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The moment he got out of the car, the first thing Kang-hoo did was save a teleport point.

With the re-designation done, no matter where he used teleport from now on, he would arrive at this spot.

His current location was five kilometers outside Kimcheon Liberation Area, a zone where cars could no longer enter.

Unlike the liberation area inside, where fighting never stopped, this side was relatively calm.

That was because a base camp had been set up outside the liberation area. It was not 100% safe, but it was a place that tried to maintain the highest possible level of safety.

It was also where hunters making their way into the liberation area did their final preparation, so many merchants had moved in.

It was hastily thrown together, but there were facilities where you could drink and have fun in moderation, and commerce had formed around that as well.

Since once you went into the liberation area there would be plenty of situations where you would see blood, no one bothered stirring up trouble here.

Outside-base-camp rule of thumb: refrain from doing things that might cause conflict…… an unwritten law of sorts.

You could follow it or not, but if you broke it, an unspecified crowd of hunters usually banded together and punished you.

“For now.”

Kang-hoo pulled a face mask from his pocket and covered from below his eyes down to his chin in one motion, then stepped out from the car.

Showing his face would not necessarily cause problems, but there was no need to expose it either.

The fewer times his face got recognized, the better, so he covered firmly up to below his nose.

Besides, the liberation area’s constant sand-laden wind and the acrid, choking smoke kept blowing in, so it was also a minimal protective measure.

“Hey, brother. Before you go in, why not stock up on painkillers? It’s called Au-Pro 1—an officially released overseas painkiller, but it’s still hard to get in Korea.”

“No need.”

“You’ll change your mind once you try it. It’s made by Audax Therapeutics, you know?”

“Sell a lot to someone else.”

“Dumbass. This one thing already crushes every domestic painkiller. If you don’t want it, whatever.”

The merchant who had tried to sell Kang-hoo a narcotic painkiller naturally backed off.

It was common in the base camp. Narcotic painkillers were the “polite” end of it—selling outright drugs happened often too.

‘The Audax Therapeutics I know is strict about drug control. And this isn’t even a major black market—yet it’s reached a petty vendor like this…… so that’s it.’

Kang-hoo knew well what Audax Therapeutics was. It was a famous multinational pharma company even in the original story.

On the surface, it was known as a pharmaceutical company that spread positive influence—but reality was different.

A company where light and darkness coexisted.

It washed away corruption with a bright image, and made big money in the dark world.

If a painkiller not yet officially sold here had flowed all the way to a place like this, it was likely they were checking reactions.

They would distribute it under the pretense of “internal leaks” and the like, and watch user responses.

An illegal clinical trial on the general public. No cost, no accountability.

Kang-hoo refused the offer, but—

“What? It came from Au-Thera? How many you got? Can I buy them all?”

“As long as you’ve got money, of course!”

“How’s the effect?”

“Great. No side effects, and even though they call it a painkiller, it basically has a stimulant effect too.”

Another hunter, hooked by temptation, bought Au-Pro 1 on the spot. That too was a common sight.

The hunters flooding into the liberation area were all, without exception, quick-score hunters living like today was all they had.

With security absent, anyone could stab you in the back and take your stuff.

There was no need to feel guilty. The people who came here were all trash.

Every single one of them had defective lives.

If they died, there was no one to miss them and no one to avenge them.

Having a record or being wanted was common—if anything, killing them reduced the Public Safety Bureau’s workload.

“Hey, you know this? Ebony Bone leader Shin Jun-ho had an underground secret bunker. They say there’s almost sixty billion won worth of drugs brought in from China in there.”

“That much?”

“Feels like he only sold when prices rose, and deliberately didn’t sell when they dropped. He was timing the market and releasing supply.”

“Seriously? Is that confirmed?”

“If it was confirmed, would the drugs still be there? It’s just a story, but it’s plausible, so it’s going around.”

“No wonder I’m seeing a lot of drug-dealer types. They must’ve smelled it and came running.”

“Don’t know where the bunker is, but if you find it, it’s a jackpot. Sounds like the refining’s already done too.”

It was closer to hearsay, but information passed around base camps tended to have a high hit rate.

Only rumors that had been cross-checked to some extent kept circulating. It meant this wasn’t a place filled only with idiots.

Still, Kang-hoo wasn’t here to steal drugs, so he let it pass through one ear.

Just then, he entered the bar visible straight ahead.

Before going into the liberation area, he planned to drink a glass of sparkling water and wet his throat one last time.

Once he went in, even getting a sip of clean water could become difficult, so it was also a precaution to hydrate in advance.

The bar was packed with customers.

It was a makeshift structure thrown together, but the interior was surprisingly decent. It even had a modern-bar vibe.

Places like this did good business because many customers paid steep alcohol prices without hesitation.

