For some reason, the back of his neck stiffened. His skin prickled, like the plucked flesh of a featherless chicken.
What gave him the right to act so high and mighty? No matter what nonsense he spouted, it didn't matter. Once the skill had activated, it was already over.
[Invitation to Dreams (Active)]
[Description: Traps the target's mind in a designated space, gradually breaking it down. The skill cannot be undone by any means without the owner's permission.]
The skill was even described that way on the PIXY site. As long as it was successfully activated, its effects were so overwhelmingly dangerous that, psychologically speaking, almost nothing could compare.
"What the hell are you talking about, acting like you're so great? Do you still not understand the situation?"
But in truth, the foreign fixer had overlooked one crucial detail.
"Hahaha."
So it wasn't as though the skill description was wrong.
"Do you know how this skill actually works?"
Dyed blond hair.
Dark eyes gazing somewhere into the distant void.
The Hunter named Giryeo clasped his hands behind his back and spoke.
"Actually, this is a duel that tests the abilities of both the guest and the host."
"Hmm?"
"In an illusion like this, control shifts depending on who is better at handling magic. The criteria are fairly complicated, though."
"W-what did you say?"
"The host doesn't necessarily hold absolute authority, contrary to what you seem to believe. But judging by your reaction..."
Slowly, the guest's expression began to change.
"You've never met an Awakener with better control than you, have you?"
Talented?
The smile on his face widened until his eyes narrowed into crescents, his amusement unmistakable.
He was definitely smiling.
Now, he wore an entirely natural, almost human grin.
And yet, for some inexplicable reason, the other man couldn't shake the uneasy feeling that had been twisting in his stomach for some time now.
"You didn't even realize your enemy deliberately accepted the invitation, and you've been running around so happily... At this point, it's almost pitiful."
"What?"
"Anyway, it's been a while since things have gone this smoothly. Truth be told, lately... I've been under quite a bit of stress because various circumstances have kept me from using my skills properly."
The unsettling edge in his opponent's voice gradually deepened.
It was strange.
This white space was supposed to be a realm where he could completely dominate and manipulate anyone he brought inside. Whenever Ally's Awakener entered this place, he normally felt an exhilarating sense of ease, as though he were drifting through a pleasant dream.
But now, everything felt different.
"Mental attack."
Only then did the foreign Awakener's eyes widen.
And soon, the situation changed completely.
More precisely, the blond Hunter standing before him changed.
The face that had been smiling moments ago slowly twisted into something indescribable. From that distorted structure came sounds of incomprehensible pitch, like harsh static from some impossible source.
"Good."
After that brief remark,
"Let me show you the correct way to do it this time."
Clap.
The unfortunate sorcerer felt an unfamiliar sensation at the tips of his toes.
***
Meanwhile, outside the mental realm.
"As expected, my partner really is the best."
Heh.
The female Awakener who had remained outside smiled in satisfaction at the scene unfolding before her.
The blond Hunter, who had been visibly flustered and unsure of what to do because of Ahn Yoonseung, had suddenly gone blank and frozen in place.
Clear proof that their plan was working perfectly.
"Ugh... Ugh! W-what the hell are you doing to Hyung-nim right now...?"
The bald Korean, still trapped in a state of paralysis, struggled to lift his eyelids and glared at them.
When Giryeo suddenly stopped moving and fell silent, Ahn Yoonseung belatedly realized that something was wrong with his companion. But the status effect was still active, leaving him unable to move even a single finger.
And the attackers were in much the same condition.
With an item that dispersed smoke over such a wide area, there was no way its users could completely avoid being affected themselves.
But that didn't matter.
Their objective had never been to defeat the A-rank Hunter in a direct fight.
"Hmph."
The woman's lips curled into a sly smile.
Her expression brightened as she imagined the enormous payment waiting for her. And once this job was finished, wouldn't her reputation in the industry soar as well?
By now, the Hunter Kim Giryeo was probably reeling from the brutal skill her partner had unleashed upon him.
As an S-rank, he had likely never experienced torment of such intensity before.
