Chapter 343

“What are you looking at?”

He should have been busy enough just driving, so why did he keep stealing glances at me? And why did he look so unsettled, so strangely uneasy? This time, I genuinely had no idea what was going on.

So I remained silent for a while.

“The rearview mirror...”

Kang Changho looked as though he were about to say something, but stopped himself.

Given his personality, that was unusual. For a mammal who normally never hesitated to ask whatever important question was on his mind, falling silent like this had to mean something.

“Then I guess it wasn’t anything important after all.”

In the span of only a few seconds, countless thoughts and judgments whirled through my head.

Burrrr.

Kang Changho’s vague, ambiguous reactions continued for quite some time after that.

Still, even in moments like this, the plan itself was proceeding smoothly, so there was no particular reason to worry. Thanks to this native of the planet, we had already overcome the greatest obstacle—entering the country illegally without incident.

“You’re asking me to choose between a boat and a plane for the route?”

“Yeah.”

“And on top of that, you’ve owned a smuggling boat for quite a while?”

“Technically, it’s registered under someone else’s name.”

“No wonder you’re always short on cash, spending money on things like that all the time...”

I briefly recalled the past.

Kang Changho had said that he also knew ways to enter the country illegally through neighboring regions such as Canada and Mexico.

What was more, this information had been uncovered by an alien archmage through magic—which meant he was already aware that this Oliver fellow had stolen the [Book of Destruction].

Kang Changho had apparently suspected for quite some time that the federal government’s [Book of Destruction] had been switched, but since he was a foreigner, he had decided it was none of his concern and kept quiet.

He also said Oliver had probably never imagined that the item would eventually be used against Korea.

A sudden question occurred to me.

“But no matter how hard I searched, I couldn’t uncover secrets like that. How does Kang Changho always manage to get his hands on such deeply buried information?”

Thud.

The pickup bounced over a rough patch in the unpaved road.

As I took a moment to enjoy the wide-open view peculiar to pickup trucks, a sudden surge of curiosity prompted me to ask,

“So, Hunter Kang Changho—where exactly do you get your information from?”

The driver replied.

“An outsourcing agency.”

Outsourcing...

In other words, he had delegated the work to someone else.

Or at least, that was what it sounded like.

“So he wasn’t personally sneaking around behind people’s backs after all.”

To think that all the impressive intelligence he had produced until now had actually come from somebody else.

“Well, an S-rank hunter isn’t exactly the kind of person you find lying around on the street. Maybe I’m the only one he personally stalked because my time was valuable. Ah, seriously—what am I supposed to do with a guy like that?”

I rested an elbow against the passenger-side window frame and thought for a long moment.

Then I spoke.

There probably wasn’t anyone who wouldn’t covet such a capable informant—someone capable of digging up even the secrets of the extremely wealthy.

So I asked whether he could introduce me to the agency he used as well.

“What?”

But this time, the exchange turned out to be surprisingly uneventful.

“Yeah.”

Kang Changho accepted my request far too easily.

“Well, I doubt they’d give us any honest information about things like an elixir reappearing. But aside from occasionally withholding something to squeeze out a higher fee, they’re actually pretty reliable.”

Ignoring those unnecessary details for the moment, I blinked beneath the thick double eyelids created by the artifact and waited quietly.

“Oh.”

After a brief pause, he began to explain.

Kang Changho’s method of hiring informants worked like this.

First, you obtained a certain program from the black market—or something resembling a USB device—and ran it on your computer.

Then your computer’s operating system—whatever that was—would change into a form capable of accessing the dark web.

Apparently, even successfully entering the dark web wasn’t enough. If you wanted to find people capable of handling truly dangerous work, you still needed privately circulated links known only to certain individuals.

“Huh...”

Kang Changho added that he could provide me with the necessary links and passcodes.

After that, all I would need to do was prepare payment. Since the platform primarily dealt in virtual currency, I was supposed to keep my electronic wallet well funded.

However, he warned me that even virtual currency could easily be traced if investigative agencies put enough effort into it.

So, in case an entrusted job went wrong, it would be safer to deposit the currency into a mixing service first.

“Huh. What is this? Some kind of high-level magical incantation?”

Good grief.

A human had suddenly begun speaking an alien language.

Well, perhaps that was only natural, considering this was the solar system.

Anyway, to summarize—

I understood perhaps five percent of what he had just said.

“I’m pretty sure the incantation for Meteor magic was simpler than that.”

I barely knew enough about Earth to tremble in front of an ordinary kiosk.

How in the world was I supposed to navigate such a complicated and terrifying procedure?

“W-Well, once this mission is over, there probably won’t be much reason for me to need an investigator anyway.”

