RG 119

As I got closer to Zone A-12, the area grew increasingly deserted, and the stench of smoke and rot filled the air. Up ahead, a sign scribbled in red with the words “Danger Zone” came into view. I pulled the brakes and stopped the bike in front of it.

Creaaaak!

The entrance was marked by a rickety sign that looked like it might fall off at any moment. Beyond the loosely strung barbed wire fence, parts of the ruined city were visible.

The stench likely came from monsters, and the burnt smell… maybe there’d been a fire recently.

It wasn’t unusual for small and large fires to break out in zones marked as danger areas. With monsters and criminals tangled together in these places, most people had grown desensitized to something as common as a fire.

I parked the bike in a corner and entered the zone on foot. If I took the bike in, it’d draw too much attention from the criminals hiding all over. The noise could even attract monsters.

My goal was to rescue Cha Sahyeon, who was being held somewhere inside the church, so I needed to move as quietly and quickly as possible. Gripping the sword sheath in one hand, I kicked off the ground and jumped up. Using the crumbling, broken buildings as stepping stones, I made my way toward the center where the church was.

Between the thickly overgrown trees, I started to see the pointed architecture characteristic of a church, topped with a cross.

And then—

Ding!

“…!”

With a familiar notification sound, a status window appeared before me.

《Main Quest has arrived!》

《Main Quest: Reunite with the antagonist (Time Remaining: 6 hours 59 minutes)》

[Main Quest: Reunite with the antagonist]

Reunite with the villain somewhere inside the church within the time limit.

I let out a dry laugh at the quest that arrived as if it had been waiting for me.

“So that’s why the system’s been quiet.”

No way an event like this would happen without the system getting involved. Not bad. At least now I could track how much time I had. Though seven hours wasn’t exactly generous.

‘If I don’t complete the rescue before sunrise, it’s over anyway. My life’s on the line too.’

But I didn’t understand why the quest said reunite instead of rescue.

Reunite wasn’t exactly wrong, but it rubbed me the wrong way. Just as I was staring at the quest window with a bad feeling creeping in, I sensed an unfamiliar presence beside me.

“Are you Hunter Cover?”

The person hiding on a thick tree branch like I was wore a mask and was cloaked in a black robe. Just as Eun Woojeong said, it was a member of Spider’s Web keeping watch over the church’s activity.

“Yeah. What’s the situation?” I naturally asked for a briefing, and after a brief pause, the man bowed his head and spoke.

“We’ve identified about sixty people inside. No additional personnel have entered from the outside.”

“What about their ranks?”

“Five A-classes, over a dozen B-classes, and the rest are assumed to be C- or D-classes, or unawakened. We can’t confirm the exact breakdown.”

“Five A-classes? And more than ten B-classes?”

“That includes non-combatants. But we don’t know the ratio of combat to non-combat personnel.”

Listening to the report, I looked down at the church across from us. Through the iron bars, I could see Hunters stationed around the building. All the church windows were dark.

“Do you know anything about the interior layout?”

“Not in detail, but we confirmed the structure has three floors. The church is on the ground floor, and the other two levels are underground.”

So the church itself was a front.

‘Cha Sahyeon must be held underground.’

The non-combatant Hunters were probably researchers. With Cha Sahyeon captured, they’d likely resumed whatever project had been halted.

Crack.

I clenched my hand tighter around the tree branch.

Just a little longer… If he can hold on just a little longer, I can save him. He has to hang in there until then.

Suppressing my nervousness, I asked, “Anything else to report?”

“…They say an unusual presence was detected on the second basement level.”

Second basement?

“And there’s no viable entry point for a stealth approach. The only visible entrance to the church is the one in front, and as you can see, it’s guarded. If you’re going in, you’ll have to handle both the guards and the Hunters inside by yourself.”

That much was expected.

I never planned on sneaking in to begin with. The lab guys must have brought Cha Sahyeon all the way here for a reason. What I was more curious about was what he mentioned earlier.

“What exactly do you mean by ‘unusual presence’?”

“I’m not sure.”

The operative, who had been explaining things just fine until now, suddenly clammed up and played dumb. It made me uneasy, and I decided to press on a point that had been bothering me.

“No matter how good your intel network is, is it really possible to gather this much detailed information without even entering the building? How’d you manage it?”

“That, I can’t tell you.”

“Oh, because I’m an outsider? Even though I’m the one who made a direct deal with your boss?”

The operative replied with visibly heightened tension, “…I don’t have the authority. I can only speak on what the leader has permitted me to share.”

“Hm.”

He was stiff as a board and didn’t let his guard down even when I made the smallest move. I guess he was worried I might suddenly attack him out of spite.

But really, I didn’t have the time or interest to do anything like that.

