The Illusion Trap
"Welcome. Looking to sell something?"
"Yes."
Seo Rin held out the goods with practiced calm. His friends had already scooped up everything mid-range and useful, so what remained were either ultra-expensive pieces or rock-bottom junk. And so he offloaded every last item left on the table.
"This can't be. It's a check."
He held the paper up to the fluorescent light, turning it this way and that in open wonder. Used computer parts usually went for next to nothing; he hadn't expected much. An unexpectedly large sum had landed in his hands instead. In that instant he forgot everything and felt as if he might simply float away. Vampires, lycanthropes—none of it even registered.
"W-wow. With this much I can hold out until I find another part-time job and still have plenty left. No good. If I walk around carrying this kind of cash I'll blow it. Should I just pay the rent in advance?"
Seo Rin trembled with emotion. It was a ridiculous thought, but he even felt grateful toward Han Se-gun. Grateful to the lunatic who'd publicly sworn to kill him—he couldn't shake the sense that he himself had somehow been corrupted.
"Hmm… then I should head back for now. I'll grab groceries on the way…"
He shoved the wallet deep into his clothes and raked the street with suspicious eyes. Afraid of pickpockets? Worried someone might target him?
Ah, money truly was the wellspring of anxiety. Back when he was a penniless nobody with nothing left to lose, the whole world had looked warm. Now that he held this "fortune" in his hands, every face looked like a thief or a mugger. Smitten with the sum, Seo Rin spun every kind of wild fantasy as he headed toward the subway station.
But what was this? There really was something strange—a presence. It was unmistakably someone's gaze. Feeling the fine hairs on his body stand on end, Seo Rin looked around.
"Ik!"
Suddenly the world spun and dizziness crashed over him. He staggered and stubbed his foot on a sidewalk block.
"Keh!"
He dropped into a lower stance at once and recovered his balance. A werewolf like him stubbing his foot on a sidewalk block? Impossible under ordinary circumstances. Even if someone hurled a piece of chalk at full force from a step behind his head, so long as the opponent was human Seo Rin could dodge it with ease. He could step on a coin in his shoe and know not only its value but the year it had been minted. And yet a lycanthrope with senses like that had tripped over a sidewalk block? Some strange force had to be at work.
After recovering his balance he looked around like a terrified cat. In that instant he realized something astonishing.
"…Huh?"
There were no people around. The throng that had been brushing past him moments ago had vanished. The massive buildings stood hollow, like cardboard boxes stacked into the sky, and empty cars sat motionless on the roads.
Sunlight poured warmly onto the deserted streets just as always, and that very abundance of bright energy only deepened the terror. For human beings to simply evaporate on such a fine day—it was utterly impossible.
Cold sweat beaded on Seo Rin's forehead and pooled at his chin. When a drop fell, the dry sidewalk block greedily swallowed it. Even without looking he could picture it vividly in his mind.
But even those superhuman senses couldn't explain the present situation. Once the sound of the falling sweatdrop faded, silence settled again. Since when had it been like this?
"Ugh!"
Standing out in the open was dangerous. Instinct told him so, and Seo Rin startled and broke into a run. He sprinted toward the station, weaving past obstacles as much as possible, aiming for somewhere crowded with people.
"Haah… haah!"
His breath came short of its own accord. Running this distance shouldn't tire him at all. Yet the relentless fear and anxiety made his breathing ragged. He reached the plaza in front of the station—and still there was no one.
The cars on the road stood abandoned, their emptiness so ominous that Seo Rin lost his composure.
He dashed into the station building.
No one inside either.
This time he vaulted the ticket gates.
No one in the station either.
The hollowed-out station made him wonder if he'd slipped into an episode of that old foreign program Amazing Stories. Standing on the platform, Seo Rin looked around. No sign of a train coming on his side. There was a train stopped on the opposite platform, so he jumped down onto the tracks and crossed over. No people inside that train either.
"Damn it! What the hell is this?"
He stepped into the car and peered around. Then he suddenly caught a sharp smell of oil and metal. He'd only smelled it for a moment, but it was the scent that came off Han Se-gun's body—the smell of guns and gun oil.
"…!"
