Against the Clock: The Team Leader’s Pursuit of Glory

As Pyo Beom-hee got on the elevator, two men followed her in. She pressed the button for the 11th floor, and the two men pressed for the 10th floor. The men standing on either side of her just stared at the descending floor numbers.

A suffocating silence descended in the space, as if the air had vanished.

After getting off the elevator, Pyo Beom-hee pretended to stagger after being poisoned, making her way to the room with difficulty. As she clutched her head and sneakily checked behind her, the closing elevator doors reopened, and the two men got off.

Pyo Beom-hee entered her room, unable to bear it any longer, and threw herself onto the bed. She felt someone peering inside from the door. Sensing the next room, she sent a message to Yeom Soohyung using a message skill.

"Team Leader Yeom, it seems like someone's after us. They even used poison on me. Can you believe it?"

"I know. There was poison in the bottled water in the fridge too. Not deadly poison, but still. Not to mention, they're blatantly announcing it here. I couldn't rest at all because of the murderous aura around me."

Upon hearing Yeom Soohyung's response, Pyo Beom-hee expanded her sensory perception.

Although it wasn't her area of expertise, Pyo Beom-hee definitely felt a prickling energy all around. The men who had followed her were also lingering in the corridor.

She first checked on Yeom Soohyung's condition.

"Did they get you?"

"I'm in a giantified state trying to neutralize the poison."

"Giantifed state? Are you okay?"

"Don't worry. It's just the first level. All that adaptation training wasn't for nothing, you know."

"No, I meant, is your room okay?"

"..."

"I'm not joking, for real. If you're 3 meters tall, how much do you weigh? Won't the floor give out?"

"The floor's fine. The bed, not so much."

"Just play dumb at checkout. Say it wasn't you. No, let's just send the bill to the federation. We came here because of them, right?"

"What's more important is that I'm dying here crouching in this cramped room."

Pyo Beom-hee imagined Yeom Soohyung in his giant form.

Since they hadn't started the operation yet, he wouldn't have been able to wear his special fitting suit that expanded using magic.

The thought of him crouching naked in a small room made her laugh.

"Ha, that means you must be naked, right? Even if you wear the armor coat, it'd look like a trench coat then."

"Sorry to disappoint, but I already put it on before boarding the plane."

"Darn it. I was about to rush over, take a picture, so I get to tease you for life."

"Stop joking around. What should we do? Attack first?"

Normally, Pyo Beom-hee would have launched an attack before Yeom Soohyung even asked, but they were in Russia.

A country where powerful public authority dominated society, yet more violent forces coexisted, and corruption in the Hunter community was rampant.

Launching a preemptive strike in a hotel located in the middle of a city, not even in some secluded area, could inadvertently lead to being framed for something they didn't do.

Causing trouble here could result in at least a travel ban like Ju Se-ah experienced, or in the worst case, being imprisoned in 'Black Owl Prison,' known as the Ujung-do of Russia, which was considered the world's worst Hunter prison.

Despite the federation's influence reaching around the globe, in countries with different political systems or dictatorships like China and Russia, there was naturally less freedom to act.

Pyo Beom-hee was worried about these aspects.

"I don't want to be locked up in the Owl Prison. I heard they cram two people into a 1.5 pyeong (about 5 square meters) cell. If I get stuck there with you, I might get squished into dried fish."

"So, you're suggesting we wait, right?"

"At least until they make the first move. We need to be cautious. Let's consult with the federation's guide... What was his name again? Kobi? Corona? Coco?"

"Kozlov."

"Right, Mr.Ko. Let's decide after consulting with him."

It was when Pyo Beom-hee was about to send a message to Kozlov.

Crack!

"Huh? What's wrong with the door? I barely touched it."

The uninvited guest effortlessly tore off the door and entered the room.

"!!"

Pyo Beom-hee felt chills down her spine. A massive presence that she had entirely failed to notice until just now filled the room.

A long shadow cast by the hallway lights followed the man inside and spoke to him.

"Is it this room, or the next one?"

