Chapter 342

[P: By the way, I wonder how many different functions Hunter Haseong’s legendary item has.]

Existing only online, they had no way of realizing the mistake they had made. Even a syndicate that dealt in information gathered from all over the world could not uncover secrets that had come from beyond the universe.

Aliens—they were, metaphorically speaking, outsiders standing beyond a distant fence. As long as no one knew the truth—that the soul of a marine creature had taken up residence in the body of a Korean—the mammals confined to this tiny planet were bound to remain victims of a profound information imbalance.

[P: This is only a guess, but the book is primarily a medium for transmitting knowledge, whereas the sword is a weapon perfected for combat. So perhaps the Sword of Sunset actually possesses far greater destructive power than the Book of Destruction.]

[Youth: Friend, sorry, but does some other country’s artifact really matter right now? We’re totally **ed here.]

[P: Should I turn off the profanity filter for you?]

[Youth: Sigh...]

[Youth: Forget it. I’m going AFK for a while. I’m sick and tired of hearing about Korean hunters—I don’t even want to hear another word about them. Got it? Don’t message me for a while.]

And now, of all times, they had finally come to believe that Kim Giryeo was weak.

They had no idea, but this turn of events had actually created an opportunity for someone. More specifically, it had ended up supporting the plans a certain magician was about to carry out.

In a way, perhaps it could even be called a small mercy.

‘Then I guess it’s about time to finish preparing for departure!’

The new objective of a certain mage was none other than to meet them in person.

Misunderstandings arose in human relationships. And perhaps the most ideal way to resolve them was through a direct meeting—by facing one another and setting the record straight.

***

Some time later.

A clear weekday afternoon.

Vrmmmm.

The sound of an engine starting echoed across the dry, open field.

‘Oh. That’s a pretty big car. You hardly ever see one like that in Korea.’

As the thought that had just crossed my mind clearly suggested—

I was currently in the United States.

One of the most famous developed countries in the world.

To suddenly set foot in a place like this—

‘Hmm.’

Compared with the first time I had come to the U.S. as Seo Esther’s escort, this return visit had certainly involved far more hardship.

‘They said stowing away on a ship would be easier on the body. Did I make a stupid choice just because I wanted the faster route?’

First, I had to secretly hide in the cargo hold of a passenger plane arranged by a broker. Then I endured the long flight by relying on an oxygen mask.

‘For the record, a non-Awakened person with no mana would freeze to death once the plane reached high altitude because of the subzero temperatures. This is definitely not something an ordinary person should ever try to imitate...’

On top of that, once the plane reached its destination, I had to bypass airport security checkpoints by using stealth items and terrain-ignoring movement tools such as the [Shroud of the Netherworld], one after another.

Avoiding people’s eyes required an absurd amount of effort and money.

And after borrowing every scrap of magic and trickery I could muster, the place I finally reached was—

‘Surely this doesn’t look like somewhere mammals would live together.’

An undeveloped region in the western United States.

Unfortunately, however, the journey of me and a certain companion did not end there.

Teleportation-type magic was extremely rare on Earth, after all.

‘Among mammals, there do seem to be occasional cases of people capable of using that sort of magic. But even then, the slightest mistake in handling it can lead to disaster, so very few such sorcerers survive—and it’s even rarer for spells like that to exist in item form.’

There really was no other choice.

For various reasons, from this point onward we had to cover a considerable distance by vehicle.

‘Of course, I know teleportation magic myself, but spatial interference spells are notorious for consuming enormous amounts of mana. It’s not as though I can use them recklessly...’

At this point, some might begin to wonder.

Why had I, an archmage, chosen to come all the way to the United States?

The truth was that there was a rather shocking reason behind it.

After reviewing my memories and cross-checking them against the investigation conducted on Earth, it turned out that the ultimate mastermind behind the beasts was none other than a very famous “mana resource company” in this world.

‘Apparently, they originally made online games...’

[PIXY]

There were probably very few people on this planet who did not recognize that name.

Even an Alphauri wandering around the streets could remember the company name PIXY.

Magic power detectors. Artifact type analyzers. Even high-grade translators, among countless other products.

Their name was printed on items used constantly by hunters and civilians alike. Frankly, there was no way a company like that could remain obscure.

Given how deeply PIXY had embedded itself into the daily lives of Earthlings, it was also famous for raking in astronomical amounts of money.

But why would a massive international corporation, flourishing in an era of unprecedented prosperity, take an interest in something like urban terrorism?

‘Ha. I should’ve known the moment I first heard those rumors about them torturing aliens. A company like PIXY, with stories that disturbing circulating around it—it was rotten to the core from the very beginning!’

