The Hunting Dog of the Prestigious Family Has Returned Chapter 28

“Wh-what is that?!”

“A monster…?! No, why is something like this here…!”

“N-no! Please spare me, my lord! P-please! Aaaagh?!”

What was inside the cages wasn’t only monsters.

The moment people were thrown into the cages holding the monsters, the starving creatures wasted no time crushing human skulls and beginning to lick at what was inside.

Slum residents, criminals.

Or unregistered persons with no family ties.

Such lower-class people were dragged here and used as monster feed.

‘No, that’s not all.’

I turned my gaze to look at another area.

Scientists from the Pungyang Jo clan wearing white lab coats.

They were recovering those attacked by monsters after being put into the cages, recording their conditions in detail.

“Status of Sample Number 3?”

“We raised the contamination concentration by 30 percent, but it didn’t generate.”

“So being contaminated by monster mucus doesn’t turn people into monsters…”

“What should we do?”

“Let’s experiment on Samples 4 through 8 in a living state. Let’s vary the conditions and observe more carefully.”

What lined the operating tables in rows were corpses of people infected by monster tumors.

They were dissecting them, conducting all sorts of experiments.

“Hah.”

A hollow laugh escaped naturally.

Jo Seonghwan.

This insane bastard had created a monster breeding ground right in the middle of Hanseong.

‘And the reason for conducting such insane acts is…’

No need to say it.

“Are you researching monster cores?”

“Correct.”

Did he like my unsurprised attitude?

Jo Seonghwan slowly opened his mouth.

“Three hundred years since suppressing Crown Prince Yi Chieon’s rebellion and opening the era of the nobles. Our Pungyang Jo clan tried to break the Andong Kim clan’s influence and seize the initiative in Joseon politics, but… we failed every single time. The superior phase power wielders they produce generation after generation, and the tremendous power created from that. No matter how much resources the Pungyang Jo clan invested, we could never surpass that.”

This generation is the same.

Having opened like that, Jo Seonghwan continued speaking.

“Currently, Kim Jungheon is indisputably Joseon’s strongest phase power wielder, and his son Kim Hyunwoo is a monster surpassing his father’s phase power levels.”

“…”

“A golden generation that produced two absolute beings in succession. But even so, that doesn’t mean there’s no way to break them.”

The source of phase power was rifts.

And the existence closest to those rifts were monsters.

Therefore, the Pungyang Jo clan was researching the power engine generated only in monster bodies—monster cores.

‘Monster cores.’

In other words, a monster’s heart.

A mysterious substance that emitted phase power on its own.

One of the nation’s most critical secrets that must be reported to and stored by the state without exception, with research only possible under state agency approval.

‘Since they can’t match the Andong Kim clan through bloodline, they’ll research phase power itself instead.’

I recalled my past life’s memories.

In Joseon, the business sectors the Pungyang Jo clan dominated were medical care. And energy.

The scene unfolding before my eyes was probably one of the sources of that technology.

‘Medical data accumulated through unauthorized experiments using monsters and the humans to feed them.’

‘Even artificially cultivated monster cores and the numerous weapons for phase power wielders created through them…’

This far exceeded the level of simple technology development or research.

Jo Seonghwan was… no, the Pungyang Jo clan was now.

Thinking of waging civil war against the Andong Kim clan.

“There’s something our old fart says every single day.”

Opening his mouth, Jo Seonghwan spoke in an exaggerated voice.

“The Andong Kim clan. They’ve monopolized power while positioned at the pinnacle of nobles for hundreds of years. At this rate, the royal guard and the Administration will become nothing more than their puppets.”

“…”

“Our Pungyang Jo clan must stop that. Joseon is a nation of nobles, not the Andong Kim clan’s nation!”

Jo Seonghwan acting out his father’s voice playfully like a traveling performer.

He looked toward me and spoke.

“If this facility became known to the outside, what would happen to me?”

“You wouldn’t escape punishment.”

