Chapter 60

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Translator: Ace

Chapter: 060

Chapter Title: Task Force Captain Han Hee-seok - [4]

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I'd finished assessing the situation and shouted right away.

"Jang-sil! Among the people down there, who's the ice ability user? Check it out quick!"

Seok Jang-sil was just as quick on the uptake. He closed his eyes, then snapped them open and yelled,

"Next to Baskin-Robbins down there! That ajumma running with the crowd!"

Then Kim Hyeong-man hollered,

"That's not gonna cut it!"

Kim Hyeong-man thrust his index finger out the window.

From the tip of his finger—the finger of a heat ray ability user—a red beam shot out and swept over the people below.

Normally, it'd be hot enough to pierce straight through a Force Field Body and kill it in one go, but he'd dialed the power way down this time. The people it touched were unharmed. He was using his heat ray like a laser pointer.

"Jang-sil? Follow my finger and point out who's got the ice ability!"

Kim Hyeong-man shouted, and Seok Jang-sil did just that. The beam soon landed on an ajumma running for her life alongside everyone else and stopped there. I shouted,

"That's the ice ability user, right?!"

Seok Jang-sil nodded, and at the same moment, I teleported.

I arrived right in front of the ajumma and saw it.

Even as she ran like the terrified others, her eyes darted side to side, scanning the surroundings—not the wide-eyed panic of a frightened rabbit, but the sharp hunt of a hawk seeking prey.

The gaze landed on a young woman running full tilt beside her. The life drained from the woman's eyes, and she collapsed in a heap. Another one dead.

No doubt about it. This ajumma was the killer behind the massacre.

And the next instant, Task Force member Han Hee arrived beside me. He'd teleported in just a second behind me—speed that rivaled Nguyen from last time.

But Nguyen had years of hunter experience honing her skills against monsters. This guy, who'd never taken down a single monster, was already this fast. His potential was insane.

With talent like that, maybe he can handle this on his own?

Come to think of it, he was the government guy. I wasn't.

So should I just step back like they taught at the academy, let the cops do their thing, and not play hero?

But seeing Han Hee up close, that didn't feel right.

His face was frozen stiff. He'd rushed here fast enough given the crisis, but he looked utterly lost on what to do next.

No surprise there. The fresh-out-of-school kid who'd gotten tailed and spotted right away wasn't exactly primed for crisis response.

So I took the lead.

I slapped my palm over the ajumma's face, blocking her view of the crowd—stopping her from freezing their brain blood vessels with her gaze.

Only then did she realize she'd been caught.

The ajumma counterattacked. Flailing blindly with her vision blocked, she grabbed my wrist.

A chill spread from my wrist, cooling my entire body. It was the same ability she used on me when my Round Girl overdrive jacked my body temp too high.

Against another Awakener, it required direct skin contact to work—useless for monster hunting. But plenty lethal for killing a person.

I desperately held back the urge to knock her out with a single punch. I just endured it.

I had to consider she might not be the culprit. Maybe she was just acting weird out of fear.

I gritted through the cold and asked Han Hee,

"No handcuffs on you, right?"

"Uh? Yeah."

"Nearest police station? Just point the way quick. Call them now, explain the situation—"

I teleported repeatedly to the spot he pointed out.

Once inside the station, I barked orders at the cops there. Only after they slapped cuffs on the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠ajumma and blindfolded her did I finally catch my breath.

Back at the bar with the Awakener hunters, the others were waiting.

"So, what happened? No other ice ability users keeping the slaughter going, right?"

Seok Jang-sil answered my question.

"Looks like that ajumma you took down was the perp. No other ice users in sight, and the killing stopped right after you grabbed her..."

After that, we left the shop and chatted idly.

"Rough guess, how many dead?"

"Maybe eight?"

"Whew, sucks for the dead ones, but that's fewer than it could've been."

"Yeah. With that many people on the street, even a regular mass shooting would've killed way more... Good thing everyone reacted so fast the second screams hit. Really."

"This make the news tonight?"

Someone asked, and I almost explained how these things usually got buried by the government unless it was huge. But I stopped.

Normally, yeah. But these days? With them airing every Awakener incident unfiltered? Who knew...

My hunch was spot on. It hit the news.

By the time I got home after parting ways, every major channel was breaking it.

Hunter Kim Geuk this, that—subtitles rolled as I appeared on screen.

The clip showed me teleporting in and subduing the ajumma. I shut off the TV.

Couldn't stomach watching anymore. Damn it.

Phone rang soon after. Park Mi-hyeong, as expected.

"Lately, seems like every time I turn on the TV, there's Kim Geuk, huh?"

