The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low

Chapter 112

Uijae shoved his hands into his pockets and slowly surveyed his surroundings. This place seemed to be a research facility, and the area he had stepped into appeared to be the lobby connected to a hallway. From the lobby onward, corpses were scattered everywhere.

The white lab coats they wore were so soaked in dark red blood that it was nearly impossible to distinguish their original color. Uijae glanced up at the ceiling. The white fluorescent lights flickered ominously. It was an eerily silent space, devoid of the sound of breathing or even heartbeats. White walls and red blood.

‘I don’t want to die.’

Someone’s desperate scream echoed in his mind. A sharp headache struck him. Uijae, out of habit, bit his tongue. The dull pain spread through him, and only then did he begin to regain his composure. There was no time to waste standing still.

He glanced at a corpse slumped against the wall, its head pressed against the surface. Judging by the handprints clawing vertically across the wall, the person had likely scratched it in agony before dying.

When he flipped the body over, the blood-covered face had wide, bloodshot eyes. Uijae’s cold, dark gaze swept over the body. At first, he wondered if this had been Mingeojeok’s doing. But upon closer inspection…

‘There’s no external trauma...’

Uijae had never seen Mingeojeok fight, but killing a large number of people without leaving any external wounds required a special kind of power. After all, Mingeojeok had claimed to be a specialist in stealth and infiltration, not assassination.

Despite the lack of external wounds, there was an abnormal amount of blood loss. The corpses had died coughing up blood, their dark red blood pooling around them.

It felt oddly familiar. Uijae instinctively rubbed the back of his neck.

Yes, it was similar to the symptoms he experienced when he had been poisoned by Lee Sayoung. The sweet scent that lingered in the air was also familiar, the same scent that always tickled his nose when he was around Sayoung.

Mingeojeok knew that someone was inside this facility. And yet, he had only warned Uijae that the place might be “a mess,” implying that whoever was inside wasn’t a threat to him.

With a wry smile, Uijae placed his hand on the corpse’s neck and examined the face. There was still warmth, and rigor mortis hadn’t set in yet. It hadn’t been long since these people had died.

‘They’re still here.’

If he kept moving, he’d likely run into them. Uijae scraped the blood from his sneaker against the floor and continued walking.

The ones tracking Prometheus were the Wave Guild, the Seowon Guild, and the Awakener Bureau. Lee Sayoung had once been one of Prometheus’ test subjects. Whoever had turned this facility into a bloodbath and slaughtered the researchers was most likely Lee Sayoung as well.

‘Could it be out of revenge against Prometheus?’

As Uijae stepped through the hallway, avoiding the bodies and pools of blood, his thoughts continued to spiral around Lee Sayoung.

Mingeojeok had been adamant—no one survived the experiments conducted by Prometheus. However, Nam Woojin had said that Lee Sayoung was a survivor of those very experiments. One of them had to be lying.

‘Judging by the state of this place, Nam Woojin’s story seems more likely…’

No ordinary grudge could drive someone to kill so mercilessly, leaving no one alive.

Just then, a faint light leaked from a half-open door. Uijae leaned in to peek inside. It appeared to be a monitoring room with several large screens. The monitors displayed empty, cell-like spaces. 

The room was as much of a mess as the rest of the facility, with the floor and walls scratched and torn up by thrashing researchers. Yet, oddly enough, the items on the desks and the documents remained untouched, almost as if they had been left in pristine condition for someone.

Uijae picked up a blue file. The label read:

**#707 Experiment Records**

“……”

He cautiously opened the file and began reading through it, page by page. The subject of the file, #707, was a survivor rescued from a rift. The researchers had injected him with enhancement drugs, transfused him with the blood of Awakeners, grafted monster parts onto his body, and conducted numerous experiments.

And they failed.

Failure.

Failure.

Failure.

Failure.

Failure.

“……”

The final page indicated that the subject was deemed no longer valuable, and the decision had been made to dispose of him. The last sentence read:

*Let us be grateful to all those who sacrifice themselves to prevent the end.*

Uijae’s grip tightened around the file. He gritted his teeth. The plastic folder crumpled in his hand as easily as paper. They had taken survivors of rifts, experimented on them, and when the experiments failed, they discarded them like garbage. A surge of anger welled up inside him. He grabbed another file and quickly skimmed through it.

