Chapter 190

Killing intent still pouring off him like he wanted to rip me apart on the spot, the bastard stormed out of the conference room, animal-rough.

Every lifeline cut clean through, huh?

That was a tone too certain to be just venting.

I was frowning at the uneasy feeling when Han Jewoon, drifting up beside me at some point, gave my side a light tap.

"Whew. Really don't like these American types glued to our Junhyeok's side… but with terrorists running loose, nothing to be done."

He leaned in close and whispered.

"Still — don't go falling headfirst for those American foxes' tricks, all right? Got it?"

"I'm not a—"

Before I could push back, Han Jewoon flashed a grin and dissolved smoothly into thin air, gone like a heat-shimmer.

"…kid, honestly."

Grumbling to empty space, that was when —

The one person who'd been silent as a statue through the whole meeting, Namgoong Yeojin — the country's Rank Two and Master of Hwangryong Guild — approached without a sound.

Sssh.

She stopped in front of me, and slowly opened the eyes she'd been holding shut.

For a second I nearly took a step back.

…Her eyes?

Golden pupils, slit vertically like a snake's.

An overwhelming glare, as if a colossal dragon were looking straight through me.

Choked by a presence that closed on my throat, unable to move a muscle — that was when her lips parted, slow.

"…Is he there?"

"Sorry?"

"I asked whether the man they call Dokgomin… is staying under your roof."

A name I hadn't expected in the slightest.

My eyes went wide.

Don't tell me… the place Hunter Dokgomin used to belong to was Hwangryong Guild?

Stunned, but pinned by the savage gold of those eyes, I hurriedly nodded.

"Yes. He's currently a member of our guild, but—"

She was quiet for a long moment.

The unreadable emotion churning in her eyes soon settled, calm.

"…I see. Please — take good care of the boy."

With that, Namgoong Yeojin turned away without a second glance.

Something between the two of them?

Alone now, I was turning her strange words over when —

"What's up? Why are you standing there in a daze?"

Leo came over, chirpy as ever, with Julia stepping up calmly behind him.

"Well then. Shall we head out ourselves?"

As I stepped out of the conference room, Number Three — who'd been silently waiting — fell in beside me.

Walking with them toward the first-floor lobby, I lobbed out the question I'd been holding back the whole time, straight down the middle.

"So — mind explaining now? What's this about suddenly wanting to stay at Nest Guild? And on top of that, how'd you know I need a refined Chaos Mana Stone?"

Julia answered, calm.

"I'll fill in the details in our car. Please send your attendant back first."

"Does it have to be in the car? We could just talk somewhere quiet nearby."

"It's a matter that requires strict security. I'd appreciate your understanding."

Julia's stance was unbending.

With no choice, I sent Number Three back to the guild first and got into their vehicle.

The inside was luxurious enough to drop your jaw.

A top-tier limo, fully outfitted right down to the mini bar.

"Care for something to drink?"

I shook my head at Julia's offer and got straight to the point.

"So… how, exactly, did you know?"

"…"

"That I need a refined Chaos Mana Stone. I've never said that anywhere."

At my pressing, Julia's smile turned faintly bitter, and she suddenly leaned in close.

"Excuse me for a moment."

I froze at the sudden approach; her pale fingers brushed the nape of my neck.

…!

When her fingertips drew back, they were pinched around a very thin, transparent scrap of film.

"What is—?"

"A bug."

"…A bug?!"

As I stared, aghast, Leo cut in from across the seat, plainly puffed up with himself.

"Masterpiece by yours truly, the genius Leo. Thin-film form, so the naked eye can't catch it. Second it touches skin it blends right in — sweat, shower, doesn't matter, thing will not come off. Person wearing it doesn't even know it's there!"

So this thing that looked like clear tape was a bug.

I was about to marvel at the tech when a single realization struck like a jolt.

"Don't tell me… you've been bugging me from the day we first met?!"

"Hmph! What? Your fault for falling for it!"

"What kind of—!"

I was raising my voice at the shameless retort when Julia pinned Leo with a sharp look.

"Leo. We clearly crossed a line here."

Under the piercing look, Leo's high-and-mighty shoulders flinched.

He pursed his lip and mumbled in a small, grudging voice.

"Tch. Fine. I'm sorry. Happy?"

Having sharply reined Leo in, she bowed deeply to me.

"I'm truly sorry. I only learned Leo had placed it without permission after the fact — but I also used the device to learn more about you, Deputy Guild Master."

Even after their explanation and their bow, the sour feeling wouldn't ease off.

I ran the past few days back through my head at speed.

Did I let anything slip? About the kids? Or—

Ah.

Come to think of it — my awakening!

That moment in the training hall — cheering when I first pulled off the explosion — every second of it had ridden that bug straight over to them. No question.

I hadn't been through the full assessment yet, so they wouldn't know my rank — but the fact that I was an explosion-user Awakened was out.

My face went cold and hard.

Julia gave a bitter smile at my stiffened expression.

"Of course it won't blow over easily. We'll make proper amends for the wrong we did."

She reached into the air, opened her inventory, and set three glowing stones down on the table, each one packed with black smoke.

…!

Inwardly, I shrieked.

Three whole refined Chaos Mana Stones, right in front of me.

"How did you get three of these—!"

Too stunned to keep up the anger, I fumbled the words out, dazed. Julia answered, even.

"I mentioned earlier that three overload gates broke open in America. The guild that closed them was Veritas."

They closed three overload gates — the kind even S-ranks stake their lives on?!

All over again, the sheer off-the-scale firepower of the world's Rank One guild had me reeling.

I'd been staring at the stones like a man under a spell when a sudden suspicion hit, and I looked over at her.

"By any chance… do you know why I need these?"

