Cha Yu-ri's Late Question
The application to enter the workshop arrived later than the repair estimate.
What arrived even before that was a notice from the hospital's facilities team.
⚠️ DO NOT TOUCH SILENT THUNDER ⚠️
Three floor tiles beneath the notice were already cracked. Even after reading it, people looked at my hand more often than at Silent Thunder. It wasn't surprising. A black hammer doesn't walk around on its own, after all.
Cha Yu-ri said as she selected a fresh roll of bandages,
“Moving to the workshop is conditional on being accompanied by your primary physician.”
Han Mi-rae smiled as if she had been waiting for this.
“Accompanied? You sound more like a guardian.”
“Don't use that word.”
“A warden, then?”
“I dislike that even more.”
I looked down at the handle of Silent Thunder.
The palm of my hand still felt heavy. Ever since the case rewound a moment ago, Silent Thunder had changed. It had sunk into a deeper state than before. When I gripped the handle, I felt not only the impact I had taken, but also the pressure pushed into it by others.
It was unpleasant.
And yet, it was somewhat necessary.
The workshop was located in the hospital basement.
Although it bore the name "Mirae Group Temporary Repair Room," the inside was quieter than the hospital. Fragments of black low-grade gates were lined up in transparent display cases along the walls, and in the center sat a circular room embedded with a gravity-dampening disc.
The workshop technician took one look at Silent Thunder and immediately took a step back.
“Did you bring that here without any transport equipment?”
“I have hands.”
He stared at me for a moment, then looked at Cha Yu-ri.
“Doctor, is it really alright for this patient to be moving around?”
Cha Yu-ri checked the bandages around my ribs first.
“It isn't. But he did anyway. That is why I am here.”
“That sounds rather ominous.”
“It could get much worse in reality.”
Han Mi-rae walked toward the control panel.
“The black fragments didn't cling to Silent Thunder itself, but to the residual pressure left inside it. Today, we are going to see if we can extract that pressure and convert it into repair materials.”
“Repair materials?”
I looked down at Silent Thunder.
The hammer let out a low rumble.
Hummm.
Cha Yu-ri immediately snapped her head up at the sound.
“It just reacted, didn't it?”
“I heard it.”
“If you heard it, don't touch it.”
“If I don't hold it, it'll fall.”
“Then I will hold it.”
She actually reached out toward the handle.
I reflexively twisted my wrist to block her.
Cha Yu-ri's eyes narrowed.
“See? You won't even let me touch it.”
“It's heavy.”
“And? Is there a rule saying you're the only one allowed to carry heavy things?”
I couldn't find an immediate answer.
Just then, the door at the back of the workshop slid open.
Lee Na-gyeong walked in. Behind her, two Association agents escorted Oh Min-hyeok. His armor was barely held together by emergency repair patches, but his expression remained unchanged.
“This is an ownership verification procedure,” Lee Na-gyeong said. “He will make his statement and then be escorted out.”
Oh Min-hyeok immediately sneered.
“The fragments of our party's gate are mixed inside that hammer. The place where Kang Tae-san awakened was also our party's raid zone. Whether it's repair materials or loot, our party has a share.”
Han Mi-rae tilted her head.
“Abandoning a person's share but claiming an object's share. What a unique sense of balance.”
“Not something a family that buys people with money should be saying.”
Cha Yu-ri took a step forward.
“Lower your voice in front of the patient.”
“Is that a patient to you?” Oh Min-hyeok pointed at me. “He's standing there holding that monstrous hammer.”
At his words, the black fragments inside the workshop trembled.
The small pieces inside the display cases tilted in unison toward the same direction. Words created pressure. Silent Thunder seemed to be the first to realize that even insults could become a force.
The technician shouted in a panic.
“We need to put it in the gravity-dampening chamber! The residual reaction is converging on Silent Thunder!”
I set Silent Thunder down in the center of the dampening disc.
Thud.
The metal disc let out a low vibration. The fragments floated up inside their display cases. Black shards, red metal splinters, and transparent scales left behind by the banquet hall's magical entity.
They attempted to rush toward Silent Thunder.
Oh Min-hyeok's eyes gleamed.
He looked at the safety pin on the edge of the control panel.
I caught his gaze first.
“Hands off.”
He was already reaching out.
Lee Na-gyeong grabbed his wrist and twisted it. However, the safety pin had already been pulled halfway up.
Dampening Chamber Stability Decreasing
The black fragments scraped against the inside of the reinforced glass. A thin crack webbed across the surface. Han Mi-rae grabbed the control panel, and the technician slammed the auxiliary dampener, but the reaction was faster.
Cha Yu-ri grabbed my arm.
“This isn't something you need to step in for this time.”
“If the glass shatters, it'll reach all the way here.”
“Which is exactly why you shouldn't.”
“I just need to press it down.”
I stepped inside the containment line.
This time, I didn't lift Silent Thunder. Keeping the hammer's head pressed against the metal disc, I only gripped the handle. The upward force of the fragments surged up my wrist.
I didn't hold it back.
I directed it straight into the floor.
Thud.
At the first vibration, the floating shards froze.
Thud.
At the second vibration, the crack in the glass stopped spreading.
Thud.
At the third vibration, the fragments were pulled to the center of the disc, condensing into a black sphere.
