DPGR 38

“…Are you okay, Captain? Why do you keep touching your ear?”

“…I don’t know. It just keeps itching.”

“Maybe someone’s talking about you?”

Dojin gave a small chuckle at Jihye’s joke. For some reason, the image of Jiho talking about him popped into his mind.

He smoothed down the corners of his lips that had unknowingly curved up and refocused.

The target was just ahead.

“Everyone, focus. You’ve all checked the map I sent to your watches, right?”

“Yup yup! Kijoonie looked at it a million times!”

“Checked and even loaded it up on my display.”

“Same here.”

“I’ve confirmed it, too.”

Their replies came in one after another. Dojin swallowed a sigh at the lack of tension on their faces.

Then again, he wasn’t particularly tense either.

Still, considering how little they knew about how many brokers were inside or what kind of dangerous monsters might be held there, it didn’t hurt to be cautious.

“We’ll go in and begin the sweep immediately if possible. If anything delays us, don’t hesitate to pull out. You all remember what I said on the way here, right?”

“Yes, sir!”

“Good. Let’s go in, then. Yulchan. Open us a path.”

“Got it.”

Yulchan stretched his hand into the air. A moment later, the space shimmered, then split open, revealing the entrance to the portal.

Dojin glanced over the team, gave a short nod, and stepped aside. As if by instinct, they shifted into a formation they’d used together dozens—hundreds—of times.

Kijoon stepped forward and called out,

“Beginning entry!”

And just like that, the rescue of the baby monsters began.

The outskirts of the city, ravaged years ago by a large-scale monster break.

That was where Dojin and the Alpha Team had now entered—a deserted factory left to decay.

“Turn on your lights. Make sure you’ve got visibility.”

“Yep.”

The factory had two floors. Probably to keep up appearances, the inside looked completely abandoned, with no trace of recent human activity.

But Dojin wasn’t fooled. He already knew from the reports that there was a hidden underground level beneath the building.

Adjusting the brightness of his light, Dojin scanned the area as he made his way down the concealed staircase to the basement.

The lower he went, the stronger the reek of blood became.

“Urgh, this is insane.”

Kijoon, walking ahead, gagged and grimaced.

Even for Dojin, who was more used to the smell of blood than most, it was overpowering.

He nodded quietly, heightening his senses.

“…Open the second door on the right.”

He’d instantly pinpointed where the stench was thickest. Kijoon nodded and, adjusting his grip on his shield, silently approached the door and pulled it open.

Creeeak—

Despite his care, the rusty hinge gave a piercing screech. Kijoon shuddered.

“This is like a horror movie cliché.”

“Idiot, keep your voice down.”

“Kijoonie’s not an idiot…”

“Shh.”

Leaving the bickering Kijoon and Jihye behind, Dojin stepped through the door.

In the center of the pitch-black room was a table—an operating table.

As Dojin aimed his light at it, even the usually playful Jihye and Kijoon gasped.

“Wait, is all of that… blood?”

“…Looks like it.”

The table was stained with dried, dark red blood.

There were footprints, likely from an animal, and scraps of fur so discolored it was hard to tell what creature it had come from.

It seemed the young monsters hadn’t just been captured—they’d been experimented on.

No, more like tortured under the pretense of experimentation.

“Uh, C-Captain? There’s something over here…”

Yulchan’s whisper came from behind him.

Dojin, who had just been snapping photos of the table with a small camera from his coat, moved toward him.

Yulchan pointed to a small iron cage, just big enough for a small dog.

Inside, something shifted.

Dojin stepped closer, light aimed at the cage.

He saw it: a small creature, caked in dark blood and lying on its side, wheezing in pain.

‘A baby monster? What kind…?’

Its fur was clumped and matted, making it impossible to identify the species.

Frowning, Dojin knelt in front of the cage. At his presence, the thing inside barely managed to open its eyes.

The filthy ball of fur let out a faint, keening whine. The eyes that peeked through were a strange mix of golden and brown.

‘It looks like Jiho.’

They reminded him of Jiho’s caramel-colored eyes.

The scruffy, injured, and frightened creature—curled up tightly—pulled at his attention more than it should have.

Dojin unconsciously reached out toward the cage.

Grrrr—

The monster growled low.

It curled up tighter, flinching away.

Dojin hesitated, then slowly withdrew his hand. He looked around at the others in the lab and spoke in a low voice,

“We should move faster.”

An already easy mission, with hardly any danger or resistance—

And now, Dojin had just told them to hurry.

