Shadows of Seoul (2)
“Here.”
The masked man held out an envelope and a tablet.
I first turned the envelope over and took out the contents.
Three lottery tickets came out with it.
“The round and the winning numbers. Check them now. Don’t give me any excuses later.”
“Hmm…”
A lottery information site was open on the tablet.
He must mean for me to compare and verify them myself.
I casually pushed the tablet aside and took out a lottery ticket from a previous round that I had prepared.
Then, using a burner phone I had brought in advance, I scanned the QR code and compared it against the three first-place tickets.
“…I don’t pull useless tricks. This is also a business built on trust.”
There was nothing particularly wrong with the QR code… next was the amount.
2.8 billion, 2.2 billion, 1.5 billion.
After comparing the numbers on the site, though there were slight differences in the amounts, no particular problems were found.
This time, I picked up the winning tickets one by one and examined them closely.
“You didn’t pull any other tricks, did you?”
“That sort of thing depends on who you’re dealing with. I have no intention of gambling with my life.”
*He didn’t say he wouldn’t do it at all.*
After examining them closely, I left the envelope and stored only the winning tickets in my subspace bracelet.
For now, I hadn’t detected anything particularly unusual with Heinz’s “Blood Demon Magic.”
Nor did I sense any special drugs with my vampire’s keen sense of smell.
*I’ll need to inspect them again later with Hans’s “Black Magic,” far from home.*
Hans was a magic specialist, so having him inspect them directly would surely be more reliable than Heinz.
Better safe than sorry.
“Ah, and I’d like to obtain some new identities. Could you introduce me to someone?”
I pushed the empty envelope and tablet back to him and continued.
Since Han Seong-hyeon couldn’t collect all three first-place prizes by himself.
Even if Han Seong-hyeon collected the largest sum of 2.8 billion, he needed alternate identities to collect the other two.
Even if not, having them on hand would be useful in one way or another.
“…Wasn’t that your line of work?”
“It was. Until everything went up in flames this time.”
Human trafficking and organ trafficking.
Naturally, they had been closest to “missing persons,” and laundering their ownerless identities had also been the organization’s main business.
“I have plenty of data, but the technicians were completely wiped out. The survivors seem to have gotten scared; I can’t get in touch with any of them.”
Reading memories wasn’t omnipotent either.
The more one forcibly rummaged through a mind, the more strain it put on the brain, inevitably resulting in gaps in the information.
So I had to set priorities on what information to read, but at the time, I had no interest in the petty crooks who forged identities…
“In that case. Consider this a freebie.”
He then held out a scrap of paper with several names and contact numbers written on it.
I took it and stood up from my seat.
“Then I shall take my leave.”
“I hope we can meet again.”
“You too.”
We exchanged brief farewells.
It was the kind of well-wishing common in this world—hoping we’d meet again without getting knifed to death somewhere.
Click—
When I opened the door I had entered through, a young man with an ordinary face was waiting outside and guided me out.
It was a fairly satisfying outing.
*By the way, it would be convenient to have an organization of my own. Where would be good? These guys seem fairly useful…*
As I followed the guiding young man out, I looked around and leisurely licked my lips.
***
“Whew—.”
The man took off his mask and wiped his face.
Then, tapping his fingers on the table, he fell into thought.
“Um, Branch Chief. About that gentleman earlier…”
One of his subordinates who had assisted during the transaction cautiously opened his mouth.
“Yeah. I know. No matter how I look at it, he doesn’t seem to be affiliated with Sanghoe, right?”
“Yes. That’s right. …Wouldn’t it be better to investigate him?”
“Sanghoe” was the moniker of that human trafficking organization, which had now fallen.
Who on earth was he to go so far as to lie and claim to be from that organization?
“No, forget it. Leave it alone.”
“Huh? Is that alright?”
“What’s not alright about it? You were there with me, so you know. Let’s not gamble our lives needlessly.”
What had been the reason they screened their trading partners so carefully in the first place?
Wasn’t it to avoid sting operations and random riffraff, all for safer and more continuous transactions?
“But no matter how I look at it, he’s not someone who walks in the light.”
“Certainly, when he threatened us earlier, it was suffocating. Even though I couldn’t see anything from my side.”
“Right? It’s because he’s a devil. Probably a vampire.”
“Ugh… so that’s what he was?”
The branch chief recalled that moment.
Pale skin, sharp blood-red eyes, the overwhelming scent of blood that took one’s breath away.
*He probably revealed his identity on purpose. As a warning. If he’s a vampire, is it the Blood Alliance? Or perhaps he might be from the Beoncheonhoe.*
“Now that it’s come to this, what does his real identity matter? We have a new customer, and as long as we completed the transaction normally, that’s that. We made quite a profit this time, didn’t we? I hope he becomes a regular.”
There was nothing to gain from needlessly provoking a dangerous human.
It was the wisdom of one who had survived in the back alleys.
***
Past midnight, on the outskirts of Seoul where no one could be seen.
Boom—!
[Krhik-hik…]
Clatter— clack!
A horde of undead surrounded the abandoned factory and flooded inside like a tidal wave.
“What about the support request?! What’s happening?!”
“We can’t get through! Phone and internet are completely dead! We’re totally isolated!”
“Damn it—! Everyone prepare for combat!”
The person in charge of this factory, commonly called the Factory Chief, shouted through gritted teeth.
Though they were now in hiding, they were ones who had survived all manner of ordeals.
They were superior beings with power on a different dimension from inferior humans.
“Grrrr—”
The factory chief’s body swelled and grew larger.
He ripped apart the constricting upper garment binding his swollen torso and tore off the bottoms of his pants.
