LIGHTNOVELONLINE Chapter 34
Chapter 34
The brown-haired man, whose consciousness had returned belatedly, still felt his head ringing as if he’d hit something.
“Ugh…….”
Groaning, the brown-haired man began to piece together his current situation.
The broken bar door and the sirens wailing loudly beyond it.
And the sight of police officers checking on his fallen comrades meant things hadn’t gone well.
But it wasn’t a complete failure.
“You should’ve chosen your opponents more carefully.”
A detective with short, sporty hair and a worn jumper approached the brown-haired man and sighed.
The detective dusted off the man’s clothes as if he were dealing with an old friend, not a suspect.
“Damn it……. Did you catch that bastard?”
The brown-haired man obediently let the detective pull him up.
No matter how much he looked around, he couldn’t see the person he was looking for.
“That bastard? Who are you looking for?”
“Who else? The guy who made this whole mess, of course.”
“You mean…… only one guy did this to you all?”
The brown-haired man bit his lip and cursed under his breath, unable to answer the question.
Even he found it humiliating that they were so thoroughly defeated by just one person.
It was a shameful result that would likely be ridiculed.
“Just tell me if you caught him or not.”
“He escaped. You guys were the only ones left here.”
The brown-haired man couldn’t hide his astonishment at the detective’s answer.
“W-What? You, a detective, couldn’t catch one guy?”
“You guys are eight Hunters, and you got trashed, and you’re saying that?”
“Ugh.”
The brown-haired man was speechless at the detective’s words.
Even though they were only C-rank Hunters, they were a group armed with expensive items, thanks to their organization’s support.
With their numbers, they were a force that could easily capture even a B-rank Hunter.
“You guys usually pick your fights carefully. What got into you this time?”
“You didn’t see the woman he was with, detective.”
“What nonsense is that? Was she so pretty that you lost your minds?”
The brown-haired man immediately answered, “Yes.”
“If we had just caught her, I could’ve quit this life and moved up.”
Having caught and sold many women as commodities, he was certain.
That woman would have undoubtedly been the best merchandise he’d ever seen.
Seeing the brown-haired man speak so firmly, the detective clicked his tongue in regret.
“Then you should’ve done better.”
“What was I supposed to do? We ran into an A-rank Hunter.”
The brown-haired man figured his opponent was at least an A-rank, a high-ranking Hunter.
Otherwise, he couldn’t understand how they were defeated so mercilessly without landing a single blow.
The detective felt the same.
Handing the brown-haired man the prepared data, the detective headed towards the broken door.
“I’ll go manage the guys outside. You figure out who attacked this place from that data.”
“How am I supposed to go through all this? My head’s still ringing from the beating.”
“Then just let it go if you don’t like it.”
“….I can’t do that.”
The brown-haired man gritted his teeth.
He couldn’t let go of his anger without getting back at the guy who did this.
“Alright, see you later.”
The detective went to help his subordinates escort the injured Hunters.
Officially, they were being taken for questioning, but they were all expected to be released by tomorrow morning.
He had prepared for this.
With a few people coordinating their stories, the Hunters who tried to assault a woman would become the victims.
And the one who fought back would be transformed into the perpetrator who beat up an innocent person.
“I’ll get a nice bonus thanks to this.”
The detective felt no guilt, even though he knew he was framing an innocent person.
He was content as long as he got paid and could enjoy some beef.
“That damn bastard……. I’ll find you.”
The brown-haired man rummaged through the list of A-rank Hunters the detective gave him, trying to find his opponent’s information.
But no matter how many times he looked, Kang Jin-hyuk’s face was nowhere to be seen.
“Damn it, where is he?”
The brown-haired man, thinking he must have missed it, carefully examined the data again.
The shabby attire didn’t look like an A-rank Hunter, but his skills were real.
Therefore, the man thought Kang Jin-hyuk must be on this list.
“What the, why isn’t he here?!”
Contrary to his expectations, he couldn’t find anyone resembling him in the data the detective provided.
“Maybe he’s not on the list because he recently ranked up to A-rank?”
The brown-haired man checked the update date of the data, just in case.
Contrary to his hopes, the data was the latest, updated just two hours ago.
“Damn it. Why is that slacker so diligent with his work?”
With his expected possibility gone, the brown-haired man resented the detective for no reason.
“I feel like I’ve seen that face somewhere…….”
Kang Jin-hyuk’s face felt strangely familiar for someone he was supposedly meeting for the first time.
The brown-haired man desperately racked his brain, trying to figure out why he felt that way.
He squeezed his brain dry like a rag, but the answer wouldn’t come easily.
“Should I search the internet?”
The man took his phone out of his pocket and frowned.
Seeing the screen of his phone, which hadn’t even reached the end of its contract period, cracked like a spiderweb made him even more resentful.
“That bastard ruined everything…….”
The more he thought about it, the angrier he became.
