The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low

In an instant, the black thorns stretched out and rained down on him. Ignoring the thorns that threatened to overwhelm him, Ui-aje nonchalantly twisted the man’s neck.

He could clearly feel the bones of the man’s neck snap in his grasp, and then the man’s head snapped in an odd direction. His body went limp as the last of the light in his glassy eyes faded.

“This is the last straw.”

Ui-jae muttered in an annoyed voice and inspected his body. His clothes were torn in places, but there was not a single scratch on his body. A few of the thorns that had been trying to dig in had even bent outward. After dusting off his bloodied hands, he stood up and shook his head.

‘What is it? I thought they only came out at night?’

If they were crawling around in broad daylight, their presence would surely be noticed. There was no way the regular hunters wouldn’t be talking about them, too.

‘But I’ve never heard of anything like them.’

Suddenly, the image of a gas mask standing up flashed through his mind. Ui-jae chuckled and muttered,

“I thought it meant not to tell people about their existences….”

What if it meant not to let anyone know they existed? Controlling information to maintain confidentiality was a common occurrence, so he wasn’t surprised, but….

Ui-jae frowned. If that’s the case, why did the gas mask let him go? It would have been easier to kill him without having to keep him alive.

At that moment, he heard small stirrings and gasps coming from Haejang-guk house. Ha-eun must have noticed how quiet it had gotten outside, because she approached the door. Ui-jae hid the man’s body in the trash just in case, then ran to the door and knocked with the back of his hand.

“Ha-eun, it’s your uncle, can you open the door?”

He deliberately put his face close to the glass and waved his hand, and the lock came off with a small flourish. Ha-eun sat down, hugging her backpack and shivering slightly. After seeing him, her legs seemed to relax.

He bent down and squatted down to meet her eye level.

“It’s okay. There’s no one here anymore. They’re gone.”

“Gone?”

Her tear-filled eyes turned to Ui-jae. Seeing the tear-stained face, he bit the inside of his mouth.

‘…Did I kill him too kindly?’

Ha-eun threw down her school bag and reached for Ui-jae’s hand. Over her tiny hand, the bandaged hand that he had held once overlapped.

The girl was lying in bed, her entire body wrapped in bandages, unable to speak. The only communication she could do was to snap her fingers. When she moved her fingers, Ui-jae would stroke her head or hold her hand tightly.

‘Shit…’

His stomach rumbled. Ui-jae lowered his eyes, pulled Ha-eun into a hug, and patted her back with his left hand.

“It’s okay.”

“….”

“It’s all right now. You were scared, weren’t you?”

Ha-eun sobbed instead of answering. Ui-jae tilted his head back, wondering if the hair dye in his hair had touched her skin, and spoke softly.

“Uncle will tell the unters. It won’t happen again.”

“Yes…”

After patting her back for a while, she seemed to calm down a bit. Ha-eun mumbled through her nose.

“Tell Jung-bin and Honeybee about this.”

…That’s going to be a bit difficult, since they’ve never been to Haejang-guk house in the first place. But he couldn’t just coldly refuse, even if he couldn’t appease the surprised girl, so he changed the subject with a shaky voice.

“Can I wash off my hair dye first?”

“Sure…. It’s actually kind of smelly.”

“Be sure to say it smells like hair dye. If anyone else hears it, they’ll misunderstand.”

Ha-eun giggled. Ui-jae let out a short sigh and wondered what to do with the corpse in the dumpster. He also thought of the Haejang-guk house regulars who would be coming in an hour from now.

Bodies that ordinary people can’t dispose of. The ones who would have to hide their identities.

‘I’ll have to ask a hunter to do it.’

From now on, it was time to pretend to be a normal person.

A gaunt man in a gas mask strode into the pristine lobby of the Seowon Guild. The security guards did not stop him, as if the gas mask were some sort of identification. A boy in a white robe standing in front of the central staircase spotted the gas mask man and trotted over.

“Hello, Lee-ssi.”

Sa-young looked down at the child with indifferent eyes.

“Nam Woo-jin.”

“He’s in the operating room. Let me guide you.”

The child walked into the hallway to the right and Sa-young followed. The corridors of the Seowon Guild were as complex as a labyrinth and intertwined like an anthill.

