104. Chungju Defense Force (1)
What do I do?
I have to do the same thing.
Just go in, infiltrate openly, go somewhere that looks important, and kidnap the big shot.
Then I'll have to figure out what that Warlord faction is doing.
'I should also check if there are any IN Company stooges.'
As expected, trying to take the easy way out doesn't seem to work.
I asked the soldiers.
"Can you open that again?"
"No, sir. It's one-time use."
"When does that close?"
"It stays open for 20 minutes. We can turn it off, though."
"Where is it located?"
"It's at the Chungju Northern Campsite."
I pulled out a map.
"Point it out with your lips."
"It's here."
So this is it, there's a bridge and a campsite.
"Where does this 'reconstruction' area of yours start and end?"
"From here to here."
"That's about a quarter, right? And it's not even in the city center, it's in the fields. Well, I guess there's no need to go to the city center anymore."
"That's correct."
"I see."
Portal Ability User.
Getting him is definitely the priority.
For that, I need Seo-yoon's ability.
However, this is a group that had an officer with high-level Psychokinesis.
And they are a very suspicious Warlord faction.
It's one thing if I caught the guys guarding that area, but I don't know what they might have done to the guys who came all the way out here with a powerful Ability User.
These guys might just be cooperating on the surface while lying to me right now.
They could be lying about their abilities, too.
So, bringing Seo-yoon to do that is a given.
'Now, for the method.'
Should I send them back?
Tell them to lie and say they were attacked, then keep eating the guys who come later?
No.
No.
It's better to just kill them all.
It's better to let them think something happened here.
I asked the three soldiers.
"What are your abilities?"
I hope it's an ability that's easy to verify.
"Muscle Enhancement."
"..Me too, Muscle Enhancement."
"Same here."
"What's your level?"
"All level 3."
Level 3, huh.
Then why can't they break my restraint?
"Why can't you break this? Try to break it."
"Uh, I can, but..."
The men are reading my mood.
Ah. They were afraid of dying, so they didn't do it.
"Do it."
"Yes, sir..."
The men tried to break free from the restraints.
But it took quite a while. Even though they were level 3, it took them a while.
It's definitely different from Arm Enhancement.
"Is that bastard also Muscle Enhancement?"
I pointed to the two dead men.
"No, sir. That's Arm Enhancement."
I thought so.
I tied the men up and said,
"You must have caught a lot of Infected, seeing as you're level 3."
"That's correct."
"Do you have any tracking abilities? Like knowing where people are?"
"Tracking, sir? That... I don't know."
"Me neither."
"Me neither..."
I can use this to verify if they're lying and then take them to Seo-yoon. The place is, hmm... just here is fine.
I'll just go and come back.
"Jong-hoon."
"Yes? No, yes, Hyung-nim."
I threw a perfectly good gun at him.
A rifle.
And the magazine, too.
"Uh..."
"Use that to watch them. I'll be back soon."
"Understood."
Jong-hoon scurried about.
Watching him move, I pondered.
'How can I extract the Portal Ability User?'
#
It's certain that the three men have Muscle Enhancement.
They tried to break out of the state I had them in with force. That's why I could give Lee Jong-hoon a gun and have him wait.
Afterward, I brought Seo-yoon separately and cast the ability on them.
'This is really fucking annoying.'
There was a reason I was obsessed with the Portal.
I'm going to be going here and there in the future, and if I have that, I can keep moving back and forth to one place, right?
Fortunately, they weren't under any mental ability control. That means the contract went in well.
Following that, it was confirmed that they hadn't told me a single lie.
They were really just soldiers who knew nothing.
They weren't the ones handing over people, and it seems there's either separate IN Company personnel inside, or separate personnel within the soldiers.
"This is real."
I sighed.
Seo-yoon said,
"Then are there really soldiers and civilians there?"
"Yeah. But, seeing as they're connected to the gangsters who catch and dispose of people, that side isn't clean either. Since IN Company has the ability to extract powers and kill, the head of that place is probably related to IN."
"Then aren't these people in danger too?"
