Chapter 45
“Have you ever been to a club?”
“No, I haven’t. I never needed to.”
Seo Yeonhee spoke with a gloomy expression.
“I’ve had a boyfriend since I was a minor.”
“…”
Seo Yeonhee’s eyes were shaking. It was a fact that it would have been better not to know, a story that it would have been better not to ask.
His mouth felt bitter. It was a bitterness that he couldn’t comfort her with, and had nothing to say.
“…Hmm.”
Mason rinsed his mouth with a sip of beer. Along with mumbles that couldn’t be words.
‘What should I say?’
It was the moment Mason hesitated, speechless.
Seo Yeonhee spoke with an indifferent expression.
“It’s Darkwing.”
It was a sight that now felt commonplace.
Mason turned his head without thinking.
That’s when he felt something strange.
“Its trajectory is a little different than usual?”
“Is it?”
“Yes, it’s subtle, but… lower.”
The wing angle was subtly different.
If the usual angle was to catch the wind and maintain altitude, now it was an angle to lower altitude.
Mason’s eyes sharpened.
‘Is it trying to land?’
He doesn’t know where or why it’s trying to land.
No, he couldn’t even tell if it was really trying to land.
But it was the first change he had discovered, the first clue he had obtained.
“…”
Mason made up his mind.
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The next morning.
“Let’s go to work.”
Mason approached Masika, who was preparing for the salvage.
“Masika, let’s talk.”
“Yes?”
Mason spoke calmly.
“I’m going to track Darkwing.”
Masika’s brow furrowed.
“…Do you have any basis for that?”
“Last night, while drinking beer with Seo Yeonhee, I saw Darkwing preparing to land.”
“Are you sure?”
“Probably.”
“You could be mistaken.”
Masika looked at Seo Yeonhee.
“Did you see it too, Yeonhee?”
“I did see Darkwing. But I’m not sure if the wing angle changed or not.”
Mason could adjust his eyeballs to achieve telescopic vision. But Seo Yeonhee didn’t have a telescope, and couldn’t confirm the subtle changes Mason was talking about.
“All I can testify to is that Mason wasn’t drunk.”
“Okay. Then let’s say the wing angle really did change.”
Masika crossed her arms.
“Where do you predict the landing site is?”
“…”
Mason was speechless.
A gliding bird was not a VTOL fighter jet. It didn’t just land on the spot by folding its wings. It was a matter of slowing down, adjusting the distance, and then landing.
“No, can you even be sure that it was really going home? It could be swooping down to catch prey, right?”
Why exactly did the wing angle change?
If it was to catch prey, it would have maintained that angle and speed and swooped down.
Even if it was going back to its nest, he didn’t know how many times it would slow down.
Humans, no, Mason knew almost nothing about Darkwing.
Except for the fact that Darkwing slowed down at a certain point.
“And… this is the only time you’ve seen Darkwing slowing down.”
“…”
“The information we have is too little compared to the risk.”
Only the monsters in this vicinity had been cleared. The moment they left this area to search a wider area, they might as well be jumping into a horde of monsters.
If they spent their time clearing monsters, Darkwing would also notice that something was wrong.
It was a vicious cycle.
“I’m against it.”
Masika’s words were sound. Mason knew it himself. He was being unreasonable based on flimsy evidence.
But…
“…I want to try something.”
“…”
“If we fail, the military will be dispatched. Many people will d*e, and a lot of money will be spent. At that time, I want to tell myself.”
Mason pounded his chest with his fist.
“I did my best.”
“I don’t disagree with that idea. And I’m not against catching Darkwing. But realistically…”
Seo Yeonhee, who was listening from the side, spoke up.
“You want to chase Darkwing, don’t you, Mason?”
“Yes.”
“And you can’t move the raid camp, can you, Masika?”
“That’s right.”
“Then there’s a compromise.”
Seo Yeonhee spoke calmly.
“Send a small team, no, just me and Mason. Then there won’t be a major disruption to our forces.”
“But it’s difficult to lose the main tanker. What if Darkwing attacks our camp?”
“That’s…”
Andrei spoke up.
“I’m here.”
“…”
“You seem to have forgotten because you treat me as a sub tanker, but I’m a main tanker. If it’s a situation where I can’t stop it, you’re supposed to d*e.”
Andrei’s words were blunt, but they were also sound.
If Darkwing attacked, Andrei would be the tanker. And if monsters attacked that he couldn’t stop… no clever tactics or strategies would be of any help in that situation.
Masika pondered for a moment.
“…Okay.”
He didn’t know what she was weighing in her mind. Maybe she thought it didn’t matter because it would fail anyway, or maybe she expected Mason to accomplish something.
“However, only the two of you are going. Mason and Seo Yeonhee.”
Anyway, consent was consent.
“Okay, let’s do that.”
Masika turned around.
“Come on, let’s all go to work.”
