At that time.
“Hmm. So, this is the video secured from the scene, right?”
“Yes. Due to the bad weather, the quality isn’t very clear.”
“That’s fine. This is enough to understand. Anyway, it’s a video of Jung Sun-rak being attacked, right?”
“Yes, it is.”
Yu Cheonghwa was watching a video handed over by her subordinate.
It was a scene where Jung Sun-rak, an executive of the Shinsu Guild, was struck down by Kang-hoo at the First Research Institute.
Since Shinsu Guild was a satellite guild of Shinto Guild, to which she belonged, she always kept an eye on it.
She had especially watched Jung Sun-rak since he was a promising talent. Now he was a named figure.
She wasn’t particularly interested in the fact that the target was Jungmun Pharmaceutical. Such incidents were common.However, the fact that Jung Sun-rak was attacked by an unknown assassin piqued her curiosity greatly.
“This defense line, it’s the one where mental-type hunters are stationed, right?”
“Yes. It’s to hold them off once the outer defense line is breached.”
“But the assassin in the video passes through without even hesitating once?”
“Yes. It seems our expectations were completely off. The same would be true for Jung Sun-rak.”
“What, it doesn’t look like it’s because of some item. It seems they purely resisted seduction or confusion with sheer ability?”
“Yes, that’s correct.”
“Moreover, the use of skills is unique too. For an assassin, the skill usage is too varied, isn’t it?”
“We believe it’s not an ordinary assassin. There’s also a possibility that it’s a mercenary from abroad.”
“Who on earth is it?”
Yu Cheonghwa tilted her head.
For a moment, an assassin came to mind.
Shin Kang-hoo. An assassin who Yu Cheonghwa had tried to mentally scan several times, but it had never worked.
However, it seemed far-fetched to connect the assassin in the video with Shin Kang-hoo.
Firstly, Jung Sun-rak’s level was high. According to the information about Kang-hoo from Eclipse, the gap was too big.
Moreover, his face was covered by a mask, making it impossible to visualize a proper image.
Though Kang-hoo’s face came to mind, the link was weak. It felt like too much of a leap.
If someone who knew about Kang-hoo’s Shadow Step skill had seen the scene, their reaction might have been different.
But she didn’t know Kang-hoo’s skill set precisely. She just knew it was extraordinary.
A subordinate asked.
“Should we investigate further?”
“Yes, discreetly. I don’t want other guilds or mercenary groups getting interested.”
“Yes, understood.”
“Jung Sun-rak got taken down… This is interesting. Whoever the assassin is, their value just shot up.”
Yu Cheonghwa had a face full of curiosity. It was clear that this assassin was highly skilled.
Morning.
Kang-hoo, after receiving a call from Master K, was heading to Ground Zero.
Thanks to Master K’s consideration, he was able to board a safe limousine, making the trip very comfortable.
Since there was plenty of time until the promised meeting with Park Dong-jae at night, there were no issues.
Upon arriving at Ground Zero’s ‘Glass Land,’ the scene was the same as last time.
Numerous workers were protected by an equal number of guards, busy with the harvesting operation.
The thorough safety gear worn by the workers highlighted Master K’s meticulous care.
Meanwhile, Kang-hoo tilted his head at the unexpected person who came to greet him.
“Welcome. I’ll escort you. Master is waiting.”
“Someone else came out.”
“Yes. Moon Hyeong-seo has gone to the north.”
“Went to the north?”
“Yes.”
The one who came out instead was a woman who looked to be in her early forties. Naturally, it was their first meeting.
However, based on the Constellation information, she seemed to be at a similar level to Moon Hyeong-seo.
Her main field appeared to be similar to Ban Se-yeong’s, a gunner. The Constellation options were biased towards accuracy and concentration.
“I see.”
“Follow me. Only the guide has changed; everything else remains the same.”
“May I know your name?”
“Hwang Bo-hye.”
“I see. Since I might come here often, I thought it would be good to know your name in advance.”
Hwang Bo-hye.
If she replaced Moon Hyeong-seo in his absence, she could be considered Master K’s second confidant.
Following Hwang Bo-hye, they arrived at the place where K was, just like before.
As soon as the meeting began, Hwang Bo-hye left, and the surrounding personnel withdrew as well.
It was an arrangement to secure the confidentiality of the conversation. Everything was done in an instant.
K, seeing Kang-hoo, initiated a handshake warmly.
“You look worse than before.”
“I overdid it yesterday. My complexion was already bad, and it seems it got worse.”
“Oh. People might think you came wearing white makeup. You must have pushed your body to the extreme?”
“Yes.”
There seemed to be no point in hiding his physical state from K.
He immediately noticed that Kang-hoo had overexerted himself due to mana hypersensitivity just by looking at his changed complexion.
It wasn’t a mere guess; his intuition had proven accurate time and again, leading Kang-hoo to feel more acceptance than suspicion.
“After returning from Ulleungdo, Hyeong-seo seemed quite stimulated by you and went for training.”
“I heard he went to North Korea.”
“There’s no better place to get stronger than that land.”
“Isn’t it dangerous? Even the Hunter Public Safety Bureau gave up on identifying the monsters and vegetation in North Korea.”
“That’s why it’s also a land of opportunity. Ever since people could no longer live in North Korea.”
K was right.
Since the beginning of the Hunter era,
Unlike other countries that quickly adapted to reality and formed their own power structures,
North Korea regarded the emergence of hunters as a threat to their regime. To them, hunters were enemies.
However, it was impossible for hunters, who had gained unprecedented power, to simply die off.
