Chapter 55
Clang! Clang!
We banged on the glass windows outside the Northern Gyeonggi Government Complex with our palms. The commander was too busy yelling into his radio to notice us.
“Hey! Shit! Evacuate everyone under that black goat bastard! Tell the fighter jets to stay clear! Long-range only! Got it? Just shoot missiles from far away and scram! Who cares if they miss? Just fire like hell!”
Clang! Clang!
“Don’t freeze up—just evacuate according to plan! There’s no way to stop it anyway, so pull everyone out! Ah, ah, ah! Lock down access at Howon 1-dong and send anyone south of there over Suraksan and Buyongsan to Route 29! There are bastards coming out of Seoul, so have Captain Park take the tank and head over!”
I kept banging on the window to get his attention, but he was fixated on the radio and never looked outside.
Unable to stand it any longer, Gam Ji-yoon stretched out her arm.
“Hyap-hyap.”
– Crash!
The entire wall and window of the building were ripped out.
“Hiiiieek!”
The commander squeezed his eyes shut, covered his head with his hands, and ducked down. We entered through the gaping hole.
“Colonel Yoo!”
“Huh…? W-Why are you coming out of there, Assemblyman Han…?”
“Is air support possible!?”
“W-Why are you coming in through there? This is the fourth floor…?”
“Does that matter right now!?”
“Oh! Then what does!?”
Gam Ji-yoon snapped.
“Stopping that thing, obviously!”
* * *
Chun Hwa-ran collapsed helplessly to the ground. No matter how much she had tried to stop her, her daughter flew off without even looking back.
“Ugh… uhuuuh…!”
“Dear……”
Unable to contain her grief, Chun Hwa-ran clutched her chest as tears welled up. Gam Gi-ja gently placed a hand on her shoulder.
“……Are you okay?”
“She’s just like her damn father…!”
“Huh…?”
Yang Pan-seok stood at the rooftop railing, looking down with a serious expression.
“Director Jang.”
“Yes?”
“……Take a look at that.”
Where Yang Pan-seok pointed, people covered in black slime were staggering and shambling around.
A few soldiers approached them.
And then—
They attacked the soldiers. Director Jang raised his weapon and said,
“That’s crazy.”
“……What?”
Bang—!
The ankle of one of the infected, about to pounce on a refugee, was blown off.
He smirked faintly.
“You can’t just kill them recklessly.”
We soared through the blizzard-filled sky. I held Gam Ji-yoon in my arms as we swayed midair.
“Ajusshi! Be careful!”
“Y-Yeah, thanks—”
“Are you stupid!?”
“…You must’ve gotten along well with the construction site guys, huh?”
“For the past six months, what have you even been learning at the construction site?”
Gam Ji-yoon shouted at the top of her lungs, pointing at the monster.
“Front! In front!”
“Too close and the tentacles will hit us!”
“The closer we get, the stronger it gets!”
Damn it, she’s completely reckless. I was the one controlling our flight with telekinesis. The commander’s voice came through the earpiece.
[A-Assemblyman! You’re way too close!]
“…I’m putting up a barrier!”
[Are—are you going to be okay!?]
“I’ll steer us—just give me the signal!”
We slowly circled the monster, adjusting our angle. That thing had already swatted a fighter jet out of the sky with its tentacles. We couldn’t get within their range.
[H-Here we go! 10, 9, 8—]
“Ji-yoon! Barrier!”
“G-Got it!”
Gam Ji-yoon gritted her teeth and put up a telekinetic field around us. With both powers clashing, flying became harder.
[7, 7654!]
There must have been a mistake—the countdown suddenly sped up. Not very reassuring.
[3!]
The sound of a sonic boom hit our ears.
[2!]
The roar of a fighter jet’s engine grazed past us from behind, zipping from side to side like surround sound.
[1!]
A missile shot out from behind and flew toward the monster.
The smell of smoke filled the air.
– KWAANG!
I leaned forward. Gam Ji-yoon reached out her hand.
I stacked several layers of barriers.
The monster regenerated quickly and came flying at us.
And then—
– Crack!
“Shit!”
A curse escaped as we were struck. The tentacle slammed us straight to the ground.
The scenery flipped instantly. A gray sky. Snowstorm. Trees. A brown forest floor.
Crash! Crackle! Boom!
We plummeted hundreds of meters from the sky to the ground in an instant.
“Ugh…! Ahhh!”
Trembling, I hugged Gam Ji-yoon tightly. Fighter jets can crash just from hitting a pigeon mid-air. I hadn’t expected those tentacles to be this strong.
All the barriers I had put up shattered instantly. Luckily, Gam Ji-yoon had reinforced them at the last second.
Maybe it was from instinctive control draining her mental energy—she had passed out. Whether it was from fear or the cold, I didn’t know, but my arms were covered in goosebumps.
A crater had formed around us on the forest floor.
Yes. A forest.
To be exact, Bukhansan National Park. And the monster was above us.
The commander’s voice came through the earpiece.
[The tumor! The tumor’s falling! Get out of there!]
A black sphere dropped to the ground. I clenched my teeth and held Gam Ji-yoon tighter. Tasting blood in my mouth, I took off into the air.
Dodging the falling tumors like a fly zigzagging through the air.
Drops of blood fell from my chin, soaking my white dress shirt.
From a safe distance, I watched the tumors erupt.
The forest turned black.
The commander laughed.
[Half! We got half! It’s a success!]
Hundreds used to die with every bombing, but this time, no one had.
