Under Creature Chapter 14.2

Whether it was taking a knife for Seo Doa during the surprise attack at Iryeon, shielding Yigeom during the containment facility explosion, or crashing into the passenger side just now….

Recalling the past days, Yigeom questioned him.

“Why on earth do you do that? Are we supposed to thank you for it?”

“I never expected that.”

“Well, we never expected that kind of sacrifice from you either, you know?”

Seo Dohyun frowned, as if he didn’t understand. This made Yigeom even more dumbfounded. Their ways of thinking were so completely different that they couldn’t communicate.

Seo Dohyun pondered for a moment, as if trying to understand, and then spoke.

“Gyeom-ah. I know what you mean.”

“I don’t think you do.”

“You’re saying I shouldn’t get hurt, right? Because you don’t like seeing me get hurt.”

“That’s about right.”

When Yigeom nodded, acknowledging that he had interpreted it correctly, Seo Dohyun’s face lit up with a smile.

“This is strange. To think a day like this would come. We’ve gotten really close.”

“Why are you talking nonsense again.”

He couldn’t tell if he was trying to change the subject or if he was genuinely happy and smiling.

“I’d like to open up that head of yours and see what’s inside.”

“Same here.”

“Yes, I’m sure you would.”

Yigeom replied listlessly and walked past Seo Dohyun. Seo Dohyun trotted after him and spoke.

“I’ve called a taxi up ahead. You’re coming to the Vigilante Corps with me, right?”

“Of course I am. I’ve followed you this far, haven’t I?”

Despite the brusque words, Seo Dohyun was all smiles.

🦅࿐

“Hello.”

“Oh… it’s been a while! Come on in.”

When Yigeom and Dohyun arrived at the Vigilante Corps, Jin Geonwoo greeted them. Then he chattered on, as if making excuses.

“I really didn’t know about the retaliatory attacks against the guilds that partnered with the Vigilante Corps… I haven’t been here long, and I’ve been a little busy adapting to various things and trying to find out what you asked for. If I had heard about it, I would have told you to be careful. I heard about the accident today. You’re not hurt anywhere, are you? Sh-should I heal you?”

“We already had a visiting healer. And it’s okay, so don’t worry about it. By the way, have you checked the CCTV?”

“Yeah. Follow me.”

Jin Geonwoo took them to the information room and played the CCTV footage of the area around the Latter office parking lot.

“So you said the time was between 2 and 6 p.m., right?”

“Yes, when we arrived at the office by car at 2 p.m., there was no problem with the car. The brakes suddenly failed just as we were leaving for dinner.”

If the culprit had tampered with Seo Dohyun’s car, it would have been during that time. Yigeom and Dohyun carefully watched the footage that Jin Geonwoo was fast-forwarding. But no one approached the car. It was even a secluded parking lot, so no one even parked next to it.

No one had touched Seo Dohyun’s car. Then how did the brakes fail?

“I checked before you guys came, but no one approached Dohyun’s car. No one even passed by this area.”

While Yigeom was pondering, Jin Geonwoo spoke, placing a thick pile of documents on the table.

“This is a collection of recent retaliatory incidents. I just got it out in a hurry, so I haven’t read it yet either.”

Yigeom and Dohyun reached for the documents. Jin Geonwoo also started reading the incidents with concentration, wanting to be of help to them.

As Yigeom read the details of the incidents, as if engraving each and every letter into his brain, he narrowed his brow. They had been attacked in a truly diverse range of ways, and there had even been fatalities as a result.

Furthermore, they were becoming more cunning and dangerous by the day.

If they didn’t take action soon, the guilds would slowly sever their ties with the Vigilante Corps due to the continuous retaliations, and the Vigilante Corps would once again become quickly isolated.

They would return to the old way. The Vigilante Corps would catch Blood Hunters, and the guilds would catch creatures.

When you think about it, nothing would change from before.

But for some reason, Yigeom felt a sense of unease in his heart.

Which organization did the Blood Hunters who had attacked the guilds so far belong to? When he sorted them by date, there were a ton of incidents that had occurred within a short period of time. Considering the nature of Blood Hunters, wouldn’t one place be short on manpower to cause this much trouble?

Could it be… Kwon Sanghyuk and Adam, who had escaped from Orca before, had a history of forming an alliance. What if, in order to counter the current Vigilante Corps + guild alliance, the Blood Hunters had also formed an alliance of their respective organizations? And in that state, the Vigilante Corps and the guilds were disbanded, but the Blood Hunter alliance remained?

