Chapter 126: Hunt Until You Stop
Kicking his office door wide, Seo-jin stepped into the warehouse with a light gait and a hollow ache gnawing at his gut. The next door leading outside cracked open under his hand, and sunlight slammed into him, warm, and clean.
"Where're you goin'?"
Min's voice rolled out behind him, heavy with suspicion as she trailed after him.
He nodded at a few Dead Hands passing by, then sent a thought spiraling into the distance before answering.
"Hunting. You coming?"
"In the middle of the day?"
He lifted his face to the sun, grin thin and hungry.
"Why not? Plenty of shardless in the city. Shouldn't be hard."
She'd known exactly what he was hunting for, but hearing him name the target out loud twisted her stomach.
"At least wait until dark. Less chance of—"
He walked off before the warning finished.
"Oye, you fuck!"
She stomped a boot, then jogged to catch up.
"I'm comin' with you, but only to keep you out of trouble."
"Right."
He rolled his eyes and cut away from the docks. Snagging a Dead Hand by the arm mid-stride, he barked a relay to Gregor, he and Min were out in the city for the afternoon.
He pictured the man's reaction the moment that message hit: pale scalp, twitch in the jaw, that silent 'why me' stare. Almost worth staying just to see it. Then the thought he'd sent earlier shivered back to him, an answer buzzing at the edge of his skull.
'There he is.'
A blue streak tore down the ruined street, halting inches from Seo-jin's face. Grimm hovered, guts twisting, grin rattling his bones.
'Follow me, bud. Got a job for you.'
Seo-jin stepped onto cracked concrete, the rhythm of waves dying behind him, the brine replaced by the reek of ruin and stale piss. Decrepit buildings hunched over the street, windows punched out, trash piled in gutters like spoiled offerings.
"Do humans seriously just not give a fuck? Why hasn't anyone fixed this place?"
He kicked a mound of rubble, sending the debris screaming into a collapsed building.
"That's one reason. Nice kick."
She bent, grabbed a brick-sized chunk, and whipped it through the next structure. The crash echoed through the dead street.
"You gotta understand—even before the Convergence, the only reason the world kept improving at all was because humans worked together. We don't do that anymore."
The explanation sounded thin at first, but the longer it sat with him, the more it matched what he saw.
"With shards, people only care about strength. Cleaning, fixing, keeping order—none of that matters. Even if someone wanted to rebuild, they'd have to force the rest to help. And all it takes is one asshole having a bad day to just—"
She bent, grabbed another chunk of stone.
"Pick up a rock and do whatever they want."
She hurled it. The slab screamed through gutted buildings, punching hole after hole until the crash faded somewhere deep in the ruins.
"Humans aren't together anymore. Cities in the freelands stay dead."
[Add in dungeon drops and monsters at your borders. Makes sense.]
Even Grimm stiffened. His jaw clacked as he drifted through the wreckage, eyes bouncing from broken wall to collapsed roof. Not a single untouched corner. The whole district looked flayed.
In the distance, two Users vaulted between rooftops, purple and white auras heading deeper into the city. The sight twisted something in Seo-jin's gut...hunger sharpening into a snarl.
"Once I take over, that changes."
Min slowed, squinting at him.
"Why do you care?"
"Why would a ruler sit on a pile of shit? Shatterbay's gonna carry my name one day. Needs to look the part."
She chalked it up to his age, but his tone wasn't childish. It was matter-of-fact, like claiming a seat already carved. Her eyes drifted to the lone black tower stabbing out of the center of the city. She knew words alone weren't going to get him there. Not even close.
Then she noticed his direction.
"Where the hell are you going? That's a dead zone. There's nothing to hunt there."
He flashed her a grin and slipped down a shattered side street.
"Just gotta make a stop first."
Her brows pinched tight as he kept walking. Cursing to herself, she jogged to close the gap.
She didn't see it yet. Not the real reason she followed. She told herself it was to keep him from stirring shit in broad daylight, but that lie slipped every time her feet carried her deeper into the dead zone. Normally she wouldn't step into a place like this for anything short of a bounty.
The deeper they went, the worse the land looked. Buildings sagged into broken ribs of concrete. Whole foundations lay snapped open like split bones. Earth buckled in slabs or scooped out in ragged pits. Even the plants grew wrong. Clotted colors, warped stems, things he didn't recognize took root like infections.
An itch crawled up Min's neck. She filled the silence to drown it.
"I remember when this place went to hell. Some trash gang ran it… Battle Brothers or whatever. Total jokes. Got wiped in a D-rank beast dungeon. The break hit so hard the Woon Corp cleaned them off the map after the sweep."
Dead zones didn't fade. A dungeon break carved its mark into land and air, and the wound stayed open forever. Depending on realm and dungeon type, the bleed changed everything, voices in empty alleys, mana distortion chewing through skills, even dreams rotting from the inside out.
A slab of concrete cracked free nearby. All three froze, jaws tight, killing intent wired. Then gravity finished the job and the block collapsed. Nothing else moved.
Checking the time in his UI, Seo-jin lifted a hand.
"It's time. Drink then pass it."
Min sighed. Yellow system light sparked in her palm as she pulled a small cast of ale from storage. She uncorked it, took a swig, and gagged like she'd swallowed acid. Shoving the cork back in, she tossed it over.
"Tastes like hot piss."
He drank without flinching, but his gut still twitched.
"It's not that bad. Better than losing yourself to madness."
