The air inside the abandoned factory was filled with a chill that verged on the acrid scent of iron. Somyeong strolled in sipping a freshly opened can of coffee. Before him, five men stood clutching their weapons. The crimson emblem of the Sun Guild was branded clearly on each of their chests.
"What the hell is this porter?"
The man on the far left snorted and idly twirled a dagger. The clink of drink cans in the plastic bag Somyeong carried broke the silence. To them, Somyeong was nothing more than an intruder who had taken a wrong turn, or prey that had walked to its death of its own accord.
"Is it because of you that Kim Seungtae went dark?"
The man in the center, who appeared to be the leader, growled low. He glanced at the crumpled steel gate at Somyeong's feet but still seemed unable to properly assess the situation. He appeared to assume Somyeong had used some machine to break the door, or that other White Tiger Guild hunters were nearby.
Somyeong drained the last sip of his canned coffee and set the empty can gently on the ground.
"Too many questions. I need to get back and deliver some drinks."
"This bastard's really lost it!"
The man with the dagger kicked off the ground and launched himself forward. His footwork was the swift movement of a B-rank hunter, but to Somyeong—who had spent a hundred years on the battlefield—it was slower than a crawling insect.
Somyeong tilted his head to avoid the dagger's arc and lightly extended his palm to the man's chest.
CRUNCH—!
With a dull impact, the man's body flew backward. Suspended in the air, he slammed into the wall and lost consciousness without managing a scream. The sound of his sternum caving in echoed through the factory, but Somyeong's expression did not change in the slightest.
"What the—?!"
"Everyone, attack! Take him down all at once!"
At the leader's shout, the remaining four men released their magical energy simultaneously. The factory interior flashed with magical energy of various colors. Greatswords swung and spear tips surged toward Somyeong's heart. But Somyeong did not move a single step.
He simply exhaled lightly and swept his hand through the air.
CRASH—!
A wave of true energy tore through the space. The charging hunters stopped mid-air as if they had struck an invisible wall. No—they had not stopped. They were flung backward. Their magical energy barriers were ripped apart like paper before Somyeong's true energy, and the weapons they held crumbled to dust and scattered.
"AAARGH!"
"My arm...... my arm!"
Screams erupted. The men rolling on the floor could not comprehend what had happened to them. They were supposed to be overwhelmingly stronger. Their opponent was a mere porter who did not even hold an F-rank hunter license.
Somyeong walked slowly over to the sole survivor still conscious—the leader—who was trembling violently. The leader tried to crawl backward, but behind him was nothing but cold concrete wall.
"Now then, ready to talk?"
Somyeong grabbed the man by the hair and lifted him. The leader's pupils were shaking violently with terror.
"What...... what are you? Which guild sent you?!"
"That's none of your concern. Just answer what I ask. The kidnapping order this time—whose head did it come from?"
A chilling energy wound around Somyeong's fingertips. The sensation of that energy tracing along the leader's neck was a powerful warning that his life could be severed at any moment.
"I'll talk! I'll tell you, so please......!"
"Talk fast. My patience isn't that long."
The leader swallowed hard and answered in a cracked voice.
"It was Director Oh Changseok, who holds the director position at the Sun Guild...... He personally ordered the elimination of a White Tiger Guild prospect. We just did as we were told!"
'Oh Changseok.'
Somyeong engraved the name in his mind. The man was known as a real power broker within the Sun Guild. To make him pay for daring to touch Somyeong's sister, the roots would have to be torn out.
Just then, the leader pulled a small glass vial from his jacket and hurled it to the floor.
SHATTER—!
The vial broke, and a dark blue smoke billowed upward. It was a high-concentration lethal gas used for assassination among hunters. The leader fumbled for his gas mask with a greasy smile.
"Die! You monster!"
In an instant, Somyeong's vision was swallowed by the toxic fog. But Somyeong did not so much as blink. He lightly flicked his finger.
WHOOOOSH—!
The energy surrounding him whirled into a vortex, gathering the toxic fog into a single mass. Somyeong compressed the fog into a small sphere and shoved it directly into the leader's mouth.
"Mmph! Mmm......!"
The leader's eyes bulged as though they might pop out. He had been caught by his own poison. Somyeong looked down at him with frigid eyes and rose to his feet.
"Since it's your own poison, you must know the taste well."
