Chapter 57: Search (4)

“Are the two of them safe…?”

Han-seong asked with a trembling heart.

Seok-hwan’s smile faded slightly. He suddenly closed his mouth and stared intently at the Phantom before asking:

“First, may I ask what your relationship is with Sister Jung Hyun-sook?”

“I’m her son.”

“Her son? But I heard her son was paralyzed from the waist down due to an accident…”

Seok-hwan looked surprised.

Han-seong was equally surprised. He never expected the man to know even about his past. This was clear evidence that he was acquainted with his mother.

“After the Upheaval, I was fortunately able to move again. It’s difficult to explain in detail though.”

“I see. That’s fortunate.”

Seok-hwan nodded.

He then asked Han-seong a few more questions. His sister’s name, where they lived, and even his mother’s baptismal name.

Luckily, he could answer all of them without hesitation.

‘He must be suspicious of me.’

However, Han-seong didn’t mind. If anything, it made him trust the man more for being so cautious.

After answering all the questions, Seok-hwan’s expression returned to normal. A moment later, he spoke with a gentle smile:

“I think that’s enough to be certain. Now, lastly, could you please remove your helmet?”

“Ah, I’m sorry. That’s…”

He probably wanted to compare his face to the family photo. However, taking off the helmet would surely cause problems, so he couldn’t comply.

Meanwhile, Seok-hwan burst into laughter.

“Haha, it’s alright. I already know that body isn’t human anyway.”

“…Pardon?”

Sang-min and Ye-eun were surprised by those words.

They asked with wide eyes:

“N-not human?”

“What do you mean…”

“Well, I can’t explain it precisely, but it looks quite grotesque. It’s amazing how it can move and speak with that face and body.”

Han-seong was also greatly surprised.

He never imagined the Phantom’s true nature would be exposed without even removing the helmet.

“How did you…”

“It’s thanks to a skill called Mind Eye. I can see through to the true nature of things.”

Is it an insight skill like Detection?

But how did he notice with such a large level gap? Questions swirled in his mind for a moment, but Han-seong shook his head.

‘If it’s already been exposed, there’s nothing I can do.’

Finding his family’s whereabouts was more important than enduring suspicious gazes after revealing his identity.

Having made up his mind, he moved the Phantom’s hands to remove the helmet. And at that moment.

“Commander! Get behind me.”

Ye-eun and Sang-min jumped to their feet.

The moment they saw the Phantom’s true face, they exuded wariness as if nothing had happened before.

It was a natural reaction, so Han-seong didn’t mind, and neither did Seok-hwan. He waved his wrinkled hand and smiled.

“Haha, it’s alright. Only the body is strange, but the inner self is human just like us.”

“B-but…!”

“Brother, am I wrong?”

Seok-hwan asked, facing the Phantom.

Han-seong shook the Phantom’s head.

He then briefly explained why he had no choice but to do this. After the explanation, Seok-hwan opened his mouth with surprised eyes.

“Then right now, you are…”

“Not in Daejeon, but somewhere else.”

As if understanding the situation. On the other hand, Ye-eun still spoke with a voice tinged with wariness.

“But you clearly used a skill earlier…!”

“There’s a skill that makes that possible.”

While explaining about Soul Link.

Suddenly, Seok-hwan stood up. He then approached the Phantom with large strides.

“Commander! It’s dangerous…”

Ye-eun tried to stop him, but Seok-hwan was faster in grasping the Phantom’s hand. He spoke with a gentle smile:

“This confirms it. You are indeed Sister Jung Hyun-sook’s child.”

“…What made you suddenly certain?”

“Well, if you weren’t her child, you wouldn’t have taken such a risk by complying with my request.”

The act of risking exposure of his identity just to hear news of his parents conveyed sincerity and desperation.

This is what Seok-hwan meant.

“Then now, about my parents’ well-being…”

“I’m sorry, but I don’t actually know if your sister is safe. However, I do know which area she went to right after the Upheaval.”

Han-seong’s face crumpled.

This wasn’t a joke.

However, the only one to blame was himself. He suppressed his rising anger and said:

“…Please tell me even that much.”

If he at least knew which area they went to, he could search that area for traces of his parents.

Han-seong pleaded earnestly, as if grasping at straws. Seok-hwan then walked to the map on the wall and pointed to a specific area.

“Around here.”

“That place is…”

The border between Yuseong-gu and Seo-gu.

If you keep going west, you reach the road leading to Gyeryongsan Mountain in Gongju, Chungnam.

But there’s nothing particularly there.

