Chapter 412 – Part 2 – Kwak Min-cheol’s Mansion

After finishing the call, Woo Seong-jae couldn’t help but be dumbfounded for a while.

‘Kwak Min-cheol and Peter had a phone conversation…?’

It was nonsense.

Wasn’t Kwak Min-cheol dead?

‘I clearly saw Kwak Min-cheol’s trait when I looked at Hunter Choi Seong-min…’

It wasn’t just Kwak Min-cheol.

There were traits of other Great Heroes besides himself and Peter.

That’s why he thought Choi Seong-min was hunting Great Heroes, wasn’t it?

‘If Kwak Min-cheol and Melissa are dead, there’s currently no Great Hero managing Eastland.’

If there was no ruler, he would have to personally gather the criminal hunters of Eastland.

That was why Woo Seong-jae was still remaining in Eastland.

‘That’s what I thought, but he had a phone conversation with Kwak Min-cheol? And what’s this about being careful of the black mask?’

Woo Seong-jae didn’t know about the existence of the black mask.

Since contact with Kwak Min-cheol had been cut off, he hadn’t received reports about what activities had been happening recently.

‘What on earth is going on? Could Kwak Min-cheol really be alive? How?’

There were two possibilities.

One was that Choi Seong-min had killed Kwak Min-cheol, but another Great Hero discovered him and revived him with a potion.

The other was that Choi Seong-min had obtained a trait identical to Kwak Min-cheol’s.

‘If it’s not one of these two, it doesn’t make sense for Kwak Min-cheol to be alive.’

However, Woo Seong-jae soon shook his head.

‘No. There’s no way my Insight trait wouldn’t have seen through that. Then what is it?’

Tap- Tap-

Woo Seong-jae bit his nails habitually.

His mind was as tangled as a ball of yarn.

‘There’s only one answer. I have to check directly.’

Woo Seong-jae commanded the driver.

“Turn the car around. Let’s go to the association.”

“Yes, Great Hero.”

‘Checking directly would be more certain than confirming by phone.’

30 minutes later.

Woo Seong-jae arrived at the association but couldn’t meet Kwak Min-cheol.

‘It’s working hours but he’s not in the association president’s office either. Where did he go?’

The secretary’s office would know Kwak Min-cheol’s whereabouts.

Woo Seong-jae unexpectedly visited the secretary’s office.

“Gasp! W-W-Woo Seong-jae sir?”

“I came to see Great Hero Kwak Min-cheol but don’t see him. Where is he?”

“Th-the Great Hero hasn’t come to work for several days.”

‘He hasn’t come to work?’

Woo Seong-jae immediately turned around.

If he hadn’t come to work, he would be at his own mansion.

Woo Seong-jae, who got in the limousine, headed to Kwak Min-cheol’s mansion.

It didn’t take very long to reach the mansion.

“Wait here.”

“Yes, Great Hero.”

After having the limousine driver wait in front of the mansion, only Woo Seong-jae moved.

Beep-

He pressed the doorbell in front of the main gate, but there was no response.

‘Is no one there?’

Just because no one was there didn’t mean he wouldn’t go in.

Whoosh-

He lightly jumped over the fence and crossed the yard.

Click- Click-

The front door was locked, but for him with Insight, it wasn’t a problem.

‘Is this the password?’

Beep beep beep beep- Beep beep-

Insight even saw through the password.

Woo Seong-jae entered as if it were his own home.

He quietly looked around inside, but no one seemed to be there.

He didn’t feel like Kwak Min-cheol was present.

However, the moment he faced the basement entrance.

Woo Seong-jae’s Insight trait sent a strong signal.

‘There’s something down there. Something very important.’

Woo Seong-jae went down to the basement tensely.

The smell of blood indicated that many people had died, even without the Insight trait.

Looking at dozens of rooms, Woo Seong-jae nodded.

‘He made a prison in the basement.’

The purpose was easy to guess.

‘He was going to kill his subordinates to absorb their stats.’

He had noticed from their first meeting that Kwak Min-cheol had a hobby of killing his subordinates.

