Chapter 88: Let the Game Begin (2)

December 26, 4 a.m.

A group of men smoked in an alley, flicking their cigarette butts to the ground.

Another group rose from the rooftop of a nearby building, ready to move.

A third pulled their hats low as they rushed out of the nearest subway bathroom.

Finally, a car rolled to a stop in front of the DG Guild.

"The traffic CCTV should've flagged something. Over ten people came out of the subway station with their faces hidden—it had to raise suspicion. We're out of time."

As the man speaking took off his glasses and put on a pair of contact lenses, everyone around him nodded.

"Of the guild members on leave, thirty have returned. Five of those are technical Hunters, so that's twenty-five combatants. Kim Ki-Rok hasn't left the building. That makes thirty-one total. One of the crafting Hunters is our target."

The assassination target was Cha Min-Ji.

There might be a few amongst the Awakened criminals who weren't totally comfortable with the idea of killing a high school girl, but if there were, they had already set aside such concerns because of the enormous amount of money offered.

The leader of Dagger continued speaking, "According to our analysis of their MeTube videos, the DG Guild Headquarters consists of eight floors, with the sixth and seventh floor serving as dormitories for their guild members, and the eighth floor serving as the Guildmaster's office and private quarters. One of our targets is on the eighth floor and the other will be in the female dormitories on the seventh floor."

"Will there be any difficulties in looting the building afterward?" one of the Awakened criminals asked.

The leader of Dagger frowned as he admitted, "We're having trouble analyzing the building's defenses. We weren't able to find anything from their videos, and we didn't have enough time to interrogate the construction workers who participated in the building's construction. As such, we'll need to split up, seven to three."

With a hundred people mobilized, that meant seventy would handle the assault, thirty would ransack the place.

"The smaller group will be responsible for searching the guild and retrieving all the valuable items, while the remaining will be in charge of taking care of our targets," the man said decisively.

One of the targets might be a crafting Hunter not suited for combat, but with around thirty battle-capable members in the guild, they had to prepare accordingly.

"Are we just ignoring the sixth floor?" one of the Awakened criminals asked.

The sixth floor was the men's dormitory, and most of the combat Hunters who had publicly returned to the guild were male. It therefore seemed like a good idea to avoid alarming those on this floor before they had to.

After considering this option for a few moments, the leader of Dagger finally said, "Let's prioritize dealing with Min-Ji and Kim Ki-Rok before doing anything else. If our target goes into hiding because we needlessly made a fuss, we'll be the ones who have to deal with the annoying task of finding them. To make sure of that, the strike team will be further split into two teams of thirty-five."

The Awakened criminals all nodded again.

After looking around and taking in their expressions, the leader of Dagger commanded, "Let's move out."

They immediately split into two groups. As soon as they had crossed over the outer wall, the first team of thirty-five split off and ran toward the left face of the building, where they began preparing climbing tools. The remaining sixty-five all headed straight toward the main entrance.

They stood in front of the main entrance for a few moments, but the automatic doors refused to open. It seemed like they would each need an entry card if they wanted to gain access. After the leader of Dagger radioed someone, however, the doors opened in less than a minute.

He and the whole pack of Awakened criminals quietly entered the building.

Because of the videos introducing their headquarters on the DG Guild's MeTube channel, they had been able to roughly calculate the floor plan of the building. On the first floor, there was a convenience store to the right, a front desk straight ahead, and a break room to the left where the guards usually rested.

The leader gave a hand signal to the others who had entered the building alongside him, signaling them to wait here as he headed toward the break room on his own.

If they used any mana, there was a high chance that they would be discovered by the Hunters working the night shift. However, the skill that the leader had awakened with was Stealth, allowing him to hide his presence and even mana usage.

With all traces of his presence gone and his mana completely concealed, he carefully leaned against the wall outside the break room. Opening a bag attached to his belt, he pulled out an endoscope to peek around the corner and spy on the inside of the room.

There were currently five Hunters resting in the break room.

On the twenty-fourth of December, they had to fight in a Gate defense battle that had lasted all the way until dawn, and they had also attended the party that was held in the evening that day.

No matter how young they might be, such a busy schedule was enough to tire anyone out, so it made sense that two of the five Hunters could be seen knocked out on the sofa. The rest were either watching TV or looking at their smartphones instead of concentrating on their guard duties.

