Chapter 107 – Spy [Spy from the Party]

“The deceased Li Yixin was that woman’s cousin.”

At Ivan Ivanov’s words, Siguk flinched.

“That A-Rank Hunter’s?”

“Yes.”

“An odd connection.”

“Both are Magic Type Superhumans, one is A-Rank and the other is B-Rank. In a way, you could call it a rather rare case.”

“Hmm…”

Suddenly, a conversation he had with NAC’s lackeys in the Moscow Dungeon three years ago flashed through Siguk’s mind.

‘They said it was work to artificially create the Superhuman gene, right?’

Superhumans are innate, but not genetic.

This was a principle fundamentally discovered by Mana Engineering.

Research steadily conducted since the 2020 Cataclysm always yielded the same answer.

That was the case until just before Siguk’s death in his previous life.

There was no reason for this life to be any different.

But he couldn’t blindly trust the simply revealed principle; the ongoing research by NAC, the massive golden-spoon Superhuman social club of North America and Europe, weighed on his mind.

‘Come to think of it, before Li Yixin died, he was going on about the Dragon Phoenix Society or something…’

The meaningful story of Li Yixin that he hadn’t had time to pay attention to over the past three years, busy swallowing South Korea and building the Asian Villain Cartel.

『I only went because the Party told me to go! I’m innocent! The Standing Committee Chairman of the National People’s Congress said it was the Chairman’s will and sent me here! I’ve done nothing wrong! My family’s prestige wasn’t good enough to join the Dragon Phoenix Society, so I was just dragged here! Please believe me!』

A confession Li Yixin spat out in a state presumed to be under the influence of a Skill similar to Dragon Fear.

It clearly mentioned an entity presumed to be an organization similar to NAC, named the Dragon Phoenix Society.

“Do you remember the story Li Yixin told before he died?”

At Siguk’s question, Ivan Ivanov furrowed his brow.

He scratched his head, which had a significantly receded hairline, thought for a long while, then shook his head.

“I don’t know. I think he said something in Chinese, but he spoke too fast, and above all, I don’t remember well. At this age, really…”

“Hmm…”

“Why suddenly?”

Siguk decided not to say more.

“No, I was just wondering if he mentioned anything about Zhou Peiling at that time.”

In that instant, a flash of something quickly appeared and vanished in Ivan Ivanov’s eyes.

“Anyway, it’s an odd connection. Our comrade’s cousin is a spy sent to surveil us.”

“Indeed. Is there any other information?”

“Well, just that she’s aligned with one of the two major factions currently engaged in a power struggle in Zhongnanhai?”

“The Beijing Faction?”

Ivan Ivanov nodded.

Siguk also nodded in return.

‘Well, immediately securing the position of Bureau Zero Director of the Ministry of State Security a few years later must mean she’s attached to the winning faction.’

Looking at Siguk, Ivan Ivanov spoke.

“But what do you plan to do by leaving that woman alone? Are you going to make her a double agent?”

At that question, Siguk grinned and answered.

“Just keep watching. As I said on the call last time, I have it all thought out.”

Ivan Ivanov also grinned.

“Just make sure Polya doesn’t get hurt.”

“Don’t worry.”

May 17, 2031, 22:00.

Chinese Embassy in South Korea.

In the Ambassador’s office, the Chinese Ambassador to South Korea, Li Guoping, and Zhou Peiling were sitting facing each other, having a conversation.

“Is there no word from Zhongnanhai?”

Zhou Peiling asked Li Guoping in a mechanical tone.

Li Guoping shook his head and took a sip of tea.

Seeing this, Zhou Peiling let out a light sigh and slurped her coffee.

Placing the cup down with a thud!, Zhou Peiling continued.

“It’s already been almost a month since I found out that an unranked secondary surveillance target is accompanying the primary surveillance target. But how is it that there hasn’t been a single related instruction all this time? Do you think that makes sense?”

In response to Zhou Peiling’s somewhat agitated reaction, Li Guoping merely looked at her with calm eyes.

