“Help me! Please, help me…!”
Shaking the corpse, the thing mimicked a human voice.
Its shape was almost impossible to make out in the swirling fog, but Tat Rat noticed one thing for certain.
It was smiling. That long, slashed mouth was unmistakably curled into a grin as it echoed the human voice.
“What the—” Horrified, Tat Rat scrambled backward.
But it was too late.
A long-fingered hand shot out from behind the corpse and seized his arm—cruel and claw-like, the hand of a beast.
The grip was monstrous, but Tat Rat was an Awakened who prided himself on his strength. He dug in, trying to hold his ground.
But a second later, dozens more bestial hands burst from the fog, latching onto him.
“Huh?” A dazed, foolish grunt escaped his lips.
YANK—!
Tat Rat was hauled into the fog, caught in a tangle of claw-like hands.
“AAAAAAARGH…!”
His scream rang out, long and ragged, as he was dragged helplessly into the mist… until it faded into silence.
Only a faint, hollow echo lingered in the alley.
***
“AAAAAAARGH…!”
Tat Rat had marched forward with such confidence, only to end up screaming from beyond the fog.
The rest of the group whipped their heads in his direction, startled.
“Oi, Tat Rat! You okay?!” Razor yelled.
Soon, a reply came.
“Help me!”
“...!”
“Help me, please!”
An alarmed Jae-hee started to sprint toward the sound.
Razor’s hand shot out, grabbing Jae-hee’s shoulder. “Don’t.”
“What? But—!”
“Hold on.” Razor quietly raised a finger to his lips. “Something’s wrong.”
All the while, the cries continued.
“Help me! Please, help me!”
“…”
“It hurts! It hurts so much! Help me!”
“Tat Rat!” Razor called out.
The reply was slightly delayed. “Yes!”
“Describe your situation.”
“It hurts! It hurts so much! Help me! Please!”
“…”
“It hurts! It hurts! Please! Help m—”
Razor stopped listening. “It’s a fake.”
“What?”
“Tat Rat doesn’t talk like that.”
Razor manipulated a device on his left forearm. Its arms unfolded, transforming it into a compact, arm-mounted crossbow. He then loaded the vial of bone powder he held in his right hand into it like a bolt.
The entire process took less than a second.
Without hesitation, Razor fired the glass vial.
Fweee!
It shot through the air, striking the exact spot where the voice was coming from.
CRASH—!
It shattered like an explosion, dousing its target in the bone powder held within. The powder clung to the creature’s skin and transformed into long, sharp needles.
The effect was no different from detonating a bone grenade at point-blank range.
Pthk-pthk-pthk-pthk—!
“AAAAAAAAAH!” A long scream ripped through the fog, accompanied by the sound of tearing flesh. “It hurts! It hurts! It hurts it hurts it hurts it huuuuuuurts!”
The screams soon warped into a monstrous shriek.
“I SAID IT HUUUUUUUURTS!”
Whoosh—!
The fog in the area receded, revealing a beast with long, shaggy gray fur—like the mist had taken shape.
It was massive, its hunched frame tiger-like in form and presence.
The beast smiled. A grin stretched across a bizarre face that seemed half-human, half-tiger. Beneath a red glint that pulsed faintly through the fog, a massive mouth stretched from ear to ear, revealing a horrifying set of teeth.
A sound trickled out from that torn mouth.
“Hee-hee.”
Tat Rat’s voice.
“It hurts. Help me. Please. Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee.”
The Barber, his face a pale sheet, drew a large pair of shears in each hand. “Fucking monster! What did you do to Tat Rat?!”
“Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee.”
“I asked what you did to Tat Rat!”
Swinging his twin shears, the Barber charged toward the beast.
Just then, Status Window, who had been observing from the rear, suddenly yelled, “Watch out desu! There are more of them desu!”
“…?!”
Whoosh—!
From the dense fog to the left and right, two more beasts leaped out at the Barber.
Gritting his teeth, Jae-hee dashed forward and struck each beast with a lightning-fast kick.
