Chapter 16

Chapter 16

Carry.

An industry term meaning that a higher-ranked Awakened takes a lower-ranked Awakened into a Gate and clears the dungeon for them.

“So that’s what this comes down to in the end.”

Choi Yura spoke as though she had expected as much.

“So all you’re saying is that you want me to carry you.”

“What else would I ask of you? That’s the only thing you can do for me.”

“Are you looking down on me right now?”

“I’m not looking down on you. I’m saying that’s the only thing I want from you.”

“Well, that is true.”

“Just carry me until I get into the Special Force Training Center. After that, I’ll handle things on my own.”

“And if I do?”

“I’ll tell you who killed Lee Shin.”

“……!”

Choi Yura’s body trembled as though she had been struck by lightning.

“What... what do you mean by that? You know him?”

“Of course I do. He’s the man in the photo on the wall, isn’t he? A tattoo artist. His hobby was riding motorcycles. Your ex-boyfriend.”

“How do you know that……?”

Why would I not know?

Before my regression, Choi Yura came to see me.

She told me her story and asked for my help.

She wanted me to help her deal with Godfather.

At the time, I had only just risen into the ranks of the Rankers as a Supporter, a Hunter strong enough for Choi Yura to come asking for help.

Not that I would have been of much use in direct combat.

In any case, I refused to help Choi Yura.

Back then, I belonged to a fixed Strike Team, and there was simply no way I could make the time.

Even so, I still had enough of a conscience to ask the strike team members for their understanding, but not a single one of them agreed.

Fuck.

I should have realized it then.

That those bastards were treating me like an object.

But back then, I was drunk on my sense of duty as a Hunter and my patriotism, and I had deluded myself into thinking that, for the sake of the greater good, I ought to cast aside even a personal debt of gratitude.

Worse, like an idiot, I thought those strike team members were my true comrades.

And so I turned my back on the person who had saved my life, and a few months later, Choi Yura ended up hanging from Incheon Bridge.

Of all the shameful things I had done, it was one of the five worst.

***

I do not want to repeat that idiotic mistake.

Choi Yura’s death remained in one corner of my heart like a heavy stone.

Later, when I lost my mother because those bastards turned their backs on me, I remembered how I had turned my back on Choi Yura.

I even thought that maybe I had been punished for abandoning her back then.

If that incident taught me anything, it was that living with guilt was worse than biting through my own tongue and dying.

I do not want to live like that.

Never again.

“I asked you. How do you know that?”

“There was a guy around me who knew Lee Shin through about two degrees of separation. He rode a motorcycle too, and he and Lee Shin were just the sort who had exchanged greetings a few times in passing.”

It was a lie, of course.

“Who?”

“If I told you, would you know him? I just said they were only acquainted by face.”

“So?”

“One day, he told me a pretty frightening story. Said there was a guy named Lee Shin who had joined one of Incheon Union’s subordinate organizations and was working as a Wrecker.”

“…….”

“Am I wrong?”

“No. That’s right.”

Perhaps it was unbearable for her lover’s disgrace to be laid bare, because Choi Yura squeezed her eyes shut.

Choi Yura’s lover, Lee Shin, was a tattoo artist, a motorcycle rider, and a criminal who also worked as a Wrecker.

The decisive reason a man who was not even an Awakened had become a Wrecker was that he had long been acquainted with gangsters.

That was only natural. The main customers of a tattoo artist who specialized in irezumi tattoos were bound to be rough types, and it would have been natural for him to mix with them.

That was how Lee Shin became a hyena of the concrete jungle and threw himself into all kinds of crime.

“He was…… trying to quit. He said he couldn’t do it anymore, that this wasn’t right. He was trembling, saying that no human being should do things like that, that even doing evil had its limits.”

“And then?”

“He died. The day after he decided to turn himself in, they found him dead in his shop.”

I did not even need to see it to know.

At first, he had probably made easy money through relatively minor crimes—things like robbery in areas where Transference had occurred or looting shops.

Then, at some point, he must have crossed the line.

There was a high chance he had either committed serious crimes like murder or rape, or become involved in them, and that had changed the way he thought.

Of course, I did not care in the slightest about the change of heart of some worthless punk.

Whether he had felt pangs of conscience or had simply gotten scared and lost his nerve, a criminal was still a criminal.

Honestly, was his death not just reaping what he had sown? A fitting consequence?

What mattered was that Choi Yura wanted to avenge that idiot.

“The reason you want revenge so badly is……?”

It was easy to talk. Acting on revenge was far harder than people imagined.

Say someone precious to you was taken from you by another person.

How many people would actually go through with revenge?

Revenge might be retaliation against one’s enemy, but it was also an act of destruction and abuse turned upon oneself.

Only someone willing to destroy even themselves could carry out revenge.

Like I had in my previous life.

That was why I could not easily understand why Choi Yura wanted to avenge nothing more than a common punk.

“I know he wasn’t a good man. Looking back now, he was closer to an immature punk. Still, he did have style.”

“And even knowing that, you still want to go up against Godfather?”

“Because he was everything to me.”

“For a punk like that?”

“I think I was in my first year of high school. I was almost sexually assaulted by the man I had for a stepfather. When I realized it was really going to happen, I ran out of the house without thinking. But once I did, I had nowhere to go. I wandered around aimlessly, then ended up crouching in some alley in Hongdae, crying. It was right in front of his shop.”

“Ah.”

