Chapter 329

Separated from the others, Jung Haseong stood alone in a nearby parking tower, lost in thought.

Until now, he had simply assumed that the blond hunter was a somewhat unusual person.

But then, without so much as a hint of warning, this bombshell had dropped out of nowhere.

"Ugh..."

To Jung Haseong, it felt like a bolt from the blue.

No matter how composed he normally was, being blindsided like this left him several times more confused than usual.

Hyung-nim! Come to think of it, right before you collapsed, you clearly told us to bring this person... So I didn't forget. I jumped into action and tracked down their contact information...

Of course, his situation was still better than that of a certain bald Awakener, who had been forced to endure a one-man battle simply to remain conscious.

"Whoa."

Jung Haseong climbed into the car he had parked inside the tower.

Then he sat there for a moment, trying to collect himself.

Before long, the national hero's thoughts arrived at the very same conclusion as the Guildmaster of the Korean Magic Tower.

'As expected... there really doesn't seem to be any solution other than an Elixir.'

If that was the case, then what exactly was this mysterious dungeon liquid that occasionally came up in conversation?

[Today's Gate! Industry Quiz: Does a 'cure-all' really exist? Yes or No!]

Like some legend invented for people too lazy to look after their own health—a miraculous remedy capable of restoring the body simply by being eaten or drunk.

To explain it in greater detail, Elixir had originally been the name given to a potion said to grant immortality in the medieval era.

In modern times, however, the word had taken on a slightly different meaning within the hunting industry.

Among hunters, it had come to refer to a substance capable of curing any physical illness or injury.

And that wasn't all.

There had even been people who claimed to have experienced those absurd healing effects firsthand, further strengthening the belief that Elixirs truly existed.

'Come to think of it... is that Awakener still doing well?'

To explain how the modern concept of the Elixir came about, one had to go back several years.

Around seven years ago, when the Dungeon Shock had only just begun.

At the time, a rural village in Sweden had been surrounded by a horde of monsters.

During the evacuation, a young man somehow awakened to mana and used his newfound power to deal with the swarm.

And during that large-scale hunt, the newly awakened hunter reportedly obtained a strangely shaped piece of loot.

It resembled a bottle, though its opening was far too wide and oddly formed for a human to drink from comfortably.

'A bottle shaped like that... filled with some unknown liquid.'

The young man who obtained it later said that, at the time, he had felt an inexplicable instinct.

Following that sudden impulse, he gave the liquid to one of his sick family members.

And then, miraculously, an elderly man who had been on the verge of death rose from his sickbed as though restored to life.

"-_-"

Surprisingly enough, this was an actual account of the so-called "cure-all" that could still be found in foreign news archives.

At first glance, the testimony was difficult to believe.

But even more shocking was what happened afterward to Hans, the Swedish man who had supposedly drunk the mysterious potion.

"Yeah. Just as I thought. It comes up immediately."

Haseong looked down at his phone.

'The elderly Awakener from Sweden... He was already over seventy during the early days of the Dungeon Shock, so he must be close to eighty by now.'

Hans Johanson, the legendary figure at the center of the cure-all myth, was now seventy-eight years old and famous for holding the record as the world's oldest Hunter.

During the early days of the Dungeon Shock, he had suffered from what was then an unnamed illness—magic addiction—which caused his body to deteriorate rapidly with each passing day.

By the time his son defeated the monster horde, Hans had become completely paralyzed, unable to move even a single finger.

Yet after drinking just one potion, he recovered.

And not only that.

He awakened as a Hunter.

'People that old usually can't withstand the shock of awakening. Most of them end up in a vegetative state.'

What unbelievable luck.

'Is this the latest article?'

At this point, the idea that an item capable of healing someone with a single sip might truly exist no longer seemed entirely absurd.

That single case involving the Swedish family was simply too compelling.

After all, the potion had completely cured magic addiction—a condition for which, even now, no proper cure had been discovered.

A foreign television program had even arranged a medical examination for the world's oldest Awakener.

The results revealed something unprecedented.

Hans Johanson's body had undergone a remarkable rejuvenation. Physically, he was so healthy that he could no longer be considered a man in his seventies.

His biological age appeared to have reversed by at least twenty years.

And as if that were not astonishing enough, he had gone on to become the world's first elderly Awakener.

Prompted by a memory that had resurfaced after years, Jung Haseong searched for the article about the Swedish father and son once again.

Among the image results, he quickly found a photograph of two men smiling brightly with their arms around each other's shoulders.

"-_-"

Seeing the prominently displayed photograph of the father and son stirred complicated emotions within him.

Tuk.

In any case, if what that family had consistently claimed was true—if somewhere among the countless monsters inhabiting the dungeons there really had been one carrying a miraculous potion—then perhaps treating the illness afflicting Korea's S-rank Hunter wasn't entirely impossible.

'Forget a cure-all. There hasn't even been a second report of the monster that dropped it.'

Nothing in this world ever came easily.

Jung Haseong lowered his head.

Just as he had already realized, the [Elixir]—an object of worldwide fascination—had never been discovered again in any confirmed form.

