Heukwol Auction House (20)

Hyeonyeong took the elevator and went up to the upper floor.

The way up to the upper floor was not particularly peaceful either. Not long after it began going up, a loud sound came from the ceiling.

Judging from the pattern of the sound, the weight felt in it, and the like, the sound just now was the sound of a person falling down.

‘They’re probably trying to drop me together with the elevator.’

Hyeonyeong raised her sword without hesitation. She aimed in the direction where the sound had come from and activated Mana Thrust.

Kwaaaang—

“Kuaaagh!”

As a large hole opened in the ceiling, the enemy who had climbed onto the elevator screamed.

‘I got rid of him before he could do anything, but…….’

Hyeonyeong looked up at the hole she had made in the ceiling. It did not seem likely that the person she had just dealt with would be the only enemy coming down to interfere.

‘I’d prefer it if they came down in a similar way, if possible.’

Unfortunately, the situation did not flow according to Hyeonyeong’s expectations. Perhaps because the one who had jumped down had been knocked away so futilely, the next attack was carried out with items instead of people.

Items such as bombs and poison flew in, aimed at the hole opened in the ceiling. It was an attack whose power had been increased by combining items of B-rank or higher, but Hyeonyeong blocked that as well without much trouble.

When Hyeonyeong knocked all the items away with aura skills before they could fall inside the elevator, the next attacks were aimed at dropping the elevator itself.

This much was difficult even for Hyeonyeong to defend against in advance. Therefore, the moment Hyeonyeong sensed them touching the rope suspending the elevator, she broke the ceiling without hesitation and jumped upward.

Using a footwork skill, she ran up the wall and reached the top floor in one breath. Then she could see the enemies who had opened the elevator door on the top floor and were attacking the rope.

“Uh…….”

The enemies whose eyes met Hyeonyeong’s looked flustered. Hyeonyeong mercilessly launched herself at those enemies.

“Kek!”

“Aaagh!”

When she even fed them a follow-up attack after her charge, the enemies gathered in front of the elevator were immediately cleaned up.

‘If it’s somewhere like the president’s office, it should be here.’

After kicking away once more an enemy trying to attack again, Hyeonyeong looked at the large door in front of her. It looked like the sort of door that would typically be attached to the room of someone high up.

As soon as she finished thinking, Hyeonyeong infused aura into her foot and kicked the door hard. Perhaps because there were no particular defensive measures, the doorknob broke without resistance.

When the door opened, the scenery inside the room appeared. Along the walls of the spacious room, all kinds of machinery filled the space, and in the center of the room were a desk, several drawer cabinets, and seats for guests.

Perhaps because of the machinery presumed to be computer processing devices, the room overall looked more like one used by a developer than one used by a corporate representative.

“So you finally came all the way here.”

A middle-aged man sitting in the seat of honor inside the room let out a sigh.

‘Is he the person who exchanged messages from that transmission room?’

As soon as she heard the other person’s words, Hyeonyeong thought that.

“You sent too many people to the warehouse.”

“Well, I wonder if we could have stopped you even if we’d saved our people. Should I say it is just as the rumors say?”

Another auction house executive inside the room also spoke one line each.

“It seems we no longer have any proper means to resist.”

“Haha, not necessarily. Don’t we still have something left?”

At the middle-aged man’s words, the executives’ gazes unconsciously turned toward one of the drawer cabinets.

‘Is the antidote there?’

Hyeonyeong quickly understood the meaning of their gazes. There was no way they did not know the situation in the underground warehouse. Then they must have already guessed why Hyeonyeong had come all the way up here.

In this situation, the item Hyeonyeong would be looking for was highly likely to be the antidote. So from their perspective, it was natural to think about holding onto it and attempting a negotiation or threat.

‘Once I know it exists, that kind of thing has no meaning.’

Without deliberately revealing that thought outwardly, Hyeonyeong quickly moved her eyes. If that side was going to play dirty, this side needed to play dirty too.

‘Hyeonseong unni told me to do that.’

After quickly scanning the room, she soon found a weakness she could seize.

