Chapter 17

Chapter 17. A New Faction (1)

“...Hwaryeong was defeated?”

“Yes, Branch Leader.”

The main hall of an old-fashioned hanok mansion.

Gentle sunlight and a blue sky.

A spacious garden and clear pond spread out beneath a neat wall.

As he gazed at that warm scenery.

A middle-aged man painting an ink wash picture with graceful strokes turned his gaze.

“Wasn’t he someone who had been registered with the Association for less than a month?”

Dressed in pure white hanbok embroidered with peach blossom patterns, his hair tied up in a topknot...

An elegant scholar.

There was hardly any other way to describe his flawless appearance.

“The contact on the wolf side who reached out to us definitely said so.”

“They kept pestering us to lend our strength because some butcher was causing trouble, so I sent him thinking we might be able to use it in future negotiations...”

His voice carried a trace of displeasure.

Following that voice, a five-colored mist spread thickly across the main hall.

“That half-wit finally managed to disgrace the name of Dohwa.”

The young man giving the report flinched as mana spread out like pressure weighing down his entire body.

After swallowing a small breath, he barely continued the report.

“Sh-should we send a letter of protest to the wolf side? If only they had given us proper information in the first place...”

“Enough. To make such a fuss without dignity over one half-wit dying on the road ‘under the influence of drugs.’”

“...!! I apologize. I was shortsighted.”

“For the time being, ignore any requests from the wolf side. ‘A scholar died because of the side effects of the drug’... Do you understand what I mean?”

“Yes, I understand.”

The man tidied his brush and added.

“I should stop by the Association. They’ve always slithered away like loaches by hiding behind the word neutrality.”

“I’ll arrange a meeting immediately.”

“Ah, and don’t tell Yeon. She was quite fond of that half-wit in her own way.”

“I’ll do as you say.”

When the young man disappeared after finishing his reply, the middle-aged man rose from the main hall.

As he stepped into the garden, the bright sky above crackled and wavered.

Then the hologram covering the ceiling peeled away.

Beyond the walls of the mansion, a forest of towering skyscrapers came into view.

“Even if he was a half-wit at the very bottom, a mere butcher managed to kill a scholar who had been granted the Dohwa surname...”

With his hands lightly clasped behind his back in a place overlooking Seoul’s nightscape.

“If it was Saetani, then he must be someone that fellow from the Ma Family took in. That old monster trapped by ghosts of the past... still hasn’t given up.”

The Gangnam regional branch leader of the Dohwa Foundation.

And one of the foundation’s highest executives, known as the Three Immortals and Five Scholars.

“Lee Gang-sik... Heh heh.”

The Azure Plum Taoist, Hwadam, chuckled.

“Those vulgar wolves picked the wrong prey this time.”

His laughter seemed to dissolve into Seoul’s nightscape before fading away.

__________

“Mm! You’re here.”

The bell over the entrance jingled as I stepped into Saetani.

Ma Cheol-sik folded the newspaper covered in flashy holograms and adjusted his glasses.

I couldn’t sense anyone else inside the shop.

“Is today some kind of regular holiday?”

“What holiday would a hunter management office have? I simply haven’t opened the shop yet because I had an important appointment.”

“Though the person involved in that appointment is about three days late.”

I crossed the empty shop and sat across from Ma Cheol-sik at the counter.

“Judging by the look of you, it seems you’ve fully recovered. That’s a relief.”

“I’m still sore in a few places.”

“You suddenly ran into a scholar and still made it back alive. Light muscle pain like that is nothing. I even heard you beat him instead?”

“He was weaker than I expected. And he let his guard down.”

“Kahahah, an ordinary hunter would’ve crossed the River of Death long ago.”

Laughing loudly, Ma Cheol-sik filled a glass with whiskey and slid it toward me.

Macallan?

Isn’t that pretty expensive?

“First, have a drink. A celebration for becoming the fastest person to rise to E-rank, Immortal Lee Gang-sik.”

“What’s with another weird nickname... Don’t come asking me for money later.”

The two whiskey glasses clinked and were emptied in one go.

―Clink.

At some point, Maria had gone behind the counter and returned, setting a tray of soft fruit in front of us.

Ma Cheol-sik picked one up and continued.

“I have several pieces of news for you. The first concerns those children...”

“Come to think of it, I don’t see the kids.”

“While you were asleep, Chief Superintendent Kim agreed to take temporary custody of them.”

Hm? Kim Cheol-su personally?

Why would someone already busy with the Special Suppression Team do that?

More importantly, looks like he survived the explosion.

“Why?”

“While they were being treated at the hospital... signs of mana appeared in the younger sibling. So they tested the young lady as well, and found the same thing.”

