Black Badger

Chapter 80

I followed the first person I laid eyes on.

The pale-faced man ran through the alley without stopping. Bang! He collided with a row of recycling bins placed in the alley, making a loud noise. The bins crumpled like they'd been hit by a car, but he didn't stop.

Even if I told him to stop, he wouldn't have.

I kicked off the ground and increased my speed.

"Taxi!"

The man burst out from the winding alley onto the main road, reaching out his hand.

"Taxi!"

"Aaah!"

A pedestrian whose shoulder he'd shoved clutched it and screamed.

At the same time, I grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck. The man, about to dash into the road, whipped his head around to look at me. An incomprehensible terror filled his eyes.

"Let me go!"

Caught in my grip, he started flailing his limbs wildly.

"Let me go! I don't want to go to the arena!"

What the hell?

No point in asking questions if I wasn't going to get a coherent answer, so I seized his flailing arms. Then the man began kicking at my lower body with his feet.

If he were up against an ordinary person, those kicks would have shattered bones on impact.

I tightened my hold on the man I'd restrained.

"I'm not sending you to the arena, so stay still!"

"I'll pay back the surgery costs!"

The civilians walking nearby hurriedly fled from us.

Only the pedestrian with the broken shoulder remained, kneeling on the ground and groaning in pain. I pulled out my phone while firmly holding the man who was begging me not to send him to the arena, promising to repay the surgery costs no matter what.

I didn't know which organization handled illegal augmented bodies, but either way, I needed to call an ambulance.

Even as I called for the ambulance, the man thrashed like a madman.

How could I subdue this guy? Knocking him out and tying him up wouldn't help; he'd just bolt again once he came to.

My dilemma was resolved in an instant by the gun one of the arriving paramedics held out to me.

It was a bit different from a standard gun.

"It's a Green Dream."

"Pardon?"

I couldn't comprehend what the paramedic was saying as he suddenly thrust the uniquely shaped gun toward me.

As I blankly took the gun, another paramedic standing beside him approached his colleague.

"This person seems to be a newbie."

"Oh."

A look of understanding dawned on the face of the paramedic who'd handed me the gun.

"Are you a new recruit?"

"Yes."

"Aren't you the badger who was in that article once?"

The paramedic who'd given the advice scrutinized my face.

"The one who rescued the chairman of Cureus Corporation, right?"

"Yes..."

So someone remembered that article.

But the paramedic holding the bizarre gun called a Green Dream seemed utterly uninterested in whether I'd been featured in a major paper or some third-rate magazine.

The paramedic pressed a button on the barrel, revealing green lights flickering between the all-black body of the gun.

"Then let me explain how to use it."

His voice was like that of a jaded driving school instructor.

"It's simple. Press this button here and shoot it at someone with an illegal augmented body."

Pssh.

Instead of a bullet, a dart shot out from the muzzle.

The dart flew precisely into the neck of the man I was holding, who was still thrashing about.

I could feel the terror-stricken man's body gradually losing its strength.

What was this?

My eyes widened.

Was it some kind of anesthetic for augmented bodies?

"It's a drug that weakens the performance of an augmented body to the level of a normal one."

The paramedic explained dryly to my surprised expression.

"Like kryptonite to Superman. Use it to restrain illegal augmentees."

I took hold of the gun, which was about as thick as my forearm.

Questions, explanations, and studying could wait until after I'd caught all the scattered illegal augmentees.

I hooked my finger on the trigger, turned to the paramedics, and bowed my head.

"Thank you. I'll return it later."

"Hand it over to the police."

The paramedic replied in his dry tone and turned back toward the ambulance.

"You have to turn the illegal augmentees over to the police anyway."

Ah, so this fell under the police's jurisdiction too.

I pulled out my phone and called the police.

I didn't wait for them to arrive. I tore my outer jacket into long strips and bound the terrified man's limbs. I placed the restrained man neatly under a building by the roadside.

I'd already told the police the location, so they'd come and arrest him.

I quickly left the scene.

