Obsession (1)

According to Hwang Gyo-seon’s report.

He said the mood of the entire mercenary corps was calm, since the surprise all-out attack itself had been within the range of what they had expected.

They simply thought that something bound to erupt someday had erupted a little earlier, that was all.

For that reason, he also said Lee Ye-rin had a plan prepared for this situation. He added that the conversation she had with Kang-hoo a few days ago had helped as well.

However, there was one unusual point.

In the early stage of the clash, they discovered a hunter who appeared to be an outside force, and that hunter seemed to belong to the Kashimar Guild.

The hunter himself claimed he was a Korean and said he was a mercenary, but the personal information they had identified did in fact match the Kashimar Guild.

There was nothing particularly surprising about that, since many cases in Korea had already involved people crossing over to the Kashimar Guild.

‘Maybe they believed they could use Heuksaja to seize control of the Daejeon area and so backed them internally with force.’

He had known for a long time that the Kashimar Guild was behind them. It simply had not been exposed.

If Heuksaja seized control of all Daejeon, then of course the Kashimar Guild would also profit.

For now, the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps hunters taken prisoner would, needless to say, be sold off to Russia.

Some hunters might disappear without a trace and be used as “materials” for their experiments or for conversion into bioweapons.

Still, judging from everything Hwang Gyo-seon had said, it did not seem as though the Kashimar Guild had sent many reinforcements.

Even so, they were people reputed to have been through every hardship imaginable, so there was a need to be a little more careful.

‘The conflict came earlier than expected, but this is better. If more factions get entangled, then one side might have to disappear before it ends.’

Kang-hoo thought the present battle, in which only the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps, Heuksaja, and a small degree of intervention by Kashimar Guild personnel were visible, was rather preferable.

If Eclipse or other opportunity-seeking factions like hyenas became entangled in this as well, the calculations would grow more complicated.

In other words.

It could also be interpreted to mean that Lee Ye-rin’s power was still unstable enough that Heuksaja felt it could practically target the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps on its own.

Both Heuksaja and the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps were still in the process of growing into hegemonic powers in Daejeon, rather than having fully secured their positions.

‘My goal is only one anyway. To assassinate Gwak Hyeong-seok and Gwak Hyeong-su. There is no need to view the situation microscopically.’

Kang-hoo rose from his seat.

He planned to go find the Celestial Assassin right away, tell him he would be away for a while, and then head to Daejeon.

“Master. I’m going to Daejeon for a while.”

When Kang-hoo went to find the Celestial Assassin, he conveyed the reason for his visit to him, as he had just woken up.

All preparations to enter battle immediately were already complete. His equipment was perfect as well.

After hearing Kang-hoo’s words, the Celestial Assassin asked back, as though something came to mind.

“Is there a fight?”

“Yes. It just happened.”

“The time has come.”

The Celestial Assassin nodded.

He already knew through K, and also through information he had gathered personally.

That Kang-hoo had a deeper connection than expected with Lee Ye-rin, and that his relationship with Eclipse was little different from that of sworn mortal enemies.

If so, then naturally he would not think well of Heuksaja, and thus he must have been watching this clash closely.

Even in the conversation he had with K before Kang-hoo arrived, the signs of an all-out war between the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps and Heuksaja had come up.

In any case, since they were far from Daejeon here, K had nothing to worry about personally.

But he had been certain that for Kang-hoo, who was entangled in the chain of fate, it could never be someone else’s matter. And he had been right.

The Celestial Assassin added.

“If you want to create a firm ally, then what you are thinking is right. And as you already know, the Jeonghwa Guild is…….”

“I know, Master.”

Even without hearing the rest, Kang-hoo already knew well enough what his master was trying to say.

People in the world might not know, but the Celestial Assassin, being part of Shinwol, knew the filthy true nature of the Jeonghwa Guild well.

What his master had been about to say was that, even with a long-term view, he should absolutely draw Lee Ye-rin into the position of ally.

To do that, of course, it would be right to do something that would help her in this all-out war.

For some reason, it felt gratifying.

Until not long ago.

Every moment of the path he had walked in order to stand against the Jeonghwa Guild and Jang Si-hwan had been lonely, solitary time spent alone.

But now, it felt as though he clearly had one person firmly on his side. His master knew more than he had expected.

Even if he could not perceive Kang-hoo’s innermost thoughts—his desire to change the present because he knew the future.

At the very least, he had seen through Kang-hoo’s will to walk a path opposite to Jang Si-hwan’s. That was why he was now mentioning helping Lee Ye-rin.

The moment he felt that this was not a battle he fought alone, it felt as though fighting spirit welled up from deep within his lower dantian.

It felt like adrenaline was surging explosively. A thrilling exhilaration wrapped around his whole body.

“Shall I help you?”

“No. There is no need for you to step into this matter as well, Master.”

“I see…… be careful. Even if I tell you not to overdo it, I know you will overdo it, so I cannot give you any other advice.”

“I will return after accomplishing what I set out to do and report back to you.”

“Yes. Do that.”

“Yes, Master. Then.”

Flash!

No sooner had his words ended than Kang-hoo vanished from before his eyes.

Looking at the place where his disciple’s warmth still remained, the Celestial Assassin let out an incredulous, hollow laugh.

“To think I’d live to see an assassin who can even teleport. The world is truly going to ruin, truly to ruin.”

Then, as if on impulse, the Celestial Assassin sprang from his place and, as always, took a position beside the bed and lowered himself.

“Hoo. Hoo.”

