Chapter 37: Uninvited Guest

Done.

Kanghun got out of the car.

‘Can I get out now? I thought I was going to suffocate.’

Kanghun hid himself behind the cold storage and checked the time.

It was almost 8 p.m.

‘How long has it been since he told me to hide the car? Where the hell is this guy?’

He could only sigh.

Checking the message he sent to Junhyeok Lee, he saw it had already been 30 minutes. Clicking his tongue, Kanghun kept an eye on the front door, ready to use his Stealth Skill at any time.

‘Once those guys leave, that’s when I make my move.’

“Hyung, is it far to buy more alcohol here?”

Bae Jinsu seemed disappointed, maybe because there wasn’t much Thousand-Year Brew left.

Still, everyone’s faces were flushed, maybe the alcohol was starting to hit.

The scent and taste were mild, but its true nature was a strong liquor.

“Wait a sec. I’ll go get some from the storage.”

Awakened people don’t get drunk as easily due to their internal mana.

And nothing helps people get closer faster than drinking together.

That’s why I prepared ahead of time.

“Hyung, let me go with you.”

-I’ll go with you.

It’s right in front of us, why are they making a big deal?

Minjun lowered his voice and whispered.

“Someone suspicious is watching us outside.”

“A suspicious person? Isn’t it just a neighbor?”

• People from the neighborhood don’t really come around here, do they?

Kasia added in.

Did she sense it through the spirits?

“You knew too, Kasia?”

• No, I didn’t know.

Ah, come on.

I thought I was the only clueless one.

“I felt something vaguely at the hospital, but once I got out of the car, I felt it again.”

If someone really was out there, it’d feel awkward to go alone.

In that case, Minjun was better than Kasia.

“I’ll go with Minjun.”

Maybe because she knew, Kasia agreed this time.

We headed for the cold storage.

Minjun, true to his tank position, easily lifted the boxes of alcohol with his monstrous strength.

Are we really identical twins?

We brought the alcohol back to the house.

“Oppa, is the watcher still alone?”

“There are two now.”

“Captain, should we take them out before more show up?”

“Wait until we identify the Target.”

A conversation only Hunters would understand.

But even I could tell something was off, despite living a peaceful life.

So now there were two people watching.

“Captain, what’s their level?”

“One B-rank, one at about A-rank bottom tier. No more, no less.”

Even if a fight broke out, Minjun could handle them alone.

That’s what it means to be an S-Grade Hunter.

Just a difference of 1 Stat is huge at this level.

“Keep in mind they might be a Recon Team.”

At Minjun’s words, the Hunters checked their weapons.

Looks like they always carry them just in case.

“Everyone, be ready.”

“Understood.”

“Okay, Oppa.”

“Can’t I have a drink? It’s such a nice evening with good company.”

At Bae Jinsu’s whining, Minjun’s face twisted.

“…Bae Jinsu. There could be more backup waiting just out of range.”

• Attention

But Bae Jinsu ignored Minjun’s expression and kept whining, so he finally got permission.

Even without Bae Jinsu, we still outnumbered the other side by a lot.

“Alright, let’s drink now that we’ve got the alcohol.”

Just as the mood started to pick up again, the alcohol tasted weird.

“This tastes awful.”

“I stored it properly…!”

“It’s like bland beer with only the alcohol smell of soju….”

“What do we do? Maybe our tongues are spoiled by fancy liquor now.”

After drinking Thousand-Year Brew, regular alcohol tasted terrible.

Everyone put their glasses down after a few sips.

“I don’t think I can drink for a while.”

“Yeah. I want Thousand-Year Brew again.”

‘Whoa! Is that guy a monster? He’s carrying all that like it’s nothing!’

‘Looks like a gym rat. But how are we supposed to kidnap them? At this rate, we’ll be waiting until tomorrow for them to finish eating.’

These two who had been hiding outside for hours, waiting for the Hunters to leave, were Junhyeok Lee and Kanghun.

“Junhyeok Lee, did the lights just go off?”

“Looks like it. It’s 11 now. Guess they’re going to sleep.”

He could only sigh at this mess.

He hadn’t expected all four Hunters to stay the night.

“Should we just sneak in and kidnap him? They don’t seem to suspect anything.”

