Chapter 344

They weren’t just a bunch of nobodies. Even at a glance, it was obvious that this was a group of high-level superhumans.

“What is this?”

Sensing the large number of Awakened gathered just ahead, we exchanged glances. A few careless remarks slipped out at first, but the more I thought about it, the more obvious it became that this was no ordinary situation. More importantly, it was a clear sign that the difficulty of the task had risen far beyond anything we had anticipated.

“Things just got a little more troublesome.”

With this many high-ranking Awakened around... could we really meet the PIXY shareholder without incident?

“The obstacles ahead are painfully obvious.”

I figured the chances were slim. So, as an archmage, I intended to resolve the situation with a few mysterious powers of my own. But first, I had some instructions to give Kang Changho.

“I’m a little disappointed you didn’t warn me beforehand that this place would be crawling with Awakened.”

To be fair, aside from details like that, the information Kang Changho had gathered was mostly excellent.

“But I trust that, at the very least, you were right about this bunker having only one entrance.”

For the record, this place had very few physical passageways. No emergency exits or side routes had been discovered. According to the long-term observations of an informant from Earth, the targets appeared to use only a single entrance connecting the surface to the underground facility.

Given that, there was one thing that absolutely had to be done first when launching an ambush.

“Block off every possible escape route.”

What worried me slightly, however... was the possibility I had mentioned earlier—that the enemy might try to escape using [Teleportation] or [High-Speed Movement] magic.

“Hoho.”

Still, even if that happened, I had a contingency plan.

First of all, teleportation magic was exceedingly rare on Earth. Awakened individuals born with spatial-jumping abilities, like Brooklyn Morgan, appeared so infrequently that the number who emerged each year could be counted on one hand. Sorcerers capable of transporting other people along with them were rarer still.

Moreover, items imbued with short-distance teleportation magic were said to be nearly as scarce as elixirs.

“In other words, I can almost rule out teleportation. But even if the enemy does try to use such magic, I already have a plan.”

That was why Earthlings tended to rely on high-speed movement when traveling long distances. The best-known example of an item imbued with high-speed movement magic was the Shroud of the Netherwood.

Unlike teleportation, however, it couldn’t completely ignore the surrounding terrain. I only learned this later, but apparently, if you disrupted the ground on which the shadows were cast—by overturning it, for example—you could force anyone traveling through the Shroud of the Netherwood to dismount.

“They say its movement speed makes the user almost impossible to hit, but the Awakened standing next to me isn’t some fraud masquerading as an S-rank alien—so I should be fine, right?”

Besides, if that was how such systems worked, most other high-speed movement items could probably be neutralized in similar ways. For now, there was no better method of eliminating the physical escape routes.

“What? You want me to guard the entrance?”

“Yes!”

“And if anyone inside tries to leave, I’m supposed to stop them no matter what?”

Kang Changho had been meant to serve as the gatekeeper from the very beginning. It had always been part of the plan.

All I had really wanted from him was someone to handle Earth’s convoluted administrative matters on our behalf.

I was no longer an F-grade weakling. Even in my current battered state, with my modifications and treatments still incomplete, I could easily defeat a hundred ordinary Awakened. So how much difference could bringing along one primitive sorcerer really make to our combat strength?

“Honestly, that mammal already proved his worth just by arranging the stowaway route and the forged identity—”

A thought suddenly crossed my mind.

“But I’ll still need his help when I return to Korea, so sending him back alone at this point would be a little inconvenient.”

For the record, I couldn’t take that mammal inside the building with me. From this point onward, I would have to use all sorts of sorcery while negotiating with PIXY’s shareholder, and exposing all of that to a primitive like him would be rather awkward.

“In that case, I suppose the only option is to give him a convincing assignment and leave him at the entrance.”

That was how the request for him to guard the place naturally came out of my mouth.

Besides—

“Fine. I’ll take full responsibility for guarding the entrance.”

“Yes.”

“Honestly, it probably is better for only one of us to move around instead of both of us barging in.”

He must have welcomed the idea.

He had probably expected to spend the entire time following me around inside the bunker and handling every tedious chore that came up. But if his former contractor suddenly told him to stay put in one place instead, who would complain?

“Anyone would be happy if the actual workload turned out lighter than what they’d prepared themselves for.”

South Korea’s third S-rank calmly folded the sunglasses he had been wearing and slipped them neatly into his pocket. His movements were unhurried, and with that faint smile on his face, he looked almost cheerful as he adjusted his appearance.

