Beoncheonhoe (3)
After the battle in the mental world ended, Hans once again rummaged through the Beoncheonhoe executive’s brain and extracted information.
It was possible because, though the mental world had been devastated in the aftermath of the battle, the physical brain had not been damaged all that badly.
Of course, it had been affected to some extent and suffered considerable losses, but that much had to be accepted.
‘Hmm, still, it wasn’t as easy as I thought.’
The fight against the Beoncheonhoe leadership that had unfolded in the mental world.
At first, he had thought he could win easily with 「Mind Hub」 alone, but perhaps the other side also had a related unique skill, because he was not easy to deal with.
Well, it made sense. That must have been how he planted restraints in other people’s mental worlds and wandered around as he pleased.
The man’s mental strength was at an astonishing level, but Hans, who had concentrated the avatars’ resources, was not inferior to him either.
However, whatever unique skill the man possessed, every time Hans allowed one of his attacks through, 「Clear Mirror, Still Water」 wavered and the amount of information flooding into 「Mind Hub」 exploded.
Hans was already keeping 「Mind Hub」 constantly active in order to resist the continuous mental contamination flowing in from the “Fragment of the Immortal King.”
In that situation, the enemy’s attacks kept accumulating, and the blocked information even began to backflow, putting him in danger.
‘So I just let go.’
A rebellion erupting from within during a war, and an enemy assault coming from without.
What need was there to get caught between them and suffer?
He simply threw open the enemy’s invasion route and guided them toward the rebels, while concentrating his forces on the opposite side to thoroughly block off the homeland.
The enemy troops, knowing nothing, instinctively charged at the rebels...
And the result was a splendid victory for the rebels.
Even the church had called it “a mental contamination no being can overcome,” after all.
There was no way the man’s attack would work on the fragment, a mass of malice incarnate.
In the process, the mental world that became the battlefield was ravaged and left in tatters, but since the man was going to die anyway, it had nothing to do with me.
Yes, from the very beginning, even the land where the war broke out had been an enemy colony.
‘It was a trick only possible this time because it was someone else’s mental world, and because I was in a spiritual-body state.’
Still, if the result was good, was that not all that mattered?
I had simply watched the fight at leisure...
And after the green spiritual body, mad with frenzy, was torn apart by the black one that rushed at him and barely escaped, I leisurely put the leash back on the fragment that had lost its opponent.
‘Still, it’s a bit of a shame I let him get away.’
With his spiritual body damaged to that extent, he would never be unharmed, but it was regrettable that I had not been able to finish him off for certain.
On top of that, aside from the information gained through conversation, there had not been any particular profit. Rather, the memories I could have obtained from the executive’s brain had only been damaged.
But it was a little too early to voice such impressions.
《The individual has plundered another’s karma and gained enlightenment. Skill 「Black Magic」 evolves into special skill 「Path of Magic」.》
‘Huh? All of a sudden?’
Of course, from some point on, he had felt as though he was approaching some kind of limit, but he had thought he would still need a bit more time...
But soon, he understood the reason.
[Oh-ho, I absorbed the remnants of the spiritual body scattered through the mental world. This is an unexpected gain, isn’t it?]
In the process of reading the executive’s memories with dark mana, fragments of the green spiritual body scattered through that mental world had been drawn in as well.
Along with all sorts of knowledge and enlightenment attached to them.
And the statement that he had plundered karma also meant that, by the amount Hans had grown, the other party’s level had been shaved away.
‘I wondered if there might be a way to use this again... but it’s not a method that can be used ordinarily.’
The fact that the opponent had been injured while in a spiritual-body state, and that the mental world where those remnants had been scattered had been devastated and reduced to something like a lifeless object that had lost its function.
And the fact that an undead, whose very existence was defined by deficiency, had been forcibly connected to the mental world through black magic.
All of those factors had worked together.
Of course, this too was a dangerous act that could cause mental contamination, but as always, that had nothing to do with me.