Failure. Failure. Failure. Disposal. *Let us be grateful to all those who sacrifice themselves to prevent the end.* Failure. Failure. Failure. Disposal. *Let us be grateful.* Failure. Failure. Failure. *End.* *Gratitude.* *End.*

*Bang!*

His fist slammed into the desk, splitting it in two. His shoulders, which had been trembling with anger, slowly stilled. Uijae reached up to slap his own face but stopped short when his hand met the cold surface of his mask.

It had been a mystery from the start. Why was Prometheus so intent on creating artificial Awakeners? Were they angry that they hadn’t been chosen by the system?

If that had been the case, they wouldn’t have been such a serious threat. People driven by greed are often torn apart by their own desires.

But Prometheus was different. They weren’t driven by selfish desires. They truly believed they were preventing the end. They believed that small sacrifices were justified, like fanatics. They were neither researchers nor scientists. They were insane zealots.

To prevent the end, they were creating artificial Awakeners? How foolish…

Suddenly, a faint groan echoed. Uijae’s head snapped up. The sound had come from beyond the door at the far side of the monitoring room. He hadn’t sensed any survivors earlier. Uijae hurriedly pushed the door open.

“Ugh, aaah!”

Inside was a man in a white lab coat, curled up and trembling. The man covered his mouth and began banging his head against the wall, over and over.

“Please, save me, save me, save me….”

‘Where did this guy suddenly come from?’

There were too many questions, but Uijae’s body moved instinctively, prepared to rescue a survivor. He assessed the man’s condition, trying to determine if communication was possible.

But only for a moment. Uijae withdrew his hand as he noticed the card key hanging around the man’s neck, confirming he was part of this research facility.

*A Prometheus member….*

Failure, failure, failure. *Let us be grateful to all those who sacrifice themselves to prevent the end.*

With his hands still in his pockets, Uijae bent down slightly, staring down at the researcher. The man seemed to realize that Uijae wasn’t going to harm him, so he slowly stopped banging his head against the wall. His half-closed eyes gazed up at the black mask in front of him.

The man’s eyes suddenly lit up with joy.

“That, that mask—are you J? You’re J, right? Yes, I’ve heard that you were still alive! How did you—no, wait!”

The man scrambled toward Uijae on his knees, grabbing his leg. His hands shook pitifully.

“Please, please spare me. There’s a madman who turned the entire facility upside down, killing innocent people left and right…!”

“……”

Uijae didn’t respond. The man, biting his lip in desperation, suddenly looked up as if a light had gone off in his head. His eyes, once filled with fear, now glimmered strangely.

“I-I’ve been wanting to speak with J for so long! I’m your fan! What was it like inside the West Sea Rift? I had a revelation that the rift was connected to the end! Everyone, everyone…!”

“What? What are you saying…?”

Uijae’s eyes widened.

“Aaaaah! Gah!”

The researcher clutched his throat, screaming, before violently coughing up dark red blood. His trembling hand reached out toward Uijae.

“Please, J, save, save me…!”

“No.”

*Thud, thud.* Footsteps echoed clearly from the darkness, followed by a languid voice.

“You’re saying the wrong thing.”

“Save me….”

“At the very least, you should be saying, ‘I’m sorry, I was wrong,’ shouldn’t you?”

“S-sorry… ugh… ah….”

The researcher’s body twisted as he scratched at the floor, but his movements soon slowed. Instead of final words, he coughed up blood one last time before his body went limp. From the shadows, the lazy voice murmured,

“I thought I killed everyone, but there was one still alive.”

“……”

“My bad… Are you alright?”

A hand, its fingertips blackened, appeared from the darkness. When it touched the researcher’s head, a chilling sound filled the air as the body began to melt into black goo.

“Looks like Hong Yeseong added some filtration functions to the mask. Lucky for you.”

The corpse had turned into a pool of black liquid, which quickly disappeared into the hand that had touched it. After completing its task, the hand retreated back into the shadows.

Uijae responded with a short comment.

“Let’s get the facts straight. You left him alive on purpose, didn’t you? Just him.”

“……”

A short chuckle echoed from the darkness. The voice, laced with amusement, whispered back,

“You’re sharp when it comes to things like this. But not much else.”

“……”

“Well, you’re right. I figured you’d be curious about him.”

“……”

“Though in hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have left him alive. He just spouted nonsense until the end.”

From the darkness emerged a pair of black combat boots. Long legs, the hem of a black coat reaching mid-calf, and hands stuffed into coat pockets. Messy curly hair framed eyes that glinted in the dim light, as long lashes blinked slowly. Full lips curled slightly.

“So… did you find what you were looking for?”

Violet eyes narrowed slightly, as if in a smile.

“J.”

It was as if the person was laughing.