Chapter 147

"Huh?"

Even 1st-grade hunters aren't omnipotent when it comes to all phenomena. When the light suddenly disappeared completely after being in a bright place, they couldn't see anything in front of them.

"Why did you turn off the lights?"

"What's going on?"

Soram and Tae-un asked simultaneously. Soram looked in the direction of Tae-un's voice. A small light was moving around, as if a fluorescent band had been wrapped around the microphone Tae-un was wearing.

"Is this a surprise party? It hasn't been that long since my birthday passed."

"What's happening?"

Apart from the two people's voices, it was quiet, and the lights still didn't come back on.

That's when it happened.

"Guk...!"

Two hands suddenly wrapped around his neck.

"Guk, wh-what are you, kuhak..."

"Haa, shit, stay, still, don't, move! Haa, ha...!"

It was the doing of the staff member who had fitted Soram with the microphone. As the two hands pressed hard on his windpipe, his breath was choked off.

"Guk, kup...!"

Normally, an ordinary person's attack shouldn't have had any effect. However, his body had now lost the defense of a 1st-grade hunter. It was because of something hard pressed firmly against where the microphone had been attached.

Even without being able to see, he couldn't mistake its identity. It was a magic stone.

"So-ram-ah...!"

It seemed Tae-un was in a similar situation beside him.

Tak, tadadak!

Kubung, kung, kung!

Tuk!

"Who the hell, kup!"

With the magic stone pressed against his neck, this time several people pounced on his torso. He twisted his whole body in resistance, but his shoulders were grabbed, and his legs were fixed in place. Then his wrists were forcibly pulled behind him, and his pager was ripped away. After that, his body started to be tied up with something like rope.

Kudangtangtang!

"Ugh, let go! What are you doing!"

Kung!

Tae-un must have resisted violently, as there was a sound of a chair falling over and vibrations felt on the floor.

"Han Tae-un! Are you okay? Han Tae-un! Let this go, I said!"

Soram also called out to him, shaking his whole body.

"Stay, still!"

Pueok!

"Aak!"

His head was struck hard with something like a knife handle. The head that would have been fine even if thrown against a building rang with a zing.

Soon, one of the people who had approached pressed a magic stone into his wrists tied behind his back. Then they placed a magic stone against his neck and fixed it in place by wrapping it tightly with a string. He tried shaking his bound wrists, but the rope that seemed like it would tear easily didn't budge at all. In the midst of his strong resistance, the hands choking his neck stole his breath, making him dizzy.

He had faced hundreds of mutants pouncing on him and been trapped in a pit of fire, but he had never been helplessly tied up in a small container in the mountains. He couldn't comprehend this first-time experience. He couldn't understand what was happening now.

What on earth is this? Is it a hidden camera prank? Why are they doing such a crazy thing? Why to us?

And from beside him, the sound of rough resistance continued. The floor was being scraped, and there were sounds of punches and the presence of several people.

"Ah, shit, even without his ability, he's fucking hard to hold down because he's so big."

"Soram-ah! Kuk, who the fuck are you bastards!"

Pak.

At that moment, the lights came back on.

Soram was tied to the chair with both arms behind his back.

"..."

With the lights on, he could see. Apparently, the fluorescent band on the microphone had been a marker to find their necks in the dark. And the two of them, not expecting to be attacked by fellow humans rather than mutants, had been caught off guard and ended up like this.

Tae-un was slumped on the floor, his appearance completely disheveled. However, his situation was no different from Soram's. Wrists tied behind his back, three people holding him down to prevent him from moving, and magic stones tightly bound to his wrists and nape.

Seeing it with his eyes made it even harder to understand. Soram had lived through the same ten years four times. He had experienced countless crises caused by mutants and could usually come up with solutions skillfully.

But this kind of crisis was a first in his life. At best, he had only seen such things in movies.

"Ha, ha..."

An incredulous breath escaped him.

Once the two were completely unable to resist, the people holding them backed away. Their limbs really couldn't move at all. And this wasn't even the guard floor.

"Let's move Han Tae-un back to the center. The angle isn't pretty."

A staff member peering into the camera gestured. The table that had been placed for formality was cleared away, and Tae-un was shoved to Soram's side as if kicked. Tae-un glared at his captors and asked.

"What do you want?"

The staff member who had been trembling earlier now had a face full of the joy of success.

"What we want is to punish those who violate providence by forcibly removing the judgment sent by heaven."

"Wow, there really are crazy cultist lunatics who say such insane things in real life."

Before Soram could say anything, another group member muttered with a snickering laugh. The cultist's eyebrow twitched, but he didn't pick a fight with that side. Instead, he muttered to himself.

"What's the point in dealing with stupid humans who can't be saved?"

At that moment, the person standing behind the camera approached Tae-un with heavy steps. It was the soldier from earlier.

"Do you remember how fucking annoying you were earlier?"

Pueok―

Tae-un's face turned to the side. With his defense lowered, his lip split, and blood seeped out.

"Han Tae-un!"

Tae-un spat out the blood pooled in his mouth and slowly turned his head forward.

"It seems you've all joined forces, receiving instructions from somewhere. Cultists, gangster bastards..."

