Solo Leveling: Ragnarok - Chapter 138

Chapter 138

The great getaway from the Jisan prison caused the media to spotlight the hunters association in a negative light.
-the issue was gathering those dangerous villains in a single place!
-it was a ticking time bomb.
-FRFR all the villains should’ve been given the death sentence.
– FxxK where are all the bastards who defended the human rights of villains?!
-Just how lacking was the security for them to escape all at once? Wasn’t it supposed to have the best security?
-Maybe the guards got bribed.
-Were the guards also villains?
-Wow. Look at what happened after Woo Jinchul left the area.
-Why don’t we fire every hunter of the association other than the chairman?
-Doesn’t the chairman usually step down in these cases?
-Then who’ll become the next chairman?
-Choi Jongin can do it. He’s a S ranked hunter.
-To be honest, Woo Jinchul is an A rank so he was never fit for it in the first place.
-But you can’t deny that Woo Jinchul created today’s country.
-but this also happened because of Jisan Prison that Woo Jinchul created.
-Can this situation even be solved?
-FXXK I can’t even go out because of villains.
-isn’t this basically a dungeon break?
Dungeon break.
In a way, it was pretty accurate to the situation.
The number of villains that escaped the prison was over 500 total.
Of course, most of them were mid to low ranking villains, but to the unawakened citizens, even the lowest of the villains were life threatening.
Since awakened criminals were akin to monsters.
But the real issue came from somewhere else.
Despite the large number of villains who made a jailbreak, not many hunters stepped up to catch them.
The reason was similar to back when the Lee Minsung situation occurred.
It wasn’t worth the money.
In their perspectives, it was more efficient to go into a dungeon rather than go search for the villains.
On that note, the Korean Hunter Association had been the topic of shaming.
“The online public opinions are not what’s important. Right now, the most important thing we need to do is ensure the safety of citizens to catch all the escaped villains.”
Team leader Han Jaehyuk briefed Suho with a serious face.
“We did request for cooperation to all the hunters within the country, but I assume that the only guild that will support us would be the Baekho guild.”
But this case was on an entirely different scale compared to the Lee Minsung incident.
Back then, only one person had to be caught. But this time, it was over 500.
There weren’t enough people to catch them all.
“So we will give you the title of ‘Authorized Association Bounty Hunter’ temporarily.”
“Does it make a difference to be an authorized hunter?’
“Yes. Authorization from the association will allow you to enter any area despite not having permission of the guilds in possession of the area.”
“……!”
Suho’s eyes widened at that.
“So that means that I can enter any dungeons regardless of the guild who owns it?”
“Correct. You just can’t hunt monsters in that process.”
“Even if I encounter one while chasing a villain?”
“Ah, apologies. I worded that wrong. To be precise, it’s illegal to leave the dungeon with a monster corpse or mana stone.”
“So access is the only permitted part.”
“Yes, so please understand that your belongings will have to be examined after you leave the dungeon.
“Well, that can’t be helped.”
Suho nodded to Han Jaehyuk’s explanations.
But he was smiling inwardly.
‘……I hit a jackpot.’
A huge authority landed on his lap while trying to catch some villains.
‘I could enter any dungeon to kill monsters!’
Examine my belongings?
So what?
Can they look into my ‘inventory’ too?
What about the shadow dungeon?
If he so desired, no one would know that he got monster products.
Of course, the traces of battle can’t be hidden, so he’d get suspected eventually.
But that was a side thing.
After all, what mattered the most to Suho was ‘hunting’ itself.
‘I can level up anywhere!’
In fact, if he hunted the monsters and left its corpses alone, the guild that possessed the dungeon was benefitting as well.
They didn’t get exp from killing monsters like how he could, so if they could get monster parts without the fights, they were basically getting presents at holidays.
‘I wish the authorization was permanent.’
Having it forever sounded nice.

