Chapter 320

Why had Brooklyn suddenly exploded like that?

It took quite a while for Enzo to stop the violence. Clinging to his coworker like someone trying to restrain a drunk—though he had certainly never imagined himself ending up in that position—he finally managed to calm her down.

Only after everything had settled did he cautiously ask what had set her off.

And then the sophisticated-looking woman—who had, just moments ago, beaten someone into a bloody mess with positively barbaric ferocity—gave him an explanation.

"You should know when to stop."

The truth was, she admitted, she had disliked practically everything about her new colleague from the very beginning, ever since upper management had assigned him to work with her.

Brooklyn came from a mountain village and was, by nature, someone who preferred peace and quiet. Having spent so long working alone, suddenly being forced to operate as part of a pair had made her uncomfortable from the start.

On top of that, she was already irritable from being overworked and underpaid.

And, as if that weren't enough, some man had recently begun contacting her outside working hours.

"What? So, just to be clear—you beat me up because you were annoyed that I kept talking to you?"

"Of course."

"Then you should've just said you didn't like it! Say something! If you'd told me even once, I wouldn't have kept coming up to you like that. And what was with all that smiling lately, then?"

"Uhm?"

"People don't normally grin wide enough to show all their teeth at someone they hate!"

The hunter with sleek, glossy short hair—a stark contrast to someone else's brittle, dyed locks—casually wiped her bloodstained knuckles against her pants and flashed him another brilliant smile.

"You mean this? Obviously, that's just how I behave in social situations."

There was something strange about the entire scene.

At present, the personality dominating her was that of Brooklyn Morgan, a woman with a sharp and witty disposition.

Even so, the amount of social interaction she had experienced throughout her life was overwhelmingly limited, leaving her overall social skills decidedly below average.

"Huh."

America's S-class healer was eccentric.

Given the unusual environment in which she had grown up, perhaps she could hardly have turned out otherwise.

Disagreements that most people would have resolved long ago through conversation instead accumulated somewhere inside her, held back until they crossed some unknowable threshold and suddenly erupted at the most unexpected moment.

"Hehe."

Enzo was genuinely stunned.

To be honest, this was the first time in his life he had ever misjudged the distance between himself and another person so badly.

"So you didn't just dislike me. You absolutely hated me..."

But the truly shocking revelations weren't over yet.

"Anyway, I'm already married. So don't ever ask me to go dancing with you in private again. I even showed you this. How could you possibly think I was single?"

"What?!"

Brooklyn immediately held up the ring she always wore, pointing to it as proof that she was married.

But at that moment, one of Spectrum's teammates pointed out the obvious problem.

"You've always worn that ring on your middle finger."

"I've lost quite a lot of weight over the years. It's too loose if I wear it on my ring finger now."

"I mean, still... who wears a wedding ring like that?"

When someone deviated from ordinary social conventions one small step at a time, it was only natural that other people would have trouble reading them.

But seriously.

If her weight had changed that much over the years, wouldn't it have made far more sense to simply have the ring resized?

"You're exhausting in the strangest possible way."

After talking with her a little longer, Enzo managed to learn a few more things.

Brooklyn Morgan was indeed married.

But her husband had already passed away.

"Then maybe there's still a chance, isn't there?"

With that thought in mind, Enzo briefly considered continuing his mission—especially since completing it would earn him a year-end bonus.

Naturally, the result was catastrophically bad.

Brooklyn Morgan would never feel the slightest affection for him for the rest of her life.

The main reason she had married her husband back in the mountains, of all places, was simply because she had liked his eyes.

Despite being more particular about appearances than almost anyone else, Brooklyn showed no interest whatsoever in any attractive person who approached her.

One year, even a famous British actor who had fallen for her after seeing her on television made an aggressive attempt to court her.

Even by Enzo's standards, the man was breathtakingly handsome.

And yet Brooklyn remained utterly unmoved.

"Hey, Brooklyn. Still, with a guy that handsome, wouldn't it be worth giving him one chance? Just once, even if it's only to see what happens?"

"Mhm?"

"Honestly, dating isn't a bad way to kill time. From what I've seen, whenever you're free, all you do is waste time playing free pinball."

In a world where divorce and remarriage had become commonplace, there was nothing particularly strange about trying to find someone new.

"Hmm..."

Was she really going to spend the rest of her life without forming another bond with anyone, despite still being so young?

Considering how much life she likely had ahead of her, wouldn't that be an unbearably empty and wasteful choice?

At that point, Enzo stopped thinking about the mission his superior had given him.

For the first time, he sincerely asked what Brooklyn herself thought.

And the answer Brooklyn Morgan gave him then—almost casually—remained in his mind for a very long time.

"Are you saying that being unable to forget the dead and choosing to live alone is a waste of life?"

For an unusually long moment, Enzo said nothing.

"It's fine, Enzo. After all, wasting time can be kind of fun."

