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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Simzy
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“Ha. This is absurd.”
The Hwasan Guild’s monster corpse disposal site.
“I heard the report, but I didn’t think it was real. It’s so unbelievable that I’m practically speechless.”
“Raid leader, over two thousand eight hundred of the three thousand slaves at the corpse disposal site have escaped.”
The man receiving the report frowned.
He was the leader of the Red Plum Blossom Raid Unit, one of the top three raid units of the ten raids in the Hwasan Guild, called the Plum Blossom Attack Unit.
“Giving the raid leader position to some goddamn insect, that’s why Hwasan is in this state.”
His name was Chung In-woo.
He was a ‘genuine’ martial artist with a different class than Kim Shin-hong, who was treated poorly within the guild.
A silver martial artist.
A true warrior using martial arts, not a player.
He was one of the Plum Blossom Swordsmen, who were considered Hwasan’s best forces.
“The slaves we have captured remember nothing.”
“Why is that?”
“It seems to be memory manipulation.”
Memory manipulation.
“Then, it wasn’t someone on our side.”
Among the silver martial artists, there were very few who could use memory manipulation.
Such abilities were used by players from Earth, mana users from Einheart, or the mind users of Gehenna.
“What about traces of martial arts?”
That was the most important thing.
Since the roots of the Hwasan Guild were in the silver realm, there was a possibility that a force from within the silver realm had targeted the corpse disposal site, which was one of Hwasan’s sources of funding.
“……That’s what’s ambiguous.”
“Ambiguous?”
Chung In-woo frowned.
“There’s no form or style of martial arts. But I can faintly feel traces of inner energy.”
“You’re saying they didn’t use martial techniques?”
“That’s right.”
“Ha.”
Chung In-woo looked down at the ground with a cold glare.
The headless corpse, coldly lying there, was Kim Shin-hong.
“Was he such an insignificant insect that he wasn’t even worth using martial techniques on….”
A glint.
“Or is this a ploy to create internal strife within the silver realm?”
Whatever it was, it was irritating beyond measure.
“How was the slave seal removed?”
“They infiltrated from within and distorted the magic circle.”
“…And who could do that?”
Chung In-woo’s Black Plum Blossom lowered his head deeply and said,
“A martial artist at the level of a hundred grandmasters, a high-ranker level player, a guardian-level mana user, a high-ranking noble level mind user…”
“I’m not talking about such things. To interfere with a slave seal, that level of power would be needed.
What I’m talking about is…”
Chung In-woo’s eyes gleamed coldly.
“I’m talking about the technique that can distort the magic circle of a slave seal.”
“…Only mages above the seventh circle of Einheart or mind users of Gehenna can do that. If it was the work of a martial artist or player, other traces would have been left.”
“Indeed.”
It seemed that he was getting a general picture.
It was then.
“Kku-aaaak!”
One of Chung In-woo’s Black Plum Blossoms rolled his eyes back and collapsed.
“What happened?”
“We tried to examine the memories of the dead Black Plum Blossom through the Black Plum Blossom’s mind link. But…”
“But?”
Another Black Plum Blossom, supporting the fallen one, brought him over and said.
“He says he only sees crimson, and he fainted from a strong shock.”
“…They’re doing all sorts of things.”
He no longer even had the energy to let out a hollow laugh.
“It’s highly likely they’re from Gehenna. Einheart wouldn’t have moved so carelessly. Their purpose…”
It was unlikely that their purpose was something like Kim Shin-hong or the liberation of slaves.
All of that was just a bluff.
The real purpose was…
“The corpse of the Time Dragon has disappeared.”
“As I thought.”
The corpse of the Time Dragon, Augolas.
It was something that could not been used if it was not purified, and purifying it was not easy.
But if it was the beings of Gehenna, there would be many ways to even use the Time Dragon’s corpse.
“Contact the headquarters. Tell them to find all traces of Gehenna that have infiltrated Earth within the past year, down to the past month.”
“Yes.”
