The Seed of Conflict (1)
A female hunter radioed in.
“Combat Team B. We’ve arrived.”
I’d been dispatched to the scene as usual.
Combat Team A had succeeded in closing the Gate, but because they were a little late, the monsters had slipped outside.
The location was XX Bank in Dongjak-gu, Seoul.
All employees and civilians had already been evacuated.
With me at the center, two hunters took position on each side, forming a five-man line in all.
One monster stood by the counter, another in front of the water dispenser, and another in front of the ATM.
Four monsters in total stared this way.
“Click. Clack!”
“Clack-clack-clack!!!”
Every time their insect-like mandibles struck together, they made a grotesque, hollow sound.
Their name was Buggler.
What made them distinctive was the stag-beetle shape of their heads and the fact that they walked upright.
Just looking into those pitch-black, empty eyes sent a chill down my spine.
They look exactly like cockroaches.
I clenched my teeth and muttered under my breath.
“Of all the damn things.”
I hated bugs with a passion.
The memory of how repulsed I’d been by the Big Lava came flooding back.
The female hunter beside me spoke up.
“What’s wrong, Team Leader Choi? Are they strong? Should I call for backup?”
She was a fresh intern, still tense enough to swallow nervously as she asked.
Her name was…
What was it again?
I had only recently taken over as leader of Combat Team B.
Ever since the Gangnam Station multi-Gate incident, I’d been running through Gates and exterminating monsters nonstop.
After wrapping up the Dirty Kraken case, my rank had risen to B-class.
My skills and experience had finally been recognized, and I’d become the proper leader of a team of my own.
And I wasn’t the only one.
Bang Su-hwan, Ha Se-na, and Lee Ji-jun, too.
My old classmates were all out there leading teams of their own.
I stared at the female hunter.
“What was your name again?”
“That’s harsh. I’m Harang. Jin Harang.”
“Ah, right.”
Jin Harang, a D-class hunter.
She was a Ranger, specialized in reconnaissance.
I straightened from the crouch I’d been holding.
“Form up. Work together and wipe them out one at a time.”
Jin Harang shrank back a little.
“What about you, Team Leader Choi?”
“I’m not joining in. You need to get a taste of real combat too.”
A Buggler was the kind of monster I could handle with my eyes closed, more or less.
I wasn’t about to go on a solo rampage and steal the interns’ chance to grow.
“Don’t get careless. Even if they’re crisis-class, one bad mistake and your head’s gone.”
“Yes, sir!”
“Understood!”
The interns rushed the Buggler.
The tanker grabbed the monster’s huge mandibles and shut down its attack.
The dealer swiftly cut away its wings with a sword, preventing it from flying.
The finisher was Jin Harang.
She drove the metal claws mounted on the back of her hands again and again between its hardened shell plates.
“Thunk!”
One Buggler went limp.
Hm. Not bad.
Combat Team B must have trained hard, because their coordination was solid.
They’d struggle one-on-one, but if all four interns piled on at once, they could definitely take down a single Buggler.
“Good! Nice job, Inhana!”
“Next one’s in front of the water dispenser!”
“I’ll take point!”
The interns encouraged one another and moved on to the next target.
Having gained some confidence, they all looked much brighter.
One by one, the interns brought down the remaining three Bugglers.
So far, so good.
There was no need for me to step in.
Not until an unexpected intruder showed up.
“S-somebody help me!!”
A man burst out of the vault.
He had his cap pulled low and was wearing a white mask.
...But they said everyone had been evacuated.
The man had a large bag slung over his shoulder.
Through the open zipper, stacks of 50,000-won bills were packed tight inside.
So that’s it.
The world was ugly enough that plenty of insane bastards were running around in it.
Taking advantage of the monster outbreak…
He tried to rob the bank.
The thief was limping.
Blood was already streaming down from below his ankle, apparently after getting mauled by a Buggler.
“Get me out first! I’m injured. My leg hurts like hell.”
Jin Harang looked to me for guidance.
“Team Leader Choi. What do we…?”
The other interns looked conflicted as well.
Was exterminating the monsters the priority?
Or was saving that bastard the priority?
Monsters didn’t care about complicated human affairs.
And in the instant their attention wavered, the Bugglers counterattacked.
