C13
The Gyeongsin Guild
- Crash!
Uminhyuk, who had been struck by Gwanghyeon, went flying and slammed into the ground.
Gwanghyeon, seemingly a little relieved, began catching his breath.
“Haah, damn. Finally found him.”
One hour before this incident,
Gwanghyeon had headed to the branch of the Hunter Management Bureau that he had visited yesterday.
Just as he had the day before, he scanned the gates displayed on the screen.
Of course, there was no way he could check every area around every gate that had appeared by himself, nor did he need to.
‘Only D-rank gates.’
There was little chance that a guy who had always targeted D-rank gates would suddenly change his habits on a whim.
It wasn’t impossible, of course, but the possibility was low enough to disregard.
‘And among those, which ones aren’t being handled by large guilds…’
Moreover, Gwanghyeon had guessed that Uminhyuk seemed to target places where the risks were relatively low.
Therefore, he judged that Uminhyuk wouldn’t head toward gates being handled by large guilds, which took meticulous care of the safety of their affiliated Hunters.
After filtering out the gates displayed on the screen according to those conditions, eight gates remained.
It would have been nice if he could narrow them down even further, but since he didn’t know Uminhyuk’s psychology for certain, going beyond that would only reduce the accuracy of his prediction.
“Eight places, huh…”
To search all the areas around eight gates, he would have to travel across quite a wide range.
It would be extremely exhausting, but Gwanghyeon was firmly convinced that he had to catch Uminhyuk today.
Because today was the day when he had the highest chance of catching him.
‘He failed when he tried to hit me from behind yesterday, so there’s a good chance he’ll immediately look for another target and try again today. So it has to be today. Once he succeeds, there’s no telling when he’ll start operating again.’
Being a villain didn’t mean committing crimes every single day.
Especially for a villain like Uminhyuk, who acted for money, there was a high possibility that he would disappear for a while after successfully pulling off a big score.
If he didn’t catch him today, he might end up being unable to find Uminhyuk for the rest of his life.
‘All right. Let’s give it a shot. If I’m lucky, I might find him in one go.’
Having made up his mind, Gwanghyeon recorded the eight locations and roughly planned out a route to visit them.
And fortunately, he managed to find Uminhyuk at just the right time.
Back to the present.
Uminhyuk, who had been sent crashing to the ground, trembled all over as he struggled to get back on his feet.
“F-Fuck… What the hell…?”
The moment Gwanghyeon struck him with the gauntlet, Uminhyuk had nearly lost consciousness, but he desperately managed to keep himself awake.
He didn’t know why the man in front of him had suddenly appeared, but one thing was certain: the man was hostile toward him.
‘I don’t know what the hell is going on, but should I just run?’
He considered it for a moment, but it didn’t seem easy to simply flee in the current situation.
He had everything prepared and ready to go. Giving it all up just because a Hunter had suddenly barged in would be a terrible waste.
Uminhyuk decided to assess the situation first. He wiped away the blood running down between his eyebrows and stared directly at Gwanghyeon.
“…What? A gauntlet? Don’t tell me… yesterday?”
The moment he noticed the gauntlet Gwanghyeon was wearing, Uminhyuk realized that the man standing before him was the Hunter he had accidentally let escape yesterday.
This caused some of Uminhyuk’s tension to disappear.
After all, the man was clearly just some lousy Hunter who went around looking for D-rank gates.
‘If he came looking for a D-rank gate, he’s probably only a C-rank Hunter at best, right? He shouldn’t be anything special.’
Furthermore, Uminhyuk was holding a large blunt weapon, whereas Gwanghyeon had nothing but a gauntlet.
Judging from the fact that he was wearing a gauntlet, he was probably an Awakened with a physical enhancement ability like Uminhyuk.
If so, Uminhyuk naturally had a huge advantage in a fight since he had a weapon with a much longer reach.
The more he thought about it, the less threatening Gwanghyeon seemed.
