Arriving at the hunting ground where Team 3 was, Lee Se-hee’s eyes were met with signs of battle that were hard to believe.
“Ah...”
Lee Se-hee, as well as Lee Young-tan and the driver who came together, couldn’t help but exclaim in astonishment.
There were over two hundred puppets lying dead. Their appearance, without shedding a single drop of blood, was eerie and overwhelming at the same time.
She could tell by the sword cuts on their bodies.
These puppets were all cut down in a single strike. How is that possible? What kind of person can demonstrate such unparalleled skill?
“First, attend to the wounded!”
After regaining her composure, Lee Se-hee gave the order, and the driver, Lee Young-tan, and herself attended to the wounded. Then, she approached Choi Yoon-hee, who had fallen behind Choi Jun-ho.
“I’ll take Ms. Yoon-hee with me.”
When Choi Jun-ho nodded, she realized something was wrong with him. Much darker than before. It was as if he would cut her down if she bothered him.
With great effort, Lee Se-hee managed to regain her composure and brought Choi Yoon-hee back to the car.
The problem was that the car was full of people due to the wounded.
Lee Se-hee made a decision.
“You go first.”
“Yes? But Team Leader, you should go with us...”
“I’ll stay here and monitor the situation.”
“No, that’s dangerous.”
Lee Young-tan strongly opposed. Lee Se-hee spoke firmly.
“Escorting the wounded is more important. Follow my words. It’s an order.”
“...I understand.”
“And you say it’s dangerous here? Not at all.”
Lee Se-hee looked at Choi Jun-ho, who was confronting the puppets, and spoke with confidence.
“This is the safest place in the world.”
***
“...”
After watching the car drive away, Lee Se-hee wiped the expression from her face.
Although she sincerely believed that this place was the safest in the world, she didn’t want to show her true feelings about this battle scene to others.
The moment she saw over two hundred fallen puppets, she realized that her vague thoughts were true.
Currently, there are only three sword-wielding swordsmen in the country who could demonstrate this kind of martial prowess.
Two of them belong to a guild, and one was a hunted villain. If Berserker was added, then that would make four.
“As expected, I’m right.”
She had been investigating Choi Jun-ho for a long time.
One day, a Level 7 government hunter fell from the sky. Although he hadn’t undergone a level assessment yet, he was a monster who probably had already reached Level 8, a level that no one else had achieved in their mid-20s.
Despite reaching such a high level that no one else could achieve, he was an extraordinary figure who didn’t desire a large contract fee, more power than others, or anything unique.
Did he want the non-arrest privilege because he wanted power? No, because this guy had a completely different perspective from others.
Although he had a normal upbringing, he lacked something fundamentally. What that something was, she had yet to determine specifically.
But one thing was clear.
Choi Jun-ho was a dangerous person.
Currently, he was a government hunter who captured villains, but with a small trigger, he had the potential to become the most sinister villain at any time.
Just by considering the non-arrest privilege he wanted, one could understand his way of thinking. The moment his standards were violated, Choi Jun-ho would not hesitate to clash with elite’s vested interest.
Even if it’s the President or the Chairman of a Sacred Group,
As an official hunter, he’s called a head-breaker because of how he used his hands against his enemies, but he was now using a sword.
Lee Se-hee expressed her certainty with words.
“Eraser.”
A shiver ran through her entire body.
It took a great deal of time and effort to reach this point.
Choi Jun-ho’s friend, Oh Jong-yeop, was from Ansan.
The opportunity for the once-poor Oh Jong-yeop to secure hospital expenses for his younger brother came from selling the body of Shavel Tiger. Although he carefully disposed of it in pieces, he couldn’t escape the eyes of the Sacred Guild.
Shavel Tiger was a Level 6 hazardous demon. The demon heart handed by Choi Jun-ho also belonged to a Level 6 hazardous demon. That meant Choi Jun-ho hunted and handed the body of Shavel Tiger to Oh Jong-yeop. Among the items Oh Jong-yeop sold, only the heart was missing.
In other words, Choi Jun-ho revealed his presence in Ansan to meet Oh Jong-yeop. And after hunting Shavel Tiger, he handed it over to Oh Jong-yeop. On that day, the headquarters of the Big Ten, which was destroyed by the Eraser, was located in Ansan.
“There are no coincidences in this world.”
Was it reasonable to believe that two Level 8 superhumans suddenly appeared in the world? Or was it more reasonable to think that the two appearing around the same time were the same person?
Lee Se-hee overwhelmingly believed in the latter possibility.
The only difference between them was that the Eraser used a sword as a weapon, but that suspicion turned into certainty when she saw Choi Jun-ho wielding a sword.
She urgently sent her subordinates away in case they noticed anything. If it’s revealed that the government hunter was a villain, the situation would become uncontrollable.
As if Choi Jun-ho could read her thoughts, he spoke.
“Lee Se-hee.”
When their eyes met, her mind went blank. Overwhelming fear paralyzed her brain.
