13. Getting Ready

"You're still here. Good," Haru told Jooan before turning to tell Zeha and Do-geon.

"I found the path that leads to their base," Haru added.

"Where is it?”

Jooan and Do-geon immediately demanded to know.

"I'm not telling you."

Do-geon scrunched up his nose in annoyance when Haru refused to tell.

"Tell me!"

"No, I'm not telling."

Do-geon grabbed Haru by his collar.

"Are you kidding me? Tell me right now!"

"Yes, please. Tell us."

Jooan pleaded softly. But Haru stood his ground and shook his head.

Zeha couldn't help but feel embarrassed.

What's up with Haru?

"Hey, what are you playing at? We're being serious right now."

"Me too. Just think about it, Zeha. How do you think they would act once I tell them the location?"

"Well..."

"They would jump right into it. They would be like moths going after the light. They wouldn't even stop once to question if they have the power and skills to beat the beom there. Am I wrong?"

Do-geon released his grip on Haru.

"I'm strong. You saw me."

Jooan argued softly. But Haru shook his head again.

"It's not enough. We're talking about their base. That means that you're not going to be up against just a beom or two. Do you really think you can fight several beom? You don't even have any proper weapons with you."

Haru was right.

Jooan was well aware of this too. But he couldn't help but feel eager to hunt the beom down.

He wanted to kill Bulti as soon as possible.

Jooan wanted Bulti to pay for what he did to her. Jooan yearned to exact his revenge with the powers she had given him.

"We must first prepare ourselves before charging into the battlefield. Your revenge can wait until then."

Haru slapped Jooan and Do-geon in the chest after saying so.

Jooan was curious about how Haru knew about his desire to exact revenge on the beom.

"Revenge doesn't mean anything if you end up dead."

Kyeongtae couldn't believe what had just unfolded before his very eyes.

Wh, What was that...?

Commander Dongcheol had put a team together and assigned him to eliminate Zeha by using every means that was available.

"He is a threat to our organization. Have you heard about what happened to Seongjin?"

"N, No, sir," Kyeongtae replied.

"Even though Seongjin found the beom first, that punk intercepted the kill before attacking Seongjin and the others."

"N, No, he did not...!"

"I know, right. He deserves to die. This time calls for humans to unite. Yet here he is disrupting cooperation and collaboration. He's a threat to humanity. We've got to kill him."

The commander reiterated that Kyeongtae should use every means that was available to end Zeha, and that it was all right to make some sacrifices along the way. The most important thing was that they got rid of Zeha once and for all.

"Don't do it openly. Make it seem as though he'd gotten killed during a beom hunt. I mean, we're not murderers."

Kyeongtae was confident. After all, he used to be one of the strongest judo athletes under the national judo organization.

Even though Zeha was taller and bigger than himself, he reasoned that it was technique, rather than physical attributes, that mattered more. Kyeongtae imagined the various methods that he could use to overpower his stronger opponent and emerge victoriously. What happened the last time - when Zeha had easily thrown him over his shoulder - was merely bad luck. Kyeongtae hadn't been prepared for an attack at all.

Besides, he had seven people going up againsttwo. There was no need to bother about that Haru person. He was scrawny and weak.

Kyeongtae had gained confidence from this reasoning. That was until he witnessed their fight.

H, How are they moving like that? What on earth is happening?

Kyeongtae was trailing Zeha and Haru when the former suddenly looked up and began to charge at great speed. Zeha was so fast that Kyeongtae could not keep up with him at all.

"Aaarrggh!"

A loud scream was heard in the distance just a second later.

Kyeongtae assumed that Zeha had gone in that direction. He could not wrap his head around what had just happened.

How on earth did he know that there was something happening over there?

When Kyeongtae arrived and witnessed the fight, his curiosity turned into horror.

Up against two beom, Zeha was moving so quickly that he looked almost invisible.

He's just as fast as a beom.

Bam!

Boom!

And he's strong.

Zeha did not even use his black sword much.

His fists were just as good as a weapon.

And there was Haru.

Swish!

Swoosh!

Haru supported Zeha from behind, freely maneuvering his red rope as he pleased. It extended and shortened under his control.

The rope tied itself around a beom's ankle such that it could drag the beom around in whichever direction Haru had hurled it towards.

You've got to be kidding me. He's actually that strong...?

Since Kyeongtae had had several encounters with the beom, he was well aware of how strong the beasts were.

They were not so weak that they would easily be knocked down by a punch or dragged around by a rope just like that.

Although the beom hunters may have evolved over the past few months to be much stronger and more powerful than normal humans, they were still humans.

But Zeha and Haru were different. They appeared to possess powers that were way beyond a human's capabilities.

Maybe... they aren't humans. Are they beom pretending to be humans?

Kyeongtae couldn't help but feel suspicious as both of them moved at lightning speed.

He flew from the ground and jumped to places midair as though he was using the air as his stepping stones. It looked just like how the beom jumped.

Swoosh!

They sliced off one of the beom's heads.

"Grrrr!"

The other one growled up at the sky.

It looked like it was calling for help.

Just then, Kyeongtae realized that it might be dangerous to stick around. But, for some reason, his feet remained stuck to the ground.

