Mr. Kim Strikes It Rich with Auto-Hunting [Novel] Chapter 48

Beijing, China.

The President’s Office.

“Th-That… insane…! What has he done?!”

President Zhang Zhi’an sprang up in sheer astonishment.

[We apologize. Due to unstable broadcast conditions, there is a momentary interruption. We ask for your patience — ]

The television screen, which had shown Guan Yu only moments before, displayed nothing now but static and frozen frames.

A glance toward Deputy Director Zhang Chen revealed a jaw hanging wide open.

That pathetic fool.

Was this really the time to stand there dumbfounded?

Finding out what had happened came first.

“Zhang Chen, what are you doing?! Contact the personnel on the scene right this instant and find out what’s going on!”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

“Sigh…”

It was driving Zhang Zhi’an crazy.

Getting on in years was bad enough, but lately, it felt as though one agonizing headache after another kept cropping up.

Their temples throbbed.

“Why on earth would Guan Yu…?”

Only a few minutes.

Could a person’s mood truly plummet this far in such a brief span?

Then again…

When an entity believed to be an angel turned out to be a demon, getting off with merely a headache was practically a blessing.

“Unbelievable.”

Guan Yu.

A childhood idol.

Hearing that the legendary figure had descended right into the heart of Beijing had brought cheers so ecstatic that age had been completely forgotten…

And now to learn he had not come to help them?

“Just when I thought the world was finally setting itself right again.”

An eighty-seven-year-old conviction:

China was the center of the world.

Truth be told, that belief had been wavering of late.

Thoughts had begun to flicker through their mind from time to time — that perhaps China was no longer the master of the world, but a setting sun.

Clatter—!

“Th-The building… was completely blown away…”

Yes.

It had played out right on the broadcast.

That lunatic Guan Yu.

No, that demon wearing Guan Yu’s guise had abruptly summoned a blue dragon and driven it straight down into the building.

The problem was…

“Isn’t that the Special Operations Unit building?”

“It is, Mr. President.”

“Completely obliterated?”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

“Sigh…”

If the entire building was blown away, there would be no survivors.

Well, fine.

They were expendable assets anyway.

Raising more would be simple enough.

Even so, the cleanup had to be spotless.

“Deploy Public Security immediately to clean up. Seal off the perimeter, confiscate all recording devices, and wipe every last record clean. Not a single trace of what was inside that facility can leak out.”

At least there was no need to personally dispose of the Special Operations personnel.

Guan Yu had blasted them all to pieces.

Ah.

Wait, no.

“Track down every Special Operations operative deployed on outside missions and eliminate them too.”

“Understood, Mr. President!”

“Get to it.”

Handle it as quickly as possible.

Before the fallout spiraled out of control.

Everything else was manageable.

One way or another, it could be overcome.

Rankers?

Even if they died, investing time to cultivate new ones was all it took.

A dungeon blew up?

Pouring money into it was enough to settle the matter.

If the operations carried out by the Special Operations Unit ever came to light, though…

The repercussions would be beyond handling.

The entire world might turn its back.

“Clean everything up first…”

Then rebuild.

Humans were the one resource China had in endless abundance.

Given enough time, expendable pawns could always be replenished.

In the meantime, however, the international stage had to be thrown into utter chaos.

“Russia, North Korea, Iran… Turkey…”

Several nations came to mind.

Provoking them would plunge the world into an abyss of turmoil.

Amidst that chaos, China would rise again.

By the power of Zhang Zhi’an.

BOOOOOOM!

Huh?

What in the…

In the final moment of life, what filled Zhang Zhi’an’s eyes was a blue dragon tearing right through the wall.

[Breaking News) Terrorist attack erupts in Beijing, China; Chinese President and multiple others dead; casualties currently being assessed.]

The culprit was an unidentified figure suspected to be Guan Yu.

Damage: one entire building and a portion of Zhongnanhai.

Multiple fatalities.

Among them, the Chinese president.

The news spread in an instant, sending shockwaves across the globe.

