There was a difference between being killed by a monster and another Awakened. After the death of the Suzuki sisters, who used to be the group’s main powers and leaders, the remaining ten Awakened completely lost their fighting spirit. Not even a single one of them looked at me by mistake. They simply collapsed on the ground and waited for their painful wounds to recover. I needed someone to take care of the injured and other unpleasant tasks.
I couldn’t keep the Korean guy because of his nationality, so I chose a tall Australian who looked like a beanpole. Woo Yeon-Hee’s Physical Healing skill had the lowest potential out of all of her skills, but it had reached B-class due to the item’s effect. After she used the skill multiple times on the beanpole, he recovered to the point where he could limp and move around.
He approached me and acted tactfully. He stacked his hands in front of his body, bent his waist forward, and stopped in that posture as if he wanted to prove that he had learned manners under his previous Japanese leader. His name was Lucas, and he was thirty-one years old. He was a plumber in society, and he was the one who installed the two traps we saw upon entry.
“I have a trait, Chaser,” he said.
“Were you the recruiter?” I asked.
“No, there’s a Japanese guy named Sato Hiroshi, but I have only seen him a few times.”
Sato Hiroshi was one of the targets of my assassination quests. He was currently flying over the other side of the globe, so sooner or later, he would come to me. The number of dots moving toward me had increased lately from sixteen to twenty. Those with money were rushing in the first class, and those who lacked money were waiting for their economy class flight at airports.
“You must be attached to Suzuki’s group, right?” I questioned.
“No,” he replied.
“I’m not going to blame you. It’s natural to feel that way since you’ve been together for life and death.”
Lucas’s eyes shook.
“But Suzuki Ririka’s group doesn’t exist anymore. Also, it has been revealed that your group was trying to kill me. Don’t say anything else until I give you the orders to do so.”
His mouth shut instantly.
“Go around and tell everyone to give up on the quest,” I continued.
I had only checked the appearances of the remaining Awakened’s insignias and items and had left them alone for this moment. I made them lay down in one spot, and Devi’s Sword grazed them narrowly. It immediately destroyed their items that were in shirt form, and it brushed against their lower body. Devi’s Sword must have felt like a reaper’s scythe to them. They didn’t even lift a finger, worrying that the sword would slice their bodies. Instead, they became stiff and rolled their eyeballs.
As soon as Devi’s Sword disappeared, Woo Yeon-Hee and I began searching their bodies. If they had thought about this properly, all of them would have given up the quest by now. However, there was still one person who had not done it out of the ten Awakened. We found the Location Seeker in his tactical pants, and Woo Yeon-Hee stared at him with a face mixed with resentment and sympathy.
Only then, did the Location Seeker vanish in my hand, and my fist became empty.
“I… I gave up…” he confessed, but it was after a red line had been drawn on his name on the hit list.
“You don’t deserve to be in my group. Banish him from the clear area,” I said coldly.
“P…please…”
“You don’t seem to realize what a big opportunity this is. This is your only chance,” I responded.
He began running away in a hurry only after my ring turned into Youxia’s Scimitar.
***
Lucas handed in the remaining injured Awakened’s profiles that he had written down. I made him list everything on their status windows and all their private information. If anyone lied, they would be filtered and kicked out.
Five hours later, even the small moans stopped when I got up. Woo Yeon-Hee followed me silently. She also didn’t mind the Awakened leaving the group as they would end up being gulped by gigantic arthropods even if they managed to escape. In addition, Lucas was the only one who was in decent enough condition to run away.
We went further into the dungeon and stopped where the novices weren’t able to see us. The first new person to enter was a Chinese guy named Wang Chen, and he was quest number ninety-one. His dot on the search map window overlapped mine. It had been ten hours since I entered the Osaka dungeon, and my dot on his window would’ve stayed in the same area for that period. He must have either had escape insignia or had no experience because he entered the dungeon only after hesitating a little. He came in through the blue barrier, then stood there blankly. It was obvious that it was his first time.
“Why haven’t you given up on the quest?” I asked.
Wang Chen became startled and focused on where the sound came from. I entered into his line of sight, and it must have happened out of the blue to him. He attempted to escape, but he obviously couldn’t. Instead, he bounced back after getting a shock from the barrier. Woo Yeon-Hee shook her head. He started saying something in Chinese very urgently.
“I guess you can’t speak English.”
