World of the Mad Moon
“Crazy! Is this even possible?!”
“Don’t underestimate a racing V2 high-cycle 1500. It’s got better acceleration than any stock 1500cc.”
He shouted that as he drew his gun. Damn it! What shocked me wasn’t the motorcycle—it was his raw strength! Supporting the entire bike with one arm while hauling himself up the wall like that?!
Either way, the opponent was a legendary terrorist; I stood no chance as things were. I thought about leaping off the building, but the muzzle of his gun was locked dead on my head. One wrong move and I’d have a hole through my skull.
“Alright then, shall we talk, Odd-Eye? This is too much of a coincidence if it really is one. Never thought a bastard like you would turn out to be that… Ririm.”
“That… Ririm? Some girl?”
“…You talk too much. You like Pocari Sweat?”
He pulled off his motorcycle helmet with one hand and asked. I shook my head hard.
“Shame. I was planning to chop off your limbs and dunk you in a vat of the stuff.”
“….”
I swallowed, staring at the enormous revolver aimed at me—an unbelievably massive handgun. My throat burned dry. So this was what bloodlust felt like? Why the hell was a monster like him after me? Evidence disposal after all? Had I seen something I wasn’t supposed to? But if that were true, why not finish me off during the first attack instead of waiting until now?
“Hmm!”
Then Han Se-gun swung the barrel aside and pulled the trigger.
KWAANG!
A deafening blast shattered something. A pure-white shape like a stingray soaring through the night sky exploded into fragments that rained down toward us.
“Damn it! This whore’s still at it!”
He suddenly kicked the front wheel up and roared off. Helmet back on as he rode, he raised the gun skyward again.
“Kieeeee!”
From the heavens, grotesque monsters came swarming in flocks.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every time the massive revolver in Han Se-gun’s hand thundered, holes punched clean through the packs of creatures. But there were simply too many of them, so I seized the opening and flung myself off the building.
Whoosh!
In that same instant something stabbed into my shoulder from behind. Agony I had never felt in my life tore through me.
“Uuuugh—uwaaaaah!”
It felt exactly like a red-hot knife driven into my back! And sure enough, reflected against the wall, a knife was buried there. The way it had pierced with surgical precision between the shoulder blade and the junctions of the shoulder muscles told me he hadn’t thrown it to kill. Still… incredible. My right arm went completely numb and refused to move.
“Kaah!”
I have to get out of here. That guy’s a monster—worse than me! Heeding the warning screaming from deep in my chest, I sprinted forward, praying those white creatures would keep Han Se-gun occupied a little longer. But then—
Whiiing!
Huh? Something just passed over my head? The moment the thought formed, a motorcycle slammed down in front of me with a heavy thud. Reinforced suspension absorbed the impact; it only bounced a couple of times before stopping cleanly. Of course the rider was perfectly fine.
“…Oh my god!”
“….”
Still mounted, Han Se-gun executed some kind of turn—whatever it was called—pivoting on the front wheel while the rear spun, then came to a halt. I stared at him, the pain in my back forgotten.
“Alright. Give it up.”
“W-what are you going to do to me?”
I leaned against a streetlight and yanked the knife free. The blade, glowing with a pale light, finally slid out of my back. The problem was that the moment it left hurt just as badly.
“Twaaaaah!”
“…What a weird scream.”
Han Se-gun remarked, watching me writhe. Damn it, that ticked me off. I snatched the fallen knife from the ground and glared at him.
“What’s going on?”
“Whoa… I dunno. Felt like the ground shook or something.”
Even at night the area still saw foot traffic, and people were beginning to gather. Hey—that guy just fired a cannon that size a second ago. If you don’t call the police right now…
“Give it up. Humans can’t help you. Not even the cops.”
Han Se-gun’s voice cut in. When I looked at him in shock he leveled the gun at me once more.
“When humans step into this world, they only get slaughtered. Yeah—step into the world of the mad moon.”
“If you’re going to kill me, shut up and just do it already!”
I shouted at the endlessly chatty Han Se-gun. His words dried up.
“….”
Bang!
The barrel spat fire. In that instant my vision went black.
Thud!
The arm I had raised, knife ready, was sheared clean off! The shock left me blind on top of it. It felt as if my soul itself had briefly left my body.
“Uwaaaah!”
Even my own scream sounded impossibly far away! And unlike every other wound, regeneration was agonizingly slow!
“Khkhkh! Uuugh!”
The pain was so total I rolled across the ground. Han Se-gun did not let up.
“You asked me to kill you—why would I refuse, you whore!”
“Ugh!”
I rolled, slammed my remaining hand against the pavement, and tried to leap up. With one arm gone my balance was shot; I crashed back down in an ugly heap.
“Guek! Ugh… it hurts down to the bone.”
“…Looks like you need a firmer hand.”
I’d only muttered that it hurt, but Han Se-gun seemed dissatisfied and raised the gun again. Then—
“Kruuuu!”
Monsters the size of two-story buildings suddenly burst into view. Both looked like massively muscled men with ox heads, and they charged straight at Se-gun.
“Haaah!”
Black thread-like strands shot from Han Se-gun’s body and wrapped around them. He flung himself backward, clearing the spot entirely.
