episode_0006

마수魔獸.

Different from the dirty imperialists, they are the enemies of all humanity.

They sometimes emerge from gates connecting irregularly to other dimensions,

and at times, creatures from ancient stories and myths manifest in the present world.

As such, there exist countless types of mausu in the world, classified meticulously into nine grades based on the scale of their power, ranging from the weakest D grade to C, B, A, Emperor, Judgment, Apocalypse, and Myth.

Even within the A grade, they are further divided into Collapse and Disaster levels, with the lower to mid-tier being Collapse and the mid-upper to top-tier being Disaster.

Furthermore, Emperors and Judgment are classified as S grade, while Apocalypse and Myth are considered immeasurable… Mausu of this level has rarely appeared in history, so there’s no need to worry about them.

Among these, the most widespread are the D and C grade mausu.

The reason these creatures are troublesome is simple.

Ironically, it’s because they possess too little magical power, making it difficult to detect even if one or two sneak into a village unnoticed.

* * *

The moon floating in the sky is truly round. It looks like a cheese ball sold at a burger joint, and it seemed like sweet cheese would flow out once bitten.

“Hmm….”

I’ve had one concern recently.

It’s not about the woman who’s been annoyingly following me for the past few days, but rather, it’s about my job.

“Bounty hunter. Not as fun as I thought.”

Certainly, you can earn a lot compared to the effort you put in.

There are so many easy tasks that make you wonder why there’s a bounty on them.

Just go to a suspicious place and give someone a beating, and you’ll easily earn hundreds of thousands of won.

Money. It’s essential for living, of course, but…

“It’s not fun, and it’s not romantic.”

It’s enough to earn just enough money to get by. Having more is nice, but what’s more important is stimulation.

Stimulation that you can’t feel just by having a lot of money. It’s like the vitality of life, so to speak.

Continuing this uninspiring bounty hunter job would certainly make a lot of money, but it seemed like there wouldn’t be any fun in living that way.

“…Huh?”

At that moment, a suspicious presence was felt. Although the distance was quite far, someone was urgently running on this ambitious dawn. Judging from the rough breathing, it seemed like something urgent was happening.

…No, they were fleeing. From something.

A faint sense of fear could be felt from the haphazardly drawn breaths.

As if sensing danger, the tail twitched sharply.

Thump. Thump. The heart beat slowly.

It didn’t take long to make up his mind.

He leaped lightly off the ground with the moon at his back.

* * *

“Gasp! Gasp! Urgh…! Ugh─!”

Thud!

Yoon Seungwoo, who had been running in a hurry, stumbled forward as his foot caught on a rock.

His knees were scraped, blood trickling from the wounds. The acute pain surged, but there was no time to even cry out.

The intense fear silenced even a child’s cry.

It felt as if his grandfather’s voice, who had forcibly taken his brother and Chaeyeon away, was still echoing in his ears.

[If you want to save these two kids, bring three more before sunrise.]

It was a chilling voice, as if scratching the blackboard with fingernails.

His grandfather was over 2 meters tall, his gaunt body dark and tough as if made of iron.

Long, sharp claws at the tips of both hands could cut through concrete walls like tofu.

Most eerie of all was his grandfather’s face.

Sparse, patchy hair on his bald head, as if forcibly shoved in like a child’s.

Empty eye sockets oozing black blood, and sharp fangs growing in the wide-open mouth.

Clearly beyond the realm of human appearance.

All six-year-old Yoon Seungwoo could do was endure his tears and keep running.

Was it relief from escaping the monster, or the fact that his brother and Chaeyeon were still captured by the monster?

Yoon Seungwoo couldn’t get up from his fall, crying uncontrollably.

“Huh, huh-ahhh! Our hyung, how is he…! Sob, uwaahhh! Chaeyena…! Sob, huhuk!”

It had been several minutes since he started crying uncontrollably.

Suddenly, a familiar voice called his name in an unusual, unstable tone.

“Seungwoo.”

“Gasp…!”

Startled, Seungwoo stopped crying and looked ahead. His vision was blurry from the tears he had shed just moments ago.

One thing stood vividly before him. A pair of eyes shining brilliantly as if they were made of melted gold.

Familiar yet strangely unfamiliar at this moment, those were the eyes of his cat-like older sister.

“Sis!”

In the presence of the familiar adult figure, Seungwoo jumped up and clung to his cat-like sister’s legs.

Normally, she wouldn’t allow any physical contact, not even a touch of her ears or tail, but for some reason, she didn’t avoid Seungwoo’s embrace this time.

She gazed down at Seungwoo with her usual expressionless face and slowly reached out her hand.

