Butterfly Effect (3)
At the very moment the twins and Choi Yongki were locked in a full-blown battle, Seo Gwang-pal’s group arrived at Factory 7.
It was the two-story building where the former gangsters had stored the Black Pearl, and where Cha Chi-do’s vault had once been kept.
“Everyone, move!”
Seo Gwang-pal hurled his body against the tightly locked door with a shoulder charge.
“Hraaah!”
The iron door crumpled like paper and burst apart.
Lee Yu-seol and the others strode inside.
The interior looked like someone had half-heartedly converted a temporary structure into a dormitory. Beds and lockers were scattered everywhere, and the cement floor hadn’t even been covered with vinyl.
Seo Gwang-pal curled his lip. “There’s no one here. Did they all run? Hey! You cowards hiding because you’re scared?”
Ignoring Seo Gwang-pal’s noisy bluster, Lee Yu-seol quietly closed her eyes.
As she focused her mind, her unique talent, Sense, activated.
Space and time unfolded in the darkness.
Her specialty was sensing the vitality around her, a kind of detection ability.
There were no living beings left inside, so there was nothing in particular to feel.
But mana was like air.
It existed everywhere on Earth, and faintly radiated from every living thing.
She caught a weak trace of mana left behind in the place where she stood.
Something fierce happened here.
The energy from the two people who had fought here was so intense that mana still lingered in the air like an afterimage.
Fragments of images flashed chaotically through Lee Yu-seol’s mind.
Someone had swung a dagger, and someone else had dodged it.
Then, with a wet stab, the man holding the dagger met his end.
The corners of Lee Yu-seol’s mouth lifted.
The identity of the corpse buried in the back hill of the industrial complex had finally been revealed.
So he was murdered after all.
One question after another began to resolve itself.
The strongman who had been here was the equivalent of an A-class hunter.
The person who had killed a monster like that.
That guy is the Purple Devil!
Seo Gwang-pal’s voice rang out.
“Team leader... no, Boss! You need to look at this.”
He addressed Lee Yu-seol by another title.
Ironically, it was the same designation Cha Chi-do had once used when he was alive.
Lee Yu-seol opened her eyes.
Seo Gwang-pal, standing on the second floor, waved her over.
She climbed the stairs with the Dio Guild agents.
At the small room at the end of the hallway, the door handle had been smashed.
Someone forced their way in?
She pushed the door open and stepped inside, where a gaudy array of trophies came into view.
In a tank there was a fish-human hybrid, on the floor lay a sabertooth tiger hide, and on the wall a werewolf’s head had been mounted like a trophy.
Seo Gwang-pal pointed at the empty vault. “Tsk. Looks like somebody already looted it.”
“...”
Without a word, Lee Yu-seol turned around and went back down the stairs.
“Everybody, down.”
When the guild members gathered on the first floor, Lee Yu-seol began searching the surroundings thoroughly.
Then, by chance, she discovered black powder under one of the beds.
This is...
She casually dabbed it with a finger and touched it to the tip of her tongue.
Everyone frowned at the sight of her behavior, but she ignored them and savored the sharp, bitter taste on her tongue.
Heh. Interesting.
A corpse, a vault, and drugs.
It’s practically a dungeon den.
So the outside world was even more vicious than the Gate, where monsters swarmed.
Lee Yu-seol let out a dry laugh to herself.
Seo Gwang-pal shrugged. “There’s nothing to see here.”
He had followed all the way here because he trusted her ability.
But they hadn’t really found anything worth taking back.
“Looks like our boss’s senses have gotten a little rusty, huh?”
Seo Gwang-pal deliberately tried to provoke her.
But Lee Yu-seol ignored him and activated Sense again.
Not far from the dormitory, there was a tall awakened.
Found him.
Lee Yu-seol opened her eyes.
“Shut up and follow me.”
Following in her wake, the group moved deeper into the factory.
Inside the smoke-spewing building, a clanging sound rang out as if someone were cutting through steel.
“Hey, octopus head.”
“Y-yes, yes.”
Seo Gwang-pal answered with a swagger.
Lee Yu-seol pointed at Factory 7 with one finger.
“Purple Devil is in there.”
At those words, Seo Gwang-pal’s eyes changed.
The bastard who had stolen the Big Lava’s magic stone and humiliated him in front of everyone.
His enemy was right in front of him.
