Chapter 55
“Haah, seriously! How far is that lunatic planning to chase him?!”
A sudden chase had begun in front of the collapsing Ferris wheel.
Park Hana followed Park Cheon-ho, who was pursuing the suspicious-looking man who used bombs, shouting irritably as she went.
‘What if something really happens to him at this rate…?!’
He had no fear.
He was far too thoughtless.
What could he possibly expect to find where he was chasing that man? What if the terrorist was only pretending to flee in order to lure them back to his base?
They said Seoul was a place where someone could have their nose cut off while their eyes were wide open, but her twin brother had no caution whatsoever. At least his sturdy body was enduring the bombs as though they were nothing….
‘Even he can’t withstand this forever. If he gets himself hurt doing something stupid, I’ll be the one left feeling uneasy….’
Considering Park Cheon-ho’s ability, the danger would begin once his mana started to run low. Even that tough body of his could endure things only because the mana constantly flowing through it naturally cloaked him in a defensive aura whenever he was in danger.
She didn’t know how much mana he had left…but after already being caught in two explosions, he must have used up more than half.
“Hey, Park Cheon-ho! Just stop and come back! I’m telling you, something’s wrong!”
“I’ve almost got him! Once I catch this terrorist, I’ll be…!”
“I’m saying that because you could be in danger, terrorist or no terrorist!!”
“Huff, huff, y-you heard your girlfriend! Just get lost! If you keep chasing me, huff, I-I might really kill you!!”
“Who the hell is that blockhead’s girlfriend, you f-fucking bastard…!!!”
Park Hana blurted out a curse in a fit of anger, then hurriedly shook her head from side to side to cool the heat that had suddenly rushed to her head and regain her composure.
Even in the cramped neighborhood where everyone knew everyone else, she had often heard unkind remarks about this side of her, and it wouldn’t do to lose her cool over an insult this minor.
Meanwhile, the bomber began crossing the ‘Sky Bridge’ connecting the eastern and western areas of the amusement park, and Park Cheon-ho followed after him without hesitation.
‘Wait, isn’t this dangerous…?’
She didn’t know how many more bombs the man had, but what if he blew up the bridge in the middle of their crossing?
If they fell from a cliff this high, even Park Cheon-ho wouldn’t come out unharmed. And she would be even less likely to survive, with a body weaker than his.
“Huff, huff, huff….”
“Huff, I-I’ve almost caught…him…!”
“Hey, Park Cheon-ho! It’s dangerous, so come back!”
“Yeah! I’ll catch this guy and come back!”
“That guy looks like the most dangerous one of all, so just come back, you idiot…!!”
Park Hana stamped her feet at the bridge entrance, unable to go forward or back. Park Cheon-ho, meanwhile, continued chasing Bang Hwacheol without a thought.
Just as the man in the black hood was nearly across the bridge, another explosion went off beneath Park Cheon-ho’s feet.
-Kwoooong!!
“Park Cheon-ho………!!!”
See? This was why I told him not to follow…!
With a tremendous roar, the massive bridge split apart in both directions and collapsed.
It was bad enough that he had been caught in the center of the explosion, but what would happen if he fell straight down the cliff like this?
Could she really lose her twin brother, whom she had spent her entire life with, so pointlessly just because he was annoying and embarrassing? Thinking this, Park Hana stared blankly down over the cliff, but then—
“Kha, khahahaha…!! That’s what you get for not watching your step, khahahahaha…!!”
“……?”
As she stared blankly down over the cliff, Park Hana caught sight of something.
-Twitch, twitch.
“Hoo, huff, hoo…. I-I definitely didn’t lose him….”
“…….”
Park Cheon-ho was hanging from the half-collapsed bridge, climbing up using the chains that had originally served as its railing as a ladder.
‘…I’m the fool for worrying about that idiot.’
After seeing him like that, Park Hana somehow felt that he could manage on his own.
‘I think I saw on the map earlier that we can also get to the western area of Neverland by lift….’
Even so, she couldn’t bring herself to abandon her own brother and began searching for another way across.
⁎ ⁎ ⁎
“S-stop! If you take even one more step, this child’s life….”
“Dark Spear!”
-Thwuk!
“Ghk, hng…?!”
It had been about an hour since I began clearing out the remnants of Black Moon with Cha Eun-joo, Han Sora, and Kim Isabel.
The number of hooded figures was dwindling until they were almost no longer visible. That was how many of them we had killed.
We must have killed at least ten of them. Jeong Byeok-hyeon had said that roughly thirty remained, so the others had probably either hidden somewhere or been killed by someone righteous like us.
In this world, even carrying out a terrorist attack meant accounting for ordinary people’s resistance. That was simply how terrorism worked in a Hunter-fiction world.
“Gnh, huff, hngh….”
“Please don’t get up. You need to lie down and rest for now.”
“Th-thank you….”
As the number of enemies dwindled, Kim Isabel had more time to tend to the wounded. Thanks to the effect of the Suggestion I had used on her, she didn’t seem particularly hesitant to treat a man even with him right in front of her.
I felt a little jealous watching my own little Isabel treat another man, but it didn’t matter as long as she still seemed to feel sexual desire only toward me.
