Chapter 94
Thud. Thud. Thud.
The guard at the last post spotted Jang Bokdong sprinting toward the final checkpoint at the edge of the base.
Every American soldier who had taken part in the operation to eliminate Makdu Habah knew Jang Bokdong, so the guard recognized him immediately.
“Not this way, sir! The transport helicopter on standby is over there…!”
But Jang Bokdong waved him off and, in a single breath, vaulted the checkpoint’s iron gate and dashed outside.
“Uh… uh uh…?”
Startled, the guard was just about to grab his radio.
[Just let him go.]
“Sir? But just now—”
[I said, let him go.]
“It’s not that, it’s the mercenary, Captain Jang, he just—”
[It’s a direct order from the mercenary manager. Say no more and hold your position.]
A mercenary who was supposed to be returning to his own country had just run out.
Yet the order was to let him go.
The guard tilted his head in confusion.
But as a soldier who lived and died by orders, he swallowed his doubts, did nothing, and returned to his post.
“Weird, isn’t it? That by-the-book guy isn’t one to give an order like this. Right?”
“Corporal! Ryan!”
“Yes, sir!”
“It’s surprising that Manager Bright would give such an order!”
“Sigh. What do we know anyway. Wait—you’re the assistant guard, and you’re letting your mind wander? You slacker.”
“S-sorry, sir!”
“You should be watching for intruders and keeping an eye on the perimeter. How dare you badmouth Manager Bright?”
“N-no, that’s not it.”
“What’s this? Talking back? You and I are gonna have a little chat later. Expect some intense PT when we get back.”
The momentary question didn’t last long.
Clack! Clack! Clack!
As the guards snapped back into discipline and the memory of what had happened began to fade, the village that would soon vanish from the map came into view before Jang Bokdong’s relentless sprint.
“Please… just wait a little longer… just a little.”
= = =
It didn’t take long to reach the village.
But as he ran blindly, consumed by the thought that everything could be wiped out by a bombardment, Jang Bokdong realized a fatal oversight.
He had no idea where to go.
That cruel fact only hit him after his frantic steps had already carried him into the village.
“Damn it!”
Cornered—unable to wander aimlessly, yet unable to turn back—Jang Bokdong clenched his teeth.
‘Does… fate really exist?’
An unexpected person corrected his mistake.
“Captain!”
“Mike…!?”
It seemed Jang Bokdong’s fate with Elina wasn’t something that could be abandoned so easily.
“Why are you—”
“There’s no time. I know the location, so follow me.”
“That’s not it, Mike—”
“You can thank me or apologize later.”
Jang Bokdong followed Mike, who kicked off the ground and ran at full speed.
They arrived at a warehouse-like building on the outskirts, not far from the village.
It was so shabby you’d wonder if she could really be here.
“You said Gani Habah took Elina, right? I might not know about Makdu Habah, but I know exactly where Gani Habah hangs out and where his hideouts are. Go on! There’s no time!”
“Thanks.”
With no time to spare, Jang Bokdong charged forward like he was about to kick the door down—then stopped and looked back at Mike.
“Go back now. Don’t even look back. Just go.”
A grin.
“This is unexpected. They say the quiet cat gets to the cream first.”
“…..”
Jang Bokdong listened to Mike’s smiling words in silence.
He knew better than anyone what those words meant.
Mike smiled brightly and gave a thumbs-up.
“It’s an honor to see this unexpected side of you, Captain. If I knew this would happen, I would’ve let a few more women get snatched.”
“Since when… did you know?”
“Hmm. Since Elina was wearing your clothes? It’s not just me—the whole team probably knows. If you wanted to hide it, you should’ve done it in your room. The smell of your ‘great deed’ was all over the place…”
“I get it. There’s no time. Go now. Thanks.”
“Don’t be shy. Hurry up and get back.”
Whether it was embarrassment or urgency, Jang Bokdong’s sprint gained even more power.
And so—
CRASH!!
Jang Bokdong kicked down the door to Gani Habah’s hideout and stormed in.
“Let’s hope we see each other alive. Now then… is my job to guard this place?”
Instead of leaving, Mike began loading a magazine into his pistol, preparing for any reinforcements.
= = =
When the unconscious Elina came to, she was in a horribly familiar place.
“Hk, hieeek!”
A place she never wanted to return to—the place she had almost been dragged to on the day Jang Bokdong came for her.
“You’re awake?”
It was the hideout of Gani Habah—the man with that hideous face.
Elina clutched her clothes and crawled into a corner.
Because of that, Gani Habah’s hand, which had been slowly reaching for her cheek, froze in midair.
