03. Guild Fair (6)

Deep in the basement of the exhibition hall.

I felt an unfamiliar presence in the dark tunnel where no light entered.

Two shadows hid themselves in the darkness.

They were members of the Irregulars, Manmaryeons, and Demon Worshipers who belonged outside of society.

“It’s about time.”

A man in armor with his back against the tunnel wall with his arms crossed with an arrogant expression.

His name is Namgoong Min, who has a body reminiscent of a bear.

He was an A-ranked criminal belonging to Manma-ryun.

He was wearing a helmet in the exhibition hall, but now he took off the heavy and stuffy-looking helmet and looked at the other person with a sullen expression.

“Hey, anchovies. Did you prepare well?”

“hahahaha, you speak easily. Do you know how hard it was to work while avoiding the eyes of the public eye?”

“Baby. Just tell me if you did or not.”

Why is your tongue so long? Continuing to talk behind his back, Namgung-min spat on the floor in a cheeky manner.

A man with a gentle impression looking at him.

He was dressed in a sloppy brown suit and looked nothing but an ordinary office worker.

However, his true identity is an executive of a demon worshiper’s organization and a criminal belonging to Manma.

Although he was not officially on the international wanted list, unofficially he is an Awakener with an A-rank in danger, just like Namgoong Min.

Sung Min-soo laughed with a weak attitude like a member of society who was tired of life, but the magic that emanated from him was absolutely unusual.

“hehehe… It’s okay. All engraved. Once the spell is activated, the exhibition hall will be completely sealed.”

“Hmm. Since this body directly followed what you told me to do, the effect should be certain.”

“Yes, yes, of course. This is all thanks to Namgoong-min.”

Seong Min-soo suppressed his desire to grin, “You foolish Gomtaeng bastard.”

It is true that he, a devil worshiper, was able to move around the venue relatively easily thanks to the fact that he spread the incense throughout the venue.

Remnant spirit demon incense is a diluted demonic energy that has the property of sticking to the magical energy in the air. When sprayed with this, no search skill can distinguish between a demon worshiper and an awakened person within that range.

Even if you’re not extremely sensitive, it’s hard to notice. It was because the amount of demonic energy itself was insignificant.

A rare masterpiece by the alchemists belonging to the devil worshipers.

Of course, I can’t hide the fact that I sprayed the incense, but I also prepared for that. He has already sprinkled the cup of Honma incense to overflowing levels in designated areas around New Seoul.

That wasn’t enough, so he even used S-rank criminals Rachel and Kung Tao as bait to keep the eyes of the public security and the guild away.

The stupid public security and guild hunters won’t even know where our true goal is.

Of course, Seong Min-soo, who was so confident, didn’t even notice in his dreams that he was being tracked by the item effect, not the skill.

He had never even heard of an item that could track a demon worshiper without being detected by them.

Unaware of the fact that their identities had already been identified, Seong Min-soo and Namgoong-min waited for the scheduled time in a dark tunnel.

“Tsk, by the way, what kind of trouble is this because of that damn bastard Lee Kang-hoo?”

“I can’t help it. The Serim Group went bankrupt before we even took over what we hid in the underground lab.”

The reason why 10,000 people come all the way to Korea and go through such hardships.

It was because the Serim Group, which had been secretly dealing with them behind the scenes, was discovered by the Korean government and went bankrupt.

It doesn’t really matter if it’s ruined. Chairman Lee Kang-hoo had sufficient insurance in preparation for this kind of incident, so he must have become an idiot who couldn’t say a word in prison by now.

The problem is that the ‘black jade’ that was supposed to be handed over to the Serim Group has not yet been received.

It was even said that Klaproth Industries had taken over the research institute and all the research contents, so they were going crazy and jumping.

However, according to the information obtained in the highest secrecy by contacting Klaproth’s insider, the black jade is said to be an auction item for the exhibition.

I don’t know if he did it because he knew the identity of the black jade, or because he didn’t know, so he thoughtlessly put it up for auction, but as a man, he had no intention of missing out on this opportunity.

“Oh no, it hurts a little bit. Isn’t this too cumbersome? Yes?”

“What do you mean?”

“Wouldn’t it be enough to just break into the safe and take it from you? I’m going to kill all the guards or anyone who gets in my way.”

Saying that, Namgoong-min’s eyes were sparkling with anticipation for the approaching slaughter.

He was a man of wild animal nature, befitting his bear-like frame.

“hehehe, Mr. Namgoong Min. You say that because you don’t know anything about black jade.”