The heavy footsteps of people running in panic and disorder echoed around me.

I dashed toward the footsteps right nearby.

*

Got him!

The fifth illegal augmentee.

After snagging his clothes, I shoved the illegal augmentee against the wall.

With no escape, she began thrashing wildly in the chaotic alley.

"No!"

She clawed at my arm with her nails, lashing out desperately.

"No! I won't go there!"

"I'm not sending you!"

How many times had I had to say this now!

I tilted my head back to dodge her nails and raised the muzzle.

As long as the dart hit anywhere, it was fine. With my free hand—the one not restraining the augmentee—I swung the Green Dream.

Pssh!

The dart struck her neck.

But she kept struggling. This pattern was getting old. Every time, I had to calm down these illegal augmentees who cried, begged, and raged about not wanting to be dragged to some incomprehensible arena.

This was driving me crazy.

I was in a hurry. Subduing panicked illegal augmentees wasn't as easy as I'd thought. Already, about ten civilians had been caught up in the chaos and injured. Some were critically hurt.

The problem was that I hadn't even caught half of the illegal augmentees yet. According to the police, Black Badger Headquarters had dispatched more badgers upon receiving the report, but I didn't even have time to check who they were.

I wished the Green Dream had a sedative component too.

Her strength had faded, but the augmentee, still mentally uncalmed, flailed her limbs wildly.

"I'll get the money from that bastard!"

"I don't need money."

I sighed and bound her limbs.

"I'll take you somewhere with other people, so behave."

I hoisted the now-movement-restricted augmentee onto my shoulder and started running.

"You don't need money?"

A dazed voice came from my shoulder.

I affirmed with silence, and her angry struggling gradually subsided.

With my furrowed brow still creased, I ran toward the spot where the police were waiting.

Amid the wind whistling past my ears, the augmentee's voice mixed in.

"Then you're the one who got us out?"

Got us out? What did that mean?

I rolled my eyes while sprinting through an alley without proper streetlights.

"Were you imprisoned?"

"Like animals."

A grim answer came back.

"They said since we couldn't pay for the augmented body surgery, they'd send us to a private arena."

Anger filled the augmentee's eyes.

"They said they'd put us in that damn Illegal Colosseum!"

Boom!

A massive collision sound was followed by the noise of concrete crumbling.

Another illegal augmentee had crashed into a building. I spat a low curse and sped up.

Soon, my view opened up, and light poured in from the street. The police were waiting for me on the roadside.

They quickly prepared to transport the illegal augmented body augmentee as they saw me emerge from the alley.

Surprisingly, the augmentee slung over my shoulder smiled brightly at the sight of the police.

"You really got us out!"

Even as handcuffs were placed on her, the woman grinned at me.

"You and that red-haired guy freed us, right?"

I had no clue where they'd been imprisoned, who had freed them and how, or what this Illegal Colosseum was.

But there was no time to ask and answer.

I shouted that they were working hard and turned back onto the road.

Then, leaving the bowing police behind, I plunged back into the darkness.

*

I was too late.

The eleventh one.

I looked at the man lying dead at my feet.

He wasn't a civilian. He was an illegal augmentee. It was fortunate in the midst of misfortune, but that didn't mean I hadn't been late.

He had clearly been killed by someone.

I stood motionless in the darkness for a moment, gazing down at the corpse.

An uninhabited alley in the deepest part of Harlem District. The buildings surrounding it on three sides were empty. They looked like they'd collapse in a heap if even a compact car bumped into them.

The spots where windows should have been were filled with darkness.

The only light entering was from the festival lights in the bustling area a few blocks away.

I stood there quietly, looking down at the corpse, then moved my feet.

I entered the building beside me.

There was someone in the suffocating darkness.

"I think we met once before."

I said to the figure visible only as a silhouette.

"You said your name was Shashinsky, right?"

The silhouette turned toward me.

The one who didn't move for a moment.

The statue-like figure soon walked slowly toward me.

Monotonous footsteps.

The sound grew louder. Only when the owner of the footsteps stopped right in front of me did I see the distinctive hair color.

