Chapter 171

I flinched hard, yanked Hajun and Suho tight into both arms, and ducked behind the nearest container.

But the sharp gunfire tearing at my ears came almost as a relief.

Solid proof that the bastard who'd pointed us to the red freighter hadn't been lying.

The moment I dropped low, arms wrapped around the kids, Sea-ah threw up a transparent mana barrier and stepped in front of us.

"Director, stay here! We'll handle it!"

The words had barely left her when the four Awakened shot into the darkness like hunting dogs.

"Die, every last one of you, you trafficker bastards!"

Charging out at the head, Inho cranked the prosthetic's motor up to its limit.

With a rising hum, Inho closed the distance in a heartbeat and drove his fist straight into the solar plexus of one of the gunmen.

As the enemies were flung back spewing blood, Kang Taemin bodily hoisted a huge steel mass from the deck and slung it, brutal, into the middle of their formation.

"Guaargh! R-run!"

Panicked at the massive slab crashing down on their heads, they scattered in every direction, screaming.

But Cha Yul and Sea-ah weren't going to let the scurrying rats slip.

Cha Yul closed in like lightning and, fist packed with condensed energy, shattered them in one go, while Sea-ah threw mana barriers across their escape routes and dumped the fleeing enemies straight into the sea.

Whack—!

Crash!

Splash!

I held Hajun and Suho tight to my chest and waited, breath held, for the one-sided fight to end.

"Director, all clear. Let's keep going!"

The group — who'd pulped the enemies in no time — pushed on.

Cutting down the ones who came at us, smashing containers, checking empty spaces — the search ground on in an endless loop.

"Stop."

Walking at the head, Cha Yul suddenly halted mid-step.

Not his usual dry tone — the voice was strung tight with tension.

"What is it?"

The moment I cautiously peeked out, I caught sight of a man standing dead-center on the deck, out of nowhere.

He wore the same kind of mask as the others, but the air around him was on a completely different level.

An overwhelming pressure — the air itself seemed to buckle under it, just from his standing there.

Even someone like me, who couldn't sense mana, could feel it — an ominous, alien killing intent.

"…!"

"Wh-what — what is this pressure…"

Veins stood out on Kang Taemin's thick neck, and even Sea-ah took an involuntary step back.

Like prey animals thrown in front of some enormous predator — instinct screaming at us — no one could open their mouth.

But the one who broke that suffocating silence was Inho.

"Tch, this guy's pretty strong… but we can't just not fight, can we! We've got a kid to save!"

Forcing the bravado, Inho kicked off the ground and launched.

"Yaaah—!"

The silver prosthetic hurtled toward the masked man's face —

Whaaam—!

"Guh—!"

The man did nothing.

Didn't extend a hand, didn't release any mana.

He'd only looked at Inho as he came in.

Crash—!

As if he'd been hit by a huge invisible truck, Inho's massive body was flung, mangled, through the air.

"Inho!"

I called out desperately to Inho, slammed into a heavy container — but crumpled inside the twisted steel, he didn't so much as twitch.

What just — he didn't even move!

At that moment, Cha Yul and Kang Taemin — standing in front of me — shot forward like predators.

Fwip—!

Cha Yul vanished into the air and reappeared at the masked man's back; at the same instant, Kang Taemin came at him head-on and drove down a shattering fist.

A perfect pincer with nowhere to dodge.

But.

The result was chillingly identical.

Again, the man did nothing — no block, no evasion.

He only looked, with indifferent eyes, at Kang Taemin in front of him, then tilted his head slightly and glanced back at Cha Yul behind him.

Crash—!

"Kkh!"

"Guh—!"

As if struck by some enormous invisible mace, both of them were flung helplessly aside and slammed, wrecked, into the containers on either side.

An overwhelming, absolute force with no shape to it, nothing to see.

Crushed by that unknown terror, unable to move, frozen — that was the moment.

The man slowly turned his head, and his gaze cut through the air and locked onto mine.

"…!"

The breath caught in my throat.

Like prey flung in front of an enormous predator, my veins turned to ice — I couldn't move a fingertip.

Just being looked at felt like my soul itself was being bound — an awful sense of being pinned down.

As if in response to that overwhelming pressure, my right arm began to ache and throb.

The man slowly took a step toward me.

Thud, thud—.

"Don't come near!"

Then, jaw set, Sea-ah threw both arms wide and stood between me and him.

Dense gold-colored mana poured from her hands and, in a heartbeat, built a huge hemispherical barrier around us.

Sea-ah's absolute barrier — density and strength on a whole other level since her secondary awakening.

The man's indifferent gaze moved to Sea-ah.

But it went differently from the way the others had been taken down, helpless.

The golden barrier seemed to have deflected his formless attack perfectly — Sea-ah stood firm, unharmed.

For the first time, a faint flicker showed in the man's eyes.

I'd only just swallowed a small internal cheer when —

The man's eyes moved off Sea-ah and settled on the golden barrier itself.

No motion at all — just staring at it, unbroken.

And the very next moment.

Whissssh…

"Wh-what is this—!"

Along with Sea-ah's trembling, bewildered voice, the barrier that had seemed unbreakable transparently dissolved and fell away.

Not shattered by a hit, not out of mana.

Literally erased into thin air, without a trace.

Before the shocked Sea-ah could put up another barrier —

The man's gaze moved to her.

Whack—!

"Ahh!"

Her small body cut through the air and dropped, limp.

"Sea-ah!!"

I wanted to run to the fallen child that instant, but my two feet — crushed under overwhelming killing intent — were nailed to the floor.

Once again, there was nothing left between the man and me.

"N-no! Don't hurt the Director!"

"…!"

Trembling in my arms, Hajun and Suho welled up in tears and tried to step in front of me.

