Why did ‘it’ happen on level 101?
As Jongryeo drove back, he thought back to how his skills abruptly went up a level earlier in the day. Even though his mind was occupied with something else, his hands holding the steering wheel remained steady and controlled.
‘It’s not even level 100, too.’
He thought that, if something about him were to change because of the level-ups, then that should happen on level 100. However, his expectation was a bit off the mark.
His Class-specific skills all got an upgrade after he reached level 101.
A few guesses fleeted in and out of his head, but currently, only two of them held the strongest possibilities of being right.
The first one was about what the number ‘1’ signifies. ‘1’ meant a new beginning.
Could it be that, when his level reached 101, all restrictions on his Class-specific skills were removed and he was now free to upgrade them at will?
‘If that’s not it….’
…
Jongryeo’s expression hardened when he thought about the second theory. Personally, he’d have much preferred for this one to be wrong, though.
‘Could it be because I got my Class at level 51…..?’
There was a possibility that the Skill levels rose because he was exactly 50 levels higher than when he got his Class. Which also kind of implied that he needed to reach level 151 if he wanted to upgrade his Skills again.
‘I don’t want that.’
If he thought about his leveling up speed lately, then indeed, he could only dearly pray that this remained nothing more than his hypothesis.
Soon, the building with the Guild office came into his view. Jongryeo drove the van into the underground parking lot. He was the only passenger riding on the trusty steed of the Ah-Jin Guild, ‘Bonggo’. Lee Eugene chose to stay back in the Gate’s location, saying that he’d wrap up the proceedings before going back to the office.
The raid might have ended, but there was still one more step of handing over the recovered loot to the brokers to think about. Since it was Lee Eugene who had contacted these brokers, it seemed that he wanted to personally take charge of handling this matter.
[“Please, leave everything to me, hyung-nim!”]
Jongryeo thought that he could still hear Lee Eugene’s voice filled with confidence even now.
‘I wonder, will he be okay?’
It was all good and well for a chief assistant to be full of drive and energy, but wouldn’t it be better still to dedicated staff members for matters like this? Jongryeo told himself to search for more employees and walked out of the underground parking lot.
…
But then….
‘Mm?’
Jongryeo eyes turned dangerously cold when he spotted a familiar figure walking towards the Guild building from afar. And that familiar person also discovered Jongryeo staring back at him.
“Ah….”
His steps came to an abrupt halt right then and there.
Jin Woo formed a shocked expression and began to backtrack one step at a time before he turned around completely, and began running away.
‘…’
Jongryeo was utterly dumbstruck by what just happened.
The thing was, though – he could gloss over the reason why he suddenly started running away after seeing his face….
Maybe because of the stone spears orbiting around him?
Or the golden axe that he was dragging around?
Probably his murderous intent?
‘You think you can escape from me because you started running?’
Just who did Jin Woo think he was dealing with here?
Jongryeo was suddenly overcome with a streak of stubbornness and pounced forward with everything he had after activating his ‘Dragon Mobility’ skill.
Time slowed down to a crawl, and only the background images seemed to move at a blinding pace. The distance between him and Jin Woo decreased quickly enough, and then he began thinking to himself.
‘If I grab him from the back or try to touch him, wait….’
Jongryeo lightly jumped up in the air, spun around once, and landed in front of Jin Woo’s escaping figure.
‘….!!’
His eyes grew super wide in an instant.
The Alpha escape route had been cut off, and before he could do anything else, his body was surrounded by the stone spears.
“Kyahk!”
And so, the foot chase between two S-rank Hunters came to a very anti-climatic end. Now that the alpha was caught by him, Jin Woo couldn’t even bring himself to look into his eyes.
Jongryeo continued to stare at him with deeply cold eyes, before calmly asking his alpha the important question.
“Why did you run away after seeing me?”
“…”
Well, he could concede a bit here and say that it was possible for him to bolt like that.
“If you were going to run, then why didn’t you use your Shadow Exchange?”
If he wanted to avoid him that much, then he should have tried a bit harder to hide, no? Jongryeo’s pointed question elicited Jin Woo to reply in a voice that was smaller than a buzzing mosquito.
“I can explain….”
“Alright, explain, who is she?”
Jongryeo’s wordless stare continued, and Jin Woo’s head drooped lower and lower. He let out a helpless sigh and removed the stone spears.
