Chapter 35

Chapter 34: The Way a Veteran Grows (1)

[A-grade and above players, please stop what you are doing and gather immediately at the top-floor penthouse.]

Rumble!

His phone vibrated.

A brief and abrupt order for assembly was issued, with no context provided.

“Damn, why an emergency assembly when I’m busy?”

“Don’t even get me started. I was in the middle of a raid.”

“Cough! Even if we have to, it’s getting worse lately, isn’t it?”

The players affiliated with the Black Crow Guild grumbled but gathered at the building.

The interior was quiet.

Small glass fragments remained on the floor.

It was different from usual.

Everyone tilted their heads in confusion.

“What’s going on today?”

“Is this our building… right?”

A thick sense of unease arose.

Instinctively, they felt something was wrong.

Creak!

And the moment the door was opened and they stepped inside.

The ominous feeling turned into certainty.

“What, what’s going on here?”

“Gangsu-ssi!”

“Healer… heal immediately! Right now!”

The person lying on the ground, covered in blood, was none other than the guild master, Shin Gangsu.

“It’s too late. He’s been dead for at least a few hours…”

The healer, who was checking Shin Gangsu’s condition, shook his head.

While he could treat injuries, reviving the dead was beyond his capabilities.

The guild master was dead.

Then.

Who issued the emergency assembly order?

Everyone’s gaze turned to another person in the room.

Kim Hee-woong, Shin Gangsu’s secretary.

His nervous adjustment of his glasses sparked anger.

“Kim Hee-woong!”

One of the players drew his weapon.

Rumble…

A spear over 2 meters long appeared from the subspace inventory.

The sharp weapon lunged toward Kim Hee-woong’s neck.

“Don’t leave out a single word! What happened? Right now!”

“Ha ha… Well, how did it happen…”

Kim Hee-woong glanced awkwardly to the side.

Specifically, under the table.

Is there someone else? Everyone thought so.

Thud.

A very young-looking girl with white hair appeared from under the table.

She had long silver hair and red eyes, giving off a peculiar aura.

“Haa.”

The girl scratched her head as if she were annoyed.

Despite emitting a deadly aura from various weapons, it seemed like she didn’t care.

Perhaps she was amazed by her nonchalant attitude.

“What a joke. You started all this by trusting a kid like this?”

The spear wielder clicked his tongue.

Right at that moment.

Snap.

A vein popped on Ellis’s forehead.

“Kid? You called me a kid?”

Rumble!

Red mana began to surge at that moment.

[Lv?? ‘Blood Domain’ has been activated!]

The intense killing intent that had been tightly packed in the room disappeared instantly.

A cold chill that seemed to freeze all the blood in their bodies.

Among them were players who had participated in a 1st-floor boss raid, but…

…It was incomparable.

It was on a completely different level.

“Goodness…”

“What, what kind of mana is this?”

“M, monster.”

Shiver!

The players stood frozen in place, trembling all over.

None of them dared to even think of running.

“Waaah! Y, you have to hold back. T, the boss said not to kill if possible, right?”

Kim Hee-woong was also flustered.

To run the guild, key resources were necessary.

Jin-hyuk had instructed to preserve the rankers as much as possible.

But.

“What do you know? Did you not hear what they just said to me?”

Ellis’s sanity had long been broken.

As if venting the stress she had accumulated.

Huge mana exploded.

Boom!

All the windows in the building shattered.

***

Awakeners Association in Seocho-dong.

To prove that he had passed the second test, Jin-hyuk came here first.

1:00 PM.

The exact time he had agreed upon.

Jin-hyuk checked his smartphone and looked around.

‘They should be here soon…’

Just as he thought that.

“Bro!”

“Bro! Over here. Over here!”

Two people waved their hands and approached from the side of the entrance.

Lee Tae-min and Yoo Yeon-hwa.

It hadn’t been that long since they last met.

But why?

Jin-hyuk was genuinely glad to see them.

“You’re right on time. How have you been?”

“We’ve been doing well. We even successfully cleared a B-rank dungeon on the 2nd floor!”

Lee Tae-min raised his shoulders.

“My level has also increased a lot. I’ve been hunting non-stop without sleeping.”

Yoo Yeon-hwa also had a look that seemed to ask for praise.

Indeed.

The mana they exuded had changed.

Not only had the overall amount increased, but the concentration of their mana had also become denser.

“You must have had quite an adventure.”

“Nah, not as much as you.”

“Huh?”

“Don’t pretend. The video uploaded to the ‘Hall of Fame’ yesterday. That was you, right?”

Yoo Yeon-hwa poked Jin-hyuk’s side with her elbow.

Lee Tae-min added a comment.

“Bro, why did you wear a mask? Don’t tell me you’re having a middle school syndrome again…?”

“It’s a personal matter. But… did it really stand out that much?”

To deduce it from just a mask.

No, more than that, to pinpoint his identity by associating it with middle school syndrome, wasn’t that a bit much?

He couldn’t deny that he had that kind of taste once.

But it felt a bit sad.

“It’s only you who could clear a dungeon to this extent. I figured it out right away.”

“Actually, I knew it was you the moment I saw the news.”

“Oh! Is that so?”

Jin-hyuk’s gloomy expression brightened.

Fortunately.

In many ways…

“By the way, did you really clear [Tower of Trials] around the same time as us?”

