Chapter 434

Anyway, she still couldn't believe how this entire mess had happened.

"These people... are supposed to be Awakened like me, living in modern society?"

The guild master of the Korean Magic Tower assessed the current situation with mixed feelings.

"Even I feel like yielding after hearing about Jung Haseong's circumstances."

Without compassion, in how many ways were humans truly any better than beasts?

That thought briefly crossed her mind.

"Is it wrong that I want to beat that sociopath to death?"

Of course, it was a thought she should never act on.

True to her specialty in curses, Seo Esther quickly entertained a dangerous idea—but that was only one of several factors making the situation at the scene increasingly complicated.

"Then you should've criticized the ranking system before a gate like this appeared! Why did you stay quiet for years while the Association gave preferential treatment to the top-ranked Hunters?"

"Are those tiny commission benefits even remotely comparable to this? Huh?!"

Above all, the national hero's face twisted with anger as his temper finally flared.

"If this keeps up, I wouldn't even be surprised if a war between superpowers broke out."

His family had already been struggling with illness for years.

And now, people who normally paid no attention whatsoever to hunter rankings were suddenly invoking public opinion to interfere with his mother's chance of recovery...

No one could predict what the national hero might do next.

"Is a fight about to break out?"

The argument between Jung Haseong and the third-ranked guild continued for several minutes.

Seo Esther couldn't help feeling uneasy.

But she wasn't the only one with that concern.

Someone who had been anxiously watching the situation until now finally spoke up in a voice that was reasonably well known.

"E-everyone."

It was a figure who had gone largely unnoticed among the top-tier guilds, organizations that rarely even dealt with A-rank Hunters.

However, at a location of such national importance, there was no way public officials would be absent.

Moreover, S-rank Hunters—people who could easily make weaker individuals suffer if their emotions slipped even slightly out of control—inevitably required specially assigned personnel once again.

"Oh my!"

For Hunters who frequently participated in outdoor operations such as Red Gates, the face of the woman who had just stepped forward would have been very familiar.

"I heard the Association was sending someone, but it was our Yeon after all?"

"Y-yes!"

"Oh, you were guarding the restricted area. I should've recognized you just from your back."

The moment Esther spotted the B-rank Awakened public official, her expression softened.

However, what followed was extremely serious.

"I'm sorry for suddenly interrupting."

"Hmm."

"Excuse me, but could I ask everyone to pay attention for just a moment?"

Listening when a polite person asked you to.

Well, these days, that wasn't exactly difficult.

"Go ahead."

"Ah, yes!"

"Just to make sure, I have to ask—have foreign thieves targeting valuable treasures finally appeared in our country?"

Seo Esther voiced her concern based on a logical assessment.

"No, it's nothing like that. I just wanted to tell you this before the conflict escalates any further..."

But Seonwoo Yeon shook her head and began talking about something completely unrelated to foreign thieves.

"I'm really sorry, everyone, but it seems the monsters appearing in this dungeon aren't [Elixir] monsters."

Bam.

With that single statement, the atmosphere at the scene changed dramatically.

To be precise, the predators who had been shouting at one another over a legendary item bordering on myth suddenly went silent.

The news was that shocking.

"So what we're looking at... isn't the hunting ground where the Elixir comes from?"

But the people gathered here weren't inexperienced hunters with only a year or two in the field.

"What exactly do you mean?"

"That..."

"The monsters appearing in this gate were definitely verified by the Korean Magic Tower."

"Yes. They even distributed photographic evidence through the Association."

"My goodness. If you still doubted the species after seeing those photos, all I can do is shake my head."

For a moment, everyone present realized the same thing.

Although their sources had been different, all the hunters here had already seen what that particular monster looked like.

Seo Esther had even personally dragged one of the monster's minions outside and photographed it for classification purposes.

And the image captured in that single JPG file was...

"Hmm."

Its translucent black legs swayed like clothing draped over a ghost.

Its face protruded sharply forward, as if someone had pinched and stretched dough with their fingertips.

In short, a spotted creature with a beak as sharp as a farmer's pitchfork was °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° supposedly crouching inside that nest.

"Ms. Civil Servant."

At that moment, someone who had been quietly listening from one side finally spoke.

It was Jung Haseong.

"Sorry, but I don't quite understand what you just explained."

"Ah."

"The species appearing in this gate looks remarkably similar to the one recorded in the past..."

The [Elixir] monster, which had first appeared on planet Earth, could still be studied in countless ways even today.

More specifically, detailed footage remained that captured every aspect of the creature's appearance.

Dissection records.

And some parts of that artificial life-form still existed, proudly preserved in formalin.

Moreover, among those present was a Hunter who had never neglected a single day of studying gate monsters.

"Indeed, the problem is that no living specimen of that monster remains. Its appearance occurred during such a chaotic period, after all."

Haseong.

The undisputed number-one Hunter in South Korea.

In other words, even this walking encyclopedia of monsters had never suspected that the creature before them might not belong to the [Elixir] gate.

"However, according to the information disclosed by Sweden under the international treaty, the corpse of that monster is in here."

"My goodness. How much storage does your phone have for you to carry around all these monster photos?"

"Anyway, when you compare it to the pictures Hunter Seo Esther shared here, they're identical."

"That's right! It's just a little thinner because the bodily fluids are gone. Everything else is the same."

Its entire body was black.

Round and swollen.

Several unstable, wavering fins resembling those of a carp.

Even at a glance, the two photographs seemed to match perfectly.

So were they really supposed to believe that the creature standing before them wasn't the one that produced the Elixir?

"I just don't understand why you suddenly said it isn't an [Elixir] monster..."

At that moment, when even the renowned Hunters were all visibly confused, the public official observing the situation finally managed to add an explanation.

