Episode 38
Han Chasu was running like mad in a dream. Why was he running? By the time he realized, he was already being chased.
‘From what?’
An extremely natural question filled his mind. Amidst that, he felt weight in his hand and looked down to find a pistol gripped there.
“Ah.”
It was a familiar gun. A mass-produced pistol with a black body and a silver eagle mark engraved on it.
And memory was rewritten.
The black figure chasing him was right before his eyes before he knew it. He wasn’t being chased, but protecting.
What?
“P-please save me.”
A small sob leaked out from behind him. He realized. What it was that he had been protecting.
Thud, thud!
He aimed the muzzle at the enemy running in a straight line.
Click.
The moment he placed his hand on the trigger, blue light boiled up along the rifling as if it had been waiting.
Vrooom—!
As the barrel vibrated, a small inhaling sound was heard. A whimper flowing through fragile vocal cords rendered him unable to move.
Shriek!
Red pupils quickly closed the distance. One, two, three. With the last number, he calmly pulled the trigger.
And.
“Kuhuk!”
His heart was torn out. No, his limbs were torn out. What was this? It hurt, it hurt so much.
He was lying in a cave before he knew it. A scream bursting out piercing his severed limbs and neck. This was Han Chasu. Han Chasu’s memory, past, no. Was it a novel?
Thoughts bounced around every which way like a bullet that had lost its direction.
“Kuuuuuck, aaaaack!”
Pain flowed out through his throat. In the damp cave, Han Chasu screamed. Because that was the only action he could take by his own will.
Thud, thud.
Footsteps echoed from afar. Footsteps that struck the cave walls and aroused Han Chasu’s fear.
‘It’s them.’
Those damned bastards, those devils that should be chewed up and swallowed! Han Chasu despaired in anger. In the end, they’d still eat and live well. Even though their lives wouldn’t collapse just because one younger sibling had disappeared!
“Today is the last day.”
“…
Isn’t it too early? A little more.”
“Until when?”
“….”
“Under the name of venting, how long must I keep that pest alive?”
A low voice where no emotion could be felt. A cold voice where not a single tremor seeped through even as it echoed off the cave walls.
“Han Chasu.”
Red pupils stared at him. It was an enemy’s gaze.
No, no.
Jeong Yiheun wasn’t like this. The Jeong Yiheun he knew wasn’t this kind of man.
“Now this tedious time is over too.”
A desolate face looked down at him. The man with a haggard face visible behind him was undoubtedly… Baekdam.
In that moment, lightning struck his head. Tangled threads connected into one line.
Baekdam’s house, Baekseon’s return. And the ensuing attack. There, he had blocked the monster’s attack in Baekseon’s place. Yes, and it seemed some system window had popped up like crazy.
Thwack.
“——!”
A heavy, dull pain pierced his chest. Jeong Yiheun shook off the blood on his sword with an indifferent face. Baekdam silently looked down at him as he collapsed.
That gaze was steeped in indescribable contempt. A cold gaze that looked at him as lower than a bug.
It was only natural to be angry. Anger boiled up through his gradually narrowing vision. At this rate, he would wake from the dream. The real Baekdam would help him rather than despise him, and Jeong Yiheun would likely be the same.
But that didn’t mean the pain he was in right now would disappear, did it?
“You… ungrateful bastards.”
Perhaps thanks to the nature of dreams. Han Chasu, whose reason was half-blurred, angered easily.
“Who do you think I’m suffering this hell for right now, kuhuk… going through this torment…!”
Or perhaps it was because nothing was pressuring him anymore.
“What is he saying right now?”
“I don’t know either. Death throes?”
“Fuck, of all places to possess into a shithole like this, kulk, heuk…!”
If it were a villain in another novel, it would have been easier. If only it had been an ordinary romance novel. But to get caught, of all things, in a novel full of lunatics obsessed with their younger siblings after possessing into it, I fucking…!
“Hunter Han Chasu, are you okay? Hunter Han Chasu!”
“——!”
“You mustn’t move! Deputy Lee, go call everyone from the medical wing. And inform Director Gi and the Cheonnyeong Guild that Mr. Han Chasu has woken up, ah, and Philoso too! Aack, Hunter Han Chasu, I said you mustn’t move!”
“——!”
“Please wait. Please try to calm down! You’ll bite your tongue like this!”
Han Chasu, struggling in anger, soon realized something.
‘My voice… isn’t coming out.’
At the same time, a bothersome notification sound struck his eardrum.
[ Warning! ]
[ Insufficient energy for Passive Skill ‘Regeneration’! ]
[ Restrictions applied for energy conservation. ]
[ Active Restriction (1): Watch Your Tongue ]
[ If more energy is consumed than required for skill maintenance, you will re-enter a vegetative state. ]
Restrictions for energy conservation? And re-entering a vegetative state?
‘I’ve been in a vegetative state until now?’
But it didn’t end there.
