Chapter 128 – Headhunter (Part Eight)

KABOOM!

A wall burst open from an explosion, sending debris flying in every direction.

A man was thrown out from within, tumbling across the floor.

He was an executive from one of the five criminal organizations that had joined forces to seize the city, known by his wanted name, Karim.

“All this trouble for an inevitable outcome.”

Il-hyeon emerged from beyond the billowing dust.

He had come to support the struggling city stabilization operation and to recruit a talent with an SS-rank ability, but after continuously encountering dangerous factions scattered throughout, he had focused his efforts on dealing with them first.

With citizens suffering from their indiscriminate violence, solving this problem was the priority.

Not long after Il-hyeon entered the city and acted alone, three of the five organizations behind the incident were annihilated.

Il-hyeon dusted off his hands, approached the fallen man, and lifted him by the collar.

“Tell me… why are you all bent on self-destruction?”

Il-hyeon posed the question to the man.

“Even if I hadn’t come, you couldn’t have lasted long after pulling a stunt like this. You must have known your forces would eventually be wiped out.”

“No, we will be the ones to win in the end.”

The communicator in Il-hyeon’s ear translated the man’s words for him.

Despite his entire organization being utterly crushed by a single person, his tone was articulate and filled with confidence.

Sighing, Il-hyeon summoned a black insect onto his palm and made it enter the man’s mouth.

“Ugh…!”

It was useless to struggle and resist.

The pitch-black insect, fluid as a shadow, instantly passed through his mouth and reached his brain.

This was already his eighth interrogation. He had made other members spill the truth before, and there had been no hitches.

Unlike before, these guys weren’t Awakened created through artificial procedures, nor were they ordinary members bound by any sort of brainwashing.

But the thoughts he read this time were even stranger than those of the brainwashed puppets.

They simply believed that after their organizations joined forces, they could crush the world’s governments and usher in their own era.

It was an overly simplistic way of thinking.

These guys, who were grossly overestimating their own strength against the world’s governments and Awakened, had been told that the coalition of organizations had some kind of ace up their sleeve, and they believed it wholeheartedly.

And the man before him, an executive, was no different.

“You made a decision like this based on such a ridiculous idea…?”

He had examined them carefully during the interrogations, just in case, but there were no signs of mental manipulation from an ability.

Their minds were completely clean, as if they had never experienced mental interference in their lives.

“I just don’t get it.”

Il-hyeon shook his head.

Either they really had something hidden that made them so confident in this gamble, or they were fools of the century, betting it all with nothing to back them up.

Of course, in either case, Il-hyeon couldn’t comprehend how the grunts had believed it so blindly without any proof.

‘And they don’t even know about the gate that opened in the middle of the city.’

A B3-grade gate had appeared beneath the city, yet the organizations in control had made no preparations.

Perhaps there was a wide disparity between the numerous organizations that had banded together, because their intelligence seemed severely lacking compared to what they usually displayed.

Il-hyeon scoffed and dragged the unconscious executive out of the building.

Outside, on the ruined and messy street, he was met by several Awakened wearing Defensive Coats.

“This side is finished too.”

Il-hyeon said to the group of Awakened.

At that, Kim Jong-ho and Choi Yu-na, famous B-rank Awakened from Union, quickly came forward and took the executive he was dragging.

“Haha… you’re incredible, as always. You can leave the rest to us now.”

“There are still many criminals in hiding, and there’s a B-rank gate. Will you be alright?”

“There’s plenty of time before the gate activates, and you’ve already done so much. We at Union can certainly handle the remaining forces.”

Kim Jong-ho, a man with a friendly face, said with a reassuring smile.

Union, one of the six major Awakened corporations, said to possess the strongest forces after the undisputed top two, Aegis and the government’s Response Team.

Among the so-called Big 6, it boasted the largest workforce and scale.

Compared to Althena, which possessed many high-level Awakened of exceptional skill, Union was relatively underrated. Nevertheless, due to its large scale, it consistently achieved the highest results.

The gate and the city reclamation proved it.

For this operation, which was tantamount to a large-scale project, over fifty people were dispatched, led by two B-rank Awakened who were practically their star players.

“We’ve almost taken back the northern district. It should all be wrapped up in two or three hours. I heard you have other business here…”

“Hmm… that’s right. I’ll leave it to you, then. Good work.”

Il-hyeon nodded, left the scene to them without another word, and departed.

Union would be able to suppress the remaining forces with little damage anyway, and he had already delayed too long with the person he intended to recruit.

He had prevented the man from getting caught up in trouble by having the mouse stick with him, but it seemed he was about to leave the city soon.

*Whistle!*

Il-hyeon whistled, and his summons descended from the sky.

They were bird summons, including a hawk that had been carrying the injured.

“Good work.”

Il-hyeon patted each of the creatures gathered around him in small groups, then dismissed the summons with a snap of his fingers.

