Chapter 23. Back Alley (2)
Ah, I want to go home.
Ah, I desperately want to do absolutely nothing.
Why isn't the clock moving?
Those were things I'd often heard recently while working at the Special Division.
I couldn't relate.
Even if I go home, there's nothing to do.
I no longer had to sleep lightly while worrying about zombies breaking through my barricades.
I didn't need to plan how I'd break through a shopping mall packed with zombies just to find food for the next day.
What did people even do with their time before zombies existed?
I had no idea.
That was why going home from work actually felt uncomfortable.
Still, this is good. I finally have something to do.
“Uh... uh...”
What Kim Si-hyeon did after leaving work today was simple.
He found Choi Yoon-seo.
Tracking had been an essential skill for survival in the ruined world.
Sometimes he had to follow a soldier who possessed the key to an armory.
Other times, he had to search for the family members of people he'd briefly traveled with.
Tracking was necessary to survive.
Choi Yoon-seo knows Yang Chi-seok.
Baek Hyeong-gyu had personally said that Choi Yoon-seo and Yang Chi-seok were close when Yang Chi-seok led the Fourth Raid Team.
And the person who gave Choi Yoon-seo the Gate clearing rights had been Yang Chi-seok.
So if he wanted to track Yang Chi-seok, he couldn't ignore a clue as useful as Choi Yoon-seo.
But...
“Are you okay?”
I asked Choi Yoon-seo worriedly.
His eyes had been unfocused for a while.
His entire body was trembling too.
He's not turning into a zombie, is he?
In my old world, I might have pierced his skull immediately if I saw someone in this condition.
No. There's no guarantee zombification doesn't exist in this world either.
Maybe my stare made him even more nervous.
“Uh! Ugh! Uuuugh!”
Choi Yoon-seo began trembling even more violently.
“S-Spare...”
“I won't kill you.”
It seemed he thought I'd come for revenge.
True, he'd tried to trick me with that contract.
But he'd still hired me as a mercenary despite my lack of experience.
I was grateful for that.
The illegal clearing rights meant he couldn't avoid punishment.
But I had no intention of killing him.
“I have a favor.”
The moment I said the word favor, Choi Yoon-seo's eyes slowly regained focus.
“I need to find Yang Chi-seok.”
“Y-Yang Chi-seok...? Y-You came here because of him, not me?”
“I did come here for you.”
“Uuuugh! Then I'm...”
“Just help me find Yang Chi-seok.”
His condition seemed to be getting worse, so I quickly explained the point.
“...Then I'll let you live.”
“...!”
Choi Yoon-seo's eyes widened.
For some reason, he seems convinced I'm going to kill him.
If I tell him I'll let him live, he'll probably cooperate.
“I-I'll do it! Yang Chi-seok hyung! No, Yang Chi-seok, that bastard! That crazy bastard! That lunatic! I'll find him!”
“...!”
I hadn't expected such enthusiasm.
All I did was look through some records and find his house. Why is he this frightened?
People in this world really were weak.
Maybe it was because they'd never lived through zombies.
“Let's go.”
“G-Go?”
“You said you'd help me find him.”
“You mean... we're moving together?”
I nodded.
“Well, if you really don't want to...”
I was about to tell him he could stay home.
Choi Yoon-seo immediately turned pale and nodded over and over.
“That crazy bastard! That son of a bitch! We absolutely have to catch him! If I'm with you, Hunter Kim, we can definitely catch him!”
People in this world might be weak.
But at least they were easy to talk to.
Choi Yoon-seo was cursing nonstop inside his head.
Yang Chi-seok! Yang Chi-seok! You son of a bitch!
Originally, Yang Chi-seok had been Choi Yoon-seo's benefactor.
He had gotten the unimpressive Choi Yoon-seo into the Baeksu Guild.
Then he'd even made him a team leader.
“I'll serve you as my hyung for the rest of my life!”
Choi Yoon-seo had once sworn to treat him as a lifelong benefactor.
But now...
Son of a bitch! Son of a bitch!
His beloved hyung had instantly become a bastard.
If he really thought about it, everything that happened was Yang Chi-seok's fault.
He brought an ordinary Choi Yoon-seo into Baeksu and let him taste success.
Then...
“Yoon-seo, hyung's a little short on money.”
“What?”
“Lend me some.”
After that, Yang Chi-seok continuously borrowed money from him.
“Hyung... when do you think you'll be able to...?”
“Ah, I told you I'll pay you back. If I can't repay you in cash, I'll repay you with something else.”
Because of all the money Yang Chi-seok borrowed, Choi Yoon-seo pushed himself too hard and eventually got kicked out of Baeksu.
Just when he'd given up on ever recovering his money...
“This is a Gate clearing right.”
Yang Chi-seok gave him a Baeksu Guild Gate clearing right instead.
