152. Butterfly Effect (3)
152. Butterfly Effect (3)
Whoosh—
A lone, bleak gust of wind swept past our hair.
Buildings of every kind stood in rows like forest trees, but most of them were empty. Ivy clung to their walls like parasites.
Left abandoned for so long, the road was choked with cars missing their windshields, shattered concrete chunks strewn in haphazard chaos.
Baptized by time though it was, the eye couldn't miss the marks of violence left by monsters that had once trampled and crushed this place.
Current location: Suwon, Gyeonggi Province.
One of the old ghost cities that still hadn't shaken off the aftermath of the very first Gate Incident.
The Seoul where I usually operate is far more advanced—civilization and convenience technology leaps ahead of the original world—but stray just a little outside and ghost cities like this one are common.
In other words, a perfect environment for Demonized Humans and criminal scum to hide in.
Yet even in places like this, a few civilians lived on—never recorded, unable to escape—and the Demonized Humans were said to target exactly those people and kidnap them.
Ghost cities were normally restricted zones cordoned off by the state, so Im Ga-eul and Sofia, seeing one for the first time, both let out subdued murmurs.
"......There's no life here at all."
"Yeah, it's just like a dead city."
Baek Seol-hee, who together with them had been silently looking down from the rooftop of the target building, turned her head and spoke.
"We proceed as planned."
At that, we all nodded, faces taut with tension.
The operation was simple.
I would storm the enemy stronghold alone and draw all eyes. In the meantime, Baek Seol-hee, Im Ga-eul, and Sofia would extract the hostages.
In any rescue operation, the single most critical element is to keep the enemy from using the hostages' lives as a weapon. So it was only natural that Baek Seol-hee, not me, would lead the rescue team. And for whatever dangers the hostages might face, Sofia and Im Ga-eul were placed on the rescue team as well.
"Acceleration—!!!"
Magic Stone in one hand, Im Ga-eul buffed every party member at maximum output.
Even Baek Seol-hee herself let out a small murmur of admiration, as if a buff representing a 10% amplification of her own physical ability was something unfamiliar to her.
"......Not bad."
Im Ga-eul's face flickered at that, caught between whether it was praise or dismissal.
'She's seriously overrating that. But then, a 10% boost off Instructor Baek Seol-hee's specs would feel like a whole different scale than it does for us.'
I nodded to myself.
Her expression hardening once more, Baek Seol-hee opened and closed her fist a few times to finish her final checks, then gave the order in a clipped voice.
"Jin Yu-ha. Breach."
"Yes."
As soon as the breach command fell, I dropped straight from the rooftop to the ground below.
Whoooosh—
Wind rushing past my ears.
Two Demonized Humans standing guard at the entrance. What had first looked like tiny dots swelled larger and larger as I fell toward their skulls.
Shiiing—
When the ground was close enough, I drew Moonlight from my waist.
Shfft!
Shfft!
"Ghk!"
"Urk!"
Dropping right past them, I slanted my blade once into each of their throats. Not even a scream. They died on the spot.
Tap.
Then I flipped my body midair, landed with a Covert Step to kill the sound, caught the two Demonized Humans as they toppled backward, and laid them carefully onto the ground.
Holding my breath, I activated Detection and probed the presence of those chattering inside.
"......What the hell kind of bullshit is this."
"Fuckin', right. Every damn time I pull guard duty in the underground prison, those little brats won't stop whining. Drives me nuts."
"Can't we just kill 'em? At least let us do some torture or something. Or let us get a piece! For fuck's sake, if you're gonna say no to this and no to that, why the hell did they even bring those bastards here!"
"Hey, hey, you think the Society's a joke? Keep that up and your head's gonna fly off."
"Hah, fuckin' hell. As if that goddamn Magic Emperor bitch hasn't already made everything shit. Why the hell this kinda—!"
I steadied my gaze and measured their level.
'Their skill looks to be about the same as those Demonized Human goons from before...... but why are there so many of them?'
One on one, they didn't seem much different from the guys I'd fought at the end of the Midterm Evaluation. But the ones gathered in the main hall alone numbered close to a hundred. Factor in the whole building, and there could be even more.
I pressed the earpiece and spoke quietly.
"Total detected: one hundred two hostiles. Could be more. Hostages confirmed detained in the underground level."
