A convenience store in a secluded corner where people rarely come and go. The bell jingled.
“Welcome.”
Though he reflexively greeted like that, the part-time convenience store worker’s gaze was still fixed on the thick certification exam questions.
“You should greet people while looking at their face.”
Damn, another old fart. Thinking that, the part-timer raised his head, but his face soon hardened. Because the appearance of the person in front of him was unsettling.
To be honest, the man looked completely out of place in this civilized society. His half-naked body and face, and his unkempt hair were covered in something dark red, and in his hand was a sword emitting an ominous aura.
But one thing was certain.
That man somehow looked extremely dangerous.
“Uh…”
Before he could even finish his words, Park Sang-pyeon’s sword cut the part-timer in half. Not even a scream escaped from the mouth of the man who died instantly. The life of a young man who had been living diligently for the future was extinguished like that, but Park Sang-pyeon’s face showed no sign of guilt.
Looking around the convenience store, Park Sang-pyeon picked up a bread on display and tore open the package. After munching on a cream bun, he moved his steps and this time opened the beverage section. He carelessly throws away what he doesn’t finish eating.
The inside of the convenience store, which had been quite neatly arranged, became a mess in an instant.
Even as Park Sang-pyeon was causing this havoc, no one appeared.
Not even an alarm went off.
“What’s this.”
This deviates from Park Sang-pyeon’s plan.
He thought if he caused this much commotion, someone would appear and scream, then he’d kill that person too, and as people died and killed, rumors would spread that the Butcher had appeared. Then he thought that Weltschmerz guy would rush here too.
He deliberately chose a place with few people to make it good for fighting, but it’s a problem that there are too few people.
Well, if people don’t come, he’ll just have to draw them in.
Park Sang-pyeon, who left the convenience store, threw a car parked in the parking lot straight onto the highway.
Screech! A car that couldn’t avoid the suddenly flying car stopped abruptly, causing a chain collision.
In an instant, the peaceful road became a mess. Everyone was in a panic at this disaster that suddenly intruded into their lives.
At that moment, a yellow bus caught Park Sang-pyeon’s eye.
“This looks fun too.”
Park Sang-pyeon slowly walked towards it. They tried to quickly back up the car to avoid Park Sang-pyeon, but the yellow van was blocked by a car that had stopped behind it.
Stepping in front of the van, Park Sang-pyeon said:
“Hello, kiddies.”
* * *
The news that the Butcher had occupied a gas station and highway spread quickly across the country. With CCTV around and many survivors who escaped from the highway, the news reached the entire nation in just 30 minutes.
Helicopters were flying around, and all nearby military and police forces were heading there. But the problem was that there was no one who could deal with the Butcher.
The government said they would inform the guilds about the situation and ask for cooperation, but negotiations with guilds always took time.
Park Sang-pyeon didn’t pay much attention to the people gathering around him. He just responded by sending out sword energy if they approached too close.
It might not sound like much when you say sword energy, but it was an annihilating sword energy that burned the entire body the moment it hit.
Seeing a helicopter that approached too close explode in the air, the Ministry of National Defense hastily pulled back its forces.
They wanted to fire missiles at the scene, but they couldn’t respond like that because there might be hostages who couldn’t escape nearby.
And all this news reached me too.
Looking at the news flowing in real-time, I frowned.
“Hmm, this is different from what I expected.”
I thought he might ignore my invitation, but I didn’t think he’d do something like this. Did my attempt to reduce damage actually result in greater damage?
“Boss, I think that bastard was more hot-blooded than you thought.”
Han Seo-hyeon said that while watching my reaction and then asked:
“What are you going to do?”
“We have to go.”
“There?”
Han Seo-hyeon said to me in a disgusted voice.
“If we go there, it’ll be a real mess. You can see just from the news. How many forces are there now? Army, police, and they said they’re even getting help from nearby hunters.”
“If we don’t go, he’ll escape at the right time. And he’ll repeat such acts over and over again.”
And each time, civilian casualties will snowball.
“And do you see that yellow bus?”
At my words, Han Seo-hyeon’s face crumpled. Han Seo-hyeon knows what that is too.
Park Sang-pyeon had hostages. And those hostages are kindergarteners who were on their way to a field trip to a nearby amusement park.
The reason the military and police forces couldn’t move was because of those hostages. Whether he took hostages aiming for this or just brought them there incidentally, I don’t know, but innocent kindergarteners were captured by him.
“If we don’t go, those kids will die.”
At my words, Han Seo-hyeon clenched his fists.
“I know.”
“You saw that and still said we shouldn’t go?”
“Ugh! But, but if we go there and can’t come back…”
It’s not the mess I made, but someone made a mess so we have to clean it up.
—That’s a dirty metaphor.
‘It’s fine since it’s a metaphor for dealing with a dirty guy, isn’t it?’
It would have been nice if he had come quietly to the place we invited him to, but now that it’s come to this, we can’t refuse.
The problem is that the place where the Butcher is causing trouble is about 4 hours away by car from here.
Damn, and sadly, we don’t have any fast means of transportation.
If we run using mana, we could shorten the time, but we’d be exhausted before we even fight.
