The Time-Limited Leader Makes the Raid a Success - Chapter 121



Only Noblemtl

Episode 121

121. Yes, this is the devil’s paradise.

A dilapidated bar at the end of a small alley.

A customer came in through the creaking door in a place that didn’t even have a proper sign. As he sat down at the long bar where the bartender was, a man who had been drinking alcohol since broad daylight next to him took interest.

“Hey, bro, you’re not from here, are you? Judging by the way you’re acting, you’re obviously an outsider.”

“Who would come from a shitty place like this? All the people living in Shinuiju are homeless.”

“Oh my, you’re really prickly. You don’t speak in a dialect, so I guess you’re from Seoul?”

“You seem to be from here since you speak standard Korean.”

“Half of the people in Shinuiju are from other places. They caused trouble.”

“I didn’t get into an accident. I just came back to my hometown after a long time.”

“Hometown? You’re not from here?”

“I don’t really have a place of origin. My parents gave birth to me here while they were in exile. They moved down there soon after. I’m just talking about where I was born.”

“But is returning home really returning home? Shinuiju is a place where no one, no matter how successful they are, comes back. It’s amazing that they came back, not even salmon. In that sense, should I buy them a drink? Hey, Wayler. A glass of whiskey for this guy.”

The glass, roughly placed on the table as if passing a drink in a Western saloon, was filled with brown liquid.

“On the rocks.”

“Hey, men are straight.”

“On the rocks.”

“Oh my god, what’s that? I don’t understand people who put ice in their drinks.”

The man asked the customer who was finally drinking his whiskey with ice.

“It’s fate that we met in such a backward bar, so let’s introduce ourselves. I’m Park Dae-man. What about you?”

“Old heart.”

“What an old-fashioned name. It’s the height of tackyness.”

“Are you going to keep talking? It’s ruining the taste of the drink.”

“Oh, sorry, sorry. I’m just going to get bored if I just sit here and drink during the day.”

“Why does someone who is bored keep looking at their watch? If you have plans, just go. Don’t bother them.”

“I just need to check something.”

“What? When are you going to feel better?”

“!!”

Nogusim turned his head and looked at the man. The man felt goosebumps. It was not the eyes of the man who had been dim just a moment ago.

“Who would know that you put ‘Mabisan’ in your drink? I thought this was an information center. Human trafficking in broad daylight, in a bar at that. Where do you catch hunters and sell them? China? I heard there are crazy guys there who dissect hunters.”

“Fuck─Ah!”

The man reached for the dagger hanging from his waist, but No Gusim was quicker. He grabbed the man by the head and made him kiss the bar table in the face.

The bar top shattered as the man’s head was struck repeatedly with a hammer-like sound. The man’s nose was crushed and his front teeth were shattered and thrown into the air.

“Cough!”

No Gu-sim grabbed the man by the back of his neck and dragged him out alone, then kicked him in the stomach. The man sat down on the floor and vomited out all the alcohol he had consumed on an empty stomach.

“I’ve been living a quiet life lately, being caught by the boss, so now all these troublemakers are biting me?”

Nogusim glared at the bartender with the weapon. The passerby he had seen outside when he came in was locking the door. The eyes of the guy who was sleeping at the table in the hall became gloomy. The guy who came out of the bathroom, the guy who came out of the storage room, and the guy who came down the stairs from the second floor began to surround Nogusim with him in the middle.

“Whoa, this is it. It’s not even the Boknal in the middle of winter. I guess I’ll have to catch some bastards after a long time. You guys dare try to hit me? It’ll take 100 years.”

“Hey, wait a minute. Cool─ Wait a minute! This isn’t human trafficking. Our information says so. People, put down your swords! If you don’t want to get killed.”

The moment Nogusim took out a small knife from his pocket that was clinging to his hand, the man who had been rolling around in the filth on the floor shouted urgently. The hunters who had surrounded him put away their weapons and retreated.

Nogusim smiled wryly.

“Good judgment.”

“You should put your knife away too.”

“But is it true? You’re an information broker? Even after you fed me paralytic acid?”

