Chapter 33 - Winter Sovereign (1)
TL: Boko
Editor: Frost
"It's an S-rank Raid… Aren't you being too stingy with the reward?"
"The boss itself is $150 million. We plan to divide profits from selling the magic stones separately."
"Is there any information on the scale of the raid?"
After he had excused himself from Seol Ah, he went to the window and continued the conversation.
"It looks like a large scale Raid."
"Not bad."
If it were an S-rank Raid, with the Boss yielding $150 million, and adding the profit from the sale of magic stones, there was a high chance that his profit would be higher than $300 million.
"Is there any preferential treatment?"
"We don't have anything else set up yet."
"I heard that you can reject a request for cooperation."
"Hahaha."
Hyun Sung laughed lightly in response to Sung Joon's words.
"The only thing we can readily do is increase your payment by another 10%."
"That's plenty."
The payment was measured in the several hundreds of millions, so an additional 10% would increase his profits by quite a bit. Sung Joon smiled.
"Where do I need to go?"
"Where are you right now? I'll send a car."
"I'm at the Iron Hunter training center."
"As it so happens, there's a car nearby. I'll send it to you immediately."
As soon as their conversation was finished, Sung Joon moved away from the window and turned his attention back to Seol Ah. Rather than Sung Joon, it was Seol Ah who opened her mouth first.
"I don't know why, but you have to get going, don't you?"
"They say it's urgent."
"Then you need to hurry and get going. I'll contact you next time."
Seol Ah's voice was laced with disappointment. At some point, her feelings towards Sung Joon had changed.
Now, even without Tae Seok's command, she was at the stage where she would contact him first. She had contacted him today as well without Tae Seok's orders, but she regretted that they had to part so soon.
After he said his farewells to Seol Ah, who could seldom hide her disappointment, he descended to the first floor. There was a black sedan waiting in the parking lot.
"S-rank Hunter, Mr. Kang Sung Joon?"
"That's me."
"I'm from the Bureau. I'll lead you to headquarters."
A man who wore a suit saw Sung Joon, respectfully bowed his head, and said. A different man opened the back seat of the car.
"Please get in."
Sung Joon sat in the back seat and the chauffeur, as well as the attendant sat in the driver's seat and the passenger seat respectively.
"Is it alright with you if we leave immediately?"
The attendant asked. Rather than speak, Sung Joon nodded his head and the chauffeur began to drive. The car, seating Sung Joon and two attendants, left Seoul and travelled for quite a while.
'Paju*' (*City in South Korea.)
Eventually, they arrived at their destination, in the Paju mountains at around dinnertime.
"Please get off."
The chauffeur got out first, and opened the back seat door for him. When Sung Joon got out, he immediately scanned his surroundings.
There were lines of container boxes and tents around, and several dozens of parked cars. He even saw a group of military vehicles and armed soldiers busily moving around.
"This is our headquarters. You must stay here for the time being. We've already set up amenities for you, so you won't be very uncomfortable."
The attendant said. After he had checked his watch, he opened his mouth again.
"The person in charge will arrive shortly."
"I'll be fine, so please go on with your work."
"Thank you. Then, please excuse me."
The attendant bowed towards Sung Joon to express his gratitude, and immediately left. It seemed like he was really busy with work.
He waited for around five minutes, and a man wearing a suit approached Sung Joon. The man had well kept short hair and his face was pale, looking as though he was exhausted. He smiled beamingly and greeted Sung Joon.
"Mr. Kang Sung Joon?"
Sung Joon just nodded his head and the man opened his mouth to continue.
"It's nice to meet you. My name is Im Cha Hyun, in charge of the Dungeon Bureau's Second Investigation Team."
As he introduced himself, he passed his card to Sung Joon.
"It's different from my expectations."
Sung Joon replied. He had thought that the Hunter Bureau's Team Leader Kim Hyun Sung would obviously be assigned as the one in charge.
"Because of the item of mass destruction incident caused by Kim Do Hyuk, the Hunter Bureau is in chaos. It was probably too much for them to spare some manpower."
Cha Hyun explained the situation well, in a way that Sung Joon could understand easily.
"I understand."
"Shall we go to your lodgings? I'll tell you all about the current situation on our way there."
"Please do," Sung Joon replied, and Cha Hyun began leading the way. To the side, he caught a glimpse of the containers, and above them, they had a serial number on them in order to differentiate them.
"We detected a sign of a warp gate three days ago."
"It shouldn't have been easy for you."
Most of the time, the warp gate would just open without any prior signs, so it wasn't easy to predict the Raids.
"It wasn't easy, but the sign this time was unusually large. The Bureau was somehow able to detect the sign and analyze it."
Sung Joon walked busily, following behind Cha Hyun. The headquarters was vast and it seemed like his allocated lodging was a bit far away.
"I'll continue with the explanation. Based on the Dungeon Bureau's Raid situation room, we estimate that it will be a large scale S-rank Raid at minimum."
"How large would that be? Is analysis possible?" Sung Joon asked.
Since this was the first time a large scale S-rank Raid had occurred, there was a lot he didn't know. Cha Hyun checked his tablet pc and opened his mouth.
"It'll cover the entirety of Paju City."
"So it's huge. Have you predicted when it will occur?"
"We haven't predicted the exact time, but based on the flow of mana, the Raid will occur within a week."