"Exactly, that's why I'm having them wait here. That's the reason I brought you."
"Ah..."
Even though tracking abilities haven't been seen so far, they might exist.
The soldiers said they didn't know about such things, but did the guys who were hit by Han Hae-il know they were being hit? IN Company wouldn't be any less capable than that guy.
The three soldiers... Baek Su-ho, Choi Young-jin, and Kim Ye-il didn't know about IN Company.
In that case, it's natural to think it's just a decent group formed by a congressman, a brigade commander, soldiers, and civilians who don't know about IN Company.
But I've seen IN Company pull their bullshit several times in Cheonan, Jeungpyeong, and cities including Cheongju and Sejong.
"So there are black trucks and stuff."
"Yes, sir. We've seen them go outside sometimes."
"Didn't you think that was strange?"
"We just thought, uh, it was a civilian truck moving important goods."
I guess so.
Who would think they're moving people?
If you don't know the true nature of IN Company, that's understandable.
"Are you guys recruiting Ability Users?"
"Rather than recruiting Ability Users... we're gathering people. We've heard news that someone came from the outside, or what kind of Ability User arrived."
"In what way?"
"We heard that Communication Ability User Kim So-hyuk joined and got the rank of Lieutenant. Also, Baek A-yeon with Plant Growth ability, and Kim Su-jin with Construction ability. Like that."
"Is that so? Then have you heard of Lee Ha-yoon and Choi Woo-hyun? Communication ability user Lee Ha-yoon, and Restraint ability user Choi Woo-hyun."
"Uh... we haven't heard of them."
I see.
Actually, Lee Ha-yoon and Choi Woo-hyun might not have arrived there.
That's possible.
But the black trucks were evidence that IN Company was there.
Places like this are just for gathering information, not trading.
Plus, they send people there and execute them.
"Don't you think so, Jong-hoon?"
"...I think so. Honestly, the guys here weren't good people. I think they might be trying to get information on Naesu-eup and Cheongju. They send some people to us to get them offed."
I suppose so.
"The pig farm could honestly have been run by the Warlords too. Keeping only the Taming Ability User alive and sending their own personnel. No matter how I think about it, it seems like it's for cleaning up."
It smells fishy.
As I said that, the soldiers listened with serious faces.
They must have felt something there too.
Unfortunately, they didn't know the location or place of the guys giving orders, other than their direct superior.
These guys are the ones on the outskirts of the Chungju Evacuation Line.
"A square shape centered around the Namhan River. Is this right?"
"Yes, sir."
"I'll confirm one more time. You guys came up this way and came out of the portal at the campsite. There are 4 battalions in total, and you are the 1st Battalion in charge of the top area, and you are members of the 4th Platoon, 4th Company?"
"That's correct."
"You're in charge of external activities, and you went outside with the officer, but now there's no reaction, and originally, no one ever disappeared?"
"Yes, sir."
"You don't know about Jeong Myung-chul, and you don't know about Choi Gwang-shin?"
"Yes... we don't know where they are."
"Sometimes speeches or important information come out as videos."
"Now that I think about it, that's true. We were just busy with our own work."
The soldiers looked like they had a lot on their minds.
I felt like I roughly knew what to do.
#
For now, I decided to wait.
I don't know what kind of reaction will come from Chungju City.
'Since an important Ability User has disappeared, they'll come to check this place, right?'
I dropped Seo-yoon off at I-Pension, and I, Jong-hoon, and the three soldiers waited here.
Since it was confirmed by Seo-yoon's ability that they weren't under mental control, there was no problem.
The problem was... that there was no reaction for a whole day?
"The report goes in immediately, right?"
"Yes, sir. They must have already realized it."
"But they're not coming, that's what this is."
I thought there would be a reaction after a day or so.
Well, the portal didn't open, and no bastards came by land.
It's not like there were things watching the surroundings, either.
"Let's watch for a few more days."
Two days passed.
While waiting with the three soldiers, I extracted more detailed stories about Chungju from them.
"So, does the Construction ability build buildings from scratch? Like a bunker?"
