Chapter 354

Just in case Kwon Taehan came out of the trauma Dungeon earlier than expected, I left about a day between visits and checked the Dungeon periodically.

Of course, nothing like that happened.

“How long do we need to stall for?”

At Im Haekyung’s question, I thought for a moment before answering.

“The amount of time itself isn’t particularly important.”

“Then what is?”

“What matters is what happens during that time.”

“Can you give me an example?”

Leaning comfortably back against the sofa, I spun an artifact around and around in one hand. I could feel Im Haekyung’s gaze on me from where they sat loosely beside me.

“Rather than an example, the point is that anything Kwon Taehan would absolutely never do should work.”

“Ah, that kind of thing.”

At that, Im Haekyung nodded as though they understood.

“Do you understand?”

“Of course.”

I had only tossed out a few clues, yet they were steadily piecing it together. Well, I’d already tested the bastard’s powers of deduction several times by now, so they would probably get pretty close to the correct answer this time too.

“So the purpose isn’t to perform some particular action, but to do something that goes against Taehan? Last time, you said ‘God’ probably wouldn’t like it very much if Taehan were isolated inside a Dungeon....”

“Yes.”

“Your goal is to do the exact opposite of the flow Taehan is following. If Taehan was chosen as the person who would prevent the world from being destroyed... then either way, Taehan must be someone favored by ‘God.’ At least until a certain point... that’s what it would look like.”

“That deduction is fucking incredible.”

Impressed by what they said, I lightly tossed the artifact once, caught it, and set it down on the table.

“God’s favor.... Well, Taehan himself doesn’t seem all that thrilled about it.”

“You said he’s caught in a loop. Repeating the same life is difficult by nature.”

“You say that like it’s some kind of proposition. Though it’s true. Taehan seems more burdened by the obligation than the repetition itself.”

“What about you, Jehyun?”

What were they asking about?

I raised an eyebrow, and Im Haekyung made the question clearer.

“Do you feel burdened too?”

“I don’t know.”

I answered vaguely.

It wasn’t burdensome.

But I did feel as though the number of things outside my control was steadily increasing.

No, beyond that, there was a faint sense of helplessness that no matter what I did, the future would still flow along its predetermined course.

I forgot about it when I focused on the present, though.

“Sometimes it’s fucking awful.”

I gave a simple answer, grinned, turned my body, and sat facing Im Haekyung directly.

“Well, for now, things will be easier if you cooperate with me, Guild Master.”

“.......”

“Taehan went in quietly enough for now, but we don’t know when he’ll clear it, so we don’t exactly have much time.”

“What are you going to do first?”

“You already know.”

I lifted myself slightly and moved closer to Im Haekyung as I spoke.

“Before the Hunter Association becomes too much of a nuisance... I’m planning to deal with it.”

Without answering, Im Haekyung followed me with their gaze and obediently nodded.

I ruffled their hair and lowered my head.

Their eyes shifted to the side, then they blinked slowly before gradually closing them.

I lightly kissed them, then pulled away.

***

Hunter Association headquarters, Chairman’s office.

Even after the commotion last time, I had exchanged private messages with the Chairman a few times.

Maybe because Im Haekyung had completely erased his memories of what had happened before, the Chairman didn’t seem to feel particularly awkward around me.

“You moved the Chairman’s office?”

“Something strange happened.”

“Something strange?”

“You remember that camp we held with all the Hunters a while back? I invited you then too, Hunter Seo.”

“Yes.”

When I nodded, the Chairman rubbed the back of his head and tilted it as though he genuinely had no idea what had happened.

“I guess I was running around too much back then... but somehow, when I came to my senses, I was asleep in that Chairman’s office.”

“Well, that could happen. You are getting on in years, after all.”

When I casually agreed with him, the Chairman’s brow twitched and he immediately objected.

“Ahem. Even so, I still go golfing every weekend... and I’m stronger than I look. People tell me all the time that I look young for my age too.”

“Oh....”

“I’ve got a baby face. A baby face.”

Assuming there were no outside complications, he did seem like he would live a long time.

Not because he looked young.

When I smashed the back of the Chairman’s head and roughly felt around his skull, its durability, like the strength of the bone, had actually been pretty decent.

I nodded to show that I agreed, and apparently that improved the Chairman’s mood, because he continued.

“Anyway, I couldn’t even remember when I’d fallen asleep, so at first I thought it might be some kind of health problem. I even went in for an examination. But there really wasn’t anything wrong with me. Then later, when I looked around, things were missing from the Chairman’s office too... Anyway, I had a bad feeling about it. I thought someone might have broken in, so I checked the CCTV outside the Chairman’s office.”

“Yes.”