"I'm sorry. We haven't checked that yet."

"Well, does it matter? We can just teach them a lesson first and then ask."

The moment the intruder stepped into the room, the wall by the entrance crumbled, and a blade shot out of it. The intruder tilted his head, easily dodging the attack.

The one who attacked through the wall was Kozlov. He shouted towards Pyo Beom-hee.

"Ms. Pyo Beom-hee! Are you alright?!"

"You're the one who's not going to be alright."

It was the intruder who responded instead of Pyo Beom-hee, aiming a punch at Kozlov.

Kozlov infused his sword with mana and swung it at the large shadow.

Clang!

"Ugh!"

Surprisingly, the clash between fist and sword ended in the fist's victory.

The impact tore through Kozlov's hands on the sword. It was fortunate that he didn't lose his weapon, given the immense force behind the punch.

'An A-rank dismissed my attack so easily?'

Only then could Kozlov see the intruder's face under the dim lighting.

"Y-You're..."

"Looks like the federation's dog is getting too cocky."

The intruder spun around to deliver a backspin blow. His left hand aimed for Kozlov's temple. Kozlov hurriedly raised his left arm to block but was not spared. His left arm bone broke, and he was slammed to the ground.

The intruder, having inflicted serious injuries on Kozlov with a single blow, laughed at him.

"I won't kill you. Dealing with the federation is a bit of a hassle, you see."

At that moment, Pyo Beom-hee made her move.

Taking advantage of the intruder's momentary lapse in attention, she expelled the poison she had been holding in her mouth.

The colorless, odorless poison, potent enough to incapacitate even a decent Hunter, failed to affect the intruder. All it did was make him hesitate for a moment.

As the intruder quickly shook off the effects of the poison and prepared to move again, Pyo Beom-hee leapt backward and shouted.

"Team Leader Yeom!"

As Pyo Beom-hee called out, the wall behind the bed she was lying on exploded, and a gigantic fist struck the intruder.

"Mr. Igor!"

The subordinate of the intruder, caught off guard by the sudden attack on his boss, cried out in confusion.

"Run!"

Yeom Soohyung quickly shrank his giant form and leaped into the room, hurling himself towards the window.

Crash! Shatter!

Pyo Beom-hee, clutching the fainted Kozlov by her side and grabbing his sword, followed Yeom Soohyung and jumped out.

The room they left behind quickly returned to silence.

The intruder, who had been crushed against a wall, slowly extricated himself from the debris and dusted off the dirt on his body.

"So the guy who could get bigger was in the next room."

He appeared unscathed from the attack just moments before. However, his subordinate, standing next to him, fidgeted uncomfortably, unsure of what to do just with the dust accumulated on his boss's shoulder.

The intruder walked over to the window, where the chilly air was flowing in, and looked down. He saw his targets scaling the hotel wall by embedding a sword into it, climbing down like rock climbers. In the blink of an eye, they touched the ground and sprinted away with all their might.

The intruder leisurely watched his targets escape.

"These Кореец (Koreans) were quite something. To think they'd run when I'm right here. I came since I was getting bored stuck in Moscow, but this turned out to be quite fun."

"They can run, but they're still in Vladivostok. I'll have them chased down immediately."

"No, let it be. It's not easy to find people who dare to revolt in Russia."

"Excuse me?"

"As Russian men, how can we leave the hospitality of our guests to someone else?"

"You can't mean... h-here? No. Mr....."

Before his subordinate could react further, the intruder had already jumped out of the window.

"...Igor."

Left alone, the subordinate wrung his head in frustration, watching his boss land on the street below.

"Ah... It's not just about Oopoomangbawoo or the Korean Hunters anymore. Igor will destroy the city, wait no, this isn't the time for this. Everyone, follow Mr. Igor! We can't let him get away!"

His shout caused a stir in the corridor.

In a construction site blowing with eerie wind, Pyo Beom-hee supported Kozlov, seating him at a corner of a building that was merely a skeleton.

"Who was that monster earlier?"

"Pfk, Huk... A soldier."

