Chapter 18
An ordinary day on the Fixer Gallery, much like any other.
The only difference was the migratory bird warning that went into effect at dawn yesterday.
[I fucking almost died]
I was out running in the dawn breeze and holy shit
I suddenly got this bad feeling, turned around, and bam—a gigantic beak, holy shit
If I hadn't hit the deck right away, I would've been eaten whole, holy shit
Everyone watch out for migratory birds, holy shit
ㄴ You still believe in anomaly forecasts,,,?
ㄴ Whew, I knew this would happen, so I haven't left the house in a year lol
ㄴ You should get out more lol
ㄴ But if they're inside Seoul's borders, don't they fail to notice us?
ㄴ How'd you end up getting spotted?
ㄴ *) Actually, I was running outside the border haha
ㄴ *) It's quiet out there since there's nobody around
ㄴ ?
ㄴ How the hell did you survive
ㄴ You actually lived
[Honestly, it's just that the special-grades are slacking off, yeah]
The special-grades around the world could wipe out all the migratory birds at once.
Why don't they do it?
ㄴ Stop blaming special-grades for everything
ㄴ They don't because it'd screw up the balance of the ecosystem
ㄴ That's why?
ㄴ They didn't wipe out mosquitoes before anomalies appeared, either. You never know what problems might crop up
ㄴ Fair lol
ㄴ No, it's just an efficiency issue
ㄴ There are so damn many migratory birds, so the contribution points you get per effort are total garbage
ㄴ It's way more efficient contribution-wise to resolve a single anomaly in the city than spend time beating up migratory birds
ㄴ God, you money-grubbing bastards
ㄴ Do some volunteer work now and then
ㄴ You can't exactly risk your life to volunteer…
The Sephira ‘Invisibility Cloak,’ which conceals humans from anomalies.
Thanks to the Management Bureau securing and commercializing that technology, cities around the world, including those in Korea, are fairly safe from animal-type anomalies, commonly known as magical beasts.
That's why most fixers often venture beyond Seoul's borders.
The easiest way to earn ‘contribution points’ is to hunt magical beasts and rescue people outside the border. There's also a small chance of obtaining a Sephira related to magical beasts.
But with migratory birds flying back and forth these days, it's the off-season for hunting.
They were incredibly difficult to hunt, since there were so many and they flew overhead.
Only fixers who could use the sky as a battlefield could avoid the off-season.
When the season came around, though, some fixers would turn to dangerous work.
[This fucking first-year rookie ran off with the money]
He kept bringing up crime syndicates, so I figured he'd bail sooner or later
That son of a bitch messed with the funds?
You're dead
ㄴ Don't you have a safe? lol
ㄴ *) The fucking representative set the password to 0000, what was I supposed to do!!!
ㄴ You guys deserve to get robbed
ㄴ How have you not been robbed until now? lol
It was a case of people quietly joining a criminal organization because they couldn't afford to stop making money just because it was the off-season.
Cheong Harin's kidnapping, too, was planned by low-ranking members who'd joined the organization during the off-season and were looking for a new way to make money.
Inside a van rattling along an unpaved road on the outskirts of Seoul,
several people were busy tying up Cheong Harin's hands and feet as she struggled in their midst.
“Mmph! Mmph!”
“Hold her properly, you idiots!”
“Yes, sir!”
“You think you'll get paid for doing a half-assed job like this? Hold her tight!”
“Sorry, sir!”
So how had Cheong Harin become a target for a criminal organization?
The reason was very simple.
“Boss, is she really worth any money…?”
“Not her. The kid she hangs out with is the real moneybags.”
“A kid? Oh, the one who came to buy jelly—the one with really long hair?”
“Even the terminal they carried wasn't something you'd give a kid. The moment I saw it, my brilliant mind just clicked.”
Happiness Convenience Store, where the blood donation bus incident had taken place.
These kidnappers were the ones who'd given the owner Ddu-ttai disguised as jelly.
“As expected of you, boss! I thought we were screwed after the Happiness Convenience Store deal fell through… But you came up with this in the meantime. You're so quick, I can't keep up!”
“I had no choice… I can't meet the tribute quota otherwise.”
“Guh… Sorry! If only we'd worked harder…!”
“No. What did you guys do wrong? That convenience store owner's an idiot, that's the problem….”
