Chapter 373 – Part 2 – New Master

Choi Seong-min, who went to work at the association, coincidentally encountered Kwak Min-cheol.

“Hey, you come see me for a moment.”

“Pardon? Ah, yes.”

The flustered acting was brief.

Following Kwak Min-cheol who was leading the way to the president’s office, Choi Seong-min felt a strange sensation.

‘Right now, if I hit him in the back of the head, I could kill him.’

Even without a surprise attack, it didn’t matter.

He was brimming with confidence that he could win even in a direct confrontation with Kwak Min-cheol.

The reason was simple.

‘Because my combat power is overwhelmingly higher.’

Choi Seong-min had conquered the Obsidian Castle one more time over the weekend.

As a result, he was able to raise his combat power to 8 million.

‘Compared to that, Kwak Min-cheol has 1.8 million. It’s not even a contest.’

Choi Seong-min’s combat power wasn’t even at its maximum.

It was just reflected combat power, and his potential combat power was expected to be even higher.

‘Next month’s combat power update will literally cause a sensation…’

A hunter who raised his combat power from 250,000 to 8 million in one month?

The hunter industry would be turned upside down.

‘Though Kwak Min-cheol isn’t recruiting me knowing that.’

Choi Seong-min knew why Kwak Min-cheol had called him.

‘He intends to make me his direct subordinate.’

He could predict it without even reading his thoughts.

Kwak Min-cheol had been eyeing him since their first meeting.

Click-

He entered the president’s office following Kwak Min-cheol.

“Sit down.”

“Yes, President.”

Choi Seong-min, who spoke respectfully, sat down in a stiff posture as if nervous.

It was an act to make a good impression on Kwak Min-cheol.

“Hunter Choi Seong-min.”

“Yes.”

“Are you still in contact with Song Chi-hyeon these days?”

“Ah… that is…”

Choi Seong-min, who had been hesitating, shook his head.

“For some reason, I can’t reach him.”

“When was the last time you contacted him?”

“Three days ago.”

Kwak Min-cheol nodded.

-That matches the day we worked on Song Chi-hyeon. From what I hear, it seems Kogo attacked as planned… but why hasn’t there been any contact until now?

Reading his thoughts, Kwak Min-cheol wanted to know Song Chi-hyeon’s whereabouts.

Kogo’s whereabouts as well.

‘Don’t be too curious. You’ll naturally find out what happened to both of them during the combat power update.’

Kwak Min-cheol no longer harbored doubts.

Since it was a confirmed fact that Song Chi-hyeon wasn’t coming back.

That’s why he spoke to Choi Seong-min as if stating a fact.

“Don’t be surprised to hear this. Song Chi-hyeon is currently missing.”

“Pardon? Mi-missing?”

“Something happened and he’s not answering calls and left his mansion empty.”

“Ah…”

“I’ll be direct. Choi Seong-min. Come under me.”

“……”

“If your master has disappeared, you can serve a new master. Stop waiting without hope and serve me as your lord. By the way, this is an order.”

Choi Seong-min smiled inwardly at the word “order.”

‘Looking at how he specifically mentions it’s an order, he must be quite anxious.’

He mentioned the order because he was worried Choi Seong-min might not accept.

‘That means he also viewed my loyalty to Song Chi-hyeon highly.’

It was a good sign.

There’s no superior anywhere who would dislike a subordinate with high loyalty.

‘Since he wants it so much, I should go along with it.’

Choi Seong-min, who had been taking his time, nodded as if he had no choice.

It was an order anyway, so he couldn’t refuse.

“I will serve the President as my lord for life.”

When he prostrated himself and took a submissive posture, Kwak Min-cheol let out a satisfied laugh.

The person who should have been truly laughing was Choi Seong-min, though.

* * *

“Oh, really? Hui-jun’s sister? I see. Let’s meet soon to talk about that. Yeah.”

Kang Min-chan, who finished his phone call in the master bedroom, headed to the kitchen.

Do Eun-jeong, wearing an apron, was chopping on a cutting board.

“What are you making again?”

“Just making a few side dishes.”

“You don’t need to do this?”

“I’m living here for free, so I should at least earn my keep with meals.”

“We could just buy food from outside, why go through the trouble?”

“Our finances aren’t that generous. We need to save money.”

“Mmm.”

Kang Min-chan couldn’t bring himself to argue.

Due to the nature of the organization that had to act secretly, it wasn’t easy to earn money.

Every penny was precious.

The 2 million won received from the organization last quarter was already gone.

‘Moreover, the costs of terrorism can’t be ignored either…’

He couldn’t just refuse Do Eun-jeong’s efforts to save even a penny.

‘I dragged an innocent kid into this mess…’

Kang Min-chan felt sorry for making a girl like a daughter to him suffer.