“We don’t have CCTV inside the Chairman’s office, so all you can see is whether anyone passed through the hallway outside. So I checked it, and every last bit of the footage had been erased! Makes you wonder if a ghost did it!”

The Chairman stroked beneath his chin as he spoke with a serious expression.

'CCTV....'

When Im Haekyung said they’d erased the CCTV footage, I’d assumed they meant footage from inside the Chairman’s office, but apparently it had been the hallway footage.

Well, even if it was only the hallway, having a record of who entered and left would’ve looked suspicious.

'Then what did Joo Seowon do?'

A stealth item probably couldn’t interfere with CCTV too.

I spent a moment picturing the angle of the camera outside the Chairman’s office, then nodded and answered.

“That’s fascinating.”

And the fact that he was telling me all this made it clear that he really had no memory of me.

The Chairman, perhaps unconsciously, rubbed the back of his head once more and muttered,

“Maybe a ghost really did stop by....”

I smiled faintly as I listened to him mutter.

I wasn’t planning to blindly round up everyone in the Hunter Association and shove them into a Gate.

I recalled my conversation with Im Haekyung.

'The Chairman got that position through connections. He has ties spread throughout political and business circles, and he does handle a few major decisions, but someone else actually leads the Association’s practical operations.'

'.......'

'If you strip away all the figureheads and leave only the key people, Chairman Shin, Executive Director Yoon, and both vice chairmen are all problematic. The directors and auditors under them honestly don’t matter that much.'

'One of the directors should be someone who used to be a team leader in the Special Response Team before transferring over.'

'Ah, Director Choi....'

'.......'

'Let’s get rid of that one before we begin.'

Making a plan was easy when I already had someone who had diligently investigated the Hunter Association out of pure hatred.

Director Choi, who actually went in and out of Dungeons, had the Association’s Hunters firmly under his control, which meant he wielded considerable power.

In other words, he wasn’t some tail that could simply be cut off after one or two scandals.

'Then we’ll just kill him.'

If Director Choi disappeared, there weren’t many people who could replace him.

Finding someone capable of serving as a senior executive while also staying closely involved in practical operations was harder than it sounded.

Once the Hunter Association was thrown into confusion because of that, I planned to launch a simple public-opinion campaign.

Namely, by dressing up the cases of victims created by the Hunter Association’s advance-reporting policy in a slightly more sensational way.

'And if necessary, we’ve got some good material too.'

'Like what?'

'Hunter Sung Uijae. He’s popular, after all. If we fuck it up, it could backfire horribly, but it’s not like I’m the one who’d get fucked, so there’s no real need to worry about it.'

Well, either way, the fact that he’d gotten cursed out nationwide also meant that he was someone who drew that much attention.

And he was still popular.

'Do you think Hunter Sung will cooperate?'

'He doesn’t like the Hunter Association much either.'

'You know a lot.'

If we packaged Sung Uijae’s story so that it connected neatly with cases of people who had suffered because of the Hunter Association, things would probably get pretty noisy for a while.

They would respond, of course, but considering the Association’s public image wasn’t particularly good to begin with, it probably wouldn’t mean much.

'Anyway, while that’s happening, I’m planning to bombard reporters with the executives’ corruption one after another. It doesn’t matter if each story only contains a little truth.'

'.......'

'We just need to time it for when the political world starts finding the Hunter Association annoying. Let’s sensationalize the embezzled budget around then too. Mention Chairman Shin and Executive Director Yoon by name.'

'Haha.... It won’t go the way you’re imagining, Jehyun. The Association isn’t that easy to deal with.'

They were right.

Even if Im Haekyung actively cooperated with me, there might still be limits.

And there was no reason for Im Haekyung’s side to shoulder that kind of risk either.

'There is another way.'

'What way?'

What else?

At that point, I’d really just shove all of them into a Dungeon.

Killing every last one of them was, in fact, the most reliable method.

Of course, there was a chance public opinion would turn against me merely because I had entered with them.

'Well, if things come to that, I can just reveal that I was a Hunter Association spy stealing Haeseong’s internal information and make myself one of their people.'

I was already carefully preserving every record of everything I had obtained while secretly communicating with the Chairman.

At that, Im Haekyung looked at me with a strange expression.

'I don’t want to use you that way.'

'I know.'

'I don’t want us to plan around destroying your public image. It would be difficult to restore afterward too.'

How admirable.

They were actually worrying about me.

I tilted my head slightly and kindly added,

'Well, I don’t particularly care.'

The Chairman was still frowning.

Before he could notice anything else strange, I quickly held out a stack of documents.

“Ahem, this is...?”

“Ah.”

“.......”

“Confidential information being circulated internally within Haeseong.”

From the neatly arranged inner pocket of my jacket, I could feel the weight of the recorder running steadily.