Chapter 23
A moment of desperation, would that be an appropriate way to put it?
The muzzle was aimed at me from within 5 meters, and Bruno was sneering at me, who was not even visible to the naked eye.
“Now then, fake Phantom Thief, any last words?”
Looking at his cruel expression, I curled up one corner of my mouth.
“Did you say you don’t easily forget the scent of a troublesome mana?”
“……So what?”
“For someone who hasn’t forgotten, you don’t seem to have learned anything at all.”
“What?”
As soon as I finished speaking, I changed the target of my Bind.
The object was a pressurized dry chemical fire extinguisher, closer to Bruno than to me.
There were two abilities that could be linked after binding a target.
One was to restrict the flow of mana.
The other was to overlay it with a shadow and apply physical pressure.
I created a physical crack in the fire extinguisher with a shadow, causing the powder inside to explode.
PSSSHHH-.
POOF!
Then, white powder scattered enough to cover the entire space.
Naturally, it blocked the surrounding light, and the magic bullet also lost its light as Bruno’s concentration was dispersed.
“Kugh! Petty tricks!”
Bruno tried to get out of the powder, but my shadow binding him was faster.
“M-my body!”
“Sniff some more, you son of a bitch.”
Simultaneously with the Bind, my mana drained away without restraint.
At a faster rate than when I bound Yun Jeongseop.
Next, I restricted Bruno’s mana, and he made a pained expression as if he were being deprived of oxygen.
“Heup……”
His suffering did not last long.
His groans soon stopped, and he lost consciousness while his body was bound.
When the organic flow with mana is cut off, an Awakener will invariably lose consciousness.
This was similar to a kind of mana depletion, but since the mana was not completely depleted, they would regain consciousness relatively quickly.
When I released the Bind, he collapsed messily.
He was gradually covered in the white chemical agent, looking like a corpse frozen to death in a snowfield.
I leaned against the wall with my uninjured arm and barely managed to stand up.
It was impossible to walk on two feet as my ankle had been pierced.
“My shoulder’s like this too, so it’s hard to even keep my balance.”
There was a healing potion in my inventory, but I could not heal the wound here.
Due to the 10% decrease in the light attribute from the cloak’s effect, the healing potion would act as a debuff.
If I were to take off the cloak while I was still bleeding, my bloodstains would be left in the storage room.
“Leaving this place comes before healing.”
I did not know when Bruno would regain consciousness, and if a group of mafia members came, I would be cornered immediately.
Unfortunately, the option of finishing off Bruno here and now was not available.
Considering the influence he would have in the future, letting him live was more beneficial in many ways.
“He’s detestable, but he was a character who was quite helpful in the conflict with the Demonic Beings.”
His nickname, the Hunter, also originated from hunting demonic beasts.
Moreover, there were more than a few moments when he indirectly helped the main characters.
Though on the other hand, he would also put them in danger.
“There’s no need to twist the already twisted causality any further.”
I approached him, took his revolver, and put it in my inventory.
A Mystic Arrow MA13 that used a .43 caliber.
The model with the longest barrel among revolvers.
“For a gunman, there’s nothing more fatal than losing a beloved firearm.”
A petty revenge.
I relied on the wall again and hopped on one foot.
It was a ridiculous sight, but I had to leave the place before he woke up.
But had I gone even ten steps using Stealth, my body staggered from a sudden dizziness.
I was short on mana, but it was not because I had none at all.
It was just that my concentration had dropped as I was approaching my physical limits, and as a result, it became difficult to maintain my abilities.
I forced myself to swallow a mana potion, but the situation did not change.
There was no other way but to take even one step faster and find a place to hide.
“……This is fucking ridiculous, really.”
***
A little while later, after a desperate effort, I arrived on the first floor of Hall C.
The place I headed to immediately was the nearest restroom.
As soon as I entered and took off the cloak, a handful of blood that had been absorbed by the cloak spilled onto the floor tiles.
