Chapter 167 – Pursuit (2)

Michael kicked the door open and jumped into the room.

Following behind, team members jumped into the room with guns aimed, then blinked their eyes.

“You’re late.”

In the room were two collapsed men and Sun-woo leisurely rummaging through the desk.

Of the two fallen men, one was already dead, and the other was frozen stiff, perhaps from having his acupuncture points struck.

“Can’t be helped if I’m bringing everyone along.”

Michael lowered his aimed gun and let out a sigh.

At Michael’s words, different from before, the corners of Sun-woo’s mouth rose slightly. Did he gain a sense of responsibility?

“Ugh… If only it weren’t for the extra pay.”

However, hearing the words that followed, it seemed he hadn’t changed that much.

“But how did you get in? There’s nowhere to sneak in here.”

“I walked in.”

“Huh? Now you don’t get caught even passing right before their eyes? Then move with us. We suffered fighting those guys.”

“I can’t do it outside alone.”

No matter how well he used illusion arts, he couldn’t brazenly pass before contaminated people’s eyes in an uncontaminated state.

Thanks to the newly obtained magic energy (Sun-woo decided to call materialized contamination ‘magic energy’ separately), Sun-woo didn’t get caught either.

Thanks to that, he could catch the contaminated summoner before he escaped. Of course, the summoner died in the catching process, but there was no difference in extracting information.

While Sun-woo and Michael talked, his team members stood to one side and glanced sideways at the two.

Summoners who knew Sun-woo looked at him with eyes mixed with admiration and awkwardness, and those who hadn’t been summoners long sparkled their eyes after hearing about Sun-woo from other summoners.

“By the way, what business brought you here?”

“Ah, it’s a mission. Summoner sent me because Chairman Douglas went missing.”

“Huh? Wasn’t he killed coming with the last summon team?”

Thanks to Michael coolly mentioning the chairman’s death, Sun-woo could feel he was still humane.

“The chairman was kidnapped.”

Looking at the memories remaining in the two, regrettably Chairman Douglas wasn’t here. However, fortunately tracking was possible.

“Really, if someone’s in a high position, they should stick to their desk. Jumping into the field unnecessarily.”

At Michael’s grumbling, Sun-woo gave a bitter smile.

Chairman Douglas’s performance seen through the dead summoner’s memories was not ordinary.

If it weren’t for the summoner lying dead before his eyes and another summoner who took the chairman, he would certainly have occupied this place.

The chairman was just unlucky.

Thinking that far, Sun-woo tilted his head. Compared to his performance, the chairman was caught too easily.

“Is he lacking stamina because of age?”

Sun-woo shrugged his shoulders and brushed off the continuing thought. He could ask when they met later.

Of course, he’d have to be alive until then.

“Hurry up. Let’s clean up quickly and go back.”

Making all the team members who didn’t know what to do move, Michael tapped the frozen gang boss with his gun.

“Why did you leave this contaminated guy alive?”

“I have something to ask.”

“Huh? For torture? A contaminated human won’t talk easily.”

“It seems there’s no need for that.”

Sun-woo pointed his finger at the frozen man.

Shush shush

Invisible earth wind hit Carlos’s frozen body in various places, and he let out a groan and raised his body.

“Damn, the smell is really terrible.”

Not caring about the changed situation, he sat on the floor and frowned deeply.

“If my legs weren’t paralyzed, I’d want to just attack. Really disgusting.”

He looked at Sun-woo and Michael, took out a cigar from his pocket, and lit it.

“Really impressive. Almost fooled me. Amazing trick.”

He took a deep drag on the cigar and praised Sun-woo.

At the enemy’s praise, Sun-woo’s eyebrows twitched.

Unlike his words, he had heard worrying words a while ago.

“Please use it as carefully as possible. I wish you wouldn’t use it, but you really have to be careful.”

Those were the words Prophet Silvia brought up in a place with just the two of them.

Clearly she knew about Sun-woo’s skill of using magic energy, contamination.

Of course, there was no way she, who sees the future, wouldn’t know about Sun-woo’s skill. The problem was that her expression while speaking looked very serious and worried.

However, to seal a useful skill because of worries about the future—Sun-woo couldn’t do that.

Sun-woo, who had been lost in reminiscence for a moment, returned to reality at Carlos’s continuing words.

“Killing that bastard was really satisfying. Anyone who uses or betrays me, Carlos, leaving them alive goes against the Carlos family motto.”

He nodded as if satisfied and continued speaking.

“Then if you have something you want to ask, ask. I need to answer quickly and rest. It’s really a hard feeling to endure.”

He was certainly a human contaminated in a peculiar way.

The contamination that maximizes human desire seemed to apply to him by strengthening pride and honor.

“What kind of human is the summoner who took the chairman? And where do you think they moved the contamination spreading agents that were here?”

He found out where they took the chairman by checking the memories of the two and this room, but there were things he couldn’t know.

If he had enough time, he could thoroughly search through memories to find out, but there was no need to waste time like that.

“The drugs were moved toward the Triad. Anyway, only the Triad can distribute that much quantity. And I don’t know much about that summoner. Only that he’s Asian.”

The place they took the chairman was Hong Kong, and an Asian ability user.

Of course, they moved the contamination spreading agents with a spatial ability user or a magician’s teleportation magic, but looking at the situation, the story was pointing in one direction.

