Chapter 59: Heavy Rain (1)

Chapter 59: Heavy Rain (1)[Typhoon Noru, currently moving northward after passing Japan, is expected to reach the central region around eight tonight. Citizens are advised to prepare for sudden heavy rainfall—] Beep. [Reports indicate multiple assassination attempts on Isabella Colgrande, widely known as the Saint of Rome, have been uncovered—] Beep. [The association has officially announced the discharge of Thunder Wolf and stated that visits or interviews will not be allowed at this time—] Beep. frёewebηovel.cѳm Flipping through the news channels, Kwon Oh-Jin turned off the car engine. Is there nothing about the Valhalla Guild? It was odd not to see any breaking news about a major incident involving the Black Lion, Lee Woo-Hyuk. Clearly, the Valhalla Guild was working hard to keep it all under wraps. “... Guess I’ll head inside first,” he muttered. He stepped into the Valhalla Guild building, a place he had visited once before. Its luxurious interior, resembling a five-star hotel, briefly caught his attention before Park Chang-Hyun approached him. “You’re here, Oh-Jin.” “How is Mr. Woo-Hyuk doing?” Park Chang-Hyun grimaced. He let out a deep sigh and shook his head. “Fortunately, his life isn’t in danger, but... it’s far from good.” “How bad is it?” “He’s regained consciousness, at least. He was the one who instructed me to contact you.” It's great that he's not on the verge of death, but how is any of this fortunate? “It would be better to hear the details directly from him,” Park Chang-Hyun added. “Alright.” Park Chang-Hyun guided Kwon Oh-Jin through a section of the building he hadn't seen before, stopping in front of what appeared to be a plain, empty wall. Park Chang-Hyun tapped a card against it. Beep, beep, beep, beep. Drrr. Like the entrance to a treasure room in an ancient dungeon, the wall slid aside smoothly. So there was a hidden space like this. But instead of glittering gold coins, Kwon Oh-Jin saw a man clinging desperately to the thread of life. The secret wall had opened into a high-tech medical facility filled with expensive-looking equipment. However, it wasn't just one room with its lights on. “... Mr. Woo-Hyuk wasn’t the only one who was attacked?” Kwon Oh-Jin asked. Park Chang-Hyun nodded with a grim expression. “Every member of the Valhalla Guild was injured by the Black Star Society, except for me since I wasn't part of the operation.” Kwon Oh-Jin walked down the hallway in a daze. The sterile scent of hospital medication, a small he had grown sick of over the past ten days, drifted out from the dozen or so treatment rooms evenly spaced along the corridor. “Are there any casualties?” he asked. “None," Park Chang-Hyun replied. "At least as of now.” He looked down, dejected. His imposing shoulders that had once stood firm against the demonic beasts now sagged in quiet defeat. I can’t believe the entire Valhalla Guild was taken out, Kwon Oh-Jin thought. They were among Korea’s top ten guilds, and with only twenty members at that. Each member was just as strong as the directors of other guilds, so their utter defeat was shocking. Was it Ashad Khan’s doing? Kwon Oh-Jin immediately shook his head. According to Yoo-Jin, Ashad Khan was a mid-ranking executive within the Black Star Society. If a mid-ranking executive alone could wipe out the Valhalla Guild, there was no reason for the Black Star Society to hide its existence—they could openly wage war against the Seven Stars. I guess I’ll find out once I hear it from him. Kwon Oh-Jin followed Park Chang-Hyun until they reached the treatment room at the end of the hallway. Knock, knock. “Mr. Kwon Oh-Jin has arrived,” Park Chang-Hyun announced. A weak voice sounded from inside. “Come in.” Creak. When the door opened, Kwon Oh-Jin saw Lee Woo-Hyuk lying on the bed with hollowed cheeks and sunken, unfocused eyes. The fierce, lion-like aura he once exuded was gone, replaced by a suffocating sense of defeat. He now looked like a toothless old lion cowering near the remains of a kill, wary of stronger predators. What the hell? What on earth happened to him? “... Cough! I apologize for greeting you in such a state," Lee Woo-Hyuk said, as if reading Kwon Oh-Jin's mind. He forced a weak smile. “What happened?” Kwon Oh-Jin asked. “As you can see—Agh! We fought... and lost miserably—Kugh! Kugh! To a single person.” His voice was laced with self-deprecation. He let out a bloody cough and bit down hard on his lip. Kwon Oh-Jin’s jaw dropped in disbelief. They lost to one person? “... Was it Ashad Khan?” he asked. “No. We did find him with the information you provided, but... he wasn’t the one we fought.” So it wasn’t him, Kwon Oh-Jin thought. But then who...? “Cheon Do-Yoon—Kugh! That's the old man we fought," Lee Woo-Hyuk said, his voice low and heavy. "They call him the King of Owls.” His eyes twitched, as if reliving a haunting nightmare. Clenching his fists tightly, he continued, “He was... overwhelming. You couldn't even call that a fight. Honestly, it’s a miracle we even made it out alive.” His head sunk under the crushing weight of defeat. Kwon Oh-Jin narrowed his eyes. The King of Owls, huh. As the ominous title settled in his mind, he recalled the Black Star Stigma he had absorbed from Yoo-Jin—the Stigma of Owl Nebula. If this man went by "the King of Owls," then piecing together his identity wasn’t hard. He’s the Executor I was after. A chill ran down Kwon Oh-Jin’s spine. He had chased a wildcat only to stumble upon a tiger. I knew he’d be