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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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Yoo Soon-tae sighed inwardly.
‘This is why they say blood is thicker than water, huh? I’m such a fool! Worrying about Gang-so getting beaten up!’
He cautiously asked Gang-so, who was peeling onions at the speed of light,
“Um, Gang-so.”
“…?”
“Just in case, that Choi Dong-man guy… you didn’t handle him too roughly, did you?”
“Too roughly… what do you mean?”
“Like… did you kill him?”
At those words, Gang-so grinned.
“You don’t have to worry about that. He’s fine.”
“Really?”
“Yes.”
“Th-Then that’s a relief.”
Gang-so chuckled.
‘Good, I did a good job of beating him without leaving any marks.’
Gang-so suddenly wondered how Yoo Soon-tae would handle this matter.
“So, are you just going to let that Koo Sang-ok guy be?”
“What else can I do?”
“You’re just going to let it go?”
When Gang-so expressed his doubts, Yoo Soon-tae said with an annoyed look,
“Even if I go to the police with this, the punishment he’ll receive is just a fine. Considering the hassle, the inconvenience, and his potential retaliation, it’s better to just let it go. It’s still annoying, though.”
“But there’s a witness?”
“I know Koo Sang-ok well. There’s no way that sneaky bastard would have ordered someone to do something without covering his tracks.”
“…I see.”
Gang-so nodded.
It seemed like the situation where laws existed but didn’t actually help those who needed them was the same here as in the world he came from.
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Late at night, three days later.
Koo Sang-ok muttered as he looked at his phone,
“They should be contacting me by now, shouldn’t they?”
It had already been three days since Choi Dong-man called to tell him that he had tampered with the brakes on Yang Chun Gak’s motorcycle.
If you used the brakes a few times, they would eventually stop working.
Since deliverymen inevitably sped to make deliveries on time, there should have been at least ten accidents by now.
But there was no news of any accidents, nor any news of a vacancy for a deliveryman at Yang Chun Gak.
“Did that bastard slack off because I’ve been going easy on him lately?”
He called Choi Dong-man.
– The number you have dialed is not in service…
Koo Sang-ok was puzzled by the automated message and tried calling again several times, but the message was the same.
“Hah! Is that bastard avoiding me now?”
But Koo Sang-ok had several other underlings besides Choi Dong-man.
He called one of them.
– Hyungnim!
“Yeah, do you know what Dong-man’s been up to lately?”
– Ah, I think Dong-man hyungnim said he went to the countryside to farm. Didn’t you hear?
“What? F-Farming?”
– Two days ago, I think? Other guys met him, and they said he was acting strange.
“…”
– He was staring into space, muttering ‘please forgive me’, ‘I’ll live honestly from now on’, and then he’d suddenly flinch or look anxious. Then he suddenly left for the countryside.
“That bastard’s gone crazy!”
Koo Sang-ok sighed.
He didn’t know what was going on, but what was certain was that his plan with the motorcycle had failed.
Now that his living expenses were running low, he was getting desperate.
“Man-deok, you’re still in contact with Byung-chil’s crew, right?”
At those words, Kim Man-deok asked in surprise,
– Yes, but… why are you asking about them?
“There’s someone I need taken care of.”
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Baek Eun-ho visited Yang Chun Gak after a long time.
Actually, he wasn’t there for the food, but he had some business to attend to and stopped by because he was feeling hungry.
He had to run around like crazy as soon as he got there, and how sad would it be if he was hungry on top of that?
Just then, the door opened, and Gang-so came out wearing a silver helmet.
Thud-!
Gang-so, carrying a delivery box, kicked off the ground, and Baek Eun-ho blinked as he watched Gang-so disappear in the blink of an eye.
“Wow-! He’s incredibly fast.”
He opened the door of Yang Chun Gak and went inside.
“Welcome!”
Yoo Soon-tae and Lim So-young greeted Baek Eun-ho warmly.
“I’m here for dinner. One large jajangmyeon, please.”
“Yes! Alright.”
Yoo Soon-tae started tossing the wok again, and Lim So-young placed pickled radish and kimchi in front of Baek Eun-ho.
“Ah, by the way, about your deliveryman. I just saw him delivering, and he seemed like an awakened individual…”
Lim So-young answered as they had discussed beforehand,
“Yes. He’s an F-rank awakened, and he has a running ability, so he delivers without a motorcycle.”
“Really? With a running ability, I guess he’s an auxiliary type.”
Awakened individuals could be classified as combat or auxiliary types.
Among them, there were various auxiliary abilities, and the number of different abilities was said to be over ten thousand.
So it wasn’t strange that Gang-so had a running ability.
‘But… F-rank?’
Baek Eun-ho wasn’t just any awakened individual, he was a B-rank and the 3rd Team Leader of the secretive Support Division 1.
That also meant that he could roughly gauge someone’s ability just by looking.
‘F-rank my foot! He’s clearly at least C-rank.’
However, Baek Eun-ho didn’t say anything rashly.
No awakened individual would ever downplay their rank.
Because an awakened individual’s rank itself was a kind of social status.
So, Baek Eun-ho could guess that there was some hidden story behind the deliveryman.
That’s why he decided to just pretend he didn’t know.
Clang, soon a bowl of jajangmyeon was placed in front of him.
“Enjoy your meal!”
“Thank you!”
Baek Eun-ho mixed the jajangmyeon, twirled a large portion with his chopsticks, and put it in his mouth.
And he thought,
‘This is the taste!’
After a while, Baek Eun-ho, having finished his meal, patted his full stomach and left Yang Chun Gak.
“Then, shall we go?”