He didn’t know how the man had found him, but there was absolutely no reason to be afraid.
As that conviction grew, Uminhyuk gradually regained his confidence.
“You fucking bastard. Who the hell are you?”
Having recovered his nerve, Uminhyuk slowly advanced toward Gwanghyeon with his weapon in hand.
The veins stood out on his face as though he could charge at any moment.
“You look like a fucking nobody. Do you even know who you’re dealing with?”
“…”
There was no reaction whatsoever.
Uminhyuk interpreted this as Gwanghyeon becoming even more intimidated.
I thought he had something up his sleeve. Guess not?
Feeling even more confident, Uminhyuk smiled and tightened his grip on his weapon.
—Tap!
He decided there was no need to hesitate any longer.
Without warning, Uminhyuk kicked off the ground and charged toward Gwanghyeon.
At the same time, he swung his weapon with all his might.
—Whoosh!
The distance between them rapidly closed, and Gwanghyeon soon entered the range of Uminhyuk’s attack.
With everything going exactly as planned, Uminhyuk flashed a triumphant smile.
Once his weapon made contact, the bastard would end up just like the team leader lying sprawled over there.
“Die!”
But then—
BANG!
Gwanghyeon suddenly twisted his body and swung his fist at the weapon coming toward him.
A tremendous explosive sound rang out as the gauntlet collided with the blunt weapon.
“…Huh?”
Uminhyuk’s blunt weapon had been split in two by Gwanghyeon’s gauntlet.
“…”
Uminhyuk stared blankly at his shattered weapon, completely dumbfounded.
It was a weapon he had painstakingly purchased during his time as a villain, crafted by processing a high-grade magic stone.
He had never even imagined that it could be destroyed.
‘Th-This makes no sense…’
Uminhyuk’s mind stopped working, and he froze in place.
Something had clearly gone terribly wrong.
“Done yet?”
“W-W-Wait a second.”
Only then did Uminhyuk begin to feel fear.
He took a step backward at a time and spoke to Gwanghyeon in a trembling voice.
“D-Do you know who’s behind me? If you lay a hand on me, you’ll—”
“I don’t care.”
Gwanghyeon had no interest in listening to Uminhyuk’s speech to the end.
He cut him off, lunged forward, and slammed his fist straight into Uminhyuk’s face.
CRAAACK!
Gwanghyeon slowly removed the gauntlet he had been wearing and walked toward the fallen Uminhyuk.
Judging by his condition, it looked like he wouldn’t regain consciousness for several hours, so Gwanghyeon didn’t have to worry about him escaping.
Therefore, Gwanghyeon left only the weapon Uminhyuk had been using at the scene and reported the incident to the Villain Response Team.
‘That ended more easily than I expected.’
The weapon Uminhyuk possessed had actually looked quite threatening.
However, the villain himself, Uminhyuk, was so clumsy that the fight had no choice but to end quickly.
His movements were focused almost entirely on brute strength, making them far too simple for Gwanghyeon to deal with.
“Anyway, that’s taken care of, so…”
Gwanghyeon then turned his head and looked at the man who appeared to have been attacked by Uminhyuk.
The man was sprawled on the ground, bleeding quite heavily, but fortunately, he didn’t seem to be dead.
“Hey, are you all right?”
Gwanghyeon quickly approached him and checked his condition.
It wasn’t looking very good.
If he didn’t receive treatment soon, he could potentially lose his life.
“Cough… Kuhk… I-I’m fine…”
“You’re definitely not fine.”
Gwanghyeon figured he needed to find a healer—in other words, an Awakened with a healing-type ability—as soon as possible.
However, he didn’t personally know any healers, so he wasn’t sure where he could find one.
“Hmm…”
Just then, he suddenly sensed movement coming from the direction of the gate.
Gwanghyeon whipped his head around.
“G-Gasp! Team Leader?”
