"Cover Hunter, are you alright?"
Ryu Sunghyun rushed over, his face a mix of alarm and concern, and extended his hand.
Cover, who was sitting slumped atop the dead Leviathan’s head, felt a pang of emotion and was just about to take the offered hand—when another gloved hand suddenly shot out and seized her wrist.
"I have a question."
It was Eun Woojeong, intruding uninvited, gripping Cover’s wrist and bluntly asking:
"If I ask, will you answer me?"
"...What?"
"I’ve actually been meaning to ask you for a while. But after what just happened, I’m even more curious."
Dragged to her feet by sheer force, Cover narrowed her eyes at the amused voice. Eun Woojeong, keeping his grip on her wrist, spoke clearly enough for both Ryu Sunghyun and Kwon Taehyuk, who were standing nearby, to hear.
"Why don’t you use your skill?"
"......"
"I mean, fine, during a ranking match or a competitive event, you could argue your life wasn’t in danger... but just now, there was every reason to use it. Why endure it without activating anything?"
Ryu Sunghyun had been frowning at Eun Woojeong’s sudden intrusion, but now he turned toward Cover with interest. Kwon Taehyuk, who had been about to intervene, also fell silent.
In truth, it wasn’t just Eun Woojeong. Both Kwon Taehyuk and Ryu Sunghyun had thought the same thing.
They were stunned when Cover was swallowed by the Leviathan and dragged into the sky. They’d watched in tense silence as she discovered its reverse scale and brought it down.
They were relieved she came back alive—but also couldn’t shake the question.
Why didn’t she use any skills, even in such a dire situation? Or was it some invisible skill that couldn’t be seen with the naked eye?
Eun Woojeong had simply voiced the question they all had but couldn’t bring themselves to ask. A strange silence descended.
‘So that’s what you were building up to...’
Cover glanced at Eun Woojeong, still holding her wrist, and at the silently waiting Ryu Sunghyun and Kwon Taehyuk, then clicked her tongue internally.
She wasn’t so dull as to miss what they were thinking. It was suspicious even from her own point of view. She’d figured this moment would come eventually.
Staring straight at Eun Woojeong, Cover finally opened her mouth.
"I did use it."
She said it with a mocking smile, and added,
"How do you think I figured out the Leviathan’s weak spot?"
"...Are you saying that finding weak points is your skill?"
"That’s right."
Cover agreed readily, then leaned forward abruptly, so close her lips nearly brushed the mask covering Eun Woojeong’s face.
She whispered like it was a secret.
"So you’d better be careful. I might’ve figured out your weak point too. Hmm?"
"..."
With that warning, Cover harshly slapped Eun Woojeong’s hand off her wrist and hopped down from the Leviathan’s massive head.
"I dragged the corpse here, but in the process, people got caught up in it. Some Hunters were also taken down by Baphomet. We need to clean this up fast."
She turned to Kwon Taehyuk and asked in a tone that urged him to act.
"What should we do, Guildmaster?"
It was a polite way of saying: forget about my skill, we have work to do.
Kwon Taehyuk understood the message easily. With a short sigh, he began walking ahead.
"First, we need to assess the damage. Hunter Ryu Sunghyun, please inspect the area around the Gate of Flourishing Rites. I’ll check around the Gate of Eternal Relief."
Then, pointing to Cover, he added:
"You’re coming with me."
"Ugh."
Cover reacted with clear reluctance, and Kwon Taehyuk raised an eyebrow. He looked ready to grab her by the collar if she refused.
As Cover hesitated, she suddenly realized—
‘Wait a minute. This might actually work in my favor.’
Her original plan had been to quietly slip away into the throne hall that hadn’t collapsed yet and change back. But now that she thought about it, hadn’t she left the area as Cha Seohu earlier?
If Cha Seohu suddenly showed up at the throne hall again, it would look extremely suspicious.
‘If I go with Kwon Taehyuk to the Gate of Eternal Relief and slip away then, it’ll be much cleaner.’
It seemed like Kwon Taehyuk was dragging her along to keep an eye on her—but that decision might actually be opening the door she needed. Smiling faintly behind her mask, Cover turned to Eun Woojeong, who had been quietly standing there the whole time.
"You help out too. If you’re going to accuse someone unfairly, you should at least pitch in."
"Should I?"
She hadn’t expected him to agree so easily, but Eun Woojeong gave a casual nod.
"I don’t want to get on anyone’s bad side more than I already have."
Too late. That ship had long since sailed.
Still, if he was going to help, that was fine. So long as he didn’t secretly tail her, it was all good.
"Then let’s split into pairs."
With that, she assigned Eun Woojeong to Ryu Sunghyun, who was tasked with the area around the Gate of Flourishing Rites.
