Chapter 10: Black Rose (3)
“The SP Guild… is backing us…”
“You should’ve just said that from the start. Good for both of us.”
Aside from his unfocused eyes, Lee Cheol-ho’s exterior looked relatively intact.
Just a few broken bones, holes punched in his stomach and kidneys, and some internal bleeding.
He couldn’t even withstand level 1 torture. The hardcore types in Renard wouldn’t crack until level 3.
Compared to them, this guy was tough on the outside but soft inside.
“Damn it… I’m sorry, Savior.”
“Savior? The SP Guild?”
Jin-young snorted.
SP Guild.
Short for Super People, one of Korea’s top three guilds.
The current guild master was 2nd-grade. Of course, in Jin-young’s memory, he’d rise to 1st-grade within the next year.
But how could the leader of one of the top three guilds be only 2nd-grade?
The masters of Crystal Guild and Guardian Guild were 1st-grade, with their vice-masters on the verge of it at 2nd-grade.
Part of it was Korea’s severe shortage of talent—only two 1st-grade Hunters in the entire country.
But SP Guild far outnumbered the other two.
And they didn’t focus solely on Hunter development and dungeon raids.
They expanded into various businesses through ties with major corporations.
Still, as a proper guild, they developed new materials from dungeon byproducts and created innovative products with them.
They also produced equipment, artifacts, and magic stones for Hunters.
Their public image wasn’t bad—in fact, it was quite good.
They boosted the economy by involving private companies in dungeon material development.
They were also the first to sell dungeon-derived products to the civilian market.
That’s why Jin-young had been happy when his sister first got accepted into SP Guild.
Until the contaminated zone disappearance incident.
After that, while investigating her case, Jin-young uncovered various suspicions tied to SP Guild.
Illegal activities in the shadows: black markets, underground arenas, illegal drug production and distribution, human experimentation, and more.
All operated by villain organizations, but rumors quietly circulated that SP Guild was behind them.
Of course, as a mere 9th-grade civil servant, Jin-young couldn’t get close to the truth.
That’s why, after gaining power in Renard and returning to Earth, he had something he wanted to do.
Uncover the truth behind his sister’s disappearance and expose SP Guild’s true face.
Lee Cheol-ho’s testimony had brought him one step closer.
“The Guild Master isn’t the evil person you think. He’s the benefactor who saved me when I was in danger—the savior who will rescue Earth from destruction by dungeons.”
“Who? Min Hae-joon?”
“He’s not someone you can address so casually.”
Anger briefly flared in Lee Cheol-ho’s eyes, but he didn’t dare lash out at Jin-young.
SP Guild’s master, Min Hae-joon, appeared clean on the surface.
Even when Jin-young had dug hard before regression, barely any dirt came up.
That meant either Min Hae-joon was obsessively thorough, leaving no evidence,
Or he stayed completely out of the front lines, with proxies handling everything.
“I’m not interested in whether Min Hae-joon is good or evil. But saving the world? He’s not planning to ‘save’ it by forcing awakenings with that trash drug, right?”
“Black Rose just isn’t complete yet. Once it is, it’ll be a global revolution.”
“We’ll see about that.”
Jin-young already knew the future three years ahead.
Thousands of ordinary people died from Black Rose, and hundreds of Hunters lost their lives or ended up hospitalized.
The only one held accountable was the small-to-medium company that developed and distributed it.
Just the CEO got arrested, and that was the end.
Rumors linking it to SP Guild surfaced briefly but vanished like lies soon after.
“Of course, I don’t expect a civil servant Hunter like you to understand. In today’s world, the nation is nothing but shackles restricting Hunters’ freedom. You’re just tools of the state.”
“So it’s not just SP Guild backing you.”
“What do you mean?”
At Jin-young’s words, Lee Cheol-ho asked as if he didn’t understand.
“Or maybe they’re behind SP Guild.”
“What…”
“You don’t need to know. In the end, you’re just their tool too.”
“I might be a tool. But if I’m used usefully, I’m satisfied.”
Jin-young clicked his tongue. He’d wanted to use him as an informant, but this guy was beyond saving.
“Do you know someone with the name Oh Jong-yeon in SP Guild?”
“I’ve heard the name. Not personally acquainted, though.”
“Yeah? You don’t know what that guy does either?”
“No idea. Not particularly curious.”
It seemed hard to get info on Oh Jong-yeon, the team leader of the raid party his sister Chae So-young had been in.
After a moment of thought, Jin-young finally opened his heavy mouth.
