Episode 28.
Rental apartment.
I rode the aging elevator up to the 8th floor.
Passing through the narrow hallway, I finally arrived in front of
『807』
the door marked Unit 807.
Knock, knock—
I knocked on the door without hesitation.
But it was quiet.
I pressed my ear against the door and focused, yet detected no sign of people.
Click!
I went inside, opening the door with a key I'd prepared in advance.
“Hmm?”
A terrible stench hit the tip of my nose.
It was a familiar smell, like rotten meat left unattended for a long time.
I quickly moved toward the source of the smell.
Clack!
What I found in the room after opening the door,
“Tch!”
was a rotting corpse.
Buzzing—
It was someone’s corpse swarming with flies and maggots.
“…Choi Jin-seong.”
A corpse mangled to the point its intestines spilled out.
But the face could still be identified, and although it was slightly damaged, it was definitely Choi Jin-seong’s.
There was no way my memory was wrong.
Because it was exactly the same as the photo attached to the documents Chairman Gang had shown me.
‘An Awakener who would bloom the Contract, the leader who would raise Heukseong, one of the Five Gangs, is dead?’
In fact, he was someone I had marked as a target to eliminate or recruit after Jeong Do-hwan.
That was because he was someone who would bloom the Contract, one of the 100 major characteristics.
He, whom I had planned to recruit first for the same reason as Jeong Do-hwan, had been found dead.
‘He wasn’t the mastermind behind the Black Moon.’
I had secretly suspected that Choi Jin-seong might be the mastermind behind the Black Moon.
The reason I came here wasn’t to meet him directly, but to investigate his traces.
But what do you know?
What unfolded was far too different from my expectations.
Choi Jin-seong, who should have later become one of the leaders of the Five Gangs, had become a rotting corpse.
‘Who on earth?’
As various doubts complicated my mind,
Swoosh.
A noise reached my ear.
It was a very faint sound that normally couldn’t be heard,
『+99(★) Premium Sound Amplifier
Category: Accessory
Durability: 55/55
Unique Effect: Hearing increased by a trace amount
Enhancement Effect (9/99): Hearing increased by a minute amount
Enhancement Effect (15/99): Hearing increased by an extremely small amount
Enhancement Effect (20/99): Hearing increased by a small amount
……
Enhancement Effect (99/99): Detect sounds from far distances with an extremely low probability
Full Enhancement Effect (Max): Amplifies hearing above average for 3 seconds
Transcendence Effect: Can detect inaudible sounds with a low probability
Description: A premium hearing aid that amplifies sound.
Transcendence enhancement has significantly increased hearing improvement, and allows the detection of sounds that are sometimes inaudible.』
The noise currently digging into my ear was originally inaudible.
But I detected it by chance through the hearing aid that had completed transcendence enhancement.
Unless it was a ghost, what that sound meant was obvious.
“Where!”
I thrust my fist toward the place where I felt a presence.
Thud!
Along with the clear sensation felt in my fist,
“Kuk!”
a scream burst out.
Srrrk.
And as if looking into the surface of water, space distorted, and someone who had been hiding their body appeared.
『Stealth』
One of the characteristics that allows one to assimilate with the surroundings and hide their traces.
If the characteristic is evolved, one can erase all presence including sound, but it is impossible for those who have just barely begun their awakening.
It was bound to be crude, but the same went for me.
If it hadn’t been for the hearing aid, I wouldn’t have discovered his traces.
“H-how?!”
The one stepping back with eyes wide open.
A young man in his 20s.
With a skinny body and sunken cheeks on a square jaw giving him a somewhat gloomy image, he held a sashimi knife in one hand.
‘He was waiting.’
He had been waiting for someone while concealing his presence with Stealth.
There was no time to think whether that was exactly me or someone else.
“Tch!”
He immediately turned around and fled.
That is the nature of the Stealth characteristic.
Only one chance.
If you fail to seize that one opportunity while the opponent is off guard and your presence remains undetected, you are bound to be at a relative disadvantage.
“Where do you think you’re going!”
That is why I couldn’t miss this opportunity.
I closed the distance in one go using Heelys.
“Hup!”
Seeing me catch up at tremendous speed, he gasped.
And,
“Hii!”
he swung the sashimi knife he held.
An attack slashing from left to right.
‘He’s an amateur.’
His knife-wielding form looked like an amateur no matter how you looked at it.
Although there was no hesitation in his hand, as if he had killed people before, he was by no means a professional knifeman(?).
I gazed briefly at the sashimi knife drawing its trajectory and then thrust my fist straight out.
Thwack!
“Kkeuk!”
Due to the impact on his right arm joint,
Clang!
the sashimi knife fell to the floor.
It seemed he had easily succeeded in assassinations using Stealth until now, but that didn’t work on me.
Thud!
A blow straight to the abdomen.
“Keoheok!”
At the temple of the guy who bent his upper body in pain,
Crack!
I planted a kick directly.
The guy who collapsed powerlessly soon lost consciousness from the shock to his brain.
But I didn’t let my guard down.
‘Any companions?’
There might be other companions.
I narrowed my eyes and focused all my senses on my hearing.
But nothing could be heard.
It was clear there was only the one who had been hiding.
“….”
I gazed at the fallen guy for a moment, then turned my head.
Buzzing!
I stared blankly at the rotting corpse of Choi Seong-jin.