I ripped off his shirt with the sword. There was an F-class insignia that increased Strength, but that was it. Then, the insignia emitted copper-colored energy, and Wang Chen’s eyes turned aggressive. He must have thought he could not only escape from me but also punch me. He was actually a middle-aged pot bellied man, and his chin fat wiggled whenever he used his power.
“I can’t understand… but you’re now in an ant hell,” I said.
I smacked his face, controlling my Strength such that it wouldn’t kill him.
Bang!
As he collapsed, a tiny knife fell off. There was also a first-class round-trip ticket in his passport. His wallet was full of Renminbi[1], yen and dollars, and there was even a ‘Royal Platinum Card’ issued by Jonathan Investment Financial Group’s Bank. In other words, this guy was so affluent that he was qualified to join the platinum club hosted by Jonathan Group. This clearly defined his social status.
A chairman has come here by himself without an attendant…?
He must have been a quick-tempered fellow.
Anyway, the merger of medium-sized banks managed by Jonathan had been done roughly early this year. Everyone must have heard the quote ‘Banks are scarier weapons than militaries.’ That was why speculative private equity funds targeted banks first when a country was in crisis. Those who controlled the banks controlled the country’s economic sovereignty.
From the 1990s to 2010, the North American banking industry was in the Warring States Period[2]. Based on the existing history, they were supposed to be merged into large, major banks called the Big Four – AP Morgan, The City Group, BOG and Henry William.
However, the bank that Jonathan had bought and merged had jammed itself in the order, and it had become part of the Big Five. The reason why the global financial community had been excited about the new large bank from early this year was that it was incorporated by Jonathan Group. Gillian Group was the top financial institution in terms of asset management scale alone, but Jonathan Group ranked number one for being the richest group that had the largest total number of assets.
At this time, when I was responding to the System’s prank, Jonathan was pouring out mortgage products with Kim Cheong-Soo.
Tik!
When I threw the credit card lightly, it disappeared into the cave wall.
One of the Asians in the Suzuki sisters’ group was Taiwanese, and he spoke both Chinese and English. He took the role of an interpreter.
“He is the chairman of the real estate development group called Glory.”
The interpreter sounded like he was also aware of the group. Glory Group was a tycoon, but it wasn’t a force incorporated into an order like the Karjan’s.
“He said his people would be looking for him. If you let him go now, he’ll pretend that nothing happened.”
The interpreter studied my face and became reluctant.
“Tell me,” I ordered.
“He said he’ll make you regret it otherwise.”
I wasn’t going to keep a man with such a social status alive in the first place. As soon as I stood up, Wang Chen started groaning and shouting loudly.
“He.. he told you to… sit down…”
Wang Chen wasn’t worth keeping him alive, so I waved at Lucas. He dragged Wang Chen and disappeared. Those I was waiting for were not like these novices. Not all of the Eight Evils and Eight Virtues would be pre-Awakened, but I had already encountered five of them, which were First Evil, Second Virtue, Fourth Virtue, Seventh Virtue and Eighth Virtue respectively.
I had high expectations for quest number six since that person was chosen as the strongest after Woo Yeon-Hee, the Suzuki sisters, Michael, and Joshua.
***
“No. How could I kill a man? Please believe me. The only thing I did wrong was becoming too curious about this…”
He was the one who had chased me from Mokpo, quest number ninety. He trembled. He had claimed that he had scraped a living by doing manual labor, but I couldn’t understand why such a guy had a passport. I trapped him in the crowd of new people who had entered after he protested that he had toured around Southeast Asia just once with his friends in 2001.
The next one was the long-awaited quest number six, and it had been two days since I had dug up ant hell. He was from Los Angeles, and it looked like he was taking a subway as he was approaching me fast. I waited for him.
Until now, the people who newly entered had hesitated at the dungeon entrance. Since all of them had never been to dungeons, they often came in with faces full of wonder and awe before they became startled by the darkness. However, quest number six was different. His dot on the window didn’t move once it reached the dungeon entrance. Everyone was fascinated by the blue barrier, so they usually put their foot in first. The only reason why he was standing outside was that he was waiting for me. In other words, he was experienced and had survived until now. I did as he wanted.
[The insignia (Escape) has been removed.]
It had been a long time since I had last seen the sun. When I came out, something familiar swayed in front of me. A dagger was flying toward me and it was covered in… Lightning power! However, they were just crude lightning sparks for now.
1. Chinese currency. ☜
2. The author compared this period to an era when Chinese states battled fiercely to dominate advantageous territories since the major banks in the story fought viciously to become the number one in the world. ☜