Synopsis and Starting Chapter Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Chapter 41
Chapter 42
Chapter 43
Chapter 44
Chapter 45
Chapter 46
Chapter 47
Chapter 48
Chapter 49
Chapter 50
Chapter 51
Chapter 52
Chapter 53
Chapter 54
Chapter 55
Chapter 56
Chapter 57
Chapter 58
Chapter 59
Chapter 60
Chapter 61
Chapter 62
Chapter 63
Chapter 64
Chapter 65
Chapter 66
Chapter 67
Chapter 68
Chapter 69
Chapter 70
Chapter 71
Chapter 72
Chapter 73
Chapter 74
Chapter 75
Chapter 76
Chapter 77
Chapter 78
Chapter 79
Chapter 80
Chapter 81
Chapter 82
Chapter 83
Chapter 84
Chapter 85
Chapter 86
Chapter 87
Chapter 88
Chapter 89
Chapter 90
Chapter 91
Chapter 92
Chapter 93
Chapter 94
Chapter 95
Chapter 96
Chapter 97
Chapter 98
Chapter 99
Chapter 100
Chapter 101
Chapter 102
Chapter 103
Chapter 104
Chapter 105 - Chapter 105
Chapter 106
Chapter 107
Chapter 108
Chapter 109
Chapter 110
Chapter 111
Chapter 112
Chapter 113
Chapter 114
Chapter 115
Chapter 116
Chapter 117
Chapter 118
Chapter 119
Chapter 120
Chapter 121
Chapter 122
Chapter 123
Chapter 124
Chapter 125
Chapter 126
Chapter 127
Chapter 128
Chapter 129
Chapter 130
Chapter 131
Chapter 132
Chapter 133
Chapter 134
Chapter 135
Chapter 136
Chapter 137
Chapter 138
Chapter 139
Chapter 140 - Chapter 140
Chapter 141
Chapter 142 - Chapter 142
Chapter 143
Chapter 144
Chapter 145
Chapter 146
Chapter 147
Chapter 148
Chapter 149
Chapter 150
Chapter 151
Chapter 152
Chapter 153
Chapter 154
Chapter 155
Chapter 156
Chapter 157
Chapter 158
Chapter 159
Chapter 160
Chapter 161
Chapter 162
Chapter 163
Chapter 164
Chapter 165
Chapter 166
Chapter 167
Chapter 168
Chapter 169
Chapter 170 - Chapter 170
Chapter 171
Chapter 172
Chapter 173
Chapter 174
Chapter 175
Chapter 176
Chapter 177
Chapter 178
Chapter 179
Chapter 180
Chapter 181
Chapter 182
Chapter 183
Chapter 184
Chapter 185
Chapter 186
Chapter 187
Chapter 188
Chapter 189
Chapter 190
Chapter 191
Chapter 192
Chapter 193
Chapter 194
Chapter 195
Chapter 196
Chapter 197
Chapter 198
Chapter 199
Chapter 200
Chapter 201
Chapter 202
Chapter 203 - Chapter 203
Chapter 204
Chapter 205
Chapter 206
Chapter 207
Chapter 208 - Chapter 208
Chapter 209
Chapter 210
Chapter 211
Chapter 212
Chapter 213
Chapter 214
Chapter 215
Chapter 216
Chapter 217
Chapter 218
Chapter 219
Chapter 220
Chapter 221
Chapter 222
Chapter 223
Chapter 224
Chapter 225
Chapter 226
Chapter 227
Chapter 228
Chapter 229
Chapter 230
Chapter 231
Chapter 232
Chapter 233
Chapter 234
Chapter 235
Chapter 236
Chapter 237
Chapter 238
Chapter 239 - Chapter 239
Chapter 240
Chapter 241
Chapter 242
Chapter 243
Chapter 244
Chapter 245
Chapter 246
Chapter 247
Chapter 248
Chapter 249
Chapter 250
Chapter 251
Chapter 252
Chapter 253
Chapter 254
Chapter 255
Chapter 256
Chapter 257
Chapter 258
Chapter 259
Chapter 260
Chapter 261
Chapter 262
Chapter 263 - Chapter 263
Chapter 264
Chapter 265
Chapter 266
Chapter 267
Chapter 268
Chapter 269
Chapter 270
Chapter 271
Chapter 272
Chapter 273
Chapter 274
Chapter 275
Chapter 276
Chapter 277
Chapter 278
Chapter 279
Chapter 280
Chapter 281
Chapter 282
Chapter 283
Chapter 284
Chapter 285
Chapter 286
Chapter 287
Chapter 288
Chapter 289
Chapter 290
Chapter 291
Chapter 292
Chapter 293
Chapter 294
Chapter 295
Chapter 296
Chapter 297 - Chapter 297
Chapter 298
Chapter 299
Chapter 300
Chapter 301
Chapter 302
Chapter 303
Chapter 304
Chapter 305
Chapter 306
Chapter 307
Chapter 308
Chapter 309
Chapter 310
Chapter 311
Chapter 312
Chapter 313
Chapter 314
Chapter 315
Chapter 316
Chapter 317
Chapter 318
Chapter 319
Chapter 320
Chapter 321
Chapter 322
Chapter 323
Chapter 324
Chapter 325
