can’t give up on humanity.

“It’s alright.”

I smiled at him and continued.

“It’s about time I got out anyway.”

“Pardon…?”

Not understanding my words, the guard blinked.

I stood up, grabbed the bars, and bent them for an easy exit.

“I’ll just be stepping out for a bit. Ah, I guess I should say I’ll be staying out for the night.”

It was time to go hunting.

* * *

Kim In-ho headed to the location the cult leader had told him about.

“They really live such troublesome lives.”

“I’m sorry.”

Lee Hyun-ah’s voice grumbled from behind. Kim In-ho had nothing to say to that. It was an unexpected turn of events.

“We’re here.”

Kim In-ho arrived at the meeting place.

“This place has changed a lot since I was last here, huh?”

The place Kim In-ho, Lee Hyun-ah, and Kang Cheol arrived at was Seoul Station, which had been left in ruins after a past gate disaster.

It was a land completely uninhabitable, but restoration projects had been ongoing ever since the disaster.

“It’s not like anyone can live here anyway, so what’s the point of restoring the buildings?”

Lee Hyun-ah scoffed.

Just as she said, if a gate wasn’t stopped in time and evolved into a dungeon, the surrounding area would become contaminated with mana.

If ordinary people were exposed to this contaminated mana, they would contract Mana Stone Disease, where mana stones form in the body. And unlike hunters, ordinary people had no skills to use these mana stones.

Eventually, the mana stones accumulating in their bodies would kill them.

This wasn’t just a problem in South Korea; it was a phenomenon occurring all over the world.

-Hey, Kkang-cheol. If they try anything funny, crush them all.

-Got it.

Lee Hyun-ah relayed her message to Kang Cheol as she followed behind Kim In-ho.

No matter how much it seemed like Kim In-ho wasn’t lying, you could never know what was in his heart.

They had survived in a world where people deceived each other with smiling faces.

She had been dragged this far only because there was a small clue related to dimensional travel, but if this turned out to be a trick, she was planning to kill not only Kim In-ho but everyone else as well.

“Thank you for coming all this way.”

“Oh, shit. Is that a monster or an elf? Why are its legs attached to its arms?”

Lee Hyun-ah blurted out her honest thoughts upon seeing the elf who came to greet them inside the building.

All the elves she knew were like herbivores that grazed on grass, but the one in front of her, even looking at it generously, had the vibe of a muscle-bound monkey.

“You must not be familiar. In our world, this is ‘average,’ you see?”

“Ugh, that’s freaking horrifying.”

“Everyone is waiting inside. Please, come in.”

“I’m telling you now, if you try anything funny, this scary-looking man here will wipe you all out. You get that? Our Kkang-cheol is a man who can’t live by the rules.”

The elf just smiled at Lee Hyun-ah’s half-threat.

“To my eyes, you look much scarier than the gentleman.”

“…?”

Lee Hyun-ah closed her mouth at the elf’s words.

“Now, I’ll guide you.”

The cult-leader elf took the lead, heading into the quiet building.

Kim In-ho followed her silently.

Coming here seemed to make his thoughts even more complicated.

‘A group gathered for Hyunbin’s sake, without his knowledge.’

Kim In-ho wanted to see their true identities with his own eyes.

Contrary to his thoughts, the expressions on Lee Hyun-ah and Kang Cheol’s faces had hardened slightly.

-What is that, inside?

There was a monster with an absurd amount of mana.

It felt like it was on the same level as Kang Cheol, no, perhaps even stronger.

Even in the survival game, Kang Cheol had made a name for himself as one of the best players.

Even the god of that system had tried to make Kang Cheol his apostle.

That was how extraordinary his power was. And yet, there was a monster inside the building that surpassed him.

-Don’t worry.

Kang Cheol placed a hand on Lee Hyun-ah’s shoulder.

-I won’t lose to anyone.

Kang Cheol had lost his precious ones several times. He had honed his power to ensure it would never happen again.

In other words, he had no intention of losing to anyone.

The elf led them to a conference room inside the building. There were already people seated inside.

In that moment, Kim In-ho’s eyes widened.

A high-end suit, hair slicked back neatly in a pomade style.

The person sitting at the head of the table was Im Jae-joon, the CEO of the Hanul Group.

But there was someone else who stole Kim In-ho’s attention.

A red suit reminiscent of a Sentai series. And red static flickering across his face.

The same absurd monster who had attacked the guild before was with them.