With Alpha Team—an elite unit of espers—fully mobilized, there was nothing to be concerned about.

“All the brokers have been subdued!”

“They were making so much noise, I just gagged them first. That’s fine, right?”

“Yeah. Good work, everyone.”

The situation was wrapped up in the blink of an eye.

They had captured six brokers in total. Fewer than expected, but given the illegal nature of baby monster trafficking, it made sense they’d move in small numbers.

If they caught that many young monsters with this few people… just how long have they been doing this?

There were about twenty baby monsters held inside.

It was far fewer than what the records had indicated, but judging by the number of monster corpses found in the warehouse behind the factory, it looked like half of what had been captured had already died.

Whether those deaths were caused by the brokers would be revealed in time.

“This is Baek Dojin from Alpha Team. The illegal baby monster trafficking site has been secured.”

After taking photographic evidence, Dojin reported in to the Center.

The Center instructed Alpha Team to classify the surviving twenty or so monsters and execute any B-rank or higher threats.

Just as he’d discussed with the Esper Director. Dojin didn’t like it, but he reminded himself that the ones in those cages were still monsters.

“…Haa.”

He exhaled heavily and glanced toward the row of cages.

Next to him, Yulchan, visibly restless, spoke up.

“Um, I checked earlier… They were all F to D rank at best.”

He was the youngest and most soft-hearted of the team, and it was clear he was struggling with the order to execute the baby monsters.

Dojin, who felt much the same, simply nodded instead of reprimanding him.

“You’re right.”

There really didn’t appear to be any monsters above B-rank in the area. But it was still too early to relax.

“That one we saw in the lab…”

Yulchan trailed off, clearly thinking along the same lines. Dojin held back a sigh and responded.

“That one’s to be executed.”

Even from their brief encounter, Dojin had gotten a read on its energy.

Minimum B-rank. Possibly A-rank.

Considering all the others were D to F-rank, that one monster was clearly an outlier.

He couldn’t begin to guess how the brokers had even managed to capture it.

“…Let’s go back.”

Dojin patted Yulchan’s slumped shoulders and turned around.

His steps toward the lab were heavier than usual.

The baby monster inside the cage opened its eyes again.

Its wheezing breaths grew a little louder, as if even that much effort was draining.

Dojin met its golden gaze and faltered.

None of them—him included—were eager to kill a monster that had clearly been abused under the guise of experimentation.

“…Do we really have to kill it? Can’t we find another way?”

Even Jihye, usually calm and rational, spoke up in a rare soft tone, her eyes filled with sympathy as she looked at the creature in the cage.

When Dojin didn’t answer and simply stood there hesitating, Sehun spoke up instead.

“We’re supposed to execute it because there’s no available tamer esper, right?”

“…Yeah.”

“Then what if we look overseas for a high-rank tamer esper?”

“Overseas?”

“Yes.”

Sehun offered a surprisingly realistic solution.

“We could look into mercenaries. If it’s a mercenary, there won’t be any political complications.”

Unlike countries like Korea and Japan, where espers were strictly controlled by national institutions, other countries had more freedom—espers could be part of state agencies, private guilds, or freelance mercenary groups.

Mercenaries, in particular, operated independently of nationality and would do just about anything if the money was right, so politics rarely got involved.

“He’s right! There’s gotta be taming espers among the mercs!”

“Let’s at least look into it. And if we come up empty… then we can reconsider. But killing it now feels too cruel.”

Maybe it understood they were discussing its life, because the monster stirred and gave a soft whimper.

Its golden eyes shimmered, as if tears were welling up in them.

Can monsters cry?

That thought briefly passed through Dojin’s mind before he let out a long sigh.

“…Fine. Let’s do that.”

Logically, it would’ve been cleaner to put the monster down now.

No matter how pitiful it looked, it was still a monster.

But things in the world rarely worked out according to logic.

And for Dojin—who could never bring himself to be cruel in front of the weak—it was just too hard.

“Really?!”

“Yeah. But no one’s opening that cage. If it shows even a hint of danger, I’ll put it down immediately. Got it?”

The warning was directed at his team, but with the way he held the creature’s gaze, it sounded more like he was talking to it.

The monster let out another soft, pitiful whine, but Dojin turned his head away firmly.

“Alright, let’s head back to the Center.”

“Yes, sir!”

And just like that, the illegal breeding facility Kwak Jiheon had tasked them with was finally shut down.