Surgery
"Goddammit! I had it lined up!"
Pacific shouted. And he meant it, too.
The moment he judged the distance was too far, he'd hurled the knife he was carrying, and it had come within a hair's breadth of Piercing's head before the man vanished.
"It wouldn't have landed even without that."
"Then... it wasn't even worth throwing?"
"It was worth it. Very worth it. Someone with that kind of ability is naturally hard to pin down. How was anyone supposed to expect he could use it back-to-back like that?"
"Don't tell me... you held back a beat on purpose to force him to use his ability?"
Won-goo stuck a cigarette between his lips and nodded. Lee Hyun-sung stepped in immediately and lit it for him.
"Can't speak to anything else, but it looked like a power that moves along with whatever touches his body. Those are tricky. Especially out here in the Field. My mistake for thinking short. Didn't figure he could chain it."
"That's not on you, Director. That power was just that good. And frankly, I'd wager it was a one-time use anyway."
"I'd love for it to be one-time, but who knows. Either way, the bastard ripped the piercing right out of his ear and teleported off."
"Ugh. We can debrief later. So what do we do first? Shouldn't we be going after Mix?"
Pacific said this as he crouched to pick his knife up off the ground.
"Before that, there's something we need to do. Pacific, can you still move?"
"No idea."
"When the curse spreads, you said there's a feeling. Did it come or not?"
"Still fine for now. No telling when it'll hit, though."
"Then go with Hyun-sung."
"Where?"
"Neverland. He bolted that way. Without his pet, that bastard's nothing. Go bring him in."
"Understood, Hyeong-nim. But... do we bring him back in one piece?"
"...?"
"Do we capture him intact, sir?"
"Wound him if you must. Just bring him."
"Understood, Hyeong-nim."
"The rest of you, look for any pieces of that shadow-using bastard. If we can salvage his seal, all the better. Gather the loot properly too. Especially the knife that bald bastard was using. Find it. That's an order."
"Wasn't that part absorbed into Protico?"
"No. That thing is no ordinary item. I felt it when it hit me. Even if Protico swallowed it, it'll be perfectly intact."
With that, Won-goo began pulling off his clothes.
"Jo Mu-sa."
"Yes, Director."
"I need you to operate on me. I have to open this belly back up. That bastard shredded things so badly my innards have probably reattached themselves however they pleased."
"Is that safe, them attaching like that?"
Jeon Hye-ji asked.
"Of course it isn't. That's why we're reattaching them. Jo Mu-sa, you're good, right? You've done it once before."
"Yes. Well... I just need to make sure the right things connect back to the right things, so."
Won-goo drove a syringe into his own neck.
He was out cold instantly.
Jo Mu-sa removed the staples, then brought his knife to a wound that had already begun to close.
There were no surgical instruments, no scalpels.
No antiseptic, either.
There was only the knife they used in battle — used to slice open the abdomen, cut apart the wrongly-knit organs, and sew them back together with thread and needle. That was all.
A job with not a shred of delicacy about it.
And Jo Mu-sa wasn't even a medical professional.
Yet his hands didn't waver in the slightest.
Since joining Won-goo's Labor Services and taking over medical duty, he had been through an unending parade of situations like this.
It wasn't the first time he'd performed organ reattachment surgery on one of the crew, either.
He had done it on monsters' innards before.
It looked like chaos, but Won-goo's training plan was structured with surprising rigor, and it was progressing on schedule.
Building surgical experience for Jo Mu-sa in preparation for what was to come — that, too, was part of it.
Jo Mu-sa took a book out of his personal bag, laid it open, and peered into Won-goo's abdomen.
Bare-handed, he sifted through the viscera, checking whether the organs had knit back where they belonged.
Any medical professional would have called it insanity — but for survivors whose bodies had progressed through coin enhancement, it was more than acceptable.
The moment a body underwent even a single toughness-related enhancement, it became the kind of flesh that almost never fell ill.
And Won-goo was a Named who had invested heavily in toughness.
He had enough vitality to shrug off poison poured directly into his organs.
"D-Director. Is, is this the one?"
Suwon appeared, holding up a sashimi knife with a bright, innocent face.
The surgery was finished; Won-goo had woken and was hurriedly pulling his clothes back on.
"Is it?"