There was no helping it.

After a brief hesitation, I came to a decision.

It would be best not to even consider using the informant network Kang Changho had just explained.

“After all, once I finish a few things, I’m retiring immediately. So it doesn’t matter if I don’t know!”

And then, in an attempt to conceal my lack of common sense, I hurriedly took action.

“Hunter Kim Giryeo. Did you understand all that?”

Fortunately, the other person was easily fooled.

“Well, someone like you, who loves using his head, probably wouldn’t have any trouble understanding something like this. I’ll send you the link to the agency later, so just keep that in mind.”

“-_-”

“Personally, it does make me a little sad to see a perfectly respectable young man from Korea poking around shady websites like that. But then again, how you choose to live your life isn’t really any of my business, so I’ll leave it alone.”

“-_-”

“Oh dear. Has the representative of the Land of Courtesy in the East stopped responding altogether now?”

I gave a curt nod and fell silent.

As an added precaution, I quietly turned my gaze away so he wouldn’t notice my trembling pupils.

Kang Changho muttered something to himself for a while before eventually falling silent as well.

And with that, our long conversation finally came to an end.

“When are we finally going to reach the place where Oliver is supposedly hiding?”

But the boredom in my chest lasted only for a moment.

As an alien creature, I naturally still knew almost nothing about Earth’s geography.

I couldn’t even name the vast plains stretching out directly before me.

Yet as I watched the scenery of this world constantly changing beyond the car window,

a sudden feeling welled up inside me.

“It’s so vast.”

Even though this planet was much smaller than Alphauri in terms of total surface area.

“The last time I came to the GateStar guild’s party, I was surprised by how different the buildings looked. But out here, it’s all natural scenery. Amazing. I didn’t expect there to be such a huge difference within the same country...”

Perhaps gaining magical power had somehow broadened my heart as well.

Otherwise, there was no way I would have found myself gazing so contentedly at this dusty, windswept landscape in the western countryside.

At first, I had merely looked out the window to avoid eye contact.

But as time passed, somehow I began to genuinely enjoy sightseeing along the outskirts of America.

“Ha.”

The person beside me, however, seemed to feel very differently.

At last, a sigh escaped from the driver’s seat.

I had no particular desire to find common ground over something like this...

But when I turned my head, I saw Kang Changho sitting behind the wheel with an expression that made it abundantly clear how much he hated this outing.

“To be honest, it was like this every single day for me back when I was in my prime, you brat.”

But really, what was the point of complaining?

It wasn’t as if anything in life changed just because you grumbled about it.

“If I’d known it was going to be like this, maybe I should’ve brought one more person.”

“Who? Someone with the [Searcher] skill? You said before that it was difficult to find someone with that kind of ability who’d be willing to travel overseas and get involved in shady work. Most people with the [Searcher] skill already run their own offices or have been specially recruited by government agencies...”

“No, no. Not that.”

“Then?”

“I just meant someone to carry the luggage... or handle long-distance driving like this.”

The conversation drifted for a moment.

“Not someone with the [Searcher] skill. Just a worker I normally use—someone who knows how to keep his mouth shut.”

Kang Changho adjusted the steering wheel and continued.

“But if I think about it from your perspective, Hunter Kim, I suppose it’s still better that I’m the one handling the errands.”

An S-rank hunter saying that it was better for him to handle menial chores.

I couldn’t help wondering what sort of logic had led him to that conclusion.

But before I could ask, he explained it himself.

“The worker I’ve been using lately isn’t very good at driving.”

Kang Changho elaborated a little further.

No matter how well a car was built, the quality of the ride ultimately depended on the person behind the wheel.

Apparently, he hadn’t realized it before, but if someone with poor driving habits took the wheel, even perfectly healthy passengers traveling through the city could end up suffering from motion sickness.

“If I’d known things would turn out like this, I wouldn’t have beaten that guy up. Come to think of it, there used to be one fellow who was really good at driving... What a waste.”

“Who exactly are you talking about?”

“The driver who used to pick me up back in the day.”

It was nothing more than idle conversation.

Beep.

Still, it was fortunate that even such trivial chatter helped pass the time.

Seriously, though.

How long had we been driving since leaving the airport?

“Well, we’re here.”

It was an unavoidable consequence of primitive limitations.

Every transportation artifact on Earth had its own drawbacks.

Something like the [White Bird] flew at high altitude, which meant it was guaranteed to be detected by a nation’s air-defense radar.

As for the [Shroud of the Underworld], its jumping distance was relatively short—barely enough to cross even a single city like Seoul from one end to the other.

