Chapter 104

“…It was suppressed in a single blow,” Eui-rim murmured.

“Thanks to a capable supporter,” Hae-gun smiled. “It’s a level of control only possible when given ample time.”

His words drew Eui-rim’s attention to the timer window tucked into the corner of his vision. He checked the elapsed time and shook his head with a hollow laugh.

Even with support, to quell the blaze in just one minute after casting his skill… It was a level of power whose limits remained impossible to gauge.

“So, how do you plan to find the culprit? There seem to be far too many people to search blindly,” Eui-rim asked.

Setting aside his awe, Eui-rim asked, and Hae-gun glanced down below before lightly tapping near his eye. “I just have to find them with this.”

“You intend to inspect everyone one by one with 〈Mirror Gaze〉? Wouldn’t it be better to lock down the perimeter and check the visitor logs?”

“They only accept one visiting team of outsiders per day here. Even that is restricted to three people or fewer,” Hae-gun noted.

Tilting his head, Hae-gun looked down at him and said, “Yeojin has been here since yesterday, so on the records, the three of us are the only outsiders.”

“I see.”

No wonder the security checkpoints were so strict on the way here.

Obtaining entry permission was difficult from the start. But wasn’t coming down to the factory today an unscheduled trip? If visitor access was this tight, shouldn’t a schedule have been arranged and approved weeks in advance?

“That’s other people’s business. I’m exempt,” Hae-gun chuckled.

When Eui-rim had blurted out the question, Seo Hae-gun had merely offered a bland smile. Answering as if it were nothing, he leaned down toward Eui-rim once more.

“Hold on. We have to head down.”

“I believe I can get down on my own,” Eui-rim protested.

“Once you raise your Physical stats to 7, I’ll let you go down by yourself.”

“Why specifically 7?”

“Because if Sejun falls from this height, he breaks his legs.”

Faced with such a pragmatic answer, there was no room to argue. Right. A guy with lower stats than Hwang Sejun shouldn’t get cocky. There aren’t any stairs anyway, so let’s not act rash. Eui-rim obediently hooked his arms around Hae-gun’s neck and surrendered to his hold, only for a quiet snicker to drift from above. Does he find carrying around a grown man that amusing? His tastes are truly bizarre.

Carried in Seo Hae-gun’s arms as they descended into the alley, the chaotic atmosphere felt all the more vivid despite time being frozen. People were fleeing or attempting to extinguish the fire with panic plain on their faces, completely preoccupied with pulling out the injured.

Damn it. How are we supposed to find the culprit here? Even if Seo Hae-gun can read people with his skill, tracking alone has its limits. If only I could be of some help…

Just then, a golden-yellow light bloomed from his fingertips. Stepping down from Seo Hae-gun’s embrace, Eui-rim met his eyes the moment he saw the light fluttering like a butterfly’s wings.

“Seo Hae-gun-ssi.”

“Yeah. I saw it too. Looks like we’d better follow it.”

Seo Hae-gun shifted his irises to an opal sheen in an instant. As if intending to track the culprit following the light’s guidance, his gaze sweeping the surroundings turned remarkably sharp.

Just like in the Isolation Ward, the light led them forward without hesitation. As if boasting that it alone could find what he sought, it flickered its beam like a tail, presenting the next path.

And after making their way through the crowd for quite a while…

Seo Hae-gun, who had been following behind him, moved in the blink of an eye. Flashing with opal luminescence like a predator spotting its prey, he lunged toward the target.

“Huh? What’s going on?”

“Th-The fire went out!”

Rewinding Hand ended right after the light settled onto Seo Hae-gun’s target.

As temporarily frozen time burst its banks, bewildered people began speaking one after another, throwing the area into a commotion.

“Gyaaaargh!”

Seo Hae-gun had clamped a hand around a middle-aged man’s arm, wrenching it behind him until the man shrieked in agony.

“Uh?”

But rather than the man’s agonizing expression, the sigil engraved on his wrist caught Eui-rim’s eye first. Because beneath the sleeve of the man’s flailing free arm, a familiar yet abhorrent sigil was revealed.

A tattoo depicting a vivid crimson, single-eyed entity.

The sigil of the fragment, which they had fought so desperately to eradicate throughout the Isolation Ward, was etched into the man’s wrist.

Freezing time had been close to a conditioned reflex. Before reason could even intervene, he had channeled his mana and cast the skill on pure instinct.

