The Weight of a Bullet
Was life sometimes just a haze of uncontrollable rage? Gu Gang-woo had been the first to use his mana. His magic, Red Flare, burned like living flames, so the moment he activated it, the blazing fire was impossible to miss. Even though the man was hiding behind the car, there was no way he could have overlooked it, which was why he already had his gun trained in that direction.
With the vehicle between them, neither could make a reckless move. Lee Mina swallowed hard, watching with tension, when Gu Gang-woo finally shifted his arm.
“That’s…!”
She had expected him to charge, but his action was something else entirely.
“Don’t get cocky, you damn B-rank!”
He swept his mana-clad, burning hand across the car’s hood. But that casual gesture produced a completely different result. The hood melted in an instant, turning into glowing red molten metal that sprayed toward the man. It was a repeat of what had happened at the observatory.
“Tsk!”
Bang!
The man dodged the splattering molten iron and fired, but Gu Gang-woo simply ducked his head. The bullet punched a hole in the wrong car instead.
Yet Mina realized that hadn’t been his real intention. While melting and hurling the hood with one hand, he had used the other to slice off the side mirror and release the mana wrapped around it. It was the smooth, practiced movement of an A-rank hunter. And since she was an A-rank herself, she recognized it immediately.
“Be careful! He’s got the mirror!”
“Damn it, Lee Mina!!”
She had been standing a little farther back and had seen every move, so she warned the man. Gu Gang-woo immediately tried to angle the mirror under the car to locate him.
Bang!
Crash!
“Tsk!”
The instant the mirror appeared, the man shot it to pieces. While Mina breathed a sigh of relief, Gu Gang-woo ran his hand over the shattered mirror.
“Ha, why are you rejecting me this hard, Mina? If you’d just accepted my kindness nicely, none of this would’ve happened. Right?”
“Are you seriously saying that right now?!”
Mina had disliked him from the very beginning. If his feelings had truly been kind, she might have accepted them, but his actions had never shown even the slightest consideration. Everything he called “kindness” had only ever brought her harm.
“Oh? If the guy you chose over me is just some loser like that, I’ll beat him down myself and prove it!”
She wanted to ask what kind of nonsense he was spouting, but Gu Gang-woo moved first. He melted another part of the car, flung the molten metal at the man, and charged.
Hiss!
The sound of molten iron hitting the asphalt and cooling mixed with the man’s gunfire.
Bang!
This time Mina clearly saw the bullet flying straight at Gu Gang-woo and thought the man had won. But then—
Hiss!
The next moment, she was stunned. The bullet that should have struck him melted away the instant it touched his mana.
“Hahaha! No matter how special the anti-mana bullet is, it’s still just a bullet! Melt it and it’s over! Right?!”
Then she noticed a red liquid glowing and cooling near the broken side mirror where he had been standing. He had tested exactly how long it took for a bullet to melt by deliberately dissolving the one embedded in the mirror.
When Mina looked back at the man, Gu Gang-woo was already right in front of him. There wasn’t even time to reload.
“Looks like nullification-type mana. Acting like a big shot against an A-rank with only that? That’s why you’re going to die!”
His burning hand swung straight for the man’s face. Mina hurriedly gathered what little mana she had left and formed a blade, but all she could make was a small dagger.
I still don’t have enough mana!
She had already pushed herself past her limits inside the gate, and she hadn’t had nearly enough time to recover. Still, she prepared to throw even that tiny dagger at Gu Gang-woo when—
Her eyes widened.
Crack!
“Guh?!”
Instead of landing his punch, Gu Gang-woo took a brutal upward strike from the man’s rifle butt straight to the jaw. His head snapped back, staring at the sky. At the same time, the man racked the slide, chambering a fresh round, and the gun roared at the exposed hunter.
Bang!
“Gack!!”
The mana that had been cloaking his body had already vanished. Gu Gang-woo clutched the right side of his chest where the bullet had struck and staggered. The merciless sound of another round being chambered rang out.
Bang!
“Grrrrk!”
Hit in the left side of his chest as well, Gu Gang-woo finally dropped to his knees. The only sound left was the metallic clink of spent casings rolling across the asphalt, announcing the end of the fight.
