WPRAF 03

Chapter 3

Safe House 

A “safe house” refers to a secure residence operated by intelligence agencies—like the National Intelligence Service (NIS)—to protect witnesses or informants, both domestically and abroad.

Our country also maintains such safe houses, though their locations are classified. In 2021, they were completely renovated after an assassination attempt on a defector—the former deputy director of North Korea’s General Political Bureau—occurred inside one of them.

Since then, they’ve been fortified with bulletproof glass, steel outer walls, and even panic rooms for emergencies.

There probably isn’t a safer place than a safe house right now.

Watching her put on the jacket I’d given her, I asked once she seemed ready to move.

“Can you walk?”

“Yes, thanks to you. I should’ve thanked you earlier.”

Jung So-mi answered as she tied her shoulder-length black hair back tightly with a band.

“It’s good the wound isn’t too deep. By the way—are you sure you know where the safe house is?”

“You don’t seriously take me for a rookie, do you?”

…Busted?

I kept my poker face and played it off.

“You really hold grudges, huh. I was joking earlier.”

“You joke so seriously, it’s hard to tell the difference.”

“Then next time I’ll say ‘this is a joke’ beforehand. Anyway, you do know where the safe house is, right?”

“Yes, I do!”

So-mi turned briskly and walked toward the front door. She put on her shoes with practiced precision but hesitated, her hand frozen on the doorknob.

I noticed her fingertips trembling. She was scared to go outside.

Even for an NIS agent trained for high-intensity missions, that was only human. Monsters are terrifying for anyone.

“You okay?”

“Oh—maybe it’s the meds. Feeling a little dizzy.”

Whether she didn’t want to show her fear, or thought I might abandon her, her pale face trembled with unease.

I placed a hand on her shoulder and pulled her back slightly.

“Stay behind me and follow closely.”

First objective: safety.
Second objective: reach the underground parking lot.
Final objective: get to my SUV.

With that in mind, I opened the door. The metallic tang of blood hit me like a wave.

“Ugh… what is that smell…?”

So-mi grimaced, covering her nose.

Goblin blood had a stench unlike anything human—something like rusted iron pipes smeared with acetic acid.

I could handle it; after all, once you’ve spent a freezing night in the Russian tundra hugging a dying deer, you stop being sensitive to smells.

So-mi, who had never hugged a deer in Russia, looked like she was about to die.

“First time seeing corpses?”

“We’re not detectives, you know. In my line of work, I rarely see dead bodies.”

“You worked only in domestic divisions?”

“For two years after I joined, I was with Division 8. Then I got assigned to you, Mr. Han Se-hyun.”

“Division 8… that’s internal intel collection, right? Then monitoring field agents isn’t even their specialty.”

Assigning surveillance on a 15-year veteran Black Agent to a second-year rookie? That didn’t make sense.

I wanted to ask more, but she averted her eyes—clearly unwilling to explain.

So I dropped it for now and stepped into the hallway.

Two goblin corpses lay there, already starting to rot.

One had its head barely attached by a strip of flesh; the other had a knife stuck in its skull, its eyes frozen wide open.

“They’re… really dead, right?”

Instead of answering, I pulled my knife from the goblin’s skull. Wiping the brain matter off on its shoulder, I slid the blade back into the sheath.

The sight made So-mi gag violently.

“Ugh—urk!”

“If you’re gonna vomit, do it outside your own door. We don’t need the smell drawing more monsters here.”

She swallowed her nausea and glared at me. I ignored her and kept walking.

Then, from behind me—

“You’re not planning to come back here, are you?”

“This is my first house. I own it.”

“You could’ve just bought an apartment. Why a villa?”

“A friend sold it cheap.”

“You… have friends?”

The tone implied she didn’t believe it for a second. I chuckled.

“What, what do you take me for?”

“A shut-in sociopath who never leaves his house after retirement.”

“…”

“So I am right, huh?”

“Not even close. Just follow me.”

I glanced at the elevator display. It wasn’t moving from the 7th floor.

“Someone’s holding the elevator. Looks like we’ll have to take the stairs.”

I opened the emergency stairwell door and peered down. The screams from earlier had stopped; an eerie stillness crept up from below.

It was feeding time after the hunt.

“Let’s go.”

I motioned with my chin and started down the stairs.

As we descended, a thought struck me.

“Oh, right. So-mi—are you a player too?”

“Yes.”

“What’s your class?”

“Analyst.”

“Analyst? What kind of job is that?”

“It’s a role that analyzes targets and finds their weak points. I’m not sure if it’s a good class or not.”

“Sounds good to me.”

“What’s the point of finding weaknesses if I can’t exploit them? I don’t have any offensive skills.”

“Ah, so that’s the problem.”

It was a problem for her—but an advantage for me.

If she could uncover these monsters’ weaknesses, our odds of survival would skyrocket.

Guess I’ve got two reasons to keep her around now instead of one.

By the time I finished that thought, we had reached the stairway leading to the underground parking lot.

So-mi squinted into the shadows ahead and asked, cautious.

“Um… what’s your class, Mr. Han?”

“That’s classified.”

“What?!”

Her glare felt like a physical slap.

“I can’t just hand out personal data.”

“After all we’ve been through, really?”

“And what exactly have we been through?”

“A bond beyond monitor and subject! A partnership forged in blood! Comrades-in-arms!”

She was honest about her emotions—maybe a bit too confident, too.