He sent it back her way and kept moving. The bitter burn sliding down his throat was cheap insurance, for her. For him, it was just to pass the time. Ever since he'd learned dwarven ale held back his [Corruption], he made sure Min and Gregor stayed stocked.
Drifting ahead, Grimm's guts swayed as he scouted. Seo-jin tracked every shadow, every broken wall, hunting for the landmark burned into Seo-jin's memories...vague, but close.
"Keep your eyes out for a—never mind. We're here."
The street split ahead in a jagged intersection. One corner still held the corpse of a building, flattened into rusted ribs of steel and concrete. Sticking out of the rubble was the thing he'd been hunting for—an old stop sign, bent nearly in-half, red paint rotted to scabs.
Min stared at it like he'd dragged her across the wasteland for a joke. Her aura began to rumble across her skin.
"Why the fuck are we out here?"
"Patience."
He dropped onto a twisted metal beam and motioned for her to sit. When she finally settled, he got to work.
'Alright buddy. Need you for something important. Focus.'
Grimm circled him unseen to Min, blue guts writhing with anticipation as Seo-jin laid out the task. After a moment of quiet instructions, the ghost lit bright, spun in tight frantic loops, then dove straight through the rubble, vanishing beneath the wreckage.
Satisfied, Seo-jin leaned back and let the sunlight burn across his face.
Still feeling anger bubble beneath her skin, Min dug at the dirt with her fingers, flipping stones over as she muttered, barely a whisper.
"We're being watched."
"I know."
Her jaw tightened, but she followed his lead, pretending nothing was wrong. She had felt it since they crossed into the dead zone, a faint pressure at first, easy to dismiss, but now unmistakable. A block back, someone skulked behind collapsed walls and broken cars, sloppy enough to insult them.
[Who do you think it is?]
'No one worth worrying about. If they were, we wouldn't sense shit. Let them look. If they move, we move.'
He scratched lazily at his neck, eyes closed, posture loose, but every sense sharpened under the mask, tracking the watcher's breath and weight.
He meant to savor the quiet. Min ruined it anyway.
"We're wasting time when we should be out leveling."
Mostly muttered to herself, but loud enough for him to catch. He sighed and sat up.
"Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, one day won't change anything."
He called up his panel mid-sentence, scrolling without looking, realizing he still hadn't checked his upgraded title.
"We've got time to kill. Browse the auction or something. I'm done talking."
She crushed a fistful of pebbles to dust. Annoyance flickered, but she didn't argue. Her panel opened with a hum as she connected to the Network.
'Here we are. Broodfather.'
Before, it had been nothing but a label. A name thrown over him with no weight. Now, reading the upgrade, his lip twitched upward.
'Not bad. Now it makes sense.'
[Title // Broodfather]
[Effect // Cult of Command // Human loyalty added to brood allegiance triggers a cross-species dominance field. Nearby allies show heightened compliance toward the Broodfather's directives. Recruitment resistance drops. Cooperative behavior stabilizes faster under his presence.]
[Cult sounds about right.]
'Would've been nice to have this before meeting Min.'
[Oh, I enjoyed watching her try to kill you. Would've been dull if you'd had this active.]
His expression flattening, he cut the system off and closed the panel—
Only to find Min staring at him as if he'd grown a second head. Her voice hitched.
"S+…? How? When?"
"Huh? What are you—ohhhh. The auction. You saw the pistols. Yeah, uh...picked those up on the island. No big deal."
Color flooded her face fast.
"'No big deal.' An S+ weapon is just a small thing, huh? Didn't realize."
He waved the sarcasm away like smoke.
"Stop staring at me like that. None of us can use them. You saw the requirements. What was I supposed to do—frame them?"
"Hold on to them, you fucktard!"
She shot to her feet, fully forgetting the watcher shadowing them, and unleashed a barrage of curses like she was gutting him with each word.
[Well, your title clearly isn't all-powerful. Good.]
'Will you fuck all the way off?'
He dragged a hand down his face as the headache returned, but it quickly vanished, replaced by a sharp pull from Grimm.
"Shut up!"
Seo-jin turned from her tirade and locked onto the rubble pile Grimm had vanished beneath.
"What are you doing?"
"Listening. So sshh."
She stiffened but swallowed the urge to fire back, forcing herself to listen. The Dead Zone breathed around them...wind scraping broken metal, loose grit hissing across concrete, the low hum of mana-scorched air. But other than what she expected, she heard nothing unusual.
Seo-jin wasn't really listening, he was waiting, and he didn't have to wait long.
The ghost burst from the rubble in a whirl of spinning guts and rattling bone. He hung in the air, grinning wide, eye-fires flaring bright as he shot toward Seo-jin and stopped inches from his face.
'Good job, bud! Accessible?! Still intact?!'
Grimm's answer wasn't words, just a pulse of certainty, a tight coil of eagerness rolling through their connection. The moment it hit, Seo-jin stood in one smooth motion.
"Let's go."
Min straightened, shoulders tight. She looked ready to demand answers, but he cut her off as his gaze slid past her, locking on something over her shoulder.
"But before we leave..."
He vanished.
No sound. No warning. Just gone.
Min jerked toward the empty space where he'd been, then a scream tore open the street behind her, sharp and frantic.
"Motherfucker, let me go! LET ME GOOO!"
Her jaw clenched. She turned, aura twitching as she stared toward the broken wall where their watcher had been skulking.
"A kid?"