Immortals vs. Grim Reapers - chapter 15
Chapter 15: Load, Aim, Fire (Part 4)
‘…He really loves bombs.’
This was Gangrim’s thought as he hid behind a wall after the zombie with the tripwire exploded on the stairs.
Gangrim had anticipated booby traps from the moment he entered the hotel.
It was the sniper’s main base. Of course there would be traps.
Gangrim survived unscathed because he had kicked the zombie into the trapped area before the explosion and hidden behind a wall.
Smelling gunpowder, Gangrim contemplated Lopez’s end.
‘I’ll make you die embracing those bombs you love so much.’
Afterward, he used his enhanced ‘Stealth’ to move as quietly as possible while searching for Lopez.
The hotel’s carpeting made it easy to muffle sounds. There were zombies and booby traps, but they were mere toys to Gangrim, who hid in darkness and strode with Bihyeong’s Eyes.
‘He should be around here.’
After dispatching the zombies in the corridor, Gangrim analyzed the locations of the booby traps to estimate where Lopez might be hiding.
Gunfire would confirm it, but Lopez seemed to have become cautious, as there was no movement.
‘There’s a simple way to check if someone’s inside or not.’
Gangrim first smashed the jaws of the remaining zombies, then dragged them along.
Next, he gathered all the booby traps he had disarmed and tied them to the zombies’ bodies, connecting them with tripwires. During this work, a massive explosion occurred outside.
‘The fake Lopez must have exploded. It was probably the biggest decoy.’
If so, the real Lopez would start moving now. Sure enough, rustling sounds could be heard from inside the room.
Gangrim knocked on the door.
The sounds immediately stopped.
Gangrim flung the door open while stepping aside.
Exploding flames and steel balls poured out.
Immediately after, he pushed in the zombies rigged with booby traps. The zombies rushed towards Lopez, who was in a bright and noisy place, rather than Gangrim hidden in darkness.
‘Zombies will try to eat Immortals too.’
This was evident from how Gerald and the VIPs avoided zombies. Though zombies were said to be a type of Immortal, they didn’t seem to receive any special treatment.
As expected, the zombies stumbled through the smoke, spotted the real Lopez, and charged.
They couldn’t bite, but getting close was enough. The moment gunshots rang out, Gangrim pulled the tripwire.
Another explosion and flames erupted in the room.
“How’s that? Huh? Feels good to get a taste of your own medicine?”
Gangrim leapt into the room, expecting to find Lopez in tatters.
But Lopez was nowhere to be seen.
He might have been blown to pieces, but there was no time to search thoroughly.
The hotel had caught fire and was starting to burn.
Gangrim turned his attention to the only escape route Lopez could use.
‘Outside.’
Hurrying to look out the window, he saw a man in a poncho crawling on top of wrecked cars.
Though he had avoided being torn apart by the explosion, his legs were in mismatched, tattered condition.
“So you really are an Immortal.”
Gangrim shook his head in disbelief and was about to jump down when he realized this was the fifth floor.
Being a grim reaper, he wouldn’t die, but there was no need to break his legs unnecessarily.
Gangrim raced down the stairs.
“Ha, this bastard. Crawling so well without legs.”
Gangrim quickly descended to the first floor. Though he was delayed by booby traps along the way, he didn’t think he’d be slower than someone without legs.
A trail of blood led from the wrecked car where Lopez had fallen to the road.
Gangrim readjusted his grip on the hand axe, ready to finish off Lopez waiting at the end of the blood trail.
At that moment, someone grabbed his hand and yanked him hard.
Bang.
The moment Gangrim fell, a bullet pierced exactly where his head had been.
Gangrim turned to the side in shock. Yu Wolryeong was crouching beside him, taking cover.
“You let your guard down.”
“No, he definitely didn’t have a gun when I saw him earlier!”
“That’s what we call letting your guard down.”
It was a mistake not to think an enemy crawling without weapons, torn to shreds and legless, would counterattack—if it was a mistake at all.
“Lopez is an Immortal. You can’t treat him like an ordinary human.”
“…I see.”
Come to think of it, Gerald had killed him even when he was practically a corpse.
That power wasn’t possible just because he was a powerful awakened one.
Literal immortality.
He had to assume combat ability remained intact until definitively subdued.
Just then, Lopez’s voice rang out.
“Listen, hunter!”
It was fluent Korean, uncharacteristic for someone named Lopez.
