Chapter 126
Thud!
“Urgh!”
A sharp piercing sound and a scream rang out at the same time.
The man who screamed rolled across the ground, a hole pierced through his shoulder.
He was a clean-shaven man, not a trace of facial hair on him.
Wearing a long coat that reached his ankles and a fedora pulled low, his face was filled with shock.
“W-why are you doing this?!”
At that moment, the one who had pierced his shoulder landed lightly in front of him.
She was a beautiful woman, with captivating eyes, soft hair fluttering in the wind, and a curvaceous figure.
With an irritated expression, she twirled her long spear and approached him.
“Are you seriously asking because you don’t know?”
“No, I mean… I was just walking down the street and suddenly got attacked—”
“Just walking?”
“I-I mean…”
“Bullshit! You think that’s how it works? You killed an awakened yesterday who was just walking down the street.”
“How do you—?”
Seeing the man’s eyes shake, the spear-wielding woman let out a short laugh.
“You really thought you wouldn’t get caught after pulling that crap inside Neo Seoul? You scavenger bastard!”
“Damn it! Who the hell are you?!”
The man jumped to his feet and shouted.
“Me? Just a poor civil servant stuck doing overtime because of you. Ah—maybe not exactly a civil servant. Anyway, the name’s Mandy. Oh! Right now, it’s Eloi.”
“Mandy? Eloi? What the hell are you talking about?”
“Doesn’t matter. This is all because of you, you piece of shit!”
The woman shouting angrily was Eloi.
Her assigned mission was to eliminate the scavengers disrupting Neo Seoul.
As the scavengers’ rampage continued, City Hall had issued missions to awakened.
Other awakened could choose missions as they pleased, but Mandy—being under contract with City Hall—had no right to refuse.
As a supervisor, the benefits she received came with equally heavy obligations.
That was why she was grappling with a suspected scavenger in the middle of the night.
The man’s name was David Oh.
On the surface, he was just an ordinary man living in the northern district.
At least, that was how he appeared publicly.
But Eloi’s investigation revealed otherwise.
Disguised as an office worker, he was a scavenger—
and a particularly vicious one.
The number of awakened he had hunted had already exceeded five.
If not for Eloi’s keen instincts as a half-elf, uncovering his true identity would have taken much longer.
“Looks like I’m unlucky, getting caught by City Hall’s hunting dog.”
“You might as well start reciting your last words.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. I’ll kill you and make a run for the desert.”
“Where exactly are you planning to go in the desert? You’d be better off getting caught by me.”
“Hah! You think Neo Seoul is the only place people live? There are people in the desert too.”
“So the scavengers’ main base is in the desert, huh? Talk nicely, and I might go easy on you.”
“Yeah right! You punched a hole in my shoulder and now you’re talking about going easy?”
“Now that I think about it, maybe that was a bit much. Try to understand—work life is hard, you know.”
“I don’t know, you crazy bitch!”
“You don’t? Then I’ll make you understand.”
Eloi smiled coldly.
“Let’s see how well you hold up.”
David pulled out the weapon hidden inside his coat.
Shrrrk!
It was a metal whip.
Made of a special material, it extended instantly to five meters with a flick of his wrist.
Looking at it, Eloi muttered,
“Scavenger bastards never make things easy. You only learn after getting the hell beaten out of you.”
“Die!”
In that instant, David’s whip lashed out at supersonic speed.
A terrifying speed that an ordinary human could never perceive.
But Eloi was no ordinary human.
A half-elf—and an awakened.
Her senses were far sharper than those of normal awakened.
Whoosh!
She narrowly dodged the whip and charged at David.
Her speed was just as fast as the whip itself.
“Ghk!”
David hurriedly tried to retract the whip to defend himself.
But Eloi gave him no chance.
Crack!
The shaft of her spear slammed into his body.
Bones snapped, muscles tore—David screamed in agony.
“Gaaah!”
“Already whining? We’re just getting started, you bastard. You need to be beaten half to death.”
Eloi mercilessly struck him again and again with the shaft of her spear.
She could have ended his life instantly with the blade—but she didn’t.
Her goal wasn’t to kill him.
It was to subdue him and extract as much information as possible.
As long as he stayed alive, that was enough—so she controlled her strength while beating him down.
Thud! Crack!
The brutal beating continued for quite some time.
By the time she stopped, David’s body looked like thoroughly tenderized meat.
But he was still alive.
Grabbing him by the collar, Eloi spoke,
“Alright. Let’s have a little talk now. Where’s your base?”
—
The slums were noisy.
Normally, during the blazing daytime, people avoided moving around, keeping things quiet—but recently, that peace had been broken.
Zeon knew the reason well.
The White Bear Caravan.
Ever since its fortress settled in the desert outside Neo Seoul, activity had increased.
The arrival of the White Bear Caravan had stimulated both Neo Seoul and the slums in many ways.
Most of the items they brought were things that couldn’t previously be obtained in Neo Seoul.
Those items stirred people’s curiosity, drawing them out into the streets even during the day.
As a result, the slums—once as quiet as death—were now lively again.
But that didn’t mean it was entirely a good thing.
Incidents and crimes had increased as well.
“Stop right there! If we catch you, you’re dead!”
“Damn it!”
Inside the Goblin Market, a chase broke out.
