Chapter 7 – Bounty Hunting (Part Two)

Drained of all energy, Il-hyeon trudged through the empty alley.

He’d been excited, thinking he might get his hands on two or more Ether Cores at once if he was lucky. He’d even taken an expensive taxi, only to find himself at a dead end.

‘I should’ve just looked for another job. I rushed here for nothing.’

Just then, a mouse scurried out from the adjacent commercial building, squeaking.

The creature, running frantically, circled around Il-hyeon’s legs.

He picked it up and placed it on his palm.

“Well? Was there anything in that building?”

As Il-hyeon asked, the tiny mouse nodded its head vigorously.

He had been meticulously searching the buildings and streets with his summoned creatures.

Since there were quite a few other people around and the search was limited to this area, he thought someone would find the monster quickly.

But with numerous high-rise apartments and many locked spaces nearby, it was taking much longer than expected.

“Well… it’s still better than searching alone. Oops.”

Sensing someone approaching, Il-hyeon quickly hid the mouse back inside his coat.

Two men who looked like Awakened were talking as they ran in one direction.

“Where did they say they found it?”

“Holed up in the library’s basement storage. Ah, damn it. Only three left now. I was hoping to score big since I don’t have any work right now.”

“If we just catch one, we get the bounty, plus the Ether payment, tax-free. Man…”

“And the company won’t take a cut. Let’s just find one before it’s too late.”

The two men, likely searching for the monster, hurried off in the opposite direction.

Hearing their words, Il-hyeon immediately ran toward the library.

The only library around here was in the next neighborhood, not far from his current location.

Il-hyeon sprinted at a speed that would put a track star to shame, arriving at the library to find a little over ten people gathered out front.

Except for two police officers who had rushed over after hearing the news, everyone else was an Awakened.

“It’s coming out!”

A man shouted as the library’s main entrance creaked open.

“Ugh!”

A man and a woman in black coats emerged, dragging a monster’s corpse behind them.

It was a gruesome monster, dripping with crimson blood.

It was a Ballack, a four-legged beast with bumpy black skin and a long tail.

“Fuck, it was eating someone.”

The man who had dragged the monster out cursed as he threw the corpse to the ground.

Even if this was their line of work, seeing a monster devouring an innocent security guard whole was bound to stir strong feelings of hostility and disgust.

With a wet thud, people gathered around to get a look.

“So this is what it looks like?”

“Looks strange.”

‘Looks better in person, though.’

Il-hyeon, mixed in with the crowd, made his own assessment of the monster’s appearance.

Just seeing its picture on a dark background, probably with good lighting, had been enough to send a chill down his spine, but seeing it in person, he felt nothing.

Had becoming an Awakened made him fearless?

Just then, an unexpected woman crossed the street from the other side.

It was Park So-yeon, whom he had met and said goodbye to just twenty minutes earlier.

She approached the man and woman who had brought out the monster.

“Excuse me… are there any remains of the victim?”

“Huh? Aren’t you Park So-yeon, the reporter?”

“Yes, that’s right. By any chance, could I see the scene where it was first discovered?”

“Of course.”

“This way, please.”

Unnoticed by Il-hyeon in the crowd, Park So-yeon followed the pair into the building.

Il-hyeon watched with interest and thought.

‘Do they know each other? Or is she some well-known reporter?’

Il-hyeon, who had once been certain he would become an Awakened, had been humiliated during his test at age twenty. Since then, just hearing about other Awakened made him sick with envy, so he had done his best to tune out that world.

As a result, it was impossible for him to recognize someone just because they were a little famous.

Unless they were people who had been famous for a long time, like Ryu Jin-tae or Min Ji-hoon.

‘Anyway, they just left the corpse here.’

The Ether must have already been extracted, as the corpse had been left carelessly tossed aside.

For the most part, the byproducts of a monster corpse without Ether were completely useless.

The flesh was inedible, not even fit for animal feed, and the bones and hide would rot quickly, emitting a potent toxin.

Occasionally, a few people would smuggle and use them as ingredients for aphrodisiacs or cure-all medicines, but at the very least, no one who had consumed them was still alive.

Furthermore, disposing of them was difficult, requiring a complicated process at a specialized monster corpse disposal facility.

“Damn it, we were just wasting our time, and one got caught.”

“We’ve searched almost everywhere. Where could they be hiding? I don’t get it.”

“I heard they can dig. You think they dug a burrow somewhere and are hiding?”

The Awakened, tired from their search, chattered among themselves.