“Do you think I’ll die from something like this?! No matter what you do, I won’t die!”
“He’s an Immortal.”
“Indeed. He’s confessing it clearly with his own mouth.”
Gangrim examined the bullet marks on the wall and estimated their trajectory. Lopez seemed to be hiding somewhere among the overturned cars mangled by the explosion.
“If we torture him, we might extract information about the Immortals behind him.”
Gangrim spotted a mirror shard on the ground and carefully extended it out from behind the wrecked car they were using as cover.
However, another shot rang out simultaneously, shattering the mirror.
He was quite a marksman. Gangrim thought it would have been dangerous if he had attacked with sniping from the start.
“The bullets seem ordinary. Should I just charge in and grab him?”
“Are you confident you won’t get shot in the head?”
“Does the head not regenerate?”
Yu Wolryeong stared at Gangrim.
“The soul becoming the body’s master doesn’t mean you can’t die. Eventually, you can’t wear clothes that are too tattered and torn. Do you plan to walk around in a body that’s in tatters, even if it regenerates endlessly?”
“…So it doesn’t regenerate?”
“Reaper Ju Gangrim, you possess the precious talent of being alive. Don’t waste that talent too much. You won’t die instantly if shot in the head, but you’ll enter a brain-dead state, leaving you defenseless.”
“But you said grim reapers don’t collect their own souls, right?”
“If you truly approach death, Reaper Ju Gangrim will belong to the Book of Life, not the living world. Then you’ll be bound by the laws of the Book of Life like me, negating the purpose of hiring you.”
“So I’ll become useless.”
The implication was to endure moderate injuries but avoid major wounds that regeneration couldn’t cover.
Gangrim wanted to avoid situations where his entire body would be shattered or his head smashed in one blow.
“Then, Reaper Yu Wolryeong…”
Yu Wolryeong stared blankly at Gangrim. Someone of Yu Wolryeong’s caliber, who appeared like a ghost, could easily capture Lopez.
But this was fundamentally started as part of training. It would be ridiculous for Yu Wolryeong to intervene there.
She had already intervened significantly by preventing Gangrim’s head from being pierced.
“The method to subdue him is already in Reaper Ju Gangrim’s hands.”
Yu Wolryeong raised her hand and tapped Gangrim’s forehead. Gangrim looked at his Death Sword.
“If you’ve enhanced the Death Sword, it means you’re ready for Uigwanjeongje. You just don’t know how. Even if it’s not perfect, you should be able to do it.”
“How do I call it forth?”
“Become the master of your flesh. Command and control your body’s pain and sensations. Instead, envelop and protect your flesh with your soul. That is a reaper’s uniform. The Death Sword will help.”
It was an ambiguous statement.
Gangrim tried to understand Yu Wolryeong’s words. It wasn’t easy as it required imagination.
Unable to bear watching any longer, Yu Wolryeong spoke.
“Or you could just…”
“I understand.”
Gangrim said as he prepared to stand up. Yu Wolryeong’s eyes widened at this.
“Are you ready?”
“No. I still don’t quite get it, but I’m going to try anyway. I’m good at overcoming things through improvisation in crises. And the sun is almost setting.”
Gangrim wasn’t the type to grow by agonizing in front of a desk. He was the type to refine and grow himself through collision and friction.
Gangrim estimated the distance to where Lopez was likely to be and his own speed.
When Gangrim first crossed the road, Lopez had missed him. Gangrim judged he would have at least one chance to dodge.
Then Yu Wolryeong spoke.
“Very well. I’ll give you one chance.”
“What?”
At that moment, Yu Wolryeong poked her head out above the wrecked car. Simultaneously, with a bang, a bullet pierced Yu Wolryeong’s forehead.
As Gangrim hesitated at this unbelievable sight, Yu Wolryeong’s eyes rolled on the ground.
Then her lips quivered.
“Go.”
Gangrim ran.
The time it takes for Lopez to pull the trigger, reload, and aim at the next target to shoot is about 1.7 seconds or less.
Gangrim quickly closed the distance to Lopez in that time.
Soon, a flash sparked from inside an overturned car body. Gangrim ran almost prostrate.
The cast shadow momentarily distorted his silhouette.
Tang, te-tang!
Lopez’s bullets grazed Gangrim’s shoulder and ricocheted off another wrecked car.
Now less than half the distance remained to Lopez. Gangrim drew his hand axe.
Lopez had only one chance left.
But Lopez didn’t shoot.