Chapter 326
Chapter 327
Chapter 328
Chapter 329
Chapter 330
Chapter 331
Chapter 332
Chapter 333
Chapter 334
Chapter 335
Chapter 336
Chapter 337
Chapter 338
Chapter 339
Chapter 340
Chapter 341
Chapter 342
Chapter 343
Chapter 344
Chapter 345
Chapter 346
Chapter 347
Chapter 348
Chapter 349
Chapter 350
Chapter 351
Chapter 352
Chapter 353
Chapter 354
Chapter 355
Chapter 356
Chapter 357
Chapter 358
Chapter 359
Chapter 360
Chapter 361
Chapter 362
Chapter 363
Chapter 364
Chapter 365
Chapter 366
Chapter 367
Chapter 368
Chapter 369
Chapter 370
Chapter 371
Chapter 372
Chapter 373
Chapter 374
Chapter 375
Chapter 376
Chapter 377
Chapter 378
Chapter 379
Chapter 380
Chapter 381
Chapter 382
Chapter 383
Chapter 384 - Chapter 384
Chapter 385
Chapter 386
Chapter 387
Chapter 388
Chapter 389
Chapter 390
Chapter 391
Chapter 392
Chapter 393
Chapter 394
Chapter 395
Chapter 396
Chapter 397
Chapter 398
Chapter 399
Chapter 400
Chapter 401
Chapter 402
Chapter 403
Chapter 404
Chapter 405
Chapter 406
Chapter 407
Chapter 408
Chapter 409
Chapter 410
Chapter 411
Chapter 412
Chapter 413
Chapter 414
Chapter 415
Chapter 416
Chapter 417
Chapter 418
Chapter 419
Chapter 420
Chapter 421
Chapter 422
Chapter 423
Chapter 424
Chapter 425
Chapter 426 - Chapter 426
Chapter 427
Chapter 428
Chapter 429
Chapter 430
Chapter 431
Chapter 432
Chapter 433
Chapter 434
Chapter 435
Chapter 436
Chapter 437
Chapter 438
Chapter 439
Chapter 440
Chapter 441
Chapter 442
Chapter 443
Chapter 444
Chapter 445
Chapter 446 - Chapter 446
Chapter 447
Chapter 448
Chapter 449
Chapter 450
Chapter 451 - Chapter 451
Chapter 452
Chapter 453
Chapter 454
Chapter 455
Chapter 456
Chapter 457
Chapter 458
Chapter 459
Chapter 460
Chapter 461
Chapter 462
Chapter 463
Chapter 464
Chapter 465
Chapter 466
Chapter 467
Chapter 468
Chapter 469
Chapter 470
Chapter 471
Chapter 472
Chapter 473
Chapter 474
Chapter 475
Chapter 476
Chapter 477
Chapter 478
Chapter 479
Chapter 480
Chapter 481
Chapter 482
Chapter 483 - Chapter 483
Chapter 484
Chapter 485
Chapter 486
Chapter 487
Chapter 488
Chapter 489
Chapter 490
Chapter 491
Chapter 492
Chapter 493
Chapter 494
Chapter 495
Chapter 496
Chapter 497
Chapter 498
Chapter 499
Chapter 500
Chapter 501
Chapter 502
Chapter 503
Chapter 504
Chapter 505
Chapter 506
Chapter 507
Chapter 508
Chapter 509
Chapter 510
Chapter 511
Chapter 512
Chapter 513
Chapter 514
Chapter 515
Chapter 516 - Chapter 516
Chapter 517
Chapter 518
Chapter 519
Chapter 520
Chapter 521
Chapter 522
Chapter 523
Chapter 524
Chapter 525
Chapter 526
Chapter 527
Chapter 528
Chapter 529
Chapter 530
Chapter 531
Chapter 532
Chapter 533
Chapter 534 - Chapter 534
Chapter 535
Chapter 536
Chapter 537
Chapter 538 - Chapter 538
Chapter 539
Chapter 540
Chapter 541
Chapter 542
Chapter 543
Chapter 544
Chapter 545
Chapter 546
Chapter 547
Chapter 548
Chapter 549
Chapter 550
Chapter 551
Chapter 552
Chapter 553
Chapter 554
Chapter 555
Categories Genre: Action, Adventure, All, Fantasy, Martial Arts, Ongoing, Supernatural Status: Ongoing Alternative names: HR, 영웅; 회귀하다, ______
Total Chapters in book: 555
Estimated words: 1462055 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 7310(@200wpm)___ 5848(@250wpm)___ 4874(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 1462055 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 7310(@200wpm)___ 5848(@250wpm)___ 4874(@300wpm)
______
LIST OF LAST 10 CHAPTERS:
Page No. 555 Page No. 554 Page No. 553 Page No. 552 Page No. 551 Page No. 550 Page No. 549 Page No. 548 Page No. 547 Page No. 546 Page No. 545 Chapter 372
Chapter 372: Chapter 372
* * *
The Hungry Guild.
