Chapter 2
Chapter 2
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"Is that so?"
Hearing the vampire's words, the priest smiled. He moved the muzzle of the gun to the vampire's head. The vampire was startled and tried to move, but having lost one arm and one leg, the most he could do was flail about.
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"Why! Why! I told you everything I knew."
"You truly are a useless bastard. What you know is of no help to me at all."
He spoke thus and, without hesitation, pulled the trigger.
Bang!
With the gunshot, the head was blown to smithereens. Although vampires possessed regenerative abilities, there was no way one could survive being shot in the head with a .50 caliber magnum round slathered in pure silver.
"Damn it! I've become the bird who worked for the fisherman."
As if he were quite knowledgeable in old idioms, the silver-haired priest spoke thus as he irritably tucked the Desert Eagle into his waistband. At that, intimidated by his aura, the middle-aged man gave a shrug.
"In any case, since a gun was fired, the police will be coming, so shouldn't we leave this place?"
"I don't care. If there's a problem, it's your Colt."
He said that and picked up the case. But it was at that moment.
Crash!
The sound of a window shattering came from the opposite side.
"It seems we'll have no choice but to engage in a chase. You can at least handle the cleanup, can't you?"
The priest shot a blaming glare at the middle-aged man as he backed away. As expected, the club's kitchen window was broken, and a person could be seen running out through it. As soon as the priest drew his pistol, he quickly pulled the trigger.
KWANG!
Though it couldn't be called a quiet street, the gunshot was by far the preeminent of all the noises. The vampire, who had been running hard, staggered with the gunshot. The bullet, which tore through its lungs and liver via its back, created a grievous wound that would have been more than enough to kill a normal person ten times over.
And the pure silver hollow-tip bullets this priest used (Silver tip hollow: normally, silver-tip hollow rounds are aluminum) were sufficiently threatening even to a vampire. However, the vampire clenched its teeth and moved its body.
Even with its lungs completely gouged out and its liver, pancreas, and stomach gone in their entirety, the vampire was still moving.
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"Damn it! Things are getting complicated."
The priest put his gun away and clicked his tongue.
Deep in the night, a few biker gangs were joyfully racing down the road. Most of them were bikers who had crammed their cowls with cheap lamps and attached a fist-sized lamp, commonly called a ddong-bul (shit-light), to the back, and the sound of them opening their throttles and charging forward together truly sounded like a mighty army.
Of course, by drilling holes in their mufflers, removing the caps, or replacing the mufflers themselves, the sound was thunderous, but in truth, the engines were all around the 125cc level, and not a single one was properly tuned up.
However, the leader was riding a rather heavy Vulcan, and his age appeared to be in his early 20s at most.
"Yahoo!"
Just then, one of the bikers riding at the front let go of the handlebars and waved his arms. At that, everyone else followed his action. Shrill horns blared, disturbing the surroundings to a sickening degree.
"Hahahaha! This is killer! Hey, Seo-geon-ah! Do a wheelie!"
The leader called the person following alongside him Seo-geon. Because it was nearly inaudible due to the sound of the wind, he had to shout loud enough to burst his throat. But Seo-geon, somehow understanding his words, answered.
"No way! This is my hyung's, so if it gets even a single scratch, I'm dead!"
He said that as he flickered his headlight. He was riding a domestic RX-125, which was so clean it looked brand new, speaking volumes of the effort its owner had put into it.
On the outside, there was nothing that could be called an illegal modification, but from the suspension to the tires, cylinder, filter, and plugs, it had received a full tune-up focused on actual performance.
'Good grief. What am I even doing?'
Seo-geon thought to himself as he gripped the accelerator. And in one go, he pulled the accelerator, lifting the front wheel. Wheelies were a common trick, but doing one at a speed exceeding 100 km/h, and on a road wet from the rain that had been falling until just a moment ago, was dangerous.
But as soon as Seo-geon did a wheelie, everyone else started doing wheelies in imitation. Those who didn't do a wheelie, afraid of the rainwater and the speed, would soon be ostracized within the group.
It wasn't as if they were gathering to die together, yet they had to perform a perilous stunt for such a trivial reason. This was why groups were a frightening thing. But it was at that moment.
Police officers who had been hiding and waiting at the corner appeared. Perhaps because it was a crackdown period for biker gangs, the police, fully armed with completely tuned-up modified vehicles or Harley Davidson FX/STs, were on a different level from the equipment up.
"Everyone, pull over! Do you want to die!"
A police officer holding a megaphone in a police car shouted, his voice thick with irritation. It was a tone that made it hard to tell whether he was worried the kids would die while riding or if he was going to kill them himself.
"It's the cops!"
"Ah, fuck! We're screwed!"
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Desperate cries erupted from among the bikers. The leader looked back with a serious expression. Of course, it seemed no one had any intention of stopping. Seo-geon clicked his tongue, looking at them.
