Gunfight — Part 1
What’s going on?
I don’t know.
Maybe I’m overreacting.
It’s possible he’s just reaching for a business card or an invitation.
But everything I’ve been through since falling into this strange world is sounding alarm bells in my head.
“Ugh!”
I turned and bolted.
Teeth clenched, I kicked off the ground.
The golf bag in my right hand was cumbersome, but I hugged it tight and kept running.
This golf bag was my lifeline.
“Huh?”
“He’s running!”
“Get him!”
“Hey, stop right there!”
All familiar voices.
And then one more.
Bang!
A gunshot echoed, and a sharp ringing spread through my ears.
The hair on the back of my neck stood on end.
I’d thought it was possible when he reached into his coat, and it turned out to be true.
A gun—he had a gun!
“Stop!”
“If you don’t stop, we’ll kill you!”
Why the hell were they doing this all of a sudden?
I hadn’t taken all the purification fees for myself. Thanks to me, they made hundreds of thousands of won easily.
I even killed that mutant and saved their lives.
The answer was clear.
I gritted my teeth, thinking of the people I saw when I left the labor office.
“Those bastards.”
It was all greed.
Maybe they wanted the money I earned, or maybe they had their eyes on something else.
‘Wait… could it be?’
Had they figured out that I had the Synthesis trait?
No way.
They couldn’t know that.
I’d been careful not to reveal it.
But I didn’t have time to think any longer.
More men in long coats appeared ahead of me.
“Hands up!”
“If you don’t stop, we’ll shoot!”
Their right hands shot up like crocodile jaws, each one gripping a worn-out pistol.
In the darkness, with only a flickering streetlight above, the gun barrels gleamed.
A shard of cold light.
I felt my chest tighten as I instinctively threw myself to the ground.
Bang! Bang!
The pistols fired almost simultaneously.
The flash of gunfire tore through the night, and my chest felt like it was being crushed.
I’d been shot!
A gunshot!
The moment I realized I’d been hit, all the strength drained from my body.
I staggered and collapsed, and the men burst into cheers.
“Pwahaha!”
“Kim, what are you doing? You weren’t supposed to shoot him!”
“Oops, it was an accident!”
“If that bastard dies, you’ll die too!”
“I said it was an accident!”
I reached up to touch my chest.
“Ugh!”
Just the slightest touch brought unbearable pain.
It felt like I’d been hit with a hammer.
But it didn’t seem like I had a hole in me.
At least, there wasn’t any bleeding, and I wasn’t making any strange rasping sounds like people do in the movies.
I silently thanked my past self.
‘Good job.’
I was glad I’d bought that bulletproof vest.
If I hadn’t bought it—or worse, if I’d just carried it in my hand—I’d be dead right now.
“Ugh… ughh…”
I curled into a ball, crying and moaning pitifully.
At the same time, I opened my eyes just enough to survey my surroundings.
A narrow alley stretching in a straight line.
I knew this place.
It was near Choi’s Labor Office, on the way to the goshiwon where I used to live.
Clack! Clack!
Windows were slamming shut all around.
No one wanted to get involved.
Someone might call the police, but this place was outside the patrol zone.
A lawless area, deep in gang territory.
The men were closing in.
Roe Deer, along with the other guys I’d worked with, were slowly approaching.
“Wh-why are you doing this to me?”
I cried out in a trembling, tearful voice, pretending to be in agony.
Were they letting their guard down?
The men lowered their pistols slightly.
Their faces twisted into sneers, marked by greed and a twisted sense of superiority.
“Hehe, we’re about to hit the jackpot.”
“If only you’d just died when you turned into a mutant, you wouldn’t be in this mess.”
“That idiot should’ve just killed all the witnesses on the spot.”
“We’re the ones who got lucky.”
Hearing that, I finally understood what was going on.
Mutant trait.
The men here might not have seen it clearly from a distance, but Roe Deer definitely had.
He’d seen me transform into a mutant, kill the Hedgehog mutant, and revert to my human form.
In this world, it was common knowledge that mutants couldn’t turn back into humans.
They probably planned to sell me to some mage for experimentation.
I ground my teeth in rage.
‘These bastards. Repaying kindness with betrayal?’
Despite my anger, I continued my desperate act.
I curled up tighter, groaning and whimpering, and even bit my tongue to make myself bleed.
I was lucky.
The men were completely fooled by my performance.
As they moved in to grab me, their formation loosened, leaving a gap wide enough for me to slip through.
