NOVEL WEB Chapter 30 - End Point
Translator: FenrirTL
Editor: KYSOIWDI
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[ Chapter 30: End Point (2) ]
The numbers on the bankbook never change no matter how much time passes.
What? Social insurance? The social insurance I know?
What’s the point of giving me a Hunter license if they won’t even let me attack dungeons?
So, with the minimum wage of 2021, and considering the training period where they already reduce the wages, and on top of that, social insurance too?
It’s not that I disregard the importance of insurance, but this feels like they’re squeezing blood from a stone.
…Wait, what about the pension I paid while working at the Bureau? Every time I saw it deducted from my paycheck, it made my stomach hurt, but I endured it thinking about my retirement. Did that disappear? My pension? My retirement?
“I understand how you feel about fair compensation for labor… Let’s check it again later.”
Hong Seok-young completely misunderstood my silence.
Did he think I was moved? The strongest Hunter in Korea doesn’t have much of an eye for things. This amount isn’t much different from the allowance I used to get from my uncle every month.
“Anyway… Hey, boss! More beer here, please!”
Putting aside the issue of the amount, the fact that Hong Seok-young handed me my resident registration card and other documents meant a lot.
It finally meant that this man had stopped his pranks and fully accepted me as a poor victim of Bangju.
After wetting my throat with the newly arrived beer and finishing off the chicken we ordered, we got back to talking about work.
We resumed checking the photos we had been distracted from earlier. While the first photos only showed corpses, the next set included small centipede larvae. Seeing them crawling over the corpses made me feel nauseous.
Centipedes.
Were there centipedes in the Bangi-dong Dungeon? It was a D-rank dungeon, so there must be monsters, but I didn’t recall seeing any mention of monsters in the Bangi-dong Dungeon reports over the past few years.
According to what I saw on the magic clock, it was noted that early on, people had figured out that the mana stones found in dungeons had nothing to do with the monsters inside, so they had ignored them. The dungeon was so old that some parts of the report were missing, so it was unclear what kind of monsters were there.
I looked at the centipedes in the photo.
I had occasionally heard reports of finding monster eggs while extracting mana stones…
“It’s not unusual for insect-type monsters to like rotten meat, but this is too suspicious.”
Grand Mage Kim Chae-min said, waving the photo.
Most of Earth’s common sense applies to dungeon monsters too. With a few exceptions, you can usually guess by their appearance.
“Anyone can see that it looks like they were fed.”
Kim Chae-min pondered for a moment and then said.
“You said the dungeon gate was being guarded the whole time, right?”
“Yeah.”
“When did the dungeon appear? I remember it being in April.”
“April 6th.”
“Oh. That was after the Myeong-dong explosion… The dungeon was taken over by Dasun not long after that… So the dungeon was almost abandoned in the meantime, wasn’t it?”
“Probably.”
Hong Seok-young frowned.
“I was too busy to pay attention at the time… Since it’s a densely populated area, the government did check it once. It was still classified as D-rank then.”
“And nobody cared afterward, right?”
“Probably… Yeah.”
This wasn’t Hong Seok-young’s fault. It wasn’t the government’s fault either.
It was just the way things were at that time. With everyone busy dealing with the aftermath of the Myeong-dong Dungeon, a non-dangerous dungeon could be left alone for a while.
If I had thought about it…
No. Back then, I was tied up with the Awakened Crime Investigation Office and the Pilot High School. Even for me, it was impossible to go that distance without catching Hong Seok-young’s eye.
If it’s something unavoidable, it’s best not to dwell on it. It’s not my fault.
“So, if Bangju had access to the dungeon, they could have gone in as much as they wanted.”
“That… seems right?”
“You said the dungeon was unusually large for its rank… If this is Bangju’s doing, and if there’s someone else doing such things, then it’s a bigger problem, so let’s assume it’s Bangju. Maybe Bangju went into the dungeon and hasn’t come out yet?”
“…Hmm?”
“No, isn’t it possible? With a fairly capable earth attribute mage, digging and crawling into the ground is easy. It’s the method we used when we tackled a dungeon with Vietnamese Hunters before. Have you thoroughly checked the interior?”
After hesitating for a moment, Hong Seok-young shook his head.
“We only checked from the entrance to around the dungeon core. We didn’t go all the way.”
“If they’re really hiding inside, they might still be stuck there.”
“I should tell the Hunters to check it out.”
After fiddling with his phone for a moment, Hong Seok-young moved on to the next item.
“And about this rune.”
The rune he wanted to ask me about earlier.
It was roughly drawn with a marker on a dirty shirt. All the lines and shapes forming the rune were crooked.
“I heard from Mr. Woo’s class that drawing the rune accurately is the most important thing.”
“That’s… assuming a combat situation.”
I squinted my eyes. It was a rune I didn’t recognize.
Or was it? I don’t memorize every single rune.
After a brief contemplation, I spoke.
“To fix mana into a rune, accuracy is crucial. That’s how it remains stable for a long time.”
The auxiliary rune was developed by a Grand Mage in France. Bangju wouldn’t know about it. The rune scribbled haphazardly on the shirt was ruined by the centipedes crawling over it.
“You can use a poorly drawn rune, but… it’s unstable and won’t last long. I don’t know when it was drawn, but by the time you found it, the effect would have already worn off.”
“Really? Then…”
“It means either the situation was too urgent to draw it properly, or there was no need to put much effort into it.”
I had no idea what they were doing in the dungeon. Maybe they didn’t expect Dasun to take over the dungeon, but to display the corpses so openly like this?
What could Bangju be planning?