He felt like he had lost a golden opportunity because of Kang Jin-hyuk.
Vowing to find and kill him, the brown-haired man turned on his phone.
But what he saw wasn’t the lit screen,
but his right hand, pierced by a dagger along with his phone.
“……!”
Before the brown-haired man could scream, someone covered his mouth.
He couldn’t move a muscle because of the sharp blade placed right in front of his Adam’s apple.
He didn’t know who attacked him, but he felt a chilling intent that would cut his throat without hesitation if he moved recklessly.
When the brown-haired man, not wanting to die, gave up resisting, the person holding him from behind whispered in his ear.
“You’re a Hunter from ‘Tyrant,’ right?”
“?!”
The brown-haired man was startled.
They weren’t officially part of the guild as C-rank Hunters, but it was definitely ‘Tyrant’ who was backing them and ordering them to do things like this.
“I couldn’t believe that a guild competing for the top spot with Altron would do something like this…… until I saw it myself.”
The brown-haired man fell into deep thought.
The person who attacked him knew something he shouldn’t have known.
The moment the fact that the ‘Tyrant’ guild was directly involved in human trafficking reached someone else’s ears,
all the C-rank Hunters involved in this, including the brown-haired man, would be killed to cut off loose ends.
And it would be at the hands of ‘Tyrant,’ whom they trusted.
It was better to fight now than to face Tyrant later. He had a better chance of survival this way.
‘I have to get an item out of my inventory somehow……!’
The brown-haired man bet on the rare item remaining in his inventory.
He believed that the power of the chain, which could bind even an orc in an instant, would help him escape this crisis.
But such obvious tricks wouldn’t work on the person who attacked him, Yoon Song-ho.
As soon as Yoon Song-ho saw the opponent subtly move his left hand, he thrust the dagger into his throat.
“……!!”
Not a single scream escaped his blocked mouth as his windpipe was pierced.
It was a scream he let out with all his might, but unfortunately, it didn’t reach the people outside.
“You’re desperately trying to fight back, so I guess the information I got is correct.”
It was enough for Yoon Song-ho to confirm that.
He had no intention of threatening or taking him hostage from the beginning, so he pulled the dagger straight back from his opponent’s throat.
Blood gushed out like a fountain as he deeply cut his throat along with his carotid artery.
“Gah……! Gurgle!”
The brown-haired man covered his throat with his pierced hand.
But that couldn’t stop the gushing blood.
The brown-haired man gradually lost consciousness as the floor was quickly drenched in blood.
Yoon Song-ho adjusted his mask and watched the scene until the opponent completely lost his life.
“I can’t believe someone attacked this place before me……. Did someone else make a move?”
Muttering to himself, Yoon Song-ho shook his head.
It was his mission to raid this bar and kill all the Hunters.
As far as he knew, there was no way anyone else would have taken over this mission.
“The fact that they were left alive, not killed, means it wasn’t our people.”
They might keep someone alive for a while to extract information, but they never let them off with just injuries.
Thinking there must have been a clash with another force, Yoon Song-ho quickly left before the detective returned.
The attacker, having escaped to a distance out of reach of the police, repeatedly confirmed that there was no one around.
Then, he took out a burner phone and contacted a saved number.
After exactly three rings, the call connected.
“There’s been a problem.”
『Did you fail?』
“Yes, someone got there before me.”
『Did they already cut off the tail?』
“I don’t think so.”
Yoon Song-ho explained everything he saw to the person on the other end of the call.
After a long silence, the sound of the other person clicking their tongue could be heard over the receiver.
“What should I do?”
『What do you mean what should you do? If they didn’t cut off the tail, you need to find out why they were attacked like that.』
For now, all he could think of was a conflict between guilds, but the person on the other end of the call had no expectations for that possibility.
The only guild that could wage war against Tyrant was Altron.
However, Altron was known for avoiding contact with other guilds as much as possible.
Their goal was to reach the top spot solely with their own power, without any factional strife.
『I’m also worried that only Park Min-jae was killed out of the two masterminds.』
‘Park Min-jae,’ mentioned by the person on the other end of the call, was the name of the brown-haired man whose throat he had just slit.
『Do you not know Choi Seo-hoon’s whereabouts?』
Choi Seo-hoon was the key figure in this crime, more so than Park Min-jae.
He usually disguised himself as a bartender, but his actual duties were human trafficking and contact with guild members.
As the person in charge of core tasks, he must have information that only he knew.
“I’m sorry. I searched the area, but I couldn’t find Choi Seo-hoon.”
He wasn’t arrested by the police, nor did he escape through the escape route they had prepared in advance.
It was impossible for a C-rank Hunter to disappear without a trace in this chaos.
『I’ll provide you with a tracking item, so follow the trail to the end.』
“Understood.”
Yoon Song-ho hung up and broke the burner phone with his hand.