I Picked Up the Greatest Villain in the Story

32.

“Fortunately, a guild member was nearby, so they should arrive within 5 minutes.”

Five minutes. Though short, it felt like five hours to Jian. He paced in circles, anxious.

His palms kept turning red from repeatedly clenching his fists to calm his surging emotions.

“Guild Master! I’m here!”

Just as his patience was reaching its limit, a man with curly permed hair rushed into the house.

“You said it was urgent, so I drove like crazy. The guild will take care of the speeding tickets, right?”

“Don’t worry about that, just start tracking.”

“Yes, sir!”

The bright-eyed man activated his skill by placing his index and middle fingers on his temple. Soon, the entire house was covered in a blue light.

While nothing seemed to change to others’ eyes, B-rank hunter Kim Leo was examining various colored traces that appeared.

Two colors were the strongest, and except for one, the others were all similar.

“Which one should I look for?”

“There were footprints from here to that room when I used my skill earlier. We need to follow those.”

“Ah, I see.”

Leo erased all traces except for the orange ones. Jian followed behind Leo.

Leo leaned his upper body out the window and pointed to the left.

“It went that way. Should we keep following?”

Hyunwoo nodded at Leo’s question. Leo climbed onto the windowsill and jumped out without hesitation.

After landing lightly, he looked up at the second floor. His eyes seemed to ask if he should go alone or if someone would join him.

“Jian, that’s Kim Leo from our guild. When it comes to tracking skills, he’s among the top three in the country.”

“You’ll stay here, right?”

“I can’t leave Hyunsu, so yes.”

“I’ll go alone then.”

Jian followed Leo and leaped outside. It was his first time jumping from a second-floor height, but he landed stably. As Leo quietly marveled, Hyunwoo leaned out the window to see them off.

“Both of you be careful. Leo, if it’s urgent, you can use all the items you’ve been given.”

“Really?”

“Yeah. Take these too.”

Hyunwoo took out items from his inventory that could be useful in emergencies and threw them to Leo. Leo’s expression brightened as he put each item into his own inventory.

“I’m not returning these!”

Even the cheapest item cost millions of won. An excited Leo set off first, following the orange traces, and Jian followed behind.

“I’ll send other guild members too, so make sure you find Sehun!”

Jian waved his hand instead of answering, as it was already challenging enough to keep up with Leo, who was gradually increasing his speed.

Watching the two quickly disappear into the distance, Hyunwoo leaned against the window frame and let out a deep sigh.

Some of the guild members who received his signal ran after the two. They were all combat hunters Hyunwoo had planted nearby.

They had all reported leaving their posts to protect civilians due to the sudden outbreak of an A-rank dungeon.

They had made independent judgments and moved after seeing Jian set up a barrier on the building. Because of this, Hyunwoo felt partly responsible for Sehun’s disappearance.

If any of the guild members had spotted someone approaching the building, Sehun would probably be in Jian’s arms by now.

What if it had been Hyunsu who disappeared instead of Sehun? When the thought that it was fortunate Hyunsu was safe crossed his mind, Hyunwoo felt disgusted with his own selfishness.

‘Please be safe, both of you.’

The reports from nearby guild members included numerous details about Jian’s abilities.

From what they observed, Jian used defense, attack, and stealth skills evenly, and given how easily he dealt with the Giant Wolf, his attack and defense skills were estimated to be at least A-rank or higher.

Although Leo lacked combat skills, his tracking ability was on par with A-rank hunters, so with the two of them together, they should be able to find Sehun quickly.

Just in case, he had also sent guild members specialized in combat skills. From Hyunwoo’s perspective, he had done his best. Yet, the feeling of guilt wouldn’t subside.

He held the sleeping Hyunsu in his arms and prayed to a god he hadn’t sought in a long time, thinking that it was an unavoidable human instinct to seek divine help when feeling powerless.

* * *

“The trail ends here.”

Leo scratched his cheek, looking troubled. Jian looked around, catching his breath.

A fishy smell of water stimulated his nostrils. The place littered with mats, half-eaten cup noodles, and chicken boxes was familiar.

Although he hadn’t been here since being transported into the novel, he had passed by a few times while working part-time jobs in the past. It was one of the parks near the Han River.

There were traces everywhere of people hastily evacuating due to the sudden appearance of an A-rank dungeon nearby.

The trail they had been following abruptly ended at the flowing river. Leo used his skill again, ruffling his hair in frustration, but to no avail.

“So what? Did they crawl into the water? You can still track traces, can’t you?”

“Yes, that’s why it’s strange. For the trail to end like this means they flew into the air, but then they should have flown from the beginning. Or they could have used it intermittently to confuse us. But why use an aerial skill here? Is there somewhere to go nearby?”

Leo frowned as he answered Jihwan, one of the guild members who had followed them on Hyunwoo’s orders. He scrutinized the surroundings, wondering if he had missed something.

Jian also bit his lip, staring intently into the water. What good was being S-rank if he couldn’t even find the missing child?

He even wished he had just one tracking skill, even if it drained all his life force, if only he could find Sehun.

Then, his eyes caught a duck boat floating in the middle of the Han River in the distance.

“Doesn’t that boat look suspicious?”

Thinking they should grasp at any straw, he immediately approached Leo and asked. Leo squinted in the direction Jian was pointing and used his skill on the duck boat, focusing intently.

“Oh? There’s a faint trace left!”

The boat was too far away, and they had thought someone had left it behind while evacuating urgently. But there was definitely a faint orange light flickering on the boat.

“It doesn’t look like there’s anyone on the boat.”

Jihwan, with his bandit-like appearance, tilted his head as he spoke. Leo was also re-examining the area around the duck boat for any remaining traces.

That’s when Jian pointed to an island with his index finger.

“What if… they went to that island?”

“You mean that artificial island over there?”

Jungsu, standing next to Jihwan, turned his head following Jian’s gaze.

After a dungeon opened in the middle of the Han River a year ago, artificial islands where people could stand had sprung up all over the Han River.

About 1 kilometer away from the duck boat, there was a lone artificial island. On the island, there was just one three-story building. Thanks to its glass front, it sparkled and shone even from a distance.

“You could be a tracker instead of me.”

Leo gave Jian a thumbs up after activating his skill to examine the island.

“So we need to go to that island. Does anyone have any items that could be useful in this situation?”

Jihwan drew attention by waving the bow slung over his shoulder. They could swim there, but that would likely drain their stamina before arriving.

Since none of the members had a levitation skill, they had to rely on items.

“…I don’t have any.”

Jian, who needed items more than anyone, answered dejectedly. The more he thought about it, the more he couldn’t shake off the feeling that he had been too complacent.

No matter how unfamiliar he was with spending money, how could he not have bought a single item? The only items he had purchased so far were healing potions.

He hadn’t even thought about visiting the item shop since he didn’t particularly need weapon or armor items.

He had vaguely assumed that he could protect Sehun with his own abilities and Hyunwoo’s help. Now that things had happened, he realized he had been living in a bubble of false hope.

“I think we can use this! The Guild Master gave it to me before we came. It contains a levitation skill. It’s one-time use though, and the duration is only about 10 minutes.”

Leo rummaged through his inventory and pulled out a snow-white feather. The gazes of the three people converged on the fluttering feather.

“The problem is that only one person can use it. What should we do?”

It was fortunate to have an item that could fly, but there was only one item and four people.

“There’s no weight limit, right?”

“Hmm. It doesn’t seem like there is.”

Upon hearing Leo’s response after checking the item’s abilities, Jihwan immediately reached for the feather.