My Auto Cloning System

Episode 80 – The Invitation That Smelled Like Trouble

The taxi was cheap, smelled like old cigarettes mixed with that sour leftover perfume drivers used when they didn't want to wash their seats, and every bump in the road made Kim Do-hyun's arm throb where the healer had patched him up. His head was leaned back against the worn-out leather, but his eyes weren't closed, not even for a second. They were locked on his own right hand, the fingers twitching like he wasn't fully sure they belonged to him anymore. The memory of that cursed sword still lingered in the veins of his palm, whispering like it wanted him to hold it again, promising power if he didn't mind losing a bit of his sanity in the trade.

He flexed his hand, opened and closed it, then muttered under his breath, half a joke, half a confession. "Damn… Han Sen. That guy… what the hell are you?"

Every streetlight that flashed past the dirty taxi window dragged him deeper into the thought. Han Sen wasn't just some hunter who had stepped in at the right time. The man moved with the casual sharpness of someone who had seen too much blood but still carried himself like it didn't matter anymore. No hesitation, no wasted movement, no fear of the monster that almost tore his family apart. He didn't act like a savior, but he became one anyway, and Do-hyun couldn't get over the fact that it wasn't only his life that got pulled back from the fire that day. It was his sister's trembling breath, his parents' panicked screams, his own shaky knees when he almost gave in to despair.

If Han Sen hadn't appeared when he did, there would've been nothing left but silence in that vault.

The driver coughed, clearly irritated at Do-hyun's muttering. "Kid, you're shaking your damn hand like you're about to throw gang signs. You gonna pay me or not?"

Do-hyun blinked, looked at the guy's half-bald head in the front mirror, then cracked a grin that didn't match the tired shadows under his eyes. "Relax, old man, I'm good for it. Keep driving, I ain't jumping out of the window yet."

The driver muttered something about "crazy hunters with their aura drama" and focused on the road. Hunters weren't rare in Seoul, but most people still treated them like they were half celebrities and half disasters waiting to happen. And Do-hyun, sitting there with an aura that wasn't exactly stable thanks to the curse gnawing at the edge of his mind, didn't look like the kind of passenger you wanted to piss off.

When the taxi finally rolled to a stop in front of the massive Candace Guild headquarters, Do-hyun leaned forward, slapped a couple of crumpled bills into the driver's hand, and stepped out without waiting for change.

The building rose like a damn fortress in the middle of the city. Glass windows climbed toward the night sky, but behind them, shadows of people moved like machinery that never slept. Guards in black uniforms stood at the entrance, not stiff like soldiers but relaxed like people who knew if trouble walked up, it would be handled fast. The Candace Guild was one of the richest, most established names in Korea, their fingers deep in dungeon management, resource trading, and the type of politics nobody admitted existed. For Do-hyun, walking up to those front doors wasn't just guts — it was borderline stupid.

He didn't care.

His clones had limits, his body was barely healed, and he was still thinking about the look on his sister's pale face when she bled on that vault floor. But all of that only fed the fire under his ribs. He wasn't planning on being some stray dog hunter waiting for scraps. He needed backing. He needed strength. He needed a guild, and not a weak one where they'd toss him around like another pawn. He wanted the type of guild where doors opened, resources poured in, and monsters stopped being nightmares and started being stepping stones.

The lobby was colder than outside, not just from the air conditioning but from the way everything inside screamed money. Marble floors polished enough to see his own reflection, plants that probably cost more than his entire apartment, a chandelier dangling overhead like it belonged in a drama about chaebols. At the center desk, a receptionist with sharp lipstick and an even sharper glare stood, hands folded like she had been waiting her whole life to judge people like him.

Do-hyun approached casually, hands in his pockets, and before she even asked, he announced. "I'm here to meet the captain."

Her eyebrow lifted higher than was probably healthy for her face. "Do you have an appointment, sir?"

Do-hyun tilted his head, gave her that streetwise smirk like she had asked him something ridiculous. "You kidding? I told you, the captain invited me."

The woman tapped her perfectly painted nails against the desk, clearly unimpressed. "Look, Mr… whoever you are, the Candace Guild doesn't operate on street talk. Without an appointment, you're not seeing anyone, let alone the captain. So please"

"Yo, who's running their mouth like that?"

The voice boomed across the lobby before Do-hyun could respond. Everyone turned, and Do-hyun's eyes widened a little despite himself. The man walking toward them was built like a mountain stuffed into a human body. Big beard, big chest, and big enough to make the floor groan under his boots. He wasn't tall in the normal sense. He was giant. Thirteen meters if Do-hyun had to exaggerate, but even if he was half that, the guy looked like a damn wall of muscle with a pulse.

The receptionist straightened immediately, her voice turning from iron to honey. "Ah, Sang-woo-ssi, I was just explaining"

The man waved a hand the size of a dinner table and grunted. "Explaining nothing. This kid's with the captain. You blind or what? Step aside."

Do-hyun blinked, then pointed at himself. "Wait, me?"

Sang-woo's bearded face broke into something between a laugh and a growl. "Yeah, you. Kim Do-hyun, right? Damn, smaller than I thought, but you're still the guest. Go on up. Captain's waiting."

The receptionist looked like she had swallowed a lemon but kept her mouth shut.

Do-hyun couldn't help himself. He leaned a little closer to her desk and whispered with a grin. "Told you I was the real deal. Should've believed me, noona."

Her glare could have killed him if looks worked like aura, but by then, Do-hyun was already walking toward the elevators behind Sang-woo.

The ride up was quiet except for the faint hum of the elevator. Sang-woo scratched his beard like he was digging for treasure, while Do-hyun kept his hands deep in his pockets, his brain racing. If the captain really was waiting for him, that meant this wasn't some random goodwill gesture. Guild leaders didn't meet strays for fun. They always wanted something. The only question was: what the hell did Candace Guild want from him?

The doors opened to a wide office with walls that weren't walls at all, just glass stretching into the city lights. Paintings covered the few solid sections, each one heavy with color and emotion, the type you didn't understand unless you had lost something. The captain of Candace Guild sat at the far end, not at a desk, but in front of one of those paintings, brush still in his hand, eyes lingering on the strokes like he was painting memories instead of pictures.

"Come in," the captain's voice carried without him turning around. Calm, heavy, the type of voice that could silence a room without raising an octave.

Do-hyun stepped inside, and the first thing he noticed wasn't the painting or the expensive furniture, but the way the captain looked at him when he finally turned. Not like an employer sizing up an applicant, but like a man measuring the weight of another's scars.

"I'm glad you made it back safely," the captain said, setting the brush aside. "I was curious… how did you recover so fast? That wound should have kept you down for weeks."

Do-hyun scratched the back of his neck, awkward but honest. "If it wasn't for Han Sen, I wouldn't even be standing here. Guy pulled me out before things got worse."

The captain nodded, lips pressing thin, but his eyes didn't look away. "I only did what anyone should have, kid."

Do-hyun shook his head immediately, heat rising in his chest. "Nah. Don't try to play it off like that. You didn't just save me. You saved my whole family. You rushed them to medical care before I even thought straight. That wasn't normal kindness. That was more than enough, and you know it."

For a moment, silence stretched between them, broken only by the faint city noise beyond the glass walls.

Do-hyun narrowed his eyes, voice dropping. "So tell me something, Captain… why'd you go so far for me?"