Chapter 23

“Leader!”

Just then, an urgent voice called to the raid leader from up ahead.

“We found a human corpse!”

“A corpse?”

The raid leader broke off his conversation with Suho and hurried back to the hunters. His eyes widened when he saw the body.

“It really is a corpse!”

“But this... I don't think it's an ordinary corpse.”

The hunters' expressions grew grave.

There was certainly something strange about the body. It had been burned black as charcoal from head to toe. Here in Seoul Station Field, of all places, such a corpse could only be out of place.

“I've never heard of any fire-using magic beasts in Seoul Station...”

“Exactly.”

Just then, Suho approached with the collectors to examine the body.

‘Huh?’

A curious glint appeared in Suho's eyes. The body's condition was all too familiar.

He turned to Teaching Assistant Im beside him. Im looked grave, as though the same thought had occurred to him.

“Suho, this body... Don't tell me...”

“Yes. I think it was a Mist Burn.”

Suho nodded with conviction.

Apparently overhearing him, the raid party's hunters all turned toward Suho.

“A Mist Burn?”

“That magic beast that burns blue?”

“Are you sure?”

Unless they belonged to a major guild, even hunters didn't know every kind of magic beast.

“I'm sure.”

After the Hankuk University incident, Suho had looked up information about Mist Burns online and learned something astonishing.

Mist Burns... weren't ordinary magic beasts.

No, they weren't magic beasts at all.

Suho calmly recited what he had read.

“Mist Burn. A phenomenon in which the body spontaneously ignites when someone who hasn't awakened inhales more than a certain amount of blue mist.”

“Wh-what?!”

“Mist Burns used to be people?”

Some of the less experienced hunters hadn't known that. Understandably so—the Hunters Association had only recently uncovered the truth about Mist Burns.

It was well known that Mist Burns attacked humans to create more of their own kind. But there had been no easy way to determine how the first Mist Burn came into being.

Suddenly, one hunter realized something and muttered,

“Wait. If that's really how Mist Burns are created, what about the rumor that breathing in blue mist can make you awaken?”

“Obviously, it's false. Or the information about Mist Burns got distorted.”

—Breathing in blue mist can make you awaken.

It had already been over a year since that rumor began circulating online like an urban legend. Yet no one had uncovered the truth behind it.

‘... Because everyone who tried breathing it in as an experiment must have burned to death.’

In any case, that wasn't what mattered now.

“Then how on earth... did this body get all the way down here?”

That was what the hunters wanted to know.

They were on Seoul Station's fourth basement level. It made no sense for someone who hadn't awakened to make it past the lizards and come down here alone.

But it was just as strange to think they had turned into a Mist Burn on the first level and then walked down here. A Mist Burn might leave the station to burn living people, but it had no reason to descend into a place crawling with nothing but magic beasts.

“Leader! There's another one here!”

Another body was discovered a short distance away. It was in the same condition as the first: the charred remains of a Mist Burn.

“Over here, too!”

The hunters found several more bodies after that, and with each discovery, the raid leader's expression grew graver.

‘... Something's wrong.’

As the person responsible for the hunters' safety, he couldn't easily ignore such a strange occurrence.

Still, it was too minor an issue to call off the hunt over. All they had found were a few corpses, after all. Besides, with this many people, they could easily handle even dozens of Mist Burns.

“For now... let's keep hunting.”

And so the hunt resumed.

“Suho.”

Teaching Assistant Im approached him with an anxious look.

“I'll tell you in advance this time.”

“Tell me what?”

“If things look dangerous, I'm running first, okay?”

“...?”

[Hah. What is this unabashed coward?]

Suho and Beru stared at Im in disbelief. But he was completely serious.

“You know I've got a running skill, right? If anything happens, use your summons to get away. I'll escape on my own.”

Even as he spoke, he kept looking around uneasily.

Studying his face, Suho asked,

“You're... certain something's going to happen, aren't you?”

“No. Of course I'd be glad if nothing happened. But...”

At Suho's words, Im finally let out a deep sigh and opened up.

“The truth is... my mother was killed by a Mist Burn.”

“...”

“Then she became a Mist Burn herself and tried to kill me.”

“...”

“That's why I'm so scared of Mist Burns. It feels like my mother is trying to kill me again.”

Suho could find nothing to say to his anguished confession.

* * *

Meanwhile...

“Aaaaagh!”

Horrific screams rang out deep within Seoul Station.

“H-hot...!”

“Aaagh! Aaaagh! Aaaaaagh!”

FWOOSH!

A group of people writhed in agony, bound in chains. Eerie blue flames engulfed their bodies.

“Spare us! Please, spare us! We'll say we didn't see anything! Really, nothing...!”

Behind them, those who had yet to catch fire sobbed bitterly and begged for their lives.

Pure terror. Frantic, maddened struggles.

They couldn't understand it.

Why them?! Why did they have to suffer like this here?!

... But no one would answer their questions.

