Chapter 343 – Part 2 – Cleanup

Ring ring- Ring ring-

A phone call comes in.

It’s not Choi Seong-min’s phone. It’s Song Chi-hyeon’s.

“Yeah.”

-We’ve finished the cleanup as you instructed.

“I don’t need to check it myself, right?”

-Of course not. We handled it so cleanly it’s as if nothing happened, so please don’t worry.

“Good. You did well.”

-Not at all, Great Hero. Then I’ll be going…

The person who put down the phone was Song Chi-hyeon.

No, it was Choi Seong-min transformed into Song Chi-hyeon.

‘Is this the power of authority? Cleaning up corpses with just one phone call. It’s really convenient for cleanup.’

Before leaving the scene, Choi Seong-min first disposed of Song Chi-hyeon’s corpse.

He wrapped it in plastic to prevent blood from leaking and put it in a suitcase that was in the office.

Then he carried Do Eun-jeong on his back and dragged the suitcase out of the office.

‘If I left Do Eun-jeong behind, it would create another problem.’

After leaving the unconscious Do Eun-jeong in a nearby alley, he left the area.

Afterward, Choi Seong-min opened Song Chi-hyeon’s phone to clean up the blood-stained scene.

Although it had fingerprint recognition lock, since he had transformed into Song Chi-hyeon, he could use it without problems.

‘Finding subordinates for cleanup wasn’t difficult either.’

In the contact list, there was a subordinate called ‘Cleaner’ who specialized in disposing of corpses.

‘Looking at the message content, it seems this wasn’t the first or second time disposing of corpses.’

From the regular contact, he could tell how many people Song Chi-hyeon had killed and cleaned up after.

Anyway, Choi Seong-min called this so-called cleaner using Song Chi-hyeon’s voice.

-Three corpses?

-Right. I’d like them disposed of as quickly as possible before they’re discovered.

-Don’t worry. I’ll handle everything within 30 minutes.

He hid nearby to see if they could really clean up in that time.

Subordinates who appeared using stealth went in and came out, and it really only took 30 minutes.

‘Seeing that stealth is visible, they’re definitely below my combat power…’

What was interesting was that they used stealth both when entering and leaving.

‘There’s no way stealth cooldown is that short.’

He suspected they might have traits related to stealth.

‘By the way, can’t they contact Oh Gwang-taek?’

There was a contact in the phone book.

There was also a record of sending dozens of messages.

But it seemed no reply had come yet.

‘So it wasn’t that they deliberately didn’t erase memories, but they couldn’t erase them because they couldn’t make contact.’

This was why Song Chi-hyeon had murdered Team Crush now.

With the situation urgent due to combat power updates and no contact with Oh Gwang-taek.

‘If Oh Gwang-taek had contacted them, Team Crush members could have lived.’

They would have had their memories erased, but they wouldn’t have died so miserably like now.

‘Oh Gwang-taek. I’ll have to kill that bastard someday too.’

He had no intention of blaming that guy for Team Crush members’ deaths.

That’s not why he wanted to kill him.

‘If I had that guy’s trait, it would be useful for conquering Great Heroes.’

Honestly, he coveted that trait of erasing memories.

‘I was planning to kill him as a set with Song Chi-hyeon anyway.’

Since it was a trait he had targeted since before possession, Oh Gwang-taek’s death was predetermined.

‘Birds of a feather flock together, and that bastard is trash among trash anyway.’

He wouldn’t need to feel guilty about killing him.

Rattle rattle-

Choi Seong-min, who had been dragging the suitcase, eventually found a mountain suitable for burial.

After climbing the mountain, he buried Song Chi-hyeon’s corpse in an appropriate place.

Of course, he was careful about surrounding eyes and CCTV, so there was no chance of being caught.

[Stealth cooldown has returned.]

‘Has an hour passed?’

Seeing the message that appeared at the right time, Choi Seong-min used stealth.

Swoosh-

He came down the mountain like that and released stealth at a distant place.

Then he walked among people with a nonchalant face.

