Home/I Became the Heiress of a Top-Tier Guild /ch62

Chapter 62

'Damn it. Please say it's not so...'

She wanted to deny this eerie feeling.

She wanted to believe it was just because that ajusshi had a stiff neck, that his posture was naturally hunched.

If even the Special Response Headquarters had fallen into King's hands, this country had no future.

That was already two government agencies she knew of.

Watching the country being run by some weird cult, a "What a mess" escaped her lips.

Glancing at Park Jae-moon, Sol-a noticed a ring on his fourth finger.

'That's unusual for a wedding ring...'

It was a large, thick ring set with a translucent, mysterious blue round bead.

'Isn't that bead the same as the one?!'

The stone set in that ring was clearly the bead she'd picked up in the kindergarten's secret space.

Though the transparency was a bit cloudier, that unique blue glow wasn't common.

She could tell because she'd been staring at that bead constantly, trying to figure out its identity ever since she found it in her pocket.

Just then, Sol-a's eyes met Park Jae-moon's.

It was after Sol-a's uncles, who had been talking with him, had moved away.

Though a bit far, Park Jae-moon was clearly looking at Sol-a through the window.

Sol-a's suspicious gaze narrowed towards Park Jae-moon.

He arranged his arms in a polite posture.

His lips slowly moved.

Wel—

Com—

Seo, wang, show—

King.

'These damn King-traces.'

Sol-a decided to accept it.

The King-tracer had extended its clutches to the Special Response Headquarters as well.

---

And that night.

The police station where the creature was being held exploded.

"CCTV footage showed individuals dressed similarly to the suspect entering the police station. It's presumed to be the work of the same terrorist organization."

Their second terrorist act unfolded without warning.

The police station exploded in an instant.

The cause of the explosion was self-destruction.

"The explosion was large enough to burn down a quarter of the police station."

With over a dozen self-detonations occurring simultaneously, the force was immense.

At the scene, which had barely been cleared of fire, both the perpetrators and victims of the terror were found dead.

The second suicide bombing targeting a police station once again shocked the public.

Photos of the charred, hole-ridden police station building were plastered in real-time across all media, including the news.

Sol-a, who had been listening to Geum Seong-hwan and Apple's conversation, let out a sigh.

Her displeased gaze turned to the toy pickaxe in her hand.

'I'm not in the mood to play.'

Just minutes ago, she'd been happily playing with the fossil excavation kit, marveling at it as a new world, but now it just felt annoying.

On the table, the already excavated dinosaur fossils were displayed with majesty.

Sol-a was spending time sitting on the sofa in the office, having come to work with Geum Seong-hwan.

Because today's scheduled tour of the Korean Hunter Association had been canceled due to the terrorist incident.

"An internal bomb, you said."

"Yes. It seems they self-destructed using a detonator planted in their molars. The principle is that upon biting down, it's absorbed into the body and explodes."

At Apple's report, Geum Seong-hwan stroked his rough chin.

"Is this a photo of the suspect arrested yesterday?"

Geum Seong-hwan read through the contents of the report on the tablet PC.

"Energy level F-rank. Identity unverifiable. Presumed to be an unregistered Awakened. Low intelligence to the point of being unable to communicate, lacking reason..."

Geum Seong-hwan continued flipping through the report.

The next page had a photo attached.

It was a picture of the suspect taken before the police station was attacked.

"As you can see from the nude photos, it's closer to a humanoid monster than a person."

As Apple put it, his appearance was so grotesque it was hard to call him human.

Eyes without focus, ears and nose leaving only traces without form.

Skin melted black from head to toe like candle wax, severely hunched neck and twisted spine.

His bent arms and legs were so deformed it was surprising he could move at all.

It was amazing that he could wear clothes and act normally like an ordinary person with such a physique.

Geum Seong-hwan's calm gaze lingered on the photo for a long time.

"Even with this appearance, DNA results say he's human. On one hand, I wished it was the emergence of a new kind of monster that could use abilities. The criticism is only going to get fiercer, isn't it."

At Geum Seong-hwan's muttering, Sol-a's brow furrowed.

Various conspiracy theories were piling up regarding the Awakened terror incident.

