Chapter 47.

Koong . Koong . Koong .

Every time the tires hit a rock, the HUV shook violently . Just how much of an old model was it to not even have a steady driving module? Yoo Yeonha was both confused and shocked .

“Ehew . ”

‘Why did I ask to follow them?’ Five minutes were enough to make her regret her words .

“…So why are you here?”

While she was steadying herself from the constant bumps, Kim Hajin, who was sitting next to her, asked . Yoo Yeonha glanced at him and retorted .

“What use is going on vacations? You have to see things, hear things, and feel things to advance forward . ”

“Oh . ”

Kim Hajin quickly accepted Yoo Yeonha’s words and faced front again . Yoo Yeonha stared at him fixedly .

He was average-looking no matter how many times she saw him . If he had glasses, his face would be the average face of all salarymen .

“Hm…”

But, there weren’t just one or two things that were suspicious about him . Rather than suspicious, he was full of secrets . Unfathomable… was too grand of a word to describe him, but he was still mysterious .

When Yoo Yeonha was having such trifling thoughts, she felt her smartwatch vibrate .

It was a message from Chae Nayun .

[Alright, I’ll take on his bet . Looks like he needs to be put in place . ]

She seemed quite angry . With a snicker, Yoo Yeonha initiated a conversation .

“Hey . ”

“Hm?”

“Nayun says she’ll do it . The bet . ”

At that moment, Kim Hajin’s smartwatch also vibrated . Yoo Yeonha was curious .

“Show me too . ”

Kim Hajin displayed the message without complaints .

[Sure, let’s fight . I’ll give you a month . I’ll bet my everything that I’ll win . What are you going to bet?]

A duel between an archer and a gunman was thus established .

Yoo Yeonha found the situation quite ridiculous, but was also curious .

“…By the way, why are you doing this?”

Of all people, why was he so bent on provoking Chae Nayun?

Kim Hajin stared at Yoo Yeonha . He then spoke as though it was an obvious truth .

“Chae Nayun’s real talent isn’t in bows . ”

Yoo Yeonha couldn’t understand what he was saying .

“If she gives up on using a bow, she can advance much further . ”

Kim Hajin added those words somewhat bitterly . At least, that’s what Yoo Yeonha felt .

Yoo Yeonha then began to see what was going on .

Without interest, there was no criticism . One had to carefully scrutinize something to see its flaws . In a way, giving proper criticisms was harder than giving compliments .

In that sense…

Just how long has this man been watching Chae Nayun to be so sure of his thoughts? Three months? Half a year? A year? Or perhaps even longer?

‘…Come to think of it . ’

During the third year of Agent Military Academy, Kim Hajin was in the same class as Chae Nayun . They were both only 11 years old . From then until now, six whole years had gone by .

Could it be that for six years, this man…

Clunk!

“Ak!”

Suddenly, the HUV shook violently and stopped . Yoo Yeonha hit her head against the headrest of the front seat .

“W-What’s going on!?”

Yoo Yeonha was inexperienced with such things, but both Park Soohyuk and Kim Hajin weren’t . Park Soohyuk turned off the engine and spoke .

“This is the monster point . We’re getting off . ”

“Monster point?”

“Ah, yes, it’s a place where many monsters appear…”

“I know what it means, but how do you know that this is a monster point?”

“End of April is when monsters start to get more active . The weaker ones will be pushed out of their territories, and this is a natural escape route . There are a few more places like that, but those places are famous so they’re always bustling with people . ”

Park Soohyuk replied without hesitation, causing Yoo Yeonha to stare at him in surprise .

But her gaze quickly fell back on her smartwatch . She had received a message .

“Hmm… Well, I’ll be going now . ”

“Huh? Didn’t you want to hunt with us?”

“Something came up just now . Plus, I said I wanted to come with you, I didn’t say anything about hunting together . ”

Yoo Yeonha got off the car .

From the distance, Essence of the Strait’s guild members came running .

“Then, I’ll be off . ”

“Yeah, see you later . ”

“Yes, see you back at Cube . ”

After taking in Kim Hajin’s average appearance once again, Yoo Yeonha turned back .