An enemy. Seo Rin knew it by instinct. Or maybe instinct wasn't even needed. If this situation weren't the work of an enemy but a genuine supernatural phenomenon, he would already have gone mad.
Sniffing the air, he surveyed his surroundings. A station should smell like a station—this was wrong. No iron smell from the tracks, no trash-bin smell from the trash bins. Then where was he right now?
The enemy had probably used an illusion to deceive him and lure him out—to some place secluded enough that killing someone wouldn't matter. And if the illusion had stopped here? The enemy's attack would begin any second.
Just as he predicted, something cut through the air toward him. Seo Rin raised his arms and legs into a defensive stance.
CRACK!
In that instant the surrounding scenery shattered at high speed and his body was flung backward. He flew roughly three meters, hit the ground, and skidded. His clothes tore against the asphalt, skin exposed. The heavy blow left his head ringing and his vision swimming.
Pain like electric current ran through the arm that had blocked the attack. The arm was probably broken. When he got his wits back and lifted his head, the limb hung broken and bleeding.
"Urgh!"
Only then did reality reassert itself around him. He wasn't on a station platform—he was in a deserted back alley where most of the shops had their shutters down. Across the way stood the wall of a national railway maintenance depot, and beside it sat a completely wrecked car someone had abandoned. On top of that car a man stood rolling his shoulders, looking down at Seo Rin.
He had deep brown hair and eyes, but one glance made it clear he was a foreigner.
"They said you were a child of Lilith, so I was worried you'd be some kind of monster. Turns out you're just a greenhorn."
"…Who the hell are you?!"
Seo Rin kicked free of the trash heap and stood. The arm broken moments ago had fully regenerated while he rose—not a single scar left. The man's eyes lit with interest at the sight. He leapt down from the car and ran to the side.
"That regeneration really is something."
"Tch!"
Seo Rin immediately snatched a steel can from the ground and hurled it with all his might. Startled, the man dodged—but the can grazed past his ear and slammed into the closed shutter of the shop behind him.
CRUNCH!
The shutter tore open as the steel can embedded itself.
"Ugh!"
The man clutched his ear and threw himself forward, rolling across the ground. The can that had only grazed him had shattered his ear to pieces. A steel can was far too light and poorly shaped for a projectile. To fire something like that as if it were a cannonball—Seo Rin's shoulder strength was truly formidable.
He regretted underestimating the boy. Because Seo Rin had fallen so easily for the illusion, he'd assumed his physical abilities would be nothing special either.
In truth, for both vampires and lycanthropes, mental and physical abilities usually scaled together. Their magical power tended to be determined by blood purity, so those who fell easily to illusions usually had unimpressive physiques as well.
But Seo Rin was different. He'd fallen for the illusion only because he was still a greenhorn who'd never once faced a magical attack. It had nothing to do with an inferior bloodline or a lack of talent.
"Where do you think you're going?! You attack someone out of nowhere and then run?!"
Seo Rin kicked off the wall and sprinted after the foreigner. The man who'd dodged the steel can rolled across the asphalt, then pulled a knife and flung it at him.
Tung-tung-tung!
But Seo Rin, racing along by kicking off the closed shop shutters, launched himself into a leap, spun in midair, and dodged the flying knives.
"Ugh!"
The foreign man looked panicked when Seo Rin avoided the attack. That throw had apparently been his trump card. Seeing the expression, Seo Rin felt triumphant and moved to strike him hard.
But what was this? The moment he closed in, he realized something was wrong. Despite the man's face, his heartbeat and the smell of his sweat showed no sign of panic.
A trap?!
Without time to reverse the thought, Seo Rin ruthlessly drove a kick at the foreigner's back. Once he'd committed his body, he couldn't hesitate.
And sure enough, contrary to the flustered expression, the foreign magician flung himself boldly to the side. Seo Rin's kick grazed past, clothes tearing with a rip. A human hit by that kick wouldn't have walked away—but the magician wasn't hit.
"Damn it!"
Seo Rin tracked the rolling magician with his eyes. The moment he looked sideways, though, his vision blurred again and dizziness surged. The magician had cast another illusion on him.
He chased the scent of the man's blood. The metallic blood-smell was so strong and distinctive even ordinary humans could notice it; for a lycanthrope like Seo Rin it was ridiculously easy to track. Even if he couldn't see the man, he wouldn't lose someone who reeked like that.
