Chapter 27
The Dead Say Nothing (1)
What Sehyun gripped as he charged was a tomahawk with a stone blade.
It was easy to hold and swing with one hand, suited to a narrow corridor, and perfect for throwing.
“Here they come! Grab him!!!”
A man at the front lunged at Sehyun.
Sehyun sidestepped as if avoiding him and lightly hooked his leg.
The man collapsed to the floor.
Without hesitation, Sehyun drove the axe into the shin of the next man rushing in.
Crack─!
Shreek─!
The area where the axe bit in turned to stone, and a scream tore from the man’s mouth.
“W-what is this!!!”
Of course the weapon Sehyun used was anything but ordinary.
[Hagwilget]
An artifact tied to some indigenous tribe’s myth—an item that silenced enemies.
On impact it petrified the struck area, and the petrification remained while the axe remained embedded.
While his opponents were rigid, Sehyun quickly pulled the axe out and threw it backward.
The axe struck the back of the first man’s head as he tried to get up.
He, too, became petrified all over and fell back down.
Whoosh──
The axe returned to Sehyun’s hand as if on its own.
It was retrieved through the ability of the chain bracelet.
He then swung the axe and severed the neck of the man sprawled before him.
Gurgle!
As the man’s life ebbed with a gurgling sound, a fist came flying from the other side.
Sehyun dodged the punch brushing past his ear, grabbed the attacker’s arm, flipped him over and broke it.
Crack─!!
“Aaaargh!!!”
The arm twisted; the man’s agonized scream tore out as if being ripped apart.
An axe sank into that attacker’s shoulder, petrifying him and rendering him helpless.
He lost consciousness and slumped down.
Thud─!
After knocking out those three in an instant, the corridor’s air grew heavy.
“…….”
Perhaps startled, the rest hesitated to charge.
“You little…!!!”
A kick came next.
Smack─!
Sehyun flattened himself, using the man whose arm he’d broken as a shield and evaded.
Seeing Sehyun crouched, one of them yelled, “Now’s our chance!!! Overwhelm him!!!”
“Stomp him flat!!!!”
“F**k!! Not even a Phantom!!”
They all surged forward together.
In this narrow corridor there was nowhere to escape.
As if to vent the shame they felt at having panicked, they trampled mercilessly on Sehyun.
Thud, thud, thud─!!!
Heavy stomps laden with star-force rained down repeatedly.
But soon they realized something was wrong.
“W-where’d that bastard go?!”
Sehyun, who should have been on the floor taking the beating, was nowhere to be seen.
Only their comrades lay there, matted with blood.
“Are you looking for me?”
Clang─!
Just as the voice rang out from behind, the lights that had been illuminating the corridor shattered.
A deep shadow fell across the hallway.
“Finish this in one go.”
From within the darkness the chain bracelet gave off a blue glow.
Whoosh──
Pababababa-bak──!!!!
When Sehyun slashed his arm, the shadow spread thick and dark, and from every direction swords and spears poured out.
“Aaaargh!!!!”
“Gaaah!!!!”
The blades and spears ravaged the entire corridor without pause.
Their onslaught through the gaps in the shadow was like a storm.
Clatter──
Sehyun then turned the dial of the Dead Ringer.
[3 o’clock: Hwaeomgyeong (Fire Adornment Sutra)]
The minute hand at three clicked and a hot heat curled around his hand.
He snatched a sword that had traversed space and wrapped it in lava.
The men were already helpless against the raining blades.
Strangely, amid the storm of weapons that avoided Sehyun alone, the others were cut down one by one, powerless.
Swoosh─!
When he cut down the last man, he found himself at the end of the corridor.
“Phew……”
Sehyun exhaled and turned to look back.
It was a remarkably clean corridor for a pitched battle.
Only the soul stones the men had dropped glittered brilliantly.
Sehyun picked up the soul stone that had come from the last one he’d cut down.
‘I’ll put it to good use.’
They’d tried to sell someone else’s soul as if it were a drug—surely the dead wouldn’t mind having been used well.
Besides, what use is lamenting? The dead say nothing.
Sehyun picked up a walkie-talkie.
“Are you still there?”
Silence came through the device for a moment.
Static crackled, then a voice flowed out.
[…Do you really think you can cross our network and get away with it?]
Now that he thought about it, he couldn’t see where the guy with the helmet had gone.
Had he slipped away to report the situation? Whatever the case.
“Of course it’s not good to be at odds with your network.”
Right now it was nothing serious, but in the future it would grow to the scale of a whole community.
Even now, within the metropolitan area, these delivery agents had infiltrated all manner of places.
However.
“But you’re… not Chester, are you?”
“…What did you say?”
When Phantom looked surprised, Sehyun casually stated the other’s identity.
“Stop the act, Collector.”
Collector.
Someone who gathered valuable soul stones like artworks, inflated their price and sold them off, then reinvested to collect more precious soul stones.
But he handled only players’ soul stones.
In other words, he was a mad necrophiliac who treated corpses as aesthetic art.
[…Well, even if I wanted to play more tricks, it’s useless now.]
The voice returned to the tone Sehyun remembered as the Collector’s real voice.
Immediately, the disgusting anecdotes the man used to spit out came to mind one by one.
How proudly he boasted about how he’d obtained players’ soul stones that were hard to acquire.
[Interesting fellow. Maybe you should come under me…]
Crack─!
Before any more nonsense could be said, Sehyun hurled the walkie-talkie away.
Phantom looked at the broken device with a puzzled expression.