THWACK! CRACK!
The beasts grunted and retreated from his kicks, but the problem was their numbers.
“Hee-hee-hee-hee!”
There were more.
A lot more.
“Hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!”
One after another, the beasts emerged from the fog.
Razor threw vial after vial of bone powder and Jae-hee struck with blinding speed, trying to push them back.
But the Barber had already charged too far ahead and was instantly surrounded.
“Aaargh! Leggo! Let go of me!”
The Barber, who had been attacking the beasts with his shears, had his leg caught in one of their jaws. He let out a pained scream and collapsed, and in the blink of an eye, he was dragged into the fog.
For a split second, Jae-hee considered using his speed to save him.
But he knew instinctively it was impossible.
“This is…”
Directly ahead, dozens of glowing red eyes stared back at him from deep in the fog.
Massive beasts sat in silence, their gray manes whipping in the thick, sight-stealing mist, saliva dripping from their open maws as they awaited Jae-hee’s approach.
“What… what the hell are these things?”
The answer came from behind him. “Foghowlers.”
“What?”
“That’s what my ‘Status Window’ is showing desu.” Status Window pushed up his glasses and explained. “Monster Identification: Foghowler. A monster that conjures fog and mimics human voices from within it to prey on people.”
D-Rank Awakened, Status Window.
His ability was, just as his callsign suggested, ‘Status Window,’ which allowed him to view a target’s information and stats in a format similar to a video game’s status screen.
“It’s okay, it’s just a game. It’s okay, it’s all just a game…” Status Window muttered quietly to himself.
Jae-hee didn’t catch the last part. He asked urgently, “S-so? That Status Window thing… what does it say their weakness is?!”
Dozens of Foghowlers took a synchronized step closer.
Pushing up his glasses, Status Window gave an awkward smile. “I dunno desu.”
“Huh?”
“My Status Window doesn’t show everything desu. It’s more like I’m peeking at a Gate walkthrough that someone else created desu. Or a database, actually…”
Razor erupted in anger. “What the hell is that! What kind of Awakened ability is that! You’re no different than a walking Wikipedia!”
“An accurate assessment desu! Wow, Bossman, I’m impressed! Are you familiar with Namuwiki desu? It was the most famous wiki in Korea thirty years ago—”
Status Window launched into an excited spiel about his thirty-year-old knowledge, even as dozens of Foghowlers glared at them with blood-red eyes from all sides.
Jae-hee broke into a cold sweat, slightly unnerved. Status Window was definitely a few screws loose, too.
Razor trembled with rage. “Son of a fuck! What good is a dud like this on the team…!”
Just then, the Foghowlers surrounding them all opened their mouths.
“Boss Razor.”
“Boss.”
It was the voices of Tat Rat and the Barber.
A drop of cold sweat trickled down Razor’s chin.
Smiling with their long, torn mouths, the beasts began to chant in unison, like a song.
“Brother man.”
“Boss.”
“Help me.”
“It HURTS.”
“It’s a fake.”
“SAVE me.”
“I don’t wanna die.”
“PLEASE.”
“MOOOMMYYYYY…!”
The three convicts’ faces turned deathly white.
These monsters were clearly toying with them, and there was no escape. The fog was slowly closing in, the sea was at their backs, and the wall of mist surrounding the area was impossible to break through, no matter how far they ran.
“Dammit, dammit, shit…!”
Swearing, Razor shot a glare at Jae-hee, who flinched.
“Wh-why are you looking at me like that?” he stammered.
“Since it looks like we’re gonna die here anyway, I was debating whether I should kill you with my own hands before I go.”
“What? Why would you say something like that?! We gotta get out of here alive together!”
“You might get out alive with your speed. But not me and this pig here.”
“Don’t give up! There has to be a way!”
But Razor, already resigned to his fate, slowly raised the crossbow loaded with bone powder toward Jae-hee.
Jae-hee gritted his teeth, preparing to use his ability to dodge and counter if he had to.
Just then, Status Window started shouting.
“I found it desu!”
