Do What You're Good At
Cho Geunseong, the base commander, was a despicable bastard. For all that he was supposedly an Awakened and the commander managing the base in charge of the Korean zone inside the Gate, the son of a bitch was so terrified of the enraged hunters sticking a knife in his back that he permanently stationed himself at the military unit outside the Gate.
He had no sense of responsibility, a filthy personality, and was a master at dodging blame whenever hunters died or got injured, so his reputation among the hunters was about as bad as it could get. Yet there was a reason this bastard had managed to keep his position as base commander all this time.
When hunters who had endured and endured finally exploded like this, the one thing he excelled at with artistic precision was threatening them into submission. And this time was no different.
With nothing but his tongue, he was stirring up tremendous anxiety.
"This is all a death penalty. Death penalty!!! This isn't just insubordination—it's rebellion!! Rebellion! You occupy the base however you please? Who the hell do you think you are? This place was built by the Republic of Korea pouring in taxpayer money! It's not a place you can handle however you want!"
"Fuck off, you fucking pig bastard!!"
"Hey! Lee Yeonghak! You're getting special treatment!! The others might get off with a few days in the brig if they turn themselves in right now, but you're looking at a guaranteed death sentence!! Life imprisonment! You want to rot in prison for the rest of your life?!"
"You fucking piece of shit. I was never planning to leave the Gate in the first place! This fucking bastard, for real! Should I just fillet him right here!!!"
If Yeonghak hyung-nim hadn't been inside the base, the hunters who were trembling in fear at the consequences of the mutiny they were committing would have fallen completely for Cho Geunseong's silver tongue and done everything he ordered. They would have hauled every last Magic Stone out of the Gate without question.
The fucking Republic of Korea that had inhumanly exploited us all this time would have gobbled those Magic Stones up and made a fortune laughing all the way to the bank. Yeonghak hyung-nim, even if he died and came back to life, had no intention of watching that happen.
"Don't test the limits of my patience. You can't even fight for shit. I can actually cut off your arms and legs, so stop right there and get lost."
Yeonghak hyung-nim was snorting with rage, and the murderous aura rolling off him made Cho Geunseong flinch and step back—but a greasy smile was still plastered all over his face.
"How long do you think you can hold out in here? Huh? Food? Water? You bastards!! You all want to starve to death? I was the one who put down the mutiny eight years ago! Three people actually starved to death back then! Do you know how horrific the corpses looked? You want to end up just like them!!"
"I told you to shut your fucking mouth!!"
"Last chance!! Starvation or the brig! Think carefully about which is the smarter choice!!"
Just as Yeonghak hyung-nim, who had finally had enough, was about to swing his blade for real, I walked up from a distance after hearing the entire conversation and shoved the blade aside at the perfect moment.
"Seongho!!"
The rage vanished from Yeonghak hyung-nim's face, replaced by a grin. I smiled back at him. And, ridiculously enough, a smile bloomed on Cho Geunseong's face as well.
"Haha! Kim Seongho! Yes! You're someone I can talk to. If you don't want to watch every hunter in this base starve to death, then you persuade Yeonghak to put down that blade. The laws of the Republic of Korea. Scary, right?"
Cho Geunseong seemed to think I was someone he could reason with, so he casually stepped aside and pointed to the man standing behind him. A man with a hard face, wearing the uniform of the Republic of Korea Armed Forces rather than a hunter's combat gear, stepped forward.
"I am Major Lee Haecheol of the military prosecution! Occupying a base is a serious crime! All of you will receive life sentences, and the damages caused by your actions may fall on your families! Do you want to watch not only yourselves but your families get ruined as well!!"
His booming voice made the hunters' gazes waver. Thinking it was working, Major Lee Haecheol raised his voice even louder.
"Surrender immediately! Surrender and name the ringleaders! If you do that, we will let you off with light punishment! Do not take the Republic of Korea lightly! This kind of mutiny will never be forgiven!...."
Major Lee Haecheol's thundering voice was drowned out by laughter. Cho Geunseong and Major Lee Haecheol both turned their heads toward the source of the sound. Vincent Volkov, the Association President, was laughing.
"A nation holds hunters' families hostage and threatens them? I understand you're desperate, but I can't deny how pathetic it looks. I didn't realize the Republic of Korea was this kind of country."
"Who the hell are you?"
At Major Lee Haecheol's words, Association President Volkov didn't even bother answering. He simply turned his head and looked over the hunters inside the base.
Status windows don't lie.
Seeing the levels displayed above the hunters' heads, Association President Volkov's smile deepened. He must have realized I hadn't been lying and made up his mind.
