On the third floor of the abandoned factory, in a gloomy corner.

“Boy-kun!”

Using the last of his strength, Jae-hee reached the factory’s deepest recess and set down the heavy Status Window, panting.

Status Window wiped away tears of gratitude. “You came to save me! I believed in you desu!”

“Well, I didn’t exactly come to save you…”

Jae-hee broke into a cold sweat as he used his shortsword to slice the ropes binding Status Window’s arms and legs.

He explained, “Team Shakespeare betrayed us, and I was trying to chase them down… I just happened to jump in when it looked like you were about to die.”

He’d been hiding and watching the situation unfold when he realized Status Window’s life was in genuine danger.

To throw the room into chaos, Jae-hee had played the 2000s trot medley tape he’d bought at the last auction, then used the opening to rescue Status Window.

He was already running on fumes after sprinting such a long distance to chase the car. If it hadn’t been for the musical distraction, that final, desperate dash might not have been enough.

After cutting the last of the ropes, Jae-hee scanned their surroundings and lowered his voice. “How did you end up here? What are you doing in a place this dangerous?”

“That old geezer Shylock reeled me in, y’know. He said he’d give me a chance to be a free man, talking like he was going to groom me as his successor desu…”

Now free, Status Window rubbed his wrists and ankles, looking dejected.

“I guess he just needed a sacrificial lamb to use as bait… I was so happy, I really thought I’d been acknowledged desu…”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s the name of the game in this business. They sweet-talk you, then stab you in the back.”

Jae-hee gestured with his chin toward the factory floor. “Just like what’s happening down there.”

The two factions, which had gathered as if for a friendly secondhand trade, all smiles and pleasantries, were now locked in a desperate, bloody battle to the death.

The sight of them trying to kill each other to the upbeat rhythm of a trot medley was nothing short of terrifying.

Hiding behind a railing, Jae-hee and Status Window watched, drenched in cold sweat.

“What should we do?”

“Let’s not get involved. We’ll just hide quietly and run when we get the chance… This is way beyond the scope of our mission desu.”

“Yeah, you’re right. Let’s just lay low.” Jae-hee nodded.

The situation was absurd.

It was as if your fellow delivery driver had suddenly betrayed you, stolen the food, and told the customer to pay him directly instead of the restaurant. Then the customer, after agreeing, had whipped out a gun and started shooting.

As Delivery Guy Number One, there wasn’t much more Jae-hee could do. Best to just hide in a corner and watch the show.

Huh?

Just then, as Jae-hee surveyed the factory from the third floor, his eyes caught someone on the second floor hiding something in a cupboard.

Wait, that person is…?

***

Team Shakespeare versus the Blue Lions.

Inside the dim factory, pierced by long rays of afternoon sun, a brutal battle raged between the two crews.

Team Shakespeare fought like the underworld legends they once were. Despite being vastly outnumbered and surrounded, they refused to back down.

“Get in close—urgh!”

“Charge them at the same—aaargh!”

Any enemy who got near was swarmed by Oberon and Titania and swiftly cut to pieces.

The elderly couple darted between the factory’s pillars and debris as nimbly as monkeys. Thugs who fancied themselves veteran knife-fighters were no match for the couple’s lightning-fast movements, falling like autumn leaves.

Rat-tat-tat-tat—!

“Gack!”

“Urrrgh!”

The gunmen pouring bullets on them from a distance were also picked off, one by one, with holes punched through their heads.

Juliet was sniping with impeccable timing, while Romeo supported her with his pistol. Romeo would lay down suppressing fire, and Juliet would finish the job.

Though the individual combat skills were worlds apart, the Blue Lions were in no hurry.

They had the overwhelming numbers, and this factory was their home turf.

“Don’t let the losses shake you. No matter how legendary Shylock’s personal guard is, they’re still human. The damage will add up,” Man-su commanded, not batting an eye even as the number of his dead subordinates entered the double digits.

“Keep pushing without a break. They’ll crumble eventually.”

“Yes, boss! Alright, keep the pressure on—!”

Man-su was right.

Romeo, who had been weaving between cover and firing his pistol at the gunmen on the second floor, was the first to get hit.

“Ugh!”

“Romeo!”

