“The exchange is complete.”
Along with the employee’s flat voice, a white paper envelope was held out to me.
Its heavy weight pressed against my fingertips when I took it.
‘It’s heavy.’
It was nothing more than a bundle of paper, yet its weight felt utterly unfamiliar.
For the first time in my life, I experienced the pleasant weight a bundle of paper could possess.
─Tap.
Through the slightly open gap in the envelope, I could see the crisp edges of banknotes.
Clean bills, neither stained like counterfeit money nor soaked with someone’s greasy fingerprints and worn ragged. There were too many to count at a glance.
It was not a fortune large enough to overturn my life, but the fact that I had earned it directly with my own ability rather than picking up someone else’s scraps set my heart ablaze.
“Ha…….”
The emotion struck me all over again. Years of sorrow surged up so fiercely that I wanted to sink to the floor and sob right there.
I shoved the envelope deep inside my clothes and slowly left the exchange office.
‘First, I’m going to eat a proper meal today.’
My stomach, which had survived on cup noodles and cheap triangular rice balls for days, was quietly screaming.
Meat. Not old frozen meat, but real meat cooked on a grill.
‘I’ll buy a proper potion for this wound too. And then…….’
My next steps began taking shape in my mind one by one.
Pack my things and leave the dormitory. Find a cheap inn near the Tower. After that…….
─Thump.
A heavy weight settled upon my shoulder.
The reek of stale cigarette smoke stabbed my nose, accompanied by sticky warmth. I did not need to turn around to know who it was.
An accursed connection I could never escape. A sickeningly fucking familiar sensation.
“Well, look who I found. Yeon-woo, why haven’t you been answering your phone? I was worried about you.”
It was the loan shark who came to collect from me every time.
As naturally as though he had encountered an old friend, he wrapped an arm around my shoulders and steered me toward a corner.
But I knew how quickly that arm could tighten around my throat. I also knew how much filthy desire lurked behind his affectionate voice.
[Analysis] displayed his true intentions as text.
[The ability ‘Analysis’ has activated.]
[Target: Jo Cheol-gu]
─True intent: “We have to make sure we finish the job and hand him over today.”
‘True intent? More importantly, it works on people too……?’
This had never happened before.
My ability had originally provided only simple information about objects, yet now it could even reveal the true intent behind someone’s words.
‘I never knew proficiency could be this important.’
But I had only a moment to think.
─Thump!
His steps naturally led us deeper into a deserted alley so gloomy that not even daylight reached it.
For now, I followed without resisting.
Causing a scene here would gain me nothing.
More importantly, there was something I wanted to confirm.
The instant we entered the depths of the alley, his ingratiating smile twisted. The arm around my shoulders tightened and began constricting my windpipe.
“You bastard. I told you to answer every call. You little worm…… Do you know how much trouble you caused me today?”
─THUD.
He shoved me hard, sending me flying backward.
My back slammed into the wall, and a dull pain surged through me.
The man leisurely pulled out a lighter.
─Click, click.
Flame sparked, and cigarette smoke washed over my face.
“Sure, maybe you couldn’t answer your phone. So, what about your quota? You remember what happens if you fail to pay it again, don’t you?”
I met his gaze in silence.
I knew how this man saw me.
A rat that could not escape. Prey he could devour whenever he pleased.
But—
“What am I going to do? Once they rip out your organs, there won’t even be anywhere to bury you. Such a pity. Tormenting you was the one joy in my life. What am I supposed to do for fun now……?”
─Thud.
Instead of answering, I pulled out the envelope and threw it against his chest.
“Here. My quota. This should be enough, right?”
“What? You little…….”
“If you have time to talk, why don’t you check the amount? I brought enough that you won’t have anything to complain about.”
When I grinned in his face, he frowned briefly before slowly checking the envelope.
He flipped through the bills faster and faster until his hands began trembling.
Before long, even the color had drained from his face.
“What…… the hell is this?”
“Well? It’s enough, isn’t it? That includes your extortionate interest.”
No matter how many times he checked, there was no chance it would come up short.
Handing over money that might as well have been my blood felt like shit, but the thought that I would never have to see his obnoxious face again was almost refreshing.
More importantly—
“……This isn’t supposed to happen.”
Something had obviously been wrong with him for a while now.
He muttered those words under his breath.
A man who should have been pleased to receive his money was gnawing on his cigarette as though some plan had gone awry.
And that was not all.
Together with what Analysis had revealed earlier, the tremor in his eyes gradually hardened my suspicions into certainty.