Perhaps his arms were being twisted until they snapped. Perhaps needles were being driven one by one into the soft flesh of his throat.
Or perhaps he was suffering through some other agony, limited only by the boundaries of human imagination.
"It's all... over now."
Death inside the dream world created by the skill wouldn't actually kill the victim in reality.
If the target was tortured all the way to death, the connection would simply be severed midway through.
But if they experienced the illusion of having their arms torn off again and again, even after the skill ended, they often found themselves unable to move properly.
The psychological aftereffects were devastating.
In other words, once the target had been neutralized, all that remained was to leave them behind and escape.
"Shouldn't it be about time...?"
Keugh.
At that moment, an agonized groan echoed from somewhere.
The consciousnesses of the two people caught in the skill returned.
And shortly afterward, someone forced out the first broken sound through a cracked voice.
"H-haugh..."
A few seconds later, a scream erupted behind her.
"Aaaack!"
The foreign Awakener awoke from the dream with a scream so horrific it was difficult to believe it had come from a human throat.
"Huh?"
Startled!
The other half of Ally flinched at the sound and whipped her head around.
Her partner was trembling violently, his entire body shaking like a reed in the wind. Cold sweat streamed endlessly down his skin, and his pupils had contracted to pinpoints, as though he had stared directly into a blinding light.
"AHHHH! Ugh, uhh, uuu..."
What was going on?
What had happened?
The woman desperately shouted at him in Spanish, but the Awakener couldn't answer. He merely shook uncontrollably, letting out broken cries of terror.
"Yoonseung-ah, are you okay? You didn't get hurt while I was out, did you?"
"Hyung-nim...?"
But at that moment, another voice suddenly came from the opposite direction.
Shockingly, Kim Giryeo, who had just emerged from the hallucination himself, appeared completely unfazed.
There wasn't even the slightest change in his complexion.
Firm footsteps.
An upright posture.
His complexion was even bright, as though he had just awakened from a pleasant nap.
Unlike every target Ally had dealt with before, he had endured the mental attack without displaying even the faintest hint of distress.
"By the way..."
Ssshk.
Kim Giryeo drew the Hydra and gripped it in one hand, resting the still-sheathed weapon over his shoulder.
Then he looked down at the attacker writhing on the floor and spoke.
"You're acting like you're about to die just because I teased you a little."
Haha.
A dry smile curled across his face, its meaning impossible to decipher.
The instant that laugh reached their ears, one of them began shouting at the top of his lungs.
Ally's psychic mage repeated the same sentence over and over.
But at that moment, only one person present could understand what he was saying.
No es humano.
The words burst from him like a scream in Spanish.
The female Awakener who had been confronting Ahn Yoonseung seemed to finally realize something.
She hesitated.
Then took a step back.
But there was no chance they would simply be allowed to walk away after causing an incident this serious.
"N-no way... Could the mental strength of that S-rank Hunter really be...?"
Tak!
By the time she realized what was happening, Kim Giryeo had already reached the center of the aquarium.
The fixer instinctively assumed a defensive stance.
But what came next was merely the sound of a box lid opening with a 'click.'
***
Some time later.
Inside Kim Giryeo's studio apartment, beside the red desk.
"...No, so you're saying they were actually hitmen from overseas who were hired for money?"
By the way, today was Friday.
I'd been getting calls from the police since this precious Friday morning.
And obviously, the reason for their sudden contact was the aquarium attack from earlier.
Afterward, I activated [Surprise Box] and handed the criminals over to the police.
"And the client turned out to be that researcher named Kim..."
However, the truth uncovered during the investigation was rather shocking.
After investigating the attackers, the police discovered the SNS chatroom they had been using.
And the conversations inside contained something truly outrageous.
[me: Then why, of all people, is an S-rank Hunter the target of such a request?]
[client: That guy betrayed my trust. I thought he was a good man, but it turns out everything was an act. The illusion was shattered! And I was angry because he rejected a very important request for my career.]
[client: I want revenge.]
[client: It's not like I'm killing him, so a little torment should be fine.]