"Th-this one was f-fine, it, it seems?"
"Hand it over. I'll check."
A sashimi knife was never a weapon built for combat.
Gangsters had made it famous, but because it hadn't been designed for fighting, its shortcomings as a weapon were anything but few.
Against an opponent without armor it could be threatening enough — but against survivors who went about armored up, it hardly counted as a proper weapon at all.
Won-goo raised the knife and drove it into the ground several times. Simple motions, but more than enough to gauge durability.
The pointed tip pierced the asphalt without bending or snapping.
Anything made of ordinary stainless steel would never have passed such a test.
Thud! Thud!
He checked how it held up against side impacts, then stress-tested it from every angle.
The blade, a slightly oversized knife of only about 40 centimeters, was holding up remarkably well.
Meanwhile, Lee Hyun-sung and Pacific returned with Neverland in tow.
Unlike when he'd fled, Neverland was covered in blood.
Pacific, still perfectly healthy, found his wheelchair and sat down in it.
"Good work, Hyun-sung."
"What about me?"
"You did well too."
"Honestly. Barely lasted a moment, did I. What's the plan?"
"We caught him, didn't we? We take our time breaking him down. I've got plenty to say to that bastard."
Neverland had been trembling violently from the moment he laid eyes on Won-goo.
"So what're you hammering away at there?"
"Weapon testing. This is what punched through my gut, and no matter how I look at it, it's no ordinary weapon."
"How is it?"
"Durability passes, for one. Seems enchanted, too."
Screeech!
Pacific rolled his wheelchair closer.
"Let me take a look."
Won-goo handed the knife over, and Pacific drew a loupe from inside his coat and examined the blade.
It was a jeweler's magnifying glass, the kind you'd only see in a gem appraisal shop.
"What is this, a gem appraisal?"
"This thing's expensive."
"It's a knife, not a gem."
"Hold on. There's a verification method only dealers know."
"...?"
"There. Found it."
Pacific said, wearing a triumphant grin.
"Found what?"
"See for yourself."
At the base of the blade, a marking was engraved — so fine that at a glance it could pass for a scratch.
It was small enough that even survivors with sharp eyes would mistake it for a blemish. Truly microscopic lettering.
美六 — Mi-yuk.
"Mi-yuk?"
"Never heard of it?"
"Nope. Who is this guy?"
"And here I thought there was nothing you didn't know, Director Gong. Well, to be fair, this is something only the true insiders among dealers know."
"Right, right. You're a big shot. So what is it? Weird name."
"A weapons artisan. More precisely, you could say he's the one who enchant weapons with magic."
"Yeah? So this is a good one, then?"
"Good doesn't cover it. Anything bearing Mi-yuk's enchantment counts as a top-tier weapon. He could enchant a pair of chopsticks and turn them into a legendary blade."
"Really, now."
"But there's one strange thing about this guy."
"What?"
"Normally when someone enchants a weapon, they do it to a good weapon. Right?"
"That's standard. It's reinforcement, after all."
"But this guy only enchants low-grade weapons."
"Weird bastard."
"Isn't he? No ordinary weirdo, either. That's why most items with his name engraved on them are things like kitchen knives, hardware-store axes, baseball bats — that sort of thing."
"Something's off. Why would he put expensive enchantments only on weapons like that?"
"All kinds of rumors circulated about that, but nobody knows the truth. And there's one more interesting rumor."
"Which is?"
"Collect six of Mi-yuk's weapons and bring them to him, and he'll enchant any weapon you want with an extremely powerful spell."
"What nonsense is that? Like collecting legendary set items?"
"I thought it was a joke at first too, but a few of the dealers I traded with claimed they'd actually met Mi-yuk. And they all said they heard it from him directly."
"Not from you firsthand, though?"
"Not firsthand, no."
"Forget it. Either way, it's a good weapon?"
"Presumably? At the very least, I've never heard of one of Mi-yuk's weapons breaking. Durability's guaranteed."
"That much is true. It punched through my gut even with me clamping down hard. Durability's solid."
"Director."
"Hye-ji. What is it?"
"You mentioned a baseball bat earlier."
"I did."
"Didn't we have something similar?"
"Hm? A bat?"
"Yes."
"Ttugi."
"Yes, Hyeong-nim!"
