Chapter 19

For a while, the internet was in an uproar.

-Exclusive! The Hidden Truth Behind the Hyena Guild!

-The Werewolves of Gwanaksan!

-Survivors Who Nearly Became Magic Beast Food!

The survivors Suho had rescued from Gwanaksan Field told the press everything they had endured, leaving the public in shock.

-Holy shit... What the hell is that...

-They caught fellow humans and fed them to magic beasts??

-What kind of person does that??

-So these hunters were living as slaves to a magic beast...

-Doesn't that make them traitors to humanity?

The revelation that humans had been hunting their own kind to feed magic beasts provoked a greater public outcry than ever before. Other guilds with even the slightest connection to the Hyena Guild also found themselves bombarded with criticism.

-Wasn't the Reaper Guild backing Hyena?

-Yep. They can deny it all they want now, but everyone in the industry knows.

-Where do you think Hyena got all that capital to bleed low-rank hunters dry with loan-sharking in the first place?

-Weren't they originally just neighborhood punks?

-A major guild was definitely funding them behind the scenes.

-Time to investigate the hell out of the Reaper Guild too.

BANG!

“Are we just supposed to sit here watching them spout this bullshit?!”

Lim Taegyu, the Reaper Guild's guildmaster, slammed his fist down in fury. The force split the marble desk in two, but no one in the conference room paid it any attention.

“W-we're sorry. We're doing everything we can to respond, but as you can see, the backlash is just too overwhelming...”

“Planning director.”

The director stopped short. That icy voice seemed to clamp his throat shut.

“Do you think I hired you to make pathetic excuses? To sit around the planning office posting comments?”

“... I'm sorry.”

“Whew.”

Lim Taegyu leaned back in his chair and let out a long sigh.

“Let me ask you one thing. How did our reputation end up like this? Things were going well for us just last year, weren't they?”

“...”

The executives exchanged uneasy glances at his question.

Indeed, until just last year, the Reaper Guild had been riding high as South Korea's undisputed number-one guild. That was thanks to its guildmaster, Lim Taegyu. Despite being middle-aged, he was one of the country's few S-rank hunters.

And there had been one other person. Besides Lim Taegyu, the Reaper Guild had possessed another S-rank hunter—until last year.

“Well, when Vice President Baek Yoonho left to go independent last year...”

“Shh.”

The planning director hastily clamped a hand over his subordinate's mouth.

'You clueless idiot! Do you think he's asking because he doesn't know that?'

S-rank hunter Baek Yoonho. He had broken away from the Reaper Guild last year and founded the Baekho Guild. The moment that S-rank hunter left, the Reaper Guild's fighting strength had effectively been cut in half.

But that wasn't the real problem. Everyone in the conference room knew the underlying cause. They simply didn't dare voice it.

'I'd lose my head if I said it.'

After Baek Yoonho left, Lim Taegyu had impulsively brought in an outside A-rank hunter and installed him as vice president out of spite. Given that the man had known Lim Taegyu since before the Cataclysm, it was a classic case of cronyism.

Naturally, the Reaper Guild's executives had fiercely opposed his decision. A mere A-rank hunter couldn't fill the void left by an S-rank. Worse, Lee Minsung, the A-rank hunter he had brought in, was a novice who had never once entered a proper dungeon.

But Lim Taegyu hadn't recruited Lee Minsung for his fighting ability in the first place.

Lee Minsung... simply had a lot of money.

Even before awakening, he had been a wealthy businessman born into money. He was also a former actor who had been so popular in his youth that he had made a name for himself as an Asian superstar. Quite apart from dungeons or hunters, Lee Minsung had enjoyed a glamorous life of uninterrupted wealth from birth to the present.

Lim Taegyu's real objective?

To throw obscene amounts of money at the problem.

'If we've lost fighting strength, we can just buy weapons expensive enough to make up for it!'

In practice, Lee Minsung was less a vice president than a sponsor with tremendous financial resources. And the plan had worked to a degree. After he became vice president, increasingly expensive, flashy equipment began finding its way into the guild members' hands.

But ironically...

'That's when our guild's reputation started going down the drain.'

The planning director had no choice but to swallow the words he wanted to say. Just then, the conference room door opened, and Vice President Lee Minsung himself walked in.

“Hey! Sorry I'm late! Sorry! The traffic was awful!”

Despite being a full hour late to the meeting, Lee Minsung chuckled and chatted away. As befitted a man once famous as a handsome actor, his face was wreathed in an affable smile.

Lim Taegyu fixed him with an icy stare.

“Vice President Lee Minsung.”

“Whoa, what's this? You broke the table, boss? You really don't know your own strength, do you?”

“Vice President Lee Minsung.”

“Hey, Secretary Kim! Have this replaced with something better by the end of the day, all right?”

“Hey! Lee Minsung!”

The smile vanished from Lee Minsung's face the moment Lim Taegyu finally lost his temper and shouted.

“Hey?”

He tilted his head and regarded Lim Taegyu coldly.

“That's a rather rude way to address me, don't you think?”

Ignoring the remark, Lim Taegyu glared at him.

“Vice President Lee Minsung, why were you late to the meeting?”

“I told you. Traffic.”

“Not because you were cleaning up after the Hyenas?”

“...”

Lee Minsung's brow twitched for an instant.

But he soon gave a little laugh and resumed his banter.

“Now what are you talking about? What's a hyena? Those things you see at the zoo?”

“Don't change the subject, Lee Minsung.”

At that, the mask abruptly fell from Lee Minsung's face.

“I haven't cared for your tone this whole time.”

Even faced with the fury of an S-rank hunter, Lee Minsung wore an unmistakable sneer.