“Please eat.”

“Oh, yeah. It looks delicious. You sit down and eat too.”

“Yes.”

Soon the meal began.

“How is it?”

“It’s delicious.”

“Better than buying food outside, right?”

“Definitely.”

“Don’t expect me to make side dishes every day though. I’m also a member of Revolution.”

“I know. We’re planning to gather for a strategy meeting soon, so be patient even if it’s frustrating.”

“Have you decided where to commit terrorism?”

“Yeah. We’re thinking of targeting administrative agencies in the south, but we’ll have to meet to discuss the details.”

“You’ll include me this time, right?”

“Yeah. You’ve got some experience now, so it’s time for you to move.”

Do Eun-jeong had always been left out of operations because of her low rank.

In other words, this would be her first operation.

Perhaps because of that, anticipation filled Do Eun-jeong’s eyes.

“But what were you talking about on the phone earlier? I heard something about Hui-jun’s sister…”

“Oh, that?”

Kang Min-chan spoke as if he had just remembered.

“You know Hui-jun’s sister went missing recently, right?”

“Yes. I heard it from Hui-jun at the last meeting.”

“That sister came back at dawn yesterday.”

“Really? What happened?”

“She was captured by human traffickers all this time.”

“Human traffickers?”

Do Eun-jeong asked with a surprised face.

“Do those still exist these days?”

“How naive. Of course they exist. It would be stranger if they didn’t in this rotten world.”

“Human trafficking…”

“Anyway, the reason that sister could be freed was because someone attacked the human trafficking gang… Ha, to think it would connect like this.”

“What happened?”

“The person who saved those kidnapped people was wearing a black mask.”

“What?”

Do Eun-jeong was genuinely surprised.

If it was someone wearing a black mask, she knew one person.

“Could it be… the same person who saved me?”

“Probably so. People wearing black masks and wandering around aren’t common.”

“Ah…”

“I heard he single-handedly massacred twenty organization members and hunters. He’s definitely not ordinary.”

Do Eun-jeong nodded, agreeing with Kang Min-chan’s words.

She knew the skill of the black mask who had fought the hooded opponent from seeing it directly.

‘I only saw briefly, but he had the skill of at least a B-rank hunter.’

That would be enough to annihilate a human trafficking gang single-handedly.

“Why did he appear there?”

“Who knows? Maybe he was pretending to be some kind of agent of justice?”

There was nothing to gain from killing human traffickers.

They didn’t have wealth, and their items were mediocre.

They were just trash who sold innocent people.

If there was anything to gain, it would be the sense of achievement from cleaning up trash and the elation from people’s praise?

“He’s doing good work. Just like when he saved me before…”

“Or he might just be a psycho who enjoys killing.”

Do Eun-jeong frowned at Kang Min-chan’s words.

It was unpleasant to hear her benefactor who saved her being disparaged.

“If that were the case, he wouldn’t have spared me or the other captured people.”

“Maybe he’s a killer with a conscience. Even if he kills, he only picks bad guys to kill.”

“Calling him a killer… He’s someone who deserves to be praised a hundred times, what are you saying?”

“Ahem, Eun-jeong. I just spoke without thinking, but your tone is getting sharp?”

“You shouldn’t speak without thinking. You don’t know anything about the black mask. What would you do if someone like the black mask wanted to join our Revolution?”

Kang Min-chan answered in confusion at the sudden question.

“Um… if such a first-class hunter joined, we would welcome them.”

“See? You’d accept without question if he were on our side, so why are you disparaging him? If you have time for that, you should rather think about finding the black mask and recruiting him to our organization.”

“Hmm, ahem…”

Kang Min-chan, who had no words to refute since it was a valid point, just bowed his head and picked at his rice.

Do Eun-jeong, who looked out the window to cool her temper, thought of her benefactor who had saved her.

‘If only I could meet him again, even just once…’

She hadn’t even been able to properly thank him.

If she were to reunite with the black mask, she would definitely express her gratitude first.

That was Do Eun-jeong’s small wish recently.

* * *

Choi Seong-min smiled inwardly.

‘I became Kwak Min-cheol’s subordinate as desired.’

He had been planning to parasitize Kwak Min-cheol and then betray him when the combat power update day came, but he came looking for him on his own.

‘Everything is going according to plan.’

Now he would get information about the remaining human trafficking gangs under Kwak Min-cheol and annihilate them all.

And he would kill his direct subordinates too to absorb a large amount of traits.

‘But I need to kill Kwak Min-cheol first.’

If possible, it would be better to kill Kwak Min-cheol first.

It was because of his trait.

‘Kwak Min-cheol’s trait is one that steals stats by killing hunters. It’s similar to my Hunter Slayer in many ways.’