[Confirmed. Breach immediately.]
I stared at the massive iron door in front of me, wrapped my blade in Mana, and drew a diagonal slash.
Slice—
The thick iron door split like cutting tofu. Then I kicked the still-closed door with a bang.
The severed slab tilted its massive weight inward.
Creeeeak—
CRASH—!!!
The door crashed down with a piercing metal shriek.
At that sudden upheaval, every Demonized Human inside turned a panicked face toward the entrance.
"......Wh-what the!? Who the hell is it!!!"
"Who's there!!! Which bastard!!!"
"Huh? A—a boy......!?"
"That face, I've seen it somewhere......"
I immediately steadied my gaze and swept the surroundings.
This place must originally have been a hospital—pale gray-white backdrops, battered medical fixtures, and cracked marble floor met my eyes.
'First, the one who looks like the biggest pain in the ass.'
Decision made, I swung my sword horizontally without an instant's delay.
The first target: the short, curly-haired woman sitting on the front desk with a dumb look on her face.
One Slash, Two Halves (一刀兩斷).
WHOOSH—!
A razor-edged crescent of sword qi tore the air and flew toward her.
Slice!
"Grrk!?"
She realized the blade was coming for her and threw herself sideways, but she didn't get clear of the strike's full range. Over half her torso was carved away.
"Grrraaaaaahh......"
Her face twisted as her innards spilled out, and she crumpled to the floor.
Still alive—twitching—but probably not for long.
"V-Vice-captain!!!"
"You son of a bitch!"
"Who the hell are you! What do you want!!!"
BANG—!
Instead of answering, I punched off the floor.
A flash of the blade, and another one's head sailed into the air.
SPURT—
A fountain of red erupted from the headless stump.
"You insane—!!!"
The guy standing next to the beheaded one hardened his expression, pivoted on his heel, and hurled a fist at me.
"Diiieeee!!!!"
A spiked knuckle duster closed in right before my eyes. I calmly ducked my head and let it pass.
SHNK!
From that crouch, my blade shot up from below.
"......F-fuck."
The sword I'd driven through his chin erupted out the back of his skull. His eyes rolled back white.
Then the one gunning for my back. The moment I pulled my blade free of that jaw, I kicked backward.
Thump.
"Gack!"
The kick to the gut made the Demonized Human stagger backward, his face twisting in a grimace.
I spun around, extended the blade, and drove it toward his heart. Then I pushed my shoulder straight through and skewered the one behind him too—shish kebab.
"Grrraaaaaahhhh......"
SHNK!
I pulled the blade free.
Thud.
Thud.
The Demonized Humans hit the floor.
"......"
A single black-haired boy who had appeared out of nowhere. In the blink of an eye, five Demonized Humans were carved down. The rest tried to grasp what was happening, tried to process it with their eyes. But their minds absolutely refused to accept it.
"......M-monster."
One of them pointed a finger at me, calling me a monster. Meant nothing to me.
Just slaughter, no different from the Midterm Evaluation.
But the mindset I faced it with was different now.
Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump. Thump.
A slow-beating heart. My mind settled cold and still.
No guilt over taking human lives.
That's what it means to become a Demonized Human in this world. If a human being is in front of them, that alone is reason enough to kill as many as they like. Human yet no longer human.
Then one of the Demonized Humans screamed in a terror-stricken voice.
"......J-Jin Yu-ha!"
"What?"
"Jin Yu-ha! It's Jin Yu-ha! Why the hell is that psycho here!!!!!"
"Jin Yu-ha?! That Utopia!?"
"The bastard who killed Rebecca!?"
Now that they knew who I was, they leveled their weapons with sharper tension than before—but no one lunged right away. Seems wiping out five in an instant plus going public with that footage of me finishing Rebecca had done its job.
That one instant of hesitation.
The corner of my mouth curled.
'I appreciate that.'
Because it bought me time to really carve things up.
'If I'm gonna draw their attention, might as well draw it for good. If it were just the Instructor alone, I wouldn't worry, but with Im Ga-eul and Sofia here too.'
I raised my sword.
And brought it down onto the filthy marble floor with all my strength.
BOOOOM—!!!
A roar, and a thick cloud of dust billowed up.
[Extraction team, breaching now.]
At that signal, Baek Seol-hee's voice came through.