Chapter 24: The Blood-Drenched Plan

The moment Lee Hyung-mo, who had a sword lodged in his chest, dropped his head and stopped moving.

Kwa-ddeuk!

Buruk’s waist wound tore open violently, and a human hand suddenly burst out.

Soon after, a head appeared, followed by the body slipping out.

A man drenched as if soaked in blood.

That man was none other than Kim Seo-jun.

Kim Seo-jun, soaked in blood, looked indifferently down at Lee Hyung-mo and Lee Han-soo’s bodies.

“You guys are just monsters who only think about killing people till the end.”

Kim Seo-jun had been hiding inside the massive Buruk’s body, inside the rift, in order to eliminate them.

While safely observing from within Buruk’s corpse, Kim Seo-jun used his internal energy to eavesdrop on the entire conversation between Lee Hyung-mo and Lee Han-soo.

When he heard the order to kill Park Jae-heung’s family, he immediately used the ‘Gravity Glove’ to increase the corpse’s weight fivefold.

The weight caused the tire of the tower truck to burst.

From there, everything went exactly according to Kim Seo-jun’s plan.

He injected magical power into the ‘Red Orb’ beforehand and embedded it into Buruk’s eye.

Then, deliberately shaking his body, he pulled Lee Hyung-mo into the truck.

The moment Lee Hyung-mo touched the Red Orb, he fell under its hypnosis.

That’s why he killed his own younger brother with his own hands and then committed suicide.

In truth, it was not the hypnosis that drove Lee Hyung-mo to suicide, but the power of the Ice Domain Barrier.

Lee Hyung-mo’s ego strongly resisted the act of stabbing a sword into his own heart.

No matter how powerful the hypnosis, persuading an 88-rank hunter to commit suicide was not easy.

So, Kim Seo-jun used the Ice Domain Barrier to crush the sword’s hilt.

With the combined effect of the hypnosis and the Ice Domain Barrier, Lee Hyung-mo’s resistance became unbearable.

Having taken the lives of the two brothers, Kim Seo-jun exhaled deeply inside the blood-soaked truck.

Since reviving here, this was the first time he had killed someone.

But he felt no particular excitement.

In his previous life, he had already taken countless villains’ lives, either to save someone or to exact revenge.

“Still, I don’t feel good about it.”

Of course, he couldn’t feel good.

He wanted to avoid taking anyone’s life here as much as possible.

He only wished to use his power to protect the people he cared about.

• This makes me feel even worse.*

Kim Seo-jun pressed harder on Lee Hyung-mo’s chest where the sword was lodged, rummaging through his heart.

He was searching for a magic stone.

None.

Lee Hyung-mo had no magic stone.

Instead, Kim Seo-jun found plenty of magic stones and artifacts in the backpack he was carrying.

But from those, Kim Seo-jun only took the green magic stone, a few useful artifacts, and about 80% of the golden stones, storing them carefully in his space pouch.

“If I take everything, I’ll arouse suspicion.”

He scattered the useless artifacts and a few golden stone fragments around.

Using the artifacts, he fabricated the scene as if the brothers fought over the artifacts, Lee Hyung-mo killed Lee Han-soo, and then, overwhelmed by guilt, killed himself.

Kim Seo-jun then checked Lee Han-soo’s chest for a magic stone.

“There it is.”

Surprisingly, a magic stone was found in a human heart.

A green magic stone shimmering with a clear emerald hue.

Lee Han-soo also had that stone.

Finally, Kim Seo-jun took the Red Orb embedded in Buruk’s eye, pulled out a phone from Lee Han-soo’s body, and unlocked it using the corpse’s fingerprint.

He checked the recent call history and called the number Lee Han-soo had dialed from the assistant seat.

While the phone rang, Kim Seo-jun attached the ‘Voice Copy Band’ to his neck.

This artifact, obtained from inside the rift, had the effect of storing desired sounds and reproducing them perfectly.

Kim Seo-jun copied Lee Han-soo’s voice from the call.

Then, with a ringing sound, the other party answered.

• “You’re impatient. It’ll be over soon.”

“Okay. I changed my mind. Just let Miki go. Cancel the additional request. Instead, I’ll pay double the remaining amount.”

