#278 Hahoe Mask Returns (3)
The Hahoe Mask's advance did not stop after raiding the Byeoncheon Society's East Asian branch located in Shanghai.
As if his absence had been a lie, he rode that momentum and began completely annihilating even the subordinate forces in the vicinity.
Afterward, very naturally, what happened in Shanghai, one of China's most prosperous cities, spread quickly across the internet.
Not only domestically in China, but also overseas across borders.
And the place that reacted most violently to that news was...
- Chinese Public Security on high alert>The Republic of Korea, a neighboring country and also the Hahoe Mask's homeland.
From the yellow journalism that copied and reported articles straight from China, to cyber wreckers who rushed in smelling views and exaggerated with all sorts of provocative phrases, all the way to media outlets with some degree of credibility.
Everyone showed interest in the news.
Of course, when something reached this scale, it was only natural, but...
Korea's internet communities were blazing even hotter than they appeared on the surface.
-What's with the class of causing trouble the moment he returns? lol After the Yakuza, now he's slamming into the Sanhehui hdd
-???: I simply got bored of wandering around Japan and took a break while sightseeing in China. Now that I'm back to work again, fellow citizens, please rest assured and return to your livelihoods!
-Bro Hahoe is back! I believed in you, bro!
└Aren't you the one who was whining and crying about where Hahoe Mask went last time?
The Hahoe Mask fan site, "Seonangdang of Dawn," which had seemed to gradually wither, began to see its traffic increase without rest from the very morning the news broke.
-All you sons of bitches who said he was dead, bang your heads. Starting with me, bang yes yes
-Quick confession. Agreed
-I too shall bang...
-Wow holy shit, but he was really alive? Could it be a fake?
└He's caused incidents on this scale, and evidence keeps popping up. Could it really be fake?
└Honestly if a perfect replacement to this degree is possible, we should just accept it as real
└For real lol
Even those who had viewed the Hahoe Mask's disappearance with skepticism switched their stance like ghosts.
No matter what they said, everyone acknowledged his capabilities and the weight of his name.
Whether that was positive or negative.
However, there were also those who could not accept the news so comfortably.
Namely, high-ranking Korean figures who had received protests from China, following Japan.
Though they had little to do with the Hahoe Mask and couldn't help but feel aggrieved, in international relations, such issues could not simply be ignored.
Wasn't diplomacy about taking some sort of action—cooperating or doing whatever—to smoothly maintain the bonds between nations?
And one axis occupying a corner of that.
"Then let's begin the emergency meeting. You all know the agenda, yes?"
At the Korean Returnee Association headquarters located in Namsan, Seoul, an executive meeting was just beginning.
"Wait, isn't this topic already finished? It just fizzled out during the Japan incident too. Why bring it up again now?"
"Right. We're busy enough as it is, why drag us here again?"
-Well, it's an unavoidable problem, isn't it? Though I don't know what we can do.
"...Can't I participate via video too? Why is Seoul forced to attend... so unfair..."
The executives gathered under the Chairman's supervision each chattered in turn.
From the branch chiefs of Seoul to the branch chiefs of provincial cities participating via video.
Unlike national institutions, since those without such formality had gathered, the conference room instantly became noisy.
It was an iron law that an Awakened's ability and position were proportional.
The executives in this place were all people who had carried themselves with some pride in their original worlds.
Heroes, nobles, organization heads, famous Names, etc...
Filled with certainty and confidence in themselves, they respected others but did not watch their tones overly much.
It would be no exaggeration to say it was truly a personnel selection centered purely on ability, thoroughly screened through real combat.
"China's protests are stronger than expected. According to the government side, pressure is coming from all directions."
Of course, to that extent, courtesy toward the strong was also absolute.
Possessing such ability meant they had survived through that many dangerous adversities.
At the Chairman's single remark, the executives who had been noisily chattering focused on his words.
"Huh? No, why would they go that far? At best he just caught some criminals, right? And I heard he only took down a few organizations near Shanghai?"
