F-Rank Secretly Becomes Stronger - Chapter 53

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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53

“Huff… hah…”

Today again, Hyeonsu barely kept up with training, gasping for breath.

It had already been several days since they started training together, but he didn’t seem to be adapting easily.

“Still, you followed well today without slowing down the pace.”

“Huff… I feel like I’m dying…”

“At least drink some water.”

After handing him water, Juhyeok sat down beside him.

As he sat basking in the sunlight for a moment, the gasping sounds from beside him gradually subsided.

Vehicles moving busily since morning.

‘Come to think of it, I need to buy a car.’

Car purchase that he had forgotten about due to being busy lately.

Just as he was thinking about casually asking Hyeonsu while looking at the passing cars like before.

‘Those people are…’

Across the crosswalk, several people all identically covering their faces with masks and wearing fedora hats caught his eye.

Among them, what stood out most was a woman with a familiar height and stride.

Though there was a sense of incongruity from seeing her in a black suit instead of the hoodie she always wore, it was definitely the woman he knew.

When the light turned green, the group slowly crossed the crosswalk, approached Juhyeok, and stopped walking.

“It’s been a while.”

A greeting that Juhyeok offered first.

Unfortunately, the familiar face didn’t warmly accept his greeting.

She just quietly faced Juhyeok without any response.

As if wanting something else entirely.

“Do you know them?”

“Those people.”

“…”

Eyes that immediately understood and frowned even though he only said “those people.”

Hyeonsu quickly forgot about his gasping and calmly surveyed the opposing group.

What was reflected in those eyes was naturally wariness.

Tension flowed as no one knew what might happen at any moment.

“It’s okay. There’s no need for either side to be wary.”

A gesture to calm down the highly tense Hyeonsu.

Juhyeok casually opened the cap of the water bottle Hyeonsu had been drinking from as he spoke.

“Did you see the news?”

A week had passed.

Currently, South Korea was in a noisy state.

The reason was the Association President’s exposure disguised as a confession of conscience.

From the research laboratory that conducted human experiments on orphans to executives including the (former) Association President.

He had said the deeply rooted corruption would be blocked before the news even aired, but now that he looked at it, everyone was only talking about the research laboratory.

“You said with your own mouth it wouldn’t work, but it ended up working.”

The target that Hyeonho Candy had so desperately wanted.

The rotten roots in the Association had now left their positions and disappeared, probably lying low for the time being.

“With this, there’s no need to target the Association anymore. Right?”

“…”

The Hyeonho Candy staff members who had been keeping their mouths shut.

Among them, she with the familiar voice finally opened her mouth.

“Thanks to that, it’s become harder to track down those guys’ whereabouts.”

“Isn’t it actually easier to target them now that they’re away from the Association?”

“I’m saying things have gotten complicated.”

Because Juhyeok had pulled the targets down from the Association, those guys had gone into hiding.

They weren’t the type to easily step down from their positions just because the target told them to leave the Association.

The fact that they quietly accepted being dismissed from their positions over just one exposure meant there was a reason they had to do so.

A fact that could be easily inferred from that.

“Since the Association President leaked information to the target, they withdrew obediently.”

After proceeding with the exposé, the Association President had spilled everything, including the fact that Awakeners who made contracts with demons were targeting them.

That’s why he chose to step down from his position and live quietly for a while, which means Hyeonho Candy has to find new targets again.

“Why on earth did you pull such a pointless stunt?”

“Pointless? It was such an important matter.”

Juhyeok took a sip of water and let out a breath.

Despite the sharp gazes from the Hyeonho Candy staff, he leisurely tossed his water bottle onto the bench and said:

“It would be troublesome for me if the Association fell into an irreparable state.”

“That’s none of our concern.”

Jia’s voice tone rose, seemingly getting slightly agitated.

She took another step closer to Juhyeok and squinted her eyes.

“What matters is that our plans got disrupted because of you.”

“Really? Disrupted…”

Had their plans really been disrupted because of what he had done?

That didn’t seem to be entirely wrong.

If it had been their original plan, they would have been thinking of picking a fight with the Association.

“If I hadn’t made a move, are you saying you could have destroyed the Association with your forces?”

But would that plan have worked?

Could Hyeonho Candy’s manpower really have captured all the targets in the Association?

Juhyeok could answer such a question very simply without any hesitation.

“If you had that kind of power, you would have attacked long ago.”

“We were just waiting for the right time.”

“So that’s why you spent 10 years chasing targets’ tails after destroying the research laboratory?”

“You—”

“Just admit it comfortably.”

Juhyeok grabbed the bottle cap and lightly spun it in the air.

The water bottle then rolled several times in mid-air before landing upright in its original position.

“Thanks to me, an easier path has opened up for you.”

The targets who had emerged from under the Association’s shadow.

If those guys were aiming to enter political circles, they would surely reveal themselves someday, and it wouldn’t be too late to target them then.