This guild that operated mainly in the American continents was, in reality, better known as a terrorist organization.
The reason for an awakener ending up as a criminal was fairly simple: they might possess a powerful ability, but they also didn’t want to risk the dangers.
Whether a dungeon raid was a major or a minor one, some degree of danger would always exist. No matter how good an individual was as an awakener, oftentimes, that person would lose their life in vain simply by letting down their guard or making a little mistake somewhere.
Raiding a dungeon was a dangerous business. However, criminal activities including acts of terror were a bit different. Such things were far safer than raiding dungeons, and one could earn a bigger payout much easier as well.
“This is what I’m talking about!”
An Argentinian A-rank awakener, Ginovali, lightly tossed up a small bar of gold he held in his hand.
Clang, tumble—
The gold bar landed on the large pile of accessories and pieces of jewelry and made a clean metallic noise. Ginovali stared at that with a deeply satisfied expression.
These riches were a result of emptying every single jewelry store found in the city. Just these things alone should amount to tens of millions of dollars in total.
Of course, he and his group didn’t cause this commotion just to rob this pitiful little amount. Their real goal was something else.
“One hundred thousand dollars per hostage and we secured 11,150 hostages. In total, 1.115 billion dollars.”
A truly astronomical sum, indeed.
Once they successfully pull off this job, they would be earning closer to 30 million dollars per person, and when that happened, none of them would have to worry about money for the rest of their lives.
Ginovali chuckled, “This is wonderful. Wonderful, I say.”
“Oh, so it’s wonderful now, isn’t it?” A voice suddenly came from right behind Ginovali.
He jumped up in shock and tried to turn his head, but right at that moment, a sword was thrust against his neck, and he froze up stiff on the spot.
“W—who the hell are you?”
“Rather than finding out who I am, isn’t the fact that a sword was pressing against your neck more important? Wouldn’t you agree?”
Gulp—
Ginovali hurriedly swallowed back his saliva.
He felt a chill run down his spine. Although he didn’t sense the other party’s murderous intent, this would be his first time letting an enemy get close enough to place a blade on his neck. As such, he couldn’t help but get nervous.
“Wait a minute. This voice, where have I…?” Ginovali mulled over this for a minute before gasping out in shock. “Kim Su-hyeun?!”
“You recognized me pretty quickly.”
“Anyone living on this planet who doesn’t recognize you is the strange one, mister. Goddammit! To think that it’s you who showed up today.”
Ginovali had been entertaining the idea of suddenly activating his skill to fight back, but now, he chose to raise both of his hands high to reveal his lack of desire to resist.
His opponent today was none other than Kim Su-hyeun, so Ginovali determined that there was no point in even thinking about resisting.
“What do you want? Why are you pointing your sword at my throat, anyway? If you wanted to subdue me, you could’ve just killed me or knocked me out. I’m guessing you want something from me?”
“The priority is to rescue the hostages.”
“That’s going to be very difficult. Even if it’s you, it’d be tough to rescue every single hostage in ten separate locations, now wouldn’t it?”
Despite having both of his hands up in the air and a sword pressed against his neck, Ginovali didn’t look all that scared right now.
His reasoning was pretty simple.
“To you, people’s lives are the most important thing. Isn’t that true?”
