The battle with the hybrids ended in a massacre.
The hybrids that had fallen into the pit created by Collapse had no way of getting out on their own.
And in the storm of electricity and flas that rained down on them, no hybrid had any ans to endure.
Once they wiped out one entire group like that, the leader, Gale Ironwood, imdiately revealed itself.
“Master, it appeared earlier than I expected. I thought we’d run into it after entering the county proper.”
“It’s probably because there’s nothing to eat. In the end, these things have to eat sothing too. Hunters, or their corpses.”
“It already looks that way.”
By the ti Kang-hoo spoke, Gale Ironwood was already devouring the corpses of the dead hybrids.
Like soone tossing small grapes into their mouth, it casually tossed hybrids into its huge maw.
The part that, in human terms, seed to serve as its neck bulged and swallowed them down at once.
Each ti, a sheen ran over Gale Ironwood’s entire body, and the mad glare in its two eyes grew even more intense.
“Do you need backup?”
“I’m fine.”
“So, you plan to take all the level-ups for yourself.”
“You’ve given more than enough advice, Master. I want to catch this one personally, alone.”
“Good. That’s a good mindset. Dependence is easy and comfortable. Survival is what’s difficult. You must be thorough in all things.”
“Yes, Master.”
“I’ll watch.”
“I’ll handle all the secondary patterns myself as well. Master, please just watch, nothing else.”
“Got it, you brat! So I’m supposed to get back, blink my eyes, and just watch, is that it?”
Chuckling with a click of his tongue, Celestial Assassin retreated far to the rear. He picked out a boulder and perched on top of it.
In the end, he lay sideways and even propped his head up with one hand—playing at being an immortal in leisure, nothing less.
“…….”
Kang-hoo studied the Gale Ironwood.
Its legs looked exactly like a human’s.
From the waist up it had the form of a tree, but at the point where the branches really began to split, there were eyes and a mouth.
Its mouth looked wide and deep enough that a king-size bed could slide right in. One person was nothing.
The branches that played the role of arms hung down long, their length hard to judge at a glance.
Those branches trailing along the ground were coiled around other trees, bushes, rocks, and more.
It looked like it could yank them up and throw them as-is if it wanted. It certainly looked strong enough to do so.
‘Let’s get in close first.’
He needed to probe it in close combat.
As Kang-hoo prepared to charge in, chaining Leap to Acceleration, Gale Ironwood moved half a beat faster.
Tatatatat!
From the mont it began to sprint, Gale Ironwood’s two legs swelled to an abnormal degree.
No human muscles could possibly reach that size. It was like watching a tire on the verge of bursting.
For that reason, the speed at which it charged was also beyond imagination.
For just a mont, Kang-hoo even lost track of its movent speed, his focus wavering slightly.
And just then—
Kiiiii!
Gale Ironwood suddenly stopped, then whipped its arms and scattered sothing toward Kang-hoo.
‘Sapling minions.’
Just as Kang-hoo could create mini versions of himself through the skill called Bait—
Gale Ironwood also had the ability to summon sapling minions.
Each sapling, however, carried traits like bloodsucking, self-detonation, and so on, making them excellent at generating variables.
From the front, it looked like grenades being scattered around, making it a situation one might instinctively flinch at.
Kang-hoo instead leaped forward to evade. It was one of the countless lessons he had received from Celestial Assassin.
A comfortable backward dodge was the dumbest thing you could do, giving your enemy one more free chance to attack.
“……?”
Sothing unexpected happened.
The aggressive Gale Ironwood suddenly retreated the mont Kang-hoo dodged forward.
Had it lost its nerve at his proactive response? Its level was not low enough for that to be the case.
‘No way.’
In the instant he saw Gale Ironwood lift its drooping arms, Kang-hoo sensed danger. This was the motion before an attack.
【Immaculate Wall】
Without a mont’s hesitation, he raised the wall.
Gale Ironwood let out its signature mad laugh—khahaha—and thrust its arms straight forward.
A flurry of blows!
Tatatatata! Kwagagaga!
Puhk! Puk! Puk-puk-puk! Puk!
At so point he simply gave up counting the number of hits raining down.
The flurry of blows continued hamring the Immaculate Wall so fast that it was hard to pinpoint where its arms and hands even were.
It was like watching a one-two punch played at ten tis, no, twenty tis normal speed.
The barrage was so powerful that Kang-hoo’s body kept getting shoved backward even as he defended with all his might.
‘What insane firepower.’
There was not a single weak attack he could deliberately let glance off. If anything, the power kept increasing.
‘Retreat.’
Kaching!
He deliberately broke the Immaculate Wall.
This was not a situation he could resolve by being satisfied with having blocked well.
In that ti, the sapling minions Gale Ironwood had scattered had closed the distance.
If those things suddenly leaped and exploded, or clung to him and started draining his bodily fluids—
At that point, the issue would not be winning the fight but simply surviving. To cut off the variables, he needed to withdraw for now.
Swiish! Boom! Boom-boom!
Sure enough, with a slight delay, the sapling minions jumped toward where Kang-hoo had been and exploded.
This batch seed to be all self-destruct types, and packed full of acidic fluid inside their bodies.
If he had been exposed to that attack, so part of his body would now be dangling like half-chewed at.
“This is fun.”
The corners of his mouth curled upward.
Situations kept unfolding in very short spans of ti, and each ti, the environnt forced him to think differently. It fascinated him.
So might call him crazy, but Kang-hoo felt a strange thrill in situations where he was pushed to the extre.
