Chapter 110

“Ahem.”

Thomas Andre sat across from Suho, looking sheepish. Beside them sat his secretary, Laura, and CEO Yoo Jinho.

“I'm sorry. This is entirely Thomas's fault. Please be lenient with him.”

Ignoring Thomas, Laura was apologizing to Suho and Jinho on his behalf. With Jinho in particular, a major shareholder in the Scavenger Guild, she had no choice but to beg for forgiveness.

“Thomas, stop pretending this doesn't concern you and apologize.”

“Ahem. Still, we're the Scavenger Guild, for crying out loud. Over a little money...”

“The moment Mr. Yoo sends our stock price plunging by half, consider your own market value halved too.”

“Ahem. I went a little too far, Mr. Yoo.”

At Laura's words, Thomas Andre awkwardly straightened in his seat. Still embarrassed, he made sure to add something.

“Ha ha ha. This whole misunderstanding happened because my Korean isn't very good, so let's just laugh it off.”

“... Your pronunciation is remarkably good for that. I'd believe you were Korean.”

“That's because I'm a huge fan of Korean dramas. I've been watching a lot of revenge dramas lately, so my Korean's gotten a little aggressive.”

“Thomas. Just apologize. That's all.”

Laura sighed and shook her head as Thomas guffawed, trying to gloss over the matter with a joke. Even so, she couldn't help watching Jinho's reaction. Although this was her first visit to Korea, she knew all too well the value of the Ahjin Soft brand.

'Ahjin Soft. The global leader in virtual-reality gaming.'

The hunter industry and the gaming industry might be entirely separate businesses, but from a corporate perspective, large companies inevitably became connected in one way or another.

In particular, the fact that Ahjin Soft was developing a game featuring hunters, called Solo Leveling, was highly valuable information circulating quietly among businesspeople. Some information had begun reaching the public recently, but few knew that Ahjin Soft had actually started planning the project the moment the Cataclysm struck.

And as though to prove it, CEO Yoo Jinho had been steadily buying shares in the world's most prominent major guilds ever since—as though he had foreseen that the release of a virtual-reality game featuring real hunters would send hunter guild stock prices soaring across the board.

'Yoo Jinho truly is a frightening man. Creating a market himself and buying every related stock before that market even exists... That's not something just anyone can do.'

Unlike Thomas Andre, an overgrown child with nothing but strength, Laura understood Jinho's true worth better than anyone. That was precisely why she had to take the utmost care in dealing with him.

At any rate, thanks to her efforts, the situation was resolved amicably, and Jinho let out a sigh of relief.

“Whew. All right, then. But what exactly brought you here to see Suho, Mr. Andre?”

“Ahem. I'll explain that myself.”

Seeing that things seemed to have settled down, Thomas grinned at Suho.

“Sung Suho, we need your help.”

“What? Where did that come from?”

Suho stared at him in genuine disbelief. Someone who needed his help had shown up out of nowhere and attacked him as though he meant to kill him?

'Is even his brain made of muscle? Or has he gone senile?'

Still, Suho had something on his own conscience that made it difficult to get angry with him over this.

“Right. At first, I figured I'd scare you a little and take you with me. Never dreamed it'd be this difficult. Anyway, I'm sorry. I apologize.”

“...”

“Oh, come on. I apologized, so stop being angry, kid. I'm not giving you grief for killing my guild members, am I?”

For a moment, Suho nearly flinched and let his composure slip. But he kept his expression brazen as he answered.

“I'm afraid I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.”

“What are you saying? Suho has lived his entire life in Korea. He's never even been abroad. How can you claim he killed Scavenger Guild members?”

[“Well done! Keep pressing him!”]

Beru was enthusiastically cheering Jinho on from the shadows.

“Heh heh. That part does puzzle me, too.”

As though he had expected that response, Thomas grinned and leaned back comfortably in his chair.

“Of course, there's no evidence. No witnesses, either. Not only have we found no bodies of our missing guild members, but even the pyramid those idiots went off to raid without permission has disappeared.”

“Mr. Yoo, we have no grounds to make any claims on that matter, so you're welcome to disregard what he said.”

Laura pushed up her glasses as she added her explanation.

“However, I hear the Asura Guild hunters who returned alive from that pyramid submitted a peculiar report. They said they'd become acquainted with a Korean hunter named Sung Suho.”

[“I knew this would happen! Young Monarch, I fear I must tear their mouths apart!”]

Outraged, Beru began rising from beneath the shadow. Suho repeatedly pressed him back down with his foot and continued the conversation without batting an eye.

“I don't know who that is, but he must have the same name as me.”

“Of course, that's possible, but it hardly matters. The guild members who disappeared there were troublesome individuals who frequently caused problems anyway.”

“Exactly. I don't care where those morons got beaten to death or who did it. Of course, back in my prime, I'd never have let anyone get away with touching what belonged to me.”

Thomas glared and ground his teeth. Yet he didn't recklessly release his murderous aura as he had earlier. Instead, a somewhat bitter expression crossed his face, and he murmured quietly, his voice tinged with a sigh.