"It's different."

She sounded completely certain.

"They look similar, so it's easy to mistake one for the other. But first, the number of divisions in the fins is different, and more importantly, the spacing between the spots on the body..."

"What?"

"So, to put it simply, the creature that appeared this time isn't a vertebrate. It's a monstrous life-form that merely mimics the appearance of the previous [Elixir] monster."

"Y-you mean it copied it? A monster imitating another monster?"

"More precisely, it's a monster that mimics—or camouflages itself as—the other one... That's the information I just received."

The official tried to calm everyone down while explaining details such as the number of divisions in the fins—differences so subtle that you wouldn't notice them unless you deliberately looked for them.

At that point, Esther naturally asked a question in return.

"Who gave Seonwoo Yeon that information?"

But the answer was unexpected.

"Kim Giryeo-ssi."

A wealthy individual connected to top-tier guilds.

Moreover, a name capable of silencing the number-one Awakened, the symbol of South Korea's hunting industry, in an instant.

The moment the retiree's name came up, the Awakened gathered at the scene were left dumbfounded.

"I-I'm sorry. I'm not very good at explaining things, so I left out some important parts."

"..."

"But anyway, the information he gave me was that this gate has little connection to the [Elixir]..."

"..."

"And I sincerely apologize for sharing that information without permission. Next time, I'll voluntarily submit myself and cooperate fully with any disciplinary procedures..."

"All right. That appraiser from the Gimhae Kim clan isn't exactly known for being loose-lipped. Besides, trying to keep these people under control became pointless the moment this commotion broke out. As the copyright holder of the sample photos, I'll let it slide."

"Uh, um... w-well then. Since we're already talking about it, I have a little more to tell everyone."

Seonwoo Yeon scrolled through her phone, fumbling slightly as she read the numerous messages that filled the screen.

"The easiest way to verify it would be to catch one of the minion monsters and turn it over?"

"Yes?"

"They say the skin of that gate monster exists only for imitation. So if you dissect it, you'll find that the inside is completely different."

"Huh."

"More importantly, he says it has blue organs..."

"The real [Elixir] monster, on the other hand, had innards with a strangely mechanical structure. If that's true, then this actually sounds convincing."

"Yes."

"By the way, did Giryeo-ssi give you that information too?"

"Yes. Since he's already left the country, I'm passing the information along on his behalf."

"No, wait. You said he left the country?"

Just how careless had the media become?

Esther was genuinely shocked to hear that there had been a schedule she hadn't known anything about.

But in a way, it was only natural.

Absence from public appearances.

Retirement.

He was already someone who rarely went outside, making it difficult to generate news about him.

It wasn't unusual for an Awakened who had once been famous to fade into obscurity and even end up facing legal disputes afterward.

These days, even publishing an article about Kim Giryeo no longer guaranteed clicks, so no working journalist would want to spend time chasing after a retired figure.

"To be honest, I never expected to receive such a taxonomic assessment. I only asked a former colleague from the industry for his opinion because I wanted to prevent friction between high-ranking Awakened somehow..."

The public official continued speaking in a serious tone.

"But Awakened Kim said, 'If anyone doubts this information, you can kill one of the monsters and verify it directly.'"

"Ah!"

"Unless they're closely related species, like Black Dragons and Red Dragons, most monsters don't share the same drops at all."

"T-then..."

"Even just examining the loot should make the truth obvious."

And exactly as the Korean Magic Tower guild master explained, the supposedly prime gate discovered in the urban artificial forest soon revealed its shabby true nature.

Simply put, the items were completely different.

From the lowest-grade drops to the internal organs, not a single thing matched the previous case.

The creature inhabiting this gate was an entirely separate entity.

***

It felt as though he had briefly buried his face in an oasis.

"..."

The only problem was that the oasis had been nothing but a mirage.

"I don't even know how the day passed."

It was roughly twenty-four hours later.

At that moment, Jung Haseong thought about his family.

One day, humanity had suddenly fallen asleep, as though fleeing from some immense threat.

"This kind of situation has already been repeating for years."

He had thought that maybe, this time, he could finally help his mother stand up again...

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Every time he turned on his phone, countless bogus articles appeared.

Whenever Jung Haseong read those clickbait headlines online, anxiety always stabbed at his heart.

He knew better than anyone that developing a cure was never easy.

And yet he couldn't stop himself from clinging to hope, however painful that hope became.

And now, after making someone hope so desperately only to tear that hope away in such a cruel manner—

It was devastating.

'Doppelgänger... right. In an industry where even a boss monster has that name, why didn't I examine the creature's appearance more carefully?'

At that moment, strangely enough, what rose inside Jung Haseong wasn't disappointment.

To be honest, he felt oddly calm.

So calm, in fact, that a wave of self-disgust almost began simmering beneath the surface.

If he had actually obtained the Elixir, he would've been forced to make an unbearably difficult and uncomfortable choice.

'No matter what, Mom comes first.'

Standing in a stark white corridor, he rubbed a hand across his face.

"Of course. This isn't something anyone could possibly handle!"

For a while, nothing followed except self-reproach with no one around to hear it.

But he couldn't afford to keep wasting time like that.

So Jung Haseong forced himself to pull himself together and deliberately turned his thoughts elsewhere.

'At this point, that's just how it feels... There are so many people in this world who are much smarter than me. I wish they'd just take care of all these problems instead...'

But what a strange coincidence.

"Drivvvi, drivvvi."

His phone rang with the default ringtone.

And within a few seconds, the identity of the caller appeared on the screen.

[Hunter Kim Giryeo 01]

"Yeah... He really is smarter than me."

Now that he looked at it, he noticed a minor mistake in the contact name.

But for the time being, he decided to let it slide.