Chapter 56: Fantasy in the middle of the night

“Ugh… Ugh!”

“You don’t have to overreact like that.”

With a screech and a loud noise, the old sedan came to a halt, kicking up a cloud of dust.

As soon as she stepped on the brake pedal, Seon-ah jumped out of the car like a rabbit, and Si-hyun looked at her with a pitying expression as she gracefully stepped onto the ground where tire marks remained.

“You idiot! You said you knew how to drive! Did you get your license from Initial D?”

“I know how to drive. I just haven’t done it before.”

“You… ugh…”

She tried to let out more curses, but the acid rising from her stomach made her clamp her mouth shut.

Seon-ah, whose face had turned as blue as a Smurf, glared at Si-hyun, but he didn’t even glance at her as he opened the trunk.

With an unpleasant creaking sound, the trunk lid opened, revealing a pile of iron scraps inside.

The sunlight reflecting off the smooth steel surface created a texture resembling cuticles.

“You collect all sorts of things.”

Si-hyun frowned slightly at the dazzling display of various weapons shining silver in the dusty trunk, then muttered.

From military knives to Japanese swords, hand axes, rapiers, war hammers… It seemed odd for a high school girl’s hobby, but it made sense if it was the hobby of a serial killer.

Still, she couldn’t figure out why there was a kitchen knife.

Most of the weapons were melee weapons, but there were also some firearms.

After rolling her eyes for a moment, Sihyeon picked up a rifle that seemed somewhat usable.

The smooth texture of the wood felt soft in his palm. Perhaps because it was made for hunting, it was quite light.

There was also an assault rifle in one corner, but he had no idea how it had been obtained.

He decided to leave it for the ignorant wild boar girl with the pale face who was still grunting. After grabbing two revolvers and magazines that the police would use, Si-hyun took the binoculars from his pocket and put them to his eyes.

The car was parked a short distance from the destination. In the middle of a typical rural landscape, the artificial appearance of a logistics warehouse standing among the lush greenery caught his eye.

And foreigners in black suits patrolling the area.

No visible weapons were in sight, but they likely had pistols as standard equipment.

Shi-hyun silently stuffed the loaded pistols into his holster.

The sensation of the leather tightening around his thighs heightened his emotions.

When he glanced over, Kang Seon-ah was already by his side, having gathered everything she needed.

“I’ll take the front door, you take the back door. Be careful.”

“Hmph, why don’t you worry about yourself?”

Even though she pretended to be concerned, she secretly wished he would die during the raid.

She had called him because she didn’t have the confidence to save her sister on her own, but he was still an annoying person.

However, if he were the kind of person who would die easily as she wished, he would have died several times already.

Seona sticks out her lower lip. Shihyun turns her head indifferently and dashes forward like an arrow released from a bow.

“Hey, you’re back already?”

A cozy pantry. A woman wearing a black suit and her long hair neatly tied back to her waist enters through the door.

Her somewhat untrustworthy appearance triggers a protective instinct, and she places a beer can with droplets of water on its surface on the table with a thud.

Only then does her senior, who had been dozing on the sofa, slowly sit up. She is one of the few women in this industry, and her appearance is striking, with one eye covered by an eye patch and her wheat-colored hair loosely tied back.

“Senior… Even so, drinking beer during work hours…”

“What’s the big deal? Who’s going to come all the way out here?”

Her shirt had the top two buttons undone, her jacket was wrinkled as if she had forgotten to iron it, and her shoes were scuffed at the toes. Though it was the same suit, it was in stark contrast to the woman’s neatly ironed suit.

The woman stared at her senior, who was drinking beer with a refreshed expression, as if she couldn’t believe her eyes. If she took a photo of this and sent it to her superiors, she would definitely be docked pay.

“Stop it. If you report me, you’ll be the one in trouble.”

“… I wasn’t planning on reporting him anyway.”

She wasn’t the type to snitch on others.

The woman added weakly, then sat down on the sofa across from him with a sigh that seemed to make the floor sink.

And then, it happened.

-Woom

“…What is this?”

“An intruder!?”

The peaceful pantry was suddenly enveloped in a loud alarm.

