Chapter 591
Beep, beep.
The call tone that had been ringing endlessly beyond the smartphone suddenly cut off.
At the same time, instead of the voice he had been waiting for, a familiar yet still unfamiliar woman’s voice pierced his ears.
— The call cannot be completed. After the beep, you will be connected to the voicemail…
Normally, he would have hung up. No, he wouldn’t have even called in the first place.
But the middle-aged man had a vague premonition. That the voice he was about to record might become his final words to his family.
Beep.
The signal started, but his lips wouldn’t part.
What should he say to his wife, who was pregnant with their second child, and to their barely four-year-old child?
And just as the middle-aged man, Go Sewon, was about to speak after deep consideration—
Rumble.
With a subtle vibration shaking the entire building, the voice of a security team member waiting outside seeped through the gap in the door.
“Team Leader, I think you should come now.”
“Team Leader?”
“Hold on, I’m coming.”
With that short reply, Go Sewon ended the call.
Yes, perhaps this was someone’s message. A divine command telling him not to die, to survive and return to his family.
If not—
‘Then I probably didn’t even deserve to leave a will.’ Go Sewon muttered bitterly to himself as he opened the door. A security team member with a stiff, expressionless face was waiting for him.
“Apologies, but outside—”
“I know. Let’s go.”
Cutting the man off calmly, Go Sewon moved his feet. He crossed the dim corridor and soon saw it.
The massive circular hall fitting for the top floor, filled with over a hundred fully armed elite guild members—and the hologram projection engulfing the space.
— Boom!
With a thunderous roar, a flash exploded.
— Shiiiing!
Beams of light shot from both sides toward each other.
— Kraaagh!
— Tanker! Heavy formation!
Screams and shouts rang out everywhere. The scene was so vivid it felt like it was unfolding right before their eyes—hundreds of Hunters tangled together in combat.
Just minutes ago, they had all belonged to the same guild. Now they were enemies, fighting one another.
‘That’s…’
With a sunken gaze, Go Sewon stared at the fierce battle playing out inside the hologram.
The familiar faces leading the front lines were executives from Song Cheon-woo’s faction within the guild.
‘Anti-Ares… So it’s come to this.’
A body without a head will collapse.
But this time was different. Though Song Cheon-woo—their “head”—had been eliminated, an even more powerful leader had risen in his place.
That’s why a body sentenced to death could still stand.
The young man walking forward, drenched in the blood of both monsters and humans, was their new rallying point.
“Monster…”
As someone muttered in disbelief while watching the hologram, a blue-white [Calamity Flame] ignited around the youth, Jin Taekyung.
— Whoosh! KRAAAK!
A single streak of fire scorched everything in its path as it tore through the space.
Massive tower shields shattered to pieces, and dozens of steadfast tankers were flung away, instantly collapsing the carefully maintained formation.
— KRAAAGH!
— Now! Hit him!
Amidst the spray of blood and falling bodies, the fire that had incapacitated an entire raid team didn’t stop—it kept firing without pause.
— Screeeeeech!
It was an unquenchable flame. An unstoppable meteor.
The ceiling, said to be able to withstand bombardment, crumbled like dominoes, and the soldiers waiting on each floor fell like straw.
As the speed of the flame outpaced the hologram’s ability to follow it, Jin Taekyung was already on another floor, defeating new enemies.
— Sto–stop…!
— KRAKKA-BOOM!
A force that nothing could stop. Jin Taekyung became a streak of fire that shot forward, unstoppable.
As the layers of defenses fell apart one by one, the faction executives who had hesitated, still uncertain, finally turned their weapons upside down in surrender.
— Th-this is the 85th floor! Executive Director Kim Jong-pil and Team 13 have defected—urk!
— HQ, respond! There’s a rebellion on the 97th floor—!
— Shiiiiiing, boom!
The stronger the current, the larger the wave. Snowballs grow the more they roll.
That was the current situation. The fierce flame was no longer confined to one direction—it was spreading everywhere.
And Go Sewon knew.
That until the rage was quelled, until it consumed that one man completely, Jin Taekyung’s flame would never die.
