Episode 223 Meeting (3)
* * *
That’s how the meeting with the two people from the Purification Guild ended.
As Kang-hu thought, perhaps because it was their first meeting, the two did not move actively anymore.
He probably came out after receiving some guidelines from Jang Si-hwan. Don’t take an overly low stance.
‘I’m sure he’ll keep his eyes on me.’
You can guess it.
Jang Si-hwan has a meticulous personality.
It is shaped like that.
After Plan A, there is always Plan B and C. The same goes for dealing with people.
If you were someone who had no contact with Jang Si-hwan until now, you might not have thought anything of it.
However, whether by chance or necessity, there were many connections with Jang Si-hwan.
That’s what happened at the observatory and what we encountered in the Golden Goblin’s mine.
Furthermore, he has a history of participating in the Hell of Judgment attack where he personally recruited external personnel.
Here, an assassin who acquired a hidden skill appeared.
Of course, he was not the only assassin worthy of being considered a suspect. Because they also came from China at the time.
However, just being on the ‘good’ list of dragons is enough to attract the attention of Jang Si-hwan, who is cautious in everything.
‘It’ll be two tracks. must.’
Gong Seok Gong and Joo Hee Go are an approach of ‘light’. And there will also be an approach of invisible ‘darkness’.
So I had no intention of letting down my guard.
In order to surpass the protagonist you created, you need the wisdom to think beyond that.
After finishing the meeting with the Purification Guild.
I said goodbye to Lee Ye-rin over the phone, who was away due to mercenary work, and went out.
Just when I thought I should go to Daejeon Station, stay in a safe hotel run directly by the Cheongan mercenary group, and stop by a bar, I got a call.
‘Majinho? ‘What’s going on?’
It was Majinho of the Guru Guild.
“Yes, this is Shin Kang-hoo.”
– hello? My name is Majinho of the Guru Guild. You remember, right?
“of course.”
– If it’s okay, would it be okay for me to meet with our two guild masters and assistant guild masters?
“Are you saying the three of you are going to come visit me? “I would like to hear your business first.”
– There is no grand reason. The two of you really want to see Shin Kang-hoo.
When I say two people, I am probably referring to Oh Yu-jin and Oh Hye-jin. I know him to be a fairly skilled prosecutor.
In fact, in the original work, the Guru Guild was a Jeju Island-based guild with a neutral position, and that was all.
It was not dealt with in depth because it was not a factor that affected Jang Si-hwan either positively or negatively.
Sisters Oh Yu-jin and Oh Hye-jin run the guild, and Ma Jin-ho is in charge of the dirty work. And we remain completely neutral.
This was exactly the issue with the Gru Guild that was dealt with in the original work. They had no interest in places other than Jeju Island.
Of course, there is no guarantee that the content of the original story will continue that way even now.
This is because the life of Shin Kang-hoo has completely changed. The butterfly effect is occurring whether we know it or not.
“Where would you like?”
– I will go to your place. We are here to meet you, so there is no need for you to go through the trouble of moving.
“Then come to Daejeon Station.”
– All right. I’m sorry for contacting you so suddenly and making a hasty schedule.
“it’s okay.”
– Then, I will leave a message as soon as the arrival time is determined.
“Of course.”
Kang Hu hung up the phone.
The purpose of coming from the Guru Guild seemed obvious. It might be to recruit people or make friends.
The atmosphere is unusual these days. This is because the world is suffering from a shortage of assassins.
From Kang-hu’s perspective, who had no need to seek out a bleeding dealer, the existence of bleeding was actually not special.
Because it comes so naturally to you. Even when playing solo, I couldn’t help but feel bad about maintaining bleeding.
However, the majority of hunters did not have the option to maintain bleeding, and their desire was greater than expected.
In particular, as the importance of bleeding increased towards the highest level hunters, the demand was also rapidly increasing.
Didn’t Ricou’s guild immediately request Ganghu to conquer a dungeon that needed a bleeding dealer?
‘If you want to increase the price further, it would be a good idea to increase the options related to bleeding.’
I felt the need to reinforce skills or linkage options related to bleeding.
I still have enough and overflowing, but if I had planned on being satisfied with that, I wouldn’t have lived this intensely.
The image of ‘eating everything by yourself’, which has become Kanghu’s identity at some point, was also Kanghu’s goal.
‘There was a warlock skill that added a bleeding option to minions. If you use this… you might be able to link up with the shadow of Shadow Walk, which is treated as a conditional minion.’
Thoughts expand.
Obtaining the key ‘skill book’ is a problem, but it is not impossible if you put your mind to it.
The problem is that this skill book is located in North Korea.
‘It’s North Korea before the start.’
Even for Kang-hu, who knows a lot, it is an unknown world that is the most difficult and lacks information.
It seemed like the northern land kept tempting him, so he burst out laughing and bit his lip.
As my greed increased… it seemed like there would be more trips to and from the north of Ground Zero.
* * *
A bar near Daejeon Station.
I didn’t choose a specific place and went to a bar in the busiest part of the city.
I chose this place because it seemed like I could drink comfortably as there were quite a few guards around.
As soon as we entered, Kanghu, who took a seat furthest from the bar’s entrance, habitually called out the menu.
Because a bartender happened to be walking this way.
“A glass of Solakium Burst.”
“yes! Solakium Ver… Huh? Wait! “Are we meeting again?”
“hmm?”
I turned my head to see if they were trying to do unnecessary construction work on a first-time customer.
There was really another person I was meeting before my eyes. It was Benny.
