The Returner

Seo Ah-Young was running out of breath.

She couldn't help but envy those body enhancement type users during situations like this. What a regretful thing it was, since she didn't possess even the slightest hint of an ability that enhanced one's physique. She could only grind her teeth and endure.

"Pant, pant!!"

The only reason why she wasn't voicing her complaints right now… was because she was fully cognisant of the fact that the survival of at least several hundred souls were dependant on how fast she could move her legs.

"It's over there!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

While hearing the ragged voice of Choi Jung-Hoon, she turned around the corner.

Then, her footsteps came to a sudden halt.

"T, that is…" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon's dazed voice followed soon after.

But, it was an understandable reaction, actually.

Choi Jung-Hoon could see a rather strange sight unfolding right in front of him.

They could see the Level 2 monster.

Separating a Level 2 from a Level 1 was fairly easy: could it be killed with firearms?

A monster would be classified as a Level 2 if rifles could no longer hurt it. If a monster possessing a tough hide but low attacking power popped up, then such classification system might be thrown into chaos, but for now, no creature like that had shown up yet.

To reiterate, in order to kill a Level 2 monster, one needed to call for the support of heavy armaments.

Only a mortar or an RPG could cause some sort of damage to the monster.

But now… there was a lone person, a man, busy beating the hell up a Level 2 monster at this very moment.

Just how would someone describe such a scene?

It was like a….

'…A scene from a Hong Kong action movie.' (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon thought his description was a bit lacking, actually. But, regardless, it seemed the most suitable one, too. A bitter smile crept up on his lips after he realised the irony of that.

There was no other way to describe it.

It really resembled a movie.

But, it didn't mean what he saw was as cool as it was in a movie. No, it was like a…. like a movie scene, where everything was choreographed to perfection.

Evading the monster's thrusting arm with minimum of movements, the man kicked the snapping jaws of the monster with ease, shoving it away. And before the Kodiac Monkey's head could return to its original place, he landed several straight jabs to the gut of the monster.

Evade, and repeat.

That man was evading the monster's attacks in a manner reminiscent of a beautifully choreographed scene from a movie. And, exactly like from such a movie, he was attacking back, too.

Anyone with even a modicum of fighting experience would come to the conclusion that this whole thing was as fantastically unrealistic as humanly possible.

"I might really go crazy at this rate…" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon muttered helplessly while watching Yi Ji-Hyuk beat up the Kodiac Monkey.

Why did it have to be that guy?!

Just how far was he willing to go to make an utter fool out of them, so he'd feel he has caused enough mental damage?

But, as Choi Jung-Hoon watched the fight unfold a bit longer, another realisation dawned on him.

That guy was proficient.

As if he had fought in that manner for thousands of times, Yi Ji-Hyuk was quite literally thrashing the monster into a pulp.

But that just couldn't be true.

That made no sense at all.

And that was precisely because all types of martial arts were created on the basis that other human beings would be your opponents.

It'd be difficult to find a flyweight boxer capable of knocking out a heavyweight opponent, but logically speaking, it could happen. The possibility of it certainly existed, for sure.

If one continuously trained, and then trained for some more, the odds would definitely become greater.

But, just who would start teaching a martial art specifically designed to fight against monsters? And who could even train in one?

However… Right at this moment, Yi Ji-Hyuk was systematically destroying the Kodiac Monkey in a calculated and efficient manner, as if he had experienced killing countless monsters prior to this day.

"What the hell is going on here?" (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young's exclamation was able to encapsulate Choi Jung-Hoon's mindset quite nicely.

Puh-urck!!

Yi Ji-Hyuk's wonderfully-executed front hook kick connected with the Kodiac Monkey's temple, which in turn, caused the monster to go flying like a kite with its strings cut. It then crashed into another wall, disappearing from the sight altogether.

"Uh-whew."

Yi Ji-Hyuk grabbed his stiff waist and groaned in pain, before pulling out another cigarette and lit it up.

"Fuu-woo…"

The Kodiac Monkey finally came to dead stop after landing in the underground parking outside the shelter, while managing to destroy two support pillars in the process. Meanwhile, it was gurgling out blood from its mouth, unmoving.

*SFX for a tragic whimpering of a dying monster*

Its chest was heaving up and down noticeably, its limbs twitching every now and then, but there was no other movement coming from it.

Yi Ji-Hyuk leisurely walked towards the monster and stood before it.

"So, why did you even bother to annoy me in the first place?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

The inhaled cigarette smoke circled around his lungs once before slowly escaping from his mouth.

"Here, a farewell gift for ya." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Flick.

He flicked the cigarette and it landed on the Kodiac Monkey's face.

*SFX for flames erupting explosively*

Seo Ah-Young must've possessed a pretty good sense of timing. Because, a flicker of a flame shooting out from her fingertips landed on the monster's body almost simultaneously as his cigarette did. As soon as it did, billowing flames erupted out and engulfed the monkey creature in a flash.

"WTF?! Hey, watch it!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Seeing the sudden eruption of flames, Yi Ji-Hyuk quickly stepped back with a shocked face. Then, with a hand on his chest, he took several quick breaths.