“The outsider, that Hunter came looking for information right away. This place is not a good place to find a bar. It’s a place where you can get lost even if you look at a map. Of course, he was suspicious. I tried to subdue him and then question him.”

“By torture?”

“Oh, no. I just wanted to tie them up and check their identities… … .”

“Okay. It doesn’t matter if it’s real or not. I didn’t come here to see blood anyway. I just want to buy information.”

No Gu-sim picked up the glass on the bar, dumped the alcohol on the floor, and handed it to the bartender who was standing there blankly.

“On the rocks.”

The bartender hesitated. The man who had risen from the floor nodded to him. The bartender picked up the bottle he had poured earlier and filled the glass with ice.

No Gu-sim said, downing the whiskey in one shot.

“I have a request.”

“Let’s go inside first.”

“No. I know what’s inside.”

“I wouldn’t do that to my customers.”

“I think I just did something like that?”

“So, it’s just… … .”

He tried to make excuses again, but the man swallowed what he was about to say as he felt like he was going back and forth.

‘마비산이 든 것을 눈치챈 것도, 위스키를 마시는 척했던 것도, 앞뒤 재지 않고 바로 주먹 휘두른 걸 보면…. 산전수전 다 겪은 개새끼야. 하는 짓이 딱 고랭크 헌터로군.’

The man realized that the old man was a human being of the same kind as them. A person who habitually lived with illegality and lawlessness. The only difference was that he was of a higher rank than them?

“Is Nogusim your real name?”

“I told you to sell the information, I never asked you to dig it up.”

“What information do you need?”

“The atmosphere of Shinuiju and various other things.”

“If you speak so vaguely, it’s a bit… … .”

“They said they were opening a new clinic, but as expected, they really don’t have any sense. Well, that’s why I came here.”

I felt like I was being ignored, but I couldn’t get angry. What Nogushim said was true.

‘You came here with all your might. You knew that the store opened not long ago. You’ve been unlucky since the very beginning, let alone opening early.’

This violent guest meant that he had deliberately chosen an information broker with insufficient capabilities in order to avoid being traced back. A new information broker would have few connections and few lines of communication with which to share information. Given his abilities, it seemed that tailing him would be useless.

‘Besides, the fact that you’re using a new information service means that the level of information you’re trying to obtain isn’t that high.’

It’s a level that can be obtained by putting in some effort. Of course, if you want to save time gathering information, it’s much better to use an information broker.

Although her career as an information broker was limited, even the man could sense that much.

“Please give me more specific terms.”

“The guilds that control Sinuiju, the power and relationships of the hunters, key figures, recent issues, etc. Gather all the rumors and incidents in the Sinuiju hunter world. The public opinion and atmosphere here, too. Oh? And things related to brokers. Especially that guy named Hyun Jeong-geon. I heard he opened a hole-in-the-wall shop with the funny name of ‘Order Anything.’ I want more information about him. Do you know what I mean?”

“How would you like to pay? As you know, we don’t accept credit cards here. We don’t accept bank transfers either.”

“Want to do some business? Here, please.”

No Gu-sim took a thick envelope out of his chest and threw it.

I checked the price and it was just right, neither too much nor too little. It meant that it was a bargain for the world’s unit price.

‘That’s a bit too much to ask for. He must be a tough guy. He’s really good at this kind of thing.’

No Gu-sim turned away without looking back. He opened the door to see the man standing in his way. He said as he opened the door halfway.

“Please send the data as a file so that it can be viewed on the computer. Send it to the address written on the envelope. By this evening.”

“Yes. We deliver by 9pm.”

* * *

“I thought I would never see a god again in my life. What the hell is this, using my grandfather’s name?”

A cheap motel on the outskirts of Shinuiju.

No Gu-sim, or rather No Song-rin, was lying on a bed with rusty springs and looking at the ceiling. He thought about Shin Ui-ju in this embarrassing motel-like accommodation.

I don’t remember, but the city where I was born. My impression of Shinuiju was, in a word, ‘shit’. Just like what I heard from my grandfather and father, it was a rough and messy place. I wondered why Kang Mu-hyeok had sent me here to gather information and get a feel for the city.