All this time, he had been muttering to himself while tapping his fingers in the air.
“There’s a combat record in the database! An encounter in Busan… ‘They tend to be neutralized by strong light sources, and their movement is restricted in areas without fog’!”
Razor roared in frustration. “How are we supposed to find a light source now, and how the hell are we supposed to get rid of the fog?!”
In that instant—FLASH!
Out of nowhere, a flare shot into the sky from nearby. It soared with a firework’s crack and exploded in a burst of red light.
The area lit up brilliantly. The Foghowlers lost their misty cover and stumbled back, emitting guttural growls.
“You there!” a sharp woman’s voice rang out. “All of you, get down!”
“…!”
Razor was the first to hit the deck. Jae-hee grabbed the stammering Status Window and forced him down.
At the same time…
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!
BANG! BANG! BANG—!
A dozen soldiers appeared from the other side of the fog, opening fire on the Foghowlers in unison. The way they laid down a coordinated screen of fire to push back the monsters marked them as elites, brutally forged in real combat.
The soldiers continued to fire as they scattered more flares around the area.
“Don’t be fooled! That one is a fake! A fake! A fake!”
The Foghowlers, though not seriously injured by the gunfire, slowly retreated beyond the range of the flares.
“My dear grandson, open the door. Grandpa brought you your favorite chocolate cookies.”
“Dad! It’s me, it’s really me! Why don’t you recognize me? Please, just look at me.”
“Doctor, please! Please save my little brother. He hasn’t been breathing for a while.”
“Fakefakefakefakefakefakefakefakefakefakefakefakefake.”
They mimicked the voices of victims they had already consumed, letting out cruel, taunting cries.
Eventually, the Foghowlers scattered, disappearing into the depths of the fog.
“Cease fire!”
The gunfire stopped immediately at the command.
A female soldier, who appeared to be the leader, ordered her subordinates to secure the perimeter before approaching the convicts.
“Sergeant Mu-gung Hwa, 17th Division, Gate Search Battalion.”
Sergeant Hwa pushed up the night-vision goggles she was wearing and scanned them with sharp eyes.
She was a woman with short hair and sun-kissed skin, a long scar running across the bridge of her nose. Her toned, powerful physique moved like a panther beneath the tight lines of her military uniform.
Her rifle, smoke still curling from the barrel, was loaded with multiple attachments. Clearly, the Gate Search Battalion relied on a range of specialized gear for fighting monsters on the front lines.
“You seem to be Awakened. Are you Hunters?”
Jae-hee and Status Window exchanged bewildered glances, but Razor stepped forward and answered coolly. “That’s right. We’re Hunters from a private guild. Dispatched to assess the situation.”
“State your exact affiliation and names.”
“Can’t.”
“And why not?”
“We’re on a classified mission.”
“Hearing you talk shit like that, I guess you’re definitely not monsters.” Sergeant Hwa lowered her rifle and jutted her chin. “Fine, whatever. As long as you’re willing to fight those hellspawn motherfuckers, I don’t care who you work for.”
“…”
“Follow me. I’ll take you to a safe location.”
“Is there anywhere safe in this neighborhood?”
“We’ve established a ‘relatively’ safe zone.”
At the same time, the soldiers finished their search of the area.
Aside from the corpse of the soldier who had been killed and used as bait for the Black Parade, no other bodies were found. Neither Tat Rat nor the Barber was there.
“Two of my comrades were taken by them. We have to save them,” Razor said urgently.
Sergeant Hwa silently lowered her night-vision goggles. “They don’t ‘take’ people. They kill them to steal their voices, then drag the corpses back to their lair as offerings for their Alpha. Your comrades are most likely already dead.”
“My men aren’t the type to die so—!”
“The flares won't last much longer. They’ll be back.” Sergeant Hwa glanced at Razor. “So... what'll it be?”
It was a declaration: she wouldn’t stop him from going, but she wouldn’t help, either.
Gritting his teeth, Razor glared at Sergeant Hwa with bloodshot eyes.
His deliberation didn’t last long.