"Thank you, please come again!"
With the cheerful voice of the clerk, the automatic door of the convenience store opened. A young man in a gray hooded sweatshirt, carrying a strawberry patterned shopping bag filled with all kinds of food, walked towards the station.
"There is a crack at the intersection and traffic is being controlled. Please cooperate."
The young man's head snapped up at the unfamiliar scene on his usual route. Someone wearing a fluorescent lime-green safety vest over a suit, complete with a yellow hard hat, was waving a bright red warning baton and blocking traffic. Overhead, the entrance to the rift glowed blue.
And below, hunters were desperately battling a monster that had crawled through the rift.
"Kyaahhhh!"
"Ugh! Are we there yet?"
"Just a little...!"
A lizard the size of a car let out a bizarre scream and waved its spiked tail wildly. A hunter with a shield blocked the attack, but the lizard was so excited that it waved its tail in the air as if to sweep the area. Thump! Thump! The hunter spat an expletive as he barely managed to block the relentless barrage of attacks.
"Shit, die! Fireball!"
Crimson flames engulfed the lizard. Taking advantage of the momentary hesitation, the other hunter fired an arrow at the lizard. The eye-gouged lizard screamed and writhed.
"Kiik!"
"Wow, I'm exhausted..."
"Stay away from the barricades!"
"Make it short enough to go up in your YouTube shorts."
"Uh-huh, I'm actually doing that."
People were standing a short distance from the barricades, making videos and watching. The young man walked diligently, unaffected by the commotion. The strawberry-print shopping bag in his hand jingled and swayed.
He had just stepped into a deserted alley when he was confronted by a huge figure blocking the narrow path. A purple toad waded through a pile of garbage, sensing his presence, and turned its head sharply toward the young man. A long green tongue flicked out of its mouth, and it tossed an empty plastic bottle into its mouth. It was clear that this was the monster from the rift.
"Ah, the bureaucrats. They never do anything right..."
Irritated, the young man rummaged through his shopping basket and pulled out a long, dagger-like object. From the softly curved head of the plant, to the straight stem, to the gnarled roots that lay beneath.
What he held in his hand was... a fresh leek.
The toad let out a croak and turned to face the young man. Every time its stubby legs touched the ground, the whole alley shook as if there had been an earthquake. The young man carefully put down the bag, deftly turned the leek around to steady it, then stepped on the lid of the trash can and leapt like a butterfly-and hit the toad on the head.
and hit the toad on the head with the leek!
Bam!
The clear, cheerful sound of the blow shook the alley. The toad was unable to utter a word, his eyes rolled back in his head and his limbs trembled. To its chagrin, the center of its head was indented in a leek-like shape.
The young man jerked his hand away to catch his breath. The recoil pulled off his hood, revealing a cold face beneath.
"Leeks are expensive... wasted."
The young man crouched in front of the toad, roughly shoving the remains of a scallion into its mouth with his bare hands, and picked up his cell phone. Some time passed, and when the caller picked up, the young man spoke.
"There, ..... There's a dead monster here in the alley, and it looks like a hunter killed it and left....".
The end of the young man's voice was trembling. He was even sobbing a little, like someone who'd been frightened, but his face was nonchalant, unlike his voice, which sounded as if it might faint if touched.
"This is the alleyway to the Dugromart.... A monster? It looks like a toad, but it's so, so big and disgusting, I can't get a good look at it, can you do something about it? Yeah, you don't have to call me... Oh, you'll be here in five minutes? Thank you, no, no, thank you, yes, thank you..."
The young man whimpered and hung up. Even after the call was over, the young man remained seated and shoved a leek into the gaping mouth of the toad, whose tongue was sticking out. Too disgusted by the monster to look closely, the young man's eyes remained fixed on the toad.
Five minutes before the hunter arrives.
I'll be in trouble if we meet them.
The young man stood up and erased his footprints from the lid of the trash can. The toad seemed to have died instantly, with no other trauma except for a leek-shaped scar in the middle of its head. It would be impossible to track down the monster's killer from the traces left behind.
With the evidence destroyed, it was time to flee. Picking up the bag again, the young man hopped lightly a few times as he reviewed his earlier call.
"...Should I have sounded more surprised when I called?
Well, it was too late to regret it now. The young man jumped over a wall that was higher than he was.
"Is this the alley?"
"Yes, it is!"
A few minutes after the young man disappeared, two people, a man and a woman wearing fluorescent vests over their shirts, arrived at the scene, but the urgency on their faces melted away as soon as they saw the toad's body.
The first woman to enter the alley, Yang Hye-Jin, an A-class hunter with the Rift Management Agency, gasped at the sight of the dead toad with its tongue hanging out.
