Chapter 52: The Predator Beneath the Storm

The sound of flesh being struck rang out repeatedly.

The moment one of the men mentioned dragging him around tied to a rope, I realized what had happened to Lee Shinwoo.

They had tied him behind a motorcycle engine and dragged him across the ground this entire time.

My fists trembled violently.

I was so furious tears spilled out on their own.

How could human beings do something like that to another person?

I clenched my fists so tightly it felt like the tiny blood vessels in my eyes were bursting one after another.

Thud— crack—

“Agh… ngh… uuugh…”

The groans crushed by pain pierced straight through my ears.

‘f*ck, you think we want to do this? It’s hard enough just trying to survive! If we don’t do things like this, our families and relatives will all starve to death! What the hell else are we supposed to do?!’

‘Then maybe don’t be born like that.’

And suddenly, a question surfaced in my mind.

‘If you’re going to be angry, blame society. Blame the government. Why are you taking innocent civilians hostage and pulling this pathetic stunt instead, you lunatics?’

Was this how the victims of the previous terrorist attack felt too?

Was this how it felt to watch loved ones, siblings, or children die while being expected to understand the people pointing guns at them in the name of social injustice?

‘That’s just how human life is. Poverty is a sin. Ignorance is a sin too.’

Could something done out of desperation—

Something done to survive—

Something done for personal gain—

Really become a perfect excuse?

Even if life was unbearably difficult, did that justify stealing lives, weighing the value of human beings, and turning suffering itself into entertainment?

‘Even if you did it because life was unbearable, that still doesn’t become a perfect excuse.’

Until now, I had considered the terrorists from the department store incident victims created by society.

Innocent people had died, yes.

But honestly, I sympathized more with the terrorists killed by Kwon Yiyul than with the victims themselves.

Yet now that I stood here watching the shelter members—including myself—be hunted down and slaughtered by rebels, I realized something.

They weren’t victims.

They were perpetrators.

Even if their ultimate goal was survival, the refugees who committed terrorism and the men trampling innocent lives before my eyes now were no different when it came to the weight of their crimes.

No—

They were exactly the same.

Just as the raiders murdered people within their own district to obtain supplies during the civil war, the refugees who infiltrated the Upper District had also stolen innocent lives simply because their own lives were difficult.

‘So if you want to resent someone, resent yourself to death.’

Never in my life did I think I would someday understand Kwon Yiyul’s perspective.

I didn’t know whether to laugh bitterly at that realization or mock my own ignorance for viewing every incident around me only through my own lens all this time.

I just felt hollow.

Realizing this now wouldn’t change anything.

And with the boundaries between victim and perpetrator, black and white, completely erased, all that remained inside me was endless confusion.

My head throbbed violently.

Nausea churned in my stomach.

Blood streamed from my nose.

“…Hic… ngh…”

Holding Song Ahyoung in my arms, I slowly peeked out from the hollow tree.

There, I saw the raiders mercilessly beating Lee Shinwoo while grinding the heel of a combat boot into his unconscious face.

Even though I could only vaguely make out their silhouettes beneath the moonlit haze, it felt like my chest was tearing apart.

Out of every possible place, they deliberately chose to stomp on his face—

The one part of the body most capable of humiliating a person.

The intent behind it was painfully obvious.

Perhaps he had already blacked out from the beating.

Shinwoo merely twitched weakly without any real movement.

‘Please… please…’

I prayed.

Holding the dying Song Ahyoung in my arms while watching Lee Shinwoo die before my eyes, I prayed desperately until my hands and feet wore away.

The same way I once begged for Yoon Heesung to live.

The same way I screamed for his leg to be returned to him.

If they had no intention of saving us, then just kill us here.

Kill all of us.

Kill both the raiders and us equally.

‘Please…’

I believed people deserved at least a human death.

None of us chose our birth.

None of us chose our lives.

So at the very least, I wanted death to remain human.

I didn’t want to become someone else’s entertainment.

Someone else’s gambling chip.

Someone else’s joke.

