Chapter 87: Ma Dong-seok
Chapter 87: Ma Dong-seok
No one knew the reason. It could be because of friendship, or there was an ulterior motive in the invitation.
Dong-hyun approached Ji-woo with a friend who invited him.
From their gestures, Ji-woo sensed that they weren’t close enough to invite each other to the Raid Party.
“This is my hyung in the Demigod guild. Kim Ji-woo.” Dong-hyun introduced. He said nothing about Ji-woo’s hunter ranking. And luckily, his friend didn’t ask anything about it either.
“Ah, yes. Kim Ji-woo~si. My name is Kim Seon-ho. Nice to meet you. Oh, yes. We have the same surname. So, I hope we can help each other later in the dungeon.”
Seon-ho assessed Ji-woo from top to bottom. He then bowed to Ji-woo politely. The other hunters also nodded their heads when they saw him.
The atmosphere was friendly, but sadly it wouldn’t be able to fool Ji-woo.
Ji-woo sensed something odd when Seon-ho didn’t ask about his rank and abilities as a hunter. That led him to believe that there was an ulterior motive for inviting Dong-hyun.
Usually, in such raid parties, knowing the abilities of other members or new members was crucial. It was because good coordination was needed to survive together and ensure the success of the hunt. Moreover, the dungeon they were about to raid was tier-4 Portal Gate, coupled with the numbers of hunters who were less than 50 people. The hunt could get categorized as suicide if it wasn’t well prepared.
Ji-woo usually always looked down on people who were weaker than him because of the contagious habit of the Nullifier. But after the incident with the Warlord of Trolls, he began to want to get more careful with every step he took. There were many x-factors that were unpredictable and may not be solved. His existence was not absolute like the laws of the world.
Seon-ho talked with Ji-woo for a few minutes before he returned to where the other hunters were. Meanwhile, Dong-hyun just stayed behind.
“Is he really your friend?”
“Huh, what do you mean?” Dong-hyun asked, not understanding what Ji-woo was asking.
“Just forget it.”
Ji-woo then put on the armor that Dong-hyun gave him earlier. It was the previous Kevlar vest he wore on the tier-3 Portal Gate.
Dong-hyun quickly justified his actions.
“It is not only that, there are leather pants and a leather vambrace, right? That’s better than just one item.”
“Ouch!”
Dong-hyun got hit on the top, and his hands were busy stroking his aching head.
“So don’t just say you want to buy armor if you can’t afford it.”
Ji-woo finished putting on the kevlar vest and whatnot. He prepared to join the other hunters with Dong-hyun.
Zap, Zap–
One by one, the Raid Party hunters entered the tier-4 Portal Gate. What awaited them there was something Ji-woo didn’t expect.
On the other hand, in the Hunters Association building in Seoul.
Chairman Yu massaged his forehead. Yesterday, an unexpected incident gave him a headache. Even now, he still felt uneasy and dissatisfied with the organization’s performance in dealing with the Red Gate matter. Regardless of South Korea was one of the countries that did not suffer much loss in the case of the Red Gates.
At least by the time the day was over, he would be able to give some assurance about the state of cleaning up the remnants of the Red Gates. And also the possibility of suspending the status of martial law in South Korea, indicating the situation was safe.
Of course, it was only to appease the civilians. In fact, Chairman Yu wouldn’t disband the search team and the perimeter guards for the next few days.
Chairman Yu’s distress got interrupted by Chief Yoon’s presence in the room, who was about to give him a report.
“Most of the guilds is operating normally. It’s just not as intense as usual. Now they’re only hunting in one Portal Gate after previously always being in a capacity of two to three Portal Gates.”
“What about the frequency with which the Portal Gates appear? Has it increased because of the occurrence of the Red Gates?”
“Nothing, sir. Everything is the same, which is seven to thirteen Portal Gates per day.”
Chairman Yu’s eyes looked haggard. He was too tired. The appearance of 20 Red Gates really scared the sh*t out of him.