— What kind of nonsense is this? Guan Yu is the culprit? The Guan Yu from stories?

└ Yeah, that Guan Yu.

└ Did China lose its mind on drugs as a collective? How could Guan Yu exist in reality?

└ Surprisingly, it’s real. China is censoring footage, but search around and you’ll find it all.

— What’s Zhongnanhai anyway?

└ It’s complicated to explain, but basically where the president’s office is located.

└ Ah, so that’s why the president…

What kind of news was this?

Not a single detail made sense.

To begin with, why would Guan Yu even be in reality?

He belonged in novels.

And even if, by some bizarre chance, he did exist…

— Why on earth would he carry out a terrorist attack?

— Seriously, isn’t Guan Yu worshiped as a god in China?

— He’s literally the icon of loyalty and honor, so betrayal should be the last thing he’d ever do. What’s going on out of nowhere?

If foreigners could not wrap their heads around it, what about the Chinese people?

Their reaction was nothing short of pure, unadulterated shock.

“Why would the General…?”

“That is not General Guan! It’s a demon, a demon!”

…

Denial of reality.

And sheer astonishment.

Some of the elderly who heard the news fainted on the spot.

Matters reached such an extreme that wild theories began to surface.

— What if it wasn’t actually Guan Yu?

└ Then what?

└ Well, a monster from a dungeon, maybe… or some new type of dungeon?

└ You really think that makes any sense?

└ And Guan Yu suddenly going crazy and launching a terrorist attack on China makes sense to you?

It was true.

A long-dead Guan Yu was not about to turn senile millennia later…

Unless it was a monster, none of it added up.

— True…

— Can’t argue with that logic.

— Holy crap, does that mean from now on we have to watch out for monsters like that in reality too?

It must not be Guan Yu, but a monster.

We have to be careful.

Just as that prevailing sentiment was cementing itself, another explosive piece of news broke, flipping the entire atmosphere on its head.

[Breaking News) China’s horrific underbelly: The existence of the “Special Operations Unit,” a department specializing in the abduction and murder of Awakened worldwide, uncovered by British public broadcasting!]

The news concerning China’s secret agency, the “Special Operations Unit,” broken by a British public broadcaster.

And the contents?

“This is truly an appalling revelation. A department dedicated to extortion, abduction, and murder — could such a thing truly exist?”

“Incredible as it sounds, this is reality. We will now disclose the interviews with the abduction victims.”

It was staggering.

Good grief.

Extortion, kidnapping, murder.

A department specializing in such atrocities existed?

In real life, not a movie?

“Hello, my name is Kim Yoonjoong, an Awakened from South Korea. My unique skill is Buff Potion Crafting. After being lured with promises of high daily pay and kidnapped, I was locked away and forced to brew potions for two years—”

“Farhad. From Iran. Solely because I could craft armor, I was imprisoned and forced to make nothing but armor.”

“Those people are demons. They threatened to kill my family.”

“There was an Awakened from another country who tried to expose this on AwakenedNet… In the end…”

…

The atrocities committed by China, exposed in the interviews of the abduction victims, were harrowing.

Threats and violence were merely the baseline.

At the slightest hint of an escape attempt or whistleblowing, dire consequences followed.

— Anyone curious about the parts that were too gruesome and got edited out of the interview?

└ Me

└ They kidnapped the family of the person who posted on AwakenedNet and, right in front of their eyes—

└ Insane bastards.

└ Not even human.

There had always been rumors floating around in whispers.

Things like… China abducting people?

Literal urban-legend-level whispers.

And now it turned out to be real?

The entire world condemned China in unison.

Even more than that, Chinese citizens began turning on their own authorities.

Why?

— Did you hear? Those people were reportedly discovered in the basement of the building Guan Yu demolished.

└ Heard it.

└ They say he obliterated the entire building above ground while leaving the basement completely intact.

└ Whoa… then could attacking that place have been intentional?

Of course…

There was no way the General would have wrought destruction without cause.