Kim Seo-jun’s voice was exactly like Lee Han-soo’s.

The voice copy band worked perfectly.

• “Hmm. Alright then. If you’re paying double the balance…”

“Please.”

After finishing the call, Kim Seo-jun erased his fingerprint data from the phone and carefully put it back into Lee Han-soo’s arms.

• This is all I can do.*

He kept his word not to pretend ignorance about the danger to Park Jae-heung’s family.

He hadn’t actively searched for them himself, but he had done what he could.

Kim Seo-jun had no obligation to help beyond this, nor any reason to act like a hero, searching for the family himself to save them.

Having finished everything here, Kim Seo-jun took out the ‘Cloaking Mask’ and put it on his face.

When the mask fully covered his face,

swoosh—

His figure became transparent and vanished instantly from the spot.

With the faint sound of footsteps, his presence disappeared completely from the scene.

South Korea was in uproar over two incidents.

The first was the extreme closure of the Yongin Rift No. 57, during which two rank 0 hunters were lost.

Despite being a fairly capable raid team including 88-rank hunter Lee Hyung-mo and two rank 0 hunters, casualties had occurred, raising the rift’s danger level once again.

The second incident was linked to the first.

The raid leader Lee Hyung-mo, who lost two members, had blinded eyes and cut his younger brother Lee Han-soo’s throat, then committed suicide beside his body.

At first, most believed that such close brothers could never do such a thing.

However, the footage from the incident site, captured by a ‘007’ camera, and the black box of a vehicle passing by at the time, confirmed that it was clearly a case of fratricide followed by suicide.

The video showed Lee Hyung-mo slashing Lee Han-soo’s neck behind the truck and carrying the body into the truck.

No trace of a third party was found anywhere nearby, so it was tentatively concluded that no other crime was involved.

Of course, there remained some suspicious details.

Lee Hyung-mo’s heart, pierced by a sword, was severely damaged, and Lee Han-soo’s throat showed signs of being violently torn.

Still, the evidence that Lee Hyung-mo killed his brother and then killed himself was overwhelmingly conclusive.

As a result, the Rift Management Bureau’s reputation plummeted.

There were louder voices accusing the bureau of deliberately promoting a rank 6 rift to rank 0, claiming no problems would occur, which led to the incident.

Finally, at 4 p.m. on Saturday, Bureau Director Choi Cheol-hyeong held a press conference and issued a formal statement.

He pledged to invest double the resources required for closing rifts in upcoming raids and to ensure that even low-ranked rifts would involve rank 0 hunters.

He also announced massive compensation and national-level support for the families of the two fallen hunters.

Choi Cheol-hyeong bowed respectfully before everyone and apologized.

He took full responsibility for the bureau’s failure to properly care for affiliated hunters and promised stricter internal inspections to prevent similar incidents.

Nonetheless, public backlash was slow to subside.

As always, the bureau expected that though anger ran high now, it would quickly fade with time and therefore did not take further action.

Deep within Sumok Park near Suwon.

Kim Seo-jun did not head toward the city but hid in the forest.

If Kim Seo-jun appeared near the city, some students from the Third Hunter Academy would surely wonder why he was in such a place.

There was even the risk that the fact he participated in the No. 57 rift raid in Yongin might leak.

Luckily, Lee Hyung-mo had deleted all Kim Seo-jun’s raid participation records to erase evidence, which for now worked in Kim Seo-jun’s favor.

Kim Seo-jun hadn’t been part of the raid, so Lee Hyung-mo and Lee Han-soo’s deaths could not be linked to him.

Tadak. Tadak tadak.

Kim Seo-jun lit a campfire and finished all preparations for the night.

The blood-soaked nails had burned away into ashes, and now he wore clean clothes.

Fortunately, there was a creek right next to Sumok Park, so there was no problem with washing up.

Kim Seo-jun used the campfire to boil water, filling a cup with instant ramen to fill his hunger while checking the news about Rift No. 57 thoroughly on his phone.

“There’s someone moving cautiously. Without the Cloaking Mask, I might have been caught on the highway’s ‘007’ footage.”

The artifacts obtained inside the rift had played a big role.

