Making a New Family - 3
Soo Kangyeon couldn't comprehend the situation unfolding around her. It felt like she was trapped in a dream.
"Captain!"
"Got it."
Soo Kangyeon swiftly swapped out the magazine of her rifle and dropped the zombie charging straight at her. Perfect stance, perfect shot. It was flawless handling that left everyone watching in awe.
But the fight wasn't over. After reloading, she kept gunning down zombies on the right flank of the group, her mind drifting back into thought.
Is this... really reality?
Whenever patrol members felt like reality had turned dreamlike, they had to immediately stop shooting or fighting and focus on grounding themselves. There were monsters out there that attacked the mind with drugs or supernatural phenomena instead of physical assaults.
But no matter how she racked her brain, this wasn't some kind of anomaly. It was just that the man leading the charge up front, cutting down monsters as he advanced, was unrealistically strong.
He had every reason to be that confident.
When he'd declared he'd clash with Katus itself to protect Haena, Kangyeon had thought he was reckless. Sure, the man was strong. Anyone wandering these dangerous areas had to be. But even so, an organization was an organization. Unless you were some unrealistically high-level powerhouse, taking on a well-trained group of hunters was damn near impossible.
And he was that unrealistically high-level powerhouse.
How...?
She knew full well how terrifying and powerful the elite monsters he was casually dropping were. Her patrol unit was built for scouting uncharted zones, and they had the confidence to handle a couple of average elite monsters without breaking a sweat.
But compared to him? Laughable.
This is...
Kangyeon wondered if Katus could even win against these elite monsters if they threw everything they had at them. No need to wonder. It'd be a total defeat. Even if they somehow survived by some miracle, the casualties would be catastrophic.
He's really...
He was a man with the power to turn his words into reality. A man who had no reason to fear Katus.
So she had no choice but to respect his will. The whims of the weak were worthless delusions not worth considering, but the whims of the strong were convictions everyone else had to honor.
People shouldn't die over something so trivial... right?
It was a childish notion. No one could smile while killing a friend, and no one could stay composed in the face of death. Maybe Katus's "punishment" was unjust. But humanity had grown stronger by accepting that injustice, building society that way, overcoming crises that way.
And he rejected it all.
But...
Maybe he had the strength to reject it. Maybe he could ignore the rules and ethics of ordinary humans, enforce his own order, his own will.
"Left side, watch out!"
Even he couldn't drop every monster in one hit. More precisely, the elite monsters here kept swarming even after he cleaved them in half, threatening the survivors.
We're getting hit from all sides!
A massive thud echoed from the left. A Goliath rummaging for streetlights or rocks to hurl.
From the rear, elite monsters spewing bodily fluids were lining up in formation.
On her right flank, zombies with freakishly long limbs were appearing in droves.
"Damn it!"
She calmly pulled the trigger. But it wasn't quite enough to overcome the crisis bearing down on them.
"Hold position!" he shouted.
"Ngh!"
He shot forward like a bullet, body-slamming an incoming streetlight pole out of the air. It was obvious why he hadn't slashed it: using his ability-enhanced sword—which was, in a contradictory twist, a "razor-sharp plastic toy sword"—would have bisected the pole and sent it crashing into the group.
"Rear, the rear's in trouble too!"
Hari and Haena were fighting way better than she'd expected. In the brief moment Kangyeon glanced back, more than half the fluid-spewing zombies' bellies had burst open.
But stragglers remained, spraying green fluids toward the survivors.
"Watch out!"
And then, another unbelievable sight. A single Goliath flew in, shielding them by taking the full brunt of the fluids with its body. Even its tough flesh couldn't withstand the green acid; it melted away before their eyes.
Of course, the thing hadn't willingly protected their group.
"Anyone hurt?"
The man stood there. Right about where the Goliath must have started flying from if someone had launched it.
Did he... throw it with raw strength?
If it was a skill, he was a monster with a "Goliath-tossing skill." If pure power, a man who could handle Goliaths like toys. Either way, calling him human felt like an insult.
When the conflict over Haena had arisen, it was sheer luck they hadn't faced him head-on.
"...!"
But it wasn't over. Zombies surging from the front threatened her now.
Got careless!
She'd spent too much time on the long-limbed zombies. But without that, they couldn't have held the line. No choice.
This is bad—
A quick glance at the man showed him locked in fierce combat. He couldn't help her right now.
Bracing for the worst, Kangyeon squeezed her eyes shut. Then realized nothing had happened and opened them.
A zombie crumpled right in front of her. It rolled across the ground.
"Huh?"
Far off, atop the orphanage building, a flash of light sparkled.
"Director... still got it."
Kangyeon straightened her posture and resumed hunting the zombies overwhelming her vision. Every so often, the heavy thud of a sniper rifle echoed from the rooftop.
"Hang in there just a bit longer! We're almost there!"
It wasn't far at all. But the zombies packing the street made the short distance feel endless.
Still, the end was in sight. The orphanage loomed right ahead.
/////
"Goddamn it..."
The escape op was going far smoother than Hari had anticipated. She'd braced for losing half her comrades just getting this far. Hell, total wipeout seemed more likely.
But he was strong. Reliable.
What the hell is this guy...? Memories... overwriting.
Until now, "man" had meant her father to her. The enemy who'd killed her mother, the monster who treated human lives like trash—that was the man Hari knew.
The one before her now was different. Obsessive. Grinding his teeth, darting around to ensure not a single one died.
Even if he abandoned everyone here, fleeing with just the two women he knew, she couldn't blame him. Even if he'd slacked off, saying, "I'll clear the path to the orphanage—you follow if you can," no one would resent him.
But he didn't. He protected them all. Shielded the others, even though he had no reason to—as if those women were his own flesh and blood, his family.
...No.
More than her own father. He put more effort into protecting her than her real dad ever had in the six years they'd lived together. She was getting more love and care from this man than from that bastard.
"Get up top first! I'll hold here!"
"But..."
He was fighting for them. They'd reached the orphanage. The doors were open. If he wanted, he could bolt straight inside to safety in seconds.
"No more shooting from now on! Provide cover from inside the building!"
Hari and Haena still had stamina left, but the other orphanage kids were half-dead from exhaustion. Some had dropped their weapons. Others collapsed from tension and fatigue.
"If you're not going, at least help carry these kids!"
He zipped around at speeds she couldn't track with her eyes, scooping up the fallen and hauling them to safety.
...Ah.
And then Hari saw it. Unlike his relatively unscathed front, his back was half-melted by zombie fluids. Smeared with chunks of zombie flesh, yet revealing the ripped muscles he couldn't fully hide.
More beautiful than any sight she'd ever witnessed. That back.
So this is what it was.
Same place. Right here, her father had abandoned her, killed her mother. Committed his sins.
And now, Hari gazed at another man's back. In the same place, different time. A massive, sturdy back that seemed like it could shield them from everything.