Chapter 1723 – 1723. The Dark Merchant
[Using Full Recovery.]
I got up from the floor and kicked Canex’s corpse irritably.
I found a magic stone inside his body. This magic stone was proof that he was a monster.
Did he call himself a god?
‘A god, my ass. You’re just a monster.’
I was about to go outside, brushing off Canex’s blood and guts from my body, when a black, round gem on the floor caught my eye. It hadn’t been there before, but it appeared as soon as Canex died?
‘A dungeon clear reward, I guess.’
I didn’t have my appraisal book with me, so I couldn’t tell what it was right away. I took the gem along with the magic stone and went outside the temple. I could see the gate open in the distance.
Before leaving the dungeon, I headed to the house where Do Hae-young had been. Canex’s actions might have been a trick to shake me up. I was foolishly hoping that might be the case, and I wanted to check on Do Hae-young.
The result: Do Hae-young was dead.
I sighed and turned away. This dungeon would soon become her grave. A grave that could never be found.
Before leaving the dungeon, I used Illusiter to make myself transparent.
The association staff were in a panic in front of the gate.
‘Of course, they’re panicking. An open-type dungeon turned into a closed-type. Normally, they would have reported it to the higher-ups immediately, but if the association investigates properly, their corruption will be exposed, so they’re just waiting for Berta to solve it.’
But Berta was wiped out. A closed-type dungeon that has been cleared will soon disappear.
‘They’re all over the place. They must not know that the Hwa Guild is behind Berta. Were they simply bought off by Berta?’
I had a strong urge to throw a bomb as a gift. But I held back. This wasn’t inside the dungeon, but outside. If I wiped out the association staff with a bomb, things would get out of hand.
Even if I made myself transparent with Illusiter and hid my identity with an identity mask, there were plenty of hunters with extraordinary abilities in the world, so it was best to be careful.
I calmly slipped away from the scene.
* * *
I met the dark merchant, Park Jung-gu. As soon as Park Jung-gu saw me, he frowned and yelled at me. I had explained everything over the phone on my way back here.
“You crazy bastard! You could have just gone to another dungeon! Is 50 billion won a joke?!”
“Shut up. I didn’t lose anything.”
I placed three vanilla mana seed fruits and HB-1 on the table.
“I only used one drop of HB-1.”
It was a gain, not a loss. Park Jung-gu’s expression softened instantly. He reached for the HB-1, then stopped.
“Okay, you made a profit. Let’s do it again. How about it? This time, let’s do it in a safer dungeon…”
“I’m not doing it.”
“What?”
“I said I’m not doing it. It’s annoying.”
Park Jung-gu’s attitude changed completely. He spoke in a cautious tone, as if trying to appease me.
“Hey, hey. I know you had a hard time this time. But it’s 50 billion won. You’ve experienced that this plan isn’t just a pipe dream. A whopping 50 billion! If we split it 50/50, your share is 25 billion!”
“If I say I’m not doing it, I’m not doing it. Find someone else.”
“Damn it! You’re so firm!”
I put my laptop on the table. Park Jung-gu, who had been tapping the armrest of his chair irritably, looked at the laptop with shining eyes.
“A military laptop. That’s a pretty expensive model… Is this what you got from the dungeon?”
“I also took some interesting videos.”
It was a video of Berta and Canex offering humans as sacrifices and obtaining something called an enhancer. Park Jung-gu chuckled after watching the video.
“Human sacrifice? I never thought I’d see that with my own eyes…”
“The Hwa Guild hired Berta. There’s proof of that in the laptop data.”
“Oh, really? So what? What do you want me to do?”
“Sell the enhancer and the data to a large guild that’s hostile to the Hwa Guild.”
“Hey, hey. This isn’t something you can just sell easily. What if the Hwa Guild finds out? My life will be over.”
“What’s with the whining for a dark merchant? You should know this is valuable data.”
“Is selling drugs the same risk as getting involved with the top 10 guilds? If you’re going to ask me to do something, pay me a commission.”
“This is a sales agency. Do you need a commission? Take your cut.”
“Just like you don’t do things you don’t want to do, I don’t do things I don’t want to do either.”
I clicked my tongue.
I didn’t completely fail to understand his attitude.
“I’ll give up my share of the mana seed fruits. You can have all the money you make from selling the laptop and the enhancer. But the condition is that the Hwa Guild has to be hit hard.”
Park Jung-gu grinned. As if he had been waiting for these words, he grabbed the laptop and the enhancer.
“Now that’s a different story. But do you have a grudge against the Hwa Guild?”
“Not really.”
“Then why are you going so far to screw over the Hwa Guild?”
“I want to see how much the Hwa Guild will shake.”
