Chapter 30 :

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But the object in the alley in front of the gosiwon was, to Se-gun, absolutely unsatisfactory—a white Pride that was long past its scrapping period. Sylvester’s Corvette only had two seats, so they had decided to use Song Deok-yeon’s Pride. But this damn Pride was just as cramped inside, so it could hardly be called a comfortable ride.

“Aren’t you getting in already?”

Song Deok-yeon looked at Se-gun calmly. Se-gun let out a sigh and opened the door. The moment he did, the Japanese sword he had left by the entrance rolled out of the car. Se-gun picked it up, climbed into the car, and asked,

“By the way, how are we going to track him?”

“Well, shall we ask the Finder first? There probably won’t be much useful information, but we should at least get our membership fee’s worth.”

Saying that, Sylvester plugged his PCS into the Pride’s hands-free set. Kim Seong-hee had prepared this as well, so Se-gun had secretly hoped it might be some Hello Kitty–style character phone. Seeing the plain-looking phone, he was rather disappointed. However, Sylvester flipped it open and placed a call, carefully entering a password once the connection tone sounded. Watching Sylvester, Song Deok-yeon started the engine and steered the car onto the main road.

“Yes. Welcome to Vampiric Finder, where we connect you with the latest information. Ah, there’s a piece of information that’s currently at a record high in value. I’m sure our members are interested in such a top-priced case, aren’t you?”

Suddenly, a man’s half-slurred voice came through the hands-free set.

“W-What is this?”

“Quiet!”

Sylvester snapped, focusing on the information. Then the strange man’s voice came through again.

“Yes. The Corrupted currently roaming Seoul has been confirmed as former Hunter Jeong Jun. It seems he may have turned that way while hunting a vampire of the Jeok-yo line. Be careful not to end up like that yourselves. Ah, and you all know there’s a bounty on that Corrupted, right? Even if it’s a Corrupted that doesn’t usually pay well, it seems someone decided that at this level our very survival is at stake. Don’t be surprised. The bounty is a whopping 100 million won. That’s a sum incomparable to most ordinary vampires, isn’t it? Send the Corrupted’s brain to Yeongdeungpo Post Office P.O. Box 12 along with your account number, and you’ll receive 100 million!”

As he listened, Song Deok-yeon’s expression hardened. Se-gun saw his face in the rearview mirror and kept silent. But Sylvester kicked the floor with his foot.

“Tch. Vampires putting a bounty on vampire hunters.”

“What?”

“Who do you think put up a bounty worth 100 million?”

Sylvester countered, suppressing his blazing anger. Having fought powerful vampire clans, he knew well their financial power. In fact, he had once trusted a famous foreign bank with his money, only to have it flagged as a fraudulent account and confiscated. Without even bringing up Row Gibson—no, True Vampire Phantom—it was common knowledge that vampires pulled the strings of global politics and finance.

If they had lived that long and achieved nothing, that would have been stranger. In Korea, however, vampire clans were unusually rare; and those that did exist were mostly individuals who had arisen spontaneously, independent of any clan.

But from the moment Jeok-yo and Chang-un, the two True Vampires, met their deaths in Korea, the country had begun turning into a battleground for all vampires.

“Still… the fact that something like this is being run. I guess there really are quite a lot of vampire hunters?”

Se-gun asked, watching the pirate-like broadcast of the Finder. He knew almost nothing about machines beyond changing a cellphone ringtone, but even he could tell this wasn’t something run with just a few phones. Considering the equipment used by Vampiric dealers and the massive amounts of cash they handled daily, if such a huge market existed, then there had to be that many vampire hunters, didn’t there?

It was a far cry from the kind of illegal activities Se-gun had imagined until now.

“Not that many, probably. But where there’s demand, there’s supply.”

Song Deok-yeon replied bluntly. Aside from the two sitting in this Pride, Se-gun had never seen another vampire hunter before, so his curiosity about them grew stronger.

But then the Finder’s host spoke urgently.

“Ah, we’ve received another tip. Near the southern end of Yanghwa Bridge, by the Hangang riverside park—yes, the monster has appeared again. It seems many vampires have gathered nearby as well… It might be best not to interfere if possible.”