That was the natural reaction of the human body when they encounter someone who has transcended the limits of human capability.

Kyeongtae was experiencing this at that very moment.

He was in awe of the way that Zeha and Haru fought.

Whoosh!

Before long, they took down the other beom as well.

"Whew!"

Zeha leaned forward and placed his hands on his knees to catch his breath. On the other hand, Haru was breathing normally without showing any signs of exhaustion even though he had been jumping and flying around at lightning speed.

"We should go. The beom are coming."

"Yes, we should go."

Zeha was putting his sword back into his scabbard when he noticed Kyeongtae. Their eyes met.

Zeha furrowed his brows when he realized who it was.

"What are you looking at? Do you have something to tell me again?"

Kyeongtae zipped his mouth and shook his head hard.

Zeha tapped him on the shoulder.

"Run. The beom are coming."

Zeha then left the place hastily, leaving Kyeongtae and his team gawking.

Kyeongtae felt the urge to tell Zeha that he respected him. But he fought against his urge to do so.

"It's 1.2 billion won."

Zeha muttered to himself as he checked the balance in his bank account.

"Look at this, Do-geon. Look at this number. It's 1.2 billion, right?"

"Yes, yes. It's 1.2 billion."

Do-geon replied as though he was soothing a child.

"Wow, I can't believe that there's actually 1.2 billion won in my account... Can we cash it out or something? Let's withdraw the money, throw it into the air, and roll on it. Please?"

"No way, Zeha."

Do-geon chuckled as he softly smacked Zeha on the head.

"But... it's 1.2 billion that we're talking about. Don't you want to do it? What about you, Jooan? Do you want to?"

Jooan could not help but smile upon seeing how excited Zeha was.

Jooan felt like he was walking through an abyss ever since she had left him. It was so dark and dingy that he thought it would engulf him sooner or later and eventually suffocate him to death.

However, he could breathe whenever he was around Zeha and his team. He felt like he was finally out in the light, even if it was just for a short while.

Zeha, who often looked grumpy, would brighten up only when he saw his bank account balance.

Jooan thought that it was cute.

Additionally, Do-geon looked intimidating at first, but it turned out that he was actually a loyal friend and a wise and mature individual with strong leadership skills.

I feel like this is where I belong.

Jooan wondered why he felt so at home here.

But I can't stay here. I can't forget what I have to finish.

Jooan remembered how she had gotten killed while protecting him. The moment that she drew her last breath repeatedly played out in his head as though it was a fresh memory from the day before.

Jooan clenched his fists.

Bulti. I'll kill you no matter what... even if it means that I'll die in the process.

Just then, Jooan heard Haru speaking to Zeha.

"Zeha, haven't you ever heard of the old saying about how we must treat money like we treat people?"

"You mean, ‘paper.’ Don't quote what you don't know, Haru."

"This isn't the time to slack off. Let's go to the market and buy ourselves some weapons.

All of them had been on a wild and frenzied hunt for the beom over the past two days.

They had divided themselves into two teams - Zeha and Haru, and Do-geon and Jooan. They then proceeded to explore every dangerous area.

They eventually ended up making a total of 1.2 billion won.

"We won't be able to get a good weapon with it."

Zeha frowned at Do-geon.

"Why are weapons getting so expensive these days? Why? They were much cheaper back then.”

"T've actually asked around about this, and it looks like someone is hoarding all of the weapons. That's why weapons are going out of stock these days. Only the weapons that are made by craftsmen with materials that they had personally acquired are sold these days. That explains the price hike."

"Who is that guy? Is he some filthy rich guy trying to make a profit by buying anything that he can lay his hands on?" Zeha asked in irritation.

"Maybe. A few days ago when I was here, my gun was sold for 300 million won. It's bizarre, isn't it? You all know how mine isn't even the best of its kind."

Do-geon added as he twirled his gun.

"Anyway, since we all have weapons, we should let Jooan pick one for himself. We'll buy something else later if we have some money left."

The market was still bustling with people.

There weren't just shops that sold and bought weapons and defense articles. There were also repair shops for people to repair their broken items. This explained the large crowd.

Although people could actually come here to trade their items with others, the place was heavily occupied with vendors selling their weapons on their tables.

The more successful ones were the ones that had turned their trailers into stores. In short, it was a noisy and disorderly place.

"Hunters from all over come here. That means that this may also be the most dangerous place. So don't let your guard down."

Do-geon warned.

It was true. The market was a gathering place for hunters, who often broke out into fights and at times murdered just to steal others' weapons.

The police decided to turn a blind eye to all of the crimes that had occurred here.

So the place was a violent one that lay outside the boundaries of the law.

"Jooan, tell us if you find the right weapon for yourself. Okay?"

"But we all fought hard to earn the money. I can't use all of it just to buy a weapon for myself,” Jooan remarked apologetically.

"Well, we fought hard exactly because we wanted to buy the weapons anyway, so it's okay. Don't worry about the price because making sure that you don't end up dead is more important. Just let us know if you find the right one, okay?"

"Sure, okay."

And so, they roamed around the market, looking out for good weapons as they made sure not to let their guards down, not even for just a second.

But they failed to notice a stranger trailing behind them.