*SFX for flames burning fiercely*

Yi Ji-Hyuk clicked his tongue while watching the Kodiac Monkey turn into a heap of ash.

"A bit severe for a cigarette burn…" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Wasn't this flame a bit too much…?

'What's that?' (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk began frowning as he stared at the burning Kodiac Monkey's corpse.

A certain aura was escaping from the dead monster's body.

'Is that Mana?'

What the Earthlings referred to as Ether, Yi Ji-Hyuk had been calling it Mana up to now.

He thought they were kinda similar initially. However, he knew now that they were slightly different from one another.

And as for what was happening right now, that wasn't strange at all.

That's right, if one thought about it for a second, there was nothing wrong with this development. When a living thing died, 'Mana' leaked out from its body and returned to mother nature.

But, what seemed weird to him was the fact that Mana wasn't 'returning' to nature as it supposed to.

'Why not? Is it because the world is different?' (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

From his guesses, he posited that the Mana leaking out right now was different from the Ether thing others were talking about. To be more precise, Mana was an energy that didn't exist in this world. Perhaps that was why Mana didn't dissipate and remained floating there.

"Hmm…"

Now that he thought about it even more, the other monsters didn't show reactions like this one. But why did a Kodiac Monkey show such a phenomenon?

He could come up with a theory or two, but he couldn't be sure yet.

As for that Mana…

'For now, let's just leave it be.' (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

He might cause scabs to fall off if he went around unnecessarily scratching stuff, after all.

Yi Ji-Hyuk shrugged his shoulders and turned around.

And he spotted Seo Ah-Young and Choi Jung-Hoon.

"You……."

Just as Seo Ah-Young was about to say something, Choi Jung-Hoon suddenly grabbed her shoulder real tightly.

"What now?" (Seo Ah-Young)

"Oh, crap." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon's eyes were fixed to one single spot.

And that was a supporting pillar, destroyed beyond repair and its torn steel beams exposed for all to see. For some weird reason…. the open gap between the top and the bottom section of this particular pillar seemed to be getting smaller. Maybe… it was getting smaller for real.

'Where are we right now?' (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Quite likely, above their heads….

A whole department store!!

"T, that, that, we gotta do something, that, that…" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"That?" (Seo Ah-Young)

"That pillar!! That pillar, pillar!!!! God damn it, this place is going to collapse!!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Seo Ah-Young's face lost all colour as she urgently looked at the supporting pillar in question. Well now, how could this place be safe after two of the structurally important supporting pillars got smashed to bits?

"Hurry!! Do something!! Anything!! If you don't want to see the repeat of Sampoong, please do something!!" (Seo Ah-Young) (TL: Sampoong was a department store in Seoul that collapsed back in 1995, killing over 500 people and injuring nearly a thousand. As a matter of fact, it held the record of being the deadliest building collapse in history until September 11th, 2001.)

Her hands were shaking uncontrollably as Seo Ah-Young shouted into the walkie talkie.

But, what could anyone do under the current circumstances?

Could a human being support the whole building's weight and stop it from collapsing? Just how?

Yi Ji-Hyuk checked how things were unfolding, and then shrugged his shoulders again. He then abandoned them to their devices while walking towards the hole the Kodiac Monkey created. It was actually his kick that created it, but whatever…

"H, hey, where do you think you're going?!" (Seo Ah-Young)

"Home." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"But, what about here?" (Seo Ah-Young)

"What the. You think I'm a miracle worker? I gotta get out of here before the building collapses." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"You irresponsible douchebag!! You caused all this!!" (Seo Ah-Young)

"Hul. I save a drowning person, and now she wants me to hand over the bag, too. Holy cow. Really?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"I don't care, just do something, please!" (Seo Ah-Young)

"No, hang on. What can I even do here…." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

It was then. A person hurriedly ran up in a flash from a far distance.

"Captain!!"

"Mister Park Sung-Chan!!" (Seo Ah-Young)

"What happened here? This thing, did you kill it, Captain?" (Park Sung-Chan)

"No, Mister Sung-Chan. That's not important right now…" (Seo Ah-Young)

Suddenly, Yi Ji-Hyuk quickly walked up to this Park Sung-Chan and took a inquisitive look at the man, from his feet right up to his head.

"….What the. Who're you?" (Park Sung-Chan)

"Hey, ahjussi, you must be a knight type." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"Uh? A knight type?" (Park Sung-Chan)

"Aren't you one of those body reinforcement types or whatever?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Park Sung-Chan nodded his head, not thinking too much about it.

"So what?" (Park Sung-Chan)

"This way." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"Uh?" (Park Sung-Chan)

"Hurry up." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk grabbed Park Sung-Chan's hand and led him forward, then, pushed him under the broken pillar.

"Stay there and give it your all." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"……Hey, who the hell do you think you are?!" (Park Sung-Chan)

"If you don't want to be flattened like pancakes, I suggest you quickly start supporting that pillar." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"What the hell? You taking a p*ss or what, you b*stard?!" (Park Sung-Chan)

Just as Park Sung-Chan was about to get real angry…

Tuk.

A man placed his hand on Park Sung-Chan's shoulder.

