It was a clear, sunny day.
People sat on the outdoor terrace of a café, basking in the sunlight. Pedestrians strolled by at a leisurely pace. Cars cruised down the road unhurriedly.
But the peaceful atmosphere of the street didn’t last long.
Crackle!
Sparks flared in the clear blue sky.
“Huh?”
A person sipping coffee while gazing up at the sky blinked. The sun was so bright they thought they must’ve imagined it.
But it wasn’t a trick of the light. That became immediately clear.
CRACKLE-CRACKLE! CRACK!
The sparks grew fiercer, and suddenly, the space around them began to twist and tear open with a screeching sound.
Then, from within the darkness, a massive arm burst out.
“Gasp…!”
The coffee cup slipped from the now-weak grip of the startled spectator.
CRASH! The cup shattered into pieces on the ground.
Drawn by the sharp noise, people turned toward the one who had dropped it—who was now pointing, trembling violently.
“Th-th-there!”
“…!”
“Ah…!”
The collective shock swept through the crowd like a wave.
“A m-monster!”
“Run!”
“AAAHHHH!”
People leapt from their seats and scattered in a panic.
Not only the pedestrians but the drivers, too, sensed that something was terribly wrong. Cars suddenly surged forward, reckless and desperate to escape, everyone flooring it without hesitation.
Amid the chaos of screams and blaring horns, the creature’s other arm shoved through the rift.
It clawed its way out of the air itself, and before long, its entire body emerged.
Its appearance was grotesque—a horrifying, bizarre fusion of human, beast, and insect.
“What the hell is that?!”
A student in a school uniform, fleeing in a panic, still managed to lift his phone and record the creature.
The footage was shaky and unfocused, but the urgency to capture this moment overrode everything else.
That distraction cost him—his feet tangled beneath him, and he went down hard.
“Argh! Shit!”
Seeing him fall made several people hesitate. But in the end, no one reached out to help him up.
With the nearest shelter too far away, everyone was too desperate to survive to spare a hand.
The fallen phone was kicked by the rushing crowd and sent flying across the pavement.
Startled, the student sprang to his feet and bolted after it to retrieve his precious device.
And then—
BOOM.
The monster landed right in front of him.
The impact of its massive, hulking body slamming into the ground sent the student hurtling backward.
He tumbled across the hard asphalt, rolling over and over until he briefly blacked out—only to regain consciousness a moment later.
A wave of dull, stinging pain surged through his entire body, enough to make nausea rise in his throat.
But that wasn’t what he needed to worry about right now.
Krrrk. Kriiik.
A spine-chilling sound, not of human origin—was it laughter? A grotesque imitation of a laugh—crept into his ears.
Still sprawled on the ground, the student barely managed to open his eyes and look ahead.
“…!”
Something tentacle-like writhed right in front of him.
A tongue.
It was the monster’s tongue.
The creature loomed over him, flicking its grotesquely long tongue in and out, as if deciding how best to devour him.
Or perhaps… how to play with him first.
“H-hah… haah…”
The terror that surged within him was on an entirely different level than anything he’d studied in textbooks or seen on TV.
His whole body clenched up instinctively, every muscle drawn tight in a primal reaction. His limbs trembled pitifully, screaming at him to flee—run, now, or die.
But the student was certain.
He was going to die.
Whatever miracle had kept him from being crushed had already run out.
At the very moment he froze, paralyzed by absolute fear—
The monster’s tongue abruptly froze over, turning pale and stiff in the blink of an eye.
Krrr…krrrk?
Confused, the creature grabbed at its tongue with a hand warped by grotesquely overgrown claws.
And right then—
A man leapt in from the distance and landed squarely on the monster’s head.
Black hair and the tails of a coat fluttered in the air. In one hand, he held a glaive that shimmered with frost.
The student stared at the man in a daze.
“Cha Eun-hyuk…”
It was Cha Eun-hyuk.
Am I… saved?
Tears welled up in his eyes, born of overwhelming relief.
Because Cha Eun-hyuk was an S-rank Esper.
And a high Esper rank meant one thing—strength.
The power to take down monsters, swiftly and decisively.
There were only four S-rank Espers in the entire country. All of them were the founding members of the newly formed Esper Association, which operated independently from the government.
They stood at the forefront of the fight against monsters—figures exalted as heroes.
The student trembled as he stared at Cha Eun-hyuk. That emotionless, expressionless face, the aura that made him feel not quite human—it all amplified his heroic image even more.
Sensing Cha Eun-hyuk’s presence, the monster jerked its head, its tongue still pinned to the ground. The movement was so swift and violent that the average human eye couldn’t hope to follow it.
But Cha Eun-hyuk remained perfectly balanced, his posture unshaken. With fluid grace, he swung the glaive in his hand.
The blade plunged into one of the monster’s eyes.
SCREEEEEE!
The creature howled in agony, thrashing wildly.
Then, as if it had made up its mind to sacrifice whatever it had to in order to fight back, it raised its clawed, empty hand—and sliced off its own tongue.
