How a legendary returner lives

Chapter 32

The 4th floor.

This building has up to the 4th floor, meaning it’s the top floor excluding the rooftop.

The Na-rat-nim Guild, was it? I heard from Yoon Young-soo that they’re supposed to be A-rank awakened ones or something like that, working in the underworld. He wasn’t wrong.

In front of me were more than 40 people.

Among them, there were 12 A-rank awakened ones, and 2 S-rank awakened ones.

The rest were all B-rank, C-rank, ugh.

They’re not even worth mentioning. Honestly, mentioning people of that level is a joke.

The man sitting at the farthest distance from me asked:

“…Jin Si-hoo, what exactly are you?”

He was big. He had short hair, and a scar on his forehead that looked like it had been made by a sword. It looked like an old scar.

I didn’t respond and picked up the watch again.

010-2222-7777.

I dialed the number, which was ridiculous.

Then, the man with the scar on his forehead felt his watch vibrate.

Vroom—.

That worked.

I moved forward.

“Wait… stop!”

“Stop?”

I couldn’t help but chuckle. Looks like he still doesn’t get it.

Two men who were close to me rushed forward. One held a sword in his right hand, the other an axe in his left.

I lowered my head.

The sword and axe passed right over my head. I reached out and grabbed the back of the man holding the sword’s head. I then threw the axe at the other man’s head.

Thud—! Crash—!

Both men’s heads exploded, and they were slammed into the wall. By the way, the glass shattered. The headless bodies were pierced with glass shards. Blood poured everywhere. I moved forward again. My shoes stepped into the puddle of blood, and blood shot up. I turned my head sideways. It passed right in front of my face.

It was magic.

It seemed like blood-controlling magic, though I don’t know its name. Honestly, I don’t care.

I merely turned my eyes in the same state.

Among the dazed men, one reached out toward me. I gathered strength in my legs.

Thud.

My body vanished from that spot. I was now in front of the man who had reached out. No one saw my movement.

I stretched my hand out. I grabbed his neck and without hesitation, twisted it. Snap.

I casually threw him to the side, like I was tossing out trash, and turned around.

Vroom—.

The vibrating watch and the blank expression.

I think his name was…

“Jeong Gil-tae?”

“…Yes, yes, it is, Jin Si-hoo. There seems to be some misunderstanding. How about we resolve this through conversation?”

“We already did that earlier.”

“…What?”

“You called me a creditor, this and that, and I think you also said something else, am I mistaken?”

“…That… I must have gotten emotional without realizing it… I’m sorry. I’ll forget about the debt. I’m sorry.”

Forget about it?

“Is it really that easy? You said it was joint liability, right?”

“…There are some procedures. Since I’m the vice president, I need the president’s approval, but I’ll handle it somehow on my side.”

I shook my head.

“There’s no need to go through all that.”

“…What?”

I glanced behind me. There were still many who had survived.

I looked at them and snapped my fingers.

Snap.

At that moment, all the remaining survivors’ heads exploded simultaneously.

Blood splattered everywhere.

“If you start something, you should finish it, don’t you think?”

Jeong Gil-tae swallowed nervously.

His trembling hands stopped.

His eyes were blazing with rage, hatred… I don’t know.

The emotions seemed deep, but they were so insignificant I couldn’t care less. Honestly, who would pay attention to an ant getting angry while it walked by?

If you do, that’s the real crazy person.

“Jin Si-hoo… I don’t know if you’ve been hiding your strength or suddenly became stronger, but I’ve certainly realized you’re strong. But, can you handle this?”

It was ridiculous how his attitude suddenly changed.

“Handle what?”

“…This is South Korea. The Na-rat-nim Guild is in connection with the ‘Conqueror’ Guild. The third son of the Conqueror Guild’s master, Lee Seong-jae, is the president and guild master of the Na-rat-nim Guild. Let’s stop here. I’ll handle the debt somehow. If not, I’ll negotiate to reduce it as much as I can.”

I scratched my chin.

“Isn’t that too troublesome?”

“…What?”

“Isn’t it easier to just kill everyone?”

“…?”

“You die, and that president guy dies too. But is this so-called Conqueror Guild really that great?”

“Great… Yes. Who doesn’t know about the Conqueror Guild in South Korea? They have thousands of awakened members, both domestic and abroad.”

Then.

“Then I’ll just kill those thousands too. Kill the head of the guild, kill the son, just kill them all, right?”

Jeong Gil-tae started opening and closing his mouth like a fish.

“…You… crazy bastard.”

I slowly reached out my hand.

“You know, after living a while, I realized something. It’s just easier to kill the ones who crawl up or bother you.”

“…”

“If a hundred come, you kill a thousand. If a thousand come, you kill ten thousand. If ten thousand come, you kill a hundred thousand. If a hundred thousand come, you kill a million. Then, all the ones crawling up fall apart.”

Jeong Gil-tae’s body began to tremble like a quivering aspen. Was it because he realized that I was serious, or because he knew I had really killed a million people before?

Honestly, it didn’t matter.

My hand was already on Jeong Gil-tae’s head.

“…P-Please… spare me.”

I laughed.

“No, I don’t think so.”

Crack—!

***

The Salvation Guild is huge.

It’s not just a simple PMC, but a clear “corporation” running multiple businesses. It’s both the Salvation Guild and Salvation Group. The president is Jin Song-i, and the vice president is Yoon Young-soo.