If the leader attacked them now, he would surely be able to kill all of them instantly. However, if he missed even one, there was a high chance that the survivor would raise the alarm and wake up all the Hunters in the guild. If they put up a desperate struggle, there was a high chance that the criminals wouldn't be able to achieve all of their goals before reinforcements arrived.

As such, the leader of Dagger chose to make a detour around the guards as he headed further into the building. After he sent them another signal, the other Awakened criminals cautiously headed over toward the emergency stairwell. They were choosing to take the emergency stairs because the elevator would make too much noise and the regular stairs were too open.

After the others regrouped with him at the stairs, he shot them another hand signal and the thirty-member team that was in charge of looting the building headed downstairs, where the DG Guild's underground training area was located. There was a high chance that there might be expensive items stored below, given that it was an area Hunters often frequented.

Meanwhile, the leader led the other strike team up to the second floor. They slowly made their way up from the second floor to the third floor, then the fourth floor, and onward. The leader of Dagger only stopped climbing the stairs after they had arrived on the seventh.

The ones who were climbing the outside of the building were the team of thirty-five, and their target was Kim Ki-Rok who lived on the top floor. Meanwhile, the second team of thirty-five who had invaded the building through its main entrance was targeting Cha Min-Ji.

The leader placed his hand on the doorknob and slowly turned it.

The hinges let out a low squeal as the door was slowly pulled open.

Suddenly, a broadcast alarm sounded. He and the thirty-five people following him all stopped in their tracks and looked up at the ceiling. A famous soundtrack from a certain gory movie series suddenly began flowing out from the speaker installed in a corner of the ceiling.

—Now then... Let the game begin.[1]

***

Five minutes earlier.

Kim Ki-Rok hopped up onto the rooftop railing and peered down at the thirty-five human figures scaling the wall.

Even without deploying mana, the physical abilities of the Awakened were dozens of times greater than that of ordinary people. With a sharp enough tool, climbing walls wasn't difficult, especially for Awakened criminals who were experienced in all sorts of illegal activities. On the contrary, it was almost second-nature to them.

Just then, a man who was scaling the wall like a rock climber looked up and made eye contact with Kim Ki-Rok.

"Uh?" The man grunted in surprise.

It wasn't just a coincidence that their gazes had met. People who scale buildings usually looked up to search for handholds, so Kim Ki-Rok knew that they would soon see him looking down on them.

Having realized that they had been caught in the act, the criminals tried to move toward a window to break into the building. Meanwhile, Kim Ki-Rok calmly delivered instructions over a walkie-talkie. "Please press the third button from the right on the last row."

As soon as the order was given, spear blades suddenly shot out from the building's facade.

Some of the criminals quickly moved their heads to the side to avoid the spears, and some others used their mana to block them. A few had already burned most of their stamina climbing the wall to conserve mana while sneaking into the building, so they couldn't react in time.

"That's seven to start with..." Kim Ki-Rok counted.

That left twenty-eight Awakened criminals still clinging to the wall. There were a few shrill screams as some of the criminals were lost in confusion and panic, but others quickly decided to withdraw upon realizing they'd been caught in a trap. Instead of falling from the building after being attacked, they chose to escape by throwing themselves to the ground.

This could still end in a nasty fall for all the Awakened criminals, but whether they fell voluntarily or were forced off affected how quickly they could react. Unfortunately, throwing themselves off the building didn't turn out to be a wise choice either.

"Hunters on the ground floor, please round up the ones still capable of running," Kim Ki-Rok politely made his request to the Hunters lying in wait below, hidden in man-made pits. Kim Ki-Rok had more traps he could activate around the criminals, but having the Hunters deal with them directly was more effective.

Crasssh!

As expected, the remaining criminals gave up on the idea of descending to the ground and entered the building by breaking in through any nearby window.

Kim Ki-Rok continued to issue commands, "Hunters stationed in the parking lot and other open areas, please move to your designated location. To those in the Guildmaster's office, please press the button that says Underground Parking Lot and Open Areas."

The Hunters who had been waiting in ambush around the building swiftly converged on the first floor as the prepared traps began activating across the grounds.

"Okay." Kim Ki-Rok nodded. "That should take care of the ones trying to scale the walls."