‘I knew but turned a blind eye. It wasn’t my concern.’

Woo Seong-jae was relatively lenient toward fellow Great Heroes from Eastland.

Partly because their low combat power made them easy to handle.

Woo Seong-jae, who was looking around the prison, frowned.

For some reason, most of the room doors were broken.

‘What? Did the imprisoned subordinates escape?’

But Woo Seong-jae soon shook his head.

Because he knew through Insight that these weren’t traces of escape.

‘Someone forcibly broke down the doors to search the rooms.’

And by at least four hunters exceeding S-rank at that.

‘Four S-rank hunters… Melissa’s subordinates?’

With high Insight, various possibilities came to mind.

Insight derived the most reasonable result among them.

But speculation was impossible without clear clues.

‘What were they searching for by going through the rooms?’

While he was wondering.

Woo Seong-jae stopped in front of a closed room.

‘Someone is inside… someone very important.’

Crunch-

He grabbed and tore off the door like crumpling paper.

It was a special alloy steel plate, but to Woo Seong-jae with 10 million combat power, it was no different from paper.

“You’re…”

In the forcibly opened prison was an unexpected person.

“Kwak Min-cheol…?”

Why was Kwak Min-cheol imprisoned in his own mansion’s basement?

“Who imprisoned you? Could it be Melissa?”

Melissa was the only person who could do such a thing.

He had somewhat foreseen that she and Kwak Min-cheol would clash.

However, Kwak Min-cheol said nothing.

No, he did say a few words.

“Bya bya.”

“……”

It was bewildering babbling.

“Bya bu. Bya bu.”

“……”

The continued babbling didn’t seem like a joke.

Quick judgment was possible thanks to his Insight trait.

‘Come to think of it, Kwak Min-cheol’s trait… isn’t there.’

Once you become a hunter, your trait never disappears.

The same is true even if you die and come back to life.

‘So it was stolen by Hunter Choi Seong-min after all?’

Woo Seong-jae’s Insight saw through all the circumstances.

‘Kwak Min-cheol had died and come back to life. Through a Potion of Life.’

The potion was probably extorted from Kwak Min-cheol’s inventory through the Hunter Slayer trait.

‘Kwak Min-cheol’s babbling is also because of the Memory Deletion trait.’

Woo Seong-jae remembered that among Choi Seong-min’s numerous S-rank traits was Memory Deletion.

‘Unless all memories were erased, a human couldn’t regress like this.’

As expected, Kwak Min-cheol was alive.

Imprisoned in his own mansion’s basement.

But not all questions were resolved.

‘He had a phone conversation with Peter in this state? How?’

No matter how he looked at it, he wasn’t in a state to have a conversation.

He was just babbling the whole time.

That’s when it happened.

“Is it okay to enter someone’s house without permission?”

“Gasp!”

Woo Seong-jae was startled by the sudden voice.

When he turned around, Choi Seong-min was standing there with a look that said ‘what are you so surprised about?’

“You broke into our house a few hours ago, and now it’s Kwak Min-cheol’s house?”

“How is Lord Choi Seong-min here…”

“What are you asking? You already figured it all out.”

As Choi Seong-min said, Woo Seong-jae had grasped most of the situation through Insight.

“You erased Kwak Min-cheol’s memory and are staying here to monitor him…”

“You know well.”

“Don’t tell me Melissa too…”

Choi Seong-min nodded.

“I made her the same way and put her in the next room.”

“……”

Woo Seong-jae’s gaze turned to Kwak Min-cheol.

Seeing him babbling, a chilling thought crossed his mind.

The thought that he too might end up like that.

“Don’t worry. As long as you perform the tasks I assign you well, I won’t touch you.”

“…Really?”

“You bastard. Don’t you trust me?”

“N-no. I trust you.”

In front of Choi Seong-min, Woo Seong-jae had no choice but to tuck his tail.

‘To think Kwak Min-cheol and Melissa were imprisoned here… Could other heroes be here too?’

While he was thinking such thoughts, Choi Seong-min looked at him with an annoyed gaze.

“Hey. Did you just think that for me to hear?”

