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Chapter 173

Kim Jin-Woo had already been aware of the existence of a pile of down gems thanks to the parasite’s detection ability. But nevertheless, he was still surprised to see the down gems pouring out of the safe. On top of that, every single one of the down gems was at least high-grade, and not one of them was middle-grade or below.

Kim Jin-Woo was left dumbfounded as he stared at the pile for a moment, before coming to his senses as he started to sweep all the down gems into the backpack he had brought along with him.

He could always check the quality of the down gems later on in a safer place. What was more important now was to safely get out of the building with all the down gems in his possession.

Kim Jin-Woo’s hands got busier. He packed the last of the down gems in and got up. He started walking toward the entrance of the office, but he suddenly paused and looked back.

Not everything was over yet. He had yet to fully look into the disappearance of his father, which was the main reason for his immediate action toward the Association. This was the real beginning.

Kim Jin-Woo looked at the messy office with cold eyes that darted from side to side, before turning back to run straight out of the building.

“Mm?” But just as he was about to leave the building, he paused as a strange feeling came over him, as if someone were staring at him. He activated the parasite’s ability and tuned his senses as he observed his surroundings. But he could detect nothing out of the ordinary.

He tilted his head for a moment, frowning at the uneasy feeling that he couldn’t shake off. He somehow got the feeling that he should avoid heading back home immediately.

Kim Jin-Woo stared into the darkness for a moment before swiftly escaping the scene.

***

Upon hearing the news, Song Jong-Chul rushed back to the Association’s office, only to find that it had been completely destroyed. He asked, “Did you only call me after everything was over? I received your call way too late, did I?”

“N-No, that’s not it. I got in touch with you as soon as this started happening.” One of the Association’s executives, who had arrived earlier, answered on behalf of the completely beaten watchers.

“Is that so? So, the intruder appeared about thirty minutes ago?” Song Jong-Chul asked.

“Yes.”

“And there was only one intruder?”

“Ye—”

But even before the executive could finish his response, Song Jong-Chul shouted loudly, “You retards! How many of you are in this building!? And yet you can’t deal with one single intruder, and all you made was this mess!?” He lost his cool, showing a side of himself that he had never shown in a very long time as he lost his usual cool, arrogant composure.

“And you assholes still dare to call yourselves high-level dungeon babies? None of you even deserve to be in that class!” Song Jong-Chul’s eyes turned white as he went around kicking up a fuss. Some of the watchers who had yet to recover were caught in his path and were brutally kicked to one side. “You sons of bitches. Been living too comfortably all this time, haven’t you? Must have been real comfortable living out your days without having to even set foot into the Underworld, huh? I’m going to knock some sense into you this time!”

The executives did their best to calm him down as he threatened to unleash his anger.

“Phew.” Only after running wild for a while did Song Jong-Chul finally calm himself down, as he sighed deeply and smacked the hands of the executives who were holding onto him. He asked, “How much damage have we suffered?”

“Around thirty of our men have to go into intensive care for the next few months as they’ve suffered broken limbs, and some of them are so severely injured that I’m not sure if they’ll ever fully recover,” the executive answered hesitantly, for fear that Song Jong-Chul might lash out again.

“We’ve been beaten so badly, and by one single asshole, no less.” Song Jong-Chul frowned. His face was all distorted, as if he were ready to threaten those around him once again. But this time, he fell silently into deep thought instead.

He had been unable to contain his anger and kicked up a huge fuss, because the watchers gathered at the Association weren’t just average joes. They were handpicked dungeon babies who were all at least Level 6 or higher, and had been selected as the elite of the elite.

And yet, these guys hadn’t even been able to do anything and were single-handedly defeated by the intruder in under thirty minutes. The intruder was way too strong to simply blame the break-in on the watchers’ inability.

His head spun as he continued his train of thought. He formed a list of possible suspects in his head. If anyone were a suspect, it would most likely be a high-level dungeon baby that a Level 6 couldn’t stop.

But to his knowledge, there weren’t many strong people in South Korea that could do this. And even among them, there were even fewer people who could sneak into the Association and wreak havoc like this.

“Check what Kim Jin-Woo is doing right now,” Song Jong-Chul ordered.

“Even for a Level 12, it’s too much for a single person to…” an executive protested.

“Then was it an ordinary explorer, rather than the Level 12? Shut the fuck up and tell your boys to check on it,” Song Jong-Chul reiterated.

In response, a few of the executives took out their mobile phones. After witnessing the scene, Song Jong-Chul belatedly headed to his own office.

“I knew it. It’d be weird if they caused such a scene but left this intact.” He ground his teeth as he stared at the broken, empty safe.

“I’ve received word from a watchdog!” an executive exclaimed.

“What did he say? It’s Kim Jin-Woo, isn’t it?” Song Jong-Chul asked.

The rest didn’t know, but the key figures of the Association were already aware. One of the executives had been keeping an eye on Kim Jin-Woo’s parents. Perhaps that was why some of them were ready to curse Kim Jin-Woo and pin the blame on him even before they had heard the response.

But the answer was totally different from what they had expected.

“About that… It seems Kim Jin-Woo was hanging out with his girlfriends at the construction site at that point in time.”

“W-what, that bastard? Are you sure? Maybe your guy saw it incorrectly?”

“He was observing from a distance, but it’s 100% reliable information.”

With that, the executive held out his mobile phone and showed them a picture. It was a picture taken from a distance, but it wasn’t hard to tell who exactly the guy and the ladies were in the photo.