He began doing push-ups using only two fingers.

His morning goal was three hundred. There was no better number for loosening up the body simply.

Using the Dimension Plunderer’s teleportation ability, Kang-hoo was able to arrive immediately in the Daejeon Station area.

It was a point he had designated beforehand when he had previously come to receive Hematite from Lee Ye-rin.

Of course, he had not set it right in the middle of Daejeon Station, so he landed beside a deserted abandoned building nearby.

‘The battle is already underway.’

Large-scale fighting between the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps and Heuksaja was breaking out all over the Daejeon Station area.

It was not simply because the fighting was happening around the station.

Among the buildings around the station, there were quite a few that served as entrances leading to dungeons.

In other words, the building itself symbolized ownership of the dungeon, so a struggle was taking place to seize it.

For now, he activated Shadowless and Stealth, completely erasing his presence and appearance.

And on top of that, he added one more thing.

He even used the Suppression option in the second-grade bracelet Sea of Silence.

Right now, he did not need to conceal himself clumsily. He needed to hide neatly and completely.

If necessary, he also planned to use the Cross-Dress Skill. If disguising himself as a woman proved useful, then that was what he would do.

Meanwhile.

He also linked the Black Cross Flame Lotus skill, which consumed an extreme amount of mana, to the Soft Talisman.

Since it was an excellent skill for creating variables, he intended to make immediate use of it in an emergency.

‘…….’

Standing on the rooftop of the abandoned building and surveying the surroundings, Kang-hoo’s gaze deepened.

Usually, in an all-out war like this, the leader’s movements—meaning the commander’s—fell into two broad types.

Either they hid somewhere completely out of the enemy’s sight, never giving the enemy any chance at all to target them.

Or they personally moved the main force on the scene, encouraging their side, grasping the state of the battle, and intervening swiftly in the situation.

The choice changed depending on the commander’s style, but seeing Heuksaja’s aggressively offensive posture, the latter was more likely.

The core of the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps was Lee Ye-rin. There was no way Gwak Hyeong-seok and Gwak Hyeong-su would not know that.

If they wanted to catch the highly capable Lee Ye-rin, there was no way they would not know that they had to move personally.

‘They are giving up faster than I thought.’

Kang-hoo thought this as he watched members of the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps fighting fiercely at several points, then retreating without hesitation.

Around the buildings containing dungeons owned by the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps, defensive facilities had been set up rather densely.

If they truly wanted, they could have continued holding out and inflicted even more damage on Heuksaja’s hunters.

But now, after taking on the appearance of resisting fiercely, they were withdrawing sharply and cleanly the moment they pulled back.

Of course, to the eyes of the Heuksaja hunters desperately fighting on the scene, it would not be visible—that subtle current.

But from Kang-hoo’s perspective, knowing that Lee Ye-rin would commit her full strength to this all-out war…….

There was no way he could fail to recognize it as a calculated defeat and retreat.

‘Ah.’

Then.

Kang-hoo noticed a minute quantity of mana caught by his mana-tracking ability from an unexpected place.

Inside the defensive facilities that the Cheong-an Mercenary Corps had installed, he sensed a tiny amount of mana.

There was no way they would have wasted mana stones on setting up defensive structures. And even if they had, the amount was too small.

‘It is a trap.’

Something clicked in his mind.

It remained in a waiting state using only the bare minimum of mana until the moment it activated.

And then, at a specific moment, it would trigger an explosion.

This precisely made trap was invisible until it activated, unless one found it with one’s eyes directly.

Lee Ye-rin must have known.

That if she surrendered the building where the dungeon was located, Heuksaja would deploy troops to guard it.

Was that not obvious?

There was no way they would leave a dungeon—each one worth a great deal of money and opportunity—completely undefended.

The core of this all-out war was the struggle over rights and hegemony. The symbol of that was the dungeon, so ignoring it made no sense.

‘Right. Since Lee Ye-rin has Lee Go-su under her, making traps like that would not have been difficult.’

Lee Go-su.

He was a character who appeared in the original work as well.

If Kim Shin-ryeong was called a “crafting master,” then Lee Go-su was called a “trap master.” He was that good at making cunning traps.

In the original work, the time of his active role came much later than now.

But Kang-hoo was certain that the altered timeline of the present and future, changed by the altered past, had brought forward his appearance.

If it was a trap personally designed and made by Lee Go-su, then unless one had the ability to track mana like Kang-hoo, it could not be discovered.

That level of mana would not register even if one ran a mana detection machine.

Because, on the contrary, the mana of the hunter operating the detection device would be felt more strongly and cause it to malfunction.

Just then.

He had been wondering whether Lee Ye-rin might contact him, and right away, she did. Apparently she was no gentlewoman at the moment.

When he answered the phone, there was more static than he had expected. It seemed she had also turned on a jamming device out of concern for wiretapping.

Still, since the call itself could not be cut off, she was maintaining a precarious balance right on that boundary.

“Yes.”

-Are you in Daejeon?

“I just arrived.”

-Thank you for cooperating.

“The cooperation has not even started yet. Now then, the main point.”

Lee Ye-rin’s voice carried rough breathing along with it.

Kang-hoo listened more closely. There was no knowing when the call might be cut off.

Then Lee Ye-rin took one deep breath and, just as Kang-hoo had asked, brought up the most important main point.

-I will try to lure them out so the front line stretches as long as possible. If I become the bait, Gwak Hyeong-seok and Gwak Hyeong-su will definitely bite. Definitely!