The Butterfly Effect (1)
A large truck drove into Ilsan Hunter Industrial Complex.
Seo Gwang-pal spun the wheel and whistled to himself.
“Finally!”
Knowing revenge was just ahead of him made his spirits rise on their own.
“Purple Devil, you rat-faced bastard. So you were holed up here all along!”
Unlike the boisterous Seo Gwang-pal, Lee Yu-seol, seated in the passenger seat, quietly closed her eyes and focused her senses.
Her talent was Sense.
By closing her eyes, she could feel the life force all around her; it was a detection-type talent.
It didn’t just let her see through walls. It also widened her awareness, making it easy to track the movements of enemies.
Lee Yu-seol’s detection range reached as far as one kilometer. If she pushed herself with everything she had, she could even sense a tiny caterpillar crawling up a tree.
Her eyelids twitched.
There are several Awakened Ones here.
The government said that three percent of humanity had awakened, but that was only an official estimate.
It wasn’t hard to run into Awakened Ones hiding in ordinary life.
Still, most of those hidden Awakened Ones were amateurs who had no real idea how to use mana properly.
Well, of course. They’re all nobodies... Hm. One of them might actually be useful.
What Lee Yu-seol had sensed was none other than the man commonly known as the Long-Legged One, Gi Yeong-cheol.
In hunter terms, he’d be about B-minus. Is that guy the Purple Devil? Or maybe...
As she swept over the industrial complex, Lee Yu-seol suddenly froze.
Her awareness brushed against a corpse buried in the mountain behind the complex.
The body underground was Cha Chi-do, former boss of a gang.
Hm. This guy seems like he was pretty strong.
Of course, because he was no longer alive, she couldn’t judge him precisely.
But she could still make a rough estimate.
Something like A-class? Just a hair below me, right?
A small smile lifted one corner of Lee Yu-seol’s mouth.
So there really had been a hidden expert in this out-of-the-way place.
As the saying went, the world was vast and masters were everywhere.
This place is actually pretty interesting.
For Dio Guild, which recruited people based on skill alone and ignored both reputation and criminal record, Cha Chi-do had been quite an attractive prospect in life.
Though he’s already dead. No, wait.
Lee Yu-seol bit her lip.
The strong man she had just evaluated had become a corpse.
That meant someone had killed him recently.
Who?
Could it have been that man she had judged to be B-minus?
No. That tall one alone wouldn’t be enough.
Her judgment was correct.
Gi Yeong-cheol could not have beaten Cha Chi-do, even if he were dragged back from the dead and given another chance.
Then who the hell...?
Just then, someone faintly entered Lee Yu-seol’s radar.
It was a man near Factory 4.
Other than the fact that he was an Awakened One, there was nothing particularly remarkable about him.
F-class? Worse than that. He’s barely a newly awakened rookie.
Above all else,
...he has no talent.
The flow of mana through his body was unstable, and the amount of energy he possessed was pitifully small.
His skill level was mediocre, and his growth potential even worse.
That was the conclusion Lee Yu-seol reached.
Unless he pushed himself to the edge of death or went through some extraordinary training program, that man will spend his whole life at the bottom.
Of course, there was one more possibility.
Unless he somehow got an absurdly broken talent, I suppose. But that’s impossible.
Then Lee Yu-seol found herself wondering something.
He’s not even worth looking at. So why am I wasting so much time agonizing over him?
She was only drawn to the strong, and she didn’t even spare a glance for the weak.
And yet, for some reason, her own “sensor” kept pulling her toward that man.
...I’m not in good shape. Forget it.
Blaming the lack of sleep she’d gotten the night before, she forced the thought away.
Then Lee Yu-seol opened her eyes.
Right on cue, Seo Gwang-pal brought the truck to a stop.
At the entrance to the industrial complex, a security guard lowered the barricade.
“Hold it right there. I’ve never seen this vehicle before. Who are you? Show me your pass.”
Seo Gwang-pal didn’t roll down the window.
The license plate on the truck he had brought was already covered.