"What now? Vice Captain?" (Park Sung-Chan)

Choi Jung-Hoon was carrying a very friendly smile on his face.

"Please, do your best and support the pillar." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"….Yes, sir." (Park Sung-Chan)

Well, there was no need to waste time and argue; as long as he was ordered, he'd carry it out, no questions asked.

Park Sung-Chan warbled slightly, but he still managed to hoist the pillar with all of his strength. Watching this, Yi Ji-Hyuk's expressions cleared up.

Well, that got solved pretty fast.

Step.

Yi Ji-Hyuk then turned towards the KSF folks.

Choi Jung-Hoon became rather nervous for some reason. He understood very well that the man before him shouldn't hold any hostile intentions towards them. But, the weird thing was, it felt inexplicably difficult and discomforting to deal with this youth.

Step.

Yi Ji-Hyuk rapidly closed the distance between them.

'What does he want to say to us now??' (Choi Jung-Hoon)

….Unfortunately, his anxiety turned out to be meaningless.

Yi Ji-Hyuk walked past and headed straight into a big hole in the wall right behind them, which led to a chaotic, messy innards of a convenience store. He then opened the door to the refrigerator.

*SFX for a cola can opening*

A refreshing sound escaped as he opened a can of Coke.

Gulp, gulp.

Yi Ji-Hyuk one-shotted the entire Coke can, exclaimed out loudly in happiness, and then, opened up a nearby packet of crisps.

"Holy cow. I thought I was going to die with such a low blood sugar level. Look at my hands shaking. Look!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

'…Does he have diabetes or something?' (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Yes, that might not be the correct action nor thought process for the current situation, but…

Chowchowchowchow~~~

Just as Yi Ji-Hyuk finished the packet in one go and reached out towards the second one…

*SFX for multiple guns locking and pointing*

Several gun barrels were pointing at his head now.

With his eyes full of questions, Yi Ji-Hyuk looked at the people pointing their guns at him.

"What is it? I am going to pay for all these, you know." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"……."

"Oh, come on! I'm not trying to 'dine and dash' here!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"……."

"What the… I too have some common sense, okay? I know I gotta pay first before eating and all that, but take a look around! There's no one to pay to! So, what do you want me to do?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

He couldn't understand it. Completely could not.

"Take him." (Seo Ah-Young)

As soon as Seo Ah-Young's resolute order was issued, Yi Ji-Hyuk quickly raised both of his hands to his sides in a defensive gesture, causing everyone to come to a halt.

Everyone here had witnessed him beat up a Kodiac Monkey senseless just now, so no one was brave enough to volunteer in subduing Yi Ji-Hyuk.

"I don't get what the deal is here, but…" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

With a pair of determined eyes, Yi Ji-Hyuk glared at Seo Ah-Young.

"Let me finish the grub first, okay? We are all trying to survive here, after all." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

"Take him, now!" (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young became even more resolute in return.

"Wow. Really now, not even blood, not even tears… What the? I'm going, alright?! I'll walk on my own two feet, okay?! Put me down so we can talk!! No, wait a minute!! Why am I being treated like a criminal again!?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Even as he was being dragged away, Yi Ji-Hyuk was yapping on and on nonstop.

Choi Jung-Hoon and Seo Ah-Young looked at him and then, slowly shook their heads in sync.

"What a nutter." (Seo Ah-Young)

"He sure has a particular character, that guy." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

While the duo spat out their admiration (?) of the youth, Yi Ye-Won and Park Seon-Duk alternated their gazes between Yi Ji-Hyuk being dragged away and the KSF people, before rushing to where Choi Jung-Hoon was.

"Why are you dragging my son away?!" (mom Park Seon-Duk)

"Ah….." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

His family was here, too.

While Choi Jung-Hoon was feeling quite troubled by this, Park Seon-Duk didn't wait for his reply and continued on.

"Just why are you dragging him away like some criminal? Who are you people?!" (mom)

When she angrily tried to grab his collars, Choi Jung-Hoon gently brushed her hands aside and pulled out his badge.

"We are the KSF, ma'am. Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk will be placed under our care for a period of time, under the authority granted to us by the law governing the safety of the ability users. We will 'protect' him with the full might of the law, so please do not worry and wait for further instructions." (Choi Jung-Hoon)

"The KSF…." (mom)

As soon as she heard that acronym, Park Seon-Duk lost all her strength and plopped down to the ground.

"Mom!"

Yi Ye-Won quickly supported her mother.

Seo Ah-Young watched this for a bit, before she reached out to help them up.

"You don't have to worry. We're not trying to harm your son. He will return home as soon as possible, after we confirm a couple of things first. Maybe, this might prove be a good opportunity for your son, as well." (Seo Ah-Young)

Even when the disbelieving eyes of Park Seon-Duk were staring at her, Seo Ah-Young continued to carry that refreshing business-like smile of hers.

As for madam Park Seon-Duk, a day that felt like an entire year was seemingly coming to a close.

"Hey, just how long am I supposed to support this?" (Park Sung-Chan)

Oh… It seemed that Park Sung-Chan's day hadn't quite come to an end just yet.

< 24. I thought I could just go, though? -1 > Fin.