She couldn’t stop her teeth from grinding together.
“Yes, yes.”
“Forget what you saw today.”
The Force crackled on the hilt of his sword.
Swish!
Both of the arms of the puppet, Jung Hae-Sol, who was rated at Level 7, were cut off.
***
Oh Jong-yeop’s Slash was a quintessential Gift, combining the weapon’s predictability with the Force for extreme cutting power.
If Landmine destroyed everything, then Slash cut through everything.
It’s a toss-up between the two, and I used them however my heart desired. Some days I want to smash everything, and some days I want to chop it up. Today was the latter.
That guy forgot his place and treated Yoon Hee too casually. Only I could treat my younger sister that way. The price for someone else treating her that way was death.
The puppet, with its arms severed, staggered but did not change its expression. Instead, upon seeing the unblemished cut without a single drop of blood, it let out a bizarre laughter. This guy was crazy, too.
“Kekeke! Surprising, surprise. It seems you weren’t an ordinary Level 7.”
Snip, snip, snip!
The arm that was rolling on the ground was pulled back as if connected by a thread and reattached. A stuffed puppet stitching?
“I want you, I want you, I want you! Well-trained body! A puppet with great Gifts! I’ll take you before the Berserker.”
“You’re noisy.”
If I tear his mouth apart, he wouln’t be able to babble anymore.
“You’ll soon get tired of listening, my friend. Kekeke!”
The puppet, bursting with madness, rushed forward. No, it intended to rush forward. However, my Slash was even faster, cutting off the puppet’s arms, legs, and neck. And it tore open its mouth.
I didn’t like how it kept babbling when its purpose was already fulfilled.
Kwajik!
I stomped on the head as it hit the floor. The puppet’s face was smashed, but its torn mouth still curled up and quivered.
The attacks on the puppet didn’t reach the puppet master.
“Ke... Keke! Even if you do this, I won’t... die, ah! My invi... invincible army will...”
“People who talk like that value their own lives more.”
I lifted the head by grabbing the hair, moving my foot off the guy.
I pushed my Force into his mind, racking it up. Brainwashing had turned its brain into mush, but it was a blank state with nothing in it.
In other words, the puppet was true to its nature as a puppet. If so, there must be a controller that moved the puppet. The Force unraveled like a thread, touching every part of the puppet’s head.
“Found it.”
Inside the puppet’s head, faint invisible waves were steadily occurring and being sent somewhere.
This was the connection between the puppet and the master.
“Is it like Bluetooth?”
“You, what are you doing...”
I grasped the guy’s waves with brainwashing and chased after the fading Force flow with my intuition. Once I memorized the shape of the wavelength, it didn’t take me long to pinpoint its location.
It was a sealed room in an abandoned house about 5 km away from here. I realized that the man inside was the Puppeteer.
The area my senses touched. With my Force presence, no matter the distance, nothing escaped my eyes. I activated Clairvoyance.
A space more than five kilometers away appeared before me. In an abandoned house, worn and broken after decades of neglect, sat a scrawny man in his late forties with age spots all over his face.
I didn’t hide my presence. I would give him the most certain death, a guy who was running wild, thinking he was an immortal and even targeting Yoon-hee.
Locking eyes with my prey, I smiled.
“I found you, you little rat.”
***
“Crazy bastard! Son of a bitch! Aaargh!”
The Puppeteer, Cho Hyung-sik, was furious at the loss of his beloved puppets. There were over two hundred of them. Just one person had destroyed the power to wipe out a medium-sized guild.
Most painful of all was the loss of the Level 7, Jung Hae-sol. He was his most powerful force, and he was torn to shreds without putting up much of a fight.
The losses were severe. Even if he went to the League, there was a good chance he wouldn’t be treated well.
“You son of a bitch, I’ll kill you someday and turn you into a puppet. You’ll kneel before me and lick the ground like a dog...”
In that moment, Cho Hyung-sik stopped speaking and trembled as a strange sense of unease enveloped his entire body.
This room was his alone. It was an abandoned house that no one else had access to, meticulously sealed off to prevent even a single ant from entering.
It was a room where no one could enter without his permission.
It was supposed to be the case, but...
Raising his head absentmindedly, he came face to face with a pair of giant eyes, causing his body to convulse.
“Heeek!”
A pair of blue eyes stared back at him from the ceiling, the endless darkness like a deep swamp.
What the hell were those eyes?
“I found you, you little rat.”
“Heh, Head Breaker?”
How did that bastard end up here?
It didn’t matter. He was immortal. An immortal who would never die.
Even though he lost over two hundred puppets, he still had plenty more under his command.
He was the ruler, the monarch, the immortal. All the hunters feared him and begged for mercy. He was the worst villain of all, trampling on them and making fun of them.
He tried to shake off the fear.
However, when he faced Head Breaker and their eyes met, all the façades surrounding him were stripped away, revealing his pitiful self in plain sight.
That guy was beyond measure. He should never be confronted. He had to run away. He needed to survive and acquire more powerful puppets in greater numbers than before.
