#003. The Boy on the Pile of Scrap Metal (3)
“I came to see what the commotion was about.”
It was a low, eerie voice.
In the moment of the sudden lightning strike, the silhouette of a man emerged.
A clean-shaven skinhead.
He was tall, likely around 190 centimeters, with a muscular build.
Ray knew who he was.
A high-ranking member of Hector’s organization.
The stoic Humphrey.
Though they had never met face-to-face, Ray had seen him from a distance several times due to his towering height.
“Hah, Humphrey!”
“Are you guys struggling because of a little rat?”
Ray kicked the floor straight away.
He thrust his elbow forward and deeply jabbed Humphrey in the solar plexus.
Thud!
Was this how it felt to hit a solid rock?
Ray instinctively knew that his attack had failed.
This opponent was definitely on a different level than anyone he had faced before.
Swish─!
He quickly dodged the hand that came crashing down from above.
“…Your movements are certainly swift.”
Humphrey spoke in a calm voice.
There was no hint of tension in his tone.
Yet still, the speed at which he reached out was astonishingly fast.
Swish─! Swish─!
Ray focused on evading.
Humphrey’s movements were so quick that even reading the flow of mana didn’t make it easy for Ray to respond.
His pupils dilated.
Blood boiled and muscles throbbed.
His mind felt no tension, but his body was reacting honestly.
He knew that if he got caught just once, it would be over.
The best course of action was to escape.
But the distance to the door was far.
It wasn’t easy to break free from Humphrey’s attacks right now.
Thud! Thud!
While dodging, Ray threw a few more punches at Humphrey’s solar plexus, but he didn’t budge an inch.
He needed an opening.
And the only time to create one was now, when his opponent was off guard.
Swish!
Once again, Ray aimed for Humphrey’s solar plexus with a flying punch.
Just before his fist made contact with muscle,
Ray spread his fingers wide and generated a small spark in his palm.
“Ugh!”
The burning sensation grazing his solar plexus made Humphrey stagger for a moment.
Ray seized that opportunity and dashed toward the wide-open door.
Whoosh──
The world was engulfed in darkness.
He couldn’t climb over the fence due to the barbed wire.
Moreover, the entrance gate was locked with a padlock.
‘Then.’
Having made a quick decision, Ray picked up a stone and threw it toward the entrance gate.
Then he pressed his back tightly against the side of the warehouse door.
Clang!
The entrance gate shook with a sound as it was hit by the stone.
Members of the organization poured out of the warehouse, shouting.
“Over there! It’s by the entrance!”
“That cocky little brat, I’ll kill him!”
Thud! Thud!
The members rushed toward the entrance gate.
Seeing four figures moving further away, Ray immediately entered the warehouse and slipped out through a hole.
─Over there! Behind the wire fence!
─If you don’t want to get killed by the boss, catch him no matter what!
Angry voices echoed from afar.
Ray paid no mind and sprinted up the hill with all his might.
Thud! Thud!
The soft earth made his footing unstable, but somehow he reached the top.
He looked back.
Several figures were climbing up the hill after him.
They were holding flashlights and wearing raincoats.
Ray turned around and ran back down the path he had come from.
Splash. Splash. Splash.
The rain blurred his vision.
Water splashed everywhere as it was trampled underfoot by his boots.
Urgent shouts rang out behind him without pause.
Hah─
Hot breaths escaped from the boy’s mouth, contrasting with the cold raindrops falling around him.
If he got caught, he would die.
He would be subjected to all kinds of pain until he could no longer breathe.
He felt no fear.
He just thought that if he died here, he wouldn’t be able to pay his debt to the kids under the bridge.
‘If I’m gone, they’ll lose their shelter to another group.’
It would certainly happen that way.
In the slum, places to take shelter from the rain were just as important as food.
One reason for the short lifespan of slum children was the black rain that fell from above.
“There he is! Catch him!”
An organization member appeared ahead of him.
Ray quickly changed direction and darted into an alleyway.
─There he is!
─Don’t let him escape! Chase him!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
He felt the encirclement tightening from all sides.
Indeed, evading multiple adults in pursuit was not an easy task.
Moreover, his pursuers were members of a gang who had survived in rough environments.
At the end of the alley,
Ray stopped in front of a shabby warehouse and attempted to open the door.
This was a hideout he had scouted in advance for situations like this.
