Novel Bin
Chapter 128.5: The Tower (5)
Despite the changes in environment, circumstances, and status, Kim Daram’s appearance remained nearly identical to the last time we met.
And the same applied to our relationship.
In a sense, we had one of the most successful senior-junior dynamics.
However, as the cheaply flavored synthetic fruit tea was delivered between us, neither of us said a single word.
To an outsider, it might have been a strange sight.
Both parties wanted to talk, yet when the opportunity presented itself, we remained silent.
I wouldn’t say our relationship had deteriorated.
From the very beginning, there was always an unbridgeable gap between us.
That gap sometimes widened and deepened, but the essence of our senior-junior relationship had never been broken.
We simply needed time to sort things out.
Both of us were the type who didn’t allow mistakes.
“Did you join Woo Min-hee’s side?”
As expected, it was the senior—me—who finished sorting his thoughts first and broke the silence.
“Yeah.”
Kim Daram sipped her tea as she answered.
“What about your husband and kid?”
“They’re fine.”
“That’s a relief.”
“Thanks for caring.”
A dry, superficial exchange.
That wasn’t what either of us truly wanted.
“What are you doing here?”
It was Kim Daram who opened the second round of questioning.
Her sharp gaze, which had been fixed on the monsters outside, turned toward me, trying to read my intentions.
“You know what kind of place this is, don’t you?”
“I do.”
“I came to send a warning and assess the situation. As expected, the remnants of the Legion faction couldn’t even scratch the door, but if anyone so much as lays a careless hand on what’s inside, Woo Min-hee will come.”
“So she already knew about this place?”
“Yeah, she knew.”
Kim Daram pulled out her phone and showed me a blueprint.
It appeared to be a schematic of the underground warehouse.
I tried to examine it closely, but before I could get a good look, she immediately tucked the phone back into her coat and let out a shallow sigh, glaring at me.
“......”
She was extremely wary.
Was it because she was on the other side now?
I smirked bitterly and tried to read her thoughts.
I couldn’t see a single crack.
Kim Daram was not an easy opponent when she wasn’t relaxed.
She was still the same Kim Daram, but when she was cornered, she demonstrated 120% of her abilities.
She was nothing like the typical Bittick Auntie I had encountered before.
I needed a different approach.
Frankly, Kim Daram was a difficult person, but in terms of skill, there was hardly anyone better.
We had a few Hunters in our territory, but only Cheon Young-jae and Bang Jae-hyuk could keep up with me. The rest—if I were my old self—I would have kicked them out of the team.
There were plenty of old grudges, but I extended a hand.
“How’s it over there? Comfortable?”
“No.”
Kim Daram answered without hesitation.
“I recently started my own group. All of them are Hunters from the academy.”
“I see. You’re not coming?”
“?”
I tilted my head slightly, uncharacteristically puzzled.
Of all places, she was rejecting the safest and most well-stocked territory?
She had refused before, but her circumstances then and now were vastly different.
I stared at her, searching for an answer.
Kim Daram held up three fingers.
“One, your bunker sucks.”
“My bunker just got a renovation. I even installed multiple toilets. Oh, and we have foreigners now. It’s basically an international kindergarten.”
“Two, Hunters from the academy. I can’t be around Hunters.”
“Why?”
“They all hate me.”
She had always been brutally self-aware.
I suppose she had a habit of talking behind the backs of girls prettier than her.
If she were like Woo Min-hee, forever stuck in a princess syndrome, she wouldn’t have wasted energy on resentment.
I looked at her last remaining finger.
“And the last reason?”
Kim Daram smirked.
“Sunbae, you don’t like me.”
“How’d you figure that out?”
“I have a conscience. I know what I’ve done. But what can I do? That’s just how I’ve lived my life.”
Kim Daram exhaled deeply and, for the first time, relaxed into a comfortable posture.
It was an undeniable truth, neither embellished nor excused.
“And besides, with your personality, you wouldn’t just let Dongtak run wild.”
“How’d you figure that out?”
“You’ve changed. That’s also why I absolutely can’t go there.”
“Other people say I’ve become nicer.”
“More than anything, Woo Min-hee... she has power.”
Kim Daram cast a tired gaze at the gaping entrance to the underground parking lot below.
“I knew she was strong, but seeing it firsthand left me speechless. She’s just... a god.”
In Kim Daram’s eyes, I saw a fear I rarely saw from her.
I knew for a fact that there weren’t many things in this world that scared her.
“...After watching her take down five mid-tier creatures alone, I made my decision. Even if I find it disgusting, if I want my family to survive, it’s best to stay under her.”
