Something Keeps Appearing in My Subspace - Chapter 187

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

187. Jo Ji-hyuk (2)
Two women occupied the open elevator. I already knew this from my spatial awareness.
My eyes narrowed involuntarily. One looked ordinary, the other beautiful—yet something felt off.
The beautiful one’s eyes were vacant, devoid of any spark of consciousness.
The ordinary-looking woman was clearly in control.
“Could you cover the windows?”
The ordinary woman spoke without leaving the elevator, her voice sharp and cautious, as if mindful of outside observers.
Jo Ji-hyuk pressed a button, and thick curtains began to obscure the windows.
-The windows are being covered.
“Is that a problem?”
-I can still make out faint silhouettes through them.
Despite the heavy curtains, silhouettes remained visible—so she wasn’t a sniper, apparently.
-Two women? What do they look like?
I described the situation to Seo Seung-yeon while marveling at her ability, down to their general appearances.
-I don’t recognize the ordinary-looking one, but the beautiful woman… Jo Ji-hyuk meets with her regularly.
“Did she look vacant like this before?”
-No. She seemed perfectly normal then.
“She appears to be someone he meets for an alibi rather than as a contact. It seems like she loses focus whenever they have conversations like this.”
As the situation became clearer, something unsettling gnawed at me. Those vacant eyes, the way the Übermenschen woman moved and the other followed obediently.
Wasn’t that essentially puppet mastery? Whether it was a skill or an item, I couldn’t tell.
It felt deeply disturbing. These people had kidnapped hunters before.
Considering that perfectly normal people had been spotted engaging in Übermenschen activities, the implication was clear.
‘Brainwashing is possible. It’s likely a skill or item.’
Even before the Gate crisis, brainwashing existed, but it wasn’t easy.
Certainly not to the degree of stripping someone of consciousness so rapidly.
-Suggestion and brainwashing are entirely possible through skills. Depending on the skill’s rank and the target’s condition, even powerful Awakeners can be enthralled.
Chun-bae’s confirmation of my suspicion came through. Naturally, I grew concerned. If I or Mister had been captured at lower levels, it would have been dangerous, but…
Min-seok is here now. I wanted to eliminate these bastards quickly.
“Is this enough?”
At Jo Ji-hyuk’s words, the Übermenschen woman nodded. Then she reached toward the desk.
Blood flowed from her fingertips, grasping a whiskey bottle and glass. In that moment, I recognized who she was.
The Witch, Veronica.
A high-ranking Übermenschen figure whose name was known, infamous for terrorist acts committed across Europe.
Though her publicly known appearance didn’t match this, I couldn’t tell if she’d worn makeup during the attacks or was wearing it now.
‘Blood magic skill estimated at S-rank or minimum A+ rank.’
She was absolutely not someone to be underestimated. She possessed at least vanguard-level abilities.
The Übermenschen transcended national boundaries as a criminal organization.
If they were weak, they would have been captured long ago.
The Übermenschen monopolized Gates in regions they controlled after nations collapsed.
‘That’s why their equipment is often superior to most vanguard teams.’
Unlike us, they don’t have priority entry rights to Gates. They simply choose which Gates to enter.
I relayed what I’d confirmed directly to Seo Seung-yeon.
“Veronica has arrived.”
-Veronica?
“Yes. She was pouring drinks using blood magic.”
-A big fish has been caught. I thought only a messenger would show up. Though with four guards stationed outside, I suppose it makes sense.
Veronica had entered, but the two of them didn’t exchange further words. They simply sipped their drinks.
Tense silence hung in the air.
The atmosphere was quite heavy. Rather than intimate allies, it felt as though they were measuring each other.
That made sense. Though they’d joined hands, theirs wasn’t a relationship of complete trust and transparency.
It was a relationship born of mutual gain, yet they were acutely aware of one another.
“Let’s get straight to business. This isn’t some trivial matter.”
* * *
“Rung Wei, why couldn’t you stop it? You said you’d have the Hunter Association information locked down.”
It was Veronica speaking. From this, I could deduce that Rung Wei’s infiltration was connected to Jo Ji-hyuk.
“The grand plan hit a snag. You understand, don’t you? A man of Rung Wei’s caliber isn’t easy to replace.”
