Copying Runes to Become the World's Strongest - Chapter 50

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 50
An abandoned pier on the West Sea.
Discarded shipping containers and all manner of scrap material lay scattered about.
A group of men had gathered in front of one of those containers.
“When’s the last one supposed to show up?”
“No idea. We can’t get hold of him.”
“Upstairs says to wait a bit longer, and if there’s still no word, just leave.”
Anyone could see they were up to no good.
And someone was watching them from a distance.
“Is that them?”
Hyeonjun took a quick look at them, then ducked back behind his cover.
‘Well, I did follow Jeong Yunchang’s advice and get this far, at least.’
Hyeonjun had pried a considerable amount of information out of Jeong Yunchang.
Not just his affiliation, but other details tied to this operation as well.
The reason he had ended up coming here alone was also that information.
‘I never imagined they’d be watching everything.’
The key figures at the Management Bureau and the major guilds—according to Jeong Yunchang, every move they made was under the Supernatural Public Security Bureau’s eye.
That was exactly why Hyeonjun had come alone.
If he’d asked the Bureau for help over the phone, the news would have reached the Supernatural Public Security Bureau in no time.
‘Still, I did get a message through.’
He had hidden his smartphone inside the hunting ground and, with the help of a staff member at the checkpoint, sent a courier to deliver a letter to Nam Jaewoon.
Time had been tight, so he’d scrawled it out in a rush, but he had covered the essentials.
‘Even if Nam Jaewoon is being watched, they’ll only know he received a courier, not what’s inside. He should be safe.’
The problem was that he wasn’t sure whether Nam Jaewoon was actually at the Management Bureau.
‘Still, he ought to be there at this hour, shouldn’t he?’
Of course, there was no way to be certain.
So for now, he intended to make his move first.
‘Jeong Yunchang said there were two more targets besides me.’
Seeing those men guarding a single container, it was likely the two had already been abducted.
‘If we dawdle too long, those people will be in danger.’
Apparently, at a set time, they’d be transferred to China.
Once that happens, it’s over.
No matter what the South Korean government does, China won’t send the abductees back.
‘That’s the kind of country China is.’
Even if the government lodged a protest, they’d pretend not to hear a thing.
In an age when the strength of Hunters is a nation’s competitiveness, South Korea’s voice to China was no louder than the chirping of crickets.
Unless, by some remote chance, America lent a hand… but—
‘As if they would.’
South Korea had long since fallen out of America’s sphere of interest.
Hunters kept draining away, and the number of Awakened was steadily dropping year after year.
With a booming Japan right next door, there was no real reason for America to bother with Korea.
‘In the end, I’ll have to handle this as much as I can on my own.’
Part of him wished he could simply stall for as long as possible.
But if he did, the whole chain of incidents that had unfolded here would be passed on to the Supernatural Public Security Bureau.
For instance.
-Go Hyeonjun, the abduction target, raided the pier.
Something like that.
That above all had to be avoided.
Why?
‘Because I’m the only one who wasn’t abducted.’
The one attached to Hyeonjun was a C-Rank Awakened.
On the surface, an E-Grade Hyeonjun had defeated a C-Rank.
Looking at that fact alone, you might wonder what the problem is.
But if you think about the purpose of the abduction, it becomes clear.
‘They pull off something like this right after the Tower’s buff was taken away?’
It’s obvious.
They must have judged that Derek was among the three targets.
‘And if one of them took down a C-Rank…’
Anyone would be likely to conclude that the man must be Derek.
For that very reason, not a single piece of information could be allowed to reach the Supernatural Public Security Bureau.
“By the way, how did you narrow down the target group?”
Three people, exactly. I have a rough guess, but…
Hyeonjun mulled it over, then shook his head sharply.
‘This isn’t the time to be thinking about that.’
Hyeonjun turned his eyes back to the container.
The men who had been gathered grew bored of waiting and scattered in every direction.
For Hyeonjun, it was good news.
