Chapter 1: E Between D And F - New Face (7)

A scream erupted from behind Baek Ho’s car.

In front of the wide-open trunk.

On the cold asphalt.

A wife had climbed onto her husband’s body and was biting his neck.

<From within your memory, I’ll live and breathe forever — ♬

Frank ran up quickly and grabbed the wife’s head and jaw to subdue her.

Bloodshot eyes. Dark, bulging veins.

A fierce murderous intent directed at life.

Frank tried to snap the Mad eater wife’s neck, but Baek Ho reached out and stopped him.

“Stop!”

Frank’s large, hefty arm was forcibly halted like a discharged machine.

-Shriek!

With the scream, dark black magic power seeped from the wife’s eyes, nose, and mouth.

Like a broken vessel, its contents spilled out.

“Gurgle…”

Blood gushed like a waterfall from the husband’s slit throat on the ground.

Baek Ho rushed over and wrapped the husband’s neck with black magic power.

Ssskkk—

The wound widened.

“Damn!”

What idiocy!

Baek Ho withdrew the black magic power.

He reached out and gripped the husband’s wound.

Having rolled with necromancers and Undead all his life, he deluded himself.

He had mistaken that he could heal everyone’s wounds.

“Ugh…”

The husband clutched Baek Ho’s arm while vomiting blood.

“Please… save… my wife…”

Of all places, the bite had hit an artery.

Unless a priest from the Hunter era returned to life, at this point no one could do anything.

Instead.

The Necromancer had another option.

“Just say the word. If you want, I can turn her into an Undead.”

At Baek Ho’s words, the husband moved his eyes.

He looked at his wife turned into an Eater.

He looked at a body whose soul was dead.

He knew as well.

That a Mad eater was just a moving corpse.

That you could save the body but never restore the soul.

That he would be left alone in this world.

<I’m sorry for leaving, leaving only cold memories behind — ♬

The husband painfully mouthed words.

“Kill… her…”

…please. I don’t want to live anymore.

“You made the right choice.”

Baek Ho leveled a revolver at the husband’s forehead.

He pulled the trigger without hesitation.

Bang—!

Before the shot that shook the construction site even finished echoing, he fired again.

He shredded the brain into rags so even the seven legendary necromancers couldn’t revive him.

Baek Ho turned the muzzle.

He aimed at the shrieking wife.

This time he hesitated.

His finger on the trigger trembled, and his normally calm pupils shook violently.

Is there really no way?

A way to revert a Mad eater…

“There isn’t.”

Frank snapped the wife’s neck.

Crack—the vertebrae crushed and the body went limp.

<Close your eyes and run away — ♬

The song that had dropped a bomb on the construction site kept playing.

No sooner had Baek Ho decided to smash the car than the vehicle roared away with engine noise.

Frank neatly laid the dead wife down beside her husband.

He took off his coat and covered the two of them.

“…”

The revolver in Baek Ho’s hand dropped point-first to the ground.

He stared blankly at the couple’s bodies sprawled on the ground.

He muttered in a drained voice.

“I’m sorry…”

A boulder of guilt always sat heavy in Baek Ho’s heart.

He didn’t know when it started, but he knew the source of that guilt.

His bloodline.

The seven great necromancer family and the owner family of the mega-corporation ‘Yeomra’.

That he was the Baek family.

“I’m truly sorry…”

Baek Ho hated his bloodline.

They turned perfectly healthy people into Undead.

They turned normal Awakened into Reapers.

They were the founders of the Immortal Reaper Project.

He hated being that person’s grandson.

“…”

Today, Baek Ho wanted to ask that person again.

Whether this world as it is now.

Was this truly what you had wished for?

---

A room bathed in reddish neon light.

Sophia sat on a plush sofa and popped a piece of fruit into her mouth.

The iris of her prosthetic eye adjusted and showed her a holographic window.

‘Masamune teaming up with White Bone Society—he must be in a rush…’

The largest shareholder of the seven mega-corporations, Izanagi, and head of the necromancer family ‘Yagami’.

Yagami Masamune.

Praised by many as the commander who cuts despair with a blade, he was not so to those who knew his true nature.

A snake riding on despair.

A man who valued his own interests over the cause of humanity.

Even from the information Sophia had just received, it was clear.

He called himself a hero to the people, yet allied with gangs.

He preached necromancers stood above humans, yet allied with Undead.

‘The reason he sent Wataru to the city…’

To create an Undead army through White Bone Society.

And with bombs planted in their heads, no less.

She had wondered why he sent a high-ranking necromancer to the city when manpower was already short.

It was so like Masamune.

Sophia pressed beneath her ear.

She called her commander to report.

It connected shortly.

After a brief greeting, she went straight to the point.

“Masamune has teamed up with White Bone Society to create a new Undead weapon.”

-Tell me more.

Sophia began her report.

From White Bone Society kidnapping healthy people and turning them into unstable Undead.

To injecting a specific signal that plants a trigger to forcibly turn them into Mad eaters when desired.

“For example, hearing a certain alarm or music will forcibly turn them into Mad eaters. Oh, do you know a man named Beowulf Pierce?”

-He was called a berserker in the Hunter era.

“Yes, he was a Primal Reaper and the first Mad eater.”

-Right, I saw a photo of him with his father. But why that man?

“The project is called ‘Prototype Beowulf.’”

-For testing… a berserker?

“Masamune seems to want to turn the Undead into berserkers who don’t fear death.”

-He’s a truly novel madman. Why go that far…

“That’s my thought, but I think Masamune will present it as a card to secure an advantageous position for election as supreme commander. Elder necromancers would find it appealing, right? If he uses it in the field and racks up achievements, no argument needed.”

