Chapter 21: Unleash the Hounds (2)

Chapter 21: Unleash the Hounds (2)

Awakener's Association HQ in Yeouido.

Passing through the Awakeners that gathered to take the registration, Ohjin entered the elevator that was open only to employees.

Knock Knock—

"Yes, come in." A deep voice could be heard after he knocked on the door of the Team Leader's office.

Click—

As he opened the door, the figure of a huge muscular man sitting by the office desk caught his eyes.

'Won't the chair break?'

Creak—

Throwing up a suppressed scream, the chair's creaks echoed once Team Leader Han's butt left it.

"Have you been well?"

"Thanks to you." While sharing a light greeting, Ohjin sat on the sofa.

Although he wanted to go straight into digging up information on the request that amounted to an insane amount of $2M, there was something he had to do before that.

"Have you perhaps heard of the Black Star Organization?"

"Black Star Organization?" Team Leader Han Joonman tilted his head and answered.

"No. I've never heard of them."

"Then... have you ever seen this stigma before?"

Taking out a piece of paper, he drew the stigma of the Owl Nebula and showed it to him.

"This is... wait a moment." Team Leader Han took out a booklet and started to flip through the pages.

Soon, he looked around the page that had stigmas drawn and narrowed his eyes.

"This stigma... is the stigma of the Owl Nebula."

"Do you know of it?"

"I don't know the details of it either, but... I'm certain that this is known as one of the 'forgotten stigmas'."

'Forgotten stigmas? What's that?'

"Its existence was recorded when the celestials first appeared on Earth 8 years ago, but we call it that because they can no longer be found."

"Was the reason for its disappearance not recorded?"

"Yes. Considering the situation back then... we weren't exactly in a situation where we could take records." Team Leader Han laughed bitterly while scratching his head.

"Ah," Ohjin let out a short exclamation, nodding his head.

Eight years ago...

When the gates leading to an external location first opened.

The time of nightmares, where numerous countries vanished and ⅔ of the world became covered in monsters.

If it was back then, being unable to take records was understandable.

'Why record when you don't know if you'll be alive the next day?'

That was a time where surviving each and every day could be called a miracle.

'Anyways, if the stigma of the Owl Nebula existed eight years ago...'

It meant that the Dark Stars' stigmas continued to exist throughout the eight years.

'Then there's a possibility that the Black Star Organization is also...'

An organization that had acted in the shadows throughout the past eight years.

'It wasn't an improvised organization.'

If they were an organization that hid in the shadows for a long period of eight years in order to achieve their goals, their scale wasn't one you could consider normal.

'The scale is becoming larger than I thought?'

Ohjin furrowed his brow.

In any case, It seemed like he hadn't poked a beehive—but a hornet's nest.

'I'll need to be extremely thorough with my preparations.'

He had a couple of methods that he had in mind, yet there weren't any that stood out to him.

"Hmm."

Ohjin turned his head towards Team Leader Han, who had been attentively looking at the paper that had the stigma of the Owl Nebula drawn.

"By the way, where did you find this stigma?"

"A dispute broke out in a dungeon a few days ago."

"A dispute?"

"Yes. I found a star relic inside the dungeon, but... an Awakener called Yujin attacked me, claiming it was his without reason."

He explained what happened the previous week with a slight bit of exaggeration.

"A-Are you hurt anywhere?"

"No, as you can see."

"Phew... that's a relief."

Team Leader Han let out a short breath of relief.

"Are you saying that the Awakener that had a dispute with you possessed the stigma of the Owl Nebula?" Team Leader Han asked.

"Yes."

"Ah, then the place known as the Black Star Organization is also...?"

"Haha. Indeed, you're quick-witted. Yes, you're correct. He said that he was a member of the 'Black Star Organization'."

"Hmm."

Ohjin slightly shrugged his shoulders and continued.

"Anyways, I was just asking to find out about their identities since I got attacked all of a sudden."

"I see... I understand. Our side will also try to investigate more about the stigma of the Owl Nebula and the Black Star Organization you mentioned earlier."

Team Leader Han nodded his head with a stiff expression.

"Thank you," Ohjin smiled while bowing his head.

If the Association was willing to investigate directly, he could expect good results.

Even if the Association was disregarded here and there, it was still the largest organization directly under the government.

If you were only taking information capabilities into account, most guilds couldn't even reach the tip of their toes.

"Would it be okay if I ask you one more thing?'

"Ah, yes. Of course."

"How much do you think this will sell for, roughly?

Ohjin took out the fist-sized starstone he received from Yujin and placed it on top of the table.

"Woah... this is quite a high quality starstone." Team Leader Han let out a short exclamation and examined the fist-sized starstone.

"Star relics will need a separate appraisal, but... this starstone alone will amount to $500K at the minimum."

'$500K!!'

He desperately restrained his lips from perking up from the mouth-opening amount of cash.

'Kya! Black Star Organization, you're the best!!'

An exhilarating thrill spread across his back.

He could earn this amount of money by using nothing but words for less than 5 minutes.

"Will the Association take care of this?"

"Of course. I'll make sure you receive more than the market price."

Team Leader Han puffed his chest while laughing in a confident manner.

As the humongous tanned man puffed his chest, the scene looked somewhat like a male gorilla boasting his strength in order to charm a female gorilla.

"The taxes..."

"Of course, there will be none."

