* * *
“You really have nothing better to do?”
How he ended up traveling with the other two was a mystery.
Woo Jaehyun clicked his tongue and leaned back against his seat.
Do Soohyuk, showing zero interest in him, looked instead toward Cha Rui, who was sitting farther away.
“Got a plan?”
“They likely crossed the border by boat, smuggled in. A broker near the border has some intel — I’m guessing they went north through China.”
“Which border?”
“Dandong,” Jaehyun answered.
His posture was relaxed, but his gaze sharpened as he stared out the window.
Cha Rui, thoughtfully adjusting his lips, folded his arms like a habit before speaking again.
“Meet the broker, cross the border. Unless we want to start a war, let’s avoid trouble and quietly extract Seo Inho.”
“Hmm. Doesn’t sound possible to me.”
“…”
Jaehyun’s murmured words were almost to himself, but silence blanketed the cabin.
Cha Rui, secretly agreeing, sighed quietly and rubbed at the corner of his eye.
These two were never the type he could control anyway.
“You know what happens if word gets out an S-Class is missing. We move fast.”
“So where’s Inho now?”
“Not far from the border.”
With that, silence returned and lasted until they landed.
Each man lost in his own thoughts, no one saw a reason to speak unnecessarily.
When they arrived at Langtou Airport in Dandong, the air between them had completely changed.
Even with hats pulled low and faces masked, their presence alone made people shrink back.
“Hide your aura.”
The place they entered, heavy with tension, was a run-down teahouse not far from the airport.
It was still early, so only one customer was there — a sharp-eyed man with dyed yellow hair.
The Chinese broker Cha Rui had arranged to meet.
He flinched as a massive shadow loomed over him, but upon recognizing them, he stood up arrogantly.
Sure, they were from a well-known Korean guild — but Korea was just a small country.
He held the intel they needed.
That gave him the upper hand. If anything, they should be bowing to him.
“You’re late! You people have no manners. This is why I can’t stand Bangzi—”
“Just tell us what you know.”
Things didn’t go the way he expected.
Was it the translator device?
Their tone, filtered through the machine, still carried a menacing edge.
More than that, the three men before him — faces obscured — didn’t look like ordinary guild employees.
Maybe they tricked him and brought A-Class hunters?
Nervously, he began to back away.
“Sh-shouldn’t there be an apology first? Where’s the money? Did you bring—gk!”
A huge hand clamped down on his face.
The grip was so strong he momentarily thought he was blacking out.
Through the shadow of a hat, a pair of cold, gray eyes gleamed like a predator’s.
“Information.”
Behind them, the other two casually wandered around the teahouse, as if on lookout.
The broker, sensing real danger, spoke up almost instinctively.
“O-One of our brokers was kidnapped.”
“Kidnapped?”
“They found a big catch, tried reporting it quietly to HQ, and then… got snatched.”
At the word ‘big catch’, Cha Rui’s grip unconsciously tightened, prompting a sharp cracking sound from the broker’s cheekbone.
Gasping in pain, the man clutched at his wrist and blurted, desperate to save his life.
“I-I know who did it!”
“Speak.”
“Some high-classing military officer in North Korea — brutal, dangerous guy.”
All three men turned their gaze toward him at once.
The sheer pressure of their attention made the broker tremble like a leaf.
He didn’t know who they were, but just being near them felt like his mind might shatter.
The first to speak again was Do Soohyuk.
“Lead the way.”
“…W-What?”
“Take us to North Korea.”
Panic-stricken, the broker shook his head violently.
The schedule and location they had learned weren’t easy to obtain — they were the result of careful operations.
He’d survived this long as a broker by sticking to that system.
“N-Now’s not the time! You’ll be caught for sure!”
They had already agreed to keep things quiet.
That left them with no choice but to follow the system.
Cha Rui muttered a curse under his breath.
He wanted to drag the man out by force, but instead he pulled his hand back with a frustrated twitch.