After walking for a while, he came to a solid iron gate, with a red ‘under operation’ lamp above it. The child cautiously opened the door and stepped aside.

“Sir, Lee Sa-young is here.”

The room looked more like a scientist’s lab than an operating room. Books and documents lined the walls, surgical instruments and medical equipment cluttered the room, and a large operating table sat in the center of the room.

The man, who was sitting in a chair and closing his eyes, slowly opened his eyes. Green surgical suit, white gown, white hair tied together, white eyes, and silver-rimmed glasses. It was an unusual appearance even in the hunter era, when all colors of hair and eyes were covered. Sa-young shook his head and said hello roughly.

“Nam Woo-jin.”

Nam Woo-jin, South Korea’s sixth-ranked hunter and the country’s only A-rank healer, stood up.

“I heard you’ve been busy lately, so I thought I’d have to wait three hours. You’re early.”

”I know. I’m in a hurry, so cut to the chase.”

“Sure.”

Standing in front of the operating table, Woo-jin pulled back the white cloth that covered the bulging tabletop. It revealed the body of a man, his face drenched in blood and mangled, black thorns sprouting from every inch of his twisted body. It was what they called an ‘addict’. Sa-young muttered indifferently.

“He’s in terrible shape.”

“Jung-bin said he was in this condition when they found him. He was hit with such force that his face was caved in.”

“That’s not enough to kill him.”

“No. The direct cause of death is a fractured neck. Someone broke his neck.”

There was a print on his neck, shaped like a hand. Sa-young’s eyes lit up at the sight of the wound.

“This….”

”Yes. Grab it with your bare hands, all at once.”

Nam Woo-jin made a gesture of grabbing something in the air and twisting it.

Their bodies are very strong when they’re drugged, and their bodies start to mutate. No amount of force would be able to break their bones and subdue them. Sa-young observing the corpse straightened his upper body.

“Who is the reporter?”

“Yang Hye-jin. A-rank hunter with the Rift Management Agency.”

The name sounded familiar. Sa-young tapped the operating table with his fingertips.

“Did she handle it?”

“No. I don’t know who did. There was a first finder. A part-timer of Haejang-guk house found it while taking out the rubbish… and found it.”

Woo-jin glanced at the corpse with all the black spikes sticking out.

“He found it. He must have been very frightened.”

“…….”

“Well, it’s quite surprising to the average person. He was shaking and shivering, and then he asked Yang Hye-jin, who came to eat at the haejang-guk house, to call the police.”

“…Haejang-guk house?”

“Yes. I heard it’s a good restaurant…. I haven’t been there, so I don’t know the details.”

When he thought of the haejang-guk house, I could only think of one place where Bae Won-woo was constantly going to work as if he was obsessed with something. Sa-young frowned. The fingertips on the operating table slowly slowed.

“Where exactly was it found?”

“That’s kind of interesting. Boy.”

“Yes, sir.”

The child waiting by his side handed him a tablet with a map on it. He zoomed in on the map on the screen.

“Doesn’t the place look familiar? It’s the separate collection dump near the alley where the addict was found last time.”

“…….”

”We need to see if there’s a new supply in the area. Take note.”

True to Woo-jin’s word, the spot was in the same alley where Sa-young had met his ‘hyung’. Could it be a coincidence?

“Oh, and there’s something else unusual…. Check this out.”

Woo-jin pointed with his medical-gloved hand to several black thorns protruding viciously from the corpse. Of the many spikes protruding from the body, several protruding from the stomach and heart were bent as if they had been struck by something solid.

He tilted his head slightly, fixing his gaze on the twisted tips of the thorns. A strange feeling of clarity came over him.

“I’ve never seen thorns bent like this before. It looks like they’ve been struck by something very hard… Have you ever seen one?”

I have.

The thorns ‘hyung’ bent with the ladle had looked like this… He’d thought about it so many times, he knew it immediately. The corners of his mouth drew, which had hardened, drew an arc.

When he scoured the databases and found no trace, he nearly choked on his medication. After a while, he was full of intentions of kicking his ass as soon as he found him, but when he did, he couldn’t help but laugh. Woo-jin clenched his jaw and muttered.

“You look like you know something.”

“Yeah.”

Sa-young smiled in satisfaction.

“Finally caught the tail.”