“Haa……”
I took out a healing potion and poured it on the bleeding area, then took out another one and tilted it into my mouth.
If I had drunk it while wearing the cloak, my esophagus would have burned and I would have died.
Because in exchange for a 10% increase in the dark attribute, the light attribute was in a state of being decreased by 10%.
Thus, the dark attribute and light attribute were opposing attributes.
I did not receive a penalty because I had increased the attribute through coins, but according to the world’s setting, every time a specific attribute increases by 1%, the opposite attribute must decrease by 1%.
Fire attribute and water attribute.
Wind attribute and earth attribute.
Light attribute and dark attribute…….
Only the lightning attribute did not have a penalty.
That was because it was a protagonist buff.
Of course, the neutral attribute also had no compatibility issues, but a high neutral attribute mostly meant being a non-ability user, so it was out of the question.
VMMMM─.
Around the time the bleeding stopped, my smartwatch vibrated.
The content was a message from Lee Eunho saying that he had persuaded Dispel based on our plan.
All that was left was for me and Cha Yeri to disarm all the explosives in the building.
“I need to get moving……”
Because of the unexpected event, I had no time to catch my breath.
I washed the blood down the drain with water.
Next, I took out a spare cadet uniform and changed into it, swallowed a mana potion, and left the restroom.
But…….
“……Ah.”
I encountered an unexpected person at the entrance.
“What are you doing here?”
It was Cha Yeri.
As soon as she saw me, she lowered her gun. It seemed she had approached after sensing a presence inside.
To put it bluntly, the only people wandering around Hall C would be the mafia, so it would not have been strange if I had been hit by a stray bullet.
More importantly, did she see me enter the restroom while wearing the cloak…….
It was difficult to read her thoughts just from her expression on the surface.
As she was a person who had a knack for hiding her expressions…….
First, I answered the question calmly.
“I suddenly had urgent business.”
“This is the women’s restroom, you know?”
“……”
An answer I had not even considered at all.
For a moment, I almost turned my head to check the sign.
In a situation where I did not know what Cha Yeri had seen, it was forbidden to arouse unnecessary suspicion.
“Not that kind of business. I was bleeding from the earlier fight. I needed to wash the wound.”
“Hmm……. Is that so?”
Narrowing her eyes, Cha Yeri scanned my appearance.
However, perhaps because my clothes were too neat, she soon narrowed her brow as well.
I quickly pulled my ear.
“My face, my face. A bullet grazed me and tore my ear.”
A crude excuse.
Cha Yeri still spoke as if she was not convinced.
“But why are you here? What about Halls D and E? Besides, you haven’t been answering my messages for a while now.”
“Ah, I was so busy running away from Hall D. I just ran forward, and when I shook them off, I was here. I really thought I was going to die.”
“……You’re amazing in many ways. To think there’s someone who openly says they ran away.”
“Well, there’s no need to lie in an emergency situation.”
From the atmosphere she exuded, it seemed she harbored some suspicion.
I did not know whether it was because she had seen the Phantom Thief’s cloak, or because she could not accept my actions themselves.
I changed the subject.
“By the way, have you finished searching this area? Hall C.”
“Yes, just need to check this restroom. There’s a trash can here too. ……But seeing as you came out empty-handed, I guess there was no detonator.”
“Ah……! Yes, there wasn’t, there wasn’t.”
“Then that’s a relief. By the way, you don’t deviate from my expectations at all. To be honest, I didn’t expect anything from you, since you’re so unreliable.”
“……”
“No, since you failed to meet my expectations, can I say you met my expectations.”
Now she’s openly mocking me.
Did she decide that there was no need to look good to me anymore?
I just laughed awkwardly.
A time like this was an opportunity to use the excuse of being last in practical skills.
Cha Yeri turned her body towards Hall D.
At the same time, she hurried my steps.
“What are you doing? Didn’t you say just now that time was the most important thing?”
“What? Are we moving together? If only D and E are left, it would be better to go one by one……”
“Excuse me, didn’t I tell you?”