"A week, huh…"
Sung Joon narrowed his eyes and scanned his surroundings. Considering how they had gathered this many workers within three days, if it were to take place in one week, there were many more that should follow.
Even if the raid occurred all over Paju, he thought it was worth a go.
"We requested the cooperation of S-rank Hunters, but there have only been 5 S-rank Hunters that have responded thus far, including you, Mr. Kang Sung Joon."
The nation could ask the S-rank Hunters for their cooperation, but they could never force them to comply. Because of that, they were making an effort to put Hunters under their command to drop all the bothersome procedures.
"May I see the list?"
"Since you've agreed to cooperate, you've become an interested party, Mr. Kang Sung Joon. An S-rank Hunter has access to first class confidential information. Reading the list is not a problem."
Cha Hyun happily nodded his head and after tapping the tablet PC a few times, he showed it to Sung Joon. He saw the list of S-rank Hunters who had accepted their request to cooperate.
[6th Na Joon Yeol]
[10th Baek Ha Yeon]
[12th Cha Eun Joo]
[13th Yoo Kang Chul]
[14th Kang Sung Joon]
Excluding Na Yoon Yeol, who was a part of the Armed Police, the S-rank Hunters who had accepted their request for cooperation were all low-rank.
"The S-rank Hunters in the mid-upper ranks are slow to act. They're people who have everything, so… they probably won't move unless it's a situation that threatens to destroy the entire nation."
It seemed as though Cha Hyun saw the question that lurked in Sung Joon's eyes and spoke with an awkward smile.
"What do I need to do?"
"You're a Healer, but the Bureau has recognized that you have combat abilities that exceed that of a Combat Hunter's," Cha Hyun said.
The fact that Sung Joon's combat abilities were impressive had spread far and wide as a result of what he had done until now.
"So, we'll put you in charge of an assault team that has about 30 members."
"An assault team?"
Sung Joon furrowed his brow. He knew how hard it was to control an improvised assault team, as he had read about it on Hunter.com.
There were several Hunters who had a lot of pride which becomes more noticeable the higher rank they are.
"It might be hard to control them, but if the scope of the Raid widens, an assault team led by an S-rank Hunter is the most effective strategy."
"I don't even have a regular assault team, so would people really want to join my team, even if it's temporary?"
"We're planning on offering an additional reward as an incentive. Of course, if they disobey you, we'll act as though that reward never existed," Cha Hyun said. Sung Joon shook his head and opened his mouth.
"That's not enough. It's suicide to bring people who won't obey me into the battlefield and proceed with the mission."
He, who had been Roukel in his past life and had swept through the battlefield, knew how dangerous rebellious subordinates were, as well as what negative effects it had on his allies.
That's why he couldn't help but be pessimistic towards Cha Hyun's plan of taking command of an assault team.
Seeing his unyielding attitude, Cha Hyun sighed briefly and opened his mouth.
"Mr. Kang Sung Joon. If an 'accidental death' occurs during the Raid, we can take care of it."
"What are you talking about?"
Sung Joon didn't understand what Cha Hyun had said right off the bat. However, he then revealed the hidden meaning that lay in his words.
"I'm hoping you'll make full use of these 'accidents'."
Cha Hyun sported a frightening smile. Eventually, they stopped before an assembly of houses. He turned around towards Sung Joon and stretched out his arms.
"We've arrived."
"I thought it'd be a container, but it's much better than I expected," Sung Joon said honestly. He had sighed when he saw the headquarters jam-packed containers before.
"Please just think of this as our special consideration towards the S-rank Hunters. Of course, it won't be as comfortable as your own home. However, please think of your country, and endure for a few days."
After Cha Hyun finished, he taught Sung Joon the password. It wasn't very large on the inside, but it was cozy.
"It's not bad. It's not great either, but I looked around, and this place seems better than the other places," Rishubalt said.
The fussy Rishubalt gave it a passing mark, and Sung Joon tossed his body atop the living room sofa.
"Then I'll get going now. It was decided that I would be the one in charge of you for this occasion, so if there's anything you need, please feel free to ask. I'll send you a message that has my phone number in it."
"Is there nothing for me to do right now?"
"Not right now. Aside from an important briefing, there probably won't be anything else that takes up your valuable time."
And then Cha Hyun left.
Sung Joon sat on the sofa vacantly, and looked at the ceiling. He couldn't really think of anything that he really needed to do. He stopped sitting around with nothing to do, and left the house.
"Are you going for a walk?" Rishubalt asked, and Sung Joon nodded his head.
"Yeah, it feels like it'd be better to go for a walk and get some fresh air than to just sit in there doing nothing."
Sung Joon walked around the headquarters with nothing to do. The base was wide, and there were several things to see. As Cha Hyun had said, there were several amenities set up for the top Hunters who hated bothersome things.
He sat on a bench in an empty lot that was apparently being turned into a park. He was organizing his thoughts when he felt a familiar presence.
They had completely hid their presence and were slowly approaching, but they couldn't fool Sung Joon's sharp senses.
"Why did you come alone? Where's Ms. Choi Eun Joo?"
Sung Joon turned his head towards the direction that he felt the presence. A woman with long red hair was standing there.
"Ms. Baek Ha Yeon."
Sung Joon looked at her and smiled.
"Eun Joo is coming right now. I don't spend every day together with Eun Joo, you know."
"It was just a joke."
"I know. May I sit next to you?"
"Of course."
As soon as he gave his consent, Ha Yeon sat beside him.
/