In Choi Seong-min’s original appearance.

‘This should be enough.’

When he thought he had gotten sufficiently far from the crime scene, he found an appropriate bench and sat down.

He had been busy with cleanup and hadn’t checked traits and items yet.

[Trait – Thought Reading]

-Grade: S

-Description: Reads the thoughts of targets visible before your eyes. Cannot read inner feelings deep inside. Can only read when within 30m maximum. Cannot read through telescopes, photos, media, etc., or when not in sight.

A trait that literally reads thoughts.

‘You can’t read inner feelings deep inside, only thoughts that surface.’

So if discovered, you can easily deceive the opponent, but when they don’t know, there’s nothing better than this.

‘People tend to think before acting. In duels, you can grasp all the opponent’s movements, so there’s nothing better.’

It wasn’t for nothing that Song Chi-hyeon was called the strongest in human combat.

Though that was limited to people who didn’t know about the trait…

‘My case is different.’

Song Chi-hyeon and Choi Seong-min were different.

‘The enemies I’ll face from now on will have no choice but to not know I have such a trait.’

So unlike Song Chi-hyeon, he could have great effects even against Great Heroes.

‘Moreover, there’s no trait better for leading interrogations.’

If he set his mind to it, he could easily extract desired information.

‘It’s not S-grade for nothing.’

Choi Seong-min, who was satisfied, checked the items he had obtained.

‘A lot of A-grade equipment came in.’

Choi Seong-min admired slightly while looking at the equipment Song Chi-hyeon had.

They were all top-grade items.

‘There are several I could use.’

He saw several items with agility options.

He decided to use them later when he became A-rank.

‘He had as many as 30 Magic Stones. Did he keep them without selling for emergency use?’

Most were A-grade Magic Stones. In monetary terms, they were worth over 10 billion won.

‘I can sell them one by one when I need money.’

He decided to use them as emergency funds and looked at other items…

‘What’s this?’

There was one familiar collectible.

It was Concentrated Wasp Poison.

‘To think Song Chi-hyeon also had an item that only comes from catching the Giant Wasp General…’

It couldn’t help but be unexpected since it was an item from a D-rank boss, not an A-rank boss.

‘He probably couldn’t throw it away since it’s a bound item and was keeping it.’

Choi Seong-min grinned and immediately used the Poison Crafting skill.

[Crafting successful!]

[You have obtained 1 Lethal Deadly Poison.]

‘Good. With this, I can send one Great Hero to their grave.’

Since it had great effect when killing Song Chi-hyeon this time, it was definitely necessary poison.

‘What are these?’

Besides this, there were 9 consumables, of which 8 were Skill Grade Transcendence Stones.

‘Skill Grade Transcendence Stones…’

Items that upgrade A-rank skills to S-rank, allowing A-rank hunters to experience S-rank skills.

Naturally, they were more precious items than Skill Grade Enhancement Stones.

‘To have 8 of such precious items.’

With these, he could enhance all skills to S-rank when promoted to A-rank.

But the surprising thing wasn’t just that.

‘Th-this is…’

Because the remaining one consumable was none other than an Elixir of Life.

‘Song Chi-hyeon had this elixir that can revive even the dead…?’

The Elixir of Life was definitely not an item dropped by catching monsters.

It was an item that could only be made by crafting with materials.

‘That means Song Chi-hyeon knew how to make elixirs…’

As far as Choi Seong-min knew, awakeners and monsters had appeared in this world about 120 years ago.

Since a long time had passed, elixir crafting methods would have been known too.

‘Of course, only the highest-level hunters would know.’

Since information also had a price, it wouldn’t have been publicly known.

‘It’s not strange that Song Chi-hyeon knew elixir crafting methods.’

He was a Great Hero praised worldwide after all.

‘I’ve seen all the collectibles and consumables… Should I check the last possession that came in?’

Soon, Choi Seong-min’s eyes widened upon seeing the possession.

‘Wildcat’s Luminous Eye?’

