Chapter 143 – Erasing Traces

Regardless of the reason, Pet Master had killed a person.

In that sense, there was no doubt that he was an evil person.

‘But the same applies to me.’

What was the difference between Pet Master and himself, who killed for revenge and because they were evil people?

Wasn’t it the same to attach justification to murder?

When that thought occurred, Min Do-jun’s determination to kill Pet Master wavered.

But only for a moment.

‘Considering the future, killing him is the right thing to do.’

Min Do-jun’s wavering heart found its original resolve.

Moreover, didn’t he need the man’s ability?

‘I can understand Pet Master’s actions.’

He killed someone who was clearly trash that mistreated animals.

The old man had simply cleaned up trash, just like himself.

Because of that, he didn’t think of him as completely evil, but…

‘I’m also just cleaning up trash that kills people.’

Everyone had their own circumstances.

‘I’ll follow him for a while and kill him when the opportunity arises.’

Min Do-jun’s eyes shone brightly as he made his decision.

* * *

Kim Byung-soo, who had killed the dog dealer, smoothly left the alley.

“Whew, that feels much better.”

There wasn’t a trace of guilt in Kim Byung-soo’s eyes after committing murder.

Rather, he was smiling with wrinkled eyes as if he felt relieved.

“You did well, Byung-hoon. You’ve avenged your kind.”

The old man, who had spoken words of encouragement toward the dismissed hunting dog, headed home with a lighter step.

Although he had brutally killed a completely unrelated person, he wasn’t worried about getting caught.

After all, this wasn’t his first time.

‘Let’s see. Is this the twentieth person I’ve killed?’

A young man who tormented stray cats.

A middle-aged person who abused abandoned dogs.

Even an elementary school student who was tormenting baby chicks.

He killed them all regardless of age or gender.

The one thing all the dead had in common was:

‘Trash who mistreat animals should die.’

The fact that they all abused animals.

That one reason was enough to kill them.

He had decided to kill the old man he just murdered from the moment he heard the words “dog dealer” at Tapgol Park.

‘A dog dealer was truly an unexpected harvest.’

Kim Byung-soo smiled with joy.

How could he not be happy when he could now appease the souls of thousands of dogs that had died?

Despite committing so many murders, he had not been caught yet.

This was all thanks to his ability.

‘Without my ability, I couldn’t have done this for long.’

Thanks to Kim Byung-soo’s ability to temporarily enhance his summons’ skills, no traces remained after his murders.

‘There shouldn’t be any witnesses, right?’

It was a dark alley, and he had blocked the surrounding noise with his bat summon familiar, so he shouldn’t have been discovered.

‘Blood remains, but that’s nothing.’

The body would be discovered if someone searched through the garbage, and it would be revealed as a murder by a hunter, but that didn’t matter.

‘Since I avoided CCTVs, they won’t be able to identify a suspect.’

Moreover, if he used his trace erasing skill at the end, they would never be able to find him.

When the old man said “Black Cat Summon,” a cute cat with a curled-up tail was summoned.

And then he immediately spoke the activation word for his ability.

‘Enhance trace erasing skill.’

Soon, the Black Cat’s trace erasing skill was enhanced and transformed into a new skill.

‘Ye-seul, erase my traces.’

Following its master’s instructions, the cat cast the enhanced trace erasing skill.

In an instant, the old man was surrounded by a bright light and disappeared from that spot.

For the next 24 hours, no appearance, sound, smell, or footprints would remain.

Even if someone touched his body, they wouldn’t feel anything.

It was a skill that made him as if he didn’t exist in this world at all.

‘Should I flee abroad for a while?’

As always, after a murder, he felt more at ease if he fled abroad.

Kim Byung-soo moved on, contemplating which country to visit this time.

* * *

Min Do-jun, who had been following Pet Master, was surprised by the sudden message window that appeared.

[The target’s scent has been erased.]

[Tracking terminated.]

‘The scent has been erased?’

Since this had never happened before, he just stared blankly at the message.

‘Awoo, don’t you remember the scent from the park? Track it immediately.’

[Whine.]

Seeing Awoo not complying as if it was difficult, Min Do-jun realized.

‘Literally, he erased his scent.’

He didn’t know what method was used, but it seemed there was a skill that could erase scent.

‘I hope my surveillance wasn’t detected?’

He had concealed his footsteps with ghost step boots and hidden his appearance with invisibility.

There shouldn’t have been any concern about his surveillance being discovered.

It seemed like it was simply an action to erase traces after the murder.

‘Anyway, I need to find him. I can’t let him get away like this!’

The distance shown before the scent was erased was 60 meters.

Since he wasn’t far away, if he ran now, he could still find him.