-I admit it.

“Should we prepare for it as well?”

-No, we focus on our mission. We have no time to fraternize with madmen.

“Then should I return as well?”

-No. Keep an eye on Wataru.

“Yes, I will.”

As Sophia was about to end the call, Commander Baek Ho cleared his throat.

-Ahem… Baek Ho—

“Your son is the same. He looks strong on the outside but is soft and fragile inside, not very commander-like.”

Sophia had been told about Baek Ho’s situation.

He rescued the target, met the client, and voluntarily offered help, but—

He was even tracked by White Bone Society and witnessed the target turn into a Mad eater.

If this continued, Baek Ho could become deeply entangled with White Bone Society, so Sophia immediately began cleanup.

-I see.

“Send my regards to the special task force members. Especially, if they’ve neglected basic fitness training because I’m away… no, change it yourself. I have a lot to say.”

-Crackling… the connection isn’t good…

“Having fun, are you?”

-We want you to know we are always waiting for you. Take care.

“Yes.”

After ending the call, Sophia stood up.

She smoothed her outfit, mentally filing away the scolding she hadn’t given.

Then she clicked across the floor in pointed heels toward the door.

Clack— clack—

Her footsteps landed in blood.

Around her lay White Bone Society members turned into scrap metal.

At the center, the White Bone Society branch chief who had been dealing with Wataru lay cut in half.

With that.

She had cleaned up all the White Bone Society elements connected to Baek Ho.

---

Baek Ho left the scene to the UHPD.

Even after seeing the couple’s bodies, the officers didn’t press for an explanation.

They didn’t ask how it happened or why.

Noble necromancers of Underheaven implicitly enjoyed immunity.

“Where did the necromancer go?”

Mujin asked Frank.

Baek Ho and Frank had exchanged no words and slipped away subtly, and now weren’t visible at all.

“I don’t know. I didn’t ask.”

Frank answered with his usual dull expression.

Mujin looked around and leaned against the car’s flank.

Taking advantage of Baek Ho’s absence, he asked Frank what he was curious about.

“By the way… why does the necromancer do Fixer work? Some kind of heir training?”

“You’re stupid. If it were heir training he’d become commander, why would he become a Fixer?”

“Ah, right… ahem, so what’s the reason?”

“He doesn’t want to become commander.”

“…”

Mujin couldn’t understand.

The person who would lead the Baek family later doesn’t want to be commander?

It made so little sense he didn’t even expect an explanation.

He simply suspected a brain problem with Frank.

“When will you do the memory reset? It’ll be late if you wait.”

“Frank doesn’t do that.”

“…What do you mean?”

“Memory is precious. I’ll keep remembering my mother’s face. I’ll keep the memories with my friends too.”

“…”

“If the memories vanish, that’s not Frank. Frank will live and die as Frank.”

Mujin knit his brows.

“What insane talk… Mad eaters will attack their handlers too. Are you saying you don’t know that?”

“I know.”

Frank picked his nose and looked at Mujin.

“Didn’t you ask earlier why Frank gets face replacements?”

“Yes. But why bring that up out of nowhere…?”

“The reason Frank changes his face is because he might become a Mad eater.”

“What does that have to do with it?”

“This face must be different from the current one.”

Frank grinned and continued.

“So that when Frank turns into a crazed zombie, Baek Ho can pull the trigger.”

He made a gun shape with his fingers and aimed it at his own head.

He mouthed the sound: bang.

“That’s why Frank undergoes Newface procedures.”

“Jesus…”

Mujin opened his mouth and shook his head.

He changes his face so Baek Ho won’t hesitate to shoot him?

It was a reason he hadn’t expected.

‘What on earth is the story between those two…’

One lives shoulder-to-shoulder with someone who might bite him.

One worries that someone might hesitate to kill him.

He couldn’t understand it, and after thinking many times, there was only one answer.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just erase the memories?”

“No. Frank dies as Frank.”

Frank’s gaze was serious.

It was the deepest Mujin had seen.

“Well… yes. It’s not my place to argue about it.”

He detested complicated ties.

Isn’t that why he became obsessed with money?

Mujin scratched the scar on his forehead.

Then he smelled a choking scent at his nose.

It was the smell of burning charcoal sticks he’d been sick of all day.

‘Is the necromancer nearby?’

At that moment, a Smartbone notification popped up in front of Mujin’s eyes.

Then a message from Baek Ho followed.

Mujin stepped away from the car.

He was sorry to part with the Baek family like this, but he didn’t cling.

He hated complicated ties, but he blindly believed in the power of bonds.

“I’ll be going now. I hope we meet again.”

“Understood.”

Frank offered a fist bump and Mujin lightly tapped it back.

Mujin walked to the front of the car and sent a holographic business card to Baek Ho.

He bowed his head toward the nearby wall.

That’s where the scent of the charcoal sticks wafted from.

‘Stay healthy until we meet again…’

“…”

What a rude guy.

Now that the familiar contract was gone, he happily cursed him out.

And then.

Mujin took a step back at Baek Ho’s sudden message.

Did he somehow hear him?

“Phew…”

Mujin exhaled and sent a reply.

Baek Ho’s holographic business card floated in front of Mujin’s face.

Mujin suppressed the urge to refuse and saved the contact.

And he thought.

The rich are worse.

Mujin trudged along and put on the headphones hanging around his neck.

Piano music played along with a hymn from the Hunter era that the government had banned.

<I, a sinner, was saved by the grace of light — wonderful — ♬ I found the life I lost and gained the radiance — ♬>