Chapter 92

Song Hwayoung sent word she’d be heading up a bit later because of personal business.

So I didn’t need to book a night’s stay after all.

Not that it was a loss—I got a few things out of it, so in the end it worked in my favor.

I took an evening train back up to Seoul. Once I arrived, I grabbed a cab straight home.

Already the end of the year, huh.

A few months ago, I never would’ve imagined spending year’s end in a place like this. But I wasn’t really dissatisfied now. With my goal clearer, maybe I’d even say I was finding it somewhat fun.

One thing I had to consider, though... my rank progression was slower than expected. Not surprising, since I hadn’t been going into Gates often, but at this pace I’d still be stuck as a low-rank Awakened by the time I ran into Kwon Taehan.

I need to run more dungeons.

Thinking that, I stepped inside my place—where an unexpected quiet greeted me.

What the hell?

Normally Joo Seowon would be in the living room, but I didn’t see him. And Do Yehyun, who’d said he was hitting a dungeon today, wasn’t back either.

Did they clear it?

The sudden doubt made me bring up the tracker and pull up both their locations.

Do Yehyun’s signal had cut off in Eunpyeong-gu, so he was still inside a Gate. Joo Seowon was on his way back here.

Having the locator on them really was convenient.

A moment later, the door opened and Joo Seowon came in. He paused briefly when he saw me, then walked in naturally.

“When’d you get back?”

“Not long ago. About fifteen minutes.”

“Earlier than I expected. I figured you’d be later since you said you took the train.”

“Where’d you go?”

“Stopped by the SH building for a bit.”

Answering casually, he sat down on the couch, pulled a tablet from his bag, did some searching, and then handed it to me.

“I tried to pin down Cheonmyeonggyo’s base of operations, but apparently even among their members no one # Nоvеlight # knows where the cult leader’s private temple is. Instead, I’ve got something else to show you.”

“What is it?”

He played a video. Less than a minute long, it started with some guy worked up, jabbing his finger as he ranted about something.

[Everyone. You need to believe this. I’m an F-rank Awakened. Well—up until recently, I really was just an F-rank!]

Shaking with excitement, he grabbed something from the desk and shoved it toward the camera.

[This is my hunter license! I blurred my personal info, but that’s me in the photo, right? And here—can you see the letters? It says F-rank!]

Then he tossed the license aside, wiped his sweaty palm on his pants, and trembled like he was high, breathing raggedly.

[...Now, watch this!]

Still rubbing his hands nervously, he suddenly dragged a flowerpot over and placed his hand on it.

The plant inside shot upward in an instant, smashing the pot. In seconds, it had grown taller than him, pushing against the ceiling and cramming the room. Staring at it, his face lit with ecstasy as he turned back to the camera.

[See, see this! I’m not F-rank anymore! You can do it too. You all need to realize the truth—]

His words cut off as the video ended with an SNS logo. It was obvious the guy wasn’t in his right mind, and the whole thing was noisy chaos.

“What’s this?”

“Got uploaded to SNS briefly this morning before being taken down. Spread pretty fast, but most comments said it was just fake.”

“Fake?”

“Check his next post.”

He swiped to the next image. A photo of blue sky, with a scrawled caption beneath:

—Let’s pray!

“....”

“Pretty weird, right?”

Yeah. Looked exactly like the ramblings of a lunatic.

“Did you check who he is?”

“Yeah. I wondered if he was a Cheonmyeonggyo follower, so I dug a bit. Turns out he’s a complete idiot. Keeps locking and unlocking his SNS account, and he’s posted about Cheonmyeonggyo more than once.”

“Guess he was pretty moved.”

“He says he met Lord Haedo.”

That made me sit up. He actually met Jin Haedo?

“After meeting him, his stats apparently improved. Claims he was blessed.”

“...Blessed?”

The moment he said it, I recalled the words I’d heard earlier today.

‘Lord Haedo has blessed me over and over, yet I’ve never once won. I’m truly beyond saving.’

Once might’ve been coincidence. Twice made it harder to dismiss.

Could there really be a way to boost abilities?

Seowon swiped again, pulling up the guy’s personal info.

Next to the ID photo I’d seen in the video was a list of details: name, age, affiliation, rank, and so on.

“Name’s Ryu Taejun. Twenty-four. Same age as you.”

“...”

I skipped the rest and focused on the line at the bottom.

“This for real?”

“Yeah.”

It said something absurd.

Special Note: Brother of Ryu Taeyoung (Special Response Team)

Holy shit. How can two brothers look this completely unlike each other? Not just appearance or build—their behavior, their whole mindset?

“For real? That’s ridiculous.”

“I thought they didn’t look alike at first too.”

“He’s like half of Ryu Taeyoung. Looks like one punch would finish him.”

“If you actually meant it, yeah, that’d be enough.”

No wonder Ryu Taeyoung had said he couldn’t hit his brother. From the look of him, a couple “disciplinary” smacks would probably kill him outright.

Well, that’d count as “waking him up,” in a different sense.

I chuckled.

“Big brother’s getting his ass handed to him in the Special Response Team every day, while little brother’s off filming this crap for some cult leader. Impressive.”

“...Sometimes you sound like a cranky dad in his forties or fifties, you know that?”

Ignoring his nonsense, I zoomed in on Ryu Taejun’s face. No resemblance. Dump him somewhere random and no one would know they were related.

“Of all the people claiming to meet Jin Haedo, this guy’s the most credible?”

“Yeah. He’s got full records, at least. We could use him to get closer.”

“Good.”

I handed the tablet back, organizing my thoughts. At the very least, we could ask how he met Haedo. Worth trying.

“By the way, I went down to Busan today for a sort of auction. Saw something strange that looked tied to Cheonmyeonggyo.”

“What?”

I explained what I’d seen with Sung Uijae.

The sudden fight in the arena, the guy muttering Jin Haedo’s name, and how the setup reminded me of the “shop” Infinite Guild used to run.

As I spoke, Seowon’s face grew more uneasy.

“...Felt like Infinite Guild’s operation?”

“Yeah. Decked out like an illegal den. I’ll send you the location—check if it’s linked to Cheonmyeonggyo.”

But he latched onto something else.

“Why the hell did you even go there? Obvious as day it was dangerous!”

The calm tone was gone; he was shouting. I glanced at his face.

The look of “what the fuck” all over it.

I gave a short explanation.

“Not my choice. I was dragged along.”

“Dragged? What do you mean? With Song Hwayoung?”

“No, not her. Someone else. I went with Sung Uijae.”

“What?”

Completely blindsided, he gawked at me.

“Sung Uijae... what? What the hell are you talking about? You’re personally connected?”

“No. Met him yesterday at the Association.”

“And then today you’re going there with him? You’re telling me Sung Uijae invited you to that place?”

Whatever he was imagining, his reaction was bizarre.

“He wanted me to appraise something. That’s all.”

“That’s already insane!”

“Anyway, that’s not the point. I handled it fine. I’d rather not cross paths with him again, though.”

I smiled as I said it. He opened his mouth like he was about to argue, then let out a long sigh.

“...I really don’t know what the hell you’re doing.”

“Just check it. I want this resolved.”

“For god’s sake... think before you act! Sung Uijae didn’t make you—come on, you went because you wanted to.”

“No, I didn’t. Don’t believe me?”

“Of course not! I’ve been watching you for months—would you believe you, if you were me?”

So little trust. Honestly, it stung.

Still, bickering with him like usual made it feel like things were back to normal. He seemed fine too.

We were still snapping at each other when the door opened and Do Yehyun walked in.