That’s why if he was going to kill him, he should kill Kwak Min-cheol first to get his trait.

If he killed the hunters first, he would lose out on stats.

‘Even so, I should annihilate the human trafficking gangs as quickly as possible.’

He planned to annihilate the human trafficking gangs as soon as he got information.

The longer such trash lived, the more people would be harmed.

‘I don’t need to kill the hunters. If I just kill the civilian workers, they won’t be able to do human trafficking for a while.’

He planned to deal with the human trafficking gang hunters and direct subordinates after killing Kwak Min-cheol.

That way he could obtain both traits and stats to get maximum benefit.

‘That’s the plan for now, but…’

Before that, he had to earn recognition from Kwak Min-cheol.

‘I was selected as a direct subordinate, but that doesn’t mean I’m completely recognized yet.’

No matter how good the first impression was and how excellent his growth rate, he hadn’t earned complete trust yet.

He had been Song Chi-hyeon’s subordinate and they had only met a few times, so that was natural.

‘To get information about the human trafficking gangs, I need to catch Kwak Min-cheol’s eye.’

There was nothing to worry about.

He already knew how to capture Kwak Min-cheol’s heart.

‘I need to show overwhelming power. I need to appeal that I’m the strongest among his direct subordinates.’

Choi Seong-min was currently riding in a limousine with Kwak Min-cheol, heading to the dormitory.

It was the dormitory where his direct subordinates lived.

‘Kwak Min-cheol has a hobby of discovering and raising B-rank or higher hunters.’

And he only picked and raised talented individuals with excellent growth rates.

But saying he raised them was just words – they were essentially no different from slaves.

He made them hunt every day and confiscated all the items they earned.

‘I heard they hunt all day except for sleeping time.’

While building up their power like that, if their growth stagnated?

‘He kills them and devours their stats.’

It was no different from raising chicks until they became chickens and then slaughtering them.

To Kwak Min-cheol, his subordinates were nothing more than prey.

‘Not knowing this, his subordinates would be proud of being Kwak Min-cheol’s direct subordinates.’

Not knowing they were destined to die once Kwak Min-cheol set his sights on them.

‘I’m different. I won’t be devoured by him.’

Rather, he had deliberately infiltrated to backstab him, so the one who should be careful wasn’t him but Kwak Min-cheol.

‘I show unrivaled power. So I receive special treatment among his subordinates.’

He would earn Kwak Min-cheol’s recognition and find out information about the human trafficking gangs.

Then, after annihilating them all, he would backstab Kwak Min-cheol on combat power update day.

Not knowing this, Kwak Min-cheol brought up various topics to Choi Seong-min inside the limousine.

“Curious where we’re going?”

“Yes.”

“We’re going to the dormitory where my subordinates live. I have over a hundred direct subordinates.”

“Wow… that many…”

“How many did Song Chi-hyeon have?”

“Less than twenty.”

“Right? That guy and I are on different levels from the start. My subordinates are excellent in both quantity and quality.”

“That’s really amazing.”

Not knowing that Choi Seong-min was smiling inwardly, Kwak Min-cheol chattered excitedly.

“Since you’ve come under me, I’ll raise you faster than anyone else. By the way, you don’t need to come to work. You’ll be busy hunting all day. Oh, do you have family?”

“I have my parents and younger sister.”

“Then when we arrive at the dormitory, you’ll have to call home to say you can’t come home. From now on, you’ll have to live in the dormitory with my subordinates.”

Choi Seong-min answered that he understood without complaint.

“That aside, if your combat power was 250,000 this time, you must have exceeded 300,000 and become A-rank?”

“That’s right.”

“What’s your current combat power then?”

“Um… should I say this…”

“It’s fine, so tell me. I won’t be disappointed.”

‘Disappointed?’

Choi Seong-min inwardly smirked as he stated his combat power.

Of course, he reduced it as much as possible.

He had already surpassed S-rank and reached 8 million, so he couldn’t honestly reveal that.

“It’s 800,000.”

“Really? That’s quite high. Huh? Wait, what did you say?”

“I said 800,000.”

He had reduced it by ten times.

Even so, Kwak Min-cheol showed a reaction as if his eyes were about to pop out.

“Your combat power is that high?”

-It hasn’t even been two weeks, how could someone with 250,000 already…

It was an impossible reaction, but Kwak Min-cheol quickly regained composure.

Because he rationalized it as a lie.

“You bastard… you’re not lying because you think I can’t verify it, are you?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“If you don’t trust me, you can test me.”

“Test?”

Kwak Min-cheol, who had been pondering, opened his mouth.

“Good. Let’s test you as soon as we arrive at the dormitory.”