Growing anxious, Il-hyeon licked his lips.

It was good that a monster, a major threat to citizens, had been caught, but he needed to find his own share.

‘Still, it’s a good thing a corpse showed up.’

Il-hyeon lingered for a moment, waiting.

Once the crowd had thinned out and people’s attention was elsewhere, he tapped his left breast with his fingers.

A mouse peeked its head out from the inner pocket of his coat.

They exchanged a look, and the mouse proceeded as instructed.

Leaping from inside Il-hyeon’s coat, it cautiously scanned its surroundings before darting toward the monster’s corpse.

Fortunately, no one saw it.

Meanwhile, Il-hyeon went to wait in a deserted corner behind the building.

Thanks to a fence, there was no risk of being seen.

“Did you get it?”

The mouse scurried over and stopped in front of Il-hyeon.

It nodded, then opened its tiny mouth wide.

A piece of the monster’s flesh, surprisingly large for its small mouth, dropped to the ground.

A smile formed on Il-hyeon’s lips as he saw the still-twitching flesh.

“Alright, shall we begin?”

* * *

“Eek!”

A female Awakened shrieked and jumped back in surprise at the sight of mice suddenly crossing the road.

The man accompanying her had the same reaction.

“What the hell? What are those?”

The startled man flinched.

Five mice were running in a line, dashing fiercely across the nearby road.

It was a sight he had never seen before.

They passed quickly, but the startled woman still shuddered as if she had the chills.

“Ugh, so gross. Who sees rats these days? This isn’t the countryside.”

“You’re scared of rats, but you stand your ground in front of monsters?”

“Is that the same thing? They’re all squirmy and disgusting. Besides, I saw your face tense up too, you know?”

“I was just surprised to see rats in the middle of the city.”

“Yeah, right. Last time, you made a huge fuss about a moth monster being gross.”

The woman scoffed.

With his past brought up, the man had no comeback and shut his mouth.

He could still remember the feeling of meeting the dozens of eyes of a moth larger than a person.

That thing had been truly disgusting.

Unwilling to back down, the man thought about how to tease the woman, then looked at her feet and shouted.

“Hey, hey! A rat, at your feet!”

“Are you an idiot? As if I’d fall for that… Aah!”

The woman fell backward in shock.

She had assumed it was a joke, but a rat was standing on her foot.

As the panicked woman created a scene, the tiny mouse, startled itself, scurried away.

“Why are there so many rats!”

The woman, now angry, shrieked.

“Maybe there’s a rat’s nest nearby.”

The man, also puzzled, tilted his head.

It wasn’t the old days; seeing a rat in a city in the 2030s was not a common occurrence.

And to see not just one, but a whole group of them, was definitely strange.

“But didn’t that last rat look a little weird?”

“What do you mean?”

“This might sound weird, but I think its face was a little crooked…”

“Crooked…? I don’t know, I didn’t see it. We can’t find the monster anyway, so let’s just get out of here. This neighborhood sucks in so many ways.”

The woman huffed as she brushed off her knees and stood up.

The man, tired of searching for the monster, readily agreed.

“Yeah, let’s go back.”

* * *

“Oops!”

Il-hyeon, who was fashioning a mouse model from a brick he found on the ground, faltered.

The mouse’s back had curved into a round shape, making it look strange.

‘My concentration is slipping.’

Il-hyeon frowned and rubbed his tired eyes.

‘This is enough. Any more and I’ll be too drained to fight.’

He had been squatting, but now he plopped down on the ground.

He was completely exhausted from continuously creating and summoning mice in the corner behind the building.

Using his ability consumed more stamina than he had expected.

‘Fifty… no, I think I’ve made about seventy. That should be enough.’

Now lying flat on his back, Il-hyeon tossed the half-finished brick aside.

The wood he had packed in his bag had run out long ago.

All that was left to do was wait patiently.

“Damn, what’s that horrible smell?”

He glared at the piece of monster flesh that he’d had the first mouse bring from the Ballack’s corpse.

Though it hadn’t been long, the flesh was already starting to rot, emitting a foul odor that was hard to describe.

It was thanks to this stolen piece of flesh that he was able to create dozens of mice and have them scour the city.

Create the mice, have them learn the scent of the monster’s corpse, and then send them out to track.

The Special Police seemed to be using two or three police dogs, but he had dozens.

“I can’t even throw it away. This is driving me crazy.”

Il-hyeon grumbled.

