Chapter 377 – Clue (4)
“I should die.”
When I said that with all the laughter that had remained there just a moment ago gone.
Baekhyunah felt her whole body freezing cold.
Her momentum alone makes it seem like she’s already died once.
To the extent that one could feel that way, his facial expressions and tone of voice contained only the truth without any lies.
Choking breath.
‘I understand what you mean.’
I understood what he wanted from me.
If there are restrictions, he doesn’t have to say it directly.
Instead, contact members of the organization or their superiors who are living under the same disguise as you.
In short, it means that he will use himself, the clue he found at a high price, as bait to catch another clue.
The saying to leave work early and meet friends can only be interpreted that way.
If he gets that far, he’ll probably let himself go.
Baekhyun frowns and bites her lower lip.
‘I have no choice.’
Unless she is willing to risk her own death, she has no other options.
In order to live, you have to at least pretend to help him.
“… “I will accept Student Dojin’s favor.”
After accepting the threat disguised as a favor, she struggles to get up.
“Ugh… !”
But it wasn’t easy.
This was because every time she tried to raise her body, she felt intense pain in her abdomen.
“Hold it.”
Kim Do-jin extends his hand towards her.
“… That’s Okay.”
But instead of holding her, she refused by hitting her obnoxious looking hand hard.
Slap!
“It’s not like giving a bottle or giving medicine…”
Kim Do-jin slapped her so hard that she felt a tingling sensation on the back of her hand, causing her to burst her hand in the air.
He smiled bitterly at her and spoke as if scolding her.
“Please understand. “If I had adjusted my power clumsily and the magic had not disappeared, both of us would have been in a worse situation than we are now.”
“…”
It made sense.
If her magic had not been canceled due to her clumsy pain, she would have immediately fired Electric Nova towards him.
Kim Do-jin, who seems to have more hidden skills than he reveals, may have survived despite this.
However, the building disappeared without a trace, taking the lives of countless people with its own hands.
When I think back on that moment, it is definitely not the worst situation.
But I didn’t want to admit it too quickly.
‘It’s disgusting.’
Every time a heavy, stabbing pain occurs, his smiling face looks disgusting.
Maybe it’s because it’s not a monster and it’s my first time feeling such intense pain from a person.
I want to see his expression distort at least once.
“So… “What are you going to do with me now?”
“What happened?”
Kim Do-jin asks with a puzzled expression.
She answers him.
“Are you going to do nothing like this? “What if I pretend to help you and then turn you around?”
I thought that if I said this, you would be a little embarrassed or frown.
But Kim Do-jin did not do that.
“Oh, I see. “Then what?”
He asked me back with an innocent expression, as if he really didn’t know.
That was also disgusting.
It wasn’t an expression of genuine ignorance.
It’s clear he’s asking deliberately to tease me, even though he knows he won’t.
“… “How much do you know about me?”
“Well.”
He answers by shrugging his shoulders.
“I guess it won’t make much of a difference to me, them, or the professor?”
Baekhyun-ah frowns at the ambiguous answer with unclear meaning.
“What does that mean?”
Kim Do-jin responded with a handsome smile on his lips.
“Both sides are forcing the professor to make choices he doesn’t want to make.”
“…”
I was genuinely curious.
What is the identity of the informant who asked him for information?
‘Who are you to know such trivial things?’
While wondering.
He continues.
“I don’t know the details. “But one thing is certain.”
Kim Do-jin grins at her as she stares at herself expressionlessly.
“I’m still better than them.”
“Pfft.”
Baek Hyun-ah is smiling without realizing it.
“The way he talks makes him seem like a horrible man who is seducing women who have boyfriends.”
“It’s not entirely wrong. That boyfriend is a bad guy… , No, except for the fact that he’s a bad bastard.”
In fact, that was what he wanted.
Be it a person or an object.
I want to take away not only the woman in front of me, but also everything good that the hexagram has.
Since something was taken from me first, isn’t it natural to want to make sure I pay a fair price?
She managed to control her laughter, which was inappropriate for her situation, and opened her mouth with a serious expression.
“I promise you one thing.”
“Please speak.”
“No matter what happens, I will take my life…” “I will guarantee your safety.”
The emotion revealed on her face as she said that was obsession rather than anything else.