Struck once in the shoulder and once in the back through his leather coat, Romeo gritted his teeth and took cover. He gave Juliet a look as she rushed toward him in alarm.

“I’m fine. It’s nothing… Keep shooting!”

Romeo, a B-Rank Awakened, possessed the ability “Hot Heart, Cold Head.” It was a common Awakened ability that granted him the toughness to withstand a few bullets, along with the cool-headed judgment to remain calm in any situation.

He couldn’t shatter earth or part the seas like other Awakened, but in the chaotic hellscape of a back-alley brawl, few abilities earned their keep quite like this one.

As if he’d never been shot, Romeo raised his pistol again and laid down suppressing fire on the second-floor snipers.

“Argh!” Juliet followed his lead, unleashing a hail of bullets toward the second floor.

Juliet, also a B-Rank Awakened, had the ability “Trigger-Happy.” The moment she pulled the trigger, her mood soared as if she’d taken a psychoactive drug, while her consciousness expanded and her reaction speed skyrocketed.

From her perspective, her vision would brighten and widen simultaneously in that single instant.

Using this ability, Juliet could assess the entire battlefield with every shot she fired and determine her next move in the following instant.

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

Because of this, she understood their situation more clearly than anyone else.

They were at a horrific disadvantage.

This was a deathtrap.

“‘C’!”

Crouching behind cover, Juliet began to reload, shouting the code word. Romeo took cover as well and signaled with his eyes toward the opposite side.

Receiving the signal with just a look, Oberon and Titania gripped their daggers and shot forward.

Click-clack!

But it was too predictable.

While the gunner with the empty magazine reloaded, the knife-fighters would charge out to buy time.

Their coordination was so mechanically perfect, so measured, that it was easily read.

“Light ’em up!”

Oberon and Titania managed to close the distance, each lunging at a thug and slashing at their throat and chest, but the Blue Lions goons opened fire, heedless of their own men.

“?!”

Titania, who had just slit the throat of a thug who’d gotten too close, had no time to dodge.

Riddled with bullets from all sides, she collapsed without a sound.

“Honey!”

Oberon tried to run to his wife, but a bullet struck his right hand, the one holding the dagger. More shots tore through his left arm, chest, and thigh.

“Gah!”

He crumpled to the floor in a bloody heap. Right in front of him was Titania’s face, her eyes wide open in death.

“…”

He carefully reached out and closed his dead wife’s eyes.

Then, his right hand shattered, Oberon clenched the dagger’s hilt in his teeth. He vaulted over his cover and charged forward to take a few of them with him.

But a large hand shot out from the side and seized him by the collar.

“…?!”

“You’ve had a good run, old-timer.”

The hand belonged to Scar, the Blue Lions’ sub-commander.

Gripping Oberon’s collar with one hand, Scar twirled a wide butcher knife in the other and licked his lips cruelly.

“Time to rest.”

Shunk!

Scar’s knife plunged into Oberon’s abdomen. The blade pierced his lung, and Oberon couldn’t even manage a proper death rattle.

After stabbing him several more times, Scar casually pulled the knife out and kicked Oberon’s body away.

Crash…!

The old man’s small body tumbled across the factory floor, never to move again.

“Romeo! Juliet! C’mon out and give it up!” Scar shouted, wiping the blood from his knife on his pants. “You really think the four of you can take us on? We own Daegu, for chrissakes.”

“…”

“Get out here, motherfucker. It’s been a while, let’s have a proper go, eh?”

Romeo and Juliet didn’t respond, finishing reloading their weapons.

Scar chuckled and swaggered toward them.

“Let’s go another round—with your wifey on the line. C’mon, you pretty little piece of shit!”

***

Just as Scar and the Blue Lions were about to clash with Romeo and Juliet one last time…

“Stop!” Man-su cried out suddenly.

Watching from the second floor, he declared, “That’s enough! No more fighting!”

A bewildered Scar looked up at him. “What’re you talkin’ about, boss? We’ve got ’em. Why stop now…?”

Then he realized why Man-su had given the order to stand down.

Click.

The muzzle of a gun was pressed against the back of Man-su’s neck.

An old man in a suit and fedora had approached without a sound. Shylock had his gun aimed at the back of his head.

Man-su gave a bitter smile and glanced over his shoulder.

