Chapter 10
The moment she entered the Gate, Lee Minjeong felt a splitting headache coming on.
By the time she came to and opened her eyes,
a landscape that looked nothing like a city stretched out around Lee Minjeong.
“……Where am I?”
The place where she had set foot was a desert.
A place where fierce sandstorms blew and the blazing sun beat down.
……As a member of the Reconnaissance Division, Lee Minjeong had never entered a Gate before.
Perhaps that was why she couldn't help being shocked to see that the sun here was black.
“My seniors and Junhwi are in a place like this…….”
She covered her nose and mouth and started pushing through the sandstorm.
Then a woman's voice rang out in her head.
“Don't go straight. Turn right.”
“……Little Devil?!”
“Don't hesitate—hurry! We have to find Junhwi before the Gate closes!”
“Y-You're right. I'm going now!”
Gritting her teeth at Asmode's words, Lee Minjeong
uncovered her nose and mouth and began running, swinging her arms with all her might.
……How much time had passed?
Lee Minjeong found the corpses of devils around the place where she had arrived.
Devils that looked like small scorpions.
Since they hadn't yet disintegrated, they had clearly been killed only recently.
‘It must have been my seniors!’
Lee Minjeong grabbed the longbow on her back and ran among the devils' corpses.
……Thinking that her seniors and Junhwi would be waiting at the end.
After coming down from a dune, Lee Minjeong saw people in black uniforms below.
“S-Seniors……!”
-Crackle!
“……Huh?”
……What she saw were people in Devil Hunter uniforms strewn about like the devils she'd seen earlier.
And her immediate senior, impaled through the abdomen by the tail of a giant scorpion, had met his end.
“W-What is this……?”
-Squeak. Squeak.
The golden scorpion devil began to approach Lee Minjeong as soon as it spotted her.
Devastated, Lee Minjeong trembled, her eyes brimming with tears.
At last, when the scorpion devil stopped in front of her, Lee Minjeong realized how powerless she was.
A body that looked five times her size.
And her seniors' blood smeared across the scorpion's pincers.
……Her seniors, who were far stronger than her, had been killed by this thing.
There was no way she could defeat a monster like that.
……Lee Minjeong was a deadweight, after all.
“Lee Minjeong, get a grip and dodge to the left!”
“……!”
At that moment, Lee Minjeong heard the devil's voice echo in her head and moved.
Though she moved far too sluggishly, the scorpion's pincer only grazed her shoulder.
Even so, she managed to dodge the devil's attack.
“Nock an arrow! Hurry!”
“Yes, Little Devil……!”
-Twang!
“……It's going to charge at you at high speed. Use my Authority. Focus your eyes!”
“Y-Yes!”
The moment Lee Minjeong squeezed her eyes shut and opened them again,
the world around her began to look gray.
[Notification: Your contractor has used ‘Devil’s Eye (Passive)!]
In the distance, she saw the scorpion charging toward her.
Despite the scorpion's legs moving frantically, its movements seemed slow to Lee Minjeong.
Soon, she spotted a glowing red dot on the top of the scorpion's head.
“Hoo, hoo…….”
Steadying her breathing, she aimed at the red dot and drew back the bowstring.
At last, she released the bowstring.
The arrow flew swiftly and struck the forehead of the scorpion-like devil dead on.
-Crunch!
……She heard the sound of something breaking.
Before long, cracks appeared across the scorpion devil's body, and the monster began to split apart.
-Crack!
The cracks spread farther and farther, until the scorpion devil's body shattered like glass.
Lee Minjeong stared at the sight, blinking hard as if she couldn't believe it.
Then, in an instant, the gray landscape regained its color, and everything came into sharp focus.
……Behind the scorpion devil, Junhwi was running toward her, tears streaming down his face.
“N-Noona……!”
“Junhwi!”
Lee Minjeong ran to Junhwi too and pulled him into her arms.
Though she hadn't been able to prevent her seniors' deaths……
Lee Minjeong had become someone's hero.
*
Lee Minjeong escaped the Gate with Junhwi before it could close.
The police and Association staff ran up to her and began berating her, but……
Lee Minjeong ignored them and approached Junhwi's mother, who was sitting on the ground, crying.
The moment Lee Minjeong patted her shoulder, Junhwi's mother saw him beside Lee Minjeong and trembled all over.
“J-Junhwi……. Junhwi……!”
“Mooom!”
A mother and son reunited across dimensions.
Junhwi and his mother hugged each other, finally feeling one another's warmth.
How much time had passed?
At last, Junhwi's mother came to her senses and tried to thank Lee Minjeong.
“Thank you so much, Devil Hunter…… Huh?”
But Lee Minjeong had already left.
After leaving the area where the Gate had appeared, Lee Minjeong headed to the office of Reconnaissance Division, Section 3.
When she flung the door wide open, she saw a gray-haired man with slicked-back hair standing by the window, smoking.
He turned around to face Lee Minjeong, then spoke in a grumbling voice.
“Now you open doors without even knocking, deadweight?”
“……”
Lee Minjeong furrowed her brow and stood face-to-face with her team leader.
She slammed her palm down on the office desk and shouted at him.
“……Why.”
“What?”
“Why did you send my seniors into the Gate when we're in the Reconnaissance Division……!”
“……Hoo.”
The gray-haired man with slicked-back hair exhaled smoke, then ground his cigarette out in the ashtray on the desk.
