novelraw Chapter 127 : Mission 9: Interlude (3)
Chapter 127 : Mission 9: Interlude (3)
December 10, 2050, 3:30 PM.
Inside the transport plane en route north to Seoul.
“Three and a half hours ago, at noon today, this message came in from the Cheongnyangni Gate to the government.”
In the commander’s private compartment aboard the transport, Hae-eun summoned Ghost and hit play on the remote.
Beep—
«Greetings, gentlemen. This is Shin-woo Jo, the Iron Knight, leader of The Knights.»
On the wall, the beam projector lit up with a familiar middle-aged man staring straight into the camera.
In a low, steady baritone, he declared: «We have seized control of the Cheongnyangni Gate. The surrounding facilities are fully under our command.»
«I’ll keep this short. We have two demands.
First: Abolish the Awakened Protection Act and all related legislation.
Second: Guarantee Hunters’ rights to manage Gates and engage in autonomous combat.»
Just two demands, but they carried the weight of the world.
First: The Awakened Protection Act. The law that put every Awakened under government oversight, forcing them to wear suppressors in peacetime to inhibit their powers.
Not only scrap the bill the president had staked his political life on, but…
Second: Cough up all the Gate management authority the Gate Defense Bureau had been clawing back from the private sector.
In essence, it was a demand for the government and the Bureau to back off from Gates and monsters entirely—to roll back the clock to the old days of Hunter-led Gate pioneering.
«I’m not a patient man, so I’d love to demand an answer in twenty-four hours.
But to be realistic, I’ll give you a grace period of seventy-two hours.
Let me be clear: there will be no negotiations. If you reject these terms…
We will destroy the Gate’s control console and trigger a rampage.»
Shin-woo Jo spat out this madness with a face and voice that were utterly placid.
Just like the man he was when he ripped monsters apart.
«If you don’t want Seoul turned into a monster den again, accept my terms.
I await a wise decision. I will contact you again in twelve hours, at midnight. Over.»
Click.
The video ended.
Ghost summed it up in a single phrase.
“He’s lost his marbles.”
Watching her old comrade’s rebellion, she unconsciously pressed a hand to her forehead.
Hae-eun switched off the screen and said, “He’s been ignoring all contact since then.”
“Any chance the government bites?”
“Zero.” Hae-eun smirked bitterly. “Picture two trains barreling toward each other on the same track. And neither one has any intention of moving.”
“...”
“And it’s not just the Iron Knight. Guilds all over the country have caught the scent and are preparing to rise up.”
“What…”
“All eyes are on Cheongnyangni. If we suppress it cleanly, the other guilds will likely stand down. But if the suppression gets messy… things will get very noisy for a while.”
Hae-eun shrugged nonchalantly.
“Of course, the government knew things could escalate like this and has been preparing. The moment the bill passed Congress, all military and police forces nationwide went on high alert. They’re currently making preemptive deployments to high-risk areas.”
Ghost shook her head. “This isn’t like President San Kim.”
“...”
“He’s usually so much more… polished, so much more of a gentleman in how he handles things. Why is he ramming this through so recklessly?”
Hae-eun changed the subject.
“Our unit is mobilizing one team per deck, from Deck 0 through 8—nine teams total, forty-five inmates.”
The convicts on the list drawn up by the vice-captain had already been assembled.
The scale was truly unprecedented. There were so many people they had to be split between two transport planes.
“Of course, we’re just bulking up our numbers for an emergency. There’s a good chance it won’t even be our turn.”
Hae-eun twisted one corner of her mouth into a wry smile.
“But life has a way of always serving up the worst-case scenario.”
“...”
“Ghost. I know you’re already prepared for this, but I have to ask one more time.”
As Ghost pressed her lips into a thin line, Hae-eun cruelly forced the question.
“Can you cut him down? Your precious old comrade?”
Ghost’s icy blue eyes met the commander’s brown ones, set amidst her scars.
***
December 10, 2050, 4:30 PM.
Seoul. Capital Defense Command.
Thwup-thwup-thwup-thwup-thwup—
The Black Parade’s transport touched down with a roar of rotors.
As the hatch opened and Dia Kim stepped out with her entourage, troops waiting on the landing pad immediately took over escort duties.
“Today’s schedule ends here!”
Her hair whipping in the wind, Hae-eun shouted to Dia over the deafening rotors.
“As a contingency, you will be moved to a safe house, Miss Dia.”
“...”
“Don’t worry too much. This won’t take long to resolve.”
Dia’s eyes trembled as she looked from Hae-eun to the Secret Service team behind her, then swallowed hard.
“To everyone in the Black Parade… please, be careful.”
She shook hands with each of the prisoners who had guarded her on this mission.
When she got to Rabid Dog, she pulled her into a tight hug and rubbed her cheeks furiously.
Finally, she stopped in front of Jae-hee.
“And, Agent Boy!”
She stretched her hand up high and ruffled his curly hair, as if petting a puppy.
Jae-hee blinked, utterly clueless.
Dia flashed him a grin. “See you again.”
Then she was off with her team.
Jae-hee was still tilting his head in confusion when Ghost jabbed him from the side.
“So you’re the one getting treated like a dog this time?”
“...It’s a better look than the alternative, don’t you think?”
That last mission had spawned so many misinterpretations and misunderstandings…
This way, at least, he’d catch less flak.
As Ghost snorted, Hae-eun beckoned to her.
“Let’s go, Ghost.”
“Right… Kid, you too.”
“Huh?”
The rest of the convicts stayed on the transport while Hae-eun and Ghost boarded a military vehicle, but Ghost had told Jae-hee to come along as well.
“We’re headed to Gate Defense Bureau HQ for the mission briefing.”