He kicked off his burst shoes and breathed roughly.
A wolf’s face with sharp fangs and a muscular body exceeding two meters.
A returnee who had become a werewolf in another world—a “devil.”
“Hrrrr…”
“Kihkihkih. Y-you, I’ll kill you… Krhihit.”
His subordinates too were not in normal forms.
There was one in the form of a werewolf like the factory chief, a vampire with blood-red eyes and long fangs, one with snake scales sprouting from their skin, and so on…
Though there were still some who retained human forms, the madness filling their two eyes was no different from those inhuman beings.
Kwaaang!
The undead who had finally annihilated the outer guards poured deep inside.
Fangs and claws dripping blood.
Among them were figures familiar to the factory chief.
“Krhheu… Damn, we really got caught proper.”
[Kihihihit—]
There, the pale-skinned captain of the factory’s outer security was laughing, blackish-red blood flowing from every orifice on his face.
He had been a powerhouse who could rival even the factory chief, yet…
*Did they turn them all into undead in this short a time?*
He hadn’t even sent out the support request long ago after detecting the raid and buying time outside.
Just as the factory chief gritted his teeth and prepared for the final battle, the horde of undead parted and a figure entered inside.
A pitch-black robe as if draped in darkness, and a mask showing a bizarre smile beneath a lowered hood.
Blue ghost flames flowing from the eye holes and cold air billowing out like fog.
It was a being that seemed to have molded pure ominousness into human form.
*No, is it even human?*
The factory chief trembled finely at the surging fear.
His instincts, strengthened upon becoming a werewolf, were screaming.
That the being before his eyes was an absolute monster he could not oppose.
[Indeed, there is nothing more to see. You are all to be culled.]
The being who had raided the factory, Hans, looked around.
The space where numerous devils surrounded by undead were…
[Lamentations of the dead never cease from all directions. It’s been a while since I’ve been in a space so full of death…]
It was an ordinary meat processing factory.
Except that the subjects being processed were humans rather than livestock.
Devices for extracting blood to devices for crushing bones.
They had quite the assortment.
“Kihit! You’re a devil too—what are you acting so clean for?! This is something absolutely necessary for us to survive!”
“Humans slaughter livestock and eat them, so why can’t we?! Isn’t the strong preying on the weak the very natural order?!”
Some of the devils, overpowered in momentum, shouted as if trying to shake off their fear, but…
Hans did not bother to answer their death-throes-like protests.
He felt no need to converse with crazed ones who would soon die anyway.
*Still, there were survivors. They probably thought they were maintaining freshness.*
An undead dispatched to the warehouse had reported discovering imprisoned people.
They didn’t appear to be in poor health, so he ordered them to be left as they were for now and the area guarded.
And Hans looked at the devils chattering away as if asserting their innocence.
[Yes, the law of the jungle is good.]
A chilly voice, like a devil whispering.
At that, those who had been chattering diligently shut their mouths without realizing.
Silence fell over the place for a moment.
[Your bodies look very sturdy. You’ll make excellent undead.]
He might as well rummage through their heads while he was at it.
It was the law of the jungle and absolutely necessary work, so they should have no complaints either.
At Hans’s order, the undead rushed at them.
Clack! Clatter!
“Kuaaak! You’re just corpses!”
[Kihihik! Kiyahahat!]
“Grrr, I’ll tear you apart!”
Taang— tang! Tang—!
The devils were ones who had cut through all manner of battlefields and survived until now, so they did not fall easily even against the undead.
Some even pulled out guns and fired.
Hans, who had no intention of dragging out the fight, immediately intervened.
[Kihyaaa—]
“Krrk, these guys suddenly have more power…!”
A black crown settled upon Hans’s head, and an aura dark as pitch spread out, enveloping the undead.
Saaaak—
“Aaaak! It hurts! My body! My body!”
“I-I can’t see! I can’t hear anything! A-am I even speaking? Can no one hear me?!”
At his light gesture, waves of cursing energy swept over the devils, neutralizing them one by one.
The devils fell one by one.
Finally, with the factory chief captured, none who resisted remained.
“Kkhheuk… To think the Hahoe Mask was capable of this…”
The factory chief, subdued by the undead, was dragged before Hans and muttered.
He had known of its existence from the rumors about the Hahoe Mask, but never imagined it would be this overwhelming.
This factory was quite far from the area where the Hahoe Mask had been active, and it had been thoroughly hidden, so he hadn’t expected an attack.
To him, who didn’t know that Hans hunted devils and read memories to track down associates, it was an incomprehensible fact.
[Now, don’t feel too aggrieved. I am the Lord of Death, so you will find rest and become my power forever.]
Hans spoke kindly and stroked the factory chief’s head.
If anything, it only made him tremble more violently.
[Of course, there’s a score to settle first, no? It’ll sting a bit. Don’t worry; it won’t hurt that much.]
The black leather glove that had been stroking his head immediately gripped it tight.
Immediately, black magical power burrowed into his head.
[Of course, I wouldn’t know, since I haven’t done it before. Kukukuk…]
“Kk—kkaaaak—!”
A ripping scream and a convulsing body.
The undead pressing down on his body stirred.
Some time passed, and the scream, which had continued for quite a while thanks to the werewolf’s tenacious life force, gradually subsided.
As the undead that had subdued him withdrew, he rose unsteadily, bleeding from his entire body.
[As expected, being sturdy is a good thing. Then, who’s next?]
The subdued devils avoided Hans’s gaze and broke out in cold sweat.
Even though all they could gain was a very brief reprieve.
For a fairly long time after that.
Only screams, prevented from spreading outside by the barrier, echoed hollowly throughout the factory.
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