'At most, every now and then some newly discovered high-grade healing potion causes a misunderstanding...'

Hans, the alleged user of the cure-all potion, had offered further testimony.

According to him, merely seeing the potion was enough to seize a person's full attention.

And the moment one touched it, an inexplicable conviction would arise:

"The moment I drink this, I'll become perfectly healthy."

Because of that, Hans had repeatedly warned people not to be deceived by the counterfeit Elixirs circulating on the market.

But now that a certain truth had come to light, Jung Haseong found himself thinking something rather desperate.

'At this point, I wouldn't even care if it turned out to be a scam. I just want to catch so much as a glimpse of that Elixir.'

He meant it.

If a potion capable of miraculously curing any illness truly existed...

Then perhaps, just perhaps, he might finally be able to fulfill his deepest wish.

"-_-"

But standing around daydreaming wasn't going to accomplish anything.

[Auction House Search]

[Item Name: Elixir]

[Result: 0 Items]

He desperately wanted to help a Hunter he knew personally.

But as long as the existence of this universal cure remained unconfirmed, there was truly nothing he could do.

And besides—

'Even if I somehow managed to find that potion... I...'

Jung Haseong turned his gaze away from the screen, his expression stiff.

Soon afterward, the smartphone display dimmed and faded to black as the auto-lock activated.

He closed his eyes and firmly resolved to stop entertaining pointless thoughts.

Yet despite that determination, his unruly mind refused to obey.

One worry after another came rushing in.

'Kim Giryeo is the patient.'

It was awful.

'And not just any patient. He was in critical condition... and I was the only one who never knew.'

What was the point of dwelling on something that had already happened?

Such useless rumination was the kind of thing only a petty person would indulge in.

And yet, despite knowing that perfectly well, Korea's number-one Hunter couldn't stop himself.

'How in the world...'

Especially when, unlike most other Hunters, he had once shared a home with that Awakener.

'Do I have knots for eyes instead of actual ones?'

A wave of self-reproach washed over him.

'I shouldn't have assumed everything was fine just because we're both S-ranks...'

Jung Haseong's expression grew grave.

Objectively speaking, it was nearly impossible to look at an S-rank Awakener—someone who stood at the very pinnacle of human evolution—and immediately suspect that they were seriously ill.

Even so, the man sitting behind the wheel had never possessed much confidence in himself.

Which was precisely why he slipped so easily into self-deprecation.

'How could I see someone every single day and still fail to notice anything?'

Besides, although he had misunderstood them at the time, if he stopped and thought carefully about the past, there really had been clues scattered throughout their everyday lives.

Clues that, in hindsight, seemed to connect directly to the present.

Then what would happen if he looked back on those moments again, now knowing that a certain Hunter had supposedly been suffering from cancer?

Haseong's thoughts, briefly freed from simple self-condemnation, drifted into the past.

Hunter Jung Haseong... The fact that someone like you is putting in so much effort just to work with someone like me... I'm honestly really grateful.

The first thing he remembered was a conversation they had shared over a meal.

Words someone had once spoken.

Words that Haseong himself had later shouted back in a hospital room without even realizing it.

But if, one day, I told you I might not be able to keep that promise...

The meal had probably been something like budaejjigae.

Well.

That part wasn't important.

That day, the S-rank Hunter had spoken in an unusually serious tone.

He said that he had been thinking about it for some time, then asked whether it would be possible to cancel the official team schedule they had arranged long ago.

But when Jung Haseong pressed him for the exact reason behind that decision, Kim Giryeo quickly changed the subject.

'He brushed it off. Said something like he'd just been tired lately and misspoken... that there was no need to worry about the promise.'

The problem was that the blond Hunter had withdrawn his declaration of retirement after barely three seconds.

So at the time, Jung Haseong had listened to everything the other man said and arrived at one simple conclusion.

'Is he just making excuses because he doesn't want to work with me anymore?'

Strictly speaking, he hadn't been entirely wrong.

After a certain Korean's reputation had been firmly established through the Ice Palace raid, the "alien" had hastily pretended to be ill in an attempt to cover up the fraud he had committed.

However, in the middle of their conversation, the troublesome S-rank pyromancer had suddenly split a piece of restaurant furniture clean in half.

Startled by the sight, the alien magician immediately abandoned every excuse he had been making.

To Jung Haseong, that sudden reversal had seemed deeply suspicious.

Something about it simply hadn't added up.

"Kough...!"

But now, with someone's hereditary illness coming to light so belatedly, the entire situation took on a completely different meaning.

'He only said he was a little tired and had thought about taking a break! He never said it was cancer!'

Could it be that Kim Giryeo had already been too sick to continue working even back then?

But because someone had worried so excessively...

Perhaps he had changed his story out of concern that his illness might interfere with the work of the other Hunters.

'I can't believe it.'

If that were true, it would explain so many of the doubts Haseong had carried over the years.

He began to reinterpret Kim Giryeo's past behavior.

Of course, his interpretation was nowhere near the truth.

