I Only Baked Bread, but I Was Mistaken for the Best - Chapter 126

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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 126. Beneath the Surface (2)
[Beneath the Surface]
▷ Something terrible is happening in a place unknown to me. Of course, I have no idea who that terror is directed at.
▷ Deliver ‘???’ tailored to each of ‘???’ and 4 others (0/5)
▷ Reward: 86,500 BP
“Just as I thought….”
I could tell immediately upon reading the quest description.
That my suspicions were correct.
Moreover, seeing the reward figure exceed all imagination, it seemed the Witch’s Cottage was also connected to fragments of the fallen Witch.
“But five people? Really?”
“Didn’t that religious fanatic mention it earlier? Owner. That there are ‘people’ to feed the bread to.”
“Right.”
And they were likely to be quite significant individuals.
People capable of orchestrating something of this scale would each hold positions of considerable influence in their respective domains.
“No. There’s no point thinking about this now.”
Speculation without information is meaningless.
It only breeds worry and conjecture mixed together.
“So what are you going to do?”
“Ask someone who would know. With a problem this serious, there’s no way no one knows about it.”
Given that villains are conspiring together on this, no matter how quietly they proceed, it would inevitably leave traces.
Even if it’s something beneath the surface that someone like me wouldn’t know about, those in the know would certainly be aware.
“So who exactly are you talking about? Owner?”
“There are many. But there’s one person I’m most certain about. The Association couldn’t possibly be unaware of this.”
The Association, which oversees all matters related to Hunters, couldn’t possibly be ignorant of something this critical.
Besides, the person whose number I have specializes in matters like this.
“Let’s go inside first.”
“To the Witch’s Cottage?”
“Yeah. The number is there.”
The moment Noir and I opened the door and entered the Witch’s Cottage, I rummaged through a drawer and pulled out a phone.
Then I took out a business card neatly placed beside it and dialed the number.
Brrr~
The dial tone continued.
Soon the call connected, and a voice came through the receiver.
– This is Kim Ri-a, Team Leader of the Hunter Association Special Investigations Team 1.
“It’s been a while.”
– It’s been… a while.
The Team Leader of the Hunter Association’s Special Investigations Team 1.
Kim Ri-a.
When she first came to the Bakery, I hadn’t paid much attention.
The impression she gave was one of constant wariness and exhaustion worn down by work.
But after Dayeon’s incident, my thoughts changed completely.
“How is your disciple faring?”
– She is doing well.
“Then I am relieved.”
I had to contact the Association to ensure Dayeon’s safety after she was caught up in the shrapnel.
Though Ria was the one who made that contact, her response was remarkably composed and thorough.
I learned later that the Special Investigations Team 1 was a department that dealt with unregistered Hunters and those who committed crimes.
As such, they would be well-versed in the darker aspects of this world.
“I’ll ask you directly. Who is this person attempting to open a Gate?”
– Sigh… How did you… No, there’s no point in asking, is there.
Ria exhaled deeply, took a moment to choose her words, then spoke slowly.
– This is information we’ve only recently confirmed ourselves. There are those attempting to cause a Gate Break using some method.
“The list. Have you confirmed it?”
– I have no obligation to share that with you.
Now it was certain.
The Hunter Association had the names of these creatures.
All that remained was to uncover them.
From her response, it seemed as difficult as I’d anticipated.
Information of this caliber would certainly be classified within the Association.
They couldn’t simply hand it over.
But that didn’t change anything.
“Is there a way to resolve this?”
– ….
According to what I heard from Rohan, those involved in this matter belonged to the political, business, and religious sectors.
As such, even the Hunter Association couldn’t act rashly.
Especially since the Association, as an organization, had much to lose.
But I did not.
“If there isn’t, I suggest you move forward.”
– …Understood. First, Assemblyman Kim In-sik, and….
“It’s better not to lie.”
– ….
She spoke so naturally that I almost fell for it.
No, I probably would have been deceived completely.
If not for the Quest window.
She was lying to me right now.
But why?
“Stalling for time is pointless. Lying is pointless. If you wish to continue this conversation properly, shouldn’t you pay an appropriate price?”
– The Mayor of Gongju City, the Chairman of Osung Group, and three Church Elders.
“If the Association wishes to intervene, do so through Elder Kim Ro-han. That’s all.”
I hung up without hearing another word.
Honestly, continuing further felt like a burden in itself.
I’m not strong, yet pretending to be makes my body twist in agony.
“Anyway, we managed to find out.”
“The Elders will be selected and provided by that religious fanatic. What remains is two. Meow.”
“Rohan will handle that as well.”
Since the Elder’s inauguration ceremony was quite a grand affair, I had explained the plan to use it to summon the two of them.
Now that I’d learned the identity of the mastermind, my heart grew even more troubled.
“Originally, it was just about securing BP supply and recovering the Witch’s fragments, but things have escalated.”
“What do you mean? Owner?”
“Because the position is connected to me.”
The Mayor of Gongju City held such immense power that even someone like me, who took no interest in politics, was aware of it.
This was because the nation’s largest Gate Research Complex was located there.
Of course, various problems would have accumulated since the last Gate Break, but as the saying goes, even a wealthy household can survive three years after ruin.
“And the fact that Wichi Food is in Gongju bothers me.”