If it had been a normal Gate, it would've been worth far less than the money Choi Yoon-seo had lent him.
But...
“It's a Gate with a mana-stone mine.”
“Really?”
The clearing rights to a mana-stone mining Gate.
He could make two or three times what Yang Chi-seok owed him.
“Hyung! I love you!”
So Choi Yoon-seo dreamed of a bright future.
He even hired a porter under contribution-based distribution.
And now...
“Sniff...”
How had everything gone this wrong?
“Why are you suddenly crying?”
“N-Nothing. Yang Chi-seok, that bastard. That crazy bastard... fucking lunatic...”
Choi Yoon-seo wiped his tears and swore inside his heart.
I'll definitely catch Yang Chi-seok and hand him over...!
Yang Chi-seok had originally been frightening to Choi Yoon-seo.
But compared to the man beside him now...
He was nothing.
Even if Yang Chi-seok was standing right in front of him while Kim Si-hyeon was on the opposite side of the planet, Kim Si-hyeon would still be more frightening.
Yang Chi-seok had not only repaid a debt with a Gate, he'd gotten Choi Yoon-seo entangled with this terrifying existence.
Now he was no longer someone Choi Yoon-seo feared.
He was someone Choi Yoon-seo hated.
Grinding his teeth, Choi Yoon-seo said,
“I contacted Yang Chi-seok.”
“...Only contacted him?”
“D-Don't worry! He'll definitely answer! I told him I made a lot of money from the mining Gate and wanted to thank him in person!”
“...”
Choi Yoon-seo had prepared a backup plan too.
“If he doesn't answer, there's still another way. He's probably in the Back Alley right now.”
“Back Alley?”
Kim Si-hyeon asked.
“Where is that?”
“...What? You don't know the Back Alley?”
This time, Choi Yoon-seo was the one caught off guard.
“...No.”
How could a Hunter not know about the Back Alley?
Come to think of it, this man hadn't known contribution-based distribution either.
Don't tell me...!
A ridiculous theory appeared in Choi Yoon-seo's mind.
Kim Si-hyeon was at least S-Rank.
Even Park Min-ho of the monstrous Special Division trembled in front of him.
Yet Choi Yoon-seo had never heard of anyone named Kim Si-hyeon.
A Hunter that strong should have been famous somehow.
And there was his suspicious lack of basic Hunter-world knowledge.
That meant...
He's a criminal!
He must have committed an unbelievable crime and been imprisoned in some rehabilitation facility without even access to television.
Then he awakened inside.
Perhaps he was pardoned in exchange for working with the Special Division.
Or maybe he escaped on his own.
Considering his absurd strength and complete lack of common knowledge, it made perfect sense.
Of course, he could be a Returnee...
No way.
Choi Yoon-seo didn't know much about Returnees.
But there was one thing everyone knew.
Returnees were heroes who had saved entire worlds.
Even King Arthur, who stubbornly insisted on ruling like royalty after returning, had defeated a Demon King and saved another world.
Every public appearance he made carried the dignity of a legendary hero.
The other Returnees were similar.
Even after returning, they consistently acted to protect the world.
But Kim Si-hyeon...
He's not a great hero. He's a great criminal!
A criminal who had slaughtered far more people than Baek Hyeong-gyu, who killed hundreds inside the Aeso Gate.
And if Choi Yoon-seo's theory was right...
He had committed those crimes before awakening.
The thought that he had tried to scam such a person made his spine turn cold.
Completely unaware that he had just become a legendary criminal inside Choi Yoon-seo's imagination, Kim Si-hyeon asked,
“So what's the Back Alley?”
“I-It's basically a lawless zone.”
Choi Yoon-seo tensed again.
“They're ruined cities left behind after Gate Breaks. They were created during the early days of the Great Upheaval. The mana density is too high for normal people to live there, and the criminals who settled inside formed strong organizations. Even the Association can't easily deal with them.”
“Even the Association can't?”
“They've launched suppression operations several times, but the results were bad. Capturing everyone alive caused too many Association casualties. And as long as those people aren't attacked first, they mostly kill and fight among themselves.”
He continued.
“Of course, terrible crimes happen inside. Things you wouldn't even want to imagine.”
“...”
Kim Si-hyeon's expression darkened.
So people like that exist everywhere.
There had been lawless areas formed by criminals in his previous world too.
Even Kim Si-hyeon, whose goal had been finding survivors, became enemies with them.
They were that rotten.
The Back Alley was probably similar.
Then Choi Yoon-seo's phone vibrated.
“H-He replied! Yang Chi-seok replied!”
Choi Yoon-seo looked at the message happily.
“He wants to meet in the Ganghwa Back Alley!”
The Back Alley.
A lawless zone where normal law didn't apply.
A den of criminals.