Masika and the others disappeared into the street.
The remaining three looked at each other.
“What do we do now?”
“What should we do now?”
“What are we going to do now?”
The three fell silent at the same time.
Seo Yeonhee asked with a dumbfounded expression.
“…You didn’t have a plan?”
“…I was going to discuss it after we came to a conclusion.”
Seo Yeonhee was dumbfounded for a moment, then chuckled.
“Let’s find a means of transportation first.”
“We have a car.”
“There are many places that are difficult to enter by car. I wish we had a motorbike.”
Andrei pointed to the corner of the alley.
“I think I saw a usable motorbike around there.”
“Okay, let’s move.”
While the salvage operation was underway, Mason and Seo Yeonhee also began to gather useful things from the surroundings. They found a large Harley-Davidson motorbike in an exhibition hall, and gathered other parts.
Andrei expertly serviced and refueled it. He looked at Mason and Seo Yeonhee and asked.
“Anyone who knows how to ride a motorbike?”
Mason looked at Seo Yeonhee, and she nodded.
“Since there’s no key, we need to start it by short-circuiting this electric wire. Don’t forget to watch carefully.”
Andrei started the keyless motorbike with a skill he didn’t know where he learned. Seo Yeonhee nodded.
“Okay, let’s take it for a test drive.”
Seo Yeonhee got on the motorbike. She turned around and said.
“What are you doing? Get on, Mason.”
“…You want me to ride in the back?”
“If you’re not going to drive, you have to ride in the back.”
“…Wrap my arms around your waist?”
The tight-fitting rogue combat suit, in a sense, showed off her sensual curves even more than being naked. Seo Yeonhee’s waist, thin enough to be wrapped around with Mason’s one arm, was so attractive that it was hard to touch.
Seo Yeonhee stared at Mason and said.
“You want to run?”
“…No, no.”
The moment Mason got on the motorbike.
Splash!
The front wheel of the bike lifted up due to the weight of his body and armor.
“…It would be better to take off your armor and ride.”
“Yeah…”
Mason took off his armor and got on the back seat of the bike.
As he leaned against Seo Yeonhee’s back and wrapped his arms around her waist, her elastic body and body temperature seeped into Mason’s body.
“…Ah, I’m hard.”
“…You really want to run?”
“Sorry…”
Andrei chuckled.
“You’re a mess.”
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After that day, a motorbike and Seo Yeonhee were added to the camp standby team.
Unlike Mason, who usually sat blankly, and Andrei, who drank beer and chatted, she was the type to do something even when she had free time.
“Hook! Hook!”
She did strength training for two hours a day according to a set routine, and in her spare time, she would read monster-related data or complicated-looking economics books.
Mason, sitting blankly, blankly looked at Seo Yeonhee.
“You live a busy life.”
“I have only one body, but a lot to do.”
Seo Yeonhee said with a smile.
“Want to work out together? I think a book club would be too much.”
“Huh? I don’t need to work out. My smart cells keep me in top condition at all times.”
Andrei and Seo Yeonhee, who heard those words, looked at Mason with a very resentful expression.
“You mean your muscles stay toned even if you don’t work out?”
“You mean you don’t gain weight even if you don’t diet?”
For some reason, Mason felt a sense of guilt at their seemingly resentful voices.
“Isn’t that how the human body works?”
He didn’t know why, but.
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The peaceful, if you could call it peaceful, time was broken when Darkwing appeared.
“It’s here!”
Seo Yeonhee started the engine, and Mason sat behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist.
“I’ll just look ahead, so give me directions!”
“Okay!”
And so the chase began.
They chased Darkwing’s shadow through alleys and streets.
“Ah, we lost it.”
However, the ground was too crowded to chase a flying bird that could fly without obstacles.
“Well, I didn’t expect results in a day or two.”
“Hmm.”
They marked the tracked trajectory on the map.
While the other raid members were doing salvage work, Seo Yeonhee and Mason continued their own work.
As they got used to the tracking, the flight path of Darkwing marked on the map began to lengthen.
“…Hmm.”
He began to get a rough estimate.
Twice a day. Although the time itself was not accurate, Darkwing was flying twice a day.
The first flight was during the day, and the time and altitude were constant. The second flight was at night, and the time and altitude were not constant.
“Perhaps the daytime flight is reconnaissance?”
“Checking to see if there are any risk factors?”
“Yes.”
“Then the evening flight could be considered hunting.”
“Probably.”
There was no reason for the time to be different if the purpose of the two flights was the same. If the time of the daytime flight was regular but the nighttime flight was irregular, there must be a reason for it.
“And the fact that the flight trajectory is constant means…”
“…The destination is the same.”
There was.
Darkwing definitely had a ‘nest’.
He didn’t know what form it was or where it was, but there must be a place that served as a shelter and hiding place.
It was definitely at the end of the line they were drawing now…
