Ch. 32
Chapter 32: Intruders
Thirty hours into his mission, Yu-baek was starting to feel hungry, so he took out the snacks he had packed in advance.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
Nothing unusual so far.
It wasn't as though Yu-baek had been sitting idle through the full day-plus of time.
He had been gathering and analyzing information on his target.
The name is Mu-yeong. First appeared about two weeks ago in a game called Castle Defense. His close streamers include Yu Ye-rin and Yu-na, but...... I'll have to track those two down later and get an interview.
A seasoned informant that he was, he hadn't missed a single detail.
He had recorded every location Mu-yeong had visited and every person around him, attempting to piece together a picture.
But something was off.
Whenever he tried to look into anything remotely connected to the man, it was suspiciously nonexistent.
As if it had vanished into thin air.
—Hey, owner. Got a report, came to follow up—do you think I could take a look at the CCTV from two weeks ago?
—Huh? Two weeks ago? We only keep one week's worth here.
—No, how does that make any sense? That seems far too short a window.
—It's because we record in such high definition, that's why. More to the point, are you even a cop? Show me a warrant first.
He had gone to a Capsule Room after hearing that a suspicious man had entered two weeks prior.
The result was a complete failure.
Next he tried investigating the installation workers.
—Do you happen to have installed a capsule unit at Unit 00, Building 00, 00ÓApartments?
—Do you know how many units we install in a day? I can't remember every single one.
—If there's anything you can recall at all......
—Can't help you!
Slam!
Next, a delivery worker.
—Do you happen to have delivered food or the like to that apartment......
—Don't know, don't know.
—Ah, excuse me! Where are you going......!
After it happened not once or twice but repeatedly, Yu-baek's head filled with question marks.
At the very least one person should know something or be willing to cooperate—that's how it normally goes.
But what on earth was this?
It was as though they had all seen a ghost and were in a rush to stay away.
What's more, it wasn't that they genuinely didn't know.
They clearly knew—they were just feigning ignorance.
"...... Could someone be threatening them from behind the scenes?"
A first-rate informant of his caliber could tell truth from lie just by watching a person's words and actions.
With everyone behaving this way, the theory of a powerful backer carried even more weight.
Yu-baek furrowed his brow.
The investigation had returned to square one.
In that case, the single-lineage school claim was likely a fabrication too.
If he dug just a little deeper, surely something would......
Just then, the movements of those who had been staking out all day changed.
As if receiving a signal simultaneously, they fixed their gaze on the apartment, then began to creep forward.
What? Is there even a need for that?
It shouldn't be that they wanted a closer look.
Surely not?
Whoosh!
The one who appeared to be their leader scaled the wall.
Four others pressed in close behind.
The metal pieces hanging at their waists glinted in the moonlight.
Yu-baek clicked his tongue.
"This is inconvenient when I haven't even gotten a proper read on things yet."
Reconnaissance mission or not, he could not stand by while a crime unfolded before his eyes.
On top of that, this was a matter the Alliance Leader himself had taken an interest in.
The last thing he wanted was to stay out of it and have an incident occur.
Having weighed his options, Yu-baek loosened his stance and rose.
Hold on just a little longer.
Yu-baek leapt from the treetop.
In the meantime, the black-clad figures reached the man's residence, threw the window wide open, and slipped inside.
Just as he was about to rush to help—
Crash!
A dark silhouette came flying back out.
It dropped with a whooooosh and buried itself in the shrubbery on the ground floor.
Before he could even process the situation, a second one shot out in exactly the same posture.
Crash!
"Huh?"
This time, two of them flew through the air in succession.
In the brief moment he had spaced out, four of them had been shot down.
Watching the worms writhing on the ground, Yu-baek blinked.
What in the world just happened?
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.
.
.
"These flies certainly have short tempers."
Mu-yeong gripped the man who appeared to be the leader by the throat.
The black-clad figure dangling in midair thrashed about.
"Kgh...... Kgh! Don't tell me you knew we were coming!?"
"Of course I knew. It would be stranger not to, when you were being so obvious about your surveillance."
