Chapter 41

One hour earlier.

[Paju Field]

※No Entry Except Reaper Guild Personnel

STEP.

"So this is the place."

Team Leader Han Jaehyuk, a hunter with the Association, arrived at Paju Field with his subordinates. He glanced up at the sky. The weather was damned beautiful.

A vast, quiet plain stretched before them. Once known as the Paju Industrial Complex, it had become dangerous territory abandoned by people after a dungeon break.

They had come here because of Baek Miho. The Baekho Guild's vice president had unexpectedly visited the Association with her subordinates the previous night. Without preamble, she had handed over a Hyena Guild member, saying she had captured him in Magok Field, then left.

Team Leader Han Jaehyuk, who had already been investigating the factories lately, immediately interrogated the guild member—and uncovered a staggering piece of information.

'Reaper Guild Vice President Lee Minsung is secretly building a Stardust laboratory!'

The problem was that even the guild member didn't know the laboratory's exact location. In situations like this, there was no choice but to do the legwork.

Producing Stardust required blue mist, so the laboratory had to be in one of the dungeons occupied by the Reaper Guild. The Association's hunters had therefore split up that morning and were searching the guild's dungeons one by one, focusing on the capital region.

"Team Leader."

One of his subordinates, who had been speaking with the operations room, hung up and approached him.

"This definitely looks like the most suspicious location. Apparently, Vice President Lee Minsung recently volunteered to manage Paju Field."

"..."

Han Jaehyuk looked ahead, his expression grave at the report. Beyond the barbed-wire fence keeping civilians out, old container warehouses stood in the distance, shrouded in blue mist that gave them a desolate air.

"... They certainly knew how to pick a location."

He clicked his tongue in disapproval. Paju Field was conveniently close to Seoul, making it easy to bring abducted people here, and it offered a ready supply of blue mist. Above all, there were already plenty of container buildings within the field that could serve as a laboratory. It was the perfect place for a factory.

Everything pointed to this being the place. Han Jaehyuk immediately picked up his shield.

"We're going in."

"What? Just us? What about reinforcements?"

"We need physical evidence before we can request backup. We might be barking up the wrong tree. Let's at least get a few pictures before we call them in."

"Yes, sir."

With Han Jaehyuk leading the way, the five hunters vaulted the fence surrounding Paju Field. And at last, they found them: the container buildings clustered together in the Paju Industrial Complex, and the many hunters roaming around them.

'Found it!'

The Association hunters exchanged glances. There was no reason for so many hunters to gather in a field dungeon that had nearly been cleared.

"According to our investigation, Vice President Lee Minsung has been secretly building his own faction behind Guildmaster Lim Taegyu's back. There seems to be some kind of power struggle going on."

"Then this is... his base."

Keeping his eyes on the largest building in the middle of the containers, Han Jaehyuk told his subordinate, "Request reinforcements immediately."

"Yes, sir."

"And we're going in."

"What?"

"I just heard a scream from inside."

His expression fierce, Han Jaehyuk gritted his teeth.

"I think they're holding civilians in there."

So it really was a Stardust laboratory... It seemed Lee Minsung had already gathered the ingredients, too.

* * *

Stardust laboratory.

Container Building A.

Min Byunggu's wife, Oh Sunju, was trembling in a chilly cell.

'Why am I here...?'

Everything about this situation confused and frightened her.

She had been on her way to work as usual. Then she had suddenly lost consciousness, only to wake up locked in an unfamiliar cell. She couldn't begin to understand what was happening.

Too many things were strange for this to be a simple kidnapping for ransom. For one thing, there were far too many people walking around outside the cell. And every one of them was openly showing their face.

'If they're showing their faces, they never intended to let us go.'

That realization frightened her all the more. There were nine other abductees in the cell with her.

"Sob... Mommy..."

'Even a child that young...'

Oh Sunju looked at the little boy trembling across from her. He looked no older than a kindergartner, his small body hunched as he sobbed miserably.

A man passing nearby apparently found his crying irritating, because he roared at the boy.

"God, shut up! I told you to stop crying!"

BANG!

"Aagh!"

"...!"

Oh Sunju clapped a hand over her mouth in horror.

The man had only shouted, yet the boy had been blasted backward with a scream, as if struck by a vicious kick!

'A skill?!'

Only then did she realize, to her horror, that all their abductors were hunters.

'Why would hunters kidnap civilians like us? Why?'

Pushing her confusion aside, Oh Sunju hurried over to the boy crumpled in the corner and checked his condition.

"Hic... ngh..."

Clutching his aching stomach, he writhed on the floor. Yet he desperately kept his mouth shut for fear of being hit again, tears streaming down his face.

She gathered the pitifully trembling boy into her arms. There was nothing else she could do for him.

Then it happened.

"...!"

Her eyes suddenly widened.