Time passed slowly, and night fell again.
After a hellish day spent crammed in a tiny space, the broker finally began to lead the way — faster than anyone expected.
With a pale face, he crouched low as they approached the Yellow River.
Every movement was practiced, as if he’d done it a hundred times.
“It’s hard to see in the dark, but there’s a green-roofed building over there. Head straight in that direction. You won’t get caught.”
The three men stared at him like they could burn a hole through his skull.
Now visibly shaking, the broker clasped his hands together in a pleading gesture.
“P-Please! I can’t go any farther!”
Afraid he’d end up like his colleague, he recoiled in fear.
A coin suddenly flew toward him — a 1-yuan piece.
“Go back.”
Cha Rui turned away with a disinterested expression.
Clutching the coin like a gift from heaven, the broker bowed deeply.
“Thank you…!”
As he ran off in a panicked scramble, the trio turned toward the river.
Do Soohyuk was the first to move.
“How long will it take?”
“If we run non-stop, about an hour.”
“Close, then.”
In the blink of an eye, the three crossed the Yellow River.
With Woo Jaehyun leading the charge, they sprinted across the fields, not a single drop of moisture clinging to their boots.
Exactly one hour later, they arrived in front of a crumbling concrete building.
Although the tracker clearly pointed to the location, the building they observed from a distance showed no signs of life.
With every window shattered and the structure so dilapidated that the inside was visible, it was clear the place had been abandoned for a long time.
Cha Rui’s expression twisted with distrust as he looked at Woo Jaehyun.
He was already irritated from the delay—if this was the wrong place, his patience would snap.
“You sure this is it?”
“Positive.”
But the unexpected reply came not from Jaehyun, but Do Soohyuk.
Hiding slightly ahead of them, he was fixated on the building with dark, sunken eyes.
Cha Rui and Woo Jaehyun quickly realized what he meant.
As they moved closer, a multitude of presences—undetected before—suddenly became noticeable beneath the building.
Seo Inho’s presence was there too, but it was faint and unstable, unlike usual.
Knowing what that meant, the expressions of the three men slowly hardened.
For Do Soohyuk especially, who had faced a similar situation during the “First Dungeon,” the worst-case scenario came to mind.
Without bothering to conceal his presence any longer, Woo Jaehyun boldly strode into the building, following the aura.
The inside was hollow, filled only with crumbling debris.
As he walked slowly through the ruins, he suddenly stopped and looked down at one spot.
Then, with a light kick, he pushed aside a large piece of concrete, revealing an incongruous steel door.
Judging by the lack of guards, it seemed to be a rarely used back entrance.
“Cha Rui, you take care of Hyung. I’ve got someone important to meet.”
“Got it.”
“Leave nothing behind.”
Ssss—
With those loaded words, the thick steel door disintegrated into dust and scattered.
Following the seemingly endless stairs downward, they arrived at an underground bunker with a maze-like structure—chaotic and vast like an anthill.
The number of detectable enemies was roughly a thousand—far fewer than expected of North Korea’s forces.
Not that they’d expected much, but it made the fact that three S-classs had come seem excessive, given how laughably weak the presences felt.
Realizing this wasn’t an official North Korean operation, Woo Jaehyun let out a dry chuckle.
Coming all this way just to deal with these clowns was absurd.
“No need to move quietly, then.”
“Intrud—!”
Someone tried to shout a warning, but their vocal cords were torn out and their body burst into black flames.
Even as they writhed in agony, only the sound of air escaping a deflating balloon came from their gaping mouth.
In mere moments, the three had taken out dozens.
At the fork, they split swiftly—Cha Rui to the basement stairs, Woo Jaehyun into the nearest room, and Do Soohyuk charging down the hallway, spreading black flames at will.
Though the space was large, its complexity allowed the fire to spread quickly.
Once unleashed, the black flames wouldn’t extinguish unless their master willed it.
As if alive, the flames rapidly devoured their surroundings in darkness.
* * *