“Again, again, again!”
His lecherous smile twisted into an orc-like rage.
“Ah! Sorry, sorry. I was just so worried I’d never find you again… I didn’t mean to. Sorry. Sorry.”
Then he berated himself as if he’d made a mistake, and pasted that lecherous smile back on.
The way he flipped back and forth—like a deranged psycho with a split personality—was more than enough to fill Elina with terror.
“I was mistaken. I thought you’d abandoned me and entrusted yourself to those American bastards. I thought I’d never find you again. But that wasn’t it, ah! It actually worked out for the better. Thanks to you, things are going even more smoothly. Hehehehe.”
‘Things are going more smoothly?’
Elina’s brow twitched.
Only then did the memory from before she passed out return.
‘I was definitely inside the US military base. But how did Gani Habah get me…?’
It didn’t make sense.
How could the Qudus Army enter a US military base and kidnap her?
Unless they were colluding with a high-ranking US officer, it was impossible…
‘Ah…’
At that thought, Elina carefully studied the people around her.
‘They’re not here. Not here.’
Not a single one of Commander Makdu Habah’s fearsome men was in sight.
That meant only one thing.
“Don’t tell me… you sold out your own father. And in return, you were granted permission to enter the US base?”
“Hmph, hmph hmph hmph.”
That laugh was his answer.
“For what… just for me…?”
“Of course. You’re not ‘just’ anything to me. You’re the fiancée I’ve chosen, and you’re everything that will change my life and the future of the Qudus Army.”
“What am I…?”
“What do you mean, what? You heard it back then. The words of Sorcerer Katarma, who stayed by my father’s side.”
The memory of that day flashed through Elina’s mind.
「Harassed by the wolf named Gani Habah, she had once been dragged away somewhere as if kidnapped.
And that place was the residence of the Qudus Army’s tiger commander.
The residence of Commander Makdu Habah.
“Well? Now that you’ve seen her yourself, are you certain?”
At Makdu Habah’s words, the old woman standing by his side gave a chilling smile.
“I am certain. You must win this woman’s heart. Then you will gain not only youth, but also immense power.”
Hearing this, Elina did her best to control her expression.
A single [Skill] inside her [System window]—one she had told no one about and shown no one.
She absolutely could not let that [Skill] be discovered.
“Then I must take her. You should consider it an honor.”」
Fortunately, thanks to Katarma’s advice that he had to win her true love, she had been able to escape Makdu Habah’s clutches.
But more importantly—how did Gani Habah know about that?
Don’t tell me he hadn’t left, and had been listening the whole time?
“You tried to hide it, but that was foolish. Why do you think the US military suddenly designated us a terrorist group and attacked? And how do you think we’ve been able to hold out against the US military until now?”
“…..”
“It’s because of Katarma—the woman my father kept around. She had an appraisal [Skill] that could see other people’s [System]s.”
Elina’s eyes darted around.
“Looking for Katarma? I’m more disappointed about that than losing my father. I wanted to smuggle Katarma out… but I couldn’t even try for fear of raising suspicion. It wouldn’t do for my father to survive if I failed. Then he’d take you away, and then… things would be difficult.”
It seemed Katarma was dead too.
For a moment, Elina’s expression darkened.
Then if Makdu Habah was gone and Katarma was dead…
Does that mean Gani Habah—the vice-commander—was now the commander?
As soon as she grasped it, one thought came to mind.
“Then… the Qudus Army is finished.”
“What are you talking about! I’m still alive!”
“Just looking at you, it seems the idiots around you are still alive too.”
At those words, not only Gani Habah but the Qudus Army soldiers guarding him scowled.
“If you weren’t an idiot, why would the US military make you an offer?”
“You’re the stupid one! I made the offer! They just accepted it!”
“That’s why you’re an idiot. If you have a brain, think. The only reason those powerful US forces couldn’t deal with the Qudus Army until now was purely because of Commander Makdu Habah and Katarma—because of the eyes and strategies that hid the Qudus Army. I know it, the villagers know it, why—”
“Ha! Everyone bows down to him, calling him Commander, Commander. I guess you see my father and that old hag as gods too, huh?”
“Then again, he couldn’t see the blade his own son stuck in his back, so I guess he’s not a god.”
“This bitch, you’ve been running your mouth—”
Just as Gani Habah, losing patience, was about to slap Elina’s cheek—
Bang! Bang bang!
A gunshot loud enough to startle everyone rang out.
“Intruder!”
Bang bang! Bang!
“Hk, hieeek!”
At the shouts that echoed with the gunshots, Gani Habah’s face went pale in an instant.