A customer had stolen something and tried to run.
But it didn’t take long before he was caught by the market’s guards.
The merchants watched as the thief was beaten by the guards and muttered among themselves.
“Lately, there’ve been more of those drifters.”
“If they knew what kind of place the Goblin Market is, they wouldn’t even dare try stealing.”
“Ever since the White Bear Caravan showed up, the waters have gotten murky.”
Zeon overheard their conversation near a stall.
He had come to the Goblin Market to buy some necessities and ended up witnessing the commotion.
The item the thief had stolen was a dagger that had come from the White Bear Caravan.
It was said to be enhanced by a skilled enchanter.
Since enchanters themselves were extremely rare—and the base material of the dagger was high quality—it had gained excellent properties.
Specifically, increased penetration.
According to the Goblin Market’s appraisal, its penetration was at least 30% higher than daggers of the same grade.
An item like that was not easy to obtain.
Zeon could somewhat understand the thief’s temptation.
Of course, that didn’t apply to him.
While the items released by the White Bear Caravan were certainly impressive, they weren’t enough to truly interest Zeon.
What he needed wasn’t weapons like that—
but simple necessities for daily life.
One of the awakened guards in the Goblin Market pulled a small disc out of the thief’s belongings.
“What’s this? Where did you steal it from?”
“Fuck! That’s mine. I bought it from the caravan with my own money.”
“Lying, huh? This is confiscated for now.”
“It’s mine! Give it back!”
“A thief sure has a loud mouth.”
The guards shouted and beat him again.
The thief, eyes bloodshot, struggled to resist—but he was no match for them.
Zeon shook his head and went back to browsing items.
At that moment, someone quietly approached him.
“You don’t really need to buy things like this at the Goblin Market, do you?”
The one speaking casually was Yoo Sehui, the head of the Goblin Market.
Behind her stood her trusted subordinate, the Black Lion.
As Zeon handed money to a merchant, he replied,
“Still, this is the most reliable place.”
“That’s true.”
Yoo Sehui nodded as if it were obvious.
“That’s why I came. What about you?”
“It was noisy outside, so I came to take a look.”
Her gaze shifted to the subdued thief.
Even now, he struggled desperately, trying to reclaim the disc that had been taken from him.
Zeon let out a faint chuckle.
“You must be coming out often these days.”
“Yeah. Several times a day, actually. There are definitely more riffraff showing up.”
“Don’t you usually screen people strictly?”
“We do. But we can’t block everyone completely. We’re short on manpower these days, so gaps have opened.”
“That’s serious.”
“It is. This is all because of the White Bear Caravan. They threw a stone into a quiet pond and caused ripples.”
“The shockwave is pretty big. You can hear things creaking everywhere.”
“It just proves Neo Seoul isn’t as perfect as people think. If it were, it wouldn’t be shaken this much by something like this.”
“That’s true.”
“It’s only going to get worse. The poison has already been released.”
She was referring to the items from the White Bear Caravan.
Zeon agreed.
“Poison… that does sound accurate.”
“We’ll have to see how far that poison spreads. Until then, it’s going to stay noisy.”
“Well, we’ll just have to deal with it.”
“You’re awfully calm. Then again, someone of your level probably isn’t affected by this kind of chaos. I’m a bit jealous.”
“Jealous? I hate noise too.”
Zeon shrugged as he spoke.
Boom!
Suddenly, a massive explosion erupted nearby.
Flames and shockwaves swept through the area.
“Damn it!”
The Black Lion quickly deployed a barrier to shield Yoo Sehui.
Thanks to that, she remained completely unharmed.
“What—?”
Her face filled with shock as she looked toward the source of the explosion.
It was the very spot where the thief had just been subdued.
The thief, the guards who had captured him, and even nearby stalls—
all had been erased without a trace.
“What happened? What the hell just happened?”
“It seems the one who was subdued exploded.”
“You’re saying a person exploded? That’s ridiculous.”
“Or perhaps… something he had on him exploded.”
“….”
Leaving Yoo Sehui speechless, Zeon walked toward the blast site.
“Ghk…”
“My leg…”
“Help me…”
The area resembled a battlefield.
Many were injured, groaning in pain.
Some had lost limbs, others had large holes torn through their bodies.
The scale of the damage made Zeon’s expression harden.
They were strangers to him—but watching people die and suffer right in front of him was never pleasant.
“This must be it.”
Zeon quickly identified the source of the explosion.
A large crater had formed, with flesh and bones scattered everywhere.
Fragments of items belonging to the Goblin Market guards were also visible.
Among them, one thing caught Zeon’s eye—
a blackened metal fragment.
He recognized it immediately.
It was part of the disc that had been in the thief’s possession.
Zeon carefully picked it up.
About half the size of his palm, it had an incomprehensible pattern engraved on it.
“What is it?”
Yoo Sehui, who had approached, asked.
“I’m not sure. Have you ever seen anything like this?”
“No. It’s my first time.”
“There’s a strong trace of mana lingering on it.”
“What does that mean?”
“It seems this object is what exploded.”
“What kind of thing explodes like a bomb?”
Zeon didn’t answer.
He didn’t know what it was either.
But there was one thing he was certain of.
The one who had released this item—
was Damian.
Damian… you really decided to spread poison.