I hurriedly shoved both of them behind me by force, then pulled the Mana Pistol from my coat and leveled it at the man's forehead.

"D-don't come any closer…"

But the unbroken pain in my right arm made it hard even to aim.

Both hands on the gun were trembling like a leaf in a storm.

The man gazed down at me — muzzle pointed at him — and then slowly reached out and lightly gripped the pistol's barrel.

Whisssh—.

The reinforced special-alloy weapon crumbled to ash in a heartbeat and slipped hollowly through his fingers.

I stood frozen, gripping nothing but the empty handle.

The man conjured red mana in the air and carved writing into the floor.

[Looking for the child.]

I barely managed to move my terror-stiffened jaw enough to nod.

[Give up. She'll be shipped abroad soon.]

The moment that verdict-like line burrowed into my head, a hot flame surged up over the fear crushing my heart.

"…Don't talk shit. You're not taking her. Ever."

Under the man's overwhelming killing intent, my whole body was trembling like a seizure, cold sweat pouring off me like rain.

Suffocating pressure, hard even to draw breath — but the voice that leaked through my trembling lips didn't break.

[Why not give up. You are weak and powerless.]

The line carved into the floor was dry, as if he genuinely couldn't understand.

But that arrogant text passing judgment on me flicked something inside me, and it snapped loose.

"So what if I am? What the hell does being weak have to do with anything. I'm protecting my kids. Whether I have power or not doesn't come into it."

Fury boiling up, my voice cracked, ragged.

"If I have no mana, I'll block them with my body. If I don't have Awakened abilities, I'll grab hold and hang on even if my bones break. If that doesn't work, I'll bite them and stop them with my teeth."

At my venomous declaration, the man watched me for a long moment without moving.

Soon the red mana coolly grazed the floor again.

[Why go that far. They are not your blood.]

At that flat question, a bark of a laugh finally broke out of me.

Not one drop of shared blood.

Fair enough.

But it wasn't a standard that trash — the kind who treated kids as nothing but a paycheck — had any right to invoke.

The shallowness of trying to weigh the word family by blood alone brought a revulsion I couldn't keep in.

"To scum like you those kids might just be high-priced merchandise, but… to me, they're my world. Worth throwing my life away for. They're everything."

Was the rage winning out over the fear?

My ragged, crushed breathing began to steady.

"So if you want to take them, you'd better cut my throat clean first. As long as I've got one breath left, whatever it takes, I'll stop you."

The man didn't answer.

But… something in the air was strange.

The expression above the mask, trained down on me, seemed to twist for a split second into something unfamiliar.

And only then did I see his eyes clearly, glinting in the dark.

Blood-red eyes, burning like fire.

Red eyes…?

In that instant, a description from the original novel flashed through my head like a lightning strike.

Wielded overwhelming force.

Blood-red eyes that seemed to burn.

No way…

"Jin… Chahyeon?"

"!"

The masked man's indifferent red eyes went huge.

Just his name spoken — three syllables — and his brow crushed together as if he'd heard a taboo he was never supposed to.

Then, in a rush, he groped at his own face.

As if checking that the mask still covered him.

Once he'd confirmed the mask was still there, unable to hide his violent confusion, he stumbled back a step, then another.

And then.

Whoosh—!

The man vanished in an instant.

Dumbstruck, I could only stare blankly at the empty air.

Why on earth is he here…?

Jin Chahyeon.

In the original, he was supposed to be—

"D-Direektuurr…! Whaaah!"

Hajun burst into tears and burrowed hard into my chest, and his warmth snapped me back.

Turning my head, I saw that Suho had already run over to Cha Yul and the others and was pouring healing light into them.

Soon the group — barely back on their feet — came over, faces bewildered.

They clearly wanted to know what I'd been saying to that monster of a man, and why he'd suddenly vanished.

But I couldn't lay out the plot of the original, and there was no time for it anyway.

"Questions later. Right now, we're finding Hayun!"

At my urgent shout, the search picked back up.

Bang—!

"Director! Over here!"

At Sea-ah's shout, I bolted over there like a madman.

The dim corner of a container.

Curled on the cold steel floor, Hayun had a silver mana restraint locked around her neck, and around her ankles, an ugly weight of iron chain.

"Hayun!"

I dropped to my knees, out of breath, and checked her over.

Thankfully no major injuries, but with the restraint suppressing her mana, her face was pale.

Then Kang Taemin came up wordlessly and, with an animal's grip, tore the restraint off in a single crunching motion.

Clang—!

The crumpled hunk of metal rolled across the floor.

I carefully gathered Hayun into my arms and called to her, desperate.

"Hayun! Hayun, come on, wake up!"

Suho hurried over and laid a hand on her forehead.

Warm healing mana wrapped through her whole body, and faint color began to return to her pale cheeks.

"Mmnn…"

Hayun's long lashes, quivering, slowly lifted.

"Hayun! Oh, thank god, really—"

Just as I was about to let out a breath of relief and pull her in tight —

The moment Hayun's round eyes — focus back — landed on me, they went huge.

"Direektuh! Run!!!"

"…What?"

The instant Hayun opened her mouth to say more —

Vwooong—!

A familiar, sickening sensation — clamping down on my organs, turning my insides over — swept through my whole body.

And at the same instant.

Thump.

Crash!

Cha Yul, Sea-ah, Kang Taemin, Inho, Suho, and the twins — all of them, upright and fine a heartbeat ago — dropped to the floor in unison, like puppets with their strings cut.

"Kids! Number Three! Inho!!"

I hadn't even had time to grasp what was happening.

Clank—! Crash!

With a thunderous roar, the steel floor under my feet split wide open.

"Whoaargh!"

My body hung suspended in midair.

By pure instinct, I clutched the kids next to me tight.

Then all of us plunged down into the pitch-black hold below the deck.