Chapter 9 – Two Weeks Later (Part One)

A convenience store in the neighborhood.

Two Awakened, clad in Defensive Coats, entered to buy some snacks to eat while on standby for a mission.

While one of them was picking out items, the other, who was looking at his phone, spoke up.

“Heard he showed up again yesterday.”

“Who did?”

“The Scavenger.”

*Clatter!*

A can of soda rolled across the floor with a loud noise.

A man in a hoodie who had been choosing a drink next to them had suddenly dropped his item.

The two Awakened glanced at him for a moment but thought nothing of it and continued their conversation.

“They still haven’t caught that bastard?”

“Tell me about it. It’s the first time a solo act has lasted this long.”

The man scrolling through an online article burst out laughing at a comment.

“Haha, look at this. They’re calling him a ‘good Scavenger who takes the lead in rescuing people.’”

“Bullshit. There’s no such thing as a good Scavenger. They’re all sons of bitches.”

Harsh words flew reflexively from the other Awakened’s mouth.

As expected, it was hard for Scavengers to get a favorable reaction from other Awakened.

The hooded man, who had accidentally overheard their conversation, couldn’t hold back a smirk.

It had already been two weeks since Il-hyeon had awakened.

***

Twenty years ago, after the first appearance of monsters.

It was no exaggeration to say that detecting Gates had become the most critical task for every nation in the modern world.

Missing the formation of a Gate even once would inevitably lead to immense damage while unprepared.

And if the monsters weren’t eliminated immediately and were left unchecked, the problem would grow even larger.

The secondary damages, such as monster breeding or contamination from the Gate, were difficult to even quantify in monetary terms.

To prevent such incidents, governments around the world poured vast sums of tax money into launching detection satellites and installing a dense network of sensors in cities and mountain valleys alike.

But no matter how much they focused on detection, they couldn’t predict a Gate that had yet to appear.

For surprise Gates or those that activated just as quickly, the only option was to respond as fast as possible.

And the organization that existed for such situations was the South Korean government’s Disaster Observation Department, which was currently on high alert.

“Move it, move it!”

The department head, unable to go home even after 9 p.m., shouted impatiently.

The sudden appearance of a Gate in a residential area of Seoul had thrown the entire department into chaos.

“Do we have the wave analysis results?”

“Gate rank is E1. Twelve minutes until monster appearance.”

“Damn it! I expected this, but it’s even faster than I thought…”

A careful examination of a Gate’s appearance could reveal its general characteristics.

The department head had been doing this for over a decade, and from the moment he saw the first photo, he knew it would activate in under thirty minutes.

He had immediately issued an alert and contacted the Awakened from the Special Police and the responsible corporation to begin the response.

And here, at the Disaster Observation Department.

With world-class equipment and personnel, they had successfully completed detection and analysis within three minutes of the Gate’s appearance.

But only twelve minutes remained until activation.

Time was short.

A fifteen-minute Gate was practically a surprise Gate.

“It doesn’t seem to have an ace monster, but we expect a high number of individuals.”

“Are the Awakened on their way to the site?”

“That site is under C&A’s jurisdiction, and they’re quite a distance away.”

“Then hand it over to another company that has Awakened deployed nearby!”

“I’ve told them to be on standby, but C&A is raising hell, saying they absolutely will not transfer it…”

“Is their bottom line more important than people’s lives right now? Ignore them and transfer it quickly!”

The department head cursed under his breath.

Working with hundreds of corporations obsessed with Ether and profit, it wouldn’t be surprising if his stomach gave out at any moment.

He glanced at the clock with an anxious look.

The Special Police were heading to the scene immediately, but twelve minutes wasn’t enough time for a full evacuation, let alone setting up proper barricades.

“They say traffic signal control is complete. What do we do now?”

A rookie, who had just joined the department yesterday and was unfamiliar with such situations, asked with a nervous expression.

“What do you mean, what do we do? It’s out of our hands now. We just have to hope the people on site do their jobs properly.”

***

“Okay, let’s go! Worth waiting on the street to snag a job.”

The man who had just finished his call clapped his hands and spoke.

At his words, seven Awakened who had been smoking by two cars parked on the roadside moved quickly.

They had lucked into this job, and if they dawdled, it might be given to someone else.

“But there’s less than ten minutes left. Can we even handle it?”

The man behind the wheel asked.

Forget a proper response; they were cutting it close just to get there in time.

“Not our problem. We just have to kill the monsters.”

“Damn right. Rescue is the police’s job. It pisses me off just thinking about those cops who just stand around with their hands behind their backs getting paid with my tax money.”

The Awakened in the front car chuckled and chatted among themselves.

With their attached warning lights and makeshift sirens blaring, the two cars sped through the night.

“Woohoo!”

Cheers erupted every time they ignored a signal and overtook other cars.

In the midst of the frantic drive, the man in the passenger seat spoke up.