»»————-　★　————-««
Suho began the bounty hunt.
The beginning was the same as other bounty hunters.
‘I’ll have to gather information first.’
To find the villains in hiding, information analysis was the most important.
Of course, he did get a basic rundown of information from team leader Han Jaehyuk.
But it was limited to the basic information of the escaped villains, and who amongst them were caught.
Han Jaehyuk did say that he’ll share every updated information, but Suho chose to actively gather information himself.
The first method was to use the Baekho guild.
Since they’ve been actively supporting the villain hunt, they must know a lot of information regarding the current situation.
And Suho had access to the contact information of someone in a high position within the guild.
‘Vice President Baek Miho.’
Suho immediately called her.
Exactly an hour later.
“Wow, I am in the presence of such a high and mighty person.”
Suho was greeted with Baek Miho with her arms crossed and a displeased expression.
She had every right to do so.
“You’ve been ignoring every call of mine, and you suddenly call me to what? Give you information?”
But Suho was shameless.
“Ah, you did? I’ve been out of the country for a while.
“Out of the country? No wonder your phone was off…… wait, why didn’t you use an international phone? Who on earth travels without a phone nowadays?”
Baek Miho complained.
But the excuse must’ve worked as her voice was a lot softer than before.
“Anyways, I’ll get right to the point since I’m busy as well. So you said that you need information about the escaped villains?”
“Yes, I became the Authorized Association Bounty Hunter recently.”
“well…… you sure are doing charity work. I guess the more hands we have the better.”
The further the conversation, the less sharp her expression became.
After all, the reason that she was so busy lately was because of the Jisan Prison.
If Suho was not the one who called her, she would’ve never come out to meet them personally like this.
Since it was never this easy to meet the vice president of the Baekho guild.
But Baek Miho has already fought together with Suho, so she knew of his battle prowess.
Which is why she set aside her pride to recruit him ever since that day.
‘Of course, it all got ignored.’
“I already told you. I was overseas.”
“……Tsk, stop reading my mind.”
Baek Miho’s mood almost soured again but ended up brightening with a laugh from Suho’s interjection.
“So, what kind of information do you need?”
“Everything and anything. I just arrived in Korea so I don’t have much information.”
“So you weren’t lying about being overseas.”
The solid crossed arms of hers finally got undone.
On the other hand, SUho was feeling impressed seeing her reactions.
‘I knew that the information that I followed Thomas Andre got restricted, but I never expected it to be to this degree.’
According to the team leader Han Jaehyuk, the association made sure to completely seal up the information about him.
The reason being that if the case of Korean hunters being recruited by foreign guilds spread, it would promote the hunters to eventually leave Korea in the long run.
Suho was not recruited by the Scavengers, but the association had a duty to maintain the safety of the country.
“So? Where should I start? Region? Person? Actually, do you want to move with our guild to make things easier?”
“We’ll still end up scattered anyways. I know the region at least. Since the Jisan Prison is in Pocheon, they must’ve scattered around that area.”
“I’ll brief you about the people then.”
Baek Miho spread the documents that she brought.
“You know who started this whole ordeal right? The C ranked villain Hwang Dongsuk.”
“Yes. I saw it on the news. But I have a question. How could a C ranked villain be the instigator for all this?”
Suho chose to get the answer to the question that plagued his mind after departing with team leader Han Jaehyuk.
In the Jisan Prison, A ranked villains and B ranked villains were also a part of the facility.
So how could a mere C ranked villain start this jailbreak?
Ah, to explain that, I’ll have to explain how that prison is being kept under control first.”

Jisan Prison.

As the facility with the best security specialized for villains, it had one special element to it.
That all prisoners had a pair of electric anklets on both legs.
“That thing that sexual offenders usually wear?”
“It’s about 2 levels higher than that. It has a miniature bomb inside of it.”
Baek Miho shrugged and continued on.
“That bomb is designed to explode when that anklet gets impacted with something or if the wearer uses their mana.”
Also known as ‘mana restrictor’ that dangerous invention was created under the supervision of Chairman Woo Jinchul.
“But in fact, the chairman insisted that the bomb should’ve been worn at the neck rather than the ankles.”
Claiming that the villains can only be controlled when the explosion is enough to take off a head after using mana.
“Unfortunately, that proposal was rejected and instead got changed into the ankles. The reason being…….”
“That villains are humans and have the potential to rehabilitate, so they should keep their human rights at least?”
“Exactly. Few social protests occurred in front of the court back then. Which is why those claims got accepted.”
It was true that having to live with a bomb on the neck is a violation of human rights.
Since any technological error would cause the wearer’s death.
“So it was fine that the bomb got transferred to the ankle. Since it did its part in preventing mana usage.”
“But what if they regenerate the ankle after the bomb goes off?”
Baek Miho nodded at Suho’s question.
“That’s a good question. There are few healers among the villains as well. SO the chairman gathered the healer villains to have them in a separate facility.”
It was the most optimal method that Woo Jinchul could do.
“So once the villain’s mana were sealed, a new type of hierarchy emerged within the facility. It became similar to a normal prison.”
“No wonder the C ranked villain could become the instigator.”
Suho could finally get a clearer picture of how the Jisan Prison worked.
Suho glanced through the document about Hwang Dongsuk.
“Name Hwang Dongsuk. Alias Bearded Geezer.
“Apparently the only ones who called him with that alias were the guards. Since no one had the guts to call the top ranking prisoner with that lousy nickname.”
“He must’ve been a great fighter.”
“Actually, it was because of his brother.”
“His brother?”
Suho’s eyes naturally went down the document to check the ‘family relationships’ part.
And his eyes widened in surprise.
“S ranked villain?!”
“Correct. The S ranked Hwang Dongsoo. That’s his little brother.”
[Kiek?]
Beru’s head turned up from the shadows at the mention of a familiar name.