“You need to be straightforward about this. I’ll have control of the Hunter Association’s information only after I become Association President. Not now.”
Jo Ji-hyuk lit a cigarette and spoke. The tense expression he’d worn while waiting had grown cold.
“That’s different from what I heard from you.”
“No. I clearly said it would be after I became Association President. I’m the one who helped Rung Wei enter the country. Do you think I killed him deliberately? There’s no reason for me to do that.”
Jo Ji-hyuk seemed angry. If his words were true, he had every right to be indignant. From my perspective, both of them were worthless.
“Didn’t that idiot bring this on himself? He should have stayed hidden. No disguise, no glasses—just walking around with his bare face?”
The report about Rung Wei had come from a sparsely populated area at the foot of a mountain. He might have let his guard down.
When he was active in China, he’d been operating under a false identity anyway, so he wouldn’t have worried about such things.
“What’s done is done. It’s neither of our faults. If anything, I’m the one with grievances. Rather than shifting blame, let’s focus on the plan.”
Veronica didn’t particularly refute Jo Ji-hyuk’s words.
“Without Rung Wei, the existing plan will be difficult to execute.”
“Can’t you just use someone else?”
“It has to be him. You don’t think it’ll be easy to touch the Saebyeokbit or Chulbyeok guilds in the chaos, do you? You know that as well as I do.”
Saebyeokbit and Chulbyeok?
So their target really was the first and second-ranked guilds. If problems arose with Chulbyeok and Saebyeokbit, Daeup could rise to the top.
With Rung Wei, it was possible. Back then, even Tae-sung and the other Dawn Light Guild members hadn’t noticed his presence.
If it were Shin Chang, that would be different. But even just targeting others would slow Shin Chang’s growth.
“You two must have quite a few talented people, right? And wasn’t Rung Wei originally a spy you planted in China?”
“Rung Wei was originally scheduled to come to Korea after the Liu Zhen recruitment was finished. We didn’t expect things to turn out like this.”
“I suppose. Even for you two, it would be difficult to penetrate China’s interior. They’re fundamentally the same as you.”
New information was coming in. I was somewhat surprised. I’d thought Rung Wei had fled to Korea purely because Liu Zhen had exposed him.
That wasn’t the case. Of course, it had been one reason, but he’d been planning to come to Korea regardless.
“The same? I don’t like your attitude. Are you saying that while harboring the same goals as us?”
Veronica continued to jab, her expression hardened.
“If you back out now, you’re the one who loses. We won’t simply withdraw.”
Jo Ji-hyuk squinted one eye.
“What? You think I’d leak information just because I shook hands with you? I can cover that easily. Even if Rung Wei had spilled my name this time, it wouldn’t have been a problem.”
No problem, really. Right now we….
No, it almost wouldn’t have been. We were worried too, but for him to be that confident about it.
It was absurd.
In any case, seeing how Jo Ji-hyuk, Seo Seung-yeon, and I were acting, it seemed the Association President had chosen his direct subordinates well.
“If that happens, it’s only your loss. For me to serve as a bridgehead for your expansion into East Asia, I need to control Korea. You know that, right?”
“….”
“You contacted me because breaking into China failed, didn’t you? I know you don’t have many options. Are you thinking of going to Japan instead?”
A brief silence fell. It was quite shocking to me as well.
Control Korea?
It didn’t seem to mean simply taking the Association President’s seat. Why else would Veronica have called it the ‘same objective’? It felt like controlling the nation itself.
It was entirely possible. If Chulbyeok and the Saebyeok Guild collapsed, Dae-eop would become the number one guild. With that, plus support from Jo Ji-hyuk, who would become Association President with backing from the political world.
There was no reason they couldn’t seize control of the nation. The method didn’t matter.
‘It doesn’t have to be an outright coup.’
If they summoned the Übermenschen like now to plant false information or create incidents, eliminating political figures opposed to them?
Through these staged operations, they could rise higher with help from politicians connected to Dae-eop.
“Insane bastard.”
-Isn’t that guy completely unhinged?
Seo Seung-yeon and I listening to this had nearly identical reactions. For someone to think and act like that, they had to be completely out of their mind.