Of course not. There had never been a reason in the first place.

They had simply been terribly unlucky.

For that alone, they were being burned alive.

“Is it that hot?”

Others stood before them, watching their screams with perfect indifference.

“Hmm. It should be hotter than this. Not much heat at all.”

They wore jet-black robes, their faces hidden behind crow masks that looked like something out of a medieval film.

“Hey, can't you turn up the heat somehow?”

“We don't have enough fuel.”

“Tsk. It's always the damn fuel. Can't you get more?”

“With all the Hyenas getting caught this time...”

“Whew. Why does nothing ever go right?”

The crow-masked figures grumbled without a care.

Meanwhile, the screams that had seemed as though they would last forever had abruptly ceased.

What stood bound in their place were...

[Graaah!]

Mist Burns.

The blue smoke monsters roared savagely, burning with the blackened corpses as their wicks.

[Kyaaaah!]

“Oh, sure. Nice to meet you, too?”

The crow-masked figures waved indifferently and deftly pulled thick gloves over both hands.

“All right, let's get to work. Before the firewood burns out.”

“What should I do with the used-up ones?”

A crow-masked figure in the corner raised a hand slightly as he spoke. Beside him lay a pile of Mist Burn remains whose fires had gone cold.

“Oh, right. Those. We'll work on this ourselves, so take them far away and dump them.”

“Yes, understood.”

“You know not to dump them nearby, right?”

“Of course. Heave-ho.”

The crow-masked man loaded the Mist Burn remains onto a handcart one by one, then grumbled as he pulled it outside.

“Ugh. What a pain. Where am I supposed to dump them this time? I'd love to just pile them all up near the factory.”

“Hey, that'll give away our location! Dump them as far away as you can!”

“I know.”

The crow-masked man shrugged once and disappeared into the darkness, dragging the creaking handcart behind him.

The others watched him go and clicked their tongues in disapproval.

“He's always trying to cut corners.”

“He talks like that, but he does his job well. Come on, let's get started ourselves.”

“Yes, sir. Beginning the thirteenth Stardust production run.”

At that moment, the eyes behind the crow masks grew intensely focused.

Behind them, the eyes of the people bound in chains brimmed with desperation.

‘Please, spare us.’

‘Someone, please... save us...’

They prayed and prayed.

But their voices never reached the heavens.

* * *

[Kieek?]

Suddenly, Beru's antennae twitched. He turned and stared intently into the dark subway tunnel.

[Young Monarch.]

“I felt it, too.”

Suho was already looking in the same direction, his eyes narrowed.

‘Is it because my Perception stat has increased?’

[Information]

Perception: A stat that enhances the five senses. Increases the ability to detect danger.

The subway tracks stretched far into the darkness. Somewhere deep within that tunnel, he could sense a sinister presence.

‘It gives me chills.’

He didn't need to see it to know. Something powerful was definitely lurking at the far end.

His first thought was a boss.

But Seoul Station Field was an old dungeon, already a year old. That meant other hunters had long since swept through and taken all the profitable magic beasts, such as boss monsters. As a result, the only beasts left here were the numerous, rapidly breeding lizards.

‘If it's not a boss, what on earth is this presence?’

Suho looked at the raid party's hunters, who were busy hunting lizards.

‘Has no one else noticed? Such blatant malice?’

That malice was watching them from the darkness, like an eagle observing its prey from high in the distant sky.

And the hunter's targets were the raid party members making all the noise in the area.

Then...

“The fuel came to me on its own.”

A voice suddenly muttered in the darkness.

WHOOSH!

“...!”

Suho's and Beru's eyes flew wide, and they shouted simultaneously.

“Get out of the way!”

[An enemy!]

BOOM!

“...!”

An explosion erupted.

Something in a black robe appeared there.

An unidentified man wearing a crow mask.

But no one thought he was human. An abnormally swollen, monstrous forearm protruded from his black robe.

“It's a humanoid magic beast!”

At the raid leader's shout, the hunters instantly regrouped into formation.

“Oh. You dodged that?”

The crow-masked man slowly straightened, pulling his fist out of the tunnel floor.

“Not bad.”

CRUNCH.

Chunks of cement crumbled in his grotesquely shaped hand.

Then, in a flash, he vanished from everyone's sight.

“...!”

The startled hunters frantically looked around for him.

But they were already too late.

‘The troublesome healer first.’

SWISH!

He had already appeared behind them. His bloated fist hurtled toward the raid leader's defenseless back.

Realizing it a moment too late, the raid leader's eyes widened.

Then a flash of light blazed.

“...!”

This time, the crow-masked man's eyes widened. Someone had suddenly leaped in front of him and blocked his attack.

SPLURT!

Black blood spurted like a fountain.

“Hah.”

Beneath the spray, Suho glared up at him, having blocked his fist with Vulcan's Horn.

“Well, look at you.”

The crow-masked man's lips stretched into a wicked grin.