For Seo-geon, who was still a high school student, unlicensed, and had taken his hyung's motorcycle, getting caught would be no small problem, so attempting to flee was the better option. But wasn't one of the main causes of biker deaths the act of fleeing from the police?
"Ah, whatever! It's better than getting caught!"
Seo-geon shouted and turned to the side of the road. It was a loop-shaped road that went under an interchange, so veering off the side of the road meant jumping down below, which was not something that could be done with ordinary skill.
Going from on-road to off-road and back to on-road again, and basically being a jump, it was not something that could be done without considerable control.
However, as if he were a stuntman, Seo-geon jumped down onto the unpaved slope by the side of the road where weeds grew in abundance, then rapidly descended the slope and brazenly got back onto the road below.
Kwa-kwa-kwak Thud!
The RX-125, which had slid down, virtually carving up the slope, landed on the asphalt ground and bucked. A terrible kickback was transmitted through the handlebars, but Seo-geon absorbed that rebound by lifting the front wheel and pulled the accelerator.
The creaking feeling from the suspension was ominous, but thinking that getting away from this spot was the best course of action, Seo-geon raced forward without looking back.
Up above, the police and the bikers were in a frenzy trying to catch each other, but Seo-geon, having jumped the interchange, had escaped the police's capture net.
"But what is that! Uwaack!"
Seo-geon screamed as he saw a crazed dump truck charging toward him from the front.
Sheeeeeeeng!
The truck grazed past him by a hair's breadth, letting out its characteristic scream. Moreover, judging by the truck driver's shout heard fleetingly as it passed—'Hey, you crazy bastard! You wanna die!' and so on—it seemed this was a one-way road.
Coming down was fine, but of all things, he was driving against traffic in the opposite direction! Besides, the trucks at night were a far more terrifying presence than the biker gangs.
"Hup!"
Seo-geon once again crossed the road sideways, lifted his front wheel toward the sidewalk to get on it, and then used a pop-up, lifting the rear wheel, to get onto the high-curbed sidewalk.
The sound of his riding trailed long into the night city.
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A high school student in a school uniform was dragging a motorcycle as he entered a residential area where sodium lamps flickered, illuminating the street. It was Seo-geon, who had evaded the police and fled all the way here. He passed through an alley lined with single-family homes and opened the garage door attached to a wall.
Even if it was a garage, it was more like a storage shed, but it was sufficient to park one motorcycle. He put the motorcycle down and immediately straightened his clothes and his bearing.
Although his academic performance wasn't good, at home he was known as a student who at least studied hard. He couldn't let the image he had built up until now crumble just because his body was a little tired.
"I'm home."
Seo-geon said that as he opened the door. But it was quiet. He looked around. He couldn't even see the dog that was kept and raised in the yard. He couldn't understand why the dog, which in the old days would have barked noisily the moment he approached the alley, was so quiet.
"What's this? Did everyone go on a trip or something? Doesn't seem like it."
Seo-geon muttered to himself and opened the main door. It was late, but his mother had never once fallen asleep before her son returned.
"I'm home!"
Seo-geon said again as he stepped into the entryway. The entryway, with no lights on, and on top of that, he felt a strange air from somewhere. It was a stench, like a rotting mackerel.
"What is this? This smell?"
Seo-geon muttered and reached his hand for the switch next to the entryway. He felt a strangely sticky sensation and looked at his hand; sticky blood was smeared on his fingertips.
This blood, which hadn't dried despite being quite cold, was clearly of a different nature than a human's, but Seo-geon couldn't know that.
"Wha-what is this! Hyung! Mom! Dad! Is anyone here?"
Seo-geon shouted and looked inside. Just then, the fluorescent light flickered on. The inside of the house was quiet as if nothing had happened, but he could see that blood had been dropped on the floor. No matter how brave a person was, if they came home to find blood on the floor, they would be dumbfounded.
Seo-geon immediately took out his cell phone and dialed 112. If he made the call and it turned out to be nothing, he would be afraid of the repercussions, but with blood splattered on the walls and floor, how could it possibly be nothing?
Seo-geon opened his phone and immediately reported it to the police, then opened the shoe cabinet and took out an old wooden sword from among the things standing inside. And, still wearing his shoes, he stepped into the house. The bloodstains led toward the kitchen.
"…"
Seo-geon held his breath and walked toward the kitchen. With every single step he took, his heart pounded. The smell of blood, which grew stronger as he approached the kitchen, was extremely ominous.
But it was at that moment.
Crash!
A window shattered and a dog jumped in. Because it wasn't movie-prop sugar glass, the dog that broke through the window was also quickly covered in blood, but now there was no need to worry about it shedding a little blood. The dog's torso was open, with its intestines spilling out.
Seo-geon reflexively turned his body and swung the wooden sword, but it was not enough to stop the attacking dog.