Out on the road, it was no different from an outlaw’s getaway vehicle.
Seo Gwang-pal grinned as he muttered, “What a pain in the ass.”
As he started to get out, Lee Yu-seol said, “Hide your identity. I’m telling you again, we’re not Dio Guild today.”
A large guild officially recognized by the government was about to raid a private industrial complex.
No matter how strange the world had become, that would still be a media frenzy waiting to happen.
“Yes, yes. Of course.”
With a lazy smirk, Seo Gwang-pal put on an elephant mask.
It was a child-sized mask that barely covered his eyes, nose, and mouth, leaving his bald head completely exposed.
Clunk.
Seo Gwang-pal, masked up, stepped down from the truck.
“Who am I, you ask?”
The security guard, who had come out of the guardroom to confirm things, tilted his head.
“Hmm?”
Anyone could tell from his appearance that something was off.
“Y-you, what the hell—”
Before the guard could finish speaking, Seo Gwang-pal lunged forward and rammed his body straight into the barricade.
If the guard hadn’t scrambled out of the way in time, he would have been hit.
The metal barrier crumpled like paper.
Seo Gwang-pal raised both arms threateningly.
“A villain has arrived.”
“Eek!”
The guard’s face turned white, and he ran frantically toward the hole in the fence behind the guardroom.
He didn’t even notice the scrapes tearing open his palms and knees as he crawled through like a madman.
Then he ran without looking back.
“Kek! Running away? Where do you think you’re going?”
Seo Gwang-pal smashed the reinforced concrete wall around the hole in the fence.
Just as he was about to strike toward the fleeing guard in the distance, Lee Yu-seol lowered the truck window.
“We’re out of time. Get in quickly.”
Seo Gwang-pal pouted his lips. “Yes, yes. Team Leader.”
“I told you not to call me that. Is your head made of stone? Is that why your hair won’t grow?”
She kept on insulting his intelligence, but Seo Gwang-pal had no choice but to obey.
“Ugh. I’m coming, I’m coming.”
He scratched at his head and climbed back into the truck, and the vehicle headed into Ilsan Hunter Industrial Complex.
Meanwhile, the security guard who had been running to avoid Seo Gwang-pal suddenly stopped.
Breathing hard, he made a call to someone.
“...Yongki. They’re here. Get ready.”
As though nothing had happened at all, the guard’s face turned calm.
* * *
“Understood. You’re not hurt, are you?”
To enter Ilsan Hunter Industrial Complex, you had to pass through the main gate.
You could get in by climbing the wall or sneaking through some other way, sure.
But somehow, it didn’t seem like Seo Gwang-pal had come alone.
They’ll swarm in. Like hyenas.
So I’d warned the security guard ahead of time.
If anyone suspicious showed up, he was to run without hesitation.
If he tried to face them, he’d only get hurt.
Good thing I prepared in advance.
A sigh came through the phone.
- Phew. That scared the hell out of me. Good thing I listened to you, Yongki. I nearly got smashed into paste by that octopus-headed bastard.
Octopus head means it’s definitely Seo Gwang-pal.
My suspicion became certainty.
- Those guys don’t look normal, Yongki. What the hell is going on?
He sounded as if nothing were wrong, but the guard’s voice was trembling little by little.
“Don’t worry. I’ll handle it.”
I lowered the phone and looked around the factory.
Everyone was busy working.
For a moment, Ma Seon-ung flashed through my mind, lying in a hospital bed.
I would rather die than see someone near me get hurt.
I’ll protect this place no matter what.
I walked up to the foreman.
“Boss.”
I didn’t say much.
I only gave him a look.
Like the guard, I’d already warned the foreman in advance.
The sharp-witted man caught on immediately.
“Everybody stop! Let’s take a break and eat some snacks. Teacher Jang, go boil some ramen!”
“Whoa. A snack break? Haven’t had one of those in ages!”
The foreman led the workers away somewhere.
The noisy chatter gradually faded into the distance.
Of them all, only Karki came up to me.
