Chapter 393

“Damn it! Feels like I’m boiling alive.”

Kim Jin-soo of the First Escort Squad stuck his head out the buggy car window, trying to catch a breath of wind. With the air conditioner broken, the inside of the buggy felt like a furnace.

He snapped at his subordinate.

“I told you to keep up with maintenance. What the hell is this?”

“How is that my fault? It’s the sand. Why’re you yelling at me for something I can’t control?”

“I don’t care! Shit! It’s your fault anyway!”

“Sure, sure!”

“Answer properly.”

“Yes, sir!”

“Ugh… life is such a damn mess…”

Kim Jin-soo let out a sigh.

He knew, of course.

It wasn’t his subordinate’s negligence that broke the air conditioner.

This damned sand that covered the Earth was the natural enemy of all electronics. No one really knew why, but once you were in the desert, most electronic devices just stopped working.

Which meant vehicles couldn’t go far into the desert, either.

The driver muttered as he kept his eyes on the road.

“Things worked fine when we were with Lord Zeon…”

“You think he’s called the Sand Mage for nothing? He must’ve protected the vehicles with his power.”

“It’s amazing, honestly. The way he controls sand so freely.”

“Seriously.”

“Would be nice if we could ride with him again next time.”

“Same here. We had a rough end to the mission, but we still got a good haul of ironclad ant carcasses.”

“Thanks to that, our luck finally turned around.”

“Turned around, my ass! We’ve been dragged back out to the desert again—what’s so lucky about that?”

“Come on, it’s not so bad. We got a huge bonus. My wife was thrilled when I gave her the money.”

At that, Kim Jin-soo’s face twisted.

“You mocking me? You’ve got a wife. I’ve got nobody, damn it!”

“You could find someone easy if you wanted. The problem is you blow all your money on whores.”

“What’s the point of living if I can’t have a little fun?”

“Geez…”

The subordinate shook his head.

The First Escort Squad of the Goblin Market often had to travel due to the nature of their missions.

Magic stone mines, newly-discovered dungeons, beast-hunting zones—those were their stomping grounds.

That meant they spent more time outside Neo Seoul than in it.

Once they left, they’d be gone at least a week, sometimes ten days.

Settling down and raising a family wasn’t easy under those conditions.

There were exceptions, like the driver, who somehow managed to have a family, but most spent their hard-earned pay in the red-light districts, just like Kim Jin-soo.

Which was why Kim Jin-soo rarely had any savings left. But he didn’t regret it.

‘You only live once. How could I stick to one woman?’

Living it up with as many women as possible while he was still breathing—that was one of his life goals.

Right now, they were on a long haul to pick up beast byproducts.

The rarer the beast, the higher the value of its remains.

The Awakened from the Goblin Market had recently hunted a monster called a Ghost Beetle.

Its name came from the markings on its shell, which resembled ghostly faces.

Ghost Beetles were among the rarest magical beasts.

Though only C-rank, their shells were incredibly tough, making them difficult to hunt.

Those shells were an essential material in making protective gear for Awakened.

Depending on how they were alloyed with other metals, the resulting gear varied wildly in performance.

Some workshops had even managed to craft armor with magic resistance using Ghost Beetle shells.

Armor with such properties wasn’t something you could easily find.

The problem was how rare the beetle was.

Its habitat wasn’t well known, and sightings were few and far between.

Which made it incredibly valuable.

“Hunting a whole swarm of Ghost Beetles… Hyun-woo hit the jackpot.”

“No kidding. They say even a grub rolls when it has to.”

“Come on, Hyun-woo’s no grub.”

“It’s just a saying, dumbass. Why do you always nitpick?”

Kim Jin-soo reached over like he was going to flick the subordinate’s forehead. A smile crept onto his face.

The man who’d led the team that hunted the beetles was Go Hyun-woo—a close friend of Kim Jin-soo’s.

They didn’t get to meet often because their missions differed, but whenever they did, they drank and partied all night long.

Kim Jin-soo scanned the surroundings.

“Wasn’t the rendezvous supposed to be around here?”

“Yeah, we’re almost there.”

“Then why don’t I see anything?”

He looked around, but there was no sign of Hyun-woo’s hunting party.

Usually, when a hunting team succeeded, they left large flags or colored smoke signals to make it easy for the escort squad to find them.

But there was nothing in sight.

Suddenly, Kim Jin-soo felt a wave of dread.

“Shit. Something’s off.”

“What is it, boss?”

“I don’t know. Just a bad feeling. Get the men ready.”

“Huh?”

“I said prep for combat, dumbass!”

“Yes, sir!”

The cold edge in Kim Jin-soo’s voice told his subordinate that this wasn’t a joke.

Boom!

A red smoke flare burst from the rear of the buggy.

The signal for combat readiness.

“What’s going on?”

“Why combat prep all of a sudden?”

The Awakened riding in the escort convoy immediately tensed.

They were the First Escort Squad, veterans who’d worked with Kim Jin-soo for a long time.