He had already evacuated everyone in immediate danger, and with nearly half the city reclaimed, the rest could be left to Union and the military police.

Il-hyeon flicked his bloodstained sword with a finger.

The red blood on the blade lifted slightly into the air, coalesced into a glob, and then dropped to the ground with a plop.

Il-hyeon shouldered the clean sword and walked in the direction of the mouse.

* * *

Two people were walking side by side down a silent street that was so ruined it looked like a wasteland.

No, to be precise, it was an animal and a person.

Though Jo Nam-seok firmly believed it was two people.

“Hey, buddy.”

“Squeak?”

“Well, I don’t know much about it, but is your ability something that prevents you from changing back until a certain time passes? Or are you just a really shy fellow?”

“Squeak squeak…”

The questioning Jo Nam-seok stroked his beard, pondering the possibilities, but received no answer other than squeaks.

That was to be expected, as the mouse couldn’t communicate properly with anyone but Il-hyeon. In fact, it was feeling even more frustrated than Jo Nam-seok, who was letting his imagination run wild.

“Well, either way… looks like you have your reasons. If you think you’ll come back, just say the word, buddy.”

Jo Nam-seok said coolly.

He then opened the bag he was carrying and looked down at the artifact inside.

“Okay, looks like this job wrapped up nicely. I’m about to get my hands on a good chunk of change for the first time in a while. I could give you a cut, you know.”

“Squeak?”

“Why so surprised? Half of this is practically yours, so we should split it. You think I’m some kind of thief? And compared to the price of my life, this is a bargain.”

“Squeak squeak…”

“Hahaha! No need to get so emotional. Letting my savior go empty-handed is a matter of pride for me.”

Jo Nam-seok laughed cheerfully at the sight of the mouse looking up from the ground, its eyes sparkling.

“By the way, there’s something I’ve always been curious about…”

“Squeak?”

“When you’re in an animal’s body, what does it feel like to move your tail? That thing attached to your butt.”

Jo Nam-seok pointed at the mouse’s swaying tail.

“Is it a completely new sensation, different from your usual senses? Or is it like having an extra arm on your backside? Hmm… now that I say it out loud, the latter doesn’t sound very pleasant.”

“Squeak squeak…”

* * *

“Ugh, these bug-like bastards… Why would they hide in a place like this?”

The man’s face contorted at the overwhelming stench.

Three men were walking through a vast sewer, and they all felt the same way.

The large, reddish-brown marks on the backs and arms of their Defensive Coats made it easy to tell they were Awakened from Union.

“This isn’t even a place where filth flows, so what’s that smell… I’d believe it if you told me there was a pile of monster corpses here.”

“Yeah, I was just about to say that!”

Another Awakened chimed in.

The nauseating smell, so foul it felt like it could suck out your soul, was identical to the stench of rotting monster corpses.

“You don’t think a gate opened up ahead of schedule or something, do you? I heard the jammers the terrorists set up have been causing a lot of accidents.”

“Haha, no way. This area isn’t even where the gate was supposed to appear…”

The man, who had been chuckling, suddenly stopped mid-sentence.

A corpse was sticking out from the passage just ahead.

And it wasn’t human.

“Holy shit…!”

*Shing!*

The three Awakened drew their swords simultaneously.

A bizarre shape they’d never seen before, with black skin that oozed a thick fluid.

That was definitely a monster’s corpse.

The Awakened cautiously took their stances, quickly scanning their surroundings for any presence.

‘There was definitely no signal. The gate they found wasn’t even in this location…!’

There was no immediate presence targeting them.

But they couldn’t just run away. They had to at least get a proper look at what appeared to be a monster corpse up ahead.

They advanced cautiously, swords raised.

“Ugh… what is this…?”

“Did the guys hiding here get caught up in this?”

The wide, curving passage was piled high with the bodies of organization members.

But the bigger problem was that the corpses of common monsters, emitting a horrendous stench, were also scattered among the human bodies.

Judging by the signs of a fierce battle, it seemed the two groups had fought each other.

After surveying the scene, they grabbed their communicators to report this to the others.

In response, the command they contacted only replied that they were checking on it.

“None of them have been dead for long. It must be somewhere close by…”

At that moment, an unidentifiable sound echoed softly from the ceiling, and all three of them looked up at once.

A silver monster, standing upside down on the ceiling, was staring down at them with a red gleam in its eyes.

Straight limbs, a body covered in a brilliant silver light.

The creature, which had the form of a humanoid monster, possessed such a graceful and beautiful appearance that the simple word ‘monster’ didn’t seem to fit.

The moment the Awakened saw it, they recognized what it was.

“Asu…? Why is something like that here…?”

*Swish!*

The moment the silver monster’s feet left the ceiling, the protective function of their Defensive Coats was shattered.

And three heads dropped off, rolling across the floor.