NOVEL WEB Chapter : Burnout Syndrome (2)
Burnout Syndrome (2)
Minjun received a brief summary of the man shouting at the police inside the bank.
No Kyunggu, 21 years old, unemployed. He awakened a Trait last year and was registered as an ability user. He tried to leverage that to get a job at private security firms, but it seemed his attempts had been unfruitful.
The main takeaway was that his ability wasn't particularly impressive, which was Minjun's primary point of concern. Beyond that, there wasn't much else he needed to know.
Swoosh!
The automatic doors slid open, revealing the man holding a hostage. He hadn't bothered to cover his face, leaving his acne-ridden, youthful features fully exposed. After stuffing a small amount of cash from the vault into a bag, he was shouting at the police to bring a running car to the front of the building.
"You bastard! Who told you to come in?!"
With the robber's angry yell—
Whoosh!
A potted plant, weighing several dozen kilograms, lifted off the ground and flew toward Minjun.
'A telekinesis user.'
Minjun wasn't fazed.
Thud!
He calmly raised one hand to block the incoming pot, then redirected it with a twist of his wrist.
Crash!
The pot, which had been aimed at Minjun's head, was sent flying back. It smashed into an empty desk, shattering into pieces. The fragments of pottery and soil scattered amid the rising dust.
"?!"
The robber's face twisted in frustration.
"You!"
But perhaps realizing he couldn't afford to appear weak, he raised his voice even louder, threatening Minjun.
"I warned you already! If you don't want to see this old hag's head smashed in, get lost now!"
He wasn't holding a gun. Instead, his left arm was wrapped around the neck of a frail elderly woman, squeezing tightly. His right hand hovered near her temple, fingers slightly apart—a clear warning that he could use his telekinesis to crush her skull at any moment.
Judging by the strength he'd displayed when throwing the pot, his ability wasn't particularly impressive. But Minjun knew it was still enough to kill someone if used recklessly.
Even so, there was no way No Kyunggu would smash that old woman's head today. Absolutely not.
"Urgh... guh..."
The elderly woman, her neck constricted by his arm, let out strangled noises, her face turning pale. Everyone else in the bank was unconscious, sprawled across the floor.
"Can't you hear me, you bastard?!"
Minjun glanced at the two of them with a calm gaze before opening his mouth.
"Release the hostage."
"Don't mess with me!"
The robber snapped back, almost frenzied.
No Kyunggu had realized Minjun was a mage. The strange mist filling the air was a dead giveaway that something was wrong. Yet, no matter how he thought about it, his best chance of survival was clinging to the hostage. Entering the unknown mist seemed far riskier.
And since the mage was speaking calmly rather than chanting incantations, No Kyunggu became even more convinced he'd made the right choice.
"This is your last chance to resolve this peacefully," Minjun said. "Surrender now, and I promise you won't be killed. But if you harm the hostage even slightly, then—"
"I told you, if you want to save this old hag, you'll do exactly what I say!"
"...Then there will be no choice. You won't leave here alive."
"Stop spouting bullshit!"
No Kyunggu prepared to throw another object with his telekinesis, his fear and wariness of the mage momentarily forgotten.
Meanwhile, Minjun kept his eyes fixed forward as he slipped a dagger from beneath his sleeve.
At that moment, a soft sigh and a low voice broke the tense silence.
"...So you're one of the Immigration Bureau's dogs?"
A heavy stillness fell over the bank.
The unexpected words hadn't come from No Kyunggu. Startled, he turned to look at the elderly woman he thought he had completely subdued.
"?!"
The pale face that had been gasping for air earlier was now calm, its complexion restored. No Kyunggu finally realized something was wrong. The tension and effort he'd poured into choking her should have been enough to leave his arm numb. It was a miracle she hadn't already collapsed.
Even with her airway and carotid artery constricted to the point of near suffocation, the woman's voice was perfectly normal. The surreal sight filled No Kyunggu with a creeping sense of dread.
"Unbelievable. How did you recognize me so quickly?"
"Release the hostage. This is your final warning."
No Kyunggu finally understood why Minjun's gaze had been slightly off from the beginning. After giving him a brief glance upon entering, Minjun hadn't looked at No Kyunggu again.
Instead, his eyes had been fixed entirely on the hostage.
"Heh... hehehe!"
The old woman let out a sinister laugh, the atmosphere around her shifting drastically.
In his dazed state, No Kyunggu reflected on his initial impression of her. Something about her now seemed entirely different.
'Wait... now that I think about it...'
A wave of dizziness and nausea swept through his skull.
Why had he come to the bank in the first place? Right, to collect his unemployment benefits. The old woman had approached him, complaining about a stain on his clothes... and then there had been a faint prickling sensation.
Immediately afterward, an uncontrollable rage had consumed him. How was he supposed to survive on just 65,000 won for the month? Should he join a vigilante group? No, his life hadn't sunk that low, had it?
And then—a blank.