They knew better than anyone how sharp his instincts were.

“Stay alert!”

“Check every direction!”

Without needing further orders, they drew their weapons and scanned the area.

Then Kim Jin-soo’s expression darkened.

He smelled blood on the wind.

“Get up that dune.”

He pointed to a sandhill to the left.

“Yes, sir!”

The driver obeyed without question and steered toward the hill.

When they finally reached the top, they saw it.

The temporary camp set up by the hunters came into view.

“Shit!”

Sparks lit in Kim Jin-soo’s eyes.

The camp had been destroyed—bodies were strewn everywhere.

The squad didn’t hesitate. They sped toward the camp.

Upon arrival, rage swept across their faces.

“They’re all… dead.”

“What bastards did this…?”

Every one of the fallen was a hunter from the Goblin Market.

Kim Jin-soo approached the most mangled corpse.

It had been butchered like livestock—and it was none other than his friend, Go Hyun-woo.

Blood filled Kim Jin-soo’s eyes as he looked down at the body.

“Hyun…woo…”

Go Hyun-woo’s eyes were wide open.

His face still bore the agony of his final moments.

“What kind of monster does this to a man…”

Kim Jin-soo’s shoulders trembled.

It looked like torture. Butchered, dismembered—so much so that only a close friend like Kim Jin-soo could’ve even recognized the body.

The other corpses were just as bad.

Not a single body was intact.

Kim Jin-soo shouted at his men.

“Search the area. See if any of the bastards are nearby.”

“Yes, sir!”

A few men scattered in all directions.

Once he calmed slightly, Kim Jin-soo took a deep breath.

“Shit… whoever did this, I’ll never forgive them.”

“Boss! The storage tent’s been completely looted!”

One of the men pointed to a shredded tent.

It had been used to store beast byproducts.

Now it was torn to pieces—and empty.

If this had been a beast attack, there’d be no reason to take the Ghost Beetle shells. They weren’t fresh meat, and no beast would crave a hard carapace.

This was the work of men—ones who wanted those shells.

“Scavengers?”

The first suspect to come to mind were the desert raiders—Scavengers.

They’d certainly have a motive to target a hunting team.

But there was a problem.

Go Hyun-woo was B-rank, and his teammates were all C-rank.

That was far too high a tier for your average Scavenger crew to even consider touching.

They were all seasoned desert veterans, too.

Even if it was a Scavenger raid, there was no way it should’ve been this one-sided.

They’d been annihilated.

“No, not Scavengers. These were trained men.”

Soon the scouts returned.

“Not a trace, sir.”

“No signs anywhere.”

Kim Jin-soo’s face twisted even more.

“They’re already long gone…”

Which meant pursuit was impossible.

The desert sand would have swallowed all tracks.

Unless they had a sand mage like Zeon, they’d never find the killers out here.

Kim Jin-soo gave his order.

“Gather the bodies. We’re returning to Neo Seoul immediately.”

“What? We’re not even gonna look for the bastards?”

“We have to avenge them, boss!”

Kim Jin-soo answered coldly.

“Then tell me how you plan to find men hiding in the desert?”

“I… I don’t know.”

“Exactly. Which is why we’re going to trace them from Neo Seoul.”

“How?”

“The Ghost Beetle shells. Where else are they gonna sell them?”

“Oh!”

Realization dawned on the men.

No matter how rare the goods, they were worthless without a buyer.

Neo Seoul was the only place where anyone could move that many shells.

If they searched the Goblin Market and the black markets, they were bound to find the stolen goods.

“Got it? So we head back now. The longer we wait, the harder they’ll be to catch.”

“Yes, sir!”

The men quickly moved to recover the corpses.

The same trucks they’d brought to haul beetle shells were now filled with the bodies of their comrades.

Rage burned on their faces.

“I’ll find them… and rip their arms and legs off.”

They set off for Neo Seoul—swearing blood vengeance.

* * *

Jang Woo-hang placed his willow-leaf saber on the table.

Etched clearly on its polished blade was the numeral ‘one’.

He ran his fingertip across the surface of the number.

The cold feel of the metal sent a shiver down his spine.

“Perfect.”

The saber was practically an extension of himself.

Since receiving it, he hadn’t spent a single day apart from it.

He believed that with this weapon alone, there was nothing in the world he couldn’t cut down.

Though, reality said otherwise.

Since coming here, he’d hit a wall.

Jin Geum-ho, Zeon, and even Xiao Lun made him feel it.

But he didn’t despair.

He could never defeat them alone—but he wasn’t alone.

Pathfinders from the Underground never move solo.

They operate in units of ten.

Though all the other elite teams that arrived with him had been wiped out by demonic beasts, his squad had survived by working together.

“So why the hell aren’t those bastards here yet? Don’t tell me they stirred up some trouble…”

A twinge of unease flickered through him.

His brothers were reliable, but they had a tendency to go off the rails now and then.

At least when he was around, they were somewhat controllable.

“Hurry it up, my brothers… Come to me soon…”