Chapter 399

Zeon and Levin left the house and headed to the Goblin Market.

From early morning, Yoo Se-hee had sent someone to summon them.

“You're here?”

Yoo Se-hee greeted the two with a tired face.

Zeon asked her,

“Did you stay up all night?”

“Yeah! Kind of happened that way… Do I look that rough?”

“Yes.”

“Damn it! Because of that bastard…”

“That bastard?”

“The damn gorilla.”

“Did something happen?”

“Come with me. It'll be faster to understand if you see it for yourself.”

Yoo Se-hee led them down to the underground.

As they neared their destination, the stench of blood grew thick.

“This is where they dismantle magic beasts. Think of it like a kind of slaughterhouse.”

“I see.”

Zeon, already aware of the place, nodded calmly. Levin, on the other hand, was visibly disturbed.

The intense smell made it hard for him to focus.

Yoo Se-hee chuckled as she looked at him.

“What kind of man scrunches his face over a smell like this?”

“I’ve always been sensitive to smells.”

“Ugh, give me a break.”

“Hehe.”

“Tch!”

Clicking her tongue, Yoo Se-hee opened the door ahead. A large sealed chamber revealed itself.

Inside, lying across a worktable, was the corpse of the half-moon gorilla.

Its belly had been cut open and laid wide.

“Is that Ma Gwang-ryang?”

“Yeah.”

“Was there a reason to slice him open like that? I assumed all the internal organs had been ground to sand.”

“That’s what I thought too, but turns out not.”

“What?”

At her reply, Zeon tilted his head slightly.

He couldn’t make sense of it.

Yoo Se-hee stepped toward the half-moon gorilla and spoke.

“It’s better if you just look for yourself.”

“…”

Zeon nodded and looked into the opened abdomen of the gorilla.

In that instant, a strange light flickered in his eyes.

“This is…”

“First time seeing something like that? Same here. Can you believe this was stuck in his heart?”

What they were staring at was the heart.

All other organs had been obliterated—but the heart remained intact. And embedded directly in its center was something unusual.

“Eugh! Don’t tell me that’s a mana stone?”

Levin recoiled.

Just as he said, a mana stone was embedded in the heart.

That could explain how it managed to remain intact despite Zeon’s Sand Mixer.

Zeon’s brows furrowed.

“This doesn’t look like any ordinary mana stone… Wait, is this…”

“They took a mana stone from a half-moon gorilla and jammed it straight into the heart. Freaking lunatics.”

“Yeah, that’s utterly insane.”

Levin agreed with Yoo Se-hee’s words.

Neo Seoul had developed mines to secure a stable supply of mana stones—but they could also be extracted from magical beasts.

However, unlike mined mana stones, those harvested from beasts had unique attributes.

The properties varied depending on the beast's elemental nature.

In terms of purity, output, and potency, beast-derived mana stones were vastly superior—but they weren’t suitable for power plants that needed consistency.

Every new stone required recalibrating the facility’s settings. That’s why Neo Seoul preferred stones from mines.

Because of that, research into beast mana stones was still lacking.

Levin spoke with a grave expression.

“So if you embed a beast’s mana stone into the heart, this is what happens?”

“If that were the case, people would’ve been doing it already. Either they specially processed the stone, or altered the body to accept it.”

“They’re out of their minds. How do you even come up with something like this?”

“They’ve clearly thrown humanity into the gutter.”

At Yoo Se-hee’s reply, Levin bit his lip hard.

He believed that even in a broken world, with human nature at its worst, there were still lines one should never cross.

But whoever did this to Ma Gwang-ryang had crossed those lines completely.

“Could it be that everyone from that Subterranean City has mana stones from magic beasts implanted like this?”

“I don’t think so.”

Crack!

Zeon answered as he tore the heart from the chest, mana stone still lodged inside.

“Why not?”

“This stone came from a dominant specimen. Stones like this aren’t exactly common.”

“Right. Only bosses or B-rank and higher beasts produce them.”

Levin nodded in understanding.

Yoo Se-hee took the heart from Zeon and said,

“So only elites received implants.”

“Yeah. And the kind of power they gain probably depends on the stone they were implanted with.”

“God, those scum are pulling out every trick in the book.”

Yoo Se-hee clenched the heart in her hand, turning it to dust. Only the mana stone remained.

She examined it closely and found countless tiny lines etched across its surface.

“They engraved a magic array onto this small stone.”

“That array is likely what made the implant possible.”

“I’ll have my people study it. That's okay?”

“Yes.”

At Zeon’s answer, Yoo Se-hee pocketed the stone.

Levin, still baffled, said with a frown,

“What kind of place is that Subterranean City? Implanting mana stones into people…”

“In terms of humanity, this place isn’t much better, you know.”

“Huh?”

Levin looked puzzled at her words.

“There are people here who cut off perfectly healthy limbs to install machinery.”

“That’s…”

“It’s all the same. Everyone’s doing what they can to survive and grow stronger. The real difference is purpose. If someone does it to protect their family, it’s a sacrifice. But if they do it to kill and steal from others—that’s abandoning their humanity. And it seems these people are the latter. The real problem is… we don’t know how many more like them have entered.”

