“Hyung, wait a second. I have a favor to ask.”
At that, Jurim sat back down and asked indifferently,
“What is it?”
“Hyung, can I take Biat’s Void? I ended up smashing Biat’s Yearning and eating it, so… tee-hee!”
Jurim frowned and pressed hard against his temple.
“Fine, do that. But that thing’s at the Bureau right now.”
“What? Why? The two of us—no, Hyeonak caught it, didn’t he?”
When Jurim’s expression hardened at the words the two of us, Gidan swiftly corrected himself.
The fact that Geuru had taken part in this Malikian raid was top secret, so he had to choose his words carefully.
“Watch what you say.”
“Yes, sir…”
Jurim seemed to hesitate for a moment, then opened his mouth.
“Did you notice anything strange about Malikian?”
“Strange? …Wasn’t that thing born looking strange?”
True. Recalling those three grotesque eyes, Geuru inwardly agreed.
“From what I hear, there was a rat inside the Bureau. And that rat was the one who released Malikian into the dungeon.”
Gidan gaped blankly. He had thought running into Malikian again after it had escaped was all just a terrible coincidence.
“Is that… even possible? Moving an S-rank monster around like that?”
Subjugating an S-rank monster was one thing. But capturing it alive and moving it wherever one wanted was so difficult he had never even imagined it.
Jurim rested his chin on his hand and tapped the armrest.
“There is one place that could make it possible.”
It was then.
Jurim and Gidan immediately turned their heads toward the hospital room door.
“Huh? What is it?”
Geuru looked blankly between the two of them, then stared at the door as well.
“There’s nothing there, though?”
At that moment, knock knock. Someone knocked and opened the hospital room door.
“Excuse me. I’m here to see Hunter Gidan. Would you be able to spare me a moment?”
Geuru’s face lit up in delight.
“Mister!”
Mister Jin Siwon. The S-rank guardian candidate she had met at the Awakened Center!
She had been worried she might never see him again, but now they had met in such an unexpected place!
“Hewwo!”
“We meet again, cute little princess.”
How adorable. Siwon smiled and reached out as if to stroke Geuru’s head, then, as though sensing something, abruptly withdrew his hand.
Gidan asked sharply,
“You two know each other?”
“We met briefly before at the Awakened Registration Center…”
Nod, nod.
“Ah! I’m not a suspicious person. I’m Jin Siwon, team leader of the Special Investigation Division at the Awakened Management Bureau.”
“Jin Siwon? That Jin Siwon?”
Receiving Gidan’s wary gaze with his whole body, he forced the corners of his mouth up into a smile.
“I’m probably that Jin Siwon. Here, my business card…”
He held out a business card.
When Gidan did not lower his guard, Jurim slowly opened his mouth.
“Gidan.”
Gidan glanced once at Jurim, who looked calm, then put the dagger he had secretly taken out away from Geuru’s sight back into his inventory.
Siwon smiled with a somewhat troubled expression.
The instant he had reached out toward the child, both of their gazes had turned so sharp. The keenly honed killing intent had been enough to make him feel suffocated.
“Hunter Gidan, are you feeling all right?”
“What brings you here?”
Though he tried to be polite, Gidan only asked back with an extremely sullen expression.
“Ah, it’s nothing else. I’m here to ask a few questions as part of the investigation into Malikian.”
“Go ahead.”
Gidan lifted an eyebrow.
“Do you happen to know about Gnosis?”
“I do. Is there any Hunter in the world who doesn’t know Gnosis?”
Gidan replied curtly with his arms crossed.
“Haha, is that so?”
When he laughed softly, his drooping eyes narrowed into slits.
Saying he would ask a few questions, Siwon took his phone from his inner pocket—and dropped it.
Tap.
Jurim caught it and handed it back to him.
“Th-thank you, Guildmaster On.”
Siwon’s face turned bright red as he bowed in flustered embarrassment.
At his awkward demeanor, Gidan’s brows rose to their limit.
“That’s Jin Siwon?”
Jin Siwon.
The man who had caused a great stir in the Hunter world by rising to second place in the rankings the moment he defected to Korea.
Gidan remembered that there had been quite a controversy for a while over what a man who had formerly belonged to a national intelligence agency had been doing before his defection.
Ranking points could usually be obtained by killing monsters inside dungeons.
But it was also possible to gain points through skill usage.
However, the points obtained that way were negligible, so it was generally accepted that ranking points were earned through activity inside dungeons.
Most people knew it that way, but in truth, there was one more method.
When one killed a Hunter.
The killer absorbed all of the other person’s ranking points.
But even if one gathered ranking points, the only thing one could obtain was the honor of being a ranker. For that reason, extreme incidents like attacking Hunters to raise one’s ranking rarely occurred.
The Bureau, too, tended not to announce it publicly in order to eliminate any potential what-ifs.
The curiosity of the few in Korea who knew this was as follows.
After the Great Cataclysm, Korea had become one of the foremost powerful nations.
That meant no matter how outstanding a Hunter was in their own country, it would not be easy to survive among Korea’s rankers.
And yet, had a defector who belonged to the intelligence agency of a fallen nation really been active enough inside dungeons to rise to second place in Korea’s rankings in one fell swoop?
Or…
Had he, outside of dungeons, been performing “acts that allowed him to gather points”?
Whether he was pretending not to notice that wariness, or truly did not know, he merely smiled awkwardly at Geuru and asked, “Should I peel you an apple?”
Of course, since he had not participated in any public activities after defecting, interest in him had quickly died down, and his ranking had now fallen considerably.
Because Jin Siwon’s second-place debut after his defection had ignited competitiveness among those at the very top, setting off a race for points.
“On our end, we believe Malikian was contaminated and mutated by Gnosis. I came by to ask if there were any parts that seemed strange, or anything that comes to mind.”
“Well… I’m not sure… I don’t know enough to tell what would be special.”
When Gidan shook his head, Siwon nodded lightly.
“Then did you perhaps see anyone else inside the dungeon?”
At that moment, Jurim tapped the armrest.
“Team Leader Jin.”
“Yes.”
Siwon turned his head.
“We have already delivered every detail regarding the Malikian raid in a clear and orderly manner. So first, please explain why you have come all the way to a hospital room to repeat the same questions to a patient. I will listen, determine whether the reason is appropriate, and then decide whether to answer.”
Jurim smiled with only his lips.
“As you know, this one is a minor, and I am acting as his guardian.”
Siwon scratched his cheek as if troubled.
“Ah, I’m just following the procedure handed down from above… If this made you uncomfortable—”
“It has.”
Jurim deliberately gave a cutting answer to divert his attention. It was to keep him from realizing that there had been one more person in the Malikian raid.
“Please understand. Since those superiors of yours left Hyeonak with all sorts of cleanup to handle.”
“O-of course, I’m sure they did. I apologize. We will also do our best to return Hyeonak’s items as quickly as possible once the investigation into Gnosis is over.”
Just as Jurim intended, the dazed man faltered in confusion and offered an awkward apology.
Then Geuru, who had been listening quietly, softly opened her mouth.
“Mister, what’s Gunosis? Is Gnosis a bad bad guy?”
“Ah…”
Unsure how to explain, Siwon trailed off and stroked his chin.
Gnosis.
To the public, they were known as terrorists, but they were different from other terrorist organizations. They had no political or ideological goals, nor any demands.
The identity of their founder was unknown, as was their purpose.
All that was known was that they were a “group of researchers” who repeatedly conducted some sort of experiments by applying the “System” that had appeared after the Great Cataclysm.
And those experiments had been conducted all over the world, included unethical acts that disregarded any means or methods, and had produced countless victims.