Ghost nodded at him. “You’re coming with us.”
“Yes, ma’am!”
Jae-hee quickly fell in behind his master.
***
[Mission Report]
[AA Rank] Boy: Survived
[B Rank] Rabid Dog: Survived
[C Rank] Cultist: Survived
[D Rank] Status Window: Survived
[OLD S] Ghost: Survived
- 50,000 P.€
- Immediately links to next mission
***
December 10, 2050, 5:00 PM.
Seoul. Yeouido. Gate Defense Bureau Headquarters.
The Gate Defense Bureau HQ was a massive, gray, functionalist building.
As the group stepped out of the vehicle and approached the entrance, someone was waiting.
A young, blond-haired man in a crisp blue suit with a white scarf draped around his neck.
It was Ryu Yeon, a three-term congressman and the Hunter known as the Archmage.
“Ghost. And Commander Seo.”
After greeting them in turn, the Archmage nodded at Jae-hee. “Boy is here, too. Good to see you.”
Looking like she had much to say, Ghost furrowed her brow and strode toward him.
“Archmage! Why—”
“We can talk amongst ourselves later.”
The Archmage backed away with an easy smile and gestured toward the building’s interior.
“The meeting is about to start. Let’s hurry inside.”
Passing through a door guarded by armed soldiers and crossing a long corridor, the group entered a spacious conference room.
Inside the dim room, about ten high-ranking officials sat with grim expressions, all staring at a screen on one wall.
“Shin-woo Jo, the Iron Knight. Also known by the alias, the Godfather.”
The briefing was already underway.
Shin-woo Jo’s profile was on the screen. A young analyst read his biography aloud.
“He Awakened thirty years ago, simultaneous with the first Gate opening. Thereafter, he threw himself onto the front lines of the war against the monsters. His combat record is as follows.”
A list of every battle Shin-woo Jo had participated in appeared on the screen.
From the Seoul Retreat Operation to the subjugation of the Demon Lord Deyana Ludens, the first of its kind humanity successfully defeated.
It was, in effect, the majority of the battles from the Gate War era.
The officials watching let out a collective sigh.
“My God… He’s a legend among legends.”
“Yes. He has received every medal a living person in this country can receive.”
The analyst nodded and changed the screen.
“Next, his kill marks.”
The screen was crammed with monster kill marks.
It was a chart of pictograms showing what kind of monsters he had killed and how many. The kill marks, regardless of type, filled the screen.
One of the officials broke into a cold sweat.
“Are you saying that man killed all these monsters by himself?”
“This only displays kill marks for Boss-level monsters and above. There are six more pages, but I will omit them.”
“...”
The next screen showed five hunters, men and women, posing with the corpse of a red dragon in the background.
The Iron Knight. The Archmage. The Spirit Lord. Ghost. The Savior.
It was the commemorative photo taken thirty years ago by the Old Five Heroes after killing the Demon Lord—the evil dragon Deyana Ludens—a picture that symbolized the end of the Gate War.
Ugh. Ghost’s shoulders twitched as she quietly watched the briefing.
It was because she could see her younger self from thirty years ago in the photo.
As Ghost flinched, the Archmage standing beside her chuckled softly.
“We were all so cute back then, weren’t we?”
“Shut up.”
Jae-hee, who had been craning on his tiptoes to examine the photo, gasped and turned to look at Ghost.
“Whoa, is that you in the picture, Master?”
“Yeah…”
“Your hair is black! You look like a completely different person!”
“...”
Her hair was white now, but in the photo from thirty years ago, Ghost’s hair was jet-black.
With long black hair and a cold expression, the younger Ghost was glaring askance at the camera.
“That’s wild. You look like a kid.”
“That’s enough gawking, you brat…”
Regardless of the bickering from the subjects of the photo in the back, the analyst continued his explanation.
“As the leader of the five S-Rank Hunters who ended the Gate War, the so-called ‘Old Five Heroes,’ Shin-woo Jo commanded all Hunters in the field.”
The screen changed to a map of the Korean peninsula’s Gates.
“Even after the war, he united all the Hunters in the country and devoted his life to stabilizing Gates in every region. He personally guarded the Cheongnyangni Gate, remaining on-site twenty-four hours a day.”
“...”
“He is renowned globally, and within Korea especially, he is a man followed by every Hunter faction.”
“So that’s why he’s called the Godfather.”
“Precisely.”
“And a man like that has done something like this…”
Another official watching from the side gestured with his chin.
“What about his abilities as an Awakened?”
“‘Durability.’ It has been confirmed that, with the exception of Lord-class monsters, nothing can inflict any damage on him. And he can withstand attacks from even Lord-class monsters with ease.”
A series of anecdotes showcasing Shin-woo Jo’s overwhelming durability scrolled across the screen.
The officials blanched in unison at the story of how he had single-handedly lured a Gate Lord into a canyon, after which an army artillery division’s three-hour crossfire finally killed the Lord, while he himself walked out unscathed.
The number one vanguard, boasting the greatest durability of any living Awakened.
That was the Iron Knight, Shin-woo Jo.
“Shin-woo Jo’s most dangerous aspect is not his personal combat power, but… his command ability on the battlefield. His field command, in particular, was legendary during the Gate War.”
The analyst changed the screen. A group photo of dozens of hunters in armor appeared.
“He has over a hundred Hunters who have been loyal to him for thirty years and who move like his own limbs.”
“The ‘Knights’…”
The officials groaned.
Watching the meeting from the back, Ghost also silently rubbed her brow.
Humanity’s greatest Gate field commander in history, and the oldest Hunter guild in the Republic of Korea, which followed his every command.
These were the “enemies” they had to eliminate in the current crisis.