In the heart of Seoul, inside a building not even reaching 10 stories tall between the towering skyscrapers, a woman looked down at the crowd gathered at the entrance.
“Blue must have made it home well, right?”
Behind Red, who had a worried look on her face while watching the gathered reporters, Pink was sitting in a chair and took a sip of coffee.
She had sent Blue home first thinking that having at least one person stay at home for A would be good, but now she was concerned about whether Blue managed to navigate through the crowd outside.
“She should have gotten through fine by going towards the parking lot. With no unusual contact, there shouldn’t be any problems.”
Yellow answered as they stood up and approached Red, thinking that Blue had made it home safely despite the crowd of reporters.
“There are so many people again today.”
“Yeah, I wonder where they get their information from every time.”
The embezzlement case had been revealed by the HunterKiller Team’s plan, as they couldn’t reveal the truth with SpaceStro’s help. Although some data was later disclosed, no significant information was released after the formal investigation began.
The embezzlement investigation continued, and recently there was talk internally about taking legal action, though this hadn’t reached the reporters yet.
They thought only A knew about it, but the reporters somehow found out and gathered again in front of headquarters to learn more about the legal measures.
“It’s already troublesome enough.”
Red sighed looking at the gathered reporters, internet broadcasters, and media personnel. The members also sighed in agreement.
At headquarters, staff were doing their best to control the reporters, giving minimal answers to their questions without letting them enter the premises.
Of course, the director of the embezzlement case wasn’t present. He hadn’t shown his face since the incident and there was no official statement.
Many people searched for the director’s whereabouts, but no information was available.
“They’re ready to pounce on any little detail they can find.”
Red turned her head at the voice of someone who wasn’t a member, noticing Gold, the leader of SpecialForce Team, entering.
“Are you alone today?”
“No, I was with White, but I came up to the roof for a cigarette break.”
Although the HunterKiller Team had no interaction with members before, they started interacting through A and got to know each other’s thoughts.
From the Olympic Bridge explosion to the embezzlement case, major incidents kept occurring, leading to frequent encounters with SpecialForce Team.
“Where are Black and Silver?”
“Silver is in the hospital, and Black didn’t come to work. He never liked coming out much anyway.”
Though they weren’t fully acquainted, they were getting to know each other and felt a kinship as hyper-humans. Especially regarding the embezzlement case, they shared similar victim positions, making communication easier.
“Did you finish the confrontation well?”
“Yeah, I wasn’t even thinking about it because of that.”
Red, with narrowed eyes, glanced down at the crowd gathered in front of headquarters.
“Your team isn’t in any confrontation?”
“No, we’ve been focusing on internal matters since the terrorist attack.”
Only one team in the Seoul branch was currently involved in a confrontation.
HunterKiller Team had started a confrontation with three teams, and initially, it was planned that other teams would restart confrontations as well. But the embezzlement case disrupted everything.
HunterKiller, which had independently conducted confrontations, continued to lead, leaving other teams unable to start confrontations.
“Nothing from above?”
“Who would give such an order? And with such a big case, there’s no energy left to manage ongoing confrontations.”
The final scheduling of confrontations was the director’s responsibility. Given the influence of HunterKiller and SpecialForce Teams, their confrontation schedules were usually implemented without much adjustment, but the final authority rested with the director.
However, the director had disappeared after the embezzlement case, and there were no signs of resuming confrontations.
“You’ve worked hard since the terrorist incident.”
“Compared to those involved in the incident, it’s a hundred times worse.”
HunterKiller Team was near the scene of the terrorist incident on that day. SpecialForce Team was aware of HunterKiller’s panic after the incident.
They knew HunterKiller had failed to stop the incident next door and were shocked. However, the reason for HunterKiller’s panic was due to seeing their boyfriend A, a member of SpaceStro, seriously injured.
HunterKiller temporarily ceased activities, and SpecialForce Team dealt with the influx of reporters. All forces in Seoul, including SpaceStro and Earth Defense Union, stopped their activities, and SpecialForce focused on internal affairs.