'Huh.'

'I think I might fall for this gorilla.'

* * *

"Ah right, could you appraise this for me as well?"

He lent out the star relic the Black Star Organization had used to replace the black drinking glass.

"Is this the star relic that caused the dispute?"

"Haha, yes. That's right."

"I can't believe that you found a star relic already..." Team Leader Han exclaimed.

Finding star relics inside dungeons wasn't exactly a rare occurrence, but a beginner that had just finished their registration test getting their hands on a star relic was extremely rare.

'No, it's possible if it's Awakener Ohjin.'

Even if much time hadn't passed since he finished the registration test, to title him 'beginner'... The experienced feeling Ohjin naturally gave off was abnormal.

'His behavior is like that of someone who has rolled around in dungeons for years.'

'Although there's no way that's possible since he should have been an ordinary person before he awakened.'

Team Leader Han received the blue drinking glass Ohjin lent out.

"I'll put in a request to the appraiser connected to our side."

"Thank you," Ohjin bowed his head.

He momentarily thought about presenting the mutant's starstone as well, but he decided to hold onto it a little longer.

'It could be connected to those Black Star Organization bastards.'

There was a possibility that it could come in handy in the future.

"Now then. Is there anything else you wish to go over?"

"Yes," Ohjin nodded his head.

Hmp!—

His eyes shone, and he breathed roughly out of his nose in excitement.

'Now, it's about time for the main dish to come out.'

The main reason he ran to the Association as soon as he received contact.

"—What're the contents of the request?"

"Haha. I was just about to get into that."

Team Leader Han laughed in an easy-going manner and took a sip out of the mug filled with coffee.

"First of all, the one who requested this emergency request was the Valhalla guild."

"...Valhalla guild?"

It was a guild's name he had never heard before.

'Even so, if they can spare $2M as remuneration, that must mean that they're quite a large guild.'

Furrowing his brows, he racked his brain in an attempt to recall the name.

"It might be your first time hearing about them since they're a guild that's on the sudden rise."

"Ah, is that so?"

"Yes. As a guild that's composed of a small number of elites, they're a guild that's well-received, as each and every one of the guild members possesses great skill."

'A small number of elites...'

'I thought it would be a large guild, but they invested more into quality over quantity.'

"Moreover, their guild leader is extraordinary. It's to the point where he was picked as one of the candidates for the next generation's 'Seven Stars'."

Seven Stars.

It was a title given to the seven Awakeners that possessed the most strength and authority throughout the entire world.

As he was mentioned as one of their candidates, he wasn't your average Awakener.

"Well... I personally think that Awakener Ohjin is more amazing, though."

Shrugging his shoulders, Team Leader Han continued.

"I'm certain that Awakener Ohjin will become one of the Seven Stars' backbones in the future."

"You're expecting too much from me." Ohjin let out an easygoing laugh while shaking his head.

He was being courteous, but it wasn't like he didn't have the confidence.

If he continued to grow stronger, he would become one of them one day.

'Seven Stars...'

Even though they called them powerhouses that transcended humanity, he didn't have an exact idea of how strong they were, as he had never seen one before.

'There's also only one in Korea.'

Since six out of the seven lived overseas, it wasn't easy to hear news about them.

But that didn't mean the single Seven Star member in Korea was the type to actively partake in activities either.

"Khm. Then going back to the main subject of the request's contents... It's a type of request where you could call it hard, but at the same time, you could also call it easy."

'What's he talking about?'

"What are the contents of the request that make you come to such a conclusion?"

"...It's finding a person."

'Finding a person?'

"Is it finding a person and investigating them like a detective agency?"

'But the reward's $2M?'

'No matter how much you're overflowing with money, $2M?'

Ohjin looked towards Team Leader Han with doubt in his eyes.

Slightly shaking his head, Team Leader Han opened his mouth.

"This isn't a request for investigating someone but, as it's said, finding a person. Finding a missing person, to be exact."

"Ah."

'So it was like that.'

Finding a missing person, and amongst them, a person who had gone 'missing inside a dungeon', was something only skilled Awakeners could do.

"Who's the missing person?"

"Let's see... wait a moment." Team Leader Han looked through the request form.

"Ah, here it is." He picked up a single piece of paper from the pile of files and placed it on top of the table.

"Missing date, November 6th."

"So around two weeks have passed."

As the current date was the 22nd, two days and two weeks had passed, to be accurate.

"The place he went missing... It says that it's unknown, as his tracks were cut off starting from the early morning. They say that there's a high possibility he went into a 1~2-Star dungeon located around Incheon."

"I'll need to go around about eight places..."

There were currently a total of eight low-rank dungeons located in Incheon. He knew a lot about it, as he had been going around scamming using mainly low-rank dungeon's through the past couple of years.

'Well, eight places will be easy.'

Currently, for him who had reached 3-Star, he could finish his investigation in two, if it took a little longer, three days.

"Male. Aged around mid-twenties and 182cm tall. It also says that he has black hair and a sleek physique. Ah right, and his name... let's see. Ah, it's written here."

Team Leader Han, who was looking through the file, pointed towards a certain section.

"Lee Shinhyuk. The name of the missing person is Lee Shinhyuk."

"—What?"

'Fucking. Who?'

"How is it. Will you be able to find him?"

'No.'

'How the fuck do I find him when he's already dead.'

'I'm going crazy.'