‘That machinery is probably a device where they stored data they consider important. Even if it isn’t, there’s a high chance it’s a system necessary for operating the auction house or the Free Market.’

Hyeonyeong unconsciously opened the item information of the machinery. It seemed to be an item, because an information window opened.

‘An item with destruction prevention against attack skills below S-rank…….’

Most Awakened would have sighed at this point, but Hyeonyeong remained calm. Since she had more than one or two skills beyond S-rank, there was absolutely no reason to worry.

‘I should resolve this using the safest and most certain method.’

After finishing her thought, Hyeonyeong moved her steps toward the machinery.

“What are you thinking? Surely you aren’t thinking of breaking that, are you?”

“You had better stop. Even for you, breaking that won’t be easy.”

“We just have to break what you want while you’re busy breaking that.”

Perhaps guessing Hyeonyeong’s thoughts, the executives each spoke again. Seeing that, Hyeonyeong concluded that the auction house executives really were low-rank Awakened.

‘If they had enough skill to even hold me back, they would have attacked long ago. But they aren’t thinking of attacking at all and just keep threatening me with words.’

As if to show them, Hyeonyeong tapped the surface of the machinery as though knocking. Perhaps because it was a gesture without intent to destroy, she did not feel any particular repulsive force.

“You’re slow. I can break this before you break that.”

“What nonsense are you…….”

“It’s true. Want to see?”

Cutting off the executive who was scoffing, Hyeonyeong placed her hand on the sword hilt. The executives, judging that gesture as an intent to attack, tried to reach toward the drawer cabinet.

And at that moment, a new scenery began to unfold around Hyeonyeong.

It was the scenery of the BYD-rank domain declaration skill “World of Ten Thousand Swords” activating.

“What is this……!”

When the scenery inside the room vanished in an instant, the executives were visibly flustered. The only thing that remained inside was the machinery Hyeonyeong had wanted to drag in with her.

“What kind of absurd…….”

“I never heard that this skill could do something like that!”

The executives fumed at the situation where the machinery had been dragged into the domain along with them.

“Unfortunately for you, it can.”

Hyeonyeong calmly drew her sword. Needless to say, the executives’ faces turned blue at that sight.

“Then in your next lives, try living a bit more kindly. Act your age too.”

Soon, a powerful attack skill linked to “World of Ten Thousand Swords” activated from the tip of Hyeonyeong’s sword. A storm of sword blades raged around Hyeonyeong.

And when that storm cleared, Hyeonyeong was the only one standing there. The executives had vanished without a trace, and the machinery had become scrap-metal wreckage.

Constellation messages busily appeared before Hyeonyeong’s eyes as she deactivated “World of Ten Thousand Swords.” She filtered out the useless personal feelings and checked only the necessary information.

‘As expected, it really was a server and storage device needed to manage the auction house.’

What Hyeonseong had been worried about vaguely came to Hyeonyeong’s mind. Hyeonseong had been worried that the video showing the moment she set fire to the transmission room might remain in those bastards’ hands.

‘If I destroyed that, that data should have disappeared too. Then now…….’

When the scenery inside the room returned, Hyeonyeong headed toward the drawer cabinet the executives had glanced at.

When she opened the drawer, she found several ampoules containing drugs. They were all antidotes capable of curing the special poisoning of the Awakened trapped in the warehouse.

After putting her sword back into its sheath, Hyeonyeong carefully took the ampoules.

‘Unnie and Haesu are still safe, right?’

Hyeonyeong glanced at the Constellation messages again. There was no particular message from “Master of Ten Thousand Swords.” Since they were quiet as usual, it seemed nothing major that she absolutely had to know about had happened on this side.

‘Still, I should hurry back. I’m worried.’

Hyeonyeong hurriedly left the executives’ room.

“Aaagh!”

“This annoying monster……!”

An auction house affiliate chasing Hyeonseong’s group threw a fit. Since a while ago, the small-to-medium monsters and chimeras presumed to be auction goods had been biting and attacking them, repeatedly hitting and running.

‘The pheromone potion’s effect is killer.’

