Chapter 402 – Part 2 – Christopher Gibson

‘He’ll spare me if I reveal the spy?’

For Christopher, who desperately wanted to live, it was like a rope dropped from heaven.

But he didn’t immediately grab the rope.

“Will, will you really spare me? Just if I tell you who the spy is?”

“That’s what I said. I’m someone who keeps promises.”

While saying this, Choi Seong-min was wearing a meaningful smile behind his mask.

‘It would be more certain if Christopher reveals the spy directly rather than me.’

He knew who the spy was, but if he said it himself, Ryu Jong-ik wouldn’t believe him.

Rather, Christopher needed to verify it so he could expose Nam Il-woo as the spy and publicly execute him.

That was the reason he hadn’t killed Christopher immediately.

‘Besides, I need to peek at his memories too.’

First, he had to let him reveal the spy’s identity.

“Promise me here and now. That you won’t kill me if I reveal the spy.”

“Fine, I already said so. I promise.”

Only after hearing a definite answer did Christopher feel relieved enough to speak.

“The spy I planted in Revolution is… a guy named Nam Il-woo.”

The person most surprised by those words was none other than Ryu Jong-ik.

“Na-Nam Il-woo?”

Because he had never imagined that Nam Il-woo, Revolution’s second-in-command, would betray them.

Ryu Jong-ik shouted with an incredulous expression.

“Don’t lie! Member Nam Il-woo couldn’t possibly…!”

“I have text message records of conversations with that guy here. Look.”

Christopher took out his phone and showed it.

[Nam Il-woo: Lord Christopher. Park Hui-jun’s prostitution has finally been exposed. Somehow there’s even a video of him having a conversation. I don’t know who he was talking to.]

[Nam Il-woo: Lord Christopher. They plan to raid the hunter training facility in the south at 3 AM tomorrow. Should I subtly leak information to the training facility?]

[Nam Il-woo: Lord Christopher. As expected, it seems Leader Ryu Jong-ik will take the front. If you deploy assassins to the front, you should be able to kill him easily. The assassins won’t attack me, right?]

[Nam Il-woo: Lord Christopher. After the operation, you’ll use me as a subordinate as promised, right? I’ll be completely loyal.]

“What, what is this…”

Seeing the texts, Ryu Jong-ik couldn’t help but be shocked.

They were texts he couldn’t imagine Nam Il-woo sending.

“How did you rope in Member Nam Il-woo?”

“I revealed that I was a Great Hero and promised to use him as a subordinate, then he came over right away. He seemed to be surprisingly ambitious.”

“……”

Ryu Jong-ik clenched his teeth silently.

If it had been before seeing the texts, he wouldn’t have believed it.

‘Nam Il-woo, that dog-like bastard…!’

But having seen clear evidence, he had no choice but to believe it.

“Revolution Leader.”

At the black mask’s call, Ryu Jong-ik turned his head.

“Bring that Nam Il-woo person here.”

“Ah, understood.”

Ryu Jong-ik immediately contacted Kang Min-chan and ordered him to bring Nam Il-woo.

Not long after, the operations room door opened.

“Did you call for us?”

Kang Min-chan and Nam Il-woo entered with puzzled faces, then were startled.

They saw the black mask.

“Why, why is the black mask here?”

But they were more surprised by the chaotic scene.

On one side was an unidentified corpse, and on the other side Christopher stood with his arm severed.

“Leader! What’s this situation? Why is Mr. Melvin injured?”

Nam Il-woo looked at Christopher and called him Melvin.

Seeing this, Ryu Jong-ik felt his blood boiling.

“To shamelessly call him Melvin even while knowing his identity…”

“Leader. What are you suddenly talking about?”

“Captain Kang Min-chan. I said there was a spy in our organization, right?”

When Kang Min-chan nodded, Ryu Jong-ik pointed his finger at the spy.

“That bastard. That guy was the spy leaking information from our organization.”

“What? Member Nam Il-woo?”

Kang Min-chan looked at Nam Il-woo.

Nam Il-woo’s expression was rigidly frozen, unlike usual.

His thinking had stopped when faced with an unexpected situation.

“Wh-what are you talking about? I, I’m not a spy…”

“Stop making excuses. You traitor bastard.”

Harsh words spilled from Ryu Jong-ik’s mouth, who always spoke respectfully to others.

The shock of betrayal was as great as his trust had been.