“That’s correct.”

One of the staff members who had been watching from behind carefully stepped forward to stop her and spoke.

Judging by his eyes and voice, it was Yeonho who had first approached him.

“Honestly, there were many difficulties in confronting the Association.”

No, the atmosphere was a bit different.

Was this person really the same Yeonho who had shot up the trash can with a gun back then?

“However, what we want to talk about is the process.”

The guy whose identity was unclear raised his hand.

Then the water bottle that Juhyeok had tossed and set upright began to slowly float in the air without any contact.

“You, who figured out our targets.”

The water bottle gradually rose higher following his hand movements.

Then he suddenly clenched his outstretched hand tightly.

“We can’t just leave someone like you alone without even saying whose side you’re on.”

Crunch—!

The water bottle was then powerfully crushed as if it had entered a compressor, becoming a round crushed plastic ball before falling to the ground.

‘So it’s that guy.’

One of the twins who had awakened first among the orphanage children.

“Are you Hyeonho?”

A name with one stroke difference from Yeonho.

The same voice and even the same eye shape.

After some reasonable deduction, he could tell that this was Hyeonho of Hyeonho Candy, and he answered with silence.

He had hoped for at least an answer about whether he was right or wrong, but since the other party didn’t seem to want to do that, he generously let it slide and answered his question.

“I’m someone who dislikes taking sides, so it’s hard for me to definitively say whose side I’m on.”

“Are you a bystander?”

He looked down at Juhyeok with emotionless eyes and spoke.

“They’re the same type as the people we’re currently targeting.”

“That’s a bit hurtful to say.”

In a way, it might be the right thing to say.

Since he didn’t really care much about what happened to the people they targeted, the nickname of bystander might suit him.

“I even went to see the Association President and caused a ruckus because of someone.”

However, he had become too involved to be called a bystander.

“Just think of me as someone who moves according to my own interests.”

“A person who moves according to interests? Then wouldn’t it have been enough to just stop us when we targeted the Association?”

“There’s a reason I didn’t do that.”

Juhyeok got up from his seat, grabbed the crushed plastic ball, and threw it into the trash can.

Thunk—!

The plastic ball went in, drawing a perfect parabola.

Juhyeok made a satisfied expression and said.

“First, you guys knew where our house was.”

If he stood against them, Mother might also be threatened.

Since that was the thing Juhyeok wanted to avoid most, he didn’t particularly want to make enemies with them.

“Second… I don’t want to say.”

After hearing about your past, I didn’t feel like stopping you recklessly.

If he said that, they would feel like they were being pitied.

Since he didn’t particularly want to talk about it, he kept it secret.

“Anyway, that’s why I proposed this alternative.”

Juhyeok sat back down.

He rubbed his foot against the water that had been scattered here and there as the plastic bottle was crushed, and said.

“A way for you and me not to have to clash.”

“….”

“I thought it was a pretty rational decision on my part.”

He made it so they didn’t have to become enemies with each other.

The current situation where they could move on without losing face.

Naturally, he thought it was beneficial from their perspective too, and it wasn’t a mistake—the Hyeonho Candy staff couldn’t refute anything.

“Are you done talking?”

“…Not yet.”

The story that wasn’t finished yet.

Hyeonho knelt on one knee to match eye level with Juhyeok sitting on the bench and met his gaze.

“Those targets aren’t everything.”

What he felt from those eyes was unextinguishable hatred.

Though half his face wasn’t visible due to the mask, he could feel the subtle anger contained within.

“When we were trapped in that hellish research laboratory, it wasn’t just the trash in the Association that turned a blind eye.”

“Then what else is there.”

He asked him in an indifferent voice.

Hyeonho answered simply right away.

“The government.”

A short but weighty answer.

“The Association trash that turned a blind eye to the research laboratory and the South Korean government.”

Hyeonho dared to answer.

They would target the South Korean government.

He declared war, saying they would erase from the world all the trash that had turned a blind eye to their suffering.

“We’ll sweep away everyone who was involved.”

Their statement that would surprise anyone who heard it.

It would be natural to be shocked at the words that an illegal hunter organization was trying to completely destroy the government.

Moreover, if it wasn’t just ending at the level of some small gang, but an organization with awakeners who had contracts with demons, it would be even more shocking, but…

“Is that so?”

Juhyeok accepted their ambition without any change in expression.

Then he immediately got up from his seat and patted the extremely tense Hyeonsu to wake him up.

“Do your best, just don’t get on my nerves.”

Saying that, Juhyeok helped Hyeonsu up and left the scene.

Then he suddenly stopped walking, turned around, and spoke to Seong Jia.

“Hey! Come eat bread next time, Mother was asking about you.”

“….”

“If you don’t want to, then don’t.”

Juhyeok walked away, leaving behind Jia who gave no response.

All the Hyeonho Candy staff just watched his figure disappear from sight.

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