52
Chongqing is one of the largest cities in China. Near the gate, two men shook hands firmly.
They were the Manifester Lee Ho and the Duplicator Lu Shao Wei.
Lee Ho was representing his country, and Lu Shao Wei was in a similar position, representing China. Both were SS-rated Hunters and were also two of the strongest men in the world.
Cheon-Myeong’s elite White Tiger Team represented Korea’s elite Hunter team. The Golden Lion guild, created by Lu Shao Wei, also represented China. Its strongest team, the Golden Lion Mane team, was the counterpart to Cheon-Myeong’s White Tiger team.
Fifty S-rated and sixty A-rated Hunters gathered. The two SS-rated Hunters were collaborating with each other.
The gate they faced was an irregular gate, where all the members of the Blue Gold guild had ended up dying.
Both of them stood in front of the gate. Numerous reporters came by and started taking photos.
Lee Ho and Shao Wei exchanged glances. They smiled and had a simple handshake. That was all they did before entering the gate.
As soon as he stepped into the gate, Lee Ho could feel a huge gust of wind.
He looked around the surroundings. He was in a forest, a seemingly endless forest.
Shao Wei moved faster than Lee Ho. He had already duplicated himself, each duplication with sixty percent of his power. To be honest, his ability was as strong as Ho’s. He was an SS-rated Hunter. Sixty percent of his power was still equivalent to that of a high-level S-rated Hunter. Aside from that, he also had an army of S-rated Hunters behind him.
Shao Wei and his guild members had moved to attack the Cheon-Myeong guild’s members. Ho looked around at their faces.
Shao Wei approached him.
“Why did you kill our companion?”
Lee Ho thought that his translation skill was not working very well.
“Companion?”
“Let me be more clear. Why did you kill one of our members? The anti-Hunter organization.”
Lee Ho knew that this was a trap. He already knew that this would happen. He was not a fool, so he had already developed a strategy for this.
“What’s the anti-Hunter organization’s goal?”
“If I tell you, would you join us?”
“I’ll have to hear it first to make a decision.”
Shao Wei nodded. Lee Ho’s reaction was understandable. Although he had had a clash with China once, he was still a reasonable man. Shao Wei believed that he would join them after hearing the reason.
“The Tian Wei Tien’s purpose is simple. We want to build a new world for the awakeners.”
Lee Ho thought that that was probably the anti-Hunter organization’s exact name. But it did not matter to him. What mattered was Shao Wei’s answer.
“Build a new world for the awakeners?”
It was weird for them to say that.
“The authority was developing a weapon to kill Hunters. Is that what you want?”
Shao Wei laughed.
“I guess you don’t get it.”
“That’s an obvious response. You were developing a poison to… I see.”
As he spoke, Lee Ho finally realized the true reason.
It was not just bullshit. He continued.
“The organization’s leader is not an ordinary person. He is a Hunter who is immune to that poison. The poison can cause critical damage to Hunters… That’s why he is planning to provide an antitoxin so that he can gain power. Then eventually, he will rise as a king.”
Shao Wei nodded. As he had expected, Lee Ho was a smart man.
“Who is the leader?”
“Well, do you want to guess?”
Ho laughed.
There was no need for this waste of time.
“Since you are working for him, I suppose he has power over you. Considering that you are an SS-rated Hunter and one of the strongest men in the world, I suppose that he is an SS-rated Hunter more powerful than you. Raul from the US or Jin Yong from China? Um… actually, that’s enough now.”
“Enough?”
Shao Wei didn’t expect him to say that. Is that all he got? He was expecting Ho to join their group, but what’s with the ‘enough?’
“What are you talking about?”
“………”
“If you point a weapon toward me, then we should see it through to the end.”
“Are you mad?”
“I have heard what I needed to hear, and every time I hear that, I have to ask. Do you think I am?”
“That’s not a proper answer. That was rude of you.”
“I don’t show any respect to my enemies.”
But Ho was in a bit of a tight situation. Shao Wei’s duplications were nearby; they could easily and immediately launch an attack on Ho.
“If you bring out your paintings, then you are dead. Stop acting arrogant.”
