The Time-Limited Leader Makes the Raid a Success - Chapter 122



Only Noblemtl

Episode 122

122. Isn’t it fun?

Before going to Sinuiju, Kang Mu-hyeok stopped by the Paju Book City. To be exact, it was a book city. The city, which had been safe even during the Great War, was completely destroyed during the Little War.

Unlike the Great War, where the front lines were clear, the Small War had random gate generation. Although the scale of the disaster was incomparable to the Great War, the Small War was a chaotic time without a front line.

It was a short war that lasted only a few months, but more than one or two villages were lost during that time. This did not discriminate between cities and rural areas.

Paju Book City was also reduced to ruins by the devastation of the Little War. And now it is also the center of reconstruction. Instead of being a book city, it has been transformed into a corporate city.

The place that Kang Mu-hyeok visited was one of those buildings. The exterior was made by remodeling a warehouse, so it didn’t look very nice, but the equipment inside the building was rare and hard to find anywhere else.

The person who created this equipment was Kang Mu-hyeok’s maternal uncle, Yoon Il-do.

“Are you here?”

“What about your father?”

“Oh! Why are you looking for your father? After all the hardships fighting the monsters, the bond between father and son is starting to come back to you.”

“I have to finish the inspection quickly. I’m busy.”

“Hey, you heartless bastard. You were a little cuter when you were little. I wanted a cute nephew.”

“Stop complaining about your grown nephew. If you’re going to find something that cute, you should get married and have kids.”

“Okay. I don’t want to give birth to a child in this harsh world.”

“It’s not that I can’t have children, right? My mother used to say that she would be single until her uncle turned thirty… … .”

“No, this kid is now selling out the dead. Don’t make up stories that your sister didn’t even tell you, Shasha.”

Yoon Il-do blushed and grumbled.

“So what about your father?”

“Ha, this guy really wants to be called ‘nephew’ rather than ‘niece’.”

“My father and uncle saved my life, so I can accept all that abuse.”

“I suddenly want to criticize myself for saving you. Your guild leader is really brave, Yonghae. How did I ever think of working with you?”

“What kind of small talk is this? If you’re here, why don’t you hurry up and come in and prepare for the examination?”

The two raised their heads at the sudden voice. Kang Chang-soo was looking down from the second floor railing.

Behind the black horn-rimmed glasses, there were deep wrinkles around his eyes and dark circles under his eyes.

Kang Moo-hyuk bowed his head slightly as if he were talking to someone other than his father. Kang Chang-soo also nodded his chin in response and turned away.

“I wonder if anyone would say it’s a double-cross. If you look from the side, it looks like he’s just using the double-cross technique. Let’s go too. It’ll take some time to do the tests that we couldn’t do last time.”

Yoon Il-do shrugged and went up the stairs. Kang Mu-hyeok followed him.

On the second floor, all sorts of research equipment were spread out. While Yoon Il-do was preparing to inspect, something caught Kang Moo-hyeok’s eye. A document floating on the computer monitor. It was a thesis.

“Are you going to send this to the academic society?”

“How did you know that?

Kang Chang-soo asked while tying Kang Mu-hyeok’s forearm with a rubber band to draw blood.

“I see a site I’ve seen before in the window below.”

When he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, Kang Moo-hyuk searched through various organizations and institutions in search of a cure. The site he had seen at that time was floating around in his internet window.

He checked the title of the paper.

‘A study on the effects of mana addiction on the brain?’

It was a boring title that fit my father’s thesis perfectly.

“I guess it won’t be popular.”

“This isn’t a paper to gain popularity. Your mana addiction isn’t completely cured yet. It could suddenly get worse one day, or the medicine might not work. We need more clinical trial participants to completely cure it. That’s also very urgent. So, shouldn’t we achieve results like this so that people with mana addiction can see it? It’s a disease that everyone has given up on. If you see it, apply unconditionally. The more applicants, the better it is for us.”

“Even though it is a dangerous experiment where you could die during the first treatment?”

“We’ll have to ask for consent. They’ll probably say yes. It’s the difference between dying unconditionally or having even a slight chance. That’s why we need someone who’s desperate.”

Although the conversation was light, the results of the clinical trial contained within it were by no means light.

Kang Moo-hyuk was lucky. He found his way at a crossroads of life and death.

The treatment was dangerous. Especially during the first treatment, I almost died several times. Since I had no choice but to proceed with the treatment that was not yet perfect, it was truly a stroke of luck to be alive.

“It doesn’t seem like something rich people would talk about. Why are you guys so stiff?”

Yoon Il-do reported that he was ready. Kang Chang-soo handed over a gown that looked like a hospital gown.

