MLCAI 20

Chapter 20

Kang Suho furrowed his brows as he stared blankly at her for a moment.

“How do you know that?”

A sharp voice slipped out without him realizing it.

No one could know in advance whether someone would awaken or not.

If she truly had such an ability, every guild in the world and the governments of all countries would line up to recruit her.

It was a power that could overturn the global balance of power, for better or worse.

“Um, it’s a bit hard to explain… But sometimes I can see the person who’s going to awaken.”

And this woman claimed she could do that.

“I can’t know everything. I just feel that flow from certain individuals, you could say.”

She spoke cautiously, as if even she didn’t fully understand how it worked…

“Anyway, it’s certain that Kang Suho will awaken.”

She had absolute confidence in that outcome.

Kang Suho’s heart started pounding.

Whether it was confusion, anticipation, or a sense of resistance, he felt suffocated for reasons he couldn’t identify.

His stomach churned violently, almost making him nauseous, but when he saw her smile gently while extending her pinky to him again, the discomfort vanished completely.

“So don’t go to the Four Great Guilds, don’t go abroad, and promise me you’ll join my guild, using Sihoo’s name as a pledge.”

Her audacious act of subtly invoking Sihoo’s name to make him unable to break his word was simultaneously absurd and dazzling.

“…This should be fine, right?”

Saebyeok muttered quietly as she got off the bus.

She had finally obtained a promise from Kang Suho.

If I awaken… I will definitely join Han Saebyeok’s guild. I promise.

Even until the moment of promise, he seemed reluctant to believe her claim that he would awaken, but she had managed to secure the agreement nonetheless.

She had also secured his pinky and the signed paper, which, though not legally binding, carried the true weight of his intention.

With that, one of the missions she had planned after regression was complete, and she felt cheerful leaving him to rest while attending to her next task.

As time passed and the excitement of successfully recruiting Kang Suho faded, she began to worry that she had revealed his awakening in advance.

I hope he won’t suddenly decide not to awaken just because I knew beforehand…

At first, she hadn’t intended to tell him.

But she couldn’t help it when she sensed the heavy depression hanging over his face, almost palpable in its intensity.

She didn’t regret telling him.

She was only concerned that even a tiny butterfly effect might influence his awakening.

It’ll be fine. He’s not just any awakened; he’s Kang Suho, who could dominate the world alone. No matter how big a butterfly effect, it wouldn’t stop the world’s top hunter from awakening.

He was an S-rank hunter among the elite.

When he first awakened in his previous life, it had taken every S-rank hunter in South Korea just to contain him.

Even that was only possible because he hadn’t yet mastered his full title; if his skill proficiency had been higher, South Korea would have fallen before witnessing its own destruction.

I can personally take him to the awakening location.

In his previous life, he had awakened in a gate that appeared on a bridge over the Han River.

After losing his younger sibling and being trapped by his father, he had despaired of life.

Eventually, he gave up on living and went to the Han River to die.

He then awakened while being pulled into a newly generated gate.

In this life, since he didn’t lose his sibling, there was no reason to go to the Han River to die. And she certainly wouldn’t allow him to be discovered by his father.

So Saebyeok would have to resolve that part this time.

“It’s fine, no problem.”

She had no doubt he would awaken.

Potential doesn’t disappear.

“Anyway, this place hasn’t changed.”

Pushing aside her worries and focusing on the present, Saebyeok looked up at the seven-story building.

Though part of the building had collapsed long ago due to early gate breaks, it was still in use and thriving. Once famous as an electronics market, Yongdon had now fully transformed into a hunter market.

Unlike official hunter malls managed by the Association or guild-owned trading posts, this place teetered on the edge between legal and illegal trade, selling a wide variety of hunter goods.

“Check out the items! Everything except what we don’t have!”

“Downstairs, we have even better stuff. Wanna see?”

“Lots of jewelry items girls love!”

Semi-automatic hawking calls erupted.

Saebyeok paused for a moment, enjoying the lively chaos.

After living in a quiet world for so long, she found this noise comforting.

She slowly descended the stairs.

The lower she went, the darker and slightly eerie the atmosphere became.

When she reached the final floor, it was calm, in contrast to the bright and noisy upper floors.

The merchants, surrounded by the smells of special materials and cigarette smoke, barely glanced at her, focused on their ledgers.

Some of them studied her like an exotic animal in a zoo but soon lost interest.

Unchanged.

Saebyeok smiled slightly at the rare materials spread on mats—wyvern hides, basilisk teeth, and the like.

Such items were seldom seen even in official hunter malls, which is why Yongdon was more popular among high-rank hunters.