He had descended to punish those wicked dogs.

Damn them, scoundrels deserving divine retribution!

— But the president is dead. Who takes power now?

— Probably the cronies underneath.

— Good luck with that, the atmosphere is looking downright vicious right now.

President Zhang Zhi’an was already dead.

Subordinates scrambled to seize power and stabilize the situation, but it was impossible.

The backlash was simply too fierce.

“Step down, you pieces of garbage!”

“How dare you show your faces when you forced the General to descend from his peaceful rest!”

“Struck by divine punishment and you still haven’t come to your senses?!”

Under normal circumstances, such defiance was unthinkable.

Cross Public Security and you would be beaten to death — fear alone usually choked back any protest.

Now, however, the conviction that General Guan would protect them drove the people to take action.

Citizens and Awakened hunters alike turned their backs completely; how could anyone control that?

Zhang Zhi’an’s faction?

They fled just to preserve their own lives.

In that manner, China plunged into chaos.

“So… in summary, you’re saying there’s a strong chance the Manpower Office Director is behind this turmoil.”

“That is an accurate summary.”

“Are we certain?”

“According to our investigation so far.”

While China spiraled in chaos, certain nations had gleaned a glimpse behind the curtain.

The United States, and the United Kingdom.

Befitting countries renowned for swift intelligence, they had already caught on to China stretching its sinister claws toward the Manpower Office Director.

“A failed first attempt, followed by another approach. And right at that juncture, this catastrophe struck?”

“The targets just happened to be the Special Operations Unit that approached the Manpower Office Director, and President Zhang Zhi’an, who orchestrated it all. Isn’t that too exquisite to dismiss as coincidence?”

“It could never be a coincidence.”

Astonishing intel.

The credibility, however, was exceptionally high.

What that implied was clear.

“If it truly is the Manpower Office Director…”

“They must not want anyone reaching out to them.”

Right.

The assessment of the Manpower Office Director up until now:

An exceptional hunter and crafter.

A figure who could be utilized so long as adequate compensation was provided.

…Or so they had believed. It seemed that was not the case.

“A dangerous individual capable of plunging a blade into an entire nation at a moment’s notice…”

Worse yet, their identity remained unknown.

Thanks to China, the scope had narrowed somewhat, but that was all.

What if they pushed any closer?

“We would be in danger as well.”

In that case, lying low was the only option.

Unconditionally.

The United Kingdom had arrived at a similar conclusion.

“Erase all traces of our involvement with China, and let’s not even glance in the direction of South Korea for the time being.”

“Understood, Member of Parliament.”

The UK had been even quicker to grasp the situation than the United States.

After all, it was the UK that had provided China with South Korea’s list of recent Awakened, and it was the UK that had offered a treaty proposal to assist with an S-grade dungeon to egg on that senile old fool.

Hence, they moved swiftly.

If they were lumped together as co-conspirators, disaster would follow.

Either way, the conclusion matched America’s.

“Approaching the Manpower Office Director is dangerous. We must keep our heads down.”

China.

Pushed out of the Five Great Powers, yet undeniably one of the world’s great nations.

And now?

Chaos incarnate.

If the speculation was correct, all because of the Manpower Office Director.

Therefore, until their true identity was definitively confirmed, laying low was the only answer.

And around that time…

The person responsible for turning the entire world upside down,

the Manpower Office Director?

He was chatting with his lucky charm, Rani.

“Rani wants to get stwong too!”

“Huh? But Rani, you’re not a combat laborer.”

“Even so…!”

Well…

Getting stronger would certainly be great.

Even as a high-grade, she had accomplished so much.

If she reached highest-grade?

Just imagining it was mind-blowing.

The problem was…

Was there even a way?

Upgrading to a highest-grade laborer.

He had only done it with Arthur.

The conditions were EXP and equipment bound by fate.

Did Rani have equipment like that too?

“Mmm… Rani can get stwong! Rani knows a way!”

Oh, really?

What is it?

Let’s hear it.