"That can't be...... We were perfectly. Kegh!"
"You weren't even at it two full days, and you call that perfect? Don't tell me you thought you'd fully figured me out in that short a time?"
Mu-yeong had estimated the period of tailing at somewhere between three days and a week.
That would be the minimum needed to get a sense of someone's movements and daily patterns.
And yet they had come charging in barely two days in.
Mu-yeong was actually caught off guard by how quickly they had moved.
"Unbelievable. What confidence did you come here on when you haven't even gauged your opponent's strength?"
"Tch! If you're going to kill me, stop talking and do it!"
"What era do you think we're living in, going around killing people so casually? That'd be a serious problem."
Mu-yeong used his free hand to draw the man's sword.
A well-worn hilt and a blade honed to a keen edge.
It smelled of blood.
"Seems you've done this sort of thing often. Where are you lot from?"
"You think I'd tell you that!"
"No need. It's Daehwasan Sect."
"...... What?"
The pointed precision of Mu-yeong's words sent the other man's voice reeling with bewilderment.
He quickly caught his mistake and shut his mouth, but it was already too late.
Mu-yeong laughed inwardly.
He hadn't expected me to already know who they were.
Assassins of this sort typically undergo training to withstand torture.
So as not to reveal information even if captured by the enemy.
And yet for one to show such a reaction—it was perhaps due to a lapse in guard.
Daehwasan Sect, renowned for its integrity and righteousness, sending assassins like this?
It was the kind of thing that no ordinary person would ever dare imagine.
Squeeze.
"Kgh......!"
As the grip tightened, the man's face turned crimson red.
The capillaries in his eyes burst as well.
"Tell them this. If they don't deposit one hundred million Won per head—five hundred million in total—by midnight tomorrow, I'll expose all of this to the world."
"That...... what."
"Two hundred million per head."
"Ah, understood. I got it, so first just let go of this......"
Realizing this was not a negotiation but a one-sided notice, the man relented.
The moment Mu-yeong released his grip, the man crumpled to the ground.
Mu-yeong unleashed a killing intent toward the one who hadn't yet collected himself.
The man's arms and legs trembled violently.
"Should something like this happen again, I will come to you personally. And at that point, even I won't know what I might do."
"U-understood......! I'll keep it in mind!"
"Good. Now go."
The black-clad figure vanished in a flash before the words had even finished leaving Mu-yeong's mouth.
Only then did Mu-yeong ease his expression.
He twirled the sword they had left behind and looked at the shattered window.
"But was two hundred million per head a bit steep?"
He had actually considered raising it to a hundred and fifty million after the initial hundred.
But raising it by a decimal didn't seem particularly dignified, did it?
He had gone bold with the number, but he wasn't sure if it had landed.
"They'll pay. It's not like Daehwasan Sect is short on money."
And not just anyone—this was Mae Han-gyeom.
A man whose pride and honor for Daehwasan Sect reached the heavens. He would wire the funds without fail.
To protect their image, the ten hundred million Won was a price worth paying.
If they didn't pay—well.
Things would go badly, just as he had warned.
Thud.
Having dealt with the whole affair, Mu-yeong returned to his room.
In truth, there was one reason he had been awake this late.
He had been filming his first vlog to post on Newtube.
He'd been capturing what his everyday life looked like.
"I've been filming for four hours already—what do I do now? It feels like the flow got interrupted in the middle."
Mu-yeong sat back in front of the camera, which had been diligently recording.
An expensive purchase he had made today on a rare whim.
He didn't yet know all its functions exactly, but he had been told the image quality alone was exceptional.
Worried dust might have gotten on it, Mu-yeong carefully brought the hem of his clothing to the lens.
Squeak, squeak.
"It'd be a waste to throw away everything I've filmed so far, so I'll just post it. Let me get back to what I was doing."
Mu-yeong sat down about two meters from the camera.
He closed his eyes and settled into a cross-legged sitting position, and by the time he was done, morning had come.
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.
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The next day.
Mu-yeong's first video went up on Newtube.
