Ch.145Midori Shower 2

“The drug factory is this way…”

From the rooftop of a slum building, Yeji pointed to an abandoned factory as she addressed the three hunters.

A dark space without a single light on. The walls were covered in cracks as if the building could collapse at any moment.

“No wonder we couldn’t find it in a place like this.”

The woman with long black hair and red eyes. Jeoksa muttered cynically while exhaling.

Yeji glanced up at her. Though nearly 170cm tall, her feminine figure was immediately eye-catching.

Yeji couldn’t take her eyes off her, thinking she had never seen a woman who wore a suit so well.

“Just extract the information as quickly as possible. If they discover their base, they’ll flee immediately.”

Awkward Korean.

The most striking woman among the three chimed in.

White hair and white eyes.

And a balanced figure with a chic jacket and pants.

Yeji couldn’t easily look away from Anna’s appearance either.

The white-haired hunter pulled out a small dagger from her inner pocket.

Then she stared intently at the two suspicious hunters guarding the abandoned factory.

Surely… is she planning to face those large men with just a small dagger?

Yeji swallowed hard, worried about what would happen if the operation failed.

Even though she was being used, she was still participating in the operation…

She feared potential retaliation from the factory’s hunters.

As she worried, someone tapped her shoulder.

Following the touch, she turned her head and was soothed by a gentle voice.

“Ms. Yeji, don’t worry too much. I’ll do my best to ensure no harm comes to you.”

She wasn’t sure how they had noticed her concern.

But when she saw the golden eyes of the voice’s owner,

She felt inexplicably calmed.

Jisu’s eyes and face were that exquisite.

“Yes…”

Yeji nodded obediently.

Entranced by the visual feast before her, her tension eased.

And when she turned her head again,

She couldn’t help but be startled.

The white-haired hunter who had been standing beside her with a dagger had vanished.

“Wait… where did she go?”

As Yeji murmured, Jeoksa pointed with her chin toward the entrance of the abandoned factory they had been observing.

It was Anna.

She had landed in the shadowy darkness of the abandoned factory.

Meanwhile, Jisu picked up a stone she had prepared and threw it near the men.

The stone landed precisely behind a utility pole near them.

“What was that sound?”

A man carrying a rifle adjusted his gun strap.

He gestured for his subordinate to check where the sound had come from.

“Go check it out.”

His subordinate nodded and went to investigate behind the utility pole.

At that moment,

Anna, who had been hiding in the shadows, rushed toward the gunman with beast-like speed.

She was so fast and light that by the time the man noticed and tried to look up,

Her dagger had already pierced his throat.

A decisive and swift strike.

All of this happened within the two seconds it took for the other man to check the utility pole.

“There’s nothing here.”

The subordinate turned his head.

His eyes widened in horror at the sight before him.

The white-haired woman was holding his comrade’s neck, her face splattered with blood.

It felt like watching a white leopard with its prey in its jaws.

His breath caught in his throat at the beautiful terror.

As he opened his mouth to scream,

“In-intruders!”

His cry immediately became his last words.

The same dagger that had stabbed the gunman was now embedded in his forehead.

Finally, the two hunters guarding the factory fell.

Without a word, Anna dragged the two cold bodies into the dark shadows.

Like a predator carrying prey into its cave.

Yeji trembled with fear as she witnessed the scene with her own eyes.

“Let’s go. You said you’ve been inside before, right?”

Jeoksa looked down at Yeji with an indifferent tone.

Yeji swallowed hard under that intense red gaze.

“Yes… I’ve been inside once before, so I know the layout.”

Anna opened the old iron door.

The four women walked calmly inside.

A long darkness.

Dim lights barely illuminated the factory corridor.

They passed through the corridor and opened the main door.

And then…

All four women were shocked.

Inside what appeared to be an abandoned factory from the outside were rows of modern machinery.

White plastic cases moved along conveyor belts.

Robot arms attached to each case were inserting white pills.

Plus, there were middle-aged women sitting in the corner of the factory.

They were manually adding some unknown powder to the white pills.

“What a spectacle.”

Jeoksa snorted with disdain.

Then she calmly addressed the women:

“Ladies, you can go home for the day.”

The middle-aged women were startled by the sudden appearance of the rankers.

Jisu stepped forward to reassure them.

“We’re from the Association (Ilshim). We just need to meet the person in charge, so please go home safely.”

Jisu was definitely more effective than the cold Jeoksa.

The women nodded and obediently left the factory.

“The person in charge should be in that container on the second floor.”

Following Yeji’s words, the two rankers headed up to the second floor.

Jisu stayed on the first floor to check for other workers or Park Shin-ae’s hunters.

Fortunately, unlike the entrance, there were no hunters inside.

A few were dozing in office chairs, but they were easily dealt with by Anna’s touch.

“Strange. Why are there so few forces?”

“It’s late at night. And…”

Jeoksa answered Anna’s question decisively.

She looked around the factory office they had reached and continued:

“It means they have so many factories that they’re short on management personnel.”

Jeoksa held documents in her hand.

The papers contained contact information for budget Angel Tips factories spread throughout the provinces.

She calmly took in the contact information.

