SMH 140

Chapter 45 – Vladimir (5)

TL: Boko

Editors: Frost, StellarRain

Sung Joon quietly walked towards the Russian intelligence agency base, concealed as an illegal casino, while maintaining his stealth.

“The main facility is underground, but there are some facilities here in the casino as well. I believe you should attack the underground facility first,” Rishubalt voiced his opinion. Because he was stealthed, Sung Joon didn’t speak, but he agreed with Rishubalt and approached the casino.

There were two guards at the entrance of the casino but they weren’t checking their surroundings, as they were talking with each other.

“Both of them are Hunters. They’re E-rank, but considering how muscular they are, they seem to be trained in assassination. You don’t get those kind of muscles from normal training, even if they are Hunters.”

Sung Joon meticulously observed the guards. Rishubalt opened his mouth once more.

“They are definitely agents from the Russian intelligence agency.”

F-rank or E-rank Hunters were weak by Hunter standards, but they possessed much greater physical abilities than normal people. Therefore, if they undergo special training, they can become superb assassins.

Because it was easier than training civilians, F-rank or E-rank Hunters were often scouted for use in information gathering or security.

‘It seems like there are a lot of them (Russian agents)…’

As E-rank Hunters wouldn’t be able to sense his presence, he manage to get close enough to listen to their conversation.

It was obviously neither Korean nor English. It was neither French nor German. Sung Joon was sure that they were speaking Russian.

‘They could ask for reinforcements so I should take care of them immediately.’

Sung Joon carefully drew his sword so that his stealth wasn’t released. He aimed for the closest guard’s neck, and struck with his sword.

Though his stealth was released, the guard didn’t notice Sung Joon until his blade had cut through his neck.

“Ugh!”

He belatedly felt pain, vomited blood, and weakly fell to the floor.

“W-What… ugh!”

The other guard attempted to respond, but to Sung Joon, it seemed like he wasn’t even moving. Sung Joon’s thrown dagger had burrowed deep into the guard’s chest.

At the same time, Sung Joon entered the casino. He didn’t waste any time taking care of the bodies.

Strangely, there weren’t any customers inside of the casino.

‘That’s actually good for me.’

It had become unnecessary for him to distinguish between his enemies and the civilians, so it was good for him. At least, that’s how Sung Joon thought.

He quickly moved his feet. There were two B-rank Hunters nearby. He closed the distance and swung his sword.

“Ugh!”

“AH!”

They couldn’t block Sung Joon’s strike, spewed blood, and fell to the floor.

“It’s an intruder!”

Someone yelled in Russian. Sung Joon couldn’t understand them, but he realized that he had been discovered. His stealth had been released when he took care of the guards at the entrance, and now all he needed to do was quickly cut down their numbers.

As soon as the voice yelled of an intruder, the moving presences became fierce. There seemed to be several of them, but there was an item just right for this kind of situation. Sung Joon smirked and raised his left hand.

The ring with a green gem on his left finger shined.

“This is a feast that beckons death.”

Once Sung Joon spoke the activation words and infused mana into the ring, the poison quickly spread. The casino was immediately filled to the brim with poison mist.

Because the few customers that had been there had already left, he used his ‘Feast of Poison’ without any hesitation.

The poison spread quickly and the agents inside the casino couldn’t withstand it for long and fell. The magic poison affected everyone below S-rank and they would sustain critical damage.

“You’ve annihilated everyone in the casino.” Rishubalt finished scouting within three minutes, and reported. Sung Joon nodded his head and asked.

“How do we go underground?”

“I’ll take you there.”

Rishubalt lead Sung Joon towards the stairs that connected the casino to the underground area.

“Several agents have already set up lines of defense. I believe you should be careful.”

“I got it.”

Sung Joon replied heedlessly and walked down the stairs. Because he moved so quickly, it was only after he reached underground did the defense line react.

“Fire. Fire!”

By the time the agents pulled their triggers, Sung Joon was already gone. He didn’t even need to use the ‘Dragon’s Protection’ skill to protect himself.

Sung Joon swung his sword and all of them spurted blood and fell.

“S-Shit!”

There was an A-rank Hunter. He was the only one who had avoided Sung Joon’s attack. However, that was all. Sung Joon struck once more, but this time, the A-rank Hunter wasn’t able to avoid his strike a second time.

“Ugh!”

With an agonized expression, the A-rank Hunter fell and spewed blood. Sung Joon turned his attention to the tightly closed iron gate.

He smirked. His hunt had begun in earnest.

Inside, the S-rank Hunter, Jansen, took the lead and prepared to incinerate all of the materials.

“Burn them quickly!”

“We’ve gotten a report that he’s gotten through the iron gate!”

“Already?”

Jansen, who was directing the burning of materials, was shocked at his subordinates report.

“What do we do now?”

“We fight for our lives.”

A subordinate agent asked, and Jansen replied. Sung Joon had seized the only passage that went up to the surface, so they had no choice but to risk their lives and fight.

“Ugh!”

A dagger flew from somewhere, embedding itself into the neck of an agent pointing his submachine gun at the door. The agent spewed blood.

“W-Where is he?”

“You idiot! He’s over there!”