“Change your clothes.”

The examination didn’t take as long as I thought, but it took up most of the morning.

Kang Chang-soo said to Kang Mu-hyeok, who was changing back into his suit after finishing his examination.

“The blood test will take some time. The other values ​​are still within the normal range. But just in case, come in for tests often. And don’t miss them like you did last time.”

“I can’t come that often. I have a lot of work to do. And I have to keep an eye on the guild leader. If you keep coming to get tested, he’ll think you have health problems and come after you. And if the test results come out strange, he’ll obviously interfere. How can you come that often? I barely managed to get away with it today, using a different excuse.”

“Once a quarter. And that’s the minimum. If you live in a place where mana is concentrated like a special area and don’t want to die, keep the date. You have to live long and kill a lot of monsters. And here. Three months’ worth of injections and medicine.”

Kang Moo-hyuk noticed something strange when he saw the package that Kang Chang-soo handed him.

“This time, the color of the injection is a bit different?”

“I’ve tried a few things. This guy has improved mana suppression ability. You said it was hard to catch goblins in Bukpocheon before because the mana concentration was high? It’s because the special area has unstable mana distribution. Maybe with that injection, it can withstand the mana wind that comes out when the gate opens like in Gangbyeonbuk-ro.”

Perhaps he was referring to when the Goblin Matron summoned an alien being while spewing black mana.

Kang Chang-soo improved the efficacy of the medicine after receiving feedback from his son.

“Good. I was already feeling heavy because of the special activity. I was having a hard time because I ran out of injections.”

“You missed a few days, so take your medication now to get your balance back. Then, take the injection before you go to bed at night. If you experience any side effects, contact me right away.”

Kang Moo-hyuk nodded and took the pill first. It was a medicine to stabilize the body that had been disturbed by exposure to the special area mana. After going through this process for several hours, he was given an injection.

“Then, come for the next checkup.”

As I was leaving the building, I received a call from Guild Cooperation Office Manager Park Chung-soo.

“Yes, sir.”

– I called you on your smartphone because you said you were on a business trip, and you just picked up. Here are the documents you asked for last time. I apologize for taking so long. Since China didn’t cooperate well, we had to check only our own documents, which made it late.

“Would you please send it to my email?”

-I sent it a little while ago, so you should be able to see it right away.

“Thank you for your effort.”

-No. If you need anything else, please contact me.

Kang Moo-hyuk checked his email before getting behind the wheel.

I just roughly glanced at the list of hunters who had naturalized to China and looked at the guild list.

The guild with the largest number of naturalized Koreans had almost 100 members.

“The Yellow Dragon Guild. Ranked 3rd in the Chinese guild rankings. They’ve collaborated with the White Tiger Guild in the past. And there’s another one… Reverse Heaven?”

Kang Mu-hyeok, who looked at the guild information, thought the conversation was getting interesting.

Yellow Dragon and Reverse Heaven.

Both guilds had a large number of naturalized Korean hunters and were associated with the White Tiger Guild. At the same time, they were enemies.

What was particularly impressive was that the Yeokcheon Guild itself was a guild established to compete against the Hwangryong Guild.

According to the guild information, the origin of the guild name ‘Yeokcheon’ was said to mean ‘rebellion’. It was the opposite meaning of the yellow dragon symbolizing the emperor.

After sending this information to Joo Se-ah, Kang Moo-hyuk talked to her on the phone.

“Yes, Gilma. I just sent you an email. If you look at the list there, you will see a list of naturalized hunters. Please check if there are any overlapping people among those who attempted to kill Hunter Lee Sook-young this time. If there are, I will formally file a complaint with the relevant guild, so please just record the testimony for now.”

* * *

By the time I arrived at Ryongchon County, near Sinuiju, after conducting inspections all morning, it was evening. Perhaps because it was winter, the sun was already setting behind the mountains.

We had originally planned to meet in the morning, but due to Hyun Jeong-geon’s circumstances, we changed the appointment to the afternoon. Thanks to that, I was able to get tested for mana addiction, so it wasn’t a bad choice.

If he had more time, Kang Mu-hyeok would have joined Noh Song-rin to hear the situation in Sinuiju directly and meet Hyun Jeong-geon.

But I skipped it for now because I might be late for the appointment. If it was just the situation with Shin Ui-ju, the email I received from Noh Song-rin was enough.

‘If the current situation is serious, it’s likely a problem with Shinuiju or Ma-gyeong. If it’s something that requires me to meet in person, it means that it’s difficult for him to be away from his post for a long time. He must be asking for my help… I can’t figure out what’s going on.’