“She doesn’t send you on dangerous missions?”
“There’s danger everywhere. Besides, she still has authority. There’s a rumor she got kicked out of Jeju, but that’s nonsense. She probably spread it herself. She’s still the one in power. If you ask me, she just didn’t want to stay in Jeju and chose to be here instead.”
Kim Daram sighed heavily and slumped her shoulders.
“Sunbae. We’re old-school. No matter how much we deny it, the truth is, they’re better than us.”
“......”
I understood.
Kim Daram still despised and resented Woo Min-hee.
It was obvious from the sheer disgust she radiated whenever she mentioned her name.
But as she said herself, she had no choice.
She was enduring it to protect her family.
I had no way to recruit Kim Daram.
But if there was one person in this world who knew her best—even more than her husband—it was me.
“......You gave birth.”
An icebreaker.
A technique to dissolve tension in conversation.
“What?”
“You had a kid.”
“Sunbae, I’m not in the mood for jokes.”
“Who gave birth, you or Woo Min-hee? I can say with confidence that it was you.”
“Are you on drugs?”
“I still don’t hate Min-hee, though.”
Kim Daram’s eyes sharpened.
“Why? She’s a cute junior. Even if she’s over thirty now.”
“You’re not going to mention your age? You’re in your thirties too. Actually, aren’t you closer to forty than us?”
“My heart is still young. My online age is 16, actually.”
“The hell are you talking about?”
“My real intention is to mess with Woo Min-hee.”
Kim Daram scoffed.
“How? Are you planning to raid this place?”
“Yeah.”
“No matter how good you are, that won’t be easy.”
“I have a plan.”
I trusted Kim Daram.
No, I trusted her hatred for Woo Min-hee.
I shared my plan with her.
For the first time, her expression shifted into genuine shock.
“Sunbae...”
She looked up at me with an expression that reminded me of her old junior days.
“You’re not seriously going to use that method, are you?”
“I am.”
“There’s a surveillance system. If anyone sets foot inside, it will trigger an immediate response.”
Kim Daram turned on her phone again and showed me the blueprint she had been reluctant to reveal earlier.
I didn’t know the full details, but judging by the warehouse’s vast layout, there were surveillance measures just as formidable as the dragon inside.
Probably something as simple yet reliable as motion detectors that could trigger an alarm with just a slight movement.
“Even if you destroy the defenses, the moment you touch anything inside, Woo Min-hee will come. Even if you cut communications, she’ll still come.”
“Is that so?”
“If she comes, you know what will happen.”
“......”
“People will die. And these people—they’re Legion faction remnants, right? And Kim Byeong-cheol? The guy hated by the National Assembly?”
Yeah. If Woo Min-hee came, bloodshed was inevitable.
Even if I tried to stop her, would she even see me in that state?
I remained silent, and Kim Daram sighed.
“Your plan is impressive, but even if you take down the defenses, you can’t take anything out.”
In other words, even if I slayed the dragon guarding the treasure, I couldn’t lay a hand on the loot.
Because the moment I did, a demon far worse than any dragon would come storming in.
But I had learned something.
I grinned at Kim Daram.
“Daram.”
“What's with that all of a sudden?”
“You really hate Woo Min-hee, huh?”
“What are you talking about?”
Kim Da-ram denied it fiercely, but if she didn't actually hate Woo Min-hee, she wouldn’t have given me such a detailed report on the security system of the warehouse.
So, our dear Kim Da-ram is also hoping that I’ll screw Woo Min-hee over.
“I plan to start tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?”
“So head back first.”
“I won’t stop you, but I did warn you, alright? And by the way, Woo Min-hee—she’s changed. She’s even less forgiving than before. Even if you’re her senior, she won’t let it slide.”
“I know. Just pass my regards to your husband and Dongtak.”
Kim Da-ram scoffed, waved her hand lightly, and left.
“If you think you’re about to die, get on your knees and beg like hell. Who knows? Maybe Woo Min-hee’s heart will soften.”
A while later, the vehicle carrying Kim Da-ram disappeared beyond the city.
“Why the hell should I listen to an Awakened?”
Kim Byeong-cheol was, how should I put it—someone who thrived on ambition.
He dreamed bigger than anyone else, and he ran tirelessly to make those dreams a reality.
For someone like him, minor details didn’t matter.
“If I were going to back down from a little threat like that, I wouldn’t have started this in the first place.”
After securing Kim Byeong-cheol's approval, we moved straight to the site.
Everything was already prepared.
Our equipment? One robot vacuum cleaner, and delicately balanced on top of it—a capsule.