He was confident that Su-hyeun’s personality wasn’t callous enough to forsake the hostages, and that’s why he figured that he wouldn’t lose his head today despite a sword being pressed against his neck.
“If you wish to rescue the hostages, you better get this sword away from me, buddy. If you don’t, as per our guild’s regulations, we’ll have to start killing hostages one by one.”
“Sounds like you’re mistaken about something here.”
Shu-wuk—
Su-hyeun withdrew the from Ginovali’s neck.
In all honesty, there was not much difference in whether the sword was placed against this fool’s neck or not. Su-hyeun was confident of chopping off Ginovali’s head whenever he wanted to.
“The reason why I came here for you is that you’re the top dog in this place. Meaning, no one here knows more than you.”
“What do you mean, I know more?”
“I need information. You see, I was thinking of completely uprooting your Hungry Guild just like how I’ve done with the Dump Guild since an opportunity presented itself like this,” Su-hyeun replied in an unconcerned tone.
However, the content of his words would never be described as light-hearted. The Hungry Guild was reviled as one of the worst terrorism-related awakener guilds out there, after all.
“What the f*ck is this as*hole even talking about?” Ginovali thought.
Shouldn’t the safety of the hostages take precedence here no matter what?
Ginovali began wondering if he had figured Su-hyeun out wrongly, and thick sweat drops streamed down his face. If the latter didn’t really care much about the safety of the hostages, then without a doubt, all of the Hungry Guild members would be as good as dead before long.
“And another thing. You’re mistaken about something else here. I didn’t come here because of the safety of the hostages, you know,” said Su-hyeun.
“What was that?”
Grab—
Su-hyeun abruptly grabbed the scruff of Ginovali’s neck and began dragging him away.
“Come outside for a sec, okay?”
Clunk—
Ginovali gasped and struggled for breath at Su-hyeun’s sheer hand strength gripping onto his neck. He got forcibly dragged outside the building he was in.
Tumble, crash—
Keo-heok, keok…
Su-hyeun tossed Ginovali to the side. The latter tumbled and rolled on the ground before coming to a stop, and then while grasping at his neck, he struggled for some air.
“You—you, what are you trying to…?”
Ginovali finally managed to control his rough panting and raised his head to stare at Su-hyeun, but it was also at that very moment that the Argentinian’s eyes caught onto a bizarre phenomenon taking place in the skies overhead.
“A magic circle?”
“Right. I had to work hard to create that. I mean, it was my first time drawing magic lines in the sky, after all. But I learned a lot today.”
Vuoo-woong—
While saying that, Su-hyeun pressed his palm on the ground. At the same time, magical energy boasting high concentration spread out to the surroundings and encased both Su-hyeun and Ginovali like some kind of barrier.
Ginovali naturally flinched for a moment after feeling threatened there, but he didn’t need a long time to realize that this event hadn’t harmed him at all. “W—what are you trying to do?”
“Don’t be too scared since I’m trying to shield you. Besides, those on the other side will be the ones in deep trouble from now on.”
“On the other side…?”
“Did you know that there are so many different types of magic in the world? One of them is a magic spell that causes hallucinations after reacting to a special type of energy,” Su-hyeun said while looking up at the sky—at the gigantic magic circle that seemingly filled up the skies above the city itself.
He needed quite a lot of time constructing that. Not to forget, activating a magic circle of such a size would also require a huge amount of magical energy.
“That magic circle has a pretty simple structure. It’s an illusion magic circle that rouses fear in people’s hearts by directly interfering with their brains after reacting to their magical energy. Other than its wide area of effect, it’s nothing special. Of course, the AOE this time is ridiculously wide, but let’s not mind that for now.”
“An illusion to stimulate one’s fear…?”
“I’ve already requested the Argentinian government for their assistance. Once I give my signal, regular police officers, not awakeners, will be deployed.”
“But that’s impossible!”
“Of course it’s possible. Impossible for you, maybe, but not for me.”
Ginovali made a face that reflected his confusion at Su-hyeun’s resolute reply. What the latter said, could they be all true?
“Is it really possible?” he thought.
Ginovali was an A-rank awakener. Although he hadn’t climbed the tower ever since getting that evaluation and didn’t increase his strength, he was still acknowledged as a strong awakener. Thanks to that, he was able to occupy a fairly high spot in the Hungry Guild’s pecking order. In other words, he was rather confident of his own abilities, and that fact only made his mind even more chaotic than before.
No matter how much he thought about this, it was simply impossible to cast illusion-type magic on a location this large. That’s what his common sense kept telling him.