Her words continued.

“She’s a more important target than the Russian President’s daughter. There’s a power broker manipulating the South Korean government from behind the scenes right in front of us, and we’re supposed to just stay still? Does that make any sense?”

Zhou Peiling, fuming with her fists clenched tight.

Li Guoping, who had been silently watching her, finished his tea, carefully placed the cup down, and opened his mouth.

“So, have you gotten all your complaints out?”

“……”

“I know what you’re thinking. I also know why you’re so angry.”

“……”

“But you know too, don’t you? What the situation in Beijing is like right now?”

At Li Guoping’s words, Zhou Peiling couldn’t give any answer.

As he said, the current situation in Beijing was not one to give specific instructions about what was happening in South Korea.

“Just endure until the Party National Congress opens next year. Once the leadership composition is finalized, proper orders will come down.”

“Sigh……”

Zhou Peiling let out a deep sigh and gulped down her coffee.

She stood up after placing the cup down so hard it seemed like it might break.

“The Beijing Faction will win anyway. What method does the Shanghai Faction have to beat the Beijing Faction?”

“Don’t jump to conclusions.”

“The entire Ministry of State Security has sided with the Beijing Faction. Even so, can the Shanghai Faction win? Those old men barely breathing after joining hands with the Communist Youth League?”

“……”

“You said to endure for a year? Fine, I’ll endure. I don’t know what will happen in the meantime… but fine, I’ll endure. If that’s the Party’s order.”

With those words, Zhou Peiling left the Ambassador’s office.

Bang-! Watching the empty space she left after slamming the door shut, Li Guoping let out a sigh.

He took out a cigarette from his pocket, lit it, and put it in his mouth.

“Phew…”

Exhaling cigarette smoke with a deep sigh, he muttered to himself.

‘Do you think I don’t know? Do you think I’m a fool just sitting still? It’s because the situation back home is a mess that I’m acting like this…’

Puffing on his cigarette, Li Guoping closed his eyes.

‘I understand you’re curious if there might be some hidden story behind your cousin Li Yixin’s death… but if you approach with such personal emotions, you’ll mess things up.’

He momentarily frowned and irritably stubbed out his cigarette in the ashtray.

“Tsk… I should have said it earlier.”

Grumbling like that, he got up from his seat.

Crushed by the sense of duty given to him as the Chinese Ambassador to South Korea and simultaneously the chief of Chinese spies dispatched to South Korea, he aimlessly paced around the office for a while, organizing his thoughts over and over.

Meanwhile, Zhou Peiling irritably left the embassy and soon entered the Myeongdong night streets.

Walking among the passion and madness of the young people filling the streets to spend a burning Saturday night, Zhou Peiling suppressed her anger.

‘Wait? Until when, exactly?’

From her common sense, the Party’s current course of action was utterly incomprehensible.

Though she was the daughter of the Russian President and an A-Rank Tanker, Polina was ultimately just a student.

She had no particular power as a young lady and was not involved in politics.

In terms of importance, about C-Rank.

In contrast, Siguk, confirmed to be living with her, was an entity boasting importance on a completely different level.

Officially, the highest leader of the South Korean government was the Cabinet Prime Minister Nam Hanseok, and South Korea’s major affairs took place at the Blue House used as the Prime Minister’s residence, but the actual power broker of South Korea was Siguk.

Although Koreans and the media deliberately remained silent and intentionally didn’t let that fact surface, major countries’ intelligence agencies had already grasped to some extent what position Siguk held in South Korea.

That entity, whose importance if expressed in ranks would be something beyond A, was right in front of her, and there was a specific stepping stone to approach him, yet the Party only gave orders to watch.

‘They’re crazy. All of them.’

The power struggle taking place in Beijing was already as good as decided in its outcome.

But the Beijing Faction, having gained the upper hand, for some reason seemed afraid and was showing a reserved attitude in important policy decisions.

‘With that kind of leadership, no wonder they lost all their agents in South Philippines too.’