The back door connected to 17th Street, making escape easier as well.
Clunk! Clunk!
Ray’s eyes caught sight of a padlock as he tried to open the door.
There hadn’t been a padlock just yesterday.
He had thought it was an abandoned warehouse with no owner at all.
‘Did someone take ownership in that short time?’
With a calm gaze, Ray looked around for another way out as shadows of organization members loomed behind him.
“Damn… Hah, hah, what kind of hell is this on a rainy day?”
“I know right. Hah, why is that kid so fast?”
Whoosh─
Three organization members appeared between raindrops.
Fortunately, Humphrey was nowhere to be seen.
…This changes things.
Ray steadied his breath and waited for his opponents to make their move first.
“Just shoot him. If you put a hole in his belly, that brat will learn his lesson.”
“Are you stupid? What if someone hears? If this gets back to the boss?”
The organization members growled at each other.
Firearms weren’t common items in Sector 50 and couldn’t be used carelessly.
For now, there was nowhere left to run.
The member closest to Ray waved a knife toward him.
“Hey, kid. Come here and spit out what you’ve stolen while I’m being nice. If we don’t match our count during inspections, we’ll get killed by the boss too.”
They seemed aware that Ray wasn’t just any ordinary kid and showed no signs of letting their guard down.
“……”
Ray didn’t respond.
If he spoke up, he could get caught on the street later on.
He merely watched them with cautious eyes.
Ray’s white irises reflected various colors of mana flowing through the bodies of the organization members, shimmering like mixed paints on a canvas.
“Hey kid. I said come here. Okay?”
“Are you mute? You’re quite timid, aren’t you?”
The organization members slowly closed in on him.
“Get him!”
“Damn it! I won’t let you get away!”
With those shouts, they all lunged at once.
Swish!
Ray twisted his waist and dodged the first knife that sliced horizontally at him.
At the same time, he threw a powerful punch at his opponent’s face.
“Ugh!”
“You cocky little brat!”
He narrowly avoided an attack coming from another angle at that moment.
And simultaneously—
He grabbed hold of his opponent’s wrist.
Then he gathered mana and generated an electric current.
Crackle!
“Ughhh!”
The blue current coursed through the rain-soaked body of the organization member.
The fallen member twitched and convulsed on the ground.
“What… what is this! This brat has an electric shocker—ugh!”
The other two fell in succession as well.
Worm-like currents crawled across the floor around them.
─There! I heard sounds coming from here!
Silhouettes of people appeared along with several pairs of footsteps at the end of the alleyway.
Were there more people at the warehouse checkpoint?
It seemed like more pursuers were joining in.
Ray jumped onto a large trash can beside him.
Thump! Clatter!
On the protruding part of the concrete wall next to the warehouse.
Large nails embedded in a wooden wall.
Stepping on those in succession, he easily leaped over a four-meter-high wooden wall in an instant.
Thud!
The organization members who arrived late panicked as they heard Ray land on the other side.
“That crazy—!”
“What are you doing! Break through!”
Creak! Creak!
After several tackles, the wooden wall collapsed.
What appeared before them was 17th Street.
From here on out was hostile territory belonging to Niles’ organization.
“This… feels like we shouldn’t cross over.”
“Damn it. Either way, we’ll die by the boss’s hand. We might as well catch that brat if we want any chance of survival.”
One organization member stepped onto the collapsed wooden wall and crossed over to the other side.
Creaking—!
He scanned his surroundings and said, “It’s raining black rain today. No one will be outside and noise will be drowned out by the sound of rain.”
Then he turned back to his companions and added, “Just catch him and come back this way before anyone notices.”
The members exchanged glances and began their pursuit down 17th Street.
It was a night where everyone held their breath to avoid the rain.
Boom!
Under the thunder and lightning, several pairs of footsteps hurriedly echoed through the street.
—This… bastard…!
—Caught…! Dead……!
Ray thought as he saw the organization members closely following behind him. If they were chasing him all the way into enemy territory, it seemed they were really prepared to die.
…There are too many of them.
If he could lure them in one by one and take them down, it wouldn’t be impossible to escape. However, he couldn’t guarantee how much time and effort that would take.
‘After all, I can’t use magic indefinitely.’
He pondered deeply.
He couldn’t go back to the bridge with them on his tail. Even if he shouted through the rain, no one would come out.