A torrent of blood shot out like a geyser.
The student, standing just a few feet away, nearly had it rain down on him.
His eyes glazed over for a split second—then he bolted backward without hesitation. Blood splattered the ground just inches from where he’d stood.
The spot where the blood landed began to blacken and rot, as though eaten away by acid.
Stumbling toward a relatively safe distance, the student blinked rapidly, as though waking from a trance.
Then he realized something:
His body had moved on its own.
“Wh-what the…?”
“You in such a rush to shower in toxic blood or something?”
A smooth, mocking voice drifted over.
Startled, he whipped around.
There stood a curly-haired man, arms crossed.
The student’s young, unrefined face went slack with shock.
Joo Cheong-gyeong’s here too?!
He’d heard that all four of them hunted monsters alone.
That’s why there were once even rumors of discord among them.
But nothing had ever been confirmed or published, and the speculation eventually faded. After all, if they truly didn’t get along, why would they come together to form an independent Esper Association in the first place?
…Realizing that the Esper before him had forcibly dragged him to safety, the student bowed deeply.
“Th-thank you!”
Joo Cheong-gyeong looked down at him with a cold, detached gaze—the kind you’d give a bug you saved despite wanting it dead.
Then, as if even acknowledging him wasn’t worth the effort, he turned his head away.
Now the student’s vision was filled with the sight of Cha Eun-hyuk in combat with the monster.
It wasn’t just the creature tearing through buildings like they were nothing—Cha Eun-hyuk was matching it blow for blow.
“Guess he’s blowing off steam.”
Joo Cheong-gyeong leaned against a wall, muttering like he found it all utterly pathetic.
“He should just finish it already.”
Even with him nearby.
KRRAAAASH!
The deafening sound of a collapsing shopping center drowned out the rest of Joo Cheong-gyeong’s remark.
Perched atop the rubble, the monster crouched low in a defensive stance. Cha Eun-hyuk rushed in, aiming for its one remaining eye.
Feigning a dodge, the monster spun its body and lashed out—its tail whipped toward him in a flash, catching him mid-charge.
The tail swiftly curled upward, lifting him toward its blood-soaked maw.
Bound tightly in the coils, Cha Eun-hyuk was flung straight into the creature’s gaping mouth.
“Ugh!”
The student, stealing glances at Joo Cheong-gyeong before watching the fight, instinctively shut his eyes tight.
So he didn’t see it—
Didn’t see the moment Cha Eun-hyuk angled the tip of his glaive and pierced straight through the monster’s jaw from the inside.
SCCRREEEEEE!!
The monster flailed in a wild frenzy, screeching in pain. Cha Eun-hyuk burst from its mouth and landed on the ground.
Toxic blood splashed onto his skin, but he didn’t flinch. He casually wiped it off with his sleeve.
Twisting in agony, the monster still tried to grab him, desperate for revenge. But it was no use.
It had already taken too many critical hits. Its limbs, drained of strength, began to falter. A guttural cry of frustration tore from its throat.
Cha Eun-hyuk stared it down, unshaken.
Krrrrrkkk…!!
The choked, blood-rattled cry abruptly ceased. Its vocal cords had frozen.
Cha Eun-hyuk stood with one arm extended, pouring his focus into the creature.
Gradually, its entire body began to freeze from the inside out. The eye that had glared with rage… the tail that had thrashed in fury… both began to still. And at last—THUD!—the monster collapsed with one final earth-shaking crash. Inside its still-gaping jaws, the glaive embedded within shimmered with a cold, white flash.
Cha Eun-hyuk lowered his arm and stared down at the fallen beast.
“Is that sufficient?”
A voice answered from beside him—though no one had been there a second before.
A short-haired Esper with jet-black hair appeared at his side.
Shim Tae-seong gave a brief glance toward the student who’d been shouting his name from afar, his face unreadable.
“You lost your composure. Control yourself.”
Cha Eun-hyuk slowly closed his weary eyes… then opened them again.
“Since when were we the kind to offer each other friendly advice?”
His voice was heavy, low and subdued.
“If necessary.”
Shim Tae-seong replied curtly. His dim gaze turned in a specific direction.
“We agreed on certain terms, didn’t we?”
First come, first serve— Whoever found the target first had priority. And no interference while they enjoyed that opportunity.
“You think I was going to interfere?”
Cha Eun-hyuk let out a quiet, mirthless chuckle.
Did it look like he’d deliberately made a scene out of the battle just to let the damage reach where Jang Hee-gang and that kid were? Shim Tae-seong responded to that unspoken accusation.
“Are you saying you didn’t?”
Of course, he desperately wanted to. But if he did, Jang Hee-gang would’ve just turned around and stolen his chance away.
“No, that won’t do,” Cha Eun-hyuk said with a faint smile tugging at the corner of his lips.
“I need time with my little brother, too. Time that no one gets to interfere with.”
Shim Tae-seong didn’t reply. Because he felt the same.
Without another word, he quietly placed his hand on the monster’s corpse for disposal. And then—Shim Tae-seong and the beast vanished together.
