#128
That afternoon, Kim Tae-jun was left speechless by Lee Tae-jung’s urgent report.
“Sir, one of the pillars has been destroyed.”
“What…?”
How could the blessing they had worked so hard to obtain be destroyed?
However, upon hearing the cause, Kim Tae-jun could only furrow his brow.
“Dan Joo-hyuk entered that gate, sir.”
“…”
Only a faint sigh escaped through his teeth. To think that unpredictable bastard would cause trouble again.
How many plans had Dan Joo-hyuk ruined by his sudden appearances?
In the past few days, Dan Joo-hyuk seemed obsessed with chasing Kim Tae-jun himself. It seemed the clue leaked by that idiot Park Jung-hoon had led to their trail being found.
It was chilling, considering how he had been trying to keep a low profile. Still, Kim Tae-jun intended to use Dan Joo-hyuk’s interest to his advantage, for the sake of that person.
That was certainly the plan, so why did he have to enter the gate that was to be used as a pillar?
“What should we do? It seems Dan Joo-hyuk also took the item we were using as a medium for the pillar.”
“Sigh…”
Given that they were already in a precarious position, he wanted to be a bit more ambitious. He wanted to increase the blessings to be called upon this land on the day of the grand plan.
The item given by the god was meant to be used on just one side of the pillar, but couldn’t they accomplish more by offering more blood?
He knew that in the process, a disturbance too big to hide would occur. But even if the human government realized the disturbance, it would already be too late.
After all, there wasn’t much time left until the grand plan.
“We have a backup location. We won’t be able to amplify the power, but we have no choice.”
“That’s fortunate, at least.”
It was finally time to utilize the land they had been eyeing. It would have been better if they had secured Yoon Pa-ran’s orphanage location earlier.
“Yes, it’s fortunate.”
Still, there was a connection planted there, so it should be fine.
A thought suddenly occurred to Kim Tae-jun, and he asked Lee Tae-jung something else.
“What happened to that Yoon Pa-ran fellow?”
Taking advantage of Dan Joo-hyuk’s attention being directed elsewhere, Kim Tae-jun had offered a prayer. A prayer with the desire to make the pillar given by the god even stronger.
The god had responded. The revelation that came down instructed to offer a lot of blood.
In particular, the god had provided several names. The name of Hunter Yoon Pa-ran was included among them.
It was not uncommon for names to come down through the status window like this when offering prayers. Sometimes it was the names of hunters, sometimes social figures, and sometimes civilians whose presence was inexplicable.
Anyway, the moment he saw Yoon Pa-ran’s name there, Kim Tae-jun came up with a good idea.
Wasn’t it a situation where he needed to get rid of the guy to clear up the annoying land anyway? With a good hand at the right time, he pushed Yoon Pa-ran and the chess pieces into the overlapping gate. Even if the guy somehow survived the disturbance, Won Dong-hyun would find and deal with him.
As if blessed by god, Won Dong-hyun had just the right amount of greed to be used as a disposable chess piece.
“He made it out safely, sir.”
“How? Ah, because of Hunter Dan Joo-hyuk, right?”
“Yes.”
But even that failed.
Kim Tae-jun felt an intense anxiety for the first time in a long while. He even felt a sense of desperation at the thought of not living up to the god’s expectations.
“Take care of him again. He’ll be an obstacle to our future plans anyway.”
“Yes.”
The god’s command was absolute. Once Yoon Pa-ran’s name appeared, he had to be killed without fail.
Lee Tae-jung responded with a trustworthy voice. Then, with a somewhat dark expression, he asked:
“What should we do without the item to use as a pillar?”
“It’s alright. I have a solution.”
In the end, it was a matter of blood. Although they weren’t raised to be consumed like this, it was time for a bold decision for the sake of the grand plan.
Kim Tae-jun smiled brightly as he recalled the list of orphanages under his management.
“Don’t worry too much. We’ll be able to replace it with a reserve sacred object soon.”
“Yes, I’ll wait.”
“Let’s leak some information to Dan Joo-hyuk. We just need to create confusion and buy some time. Ah, we can use Hunter Heo Sang-yeon for this.”
Kim Tae-jun wracked his brain, trying calmly to overcome this situation.
As Heo Sang-yeon’s name was mentioned in the process, Lee Tae-jung asked with a chilling gaze.