Especially from some quarters, while everyone said it was the work of Awakened, they argued the terrorists weren't monsters.

Those were the Awakened who had vehemently denied such things could be human.

Since they turned to ash immediately upon self-destruction, there were no intact bodies, so DNA tests couldn't be done, and speculation ran rampant.

Even Sol-a had naturally thought they were monsters when she first saw the creatures.

But after the terror incident, seeing the upgraded appearance of the creatures and some of them using abilities like Awakened, she felt puzzled. Were they really monsters?

Their behavior patterns were also different from monsters that attacked like hunting prey.

They were like puppets being commanded to attack the enemy.

'Were they brainwashed...?'

Aside from brainwashing, she thought they might be victims of that project.

The Copycat Project NO. 5 report Sol-a had read didn't contain any mention of creatures or anything similar, but it was clearly recorded that they had experimented on humans.

If the creatures were truly fundamentally human, they could be test subjects born from the project's experiments.

'This sounds like some grotesque horror novel.'

Having seen and experienced it, it wasn't entirely implausible.

It just gave her chills to think that people could do such things.

"So why was this guy found at the Special Response Headquarters?"

Geum Seong-hwan put down the tablet PC and asked.

Sitting back in his chair, his face looked deep in thought.

"He was trying to get into the item storage warehouse located from the 2nd basement floor to the 5th."

"That requires a special access card, I believe."

"He had one. But it belonged to an administrative officer who went missing a year ago, so things got complicated."

"Is there a possibility he is the administrative officer himself?"

"We tried a DNA test, but the officer's family is all abroad, making verification difficult."

"Suspicious. It's also strange that an access card belonging to someone who went missing a year ago could be used."

The management was truly negligent. This would make the Special Response Headquarters subject to investigation as well.

"It's unfortunate to lose them when we were so close to catching them all."

"Indeed. All kinds of crazy bastards exist."

"Gasp, Brother! The Young Mistress is listening!"

"Ah! Damn it!"

Geum Seong-hwan slap hit his own lips.

Sol-a shook her head.

'Anyway, what a pity.'

She'd thought it wouldn't be easy to catch them, but she'd secretly hoped that since the creature was captured, they might get a lead on Joker.

But they cut off the tail and ran away immediately.

'A lizard, not a pigeon.'

Honestly, she was a bit surprised by such an extreme tail-cutting.

She'd known from when they self-destructed the creatures, but Joker was truly ruthless when it came to sacrifice.

The number of self-destructors reported in the City Hall incident was 38.

Including last night's incident, that made exactly 50.

At the very least, if they were human, if they had once been human, they couldn't do this. This is...

'They don't see humans as human.'

To Joker, the creatures were nothing more than disposable weapons.

"Then I'll inform the police of our formal cooperation in the investigation."

At Apple's words, Sol-a pricked up her ears.

'Formal investigation?'

Why was Geumho so invested in rooting out the terrorists?

Even if President Yun Taek-jun had asked, they'd already helped enough and could have stopped paying attention.

But Sol-a probably didn't know.

From the moment she, held in Apple's arms at City Hall, told him to save the people endangered by the terrorists, the guild had decided to see this case through to the end.

To ensure that no more people would be endangered by terror, just as Sol-a wished, they would act.

"I'll take my leave."

Having finished his report, Apple paused as he was about to leave the office and looked back.

Geum Seong-hwan had been sitting back in his chair, lost in thought for a while.

And on the sofa in front of his desk sat Sol-a.

Sol-a, staring seriously at the fossil excavation kit, also wore a dark expression.

"Not having much luck with the excavation?"

Earlier, she'd had trouble controlling her strength and broke the dinosaur's ribs with her pickaxe—seems she'd failed again this time too.

A small smile appeared on Apple's lips.

The two people, deep in thought.

Their eyes, looking in different directions, were both sharp.

They looked exactly alike, as if stamped from the same mold.

Click.

"What was that?"

"The Madam will surely love it."

And with that, he disappeared.

The remaining two's eyes met.

...Grrr.

"I'm hungry."

It was already lunchtime. Geum Seong-hwan jumped up.

"Let's go eat!"

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