Chapter 60: Awakened Criminals (2)

In Oryu-dong, Seo District, Incheon, at the entrance of a dock piled high with thousands of containers, a middle-aged man waved a signal baton to halt a container truck.

"Stop, stop." Clicking his tongue, the man slowly approached the driver's seat while muttering, "What kind of work are they doing at this hour?"

The man stopped in front of the driver's window and tapped it with his baton. As the window rolled down slowly, the man spoke with an annoyed expression, "ID, please. And tell me which company—or wherever—you're from, for verification."

"Oh, I'm sorry." The man in the driver's seat extended his ID out the window.

As the security guard scratched his neck absent-mindedly with the baton, he suddenly froze. "What the...?"

Click!

An ominous sound echoed behind him.

"It's no use playing dumb. You don't have enough loyalty to stake your life helping those bastards," said the man in the car.

𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

Cold metal pressed against the guard's neck.

"Although they didn't reveal their identity, you probably have a rough idea of who they might be," the man in the car continued.

Despite the freezing winter air, sweat dripped down the guard's face.

"The problem is that even after realizing who they were, you continued accepting bribes and helping hide them. If you'd stopped halfway, the story might've been different, but you didn't."

"W-wait a minute," the man stammered, trying to find a chance to explain himself, but Kim Ki-Rok, who had approached silently from behind, merely chuckled.

"

Haha.

I'll give you a choice. Will you die right here, right now? Or will you put down all your electronic devices and run as fast as you can to the opposite side of the entrance?"

"Th-that..."

"The former or the latter?" Kim Ki-Rok pressed.

"The la-"

"Lower your voice."

"The latter," the guard whispered.

"Good. Smartphone, smartwatch, tablet, walkie-talkie—drop everything that can be used to communicate with."

The guard obediently took his smartphone out of his pocket and placed it on the floor. He also took off the smartwatch from his wrist and the walkie-talkie from his waist, placing them down as well.

"Good. Now run." Kim Ki-Rok barked.

"W-what?"

"You'd rather stay?"

"N-no, sir!"

Without looking back, the guard sprinted away.

Kim Ki-Rok turned to the illusion-type Awakened who had gotten out of the container. "Maintain your skill. Recover your mana with potions if necessary."

The illusion-type Awakened silently stared at Kim Ki-Rok's hands. Kim Ki-Rok held an empty beverage can in his right hand and a Zippo lighter in his left. He had pressed the bottom of the can against the guard's neck and popped the lighter's lid open to simulate the sound of loading a gun.

"Wow. A con artist."

"

Haha!

He never asked if it was a gun, and I never said it was."

Kim Ki-Rok had technically never lied.

"You said you'd kill him."

"I never said it'd be with a gun." Kim Ki-Rok replied.

"Spoken like a true con artist."

Kim Ki-Rok turned to the Hunters Association employee sitting in the driver's seat and said, "The 60-year-old employee at the gate entrance doesn't work for the Awakened criminals. So if you show your ID, they will let you pass."

"Ah, got it," The Hunter replied.

With a sly smile, Kim Ki-Rok boarded the container truck with the illusion-type Awakened.

"He's a great liar," mumbled another Association employee sitting on the passenger side. The driver chuckled at the ramblings of his junior.

Thump, thump.

The noise came from the back of the truck, signaling the driver to step on the accelerator and steer toward the entrance.

***

Without their Guildmaster here during a Gate raid, the guild members felt something was missing in the evening as they gathered around the bonfire, tearing into chicken and pig's trotters.

"You know," Cha Min-Ji said with a mouthful of buckwheat noodles that came with the pig's trotters. "I thought our Guildmaster would at least bring one of the Mapogu unnies or oppas, Lee Ji-Yeon unnie, or even Jessica unnie with him. But instead, he went alone."

After a long pause Yoo Seh-Eun roughly swallowed the beer that was in her mouth and said, "The Hunters at the DG Guild are still rookies." It was a harsh reality that she had not been willing to face.

"Rookies?" Cha Min-Ji asked, confused.

"Truthfully, we regularly participate in operations alongside the Hunters Association to arrest Awakened criminals. Sometimes, we've even killed people during these arrests. But when it comes to fighting actual humans, we can't help but hesitate still..."

Although there had been some cases where the Awakened criminals had been arrested without any trouble, there were also instances where confrontations turned physical, leaving Hunters no choice but to take their opponent's life.

Cha Min-Ji went silent for a moment, then cleared her throat. "So you're saying that you weren't brought along because you're not used to killing people?"

"That's right," Yoo Seh-Eun answered.

"It may be a bit cruel, but wouldn't that be another reason to bring you along? So you can adapt to the situation?"

After all, Hunters had to fight monsters

and

Awakened criminals.

"You're right, but things are a bit different where the Guildmaster is headed this time."

Cha Min-Ji pondered briefly and finally seemed to understand, "Ah, it's quite dangerous, isn't it?"

The criminals had likely cherry-picked capable individuals. Robbing a department store meant fighting Hunter guards, and escaping via sea routes meant evading their pursuit until reaching the getaway boat.

Yoo Seh-Eun guessed, "I don't know how long it would take for us to adapt to killing humans, but I say that I'll be ready around the fourth quarter of next year. That's when I'll participate in a proper Awakened criminal crackdown."

