EPISODE 32. Muddy water
I limped down the stairs and looked around to see if there were other stairs. Fortunately, a large hall appeared on the other side of the hallway, so this seemed to be the first floor.
‘My ankle is… worse than I thought.’
It was a little uncomfortable at first, but as I went down the stairs, the throbbing pain got worse.
I wiped away the cold sweat and hid in the shadowed corner. Several people in black masks came down the stairs I came down.
There was a limit to hide, but the enemies just passed by walked towards the centre of the hall without looking at me. It was the influence of mental control ability.
I entered the hallway where the rooms were lined up to avoid those wearing black masks that moving in the same line. The seventh room on the first floor. Slowly counting, I reached the front of the seventh door and carefully pulled the doorknob.
Clank.
Unfortunately, the door was locked. I was expecting it to open outside like the room I was in. After pulling the handle a few times in annoyance, I knocked on the door and opened my mouth.
“Edward-ssi? Edward-ssi, are you there?”
But no answer came back. I thought this room would be right. Had he been moved to another place?
As I looked around, biting my lip in awkward, I heard Edward’s voice from inside the room.
“Ha, Han Yi-gyeol-ssi…?”
“Edward-ssi!”
Edward’s voice was so low that I couldn’t hear it if I didn’t pay attention. Besides, it was rough and dry, like a sick person.
“Are you okay? Are you hurt?”
Anxiety surged. When I hurriedly asked, Edward coughed a few times before answering in a slightly clearer voice than I had just heard.
“Ah, no. I’m fine. Just now, I mean, because I’m so thirsty…”
It was then that I remembered that he had been arrested and that Edward hadn’t had water or food until now. He was still young and lacked basic stamina, so it would have been difficult for him to endure it any longer.
“Please wait a minute, Edward-ssi. I will find a way to open the room.”
If only my ankle was fine, I would have tried to do it with my own strength, but even that was difficult now. I first opened the door to another room next door.
Inside the empty room, there was a simple single bed and a single drawer. When I looked around in the dark and opened the drawer just in case, an unexpected item appeared.
“Gun?”
It was a black mask and a pistol. As I carefully picked up the pistol, I felt a heavyweight in my palm. I looked around the gun and frowned slightly.
It looked similar to Beretta 92, but the barrel (or gun body in Papago) was slightly longer and lighter. Apparently, an automatic pistol was converted into an item.
‘It’s nice to have a weapon.’
I looked down at the shard of the mirror I was holding and pondered. It would have been better if a baseball bat or a dagger had been found. The gun was so powerful that it was difficult to handle.
Still, it was better than nothing. Once I got the gun, I left the room. I searched other rooms, just in case, but couldn’t find anything useful.
Back in front of Edward’s room, I was conflicted. I could get Edward out of the room by shooting the doorknob here. But the problem was after that.
The chance that Samael would hear the gunshot was too great. He would be in the hall on the first floor by now, so if I shot here, he would definitely hear it. It was only a matter of time before the mentally controlled people flocked in.
‘However…’
It was also dangerous to leave Edward like that. It might be better for me to shoot and get his attention by moving on my own until Edward could escape.
Samael evaluated my ability well, so at least he wouldn’t kill me.
I made up my mind and knocked on Edward’s door.
“Edward-ssi, I will open the door now. Stay away because you may get hurt.”
“Yes, yes!”
After hearing Edward’s answer, I stood five steps away from the door. I grabbed the gun I had held in a long time and pointed it at the doorknob.
It was an item gun, so I didn’t know the exact power, but no matter how weak it was, the doorknob would fall off in two or three shots since it was a gun. After shooting, I quickly explained the situation and looked at Edward so that he could escape…
Kuung!
“……!”
Just as I was about to pull the trigger, the building shook violently with a loud explosion from the hall. The tense shoulders trembled.
Kugung! Bang!
“…what?”
A roar was heard nonstop. It seemed as if a battle was taking place in the hall.
Whatever it was, it was good timing. At this level, the gunshots would be buried and even if he could hear them, it wouldn’t be easy to react quickly during battle. Without hesitation, I pulled the trigger towards the doorknob.
Taang! Tang!
The bullet hit the doorknob and sparks went out. With a bang, the doorknob fell down with a subtle scent of gunpowder. The part where the handle was attached to the tattered door was pushed and entered the room.
“Han Yi-gyeol-ssi!”
As I said, Edward, who was standing on the wall far away from the door, saw me and ran to me with a relieved expression. I quickly checked Edward’s condition. Fortunately, he didn’t appear to have been hurt except for a pale complexion and a tired look.
“Gasp, are you okay? Blo, blood…”
“Ah. I have some work to do on my way here. Don’t worry about it.”
As I looked over Edward, Edward looked at me and pointed to the wounds on my face with a trembling voice. Did I get hurt that much? Since I hadn’t checked my face properly, I roughly covered my face and beckoned to Edward.
“Let’s get out of here for now. They might come after hearing gunshots.”
Edward, knowing what I meant, nodded his head nervously. In the midst of this, the sound of someone fighting could be heard non-stop in the hall.
‘Who has come to rescue us?’
I wished so. To find the exit anyway, I had to get out of the hallway and go near the hall, so if we were lucky I might be able to see who Samael said was the guest.
“Follow me.”