For some reason, they had recently begun demanding far higher interest than usual. They had come looking for me in person because I had not answered my phone. And now, even though I had repaid the money, he still appeared anxious.
Every circumstance pointed toward a single conclusion.
‘These bastards are hiding something.’
Something extremely ominous and filthy involving me.
I placed my hand on my dagger, prepared for them to attack.
However—
“Ha. Consider yourself lucky.”
He quietly left the back alley.
The sight of his retreat only deepened my suspicions.
Normally, I would have returned to my lodging with nothing more than a lingering sense of unease. But things were different now.
“Shadow Step.”
[Using the skill ‘Shadow Step (A).’]
***
─Clatter.
“Director, we’re fucked.”
On the third floor of an old building three blocks from the Tower, a blond man burst in, shattering the silence of the loan shark office.
The men sitting around a pot of ramen on a portable gas burner all turned to stare at him.
“What’s all the fuss about?”
“Well, it’s…… It’s that bastard Lee Yeon-woo.”
“Yeon-woo? Ah, the bastard whose parents ran off after leaving him their debt? Why? Did he fail to meet his quota again?”
“No, that’s…… That bastard…… He paid the entire quota this time. Even the principal.”
A strange silence filled the office.
The employees slurping noodles merely exchanged glances. Then Ryu Han-young burst into crazed laughter.
“Puhaha!! Haha…… Unbelievable.”
Only then did the other employees begin snickering and making a commotion. The blond man alone continued stammering uneasily.
“No, but Boss…… He wasn’t supposed to pay the debt, was he? We were going to grab him. That’s why we raised the interest to such a ridiculous rate.”
“So? Why does that matter?”
Ryu Han-young set down his chopsticks and added coldly,
“Paying us back is one thing, and us selling him off is another. We raised the interest so we could finish things quietly. It wasn’t because our plan depended on him failing to pay, was it?”
The others let out hollow laughs at the rookie’s clumsy behavior.
In their world, there were only two outcomes. Either someone was picked apart after being exploited for a lifetime, or they were picked apart right now.
“This works out perfectly since we got the money too. Let’s get started immediately. The higher-ups said they need an Awakened person’s corneas this time.”
“Exactly. You get it now, rookie? Once you’re caught by us, there’s no way to walk away as a human being.”
“Ah, yes. I understand. But…… What the hell do those people do that makes them need things like that regularly?”
“Tsk.”
At that moment, Ryu Han-young glared at the rookie.
Then he spoke in a cold voice.
“If you want to last long in this business, remember this. Get curious about things like that for no reason, and you’ll be the merchandise the next day. Understood?”
“Ah. Yes, yes! Understood, sir.”
Ryu Han-young snickered at the terrified response.
“Good. Let’s be careful. Anyway, hurry over here and you can…… What the hell?!”
─Click!
At that moment, every light in the office suddenly went out.
“Huh? What’s going on?!”
“Is it a blackout?”
“Damn it…… Did we forget to pay the electric bill or—Aaaaaagh?!”
─SQUELCH—!
A piercing scream erupted from within the descending darkness.
The employees hurriedly switched on their phone flashlights, and their beams gradually revealed the office.
“Huh……? Ch-Chun-deuk?”
“Ghk, ghhkk…….”
Blood was spurting like a fountain from the neck of the employee who had been eating ramen.
Still-warm steam curled above the blood.
That was not the end.
“Ghk…… Grrrrk.”
“What the hell is happening?!”
A thin red line had already appeared across the mouth of the man beside him, along with bloody foam.
Blood flooded up and blocked his airway, and he coughed as he died.
Everyone fell into confusion at what had happened in that brief instant.
There had been no footsteps, not even the sound of a door opening. There was nothing there, yet their companions were dying one by one.
─Drip…….
─Drip…….
“That’s right.”
A cold voice came from behind them.
Every head turned.
It was Lee Yeon-woo.
The owner of the name they had mocked moments before stood looking down at them, a blood-soaked dagger in his hand.
His eyes were different. He was no longer the pushover they had always dragged around and exploited.
Yeon-woo was the first to speak.
“Ha…… If I’d known this would happen, I should’ve started by slaughtering every last one of you…….”
“Shoot him! Kill that son of a bitch and hand him over to the doctor today!”
The employees immediately drew pistols and knives from their waists.
They certainly tried.
“Enfeeblement.”
[Using the skill ‘Enfeeblement (B).’]
[Reduces the strength and stamina of hostile targets within range.]
