Chapter 398 – Part 2 – I Can’t Kill You Easily

It was still before the morning sun had risen.

Christopher came to find Kwak Min-cheol’s mansion.

“Min-cheol!”

“Christopher, long time no see.”

Choi Seong-min, transformed into Kwak Min-cheol, waved his hand warmly.

The guy in front of him was definitely Christopher.

Though he already knew his face, most importantly…

[Christopher Gibson]

-40-year-old S-rank hunter. Current combat power is 3,000,188.

The system was proving it.

That he was unmistakably a Great Hero.

“Why couldn’t I reach you all this time?”

“Sorry. I’ve been so busy hunting lately that I haven’t had time to look at my phone.”

“What about Melissa? I heard she came to Eastland. Did you meet her?”

“Of course. Let’s go inside first.”

Choi Seong-min guided Christopher into the mansion.

“Min-cheol. Is this where you live? You live in a pretty nice house?”

“I’m an association president after all, so I should have at least this much.”

The two were from different continents with a combat power difference of over 1 million, but they were fairly close friends.

They were also the same age.

That’s why Choi Seong-min spoke casually unlike when dealing with Melissa.

Christopher didn’t feel bad about this either.

Rather, wasn’t he worried after seeing Kwak Min-cheol’s video and came running like this?

“Is there some urgent matter? Why did you suddenly want to meet in the middle of the night?”

Though he knew the reason, Choi Seong-min pretended not to know.

Christopher nodded with a serious face.

“This isn’t something to talk about here. Let’s go inside first.”

Choi Seong-min, who nodded, led Christopher to the reception room.

“Want something to drink?”

“No. This isn’t something to leisurely chat about over tea.”

“What’s the matter that makes you like this?”

“Don’t be surprised when you hear this.”

Christopher, who gave advance warning, spoke with a serious expression.

“You know about Revolution, right?”

“That’s our rebel group.”

“Yeah. I heard from the spy over there…”

He hesitated while gauging Choi Seong-min’s reaction, then said:

“They say a video of you killing your subordinates has fallen into Revolution’s hands.”

“What? What are you talking about?”

“Exactly what I said. The Revolution bastards apparently obtained a video of you killing people.”

“…”

As if speechless from shock, Choi Seong-min slowly opened his mouth.

“A video of me killing? There’s no way such a thing…”

“I doubted my ears at first too. But the spy swore on his life that he saw it for sure. He even swore it was real.”

“…”

“Tell me, Min-cheol. Did you really kill people? Have you ever killed your subordinates?”

“…”

“You can be honest with me. You know I keep my mouth shut, right? I know about Melissa’s dirty hobby too, but I’ve never told anyone.”

“Right. I can trust you even if not the other heroes.”

“So, have you killed anyone?”

“…Yes. Countless numbers.”

Choi Seong-min confessed to Kwak Min-cheol’s murder acts as if making a confession.

However, he didn’t mention anything about stat absorption.

He just said he had a hobby of killing subordinates.

“Your hobby is similar to Melissa’s… I had no idea.”

“Sorry I couldn’t tell you until now. It’s not exactly a hobby to be proud of.”

“I understand, Min-cheol. Thanks for being honest with me now.”

Christopher was on Kwak Min-cheol’s side.

Reading his thoughts, he could understand his sincerity.

However.

‘This bastard doesn’t look at me with normal emotions. He sees me as more than a friend.’

He was thinking of him not just as a friend, but as if he were a lover.

‘How dumbfounded would Kwak Min-cheol have been if he knew this fact?’

Choi Seong-min was equally dumbfounded.

He was just learning for the first time that Christopher was homosexual.

Though he didn’t show it.

“How on earth was such a video filmed? Where did they obtain it?”

“According to the spy, they obtained it from the director’s office while raiding the hunter training facility at dawn today. A hunter named Choi Seong-min found it… do you know who that is?”

‘Of course. That’s me.’

Of course, he didn’t voice his inner thoughts.

“Of course. That’s the hunter who reached 2nd place in the rankings this time. He has 10 million combat power too.”

“Right.”

“But what happened? The Revolution bastards raided the hunter training facility?”

“Oh, that’s…”

Christopher openly shared everything he knew about what had happened a few hours ago.

“Such things happened… I didn’t receive any reports…”

“Probably because they’re all dead.”

“Why on earth did you let them raid? Wasn’t Revolution under your control, Christopher?”

“Of course it’s true that they’re in the palm of my hand. I just didn’t know there was such a video in the director’s office…”

“…”

“It’s not like I was just playing around though. I even set a trap to kill Revolution’s leader and core executives with this opportunity.”

“Then why did it turn out like this?”

“I don’t know either. I heard some psycho bastard wearing a black mask appeared and interfered… Sigh, I don’t know. What happened.”

Christopher was equally frustrated.

His confident plan had gone awry due to the unexpected intervention of a black mask.

“My three precious S-rank subordinates died or something since I can’t even contact them… Sigh…”

“You can just get new subordinates.”

“They were carefully selected S-rank subordinates.”

“More than that, the real big problem is me. If that murder video gets posted on the internet, the public backlash… Whew…”

Choi Seong-min spoke in an anxious voice.

Then Christopher genuinely worried for him.

“Don’t worry too much, Min-cheol. I’ll solve it quickly.”

“How are you going to do what?”

“I’m planning to meet with Revolution as soon as dawn breaks. I’ll go there under the pretext of verifying the authenticity of the video and steal it.”

“Really?”

Choi Seong-min was delighted.

If Christopher’s words were true, he could get the video before it spread.

“Really, of course. Have you ever seen me joke about something like this?”

“Thank you, Christopher. Really thank you.”

Though Choi Seong-min smiled, the meaning was somewhat different from what Christopher thought.