“Hey, hey, what if we run into the Scavenger this time?”

“What? Who?”

“You know, the Scavenger who only shows up at Gates with little time left.”

“Ah, right.”

The Awakened, understanding who he meant, nodded.

The guy had appeared out of nowhere two weeks ago and had become quite famous recently.

Scavengers were a sensitive issue in this line of work, so rumors spread fast.

He had been scavenging in the country for two weeks without getting caught, operating all over Seoul.

What was most peculiar was that he only appeared at sites where evacuation was incomplete due to time constraints.

It was presumed that he was aiming to steal monsters in the chaos when barricades weren’t properly set up, but there were many inconsistencies with that theory alone.

“Come to think of it, didn’t they say he almost always shows up in the Seoul area?”

“I heard he has a transformation ability, too. Why would a guy like that be a Scavenger? He must be an idiot.”

“Probably just an attention seeker.”

The unidentified Scavenger’s face was different every time he appeared on the scene.

If not for his consistent physique and methods, they wouldn’t have even known it was the same person.

There were all sorts of bizarre speculations and rumors about him: that it was a media play by the international criminal organization IRC, that he possessed an ability to control strange animals, or that he was actually a woman.

“I doubt he’ll actually show up… but if you see him, break his back in half. Don’t hesitate and let him get away.”

“Alright, got it.”

Arriving at the entrance of the target apartment complex, they parked their cars right in the middle of the road, which had been cleared thanks to traffic control.

Eight Awakened got out of the cars at once.

“Wow, the Special Police are fast.”

The police were already on site, evacuating people.

They were even in the process of setting up a barricade with steel fences, albeit a flimsy one.

One of the men approached a police officer who was busy moving about.

“Thanks for your hard work!”

“Ah, you’re here? Thank goodness. The monsters will appear in less than a minute. You need to head inside now.”

The police officer said urgently.

In contrast, the Awakened walked leisurely and nodded.

“Yeah, yeah. We’ll handle the monsters, so you just focus on getting the people out.”

“Yes, we’ll be counting on you.”

Just then, an urgent radio call crackled from the officer’s hip.

—Damn it, Gate activation! Gate activation! We’re falling back!

“Damn…”

The officer put a hand to his forehead, looking troubled.

“We’ll hold off the ones coming outside, so please start by clearing the inside.”

“Shit, this is a pain. Let’s run!”

The Awakened started running.

If any monsters escaped or hid, it would mean unpaid overtime, and they could even lose the Ether to another team.

*Bang! Bang! Bang!*

Loud gunshots echoed from within, and the Awakened reached the scene of the intense battle.

Police officers were unloading entire large-caliber anti-kaiju magazines into undead monsters.

The bullets couldn’t fully penetrate the E-rank monsters’ skin, but they were capable of inflicting minor wounds and slowing them down.

“Get lost!”

An Awakened beheaded a charging monster.

Humanoid monsters, undead rotting corpses, were positioned all around.

“The Awakened are here! Evacuate them quickly!”

The police shouted, leading the civilians they had been protecting away.

The terrified civilians practically crawled along the ground as they fled the scene.

“Less than half the monsters have come out of the Gate yet!”

“Okay, we’re heading there!”

At the officer’s shout, the Awakened moved.

The speed at which monsters emerged varied for each Gate, and this one, fortunately, was on the slower side.

It was easier to kill the monsters as they came out of the Gate than to deal with the ones that had already scattered.

They cut through the corpses blocking their path and advanced toward the parking lot inside the complex where the Gate was located.

The red Gate shimmered, emitting strong waves of energy.

And from within, monsters poured out.

With each pulse of the Gate, a dozen or so corpses emerged, roaring ferociously, and the Awakened immediately slaughtered them.

After easily fending off three or four waves, they changed direction.

“The spawn rate from the Gate is slow, so we have some leeway. Let’s split up. Go clean up the outside for a bit first.”

When the leader spoke, the others split in half without complaint.

Four of them guarded the front of the Gate, while the other four began to roam the complex to hunt monsters.

Corpses wandered between the old, corridor-style apartment buildings.

“I heard there’d be a lot, but this is really a lot.”

“That means a lot of cores, which is good. We could live off this for three months.”

“You idiot, use your head. More numbers mean lower output, so it’ll be about the same as usual.”

“Is that so?”

The one who had answered foolishly swung his hammer, crushing the head of an approaching corpse.

Green fluid splattered everywhere, and a blond-haired man next to him scowled.

His new white sneakers were now beautifully colored.

“Ugh, seriously, let’s try to kill them cleanly, okay?”

“Look over there.”

The man with the hammer gestured with his head toward an apartment building.

Several corpses were climbing up the building.

It was unclear why they were taking that route instead of the entrance and stairs, but they were climbing with ferocious intensity.

“Did those things eat something bad? Why are they suddenly doing that?”

“They probably smelled a person.”

The hammer-wielding man said nonchalantly.

