Chapter 60
Incheon Metropolitan City.
Korea's secondary urban belt.
As a vast region encompassing ports, logistics networks, an airport, and industrial complexes, it had its own Hunter ecosystem.
The Incheon Hunter Alliance.
They weren't monsters capable of shaking the whole country like Seoul's Four Major Guilds.
But neither were they so weak that they couldn't protect even one dungeon in their own region and had to entrust its clearing to outside guilds.
That was why they were even angrier.
“Even if you're one of the Four Major Guilds, don't you have any business ethics?!”
The center of the Incheon Hunter Alliance.
The Magye Guild.
The head of the Magye Guild had personally rushed all the way to Bupyeong.
There was only one reason.
It was because of the Cheongryong Guild.
A D-rank dungeon on the outskirts of Bupyeong District.
Goblin Mine.
For twenty-eight years, this place had served as a sort of tutorial ground where newly awakened novice Hunters in Incheon gained their first practical experience.
The monsters were weak.
The routes weren't complicated.
Because of its mine-like structure, rescue teams could easily find anyone who got lost.
Above all, it was large for a low-rank dungeon.
A typical D-rank dungeon would become overcrowded as soon as a few small parties entered.
But Goblin Mine was different.
It was spacious enough to accommodate dozens of beginner parties entering in sequence every day, and its monster respawn rate was stable.
Put simply, it was Incheon's introductory training ground for Hunters.
The first practical experience for novice Hunters.
The livelihood of guide Hunters.
Even the sales of local equipment shops and recovery-potion merchants.
All of it hinged on this one D-rank dungeon.
But Cheongryong barged in.
Without any advance notice.
Without even discussing admission tickets.
Without the regional alliance's permission.
And then they pushed high-ranking Hunters in as far as the dungeon core, forcibly throwing Goblin Mine into turmoil from within.
Rumble rumble rumble rumble!
The ground around the dungeon entrance rumbled low.
A horde of goblins, driven out from beyond the gate, poured out shrieking.
But they didn't last long.
Crack!
Wham!
Because the Cheongryong Hunters stomped them flat without a care.
To an A-rank Hunter, D-rank goblins weren't even monsters.
They were nothing more than bugs underfoot.
So no matter how many goblins poured out, they posed no threat to the city as a whole.
But that wasn't the problem.
“Because of you people, every beginner Hunter party that had a reservation today is unable to get in!”
The head of the Incheon Alliance ground his teeth.
“These kids had guides assigned and everything for their first-entry briefing! What the hell do you think you're doing?!”
Cheongryong had already shaken Goblin Mine three times.
They hadn't completely destroyed the dungeon core.
But they were deliberately disturbing the pressure around the core, forcing the monsters inside to spew out.
Forced ejection.
A method of forcibly triggering the phenomenon that occurs just before a dungeon is cleared, driving the life-forms inside out.
In a high-rank dungeon, manipulating pressure like this could sometimes be used as a clearing strategy.
But Goblin Mine was different.
This wasn't a dungeon meant to be conquered. It was one meant to be managed.
It had been maintained for twenty-eight years by deliberately leaving the core untouched and adjusting the respawn cycle and clearing depth to train beginner Hunters.
But those women were rummaging through the place as though digging through a garbage dump.
If this continued, it would be out of commission for at least two weeks.
No, depending on the extent of the damage to the core, it wouldn't function properly as a training dungeon for a month or more.
And yet.
“We're only doing this until the people we're looking for come out from inside, you know?”
The Incheon Alliance leader's eyes turned toward the unhurried voice.
Ma Jaerim.
The current guild master of Cheongryong.
The person responsible for bringing the main forces of one of Korea's Four Major Guilds all the way to Incheon without any notice.
“People?”
“This is a beginner dungeon that we manage twenty-four hours a day! It's not even during entry hours, so how could there possibly be anyone inside?!”
“If you're looking for people inside the dungeon in the first place, you should send in a search party! Does it make any sense to damage the dungeon by disturbing the core?!”
The Hunters belonging to the Incheon Alliance erupted in anger.
But Ma Jaerim smiled.
Snicker.
Before that laugh had even ended.
Thud!
Her foot slammed into the Incheon Alliance leader's abdomen.
“Kuhuk?!”
“L-Leader!”
“You bastards⋯!”
The Incheon Hunters all drew their weapons.
But the Cheongryong Hunters didn't even blink.
Some of them even sneered.
And they had every reason to.
Even if this was Incheon, it was still a regional alliance from a secondary urban belt.
Whereas the people standing before them were the elite combat personnel of one of Korea's Four Major Guilds.
They were in completely different weight classes.
Their levels were worlds apart.
Ma Jaerim knew that better than anyone, so she grabbed the fallen alliance leader by the hair.
“I'm going to report this⋯.”
The Incheon Alliance leader spoke through clenched teeth.
“If you continue this, I'll report you directly to the Korean Hunter Association⋯!”
“Go ahead.”
But Ma Jaerim answered as though she'd been waiting for it.
“W-what?”
“Do it. Report us.”
She grabbed the alliance leader by the collar and hauled him upright.
Then she brought her lips close to the alliance leader's ear.
“But are you sure? You don't want to get in line with us first?”
“What do you mean?”
“Soon, Gangdong won't be Cheongryong's territory anymore.”
“⋯What?”
“As the head of the Incheon Alliance, you must have heard which side Cheongryong, whose guild master recently changed, has grown close to.”
“!!”
Of course, the rumors had reached the alliance leader.
That Cheongryong had recently been in contact with Chinese Hunter capital.
Cheongryong had long been a guild rumored to have its fingers in dirty businesses.