It’s not even the city center. They shouldn’t have any connections there, so why did they go there? As he was wondering, Seok-hwan added an explanation.

“Sister Jung Hyun-sook visited the cathedral’s welfare center and orphanage every weekend. And one of them is located in this area.”

“Ah…”

“She came to the cathedral just before the Upheaval and said this, so it should be certain.”

“Then perhaps my father too…”

“Yes, your father was with her as well.”

This was the moment when the circumstances were revealed.

Additionally, it was revealed that his sister was not with them. Having learned the full story, Han-seong immediately moved the Phantom’s feet.

Currently, Detection was on cooldown.

So he planned to directly move the Phantom to search the area. Just as he was about to leave the room after putting the helmet back on.

The words that followed stopped him in his tracks.

“However, there’s a problem. As of now, it’s not easy to reach that place.”

Han-seong tilted his head.

What? Did the road collapse or something?

Or is there another issue? When Han-seong expressed his doubt, Sang-min and Ye-eun answered.

“That area is currently the headquarters of a violent organization calling themselves a militia. They have guns and even armored vehicles, so it’s difficult to approach alone.”

“That’s not all. To get there, we have to pass through this area, and there’s an incredibly strong monster living here.”

Ye-eun’s expression hardened as if recalling an unpleasant memory as she pointed to the map. Sang-min also just sighed repeatedly without saying anything.

As he was growing more curious at their reactions.

Seok-hwan spoke on behalf of everyone.

“It’s a Champion-grade monster.”

Champion-grade monster.

The atmosphere in the room grew heavy at those words.

On the other hand, Han-seong remained unfazed. He had already faced one before. Instead, he memorized the area Seok-hwan had pointed to, then looked at the map in the air.

What followed was a red dot.

There seemed to be well over a hundred of them.

When he hadn’t examined this area before, he thought they were just zombies, but using Precise Observation on those coordinates changed the story.

“They’re wolves.”

Han-seong quickly identified the nature of the monsters.

Unlike the ones you might see in a zoo, these were all much larger specimens. Meanwhile, Seok-hwan and Sang-min’s eyes widened at his words.

“H-how did you know that…?”

“I confirmed it with a skill.”

“You’re saying you have a skill that can check a place 10km away from here?”

“Yes.”

After giving a short answer, Han-seong turned his attention back to the center of the wolf pack. What he observed there was a werewolf standing on two legs like a human.

Its size was even larger than the Moving Statue he had faced earlier. If he had to describe it, it looked like a 3-story building moving around.

‘That must be…’

The Champion monster Seok-hwan had mentioned.

He explained the scene he was currently observing.

The existence of the giant werewolf. At this, Seok-hwan, Sang-min, and Ye-eun’s expressions changed moment by moment.

“Wh-what you said is correct.”

“You really saw it and spoke…?”

“To think such a skill exists, it’s amazing.”

They finally seemed to believe his words.

Along with this, their wariness also eased considerably. Whether it was thanks to putting the helmet back on, or from hearing the conversation up to now, he wasn’t sure.

“Actually, it wasn’t like that from the beginning. Originally, it was just a high-level elite monster and one of our future subjugation targets.”

That’s when Seok-hwan’s story began.

The werewolf’s existence was first discovered about two weeks ago. At first, they didn’t pay much attention or guard against it.

After all, it was 10km away from the vigilante group’s headquarters at Daejeon City Hall. So while they were inwardly feeling relieved, an incident occurred.

“We decided on subjugation because the wolves expanded their territory into the city.”

About ten days ago.

Wolves that had left their territory attacked the city in packs. In the process of stopping them, the vigilante group suffered considerable damage, and there were even casualties.

“Accordingly, we attempted to subjugate the werewolf. We thought if we eliminated the root cause, we wouldn’t have to live in fear of nightly attacks anymore.”

The vigilante group truly gave it their all.

Not only Ye-eun and Sang-min, but twenty Hunters over level 20 participated. Add to that about a hundred vigilante members mobilized, it was truly an all-out war.

The vigilante group, armed with rifles and grenades, advanced with confidence in victory.

However, reality was cruel.

“…The result was our defeat.”

Seok-hwan let out a deep sigh.

His expression darkened.

“We succeeded in driving the wolves out of the city, but the werewolf was far more powerful than we had anticipated.”

There were three main factors in their defeat.

The fact that rifle bullets had no effect on the werewolf at all, and the moment it let out a roar, many of their forces fell into panic.

And the final reason…

“The werewolf also had the ability to greatly increase its size, and when it used this, all the wounds we had painstakingly inflicted were completely healed.”