Her excited tone said she was calling to praise my heroics again, but I had no energy to play along.

"Yeah. Time I stayed off it."

My sarcastic reply left silence on the line.

After a pause, Park Mi-hyeong asked,

"Kim Geuk, you sound down?"

"Yeah. Feeling pretty shitty."

"Why?"

"Feels like I jumped in on impulse and helped the government crack down on ice ability users?"

"Oh? Got it. You've been stressing over that?"

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The ice ability user I nabbed would get convicted.

No question. Even without hard evidence, proximity to the scene was enough for guilty-by-default with ice users. And here, the circumstantial evidence was ironclad.

Tough to celebrate catching the perp under that.

Sure, I'd pegged her as guilty and acted, but what if some other Awakener hiding out of sight was the real deal?

I couldn't ignore the chance she was just suspicious, with the real killer elsewhere. Not with my own sister rotting in prison for similar reasons.

As gloom settled in over possibly railroading another innocent—like my sister—Park Mi-hyeong seemed to read me and said,

"Oh, this one's legit guilty. Not some wrongful arrest."

"How can you know?"

"I have connections in these circles. She confessed already. Motive too."

She explained: Ice ability slaughters like a street shooting usually stemmed from resentment or weird ideologies. Not this time.

This ajumma had a clear goal: become a Spirit.

"Government tried burying it, but word spread—Spirits don't age and die, right? She wanted to halt her wrinkles before they got worse. But grinding monsters as a hunter till she evolved? Seemed unrealistic even to her. So she sought a safer path..."

"By massacring humans—way more numerous and easier to kill than monsters?"

"Exactly. Figured killing dozens to hundreds would do it. Even if sentenced to death, appeals might shorten it enough to get out before old age. Win as long as she didn't die ancient... Anyway, perp's confirmed solid. No need to beat yourself up."

"Still, confessions can be coerced into whatever."

"True. But what else could you do there? Letting more die wasn't an option—you had to act. I say you did great. Even as a Korean Awakener Alliance human rights advocate."

"Great how?"

"You know overseas, single ice users wiping out hundreds is common? Their kill scales are Guinness-level. Stopping that here before it happened? Good for all ice users."

"What kinda logic is that..."

"Heard of hunters killing man-eaters fast to prevent species-wide hate? That's you this time. Nipped a hate-spree against ice users in the bud..."

She argued my actions were a win for Awakener rights too, but I knew it was just comfort talk.

Back in the Alliance days, she'd fight tooth and nail against imprisoning Awakeners without solid proof, no matter the circumstances.

I'd inherited that conviction.

So even with media praise for my 'heroics,' I still felt lousy.

Checked HuntWeb just in case. Same vibe.

Saw my Round Girl tagged with 'ice freak' again and flinched.

HuntWeb's big names always got vicarious thrills from our feats? Place was in full festival mode.

But the party lasted just one day.

Next day, HuntWeb was buzzing again.

Not for good reasons.

Same vibe as I watched the video posted on the site.

Cabinet meeting? Policy debate?

Didn't matter what—some bigwig explaining policy.

And the guy presenting? I knew him.

The rambling policy guy was Han Hee-seok.

Task Force Captain. The Nazi bastard who'd ruined his son's bright future.

Subtitles called him not Task Force Captain, but "National Security Deputy Minister." I flinched.

HuntWeb culture mocked the Task Force as a "coward shelter for weaklings too scared for real hunting." Its captain? Leader of an understaffed joke unit. Turns out he was way higher up.

In the video, Han Hee-seok cited the Kim Seok-hee case, then this Suyu-dong ice incident.

Finally clicked why news was dumping raw Awakener stories lately.

Pasty white makeup hiding the thrashing Kang Jun-chi gave him, he kept droning.

Then came the line that enraged all of HuntWeb.

Immediate pushback from across the table.

Bickering raged in the clip.

Then: "Why pump elite Task Force funds? Raise cop salaries to bolster local police first!" Han Hee-seok replied,

No matter how logical Han Hee-seok sounded, HuntWeb hunters weren't buying.

Everyone rage-typed away.

Kang Jun-chi, crawl outta that basement first before mouthing off, I thought, then stewed in fury.

Regretted soothing him that day. And subduing the ice ajumma...

Fuming helplessly, news shifted to weather.

Calming myself, I realized: rainy season incoming?

Senior Awakener hunters' advice replayed. Someone needed to hear it.

I called my Round Girl from HuntWeb, who'd been self-deprecating again.

"Hey, Dam-bi? Got something to discuss. Rainy season's coming, right? So..."

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