"I'll give all of you a chance to choose!!! Will you continue being exploited as soldiers of the Republic of Korea? Or will you come over to the land of opportunity—America!! It's different from here! I promise you the absolute best treatment!!"
The Korean-American standing beside Volkov translated at the top of his lungs, and the faces of the hunters who had been wavering with anxiety instantly filled with hope.
"America? America?"
"America actually came?"
"So what Seongho hyung said wasn't a lie?"
The hunters buzzed among themselves. And Association President Volkov drove the nail home.
"I do not lie! Come, come! Let's start with some food first! Eat and drink, then we can discuss things with me at our leisure!!"
I clapped my hands and gestured, and the other hunters who had been waiting began bringing out all kinds of food and drinks from the containers and distributing them to the hunters. American hot dogs, burritos, hamburgers, and more were handed out along with ice-cold sodas, and only then did the hunters seem to realize this was no joke.
"L-Let's eat! Just eat for now!!"
Watching the hunters start shoveling food into their mouths, Cho Geunseong and Major Lee Haecheol's faces flushed red.
"Who the hell are you? Why are you interfering? Huh?"
"This is Republic of Korea territory!! Why is an American here? This is a serious violation of international law!"
Hearing that through the interpreter, Association President Volkov shrugged.
"If they simply express the intention to naturalize as Americans, it isn't illegal."
"What?"
"Let's be honest with each other. Magic Stones mean money. Not ordinary money—the kind of money that can change international relations themselves."
Association President Volkov lit a cigarette.
"I'm actually grateful. Thanks to the way you people treated these high-level hunters like garbage, we get to snatch them up."
"You shameless son of a bitch!!"
Cho Geunseong bellowed. He raised his hand toward the hunters and began spouting words like he was giving a speech.
"And you still call yourselves citizens of the Republic of Korea? Huh? You fucking bastards? What are you doing? Kick this American out! Kick him out and listen to me!! Do you think you can defy the Republic of Korea and still live just fine? Huh? You think there's hope waiting for you in the place you run to after abandoning your homeland?"
Cho Geunseong's voice screeched. Major Lee Haecheol's voice chimed in to back him up.
"If you're men of the Republic of Korea, fulfill the responsibilities of being born male! What you're doing right now is treason!!!"
"Last chance!! You fucking bastards. Kick this American out and drag Lee Yeonghak in front of me right now. You want to watch your entire families get fucked over too? Huh? Is the Republic of Korea a pushover? Do all of you need to end up like Lee Sangmin before you come to your senses? Huh?"
Cho Geunseong had probably said that to scare them. Every hunter here remembered how horrifically Sangmin had died from the poison. He must have believed that by threatening these clueless kids in their twenties with the same terrible death, they would tremble and fall in line.
But that was a fatal slip of the tongue.
The hunters who had been frantically trying to eat their hot dogs and burritos set the food down and stood up from their seats.
The atmosphere turned ominous.
Not a single person said a word.
But even without words, atmosphere alone can express intent.
Killing intent.
Rage.
Hatred.
It was the moment when even the last tiny grain of patriotism that had remained toward the country called the Republic of Korea vanished completely.
"Everyone stay put."
Yeonghak hyung-nim raised a hand to stop the hunters. Then he began walking slowly toward Cho Geunseong and Major Lee Haecheol.
"Seongho."
"Yes, Yeonghak hyung-nim."
"Tell the Association President to go somewhere else. Things are about to get ugly."
I approached the Korean-American interpreter and briefly explained the situation. What kind of slip Cho Geunseong had made. Why Yeonghak hyung-nim was furious. That things might get a bit gruesome, so it would be best if he stepped away for a while.
"I'll go check on the condition of the food in the containers. Haha!"
After confirming out of the corner of my eye that the sharp Association President Volkov was quickly making himself scarce, Yeonghak hyung-nim walked up and stood in front of Cho Geunseong.
"Lee Yeonghak! You're already finished!! It's obvious you were the one who instigated this! But I'll still give you one last chance! If you surrender quietly even now, we can still take it into consideration!........"
"Geunseong."
Lee Yeonghak called the base commander's name in a chilling voice.
"This bastard using informal speech!......"
"I don't even feel like treating you like an adult, so I'll just call you by your name. Geunseong. Let me ask you one thing. If every single person here dropped dead, would the Republic of Korea even care? Would they remember us, mourn us, and hold a national ceremony to thank us for protecting them? Huh?"
"What the hell did this bastard eat wrong!! Drop your weapon and surrender right now! Even now!!"