Anyway, putting together everything uncovered by the investigation so far, the person who had ultimately made the decision to send Enzo Chiano to Korea was Andy Oliver, a shareholder of PIXY Corporation.

‘For now, the face I saw while investigating the corpse’s memories was exactly the same as the photograph on the driver’s license of some mammal Kang Changho brought back.’

But why was someone like him—neither chairman nor CEO, but merely one shareholder—being treated as the company’s de facto representative?

The reason was...

At that moment, a conversation I had before leaving the country briefly came back to me.

Andy Oliver? Oh, that guy’s the only son of PIXY’s founder.

I

So after his mother died of old age, he inherited her shares and even ran the company himself for a while.

Aha.

I think it was around the time they started cooperating with the federal government. Anyway, like a lot of American companies, they eventually brought in a professional CEO, and Andy Oliver himself stepped into the background.

Why?

I heard it was because people kept comparing him too much to the previous president...

What comparison?

Barbara Oliver, the founder, was pretty popular throughout the U.S. while she was alive. But after we reinvestigated everything in light of the beast incident, it turned out Andy Oliver stepping down was nothing but a show.

He merely stopped appearing in public. In reality, he remained at the very heart of PIXY Corporation the entire time.

~

Besides, the Oliver family had always been known more as developers than businessmen.

Most of the core technologies that formed the foundation of the company had actually been created under their leadership.

To put it simply, in this era, Andy Oliver was the person most capable of exploiting PIXY’s technology—and for that very reason, he inevitably possessed overwhelming access to gate-related information.

Well, that was the gist of it.

Of course, the heir to that mana resource company seemed to have had plenty of problems even before all this.

That part had been uncovered by a certain grand mage who had delved into Enzo’s memories.

Andy Oliver was, in fact, the person responsible for replacing his country’s [Book of Destruction] with a fake.

‘Then... was the U.S. government actually an innocent victim, unfairly manipulated by a private individual?’

Because of this hidden truth, things had nearly gone horribly wrong.

If I had used [Justitia] to interrogate high-ranking officials from the opposing government, every last one of them would have come out innocent.

‘Of course, the president of the Spectrum Guild—Enzo’s official affiliation—couldn’t avoid arrest, since he knew the Book of Destruction had been handed over.’

In addition, PIXY had secretly committed numerous other offenses behind the scenes.

One particularly notable example was its violation of personal data protection laws.

‘Collecting data indiscriminately from all sorts of analyzers under the pretense of serving the public, then secretly hoarding the important information on their own servers—that’s what they did.’

Rumors had circulated even before all of this that PIXY Corporation and the International Gate Alliance were secretly spying on hunters’ data.

So why had it never erupted into a major scandal?

Was it because they were simply that good at hiding their crimes?

Or perhaps...

they were just as skilled at covering up the leaks whenever something slipped out.

‘Hmm.’

Anyway, that was as far as my idle thoughts went.

~Tuk.

I finished reminiscing and finally climbed into the vehicle in front of me.

The vehicle that had been waiting there all this time was a pickup truck, the sort obviously designed for transporting furniture or bulky cargo.

But the moment I got in, the man in the driver’s seat let out a sigh and immediately began complaining.

“—But seriously, Kim Giryeo. Do you really have to drag me along for something like this? There are already two S-ranks involved, which only makes it easier for us to get caught, you know.”

Those were Kang Changho’s words.

For the record, it was nothing more than grumbling. There was no particular need to respond.

“You’re complaining even though the problem’s already been handled perfectly.”

Come to think of it, why was the life of a superpowered individual so exhausting?

Just as he said, on Earth, an S-rank hunter could hardly move around carelessly without making the news.

And around this very time, a certain rumor had begun circulating in Korea.

Two Korean S-rank hunters had suddenly launched an assault on a high-level gate near Masan!

Of course, that was a lie.

A painfully obvious cover story, in fact.

Normally, if a hunter entered a gate that someone else had already secured, they would be branded a “stealer”—or worse, a frog, meaning a hunter who preyed on other humans.

So the chances of anyone exposing our fabricated alibi seemed fairly low.

Especially since Kang Changho had already stationed hired guards around the fake gate.

There was hardly anything to worry about.

‘Come to think of it, these damn gates really do get used for every kind of shady business imaginable.’

I fastened my seatbelt, quietly reflecting on the dangers posed by gates.

“Haa.”

And then it happened.

~Brrrrr.

Just as the engine finished warming up and the pickup truck was about to move, my companion in the driver’s seat apparently found the journey ahead too boring.