Even that, unlike me who has plenty of mana, Kim Jae-ho and Han Seo-hyeon can’t move like that.
The problem is whether the Butcher’s temper will hold out for 4 hours.
But it seems a bit lame to say ‘On the way, wait 4 hours’ through the dark web.
Still, we can’t leave it like this.
“Seo-hyeon, we need to send a carrier pigeon.”
It’s time to send a letter to that ill-mannered guy.
* * *
The Butcher narrowed his eyes. He had already dealt with the trivial things flying around this area, so no one was approaching anymore. Well, it didn’t matter if they did. Each time, he’d just tear apart one of the kids he had stashed there and they wouldn’t come in anymore.
But Weltschmerz didn’t appear. Are they cowards?
“Fuck, how long do they want me to wait.”
Park Sang-pyeon’s patience was originally very short. Even holding out this long was a long time for him.
He wanted to end it here if possible. But Weltschmerz showed no sign of appearing, and the sniffling sounds from inside the yellow bus were irritating.
At that moment, a black crow appeared in front of him. Just as he was about to unconsciously cut the crow, something attached to the crow’s feet caught his eye.
The crow flew straight to Park Sang-pyeon.
Checking the letter attached to the crow’s leg, Park Sang-pyeon smirked. Because he quite liked the message contained in it.
[Wait.
We’ll gladly come to play on the stage you’ve overturned.
Surely you won’t run away afraid of the government’s dogs?]
Park Sang-pyeon smiled brightly.
“Good, come quickly.”
* * *
Upon hearing the news, Do Chae-hee immediately turned her car towards that place. Calling Park Cheol-wan, Do Chae-hee raised her voice:
“Gather all the personnel in the vicinity there.”
[All the forces that can gather are already gathering there. The problem is that there are hostages.]
The Butcher Park Sang-pyeon killed the driver who was in the school bus. But there was a child among the children who had a cell phone. The child called home crying and that news immediately reached the media.
[The hostages are still fine so far. So let’s try not to provoke the Butcher as much as possible.]
“The problem is that even if we don’t provoke him, everything will be over if Weltschmerz doesn’t show up here.”
What the Butcher Park Sang-pyeon wants is just one thing.
A showdown with Weltschmerz.
Looking at the Butcher who was looking beyond the highway as if waiting for something and then shooting sword energy into the air as if annoyed, it didn’t seem like that wasn’t the case.
“Will Weltschmerz come here?”
If they don’t come here, the lives of those hostages can’t be guaranteed. They would enter the moment the hostages die, but the people gathered here couldn’t catch the Butcher.
It means only the hostages will die and it will end.
[If it were me, I wouldn’t bother coming here. Weltschmerz already set a place and time and sent it to the Butcher, right? Coming here is like, they’ve already lost to the Butcher.]
Villains considered pride fights quite important among themselves.
Weltschmerz notifying the Butcher of the place was probably also a kind of pride fight. The Butcher didn’t accept that notification and set up this stage here.
It means they’re in the middle of a pride fight over setting the place and time.
“So you’re saying they won’t come.”
[We’ll have to wait and see for now. It would be nice if they came. Even if they don’t come, absolutely no early entry.]
The government’s response was already out. Observe the situation from as far away as possible.
As long as there are hostages, we shouldn’t approach rashly.
But they couldn’t even dream of a rescue operation. The Butcher’s abilities are sensitive. He, who has killed countless people, was better than anyone at detecting human presence.
Didn’t he just cut down the rescue team that was trying to sneak in to extract the hostages earlier?
Sending more rescue teams is just increasing sacrifices.
Absolutely no entry. Following that order, the Awakener Crimes Department was on standby 2km away from the scene.
Do Chae-hee, who arrived at the scene, frowned.
“I said control the personnel.”
Because people were packed tightly at the personnel control line.
“Traffic control from here! Turn back.”
“Go to another place. Hey! You can’t come up to here.”
Even when the police personnel said that, there were quite a few people who didn’t listen.
“My child is in there!”
“What are the police doing!”
It seemed like even a marketplace would be quieter than this. There were many people who got tangled up trying to cover this story.
That’s not all. Even now, there were quite a few vehicles entering towards this place.
Do Chae-hee’s eyes crinkled as she saw a yellow van pushing through the control line.
“What’s that bus now?”
Well, didn’t they say there’s an amusement park nearby? It was lamentable that there was a kindergarten bus heading to the amusement park even in this chaos.
Just as Do Chae-hee was about to pick up the radio to talk about the bus-
Suddenly, the movement of the bus became suspicious. Unlike other cars that were gradually slowing down, the yellow bus was getting faster.
Do Chae-hee’s pupils shook.
‘Come to think of it, that bus…’
Isn’t the tinting too dark for a bus carrying children?
“Wait!”
Just as Do Chae-hee, feeling uneasy, pushed through the crowd of people and raised her voice.
The yellow bus was already speeding at full speed. People around the entrance were pushed away from the roadside as if bounced by someone.
The end of the last personnel control line. The barricade.
Surely they can’t cross the barricade.
But as if mocking Do Chae-hee’s thoughts, the yellow van rammed straight into the barricade.
And broke through.
“Whoa.”
And then it sped away like an arrow.
Towards where the Butcher was.