I knew a bit about what goes on at the institute, but dungeons were a different matter.
The reason Bangju got caught by Hong Seok-young in the first place was because they hastily kidnapped the kids. It’s absurd. Bangju’s operational principle is fundamentally secrecy.
Perhaps there had been some internal conflict.
“But even so, the fact that they did this means it was something they absolutely had to do, right?”
“Probably… What did you do with the bodies?”
“For security reasons, Dasun will handle it. We’ll start with autopsies.”
“Isn’t that illegal?”
“We can’t take the risk of information leaking out.”
Kim Chae-min didn’t care about that part. Instead, he was absorbed in the crudely drawn rune.
“Mr. Woo.”
“Yes?”
“Do you know what rune this is?”
“Hmm…”
The magic clock not only stores the Bureau’s data but also contains information needed for dungeon attacks.
One of those pieces of information is the Rune Encyclopedia.
As the name suggests, it contains all the runes registered with the International Rune Research Association.
If I could just check the clock, I could quickly find out what rune this is.
Should I excuse myself to the bathroom and check?
No, there’s no need to take unnecessary risks.
Besides, what if it’s a rune not stored in the magic clock? There are many runes not registered with the Rune Association, and Bangju also used their own runes, so it’s not impossible.
Yeah.
I’ll just say I don’t know.
It’s much easier to say I don’t know and then slowly reveal information later than to say I know and find out the information isn’t in the magic clock.
“So, do you know what it is?”
Hong Seok-young looked at me with hopeful eyes. It pained me to disappoint him, but I answered willingly.
“No, I don’t know this rune either.”
“There’s a rune even you don’t know?”
“How could I know every rune if I can’t even use them?”
“But Mr. Woo, you know so many runes. Every time I see you, you’re drawing a new one.”
Runes are essential knowledge for modern Hunters…
I can’t just say that casually.
“…We’ll figure out what rune it is.”
“Figure out?”
“How?”
“By just drawing it, won’t something happen?”
“You, Mr. Woo?”
If not me, then who?
“No. I’m not a mage.”
“Then who?”
“Why ask me? Isn’t Hunter Lee Mi-sun curious about this rune? Dasun should have a mage.”
“It’s hard to find a trustworthy mage.”
I tilted my head.
“Dasun doesn’t have a mage?”
“They do, but it seems they’re not as reliable as the ones we usually work with.”
Mages are difficult. Since they are so rare, they tend to leave if not treated well. I nodded.
So I looked at the trustworthy Grand Mage.
“Then, Mr. Kim Chae-min should do it.”
“What?”
“There’s no one but Mr. Kim, right?”
“Who else but Mr. Kim can do it?”
“But, I don’t know anything about runes!”
“You’re learning now, aren’t you?”
Kim Chae-min’s eyes widened.
“All you have to do is draw it, so why are you so surprised?”
“This feels unfair!”
“It’s because you’re so capable, Mr. Kim.”
“I don’t think so? I feel strange about this?”
No matter what he said, Kim Chae-min couldn’t escape his fate.
With a displeased look, Kim Chae-min drank his beer.
Well, I wasn’t planning to leave everything to him anyway. If the magic clock has information on that rune, it will reduce the trial and error. If not, I can always reverse-engineer it.
Following Kim Chae-min’s lead, I took a sip of my beer and then spoke.
“May I share my story now?”
Since the discussion about the rune was roughly concluded, it was time to move on to the next item.
“Huh? Oh, right. What was it you wanted to show us earlier?”
“This.”
I handed over the gaudy flyer again.
Kim Chae-min immediately recognized it.
“Isn’t this what Eun-young showed us?”
“Eun-young? What did you do while I was away that the kids are carrying this around?”
“She seemed to have gotten it on her way to school.”
Even under the dim lighting, the flashy text was clearly visible.
“Mana! Will you let only Awakened ones use it?”
It was off-putting to read.
Hong Seok-young’s expression crumpled as well.
“What is this? Why did someone put so much effort into writing this nonsense?”
I pointed to the text at the bottom of the flyer.
“Taegukgi Training Center.”
I got straight to the point.
“This is Bangju.”
“…What?”
Did I say it too briefly?
“It’s a branch that Bangju is setting up to recruit new members under the guise of deception.”
“…….”
The silence was unusually long.
After staring intently at the flyer for a while, Hong Seok-young finally spoke.
“This is?”
Well, any sensible Hunter would react this way.
That’s how I felt when young Yoo Ji-eun first brought up mana.
Kim Chae-min asked in a reluctant voice.
“You’re saying a group like this ‘Do You Know This Cult’ is Bangju?”
“Isn’t it pretty similar?”
“…With Bangju?”
“It’s not a religion, but it’s a cult-like organization.”
I shrugged.
“They use these to gather people and weed out the promising ones. I don’t know the details since I haven’t worked on this side… but since one of Bangju’s goals is to find artificial awakening methods, they might be looking for potential experimental subjects.”
“…….”
“…….”
“What, what did you say?”
Hong Seok-young, who had been eating the remaining chicken, dropped his piece. Kim Chae-min’s face wasn’t much different.
Why are they so surprised?
“Bangju’s goal, what is it?”
“……?”
This time, I was the one who was surprised.
“Artificial awakening methods? What’s that? Experimental subjects?!”
“Why do you think they kidnapped the kids? It was to get subjects for their experiments.”
Their reactions were odd.
I asked, just in case.
“You didn’t know?”
“…….”
“Then what did you think Bangju was?”
“…An international crime organization?”
That’s not entirely wrong, but…
How did this person manage to dismantle Bangju originally?