Chapter 259

Chapter 259

The first Sandmancer.

For some reason, the sound of it felt unpleasant.

It sounded as though it were prophesying that Sandmancers would be born even after Zeon. But Zeon knew.

He knew that he was both the first and the last Sandmancer.

Because the power was too strong and too frightening, it was permitted to only one person.

It was not because someone had told him.

He had simply known it from the beginning.

As if it had been engraved into his DNA.

Because of that, Kim Hyun-soo’s words did not resonate with him. Still, he could understand what Kim Hyun-soo was trying to say.

Kim Hyun-soo wished for more people to protect his kin with the same conviction as his own.

Perhaps that wish had triggered the awakening of the mechanized Awakened. But Zeon did not possess the same longing as Kim Hyun-soo.

He had no desire to expand his forces, nor did he want more people to possess the same power as him.

He was fundamentally different from Kim Hyun-soo. But he did not bother saying so.

Even then, Kim Hyun-soo continued speaking.

“After obtaining the Three-Legged Crow, efficient management and upgrades for mechanized Awakened became possible. That is why protecting the Three-Legged Crow is more important than anything else to us.”

Even without the Three-Legged Crow, mechanized Awakened would be born and grow. But the Three-Legged Crow could accelerate their growth.

That was why the Three-Legged Crow was important.

“Now you understand, don’t you? Why you must keep the secret. The moment rumors about the Three-Legged Crow circulate in the streets, I will erase everything connected to you from Neo Seoul.”

Kim Hyun-soo’s warning was not empty nonsense.

It was a threat from someone who truly had the ability to do it.

Zeon shrugged and replied,

“Nothing about the Three-Legged Crow will leak from our side. But if word spreads from your side, that’s not our responsibility.”

For a brief moment, the bunker one hundred meters underground had been destroyed, revealing the Three-Legged Crow. Surely, a few people had witnessed the Three-Legged Crow’s true form. Zeon could not be held responsible for words that came from those people’s mouths.

Kim Hyun-soo said,

“That will never happen.”

“Then that settles it. It will never happen from our side either.”

“You are as insolent as I heard. But you have the qualifications for it, so I’ll let it pass this time.”

Kim Hyun-soo respected the strong.

If one was strong, he could tolerate arrogance.

Zeon also belonged among the strong.

That was why a slight measure of cheekiness could be tolerated.

Just then, the door opened, and a woman wearing clothes that clung tightly to her body entered, pushing a cart laden with food.

The woman placed the food on the table and left.

For something hastily prepared in the middle of the night, it was quite abundant.

“Then eat.”

Kim Hyun-soo picked up a fork and took the first bite.

Although he was a mechanized Awakened, his face and several other parts were still human. Because of that, he had to eat at least a small amount of food.

Zeon also ate in silence.

Contrary to his expectations, the food was quite delicious.

The ingredients were fresh, and the seasoning was well balanced.

Zeon savored the food little by little.

For a while, the two of them only ate without speaking.

In the quiet room, only the sound of the two men eating echoed.

Kim Hyun-soo, who finished his meal first, opened his mouth.

“What will you do from now on?”

“I’ll go back home.”

“To the slums?”

“Yes!”

“If you wish, I can give you a house here. One incomparably larger and more luxurious than anything in the slums.”

“I don’t need a house that large.”

“So you have no intention of entering Neo Seoul either?”

“No!”

“Do you have a reason to remain in the slums? It must be inconvenient in many ways.”

“It feels more comfortable than Neo Seoul.”

“You dislike being controlled.”

“Perhaps it’s because I’m naturally free-spirited.”

“I hope that thought does not change in the future. If you rejected my offer and then settled in another district, I would feel slighted.”

For a powerful person like Kim Hyun-soo, authority and prestige were important.

If someone infringed on his authority, he had to tear them apart without fail, and if someone lowered his prestige, he had to kill even their family to save face.

That was one of the secrets that allowed powerful people like Kim Hyun-soo to rule from the summit.