Yoon Young-soo is commonly referred to as the head of the secretariat. He doesn’t refuse the title of vice president, but prefers to be called the head of the secretariat instead. Vice president and head of the secretariat.

No one dares to ignore Yoon Young-soo. He is more than capable.

One day, Yoon Young-soo asked himself a question.

Should he send Jin Si-hoo to the place where Na-rat-nim Capital is?

A light bulb went off in his head.

No, he shouldn’t. He can’t send him like that.

With so many things to do, he had momentarily made a “mistake.”

So, Yoon Young-soo sent a staff member from the Salvation Guild’s secretariat to Jin Si-hoo’s location.

His name was Shin Jong-gil.

It’s his first year working at the Salvation Guild, but since he doesn’t have any juniors, he is still called the youngest and a new recruit.

His credentials are excellent.

He’s an A+ ranked awakened one, graduated second in his class from Korea University’s Business Administration department, passed the CPA exam, and all of this was achieved by the age of 25.

This Shin Jong-gil immediately headed toward Na-rat-nim Capital.

And there, he witnessed something.

Jin Si-hoo committing a massacre.

Shin Jong-gil saw Jin Si-hoo kill every living thing inside Na-rat-nim Capital and walk out calmly.

Jin Si-hoo asked.

“This feels familiar, did the head of the secretariat send you?”

Shin Jong-gil flinched without realizing it. The rumors inside the company were widespread. The current Jin Si-hoo was not the same as the past Jin Si-hoo.

Shin Jong-gil swallowed nervously and replied.

“Yes. I’m Shin Jong-gil from the secretariat. The head of the secretariat sent me to handle the aftermath.”

“Oh, I see. I’m planning to head to the Conqueror Guild now, would you like to come along?”

“The Conqueror… you mean?”

“Yeah. You know where it is, right?”

“Yes. I know. But…”

Shin Jong-gil thought. Was that the right move?

What Jin Si-hoo had just done at Na-rat-nim Capital was enough to shake the country.

This wasn’t some time of great upheaval. This was a massacre in the middle of the city.

Cleaning this up would likely cause a massive headache.

“Is it okay if I call the head of the secretariat for a moment?”

“Feel free. Don’t be nervous.”

Shin Jong-gil immediately called Yoon Young-soo and relayed that Jin Si-hoo was heading to the Conqueror Guild. The call was immediately cut off.

At the same time, Jin Si-hoo’s watch began vibrating.

“It’s the head of the secretariat. He must be really busy today.”

Jin Si-hoo said this casually, receiving the call. As he spoke with Yoon Young-soo, Jin Si-hoo shrugged his shoulders and said.

“Are you sure this is fine?”

“Boss, I haven’t said anything, but every time I see the head of the secretariat struggling, it really hurts my heart. Okay, since you’ve done me a favor and worked hard, I can’t refuse the head of the secretariat’s request.”

“If you have time, come to the hotel. Let’s grab breakfast together.”

After ending the call, Jin Si-hoo turned to Shin Jong-gil and said.

“The Conqueror Guild wants us to hold off for now. They say there are still useful people there.”

“…I see.”

“But how do you plan to handle this situation?”

“…For now, I’ll retrieve the CCTV footage. I’ll also recover all the black boxes nearby. Fortunately, Na-rat-nim Capital has many enemies. It should be easy to handle this smoothly.”

While listening silently to Shin Jong-gil, Jin Si-hoo smiled strangely.

Then, he slowly approached Shin Jong-gil and gently placed his hand on his shoulder.

“Your name is Jong-gil, right?”

“Yes. Shin Jong-gil.”

“I have no personal feelings about this. So, just listen carefully. But I think you might have a bit of greed.”

“Greed…?”

“It’s subtly showing, but I like that you’re confident in your work. But someday, when you have to cross a line or make a tough decision, think carefully. Is it right or not?”

It seemed like an odd comment. Shin Jong-gil truly felt this way.

“Good luck. I’m leaving now.”

With that, Jin Si-hoo took a taxi and left.

Shaking off his thoughts, Shin Jong-gil quickly retrieved the CCTV footage.

First, he deleted the originals. Well, that was the plan.

His finger hovered over the delete button.

‘…Should I just delete everything?’

Shin Jong-gil knew himself well.

He had a lot of debt at home. It needed to be paid off. While he had earned some money working for the Salvation Guild, it was far from enough to pay off the debt.

But this thing in his hand…

This CCTV footage.

If he played his cards right, this could be the chance to pay off all his debts at once.

It was certainly a possibility.

Who’s behind Na-rat-nim Capital? The SSS-rank awakened Lee Seong-jae from the Conqueror Guild.

Shin Jong-gil, who had completely forgotten Jin Si-hoo’s advice, saved the “original” footage separately and deleted everything else.

He also deleted everything from the backup servers and wiped out anything that could connect to it. He destroyed the watches of the corpses, turning them into dust.

Because of the nature of the Salvation Guild, the secretariat is considered the top department.

Without this level of ability, one can’t even get into the secretariat, the highest department in the Salvation Guild.

Soon, he erased all the black box footage and deleted any other data he might have missed.

Shin Jong-gil, keeping the original footage hidden in his inventory, sent a message to Yoon Young-soo.

[The cleanup is finished, sir.]

Ding.

[Good job. Return to the secretariat.]

How this would unfold remained to be seen.

The event happened on May 8th, at 5 PM.