“Ha…”

A long sigh echoed.

“Ha…”

It wasn't just Lee Soo-ah, Yoo Hana was feeling the same way. They both looked at the mission orders they had just received with expressions that screamed frustration and disbelief.

Moments ago, they were riding a high, feeling as though they had completely outdone Baek Ji-hoon. Their faces had reflected pure victory, the confidence that they had finally bested and conquered him. But now, the atmosphere had shifted completely.

“Lee Soo-ah... wasn’t Ji-hoon supposed to give up on taking over the Blue Guild if we showed him our strength…?” “I thought… that’s how it would go… Didn’t we both pull off something really impressive…?” “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Looking at it socially, what we did yesterday was huge. It’s something the media would be praising us for if they got a hold of it…”

They glanced at each other, exchanging uncertain looks.

“What the… Why is it that instead of things getting easier… the work just keeps piling up…”

Lee Soo-ah had been so proud of herself earlier. When Baek Ji-hoon had assigned them an impossible task, she had completed it flawlessly, thinking that it would leave him awestruck and reevaluate her.

‘What’s this? Ji-hoon, seriously, what’s going on? Is this some kind of push-pull game you’re playing? Are you planning to stay in the Blue Guild or not?’

Lee Soo-ah felt like she'd been hit over the head with a hammer. Her thoughts were a whirlwind of confusion, and she couldn’t make sense of the situation.

‘Ji-hoon’s definitely a spy from the Baekho Guild, right? Everything points to it, doesn’t it? He’s in cahoots with Hunter Che Su-hyeon, that’s for sure. They’re probably laughing at me. First, he politely asked us to leave, then gave us this absurd task. What is this…?’

She had thought that enduring Ji-hoon’s tricks would eventually lead him to throw up his hands and retreat. But instead, he handed them even more ridiculous missions. None of it made any sense.

“Hana, what do we do now…? Should we change our strategy?” “Strategy?” “Maybe we should start gathering evidence that Ji-hoon is a spy from Baekho Guild. We could keep tabs on Hunter Che Su-hyeon, see if they meet up somewhere.” “Hmm, but I think a more direct approach might be better.” “A direct approach?” “Yeah.”

Yoo Hana nodded seriously, her face filled with determination. She looked as though losing was not an option.

“Think about it, Soo-ah. We’ve been completely toyed with by Baek Ji-hoon. Us! Beautiful women like us, losing to someone like him? It’s infuriating, isn’t it? For the last two weeks, we’ve been so absorbed in him that we’ve practically lost our minds. I’m not sure exactly how he did it, but if he really is a spy, we can’t just let this slide. We need to show him our true strength.”

“Our strength... but haven’t we already shown him everything we’ve got?”

Lee Soo-ah’s expression hardened. She believed they had already pushed themselves to the limit, especially when working with Yoo Hana, showing the full extent of their abilities. Yet, Baek Ji-hoon seemed unfazed.

‘He’s an extraordinary person. That’s why he can do this kind of spy work. But now, I don’t know what we should do next.’

Lee Soo-ah bit her lip hard.

It was the first time in her life she had ever felt such a deep sense of defeat.

‘Do I really have to hand the Blue Guild over to the Baekho Guild like this…?’

Her mind raced through memories—of Hunters 1 through 6, the Blue Guild members, and all the dungeons they had conquered together. They had worked so hard, side by side.

And now, Baek Ji-hoon was slowly taking over.

‘It must be under the orders of the Taeyang Group… There’s no way anyone could easily turn down the backing of a conglomerate like that… Ha…’

Lee Soo-ah felt a pang of regret. No matter how hard she worked, she couldn’t compete with the lucrative offers from the Taeyang Group.

‘It’s going to be difficult to turn Ji-hoon back to our side. The Taeyang Group is just too powerful...’

“Soo-ah.” “Yes.” “I have an idea.” “What is it?”

Lee Soo-ah looked at Yoo Hana with a glimmer of hope. It was clear from her confident tone that she had something in mind.

“You know what? How about we try this? Have you seen the movie?” “What movie?” “Avengers.” “Yeah…” “What if we did something like that?” “?”

Lee Soo-ah was still confused. What was she talking about?

“Avengers, assemble. What if we gathered all the S-rank hunters? You may have had some rivalry with me, but you’re on good terms with the other S-rank hunters, aren’t you?” “Well… kind of, yeah.” “Then let’s try it. Let’s make it known that we’ve joined forces and gather the S-rank hunters. Let’s mobilize all of them to solve this problem.” “Oh…”

Lee Soo-ah was beginning to understand.

