Chapter 49 – Divine Maiden (2)

The waiter who went outside didn’t return for quite a long time. 

Caroline asked Yeon-hwa various things without seeming nervous, but the question and answer session soon ended due to Yeon-hwa’s strangely misaligned responses. 

Fortunately, the waiter returned when they were starting to worry. 

“Three guests, please follow me for a moment.” 

At his words with another bow, Sun-woo and Caroline shrugged their shoulders and stood up. 

Yeon-hwa also stood up accordingly, and the three people followed the waiter down the corridor inside the room. 

The corridor was dark and very complicated. After walking for a while on paths that would make ordinary people lose their sense of direction, the party soon faced an ordinary underground lobby. 

“Oh, so this is how it connects to the adjacent building.” 

At Sun-woo’s casual remark, the waiter’s shoulders twitched, but he pretended not to know anything and guided them into the elevator. 

The elevator continued going up and stopped at the 20th floor. 

“Please follow me.” 

When the elevator opened, a large man was waiting for the party there. The waiter took the elevator back down, and the party was led by the large man through a dark corridor into an office. 

The office was no different from other offices, with a sofa placed in the center, a large bookshelf full of books on one wall, and a desk in position. 

The nameplate on the desk read “Yu-in Industries Lee Cheol-ung.” 

Behind the desk sat a sharp-featured middle-aged man with glasses, who stood up when the party entered. 

He seated the party on the sofa, sat opposite them, and opened his mouth. 

“What business brings you here?” 

It seemed they would have to repeat the story again. Caroline brought up the story she had told the waiter. 

“I came to obtain medicine through an introduction.” 

At her words, the middle-aged man took out a business card from his pocket. It was the business card of the dead Park Byeong-su that Caroline had given to the waiter. 

“You mean through the introduction of the missing Mr. Park Byeong-su?” 

The middle-aged man spoke while grinning. His slightly sharp face suddenly turned into a creepy face due to the smile. 

At that sight, Caroline and Sun-woo frowned, and simultaneously the sound of the door locking was heard. 

The large man who had guided the party locked the door and stood blocking their way. 

“The supplier suddenly disappeared recently, so external sales of the medicine have been suspended. All people who came looking were sent back on the spot. But the reason I brought you to this place is because you came with the business card of the missing Mr. Park Byeong-su.” 

He paused briefly and put his hand into his suit jacket pocket. 

Soon his hand that came out held a pistol. 

“Don’t move unnecessarily and make things tiresome for each other. Where was I… Ah, anyway, what I want to ask is what happened to Mr. Park Byeong-su and how you know him. If I wasn’t curious about that, I wouldn’t have called you here.” 

The middle-aged man grinned menacingly while swinging the pistol with a silencer attached left and right. 

But his threat didn’t work at all. 

“So bringing Park Byeong-su’s business card was the right answer. I was very worried about what to do if you pretended not to know on the spot.” 

Caroline rather sighed in relief, and Sun-woo just shook his head. 

Moreover, Yeon-hwa was looking around the office. 

The middle-aged man frowned at the party’s reaction. 

“What kind of nerve is this? Do you have backup or something?” 

At his words, Caroline asked Sun-woo for help. 

“It seems difficult to ask questions in this state. Please take care of cleaning up the surroundings.” 

Sun-woo nodded and then disappeared from the sofa. 

Bang! 

The door burst out and the large man was flung to one side with his limbs broken. Shortly after, sounds of something breaking and people screaming continued from outside the door. 

“What is this!” 

The startled middle-aged man tried to aim the gun at Caroline, but the gun in his hand was no longer visible. 

“It’s a real gun.” 

His gun had already entered Caroline’s hands. 

“Hmm, I’m not good with guns.” 

She smiled at the middle-aged man, and the gun in Caroline’s hand disappeared with light. 

“What kind of trick is that!” 

“Don’t move.” 

The middle-aged man tried to jump up from his seat, but was pressed down by Sun-woo who had appeared behind him and couldn’t move. 

Leaving the middle-aged man who was shocked by the sudden change in situation, Sun-woo asked Caroline with a somewhat surprised expression. 

“Don’t tell me your ability was maintained as is?” 

The gun in Caroline’s hand had now completely disappeared. The speed of ability use and disappearance time were incomparable to before. Caroline’s face also showed no signs of difficulty, making it seem like watching her ability rampage. 

Caroline shook her head. 

“Not that much. But it seems I’ve gotten quite stronger than before.” 

It didn’t seem like just “quite,” but looking at Caroline’s expression, it seemed better not to pry further. 

“It seems my help wasn’t very necessary.” 

“Not at all. Anyway, this body is an ordinary civilian.” 

Sun-woo knew she was a master at the level of professional fighters, but decided not to nitpick about this either. 

“With someone who devastated everything in one go like this, we can talk comfortably.” 

Behind the shattered door, the wrecked office and people lying with broken limbs everywhere were groaning. 

“How cruel.” 

Seeing the people crawling on the floor with broken limbs, the middle-aged man muttered with a disgusted face. 

Sun-woo himself didn’t feel it was cruel at all. They were people who had threatened with guns. He had only smashed their limbs with his fists without killing them, so there was no reason to hear such words. 

