# Chapter 79
“Jaekyung-ssi, you really have incredible nerve.”
Iyeon pressed his forehead. Jaekyung still seemed anxious, but appeared to have calmed down somewhat while explaining the situation. His voice, noticeably more dejected than usual, offered an excuse.
“No, I didn’t think it would turn out like this…”
“And you call that an explanation?”
This was unbelievable. Iyeon had sensed something was strange—Jaekyung hadn’t come just to work part-time at the souvenir shop.
His real purpose was to meet a “friend” staying at the hotel.
More precisely, to meet the mutant that friend had brought.
Yes, the person currently next to Jaekyung. Iyeon glanced sideways, but couldn’t tell the gender of the “friend” whose face was more than half-covered, making even their features difficult to see.
“Wait, if this was a cover job, why did you bring me along?”
In response to the sharp rebuke, a mumbling voice flowed with detailed excuses.
“I was bored going alone, and also… I thought I could ask for help if an emergency situation like this happened…”
The moment I get home, I’m going to report this socially maladjusted person. When Iyeon glared at him, Jaekyung, seemingly aware of his wrongdoing, looked around nervously.
Jaekyung’s “friend” was apparently one of the merchants in the mutant black market. After hearing that Jaekyung was a mutant specialist, they had asked if he could analyze a new mutant they had recently acquired.
The friend had offered to cover all expenses except the request fee, and even arranged the cover job to avoid detection by others. Jaekyung had eagerly flown to Changju Lake and, while pretending to work at the souvenir shop, had been conducting this mutant analysis work behind the scenes. So that’s why he kept leaving during his shift! Iyeon gritted his teeth at the truth he’d discovered too late.
In any case, the secret part-time work, which had been progressing smoothly while deceiving many people, hit a snag today when the mutant, startled by fireworks, escaped.
“Does the hotel know what you and your friend are up to?”
“I have some connections, so…”
This damn nepotistic country. Everything should be completely abolished.
“Hey, …would it be difficult?”
“What kind of nerve do you have to think about facing a Level 5 mutant without a single hunter? Are you crazy?”
“No, the Nightmare Elephant isn’t an aggressive type, so…”
The Nightmare Elephant was a mid-level mutant that Iyeon wouldn’t normally have to deal with, but it was one of the famous mutants well-known to the general public.
Nightmare Elephant. True to its name, it had a semi-transparent elephant form with feet made of smoke, allowing it to float above the ground. It was a Level 5 mutant. While the Nightmare Elephant itself was vulnerable to physical force and neither wary of nor averse to humans, the reason it received such a high Level 5 classification was because of the smoke from its feet.
If you inhaled the dark purple smoke emitted from the Nightmare Elephant’s feet, you would experience hallucinations.
Due to the mutant’s characteristics, the investigation had been conducted outdoors, Jaekyung said. Since they couldn’t be discovered by hotel guests, the locations they could go were limited.
For example, places where access was restricted due to danger.
“The forest by the walking trail? Weren’t you scared?”
“There’s no one there at night anyway, so we didn’t go in too deep. But it ran into the deeper part of the forest… It was too dark to follow.”
“That’s good at least.”
If the two had recklessly followed the Nightmare Elephant into the forest, the problem would have become even more serious.
Over Jaekyung’s head as he mumbled and hung his head, the gazes of the three people met. It wouldn’t have been a good situation regardless of which mutant it was, but among them all, the Nightmare Elephant was the worst.
The biggest problem was that the Nightmare Elephant’s smoke didn’t only affect humans.
The Nightmare Elephant’s smoke had the same effect on other mutants. Because of this, Nightmare Elephants didn’t travel with other mutants, and research showed that if another mutant happened to encounter a Nightmare Elephant, it would attack the Nightmare Elephant.
It was only natural that the Level 2 mutant playing in the forest came to all three of their minds.
“Hyung.”
At Hyegang’s call, Iyeon rubbed his face with a troubled expression. An “ugh” escaped involuntarily.
“Mungchi is also in the forest…”
“What?”
Jaekyung was terrified. It was a much more intense reaction than earlier when he’d been hesitantly looking around.
“If they meet, one of them will definitely die!”