“What do you mean he’s not Chester?”
“That green-helmeted guy earlier—I think he’s a spy.”
It wouldn’t be strange to have at least one spy.
In their previous lives, Chester’s delivery service frequently had traitors; they’d had their troubles before.
Surely the Collector had planted someone to use Chester.
This situation must have been manipulated accordingly.
“Yeah, that guy wouldn’t stab us in the back for nothing.”
Phantom clenched his fist as if he’d be the first to strike back if betrayed.
“Let’s head up.”
Sehyun gave a short laugh and moved forward.
Buzz──
When they reached the top of the stairs, a signal hit and a phone rang.
It was a call from Chester.
Phantom snatched the phone from Sehyun and ripped it open.
“Hey, you bastard!! Where the hell have you been?!”
[That crazy woman has nerve… Where have you been?! I’ve almost identified the client!!]
“That’s your job, so I’m sure you handled it!! If the job’s done you should’ve come here right away!!”
[How would I know where here is, you crazy woman!!]
Watching the two shouting at one another, Sehyun shook his head.
Phantom oddly looked pleased.
After a long, relieved exhale, she handed the phone back to Sehyun.
[Is this Nam Sehyun?]
“Yes.”
[Why did you hand the phone to that woman? Anyway, don’t get involved, do not……]
“Enough. Have you figured out who the client is?”
[We’re close. It’s hard to pinpoint yet, but it’s definitely organized. And here’s something interesting.]
The sound of a rough motorcycle came through the receiver.
[I think the person who took our target and the client are the same person.]
“I know. The one called the Collector.”
[…What? You already knew?]
Well, Sehyun had known from the moment he came to this club.
He already suspected the Collector had arranged this scheme.
After all, the owner of this club was him.
Sehyun had other questions.
“Did he also put out a request to Phantom?”
[Probably, I guess.]
“Hmm……”
According to what he’d heard in his previous life, the original incident hadn’t unfolded like this.
Once the Collector had seized the item from Chester, he’d vanished with the girl and had no trouble commodifying her.
Publicly, the incident should have been concealed as Chester’s failure—he’d be disgraced for losing the girl.
Thinking about that sequence, Phantom’s involvement here was puzzling.
‘It should have been like that… where did the variable come from?’
Since Phantom had already accepted the request before Sehyun interfered, the variable had existed earlier.
Something complicated was clearly at work.
[Anyway, where is it?]
“Club Moonsine in Incheon.”
[…Incheon? Then Geumcheol would have gone there, right?]
“Do you mean… the one wearing a black helmet with a green pattern?”
[Yeah! He said he’d search there, why hasn’t he contacted us?]
Why indeed.
He stabbed you in the back and vanished, so of course he’s gone.
‘Then the situation is roughly what I expected.’
Thinking about the result, it wasn’t hard to infer the process.
Though the finer details were hazy from the bits he’d heard in his previous life, the situation unfolded within the scope of Sehyun’s expectations.
[How did you know? Have you met already?]
“I’ll tell you when we arrive.”
Click─!
Sehyun hung up and climbed the remaining stairs.
Thump thump thump──
Dazzling lights and heart-pounding music.
People danced like mad.
Unaware of the commotion that had erupted underground.
Vrooooom──!
Chester’s motorcycle carrying Sehyun tore down the long road.
In the next lane Phantom sped along on a bike, the girl tied securely to her back.
They were heading to the container pier at Incheon Port.
Chester glanced sideways at the bike Phantom rode.
“What’s up with her? She looks unusually serious.”
Normally she’d be shrieking with joy as she felt the speed, but today she rode quietly.
Far from her usual self.
Sehyun told Chester what had happened in the club.
“…Drugs? Impersonation? And Geumcheol’s a spy?”
He ground his teeth and couldn’t hold back his anger.
“These bastards turned on us not once but twice!! We should report it to the Foundation or do something…!”
“Don’t.”
Sehyun cut him off immediately.
“The opponent is the Collector. Who do you think the Foundation will side with?”
“…….”
Chester fell silent.
The Collector’s atrocities and notoriety became widely known only after the Apocalypse.
In the apocalypse, corpse-collecting would be a trivial flaw—nobody would care. Back then he would have been just another figure.
Now he was perceived as a wealthy collector of expensive soul stones.
Currently he was untouchable, firmly backed by the community.
Compared to him, they were unmanaged out-players.
Whether true or not, it was obvious which side the Foundation would favor.
“…So, you want to let this go? You were the one who wanted to screw the client over in the first place!”
“I did.”
That had been what Sehyun said the first time he met Chester.
But things had changed.
At that time the job descriptions matched and he’d only thought it was a double request. That assumption itself was a trap.
‘I unconsciously excluded the primary client.’
The primary client had originally entrusted the request to the Collector to take the girl. Then the Collector had hired Chester, then secretly snatched the girl from Chester.
He took the reward and the girl’s soul stone for himself.
So far it matched Sehyun’s previous life.
But Phantom had inserted herself here.
‘If you think about it, there’s no reason the Collector would intentionally give Phantom the job. That means…’
That meant the first client had directly entrusted Phantom, bypassing the Collector.
‘Then the puzzle fits.’
A smile crept across Sehyun’s face.
“So that’s why we’re going. We’re going to give them a proper beating.”
At this point, there was one response they should take.
Take the job reward while also perfectly screwing over the Collector.
“If we complete the job perfectly instead of the Collector, won’t that do it?”
You feel better when you get what you want and what you want to do.
Sehyun’s eyes shone brighter than ever.
