CH 36

“Damn it, Sun-ah, Baek-sun!”

Baek-dam shouted, kicking at the broken concrete. His eyes glowed with a fiery yellow light. The whip in his hand glowed as hot as if it had been cut from the sun.

‘How long has it been since the attack began?’

Just a moment ago, he had been trapped in a circle. It had been triggered specifically for him.

He had awakened at the tender age of eighteen and had gone through the whole prenatal battle. The fortress had set up a counter-blockade to counter the capture-blockade.

Baek-dam was able to defeat them and regain his freedom.

Although, by the time he escaped, the fortress was already under attack.

“Shit.”

He could only hope that Sun had entered the safe room at the right time.

As Baek-dam scanned his surroundings, trying to recall the location of the safe room, he heard a cry from somewhere.

It was Baek-sun’s cry.

“B, brother….”

“Sun-ah!”

“Uh, what can I do, Cha-soo, Cha-soo, he’s not breathing…!”

Baek-sun trudged along, carrying Han Cha-soo’s limp body like a corpse. Slid. Han Cha-soo’s body slid downward due to the lack of strength in his hands.

“Ah!”

Baek-dam picked him up instead of his panicked brother. A stiff, cold body. Baek-dam’s eyes were cold as he looked at him.

He immediately understood the situation.

Han Cha-soo had sacrificed himself for his brother again. While his own brother was being held captive by a man with whom he had no blood ties.

Baek-dam barely swallowed the burning sensation in his throat before he spoke.

“Sun-ah, calm down and use the item. Leave Han Cha-soo to me.”

“But, but, he’s not breathing. He’s dead, he’s dead. It’s not like last time! He’s dead!”

“Wake up, Baek-sun!”

It was then. An eerie maneuvering sound shook the air.

Kii-ing-!

Dozens of red beams enveloped them. Baek-sun gulped as flesh shot out from all sides, hugging Han Cha-soo close.

“Fuck, really.”

Baek-dam felt his head grow hot.

“The bastards are really fucking around.”

It’s not enough that they want to take down the fortress and put an end to it, they want to kill his brother and his guest.

“Since you’ve come with such intentions, I’ll have to untangle my hair and treat you properly.”

“B, brother. Wait…!”

Baek-sun seemed to have realized what Baek-dam was trying to do.

“Sun-ah, be quiet and keep your head down.”

“Brother!”

“Don’t make a sound.”

Woooo!

There was a gust of wind when where there was no wind. Brilliance burst forth from the silvery-white head.

[Chamber of Punishment]

A square translucent space was created centered on the white walls.

One, two, three….

“Thirty-five, ha. Good scraping.”

Under a pile of crumbling concrete. Behind a thick column. Under half-raised flooring. Even inside the safe room, the holed-up guys were pointing lasers at him.

Baek-dam’s eyes shot into the void.

Kugugung!

The space tore apart and something pure white fell down.

It looked like giant feathers. Hundreds of feathers, glowing pure white, as if shed by an angel.

Kieeeeeeeee!

A red beam of light split into several prongs. Half of it was directed at the feathers, half at Baek-dam.

Baek-dam stared at the monsters as they ran toward him.

He stood still and waved his hand lightly.

Sarak.

The soft tip of a feather touched a silvery-white body.

Snap, snap, snap–!

The feathers gently dug into the monster’s shell. As smoothly as a thumbtack crushing an insect and holding it in place.

Crackle! Kwaah!

Dozens of human-like streamlined bodies exploded in a chain reaction. The monsters’ limbs twisted and their torsos were blown off.

But that wasn’t the end of it.

Beyond the translucent space, he could sense the stirrings of those who had been waiting for the right moment. Not monsters, but hunters. Yes, the awakeners.

“Brother….”

The low voice calling out to him, Baek-dam said.

The other hadn’t given up yet.

“Baek-sun, keep your word.”

Baek-sun glared at Baek-dam with wide eyes. Tendons sprouted in his arms as he held Han Cha-soo, but he seemed to come to terms with the situation.

“Save him. You can do it.”

Baek-dam nodded. Baek-sun gritted his teeth and stood up, a small orb in his hand.

A single-use teleportation item that could move a designated person to a set coordinate.

He kept it on hand in case his opponent tried to take Baek-sun hostage.

“Go.”

“Wait, brother!”

“Baek-sun, can’t you hear me?”

“It’s not working. I think those bastards did something…!”

“What?”

Boom!

A loud bang shook the vision and an ominous glow rose above the ruins. It was the second capture.

“Fuck, you might as well bring a lasso.”

