Chapter 97: 97

Act 5

Thousands of people flocked to downtown Guangzhou, China .

“Oh my god!”

“He’s here! He’s here!”

“Where? Where? Oh! It’s him!”

When the middle-aged actor got out of the long black sedan, people started to yell and cheer . They had all immediately come to Guangzhou to see him in person, despite the tragedy in Beijing . He waved at the people . The place filled with loud cheers .

His name was Hwang Jun-peong . He was a Chinese actor and a popular Hollywood star . One magazine even mentioned him among the hundred most influential figures in the world . He was almost forty, but he was unbelievably handsome . His body was like a sculpture with perfect body proportions . And his acting was superb . It was impossible to compare with other actors . Those facts made everyone enthusiastic about him .

“Mr . Hwang! I am your fan!”

“Please give me your autograph!”

“Can I take a picture with you…?”

Hwang Jun-peong shook each hand that reached out to him .

“Thank you . I can’t give you an autograph because of the schedule . But you can take as many pictures as you want . ”

“Thank you!”

“How should I pose… Oh, I look more handsome from this angle…”

Hwang Jun-peong took photos with about ten people around him . While doing so, one man who looked like a reporter stuck a microphone in Hwang Jun-peong’s direction .

“Mr . Hwang! You said you would donate all of your proceeds from the movie Desperado to the families of the Beijing disaster . Is that true?”

Hwang Jun-peong looked a little embarrassed at the question, then replied, “Yes . That is true . ”

“Wow!”

“Nice!”

People cheered out at Hwang Jun-peong’s response . He smiled with embarrassment and opened his mouth again .

“The Beijing disaster was really heartbreaking . I personally knew Lin Zhuming, so I felt great regret . ”

“Then, Mr . Hwang . How about—”

“That’s all for now . I’m sorry . ”

Hwang Jun-peong refused continuous questions from the reporter and turned . He made a gesture to his manager, a young woman in her mid-twenties who quickly came over to him .

“I’m tired, let’s get inside . ”

Hwang Jun-peong waved several more times to the fans, then whispered to his manager . The manager nodded and began to restrain the crowds that blocked the road with the help of the company staff . With much difficulty, Hwang Jun-peong finally managed to enter the building lobby . He went straight to his penthouse at the top of the building .

Flop—

He loosened his tie and laid it on the couch . The manager approached him and said, “If you need anything, please call me . I’m sure you are tired so please get some rest . ”

“Just bring some girls . ”

The manager was surprised by Hwang Jun-peong’s raw request . She has only recently become his manager and she could not adjust to Hwang Jun-peong . Before, he seemed like a gentleman who could not ignore the plight of the poor . But now he looked like a completely different person . It was as if two people shared one body . When the manager hesitated, Hwang Jun-peong opened his eyes wide and smiled .

“Do you want to do it?”

“No . No, sir . ”

The manager hurriedly bowed and left the room . Hwang Jun-peong watched the manager leave and clicked his tongue .

“Tut . She is too slow . ”

Hwang Jun-peong got up and walked to the window . There were a lot of people just below the tall building . Thousands of them were all gathered to see him .

“Seeing from this high, they look like ants,” Hwang Jun-peong muttered . He remembered the conversation with the reporter and laughed . “Idiots . ”

“You look like you’re having fun . ”

Hwang Jun-peong quickly turned his head to view the new speaker . A stranger now sat on the couch .

“…Who are you?” Hwang Jun-peong asked in a low voice .

He narrowed his eyes . He could tell this stranger was not a stalker or something who liked to dig him up . If he was a stalker, there was no way he could not notice him .

“I’m a fan,” the stranger said .

“Are you kidding?”

“An anti-fan is still a fan, isn’t it?”

He was not Chinese . Hwang Jun-peong assumed he might be Japanese or Korean . He looked young . Hwang Jun-peong thought for a moment and then asked with a light smile, “Are you Kim Su-hyeun?”

“Am I that famous? Everybody notices me . ”

“I’ve heard your name a lot . I am your fan, too . ”

“You mean anti-fan?”

“Ha-ha . Yes . ” Hwang Jun-peong coolly laughed .

He walked to the refrigerator and opened the door . The refrigerator was filled with a variety of drinks including bottled water, soda, and bottled beer . Hwang Jun-peong took a beer and threw it at Su-hyeun . Su-hyeun caught the bottle .

“Let’s have a drink,” Hwang Jun-peong suggested .

“I didn’t come here for a drink . ”

“Well . I think you came here because you found out everything, right? It will be our last time, so this will be fine . ”

Su-hyeun looked at Hwang Jun-peong for a while, then removed the bottlecap .

Gulp—

Because of the tense situation, he could not enjoy the taste of the beer .

“I heard a lot about you . It was splendid . And I wanted to meet you once,” Hwang Jun-peong said .

“But you couldn’t, because your face was too well known . Not like me . ”

“So, how much do you know?”

“Everything about you . ” Su-hyeun shook the half-empty beer bottle . “It was funny . Donating money for the people you murdered? Did you say you felt sorry and heartbroken?”

Shatter—!

Su-hyeun strengthened his grip . The bottle broke and beer spilled over the table .

“Is that deception?”

Su-hyeun stared at Hwang Jun-peong with a ghastly gaze . Hwang Jun-peong twisted his lips .

He opened his bottle and answered, “Because it’s funny . ”

“What do you mean?”

“It’s the best play, isn’t it? I mean the acting . ”

Gulp—

Hwang Jun-peong quaffed the beer, then continued to speak . “Fooling someone, laughing behind their back, acting like somebody else, and watching people who love to watch it . It was all very funny to me . That was why I dreamed of becoming an actor . ”

“You could have just focused on acting then . ”

“As time goes on, the stimulation dulls . I stopped having fun once I got used to this job . But…”

Thump, thump—

Hwang Jun-peong walked to the big window .