“W-What happened here?”
As it happened, several people who appeared to be the fallen man’s comrades emerged from the gate.
Gwanghyeon immediately understood the situation and nodded, looking somewhat relieved.
‘Ah, that’s a relief.’
A typical raid party would have at least one healer.
As long as he avoided any unnecessary misunderstanding, it seemed the situation would resolve itself smoothly.
“I’m probably going to look pretty suspicious, so make sure you explain everything properly while you’re getting treated.”
“O-Of course… cough.”
Leaving the fallen man’s response behind, Gwanghyeon immediately approached the people who had emerged from the gate.
“I truly don’t know how I can possibly thank you enough.”
The man who had been lying on the ground approached Gwanghyeon as soon as he had received enough treatment to move around.
He soon revealed that he was the team leader of the Gyeongsin Guild.
‘The Gyeongsin Guild…’
Gwanghyeon didn’t know much about it, but he had heard of the Gyeongsin Guild before.
It was a rival guild to Geumseong, the guild Gwanghyeon had originally belonged to.
“I’d heard rumors that villains like that existed, but I never dreamed we’d actually encounter one ourselves. If it weren’t for you, sir, I don’t even want to imagine what might have happened…”
“…”
Sir?
The man looked considerably older than him, yet he was calling Gwanghyeon “sir,” which naturally made Gwanghyeon feel rather awkward.
Still, since the man was expressing his gratitude so sincerely, Gwanghyeon couldn’t simply ignore him.
He scratched the back of his head and replied,
“…Well, I’m just glad you’re safe. I was only doing what I had to do, so you don’t need to thank me this much.”
What he meant was that this had happened while he was pursuing the villain, something he had already been doing anyway, so there was no need to be so grateful.
However, the team leader of the Gyeongsin Guild interpreted Gwanghyeon’s words somewhat differently from what he intended.
He understood Gwanghyeon’s words, “I was only doing what I had to do,” as meaning “saving people is simply what I do.”
‘So he considers saving people a natural responsibility… What an incredible righteous man.’
The team leader of the Gyeongsin Guild looked at Gwanghyeon with even greater admiration.
Meanwhile, Gwanghyeon, completely unaware of what the man was thinking, avoided his gaze as though he felt burdened.
‘Why is he looking at me like that…?’
Just then, a woman’s voice rang out.
“Team Leader Nam!”
Gwanghyeon turned toward the direction of the voice, and at the same time, the team leader turned and greeted her.
“Ah, Branch Manager.”
‘…Branch Manager?’
Is that woman the branch manager of the Gyeongsin Guild?
“Team Leader Nam, are you feeling all right?”
“Hahaha… I think I still need a little more treatment.”
The woman who was apparently the branch manager didn’t look particularly old.
In fact, she looked younger than the team leader.
Still, within guilds, positions were generally determined by ability rather than age or years of experience, so it wasn’t particularly strange.
“Ah, is this perhaps…?”
“Yes. He’s the Hunter who helped us.”
“Hello. I’m Min Hyeong-eun, the Branch Manager of Gyeongsin Guild Branch 5.”
Min Hyeong-eun extended her hand for a handshake.
Gwanghyeon wondered how he had suddenly ended up in this situation, but he had no choice and accepted her hand.
“Team Leader Nam has already told me everything. You saved Hunters from our guild.”
“Hmm, well, that’s what happened.”
“Thank you so much. Haah… I don’t know what we would have done if something serious had happened to our Hunters…”
But it was just something that happened while I was pursuing the villain. There’s really no need to thank me this much.
Gwanghyeon felt increasingly awkward as the gratitude seemed far too excessive.
“Anyway, we do have some conscience. We can’t just let something like this go without doing anything.”
At Min Hyeong-eun’s words, Gwanghyeon tilted his head.
What is she suddenly talking about?
“We will definitely make it up to you on behalf of our guild.”
“…Pardon?”