On the other hand, he also thought that if he could win this alone, he could press into North Korean territory even more confidently.
He imdiately went on the counterattack.
Perhaps because it had just unleashed such a long barrage, thin wisps of smoke were rising from Gale Ironwood’s entire body.
【Protective Barrier】
【Illusion Arts】
【Shadow Step】
For the sake of confusion, Kang-hoo placed a single Protective Barrier as a stationary effect to the left, then sent illusions and shadows to the right.
Mumyeong, whom he had repositioned to the rear, was left unsummoned for now. Once the probing battle truly finished, he would have a use for him.
As the illusions and shadows moved around intertwined, they naturally blocked the line of sight between himself and Gale Ironwood.
【Stealth】
Using the brief gap, he unfolded Stealth and approached the creature from a wide, arcing path.
Either it lacked the ability to see through stealth, or it was simply ignoring it; Gale Ironwood just stared at Kang-hoo’s shadows as they fanned out and spread.
Maintaining invisibility, he narrowed the distance to Gale Ironwood to a certain extent, then—
【Veil of Technique】
Just as he layered Veil of Technique on top to perfect his camouflage and link into a back attack—
Kl-kl-kl!
Gale Ironwood bared its pitch-black teeth and laughed.
And then—
Thunk!
It stretched both arms straight out to either side, perpendicular to its body, then instantly made them rigid.
Kwooooooosh!
And began spinning in place at high speed.
‘You’ve got to be kidding.’
Like this, if he misjudged his approach even slightly, he would end up like fruit thrown into a blender.
His thoughts raced.
Against this monster, a step above Swarm Queen, ordinary feints and disguised attacks would likely not work.
He needed a clever trump card.
Audax Therapeutics.
In the city of Geneva, Switzerland, stood the headquarters building of the multinational pharmaceutical company Audax Therapeutics.
It was also a place known for countless international organizations, such as the UN Office, the International Red Cross, and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Because the full na was on the long side, most people shortened it and called it “Au-Thera.”
Public opinion toward Au-Thera was favorable.
It actively participated in various volunteer and relief efforts and invested heavily in research on incurable diseases.
So of the incurable-disease treatnts it had developed were even sold at a loss despite enormous developnt costs.
On the surface it was a good company wrapped in benevolence and heartwarming stories, but reality was different.
A closed-door eting.
The nine executives seated around the round table all wore consistently dark expressions.
It would have been different if it had been a eting convened at their own initiative, but orders had been handed down that they had to accept unilaterally.
Today’s eting was nominally a democratic session for a yay-or-nay vote, but in truth, approval was mandatory.
One of the executives stood up.
He was the only bald man in the room—a living testimony to the fact that even a leading pharmaceutical company could not solve hair loss.
“This is a discussion on the motion to resu the acquisition of Korea’s Jeongmun Pharm.”
Just then, another executive raised his hand, but the bald man shook his head.
“Wait until you’ve heard everything. The reason for resuming is clear. China has a closed policy that doesn’t accept outside investnt in pharmaceuticals. Japan is slow in this field, and talent is flowing out so badly that its base has been devastated. But Korea still has good efficiency in both investnt and research.”
“…….”
As the silence in the room continued, the bald man finally realized why and nodded.
“Fine. Ask away.”
The mont he allowed questions, another executive raised his hand, and was imdiately given the floor.
“I don’t think it was your turn in the rotation. Why did they skip over and give the agenda to you?”
“This isn’t about Jeongmun Pharm itself, is it?”
“They themselves broke the order they set, so I’m asking for a reason. Nothing more.”
“They said I know more than you do when it cos to East Asia. That was all.”
“Is that so? I’m offended.”
“Instead of this petty stuff, do you have any proper questions?”
At the bald man’s words, the executive who had just asked looked ready to flare up, but soon forced himself to calm down.
They were watching this eting. And it was also being recorded in real ti.
“I have a question.”
The executive sitting opposite the bald man raised his hand. He wore sunglasses, as if his eyes were a complex he wanted to hide.
“What is it?”
“Haven’t we already carried out an operation once before? I rember bankrolling a multinational rcenary group.”
“It failed. Did you forget the guy who ruined the entire plan at the end? Are you just not interested, or are you stupid?”
This concerned the ti when a multinational rcenary group had attacked Jeongmun’s First Research Lab.
Back then, Jeongmun Pharm had nearly had its technology stolen, but things had gone sideways at the last mont.
That was thanks to Kang-hoo appearing, subduing Jung Seon-rak, and successfully blocking entry to the lab.
There had been no proper footage from the scene and analysis had been lacking, so they still did not know of Kang-hoo’s existence.
They had even t Jung Seon-rak individually and investigated him, but he said he would not know until he fought the man himself.
Because Kang-hoo’s disguise had been perfect, they could not rember his face. All they rembered were his movents and the impression he left.
Perhaps judging that the other executives’ questions were of no use, the bald man shook his head and continued.
“The order is to legally acquire Jeongmun Pharm and distribute Au-Pro 1 in the East Asian market. They want to use it as a testing ground.”
“…….”
“There’s nowhere fighting as fiercely right now as Korea, China, and Japan, is there? The order is to rake in huge profits here and bolster Jeonghwa Guild’s strength.”
At that mont—
Everyone in the conference room understood the aning and purpose of the order.
Jeonghwa Guild and Jang Si-hwan, who had recently been showing instability for various reasons.
It was a firm directive from above to help him with all their might so he could spread his clipped wings wide once again.
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