Chapter 54
“I understand. I’ll do it now, right now.”
Joo Hyeonwoo glanced at Eunseong’s expression as he pulled out his phone and pressed Mujin’s contact. However, a voice message appeared saying that the call couldn’t be connected at all.
“Mujin hyung-nim must be busy with the operation, it’s not connecting.”
“Try again.”
“It seems like he turned it off…”
“Again, hurry!”
“Hyung. Don’t be like that, let’s just—”
*Heuuk!* Eunseong clutched his wet front and curled up his body. The afterimages flickering dizzyingly before his eyes—he couldn’t distinguish whether they were his imagination or lost memories. The explosion sound that had struck his ears seemed to be the trigger, making him keep recalling Mujin’s figure being consumed by flames.
“Ugh, huk…”
Joo Hyeonwoo, who had been trying to calm Eunseong down, couldn’t finish his words. He forgot everything he was going to say because of the sense of déjà vu he felt from Eunseong’s face, which had turned deathly pale.
Baek Mujin no longer had the life-threatening Hwanghwa, so why was he this anxious? And why was he still so bound to him? Seeing Eunseong showing a psychological state similar to just before his disappearance incident, Joo Hyeonwoo suddenly felt afraid.
“No way, what could possibly happen? The changgui that have appeared so far have only been about C-grade at most. Even that was rated high because of their special abilities—they practically have no combat abilities.”
After being momentarily flustered by the suddenly interrupted training, even Park Jiwon began patting Eunseong’s back to comfort him. Seeing his trembling body and pale face made it really feel like something had happened.
“Then, hyung! I’ll contact Team Leader Yeon who went as support to the specialized team. That’ll work, right? Hm?”
Seeing Park Jiwon’s actions, Joo Hyeonwoo also massaged Eunseong’s shoulders like someone who had realized something. It seemed like doing so would help Eunseong calm down even a little.
It was when he was about to bring up Yeon Seokchun’s contact and press the call button. Both Joo Hyeonwoo and Park Jiwon’s phones rang simultaneously. It was the changgui subjugation completion alarm for the square in front of the shopping center.
[ Subjugation Operation Completion Notice ]Â Â
District 2 Airspace D – Zone 213 / Unidentified Monster Subjugation Complete Â
Subjugated entities: 1Â Â
Damage status: None Â
Currently proceeding with on-site fire suppression Â
Traffic congestion expected in nearby sections due to North Boulevard and Roads 3 and 4 being controlled Â
〉Please use detour routes when possible.
“Whoa! Hyung! Look at this!”
Joo Hyeonwoo brought his phone right up to Eunseong’s nose, making a fuss.
“There’s nothing wrong. Right? Look here on the third line—it says no damage.”
The corners of his bloodless lips slowly crumbled. Eunseong couldn’t take his eyes off the message, continuously caressing the screen with his fingertips. He read the sentence “Damage status: None” over and over again, biting hard on the inside of his cheek. Only then could he collect himself.
“Um, then shall we finish today’s training here and call it a day?”
At Park Jiwon’s hopeful comment about getting off work, thinking this was the right moment, Joo Hyeonwoo’s eyes narrowed sharply.
“No… I thought you should rest a bit now. Although we contracted by session, I’ll count today as half-time. It’s a service. Actually, even without the service, you seem to be getting the hang of it, so it’s fine to leave early once in a while—”
“No.”
Eunseong cut off Park Jiwon’s rambling excuses. He shook his head firmly, wiped his face, then slowly lowered his body back into the bathtub.
“Continue. I can do it.”
As Eunseong lay back down in place and took the training position, the bathtub vibrated and the lights that had gone out came back on. Lukewarm water rose up to his cheeks, submerging his ears. A low humming sound spread through his body.
Park Jiwon and Joo Hyeonwoo looked down at Eunseong simultaneously. Their gazes were full of worry and bewilderment. Eunseong closed his eyes as if he would ignore any opposing opinions.
“I need to master the skill quickly.”
He never wanted to feel this way again.
Understanding his meaning, Park Jiwon began channeling power again without any response. Energy slowly circulated to Eunseong’s fingertips and toes. There was definitely a sense of improvement compared to when they first started the lesson. He could feel a faint, transparent energy circulating within his body.
However, Eunseong felt frustrated. In this current state, with just this level of ability, he couldn’t be by Mujin’s side.
Not only traveling together, but even existing next to him would become a burden.
Suddenly, one fragment of his lost memories came to mind. It was a melancholy sense of inferiority similar to what he felt now.