No matter how much he was a power clan’s heir, there were lines that must not be crossed.

And Jo Seonghwan’s breeding ground had crossed that line long ago.

“But I brought you, an outsider, here and showed you this scene. Why do you think that is?”

“Before revealing this fact to the outside, you could easily kill someone like me… something like that, I suppose.”

Either accept the work and become an accomplice, or die here.

An expression of confidence that with the Pungyang Jo clan’s power, they could bury someone like me without any issue.

Jo Seonghwan’s smile deepened.

“You’re half right.”

Half right, huh.

I’m so honored I don’t know what to do with myself.

“But it’s also… a kind of kindred feeling.”

“Kindred feeling?”

“I looked into your family circumstances… especially your mother’s side.”

The smile I’d been wearing cracked.

Did he notice that sign?

When I looked back at him, Jo Seonghwan approached with his characteristic fishy smile.

It was fortunate I’d left my weapons with the guards.

Otherwise, I would’ve smashed that grinning face.

“Don’t you want revenge? Don’t you want to steal the heir position that bastard Kim Hyunwoo has and restore your dead mother’s honor?”

“…!”

At Jo Seonghwan’s words, my eyes widened.

These were the words I’d heard from Jo Seonghwan in my past life.

The bait he’d offered me.

And I’d eagerly bitten it.

‘What should I do?’

I’d become the Pungyang Jo clan’s dog like that, and received Jo Seonghwan’s sponsorship to build up my position.

Opening illegal trade routes as they ordered, cutting off the media digging into the background and other families’ informants.

Operating an organization that disposed of byproducts from their experiments without getting caught… I’d done such work.

Together with that human trash Dokgo Seong.

“Your answer?”

The same choice as my past life was given without even time to think further.

But now, I could make a different choice from before.

The obsession to gain recognition from the family.

The inferiority complex trying to reject the illegitimate child’s innate fate.

The delusion of living as a member of the Andong Kim clan.

I no longer had those things.

So what I needed to do now was one thing.

“I accept.”

Jo Seonghwan’s monster laboratory.

Smashing it with my own hands.

---

-A monster… laboratory, you say?

The best thing about the communicator embedded in the Choraengi mask was there was no threat of being wiretapped.

A convenience store located in the middle levels.

Feeling the gazes of Pungyang Jo clan informants monitoring from the surroundings, I opened my mouth toward the Choraengi mask placed in my inner pocket.

“Since they can’t beat the Andong Kim clan with phase power wielders’ strength, they turned their attention elsewhere. How Dokgo Seong and his subordinate Sword Pact built and expanded their human trafficking business… this explains everything.”

-I thought you’d poked a beehive, but you’ve entered a powder magazine carrying fire. How on earth did you survive?

“Simple. I said I’d become the Pungyang Jo clan’s dog instead of Dokgo Seong.”

Meeting high-ranking people makes me hungry to death.

While listening to Imae mask’s clicking tongue, I looked over the convenience foods displayed on the store shelves.

“I have to maintain the illegal trade routes Dokgo Seong maintained, meet the human wholesalers scattered across regions, and grill and boil those bastards. Mountains of work to do from now on.”

-Wait. Are you really going to start human trafficking? No matter how much you’re a double agent, that’s…

“Would I do that? Don’t talk nonsense.”

I’ve associated with trash enough in my past life.

Having saved Yoo Sanghyeon and created connections with the revolutionary forces that would emerge in the future, there was no benefit to accepting immoral work like human trafficking.

“Rather, the best move is handing this information to Kim Hyunwoo. If I make the Andong Kim and Pungyang Jo clans collide, I can create cracks in the relationship among the power clan families.”

While saying that, I picked up something labeled ‘New Product’ from one side of the display.

[Limited Time Mala Rose Seasoned Meat Tanghuru]

Every time I looked at convenience store displays, I felt it, but this nation’s food industry had truly gone as far as it could go.

Mala was what Chinese people ate, so fine, but what’s rose about?

And what? Tanghuru?