"Didn't you stash the baseball bat we took off that bat-wielding bastard in the junk compartment?"
"I'll fetch it right away, Hyeong-nim!"
"What else have we got?"
"There's the metal bat we got off one of the Human Cook Gang bastards. It's nothing special, but it was damn sturdy, I'll say that."
"A baseball bat's exactly the kind of thing Mi-yuk would enchant, come to think of it."
"Here it is, Hyeong-nim."
Lee Hyun-sung quickly retrieved the metal bat from the Trailer.
Its appearance was plain — an ordinary metal bat, nothing more, nothing less.
"Check this one too."
Pacific raised the loupe once more and scrutinized the bat meticulously.
"Hey! It's here too. This one's Mi-yuk as well!"
"Really? So this is a premium item too?"
"At the very least, it won't break easily. Though Mi-yuk favors bladed weapons over blunt ones like this."
"Why?"
"He's layering reinforcement magic onto ordinary weapons, right? Most of it is durability enhancement. Add attack power on top. Special options are almost unheard of."
"So what you're saying is bladed weapons are more dangerous?"
"They genuinely perform better. Trade for higher, too."
"Hmm... well, I'm keeping this knife."
"Not using your hammer?"
"Both."
Won-goo tucked the Mi-yuk knife into his backpack.
For now the backpack would do, but once they returned to the Shelter, he intended to find a proper sheath and wear it at his hip.
"This bat's apparently a real gem. Anyone want it?"
Not a single hand went up.
Everyone traded glances, until at last Chul-soo raised his remaining arm.
"Chul-soo. You want to use it?"
"Not for me, exactly — may I give it to Dulla?"
"Sure. Dulla. I'd already ordered a weapon for him and haven't heard back. Use it for now."
Won-goo handed the bat to Lee Hyun-sung, who brought it over to Chul-soo.
"Right. That's more or less squared away. Now, then — time for a house call, isn't it?"
Won-goo approached the bound Neverland with a crooked smile.
"They say if you miss someone long enough, you meet again? And here we are."
"Um... Won-goo hyung? Violence is—"
"Violence? VI-OO-LENCE!?"
"No — slip of the tongue. There's hardly any problem that physical force can't sol—"
"Physical force? PHYSICAAL FORCE?"
"Won-goo hyung. It seems a lot of misunderstandings have piled up. I can explain everything."
"Why am I your hyung? Didn't you call yourself a batshit craaazy bastard with your own mouth?"
"..."
"And where exactly are these problems physical force can't solve? I've solved everything with it so far. You too can become a very good boy in exactly thirty minutes. I'll prove it to you right now."
AAAAAAAAAGH!
The merciless physical therapy began, and Neverland's screams rang out until they filled the entire area.
Neverland, his face beaten beyond recognition, knelt meekly on the ground.
He had to cough up everything — from what had happened at Black Shelter to information on the Seal Collector Gang.
"So among the Collectors, that bastard Pomade is the strongest?"
"That's right. He's the strongest of them. Hyung."
Whack!
"Ugh! I'm answering properly! Please stop hitting me. Sniff..."
Tears rolled down from his swollen, puffed-up eyes.
Yet no one looked at him with even a shred of pity.
Everyone knew all too well what kind of vile things he had done to survive this long.
Just entering Black Shelter and rising to an executive position made him evil enough to deserve any punishment he got.
"Don't call me hyung. It's disgusting."
"..."
"Is this the seal they gave you?"
The seal engraved on Neverland's right arm. It depicted a spiked collar.
"Yes. But those bastards didn't give it to me for free, you know. Those son of a—"
"Watch your mouth. And either way, you earned it doing your own share of evil, didn't you?"
"..."
"So with this, you can strengthen your pet?"
"Yes. They said there are quite a few seals similar to this one. This one was called a Giantification Seal."
"Musa. Pacific."
"Listening."
"Would this seal work on a capsule monster?"
"Capsule monsters aren't pets, are they?"
"Right."
"Why agonize over it? Just engrave it and see. Engrave it first, then we'll know."
At Pacific's words, everyone nodded.
Won-goo called for Geum Chul-soo, who was resting nearby.
"Chul-soo!"
"Yes, Director!"
Geum Chul-soo hurried over.
"Want to try engraving a seal?"