“Ah, by the way…”

But almost as though she forgot something, she quickly turned around and reached her hand out to Park Soohyuk .

“Can I get your business card?”

**

For a week, I focused on hunting and training . I went to Wonju every day and hunted an average of 15 monsters per day .

The combination of Aether and Desert Eagle was undoubtedly overpowered for a weakling like me . Even if I didn’t aim at a vital point, I could one or two shot any monster under low-intermediate rank grade 6 .

“Hm… It’s not going up by much . ”

Now, it was Wednesday .

Classes would restart in two days . Cadets were returning, and the archery bet between Chae Nayun and me was already widespread .

===

▷「Master Sharpshooter」

[Low-intermediate rank] [Spirit attribute] [Evolving — Grade 7] [Proficiency EXP 75%]

===

Master Sharpshooter was only 25% away from grade 6 . I’ve been shooting monsters for an entire week, but the proficiency didn’t even increase by 10% . It was because the amount of EXP needed to rank up increased exponentially .

“Will I be able to hit grade 6 in a month?”

Now that the bet was happening, I had to win, but I felt a bit uneasy at just grade 7 .

Drrrr—

At that moment, the room suddenly rumbled .

Was it an earthquake?

I quickly looked around . For some reason, it felt like I was at the epicenter of the earthquake .

“Eh?”

I found something strange . The seed I had placed on my desk was shaking fiercely . Looking at it closely, I noticed that the blood disappeared from the gauze I wrapped it with .

“…Is it hungry?”

When I asked, the shaking stopped . I was dumbstruck, but I still took out another gauze soaked with Rachel’s blood . I pulled the seed out of the whitened gauze and placed it on top of the new gauze . Immediately, the seed trembled as though it was happy before burying itself into the gauze .

“Interesting . ”

Was Rachel’s blood that delicious?

“Oh right . ”

Soon, an itinerary would be posted for the traveling club’s next trip .

I checked my smartwatch for an announcement .

[Traveling Club – There will be a trip this weekend . ]

Yun Hyun, unfortunately, destroyed the academics club, and the hunting club was suspended because of Sven . The traveling club was the only club I had left . Everything was happening according to the original story .

During this trip, another incident would occur .

The traveling club would soon be caught in an assassination incident .

The traveling club’s leader was kind and gentle, but his indecisiveness and naivety made him the target of a French conman . The conman, disguising himself as a rich businessman, coaxed the club leader to bring the traveling club’s cadets to his giant mansion, saying that he would pay for all expenses .

The club leader made his decision after visiting France and enjoying his time during the trip .

However, the rich businessman’s real identity was an infamous conman who was constantly under the threat of assassination by people he had conned in the past . Although he didn’t need to worry about them because most of them were powerless, he had accidentally provoked a group he shouldn’t have .

Footsteps of Darkness .

—While the time changes from Saturday to Sunday, your life will be taken .

He had received an assassination notice from Footsteps of Darkness, a notorious assassination group known to target criminals .

When he received the notice, the conman despaired .

Because he was a wanted criminal, he couldn’t report it to the Hero Association to receive help . He also didn’t have enough time to liquidate his assets, so he didn’t have enough money to hire mercenaries .

After pondering over the matter for a long time, he came up with the idea of inviting cadets to protect himself for the weekend .

But there was another secret behind the event…

“Hm . ”

This should be the correct event since the assassination incident was supposed to happen a week after the combat exams .

Ding dong—

At that moment, a violet bordered alert popped up on the corner of my laptop screen .

It was from Violet Banquet .

I quickly clicked on the alert .

Truth Agency had received its first customer .

—Here is a detailed information on someone I wish to find . He’s an evil man who conned my family and ran away . Can you tell me where he is?

“…What’s this?”

A beer belly, snake-like eyes, and chubby cheeks . It was the stereotypical face of a conman .

This man was the conman behind the assassination incident, Belbet .

**

In a dark, abandoned factory used as the Chameleon Troupe’s hideout, the presence of people was felt for the first time in some time .