Obsession with life.
Such people are usually divided into two types.
A person who must live even if the world is destroyed, and whose life is more precious than anything else in the world.
Or a person who is forcibly bound by a reason to stay alive.
Which one is she?
He answered.
“I don’t know if I can trust verbal promises, but… , I promise.”
It was natural that she didn’t have to force her to promise.
Guaranteing the safety of informants during operations is basic common sense.
His answer made her feel at ease, even if just a little, and she said with a faint smile.
“I don’t know what will happen… “Try to do well.”
* * *
Korea University, one of the world’s leading hunter training academies.
A prestigious family that has produced many high-ranking hunters throughout its short history.
However, they also had one thing to regret.
“The guilds created by hunters who graduated from Korean universities are all worthless.”
Looking at individuals alone, there are many high-level hunters that have been produced.
It wouldn’t be enough to stay up all night to list those names one by one.
Among them, there are some who established their own guilds and succeeded in standing on their own, but that’s it.
There is no guild that has been reborn as a large guild that everyone recognizes when you name it, and it has only been reborn as a solid mid-sized guild in its own way.
Not a single one in its short history.
That was their shame.
This is because among the guilds created by hunters from American and European academies that compete with Korean universities, there are several large guilds with a global reputation.
Some people may ask, what’s so important about guilds, as long as the Hunter Training Academy produces good high-level hunters?
That is 100% correct.
That’s right… , There is nothing easier for a competitor to stumble over than this.
“An academy that excels at developing individual abilities, but fails to foster leadership.”
The words I just brought up were actually words written as a characteristic of Korean universities when comparing academies in each country in a famous column in the United States or Europe.
It may seem like a statement that will not have much of an impact on students who enter school with the dream of becoming a hunter, but in reality, that is not the case.
Once an individual’s abilities are sufficient, people eventually think about the next step.
The next step for hunters is ultimately the guild.
Wouldn’t it be a dream and a dream to eventually raise a small guild formed with like-minded colleagues I met during my hunter life to the rank of a large guild that everyone looks up to?
In fact, among domestic and foreign prospects who have been recommended to enroll in Korean universities, there are quite a few who enroll in academies in North America and Europe rather than Korean universities for this reason.
“It’s a stigma that Korean universities want to wash away somehow.”
There is only one most effective way to wash away that stigma.
A guild founded by a Korean university graduate hunter can rise to the ranks of large guilds.
That’s why they allow them to use club rooms or spare spaces as guild hideouts, and why they send messages to all college students during vacation by packaging them up with announcements about guild membership exams disguised as club membership.
“It’s a great situation for us.”
Whatever their intentions, it was a perfectly good deal for us.
Thanks to this, I was able to obtain a guild hideout without spending a single penny, and I had the opportunity to easily pick up talent from the ground.
Shin Yu-jeong, who was quietly listening to my story, asks me in a blunt tone.
“So… , Why are you saying that now?”
“What do you think?”
“I asked first. “Where is the answer to a question with a question?”
It’s here, you guy.
She grabbed the shoulder of the guy who barely understood what I meant and led him by her hand to the window.
“Now, look down there.”
Hundreds of Korean university students are lined up at the entrance of the main auditorium visible below the window.
All of them are guilds posted on notice by the university… , No, these are the people who came running after seeing the club membership test notice.
“Those people are all trying to join our guild.”
“… “There are a lot.”
“Yes. But we can’t accept all of those people, can we?”
“Yeah… , You said that. “Our guild will be run by a small number of elites.”
“Yes.”
There is no room for all of them in our guild, which is run by a small elite.
I think the number of talented people among them is only between three and five at most.
“If I’m going to receive something, shouldn’t I only receive the biggest and most shiny stones?”
“I guess so.”
“Then what is the best way to cover up those stones?”
“… What?”
The method of hiding the jade stone is very simple.
No, honestly, I didn’t want to think too deeply, so I just chose the simplest method that came to mind.
So what is the method?
“I’m trying to collide the gems I have already selected with the gems in reserve.”
“Jeokseok and jadestone… , Bump into it?”
“Okay.”
I put my hand on the shoulder of the guy who was looking confused and gave him a thumbs up with the other hand, giving him words of encouragement.
“So cheer up!”
I’ll be cheering you on from the side!