My goal was the Suwol Guild, the second-ranked guild among the top 10. Han Ha-rin had died because of those bastards. I couldn’t forgive them no matter how much I thought about it. Attacking the Hwa Guild was also a kind of experiment. An experiment to see how much the top 10 guilds would shake when a major scandal broke out.
‘The Hwa Guild, at the bottom of the top 10, and the Suwol Guild, the second-ranked in Korea, are different in size.’
If the Hwa Guild was shaken, the Suwol Guild would also be shaken to some extent.
“I see you have a bad personality too. I’ll make sure this is taken care of. There are plenty of large guilds that want to bring down the top 10 guilds… And there are a few large guilds that don’t get along with the Hwa Guild.”
“Are there many large guilds that don’t get along with the top 10 guilds?”
“There are many large guilds that can’t shine because of the top 10 guilds. And there isn’t a single large guild in Korea right now that hasn’t been wronged by the top 10 guilds. Just because the top 10 guilds are famous doesn’t mean they’re good.”
‘There must be large guilds that are hostile to the Suwol Guild. Maybe one of the top 10 guilds is hostile to the Suwol Guild.’
It was too risky to ask Park Jung-gu directly. I shouldn’t forget that Park Jung-gu was a dark merchant who ultimately moved according to profit.
I got up from my seat.
“I’m leaving.”
“Okay, yeah. Don’t come here for a while until I contact you. I won’t be here even if you come.”
* * *
I checked the news every day for a week without fail.
But not a single broadcasting station covered anything about the Hwa Guild. The same was true for internet articles. It was quiet.
‘Did Park Jung-gu fail? Or did he not do it?’
It was human sacrifice.
And there was a video of them offering humans as sacrifices to monsters. It was a video that couldn’t be ignored.
‘Should I use hacking to spread it on the internet now? Even if there are rumors of manipulation, it would still damage the Hwa Guild.’
Videos from unknown sources lacked credibility.
Even if I wanted to check the video, Canex was dead, and the dungeon had disappeared. If the Hwa Guild launched a public opinion campaign, I would have no choice but to be defeated.
‘Should I trust Park Jung-gu and wait?’
Around evening, I received a call from Park Jung-gu. Of course, it was from a burner phone.
-Hey, it’s me.
“It’s already been a week. I haven’t seen anything about Berta in the news or internet articles.”
-The deal is done. I sold the data to a large guild that hates the Hwa Guild. The large guild immediately took action. They tried to get the Hwa Guild penalized by reporting them to the association. The problem was the association. The association buried the matter. The large guild couldn’t turn the association into an enemy, so they got something from the association and gave up.
“The association? Were the association and the Hwa Guild that close?”
-That’s not it. According to my informant, the association separately sanctioned the Hwa Guild. They buried the matter because they judged that this incident would damage not only the Hwa Guild but all of the top 10 guilds, and even the prestige of hunters. The enhancer is also with the association. Under the pretext of investigation.
“I didn’t know the Hunter Association of Korea was this corrupt.”
-This isn’t corruption or anything. The association just moved to protect itself. Honestly, if this had spread, the entire hunter community would have been turned upside down. You know why the association is so obsessed with the image of hunters, right?
“Because hunters have power.”
From the perspective of ordinary people, hunters were walking bombs.
Just like a safety pin on a grenade fears the grenade itself, people fear hunters because they can harm them. And there are occasionally defective grenades.
“What if I spread the data on the internet?”
-Damn it. Are you trying to kill me?!
“It’s a hypothetical. If I spread it on the internet… would the Hwa Guild have been shaken?”
-They would have just gotten some flak and it would have ended there. The association would have moved immediately. And you would have been caught by the association too. Anyway, we failed to screw over the Hwa Guild. I’m not going to return the commission or the fee, so give up.
It wasn’t a complete loss.
At least I learned that I couldn’t do anything to the top 10 guilds in this way. And didn’t he say that the Hwa Guild was sanctioned by the association?
“Park Jung-gu. If it were you, how would you take down a top 10 guild?”
-Are you crazy? Why would I take down a top 10 guild?
“It’s a hypothetical. A hypothetical.”
-Hah. It’s impossible to take down all of the top 10 guilds. If all the top 10 guilds collapse? That means Korea collapses. The government and the association wouldn’t stand still.
“What if you only took down one of the top 10 guilds?”
-That… well, you’d have to make them a public enemy. This bastard… now that I see it, do you have a grudge against the top 10 guilds? Don’t even think about dragging me into that. Well, if you have enough money, I might help.
I didn’t completely trust Park Jung-gu. There was a possibility that this guy would stab me in the back at a crucial moment.
-Anyway, don’t contact me for a while. I have to go into hiding for a while. Oh, you should be careful too. There’s talk that the Hwa Guild is looking for you. By the way, all the guys who were guarding the dungeon gate were disciplined and fired.
Click.
The call ended.
