Chapter 391 – Part 2 – Melissa’s Twisted Hobby

“I’m sorry for the late night call, Lord Woo Seong-jae. I have something to report.”

“I see you’ve arrived in Eastland.”

“Yes, yes.”

“Good. How did the Great Heroes end up dying?”

Melissa reported exactly what she had heard from Kwak Min-cheol.

“Two who usually didn’t get along fought and mutually destroyed each other… That’s a good excuse. What do you think?”

“To be honest, I don’t find it very believable. His appearance isn’t great either.”

“You shouldn’t judge people by their appearance. You need to look at the essence. Were there any other suspicious points?”

“No. I asked about various things but couldn’t find any particular problems.”

“Hmm…”

When silence fell from the other end of the call, Melissa also held her breath.

“It can’t be helped. I’ll have to visit sometime.”

“What? You’re coming here?”

“Yes. I think I need to have a direct conversation with Kwak Min-cheol.”

“……”

For the Great Heroes, Woo Seong-jae was a god, but equally a burdensome existence.

Hearing that he would visit personally, Melissa felt more fear than excitement.

“When are you thinking of coming…?”

“It will take about a week. I’m busy with work right now.”

“Ah.”

“During that time, work as Eastland’s association president and continue investigating whether Kwak Min-cheol’s claims are true or not. If you discover any new facts, report to me immediately.”

“Yes, I’ll do as you command.”

After ending the call, Melissa rubbed her temples.

Coming to Eastland had created troublesome work.

Becoming association president wasn’t something to be purely happy about.

“How annoying. This won’t do. I need to relieve some stress.”

Melissa called Kwak Min-cheol by phone.

“Did you call for me?”

“Even if I’m leaving, you should prepare a room for me to stay in before going.”

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

“Isn’t there some luxury room where a VIP like me can stay?”

Choi Seong-min thought now was his chance.

‘I need to lure her to an appropriate place.’

Somewhere convenient for disposing of corpses.

“There isn’t one at the association… If we go a bit further to the outskirts, there’s a mansion where I live. That place would be suitable for you to stay.”

“Really? Then show me around.”

Choi Seong-min tried to get Melissa into the limousine, but she refused.

“I’ll follow behind, so just lead the way.”

“Understood.”

Melissa got into the car she had arrived in with her guards.

‘She’s thorough about her own safety.’

No matter what happened, she didn’t separate from her guards.

Given her abilities, this was natural behavior.

‘It’s also proof that she doesn’t trust me yet.’

She might not know Choi Seong-min’s schemes yet, but she seemed to judge that he wasn’t someone to let her guard down around.

‘That’s fine. Once she enters the mansion, the game is as good as over.’

After driving for about 15 minutes, they arrived at Kwak Min-cheol’s mansion.

The car Melissa was in followed behind.

“Ugh, the place you guided me to is such a rural area?”

Melissa grumbled as soon as she got out of the car.

Seeing this, Choi Seong-min felt rather relieved.

‘Since she doesn’t know it’s a tiger’s den, it’ll be easy to work on her.’

Despite being in an unfamiliar environment, Melissa had somewhat lowered her guard.

With four absolutely invincible guards called Barriers, it was understandable.

“What are you doing not guiding me quickly?”

“Ah, I’m sorry.”

Choi Seong-min, who had been spacing out briefly, led the way into the mansion.

“The inside is somewhat decent.”

Unlike the rural-like environment, the mansion’s interior was rather neat.

Melissa, who was following Choi Seong-min with her guards, suddenly felt something strange.

“I don’t see any servants? Where did they all go?”

“There are no servants. I prefer living alone…”

Hearing this, Melissa rolled her eyes.

‘Living in such a large mansion without keeping servants? For someone who’s an association president?’

With all the annoying tasks like cooking, laundry, and cleaning, it was strange that he didn’t have servants.

“Kwak Min-cheol. Are you hiding something?”

“What? Of course not.”

Choi Seong-min smiled as if asking how that could be and stopped walking.

“Here it is. This is the largest room in the mansion, so you shouldn’t have any inconvenience staying here.”

“Well, it’s not bad. There are rooms for our guards too, right?”

“Of course. There are rooms on both sides, so you can divide and use them. Then…”

“Ah, wait.”

At Melissa’s words, Choi Seong-min turned around.

“I have one request.”

“Just say it.”

“Can you get me a person? A slave would be even better.”

“What?”

Though he knew what Melissa was requesting, he deliberately pretended not to know.

“What do you mean…?”

“Ah, I have a somewhat unusual hobby. Ah, damn… this is awkward to say…”

Melissa, who had been muttering, got irritated.

“Never mind, just get me a person. Someone who can die without it mattering.”

“Ah… I understand. I’ll send someone right away.”

Thud-

As the door closed, Choi Seong-min walked down the corridor.

‘Really a twisted hobby.’

Though he had also read her thoughts, Choi Seong-min had known what Melissa’s hobby was for a long time.

‘To relieve stress by torturing people…’

Melissa’s hobby was none other than torture.

Even when observing before his possession, Melissa tortured slaves at a rate of one person per day.

‘Though I don’t know for sure, there must be hundreds of slaves who died from torture in Westland alone.’

It wasn’t only Westland people who died though.

Because Kwak Min-cheol had exported ordinary people through human trafficking, Eastland people were also targets.

‘How should I deal with that piece of trash?’

The original plan was to lure her to the mansion and slit everyone’s throats, guards and all.

‘But that would dirty the house, so should I move locations?’

Since she also requested a slave, he decided to change direction.

Wobble wobble-

Choi Seong-min’s body underwent transformation.

‘She might recognize my face.’

He transformed into Oh Gwang-taek’s appearance.

