TS 048

There was no mercy in the hand that snatched the mermaid’s neck. As if it had never sung a sweet song, the mermaid bared its teeth with a sharp noise. It was not easy to hold its body still as it struggled, whipping its tail from side to side.

Just as he was about to pull out a knife with his remaining hand while holding the over-2-meter-long mermaid with one hand, a cracking sound was heard. Yoon Taehwa rolled his eyes and stared at the man sitting on the ground.

“I said I’d kill it.”

When he let go, the mermaid’s corpse sank beneath the Han River with a splash.

It seems he deliberately pretended to be mesmerized.

With that as a trigger, the singing that had been like background music abruptly stopped. Instead of faltering in surprise at the mermaids’ transformation, Yoon Taehwa immediately drew his gun.

“It seems the mermaid’s corpse falling into the water was the trigger for the attack. The attack pattern doesn’t seem to be anything to worry about much.”

The sound of violently parting water set his nerves on edge.

“That’s a relief. It just gets troublesome if they go around mesmerizing people.”

They had suddenly become the target of attack, but it was what he had intended. Yoon Taehwa loaded his gun with an indifferent face.

With the sound of parting water, a mermaid bared its teeth and shot out of the water, its nails extended. The arm, extending cleanly, aimed precisely at the target and pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Red blood flowed onto the murky water. At the same time, rumble, the depths of the river began to shake as if there were an earthquake. Yoon Taehwa just slightly ducked his head to check under the bridge. The mermaids that had been lined up along the bridge were swarming toward them.

“Did you lure them on purpose?”

“Controlling the civilians is the priority. If they’re not controlled, the Center’s reinforcements will be delayed, and it will be a headache in many ways.”

When monsters escaped from a Gate, the most troublesome problem was the safety of the civilians. Unlike 18 years ago, it was a relief that these were monsters that could only survive in water.

“I think we can handle all of them before the other team members arrive.”

Han Suryeon boasted as he snatched the mermaids that had jumped into the air using his ability. The lungless mermaids either flapped about on the bridge, gasping for breath, or their necks were snapped and they fell back into the river.

“They’ll be handling it from the other end as they come, so… they’ll arrive in 3 minutes.”

Yoon Taehwa, without moving from the railing, stared at another bridge visible in the distance. From the moment he contacted the Center, the entire Han River area would have been designated a control zone, so there would be Center staff controlling that area as well. Several white foams headed this way.

‘It’s convenient that Han Suryeon is a physical type.’

As long as they weren’t mesmerized, they could be easily snatched, so they weren’t very tricky monsters. Yoon Taehwa, with his back to Han Suryeon, silently set about dealing with the mermaids.

Bang! Bang!

It was when he was firing monster-killing bullets at the charging mermaids and surveying the surroundings.

Suddenly, he met the eyes of one mermaid. Instead of baring its teeth and jumping out like the other mermaids, it was resting its arms on the railing and singing.

“..…”

The gray eyes reminded him of someone. When the mermaid tilted its head, its curly hair tumbled onto its pale skin. Yoon Taehwa narrowed his eyes and raised his arm. Just as he was about to pull the trigger, a figure suddenly appeared and snatched the mermaid’s neck.

“Team Leader, were you mesmerized?”

“Kyaaaa!”

Han Suryeon, who had taken out a knife, stabbed the sharp blade into the mermaid’s gills. Droplets of blood burst out as if its lungs had been pierced and landed on his pale cheek.

“Why weren’t you killing this one right away and just staring at it so intensely?”

Because he had roughly wiped the splattered blood with his sleeve, a reddish smudge remained on his pale cheek. Yoon Taehwa looked down at the mermaid dying with its tail trembling, then raised his gaze. Han Suryeon, holding the knife, was making a pitiful face like a rain-soaked puppy.

“I was looking at it because it resembled you.”

“Pardon?”

“Because its eyes were gray.”

Since it was a monster, he had of course intended to kill it, but the reason he had stared at it as if mesmerized for a moment was because of that. Yoon Taehwa knew better than anyone that suggestions like mesmerism didn’t work on him.

“So that’s why you were looking… Were you thinking of me?”

The eyes that curved flexibly, as if he had never drooped his eyebrows, looked incredibly gentle. His demeanor was light, unbecoming of someone who had just brandished a knife.

“I was about to dice it up, so that’s a relief.”

“I don’t know why you’d dice up something you can kill easily. How troublesome.”

Yoon Taehwa shot the mermaid that was aiming for Han Suryeon’s back and replied indifferently.

“Because I’m jealous…?”

“Our little Suryeon has so many things to be jealous of.”

Rumble.

The river bottom began to shake again.

Perhaps due to the shaking of the ground, the mermaids suddenly changed direction. Had the Beastmen started to intervene? Yoon Taehwa followed the traces of the scattering mermaids with his eyes.

There were several predatory Beastmen at the Center who could operate in water. Representative species were the Beastmen belonging to the shark and whale orders. Sharks and whales could only survive in the sea, but the Beastmen, thanks to their mixed human characteristics, could operate in any body of water.

