Signs Of Fracture (3)

Kang-hoo did not particularly want to tell Lee Ye-rin about Benny. Nothing would change even if she knew.

“Even I’m getting assassination requests now to kill the leader of the dominant force in a liberation area. So I figured the opposite kind of case would naturally exist too.”

“Ah. In any case, it seems the situation in the liberation area is becoming even more uncertain because the master of Cheonghye Guild died a sudden violent death.”

“I heard that Ebony Bone is desperate to find the secret warehouse where the drugs were hidden.”

“That’s right. It seems hunters are flocking there because of that. It’s a good chance to hit the jackpot, right?”

Kang-hoo nodded.

Hunters flocked there because there were also people gathering in order to hit the jackpot by attacking the hunters who had gathered to hit the jackpot.

And then there were others targeting those hunters as well. There was always someone flying above the one already running.

“Kang-hoo, there’s something I want to ask.”

“Go ahead.”

“How did you infiltrate Yun Cheol’s hideout? To be honest, I thought that was what would make the request difficult to carry out.”

“I have a trustworthy informant.”

He gave a vague answer.

He could not say here that it had been thanks to Benny’s help.

Even if he did know the method, there was no need to kindly share it with Lee Ye-rin.

With the success of the request itself already increasing his value, there was no reason to reveal a “trade secret.”

“I’d like to talk a bit more first. How about some tea time?”

“Let’s make it a cup of instant coffee.”

“Sounds good. I’ll make it myself. Would you wait here for a moment?”

“Yes.”

Lee Ye-rin left her seat for a moment.

Kang-hoo looked again at the Hematite in his hand. No matter how many times he looked at it, it was something that made him feel good.

Suddenly, Kang-hoo thought of Martial God’s Amusement.

It was still a Grade 4 ring.

Two were needed for a Grade 3 upgrade, three for Grade 2, and four for Grade 1.

At first glance, it looked like it consumed an absurd amount of Hematite, but there was a reason to pay attention to it.

From Grade 3 onward, because stats and options were added on a large scale, it essentially became comparable in value to an item one grade higher.

In other words, a Grade 1 Martial God’s Amusement possessed stats and options equivalent to a Grade 0 item.

That was why, when he had obtained Martial God’s Amusement before, he had decided that in the long run he should invest Hematite into it.

Now that he had three Hematites, even after upgrading it to Grade 3, one would still remain.

‘No. Unless I’m going non-stop all the way to Grade 1, raising it slowly one step at a time has too little impact.’

He soon dropped the thought.

Rather than that, he judged that it would be better to use this batch of Hematite for skill upgrades.

Besides, for the time being, he would often be dealing with hybrids in North Korean territory and dungeons elsewhere.

He considered skill upgrades more efficient, since they could produce broad, all-around effects against monsters.

Soon, Lee Ye-rin brought out the coffee.

At first, they let the conversation bloom with news from the Kimcheon Liberation Area and news from the Jeonghwa Guild that had come from the Seoul side.

Since Lee Ye-rin was such an information expert, she had a lot of interesting news. Much of it was not publicly known either.

However, even she, who was so well-informed, did not know that Benny was behind the chaos in the Kimcheon Liberation Area.

‘He definitely must have been living in the original world setting too, but there are just too many beings who never revealed their strength until the very end.’

A representative case was Benny. In the original story, Benny had not even appeared as a character.

The same was true of Shinwol, and there were many stories of the “underworld” that he had to uncover again. So many that he had not even begun to gauge them.

Someone might say this.

How could the original author not know that?

But in the end, until something was actually written out in words, no matter what had been imagined, it did not become reality within the novel.

And a novel only showed the world and characters the author wanted to show, as though a camera were following them.

But this world, which had become reality through possession, was not a plausible stage followed around by some camera.

At this very moment, countless characters were each moving with their own degree of freedom, responding to changing situations.

That was why Kang-hoo paid the greatest attention to the areas beyond the scope of the original story and beyond the scope of his unconscious.

They had not been written in the novel, nor had he ever consciously thought about them.

But from the moment the reality of the character “Shin Kang-hoo” came into being through possession, the rest of the world had been filled in along with it.

That filled-out world was also reality itself, but to Kang-hoo it was still a world he had never looked into.

Eye and Shinwol were such existences.

Because until the completion of the original story, the core structure of conflict had been the life-and-death opposition between Jang Si-hwan and Shin Kang-hoo as good and evil…….

There had been no chance for even a mention, a thought, or a small hint about higher beings above them to appear. He had not even thought about them.

As Kang-hoo’s gaze deepened at the thought that had suddenly come to him in the middle of the conversation—

“Kang-hoo?”

Lee Ye-rin called his attention back. It was the moment he felt her presence again, which he had briefly forgotten.

“Ah. Sorry. I got distracted by another thought for a moment.”

“It’s not because what I’m saying is boring, right?”

“That’s not it. Ah, there was actually something I wanted to ask.”

Kang-hoo changed the subject.

It was because he had been thinking continuously ever since selling off all the items at the market near Perth Airport.

“What is it?”

“I want to purchase a Grade 0 item or a well-made Grade 1 item. Do you sell those yourselves, or do you have customers willing to sell?”

“That…… would be difficult right now. We’ve suspended both direct sales and consignment sales altogether.”

There were broadly two reasons why a guild or organization that actively handled direct transactions and consignment trades would stop doing so.

Either their financial situation had worsened to the point that they could no longer afford to pay deposits and handle consignment deals.

Or they were preparing for battle and intended to use all items temporarily as part of their own combat power.