Then he met her eyes and answered with a wicked smile.
“……To hunt devils. Isn't hunting devils the duty of Devil Hunters?”
“No. Our duty isn't to hunt devils. It's to protect people……!”
“Ha, now you're even casually talking back to your team leader.”
“You think I don't know you're doing this for a promotion?! Even if I'm a deadweight, wrong is wrong……!”
-Swoosh.
“Are you disobeying your team leader right now?”
The gray-haired man pulled a pistol from his desk drawer and aimed it at Lee Minjeong.
Lee Minjeong's heart lurched.
Her eyes darted around, unable to settle anywhere.
The team leader burst out laughing at her reaction.
He lowered the gun he'd aimed at Lee Minjeong and continued with a sneer.
“A promotion, my ass. All your seniors are dead, so I'm about to be punished. Sure looks like I'm getting promoted.”
-Click.
“You've had a rough time putting up with a shitty, nasty team leader like me. Lee Minjeong.”
“T-Team Leader! What are you……!”
-BANG!
“……”
The smell of blood began to mingle with the smell of gunpowder.
The team leader pressed the muzzle against his own temple and pulled the trigger without hesitation.
“……Huh.”
Lee Minjeong's mind went completely blank.
Her legs gave out, and she sank to the floor, staring blankly with unfocused eyes.
When she came to, people who had heard the gunshot were taking her somewhere.
……She had saved one person, and everyone else had died.
For Lee Minjeong, who had only ever wanted to get by, that moment would remain a lifelong trauma.
*
“After reviewing the CCTV footage, we've confirmed that Team Leader Baek Byeon-cheol died by suicide.”
“……Hmm, I see. Understood.”
“By the way, what should we do about her? We've tried talking to her, but she hasn't said a word. She's become a doll that doesn't react to anything.”
“It can't be helped. She just watched someone die right in front of her. Let her stay here for a while.”
A private room at the Association's psychiatric hospital.
After going through a traumatic ordeal, Lee Minjeong sat on her bed, blankly watching TV.
It was her favorite superhero series, ‘Feather Rescue.’
“Wings of justice! Feather Man is here! Villain, take this—my ultimate arrow!”
“Aaaagh……!”
“……”
The hospital director and an Association employee closed the door to the private room where she was staying.
Left alone at last, Lee Minjeong
started binge-watching ‘Feather Rescue’ as if being alone didn't bother her at all.
And finally, the ending came.
“Thank you. You watched all the way to the end, and thanks to you, I, Feather Man, was able to save the world! Now it's your turn to become heroes, viewers!”
-Ba-bam. Bam-bam-bam. Ba-bam. Bam-bam-bam.
Just as the final episode was about to end with its upbeat ending song,
-Kzzzt.
“……?”
Suddenly, as if there'd been a power outage, the lights and TV switched off.
Thanks to the sunlight coming in through the window, the room wasn't all that dark, but Lee Minjeong saw her own reflection in the TV.
“Reverse eyes……?”
The whites and irises of her eyes had switched colors.
The moment Lee Minjeong realized it, a voice sounded in her head.
“……Don't give up, Lee Minjeong. You haven't done anything wrong. It's all that team leader bastard's fault.”
“Little Devil…….”
“He was planning to kill himself anyway, even if you hadn't gone to the office. He did it to evade responsibility.”
“……”
“So don't think about killing yourself, either.”
“……Little Devil, honestly. How do you know all that? I was trying so hard not to let it show, too.”
Lee Minjeong let out a small laugh, though her eyes were brimming with tears.
Then Asmode added in an even voice,
“I'll keep watching over you to the very end. So don't give up here. You have talent.”
“……”
In the end, Lee Minjeong clutched her blanket and burst into tears.
Comforted by a devil, she cried for a long time before she could calm herself down.
*
[Remaining Survival Time: Normal]
[‘Lee Minjeong’s’ soul erosion rate has increased from 3% to 4%!]
“If it's only 1%, then I guess it's okay.”
Seeing that her remaining survival time was around two days, I thought Lee Minjeong had made up her mind.
……Fortunately, it seemed she'd listened to me and put thoughts of suicide out of her mind.
“You're a precious contractor of mine, after all. I'll make you the hero you want to be, no matter what.”
At that moment.
[Notification: Your contractors have defeated a devil!]
[Recovering the souls of the defeated devils.]
[Souls in Possession]
[Low-Rank Souls: 238]
[Mid-Rank Souls: 36]
[High-Rank Souls: 1]
‘A high-rank soul……? Why do I have a high-rank soul?’
Could it be…….
That the scorpion-like devil Lee Minjeong killed was a high-rank devil?
Thrilled at my good fortune, I immediately pressed the ‘Soul Shop’ button and scrolled down.
[Potential Unlock Ticket]
[Price: 1 High-Rank Soul]
- Analyzes a contractor's potential and strongest desire to awaken a unique Authority.
‘This is it.’
Having made up my mind, I bought the Potential Unlock Ticket without a moment's hesitation.
……A unique Authority.
Simply put, it was an individual's supernatural ability.
Just having one might be enough to instantly become a high-ranking Devil Hunter.
Lee Minjeong's potential surpassed the power of a devil.
……Perhaps just unlocking her potential might raise her abilities by several stages.
‘I wonder what kind of unique Authority will emerge.’
Having promised to make her a hero, I had no choice but to keep my word.
With that in mind, I unlocked her potential.