Eventually, a civil war broke out, and in the process, hunters who should have been the future’s strength died in vain.
As a result, there was not enough power to subjugate the monsters that emerged from dungeon explosions in each region.
That led to the present situation.
Most people who lived in North Korea moved to China. And North Korea became a playground for monsters.
In fact, this was only a known part of the story; there were rumors of undead hunters existing.
Or there were stories that unimaginable hybrid species had arisen through interbreeding with monsters.
‘The original story should have had more hints about North Korea. With the hints dropped, it’s not surprising if anything happens.’
Kang-hoo recalled the original story and chuckled.
No wonder readers asked where the North Korea hints had gone when he left a postscript after finishing the story.
The comments criticizing the lack of North Korea hints had more than three times the likes compared to the author’s postscript.
K changed the subject.
“Anyway, everything Hyeong-seo saw about you on Ulleungdo will be kept secret. Don’t worry.”
“I’m not worried. There’s no reason for such foolishness.”
“Right. In this harsh world, the tighter one’s lips, the longer they live. We know that well.”
K nodded.
Then he casually handed something to Kang-hoo that was placed on the shelf next to him.
Though he hadn’t received an explanation yet, Kang-hoo could immediately tell what it was. K quickly added an explanation.
“It’s a combination of a colorless talisman and an expulsion core. I learned the crafting method directly from Shin-ryeong a while ago.”
“Have you known her for a long time?”
K’s familiarity in calling Kim Shin-ryeong without formality indicated a close relationship. It didn’t seem like he had called her just once or twice.
“Well… should I say we almost got married? In the past tense, of course.”
“Oh.”
They either broke off an engagement or separated before making a promise to marry.
In any case, it seemed they once had a relationship where they loved each other.
For a moment, K’s eyes sparkled. It was understandable since it likely reminded him of his youthful romance.
“Anyway, I made it using the crafting method I learned from Shin-ryeong. But don’t expect too much.”
“I’m much more pessimistic and negative than you might think. I have no expectations.”
Kang-hoo nodded.
Although he hadn’t completely let go of his expectations, if he were to quantify his hope, it would be about 10%.
“Okay. Let’s proceed comfortably. Let’s move to the sterile room for the procedure. We must also be cautious about infection.”
“Yes, please.”
The special sterile room they moved to, while not prepared for major surgery, was equipped for minor operations.
Inserting a small talisman into the body was something that could be performed without issues.
After conducting local anesthesia, the process of inserting the talisman ended quicker than expected.
Thinking he might need to talk to K to alleviate boredom was unnecessary worry.
K meticulously finished the suturing and disinfection process before carefully speaking to Kang-hoo.
“Use your skill. It’s better to keep using it and induce mana recovery.”
“Yes.”
Kang-hoo immediately began using his skills in succession.
He focused on auxiliary skills like Frenzied Healing, which aren’t connected to offensive actions.
Normally, mana would be rapidly consumed, and with rapid recovery, his body would be overloaded.
This would cause pain.
If K’s hypothesis was correct, the talisman would release fake mana, reducing the overload.
It would provide a breather.
Mana recovery proceeded normally, but the physical strain was minimized.
Feeling the changes in his body from start to finish, Kang-hoo let out a brief groan.
“Mm.”
“How is it?”
“I didn’t feel the overload for about 5 seconds. But after that, it was the same.”
“Just as I thought…”
“And it seems the benefit of those 5 seconds isn’t immediate recovery. There seems to be a cooldown.”
“Could you… wait a bit longer?”
“Yes, let’s do that.”
Afterward, 30 minutes passed.
Then, just like before, the talisman provided a brief respite from the overload.
It appeared that the cooldown period was about 30 minutes.
After that, there was about a 5-second window where the overload from mana hypersensitivity was alleviated.
Considering he thought there would be no results at all, Kang-hoo found this quite satisfactory.
“Looks rather inadequate.”
“You can’t be full on the first bite. Still, having 5 seconds every 30 minutes provides some indirect experience.”
“Does it completely relieve the pressure?”
“Yes. During those 5 seconds, there’s no overload at all. Mana recovery is normal.”
“That means the hypothesis itself wasn’t wrong.”
“In other words, it suggests the need for continuous expulsion power.”
“Right. With the current talisman we made, it doesn’t reach that capacity. The output is low.”
“Are we moving towards a secondary hypothesis that requires a higher-level colorless talisman and expulsion core?”
“Haha… Right.”
K laughed but looked troubled.
They had direction, but pursuing that direction was no easy task.
Even obtaining the current colorless talisman from Kim Shin-ryeong had been a challenge, given its high sensitivity.
Obtaining something of a higher level might also be difficult for Kim Shin-ryeong. It was a very challenging task.
“I’m feeling good.”
Unlike the somewhat disappointed K, Kang-hoo’s response was positive.
He had cracked open a change.
For something he thought would never change, he had caused a crack in his congenital mana hypersensitivity.
If additional information were gathered and confidence and experience accumulated…
He was sure it would lead to a better state than now. There would be no negative consequences.
K, surprised by Kang-hoo’s positive response, smiled and answered:
“You said you were much more pessimistic and negative than I thought, but it turns out it was me who was darker, not you.”
“I think it’s just the beginning.”
“You’re right. Considering the start, it’s actually good not to be disappointed.”
“Exactly.”
“I was foolish.”
K reflected lightly, feeling pleased.
Yes. Change had begun.
The two were sure that congenital mana hypersensitivity would not remain an incurable disease forever.