Watching a Fight While Eating Chicken

After leaving the Association, Sihyuk turned on his phone.

A few notices for returnees filled the screen.

Temporary ID.

Settlement support funds.

Returnee housing assistance.

Sihyuk tapped the lodging guide.

His current location and destination appeared on the map.

"Huh. So this works too."

Sihyuk started walking, following the arrow on the screen.

In the Demon Realm, finding your way meant unfolding a map or grabbing someone and asking. Even then, most regions didn't have a proper map to begin with. Compared to that, Earth — where a single phone could guide you somewhere you'd never been — was pretty convenient.

Seoul felt stranger than he remembered.

They'd said twelve years had passed on Earth. Maybe that was enough time for a city to change. The buildings looked a little different, and almost everyone walking the streets kept a phone glued to their hand.

Sihyuk strolled along, taking in the sights. There was no rush. The only thing he had to do today was check into the housing facility.

Then a familiar smell brushed past his nose.

He stopped.

Oil. More precisely — the smell of frying chicken.

He turned his head. A chicken shop sat right beside him.

Sihyuk hesitated for a moment, then stepped inside.

"Welcome."

The owner behind the counter looked up.

"Ready to order?"

"Yeah. Whatever that smell is, give me that."

The owner chuckled.

"Fried?"

Sihyuk glanced at the menu board on the wall.

"Yeah. Fried."

"One whole bird?"

"Yeah."

He paid with the card the Association had given him, and before long a warm box was in his hands.

Originally, he'd planned to eat it at the housing facility. Five minutes out of the shop, that plan fell apart. The smell kept rising through the gaps in the box. Sihyuk finally cracked the lid open, grabbed a drumstick, and took a bite.

The crispy batter shattered. He chewed a few times.

"Damn. That's fucking good."

From then on he walked with the map in one hand and chicken in the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠other. Passersby glanced at him now and then, but he didn't particularly care.

A little farther on, a massive wall like a fortress loomed across the street. Inside it sat several buildings and a wide athletic field. The name over the main gate caught his eye.

Korea Hunter Academy.

Sihyuk's pace slowed a little.

Classes must have just ended — students in uniforms were filing out through the front gate. Most of them carried mana in their bodies. Not large amounts, but the flow was orderly. The way they circulated it didn't vary much from student to student.

Sihyuk watched a few of them pass by.

Looks like they're teaching it properly, at least.

It was quite different from the Demon Realm. There, whoever survived taught their own methods to others. Efficiency didn't matter. If you didn't die in the next fight, that was enough. Here, it seemed they learned a standardized approach from the start.

There were differences among the students, too. Some held an unusually large amount of mana; others had less but controlled it well. Sihyuk idly studied a few of their movements, then looked away. None of his business.

He took another bite of chicken and walked past the Academy.

About fifteen minutes from the housing facility, he stopped at an intersection.

People clustered at the crosswalk. The road was packed with cars. On the surface, everything looked ordinary. But the air felt wrong — warped, just barely.

Sihyuk looked that way.

A Gate?

It was a little different from the spatial rifts he'd seen in the Demon Realm, but the sensation was similar.

Moments later, phones all around him went off at once. A warning tone sounded from the phone in his own hand.

People began to stir. A black line appeared in the middle of the road. It split open rapidly, swelling into a rift taller than a person. Dense purple light shimmered inside.

"It's a Gate!"

Someone shouted. People bolted for the opposite side all at once. Cars screeched to a halt. Horns blared, and screams mixed in from every direction.

Sihyuk stepped back with the flow of the crowd.

Might as well see what comes out.

The Gate kept growing. Something moved inside it. Sihyuk waited, taking another bite of chicken.

Sirens arrived not long after. Several black vehicles stopped at the intersection. Doors flew open and armed personnel poured out.

"Civilian control first!"

"Measuring Gate rank now!"

"Team One, front line! Team Two, hold the rear!"

The operators took their positions with practiced ease. Shield-bearers moved forward; behind them, people with swords or guns fell into place. Others pushed the remaining civilians farther back.

Sihyuk watched. Their movements were fairly systematic. The moment orders dropped, who went first and who covered the rear was decided instantly.

