Chapter 8: Guihwa

8

Kim Seo-jun used Mukbal’s Mountain Spirit Technique, but since he only absorbed the opponent’s attack without releasing it outward, the woman was not killed.

Even so, she was trembling violently, overwhelmed with fear.

“The client?”

Kim Seo-jun asked quietly.

“I-I don’t know.”

“Go Tae-hwan?”

Kim Seo-jun threw out the question just in case, and the woman flinched.

“I said I don’t know!”

She denied it, but it was certain that Go Tae-hwan was somehow involved in this incident.

That meant only one other name remained.

“Go Han-su, huh.”

If it wasn’t Go Tae-hwan, then it had to be Go Han-su.

After all, if Go Tae-hwan had been personally involved, he wouldn’t have employed such pathetic people.

As the Deputy Guild Master of the Hyunmu Guild, ranked fourth among Korea’s top guilds, he would have used more meticulous and reliable individuals.

It was clear that the fool Go Han-su had hired cheap, incompetent people to bother him.

As Kim Seo-jun’s prediction proved correct, the woman swallowed nervously, her gaze becoming even more restless.

Suddenly, a bright light flashed in the parking lot.

Kim Seo-jun had no choice but to close his eyes from the sudden glare.

The woman, who had been crouching right in front of him, took advantage of the moment and quickly slipped away.

The other men hurriedly dragged their unconscious companions and fled in panic.

Kim Seo-jun didn’t pursue them.

Even if he caught them and handed them over to the police, Go Han-su, who was pulling the strings behind this, would remain untouched.

“I’ll take them all down at once.”

Kim Seo-jun glanced at the attackers who had already escaped far away, then bent down to pick up a dagger embedded in the ground nearby.

Daggers were easy to come by anywhere. But the blade didn’t look ordinary.

“What’s this?”

A yellowish substance coated the blade, emitting a faint glow.

Just as he reached out to touch it,

Vroom—

A car entered the underground parking area from the entrance.

It was his father, Kim Ju-hyuk’s car.

Kim Seo-jun picked up the hat that the trembling woman had dropped and carefully tucked the dagger into his pocket.

A moment later, Kim Ju-hyuk parked in an empty spot and approached where Kim Seo-jun was standing.

“What are you doing here? Were you waiting for me?”

Kim Ju-hyuk smiled broadly, pleased that his son had come to meet him.

“Father, surely not…”

“I told you to come quickly. Why are your clothes so dirty? Did you do some gymnastics here?”

Kim Ju-hyuk cut off the conversation immediately.

Kim Seo-jun didn’t ask any further and got into the elevator with his father.

*****

Back home, Kim Seo-jun.

While his father ate dinner late, Kim Seo-jun quickly took a shower and sat quietly in his room, lost in thought.

“Go Han-su. How should I deal with this bastard?”

Since someone had been hired to threaten him, there was no way he could just let it slide.

But he had to handle it as quietly and secretly as possible, so as not to affect his father.

Kim Seo-jun began to formulate a concrete plan to take care of Go Han-su.

After all, the target was just a reckless nineteen-year-old.

There was no need for deep deliberation; the plan formed immediately.

“Just wait, Go Han-su.”

He set tomorrow as D-day.

Feeling resolved, Kim Seo-jun examined the dagger the attackers had dropped in more detail.

The dagger was coated with a thick layer of yellowish substance.

In the previous world, if a weapon was coated with something, it was almost always poison.

It could be an extremely deadly poison that could kill with just a scratch, a poison that inhibited one’s internal power, or a nerve toxin that dulled movement.

Kim Seo-jun recalled information about glowing yellow substances from his memory.

“Could this be… Guihwa?”

Guihwa—the black flower that only grew beyond the Gate.

He had once read somewhere that when Guihwa was ground into juice, it took on a yellow tint.

And he vaguely remembered what happened if the juice of Guihwa penetrated the skin.

To confirm, Kim Seo-jun searched the internet for detailed information on Guihwa.

“The symptoms of poisoning resemble those of ‘Mareuk’…”

It caused people to behave like zombies. The Guihwa’s juice contained a powerful hallucinogenic toxin. Even a small amount penetrating the skin would cause terrifying illusions leading to madness.

“‘Guihwa’s juice changes color when it comes into contact with blood?’”

To test the newly discovered fact, Kim Seo-jun made a small cut on his hand and let a drop fall onto the dagger’s blade.

Ssshh—

A faint burnt smell arose, and the part where the blood touched turned purple.

Exactly as described in the online information.

“Where did those bastards get Guihwa’s juice?”

Guihwa’s juice was not something you could get easily.

It only grew beyond the Gate, and the areas around Guihwa were infested with Soul Devouring Insects, making it nearly impossible for ordinary hunters to approach.

Guihwa and Soul Devouring Insects.

Thinking about the inseparable relationship between the two brought a sudden realization.

The body fluid of the Soul Devouring Insects had been secretly injected into his father’s body.

And the Guihwa’s juice was applied on the dagger used by the attackers, who were hired by Go Han-su.

Everything was connected to one name.

“Go Tae-hwan!”

The person capable of secretly injecting Soul Devouring Insect fluid into his father’s body was very likely Go Tae-hwan.

Furthermore, if Go Han-su didn’t get the Guihwa’s juice himself but was given it by Go Tae-hwan, then everything made sense.

“What if Go Tae-hwan had been secretly raising Guihwa and Soul Devouring Insects in a hidden location beyond the Gate?”

Goosebumps prickled his arm.

If that were true, it meant Go Tae-hwan had been slowly poisoning his father for a long time, intending to kill him step by step.

He wasn’t just trying to hinder his friend’s success; he planned to kill him outright. A truly despicable man.

