Chapter 266: Episode 266

Yusin’s car pulled away. The moment Seojin lowered the hand he’d been waving with—an uncharacteristically friendly gesture—his expression transformed.

“Where is he?”

“In the basement, sir.”

Seojin started walking, the head of security falling into step beside him.

Alchemia’s basement was so tightly secured that regular employees couldn’t access it. Naturally, there was no elevator service.

Seojin took the stairs down himself to the fourth basement level.

“AAAAAAAHHH!”

A human scream echoed up from below. As Seojin approached, a guard bowed his head and opened the door for him.

Inside, a security guard hung upside down, his legs bound by a rope looped through a pulley on the ceiling. Below him was a tub filled with water.

“M-Mr. Chairman! Please spare me!”

It was the same guard who had struck the back of Yusin’s head earlier. Seojin spoke coldly.

“Dunk him.”

At Seojin’s command, the men yanked the rope, plunging the guard into the tub. He thrashed wildly as Seojin sat down in a chair the security chief had prepared.

After a moment, Seojin raised his hand, and the guard was hauled back up.

“Cough! Cough! Gahh! Grrrgh…”

He coughed up water, whimpering.

“W-why are you doing this to me?!”

“You really don’t know why?”

At Seojin’s gesture, the guard went back into the tub. Agonized screams and frantic splashing filled the room again.

By the time he was pulled up the second time, the guard’s composure had completely shattered.

“I-I’m sorry! I’m so sorry!”

“What are you sorry for?”

“I, I… uh…”

“Put him in.”

The third dunk. Sweat trickled down the security chief’s temples. He quietly tried to intervene, warning that the man might actually die, but Seojin didn’t budge.

“Are you volunteering to go in instead, Chief?”

At the icy question, the chief snapped his back straight and stared rigidly ahead. The guard surfaced again.

“The reason.”

“Gah! Cough! Khh! I… I assaulted… the Chairman’s guest… without permission.”

“He wasn’t just a guest,” Seojin replied, his voice frigid. “He’s my benefactor.”

“I-I’ve committed a capital crime! I truly didn’t know!”

“Let him down.”

As the men untied the rope from the guard’s legs, there was a knock at the door.

“Come in.”

The door opened cautiously to reveal a middle-aged man with thinning white hair. He bowed deeply to Seojin.

“Director Park. Convene the board of directors immediately. Pull every performance report from the first and second halves of two years ago. And get ready—we’re launching a full audit of every department in Alchemia.”

“…Right this moment, sir?”

Seojin answered with a smile.

“Yes. It’s time for a thorough house cleaning.”

Director Park and Chief Choi glanced at each other.

Neither of them had ever seen Seojin smile like that before.

* * *

Republic of Korea Disaster Emergency Countermeasures Committee.

Commonly called the DEC.

It was the highest-level committee in Korea, convened only when a national calamity occurred.

“Relying too much on the Oracle was the problem! He can’t see every possible future!”

“We have been stopping disasters too easily up to now.”

“And you’re saying that now? We’re here to come up with countermeasures, so bring countermeasures!”

Veins bulged on necks. Spit flew as fingers jabbed the air, blame shifting from one person to the next. High-ranking military officials, senior bureaucrats, and renowned military experts all raised their voices in a heated argument.

The masters of Korea’s Top 10 guilds, the country’s main combat force, were there as well.

Rank 1 – Snow

Rank 2 – Aila

Rank 3 – Phantom

Rank 4 – LCM

Rank 5 – Blazer

Rank 6 – SG Company

Rank 7 – Cheiren

Rank 8 – Red Dragon (赤龍)

Rank 9 – Guardian Korea

Rank 10 – Citizen

Guilds like Unix, Black Guard, and NIX had long since vanished into the annals of history.

New guilds had appeared, old ones had been reorganized, and a few had survived to dominate the Korean scene.

The current strongest was Snow.

They were the guild that had once come close to recruiting Kim Yusin.

“The President is entering!”

At the aide’s shout, everyone in the DEC conference room rose to their feet.

A man with a warm, friendly face walked in.

“Hahaha! Ah, it’s good to see you all! It’s been a while.”

His plain, slightly shabby outfit was completely out of place at the nation’s highest-level meeting. He looked more like a neighborhood uncle who had just stopped by after working in the fields.

He went around the room, shaking hands and greeting each attendee warmly. This was Lee Deokbae, the current President of the Republic of Korea.

Elected after the infamous Park Jungyang, he was extremely popular for his gentle image, domestic policies, and his nickname: “the People’s Fool.” After greeting everyone, he took his seat.

“Oh.”

Lee Deokbae pointed to the empty spot in the center.

“The most important person isn’t here yet.”

The Association President, arriving later than the President himself.

Military officials and guild masters clicked their tongues. Had snubbing the President and acting superior become some kind of tradition for Association Presidents?

“Let’s wait a little longer. As you all know, the Association President is incredibly busy. Hahaha!”

Lee Deokbae could have easily taken issue with the tardiness, but he just laughed it off, even going so far as to make excuses for the Association President.

A short while later, the rattling of wheels echoed from the hallway as four hunters pushed carts into the conference room.

They looked as if they had just come from the field, their clothes smeared with dried blood and dirt. The hunters parked the carts front and center, then bowed their heads and stepped back.

“What is this?”

On top of each cart sat a silver platter covered with a lid.