“Sun-woo has really become a martial artist now.” 

“Sun-woo was originally an excellent martial artist.” 

Caroline’s meaningful words were immediately denied by Yeon-hwa. 

“Fortunately, there were no people on the 2nd floor and above and below except for this office. No one would have heard the commotion just now.” 

Caroline, satisfied with the literally cleanly arranged situation, smiled at the middle-aged man. 

“Now, shall we start talking?” 

Through the questioning that followed, the party was able to find out the source of the domestic trading network in Korea. 

But Caroline’s expression as she rode in the car toward the next destination looked very gloomy. 

“My interrogation skills used to work quite well though.” 

That was understandable since it wasn’t she who had obtained information from the middle-aged man. No matter how much she coaxed and threatened (let’s skip over that there was some physical pain too), the middle-aged man stubbornly wouldn’t open his mouth, and even when Sun-woo stepped forward, he was just terrified but his firmly sealed mouth wouldn’t think of opening. 

What opened his mouth was Yeon-hwa. When the two had half given up and Yeon-hwa looked intently at the middle-aged man and spoke calmly, he looked at Yeon-hwa blankly and unknowingly spilled the secrets he had. At that sight, Caroline was shocked and Sun-woo was reminded of the snow cat that had jumped into her arms. 

“This is why religious people are scary. There’s a reason why people get completely won over while talking.” 

It was a joke that seemed to have some bite, but Yeon-hwa didn’t seem to mind at all. 

“Still, it’s unexpected. I didn’t expect the story to connect to that place.” 

“Well, it’s not incomprehensible.” 

The expressions of the two talking about the destination looked somewhat serious. 

“But aren’t you making cleanup contact this time?” 

Sun-woo asked while looking back at the building disappearing into darkness. Caroline was moving while leaving the middle-aged man and other injured people as is. 

They had destroyed all phones and telephones and locked the door in case of prior contact, but it was a bit puzzling that she wasn’t even contacting the association. 

“I’m planning to do it in the morning. This time I’m thinking of moving among ourselves as much as possible.” 

Her expression as she spoke looked very meaningful. 

In the distance, the research institute of Korea’s largest pharmaceutical company stood tall with every office brightly lit. 

[Handong Pharmaceuticals] 

Befitting Korea’s top pharmaceutical company research institute, the building had lights in almost every window at this hour. 

Fortunately, it was in a somewhat remote location being a research institute, but with CCTVs installed everywhere, security doors, and security guards. No matter how you looked at it, it seemed too much to sneak into. 

The party parked their car at some distance from the research institute and hid near the building to discuss. 

“The security is quite thorough. But we should be able to get through with Sun-woo’s magic, right?” 

Unfortunately, Caroline’s trust was betrayed by Sun-woo. 

“It’s impossible.” 

“What! Why!” 

“Illusion arts is a technique to deceive people. Things like security doors or CCTVs can’t be deceived.” 

At Sun-woo’s words, Caroline was disappointed. She had really pinned her hopes on Sun-woo’s illusion arts. 

If illusion arts didn’t work, they would have to break in by force or get help from the association, but she had no desire to do that at all. 

When Caroline’s face darkened, Sun-woo spoke up. 

“Would any method of secretly entering inside work?” 

“Do you have a method?” 

Caroline again nodded with an expectant voice, and Sun-woo stretched his hand toward the ground. 

Rumble rumble. 

With a low sound, the ground where the party stood began sinking downward. 

“There probably aren’t CCTVs underground.” 

Along with the bewildered Caroline, the party disappeared underground, and soon the hole Sun-woo made was filled with earth again. 

[Handong Pharmaceuticals Grade A Underground Laboratory] 

It was a huge laboratory like several classrooms put together. 

In the laboratory, tables stacked with experimental equipment and tables equipped with various machinery were arranged at regular intervals, and cages containing various animals were lined up along the laboratory walls. 

There were still people remaining in the brightly lit laboratory doing experiments. 

The laboratory was surprisingly quite quiet, but at some point the animals that had only occasionally made groaning sounds began becoming noisy. 

“Those guys. Why are they suddenly making a fuss.” 

“That’s strange. They should all be unconscious from the anesthesia prescription.” 

Through people’s puzzled voices, heavy vibration was heard from underground. 

Soon the laboratory began shaking slightly. 

“Don’t tell me it’s an earthquake?” 

While surprised people grabbed desks and crouched down, the center of the laboratory suddenly caved in. 

Kyaak! 

A female researcher’s scream burst out and another researcher ran to sound the emergency bell while one person jumped out of the hole. It was Sun-woo wearing a mask over his mouth. 

After movements like a whirlwind, Sun-woo stopped moving. 

All the people had fallen to the floor stiff as boards, and all the CCTVs had their wires pulled out and became useless. 

When everything was cleaned up, Sun-woo took off his mask and Caroline and Yeon-hwa came up from the hole. 

“Ugh, is this the right place where contamination spreading agents are?” 

At Caroline’s question while brushing off the dirt that had spilled on her body, Yeon-hwa pointed to a refrigerator set up against the inner wall. 

“Yes, negative energy is flowing out from inside that box.” 

At her words, Caroline smiled brightly.