“I was wondering where you were hiding… When did you get in here? And how did you slip past all my men? Heh, your legendary knack for disappearing is as sharp as ever.”

Shylock had used his ability, “Hallucination,” to slip past the guards like a ghost.

But instead of explaining, he simply released the safety on his pistol.

A cold sweat broke out on Man-su’s brow. He was an Awakened, but he didn’t have the power to survive a bullet to the back of the head.

“Call off your men downstairs, and I’ll let your guys who are still breathing live. Shylock, just calm down and—”

“Nope. No need to call them off, Man-su.”

Beneath the fedora, Shylock’s eyes were cold and still.

The old Villain spoke in a flat voice. “Because I’m going to shoot you dead right here, and then I’m going to kill myself.”

“Why must you be so extreme?”

“If this deal falls through, we’ll just be executed by the Convict Unit when we get back. And you never had any intention of making a deal in the first place.”

Shylock’s index finger slowly began to tighten on the trigger.

“Isn’t it a cleaner end if we just kill each other? Just like the back-alley trash we are.”

“…”

“I don’t get what I want, but neither do you. It’s better this way. Rather than slowly withering away in that prison, it’s not a bad way to go—out in a blaze of glory, taking a few companions with me. Now, let’s go to hell together.”

Shylock’s dispassionate voice held a hollow emptiness, as if he had truly given up on everything.

Realizing Shylock was serious, Man-su blurted out, “Alright, I get it! Calm down, and let’s start the deal over from the beginning.”

“…”

“I’ll let you and your people leave safely, and I’ll even process your sentence reduction right here! Let’s trade the ‘product’ you were originally delivering, plus my life. How about it?”

“…”

“We just do the deal we were supposed to do from the start. Like nothing happened. It’s a win-win for both of us, isn’t it?”

Considering the amount of blood spilled in the factory, it was far from “nothing happened,” but neither side was in a position to present that bill.

“However, I’d just like to see if the ‘product’ is safe.”

Man-su glanced back at Shylock.

“The monster’s true form, I mean. You’ve never shown it to me. I’m starting to doubt you even have it. Don’t you think you should at least let me confirm the goods before we make a sale?”

But Shylock didn’t budge.

“Sentence reduction first. Then I’ll bring the product I’ve hidden nearby. After that, you let us leave safely, and finally, you take the product and go.”

“…”

“There will be no more negotiation. We do it my way. Otherwise, the city of Daegu gets a new mayor today.”

“Dammit… Guess I have no choice. Okay, let’s do it that way.”

Man-su reluctantly nodded.

Just as an agreement was finally being reached after all the bloodshed—a cheerful voice rang out from the floor above.

“Found it!”

Everyone looked up in surprise. It was Jae-hee again.

“Waah…?”

In the boy’s hands was the familiar lion-shaped doll—the true form of the monster designated Crying-X.

He held the lion doll aloft in a pose straight out of The Lion King, like Rafiki presenting a newborn Simba.

Grinning in blissful ignorance as every eye fixed on him, Jae-hee shouted, “I found the doll Grandpa Shylock hid!”

“…Ah.”

A dumbfounded noise escaped Shylock’s lips.

He had hastily hidden the doll in a cupboard, but in the heat of the moment, he hadn’t noticed anyone watching.

Unfortunately for him, Jae-hee had been hiding on the floor directly above.

Feeling dizzy, Shylock staggered, pressing a hand to his forehead.

Man-su pushed him aside and stepped forward, shouting, “Hey, kid! Give me that doll! I’ll reward you handsomely!”

Jae-hee immediately clutched the doll to his chest and shook his head.

“Uh-uh, no way. I can’t trust any of you. One of you is a delivery thief, and the other is a reservation scammer. You’re both crooks.”

“…!”

“So, this doll… I mean, this monster’s true form will be confiscated by us, the Black Parade.”

“No! Please, I’m begging you! That lion doll is…” Man-su’s voice grew more desperate than ever. “He’s… the new mascot who will rebuild the Lions pro baseball team, the hope of our city of Daegu!”

“…?”

“The city of Daegu needs him! Please, please give him back to me…!”

“Huh?”

Jae-hee blinked dumbly at the completely unexpected combination of words.

Then he finally managed to stammer, “Pro… baseball?”

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