Tae-un looked straight at the only person in military uniform as he continued speaking.

"But seeing that the one soldier here is a reject, fortunately it seems you haven't infiltrated the military. Well, I guess a reject would fall for stupid temptations and end up here."

"You fucking bastard!"

The soldier's face, which had been triumphant, turned red with humiliation. This time, with an even louder sound, Tae-un's face turned again. As if that wasn't enough to vent his anger, the soldier started kicking Tae-un's stomach and chest with his military boots.

"Huu, fuck, you, who can't, do anything, without, your, freely, obtained, ability!"

"Stop it, you son of a bitch! I said stop!"

Instead of Tae-un, who didn't even groan, Soram shouted.

The kicks directed at Tae-un only stopped when two other people came and grabbed the soldier, pulling him away. The black suit was covered in footprints, and a red bruise had risen on the side of his face that had been struck hard twice.

"Don't stop me! You all came here to do this anyway, didn't you!"

"Hey. Are you the only one working now?"

A man wearing a black cap stood in front of the soldier. As the person half a head taller stood in front, the soldier's momentum faltered slightly. But soon he straightened his shoulders and glared back, retorting.

"If it weren't for me, you wouldn't have even been able to create this situation of sending away the executives and bringing Jin Soram and Han Tae-un here, would you?"

"Yeah, that's right. You've done your part, so it wouldn't matter if we fuck you up now. Want to die first?"

The soldier tried to retort angrily, but when the gazes of people dressed the same as him converged, he couldn't speak. The man in the cap grinned and tapped the soldier's shoulder badge.

"Shut up and stay put. The client will contact us soon, and I want to receive it quietly and respectfully. Okay?"

"..."

The soldier finally stepped aside with a face alternating between red and blue.

"H-Han Tae-un, are you okay?"

During their commotion, Soram called out to Tae-un in a trembling voice. Tae-un raised his upper body and gestured with his eyes, keeping his head lowered at the same angle. What his gaze pointed to was the pagers that had been stripped from the two of them.

Ah.

By now, the headquarters must have noticed something was wrong. The kidnappers wouldn't know that a signal is sent when hunters remove their pagers outside. Although it would take time to resolve since the location was in Gangwon-do, measures would be being taken.

"So no matter what happens, absolutely don't use it."

"Hey, what are you two saying?"

"You understand, right? Absolutely not."

"Didn't I tell you to shut up?!"

"..."

Soram had magic stones tied to various parts of his body. They were attached to his overlapped wrists and neck, so there was no immediate way out, but there might be a chance to wound himself with the magic stone. Tae-un had preemptively discouraged that.

Soram bit his lip hard. In fact, he still couldn't gauge how serious this situation was. It was cruder than the numerous life-threatening crises he had experienced as a hunter. But it was also true that they had been properly caught by people with clear malice. He remained in a state of confusion.

When they had argued about the magic stones a few days ago, Tae-un had said, 'You don't have to overcome crises in that way, you know.' So... could they wait for another way in this situation? Trusting Tae-un's judgment.

"..."

Soram met Tae-un's eyes and nodded slightly. It meant he would keep his promise for now.

He calmly observed the situation first. The man wearing the black cap who had gone behind the camera and sat down seemed to be the leader who had caused this commotion. He was about as big as Tae-un in build, and his attitude was much more relaxed than the others. One of the staff approached him and asked.

"Um, but why aren't we doing anything after capturing them?"

"Let's wait a minute. The target suddenly changed from Kim Ga-eul, so I think they're still debating whether to take them to their country or eliminate them."

As expected. He had thought a foreign source might be funding the cult, and it seemed to be from overseas.

There was an obvious country that came to mind, and another that might make underhanded moves behind the scenes. It was now an open secret that too many strong individuals had gathered in Korea.

...Everything had been going too well.

All the 1st-grades were alive, and their abilities had even been proven through the Great Rift. The power the country had gained was worthy of caution. He hadn't known that the luck absent in his past lives would bring such a backlash.

He could guess why several media outlets had recently been reporting on the cult as if it were some great scoop. Probably, even if this incident was revealed, the group that provided the instigation and funding would escape, and it would be concluded as the cult's doing.

His shocked mind gradually regained composure. Soram's cooled gaze looked at the kidnappers.

"You decided to go along with this deal even after seeing us fight in the 3rd Great Rift?"

Of course, they hadn't fought with the noble intention of saving the entire nation. Even if they had ended up saving the country, he knew some people would hate hunters and others would only see them in terms of business.

But this treatment felt quite unfair and spiteful, didn't it?

The man tapping his phone tilted his head by the camera and smiled slyly.

"Thanks to you, we got our lives saved, so we're working hard to find a way to live like this. I watched the news diligently too. But that's personal, this is business."

As the man gestured while speaking glibly, someone who had come in from outside stood beside him.

"Hey, did the call come?"

"Yes. ...But they say it won't work."

"What won't?"

"They say the risk is too high to take Jin Soram out alive because his international recognition is too high."

"So?"

"They want just the torso with the heart and internal organs."

"Ah. Just the torso? Must be for experiments."

The man asked back and deliberately smiled at Soram while speaking.

A grinding sound came from Tae-un's jaw.