As Cover knew, many wounded Hunters were scattered from that gate to outside the Gate of Eternal Relief. And Ryu Sunghyun, being who he was, would keep Eun Woojeong too busy helping the injured to wander off and cause more trouble.
"Ughhh..."
"M-My arm... it feels like it’s burning...!"
"We have another injured over here!"
As Cover had predicted, the injured stretched from the Gate of Flourishing Rites all the way to beyond the Gate of Eternal Relief.
They were Hunters, soldiers, police—affiliated with the military or the guilds.
The situation was even worse than anticipated, and Kwon Taehyuk moved urgently. Cover followed, calmly inspecting the wounded.
It made sense that Kwon Taehyuk and Ryu Sunghyun hadn’t realized how bad things were. They’d stayed near the throne hall the entire time.
But Cover had crossed the grounds from the palace walls to the main hall earlier and had counted the Hunters along the way. She had also seen the battlefield from atop the Leviathan. She already knew how bad the damage was.
Some Hunters had body parts chewed off by Baphomet. Others had limbs melted by the acidic fluid it sprayed. Some were barely clinging to life.
Dozens needed immediate treatment, and demon blood soaked the ground.
Even if Supporters arrived, they wouldn’t be able to move around in all that filth. The only way to purify the area was with a divine skill—or a specialized potion, both of which would take two or three hours to arrive at best.
Kwon Taehyuk knelt beside a collapsed man and pressed his hand to the man’s neck.
He had to check for a pulse—his breathing was that faint and irregular. He could die any second.
"......"
Cover watched Kwon Taehyuk’s face twist in frustration and walked over with a complicated expression.
"Guildmaster of Yesung."
Her bloodstained hand lightly touched his shoulder. She knelt beside him and spoke.
"Please move the injured toward the center as much as possible. And check how many are outside the Gate of Eternal Relief."
"...What?"
"I’ll go bring the person we need most right now."
The person they needed.
Even without further explanation, Kwon Taehyuk instantly understood who she meant. He’d been waiting for that person too—but hadn’t been able to bring himself to find him.
Cover stood up, smiling.
"You’re not seriously worried about Cha Seohu’s position right now, are you? He knew what he was getting into when he came here."
"Wait. If someone’s going to bring him, I should—"
Kwon Taehyuk, acting out of concern for Seohu’s safety, had instinctively reached to stop Cover. But the words caught in his throat.
Cover was S-rank too. And maybe... even closer to Seohu than he was.
If someone was going to bring Seohu, it made sense that it would be her. Kwon Taehyuk knew that, but the thought still left a strange feeling in his chest.
"Just wait a little."
Cover waved off his concern and darted off before he could stop her.
Watching her robes flutter as she disappeared into the distance, Kwon Taehyuk lowered his head.
A nagging unease settled over him like a weight in his chest.
Cover’s original plan had been to vanish while Kwon Taehyuk was distracted by the many injured.
But seeing him so pale, desperately checking a man’s pulse, ★ Novelight ★ she changed her mind.
Instead, she would fetch Cha Seohu and tell him to hold on a little longer.
Eun Woojeong had already blown their cover, so it didn’t matter that people knew they were connected. And no one was going to stop her from bringing Seohu under the current circumstances.
She slipped into the ruins of a collapsed building near the Gate of Eternal Relief, released her hidden skill, and returned to her original form: Cha Seohu.
He removed the robe and changed back into his usual clothes, then drank a healing potion.
‘A shame, but it can’t be helped.’
The wounds weren’t serious, but both his palms were covered in blood—hard to miss.
After storing his hat, mask, and sword in his inventory, Cha Seohu exited the building and stepped back into the inner gate area.
"Cha Seohu, Hunter?"
He ran into Kwon Taehyuk sooner than expected.
Kwon Taehyuk, checking on the wounded as instructed, spotted him and quickly approached.
"Why are you alone? Where’s Cover?"
Shoot. Seohu hadn’t expected to be spotted this fast. He awkwardly scratched his cheek and muttered a clumsy excuse.
"Ah, uh... she had something urgent, so she went ahead..."
"What?"
At the implication that Cover had left Seohu behind, Kwon Taehyuk’s expression turned ferocious.
A blazing fury ignited in his dark eyes, and Seohu hurriedly continued.
"T-The important thing is, that’s not important right now."
"If this isn’t important, then what is? I knew I shouldn’t have trusted that bastard—"
"We need to treat the wounded."
Seohu interrupted and reached out.
His pale, clean hand gently landed atop Kwon Taehyuk’s hand gripping his weapon.
The soft, cool touch made Kwon Taehyuk flinch slightly. Seohu smiled and said:
"Please cover for me, Guildmaster."
[Main Quest: Track down the research facility staff hiding somewhere in the event venue. (Time Remaining: 3 hours 49 minutes)]

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