Zhou Peiling, striding through the night streets, abruptly stopped her steps at a crosswalk.

The red traffic light was still instructing her not to cross.

‘Not the time yet?’

But to her, the red light seemed like the Party’s order to just keep watching.

She clenched her fist tight.

‘Stupid old men!’

“Phew……”

She let out a long sigh and unclenched her fist.

Coincidentally, the traffic light changed.

Along with the people, she trudged across the crosswalk.

After walking for a while, the place she arrived at was the officetel the Party had arranged for her.

‘……’

With her shoulders slumped, she scanned her security card, opened the door, and entered the building.

“……”

A short while later, from a street tree planted on the sidewalk adjacent to the officetel, a man appeared like a mirage.

‘She’s not receiving proper orders from the Party, is she?’

The man who appeared like a mirage, Siguk, grinned, revealing his teeth behind his mask.

‘Then I just need to help her establish her own objectives?’

Siguk, looking at the officetel building where Zhou Peiling lived with gleaming eyes, vanished from the spot like a mirage again.

The tasks given to Siguk were originally three major ones.

One was his duty as the Secretary-General of the National Policy Advisory Council, another was his duty as the Secretary-General of the National Hunter Federation, and the last was his duty as the Vice Chairman of the JH Group and concurrently the Master of the JH Guild.

To that, the duty as the Chairman of the Asian Villain Cartel, officially launched in Vladivostok on May 15th, was recently added.

It was truly to the point where even if he had ten bodies, it wouldn’t be enough; he had become that busy.

“If work is busy, wouldn’t it be good to distribute it appropriately?”

Sitting face to face over coffee in the JH Group headquarters Chairman’s office for the first time in a while, Lee Jeonghoon advised Siguk like that.

“After all, all reports ultimately come to you. The closest people working with you aren’t the type to have motivation to betray you, so wouldn’t it be okay to distribute authority appropriately?”

At Lee Jeonghoon’s sincere advice, Siguk merely smiled.

Looking at such Siguk, Lee Jeonghoon spoke with a somewhat worried expression.

“Both Nayeon and you, because you’re both so busy, even the occasional family gatherings have disappeared, so both I and Seoyoung are very disappointed.”

Watching Lee Jeonghoon take a sip of coffee while saying that, Siguk suddenly thought he looked older today.

“Chairman Lee, you’re forty-seven this year, right?”

“That’s right.”

“How are things with your wife lately?”

At Siguk’s sudden question, Lee Jeonghoon briefly examined his expression.

It was an instinctive action, wondering if he might have some other thought.

But Lee Jeonghoon didn’t discover anything particularly special on Siguk’s face.

“I’m just asking out of curiosity.”

At Siguk’s words, Lee Jeonghoon flinched and gave an awkward smile.

“Haha. Seoyoung and I, well, we’re doing fine. Recently, Seoyoung said she was lonely, so we adopted a Russian Blue cat, and the little one is really cute. I thought, no wonder they’re called dog-cats.”

“A cat? What’s its name?”

“Clover.”

“Isn’t that the old organization’s name?”

“Right. A name that brought me so many things in my life.”

Lee Jeonghoon grinned, and Siguk smiled along.

Siguk took a sip of coffee and spoke.

“I’ll visit your house soon. With Nayeon. While I’m at it, I’ll see Clover too.”

“Good. Seoyoung will probably like that.”

Lee Jeonghoon smiled and gulped down his coffee.

Watching that, Siguk fell into thought.

‘To bring up the name Clover like this again…’

Suddenly, another name buried deep in the long years flashed through his mind.

‘Come to think of it, I needed a suitable identity, and this would be perfect.’

That name, who long ago took the lead in thoroughly stirring up a historical event using one drug-addicted hip-hop singer.

‘Agent Hong.’

Recalling that name, which would now be used to manipulate a woman who was a Bureau Zero agent of the Chinese Ministry of State Security and a B-Rank Superhuman, Siguk gulped down his coffee with a somewhat sinister-looking smile.