‘Leaving the other conditions aside, I’d need as a sacrifice someone capable of invading another person’s mind as a spiritual body... There can’t be many people with an ability like that.’
The man who had suffered at his hands this time would probably tuck his tail between his legs and flee the moment they met again.
It was best to regard this as a special case.
Still, thanks to it, he had been able to cross the wall, so he could celebrate for now.
Because thanks to 「Path of Magic」, he could now broaden his reach not only into black magic, but into other fields as well.
‘Of course, there are things I need to handle before that.’
Whoooong—
In an instant, dark mana surged, and Hans, wrapped in darkness, leaped across space.
His target was a place he had learned about this time.
The Seoul branch of Beoncheonhoe.
***
While Heinz remained at the villa and managed the remnants, Hans moved diligently.
Unfortunately, the coordinates he had extracted from the executive were damaged, so he could not head there immediately, but by searching the surrounding area, he was able to find their base.
Needless to say, the growth of his magic through 「Path of Magic」 was a great help in the process.
But their response was even faster than that.
‘I headed here immediately after reading his memories, and it didn’t take me that long to search the area...’
When he arrived, they were already busy clearing out the base and preparing to flee.
“Grrk... How are you here already!”
“N-no!”
Fortunately, he was not too late, so he was able to capture the ones frantically burning documents and read their memories.
[So the order has already come down...]
Though all he learned was that the upper ranks had already given the order to withdraw, and that the executives had immediately gone into hiding.
They had left the destruction of the documents to the lowest members of the branch and disappeared.
Since each of them had personally concealed their tracks, there was no information he could obtain through those who remained.
‘Still, it’s fortunate I caught one executive. I managed to salvage some information, at least.’
“Gkk, g-guuuh...”
Hans looked down at the middle-aged man struggling with his head held in Hans’s grip.
The head of the Beoncheonhoe Seoul branch’s technical research lab.
Unlike the other executives, he had gotten greedy, trying to take even one more piece of research data with him, and had missed his chance to escape, ending up captured by Hans.
Thanks to that, most of the research materials could be recovered intact, so Hans supposed he should be grateful.
Of course, that and a peaceful death were separate matters.
[Guuh... kik, kihihihik...]
Hans gave a glance at the executive who had become undead, then examined the remaining materials.
Perhaps they had prioritized handling important things such as the latest operational orders separately, because most of what remained consisted of simple content such as outlines of past operations.
Even that was a result he obtained only because he had barged in right before they blew away all the remaining materials and dispelled the magic.
The research lab head seemed to have no interest in anything except research, so he knew nothing in this area and was not much help.
‘By the way, it seems true that they’ve been active for a long time.’
Files organized by year, and small USB drives attached to them.
However, according to the information he had dug out of their heads, detailed contents were reported to the upper ranks immediately and then discarded.
In other words, the materials stored here were, literally, no more than outlines.
Hans first neatly collected everything left in the base, then moved back to the villa where Heinz was waiting.
There were still many remnants there from whom information had to be extracted.
[I expected as much, but not a single one of them is better than the first guy.]
However, Beoncheonhoe seemed to be organized in cells, and none of them had information surpassing the executive Hans had read first.
Of course, even amid that, the techniques and knowledge each had learned were of some help.
“Hmm, still, it seems things have been settled to some extent. The leadership of the hardliners in the Blood Alliance has been dealt with, and the Beoncheonhoe that helped them has tucked tail as well.”
[Krrh... After reading that executive’s memories, it seems Alpha had already been half-affiliated with Beoncheonhoe for some time. After this incident, he completely vanished.]
Heinz smacked his lips regretfully.
He truly found it a pity that he had not been able to devour Alpha, the leader of the hardliners.
Of course, considering that the trap had been quite a close call as it was, if Alpha had been present as well, there was a high chance they would not have been able to overcome them and would have fled.
Looking at it that way, they had been fortunate.
Thanks to that, he had been able to overeat until his stomach felt heavy.
Of course, if it had been the blood of someone of high caliber, he would have gulped it down greedily even if it meant vomiting up all the low-grade blood.