Then she suddenly noticed a suspicious number.

07.

While all other factories had clear names like “00 Factory” or “00 Industry,” this one was simply labeled “07.”

She soon spoke to someone through her earpiece:

“Heuksa, trace this number for me.”

“Yes, Team Leader.”

A decent harvest.

Thanks to raiding the factory, they were able to find the number of Park Shin-ae’s still-living subordinate.

Though Jeoksa felt uneasy, she put the paper in her inner pocket.

Then she asked Anna, who was checking on the unconscious employees:

“Don’t you find it strange?”

“What do you mean?”

“Would Counters really continue using their numbers even with a warrant out for their arrest?”

Anna shrugged at Jeoksa’s question.

Her face was splattered with blood.

“Well, there’s no law against it.”

“It feels like they’re deliberately letting us know.”

Jeoksa stared at the factory landscape.

Only the sound of machines running filled the factory.

But.

Soon, an uneasy thought invaded Jeoksa’s mind.

And at that moment,

A loud siren began blaring from the speakers on the factory ceiling.

“—.”

The sound was so loud it hurt their ears.

Then, security shutters suddenly dropped over the office entrance.

“What the…!”

Jeoksa grabbed the fallen security shutter.

But unlike the dilapidated factory, the iron bars were state-of-the-art.

Jisu and Yeji on the first floor also sensed something was wrong.

They looked up at the two rankers now trapped in the office.

“Something’s wrong.”

Jisu’s voice, which had been calm until now, turned serious.

The change made Yeji nervous.

“What should we do…?”

“Hide here for now. I’ll help them.”

Jisu hid Yeji behind some machinery.

And just as she was about to rush to help the two rankers,

“—!”

The office where the two were trapped exploded.

A sudden cloud of flames erupted.

“Anna, Senior Jeoksa!”

As if the place had been rigged to explode all along, multiple bombs detonated.

The blast was so powerful that debris rained down toward Jisu.

Barely avoiding the fragments, she drew the sword she carried.

The Ilshim Sword inherited from the Vice Chairman.

She held the sword and slowly surveyed the dark factory surroundings.

After the explosion, all the factory machines stopped working.

As a result, the factory became eerily quiet.

But Jisu didn’t let her guard down.

In the silent factory, she strained to hear the slightest sound.

And the moment she detected a tiny noise,

“—.”

An intense flash of fire erupted from the darkness.

A bullet flew from that flash.

Jisu instinctively blocked the bullet by twisting her blade.

From where the bullet came, numerous hunters began rushing out in a line.

They carried various axes, spears, and longswords in their hands.

They even wore night vision goggles on their faces.

Hunters who were probably once ordinary.

But from their mouths flowed the strange breath that symbolized Angel Tips.

“All bought people, huh.”

“Bought? We are the proud army of the new government.”

A man holding a smoking gun.

He pushed up his sunglasses as he walked slowly toward her.

The tattoo on his forearm was clearly visible due to his short-sleeved military uniform.

The number “12” was engraved on that tattoo.

“12…?”

She tilted her head at the unfamiliar Counters number.

Originally, Counters members only went up to 09.

The man proudly showed off his forearm.

“Oh, curious? This is an honorable tattoo that only those recognized as family members can receive.”

“Ah, I see…”

Jisu responded indifferently to the man’s words.

Her resolute attitude twisted 12’s face.

“What? Don’t tell me you don’t know Counters? The guild that was once the best in the Korean Peninsula…”

“I know them well. The guild that didn’t know its place and got ‘beaten like dogs’ by Ilshim, right?”

For the first time, a harsh word came from Jisu’s mouth.

That word made the man’s eye twitch.

“What an insolent woman.”

12 raised one hand.

Then he pointed at Jisu as if giving an order.

“Mother ordered us to capture all intruders alive… but I’m not very good at capturing.”

Following his command, the hunters raised their weapons.

The sharp blades gleamed even more in the dark factory.

“I’ll kill you like your friends who went ahead!”

The hunters rushed at her all at once.

Their blades came at Jisu from all directions.

With their night vision goggles, they could fully see Jisu even in the darkness.

But…

There was one fact that 12 and the honorable soldiers of the new government didn’t know.

“I don’t like fighting ordinary hunters…”

That she was far higher in rank than them.

And that 08, their senior, had died at her hands.

She had become more accustomed to fighting in darkness than anyone.

And as if to prove it, on her longsword…

Hot flames began to blaze.

The hunters all flinched momentarily at the intense fire.

“But I can’t forgive anyone who’s with the woman who tormented Dohyun.”

Jisu didn’t miss that timing.

She swung her flame-imbued longsword firmly with both hands.

A wave of fire rose along the trajectory of her swing.

The hunters touched by the wave began screaming in unison.

Flames that wouldn’t extinguish no matter what.

Those flames cruelly penetrated into the wounds cut by her sword.

As a result, the factory that had been quiet for a moment…

Became a fiery hell filled with the screams of hunters.

A swordswoman who freely wielded flame and blade.

That swordswoman had now become a ranker approaching the top 50.

She had decided to wield that strengthened sword for the sake of one person.

With that determination alone, she had come this far.