The next thing he remembered was crushing the security guard's firearm, subduing him, and screaming at the bank employees to open the vault. By then, his arm was already wrapped around the old woman's neck.
"...Huh?"
For the first time, No Kyunggu loosened his grip. His eyes widened.
Beneath his arm, hidden until now, were several pale tendrils piercing the skin of his forearm. They extended from the old woman's neck, writhing like fat leeches as they sucked something from within him.
"What... what is this?!"
The excruciating pain he'd forgotten now surged up his spine.
"Agh! Aaaaagh!"
He tried to shove the old woman away, falling back onto his rear. But the tendrils didn't break—they stretched, still attached. Frantic, he grabbed at them, pulling with all his strength, but they wouldn't budge.
The old woman sighed.
"I had you nicely brainwashed, but you've gone and ruined everything. No wonder you kept muttering nonsense."
Minjun realized belatedly that the few words he had spoken upon entering this place were not mere persuasion but incantations imbued with power. This revelation was what brought Noh Kyung-gu back to his senses.
Shiiiik!
Dozens of tendrils sprouted anew from the old woman's neck, burrowing into Noh Kyung-gu's body, piercing him in multiple places.
"Guhhh…! Save… me!"
In an instant, the roles of hostage and captor were reversed.
Or rather, this was how Minjun had perceived the situation from the very beginning.
The opponent, disguised as a human, was actually Etrella Daphine, a fugitive from Odens pursued across multiple dimensions before finally hiding in this remote corner of the universe.
'Her charges include three counts of solicitation to murder, twelve counts of murder, forty-nine counts of theft, possession of seditious texts, and illegal residence in primitive dimensions. And that's not even counting what she's done on Earth.'
Having received a cooperation request from the Committee, South Korea's Immigration Bureau had already launched a formal investigation.
"Guhhh!"
Etrella grimaced in frustration.
'That bastard made the mind control break too soon!'
Like the anesthetic a mosquito injects when it pierces the skin, the mind control masked the fact that the victim's energy was being siphoned. But in the current situation, it had become useless. Realizing this, Etrella decided to accelerate her plans.
"Grrr!"
Through the tendrils embedded in his body, Etrella drained nearly all of Noh Kyung-gu's spiritual energy. His eyes rolled back, and he lost consciousness.
This was precisely the moment Minjun had been waiting for.
Swish!
Without hesitation, he drew the dagger from his hand and sliced across his left palm.
Slash!
The glossy black stone blade radiated an ominous aura. As he clenched his fist and squeezed out the blood, the surrounding air began to ripple with an eerie foreboding.
"Eek!"
Etrella attempted to resist using the energy she had absorbed from Noh Kyung-gu. Unlike Minjun, who refrained from inflicting harm on himself to use his power, Etrella had no qualms about scraping the very bottom of her reserves and unleashing them all.
A telekinetic storm surged forward!
Whoooosh!
But even amidst the chaos, Minjun's surroundings remained calm. All physical and spiritual energy approaching him slowed, then came to a complete halt. Within this stillness, Minjun calmly recited an incantation.
Etrella realized too late what kind of spell he was casting.
"!"
Fwoooosh!
Black shadows surged, engulfing Minjun's body before coalescing and expanding into a massive form in the air.
"······!"
The creature summoned above Minjun was a black monstrosity with only its upper body manifested. Its torn eyes gleamed with hostility, and hot, blood-red mist poured from its mouth. The shadows covering its skin continuously formed grotesque shapes, only to dissolve and reform again.
Thud!
Above Minjun's head, two enormous black arms, thicker than a troll's, extended outward, their sharp claws glinting at the tips.
"W-wait… are you insane?!"
The power of black magic is raw energy extracted from the life force of sacrifices through pain.
Thus, it is deemed illegal in most nations. However, exceptions are made in cases of public or self-defense where the caster inflicts pain upon themselves, sacrificing their own lifespan and vitality to activate the magic.
Beyond the swirling shadows, Minjun's limp left hand now resembled that of a mummy dead for millennia.
Etrella couldn't comprehend it. A human willing to waste decades of their own life just to catch a petty criminal?!
Boom!
Minjun took a single step forward.
Above him, the shadowy entity became a streak of black lightning that charged toward Etrella.
Slash!
In just one second, all the tendrils sprouting from Etrella's neck were severed.
"Gyaaah!"
In another second, the shadowy beast ripped off both her arms and cast them aside.
Crunch!
And in the third second, it bit through her torso, severing her lower half completely. Three seconds were all it took.
"Huff… huff…"
Grrrr…
Etrella, now reduced to half a body, reverted to her original alien form. Her entire body convulsed as if writhing in death throes. She felt the specter of death creeping up to her neck.
"W-wait! Please… spare me!"
Ignoring her plea, Minjun calmly walked forward, closing the gap between himself and the shadows pinning her down.
The desperate Etrella racked her brain for a way to survive. Her panicked mind, overwhelmed by adrenaline, dredged up memories she would never have considered in calmer circumstances.
"Wait! If you spare me, I'll repay you!"