Knock knock-

When he knocked on the door as a different person, the door opened.

“I, I heard you called for me.”

“……”

A guard looked at him briefly, then made way.

“Is it you? The person Kwak Min-cheol sent?”

At Melissa’s question, Choi Seong-min hastily bowed his head.

“Pl-pleased to meet you. My name is Oh Gwang-taek.”

“I’m not curious about names. What are you? You’re not a hunter, right?”

“Th-that’s correct.”

Just in case, Melissa searched for Oh Gwang-taek’s name in the rankings.

“Nothing comes up. What’s your status?”

“I’m, I’m a slave.”

“Your face and behavior definitely look like it. But if they’re going to send someone, they should send someone younger. What’s with this homeless-looking guy…”

From her constant grumbling, it seemed she didn’t like Oh Gwang-taek’s appearance.

Regardless, Choi Seong-min bowed and scrapped while putting on an act.

“I heard I’m to serve the great Westland Great Hero. Please order me to do anything.”

“What you need to do isn’t difficult. First, take off your clothes.”

“What? Cl-clothes?”

“Yeah. But don’t take off your underwear too. I don’t want to ruin my eyes.”

‘She’s planning to torture me right here.’

But Choi Seong-min had no intention of being a willing victim.

“Wh-what are you planning to do…?”

“When I tell you to undress, you undress. What’s a slave bastard questioning me for?”

Melissa frowned as if displeased, but Choi Seong-min’s mouth didn’t stop.

“I, I can’t comply with strange requests.”

“What? Haha!”

As if absurd, Melissa burst into empty laughter.

“Are Eastland slaves originally like this? A slave bastard is talking back? What kind of education did that Kwak Min-cheol bastard give?”

While Melissa was laughing, Choi Seong-min slowly backed away.

Fortunately, there was no guard in front of the door.

“If you’re going to make me do strange things, I, I’ll be going now.”

“What? This crazy…”

Leaving only those words, he ran away immediately.

“……”

In the absurd situation, Melissa didn’t even think to chase.

But as time passed, her head cooled down and reason returned.

“Ha… A slave bastard dares to leave the room without permission?”

Melissa gave a look to one of her guards.

“Billy. Drag that bastard in front of me.”

“I’ll have him before you within 1 minute.”

The guard called Billy burst out of the room.

He was already wearing hunter equipment.

For someone with extraordinary strength like him, tracking an ordinary person wasn’t too difficult.

Tap tap tap tap-!

Moving at a speed that didn’t match his huge build, he scoured the mansion and soon his eyes lit up.

‘There he is.’

He could see the slave running into a room.

He had found him in less than 20 seconds.

It seemed he could keep his promise to bring the slave within a minute.

‘I don’t need to use weapons.’

Whatever else, he put the spear he was holding into his inventory.

It would only be cumbersome against an ordinary person.

Subduing a slave was sufficient even with bare hands.

Crash-!

He opened the door.

“Huh?”

Billy made a sound without realizing it.

‘Where did this guy go?’

Despite being a narrow room where the interior was visible at a glance, he couldn’t find the slave.

It was as if he had disappeared like a ghost.

He didn’t even imagine that stealth had been used.

Even if a hunter had disguised his identity, he couldn’t fool the eyes of someone with 1.5 million combat power, could he?

‘Even if that guy is a hunter, he can’t have higher combat power than me…’

“Why wouldn’t I be here?”

“…!”

Billy, surprised by the sudden response, turned around.

Stab-!

A blade entered his throat.

“I’m right here.”

Thud-!

[You have killed Hunter Billy Summers.]

[You have stolen the trait ‘Trained Body’.]

[You have stolen 8 pieces of equipment.]

[Synchronization rate 31.6%]

[You have replicated the appearance of the killed target.]

Billy fell helplessly to Choi Seong-min’s dagger.

Shortly after.

Click-

What came out of the opened door wasn’t Choi Seong-min.

It was a giant man.

* * *

Melissa, sitting on the bed with her arms crossed, waited.

“Disappointing, so disappointing.”

As she was muttering, she raised her head at the sound of the door opening.

Billy entered the room hurriedly.

“You’re over a minute, Billy. It took exactly 4 minutes and 30 seconds.”

“I’m, I’m sorry. Master.”

“If you’re late, you should at least bring results. Where’s the slave?”

“Th-that is…”

Billy scratched the back of his head with a troubled expression.

“I can’t see where he went.”

“What?”

When Melissa glared at him, Billy, despite his size, floundered.

“An S-rank hunter couldn’t catch one ordinary slave?”

“I’m, I’m sorry…”

“Hey. Are you joking?”

The atmosphere was murderous.

Melissa was kind enough to give her guards canned coffee, but only when they listened well.

In cases like now when they couldn’t do their assigned tasks properly, she bit like a venomous snake.

“I’ll give you a chance to make excuses. If there’s no plausible answer, think about losing an arm right here.”

“I, I searched the mansion thoroughly, but somehow I couldn’t find any trace of the slave…”

“Is that the end of your excuse?”

“H-however, there was one suspicious place. The basement.”

“Basement?”

“I went down briefly to look, and there were dozens of clearly suspicious rooms. I didn’t have time to search them all, but I think the slave might have hidden there.”

“Hmm…”

Melissa rested her chin on her hand and fell into thought.

Dozens of rooms in the mansion’s basement?

‘What was Kwak Min-cheol planning to do making such rooms? And in the basement?’

No matter how she looked at it, it was suspicious.

‘That Kwak Min-cheol bastard. As expected, he was hiding something from me.’

If she did well, she might be able to catch Kwak Min-cheol’s weakness.

Melissa’s eyes lit up at discovering good material.

“Guide me to where it is. I need to see it with my own eyes.”