Cha Min-Ji stood quiet for a moment and then spoke up again, "Um, Seh-Eun unnie?"

"

Hm?

"

"What about you?"

"Huh?"

"Do you want to participate?"

"In what? The operation to eradicate Awakened criminals?"

"Yes."

"I do," Yoo Seh-Eun answered without hesitation.

Nearby Hunters nodded their heads in agreement. Some of them were currently munching on their late-night snacks while others had beer.

"Min-Ji," Yoo Seh-Eun started.

"Yes, unni."

Yoo Seh-Eun poured herself another can of beer and took a sip. "Many don't know this, but aside from the Ma Ak-Soo incident which Guildmaster Ki-Rok has helped resolve at the request of the Association and Shine Guild, he regularly participates in other criminal subjugation operations."

"Like the ones that you unnies and oppas went out to do?"

"No, it's different, quite different. While we mostly focus on arresting cornered Awakened criminals, Guildmaster deals with entire groups," Yoo Seh-Eun clarified.

Aside from personally attending the Gate raids, Kim Ki-Rok had also occasionally gone on business trips when the Association or large guilds needed his help.

She continued, "Hmm, I can't remember exactly when, but it must have been before the DG Guild had even ten members. As the Guildmaster was thinking about which Gate to tackle next, we received an emergency request from the Association. One of their Hunter teams had been tracking an Awakened criminal group but fell in danger."

After receiving a call from a Hunter at the Association, Kim Ki-Rok put the guild meeting on hold and immediately armed himself.

"Those attending the meeting also readied their weapons, thinking he would bring us along."

"But he didn't?" Cha Min-Ji asked.

"No. He left with a single spirit from the Spirit Lounge to help track the criminals down."

"He just left with no explanation?"

It was a battlefield where a single mistake could mean death, and those who had received favors from him couldn't bear to stand by and watch.

Kang Seh-Hyuk, while eating his chicken, bitterly began recalling the past. "Guildmaster explained it real simple."

Cha Min-Ji and others who were hearing this story for the first time turned their heads at him.

"He asked, 'Could you kill someone? Could you drive a blade through their beating heart? Could you cleave through your opponent's neck, tearing their head from their body? Could you slit their throats without remorse, even as they choke and plead for mercy? Could you dismember arms and legs to instill in them fear and guarantee the safety of your allies?'"

One of the Hunters swallowed dry.

"And we... None of us could answer, of course. Guildmaster seemed to have expected that and smiled before he left."

"I was really embarrassed back then," Nam Dong-Wook spoke up after Kang Seh-Hyuk. "The Guildmaster was heading to a deadly battlefield... to certain death, and I was too scared to even think about following him."

"Come to think of it..." Kang Woo-Hyuk, unable to sleep, had been sitting by the campfire checking the subspace pocket Kim Ki-Rok lent him. He looked at The Five Siblings of Mapogu.

Ever since Kim Ki-Rok had received the request from the Hunters Association to fight Awakened criminals, the siblings had been coming daily to request for weapon repairs.

"By the way, my goal is the second quarter of next year," Yoo Seh-Eun declared.

"To properly participate in a battle against Awakened criminals?"

"Yeah, but more importantly..." Yoo Seh-Eun slowly turned to look at Cha Min-Ji, and the four other siblings followed her gaze. "My goal is to participate in a battle alongside Guildmaster. Ji-Yeon is also aiming for the second quarter."

***

Tap tap tap tap!

The Hunters ran. The paths between containers were barely wide enough for two people side-by-side, and these narrow lanes, flanked by hundreds or even thousands of containers, stretched out endlessly.

Their objective was to ambush the criminals hiding in the containers and secure the boats that they had prepared for their escape.

—Criminal contact!

"Huh?"

It happened sooner than expected. A massive explosion echoed across the container dock.

—Patrol. Contact.

The message over the radio indicated that one of the Awakened criminals who had been on patrol had unfortunately discovered a Hunter.

Kim Ki-Rok had intervened in this attack on the department store more than sixty times now throughout the past Attempts. He slowed down and checked his watch, turning sharply at the intersection created by the four containers.

Running swiftly, he flicked his sleeves and whipped out a dagger in each hand. Arriving at a building, he kicked open the fourth door furthest from the entrance.

"

Gah!

"

The door collided into a man who was pulling up his pants, forcing him back onto the toilet seat. He stared in shock as Kim Ki-Rok stormed in, but it wasn't long before a dagger was sunk straight into his heart.

"

Hkkk!

Fuck... You bastard... no conscience..

.

"

"An assassin does not discriminate on the location of their kills." Kim Ki-Rok said, matter-of-factly.

"Assassin... my ass..." The man's head slumped down with a look of disbelief frozen on his face.

Kim Ki-Rok pierced his cervical vertebrae to confirm the kill, then reported via radio as he stepped out of the restroom, "Grade A Awakened criminal, Yoo Dong-Kwon neutralized."

The command center broke out into a commotion upon hearing that the notorious criminal Yoo Dong-Kwon, infamous for murdering dozens of Hunters, was now dead.

Later on, various rumors would arise due to where the body had been discovered. However, Kim Ki-Rok stood tall and unashamed.

—Already?

"Yes. An assassin does not discriminate based on the location of their kills."

It would soon become apparent that assassins do not, in fact, discriminate at all.