The Hunter’s Gonna Lay Low - Chap 306

…Lee Sa-young opened the firmly shut bedroom door. The pitch-black room was eerily silent, as if time itself had stopped. On the neatly made bed lay a figure, hands gently folded over their chest.

It was Cha Eui-jae.

There was no trace of life in him, yet his appearance still resembled that of the living. Well, if one ignored the bandages wrapped around his head and his deathly pale complexion. The preservation stone placed beside Cha Eui-jae’s head shimmered faintly. Lee Sa-young tilted his lips into a crooked smile.

“…Have you been well?”

No answer came. Not even the faintest rise and fall of his fingertips or chest. Lee Sa-young had long since grown used to this one-sided conversation. He gazed down at Cha Eui-jae’s closed eyes for a moment before letting out a small sigh.

He wanted to see Cha Eui-jae alive and moving. Not like this— a lifeless doll. Lee Sa-young reached out toward him but pulled back before his fingers could make contact. The moment he touched him, he would be forced to acknowledge his death all over again.

The dead were cold.

‘…This isn’t something I can bear doing twice.’

Lee Sa-young sat down beside the bed, resting his head against the mattress. He didn’t dare to lie beside him. This distance was just right, close enough to feel his presence, yet far enough to ignore the reality of his death.

Lee Sa-young closed his eyes.

In the silent room, only one person’s breathing could be heard.

***

As Nam Woo-jin had said, the broken mask lay neatly beside the notebook. Cha Eui-jae ran his fingers over the fractured part. The upper left section had been shattered and broken off, while the rest of the mask was marred with fine cracks and scratches. A single tap could send it crumbling along those fractures. Wearing it again was out of the question.

‘Guess I’ll have to visit Hong Ye-seong again…’

Cha Eui-jae let out a deep sigh. There was already a mountain of things to do, and not a single one was easy.

‘And I have to move around as J often…’

Without a mask, his range of movement was severely restricted. Next time, he’d have to make sure to avoid getting hit in the head. While keeping the mask intact. Resolving himself, Cha Eui-jae opened the notebook. It hadn’t been long since he last checked, yet new entries had been added.

‘So the time flows differently, huh?’

His eyes skimmed through the pages. Most of the new entries contained unfamiliar mixture ratios and experiment records. Failure. Failure. Failure. A minor success. Failure…

And then, the final sentence of this record.

[Jung Bin is dead.]

“…”

The scene that Yoon Ga-eul had shown him flickered through his mind. Lee Sa-young, shut away in a dark room. Honeybee, yelling at him. The story about Jung Bin and Matthew dying.

So it’s already that time. His mouth tasted bitter. Was Lee Sa-young still locking himself away like in that memory? He hoped not. Cha Eui-jae sighed quietly and flipped to the last page. Soon, his eyes widened.

[Jung Bin died from having his throat torn out while stopping a mutated teammate. Check for any signs of mutation among those around Jung Bin.]

[Take care of yourself.]

[Don’t overdo it.]

[I miss you too.]

Cha Eui-jae read over the neat handwriting multiple times before finally forming a thought.

Isn’t the gap between these sentences way too big?

‘…Seriously, this is almost ghost-like.’

How could he say something like this right after he took a monster attack to the head? Whether it was Mackerel or Nam Woo-jin, he’d need to keep their mouths shut before Lee Sa-young returned.

Feeling a little embarrassed, Cha Eui-jae scratched his cheek and reread the last sentence. I miss you too. It was a clear response. A reply to the feelings he had agonized over before writing them down. His message had been received. Something tickled in the corner of his heart. Cha Eui-jae fidgeted with his fingers for no reason.

‘But more importantly…’

If this information was accurate, Jung Bin’s death could be prevented, just like how he had stopped the whitening of the fish market. Lee Sa-young must have shared this with that exact intent.

‘…I can do this.’

No, he had no choice but to do it. As he reached for a pen, he spotted a container filled with freshly sharpened pencils.

“…”

…Did he prepare these because I kept breaking them? There was no way Nam Woo-jin had sharpened them himself. It was probably that boy who acted as his assistant, carefully preparing them one by one.

‘…I feel kind of bad now.’

Cha Eui-jae carefully picked up a pencil. It would be a shame to snap it again while trying to write properly this time. In the end, he scrawled out his usual handwriting.

[I’ll check on it.]

[You take care of yourself too.]

He hesitated for a moment before adding one more sentence.

[Don’t just stay in your room. Go out and walk around.]

…Was that too nagging? Cha Eui-jae tapped his temple with the pencil’s eraser before setting it down. Either way, he had no eraser to erase it, and this much nagging should be fine. He was the older one, after all. After memorizing Lee Sa-young’s handwriting, he closed the notebook and placed it on the desk before stepping out of the room.

‘First, I’ll go to Hong Ye-seong to get the mask repaired. Then, I’ll stop by Mackerel to suggest relocating the fish market. After that, I’ll visit the Pado Guild’s research team to discuss how to open the dungeon, and finally, I’ll check on Jung Bin’s teammates…’

As he counted his tasks on his fingers, his steps continued forward. Then suddenly, the sound of hurried footsteps echoed down the hall. Cha Eui-jae quickly ducked behind a corner.

