The Falcon Gang (1)
Kang Ara, daughter of Kang Hancheol who led the Mokdong Settlement, still could not forget a child she had met when she was young.
Ho Dunsik's daughter — Ho Ryeong. When they first met, their shared love of animals and matching hobbies had drawn them together remarkably fast.
They stayed in occasional contact after that first meeting, but once the towers appeared in the world, communication grew steadily harder. Even through the pandemic caused by a virus from another world, right up until the government itself collapsed, they somehow managed to keep in touch and check on each other.
When her father, Kang Hancheol, established a settlement at the Mokdong sports stadium — one of the few buildings still in decent condition among the crumbling ruins — Kang Ara thought of Ho Ryeong. She told her father about Ho Dunsik, and they barely managed to make contact, waiting for them to arrive.
But when the news came and they finally met, the girl she had thought of as a little sister no longer existed.
On the day Ho Ryeong died, Kang Ara gained her ability.
After a major fight with her father, Ara stepped outside. Relieved to see that Ho Dunsik had returned, she offered a quick greeting, then ran toward the place where the informant who had told her the Falcon Gang's location lived.
He said he lived around here…
Just past the Mokdong Settlement lay a shantytown. Although the Mokdong Settlement was an officially recognized site, living space inside was limited, so they had raised walls nearby and built a shantytown within them, offering shelter to people arriving from outside.
Of course, that didn't mean everyone living there was necessarily good.
Ara wandered through the shantytown until the informant emerged from a building that looked something like a chapel.
"Hey!"
When Ara waved and called out, the man flinched in surprise, but quickly composed himself and put on a friendly smile.
"Well, well — if it isn't the young lady! What brings someone like you to a humble man like me?"
"Oh, come on, don't talk like that. We're all just people."
"Haha, still — you're the daughter of the man who runs the settlement. How could I treat you casually?"
"I said it's fine. Ahem. More importantly — that thing you told me before?"
"Hmm, which thing would that be…?"
His half-lidded eyes glittered as he looked at Ara with a sly expression.
"Before you came here, you said you passed by a place where a group of outlaws had gathered, right?"
"Ah, that story? Oh, please — I don't even want to think about it again."
"Don't be like that. Could you tell me one more time? I think the outlaws we just caught might be from that group."
"My, my, good work! But why are you looking for that place? Couldn't you just hand the ones you caught over to the Management Bureau under the Blue House?"
The man slowly approached Ara as he asked.
"Oh, it's nothing major. They came this close, so we figured we should check. There's talk of gathering people for a raid, if possible."
When Ara mentioned gathering people, she glanced slightly away. Catching that reaction, the man smiled meaningfully.
"With such noble intentions, of course I should tell you. It's for everyone's sake, after all!"
"Ah! Thank you."
Having learned the location suspected to be the Falcon Gang's base, Ara left the man behind.
"Whew. Things fall into place this easily — she's still just a child. I'd better pass this news along quickly."
As the man went back into the building he'd come from, he murmured:
"For the glory of the Tower."
But his words were swallowed by the everyday noise of the shantytown — people arguing, others trying to break up fights.
With the location from the man, Ara went straight to her room, packed combat gear and supplies into a bag, and left quickly.
"The tower raid will go fine without me. Those two are there, after all."
The man and woman who had helped her when she was surrounded by outlaws were far stronger than she was. And the man, for some reason, seemed to enjoy helping people — so if she disappeared, he would probably assist with the tower raid somehow.
But the sight of that girl when she'd come out after fighting with her father had rekindled the dying flame of her vengeance.
She was about the same build as Ryeong. That's why Uncle Dusik kept her close.
Leaving the settlement, Ara arrived at Mokdong Station — where the outlaw group was supposed to be — deep into the night.
The landscapes she passed along the way were the complete opposite of what they had been just a few years ago, as if announcing the world's end. Trees that should have been blooming were withered and twisted under the towers' influence. Broadcasting company buildings that should have been busy airing programs. People who should have been playing or strolling in parks by night lights. And the high-rise apartments where families should have been living together — none of them shone anymore. They only added to the desolation of this deep night's ruins.
Unlike the scenery she'd passed, her destination — Mokdong Station — showed signs of human hands: walls of barbed wire and scrap, and at the entrance, outlaws making a racket beside a large drum where they'd lit a fire with wooden scraps.
She couldn't understand what they found so amusing.
Looking at those outlaws who had taken an innocent child's life and tormented others, Ara drew the blade of vengeance she had kept in her heart and charged at them.
Falcon, leader of the Falcon Gang — Han Jin-o — was in the foulest of moods. There had been no word from the subordinates he'd sent to raid near the Mokdong Settlement.
"Damn it! What are those idiots doing against a bunch of nobodies?!"
Using the wings that had grown from his back, he swept the empty liquor bottles off the table and stood up.
He should have just been an ordinary outlaw who eventually got caught. But one day he met a man who called himself the Messiah, and became his pawn. No — rather than becoming a pawn, it was more that he'd been forced to kneel before the strength that man had shown.
"Ugh, the deadline's almost here…! All they had to do was grab a few Awakened Hunters — how hard can that be?! They should be exhausted from raiding the tower…!"
According to the informant feeding them information from inside the settlement, that should have been the case. After all, the only strong Awakened Hunter in the Mokdong Settlement was that man called Ho Dunsik.
"Ha. That guy's daughter was a real shame. If I'd been a little stronger, I wouldn't have killed her — I'd have taken her with me."
In that moment, Han Jin-o felt killing intent.
He shot into the air just as earthen spikes erupted from the ground beneath his feet.
"Hah… hah… What did you just say?"
Below him, a girl stood panting, wounded all over her body.
"Who the hell are you? Why are you here? What are those idiots I posted on watch doing?"
"Beats me. The ones I ran into on the way here are probably lying on the ground by now."
"Hmph! What can a little brat like you even do?"
"I can take down someone like you!"
Kang Ara created earthen spikes from the floor and ceiling, aiming them at Han Jin-o. But the Falcon Gang's outlaws, drawn by the commotion, came pouring out toward her. And Han Jin-o, even caught by surprise, wasn't weak enough to fall to Ara's attacks. This wasn't a one-on-one fight — it was one against many.
In the end, Ara took a blow to the abdomen from Han Jin-o, who struck at a speed invisible to the eye, and lost consciousness.
"Boss! What should we do with this woman?"
"Just lock her up! Worthless little thing, ruining my mood. More importantly — how are we on the monthly quota?"
"A bit short, but with the one we just caught, shouldn't that cover it?"
"Oh-ho. Now that you mention it, a decent Awakened Hunter walked right in on her own! Hahaha!! I thought things weren't going our way — turns out I was wrong!"
Leaving a few subordinates to watch the girl, he returned to his room, opened the safe, and toyed with a glass bottle filled with unsettling pills.
"They said this was their latest successful creation… Better keep it myself, just in case. Safer that way."
He locked the safe again and was heading to the storeroom for more liquor when a subordinate came running up with a note from the informant. After reading it, a vile smile slowly spread across Han Jin-o's face.
"Ha! Ha! Ha! What a catch! Kang Hancheol's daughter?! Better round up some boys and send them out again. Heh heh."
In the deep of night, only his greasy laughter echoed through the underground.
In a church-like building standing before a tower deep in the mountains, many people prayed toward a mural shaped like a tower. And watching them, a man in a robe stood holding a staff carved in the shape of a tower.
At his words, many people cried out toward the tower or wept as they continued their prayers.
The fanatical cult that worshipped the towers — Obelisk — waited for the day they would spread the wings they had folded away from the world, and today, as always, they offered their prayers to the Tower.