Chapter 588

That day, the air in Korea was heavy with unease.

The Monster Waves that had erupted one after another in Busan and Pyeongchang had been successfully contained, but not without a substantial number of casualties.

People who had been going about an ordinary day were confronted with shocking news and began trembling with anxiety.

“Manager, did you see the news?”

“I did. That’s why I dropped everything and came out here.”

“I can’t focus on anything either. What if there’s really a Monster Wave near our homes or workplaces…?”

“Hey, don’t say that. You’ll jinx us. Come on, let’s have a cigarette.”

Office workers escaped their stifling workplaces and headed for cafés. Students made their way home after class. Children, unaware of what had happened, clung to their parents and begged to play longer, while their parents pulled them away just in case.

It was an uneasy afternoon, and people’s hearts were in turmoil. Eyes filled with worry and fear remained fixed on smartphones broadcasting emergency news alerts.

— You are now looking at the collapsed Gwangan Bridge. In the nearby waters lies the corpse of Kraken, the Named Monster responsible for the Busan Monster Wave…

— The number of casualties reported so far is approaching four thousand. Rescue and search operations are still underway. The list of confirmed casualties is available through the Monster Disaster app…

— I’m at Mount Balwang in Pyeongchang, Gangwon Province. The Monster Wave has ended with the death of the Named Monster Behemoth, but the more than seven thousand people visiting the nearby condos and ski resorts remain terrified.

— The Pyeongchang Monster Wave resulted in 371 casualties. Among the forty-five confirmed dead is Mr. Kim Hwajong, Guild Master of the Peace Guild. His death has come as a tremendous shock…

Every report was horrible and shocking. Public broadcasts, cable channels, online news articles—everywhere was in an uproar, as though someone had stirred up a hornet’s nest.

People in the streets swallowed hard at the sight of Gwangan Bridge in ruins. They had no words for a city awash in blood.

Disaster. There was no other word for it.

But the media’s attention did not rest solely on the damage.

No, there was one name no report on the Monster Waves could leave out.

— Nothing like this has happened in Korea since the Great Cataclysm. Two Monster Waves struck just two hours apart and caused tremendous damage, but a flawless initial response brought the chaos under control quickly. Remarkably, one person took part in suppressing both.

— The whereabouts of S-rank Hunter Jin Taekyung, the young hero who appeared like a comet and killed two Named Monsters in a single day, remain unknown. The Peace Guild has yet to issue an official statement…

A hero who had quelled the chaos and then vanished. Of course everyone wanted to know where he had gone.

Within minutes of the government’s announcement that Jin Taekyung’s whereabouts were unknown, media outlets were churning out theories.

He was dead. He was missing. He had fallen unconscious from the strain of battle.

Most of them were Third Rate media companies famous for dealing in rumors and wild gossip, but ordinary people were wondering the same thing.

Did something really happen to him?

A man with no reason to disappear had vanished without a word, without showing his face to anyone.

He was already gone when reinforcements arrived, and the Peace Guild had issued no statement.

As the news swept across Korea and spread overseas, the question grew like a snowball.

That snowball rolled and rolled, growing larger and larger, until it came to a stop amid the skyscrapers of Jongno.

Step.

No one knew when or how he had appeared.

But the people hurrying through the densely packed forest of buildings for their own reasons realized something.

The man whose profile photo filled the screens in their hands was standing before them.

Drip. Drip-drip.

He was red, and he was blue.

Every time he moved, red and blue blood soaked into the sidewalk beneath him. He was covered in the blood of humans and monsters.

At 190 centimeters¹ tall, with a perfectly balanced build, he moved slowly forward, stepping through the blood.

“…Jin Taekyung?”

Someone’s dazed voice broke the sudden silence.

The young hero had finally appeared. But no one cheered, approached him, took out a phone to photograph him, or reported the sighting to the media. They stopped and fell silent.

Perhaps it was the look in his eyes beneath his blood-soaked hair. His gaze had sunk deep.

Step. Step.

Perhaps it was because profound exhaustion seeped from every one of his footsteps.

Huff.

Perhaps it was because the white breath escaping between his split lips carried the sorrow of someone who had lost another person.

But one thing was certain. Everyone in the crowded street understood it instinctively.

They must not stand in his way.

Swish. Swoosh.

Hundreds of people parted to either side.

In place of a prophet’s staff from myth, the young man carried a pure-white spear as he passed through the human sea opened just for him.

People who had watched him go with dazed eyes began to follow.

No one there knew why. They moved as though under a spell. Hundreds joined hundreds more; thousands joined thousands more.

Soon the crowd numbered in the thousands. As if hypnotized, they walked and kept walking.

The great procession had begun when one man started walking. It seemed it might go on forever, until that same man stopped.

Step.

One last step.

The young man suddenly raised his head and looked at the sky.

Five in the afternoon. A January day that had been especially cold, exhausting, and sorrowful was slowly ending in a reddish glow.

But for one person, it was not over.

It’s beginning now.

Sunset light from the west flashed across a skyscraper towering above the rest. The enormous letters mounted at its top reflected in his eyes.

ARES GUILD

An impregnable fortress that could not be brought down, and a magnificent royal palace.