And that wasn’t even mentioning the inconvenience of having to preset destination coordinates.

So...

“This is the residence the leaders of the Beasts enter and never come out of.”

In the end, we reached our destination using the simplest method available.

Driving.

“Once someone goes inside, there’s no way to know when they’ll come back out—or where they’ll go afterward. So in the end, a direct assault was the only option left.”

For reference, I had already marked the destination coordinates in an application on my phone.

But this part was actually rather surprising.

“Oho.”

Truthfully, I had doubted there would be anything at all in a wasteland as desolate as this.

But eventually, Kang Changho proved that his investigation had been correct.

What the—

this wasn’t natural?

So someone had simply covered it artificially from above?

When he forcibly dug into the seemingly barren patch of land, where only a few tufts of grass were growing, a door—presumably an entrance—was revealed at the exact coordinates.

I stared at the metal door that had emerged from beneath the ground and said,

“If it’s built like this, I suppose people don’t come and go very often.”

“According to what I was told, supplies were delivered at most once every few months.”

He turned toward me.

“But like I said before, I have absolutely no idea what the internal structure will look like once we go inside.”

“Yes, yes.”

“The only thing I confirmed is that Andy Oliver is hiding in here.”

Kang Changho warned me again.

“Just like I wrote in the documents I gave you, he’s been issuing orders online to various high-ranking Awakeners. In other words, he has plenty of connections.”

“Yes.”

“Anyway, being able to move hunters around with a few taps of your fingers while sitting underground like this... the world really has become convenient.”

“That’s right.”

“But until now, he’s been hiding comfortably behind the internet. If he suddenly realizes someone has tracked him down... there’s no telling how he’ll react.”

“Will he try to run?”

“Honestly, I think there’s a good chance he’ll act like a cornered rat.”

In other words, the enemy would bare its teeth.

“The only things I can guarantee are that the guy is holed up in here and that there’s only one entrance. Now, if it turns out there’s an Awakener inside capable of moving people around like some kind of trafficking operation... well, I’ll be frank. I’ve got no answer for that. If that happens, we’ll just have to let the target escape. What else can we do?”

Ddddink.

South Korea’s third S-rank hunter casually exerted his strength in the middle of the conversation and forced open the door embedded in the ground.

Beneath it was a long staircase descending deep underground.

At the bottom stood a circular door fitted with an elaborate locking mechanism, something that looked as though it had been taken straight from the set of a futuristic science-fiction film.

“And besides, since you even made a wish, I wanted to overlook as much of what you do as possible...”

“Hmm?”

“But before we go inside, there’s one thing I want to ask you. Hunter Kim Giryeo—if we encounter a high-ranking Awakener in there, are you planning to kill them?”

At the sudden mention of that, my expression changed.

“Y-Yes?”

The freckled face layered over my own briefly twisted with distaste.

The abruptness of the question had caught me off guard.

Of course, Kang Changho’s tone was serious enough to make it clear that he hadn’t brought it up without reason.

“I know that when we were dealing with the Beasts, the presence of the [Book of Destruction] made the situation urgent enough for you to go that far. But if possible, this time I’d prefer it if you kept your S-rank-killing tendencies under control.”

“Why?”

“If the number of top-tier Awakeners decreases, then my chances of being sent into gates increase, don’t they?”

“What?”

“If a major power like this collapses and everything becomes chaotic even back in our country, who’s supposed to help deal with the gates? You, when you don’t even have that many years left to live? That’s exactly why I avoid picking fights with other S-ranks unless I absolutely have to.”

What a noble reason.

I didn’t even feel the need to shake my head.

In the end, I simply stepped forward.

But just then, as I descended the stairs wearing a face no one would recognize—

“Hmm?”

“Huh?”

It appeared that the first entrance connecting the surface to the underground had also served as some kind of boundary.

“I could tell something had been set up here, but it was so crudely done that I didn’t pay much attention to it.”

Only after descending the stairs did I realize that a magical effect was active in this place.

It was a form of concealment magic.

More specifically, it concealed spatial energy.

This underground residence had been sealed in such a way that the power of those inside could not leak beyond its boundaries.

Unfortunately for whoever had built it, both of us possessed unusually sharp magical perception.

“-_-”

“-_-”

Kang Changho and I registered the same information at almost exactly the same moment.

Beyond that circular door was a swarm of high-ranking Awakeners.

There were so many of them that it was almost like looking at an ant colony.

“With this many, we could probably kill a few without anyone noticing, right?”

“Right.”

We both stopped moving.

Then, from somewhere between us, lighthearted jokes slipped out almost reflexively—

the kind of remarks born only from sheer disbelief.