Minneapolis Saint Paul International Warp Station.
North America. Early in the morning, an Asian man appeared with fragments of light in a crowded warp bureau. He was wearing a black suit, a mask, a black beanie and a black pair of sunglasses.
The captain of Vanguard: Fill the Gray – the Association’s secret ops.
Rank 271, the Shadow Human,
Ohn Sung-o.
One of the staff that checked his identity made way in shock after confirming that he was a high-ranked official of the Association. Soon, a few men ran up and welcomed him.
“Welcome sir.”
“Good morning sir!”
They were from the North American branch of the Association.
“Morning. How’s it like in North America?”
“No problems sir.”
“That’s good. Great to see you guys.”
The man walked with a stern look on his face as the men followed from behind. Since they were next to a bigshot from the Association, they matched his speed from behind with stiff expressions.
Before long, a Rolls Royce sedan came towards them and the door opened by itself. The North American branch seemed to have assumed that the man was sent here for an extremely important mission.
‘It’s nothing big though…’
Ohn Sung-o heaved a deep sigh.
Probably no-one would even guess that the 40-year old captain of the Association’s vanguard was here to wipe the butt of one of his brothers.
The sedan slithered outside the building and soon, he began the operation in secret.
Antonio Jefferson returned to the Association for work so he had to search for ‘that guy’ by himself according to the data he received from Jefferson.
By referencing the man’s area of activity, the quality and size of his mana and his appearance, Ohn Sung-o started searching for him and found him in no more than 3 days.
‘So it’s that guy…’
Antonio Jefferson guessed that he was most likely a retired soldier from the Great War. After the war, there were lots of soldiers who felt disillusioned by fighting and left the post to lead quiet lives by themselves.
Although the world might not remember them, those guys led normal lives at a quiet place with significant power.
It seemed that his target was one of them.
[Clairvoyance (A)]
A blue insignia appeared above Ohn Sung-o’s eyes. It was an ability that allowed him to view past 100 km if he so desired.
A somewhat gloomy-looking man was sitting on a bench, giving pieces of bread to doves. It was such a normal event and a faint scene.
‘…’
Buzz–
The dimensions cracked near Ohn Sung-o’s hands. He held onto something, and a modern weapon soon appeared from the crack. PMM-307. It was a whooping Level 3 sniper artifact.
On the rooftop of Saint Paul Commercial Building, he laid down in a picturesque pose with his gun and his gaze pointing at the target.
He didn’t need a scope, because his eyes were the same as scopes.
‘That guy’ was strong. His instincts as a hitman told him that. It was clear that the target was an old veteran that experienced the Great War.
At this distance, even those self-centred two-digit rankers wouldn’t be able to sense him immediately. However, they would immediately find out if he missed the first shot and things would become rough so he had to end things with the first shot.
The hitman calculated in his head.
The distance from the target was roughly 72.43 km, and the observation error ±0.15 m.
He checked the environment with a kestrel artifact. The wind was quite strong – 4.12 m/s to the southeast.
Both the air pressure and humidity were quite high. 1255.2 hPA and 52.5% respectively.
Latitude 47°. It was quite close to the pole and the Earth’s rotational speed was slower. 265.5 km/s.
A TDS artifact suggested the suitable click adjustment.
.312WH MTT183 appeared the best.
He adjusted the vertical click by 27.1, and the horizontal one 5.9.
The hitman supplied mana to the large sniper rifle. As if it was alive, the weapon wriggled and devoured his arm up to his shoulder.
Soon, his body started turning still.
His breath stopped and so did his heart. Every organ inside the body that caused a vibration came to a stop.
Three.
Two.
One…
He pulled the trigger.
Tuung–
The projectile bearing mana inside escaped through the muzzle. It crossed the dimension and drew an arc as it covered dozens of kilometres in a split second.
He drew all the mana into his eyes and focused on the bullet. After 2, 3, and 4 seconds, as the bullet was approaching the man…
The man grabbed the bullet with his index and middle finger.
‘…?’
What in the world happened?
At that moment, the man that was 72 kilometres away from him, slowly turned his head,
And their eyes met.
