The SSS-Class Hunter’s Garden Log - Chapter 57

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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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Chapter 57

Then, as if an invisible giant hand was crumpling the entire Gate, the inner space twisted.

The Vice-Chairman’s body, which had been running frantically, swayed in midair.

It was because the ground beneath his feet—or what he had believed to be ground—had completely disappeared.

The Vice-Chairman belatedly reached out his hand toward the outside of the Gate.

However, he couldn’t grasp anything.

“W-wait—! Save me—!”

Even his screams were sucked into the deep abyss like a bottomless pit, sliding in together with the Vice-Chairman.

The Gate entrance, having greedily swallowed its prey, slowly contracted.

The investigation room became quiet again, as if nothing had ever been there in the first place.

Papers that had floated into the air from the energy that burst out when the Gate entrance opened moments ago fluttered down to the floor.

Damian slowly swept his disheveled hair back with his fingers.

And placed one hand on his chest.

It was an elegant and refined gesture.

“Everything is for His sake.”

As Damian muttered this, his sleeve rolled up slightly.

The pattern carved on his exposed wrist glowed faintly under the fluorescent lights of the investigation room.

A crack pattern that diagonally crossed through a broken circle.

* * *

“Oh, I think I found it. That symbol.”

A few days after Kang Hyeon had handed over the Vice-Chairman’s corruption materials to the Audit Department.

Inside the Gangnam Station Gate.

This place now had the proper form of a garden, unbelievable for a space that had once been desolate.

The soil was evenly tilled, and small sprouts were poking their heads up in neat rows.

Tae-gyeom, Haechan, and Choi Kwon each held watering cans and walked around the field in a line.

The streams of water sparkled under the artificial light source.

And on one side.

Hana, who had been sitting slumped on the dirt floor with a pile of documents brought from the Haechi Guild’s records room stacked in front of him, suddenly raised his hand.

“It says it’s a pattern that worshipped an evil god?”

“What? An evil god?”

Choi Kwon, startled out of his wits, threw down his watering can and ran over to Hana.

Haechan and Tae-gyeom did the same.

Their reactions were as if they had heard some unspeakable name, making Hana even more bewildered.

Hana held up one of the documents he had spread out.

On it was printed an old record along with a strange pattern.

A broken circle.

And a crack that diagonally crossed through it.

It was exactly the same symbol they had discovered in the Vice-Chairman’s documents a few days ago.

Hana continued speaking as if catching his breath.

“When Gates first appeared on Earth, this being appeared along with the monsters. There’s no separate name recorded, but… it was commonly called the ‘evil god.'”

The air above the garden became strangely heavy.

“There was a prophecy that when the evil god someday arrives in this world, outbreaks will occur simultaneously from thousands of Gates… and when that time comes, Earth will be destroyed.”

The people who had gathered closely together after hearing Hana’s words each wore serious expressions.

“So in early Hunter society, groups marked with this pattern were mostly treated as radical religious groups or terrorists. The problem is—”

Hana tapped the bottom of the document with his finger.

“It’s exactly the same as the pattern the Vice-Chairman was using.”

The people who had gathered closely looked down at the document.

Choi Kwon frowned.

“What? So you’re saying the Vice-Chairman is an evil god worshipper?”

Choi Kwon shook his head vigorously as if answering his own question.

“No way. Unless he’s crazy, why would a Hunter worship something like that? It must be a different pattern that just looks similar.”

It didn’t make logical sense.

Tae-gyeom stood up abruptly as if he was determined to resolve this uneasiness somehow.

“Instead of this, let’s go directly confirm it with the person involved.”

“Confirm what.”

That’s when it happened.

There was a sound of someone approaching from the garden entrance.

When they turned their heads, Kang Hyeon was entering.

With his suit jacket in one hand.

Hana quickly approached Kang Hyeon.

“Are you on your way back from the Association?”

Instead of answering, Kang Hyeon nodded.

He had been questioned as a reference witness regarding the report of the Vice-Chairman’s corruption, and it seemed he had been quite worn out.

“What about sleep? Did you get some sleep?”

When Hana asked in a small voice, Kang Hyeon lightly rested his forehead against Hana’s shoulder.

“No. I think I haven’t slept at all for about three days.”

“…!”

Perhaps because they had been constantly together lately, Kang Hyeon’s contact had become much more natural.

