EFME 110

The missing people were being discovered in dungeons one by one. Without fail, every single one of them stated that they had fallen into a rift between dimensions and then been sucked into a dungeon. No one else had seen Sunyul like the very first missing person who was found.

At any rate, it was a massive stroke of luck that no one lost their lives in the dungeons. There were some who were injured, but none to the point of being life-threatening or leaving permanent disabilities.

However, several people, including Kang Jisoo of the Cheongyeon Guild, were still nowhere to be seen. Because of that, Sunyul was still consistently punching the clock at the Taepyeong Guild.

One day, the Bureau of Ability Users openly deployed an individual with mental-type skills. They used a different issue involving the Taepyeong Guild as a pretext to infiltrate the guild’s interior, attempting to read their minds under the guise of conducting an investigation.

But it failed. Even though Mun Dajin explicitly mentioned the ‘disappearance cases’ at the time, the mental-type skill user couldn’t read anything from Mun Dajin. It was the same when they tried to read a few other executives.

Sunyul wanted to request another verification, but he couldn’t.

He had heard that mental-type skill users were incredibly rare, and they were tasked with an equally large number of important duties. Left with no choice, Sunyul decided to continue his undercover investigation for a little while longer.

And that was how Sunyul showed up for work today as well.

“Hey, you stupid idiot.”

“….”

A truly familiar nagging accompanied by a rough hand flew his way. It was Bongshik.

“What are you doing not getting to work quickly?”

“I’m sorry.”

“Go brew some coffee and move quickly, huh?”

“Yes.”

Whenever his irritation flared up, Sunyul endured the work by imagining Muyoung beating up Bongshik. He could endure this much as many times as it took. As long as there were results.

Lunchtime.

Sunyul headed to the Taepyeong Guild’s cafeteria. The soup, which had almost no ingredients, and the side dishes, which followed a nearly identical repertoire, were truly humble. To tell him to replace a meal with this—Sunyul thought Dajin really had no conscience.

While waiting in line for his turn with those thoughts deeply hidden, someone suddenly wrapped an arm around Sunyul’s shoulder.

“Lee Sunwoo.”

“Ah, hyung-nim….”

The name of this man, who had told Sunyul to call him hyung-nim, was Kim Sangchan. He was the attack squad leader of the Taepyeong Guild’s Azure Dragon Raid Team.

Kim Sangchan smiled brightly and pulled Sunyul along.

“I’ll buy you lunch, so let’s go out.”

“Thank you, hyung-nim!”

Sunyul replied promptly, like a rookie who was strictly broken in.

Once they went outside, the meal Sangchan bought him was pork kimchi stew. It was delicious enough that he wanted to come back and eat it again. Sunyul continuously chimed in to agree with Kim Sangchan as he bragged about himself, while busily emptying the kimchi stew.

Life at the Taepyeong Guild was… to put it simply, miserable. Not to mention Bongshik, who openly nagged and hit him, everyone subtly gave Sunyul a hard time or avoided him.

Yet amidst all of that, Kim Sangchan was the only one who looked out for Sunyul. He even shared quite a few hopeful stories.

“The fact that you’re only doing chores right now is all because Noona has an intention behind it.”

“Really?”

“Of course. She’s testing how much perseverance you have. Hey, you must absolutely never go anywhere and tell anyone I said this.”

“Yes, yes!”

“Since you have perseverance and your skills are good… they’ll probably raise your salary in no time once your probation period ends. You’ll get a signing bonus too, huh? If you go to dungeons, you’ll get allowances as well.”

“A contract… will it be possible? Since I have a criminal record.”

“A person can make mistakes while living life. What matters is that you repent and how you live moving forward. From what I see, you’re living decently enough. Got it?”

“Haha, thank you….”

Sunyul expressed his gratitude half-heartedly. If Sunyul had really been a desperate D-rank hunter who had even committed crimes, he might have been completely hooked by Kim Sangchan.

But this was a truly obvious tactic: having only a single person look out for you while everyone else mistreats you, thereby making you depend on that person. The target who grows to depend on them will let their guard down and spill everything.

‘I only realized it because the Guild Leader told me….’

At first, Sunyul thought Kim Sangchan was just a rare good person even within the Taepyeong Guild, which was why he treated him well. He had reported it exactly as it was to Muyoung, and only found out after Muyoung pointed out that it was strange.