But what made it terrifying was that the plan we just heard was entirely feasible.
However, what mattered in this situation was one thing.
I was recording and filming every single moment of this.
Whatever plans these bastards were laying out, whatever they intended to do… none of that mattered anymore.
‘Got you, you son of a bitch.’
* * *
“Fine. I’ll admit your words have merit. It’s important to us too.”
After staring quietly at Jo Ji-hyuk for a while, Veronica nodded.
A bridgehead for East Asian expansion.
I didn’t know the reason, but it seemed the Übermenschen had their own solid justification.
The Übermenschen appeared to be making concessions because of it. Honestly, Jo Ji-hyuk was someone they could dispose of anytime.
If he had been their target, Rung Wei would have dealt with him long ago.
“In any case, we can’t proceed with the plan as is. There’s no one left like Rung Wei to handle it.”
“I’ll admit that too. It’s hard to find hunters skilled enough to quietly eliminate the Saebyeok Guild or Chulbyeok.”
Whether they’d reached a compromise through conversation, the dialogue began flowing naturally.
“And while the Saebyeok Guild is an enemy, Chulbyeok has more members, doesn’t it?”
Veronica, who had spoken, interlaced her fingers and leaned forward with her upper body.
“So what if we go with a similar scenario?”
“Similar? What would be different?”
“After the terror attack, instead of assassination in the chaos—a large-scale assault. What do you think?”
Terror? What the hell were these lunatics planning to do?
-A terror attack?
Seo Seung-yeon was equally startled.
-You don’t mean they were planning to hold some kind of hunter event and then launch a terror attack on it?
“That must have been it. They would’ve assassinated Rung Wei in the chaos afterward.”
Even the Saebyeok Guild hadn’t detected it. An assassination in the chaos following a terror attack—it was entirely plausible.
“A large-scale assault?”
“Without Rung Wei, that’s the best option. Besides, your opposition faction will handle the cleanup anyway, so what does it matter?”
“Well, it’s not a bad plan.”
“Right. Terror followed by assassination or terror followed by a large-scale assault—it’s all the same. It’ll be noisy, sure, but that might actually work in our favor, no?”
Even as Seo Seung-yeon and I reeled from shock, the two of them conversed with unnerving composure.
“Just one thing, though. You know the Space Mage has to be kept away from the event.”
“Yeah, I know. That bastard has spatial awareness—he’d figure it out beforehand for sure.”
“Right. He’s useful in so many ways. We’ll need to bring the Red Dragon along too, especially for finding Hidden Gates.”
Veronica laughed softly. I didn’t appreciate being discussed that way alongside Mister.
Fury bubbled up inside me, but I couldn’t act immediately.
Though I was considered vanguard-level, Jo Ji-hyuk and Veronica were also bona fide vanguard hunters approaching level 60.
The four Übermenschen stationed near the hotel couldn’t be underestimated either.
On our side, there was only Seo Seung-yeon and me. A clean resolution would be difficult.
Calling in the Dragon Guild members was too risky, and time wasn’t on our side.
‘I could attempt a surprise attack, but…’
It wasn’t optimal. I had no idea what items they possessed. They almost certainly had something like the protective amulet I carried.
If I failed to eliminate them cleanly, Jo Ji-hyuk could escape, and I’d be in danger.
It was better to handle this properly after the Saebyeok Guild returned. I’d let Veronica slip away if necessary, but I had to secure Jo Ji-hyuk.
“I’ve obtained some interesting information recently.”
In the midst of this, Jo Ji-hyuk poured himself a drink and spoke up.
“What is it?”
“I can’t say it outright. It’s information that will be truly critical for you both.”
“What do you want?”
“I stake our alliance on this—it’s information worth at least an S-rank item.”
Veronica chuckled.
“S-rank? That’s bullshit.”
But I couldn’t laugh. A chill ran through me. I had a sinking feeling this was about Min-seok.
If it was about Min-seok… regardless of my earlier reasoning, I had to eliminate them here and now.
Even if I captured Jo Ji-hyuk, if the information reached the Übermenschen, it would be useless.
I placed my hand on Esirel and waited for Jo Ji-hyuk to continue.

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