Hyeonseong glanced back at some of the Awakened groups whose ankles were being held by a few monsters.

As soon as the chase began, the Awakened who had been imprisoned opened all the monster cages according to the plan. Then they threw the pheromone potions Hyeonseong had distributed at the gang chasing them.

The auction house affiliates unconsciously struck and broke the pheromone potion bottles. As the bottles broke, the potion naturally got on their bodies, and the effect activated.

The monsters reacted to the scent of the potion whose effect had activated. The monsters that had been baring their teeth at Hyeonseong’s group nearby all followed the pheromones and headed toward the group of auction house affiliates.

‘……That’s how the current situation happened.’

Not all the enemies were caught by it, but they had still succeeded in making a considerable number of enemies troublesome.

Catching the monsters would not be easy either. Using their not very large bodies, the monsters cleverly moved between people and fled.

No matter how little loyalty they had, it would be a waste to unnecessarily shave down their allied fighting power. Because of that, those bastards also could not quickly decide whether to accept some friendly attacks or not, and fell into confusion.

‘It would have been better if just a little more of them had gotten caught.’

Seeing the enemies chasing them unharmed, Hyeonseong clicked her tongue.

They had rushed in as a huge mob to begin with, and the throwing skills of the Awakened who had been imprisoned were uneven. Because of that, the number of people smeared with pheromones felt somewhat disappointing.

‘Well, I’ll have to lure them somehow.’

That side probably thought they were driving this side into a corner. But driving was not something only that side could do.

‘What we’re doing is closer to guiding than driving, but…… anyway, it’s basically the same.’

Hyeonseong ran here and there using the internal structure she had grasped while checking the prisons.

This area itself was an ordinary, wide-open space without walls. However, because there were many cages for locking up monsters and people, the structure had half-changed into something similar to a maze.

Thanks to that, Hyeonseong’s group could avoid the pursuers’ hands by changing directions or climbing over prisons. However, gathering the pursuers as much as Hyeonseong intended was not going very well.

‘The problem is that this warehouse is too wide.’

Because the space was too large, it was easy to split personnel into several groups and move. Whenever those bastards saw an opening, they split their people and tried to surround Hyeonseong’s group from left and right.

‘Either I need to keep them from splitting up, or…….’

For an instant, “Fire of Judgment” came to Hyeonseong’s mind.

‘This place would probably burn well if I set it on fire too. Those bastards would probably be the same.’

However, right now, she could not carelessly use “Fire of Judgment.” It was because of the group of Awakened following Hyeonseong and Haesu.

‘These people are barely keeping up even now. But if I set fire here too…….’

Even now, things were on thin ice, and if she set fire as well, it would become even more difficult for Hyeonseong herself to manage the group.

Of course, that group did include an A-rank Awakened. However, Hyeonseong did not find that guy very trustworthy. It could not be helped, considering what she had seen from the Free Market until now.

‘If it comes down to it, I can set it on fire, but…….’

As Hyeonseong turned between prisons, she was suddenly seized by a strange feeling.

‘……Since when did I start thinking of setting things on fire and running whenever things went wrong?’

When she came to her senses and thought about it, Hyeonseong’s expression became reluctant at the feeling that she had become a serial arsonist.

“They really are chasing us persistently……. What should we do?”

Haesu asked in a disgusted voice.

“Right. I think we should change direction after all.”

“Direction?”

Ignoring Haesu’s question, Hyeonseong quickly looked around at the surrounding situation. Right now, the enemies were chasing them from the rear again, not from the left and right. They looked similar to one widely spread-out mass.

‘At least that means we don’t have to run here and there to break out of encirclement.’

Next, Hyeonseong’s gaze turned to a slightly distant place. It was the direction where the temporary wall had been set up.

‘As expected, they’ve blocked the door and the place where the hole was opened.’

The holes through which people could enter and exit were being blocked by enemies waiting outside. To get out through there, they naturally had to remove the enemies there.

‘As for a method to remove them, well…… I have one.’

The calculations ended in Hyeonseong’s head. Hyeonseong immediately changed her destination toward the temporary wall.