“Turn on the news right now!”
“…The news?”
“No time to explain, hurry!”
Only then did a cold sense of dread run down my spine.
My body, which I had barely managed to keep from collapsing, stiffened with tension and didn’t move well, like a corpse.
But I somehow managed to follow his words and turn on the TV.
It wasn’t hard to find the right channel, as I had memorized all the news broadcasts at various times to keep up with Jehee’s news in real time.
And I immediately understood what Cha Taeyang was trying to tell me.
There was no way not to.
[Around 5 AM this morning, a trainee Hunter was kidnapped while returning home after completing a dungeon raid.]
[It is believed to be a planned crime, targeting the victim when they were alone and vulnerable, having completed a high-difficulty mission and suffering from accumulated fatigue. Although the criminals were apprehended not far from the scene, the victim has not yet been found.]
[…The victim’s current location is confirmed to be inside a Gate, but rescue efforts are facing difficulties.]
[According to a related source, a rampage, presumed to be caused by the victim, is occurring inside the Gate. Random attacks are making it difficult to even approach, and a number of injuries have already occurred…]
By the time the news was halfway through the broadcast, I was already in my car, listening to the radio and driving, focused only on the road ahead.
In a world filled with buzzing noise, I blamed myself repeatedly.
I couldn’t understand myself at all.
Why had I let my guard down?
This world had never been kind to Jehee, not even once.
It had always driven that good kid into a corner and tormented her. Why?
Life is not as beautiful as a fairy tale.
A tough life does not necessarily lead to proportional rewards, and happy endings like ‘They lived happily ever after’ are hard to find in reality.
I should have anticipated that the more attention Jehee received from the public, the higher the chance of someone feeling jealous or approaching her with malicious intent.
Even as ‘Grey Coat,’ I had to fight against a lot of malice.
Jehee even had a history of being targeted once as an acquaintance of ‘Grey Coat.’
It was clear that the target would shift to Jehee unless ‘Grey Coat’ resumed activities.
The kidnapping attempt at the campsite failed because they didn’t know she was an Awakener, but now they must have figured out who she was.
Moreover, unlike ‘Grey Coat,’ too much of Jehee’s personal information was public.
Information about the ‘Miracle Child’ or the ‘S-Class Hunter Jung Jehee,’ who was growing famous by the day, could be acquired easily by anyone who sought it.
I should have been vigilant, considering the possibility of a more elaborate scheme.
Especially since these people possessed the intelligence and capital to even track down ‘Grey Coat,’ who wasn’t officially active.
“We caught the perpetrators. They’ve also revealed the mastermind. Those bastards will be caught soon. But Jehee is…”
I don’t know how much the kidnappers knew about Jehee when they did this, or if it was just a stroke of luck that it turned out this way…
But one thing was certain: they had plunged Jehee into darkness.
A Gate that endlessly reminded her of ‘that day.’
Jehee rampaged in the pitch-black darkness.
She seemed unharmed, having torn apart all the monsters that rushed at her.
But the problem was that the rampage continued even after she had annihilated the monsters in the area.
They said that even approaching her was impossible, let alone rescuing her, because Jehee was attacking sharply at even the slightest sign of a presence.
“Sleeping gas, anesthetics, tranquilizers… we’ve tried everything, but nothing works. She must be exhausted…”
The piercing killing intent I felt right when I entered the mountain near the campsite vividly came back to mind.
That intent, which seemed to warn that she would kill anyone who approached, had been intense enough to send a chill down my spine, even for me, who had encountered many strong monsters in various dungeons over the years.
That was then, but the current Jehee was not the novice who had only experienced the Wind Hole she was accidentally caught in.
With several months of experience and diverse field encounters accumulated, she would aim more accurately and powerfully for the opponent’s weak points and tear them apart.
“I’m sorry. I should have been more careful. I guess I let my guard down, thinking Jehee was strong enough now. Damn it. I have no excuse…”
Cha Taeyang on the screen bowed his head deeply.
With my mind in chaos, having to drive and, at the same time, desperately trying to find a way to get Jehee out, I only now noticed his condition.
“Cha Taeyang. You…”
He was bloody, and even though he had his top off, his upper body was so heavily bandaged that almost no bare skin was visible.
The injury, perhaps, was on his back.
It looked like he couldn’t even stand on his own, as the Vice Guild Master of ‘Sun’ was supporting him.
