Chapter 83 – Lee Cheon-sik

“Hyun-jun, can you finish this up?”

“Yes, senior.”

Lee Cheon-sik, operating under the alias Kim Hyun-jun, quietly helped with his senior’s remaining work like a proper new investigator.

Then.

*Ding*

A text message arrived on his phone.

‘What’s this?’

The message content was simple.

Just the number zero written.

But for Lee Cheon-sik who knew its meaning, it wasn’t so simple.

‘Execute the operation already…?’

This quickly when he wasn’t even mentally prepared?

Looking at the message in disbelief, he sent a reply.

[1]

The number 1.

Though a very simple reply, it carried the meaning “Was this sent by mistake?”

Soon after, another reply came.

*Ding*

The content was the same 0 as before.

Meaning it wasn’t sent by mistake.

‘Really… execute the operation right now?’

Lee Cheon-sik’s pupils wavered like candlelight.

“Hey, I said finish up, why are you texting? Hurry up!”

Lee Cheon-sik glanced at his scolding senior who had looked away from his phone.

The senior flinched momentarily sensing killing intent, but Lee Cheon-sik scratched his head with a naive expression as if nothing happened.

“Sorry, senior.”

“D-don’t play around during work, you.”

Though he shouldn’t talk having dumped work on a rookie, the senior turned away thinking the conversation was over.

“Um, senior.”

“Huh? What?”

“Looking at this part of the document you asked me to process, it says to check victim evidence but I don’t know where it is…”

“You’ve been to the evidence room before.”

“It’s so big, I can’t figure out where things are.”

When he naively touched the back of his head, the senior spoke irritably as usual.

“You’ve been here three months and still haven’t memorized item locations?”

“Sorry, senior.”

“Hah… so you want me to go with you?”

“I’m sorry. Just this once, please.”

“Tch, what a pain… Then if I help, you’re buying dinner tonight?”

“Of course, senior.”

“Hehe, really? No taking it back?”

“Yes.”

“I’m going to eat something really expensive.”

The senior took the lead while humming.

Following behind, Lee Cheon-sik was mentally preparing himself.

‘Whew… never thought today would be execution day…’

He’d expected this day would come while working as a spy in the Association, but didn’t expect it to be today.

‘But if I do this job well, the guild promised not to touch my family, right?’

If not for family, he wouldn’t have gone as far as plastic surgery to infiltrate.

‘I have an important role. I must do this without mistakes.’

Just as he steeled himself, they arrived at the underground evidence room.

While walking through the ever-spacious room, Lee Cheon-sik pointed at an iron door in one corner.

“Senior, what’s that door?”

“Ah, that? It has important items but don’t worry about it. A low-rank like you can’t even see-“

The senior suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

Feeling something cold against his neck.

“Guide me.”

Lee Cheon-sik spoke in a chilling voice while holding a jack knife.

“Hey, stop joking around and put this-“

When Lee Cheon-sik applied force, blood flowed from a stinging wound on his neck.

“If you don’t want to die, now.”

“…”

Noticing from his actions this wasn’t a joke, the senior finally started tensing up.

“Y-you know this place is covered in CCTVs? This scene will all be recorded. If you let me go now, I’ll put in a good word for leniency…”

Lee Cheon-sik silently pushed the knife into the open wound.

“S-stop! Okay! I’ll do what you say. But what do you want?”

“Open the door.”

Where he pointed was the iron door that supposedly held important items.

The senior had no choice but to use his ID card to open the door.

*Click*

Pushing the senior inside, Lee Cheon-sik could see the item.

‘Is this it? The item I need to take?’

A sword standing in a rectangular glass case.

The legendary sword the Black Sea Guild had repeatedly mentioned.

‘Certainly not an ordinary item.’

Seeing the gleaming silver blade, he understood why it was called legendary.

Seeing Lee Cheon-sik’s eyes filled with greed, the senior sighed and spoke.

“Hyun-jun. I understand you want the sword but… honestly, you’re wasting your time. This is special reinforced glass that can’t be broken without a hunter’s power…”

“That’s fine. I am a hunter.”

In Lee Cheon-sik’s hand.

*Swoosh*

A large hammer appeared.

Proving he was indeed a hunter.

“Huh, you were a hunter? You?”

The senior stammered in considerable surprise.

“I-impossible. I checked but there was no hunter named Kim Hyun-jun in the rankings…”

“Of course not. It’s an alias.”

Lee Cheon-sik swung his hammer at the surprised senior.

*Crack*

*Thud*

Despite committing murder, his eyes remained perfectly calm.

‘Now just to take this…’

Lee Cheon-sik raised the hammer overhead.

*Crack crack!*

*CRASH!*

After several strikes, he broke the glass case.

Finally, the legendary sword was in his grasp.

*BEEEEP!*

A loud alarm rang throughout the building, apparently triggered when the case broke.

‘They said hunter civil servants arrive within 5 minutes?’

According to the Black Sea Guild’s information, security would respond within 1 minute and nearby hunter civil servants would gather within 5 minutes.

Sure enough, when Lee Cheon-sik came out with the sword, security guards blocked the entrance with guns aimed.