With a sensation like striking a leather sack, the wooden sword slipped from his grasp. The wooden sword, which had been generously varnished and finished, couldn't withstand the force of the blow.
"Ack!"
Before Seo-geon could even let out a scream, the dog bit his shoulder. Jeanne d'Arc, the very gentle Golden Retriever the family called Maeng-sun-i, had leaped from the ground more than 2 meters below to the first-floor window.
The pain dug into his brain more than the thought that this was impossible. Seo-geon couldn't even scream and fell backward, gasping. In a single blow, he had suffered a serious injury, a fractured shoulder bone.
"Kraaaack!"
Seo-geon unconsciously lifted his foot and kicked the abdomen of the dog that was biting him. The intestines that had been sticking out got caught on his foot with a squish and were pulled right out of the abdomen.
The sensation of the intestines spilling out as the tangled skein of sticky, congealed blood unraveled was chilling, even if it was indirect. But with his shoulder bone shattered, he couldn't afford to be startled by such a sensation.
Seo-geon got up and flipped the large dog over. Once some of its intestines had been pulled out, even a monstrous dog like this couldn't move its body, so it was easily flipped. Seo-geon mercilessly beat the dog.
He struck it with his fist, struck it with his elbow, struck it with his wrist, not caring whether his wrist got sprained or not. There was no sentimentality about beating the dog he had raised to death.
"K-ack!"
Eventually, the dog opened its mouth and fell away. It had torn off a chunk of flesh from his shoulder; it was no minor injury. In that case, had Jeanne d'Arc gone mad and attacked the family? Seo-geon thought so and clenched his teeth.
If this dog was the culprit, it should have been inside the house. There would have been no need to break a window and charge in. It made no sense for it to have gone outside and then charged inside now.
"Damn it!"
Seo-geon immediately picked up the fallen wooden sword and struck Jeanne d'Arc, which was still twitching. The mad dog endured his attacks for a long time before finally collapsing as its skull was crushed. Even though he had only swung it that much, Seo-geon's palms were already covered in blisters. Seo-geon pushed himself up and walked to the kitchen.
"As I thought…"
Just as Seo-geon had expected, in the kitchen, his mother had been turned into a plausible-looking corpse. Her neck was about halfway gouged out, and the blood inside was drained without a single drop, making the body look endlessly light. Perhaps because the bodily fluids inside the corpse had been sucked out, her skin was already starting to sink in some parts.
Seo-geon took out one of the longest kitchen knives from the kitchen and held it in his right hand. His left arm was useless anyway because his shoulder was shattered, so he could only use one arm. Of course, he could wait for the police to arrive in a little while, but in that one moment, his family's fate could be decided.
His mom was dead. But the others might still be alive. Even if the rest were all dead, there must be a culprit who caused this situation.
"That's right! Otherwise, how could… how could Jeanne d'Arc, who would get beaten up even by a cat smaller than her, do something like that!"
Seo-geon, half out of his mind, talked to himself as he went up the stairs. Just then, a thought about his father's hunting rifle came to mind. It was definitely in his father's study.
Of course, his mother could have just been killed by a rabid dog, but with a strange sense of certainty, he felt that there was still something here. So, he walked toward his father's study.
"Ah!"
There was no need to walk far; as soon as he opened the study door, he saw his hyung's corpse. His hyung seemed to have had the same thought as Seo-geon, as he was collapsed against a bookshelf, holding a hunting shotgun. There must have been massive bleeding from his stomach, as he could see that his blood had stained the entire bookshelf.
"Ugh, uuuuuugh!"
Seo-geon covered his mouth and forcibly suppressed the emotions that were bursting out. He felt like he would go crazy with sadness, yet his body was telling him just how dangerous the current situation was.
Seo-geon put his injured hand in his mouth and bit down hard as he took the shotgun from his hyung's corpse. The six-shot shotgun, commonly used for hunting, had no ammunition. It wasn't hunting season right now, so his father hadn't kept any bullets at home either.
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But if that was the case, then why did his hyung? Seo-geon squeezed his eyes shut and put his hand in his hyung's pocket. As expected, there were two shotgun shells inside. Seo-geon loaded them and went back out into the hallway.
His vision was blurry because of his tears, but Seo-geon walked cautiously down the hallway.
As he walked, he turned on every single light he could find. The thought of wanting the police to hurry and arrive clashed with the feeling that he had to find that bastard himself. Seo-geon forcibly suppressed such feelings and opened the door to his own room on the second floor.
"Krrrrgh!"
It was the work of an instant. The moment he put his hand on the door and was just turning the doorknob, the door suddenly shattered and a person burst out.
Seo-geon was pushed by the shattering door and rolled across the hallway floor. With one arm broken, he had been forcing his hand onto the trigger, and as he was pushed and fell, the gun misfired.
Bang!