For reference, the original conversation in this chatroom was written in English.
'Good grief. She's angry enough to do all this just because her proposal for a research collaboration was rejected?'
The police's initial conclusion was that this had been an obsessive act of revenge, carried out after someone who had admired a Hunter for a long time became enraged by his cold rejection.
The researcher who had previously come to the gym where Jeong Ha-seong was training.
Surprisingly, the chatroom contained numerous messages that appeared to have been written by that very researcher.
Furthermore, the 'Fairy's Oath' (*a sub-item of the Knight's Oath) sent to Ally's hired hands contained a note written in the researcher's handwriting, promising payment upon completion of the mission.
"Huh... Is she insane?"
She'd only seen my face once, and now she held enough of a grudge to spend a staggering 1 billion won just to torment me?
But that wasn't the only part that didn't make sense...
.
.
.
"Seriously, why do I have to go through this ridiculous investigation of my accounts over something so absurd...?"
At a police station in Seoul, someone whose neck had turned bright red with anger abruptly shot out of their chair when a new person entered.
She wore a striped polo shirt and rather thick glasses.
It was the researcher we'd met before.
"Ah! Hunter Kim Giryeo!"
Researcher Kim was currently giving a statement to the police on suspicion of instigating an assault.
The moment she saw me enter the police station, she grabbed my sleeve and shouted.
"Hunter, please listen to me! No, I swear, I had absolutely nothing to do with this!"
She claimed that the client's personal information posted in the chatroom had been stolen and that she had nothing whatsoever to do with the incident.
"This is completely ridiculous. Lately, I've practically been living in the lab because of a new project. Do you really think I had time to do something like this?"
"Hmm."
"Please, Hunter Kim Giryeo, say something!"
"Say what?"
"I'm not the culprit! You know that from last time, don't you? No, I'm actually rooting for you, Hunter! Why would I hire thugs to come after you and cause a scene like that?"
For reference, the police planned to examine her bank records to determine whether she had actually purchased cryptocurrency.
According to the researcher, that alone had landed her in an extremely troublesome situation.
In this world, hardly anyone lived without at least a little dirt buried somewhere.
During her doctoral studies, she'd received a monthly allowance from her family. At the same time, the university had paid her a small wage, which meant all those allowances she'd received over the past seven years could now potentially be classified as gifts.
"It's not even enough money to normally attract the attention of the National Tax Service, but now I'm going to get hit with hundreds of thousands in taxes because of this ridiculous mess...?"
Anyway, there seemed to be some kind of tax issue involved, but as someone from another world, I couldn't immediately understand the details.
Besides, that wasn't the important part right now.
"Anyway, you really have nothing to do with this case, right?"
"Yes!"
Drooping eyebrows.
A reddened neck.
Heels tapping anxiously against the floor.
For the moment, the researcher surnamed Kim certainly looked genuinely wronged.
At least on the surface.
But I wasn't about to believe her that easily.
To begin with, I'd never been particularly good at empathizing with human emotional expressions.
And no matter where you went in the universe, liars existed.
'After all, I'm a con artist myself...'
Because the client had complicated matters by using cryptocurrency, tracing the flow of funds was proving extremely difficult.
On top of that, the only suspect—a female researcher—insisted on her innocence at every opportunity, and her actual motive for committing the crime seemed rather weak.
'Looking at this from the perspective of someone who's lived two lives, there's definitely something strange about it.'
Still, after thinking it through carefully, I realized that, fortunately, I had a way to settle the matter.
Magic that could distinguish truth from lies.
Thanks to the Blueshell I'd obtained not long ago, I was now capable of using that intermediate-level skill.
Barely.
And only once.
It wasn't exactly good for my body, but humans on Earth sometimes downed energy drinks when they needed to push themselves, so forcing myself just this once should probably be fine.
"...This conversation is dragging on a little. Since it's about time to eat, why don't we stop by a restaurant and continue talking there? My treat."
"Oh, really?"
Using magic on civilians was illegal in this country.
So first, I needed to change locations.