Chapter 223 – State Affairs (2)

State affairs?

No, to be precise, it’s the Agency’s business. More precisely, it’s the Director’s.

No matter how crazy the people in power were, they wouldn’t let something this absurd happen.

Is it right to dissect people like lab frogs for the sake of an experiment?

“Don’t misunderstand. There are friends who ‘patriotically’ contributed to this project, and some who volunteered themselves. Oh, and there are also serious criminals.”

“No one would volunteer for double eyelid surgery if they knew it would fail. Having to sleep with your eyes open would be a nightmare.”

“Actually, I was planning to show you this sooner. It’s just that the story was so secretive, there was no need for us to be honest with each other.”

The Director who had threatened me earlier was gone. He spoke as casually as if he were spilling his secrets over drinks.

“Hunters. Beings with new powers, synchronized with the Order System. Evolved humanity. Why did these status windows start appearing? I thought—no, we concluded—that perhaps this was a divine revelation to prepare for the battles to come.”

He wasn’t entirely wrong.

In the first place, those who could connect to the system were, quite literally, the chosen ones. But this guy would interpret that in a different way.

“Superpowers that only appear in sci-fi movies, the ability to fly, and teleportation. It’s a world where all of this becomes possible. It even allows you to heal people like in a computer game and customize yourself. Isn’t this truly a gift from God?”

The Director gave a light shrug.

“I believe that you, who received that blessing most powerfully, can understand my words.”

“I don’t know, I can’t understand bullshit. Speak in a language I can understand.”

“Hah, that Villain bastard was the same. You young folks are so short-tempered and rough with your words. Now, listen. War has always advanced humanity. If you didn’t sleep through history class, you would have learned this at least once. Right now, humanity is fighting against an unknown enemy. And we have a very powerful weapon. It’s called the System.”

The Director spoke with a wide smile on his face, as if he were some kind of benevolent angel.

Was this old man always such a bright person? I doubt it. To me, it just felt like he was trying to hide his dark intentions and prevent me from reading him.

“Everyone gets a chance to become stronger, and everyone can customize themselves like in a computer game. We shouldn’t be consumed by this system that suddenly appeared; we must find a way to utilize it.”

The Director looked straight at me and said.

“Yes, just like us.”

“Is that the end of your bullshit?”

“I am now giving you a chance to board the ark.”

The ark. A laugh escaped me on its own.

Monsters were slowly gathering behind the Director. No, to be precise, things that were once human stood there.

“Do you perhaps think those scrawny friends behind you can protect you?”

“Of course not. The status window is a wonderful thing. Thanks to it, I feel like I’ve been gifted a new life. I think I understand why they call awakening a ‘gift’.”

A faint light emanated from the Director’s pupils.

At some point, he too had become an Awakened.

“This laboratory was simply a place for research to make people’s wishes come true. I don’t know what you might think.”

“So, old man, what did you get from awakening?”

“I gained a new youth.”

The one who answered was the Villain.

Even with his face a mangled mess, the bastard was grinning.

I wondered if he’d still be smiling if his head were chopped off.

“My wife is happy about it, at least.”

Ah, is that so.

I reached into my inventory and pulled out my longsword.

Seeing me draw my weapon, the Director’s face hardened once more.

He must’ve been spooked. He probably never expected me to push my way in so brazenly.

The Director considers people to be disposable anyway. He thinks he can use them for a while and then toss them aside when they’re no longer needed.

But for now, there was nothing that could replace me. That’s why he’d dragged his words out, trying his best to persuade me.

“A pity.”

With the Director’s words, the monsters behind him rushed at me all at once.

Their bodies oozed with pus, their limbs formed into geometric shapes, they charged forward, forced into combat.

Among them was the man who had wailed for me to kill him. There was also the one who had cried silently, begging to be saved.

Karin is the strongest healer I know. But could she restore people who have been mutated like this?

