Chapter 4

Let’s eat! (2)

Krew!

The Forn made a mess of the fruit shelves.

Il-hyun was tracking it carefully.

It was the first living monster he saw. Monsters looked scarier in person than on the screen, he thought.

It ends in this room, now.

Il-hyun knew that he was inexperienced and that it would be dangerous for him if the fight took a long time.

He had to make a surprise attack at once if he wants to remain at an advantage.

He held the knife tightly and approached the Forn, whose back was turned to him.

“Take this!”

He plunged the knife into the monster’s back.

As far as he knew, the surprise attack was successful.

The Forn didn’t notice him at all until he had plunged the knife in its body.

However…

“Huh?”

The knife stabbed in the monster’s neck was lightly crushed.

It looked like a paper knife.

The attack was of little impact because of the Forn’s tough skin.

It was an attack that carried the power of the Awakened Il-hyun, but the damage it did was just in the level of acne popping out.

“Aarrghh…!”

Il-hyun, embarrassed, stared blankly at his weapon.

“Kiiiiii-“

“Wait, wait, wait!”

Angry at the unexpected attack, the Forn rushed at him.

Il-hyun ran away. It was an awkward situation. He regretted not bringing a bigger knife.

He chose the fruit-cutting knife among his other kitchen knives because it was easy to hide.

Of course, no matter what he chose, it won’t have that much effect.

He needs an AT sword to kill a monster.

Bang!

The Forn threw a rugged spear! It smashed the concrete wall behind Il-hyun.

“Oh, crazy!”

Il-hyun spat out swear words and then raised his fist.

There was no better option than to run away.

“I don’t have time to do this.”

He had to get things done as quickly as possible to steal ether from the company in charge.

It would be the worst scenario if he was caught, and if he was caught dead from a monster’s attack.

Il-hyun calmed his mind and dodged another Forn attack with his dramatically improved reflexes.

Then he punched in, searching for a weakness.

Paak!

The Forn’s head turned from the impact!

The shock hit the monster like a cannon.

To some extent, the damage seemed to have been inflicted well, but it was not enough to bring it down.

After taking a few moments to recover, the Forn took back its spear and swung it at Il-hyun.

Il-hyun grabbed the oncoming spear and grasped it strongly.

“Don’t just use it; give it to me!”

Forn and Il-hyun pulled at the spear, and the tug-of-war began.

The rivalry between them was tight.

Gradually, the spear went to Il-hyun’s side, and he was finally able to take it from the Forn.

However, the Forn suddenly bowed its head and charged the stinger on its back.

Il-hyun, frightened at the sting, flew to the side.

Although he wore a coat similar to the Dane Company Awakeners, his coat had no defense.

“Hey, stop that, you coward!”

His opponent was a monster that does not speak human language; thus, it continued to rush at Il-hyun.

It’s too late to avoid it now…

At the time of the crisis, his ability manifested.

A strong force came into his hand, and he slammed the floor with it.

“Wow!”

Massive thorns soared from the floor and pierced the monster’s body.

It wasn’t even able to make a sound. It died hanging from a thorn, like a frog on a skewer.

“Heooh, Heo-oh.”

Il-hyun exhaled a rough breath.

“Fuck, this is crazy.”

As the adrenaline subsided, he stared at the scene and reflected on his ability.

But rather than serious reflection, a pleasant laugh came out from him.

He approached the body of the dead monster.

Huge thorns pierced the red-skinned monster, and the whole body was twisted in weird angles.

“Hoo, let’s do it quickly.”

He stared at the body, dripping blood. Gross.

It nauseated him, but he began to reach out and dig into it.

Normally, ether had to be extracted using a small extractor, but such equipment was a luxury, so he had to extract it with his bare hands.

“Please come out soon…”

* * *

The battle was over.

Dane’s Awakening Team was counting the bodies and piling them up for ether collection.

The other team members were searching for the stray monsters.

An Awakener went inside a building…

“Here, I found one!”

The colleagues who heard him ran.

Parts of a tattered corpse were scattered on the floor. It looked like it has been pierced by large weapons.