Zeon put a piece of food into his mouth and said,

“That won’t happen. I’ve already refused offers from other places too.”

“Is that so?”

“If you don’t hold me here, I plan to return to the slums as soon as the meal is over.”

“Then you will return today.”

“I suppose so.”

“Good.”

Kim Hyun-soo nodded as though satisfied.

Zeon was a scalding chicken rib.

There was not much meat to gnaw off, but if one tried to force it down, it was so hot that it could peel the roof of one’s mouth clean off.

For now, it was best to keep some distance and observe him.

---

Jin Geum-ho looked out the window with his hands clasped behind his back.

His gaze was directed west of City Hall, toward West District.

Seo Tae-ran, who stood to one side of the Mayor’s office, cautiously opened her mouth.

“A large tremor was detected in West District a short while ago. It appears there was a major explosion at Mega Tower.”

“Mega Tower? That is Kim Hyun-soo’s residence.”

“Yes! We are currently investigating what happened.”

“It will not be easy to approach.”

“We have people who have already been recruited. If we contact them, we should be able to grasp at least a rough outline of what happened.”

“Handle that matter as you see fit.”

There was no need for him to involve himself in trivial matters.

A secretary existed to handle such things.

Seo Tae-ran was a rather capable secretary.

Even without Jin Geum-ho giving specific orders, she handled everything on her own.

Thanks to that, Jin Geum-ho could focus solely on his own work without dividing his attention.

At that moment, someone’s voice came through the earpiece Seo Tae-ran was wearing.

After listening for a moment, Seo Tae-ran said to Jin Geum-ho,

“Mr. Lee Jeong-ho wishes to see you on the twentieth basement floor, Mayor. What shall I do?”

“If Jeong-ho wishes to see me, I should see him. The twentieth basement floor would be the decommissioned laboratory, correct?”

“Yes!”

“I think I know what this is about. I’ll go alone.”

“Understood.”

Leaving Seo Tae-ran behind, Jin Geum-ho took the elevator alone.

The elevator carried him to the twentieth basement floor in an instant.

When the door opened, the view of a laboratory appeared.

This was a laboratory that had been closed long ago.

Most of the equipment needed for research had been removed, leaving the laboratory empty and desolate.

At the center of the laboratory stood a man wearing a loose robe.

The hilt of a sword protruded sharply through the robe.

The man looked at Jin Geum-ho with unfocused eyes.

“I apologize for asking you to come down here, Mayor.”

“It’s fine! I was feeling stifled anyway.”

Jin Geum-ho answered calmly, as though it did not bother him at all.

Others would not even dare ask Jin Geum-ho to come down to them.

In Neo Seoul, fewer than ten people could request Jin Geum-ho’s presence.

This man was one of them.

Because he was Lee Jeong-ho, a member of the Numbers.

A man who had blinded himself to obtain Mind’s Eye.

Lee Jeong-ho was a man more loyal to Jin Geum-ho than anyone else.

There was no way such a Lee Jeong-ho would call him for something trivial.

“So, what is it?”

“Please look at this.”

Lee Jeong-ho pointed to the object lying on the laboratory worktable.

A corpse with its head cut off lay on the worktable.

The corpse, its eyes wide as though it could not believe its own death, was the murderer.

Jin Geum-ho looked down at the murderer’s corpse and said,

“Is this No. 301?”

“Yes! He is one of the Bio-Soldiers who escaped the laboratory.”

“He endured quite a long time. To think he had been running until now.”

Jin Geum-ho looked genuinely impressed.

Long ago, there had been an incident in which test subjects had escaped from a laboratory operated by City Hall.

Most of the test subjects had been captured, but a few had persistently fled and still had not been caught.

The test subject he referred to as No. 301 was one of them.

He was different from the other test subjects.

The other test subjects had hidden underground or in the desert, but he had committed murders in the slums. Then, whether because something had happened or not, he had recently shifted his activity area to Neo Seoul and committed murders there.

Since the problem could grow larger, Jin Geum-ho had ordered Lee Jeong-ho to capture him.

