Damage Control
“Yeonghak hyung!!”
Only when we saw Yeonghak hyung descending from the sky could the rest of us finally let out the breath we’d been holding. Re-conscripted hunters were climbing down from the wyvern’s claws as well. While the others traded greetings with their comrades, I sprinted straight to him.
“What took you so long? Did something happen?”
“Let’s talk inside first.”
Hyung grabbed me and hauled me into the building without another word. He dropped into a chair and lit a cigarette. I waited in silence until he was ready to speak.
“I fucked up.”
“What kind of fuck-up?”
Hyung told me, flat and matter-of-fact, everything he’d done at the South Korean outpost. The longer I listened, the harder my face set.
“Hyung. We only agreed to bring back the re-conscripted hunters. Setting fire to a military base and wiping out the outpost completely—that’s way past the line, isn’t it? You think Korea’s just going to sit still?”
“I’ve already got the cover story ready. Mutated wyverns just happened to attack the Korean outpost while I was passing nearby, so I conducted a humanitarian rescue. And those same mutated wyverns burned the whole place down.”
“This isn’t about the cover story. Korea will never let this go. They might even team up with other countries to lean on the United States. Even with high-level Magic Stones and wyverns in our pocket, this is the kind of mess that doesn’t just blow over.”
Lee Yeonghak stared at me without blinking. I lit a cigarette of my own. For a while the only thing moving was the smoke curling into the air between us.
“I couldn’t just stand there and do nothing.”
“I get it. Of course I get it. But cleaning up afterward is a whole different story. Hyung—there’s a real chance the U.S. uses this as an excuse to put pressure on us. We have to do something. If we leave it like this, we’re screwed.”
“Any ideas?”
He was being a troll.
Any normal person would be furious right now.
I should have been screaming Fuck, Yeonghak hyung!! and yelling at him never to pull this shit again…
But I wasn’t angry.
Hearing that poor bastard Seo Yeongcheol had gone out like that, the first thing that hit me wasn’t rage—it was satisfaction.
Fine. Since he’d already done it…
We’d clean it up somehow. If I thought of it as a proper, fiery payback for Seo Yeongcheol’s death, it didn’t feel quite so goddamn miserable.
I started turning the problem over in my head.
Over and over again.
“You come up with something?”
I’d gone through maybe three cigarettes in a row, staring blankly into space, when the focus finally returned to my eyes. I ground the butt into the ashtray, and hyung asked the question carefully.
“I’ve got one idea. With this, we can convince Association President Volkov.”
“Yeah? What is it?”
Instead of answering, I just looked at him steadily.
“I’ll handle the cleanup this time, hyung. But you have to promise me one thing.”
“What?”
“Never again do something that wasn’t in the plan without talking to me first. We can fix this one, but if you’d been even a little unlucky you could have died. Our relationship with the U.S. almost went to hell too. There’s no guarantee we’ll be able to clean up the next mess.”
Hyung nodded immediately.
“Fair enough. I’m sorry. I let my emotions run the show.”
“It’s not that I don’t understand what you did. Hell, part of me even feels good about it. But you can’t run everything on pure feeling, right? Promise me. No more freelancing without talking to me first.”
“I will. I’m sorry, Seongho.”
I nodded. Hyung looked at me with open curiosity.
“So how are you going to fix it?”
“We’re going to isolate Korea internationally.”
“Is that even possible?”
“With my method, absolutely.”
Two hundred wyverns.
And the personnel to ride all two hundred of them had just been reinforced.
I smiled, satisfied.
“Just watch. Before long I’ll show you Korea on its knees in front of us.”
As expected, Association President Volkov exploded.
“Look at this! Look at this!!”
He pointed at the television footage of the gate garrison in Daejeon. Wyverns appeared, spewing fire that made vehicles and buildings explode and melt. Wounded officers were rushed away on stretchers. An announcer reported that the outpost inside the gate had been completely destroyed.
The next clip showed the president himself holding an emergency press conference. Nearly three full minutes of monsters appearing in the middle of Korean territory and breathing fire had been captured by countless phones and vehicle black boxes.
There was no longer any way to hide that something had gone wrong at the outpost.
The president’s face looked thoroughly rotten as he assured the nation there was no security crisis and that the main gate outpost problem would be resolved as quickly as possible. The expression of a man who’d fallen into a latrine made both me and Yeonghak hyung want to laugh.
“You’re laughing? We’ve received a formal protest from the United States! The president summoned the American ambassador and raised hell!! They believe you two did this.”
“Completely unfounded. We never did any such thing.”
At Yeonghak hyung’s words, Association President Volkov slammed the table.
“Mr. Lee!! Don’t even think about lying to me. I’ve seen your wyverns with my own eyes! Do you honestly believe I wouldn’t recognize that the wyverns currently burning Korean military bases are one of the three you fly around on?! All the United States wanted was one simple thing—a stable supply of Magic Stones!!”