All we had to do was get it through that gap.
“Well, let’s get started.”
“Okay~.”
Hong Da-jeong operated the robot vacuum.
Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiir—
The robot vacuum advanced forward.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
After giving final instructions to Cheon Young-jae and Defender, I checked my weapon.
Click-clack.
Kim Byeong-cheol had given me a hunter’s weapon—a Hotshot.
A so-called "one-time-use" large-caliber shotgun.
Though it was called a shotgun, it was practically a handheld Claymore mine.
Like most hunter weapons, ✪ Nоvеlіgһt ✪ (Official version) it packed enough power to blow apart even a small-sized monster in a single shot.
The problem?
That’s why he gave it to me.
Well, at least he didn’t hand me that piece of trash weapon, the Blader.
Whiiiiiiiiiiiiiir—
Now, the drone was entering the gap.
I waited for the promised 3.5 seconds.
One, two, three... and a half.
“Alright, it's time.”
As soon as Hong Da-jeong spoke, gunfire erupted beyond the gap.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The AI must have assessed the situation and decided it wasn’t a major threat.
It responded with only a three-round burst.
But what the AI didn’t know—
Was that a being that seeks to destroy all human creations had entered its world.
Boom!
The sound of a shockwave.
A monster’s heartbeat.
The AI’s response?
Tat tat tat tat tat! Tat tat tat! Bang!
A devastating barrage of bullets—the same kind that had once wiped out Ji Chang-soo’s men and blown apart Kim Byeong-cheol’s armored vehicles.
But—
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Ping! Crack! BOOOOOM!!
The bullets shattered against the monster’s reflective shield.
Tat tat tat tat tat! KABOOM!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Gunfire and shockwaves.
I couldn’t see how the battle between the machine and the monster would end.
But I could hear it.
After a moment—
An eerily familiar silence settled beyond the gap.
I ordered Hong Da-jeong to send in the recon drone.
The result was astonishing.
The machine had won.
The monster had used its reflective shield to deflect most of the AI’s attacks, but the sheer volume and density of gunfire had eventually overwhelmed the shield, forcing the monster to collapse.
But it was a Pyrrhic victory.
The defense system had been almost completely destroyed.
Both the monster and the machine had been exhausted.
“How did it go?!”
Kim Byeong-cheol came running up, breathless, his eyes wide with disbelief.
“You actually used a monster to destroy the defense system?! Hah! Hahaha! What the hell! I never thought I’d see the day a monster actually helped us!”
Watching the ecstatic general, I calmly spoke.
“General, there's one more thing we need to do.”
“One more thing?”
He frowned.
I smiled.
“We need to hack the surveillance system.”
“The surveillance system?!”
“Yes. If we can disable the surveillance system, we won’t have to worry about attracting troublesome opponents like Woo Min-hee.”
Of course, that was a lie.
There was no way to actually disable the system.
I just needed three days.
I stared through the slightly open main warehouse door—
Beyond it, the broadcasting equipment we needed.
My plan?
I wouldn’t even have to move the equipment.
I’d simply power it up right there, and transmit the voice of Necropolis directly from inside the warehouse.
“It’s possible. Yes, it’s possible.”
Ballantine agreed.
But the real issue was still the surveillance system.
“The broadcasting equipment needs to stay on for three full days. Will that even be possible?”
Ballantine looked worried.
I explained my plan.
“You’ll be the only one going inside. You’ll stay there for three days and operate Necropolis from within.”
According to Kim Da-ram’s intel, the government had installed motion sensors all throughout the warehouse.
Every single movement inside was recorded.
Whether someone entered or exited—it would be logged.
My solution?
It was simple.
“As ridiculous as it sounds, you just need to go in—and not leave.”
“What?”
“You’ll stay inside until Necropolis is fully operational. You’ll minimize movement. The government focuses more on entry and exit logs rather than internal activity.”
Ballantine nodded.
“Hm. That... could work.”
Then he frowned.
“But won’t my entry be recorded? If that happens, won’t Woo Min-hee come here? If she does, this whole plan is useless.”
That was true.
Even if I were working for the government, I wouldn’t ignore a recorded entry into a restricted area.
Especially not Woo Min-hee.
She’d definitely come.
But I knew Woo Min-hee well.
I wasn’t just some random survivor—I was once one of Korea’s top hunters.
“I have a trump card.”
“A trump card?”
Ballantine narrowed his eyes.
I must have looked too confident, because he hesitated before asking.
“Can I... ask what it is?”
I grinned.
“Eomchang.”
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