The team attempting to infiltrate via the rooftop by climbing the building's facade was now thoroughly scattered.

Kim Ki-Rok opened a tablet, monitoring the inside of the building through the CCTV cameras installed throughout the guild headquarters. As he had planned, aside from the unlucky seven killed by the spear trap, the remaining twenty-eight Awakened criminals were either captured or scattered and fleeing.

The thirty intruders who had infiltrated the basement didn't fare any better. After falling into traps and sustaining severe injuries, they were quickly surrounded by Hunters. Following Kim Ki-Rok's instructions to minimize their own casualties, the underground Hunters were using scrolls containing long-range spells to gradually exhaust their foes' stamina and mana.

Kim Ki-Rok quietly muttered to himself, "Now all that's left is..."

Only the thirty-five criminals who had ascended via the emergency stairs remained. Confirming they had reached the seventh floor, Kim Ki-Rok switched the radio frequency and gave the order. "Broadcast room, go ahead and play it."

—Do you really want us to do this?

"Yes, I really do," Kim Ki-Rok insisted.

With a Hunter's deep sigh, music started playing. Though the sound was faint on the rooftop, where not many broadcast speakers had been installed, Kim Ki-Rok recognized it immediately: the chilling soundtrack from the popular cult-classic horror movie,

Saw

.

"Now then..." Kim Ki-Rok connected his walkie-talkie to the internal speaker system and spoke in a soft voice.

***

—Let the game begin.

Kim Han-Cheol, Assault Captain of the Il-Sung gang and a wanted B-Class Awakened criminal, froze upon hearing the familiar voice through the speakers inside the building.

"Fuck, he really did know we were coming," Kim Han-Cheol cursed.

The moment he had spotted Kim Ki-Rok on the rooftop railing with a walkie-talkie, he sensed things were about to go badly wrong. Instinctively, Kim Han-Cheol cut the rope around his waist and hurled himself off the wall.

Just as he had feared, the climbers around him were all impaled by spear blades jutting from the wall. His fall would hurt, but seeing his comrades' bodies skewered convinced him he'd made the right call—until he spotted Hunters emerging from hidden positions below, clearly prepared for exactly this.

Realizing that landing outside meant certain capture, Kim Han-Cheol forced himself through a third-floor window. He'd barely saved his life, but the danger was far from over. Gritting his teeth as the voice still echoed from the speakers, Kim Han-Cheol lunged forward.

Three iron arrows slammed into the floor, narrowly missing him. A faint mechanical sound had tipped him off, allowing him to dodge just in time. Swallowing hard, Kim Han-Cheol crashed through a door into a hallway, quickly scanning his options. Should he head upstairs? Or down?

He briefly thought about the money promised for completing the job. The money was important, of course, but survival came first. Unfortunately, the DG Guild had clearly anticipated their assault, and there was no telling what other traps still lay in wait.

Making a snap decision, Kim Han-Cheol sprinted down the hallway, only to stop abruptly and draw his sword upon entering the next room.

Four Hunters awaited him, crossbows aimed directly at his chest.

"Damn it..." Kim Han-Cheol cursed.

There might be more of them, but none of them were stronger than he was. Under normal circumstances, he would have been able to kill all four of them in mere moments. However, he had already depleted much of his stamina during the climb without using mana, and charging straight into their crossbow fire would leave him with more holes than a beehive.

Deciding stealth was no longer viable, he attempted to draw his mana—then froze, panic surging through him. "Fuck, what's going on with my mana?"

He kept trying to draw on his mana, but his mana refused to listen.

It was sluggish, slow to respond, as if something was impeding its flow.

"Loose," one of the Hunters commanded.

As bolts flew toward him, Kim Han-Cheol desperately dove into a side room.

Bam bam!

"

Gaghk!

" he screamed in pain.

The delay in his mana prevented him from utilizing both his physical reinforcement and mana armor, allowing for two bolts to be lodged painfully in his back and thigh.

At that moment, Kim Ki-Rok's voice calmly echoed through the broadcast speakers again.

—I've released poisonous gas into each room that slows your mana response. Now then... let's begin the escape phase of our little game.

1. For those who haven't realized yet, this is a reference to the Saw movie franchise. ☜