I hid at the end of the hallway, heard the gunshots, made sure that no one was coming into the room, and walked carefully.
“Han Yi-gyeol-ssi.”
Edward, who was following me holding his breath, hesitated and pointed to the gun.
“Is that the item Han Yi-gyeol-ssi uses?”
“No. I was lucky enough to pick it up.”
Edward, who had a strange expression on his face, opened his mouth as if he understood my explanation.
“As expected, I see. I asked because I thought it was an item that didn’t really suit Han Yi-gyeol-ssi.”
“Is that so?”
Was there an item that suited each person? I didn’t know. Edward was a producer, so he knew more than I do.
“Yes. The gun itself isn’t bad, but Han Yi-gyeol-ssi seems to like a lighter and cleaner weapon than this rough one.”
“I know that it’s an item because I feel the energy, but… is it a rough one? It looks like a regular pistol.”
“I can see.”
Edward tapped his finger in the corner of his eye.
“It shows what level of producer that created this, what ingredients are used, how it works, and what effects it has.”
Oh. If true, that was an amazing ability. Chloe could see the energy of the other party and Edward could see the item information. I should say that because they were siblings so they had similar abilities.
“Then can you explain to me about this gun?”
“Yes!”
As if he thought it would be helpful at last, Edward began to look at the gun with a motivated expression on his face.
“Uum, there is the body fluid of a C-grade monster, Spark Snake (스파크 스네이크). Think of it as an electric shock function. Other than that, there’s nothing special about the gun and other parts like Han Yi-gyeol-ssi said.”
Come to think of it, sparks flashed when I shot the doorknob. I couldn’t even imagine the power of monster body fluids.
“If it’s a C-grade, it won’t be very useful.”
“Yes. You can think of it as just a gun.”
It was a step back. As I let out a small sigh, I heard footsteps coming from the other side of the hallway.
“Shh.”
I hurriedly lowered myself and hid Edward behind my back. Edward stood close to the wall with a look of nervousness as if he had heard the sound.
It was a man and a woman in black masks. In each of their hands were a black wooden sword and a leather whip.
‘You have to go through that way to get out of the hallway.’
Unlike before, when they passed by even after looking at me, now it wasn’t in the atmosphere to let us go. The order changed in the meantime.
If the earplug wasn’t broken, I would have been able to see the situation in the hall easily. Swallowing the disappointment, I took out the mirror shard I had put in my pocket and pulled it back. Since the hall was close, it was better not to use a gun.
“Edward-ssi, please step back.”
“…I know. Be careful.”
I couldn’t help it. We had no choice but to break through hard. Lowering my upper body, I quietly approached them slowly. My neck and wrists were still tied, so I had to deal with them carefully.
The opponents both stood facing the hall. A gun in one hand, a mirror shard in the other. After thinking for a while, I got up from behind the man holding the wooden sword and quickly swung my arm.
Puk!
The sharp edge of a shard of mirror stabbed hard into the man’s neck. Kuok, blood gushed from the area where the shard was inserted.
“Kkuuuk!”
As the mirror shard was pulled out and the distance widened, the man staggered, grabbing his bloody neck. The woman who belatedly recognized my presence swung her whip with an animal-like howl.
Seeing that the fatally wounded man had collapsed, I hurriedly threw myself to the floor, but couldn’t avoid it and a whip passed by my forearm.
“Ugh…!”
Now that I saw it, it wasn’t just a whip, but it was a weapon with thorns on its surface. Ignoring the pain emanating from the wound, I rolled forward. A whip flew to the spot where I had escaped.
Clink!
The strong movement shook the chain attached to the collar. I squeezed my throbbing ankle and swung my left leg wide. The woman, who was bewildered by the way I approached her nose, was hit in the temple by a spin kick and flew away then crashed into the wall.
“Cough…”
The woman lost her mind and drooped with a brief cough inside her black mask. Edward, who had been far away in case of any interruption, rushed to me.
“Ha, Han Yi-gyeol-ssi. Are you okay?”
“For now.”
“Ankle…!”
The condition of the ankle, which was already swollen from the fight, just got worse. A chilling pain came over me to the point where I was sweating just by walking.
“Le, lean on me. I will somehow…”
Seeing my swollen ankles, Edward said in a trembling voice and supported me. I didn’t want to lean on the little Edward, but it wasn’t easy to walk.
“Then please.”
Leaning on Edward, I walked out of the hallway with a slight strain on my ankle. Outside the slightly dark hallway, the centre of the hall, brightly lit by chandelier lights, came into view.
Dozens of black-masked people and Samael were found and tried to hide, but soon found someone facing them and murmured involuntarily.
“Cheon Sa-yeon?”
A handsome-looking man wearing a red jacket and holding Lilith’s sword. Even if I blinked, I was certain he was Cheon Sa-yeon. Edward had seen the same place as me, he said with a bright voice.
“Isn’t that Cheon Sa-yeon-ssi? He must have come to rescue us!”
“Wait a minute, Edward-ssi.”
Something didn’t feel right. I calmly looked around Cheon Sa-yeon. The crumbling and cracked walls and floors looked like the traces of the roar that shook the building before, and people wearing black masks who were bleeding and dying.
‘Cheon Sa-yeon.’
I swallowed dry saliva as I saw the pale side face of Cheon Sa-yeon, who stepped on the pool of blood and confronted Samael.
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