─Clink! Clink…… clink.
─Thud.
─Clatter.
Their weapons slipped from their powerless hands and fell to the floor.
Then their legs began trembling like those of old men on the verge of death, and they collapsed to the floor one after another.
“Huh?”
“Wh-why is this happening?”
“There’s no strength in my arms…… Urgh, what’s happening to my body……?”
Mere back-alley thugs could not resist a B-rank skill.
The positions of prey and predator had already been reversed.
“Y-Yeon-woo.”
Ryu Han-young’s voice trembled for the first time.
“W-we can talk this out. Okay? It was just a joke. The kind of joke people make in this business.”
Yeon-woo did not even pretend to listen. He merely tightened his grip on the dagger and lowered his eyes.
“Fuck off, you idiots.”
Then he swung it.
The screams did not last long. Following arcs of red, the swinging blade gradually covered the office floor in fresh blood.
***
“Ha.”
I felt more refreshed than ever before.
It was the sense of liberation that came from severing, with my own hands, the chains that had bound me for years.
I shoved Ryu Han-young’s body aside with my foot and headed deeper into the office.
“These bastards must have a slush fund from their collections stashed somewhere.”
My gaze naturally settled upon one place.
[Director Ryu Han-young]
A desk bearing that nameplate.
It was the seat Ryu Han-young had never once left unattended. I searched beneath the desk.
─THUD.
“I knew it. You hid it here.”
I dragged out the heavy safe concealed beneath the desk.
It was compact, but remarkably heavy.
Prying it open with brute strength would be impossible. But there was no need to worry. I placed my hand on the safe’s dial.
[Activating the ability ‘Analysis.’]
[Analyzing the code engraved upon the safe.]
Trails of illusory light drew themselves before my eyes.
Analysis had visualized the friction marks left by Ryu Han-young’s hands upon the dial and the minute degrees of wear between the numbers.
It saved me some tedious work.
I entered the numbers that appeared, one after another.
“30…… 10…… 50.”
─CLUNK!
The safe clicked open.
But—
“Tsk, this is less than I expected, isn’t it?”
There was far less inside than I had expected.
It was not a small amount, but I had imagined bundles of cash and gold bars piled high. If loan sharking left them with only this much, I could not understand why they lived their lives doing that bullshit.
Had they stashed the rest somewhere else?
As I was about to search the surroundings further, a strange object resting atop the bundles of cash caught my eye.
“What the hell is this?”
It was a crude-looking gemstone.
No, it was far too perfectly spherical to be called a gemstone.
[Analysis failed.]
─Special note: Magic Power density is more than 1,000 times that of an ordinary Mana Stone.
‘Analysis failed?’
Those were words I had never seen since awakening this ability.
Anyone could tell it was no ordinary object. It even made me wonder whether they had spent all that money to obtain it.
‘I’ll take it for now.’
I pocketed the gemstone and the bundles of cash, then began the final task.
I poured oil throughout the office.
I had followed them inside under stealth, so there were no witnesses. All I had to do was erase the evidence.
These bastards had made plenty of enemies anyway. If I scattered some scraps of money around, it would be written off as an ordinary crime.
“Goodbye, you motherfuckers.”
I pulled out a lighter.
All I had to do now was light the fire…….
─Click.
─Click……!
I heard a lighter clicking.
But the sound had not come from me.
It came from behind me, sounding almost leisurely.
“……!”
I instinctively threw myself aside and spun around.
Blood-red light from the setting sun streamed through the office entrance.
A burly man in a pristine white suit and sunglasses stood there, exhaling cigarette smoke.
I had not heard so much as a footstep announcing his arrival.
“Sss, haaa…….”
The man exhaled a long plume of smoke and slowly surveyed the office.
Corpses sprawled across the floor. An overturned pot of ramen. The reek of oil.
“What the hell is this mess?”
His tone conveyed neither admiration nor shock, only annoyance.
In this space saturated with the smell of oil, that man alone seemed to possess a different density.
He tilted his head slightly, then asked,
“Did you do this?”
Every hair on my body stood on end.
The chilling gaze I felt through his sunglasses transformed the air throughout the entire room.
─CRACKLE—!
Sparks erupted before my eyes, accompanied by intense pain.
[The ability ‘Analysis’ cannot examine the target’s information.]
[A Difference in Level has been detected.]
[Intense killing intent detected from the target.]
The dagger in my hand trembled.
‘This bastard…….’
He was a Hunter.
And a genuine one at that.