A monster skewered over a roaring bonfire was being roasted. A one-eyed man, wrapped in furs, grinned as he sliced off pieces of the monster's searing flesh with a butterfly knife and tossed them into his mouth, chewing.
His shaved head was decorated with intricate patterns of scars and scratch marks. He stood over two meters tall and weighed more than 120 kilograms—almost all of it muscle. His bare upper body was covered in tattoos and scars as striking as the markings on his head.
"Hey. You still not ready? Time's passing," he said.
"Nikolai, please…."
The man bound hand and foot was a bloody mess. When he spoke, the gaps where several teeth had been torn out showed between his lips.
Nikolai Baranov.
The Ghost of the Amur River.
The Demon of Khabarovsk.
Known by countless names, he was the ruler of this region, a man who commanded more than five hundred subordinates.
He rolled a pair of dice in his palm, his single eye gleaming with amusement.
"I told you I wouldn't throw them. Didn't rig the dice either."
As he spoke, he casually thumped the back of the little girl standing beside him.
"The dice will be thrown by this kid."
The child, no more than eight years old, trembled with fear, her eyes darting back and forth between Nikolai and the bound man.
After waiting a moment longer, Nikolai waved his hand impatiently.
"Hey. Pull one more."
Immediately, a man standing behind Nikolai stepped forward, holding a large pair of pliers, and approached the captive. Just before the pliers were forced into his mouth, the man screamed in desperation.
"U—ugh! Odd! I'll take odd!"
Nikolai broke into a grin.
"Odd, huh? Too bad—it's already a little late."
He muttered that and made a small gesture. A pitiful scream rang out, followed by a faint crunching sound. One of the man's teeth was ripped out by the pliers.
Watching the scene, Nikolai handed the dice he'd been holding to the child beside him.
"Now throw them. Let's see if luck's still smiling on that guy."
The girl accepted the dice with shaking hands.
"Listen carefully, little miss. That guy's fate changes depending on your throw. If you roll an odd number, he walks free. But if it's anything else? Oh…."
Finishing his sentence, Nikolai smiled warmly and patted the girl's head.
"Everything that happens after that will be your fault."
The child shuddered violently.
"And you'll watch every single thing that happens to him because of your roll. You won't miss a thing."
Nikolai stomped his foot a few times, clearly enjoying himself, and shouted cheerfully,
"Now throw them! If you keep dawdling, another tooth's coming out of that bastard's mouth!"
Before throwing the dice, the girl met the eyes of the bound man staring at her. That desperate, piercing mix of hope and fear.
Swallowing hard, trembling like a leaf, the girl threw the dice. The pair rolled across the floor and came up double threes. Three plus three made six.
And six was even.
"Take both of them away."
The child collapsed to the ground, her face pale. Yellow liquid seeped out between her legs.
Nikolai spoke in a voice that sounded genuinely sorrowful.
"What a pity about your dad. If you'd just thrown the dice a little better, you both could've gone home alive."
"Please, please! Let my daughter go, Nikolai! I'm the one who did wrong!"
At that, Nikolai stood up and grabbed the bound man by the collar, yanking him upward.
"Don't give me orders. I'll kill you."
He tossed the man back onto the floor with a thud and scratched his head.
"Ah. Come to think of it, you're going to die anyway."
Muttering as if he'd just realized this, Nikolai staggered over and dropped onto a sofa.
"Well now. Walk in and you're greeted with quite the entertaining sight."
Compared to Nikolai's massive frame, the newcomer looked almost frail. He held a folding fan in one hand and wore an ash-gray modified hanbok.
"Lee Ha-yoon."
Nikolai seemed to recognize him.
"What is it this time?"
"There's something I'd like to ask of you."
Nikolai yawned once, leaned back on the sofa, and said,
"Money doesn't mean anything to me."
"I know."
Nikolai was the kind of man who burned fifty-thousand-won bills for warmth when it got cold. A pleasure-driven killer who had become a boss. This Russian lunatic only moved when a job genuinely interested him.
"A train is scheduled to depart from Vladivostok."
"Wasn't the Trans-Siberian Railway's backbone wrecked a long time ago?"
"They say it'll run while being repaired."
Among those who had awakened magical patterns, there were some who, given the right materials, could rapidly repair damaged objects.
Hearing this, Nikolai snickered.
"That's a damn brilliant idea."
Running a freight train while repairing it with hunters—unless it was a place like Korea with an abundance of skilled hunters, it was a level of madness no one would even consider.
And it wouldn't last long, either. Modern civilization no longer had the capability or conditions needed to maintain the Trans-Siberian Railway against the monsters of the corrupted zones.
"About… three months, give or take?"
Even if you stretched it as far as possible, after that amount of time the temporarily reconnected Trans-Siberian Railway would become unusable again.
"What are they transporting?"
They were pouring hunters and supplies into restoring the Trans-Siberian Railway, fully aware it would break down again. Nikolai couldn't help but be intrigued.
But Lee Ha-yoon quickly redirected Nikolai's interest.
"What they're transporting isn't important. Who's transporting it is."
