City ​​of Witches 1060

Chapter 1060 – #252_Hunter

#1054

1.
The base of operations was Dorothy’s workshop near the Dominican Republic.

Just as Dorothy had said, the view was absolutely stunning, with the jade-colored sea crashing against the white sand beach.

This wasn’t just a sentimental choice.
According to the information Siwoo had secured, the main areas of activity for the Rehar Group were as follows:

In North America, the entire territory of Mexico.
Due to the recent expansion of the enemy’s influence, areas bordering Mexico, such as Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, were also included.

In Central America, the bridge between North and South America, most countries like Guatemala, Belize, and El Salvador.

In South America, which had long been notorious as a hotbed of enemy activity, countries like Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela, and Peru.

In short, their activity base was shaped like an hourglass centered around Central America.

In this situation, a workshop in the Caribbean Sea, which allowed for easy travel up and down, had a clear geographical advantage.

Furthermore, since it had been Dorothy and her arms-dealing organization’s territory until recently, there was less of the enemy’s tyranny compared to other places.

This also meant less surveillance.

After finishing his first hunt, Siwoo returned to the workshop, which could be described as a luxurious villa, and headed straight for the bathroom.

-Swooshhhhh

He ran water over his head, keeping the temperature as cold as possible.

“Phew…”

He wasn’t doing this just to look cool.

From a little while ago, he couldn’t shake off the physical burning sensation all over his body.

It was a terrible pain, as if hot molten metal was surging through his veins.
He could feel his pulse pounding at his temples, and the nausea and tingling, a side effect unique to the distortion field, made his fingertips tremble.

“I’m gonna die…”

Siwoo’s plan was a solo operation, fighting in the heart of enemy territory, even though he had deployed a secret, hidden barrier to minimize his presence.

This came with inevitable limitations.

One of them was that he had to make it a short battle.

If the fight dragged on, there was a chance of being caught or spotted by unwanted surveillance.
In the worst case, he could be surrounded by a swarm of witches.

If the witches were just mediocre, it wouldn’t matter.
But if two or more Great Witches gathered, there was a high probability of defeat.

That’s why Siwoo had gone all out from the start.

He had activated the Angel’s Ring to its maximum and pushed the output of the Red Branch to its limit.

The Red Branch, with its destructive power, also burdened the user with risks.
Wielding such a thing at maximum output constantly put a tremendous strain on his spirit body.

It was literally a race against time.

“It’s a little better.”

After pouring cold water on himself for about ten minutes, the rash that had been reddening his skin subsided.
His legs were trembling, so he simply sat down and washed himself blankly for a while.

The final moments of Nylee flashed vividly, like a movie playing.
The ends of the two witches he had quickly dispatched with a surprise attack also played out.

He silently replayed their ends.

Surprisingly, he didn’t feel any guilt.
He felt a dull, foreign sensation somewhere in his chest, like a thick needle pushing from the inside, but it wasn’t something to be concerned about.

The deaths of the three witches had filled the lotus a little.
The correlation between rank and the lotus charge gauge wasn’t clear, but at this pace, he would have to fight about ten more battles like today.

It was too early to be exhausted and collapse already.

He roughly dried himself and headed to the hangar.
The factory-like building, with a short runway on the outskirts of the villa, was the control tower for this plan.

The hangar, originally used to store private jets, was empty.
Instead, the results of Siwoo’s preparations had filled one side of the wide wall.

On the wall was a large map that included the Rehar Group’s areas of activity.

It wasn’t just a map.

Like a prop from a detective drama, pins, photos, separately collected data, and string were used to create a spiderweb-like diagram.

It was a way to easily see the information about the Rehar Group and its teams at a glance.
A diagram organized with items that had been meticulously verified and cross-compared several times.

It might look messy at first glance, but that was because the colors of the pins and strings were used to distinguish the importance and reliability of the information.

Siwoo approached a photo pinned above Medellin, Colombia, and marked it with three X’s.

With that, Nylee’s team was finished.

“I don’t need this anymore.”

He burned a pile of papers that had been on the table, which he had repeatedly read until last night.

The pile of papers, about the thickness of a book, was a kind of ‘Operation Plan against Nylee’s Team’ designed based on the information he had gathered so far.

It included the operation’s goal, target information, schedule, risk factors, countermeasures, and escape routes, which greatly helped with image training.

The most effort was put into the combat tactics.

He had grasped the overall flow of the battle and predicted how the opponent would react to certain actions.

In case his predictions were wrong, he had divided the events into smaller parts, and for each branch, he had devised different countermeasures.

It wasn’t just ‘Plan A or Plan B’ level.

An overwhelming victory that went according to plan.
An advantage with a few minor variables.
A poor fight due to an unexpected clash.
A disadvantage due to numerous variables.
Even a defeat that would force him to decide to retreat.

Like a meticulous hunter, he had created several scenarios that included all possible variables.