Kang Moo-hyuk contacted Hyun Jeong-geon using the number he had heard beforehand.

-Are you here? Where are you? Oh, Ryongchon Station? If it’s there, it shouldn’t be too far from where I am. If you go up National Highway 1, before you enter Sinuiju. Before you cross the bridge between Ryongchon Station and Rakwon Station, there’s a place called Lipam Station.

Kang Moo-hyeok took a look at the navigation. Nothing came up. Hyun Jeong-geon continued speaking as if he had been waiting.

– It probably won’t show up on your navigation. It’s not a new line, it’s an old Pyeongui line closed station. I’ll give you the coordinates, so you can come find it. It’s a place with few people, so it’s good for meeting secretly. Okay, I’ll see you later.

Kang Moo-hyeok drove to the place that Hyun Jeong-geon had told him to. The place he arrived at was a quiet rural station. The weeds were overgrown, and the cold wind was biting his ankles.

Not far from the station, a railroad bridge was visible. Originally, it was supposed to be the Gyeongui Line instead of the Pyeongui Line, but it was closed because there were no trains going to Sinuiju. As a result, the last train was Ryongchon Station, the previous station for Sinuiju.

As I parked the car in front of the station and got out, Hyun Jeong-geon walked out of the station.

“How long has it been since then, Captain Kang?”

“Stop small talk and say what you want to say first.”

“Why are you being so stiff? Oh, is it because Director Kang fired me? Oh, don’t worry about it. I’ve already forgotten about it.”

Kang Moo-hyuk spoke firmly to Hyun Jeong-geon, who was waving his hand.

“At that time, letting the current CEO go was the best decision I could make. I didn’t have to feel guilty.”

“Doesn’t your conscience hurt? Did someone like that blame Matthew Soo for my dismissal? It seems like all the other members who worked with the leader knew that. Matthew Soo kicked me out.”

“Because we needed a common enemy to achieve internal unity. If you were upset about that, I apologize. But thanks to the current president’s resignation, we were able to hold out a little longer.”

“No, it’s okay. I would have done everything I could to take advantage of you. I thought it was a good thing since I was already getting tired of Titan.”

“How long are you going to just chit-chat?”

Kang Moo-hyuk cut off the long story and asked again.

Hyun Jeong-geon’s expression, which had been playful just a moment ago, changed.

“With Director Kang’s personality, he wouldn’t have just come here. You must have found out about the situation in Shinuiju, right?”

“I know it’s five minutes before the mess.”

“What was five minutes ago? It’s already been more than ten minutes.”

“What happened during those ten minutes?”

“Hwangryong, Yeokcheon, Nakil, Daemyeong. Have you heard of them?”

These were words that Kang Mu-hyeok was also familiar with. The guilds on the list he had received in the morning.

“These are Chinese guilds.”

“Oh, already there?”

“I found out by chance.”

“When coincidences overlap badly, it becomes a bad relationship. My involvement with the Chinese kids is exactly that.”

“Wasn’t that what you had planned when you sent Hunter Lee Sook-young to Bukpocheon? So that I could know.”

“It would take a while for an average person to get there. Sometimes, they can’t find it at all. Well, I thought you’d find it quickly, Captain.”

“So?”

“The guys I just mentioned. They are all the bosses of the guys who have entered Shinuiju. It’s not obvious on the outside. There are probably quite a few other guilds, but I haven’t gotten to know them all. There’s a lot of interference in the middle.”

Kang Moo-hyuk asked something he was curious about.

“How are you connected with Hunter Lee Sook-young? I heard she was from Hamgyeong Province and was active near the Tuman River.”

“While following them, I found out that they were looking for a female hunter from North Korea in Hamgyeong Province. She was a hunter who had escaped from Ma-gyeong to Sinuiju. That was the beginning of a coincidence. Fortunately, I was a person who was good at chasing and finding people, so I was able to secure her first. I approached her disguised as a broker. After hearing the circumstances, it seemed that Ma-gyeong had sensed something strange. She also seemed to have no idea what the object was.”

“I heard that too. It seems like the Chinese guilds are doing something at the gate in the Demon Realm. Do you know anything about it?”

“I didn’t know that part either. However, I did notice other plans.”

“Other plans?”

“Before the plan in the Demon Realm, you’re trying to eat Shinuiju as a preliminary work?”

Kang Moo-hyeok’s eyebrows twitched. It was because he immediately realized how serious Hyun Jeong-geon’s words were. It was something that Hyun Jeong-geon could describe as serious.

“It’s a bridgehead.”

“Yes, that’s right. These guys are now slowly creeping into Korean soil. Isn’t that funny?”