“Boss.”
Grinding his teeth as he remembered the past, Seo Gwang-pal bowed his head to Lee Yu-seol.
His attitude was completely different from before—honest, even respectful.
“Let me handle this one.”
Their official purpose was, of course, to bring Purple Devil into the Dio Guild.
But there was also an unofficial objective.
They were going to make him pay dearly for crossing Dio Guild.
Lee Yu-seol felt the anger rising from Seo Gwang-pal’s body.
He could not defeat Purple Devil.
But there were more than twenty Dio Guild agents here.
Among them were several B-class combatants, men who were clearly superior to Seo Gwang-pal himself.
No matter how strong Purple Devil was, taking them all on at once would be impossible.
“Fine. Go and...”
Lee Yu-seol gestured toward the factory with her chin.
“Bring him to me.”
“Yes!”
The moment Lee Yu-seol finished speaking, Seo Gwang-pal put on an elephant mask and strode into the factory with fierce confidence.
“You lot go in too.”
“Understood.”
“Team Leader Lee. How’s the progress?”
“We found Purple Devil.”
“That was quick.”
“You know better than anyone. With my ability, this is nothing. Heh.”
“I watched the CCTV again. That man...”
“He was pretty strong.”
“I’d like you to bring him to me. I want to meet him in person.”
Lee Yu-seol understood the meaning buried in his words.
Bring him to me. I want to meet him in person.
In other words, use whatever means necessary.
“Don’t worry, Director. I’ll have him in front of you by the end of today.”
“I’m counting on you, Team Leader Lee.”
“Ah, and Director, about the Black Pearl...”
Crash!
Lee Yu-seol froze, phone still in hand.
The factory door was blasted apart, and someone tumbled across the floor.
It wasn’t Purple Devil, nor anyone who looked like him.
“Ugh.”
Seo Gwang-pal groaned, blood staining his lips.
“Team Leader Lee?”
Realizing something was wrong, Go Ju-hun’s voice came back over the line.
“Is something wrong?”
Immediately afterward, Dio Guild members burst out through the factory door.
They looked as though they had been driven out by someone who had no intention of letting them leave on their own.
Then a group appeared in front of Lee Yu-seol.
“You fucking bastards.”
“Who the hell do you think you are, acting so damn high and mighty here!”
“Hey. Who do you idiots belong to?”
They spoke in rough, coarse voices, and some of them had tattoos peeking out from their skin.
A few were broad-shouldered men with brutal, intimidating faces.
Lee Yu-seol narrowed her eyes.
Gangsters?
She had already heard rumors that some sort of organization had taken up residence in the factories these days.
She hadn’t expected to run into them here of all places.
The Dio Guild agents were wearing caps and masks, so they looked suspicious enough on their own.
Lee Yu-seol tightened her grip on her phone.
“Director. I’ll call you back.”
As soon as she ended the call, a man walked out from behind them.
He was a tall, lanky bastard.
Seo Gwang-pal kicked off the spot and sprang to his feet.
“You motherfuckers! Do you know who we are? I’m from Dio Guild—”
“Hey. I told you to shut up.”
The cold voice shut Seo Gwang-pal up.
The only person Lee Yu-seol was looking at was the one tall, gawky man.
Is that him?
Seo Gwang-pal was a C-class hunter.
This man definitely seemed to stand above him.
But still...
...Is that all?
They hadn’t started fighting yet, so it was too early to judge.
Besides, he looked older than she had expected.
Let’s watch a little longer.
The tall man cracked his neck.
“Gangsters? What bullshit. We’re not some cheap little outfit like that.”
About twenty Dio Guild agents stood on one side.
Roughly the same number stood on the other.
They faced each other in a tense standoff.
Seo Gwang-pal wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and gave a dry laugh.
“Then what the hell are you?”
Gi Yeong-cheol, the lanky man, scratched his head as though genuinely thinking it over.
“Well...”
He hesitated for a moment, almost bashful.
Then he straightened his shoulders and stood properly.
“We’re the Yeong-cheol Suho-dae.”
For a long moment, silence fell over the wide factory floor.
Seo Gwang-pal was the first to burst out laughing.
“Pffft—haha! What? What kind of protection squad is that?”
Lee Yu-seol did not laugh. She studied the tall man carefully.
She still couldn’t be sure he was Purple Devil.
