LRAB Chapter 381: Train To Busan (2)
Chapter 381: Train To Busan (2)
It was a situation where passengers and driver alike had no choice but to grow tense.
Yet everyone looked calm. Kang-hoo’s eyes only showed a look that said, So they showed up, huh, and that was it.
【Jeonghwa Transport】
That was because they trusted the name of the bus company.
Jeonghwa Transport was a carrier directly backed by the Jeonghwa Guild and had the Gyeongbu Line completely locked down.
Everyone knew very well that if you messed with a bus connected to Jeonghwa Transport, they would hunt you to the ends of the earth and kill you.
No matter how fearless a criminal gang was, they did not touch a Jeonghwa Transport bus.
For example, two months earlier, a thirty-man criminal outfit had tried to hijack one of Jeonghwa Transport’s safety buses and failed.
In return, the entire organization had been wiped out. Negotiations like surrender were rejected out of hand; it was a thorough extermination.From time to time, some “foolish” criminal group tried something similar, but the result was always the same.Fear had been drilled in by repetition, so unless they truly knew nothing, no one laid a hand on Jeonghwa Transport.
“Hoo.”
Reclining his seat all the way back, Kang-hoo closed his eyes, in a posture that was practically lying down.
The tickets were expensive, but the “premium bus,” which let you travel while lying down, was always popular.
If he had been just a little slower buying his ticket today, he would have had to take a bus several hours later because it would have sold out.
【The first move of Eclipse, reborn through its merger with Taeyang, is drawing great interest from many hunters.
An insider familiar with Eclipse’s internal affairs predicted that they would move to recapture the Cheongmyeong Detention Center.】
‘Things are flowing differently from what I expected, but this picture might actually be better. Just like trash is easier to throw out once you’ve piled it all together.’
It wasn’t as if he didn’t know about Kang Tae-yang’s existence; he had long ago considered the possibility that he, Kang Dong-hyun’s older brother, might one day become an enemy.
So the fact that the brothers had banded together in a single organization didn’t particularly make him nervous or worried.
If anything, he felt that a more pragmatically minded Kang Tae-yang might take a different view from Kang Dong-hyun.
Strategically, they could make a truce with Cheong-an’s mercenaries and Heuksaja, then seek to expand their influence into other regions.
Daejeon was too small a stage for three giant organizations to be fighting for dominance. Expanding elsewhere was far more rational.
【The Jeonghwa Guild, having entered downtown Dongducheon, launched an operation to sweep up the remnants of The Abyss warlord faction.
However, the remnants of The Abyss, which had already withdrawn successfully, were not found.
Jang Si-hwan, master of the Jeonghwa Guild, hailed the victory in the Battle of Dongducheon as a splendid achievement by righteous heroes standing against great evil and fully savored the joy of victory.
However, during the advance into the city, a trap set by The Abyss detonated, causing an explosion that killed seven Jeonghwa Guild hunters.】
The next news segment that followed was about the Dongducheon front.
Lee Hyun-seok judged it well. Once the Fortuna Guild stepped in, the right move was to make sure they lost momentum no matter what.
Kang-hoo considered Lee Hyun-seok’s decision to be extremely well-timed.
No matter how close Jang Si-hwan and Casey Rex were, the Fortuna Guild could not station its full force in some far-off land for long.
According to the flow of the original story, the United States would soon be in an uproar over its own power struggles.
Casey Rex simply didn’t have the leeway to leave the homeland unattended for very long.
As long as Lee Hyun-seok stalled for time so that the Fortuna Guild failed to achieve any real results, its core forces would soon pull out.
And if, before that, they rushed to attack The Abyss in order to claim some achievement? That would actually be even better.
They weren’t idiots; no one was going to stick their head into the maw of The Abyss, which had fortified every one of its strongholds.
【A large-scale bloodshed incident has occurred in the Kimcheon Liberation Area......】
Beep.
He turned off the broadcast; he had heard all the important news.
Clashes breaking out in liberation areas were an everyday occurrence. Nothing worth paying special attention to.
