Chapter 27: If I Call You Nuna (2)

Two days ago.

When I went to my hair salon.

The shock at that time was almost the same as when I returned home.

The chair I always sat in was broken, and the floor was full of Goblin droppings.

So that’s what I did.

I vented my anger on monsters to soothe my heart.

‘The hairstylist is dead.’

The hair salon is important, but the hairstylist is more important.

I tried hard to accept her death.

‘Hyungnim. We still don’t know for sure.’

That’s what Jang Hoseop said.

Because there was no body.

There were no bones or traces of dried blood either.

Nevertheless, I thought the probability of the hairstylist being alive was low.

Because it was more likely that Goblins had dragged her away, I accepted Jang Hoseop’s words merely as words of comfort.

“Ah, I found that b*tch hot. The female owner who ran the hair salon over there.”

“Hair salon? Who… Ah! Didn’t she just look average?”

“Looks aren’t important. More than the face….”

But funnily enough, the moment I heard the strangers’ conversation.

I realize I’ve been wandering this street because I couldn’t let go of a single sliver of hope.

“Her figure is amazing. And she has that kind of airheaded beauty, you know? That style isn’t common.”

I still haven’t accepted the hairstylist’s death.

Tadak

I leaped up the debris of the collapsed building.

I easily cleared a height I normally wouldn’t have been able to climb.

I can feel Jang Hoseop hurriedly chasing after me.

“But that woman… isn’t she still holding out?”

Beyond the debris, three men come into view.

They look to be in their mid-to-late 30s.

All are armed and carry large backpacks.

I dropped down on top of them.

From the height of a four-story apartment. Without hesitation.

Peok

As I fell to the ground, I struck one man’s head.

I controlled my strength so as not to kill him.

Watching the man whose head was hit collapse, I immediately swing my axe.

Seogeok

The blade Mr. Lee Jangsu had meticulously sharpened.

Another man’s arm is severed, bone and all, and flies into the air.

“This f*ck…”

The last man.

He opens his mouth, then closes it again.

Because Jang Hoseop is holding a blade to his throat.

“Wh-what… Who are you people? Why are you doing this to us….”

“Shh. Be quiet.”

Jang Hoseop mutters that he’s saying it for his own good.

“Since there are three of them….”

The rest of our group is running around the debris.

No other presences are felt nearby.

I raised the axe.

I swing it towards the man whose arm was cut off.

Tuk

His head fell to the floor.

“Now there are two. Mister, I have something I want to ask.”

Jang Hoseop hears my monologue and continues.

The man he had captured nodded eagerly.

---

We moved to a different location.

We entered an empty building, set up the Spirit Stone, and restrained the unconscious man.

“Where are you heading so early in the morning?”

“That is… well. Hic.”

I sat on the unconscious man.

Gripping the axe.

The man sitting opposite Jang Hoseop looks at me and hiccups.

“Is it hard to speak?”

“Ah, no! Not at all. We were on our way to the market.”

I made an efficient choice.

As a result, Jang Hoseop gets answers smoothly without any struggle.

“Why the market? What’s there? What’s your purpose?”

“Uh, uh… Well. You can barter goods at the market. Yes.”

“Please tell me in detail. You know the five Ws and one H, right?”

The market he’s talking about is the same market I know.

If you take goods to the market, their value is assessed, and you can exchange them for things in the market.

And the exchange items include people.

“So you guys are human traffickers…”

“No! Not at all. It’s not that, just to get laid once.”

“Ah, so that’s what it is. Could you tell me more about the market in detail?”

I’m getting impatient.

The information I want is about the hairstylist.

Still, I waited.

Jang Hoseop wouldn’t be asking such questions for no reason.

“Chairman Park created the market… Ah, Chairman Park was originally the chairman of the revival association over there.”

“Ha… Last time it was a CEO, this time it’s a Chairman.”

“Huh?”

“It’s nothing. Please continue.”