“... But right now, there's something far more important.”

Looking Suho in the eye, Thomas spoke seriously.

“So I'm going to need your help.”

“... What exactly do you need my help with? I'm only a C-rank hunter.”

By now, Suho was curious too. What could an American S-rank hunter possibly have come all the way to Korea to ask of him?

“I don't care whether you're C-rank or E-rank. Norma Selner—that old woman's prophecies have never been wrong.”

“Norma Selner? Are you saying that prophet made a prophecy about Suho?”

Jinho was the first to react. As the only one of the four who had memories of his previous life, he understood better than anyone how significant Norma Selner's prophecies were.

“That's right. The old woman specifically named Sung Suho of Korea in her prophecy. Said this kid was the only one who could help me.”

Singled out so abruptly, Suho asked,

“What sort of help?”

“I don't know either. That's all she prophesied. But she insisted I pass this message on to you.”

“...?”

“The Glacier Dungeon. She said you might find a clue about your mother there.”

...!

Hearing something they could never have imagined, Suho and Jinho both went wide-eyed. Even Beru, listening in from below, was stunned.

[“Kieeeeeek! A clue about Lady Haein! Young Monarch! This is a miracle! A miracle!”]

'Be quiet for a moment! Let me get my thoughts together.'

Suddenly, Suho felt as though everything in his head had been thrown into disarray. How could this be happening? A foreign stranger had turned up uninvited and, out of nowhere, mentioned a lead on his mother, who had disappeared years ago.

Jinho turned urgently to Suho.

“S-Suho! If it's Norma Selner's prophecy, you can trust it! You might not know this, but she's...!”

[“I know her as well! My liege once told me that the old woman even correctly prophesied the shadow army and the War of the Monarchs! I know not what this Glacier Dungeon is, but you must go!”]

While Beru carried on frantically in the shadows, Thomas's secretary Laura was also earnestly trying to persuade Suho.

“I heard Ms. Selner's prophecy myself, so I can vouch for it. She gave no further details, but she did say that helping us would certainly benefit you in some way as well, Hunter Sung Suho.”

“... I'll think about it for now.”

Calming his tangled thoughts for a moment, Suho finally managed to speak. At his answer, Thomas burst into hearty laughter.

“Good, good. Smart choice. I knew you'd agree.”

“Thomas, Hunter Sung Suho said he'd think about it. You need to study Korean more.”

“Same thing.”

Thomas laughed heartily, interpreting Suho's answer however he pleased.

* * *

[“You will go, of course?”]

After Thomas returned to his hotel, Beru anxiously stamped his feet as Suho went inside his home.

[“Even with my liege's blessing, Lady Haein is still only an ordinary human. Just thinking of what hardships she might be suffering somewhere even now fills me with worry... Sob!”]

Clinging to Suho's shoulder, Beru wailed, tears streaming down his face.

Although Suho had said he would think about it, his answer was already decided.

“Of course I'm going.”

This was the first clue about his mother in the years since she had disappeared. Even if the prophecy was false, he had to go and check. But there was another reason he had hesitated to answer and bought himself time.

“The Glacier Dungeon. The problem is, I have no information about what it's like.”

Wherever it was, this dungeon was enough to give even an S-rank hunter trouble. He couldn't readily agree to enter a place like that knowing nothing about it.

'Especially if there's a clue about Mom there.'

Judging by Thomas Andre's temperament today, there was a very good chance that the moment Suho agreed, the man would abduct him on the spot and drag him to America.

'He's definitely senile. The old man came to ask for help and attacked me before anything else.'

He needed to be careful. Very careful. It wouldn't be surprising if the old man showed up unannounced tomorrow morning and kidnapped him. Before that happened, his top priority was to gather information about the Glacier Dungeon as quickly as possible.

The trouble was that even Thomas Andre knew little about the place. For a major guild, the Scavenger Guild had never been particularly good at gathering intelligence.

Ironically, that was because its guildmaster, Thomas, had the renowned prophet Norma Selner at his side. With such a gifted prophet close at hand, their ability to put in the legwork and piece together information had gradually deteriorated.

So after sending Thomas back to his hotel, Suho had asked Jinho to gather as much information about the Glacier Dungeon as possible. He also began searching for information himself through Hunter Net and various other means.

“If there's definitely a clue about Mom there, I can't afford any mistakes. I need to be fully prepared before I go...”

That was when his phone rang.

“Honestly, my phone never gets a break.”

Perhaps his phone had been working harder than anyone since he became a hunter.

“I don't recognize this number.”

Suho looked at the number on the screen, puzzled. For a moment, he suspected spam, but it could have been Thomas or Laura calling, so he pressed the answer button.

The voice that suddenly came through, however, belonged to someone else entirely.

“Hunter Sung Suho! I have arrived! I am Rio Singh!”

“... Who was that again?”

Suho covered the phone with his hand and looked at Beru.