“Signs of mana?”

That means...

“You’re saying those kids were Awakened?”

“To be precise, it would be more accurate to say they haven’t bloomed yet.”

...I see.

Then I understand why Kim Cheol-su personally took custody of them.

‘Because Awakened are so dangerous that they have to register with the central government, meaning the Imperial Household.’

There are even special units that work with the Families to hunt down unregistered Awakened.

‘Who would’ve guessed those kids had mana talent...’

―Wait.

Then if I hadn’t been there, those kids would’ve...

Both siblings would have become Heaven’s Door test subjects at that reagent factory.

And since they already had mana potential.

They would’ve survived the experiments and been raised as Inrang’s hunting dogs.

‘...Twin Awakened affiliated with Inrang who use Heaven’s Door?’

Once I organized the information that far, an episode suddenly flashed through my mind.

‘The Sun and Moon?! Don’t tell me those insane twin bosses were them?’

You had to fight two high-ranking mages at the same time, when even one was troublesome enough.

And unless you defeated them at exactly the same time, they would revive using Heaven’s Door...

A double boss fight with insane difficulty.

One of Inrang’s greatest combat assets.

【The fire-type mage ‘Sun’ and the water-type mage ‘Moon’】

If you took the route hostile to Inrang at the branching point of Act Two.

They were the first bosses you encountered and the so-called Wailing Wall, ‘Sun and Moon.’

Those little kids?

“Hani, Dani... So that’s why they were Sun and Moon. They were younger than I remembered, so I didn’t recognize them.”

“Hm?”

“Ah, just talking to myself.”

The fact that they looked younger than I remembered... means this is earlier than the playable timeline.

At least three to five years earlier.

‘Now it’s certain. The reason reality sometimes didn’t match the information I knew.’

To be precise, this world is R.O.K.A from several years before, mixed together with R.O.K.A from the period I played.

‘That’s why the traits and hidden pieces remained the same, while the people and NPCs changed.’

It feels like the fog in my head is clearing.

It’ll be much easier to correct discrepancies in my information from now on.

So that was it.

Though I still don’t know why Heaven’s Door, which should have been developed much later, has already appeared.

I’ll find that out as I pursue it.

“―Anyway. For that reason, Chief Superintendent Kim asked that you contact him as soon as you woke up.”

“...Anyone hearing this would think I’m those kids’ guardian.”

“Aren’t you? The children seemed especially attached to you.”

“Tch, those kids just don’t know how scary people can be and cling to me however they please.”

“If you say so, then so be it.”

I lightly clinked glasses with the grinning Ma Cheol-sik.

“Jigwirang contacted us too. Apparently what you ordered is almost finished. I don’t know what you asked for, but she was turning every color in the rainbow.”

“I’ll show you myself later.”

“I’m looking forward to it. Something enough to make Seol Myeong-ji recoil.”

I emptied my glass in one gulp and put it down, and Ma Cheol-sik continued.

“And the Association has been making a fuss saying they want to see you.”

“If they have business with me, they should come themselves. Why are they ordering a busy person back and forth?”

“Haha, aren’t old men all like that? Sit around long enough and your backside grows heavy.”

He poured another glass of whiskey and added.

“Well, I’ll deal with the old men, so don’t worry about it. We’ll handle the other annoying cleanup too.”

“That sounds even less free than everything else.”

“You’ve been one step ahead of me since the first time we met. It makes things difficult.”

Ma Cheol-sik laughed loudly, drained his glass, then slowly erased the smile from his face.

“I’ll make you a straightforward offer. Become Saetani’s exclusive hunter. If you do―”

I cut off Ma Cheol-sik’s serious words by flicking the whiskey glass with my finger.

A clear chime rang out.

“―So you’ll gather all those fangs and claws and finally tear out Dohwa’s throat this time?”

“...!!”

Ma Cheol-sik stared at me in shock.

Even Maria standing behind him lost a little of her usual indifferent expression.

No matter which route you took in R.O.K.A.

By the end of Act Two, Saetani always attacks the Dohwa Foundation.

Because of Ma Cheol-sik’s old, personal grudge.

“...The tunnels too. Where in the world do you get information like this?”

“Like I told you before, I have my own private intelligence network.”

“Huh...”

A mere hunter management office against an Awakened Family that could influence all of Seoul.

The outcome was obvious.

Before Act Three began, Saetani was erased from this world.

In fact, back when I took the Family route...

‘I even killed Ma Cheol-sik and Maria with my own hands.’

After that, half of Sector 28 was destroyed as an example.

And even if you survived and escaped.

You lived the rest of your life constantly hunted by Family pursuers.

That was why the most efficient growth route was.