…The moment he realised that, the veteran hitman immediately moved his body and jumped off the commercial building. He hurriedly started escaping while a bell went off in his head.
He quickly called someone.
“Hello, yes bro, it’s me. Are you seriously crazy? Who in the world did you mess with?”
A puzzled voice left from the other side of the phone but Ohn Sung-o replied with a shout.
“What? Around rank 200 you think? Please stop saying bullcrap! That guy’s at least a single digit!
“Anyway, I’m out! It’ll be good for you to stop messing around either, bro. If you’re like this all the time, the Association will be in an uproar in no time…”
His words were forced to a stop.
He was on a long detour to the branch of the Association but from an alleyway, ‘that guy’ came out.
With slow steps, he stood in front of Ohn Sung-o.
“…”
A shout was heard from the phone but he turned it off.
He then murmured to himself.
“Guess I’m fu*ked…”
***
Time flew and it was already the last day of the school holiday.
At the same time, it was the day of the firework festival.
The morning at Lair he saw on the way back after buying breakfast with Bom was bustling already. Cadets wearing fancy clothes were walking around the academy district while several traditional clothes could also be spotted here and there.
While watching them, Bom asked him.
“What country are those clothes from?”
“That china dress? Probably China.”
“It’s pretty. What about that one?”
“Don’t know. Maybe somewhere European?”
“My nationality is Korean, right? What do Koreans wear?”
“Hmm…”
Yu Jitae glanced around before pointing at a cadet that was wearing hanbok.
“That one.”
“Ahh, it’s pretty. Don’t you think so?”
Under the small, white coat, a long and pink skirt started from the chest all the way down to the knees.
“It is pretty.”
Despite saying that, he wasn’t thinking much about the topic. For him, going back home earlier was more important because today’s breakfast would be less tasty if it turned soggy.
***
“Uwah. It smells amazing. What is it?”
Today’s breakfast was a handmade tonkatsu.
Covering the thick scotch fillet was a thin layer of breadcrumbs. They couldn’t buy it before because the line was too long, so he and Bom had to wait from 5 in the morning to buy them today.
“…Thanks, for the food.”
Gyeoul carried the thick tonkatsu with her chopsticks and carefully bit into it.
With a bite, the thin layer of breadcrumbs got crunched and revealed the juicy meat inside. The thick meat with a harmonious balance of oil and fat was tender.
Munch munch… Gyeoul’s expression turned brighter while munching on the meat. It was extremely delicious.
“Here.”
Meanwhile, Bom placed something green on Yu Jitae’s bowl.
“What is this.”
“It’s wasabi.”
“I’m fine.”
“Try putting some on. It’s really nice with oily things.”
Yu Jitae still persisted to have the tonkatsu by itself so Bom placed the wasabi on top of the meat for him.
The Regressor stopped for a bit, before biting on the meat and eating it.
Bom stared deeply at him before asking,
“How is it?”
He didn’t say anything back, but started having wasabi alongside the tonkatsu after that.
“Hmm, oi, Yu Kaeul.”
“Nn?”
“You wanna go out somewhere with me today?”
During the meal, Yeorum asked with a subtle voice.
“Why?? I have to go to the PR department by 3 pm though?”
“Let’s go shopping and stuff together before that.”
“Oing? Shopping?”
She wondered what was wrong with Yeorum, but nodded in any case and after having breakfast, the two of them left the house.
Actually…
Today was about to be a slightly boring day for Yeorum. Because of the firework festival, all the training facilities were closed for maintenance and the likes.
Yeorum was wondering what to do in her free time and suddenly came up with a great idea. These days, her ‘reading time’ was becoming rather boring, because after re-reading the series five times, it was getting less and less exciting.
She had to buy a new book and today would be the best day, since any other day would affect her training schedule.
“Let’s go.”
“Nn!”
Going around the entertainment district, they entered several stores and bought clothes, makeup tools and weapons. And after some time, Yeorum naturally guided Kaeul to the general department store.
The first floor had toys for kids and the second floor had board games.
And on the third floor…
“Hmm, is there like, anything to do here?”
There were all sorts of comics and novels being displayed.