One swung its long mandibles like a spear and smashed one of the hunters aside.
“Gah!”
The hunter flew backward and slammed into the ATM.
The interns panicked and stumbled back helplessly.
“Your formation’s broken!”
“Get back in position—!”
“D-don’t push me!”
Then the thief screamed at the top of his lungs.
“Hey!! Aren’t you hunters? Save me first!”
Scenes like this were usually unpredictable messes.
You never knew when, where, or what would happen.
And right now, wasn’t that obvious enough?
A criminal scolding hunters.
“Which guild are you from? Do your damn job properly!”
The thief grabbed Jin Harang by the shoulder.
“What are you all standing around for? I said I need treatment! Hurry up!!”
“Ah, uh… ju-just a second…”
At that exact moment, two Bugglers charged.
They came from both sides of Jin Harang, who was trapped in the middle.
Their gaping mandibles converged on her from left and right.
If I left it alone, they’d cut her waist clean in half.
I pushed off the ground and leaped.
I blocked the attack with my left arm.
The Bugglers clamped down on it like scissors, with enough force to sever my wrist outright.
And yet not a single scratch remained on my left arm.
I hadn’t used the hero ability Judgment of the Superhuman.
It worked on a simple principle: if you concentrated a high density of mana into one part of your body, it formed a barrier even a blade couldn’t cut.
That tickles.
I raised my left arm.
One Buggler’s head burst apart, and chunks of it sprayed upward toward the ceiling.
One more.
I struck the other Buggler in the stomach with my right arm.
It was a quick in-and-out hit, nothing more.
A hole was punched straight through the monster’s torso.
The force was explosive, as if I’d planted a bomb inside its body.
That, too, wasn’t Judgment of the Superhuman.
If you gripped highly concentrated mana in your fist and landed a strike, this kind of effect occurred.
An imitation of Judgment of the Superhuman, if you wanted to be poetic about it: Judgment of Courage.
Of course, it was still a long way off from the real Super Kid.
Both Bugglers—one missing its head, the other its guts—collapsed at the same time.
The interns watching gaped with their mouths hanging open.
“...Team Leader Choi is insane.”
“Amazing. So that’s Typhon.”
“No wonder they call him a hero.”
I flicked the sticky green blood from my hands.
You know…
I looked down at the two dead Bugglers.
This is too easy.
Ever since I’d fought the Dirty Kraken, a monster on the level of a catastrophe-class threat, lower-ranked monsters hardly stirred any tension in me anymore.
I could tap them once or twice and they’d just fold.
The thief let out a long breath.
“Hoo. Holy shit. I almost died.”
Even then, he kept cradling the bag full of cash like it was some sacred treasure.
“Damn, I’m dizzy as hell from losing so much blood.”
Normally, seeing monsters would send a person running in blind panic.
What a shameless bastard.
The thief began badgering Jin Harang instead.
“Hey!! Don’t you have a healer? Do some first aid!”
“J-just wait. Our team doesn’t have a healer…”
“Then call an ambulance already!”
“No, seriously, why are you acting like the victim here? And that money—didn’t you steal it from the bank?”
“What? You crazy bitch, making accusations out of nowhere! Got proof?”
I looked up at the ceiling.
Every CCTV camera had been turned toward a corner or covered with green tape.
I thought he was just some petty crook, but he’s actually pretty meticulous.
If he hadn’t injured his leg, he might have pulled off the perfect crime.
I strode over.
“Jin Harang. Call an ambulance.”
Jin Harang looked up at me.
“Ah, yes… Team Leader Choi. Understood.”
At my order, Jin Harang bowed her head.
The thief must have thought I was taking his side, because he got cocky.
“That’s more like it. You guys! My taxes pay hunters’ salaries too, so…!”
I kicked the thief in the shin with my front foot.
With a sickening crack, his knee bent the wrong way.
The broken bone tore through flesh and jutted out.
“Aaaagh!!!”
The thief rolled across the floor, shrieking.
Jin Harang sucked in her breath.
“Team Leader…”
Pointing at the hunter who’d been smashed into the ATM, I continued in a calm voice.
“What was his name again…?”
“Kang Inhan.”
“Right. Take Inhan to the hospital and get him treated. Anyone else injured?”
The thief spat and glared at me.