Leaving the woman frozen like a scared rabbit, her senior pulled out a gun and headed toward the door.

She gently pressed her ear against the door and heard a series of banging sounds.

There was no need to confirm the gunshots. She cautiously pushed the door open and peeked her head out through the crack.

“Ah…”

A sigh that didn’t become an echo slipped out unintentionally.

Was this a dream? She blinked her eyes slowly like a fool, but the reality in front of her eyes did not change.

Seven years as a bodyguard—it may not be a very long career.

But during her time as a special police officer in Italy, gunfights with the mafia were a daily occurrence, and she somehow managed to survive that hellish battlefield.

Including those hellish times, she has experienced just about every kind of hardship imaginable.

It was a story of my youth, filled with a sense of justice and confidence, believing that I could take down anyone, whether it was the mafia or Mario.

However, I ended up retiring in a pitiful state, having lost one eye. And as a result, I realized one thing.

Through the First and Second World Wars, the weapons industry has developed to an extreme degree in modern times—there is no such thing as an absolutely invincible human being.

In the face of bullets flying through the air with relentless force, everyone is equal.

No matter how muscular or how fast you are, there is no human being on this earth who can move faster than a bullet. If one can survive, it is due to luck and a little knowledge.

Suddenly, his right eye stings. The phantom pain he thought he had shaken off long ago.

A lesson he learned through his own body. That’s what he thought, that’s what he believed without a doubt, but what is this “unreality” before his eyes now?

“Damn it! What the hell is this?”

“Damn it, why isn’t it hitting?”

A small shadow, more specifically a small black shadow, darts between the containers like the wind.

Black hair brushing past the hail of bullets, black eyes that never flicker even as sparks fly in all directions.

The shadow’s identity was that of a girl who was too young, far too young.

The scene, reminiscent of a regressive Japanese anime, is shocking at first, but the astonishment grows as the girl turns her head to dodge the bullets.

Is she moving faster than the bullets that have already left the barrel? No, she is simply predicting their trajectory by observing the direction of the barrel.

But whatever it was, it was beyond the realm of ordinary humans.

It was an impossible feat without a combination of cold-blooded judgment and near-zero reaction speed.

It was, for example, the realm of a master.

So, at such a young age, has she reached such a level? It is a talent without equal.

It is a demonic talent that cannot be described simply as talent.

Even she, who can maintain her composure in the face of a gun barrel pointed at her, unconsciously swallows her saliva.

“Intruder, intruder!”

“Hurry up, damn it!”

Security guards who noticed the commotion began to gather. In front of the girl, beside her, and behind her. A perfect encirclement.

No matter how much of a monster she was, she couldn’t dodge bullets fired from all sides.

But with a single leap, the girl vanished into thin air.

And from where the girl had stood, a cloud of mist began to spread.

Just as the thought crossed my mind that it resembled the stage production of an idol group, the sound of gunfire erupted, like the roar of a starving beast.

“Ah!”

“Are you okay?”

Gunfire, screams, gunfire, screams. Only two kinds of sounds were allowed to echo.

The performers were the innocent trash who had sacrificed their bodies here,

and the conductor was a single girl.

Unless the girl was truly a monster, she wouldn’t have the vision to pierce through the thick smoke. Then there was only one option left:

to memorize the positions of the bodyguards before the smoke spread. All of them, within that short time.

“Ah, ah, ah, senior… um, what should we do…!”

“…”

It was an overwhelming massacre.

A one-sided slaughter where there was no contest, like an adult versus a child.

He coldly cut off the flustered junior with his pale face and silently pondered.

Surprise attacks, sniping, charges—the options honed in a hail of bullets came to mind. Could I really win—me?

Fortunately, the answer came quickly.

She carefully closed the door again, locked it, and even brought a sturdy wooden chair to wedge between the doorknob and the floor.

“Senior…?”

“…Shut up!”

‘I’m sorry to Ms. Isaka, who entrusted me with commanding the first floor, but… that’s impossible.’

Call me cowardly. But I can’t risk my life for a little money, can I?

She kept her meaningless apology to herself. She forcibly pulled off the ventilation grille on the ceiling.