“There’s no need to run away from me, you know.”
Jongryeo spoke as he formed a sad smile.
“A person’s mind can change all the time, am I right?”
Indeed, wouldn’t people lose their interest, or suddenly gain interest when there was none, to begin with? Wasn’t that how a person’s heart operated? There was no reason for them to go out of their way to avoid each other like this.
“…..”
However, Jin Woo didn’t even try to refute him, his head still remaining lowered.
‘Maybe, he doesn’t even feel like talking to me?’
“Well, then.”
He turned around to leave with a little nod as his goodbye. No, he was going to turn around. But before he could, Jin Woo hurriedly hugged him from behind.
Jongryeo lifted his head and saw the corner of Jin Woo’s mouth.
“What are you laughing at?”
“Sorry, I was just happy that you were jealous. It means you truly do love me now.”
If Jongryeo came at him with a terrifying glare with stone spears and an axe. Jin Woo can’t help but feel dumbstruck yet happy as well. To think, he would be the one to make the cold-hearted Park Jongryeo jealous.
He thought it was the other way around.
Jin Woo is aware that Jongryeo is clueless about how he appears. The omega didn’t know how beautiful he was, and the fact that no alpha didn’t attempt to court him before was because of the aura of power he was emitting.
To most hunters, they would feel overwhelmed by it. Jongryeo stupidly thought it was solely because he wasn’t omega-like and that made the alphas perceive him as unattractive.
‘He looks cute when he is jealous’
He chuckles one last time before saying.
“Her name is Yoo Soohyun. She is also Jinho’s cousin. She is just a fan, that picture means nothing. I promise, love.”
After learning that she was working for the Sung Jinwoo and was delighted to join the Ahjin Guild as its third member, she eagerly asked him if they could take a selfie together so that she could post it on her Instagram.
However, because they were both celebrities, Soohyun’s selfie with him quickly went viral after she posted it online, and as a result, Jin Woo was swarmed by a mob of reporters on the day of his guild’s first official raid.
After hearing Jin Woo’s explanation and using his Perception to make sure the alpha isn’t deceiving him.
Jongryeo calm down a bit. It was foolish of him to jump to conclusions but seeing how the news about Jin Woo’s relationship with the actress. Jongryeo is aware that those are nothing but empty speculations by the media but this greedy emotion made him irrational.
Now it was his turn to reply in a voice that was smaller than a buzzing mosquito.
“I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay. I got to see your adorable face.”
Jongryeo can’t help but wonder how a person with murderous intent looks adorable but removes the thought.
He also came here for another reason.
“I need to tell you something….”
By the time four, or five question marks floated over Jin Woo’s head, he finally stopped hesitating and opened his lips to speak.
“Can you free up some time so we can talk for a little while?”
Jin Woo immediately thought.
‘A date?’
Perhaps Jongryeo sensed Jin Woo’s flustered confusion, Jongryeo quickly explained himself.
“Actually, Min Byung Gyu Hunter-nim wanted me to pass on a message to you.”
Jin Woo’s expression changed once he heard that unexpected name come out of his mouth.
“A message for me?”
Nod, nod.
Jongryeo’s head bobbed up and down.
“He said, there was something he wanted to say about your powers, Sung Hunter-nim.”
But, how could that be? Jin Woo didn’t have any point of contact, private or otherwise, with Hunter Min Byung Gyu. And their one and only meeting came around when Jin Woo revived Min Byung Gyu into a Shadow Soldier for a short while back then.
The deceased Hunter carried out his job perfectly and thanks to that, Jongryeo was able to survive. It was all due to that man’s efforts that these two young people could talk to each other like this.
But then, just when did he have the time to leave a message behind?
Jin Woo didn’t display his power until the Jeju raid, and when he did, Min Byung Gyu was already long dead.
Something like that couldn’t have happened.
Jin Woo stared at him with a disbelieving expression. Jongryeo cautiously continued on.
“Your power, Sung Hunter-nim….”
But, when his words reached there, Jin Woo quickly cut him off.
“Hold on, please.”
Didn’t matter if what he wanted to say was true or not, this topic didn’t seem well suited to be discussed in the middle of the street.
Jin Woo scanned his vicinity once and then continued to speak to him.
“Let’s continue our discussion somewhere more private, shall we?”
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