“You, you! What the hell are you doing? Hunters can’t just hit civilians…!”
I met his eyes.
“Want me to stop hitting you and just kill you instead?”
The thief flinched and clamped his mouth shut like a shell snapping closed.
“Hand this bastard over to the police. He’ll have his fingerprints all over the vault.”
“Yes, sir. Understood. And… um…”
Jin Harang looked like she had something else she wanted to say.
I pointed at the thief.
“Say he interfered with extermination enforcement.”
Under hunter law, when hunters engaged monsters in combat, third parties weren’t allowed to threaten or obstruct them.
If they violated that rule, hunters were granted the right of immediate execution.
That was what was called the crime of interfering with extermination enforcement.
The thief stammered.
“W-what do you mean I interfered with anything…?”
I smiled faintly and pointed at the ceiling with my index finger.
There was no CCTV anymore.
“You don’t have any evidence, do you?”
* * *
The intern who’d been knocked into the ATM and passed out was loaded into an ambulance.
The thief was handed over to the police.
As he was led away in handcuffs, he pointed a shaking finger at us and screamed.
“You’re not human! You hypocritical bastards! You disgusting hypocrites!”
The police car carrying the thief pulled away.
I turned to my team.
“Good work, everyone. I’ll handle the report, so you can all disperse.”
“You worked hard too, Team Leader Choi.”
“See you tomorrow.”
As the others scattered, Jin Harang stayed behind.
“Why aren’t you going?”
Jin Harang hesitated, then spoke at last.
“Team Leader Choi… in a situation like that, what was I supposed to do?”
Her voice trembled.
“I’m a little confused. As a hunter, what counts as the righteous thing to do…?”
“What do you want to do?”
“Huh?”
I knew it.
Strictly speaking, what had happened just now wasn’t all that different from what Seo Gwang-pal had done.
The difference was that Seo Gwang-pal had been drunk and attacked an innocent civilian.
Whereas I had acted with clear intent.
“I’m asking what you want to do.”
“I…”
Jin Harang lowered her eyes.
“I want to handle it according to the law.”
From what I’d observed so far, Jin Harang was the type who avoided conflict and felt sympathy for others easily.
A pacifist, in other words.
“No matter how much of a criminal they are, I think we still need to respect their human rights…”
When I said nothing, Jin Harang apologized.
“I said something unnecessary. Sorry if I was being presumptuous, Team Leader Choi.”
“Then do that.”
Jin Harang looked up.
“If that’s your idea of justice, then do it that way.”
Ruthlessly striking down evildoers—that was my creed, and mine alone.
I couldn’t force that creed on anyone else.
“I’ll ask you something too.”
The thief had called us hypocrites.
Even if I became the kind of hunter who only pretended to be kind on the outside…
I didn’t want to become a hero who only pretended to pursue justice on the outside, either.
“Jin Harang. What do you think about hypocrisy?”
“Uh… hmm.”
After thinking it over, Jin Harang arrived at her own answer.
“I think even hypocrisy is a kind of goodness.”
Even hypocrisy is goodness.
Interesting.
In the end, convictions differ because everyone chooses to guard a different part of themselves.
“Ugh.”
Jin Harang suddenly clutched her stomach.
“What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”
“No. I’m just hungry.”
“...”
She was kind of weird, in a subtle way.
“Let’s get something to eat. What do you want?”
“How about mala tang?”
“Too spicy. I hate it.”
“Tch. Then why’d you ask?”
“Come on.”
We walked through the city in silence for a while.
Hypocrisy is goodness.
Hypocrisy is goodness.
Hypocrisy is goodness.
…
Really?
Is hypocrisy really good?
The rookie intern’s words echoed in my ears like a bell.
As for the Purple Devil…
What kind of good would I pursue?
How should I define hypocrisy?
If petty thieves were running rampant, that was proof the police weren’t fulfilling their duty.
The public’s dissatisfaction mounted, and the festering sores of society swelled everywhere like boils ready to burst.
It’ll rot and break open before long.
Dusk fell, and the sun went down.
“Team Leader Choi, you don’t have a girlfriend, do you?”
“Why the hell are you bringing that up all of a sudden?”
“I just had a feeling.”
“...”
“Ah, wait for me. Team Leader.”
Jin Harang trotted after me like a puppy.