Since Sunyul tended to accept goodwill at face value, he hadn’t thought of visible kindness in such a bad light.

Now that he was dealing with him while knowing the truth, Kim Sangchan’s strange aspects subtly came into view.

Kim Sangchan continuously dug into Sunyul’s personal life. He took pieces of minor information one by one, such as his family relations, surrounding acquaintances, and medical history.

Therefore, Sunyul went around openly appealing that he—having no family, no friends, and no medical history—was the perfect human being to kidnap, acting as if he were completely fooled by Kim Sangchan.

A few more days passed like that. Just around the time he began to think that it might be faster for Muyoung or the Bureau of Ability Users to find something out.

Bongshik sought Sunyul out when it was nearly six o’clock in the evening.

“Hey, Lee Sunwoo.”

“Yes?”

“Come over here.”

The place Bongshik took him to was inside a small room. Two large sacks about the size of Sunyul’s torso were placed there. Bongshik showed him the inside. The inside was filled to the brim with small, fingernail-sized gemstones.

“It’s overtime. Sort these out by type.”

“…Right now?”

“Yeah, right now.”

“…Yes.”

Sunyul accepted the task with a face that was as downcast as possible. But on the inside, he thought he had a good feeling. After all, the night was always best for plotting things.

Using the excuse of going to the bathroom, Sunyul went and took the medicine from Ms. Heena. It was a medicine that remained inside the body and weakened any other drugs that entered the system for a certain period of time.

After taking the medicine, Sunyul began sorting the gemstones. The colorful gems were closer to stones with almost no value.

‘Making me do useless work.’

While thinking it was rather meaningless, Sunyul diligently separated the gems by color.

And right when he was deeply focused, he sensed someone’s presence behind him. Sunyul focused on his work while pretending not to notice anything. And then.

Thud!

Someone struck Sunyul hard from right behind him. Sunyul collapsed forward with a short scream. It hurt so much that he regretted not casting a defensive skill, though it didn’t seem like he was beaten to the point of bleeding.

As soon as Sunyul’s body slid down, the opponent completely finished the job by blocking his nose and mouth with a cloth that emitted a foul stench.

Of course, Sunyul did not lose consciousness thanks to the medicine he had taken a moment ago. Furthermore, since Sunyul also possessed the [Otherworlder] trait, the drug’s effect would soon vanish.

He felt a bit dizzy and his body felt heavy, but since he had to pretend to be unconscious, it was actually for the better.

Sunyul synchronized his senses with the homunculus he had summoned a while ago to examine his surroundings. The person who had struck Sunyul down was Kim Sangchan, the man who had been pretending to be nice to him.

“Easy, so easy.”

Kim Sangchan lifted Sunyul with a grunt and moved him straight to a car. Just because he was moved didn’t mean it was over. If other people had been kidnapped too, the place they arrived at was what mattered.

The car drove for a fairly long time. After driving along a rough unpaved road, the car stopped and remained parked for a moment. Sunyul stayed put because he couldn’t be certain yet if this was the final destination.

“Let’s move quickly.”

Indicating that it wasn’t the final destination, the car drove yet again. After winding along the bumpy, rough road for a long while, it finally parked.

Someone grabbed Sunyul and slung him over his shoulder. Since the drug’s effect had almost vanished by now, Sunyul desperately acted limp.

Soon, a door opened with a screeching noise. The man who entered the building headed straight for the stairs.

And then, the basement.

Unlike the heavily worn outer door, the lower door opened smoothly without making any sound.

“Handle him with care. He’s a valuable sample.”

The moment it opened, the chilly air brushed against his skin. Simultaneously, a terrible smell of chemicals pierced his nose.

It’s here.

Feeling goosebumps erupt all over his body, Sunyul opened his eyes. Then, he kicked and pushed away the person who had him slung over his shoulder.

“Argh!”

Ignoring the opponent’s scream, Sunyul scanned his surroundings.

Under the bright lighting, there were four researchers in white coats. And three people wearing clothes closer to square pieces of cloth were lying on cold metallic beds.

From a person whose blood was being drawn, conversely to a person being injected with something, to even a person who had something covering their entire face.