Eliminate the two annoying subordinates with the first surprise attack.
Allow Nylee to gradually open her magic eyes, but don’t confront her head-on.
When Nylee rushes in her impatience with her third magic eye, pretend to engage her head-on, then blind her to seal the magic eye.

The overall flow of the battle, which went roughly like this, was also within Siwoo’s planning.

It had taken two weeks to create this plan.

“5 minutes and 38 seconds… I overdid it.”

The time he had predicted for Nylee’s team, from the surprise attack to the retreat, was 5 minutes and 30 seconds.
To be precise, he had planned to spend 3 minutes on the fight and 2 minutes and 30 seconds on the lotus’s absorption.

However, the process of the lotus absorbing the mark and soul was slower than expected, so he had been delayed by 8 seconds.

“I need to reflect that in the next plan.”

He picked up a marker and corrected the approximate value for the time it took for the lotus to complete its absorption.

In battle, improvisation is certainly important.
But that’s a secondary option.
The best option is to force the opponent into a predetermined framework and deal with them within the expected range.

“I have to do at least this much.”

Siwoo hated gambling.

As long as there was even a slight information gap.
As long as he had the advantage of attacking first.
As long as this operation wasn’t just about one person’s life.

There was no need to fight the enemy fairly.

“……”

He wasn’t done yet.
He had to organize the information Nylee had left behind instead of a will and adjust the diagram.

He didn’t have a major in criminal investigation or criminology.

Nevertheless, within a series of refined frameworks, the framework for the next plan was taking shape.

A few pins, representing key points, moved their positions, and accordingly, the colorful threads connecting the pins also changed their locations.

Death doesn’t make people honest.

But pain and giving up do make people honest.

Nylee’s confession had a fairly high level of credibility.
It didn’t greatly contradict the existing information, and it fit together perfectly, making a satisfying sound.

As he mechanically organized her words and fiddled with the huge board, the next arrow naturally pointed towards the Betelgeuse team.

“Four people…”

Betelgeuse, the leader of the team, was a 20th-rank witch, just like Nylee.

But there was one more person.
There were no Great Witches other than the team leader, but having one more head meant more variables.

For example, if one of the four escaped in the middle and this information leaked, it would be a very troublesome situation.

The fatal flaw of the Rehar Group was that they lacked communication with each other on a regular basis.

Now, when they had seized the initiative unexpectedly.
Now, when they didn’t realize that the hunter had become the hunted, was the golden timing.

He predicted that the fog of ignorance would cover their eyes for at most three or four more teams, or about a week.

Within a week, within three or four attacks, he had to give them the most fucked-up present possible.

During that time, no escapees should appear.
Not a single witness should be left alive.

Siwoo took out the ‘Tactical Plan against the Betelgeuse Team’ from the bookshelf.

“Bloom.”

He refilled the magic power he had used up halfway through the amplification.

He imagined a magic circle in his mind and unfolded his armor.
The tactical and strategic simulations were ready.

Now, it was time to modify the magic so that it could be used efficiently.

For example, in preparation for Nylee’s ‘Golden Eye of the Chicken,’ he had surrounded the front of his armor with the Red Branch’s distortion field.
The red magic that spread over the armor like blood vessels was that.

He disassembled the magic he had accumulated so far and reassembled it.

He was recreating it into magic to kill the strongest force of this target, ‘Betelgeuse.’

Ah, magic is so beautiful.

Just as mathematics dealt with and interpreted the natural laws of the world, he was filled with overwhelming emotion whenever he contemplated the transcendent mysteries that reached the outer limits of the universe.

The slave’s struggle had transformed into a scholar’s desire for exploration, and he pondered and contemplated magic in his daily life without being told to do so.

He even understood why so many witches were fascinated by magic.
Why some of them would even invite their own destruction like moths to a flame.

-Clank clank

He disassembled the structure within the Aein.

The intellectual edifice, woven with subtle principles and harmony, was difficult to destroy, let alone rebuild, but it was completely disassembled, leaving only the skeleton.

The materials were magnetic magic with different properties.
He reassembled the magic step by step, according to the fractal-shaped skeleton.

Sometimes, golden particles scattered like sleet in the black space, and sometimes, a huge wave that could destroy all creation resounded.

“No, that’s not it.”

He muttered to himself, and he built, destroyed, and built again the magic structure that had collapsed.

He calmly carried out the bizarre act that most witches would declare impossible, with his violent talent.

In most cases, Siwoo’s magic was closer to a scholar’s curiosity or an intellectual desire for exploration.
Even when he engaged in battle, it was just a struggle against injustice or a struggle to survive.

That’s why the one piece that had been missing found its place in his desire for revenge.

For a faster death.
For a clearer death.
For a more rational death.
For a more efficient death.

The one piece that must be accompanied.

The name of that piece was the will to kill.