Cha Seohu hurriedly pulled up Cha Sahyeon’s status window first.
[User Information: Sahyeon (Villain)]
Age: 22
Primary Skill: Living Shadow (Grade L)
Title: The Master of Shadows
Attack Power: Grade L
Attack Speed: Grade L
Movement Speed: Grade L
Agility: Grade L
Special Traits▼
└ Seed of Catastrophe (62% Progress Complete) (Synchronization 60% Complete)
The Seed’s progress hadn’t changed for a while.
That only made it more dangerous. What if the percentage increased again, even slightly—when it was already past halfway complete? Especially triggered by negative emotions like rage or jealousy?
“Shit. We’re fucked. This is seriously bad.”
If left unchecked, it wouldn’t be surprising if one or two people died here today.
That wasn’t what Cha Seohu wanted. No, if everything had gone according to plan, they would’ve smashed the window and escaped the zone already.
“Why the hell is he this fired up?”
He never imagined Cha Sahyeon would hate Kwon Seoyul and Kang Haeil this much.
What should he even call it?
From Cha Sahyeon’s demeanor, it felt like: “I already didn’t like them, and now they’ve given me the perfect excuse. Might as well kill them now.”
“This is insane.”
At this point, escaping wasn’t even the priority. Calming Sahyeon down—his emotions—had become far more urgent.
Swallowing back his tears, Cha Seohu clung desperately to Sahyeon’s arm.
“Sahyeon-ah!”
The way he called him was unusually affectionate.
“We finally meet again after days, and this is the only side of you you’re going to show me?”
Acting cutesy like this to another guy—especially Cha Sahyeon—made his skin crawl, but there was no other choice.
Cha Seohu forced himself to smile brightly, concealing the anxiety gnawing at him.
“Ugh.”
Sahyeon flinched when their eyes met. His pale cheeks were slowly flushing red.
“But, still...”
The way his pupils trembled revealed how flustered he really was.
The pitch-black shadows that had been surging to swallow the room suddenly hesitated.
“Hyung, what are you doing?”
The real problem, however, was the three guys standing nearby.
“Have you lost your mind?”
Kwon Seoyul stared at Cha Seohu like he’d just seen something deranged.
“What the hell is going on between you two? What kind of relationship do you even have?!”
Shut up. Just shut the hell up.
“I’m literally saving your life right now!”
Kwon Seoyul yelled in a panic, but Seohu didn’t have the time or energy to respond.
Still holding Sahyeon’s hand, he gently started tugging him toward the window, trying to maintain the charade of a smile.
“Things are a bit chaotic here, aren’t they? Let’s change locations, hmm? Why don’t you try breaking that?”
It sounded like a bad pickup line you’d hear at a bar, but it was the best he could come up with.
If this were about seducing a girl—or even just a guy in general—he’d die from embarrassment. But with the Seed of Catastrophe on the line, he steeled himself.
“Go where?”
“The fuck, Seohu-hyung! Let go of him and get over here!”
“What’s going on? Did Cha Seohu get hit by some kind of mind control skill?!”
...Goddamn it. They were all S-ranks. Of course their hearing was stupidly good.
Maybe it was because he felt ignored by Seohu and Sahyeon, but Kang Haeil’s skill suddenly became noticeably more aggressive.
KUGUNG!
Streams of water burst out in all directions inside the room, raging wildly.
Wherever the spiraling, drill-like torrents struck the walls, cracks spiderwebbed and debris crumbled. The building might be crafted from a special item, so it wouldn’t collapse outright—but the destruction wasn’t negligible.
Any ordinary person brushed by those streams would have their skin shredded and flesh torn apart.
It was a dramatic shift from the earlier, restrained version of his power—when he’d been careful not to hurt Seohu.
“Wait—!”
Through the violent winds, Hyun ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) Dowoon barely managed to open his eyes, and upon seeing the dozens of water jets, he gasped in horror.
“This is way over the top!”
Even if Kang Haeil wasn’t targeting Seohu directly, they were standing too close together—Seohu was still in danger.
Apparently, Kang Haeil had decided that if he couldn’t detain Seohu peacefully, he’d rather injure him than let him go. There were healers in the zone anyway.
He got the logic—but even so, this was...
“If Seohu actually gets hurt by that skill... who’s going to take responsibility for the fallout?”