Yeonghak hyung closed his mouth. He looked at me. What else could we do? I had to handle it. Hyung was the muscle. I was the brain. That was how the roles had always been divided.
“The Level 900-range Magic Stones we brought back—did you see them? Roughly four hundred kilograms’ worth.”
When I spoke, Association President Volkov lit a cigarette.
“I saw them. The researchers said the mana purity was extremely high. They were over the moon. I, however, couldn’t simply celebrate.”
A long stream of smoke poured out, thick with frustration.
“I hate variables, Mr. Kim. Mr. Lee. I’ll admit it—America cannot afford to discard you. You’re capable, and right now you’re the only people on the entire planet who can hunt high-level monsters and supply Magic Stones.”
“We’ll keep supplying Magic Stones.”
“If every time you bring Magic Stones you cause an incident like this, America will never be able to look at you kindly. This is a warning, Mr. Kim! Korea will never sit still. The international community will never look kindly on this either. They’ll condemn it as the act of thugs who trust only in their own power and try to shake the international order! Are you prepared to deal with the pressure from the international community led by Korea?”
I listened to Association President Volkov vent every last drop of his rage, then stood without a word.
“Come inside the gate for a moment. There’s something I want to show you.”
I took Yeonghak hyung, Association President Volkov, and the interpreter into the gate. The instant we were through—
“Summon.”
Summoning all contracted monsters from the subspace!
Two hundred wyverns and a single ancient dragon filled the air above us. The fury that had been twisting Association President Volkov’s face vanished, replaced by pure shock.
“You succeeded?”
“Two hundred wyverns with an average level of nine hundred. Superior defense, attack power, and mobility. Transport, troop movement, aerial support—all of it possible. I plan to put my party members on those wyverns and train them into a specialized air force. Of course, we’ll also provide support for any rift problems that appear inside American territory.”
Association President Volkov should have been clapping and cheering. Instead he scratched the back of his head like a man who couldn’t breathe.
Yeah.
I understood.
An aerial force of two hundred wyverns.
He couldn’t afford to give that up.
But if we kept causing incidents, the entire burden would fall on America and on him as Hunter Association President.
His dilemma was written all over his face.
“Mr. President.”
“What is it?”
“That international pressure led by Korea you mentioned a moment ago.”
“We’ll handle it for you. After seeing something like this, there’s no way you could abandon us, right?”
“I appreciate the offer, but you don’t need to go to the trouble. That international pressure—we’ll take care of it ourselves.”
Association President Volkov’s eyes went wide.
“What do you mean?”
“Wyverns are powerful monsters. And our ground forces are more than strong enough. With Yeonghak hyung leading the ground troops and just five or six wyverns for support, success rates go up and casualty rates drop exponentially. In other words—we’ll have wyverns to spare. Even after covering the entire American sphere.”
“Shouldn’t those spare forces be hunting high-level Magic Stones?”
“Of course. We’ll hunt Magic Stones. Even so, fifty or sixty wyverns will still be left over. I intend to use them to persuade the international community.”
“How… wait a second.”
A lightbulb clearly went off over Association President Volkov’s head. He rolled his eyes furiously, running calculations, then broke into a broad smile.
“Sounds like you’re offering air superiority.”
“Air superiority. Massive logistics transport. Troop movement. If we handle all of it, the international community will have no reason to refuse. In short—mercenaries. A special mercenary service provided only to good little countries that listen to America. Once that system is in place, how many nations will still side with Korea and try to pressure the United States?”
Association President Volkov threw his head back and laughed.
“Clean! But Korea is different from the others. They took direct damage. Even if you offer them the mercenary service, they won’t accept it easily. They’ll keep digging and hounding you to the bitter end. How do you plan to deal with that?”
“We’ll make it impossible for them to keep digging.”
“How, exactly?”
“Korea only ever had one outpost. And that outpost is gone. They don’t have much time. They desperately need our mercenary service. In exchange for that service, I’ll demand their silence—while charging them an extremely high fee for rift clearance.”
“……I’m not sure I follow. Are you saying you intend to blackmail your own country?”
“Yes. Exactly that. Blackmail.”
I lit a cigarette and blew out a stream of smoke.
“We’ll blackmail them with national security. Korea doesn’t have time. They have no idea when the monsters inside their territory will try to open another rift. Building a new outpost in the meantime is impossible. For other countries this would just mean more efficient combat inside the gates. For Korea it’s different.”
“For Korea, whether or not they receive your help becomes a matter of survival.”
I nodded. Association President Volkov fell silent for a moment, staring at me and Yeonghak hyung as if he genuinely couldn’t understand.
“Why? Why go that far? It’s still your homeland, isn’t it? Why treat the people of the land where you were born and raised so ruthlessly?”
I burst out laughing at that.
“We didn’t want to abandon our country either.”
The cigarette in my mouth had burned all the way down to the filter—just like our patriotism. I flicked the spent butt onto the floor.
“But our country abandoned us first.”