Well.

That was true.

If living that way made her happy, there really wasn't any convincing reason to try to stop her.

.

.

.

"Brooklyn!"

Time passed again.

Several months later, a basic level of mutual respect had finally formed between the two S-class hunters.

The biggest reason was the power Enzo had recently displayed on the battlefield.

After witnessing his abilities for the first time, Brooklyn realized that he was, in fact, someone roughly on her level.

Only then did she finally stop treating him with outright dismissal.

"Brooklyn. Are you ready? We need to get moving soon."

"This is awful. Why do we even have to attend another guild's founding anniversary? And on top of that, I've been saddled with the annoying job of gathering as much information on the awakened as possible—"

The company had paired the two together, so they usually attended public events as a team.

The only problem was that Enzo had signed his contract under far more relaxed conditions than most other S-rank hunters, which meant he approached much of his work with a distinctly half-hearted attitude.

"Oh, right. Come to think of it, I'm late telling you this. Brooklyn, you might have to go on an overseas business trip sometime next year."

"What nonsense are you talking about now?"

"I heard China is secretly preparing some kind of superhuman combat arena."

"It can't be much of a secret if you know about it."

"They say they're using [Traiana] as the prize to lure people in. According to the measurements, it's a pretty impressive artifact. It boosts skill power by a full 25%! You've been worrying a lot about your healing efficiency lately, haven't you?"

The two exchanged a few more words.

"I mean, knowing our Spectrum master, he's probably going to send someone there anyway, if only to protect national pride."

"Us?"

"No. Just one person. China is too powerful a rival country for them to simply shut the event down outright anymore. And if the U.S. skips an international event like this entirely, it won't look good diplomatically."

"Hmm."

"If you're going there anyway, you might as well pick up an Epic or two while you're at it. I'll talk to the guild master and see if I can get the artifact assigned to you."

"So annoying."

"Hoho, is ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) that so?"

"I'd rather something like [Nuckelavee] went on another rampage. Then all these countries would immediately stop their pathetic power struggles."

"Oh, that one was good. The very picture of an aggressive pacifist."

In any case, after that one violent incident, Enzo and Brooklyn managed to get along reasonably well as coworkers.

[[Breaking News] Beast Reappears Near Europe Once Again...]

At least, that was true until that article appeared.

[DENMARK BEAST TALKS O LIVE NEWS]

The Beast, which had only appeared sporadically since the Nuckelavee incident, had suddenly begun showing signs of activity again.

It was a strange change that had started at some point for reasons no one understood.

For reference, the fact that Brooklyn Morgan was actually a dual-attribute awakened remained a secret known only to an alien operative and one other Hunter with an extraordinarily troublesome ability.

At the time, there was not a shred of concrete evidence connecting her to the Beast.

But.

"_ _"

Strangely enough, even back then, when Enzo knew almost nothing, he had possessed a vague instinct about the Beast's true identity.

"Somehow."

He could not explain why.

But somehow, on the most fundamental level, she reminded him—

of himself.

It was the faint trace of disgust she showed toward the simple fact that she had awakened.

And as if to prove that his instincts had not been wrong, one of Spectrum's highest-ranking hunters disappeared not long afterward.

At the very same time, sightings of the Beast abruptly ceased.

Brooklyn had died.

"_ _"

In truth, part of the reason Enzo had been assigned to Brooklyn's team in the first place was to keep watch over the unusually volatile S-class hunter.

He had continuously reported her movements to their employer.

And because he had been monitoring her for so long, by the end of the incident he finally managed to uncover concrete evidence.

Brooklyn was the Beast.

Just a few days after reporting the Beast's true identity to his superiors, Enzo contacted one of the employers who was still alive.

[Enzo: Who killed Morgan?]

[Youth: Most likely Hanbok Warrior -C]

[Youth: Like I said, I checked. The awakened who entered through the Henan Province space stayed together the entire time they were inside.]

[Youth: But none of them ever crossed paths with Morgan.]

[Enzo: You mean Gim and Jung, the Koreans, right?]

[Youth: That's right]

Despite the inconvenience caused by his enormous hands, which sometimes pressed two keys at once, the towering man diligently moved his fingers across the keyboard and typed another message into the dark-web messenger.

[Enzo: Then, before the upcoming ritual begins, designate someone to lure to India and eliminate. Make it Kang Changho.]

Well.

The two highest-ranking Koreans were constantly occupied with official schedules, making it nearly impossible to draw either of them away.

Naturally, that left very few alternatives.

[SPECTRUM: Is there any particular reason we need to leave Kim Giryeo in the country?]

He didn't know.

Truthfully, even Enzo himself couldn't understand why his fingers had typed such a request.

Brooklyn Morgan had only been a colleague.

Someone he had worked with for, at most, about a year.

And like most professional relationships, theirs had been far closer to strained than sentimental.

"She was an annoying awakened."

No.