‘Now’s my chance.’
Hyeonjun activated the skill he had just acquired.
[Skill – Degraded Invisibility activated.]
He had bound Jeong Yunchang, driven him into the floor like a carrot, and then made him use Invisibility so he could analyze it.
Acquiring the skill had brought a pain beyond words, and he had momentarily lost consciousness and collapsed, but because of that, he had been able to learn the Invisibility skill.
‘It’s a degraded version, but I’ll take what I can get.’
Hyeonjun looked down at his hand, which rippled like heat haze.
Unlike Jeong Yunchang’s perfect invisibility, this one gave itself away.
‘But unless you look closely, you won’t notice. It’s perfect for ambushing them one at a time.’
Hyeonjun drew out the War Hammer, which had turned invisible just the same.
He would have preferred to avoid killing, but he was in no position to hold back.
If things turned dangerous or came down to a razor’s edge, he would not hesitate to draw blood, and he fidgeted with the handle of the Dagger hanging at his waist.
‘Let’s go.’
Hyeonjun first approached the man sitting on scrap material near the container, staring at his smartphone.
A spot where the others could not see.
He needed to lure him into a blind spot.
‘That’ll do.’
Hyeonjun picked up a pebble from the ground and tossed it into the blind spot.
Plink.
“Huh?”
The man looking at his smartphone turned his head at the presence he sensed from behind.
All he could see was the view of the abandoned pier, which he had grown sick of looking at.
“Must be the wind.”
Dismissing it as nothing, he was about to look back down at his smartphone when—
Ding—
This time, the sound of hollow metal ringing reached his ears.
The man’s brow furrowed sharply as he rose from his seat.
“What the hell was that?”
The man started walking toward the direction the sound had come from.
He passed the abandoned container and stepped fully into the blind spot.
“Huh?”
He tilted his head as he stared into the rippling empty air.
The next instant, the heavy War Hammer slammed down onto the man’s crown.
Thwack!
Thud.
A killing blow, landing squarely on a vital spot while he had no defense at all.
Even a C-Rank Awakened could not have helped but lose consciousness from a blow like that.
‘He’s still breathing.’
Hyeonjun used a rope lying nearby to bind the man tightly, then stuffed the man’s own sock into his mouth.
After that, he cracked open an empty container nearby and tossed him inside.
He made sure to take the man’s smartphone as well.
‘Next…’
Hyeonjun searched for his next target.
In his eyes, the sense of crisis had given way to a faint thrill.
‘That one.’
***
In front of the Awakening Management Bureau building.
Nam Jaewoon waited for the courier driver who had contacted him out of the blue.
Normally, he would have told them to leave it with him.
After asking the driver about the sender’s details, it seemed the package had been sent by Hunter Hyeonjun.
“The sender? The name was a bit unusual, though. Ryo Musu, it said.”
Ryo Musu.
As he tried to figure out what that meant, he turned the package over.
Su-mulyo.
It was a name that naturally brought to mind Zero Fee.
Only one person was connected to him.
‘Hunter Go Hyeonjun.’
He had sent a package.
Why, of all things?
And he couldn’t even be reached.
It was clearly something out of the ordinary.
‘The eyes have multiplied.’
Nam Jaewoon sensed the gazes pressing in from every direction.
Ever since Choi Jaeil had become Director of the Awakening Management Bureau, someone had been watching.
He’d been told that every country had its spies, and that these eyes belonged to them.
‘Try to find them and they vanish like ghosts.’
That was why he had left them alone until now, doing nothing about it.
Party because they never followed him into the places that mattered.
If today had been like any other day, he wouldn’t have given it a second thought.
‘The number has gone up since yesterday. It must be because of Derek.’
They probably figured that if they kept watching me, they’d be able to uncover Derek’s identity.
Regrettably, I was in the same position as they were.
“Mr. Nam?”
“Yes.”
Nam Jaewoon soon met the courier who had arrived on a motorcycle.