Use hidden pieces to boost early request rewards and grow quickly.

Then use those achievements as a stepping stone to immediately move your base to the middle districts once Act Two began.

But.

‘My original plan was to obtain the Mana Circuit trait later, then take the Family route because it was the safest way to see an ending...’

If it’s certain that the Families have joined hands with Inrang, then that route is literally suicide.

The corporate route, where you join Inrang, is the same.

Given my body’s traits, the moment I entrusted myself to Inrang, I’d obviously end up as a lab rat.

Then two routes remain.

The Imperial route and the solo route...

‘Neither of those has much merit for me right now.’

There’s already no way to officially join the Imperial Household.

And going solo would mean finding another management office better than Saetani and starting again from the beginning.

In that case.

“I reject your offer to become Saetani’s exclusive hunter.”

“...I see.”

Unlike before, Ma Cheol-sik didn’t hide his emotions and looked visibly disappointed.

“Instead, I’ll make you a counteroffer.”

“...?”

I picked up the whiskey bottle.

Just like Ma Cheol-sik had filled my glass at first.

I filled his glass to the brim.

Then, instead of speaking politely as I had until now.

I deliberately switched to casual speech.

“I’ll twist off the Dohwa Foundation’s neck, so Saetani comes under me.”

If joining any group gives me no advantage...

‘Then I’ll just devour every one of those groups one by one and turn them into nourishment for myself.’

A route I could never have chosen back when R.O.K.A was just a game.

But in this world where R.O.K.A has become reality.

Now that the choices are practically infinite, it’s possible!

“On the surface, we’ll remain an exclusive hunter and local administrator. But beneath the surface, you follow my orders. How about it? I’ll dance with the blade until you’re satisfied.”

“...”

Ma Cheol-sik stared blankly as though he had heard something utterly unbelievable.

He looked back and forth between the whiskey glass in front of him and my face...

Then burst into roaring laughter.

“Ha... Kahahahaha!! I thought I’d learned a fair bit about you, but I was completely mistaken! To think you were this twisted!!”

After laughing for a long while, Ma Cheol-sik took the glass in his hand and continued.

“Arrogant! Truly arrogant, and terribly greedy! That’s not something anyone could say in a moment of anger... Don’t tell me you approached us with this in mind from the very beginning?”

“Not at all. At first, I planned to leave before I ever heard this kind of story.”

“Then why? Did you change your mind now?”

He leaned toward me like a believer gripped by madness as he asked.

“Yeah, I changed my mind.”

“Then the cause must be that drug you were tracking. You want Saetani to mobilize its entire intelligence network to find it for you.”

As if proving that he hadn’t spent decades as a hunter management office’s local administrator for nothing.

Ma Cheol-sik inferred one of the main reasons.

“So, if Saetani comes under you, is there actually any chance of winning?”

“Not completely zero like now. At this point, at least one percent.”

That really wasn’t a lie.

When I had simultaneously antagonized Inrang and the Families while having almost no foundation, like now.

Out of a hundred attempts, I won once.

And if I become stronger than I am now, and the plan unfolds smoothly...

The odds will increase exponentially.

“One percent... Heh heh, one percent, you say.”

Hearing my words, Ma Cheol-sik chuckled and clenched the whiskey glass tightly.

So tightly that a slight crack appeared on its surface.

“To offer up this Saetani that I built with my entire life, for a mere one percent!”

Then, ignoring the blood flowing from his hand, Ma Cheol-sik drained the glass in one gulp.

And threw it onto the floor.

“Good! We’ll do it your way!”

“Even after hearing there’s only a one-percent chance?”

“That single one percent is higher than any possibility I’ve heard in my entire life!!”

“Hah, you’re pretty damn crazy too.”

“How could anyone stay sane in this cursed city without going mad!”

Laughing loudly as he said something so contradictory.

I smirked back at Ma Cheol-sik.

Then poured whiskey into the glass in front of me, emptied it in one gulp.

And held out my hand to him.

Just like when I first came to Saetani.

“Then I look forward to working with you from now on, Almighty.”

“How do you even know a nickname from decades ago? It’s embarrassing, so just call me by my name.”

“Well, sure.”

When I switched back to polite speech, Ma Cheol-sik laughed cheerfully.

His hand trembled slightly with anticipation and excitement as we clasped hands.

I Became an Immortal Who Chews on Steel

Author |

Mwiu

Publisher |

Samyang C&C Co., Ltd.

Managing Editor |

Editorial Department

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Samyang C&C Co., Ltd. - Dream Books

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Rooms 806-810, Kolon Science Valley I, 187-10 Guro-dong, Guro-gu, Seoul

ISBN |

G720:N+A063-20261006118

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