As Pyo Beom-hee adjusted Kozlov's broken bone, he answered his question. He clenched his teeth and bore the pain, reacting belatedly due to being momentarily distracted.

"This isn't just a simple fracture; it's completely shattered. What are we going to do now? All the potions are in the carrier... Ah! The armor coat! They said they wouldn't resupply it if I lost it. Ugh, I'm going to get an earful again."

Pyo Beom-hee scratched her head in irritation.

"Ah well, can't be helped, can it? If you don't get treated in time, it'll take a long while for the bone to heal, Mr. Ko."

"I just survived after meeting the tyrant, so what's a late-healing bone to me?"

Pyo Beom-hee then chose some suitable lumber from the construction site, cut it, and made a splint. Meanwhile, Yeom Soohyung asked, "The tyrant. Are you talking about Igor Dudnik?"

"That's right."

"He was a big shot, after all. No wonder the punch left a nasty aftertaste."

Yeom Soohyung flexed his hand open and close. Even though he struck him in his giant form, the attack seemed to have hardly impacted the opponent.

Although he had pushed with his weight, the moment his fist made contact, it felt like hitting a wall.

Instinctively deciding not to confront but to flee was a wise choice.

"But I heard Russia doesn't allow guilds to expand into other cities, right? That's why the Tsar Guild didn't even ask for help from the tyrant. Then there's no reason for the tyrant to be here."

Pyo Beom-hee asked, puzzled. Kozlov shrugged his shoulders and replied, "I'm not sure why Igor came to Vladivostok either. If the Kremlin knew about this, they wouldn't just let it slide."

"Regardless, we need to get out of here. I mean, we can't fight an S-ranker. Hiding might be the better option... What do you suggest, Mr. Kozlov? We're not familiar with the local situation, so it's hard to make a decision."

"As you said, Mr. Yeom, it's better to lay low. You were targeted way too precisely. It's clear that information has leaked from somewhere. It's too risky to go to the Tsar Guild right now since we can't trust them either."

"Is there somewhere we can hide?"

"There are a few safe houses."

"Good. Let's head there for now."

"Just a moment. Let's contact Team Leader Kang as well."

Right after Pyo Beom-hee dialed the number on her smartphone, someone emerged from the shadows of the construction site.

It was baffling how such a giant, making even the large Yeom Soohyung seem small, had managed to approach without making a sound.

Pyo Beom-hee murmured the identity of the figure with a grimace on her lips.

"The tyrant..."

Even she, who lived by the motto of finding joy in everything, couldn't help but be serious in this moment.

The dial tone echoed in her ear through the smartphone, but she had no time to pay attention to it.

'Why isn't he answering the phone?'

The call couldn't become their lifeline, but Pyo Beom-hee felt a growing sense of urgency.

Igor, maintaining a careful distance, pointed at Yeom Soohyung.

"Hey, you."

"..."

"You have the giantification trait, right? Let's see you change. I want to see how strong you are."

"Why would I listen to you?"

Yeom Soohyung retorted sarcastically, prompting a smirk from Igor.

Just then, the ringing of the smartphone stopped.

"H-hello, Team Leader Kang?"

In the next moment, Pyo Beom-hee lost the chance to hear Kang Muhyuk's voice coming from the smartphone, as the murderous aura from the monster before her surged dramatically.

"You're asking me why? Because... If you don't transform right now, you'll die?"

Igor leaped high into the air towards them. The fist he raised above his head came down in the dead center of the group.

Boom!

"Whoa! That scared me."

Even as Pyo Beom-hee was thrown into the air, she did not remove the smartphone from her ear.

-What's happening?

"I don't know! We're suddenly under attack!"

The construction site became chaotic. Outside the unfinished windows, a line of unidentified Hunters appeared.

"I'll try to escape and then call back! Ask the federation guys about the rest..."

Pyo Beom-hee couldn't finish her sentence. Igor, who had quietly approached, snatched the smartphone from her and smashed it.

Pyo Beom-hee was shocked that her smartphone was snatched right before her eyes, since she was unable to react to the jab as swift as a breeze.