“So you’re saying… let’s unite the S-rank hunters?” “Exactly. Since it’s come to this, we might as well go all in. Think about it. What has Baek Ji-hoon been going around saying lately?”

Lee Soo-ah tilted her head in confusion.

“He said he wanted to gather all the S-rank hunters into the Blue Guild, right?” “Right.” “Let’s beat him to it.” “!”

Lee Soo-ah’s eyes widened in realization.

“You’re right.” “Think about it. Whatever Ji-hoon’s ability is, he was clearly aiming to take full control of the Blue Guild by gathering the S-rank hunters under his leadership from the start.” “Yes.” “But what if we gather the S-rank hunters first?” “Oh…”

Lee Soo-ah was genuinely impressed by Yoo Hana’s idea. It was an angle she hadn’t considered.

‘Right. Ji-hoon’s been going on and on about gathering the S-rank hunters. So that means the Baekho Guild must have given him those orders. But if we beat him to it? He’ll be left out in the cold.’

“Ehehehe…”

Lee Soo-ah and Yoo Hana exchanged sinister smiles.

“Soo-ah, hehe, you know what to do now, right? Start reaching out to the other S-rank hunters and build good relationships with them. There’s no need to compete with them. It’s time for us to join forces.” “Yes, I understand perfectly. Let’s pool our strength and drive Baek Ji-hoon out. It’s not our fault that we fell for him.”

With that, they began to rationalize their behavior and devise a peculiar plan.

“Shall we start making some calls? Hehehe.” “Yes, let’s. Hehehe.”

“Pfft. Hyung, what are you going to do if Hunter Lee Soo-ah completely surrenders and falls for you?” “What do you mean?” “Aren’t you going to have to date her~?” “Ahem…”

Baek Ji-hoon was momentarily thrown off by Park Hyung-seok’s words.

‘Does Hunter Lee Soo-ah really love me? Not just some passing crush, but actually love…?’

Lee Soo-ah had certainly done some strange things. Things most women wouldn’t even consider doing.

“Well, if she really wants to… maybe?” “I’m jealous, hyung. What did you do in your past life to deserve this? Did you save a country or something? How do you keep attracting all these S-rank hunters?”

Though, the real reason was probably due to his Incubus trait.

“Anyway, I think we’ve got them beat this time. There’s no way Hunter Lee Soo-ah and Hunter Yoo Hana can handle the task they’ve been assigned. Cha Manager set it up perfectly to make sure they couldn’t succeed. Pfft.” “Of course.”

We both smiled smugly, waiting to see how Lee Soo-ah would respond.

“Ji-hoon, how’s everything going lately?”

A sweet voice called out. It was Cha I-seul.

“Hmm, well… I guess it’s going okay?”

It was hard to say whether things were really going well. After all, he was in the middle of a bizarre game of push-and-pull with Hunter Lee Soo-ah.

“Hey.” “Yeah?”

Cha I-seul looked a bit shy as she opened her mouth.

“How about we hang out more often?” “Huh?” “Now that we’ve reconnected, I thought it’d be nice to do some of the things we missed out on.” “Sounds good to me. As long as you’re up for it, I’m in.” “Like the old days, when we used to hang out more often. We’re both S-rank hunters now. Who would’ve thought, right?” “Yeah, it’s crazy. I never saw this coming, not even a couple of weeks ago.” “Wait, really? But weren’t you saving up points the whole time?”

Cha I-seul gave him a curious look.

“Well, it’s not like I was actively saving them… It’s more like I had a piggy bank I didn’t know about…”

Of course, he couldn’t exactly mention Che Su-hyeon.

“Oh, I see. So you didn’t even know how much you’d accumulated?” “Yeah, I was just focused on saving, and then suddenly, I had all these points. Haha…”

He laughed awkwardly.

“Well, it’s still amazing. I mean, how did you gather so many points? Doesn’t that leave you totally exhausted?” “Yeah, kind of… Haha…”

Ji-hoon thought it was all thanks to Che Su-hyeon. Funny how she had tried to stab him in the back, but instead, she’d handed him a golden opportunity.

“Ji-hoon, how about we go to the amusement park this weekend? We used to go all the time, but we haven’t been since we drifted apart.”

Cha I-seul gave a shy smile.

“Sure, let’s go this weekend.” “Yay!”

The atmosphere was light and happy.