A Warehouse Dump of Prey
"People are starting to assign meaning to your hunts, oppa. Every time the Shadow takes down a notorious criminal, they dig into whether the sentence he received was actually appropriate."
The Shadow's campaign was solidifying into a full-blown phenomenon in South Korea.
Countless people were watching his movements, intoxicated by them, and — eventually — coming to expect them.
"And conversely, when he hunts someone who isn't a criminal, people start airing out that person's dirty laundry. What controversies and suspicions surrounded them, whether they had a record. Whistleblower tips are pouring in by the dozens."
Kim Young-hwan and Yoon Deok-soo were the prime examples of exactly that.
His influence was growing that much larger.
"Isn't that what you wanted all along?"
"Exactly. Everything is unfolding according to plan. Although — this is where the problem starts."
"So the resistance will grow stronger."
At Tae-jun's reply, Lee Seo-hyun nodded.
"To be precise, society's system itself is about to begin resisting in earnest."
No matter how massive the wave of public support might be.
From the state's perspective, it couldn't simply stand by and watch Tae-jun.
And all the more so if that blade ever turned toward the established powers.
"In my judgment, this is exactly the right moment."
"The right moment?"
"The moment to build your strength to the point where even a national response couldn't touch you."
She meant hunting a massive quantity of quality prey in a short span of time.
Now was the window where he could explode not only his power and Authorities, but his renown as well.
"Which brings me to my question — do you think you can manage it?"
The prey written into the documents she'd handed over.
Or rather, the question was whether he could handle the 'hunting grounds' they described.
"⋯⋯."
Tae-jun fell silent.
Not for long, of course.
"For now, I'd say that's difficult."
A cold, level judgment.
And with good reason — the documents contained a list of prisons and detention centers across the country, along with the major violent offenders held inside them.
A list of, quite literally, the most ideal 'hunting grounds' imaginable.
"Why? Is your strength lacking? Or some other reason?"
"I'd have to say the strength isn't there yet."
Correctional facilities were nothing to be taken lightly.
Countless security measures and systems stood ready for the sole purpose of imprisoning and controlling that many criminals.
And to neutralize all of it, execute the prey, and slip away unscathed afterward?
That would demand power and Authorities far beyond what he had now.
If it were just one location, maybe. But multiple locations at once? All the more so.
Say he got lucky and pulled off a surprise strike just once.
From that instant, every correctional facility in the country would go into a state of emergency.
A textbook case of great risk, little gain.
Of course, it's a gate I'll have to pass through eventually. That much is certain.
In fact, Tae-jun had thought of prisons from the moment of his Descent.
Weren't they the ideal hunting grounds for securing high-quality Soul Stones in a short time?
But for exactly these reasons he had postponed it, and now was no different.
The only difference was that, from here on out, soon truly meant soon.
"Hmm, that makes sense."
Lee Seo-hyun accepted the answer without difficulty.
"Alright then. Take this first, then."
She quickly handed over a different stack of documents.
"This one is⋯⋯ let's call it a warehouse clearance sale."
A warehouse clearance sale.
There was a reason for the phrasing.
"The internet these days has entered an age of exposure and denunciation. Posts begging 'Shadow, please take this guy too~' are flooding in by the tens of thousands every single day."
Big or small.
How many victims of crime must exist in this world?
And now, a being had appeared who might finally redress their grievances.
Of course they would want to convey their injustices to him in some way or another.
To the Shadow, who punished evildoers without mercy.
"I pulled out the ones with reasonable credibility, did some preliminary vetting, and added them to the prey list. What's more, quite a few criminals Magazine F has investigated in the past are in there too."
"Which means none of it has been fully verified?"
"Right, that's correct."
An answer without a trace of hesitation.
But of course, she had her reasons.
"You can do the verification yourself, can't you, oppa?"
With that, she tapped her own nose lightly.
A gesture referencing Tae-jun's ability to sense evil.
"Not bad."
Tae-jun nodded at that.
He'd been feeling a little restless lately anyway.
He wanted a hunt several times tighter than the one he was running now.
"This is the priority shortlist — a little over three hundred names. Plenty of room, right?"
"Plenty."
For the time being, it was Orot's turn to focus on nothing but the hunt.
Tae-jun gathered the documents, satisfied, and was about to leave when something seemed to occur to him, and he asked Seo-hyun:
"⋯⋯The girl. What happened to her?"
"I was almost offended thinking you might leave without asking."
Lee Seo-hyun answered with a shrug.
"The good news first — So-hee was never registered on a family record. Not even a birth report. I'm not sure 'good news' is the right way to put that, but either way, things have gotten somewhat simpler."
Yoon So-hee's mother had never even filed a birth report for her own daughter.
No one knew the exact reason, but given the environment the girl had lived in, the answer wasn't hard to guess.
"Whether we place her with a good adoptive family or find another path, it's procedurally far easier without legal parents than with them. Of course, we're not at the stage of discussing adoption or anything like that yet."
"Why not?"
"The girl is just⋯⋯ so disoriented. Can you blame her?"
A child who had known nothing but abuse her entire life.
What she needed first and foremost was absolute stability.
"So for now, she's staying at our place."
"Your father's house?"
"I told Dad she's the daughter of a close friend. Said there was an urgent situation and asked him to look after her for a while⋯⋯ but he doesn't buy it. He keeps probing, ever so casually. Asking if she's some granddaughter I've been hiding⋯⋯."
Believing that would be the stranger thing.
Still, Tae-jun said nothing.
He was hardly in a position to comment, having dumped the whole matter on her in the first place.