“Probably the Nightmare Elephant.”
At this straightforward answer, Jaekyung prostrated himself, begging for help. He accompanied this with an absurd speech about how killing the Nightmare Elephant like this would be a global loss.
That made sense—if they couldn’t retrieve the Nightmare Elephant, all the analysis and research done so far would be for nothing. For a mutant otaku, this was a sky-falling level of disaster.
‘He really likes that “global loss” phrase…’
Of course, no one was casting a vote of sympathy.
“Just leave him to handle it himself.”
Sano, who had been leaning against the door, bluntly stated. When his cold gaze swept over Jaekyung, Jaekyung flinched. Sano was serious. They had no need to clean up after this clueless person. Judging by Iyeon’s reaction, he probably had similar thoughts.
“No… that’s a bit…”
However, what came from Iyeon was a reluctant refusal. All four people looked at Iyeon. Except for one, everyone wore expressions that seemed to question his sanity.
It wasn’t that Iyeon felt sorry for Jaekyung; there was a practical problem.
It would be good if Mungchi safely encountered the Nightmare Elephant and took care of it, but Mungchi hadn’t gone in knowing about this… If by bad luck the Nightmare Elephant avoided Mungchi and left the forest to encounter ordinary people, it would be a disaster.
“What can I do? This is superhuman work.”
At those words, Jaekyung’s face brightened.
“How much will the request fee be?”
“Ah, we’ll take care of that.”
Jaekyung pointed to the merchant. While Iyeon couldn’t just stand by in this situation, he also had no intention of working for free. He took out his phone, tapped it a few times, and held out the screen. There was a number on the calculator app.
“How much… Wow, that expensive?”
Jaekyung fidgeted nervously. Iyeon smiled brightly.
“It’s work during my vacation.”
His face showed an absolute determination not to cut any slack.
“You’ll have to pay extra too.”
Hyegang agreed to stay at the hotel with Jaekyung to finalize the deal with Jaekyung’s friend. It was unfortunate that he hadn’t brought his goggles, making it difficult to expect Hyegang’s usual close assistance.
“Be careful.”
Hyegang clicked his tongue and glanced angrily at Jaekyung. Jaekyung flinched and lowered his eyes.
“Th-they say it might rain, so don’t overdo it. If you find Mungchi, contain it right away.”
His courage to say everything he needed to say, even while mumbling, was admirable. Causing all this trouble and now pretending to be concerned…
“The Nightmare Elephant has a danger level that might require termination depending on the situation. You should know that.”
“As much as possible, try to save it… With this friend’s ability, capture is possible, right?”
Jaekyung pointed weakly at Sano, pleading. He only pointed with his finger, seemingly too scared to address Sano directly. Iyeon reassured him, saying he would try his best. There was no need to waste time adding ominous words.
“I’ll be back.”
Since he was on vacation, he hadn’t brought his goggles or sling bag, so he just grabbed his sneakers and coat. Just a small hotel notepad and pen in his pocket. With Sano beside him, Iyeon wouldn’t need to use much of his ability anyway.
After always carrying so many things, going out empty-handed felt strange. Iyeon stroked his bare neck once and turned around.
Iyeon and Sano, both lightly dressed, crossed the walking trail fence.
The forest that spread out before them had an eerie atmosphere, unlike during the day. The trees were so dense that the faint moonlight wasn’t enough to secure adequate visibility, and only when the seemingly last fireworks occasionally burst did the tops of the trees barely brighten.
‘Well… it shouldn’t be dangerous though.’
Iyeon glanced sideways. Expressionless Sano was walking straight ahead.
The two quickly entered the forest. For a while, only the sound of fallen leaves crunching underfoot could be heard.
They hadn’t walked far, but the walking trail quickly disappeared from view. The fireworks seemed to have completely ended, and silence enveloped them.
Only then did Iyeon realize that he had entered the forest alone with Sano. The thoughts that had been interrupted by Jaekyung’s phone call flooded back as silence descended. He couldn’t believe the situation had come to this.
‘This is truly bizarre…’
After very, very careful consideration, Iyeon admitted to himself that he had a slight attraction to Sano.
Absolutely not as a romantic interest! Just, just a human-level attraction.