Lee Ho smiled and ignored his words.
“Kneel. I don’t want to kill a talented man like you. Our group also doesn’t want that. We need to conquer this gate.”
Everyone thought that Ho was in danger. Bringing out his drawings would trigger his ability, but he can’t seem to bring them out.
What they didn’t know was that Ho never exactly mentions the trigger for his ability.
“Three years ago in Beijing, I clashed with three Chinese guilds.”
“…Why are you saying that now?”
“No reason. Shall I continue?”
“Do as you wish.”
“Let me ask you a question. Do you think I used my ability?”
“You sure did.”
“Indeed. But, did I take out my paintings to use my ability?”
“………”
“I killed five hundred and forty Chinese Hunters. Only two people survived from Cheon-Myeong, Mr. Hong and me. So no one else knows what happened.”
Suddenly, a bright light emanated from Ho’s body. It was so intense that staring at it would be blinding. After a moment, and with a loud, crashing sound, Shao Wei’s duplication exploded.
“The trigger for my ability is not bringing out my paintings.”
There was a huge monster beside him. It was a deadly creature with a lion’s face, the gigantic figure clearly showing that it was not a human.
Shao Wei and all the other Hunters knew what it was.
It was the Devil King from North Korea’s gate.
“I can activate my ability just by thinking about it.”
Lee Ho knew himself well. He hid this particular piece of information so that his enemies wouldn’t know about it. That would reduce his weaknesses.
Shao Wei was surprised, but only for a short while. If Ho didn’t want to talk, then all they could do now was wage war.
“Kill every last one of them!”
Shao Wei and his army of Hunters marched to attack. They swung their weapons, but a sudden mist blocked their visions.
With a thick, cloudy mist, the White Tiger team disappeared. This meant that everything was Ho’s ability in the first place. He had manifested his team and stepped through the gate alone.
“You… maniac…”
Lee Ho was a cold-hearted man. That was how he looked now.
“You should think of the real White Tiger team. If all of them were paintings, what would the real team be doing now?”
“…You bastard.”
“China’s anti-Hunter organization will be hunted by those who wear masks. And this news will be shared all over the world.”
Lee Ho turned back and smiled.
“The Chinese unique skill holder, Lu Shao Wei, died in an SS-rated dungeon… I think that would be the perfect title for today’s news article.”
“Kill him!”
Shao Wei screamed. Simultaneously, the mist was getting heavier and heavier and soon covered Ho completely.
While their visibilities were compromised, Ho summoned his paintings.
The S-rated monster, snake lord Apophis.
The Army of Anubis, with Seth and Osiris leading them.
Those were the ones who had appeared in his fight with Lee Hwan.
“And you should think about the reason why I’m here alone.”
Who cares? Shao Wei frowned before he and his companions charged toward Lee Ho.
With that, their battle began.
***
Teleport skill stones are rare, but their demand escalates frequently. Mass teleportation, the skill Yoo-Jeong had, was the most expensive among the other teleport skill stones.
The teleport skill only allows the caster to teleport, but Mass teleportation allows the caster’s companion to come along. In fact, a maximum number of fifty people can be moved together.
The lowest price for that skill stone was fifty billion dollars, and the highest price for it was four hundred and fifty billion dollars.
In Korea, there are only thirteen people with Mass teleportation skills. Yoo-Jeong was one of them. She had gotten it from her father; it was his heritage.
“There was an anti-government organization called Shilla. They were terrorists who used their awakener powers to threaten everyone.”
Yoo-Jeong poured Hwan a drink.
“My father found a mass teleportation skill stone in the dungeon. He wanted to sell it since it costs a lot.”
“But you used it instead?”
“Yes… Shilla came to rob that skill stone. While I hid, they murdered both of my parents.”
Yoo-Jeong sighed and drank from the glass in front of her.
Lee Hwan refilled her glass.
“All of Shilla’s members have been hunted and killed, except one.”
“Except one?”
“Yes, the one who killed my parents. I don’t know his name, I only know his face. Except for him, all the members of Shilla were killed by…”
Yoo-Jeong looked directly at Hwan’s eyes.