“I saw the text message records you exchanged with Christopher. I trusted you because you were the organization’s second-in-command, but to betray us like this…!”

“……”

Nam Il-woo looked at Christopher to understand the situation.

“I told them everything. I even showed them the texts you sent.”

Saying this, Christopher smiled as if he had no choice.

“I have to survive too.”

‘This damn Yankee bastard. He sold me out…!’

He tried to maintain a poker face as much as possible, but Nam Il-woo couldn’t hide his reddening face.

‘Now that I’m exposed as a spy, what should I do? Should I make a surprise attack and escape?’

For a moment, Nam Il-woo soon erased the thought.

Not only Ryu Jong-ik but also Christopher and the black mask.

All masters reaching S-rank were right in front of him.

A surprise attack from himself, who was merely A-rank, couldn’t possibly work.

‘It won’t work. I have no choice but to look for a chance to escape.’

That’s when it happened.

The black mask nearby happened to turn his head.

‘Now!’

Nam Il-woo, thinking he was completely off guard, used the Sprint skill and ran away.

‘I’m lucky I learned the Sprint skill. I might be able to escape if I do well…’

Stumble.

Suddenly Nam Il-woo lost his balance and fell.

Thud!

Blood flowed profusely from Nam Il-woo’s head as he fell to the floor.

The black mask’s dagger throw had pierced his head.

“Wh-what are you doing!”

When Ryu Jong-ik shouted in surprise, the black mask turned his head.

“I executed the traitor who was running away instead of the Leader. Are you disappointed that you couldn’t kill him yourself?”

“Th-that’s not it, but you didn’t have to kill him…!”

“He was a traitor who sold information and put the organization in mortal danger. Keeping such a guy alive would only lead to more betrayal, with no benefit.”

“……”

He wanted to argue something, but it was a reasonable point with no words to refute.

Honestly, Ryu Jong-ik had also wanted to kill Nam Il-woo.

He just couldn’t carry it out because of his aversion to murder.

Then Christopher looked at the black mask with a frightened face.

“You, you’ll spare me, right? You said you’d keep your promise. Right?”

Christopher seemed frightened by Choi Seong-min’s cold yet decisive execution.

“Ah, right. I should keep promises. Before that…”

Choi Seong-min’s fist shot out at invisible speed.

Crack!

Christopher, hit on the back of his head, rolled his eyes back and lost consciousness.

‘I need to see his memories before killing him.’

Choi Seong-min placed his hand on Christopher’s head.

It didn’t take long.

Just 10 seconds was enough.

‘What is he doing?’

Ryu Jong-ik wondered as he watched the black mask place his hand on Christopher’s head.

But that was brief.

After 10 seconds passed, Choi Seong-min removed his hand and looked at Ryu Jong-ik.

“Leader. What were you planning to do when you succeed in the coup and meet the Great Heroes?”

“It’s such a distant goal that I haven’t thought that far…”

“Then you wouldn’t object to me executing this guy?”

“…Will you kill him?”

Choi Seong-min nodded.

“Yes.”

“What about the promise you made earlier…”

“There’s no need to keep promises made with trash.”

At those words, Ryu Jong-ik swallowed and said:

“Understood. Please do so.”

“May I kill him?”

“I have no decision-making power. Since you caught him, do as you wish.”

“A wise decision.”

Choi Seong-min smiled behind his mask.

Even if he had opposed it, he would have found a way to kill him anyway.

Stab-

It was instantaneous.

Choi Seong-min’s dagger stabbed the unconscious Christopher’s throat.

The legendary helmet flashed and activated.

The option that reduced death blows by 90%.

But the blade easily penetrated Christopher’s throat.

Even the remaining 10% damage was sufficient to take his life.

[You have killed Hunter Christopher Gibson.]

[You have stolen the trait ‘Paladin’.]

[You have stolen 11 pieces of equipment.]

[You have stolen 5 Magic Stones.]

[You have stolen 1 consumable item.]

[Synchronization rate 41.9%]

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

As soon as Choi Seong-min killed Christopher, he checked his inventory.

‘A Potion of Life came in.’

He already knew a potion would come in from seeing the memories.

‘With this, I’ve secured two potions.’

Choi Seong-min had no intention of using the potion on Christopher.

‘There’s no need to make him a living corpse like Kwak Min-cheol or Melissa.’

