Chapter 28
"Here's appraisal certificate number 72. Please check it, and if anything is wrong, speak up now."
Han Chasu's gaze as he looked at the specially coated paper was turbulent. Having paid for the appraisal certificate, he trudged onto the express elevator to the first floor.
"Going down."
Along with the mechanical voice, he felt his body sink. Leaning against the glass wall and looking outside, it felt like the ground was drawing gradually closer. 'If I run, I'll get caught.' If possible, he wanted to break the window and disappear right here. Of course, he'd be caught immediately if he did.
"Hoo." The first floor was approaching. Which meant he'd soon have to meet those damned S-Ranks he couldn't stand to see.
Han Chasu looked at his reflection in the glass and swept his hair back. Beneath his neat forehead, gray eyes shone calmly. 'No matter what happens, I just need to keep my head on straight. If I show any sign of panic, it's no different from declaring defeat on the spot.' It wasn't his fault that the Cursed Specter's Earring had beaten odds of less than 1%.
Since Geum Myeonggyeol had decided to take it, item appraisal was an unavoidable procedure.
Information that would have come to light sooner or later. In that case, it was right not to be swayed and to think about his next move. 'The biggest problem is that the earring is a bound item.' Had there been anything in what he'd read about removing a bound item?
Slowly retracing his thoughts, he felt a vibration. The senders were Geum Myeonggyeol and Jeong Yiheun. Both messages said something urgent had come up and they were leaving first. 'What luck.' Han Chasu happily replied to Geum Myeonggyeol.
[Please take your time with your business.]
He didn't know what it was about, but he hoped it would take a very long time. He needed to look into how to hand over the earring in the meantime.
He sent Jeong Yiheun more or less the same thing. Then a reply arrived whose meaning he couldn't quite grasp.
[Mr. Han Chasu, I've sent someone, so don't get confused and go the wrong way.]
What was this about? It was just as he was rereading the message from Jeong Yiheun.
Ding!
The elevator doors opened with a cheerful sound. A deafening high-pitched voice instantly pierced his eardrums.
"There he is!"
"Go secure him!"
"Waaah, protect the Crow!"
"Are these crazy bastards?"
"Ah, shit. Who dispersed the fog! Go Seokjin, was it you?!"
"The Cheonreong kids are falling! Guys, go escort the Crow first!"...
So that's what they were talking about.
Beyond the wide-open elevator doors, a swarm of dark Hunters was rushing this way like storm clouds.
It seemed those damned S-Ranks had left guild members behind instead, saying they were busy.
"You there, stay where you are!"
At the forefront was a man in a black durumagi. Long navy hair fluttered in the wind along with his garments.
"Young Crow!"
Surely, were they calling him?
With a blank face, Han Chasu frantically mashed the close button. Unfortunately, the man's feet were faster than his hands.
It was the moment the man in the durumagi stepped on the elevator threshold.
"Young Crow, we are... kuk!"
"Where do you think you're going!"
A red-haired woman appeared from nowhere and slammed the man into the wall. Han Chasu let out an involuntary exclamation of admiration.
But it seemed the place he'd been thrown into was an unfortunate one. Crack, thud! Sparks flew, and the fluorescent lights flickered off in unison.
Fwoosh.
"Thanks to that, the elevator is also out."
"......."
Unbelievable.
Han Chasu took his hand off the close button and sighed. The fog that filled the first floor had reached right in front of his nose.
In the distance, he could still hear the sound of metal clashing. 'Just what were those guys thinking, sending these people?' It couldn't have been to fight, judging by common sense. But shouldn't they have at least predicted something like this would happen?
Slowly groping along the wall, someone suddenly appeared before him.
"Are you alright? I've come to escort you in place of the Guild Master!"
She was a woman with short hair that gave off a cheerful vibe. Her orange hair was vivid in the fog.
Though he racked his brain, she was someone he hadn't seen in the original work. But there was a clue to deduce her identity. 'She said she came instead of the Guild Master.' Since she hadn't said Master, this side must be the Cheonreong Guild.
Geum Myeonggyeol insisted on "Master" instead of "Guild Master," perhaps due to his mother's influence.
"First, please get out of harm's way. If you go that way...."
The woman extended her hand. A hardened hand thick with calluses from holding weapons for a long time.
Instead of taking her hand, Han Chasu raised his head. He had no intention of choosing either Geum Myeonggyeol or Jeong Yiheun. 'If I entrust myself to one side, the other will attack.' He had absolutely no desire to become a new form of hostage in this mess. And so.
Han Chasu raised his hand and pointed behind her.
"Be careful."
At that, her round eyes turned fierce, and her body spun around swiftly.
"Ack!"
It was a perfect roundhouse kick. The man in the durumagi who had approached silently was cleanly kicked away.
