Chapter 6 – Bounty Hunting (Part One)

Out of the taxi driver’s sight, Il-hyeon transformed the wood chip.

He shaped it into a small mouse, even coloring it gray.

From a distance, it would be hard to tell it apart from a real mouse.

Then, he overlaid his ability on it once more.

“Done.”

A small mouse squeaked softly and sniffed Il-hyeon’s hand.

He quickly covered its mouth to keep it from making noise, then carefully examined the result of his ability.

The shape was quite convincing, just like the pictures of mice he had looked up at home. He didn’t have to worry about it looking unnatural.

The reason he had suddenly created a mouse.

Was to use its sense of smell to find the holed-up monster.

He had heard that a mouse’s sense of smell was as developed as a dog’s.

Plus, its small size made it inconspicuous—perfect for the job.

The problem was whether a mouse made of wood would even have a sense of smell.

“Hey, can you smell anything?”

Il-hyeon whispered, holding out his palm to the mouse.

The mouse sniffed at his hand and then, as if it understood him, nodded its head vigorously.

He used to be disgusted by real mice, finding them repulsive, but this one he had summoned himself, and for some reason, he felt a strange sense of familiarity with it.

“Good, I’m counting on you.”

He felt the taxi driver glancing at him strangely in the rearview mirror as he muttered to himself in the back, but that wasn’t important to Il-hyeon right now.

He slipped the wriggling mouse into his shirt pocket and continued to monitor the situation online.

‘Ugh, it looks disgusting.’

Il-hyeon shuddered as he looked at a picture of the monster.

Once the news broke, information about the beast-type monster that had appeared, a Balak, started popping up all over the internet.

It had never appeared in the country before, but thanks to a few appearances in the Middle East, there was data on it.

It was highly aggressive towards humans and liked to find a spot to hole up in, making it a real headache if you lost track of it.

On top of that, the government had posted a bounty of 4 million won per monster, separate from the Ether it would yield.

‘Finding it is going to be tough.’

Low-rank Awakened, who already fiercely competed for site permits, would be flocking to hunt this monster, and now there was a bounty too.

Besides, the little guy in his pocket wasn’t exactly a guaranteed trump card for finding the monster.

Still, this was a much better opportunity than the high-risk business of stealing Ether from someone else’s site.

He had no intention of giving up.

“Are you an Awakened, by any chance?”

During a stop at a red light, the driver struck up a conversation, glancing at him in the rearview mirror.

Il-hyeon hesitated for a moment before nodding.

There seemed to be no reason to hide it.

“I was wondering why you were heading to a place like this. So, do you have an ability?”

“…No, I don’t.”

His ability, however, was a different story.

Awakened who possessed abilities, even low-rank ones, were monitored by the government.

Even a minor ability, if misused, could cause significant social disruption.

The taxi driver, his hair graying, continued.

“Money’s good and all, but be careful. My son got hurt badly doing that kind of work. He thought his life would turn around just by becoming an Awakened.”

“Ah…”

It was a common story.

Hidden behind the glamorous, famous Awakened who always captured the public’s attention were those who were injured and killed.

The taxi turned down an alley and stopped.

“This is as far as I can go. Ilyeon-dong is just over that hill, so you can head that way.”

“Thank you.”

After putting on the coat he had brought, Il-hyeon got out of the taxi and looked around.

The area was mostly intact, but a slightly damaged section of the road caught his eye, suggesting a monster had come this far.

Despite being in the middle of the city, there were hardly any cars or people around.

“They couldn’t have collected all the carcasses already, could they?”

Feeling a little anxious, Il-hyeon quickened his pace.

The monster’s carcass needed to be at the scene for him to begin tracking it smoothly.

It was still early, the chilly autumn morning air filling his lungs, but with an emergency declared, the clean-up crew might have worked faster than usual.

As he walked closer to Ilyeon-dong, people began to appear one by one.

The streets were still quiet, but there were more people here than where he had first gotten out.

Most of the people he saw were Awakened in coats or special police personnel, all dedicated to searching buildings and alleys.

Il-hyeon watched the scene with interest.

“Hello?”

“Whoa!”

A woman’s voice suddenly spoke from behind him, and Il-hyeon jumped, whirling around.

He hadn’t felt her presence at all; somehow, she had gotten right behind him.

This was the first time something like this had happened since he’d Awakened.

“Oh, I’m sorry.”

Seeing his reaction, she gave an embarrassed smile and took a small step back.

A beautiful woman with calm, brown, bobbed hair and dressed in a casual suit stood there.

In one hand, she held a large camera.

