NOTICE: Many of the novels have been removed because they might cause violations, which we were not aware of earlier.
Rune of Jewels (1)
Hong Seok-young took me inside the building.
The building that I saw from the entrance didn’t look that big, but when I walked inside, it was bigger than I thought. Hong Seok-young must have noticed that I was wondering and explained.
“It’s an old building. They did some construction in the middle and connected it to the building at the back.”
“Isn’t this a building only used by the association?”
“In this one country with only a few noses? In this whole place? How many people do you think the association will have?”
“hmm….”
“Our country isn’t that messed up.”
“Is that so.”
“That’s right!”
There is a saying that a strong negation is a strong affirmation… .
I was going to ask more, but I stopped. As Hong Seok-young said, it would be difficult for the special activities department of the association to operate openly in a country where the government is functioning properly. If the association is using all of these buildings, as Hong Seok-young said, then that is a really big problem.
Why is the Special Activities Department called the Special Activities Department? If you say the Secretariat Special Activities Department, it may sound pretty plausible, but to be blunt, it’s just sneaking into other countries and doing espionage work without the government’s knowledge.
So, it’s a smokescreen with the already-sun-do multi-line. Although a lot of effort has been put into the multi-line, it’s too much to call it a simple smokescreen.
Who cares whether Dasun comes first or the Association comes first? As long as I don’t have any other concerns and can help prevent the destruction of the world, that’s fine.
Anyway, the inside of the building was full of offices and electronics stores. There were more stores with their lights off, which suited the old exterior of the building. When I peeked through the glass windows that showed the inside, they were either completely empty or littered with trash. Even the places with lights on felt the same. Old, empty stores. That must be why there wasn’t much talk when they later tore down the building and built a management office.
Perhaps, Im Ji-seon may have slowly bought up such empty offices. So that the building could slowly be vacated. I have never heard of any objections when the management office moved in later… Besides, even if it is a place with a small floating population, it is very risky to set up an association office in a place where civilians come and go.
Considering all these things… I can see why my father used to treat Im Ji-seon like that. Even now, he does it well without me having to ask him to do anything. If I had just two subordinates like him, it would have been much easier for me to work.
“Okay, here we go.”
I blinked and looked at the place where Hong Seok-young had stopped.
“Here you go?”
“hmm.”
“Here you go?”
The first thing that caught my eye was the boxes filling the hallway.
It was all dented and stained with unknown stains. It was difficult to even get through the door because the boxes were piled up to my eye level.
Hong Seok-young cleverly avoided the boxes and opened the door, entering the small store. I was prepared for the boxes in the hallway, but as expected, the smell of dust greeted me first. The smell of dust and mold, and old speakers and wires piled up so messily that they obscured the lights.
The iron shelves were packed so tightly that only a person could pass through them. If you walked through the narrow gap without thinking, it felt like it would knock you over.
While I was hesitating, Hong Seok-young strode inside.
“Ahem.”
“Yes, what’s going on?”
A staff member pokes his head out from a corner. It is a young man sitting at a counter for some unknown reason. Perhaps… Hunter. The magic in the air trembles slightly.
Among the hunters coming to school, this is a face I have never seen before. Considering the number of hunters that Imiseon brought when raiding the research center that was once a closed training center… This one is not a part-timer, but a person from the association. I looked at the face just in case. The employee didn’t even blink even though he knew I was watching him.
“Well, I ordered something yesterday.”
“Oh, are you the one who ordered the speaker?”
“Um. Are you ready?”
“We have several warehouses… Let’s see, you can check it right away by going to room 409.”
“Room 409?”
“Yes. Go out and turn left. Then go straight. You’ll come to a staircase. Just go up the stairs. Room 409 is a little further inside, but you’ll find it quickly.”
“Okay.”
I looked at Hong Seok-young, who was talking to the employee absentmindedly. Hong Seok-young exchanged words with the employee in a familiar manner that I couldn’t understand, and then just left.
Then, I started to climb the stairs as the staff told me. I ran into a few civilians on the stairs. Thanks to that, I was able to stop asking Hong Seok-young and just keep my mouth shut.
As the employee said, I quickly found room 409. This was more of an office space than a shopping center, with a row of peeling iron doors. Room 409 was one of them. Unlike the shopping center, I couldn’t check the inside. Hong Seok-young opened the door and went in without a second thought. The door wasn’t even locked.
“…What is it?”
Click.
Hong Seok-young locked the door as soon as he entered. Hong Seok-young looked at me with a steamy face.
“What? Haven’t you ever seen a movie?”
“What movie… .”
“Why, a secret organization needs a secret base and password.”
I looked at Hong Seok-young with a dumbfounded face.
“Do you remember that there was something similar in the ark?”
“… … .”
“It was even more cutting edge there.”
“… It’s normal for villains to have more money! It’s a private company!”
“Oh, yes. I’ll do some work.”
“No, but still, they are villains who threaten world peace, and we are like heroes recognized by them.”
“It’s the same thing. Not a hero.”
