The Time-Limited Leader Makes the Raid a Success - Chapter 104



Only Noblemtl

Episode 105

105. You’re just a villain.

“It’s a trap. Have you forgotten? He was trying to kill you.”

When Anton tried to dissuade him, Makar made a suggestion as if he had been waiting for it.

-If you really don’t believe me, you can bring a bodyguard. But only one. And I will limit it to someone who only listens to the orders of Captain Kang and is not from the Char Guild. Oh? That fierce-eyed person who blocked my attack earlier would be nice.

Seeing him openly pointing out Noh Song-rin, Kang Moo-hyuk also suspected a trap at first. Then he realized that the current situation did not explain his actions.

‘There’s nothing to gain by catching me now that everything’s been revealed. He’s a smart guy, too smart to be driven to revenge. He’s tenacious enough to have endured revenge for over 10 years. He said the conditions for his bodyguards as if they were nothing, but they must have been decided in advance.’

Moreover, it was not a condition to release his comrades. It meant that he had no consideration for the future. It had to be assumed that he had other intentions.

It seemed as though he had something to say only to himself, perhaps excluding the Tsar’s Guild.

‘Whether I go or not, Makar will do something. Team Leader Yeom and Team Leader Pyo need time to arrive and familiarize themselves with the raid plan. I guess we’ll have to buy some time by meeting up.’

Kang Mu-hyeok readily accepted Makar’s request.

“Where is it?”

“Chief Kang!”

Anton shouted in surprise.

Makar said with a smile.

-I thought you would accept it. Ulrichamirala, Yumasheva 79. It’s a supermarket, so it’ll be easy to find. See you in an hour.

Anton glared at the screen. Makar met his eyes and added as if he had forgotten.

-Oh, right! I almost forgot. You’re telling me to show you this.

Soon after, the smartphone screen changed to face the rear camera, and a separate monitor came into view.

The monitor showed a giant monster crouching.

“Woopoomangbau… … .”

Anton was speechless.

Judging by the surrounding buildings being destroyed here and there, this was clearly not a video recording of an old scene. In other words, it was a real-time video.

‘How did you install the camera?’

Makar answered his question.

-I installed it before.

“Before? Did you plan on messing with Ufumangbau from the beginning?”

-That’s not the important thing. Look down there.

Makar manipulated the monitor to zoom in on one side of the image.

-An oval-shaped round thing. An egg. Laid by Upumangbau.

“!!”

-Do you know what this is?

Turning the rear camera back, he held up a small switch that resembled a car remote control.

-This is the detonator for the bomb installed in the egg of the Ufumangbau.

“You really… … !”

-I placed a small bomb under the egg. There are two of them, and I broke one earlier. That’s why the Upumangbaou went wild. One of them was left to guard the nest and didn’t go far, but what would happen if the other one breaks?

Anton bit his lower lip at Makar’s threats.

“Are you telling me not to do anything stupid?”

-I understand. I want you to stay still while I talk to Captain Kang. Even if you send in a Hunter, there’s no way to stop him from pressing this detonator switch.

“Hey, this kid… You’ve gone too far beyond what you can bear.”

Kang Moo-hyuk stopped Anton, whose eyes were wide open.

“See you in an hour. Okay.”

Then he hung up the phone without even listening to Makar’s response.

“There is no time. Please prepare a raiding party to support the Upumangbau raid in the Char Guild.”

“Really, is there a way?”

“I’ll share the raid plan with you. Please take a look and judge for yourself.”

* * *

Leopard Hee, who was released from the Tyran Guild, felt relieved to see familiar faces at the Char Guild.

She heard the story from Noh Song-rin, who had left Kang Mu-hyeok’s post, and she hit her forehead and got excited.

“Wow, Miss Kojubu was a spy? Someone from the Federation? This guy is really a good leader.”

“Thanks to that, there are a lot of things that the federation will miss out on in the future.”

When Kang Mu-hyeok responded nonchalantly, Pyo Beom-hee was amazed at how he had resolved this mess.

“I just asked to call the captain, thinking that things would work out somehow. I didn’t think he would really be released. What’s the secret? How did you get the tyrant to let us go?”

“To catch the Ufumangbau, we needed two people.”

“What is that? Are you saying that if it weren’t for the Wufumangbau, you would have left it alone?”

“No way.”

“No matter what, I feel ashamed in front of the captain.”

As a result, Yeom Soo-hyung, who was captured by the enemy, lowered his head.

Although he was forced into the conspiracy, he ended up interfering with Kang Mu-hyeok’s work by becoming a prisoner.

As a strict person like himself, it was a blow to his pride.

“But I heard that Upumangbaou has started his activities? He seems to be very uncomfortable. Will everything go as planned?”

“Even if Team Leader Yeom had become a giant and tried to drag him away, he would have failed. After all, there’s no way that Woofumangbaou would have been dragged away quietly because of the eggs. That’s why Team Leader Pyo is needed.”