Kwaaaang!
At the same instant the threads detonated! The two-story monsters were obliterated without a trace. But by this point the explosion was deafening!
“Now! This way!”
A girl reached out from the alley. It was the same girl who had earlier introduced herself as Maria. I threw myself toward her and seized her hand.
“Perfect! Let’s run!”
Her body soared upward. Startled, I felt beneath me—though invisible to the eye, some living creature was there. Only then did I understand: every monster that had been attacking Han Se-gun belonged to Maria!
“Even a monster of a motorcycle can’t do anything once we’re airborne! Let’s get out of here for now!”
“Th-that’s the best news I’ve heard all night. Ugh.”
Her words let me relax; I slumped down onto the creature. My eyelids grew heavy as lead, and at last I closed my eyes.
When I came to, I had been dumped right in front of my house.
“Uuuugh!”
The searing pain that hit the moment I moved forced me to curl into a ball. Dim sodium-lamp light cast a murky glow over everything. In that utterly unreal nightscape I forced myself upright.
“Kraah! Damn it!”
Thankfully the arm had fully regenerated. Outwardly, at least—it still refused to move properly. Considering it had been completely severed, regenerating this much was impressive enough.
Anyway, I needed a moment to piece together how I had ended up like this. Right—that Han Se-gun bastard had attacked me. Then the girl who claimed to be a vampire had saved me and left me here.
“…But if she knows where my house is, that means Han Se-gun can find out too, doesn’t it?”
The realization hit me like ice water. What if that guy laid a hand on Father or Yeong-eun? He looked every inch a thoroughgoing villain more than capable of it. Anyone who radiated that kind of danger would treat human lives like the lives of flies!
“Khh.”
I scanned the surroundings. For the moment, empty. Only after confirming no one was watching did I head inside.
“….”
I opened the door; as expected, the house was deserted. The food cart did its best business at night, so Father wouldn’t be back yet. Lucky that today’s events hadn’t been discovered—but how was I supposed to explain my only set of outdoor clothes hanging in tatters?
“Uuugh.”
I clutched my chest and sank to my knees. This was no time for leisurely thoughts. From earlier, every single pulse sent a spike of pain through me—like venom crawling along my veins.
“Damn it.”
I collapsed onto the floorboards. Breathing turned ragged; my head throbbed. Then the door opened behind me.
“Here, is it?”
A cold voice. Not a single shred of emotion colored it. I tried to bolt upright in shock, but my body refused to obey.
“It’s no use. Even for a Noble Lycanthrope, silver bullets are effective. All the more so with the Beast. Regenerating after having an arm completely blown off is already impressive.”
That voice sounded like a death sentence; terror flooded me. His shadow wavered through the dark-blue gloom like the Grim Reaper’s own. That clear, deliberate movement was terrifying! Was he going to kill me?
“But… you live pretty shabbily.”
“S-so? Y-you got a problem with that?”
I managed to protest. In the next instant—crack!—my vision went black. A heartbeat later unbearable agony washed over my entire body.
“Uwaaaaah!”
“To be honest, I’m not in a position to kill you.”
He said it while perching casually on my desk.
“But since you’re not human either, I can inflict a pain that would kill a human without them ever feeling it.”
Ugh… This bastard just snapped my neck and he’s saying that? Knowing I could regenerate, he stomped down and crushed my cervical vertebrae under his heel. The neck is the pathway for the central nerves; damaging that single place alone made it feel as if my whole body were being torn apart.
“From what I’ve observed these past few days, for a werewolf you sure live just like a human. Looking at the state of you, you don’t seem to know a thing.”
“W-what the hell are you talking about?!”
“…You really don’t know, huh. If you did, I’d have dunked you in the heritage and tortured the answers out of you.”
“….”
The completely emotionless words were so frightening I tried to look up at him. My head wouldn’t move any farther; all I could see were his feet.
“…If you don’t know, then live not knowing.”
He crushed my neck underfoot again. I blacked out once more. Passing out twice in a single day… damn it all.
“Seo Rin! Rin-ah! Wake up! Wake up!”
Someone was shouting my name amid a racket. But my eyelids felt heavy as lead. To be this exhausted… that had never happened before. Thinking that, I propped myself up with my hands on the floor.
“Kkeung!”
I forced myself upright and looked toward the door. Someone was pounding roughly and calling my name.
“Huh?”
What’s going on? For a moment I was so dazed I glanced down at myself. My clothes were in tatters! And the sun was high in the sky? Kyaaah! I was supposed to deliver the newspapers! Delivering papers might look pathetic, but it is the system of this society.
Missing even one day doesn’t end with a simple “sorry.” If a person who delivers two hundred copies takes a day off, that many more have to be covered by everyone else. Fail, and the distribution center will explode under endless complaint calls.
But I had never once failed to deliver before! Aghast, I yanked the door open. The person who strode in was, contrary to every expectation, Officer Jang from the neighborhood police station. He shouted with a flustered face.
“You brat! How many times did I call and pound on this door… Y-you—what’s with that look of yours?”
“Ah, um, about that…”
“Damn it. Hey, this is bad! Get over here quick!”
“Yes?”