“Hong Kong’s Triad? Since they can’t come into the light, they stabbed at that side.”

Michael clicked his tongue after hearing the story.

Sun-woo asked him a few more things, and Carlos calmly told what he knew.

“Seems like I’ve said everything. End it quickly. This is almost like a curse. They said becoming like them makes you free, but it’s no better than being high on drugs.”

He looked at Michael with a hollow laugh, and Michael raised his gun and shot Carlos’s head.

Bang!

Carlos fell and the contamination in the villa began disappearing.

***

“So you’re using me as transportation right now?”

Sophia, a new summoner of the Korean Summoner Association and a spatial ability user belonging to the association, looked at Sun-woo with a sulky face.

She received an urgent contact that Sun-woo was calling and space-jumped to Mexico. When she finally arrived, she heard from Sun-woo the story of going to Hong Kong again.

“So sending me on an exciting overseas trip was all for this reason. Sister Carol tricked me!”

When Summoner resumed dimension travel with the Empire via mission method, Sophia had nothing to do in this world.

That said, Sophia couldn’t go over to the Empire either. The city could be contaminated at any time and block Summoner’s dimension travel.

Thanks to that, Sophia started traveling the world at Caroline’s recommendation.

The reason to travel was to memorize coordinates for spatial movement, but traveling to other places was also enjoyable for Sophia.

However, her current sulking was just because she was upset at the talk of using her as an airplane substitute when she finally arrived.

“Please.”

Sophia, who was frowning and glaring at Sun-woo, burst out laughing.

“Well, it’s a joke. Anyway, I had a broken heart, so I’ll go shopping excitedly in Hong Kong too. Instead of fare, please support shopping!”

The reason she was in a bad mood seemed to be because of the story she heard about Hayden and Clara.

It seemed she had quite a one-sided love, as she apparently cried for days after hearing the story.

Sun-woo, who checked memories while subtly dusting her off, could only hand over his card with a guilty heart.

“Kyaa! A gold card! The corporate card only given to association executives!”

It was Cleaners’ corporate card that the branch manager gave, saying he was showing goodwill. It was a card that had only been in his pocket because he didn’t want to owe favors.

For Sophia belonging to the association, the association’s corporate card was a perfect fit. There was no reason to bother using other money or cards.

It absolutely wasn’t a stingy reason like not wanting his own money to go out!

“Then let’s depart! Hold my hand!”

Receiving the card, Sophia excitedly raised her hand to Sun-woo.

He seemed to have underestimated women’s physical and mental recovery power. Sophia, who until moments ago said she was dying from spatial movement, had radiance coming from her face.

Sun-woo held Sophia’s hand with a dumbfounded expression, and the two disappeared from a resort city in Mexico.

Now in this city, only Michael and his team members sweating over cleanup, and a drug organization awaiting chaos with collapsed leadership remained.

***

Shortly after, Sun-woo had arrived in Hong Kong.

Via the United States and Alaska, Russia and Japan, to Hong Kong.

Sophia, who jumped the longest distance while resting as little as possible, had her face turned white upon arriving in Hong Kong.

Though she looked like she’d collapse soon, she stood up with desperate will and moved her steps toward the department store.

“Does shopping make people surpass human limits?”

Watching her disappear into the department store, Sun-woo shook his head and looked at Hong Kong’s complex downtown.

Hong Kong’s downtown, more compact and splendid than Seoul’s downtown, was exuding an exotic atmosphere.

However, unlike Sophia, Sun-woo didn’t come for sightseeing.

“A foreigner finding the Triad in Hong Kong…”

It would be better than finding a needle in a sandy beach, but it was absolutely not an easy task.

However, it was fortunate that Cleaners had a branch even in this Hong Kong.

Though he couldn’t receive help like in Korea, mission support could be commonly received from any branch.

Sun-woo also contacted Cleaners after receiving the mission and got confirmation of support.

And before spatial movement from Mexico, he contacted the association again and could be introduced to a summoner from the Hong Kong branch.

Sun-woo stood at the intersection in front of the department store and looked around.

They definitely promised to meet here. Though the appointment time was gradually passing, since there was the mistake of making an urgent appointment, he thought to wait a bit more.

People passed quickly by Sun-woo standing still. Everyone was moving busily as if something was urgent.

Among all those people, Sun-woo could feel loneliness after a long time.

People moving busily with ordinary lives. Himself living a different life from them.

Just standing still made him feel somewhat gloomy.

“Was she a rising movie actress?”

Sun-woo looked at the giant electronic billboard hanging on the department store to shake off his gloomy mood.

There, a beautiful Chinese actress was advertising cosmetics, showing off her beauty.

“Doesn’t seem that impressive.”

Sun-woo tilted his head after comparing the women around him with the woman on the billboard.

No matter how he looked, there seemed to be no difference.

“Are you saying I’m ugly?”

That was when it happened. One passing woman sharply reacted to his words.

She was the summoner he was supposed to meet.

Since she was a summoner with considerable internal energy, Sun-woo turned his head with a curious expression, but soon could only look back and forth between the billboard and the woman glaring at him.

Though she wore different makeup and even sunglasses, the summoner he was supposed to meet was the same person as the movie actress advertising on the billboard.