#151
“Hallelujah…”
“Amen…”
Manager Jang Eun-jun and Assistant Manager Park Sang-yun of the Central Center’s Hunter Management Team clasped their hands together in a reverent posture. Having moved vigorously until just moments ago, they were still breathing roughly, their backs soaked with sweat.
But now they were fine. Until just a minute ago, all kinds of impulses had stimulated them—thoughts of quitting this so-called secure government job, forming a union and going on strike to paralyze raid schedules—but at this moment, they had escaped all conflict and regained peace.
Jang Eun-jun and Park Sang-yun had been in terrible anguish due to the intense workload that had continued for the past few months.
What is society, isn’t it actually torture and exploitation in the name of order? Buddha said that life is a sea of suffering and the world is a burning house. Why was I born into this world of nothing but pain to endure such hardship? Fuck it, should I just quit everything and go home? No, then I won’t get paid. Without money, a person becomes a beggar, and beggars can’t survive in this cold capitalist society…
Their agony continued endlessly, one thought leading to another. But right now, it had all cleanly disappeared as if it had never existed.
“I believe…!”
“Amen…!”
Jang Eun-jun and Park Sang-yun felt their weathered hearts being purified. The scene unfolding before their eyes, so moving it was miraculous, had made them this way. They were ashamed of their past lives as atheists. They thought to themselves: Why did we think there was no God? When He is graciously manifesting before us like this…
“Ah, Lord Han-sol…!”
Our great Lord Han-sol has suppressed the demon Ki Baek-woo with just his appearance and saved the persecuted Central Center’s Hunter Management Team, Recovery Team, and Security Office…!
As Manager Jang Eun-jun praised with an intensity as if he might kneel down, sobs erupted from around him as if they had been waiting. “I believe…!”, “Han-sol, I respect you to death…!”, “Boo-hoo-hoo!” The voices overlapping in different tones belonged to the Recovery Team and Security Office staff who had been suffering alongside Jang Eun-jun and Park Sang-yun until just moments ago.
Hunter Management Team, Recovery Team, Security Office. The reason why people from these seemingly unrelated departments with little cause for collaboration had gathered was simple. It was… Ki Baek-woo. Ki Baek-woo, who had been brought in unconscious the day before yesterday, yet was making a fuss about going on another raid as soon as he opened his eyes today. Ki Baek-woo, who had gone beyond madness to being obsessed with dying. Ki Baek-woo, who had thus become a disaster for the Central Center’s Hunter Management Team and numerous other departments!
Yes, they were comrades who had been gathered here with the mission of capturing the insane Ki Baek-woo and putting him in a hospital room. Dealing with Ki Baek-woo was truly a difficult task. For them, this job was like a war with no victory, only defeat. From their innate conditions, they were beings who could never stop Ki Baek-woo.
They were mere civil servants far removed from physical activity, while Ki Baek-woo was an S-class hunter specialized in combat, even when severely injured. And most importantly… they were normal people, and Ki Baek-woo was a madman. Simply put, this was like a situation of “10 children vs. S-class apocalypse.”
The work conditions were even more miserable than the situation itself. This was a matter of grave responsibility involving the health and survival of an S-class hunter. Despite the importance of this task, there was no reward given even if they managed to successfully confine Ki Baek-woo with all their desperate strength.
The Hunter Management Team manages hunters, the Recovery Team helps injured hunters recover, and the Security Office handles disturbances within the center—so preventing Ki Baek-woo, who was beyond sick and in tatters, from heading to the gate in a suicide attempt was just something they were expected to do as part of their job.
But what if they let Ki Baek-woo slip away as always? What if Ki Baek-woo came back half-dead again? Every time that happened, they would be beaten to a pulp with unprecedented insults from the center’s higher-ups and public opinion.
So their morale never improved, and stress only accumulated day by day. There was only one reason they endured without resigning. Because they felt sorry and pitiful for Ki Baek-woo, who had mentally snapped at a young age and was overworking himself. If it had been Choi Tae-hyun who had gone crazy like this, they would have submitted their resignations long ago, but Ki Baek-woo had been quite well-liked within the center before he went mad, so they still had some lingering affection for him.
Anyway, pitiful was pitiful, and difficult was difficult. They were desperately hoping for someone to appear and save them from this hardship.