Unlike the flustered Hana, Kang Hyeon shared his daily events in a calm voice.

“The corruption he had committed over the years was proven to be true, so the Vice-Chairman was dismissed from his position as of yesterday.”

“Dismissed?”

Is this how it ends?

All the corruption, suspicions, and even the evil god symbol.

It felt like there should be more, but it seemed to be resolved too easily.

“Right, the symbol.”

Coming to his senses, Hana showed Kang Hyeon the symbol that Tae-gyeom had been looking at just moments before.

“I think we need to meet the Vice-Chairman and ask him about this symbol. This is related to the evil god.”

“…That would be difficult.”

“Huh? Why?”

Kang Hyeon, who had lifted his forehead from Hana’s shoulder, slowly rubbed the area around his eyes.

“The Vice-Chairman’s whereabouts have been mysterious since just before his dismissal. He’s currently missing.”

“Missing?”

“Missing?”

Hana and Tae-gyeom’s voices overlapped.

“Then there’s no way to confirm why the Vice-Chairman used this symbol?”

“Well. If you want, you could ask that guy over there.”

Where Kang Hyeon pointed with annoyance, Han Tae-ho was approaching hesitantly.

From what they heard, he had received some consideration for providing important information, but Han Tae-ho had also apparently received disciplinary action for the illegal acts he had committed.

But why he had specifically come to the garden was unknown.

Anyway, everyone’s attention was focused on Han Tae-ho.

If he was someone who had practically helped with the Vice-Chairman’s work, they thought he might know something.

However, unfortunately, Han Tae-ho shook his head after seeing the pattern.

“I really don’t know. This is a pattern I’ve seen several times, but I only learned today that it symbolizes an evil god.”

“Really?”

“I swear.”

Han Tae-ho’s flustered face showed no pretense.

Just when the situation was about to fall into mystery again.

“Wait a minute.”

As if he had just remembered something, Han Tae-ho rummaged through his pocket and pulled out a small box.

“I thought it might be useful, so I secretly took one of the things the Vice-Chairman had. I completely forgot about it. Could this be related to what we’re talking about now?”

As the box opened, everyone’s expressions hardened simultaneously.

“That thing—!”

An artificial Gate core.

It was an object that everyone except Han Tae-ho had already encountered once before.

Kang Hyeon, with his languidly lowered eyes, walked over slowly and took the Gate core from Han Tae-ho’s hand.

Then he asked in a low voice.

“…Didn’t you say before that you didn’t know about artificial Gate cores?”

“That’s right. I don’t know.”

Han Tae-ho answered immediately without a moment’s hesitation.

Then he made a dumbfounded sound, saying “Ah.”

“Could this be that artificial Gate core?”

Everyone pressed their own foreheads at Han Tae-ho’s unexpectedly pure mind.

“…Ha.”

Choi Kwon was the first to react.

“No, so you’re saying you’ve been carrying it around without even knowing what you stole? At least you could have said something right after stealing it!”

Sweat beaded up on Han Tae-ho’s nose bridge under Choi Kwon’s glaring eyes and intimidating presence.

“I told you I forgot about it.”

“Oh, forget it! Just forget it!”

When Choi Kwon responded half-heartedly, Han Tae-ho looked around with an aggrieved expression.

However, there was no one to take his side.

It was a sight of Han Tae-ho looking pathetic, his status as Guild Leader of a fairly large Guild rendered meaningless.

After a round of scolding passed, everyone including the calmed-down Choi Kwon focused on Kang Hyeon holding the core.

“So this is what the Vice-Chairman had.”

“Right. There must be more besides this one. Just from what I saw, there were about five or six.”

Han Tae-ho, now much more dejected, nodded his head.

Kang Hyeon quietly placed the core on his palm and activated Hae-chi’s Eyes.

【SYSTEM】

【Activating skill ‘Hae-chi’s Eyes (SS-rank)’.】

【This is an artificially generated Gate core.】

It was identical to the core he had obtained in the City of Melancholy Rain before.

However, if there was a difference, it was that the previous one was an empty shell core with no contents, while this one was a core that hadn’t manifested yet.

“…A core that artificially opens Gates and an evil god. What exactly are they plotting.”

At Kang Hyeon’s muttering, Hana suddenly clapped his hands.

“Could it be that they were trying to deliberately open Gates to harm people?”

“…What?”

Hana rummaged through the documents and pointed to a passage.

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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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