“Contact the Assembly as well.”
“Yes!”
Chung In-woo grabbed his head.
Having lost the Time Dragon’s corpse, it was clear that Hwasan’s position would be shaken because of it.
This was getting troublesome.
“Ah.”
Belatedly, as if remembering something, Chung In-woo asked the Black Plum Blossom.
“Why did this idiot come here?”
Chung In-woo said, kicking Kim Shin-hong’s corpse with his foot.
“He said he came to confirm Lee Rowoon’s death.”
“Lee Rowoon?”
He knew that man’s name.
The reason why they had accepted the insect called Kim Shin-hong as the raid leader.
A man who had been on the verge of becoming a high ranker.
“Hmm. So that person is dead?”
“Yes. It’s said that his slave seal was severed about a month ago.”
He was just a player from Earth, but he was a skilled person who had made an impression on Chung In-woo.
If he hadn’t unfortunately touched ‘that,’ he would have made quite a name for himself by now.
“What about Lee Rowoon’s corpse?”
“That, it’s said that it went into the Abyss…”
“So you couldn’t find it.”
“That’s right.”
Well, it was fine.
He was someone who had been remembered once, but he was ultimately someone who had lost the power of a player.
A martial artist whose dantian had been damaged had some chance of recovery, but a person who had lost the power of a player could never recover.
Chung In-woo erased the memory of Lee Rowoon.
‘If there is one piece of luck…’
It was that there was a way to replenish the lost slaves.
The reason why they had even postponed the capture of the S-Class dungeon that had recently occurred and returned to the guild.
“Take care of the matters here like that, and we…”
The most important matter in the silver world.
“We will find the ‘remnants’.”
“Yes!”
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“It seems the Hwasan Guild’s monster corpse disposal site was attacked?”
“What? Who would be crazy enough to attack that place?”
“Yeah… the rumor is that it was Gehenna.”
“I guess they were after the Time Dragon’s corpse.”
A bar located in the basement of Dongdaemun-gu, Seoul.
It was a bar that was nothing special and extremely dirty, but it was packed with customers.
The conversations of the customers all led to one topic.
It was about the recent major incident, the attack on Hwasan’s corpse disposal site.
‘Hwasan.’
Who they were, one of the top three guilds in South Korea.
But their true identity was already widely known.
‘The Hwasan Sect of the Silver Realm.’
Hwasan was a top-tier power even in the silver world, so recklessly touching them was no different from an act of madness.
But Gehenna was different.
From the beginning, they were the ones simultaneously hostile to all three worlds – Earth, Silver, and Einheart – and even had the power to back it up.
“Does this mean the truce is coming to an end?”
“It seems like it, right? They touched Hwasan, after all.”
Listening to the customers’ conversations, a man wearing a hoodie slowly approached the waiter.
“A Kahlua Milk, please. Hold the milk. And the ice… make it salty and sweet.”
“Where’s the crazy person who takes out milk from a Kahlua Milk? And salty and sweet ice? Isn’t this guy a total nutjob?”
“……”
A strange silence continued between the waiter and the man.
“I’ll take care of it.”
“Ah, Boss.”
The waiter quickly bowed his head and stepped aside.
Clatter.
Unlike the waiter who had treated the hooded man like a crazy person, the man called the boss naturally started making a cocktail.
Swoosh.
But what he handed over was a completely ordinary Kahlua Milk.
“Seriously… what kind of outdated code are you using?”
The boss said to the man with a dumbfounded tone.
“Did you spend about five years in some gate or something?”
“…About a hundred years.”
“What?”
The boss shook his head again with a dumbfounded expression.
“I’m hearing all kinds of crazy nonsense. Are you a mind user or something?”
“Even if I were a mind user, it wouldn’t matter, right? This is that kind of place.”
“Well, that’s true.”
The boss smiled and stepped back.
A shabby bar in Dongdaemun, Pier.
But its true identity was different.
‘The Black Market.’
A place where all kinds of black market transactions thrived.
