Absence 3

The Homunculus Project.

Derived from the Latin word meaning “little person,” the purpose of this project was clear.

Since the first Gate, South Korea has always lacked manpower.

Combat-capable manpower that could fight monsters.

The later one awakens, the weaker the ability.

The vast majority of existing social leaders became useless.

Early awakeners are just young children.

Except for the hero and her companions being exceptional, there’s no way young children could be helpful on the battlefield.

To begin with, not all awakeners’ abilities are helpful in combat.

Abilities specialized for killing are limited.

So the hero, at just seventeen, pondered much.

The Homunculus Project was a byproduct of that.

Creating new soldiers capable of fighting monsters by human hands.

By recycling magic stones and the bodies of the dead.

As a result, this didn’t reach the implementation stage.

It was purely a matter of cost.

In the early stages of ability research.

The number of resources available was small.

The risk of investment failure was too great.

Later, as late awakeners could also serve as combat personnel through the ability curriculum developed by the hero, the existence of the plan was somehow forgotten by people.

It’s a path humanity hasn’t yet challenged.

An ambitious person, by definition, is one who climbs that unchallenged path.

“Tell me the reason.”

So there were bound to be trial and errors.

In the office with just the two of them.

Han Joon-hyuk looked at the girl with an angry voice.

“I should have ordered you to kill.”

What flashed through his mind was a series of experimental processes.

To test the special product he developed.

“Why didn’t you kill? You killed monsters so well.”

The test seemed successful.

An S-class elemental ability that resembled him, and a powerful artifact in the shape of a hwando.

“But why.”

He had also sufficiently injected combat data into this.

The data of what the world called the Student Hero.

“Why didn’t you cut the lifeline of an ability user far weaker than you?”

And yet.

“Answer me. Blossom.”

The girl.

Blossom couldn’t kill.

Despite it being an order.

“It was a person.”

“…What did you say?”

The girl, as always expressionless.

In a dry voice.

“It was a person. So I couldn’t kill.”

She uttered words that even she herself couldn’t understand.

“The moment I thought the person in front of me would die, my body refused to move. There’s nothing else besides that.”

Person.

For that reason alone, the girl’s body refused to move.

Let alone killing, she couldn’t even fight.

“The one just hired sold their life to me. They were someone for whom I paid a sufficient price for their life.”

Han Joon-hyuk shook his head involuntarily, finding it absurd.

“They were someone who could be killed without any problem.”

“…”

Blossom couldn’t answer.

This was an incomprehensible action for her as well.

It’s natural for an object to serve its owner’s will.

But why.

It was a troublesome story.

His ultimate goal is to overthrow Lee Yeon.

Naturally, he should be able to kill people.

“…Yes, a person, you say.”

Han Joon-hyuk repeated.

Even in today’s world of advanced science and technology, humans were an unknown territory.

All that’s possible is speculation.

What came to Han Joon-hyuk’s mind was one possibility.

The original owner of the combat data he had input.

That its influence was instinctively seeping out.

“Then all we need to do is instill a hatred for people.”

The point was simple.

Han Joon-hyuk decided to show his creation how cruel humans can be.

“Go out to the streets. Explore the streets. Come back here after a week.”

“Yes.”

He wanted to send her to the slums, but.

Due to the recent strengthening of the Management Bureau’s surveillance in the slum area, he couldn’t do that.

Above all, he remembered.

His mistake of stubbornly surviving like a weed even when sent to the slums.

If it’s about cultivating personality rather than survival.

The city streets might be a better place than the slums.

Whether she gets raped or whatever, it wasn’t his concern.

As long as she doesn’t die and can be retrieved, that’s enough.

All he needed was personality data.

Yoo Sua is an extremely ordinary female student.

There are no status windows or constellations in her daily life.

[System Update]

[Error!]

[You do not have access rights.]

She even stopped habitually entering the gallery she used to visit.

Without regret, she erased her internet browsing history.

She goes to school normally.

Sometimes goes to hunting grounds to earn pocket money.

