Chapter 36
“Damn it, Seon-ah! Baekseon!”
Kicking aside shattered concrete, Baekdam shouted. His eyes overflowed with vivid yellow light. The whip in his hand blazed with a heat as though a fragment of the sun had been cut out and embedded within it.
‘How long has it been since the raid began?’
Up until moments ago, he had been trapped inside a barrier. A barrier activated precisely to target him.
But who was Baekdam? He was someone who had Awakened at the tender age of eighteen and endured every hardship imaginable. The fortress had been equipped with an anti-barrier capable of countering capture-type barriers.
Thus, Baekdam had shattered the barrier and reclaimed his freedom.
Though by the time he escaped, the fortress was already in the midst of being raided.
“Damn it.”
Now that things had come to this, he could only hope that Seoni had made it into the safe room at the appropriate time.
Baekdam was surveying his surroundings, recalling the location of the safe room, when he heard sobbing from somewhere.
It was Baekseon’s sobbing.
“H-hyung….”
“Seon-ah!”
“W-what do I do? Chasu, Chasu Hyung isn’t breathing…!”
Baekseon was hugging Han Chasu, who hung limply like a corpse, and taking difficult steps. Shhlk. Whether due to a lack of strength in their hands, Han Chasu’s body slipped downward.
“Ah!”
In place of his younger sibling, who had fallen into a state of panic, Baekdam caught him. A cold body, hardened stiff. Baekdam’s eyes stung as he looked at him.
He could immediately grasp the situation.
Han Chasu had sacrificed himself for his younger sibling again. While I, his real older brother, was tied down, this unrelated person—not a drop of shared blood—had done so, again.
Swallowing something hot that abruptly choked his throat, Baekdam spoke.
“Seon-ah, calm down and use the item. Leave Han Chasu to me.”
“But, but he’s not breathing. He’s dead, he’s dead. It’s different from last time! He’s dead, I tell you!”
“Get a hold of yourself, Baekseon!”
It was then. A chilling mechanical hum shook the air.
Kiiiing—!
Dozens of red beams surrounded them. Baekseon swallowed their breath and hugged Han Chasu tight under the killing intent pouring in from all directions.
“Fuck, seriously.”
Baekdam felt his head beginning to burn.
“These bug bastards have really lost their damn minds.”
Not content with destroying the fortress and trapping me in a barrier, they’re even trying to kill my younger sibling and my sibling’s guest, is that it?
“Since they’ve come prepared, I suppose I should let my hair down and give them a proper reception.”
“H-hyung. Wait…!”
Baekseon seemed to realize late what Baekdam was trying to do.
“Seon-ah, stay quiet and keep your head down.”
“Hyung!”
“Don’t make a sound.”
Woooo!
A raging tempest blew in a place where not a breath of wind had existed. Radiance erupted above silver-white hair.
[Room of Punishment]
A square, translucent space formed with Baekdam at its center.
One, two, three….
“Thirty-five of them, ha. They really scraped together a collection.”
Beneath piles of collapsed concrete. Behind thick pillars. Under half-raised floor panels. And even hidden inside the safe room, they aimed their lasers at him.
Baekdam’s eyes turned to the empty air.
Ku-gugung!
Space tore open, and something pure white fell from above.
It looked like enormous feathers. Hundreds of feathers shining in pure white, as if an angel had left them behind.
Kiiiiing!
The red rays split into several branches. Half commenced their attack toward the feathers, and half toward Baekdam.
Baekdam stared straight at the monsters leaping toward him.
He stood still, simply lightly swinging his hand.
Sarak.
The soft tip of a feather touched a silver-white body.
Kki-gi-gik, kkeu-geu-geuk——!
The feathers gently pierced the monsters’ outer shells. As smoothly and unimpededly as pinning insects to a board with thumbtacks.
Kka-deu-deu-deuk! Kwa-ah-ang!
Dozens of streamlined bodies resembling humans triggered a chain of explosions. The monsters’ limbs twisted grotesquely as their torsos were blown away.
But that was not the end.
Beyond the translucent space, he sensed the presence of those who had been waiting for their moment. Not monsters, but Hunters. Yes, Awakened.
“Hyung….”
At the low voice calling to him, Baekdam spoke.
The enemy had not yet given up.
“Baekseon, keep your promise.”
Baekseon glared at Baekdam with reddened eyes. Veins bulged on the arm embracing Han Chasu. But he seemed to soon accept the situation.
“Save me. Because Hyung can do that.”
Baekdam nodded. Baekseon clenched his teeth and rose from his spot. In his hand was a small orb.
A single-use teleportation item that moved designated people to set coordinates.
It was an item prepared in case the enemy tried to take Baekseon hostage.
“Go quickly.”
“Wait, Hyung!”
“Baekseon, aren’t you listening to me?”
“It’s not working. I think those bastards did some…!”
“What?”
Ku-uung!
With a deafening roar, their vision shook, and an ominous light rose above the ruins. It was the second capture barrier.
“Fuck, you might as well have brought a damn noose.”