“What……?”
As I retorted, she muttered, just loud enough to be heard, ‘Ah, so annoying,’ and irritably pulled the bolt.
“That I don’t trust you?”
***
Searching Halls D and E did not take that long.
About a little over 10 minutes.
As in the original story, there were no explosives installed in Hall A, where the hostages and mafia members were gathered.
Nevertheless, we conducted a search for any possible unforeseen circumstances, and as soon as we confirmed that there were no anomalies, we sent a message to Lee Eunho that the explosive disarming was complete.
After that, the plan proceeded smoothly.
A small elite team composed of Dispel’s investigators and active-duty hunters entered the building without anyone noticing and subdued over a hundred mafia members in an instant.
There were injuries during the operation, but no fatalities.
The injured were only Awakeners who were trying to protect the civilians.
Dispel arrested every mafia member they saw, but they could not capture the executives, including Bruno the Hunter.
They were probably wandering the exhibition hall disguised as Dispel officers, just like in the original story.
Perhaps they had already left District 8 under the pretext of escorting criminals.
“Yes! This is the exhibition site in Seoul’s District 8 where the terror attack has been suppressed. The Psychic Mafia that caused the terror, under the name Catalina, has been notorious in the outskirts of Seoul……”
Numerous people and reporters flocked to the scene of the incident.
Interviews with each of the involved parties followed one after another, and naturally, countless interview requests poured in for the two Hero Prep cadets who had made distinguished contributions.
“Mr. Lee Eunho! Is it true that you incapacitated more mafia members than the active-duty hunters during the operation?”
“Excuse me, Ms. Cha Yeri! According to news that just came in, your grandfather, Chairman Cha of Hyeonseong Group, has announced that he will provide consolation money to all the victims related to this terror attack! Could you please say a word about this!”
This interview now would be the occasion for Lee Eunho to reveal his face to the public.
The scale of the incident was large, his performance was clear, and above all, because he was entangled with Cha Yeri with that handsome face, it was perfect for reporters to spin gossip.
In the original story too, Cha Yeri’s family becomes interested in Lee Eunho through this incident.
Therefore, looking at the result alone, I had safely overcome the 50% intervention rate, but…….
“……”
How should I explain this?
I was only a few steps away from the two of them, but I was feeling an indescribable emptiness.
It was not regret.
Should I say that I had once again realized the fact that I was an extra?
“Should I just go back first……”
Standing there awkwardly, not knowing what to do, I indifferently watched Cha Yeri’s interview.
“Lastly, was there a decisive clue that helped in resolving the incident, or anything else?”
“A clue?”
Cha Yeri showed a feigned eye smile and suddenly cast her gaze at me.
“Investigation Division Cadet Ji Seokhyeon, he was the one who came up with the entire plan for the operation. Both the clues and the deductions. If it weren’t for Cadet Ji Seokhyeon, there would have been many more casualties.”
“……”
In an instant, the cameras that were filming the two of them turned their heads towards me.
The reporters holding microphones closed the distance, and the crowd watching the interview from the side stirred greatly.
“Excuse me…… Mr. Ji Seokhyeon?”
“How did you figure out the mafia’s plan?”
“Is what Ms. Cha Yeri just said true?”
Without a moment to respond to the questions, I stared at Cha Yeri.
What on earth was she thinking?
Just a few days ago, no, until just now when we were caught up in the episode, she should not have welcomed me.
Did she notice my disposition and is trying to mess with me…….
There was nothing I could say for certain right now.
It was just clear that for some reason, Cha Yeri was showing interest in me again.
Just like when she recommended me as the president of the Mystery Club.
Forgetting the topic of the pouring questions, I opened my mouth to answer something.
But at that moment…….
[You have completed the episode.]
[590 Remake Coins will be awarded.]
[Additional rewards for episode variation will be added.]
[5,000 Remake Coins will be awarded.]
The curtain fell on the episode.