How many Hunters were inside? How many enemies would he have to bring down before he could face the bastard on the throne?

Hundreds? Thousands?

It didn’t matter. Hundreds or thousands.

Beneath the red sky, Jin Taekyung muttered, “Well, this is perfect weather for fucking someone up.”

Whoosh!

Flames the color of the sunset coiled around his arm and surged upward. The entranced crowd drew back with a collective gasp.

At that moment—

“I’m here, you fucking bastard.”

Whoooooosh—BOOM!

An unprecedented force shook the skyscraper.

Rumble-rumble-rumble!

A massive tremor shook everything around me. The area quaked as though an earthquake had struck.

Spiderweb cracks spread across the marble covering the floor without a gap, and the splendid, valuable works of art decorating the lobby fell like a sudden shower onto the cracked marble.

Crack! Crash!

That was what I saw as soon as I entered.

The thing that had just shattered was a plaster statue of some man. I couldn’t remember its name, so I asked someone nearby.

“What was that statue? I saw it in an art textbook. Rodin’s The Man Who Thought of Something?”

“…Ah. Ahh.”

A young Ares Guild member who appeared to belong to the Security Team stammered with a frozen expression.

He looked so pitiful that I changed the question.

“Then what are your personal thoughts on today’s Monster Wave?”

“P-Pardon?”

“Lucky you. Just a grunt who doesn’t know anything.”

That was what saved his life.

Whoosh!

The Finger Qi I fired cut quietly through the air and struck his acupoints.

His body went rigid and collapsed. At the same instant, a streak of light shot toward me from beyond him.

Screeeeech! Boom!

An arrow grazed my ear and smashed into the entrance door. A middle-aged man who looked like an A-rank Hunter stood with his bowstring drawn taut, aiming at me.

And his was hardly the only weapon pointed my way.

Swish, swish, swish!

Dozens of Security Team members and hundreds of other Hunters filled the lobby, watching me with tense faces. Flames and ice gathered in some hands. Others held spears, swords, or bows.

A middle-aged Hunter presumed to be the Security Team Leader spoke in a rigid voice.

“Step back, Mr. Jin.”

Step back?

I couldn’t help letting out a hollow laugh. “That’s going to be difficult.”

“Why are you doing this?”

“I have plenty of reasons. I’m not sure you’d believe them if I told you, though.”

“Mr. Jin Taekyung, you…!”

I looked across the crowded lobby, my eyes hollow.

Who should I kill, and who should I spare? Which of them is directly connected to what happened today?

It took everything I had to hold back the urge to kill, rising as naturally as breathing.

Don’t forget. I’m not a monster.

If I killed everyone here today, I would become a monster. But I wanted to remain a human being until the end.

At the very least, I didn’t want innocent people dying for what their superior had done.

I thought that was the right thing to do for Kim Hwajong. For everyone.

“Let’s make this easy for everyone.”

I met hundreds of eyes and said, “Bring me Go Jun.”

“……!”

“……!”

An invisible resonance swept through the lobby and the hundreds of Hunters.

As the air tingled with it, I continued slowly.

“Right now.”

The Security Team Leader’s face stiffened. “I don’t think that will be possible.”

“Why not?”

“I have orders to stop you by any means necessary, Mr. Jin.”

“I see.”

“I don’t know what you came here for, but turn back while you still can. How many Hunters do you think are in this building? In Ares Guild House?”

“With this many in the lobby, a thousand altogether would be easy.”

“I guarantee that if you don’t leave now, everyone in this building will be after you within five minutes.”

I answered calmly.

“And I guarantee that if you don’t put down your weapons and run right now, within five minutes, every last one of you will be physically incapable of functioning normally.”

“……!”

“So get out of my sight. I don’t want to cripple people who had nothing to do with this.”

Whoooooosh!

A sudden wind swept through the lobby.

The Security Team Leader clenched his teeth beneath the powerful wave of qi pouring from my body. The polite tone he had struggled to maintain was gone, blown away by pressure beyond anything he had imagined.

“Why… Why go this far?”

“Because I’m a Hunter.”

“What?”

“Go Jun, that bastard, is a monster. Hunters don’t need a reason to kill monsters.”

Go Jun was hardly going to broadcast what he had done. Most of the people here probably had no idea what I meant.

But they would have realized one thing for certain.

Standing in my way would end badly for them.

The Security Team Leader looked at me with a complicated expression and muttered, “Fuck. What rotten luck.”

“I like your honesty. So, what’s your answer?”

The question wasn’t for him alone.

A conflicted light appeared in the eyes of the Security Team Leader and the roughly two hundred people surrounding me from every direction.

Their hands trembled around their weapons.

Then a voice boomed from the large speakers installed throughout the skyscraper.

— Code Red. Code Red. Target: all Ares Guild members. Objective…

— Jin Taekyung.

“……!”

“……!”

The air around us trembled.

The conflict vanished from hundreds of wide-open eyes, and countless streaks of light burst from their hands, becoming a gigantic flash that flooded every direction.

Kuwaaaaaaah!

Red, blue, and white.

I swung the dazzlingly white blade of my spear toward the enormous flash.

Whoooooosh!