He couldn’t be sure since the characteristics of monsters varied from dungeon to dungeon even with the same theme, but it was possible that the predatory Beastmen had rushed into the river and were fleeing from them.

“Espers are naturally jealous.”

“They’re only jealous of their Guides.”

Yoon Taehwa replied, wrinkling his cheek.

The history of Espers’ obsession and jealousy toward their Guides was long. There was a tendency for it to fade somewhat with the development of Guiding supplements, but no matter how much it had faded, it was difficult to deny the lore about Espers’ jealousy.

“No. I’m jealous because it’s you, Team Leader.”

The ground below shook again. Yoon Taehwa, without realizing it, grabbed Han Suryeon, who had approached him. He wasn’t leaning on him. He had just extended his arm as if to protect him.

“The ground shaking is suspicious…”

“It seems the monster with the core is about to come out.”

Yoon Taehwa connected his ear-mic.

“Hae Na-eun, where are you?”

– 1 minute until arrival at your location, Team Leader.

“Are Kim Su-an and Kang Jaemin next to you?”

– Yes.

The river, where the mermaids had disappeared, was calm.

“It seems the Seeker team has joined in too.”

– I understand that Team 1 and Team 2 have stepped in.

As expected, it seemed the Beastmen had started to move.

“It’s about time for the main one to come out… What’s the word from the Center.”

– There’s no detected dungeon at all, so we’re having trouble confirming it.

“Casualties.”

– There are some injured citizens, but it appears no one has been dragged away by the mermaids yet.

“Got it.”

He couldn’t be optimistic, but it seemed they could avoid a situation where there would be all sorts of talk about casualties. Yoon Taehwa snatched the knife Han Suryeon had been holding and spun it once in his hand.

“You’ve received Guiding, so you shouldn’t have a problem using your ability, right?”

When he looked at Han Suryeon and asked, he nodded his head.

“Shall we finish this quickly?”

“It’s not some deserted island, it appeared in the middle of Seoul. We’re bound to get chewed out, so we should at least handle it quickly.”

It was obvious that breaking news was being broadcast in real time. Since it wasn’t a common incident, not only Korea but the whole world would be watching. The thought of getting an earful from the higher-ups already gave him a headache.

“It’s out.”

The words ‘it’s out’ didn’t sound fitting at all. Apart from the ground shaking, the surroundings were too quiet. But Yoon Taehwa expressed his agreement without a word. An Esper’s intuition made him watch the Han River.

“It’s coming.”

A few seconds passed, and a white wave began to rush in from afar. Yoon Taehwa, as if throwing bait, tossed the corpse of the mermaid Han Suryeon had killed with the knife into the river below. Splash, the sound of the huge corpse falling into the water was quickly buried by the force of the rushing water.

“Whoa.”

With a half-hearted exclamation, a giant tentacle shot out of the river. The leg, which must have been 3 meters wide, soared endlessly as if to split the sky. Suckers bigger than a human head were packed tightly together without any gaps.

It was a Kraken.

“One thing after another, seriously.”

The tentacle blocked the sun, creating a large shadow over the thoroughfare. The moment the giant leg showed signs of striking down, Yoon Taehwa wrapped his arms around Han Suryeon’s waist and they rolled on the ground together.

Kwaang!

The two rolled a few times before coming to a stop. Broken cement fragments rolled around, creating a choking cloud of dust.

“Fuck…”

Pain shot up his shoulder and back from rolling around. Yoon Taehwa let out a low curse and got to his knees. Han Suryeon, who was pinned underneath, was looking up at him with wide eyes.

“I could have blocked it with my ability.”

“…You’re right, why did I move?”

Han Suryeon was not a child, but a physical-type Esper. And not just any Esper, but an S-class. To have rolled his body as if to protect such a man next to him was strange, no matter how much it was an expression of his subconscious.

Thump! Thump!

With the noise that constricted the thoroughfare, the dust cloud continued to scatter. Even an Esper couldn’t block the dust that got into their eyes. Yoon Taehwa only lifted his eyelids after the sandstorm that had been brushing against his skin subsided. The moment he did, his eyes met with a clear gaze that was looking up at him, as if it had been watching only him.

‘Something…’

Like this morning, a sense of déjà vu of unknown origin came over him again.

It wasn’t the first time he had pinned Han Suryeon underneath him. Both in the dungeon and in the panic room, he had looked down at him, trapped between his legs just like now. But it was a sense of déjà vu he hadn’t felt then.

Why am I like this today? His eyebrows furrowed, and a line formed between them.

‘It must be my imagination.’

It wasn’t a situation where he had the luxury to find the cause of the déjà vu. Yoon Taehwa stood up from his spot and extended his hand toward Han Suryeon, as if telling him to grab it. Pale fingers entwined deeply between his own, like tentacles.

“Well, you have to protect me, Team Leader.”

Han Suryeon, who had stood up holding his hand, smiled thinly and tilted his head.

“You promised.”