Let's Survive
“How was it?”
I asked Yeonghak hyung as he walked out of the Gate.
The acrid smell of roasting meat clung to his body.
A familiar smell.
It was the smell that rose when people burned in the flames monsters breathed.
“People don’t die as fast as you’d think. He sang for about three hours before he went.”
“I see.”
“Yeah.”
For a moment neither of us spoke.
“I’ll tell Mother myself.”
“Alright.”
Hyung lit a cigarette. He dragged hard on it, then let out a bitter chuckle.
“I can’t face Mother. I just… fucking can’t.”
“I understand.”
“I’m a goddamn coward. Just… a cowardly, pathetic piece of shit.”
I patted his shoulder without a word.
Then I headed for the lodging where Mother was staying.
The moment I stepped into the quarters the American soldiers had set up so neatly, a thick, stale stench hit me.
It was the smell of someone who hadn’t washed or eaten properly for days.
Seo Yeongcheol’s mother, her face half-gone, lay on the bed staring blankly at the ceiling.
“Mother.”
I approached her and spoke quietly. Her vacant gaze turned toward me.
“We punished the ones responsible.”
“That Division Commander Ji Jacheol—I heard there was a fire. Did Hunter Kim Seongho do that?”
“Yes. We did it. Do you want the details? How we did it?”
“Tell me.”
Mother had the right to hear. I explained without holding anything back.
How Kim Yejin died.
How Division Commander Ji Jacheol died.
And while I was at it, how that woman who was no mother to Sangmin died as well.
I told her everything.
Mother listened in silence for a long while.
When she had heard it all, she let out a long sigh.
“It feels good. It shouldn’t, but it feels good. If Hunter Kim Seongho hadn’t done that, that Division Commander Ji Jacheol or whatever—he never would have been punished, right?”
“The Ministry of National Defense is famous for covering for their own. He never would have received a punishment equal to killing Yeongcheol.”
“Yes. Thinking about that, my heart eases a little.”
After saying that, Mother suddenly began to laugh.
“It was a bad thing, Hunter Kim Seongho. And a rash action.”
“You’re right, Mother. It was a bad thing. And it was rash.”
There had been many ways.
We could have publicized it and squeezed them with public opinion, or threatened them with the Magic Stones and Elixir the hunters would bring in from now on. There were plenty of methods, but we had used kidnapping and assassination far too hastily.
Why?
“If I didn’t do at least that, I felt like I’d go insane.”
After seeing Mother’s screams, it just turned out that way.
I felt like I couldn’t just sit still.
Thinking about Mother suffering while everything dragged on, and about us having to watch her, I couldn’t endure it. Even if it wasn’t clean, I wanted to see it resolved right away.
So we handled it with a rather extreme method.
While I was speaking, I found myself crying at some point.
I tried to light a cigarette, but my hands wouldn’t reach for it.
I was just sad.
Then Mother hugged me.
I should have been the one hugging her, but she hugged me.
“You’ve worked hard. You’ve done well.”
Mother said that to me.
I don’t know why those words hurt so much in my chest.
I think I cried for a long time.
After pouring out everything that had been inside, I finally managed to calm down.
“I’m sorry, Mother. I should have been cold and rational, but I couldn’t. From now on, that won’t happen again.”
No matter how angry I was, I should have acted with calm endurance.
This time emotions got ahead and it was too hasty.
Mother nodded at my words.
“Live well. Don’t get hurt. Live on well. That way my heart will be at ease. I don’t want to see young men in the same situation as Yeongcheol suffering.”
“Yes, Mother. I will.”
Mother stroked my head, then slumped back onto the bed.
“The direct responsible parties have been dealt with, but… my anger still hasn’t gone away, Hunter Kim Seongho.”
Mother held out her phone to me.
“There are still so many people insulting my son like this.”
Someone was calling us selfish bastards, bastards who just suck up to America to fill their own greed, and some women were saying that just because the dead Seo Yeongcheol and Lee Sangmin were men, they died well. The phone screen Mother handed over was filled with such reactions, vivid and raw.
“We can’t kidnap and kill all these people, can we?”
“That’s right. We can’t. And if we process too many numbers the way we just did, we won’t be able to hide it either.”
“Then how will you deal with these people? I want to hear it. If there’s anything I can help with, I want to help.”
Mother’s voice was full of rage.
“I’m sick of this country, Hunter Kim Seongho. I don’t want to live in a country like this anymore. I want to live in Daejeon. Helping you all. Helping the hunters who fought alongside my son. I want to live like that. So tell me. What are you going to do from now on?”
What am I going to do.
This is what I’ll do.
“It’s nothing grand, Mother. The revenge plan I thought of is actually very simple.”
South Korea is a good country to live in.
Let’s admit what should be admitted.
The advanced infrastructure of a developed nation.
There are problems, but even so, looking at it globally, it ranks among the better ones. And I personally believe South Korea could become such a developed country because there were heroes who worked hard and lived diligently in their own positions.
I didn’t want to take revenge even on them.
Heroes should be respected.
Not be the ones receiving revenge.
“I’m going to absorb South Korea’s heroes—the people who were striving in their own places. I’ll draw them into Daejeon City and make them our people. And I’ll turn Daejeon into a more and more developed city, another country within the country.”