'I'm quite confident about my speed but this is--'

Igor held the fist that had just smashed the smartphone, his grip filled with enough power to demolish a block. Everyone present felt the terrifying force concentrated in his hand.

"You're not needed here, so could you please leave?"

Faced with an unending assault that left no room for resistance, Pyo Beom-hee half gave up.

"Ah, darn it, S-rank is practically a cheat key."

Just as Igor's fist was about to hit Pyo Beom-hee's face--

"Kuhaaak!"

Yeom Soohyung completed his transformation into a giant in an instant and tackled Igor.

"That's more like it!"

Even as he was sent flying by Yeom Soohyung's tackle, Igor laughed heartily.

Pyo Beom-hee, seizing the sword from Kozlov who was behind her, said, "Kozlov. I'll clear a path for you, so get out of here."

"What? What about you two? Let's go together."

"Against that guy?"

Pyo Beom-hee pointed at Igor who had inflated his size even more than Yeom Soohyung.

A side of the wall crumbled as the battle between the two giants unfolded. Naturally, Yeom Soohyung was at a disadvantage. Even hastily employing a second-level transformation, he couldn't match up against Igor.

"We're the targets, not you."

"If you stay here, you could get killed."

"If that was the case, he would have taken us out already. He wouldn't be playing around like that."

Kozlov agreed with Pyo Beom-hee's reasoning.

Though S-rankers and A-rankers might not seem much different at a glance, in reality, there existed an insurmountable wall between them.

It didn't make sense for the group to still be standing unharmed until now.

Despite knowing this, Kozlov still couldn't bring himself to leave.

As Yeom Soohyung staggered, looking like he wouldn't last much longer, Pyo Beom-hee urgently said, "I'm not telling you to just run away. Escape and call our Team Leader for help."

"By Team Leader, you mean..."

"Kang Muhyuk! Unless an S-ranker intervenes, he's the only one who can handle this situation!"

As soon as the call was abruptly cut off, Kang Muhyuk tried calling Pyo Beom-hee back, but this time the connection didn't go through at all.

He immediately contacted the Hunter Association. Han Byung-gu was not available, but thanks to a heads-up given earlier, after going through several security procedures, he could connect to Alex.

-What's the matter, Mr. Kang?

"Our team members in Russia were cut off during a call. The last thing they mentioned was that they were attacked. What's the contact number for your liaison over there?"

-An attack? Please hold on. I'll check and get back to you.

The call ended, and it was a while before he received a response.

-We're also unable to connect to our line. It seems something has happened for sure.

"What about the Tsar Guild?"

-We've spoken with them. We can't know all the details, but the confirmed fact is that the hotel where members of the Iron Will Guild members were staying was attacked. The Vladivostok news is reporting it as a terrorist attack.

"A terrorist attack? In Russia? Isn't there a clear top in the Vladivostok guild scene? Running amok there sounds like suicide for terrorists."

-Exactly. As has always been the case with Russia, they're probably controlling the media narrative.

"Fine. Let's say, for the sake of argument, it's terrorism. Does the federation only get its information from the news when it sends our guild members into such danger? I distinctly heard it was an attack."

Pressed by Kang Muhyuk, Alex offered an awkward explanation.

-Russia is one of the few countries where the federation doesn't have a branch, only a contact office. Of course, that's not to say we're shirking responsibility. We'll do our best to figure out the situation... Hold on, Mr. Kang. We've just received a message from the local contact. Please don't hang up; wait a moment.

Alex's voice faded, and then there was silence.

Kang Muhyuk waited patiently, his mind racing with worst-case scenarios.

Perhaps Oopoomangbawoo had breached the defense line, or the Tsar Guild had betrayed them, or maybe...

"Hmm, that would indeed be the absolute worst."

As if he didn't even want to entertain the thought of the true worst-case scenario, Kang Muhyuk shook his head, and then he heard Alex's voice again.

-Mr. Kang.

"Go ahead."

-It looks like you will have to go to Russia.