Indeed, when it came to a monster’s actions, there was no greater motivation than prey, especially humans.

“You go help them.”

“What? Why me?”

The blond asked, as if genuinely not understanding.

As if whether a person lived or died was none of his concern.

The man, accustomed to his nonchalant attitude, clicked his tongue once and said.

“It’s better if they don’t die than if they do.”

“It’s too late to go there now anyway. By the time I get up there, they’ll already be monster chow.”

It was true. Even if he started right now, by the time he climbed the apartment, there was more than enough time for them to be torn apart by monsters.

“The ones that climb that high are a pain to find later, so just kill them all at once while they’re gathered.”

At his words, the blond man thought for a moment.

Come to think of it, he had a point.

It wasn’t a noble motive, but from that perspective, it was a reason for him to move.

“Where are you going, then?”

“I’m going to clear a path.”

The man shouldered his hammer and ran.

The Special Police’s rescue efforts were being hampered by the monsters.

He was heading in their direction to break the stalemate.

“Ugh, that moron.”

The blond man, who had been watching him with a look of disdain, started running in the opposite direction.

He cut down a few monsters on his way to the apartment entrance and began to quickly ascend the stairs.

With an Awakened’s enhanced hearing, he could faintly perceive the sound of a person’s scream from an upper floor.

“If you were so sound asleep you missed the evacuation, you should have just stayed hidden inside. What the hell were you doing?”

He grumbled as the monsters climbing up created more work for him.

He simply hoped the monsters were taking their time with their meal as he bounded up the stairs to the top.

Seeing the door of the apartment at the end of the hall savagely torn apart, the blond man clicked his tongue and went inside.

However, the scene that unfolded was completely different from what he had expected.

“What the hell are you.”

Two civilians, terrified but perfectly fine.

A trashed apartment and scattered undead monsters.

And a man in a black coat standing in the middle of it all.

The man had the hood of the shirt he wore underneath pulled down low, so his face wasn’t clearly visible.

“Ah, I get it. You’re that Scavenger, aren’t you?”

The blond man, roughly guessing the stranger’s identity, approached with a smirk.

Black shoe prints marked the wooden floor.

He glanced at the blood-stained Ether clutched in the unidentified man’s hand and said.

“Put that down, unless you want to die.”

The man, hearing the blond’s rough words, slowly pulled down his hood and turned around.

He had the face of a rugged middle-aged man with many fine wrinkles and distinct features.

But his voice was as young as his appearance was not.

“You’re late. Someone almost died.”

He said, gesturing with an open hand to one side.

There, a young man sat paralyzed in a wheelchair, and a woman was bleeding from a cut on her finger.

The monsters had likely swarmed the apartment because of the scent of blood from the woman’s wound.

“So what?”

The reply was curt.

“I saved someone you guys failed to protect. Isn’t one core a fair price?”

“Cut the crap. Who asked you to save anyone? You want me to teach you what happens when you touch someone else’s plate in this business?”

The blond man said in an aggressive tone.

The man glanced at the watch on his wrist.

Monsters were still roaming outside at this very moment, but the blond showed no sign of moving from the doorway.

“I don’t care about your professional ethics. Instead of wasting time here, why don’t you go down and rescue the people trapped in their homes? Or stay here and guard this place.”

“I don’t give a damn if people die. That Ether is ours.”

“Are you serious?”

The man asked, but the only response he received was a raised middle finger.

“You’re hopeless. I was only going to take one or two, to be conscientious… but now I’m taking your share.”

“Haha, what a load of crap. Shut up and let’s go to the station. I’ll take you there myself. Let’s see that real face of yours…”

His brow furrowed slightly as he spoke playfully, but the blond man cursed and drew his sword.

Or rather, he tried to.

But before the blade was even halfway out of its sheath, his vision twisted.

*Crack!* The Defensive Coat’s protective function was completely shattered.

“Fuck! What is this? Ugh!”

The blond man, now half-embedded in the wall he’d been thrown into, groaned in pain.

In the blink of an eye, the man had closed the distance and completely shattered his coat with a single punch.

The man dragged the paralyzed blond, picked up his dropped sword, and tossed him in front of the broken apartment door.

“Stay there and guard until this is over.”

“You son of a…! Ughhh…”

Returning to the living room and entering the bathroom, he looked in the mirror and brought a hand to his face.

And using his ability, he ‘transformed’ it.

The rugged middle-aged face morphed back to its original form, Il-hyeon’s face.

“Ugh, I can never get used to this feeling.”

Il-hyeon muttered, opening his mouth to loosen his facial muscles.

Then he brought his hand to his face again.

This time, his face changed not into the middle-aged man’s, but into the thuggish-looking blond’s.

Even though he had only glanced at the guy’s face once, the transformed appearance was remarkably precise.

“Alright, time to get back to work.”

It had already been two weeks since Il-hyeon had awakened.