Jansen had pointed at a hole in the wall. Sung Joon had sensed their presences and threw an aura clad dagger into an agent’s neck.

Jansen was astonished by the marvelous dagger throwing skill. He had only sensed Sung Joon’s presence the moment he had thrown the dagger.

‘He’s at least a top tier S-rank… He might be even higher than that…!’

He grit his teeth and drew two daggers. Jansen had somewhat expected this once they realized they were being attacked and their communication with the casino had stopped, but their opponent’s level was much too high. It felt like death was knocking on the door.

Kwang!

“AHH!”

The wall collapsed and a scream rang out. Something rushed in and slashed deeply into the nearest agent’s stomach.

After the agent fell, Jansen realized that Sung Joon had arrived. He threw one of his daggers. He couldn’t follow Sung Joon’s movements, but he threw one of his daggers where he had last sensed him.

‘Did it hit?’

He thought it sounded dull. It wasn’t a misunderstanding. Jansen was happy that he had inflicted a critical injury upon a powerful foe. However…

“Heal.”

Sung Joon instantaneously healed his wound and aimed for Jansen. Aside from him, all the other agents were already dead.

The agent responsible for incinerating the materials was also dead on the table, spilling blood.

“N-No!”

Jansen bit his lip so hard that blood spilled from his lip. He wasn’t experienced fighting against a strong opponent.

Though he was strong and he’d been trained, it wasn’t easy for him to overcome his fear in this kind of situation.

“You’ve mopped up all of your enemies underground. It doesn’t seem like there will be any reinforcements, so… you might want to use your Illusionary Sword to take care of this quickly,” Rishubalt said. Sung Joon nodded his head and used his high-speed movement. He instantaneously closed the distance with Jansen.

“Illusionary Sword.”

He calmly raised his mana and used his Illusionary Sword. Jansen couldn’t mount a proper defense and his body spurted blood from the thirty-one illusionary blades.

“I-I couldn’t even fight back…”

These were the fallen Jansen’s last words before he died. Because Jansen was an S-rank Hunter, he was extremely prideful. For someone who had never known defeat, he would take that defeat to the grave.

“Absorb.”

Sung Joon used Absorption on Jansen and the other agents’ bodies. His consumed stamina and mana were replenished and he felt satisfied.

“Congratulations. Your synchronization rate has become 55%,” Rishubalt reported on his growth. Sung Joon smiled and collected the materials that the Russians were just about to burn. Afterwards, he leisurely left the base.

* * *

Within a week, Sung Joon had destroyed all of the Russian intelligence agency’s medium sized bases in Seoul, as well as the rest of South Korea, and killed all of the agents.

The Russian intelligence agency was in chaos. The damage they had sustained was unimaginable. They had lost three large bases and twenty-one medium sized bases, as well as the S-rank Hunter, Jansen, and two-hundred fifty agents.

“What is Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) doing?”

The Russian intelligence agency had asked the Korean government to take action through MOFA.

“There’s nothing we can do.”

If they formally complained, then they would be admitting that they had illegally established intelligence agency bases in foreign soil, so even the MOFA could do nothing but shake their heads.

There were no solutions.

“Only the small bases remain. At this point, we can no longer spy on South Korea, one of the U.S.’s allies.”

The intelligence agency expressed their position. In this society where Hunters had become pivotal, it was a huge problem that it had become impossible for them to spy on a foreign country.

The Russian government had no choice but to take this very seriously.

They attempted to negotiate informally, but the Korean President just stayed quiet about all of this, and didn’t take a stance either way. Therefore, the Russian government felt more and more uncomfortable.

“An informal envoy has arrived at the Korean government.”

The day after they had reported that the medium sized and large bases were destroyed, a diplomat from the Kremlin had arrived at the Korean Embassy.

The Russian government had sent a high ranking diplomat to MOFA, and South Korea decided to answer with their own diplomat. The two diplomats gathered in the living room without any attendants present and sat facing each other.

“It’s a pleasure.”

“It’s been a long time.”

The two delegates greeted each other. The Korean delegate brought up the main point.

“I’ve come today for informal business.”

“Please go ahead.”

“You sure have created several intelligence bases in South Korea.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

The Russian diplomat feigned ignorance. The Korean diplomat smiled. This was the expected response. With a calm expression, the Korean diplomat spoke again.

“If Russian isn’t involved in this, then the message I’ve brought isn’t necessary.”

The Korean diplomat said, and the Russian diplomat’s eyes shined.

“And what is that?”

“There was a parcel that was sent to the Blue House just a short while ago. We thought it might be a bomb, but it was a voice message. And it was also a warning.”

“A warning?”

“Yes. A warning towards Russia.”

The diplomat relayed calmly. The Russian diplomat felt intensely anxious.

“Please continue.”

“It was a warning from Mr. Kang Sung Joon. He warned that if the Director of the Russian intelligence agency didn’t send his apology within a week, then he would attack the mainland.”

“Look here!”

The Russian diplomat’s rose. He was agitated and stood up from his seat.

“Is this a declaration of war?”

“No, it’s not. This is Kang Sung Joon’s intent alone, and we cannot control him.”