Yoo Se-hee massaged her temple, the pressure giving her a headache.

Zeon looked at her and said,

“One is dead, another’s been exposed. So the rest will hide even deeper.”

“Ah!”

Levin suddenly let out a short gasp.

“What?”

“Then maybe they’ll hide in the Crocodile Den?”

“They might…”

“In that case, I need to get to Zetoya Village right away. They might target it. If you see anything, contact me immediately.”

“Will do.”

Levin promptly left the Goblin Market.

Now alone with Zeon, Yoo Se-hee muttered,

“All this chaos because of some beggars from the outskirts.”

“It’s not the beggar part that’s the issue.”

“Right. These aren’t your average beggars.”

“They’re studying us. If we want to catch them, we need to study them back—understand how they move, how they think.”

Zeon knew well: if you’re dealing with enemies who evolve, you have to evolve too. He was now ready to dig into them in earnest.

＊＊＊

“The slums are getting noisy.”

At Seo Tae-ran’s report, Jin Geum-ho stared blankly ahead.

“Are they?”

“Yes. Seems like people connected to Jang Woo-hang are stirring up trouble.”

“So the claim that he came alone was a blatant lie.”

“Seems that way.”

“Hmm. As expected, you can’t trust people from their side. They lie like they breathe.”

“Will you be alright?”

“What do you mean?”

“Someone like Lord Xiao Lun will surely try to use him for something…”

“Jang Woo-hang will try the same.”

Jin Geum-ho rose from his seat and walked over to the window.

In the far distance, the Southern District came into view.

The Southern District had its own distinct look.

Like the old Chinatowns of the past, it had preserved its own cultural style, easily recognizable even from afar.

And not just the Southern District.

Each district had its own unique aesthetic and identity.

Jin Geum-ho didn’t think that autonomy was a bad thing.

He believed that diversity was essential for a city—or a nation—to flourish.

That’s why, in general, he avoided interfering with district events unless absolutely necessary.

Thanks to that, each district had developed independently, forming its own systems.

But kindness can be mistaken for permission. The leaders of each district had grown wary of City Hall’s involvement.

Some even began pushing to free themselves from its influence.

The prime example was the Southern District under Xiao Lun.

It had fully embraced a closed-door policy, as if rejecting City Hall’s authority outright.

They rarely interacted with outsiders and instead focused on strengthening internal unity.

At this point, even City Hall couldn’t fully grasp what was happening inside the Southern District.

“Keep eyes on the Southern District. And increase security around City Hall and the Central District. Especially the core facilities—make sure no unauthorized person can get near them.”

“Yes, sir. I’ll see to it.”

Neo Seoul had four main districts—North, South, East, and West—but the mana stone power plant and magic engineering research center were all concentrated in the Central District, where City Hall resided.

What happened to the other districts didn’t matter as much.

Even if they collapsed, they could be rebuilt.

But not the Central District.

If the core facilities here fell, all of Neo Seoul would fall.

That’s why security here was always a top priority.

“I think that’s enough for security. Let’s head down.”

“You mean… the Heaven’s Judgment?”

“Yes.”

“Understood.”

Seo Tae-ran escorted Jin Geum-ho into the elevator.

The high-speed lift shot them deep beneath City Hall.

When the doors opened, an enormous research facility unfolded before them.

Countless researchers bustled about, fully absorbed in their tasks.

The two of them passed through and approached a massive object stationed in the heart of the lab.

As Jin Geum-ho looked up at the enormous, cylindrical structure, the head researcher rushed over.

“You came without notice?”

“How’s the Kraken heart?”

“Successfully mounted.”

“So output issues are resolved?”

“Just barely met the baseline.”

At the researcher’s reply, Jin Geum-ho smiled faintly.

“We’ve cleared one hurdle, then.”

“There are still more to come, but now that the biggest one is over, the rest should be more manageable.”

The heart of Moby Dick alone had proven insufficient. So they processed and installed the Kraken’s heart as well.

But combining two organs of such different natures brought endless complications.

The mana circuits frequently burned out due to sync mismatches, and the carefully designed systems often failed.

Researchers had to work around the clock to overcome the issues.

Many hadn’t seen their homes in months.

Even so, their faces were full of energy.

They had finally succeeded in syncing the two hearts—a breakthrough.

“Well done.”

“All thanks to the mayor’s support.”

“How’s the rest of the development coming along?”

“Smoothly. However…”

“What is it?”

“We’ve built it based on theory, so we’ll need to test it.”

“Testing…”

“As you can see, we can’t do it here. We need to see it in action and identify flaws to fix.”

“I see.”

Jin Geum-ho nodded.

This was a project carrying all the hopes of Neo Seoul.

There was no room for error.

“Then find a suitable target.”

His eyes gleamed with a coldness unlike before.

Seo Tae-ran involuntarily shivered.

She knew from experience—whenever Jin Geum-ho wore that look, something massive was about to unfold.