"Hey, this is crazy."
"What do you mean? I'm also... oops."
The newcomer behind her was furious, clinging to his gunner and whispering in a low voice, "Wow.... Does it make sense to handle swamp toads so neatly, Senior?"
"It's ridiculous, this is a one-hit monster. If the bastard is a little late with his timing, he'll be sprayed with a strong acid solution. The acid dissolves everything, buildings and people alike, and it's giving me a headache..."
"This is incredible."
Impressed once again, the newcomer rushed over and fixed his crooked yellow helmet. Yang Hye-jin commanded as she looked around with sharp eyes, "See if there are any traces left. This is no ordinary skill.
"Understood!" the rookie said, rummaging through the trash cans and garbage piled near them.
"I don't know who did this, but... it's so neat, it won't be hard to clean up."
"I know. It's so clean, we can donate it to the monster research team. I don't know why that person didn't bother to dispose of the body."
With that remark, Yang Hye-jin put on her white gloves and opened the toad's thick mouth. Toad monsters were troublesome creatures that swallowed anything that touched their tongues and spat poisonous or acidic saliva everywhere. The good toad, who gave new houses to old houses, was a unicorn that only existed in children's songs.
Anyway, the toad had jumped out of the crack and might have swallowed someone on its way here, so they had to investigate further. Yang Hye-jin pulled a flashlight out of thin air and shone it into every inch of the toad's mouth. Luckily, instead of a human corpse, she could only see a little bit of what looked like a melted plastic bottle.
"Looks like it didn't swallow anyone..."
Meanwhile, the rookie who had been carrying the radar-equipped machine up and down the alley was sulking and calling out to Yang Hye-Jin.
"Senior, the guy who caught the toad must've been a real pro. I don't have anything left."
Yang Hye-jin rubbed her hands together and shook her head.
"He must have used a skill, right? No sign of it? Take a good look."
"I'm looking, but I can't see a single trace, let alone an ability. Nothing, really."
"What, did he catch something that big with his bare hands?"
She shook her head again, having somehow deduced something close to the truth.
"Oh, well, it must have been some kind of power hunter. Why are there so many hunters in the world who hide their power? Whether it's cartoons or novels, useless things have ruined all the children."
She turned off the flashlight and stood up, and the rookie pushed the machine into the air. Yang Hye-Jin stretched out for a long, tired stretch.
"Anyway, there's a Grade 4 monster out there, and I'm thankful that it didn't eat anyone and destroy the building. Let's get the toad and go back. You write today's report."
"Okay. Who do you put down as the monster handler?"
"Unidentified, I guess."
"Okay, but, Senior...."
"Yeah, what?"
The newcomer asked with a quizzical look on his face, "Don't you smell leek from somewhere?"
"Come to think of it?"
Yang Hye-jin sniffed for a moment and then shrugged.
"The toad must have picked up some leeks that fell on the ground. Anyway, we'll have dinner together after work, right?"
"Okay. At that place you always go, right?"
"Yes, Haejang-guk House."
At that time, an old Haejang-guk house that looked decades old.
-I am against this marriage!
-Father, how could you do that?
-You are brother and sister!
"Oh my..."
The cable channel on the worn brown TV was playing a rerun of "Couples Clinic: Love or War." Someone was sitting in a prime viewing spot, eyes glued to the screen, peeling garlic.
-Goddess! Don't tell the kids! You didn't do anything right!
-Mother-in-law, don't stop me, it's my child's wedding!
-I've tried to keep it a secret all my life, but now that it's come to this, I have no choice but to tell you. In fact... we are brother and sister!
"Your mother-in-law and son-in-law are brother and sister?"
A busy hand dropped the clove of garlic it was holding. By the time the young man realized what was coming, the shaven-headed lawyer had already announced the settlement date: "See you in four weeks." His hands, as stiff as stone, rustled again after a few advertisements. When the garlic cloves had accumulated to a certain point, he jumped out of his seat.
"Rubbish~ Burhurrerheh~"
The voice humming as he searched for the garbage can was pleasant, if a little deep. He walked across the hall, his height well above average, but his head didn't touch the ceiling, so he had no trouble moving.
As he tossed the shell into the trash can, the young man glanced at his watch. It was still a little while before the store opened for dinner. His eyes drifted to a corner of the store and he frowned for a moment.
"Oh, I should have sold something else..."
With a sigh, the young man tidied up his surroundings and headed for the door. He peeled the break sign off the sliding door and tossed it back where his eyes had been.
From 2 to 5 o'clock is the time for preparing the ingredients.
Among the scattered signs was an empty, crumpled, strawberry-patterned shopping bag.