“It could be excessive self-consciousness. Owner.”
“That’s not quite it—the other side is also connected to me.”
Osung Group.
Originally a massive domestic conglomerate that had ventured into various industries led by electronics, but after Gates emerged, it dove into Hunter-related businesses and established itself as the overwhelmingly dominant force in the financial world.
Recalling the attractive proposal it had made to me recently through Young-gu Chef made me feel even more uneasy.
“The others don’t know that the Owner who is a Witch and the Owner who is the Bakery Owner are the same person, do they?”
“They don’t know.”
People might not know, but if it concerns the Witch’s fragments, which are clearly behind this affair, then the story changes.
“I need to be on guard.”
In a situation that felt like an unintended all-out war had begun, all I could do was contemplate which bread to bake.
* * *
“Phew. Water. Let me drink some water first.”
Since the phone call just moments ago, Ria couldn’t shake the tension.
To be honest, the mere fact that the phone had rung was already enough to push her stress levels past the threshold.
‘I never thought that phone would ring again.’
Due to the nature of her work, security was paramount, so she used multiple mobile phones.
Among them, the phone connected to Yeon-gi, that mysterious entity within the Gate, was managed with particular care.
When that phone rang—the one that should never ring and which she had hoped would never ring—Ria felt like she might cry.
‘There’s no reason for this phone to ring unless it’s Yeon-gi!’
Sure enough, when she answered after composing herself, what came through was a bizarre, chaotic voice whose very identity she couldn’t discern.
Yeon-gi, and the entity that called itself a Witch.
Until now, it had acted in ways beneficial to humanity, but no one could predict its true purpose—something utterly unknowable.
It had asked her.
What were the names of those who sought to open a Gate Break?
‘How on earth did it find out about that!’
This was information so dreadful that even the Association had only recently discovered it.
Who could have anticipated that there were those willing to deliberately trigger a Gate Break for their own profit?
Moreover, we had done everything in our power to control the information, knowing that if it leaked, everyone would fall into chaos.
Yet as if all such efforts were meaningless, Yeon-gi knew everything.
‘At least I tried to buy time to pinpoint their location…’
A phone call meant the base station could be identified.
Since I had confirmed they could exit the Gate quite freely, I attempted location tracking and similar methods.
I did everything I could to drag out the time until completion.
Feeding false information was part of that strategy.
But…
‘I never expected them to see through it so quickly.’
As the head of the Hunter Association’s Special Investigations Team 1, I had been confident I could easily control my emotions.
But it was meaningless.
‘Buying time is meaningless. Lying is meaningless.’
Words that seemed to pierce through everything.
They already knew.
They knew I was desperately trying to uncover their identity and location.
That wasn’t all.
‘If the Association wants to act, do it through Elder Kim Ro-han… Could it be…?’
Within the uncertainty, my thoughts spiraled endlessly.
Who was Elder Kim Ro-han?
The youngest to reach the position of Elder, managing the Holy Knights—the Church’s hunter organization.
Truly the head of the Church’s military force.
Recently, he had even removed an Elder while claiming to restore the Church to its proper state.
‘Could it be… that he too was acting on Yeon-gi’s orders…?’
I carefully recalled the hunters connected to Yeon-gi.
Guild Leader of Cheongryong Guild, S-rank Hunter Yu Ha-neul.
Guild Leader of Dragon Hill Guild, S-rank Hunter Kim Gyu-ri.
Guild Leader of Miracle Guild, S-rank Hunter Maestro.
Was that all?
‘A-rank Hunter Park Jun-hyeong and Soo-min, the vice-leader of Death God Guild, are also connected. And now Dayeon, who belongs to the Association, is an S-rank Hunter and Yeon-gi’s disciple.’
Simply put, four S-rank Hunters and two A-rank Hunters were involved.
Plus Elder Kim Ro-han with A-rank abilities.
If we factored in all the forces each of them commanded, couldn’t we consider them unified?
At this level, they could be called the strongest military force in South Korea.
Trembling.
My hands holding the cup shook so badly I couldn’t even drink water properly.
But I had to do what needed to be done.
‘Fortunately, I bought enough time.’
I had filled all the time needed to complete the location tracking, so I could now pinpoint their position.
If I could at least determine that location, I could escape this helpless situation where I was merely having information extracted while trailing behind.
But.
“This doesn’t make sense….”
The tracking results displayed base stations across all of South Korea.
It was physically impossible.
A base station that received and transmitted radio signals should be fixed to a single location, so how could such an absurd situation possibly occur?
‘Is it a mental distortion effect? Or perhaps… electromagnetic manipulation?’
Either way, it was a terrifying power.
Whether it was the ability to dominate human cognition through a brief phone call without even seeing the person directly, or to control the electromagnetic field flows across all of South Korea in that brief moment and place them within one’s grasp.
It was not something a single individual could accomplish.
Only a monster could do such a thing.
“…I need to contact Kim Ro-han Elder quickly.”
Thus, Ria decided to stop marveling at the results.
Her duty as a member of the Association was the safety of the people.
She called Kim Ro-han Elder, who appeared to have made contact with Yeon-gi, and spoke.
“The work you’re proceeding with. It seems the Association may be able to provide assistance.”
It was the moment another movement was created beneath the surface.

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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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