Besides, this wasn’t the time to worry about something like that. More importantly, I had to proceed with the finale of the Amusement Park Attack event. The event would end once we killed the three executives under Jo Jinhyeon, Black Moon’s ‘Field Commander.’
Jeong Byeok-hyeon had already been dealt with in a surprise attack at the amusement park entrance, while Bang Hwacheol would probably be taken care of by Park Cheon-ho if I left him alone. Park Cheon-ho’s ability was practically a hard counter to Bang Hwacheol.
Apart from the boss, Kang Kaljin was the only one left. In some ways, he was the main villain of this event, more dangerous even than Jo Jinhyeon.
‘He’ll probably rush at Han Sora without a doubt, but I still need to prepare for even the slightest possibility.’
Kang Kaljin’s hobby was using his scissor hands to tear the faces of pretty women to shreds.
In the original Owlbear event, Kim Isabel had been wearing a veil, so Han Sora had been the only person with a conspicuous appearance. But last time, I had brought Cha Eun-joo into battle to take Seo Woojin’s place.
No matter how much of her face her drooping bangs concealed, there was no denying that Cha Eun-joo was beautiful. I had to stay alert in case Kang Kaljin tried to target one or both of them.
“Phew…. I think we’ve taken down everything in sight, right?”
“There don’t seem to be many enemies left, but we should still keep looking around.”
“Seonho, you really don’t let your guard down until the very end. You seemed unusually cautious during the Owlbear incident too.”
“That’s the role of the support department. If I’m lacking in combat ability, I have to make up for it elsewhere.”
“Are you going on about the support department again? Everyone here can fight this well because of your buff, me included!”
“That may be true, but I can’t just cast a buff and then sit around as though my job is done. It’s not only in situations like this—inside dungeons or during a monster wave, too, this is something a person in a relatively free position, like combat support, should handle.”
“Anyone can keep watch in all directions, even if they aren’t in combat support.”
“Exactly. Since anyone can do it, it should be the combat support’s job. Meanwhile, you, Eun-joo, and Isabel are doing things I can’t.”
“Seriously, you’re diligent to a fault….”
In reality, I was only making excuses to prepare for Kang Kaljin’s attack. I didn’t want one of the heroines to get hurt during the amusement park event I had gone to all this trouble to use to raise their favorability.
As I thought this and desperately scanned the surroundings, someone with an especially striking appearance emerged from among the crowd.
“Aaaah! H-help meee…!!”
Yellow hair, brown skin, and a strangely unsettling appearance.
The moment I spotted the tall man running toward Han Sora and me, bleeding heavily as though he had suffered a slash wound to the arm, I loaded the rifle in my hand.
“Are you all right?! Your wound….”
“Aaaagh, it hurts so much I could die! Aaaagh…!!”
“Wait! I-Isabel! There’s an emergency patient here….”
-Bang!
“……Huh?”
Han Sora looked at me with a blank expression when a gunshot suddenly rang out beside her.
Soon, Cha Eun-joo and Kim Isabel also turned their heads toward me one after another, looking somewhat flustered.
“S-Seonho…?”
“…What just happened?”
“Hey, wait…! What did you just do?!”
“Stiff yellow hair, brown skin, and a tall build. That guy is Executive Kang Kaljin, whom we heard about earlier.”
“R-really…?”
“What are you talking about…? It could just be a coincidence…! And how could he be a terrorist when he came here injured like that….”
It was a little frustrating, but it couldn’t be helped. Real combat experience was built up in exactly this way.
It was a little early to ask Han Sora, who was still only an academy freshman, to make a cold judgment, but given the situation, I clearly explained why I had shot him.
“Hey, Han Sora. Snap out of it.”
“……Huh?”
“Of all the terrorists we’ve encountered so far, have you seen any carrying a weapon other than a gun? Besides, that wound on his shoulder is obviously a slash wound.”
“…….”
“It’s strange enough that he matches such an unusual description, but then he suddenly approached us crying for help, so I shot him. If the wound on his body had been a gunshot wound rather than a slash wound, I might have hesitated too.”
“B-but what if he really was an ordinary person….”
Han Sora’s trembling eyes revealed that her emotions were still unsettled, as though she couldn’t bring herself to be certain.
Rather, this was a good opportunity. I could show someone with little combat experience how readily villains resorted to underhanded methods and why she shouldn’t hesitate.
If Kang Kaljin had happened to die from a single bullet, she might not have been able to shake the suspicion that he had been an ordinary person. But he was never someone a mere bullet could kill in the first place.
“…Wow, you’ve got sharp eyes~?”
“S-Seonho…! That person…!”
“…Didn’t Mr. Lee Seonho hit him in the head…?”
“……Uh, y-yeah…….”
The three women reacted with confusion, doubt, and shock.
Normally, the single bullet I fired should have pierced his forehead, but that hadn’t happened. The bullet lodged in his forehead had crumpled as though it had struck a thick iron plate, embedding itself without piercing his skin.
“Damn, we’re busted~! All of you come on out, you bastards~!”
-Rustle, rustle.
As soon as they heard Kang Kaljin’s voice, five or six remaining members of the organization emerged from behind trees or vending machines.
This was the moment the main event of the Amusement Park Attack, the battle with ‘Scissorhands Kang Kaljin,’ began.