“What?”

“That black jade is still unfinished. But not from today.”

What the Serim Group inherited from the devil worshipers is a technology that converts demonic energy into magical power.

Since the technology was still in the experimental stage, Lee Hyeon-woo, who had taken the elixir, had a side effect of flowing demonic energy, but if the research was properly completed, such side effects would not have been seen.

And the fact that demonic energy can be replaced with magical energy, in other words, the opposite is also possible.

A marble that converts mana into demonic energy.

That was the identity of the black jade.

However, the newly completed jet black jade is just an empty bead.

In order for it to be useful in the future, it needs to absorb enough mana.

And coincidentally, the exhibition hall was crowded with dubious hunters from all over the world.

Even if it’s D-class or C-class, if that number gathers, enough demonic energy will gather in the black jade.

Seong Min-soo planned to use all the hunters gathered at the exhibition hall today for human sacrifice.

“I guess we should prepare for the ceremony soon. It will take some time to activate the spell.”

By the way.

“What?”

One of the devil worshipers Seong Min-soo hid as an idiot sent an urgent call.

“The item to be auctioned is gone? All?”

The location of the black jade is unclear.

It was the sound of a plan going awry.

–

When I heard from Baek Ji-soo that he was planning to aim for an auction, I thought of what it would be like to steal things in advance.

If you steal something, the auction will be canceled, and if you don’t have anything to steal, there’s no reason for Manbillyeon to risk terrorism.

Of course, stealing items in a safe without anyone knowing is impossible, no matter how blank it is.

Of course, the inside of the safe is equipped to prevent space transfer, and we don’t even know where the items were placed in the first place.

If Lee Byung-jun had told me that, he would have been of great help, but without him, I had no choice but to come up with a plan.

Then, after seeing Baek Ji-soo’s suggestion, an idea suddenly came to my mind.

Wouldn’t it be necessary to steal items from the safe?

Even if you make the facilitator think that the item has been stolen, there will be problems with the auction.

So I asked Baek Ji-soo. Can you secretly engrave hints to the person in charge of CCTV or the general manager of security, if possible, to all security personnel?

Baek Ji-soo was reluctant to the word collective suggestion, but in the end it seemed to succeed somehow.

The announcement that just came out was proving that.

I explained to Cha Soo-hyeok what I was going to do, hiding the details of the method or the story of Baek Ji-soo.

“I see.”

He continued, nodding his head in agreement.

“Then I have to attack right now when they are in the middle of their madness….”

Cha Soo-hyeok hardens his expression as if realizing his mistake. His gaze was directed at my wrist, which was still red.

Cha Soo-hyeok said as he gently closed and opened his eyes.

“I was impatient.”

“… ….”

I wonder if he thought that if he hadn’t caught me then, he might have located the demon worshiper by now.

Of course it could have been.

But considering the direction he was heading to a place where people were getting less and less popular anyway, it might have been difficult to follow him to the end anyway.

After all, it’s just a family. I thought about what I had to do now rather than arguing who was right or wrong.

Where did the devil worshiper disappear?

Maybe I was thinking wrong all along.

Since it was said to be a terrorism targeting an auction, I thought it was of course that they were aiming for goods, and for that reason, I knew they would hide somewhere in the venue and attack the auction house.

Because in order to take an item, of course you have to wait around it.

But the devil worshiper left the exhibit before the auction started. As if everything was ready.

There are still so many hunters who can cope with the raid, but shouldn’t there be at least one more left in order to increase the success rate even a little?

But why are you leaving?

I realized it at that moment. That they had no intention of directly raiding the auction house and taking the goods from the beginning.

Perhaps a bombing? But if it’s a bomb, there’s no way the public security couldn’t have found it.

So, is it large-scale magic? If it was a magic that would incapacitate so many people, it would take a long time to prepare, and it would be even more impossible to proceed from a distance.

It must still be around here.

As a result of analyzing the last location the demon worshiper was heading to, he knew that his destination was underground.

But the parking lot has too many floating people. It is not appropriate to secretly prepare a large-scale magic unless you intend to kill all the population that comes and goes.

You must not let anyone know.

It should not be too far from the exhibition hall.

There must also be space for large-scale magic.

“I think I know where it is.”

“… What?”

“I am in a perfect position now.”

Then the only place left was the subway.

Normal subway is impossible because of course there will be trains passing by.

In that case.

“There is a Gangnam expansion line that started construction this year, right? No construction work today because of the fair?”