“Even if Kim Jin-Woo had caused this, the timing wouldn’t fit for him to arrive at home. According to the Watchers, it’s barely been fifteen minutes since the intruder left, and it takes at least thirty minutes to reach Paju from here.”

The executive’s words made perfect sense. Song Jong-Chul, who had been convinced that Kim Jin-Woo was the culprit, became completely confused and was left speechless.

“Then who the hell…” He pondered on it for a long time, but there was no one else he could think of.

Someone who was strong enough to manhandle Level 6 dungeon babies? Someone who had a motive to attack the Association? No one else but Kim Jin-Woo came to his mind.

The others were also grunting as they clutched their heads, as if they too had come to the same dead end.

“The police are here!” a subordinate called out.

Song Jong-Chul snapped out of his thoughts upon hearing that the police had arrived. He muttered, “They should have come earlier if they were going to.”

“What should we do?” the subordinate asked.

“Just send them back,” Song Jong-Chul said.

“Isn’t it better to report this? If the culprit isn’t Kim Jin-Woo, then we should get assistance from the police to…”

“No, just send them back. We’re going to settle this ourselves. If the police get involved and they catch the culprit, things will get messy.”

From Song Jong-Chul’s subtle smirk, it seemed he had no intention of resolving this case within the boundaries of the law. Belatedly understanding his true intentions, the rest of the Association members left his office.

“Everything’s completely destroyed.” Song Jong-Chul lifted a door that had been cleanly removed from its hinges off the ground as muttered with a frown. “Maybe we should have installed CCTVs…”

He had been involved in activities lately that he wasn’t particularly proud of, which was why he had held off on installing CCTVs, for fear that any evidence caught on tape might backfire on him. Little had he known that that decision would end up coming back to bite him in the rear.

“Fuck, looks like I’ll have to delay the payment schedule.” A troubled look appeared on his face. The man who always looked as though he had nothing to fear in the world suddenly seemed concerned about where he was going to get the money for his payments. “Looks like I’m going to receive an earful from the Elders again. Fuck.”

“That’s going to be rough.” A sudden voice echoed from the darkness.

However, Song Jong-Chul wasn’t the least bit surprised, and responded casually to the unidentified voice. “Were you watching all along?” He seemed to know that someone had been watching from the start.

“What, did I have to protect your safe?” Despite Song Jong-Chul’s resentful words, the voice was calm and collected.

“Fuck! You know the situation I’m in; that’s something you could have done, right!?” In response to the voice’s shameless attitude, Song Jong-Chul banged the safe with his fist. The already-damaged safe shattered into pieces.

“That’s your problem, not mine.” The unidentified person continued to speak brazenly without revealing himself.

“Fuck you, asshole,” Song Jong-Chul swore. But he held his breath before asking a question, as if he had anticipated something from the start. “But you can at least tell me what you’ve seen, can’t you? We’re business partners; that’s the least you can do.” He quickly regained his usual demeanor as he sleazily asked for a favor.

However, for some reason, the mysterious voice didn’t respond for a moment. Eventually, it said, “There’s nothing I can tell you.”

“Why? You’ve definitely seen everything, haven’t you? If a reward is what you’re after, I’ll work out the numbers,” Song Jong-Chul insisted.

“No, it’s not about the price.” This time around, the voice was somehow suppressed.

“What, did your balls shrink? Is that guy really that formidable?” Song Jong-Chul responded in surprise.

The voice politely replied, “If there’s one thing I can tell you…”

“What is that?” Song Jong-Chul frowned at the somewhat eerie voice as he urged it on.

“…It’s that the road ahead of you seems to be full of bad luck,” the voice concluded.

Song Jong-Chul raised his temper at the mysterious voice. “Fucking bastard. You’re talking out of your ass once again.”

The voice responded with indifference to all the swearing. “I’m returning to the Underworld.”

“I don’t think it’s time yet, though, is it? I’m sure your boss is awaiting results as well,” Song Jong-Chul said.

“It’s because something more important has happened.” The voice seemed to mean what it said, as it quickly disappeared without a trace.

Song Jong-Chul was left alone in the office as he looked around with frustration. “Insolent Underworld monster…”

***

Only after a long while did Kim Jin-Woo finally return home. As he was leaving the Association building, he had felt a strange disturbance that made him feel that heading home immediately wasn’t the best of choices, which had made him take a long detour on his return trip. Even after doing so, the look on his face wasn’t good, as he constantly worried about how the situation had ended.

“Did things not go well?” Dominique asked. Kim Jin-Woo shook his head and tapped the bag on his back. Hearing the rattling from inside the bag, Dominique was even more puzzled. “Then why do you look…”

“There’s something that’s been lingering on my mind. That aside, how did things go on your end?” Kim Jin-Woo asked.

“Exactly as Master said, there were people who were trying to confirm your whereabouts,” Dominique answered.

“And?”

Dominique smiled brightly as she replied, “The Watchers firmly believed that Espetos was Master and left.”

If anything happened to the Association, the prime suspect would be Kim Jin-Woo. There weren’t many people who were capable enough to cause such a scene, so it was only natural that Song Jong-Chul would suspect Kim Jin-Woo the most. That was why Kim Jin-Woo had summoned the King of Mirror Wraiths and made him his substitute before setting out to the Association.

It was the perfect alibi. The Association would see Espetos and be fooled into thinking that he had nothing to do with the case.

Kim Jin-Woo’s expression changed after he organized his thoughts, brightening up suddenly. “What perfect timing.”

Just then, a message appeared in front of his eyes.

[The labyrinth upgrade has been completed.]