Subscribers flooded in, but the moment they saw the video's length, they recoiled.
—12 hours? Is this a glitch?
—Surely they're not expecting us to watch all of this?
—No way lol
—My guess is this person doesn't know how to edit and just uploaded the whole thing raw.
—Yeah, I'm pretty sure that's it lol
Comments started pouring in even before anyone hit play.
Most people didn't have the nerve to watch it, but there were always those with an abundance of time on their hands.
—Advance squad, heading in.
—Going too. I'll leave a review when I get back.
—Even at 2x speed it's six hours lol. Challenge accepted.
Of course, none of them intended to watch the whole thing from start to finish.
Their plan was to hammer the right arrow key—skipping five seconds at a time—to skim through the overall content.
The video opened with a shot of Mu-yeong sitting inside a room with his eyes closed.
—Damn, he really is good-looking.
—Ahhh, this is paradise.
—I was eating and suddenly got my appetite back lol.
—Clearly you all have refined taste lol.
Everyone was transfixed, but everything grows tiresome with enough time.
Once they had adapted a little, people started pressing their keyboards one by one.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
But something was off.
No matter how many times they pressed, the frame wouldn't change.
They tried again in case it was a fluke, but the result was the same.
—This looks like a still image?
—Is this a photo and not a video?
—Seems like something just went wrong.
—First video on Newtube: 12 hours long, and on top of that a glitch lol.
—An absolute legend lol.
Most of the advance squad laughed it off and gave up.
Those with a bit more patience kept at it.
As they blankly hammered the keyboard, someone finally spotted the first change.
—Hey, this isn't a still image? At 2:03:27 there's a tiny bug crawling in the lower right.
—For real?
—What? This is actually real?
—Yeah, you can see it if you zoom in.
—Is that a spider?
Something tiny and black had appeared for about ten seconds.
A little bug scurrying across the floor.
Only then did the subscribers catch on.
This was not a still image—it was a genuine recording.
—Wait, they asked this guy to film a vlog and he just uploaded himself doing Meditative Breathing Cultivation as-is lol.
—Is this actually how he lives his everyday life? Wild.
—A vlog of pure, uncut Meditative Breathing Cultivation—honestly speechless lol. He did say he does it daily.
—Though isn't uploading it without any editing a bit much?
—Are you really expecting that kind of advanced skill from Mu-yeong?
—Fair, that is a bit much to ask lol.
—Still, twelve hours of dedication is something, I'll give him that lol.
It was absurd, but now that they had confirmed it wasn't an error, people started scrubbing through the video again.
This time they weren't skimming—they were leaning in with wide eyes, fully focused.
—Breaking news: at 4:06:19, Mu-yeong disappears.
—True. He's gone for about three minutes—what's going on?
—Probably went to the bathroom?
—Bathroom seems right lol.
—If you listen closely you can hear a crashing sound—what is that?
—Sounds like he dropped a glass.
—Wait, at 6:34:01 the fluorescent light flickers once lol.
—How did anyone even catch that lol.
—Seriously, the one who found it is more impressive lol.
—By 9:12:01 it's slowly getting bright outside?
—It's already morning? Time flies.
—What if this person isn't actually doing Meditative Breathing Cultivation but just sleeping?
—Wait, was this not a vlog but a sleep stream?
—Who sleeps sitting bolt upright lol.
—Same, I could never sleep like that no matter what.
And so, several hours later.
The subscribers who had managed to watch from beginning to end admitted defeat.
—Hardest spot-the-difference I've ever done.
—Weirdly entertaining though.
—The best part was at the very end when he walked up close to turn the camera off.
—The payoff is real lol.
—But there's no way I'm watching this a second time.
—What maniac would rewatch this lol.
Mu-yeong, who spent all twelve hours in Meditative Breathing Cultivation, and the subscribers who kept rewinding to find any changes.
After spending a day of pure madness, people made a vow.
The moment Mu-yeong went live, they would give him an earful.
—But genuinely curious—does this person actually live like this every day?
—......Don't ask me.