"Oh?"
Lee Ha-yoon snapped open the folding fan he was holding and answered with a smile.
"The Candy Lady of Jannabi has her eyes on it."
Lee Se-eun—a hunter ranked 10th on the List of Hope, famous for handing out candy to people she liked.
If it were her, she could chew through three organizations on Nikolai's level in a single meal. She was, by nature, one of the bombs you simply didn't touch.
Yet there was no fear or panic on Nikolai's face. Instead, a glossy excitement burned in his eye.
"If you know who's coming, then you've obviously thought about how to deal with her."
"I can keep Hunter Lee Se-eun occupied for a while."
"How."
Nikolai's eye flashed. From the long sleeves of Lee Ha-yoon's robe came the fluttering sound of paper as dozens of talismans spilled out and suspended themselves in midair.
Soon, the talismans connected with violet lines. It wasn't a shield—containment was the more fitting word. Nothing could enter from the outside, and nothing could escape from within.
It was solid. Sturdy.
"If we're lucky… I think I can hold her for about an hour."
"Bullshit. Looks like about forty minutes to me."
And that would only be possible if Lee Ha-yoon were prepared to die for it. That was Nikolai's assessment, and he grinned.
"Robbing a train guarded by the Candy Lady of Jannabi, huh."
It was dangerous. Without this man tying Lee Se-eun down, it wouldn't even be worth attempting. But if they succeeded…?
"Strictly speaking, it's not robbing. Jannabi's contract is to guard a specific car on that train—"
"So you want me to blow it up."
If it was just destroying a single train car, the job became much simpler.
"No. Not destroy it."
Lee Ha-yoon pulled out a small terminal device.
"You'll breach that car and connect this terminal to the equipment being stored inside."
The descendants of Dangun needed data on that barrier generator.
"The car you're so interested in must be pretty tough."
As if he'd been waiting for that question, Lee Ha-yoon opened a case he'd brought along.
"Oh?"
Inside was a round device about the size of a weight plate from a gym.
"Once activated, it'll bore a hole large enough for a person to enter in about fifteen minutes."
"Good. Then we won't need forty minutes—thirty will do. This is already sounding fun."
Just imagining the illustrious Candy Lady standing there helplessly, forced to watch as the thing she was guarding got looted right in front of her, made Nikolai laugh.
"Alright. I'm in. Once we're done with what you asked for, is it fine if we smash the cargo?"
"Yes. If you do that, we'd be even more grateful."
Nikolai rubbed his pot-lid-sized hands together with a grin.
"Oh, and one more thing."
Honestly, Lee Ha-yoon still wasn't sure this was worth mentioning. But their leader had explicitly told him to bring it up. Orders were orders.
"What now?"
"There's a hunter named Yoo Chan-seok aboard that train. He's considered a very promising rookie in Korea. You should be especially careful."
Nikolai looked incredulous.
"And who the hell is that?"
"He only just started working as a hunter, but he reportedly cleared a Grade-2 corruption zone solo."
Nikolai snorted.
"Impressive, sure—but that just means he's about as good as a decent corporate partner hunter."
That level wasn't enough to make Nikolai nervous. If anything—
"A promising rookie, huh. Makes me curious what kind of face he'd make if I crippled him."
"If Yoo Chan-seok doesn't interfere with the job, leave him alone. And even if you do clash with him, you must not kill him."
Lee Ha-yoon still couldn't understand their leader's stance. His attitude toward Yoo Chan-seok was strange—wary, yet with no intention of killing him.
He understood it had something to do with the abilities Yoo Chan-seok possessed, but honestly, he wondered if the man was really worth that much.
"Yeah, well… I'll try."
And just like that, Nikolai brushed off Lee Ha-yoon's warning.
"Remember that."
"Hey, if things go wrong in a fight, what do you want me to do about it? If you're gonna warn me that fiercely, tell your boss to come deal with it himself."
Lee Ha-yoon's eyes sharpened in an instant. The leader was extremely busy right now. And this job was beneath his personal involvement.
If this inferior being hadn't still been useful for achieving their objective, Lee Ha-yoon would have taken his head right then and there.
"That's all I had to convey."
But not now. In any case, this mad Ruski still had immediate use. There would be plenty of time to dispose of him afterward.
And when that time came, Lee Ha-yoon would handle it personally.
Lee Ha-yoon drew the blade at his waist.
The dagger had a blade about twenty centimeters long. A ring was attached to its hilt, and from that ring hung long tassels made of hanji paper.
"Sabaha."
As Lee Ha-yoon swung the dagger, the paper tassels fluttered, carving a trail through the air. Space rippled, and a black hole opened.
"Until next time."
Lee Ha-yoon leapt into the hole. When it vanished, Nikolai rested his chin in his hand, staring at the empty space, and muttered,
"Damn. Those eyes of his really piss me off."
Nikolai knew perfectly well that the ridiculous man who'd just disappeared fully intended to put a blade to his throat someday.
But the job he'd been given was entertaining enough.
For now, Nikolai decided to focus on what was coming next.