Eui-rim gritted his teeth, swallowing his ragged breath. Perhaps due to using the skill in quick succession, a dull throb flared as if a heavy load had been placed on his body, throwing his breathing into disarray.

Even if my rank increased, is it still too much for a C-rank to use B-rank skills consecutively? I thought the strain would lessen now that the duration lengthened. Disappointing.

“Eui-rim-ssi,” Hae-gun called out softly.

“I’m fine. I just lost my breath for a moment.”

As Eui-rim approached him, Hae-gun’s grip on the man loosened slightly. Standing beside Seo Hae-gun, Eui-rim inspected the man, who was frozen like a stone statue, from every angle. He wanted to check if there was any sign of the fragment attempting to burst forth from his body.

Fortunately, unlike the healer who had become a host, the bastard’s tattoo remained fixed to where it was engraved. There was no sign of it vocalizing to speak or attempting to seek out its brethren.

When Eui-rim rolled up the man’s sleeve to reveal the single-eyed tattoo, an irritable laugh broke from Seo Hae-gun’s mouth. He, too, seemed thoroughly dumbfounded by this situation.

“Didn’t you say the healer you saw in the hospital room had a tattoo like this too?” Hae-gun asked.

“Yes. However, the situation is a bit different from back then,” Eui-rim answered. “When I visited him in the hospital, that healer had already become a host. Even if it looked like a tattoo on the surface, just like the sigils inside the dungeon, stabbing it caused the main body to burst out.”

Above all, Rewinding Hand did not work on a host. The moment time froze, the fragment’s ego would burst forth and run rampant.

Eui-rim watched Seo Hae-gun, who remained steeped in silence, before asking, “You checked with 〈Mirror Gaze〉, right? Was he a fire-attribute combat class as expected?”

“I’m not sure combat class is the right word.” Seo Hae-gun seemed to choose his words carefully, then added in a subdued voice, “To be precise, he had a skill capable of manipulating explosions.”

“Explosion manipulation?”

How did a bastard like that become a crafter?

No matter how exceptional one’s crafting skills were, someone possessing destruction-related skills couldn’t join as a crafter. Even with the most generous allowances, wouldn’t they be sent off to a smelter or a steel mill instead?

“Could he have joined while keeping his skill set undisclosed?” Eui-rim asked.

“That’s likely the case.”

“But to belong to the Forge, one is strictly required to disclose the full results of their Gaia examination.”

Under the Personal Information Protection Act, all New Humans were permitted to conceal portions of their Gaia exam results, with only three categories bearing the legal obligation of full disclosure: public servants, affiliates of the International Hunter Association, and members of the crafters’ commercial union, the Forge. Therefore, the fact that this man held the title of crafter meant he had circumvented that obligation. And behind the circumstances that allowed him to disregard such a duty…

As Eui-rim chewed over the situation in a daze, his face contorted at a sudden thought.

The vision revealed by his precognition.

He realized that the massive one-eyed sigil and the two men standing beneath the altar might be linked to this bombing.

Seo Hae-gun seemed to have reached a similar conclusion; a sharp glint flashed in his narrowly slitted eyes. His lips twisted into a smirk, and he grabbed the man’s arm again.

“Good,” Hae-gun murmured. “That damn eyeball has been getting on my nerves anyway. Since every bastard who became a host inside the dungeon ended up dead, this is our chance to dig into it thoroughly.”

“Are you going to take him with us? If we cause a commotion, we might draw suspicion instead,” Eui-rim warned. “We know he’s the culprit, but the others don’t. We don’t have any evidence to convince them, either.”

“Then we just make sure there isn’t any commotion.”

Wondering what he planned to do, Eui-rim watched as Seo Hae-gun hoisted the man up like a piece of cargo. Slinging the rigidly frozen man casually over his shoulder, he gestured with his chin toward the far side.

“Let’s go.”

“…Won’t people find it strange if he just disappears like this?” Eui-rim asked.

“Yeojin will clean up the aftermath, so you don’t need to worry,” Hae-gun assured him.

Na Yeojin is here too?

Eui-rim reflexively scanned his surroundings, but Na Yeojin was nowhere to be seen. There were only crafters wearing badges of the Forge standing about. Aside from the two of them, not a single out-of-place figure could be spotted.

“Over there.”

With a faint smirk, Seo Hae-gun pointed up at a rooftop. It was the very building they had jumped down from moments ago.

Perched there was a crow that hadn’t been present when they descended. It sat frozen, looking down as if watching the human world below.