“Grandpa.”

Saebyeok crouched in front of an old man sitting at the far end, repairing a longsword on an anvil without any mat.

Next to him was a carefully crafted prosthetic leg, clearly his own, as his left leg was missing below the thigh.

“Buy something from me.”

Saebyeok smiled brightly as she spoke. The old man glanced at her briefly, then returned his attention to the sword.

“No business for kids.”

“Who discriminates against hunters by age these days?”

“I do. Kid, go home.”

Saebyeok placed her items—staffs, daggers, crossbows—one by one from her inventory, stacking them to reach nearly her height.

The old man paused his hammering, squinting as he inspected both her and the pile of weapons.

“With an A-rank pocket dimension magic like this, impressive.”

As expected from a master blacksmith, he had a keen eye.

Though his expression briefly turned serious, he quickly scoffed.

“They’re all junk. Take them away.”

“Come on, buy them, Grandpa. These aren’t easy to sell in the mall or hunter market.”

Saebyeok tossed around twenty cloaks onto the pile, all bearing the Scavenger emblem on the chest.

“Ha!”

Finally, the old man dropped his hammer and laughed.

“You’re the mysterious helper they were talking about on the radio, aren’t you?”

The radio behind him crackled on.

【…While waiting for the Association’s briefing on incident …, Donghae’s media outlet announced that they would reveal the identity of the ‘mysterious helper’ immediately…】

It seemed that a villain hunt of this scale had attracted significant attention for the first time in a long while.

Moreover, it was said that the lightning strike hitting the middle of Bukhansan could be seen even in Gangnam, so the interest would persist.

“So, will you take my request?”

“Show me.”

The old man finally seemed interested, pushing the longsword aside and gesturing.

“I thought so.”

Saebyeok took off the key-shaped item she was wearing.

As she removed it, the invisibility effect also deactivated.

She handed it to the old man, placing the adamantium chunk she had removed earlier on his anvil as well.

“It’s only 1kg. How many copies can you make?”

The old man ignored the adamantium, focusing entirely on the earring.

He lifted it, letting it dangle, then raised his opposite index finger.

“<Inspection Analysis>.”

His finger transformed into a round magnifying lens.

Through the purple-tinted lens, he scrutinized the item, furrowing his brows but smiling slightly.

“This is the first item I’ve seen without basic descriptions.”

“Impossible. It’s A-rank.”

Saebyeok knew the old man’s <Inspection Analysis> skill was A-rank.

Having been close enough in her previous life to joke while drinking together, she knew he could easily analyze most A-rank items and even some S-rank items.

“This is bound to the owner, can become invisible, and can be copied with adamantium. But it has no skill.”

“Oh, the skill…”

She realized something.

“Grandpa, wait. Give it back for a second.”

She took the earring again.

<Item: An’ga Key (A)>
Server: Earth (S3-EH) A key to a safe house. The owner is the server administrator, and only they can use the master key.
When equipped, <Atlas’ Safe House> can be used.
Bound to the server administrator.
Can turn invisible.
Can be copied with adamantium. (0/3)
└Registered copies: none

‘Huh…?’

There was one thing she hadn’t realized when she first obtained it.

Hoping it wasn’t true, she drew a spear from inside it.

<Item: Separation-Anxiety Spear (B)>
Created by a blacksmith who often left it alone, it developed attachment instincts. Strongly attached to its owner.
Non-transferable, bound item.
└Owner: Han Saebyeok
<Passive: Evolve>: Every 10 minutes in combat, user’s skill power increases by 1%. Resets after combat.
<Passive: Attachment Skill>: Forms attachment to one of the owner’s skills, enabling repeated use without mana consumption. Resets every 5 days.
└Designated skill: <Lightning>
<Skill: Return>: Responds to owner’s call without distance limit in dungeons; outside dungeons, up to 30km.

‘…Grandpa was right.’

She confirmed several other items taken from Scavenger guild members.

She was certain.

‘No skill.’

The <An’ga Key> had no skill. It only allowed access to <Atlas’ Safe House>.

Moreover, the skill was linked to her title, not embedded in the item.

An A-rank item… without a skill.

‘What? How do I even interpret this?’

She wondered how she had not noticed it until now.

“So what’s the purpose of this item…?”

As Saebyeok muttered, gripping the <An’ga Key>, the earring suddenly vibrated, emitting a deep red light and expanding in size. The small, cute earring transformed into a palm-sized key.

And that wasn’t all.

“…Grandpa, I’m the only one seeing this, right?”

A huge door appeared before her eyes.