In a far corner, light was bending unnaturally in a patch of shadow. The distortion was so subtle she would never have noticed without looking closely, but once she saw it, it looked glaringly out of place.

Had someone noticed her gaze? As though a curtain were being drawn aside, the face of a large man suddenly appeared in the empty air.

"...!"

As her eyes widened, the man quietly placed his index finger before his lips.

'Shh.'

She caught her breath and immediately held it. Instinctively, she understood what they were here to do.

'Hunters. Association. Here to rescue you. Act natural.'

He mouthed each word so clearly that she felt as though she could hear his voice in her ear. Startled, she blinked rapidly to signal that she understood.

The man's face smoothly disappeared again. Then the strangely distorted patch of air began moving very slowly toward the cell holding the hostages.

'Ha. Doing this with just five people really is suicide.'

A quiet sigh escaped Han Jaehyuk as he moved with his subordinates under a stealth skill. But the situation was too urgent to simply wait for reinforcements. If the civilians kept breathing the blue mist here, they might turn into Mist Burns at any moment. He had to get them out of the field as quickly as possible.

'It'll be fine. As long as everything goes according to plan.'

His plan was simple: quietly open the cell door and extend the stealth skill to cover all the civilians. At the same time, one of his subordinates would create a commotion some distance away, giving everyone a chance to slip out.

'Once we're outside the building, we're home free. There are plenty of places to hide out there.'

After a long while, Han Jaehyuk finally reached the cell and gripped the padlock.

CRUNCH.

His thick hand crushed it.

'Good! It wor—'

"Feeling pleased with yourself?"

...!

A chill ran through him at the sinister voice that suddenly came from behind.

'We've been spott—!'

BOOM!

A tremendous explosion engulfed them. Their stealth skill broke, and Han Jaehyuk, who had barely blocked the attack, shouted at his subordinates.

"Damn it! Plan B!"

"We don't have a Plan B, Team Leader!"

"I don't care! Just hold out somehow!"

Battle erupted without warning.

"There's only five of them! Kill them all!"

Dozens of hunters in the laboratory attacked at once.

THUD!

"Everyone, get behind me!"

Han Jaehyuk raised a steel shield large enough to cover half his body in both hands.

"Iron Wall Fighting Aura!"

WHOOSH!

He created an enormous barrier, desperately blocking the attacks pouring in from every direction.

"Just hold on a little longer! Reinforcements will be here soon!"

He had deliberately spoken that last part for the enemy to hear. He hoped it might scare them into fleeing, but no such stroke of luck came his way.

Instead—

"Hey."

He flinched. That sinister voice rang out again.

"Drop the skill."

He looked toward the voice and saw a snake-faced man gripping a child who looked kindergarten-aged by the throat.

"D-damn it!"

Dismay spread across the Association hunters' faces. Han Jaehyuk recognized the man.

"Park Jongchul!"

Park Jongchul, a C-rank hunter. Even within the Reaper Guild, he was notorious for his cruelty.

"Didn't you hear me? Drop that fucking shield skill right now, you bastards."

With an utterly vicious smile, Park Jongchul lifted the child in one hand. The boy gagged and thrashed in his grip as though he might die at any moment.

"N-no!"

"The child...!"

The Association hunters cried out in alarm.

But if they obeyed and dropped the shield skill, they would all be dead. In that brief moment when they could do neither one thing nor the other, Park Jongchul graciously decided to ease their dilemma.

"Oh? Still not dropping it? What about now?"

SMACK!

"...!"

Without hesitation, Park Jongchul struck the child's cheek with his broad palm. Blood burst from the boy's mouth as his head snapped sideways.

'Th-that fucking lunatic!'

The Association hunters' eyes blazed with fury. But Park Jongchul didn't stop.

"Huh? Still not dropping it? How about this? Or this?"

SMACK! SMACK! SMACK!

"S-stop! I've already dropped the sk—!"

At last, Han Jaehyuk's Iron Wall Fighting Aura vanished. At that very instant—

SLICE.

...!

A blade suddenly flew in from somewhere and sheared through the arm Park Jongchul was holding the child with, like a guillotine.

"Gasp!"

Cries escaped the others first.

SPURT.

Blood gushed from his shoulder like a fountain. The pain arrived a beat later.

"... Aaaaaagh!"

An agonized scream erupted from the mouth that had worn a snakelike smile all this time.

"Aagh! Who was that? Who dares...!"

Park Jongchul looked wildly around, howling like a wounded beast. And this time—

SLICE.

His leg was severed.

"Aaaaaagh! M-my leeeeg—!"

He rolled pathetically across the floor, screaming.

At some point, a man wearing a Crow Mask had appeared before him, holding the child in his arms.

'Wh-who?'

As every gaze in the laboratory fixed on him, he spoke.

"Those who deserve to die should die."

It was Park Jongchul's death sentence. Everyone trembled at the brutally indifferent voice.