A possession that came from catching the Wildcat Eye Tiger in his previous life, an item that allows you to see like daylight even in darkness.

‘This is useful.’

It was a perfect item for an assassin who had to make darkness their ally.

‘With this, I’ve checked all the obtained items…’

Choi Seong-min got up from the bench.

And walked somewhere.

He wasn’t walking aimlessly without a destination.

‘I should meet Do Eun-jeong.’

He planned to meet her and interrogate what she knew about him.

He didn’t need to worry about where to go to meet her.

He had placed a mark in advance with this thought.

* * *

Beep beep beep- Click-

Do Eun-jeong entered the house.

A middle-aged man in the inner room spoke without looking at the entrance.

“Who is it? Eun-jeong?”

When there was no answer, the middle-aged man came out of the room.

It was the middle-aged man who had played the father role before.

“It’s Eun-jeong? Why did you come back so early? Today was the day you go to the office, wasn’t it?”

“……”

Do Eun-jeong said nothing.

She was just spacing out with a soulless expression.

Do Min-chan, no, Kang Min-chan’s face became serious.

“What’s wrong? Did something happen?”

“The seniors…”

“Seniors? The team seniors you work with?”

“They’re all dead. Right before my eyes…”

“Sit down first.”

Kang Min-chan, recognizing the seriousness of the situation, sat Do Eun-jeong in a chair.

“Tell me step by step. What happened?”

With a face still showing the aftermath of shock, Do Eun-jeong confessed what she had experienced.

Kang Min-chan also made a serious expression.

“So you’re saying Song Chi-hyeon killed all the Team Crush seniors? You were almost in danger too, but suddenly a man in a black mask appeared and saved you.”

“Yes… But there’s something strange.”

“What?”

“When I woke up from fainting, I was in an alley, and when I went back to look, the scene was cleaned up without a trace. As if nothing had happened…”

“Someone cleaned it up thoroughly.”

“I wasn’t originally sleeping in the alley, was I? Everything I saw until now was a dream…”

“You contacted the team members but no one answered. Everything you saw was probably real.”

“Ah…”

Do Eun-jeong lowered her head with a despairing face.

She wished everything she had seen was just a dream.

“Don’t worry too much. In this kind of work, colleagues dying is commonplace. It’s better for you to shake it off quickly and get up.”

Though he said it as comfort, it was no help to Do Eun-jeong at all.

“That aside, seeing how cleanly it was cleaned up, it seems someone wanted to cover up the incident… Was it Song Chi-hyeon?”

“It wasn’t Song Chi-hyeon. He was stabbed all over and in tatters like a rag.”

“Right, in that state it wouldn’t be easy to move. Then did the black mask clean it up? Three corpses without a trace by himself? Is that possible?”

“I don’t know… Either way, Song Chi-hyeon is dead.”

“That would be good, but don’t conclude he’s dead yet. In a world where even with just a bit of breath left, a healer can miraculously cure completely.”

“……”

Though she said no more, Do Eun-jeong was certain.

That the man in the black mask had killed Song Chi-hyeon.

“Then what about the identity of that black mask?”

“I don’t know.”

“Hmm, to overwhelm a Great Hero, he’s definitely an amazing guy. Don’t you have any guesses?”

“What would I do knowing the identity? Accept him as an organization member?”

“If such an amazing guy became an organization member, I’d welcome it greatly.”

“Wake up from your dream. Would such a person really join such a shabby organization?”

“What’s impossible about it? Seeing how he tried to kill a Great Hero, it seems our goals align.”

“……”

“That aside, you really don’t know the identity?”

Do Eun-jeong, who had been thinking deeply, eventually shook her head.

“I don’t know. The weapon that person used seems similar to a weapon I’ve seen somewhere, but I can’t remember well…”

Then, a call came to Do Eun-jeong’s phone.

Seeing the caller, she quietly murmured.

“Junior Seong-min…?”

Then her eyes widened at a thought that flashed through her mind.

“C-could it be?”

She remembered.

Who it was that used the red dagger.

‘Junior Seong-min… the black mask?’