A place where contract killings and illegal activities were carried out, and it was the Seoul branch of the black market, which was a marketplace for those people.
“What do you want?”
“I’m looking for a request.”
“What’s your specialty?”
Smirk.
The mouth that was revealed through the hood was smiling, showing its teeth.
“Kidnapping, murder, it doesn’t matter. Anything that can be called a garbage act.”
“…This person is more dangerous than he looks. Well, I guess that’s expected since you know that code?”
“There’s a condition though.”
The boss nodded.
“The stage must be a gate. And it has to be D-grade or higher.”
“……!”
It was only for a moment, but the boss’s complexion clearly changed.
But as if showing off his experience, he returned to his usual expression and said..
“Well, there are some suitable requests. The commission is 30 percent. Any objections?”
“None.”
“Good deal.”
Having said that, the boss took out a cell phone from under the bar counter and handed it over.
It was an old model phone that was hard to find these days.
“You’ll probably get a call on that soon.”
The man nodded and slowly got up from his seat.
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In front of a D-grade gate in Namyangju.
A group of people were greeting each other.
“These are the players who will be participating as fill-ins this time!”
Four men and women bowed their heads and greeted them.
“Please take care of us!”
Fill-ins.
It referred to party members who were matched together when there was no party to go with or when the number of people was insufficient.
The four men and women were wearing fairly decent equipment, but they were people who looked somewhat lacking.
“This is our first actual battle outside of our original parties, so… we’re nervous.”
“No need to be nervous. Just trust me!”
“We trust you, boss.”
The four players seemed to be on friendly terms with the one they were calling “boss.”
They had apparently met and become friends while conquering some gate.
“Yeah, yeah. Just ride the bus like always! It just so happens that the gate we’re trying to conquer is short on people. We’ll fill the numbers, you guys will level up, and we’ll even share some magic stones!”
“You don’t have to give us magic stones! We came to gain experience too…”
“No way. How can we do that? We’re always fair and just!”
As the atmosphere improved, the players who had joined as fill-ins seemed to have loosened up a bit.
“Then… what about your party members, boss…?”
“Ah. Right, we should introduce ourselves too. My party members have all been with me for over three years.”
“Oh, so you’ve been in a party together for quite a long time.”
“These four, including myself, are players, and these people are…”
Smirk.
The man curled up the corner of his mouth.
The newbie players, seeing his eyes narrow, swallowed nervously.
“Don’t be surprised. They’re ronin.”
“R-Ronin!”
The players’ eyes widened.
“If they’re ronin…”
“You mean they’re silver realm martial artists!”
“Oh!”
Two men and one woman looked very surprised.
What was unique was that another person didn’t seem that surprised by the word ronin.
Ronin.
They were a concept similar to mercenaries, but they were known to be martial artists, not players, and had higher combat power and more experience than players.
Of course.
“I-It’s going to be okay, right?”
It was said that there were many particularly dangerous people among the ronin.
“I told you, we’ve been doing conquests together for three years, okay?”
“Y-Yes, we trust you, boss.”
“Yeah, yeah. Let’s just check our equipment for a moment. You guys should check yours too, right?”
“Yes!”
The newbie players moved to one side and began checking their equipment.
In the meantime, the party leader made a hand signal to the people he introduced as ronin.
“A corner far away.
“Sssip. Ha.”
The party leader, with a cigarette in his mouth, had a completely different expression from before, a sneering grin, and said,
“As I said, the mission is…”
Smirk.
“Kidnapping. We’ll trap them inside the gate, and the guys outside will collect the ransom. The request fee is two hundred million each. If you have any objections, say so now. Once we go in, there’s no running away or anything.”
“Understood.”
“……”
But among the men who were introduced as ronin, the hooded man wasn’t looking at the party leader.
His eyes were on the newbie players, and among them, one woman.
‘I hit the jackpot from the very beginning.’
The hooded man.
Lee Rowoon was curling up one corner of his mouth.
He had to watch a bit more, but he seemed to have found her.
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