The shockwave traveled up my arm. The wound on my side flared with heat, and my breath caught. Still, I didn't absorb the full force with my body this time. I let it flow down through the bottom of Silent Thunder.
Cha Yu-ri clutched my shirt.
“Kang Tae-san.”
“It stopped.”
“I meant the fragments, not you.”
She stared at the blood seeping through my bandages.
Her expression wasn't one of anger.
It was the look of a question that had arrived far too late.
A brief silence fell over the workshop.
Oh Min-hyeok stood speechless, his wrist still pinned by Lee Na-gyeong. The control panel logs clearly showed that the fragments had gone wild because of the pin he had tampered with.
Han Mi-rae looked at the black sphere.
“That is definitely a repair material, not loot. And we should attach the name of the person who unleashed that hazard to it as well.”
Lee Na-gyeong nodded.
“Safety pin manipulation log secured. Hunter Oh Min-hyeok's right to speak is terminated.”
The agents dragged him out.
Oh Min-hyeok screamed one last time.
“Kang Tae-san! If you keep taking hits like that, you're going to—”
The door shut.
It was a sentence I didn't need to hear to the end.
Cha Yu-ri began to undo my bandages again.
Her fingertips were quieter than usual. It was so quiet that it felt even more uncomfortable.
“I have a question for you.”
“What is it?”
“Why do you always take the hit first?”
I couldn't answer right away.
It wasn't the first time I had heard that question.
But it had never landed so late, yet so precisely. While everyone else was looking at the dangerous fragments and ownership rights, Cha Yu-ri was looking at the spot where I had been hit.
“It's better if I take it.”
The answer that finally slipped out was brief.
Cha Yu-ri's eyes wavered.
“Is that your reason?”
“Because I can take it.”
“I really hate that phrase.”
She didn't press down hard on the bandages.
Instead, she very slowly covered the blood-soaked area. Her hands weren't acting out of anger, but rather confirming my state.
“Being able to take it doesn't mean it's okay for you to get hit.”
Han Mi-rae spoke up, breaking the awkward silence.
“Yu-ri, if we put that clause in the contract—”
“No.”
“I haven't even finished my sentence.”
“It will be even less acceptable if you do.”
I looked at the black sphere.
The workshop technician asked cautiously,
“What should we register the name as?”
Han Mi-rae looked at me. Lee Na-gyeong held up her terminal. Yun Seo-ah, who had returned from the opened evacuation route, stood by the doorway. She stared at the door where Oh Min-hyeok had disappeared, then shifted her gaze to the black sphere.
“Repair material.”
“And the ownership?” the technician asked.
“Use it for the victims' recovery costs first.”
Han Mi-rae's eyes curved into a slow smile.
“Splendid. It smells like money, but it's money that man can never touch.”
Cha Yu-ri secured my arm once more.
“We will also prioritize your treatment.”
“That goes without saying.”
“I say it because you constantly forget what goes without saying.”
Her voice was low.
I didn't reply.
Silent Thunder was quietly cooling down on top of the dampening disc. It looked heavier than before, but this time, it didn't shatter the floor. That was because I hadn't drawn all of the force into my own body.
I thought the accident log screen on the workshop wall was turned off.
At least, until then.
Yun Seo-ah quietly approached.
She looked at the black sphere, then at my bandages. She spoke to Cha Yu-ri first.
“Is it alright if I speak to him now?”
Cha Yu-ri answered briefly.
“Keep it brief, unless it's about his injuries.”
Seo-ah took a moment to catch her breath.
“The evacuation route I kept open earlier—everyone made it out safely. Even when Oh Min-hyeok shouted in front of the reporters, no one looked back.”
“Good job,” I said.
Seo-ah's expression faltered slightly.
Even to accept that single compliment, she seemed to need time.
Han Mi-rae spoke in an intentionally light tone.
“Everyone's roles were quite clear-cut today. Seo-ah handled the path, Yu-ri handled the hands, I handled the money, and Na-gyeong handled the records. And you...”
“The patient,” Cha Yu-ri cut in.
“Ending it with just that feels a bit too tame.”
“The patient was the loudest one here.”
I looked at Silent Thunder.
“I suppressed it.”
Cha Yu-ri's hand paused over the bandages.
“That is the problem. You are far more comfortable saying you suppressed it than admitting you took the hit.”
The workshop technician placed the black sphere into a stabilization case. The sphere trembled slightly inside the case once, then ceased all movement. For the first time, the dangerous fragment actually looked like a material.
Only then did Han Mi-rae write a title on the file.
Repair Material for Victim Recovery
The phrase 'Oh Min-hyeok's Party Share' was nowhere to be found.
Lee Na-gyeong checked the file and nodded.
“Record name confirmed.”
Cha Yu-ri tied the final knot and looked into my eyes.
“One more question.”
“Another one?”
“I will ask it before it is too late this time.”
Her voice grew softer.
“The next time you plan on taking the hit first, can you tell me beforehand?”
I couldn't answer right away.
Saying I would take the hit was easy. But telling someone before I did was strangely difficult. Because if I said it, someone would try to stop me. And I still wasn't used to being stopped.
“I'll practice.”
Cha Yu-ri nodded, though her face showed she wasn't entirely satisfied.
“I will put that answer on hold. Still, it is better than nothing.”
The accident log screen on the workshop wall remained dark.
Beneath that screen, which I had assumed was turned off, a tiny red dot began to blink once more.