‘No. It’s worse than before. At least back then, everyone was equal in front of the monsters.’

now?

Even among humans, they were divided into hunters and civilians. The long-standing class system of wealth and poverty still existed, and even on the Korean peninsula, there was discrimination between South Koreans and North Koreans.

‘The place that blatantly contains all that discrimination is Shinuijugo.’

Shinuiju was the worst not only in discrimination but also in other aspects.

The asphalt on the road was broken here and there, and the pavement blocks were not intact. The traffic lights were switched on randomly or turned off completely. Cars had priority over people, and when hunters caused accidents, they covered them up without anyone noticing. Streetlights and electric poles were broken or even completely uprooted.

The problem wasn’t just the social infrastructure. Homeless people were plentiful, pickpockets were encountered on every block, and robbers were openly armed with knives. On the way to her lodgings, Noh Song-rin encountered criminals trying to steal her wallet five times.

Robbers sometimes stole people. People were often bought and sold like slaves in the market. People who became commodities were treated like livestock.

There was no way that a place like this could have proper education and medical facilities. The only large hospital in Shinuiju was so blatant that it was like telling a money-grubbing idiot to go away. Most Shinuiju citizens were not able to enjoy the health insurance that all South Korean citizens benefit from.

As rumored, Shinuiju was the ‘Agbogbloshie’ of Korea. It was called the worst city in Ghana, Africa. After the Great War, it was one of the world’s most lawless cities and a place where death was rampant. Of course, it wasn’t that bad, but Shinuiju was no different in that it was beyond help.

People outside of Shinuiju knew this fact, but they kept quiet because it was easier to ignore it.

In the end, even the South Korean government gave up. They just left the absurdity and crime in Sinuiju alone as long as it did not spread outside the city.

‘It’s fortunate that both of them passed away early. They must have been depressed when they saw this mess. But it was a place where they had good memories during their time in hiding.’

Nosonglin’s grandfather was a Korean from Liaoning Province. During the chaos of the Great War, he fled south with his family to escape monsters.

Noh Song-rin was born in Sinuiju right after the end of the Great War and spent her childhood there for a while. She had never set foot on Chinese soil, so she had a strong perception that she was Korean.

However, perhaps because I grew up hearing stories of the Great War from a young age, the land beyond the Amnok River and Sinuiju were not unfamiliar to me.

How did Kang Mu-hyeok know this? He sent himself to Shinuiju like a ghost.

“No. Even if I didn’t know, he would have been the one to send it. Our captain.”

In terms of deploying the right people to the right places, the hunter to be dispatched to Sinuiju was the most powerful in the guild.

It must have been a coincidence that the mission overlapped, since I had never revealed the past and it wasn’t something I really wanted to delve into.

As his thoughts crossed his mind, Noh Song-rin realized once again that he had his nose pierced.

“Why do I keep feeling like I’m becoming Captain Kang’s goon?”

With a sharp monologue.

dripping!

There was a knock.

Noh Song-rin’s vigilance pierced through the ceiling in an instant. Noh Song-rin, standing slanted against the wall next to the door, spoke softly.

“who are you.”

There was no answer. The presence that had been felt a moment ago had disappeared. He carefully turned the doorknob while gathering mana in his right hand, which was far from the door.

There was no one outside. Instead, there was a white envelope lying where my feet had been.

Noh Song-rin noticed that the recipient of this envelope was the information broker she had visited during the day. She opened the envelope and found a USB inside.

“Children, I was nervous because you’re beginners. But you’ve come to a decent standard.”

Noh Song-rin came in with an envelope and locked the door. She took out her laptop from her backpack and plugged in a USB. When she opened the folder, there were numerous files inside.

Noh Song-rin opened a few files, then compressed the documents with a program and sent them to Kang Mu-hyeok by email along with a short message.

After Noh Song-rin finished sending the email, she picked up her smartphone because she remembered something she wanted to add.

“What? Why not?