And today. They had to gather in the hospital wing corridor again. To stop Ki Baek-woo, who was running out trying to die just after waking up, as always. Of course, Ki Baek-woo was completely unreasonable, as always.
‘Please don’t do this, Hunter Ki! Continuing like this is self-destructive. It doesn’t even help with the raids!’
‘Can’t you at least pretend to listen when people talk? Please. It’s a miracle that Hunter Ki Baek-woo is even walking around right now!’
‘Yeah, where are you trying to go in that condition? It’s obvious you’ll just be carried back in tatters again, so please just go back inside! It’s painful for us to watch too. If you insist, at least wait until Healer Jung Yi-dam arrives…!’
‘Hunter, please consider our position for once…! You haven’t forgotten that you’re an S-class hunter, right? The entire nation’s eyes are on you. Because you keep doing this, even the Information Strategy Office’s control doesn’t work, and you’re in the news every day…! The public is confused. Please stop this self-destructive behavior now!’
They tried reasoning with him, getting angry, and even begging, but nothing worked on Ki Baek-woo. It was only natural. If he had been in a state where persuasion was possible, the once-great Ki Baek-woo wouldn’t have become so tattered now.
Ki Baek-woo’s face, which had once been like that of a delicately raised young master with a sensitive air, now had an obsessive and fierce impression due to his overly pronounced brow bones and jawline. His eyes, once deep and vivid as if drawn at once with an ink-soaked brush, were damp with confusion and depression, and the area around his eyes was always flushed red as if he had been crying. And his corpse-like pale skin, the red bruises and torn wounds scattered all over his body regardless of location. Ki Baek-woo had now become a person who looked not just ragged but dangerous. He created an atmosphere that made observers anxious, as if he might fall apart at any moment. And today, as always, with an air of being chased by anxiety, he kept repeating the same words.
‘I’m sorry, please move aside… It’s still not enough…’
‘What’s not enough? Please stop, Hunter Ki!’
‘No, to make it twenty-five times… still… please let me go. Let go…!’
They were no longer surprised by Ki Baek-woo’s unstable staggering. The incomprehensible things he said were no longer puzzling. Since the beginning of his eccentric behavior, Ki Baek-woo had always repeated the same words like a recorder. Jang Eun-jun and others had memorized it to the point of recitation.
Still too lacking, still a long way to go, twenty-five times, it hurts, I’m scared, this is how much hyung suffered, so I don’t have time to be here like this, please let me go…
Ki Baek-woo’s words were so incoherent they couldn’t be inferred, but they were blindly obsessive to a frightening degree. He acted and spoke mechanically, as if fulfilling a mission that must be completed. As if, unless the owner of this suicide robot appeared to change the settings, or unless the battery ran out and powered off, he would never stop this senseless behavior.
There was no way Jang Eun-jun and others, who were just ordinary office workers, could control such a Ki Baek-woo. The outcome was predictable. Even if they managed to hold Ki Baek-woo temporarily now, it would only delay the inevitable; he would somehow escape and return smashed to pieces.
It was at this time, when those participating in this meaningless war were suffering from tremendous stress yet again today. While everyone was blocking Ki Baek-woo from all sides and arguing, Jang Eun-jun, who had been hanging back alone looking at his phone as if slacking off, suddenly jumped forward.
‘Hunter Ki Baek-woo, take this, take this phone call, quickly!’
Jang Eun-jun rushed over and hastily held out his mobile phone toward Ki Baek-woo. The screen showed an ongoing call. Ki Baek-woo ignored it. As if his only concern was rushing out right now and throwing himself into any gate, he didn’t even give it a glance. Seeing this, Jang Eun-jun suddenly let out a strange roar as if he was going to go crazy from frustration, “Argh!” and lunged forward.
‘The hyung you’re looking for is here, so stop resisting and take it now!’
With unexpectedly nimble movements, he forcibly pressed the phone against Ki Baek-woo’s ear.
‘Please move aside, time is…’
Ki Baek-woo, who had been shaking his head in apparent refusal, suddenly stopped. His eyes, which had been as gloomy and desolate as a deep pit, gradually became misty and dazed. As if doubting himself, he moved his lips several times before finally managing to say one word in a voice that was heavily choked and cracked.
‘…Hyung?’
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