‘Choi Seong-jin is dead. And an Awakener was guarding that place.’
At a glance, one might think he was the culprit.
‘No. He’s not the mastermind.’
However, he must be related to that mastermind.
There is a high probability he was an assassin hired to kill someone coming to find Choi Jin-seong.
Of course, hasty judgment is forbidden.
“…If I investigate him, everything will come to light.”
The fallen assassin.
I would be able to obtain a lot of information from him, who had awakened the Stealth characteristic.
*
Inside a secret room dominated by darkness.
“Heok!”
The man who had lost consciousness awoke.
“Wh-what?”
He couldn’t see anything due to the blindfold covering his eyes.
Clank, clank!
Handcuffs were on both hands tied behind him, and sturdy ropes bound his ankles and body.
“….”
At that moment, the man realized intuitively.
That he had been captured; that a moment of crisis was approaching.
“You’re awake?”
A strange voice reached his ears.
He could tell who it was without asking.
The opponent he had exchanged blows with once—a high schooler whose hair still had undried blood no matter how you looked at him.
At that moment, he fully grasped the situation.
So.
“…No matter what you do to me, you can’t get the information you want.”
He put on a brave front.
Because he knew that was the only way in his current situation.
“I know.”
The voice was heard again.
Gulp.
He swallowed dryly without realizing it.
Restrained, even blindfolded so he couldn’t see anything, he couldn’t help but feel nervous.
“You’re part of the Black Moon, right?”
Black Moon.
At that one word,
he flinched.
His body reacted.
“Surprised? It’s too early to be surprised. I also know that you all gathered to prepare for the apocalypse.”
He flinched again.
His body trembled again.
Yoon Chan, the man who confirmed that reaction,
‘Caught you.’
smiled.
With every word, his reaction was unusual.
The one I’d caught by chance—there was no bigger fish than this, biting the bait every time I cast.
“…You….”
“Ahh. You don’t need to relax now. I ask, and you just have to answer that question.”
“….”
“Of course, you won’t answer easily. Because you’re bound by a Contract.”
I threw out the decisive bait.
He flinched.
Thank goodness.
That the one I’d caught by chance was this guy.
“Shall I tell you about the contract contents too? If you reveal secrets about the Black Moon while captured as a prisoner like now….”
I deliberately trailed off for tension.
“…Your characteristic is stolen and you lose your life. How about that?”
“….”
No words.
But just by looking at his body that kept flinching, I could guess that it was true.
‘Choi Jin-seong. It’s the same contract as his.’
Choi Jin-seong, who had been the leader of Heukseong, had sacrificed his subordinates without hesitation(?) in the war against the White Clothes.
What could he gain by doing so?
I had been doubtful at first, but it didn’t take long to realize the truth.
Absorption of characteristics through Contract.
Surprisingly, he had become a transcendent being by sacrificing numerous subordinates and absorbing all their characteristics.
‘It’s still terrifying to think about now.’
Just recalling the battle with him gave me chills.
Because that guy, who used thousands of characteristics alternately, was truly no different from a calamity.
If the ‘misfortune’ that happened to him hadn’t occurred, my journey toward the apocalypse would have ended right there.
‘And someone other than Choi Jin-seong made contracts with Awakeners for the same purpose as him.’
I didn’t know exactly what the contents were.
Yet the reason I inferred as much was because the Black Moon members I had met before were absorbed as they revealed information about the Black Moon.
That was clearly a phenomenon that appeared when the contract was violated.
Until just now, it had been an inference based on circumstances, but his reaction made me certain.
“Contract. Because of it, you won’t be able to reveal any contents about the Black Moon.”
“….”
“But you know. Do you know that there is one loophole in that contract?”
Contracts are absolute.
But this contract has one loophole that those who haven’t experienced it wouldn’t know.
“From now on, I’ll ask you various questions.”
And I am the only one who knows that loophole.
“If what I say is correct, say ‘no’. And if not, just stay silent.”
Contracts are not absolute.
They are documents that can be endlessly exploited for gaps, and the same goes for characteristics.
For example, let’s assume we coordinate our words.
If I ask a question and it is correct, and you answer ‘no’, does that correspond to vocalization?
The answer is no.
Because the opponent clearly answered ‘no’, it is not included in the definition of information disclosure.
That was something I could grasp because I was an executive of the White Clothes who had experienced long battles against Heukseong, which Choi Jin-seong ruled.
“You don’t think I’ll talk obediently, do you?”
The problem was whether the opponent would cooperate.
Of course, such a trivial(?) problem was not a great obstacle to me.
“Well then. Can you still act tough after experiencing this?”
Grabbing the guy’s left arm,
Flash!
I attempted enhancement.
Of course, since I enhanced the body of a living person, black smoke soon rose up.
“Kuaaaaaaak—”
A resounding scream.
It was to the extent that it couldn’t be thought of as human, like something wailing from hell.
“How about it? Now you feel like talking, right?”
The guy who had experienced the pain of death shook his head up and down like crazy.
That was a natural reaction.
It hadn’t been long since the apocalypse, and those who had just barely begun their awakening ritual couldn’t reach ‘warriors’.
And I had to exploit that weakness.
“Then, shall we continue our friendly conversation?”
Information acquisition exploiting the loophole of the contract.
Through this guy, I would extract valuable information about the Black Moon, that veiled power.