[First objective complete!]
We had pushed the monster out of the city skies.
Now, the monster was above Bukhansan.
I slowly descended and dropped to the ground, holding the monster in the air.
The monster remained suspended midair.
Of course, as its regeneration continued, its mass increased. It was getting harder and harder to keep it restrained.
[Fire!]
– KWAANG!
All the cannons retreating from Bukhansan toward Gangwon Province roared to life.
* * *
“Isn’t that the same thing?”
“That was back then! I’m just a clerk who finished basic training! They offered 6 credits—”
Grab.
Director Jang shoved a handgun into Yang Il-ho’s hand.
“Basic training’s enough. In the third world, even kids carry guns.”
“…What?”
“Let’s go.”
While Yang Il-ho hesitated, Director Jang pulled a blue syringe from his inner pocket.
Without hesitation, he stabbed it into his arm with a calm smile.
“Ah, vision enhancement. Worst one possible… Just wasted a bit of lifespan.”
“……”
“Secretary Yang?”
“Ah! Yes! I’m coming! I’m coming!”
* * *
In my arms, Gam Ji-yoon opened her eyes. Her hazy gaze blinked a few times before she murmured,
“…Fireworks?”
A soft laugh escaped me. Yeah. Not wrong.
KWAANG—
Self-propelled artillery stationed at Bukhansan, while retreating northward, all opened fire at once.
The tentacles flailed, trying to swat the shells away, but it’s not like artillery rounds are something you can just smack aside. They’ll explode either way.
– Comse me eoSh…
The giant monster let out a strange, distorted wail, but it didn’t do much. It just kept getting torn apart and regenerating inside the network of artillery and missiles.
Gam Ji-yoon shouted,
“That! We have to absorb the magic stone in that!”
“Our goal is to retreat. We’re just buying time so people can escape. Sorry, but I can’t spare the energy to fly again while holding that thing in place.”
It already took everything I had just to prevent mass casualties from the tumor bombardments.
“B-But…!”
“Look. No matter how hard they hit it, its size never drops below a third. If you get close, you might get hit by—”
Gam Ji-yoon grabbed both of my cheeks and screamed.
“It’s coming!”
And then—
The artillery fire suddenly felt thinner. Moments later, a half-panicked voice came through the earpiece.
[A-All the monsters around Uijeongbu are gathering here! They’ve overrun the Bukhansan artillery units! It’s turning into a monster field—get out of there now!]
Fucking hell.
Now they’re using strategy. Crack! Crunch! One of the nearby trash bins was being chewed to bits, but the monsters hadn’t yet made it into the alley.
Director Jang sighed in relief.
“That was close—”
Bang!
“…”
Thud. An infected, charging from behind, collapsed after being shot by Yang Il-ho. A bullet had gone straight through its forehead.
“U-Uhh…!”
“……You saved me. Well done.”
“I-I just—”
“They’re mentally ill—there’s no cure. Don’t worry about it.”
With a kind lie, Director Jang calmed Yang Il-ho down and quickly moved through the alley toward the commander.
And—
Seven minutes later, indiscriminate killing of the infected was called off.
* * *
– omse……
The black goat’s body swelled with tumors once more.
[Th-That damn black goat bastard! It’s heading back to Uijeongbu!]
“How far has the evacuation progressed!?”
[The troops are pushing through toward Yangju! Civilians are mixed in behind them!]
“No, I asked how far the evacuation’s gotten!”
[How the hell am I supposed to know that in the middle of this, you desk jockey!?]
“S-Sorry!”
[If I had to guesstimate based on area and unit size—47% have escaped!]
“……”
I had taken refuge with Gam Ji-yoon at the foot of Bukhansan. Monsters were pushing up from the south.
[Damn it! The monsters are surrounding us around Uijeongbu! Yangju’s okay because there are tanks, but everywhere else is in trouble!]
“What about the soldiers!?”
[What!? Those knockoff zombies? That’s mostly been handled! We sent in the riot police, and they took care of it quick! Catching maniacs is their job, after all!]
“What does that even mean!?”
[Ah, probably not something I should’ve said to a Democrat—]
“Shut the hell up, you idiot!”
Cough! I must’ve cracked a rib—blood came out of my mouth. I really don’t mesh well with this guy.
“……”
I accidentally coughed blood onto the top of Gam Ji-yoon’s head. I wiped it away quickly with my sleeve.
“? Why’d you start petting me all of a sudden?”
“You did good.”
“I know that!”
Gam Ji-yoon closed her eyes again and tried to sense the monsters nearby. I couldn’t pick up anything from that vague kind of feeling.
She flinched and mumbled,
“Umm… from here, down to the lower right? Then a little up from there? A bit farther!”
I translated her words. And then—
“Whoa.”
A familiar voice rang out.
I flinched and turned around.
“Heard everything went to shit, so I came all the way up from South Seoul. But it’s not quite as bad as I expected, huh?”
“It’s not ‘South Seoul,’ it’s ‘Southern Seoul,’ you ignorant oaf.”
“Same difference. Tch… Kim Secretary, zip it.”
Kim Chun-sik was arguing with a guild hunter beside him.
“D-David Kim…!”
“Whoa! What happened to our assemblyman? Why so covered in blood?”
Kim Chun-sik grinned at me.
And behind him, in the forest of Bukhansan—
“Doooochaaargh!”
“…Is that a monster too?”
“At this point, I just accept it as my fate…”
Dozens of guild hunters began emerging, one by one.
