The Bear Tears the Poachers Apart
There were a hundred of them.
The absolute maximum force Park Sang-do could scrape together right now from the organization he had run his entire life. Sashimi knives, steel pipes, axes—every weapon imaginable filled their hands. They packed the narrow underground space with no room to spare.
Honestly, he thought it was overkill.
A hundred men to take down one newcomer. He had gone along with it because Seo Jin-woo had been making such a fuss, but inwardly he had scoffed. No matter how much of a monster the guy was, he was still human. There was no hide on earth that could stand up to a hundred blades.
One man would have been enough. And he had called a hundred.
That was what he thought.
Until five minutes ago.
"Gyaaaah──!!"
"R-run!! Get out of the way──!!"
"Guh…!"
What was unfolding before Park Sang-do's eyes right now was neither capture nor execution.
It was a massacre.
Bodies went flying. Not one at a time—two or three with every swing of an arm. They lofted into the air as if hit by a truck and smashed into the walls. Sashimi blades bounced off that hide. Axes slid away without even biting in.
"A b-bomb?! What the hell just hit us!!"
"Gyaaaaaaah──!!"
"It won't go through!! The knives won't go in──"
CRASH──!!
Another clump of men sailed into the air.
"Aaaargh!! M-my arm, my arm…!"
"Crazy, crazy── he's not human! That thing's not human!!"
"Run!! Open the shutter!! Open the damn shutter, you bastards!!"
"It won't open!! The boss locked it!! We locked it ourselves──!!"
Blood sprayed in every direction. The screams never stopped. Hands gripping weapons snapped and broke right along with the weapons themselves. The fighting arena that had been packed solid with a hundred men filled in an instant with tumbling bodies.
Men trying to flee surged toward the shutter. They pounded it with fists, kicked it, clawed at it with their nails. The steel plate did not so much as quiver.
Because they were the ones who had locked themselves in.
The shutter they had lowered to cage the bear had caged them instead.
"P-please… spare me… spare me…."
Someone dropped to his knees and begged. He threw his weapon aside and clasped his hands. But there was no way words like that would work on a beast. That massive frame made no distinction between the ones who begged and the ones who wept. It simply smashed whatever stood in front of it, one after another, and kept coming.
…What the hell is this.
Park Sang-do stumbled backward.
He had seen it clearly. That thing was a man. Something in the shape of a man that had walked in on two perfectly ordinary legs. But what it was doing right now—that was not the work of a human being.
Where… had he seen this before…
This scene. This overwhelming violence. This helpless terror.
Something stirred at the very bottom of his memory.
Yes. It had been a mountain in the pouring rain.
A creature that still would not fall even after five tranquilizer darts… that had chased a car fleeing at fifty kilometers an hour on all fours and flipped an SUV with its forepaws…
…No.
Park Sang-do shook his head.
Impossible. That had been a bear. A 1.9-ton Kodiak. What had been on that mountain that day was a beast, and what stood here now was a man. Completely different. They could not possibly look the same.
But.
Why did his spine go cold in exactly the same way.
Why was that feeling he had tasted back then—rising again right now.
Awe.
Yes. That was it. The feeling he had felt that day in the rain, crushed beneath the bear's forepaw. The first time he had ever felt it toward a beast—and now it was rising the same way in front of a man.
…Jin-woo. Seo Jin-woo. Where the fuck is that bastard.
Park Sang-do whipped his head around in a frenzy.
Seo Jin-woo was the one who had started this. The one who had said there was a bear-like monster, that they had to catch him, that they needed to call a hundred men. He needed to grab the bastard who had dragged him into this hell and demand answers. Make him do something.
But.
Seo Jin-woo was gone.
The man who had been standing right beside him a moment ago, smiling with perfect ease, had vanished without a trace.
…You son of a bitch.
He knew it instantly. That bastard had bailed early. The second the situation started going wrong, he had thrown Park Sang-do and the hundred men out as bait so he could save his own skin first.
There was no time even to grind his teeth.
One of his subordinates crawled toward him from underfoot. Arm twisted the wrong way, trailing blood.
"B-boss… r-run…."
Before the words finished, a shadow fell over Park Sang-do.
He slowly lifted his head.
A massive frame drenched in blood was looking down at him.
──GRRRRRRRRRRR…
His entire body painted red with other people's blood. Shoulders heaving, a beast's breathing leaking from his mouth. There was nothing human left in those eyes. Only the empty eyes of a beast looking at the prey right in front of it.
Park Sang-do knew those eyes.
In the rain.
On the bear's face.
He had seen the exact same eyes.
…Ah.
Only then did Park Sang-do understand.
It made no sense. It could not be possible.
That thing was the bear.
The strength drained from his legs. He knew he had to run, but his body would not move. Park Sang-do, who had rolled through this world for ten years, froze on the spot like a child.