"Yes, sir. I don't know about a bunker... but they can build buildings where humans can live."
"That's huge. Do you get electricity and water?"
"Yes, we do."
"And they distribute it? Well, I guess there's no need to live inside the city then."
"That's correct."
Information about the Construction ability, and so on.
"How strong are the barricades?"
"Strong enough that people can't climb over. 2m?"
"Can't you see outside from the inside?"
"We can."
"How?"
"I don't know. It's a structure where you can see outside from the inside, but you can't see inside from the outside."
"It's not the barricade's own ability, but a different ability, right?"
"I don't know about that."
"Isn't it a Fortress ability? An ability with a compatibility of 80-something."
"Is there such a thing? I've never heard of it."
"Really?"
"Yes. It can't go up or anything. It's only used for blocking."
"I'll have to ask our kid about this later."
Information about the barricades covering the Chungju Warlord stronghold, and so on.
"Didn't you communicate with the Communication ability? Whenever you guys come out to the outskirts, subordinates usually send reports, right? People like signalmen."
"Only the officer used the communication. Even then, he went somewhere we didn't know to send the communication, so we don't know."
"Is that so?"
"Yes. We really only come out here once a week, and just take the goods back. This is the first time we've heard that something happened here."
"Then what do you usually do?"
"There's nothing much. We go out to stand guard, eat, and sometimes patrol the outskirts, that's it."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"You too?"
"That's correct."
"Do you know what other platoons or companies are doing?"
"I don't know about that. Ever since that congressman came, they've been doing it like this."
"So you're not killing civilians or anything."
"Yes. They don't even let us touch them. Even to us, they don't let civilians touch them. They control it thoroughly."
"But if you have an ability like Psychokinesis, couldn't you just restore the inside of Chungju city? You said there are no bastards like Hunters and Abominations."
"...Uh..."
"Why?"
"I don't know about that."
"You guys."
"Um. I don't really..."
"Maybe it's because it's complicated? Chungju City isn't a small place... and it's better to settle in an empty, ownerless land than to restore all the floors."
"I see."
More detailed information about what I asked before, and so on.
"What do you call yourselves? Chungju Warlords? Chungju Evacuation Line?"
"We are the Chungju Defense Force. Or 112. But these days, we call ourselves the Gwangshin Unit among ourselves."
"Why Gwangshin? Ah. Don't tell me your brigade commander's name is Gwangshin?"
"Yes."
"That's ridiculous."
Trivial nonsense, and so on.
Three days like that.
July 1st.
Three days since I crushed the support team here, including the Psychokinesis Ability User.
'They're not coming.'
There's no point in waiting here any longer.
They've abandoned this place entirely.
Well, they must think that if the guys who went outside don't contact them, they've been taken out.
But it was a bit suspicious that they didn't come out to check at all.
Why?
Thinking about it, this is also understandable. They must think there's something capable of killing a Psychokinesis Ability User.
Or they think it's nothing special.
Well, I'll know when I go there myself.
'I wasted time trying to do something for nothing.'
Still, because I did this useless thing, I was able to find out that there is a Portal Ability User in Chungju.
This much is fine to leave alone.
Here... I'll have to make Lee Jong-hoon's Naesu-eup a place to leave some shady bastards.
I flew through the sweltering sky.
#
The distance from Cheongju to Chungju was a bit far.
I thought about going to Goesan or Eumseong, but Eumseong County looked closer, so I flew there.
As for Jeungpyeong, after the Jeungpyeong Warlords disappeared, it became an ownerless land with nothing, and Eumseong County above it ended up like Sejong.
Because there were traces of Hunters all over Eumseong County.
'Everyone here must be dead.'
Then it wouldn't be connected this way.
It seems like it's coming back down towards Goesan County.
As I went down, the scenery of Goesan County was fine.
Just a moderate amount of Infected wandering around?
If so, it seems right that they went up from here.
As I flew in the direction the three soldiers told me, I saw the scenery of southern Chungju.
'That's it.'
I was able to discover the Chungju Warlords immediately.
Because a long, open barricade was covering the farmland.