“There’s four A-Grade Hunters. Better to be careful.”

Kanghun was confident thanks to his Stealth Skill.

But Junhyeok Lee was just a regular swordsman.

“They’ll be asleep soon after drinking. If not, you, Hun, just sneak in and grab Do Minho. I’ll get the car ready. If you take too long….”

Junhyeok Lee was especially convincing tonight.

If it was really S-Grade Hunter Do Minjun, he might hesitate, but if it’s Yeongjin Jeon, he’d just curse that it shouldn’t take so long to snatch a regular person.

‘Bald bastard. He should do it himself if he’s so expensive, but he keeps bossing us around.’

The more he thought about it, the more annoyed he got.

But there was nothing he could do.

That was his direct superior; he had no choice but to listen.

“Fine. Once they’re all asleep, I’ll go in.”

So Kanghun and his group ground their teeth and waited for everyone to fall asleep.

“Standing Vigil outside a Dungeon… what a life.”

“Still, if you attack before your turn, you won’t have to do Vigil for the fourth or fifth shift, right? Isn’t your sister on fifth shift?”

“Idiot, what are you talking about? If we get attacked, we’ll have to wake up. It’s not about skipping Vigil.”

“Oh, right?”

A conversation between Han Suyeon, who had last Vigil, and Bae Jinsu, who was second.

Bae Jinsu grinned mischievously.

“Let’s stop chatting and get some sleep. Even a little rest will help sober us up.”

Minjun, as the Expedition Captain (Party Leader), wrapped things up neatly.

Minho and Kasia were treated as regular people, so they were told to just rest.

‘Even though I’m an Awakened and an elf, I’m treated as an ordinary person…. Well, compared to them, I guess I am.’

The first Vigil went to Park Janghyeon, and nothing happened during his shift.

When it was time to switch, he woke Bae Jinsu, the second in line.

“Ugh, I’m tired. Still not sober. Should I chat a bit? Are you all asleep already?”

As soon as Bae Jinsu woke up, Park Janghyeon fell asleep instantly.

What a dull, uptight personality.

“Yaaawn~ Two hours, so boring.”

Bae Jinsu yawned lazily.

Something felt off.

“Urgh…. Only 30 minutes have passed?”

Maybe because the opponents were weak, he didn’t feel tense, so his eyelids grew heavy, and his head kept drooping.

Snore~

Snore~

Soon, with his head hanging, he started snoring.

Things always happen at times like this.

Thirty minutes after Bae Jinsu fell asleep.

A black shadow flickered under the front door.

‘Who’s this guy sleeping while sitting here? Is he being punished? Wait, is he on Vigil? Did he notice us!?’

Just as Kanghun tried to quickly pull back, he heard the sound of snoring.

‘Wait, does this guy sleep better sitting down?’

There are people like that.

Some need to take a weird posture to sleep well.

Kanghun waited like a shadow beneath the front door for ten minutes.

‘His posture is fixed and his breathing is steady. He’s definitely asleep.’

Only then did Kanghun make his move.

The shadow moved busily.

He slipped under the kitchen table, then along the wall into the living room.

‘Whoa. Do Minjun is here. Better be careful not to get squashed.’

Recalling the monstrous strength he saw from Do Minjun in front of the storage, goosebumps ran all over his body.

There were two rooms.

Moving along the wall, he entered the right-hand room and saw Do Minho sleeping on the bed.

‘You brat, do you know how much trouble you’ve caused me? I’ll make sure to torture you myself.’

Kanghun materialized and reached into his coat.

‘A sleeping pill that can even knock out Hunters if they drink it. Someone like you will sleep for days.’

It was originally a Spray-type Drug, but even the sound of spraying can wake sensitive Hunters.

So Kanghun had carefully soaked a Handkerchief with it outside.

He reached out with the hand holding the Handkerchief toward Do Minho’s face.

But Kanghun was the only careful one.

Bang! Bang!

“Argh! What the—!! Who is it!!”

The sound of gunshots from outside.

And Junhyeok Lee’s scream.

‘You idiot!’

Kanghun tried to turn into a shadow quickly, but his outstretched hand froze in place.

If he’d moved even a little, his arm would have been cut off.

“So Minho was the Target.”