“Damn it!”

Sylvester cursed and grabbed the phone. Song Deok-yeon immediately swung the car around from the main road and drove into the opposite lane.

“Hey! You wanna die?!”

“Are you insane?!”

Amid curses and blaring horns, the three men in the car didn’t even blink.

* * *

Song Deok-yeon had met Jeong Jun again at the funeral. The absurd incident in which the officers’ quarters had collapsed due to a gas explosion was ultimately revealed to have been caused by construction negligence. But even after the cause was uncovered, nothing changed. The dead would not return to life, and even compensation money meant nothing.

No one could share the despair of Jeong Jun, who had lost his wife and son.

Once a life’s central axis begins to slip out of place, it can become impossible to turn back.

“What are you going to do now?”

After the funeral held with bone fragments gathered from the accident site, Song Deok-yeon asked Jeong Jun with a worried expression. Though Song Deok-yeon had been the superior officer and Jeong Jun a captain, Song Deok-yeon was older, and after leaving the military they had remained friends. It wasn’t common for a non-commissioned officer and an officer to be friends, which made their bond all the more special. Perhaps because of that, Jeong Jun—who would have exploded had anyone else interfered—answered in a relatively calm voice.

“I don’t know… I suppose I’ll quit the military and leave.”

“Think carefully. What happened to your family is tragic, but… for now, take leave and rest. You shouldn’t make such a major decision already…”

“At this point, what difference does ‘major’ make?”

Jeong Jun let out a hollow sigh. With nothing precious left to protect, no reason to strive and guard his future, he had no energy to think about what came next. Knowing that, Song Deok-yeon simply sat silently, staring at the columbarium.

In the end, Song Deok-yeon made Jeong Jun into a vampire hunter. To fight powerful vampires, he needed trustworthy help, and Jeong Jun was exactly that.

But before long, they had to break their partnership and go their separate ways. Jeong Jun committed too many reckless acts. Each time, he threw himself toward death without hesitation. That was disqualifying behavior for a partner. Perhaps Captain Jeong Jun of his Special Forces days would have been different—but afterward, he was the worst kind of vampire hunter. In a way, this current situation may have been foretold.

Crossing Yanghwa Bridge, “that thing”—the Corrupted, or “Jeong Jun”—was running through the park at night.

Having already heard of the massacre at Hangang Riverside Park, citizens avoided the area altogether. Instead, police cars crossed into restricted vehicle zones to patrol. But he did not hesitate to expose himself to the police.

“Kraaaah!”

Jeong Jun lunged in front of a patrol car. The officers inside shrieked and slammed on the brakes.

“Aaaagh!”

They were human, after all. Who wouldn’t panic at the sight of a distorted monster—neither clearly dog nor man—standing before them?

Like bubbling lava, blisters rose over his body as flesh and bone melted and dripped away. A snout protruded like a beast’s, claws sharp as razor blades, and shoulders grotesquely enlarged—enough to terrify even the bravest of men.

Kraaack!

His sharp claws tore white fractures across the police car’s windshield. A ghastly shadow fell across the officer’s face under the sodium streetlamp.

“Ghk!”

With trembling hands, the officers rolled up the windows and drew their pistols. Even in an emergency, the first chamber was loaded with a blank round.

Bang!

The blank fired. Of course, it had no effect on the windshield—or the monster.

“Grrr…”

But Jeong Jun turned, dark red saliva dripping from his mouth.

The saliva that fell onto the cracked glass formed strange patterns like abstract art. Just as the terrified officer prepared the next round—

Sssssss—

The wind blew, rustling grass and trees. And mixed within that wind was the sound of something running swiftly closer.

“Grrraaa!”

Jeong Jun immediately kicked off the police car and leapt up onto it. As the suspension rocked violently, the patrolman in the driver’s seat, holding his pistol, flinched in shock, ducked down, and pulled the trigger toward the ceiling.

Bang!

“Kraaaagh!”

