I followed the first person I saw.

The pale man didn’t stop running through the alley. Bang! He crashed into a recycling bin, the impact so loud it sounded like a car accident. The bin was dented like a crumpled can, but the man didn’t stop.

Even if I told him to, he wouldn’t stop anyway.

I pushed off the ground and sped up. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

“Taxi!”

The man burst out of the winding alley and onto the main street, waving frantically.

“Taxi!”

“Aaah!”

A pedestrian he shoved aside screamed, clutching a shoulder.

At the same time, I caught the man by the scruff of his neck. He jerked his head around, staring at me.

There was incomprehensible terror in his eyes.

“Let go!”

He thrashed wildly in my grip, kicking and flailing.

“Let go! I don’t want to go to the arena!”

What?

I didn’t think I’d get a sane answer, so I just held his struggling arms tighter. He started kicking my lower body.

If I were an ordinary person, my bones would’ve snapped right there.

I tightened my hold.

“No one’s sending you to the arena, so stay still!”

“I’ll pay back the surgery cost!”

Pedestrians nearby hurriedly ran away from us.

Only the man with the broken shoulder was left on his knees, groaning. Holding down the one begging not to be sent to the arena and promising to repay any medical debt, I pulled out my phone.

I didn’t know which department handled illegal enhanced-body cases, but at least I could call an ambulance.

Even as I did, the man thrashed madly.

How was I supposed to restrain him? Even if I knocked him out, once he woke up it would all start again.

That question was solved by the weapon the paramedic who’d rushed over handed to me.

It wasn’t an ordinary gun.

“This is Green Dream.”

“...What?”

I blinked dumbly as the paramedic abruptly offered me the strangely shaped weapon.

The other paramedic beside him approached. “I think he’s new.”

“Ah.”

Understanding dawned on the first one’s face.

“You’re new, right?”

“Yes.”

“You’re that Badger who was in the article, aren’t you?”

The other paramedic peered at me, squinting.

“The one who rescued the president of Cureus Corporation?”

“...Yes.”

So someone actually remembered that article.

But the paramedic holding the gun didn’t seem to care whether I’d been in a headline or a trashy tabloid.

He pressed a button on the weapon, and a green light shimmered along the black frame.

“Then I’ll explain how to use it.”

His tone sounded like a tired driving instructor.

“It’s simple. Press this button here and fire it at anyone with an illegal enhanced-body implant.”

Pssh.

A dart—not a bullet—shot from the muzzle.

It hit the man’s neck squarely as he struggled in my grip.

I felt the strength draining from his body.

What the...?

My eyes widened.

A tranquilizer for enhanced bodies?

“It weakens the enhancement to the level of an ordinary human,” the paramedic explained flatly. “Like Superman’s kryptonite. Use it to restrain illegal subjects.”

I took the gun, about the size of a forearm.

Questions and explanations could wait until after we caught the others.

I placed my finger on the trigger, nodded to the paramedics, and said, “Thank you. I’ll return it later.”

“Return it to the police,” the paramedic replied in the same flat tone, already turning back toward the ambulance.

“You’ll be handing the illegal implants over to them anyway.”

Ah. So this was police jurisdiction too.

I used my phone to call the police.

I didn’t wait for them to arrive. Ripping a strip from my coat, I bound the terrified man’s arms and legs. Then I set him down carefully beneath a building along the main road.

I’d told the police his location—they’d arrest him soon enough.

Then I moved on quickly.

Heavy, chaotic footsteps echoed everywhere.

I ran toward the nearest sound.

***

Got him!

The fifth illegal implant user.

I grabbed the back of their clothes and slammed them against the wall.

Trapped with no way out, the implant began thrashing like mad in the ruined alley.

“No!”

Her nails raked sharply across my arm.

“I said no! I’m not going there!”

“I told you, you’re not going!”

How many times was I going to have this conversation?!

I jerked my head back to avoid her nails and raised the gun.

The dart just needed to hit ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) somewhere. With my free hand, I swung the Green Dream up.

Pssh!

The dart hit her neck cleanly.

But she still struggled. I was already tired of this pattern. Each of them crying, begging, raging about not wanting to be taken to some “arena.” Every one of them.

Ridiculous.

Time was running out. Subduing panicked illegal implants was harder than it sounded. Around ten civilians had already been injured in the chaos—some seriously.

And the worst part? We hadn’t even caught half of them yet. According to the police, more Badgers were dispatched from HQ, but I hadn’t had time to see who they were.

If only the Green Dream had a sedative mixed in.

Their strength was fading, but mentally they were still panicking, flailing arms and legs.

“Get the money from that bastard!”

“I told you I don’t need money.”

I sighed and tied up her limbs.

“I’ll take you to where the others are. Please stay calm.”

I lifted her easily and slung her over my shoulder.

“No money? You don’t need money?”

A dazed voice came from over my shoulder.

I stayed silent, which seemed to calm her down. The wild struggling eased bit by bit.

Still frowning, I sprinted toward where the police were waiting.

In the rush of wind past my ears, her voice whispered:

“Then you’re the one who freed us?”

Freed?

I rolled my eyes as I ran through a poorly lit alley.

“You were trapped somewhere?”

“Like animals.”

A grim reply.

“They said they’d send us to a private arena since we couldn’t pay for the surgery.”