“If you work hard for world peace, wouldn’t that be something like that?”
“Everyone said that.”
If you look at it that way, even the Ark could say that they are making a great sacrifice for humanity. I don’t know what they would gain by burning down Seoul and destroying the world.
I gave a vague answer to Hong Seok-young’s question and then looked around room 409.
The employee’s words about the warehouse were not an empty promise, as there were many items piled up here as well. I’m not sure if it was for smokescreen or if it was actually used as a warehouse. I looked at the dusty old speakers and soon lost interest. This is not what I came here to see.
The windows were covered with thick blackout curtains. As if that wasn’t enough, they were blocked by metal shelves stacked with speakers. The metal shelves were not only placed along the windows but also along the walls. This made the small warehouse look even more stuffy. In the middle of the empty space, there was a desk that looked old.
… I don’t think it’s necessary to go this far in matching the concept.
It was just a rumor, but it was increasingly compared to the research lab. It was a state-of-the-art facility with secret passages and elevators that required entering codes. Of course, when you consider where the money to build it came from, you feel bad for comparing it to those guys even for a moment.
“Oh, if you say so, the standards are too strict. This is unpaid labor.”
“The people in the association will get paid, right? Even the multi-selection hunters will probably get paid more than once.”
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Isn’t there a clause prohibiting holding multiple jobs in the multi-election system? How will they handle things like year-end tax settlements? Tax evasion, after all…
“They are who they are. I am unpaid labor.”
“I understand that hunters who help with government work during this time are paid separately.”
“Oh my, what the hell was I saying to that kid? Weren’t you eleven at the time?”
“I’m at an age where I know everything.”
“Eh… But do you think the compensation would be that great? Honestly, if you want to make money, you’d be better off doing one more dungeon during that time.”
Hong Seok-young strolled around the warehouse. He carefully checked to see if there were any cameras or recorders, and nodded in satisfaction.
“That’s true.”
“So stop nagging.”
Hong Seok-young sat at the desk in the middle. He grabbed the chair and pulled it out, making an unpleasant sound.
I also sat next to Hong Seok-young. There was a thin file on the desk.
“But is this really a warehouse?”
“I heard that the company that used this place as a warehouse went bankrupt and they took over the place.”
“Why go through all that trouble?”
“If people keep coming and going to a company that no one knows what they’re doing, people are bound to get suspicious. It’s just a smokescreen, you know.”
“It seems like no one cares.”
Hong Seok-young shook his head.
“Arthur, I heard you were actually reported a few times in the past.”
“is it so?”
“There was a lot of trial and error….”
Hong Seok-young’s eyes became hazy. This old man… Did he have a connection with the association before Lee Mi-seon?
…Should I ask you and tell you?
Hong Seok-young, just a few months ago, would have awkwardly changed the subject of conversation. After thinking for a moment, he opened his mouth.
“Have you been working with the Association long enough to know its trials and errors?”
“so so?”
“So-so?”
Hong Seok-young stroked his chin and stared into space with blurry eyes.
“It’s less influential now, but back in the early 2000s, the association was quite open about its bullying.”
“oh….”
“No one says anything because it’s not a good thing.”
Hong Seok-young shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly.
“So there were a few times when I got annoyed and threw it down… Well, as times changed and the status of me and other hunters rose, the association took a step back.”
“is it so?”
“I also started to give in when I got older. Anyway, wouldn’t it be the hunters who would lose out if they fought against the association?”
“Yes.”
“It’s been about five years since this hunter took charge of the Korean branch?”
“It’s not as old as you think, is it?”
“You have to consider this hunter’s age. I heard that there was quite a bit of talk within the Association that this was an unprecedentedly fast promotion.”
If you think about it that way….
“If you look at it this way, you could say that I have been a part of the association’s history in Korea.”
“Then didn’t the association make a scouting offer?”
“I did. But I hate being tied down like that.”
Hong Seok-young winked and smiled. This person later created the Agency for the Management of Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence and became its director.
“… What? Did I say something wrong? Why are you looking at me with such pity?”
“Just like that.”
I shrugged and opened the file.
“Let’s get things done quickly.”
The file was not very thick to begin with. There were at most three or four sheets of paper inside the file.
The handwriting was crooked, like a child’s scribble. I looked at it carefully, wondering if the association had given me the original. It was obvious that it was printed, so it wasn’t that bad. It was a copy.
Hong Seok-young craned his neck to take a peek at the paper I was looking at.
“Hope said that wasn’t accurate.”
“It looks like that.”
“I drew it as best I could remember, and I marked the effects that I knew. I don’t know what the effects are, but I wrote down what I knew about them.”
Hope quickly glanced over the green runes.
Some of them were quite detailed, while others were just doodles at best.
The ability of the rune can be checked later. It is more important to see if there is a rune that I can recognize right away. Could Noah Michel have created a complete rune that will be used frequently in the future even at this point?
I fervently prayed that there would be no Magic Shield rune.
Fantasy, contemporary,