Chapter 1688 – 1688. Hunter Vs Vampire
The place we arrived at by car was a factory near Seoul.
It was a closed-down food factory. A quick search online revealed that a fire had broken out a few months ago, which led to the factory’s closure.
Joo Seo-hyun and I parked the car out of sight and, taking advantage of the darkness of the alleyway, approached the factory.
“Are there vampires inside?”
“Wait a moment.”
She leaned against the wall and fiddled with her smartphone. A quick glance showed that she was receiving work orders through a company-specific app.
“There’s no one inside the factory right now. The vampires will appear at midnight to trade with people.”
“Trade? Is it a drug deal, by any chance?”
“Vampire blood. There are quite a few people who want to become vampires.”
“Is eternal life that tempting? Enough to endure a life of sucking human blood?”
“It’s not just eternal life. Becoming a vampire also solves incurable diseases or terminal cancer. People who are psychologically cornered might think it’s better to become a vampire.”
“I understand there are various reasons. How much does vampire blood cost?”
“It varies depending on the grade. A slave’s blood doesn’t even go for 3 million won, a common grade is at least 10 million won, and a noble grade is at least in the hundreds of millions.”
“What about a lord grade?”
“It’s priceless. It’s something you can’t get even if you want to.”
Joo Seo-hyun was generally taciturn, but she answered my questions diligently. I thought about continuing to talk to her but decided against it. If I spoke carelessly, I might make a mistake without realizing it. Besides, Joo Seo-hyun and I had just met today. A proper distance was needed.
As midnight approached, a car entered the factory. Three men got out of the car.
“Deputy Joo Seo-hyun. They’ve appeared.”
“They’re humans.”
“Huh? How do you know?”
“They’re looking around. It’s proof that they’re here for the first time. And there’s no way a vampire would move so openly. Keep an eye on the dark areas where the light doesn’t reach.”
About five minutes passed. Just as Joo Seo-hyun had said, something moving in the darkness came into view. It was so subtle that I would have missed it if I hadn’t been concentrating.
“It’s a vampire.”
Joo Seo-hyun warned me.
“My specialty is sniping… Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem like I can snipe here.”
There were too many obstacles to snipe. If they noticed the sniping and went inside the factory, there would be nothing I could do.
I took out a silenced pistol from my pocket and fiddled with it. The magazine was, of course, filled with silver bullets. She looked at my waist.
“…You’re not using a sword?”
“Of course, I’m confident with a sword, but I’m better at shooting.”
“You can use a sword. I’ll allow it.”
“I’m a bit… not up to facing a vampire head-on. I’ll make sure to support Deputy Joo Seo-hyun.”
“……”
Joo Seo-hyun reluctantly tore her gaze away, a hint of lingering regret in her eyes. I sighed inwardly.
‘Joo Seo-hyun. Do you think I don’t know your intentions? You want to see my swordsmanship.’
Joo Seo-hyun was a genius with swords. A genius who could copy my swordsmanship after seeing it a few times.
There was no way she wouldn’t remember my swordsmanship after a year.
‘I know very well how sharp her eye for swordsmanship is. If I unconsciously use the Yeongcheon style while fighting a vampire with a sword, it’s over. So, the best thing is not to use a sword.’
That’s why I try not to use any kind of sword when I’m with Joo Seo-hyun.
Joo Seo-hyun waited for the right moment and said,
“Follow me.”
Joo Seo-hyun moved. She wasn’t heading straight for the factory. She moved, hiding in the shadows like a vampire. She completely erased her presence and approached the factory.
However, she was discovered as soon as she entered the factory. There was a vampire who had been on high alert.
“Who’s there!”
The vampire shouted.
“Shoot.”
Joo Seo-hyun said briefly and dashed forward. Her hand was on the hilt of her sword, ready to draw it at any moment.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
I shot at the vampires with my pistol. The vampires dodged, throwing themselves away as soon as they saw the gun.
“They’re from the company!”
“Damn it. Isn’t that woman a butcher?!”
“Run… Kkyaaaak!”
One vampire was sliced by Joo Seo-hyun’s sword. Its upper and lower body were separated in half. To cut a vampire, whose physical durability is stronger than a human’s, so easily. As expected of Joo Seo-hyun.
Bang!
A silver bullet pierced the vampire’s head. The vampire’s brain melted from the silver bullet, and it died. It was a fool who was so surprised by Joo Seo-hyun’s speed that he took his eyes off the gun.
‘Do they underestimate my shooting skills?’
“Damn it!”
The remaining vampire ran out of the factory. It seemed to be a common-grade vampire. Before I could even aim my gun, Joo Seo-hyun took out a small dagger from her pocket and threw it. The dagger pierced the vampire’s neck accurately.
‘She’s damn good at throwing daggers too.’
I suddenly remembered what Joo Seo-hyun’s specialty was. The Sword of Ego. Considering how freely she could move her sword, throwing a dagger was nothing.
The battle ended quickly. It probably hadn’t even been 10 seconds. It was too anticlimactic considering we were fighting vampires who had transcended humans.
‘Those guys were scared of Joo Seo-hyun before they even fought properly.’