“This is bullshit. Are you a whole group of idiots? Are you Purple Devil?”
There were times when Seo Gwang-pal’s blunt questions were actually useful.
Lee Yu-seol focused on the answer.
“...”
Gi Yeong-cheol, who had been silent until then, stepped forward.
“Why don’t you check for yourself?”
The moment he finished speaking, Seo Gwang-pal charged at him with a body check.
Slither.
In an instant, Gi Yeong-cheol’s body bent like a strip of dried taffy and slipped away from Seo Gwang-pal’s attack.
Then he reached out toward Seo Gwang-pal.
Snap.
He grabbed Seo Gwang-pal’s bald head and roared.
“Sweep these bastards out!”
“Yes, hyung!”
The Dio Guild and the Yeong-cheol Suho-dae crashed into one another.
Dust rose from the dry ground, and all at once a war broke out.
The twins, whom I was holding by the nape of the neck, kicked helplessly at the air from the tips of my fingers.
“Guh...”
“Hrk!”
What would happen if I used Judgment of the Superhuman here?
Their necks would pop like overripe fruit, and they’d die instantly.
For a second, I imagined it.
Their bodies dying in my hands, blood pouring everywhere as they met a miserable end.
Maybe they sensed my killing intent.
The older twin rushed to speak first.
“P-please... spare us!”
His face was red as a beet as he forced the words out.
“Please! I-I’m fine. Just spare my little brother.”
The older brother turned to look at his younger twin with a desperate expression.
The younger twin shouted back,
“No! Spare my brother instead!”
A bitter laugh slipped out of me.
What a tear-jerking bond between brothers.
I didn’t know what kind of men they were.
But there hadn’t been the slightest hesitation when they attacked me.
They’d probably done plenty of horrible things by now.
They’d likely killed innocent people without even blinking.
So what was I hesitating for?
Why couldn’t I kill them?
Because I felt sorry for them?
Or...
No way. Am I afraid of killing someone with my own hands?
I don’t know.
The twins had twisted the situation in an unexpected way, but even with their lives in my hands, I still couldn’t bring myself to make a firm decision.
Still, I could feel it instinctively.
Today, the day I’d faced off against Dio Guild, there was no more room to back down.
If I wanted to be a hero, I had to choose.
I had to decide how I was going to crush evil from now on.
Just before the twins’ eyes were about to roll back, I loosened my grip.
They dropped to the ground, wheezing for breath.
“Huk!”
“...Ah—th-thank you.”
Looking down at them, I said, “You’re coming with me. We’re going to Factory 7 now.”
That was the place Seo Gwang-pal had headed for with his whole crew.
I was planning to take the twins there too.
Once they had caught their breath, the twins exchanged nervous glances with each other.
“Don’t roll your eyes around. I might just kill you.”
I couldn’t let them attack me recklessly, but I might as well make sure they didn’t try anything stupid.
Even if they ran, I could catch them easily enough with Speeder’s Infinite Acceleration.
Better to save as much money as possible.
I reached into the snack pouch at my thigh and tossed the items in front of them.
They were thick straps, one for each of them.
When the end was fitted in place, they lit up with LEDs.
They were glowing bands meant for use at night, a substitute for blue-lens night-vision goggles.
“Put one around your neck.”
“Huh?”
“This?”
I glared at the twins and pushed mana up through my body with everything I had.
“...A-alright!”
“I’ll put it on. But what is this?”
As the twins wrapped the bands around their necks, they looked at me anxiously.
The function was simple enough.
It was only for efficient movement in the dark.
But I was a hero who could tell a good lie.
“It’s a bomb.”
I pointed at the P-shaped mark in the center of my forehead and continued.
“If you press this button, boom. It goes off.”
“...”
“...”
“And for the record, trying to force it off also means boom.”
The twins’ bodies trembled as they watched my finger inch closer to the P.
“Go ahead and run if you think you can.”
I lied without even blinking.
“If you do, I’ll really kill you.”
The older twin quickly straightened the open front of his yukata.
“Little brother.”
“Yeah, hyung.”
The two of them, suddenly as docile as lambs with dog collars on, began chatting with each other in perfect harmony.
“Let’s go. Mister Purple Mask.”
“We travel all over the world, so we’ve got excellent sense of direction!”
And just like that, I led the twins out front and headed for Factory 7.