Swhooooosh—
Pow, po-po-po-pow—!
Su-hyeun pointed to the sky with a finger, and a streak of flame left from his fingertip to begin exploding like a bright firework.
That must’ve been the “signal” he said earlier.
At this point, Ginovali had no choice but to accept what Su-hyeun had said as true. After all, the latter wouldn’t go to the trouble of setting up such a huge magic circle over a city and starting a light show just to trick someone like Ginovali.
Most importantly, not one of Hungry Guild’s awakeners had made a move even as such a commotion was taking place.
“No need for you to try and understand. Nothing will change whether or not you do, anyway. What’s important for you right now is…”
Step, step…
Su-hyeun leisurely walked up to Ginovali. “To answer my questions without making a fuss since you no longer have the luxury of the protection called hostages. That’s all.”
Crunch—
Kkeu-aaaaaah—!
Su-hyeun used his foot to crush Ginovali’s thigh. Just as a painful scream resounded out, Ginovali tried to jump up.
Crunch—
Aaaaaahk?!
Su-hyeun proceeded to crush Ginovali’s other leg as well.
While staring at the Argentinian that had collapsed on the ground, Su-hyeun spoke up with an icy-cold voice, “Alright, then, why don’t we start with the process of selling your friends out?”
* * *
Hundreds of police officers were deployed inside Cordoba that had halfway collapsed from the acts of terror.
Their goal was this one thing—to safely rescue the hostages.
Originally, such a job wasn’t meant for regular police officers, as all acts of terror perpetrated by awakeners fell outside the jurisdiction of the police. These problems were for the special guilds, mercenaries, or the awakener authorities tasked with handling awakener criminals to solve. Awakeners being the only people capable of dealing with awakener crimes was a widely accepted opinion at this point.
Despite that, the regular police force had been deployed, and the only reason for this event was Su-hyeun’s request for assistance.
“So, it was all true.”
“Sir, from sector A-1. Several hallucinating awakeners have been discovered. Hostages have been found all tied up, sir.”
“Report coming in from sector B-2. It’s the same situation, sir.”
“Also, over on sector…”
The situation within the city limits had already been wrapped up more or less.
The awakeners from the Hungry Guild were all under some sort of hallucination, and they were collapsed on the ground, while the hostages were found tied up and confined.
The jobs of the police officers were to place the special handcuffs on the hallucinating awakeners and extract the hostages to a safer place.
“Sector F-1 reporting in. A corpse has been found.”
In the middle of this operation, one of the officers ran into a corpse still dripping with a copious amount of blood.
No, wait. More correctly, it was…
“N—no, wait. He’s still alive. His identity is…he is the ringleader of this terrorist act, Ginovali from the Hungry Guild.”
It was actually a person who almost resembled a corpse. His being caught signified that the terror act had been successfully and completely suppressed.
“Yes, sir. We’re more or less finished with the operation on this side. Hostages have been safely rescued, while the terrorists haven’t regained their consciousness as if the skill’s effect isn’t over yet. But sir, we couldn’t locate Kim Su-hyeun anywhere,” a lieutenant of the Argentinian police force named Picardo concluded his report on the walkie-talkie.
Quite literally, everything happened in an instant.
The police moved out after they received the signal. As for rescuing the hostages, it was so easy that rather than calling it a rescue, it would be closer to leading people on a tour instead, so much so that the cops felt foolish for being so tense earlier.
“Are you telling me that just one person pulled this off?”
Picardo waited for the medics to arrive while standing next to Ginovali.
Su-hyeun took only a few hours to fly over here from the distant land of South Korea and, quite literally, subdued a group of terrorists in the blink of an eye. He dealt with it so swiftly and cleanly that no one had died in the end.
However, for some strange reason, Su-hyeun had vanished from this place. He must’ve been responsible for leaving Ginovali in this wretched state, yet he decided to abandon this terrorist like this and went somewhere else.
“Just where did he go off to, I wonder…?”
And while he continued to wait for an ambulance…
Hiss—
Picardo’s walkie-talkie buzzed at him, so he answered it. As for the news he received…
“The guild master of Hungry Guild is what?”
It was the announcement on the awakener terrorist organization—the Hungry Guild’s dissolution.
Total Chapters in book: 555
Estimated words: 1462055 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 7310(@200wpm)___ 5848(@250wpm)___ 4874(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 1462055 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 7310(@200wpm)___ 5848(@250wpm)___ 4874(@300wpm)
______