Judging by her attire, she didn’t seem to be an Awakened who had come to fight monsters.

“I was just curious what you were doing in a fake coat.”

the woman said, looking him up and down.

Caught off guard by the direct accusation, Il-hyeon stammered.

“I-I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Hmm… There’s no Defensive Coat with that design.”

“How would you know that?”

Il-hyeon stared at the woman, bewildered.

While Defensive Coats weren’t something you could make just anywhere, there were hundreds of different types around the world.

Besides, they weren’t seasonal, they were all black, and they all looked more or less the same, so telling them apart by design was absurd.

“I just have a good eye for things.”

The woman shrugged, then suddenly stepped forward and flipped over one of his lapels.

Startled, Il-hyeon blinked.

“There’s supposed to be a round emitter here, but there’s nothing.”

She pointed to the back of the lapel.

The barrier emitters, which should be located in various places on the coat, were essential for the Defensive Coat’s basic protective function to work.

Without emitters, it couldn’t be called a Defensive Coat.

As Il-hyeon stood there, tongue-tied and fidgeting, the woman slowly let go of his lapel.

“You don’t seem foolish enough to run around playing Awakened with no gear… Are you a civilian?”

“No, I’m an Awakened. I just haven’t been one for long, so my equipment is…”

Il-hyeon paused mid-excuse.

“But… who are you?”

“Oh, me? I’m Park So-yeon, a reporter for JTR’s Gate department.”

She held up the large camera in her hand.

“Ah…”

JTR was one of the top five largest broadcasting companies in the country.

He should have guessed from the camera, but it hadn’t crossed his mind at all.

She gave off the vibe of someone who worked in the field, rather than a reporter.

Why was that?

“So you’re not affiliated with anyone yet? It’s dangerous to fight without equipment… Why not join a team?”

“I haven’t found one I like yet. But aren’t you in more danger than I am, miss reporter?”

Il-hyeon asked.

When it came to danger, a civilian coming here alone to report was obviously in a much more precarious position than an Awakened.

“Hehe, you don’t need to worry about me.”

Park So-yeon laughed pleasantly and brushed it off.

“I can’t just stand by when a story like this breaks. Anyway, I’m glad. There are more people than you’d think who underestimate monsters and rush in unprepared. Believe it or not.”

Just as she said, civilians sometimes appeared, trying to hunt monsters—either because they idolized the Awakened or were desperate for money.

In a well-prepared country like theirs, they rarely encountered monsters. On top of that, movies and comics often depicted ordinary people getting lucky and taking down monsters, making them think they could do it too.

They would set out on their hunts with what they considered thorough preparations—homemade bombs or air guns—but the outcome of such recklessness was always predictable.

Park So-yeon was probably referring to those incidents that occasionally made the news, but her words made Il-hyeon feel a pang of guilt, reminding him of when he had charged in with a kitchen knife.

“Oh, right. Have you by any chance seen where the monster carcasses are?”

Il-hyeon quickly asked, remembering his urgent task.

A reporter covering the scene would have already visited the location of the carcasses, so this was a perfect opportunity.

“The carcasses? They were collected a while ago. Public opinion is already in an uproar; you think they’d just leave them out on the street?”

“Damn…”

But the disappointing answer came, and Il-hyeon sighed.

Without a carcass, the mouse wriggling diligently in his pocket was useless.

He would have to search aimlessly, wandering around like everyone else.

“I don’t know why you’re looking for monster carcasses, but that’s too bad. Everything was cleared up two hours ago.”

“Yes… thank you. At least I didn’t waste my time. If that’s all, I should get going. I need to find that monster quickly.”

Monster carcasses were inherently highly toxic and could carry unknown pathogens.

Therefore, the fact that the clean-up crew had collected the carcasses and withdrawn meant that the disinfection process was also complete.

There was no way any scent would remain.

As the disappointed Il-hyeon turned to leave, Park So-yeon stopped him.

“Excuse me, could I get your name too? I feel like I’m the only one who introduced myself.”

“Ah, it’s Kang Il-hyeon.”

“Kang Il-hyeon… Il-hyeon… Mr. Il-hyeon? Okay, got it.”

Park So-yeon repeated his name aloud as if trying to commit it to memory.

Then she spoke again.

“I think we’ll meet again. I have a feeling you’re going to succeed, Mr. Il-hyeon.”

“Haha, thank you.”

Il-hyeon chuckled and brushed it off as nothing important.

But Park So-yeon, though smiling, looked at him earnestly and said.

“I’m not kidding. I have a good feeling about these things.”