The State Bears No Responsibility (1)

Park Jeongho opened his eyes through a haze.

This was not the powerless body of before. He felt light, almost refreshed, as if he had finally set down some immense weight.

"Am I dead?"

He looked down at his hands. The blood from the wound through his chest was still smeared there. Only then did Park Jeongho accept that he was truly dead, and a bitter smile pulled at his mouth.

"So life really amounts to nothing. An S-rank hunter, and I die in a single instant."

He had been so brilliant once, so powerful. Now he was nothing but a weightless soul without a body—and a suicide's ghost, at that.

He looked around. Darkness had swallowed the sky. There was not a single star, not even the moon, only a damp, clinging chill hanging in the air. The place itself resembled the world of the living, but the atmosphere was entirely different.

"So this is the world of the dead."

He walked, and he kept walking. Death, at least, had brought one mercy. The curse no longer pressed down on him, and he felt strangely at ease.

That was when he saw the crowd gathered ahead.

"People? No. Ghosts."

They were leaping and thrashing where they stood, as if in the middle of some festival—or like shamans seized in a trance. Park Jeongho walked toward them without a flicker of hesitation.

Everything stopped.

The souls froze as one, and every gaze snapped onto him. From the seat of highest honor, a figure pointed straight at Park Jeongho.

"Hey! You finally showed!"

That single cry tore open into a chorus of screams. Park Jeongho winced and ducked his head—and saw a man wearing a dog collar. Stark naked, the man was crouched on the ground, wolfing down something that looked like food scraps.

"Hey. That bastard's here."

The man on the floor looked up.

"Ji... Jinho?"

"Hyung!"

The instant Park Jeongho saw what had become of his little brother, rage tore ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠through him. He ground his teeth and glared at the ghosts.

"This is the treatment he's been getting all this time?!"

He did not hesitate. He packed mana into his fist and drove it forward with everything he had.

"And what do you think you're doing?"

Nothing happened. No flame burst from his hand. He could not so much as scratch them.

"This idiot still thinks he's an Awakened?"

Laughter broke out of them, crawling over his skin. They clutched their stomachs and slammed the ground hard enough to crack it.

"You pathetic piece of shit. Quit the theatrics and get on your knees. Awakened or not, none of that exists anymore."

The one seated in the place of honor spoke coldly, eyes lowered, in the exact way Park Jeongho himself had once looked down on everyone else. Under that pressure, Park Jeongho's knees hit the ground before he even realized it. It was the same thing he had always done to the guild members beneath him.

"You. Let the junkie go."

He stole a glance at Park Jinho. At that single word—go—Jinho sprang up from the floor.

"Thank you! Thank you, Lord Asi!"

"Jinho...?"

Park Jeongho looked at him with the thin hope that his brother might still save him. Park Jinho was already grinning so wide it seemed his mouth might split. A moment later he unfastened his own collar and looped it around Park Jeongho's neck.

"Jinho, you little shit. What the hell do you think you're doing?"

Park Jinho's eyes went sharp.

"Shut your mouth, you son of a bitch. You think this is still the world of the living?"

Sick with frustration, Park Jeongho beat a fist against his own chest and shouted up at the being in the high seat—the one they called Asi.

"What have I done to deserve treatment like this?!"

"Says he doesn't even know his own sins."

Park Jinho sidled in close and offered it with a nasty little smirk. Betrayal shuddered through Park Jeongho. He had spent his whole life wiping up this man's shit and keeping him safe, and what he got in return was a remora of a brother, latched to the flank of whoever held the power.

"I am not the same man as that Park Jinho! I have never stabbed an innocent person to death, and I have never touched drugs! What crime am I supposed to have committed?!"

They were no longer brothers. Only two men who had already surrendered to fear.

"He isn't wrong."

Park Jeongho nodded. Park Jinho's face, by contrast, went dark.

"I threw my life away holding back the gates and keeping the people safe. What did I do wrong?"

Asi's expression did not change. Cold as ever, he seemed unmoved by anything said to him. There was almost no shift in him at all.

"We'll set the achievements aside. And you claim you are without sin? From where I sit, I would not even call it a great sin. Whatever you did is no concern of mine. But."

Park Jeongho swallowed hard.

"Do you imagine they think the same?"

Behind him stood countless members of D.K Guild. Other guild members who had died on Park Jeongho's orders. Ordinary people murdered in ways the living never learned about. Well over a hundred young souls were staring him down, ready to beat him to death on the spot.

"Wh... what...?"

"Junkie, your release is revoked. A turncoat little bastard, and already you try to stir them up. Brothers, and you are exactly the same. Revolting."

"L-Lord Asi! This isn't what you promised!"

His whole face twisted.

Asi flicked a ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠hand, and the victims' souls waiting behind them rushed in. Bodies were ground, torn, and burst apart, and given time, they knit themselves back together. There was no flesh left to injure in the first place.

I already suffered that bastard's judgment. So why—why isn't this over?!

