Chapter 4 – Let's Just Eat One! (Part Two)

“Grrr!”

The monster, a Forn, was making a mess of the fruit display.

Il-hyeon, paring knife raised, successfully circled behind the creature.

He should have been terrified—it was his first time seeing a monster in the flesh, not on a screen—but his desire to devour the Ether within it was stronger.

*I’ll end this in one blow.*

Il-hyeon knew he was inexperienced. A prolonged fight would be dangerous, its outcome uncertain.

He had to capitalize on the element of surprise and finish it instantly.

He gripped the knife tighter and approached the Forn from behind.

“Hup!”

With all his might, Il-hyeon plunged the paring knife into the back of its neck.

The surprise attack was a success.

The Forn didn’t notice until the blade touched its skin, and Il-hyeon’s strike landed squarely on its neck.

But there was one problem.

*Screech!*

“Huh?”

The paring knife, aimed for the neck, crumpled as easily as if it were made of paper.

His intended fatal blow was effortlessly blocked by the creature’s tough hide.

The only reason it drew any blood at all—barely enough to pop a pimple—was because it was backed by the strength of an Awakened.

“Ah…”

Stunned, Il-hyeon stared blankly at the pathetic remains of his first cherished blade.

“Kieeeek!”

“Wait, wait, wait!”

The Forn, caught off guard by the attack, went berserk and charged at him.

Faced with this unexpected turn, Il-hyeon fled, regretting not having grabbed a larger kitchen knife.

He had debated between a paring knife and a kitchen knife, ultimately choosing the paring knife because it was easier to conceal.

Of course, unless it was an AT Sword, the outcome would have been the same.

*Crash!* The Forn’s crude-looking spear shattered the concrete wall right behind Il-hyeon.

“You crazy bastard!”

Cursing, Il-hyeon raised his fists.

Running any further wouldn’t solve anything.

*I don’t have time for this.*

He was stealing a monster from the company in charge, so he had to finish the job as quickly as possible and get out.

Getting caught while hesitating would be the worst-case scenario, regardless of the outcome.

The Forn swung its spear fiercely, but Il-hyeon calmed himself and dodged the attacks with his drastically improved reflexes.

Then, finding an opening, he threw a punch.

*Thwack!*

The Forn’s head snapped to the side from the direct hit to its face.

The impact was like being hit by a cannonball.

It seemed to have taken some damage, but it was far from enough to bring it down.

The Forn shook its head and thrust its spear toward Il-hyeon’s stomach.

Il-hyeon barely managed to snatch the incoming spear, gripping it tightly.

“Don’t be selfish, give it here!”

The Forn and Il-hyeon pulled on the spear, and an impromptu tug-of-war began.

They gritted their teeth, locked in a tense struggle for dominance.

But the spear gradually moved toward Il-hyeon, and he sensed victory was near.

Just then, the Forn lowered its head.

Wondering why it was suddenly bowing, Il-hyeon saw a poison dart flying toward him and threw himself to the side in terror.

He was just wearing a similar-looking coat; it had none of the defensive functions of a real Defensive Coat.

“Hey, you coward!”

Il-hyeon, having narrowly escaped death, shouted.

But his opponent was a monster that didn’t understand words. It charged at the fallen Il-hyeon, swinging its spear.

The creature acted so quickly that it was too late to dodge.

Just as he thought that.

In that moment of crisis, his ability manifested.

A powerful force flowed into the hand touching the floor, and the ground beneath the Forn erupted.

*Shhhk!*

Huge spikes shot up, brutally piercing the Forn’s body.

It died without a sound, left dangling in the air like a skewered, roasted frog.

“Hah, hah.”

Il-hyeon gasped for breath.

“Pfft, I must be crazy.”

As the adrenaline from the fight subsided, the recklessness of his actions struck him as absurd.

But instead of serious reflection, a cheerful laugh escaped him.

A good outcome makes the process seem good in hindsight.

Il-hyeon shot to his feet and approached the dead monster’s corpse.

The red-skinned monster was impaled on the spikes, its body twisted in death.

“Hoo, let’s hurry up and get out of here.”

Il-hyeon looked at the Forn’s dripping corpse with a troubled expression, then took a deep breath and reached out.

“Ugh!”

He gagged as he began to dig into the corpse’s body.

Normally, one would use a small extractor to retrieve the Ether, but such equipment was a luxury he couldn’t afford. He had no choice but to pull it out with his bare hands.

“Please, just come out already…”

Il-hyeon grimaced as entrails tumbled out.

***

With the situation under control, the Awakened team from Dein Company gathered the corpses to one side and began counting them for Ether retrieval.

Meanwhile, a search operation was underway elsewhere.

“Over here! Found it!”

Inside the building, one of the Awakened had found the Forn that had gotten away.

Hearing his shout, his colleagues rushed over.

A tattered corpse lay on the floor, seemingly pierced by something large.

“What the? If someone already killed it, they should have said so. We searched for nothing.”

The Awakened who had been searching grumbled.

They had spent over ten minutes looking for the last monster, only to find it had already been dealt with.

“Wait, looks like someone took the core.”

A man pointed to the artificially gouged chest cavity.

Thinking it couldn’t be, they used an extractor to check inside, but the Ether core was indeed gone.

Everyone’s expression turned grim.

“Son of a bitch, who was it?! I told you I’d kill anyone who pulled this shit!”

The team’s grim-faced leader roared.

He looked menacing enough to kill someone on the spot.

Someone next to him stepped in to calm him down.

“Calm down. It was probably a Scavenger.”

Scavengers.

The term referred to those who appeared at unauthorized Gate sites to steal or snatch monster Ether.

Because cores were so valuable, such uninvited guests often flocked to the sites.