Ha, a hollow laugh escaped as Baekdam shuddered. They had come thoroughly prepared. The moment he ground his teeth and shook both hands free.
Ssae-aek—!
Kwa-ah-ang!
“Aaaaack!”
“Uwaack!”
Screams rang out as flames poured down like rain.
“Madness.”
Dark red flames hotter than the sun. The atmosphere split and blazed every time a sword was swung.
It was Jeong Yiheun.
***
The monstrosities that raided Baekdam were suppressed by the Cheonryeong Guild led by Jeong Yiheun. Several had inevitably lost their lives during the suppression process.
Yet not a single person who heard the news voiced a complaint.
Especially among the Hunters, the atmosphere was rather the opposite.
“If they targeted Baekdam, they deserve to die.”
“Daring to target an S-rank Healer? Torture is too good—they should turn their brains to complete mush.”
Including Piet, who was on good terms with Piloso, and the Sagegyeol Guild, most guilds took the attitude that the attackers had it coming.
That was how rare the existence of an S-rank Healer was.
“It’s definitely those free bug bastards again. It’s not like selling out the country for money is anything new for them.”
“We really need to pick a day and lock them all up.”
It was also because public sentiment toward unregistered Awakened, the culprits, was so poor.
Unregistered Awakened were Hunters who had not officially registered through the Awakened Management Bureau.
Those who called themselves libertarians considered not registering to be their right. There had been a time when people clamored that they should be designated as anti-government terror organizations.
That was before numerous National Assembly members and business figures had threatened and kidnapped Awakened with rare abilities to commit crimes.
“And you still claim you’re protecting the Awakened?”
The libertarians were the first to rescue the victims and apprehend the criminals, and, unsatisfied with even that, they completely obliterated the government database.
Thus, the personal information of the entire nation’s citizens became scraps of paper, and in the end, the government and the Awakened Management Bureau had no choice but to step back.
Given that even the Vice President was implicated in the Awakened kidnapping scandal, it would have been harder for them not to retreat.
And so, unregistered Awakened gained their freedom. In exchange, they had to accept that they would receive aggravated punishment should their involvement in crime become certain.
After that, the country changed its course to treating rare ability users with extreme courtesy.
Just as now, when the Awakened Management Bureau had readily accepted Baekdam’s demand to hand over the newly developed medical device.
“Hunter Baekdam!”
Instead of Gi Taeyeon, who had been called away by the Director, U Jeogeun greeted Baekdam.
He paused briefly at the sight of Han Chasu covered in blood, but quickly came to his senses. And immediately got to the point with Baekdam.
“We have finished the preparations so that it can be used immediately upon your arrival.”
“What about the safety tests?”
“They have been passed. We have already completed three rounds of clinical trials, so you need not worry.”
“You better keep your word.”
Amber eyes slowly glanced at U Jeogeun.
For just a moment, U Jeogeun felt like a frog before a snake.
That was how sharp Baekdam’s momentum was.
“You couldn’t even deploy on time, so the least you can do is get this right for the taxes I pay, no?”
“Hunter Baekdam, please calm—, ugh!”
Perhaps because he had just come from battle, Baekdam’s fury was not something U Jeogeun could dare withstand. He swallowed dryly at the sensation of his throat being choked.
“We can discuss who was right or wrong later.”
A low voice broke the tense air. Only then did U Jeogeun realize who had been silently following behind Baekdam. ‘Jeong Yiheun?’
He hadn’t recognized him because he was wearing a pitch-black hood. His curiosity about why he was dressed like that lasted only a moment.
“His pulse is growing weaker.”
Jeong Yiheun spoke in a subdued voice.
Although covered in blood, Han Chasu appeared unharmed on the outside. Because Baekdam had poured healing into him the moment the perpetrators were suppressed.
But his inherently weak body did not recover so easily.
Above all, his heart was the problem.
The monster’s blow had pierced the very edge of his heart. A heart that had already nearly been devoured by Phantom Poison once. Baekdam had barely revived it, so it was only natural that it had grown weaker than before.
Han Chasu’s breathing was terribly weak. As if it might go out at any moment.
A savage sound leaked through Baekdam’s teeth as he looked down at him.
“As if I’d let him die.”
He hadn’t maintained his skill all the way here for nothing. The moment Baekdam adjusted his hold on him.
Twitch.
Han Chasu’s body moved.
“Mr. Han Chasu?”
From Han Chasu’s mouth, as if he were regaining consciousness, black blood gushed out.
“…….”
“…….”
“Where’s the machine, damn it!”
“Th-this way, please!”
Flustered, which was rare for him, U Jeogeun led the group. People passing by could be seen startled by the group running down the corridor.
Regardless. Right now, saving a person was the priority.
“Team Leader Woo? The patient is… hah, hurry this way!”
“Lay the patient here! Yes, if you place him in slowly like that… Seongjin-ssi, go get the hose!”
“Yes!”
The intensive care unit, always laid-back, was thrown into chaos in an instant.
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