He paid the cash-on-delivery fee of 70,000 won and received the package.
‘It’s light.’
Nam Jaewoon walked back to the office, leaving those gazes behind him.
The watching eyes had never reached him inside the office, but just in case, he checked once more, thoroughly.
Then he opened the box.
‘A letter?’
Inside the box was a thin sheet of paper, folded carelessly.
When he unfolded it, even a glance showed handwriting scrawled in a frantic hand.
“……”
Nam Jaewoon read the contents quickly.
His expression stayed exactly as it had been from start to finish.
“Hmm.”
He let out a brief murmur, folded the letter neatly, and tucked it into his pocket.
Then he headed straight for the Director’s office.
“What is it?”
“Are there any listening devices in here?”
Choi Jaeil, who had been smiling gently, went stiff at the question.
“No. I check every morning when I arrive, so I’m certain.”
“What about cameras?”
“Same answer.”
“Please read this.”
Nam Jaewoon handed the letter to Choi Jaeil.
Before long, Choi Jaeil’s face twisted into a thoroughly unpleasant scowl.
“These damned bastards……”
Choi Jaeil ground his teeth.
He knew spies existed within the Management Bureau; he was aware of them as a matter of course.
That was also why he had ordered the deletion of the Orientation video files, out of awareness of such people.
But that was not what had angered him.
“Tailing, and now kidnapping…… This has crossed a line, and crossed it hard.”
It was an open secret that China had been courting Korea’s talented individuals.
But this case was different.
Kidnapping.
It was an outright criminal act.
“I told you before, didn’t I? Whether an ally or an enemy, every nation has its spies.”
“Yes.”
“Even when we know what they’ve gathered, we usually leave them alone. Better to keep them in the palm of your hand. So for most things, we don’t bother making an issue of it. But not this time. This can’t be let slide, and it must not be let slide. We have to make an example of them.”
“May I share my thoughts?”
“By all means.”
“Can we really raise this issue against China?”
Coldly speaking, there was no need to even answer that.
South Korea was a relatively weak Hunter nation.
Protesting to China would not make them lose any sleep. We simply weren’t big enough for them to care.
“You have a point there. But we already have Derek in our hands, don’t we?”
At those words, Nam Jaewoon’s eyes widened slightly.
“Did you receive some kind of tip-off, sir?”
“I despise the Supernatural Public Security Bureau, but I’ll give them credit for their ability. Would they have tried to abduct Hunter Hyeonjun and the other Hunters for no reason?”
“Ah…!”
Nam Jaewoon let out a small gasp.
It was something he could have guessed without much thought, yet he had missed it entirely.
“So they’re fairly confident, and they’re in a hurry, which is why they carried out this operation. But….”
His voice trailed off.
He took a brief moment to gather his thoughts before speaking again.
“Isn’t it a bit thin to base this solely on the Supernatural Public Security Bureau’s actions?”
“What do you think coincidence is?”
“It’s the occurrence of something with a low probability of happening.”
“And what if it keeps happening, again and again?”
“Then it’s more likely to be a necessity than a coincidence, I suppose.”
“Exactly.”
Hyeonjun.
A talent who had appeared like a comet, possessing a gift quite unlike the ones they had known until now.
He had put on a performance that left everyone involved in shock.
Ever since such a being had emerged, South Korea had taken the number one Buff on the Tower for the first time.
And now the Supernatural Public Security Bureau was trying to seize such a being by abduction.
“And according to that letter, Hunter Hyeonjun defeated a C-Rank Awakened and even extracted information from them.”
“Ah….”
“All of this is happening in succession. Still think it’s a coincidence?”
Nam Jaewoon closed his mouth.
He had thought of them as unrelated matters, but laid out side by side, the very fact that they occurred had formed a kind of connection between them.
“You head straight to the scene. I’m going to stop by somewhere else.”
“Understood.”
“Hurry. Hunter Hyeonjun will probably manage on his own, but there’s a good chance things could turn dangerous.”

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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