“Yahh!”
I sprang to my feet.
I had only one chance!
If I missed this opportunity, I’d end up as some experiment.
I had to escape!
I threw myself forward with all my strength.
I didn’t have any agility-related traits, but I squeezed every bit of power from my Strength trait and poured in the small amount of mana I had left.
Crash!
With a loud crack, the pavement shook.
My body shot forward like a cannonball.
“Huh?”
Caught off guard, the men shouted in surprise, and I grabbed one of them, hurling him behind me.
“Ahhh!”
“What the hell?!”
“Urk!”
The men fell like bowling pins.
Roe Deer screamed in frustration.
“Get him!”
“Damn it!”
“Just kill him already!”
“No! If we kill him, it’s over!”
“Damn it, then break his legs!”
I had bought myself a little time.
I hugged the golf bag tight and ran as fast as I could.
Using my mana without holding back, I managed to widen the distance between us.
If I kept running, I might be able to lose them. I still had mana, and I could recover more using my traits.
‘That’s not the answer.’
Even though my chest felt like it was being torn apart, my mind was cold and clear.
I caught a glimpse of my reflection in a car window.
My eyes were cold, sharp.
‘I have to end this.’
If I ran away, would it be over?
Not a chance.
There’s no way it would end like that. Roe Deer and his crew would keep coming after me. They’d try to kidnap me, and if they couldn’t, they’d kill me.
Now that the kidnapping had failed, I was their biggest threat.
‘I have to end this.’
I reaffirmed my resolve.
Suddenly, my mouth felt dry and gritty.
As if I had swallowed a handful of sand.
To end it…
That meant killing them.
Could I do it?
I’d been in a few fistfights and grabbed some collars in my life, but I’d never deliberately injured anyone.
And killing?
I clenched my teeth.
The golf bag swung wildly, hitting me over and over.
The automatic rifle inside was practically begging to be used.
I had no choice.
If I wanted to survive in this messed-up world, I had to become stronger.
Not just in skill and body, but in spirit too.
Before I knew it, I was close to the goshiwon.
I ducked into a narrow alley between two buildings.
Splat!
I stepped into a puddle, splashing water everywhere.
The light drizzle had turned into a steady rain, soaking the world around me.
Ignoring the stench of rot that hit my nose, I pressed deeper into the alley.
Shouts echoed from behind me.
“There! He went in there!”
“Get him!”
“Be careful! He’s a superhuman! Aim for the weak spots!”
“If you see anything, just shoot!”
They were furious, worked up after chasing me for over ten minutes.
I caught my breath and opened the golf bag.
Zzzzip.
The zipper made a satisfying sound.
I pulled out my weapons.
An extra-large baton, a pistol, two flashbangs, and finally, the rifle.
With trembling hands, I loaded magazines into the pistol and rifle, stuffing the rest of the gear into my pockets and waistband.
I tossed the golf bag aside and hid behind a large snow removal bin.
I opened my ears.
I focused all my attention on the sounds around me.
If I only focused ahead, someone could sneak up behind me.
Even with the bulletproof vest, getting shot in the back would be the end.
Thump, thump, thump.
My heart pounded wildly.
It was so loud, I thought my eardrums would burst.
The blood rushed to my head, making my brain feel like it was on fire.
The world seemed to fade to white.
Just as my legs started to tremble from the tension, I finally heard it.
Splat!
The sound of someone stepping in a puddle.
Now.
I sprang up like lightning.
I raised the rifle in a practiced stance.
I took a short, quick breath and held it just as the men spotted me.
“Huh?”
“There he is!”
“Shoot!”
Too late.
Tat tat tat tat!
The familiar sound of gunfire erupted as I set the rifle to full-auto and squeezed the trigger.
A heavy recoil shook my shoulder, but the rifle remained steady. My body, supported by the Strength trait, easily absorbed the impact as if it were nothing.
Bullets rained down like a storm.
The building’s outer wall shattered, fragments of stone and dust spraying everywhere. The men staggered, bodies twisting and jerking as they were struck by the barrage.
Surprisingly, there wasn’t as much blood as I expected.
Instead, the spray of water from shattered puddles and the flying debris from the cracked pavement clouded my vision, making the world appear hazy.
“Aaaargh!”
“Ughh!”
“Grrrk!”
I couldn’t afford to pause.
The men screamed and writhed in pain, but their hands still grasped their guns.
Clack!
I lunged forward.
My torso slightly bent, I held the rifle diagonally across my body, knees bent, and sprinted toward the right side.