If the Red Gates were top-tier and with that number. The high-grade creatures that came out of it would be able to flatten South Korea within a few days without a doubt. Even having an Apex-ranked hunter wouldn’t be able to avoid the inevitable.
“Why did these Red Gates appear out of nowhere? And at the same time, only low-tier ones?”
Chief Yoon couldn’t answer the question and lowered her head. She felt helpless, even though the civilians called them people that got blessed by God but couldn’t do anything to save their current situation. Even to wipe out the existence of Portal Gates across the land was incapable.
“Is there any news from Chief Joo?”
Chief Yoon shook her head. “There is no news from Senior Joo about Ma Dong-seok.”
There was also the matter of Ma Dong-seok which made Chairman Yu and the other division Chiefs feel uneasy.
“Sir, are you sure he is the one that did this to those two hunters?”
“Honestly, I wasn’t so sure about this before. But now, my hunch is getting stronger. And it worries me if it turns out that he really is the culprit.
“There aren’t many hunters with that kind of power. Forget about ArchMage even Apex rank hunters themselves are already unique existences that can’t move without any notice between countries. Even though they can do whatever they want, the International Hunters Association has been keeping an eye on their existence. If those hunters wanted to create chaos as they pleased.
“And only that group possessed strength equivalent to Apex rank hunters. One of them was Ma Dong-seok. The one who most likely came to his hometown, South Korea.”
“Sir, do you think he came here to finish off Kim Hyun-bin? Just like they did to the French Apex-ranked hunter, Fizldir Lambert.”
“I don’t know. I hope that’s not the case.”
Both Chairman Yu and Chairman Yoon looked outside through the large window.
Ma Dong-seok was the one who betrayed them in the events of the Portal Gate’s first year. At that time, there were no high-level hunters like in the current era. But even so, he was able to defeat dozens of hunters, including Chairman Yu, Cho Gang-ho, Oh Dal-sik, and Kim Hyun-bin. Unfortunately, he was unable to kill them despite being able to trash them. But, other hunters were not as lucky as them. The weaker ones were killed by him every time they tried to hunt down the Dungeon Owners.
Many hunters didn’t understand why Dong-seok was fighting with them instead of the creatures from the Red Gates. That caused many civilians to get mercilessly attacked by creatures that the hunters didn’t have time to kill because they were busy with him.
It took a lot of effort for the hunters to be able to drive Dong-seok away. They were finally able to deal with the creatures and closed all the Red Gates, becoming the saviors for the citizens of South Korea.
What Dong-seok did, made South Korea lose so many lives, be it, civilians or newborn hunters. The death toll reached 1 million out of a total population of 50 million people.
Fortunately, the information got locked by the Hunter’s Association. And the government hides that figure from the public. So, not many people know about it and didn’t get a sense of trauma and terror. After all, none of the civilians were aware of the death toll. It was because, at that time, the situation was very chaotic. They only assume and think there were casualties without knowing the exact amount.
Suddenly, there was a phone call on Chief Yoon’s smartphone. She asked Chairman Yu for permission and picked up the call from Chief Joo. She frowned after hearing the context, and her expression caught Chairman Yu’s attention.
“What happened?”
“Sir, Ma Dong-seok’s arrival in South Korea around two weeks ago has been confirmed, and his whereabouts are currently being tracked.”
Chairman Yu straightened his back and rose from his seat.
“I need to call the available S-rank hunters and Hyun-bin for this.”
“Should I call the other division Chiefs to prepare?”
Chairman Yu contemplated the idea. Apart from the S-rank hunters, other hunters would most likely not fare very well against Dong-seok. In the end, he told Chief Yoon to do it and called in some other hunters to secure the area after the tracking was successful. He was just worried that Dong-seok was close to the crowd.
Chairman Yu tried to minimize the casualties and keep the civilians away from any kind of danger. The hunters and Dong-seok would probably clash the moment they meet since he planned to arrest the traitor. He believed that Hyun-bin was capable of keeping up with Dong-seok now. Coupled with the other S-rank hunters, including himself, the chance of being able to hold off the traitor was pretty high.