He quickly pinpointed the man's position. Confident his illusion had hidden him, the man was holding his breath some distance away.
"Hmph, so you're hiding. Fine by me!"
Careful not to look directly at where the opponent was hiding, Seo Rin raised his hand. If the man noticed and fled farther away, the scent alone wouldn't lock the position. Besides, the enemy's weapon was a gun—the greater the distance, the worse for him.
If he didn't finish it with this one blow, it would become a drawn-out fight, and only Seo Rin would be at a disadvantage. But if he had to end it in one strike? He looked at his own hand. He'd never hit anyone with his full strength before.
Judging by the force he'd used smashing objects, though, he could imagine the result. If he simply extended his claws and swung, flesh would tear, skin peel—bones would break!
From the opponent's movements and reactions so far, the man was only human. He used strange illusions, but his physical ability stayed within human limits. If Seo Rin freely smashed someone like that, wouldn't he kill him? The moment that thought crossed his mind, his hand slowed.
BRATATAT!
And from the invisible enemy came a hail of bullets. Just as expected, they came flying from Seo Rin's side.
"Ah—!"
Frozen by that useless pity, he only then threw himself forward. He'd been distracted for a moment, and the bullets struck his thigh and side.
"…!"
Seo Rin screamed without sound. It hurt so much no voice would come. The rounds tore through the tough muscle of his side and thigh and stopped inside his torso. In an ordinary human body they might have punched clean through and done less damage—but a lycanthrope's body, with dozens of times a human's reflexes and strength, was that much tougher and denser.
The flesh itself was already a powerful ballistic material, so it absorbed every bit of the bullets' kinetic energy.
"Kraagh!"
Barely able to breathe again, Seo Rin roared and rolled into the side alley, rounding a corner. His hand flew reflexively to his side, but blood poured like rain.
To think some madman would full-auto a submachine gun in the middle of Seoul! Well—that was why he'd attacked Seo Rin in the first place. He cursed his own complacency. The opponent had approached to kill him, or worse. And he'd stopped his hand in front of the enemy because he didn't want to kill a human!
"Heh heh heh."
Sensing victory, the opponent approached with an unpleasant laugh. Footsteps and breathing drew so close he could almost grab them, and sheer terror seized Seo Rin. Looking at the wound, his organs were shredded and blood kept gushing out in thick pulses.
The sight was so grotesque just looking at it made him want to vomit. Silver-tipped hollow-point rounds designed for hunting vampires and lycanthropes had shattered the moment they entered his body and torn him up from the inside. True to being silver bullets, the regeneration was agonizingly slow compared to ordinary wounds.
Clutching the wound, Seo Rin vaulted the wall to escape the approaching human. Then he picked up a rock from the ground. The opponent's weapon was a submachine gun, so it shouldn't be able to punch through this wall built of large blocks. That left only coming over the wall… In that moment he decided on a stone throw.
"Damn it."
Having to fight modern firearms with thrown rocks—he wasn't a caveman, what was this? Of course at home he had the submachine gun Maria had prepared for him, a TEC-9, and a bulletproof suit. But Seo Rin wasn't some reckless guy who'd given up on life; he wasn't about to carry that stuff around every day.
Was it because he'd lost so much blood? His vision swam and dizziness hit. Natural enough after taking submachine-gun fire. But even in this state, no one approached.
"What the hell are the police doing, and what about the airport? How can someone just wander around Korea with firearms and…"
Seo Rin looked around. This was the open lot behind the train maintenance depot next to Yongsan Station. Because it was still working hours, people could be seen working in the maintenance plant and elsewhere. But none of them turned their eyes toward him. As if his presence had been erased from their awareness.
With a technique like that, you could casually kill someone in a crowd of hundreds and stroll away. Seo Rin shuddered at the thought. The opponent could kill him without ever touching the law. Which meant the only thing that could protect his life was his own strength.
Clutching the wound, he focused his mind to read the opponent's presence. When the man first approached he'd deceived Seo Rin's senses and shown him an illusion, drawing him to the place he wanted. But there was one sense he hadn't been able to hide—smell.