The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low Chapter 23

“I want hyung.”

Their eyes met, and Wijae forced the corners of his mouth up in an awkward smile for the time being.

What? Someone unknown? Someone no one knows exists? Wijae recalled educational comics featuring caricatures of himself in a mask, and documentaries he had once glimpsed in passing. There’s probably no one as famous as me, you little brat….

“Someone skilled but belonging nowhere. And someone unknown to the public. The fewer who know, the better.”

“…”

“Difficult conditions, aren’t they?”

Sayoung moved silently, slowly circling around Wijae. It felt like a snake hidden in the undergrowth slithering closer.

“I was about to give up on finding the right person, and then hyung appeared.”

“…”

“Like fate.”

“Are you a fatalist?”

“I never believed in that kind of shit, but I’m thinking maybe I should start now.”

By now, Sayoung was standing right behind Wijae. He bent his waist slightly.

“I looked into hyung a bit.”

Black fingers coiled around Wijae’s shoulder. Their owner whispered affectionately.

“The high school you attended, even the area around your house—all swept away entirely by a Rift, so there’s nothing to find…. Both parents died on the Day of the Rift, and with no remaining relatives either, there’s nothing to dig up. If you’d worked somewhere, there’d be contracts, but there are no contracts, no bank transaction records, and the first time you opened a phone line was just a few months ago. I can’t even find any records before that.”

“…”

“The old lady who owns this place and her nephew—they’re not really your relatives, are they? They’re complete strangers.”

Wijae was silent. Sayoung continued without a care.

“There really was nothing.”

Of course there wasn’t. While active as J, Wijae had been J, not Cha Wijae. It was only natural that there would be no traces of ‘Cha Wijae’ for Lee Sayoung to find. Sayoung let out a heavy sigh.

“Originally, I was going to offer whatever conditions it took and scout you nicely. But….”

“…”

“Right now, it seems like this shop is all hyung cares about.”

The gentle voice drew a little closer to his ear. Wijae unconsciously held his breath for a moment.

“Does hyung even want anything?”

What I want?

There is no one in the world who wants nothing.

Even now, when he closes his eyes, he hears desperate screams and cries. Hands clinging to his feet begging for help, and the stench of blood vibrating at the tip of his nose—they rear their heads at unexpected moments. The squelching sensation of frantically digging through piles of corpses to salvage even a single piece of flesh or bone is still vivid.

If he could, Cha Wijae wanted to retrieve the bodies left abandoned like refuse in the Rifts. Though he had returned alive alone and fled into hiding here, that wish was genuine. He wanted to send them back to where they belonged. He wanted to fulfill the last duty of the survivor. Because that place… was too lonely.

But he knew it was impossible.

So Cha Wijae had no choice but to say he wanted nothing.

“Nothing.”

“…Is that so?”

When Wijae answered shortly, Sayoung blinked slowly, then raised the corners of his mouth in a smile.

“Then let me suggest one.”

He pulled a tablet out of thin air and placed it in front of Wijae. On the screen was a photo of a bespectacled man with a sharp, sensitive look. Sayoung, as if enveloping Wijae from behind, reached his arm over his shoulder and slowly swiped the photo to the side. A man with long white hair tied low in a single ponytail was wearing a doctor’s gown.

“Do you know Nam Woojin? An A-rank healer.”

Wijae remembered seeing him when he had looked up Lee Sayoung.

—Current rank 6 of the Republic of Korea, Librarian Nam Woojin. Head of the Seowon Guild. The only A-rank healer in Korea. Before awakening, he was an orthopedic surgeon at a university hospital, making him a figure who raised questions about whether one’s pre-awakening specialty affects their awakened abilities….

Something like that, he thought. As the memory seemed to vaguely surface, he nodded, and Sayoung beamed.

“How about having the old lady’s leg treated by Nam Woojin?”

“What?”

“I heard her leg isn’t doing well.”

From the ability to float 2 centimeters off the ground to the ability to lift an entire building—since the Day of the Rift, as many abilities had appeared as there were awakened individuals, but those with healing skills for others were extremely rare. When Cha Wijae had been active, there was only one, a B-rank awakened individual in the United States.

And an A-rank healer, the only one in Korea. A person ordinary people could never even meet. Wijae was dumbfounded and let out a short laugh.

“An A-rank healer would treat a civilian? That’s ridiculous.”

“The Seowon Guild and us are in a cooperative relationship, so I can ask them to treat one person. Since he was an orthopedic specialist before awakening, he can also do general medical care.”

“…”

“How about it?”

It was a terribly sweet condition. But Cha Wijae was not young enough to be intoxicated by sweetness and neglect his surroundings. All these deals and conditions were not the essence, but merely peripheral.

“Lee Sayoung.”

“Yes, hyung.”

“What’s your real reason for doing this to me?”

“…”

Wijae turned his head to meet Sayoung’s violet eyes. He was staring intently, as if observing Wijae’s face. Instead of averting his gaze, Wijae raised the corners of his mouth in a smirk.

“You dug all the way down to the bottom investigating me, tried to find a weak spot to strike, and now you’re even dangling a carrot—why go through all this trouble to drag me in?”

“…”

“If I refuse here, you’ll blab that I’m an awakened individual all over the neighborhood, won’t you?”

