Ch.152152. Discovering the Identity!

That day was a rare case that was handled without me having to transform.

But I couldn’t help but feel alarmed by what Junhu had told me.

“The voice? How?”

“I don’t know. But it says we shouldn’t get close.”

Based on everything so far, it’s reasonable to assume Junhu has a summoning spirit attached to him.

And that summoning spirit warned him?

“Thanks. Should we take a detour then?”

Our day’s activities end here anyway. With a monster appearing, it’s hardly the atmosphere for a date.

But I couldn’t possibly ignore what Junhu had told me.

“Yuhwa, did you finish buying your books?”

“No, I haven’t even paid yet. With all this happening, the bookstore must be in chaos.”

“Since things turned out this way, should we visit the bookstore tomorrow? I’ll treat you.”

“That sounds nice…”

But Yuhwa’s expression suddenly changed.

“No. That’s not necessary! I feel really bad about this. I’ll handle it myself.”

Seol Yuhwa was desperately trying to stop me. Ah, right, her family circumstances…

They’re poor and struggling.

Despite her improved living conditions with her salary, housing prices have skyrocketed to the point where buying is impossible, and their situation probably remains the same.

For Yuhwa to have enough wealth to relocate her family, she’d need at least a professional contract payment.

She has a complex about her family situation, so she wouldn’t bring me there anyway.

“I understand. The kids’ vacation homework is important, so spend time with them.”

“I’m sorry. Let’s meet next time.”

Yuhwa wore a bitter expression, but what could she do?

Vacation homework is important, but the kids are more important.

Still, Junhu’s warning essentially means those kids are dangerous. I trust Junhu’s summoning spirit more than those who suddenly appeared.

The question now is how to track them.

[Promotion Application]

Well, before that, I need to take care of my own business. I submitted my application for the advanced class.

*

I had one task: to secretly escape from home using my newly acquired sub-card.

Then use a tracking device on those who appear during the Break.

[Half-Dragon Asura]

I transformed into the Half-Dragon Asura state, which no longer puts strain on my body, and used my sub-card.

[Optical Camouflage]

Like an invisible man, my appearance vanished.

The security team was watching me from near my bedroom window, right?

So I’ll open the window in my father’s room, who’s gone to work, and escape from there.

My mind was filled with the locations of all the Breaks.

Come out anywhere. The Break was supposedly modified to appear a week later, but it appeared then as explained.

Other places are mixed up and chaotic, but I planned to target places where Breaks occurred with little difference.

This is like whack-a-mole, especially since guilds might arrive first.

So I failed at first. Instead of the monster I was waiting for, a guild came and handled it… which is actually normal.

Most cases are handled by guilds, and the monsters appear randomly elsewhere, similar to a gacha system.

“Well, you can’t expect success on the first try.”

It became a long-term operation. I tracked their movements while organizing the places where they appeared.

But people kept disappearing one by one from the places where they showed up.

The police naturally suspected other monsters more than these ones.

That’s because monsters were helping humans in various places, so they pushed suspicion of them to the back of the line.

After all, it’s common for people to disappear when monsters appear.

By the way, the Academy opens in March.

There’s no option to start in mid-February and then have spring break.

I started playing whack-a-mole for two weeks.

Of course, I continued until I succeeded, except when I had to go to the dungeon regularly.

“No! That was where I was planning to go!”

If I hadn’t gone to the dungeon today, I could have tracked the monster helping humans.

That’s hindsight, of course.

I need to show my daily routine to the security team, so it’s necessary to either forcibly go out or divert their attention. If I stay home all day, the security team would contact me instead.

Anyway, I spent the first two weeks running around in circles searching.

Finally, in the third week, I was able to meet them.

[Sub Card]

-Tracking Device

While camouflaged, I approached and attached a tracking device to his waist before retreating.

[Tracking Device Activated]

Now a map unfolded before me, showing his location.

Just knowing where they reside would be a great help.

I begin tracking from this state.

What’s certain is that these guys disappeared from sight using some kind of disguise.

Well, they’re monsters, so they probably have something similar. Following the tracking device, they were moving away from the urban area to a remote location.

When the target stopped moving, I proceeded cautiously.

It was a place with the atmosphere of an old shantytown and an underdeveloped hillside neighborhood.

Yes, this is perfect for hiding. There are so many alleys and it’s so chaotic that they could emerge from anywhere.

The target was making small movements in one place.

When I rushed there, I found what looked like an abandoned warehouse.

As I carefully peered inside, I was shocked by the strong smell of blood.

Being half-dragon makes me even more sensitive to it. The smell of blood was flowing strongly from this place.

I tried my best to listen carefully to what was being said.

“Phew. You know, pretending to be nice isn’t so bad?”

Though it was clearly a normal voice, it was very faint.