“Your brother. He killed every last one of them.”
After that, he was called the hero of this country. That was the beginning.
“I had to stay in the hospital for a long time. Then I noticed that the pendent my father left for me had an imprint of the skill stone.”
Hwan and Yoo-Jeong clinked their glasses. After drinking, Yoo-Jeong continued her story.
“A year later, I became an awakener. That’s how I learned mass teleportation, but you know that F-rated Hunters can’t use SS-rated skills well.”
“That’s true.”
“Starting from overuse of aura, I had to go through a lot of pain. Eventually, however, I got used to it.”
Yoo-Jeong glanced at Lee Hwan with mysterious eyes.
“After overusing their aura, some people pass out or even die. I never did. I thought it was some sort of protection from my dad, but I found the answer in your words.”
“Did you?”
“Yes, you told me that I have the talent of being a wizard.”
Lee Hwan nodded. It was true anyway.
“Your gateway is wider than in others, the gateway for aura inside your body. It is also thick so that it can endure much more than other people can.”
This time, Yoo-Jeong refilled Hwan’s glass.
“But the human body is quite complicated, much more so for an aura user like you. Your body is weird now.”
“Weird?”
“Yes. Because of excessive use, you are more inclined to aura growth.”
“Does that mean that my growth is only limited by aura use? Will my physical ability remain like this?”
“No. You must undergo the process of breaking your bones and rebuilding them. That will make you stronger.”
Yoo-Jeong’s eyes were filled with surprise.
“You mean the process Hunters experience when they become A-rated or S-rated?”
“Correct. But before that, you need to train your aura. You might become an A-rated Hunter afterward.”
That was enough for Yoo-Jeong. She was smiling beautifully.
“This is the first time.”
“Of what?”
“I was always considered only as a method of transportation. Some people told me that I could be better, but no one gave me specific advice like you. You just looked through the shape of my body and realized what’s wrong with me.”
“Shape of your body?”
“Oh, is that the wrong word choice?”
We exchanged smiles. I liked this kind of atmosphere.
Yoo-Jeong then asked me.
“You are planning to create a PMC, right?”
“Yes.”
“Do you need me?”
Lee Hwan could read someone’s mind quickly. It was something that he had learned from his life in Valhalla. Yoo-Jeong wanted him to need her.
She just wanted to be a meaningful person to others. Ho and Hwan were similar as well. Yoo-Jeong wanted to be a useful person that people needed, not a person who was only considered as a method of transportation.
Lee Hwan had to be serious about his answer.
“When I arrived here on Earth, I didn’t have a chance to see a lot of people.”
Yoo-Jeong put down her glass and rubbed her left arm with her right hand. She was shivering. Hwan realized that this woman was much shyer than he had thought. She was also quite an introvert.
“But among them, the three people that have the highest potential are Ee-Na, So-Eun, and you.”
“Oh…”
Hwan shrugged and chuckled.
“Don’t tell Gi-Hoon I said that. He might become sad.”
“Agreed.”
Yoo-Jeong was delighted. Like others, she wanted recognition from other people. And she had just gotten one from possibly the strongest man in the world.
“I have one thing that I want to accomplish.”
“What is it?”
“I want to kill Shilla’s leader, like how he killed my parents.”
“I see.”
“If I go with you, will I get an opportunity to do that?”
I nodded.
“You will. If not, I’ll do it for you.”
That put a smile on Yoo-Jeong’s face. She was delighted, simply delighted.
They talked some more and stood up to go. Yoo-Jeong voluntarily paid for what they had eaten. As they headed out of the restaurant, the wind was blowing fiercely.
“You’ve worked hard today. Take a rest.”
Hwan turned away to go, but Yoo-Jeong grabbed his arm. He didn’t ask her what the problem was; she was already blushing. He focused on her quiet voice.
“…Would you chill with me?”
Um.
“What if something happens?”
“It… will be okay. I can be ready in a minute.”
Sometimes, this was not bad.
Lee Hwan then headed to Yoo-Jeong’s house…
To watch Netflix and chill.
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