Somyeong surveyed the factory interior. The fallen men were alive, but their foundations as warriors had all been destroyed. They would never function as hunters again. He flicked a finger at the scrap materials piled in the corner of the factory, sending them tumbling to cover the evidence.
Having erased every trace at the scene, Somyeong brushed the dust from his clothes. Then he picked up the plastic bag he had set down earlier.
***
The White Tiger Guild's training wing was still lively. Somyeong opened the door to Training Room 7 with a perfectly serene face, as though nothing had happened.
"Jina, your brother's back."
Jina, who had been wiping sweat and setting her sword down, spotted Somyeong and ran over with a bright smile.
"Oppa! What took so long? You said you were going to the restroom—how far did you go?"
"Oh, the convenience store was pretty crowded. Here, your favorite grape drink."
When Somyeong handed over a cold can, Jina grabbed it and drained it in one go. She noticed his sleeve was slightly wrinkled and tilted her head.
"Oppa, what happened to your clothes? Did you trip or something?"
"Hm? Oh, I almost stumbled on the way back. Guess the porter life hasn't sunk in yet."
Somyeong laughed breezily and stroked Jina's hair. Jina assumed her brother was just a bit clumsy and turned back to her training. Never once did she imagine that her brother had just waged a blood-reeking battle at an abandoned factory on the city outskirts.
'That's right. You just keep smiling like this.'
Somyeong sat on the bench and watched Jina train. His gaze, when turned toward his sister, was warmer than anyone else's in the world. But behind that warmth lay a razor-sharp sword energy, poised to tear apart any enemy at a moment's notice.
***
Late at night. A high-rise office at the Sun Guild headquarters.
A man in a tailored suit was tapping his fingers on his desk, staring down at the night skyline through the window. Oh Changseok, the Sun Guild's Strategic Director.
"Report?"
At his question, the secretary standing behind him bowed her head.
"Still no contact. Strike Team 3, dispatched to the field, has gone completely dark."
"What? That's a team with four B-rank hunters and an A-rank leader. How hard can it be to kidnap one White Tiger Guild rookie?"
Oh Changseok's voice grew rough. The Sun Guild had been targeting the White Tiger Guild's rising stars as part of its recent expansion. Kang Jina, with her abnormally high measurement data, was a target whose bud had to be cut without fail.
"According to the report from the scout team we rushed to the scene...... the interior of the abandoned factory has been completely devastated. All team members were found crippled, and the magical energy signatures at the scene had been wiped clean."
"Devastated? Did the White Tiger Guild assign bodyguards?"
"That's...... there are no witnesses, and all the CCTV was disabled in advance, so it's difficult to confirm. However, there is one anomaly."
The secretary offered a tablet PC. On the screen was a photograph of the destroyed steel gate at the factory entrance.
"This was not caused by a machine or by magical energy. The analysis team at the Hunter Association reports that it was crumpled in a single impact by pure physical strength, or an equivalent force. They assess a high probability that the perpetrator possesses S-rank or above physical capability."
Oh Changseok's face went pale. S-rank. The absolute apex, of which only a handful existed in the entire country. He had never received any report of such an individual hiding within the White Tiger Guild.
"Behind Kang Jina...... there is a monster we don't know about?"
Oh Changseok lit a cigarette with a trembling hand. The flame flickered in his pupils. A primal fear of the unknown began to corrode the heart of the Sun Guild.
What they had provoked was no mere genius girl. It was a colossal tsunami hidden beneath a calm sea—one that had weathered a hundred years of bloodshed and returned.
On the walk home after training, Somyeong carried Jina's bag on his back and breathed in the night air. The scent of flowers blooming along the roadside was not bad.
"Oppa, I feel like training went really well today! I have this feeling I could retake the grade assessment soon."
"Yeah? Must be because our Jina's just that talented."
"Come on, it's because you cheer me on from the sidelines! Let's go eat something good with Mom tomorrow. My treat!"
Jina's cheerful voice rang through the nighttime streets. Somyeong listened to it while fidgeting with the phone in his pocket. On the screen, information on Oh Changseok glowed quietly in the dark.
The hunt was only just beginning.
"Sure, let's go get some meat tomorrow."
At Somyeong's answer, Jina beamed and hooked her arm through his. The siblings' shadows stretched long beneath the streetlights. Behind that peaceful scene, a chilling harbinger of a great guild's downfall was quietly settling in.