He abruptly started talking again.

“You’re not exactly some terminal patient waiting for hospice care. Are you running short on adrenaline or something? Somehow, our dear Hunter Kim Giryeo always volunteers personally for every difficult, annoying job everyone else wants to avoid.”

“Yes?”

“And on top of that, you always drag me into it right before things get messy.”

“Oh, so that was another insult aimed at me.”

“Didn’t you promise you’d stop meddling in my life from now on? So why have you been acting so inconsiderately lately?!”

Tuk.

Kang Changho tapped the top of the steering wheel with one hand.

“Seriously, it’s like having someone blowing up balloons and setting off fireworks right next to me every single day.”

The comparison was so uniquely Earth-like that I didn’t understand it at first.

Still, judging from his tone and the atmosphere, the meaning was obvious enough.

The driver was not in a particularly good mood.

‘An S-rank, daring to show attitude in front of an archmage...’

Out of nothing more than pure curiosity, I silently began staring toward the driver’s seat, my face utterly expressionless.

Naturally, Kang Changho, being an S-rank hunter, noticed my gaze almost immediately.

And the moment our eyes met, some thought seemed to cross his mind—

because his next words came without the slightest hesitation.

“You know what? With that blank expression on your face, you, Hunter Kim Giryeo, look exactly twice as much like a serial killer as usual.”

Ah.

To properly explain that last remark, I should probably mention something first.

‘First of all, I managed to leave the country and enter this one in complete secrecy.’

Both Kang Changho and I were among the world’s highest-ranked Awakened, and our faces were already far too well known to the public.

‘Considering what I’m about to do to that PIXY shareholder, it’s probably best to keep my movements completely under the radar.’

So we had altered our appearances in advance.

[Vampire’s Mirror]

To be precise, we had used an item with that name.

Compared with the [Doppelgänger’s Jealousy] used by Enzo’s group, it was a lower-tier artifact. Any serious injury—or even a simple DNA test—would immediately reveal the user’s true identity.

However, when the goal was nothing more than deceiving the eye, it was one of the most efficient disguises available.

My thoughts drifted for a moment.

Anyway, the meaning behind Kang Changho’s comment was simple.

Today, I did not look like my usual self.

I was disguised.

But if an Earthling happened to see me like this...

Well.

How they would react was another matter entirely.

‘A serial killer, huh? That’s strange. Does this disguise really look even scarier than Kim Giryeo’s actual face?’

Sandy-colored hair in a vague, muted shade.

A hairstyle cropped just short enough to expose the forehead.

And if I had to name any other distinguishing features—piercing blue eyes and deeply set double eyelids, among other things.

That was, more or less, the appearance currently layered over my real one.

Unfortunately, it had not escaped the usual chronic problem.

To put it plainly, this disguise also suffered from the sanpaku-eye phenomenon.

But perhaps because the mammal whose appearance had been copied possessed naturally soft features, the upper eyelids drooped slightly at the corners, giving the gaze a vaguely unfocused, almost dazed quality.

‘This looks much more harmless than my original face. No, actually... I almost look stupid.’

For a moment, I was genuinely puzzled.

Why would Kang Changho describe an expression like this in such a way?

‘Well, to be honest, it doesn’t feel particularly different from Kim Giryeo’s actual face. At most, the colors have changed... and that’s about it. Two eyes, one nose, one mouth. It’s all the same anyway. I deliberately chose a sample with a similar bone structure so it wouldn’t interfere with my movements.’

I awkwardly pulled the rearview mirror toward myself from between the front seats and inspected my current appearance once again.

Since I had chosen to imitate a Westerner for my activities in the United States, it was only natural that even the outer appearance of the skin showed subtle differences.

‘Are these freckles? Or maybe age spots? There are little marks scattered across the bridge of the nose, like someone sprayed a fine mist over it and the droplets stuck.’

In the end, to an alien creature like me, all of them looked more or less the same.

Still, this appearance gave off a far more ordinary impression than Kim Giryeo’s usual face, which made it well suited for covert activity.

That conclusion, at least, was reassuring.

So for a while, I stared intently into the mirror, carefully reassessing the state of my disguise.

“_ _”

But at that moment—

I suddenly felt someone watching me.

I instinctively turned my head and found the man in the driver’s seat staring directly at me.

For reference, the brown-haired Westerner sitting there was none other than Kang Changho in disguise.

He had adopted an older-looking appearance for the cover, and even as he sat behind the wheel, he kept glancing sideways at me, shooting me suspicious looks as though I were some kind of weirdo simply for checking myself in the mirror.