“Do you know Chae So-young?”
“Chae So-young? I think I’ve heard the name before. Doesn’t seem like anyone important.”
“Yeah? That’s a relief.”
It also meant that Chae So-young wasn’t yet drawing much attention within the guild.
Then when—and why—had they targeted his sister?
There was still more to uncover, but Jin-young had nothing left to ask Lee Cheol-ho.
Just as he thought about crippling him and handing him over to the police,
Lee Cheol-ho flashed a sinister smile and said,
“By the way, you’re pretty pitiful too. You learned who’s backing us, but because of that, you’ll be erased from this world.”
“Erase me?”
“No matter how strong you are, you’re ultimately alone. Do you think the government will protect you? I told you—the nation is just shackles binding you. You can’t even kill me recklessly, so you’ll die instead.”
“You seem to be severely mistaken about something.”
Jin-young finished speaking and flicked his finger once.
Crunch—
Lee Cheol-ho’s neck bone snapped, killing him instantly.
“Who’s going to care if one unregistered Hunter disappears?”
The red and blue aura flowing from Jin-young’s body grew a bit denser.
Tzzzt!
Immediately after, Lee Cheol-ho’s body crumpled like a stepped-on aluminum can.
Then it was compressed from both sides, turning into a small cube.
About the size of a six-pack of 2L water bottles.
Jin-young didn’t stop there—he drew a little more psionic energy.
Fssshhh—
Lee Cheol-ho’s corpse, disassembled at the molecular level, turned into a handful of dust.
Jin-young collected every single speck into his subspace storage.
Then he withdrew the psionic energy blocking the entrance door and slipped out secretly through the underground passage.
As soon as the door opened, the police and Jin-sol outside rushed in.
“Team Leader! Are you in here?”
Jin-sol surveyed the wrecked office.
All they found were the unconscious civil servant Hunters and the rat bastard.
***
Inspector Kang Tae-woo emerged from the escape route with the children.
The terrified kids only relaxed once they were outside the building.
“Do you kids have somewhere to go?”
“No… my house is pretty far from here.”
“Mine too.”
The children had been kidnapped from various places, so their homes were scattered.
Plus, at this hour of the night, public transport wasn’t running, and they had no money for a taxi—making it hard to get home.
More importantly, some couldn’t even return home.
Reasons for running away varied: simple rebellion, but also domestic violence and other circumstances.
Kang Tae-woo pulled a business card from his pocket and handed it to one of the kids.
“There’s a police box about a 10-minute walk from here. Show them this and say you just need to stay until sunrise. After that, I’ll figure something out.”
“Thank you…”
Some of the kids even shed tears.
Kang Tae-woo gave a self-deprecating smile and said,
“Don’t thank me. If it wasn’t for that civil servant, who knows what would’ve happened to you kids—or me.”
“Is he some famous Hunter?”
“Maybe a secret agent planted by the Intelligence Department?”
“He seemed ordinary, but he was insanely strong.”
“And handsome.”
Recalling the 9th-grade civil servant Hunter who saved them, the kids’ expressions brightened and they started chattering more.
“I’m curious who he is too. Anyway, you kids head there quickly. I’ve got some things to check, so I’ll stay behind.”
“Okay.”
The children headed toward the police box.
Left alone, Kang Tae-woo took a cigarette from his front pocket and lit it.
The potion had provided emergency treatment, but it wasn’t full recovery.
The only way to forget the pain radiating through his body was to smoke.
One cigarette, two, and as he chain-smoked the third,
Step—step.
A figure appeared before him.
A civil servant Hunter in a perfectly crisp suit, as if he’d never been in a fight.
Chae Jin-young looked at Kang Tae-woo and said,
“Why are you slumped here like a wet dog instead of going to the hospital?”
The words were harsh, but Kang Tae-woo just chuckled.
“You saved my life and the hostages’. I should at least thank you properly.”
“Doesn’t seem like you stayed just for a thank-you.”
“Are you perhaps a secret agent planted by the Intelligence Department?”
The direct jab felt refreshingly new to Jin-young.
“No way. If I were, would I have used my power like that in front of you and the kids?”
“But with skills like that, there’s no reason to stay a 9th-grade civil servant.”
“Because I fall short of the International Awakener Union’s standards. And anyway, I don’t really care about grades.”
“I see.”
Kang Tae-woo nodded.
Truth be told, not everything Chae Jin-young said was entirely convincing, but Kang Tae-woo had no justification to dig deeper.