With his personality, he wouldn’t want to show weakness in front of me.
“It’s nothing. Jehee is the problem…”
“’Nothing,’ he says! I’m trying to hold back from putting you in the hospital right now, so don’t say things that upset me. And don’t move!”
“Hey, you… couldn’t you take my side for once…”
It might have been Cha Taeyang’s consideration, but even without the Vice Guild Master’s words, his claim that it was nothing didn’t register, as my eyes weren’t blind.
Just his complexion was unlike the usual Cha Taeyang.
His face was pale, almost blue, his eyes were dead and dark, and his lips were purplish-black.
It was a face that clearly indicated significant blood loss.
The pain also seemed severe, as he couldn’t even maintain his expression.
“I’m truly fine. I avoided a critical injury. I get injuries like this often when going into dungeons… I got emergency treatment quickly, and I’m resting enough.”
Insisting he was fine in that state was either due to his pride or… to cover for the person who caused those injuries.
Probably, Jehee.
My chest felt heavy.
Was Jehee’s condition that bad?
So bad that she even put Cha Taeyang in that state?
Indeed, at the mountain near the campsite, there were no human casualties, and the animals that sensed the prelude had long since fled, so only innocent trees were attacked.
But this time was inside a real Gate.
It was possible that, having already dealt with monsters, she was even less able to distinguish between friend and foe.
‘If Cha Taeyang is like that, what about the other rescue workers?’
Could there possibly be fatalities? My heart sank.
Jehee was the type of person who would care deeply even if she couldn’t save someone in an unavoidable disaster.
If she were to learn that she had harmed someone with her own hands, even in a state of rampage… she might suffer a major trauma.
Noticing my complicated expression, the Vice Guild Master of ‘Sun’ spoke up.
“Don’t worry. There are no fatalities. Our Guild Master has the most serious injury, and the others are minor. It’s fortunate that our guild entered first. Because we knew about Ms. Jehee’s ability, we were able to react momentarily. If it had been another guild or Agency Hunter, we wouldn’t have had this kind of luck.”
“Ha…”
“The problem is now. The entrance is still open, but we don’t know when it might close. Also, in the worst-case scenario…”
It could disappear.
Though unspoken, both the two people from ‘Sun’ and I must have thought the same thing simultaneously.
Fortunately, unlike the unpredictable sudden opening and closing of a Gate’s entrance, which leaves people helpless, the time of its disappearance is in the realm of prediction.
However, even tracing my vague memories, I hadn’t received any information about a Gate occurring in that area recently.
That meant it was likely not a recent occurrence.
“It was a Gate that had been awaiting closure for over a week since its occurrence. We likely have 5 hours at most left. We need to find a solution somehow before then.”
Five hours.
It was a time that could be long or short.
I checked the estimated time of arrival.
Fortunately, it wasn’t far off.
I forced myself to moisten my dry mouth and spoke.
“What is Jehee’s condition?”
“She looked quite tired even when I dropped her off by car in front of the dormitory. So, when the incident first broke out, we expected her to quickly get exhausted and collapse, but… even though quite some time has passed, there are no signs of that at all.”
Even an S-Class is ultimately human, not a god or a monster.
Their stamina and energy don’t spring up endlessly.
Moreover, even though Jehee was growing remarkably day by day, she was still a novice with less than a year of Hunter experience, and yet she was the type of person who felt a stronger sense of responsibility than anyone else.
Even in a state of lost reason.
She gets doubly tense in the field, is still poor at controlling her abilities, and was dropped alone into the darkness that stimulated that horrific trauma.
Her mental and physical exhaustion must be huge.
Yet, holding on like this means she is pushing herself that much.
And this was definitely not a good thing.
Very occasionally, when an Awakener overuses their ability and surpasses their limit, it can backfire and harm their own body, or, beyond losing reason, they can even lose their sense of self and become uncontrollably berserk.
If it were a general Awakener, perhaps not, but a Hunter with lethal abilities is immediately killed as soon as they are judged to be uncontrollably berserk.
So, even setting aside the risk of injury to the rescue team, further provoking Jehee in her current state was dangerous.
“For now, all responses have been stopped. It seems we are waiting for her to stabilize as time passes.”
That’s probably better.
After confirming the destination via navigation, I turned the steering wheel.
“I’ll arrive soon.”