Goosebumps shivered across his skin.

“Are you guys insane?”

Sunyul muttered to himself unconsciously.

Warning alarms rang out loudly. As if the researcher who had backed away in extreme wariness had triggered something, traps automatically activated in an instant.

[All stats drop significantly under the influence of the ‘Curse of Blood and Death’ trap.]

[The power of skills B-rank or lower drops significantly under the influence of the ‘Quietly Sleeping Night’ trap.]

[Your limbs are powerfully restrained under the influence of the ‘Intruder Hunting’ trap.]

His body grew heavy, and his limbs were tightly bound and held by something invisible.

Sunyul let out a hollow laugh. Any ordinary Awakener would be captured here, unable to budge, and dealt with.

Yes, if they were an ordinary Awakener.

Thud, the sound of a door being roughly opened was heard. Then, several hunters presumed to be the guards of this place walked inside.

“Sever his limbs entirely. Let’s clean up here and leave within thirty minutes.”

Hearing him speak like that, they were guys who had prepared thoroughly and ruthlessly. Sunyul glared at the person in charge who had just given the command.

“Because I’m not good at holding back appropriately.”

“What?”

“I don’t have any skills that are B-rank or lower.”

[Using the skill ‘Der Freischütz’.]

About ten shots.

To Sunyul, it was a skill lighter than breathing. However, the skill—which was not light at all to others—flew toward the hunters and the suspicious equipment.

After destroying several pieces of the suspicious equipment by using his skills in succession, the effects of the traps were lifted, and Sunyul became free again.

“…Isn’t this, [Der Freischütz]?”

The sound of a hunter muttering from behind was heard. Sunyul turned around to face that direction. A rough-looking hunter raised both of his hands.

“I surrender.”

“…Pardon?”

“No matter how much of a piece of trash I am, I don’t want to fight a hero like you. There’s no chance of winning either.”

“Y-You, how much money did you pocket?!”

A researcher shouted fiercely from behind. Sunyul looked at the rough-looking hunter, then used his skill to knock him out along with all the other hunters.

Then, he pulled out his staff and bashed the researchers.

“Argh!”

The non-Awakener researchers knocked out from just that. Sunyul approached the hunters and restrained them using items. Only after catching his breath like that was he able to examine his surroundings.

The people lying down were definitely the missing individuals. The people who couldn’t be found no matter how much effort was made.

Among them, Kang Jisoo, the missing person from the Cheongyeon Guild, was also visible.

Sunyul let out a sigh of relief for now.

Then, he looked around once more. There was a truly massive amount of equipment. He didn’t know much about it, but it didn’t seem like something that could be bought for pennies. In the first place, buying three people and secretly confining them wasn’t something a sane human being would do.

At that moment, a loud clattering noise echoed from outside. Sunyul took off his wig and mask as he looked toward that direction.

“Sunyul!”

The ones who came rushing inside were Yoonjae and the other ability users from the Bureau of Ability Users. Only then did Sunyul catch his breath, scanning the surroundings once again at the massive facilities that seemed too grand to have been set up in just a day or two.

He felt that this matter was going to become much larger than he thought.

The disappearance cases that had captured the public’s attention were reported in general terms.

Since it was reported that they had been captured and experimented on by a group named the ‘Awakener Research Society’, the facts themselves weren’t distorted, but what kind of experiments they underwent and the severity of those experiments were not revealed.

It was merely made public that the victims had no memory of the elapsed time, their bodies were considerably weakened, and some aftereffects remained.

That alone was enough to incite public outrage.

Public opinion boiled over, with people asking how anyone could kidnap humans and conduct human experimentation in the 21st century, demanding that the criminals who committed such acts be strictly punished immediately.

The president of the Awakener Research Society, who was caught at the scene, stated that he wanted to conduct experiments to strengthen Awakeners.

Just as attention was slowly dying down while people watched to see how heavy the punishment would be, another piece of firewood was thrown into the fire.

It was none other than the confession of the researcher who had studied I—21 during the early days when Sunyul had just opened his eyes.

What kind of things did Lim Sunyul endure under the name I—21?

Thanks to the researcher who revealed the truth while bracing for every penalty, the people who found out what Sunyul had gone through flared up just as intensely as when the matters of the Awakener Research Society were revealed.