The Red Orb with hypnotic power, the Cloaking Mask with invisibility, and the Gravity Glove.

Besides these, there were still two feathers allowing instantaneous movement and three elemental spheres.

He really had gotten a lot.

Was that all?

There were six more artifacts, useless perhaps, but each could fetch tens of millions of won if sold in the market.

There was a golden stone weighing three kilograms, two green magic stones, and two blue magic stones.

• Am I just lucky, or is this kind of reward normal for a raid?*

The surprisingly good haul made Kim Seo-jun question reality.

At that moment, his phone rang.

The caller was Baek Yeon-ji.

“Yes, Mom!”

• “Oh my, my little Atlas! Are you okay? You must be training, so you haven’t seen the news, right? It’s chaos. There was an incident at the rift in Yongin…”

Baek Yeon-ji must have been worried after seeing the news about her son on survival training.

“Mom, I’m training right now, so I can’t talk long.”

• “Oh, I see, I see. I’m a meddling mom. Who calls her son during training? I heard your voice, so that’s enough. Can you tell me what time you’ll be home tomorrow? I’ll prepare your favorite soybean paste stew.”

Kim Seo-jun planned to spend today in the forest so his parents wouldn’t be suspicious, and return home tomorrow.

“Around 10 p.m., probably.”

• “Alright, got it. Come home safely! Don’t push yourself. I’ll hang up now.”

The call ended with a beeping sound.

It was clear how much Baek Yeon-ji loved her son.

Thinking about such a mother in this world, and a kind yet strong father, Kim Seo-jun felt his eyes sting for some reason.

“At least for my parents’ sake, I shouldn’t get into fights.”

Though the words came out in a gruff voice as if hitting his chest, in truth, he was deeply grateful.

Kim Seo-jun put down the phone and reached into his space pouch.

He pulled out four magic stones and gazed blankly at the shimmering stones for a moment.

“The green magic stone is worth 500 million, and the blue magic stone is nearly a billion, right?”

Just these alone already added up to 3 billion won.

Thinking of his father, who worked night shifts every day, pushing his body to the limit, he wanted to sell everything and give the huge sum to his parents.

But,

• Maybe the best way is for me to use this and become stronger quickly—for everyone’s sake.*

If an ordinary future awaited, there would be no problem.

But the future Kim Seo-jun knew here was bleak.

The shorter cycle of rift appearances foreshadowed great danger.

The machine beasts to be developed by Gai Anix might bring about humanity’s extinction.

• I’ll take it myself.*

Kim Seo-jun made up his mind.

Of the four magic stones, he would keep one green magic stone for his father.

For the money for his parents, selling the useless artifacts and golden stones would be more than enough.

Besides, Shin Woo-jin had promised to sell the boss monster corpses at a good price and give Kim Seo-jun a fair share.

Shin Woo-jin wasn’t greedy like Shim Jae-deok, but rather a man who cared for Kim Seo-jun’s safety more than anyone else.

• Now, let’s see how much magical power I have.*

Before absorbing the stones, he needed to check his current stats accurately.

Kim Seo-jun looked at his hand and checked his information.

Then his eyes went wide.

[Kim Seo-jun]

• Magical Power: 30 / Internal Energy: 17
• Mystical Arts: Reverse Vaporization Mechanism (13%) / Solar Skill (6%) / Ice Domain Barrier (1%)

His magical power suddenly increased by 10, and internal energy rose by two levels.

But what was that new mystical art next to Solar Skill?

• The Ice Domain Barrier has become a mystical art?*

Kim Seo-jun’s mouth fell open.

When had a new mystical art been added?

No matter how hard he tried on Suraguk Island, Biroe Shinbo, or Cheongung Temple, he had never managed to awaken a mystical art.

But the Ice Domain Barrier was a martial art he had just started learning for less than a day and had barely used.

Yet it became a mystical art before the others.

Kim Seo-jun stared dumbfounded at the words “Ice Domain Barrier” clearly engraved on his info screen.

[Ice Domain Barrier]

A defensive barrier formed by internal energy infused with willpower, capable of repelling anything that touches the body.

Manipulates objects within a 5-meter radius.

Cooldown: 15 seconds