At the sharp sound of approaching footsteps, everyone lifted their heads.

“The Association President is entering!”

Her beauty was striking: vivid red hair, a crisp uniform, a longsword at her waist, and golden eyes identical to the former Association President’s.

Hong Yeon, the current Association President and Korea’s only officially recognized Rank 1 hunter, had arrived.

“I apologize for being late.”

Her gaze was calm, her voice cool, and the atmosphere around her as sharp as frost.

If people at the Association had described Hong Yul as “a blaze that could explode at any moment,” they called Hong Yeon “a flame of ice.”

Citizens were baffled by the description, but those who had actually dealt with her insisted it was perfectly accurate.

“Welcome, Association President!”

Lee Deokbae spread his arms wide to greet her. She offered only a slight nod in acknowledgment before taking her seat and crossing her legs.

“Hahaha! Traffic must have been terrible. At this hour, Mapo Bridge is always a nightmare…”

“I was late because I was executing traitors.”

Lee Deokbae blinked at her reply.

“Traitors?”

At a gesture from Hong Yeon, the hunters who had entered with her lifted the lids from the silver platters.

A chorus of horrified gasps erupted as the stench of blood and rot filled the room.

On the platters lay human heads, every single one twisted into an expression of agony. It was clear from their faces what humiliation they had suffered just before death.

“Th-that man is from SG…!”

Among the heads was that of Cha Suhyeon, Guild Master of SG Company, ranked sixth in the TOP10.

Hong Yeon explained as if it were nothing. “After learning about the calamity, Cha Suhyeon embezzled the guild’s operating funds with his close aides and attempted to defect to China.”

The room fell silent.

The guild masters murmured amongst themselves in shock.

“This is something I cannot tolerate.”

A murderous aura bled into her voice.

“They lived high on the hog off the taxpayers’ money, but the moment a crisis hits, the first thing they do is run. Trash like that has no right to live.”

She snapped her fingers lightly.

“Come in.”

The conference room door opened, and a man shuffled in hesitantly.

“All rights and authority belonging to SG will be stripped, and all assets and resources they hold will be seized by the Association. The vacant spot in the TOP10 will be filled by the eleventh-ranked guild, MGT.”

The guild master of MGT bowed repeatedly to everyone, looking completely dazed, as if his mind had gone blank at the sudden promotion.

The other guild masters returned the greeting almost on reflex.

“Association President.”

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, who had been watching silently, spoke through gritted teeth.

“I can accept that you dealt with SG for high treason. But what is your intention, displaying human heads at such an important meeting?”

“Are you asking because you truly don’t know?” she replied, her expression unchanging. “It’s a warning. If anyone else deserts during this operation, I will hunt them to the ends of the earth and execute them.”

The color drained from every face in the room.

It was obvious from Hong Yeon’s past actions that she meant every word. This was no empty threat.

’Unbelievable. I thought things would get easier once Hong Yul was gone, but now we have Hong Yeon…’

’I actually preferred Hong Yul. At least he had some flexibility.’

’I feel like I can’t even breathe.’

Looking at the hunters under her command, Hong Yeon spoke.

“Get these disgusting faces out of my sight.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

The hunters replaced the lids on the silver platters and hurried out of the conference room.

“Begin.”

At her nod, the calamity observer who had been standing awkwardly in the back scrambled to bring up the screen.

“Th-then I will first explain the calamity announced by the Oracle.”

Once the storm had passed, the room finally settled into something resembling a proper meeting.

The guild masters forced their pounding hearts to calm and focused on the screen.

“First, the impending calamity will affect the entire planet.”

Murmurs rippled through the room.

“Simultaneous and worldwide?”

“It’s been a while since we’ve seen something on this scale.”

The observer clicked the remote, moving to the next slide.

“The calamity is named Cataclysm. It is an unprecedented event, appearing on Earth for the first time. The anomalies the Oracle has revealed so far are as follows. First, a hemispherical barrier will appear on the ground.”

An illustration appeared on the screen, showing a massive dome-like barrier spread over the center of a city.

“After a certain amount of time, the space contained within this barrier will completely swap places with a territory from another world.”

“W-what?”

“So it’s not just dungeonization, it’s an actual swap?”

“Yes. The dungeon’s territory and Earth’s territory are exchanged wholesale.”

The observer pushed his glasses up.

“Earth’s territory will be unilaterally erased, and territories from another world will be implanted across the globe. That is the basic concept of the Cataclysm.”

“Good lord…!”

“Is the end of the world really coming?”

Hong Yeon, who had been listening in silence, finally spoke.

“How do we stop it?”

“It’s similar to a dungeonization calamity.”

When the observer changed the slide, a photo of a bizarrely patterned seed appeared.

“…Seed of Sealing?”

“Yes, we believe it’s a similar type. You enter the affected area, hunt the boss monster guarding the seed, and destroy the seed. The barrier will then disappear, and the land will return to normal.”

“So this time, instead of monsters trying to break the Seed of Sealing, they’re guarding it.”

“Exactly.”

The guild master of Red Dragon, who had been listening quietly, curled his lips into a smirk.

“What? Then it’s nothing special. Why did SG run away?”

“The problem starts now. A twin calamity has been observed alongside Cataclysm.”

Everyone’s eyes flew wide.

“…There are two calamities?”

* * *

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep