Bound For Australia (1)

How much time had passed?

Benny still had not left the base camp outside the Liberation Area, and had been quietly enjoying an Americano at a nearby cafe.

She was originally the type to drink coffee slowly, but she had not even finished half yet.

“Hey, did you hear? They say Yun Cheol is dead. Looks like he got assassinated by some guy who suddenly showed up!”

“Does that make any sense?”

“Hey! Photos of that bastard Yun Cheol’s headless corpse are already circulating on Huntergram, so do you think it’s a lie?”

“How can this happen?”

“What?”

“That bastard Yun Cheol was the type to hole up in his hideout basement all the time. And he’s dead?”

“No idea. They say he died to a woman. Looks like there was someone among the women he kept around who was trying to assassinate him.”

“Cheonhye! What about Cheonhye?”

“Of course they’re on the offensive right now! They must’ve been praying with all their hearts for Yun Cheol to die!”

Hearing the hunters’ chatter filling the cafe noisily, Benny grew interested as well.

“Heh.”

Benny snickered.

She had not seen it herself, but if the hunters’ story was true, then Kang-hoo had a cross-dressing skill.

‘An assassin has all kinds of skills, huh?’

She kept smiling.

The thought of Kang-hoo—who would feel wronged if anyone called him talkative—going around cross-dressed made her unable to stop laughing.

When a man who seemed like he would never cross-dress did it, that sense of dissonance was the point of appeal.

When she had sent Kang-hoo to Yun Cheol’s hideout, this was not the picture she had imagined.

Because he was an assassin.

She had assumed he would attempt something close to a straightforward assassination using his trademark stealth and infiltration ability, but she had been mistaken.

Kang-hoo had a method even more efficient—one that shed less blood while targeting only the objective.

Judging the strategy alone, it was excellent. Yun Cheol’s only weakness, known as a lecher, was women.

The strategy was good, but the killer point was that the one who chose it was an assassin.

If it had been simple cross-dressing, he would have been exposed, so he must have had a high-grade skill that could perfectly duplicate an appearance.

A skill that could maintain the outward form perfectly, like an image projected on a screen, as long as it was not touched.

Why Kang-hoo had such a skill was something she would have to ask him directly when she met him later.

It was a skill that did not suit an assassin at all. Rather than cross-dressing, it was closer to copying an appearance.

‘Now Koma’s power will drain away like Ebony Bone did… This time, should I drain Cheonhye’s power too?’

Benny took another sip of Americano and looked west, toward where the Liberation Area would be.

‘The Liberation Area is basically a giant trash bin. It would be cleanest to incinerate it all at once.’

The pleasure of killing insignificant creatures only became complete when they were gathered together, sprayed with chemicals, and burned.

This was not the climax yet. The thrill boiling up inside her was still only at the stage of rising tension.

To feel ecstasy that would burst like fireworks and send shivers across her whole body, she needed more deaths.

Beings that held more meaning when they died than when they lived.

Benny wanted to turn the Liberation Area into a giant crematory.

There was no spectacle more fun than watching insects beat each other down. There was amusement in their insignificance.

“Insects are insects when gathered, and insects when dead. There’s no need to step forward first. Until they die, they’ll think they’re going to be kings.”

Benny’s madness-filled gaze kept sweeping over the Liberation Area.

She induced conflict through chaos.

And when that conflict gathered into one mass, spilled vicious blood, then finally converged into a single point at the end and was sorted out—

The pleasure of order reclaimed from deliberately induced disorder was amplified twice over.

Benny was inducing and abetting chaos in that way, where only her own special pleasure mechanism operated.

Her twisted desire, incapable of pleasure by ordinary methods, ceaselessly thirsted for blood.

In that sense, Korea was an excellent place.

Outside Seoul, conflict existed everywhere—truly a world of disorder.

Slurp.

The smooth flavor of beans slid down her throat.

With an earbud in, she played familiar classical music and enjoyed the tranquil afternoon scenery.

Tonight, too, no different from yesterday, another night of chaos would soon come to the Liberation Area.

Around that time.

After leaving the Liberation Area and reaching where his car was parked, Kang-hoo’s destination changed.

He had just finished a phone call with Lee Ye-rin.

By confirming the head he had brought and “verifying” his own appearance, he had also finished confirming the request’s success.

He decided to collect the three Hematite the next time he went to Daejeon.

Because something urgent had come up that required him to hurry, even saving the time it would take to turn back toward Daejeon.

He had received contact from Suzuki Fumiya of the Rikou Guild, and an emergency schedule had been set to go to Western Australia.

Due to recent severe weather and a culling operation for hybrid species near the airport of arrival, the timing had been delayed.

And now, an access permit day—only a few days each month—had been confirmed.

If they did not take a flight now, it might take several more weeks, he said.

According to the flight schedule the Rikou Guild had booked in advance, Kang-hoo had to go immediately to the nearest airport to Park Dong-jae.

Only then could they barely match the chained travel schedule—Korea to Japan, then Japan to Australia.

Because there was no second or third plan, Kang-hoo had no time to weigh pros and cons and was hurrying.

He was already in contact with Park Dong-jae as well.

They decided to postpone the Full Moon Dungeon raid until later. There was no immediate problem if they did not raid it right away.

Since missing the timing for Western Australia could put them into an indefinite waiting state, Kang-hoo’s priority was clear.

Vrooooom!

Kang-hoo slammed the accelerator and pulled farther away from the Liberation Area.