For a moment, the back of his neck felt cold.

“Geonwoo hyung. Have you heard anything about this?”

“Not at all. I only found out today because you guys told me. I also hastily prepared the materials here because you were coming.”

“Is that so.”

As Yigeom was at a loss, with no leads, Seo Dohyun, who had been looking at the documents all along, muttered.

“Machines.”

“Huh?”

“There are a lot of incidents related to machines.”

Yigeom, who was recalling the contents he had read, answered with a start.

“…Oh? That’s definitely true.”

There were many incidents related to machines, such as the car accident they had just experienced, as well as explosions, elevator falls, and so on.

“Is their ability related to machines?”

As Yigeom muttered, Seo Dohyun flipped through the documents and replied.

“It could be seen that way. Don’t be too quick to assume it’s machines.”

Since most machine parts are made of iron, an ability that can manipulate metal would make it easy to orchestrate such incidents. And since it was done with an ability, it would be possible to avoid being caught on CCTV.

“Guys, wait a minute…”

Jin Geonwoo, who was listening, quickly typed on the keyboard, checked the monitor, and said dejectedly.

“There are no abilities related to iron, machines, or metal on the list of Blood Hunters we have. If that assumption is correct, it seems to be an unknown entity.”

After that, the three of them investigated the location, time, and various traces of the incidents, and parted ways only after the dawn had passed.

Jin Geonwoo said he was on night duty today and saw the two of them off, and Yigeom, who had stepped out of the building, let out a big yawn into the air.

“Are you tired?”

“Yeah, a little.”

In fact, even if they didn’t search for the culprit themselves, there was a high possibility that the Vigilante Corps had already figured out that one of them had an ability related to machines and was looking for them.

The reason they had investigated so hard was because they felt more at ease when they did it themselves.

There was also the purpose of monitoring Seo Dohyun to make sure he wasn’t up to anything strange.

“For your information, I’m going to stay up all night, so just know that.”

Yigeom suddenly declared.

“If you’re tired, you should sleep. Why are you forcing yourself?”

“I thought about it, and if you use your ability while I’m asleep, I have no way of knowing. Who knows what you’ll do in the meantime.”

You never knew. He might be wandering around trying to catch the culprit behind his back. At that, Seo Dohyun replied nonchalantly, not at all surprised.

“Ah, I see there was such a way.”

‘He knew it all along but pretended not to.’

Yigeom glared at him sullenly.

“Whatever it is, I mean don’t move alone.”

“We’ll see. I’ll try.”

“And for the time being, don’t take the car, don’t take the elevator, anyway, no machines. Walk and use the stairs as much as possible.”

Yigeom decided to let the others know about this and posted in the Latter group chat. Then, still looking uneasy, he added a word to Seo Dohyun.

“Especially you. I let it slide earlier, but try not to get hurt. You won’t get anything in return for getting hurt protecting us.”

“I’ll try my best with that too.”

“You always say you’ll try, try. Do you even know what trying means?”

“Haha.”

It was no use talking to him. Seo Dohyun seemed to be letting Yigeom’s words go in one ear and out the other.

“But Gyeom-ah.”

“What.”

“The way I do things is a habit, so it’s not easy to fix. That’s why I said I’d try.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

“It’s true.”

Seeing the disbelieving Yigeom, Seo Dohyun rubbed the piercing on his earlobe as if troubled.

Always, in every situation, the future only changes when he actively moves. The people around him acted the same as before no matter what they did, and five minutes was too short a time to give them detailed instructions not to do such inefficient things.

It was more comfortable to move alone than to do that. And in reality, it was more efficient.

He was the only one who knew the future, and the only one who could move in opposition to what had happened before.

If I don’t move, the future doesn’t change. The future changes centered on me.

That had solidified into a kind of habit.

Whenever an incident occurred, he felt at ease only when he was the first to move, and because of that, everything became extremely centered on himself.

He had a compulsion that something would only change if he did it himself. That was still the same now.

Even though he had Yoon Yigeom now.

“You have me. So put it down a little. If that’s not enough, we have Sanha hyung too.”

As if on cue, Yoon Yigeom comforted him at the perfect moment.

“You’re right. Even though I have you. It’s not easy to fix.”

Even though someone who knew the future, someone who could change it, had appeared, it wasn’t easy. In fact, it had become more difficult.

Because now he was afraid that Yoon Yigeom would get hurt.

Perhaps because he had become precious.

And so….