He couldn’t move from his spot, so all he could do was turn his head to the side.

The smell persisted, but thankfully, a squeak soon came to his rescue.

Hearing the sound from behind him, a startled Il-hyeon sat up and turned around.

A single mouse was looking up at him.

It must have been rummaging all over, because unlike when he first sent it out, it was now soaking wet and quite dirty.

“Did you find it?”

When Il-hyeon asked, the creature nodded.

The good news instantly blew away his fatigue and irritation.

He sprang to his feet and followed the mouse as it led the way.

‘I really did send out a lot of them…’

Il-hyeon thought as he saw a mouse scurrying across the street.

He had already encountered them three times while crossing the city.

Of course, you wouldn’t easily spot them unless you were looking closely, so he wasn’t too worried about them drawing attention.

“So, where are we going? Are you sure you found it?”

He looked at the mouse and asked skeptically.

The neighborhoods around Ilyeon-dong, where the Gate first appeared, were within the investigation area, but he and the mouse were now moving beyond that boundary.

Unlike the empty streets around Ilyeon-dong, which were devoid of people except for the Awakened and police, this area was bustling with civilians.

Of course, there was still a sense of unease here too, so foot traffic was lighter than usual.

‘Even for a surprise Gate, there’s no way they could have hidden this far out…’

Regardless of his doubts, the mouse paid him no mind and kept walking.

He had no choice but to follow.

Feeling as if their roles had been reversed, Il-hyeon shoved his hands deep into his coat pockets.

As they walked, the mouse suddenly came to a halt.

It then began to tap on the manhole cover at its feet.

“Don’t tell me?”

Il-hyeon froze on the spot.

The entrance to the sewer.

He knew exactly what the mouse’s actions meant.

Il-hyeon glanced around before lifting the manhole cover.

It was much heavier than he had imagined, but for an Awakened, it was no problem.

The people nearby looked on with curiosity as someone suddenly opened a manhole and went inside, but they didn’t think much of it after seeing his Defensive Coat.

“Wow, I thought being an Awakened was a cushy job… but they even go into sewage water. Gotta respect them from now on.”

“Hey, does that mean there’s a monster down there?”

“Ugh, you idiot. You scared?”

A group of students waiting at a crosswalk watched and snickered amongst themselves, mixing in curses.

Closing the cover halfway, Il-hyeon muttered a curse of his own as he descended the ladder.

“They won’t get it until they run into a monster themselves. Dammit…”

Thud. His feet touched the bottom.

The smell wasn’t too bad, and there was no filthy water with floating debris.

Fortunately, it wasn’t a sewer for carrying wastewater, as the student had suggested.

It seemed to be a storm drain.

“Did it really travel all the way here through this?”

His voice echoed around him.

Usually, unless a manhole was completely destroyed, monsters rarely opened the cover and entered the sewers voluntarily.

By traveling through the sewer, they had stayed far enough away to avoid detection abilities. It seemed these ones were smart.

Il-hyeon took the pieces of his sword from his bag.

The three sharp metal fragments clattered on the ground, making a sharp sound.

He used his ability to assemble the pieces, forming a sword.

“Which way?”

Il-hyeon asked, and the mouse led the way in one direction.

He followed the creature as it moved forward, its nose to the ground, sniffing.

Feeling a bit tense in the long, dark space, Il-hyeon readjusted his grip on the sword.

Back when he was young, convinced he would become an Awakened, he had taught himself how to use a sword.

He’d looked up things like monster-fighting tutorials on YouTube and practiced his form alone with a bamboo sword.

Of course, he didn’t remember any of it now, and even if he did, it was all useless knowledge.

‘Until recently, that was just an embarrassing part of my past… You really never know how life will turn out.’

Il-hyeon’s brief moment of reflection was cut short by a faint sound.

The low, savage growl of a monster echoed from the distance.

He stopped in his tracks, trying to be as quiet as possible.

A quiet silence filled the space around him.

And then, it noticed him.

“Kieeeek!”

A deafening roar thundered through the sewer.

Amidst the monster’s bone-chilling cry, Il-hyeon discovered one fact.

‘There are two of them, aren’t there?’

His lips grew dry, and Il-hyeon swallowed hard.

The situation was undoubtedly dangerous.

Just the day before, he had struggled to fight a single E-rank monster.

Even though he had consumed an additional Ether Core, it was uncertain if he could fight and win against two at once.

But for some reason, an uncontrollable, wide smile spread across his face.

They were coming.

His prey.