Chapter 67: Talk

[Your wisdom has increased by 1.]

Soo Hyuk stood up as he checked the system message. He then returned the books that he had read and as he walked to the warp gates, he thought:

‘Should I talk with them now?’

His anger at the Demon guild had mostly subsided after yesterday’s raid.

‘They should be really tired mentally.’

Soo Hyuk suspected they were almost driven crazy by now.

‘They better tell me who’s behind this.’

He was planning to interrogate about the true perpetrator of the Hedlin massacre during his talk.

‘But what if they still don’t tell me?’

Of course, there was still the possibility that they would keep choosing to be stubborn. In that situation, he would continue raiding the Demon guild’s guild house until they folded.

Arriving at the warp gates, Soo Hyuk put on his original red fox mask and warped to Hadrac.

“Wow, the Demon Guild guys are still around.”

“They’re apparently on the verge of falling to A-rank and they don’t want to show their faces.”

The conversations of users around him entered his ears as he headed to the Demon guild’s base. He looked around at his surroundings at their gossips and sure enough, there were only one or two Demon guild members out on the streets.

Slightly surprised at the news of the Demon guild’s fall, Soo Hyuk finally arrived at the Demon guild’s guild house. However, he couldn’t even see a soul around the guild house, unlike out in the streets.

‘Is it because of me?’

While wondering if it was because of his recent attacks, Soo Hyuk stood firmly outside the guild house as he waited for Demon guild members to appear.

“…Hmm?”

Then a few minutes later, one member came out from the inside out the building, and when he saw Soo Hyuk, he couldn’t help but stare suspiciously.

“Fox mask?”

The Demon guild member frowned as he noticed Soo Hyuk’s fox mask. Then while frowning, he stealthily checked above the mysterious figure’s head to check for a guild mark. When he saw that this person didn’t have a guild mark, he swallowed nervously as he got in a stance. Staring at the Demon guild members reaction, Soo Hyuk smiled in amusement before asking loudly,

“I want to have a word with your guild master.”

“…Soo Hyuk?”

The Demon guild member cautiously opened his mouth in response to Soo Hyuk’s words.

“Yes.”

At Soo Hyuk’s answer, the Demon guild member reflexively shifted his feet while being lost for words.

“Please call the guild master. The deputy if that’s not possible.”

—

“17 days.”

Baal muttered to himself. 17 painful days had passed since Soo Hyuk’s first attack on their headquarters. In that time, numerous guild members had left the guild as they couldn’t find any way to stop his merciless assault. And to rub salt into the wound, their job requests had decreased significantly as well

‘But if we fall into A-rank…’

All of these were insignificant in front of the crisis looming above, falling to A-rank. The NPCs that gave guild quests usually contacted the higher ranked guilds first. What would happen if they fell to A-rank? The Demon guild wouldn’t receive any more guild quests and as a result, more and more users would leave the guild.

In other words, Soo Hyuk’s consistent guerrilla attacks were bringing down the entire guild.

‘We have to negotiate with him.’

Hiring top rankers to hunt Soo Hyuk? Gave up. There was just too little information, so the only method left was to negotiate with him.

The problem was how he was going to bring him to a table. Baal hadn’t even exchanged a word with him so far, and they had no way to contact or locate him.

‘Do we really have to make a public announcement?’

Although it would be effective in getting the word out, countless people would laugh at them at their show of passiveness.

‘What if he doesn’t accept even then?’

Baal was gradually falling into the vicious cycle of depression.

At that moment.

Tap. Tap.

“…?”

Baal, who was deeply locked in thought, looked up to the door with a suspicious expression at the knocks. But then, what came next made him jump up with disbelief.

“Guild master, Soo Hyuk wants to talk to you.”

Shocked to his core, Baal hurriedly went over to the door and opened it. Outside, he saw a familiar face belonging to his guild standing alone.

“What do you mean?!”

Baal half-yelled at the guild member.

“I saw Soo Hyuk just now. He said that he wanted to talk to you…”

“Talk?”

Baal was confused by the sudden turn of events. Talk? He was the one that originally wanted to talk!

“Yes.”

The guild member replied, unaware of Baal’s inner turmoil.

“T-that, where is he now?”

“He’s waiting outside the building.”

The Demon guild’s guild house.

Baal’s personal room.

There were two men sitting opposite each other. They were Demon guild’s master Baal and Demon guild’s ruin Soo Hyuk.

“My parents died in front of me.”

Baal was struck speechless at Soo Hyuk’s reply.

‘To think it was this kind of reason…’

He had always wondered why this was being done to them, but now he understood. Although it was virtual reality, his parents had died in front of him. And murdered by the Demon guild no less.

How could any child with morals stand that? It just VR you say? It was precisely because it was VR that Soo Hyuk could freely vent his emotions, unlike reality.

‘Fuck.’

Of course, just because he understood his motives didn’t mean that he wasn’t annoyed anymore. In fact, he was even more annoyed that Soo Hyuk had a perfectly justifiable reason for his actions. But he was forced to suppress his emotions in front of Soo Hyuk, who had absolute dominance over this conversation.