When HunterKiller returned, confrontations resumed, but the embezzlement case broke out.
SpecialForce Team still hadn’t restarted confrontations and had been handling administrative tasks.
HunterKiller Team sincerely thanked SpecialForce Team for managing all the work in their absence.
Despite no direct interaction, the two longest-active teams in the Seoul branch felt a sense of kinship.
“What do they want?”
Gold’s reason for finding HunterKiller wasn’t just their presence at headquarters. They continuously shared information and discussed ongoing investigations.
“They’re preparing for legal action and will soon meet with lawyers. It has to be believable.”
“Really? We’re not much different.”
Both teams faced similar situations.
Currently, hyper-humans trusted the Earth Defense Union the least regarding the embezzlement case.
Union officials claimed to investigate alongside the prosecution, but the embezzlement occurred within the Union itself. The scale of the fraud was unimaginable, making it difficult to gauge the extent of involvement.
The leaders of both teams, Red and Gold, had grim expressions when someone entered the office.
“Oh, did I come to the wrong place?”
The young man with dark gray hair paused upon entering, feeling the gaze directed at him. HunterKiller and Gold remained wary.
“From Team Endurance… Who is it?”
Red spoke first, recognizing him.
A new team that joined after Team Guerrilla left Seoul Branch, Endurance’s member.
“I’m Dark, the leader of Team Endurance.”
The young man Dark entered with a smile, followed by a much taller man.
“This is Dynamo, from my team.”
The large man Dynamo bowed slightly in greeting, but no one responded.
Dark tried to lighten the mood with a forced smile.
“Why are everyone’s faces so grim? It’s understandable given the situation at headquarters.”
“You don’t know much about Team Endurance yet, right? Your code names aren’t colors?”
Red asked to understand Endurance better. Dark sensed a willingness to communicate and explained.
“Yes, we’re a team that supported underperforming teams. We were called ‘supporters.’ We didn’t change our code names when we joined the Seoul branch.”
“Support other teams?”
“Yes, we rarely went out as the Seoul branch performed well. But we traveled a lot in Gyeonggi, Incheon, and Chungcheong.”
HunterKiller suspected Endurance too. Their recent integration after Team Guerrilla was suspicious.
Team Guerrilla had direct ties to the embezzlement case, making Endurance suspect as well.
“Understood.”
“Is it because there’s no name connection among members?”
After hearing the answer, Red turned away seemingly uninterested. Gold then questioned Dark.
“As I mentioned, we travel around supporting various teams. Our current members were formed from such support, so there’s no particular connection between code names.”
Red showed little interest in Dark. She didn’t want to focus on him.
She wasn’t convinced he was related to Team Guerrilla.
Even if a bit of investigation would reveal a connection, she didn’t see any immediate link.
Despite no clear reason to be wary, Red avoided looking at Dark solely because of his color.
Though they didn’t use colors as code names, a long history of using colors created certain biases.
Dark’s hair was dark gray, reminding her of Gainesboro from Team Guerrilla.
And even though it wasn’t comparable to Gainesboro, his appearance reminded her of Luche, the leader of SpaceStro Seoul Branch’s team.
Comparing Dark to Gainesboro or Luche wasn’t fair; Gainesboro’s actions were far worse.
Yet, associating gray with Luche was due to their competitive relationship. Though she was A’s girlfriend, she knew Luche had been pursuing A, and they had recently discussed a deeper relationship.
Red had negative associations with gray, making it impossible to view Dark positively.
“Why are you here?”
Other members were equally wary. Each had different reasons, but the common thread was being the team after Team Guerrilla.
Yellow openly showed suspicion, and tense Dynamo glanced at HunterKiller beside him before looking back.
Facing HunterKiller instead of Gold, he slowly spoke.
“I wanted to hear about SpaceStro’s three teams.”
Hearing this, Red turned to look at Dark.
His gaze was unwavering. It was unclear if it was mere curiosity or hostile feelings toward SpaceStro.
His intent to learn about the three teams made the HunterKiller team members uneasy.