“Huff… Huff…”

The person who appeared in the hallway was Min-jun, the researcher he had met before. He had been part of the medical team treating Lee Sa-young, but now worked directly under Nam Woo-jin. Hadn’t he mentioned something about drug experiments? Why was he here? Curious, Cha Eui-jae peeked out and observed Min-jun. His face was deathly pale, drenched in cold sweat, and even his hands were trembling.

‘…Something’s off.’

Was he sick? Approaching him for questioning was out of the question without a mask. Just then, bzzzt. A vibration rang out. Min-jun shakily pulled out his phone and answered the call. He took off running in the opposite direction of Cha Eui-jae as he spoke.

“…How can you call me now? I’m in the middle of an experiment. I can only make so many excuses to step out… You know what’ll happen if I get caught…”

His voice grew fainter. Even straining to listen, Cha Eui-jae couldn’t hear the person on the other end. Or maybe they weren’t responding at all. Eventually, Min-jun’s presence disappeared entirely.

Cha Eui-jae stared at the hallway he had vanished down with suspicion. His instincts were warning him, something was definitely going on…

…But following him now would be impossible. Repairing the mask was the priority. Pushing aside his unease, Cha Eui-jae turned down the opposite corridor.

***

Chirp, chirp, chirp. The loud cries of birds echoed through the air. Cha Eui-jae blankly stared at the vast grassy yard. Kkokko was waddling around, lazily bobbing its head, and behind it, six chick-like birds followed closely. Surprisingly, they weren’t ceramic like Kkokko, but real birds with soft, fluffy feathers.

‘…Those aren’t monster hatchlings, are they?’

Of course, they were a bit… too big to be regular chicks.

With their yellow, fuzzy feathers and incessant peeping, they were clearly young, yet they were already larger than Kkokko. They had to be baby monster birds. Cha Eui-jae quickly scanned through the monster database in his mind…

From the courtyard kiln, a wave of heat rolled out. Hong Ye-seong, who had been fanning the flames with a massive fan, grumbled.

“Seriously? You went and broke the mask I poured my heart and soul into? What the hell did you do, get into a fistfight with a monster or something? This thing isn’t supposed to break so easily!”

Since he did get hit by a monster’s paw, “fistfight” wasn’t exactly wrong. Cha Eui-jae casually deflected the question.

“Something like that. By the way, what’s with those chicks… I mean, birds?”

“Huh? Oh, I made some friends for Kkokko.”

“They look more like subordinates than friends.”

“Technically, I created underlings for it. Listen, I became friends with this old hermit living in Jirisan, and he gave me six eggs. They were as big as ostrich eggs, huge!”

“Uh-huh.”

“So, naturally, I was going to boil them and eat them, but BAM! Kkokko slapped me across the face!”

“Ohh.”

“And then it just took the eggs and ran off, completely ignoring me lying on the floor! Next thing I knew… ta-da! Those little guys hatched. Cute, aren’t they?”

“…Are you sure they’re not monsters?”

“Huh? Don’t be stupid. What about them looks like monsters? They’re chicks. They’re yellow, fluffy, adorable, have wings, walk on two legs, and they follow Kkokko around like it’s their leader.”

There were too many things to argue with. But Cha Eui-jae decided it wasn’t worth the effort.

‘We could debate this for days…’

Might as well just accept them as oversized chicks. Even if they were monsters, Kkokko seemed to have them firmly under control. Cha Eui-jae checked his phone. A message had arrived from the younger Mackerel.

[I’ll contact you once the relocation site is finalized, hyung-nim~^^ Thank you so much for this. If your head still hurts, make sure to see a doctor~^^ Just tell them Mackerel’s covering the treatment costs*^^*]

The Noryangjin fish market was set to be temporarily relocated. Although they had prevented a dungeon break, the dungeon entrance itself hadn’t disappeared, meaning the core threat remained. No one knew when another whiteout might occur. After much deliberation, the Mackerel brothers had finally made a decision.

“We don’t have a choice. Ugh, setting everything up from scratch is going to take forever. Hyung, you’ve got a lot of stored magic stones, right?”

“Uh, y-yeah… I have enough to start over.”

“Great. This time, let’s pick a location far from the dungeon. Any good places in mind?”

“We, we also need to find a place for the merchants to stay…”

“So! That means I’m stepping away from my info broker gig for a while. Even if it’s you, hyung-nim, I won’t be able to take any requests~ Hope you understand!”

That was probably for the best. Losing their help was unfortunate, but ultimately, moving was the right choice. Cha Eui-jae sprawled out on the wooden floor of the veranda, arms spread wide. Just then, his phone buzzed. An unknown number.

‘There aren’t many people who have this number.’

Who could it be? Cha Eui-jae frowned slightly as he answered the call, planning to hang up if it wasn’t important. On the other end, a slick, almost playful voice greeted him.

—Ah, ah~ This is J’s phone, right?

“…”

—I’ve got something to discuss with you~ is now a good time?

Cha Eui-jae’s brows furrowed slightly. He had definitely heard this voice before.

—Oh, right! I forgot to introduce myself~ This is Gyu-Gyu.

A grinning face flickered to life in his mind. Gyu-Gyu chuckled.

—It’s nothing too serious~ I just wanted to talk about working on something with you, J.