“me?”

“When I paired Team Leader Pyo with Team Leader Yeom and sent them to Russia, I didn’t just send them to support Team Leader Yeom. I had a plan B in mind just in case.”

“What is Plan B?”

“Team Leader Pyo’s special trait. We need to control the poison of the Wufumangbau.”

“No, this guy right now. Is there something he needs to kill me for?”

Leopard Hee jumped up in fright.

“If it’s Team Leader Leopard Hee’s special ability to control poison, wouldn’t it be possible to somehow attempt a normal raid?”

“Are you taking revenge now? Just because you said you’d do something about it earlier. Please tell me you were joking.”

“I’m serious.”

Leopard Hee made a sad face.

“Do you think Upumangbau’s poison is quite toxic? Even though Hunters can resist it with mana, that only applies if the mana is sufficient. If you try to control it, you’ll run out of mana before you can even control the poison. And do you think the amount is quite a lot? No matter how big a country is, it can’t contain enough poison to destroy a city.”

“Would you mind providing a container for the container?”

“bowl?”

Kang Moo-hyuk picked a photo with his smartphone and showed it to me.

“What is this black, round thing?”

“It’s something borrowed from the Federation. They call it ‘Dokjeong (毒井)’.”

“Poison?”

“This is a unique grade artifact that can contain and extract poison.”

“Gasp! You, unique!”

Pyobeomhee was so startled that she dropped her smartphone. Even though she wasn’t holding the poison directly, she picked it up carefully as if she was holding a sacred item.

“You borrowed a unique grade?”

“I originally tried to get support for items to contain the poison through the guild cooperation center, but there was no item that could handle the poison of Upumangbaou. Fortunately, I found it after searching through the alliance.”

“No. That’s not the problem. It’s unique! There aren’t many of these in Korea! Are you lending me that out of the blue?”

“I have sinned. It’s not easy to refuse something that is not something you ask for, let alone borrow. Furthermore, it’s hard to find an owner for an artifact that requires special abilities like poison. I told them that I would use the one that was sitting in the warehouse and return it to them, so they sent it to me.”

Joo Se-ah raised an objection on behalf of Pyo Beom-hee, who was dumbfounded after accidentally handling a unique artifact.

“Even if the Federation sends it, it seems like it would be difficult to arrive on time?”

“Already arrived in Russia. We are transporting it from the airport.”

“This quickly?”

“I told you, I had already prepared a plan B. When I heard that things were wrong in Russia, I immediately requested it from the Federation, and fortunately, they were able to arrive on time.”

Joo Seah was so shocked that she raised both hands and feet.

‘I want to open that guy’s head and take a look. How far into the world is he looking?’

Of course, most raids move with a plan B, C, and D in mind, but Kang Moo-hyuk’s case was on a different scale.

Who would rip off a unique artifact from the alliance?

Moreover, it would not be easy to come up with a new method to catch a monster with few raid cases and difficult strategies, such as Upumangbau.

‘And that was while I was so busy with the tyrant’s work that I was out of my mind.’

In addition, he smuggled Jusea into the country and revealed the identities of traitors working in the Char Guild and the Federation.

Looking back, it was an amazing act of action to be able to gradually solve a task that would have been difficult for anyone else.

“I’ll give you 30 minutes to learn how to control the poison. I’ll stall for time with Makar, so please wait at the designated location. As for the rest of the plan, I don’t have time to brief you, so please refer to the plan.”

“Only 30 minutes… …?”

Before Pyo Beom-hee could even make a sound, Kang Mu-hyeok left the room with Noh Song-rin.

Joo Se Ah, who was left behind, had no choice but to console him.

“Chief Kang, you know this is out of the blue, right? I’ll support you, so do whatever it takes.”

“Well, I know a lot since we’ve spent so much time together. But it’s gotten worse than before.”

“Given the circumstances, I guess there was nothing I could do.”

Pyo Beom-hee also understood it that way.

This wasn’t the first time he had experienced a raid this fast, and for a veteran like Pyobeomhee, the raid plan alone was enough.

Because if you can just solve the poison, Wufumangbau won’t be a difficult opponent.

However, that does not mean that the task she was given was easy. Dealing with the unique artifact called Dokjeong itself was difficult.

The general public thinks that artifacts work just by holding them in their hands, but in reality, they are quite tricky objects.

There were also many dangerous items that, if used incorrectly, could harm oneself or one’s companions rather than monsters.

Moreover, handling poison was an even more sensitive issue.

But it’s a unique grade.

It was common sense that the higher the level, the more difficult it would be to control.

Leopard Hee lamented in a dying voice.

“No matter how much I think about it, it’s clear that I did something wrong to Manager Kang.”