Cho Geunseong kept yapping until the end. I understood. They needed the Magic Stones, and for that they needed the hunters' help, but the atmosphere had turned strange so his ass was on fire. The higher-ups must have been hounding him to resolve it somehow. That was why he was risking danger to put on a strong front.
And deep down, he seemed to believe that no matter how pissed Lee Yeonghak got, he wouldn't cross the line.
Yeah. That wasn't wrong. Until now, that had been the case. Killing Cho Geunseong wouldn't have led to any future.
But things were different now.
That was why Yeonghak hyung-nim threw aside the blade he had been holding and mercilessly kicked Cho Geunseong right between the legs.
A wet crunching sound rang out as something broke.
Cho Geunseong's face went deathly pale in an instant. He clutched his crotch, making strangled noises as he collapsed to the floor.
"Th-This crazy bastard!!"
Major Lee Haecheol screamed. Yeonghak hyung-nim showed not the slightest fear at his shout. Instead, he started laughing.
"Hey. We were funny to you, huh? Huh?"
Yeonghak hyung-nim swung his fist. With a savage sound of flesh being pulverized, Cho Geunseong's face was crushed beyond recognition.
"You treated us unfairly and we just took the beatings like dogs, so it was funny, right? You fucking bitches?"
"Aaaagh! S-Spare me!......Gyaaaah!!"
"Ten years! Because of the service extensions I rotted for ten years in this base inside the Gate!! I couldn't even go to my own mother's funeral!! I wanted to kill myself every single day, but I held on because of my comrades!! And one of those people!! You killed Sangmin in such a ridiculous way and then you fucking dare bring up his name?!"
Major Lee Haecheol couldn't even think of intervening. I understood. Every time the fist swung, it sounded like a bomb going off. A physical enhancement-type Awakened in the Level 1100 range. Yeonghak hyung-nim's punches were not something a human could withstand.
Hyung-nim methodically poured all his rage into beating every part of Cho Geunseong's body. Arms and legs snapped. Ribs and ribcage were completely destroyed. His face was smashed so thoroughly it was no longer possible to make out its shape.
Cho Geunseong, who had been screeching and screaming, eventually stopped making any sound at all and went limp, no longer moving. After tossing the lump of flesh that could barely be called human onto the floor, Yeonghak hyung-nim walked over to Major Lee Haecheol.
"Hey. You fucking bastard."
Major Lee Haecheol couldn't even breathe as he stood frozen, staring at Yeonghak hyung-nim.
"Tell the government of the Republic of Korea. We're not citizens of the Republic of Korea anymore."
After spitting a thick wad of saliva onto Major Lee Haecheol's cheek, Yeonghak hyung-nim turned and walked toward the hunters.
"Let's go. Let's go eat, you bastards."
It was murder.
But not a single one of the hunters looked at Yeonghak hyung-nim with reproach or fear. The hunters snickered as if nothing had happened and walked with Yeonghak hyung-nim toward the container full of food. I watched the scene with satisfaction, then approached Major Lee Haecheol, who looked like his soul had left his body.
"Take Cho Geunseong's corpse and get out of the base, Major. And we don't actually want the Republic of Korea to disappear. If a rift opens in the Korean zone inside the Gate, we'll handle it for you. But we're going to charge a lot of money."
I grabbed Major Lee Haecheol's chin and forced him to meet my eyes.
"We'll start at a minimum of 100 billion won per rift. Depending on the number of monsters and if there's a boss-level, the price can go higher based on the level. Make it clear that monster hunting is no longer free. Understood?"
".......You crazy bastards."
"The crazy ones aren't us—it's the Republic of Korea, don't you think? We still want to maintain a good relationship with the Republic of Korea going forward. So we don't want to see any trouble just because one person died. Let's just let it slide."
I patted Major Lee Haecheol on the shoulder a couple of times, then pointed at the Gate with my chin.
"Take the corpse and get out."
"How the hell........am I supposed to just let it slide when there's a corpse that anyone can see was beaten to death with fists!!"
Major Lee Haecheol's scream rang out. At those words I snickered and looked at him.
"Let's see. What was the Ministry of Defense's announcement when Sangmin died?......Ah. Right."
A greasy smile formed on my lips.
"Say he died of underlying conditions."
".......What?"
"Even a high-level hunter like Sangmin died of underlying conditions, so what about Base Commander Cho Geunseong, who never even hunted once? Just bury it as underlying conditions."
"....."
"That's the Ministry of Defense's specialty, isn't it? Covering things up. Do what you're good at."