Hide-and-Seek (2)
Awakened knew other Awakened on sight.
The four thugs who had just appeared were unmistakably Awakened.
And pretty skilled ones, too.
Who was Quarter?
At that question, all four kept their mouths shut.
Right.
I didn’t really need to ask.
Hareubang was with me.
I flicked my eyes at him.
“None of them.”
Hareubang shook his head, and his face was not its usual easygoing self.
He was grinding his teeth, both fists clenched so hard his knuckles had gone white. His nostrils flared as he dragged in rough, angry breaths.
He’s pissed.
Hareubang’s younger brothers had been ambushed.
Some of them had faces caved in so badly they were hard to recognize, while others lay sprawled on the ground, their bellies soaked through with blood.
Everyone had at least serious injuries; some were on death’s door.
Hareubang was a villain, but he hated seeing people get hurt more than anyone I knew.
I spoke to Prosecutor Gong.
“Take the injured and move them out. We’ll handle things here.”
“Yes, sir!”
That left us in a four-on-two standoff.
“I’ll ask again. Who are you?”
“Heh.”
One of the women stepped forward.
She had red hair, a corset on top, and skin-tight leather pants below. She looked like she’d been pulled straight out of a comic book—every inch the stereotypical villain.
“We’re the national executives of New Dark.”
The old Dark Alliance had been wiped out by Quarter.
The empire Quarter had built in its place was New Dark.
The woman pointed at each of them in turn as she continued.
“This is Jeolla-do, this is North Chungcheong, this is South Chungcheong, this is North Jeolla, and I represent South Gyeongsang.”
In other words, the newly appointed eight-province executives Quarter had chosen.
“The boss said you people were moving as a team, so we figured we might as well gather on Jeju Island and not be outdone. How’s that? No complaints, right?”
By “the boss,” she meant Quarter.
Quarter.
The woman went on.
“Though, come on—Jeju uses the character for island, not road. Putting executives in charge by province? What a joke. The Black Bear from the old Dark Alliance was dumb as rocks. Not that he can compare to our boss.”
Black Bear had been killed by Quarter.
The new New Dark boss, Quarter, was like a patch of fog.
Always just beyond reach.
He’s dragging this out.
I had the strange feeling I was playing hide-and-seek on Jeju Island.
So the reports about Quarter being elusive were true.
Unlike the way he had brazenly confronted the executives of the Dark Alliance and butchered them without hesitation, he hardly ever showed himself on Jeju.
Why was that?
I had a rough idea.
He’s wary of me.
Quarter was bold, but he had a cautious streak, too.
So he was probably just as restless on his side of things.
As long as he didn’t avoid the confrontation, though—
We’d meet eventually.
The woman spoke again.
“You’re Choi Yongki, right? Our boss is curious about you, but also pretty irritated.”
Interesting way to put it.
Curious, but annoyed. That was what she meant?
“He told us to make sure we asked you this when we saw you. Why does a hunter get involved in a matter between villains?”
I almost snorted.
“Why do you think? Because you idiots hurt civilians. Don’t you know hunter regulations?”
Article 1, Clause 1 of the Republic of Korea Hunter Regulations.
First, protect civilians from monsters.
Second, don’t use power as a means of oppression.
“Are we monsters? Why are you treating villains who’ve done nothing wrong like beasts?”
“If you torment people, you’re a monster. What’s the difference?”
The pointless argument had gone on long enough.
If they weren’t Quarter, there was no reason to waste more time.
I drew up mana.
“Quit yapping and come at me.”
Just as I stepped forward, Hareubang grabbed my shoulder and moved in front of me.
“I’ll do it.”
Was he planning to avenge his brothers?
Works for me.
I hadn’t seen Hareubang’s true abilities yet.
If I could gauge his full strength now, it would make future planning a lot easier.
Hareubang leaned in and whispered to me.
“Don’t show your full power. That bastard’s probably watching from somewhere.”
Right.
From the start, the New Dark executives had just been bait.
Quarter probably wanted to measure me the same way I’d wanted to assess Hareubang.