Blood-red hair tied back in a half-ponytail.

His skin was almost as pale as Ye-hyeon's.

Eric Airheart's retainer, who evoked images of a vampire, stood half-buried in the darkness, looking at me expressionlessly.

"You have good ears."

That was what he said.

"The little badger with pink at the tips of her hair couldn't hear me."

I gave a faint smile.

I didn't bother responding. He already knew why my hearing had improved.

Instead of answering, I asked a question.

"Did you release the illegal augmentees who were imprisoned somewhere?"

Shashinsky remained silent.

His silence was his answer.

So this incident was Eric Airheart's doing?

Only partially, probably. Eric Airheart wouldn't have been leading the illegal augmentations, nor would he have been the one trying to drag them to the Illegal Colosseum. Eric Airheart was in a position too lofty for such petty schemes.

Those crude acts were likely the work of criminal organizations.

Eric Airheart's handiwork was in freeing the imprisoned illegal augmentees, not confining them.

True to form for someone who loved the unfortunate and derived pleasure from saving them, he'd shown a glimmer of light to those mired in filth. He'd quietly released the illegal augmentees who'd been locked away for failing to pay their augmented body surgery costs.

Probably just because he felt like it.

And because of his whim, we were suffering.

"Why did you kill this one? After going to the trouble of freeing him."

"When pursuing a hobby, one must respect boundaries."

Shashinsky answered readily.

"If left alone, that one would have massacred dozens of civilians."

"Ah."

A reason fitting for them.

It meant they wouldn't let civilian casualties mount too high and escalate the situation again. They'd eliminated the illegal augmentees most likely to cross that line.

But it wasn't humanitarian. Eric Airheart wouldn't have batted an eye if a few civilians died at the hands of illegal augmentees.

Third in the world's power hierarchy. People who reached such heights operated on a conscience far removed from that of ordinary folk.

I recalled the elder I'd met before.

"If too many victims from illegal augmentees emerge, it would raise social issues with augmented bodies, and that would shake the organization known as Black Badger."

Shashinsky didn't refute my quiet words.

I felt a small satisfaction that the hypothesis I'd been mulling over alone was correct.

"It seems even the elders can't arbitrarily undermine Ye-hyeon's position. I never thought the elder and Ye-hyeon were in a one-sided superior-subordinate relationship anyway."

"Who would say something that stupid?"

Shashinsky asked in a calm, chilling voice.

"You seem to understand nothing of the principles of power."

Choi Hyun-seok had seemed lacking in insight.

I smiled faintly and agreed with Shashinsky.

"He wouldn't make a good businessman."

The final decision on territory reclamation rested with Ye-hyeon.

The territory reclamation war, the most profitable venture at present. The authority to decide its location would grant the Black Badger organization immense power. It meant Ye-hyeon could choose which elder would profit the most this time.

It couldn't be a one-sided subordinate position.

"The Supreme Commander is a genius at diplomacy."

Perhaps my thoughts about Ye-hyeon showed on my face, as Shashinsky broke the quiet silence.

I smiled faintly at his ashen eyes.

"Yes. That's why he's held that seat for so long. It's impressive how he manages the organization safely while facing the deprivation and anger of civilians who inevitably age."

"By nature, dangerous privileges must be granted only to a select few."

Shashinsky said darkly.

"Wasn't that the lesson you imparted to us?"

...What?

A chill ran through me.

An ominous premonition hit. My insides twisted. I feared delving deeper into this topic would unearth something I'd been trying to forget.

An impulse to ignore the past and settle for this half-reality.

Caught in complex emotions, I stared at Shashinsky for a long while.

Walker's call snapped me out of it.

"Ah, Senior Walker..."

"Let's go. It's getting late."

Shashinsky melted into the darkness like a shadow, never missing a beat.

"The old spider won't wait forever."

This was truly human rights violating.

They were still monitoring my every move.

I sighed at the elders' unsurprising misdeeds and answered Walker's call.

Pushing down the ominous sensation that had suddenly arisen.