“H-how…”
Gu Gang-woo trembled violently as he stared at the man.
“How can a mere B-rank…”
It was the same question burning in Mina’s mind. As a B-rank hunter herself, she knew all too well the gap between B-rank and A-rank. There were countless ways B-ranks fell short. Their total mana capacity was overwhelmingly smaller, and so was its power. What a B-rank could only accomplish by squeezing out every last drop, an A-rank could do casually. And the most decisive factor was physical ability. An A-rank’s overflowing mana strengthened their body, creating an enormous difference.
“How can trash like you have more power than me?!”
Yet for that brief moment, the man had completely overpowered Gu Gang-woo’s physical stats. That was what Gu Gang-woo believed. But Mina, who had been watching the entire fight, noticed something different. It wasn’t that the man was especially strong. The moment Gu Gang-woo’s mana cloak disappeared, his body had suddenly slowed down.
“I have no reason to tell you.”
Click. Clack.
As the man loaded another round, Gu Gang-woo’s whole body shook uncontrollably. The instant Mina realized he had completely lost the will to fight from sheer terror, their eyes met.
Boom!
At the same time, he reignited his mana and charged straight at her. The unbelievable speed left her gripping the tiny dagger she had created with her meager mana, body tense, when suddenly she met the man’s calm teal eyes.
In that moment, the tension drained from her just as it had from him, and understanding dawned.
Could it be…?
Had he predicted Gu Gang-woo’s every move from the very beginning?
The moment that thought crossed her mind, she saw it.
Whirr!
Ropes burst from the ground, rising to block the space between Gu Gang-woo and her.
“Th-this is—!”
He tried to burn the ropes that had bound him, pouring out his mana, but the ropes refused to catch fire.
“I told you, didn’t I? These are special ones made with Rule Zero.”
It had already been proven that the ropes were unaffected by his mana. As the man walked up behind him, Gu Gang-woo twisted and struggled at the sound of footsteps, but the ropes held firm. In the end, he froze as he felt the muzzle press against the back of his head.
“W-wait! Let’s talk this out! If you kill me like this, you’ll be in just as much trouble, right? Yeah?”
Then, as if desperately trying to persuade him, he raised his voice in a pathetic, servile plea. The arrogant attitude of an A-rank hunter, a former executive of Hanshin who had strutted around like he owned the place, was gone. Only a coward remained.
“Well, there are more than a few people who want you dead.”
“…What?”
Gu Gang-woo tried to turn his head with a stiff expression, but the ropes kept him from moving.
“You’ve caused quite a lot of accidents. Mostly involving women. If they displeased you, you used your magic to erase the evidence.”
“Oh my god.”
Mina stared at Gu Gang-woo in a daze. She had heard rumors that despite his good public reputation, there was something dirty behind the scenes. But she had never imagined it was this bad.
“Did those bastards send you?! I told them several times that if it came to that, I’d burn them all to death!”
He bared his teeth, no longer bothering to hide anything.
“That’s right! I’ve saved up a ton of money! Way more than what those guys gave you! Enough to overflow! I’ll give it all to you! So just let me go!”
But the man simply kept the gun pressed quietly against the back of his head. Gu Gang-woo broke into a cold sweat, waiting for an answer.
“Unfortunately, I’m one of them.”
“What?”
“Do you remember what happened fifteen years ago? When you first awakened your mana. I was watching you brag about it.”
Gu Gang-woo’s trembling grew even more violent. His eyes darted around as if he had realized something, unable to control himself.
“I should have killed you back then.”
“Pl-please…!”
Bang!
The gunshot rang out at last, and his movements stopped. The clink and tinkle of the ejected casing melted into the quiet night air.
“Is… he dead?”
When Mina asked, the man pressed a hand against the corpse’s back to confirm and answered.
“Yes. By the way, miss, are you all right?”
Seeing him ask about her condition, Mina almost wanted to ask if he was all right, but—
Woooooo!
The sound of sirens approaching from somewhere made her close her mouth. He glanced around, scratched his cheek, and asked awkwardly.
“Could you help me pick up the casings?”
“Pfft! What is that?!”
She knew it was hardly the time to laugh, but she burst out laughing anyway.