Chapter 145 - 145- Vendetta (Part 1)
Chapter 145 - 145- Vendetta (Part 1)
The man whimpered painfully as he tried to move his head out of the immense pressure. The sheer pain he was feeling at that moment was unimaginable. His brain was being squashed like an insect and he had nothing to do about it except beg for his life.
"Please… Sir… I will… make them speak…" He said with clenched teeth.
"Am I supposed to believe that?"
*PRESS*
"I promise!! On my life!!!"
The first man squinted his eyes for a moment as he stared down coldly. Seeing the struggle and the sheer despair in his eyes, he could only smirk coldly.
"To put it on your own life, hahaha! Good. Really good! I will spare your life for now. I want them to tell me where they are by the end of today. If they don't…"
*PRESS*
"I promise, they will!!! Please! My head, sir!!"
With that, the man released his grip and left the latter to breathe heavily on the ground.
"Hah! Hah! Thank you!"
"You better make that happen. Or, better yet, don't do it… I want to hear you squirm and cry when I start skinning you alive." Licking his lips as if he was looking at a delicious meal, the man turned around and left.
The second man remained on the ground, breathing heavily as he covered his face with the back of his arm. His teeth were clenched and his fists were tightened.
"Dammit… I already tried everything… They won't speak!!" Cursing to himself, he slowly stood up.
"Ptuh! Fuck… If I don't get what he wants… I'm in deep trouble…"
With that, he started slowly walking toward his destination. "I will make them speak… No matter what!"
***
"Hmm, seems everything is calm so far."
The survivor's group moved quickly through the streets of Seoul as they headed back to the warehouse. The trip was going to take an hour or less on foot and they had crossed almost all of it unscathed.
Some monsters appeared here and there, but, they were immediately dealt with by Talon, Hyun-Jae, or Chin-Hwa who were strategically positioned around the group as the first line of defense in case of emergency.
'We didn't come across any hordes. Well, I guess I was wrong in the end.' Sighing to himself, Talon shook his head.
Even though he expected to see more groups of monsters around the area considering the current state of the world, the new addition of an enemy group of survivors was completely unexpected.
"I should probably apologize to Chin-Hwa." He murmured to himself.
"You don't have to apologize. Your logic wasn't flawed by any means. If there wasn't another group killing the monsters in this area, there was a very high chance you would've ended up facing a horde of them." Acrypha said.
"Yeah, but still… I was ready to force everyone to stay in the camp just because of it, completely disregarding the possibility of the trip going fine. That was a mishap on my side." He shrugged.
The floating beauty stared at him silently without replying. As predictable as his words were, she could only be impressed either way.
'Even though no one could force him to apologize… He really doesn't care about things like pride and ego…' She thought to herself.
"Leader! I can see the warehouse from up ahead!"
As he was like that, one of the scouting team members approached him in a hurry.
"Got it. Tell the scouting team to come back and get everyone in position again, I'm going to get in first." Talon said as he walked to the front of the group. There, he found Hyun-Jae standing silently as she stared at the building a few hundred meters away from them.
"Looks like nothing happened to it, fortunately," Hyun-Jae said in an almost relieved tone.
"Hmm, yeah," Talon responded as he squinted his eyes. "I'm going head in first and see. Keep an eye for our surroundings just in case."
"Sure."
With that, the young man left the group as he headed toward the warehouse on his own. Hyun-Jae watched him as he disappeared.
"Get everyone ready to move the moment he comes back."
***
Closing the distance slowly toward his destination, Talon noticed an abnormality. "Hm? Where is the truck that was closing this hole in the wall?" He asked himself.
Before leaving, Talon could clearly remember leaving a truck that closed a gap in the warehouses' outer walls. It worked perfectly in stopping monsters from barging into the building.
Now, it was nowhere to be seen. That made Talon's heart grow colder as he frowned. Instinctively, his steps quickened as he reached the gap and peeked inside.
Immediately, the second abnormality presented itself to him. The entire area surrounding the main warehouse's building was completely emptied. The bikes, cars, and even the forklifts vanished from existence.
"..." Knitting his eyebrows, the young man stepped outside. At this point, Talon had already realized the possibility of what could've happened and it made his aura shake.
Looking around him, he quickly rushed toward the warehouse. He wanted to call Shin-Il and Soomin's names but he decided not to do that. If someone was there and they were in danger, revealing his position would be a very foolish idea.
When he reached the gates of the warehouse, Talon crouched down as he peeked into the building. The place was extremely dark and quiet.
He couldn't feel a single presence inside. So, he stood up and moved inside carefully. He looked around him in solemn silence.
"..." His aura was colder than usual and his face was far from relaxed.
"Empty… The entire place was emptied of everything…" He murmured.
The entire warehouse with all of the supplies stored in it was all gone. Nothing was left behind. All that was left was a completely empty massive storage area.
"The entire place was stolen," Acrypha commented with a calm expression. "I don't think it can get any more obvious than this who did it."
"Yeah…" As he murmured those words, Talon's eyes fell on something odd a little far away from him. Picking it up, Talon stared at it for a few moments. It was a flipped old piece of paper with some words written on it.
Reading the content of the message, Talon's aura fluctuated again before it flared visibly. The pressure around him increased greatly.
Then, Talon turned around and walked toward the exit. "It seems I'm going to pay those bastards a visit earlier than I expected."
With that, he left the warehouse and went back to the group that had already advanced closer to the warehouse.
Seeing Talon coming back, some of the students sighed in relief. The fact that he returned quickly meant that there were no big problems.
But, when they noticed the dark expression on his face, many felt a chill run down their spines. That look on his face was clearly extremely serious.
"What happened?" Hyun-Jae asked.
"... Everyone, get inside and settle down. It's safe." He said, not answering her question immediately. "Hyun-Jae, Chin-Hwa, make sure everything is going perfectly. I'm going to leave for a while." He declared.
"Huh?" Hyun-Jae asked. "Hold on a second, Talon. Where are you going?"
Walking past Hyun-Jae, Talon stopped as he stared over his shoulder. "I'm going to deal with an annoying bug. No need for everyone to go. I'm more than enough."
"..." The girl stared at him for a few moments, trying to read through his words. In the end, she pursed her lips. "Ok, we shall wait while you deal with it." She said mysteriously.
Talon nodded his head. "I won't take long… A few hours at most. Where is Hi-Ah?"
"H-here, Talon!" The woman stepped forward as she announced herself. After a good night of resting and multiple healing sessions, she was able to stand on her feet again even though she required a cane to move around properly.
"Sorry… But, I'm going to ask you to lead me to that place now. The plan changed." He said as he helped her.
"O-Of course, but… I know it's not my place to ask… Are you going alone?"
"Yes."
"..." The woman blinked in shock. "It's an entire base… There are at least a hundred people there of Cha Kwang's men…"
"And?" Talon asked back.
"No… But…"
"A hundred of them… Yeah, that sounds really troublesome now that I think about it." Talon added after thinking for a moment. "Getting rid of a hundred corpses is going to be a pain in the ass."
Hi-Ah: "..."
With that, Talon carried the woman slowly away from the group.
"Are you sure he will be fine, president?" Chin-Hwa asked confusedly. "Shouldn't we go with him?"
However, the girl shook her head. "I don't know what he saw inside the warehouse. But… This isn't a mission anymore… It's personal now…"
As she stared at her companion's moving silhouette, her eyes fell on something he was holding in his right hand.
Within his tightened fist, he held the piece of paper. On it were written a few words.
'Come alone if you want your little friends alive. I'm waiting for you.'
A//N: Don't forget to support the book if you enjoyed reading ??