-Perhaps their pride was hurt? That he crossed over to their country and ran wild so arrogantly?
"Well, only they would know the exact reason. Perhaps among those the Hahoe Mask touched, there was someone connected to their higher-ups."
From one side of the conference room where conversation was flowing like that.
Yoon Ji-yoon, Naeje and Seoul Southern Branch Chief, who had been forcibly dragged to the seat, examined the information floating on her pad with a sulky expression.
*Definitely, it seems it really is the Hahoe Mask himself.*
They were all materials regarding the Hahoe Mask in China.
Photos of course, videos centered on CCTV footage, testimonies from witnesses, and analysis based on those.
Not even a full day had passed, yet it was an impeccably competent information gathering.
*Well, most of it is evidence China put forward, I suppose.*
The meeting was flowing sluggishly, as expected.
It was a problem without an answer from the start, so there was nothing strange about it.
Moreover, since the Hahoe Mask was in China right now, what could they possibly do at this point?
*Are they just throwing a tantrum? Trying to gain diplomatic advantage and profit from this. Those guys are more than capable of that... hm?*
Her eyes, which had been flipping through the materials, fixed on one spot.
It was a case regarding a certain building where the first anomaly had been reported.
*On the surface, an investment company. But something suspicious was discovered during investigation... this smells fishy.*
Except for that one case, the rest were largely similar.
Indiscriminate punishment against the Sanhehui and its related organizations that ruled the underworld of the surrounding area.
It was not much different from what the Hahoe Mask had done until now.
*Hahoe Mask, Hahoe Mask... come to think of it...*
But as she repeated it, something came to mind.
*Byeoncheon Society was the organization exposed after the Hahoe Mask started rampaging.*
The organization to which Alpha belonged, the Level 9 Mad Blood Demon and former leader of the Blood Alliance who had committed terrorism in her jurisdiction not long ago.
She had heard that the reason they had hidden in Korea was due to a clash with the Hahoe Mask.
*Until now I had just accepted it without much thought, but...*
Come to think of it, the Hahoe Mask's trail heading from Korea to Japan and then to China was similarly extraordinary.
Why would he go so far as to hunt criminals in other countries?
And what was the correlation between the period of disappearance during his cleanup of Japan and this Shanghai incident?
Could it be that he overturned Japan to find them, then crossed into China chasing a clue he had found?
*...I'll need to talk to Heinz.*
Truthfully, it was something she had suspected somewhat from the beginning; she just hadn't dug into it.
Regarding the relationship between the Hahoe Mask and Heterosis.
*This time, it seemed they tried to fill the Hahoe Mask's void by acting under the name Phantom... Hmm, could they be from the same world?*
Having made such a sharp conjecture, she roughly organized her thoughts and refocused on the meeting.
That was something she could slowly find out from now on.
But that too was only for a moment.
Bored by the still-sluggish proceedings, she stealthily took out her smartphone from under the desk and launched a game.
With the sound muted and using superhuman body control to try her hardest not to show any signs.
*She's playing a game.*
*A game, huh.*
*Ah, I'm jealous...*
But everyone present here was also superhuman.
Naturally, there wasn't a single attendee who failed to notice her actions.
However, only the Chairman leading the meeting furrowed his brows and glanced that way for a moment—
*Ah, I guess I really do need to spend more cash.*
Though her position was merely branch chief, no one could say anything to her, as her abilities rivaled even the Chairman's.
***Smash—!
A clamorous sound echoed through a place filled with all sorts of cutting-edge devices and miscellaneous items, forming a harmonious chaos.
If one only looked that far, it could be called the same ordinary day as always, but today, the heart of the one causing it was clearly different.
"Krrrggh—! How irritating! I feel like my insides will burst!"
Clang
— Clang
— Crash!
Though he hadn't laid a hand on them, the flasks lined up burst one by one like bombs.
As if reacting to his emotions.
"Hoo, I can't, I mustn't. At this rate, all the precious reagents will fly away."