“I am curious about one thing.”

Soo Hyuk continued.

“Your client.”

Baal was surprised at his request.

‘Well, it’s expected.’

Soo Hyuk wouldn’t let go of the mastermind, if he had the will to torment them over 17 days.

‘But…’

Baal was troubled.

‘If I tell him…’

There would be negative results whichever decision he made.

‘Kefan won’t let this go.’

Loken was the one who had received the task, but Baal also knew about the client. It was Solitude’s master Kefan, who was a former member of Desolate. Their strength was so high that it was incomparable to the Demon guild. The reason they hired a guild much weaker than them was because the contents of the task was too dirty for them to carry out themselves. If today’s matter was to become known, then Kefan would definitely go after the entire Demon guild.

‘But on the other hand…’

Soo Hyuk was likely to continue his assault if they sided with the Solitude guild, and he would be truly merciless this time. He had already caused an enormous amount of damage to the guild. Personally, Baal felt that it was better to offend Solitude than Soo Hyuk.

“Who was it?”

Soo Hyuk asked again while Baal was locked in thought. At his question, Baal steeled himself and put out a condition first.

“If we tell you the client, then could you please tell me what you’ll do to them?”

At his condition, Soo Hyuk replied,

“That depends on who it is. If I can’t afford to handle them…”

‘Like the Solitude guild.’

Soo Hyuk secretly thought.

“I’ll just have to delay it.”

‘I’ll have to wait patiently until I gain more power.’

The Solitude guild was strong. They were in a different dimension compared to the Demon guild, so he couldn’t do anything to them currently. He was planning to delay his revenge until a chance came.

“I see.”

Baal said while nodding in response to Soo Hyuk’s answer.

‘Although he’s strong, he’s not an opponent for Solitude.’

Furthermore, the Solitude guild didn’t have a high infamy score. Which meant that his infamy score would rise if he killed them, and NPCs would start to interfere with him. Baal then opened his mouth as he concluded his thoughts.

“If we tell you the client, then your relationship with our guild…”

Although his voice grew fainter and eventually disappeared, Baal still stared intently at Soo Hyuk. There was no need to say more. He had already gotten the message across.

“Then there won’t be any reason for me to look for you any longer.”

Baal couldn’t help but curse as Soo Hyuk replied.

‘Shit.’

The Demon guild had suffered an almost irreparable amount of damage. Although he knew that this was the best possible outcome, Baal was still indignant at the fact that Soo Hyuk had gotten away scot free. But he had to accept anyway, as Soo Hyuk had approached them himself. He would come to regret it if he angered Soo Hyuk now.

“I’ll tell you.”

—

“What? Just like that?”

“Yes.”

Baal replied to Haggis.

“No, why? Look how much we’ve suffered! And it just ends like this…!”

“And if it didn’t?”

“I’ll kill him when he comes again!”

“But how? And even if we kill him, won’t he just come back?”

Haggis fell silent at Baal’s remark. It was true that he would be able to relieve some of his anger if they somehow managed to kill Soo Hyuk. But that would be it.

Dying wasn’t permanent, nor did it erase the character data. Haggis knew very well that killing Soo Hyuk would just bring him back with hotter anger and more venomous eyes, and that would be the end of the Demon guild.

“What we have to think about now is the future, about how we prevent this sort of thing from happening again. Not the present.

The Demon guild’s ruin had been calmed. Soo Hyuk wouldn’t attack them again. What they had to think about now was ‘how do we prevent another Soo Hyuk?’. If another Soo Hyuk did appear, there were only two ways to deal with them.

“Hiring a top ranker or becoming as strong as a top ranker.”

In the Soo Hyuk incident, there had been no user strong enough to stand against him. In other words, they had to get stronger.

—

-Yeon Jung: What? Solitude? The Solitude guild was behind this?

-Soo Hyuk: Yep.

-Yeon Jung: Those bastards! There’s still something wrong with their heads!

“…Ohh?”

Soo Hyuk, who was currently heading to the Matab Library, became curious at Yeon Jung’s reaction.

-Soo Hyuk: Why? Did they do something previously?

-Yeon Jung: Do you still remember when I told you about the trouble with Desolate?

-Soo Hyuk: Yeah, I heard it was solved nicely.

-Yeon Jung: Well, that incident was caused by the current Solitude members.

-Yeon Jung: They were expelled from Desolate because of that, but they still haven’t learnt their lesson? Crazy bastards.

-Yeon Jung: So, what are you going to do now?

He asked as he changed the subject.

-Soo Hyuk: Hmm, I don’t know yet. At least I can’t go against them now.

-Yeon Jung: Meaning you will someday?

-Soo Hyuk: I have to, it was because of them that my parents were killed and this bullshit began in the first place.

His parents had been Pked by the Demon Guild, but attacking the Demon guild had only been a means to an end ever since he learned that there was someone else behind the massacre. Now that he had found out about the Solitude Guild, there was no way he would let them off without some, no, a lot of suffering.