“Shall we dispose of him too when the job is done?”
It was a question filled with strange hope, but Kim Tae-jun only smiled somewhat ambiguously.
After pondering for a moment, he shook his head side to side.
“For Hunter Heo Sang-yeon, let him keep his life.”
“His life?”
“That’s how the contract is set up.”
After answering firmly, Kim Tae-jun pulled out a map from his drawer.
He intended to salvage the derailed plan while intensely calculating the range of land needed while looking at the map.
“…Yes.”
Absorbed in that task, he failed to notice Lee Tae-jung’s slightly delayed response.
Or that there was something peculiar about Lee Tae-jung’s gaze as he looked down at the map together.
“Once the grand plan is completed, even Dan Joo-hyuk won’t be able to escape. We’ll prepare a very special gate just for him.”
“Yes.”
Kim Tae-jun just babbled on with a face full of joy.
Dreaming of a blood-red future.
“When the new year comes, we’ll finally be able to offer a new world to Him.”
❖ ❖ ❖
The gate incident they escaped from two days ago was named the “Linked Disturbance Incident.”
This was because a total of five adjacent gates, including the one Dan Joo-hyuk and Yoon Pa-ran entered together, caused disturbances in a chain reaction.
“…”
Dan Joo-hyuk, sitting on the living room sofa, was lost in deep thought.
Where his dim gaze fell, there were piles of documents, a silent mobile phone, and the shield item that had turned white.
The gates that caused disturbances this time were one for each attribute. It was a composition that conspiracy theorists would certainly latch onto, too perfect to be dismissed as mere coincidence.
The hunter community was thrown into chaos by this phenomenon of adjacent gates being “connected” like this. Especially as the news spread that the entrances were temporarily blocked, the number of hunters refusing to enter gates increased.
One-third of the hunters who entered the five gates died.
The media called it a tragedy, but Dan Joo-hyuk was certain. If Yoon Pa-ran hadn’t purified that ominous shield, the casualties would have been several times higher.
He vaguely sensed it while luring all the monsters to the open space. The level of the monsters was subtly but steadily rising. If that state had continued, other hunters might not have survived, even if he could have managed.
Yes, rationally speaking, Yoon Pa-ran’s action was correct.
But why was he so angry?
“Sigh…”
Running his hand through his hair, Dan Joo-hyuk looked down at the documents with cold eyes.
After the shield turned white, the gates rapidly stabilized. Fortunately or not, the hunters’ corpses were preserved quite intact.
And in the midst of that, Dan Joo-hyuk discovered some peculiar points.
There were traces of skills used by Yoon Pa-ran on four injured people abandoned in the jungle terrain.
One of the corpses near the unconscious guys was a familiar face. It was the bastard he had prioritized dealing with among those who had attacked Yoon Pa-ran in the past.
He had only been keeping track of his movements due to other pressing matters, but it seemed there had been some commotion with Yoon Pa-ran as he happened to enter an adjacent gate. Perhaps even this was intended by those who caused this incident.
So Dan Joo-hyuk quietly erased all traces.
To ensure that even the Gate Management Office wouldn’t investigate the corpse with clear signs of homicide.
“Ha.”
Dan Joo-hyuk couldn’t help but laugh bitterly. At how foolish his past judgment was, thinking Yoon Pa-ran would be safe if he just dealt with the monsters.
Indeed, what’s bothersome should be uprooted at that moment.
To avoid repeating the same mistake, Dan Joo-hyuk, along with Won Dong-hyun, searched for the guys who had attacked Yoon Pa-ran in the past. Three of them died in this linked disturbance, and two were still outside.
After exiting the gate, Dan Joo-hyuk meted out appropriate punishment to the two remaining ones. He also took care of the disciplinary records that the Gate Management Office had imposed on Yoon Pa-ran after taking bribes.
Despite venting his anger here and there like that, this damned feeling wouldn’t go away.
Because he couldn’t do anything to Yoon Pa-ran, who was actually the most irritating.
Even in this situation where he had unilaterally declared that he would end this damn contract too.
“…”
Yoon Pa-ran’s resolute voice kept ringing in his ears. As it swirled and swirled in his mind, creating a massive vortex, Dan Joo-hyuk became increasingly fixated.
A harsh resolve gradually settled in his eyes as he gazed into the empty air.
Perhaps he should just confine him to prevent any more annoyances.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