But a fixer who couldn't make money and a low-ranking gang member were both in a tough spot.
The organization's members hadn't been caught during the Happiness Convenience Store investigation, but all the profits the store owner had promised to provide had gone up in smoke.
To fill that gap, the organization's low-ranking collector, former Grade D fixer Kim Jungho, had an idea.
Why not make up the difference by taking hostages?
Since buying the jelly required donating blood, most of the people who'd bought it at the convenience store were non-awakened, aside from a few liars.
That meant there was a good chance they'd readily hand over money if a kidnapping took place.
Among them, Baek San-a stood out in particular.
A girl who looked young was using a terminal you'd expect to belong to the head of a fixer agency or some rich boss.
“Give me this bitch's terminal.”
“Here you go, boss.”
“Wow, she even managed to send a message asking for help in that short time?”
They'd put a sack over Cheong Harin's head as soon as they kidnapped her, but somehow she'd sent a message using her terminal even then.
But that was even better.
Thanks to her, he didn't have to figure out which of the contacts was that girl.
“I'll squeeze every last bit of money out of your cute owner, boss, or boss's daughter—whoever she is~?”
“Mmph! Mmph!”
While Kim Jungho sent the message, Cheong Harin was shedding tears of blood inside.
She'd been about to sign her employment contract tomorrow, but hadn't even made it through the day before getting caught up in an incident like this.
‘I'll be abandoned if this keeps up…!’
What good was getting recognized and being told they could make a great team?
She was about to show them nothing but how helplessly she'd been taken down right after that.
‘I have to do something. I have to at least try to get out of here…!’
Cheong Harin still didn't know how to use her newly acquired power.
Her retainer anomaly had told her she could attack with the needle at the end of the IV line, but she'd used swords and guns before—who'd ever use something like that as a weapon?
Still, things might be different if her retainer anomaly helped her, like during the ability assessment.
Rubina, who existed in her subconscious and answered readily whenever Cheong Harin spoke to her.
‘Help me…! Help me get out of here…!’
‘…Shall I kill all the humans in the vehicle?’
‘N-no, don't kill them! We get more contribution points if we capture them and bring them in!’
‘Understood. I'll only disable them so they can't move.’
‘What? You can do that?’
‘I know the weak points that make it difficult to move when pierced. It will only be a brief restraint, so we must flee immediately.’
‘O-okay!’
Right after that, screams rang out all around them.
The IV line began thrashing around in the cramped vehicle, stabbing the kidnappers in their arms and legs.
“Hey, hey! It's thrashing around. Grab that line!”
“Gah!”
“Get out of the way, boss!”
Even the man leading the kidnapping couldn't use his power properly inside the vehicle.
If he used his power carelessly, the van could get smashed up and send them all tumbling around.
That let Cheong Harin manipulate the vehicle as she pleased.
“Whoa, the steering wheel! Hold on to the steering wheel!!”
“N-no, it's not working! The IV line is turning the wheel, boss!!”
“Aaaagh!”
Screeeeeech—CRASH!
The van toppled onto its side with a tremendous impact.
Cheong Harin's body lifted into the air, then tumbled around. The collision sent her flying toward the door that had sprung open.
First, she whipped the needle around to tear off the sack covering her head and get her bearings.
“Hurry, hurry…!”
But her hands and feet were the problem.
Whoever had tied her up had done it so tightly that there was no sign the knots would come loose.
It seemed one of the kidnappers had a Sephira that could do this.
‘I'll have to dislocate my thumb if that's what it takes to—’
Just as Cheong Harin was prepared to get hurt in order to free her hands,
“Argh!”
“Aah!”
“What the fuck?!”
“Aaaagh!’
More screams rang out from the van.
This time, another sound joined them.
Flap, flap-flap.
Kraaaaaaak! Kraaaaaaak!
“…What?”
A low-pitched sound like a crow's, only louder.
It didn't take long to figure out what creature was making that sound.
“Ah.”
As soon as she turned her head, she saw round eyes and round black pupils.
They were as big as Cheong Harin's head.
CHOMP!
“Eek!”
A long beak picked Cheong Harin up crosswise, as if she were a fish.
Then came more flapping.
“Aaah, aaaaaah?!”
Cheong Harin's body soared into the sky.