No, it was very different.

‘Things are flowing according to plan.’

Choi Seong-min could have killed Christopher right here.

With the overwhelming difference in power, it would be as easy as stepping on an ant.

‘But I can’t kill him easily.’

Killing him secretly wouldn’t have anyone appreciate it.

Even when killing, it would be better to kill him after making him pay for his crimes.

‘For example, listing his crimes in front of people and then killing him.’

In other words, public execution.

Choi Seong-min intended to put Christopher on the execution platform and then kill him.

‘Of course, I can’t kill him with this face.’

Choi Seong-min’s face didn’t have much commercial value.

‘But the black mask would be a different story.’

Stories about the black mask were already rampant among the organizations.

A dark knight who annihilated human trafficking gangs and slaughtered criminal hunters.

Somehow he had become an icon for cleaning up criminals.

‘The black mask would be the best choice for the role of beheading a Great Hero.’

Since it was a character with commercial value, Choi Seong-min decided to use the black mask’s image.

That would also be good for external activities.

‘No matter what, I can’t go around killing Great Heroes with Choi Seong-min’s face, so this would be better.’

For that purpose, Choi Seong-min had cast bait with the video.

He had hooked Christopher and made him contact Revolution directly.

Everything was as calculated.

‘I’ll publicly execute you in the name of the black mask.’

Choi Seong-min smiled at Christopher.

Christopher wouldn’t know.

That he would be the sacrifice to adorn the black mask’s debut.

---

After finishing the dawn raid, the Revolution members returned to their base.

“Captain Kang Min-chan. What about the casualty situation?”

“A few were injured, but nothing to worry about.”

It was a result worthy of celebration, with not even seriously wounded, let alone deaths.

But Ryu Jong-ik’s expression wasn’t good.

‘Originally we planned to subdue the hunters…’

Far from subduing them, they all died without leaving a single one.

He had just watched the black mask massacre them.

But what was important now wasn’t the life and death of the criminal hunters.

They had learned through this incident that there was a spy inside.

“We received intelligence that there would be few hunters, so we moved up the date. Yet far from being few, more criminal hunters than usual were waiting for us. What do you think this means?”

“It means there’s a spy inside…”

At Kang Min-chan’s answer, the members nodded as if agreeing.

Though they didn’t say it, everyone was aware of the spy’s existence.

“Someone leaked information to the training facility side. They manipulated us to obtain false intelligence and told them when we would attack so they could prepare in advance.”

Ryu Jong-ik, speaking as if lamenting, asked the members:

“Is there anyone who revealed the attack time to someone else? Whether family or Revolution members, anyone at all.”

No one answered.

They just silently shook their heads.

“Really no one?”

“Isn’t it a principle not to share operational information even with family?”

At Kang Min-chan’s answer, Ryu Jong-ik nodded.

“That’s right. But everyone says they didn’t leak information, which is troubling. If not here, there’s nowhere else for it to leak.”

“Are you saying someone among us is lying…?”

Ryu Jong-ik nodded with a heavy face.

“Yes. I don’t want to admit it, but there’s a spy among us. Among the 29 people who participated in the operation.”

At the mention of a spy, the members glanced at each other.

The existence of a spy made them suspect each other.

“For the time being, until we find the spy, we’ll suspend operations.”

Their actions were also restricted.

With a spy present, they would fall into traps again.

“And from now on, I want to conduct individual interviews with each person. This is a temporary measure to identify the spy, so please cooperate even if it’s tiring.”

The members readily agreed to Ryu Jong-ik’s proposal.

They also wanted to quickly escape suspicion and catch the spy.

For Nam Il-woo, who was actually the spy, it was a stopgap measure that made him sneer.

‘You’re going to find the spy through interviews? Go ahead and try.’

Nam Il-woo was confident.

If he was going to be caught by interrogation, he would have been caught long ago.

He was confident in securing alibis as well as acting, so there was no reason to be scared.

Eventually, one-on-one interviews with Ryu Jong-ik proceeded.

The personnel who participated in the operation took turns having conversations with Ryu Jong-ik.

It took a full 4 hours to finish interviewing everyone.

“How was it, Leader?”

At Kang Min-chan’s question, Ryu Jong-ik shook his head.

“I don’t know. There’s no spy, not even a suspicious member.”

Then Nam Il-woo suddenly interjected.

“Isn’t there still one person left to interview?”

“Ah, you mean Hunter Choi Seong-min.”

Choi Seong-min had returned home early after the operation, saying he was tired.

No one could stop someone with 10 million combat power who wanted to leave.

“Of course Hunter Choi Seong-min is no exception. We’ll have to call him soon for an interview.”

“Perhaps Hunter Choi Seong-min might be the spy.”

“The possibility of someone with 10 million combat power being a spy is low, but… we can’t say for certain.”

Then Do Eun-jeong, who was displeased with suspecting Choi Seong-min, joined the conversation.

“Or maybe the deceased Park Hui-jun was the spy?”

“Well, that’s possible too.”

To Nam Il-woo’s opinion and Do Eun-jeong’s opinion alike, Ryu Jong-ik couldn’t deny either.

Anyone could be a spy.

‘This is hopeless, hopeless…’

Though he was conducting interviews as a temporary measure, Ryu Jong-ik was skeptical.

Without a trait for reading thoughts, there was no way to distinguish spies through interviews.

“Everyone has worked hard. You may return now. Until there’s an assembly, please stay home and keep yourselves safe for the time being…”

Just as the unproductive interviews ended and they were disbanding.

“L-Leader!”

A civilian member rushed into the operations room.

“What’s the matter that you’re rushing in like that?”

“He, he’s here!”

“Who?”

“The Wings of Hope leader… Melvin Hernandez!”