"You there! Get farther back!"

One of the operators shouted at him. Sihyuk stepped back without a word. Even after the crowd had put enough distance between themselves and the intersection, he didn't leave entirely. This was the first time he'd seen combat on Earth with his own eyes. He was a little curious.

He stood well behind the other civilians and watched the Gate.

A magical beast leapt out of the rift. A body like a wolf's, with long forelegs. Black drool dripped from its jaws, and sharp spikes jutted from its back. More of the same kind poured out in succession.

An operator checking a measuring device shouted.

"Deep purple! Height just over three meters!"

"Estimated D-class!"

"Combat ready!"

The first beast charged. The lead operator caught it on his shield.

BOOM!

His body slid backward, and the operators on either side immediately closed in. The lead man cut the beast's legs out from under it; the one beside him took its neck. The beast went down. From the rear, mana-loaded rounds punched through the next one.

Sihyuk watched the fight in silence.

Coordination's not bad.

Individually, their power wasn't impressive, but the way they covered each other's gaps was well put together. The first and second beasts went down without much trouble.

The problem came after that.

Something much larger shoved its way out of the Gate. A full head taller than the ones before it. Every time its thick forelegs slammed the asphalt, small fragments of pavement flew up.

Sihyuk looked from the beast to the lead shield-bearer and back.

If he takes that head-on, he's going to get hurt.

The large beast charged. The shield-bearer didn't dodge. He thrust his shield forward and held.

BOOM!

The sound was different this time. The operator's body went flying sideways. The shield was caved in at the center, and the arm holding it bent the wrong way.

"Park!"

One side of the front line opened up. Two beasts drove into the gap. One operator got raked across the side — his protective gear tore and blood sprayed. Another was slammed by a beast's body and tumbled across the ground several times.

Sihyuk didn't move.

If someone asked whether he could help, it wouldn't be hard. But he had no reason to. They were doing their jobs. And Sihyuk no longer had any intention of sticking his nose into other people's business. He'd seen people get hurt and die more times than he could count. And if they weren't his people, he had no particular reason to care.

He chewed his chicken and turned his eyes back to the fight.

Then, watching, he noticed something strange.

The beasts weren't coming toward him.

At first he thought it was coincidence. But even when one broke through the front line, it was the same. The thing ran in his direction, then suddenly turned its head and took a wide detour down another alley. The next one did the same. Even thrashing around after the response team knocked them off course, none of them came near where Sihyuk stood.

He looked down at the chicken in his hand.

It's not the smell they don't like, is it?

No chance of that. Plenty of beasts in the Demon Realm had avoided him on sight — but back then he hadn't been hiding his power, so of course they had. Now was different. He'd suppressed his Magi until it was undetectable. And yet these things still seemed to sense something.

Sihyuk thought about it for a moment, then let it go. No need to dig for a reason.

The fight didn't last long. Once the last beast fell, the response team members lowered their weapons one by one.

"All beasts eliminated."

"Check the wounded first."

People clustered around the downed operators. Sihyuk figured he'd seen enough. He was just about to turn away when—

Wooooong—

A low vibration hummed through the air. Sihyuk looked back.

The Gate that should have been shrinking was still there. If anything, it was growing, bit by bit.

"Wait."

The operator reading the measuring device went rigid.

"Gate size increasing!"

The deep purple of the rift darkened. The Gate that had been just over three meters stretched wider, top to bottom. Dark violet light flared from within.

"Over four meters!"

"Rising to C-class!"

Operators who'd just lowered their weapons moved again. They pulled the wounded farther back, and the uninjured personnel gathered in front of the Gate.

Sihyuk stopped mid-turn.

Something else ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠coming out?

This time, nothing leapt out immediately.

Thud.

A heavy footfall.

Thud.

A massive shape appeared beyond the Gate. Far larger than the beasts before it. Even on all fours it stood taller than a grown man's shoulders, its entire body covered in black fur.

"Everyone, ready!"

The team leader raised his sword. But Sihyuk wasn't looking at the beast's size. He was looking lower — at its throat. Between the black fur, a single red mark was engraved.