Apparently, the people of the revival association worked together to clean up the market street.

Driving out monsters and saving people.

They gradually expanded their territory.

They drove out the monsters around the market.

“There are still some monsters roaming around in small numbers…”

“Yes. Let’s move on to the next topic.”

“While doing that, they advertised to the people living nearby. Telling them to bring things they thought had value to the market.”

The man takes out a piece of paper from his pocket and shows it.

It’s a handwritten flyer.

“They said it was also possible for people in difficult situations to join the revival association.”

“Hmm… This means come and work. We’ll give you food.”

“Yes. Many people who found it hard to fight monsters went.”

These men were farming in the area cleared by the revival association.

They would take the goods they obtained like that and exchange them for what they wanted.

“In the case of women, selling their bodies pays the best, so…”

“Ah, the women belonging to the revival association?”

“Yes. Those people also receive payment to get what they need.”

Jang Hoseop nods and diligently takes notes in his notebook.

“But what about the female owner of the hair salon? Some guy mentioned her earlier.”

“Huh? Ah, that was my friend…”

“Exactly. Who is she?”

“Uh… Just an ordinary woman…”

I know too.

There must be at least a dozen women running hair salons in this neighborhood alone.

If you include the next neighborhood over, there would be far more.

There’s a high probability that the female salon owner they’re talking about and my hairstylist are different people.

“You don’t know much about her, do you…”

“No! Um, there’s a woman doing manual labor for barrier construction at the market. They said she used to be a hairstylist…”

Still, it’s hard to suppress the feeling of anticipation.

“Was she thirty-one… or thirty-two.”

I listened intently to the man’s words.

Because my hairstylist is also that age.

---

The reason I entrusted the interrogation to Jang Hoseop is because this matter is related to me.

Since I’m emotionally agitated.

“What should we do now?”

So I asked.

Jang Hoseop will make an efficient and rational judgment.

He also knows what I want.

“Nothing’s certain yet. Still, there’s a possibility…”

Unfortunately, despite the man’s cooperation, we couldn’t confirm if the hairstylist they were talking about was the same person I was looking for.

Because the man whose head I hit died.

I thought he was fine, but something must have gone wrong, as he never regained consciousness and died.

The man who answered Jang Hoseop’s questions only had secondhand information and couldn’t provide any decisive clues.

“I think it would be best to go to the market and look for her ourselves.”

“Ourselves?”

“Yes. It’s a place other people come and go anyway.”

Jang Hoseop points to the dead men’s backpacks.

Ah, we also killed the man who cooperated with us.

“It’s fastest and most certain if Hyungnim sees for yourself.”

“You’re right… Let’s do that.”

We open the men’s bags.

“A kettle, a watch… Is this real gold? Oh? There are Mana Stones too? How did they know monsters drop Mana Stones…”

All sorts of things are packed into the large hiking backpacks.

They must have planned to take all this to the market and trade it.

“What about the members?”

“You and me.”

Lee Yuna looks disappointed.

But it can’t be helped.

“Then we’ll be back.”

Leaving the other group members behind, Jang Hoseop and I left the building alone.

As we headed towards the market, the streets were clean, just as the man had said.

“That Chairman Park fellow is also quite resourceful.”

That person is using the power of a group.

In a different style from CEO Kim or Prosecutor Kang Hyesun.

“In my opinion, Chairman Park’s method is the most efficient.”

“Really?”

“Yes. Because he created a system and is running it.”

Jang Hoseop once again diligently wrote something in his notebook.

He thinks there’s something to learn from Chairman Park.

“But those original members of the revival association. A kind of armed group.”

“Yes. Aren’t they practically gangsters? MZ gangsters?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, they seem to be the core.”

“Hmm… That’s right. Because the market’s growth engine comes from them.”

The original members of the revival association are fighting monsters and expanding their territory.

People are farming within that territory.

So, they don’t have their own production capabilities.

If they stop expanding their territory, the market will eventually collapse.