Might as well sleep.
He closed his eyes, but the sunlight still streamed in.
Kang-hoo pulled out the sleep mask provided next to his seat and carefully blocked out the sunlight with it,
then surrendered his body to the drowsiness that came over him at just the right moment.
After all the forced marches in North Korea, he had been short on sleep.
With about two hours left until they arrived at the Busan Station terminal, it was the perfect amount of time for a good nap.Two hours later.
“Oppa, long time no see?”
“You look like you’ve gotten even tanner.”
“I look completely different from before, right?”
“Compared to when I first saw you at Ground Zero, I could say you’re a totally different person.”
Kang-hoo was able to meet Jung Yuri, who had come out early to meet him at the Busan Station terminal.
On a normal schedule she would have been in a dungeon, but today the timing just happened to work out.
【God of Calamity】
【Mathematician in Wonderland】
【Florist of Distortion】
‘She’s formed another constellation contract since I last saw her.’
While he hadn’t seen her, one more constellation had contracted with Jung Yuri.
The Florist of Distortion constellation specialized in warping and crushing space.
In other words, it pursued skill branched that crumpled space like a dented, crushed tin can.
From the perspective of Jung Yuri, who already had basic spatial manipulation abilities, it was an exceptionally synergistic constellation.
Judging from her current constellation lineup, she was at a level above Hosaka Kenji, the famed Japanese hunter known for his spatial skills.
“I missed you, Kang-hoo oppa.”
“But you look really worn out somehow. Your dark circles are bad, and your shoulders are kind of slumped.”
“...Is it that obvious?”
“Yeah. Unless someone’s an idiot, it’s hard not to notice.”
“Since the last time I saw you, I literally haven’t taken a single day off, so yeah, it definitely counts as a forced march.”
“Did you at least get proper sleep?”
“Even that feels like a waste of time. These days, broken-up naps are just my normal!”
That wasn’t ordinary ambition.
Her mental rhythm was similar to Kang-hoo’s.
When the desire and craving to grow became strong, the first thing you cut down was sleep.
Because the time you spent sleeping felt like far too much of a waste.
You ended up ignoring the premise that quality sleep led to health. It was also the easiest way to free up more time.
“Still, make sure you rest when you need to. It’s nice seeing you smile again after so long. As expected, Yuri, you’re prettiest when you smile.”
“Grandma says I look stupid when I smile and tells me to cover my mouth. You’re the opposite, huh?”
“There’s a kind of purity in your smile. It’s the expression I envy most.”
Kang-hoo gave her an awkward smile.
Sometimes, when he laughed without realizing it, the corners of his mouth naturally curled upward.
But if he became even slightly “conscious” that he was laughing, his mouth shape turned awkward from that moment on.
Like a robot trying to make a facial expression for an emotion it hadn’t been programmed for yet—clumsiness just spilled out.
“Oh, right, oppa! Grandma isn’t back yet, so I think we’ll need to kill some time before going in. Is that okay?”
“I mean, I’m here in Busan because I have things to do anyway, so it’s fine. What about you, Yuri?”
“I pushed all my plans back to tomorrow because you were coming today. All free! Totally free.”
“Then let’s eat first. Now that I think about it, I haven’t eaten anything today.”
“It’s 3 p.m. right now... and this is your first meal? Oppa, that’s why you always look like such a wreck...”
“Let’s go. I’m hungry.”
Sensing the nagging was about to drag on, Kang-hoo quickly cut her off.
As time went by, his relationship with Jung Yuri was shifting more from man and woman to something like close siblings.
That made it easy and comfortable to be around her. If Jung Yuri felt the same way, that would be perfect.In a pasta place near Kang Bok-hwa’s market, Kang-hoo was finally able to have his very late first meal.
In truth, the meal was secondary; they were busy catching each other up on how they had been.
“Are you taking part in dungeon raids as a mercenary unit? In that case, Busan has its limits in terms of growth potential, doesn’t it?”
“I’m mainly running the dungeons Grandpa and Grandma bought. They’re all over, inside and outside the country. They’re dungeons that aren’t publicly known.”