Watching him fall in a parabolic arc, the woman shouted.
"You phony Taoist bastard! Get lost!"
"You stand aside! Young Crow, I have come to fetch you. Come this way!"
The man sprang to his feet and reached out this way. Blood trickled down his pale face.
It was a den of madmen.
Instead of answering, Han Chasu took off his outer garment and wrapped it around his fist. It was dark inside, so he couldn't do it carefully and just wrapped it around sloppily many times.
"Get away from our VIP!"
"Ugh! Just what have you eaten to be so fierce? Did you swallow a tiger or something?!"
The two were preoccupied fighting each other. Han Chasu quickly surveyed his surroundings.
"These bastards have been interfering all along! Hey, fight fair!"
"You guys started it first!"
As the fight went on, it turned more and more into a chaotic slugfest. The atmosphere was strangely overheated.
By now they were so busy fighting each other that they paid no attention to this side. 'It's unsettling, but it's not a bad situation for me.' Hiding his body in the corner of the elevator, he downed a potion.
[Body Enhancement Potion (10 minutes)
has been consumed.]
[For 10 minutes, physical abilities including strength are enhanced.]
A feeling of his body becoming noticeably lighter. Shaking his head once, Han Chasu pressed himself against the edge of the glass window.
In his cloth-wrapped hand, a dagger had somehow appeared at some point. His ash-gray eyes scanned beyond the glass wall.
Fortunately, there was no one passing by.
Han Chasu struck straight down on the edge with force just like that.
Thud, crack....
The sound of the glass window cracking. But it was buried under the shouts and pitch-black fog, so no one noticed.
Han Chasu flicked the cracked glass window. Clack. Chunky pieces of glass covered the floor.
'Cleanly done.' Before the fog could scatter, Han Chasu quietly activated a skill.
[Presence Dilution (A)]
[Silent Footsteps (B)]
[Warning!]
[Penalties will be applied for actions that do not match your disguised identity!]
"Ugh.... Kuk!"
Damn it, so even after drinking a Body Enhancement Potion, I still get this shit.
Pain like his head was splitting apart erupted. Han Chasu barely came to his senses and carefully pulled his body outside.
'I should have taken out a Health Potion in advance....' The pain was worse than he'd thought. But it wasn't to the point that he couldn't endure it.
'Alright. At least I've avoided the worst.' He safely hid his body in the alley shadows. Han Chasu quickly deactivated the skills.
It was the moment he let out a sigh of relief.
"And what is this now?"
A low whisper brushed past his ear, and a fierce impact struck the back of his neck.
In an instant, Han Chasu lost control of his body.
"......!"
His limbs went slack like a doll with its strings cut. Before he could even struggle, someone grabbed him by the back of the neck.
"You're using something funny."
"Could he be with them?"
"Who knows. He could be one of them, or a victim. Or just a suspicious guy. Anyway, we've caught him, so that's that."
A cynical voice pierced his eardrums.
"U Jeogeun."
"Yes."
"Stop watching and go in and arrest the rest of them."
With the sound of people rushing in, his breathing tightened. Han Chasu lost consciousness just like that.
* * *
Seon Huida, an A-Rank Hunter belonging to the Cheonreong Guild, sincerely wanted to turn back time.
'How did I end up in this situation?' I had clearly only come to fetch the VIP at the Guild Master's request...!
"If you resist arrest, we will open fire immediately. Drop your weapons and put both hands above your head."
In the blink of an eye, tearing through the fog, appeared Team Leader U Jeogeun of the Awakened Management Bureau. And with him, dozens of men in suits.
"Surrender, Hunter Seon Huida. And Hunter Nam Seu."
They subdued the guild members exhausted from battle in an instant, and only two remained.
"Yeeeah...."
As Seon Huida raised both hands with a tired face, Nam Seu opened his mouth.
"Team Leader U."
"Yes."
"We are victims, sir. They suddenly turned on us and attacked."
"Is that so."
"What? Hold on, hey, watch what you say. You guys ambushed us first!"
Even an F-Rank Hunter knew that starting a fight in the city center in broad daylight was no good.
That was why Seon Huida had tried not to fall for Exilis's provocation.
But it hadn't been long before things blew up. Someone on the Exilis side had suddenly attacked a Cheonreong guild member.
"Are they crazy!"
"Hey, grab them!"
Thus the situation spiraled uncontrollably. Seon Huida had also tried to control them at first, but to no avail.
"I called them phony, phony Taoists, and now they've really turned into phonies. Who attacked first... Ack, my head."
Sudden pain burrowed into his head. Why is this happening? The moment he bit his lip hard.
An intense realization rose like divine revelation, piercing through the pain.
"Wait."
"?"
"V, VIP. Where is our VIP?"
Seon Huida and Nam Seu's faces turned deathly pale at the same time.
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