Rage flickered in her eyes.

“They said they’d make us fight in a damn illegal Colosseum!”

Boom!

An enormous crash echoed, followed by concrete crumbling.

Another implant had collided with a building. I swore and sped up.

The street opened ahead, bright lights pouring in. The police were waiting at the main road.

They moved quickly as soon as they saw me carrying the implant, preparing for transport.

The woman on my shoulder actually smiled when she saw them.

“So it really was you who freed us!”

Even as handcuffs clicked around her wrists, she grinned brightly at me.

“You freed us with that red-haired guy, didn’t you?”

I had no idea what she meant—where they’d been trapped, who had freed them, or what this illegal Colosseum was supposed to be.

But there was no time to ask.

I just shouted, “Good work,” turned on my heel, and sprinted back into the dark, leaving the bowing officers behind.

***

Too late.

Number eleven.

I looked down at the man lying dead at my feet.

Not a civilian—an illegal implant user. A small mercy, but still, it meant I’d arrived too late.

He’d been killed by someone’s hand, that was certain.

I stood still in the darkness for a while, looking down at the corpse.

The alley was deep in the heart of the harem district, deserted, surrounded on three sides by decaying buildings that looked ready to collapse if a patrol car brushed them.

The places where windows should have been were filled with darkness.

The only light came faintly from far away—a few blocks down, the glow of a festival.

After a moment of silence over the corpse, I moved on.

I entered the building beside it.

There was someone inside the suffocating dark.

“We’ve met before,” I said toward the shadowy silhouette.

“You said your name was Shashinsky, if I remember right.”

The figure turned to look at me.

For a moment he didn’t move.

Then, like a statue coming to life, he walked toward me slowly.

Measured footsteps echoed louder and louder.

When the owner of the sound stopped within reach, I saw his distinctive hair color.

Blood-red hair tied half back.

Skin almost as pale as Yehyeon’s.

A servant of Erich Erhart’s, the vampire-like subordinate, stood half-shrouded in darkness, staring at me without expression.

“You have good ears,” he said at last.

“The little Badger with pink hair couldn’t hear me.”

I smiled faintly.

No need to reply. He already knew why my hearing had improved.

Instead, I asked, “Those illegal implants who said they were trapped—did you release them?”

Shashinsky stayed silent.

His silence was answer enough.

So this chaos was Erich Erhart’s doing, then?

Probably only in part. Erich wouldn’t personally organize illegal enhancements or some underground arena. That sort of petty crime belonged to gangs.

His “work” was freeing the captives.

Lover of the broken, savorer of the ruined—he probably couldn’t resist “saving” those trapped in the muck. Quietly releasing the poor souls who couldn’t pay their surgery debts.

Simply because he felt like it.

And we were the ones suffering for it.

“Why kill this one, then? After going to the trouble of freeing him?”

“When one indulges a hobby, one must still observe limits,” Shashinsky answered coolly.

“Left alone, he would have slaughtered dozens of civilians.”

“I see.”

That sounded like them.

They didn’t want too many civilian casualties—it would cause a scandal. So they eliminated those who might cross that line.

Not out of mercy. Erich wouldn’t blink if a few civilians died. He just wanted to avoid a mess.

Third in the world’s power hierarchy. People that high no longer thought with ordinary morality.

I remembered the Elder I’d met before.

“If too many victims pile up because of illegal implants, society will question the legitimacy of enhanced bodies—and that’ll shake the Black Badger organization itself.”

Shashinsky did not deny it.

A quiet satisfaction stirred in me—my hypothesis had been right.

“So even the Elders can’t freely undermine Yehyeon’s position. I didn’t think the relationship between the Elders and Yehyeon was purely hierarchical.”

“Who said such foolish things?”

His voice was calm, cold.

“They clearly don’t understand how power works.”

Choi Hyunseok had indeed seemed lacking in insight.

I smiled faintly, agreeing.

“He’s not suited for business.”

The final decision in territorial reclamation belonged to Yehyeon.

That campaign—the most profitable venture of all—would give the Black Badgers enormous influence. Yehyeon could decide “which Elder will profit the most this time.”

They were no mere subordinates.

“The Commander-in-Chief is a genius of diplomacy,” Shashinsky said softly, breaking my brief silence.

I smiled faintly, meeting his gray eyes.

“Yes. That’s why he’s stayed in that seat so long. Running an organization while facing the resentment and envy of aging civilians—impressive.”

“Dangerous privilege should only be granted to a few,” Shashinsky said grimly.

“Wasn’t that the lesson your people taught us?”

...What was that supposed to mean?

A chill ran through me.

A sense of foreboding crept in, cold in my gut. I had the uneasy feeling that if I pushed this topic further, something I’d been trying hard to forget would resurface.

A fear of dredging up the past, of confronting a truth I’d chosen to ignore.

Caught in that tangle of thoughts, I stared at Shashinsky for a long time.

Then Walker’s call broke through it.

“Ah, Senior Walker...”

“Let’s go. It’s late.”

Shashinsky didn’t miss the timing. He slipped back into the shadows like smoke.

“The old spider won’t wait long.”

What a human-rights violation.

Still watching every move I make.

I sighed at the Elders’ ever-predictable surveillance and answered Walker’s call—

pushing down the uneasy feeling that had surged up inside me.