Her screams, along with those of several others, rose toward the moon.
“Aaaagh——.”
“Graaah—!”
“Eek!…….”
“Aah, aaaaaah! Help me!!”
* * *
…?
I arrived at the location the kidnapper had given me, but there was no kidnapper.
“What the hell? Where's the guy who asked for money?”
Wondering if something had happened on the way here, I searched the surroundings and found some strange traces on a road a little farther off.
Bloodstains on the ground, scattered feathers, and a van overturned against a utility pole.
If not for Cheong Harin's terminal, which was teetering on the edge of a sewer grate, I would've just assumed there'd been an accident.
Of course, finding Cheong Harin's terminal didn't make it easy to track her down.
There wasn't even a human footprint anywhere nearby.
“Where the hell did they all go…?”
But considering that the bloodstains suddenly stopped,
that the scattered feathers were unusually large,
and that the blood seemed to belong to someone I knew, the direction they'd gone was probably…
“Don't tell me they were dragged into the sky?”
The Invisibility Cloak protecting the city only hides humans from the eyes of magical beasts; it doesn't keep them from crossing the border like a wall.
The cameras installed around the city also let people leave freely; they only detect those coming in.
Because fixers often go out to hunt.
The place where the van had overturned was just outside the border.
Nearby was Anyangcheon, which ran across southwestern Seoul.
It wouldn't be strange if a flock of migratory birds, drawn by the sound of the crash, had attacked them.
I immediately kicked off the ground and took to the sky.
Good thing it was night and visibility was poor.
No one would see me flying around.
“But where should I go…?”
Let's not forget.
If I search the Fixer Gallery, I'll find the answer.
[A Guide to Migratory Bird Routes in the Seoul Metropolitan Area for Hunting]
In spring, the birds that were here head north, while the birds from the south come up
In Seoul, the Han River estuary and shallow urban streams like Cheonggyecheon and Anyangcheon are the main habitats
On the Korean Peninsula as a whole, the tidal flats along the southern and western coasts are key habitats
But the area inside Seoul's borders is protected by the Invisibility Cloak now, right?
So the birds that used to come up to Seoul don't bother anymore and veer west
The ones coming up from the south go straight to Ganghwa Island
The streams near Seoul probably have limited capacity, and they can't see any humans to prey on, either
So during migratory bird season, it's best to go hunting northeast of Seoul
Of course, it's not like there are none there lol
Just relatively fewer
ㄴ Should post this as a seasonal notice
ㄴ For real lol
ㄴ Even if you post stuff like this, the people who don't read it still won't lol
ㄴ The ones who know how to survive will survive lol
Then it had to be Ganghwa Island.
Even if I couldn't pinpoint my retainer's location like GPS, I could get a general sense of where they were.
If I'd put on the expulsion device I got from Woo Cheonyeop, their location would've shown up exactly.
What lousy timing.
Just how far did Cheong Harin's bad luck reach?
“For now…”
Kraaaaaaak.
Kraaaaaaak—!
I should probably shake off this insane flock of birds that had started chasing me before anything else.
“Whoa. Is this a swarm of locusts or a flock of birds?”
I threw a droplet at the one closest behind me.
Thrown against my direction of flight, the droplet accelerated and pierced through it.
The moment my blood touches something, any blood can expand violently.
Just like when I popped that cockroach—or was it a locust?—the giant herons were no exception.
More importantly, I don't really like birds.
Big ones like herons are a bit of an exception, but ordinary winged creatures always make my blood boil when I see them.
My natural enemies.
Right after I became a mosquito, it was mostly creatures like birds, spiders, and frogs—not humans—that sent my friends to the afterlife.
“Die.”
Thwack!
“You too.”
Thwack!
“You're next.”
Thwack.
Thwack, thwack. Pow-pow!
I diligently popped them one by one as they came closer, when suddenly the back of my head prickled.
“Whoa.”
Whoosh.
“…What was that just now?”
That beak that just flew at me was seriously dangerous.
Even if it pierced me, I wouldn't die—instead, the bird would burst—but it was still a nasty attack.
It had used the blind spot created by the remains and feathers of the birds that had died earlier to slip in for an attack.
It was something far more advanced than the movements of ordinary magical beasts.
‘Almost as if someone were controlling them….’