Worries about her future aspirations.

By her own will.

She was living a life free from anyone’s interference.

Then she had a chance encounter.

With a girl who knew too little about the ways of the world.

Golden hair with reddish eyes.

Flawless white skin, truly deserving of the term beautiful girl.

Yoo Sua isn’t particularly a lesbian.

But universal human beauty standards are the same for men and women.

Honestly, she’s pretty.

If asked if it’s her type, well, it was.

She even wags her tail defenselessly.

From the observer’s perspective, it seemed like she might be trying to seduce.

That was all.

But Yoo Sua isn’t a criminal, so she doesn’t misunderstand others’ intentions and pounce on them.

It was just too precarious to leave her alone.

It seemed like she might be kidnapped by a bad man if one took their eyes off her for a moment.

Some might ask.

What’s the reason for going so far for a girl you’ve just met?

Yoo Sua could proudly answer.

Isn’t it not so strange for a person to help another person?

“Found you, you bitch!”

“You sure acted tough back then!”

“Why don’t you say something? Huh!”

It was a small alley.

The group she had seen before was surrounding someone, preventing them from escaping.

The girl surrounded by the group had familiar golden hair and red eyes.

“…”

There’s no dullard who wouldn’t understand the situation seeing this.

That’s why she couldn’t take her eyes off even for a moment, feeling uneasy.

Click.

Yoo Sua took out her smartphone and took a picture.

“Wh-What!”

“What else could it be.”

No long words were needed.

Yoo Sua put her smartphone in her pocket and.

─Physical Enhancement.

Then, running at full speed.

She kicked one of the group members in the head.

“Y-You crazy bitch!”

The group rushes in.

Angrily.

─Darkness Permeation.

But their attacks never landed.

Yoo Sua’s figure completely disappears from the group’s sight.

“Wh-What! Where did she disappear…!”

In the end, they were just a group of nobodies.

They were no match for Yoo Sua’s combat ability, who had been through a lot.

“Ugh!”

Being hit repeatedly by invisible fists and kicks.

The group was subdued so easily.

“…Guys who are so bad at fighting are only good at bullying others.”

Yoo Sua reported this group to the Hunter Management Bureau along with the photos.

Hoping to never see them again this time.

“Are you okay?”

Leaving the fallen group behind.

Yoo Sua approached the girl.

“Yes.”

The girl answered.

In a tone somewhat different from usual.

Her face was the same as usual, but how should I put it.

The rest wasn’t.

The clothes she wore were tattered as if worn for days.

There was dirt all over.

Above all, there was no sign of vitality.

Those eyes were dried up.

She thought it might be because of the threats from those punks.

But even considering that, the atmosphere was strange.

“…”

“…”

Silence continues.

An awkward silence.

“…How did you end up in this alley?”

Yoo Sua tried hard to break the silence.

“Usually, alleys like this are places where only thugs like that hang out.”

“I didn’t know.”

“What?”

“Indeed. So this is an alley?”

“…”

The answer that came back was ridiculous.

At that, Yoo Sua felt relieved.

Even if the atmosphere seemed a bit strange, her characteristic ignorance of the world remained the same.

“…Let’s go to the hunting ground. As usual.”

“By hunting ground, you mean.”

“A hunting ground is a hunting ground. Where else would it be?”

She probably doesn’t know the way properly anyway.

Yoo Sua took the girl’s hand and left the narrow alley that was dark with shadows.

“Ah…”

Sunlight.

Falls on the girl.

“Well, how should we hunt today…”

Yoo Sua, who had come out of the alley, stretched.

“That’s unexpected. Usually, you always came earlier than me.”

“…Huh?”

And then.

She hears an impossible voice.

“What’s wrong? As if you’ve seen a ghost.”

“No, uh, that’s…”

Suddenly, Yoo Sua turned around.

Han Suho also followed her gaze there.

Golden hair that looked exactly like Han Suho’s.

A pair of ruby-colored eyes.

“Who…?”

Han Suho asks.

The girl, Blossom, says.

“…Sister.”