Elina watched with a mocking gaze as his chin vanished into the thick folds of his turtle-like neck.
“It’s over now. The Qudus Army will disappear because of you. Everyone here is going to die because of you.”
Right at that moment—
“No. Absolutely not.”
When he should have been running away, Gani Habah suddenly locked the door.
“It’s not like there’s no way. Hehehe.”
Then, at the sight of him unbuckling his pants, Elina’s face turned ashen.
“Wh-what…”
Gani Habah’s thick, demonic hands reached for Elina.
= = =
Jang Bokdong, having burst into the hideout, tore through the quiet interior with none of his usual caution.
Traps. An ambush.
None of it mattered right now.
‘Where are you, Elina.’
He had no concern for himself—only for Elina.
The dread that something might have already happened to her made him bite his lip until it bled.
By now, more than enough time had passed for the bombardment order to be issued.
Soon, US fighters and bombers would move—gliding through the sky—
And drop every kind of bomb on this village.
‘There’s not much time. Where are you, where!’
Just as his frantic heart turned to sweat and streamed down his face—
This time, too, the god of fate took Jang Bokdong’s hand.
“…..I’m still alive!”
A loud voice came from a door leading deeper inside the warehouse.
‘Found you.’
Without hesitation, Jang Bokdong kicked off the ground and sprinted—leaping high, then slamming his foot into the door the voice had come from with all his might.
Thump!
The locked door boomed, a clear footprint stamped into it.
From inside came startled voices.
“Whoa, that scared me.”
“What was that?”
Bang! Bang bang!
Jang Bokdong fired one shot into the locked doorknob, then two more toward the source of those voices.
Thump!
As the door swung wide open, two pieces of trash collapsed.
But they weren’t the only Qudus Army members inside.
He spotted another soldier farther back and moved instantly.
“Intruder!”
Bang bang! Bang!
It didn’t even take a second to finish off the twitching trash.
Two bullets, landing cleanly between their eyes, sent them straight to hell, and the last bullet punched into the chest of the Qudus soldier who had shouted.
“Keuk!”
But his haste led to another mistake.
The shot that should have pierced the heart didn’t finish him in one blow.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Whether the dying man had released the safety, the wild burst instantly turned the area into chaos.
In the middle of it—holes punching into everything—
Jang Bokdong belatedly ducked behind a wall, clenched his teeth, and grabbed his side.
“Kghh!”
A spreading stain of blood, and pain so sharp it made his vision swim.
Who was it that said being a mercenary was a job where it wouldn’t be strange to die at any moment?
Every day, you fight with death, keep death at your side, and live while watching death.
‘Is today the day?’
A thought slipped in, unbidden.
If death was coming, wouldn’t it be today?
“Heup!”
This was the first time in his mercenary life he’d suffered a penetrating wound directly linked to death.
The sensation—pain he’d never known—was dizzying enough to blur his vision.
Ssssk.
Even so, Jang Bokdong forced strength into his trembling legs and pushed himself up.
There was no time.
Even now, the bombardment was closing in, and inside, something terrible was happening to Elina.
He glanced down at his side.
With that much blood, he knew that if he used it here, he wouldn’t be safe either.
Tick.
But Jang Bokdong threw the thought away, listened to the approaching sounds from afar, and yanked the pin from the grenade clipped to his jacket.
“Grenade! It’s a grenade!!”
They’d heard it.
Of all times—when he had none to spare—
Bang! Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Even under a hail of bullets that threatened to turn him into a honeycomb, Jang Bokdong calmly hurled the grenade with all his strength toward the angled wall diagonally across.
“Heup!”
The throw was so violent that blood surged from his side, but the grenade bounced off the wall and flew toward the gunfire—
BOOM!!!!
“Kuaaaargh!!”
The unpredictable explosion silenced the hail of bullets at once.
But—
Gush!
“Kghhhh!”
The wall-shaking blast jolted the wound in Jang Bokdong’s side, and he collapsed.
The pain was so immense he couldn’t even swallow a groan.
Headache. Dizziness. Nausea.
He couldn’t get up.
His vision blurred, and the hand pressing his wound was slick with blood.
One thought surfaced naturally.
‘Is this… it…’
He had made countless resolutions on the way here.
But the unexpected visitor called death was not something a mere human could overcome.
Just as strength drained from his legs and his body—braced against the wall—began to slump forward—
“Kyaaaaaaah!!”
Flash!
Elina’s scream, heard from somewhere deeper inside, forced Jang Bokdong’s closing eyes wide open.
“E-Elina!”
Grit!
He clenched his teeth until blood seeped out, and in that instant, a spark ignited in his eyes.