The moment Gangrim charged into the wrecked car.
When they were close enough to see each other’s eyes.
Lopez aimed precisely at Gangrim’s forehead.
Bang.
Lopez smiled as he saw Gangrim’s head being pierced. But that smile vanished instantly.
Gangrim’s head, which he thought he had definitely hit, disappeared into darkness like a mirage.
At that moment, the sun set.
Thud.
Lopez felt a brief pain and twisted his body. However, when he turned his head, he belatedly realized his right hand holding the gun had been severed.
Lopez hurriedly grabbed a grenade with his left hand.
Thud.
The left hand fell off, still clutching the grenade.
Lopez belatedly felt a weight pressing down on his body. A cool sensation was seeping down from above his head.
“It’s time to die.”
A mumbling voice from the darkness caressed his nape.
Only then did Lopez realize the situation.
Gangrim hadn’t been shot. Rather, he had entered Lopez’s car and mounted his back.
What he thought was the setting sun was due to the strange black fabric Gangrim was wearing.
From that pitch-black clothing came the rustling of wind and the scent of desolate west wind.
“Wait…”
Thud.
Lopez’s vision flipped.
In his inverted view, he saw his own body with its limbs severed, and Gangrim crouching over it like a ghost.
In the darkness, only his greenish-black eyes gleamed eerily.
“You’ve succeeded.”
As Gangrim crawled out of the wrecked car, Yu Wolryeong stood before him.
She was applying fake skin to her forehead where the bullet had hit. Gangrim looked at her incredulously and said with a sigh,
“You didn’t need to take the bullet for me. I just had to avoid getting hit in the head.”
“It’s part of the education I can show as a senior. You still seem unfamiliar with your new job. And when I said ‘succeeded,’ I was referring to Uigwanjeongje.”
Gangrim looked down at himself.
He was wearing a pitch-black overcoat and jacket.
From the black hat that didn’t even shine to his shoes, it was the perfect scholar’s attire you’d expect to see in a museum, except for the color being black.
The fabric resembled the darkness of dawn where even the moon isn’t visible, and when the sleeves moved, they felt as light as night fog.
The rustling sound of the fabric colliding was indistinguishable from grass swaying in the wind.
“To succeed in Uigwanjeongje from head to toe all at once… remarkable.”
“Uh… is this unusual?”
Gangrim asked awkwardly, tilting the hat perched on his head.
“I can only say that you seem truly prepared to become a reaper. Some take 1 to 10 years or more to fully don the uniform.”
“I guess it’s because my job in life was killing people.”
Zombies, to be precise.
And now his job in death was to hunt Immortals.
“Yeomna: I see you’ve succeeded in Uigwanjeongje.”
A message from Yeomna arrived just then. Gangrim wondered how closely Yeomna was monitoring him.
Is there a surveillance camera somewhere? Gangrim asked Yeomna something he’d been curious about.
“Gangrim: Why make us wear these strange clothes?”
“Yeomna: Got a problem with clothes imbued with the spirit and tradition of our ancestors?”
“Yeomna: Are you a traitor to the nation?”
“Yeomna: Jokes aside, it’s actually an issue caused by the Death Sword’s previous owner.”
“Gangrim: Previous owner?”
“Yeomna: Yeah, you’re a parachute hire. You inherited used equipment too.”
“Yeomna: It’s because you’re an intern not officially registered with the Death Sword and the Book of Life, so don’t worry about it.”
“Gangrim: That’s true, but it’s irritating to hear it from the person who brought me here.”
“Yeomna: Anyway, that’s why you inherited the uniform used by the previous owner.”
“Yeomna: Just get used to it. It’s not bad.”
Gangrim sighed but had no choice. Though he grumbled, it wasn’t too bad.
He didn’t care much about attire to begin with, and the fit was quite comfortable and practical, so he didn’t feel the need to nitpick.
“That aside, what should we do with this?”
Gangrim held up Lopez’s severed head in front of Yu Wolryeong.
“Judging by his appearance, he seems to be of Korean descent. A Korean-American? No wonder his Korean was so fluent.”
Lopez had lost consciousness, but his body temperature was still warm, and there was no sign of his blood coagulating.
Even as a novice grim reaper, Gangrim could tell that the guy was still alive despite having his head cut off.
Yu Wolryeong looked at Lopez carefully before speaking.
“Let’s begin the Sajochohon (Summoning of the Dead Soul).”