I saw him at Club Hades before and met him there when I went to Pyeongtaek.
“It was so hard to make money in Pyeongtaek, so I came back to Daejeon! “This was originally the home ground!”
“ah. “He went and came back.”
“Here I see you again! They say it’s inevitable when coincidences repeat, but isn’t this our fate?”
“Then I will buy the cocktails you will drink.”
“Eh… is that it? “Are there any romantic comments like fateful love or something like that?”
“doesn’t exist.”
“Tsk. Anyway, it’s nice to see you again! “I’m working because the Cheongan mercenaries are looking after me!”
The first place I met Benny was Club Hades.
Since Eclipse experienced an accident that devastated the club, the image of Eclipse cannot be good.
Perhaps that was why he left Daejeon and went to Pyeongtaek for a while.
However, there must have been someone who called him, and he must have returned because he had stable support from the Cheongan mercenaries.
Thanks to this, I no longer feel bored.
Kanghu bought Benny a cocktail and added the information fee to the price.
“oh! “The cocktails here also come with conversation tips, so you don’t have to give them separately.”
“Then shall we take it?”
“no no! That’s not it! That’s true, but I’m really grateful and I’m saying I’ll use it well. Ho Ho.”
Benny’s eyes, smiling brightly, follow his capitalist instinct and scan the number of bills handed to him by Kang-hoo.
Kanghu knows.
These bartenders bring out more advanced and closed information in proportion to the amount of money they receive.
You can’t blindly trust the bartender’s information, but it’s worth the money and fun to listen to.
And the information Benny gave earlier was highly reliable. So you didn’t have any fun with it?
But after some time.
Benny returned the money he had just received and brought out a slightly different colored Solarium Burst.
When I wondered what they were working so hard to create in a place where Kanghu’s eyes could not reach, the color changed.
“First of all, this is Cherry Blossom Solarium Burst! “Try it once and if you don’t like it, I’ll give you the original.”
“I think I was playing a strange prank.”
“If you drink it, will you think differently? “If you just drink Solakium Burst, it tastes the same, right?”
“good. But why the money?”
“I’ll just… I’ll take your heart. “I don’t know of any customers who would give me this much money so willingly.”
“Are you not satisfied with the amount?”
“no! I will truly accept your heart. “Please think of it as me living with joy today!”
Ganghu put the money he received back into his inner pocket.
Since I didn’t think they would accept it if I gave it to them directly, I was thinking of leaving it on the counter later when I left.
Benny took a sip of the cocktail Kanghu bought him and continued speaking with moistened lips.
“There are a lot of interesting stories in Daejeon these days. It’s about Eclipse, and it’s about the ranking above Kang Dong-hyun. “Have you ever heard of it?”
“Isn’t that the rumor that we’re not sure if it exists or not?”
“That is a generally well-known story. “It means that one of the people in first or second place is a foreigner.”
“Is there a 1st or 2nd place?”
“There could be both, or there could be only one. Anyway, if there are, they are both foreign hunters.”
“So does this mean Kang Dong-hyun is the boss of pants?”
“that’s right.”
Eclipse in the original work is a case of natural disintegration.
This is because after the Purification Guild declared war on crime, Eclipse’s money line was completely dried up.
Criminal organizations tend to operate based on huge amounts of money, but they could not survive because the money line was cut off.
Since then, there has been no further discussion about Kang Dong-hyun’s actions.
So there is absolutely no way to know whether a foreign hunter was behind the scenes or not.
“If it is true that foreign hunters are much higher in rank, then Kang Dong-hyun is ultimately a toy.”
“It’s fun, right?”
“Where did you hear this?”
“From Hunter, who was in Eclipse but left. To be exact, I stole it rather than heard it directly?”
It’s a story with enough weight to just pass it off as a joke. Of course, this is something that cannot be believed unconditionally.
Plausible stories.
That is the charm of the mysterious stories that bartenders tell their customers.
Although 70% of the story is false, it is interesting to hear because 30% of the truth is hidden.
As Kang-hoo’s cold eyes shined brighter than usual, Benny continued speaking excitedly.
“And it’s about the Black Lion. “This was directly told to me by an executive!”
“Sounds like fun.”
“I heard that the Black Lion is doing a lot of facility maintenance these days and paying a lot of attention to recruiting outside hunters?”
“We already had a lot of booths set up around Daejeon Station.”
“yes. That’s because a large amount of capital came in from Russia. “It seems like there was a lot of investment.”
“You don’t know where it is?”
“Yeah, I don’t know that much. In return, they said they sold part of the mining rights to one of the Maseok mines.”
“I don’t know what kind of executive he is, but he speaks so lightly that he seems to be flying around.”
“He’s a braggart guy, hoho.”
Is it because of my mood that the Qashmar Guild naturally comes to mind when Benny talks about Russian capital?
Of course, you can’t completely trust Benny’s words.
However, there were enough aspects that fit the current situation to make it difficult to dismiss it as a trivial story.
In particular, I couldn’t help but be concerned about the relationship between Eclipse and Kang-hoo, as it was a completely evil relationship from the beginning.
A story about the hidden background of two Daejeon-based organizations that was not covered in the original work.
I wondered what was hidden behind the veil.
What if Kang Dong-hyun is the top and end of Eclipse?
The scale of the bad relationship that will grow in the future may become even bigger than it is now.
Gulp-gulp-.
As my thoughts deepened, I drank the cocktail in one gulp.
‘Cherry Blossom’ Solarium Burst. It tastes better than I expected.