“Hunter Kim Giryeo.”

Of course, just because his task had become easier didn’t mean he was pleased enough to overlook an important question.

“But if you’re planning to find Andy alone in this enormous bunker, does that mean you have some kind of [Searcher] skill too?”

The question came immediately.

“No.”

I answered flatly.

“It’s not exactly that. I just had a feeling that once I got this far, I’d be able to figure out the rest by instinct.”

“Oho.”

“He inherited a fortune, has more money than he knows what to do with, and spends the entire year holed up in a shady bunker like this... Honestly, if someone’s selfish enough to prey on foreigners for profit, where else would a man like that choose to stay?”

“Well, I don’t know.”

Incidentally, I had already prepared [Strength Enhancement Magic] so I could move quickly. The moment I finished giving this explanation, if Kang Changho opened the door, I intended to begin tracking the target immediately.

“If I were that petty, I’d never leave the side of the strongest employee in this bunker. Not even for a single day.”

“That makes sense.”

The idea was simple: identify the strongest-looking esper in the area and follow them in the hope that they would lead me to the real target.

What a clever bit of reverse reasoning.

At first glance, it sounded perfectly plausible.

But of course, it was a lie.

I was simply going to use [Searcher] to find him.

“That primitive magic may have been unfamiliar to me on Alphauri, but once I set my mind to it, it wasn’t particularly difficult to learn... and now I even have a fairly accurate profile of the unawakened target I need to locate.”

As it turned out, Earth’s [Searcher] skill had a structure remarkably similar to an archaic Alphaurian spell used for “locating familiar objects.”

Just as I had expected, this body was already capable of tracking that primitive human.

There had been no real need to bring Seonwoo Yeon along at all.

But since I couldn’t exactly parade around announcing that I was an archmage, I had settled on this half-hearted excuse.

“Deduction, my ass. How the hell was I supposed to know who this Andy or whatever would be standing next to?”

That reaction should mean Kang Changho had fallen for it.

“If anything unbearable happens, I’ll come back to the entrance.”

Now it was finally time to get down to business.

“They’re not idiots either. They’ll probably notice an intruder almost immediately, but...”

“Probably.”

“If too many guards start gathering near the entrance, Hunter Kang Changho, don’t try to hold out for too long. Make sure you escape as well.”

For the record, Kang Changho had always been particularly good at one thing: breaking promises and prioritizing his own safety.

But here in this bunker, if that mammal abandoned his post and fled, it would actually create an opportunity—

for the alien.

“With that guy out of the way, I can use whatever sorcery I want without worrying about being watched.”

Carefully concealing my true intentions, I presented the suggestion as nothing more than concern for his safety.

Naturally, Kang Changho didn’t even pretend to hesitate. He immediately nodded and accepted the proposal.

And with that, our agreement was settled.

“Good. In that case, I’ll conserve my magic for now—just in case I really do end up needing to use actual [Teleportation]...”

The moment our conversation ended, we exchanged a brief signal and began the operation.

“What the—? I expected guards at the door, but there’s no one at the entrance.”

Kang Changho smashed through the locked door with brute force.

At once, I expanded my senses and pinpointed the target’s location.

“About... basement level two?”

What followed was a display of physical ability truly worthy of an S-rank mage.

The days when I had limped around everywhere already seemed like a distant memory. I tore through the bunker at a speed no ordinary human could ever hope to match.

“If I cloak myself in high-level stealth, [Dragon’s Eye] might notice that something’s wrong.”

Originally, if I encountered anyone inside, I had simply planned to take them out.

“In that case, I’ll just attack any Earthlings who approach me instead!”

Living this life had taught me the same lesson again and again.

Things never went the way you expected.

Thump.

After running for quite some time, I abruptly came to a stop.

Every instinct told me the target was directly beneath my feet.

The problem was that I had no idea how to get down there.

“Earthlings, don’t you have an elevator here? An elevator?”

I didn’t have a floor plan of the building, and there was no way I was going to search every corridor one by one just to find an elevator.

So I decided to simply punch through the floor with magic and descend that way.

And while I stood there preparing to do exactly that—

something happened.

“...I”

“...II”

A human appeared from around the corner.

A foreigner with a small head and a comparatively large build.

At last, I had encountered the first person inside.

“Oh no, I’ve been spotted. All right. In that case, immediately—sleep magic...!”