But no sooner had he finished speaking in an effort to calm himself than the flask debris and their contents instantly returned to their places as if rewinding time.
A middle-aged man with gray-brown hair nodded slowly as if relieved after checking them again.
And then—
"I don't need them!"
Smash—! Crash—!
He pushed it straight to the floor and flung it away.
Doctor, the source of the Byeoncheon Society's technological power and the right hand of the Society Leader, ruffled his hair, stiff with nerves.
Today's news was one thing, but lately nothing was going as he wished.
A trap had been prepared for a long time, yet the vampire called Heinz, who would be the key to the "Complete Evolution Organism Project," had no intention of coming to Europe, and the reasonably useful Spirit Envoy had been done in by the suddenly appearing Hahoe Mask, had he not?
Losing him, who had controlled all of East Asia, was a very great loss.
It was obvious that control over that region would drop for the time being.
"Argh! Do you know what that item was!"
However, the point of the Doctor's anger diverged slightly from there.
"I had generously conceded it! Aah— what a waste. I was thinking of stealthily snatching it away after collecting real combat data!"
He regretted the loss of the magic engineering item he had given more than the Spirit Envoy himself.
Even though the victim this time was a high-ranking executive within the Byeoncheon Society whose rank numbered in the single digits.
*I can remake the limb assist devices, so that is one thing, but I definitely want to recover Callicas's prosthetic eye.*
Naturally, he had already had his subordinates scour the place where the East Asian branch had been.
But just as had been the case with the Hahoe Mask's victims until now, to say nothing of magic tools, they couldn't even find the Spirit Envoy's corpse there.
"I shouldn't have conceded after all! I should have just attached it to my eye... no, my forehead! If I'd done that, by now I'd have three eyes... hm?"
The Doctor, who had been muttering distractedly like that, suddenly stopped moving completely and blinked his eyes.
"Three eyes? A third eye?"
And after tilting his head a few times.
"Uohoh~! This is very interesting!"
As if he had never been angry, he raised the corners of his mouth and began to cackle.
The expression that had just been filled with anger now shimmered with nothing but curiosity.
"First, I must choose a test subject! Let's see, I'll need to make a hole in the skull and connect it to the pineal gland in the brain... so a sturdy Awakened would be best, wouldn't they!"
Then he rubbed his hands together and exited the room with light steps.
*Someone will take care of the East Asian cleanup! That woman or whatever.*
Unfortunately, the Spirit Envoy's death was already no longer on his mind.
***Right after capturing the Spirit Envoy, the highest-ranking among those he had hunted until now.
Naturally, Hans looked inside his head as well.
Expecting to finally obtain truly proper quality information this time.
*The results weren't very satisfactory, though.*
As expected of one who had reached the realm through the mental path, the work was difficult from the start.
Even if his realm was only at the edge of the Extreme, the difficulty alone surpassed the Transcendent level.
*I didn't expect that crazy bastard could even format his own brain.*
A trick that ended in an instant without giving Hans any time to intervene.
Moreover, the Spirit Envoy destroyed even his own mind in the process.
So that Hans couldn't extract any information even by using his soul.
He was truly a bastard vicious to a terrifying degree.
*It was fortunate I at least had the Orb of the Mind.*
If he hadn't borrowed the power of the orb obtained after the previous mental attack to restore even a part forensically, he really might have gained nothing!
To think he would benefit from an artifact obtained through that bastard; one truly never knew how the world would turn.
And right after obtaining rough information about them like that.
What was he doing first and foremost...
"Elder, I shall be away for a while!"
"Huh? So suddenly?"
At the Dwarf Workshop of Tarak.
Zaonic blinked his eyes at Howard's sudden words.
But despite that reaction, Howard merely nodded heavily.
"Yes, for a moment... I hope to encounter a new civilization and gain some enlightenment."
A covetous light glimmered in the eyes of the dwarf youth who was preparing to study abroad on Earth.