"But deep down, I think he's happy about it. Like I told you before — since the incident fifteen years ago, my father has been living like a man who couldn't die and couldn't live. But lately he's busy from morning to night taking care of her⋯⋯ of So-hee."
"I see."
"He takes her for walks all the time. This is a man who used to barely eat his own meals, and now he sets the table for her with his own two hands. Honestly, it makes me think I should have given him a grandchild to dote on ages ago."
Then that was a good thing.
Tae-jun nodded and gathered up the documents.
"I'll be in touch."
With that brief farewell,
Tae-jun melted into the darkness.
Every time he saw it, he marveled at how perfectly the epithet 'Shadow' suited the ability.
"Well then, I suppose it's my turn⋯⋯."
Unfortunately, Lee Seo-hyun possessed no such ability.
She would simply have to entrust herself to the vehicle parked outside the container warehouse.
"⋯⋯Eh, this much and I don't envy a demon's Authority."
It was a used Seltos she'd bought two years ago.
"Thinking back on it now, it still pisses me off."
Deep in the night.
An indoor pojangmacha near Seolleung Station, Gangnam-gu.
Mo Yong-ho, thirty-one years old, arms covered in tattoos, slammed his beer mug down on the table and snarled.
"What the hell did I even do wrong? That bastard just jumped out of nowhere!"
The dented tin table rang with a sharp clang.
His flushed, crimson face was a mess of rage, resentment, and alcohol.
"Look how shameless this guy is. Funny how you leave out the part where you drove drunk."
His friends pushed back at that.
Needless to say, it didn't land.
"Okay, fine, drinking and driving was a mistake. I admit it, alright? But why the hell was that guy out wandering around in the middle of the night anyway? He should've been home sleeping quietly with his brats. Am I wrong? Huh?!"
A grand parade of absurd logic.
But his so-called friends were all too busy snickering.
Mo Yong-ho may have been the one who committed the crime, but every one of them belonged to the same 'breed'.
"Seriously though, how'd you get off? You were drunk out of your mind and you hit the guy — and you got probation?"
"Hit the guy? He outright killed him. And he still got probation?"
"What, you got a sex tape of the judge or something?"
The victim meant nothing to them.
All they cared about was Mo Yong-ho's secret to walking away with probation.
Worth knowing, after all — the chance to use it might come around someday.
"I bought a good lawyer, that's how. A really goddamn expensive one. You pour enough money in and they handle everything for you."
Mo Yong-ho held forth like a man recounting war stories.
"Right there in front of the judge, I bawled my eyes out — I'm so sorry, I'll spend my whole life atoning, all that garbage — and boom: first offense, diminished capacity, settled with the bereaved family⋯⋯ spouted all that bullshit and the probation just landed."
"Settled? When did that happen? Must've cost you a fortune."
"Nope. Our crazy-expensive lawyer took care of the whole settlement for me."
Mo Yong-ho spat as he continued.
"Look, the husband's dead and gone, and the ajumma's got two kids to raise alone, so of course she wanted money. But man, she asked way too much. Carrying on like her dead husband was some kind of duke."
"So how much did you settle for?"
At his friend's question, Mo Yong-ho spread all five fingers of his hand.
A beat of silence wrapped around the drinking table.
"Whoa — f-five hundred million⋯⋯?"
"Five hundred what, you idiot. Fifty million. Fifty!"
"Damn, fifty million for a man's life?"
"Pretty good value, no?"
"'Value'? You're unbelievable. Didn't the lawyer's fees cost more than the settlement?"
The retainer had sailed cleanly past the fifty-million-won payout.
It was because he'd spent a sum like that that Mo Yong-ho was sitting here now.
Despite killing a man while driving under the influence.
That was the kind of world this was.
"And get this — that bitch actually bawled her eyes out when the judge handed down the probation. Hugging her brats and sobbing. Honestly, it was kind of funny. She made her fortune off her husband's corpse and now she's putting on this show. I nearly busted a gut trying not to laugh right there in court."
"Far as I could tell, if you'd actually laughed, you'd have gone straight to prison."
"No argument. At the end of the day, it's all just whatever the judges feel like doing."
At his friends' reactions, Mo Yong-ho wedged a cigarette between his lips.
The no-smoking sign posted on the wall might as well not have existed.
"Anyway, Korean law is a goddamn joke. There's nothing money can't fix."
"And thanks to that, you're here boozing with us even after running a man down."
"Exactly! Long live Korean law! KAAAH⋯⋯! Tch!"
Vile conversation and drunken brawling that would have driven off any other customer in the place.
How much time had passed?
"Get the hell out. All of you."
"Wait, how are you getting home? You don't even have a license anymore, right?"
"Losing my license didn't delete my driving skills, did it?"
"Wow, look at this lunatic. Gonna run over somebody else."
"You guys take the subway. Unless you want to die under my wheels."
Closing down the drinking party, Mo Yong-ho staggered toward the car parked in a nearby alley.
His license had been revoked for the drunk-driving accident — but he still drove.
"Haaaahhh⋯⋯."
A long, deep sigh escaped him as he dropped into the driver's seat.
Proof that the alcohol was catching up to him in full.
And yet, despite all that—
Clunk! Vroom⋯⋯!
He turned the ignition with practiced ease.
He fully intended to drive himself.
"Die."
It was at that very moment—
"So the boy has finally learned his lesson."
A voice reached his ears.
From the back seat — the one he'd assumed was empty.
"Wh-what the—!"
There was no time to react.
A hand shot out before he could even turn around.
And those fingers clamped down hard around Mo Yong-ho's throat.
Crack!