They wouldn’t dare mess with large corporations or high-ranking Awakened, but for the relatively easy targets—the lower-ranking Awakened—they were a detestable public enemy.

“Damn Scavengers. I thought they were almost all gone these days.”

While hyenas targeting Ether were still rampant overseas, the Korean government had once conducted a massive crackdown.

As Korea had the largest Gate-related market, and since Ether cores circulating on the black market posed a risk of misuse, the government had felt the need to regulate the situation.

As a result, individual Scavengers had become a rare sight in the country.

“And the police couldn’t even stop one of them from getting in? What the hell are they doing?”

The man, fuming with anger, left the scene to confront the police officers.

They had many people to split the earnings with, and as a small company, securing decent sites wasn’t easy.

On top of that, with high taxes, their income wasn’t as generous as the public perception of the Awakened suggested.

The loss of a single monster’s core was more than enough to set them on edge.

“Ah, did you find the last monster?”

Seeing the Awakened from Dein Company approach, the police officer in charge greeted him warmly.

The middle-aged officer was eager to wrap things up and get ready to go home.

“Hey, what were you doing while a Scavenger waltzed right up to the Gate and back?”

“Excuse me? What are you talking about all of a sudden?”

The officer, taken aback by the man’s abrupt accusation, asked in confusion.

“Some bastard killed one of our monsters behind our backs and took off with the core. Isn’t it your job to stop things like that from happening?”

“We’re here to protect the citizens. And that’s impossible. No one, not even our own personnel, crossed the barricade.”

“Ha, then let’s check the CCTV. I’ll be filing a claim for damages against you, just so you know.”

Unable to contain his agitation, the man strode forward.

Another officer who had been loitering nearby sidled up.

“Give me a break.”

“It’s obvious one of their own backstabbed them and hid it. Why are they taking it out on us?”

“How should I know? Contact headquarters and ask for the surrounding CCTV footage. Just when I thought I could finally go home.”

The officer clicked his tongue, took off his hat, tucked it under his arm, and followed the Awakened who had walked ahead.

***

A few Awakened and police officers sat in the back of a police truck, examining a screen.

The truck was outfitted with various pieces of equipment, ready to be used as a temporary command center at a moment’s notice.

“The footage is here.”

An officer spoke, then displayed the video on the screen.

Everyone’s eyes focused on it.

They played footage from all the CCTV cameras around the barricade simultaneously, adjusting the playback speed to check for anyone coming or going.

A considerable amount of time passed in silence before the video stopped.

“See? No one passed through.”

“That can’t be right…”

The Awakened clutched his head in denial, but there was truly no one.

They rewound and watched again, just in case they had missed something, but the result was the same.

The only incident was a drunkard on camera 11 to the north trying to enter the barricaded area before being stopped by the police.

The Awakened’s expression darkened.

“Well… looks like one of your team members caused the trouble.”

“Ugh, damn it. We don’t know that for sure. Let’s check the CCTVs inside.”

“What’s the point of looking at the inside footage if no one came in or out through the entrance?”

“Fine, then let’s watch it so I can at least find the team member who stole it and beat the crap out of them.”

The Awakened sighed deeply, and the officer nodded with a reluctant expression.

The paused videos switched to the CCTV footage from inside the restricted zone.

The other officers glared at the grim-faced man for needlessly complicating things, and he covered his forehead with one hand.

Another team member, watching from the side, asked him.

“What are you going to do?”

“If this happens once or twice, it’ll never end. I have to make an example of them and crush them.”

“What?”

The team member looked around in shock.

Fortunately, the police were either sipping coffee and chatting among themselves or focused on the screen, so they hadn’t heard.

“Are you serious?”

“Yeah. It’s not like one or two Awakened die while clearing Gates. I’ll take this chance to show them what happens when you mess around.”

The man spoke quietly. As he did, someone appeared on the screen.

“Wait, there. The bastard who went in first.”

“I see him. He’s wearing a Defensive Coat, so he must be an Awakened. Can you identify him?”

Everyone stared at the paused CCTV screen.

But the blurry silhouette was completely different from what they had expected.

“What the…? That doesn’t look like anyone from our team.”

“All nine of our guys are accounted for on other cameras, so who the hell is that? Fast-forward a bit.”

At his word, the footage jumped forward, and the culprit was shown exiting the building.

But it was impossible to make out the culprit’s face.

“Damn it, the quality is too poor and it’s too dark to see. Are there any other angles?”

“What you’re seeing is all we have.”

As they stared intently at the screen, the culprit’s figure suddenly vanished.

“Huh? He should be appearing at the next camera point. Why did he suddenly disappear? Did you skip ahead?”

“It looks like he just left.”

The middle-aged officer looked at his subordinate and asked, but the subordinate shook his head.

The footage hadn’t been fast-forwarded, nor had the camera angle changed.

He had simply disappeared from the camera’s range without a trace and hadn’t reappeared.

“That’s impossible. We blocked off all the windows leading outside. How?”

The building on the path covered by the camera didn’t even have any windows on its back side that could be climbed through.

No matter how many times they replayed the footage, he vanished at the same point and was never seen again.

“An ability?”

“That’s right. An Awakened with an ability like passing through walls could get out easily.”

A female officer behind him chimed in, agreeing with the middle-aged officer.

But the grim-faced Awakened waved his hand dismissively.

“Why would an Awakened with an ability like that resort to being a Scavenger? Isn’t it just that your security was lax?”

“Hey, we just watched the footage together. What are you talking about?”

“Haaah…”

The Ether thief who had vanished without a trace left officials from both sides in a state of confusion.

While the two of them argued, the actual culprit who stole the core was calmly riding a bus home.