Writhing in the pain, Park Jeongho sank once more into despair.

Don't tell me I have to exist like this for the rest of eternity.

Their endless judgment had begun. Even after the curse ended, the grudge did not disappear.

Park Jeongho's death turned the world upside down. An S-rank hunter had died—one of the hunters who represented the nation, no less. And the news that it had been suicide shocked not only Korea, but the world.

The story raced past the border as fast as it spread at home. Every outlet there was, the press and social media alike, ran piece after piece on Park Jeongho and D.K.

It was absolute chaos. The shock of his suicide was only the beginning. Everything he had done behind the scenes was being dug up, piece by filthy piece.

These bastards were really something. Dig as deep as you liked, and all that ever came up were horror stories. And to think people had trusted them and cheered them on to hold the gates.

The whole country was in shock.

At the same time, the powerful watched their images drop straight into the gutter. Then again, how much lower was there to go? Trash doing what trash does. That was all.

I didn't stop with Park Jeongho's death. There was no way I was leaving a group like that alone.

I went straight after the information and started hunting the executives who had taken part in the crimes, one by one. As word of D.K executives dying broke day after day, guild members with something to hide walked in and turned themselves in. A few cowards even died on their own before I ever got a curse on them.

The guild members, once so numerous, either quit or confessed, and the rest were busy dying. For all practical purposes, the great guild had been dismantled.

People cheered even louder. Most of them said it felt good. Among the information I'd dug up, there was one man even filthier than Park Jeongho—the next name down the list.

Lee Jeongwoo. An executive at the vice-master level. An A-rank hunter.

Stuck to Park Jeongho as his closest man, he had been up to every filthy trick there was. It was bad enough that even Nemesis, a major guild once counted among the Four Great Guilds, looked ready to testify about the damage that bastard had done to them.

Birds of a feather. The same kind of scum had been feeding off one another all along.

I didn't hesitate. I wrote Lee Jeongwoo's name into the Yangbap window.

What the hell was this? There was a range?

I thought about it for a moment. Of course a skill had a range. It was only that my curses had never stepped past it before. I lived in Seoul, and I had driven Yangbap into targets all over the country without once leaving the boundary.

Which ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠meant—

"This bastard ran overseas."

So what was I supposed to do about that? The answer, really, was simple.

Crushing Awakened had piled my Terror Points up to the point of madness. Reinforce Yangbap once, and the curse might finally reach him.

I reinforced Yangbap on the spot.

Yes. That's what I thought.

I immediately entered Lee Jeongwoo's name as the target of the curse.

There we go. Thought you could slink off alone, you coward. I don't know where you are right now.

You can die too.

The United States.

At the request of the Korea Hunter Association, Nemesis had arrived in the country. Lee Nayeon and her elite guild members came with several police officers in tow.

With her usual smile in her eyes, Lee Nayeon spoke.

"Didn't take you for someone this pathetic, Jeongwoo."

The guild members beside her chimed in at once. The police were busy tracing his trail and had no attention to spare for anything else.

"Seriously, though. Who would've thought Park Jeongho would die like that?"

"Isn't it just his sins coming back around?"

The smile never once left Lee Nayeon's mouth. D.K's tyranny had been vicious for years, flaring up at the slightest excuse, and she had spent all that time grinding her teeth and waiting for a chance at revenge.

The other guilds were no different. D.K was splendid on the surface and nothing more; inside the industry, it was already infamous as a garbage guild. They simply hadn't been able to expose it, because Park Jeongho's standing was too high.

"Our dear Jeongwoo. I remember every bit of what happened last time. What are you going to do now?"

When Nemesis refused to cooperate, D.K had answered with retaliation—kidnapping a guild member and beating them. At the center of it had been ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Park Jeongho and Lee Jeongwoo. Lee Nayeon cherished her people to a frightening degree. She could not endure that.

"We grind him down this time."

"The Association President did say not to kill him."

Just then—

"We've found Lee Jeongwoo."

They moved fast and reached the small lodging where he was supposed to be. The building looked ready to collapse. He must have fled with tens of millions of dollars, yet he had deliberately chosen a dump like this.

One of the officers with them showed an ID to the owner. Then they stood in front of the door.

"On three, we open it."

"One..."

Crash!

Lee Nayeon smashed the door apart before the count could finish. Her face was heavier than anyone had ever seen it. She looked ready to tear Lee Jeongwoo to pieces the moment he was in front of her.

"Huh?"

The guild member who had charged in ahead froze.

"What's wrong?"

In an instant, every face crumpled. They stared at the floor or turned their heads away.

"Oh. Jeongwoo's dead too."

His neck hung in a rope. His tongue had dropped all the way to his chin.

I was tearing into a whole chicken while I watched TV. These days, the news was the most important part of my day.

I was clearly crushing trash day after day, and yet they showed no sign of thinning out. They said the crime rate was falling. Not even close.

"When the hell do I finish off every last one of these bastards?"

That was when a headline snapped me wide awake.