A place so difficult to suppress that it functioned almost like extraterritorial territory.
That didn't mean there were no rules.
Over many years, criminal organizations had gathered and established absolute rules of their own.
Rules created by the organizations and bosses who controlled the Back Alley from the early days of the Great Upheaval.
There were three rules.
“The first rule is that you never touch ordinary people from outside the Back Alley.”
Choi Yoon-seo explained the rules while driving toward the Ganghwa Back Alley.
“If you do, the local organizations will come after you before the Association does.”
If the Association used all available government power and mobilized even the Top Ten Guilds, the Back Alleys could eventually be destroyed.
The reason they still existed was because most crimes remained inside.
The Association was already suffering from a manpower shortage.
Gate clearing had to come before exterminating the Back Alleys.
“The second rule is never interfere in another district's business. The Back Alley is divided between different organizations. There's a rumor that the Destruction Society stands above them all, but it's only a rumor.”
“Destruction Society?”
Choi Yoon-seo was stunned that Kim Si-hyeon didn't know that either.
But he forced himself to explain calmly.
“It's a criminal organization created by S-Rank Hunter Yoo Jin-gyu. Basically a villain organization.”
“Yoo Jin-gyu. Never heard of him. Why would an S-Rank Hunter create a criminal organization?”
“This is only a rumor too.”
Choi Yoon-seo lowered his voice.
“Do you know about the Dark King?”
“Dark King?”
He doesn't know the Dark King either?
Well.
If he didn't even know the Back Alley, there was no reason he'd know the Dark King.
“The Dark King is the person who created the Back Alleys. Nobody knows his face, age, or awakened rank. He created the Back Alley system on this land, then suddenly vanished one day.”
“I see. What does that have to do with Yoo Jin-gyu?”
“There's a rumor that Yoo Jin-gyu of the Destruction Society is actually the Dark King. That's why people say the Destruction Society protects the Back Alleys.”
“Hmm.”
Most people would get chills hearing that story.
Kim Si-hyeon's expression remained completely indifferent.
Choi Yoon-seo immediately understood.
Of course someone as strong as you doesn't care about the Destruction Society or the Dark King!
But Choi Yoon-seo wasn't Kim Si-hyeon.
They only came here for Yang Chi-seok.
He wanted to avoid conflict with the Back Alley as much as possible.
“Anyway, Hunter Kim, just remember this one thing. As much as possible... let's not cause trouble.”
Kim Si-hyeon nodded.
For some reason, Choi Yoon-seo couldn't interpret that as reassurance at all.
“Can we just enter a place like that?”
“You choose a district and hire a guide.”
Money worked anywhere.
It was essentially both an entry fee and protection payment.
If you paid the proper price when entering a district, you received the corresponding protection.
“And the third rule is...”
Choi Yoon-seo glanced over nervously.
He seemed reluctant to say it.
“The third?”
“...”
The third rule was simple.
Association personnel were forbidden from entering.
It made sense.
Why would a lawless zone allow Association Hunters inside?
But if I tell him Association personnel are forbidden, will he really stay out?
Kim Si-hyeon came here to find Yang Chi-seok.
Telling him the Association wasn't allowed inside probably wouldn't change anything.
Still, he needed at least some warning.
“Association members, regardless of their reason, if their identity is discovered...”
Choi Yoon-seo trailed off.
They would die?
Would they?
Kim Si-hyeon?
“...Anyway.”
“Anyway?”
“W-Well...”
Choi Yoon-seo stared at Kim Si-hyeon and thought.
Is he even really an Association member?
The Special Division was full of lunatics, but they were still righteous government officials.
Kim Si-hyeon didn't look righteous from any angle.
If he just took off that Special Division uniform, he'd fit right in as a Back Alley criminal.
Choi Yoon-seo carefully opened his mouth.
“H-Hunter Kim Si-hyeon...?”
“Why?”
“Your... clothes...”
“My clothes?”
He was about to suggest changing before entering.
Then Kim Si-hyeon, who had been looking out the window, muttered,
“...So this is the Back Alley.”
“H-Have you been here before?”
“Of course.”
Kim Si-hyeon answered as though it were obvious.
“This is where I came out.”
“What?!”
Choi Yoon-seo's whole body jerked behind the steering wheel.
H-He came from the Back Alley?!
Being from the Back Alley had a very clear meaning.
His entire life must have been soaked in crime from birth.
“What were you saying about my clothes? Is there a problem?”
Choi Yoon-seo violently shook his head like a madman, embarrassed that he'd ever suspected Kim Si-hyeon might actually be an Association Hunter.
“Haha! Nothing! I must be losing my mind! What am I even saying? The Association emblem looks great on you!”
“...?”
Choi Yoon-seo didn't know.
Kim Si-hyeon only meant that the unrankable Gate he'd emerged from had appeared near this area.