“Seeing that they’re building barriers, it seems they have long-term plans too.”

“Yes. Because humans are highly adaptable.”

Jang Hoseop is also thinking of stealing their plans and system.

“Looking around, there seem to be a lot of adaptable people. How did they already think of buying and selling people…”

“If you can’t adapt, you die. Or you’re already dead.”

“Yes. That’s right…”

We’re almost there.

“Hoseop.”

“Yes, Hyungnim.”

“If the hairstylist is there, rescuing her is the top priority.”

“Of course. I’ll keep that in mind.”

The market entrance is visible.

“But by any chance, is she your girlfriend…”

“It’s not like that.”

“Ah, yep. I guess not.”

A murky smell wafts from the market.

Jang Hoseop and I pulled up our bandanas and headed towards the market entrance.

---

The market we found is small enough to look around in 10 minutes.

The size seems to be similar now.

However, the scenery is different from before.

The market street stretching between the buildings is less crowded than before.

“What’s with this place… It’s already been cleaned up?”

The collapsed buildings are neatly organized.

The awnings that covered the sky and the stalls on the ground have also disappeared.

And construction is in full swing here and there.

They are blocking the market’s side alleys and small passages with various materials.

As if they are building a defensive barrier surrounding this market street.

“Next.”

Several men were lined up at the market entrance.

Market personnel armed with various weapons were guarding the entrance.

Here, the goods brought in are appraised.

It seems they also check in weapons and fill out an entry ledger.

“Two people.”

“Faces.”

“Ah, yes.”

It’s our turn.

We lowered our bandanas and showed our faces.

A man with tattoos up to his neck stares intently at Jang Hoseop and me.

“First time?”

“Yes. It’s our first time. We came after seeing this flyer.”

“Hmm. Take it out.”

Another man approaches and checks the goods we brought.

Meanwhile, the tattooed man began to draw our faces on a plastic board.

‘It’s a skill.’

His hands are incredibly fast.

He draws faces more elaborately than expected.

He also briefly checked our personal information.

And our Fundamental Skills.

Of course, we just made up some lies.

“You both have good skills. How about joining us?”

“We haven’t thought that far yet.”

“Alright. Look around for now. If your skills are good, the treatment is good too….”

It took 10 minutes to pass through the market entrance.

We received something that could be a pass or an ID card.

And we also received currency that seemed to be self-produced.

It’s crude, but it probably wouldn’t be easy to counterfeit.

The person in front of us complained that it was too little, but we just took what we were given.

“This is amazing. The system is much better established than I expected.”

Jang Hoseop and I, with our lightened bags, looked around the market.

It’s miscellaneous, but they sell a lot of different things.

There’s even a place that sells self-made weapons.

“The intact buildings are packed with people.”

“Huh? Really? What are they doing…”

Before entering, we heard a few precautions.

The most important one was not to enter places marked with a yellow sign.

We can’t go in, but I can feel presences with my target detection.

There are many people inside the building.

“That building has tight security.”

Also, there are surveillance personnel scattered throughout the market street.

They have all Awakened Fundamental Skills, and their average level is around 5.

The personnel near the building Jang Hoseop pointed to are of a higher level.

“Let’s sit over there for a moment.”

“Yep.”

There are restaurants too.

It’s a restaurant with plastic tables and chairs lined up.

Jang Hoseop and I sat facing each other and ordered noodles.

“Hyungnim. Finding that person is going to be harder than I thought.”

It’s frustrating.

The area we can look around isn’t very wide.

We’ve only met a few people.

People doing transport work are occasionally visible in the small side alleys, but we can’t go there either.

“Now… only that building is left.”

“Right. We have to check there too.”

It’s a building with a red sign.

It’s a 5-story building, and the sign says this:

[s*x]

While eating noodles, Jang Hoseop and I continuously observed the people walking around.

There wasn’t a single woman around the hairstylist’s age.

After finishing our meal, we headed towards the building with the red sign.