“Th-the target has breached the 100th floor!”
“Simultaneous battles are occurring across twelve floors! Hostiles are joining the target and fighting our forces!”
“The target is moving alone! 103rd floor! No, he’s entered the 104th!”
Urgent shouts rang from all directions. The calm expressions of the executives when they had first been summoned to the top floor had now turned to anxiety.
“H-hey, Team Leader Go. May I ask just one question?”
Go Sewon, eyes still locked on the hologram, answered.
“Go ahead, Executive Choi.”
“I’ve been wondering this since earlier…”
Gulp.
Choi, the half-grey-haired executive, swallowed dryly as he voiced everyone’s question.
“Where… where the Vice Guild Leader is right now?”
Go Sewon turned his head and looked around. Of the hundred people present, the one person who should be standing at the forefront was nowhere to be seen.
But strangely, despite the grim reality, his heart felt lighter.
‘Yeah. I guess this is enough.’ He barked when told to, drank when told to.
He was just one of the many war orphans created by the Great Cataclysm. The only reason he had climbed to this position was because he had lived as a loyal hunting dog.
Ironically, that fact sickened him.
‘With this, my debts are repaid. Whether I die or survive now, I’ve got nothing to do with you anymore.’
Go Sewon muttered inwardly toward the one who never showed up, and then firmly drew his sword.
Shing.
Amid the sharp metallic ring, a calm voice was heard.
“The Vice Guild Leader… he won’t be coming.”
“W-what?”
“So if you want to live, fight. You’ve eaten far too well to cough up what you’ve been fed now.”
Everyone here was a hound. They had lived abundant lives, eating the food given to them by their master. And now, they had no choice left.
‘Yeah, me too.’
Just then, as Go Sewon let out a bitter laugh, a scream echoed through the vast hall.
“119th floor! The target has broken through to the 119th floor!”
…There was no one who didn’t understand what that meant.
At the very least, they all knew that the skyscraper they reported to every day was 120 floors tall.
‘He’s coming.’
A fight they couldn’t escape.
Donning full-body armor, Go Sewon held a sword in one hand and a spear in the other, and with a heavy heart, spoke.
“Formation. Prepare for battle.”
The moment that quiet voice reached the ears of all hundred people—
Rumble! BOOM!
With a massive tremor and explosion, the towering skyscraper—one of the world’s greatest—shook.
An uninvited guest had stepped foot into the final bastion, the impregnable top floor that no one had ever dared approach.
Stomp.
Through the rising dust cloud, a lone figure emerged.
With a chill running through his entire body, Go Sewon hurled his spear with all his might.
Whoosh! Screeeech!
* * *
Clang!
A spear that had charged at him split through the dust cloud.
And beyond the newly cleared view, he saw a vaguely familiar middle-aged man.
‘Where have I seen him before…’
As he puzzled it over, a recent memory surfaced in his mind.
It was during the state funeral of Lee Jeong-ryong. The new security team leader who shadowed Seok Go-jun like a ghost—that was this man’s identity.
If he remembered correctly, the name he had heard in passing was…
“Go Sewon.”
At the quiet call, the middle-aged man’s eyes trembled faintly.
Whether it was because I knew his name, or because I had just dismantled his attack so effortlessly—I couldn’t say.
What mattered was that I had finally found someone who could give me a proper answer.
Once again, I asked the question I’d repeated dozens of times since entering the lobby.
“Where’s Seok Go-jun?”
Before the words even finished, a flash burst from Go Sewon’s hand.
Screeech, boom!
A throwing spear narrowly missed and embedded itself, forming a small crater. And that was the signal.
Swish swish swish swish!
Go Sewon wasn’t the only one waiting on the final top floor.
The hall was filled with over a hundred members of the Ares Guild. Each one powerful enough to be called a top-tier Hunter on their own—and they all attacked at once.
Fwoooosh!
Massive energy surged. The hall filled with blue, red, and blinding light.
Against an attack that couldn’t even be compared to the earlier ones—tightly coordinated, extremely powerful—I stepped forward.
Stomp.