Splash, splash!
Water splattered as I ran.
Bang! Bang!
Gunshots rang out, one bullet narrowly missing me and striking the snow removal bin behind me with a loud metallic clang.
The men were desperate.
They had gone from being the hunters to the hunted, and if they stayed down, they’d be dead for sure.
“Huff!”
I pressed myself against the exterior wall of the goshiwon, taking a deep breath I’d been holding in.
But I didn’t let up on the attack.
Reaching into my pocket, I pulled out a flashbang and yanked the pin.
Click.
Flashbang out!
I tossed it to the left side, rolling it along the ground. Even after not doing this for years, the motion came naturally.
Clatter, clatter.
BOOM!
With a deafening bang, an intense flash of light erupted.
The brightness was so blinding that it felt like my eyes were burning, even though I had closed them and covered my ears.
The men, caught completely off-guard, were struck by the full force of the flashbang.
Screams followed immediately.
“Ahhhh!”
“My eyes! My eyes!”
“Help! Somebody, help!”
The moment I heard their cries, I moved.
No—I was already moving the moment the flashbang went off.
I quickly switched my rifle to three-round burst mode.
Click. The metallic sound of the selector switch echoed as I swapped out the magazine.
Thud! The empty magazine clattered to the ground as I rounded the corner, rifle raised.
“Ahhh! Aaargh!”
“Please, no! I didn’t mean it!”
“Roe Deer made me do it! It was all his idea!”
The men were crying out instinctively, tears and snot pouring from their faces as they writhed on the dirty, waterlogged ground.
For a moment, my hands trembled.
I thought of the landlady lying dead in the management office of the goshiwon.
I remembered Steel Jaw, bound and beaten by the goshiwon residents.
And I thought of the Hedgehog mutant, who had died a miserable death.
So I didn’t hesitate.
If I didn’t kill them, I’d be the one to die!
If I wanted to survive, I had to kill!
I clenched my teeth, tightened my grip on the rifle, and pulled the trigger.
Tat tat tat!
The first burst hit the man closest to me, his body spinning as he fell. His arm jerked back, revealing the pistol he still clutched in his hand, which dropped to the ground with a dull thud, lost in the rainwater.
My mind went blank.
Fear of death, the trembling tension, the unpleasantness of being soaked in rain, and the sadistic rush of violence all mixed together, overwhelming my senses.
Tat tat tat!
I fired again.
Tat tat tat!
And again.
Tat tat tat!
Like I was possessed by a spirit—or perhaps like I was in a trance—I kept pulling the trigger.
Every shred of morality, every ounce of common sense I had built up in my life, disappeared in an instant.
I wasn’t myself.
It felt like someone else was controlling me, forcing me to shoot and kill these men.
“Huff, huff…”
When I finally came back to my senses, I was gasping for breath.
My grip was all wrong, my aim was off, and my posture was sloppy as I emptied the magazine.
Click! Click!
The rifle’s bolt locked back as it ran dry, leaving nothing but the sound of the hammer falling on an empty chamber.
There was no one left standing.
The men lay face down in the wet, blood-soaked alley, their bodies still, lifeless.
But it wasn’t over yet.
Even as I panted heavily, I counted under my breath.
“One… two… three… four… five… six…”
The numbers didn’t add up.
Just as I realized something was wrong and started to look around, a furious roar erupted from behind me.
“You son of a bitch!”
I turned, but it was too late.
A massive object came hurtling toward me like a bolt of lightning.
I instinctively raised my rifle to block.
CRACK!
To my horror, the rifle snapped in half.
“Ugh!”
I flew backward like a rag doll, my body slamming into the ground. The impact felt like getting hit by a truck.
I rolled across the pavement several times before I finally came to a stop, dazed and staring up at the sky.
“You bastard, you bastard, you bastard…”
In the grimy, dimly lit alley, surrounded by piles of trash, a gigantic shadow loomed over me.
The flickering streetlights and the pouring rain only made the figure more terrifying.
The legs were twisted unnaturally.
The tall, lanky frame was impossibly thin.
Its face was obscured by thick fur and a scraggly beard, with two small horns barely visible atop its head.
It was Roe Deer.
“Damn it.”
But this wasn’t the same Roe Deer from yesterday.
This wasn’t even the Roe Deer who had blocked my path earlier.
He had fully awakened.
Roe Deer was now a Level 1 superhuman, and he stood before me, seething with rage.
–TL Notes–
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