Seeing the delicate and gentle hand of his cat-like sister approaching him, Seungwoo felt a momentary fear.

Could his cat-like sister also be a monster? Or perhaps, a fake trying to deceive him?

“Hmm…!”

However, despite closing his eyes tightly and holding his breath, his cat-like sister’s hand only tenderly stroked Seungwoo’s head.

As Seungwoo’s tension momentarily eased, he tried to ask his cat-like sister for help.

“Sis…! With Hyung and Chaeyuni…”

“Shh.”

His cat-like sister raised her index finger to silence Seungwoo and then spoke.

“It’s okay. I already know everything.”

“Huh…?”

“Because I can smell it.”

“Smell…?”

“Yes. A very unpleasant smell.”

Sniff, sniff.

His cat-like sister leaned in close to smell.

Seungwoo almost forgot the shocking event that had just occurred when his cat-like sister suddenly came so close to him.

That’s how surreal her appearance and eyes were.

As his widened eyes met his cat-like sister’s gaze, she let out a small smile, causing Seungwoo to hold his breath.

The smile on his cat-like sister’s face, which he was seeing for the first time, was more beautiful than anything he had ever seen in his life.

The older cat poked Yoon Seungwoo’s cheek with the tip of her tail and passed by him.

“Wait quietly here.”

“Sister…?”

When Seungwoo, who was standing blankly, turned around belatedly,

The figure of the older cat had already disappeared. As if it might have all been a dream, leaving no trace behind.

* * *

Since the owner of the scent seemed to be nearby,

It took less than 2 minutes to arrive while following the scent.

Perhaps because it was a neighborhood with frequent redevelopment, there were many abandoned buildings, and it seemed that the group that took Jaemin and Chaeyeon had chosen one of them as their base for activities.

As we tore through the old iron gate and entered, a spacious area opened up. Materials were scattered everywhere, but it seemed to have been left unattended for a long time, as dust had accumulated.

And at the end of the room, there was a huge figure crouching.

Inside the shroud he was carrying on his back, it was easy to guess what kind of monster he was, seeing Jaemin and Chaeyeon unconscious and collapsed.

The shroud-wearing grandfather who catches children who don’t listen.

He seemed to be a monster released into the world as a narrative-type monster.

As the shroud-wearing grandfather slowly turned his body and looked at me, he noticeably became flustered.

[Why would someone like you be in a place like this…?]

There was no reason to answer. Above all, I didn’t want to show respect to a monster like him.

I left it at the black house, but I didn’t even need a sword to kill a mere C-rank monster.

When I applied a little force to my fingertips, short but sharp claws grew.

They were claws that could easily cut through most steel, quite an effective weapon.

As I lightly kicked the ground and shot towards him, the shroud-wearing grandfather swung his claws, which seemed to be about 30cm long.

[Why are you trying to attack this noble!]

It was absurd. Did one need a reason to protect a child?

For an ordinary person, it would have been an attack that would tear them apart like paper, but it wasn’t much of a threat to me.

When I roughly swung my left hand, the shroud-wearing grandfather’s hands were torn to shreds.

“Noisy. Be quiet.”

He shoved his right hand directly into the mouth of the old man with a straw hat.

As if there were no obstacles, the hand went straight through the boy’s head, and when he pulled it out, the head above the jaw burst.

That blow killed the old man with the straw hat.

It was ridiculously simple.

After quickly pulling the children out of the straw hat so they wouldn’t be crushed by the slowly falling body without a head, he absentmindedly licked the blood on his hand.

His thought was that since his hand was dirty, he should wipe it off.

“Eh! Eungtete! Tch!”

With a terrible, corrupt taste in his mouth, he spat out the blood that had touched his tongue, and Jaemin, who had been lying on his arm, slowly opened his eyes.

“Cat… sister?”

* * *

“Hyaaaah─!”

“Seungwoo!”

Watching the dramatically reunited siblings embracing each other and making a fuss, he looked at Chaeyeon, still unconscious in his arms.

Kwoong─ Kwoong─.

I saved these kids.

Thinking that way, I felt something deep in my heart beating.

It’s different from what I felt killing enemies and monsters on the battlefield.

There, I didn’t feel like I was protecting anyone. I only had a vague sense of killing enemies.

What should I call this? Emotion? Relief?

I don’t really know, but one thing is for sure….

This is exactly what I wanted.

Not just catching criminals for money and getting paid for handing them over.

Helping someone in need and feeling fulfilled by seeing them happy.

Of course, I’ll have to get some reward in the process of surviving, but still.

Yeah… It’s like a hero in a movie or novel.

“…Cool.”

Above all, ‘hero’ was a word 50 times cooler and more resonant than a bounty hunter.