He was headed for the Hunter Assembly, located in front of Seedling Kindergarten, where Ha-young attended.
The regular general assembly would be held there next Tuesday, and one of the teams in charge of support was Support Division 1’s Team 3.
It wasn’t just any other meeting; it was the regular general assembly of the Hunter Assembly.
Since important figures in the hunter world, including the chairman of the Awakened Association, would gather there, he, the team leader of Team 3, had no choice but to head to the Hunter Assembly himself.
However, Baek Eun-ho’s expression wasn’t so bright.
‘I really don’t want to go.’
In fact, his ability was teleportation.
So he could get to the Hunter Assembly in the blink of an eye, but he deliberately walked there slowly.
‘Anyway, what is that Bomber thinking?’
Two months ago, the Inspection Department received intel.
That Bomber was planning something for the regular general assembly.
Bomber was a Blackman, one of those who used their awakened ability to commit crimes.
His ability was, as the name suggested, to cause explosions.
The problem was that due to the nature of the explosive ability, an incident inevitably caused a large number of casualties.
‘You forsythia, ten symbols of longevity bastard! Why don’t you use your ability to catch monsters instead! But… was that guy still alive?’
During the attempted bombing of the department store, after a battle with the Enforcement Division members, he had been caught in his own explosion and severely injured, they believed he had died.
But now they had heard that he was active again!
Thanks to that, the Inspection Division and Enforcement Division were working day and night.
Go So-ra of Seedling Kindergarten was also working undercover as a kindergarten teacher for that reason.
Naturally, Baek Eun-ho wasn’t fond of Bomber either.
‘We got through the last regular general assembly safely, but will we make it through this one as well?’
Just then.
A man emerged from an alleyway in front of Baek Eun-ho.
He was Gang-so, Yang Chun Gak’s deliveryman, carrying a delivery box and wearing a silver helmet.
Gang-so quickly ran back to Yang Chun Gak, and Baek Eun-ho shrugged at the sight of his retreating figure.
‘He really is fast.’
He sighed.
“Sigh, I should go. Let’s go! I have to go anyway!”
It was when Baek Eun-ho started walking towards the Hunter Assembly with heavy steps.
“H-Help…”
He heard a groan.
Awakened individuals’ senses were far superior to those of ordinary people, and even though it was a faint groan, Baek Eun-ho didn’t miss it.
He hurried to where the groan was coming from.
When he arrived, Baek Eun-ho was shocked.
“…!”
About ten men were lying sprawled in an open space near the end of the alley, unconscious.
“W-What the… What? Excuse me! What happened here?”
Baek Eun-ho examined them. Fortunately, they were all alive.
The problem was that they were all crying, begging someone for forgiveness.
“Sob-! Please, spare me! I won’t do it again!”
“Waaah-!”
“I-I can’t eat anymore!”
“I love tangsuyuk! I’m sorry!”
“J-Just kill me…”
Looking at them, Baek Eun-ho tilted his head.
‘What the? Unless they’re collectively crazy, it looks like they were hit by a psychic awakened individual? Has a Blackman appeared around here?’
Just in case, Baek Eun-ho took out a small device from his pocket.
It was a palm-sized aura detector.
Whenever an awakened individual used their ability, there was bound to be an aura left in that place.
Because an awakened individual’s ability itself worked by releasing the aura within their body to the outside.
The aura left in that place would disappear over time, and although it disappeared completely after a day, it was possible to apprehend Blackmen by using this phenomenon to collect evidence.
The important thing was that the higher the awakened rank, the less aura was left behind.
It was probably because they could use aura more efficiently.
Baek Eun-ho turned on the device.
Beep-!
The remaining aura reading was 01.
Since it was 05 or less, the scene before him had nothing to do with an awakened individual.
“Sigh… then why…?”
Baek Eun-ho couldn’t handle this situation alone, so he called the nearby police station and paramedics for backup.
Whether awakened or ordinary, the police were the first responders to all incidents.
The police would assess the situation and hand over the case to the Awakened Association if it was related to an awakened individual; otherwise, they would handle it themselves.
Soon, the police arrived, and they looked puzzled at the sight of the sprawled men.
“Huh, huh? These guys! Aren’t they the Byung-chil gang!”
“Huh? Byung-chil gang?”
“They’re thugs around here, and they’re a real pain! We’ve received reports of damage, but these guys are so good at hit-and-runs! Since they’re ordinary people, we can’t even get support from the Awakened Association, and we haven’t been able to arrest them. It’s good that you caught them, though!”
The Awakened Association only assisted in apprehending those who were legally designated as Blackmen or felons.
For other petty criminals, the Awakened Association wouldn’t intervene; there were complicated reasons behind that.
“But what happened to these guys? Why are they all like this?”
“I-I don’t know. I heard a groan and came here to see this.”
Just then, the paramedics arrived, and one of them, an E-rank healer, ran over and checked their injuries.
“Huh?”
The healer tilted her head, and Baek Eun-ho asked,
“What’s wrong? Is there a problem?”
“Well, they’re… completely fine.”
“Huh?”
“No bruises…”
Just then.
Growl.
The healer’s stomach rumbled, and her face turned red.
“Ah… I haven’t eaten yet… I suddenly smelled tangsuyuk sauce, and it made me even hungrier. Hehehe.”
“Tangsuyuk sauce?”
It seemed the healer noticed the smell because her senses were sharp as an awakened individual.
Baek Eun-ho also smelled something when he first arrived at the scene and thought it was familiar.
It was a mouthwatering sweet and sour smell, but he couldn’t quite place it until the healer helped him realize what it was.
It was the smell of tangsuyuk sauce.
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