Still, I could understand the wariness. At best, the guy was a B-class. He was probably specialized in reconnaissance from a distance, so his skills would be geared toward that.

If I drew my sword here, running would be the only option he had.

‘I know what it feels like to be the weaker one.’

I did feel a tiny bit of guilt toward Eun Woojeong, too. Might as well leave on a good note. With that thought, I smiled and placed a hand firmly on the operative’s shoulder. “Thanks, really.”

“Uh, wh-what?”

“You’ve been a big help.”

“Uh?”

“I’m off now. If you see your boss later, let him know you followed orders well. Oh, and I left my bike at the zone entrance—go ahead and take it.”

“…”

The guy was too stunned to respond, so I patted his shoulder a couple of times before leaping down from the tree.

He couldn’t have seen my smile through the mask and hat, but he surely heard the gentleness in my voice. That ought to help him feel a bit more at ease on his way back. Man, I really am too considerate sometimes.

I gave a slight shrug, then drew my sword from its sheath. Enough of the distractions. It was time to get serious. Sword in one hand, sheath in the other, I lightly kicked off the ground and leapt forward. In one move, I cleared the spiked iron fence and charged straight toward the target.

“Wh–wha, ugh!”

Thud!

The enemy who finally lifted his head and saw me had it slammed straight into the ground.

“Guhk…”

I ground the enemy’s head straight into the hard cement floor, then immediately thrust my sword at the second target nearby.

“Gkk!”

The second guard, unable to react to the situation unfolding in an instant, had his heart pierced in a single blow.

I shook the blood from my blade as I looked down at the two guards who had collapsed side by side. A puddle quickly formed from the blood flowing out of their bodies.

‘Can’t be helped.’

I hadn’t wanted to kill them if I could avoid it, but I wasn’t in a position to be merciful with my enemies. I had to reach the deepest point while dealing with enemies attacking from every direction. If I spared each one, it would only come back to strangle me later.

‘Second basement level, wasn’t it?’

That was where the unusual energy had been detected—the place the operative had told me about.

That was the final destination.

***

The dark lab was bathed entirely in red light from the only working machine. The glow made it seem like the entire room was soaked in blood.

“Damn, this is boring as hell. Hey, Jay.”

An irritated voice broke the silence. The man leaning against the wall, blankly staring at the machine, turned his head at the call.

“How long do we have to stay here? Didn’t you hear anything?”

Grumbling, the craftsman who had gone out with Jay yesterday voiced his complaints. Jay quietly shook his head. Under his disheveled light brown hair, his murky green eyes showed no emotion.

The craftsman sighed deeply, as if he’d expected that answer. “Ugh, you’re making this even more suffocating.” 

His complaints continued non-stop afterward. He kept whining about how long they’d be stuck in this dull space. Jay had no way of fixing that, so he simply listened in silence.

About thirty minutes passed.

Zing—the lab door slid open, and the director, who had stepped out briefly, returned. The sharp clack of heels was followed by a commanding voice. “How is it?”

The director, walking in while brushing back her jet-black bobbed hair, was met by an approaching staff member. He’d been stationed beside the machine for over twelve hours, recording without pause.

“Yes, Director. Here’s the current status of the test subject.” The staff member handed over a file and continued his report, “His heart rate and breathing are both unstable, and his stress levels have reached the limit.”

“Excellent. You’re still restricting his breathing, right?”

“Of course.”

While listening to their exchange, Jay turned again to look at the machine emitting the red light. It was a massive glass tank with special reinforcement filled with thick red liquid.

And… inside the liquid, a boy about the same age as Jay, fully submerged.

“We should’ve done this from the start.” The director’s eyes glinted strangely as a satisfied smile crept onto her face. “Instead of poking him with needles little by little, we should’ve just dunked him in from the beginning. He would’ve awakened by now. We wasted so much time doing useless crap.”

The red fluid in the glass tank was a highly toxic substance the director had barely perfected after extensive research. Just touching it caused excruciating pain—it was the finished product.

Having one’s entire body immersed in that stuff… if it weren’t for the paralysis effect, the pain would’ve been so unbearable he might’ve begged to be killed instead. On top of that, his breathing was being pushed to the limit through the oxygen mask strapped over his mouth.

Unrelenting, searing pain radiated from every part of his body, with just enough oxygen fed in—only when his heart felt like it was about to burst.

The sheer stress he endured in a state where not just movement but even breathing was restricted was beyond overwhelming.

And all of this was prepared for the sake of one single person.

“Just a little…” Looking up at the glass tank glowing red, the director murmured in rapture, “Just wait a little longer…”

He would awaken. Their god—who would put an end to this unjust world.

As if he had heard the director’s words, the boy trapped inside the tank tilted his head ever so slightly. Under the shifting black strands of hair, his tightly shut eyes came into view.