Seasoned meat coated in sugar? Really?

-But instead of doing that, you contacted me. The reason?

“Because if I hand this to Kim Hyunwoo, there’s nothing for me to gain.”

The fact that Jo Seonghwan, the Pungyang Jo clan’s heir, was breeding monsters in the middle of Hanseong.

Even if I meekly handed over such high-grade information, it would only raise Kim Hyunwoo’s standing within the family.

While I had to stop the Pungyang Jo clan’s plans, I couldn’t let the Andong Kim clan benefit either.

-Then what’s your plan?

“Smashing it.”

-Smashing? The Pungyang Jo clan’s laboratory?

A single phrase dangerous even to utter.

As I bought the problematic ‘new product’ at the register and put it in the microwave, Imae mask who’d been thinking briefly opened his mouth.

-Understood. I’ll prepare organization members. It’s a dangerous operation, but we can’t tolerate breeding monsters in the middle of Hanseong…

“What are you talking about? You guys can’t step forward.”

It was admirable that he immediately thought to help, but unfortunately, using Hahoe in this plan was impossible.

Think about it.

If Hahoe stormed in right after showing me the family’s secret laboratory, who would Jo Seonghwan suspect first?

Obviously me.

And if suspicion arose that I was connected to Hahoe?

Then the Pungyang Jo clan wouldn’t be the problem.

The royal guard would rush in from the Administration to catch me for cooperating with traitors.

“This is something I’m personally planning. It’s work that you Hahoe members can’t get involved in, and shouldn’t get involved in.”

-You’ll strike the Pungyang Jo clan alone?

Hearing my words, Imae mask added as if dumbfounded.

-Listen, Kim Changwoon.

“I’m listening.”

While taking a bite of the meat skewer covered in melted sugar, Imae mask continued speaking.

-I’m not doubting your abilities that spirited away Miss Yoo Arin and saved General Yoo Sanghyeon. If I had, I wouldn’t have given you this Choraengi mask.

“Thanks for the compliment.”

-But touching a power clan’s facility is… a completely different matter.

Those words were right.

Hundreds of guards with second-grade or higher artificial bodies were defending the facility like an iron fortress.

Various unmanned security devices and combat machines… and above all, there were the family’s phase power wielders led by Jo Seonghwan.

Since Jo Seonghwan himself belonged to the royal guard, there would be considerable personnel pulled from that side too.

-You’ll smash that Pungyang Jo clan laboratory with just you and your few guards? Impossible.

“Right. Obviously can’t do it. But…”

Did he feel something off about my leisurely voice?

Even while tracking the informants monitoring me, Imae mask was waiting for my next words without speaking.

“What if it’s not me, but the dozens of monsters inside the laboratory?”

-What?

Just as the bewildered Imae mask asked back.

“You know the money promised from the previous operation hasn’t been deposited yet, right?”

At my sudden voice, Imae mask’s voice stopped briefly.

Seeing him react like this just from mentioning money, I guess they really are short on funds.

Rather worked out well.

I opened my mouth in a willing voice.

“I won’t take that money, so instead, just get me one thing.”

-A thing?

“There’s cargo that Dokgo Seong’s Sword Pact was supposed to transport. It’s scheduled to arrive from Japan in a month, and they told me to receive it instead.”

Cargo.

He would know without me saying what that meant.

Cargo entering the laboratory interior without receiving the Administration’s surveillance or censorship.

“If a ‘strange object’ got mixed into that cargo?”

-…Wait, you don’t mean?!

The cargo scheduled to enter the research facility.

And the thing I asked him to obtain.

As if realizing what I was going to do, bewilderment colored Imae mask’s voice.

“I’d like you to send me a monster. Pick one full of eggs during spawning season.”

Disgustingly sweet and disgustingly tasteless.

I bought it once since they said it was a new product this time.

While shoving the finished skewer into the trash can, I slowly opened my mouth.

“I’m thinking of opening a rift right in the middle of Hanseong.”