Sihyuk's expression hardened.

…That.

It wasn't a mark he'd never seen. It was the 1st King's Mark. Even in the Demon King's Castle, the beasts the 1st King personally commanded had borne that brand.

Without thinking, Sihyuk lowered the hand holding his chicken.

The beast slowly raised its head. It didn't look at the response team. It turned precisely toward Sihyuk, standing far off.

"What are you doing?! It's coming!"

The operators dropped into stances. But the beast didn't move. It simply stood there, eyes locked with Sihyuk's.

Then it opened its mouth. A low, cracked voice spilled out — in the language of the Demon Realm.

"…Found you."

Sihyuk's brow twitched. The operators around him clearly hadn't understood the words. No one reacted.

The mark on the beast's throat glowed red. Once. Very briefly.

Sihyuk recognized it immediately.

So she sent it.

He didn't need to wonder who. The 1st King.

Sihyuk pressed his fingers to his brow for a moment. He hadn't even been back on Earth a full day.

…Surely she wouldn't come all the way here.

It was a different dimension. Even for the 1st King, this wasn't a place you crossed easily. Thinking that, he felt a little better. A very little.

"Attack!"

At the team leader's shout, the operators moved. Swords and bullets hit the beast all at once. After the mark had flared, the beast offered no real resistance. Before long its massive body collapsed onto the asphalt.

At the same time, the Gate began to shrink. The dark violet light faded, and the open rift slowly closed. This time, it was really over.

The wounded received first aid, and a perimeter line went up around the Gate site. Sihyuk glanced at the closed Gate, then turned away. He'd seen everything there was to see. He still had a bit of ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠walking left to reach the housing facility.

He turned on his phone. The map screen was still there.

Sihyuk checked the remaining chicken box. It was considerably lighter than when he'd bought it.

"Gonna finish this before I get there."

He started walking again, following the map.

Some time later.

Footage from the Gate site came into the control room. One staff member was going through the surrounding CCTV feeds in order.

Gate occurrence time. Civilian evacuation routes. Response team arrival. Magical beast movement paths. Nothing looked particularly unusual.

He flipped through the footage quickly, then paused.

"What's this?"

On one side of the screen stood a man in a gray tracksuit. Phone in one hand, chicken in the other. When the Gate opened, everyone around him had fled — but the man had only stepped back a little and never left the scene. From a distance, he'd watched the response team's fight from start to finish.

The staff member rewound a bit. An operator went flying. Another's side was torn open. The man showed no particular reaction. He just watched.

"Got some guts."

The staff member snorted and kept going. Then he stopped again.

A beast that had broken the front line was running toward the man on screen. Midway, it changed direction. Other beasts did something similar.

The staff member narrowed his eyes and rewound once more.

"…What the hell."

The colleague at the next desk asked,

"What?"

"No, it's just — the beasts don't seem to go near this guy."

"Maybe because there aren't many people that way?"

The staff member thought about it. That was possible. The beasts had been fighting the response team, and the ones that fled ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had moved toward where people were clustered. No particular reason to head for a single man standing alone.

He advanced the footage a little more. The final, massive beast appeared on screen. Even with the response team right in front of it, it spent a long moment looking the other way — straight at that same man.

"This one looks like it's staring at him too."

The colleague glanced at the screen.

"A beast looked at a person. So what?"

"Yeah, maybe."

The staff member zoomed in on the man's face. A moment later, identity information appeared beside the screen.

The staff member skimmed the file.

"Came back today."

"Yeah?"

"Huh. Guess returnees just don't scare easy."

He didn't give it any more thought. He hit play, and the CCTV footage rolled forward again.

At that same moment, Sihyuk arrived in front of the returnee housing facility.

It was a more ordinary building than he'd expected. He checked the address and building number on his phone once. Correct.

Only a few pieces of chicken were left in the box.

Sihyuk looked at the entrance. In the span of a single day, he'd died and come back, registered as a returnee, eaten chicken, and even spectated a Gate. On top of that, he'd seen a trace of the 1st King.

He let out a short breath.

"Time to get some rest."

Just as Sihyuk was about to step inside, the door opened from within.