“Daejang. Those fucking bastards come?”
Karki was right.
Those son of a bitches had invaded.
“Yeah. Let’s figure out their route.”
“Got it, Daejang!”
Karki and I headed to the office in Factory 4.
A CCTV feed was displayed on the computer monitor.
A large truck had just passed through the main gate and come to a stop.
The back doors opened, and a crowd of people poured out.
They weren’t wearing the helmets and combat uniforms provided by Dio Guild.
Instead, they wore caps pulled low and masks that concealed their faces completely.
They looked like hired thugs.
They were in ordinary clothes, but it seemed like they were hiding something beneath their thick coats.
They’re armed.
There was also a person who looked like a woman.
As she gave directions here and there, the others moved with practiced precision.
She’s the leader.
The image was too poor for her features to be clearly visible, but it wasn’t hard to guess who it was.
Lee Yu-seol.
I’d already finished a complete background check on Dio Guild.
She was a woman who appeared in the media more than anyone else.
- Dio Guild’s only female hunter!
- A breathtaking expert hidden beneath her beauty!
- Love calls pouring in from the entertainment world, too!
...Something like that.
I wasn’t interested.
I was after exactly one person.
Seo Gwang-pal.
From this high angle, I could clearly see the hesitation in their movements.
They’re deciding where to go.
From Factory 1 to Factory 9.
If they searched the entire industrial complex and investigated everyone one by one, it would take at least a month.
Well? What will you do?
If they knew anything about me, they’d head straight for Factory 4 without hesitation.
The Purple Devil was here.
But Lee Yu-seol pointed somewhere else.
Factory 7.
Why there, of all places?
As a rule, a hunter’s talent was kept strictly secret.
A person’s special abilities were confidential information that could decide life and death in combat.
And yet, absurdly enough, Lee Yu-seol’s ability had been mentioned in an article.
Factory 7 was the old gang base, now the place where Yeong-cheol Suho-dae was stationed.
Lee Yu-seol must have used her detection ability to identify the Awakened Ones.
And then.
She had mistaken Gi Yeong-cheol for me.
That, too, was part of the plan.
They’ve walked right into the trap.
An Awakened One’s mana leaks faintly through the whole body unless it’s consciously hidden.
A real expert could judge an opponent’s ability from that alone.
I still wasn’t skilled enough to conceal my mana completely.
So I used that to my advantage.
I let myself show exactly as I was.
Seo Gwang-pal would come with Lee Yu-seol, and Lee Yu-seol would use her detection skill.
She would have sensed me, but she would ignore me.
The proof of that is the fact that she chose Factory 7, not Factory 4.
My plan, laid out by looking several moves ahead, had succeeded.
Now all I had to do was act.
“Karki. Prepare P2.”
“Yessir. Daejang!”
I immediately put on the newly made suit.
I pulled on the purple mask with its rough surface that stung against my skin.
“Huh? Daejang.”
Karki pointed at the monitor.
“Who are these guys?”
Among the people led by Lee Yu-seol and Seo Gwang-pal, there were two who looked out of place.
Just two.
Oddly enough, they wore matching yukata with different colors and patterns.
Japanese?
There’d been no information that Dio Guild included Japanese members.
And their heights and builds were remarkably similar.
Like twins.
“...”
A variable had appeared, but I didn’t panic.
War was nothing but one uncertainty after another.
The twins headed not for Factory 7, but for Factory 9.
Karki bit his fingernail.
“Hmm. That side is where Khan is.”
He mentioned the name of his close friend and roommate, a foreign worker.
They bickered all the time, but I knew better than anyone how close they really were.
Everything had been going smoothly until now, but this time, I hesitated.
It was the kind of dilemma that often came up in comic-book hero stories.
A hero can protect people.
But not everyone.
What should I do?
I placed a hand on Karki’s tense shoulder.
“I’ll go.”
Karki nodded.
“Please. Daejang.”
Without knowing what kind of butterfly effect this situation might trigger,
I jumped on the motorcycle and raced toward the twins.
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