He left the constellation plundered from Yun Cheol on hold for confirmation, and kept the seized items stored in his subspace.

Once he boarded the flight, he planned to check them one by one.

“For something we rushed to prepare due to an unexpected situation, we gathered everyone we needed.”

Park Dong-jae said he had headed straight to the airport as well.

Ayane in Japan also received Rikou Guild’s contact information and decided to accept their vehicle support.

For this trip to Western Australia, there had been no “alone” option from the start.

He could say it with certainty: the Western Australia hybrid zone was not a place an assassin could clear alone.

They absolutely needed a dealer perfectly specialized in long-range suppression. For now, Ayane was ideal.

And considering the hybrids’ characteristics, they also needed a buffer who could enable them to crush with damage.

Park Dong-jae was ideal for that. So Kang-hoo had both of them in mind from the beginning, and the recruiting was done.

Thinking the Rikou Guild might be uneasy about accompanying unverified outsiders, he had cautiously asked Fumiya.

But Fumiya’s response was—

-If they are acquaintances vouched for by Shin Kang-hoo, anyone is fine. As long as you yourself are not backing out.

It was a concise trust itself.

He said he would only do a simple identity check.

Since neither Ayane nor Park Dong-jae were wanted criminals being pursued by the Public Safety Bureau, there was no disqualifying issue.

While traveling.

Kang-hoo also spoke briefly with K.

He clearly informed him of his destination, and asked him to pass along any further news about Celestial Assassin.

He also added that he should take good care of Ju Haemi. K would do so anyway.

To Ayane, he clearly laid out the purpose of this Australia trip.

The purpose was to “subjugate” a region where hybrid species were appearing in large numbers, and he also told her that the process was high risk, high return.

Given her personality, she would not see high risk as a burden. Her life had always been a continuous chain of danger.

Park Dong-jae, too, believed that even hell was safe as long as he was with Kang-hoo, so there was a strong chance he would let the warning of danger pass through one ear.

One way or another, the three crazy(?) hunters were steadily preparing to move into a world filled with madness.

It was a schedule pushed forward abruptly, but there was no confusion. Rather, only amplified anticipation and excitement filled them.

“Wow, that was really close.”

“Yeah. If I’d been even one minute late, things could’ve gotten very complicated.”

“Hyung, did you close the car door properly?”

“…….”

He thought he had closed it properly, but Park Dong-jae’s sudden question made his mind go chaotic.

His memory was vague as to whether he had closed the rental car door in the airport parking lot.

Normally, he would have definitely closed it before running—but since it had been a situation where every second counted, he could not recall.

Shake, shake.

Kang-hoo shook his head.

Even if he had not closed it, it was meaningless to worry—unless he planned to jump out of the airplane.

If it came to it, he could just compensate the car’s cost. He quickly sent Park Dong-jae’s question to the back of his mind.

“I’m worried. Hyung, I’m really shy, so I’m thinking I might end up burdening that person for no reason.”

“What burden?”

“They might not trust me. We haven’t actually seen each other’s skills, and me too, right?”

“I’m acknowledging you, so you don’t need to worry. I guarantee your skill. I told Ayane the same thing.”

“What did Ayane say?”

“What else? She said if I trust you, then she trusts you too. Don’t waste energy on pointless thoughts. Think first about how we’re going to sync up.”

“Got it. I don’t think I can entertain anyone since I’m not good with words… but I should at least buff well.”

“This is the Western Australia Dossier Rikou Guild sent ahead of time. Read it.”

“What about you, hyung?”

“I already finished memorizing it long ago.”

Kang-hoo spoke as he handed Park Dong-jae the binder.

Since Kang-hoo remembered the original story’s contents, it was all information he already knew, so there was nothing extra to memorize.

He simply did not pretend in front of Park Dong-jae that he already knew it. There was no reason to.

Inside the plane, with a brief moment of breathing room.

While Park Dong-jae immersed himself in studying Western Australia, Kang-hoo checked a message that had arrived right before boarding.

He could not reply, but he could still read received contents inside the plane as much as he wanted.

The sender was Takashi. Contact had been sparse lately, and since Kang-hoo had been busy himself, he had not been able to pay attention to Takashi.

That indifference seemed to have become a deep sense of lack for Takashi. The contents were quite heartfelt.

Why are you so busy? Not even a single message. I miss you. We’re not lovers, so you’re not playing hard to get, right?

Unintentional disinterest had become longing for Takashi.

Of course, this was not a good pattern. The fact that it flowed this way was on the lucky side.

Takashi also had strong pride, so if his feelings were hurt past a certain line, there was a high chance he would turn away.

Just like how his relationship with Jang Si-hwan had grown distant. Kang-hoo could not be an exception either.

‘Since he didn’t mention Vincent, it looks like it still hasn’t been shared even inside Justice.’

From the content, it seemed Vincent’s death had not been shared among his colleagues. Were they hiding it on purpose?

This time we found a “labyrinth”-type dungeon located underground. There are absolutely no traces of it being cleared since the first discovery.

Let’s explore it together.

You know, right? Labyrinths are really complicated! Shin Kang-hoo, it feels like it would be really fun to put our heads together and think through it with you.

‘So he found a labyrinth….’

It was a tempting proposal.

Kang-hoo’s eyelid twitched.

Among all dungeon types, labyrinths were the most dangerous—and precisely because of that, they could become a field of opportunity.

It seemed things were going to go well.