A sting operation, basically.
Coincidentally, Quarter had picked the exact same strategy I had.
Yeah, I’m not the only one who’s annoyed here.
I was getting more and more curious about the bastard’s face.
Hareubang stepped out in front and drew a dagger.
“Honestly, I hate seeing people get hurt. Especially people around me. So—”
He thrust the dagger into empty air.
With a wet thunk, the Jeolla-do villain crumpled.
Fast.
It happened in the blink of an eye.
The instant Hareubang stabbed forward, two spatial rifts were created like lightning.
One opened at the end of his own outstretched arm, exactly where the blade was reaching.
The other opened right in front of the villain’s heart.
It was so seamless it looked as though the knife had simply stretched out of nowhere.
I doubted the Jeolla-do villain even realized what had happened.
“W-what the hell!”
The South Gyeongsang villain gasped and stumbled back.
Hareubang flicked the blood off his dagger.
A full-body transfer through a dimensional portal was limited to three uses a day.
Using only part of the body, though, had no such limit.
So this is the real thing.
The capabilities of an S-class dimensional mage really were on another level.
Strong.
Hareubang charged the remaining three.
“H-hey, he’s coming!”
It was a three-on-one fight, but they had already seen a companion die, and their shaken nerves were obvious.
On top of that, the dazzling movements he performed by blending dimensional arts and swordsmanship made even an observer like me want to whistle.
“Gah!”
“Tch!”
Every time he thrust his dagger, fresh cuts opened across the villains’ bodies.
Hareubang didn’t finish them off in one blow.
He made a point of inflicting pain slowly, one cut at a time.
He’s toying with them.
There was no need to worry about Hareubang’s fight.
The problem was…
The commotion had drawn a crowd.
“What’s going on?”
“Huh? Isn’t that Choi Yongki?”
“It is. Typhon Hunter! He must’ve come to catch villains.”
Among the people who had gathered, paramedics were carrying away Hareubang’s younger brothers.
Which one of you is Quarter?
A seasoned Awakened could control the amount of mana they radiated.
If they meant to hide it, there was no way to tell them apart.
The guy with curly hair and the fierce eyes…
Then I saw one man.
He stood among the crowd with his arms crossed, wearing dark sunglasses.
His hair, poking out from under a straw hat, curled in messy waves.
I headed straight for him and grabbed him by the collar.
“You—!”
The shock made his straw hat tumble down.
I yanked off his sunglasses.
“M-me?”
The moment our eyes met, I knew.
Nope.
That trembling in his pupils wasn’t an act.
“Wh-what’s wrong? I-I’m just a guy who sells coconut juice on the street…”
Silently staring at him, I watched the frightened man spill his guts in a rush.
“S-sorry. I did drive drunk yesterday, and I did relieve myself on the street, but… please, just let me off once!”
I let go of his collar.
The person who might have been Quarter was nowhere in sight.
Meanwhile, Hareubang had dropped two more villains.
Only one remained—the South Gyeongsang executive.
“Die.”
Hareubang drove his dagger into the dimensional rift.
Another space opened, and the tip of the blade appeared at the woman’s neck.
“Stop!”
At my shout, the blade halted just before her throat.
Blood trickled down from the point where it had stopped.
Hareubang looked at me, head tilted as if asking why.
“Let her live.”
I wasn’t showing mercy.
“We’ll take her hostage and pry information about Quarter out of her.”
The New Dark had struck first and left one of Hareubang’s people badly hurt.
I felt the same desire for revenge.
“Even if I have to torture it out of her.”
Hearing that, Hareubang lowered his knife.
* * *
Samda Resort, 7th floor, event hall.
This was where Ha Se-na had once been held captive.
Back then the place had been packed with people, but this time there were only three of us.
Everyone else had been sent out, leaving only me, Hareubang, and the female villain.
The villain was tightly bound to a chair.
Ha Se-na and Bang Su-hwan were both soft-hearted.
From here on out…
Something unpleasant was about to happen, and even I wasn’t exactly thrilled about it.