“Look at those idiots . They don’t know who I actually am, but they cheer for this fake Hwang Jun-peong they see . Soon, the bereaved family will come and tell me,” Hwang Jun-peong turned his head and said in a low voice, “‘Thank you very much for helping us afford our son’s funeral . Sob, sob, sob . ’”

Su-hyeun remained silent .

“They don’t know anything about me . What fools . I lose track of time when I look down on those ants . ”

“Is that funny?”

“Yes, very much . It’s thrilling . ”

The answer came without any hesitation .

“Is that why you created the Dump Guild? To hide the fact that you are an awakener?”

At Su-hyeun’s words, Hwang Jun-peong grinned . He was known as a normal actor, not an awakener . But he was the worst awakener that Su-hyeun had ever heard of . He was the founder of the Dump Guild . And he was a terrible criminal who had managed to hide his identity . That was the real Hwang Jun-peong .

“Yes . I thought I was hiding it well . But you… I don’t know how you figured it out . ”

Sizzling—

Hwang Jun-peong lit up a cigarette and asked, “You leaked information to the Chinese Agency, didn’t you?”

“Because I knew you targeted Beijing . You’re a cautious guy and I thought you wouldn’t risk revealing yourself . ”

Su-hyeun thought he knew a lot about Hwang Jun-peong, but there was one mistake he made .

“I never thought you would murder Lin Zhuming . ”

Hwang Jun-peong was a cautious person . He had been hiding his identity for a lifetime . He was always very careful to hide his true intentions . Su-hyeun thought if the Chinese Agency was involved, Hwang Jun-peong would not take any action . Even if he did, Su-hyeun never expected Hwang Jun-peong to gamble when two S-rank awakeners were involved .

“Lin Zhuming! I really wanted to kill that bitch with my own hands . I met her once at a party, she was annoying . Ha-ha!”

“Did he have a personal grudge?” Su-hyeun thought . “No . This couldn’t be called a grudge . ”

He had killed her simply because he thought she was annoying . It would be impossible to consider him normal .

“He’s a real psychopath,” Su-hyeun thought .

The Dump Guild had all kinds of human beings . The most common one among them was the one who wanted to show off their strength . Twisted exhibitionists usually related to the crime directly .

However, Hwang Jun-peong was not like those people . He was crazier than anyone else . He was a famous actor before he became an awakener . But according to his own words, he had this twisted personality from the beginning . He enjoyed cheating and deceiving others .

“You must think you’re above them . ” Su-hyeun pointed to the fans visible through the window . “Maybe you’re right . You’re surely a great actor, Hwang Jun-peong . You deserve to think of yourself that way . ”

“Are you complimenting me? You’ll make me blush . ”

“That was not a compliment . ” Su-hyeun stood . “I meant I will drag you down . ”

“…What will you do? How will you get me here?”

“I put your manager to sleep . Your people won’t be back for at least an hour . I also soundproofed the room . ”

“You’ve prepared a lot, haven’t you?”

At Hwang Jun-peong’s words, Su-hyeun nodded .

“The penthouse is nice . The living room is so spacious . I could even play soccer here, right?”

“Ha-ha-ha . ”

Hwang Jun-peong laughed strangely . He threw his beer bottle and warmed up his hand .

“It’s perfect . I would be in trouble if I revealed my identity during the fight . Who else knows about me?”

“No one . If you kill me, nobody would know . I can guarantee that . ”

“You’re pretty determined, huh . ”

“Because I’ll be in trouble if you run away . ”

“Run away? Me?”

“Don’t pretend like you have the guts . I know you, and you are that kind of person . ”

For the first time, there was a crack in Hwang Jun-peong’s smile .

“Why do you pretend to know me? What the hell are you?”

“I know you well . ”

What Su-hyeun said was not an empty phrase . This was not the first time that Su-hyeun had faced off against Hwang Jun-peong .

“It was because of me,” Su-hyeun thought .

He was complacent . He had reflected on it a lot . In his previous life, Su-hyeun had missed Hwang Jun-peong because of a small mistake . He had run away and made another guild . It had taken almost half a year to clean up the resurrected Dump Guild . Su-hyeun still felt sick thinking about all the people who were victimized by the Dump Guild during that time .

“I won’t miss you this time,” Su-hyeun said .

“…You’re annoying . ”

“Then bring it on . ”

Schwing—

Su-hyeun drew his sword .

“Don’t run away . ”

“Okay . ”

Rumble—

Enormous magic suddenly filled up the large living room . It was the most ominous magic Su-hyeun had ever encountered .

“I will kill you quickly . ”

It was highly concentrated magic that gave Su-hyeun chills . Su-hyeun had caught him in his previous life . But Su-hyeun was different from that time, he was much stronger now .

“It’s been ten years since he became an awakener,” Su-hyeun thought .

Hwang Jun-peong became an awakener in the first year that dungeons and awakeners started to appear . Since then, Hwang Jun-peong spent most of his time in the Tower of Trials except for a few months out of the year .

When other people attacked the dungeons, he worked as an actor and expanded his power in the Tower of Trials . He was a talented awakener . Just by virtue of sheer talent, he was comparable to other S-Rank awakeners .

There were two reasons that Su-hyeun left him alone so far, even though he knew his identity . First, Hwang Jun-peong could conceal his identity and vanish if he figured out somebody had discovered the truth . If Hwang Jun-peong decided to go to ground, it would be more difficult to find him again .

Second, Su-hyeun did not want to make any mistakes . He wanted to make sure he could catch him . He needed time to get strong enough . He waited until he was confident to not miss Hwang Jun-peong .