A Side Character's Mission ↠ Solo Leveling

Chapter 21: the Dead of Winter

"How long has it been?" Yoonho asked  his subordinates.

"About 3 hours..."

"It's already been 3 days inside."

Sangmin couldn't help but expressed his concern. "I wonder how many are still alive..."

"You should throw away any hope of normal environment past the Red Gate. Skin burning under the harsh sunlight, being pestered endlessly by poisonous bugs, or skin rotting due to the severe cold... as such, the weak will die off first." The guild master replied as he stared at the Red Gate.

"Oh God..."

"Even if they adapt to the environment, they must secure food next. They could attempt to feed off the monsters' corpses, but the gate is too high-leveled for low-tier hunters. C-rank or lower hunters must all be dead by now."

"Then the two of them must also be dead. Did I end up wasting my time in vain?" The other S-rank hunter  yawned as he turned to walk back to the car. "No, wait. You're saying that they aren't part of the White Tiger Guild?"

Dongsu glared at them from his shoulder. "Then how did they end in there?"

"Sung Jinwoo is my old acquaintance. He asked if he could take part in a C-rank raid and I reluctantly introduced him here." answered Sangmin.

'Chief Ahn Sangmin is covering for hunter Sung Jinwoo. Does that mean exposing him is that problematic. Not to mention that S-rank Hwang Dongsu from overseas also knows about this E-rank's existence.' Yoonho thought to himself.

"Then there's nothing else I can do... is what you'd say." Dongsu moved too fast for the naked eyes and directly choked Sangmin on the neck. "For a long time, I've been talented in finding interesting situations... and I can feel something fishy here. Tell me the truth. What are you hiding?"

Yoonho gripped the man's wrist firmly in anger. "Hwang Dongsu. Take your hand off my employee."

Dongsu grinned. "Are you ordering  me? Someone who's playing leader in a backyard."

The tension between the two S-rank hunters alerted the people around them a sense of danger.

"You wanna go?"

"Anytime."

The ground already cracked from their pressure and they accumulated their strength on their fist. When others thought that they would witness the fight of the highest rank hunters in South Korea, the two men stopped.

"Not too shabby. To be able to stop us."

Jinchul stood in the middle, both of his hands grabbing the wrist of the two hunters. The sleeves of his uniform were already torn off from the wind the two men created.

"If both of you haven't reduced your strength in time, my arms would've been broken." He muttered as he messaged one of his arm. "I was the one to first suspect Sung Jinwoo with reawakening. However, after testing him with magic power detector highest grade two months ago, he was still an E-rank."

"It's unfortunate that Hwang Dongsuk have passed away, but hunter Sung Jinwoo doesn't have the ability to wipe out an attack force."

Dongsu snickered calmly. "I know. If they prepared a trap, the culprit must've been from Yoo Jin architectures."

"Then there's no reason to obsess over hunter Sung Jinwoo."

Dongsu's face turned dark as he said, "It's just an excuse to kill another human being."

"Alright, I lost my excitement- ah, wait. I seem to remember something else. There's still someone that I can get my hands on..." The last few words couldn't be heard clearly by the other people.