“Ugh, aaaaah!”
Desperately shaking off the blue eyes, Cho Hyung-shik tried to escape the room.
However, he couldn’t escape. Suddenly, intense pain attacked his chest.
Beyond him, murderous intent was rushing toward him. It was the part of his body that connected him to Jung Hae-sol. The pain was like a swamp that he couldn’t get out of, starting in his chest and engulfing his entire body.
“Kkuuuuh!”
He clenched it tightly, attempting to sever the connection, but it was impossible. Instead, more Force surged through the connection between him and the puppet.
Bang! Boom!
Explosions occurred successively within his body, causing it to contort in a grotesque manner. His mind turned white from unbearable pain.
“Kuh!”
Cho Hyung-shik struggled until the end, but with a loud thud, his chest burst open, and it was over.
He should never have fought back.
As he continuously vomited blood, his head drooped forward.
***
I threw the worn-out sword to the ground. I turned my head to the side and saw Lee Se-hee approaching.
She was a perceptive woman. Since earlier, her attitude towards me had been unusually cautious. Perhaps it’s because of Yoonhee’s matter, which had me on edge. She approached me with her usual gentleness, easing the tension.
“Just now... What was that?”
“I killed the Puppeteer.”
“No way...”
Was it such a surprising thing that I managed to kill that guy? He tried to act like he was an immortal, but in my opinion, he was really not all that.
“He’s in a place not too far away from here. Let’s go check the body.”
However, realizing that I had left the motorcycle behind, I hesitated. Should we walk? It would take quite a while to walk 5 kilometers.
Perhaps remembering that I had abandoned the motorcycle, Lee Se Hee spoke.
“There should be a car from Team 3 nearby. Let’s use that to get there.”
As expected of Lee Se Hee. She knew what I needed and brought it one after another.
After a while, we picked up the car from Team 3 and headed to the Puppeteer’s hideout.
When we arrived at the destination and entered the abandoned house, we saw a body lying there with its limbs broken and its chest burst open, as if exploded by a remotely activated landmine.
The condition of the body was remarkably intact. On the other hand, Lee Se Hee couldn’t hide her surprise when she saw the Puppeteer’s corpse.
“This person is the Puppeteer?”
“Do you recognize the face?”
“No, no one knows the Puppeteer’s face. But since Mr. Jun-ho said he killed him, it must be true. How did you do it?”
“I detected the wavelengths connected between him and the puppet and traced it back to him, then killed him with using the landmine.”
“...”
Lee Se-hee’s expression was bizarre as she looked at me. Even an elementary school student could understand my explanation.
I simply exerted my Force where my will reached.
“Why?”
“Is that possible?”
“I tried, and it turned out to be possible.”
“...If you need a witness who can testify that Mr. Jun-ho killed the Puppeteer, I will be the witness.”
“I’ll report it, but I don’t care if they don’t believe me.”
When I lightly kicked the landmine, Cho Hyung-sik’s body was torn apart. That’s how it feels to be hit by a landmine.
We came out of the abandoned house, got into the car with Lee Se-hee, and headed to Seoul.
“What do you plan to do next?”
“I plan to capture the Berserker.”
“...The Berserker is a villain who might have reached Level 8.”
“Level 8 is correct.”
Kim Yong-hwan stepped forward to monopolize the credit, but in the end, he proved that the Berserker had reached Level 8 and died.
Soon, the Berserker’s level would be adjusted upward, and the government would be on high alert.
Lee Se-hee sighed.
“With the death of the Red Snake, the situation will change drastically. This is an opportunity for Mr. Jun-ho to become even more valuable.”
“What are you trying to say?”
“Shouldn’t you postpone capturing the Berserker? Right now, Mr. Jun-ho can obtain what he wants.”
She mentioned the rumors about the Berserker.
“The Berserker is a villain who will remain quiet if not provoked.”
Based on the Berserker sightings she’d heard about, Lee Se-hee gave me some helpful direction. But the reason I was targeting the Berserker was because of his Gift. There’s no reason to be impatient, but there’s also no reason to procrastinate.
“That’s just speculation because you don’t know about the Berserker.”
“Yes? However...”
“The Berserker is already interested in me. If I don’t take action, he will come forward and cause trouble.”
The more I tried to hide, the more he would come after me.
League membership was a factor, but there was no way he was going to obey the League’s orders.
He’s insane, after all.
“I have one request.”
“What is it?”
“The Berserker will show up around here. I need someone to wait for him and hand him a means of contact.”
Lee Se-hee, who had always accepted my proposals, hesitated this time.
“This is a job that requires the messenger to risk his life.”
“He will accept the message willingly.”
“How do you know that?”
“Because I know that crazy bastard well.”
I spoke with confidence. There would probably be no one else who knew that guy as well as I did, about his gift, about his bizarrely twisted mental structure.
Seemingly convinced by my words, Lee Se-hee nodded.
“Indeed, do crazy people understand each other...?”