Unlike other Great Heroes, it didn’t matter if Christopher’s death was revealed.

‘They’ll probably think Revolution or Wings of Hope killed him.’

The fact that Christopher had infiltrated the rebels was well known among the Great Heroes.

They would probably think he was executed because his identity was discovered or things went wrong.

‘Of course, the question of how they killed someone with 3 million combat power will remain.’

Anyway, as long as there were other suspects, there was no need to hide the death.

[Trait – Paladin]

-Grade: S

-Description: Reduces damage taken by 50% and increases weapon attack power by 20% when imbuing weapons with holy power. Additionally, damage against undead, ghosts, and demons is doubled.

It wasn’t a bad trait since it basically reduced damage by half.

Especially overwhelming against undead, ghost, and demon-type monsters.

‘Well, for me now, it’s just one of many traits.’

Still, it was better than nothing, so he had no complaints.

‘If there’s a complaint, it’s that only a tiny amount of stats came in?’

He absorbed 3% of stats through Demon’s Contract, but even so, the combined stats weren’t even 300.

‘To think only this much came in even after killing someone with 3 million combat power.’

It was probably because it was 3% of pure stats and from just one person, so it inevitably felt small.

‘Should I kill many hunters like last time?’

He would need to kill as many high-grade hunters as possible to get a satisfactory amount.

‘Nothing to worry about. The plan is already set.’

Choi Seong-min’s next plan was to attack the Pentagon.

If it went according to plan, he could clean up Peter Fields’ subordinates and even obtain the Magic Core.

‘First, I need to wrap up here…’

Then Ryu Jong-ik approached Choi Seong-min and bowed his head.

“Thank you, Black Mask. Thanks to you, we were able to identify the Great Hero and the spy. If not for you, we would have been played in the enemy’s hands without knowing anything. Thank you so much.”

Reading his thoughts, it wasn’t just empty words.

It was a sincere greeting.

“If it’s not rude, may I ask you something?”

“Go ahead.”

“How did you know he was Christopher, not Melvin?”

A prepared answer came from Choi Seong-min’s mouth.

“I was personally investigating the 8 Heroes. I knew he was Christopher as soon as I saw him.”

“Ah… So knowing Christopher in detail was also…”

“Yes. I already knew through investigation that he was the Wings of Hope leader. And that he contacted Revolution with impure purposes.”

“Ah…”

“Actually, I’ve known about Revolution for a while. I naturally found out while tailing Christopher.”

Ryu Jong-ik couldn’t close his surprised mouth at the fact that he knew everything.

“I’m sorry for lying as if it was my first time seeing you. I had no choice to make you watch the video I filmed.”

“I see…”

Ryu Jong-ik nodded his head.

Now it felt like everything was falling into place.

“May I ask one more thing?”

“As much as you want.”

“Why are you investigating the 8 Heroes?”

To that question, Choi Seong-min answered in a serious voice.

“Because I have the same purpose as you all.”

“You mean…”

“I want to eliminate the Great Heroes and change this rotten society.”

Toward the surprised Ryu Jong-ik, Choi Seong-min declared:

“Don’t worry about the Great Heroes and leave them to me. I’ll kill them all for you.”

“Re-really?”

Ryu Jong-ik was delighted.

For him, it was like gaining an unexpected ally in the black mask.

Of course, he didn’t know the identity was Choi Seong-min.

“Yes. Leader, please focus on other matters. First, it would be good to meet with the Westland rebels and form a proper alliance. The rest without Christopher are trustworthy people.”

“Ah… I’ll do that.”

Ryu Jong-ik nodded with sparkling eyes.

His gaze toward the black mask was full of trust.

He was a benefactor who had saved not only his life but also the organization from crisis.

There was no reason to refuse when such a benefactor volunteered to help.

“This is my last question… would you consider joining our organization…”

“No. I’ll act separately. Being affiliated somewhere doesn’t suit my temperament. And it would be better for you not to get involved with me as much as possible.”

“Ah… that’s disappointing.”

“Then, I’ll see you again when there’s an opportunity.”

“Wait, at least your contact information…!”

Ryu Jong-ik reached out his hand, but Choi Seong-min disappeared using stealth.

“……”

He listened carefully but couldn’t even hear footsteps.

“What a truly amazing person…”

To think he was fighting against society by assassinating Great Heroes alone…

Respect was added to Ryu Jong-ik’s gaze.