“That’s some extreme grinding.”
“Exactly. By the time we finish the last dungeon, it’s right about when the first dungeon resets!”
“That’s great. Sounds like a very nice setup.”
Hunters who grew rapidly, like Lee Ye-rin, all had that in common: their personal growth route was clearly defined.
With no restrictions on their dungeon runs, they could keep diving in as much as they wanted, so their growth never stopped.
As long as they had the will to keep challenging themselves, dungeons provided infinite opportunities.
Once a “cycle” like the one Jung Yuri had was established, there was no downtime where they couldn’t go into a dungeon.
Jang Si-hwan grew that way too. His level is so high now that the number itself doesn’t rise as fast, but he still has highly efficient cycles.
The number of dungeons that Jang Si-hwan officially owned was over thirty.
And that was only the tip of the iceberg.
The number of undisclosed dungeons he owned easily exceeded that by a factor of five.
There was a reason top-tier hunters, after seeing his skill and his dungeon holdings, wanted to work with him.
It was because he had several ways and means to continuously give them the momentum to keep growing.
Takashi had decided to join The Thirteen Stars because Jang Si-hwan had so many unusual dungeons.
By now, if Ranbir Kumar had met Jang Si-hwan, his heart would have been stirred for the same reason as Takashi’s.
It’s possible he’s already decided to join. Jang Si-hwan might have pushed him harder this time too.
Kang-hoo thought his own weakness was that, unlike Jung Yuri or Jang Si-hwan, he didn’t have a fixed, standardized dungeon cycle.
Unfortunately, almost every decent dungeon already had an owner now—whether an individual or a state entity like the Public Safety Bureau.
And buying a dungeon outright with cash was a poor option because the return on investment was too low.
In terms of “ownership” of dungeons, there were a lot of things for Kang-hoo to feel dissatisfied about.
There were many places that invited him to raid their dungeons in exchange for rewards, enough to make up for it for now—but nothing lasted forever, so he couldn’t feel completely safe.
“Oppa, want to come with me once?”
“All of a sudden?”
“I don’t make that offer to anyone else. But I feel like it’d be fun if I went with you.”
“I’ve got no reason to say no. I can see how strong you’ve gotten, and it’ll be good for building up my own experience too.”
By “experience,” he meant skills. There would definitely be at least a mid-boss and a main boss.
“Then it’s a promise, okay? Next time I contact you, make sure you clear your schedule. Got it?”
“I promise.”
An opportunity had popped up out of nowhere.
He didn’t know what kind of dungeon it was, but if it was one that had helped fuel her explosive growth, it was sure to be a well-constructed one.
“Oh, right, oppa. Did you hear about this, by any chance?”
“...?”
The topic flipped in an instant.
Maybe because it had been so long since they had last met, Jung Yuri seemed to have a lot she wanted to talk about.
The moment their dungeon talk wrapped up, her tongue seemed to itch to bring up a new subject.
“I heard it this morning. Apparently a guild launched a large-scale raid on an open-type dungeon in La Paz, but the dungeon suddenly vanished.”
“La Paz... you mean that La Paz, the capital of Bolivia?”
“Yeah, that one. The dungeon suddenly disappeared, and one hunter who’d been guarding the entrance supposedly shot up in level.”
“And that hunter’s whereabouts are unknown now, I’m guessing?”
“Yeah. They say he was an extra guild member they brought along just in case... but now he’s completely disappeared.”
Human sacrifice.
That was the only word that rose clearly in his mind.
Ever since he learned about the “Reaper – Hae” case, he had paid special attention to the growth method that used human sacrifice.
Could it be that another Reaper constellation was operating in secret in Bolivia?
It was something that had happened in far-off South America.
But now, unlike the original story’s Jang Si-hwan, Kang-hoo couldn’t just treat it as someone else’s problem.
Maybe— he might be able to gain a new clue about the Reaper constellation from there.
The connection that had appeared was too coincidental to be mere chance. Kang-hoo’s eyes deepened along with that thought.