* * *

Kang Moo-hyuk went to the address that Makar had given him. He saw a fairly spacious supermarket on the street. It was a single-story building, and the market looked eerie, like a ghost town without people.

As promised, the only security guard was Noh Song-rin.

However, there were hunters waiting at a considerable distance, sent by Anton. They were the ones who wanted to capture Makar in case of an emergency.

Kang Moo-hyuk warned them again not to get too close. Only after Anton repeatedly promised himself that he would not act rashly for the sake of Wufumangbau did Kang Moo-hyuk set foot in the supermarket.

As he went deeper inside, a voice came out from the darkness, stopping Kang Mu-hyeok’s steps.

“You really came.”

Noh Song-rin blocked the way.

“You don’t have to be so cautious. I just called you here to have a real conversation.”

“Before we begin our conversation, let me ask you one thing.”

“As much as you want.”

“This is just a hypothesis. Is that egg related to Upumangbaou entering Vladivostok?”

“Why do you think so?”

“You can tell just by looking at the pre-installed cameras and bombs. Isn’t it too artificial to say that the eggs were laid after the Wufumangbau settled in? It doesn’t seem like a coincidence.”

Makar clapped his hands at Kang Mu-hyeok’s suspicious tone.

“It hasn’t been long since we met, but I’m really impressed.”

“That means you brought Ufumangbau to Vladivostok.”

“Of course, it is impossible for Ufumangbau to have come to Vladivostok by accident. They say that heaven helps those who help themselves. How could such good fortune come to me on my own?”

“Did you steal the eggs to lure the Ufumangbau?”

“When I first discovered Upumangbau in the Demon Realm, I was overjoyed. It felt like heaven had given us a chance to take revenge. The efforts we had put in to foment discord with the Tyran Guild and exploit the tyrant’s grudge for so long were finally about to pay off. But all we needed was one spark to light the powder keg.”

“Did the Federation propose a punitive expedition at that time?”

“This part was a godsend. Who knew there were other hunters with the giantization trait? This was the perfect opportunity to get the heavy-assed Dudnik brothers moving.”

Makar’s voice was excited. He seemed genuinely happy.

Kang Moo-hyuk said as if pouring cold water on his feelings.

“You failed in the end. I ruined your plan. Didn’t heaven judge you instead of helping you?”

“Judgment. Judgment… … .”

Makar’s voice was so quiet that it was hard to believe it had been mentioned just a moment ago.

“Who will be the judge? You tell me.”

“… … .”

“The Tsar Guild that lured the Gate Monsters and Boss Monsters to Nazhezinski and killed 300,000 citizens? Or Igor Dudnik, who lost his father and sister to monsters while defending the city and blamed the survivors for their massacre? Tell me who.”

“So, 700,000 Vladivostok citizens should die too?”

“I told you, people only remember someone else’s tragedy when it becomes their own.”

Makar’s face twisted into a maddening grin.

“Don’t make me laugh! Do you think tragedies are so easily forgotten? You can only forget tragedies when they no longer occur. I can’t forget you just by looking at you right now!?”

Kang Moo-hyuk was furious at his madness. Then he shouted with an even more ferocious face.

Suddenly, Makar pointed at Kang Mu-hyeok and smiled brightly.

“Yeah, that’s it. That’s why I wanted to talk to you.”

“what?”

“Whether my plan fails or succeeds, the result will be my death or capture. Honestly, I don’t care about my own safety. But the world needs to know about this. So how should I make it known?”

“… … .”

“Originally, we were going to take over the broadcasting station, but things went wrong, so that plan went down the drain. But who would we tell when most of our comrades are captured? The Internet? It’s under the control of the Russian government. They can manipulate us at any time, and the Internet can boil over, too. But we can’t complain to the Russians. Who can live in Russia if they go against the guild?”

“So you’d rather talk to me, a foreigner? Why do you trust me?”

“I don’t believe you. Instead, I looked into your resume. Kozlov sent it to me.”

Kang Moo-hyuk had been focusing on the detonator that Makar had been fiddling with for a while. The movements of holding it in his hand and then releasing it were getting faster and faster.

I could tell that the time was approaching for Makar to finish what he had planned.

Makar’s speech became faster.

“You lost your family to monsters, and your dream of becoming a hunter went down the drain. And yet you joined the guild and became the strategy team leader? A normal person, you say! Someone who fights to the end. That tenacity. You are like us. Just like you said, you will never forget that time. Because you want revenge on the monsters just like we did. I’m sure you’ll be a great messenger.”

Kang Moo-hyuk stared calmly at Makar. There was no sympathy or empathy in his eyes.

“You are mistaken.”

“??”

“I have no intention of becoming a messenger for someone who is crazy about revenge.”

“If it were you. If you just think about it a little, you might be able to understand us… … .”

“But let me tell you one thing for sure.”

“what…….”

“You are just a villain who exploited the tragedy of Nadzhinski.”