Foolish Go Han-su, driven by revenge, had sneaked into Go Tae-hwan’s secret place to steal Guihwa and planned to use its juice to harm Kim Seo-jun. That fit perfectly.

What an absurd father and son.

Though it was still speculation, Kim Seo-jun was pretty sure now.

“I won’t let either of them live!”

Grinding his teeth while recalling the maliciousness of Go Tae-hwan and Go Han-su, Kim Seo-jun took a deep breath to calm his excitement.

There was no rush. He decided to first make Go Han-su pay the proper price.

“My throat’s dry.”

After several moments of tension, he felt thirsty.

Kim Seo-jun turned off the computer and went out to the living room.

His father stood there, finished eating and watching the news calmly with his mother.

Mrs. Baek Yeonji was watching the news about the Gate’s closure when Kim Seo-jun emerged from his room and beckoned him over.

The news was reporting live from Jamsil, showing the aftermath of the sealed Gate.

But the buildings behind the reporter were all pitch black.

Streetlights were broken and dark, and the windows of countless buildings were completely shattered.

“…This is truly a horrific scene. Although this operation was conducted to prevent the Gate from evolving, there are serious doubts about whether this was the right method.”

The reporter explained the grim atmosphere on-site with a solemn expression.

“Has the Gate been sealed? The shock right before was an A-rank Mystic skill of Hunter Lee Chan-woo. What happened afterward?”

The anchor’s question was answered by the reporter, eyes cast to the sky over Jamsil.

“As you can see, the Gate has been sealed. The Gate, which released as many as 96 E-rank Komora, was ultimately sealed by Hunter Lee Chan-woo’s ‘Explosive Earthquake’. But the damage is severe. All electricity within a 500-meter radius was cut off, and many buildings were destroyed. There may even be additional casualties.”

“That’s unfortunate, but at least the Gate didn’t evolve. If the last five Komora had escaped, it would have evolved to D-rank in five minutes.”

The anchor looked somewhat relieved, but the reporter showed no such relief.

“From the moment monsters began pouring out of the Gate until now—just two hours later—eliminating the last Komora is truly fortunate. Five minutes more, and the Gate would have started evolving. However, I question whether using such a powerful Mystic skill was necessary, given the extent of the damage. So far, 86 deaths have been confirmed, including four hunters, with the rest being civilians. How many more casualties may have occurred inside the ‘Explosive Earthquake’ remains unknown… It’s heart-wrenching to watch.”

The news repeatedly showed when and how the Gate opened, how hunters responded, and the results of their efforts.

With no new updates, Kim Ju-hyuk shook his head in regret.

“Even with 45 hunters and a special forces team deployed, 82 civilian deaths… This was only an E-rank Gate. How does that make sense?”

“The Gate at least didn’t evolve. If an E-rank Gate evolves to D-rank, it would release five times as many stronger monsters within seven minutes.”

Mrs. Baek Yeonji was well-informed about Gates, thanks to her hunter husband and awakened son.

“You saw it earlier, right? Most of the Komora, which are E-rank monsters, were killed by C and D-rank hunters. No B-rank or above elite hunters were on site. When the situation worsened, Lee Chan-woo stepped in and used his reckless Mystic skill.”

Kim Ju-hyuk had been an active hunter in the field before, so he wasn’t surprised by how things had unfolded.

And his account was mostly accurate.

Senior hunters hadn’t mobilized. Whether it was due to arrogance or because it was only an E-rank Gate, they were absent even though civilians were dying.

The first responders were C and D-rank hunters near the scene, but there were simply too many monsters, so the defenses were breached.

That led to heavy civilian casualties.

Moreover, if the monsters released by the Gate were not eliminated within two hours, the Gate would evolve to a higher rank, so time was tight.

In the end, just five minutes before the deadline, A-rank Hunter Lee Chan-woo hurried to the scene and used his ‘Explosive Earthquake’ Mystic skill to kill the last Komora.

The problem was that Lee Chan-woo’s Mystic attacked all living creatures indiscriminately within a certain range.

If he had used more Mana and concentrated on controlling the skill, he could have targeted only the monsters.

But Lee Chan-woo was not that kind of person.

He hated wasting Mana and disliked focusing too much, so he probably just designated the area and unleashed the skill blindly.

Because Kim Ju-hyuk knew his personality, he sensed more casualties would result from this incident.

“Father, getting angry won’t change anything.”

Kim Seo-jun tried to calm his father.

“It won’t, but I can’t help being angry. This all happened because the Gate Management Bureau’s competence has plummeted.”

The National Gate Management Bureau.

A government agency tasked with managing numerous hunters and protecting citizens’ safety and lives.

But the Bureau had long since strayed from its original mission.

It had become corporatized, pursuing private guild profits.

That was why even though a Gate had opened in the heart of Seoul today, they foolishly refused to request help from private guilds.

Kim Ju-hyuk was not the only one thinking this way.

The news debate was fiercely discussing whether today’s Gate incident should be seen as a tragic sacrifice or a preventable disaster caused by the Bureau’s incompetence.

There was even a broadcast about the Jamsil citizens’ suffering due to the ‘Explosive Earthquake’ Mystic skill, which caused damage akin to a natural disaster.

Citizens wept as they looked at roads covered in black ash, houses shattered by flooding, and debris.

Around them, one-meter-tall robots busily distributed essential goods to the citizens.

Some looked like dogs; others resembled strange animals.

As Kim Seo-jun glanced at these robots, his eyes widened suddenly.

“GX mark?”

The robots had small initials engraved on their foreheads: ‘GX’, which immediately caught Kim Seo-jun’s attention.

These volunteer robots had debuted about five years ago and were already widely used in everyday life.

But the mark on them was chilling to Kim Seo-jun.

GX.

This symbol was exactly the same as the one carved on the Demonic Plague that had terrified all humanity in the previous world.