“Nn? There are lots of books here. Oh right…!”
Kaeul abruptly asked as if it had suddenly struck her.
“Right right. Unni, are you reading a book these days?”
“What? Why.”
“It’s nothing. It felt like I could just smell books from your hands.”
“Yeah. Kinda…”
After saying that, Yeorum glared at her.
Why is she glaring at me? Thinking that, Kaeul tilted her head.
“Oi. By the way.”
“Nn?”
“Is there like a fun manga or anything like that?”
“A manga?”
“Yeah.”
“What kind of manga do you like?”
“…Hmm, dunno. I don’t know what’s good either. Well, it’s not like I’ve read those things before either.”
“What do you mean? Didn’t you used to read a lot of comics before?”
Kaeul remembered how Yeorum used to read comics in her free time when they first started commuting to Lair. Most of those comics were suited for Yeorum’s tastes and were gory.
“No. Not those, you idiot.”
“Then?”
Yeorum frowned. After thinking for a while, something seemed to have popped up in her mind and she asked.
“Right, yeah. If you were to buy a manga, what would you buy?”
Was she curious about my tastes? Kaeul still couldn’t understand what she was trying to do, but started going here and there, picking whatever that appealed to her. A manga about showbiz, a comedy manga, a healing manga with animals and…
“Oh. What do you look for when you pick that kind of stuff?” asked Yeorum. Kaeul was holding a shoujo manga that was coloured in pink.
“What do I look for? Hmm… first is I guess, the art style?”
“The art style?”
“Nn. Because I like pretty pictures. And I like the ones where the male lead is a little bit like a beast while the female lead is smart and pretty. Ah, but I don’t like tragedies…!”
“What do you mean, tragedies?”
“You know, like how things turn bad in the middle. Like the male lead dying in a battle…! Or the female lead turning into a slave…!”
“Turning into a slave? That doesn’t sound too bad.”
“No…! Are you crazy? If you’re into that, you shouldn’t even be reading this kind of manga!”
“Is that how it is?”
“Anyway, I heard from my friends but apparently this is good.”
“Hmm…”
After staring at the manga that was in Kaeul’s hands, she nodded as if she wasn’t that interested.
“…I see, huh?”
Soon, Yeorum walked with Kaeul to the PR department.
And in the afternoon, she headed to the general department store by herself.
“Hmm, hmm…”
With a nervous look on her voice, she glanced around more than necessary and fortunately didn’t come across any of her acquaintances. Usually, she wouldn’t even dare come to places like this in fear of meeting someone she knew. She would feel like killing herself if someone found out about this.
So let’s hurry and quickly buy this. Thinking that, Yeorum dashed forward and snatched the book at a speed that eyes could not follow.
That was when her watch rang.
“What the fuc…”
It was from Yu Jitae. Yeorum picked up the phone.
“Yeah. What’s up. Huh?”
A reluctant look appeared on her face.
“You’re coming to pick me up? I can go by mysel… huh? You’re already here? On the first floor? Why?”
-… ‘Why’? What do you mean. You doing something there?
“What am I doing…? Actually, why do you care whether I do it or not?”
– What do you even mean. Just come down when you’re done.
Can I hide it in the alternate dimension? No, it wouldn’t work.
Yeorum wasn’t good at using the alternate dimensional magic and it would thus cause a lot of fluctuation in mana. It also required a lot of time for her to use it.
Then what should I do? She rolled her eyes in thought. On the side, she could see sports mangas, and next to those books were tools that were related to sports. From them, her eyes were glued to the baseball equipment.
“So uh…! Don’t come up and just stay there! I’ll go down after buying something…!”
***
Yu Jitae welcomed Yeorum on the first floor with Bom and Gyeoul. She came down carrying an aluminium bat.
“What. Are you trying to hit someone with that?”
“Hmm, well yeah…”
It was unknown what she was discontent with, but her sulky face was filled with dissatisfaction. She appeared spiteful like an animal who had its food snatched away. Wondering what was wrong with her, he looked at the baseball bat but Yeorum suddenly had a fit.
“What, huh! You wanna get smacked for real?”
She became gloomy after saying that.
What was wrong with her?