“N-no.”

“No what? You clearly know I can read thoughts.”

When Choi Seong-min growled, Woo Seong-jae immediately bowed his head.

“I’m, I’m sorry. I had no particular intention. I was just curious…”

“If you’re curious, don’t think alone, just ask. I’ll at least answer.”

“Ah… thank you. Are there perhaps other Great Heroes…”

“There are no others. I only imprisoned Kwak Min-cheol and Melissa.”

“I see…”

“Originally I kept them barely alive with Potions of Life to hide that I killed them, but it was pointless work. Since you found out like this.”

“I’m, I’m sorry… I unintentionally ruined your plan…”

“It’s fine. The new plan isn’t bad either.”

At Choi Seong-min’s wicked smile, Woo Seong-jae subtly averted his gaze.

Honestly, even facing him like this was burdensome.

Who would welcome an opponent trying to kill them?

Moreover, openly reading his thoughts made him feel completely naked.

Woo Seong-jae asked about something he was curious about, partly to hide these inner feelings.

“Do you know about something called the black mask?”

“Why do you ask that?”

“Peter said something strange. He said he talked with Kwak Min-cheol, who suddenly told him to be careful of the black mask.”

“What’s your reason for telling me this when it has nothing to do with me?”

When Choi Seong-min pinpointed the hidden intention in his words, Woo Seong-jae panicked.

He didn’t even have an Insight trait, but his intuition was extraordinary.

“It, it seems like something Hunter Choi Seong-min is involved in…”

“Me?”

“Yes. I wondered if anything comes to mind…”

“This bastard is trying to extract information from me?”

When Choi Seong-min glared again, Woo Seong-jae shut his mouth.

Cold sweat flowed down his back.

“Someone with the fraudulent Insight trait can’t figure this out?”

“Well… without even a little clue, I can’t use Insight…”

“So you just have a feeling that I’m involved?”

“Yes…”

Insight wasn’t omnipotent either.

If there were even slight related clues it would be different, but when there were none at all, there was only a feeling like this.

Choi Seong-min inwardly felt relieved.

‘I need to be careful about opening my inventory in front of this guy.’

Usually when not opening inventory, items couldn’t be seen through with Insight.

But the moment inventory was opened, Woo Seong-jae’s Insight would check all possessed items.

‘If I had opened inventory in front of him, it would have been exposed that I’m the black mask.’

The Doppelganger’s Mask was right there in his inventory.

Moreover, Insight would see through even the mask’s functions.

‘He would also notice that I can change appearance.’

Of course, transformation would be useless in front of Woo Seong-jae.

Even if he transformed into someone else to deceive him, Woo Seong-jae would see through to his true appearance.

‘But that doesn’t mean I want to reveal that I even have transformation abilities.’

It was better to hide what could be hidden.

‘It’s a scary trait. It was good that I’m not wearing equipment.’

If he had been wearing the shadow armor, even the option ability of shadow movement would have been detected.

‘He probably suspects I’m the black mask, but it’s not certain proof. It’s better to keep it hidden.’

Choi Seong-min replied in a cold voice.

“If I told you? Do you think I’d tell you?”

“N-no.”

“Put aside useless curiosity and just do what I assigned you.”

“I actually came to get Kwak Min-cheol’s help… but since he’s not in that state, I’ll have to gather the criminals alone.”

“What about Westland? Did you have Peter do it?”

“Yes. I was curious why you gave such instructions, but I accepted without complaint.”

“Good. But how did Peter react after receiving Kwak Min-cheol’s call? After hearing to be careful of the black mask.”

“Ah… he didn’t seem to take it very seriously.”

“Is that so?”

Choi Seong-min, who was deeply thinking about something, looked at Woo Seong-jae.

“I’ll give you one more instruction.”

“Please command me.”

“Call Peter and tell him. That the black mask is targeting the Pentagon, so be careful.”

“The black mask… you mean?”

“Right. Tell him to deploy all S-rank subordinates to the Pentagon in preparation for the attack.”

Choi Seong-min made a meaningful smile.

“The black mask will target the Magic Core.”