So this time, too, the alliance leader had assumed it was just exaggerated hearsay caused by that reputation.
Selling weapons for money.
Smuggling recovery potions.
Arranging a few illegal Hunters.
The alliance leader had assumed it was nothing more than baseless bluster with Chinese Hunter circles tacked onto it.
But what Ma Jaerim had just said was on an entirely different level.
“Incheon's Chinatown.”
“⋯!”
“Incheon has a port, and Chinese-run logistics networks have had ties here for a long time. Once that route opens, squeezing a regional alliance like yours from both ends won't be difficult.”
“That's⋯.”
“Gangdong first, then Incheon.”
Ma Jaerim lightly tapped the Incheon Alliance leader's cheek with her finger.
“When that happens, will you still be able to complain about business ethics like you are now?”
The alliance leader didn't dare answer.
Even the Incheon Alliance couldn't stop the Cheongryong Hunters right in front of them.
But if Chinese Murim capital and Hunters entered through Gangdong and shook up Incheon's port logistics network as well⋯?
There was no way a regional alliance with only a handful of A-rank Hunters could hold out.
A silence mingled with anger and fear pressed down on the space before the gate.
Ma Jaerim smiled as though savoring that silence.
“So keep quiet. Once we find what we're looking for, we'll leave quietly.”
She turned her head back toward the Goblin Mine gate.
“Raise the pressure further. If they're hiding inside, they'll eventually crawl out.”
“Yes!”
It was just as the Cheongryong Hunters were about to move.
“To think this is one of the Four Major Guilds, just like us.”
An unfamiliar voice cut in.
“This is really too much.”
Everyone's gaze turned toward a single point.
In front of the Goblin Mine gate.
A woman with short red hair was standing there.
She wore a light jacket over her shoulders and Hunter gloves on her hands.
She looked young.
But no one could readily speak.
There wasn't a Hunter who didn't know that face.
Jang Mi-hyeon.
The youngest daughter of the owner of Geumseong, one of Korea's strongest guilds.
And a super rookie who had already risen to B-rank at around twenty years old.
Above all, she was the second daughter of Jang Mi-ran, the owner of Geumseong.
“H-Hunter Jang Mi-hyeon?”
“Jang Mi-hyeon? That's Geumseong, isn't it?!”
“Why is Geumseong here⋯?”
A commotion spread.
Ma Jaerim's face stiffened as well.
“Senior Ma Jaerim.”
Jang Mi-hyeon lightly waved her hand.
“Long time no see?”
“⋯!”
At those words, Ma Jaerim's shoulders flinched.
Senior.
That title was anything but welcome.
Ma Jaerim had once belonged to Geumseong.
Before entering the enormous garbage dump called Cheongryong, she too had once carried Geumseong's name on her back.
More precisely, she had been caught using that name to run Hunter loan-sharking operations and illegal collateral contracts, then left as though she had been expelled.
“Those filthy things you used to do in secret.”
Jang Mi-hyeon walked over at a leisurely pace.
“I remember my mother didn't want Geumseong's name dirtied, so she let you off with a reprimand before sending you away. But I never expected you to become Cheongryong's guild master.”
“Young Miss Jang Mi-hyeon⋯.”
Normally, anger would have surged first.
How dare that little brat⋯.
How dare a mere B-rank⋯.
She might have thought that.
But Ma Jaerim couldn't.
Because she knew the name backing Jang Mi-hyeon.
Geumseong.
And Jang Mi-ran.
She had witnessed that power firsthand long ago.
On the day she was expelled from Geumseong.
The day Jang Mi-ran had merely lowered her gaze, yet Ma Jaerim had felt pressure as though her entire body were being driven into the floor.
She barely managed to force out her voice.
“Why⋯ why are you here, Young Miss?”
Inside, she was gnashing her teeth.
Why did that woman's bloodline have to show up here now of all times?
But the woman before her answered with a light smile, as though she could see straight through those thoughts.
“Because you were about to commit 'treason'?”
“⋯Huh?”
That couldn't be⋯.
The Blood Cult.
The transfer of the Gangdong region.
The East Asian Hunter Joint Development Plan.
All of it was still beneath the surface.
Only a tiny handful of people within Cheongryong knew about it.
But why.
How did Geumseong know about it?
But the shock didn't end there.
“That's why my mother came to meet you herself.”
It was at that moment.
The air before the gate changed.
The dungeon pressure that had been weighing on Goblin Mine moments earlier.
The killing intent of the Cheongryong Hunters.
The anger of the Incheon Alliance.
All of it sank away in an instant.
No—it was crushed down.
Click.
The sound of dress shoes approached.
The Cheongryong Hunters instinctively opened a path.
Not because they wanted to.
Their bodies had moved aside first.
A black suit.
A perfectly composed posture.
And a presence that made it hard to breathe just by looking at her.
Jang Mi-ran.
The owner of Geumseong, which ruled over Seoul's Gangnam.
An S-rank Hunter hailed as Korea's next-generation leading Hunter appeared before the Goblin Mine gate.
“Ma Jaerim.”
A low voice rang out.
At that single word, Ma Jaerim's knees buckled.
“Gasp⋯.”
“What did I tell you when I let you live that day?”
“G-Guild Master Jang Mi-ran⋯.”
“I told you to live as quietly as a mouse.”
Ma Jaerim couldn't answer.
Jang Mi-ran's gaze passed over her and turned toward the Cheongryong Hunters.
“Lower your weapons.”
A moment of silence.
And then.
Clang.
Someone's sword fell to the ground.
That was the first. One by one, the Cheongryong Hunters' weapons fell to the ground.