Min Do-jun ran through the alley in his invisible state.

He quickly narrowed the distance, but Kim Byung-soo was nowhere to be found, as if he had also hidden his appearance.

‘Did he use stealth? If so, it would be detected by someone with high combat power like me.’

But no matter how much he searched, the old man was nowhere to be seen.

‘Sigh…’

He wasn’t even detected by presence detection, which was truly baffling.

‘Did he teleport or something?’

Now he understood why Pet Master was said to be skilled at escaping.

* * *

Min Do-jun had an A-rank personal dungeon.

It was the Tiger with Cat’s Eyes dungeon, where he had been comfortably leveling up by monopolizing it for a while.

‘But it’s difficult now.’

At his current high level, it was more beneficial to enter S-rank dungeons or A-rank dungeons above level 2,000 than to spend time in the personal dungeon.

Because of this, Min Do-jun, disguised as Ahn Gwang-hyun, had already told the Black Sea Guild members.

That they could freely use the Tiger with Cat’s Eyes dungeon from now on.

Naturally, the guild members’ reactions were enthusiastic.

Not only cheers but even tears of gratitude.

That’s how much the Tiger with Cat’s Eyes dungeon provided relatively high experience points and good items.

Although he knew this, Min Do-jun didn’t find it wasteful.

‘Anyway, when I kill them, all the items acquired from the dungeon will be mine.’

In other words, it was a plan to make them mine the gold and then take it all for himself later.

Unaware of this, loyalty shone in the eyes of every Black Sea Guild member.

‘Boss…’

Kim Jae-won, the second-in-command of the Black Sea Guild, also had the same look in his eyes.

‘Even though the boss would want to level up too, he’s giving it all to us…’

Even when he had monopolized it recently, the guild members hadn’t expressed any complaints.

After all, it was natural for the head of a guild to monopolize a dungeon.

But allowing them to use it without restrictions like this made them not know how to react.

However, it didn’t mean they could use it for free.

“But there’s a condition.”

“Condition?”

“Only those who find this old man will be allowed to use the dungeon freely.”

Min Do-jun handed over a printed photo.

The photo showed Kim Byung-soo, secretly taken at Tapgol Park.

“Is this a new target?”

Min Do-jun nodded at Kim Jae-won’s words.

The guild members’ eyes lit up at what was truly a long-awaited directive.

They had been itching to do something after lying low for so long, so this was perfect.

“Should we kill him on sight?”

“You won’t be able to kill him. He’s quite high level.”

“I’m quite high level too, you know.”

“Do you think I’d say this if I didn’t know that? Just shut up and find his location.”

“I’ll obey your command!”

Seeing the guild members respond vigorously, the concern on Min Do-jun’s face faded.

‘They’re good at finding targets, so I can have some expectations.’

With some hope, Min Do-jun held up three fingers.

“I’ll give you three days. Don’t even sleep and find his location within that time.”

“Yes!”

* * *

Three days passed like that.

But contrary to expectations, there was no trace of Kim Byung-soo to be found.

“I’m, I’m sorry, Boss.”

Kim Jae-won bowed his head on behalf of the guild members.

For a week, they had thoroughly searched Seoul and around parks based on the information the boss had provided, but there was no sign of an old man walking summons.

“Are you telling me that none of the 19 guild members brought any useful information?”

“That’s… correct.”

They all couldn’t raise their heads, seemingly ashamed.

‘Well, it would be difficult for the Black Sea Guild to find someone I lost right in front of me.’

Kim Byung-soo, having committed murder, wouldn’t be walking around openly.

‘He might even be trying to flee abroad.’

That’s why he had set a minimum time of three days.

But despite the guild members’ tracking, the search for Kim Byung-soo ended in failure.

Min Do-jun, reminded once again that he wasn’t called a reclusive master for nothing, had to use another method.

However, this method required accepting some loss.

It was a method that required revealing his own secret to the world.

‘I didn’t want to reveal this to people…’

Although revealing this wouldn’t cause direct harm, it was still uncomfortable to reveal a secret.

‘Well, it’s something they’ll all know in the future anyway.’

It might work against Min Do-jun, but he had no choice.

With the urgency of the situation, he couldn’t afford to be picky.

“Everyone.”

Min Do-jun, with Ahn Gwang-hyun’s face, called the Black Sea Guild members.

“Yes, Boss.”

“Although you couldn’t find the target, I’ll allow you to run the dungeon.”

The gloomy guild members brightened up.

“Really?”

“Yes. But I’ll give you a different directive.”

“Just give the order.”

Min Do-jun decided to use his subordinates to draw Kim Byung-soo out of hiding.