Few organizations were as wealthy as the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps. Even Heuksaja lagged behind Cheong-an in terms of capital.

In other words, it was not hard to infer that the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps was preparing for a major confrontation.

Perhaps thinking that her explanation had been insufficient, Lee Ye-rin took a sip of tea and continued speaking.

“In preparation for an emergency, we equipped the items we own internally according to the order set within the mercenary corps. And the consigned items were converted into emergency rentals.”

“I see.”

As expected, his guess was right.

Emergency rental.

It meant paying a large amount of money to borrow an item for a short period of time.

It was a method that was impossible without considerable trust, so it seemed Lee Ye-rin had managed her clients well all this time.

“We’re preparing for a clash with Heuksaja. No, since it’s become unavoidable, we’re preparing to collide with them.”

“Can you tell me more?”

“Since last week, Heuksaja has been deliberately picking fights. There were also some clashes at Cheongmyeong Detention Center. There were injuries too.”

“Deliberate provocation.”

“Yes. It’s one hundred percent deliberate. They blame us, but that’s not the reality. You know us. We don’t want to be harmed by others, and on the other hand, we don’t want to harm others either. If someone isn’t an enemy, we don’t even touch them.”

Kang-hoo nodded.

Part of it was true that she was taking her own side, but it was also because Lee Ye-rin was not lying.

She confronted unavoidable conflicts head-on, but thoroughly avoided conflicts that could be avoided.

Kang-hoo brought up the topic that had occurred to him ever since entering Daejeon Station.

“Commander. Have you ever thought that Eclipse might be backing Heuksaja from behind?”

“What?”

Question marks seemed to appear in Lee Ye-rin’s eyes as she asked back.

That was because even in her sharp mind, it was not an easy picture to draw.

Was that not natural?

Eclipse had lost Cheongmyeong Detention Center, which had been like its lifeline, to Heuksaja and the allied forces.

And that Eclipse would support Heuksaja from behind? That was impossible unless they had no pride at all.

“From a common-sense standpoint, it may sound absurd. But unlike Kang Dong-hyun, Kang Tae-yang is cold-headed and smart.”

“You mean Eclipse is deliberately hiding its claws and pretending to bow its head to Heuksaja?”

“I can’t know the detailed circumstances. But there must definitely be a reason why Heuksaja has suddenly become aggressive.”

“Hmm……. To begin with, Heuksaja never liked our Cheong-an. It’s just that they were more wary of Eclipse, and now that they’ve achieved their goal, they probably want to remove us.”

“From the viewpoint of confrontation, a two-way war where the superiority of power cannot be made clear is troublesome. In a three-way war, if two sides join hands, one becomes disadvantaged. But in a two-way war, it’s a one-on-one fight.”

“That’s right.”

“Even so, the reason Heuksaja is deliberately provoking disputes is probably because, psychologically, it sees itself as belonging to the side of two within a three-way war.”

“……I suddenly have chills. At the same time, I feel self-loathing because I think I looked at things too much in black-and-white terms. I thought I was seeing far ahead in my own way, but I was too stupid.”

“There’s no need to blame yourself. It’s just that, from the standpoint of a third party, I’m able to view the situation a little more broadly and on a larger scale.”

“Seen another way, if Heuksaja seems likely to secure victory against us, Eclipse might strike from behind?”

“That’s a possible scenario.”

Kang-hoo nodded at Lee Ye-rin’s prediction. It would probably also be the result Eclipse wanted most.

The reason Eclipse had chosen to back Heuksaja was simple.

If it had to turn one of the two into a definite enemy, the more troublesome side was not Heuksaja, but the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps.

Unlike the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps, whose organizational operation proceeded through a rational and valid decision-making process.

All decision-making authority and process in Heuksaja were subordinate to the brothers Gwak Hyeong-seok and Gwak Hyeong-su.

It was like an autocratic rule.

The entire organization was often dragged around by the two brothers’ impulsive, emotional, and at times reckless decisions.

In the original story, the reason Heuksaja ultimately collapsed was also because of the two brothers’ repeated blunders.

That was something that happened much later than now, but their temperaments did not seem likely to be very different even at present.

“Ha…… should we go get some air?”

Lee Ye-rin, who rarely frowned, pressed at her temples with her brows deeply furrowed.

It seemed she was feeling considerable pressure from the situation as it unfolded. Kang-hoo asked back at her words.

“Is there a place like that in the building?”

“I’ll show you something nice! There’s a place really close by where you can take off your shoes and enjoy the feel of nature.”

On the way to the Cheong-an building, everything he had seen around them had been training facilities.

There had been no walking trail where one could comfortably take off one’s shoes and stroll. Where could it be?

One minute later.

His curiosity was answered simply.

The place Lee Ye-rin brought Kang-hoo to was not outside, but a rooftop green walking area built atop the Cheong-an building.

It was larger than expected, and it had all the facilities it should have had. There was even a tightly layered barrier for safety.

A scene he had not expected.

While Kang-hoo admired the well-landscaped trees and flowers that had clearly received a great deal of care.

Lee Ye-rin, who was walking barefoot across the grass beside him while matching his stride, called out to Kang-hoo in a low voice.

“Kang-hoo.”

“Yes.”

“Perhaps…….”

“Perhaps?”

“If our Cheong-an ends up facing Heuksaja.”

“Yes.”

“Could you stand on our side and help us fight Heuksaja? I’ll make sure the compensation won’t disappoint you.”

He had thought it might happen, and as expected, it did.

Lee Ye-rin made the proposal first.