And the thoughts that followed only drifted farther from reality.

'That... and that... even what happened back then. Was all of it because he was already in poor health?'

Such was the nature of the human mind.

Something that had once seemed perfectly ordinary could, with the passage of time and a change in perspective, suddenly take on an entirely different shape.

A reminder of just how fragile and imperfect human judgment could be.

'But can people really die from an illness like that? I've heard treating preexisting conditions is even more difficult for Awakeners. Still... medicine has advanced a lot these days, hasn't it?'

Jung Haseong desperately tried to cling to hope.

But it wasn't easy.

The thought that someone had repeatedly been in serious danger right before his eyes, while he had failed to notice any of the signs, filled him with overwhelming guilt.

Unable to escape that self-reproach, Jung Haseong's thoughts circled back again and again.

[S.S]

Let's see.

So it really is measured in kilograms after all...

It began with suspicions he had already entertained in the past.

Information.

Combat power.

Judgment.

'Even if I tried telling someone about that absurdly convincing disguise he used while living as an F-rank Hunter, they'd never believe me.'

And then there was what he had demonstrated in the [Labyrinth of the 12th Month].

His mental fortitude as well.

'He's definitely not ordinary.'

In Jung Haseong's estimation, Korea's fourth S-rank Hunter was absurdly capable—far beyond the level of an ordinary jack-of-all-trades.

And it was difficult to believe that an average person, someone who had simply received an ordinary education and entered his twenties without anything unusual happening in his life, could possess such a broad range of extraordinary abilities.

'Honestly, I know this sounds far-fetched... but what about that thing he once said about wanting a job where he could wear a uniform? What if that wasn't just casual talk?'

What if he had originally intended to become an ordinary civil servant?

And then, after attracting the government's attention, he had been recruited by some special department instead...

Forcing him to give up that original dream.

Jung Haseong had long suspected that someone's background was connected to a government agency.

In fact, the newly revealed information about his illness only strengthened that suspicion.

"Yeah. That must be it!"

How many years had it been since South Korea's number-one Hunter awakened?

And yet, at the height of the catastrophe, a Hunter no one had ever heard of suddenly appeared and displayed abilities worthy of the very highest rank.

On top of that, once the blond Hunter officially revealed his identity, even the handful of dungeon-entry records associated with him became public knowledge.

Therefore—

'Logically speaking...'

To put it bluntly, Kim Giryeo couldn't possibly have developed amnesia under ordinary circumstances.

Why?

Because there wasn't a single dungeon in the country dangerous enough to inflict a head injury on an S-rank Hunter.

In the past, Jung Haseong had lived up to his nickname, "Machine," by clearing high-difficulty Gates without fail.

And whatever dangerous Gates remained had consistently been handled by the country's number-two Hunter in much the same way.

'It doesn't make sense...'

At least within the limits of what Jung Haseong knew, there were no high-difficulty Gates in South Korea that had been left uncleared.

Of course, if someone claimed to have been injured inside a special dungeon like the [White Labyrinth]—one notoriously difficult to detect, with exits that vanished quickly—that would be another matter.

But realistically speaking, what were the odds that an S-rank Hunter would be quietly swallowed by an S-rank dungeon while merely walking down the street?

Wasn't being struck by lightning more likely?

"-_-"

In any case, Jung Haseong believed that if a major figure like an S-rank Hunter had been seriously injured in battle, there should at least have been a news article about it.

Yet until Kim Giryeo publicly revealed himself, not even the faintest rumor had circulated.

Despite the sheer extent of his power.

It was almost as though some enormous organization had suppressed every possible leak of information from the very beginning.

"-_-"

In reality, all of these contradictions existed for one simple reason:

Someone had been lying from the start.

But Jung Haseong had accepted the fraud without question.

And thus the supposedly "ordinary person" ranked number one in South Korea inevitably arrived at the completely wrong conclusion.

'As expected... could Kim Giryeo really be an agent of the National Intelligence Service?'

And maybe he had already ruined his health while protecting the country.

'So this is the extent of the sacrifices made by national agencies... something I've been taking for granted all this time.'

At that moment, overwhelmed by frustration, Haseong suddenly recalled a certain thought.

'Of course, every decision they made must have been for the sake of the country. But still... working Hunters until they become sick?'

He didn't even know how the organization's internal personnel structure worked.

Even so, Jung Haseong found himself developing a fierce dislike for the command center that supposedly existed somewhere within the National Intelligence Service.

And to make matters worse, he remembered how often Korea's fourth S-rank Hunter had displayed an unusual tolerance for pain.

In movies, weren't highly trained agents always portrayed like that?

The kind who refused to reveal secrets even under torture?

'Do those people have no basic human decency at all?!'

And just like that, his speculation reached its final destination.

Before he even realized it, genuine anger toward an inhumane government institution had begun to take root in the young man's heart.

?

At that very moment, somewhere else in South Korea, an actual National Intelligence Service administrator named Mr. Yoon suddenly felt an inexplicable sense of injustice.

Unfortunately, it was not the sort of feeling anyone else could possibly understand.