strong, but not to the point where he could crush the entire Valhalla Guild alone.At this rate, it’ll be the Black Star Society that destroys the world in the future, not me. Kwon Oh-Jin didn’t have any memories of the first timeline, so he didn't know what had happened exactly, but he doubted that such an unfathomably powerful organization hadn’t played a part in the world’s downfall. Did the Heavenly Demon lead the Black Star Society? He shook his head. He couldn’t imagine doing such a thing in the future. I need some kind of clue to even begin guessing. It felt like trying to piece together a full picture from a blank canvas with only a handful of scattered dots. “Haaa. Can you explain what happened in detail?” he asked. “Kugh! Kugh!" Lee Woo-Hyuk nodded, spitting bloody phlegm into a paper cup. "Ptui! Although it took a long time, we managed to track those bastards down using the phone number you gave us.” Kwon Oh-Jin had already heard this from Park Chang-Hyun before. “They were hiding in one of the branch offices of the Pandinus Guild, which was listed as a storage space on paper.” Kwon Oh-Jin felt annoyed. The Pandinus Guild, again? “Was that the Black Star Society’s headquarters?” he asked. If Cheon Do-Yoon was there, it's possible. “No, it wasn’t. It was probably just another branch. Though... it was much larger than the one we found at Baegunsan Mountain," Lee Woo-Hyuk replied. "Anyway, we couldn’t find any more leads from there, so we decided to attack. We were going to contact you first, but...” I was lying unconscious in the ICU, Kwon Oh-Jin thought. They didn’t have time to wait for me to recover. “Our plan went smoothly at first," Lee Woo-Hyuk recalled. "The ambush was a success, and we managed to subdue most of them.” “Was Ashad Khan there?” “No, he showed up later... but not alone.” Is that when Cheon Do-Yoon arrived? Kwon Oh-Jin wondered. Lee Woo-Hyuk continued. “At first, we thought we had a chance to capture a high-ranking member, but... that was arrogant of us.” Cheon Do-Yoon had single-handedly annihilated the Valhalla Guild; they were crushed without even being able to put up a proper fight. Lee Woo-Hyuk let out a deep sigh. Though they had barely escaped with their lives, they had lost their only lead on the Black Star Society. “So is there no other way to track them down anymore?” Kwon Oh-Jin asked. Unless Ashad Khan was a fool, he would have erased any traceable evidence now that their hideout had been discovered. It was safe to assume that all the information the Valhalla Guild had collected on the Black Star Society was now worthless. “No, that’s not the case,” Lee Woo-Hyuk said firmly. “... It's not?” What clue possibly remained in this mess? “When we were initially subduing them, we managed to speak with one of their members," Lee Woo-Hyuk explained. "He seemed to have detailed info on the organization.” “But in the end, you still lost them, didn’t you?” Despite finding someone with inside information, Cheon Do-Yoon's arrival had foiled all their efforts. Expecting cooperation from a freed criminal seemed like a long shot. “That’s true," Lee Woo-Hyuk admitted. "But... this case is a bit different.” Kwon Oh-Jin was confused. Different how? “He was the one who approached us, saying he wanted to cooperate.” Kwon Oh-Jin was left speechless. Someone volunteered to hand over information? They weren’t captured and interrogated? His eyes narrowed sharply. Lee Woo-Hyuk nodded. “That’s right. He was a whistleblower. He seemed to have some kind of deep hatred for the Black Star Society, even though he was in it.” It wasn’t surprising. Internal corruption was commonplace even in legitimate companies that appeared to function smoothly on the surface. In a shadowy criminal organization like the Black Star Society, dissent was almost inevitable. “Is that why you called me here?” Kwon Oh-Jin asked. If there was a whistleblower, now was the time to contact them discreetly and gather as much information about the organization as possible. Sending someone from the Valhalla Guild was out of the question since the Black Star Society would be on high alert after the recent attack. And apart from Park Chang-Hyun, the others weren't in any condition to move. With a slightly surprised expression, Lee Woo-Hyuk nodded. "That’s right.” He reached into his pocket and handed Kwon Oh-Jin a piece of paper. “This is the whistleblower’s contact info. Of course, I understand I’m asking you to take on a dangerous task, but... if we don’t do anything, we might lose them forever.” Lee Woo-Hyuk gritted his teeth. The Black Star Society had kidnapped and murdered his older brother. No matter how devastatingly they were crushed, he couldn't give up the pursuit now. “I’ll make sure to compensate you with a hefty reward,” he added. Kwon Oh-Jin narrowed his eyes as he contemplated. “Hmm.” As Lee Woo-Hyuk said, this was a dangerous task, but he couldn't just let the opportunity slip away. The reward was good motivation, but Kwon Oh-Jin also didn’t want to lose the lead on the Black Star Society. I need information, he thought. To connect the scattered dots and paint the opaque picture called the "future," he had to dig deeper into the Black Star Society. He needed to uncover their plans and expose their organization, down to the very last detail. Because I’m not just anyone, I'm a Regressor. Kwon Oh-Jin took the piece of paper from Lee Woo-Hyuk. “I understand. I’ll take care of it. This ????ontent is taken from f(r)eeweb(n)ovel.????????????