Song Hwayoung sent word she’d be heading up a bit later because of personal business.
So I didn’t need to book a night’s stay after all.
Not that it was a loss—I got a few things out of it, so in the end it worked in my favor.
I took an evening train back up to Seoul. Once I arrived, I grabbed a cab straight ho.
Already the end of the year, huh.
A few months ago, I never would’ve imagined spending year’s end in a place like this. But I wasn’t really dissatisfied now. With my goal clearer, maybe I’d even say I was finding it sowhat fun.
One thing I had to consider, though... my rank progression was slower than expected. Not surprising, since I hadn’t been going into Gates often, but at this pace I’d still be stuck as a low-rank Awakened by the ti I ran into Kwon Taehan.
I need to run more dungeons.
Thinking that, I stepped inside my place—where an unexpected quiet greeted .
What the hell?
Normally Joo Seowon would be in the living room, but I didn’t see him. And Do Yehyun, who’d said he was hitting a dungeon today, wasn’t back either.
Did they clear it?
The sudden doubt made bring up the tracker and pull up both their locations.
Do Yehyun’s signal had cut off in Eunpyeong-gu, so he was still inside a Gate. Joo Seowon was on his way back here.
Having the locator on them really was convenient.
A mont later, the door opened and Joo Seowon ca in. He paused briefly when he saw , then walked in naturally.
“When’d you get back?”
“Not long ago. About fifteen minutes.”
“Earlier than I expected. I figured you’d be later since you said you took the train.”
“Where’d you go?”
“Stopped by the SH building for a bit.”
Answering casually, he sat down on the couch, pulled a tablet from his bag, did so searching, and then handed it to .
“I tried to pin down Cheonmyeonggyo’s base of operations, but apparently even among their mbers no one # Nоvеlight # knows where the cult leader’s private temple is. Instead, I’ve got sothing else to show you.”
“What is it?”
He played a video. Less than a minute long, it started with so guy worked up, jabbing his finger as he ranted about sothing.
[Everyone. You need to believe this. I’m an F-rank Awakened. Well—up until recently, I really was just an F-rank!]
Shaking with excitent, he grabbed sothing from the desk and shoved it toward the cara.
[This is my hunter license! I blurred my personal info, but that’s in the photo, right? And here—can you see the letters? It says F-rank!]
Then he tossed the license aside, wiped his sweaty palm on his pants, and trembled like he was high, breathing raggedly.
[...Now, watch this!]
Still rubbing his hands nervously, he suddenly dragged a flowerpot over and placed his hand on it.
The plant inside shot upward in an instant, smashing the pot. In seconds, it had grown taller than him, pushing against the ceiling and cramming the room. Staring at it, his face lit with ecstasy as he turned back to the cara.
[See, see this! I’m not F-rank anymore! You can do it too. You all need to realize the truth—]
His words cut off as the video ended with an SNS logo. It was obvious the guy wasn’t in his right mind, and the whole thing was noisy chaos.
“What’s this?”
“Got uploaded to SNS briefly this morning before being taken down. Spread pretty fast, but most comnts said it was just fake.”
“Fake?”
“Check his next post.”
He swiped to the next image. A photo of blue sky, with a scrawled caption beneath:
—Let’s pray!
“....”
“Pretty weird, right?”
Yeah. Looked exactly like the ramblings of a lunatic.
“Did you check who he is?”
“Yeah. I wondered if he was a Cheonmyeonggyo follower, so I dug a bit. Turns out he’s a complete idiot. Keeps locking and unlocking his SNS account, and he’s posted about Cheonmyeonggyo more than once.”
“Guess he was pretty moved.”
“He says he t Lord Haedo.”
That made sit up. He actually t Jin Haedo?
“After eting him, his stats apparently improved. Claims he was blessed.”
“...Blessed?”
The mont he said it, I recalled the words I’d heard earlier today.
‘Lord Haedo has blessed over and over, yet I’ve never once won. I’m truly beyond saving.’
Once might’ve been coincidence. Twice made it harder to dismiss.
Could there really be a way to boost abilities?
Seowon swiped again, pulling up the guy’s personal info.
Next to the ID photo I’d seen in the video was a list of details: na, age, affiliation, rank, and so on.
“Na’s Ryu Taejun. Twenty-four. Sa age as you.”
“...”
I skipped the rest and focused on the line at the bottom.
“This for real?”
“Yeah.”
It said sothing absurd.
Special Note: Brother of Ryu Taeyoung (Special Response Team)
Holy shit. How can two brothers look this completely unlike each other? Not just appearance or build—their behavior, their whole mindset?
“For real? That’s ridiculous.”
“I thought they didn’t look alike at first too.”
“He’s like half of Ryu Taeyoung. Looks like one punch would finish him.”
“If you actually ant it, yeah, that’d be enough.”
No wonder Ryu Taeyoung had said he couldn’t hit his brother. From the look of him, a couple “disciplinary” smacks would probably kill him outright.
Well, that’d count as “waking him up,” in a different sense.
I chuckled.
“Big brother’s getting his ass handed to him in the Special Response Team every day, while little brother’s off filming this crap for so cult leader. Impressive.”
“...Sotis you sound like a cranky dad in his forties or fifties, you know that?”
Ignoring his nonsense, I zood in on Ryu Taejun’s face. No resemblance. Dump him sowhere random and no one would know they were related.
“Of all the people claiming to et Jin Haedo, this guy’s the most credible?”
“Yeah. He’s got full records, at least. We could use him to get closer.”
“Good.”
I handed the tablet back, organizing my thoughts. At the very least, we could ask how he t Haedo. Worth trying.
“By the way, I went down to Busan today for a sort of auction. Saw sothing strange that looked tied to Cheonmyeonggyo.”
“What?”
I explained what I’d seen with Sung Uijae.
The sudden fight in the arena, the guy muttering Jin Haedo’s na, and how the setup reminded of the “shop” Infinite Guild used to run.
As I spoke, Seowon’s face grew more uneasy.
“...Felt like Infinite Guild’s operation?”
“Yeah. Decked out like an illegal den. I’ll send you the location—check if it’s linked to Cheonmyeonggyo.”
But he latched onto sothing else.
“Why the hell did you even go there? Obvious as day it was dangerous!”
The calm tone was gone; he was shouting. I glanced at his face.
The look of “what the fuck” all over it.
I gave a short explanation.
“Not my choice. I was dragged along.”
“Dragged? What do you an? With Song Hwayoung?”
“No, not her. Soone else. I went with Sung Uijae.”
“What?”
Completely blindsided, he gawked at .
“Sung Uijae... what? What the hell are you talking about? You’re personally connected?”
“No. t him yesterday at the Association.”
“And then today you’re going there with him? You’re telling Sung Uijae invited you to that place?”
Whatever he was imagining, his reaction was bizarre.
“He wanted to appraise sothing. That’s all.”
“That’s already insane!”
“Anyway, that’s not the point. I handled it fine. I’d rather not cross paths with him again, though.”
I smiled as I said it. He opened his mouth like he was about to argue, then let out a long sigh.
“...I really don’t know what the hell you’re doing.”
“Just check it. I want this resolved.”
“For god’s sake... think before you act! Sung Uijae didn’t make you—co on, you went because you wanted to.”
“No, I didn’t. Don’t believe ?”
“Of course not! I’ve been watching you for months—would you believe you, if you were ?”
So little trust. Honestly, it stung.
Still, bickering with him like usual made it feel like things were back to normal. He seed fine too.
We were still snapping at each other when the door opened and Do Yehyun walked in.
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