But what happened next was something not even the great archmage of Alphauri could have predicted.

Bright!

The person, presumably a member of the staff, gave the intruder a perfunctory greeting the moment our eyes met—

then simply walked away.

“Huh. What the—? They’re just leaving?”

I couldn’t believe it.

What was with the absurdly lax atmosphere inside this bunker?

They saw someone they didn’t recognize, gave a half-hearted greeting, and simply walked past without the slightest trace of suspicion or caution.

Faced with such a ridiculous situation, a single word came to mind.

Complacency.

“This might be easier than I expected, huh?”

Fortunately, that particular problem worked entirely in the intruder’s favor.

***

A minute had passed.

“Hmm.”

If an S-rank Awakened was moving at full speed, they would have covered more than an entire floor of the building by now.

At that moment, Kang Changho was standing near the entrance, tucked beside a conveniently placed pillar.

Crack.

Then again, he had smashed through the door himself only moments earlier, so hiding now probably wouldn’t make much difference.

“Still, I should at least avoid running into anyone who happens to wander by...”

He remained where he was, following the request he had been given to prevent anyone from leaving the bunker.

Although he had voiced some concerns of his own, it was true that people with spatial movement abilities were rare.

Leaving a single person to guard the entrance was a simple tactic—

but it was also one that could genuinely work.

“Security should be arriving soon.”

Still, why had this bunker stationed no guards at the entrance?

Were they simply that confident no outsider would ever discover its location?

Or did they have enough manpower inside that there was no need to stop intruders at the entrance itself?

“Or maybe the timing just happened to work in our favor. Either way, today isn’t a supply delivery day.”

Kang Changho absently picked at a hangnail on his fingertip as various thoughts passed through his mind.

The disguise item known as [Vampire’s Mirror] was excellent in many respects, but this was unquestionably one of its flaws.

The appearance it projected differed from the body underneath, so the illusion quickly fell apart under physical touch. His eyes saw rough, peeling skin, yet when he ran the fingers of his other hand across it, the texture he felt was completely different.

“Hmm.”

For the same reason, [Vampire’s Mirror] could also affect combat.

If a towering man around 192 centimeters tall disguised himself as someone much shorter, an unavoidable discrepancy would appear whenever he extended his arms.

Whether that discrepancy would work to his advantage or become a hindrance remained to be seen.

Kang Changho was already finding the prospect of the coming fight bothersome.

“If too many guards crowd around the entrance, Hunter Kang Changho, don’t hold out for too long. Just escape.”

Come to think of it, considering what that Hunter had told him, wouldn’t it be perfectly acceptable to turn around and leave right now?

South Korea’s third S-rank Hunter mulled over his fellow countryman’s words.

He had been told to guard the entrance, but if the situation became too dangerous, he was free to escape on his own.

Even if someone later used something like [Knight’s Oath] or [Fairy’s Pact] to verify the truth, their agreement had never specified exactly how many people had to gather at the entrance before escape became justified.

There was plenty of room to exploit that loophole.

Even if only two or three guards appeared, he could simply claim that the number had already been too much for him to handle.

But Kang Changho had no intention of deliberately taking advantage of that ambiguity.

“It’s the last one anyway.”

Right.

It was the last one anyway.

Besides, his opponent had a tendency to get a little rough whenever death was involved.

A nasty look.

Terrible luck.

And on top of that, despite being a Hunter, he had precious little to show for himself—even after going up against supernatural beings with abilities so extraordinary that they were practically unprecedented.

So, if only to bring things to a reasonably decent conclusion, Kang Changho decided that this time he would do his best to see the mission through to the end.

“Hmm?”

But exactly thirty seconds after making that decision...

Dududududu.

The faint sound of countless running footsteps began to echo from somewhere inside, making the vast bunker subtly tremble with the reverberation.

Kang Changho instinctively activated his [Dragon’s Eye].

Without the specially made sunglasses concealing his vision, the scene before him was laid completely bare.

He had sensed it even before the entrance was breached.

Numerous Awakened were converging on this location.

“?”

But the troops weren’t concentrating on Kim Giryeo, who had gone deeper into the bunker.

They were heading toward him—

the one who had remained standing motionless at the entrance.

Kang Changho froze, staring in disbelief at the incomprehensible situation unfolding before him.

A moment later, one eyebrow slowly rose on the disguised face he wore.