Human
"Are you sure it's fine to just leave it like that? He's bound to notice."
"It's fine. That bastard Fresh has always been good at this sort of thing."
"What happens if it falls apart on him, Montage? He seemed meticulous when we met before."
"It's Fresh's job to handle it. Man's not a kid anymore — he's a freelancer with a bit of a name to himself. You think he can't shoulder that much?"
The method Gong Won-goo and Fresh had used was simple: strike the target from the side first.
Montage's profile said he shared deep bonds with the boys he kept by his side — practically family, the profile claimed. Working into that crack wasn't a bad approach at all.
"When did you even do the research? I had no idea," Jo Mu-sa asked.
"You obviously have to. If a bounty doesn't get paid out, you think the client just eats it? You go find him and make him cough up every last coin."
It made instant sense.
That was one of Won-goo's signatures. At a glance his work looked sloppy, but examined up close, every detail had been handled with obsessive care. The reason the Services had grown without a hitch clearly lay hidden in details like this.
"Director."
"What?"
"The booze in this shelter is remarkably cheap. But everything else is……"
"You mean nothing's cheap except the liquor?"
"Yes. Even the cheapest items cost more than back in Sabbath. The alcohol, on the other hand — every kind is cheap. Some of it is practically half price."
"Well, well…… Having a housekeeper on the team really does pay off in all sorts of ways. Then let's buy up a mountain of liquor before we go. Gotta cover the travel expenses. What's with the sour face, old-timer?"
"Something about this just feels off to me."
"You've got nothing to feel uneasy about. Who's the strongest Named around these parts?"
"Hm? Well, that depends on the ability type—"
"However finely you slice the categories, Fresh doesn't make the list. His skills are middling at best. And yet he's the longest-serving Named in the area, isn't he? He's no rookie, so let's set the worry aside. Didn't you see him doing the dialect earlier? Sounded perfectly natural to me."
"Hyung! This is the fellow I told you about. A real old-school street type — famous all around these parts."
Fresh made the introduction to Montage, who had his boys standing behind him.
"Haah……"
Montage knew immediately that he'd been played.
"What's this, then? Who's this gentleman?"
"You two know each other? This is the hyung I personally went and fetched from that newly opened shelter."
"I know him. Ran into him over that dungeon business recently."
"Then this is your chance to get friendly. Say hello, Director Gong. This is Montage-hyungnim. They say nothing moves in Shelter Ark without this man."
"You sons of bitches are working me over good."
Montage was laughing at the sheer absurdity of it. And then Gong Won-goo stepped forward.
"Name's Gong Won-goo. Our first meeting wasn't exactly pleasant, granted — but it's not like either of us walked away carrying a grudge to settle, right?"
"Is this…… Am I thinking what I think I'm thinking?"
"Couldn't say what you're thinking. But Fresh isn't somebody who operates mainly out of here. He's the type to throw a team together and take jobs wherever they pop up."
"So then this here's all just a coincidence?"
"Not coincidence. That bastard built a team, didn't he? You look into it, it'll show. The main player in this business is him, not me. I'm just the guy who came along to lend a hand."
"Aigoo, why's the mood gotta be like this? You two are treating each other like sworn enemies when there's nothing to gain from it. Director Gong, this hyungnim really is a good man, I'm telling you. And his skills are the genuine article. Hyungnim! This fellow's skills are dead certain too. And you've already met each other, no less."
"……"
"……"
Montage and Gong Won-goo simply stared at each other. Fresh stood between them.
"Hyungnim, this fellow here — you can let him talk rough to you on a first meeting, that's fine. Remember what you always told us? Trust, credit, loyalty — the most important things in this trade. Well, Director Gong here is one man who's genuinely got those."
Fresh was mediating with practiced ease, sprinkling dialect into his speech.
"And the reason this fellow talks so damn rude is that he's been backstabbed so many times he's got scar tissue for brains. Ain't that right, Director Gong?"
"Don't even bring up backstabbing. Eight out of ten people you meet in this line of work are con men or traitors, aren't they? Judging by what I've been through, I could boil bear-meat soup through an entire winter. Shit."
"……"
Montage's thoughts were tangling into knots. He'd caught on to the con the moment he saw Gong Won-goo's face. And yet, strangely, it didn't feel entirely bad.
Besides, nothing Fresh had said was wrong.
In this trade, there was nothing to gain from manufacturing enemies. Especially not enemies with that kind of skill.
"Haah……"
Same reaction as before — but this time Montage was smiling a little. He didn't drag the words out.
It was true that Fresh had introduced them, but he'd allowed himself to be drawn in deeper all on his own.
"So I can talk easy with you, then?"
"If you're senior to me, you should."
"I'm a fourth-year senior, class five, going by the calendar."
"Then let's drop the formalities."
"Ha, now that's refreshing. Director Gong, was it? That what I should call you?"
"Anything you like. Whatever's comfortable."
"You drink?"
"Can't, so I don't."
"Then let's knock back a glass anyway."
At those words, the faces of Montage's boys, who'd been holding their breath in the back, brightened all at once.
Sanghae's diner.
A staggering number of empty liquor bottles lay toppled across the table, alongside a considerable mountain of cleared dishes.
"Potion? She's got skills, that one. Let's see now — she'd feel about the same as Fresh here, wouldn't she?"
"I think I know what kind of feeling you mean. Decent people skills and solid ability, that sort of thing?"
"One thing's a bit different, though — Potion's got a whole line of folks trailing after her. Ah, right. That's the biggest difference, I'd say?"
"Ah, hyungnim! I was pretty popular myself, back before the world turned into this."
"Like hell you were."
"It's true, I swear."
"I'd say the awkwardness has mostly burned off by now. So how's the incident brief look?"