Their will to fight was broken as soon as they saw Joo Seo-hyun. You could call it the power of reputation.
But the situation wasn’t over yet.
The three people who had traded with the vampires were lying on the floor, not getting up. Joo Seo-hyun clicked her tongue as she looked at the syringes scattered on the floor. A few drops of red liquid remained in the syringes.
“It’s vampire blood. I can’t believe they injected the vampire blood as soon as they received it.”
“What do we do in this case?”
“Capture. The principle is to capture them when we can. There should be special handcuffs in my car. Go get them.”
“Yes.”
The words, ‘You go get them,’ almost reached the tip of my tongue, but I realized my current position and immediately ran to the car.
When I brought the special handcuffs, there were only two people left. One of them was dead with a hole in his chest. His heart had been pierced.
“He tried to go berserk after turning into a vampire, so I killed him.”
“What about subduing him?”
“I can’t do it with my strength without the special handcuffs.”
I nodded.
Swordsmanship and subduing skills were different. You could subdue them by cutting off their limbs, but unlike me, Joo Seo-hyun tried not to do such things. She killed even her enemies cleanly. That was Joo Seo-hyun.
I put the special handcuffs on the two people who hadn’t transformed yet.
“Put them on their feet too, and don’t take your eyes off them. There’s a very low chance that vampires can mutate into unique individuals.”
“Yes. I learned that in training. I heard that some of the unique individuals were crazy enough to spray chemicals, right?”
“I heard they appeared in Europe a few years ago. I don’t know the details.”
Fortunately, none of the remaining two turned into unique individuals. However, they transformed into common-grade vampires instead of slaves.
It was easy to distinguish between slaves and common vampires. If their skin was rotting and they looked obviously different, they were slaves, and if they looked similar to humans, they were common.
“Deputy Joo Seo-hyun. Is it normal for common vampires to be created so easily? I didn’t think there was that much noble blood…”
“I’ve heard that these cases have been increasing recently.”
We waited there for about 15 minutes.
Support staff arrived with a truck. They quickly organized the situation. They put the dead vampire’s body in a truck and chained the living vampires tightly before putting them in a special vehicle.
The head of the support team walked towards Joo Seo-hyun and me with a smile.
“Deputy Joo! You’ve worked hard again today!”
“Section Chief Kim, you’re working hard late at night too.”
“How can we compare to you guys who fight vampires? Is the guy next to you your partner?”
“Yes. He’s my partner.”
“I’m Sung Yu-jin, who joined today.”
“Haha. I heard rumors that you were crazy, but you seem surprisingly normal. Leave the cleanup to us and you guys can go.”
“Thank you.”
Joo Seo-hyun, as if used to it, walked past him towards the car.
I had been subtly acting like I was trembling since earlier. I was a newbie who had officially done my first vampire hunt. It was natural to be nervous.
Joo Seo-hyun naturally took the driver’s seat.
She glanced at me in the passenger seat and opened her mouth.
“I heard about what happened at the training center.”
“Yes?”
“They said you didn’t tremble at all when the vampires attacked.”
“…Who said that?”
“The head instructor.”
“…You were close with the head instructor.”
“We’re not close. We just worked together before, so we know each other.”
I hesitated whether to continue my subtle trembling act but decided against it.
“I’m just numb to this kind of thing. Actually, I’m a psychopath.”
“I knew it.”
“……Huh?”
I was just joking, but wasn’t she taking it too seriously? I was a little flustered, but she continued to drive.
The car stopped in front of the company dormitory. Company employees could receive dormitory support, and I chose the dormitory. Joo Seo-hyun had her own home.
“Come to work in the afternoon tomorrow. There probably won’t be any work.”
“Yes. I understand.”
I scratched my head as I watched the car drive away.
‘Did she see through me? Or not? If she did, she wouldn’t have left me alone, so she probably didn’t?’
• • •
Joo Seo-hyun’s mind was complicated as she gripped the steering wheel.
It was because of Sung Yu-jin.
There was something strange about Sung Yu-jin’s actions today. I didn’t know what it was.
‘Maybe…’
Maybe Sung Yu-jin had the memories of Atlantis, I thought.
‘If it’s Sung Yu-jin, he might be pretending to have lost his memories and making fun of me…’
The problem was that there was no definite evidence. If Sung Yu-jin denied it to the end, there was nothing I could say. I needed solid evidence to prevent Sung Yu-jin from denying it.
Then, Sung Yu-jin’s home address suddenly came to mind. The words about a special sword and a small key in Sung Yu-jin’s home warehouse.
‘Should I go check it out now?’
I could forcefully break in and open the warehouse to check the sword and key. Maybe that key was a chastity belt.
‘What if it’s the key to a chastity belt? If I unlock the chastity belt…’
Unlock the chastity belt and kill Sung Yu-jin? Would that really be the end? Would I be satisfied?
‘…As I thought before, killing Sung Yu-jin without his memories is meaningless. If Sung Yu-jin really lost his memories, I should help him regain them.’
If Sung Yu-jin really lost his memories, I would help him regain them and then take my revenge.
If he was pretending to have lost his memories… I would have to find evidence to stop him from acting so ridiculously.