The smartphone antenna didn’t light up at all. I knew that the wireless communication infrastructure in Shinuiju was unstable, so I picked up the phone attached to the room, but it was dead. Feeling ominous, I checked my laptop and saw that the internet that had been connected just a moment ago was disconnected.

“This is such a predictable repertoire.”

The moment I took the karambit knife out of my pocket.

Boom!

The door was smashed open and masked men rushed in. Noh Song-rin ran towards the men rushing into the room.

The culprit in the lead hesitated, not knowing how to counterattack without retreating. Noh Song-rin blocked the opponent’s view by spreading his palm over his face, and then stabbed a short blade into the artery in his neck.

He grabbed the blood-spurting, collapsing corpse by the collar and threw it at the following assailant. As a result, the line of attackers, which had been advancing at a slower pace, became disorganized. No Song-rin dug into the assailants, stabbed them with his sword, broke their arms, and twisted their necks.

Although we killed about a dozen assailants in an instant, the number of people rushing into the room did not decrease.

“F*ck human wave tactics. Are they Chinese?”

Noh Song-rin stepped back, spewing out curses that would not come back. The more he killed, the more corpses there were, and his range of movement was becoming narrower. He could no longer fight in this small room.

He drew mana from his entire body and slammed his body into the windowless wall like a dump truck.

Kwaaang!

The concrete shattered like a sand castle. Noh Song-rin, who had come out of the building, twisted her body in the air. Although it was five stories high, she landed lightly without any problems.

But what awaits him is…

“Guooooooo!”

“Yeah, this is the Demon Realm. They really let monsters loose on the streets and live there?”

It was the ‘Ogre’, a monster that was said to be the nightmare of hunters below B rank.

Five of them too.

‘Was there a guy in Korea who controlled monsters? I heard there were a few in China.’

This wasn’t all of the ogres. There were sounds in the alleys. Among them, there were a few that were of similar rank to mine.

“You’ve only lived in your hometown once. If you live there twice, you won’t even be able to find your bones.”

Noh Song-rin’s face crumpled fiercely.

* * *

Kang Moo-hyuk left the guild early in the morning, saying he would go to Shinuiju for a day trip. Joo Se-ah, who had heard the story from Kang Moo-hyuk, followed him and said she would go with him.

“Shingiju is not a playground for children. It’s dangerous there. Let’s go together.”

“We’ll meet outside of Sinuiju. The Korean guilds are keeping an eye on us, so the city forces won’t be able to come out. The person we’re meeting today isn’t a dangerous person. In addition, I’ve already sent Hunter No Song-rin to Sinuiju, so I’ll contact him and have him join us. You don’t have to worry.”

Kang Mu-hyeok politely declined, but Joo Se-ah shook her head firmly.

“Even outside the border, it’s unsafe. Shinuiju is Korean territory in name only, but go inside. There’s no such lawless area. Who would think that’s Korea? No way. I’ll be your bodyguard. I’m an S-rank bodyguard, so be grateful.”

Kang Moo-hyuk stared at Joo Se-ah, who seemed to be being unreasonable.

“Why, why?”

“Are you going because you don’t want to work?”

Hot.

“Desk work is also work. If the guild leader leaves his seat during busy times, the guild won’t be able to run. I don’t want to leave my seat either, but I have no choice so I have to go.”

“No, I… It’s not that I don’t want to do the work. I’m just worried about the manager, um… … Ah, okay. I’ll guard the office.”

“While I’m away, I’d like to ask the hunters who will be staying as guests for a while.”

Kang Moo-hyeok asked Joo Se-ah to take care of Seo Su-ji and her group, Lee Sook-young, and others. Since the truth of the case was not yet clear, there was a risk of assassination. Since they had set out with the intention of leaving for a while, he gave them a room in the guild building and had them wait.

So Kang Mu-hyeok left Joo Se-ah and left Bukpocheon feeling relieved, while making a phone call to someone.

“Yes. I will. I will stop by on the way. I will. I have to get tested today. I am almost out of medicine. Yes. Can I go to the Paju lab? Please have my uncle tell my father.”