As the energy at my feet touched the ground, flames bloomed and seared the air.
‘[Path of Scorching Flame]’
Whoosh! Screeeeech!
One step was enough. Erasing a dozen meters of space, I swung into the air.
The arrows melted before the blue-white [Calamity Flame], and the incoming magic spells were all undone.
Boom!
Water, earth, wind, fire. The superheated energy created by the [Flame God Phantom Dance] ignored elemental counterplay.
As the four-elemental attack spells exploded outward, the front tankers swiftly raised their tower shields.
Boom!
Even under significant impact, the shields didn’t budge an inch. They tilted slightly, deflecting the magic without taking a scratch.
Simultaneously, twenty figures used the hardened shields as springboards and leapt forward.
Pop-pop!
I instinctively understood.
Everyone here belonged to the elite of the Ares Guild—but the ones charging at me now were on a completely different level.
[Murderous Intent].
Their movements were sharp and efficient. Their eyes—emotionless and still—gave off the scent of seasoned killers.
Twenty weapons gleamed as they were thrust and swung like rays of light.
Swishhhh!
And as the storm of steel rushed toward me, I couldn’t help but chuckle.
“You’re all full of shit.”
In this slowed-down world, I could see their expressionless faces twist in horror. But it was already too late—for them and for me.
Slice!
The blue-white blade extended with my spear, cutting through everything. Weapons lost their strength, and bodies split apart.
With one strike, I turned five bodies into ten.
Then I thrust my fist into empty air.
Boom!
Compressed air exploded—not alone.
An assassin who had crept in silently fell backward as a headless corpse, and the chained sickle in his hand moved according to my will.
Swish, squelch!
Dragged by [Object Control], the sickle slammed into someone’s neck.
As death came suddenly, the calm eyes of the man widened.
Then, as he began to fall, I placed my palm on his chest.
Boom!
The [Flame God Palm] wasn’t aimed to finish a kill. It was aimed at another enemy who tried to use his comrade’s corpse as a shield.
“Graaagh!”
Blood sprayed from his chest.
Before the dying man could drop his head, I had already moved on to the next enemy.
Thud!
My punch crushed a skull.
Swoosh! Thwack thwack thwack!
Rapidly fired [Wind Strikes] pierced throats and chests. One tried to plug the blood gushing from his neck with his palm, but it was useless.
“Ggh, ghk.”
His eyes faded quickly, and he crumpled to the ground.
I stared coldly at his collapsing figure.
‘You brought this upon yourselves.’
Normally, I might have spared them. But not today. Not now.
Just like when Uncle Jeok-jung was taken down by the Black Hunters—I wasn’t planning to stop.
I couldn’t.
‘This time, I have to show them. So nothing like this ever happens again.’
I was a Hunter long before I became a martial artist.
Born in the 21st century, a modern man who lived under civilization and law.
That’s why I couldn’t take out Seok Go-jun back in Sichuan.
Unlike Lee Jeong-ryong, who I eliminated amidst chaos, Seok Go-jun had been protected—behind a wall built by two words: [Rule of Law].
But now… that no longer mattered.
Seok Go-jun, whose life I once spared, had crossed a line of no return.
And I—we—had lost Kim Hwajong.
The kind old butler with his gentle smile… we would never see him again.
That was why I was here.
To break the wall called “rule of law” and become a [lawless man] myself.
Squelch.
My blood-soaked footsteps echoed louder than ever.
The great hall fell into suffocating silence.
Everyone frozen by the slaughter that had unfolded before them.
But among them, I couldn’t find the one face I was looking for. The only person who could give me the most definitive answer to my question.
‘Go Sewon.’
As I turned my head in search of Seok Go-jun’s right hand—at that moment, I felt a faint, subtle sonic disturbance.
Shiiing!
I spun and clapped my hands together.
Boom!
With a thunderous clash, the sharp edge of a sword stopped just above my forehead.
Its wielder—Go Sewon—opened his mouth calmly.
“Looking for me?”
“Yeah.”
I gripped both hands tighter.
My sword aura—no, my [aura blade]—met his, and the overwhelming force melted it down completely.