Kwon Seoyul freaking out was one thing. But Seohu getting angry? That was terrifying. And the consequences would definitely fall on all of them.
Gritting his teeth at how unhinged Kang Haeil was acting this time, Hyun Dowoon shouted,
“Hey, you try stopping him!”
“How the hell am I supposed to stop this?!”
Kwon Seoyul also looked displeased with Kang Haeil’s aggressive use of power, but he didn’t intervene.
A chaotic, terrain-destroying brawl like this wasn’t compatible with his skills.
Besides, even if he didn’t like Kang Haeil’s methods, if it meant they could detain Cha Seohu in the end, he wasn’t inclined to get in the way.
It was such a Kwon Seoyul thing to do that Seohu could only sigh.
KAGAGAK!
A water jet, sharp as a needle, slammed into the ceiling, then lunged toward Sahyeon like a snake’s head.
Raising his head, Sahyeon unleashed black shadows from his back.
CRACK, CRRRK! With grotesque sound, a pair of twisted black wings burst out and spread wide, shielding them from the incoming attack.
Holding Seohu close, Sahyeon murmured low,
“Wouldn’t it be better to just kill them now? If you say yes, I’ll do it.”
“No. Just hold it in.”
“Why do you keep letting people like that off the hook?”
It’s not about letting them off. It’s that he didn’t have any expectations to begin with.
If he was going to get so angry he wanted them dead, he would’ve asked the Guildmaster to handle them a long time ago.
They’d lived together in the same world for too long, and it was far too late now to start arguing over who was right or wrong.
It wasn’t the time to explain all that—and even if he did, no one would understand—so Seohu just pointed again at the window.
“Forget them. Just break the window already!”
Sighing shortly, Sahyeon flicked his free arm. A sword made of shadow appeared and sliced horizontally.
CHAAANG!
A clean cut split across the windowpane. It didn’t take long for the glass to shatter into pieces.
This wasn’t the result of skill-based wind collision—but natural wind flooding in, strong and clear.
“Hyung!”
“Cha Seohu!”
Amidst the sound of howling wind, Kwon Seoyul and Hyun Dowoon’s voices rang out.
Still in Sahyeon’s arms, Seohu instinctively turned toward the sound as they approached the window.
Through the shifting shadows, he saw Kang Haeil.
Droplets of water fell through the air, glinting like pearls in the moonlight. His eyes, locked onto Seohu, glowed a chilling blue at that very moment—
Splatter.
“...?!”
Bright red blood burst from Kang Haeil’s lips.
“Guhk!”
He hastily covered his mouth and doubled over. Blood dripped to the floor.
The raging torrents of water inside the room vanished instantly.
And in the silence left behind, the slow, heavy sound of dress shoes on the floor echoed closer.
“Huff... Father... cough! Why...?”
Pale and sweating, Kang Haeil struggled to lift his head.
A man passed him without pause and stepped into the room.
His expression, now bathed in moonlight, was unreadable—like he already understood the whole situation.
A massive Hunter followed behind him. Just like his master, the man had no emotion on his face, unmoved even at the sight of strangers.
When the man stubbed out his cigarette, the smoke that had been swirling around Kang Haeil faded away. Only then did Kang Haeil finally exhale as if he’d been suffocating.
Without even glancing at him, the man calmly spoke.
“Cha Seohu.”
“....”
Hearing his name, Seohu immediately tensed up.
Feeling his body stiffen in his arms, Sahyeon also raised his guard against the man.
“You’re just going to leave like this?”
“...You dragged me here on your own.”
“Because you walked out on your own.”
The man answered as if it were only natural, then pulled something out of his jacket pocket.
Seohu thought it might be a dangerous item—but oddly enough, it was just a smartphone.
The man tapped the screen twice.
“Is there a way to resolve this?”
“It won’t be easy. Anywhere else might’ve been manageable—but of all places, it had to be the C-281 district.”
“...!”
A familiar voice played from the phone’s speaker.
Seohu instantly recognized who it belonged to, and his heart plummeted.
“Wh-What the hell was that?”
The man paused the recording. Then, he looked at Seohu with an expression that said: Well? What now?
“I said, what the hell was that recording?!”
If Sahyeon hadn’t held him back, he would’ve lunged forward right then and tried to snatch the phone away.
The man, having provoked Seohu so easily, let a slight smirk curl his lips.
“So?”
“....”
“You’re still going?”

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