‘I want to be together.’
It seemed like that was all it was.
Eunseong bit his lips tightly. He didn’t want to be selfish anymore. With a heart like praying underwater, he quietly pursued his own energy.
* * *
KWAAAAANG—!
The explosion happened in an instant. The sky turned upside down with a blinding flash, and an ear-splitting roar swept through all directions.
Mujin was in the middle of it all. Wrapped in red flames, he held the changgui that had taken Yoo Jaeseong’s form in both arms. He endured without moving a single step.
He watched straight at the changgui’s face—Jaeseong’s face—as it turned to ash before his eyes. Until the very end, as its form completely collapsed in the flames and its grotesquely smiling lips slowly shriveled up, Mujin didn’t blink once.
Thanks to Mujin containing the explosion with his own power, the self-destruction energy shot straight up and scattered in the air. The creature had expressed its malice even while blowing itself up, but there was no damage. To be precise, if Mujin hadn’t been there, the hundreds of people in the square would have disappeared into a handful of ash.
The only things damaged were the street trees hit by falling sparks. Fire trucks rushed in from all directions to suppress the fire, filling the square with the sound of sirens.
Meanwhile, the panic-stricken people pushed each other, fell down, screamed, and scattered in all directions. Some ran trampling on others’ legs, and some collapsed crying. The sight of them escaping while practically trampling each other was truly a scene from hell. The hunters dispatched to catch the changgui alone were insufficient to maintain order at the scene.
As soon as the changgui signal disappeared, the “Subjugation Operation Completion Notice” alarm went up, but the actual scene was chaos itself.
‘That crazy changgui bastard acted unexpectedly… This is going to be a headache.’
A hunter who had arrived late at the scene while chasing Mujin let out a long sigh.
Mujin, whose combat suit had melted and become rags, was indifferently looking down at his similarly ruined phone. The dark clouds hanging heavily on his face made it impossible to even speak to him.
Self-destruction. No one had expected it. Above all, this level of massive energy discharge was a pattern he had never seen once while chasing changgui around.
Everything was a mess, but somehow he also felt like laughing. Not a single civilian was lost. If Baek Mujin hadn’t blocked it, a great disaster would have occurred. There were many people who criticized him, saying that Baek Mujin had lost his humanity, no longer cared about rifts, and was an irresponsible bastard who wasted his power and lived carelessly.
But the hunter had just seen clearly with his own two eyes. Baek Mujin had embraced the bomb without a moment’s hesitation.
His action of using his own body as a shield to protect everyone was even noble. Amid growing fear of the changgui’s new patterns, he also felt an inexplicable hope, making it difficult for the hunter to compose his expression.
‘That aside, Team Leader Woo is going to go bald…’
Scene cleanup, media blockade, CCTV analysis. Without needing to go that far, he was probably already busy going around apologizing. To establish countermeasures for diversified changgui patterns, security would have to be even more stringent… probably no sleep starting from today.
[ Changgui energy detected. District 2. Target location secured. Priority response teams please respond. ]
The communication came in at that moment.
Hearing the sound from the hunter’s communicator, Mujin let out a short, murky breath. Then he casually threw off his melted combat suit top. Heat still rose like a mirage from his upper body, now dressed in a modest short-sleeved t-shirt.
The hunter unconsciously swallowed. He found himself staring blankly at the swollen muscles and rope-like writhing veins under that steel-like skin that had withstood those tremendous flames. Then before he knew it, Mujin had gotten close and snatched away his communicator.
“Rather than following me around, …Hunter-nim would find it more beneficial for both of us to remain here at the scene.”
Mujin said indifferently, roughly shoving the communicator into his ear. Then without even listening to a response, he turned around.
“Ah, ah! Wait! Baek Mujin Hunter-nim! Let’s go together!”
The hunter hurriedly followed after him. Mujin just ran forward relentlessly as if he couldn’t hear anything.
Ah, he still doesn’t remember my name.
Watching Mujin disappear into a distant dot in an instant, the hunter let his shoulders droop. He had been abandoned at the scene—something he hadn’t experienced even as a rookie hunter.
“I, Woo Jaehee, am not a man who gives up that easily, Baek Mujin Hunter.”
Making this vow to the empty air, he busily grabbed another hunter and got a spare communicator to put in his ear. He was determined to fulfill his aunt’s command to follow Mujin even if both his legs broke.
Author: Hyacinthus B
Hyacinthus