As I focused on the voice, it became a bit louder.

“It feels like being a celebrity though.”

I could hear human voices. Wait? If they’re human voices, aren’t they monster-humans?

At that moment, I recalled they were wearing masks. I see. The masks weren’t just symbols but a method to hide their monster-human identity.

Why would monster-humans…?

Just then, the smell of blood intensified at the tip of my nose. Amidst my confusion, I heard a small scream.

“…!”

The opponent was at least S-rank or higher. I immediately evolved to my adult form.

The wolf, that is.

Using the skills of my adult mechanical wolf state, I assessed the enemy. I could smell them and confirmed there were three people here.

The moment I broke through the wall, I saw two humans and a woman whose body had just been dismembered, covered in blood.

“!”

“What the!”

Before they could transform, I leaped and slashed them in one go.

“That’s cheap, attacking during transformation… gah!”

I dealt with the other one too.

After quickly handling both of them, I looked at the remaining corpse.

“….”

The method was obvious. They kidnapped and killed people? Then the dismembered body from before must be the same.

These guys are definitely not allies. They’re trash pretending to be allies.

They secretly kidnap and kill people. And then they pose as heroes?

This can’t be allowed to continue.

I took a deep breath.

*

By the third week of February, Thursday, I received a monster alert.

But I don’t fight. I just hide with optical camouflage and wait to plant tracking devices.

Monster points aren’t important now; having confirmed them as enemies, I could predict their methods.

The first difference from the monster alert was that the enemy had twisted their pattern.

It’s natural for them to be suspicious after being hindered by me for over a year.

They’re not acting like they did in the future. And in the midst of this, that group of monsters appeared.

What are they aiming for? What benefit do they get from saving people?

Trust and support. Resistance to monsters decreases.

Just like how my activities reduced antipathy toward monsters.

But is this the work of the Monster Apocalypse Group?

[Monsters that kill other monsters are increasing, and these monsters gain people’s trust only to betray them at some point.]

They’ll destroy the trust they’ve received from people and further threaten me.

Monsters that help people suddenly turn and attack them again.

Faith in monsters will be shattered, and even I will face threats again.

Plus, if people trust them like now, backstabbing becomes easier, causing more casualties.

“So I need to stop them.”

So on this day, I slipped out secretly with optical camouflage.

The method is the same. Secretly attach tracking devices and follow them.

The newly drawn card certainly proved its usefulness. Above all, I could come like this while avoiding the security team’s protection.

I began tracking the masked ones.

They either disappear in the middle or use something like a smoke screen to escape, similar to me.

I followed slowly behind. And as always, they were staying in abandoned buildings in remote corners.

This time, I didn’t need to hesitate or observe.

These guys hadn’t brought a sacrificial victim this time, so in a way, it was good for a direct confrontation.

Not that I intended to transform anyway.

I just transformed. This time, I transformed into an adult half-beast half-human and broke through in one go.

Even though they’re monster-humans who’ve handled SS-rank monsters, they can’t respond to my current speed before transforming.

A surprise attack is always a means to inflict great damage regardless of skill difference.

I dealt with the monster-humans at a speed faster than anyone else.

“No…”

“You bastard! What are you—”

A monster-human who belatedly noticed his body had been pierced collapsed mid-sentence.

So my policy is to hunt these guys.

Before they cause harm, traveling around the country.

It’s practically an impossible task of extreme difficulty. But it must be done. As much as I can do.

But even that became difficult to continue by the fourth week due to the promotion exam.

As soon as Monday of the fourth week arrived, the Academy announced the date and location for the promotion review.

Well, it’s the obvious Academy.

I already know the exam content. It’s just a matter of practicing based on the assumption that there won’t be major changes.

Jinsu: Jonghyun, are you taking the promotion exam too? Want to prepare together?

Plus, there are several students in the lower class, including me, who are applying for promotion.

The fourth week will be spent bustling with them.

So until Friday, the exam day, we decided to practice at the gate every day.

Only, I was assigned additional tasks.

Meet with the kids in the afternoon and practice until evening. In the morning and at night, I play hide-and-seek based on monster alerts.

Even with this schedule, the chances of meeting them were low.

By Wednesday, I tracked them as usual and prepared for an ambush.

In my current Half-Dragon Asura state, I had to decide what to transform into.

After a moment’s consideration, I transformed into an adult wolf.

Analysis-like status screens appeared before my eyes, and I prepared to charge.

I break through the wall and ambush them in one go.

Based on my experience so far, this was a very appropriate measure. But only if the enemy was unaware of the surprise.

However, what I saw as soon as I entered were guys waiting for me in their monster-human state.

They noticed.

“!”

As if they had been waiting, they were now rushing toward me.

[We’ve been waiting!]

[So it’s you!]

As their attacks began, debuffs started and my movements began to slow down.