“It seems he gave you quite some trouble, judging by the fact that his head was cut off.”

“I did not cut it off.”

“Then?”

“A boy named Levin did. He is a child who awakened a unique ability. He lost his family to No. 301.”

“Revenge for his family. But I feel as though I’ve heard that name somewhere.”

“He is the boy who lives with Zeon.”

“Haha! Is that so? What a coincidence.”

A smile formed at Jin Geum-ho’s lips. Contrary to that smile, however, his eyes were cold and dark as a desert night.

“So No. 301 became entangled with the boy who lives with Zeon?”

“Yes! He possesses an ability that allows him to turn his body ghostlike.”

“A peculiar talent. So does that pose a problem?”

“It is a unique ability, but it does not pose a problem for me.”

“Then why did you call me?”

“Please look at the cut surface of No. 301’s head.”

“The cut surface?”

Jin Geum-ho picked up the murderer’s head and looked at the severed cross-section.

A moment later, an exclamation escaped his mouth.

“Oh!”

“Yes! His tissue has changed. His bones have turned like metal, and his muscle bundles have become dense like glass fibers.”

It was exactly as Lee Jeong-ho said.

“I don’t think the other test subjects were like this.”

“No! It appears the escaped individuals have undergone changes.”

“Then have they evolved? Interesting! I did not predict such a case.”

The Bio-Soldiers were merely part of the grand plan Jin Geum-ho envisioned.

He had judged them failures and ordered all of them disposed of, but to think the surviving individuals had evolved this way. It was an unexpected result.

“What shall we do?”

“You said there are more surviving individuals, correct? Have them all captured.”

“Understood.”

“With this, the flow has changed again.”

Jin Geum-ho muttered as he looked up at the laboratory ceiling.

From the moment Zeon had appeared, the flow of the world had begun changing rapidly.

“As expected, it seems you are the inflection point of this world.”

---

When Zeon finished his meal with Kim Hyun-soo and came down to the first-floor lobby, he saw Briel, Levin, and Mandy waiting for him.

“Zeon!”

“Brother!”

“Are you all right?”

The three hurried over to Zeon.

Zeon smiled and said,

“As you can see, I’m fine.”

“I’m sorry, Brother! Because of me, you went through all this for nothing......”

“It’s fine, so let’s hurry back. I want to go home and rest properly.”

“Yes, Brother.”

Levin nodded.

In truth, Levin also wanted to hurry home and rest.

Since coming to West District, he had not slept properly even once.

That was because he had focused every nerve on tracking the murderer.

He wanted to lie down in his own bed and sleep deeply. Right now, he felt as though he could sleep for three days and nights.

Zeon looked at Mandy.

“What about you?”

“I have to return to my own home.”

“About what happened today......”

“I know. It’s an absolute secret. I won’t tell anyone. But even if I don’t say anything, the Mayor will know.”

“Will he?”

“There’s nothing he doesn’t know. He sees even the smallest things that happen inside Neo Seoul as clearly as the lines on his palm.”

“It doesn’t matter if he knows. As long as you don’t speak of it.”

“Don’t worry. I’ve never once been told that I have a loose mouth.”

“Then that’s enough. For now, let’s each rest at home and meet later to talk again.”

“Yes! You worked hard. You two should get home safely too.”

After saying farewell to Zeon’s group, Mandy headed to her home in Central District.

Zeon, Briel, and Levin also headed toward Neo Seoul’s entrance.

Suddenly, Zeon looked back.

That was because something was bothering him.

‘What happened to the Three-Legged Crow?’

The Three-Legged Crow had been in a bunker one hundred meters underground. Yet an enormous explosion had occurred, powerful enough to create a passage all the way to the surface.

An ordinary explosion could not have done that.

A magic item must have been involved.

“Kim Hyun-soo will take care of it.”

He had many questions, but it was not something he should involve himself in.

The moment one crossed the line out of curiosity, problems were bound to grow larger.

Zeon did not want this matter to escalate any further.

Zeon buried his questions and headed home with Levin and Briel.