“Right now, we’re more like a porter and her luggage.”

“Oh, come on! Keep that attitude up and I might just ‘forget’ the safe house location.”

“I’m kidding. Let’s just call it senior and junior for now, yeah? Technically, I’m your senior by quite a few years. Mind if I drop the formalities?”

“Suit yourself. But you’re not my direct senior, are you?”

At that moment, I caught a faint sound from the far corner of the parking lot.

I grabbed her shoulder.

“Shh. Over there.”

She froze and followed my gaze.

The parking lot was chaos. Corpses littered the floor; cars that had tried to flee were jammed in every direction.

Still, there was enough space to slip through.

Scanning for an escape route, I noticed a four-seater sedan rocking back and forth in the shadows.

Two wolves were on top of the driver and passenger, feasting greedily.

“Where’s your car?”

“Over there… but I left my keys inside. What about yours?”

“There.”

My car was—of course—right beside the wolves.

“Should we… go back?”

“We’ve come this far. No turning back.”

Once I set an objective, I don’t retreat.

That rule had gotten me offers from some of the best intelligence agencies in the world.

“Can you find their weak points?”

“You’re really not changing your mind, huh?”

“Told you already.”

And I needed to confirm something.

So-mi sighed, then murmured quietly:

“Weak point detection.”

That must have been her skill’s activation phrase.

It took less than three seconds.

“Found it. The lower abdomen—about a hand’s width above the pelvis.”

“So basically, where the navel would be on a human? Odd. There shouldn’t be a heart there.”

“The skill’s description says energy gathers there. Specifically—‘mana.’”

Strange, but she wasn’t lying. I could tell when she did.

So I accepted it: the area where mana concentrated was more vulnerable than any normal vital spot.

“Here, take this.”

I drew my Glock 17 from its holster and handed it to her.

“You know how to shoot?”

“A Glock? But… isn’t gun possession illegal here?”

“Not if you don’t get caught.”

Then I crouched low and moved behind a car for cover, inching closer.

When we were about ten meters away, the wolf in the driver’s seat suddenly stopped eating and perked up its ears.

It scanned around like a meerkat, then went back to its meal.

Phew. Thought it spotted me.

I exhaled quietly and looked down. A male corpse lay near my feet, mangled beyond recognition except for the face.

I closed his eyes, then slipped his wristwatch off—an expensive Rolex worth over twenty million won.

After a moment’s thought, I lobbed it toward my SUV.

Thud.

The metal clang against the hood drew both wolves’ attention instantly.

Perfect.

I burst from cover and lunged toward the driver’s side wolf.

It sensed me and tried to leap out, but I was faster.

I locked its neck in my arms and crushed its torso under my weight.

WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!

The other wolf barked madly, trying to reach me through the passenger seat—but the cramped car interior worked against it.

I drove my knife straight into the weak spot So-mi had mentioned.

Crack.

Something resisted, then shattered under pressure. The creature went limp beneath me, life force fading like smoke.

[You have slain a Hell Hound.]
[You gained 100 coins.]

I ignored the floating message and stepped out.

The remaining wolf was trying to crawl over the dashboard toward me—only to wedge itself tight between the seats.

Perfect again.

I circled around and calmly stabbed its weak point.

[You have slain a Hell Hound.]
[You gained 100 coins.]
[Total: 300 coins.]

“‘Hell Hound,’ huh. Fitting name.”

As I mused, So-mi gasped behind me.

“Wow… wow…”

Her eyes were wide, mouth agape.

“Senior, that was incredible! You didn’t even flinch! How do you move like that—so fast, all by yourself…?”

She looked like she couldn’t believe what she’d just witnessed.

“Cut the dramatics, rookie. It’s nothing.”

I sliced open the Hell Hound’s lower abdomen. I wanted to know what exactly I’d destroyed in there.

Inside was a strange, faintly glowing stone that radiated alien energy.

No need to have So-mi analyze it—the small floating text box beside it told me everything.

[Lesser Mana Stone]

• Type: Consumable

• Description: A crystallized form of demonic energy. Its quality is extremely low, making its market value negligible, though it seems to have some potential use.

I blinked, surprised—but it was just an information window.

So-mi peered over. “What’s that?”

“The weak point… or something that came from it. A description window popped up. You see it too?”

“Where? I don’t see anything.”

“Guess you have to be holding it.”

I almost tossed it away—but the line ‘might have some use’ caught my eye. So I handed it to her.

“Here. Keep it safe.”

“Yes, sir!”

“…‘Yes, sir’? Since when do you talk like that?”

“What? Nothing!”

She was clearly impressed, even if she tried not to show it.

So… was my assumption wrong?

By now, it should’ve appeared…

Just as I was starting to get impatient, the notification finally popped up.

[Player Han Se-hyun’s second video “I Became a Bus Driver on Day 1 of the Apocalypse” has been uploaded to the ‘Pidomena Universe.’]

That confirmed one thing:
The more sensational the footage, the higher the chance it gets uploaded to the platform.

But then something unexpected happened.

“Huh? You got a notification too?”

“What?”

“I just got a message saying a video got uploaded.”

“…You did?”

I frowned.

So it wasn’t just about shock value anymore.

What could she have possibly done to get featured? All she did was find a weak point and cheer from behind—if she even did that.

“What’s the title?” I asked.

Her answer made everything click.

“It says… ‘On Day 1 of the Apocalypse, I Saved an SSS-Rank Bus Driver.’”