…A tranquilizer gun.
The thought flashed through his mind out of nowhere.
He should have brought a tranquilizer gun. Like that day. Five darts—no, ten. If he had, then maybe even a little──
The massive frame raised its arm.
A mountain-sized shadow fell across Park Sang-do's head.
…Never again.
As his consciousness blurred, Park Sang-do thought:
…I should never have gotten involved with a bear again.
CRASH──!!
There, Park Sang-do's memory cut off.
Seo Jin-woo was not smiling.
It was the first time in twenty years.
No matter what happened, the corners of his mouth had always stayed lifted. Now they hung half-open, frozen.
His brain could not keep up with the scene in front of him.
People were being torn apart.
It was not a figure of speech. Flesh was actually being ripped from human bodies. Blood fountained upward, and the sound of bones snapping mixed with the screams.
A hundred men. He had called a full hundred, and they were crumpling and scattering like paper dolls.
…People.
Seo Jin-woo swallowed hard.
He had never known human blood and human flesh could tear that easily.
Twenty years in this world. He had seen plenty of beatings, stabbings, and deaths.
But this was a different dimension. This was not a person hurting people. This was a bear tearing into prey.
GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAH──!!
Han Daewong roared. A sound that did not belong to a human. Every time that massive frame swung an arm, another clump of men lofted into the air.
Seo Jin-woo's legs moved backward on their own.
…No. This is wrong.
The math would not add up. The mind that had always converted everything into numbers went blank for the first time.
How do you stop that? You don't. How do you calm it down? You can't. That thing was not a product, not even a beast—it was simply a natural disaster.
There is only one thing a human can do in front of a disaster.
Run.
Seo Jin-woo turned. He heard Park Sang-do shouting something behind him, but he did not look back. Business partner? Loyalty? That garbage meant nothing in the face of his own life. As long as Park Sang-do played bait long enough for him to get out, that was enough.
He sprinted toward the exit.
But.
"…Fuck."
The exit was sealed.
The shutter had come all the way down to the floor. The emergency exits were locked too. Completely, perfectly sealed.
He was the one who had ordered it that way.
Not even a single rat gets out. Whether it was coming in or going out. He himself had given the order to seal everything that thoroughly so they could cage the bear.
…This is insane.
Seo Jin-woo slammed a fist against the locked shutter. It did not budge. Of course it didn't. It was steel plate built so even a bear could not break it.
That thoroughness was now closing around his own throat.
To get outside, there was only one way.
He would have to pass right through the middle. Right past that bear that was tearing people apart.
…I'm out of my mind. How the hell would I do that.
Cold sweat ran down his back. His mind spun at a frantic pace, hunting for a way to live. Somehow, somehow a path to survival.
Think, Seo Jin-woo. You've always found the answer.
Even when knives came in, even when a gun barrel pressed against you, you always had a card to play.
What cards do you have right now…
Then.
One thing surfaced in Seo Jin-woo's mind.
Kang Seo-yeon.
The small hostage he had locked in the room next to the office.
That was the reason the bear had gone berserk.
One single sentence—that Seo-yeon was dead—had turned him into this. Which meant… if he took the still-living Seo-yeon as a hostage, maybe even that bear would stop.
If he put a knife to her throat. If he said he would kill her the moment anyone took a single step closer… no matter how much of a beast it was, in front of that girl──
…Yeah. That's the only way.
Seo Jin-woo pushed himself up against the wall. His legs still shook, but his mind was already turning cold again. The moment a path to survival appeared, that calculating head of his came back online.
Drag Seo-yeon out, use her as a hostage… buy time with that, pin the bear down, and create an opening to slip away in the middle of it.
But a hostage alone might not be enough.
If that insane bear charged anyway, even then.
Seo Jin-woo's thoughts turned toward one wall of the office.
There, hanging for emergencies, was a single handgun.
A thing he had hung up like a decoration, certain he would never need it in his entire life.
Right now, it looked like the last rope he could grab.
Seo Jin-woo swallowed hard.
Seo-yeon as the hostage. And that gun—his own life—as the chips on the table for one final gamble.
"…Let's do this."
Seo Jin-woo staggered, moving his feet toward the office.
"Aaaargh!! S-spare me──"
"Out of the way! Get out of the way!! Let me out first──"
"Mom… Mom…."
"Please, please I'm sorry!! Lord Bear—no, hyung-nim!! Spare──"
Behind him the bear's roar and his men's screams still mixed together and filled the air.
GRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH──!!
CRASH! BOOM!! The sound of another clump of bodies slamming into the wall. Flesh tearing, bones snapping, weapons clattering across the floor.
Listening to those sounds ringing out behind him, Seo Jin-woo clenched his teeth and forced his steps faster.