This was a slum.
Excessive interest in other people’s affairs here often led to death.
‘It would be nice if Niles members showed up.’
But that wouldn’t happen.
Although this area was managed, it wasn’t where organization members stayed regularly.
It was far from their base of operations.
His stamina was starting to wane, and there was no guarantee he could make it there.
Ray made a decision.
He turned into an alley and pushed up the lid of a large trash bin.
Creak—
He hurriedly entered inside and hid his body among the garbage.
Then he reached for the lid.
‘…….’
The trash bin was too deep for him to reach the lid.
Outside, he could hear the urgent footsteps of his pursuers getting closer.
Tap tap tap!
‘Just a little more.’
His fingertips trembled.
—This way! He ran this way!
As the clearer voices approached nearby,
Creak—
He managed to lower the lid just in time.
Ray calmly held his breath.
Thud. Thud.
The heavy raindrops pounded on the lid.
The vibrations resonated throughout Ray’s body.
—Damn it! Where did he go?
—He definitely came in this way.
He could hear their dull voices.
Ray gripped the handle of the knife he had picked up earlier from one of the organization members.
—For now, let’s scatter and search. We need to finish this before the rain stops.
—I’ll head towards 15th Street. Gait, you go around to 14th Street.
The footsteps faded away.
Ray released the breath he had been holding.
“…….”
Even long after the footsteps disappeared, he didn’t loosen his grip on the knife.
He couldn’t completely rule out the possibility that they would come back and check the trash bin.
‘Looks like I’ll have to hold out here for now.’
The organization members wouldn’t return to their original area until either the rain stopped or dawn broke.
Hector was known for never forgiving his subordinates’ mistakes.
This place was safe.
Better than going out awkwardly.
Rustle. Rustle.
Ray found a comfortable position and lay down between the trash bags.
‘Hmm.’
As the tension that had been gripping his entire body faded away, fatigue rushed in sharply.
Having used magic multiple times had left his mind foggy.
He felt drowsy.
His eyelids felt heavy.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The raindrops hitting the lid at regular intervals sounded like a lullaby.
The warmth and coziness felt from the pile of bags contributed to his drowsiness as well.
Things that were tightly packed together naturally generated warmth.
The trash bags here too.
The kids living under the bridge as well.
It was a warmth created by things that were neglected and abandoned coming together tightly.
Of course, Ray wasn’t aware of such facts nor conscious of them at all.
In this situation, he merely felt an inexplicable sense of déjà vu as he blinked his eyelids.
It was due to unconsciousness.
An old memory of being abandoned among trash bags right after being born.
The warmth emanating from those trash bags.
That was Ray’s first experience of warmth in this world.
Soon, his eyelids completely closed.
And then, the sound of a boy’s gentle breathing could be heard.
Swoosh—
It was a night in the slums where heavy rain poured down.
*
*
*
Ray felt his vision brighten and opened his eyes.
Light was seeping through the cracks of the trash bin lid.
“…….”
It seemed he had dozed off for a moment.
Having taken a deep sleep, he felt completely refreshed.
He listened carefully outside.
There were no signs of anyone around.
Creak—
He cautiously opened the lid and looked left and right.
The rain had completely stopped.
Both ends of the narrow alley led to the street.
Between 6 and 7 in the morning.
Looking at the sunlight, it must have been around that time.
The Hector organization members would have returned to their territory by now.
It was about time for people to start moving around again.
Still, just in case, he took out his knife and carefully moved forward.
And then—
Tap.
“Yeah. I figured you’d be around here somewhere. Good thing I came back.”
One of Hector’s organization members appeared at the entrance of the alley.
A completely dry raincoat.
Bloodshot eyes as if he hadn’t slept all night.
“What? You got a knife? Trying to stab me? You’re such a manly little brat?”
The member also drew out his knife.
With the blade pointed forward, he closed in on Ray with a gleeful smile on his face.
Step— Step—
Ray aimed his knife forward too.
He slowly backed away while diverting his attention elsewhere.
‘It’s not just one person. I can sense someone outside the alley.’
“I’ll kill you!”
The member charged forward aggressively.
It was then that a man appeared silently at the entrance of the alley.
A gun gripped in his hand.
The muzzle was pointed toward Ray.
His finger on the trigger moved without hesitation.
Bang!
The loud gunshot shattered the morning silence in the slums.