Screaming, Jeong Jun jumped down behind the car, but the moment his feet touched the ground he collapsed like a felled log. The officer in front instantly started the engine and threw the car into reverse.

Kraaash!

With a brutal sound that made one question whether officers tasked with upholding traffic law should behave this way, the car jolted upward. Judging by how it lifted as if mounting a high speed bump or curb, it seemed the rear wheels had crushed Jeong Jun’s body.

The patrol car continued reversing while grinding over Jeong Jun, slamming into a “No Vehicles” sign shaped like a police officer before the engine stalled and died.

“Kraaaagh!”

But it did not die. Far from it—whatever monstrous strength it possessed, it grabbed the rear wheel of the patrol car and rose to its feet.

“Aaagh!”

The patrolman gripping the steering wheel screamed and floored the accelerator. But the engine was dead; the wheels did not turn. He twisted the ignition again while the senior officer in the passenger seat buried his head between his knees, screaming.

Crash!

As if a child playing with a toy, Jeong Jun flipped the car over and hurled it aside. The patrol car hit the ground with a heavy thud, its roof crumpling inward under the vehicle’s own weight. Though not completely flattened, it was so horribly twisted that the doors inside could no longer be opened.

“Kraaaah!”

Whether rage had erased his fear of pursuers, Jeong Jun approached the trapped officers to “eat” them. Already injured by the impact of the rollover, they could offer no resistance to the clear malice—no, feeding intent—radiating from him.

At that moment, two men appeared along the embankment.

Given that they had deliberately shown themselves in a riverside park where a grotesque massacre had occurred, they were certainly no ordinary civilians.

“Well, he’s truly gone off the rails.”

“No matter how backwater the East may be, no matter how pathetic its damn police are, he shouldn’t underestimate them.”

Muttering this, they looked down at Jeong Jun. Startled, he spun around. Though he had devoured a powerful vampire, what he consumed did not immediately convert into total VT. A Corrupted was like an autoimmune disorder. For the moment, the vampire blood he consumed enhanced his metabolism and regenerative power—but it was like a candle burning brightest just before it went out.

“Well, he’s trying to run?”

“No need to worry!”

The man standing on the embankment suddenly dashed forward, covering over twenty meters in an instant and blocking Jeong Jun’s path. Pale-skinned with gray hair, he raised both hands and slowly brushed his hair back. With distinctly Nordic features, he glared coldly at Jeong Jun.

Flick!

Twisting his body, he swung his arms rhythmically. A sharp sound followed, and something embedded itself into Jeong Jun’s body.

“Ghk!”

Jeong Jun staggered backward. Transparent thread-like strands floated in the air, drawing his blood.

“The blood of a Corrupted has no value.”

The man sneered and severed the thread suspended in the air. Blood sprayed midair as though a small tube had been cut. Astonishingly, a tiny spider clung to Jeong Jun’s body, sucking his blood and channeling it through its abdomen.

Jeong Jun writhed in shock and agony, rolling across the ground, but the creature burrowed into his collapsing flesh did not die so easily.

“Damn. He must’ve eaten quite a lot. This isn’t enough to kill him. Echelon?”

“Hm?”

The young, skinheaded vampire sitting atop the guide rail of the embankment looked down at the scene and widened his eyes.

“Finish it off, would you?”

The spider-handling vampire asked, but the skinheaded vampire suddenly sprang to his feet and shouted urgently.

“No—move!”

“What?”

Bang!

At that instant, a gunshot rang out. It was a small sound, barely audible to ordinary people, but clear enough to vampire ears—and distant enough to reveal the considerable range. At such distance, even a vampire would find it impossible to evade a sniper shot.

Unless one were a True Vampire-class vampire, how could anyone dodge a bullet fired from a range invisible to the naked eye?

Blood burst from the right shoulder of the vampire controlling the spider. Hidden vampire hunters had fired the shot.

“Damn it!”

“These bastards… they were waiting for us!”

Echelon suppressed his fury, closing and reopening his eyes. Between blood-red sclera, jet-black pupils darted about.

“There!”

Echelon pointed toward the opposite side of Yanghwa Bridge.