Park Janghyeon, who had been sleeping on the floor, was now holding a spear to Kanghun’s throat.

No Hunter would sleep through gunshots and screams like that.

“Bold move. Coming in here when we’re all present.”

Without even noticing a presence, a chilling killing intent emanated from right behind him, along with Do Minjun’s voice.

It felt like a heavy force was pressing down on him.

‘When did he get here? If it was just Park Janghyeon, I could’ve escaped somehow…’

Kanghun, who was slowly turning his legs into shadow, had to stop.

“I can hear you scheming from here. Surrender quietly.”

Minjun grabbed him roughly by the back of the neck.

Kanghun struggled, but Minjun’s grip didn’t budge.

“Damn. I surrender. I don’t want to fight, so let me go.”

“So you can turn into a shadow, huh.”

He’d already tried and failed, so it was obvious.

“Fine. Do whatever you want.”

Kanghun decided to go along for now, planning to escape at the first chance.

The lights came on, revealing the intruder’s face—it was someone I’d never seen before.

“Who are you?”

I couldn’t even begin to guess.

No way I had any grudge with him…

Or was he the family of someone who died in a past Dungeon incident?

“Hyung, rest here.”

Minjun took the intruder out.

Minjun told me to stay inside, but I was curious.

Why had they targeted me?

As I followed out of the room, Kasia came out of hers too.

She must have woken up.

• What is going on?

“You’re up. There was an intruder.”

• Judging by his face, he does look like a thug.

The intruder looked at Kasia.

And then he gave a twisted smile.

I was about to say something, but Minjun dragged him to the living room.

I quietly followed and saw another intruder, bound, kneeling with his head hung low.

Park Janghyeon grabbed him by the hair and forced him to look up, revealing a huge bruise on the right side of his face.

“Ugh.”

The second intruder groaned softly, still unconscious.

Even racking my brain, I couldn’t recall seeing that face before.

“Jinsu, report.”

“Uh, yeah. Captain. I went outside when I heard gunshots and found him lying there.”

“You didn’t do that to him, did you? Was it a mutiny?”

Minjun frowned.

He must have been confused by the situation.

“If you’re talking about the gunshots, I know what happened.”

“You do, Hyung?”

“Yeah. It was Dakgong, my Peanut Guardian, who fired the gun. But I didn’t expect that kind of firepower….”

I explained to everyone about the Guardians, both Dakgong who watched the night and Little Pepper who watched the day.

“I see… Your Ability really is unusual.”

When Dakgong gave a demonstration by shooting the Gyesa Guardian’s fence before, the fence was completely undamaged.

But seeing Junhyeok Lee’s face, it seemed Dakgong held back that time.

“Kasia, go rest. You too, Hyung, you don’t seem to know them, so stay here.”

Minjun signaled he’d handle the rest.

Just then, Bae Jinsu, who hadn’t said a word until now, spoke up.

“I’m sorry…. If I’d done my Vigil properly, we wouldn’t have been in danger…. I’m really sorry, Hyung…”

He apologized sincerely, looking genuinely sorry, his usual playful tone and expression gone.

But since we caught the culprits and identified the Target, there was no reason to be upset.

“It’s alright. No one got hurt. Besides, you all had to do Vigil because of me, even though you’re tired from the party, so there’s no need to apologize.”

“I’ll definitely repay this debt. If you ever need me, please say so.”

“Okay. I appreciate it, even if it’s just your feelings.”

That cheerful guy was now looking downcast.

But since I told him it’s okay, he’d bounce back soon enough.

Kasia went back to her room as Minjun said.

She must have been shaken, so she probably wouldn’t fall asleep easily.

“Name and affiliation?”

“I can’t tell you that.”

Minjun clenched his fists, then glanced at me and relaxed.

Maybe he didn’t want to look scary in front of his family.

He’s really grown up.

“Then, what’s the reason you tried to kill my brother?”

“If you’re not going to answer, don’t say anything until the end.”

“??”

At Minjun’s unexpectedly bland and gentle words, Intruder 1 looked up at him with a face that said, ‘That’s it?’

But when Minjun continued, goosebumps rose on the man’s arm.

“We only need one person to get information.”

Minjun nodded at the second intruder.

“Wake him up.”