“With the hardliners shattered to this extent, he must know very well that even if he comes back belatedly, it will be of no use. Since he has nowhere to go, he will likely switch over to that side completely now.”
[It would have been nice if we could track him down immediately and cut off his breath for certain. A shame.]
“The Beoncheonhoe appears to be a far larger force than expected. Judging from the information so far, it does not seem to be an organization limited simply to Korea.”
[Come to think of it, there were materials we brought from their base. Since we don’t know what tricks might be hidden in them, we should check them again here.]
The sight of Hans and Heinz exchanging conversation.
Of course, it was no different from talking to himself in the process of organizing his thoughts, but right now, it did not matter.
After all, there was no one alive here besides Heinz.
Hans took out all the materials from the Beoncheonhoe branch that he had collected.
Since he had placed entire cabinets and bookshelves filled with files into subspace, it was not difficult to check the organized documents.
Hans focused on examining the research journals, while Heinz went through the operational outlines divided by year.
Since it was difficult to check even the attached USB drives right away, they were only grasping the general contents when—
“...Huh?”
Heinz found a document and froze.
Hans, who had been examining the materials, also stopped for an instant like a robot whose power had been cut.
Where Heinz’s gaze had landed.
A document with a date and location Han Seonghyeon could never forget written on it.
Was there.
***
“Ah! Mr. Heinz, you’re here?”
Around daybreak, Heinz went to find Jin Soran.
To inform her of the results of last night’s battle, and also...
“...Pardon? What happened to the hardliners? And you want to meet our leader again... No, wait. Before that, please, could you say that one more time?”
“Over the course of last night, I dealt with most of the hardliner executives except Alpha. A few Gammas dispatched to the provinces escaped, but that much should not affect the overall trend. In relation to that, I wish to speak with the leader of the moderates.”
Heinz calmly repeated what he had said in a mechanical manner.
Perhaps because she had suddenly been given such shocking information, Jin Soran seemed confused for a moment. Then she cautiously studied Heinz’s expression.
“Um... Mr. Heinz. First, I’ll try to send up a report. It’s just, we need time to verify the facts too... and this is so sudden—”
“Jin Soran.”
Heinz’s indifferent voice cut off the end of her sentence.
A sudden silence descended.
Heinz quietly looked down at her.
“......!”
A dizzyingly thick scent of blood spread heavily through the air.
Last night, after devouring countless vampires, the vampiric factors that had rapidly increased all released blood mana at once.
Under the pressure that seemed to squeeze her heart, Jin Soran froze in place and swallowed her breath.
‘I knew Mr. Heinz was strong, but I never thought it would be to this extent...!’
It was not simply that he was crushing her with the amount of blood mana.
Something was fundamentally different.
A fear that stimulated a deeper instinct, as though a predator were staring her down.
At some point, she realized that she was breathing roughly.
‘At least Level 7, perhaps even higher... This is not something I can judge.’
She quickly assessed the situation and immediately changed her stance.
“I’ll contact them right now and try to arrange a meeting as quickly as possible!”
The leader of the moderates was Level 7.
She had not felt this way even when facing that leader, so Heinz had to be considered stronger than that.
She had heard rumors that Alpha of the hardliners had reached Level 8, but since it was unconfirmed information and she had never seen him in person, that was beside the point.
“Good. Then let us also discuss measures to strengthen the Blood Alliance’s forces at that time. And the treatment of the hardliner remnants.”
“Yes, that— Pardon?”
Because Heinz now had a reason to grow his forces as quickly as possible.
The Blood Alliance was an appropriate force in that respect.
Although their military strength had decreased with the hardliners being cut away, they had existed for a long time and possessed fundamental capacity.
In terms of secrecy, information-gathering ability, and influence, they were among the top organizations in Korea’s underworld.
And since he had also gained a new ability that could put a leash on them, he intended to make use of them as much as he could.
It likely would not be a bad offer from the moderates’ perspective either.
Depending on how they accepted it, the discussion could proceed in a direction beneficial to both sides.
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