The answer is impossible. These people can never return to their original forms. Even if they could, the lifespan of humans mutated to this extent is not long.

“I will not let your deaths be in vain.”

I infused my sword with mana.

Blue mana coated the blade, wrapping around it.

Sword Breaker.

To grant the mutated test subjects charging at me a final mercy, I ended them painlessly in a single strike.

*Thwack! Swish!*

Every time I swung my sword, a chaotic trail of light and splatters of blood fell to the floor.

“You’re quite cold-hearted. They were human not too long ago, yet you cut them down as if you’re butchering livestock.”

“I’ll be there soon, so just you wait.”

I cut down the test subjects, and then I cut down more. A mountain of corpses piled up.

I couldn’t tell if I had taken a life or simply cut down a corpse. What was clear was that they were rushing at me so desperately to fulfill their desire for a quick release.

Having beheaded dozens, the longsword was covered in blood and gore. I threw it at the Villain, who was about to make a move in the back.

He let out a pleasant scream as he was pinned to the wall by his leg.

I pulled a two-handed sword from my inventory and walked forward.

There were no more test subjects blocking my path.

“You’re strong, indeed. They were failures, but they wouldn’t have been easy. As you heard me say, if there are failures, there are also successes.”

*Rat-at-at-at! Bang, bang!*

A chaotic storm of gunfire and screams.

A battle was taking place elsewhere.

*Thud, thud.*

Children in black full-body suits walked over. Each one had a doll-like, expressionless face, and with every step, they squelched, staining the floor with blood.

“After some experiments, I found that it’s easier to forcibly implant the system into children. It made me realize why teenagers are the pilots in robot anime.”

“He’s practically begging me to kill him.”

“Kill them? Hoho, let me tell you in advance.”

With the addition of seven little kids, the Director had become strangely arrogant. Though he had pretended to be composed just moments ago, I could feel his tension every time a test subject died.

I closed the distance to the Director.

I had no intention of killing him. If I just killed him, he couldn’t be held responsible for this madness. But cutting off an arm and a leg to turn him into a cripple seemed like a good idea.

*Whoosh!*

I swung the two-handed sword straight at the Director’s legs.

*Clang!*

My sword was blocked.

“Each of these children has had a special power implanted in them.”

The boy, who only came up to my waist, parried my sword and thrust forward.

I deflected the blade that came at me in a surprise attack with my two-handed sword. But the boy didn’t lose his grip on his sword. Instead, he took a step back to create distance.

Seizing the opening, a spear tip shot forward.

“They’re children who’ve had the combat data of a regressor extracted and implanted into them.”

As soon as I dodged the spear, the child with the sword lowered his body and rushed in, aiming for my legs. I reflexively kicked the child.

*Boom!*

I had kicked him with more force than I intended.

My kicks are different from a normal Hunter’s. Even a simple kick delivers a shock comparable to being hit by a skill.

But there was no need to worry about the child.

I pulled the sword embedded in my knee out and tossed it aside.

It had pierced through my HP shield. It’s been a while since I’ve seen something like this.

“They are the children of the Wizard System. They were supposed to debut a little later, but I prepared them especially for you. What do you think? That children can possess such terrifying power. This is the greatness of the Order System. If one can wield this power, God. Yes, it’s like becoming one.”

Seeing me bleed, the Director seemed pleased and started running his mouth again.

The boy I had hit wiped his split lip with an expressionless face. I could see a girl behind him casting a healing spell.

A laugh escaped me.

I tensed my thigh muscles. As the muscles bunched up, the bleeding naturally stopped. Muscles truly are great.

Even if it was a surprise attack, it had been a while since I’d drawn blood.

I understood how the boy’s sword had been able to pierce me.

Laughter suddenly burst out.

***

Kim In-ho finished speaking.

Lee Hyun-ah’s expression shifted in various ways as she listened to him.

In the end, she requested a moment to talk.