I stopped in front of the chair.
“What’s your name?”
“Jeon Su-bin.”
The female villain answered obediently.
Was she afraid of torture?
No.
Her chin was tilted high, and her eyes were full of unshakable confidence.
“South Gyeongsang means you’re from Busan, right?”
“That’s right. I never thought I’d get to meet Choi Yongki, the hero of the Dirty Kraken battle. I guess I’ve made it, too. Feels like seeing a celebrity.”
Jeon Su-bin grinned, the corners of her mouth lifting.
“Sign something for me later and take a picture, too. What do you say, Yongki oppa?”
She even had the nerve to wink at me.
There was no sign of fear or panic at all.
So it’s just bluster.
I began the interrogation in earnest.
“What’s Quarter’s real name?”
“Don’t know.”
“His base?”
“Don’t know.”
“Places Quarter might go?”
“I told you, I don’t know.”
Jeon Su-bin answered everything about herself without hesitation, but when it came to Quarter, she kept her mouth clamped shut.
At the same time, it was impressive.
Her loyalty is that strong?
The New Dark had only just been founded.
And yet Jeon Su-bin was willing to keep quiet for Quarter.
What was her secret?
It’s one of two things.
Either she’d been brainwashed, like Cheonyang-ji.
Or they’d formed a bond that was genuinely that deep.
“Looks like you’ve known Quarter for a long time.”
“Hm. Well… something like that.”
Jeon Su-bin’s mouth curved again.
“You said you were going to torture me, right? Go ahead and try. I spent my childhood in a brothel. I was kidnapped and made to endure all kinds of horrible things. Getting violated was just part of everyday life, and there were times they even ripped out my fingernails and toenails.”
Her eyes were full of madness.
“The one who saved me from that was the boss. He’s going to change the world. He’s not someone trash like you can stop.”
So that was it.
The Dark Alliance had simply chosen strong people and made them executives.
But New Dark had seated people with stories like this in the executive chairs.
People who worshiped evil.
People who could be made to follow him.
No—people who had no choice but to follow him.
That’s nasty.
I didn’t like the idea of brutally torturing someone who held no personal grudge against me.
But if it had to be done—
There’s no helping it.
At that moment, Hareubang checked his phone.
It was a text from somewhere.
“Just now,”
Hareubang said.
“Two of my younger brothers died at the hospital.”
That was the result of confronting New Dark.
Hareubang drew his dagger and split the air.
What appeared beyond it was a strange, alien place unlike anywhere I’d seen before.
“Kyaaaak!”
“Kkieeeek!!”
The blackish-red unknown world was crawling with centipedes.
Too many to count.
“Venomor,”
Hareubang explained.
“A monster that burrows into every opening in a living body, devours the brain and organs, and leaves the victim in agony. The pain it causes is worse than burning alive.”
“You think I’m going to get scared just because of some—”
“I’m not putting you in there.”
For a moment, I’d misunderstood.
Hareubang wasn’t a saint.
Whatever his motives, he was a villain—an evil man.
“I looked into it. Your mother’s still alive, isn’t she? And you’ve got a younger sister, too. Quite the proud family man.”
“Y-you! You bastard!! If you touch my family, I’ll—!!”
The instant family came up,
Jeon Su-bin lost her composure completely and screamed, spittle flying from her mouth.
“Shut your mouth.”
Hareubang growled low in her ear.
“Your mother and little sister are just the beginning. The friends you made in the brothel, your relatives out to your eighth cousins—every last one of them. I’ll shove them all in here. In front of you.”
Hareubang, furious to the tips of his hair, was filled with more rage than I’d ever seen on him.
Only then did Jeon Su-bin start trembling.
“Choose. Are you going to talk about Quarter, or are you going to watch the people around you writhe in pain and die?”
The smile had vanished from Jeon Su-bin’s face.
Hareubang wasn’t joking.
And it wasn’t even a bluff.
He looked ready to do it right now.
Jeon Su-bin swallowed hard.
Then she lowered her eyes and spoke.
“Fine. I’ll tell you everything.”