“Are you done talking?”
“Let me say it again: thank you from the bottom of my heart. And if you ever need my help, contact me anytime.”
Kang Tae-woo handed over his business card.
Chae Jin-young used psychokinesis to pluck just the card and hold it in his hand.
He quickly scanned the name, affiliation, and phone number before slipping it into his pocket.
“Ah. As it happens, I do need some help.”
“What is it?”
“That bald guy, you know. He must’ve had some teleportation skill or something. The moment I had an opening, he vanished without a trace.”
Kang Tae-woo was a sharp detective before he was a Hunter.
He sensed something off in Jin-young’s words but didn’t press the issue.
He figured pursuing it wouldn’t do him any good.
“Then there’s nothing to be done. Originally, it was my job to catch him anyway. No—come to think of it, I should probably say I never even saw you, right?”
“Wow, you handle things well, Inspector. Then I’ll be off.”
Chae Jin-young vanished just like that, and Kang Tae-woo stubbed out his finished cigarette against the wall.
“What an enigmatic guy.”
***
The morning after the villain arrest operation.
Before washing up, Jin-young always headed straight to the fridge.
Inside were stacks of delivery containers with leftovers from his sister’s meals.
‘Should throw some out.’
Frowning, he pulled out three eggs.
He poured a generous amount of cooking oil into the frying pan and cracked the three eggs onto it.
While they cooked, he scooped a handful of rice from the cooker into a bowl.
When the yolks were perfectly runny and half-cooked, he slid them onto the rice.
He cut up some seasoned seaweed, sprinkled it over the rice, added a suitable amount of soy sauce, and mixed it all together.
Thus completed Jin-young’s favorite soul food: soy sauce egg rice.
The moment he took a bite, the soft texture of the eggs, the salty savor of the soy sauce, and the moistened seaweed danced in his mouth.
Just then, the door opened, and Chae So-young, fresh from sleep, appeared.
“Eating soy sauce egg rice again? Don’t you ever get tired of it?”
“If something like this gets tiring, life must be pretty easy.”
“What are you saying first thing in the morning? Oppa, are you an old fogey?”
Chae So-young frowned and picked a fight, but Jin-young closed his eyes and focused on savoring his soy sauce egg rice.
‘That damn world didn’t have soy sauce, so I couldn’t eat it.’
He hadn’t tasted soy sauce dishes for over 30 years.
That’s why, ever since returning to Earth, he made soy sauce egg rice every morning.
“You clean up the leftover junk you stuffed in the fridge.”
“Junk? It’s stuff you can just microwave and eat right away.”
Chae So-young grabbed a bottle of water from the fridge and started heading back to her room.
Then, as if remembering something, she turned to Jin-young and said,
“Oh, right. Oppa, you went on that villain organization arrest op in the middle of the night yesterday, right?”
“Yeah.”
“I saw the news—they said the assault team Hunters all got seriously injured. Good thing you’re fine. I was worried you’d end up in the hospital again and sneak out against doctor’s orders.”
“That again.”
“So be careful. Lately, incidents keep happening in Gangseo District. The gate outbreak too.”
“It’s the same everywhere else.”
“True. But did you see that news? Jeon Su-yong got released from prison.”
“Jeon Su-yong?”
At her words, Jin-young paused to recall.
“You know, that psycho who beat up a civilian just for staring at him while drunk. The second son of Shin Young Group’s chairman.”
“Ah, that bastard.”
Mentioning the second son of Shin Young Group’s chairman jogged his memory.
The guy who became a 4th-grade Hunter faster than anyone but later turned into one of the worst villains—a complete human trash.
‘His unique abilities were Blink and Enervation.’
Blink allowed short-range teleportation.
Enervation was a curse-type ability that drained the stamina of anything he touched.
Since he’d rapidly leveled up solely through excessive magic stone consumption, his skill proficiency was low—so he built it up by targeting weaker Hunters or civilians in a despicable way.
Eventually, side effects from overconsuming magic stones and Black Rose drove him completely insane, turning parts of Gangnam District into a cursed zone.
Thanks to the massive backing of Shin Young Group, no one dared to rein him in, allowing a monster to be born.
He could assault civilians and still openly continue as a Hunter—all thanks to that backing.
Moreover, Shin Young Group had close cooperative ties with SP Guild.
Lowering her voice as if sharing a secret, Chae So-young said,
“You know the guild Jeon Su-yong made? I heard they’re moving their base to Gangseo District.”