The question was bait — to see whether she, like me, might be fishing on the strength of knowing the original.

But Julia calmly shook her head.

"I don't really know. But if you need it, Deputy Guild Master, of course we should give it to you."

So she really doesn't know.

As I let out a small breath of relief inside, she went on, calm.

"And to put you at ease about the bug — I already knew you'd awakened. From the very beginning."

"What? How—"

"As I said before, second-awakeneds are highly sensitive to reading the flow of mana around them. Back at the sundae-gukbap place, I didn't know exactly what your ability was, but I could feel a faint current of mana running through your body."

Her signature calm blue eyes crinkled softly as she drove the point home.

"By way of apology, I'll also oversee the children's training personally. From what I've picked up, you seem very invested in them growing stronger, Deputy Guild Master. Sea-ah in particular — I can promise you, there's no one else on this planet who can teach her as well as I can."

…!

The world's Rank One hunter, giving our Sea-ah one-on-one lessons in person?

For a second my brain just stalled. Being bugged without my consent still stuck in my throat.

But if I put my thin pride and hurt feelings on the same scale as the kids' growth… it wasn't even a comparison in the first place.

Quick as I could, I swept all three stones off the table into my coat.

"Well… I'll take these as rent and fair payment for what you've put me through, so I won't bother thanking you. I'll gladly take you up on the offer, too. But—"

I narrowed my eyes and added, firm.

"Never plant anything illegal on my body again. No bugs, nothing."

"Of course. I'll bear that in mind."

Julia gave a faint smile and nodded — meek about it.

Apology extracted, I put down the real question I'd been holding on to.

"That aside — why go out of your way to stay at Nest Guild, specifically? With Veritas's kind of money, renting out a whole five-star hotel in the middle of Seoul — or just buying a decent building outright — wouldn't even be work for you."

At my question, Julia looked straight at me.

The air inside the limousine went heavy in an instant.

"What I'm about to tell you must be kept in strictest confidence."

Thrown by the sudden gravity of the mood, I nodded almost on reflex.

"There's one hunter in our guild whose existence has never been made public. On paper, he's officially been declared dead."

"Faked dead, even? What kind of ability could he have that—"

"His ability is foresight."

Foresight.

My eyes narrowed on the spot.

The kind of wild-eyed nonsense you'd hear out of a back-alley cult — I turned an openly skeptical eye on her, and Leo, sipping at a drink, cut in.

"We were exactly as skeptical as you when we first heard, y'know? So we tested him thoroughly, every method we could pull out, to see if it was real or a fake. Turns out the guy's foresight is the real thing."

Fair enough… if Veritas Guild set their minds to testing someone, no scam would slip through.

Given what the world's Rank One guild had for tech and intelligence gathering, I couldn't help accepting it.

Satisfied with my reaction, Leo swirled the glass in his hand and went on.

"And the way the foresight works is kind of fascinating, too."

"Fascinating?"

"Yeah. At first it looks like a blurry photo where you can't make out a single shape — but as time goes on, it's like the focus dials in, and one specific scene gradually sharpens up."

"A scene…"

"Right. And only the really nasty stuff — huge disasters, major accidents. Those overload gates that broke recently? Only reason we stopped them is he tipped us off ahead of time. Otherwise the whole area would already be past saving."

Huh… so the guy really can see the future?

There'd been no such ability in the original I knew.

Someone who died off before the story really got going?

Whether she caught my confusion or not, Julia continued, her expression harder now.

"But recently — he had a new vision."

"…What was it?"

At my question, Julia and Leo held a heavy silence, as if they'd agreed on it beforehand.

At the end of the airless silence, Julia's lips slowly parted.

"A world where everything has been reduced to ashes. A vast Gate covering the sky. And standing before that overwhelming rift…"

Julia held my eyes without a flicker.

"Six hunters, standing there. That was the scene."

…!

"At first the resolution was too low to tell who they were. But the vision has sharpened considerably in recent days."

Julia's blue eyes gleamed as though to see straight through me.

"It was the red-eyed boy, along with the rest of Nest Guild's members. Grown up — a good deal older than they are now."

Thud—!

My heart plunged through the floor.

Don't tell me… this is the ending of the original?!

The original I'd transmigrated into — SSS-Rank Hunter in the Ashes.

I'd only made it partway through before I dropped in, so I had no idea how it actually ended.

Was there ever a world-ending storyline in the original on that scale? No — more importantly, Sihyeok and Suho were there too? Those two… never even escaped the institute in the original… Don't tell me the future's been rewritten?

My head was tangled fit to burst.

Forcing the pounding of my heart down, I cleared my throat, faking calm.

"…Just because those kids were standing in front of that rift, there's no guarantee they save the world, is there? For all we know they were only standing there watching it happen."

At my sharp comeback, Julia nodded, even.

"Perhaps. But the mere fact that it wasn't me or Han Jewoon on the front line before that rift — it was those children — is reason enough to start preparing in advance."

"…"

"And more than anything — this is the first time his foresight has ever reached that far into the future. Another way of saying it's a catastrophe we need to start dealing with now."

The voice carried a cold certainty — no room in it for a joke.

"So what does the prophecy have to do with you insisting on staying at our guild, exactly?"

At my question, Julia declared, her face gone entirely solemn.

"Because I intend to stay at your guild and win you over, in earnest. I've realized the children are utterly devoted to you."

"…Sorry?"

"So I plan to change your mind and bring all of you over to Veritas. Train them in the finest environment we have — and together, hold back the ruin that's coming."

"…Sorry?"

Hit with a bombshell from the world's Rank One hunter — I'm going to seduce you to keep the world from ending — all I could do was keep repeating myself, like a broken record.