“When did our little Taegyu get so big for his boots? You used to be nothing but my fucking chauffeur.”

“...”

GRIND.

Murderous intent flashed in Lim Taegyu's eyes. Lee Minsung ignored it and stepped closer instead. He straightened Lim Taegyu's collar with a few pats, looking him up and down with disdain.

“Honestly. You never know where life will take you, do you? You lucked into awakening as an S-rank, and in just two years you've become this arrogant? In front of your old master, no less?”

“Lee Minsung...”

“Oh, wait. Come to think of it, I'm not your old master, am I? Taegyu, don't you still have two years left on your contract as my chauffeur?”

“Lee Minsung... Don't test my patience.”

“Why? Going to kill me? Oh dear, how terrifying. The dog I raised is trying to bite its master. I went out of my way to fund your failing guild, and this is the gratitude I get.”

If looks could kill, everyone in the conference room might already have been dead.

'Please, take this outside...'

The employees and executives could barely breathe as the two men, bound by their complicated history, faced off.

Fortunately, Lim Taegyu wasn't so hotheaded that anger robbed him of reason.

“... Whew. Let's stop here.”

“So you were going to do something?”

“Vice President Lee Minsung, I already know you've been receiving some sort of kickbacks from the Hyena Guild. The Association will come after you over that soon enough.”

“... The Association?”

Lee Minsung's perpetually smug expression stiffened. Lim Taegyu sighed deeply.

“Yes. So tell me what the hell you've been doing behind the scenes, while there's still time. The guild can't clean up your mess unless we know what it is.”

“Hmm. Clean up my mess, huh?”

Lee Minsung rubbed his chin thoughtfully. But he didn't particularly want to give any details.

'Nor should I.'

In the end, he chuckled and shrugged.

“Well, it wasn't anything special. Just a few little errands and some moneylending?”

“Is that really all?”

“I'm telling you, it is. Even if the Association raises a fuss, I can handle it myself, so stay out of it.”

“For your sake, I hope that's true.”

“And what will you do if it isn't? Hunter law is so flimsy that nothing will stick once I get my lawyers involved.”

“The law...”

Hunter law certainly was flimsy. Lim Taegyu mulled that over.

It was only natural. This was only the second year since the Cataclysm. The Association was still working hard to get hunter-related legislation passed, but the laws remained riddled with holes. That was why bastards like the Hyenas could still run rampant.

“Then we're done, right? If you've got nothing else to say, I'm leaving.”

Without waiting for an answer, Lee Minsung wheeled around and headed out of the conference room. Behind him, Lim Taegyu issued one final warning.

“Vice President Lee Minsung, you would do well not to be too confident. The laws may be weak, but the Association chairman is no pushover.”

SLAM.

The conference room door slammed shut. Shaking his head, Lim Taegyu sat back down. Only then could the employees and executives release the breaths they'd been holding.

Yet Lee Minsung, who had strolled out so leisurely, wore an expression twisted like a demon's.

'How dare that bastard forget his place!'

He hadn't shown it, but Lim Taegyu's murderous aura had drenched his entire body in cold sweat. Yet his wounded pride hurt far worse than that paltry fear.

'You begged me to become vice president, and now you treat me like a servant? Who the hell do you think you are, Lim Taegyu?'

But he wasn't in a position to express that anger right now. After all, Lim Taegyu was an S-rank hunter, while he was merely an A-rank. So his near-explosive fury could only turn toward the one responsible for this whole situation.

The Hyena Guild?

No.

'The bastard who wiped out the Hyena Guild!'

With a fearsome expression, Lee Minsung placed a call.

“It's me. Have you identified him?”

“Well, Vice President, we've tracked down all the survivors...”

An utterly uncertain voice came over the phone.

“None of the survivors can tell us what he looked like.”

“What? They don't know? Why not?”

“Apparently, the hunter kept his face covered with a mask and hood the entire time. The only distinguishing feature was that he used two swords, but even those were apparently swords he'd picked up from the werewolves.”

GRIND.

“... Keep digging. Find out who that bastard is, whatever it takes, and drag him in front of me.”

“Yes, under—”

CRASH!

Finally unable to contain his fury, Lee Minsung hurled his phone to the floor.

* * *

Meanwhile, Suho was enjoying a peaceful interlude in the Shadow Dungeon.

Of course, he was the only one at peace. Gray, the Fang Clan's wolf pup, was having a miserable time.

“Grrr!”

[Well done. That's my boy. Our little Growly has finally hunted a goblin all by himself. Granted, it was a baby goblin.]

“Awooo!”

At Beru's praise, the palm-sized wolf pup let out a mournful—no, ferocious—howl. With one forepaw planted on the baby goblin's corpse, it looked utterly pitiful—no, valiant.

[Now, eat! A true hunter eats every last scrap of his prey!]

“Grrr!”

[None of that! Open wide and chew!]

“Raaawr!”

Gray gobbled away. Though visibly exhausted, he couldn't disobey his harsh drill instructor, Beru. But as he obediently opened wide and tore into the goblin he had hunted...

DING!

[Pet: Gray has leveled up!]

A message appeared before Suho.

“Oh, so this can level up too?”

“Didn't I tell you? He'll grow if he eats, sleeps, and plays.”

“You did. I thought I was the only one who could level up, but pets can too?”

Then another message appeared.

[Pet: Gray offers 50% of his experience to his owner as tribute.]

“Huh?”

[Skree?]

Bewildered by the message, Suho and Beru looked at each other. Then, in unison, they turned to look at Gray, who was sprawled flat on the ground.

“Whiiine...”