“What? You should have told us its already dead. We went running for nothing,” the others grumbled.

Suddenly, a man noticed the hole on the monster’s chest and pointed at it with his finger.

“Wait, I think someone pulled out the core inside?”

They didn’t have to check it with their extractor. The ether core was really gone.

Everyone’s expressions changed.

The leader of the Awakening team shouted in anger.

“Oh, what the fuck! If this is a prank, I will kill you!”

His ugly face caught everyone’s attention.

Another person interrupted him. “Scavengers?”

Scavengers.

They appear at the gate sites, without permission, to steal ether.

Since the value of the core is so high, there was a lot of competition for it in the field.

They were considered public enemies.

No one would dare scavenge on a big company with high-ranking Awakeners, but Dane Company is a relatively low ranking company.

The leader shook his head and grumbled. “Fucking scavengers. I thought they were gone these days.”

Overseas, scavengers remained to be a big problem, but in Korea, the government once had a massive sweep to address the problem.

Korea has the largest gate-related market in the world, and the government had to control risks such as scavengers.

With strict government operations, it was difficult for scavengers to remain in Korea.

“We can’t be guarding for scavengers while fighting monsters – what are the police doing?”

The leader marched angrily off the scene to protest to the police.

“Oh, did you find the remaining monsters?”

The officer in charge of the police welcomed the Dane Company Team.

The leader was still furious. “What did you do here while the scavenger went inside the site?”

The police officer looked confused and embarrassed. “Huh? What are you talking about?”

“Well, someone caught a monster without us knowing and took out the core. Aren’t you here to stop that from happening?”

“We are here to protect our citizens. And it doesn’t make any sense. No one has passed beyond the gates, including our personnel.”

“Ha, then let’s check the CCTVs around the area. We’ll sue you for damages in the future, just so you know.”

The Dane Company leader said and walked ahead in a rush.

The police officer talked to another member of the police.

“Contact the headquarters and ask for footage of CCTVs nearby. I wanted to finish this now.”

The police officer removed his hat, put it between his arms, and walked behind the Awakeners.

* * *

The Awakened and some of the police sat in the compartment behind the police truck, looking at multiple monitors.

The truck was equipped with multiple devices and could be used as a temporary control room at any time.

“The footages have arrived,” a police officer said, as the videos appeared on the screens.

Then, the people fixed their eyes on it.

Footages from CCTVs all around the barricade flashed. They looked at it, searching for people coming and going within site.

“No one has passed?”

“It can’t be…”

The group tried again, adjusting the speed, but there was really nothing.

“Wait,” an Awakener said urgently. They paused the footage.

Everyone stared at the frozen CCTV screen.

A silhouette was caught. It was blurry.

“What… is that a member of our team?”

“All nine of us are caught on different screens. Who is that fucker? Can you zoom in and play it once more?” the leader said.

It was impossible to recognize the criminal’s face.

“Damn, the picture quality is bad, and it’s too dark to see. Is there any other angle?”

“It’s all we have now,” a police officer controlling the monitor said.

While they were looking at the footage, the silhouette suddenly disappeared.

“Well? What happened? Did you skip some time?” the leader asked the police.

The middle-aged police looked at the men and asked, but he shook his head.

The video wasn’t fast-forwarded, nor has the camera angle changed.

The silhouette just disappeared without a trace.

“There are no windows or exits on that side. How can someone just disappear?” an Awakener pointed out in disbelief.

They played that section of the footage several times, and it was the same. The silhouette disappeared at the same timestamp.

“Could it be an ability?” someone from the Awakeners asked.

“Yeah, that’s right. An ability to go through the wall, to easily get out…” the police officer-in-charge answered.

Each of the faces in the group looked confused.

The Dane Company team leader shook his head as if the thought was ridiculous.

“Why would an Awakener with such powerful ability do scavenging for?” he asked.

“Oh, well, after watching the video multiple times, what else do you think it could be?” the police officer retorted.

While the two of them were fighting, the criminal, who stole the core, was heading home on a bus.