“He fed me and gave me a place to sleep. He even made it possible for me to take the GED. And he never laid a finger on me. So the moment I turned twenty, I was the one who pounced on him first. Hehe.”

“I see.”

After hearing a story I had never heard in my previous life, I finally understood why Choi Yura had resolved to take revenge.

A person with nothing left to lose did not fear their own destruction.

Just as she herself had said, Choi Yura had lost everything.

That was why she could throw herself into revenge without the slightest hesitation.

“All right, I get it. Then train me.”

“A mere 1-Star?”

“You do know what buying low means, don’t you? I may be a 1-Star newbie right now, but you never know. I might end up helping with your revenge.”

“Hmm.”

“I know far more than you think I do. And if you carry me a few times, I’ll tell you who killed Lee Shin. That alone would make it worth your while, wouldn’t it?”

“All right.”

Choi Yura nodded.

“I’ll take a chance and train up a rookie, then.”

“You won’t regret it.”

“You had better be right.”

Choi Yura’s eyes gleamed sharply.

It was a clear warning that if I was trying any funny business, she would not let it slide.

“Stop glaring so hard. I get it. You don’t have to try to scare me like that.”

“Sorry.”

At my remark, Choi Yura apologized.

“I’ll contact you in a day or two, so stay put and do not do anything pointless. I’m going now.”

“Go ahead.”

As soon as I returned to the Nest, I briefly considered what I should do.

Should I look around the plaza, or should I check the auction house?

Hunter Link offered a variety of spaces, not just the Nest.

There was the plaza, where you could interact and communicate with other Awakened, a job market where people recruited and sought work, and even a kind of black market where people looked for trading partners.

Of course, you always had to be careful.

If someone wanted to, they could maintain complete anonymity in every space within Hunter Link, which made it nearly impossible to know who they were or what intentions they had.

‘Enough. I should just sleep.’

Maybe it was because I had done too many things today, but I was mentally exhausted, so I logged out.

***

The following afternoon.

My family prepared to leave the refugee camp and head for the Hyperion Penthouse in Seocho District.

“I’m so jealous.”

“So this is why people say raising your children well matters.”

The refugees could not stop envying my family.

There were even some who openly showed their jealousy and resentment.

“Ptui.”

“How is anyone who isn’t an Awakened supposed to live without feeling bitter?”

Now that we had all become refugees together, it seemed our family’s sudden rise in status and departure grated on them badly.

I understood.

My family and the refugees had once lived in the same apartment complex and enjoyed similar standards of living.

“We have furnished the place with appliances and furniture for the time being. I only hope it will be to your liking.”

Captain Im showed us photos of the interior of the home.

Judging by the hollowness of his eyes, he had clearly stayed up all night carrying out the mission of furnishing the apartment my family was moving into.

“You’ve worked very hard.”

“Does it meet your approval?”

“Of course. When would we ever have had the chance to live in a place like that? Hahaha.”

That was a lie.

Even if I had only been a Supporter, this level of apartment felt perfectly ordinary to me back when I had been a Ranker.

‘It’s all meaningless.’

This was an age in which wealth and honor were concentrated in the hands of the Awakened.

And once you became a high-ranking Hunter, there came a point when you grew numb to material things.

You understood it once you had experienced it.

A nice house and a nice car were pleasant to have, but even without them, life only became a little inconvenient. They made no real difference.

Even knowing that, the reason I had demanded a good house, a good car, and plenty of money from the Defense Strategy Department was, from beginning to end, for my family’s sake, not mine.

“This way, please.”

Captain Im guided my family toward the helicopter.

“You really didn’t have to go this far.”

“Mr. Cha is the only one in the world who…… well, you know.”

Captain Im glanced around as though security was on his mind and cut himself off.

“We are only giving you the treatment you rightfully deserve. There is no need for you to feel burdened.”

“Hahaha……”

“This way, please.”

Perhaps my father felt a little sorry for him, because he added a remark.

“Captain Im has had a hard time because of our useless son.”

“No, sir. I believe this is simply what I ought to do, and I am carrying out my duty accordingly. Ah, and it is an honor to meet you in person. My respects!”

“My respects.”

Captain Im’s face was full of reverence.

My father was regarded as a legendary figure in the field of special warfare, so to active-duty soldiers, he was truly an object of admiration.

“Oh, right. I’ll be going separately. I have someone I’m meeting.”

“What?”

“Then I’ll be on my way.”

Leaving Captain Im behind, I started the vehicle that had been parked in the vacant lot.

It was a pickup truck made by KG Mobility. It was cheaper than imported vehicles while still offering solid performance, so it had been one of the vehicles I used often in my previous life as well.

In the back, I had loaded a hybrid off-road motorcycle, which would let me secure some mobility if the need arose.

“Mr. Cha! Mr. Cha!”

Ignoring Captain Im, I started the engine, pulled out of the vacant lot, and drove away.

I called Choi Yura.

“Hello?”

“Hey.”

“Do you have time right now?”

“I do.”

“I need your help clearing a Gate.”

“Sure.”

Because we had already coordinated it in advance, Choi Yura caught on and played along.

“Where should we meet?”

“Sindorim.”

“Ah, there.”

As befitted a 4-Star Hunter, Choi Yura understood at once.

“All right. I’ll get ready and head over right away.”

“Got it.”

I drove straight toward Sindorim.

But there was a problem.

WHUP-WHUP-WHUP!

Well now.

Three helicopters were chasing me.