That wasn't quite right.

Enzo had disliked Brooklyn with roughly ninety percent of his heart.

After losing her husband and becoming generally bored with life, she had thrown herself into her new assignment—the orders handed down by Spectrum Inc.—with a startling amount of dedication.

So much dedication, in fact, that her colleagues often found her loyalty excessive, even pointless.

"If one person raises the standard that high, everyone else gets dragged along with them!"

Their relationship had been strictly professional.

Looking back, she had even been somewhat uncomfortable to be around.

So spending time and effort dwelling on the death of someone like that was, by any reasonable standard, profoundly pointless.

Yeah.

Maybe, just as that superhuman had once said—

‘It’s okay, Enzo. After all, wasting time can be kind of fun.’

His life now consisted of little more than drinking and nursing hangovers.

At this point, even if he indulged himself a little and wasted some time, would anyone really notice?

***

Clank.

The perspective returned to the heart of Korea.

The man who had momentarily lost himself in memories brought his attention back to the present.

In truth, one of Spectrum's psychics had been deeply connected to the Beast in many ways while she was still alive.

That was precisely why he had personally volunteered for the operation in Korea, hoping to uncover the truth behind Brooklyn's death.

But...

[33.45kw]

"What is this?"

How could someone suspected of killing the Beast possess such pathetic, insect-level magic power?

Even now, no matter how many times he thought about it, it made absolutely no sense.

"Are you some kind of fraud?"

The foreign awakened, wearing the face of the dead, quickly reached a conclusion.

Convinced that the man before him had deceived the entire world despite possessing such meager power, he began relentlessly pressing him into a corner.

Zhan of China had been a formidable psychic, capable of drawing entire underground water veins to the surface and manipulating them like extensions of his own limbs.

During the event in China, however, even Zhan had encountered an opponent who was particularly troublesome for him because of an unfavorable attribute matchup.

The most distinctive trait of lightning-based psychics was the overwhelming speed at which they could activate their skills.

And this particular hunter, who imitated beasts, had known Brooklyn closely enough to reproduce the American hunter almost like a [Doppelganger].

That alone said a great deal.

Every piece of information pointed toward one person.

The true identity of the Beast now standing in Kim Giryeo's way was none other than Spectrum's new apex hunter.

Enzo Chiano.

"A guy with an awakening level of only 33 managed to kill the Beast?"

"N-no, that's not what happened. I did see Miss Morgan in the Mimic City, but..."

"Come to think of it, even now, trapped in a cage like this, you're not resisting at all. That only proves it even more. You're a complete fraud!"

At that moment, the archmage also remembered that this opponent was the rough-looking awakened he had encountered at the American Gate Star party.

"W-what was his name again...? Something with 'Cho'? Anyway, I'm sure it sounded something like that."

So Enzo was the one behind the bone mask?!

That actually made things a little easier to understand.

His opponent was apparently under the impression that his identity was still safely concealed by the item.

"Let's fight dirty! There's really no other way."

You foolish beast.

The truth was, I had already figured out who you were through a little background investigation.

The reason I didn't expose you, and still came all the way into this dungeon without resisting...

was because I thought that, just maybe, your objective might align with my own beliefs.

"_Maybe I should test the waters now? Honestly, no matter how ridiculous his goal is, pretending to agree with him for a while shouldn't be too difficult."

Desperate to buy time, Giryeo tried to steer the conversation in a more favorable direction.

But the problem was...

"—The fact that someone with such pitiful ability has been pretending to be an S-rank all this time."

Hunter Enzo's judgment was even faster than his lightning attribute.

"If that's the case, then 'precisely because of that,' he's even more dangerous. Either way, now that it's confirmed Brooklyn came into contact with the Korean team, we should deal with this beforehand..."

Clank.

Enzo, the S-class hunter who had transformed into a woman with long, slender arms, raised the metal spear and hurled it once more.

Since it had been prepared specifically for combat against an S-class opponent, the spear possessed one simple, specialized ability.

[Defense Penetration]

Enzo threw the spear straight at his target's head.

In a world where magic and miracles were real, he believed that even someone with an awakening level of only 33.4 could still be killed if caught off guard.

"That crazy grizzly bear bastard!"

Gahh!

Caught inside the red snare, Giryeo sensed the incoming attack with the instincts of a true mage and managed to evade it.

Yet despite clearly dodging the spear itself, he still suffered tremendous damage.

And there was no need to blame [Defense Penetration] alone.

"Damn."

Enzo had gathered every bit of mana he could muster and wrapped his skill around the metal spear.

Apparently, even metal forged inside a dungeon was no exception to the movement of free electrons across its surface.

The spear tore through the air, saturated with the lightning of an S-class Hunter.

Simply grazing it was enough to shatter what remained of Giryeo's [Protection].

Bzzzt.

At the same time, the skin beside the blond man's left ear instantly sizzled and began to smoke.