Stuck to the surface of the concrete floor were ten shadows . All ten colors besides the currently empty seat of Black were gathered in this place . It was to discuss the seat which had been empty for three years .

The shadows were positioned around a round table, watching a video projected by Droon . Shown on the video was a person Droon personally witnessed .

It was part of Droon’s Gift, an ability which could project or materialize anything he experienced with his five senses .

The ten shadows watched the video, some with curiosity and some with disapproval .

[KWANG—!]

“Oh geez, that surprised me . ”

The end of the video was marked by a thunderous gunshot and a brilliant white flash .

When the video came to an end, the leader of the shadows signaled the start of the discussion .

“Raise your hand if you see potential . ”

However, the voting didn’t begin, as a high-pitched female voice quickly cut in .

“By the way, Boss…”

Boss stared at the source of the voice, a beautiful Caucasian woman .

“When did we become a group that needed to meet to analyze some greenhorn?”

Her complaint quickly clashed with a man’s gentle voice .

“I think he has potential . Most importantly, I like that he doesn’t have parents or a significant other . ”

“What does that have to do with anything?”

“If you don’t have people by your side, you start to indulge in other things . We might not be able to give honor, but we can give money . ”

The Chameleon Troupe was one of the extremely few groups listed on the Hero Association’s violet list . However, only the name of the group was known to the public and its members’ identities remained completely hidden .

The Chameleon Troupe guaranteed the freedom of its members . They could live their lives however they wished . Only when there was work to do did the members gather or work in teams to complete missions .

“So what, you want to bring him in? A kid who can be sent flying by a little nudge?”

“We’re strictly talking about his potential…”

“Quiet . ”

Boss crushed the rising debate between the two members .

“From this man…”

In truth, the Chameleon Troupe was like a mercenary group . Of course, their goal was much grander than making money and living a lavish life . But that didn’t mean their goal was unattainable .

To achieve their goal, the Chameleon Troupe did what they needed to do at the right moment . Currently, their goal was to kill the ‘traitor’ .

“I confirmed the power of anti-magic . ”

Boss threw a glance at Droon .

Receiving her look, Droon projected another video .

The man in the video was using an ordinary gun to fight an opponent using qi reinforcement . When the bullet he fired shattered the qi reinforcement, the weight of the air was clearly heavier than before .

“…It’s illogical to think that the same thing will work against that guy just because he managed to break a qi reinforcement of that level . ”

“Like I said, Jain, Boss didn’t say we were recruiting him right away . She asked if he had ‘potential’ . At least in my eyes, he seems to have it . ”

At the man’s snarky rebuttal, Jain sent him a glare .

“Fine, let’s say we bring him in after he grows up . Black is the only color we have, so is he getting that seat?”

Black wasn’t a color that suited a greenhorn .

Black was the color belonging to the man who betrayed the previous boss . At the same time, it was the color of the ‘strongest member’ of the Chameleon Troupe . This rule remained unchanged for over 20 years .

“…Then I’ll take over that color . ”

At that moment, a giant man spoke up . It was Cheok Jungyeong, who had stayed silent this entire time .

“Rejected . You’re too stupid . ”

“I also reject . I’m stronger . ”

“Then what do you bastards want to do?”

“Aren’t there others? Are we just going to ignore Kim Suho and Shin Jonghak?”

“We’re going to vote on them next . This discussion is for who we’ll select as candidates . ”

Troupe members who had remained silent began to speak up one by one . Voices overlapped on top of each other, causing a headache for Boss . She spoke in a suppressed voice .

“Show of hands . ”

Everyone immediately quieted down .

“We’re voting . ”

With no other choice, the troupe members began to vote .

8:2

Jain, who already voiced her objection, and Cheok Jungyeong, who didn’t like the man, were the only ones to vote against him .

The rest of the members voted in favor .

“Hmph . ”

Jain snorted, clearly dissatisfied at the result .

“By the way, Jain, take this . It’s an invitation letter for the VVIP masquerade party in France . ”

“Oh, stealing that ring, right? Don’t worry . ”

But Jain’s sulking didn’t last for long as she took the invitation letter with a bright face .

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