I wanted death to simply remain death.

Rumble—

KRAAAASH—

Suddenly, it sounded as though the sky itself split apart.

A bolt of lightning the size of a house tore through the black clouds and struck directly where the raiders stood.

Not nearby.

Not somewhere else.

Exactly where they stood.

The motorcycles flipped violently through the air like tossed playing cards.

Even the grenade launcher meant for us twisted beyond recognition and became unusable.

The raiders panicked briefly at the mysterious attack.

But judging from how quickly they regrouped, this clearly wasn’t their first encounter with something like this.

Unlike the terrorists from the Upper District department store, these men moved like hardened survivors.

KRRRRAAAK—

But as if mocking their efforts, countless lightning bolts ripped through the sky again.

The lightning pierced through the raiders’ bodies, burning the moisture inside them and filling the air with the stench of charred flesh.

Some didn’t even have time to scream before turning to black ash and scattering into the wind.

“f*ck! What the hell is this?!”

The lightning moved beautifully.

Strangely.

Wildly.

Freely.

And every strike looked different.

The raiders quickly realized this wasn’t natural.

“f*ck— I can’t see!”

“Not there, idiot! Aim properly!”

The flashes were so blinding several men genuinely lost their sight, unable to even tell where their guns were pointing.

Riding the storm winds, the lightning claimed more lives.

Some bolts curved like hooks and tore through throats.

Others twisted like ropes and wrapped around ankles.

Others resembled the sharp blade of a fencing épée and pierced directly through ribcages.

The raiders were being devoured by lightning.

No—

Consumed alive.

“…Looks like there’s more trash to clean up than I thought.”

Then, stepping over the remains of the still-burning raiders, something savage yet strangely innocent revealed itself.

Sharp lightning shaped like wolf fangs danced atop a pale, elegant hand.

Another massive strike crashed behind the uninvited guest.

KRRRUMBLE—

Trees collapsed in all directions.

Everything nearby became unrecognizable wreckage.

As though walking atop a red carpet stained black by fire and ash, the intruder approached the raiders with graceful, leisurely steps.

The raiders responded by aiming every gun they had toward him and pulling the trigger nonstop, as though acknowledging the arrogance of a lone man facing an entire force by himself.

“I’m already busy enough, and now vermin like you are making me waste energy too.”

A straight bolt of lightning suddenly curved upward like a shark lunging for prey.

The bullets fired toward him melted instantly under the lightning’s heat, dripping like molten metal.

Every time the predator moved his hand, the boundary between sky and earth vanished beneath violent storms.

The raiders had their limbs torn away one by one by the predator’s guardian lightning.

Foaming at the mouth, they sprawled lifelessly across the rocks.

Judging by the blood pouring from them like fountains, they would all be dead within minutes.

“Stay exactly where you are, Yoon.”

A flash of lightning illuminated sharp reptilian pupils opening in the darkness beneath the blue-gray sky.

Among everyone I knew, only one man possessed eyes that deeply golden.

Only one person called me “Yoon.”

Kwon Yiyul.

Without hiding his fury in the slightest, he spoke slowly, emphasizing every word.

A radiant smile spread across his face—

Yet nothing about his actions matched it.

Though he could have erased them instantly with a single gesture, he deliberately crushed the raiders slowly and thoroughly instead.

As if savoring it.

Or perhaps showing off his power and authority to me for daring to flee the Center without permission.

Step—

“Ah… f*ck.”

It felt like every drop of blood drained from my body instantly.

My legs shook so violently it wouldn’t have been strange if I’d wet myself right then and there.

Kwon Yiyul, drenched in blood as he slowly approached me, terrified me beyond words.

The closer he came, the tighter I held Song Ahyoung.

Honestly, this was the first time I felt grateful my cognitive abilities had dulled because of the medicine’s side effects.

If I had encountered him in a normal state of mind right now, I would have fainted on the spot.

“I had just gotten this uniform tailored recently, but now it’s completely ruined. What should I do?”

“……”

“Hm? I asked what I should do, Yoon.”

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