‘I could kill them all and escape using stealth if I wanted to…’

But Lee Cheon-sik didn’t.

Because he wasn’t confident about handling the hunter civil servants who would appear next.

Perhaps that’s why Lee Cheon-sik looked quite relaxed.

The composure of someone who had given up on life.

‘This will do it.’

He took out the item received from the Black Sea Guild.

[Mana Bullet]

-Type: Consumable

-Grade: B

-Effect: Area damage after 5 seconds

-Damage: 200% of level

-Usage restriction: Level 1,000 or below

-Description: Item that can deal area damage by exploding condensed mana. Big trouble if not thrown within 5 seconds of use.

A mana bullet more powerful than a grenade.

This would let him die painlessly.

‘But my family can live.’

Lee Cheon-sik said “use” and closed his eyes.

“Th-that…”

Before the security guards who noticed the reddening mana bullet could flee.

*BOOM!*

A massive explosion engulfed the evidence room.

* * *

Rushing over after receiving the call, Kim Sang-yeop wore a dumbfounded expression seeing the devastated evidence room.

“Ha… what the hell.”

What disaster was this while he was briefly out?

No trace of a smile could be found on his face as he looked at the evidence turned to ash.

“You’re here, Team Leader?”

“Just who the hell did this?”

Considerably angry, Kim Sang-yeop immediately asked his subordinate about the culprit.

“That Kim Hyun-jun… apparently it was the recent rookie.”

“Tell me everything.”

Kim Sang-yeop heard the full account of the incident.

From how Kim Hyun-jun, who had infiltrated as a hunter, threatened his senior to open the iron door containing the legendary sword, to how he self-destructed with a mana bullet when cornered trying to steal it.

He especially exploded in anger hearing how all nearby security guards died in the explosion from the mana bullet.

“Have you ever seen such a goddamn b*st*rd!”

“C-calm down, Team Leader. There are many eyes watching…”

His eyes suddenly lit up as if remembering something while fuming.

“The sword?”

“We have it. It was perfectly fine even though it was close to the explosion.”

Kim Sang-yeop shook his head, not wanting to imagine what would happen if an item worth hundreds of billions disappeared.

“How are the other pieces of evidence?”

“As you can see, everything within 20 meters of the explosion point was destroyed, only about 30% remains.”

“Hah…”

Just as he thought he was sighing too much today.

“Team Leader Kim Sang-yeop!”

An employee from another department came running.

“The Association President is calling for you.”

Kim Sang-yeop’s expression soured.

‘Here it comes.’

* * *

Association President’s office on the 13th floor.

Meeting with the President, Kim Sang-yeop couldn’t raise his head throughout the conversation.

No, it wasn’t even a conversation.

It was a one-sided scolding.

*BANG*

The President slammed the desk and glared with angry eyes.

“How did a hunter get into the Criminal Investigation Team in the first place?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Don’t just say sorry, answer me!”

“We’ll need to investigate more, but it seems he thoroughly hid his identity when joining. He wasn’t a hunter when we checked the rankings.”

“The sword’s condition? Is it alright?”

“Yes. Not a scratch.”

“That’s fortunate then. We couldn’t face the Hunter if we lost what was entrusted to us.”

The relief was brief.

The President put on a stern expression.

“We need to strengthen security and prepare measures to prevent this from happening again. It happened in your department, so you’re responsible for fixing it. Understood?”

“Yes, sir.”

“Keep the weapon somewhere else until measures are in place.”

“Where should we put it?”

“We shouldn’t leave it outside again, and it would be best if a hunter kept it. An inventory is the safest place to hide it.”

“Do you have a hunter in mind?”

“I do.”

The President grinned.

“A hunter we can trust.”

* * *

The middle-aged man sat comfortably, leisurely blowing cigarette smoke.

“The operation?”

“Successful. Our scout reports the evidence room was completely destroyed.”

“Good news. The sword? It wasn’t destroyed?”

“No. Couldn’t get close due to limited stealth time, but it was definitely there.”

“Good. I was worried that spy might put it in his inventory and self-destruct.”

“With his family as hostages, that wouldn’t happen.”

“Hehe, tell the scout to watch carefully. The Association will surely call a hunter to entrust the sword to.”

The Black Sea Guild never ordered Lee Cheon-sik to steal the legendary sword.

It would be impossible for him alone to break through the Association’s security and government hunters anyway.

Lee Cheon-sik’s only job was to create a commotion attempting to steal the sword.

Then the Association would move the sword elsewhere with no place to store it.

“The Association will surely entrust the sword to a reliable hunter. They’ll think an inventory is safe for temporary storage. We just need to find out who that hunter is.”

Being a hunter is a dangerous profession with uncertain survival.

Entrusting the sword to a hunter would be extremely dangerous, but it could be safer if temporary.

“Tell the scout not to take their eyes off for a moment. The hunter entering the Association is likely to be the one entrusted with the sword.”

“Understood.”

The game ends once they know who will store the sword.

They just need to make them give up the sword through threats or torture.

“But Guild Master, what about the family of the guild member who self-destructed?”

“Family?”

The middle-aged man spoke indifferently, as if asking about something obvious.

“Kill them.”