73
Chapter 73
Click, click-clack.
Click, click.
Dawn. Inside the silent office without a single window, only the endless sounds of tapping on a keyboard and clicking a mouse timidly drifted through the air.
There were fifty-three people there. Fifty men in suits sitting in front of monitors, one who appeared to be their superior, and two guards watching the doors.
Four in the morning. An ordinary office worker would be sleeping sweetly in a comfortable bed, preparing for tomorrow, but
they were not.
Because they weren't ordinary office workers.
No ordinary office worker sat in a basement at four in the morning watching video feeds transmitted from a submarine in the East Sea.
However, despite watching footage of the gloomy deep sea where anything could pop out at any moment from a windowless basement, and doing so for days on end during the early hours, their expressions were surprisingly fine.
No, they were beyond fine; they actually looked quite bright.
Firstly, they weren't particularly tired. Because they worked at four in the morning, they slept while others were working.
Secondly, well.
"Hehe......hehehe......!!"
A silly chuckle from an unknown source filled the office.
They must have just checked their bank account balance.
It was one of the ways the people here motivated themselves.
Those who fervently watched Parang's streams and realized this hefty pay included hazard pay for their lives had quickly backed out, but whatever.
Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.
In any case.
The reason they were gathered in the underground secret room of the Hunter Association staring intently at their monitors at the crack of dawn was obvious.
To explore the deep sea, specifically the East Sea.
The reason they specifically chose the timeframe from late night to early morning was to minimize the chances of running into Parang.
Did anyone think they actually wanted to be doing this shady work in the dark hours of dawn?
In oceans where Oceanus was less active, such as the center of the Indian Ocean, the eastern coast of Africa, or near Australia, the Hunter Association's submersibles openly roamed around during the day.
The Association President valued the deep sea much higher than Cylo had originally anticipated.
So much so that rudimentary explorations were already underway in all oceans except the Antarctic and the Arctic Ocean.
Surprisingly, the exploration was going smoothly.
Just as Natsuko predicted, the deep sea was truly teeming with monster fish, to the point where one could say the water was half fish.
Due to the submersible's inadequate performance, combat-related data was nonexistent, but observational data was steadily accumulating.
Besides, it was the Hunter Association after all.
Because they were vastly ahead of the World Government and Cylo when it came to information related to monsters and gates, they were able to accelerate these explorations even further.
If there was a minor problem, it was that their results in the East Sea, one of the most important exploration areas, were severely lacking.
While data and observation materials poured out abundantly from other oceans, the data collection rate in the East Sea alone was exceptionally low.
"Gasp!! F-fuck, that scared me. Heave......."
One of the men sitting in the office bounced out of his chair with enough force to almost pierce the ceiling.
The monitor at his seat displayed a bright red screen.
The submarine had been destroyed after being attacked by a monster fish that had been hiding its body.
His superior casually approached and helped him to his feet.
"Ah, thank you, Department Head."
This was the reason for the low exploration success rate in the East Sea.
There were far too many dangerous monster fish.
With the world's third-largest Hive sleeping in that narrow sea, there were truly so many monster fish that there was more fish than water.
So they suffered frequent surprise attacks, and basically, monster fish looked disgusting.
To put it in perspective, it was like playing a horror game full of jump scares.
His coworker looked at the man sprawled out on the floor with a mocking smirk.
Then, turning his gaze back to his own monitor,
'Huh?'
A brass body with cogwheels, levers, and a conventional gun barrel.
A submarine looking like it had jumped straight out of the Victorian era was floating right before his eyes.
Its appearance was too bizarre to be a monster fish, and it was too small to be an objet.
'No, why is something like this here.......'
Well, actually, come to think of it, this might be the only place something like this could exist.
The man, briefly confused, decided to follow the manual for now.
Maintaining a safe distance, he slowly approached and turned on the precision detection camera.......
Boom!!!
The moment he tried to observe it, flames erupted from the massive conventional gun barrel along with a loud crack.
Startled, he tried to quickly turn the vehicle around, but the submersible must have already been destroyed, as the screen only showed static noise.
'Ah, damn it.......'
As if accustomed to this, he grabbed a piece of paper from the mountain of documents stacked next to him and quickly began filling it out.
It was a Damage Report.
'Reason...... monster fish, water pressure...... hmm.......'
Was it really a monster fish?
For now, the man checked the unknown category.
He detailed the features of the submersible he had seen from memory in the specific information section, then trudged over to his superior to submit the report.