The moment he saw that.

Seok-hwan judged there was no hope in the battle and withdrew all forces. If it had ended there, they would have regrouped and tried again later.

But a problem arose.

“After the battle, the werewolf, which had been level 29, reached level 30. Afterwards, as it rose to Champion grade, even its name changed.”

From Werewolf to Wolf King.

According to subsequent reconnaissance, its size had nearly doubled from before.

Han-seong silently nodded, having experienced a similar situation before. However, the words that followed were difficult to understand.

“So for now, it’s hard to approach that area. Unless we can fly through the sky, we have to pass through the Wolf King’s territory.”

Although the Wolf King’s territory blocked the way, there seemed to be many detours available.

So he pointed to the map and asked:

“Can’t we go this way?”

“Ah, that area is…”

“That’s the militia’s territory.”

What’s the problem with that?

As Han-seong made an expression of not understanding, Seok-hwan’s answer soon followed.

“The militia is difficult to deal with lightly.”

“Because of their numbers?”

“That’s one reason, but their armaments are different. We only have rifles and grenades at best, but they have armored vehicles and even tanks.”

What? Armored vehicles and tanks?

“How did they get such equipment…”

“In the early stages of the Upheaval, we secured the police station’s armory, but they took over a military base.”

Facing a group with tanks and armored vehicles with just rifles and grenades?

It’s practically suicide.

As Han-seong pondered while looking at the map, he soon found a new detour and pointed his finger.

“Then if we detour this way…”

“That’s difficult too. Essentially all areas except the city center are the militia’s territory.”

Ye-eun sighed.

“Plus, they have many hostages.”

“Hostages?”

“Yes, in the process of taking control of the area, the militia completely restricted the movement and actions of citizens already living there.”

After finishing her answer, she moved her finger to indicate the militia’s territory.

This included the place where Han-seong’s parents were presumed to be. Realizing this, Han-seong’s expression hardened.

‘The militia.’

An organization composed of criminals and thugs.

Thinking that his parents might be in the den of such people, his fists clenched.

“Recently, they’ve even been entering the city to kidnap people. That’s why we’ve had a flood of applications to join the vigilante group over the past three days.”

The story that followed.

It was the same content he had heard from people who had nearly been taken by the militia.

Han-seong asked with curiosity:

“But why are they kidnapping people?”

He needed to know the purpose of the kidnappings.

If they had a similar purpose to the Necromancer he had faced? They would need to be eliminated immediately before more victims arose.

However, the answer that came back was different from his concerns.

“It’s probably because of the militia leader’s job.”

“The militia leader’s job…?”

“Go Young-jin. 47 years old. His exact level is unknown, but his job has been identified as Lord.”

“Lord? As in managing territory…”

“Yeah, that Lord.”

Sang-min nodded.

“According to the testimony of a member who escaped from the militia in the past, Go Young-jin’s abilities become stronger the more people there are in his territory.”

What an interesting ability.

At the same time, he was relieved it wasn’t a case like the Necromancer.

“Moreover, as soon as they confirmed the Champion monster, they started planning to abandon Daejeon.”

“This was also told to us by someone who escaped from the militia, but apparently they’re thinking of moving their base entirely to Nonsan.”

“Why go to such trouble…”

“Because there’s no Champion monster in Nonsan.”

The reason for moving their base was simple.

It seemed foolish to Han-seong. They might feel safe for now, but what if an elite monster in Nonsan reaches level 30?

Are they planning to move their base again then?

As he was sneering at their simple thinking, Sang-min and Ye-eun added more:

“Of course, we don’t plan to just sit idly by forever. My father is among the people trapped because of the militia.”

“That’s right. My younger sister too. But…”

The situation was unfavorable for recklessly attacking the militia. Also, it was uncertain how the Champion monster between the two forces would react.

Sang-min and Ye-eun bit their lips.

As the conversation was wrapping up, Seok-hwan suddenly bowed his head to the Phantom.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help. You came such a long way, but this is all I can tell you.”

“…No, what you’ve told me so far has been very helpful.”

Han-seong shook the Phantom’s head.

To be honest, he was irritated at first.

After speaking as if he knew his parents’ well-being, the actual answer was quite vague.

‘But there was some gain.’

The search area had narrowed dramatically from the broad region of Daejeon City to just a few neighborhoods. At this rate, he should be able to find his parents’ whereabouts soon.

“Then I’ll take my leave now.”

With this, he had obtained all the information he could get here. Now it was time to search.

Han-seong turned the Phantom’s body and left the room.