But then—

Kang-hoo, scanning for any bartender to order a single glass of sparkling water, stopped.

He had met a familiar face.

‘Benny?’

Her makeup and hair color had changed completely, but she couldn’t evade Kang-hoo’s good memory.

No matter how he looked, it was Benny from Club Hades back then.

After that, before Kang-hoo challenged the Dimension Plunderer’s constellation trial, he had once run into Benny again at a bar near Pyeongtaek Station, after she’d changed jobs.

At the time, he thought it was because Daejeon Station and Pyeongtaek Station weren’t that far, and Club Hades had fallen into Eclipse’s hands, so she’d switched venues.

But this time, for “coincidence,” she was far too far away.

And if it was for safety, the logic didn’t add up.

This was a place near a liberation area where fighting could break out at any time. In other words, it was a place where you worked with your life on the line.

“……”

Kang-hoo silently studied Benny.

Given the location, he naturally became wary. Was there another secret hidden in her?

Then—

“…!”

Kang-hoo’s eyes widened.

For a split instant, a constellation-related scan clearly triggered on Benny—and then vanished.

A list popped up as if there was constellation information tied to her, but then it failed to lock and disappeared.

Was it because there were so many people?

Maybe another hunter’s constellation activation overlapped and made it look like Benny.

He stepped back.

Then he found a spot where there was no crowd blocking the line of sight between Benny and himself.

The next moment—

‘What is this?’

A constellation scan completed on Benny. That meant she was also a contracted “hunter.”

Her being a hunter wasn’t the important part. Hunters working as bartenders wasn’t unheard of.

That was the problem.

She had a constellation, but it couldn’t be identified through scanning—and even the reason couldn’t be determined.

That meant the concept of the constellation she had contracted was specialized in perfect concealment and secrecy.

His mind grew complicated.

He had thought seeing Benny was just coincidence, but now the interpretation changed.

She felt like someone who mainly appeared in regions designed to spark conflict.

Even in the Pyeongtaek Station case, not long after Kang-hoo visited Benny’s bar, a clash between local guilds broke out.

It ended in a one-sided victory, but the other side was wiped out—a fairly major incident in the process.

‘As a bartender, even if she shows up in places like this, there’s no reason to be suspicious. People might even welcome it.’

He thought the “mysterious woman” said to have killed Shin Jun-ho and Ebony Bone’s executives might be Benny.

If her constellation could hide its information itself, it would be a high-tier constellation.

It had to be at least within the top 25. Only then could she conceal her own information completely.

Then—

Just as she gathered her things, Benny greeted the bartender she was working with and a customer, and left the bar.

From the way she only lightly threw on a coat over her original clothes, it seemed she had come dressed like that from the start.

And then—

She strode straight toward Kang-hoo. At some point, her gaze fixed on him.

Kang-hoo’s expressionless eyes swept over Benny’s body quickly.

Her figure, visible between the fairly revealing outfit lines, was not the soft “skinny-fat” body of someone soaked in booze and cigarettes.

It was closer to the body of a warrior, as if forged by long, harsh training.

Before, it had been hidden under a long skirt and a loose T-shirt, but tight-fitting clothes made it stand out.

“Nice to see you! First time at Hades, then at Pyeongtaek—this is the third time, right? Right?”

“…….”

“It’s so weird. The places are pretty different, but we keep running into each other like this! At this point, is it fate?”

Even though Kang-hoo had covered everything below his eyes with a mask, Benny recognized him precisely.

It wasn’t like he had distinctive eyes, or a scar or mark that stood out.

Yet she recognized him immediately, which meant she had the ability to see through disguises.

Just as Kang-hoo was about to ask why, Benny—perhaps reading his intent—spoke first.

“The naming’s kind of complicated, but to explain simply, you can think of it as a memo ability. Even if someone’s appearance changes, the memo I’ve written on that hunter stays. So I know, hehe.”

Only then did it make sense.

With an ability like that, anyone she’d met once would be recognizable even if they got plastic surgery or altered their voice.

She couldn’t pierce concealment itself, but she could easily notice disguise and impersonation in someone she’d seen before.

Now that he understood one of Benny’s abilities, he became curious why she was “pretending” to be a bartender.

He began to suspect she was acting out an ordinary bartender’s life.

When Kang-hoo’s narrowed eyes kept raking over her sharply, Benny—looking embarrassed—pulled her coat closed at the front.

A bartender would be used to being looked at, but a cold gaze wasn’t something she seemed used to.

“Want to take a walk outside? I hate the musty smell in here. That damp sweat stink never goes away.”

“Sure.”

As they stepped out together, the constellation he still couldn’t identify seemed to surprise even the Dimension Plunderer, who had been watching.

She reacted in a way that didn’t feel like her usual self. Just as the Dimension Plunderer said, Kang-hoo had never experienced anything like this either.