“…”

“What do you really want?”

“Well….”

Sayoung’s eyes, devoid of humor, scanned Wijae’s face with a chill. Contrary to all the roundabout coaxing up until now, the answer came rather quickly.

“I did consider that method.”

“…”

“But simple threats are a poor strategy….”

“…”

“And I concluded that’s not the kind of person you are anyway.”

“At least you made a decent judgment.”

“Thanks for the compliment. Anyway, to give you my answer—”

A brief silence fell. Sayoung asked in a low voice.

“Do you remember that bastard hyung whacked with a ladle back then?”

Of course he remembered. If it hadn’t been for that bastard, he would never have ended up sitting face to face with Lee Sayoung like this. When Wijae nodded, Sayoung rubbed the tablet screen with his index finger and continued.

“A few years ago, a suspicious new drug started circulating.”

“…”

“Of course, ordinary drugs or narcotics don’t have much effect on awakened individuals…. But strangely, that drug produced an extreme reaction.”

“For example?”

“Increased aggression, addiction. And—”

Long fingers brought up another photo on the screen. A grotesquely twisted body with pitch-black thorns protruding all over—at a glance, it looked like a withered tree… something that had once been human. It was a sight Wijae had also seen before.

“Physical mutation.”

Suddenly, he recalled what Lee Sayoung had said on the day they first met.

‘Sorry. This bastard doesn’t know anything. His brain is pickled in drugs.’

The man Lee Sayoung had been beating was probably an awakened individual addicted to this drug. The being in the photo was even closer to a monster than a human, more so than the man he had seen back then. Observing the unnaturally contorted body in the image, Wijae muttered.

“Just from taking drugs, they end up like this?”

“…That’s the annoying part.”

Sayoung muttered back as if in reply and turned off the tablet screen.

“Anyway, I’m looking for the bastards distributing this drug. But,”

“…”

“Me and my guild members are already too well-known…. The moment we dig even a little deeper, the trail will go cold.”

The Pado Guild was a small group, but each of its hunters was famous. Being few in number, every action they took was bound to draw attention. If the target of tracking or reconnaissance was an awakened individual, it was a fatal handicap.

“Still, I can’t just send anyone in. They’d either end up dead or crawling around equally drugged out.”

‘Someone skilled but belonging nowhere. And someone unknown to the public. The fewer who know, the better.’

To track a well-hidden opponent, one naturally needs to remain similarly concealed while pursuing. And since the opponents are awakened individuals with enhanced aggression, the person stepping up needs to have enough skill to fight and win against awakened individuals.

Even by Cha Wijae’s reasoning, Lee Sayoung’s conditions had a valid basis. And he himself fit those conditions perfectly. But—

“But why?”

“Hm?”

“Why are you looking for them?”

Why on earth was Lee Sayoung trying to find them?

For the sake of awakened individuals? No. To protect the Republic of Korea? That couldn’t be it. To protect civilians? Surely not.

Based on what he had seen so far, Lee Sayoung was not the type to chase them for some righteous cause. Though their time together had been short, Wijae could tell instinctively.

Lee Sayoung was a man who moved solely according to his own standards. Neither the pride of being Korea’s number one, nor a sense of duty, nor even the Special Act on Awakened Individuals, which established civilian protection as its primary principle, could serve as a special motive for him.

“…”

Sayoung, who had been silent, raised his index finger to his lips.

“Anything beyond this is a secret.”

“Hey.”

“If hyung agrees to the deal, I’ll tell you.”

“…”

“Oh, and the drug story is confidential, so keep it secret. Otherwise, Jeongbin will come looking for you here again.”

This bastard, he’s shackling me under the pretense of sharing a secret, isn’t he? Wijae’s expression turned cold. In contrast, a smile had fully returned to Sayoung’s face.

Lee Sayoung put the tablet back into his inventory and lightly kneaded Wijae’s shoulder, which had been in close contact with him until just now, a couple of times. Even when Wijae slapped his hand away, he laughed out loud without showing any sign of displeasure. Rising from his seat, Wijae waved his hand as if annoyed.

“Get lost. I have to close up.”

“Yessir.”

Lee Sayoung put his gas mask back on slowly. Now once again the suspicious gas mask, Sayoung abruptly extended his hand. What, are we shaking hands? As Wijae watched with suspicious eyes, the black-gloved fingertips wiggled.

“Phone.”

“Why?”

“I’ll put my number in.”

“Not necessary.”

“My number’s valuable.”

“I’ll sell your number on Tomato Market too.”

“Then we’ll be seeing each other often, won’t we.”

When Wijae made a threat that wasn’t quite a threat, Sayoung laughed as if amused. Still, he showed no intention of withdrawing his hand, so Wijae eventually handed over his phone. Even if he refused the deal, he thought it might be wise to keep at least one last safeguard for unforeseen circumstances.

After quickly entering the number, Sayoung left the shop without hesitation. Left alone, Wijae opened his contacts app.

Originally, only two numbers had been stored in his phone. The old lady’s and Haeun’s home phone number, and Haeun’s cell phone number. He had never needed to save any other numbers.

But now it was different. Below the only contacts, a new name had been added.

[Sayoung]