“And then?”
“The people who were parasitizing on those heroes will never be let into Daejeon; they’ll be left outside. Then they’ll bite and tear each other. Bite, claw, curse, and thrash about. And I’ll watch that. I’ll sneer and mock them while watching them slowly collapse.”
“It will take a long time and be hard work.”
“Probably. But I thought that’s what proper revenge is. I wanted to see the hell of hungry ghosts created only by people who treat human lives lightly and mock sacrifice and dedication.”
Once the affairs of Daejeon City were settled, I planned to focus properly on developing Elixir technology. A Daejeon City that develops more and more. And a South Korea that declines more and more. I wanted to see that spectacle.
“The most unfortunate country in the world and the most livable country coexisting with just one wall between them. So that the people outside the wall desperately want to come in, but we never open the door. That is the revenge I thought of.”
“Those heroes Hunter Kim Seongho mentioned. Will those people want to come?”
At that, I nodded with conviction.
“We’re Stray Dogs, Mother. But surprisingly, there are a lot of abandoned people in South Korea besides us. People who lived with common sense and effort. But who were used and discarded anyway. I want to create a sanctuary for those people. I want to help people in the same situation as us.”
“That’s wonderful, Hunter Kim Seongho.”
I burst out laughing at Mother’s words.
Wonderful, huh.
No.
I’m not wonderful.
That needs to be clear.
“Mother. I’m not wonderful. No matter how you think of me, I have no intention of becoming someone like Yi Sun-sin or King Sejong. If I have to find a similar person… I’m closer to Al Capone. I won’t hesitate to use dirty means either. I’ll be as careful as possible, but if necessary, I’ll kidnap like today and commit murder too.”
And what I want to obtain by doing even that is only one thing.
Only one.
“Even by doing that, I’ll protect my people. The people in Daejeon. While watching the people outside slowly wither and die. The country didn’t protect us, so we have to protect and live among ourselves, right?”
At my calm words, Mother was silent for a long time.
“Bury my son at the base inside the Gate. Not the National Cemetery.”
That was what Mother said after a long while.
“I don’t want the nation’s memorial. Memorial from the hunters will be enough.”
I nodded silently at Mother’s words.
“Rest, Mother. Contact me anytime if you need anything.”
“I will.”
I left the room so Mother could be alone. The moment the door closed, a sobbing sound pierced through it.
I listened to that sound for a long while before moving away from the room.
A few days later.
Having received the bodies of Yeongcheol and Sangmin, we prepared a space inside the base and carefully buried the two there. After planting the weapons they usually used into the graves, we held a moment of silence for them. There were people sniffling, and people clenching their fists full of rage.
After the silence.
I went up on the platform and opened my mouth toward everyone.
“Never again. I hope never again something this absurd happens. I hope it ends with Lee Sangmin and Seo Yeongcheol.”
Everyone quietly nodded at my words.
Everyone must feel the same.
No need to express it in words.
After gauging the hunters’ reactions, I raised my voice.
“South Korea is sick! It’s no longer a country of common sense!! We’re experiencing a more severe low birthrate than wartime countries even without a war, young people are committing suicide, and the old value protecting their own rice bowls more than principles and rules! And we were abandoned by that country!!”
Abandoned bastards.
Stray dogs.
We were stray dogs.
“So now we must protect ourselves! We no longer swear loyalty to South Korea and its people! We will swear loyalty to the guild for our own interests and survival!!”
I pointed outside the Gate.
“Out there. In South Korea. There are heroes who are somehow holding on and supporting the collapsing country. Heroes, but beings that no one recognizes, abandoned and despised. If they wish, we will accept them as well!! Accept them and develop further! And outside, we will leave only the wicked and those who parasitized on the heroes!! And let’s witness their destruction and sneer at them!”
All the hunters were silent.
But looking at their blazing eyes, it seemed clear what everyone was thinking.
“That!! Is the revenge I intend!! That is the most fitting punishment for those who treated dedication and sacrifice lightly!! Gathering only people who dedicate nothing and sacrifice nothing! That will complete a world more hellish than any other! I believe without a doubt! So.”
I paused for a moment and looked at the graves.
I spoke grandly, but in the end my goal was this.
“Let’s not die. Let’s survive. Survive to see tomorrow, take revenge, laugh, and cry. You bastards.”
Three months passed.
South Korea forgot the deaths of Hunter Seo Yeongcheol and Hunter Lee Sangmin as if it were natural, and as the cracks stopped appearing, they began living as if this peace were natural.
After killing Division Commander Ji Jacheol and Cho Miyeong, we started living as quietly as possible. It would be troublesome if we moved too often and stood out. In the meantime, we devoted ourselves to building a new base, organizing Daejeon City, and supporting the bases of various countries that had contracted with us.
But every matter has a turning point.
“Guild Master Kim.”
“Association President Volkov. What brings you here?”
“A researcher has flown in from America and wants to see you.”
“A researcher?”
“They say he’s the one who first developed Elixir… He says he has something to discuss with you regarding mass-production technology for room-temperature, ambient-pressure superconductors?”
Someone who already sounded like he was going to make us a fortune visited Daejeon City.