"Exactly as I told you before."
"Nothing's changed?"
"Nothing. Truly — we don't know any more about what's out there than you do. Why else would we have brought you all the way out here, hyungnim? What did you expect to find?"
Then the corner of Montage's mouth curled upward.
"Figured as much. Usually when a man gets sweet-talked like this, the terms waiting for him aren't pretty. There's a knife at your back the whole way. Khk!"
"We're not like that. Whatever we do, we settle the books properly — even with the closest of friends. And if anything, friends get looked after better."
"That's right! That's exactly right!"
Montage thundered his agreement.
"It's not like that in your neck of the woods?"
"Wherever you go, there's always some bastard muddying the water. If you're going to give a man work, you pay him properly. There's a full dozen of them who just want to eat and run. A full dozen! I've got a dozen little brothers under me, and if they're expected to work for free every damn time, who's going to put food on their tables?"
"You won't find much of that here. Everything starts with a signed contract before anyone takes a step. It still happens now and then, mind you. Dirty business."
At that, Montage raised his glass. Fresh and Won-goo naturally clinked theirs against it.
"This here's no ordinary creature, I'm telling you."
Montage said it after combing through the site with meticulous care.
"You think so too, hyungnim?"
"It stands about three meters tall, give or take…… and I'd wager its forelimbs are shaped like scythes."
"Scythes? Like a praying mantis?"
"Can't say for certain. But like the Director said, there's more than one strange thing here. The really strange part, though — it's this right here. Even where the footprints failed to proper form, this tells you roughly how heavy the thing is. And yet……"
"And yet?"
"Can something this size really be this light?"
"You're saying it's not that heavy?"
"Oh, it's heavy, sure. But I'd put it at just under 300 kilos. And at that size, it's a troll at minimum. How can it be this light?"
"That's exactly why I've got a stronger hunch."
"Which is?"
"Insects. A mantis-shaped insect would make it possible. Insects are naturally light for their size — hollow inside."
"Are there mantis monsters like that?"
Fresh asked.
"Who's to say there aren't? We don't exactly carry a monster encyclopedia around, and it's only been a few years since the apocalypse opened. Something unknown could have crawled out."
"Fair enough……"
"Still, it's strange. All of us have crossed paths with insect monsters at least once."
Everyone nodded.
"So what's the single biggest trait those things share?"
"That they're horrifying?"
"They're disgusting because they're bugs, granted. But the real thing is they nearly always move in swarms."
"True."
"And when has a bug ever been picky? Those things don't stop at scooping out just the brain and the innards like this."
"That's true too. Insect monsters devour everything, indiscriminately."
"And they're never this intelligent. One look at this and you can tell the intelligence is far from ordinary."
"Um……"
At the unexpected voice, every head turned toward the back.
The unspoken rule when the principals gathered like this was that the crew members kept quiet and observed.
Jeon Hye-ji knew that perfectly well.
And still, she raised her hand.
"Hye-ji, the boss is speaking—"
Lee Hyun-sung strode over to stop her. Won-goo cut him off with a single wave of his hand, and Hyun-sung bowed his head in a small nod and stepped back.
"Wow. Your crew's training is airtight, Director Gong. Was this one a gangster in her past life?"
"She was. Hye-ji, what is it? Something to say?"
"You said it yourself, Director. Something's strange."
"Get to the point."
"What if they're being separated out?"
"Separated? You're saying something else is controlling it?"
"Yes. Like a summoner, perhaps……"
"……"
"……"
"……"
The faces of Fresh, Gong Won-goo, and Montage all hardened at once. Then Joce, one of Montage's boys standing behind them, spoke up.
"Haha, the young miss has got a powerful imagination, I'll give her that. A summoner, now……"
Montage turned and fixed Joce with a long stare, and Joce ducked his head and shut his mouth.
"Well? Doesn't seem like complete fantasy, does it?"
"Let's lay it out, then. A summoner plundered the travelers — that's the theory. But then that Coin Exchange makes no sense to me."
"Which is exactly why I'm suspicious."
"How so?"
"Let's say I'm this bastard. First thing I'd do is open up that Coin Exchange and cash in on it. That's the guaranteed take."
"Right."
"That comes first."
Fresh and Montage spoke almost in unison.
"But we all know these psycho lunatics don't think the way we do, don't we? So put yourself in his head. What if he used that Coin Exchange as bait instead?"
"Bait?"
"Fresh. Say you were passing by and spotted it. What would you do?"
"I'd go straight for it. Free money, right there."
"Exactly. And that's what he exploits. Anyone who comes looking because they saw the Coin Exchange — picked off, one by one."
Confusion spread across every face.
"Whoa……"
"……"
"If that's the setup, every piece fits. Assuming there's a controller pulling the strings."
"So this whole incident was staged? Deliberately? Made to look like a monster expanding its territory?"
"That's right."
"There could be an accomplice, too."
"Maybe. Or maybe he's alone."
"Alone?"
"Hiding the traces of one kill versus two is a different problem entirely. Blocking out the information brokers — an item could handle that. Once that's solved, everything else is something a single person could manage."
"Still, the number of victims discovered so far is pretty high……"
"High? Was there ever a case where a whole group got hit? Five at most, wasn't it?"
"That's right."
"There you go. Scooping out the brain and the innards — we were fixated on that detail. It was never what mattered."
"So that was the trick, you're saying?"
"It is. The brain and the innards could be food for whatever monster this bastard is summoning, or raising, or controlling. But I don't think so. He did it deliberately, to muddy the water."
"Hold on…… so to put it plainly, the culprit is just a goddamn bandit?"
"That's how it has to look."
At that, Montage swept his widened eyes across the surroundings. Then he spat out the words, his voice thick with fury.
"This thing…… is it even human?"