“First, let us talk amongst ourselves.”

“Yes, Sunbaenim.”

“Aigoo, please drop the ‘Sunbaenim’.”

“…”

Lee Hyun-ah dragged Kang Cheol and Baek Hyun-joo outside.

He didn’t seem crazy, but she had just heard a story that was beyond absurd.

“Geez, I don’t know whether to believe this or not.”

Lee Hyun-ah put a cigarette to her lips.

Even with Kang Cheol glaring at her from the side, she stubbornly lit it and took a deep drag.

Kim In-ho of the Hanul Guild.

He didn’t seem like the type to talk nonsense. He was young, but he had deep eyes.

He didn’t seem like a man who became a Hunter just because he awakened to his powers and found a path to sudden success.

Above all, his decision to seek out the first-generation Awakened on his own was entirely for the sake of his benefactor.

‘A dimension traveler.’

The kind of ability user they had been searching for. But finding such a person wasn’t easy.

There were many gate monsters invading the modern world, but the existence of a person who could open a gate in reverse was only a hypothesis.

“What do you think, unni?”

“We’re in the same boat as Hunter Lee Hyunbin, and Kim In-ho is Lee Hyunbin’s loyal follower. Based on the investigation reports alone…”

There were always variables, so Baek Hyun-joo let her sentence trail off.

“If we fight the Agency, ‘they’ will be there again, won’t they?”

Kang Cheol muttered under his breath.

‘They’ whom he spoke of.

The children with immensely powerful abilities.

The beings who had handed him his first defeat after returning to the modern world from another world.

It was impossible to know how many children of the Wizard System the Agency could now command.

“You idiot, you got your ass kicked because you went soft seeing what they looked like.”

Lee Hyun-ah chided Kang Cheol.

For his appearance and build, Kang Cheol had an indecisive side.

He couldn’t bring himself to fight properly against those ‘monsters’ who had the appearance of children.

Even though they were opponents he would have struggled against even if he had fought with all his might.

“Don’t worry. If you do it right, you can definitely take them down.”

At Lee Hyun-ah’s words, Kang Cheol smiled bitterly.

Her words meant that her mind was already made up.

“Unni, this café doesn’t seem like it’ll do well, right?”

“It’s the perfect place to starve to death, don’t you think? But if you join the Administration, you get a salary, good benefits. They’ll even launder your identity. How great is that?”

“Am I some kind of criminal that I need my identity laundered?”

Listening to Lee Hyun-ah and Baek Hyun-joo’s conversation, Kang Cheol fell into a brief moment of thought.

If they fought the Agency, they would also have to fight the Wizard System.

The Agency’s secret, being carried out in some unknown underground facility.

‘The Wizard System…’

Kang Cheol recalled the monstrously strong children.

From the survival game until now, he had lived as an Awakened, but he still couldn’t comprehend this entity called the System.

No matter if they were enemies, he didn’t have the resolve to take the life of a child.

Even if it meant losing a precious friend because of it.

***

“Why are you laughing?”

“I can’t help but laugh.”

“?”

“That ‘Wizard’ thing… it’s just a fraction of my power.”

“Hah.”

Hearing my words, the Director’s eyes and mouth smiled. As if he were genuinely amused.

“Hahaha. My, my. Are you flustered? To the point of spouting such nonsense…”

Two other children fired magic bullets at me almost simultaneously.

*Bang, bang!*

Bullets filled with mana drew an arc, wanting to pierce through my body.

I snatched the bullets out of the air as if brushing something away.

“Your deaths.”

I do not attempt the impossible.

These children, already toyed with and created by the system, have their very reason for living defined by that purpose.

I looked at the children.

Children born solely for the hunt. Their bodies looked as if they could crumble at any moment.

In other words, their bodies were merely consumables. Their implanted cores must have been swapped out and replaced over and over again.

“I will not let them be in vain.”

I will carry the weight of these children’s deaths as well.