[ Caution: Bound items currently equipped may be unequipped upon entering a vegetative state! ]
His gray pupils looking at the message window shook powerlessly.
Meanwhile, the medical staff who realized Han Chasu couldn’t speak turned pale.
“There’s nothing wrong with his neck….”
“Could it be due to mental shock?”
The faces looking at Han Chasu through the window in the hallway were distressed. From the moment he realized his voice wouldn’t come out, he had only shed a powerless smile with unfocused eyes.
‘Heaven is heartless too, to do such cruel things to such a good person….’
Though he was a patient they had essentially been forced to take on by Baekdam, he was still a life they had saved with their own hands.
Moreover, they knew what kind of person he was and how he had gotten injured.
The hunter who saved Jeong Yiheun’s younger sibling Jeong Seoheun and ruined his body. He had saved another life by sacrificing his own once again. And not just anyone, but the younger sibling cherished by the nation’s only S-rank healer.
From the standpoint of a public official belonging to the Awakened Management Bureau, there could be no greater benefactor.
“…
There must be a way.”
“That’s right. If we just sit on our hands like this, those Unregistered bastards will be celebrating.”
At the term referring to unregistered awakened, everyone’s faces hardened.
The criminals dragged to the detention center alive were six in total. Among them, four were foreign hunters who had entered the country illegally, and the remaining two were unregistered awakened.
The Awakened Management Bureau, having confirmed that the two nationals were unregistered awakened, quickly launched an interrogation. But it was no use.
“Didn’t you say they lost their minds?”
The captured criminals had lost their reason at some point. It was maddening, but there was nothing they could do about those who had already lost their minds.
In the end, the Awakened Management Bureau played its trump card. It was said that they had begun frantically summoning guilds belonging to the Liberty Alliance.
It so happened that today the master of Icarus had visited the Management Bureau.
“Didn’t you say the Cheonnyeong Guild leader sat in on the interrogation? Hear anything?”
“They apparently came out flat-out saying they had nothing to do with the criminals? Said they weren’t interested in Baekdam, and that searching Jeokpung would be a less wasteful use of time….”
“Ha, unbelievable! Yeah, since they’ve done a proper job covering it up, they have nothing to fear.”
The sharp-eyed employee already had an attitude of pinning Icarus as the culprit. The short employee scratched the back of his neck.
“Come to think of it, Jeokpung was tomorrow, right?”
“Yeah. They said they’ll summon them one by one. Seems the higher-ups are absolutely seething.”
Honestly, it was thuggish behavior, but a conclusion reached after a reasonably rational judgment.
“But what if they’re an awakened with no affiliation? Wouldn’t that just be a waste of time?”
“Even if it’s a waste of time, it doesn’t matter.”
The employee wearing glasses smiled with the corners of his mouth raised.
“If they keep being this troublesome, Haetae will have no choice but to step in.”
“Ah.”
The short employee exhaled as if he had realized.
Haetae, the ‘Executor’ of the Liberty Alliance.
They were reapers who beheaded those who harmed others and pursued selfish gain under the pretext of freedom.
They were quietly sitting and observing the situation now, but if Haetae moved, it would become a problem for the entire Liberty Alliance.
Not only the criminals, but also those who had been secretly committing crimes without being noticed would be rounded up and cleaned out all at once.
The Awakened Management Bureau knew this and was throwing out a warning message.
That if they didn’t want to all end up dead, they should quickly spit out any information related to the criminals.
“Ahh, so Haetae will step in. What a relief.”
“What do you mean, relief, you idiot. What’s good about criminals who won’t even register as awakened strutting around like they’re something.”
It was the moment the employee with wrinkles around his mouth grumbled with a displeased face.
Hot wind surged like a wave from afar. The coffee in his hand instantly bubbled and boiled up.
“Huk, what is…!”
“It’s the Cheonnyeong Guild leader.”
Jeong Yiheun was approaching from the other end of the hallway, leading a wave of heat. Gasps burst from the employees’ mouths in unison at the flames surging in his eyes.
But the surprising thing didn’t end there.
“Didn’t he go to see Hunter Baekdam’s younger sibling?”
“Y-yeah?”
Baekdam was following behind him with an extremely benevolent smile. Chilling goosebumps rose on the medical center staff’s arms.
They knew.
Behind that angelic face lay a temperament like a yaksha.
Hadn’t he tried to run rampant with a whip the day Han Chasu was brought to the Awakened Management Bureau, saying he didn’t trust them?
If he hadn’t realized Han Chasu was cursed, the treatment room would have been split in two that very day.
Fear filled the gazes of the staff watching the approaching S-ranks.
“…
Wasn’t it Deputy Seo who was supposed to explain Mr. Han Chasu’s condition?”
“Huh? Me? No, I thought it was Sujin.”
“Since when was it me?!”
“Is this the time for you guys to fight among yourselves? Hurry up and check if Mr. Han Chasu is okay first!”
It became chaotic in front of the treatment room in an instant.
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