Hah, Baek-dam laughed, a hollow chuckle. He gritted his teeth and threw up his hands.

Sae-ae-ak-!

Kwaaaaang!

“Aaaah!”

“Aaah!”

Sparks rained down like rain with the scream.

“Crazy.”

Blackened flames hotter than the sun. The air sizzling and cracking with each swing of the sword.

It was Jung Yiheon.

The beasts that attacked Baek-dam were subdued by the Heavenly Spirit Guild, led by Jung Yiheon. Several lives were lost in the process.

However, none of those who heard the news complained.

The mood of the hunters, in particular, was quite the opposite.

“If you’re targeting Baek-dam, you deserve to die.”

“How dare you target an S-class healer, you should be tortured to death.”

Most of the guilds, including Piet and the Four Seasons Guild, who were on good terms with Philoso, had an attitude that they deserved to be killed. S-class healers were rare.

“It must be the free bugs again. How many times have they sold the country out for money?”

“I need to set a date and put everything in.”

It was also due to poor public sentiment toward the criminal, the unregistered awakening.

An unregistered awakener is a hunter who hasn’t officially registered as an awakened with the Awakening Management Bureau.

Calling themselves libertarians, they saw it as their right not to register. At one point, there were loud calls for them to be labeled an anti-government terrorist organization.

Until a group of businessmen, including a member of Congress, started blackmailing, kidnapping, and criminalizing awakened people with rare abilities.

“How can you say you’re protecting the awakened after this?”

Libertarians were the first to rescue the victims, arrest the perpetrators, and as if that wasn’t enough, wipe out government databases.

The entire nation’s personal information was reduced to scraps of paper, forcing the government and the Awakening Management Bureau to take a step back.

It was harder not to when the Vice President was implicated in the awakening kidnapping.

And so the unregistered awakened were set free. The price they paid was that they would face severe punishment if it became clear they were involved in a crime.

Since then, the country has shifted to treating rare abilities with extreme care.

Just like now, when the Awakening Management Bureau accepted Baek-dam’s request for a newly developed treatment device.

“Hunter Baek-dam!”

Woo Jeo-geun greeted Baek-dam instead of Ki Tae-yeon, who had been called to the headquarters.

He paused for a moment when he saw Han Cha-soo covered in blood, but quickly recovered and got straight to the point.

“While you were here, I finished setting it up so you can use it right away.”

“And the safety tests?”

“Passed, and we’ve already done three clinical trials, so don’t worry.”

“You’ll have to keep that word.”

The light brown eyes slowly swept over him. For a moment, Woo Jeo-geun felt like a frog in front of a snake.

The momentum was frightening.

“Since you can’t even show up on time, you should at least do a good job, so that I can pay my taxes, right?”

“Hunter Baek-dam, calm down… ugh!”

Baek-damn’s anger was not something Woo Jeo-geun dared to deal with. He swallowed hard at the strangling sensation in his throat.

“We can discuss the merits later.”

A low voice broke the tense air. Woo Jeo-geun recognized the person who had been following Baek-dam without a word.

‘Jung Yiheon?’

He didn’t realize he was wearing a saccharine hoodie and for a moment he wondered why he was dressed like that.

“His pulse is getting weaker.”

Jung Yiheon said in a low voice.

Although covered in blood, Han Cha-soo was apparently fine. Baek-dam had poured healing into him as soon as he had subdued the criminals.

But his naturally weak body would not recover so easily.

His heart was the biggest problem.

The monster’s blow had struck precisely at the edge of his heart, a heart that had been consumed by the wraith’s poison once before. Baek-dam had managed to revive it, but no wonder it was even weaker than before.

Han Cha-soo’s breathing was so weak. As if he would die at any moment.

As Baek-dam stared down at him, a series of murderous sounds came out.

“You thought I’d let you die.”

He hadn’t come all this way to maintain his skills for nothing. It was only a moment before Baek-dam picked him up again and held him.

A flinch.

Han Cha-soo’s body moved.

“Han Chasoo-ssi?”

Black blood dripped from Han Cha-soo’s mouth as he tried to regain his senses.

“…….”

“…….”

“Where’s the machine, fuck!”

“C, come this way!”

Woo Jeo-geun led the group in a rare display of panic. He could see the panic in the eyes of passersby as they raced down the hall.

Whatever. Right now, saving lives was the priority.

“Team Leader Woo, the patient is… Heuk, hurry this way!”

“Put the patient on this side! Yes, you can push him in slowly like that…. Sung-jin, go get the hose!”

“Yes!”

The normally relaxed intensive care unit quickly became an uproar.