As the superior read through the Damage Report slowly but somewhat apathetically, a sudden realization struck him as the image of a submarine he had seen somewhere before popped into his head.
His expression quickly turned serious as he summoned the five closest submersibles to the destruction coordinates, ordering them to move to the location, observe the target, and engage in combat if necessary.
And so, an unexpected battle broke out at the bottom of the sea,
Boom- Ka-boom!!
"Aaaaargh!!! Fuuuuuuuck!!!!!"
Yuna's Nautilus No. 3 heroically sank into the sea after sinking 23 of the Hunter Association's submersibles,
And Cylo received three phone calls.
#
The next morning.
Association Seoul Branch, Branch Manager's Office.
"Alright, get home safe. Let's grab a drink sometime later. Take care."
Finishing a casual call with his friend like usual, Seo Sunwoo nonchalantly put down his cellphone.
'The wiretapping device.......'
His gaze shifted to the flowerpot resting on his desk,
and stopped at a faint green light glowing among the thick moss.
'It's working properly.'
He quietly brewed some tea and recounted the contents of the call.
'Four days from now.......'
Four days.
In four days, the repair of the Evidence would be completed.
'It is finally time to sever this long, ill-fated relationship with you.'
This time, his gaze moved to and stopped at a small picture frame resting on the desk.
It was a photo of three high schoolers in school uniform gathered together.
His face was on the left, and Natsuko's face was on the right.
The face in the middle was obscured by reflected sunlight.
The people in the photo were smiling so brightly, as if they couldn't be happier.
He felt a strange sensation.
The feeling that the life of the human known as himself had reached its grand finale.
It wasn't as bad as he thought.
He stared intently at the photo before picking up his cellphone again to call someone.
Riiing- riiing.
The ringing sound echoed in the room for a moment until-
Click.
"Natsuko. Yeah. It's me, Sunwoo."
Sizzle- gurgle gurgle.
"Can we meet up for a bit? I have something important I'd like to discuss privately."
The water in the electric teapot boiled fiercely, looking as if it would overflow at any second.
Natsuko flew over to Seoul like the wind less than thirty minutes after the call ended,
and she could only blink with a dumbfounded look on her face.
"Let's head out and get some fresh air."
We'll be wiretapped here. Follow me.
Because the words her friend said after taking her to a closed-off basement were just too shocking.
"......The artifact called the 'Evidence', do you know about it?"
"I do. But, why do you ask?"
"Listen closely to what I'm about to say."
"......."
"......."
"......So, they're going to use that to......."
"Yeah. They plan to assassinate you."
"Oh my god......."
The story she heard from Seo Sunwoo was incredibly shocking.
To think that Cylo Corporation was plotting to assassinate her.
And in a way she could never have imagined.
Her old friend, Branch Manager Seo Sunwoo, had found out about it beforehand and kindly informed her.
After the conversation ended, Natsuko left the basement.
Walking alone down the quiet hallway, two intense emotions violently swirled inside her.
The relief of surviving, and,
'I wasn't caught. I wasn't caught......!!! I didn't get caught!!!! Ah, I wasn't caught!!'
Thrill. A tingling thrill as if her entire body had been electrocuted.
The certainty that Seo Sunwoo didn't know what she had done.
The assassination plan he relayed was so specific and seemed to have a high success rate.
If he knew what she had done, there was no way he would have shared such a plan with her.
The anxiety that had chased her from behind her entire life completely vanished.
Seo Sunwoo was an ally.
And as an ally, there was no one more reliable.
The existence she had feared the most in the world was actually on her side.
Seo Sunwoo knew nothing.
To him, the incident that day was nothing more than a tragic accident.
"Hnnng...... Haaah...... Haah......."
A sharp moan escaped her lips.
The feeling of the monster that had chased her for 20 years disappearing was indescribably ecstatic.
Natsuko walked down the hallway with excited steps, her body shivering.
#
Meanwhile, after Natsuko left the room, Seo Sunwoo.
"Hooo......."
He slumped into his office chair and massaged his forehead.
Seeing Natsuko's expression, he was certain.
Natsuko trusted him now.
He had acted for 20 years just to gain this single moment of trust.
There was no turning back now.
One week.
In a week, he would kill his best friend and the sworn enemy he hated more than anything in his life.
And then, he would quietly close his eyes beside the precious person he couldn't protect long ago.
The bitter scent of green tea gently spread through the empty office.