“From the video, it looked like you didn’t just memorize the patterns but were on par with the creator of [Tower of Trials]…”

The two looked at Jin-hyuk with a mix of suspicion and awe.

It was a gaze that made him feel uncomfortable.

But, it couldn’t be helped.

Right now, the [Tower of Trials] community was not just hot but on the verge of exploding due to the video uploaded yesterday.

The failure to clear the 3rd-floor boss and the successful clearance of a previously unbreakable dungeon.

These two major events intertwined, drawing the attention of many people to the masked player.

Who he was.

How far he had climbed the tower in the past.

Which guild he belonged to.

His favorite food and hobbies, and even the color of the underwear he was wearing today were all subjects of interest.

‘The reaction is quite intense.’

Jin-hyuk chuckled.

He had roughly expected it, but this was beyond his expectations.

‘Good.’

With these conditions in place, his future actions would be much smoother.

The masked him and the unmasked him.

Living two lives.

‘Both will reach the top level.’

World rankings 1st and 2nd.

At first glance, they might seem like different people, but in reality, they are the same person.

‘I will use these two conditions to gain every possible advantage.’

Thump! Thump! Thump!

Thinking about the numerous plans he had, Jin-hyuk felt his heart start to beat faster.

Then.

“Bro? Give me an answer. Really, how many floors have you climbed?”

“Hey. You can’t ask like that. Be honest. Bro, are you one of the game administrators?”

“Sis, isn’t that a bit too much?”

“No, it’s not. If not, how do you explain his actions, which are not just high but rotten?”

“…Now that you mention it, it does make sense.”

He didn’t know how the conversation had taken this turn.

It would be fun to watch them imagine, but…

“Sorry.”

Jin-hyuk smiled.

At the same time, he showed the two his smartphone screen.

[Please come to report the results of the second test by 1:15 PM.]

***

Perhaps because it wasn’t an awakening test day, the association’s interior was quite empty.

Jin-hyuk arrived at the reception desk and took out his ID.

“I’m here to receive the confirmation of passing the second test.”

“Yes, please wait a moment.”

The female staff member took Jin-hyuk’s ID.

However.

“Eh…? Mr. Kang Jin-hyuk?”

She had a startled expression like a rabbit.

The staff member alternated her gaze between the ID and Jin-hyuk, then suddenly stood up.

“Please wait a moment.”

“Huh?”

“Just a moment. Don’t go anywhere; you must wait.”

She hurriedly ran off somewhere before Jin-hyuk could even respond.

A moment later.

The person who came with the female staff member was a middle-aged man with a sharp look.

‘This is quite unexpected.’

Jin-hyuk’s eyes narrowed.

How could he not know?

Han Sang-jin, the head of the Awakeners Association.

The person in charge of all players in Korea.

[Lv2 ‘Eye of Truth’ has been activated.]

The Eye of Truth pierced through the opponent’s status window.

Ding!

——————————————————

Name: Han Sang-jin

Gender: Male

Age: 45

Level: 15

Strength 19 Agility 17 Vitality 15 Mana 15

Available Stat Points: 0

Available Coins: 0

Occupation: Administrator (行政官)

Unique Ability: Mass Command

Skills: Lv4 ‘Bureaucracy (官僚制)’, Lv4 ‘Steadfast Unity’, Lv3 ‘Mediation’, Lv3 ‘Ideological Verification’

——————————————————

[Copy Condition: The copy condition has not been updated due to an error.]

Just as Jin-hyuk was reading the status window and copy condition.

“I have been waiting for you, Player Kang Jin-hyuk.”

Han Sang-jin, who had approached, extended his hand for a handshake.

Damn.

Somehow, he felt that shaking this hand would give him a headache…

No doubt.

Han Sang-jin’s gaze. Like a predator eyeing its prey.

‘If I just stand here, I’ll end up being a troublemaker in this land of etiquette.’

Sigh.

There’s no other way.

But as Jin-hyuk was about to extend his hand, he hesitated.

He mulled over what Han Sang-jin had just said.

Something felt off.

A thick sense of alienation in the conversation.

Wait,

Wait a moment.

‘He was waiting for me to come?’

Only one examiner knew the real measurements from the first test.

To the rest, he was just one of the many F-rank players on the street.

‘For a player of the lowest rank… the head of the association moves personally?’

That doesn’t make sense.

And there’s no way the examiner would have spoken.

He would turn to ashes the moment he spoke the truth, having the ‘Soul Mark’ imprinted.

…Interesting.

This time, they must have prepared to the extent of being able to deceive even the ‘Eye’.

Jin-hyuk chuckled.

“Hey.”

“Yes? Why are you suddenly…?”

Han Sang-jin’s face was marred with confusion.

Of course, he would be confused by the sudden informal address.

But Jin-hyuk’s expression remained cold.

“Stop the amateur acting and dispel the barrier. Right now.”

“What barrier…?”

“Player Kang Jin-hyuk. What are you doing to the association head?”

“Are you going to pretend you don’t know even if I tell you this?”

Jin-hyuk’s lips curled up even more.

If he was going to take the embarrassing route instead of the easy one.

In an instant, Jin-hyuk drew a dagger and pulled his shoulder back.

Then he threw it at the ceiling.

Swoosh!

The dagger, slicing through the air, embedded itself in the ceiling.

Or rather, in what appeared to be the ceiling.

At that moment.

Crack!

The space distorted, and ripples appeared on the transparent barrier.