Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Chapter 21
Returning Home (4)
The battle with the fan letters continued for a long time.
To not miss any messages, I had no choice but to read each one carefully.
'Please be there.'
Three days had passed. By this point, a compensation psychology had kicked in.
If I didn't find a message in the fan letters, I felt like I would explode.
'It has to be there! It must be there!'
The letters were reaching the bottom.
My fatigue had reached its peak as well.
I read the letters in a mental state almost on the verge of sleep. Then my eyes snapped wide open.
"Found it."
The letter started like an ordinary fan letter, but at the end was a familiar phrase.
Everything in the world falls, but clouds remain in their place. That is because the sky is where clouds belong.
These were the words Jimun Seo-saeng had said when he was appointed as a Protector. Only the Protectors and I were present at that place.
At the very bottom of the letter was a phone number.
I immediately made the call. But no matter how many times I called, there was no answer.
However, after about 5 minutes, a text arrived.
-2 PM. Hangang Hotel Room 607.
I looked at the clock—it was 7 AM.
2 PM.
Hangang Hotel Room 607.
When I knocked, the door opened without suspicion.
The person waiting in the hotel appeared to be around twenty years old. He was a Black man, gaunt with a height of about 170 cm. He could speak Korean well enough to understand.
"Who are you?"
He seemed too young to be Jimun Seo-saeng, so I asked aggressively. He responded with a question of his own.
"What did you answer?"
It appeared to be a verification process. He wanted the answer I had given to Jimun Seo-saeng's words written in the letter.
"The clouds are too low."
That's what I had answered.
At that, he moved aside and opened the way forward.
I entered with Cheong Ak-sal.
"Are you the Cult Leader?"
"That's right."
"Who have you come to find?"
"Is this another verification process? This time I'll ask. Who sent you?"
He stared into my eyes for a moment. Then he spoke carefully.
"He said his name was Jimun Seo-saeng."
I had found the right person.
"Where is he?"
"He's in Nigeria."
"Nigeria? Is he in a situation where he can't come in person?"
"That's correct."
He handed me a photograph.
Among small Black children was a Westerner with a benevolent impression. In the photo, he appeared to be in his late twenties.
"This photo was taken 10 years ago. The child on the far right is me."
He introduced himself.
"Drica. That's my name. When I was young, I received treatment from Teacher Paul."
"Paul?"
"That's Jimun Seo-saeng's current name. He's working as a doctor in Nigeria."
"Then why can't he come in person?"
Drica got straight to the conclusion.
"He's being held by an organization called Baria. He's been treating the wounded and children there for 12 years."
"Baria?"
I'd heard of that organization. But I couldn't remember.
Noticing this, Drica jogged my memory.
"They're a terrorist organization."
Instantly, a name I'd seen in the newspaper came to mind.
An armed group in Nigeria.
A terrorist faction leading a civil war.
"Teacher Paul asked me to save him and the children he's treating."
Drica waited for an answer with a tense expression.
"I'm going to Nigeria."
Jimun Seo-saeng had requested a rescue.
There was no reason to hesitate.
Lagos Airport, Nigeria.
It took ten days to get a passport made and travel to Nigeria. Unlike other countries, an invitation letter was also required, and Drica handled all of that.
Everything else proceeded without problems, but So Iryeon was an issue.
-I want to go too! You're going to fight, right?!
-It's a rescue operation.
-The broadcast schedule is ending soon anyway. Please!
-Fine. Come by departure time. If you can't make it, we'll go without you. Talk to your agency and make sure there are no problems.
In the end, So Iryeon boarded the same plane and came here with us.
As we exited Lagos Airport, a wind blew that pressed down on the respiratory system, mixing stuffy air with sea breeze.
Humidity like jelly spread on the skin combined with sweltering weather to create discomfort, and the gloomy sky looked ready to pour rain at any moment.
Unlike the weather, Lagos appeared quite developed. There was no sense at all that there was a civil war or that terrorist groups occupied over 20% of the region.
However, the traffic congestion beyond imagination made people feel suffocated.
The language was English as an official language, so it was a country where Cheong Ak-sal and So Iryeon could communicate.
"It looks safe on the outside, but in reality, it's a city with the highest crime rate. Most criminals carry guns."
Drica gave a brief explanation as we left the airport.
"We need to go north. Baria's base is there, and that's where Teacher Paul is."
Following Drica's guidance, we took a car from the airport and headed north.
Lagos is in the southwest of Nigeria, and it took 12 hours by car to reach our first destination, the capital, Abuja.
For the time being, there was nothing to do except sit still in the car.
'Jimun Seo-saeng, I'm coming soon.'
I had heard about Jimun Seo-saeng from Drica.
Paul, born in the United States, came to Nigeria for medical volunteer work 12 years ago.
Using his single day off from a tight schedule, he stopped by a bookstore and witnessed a terrorist attack.
Without thinking, he began treating the wounded, which caught the eye of the Baria terrorist group.
Eventually, he was kidnapped and ordered to treat Baria's soldiers.
In this process, he received one promise.
-I will treat them. But let me treat the children as well.
Jimun Seo-saeng began treatment on the condition that he could also treat children injured from poverty and training. It was a possible negotiation because those children also belonged to Baria.
That was 12 years ago, and now surveillance had become lax, but there still wasn't an opportunity to escape.
His freedom was limited to the hospital. He solved his lodging and meals there as well.
All outings required permission, and soldiers followed him.
'A doctor.'
Even in his previous life, Jimun Seo-saeng was skilled in medicine.
'He was good at everything except fighting.'
That's the accurate assessment.
'Terrorists.'
Baria.
An Islamic extremist group stationed in northern Nigeria.
Like most terrorist groups, they organized an army and carried out terrorism under the banner of religious ideology.
Baria put forward the same objective.
They advocated for the goal of establishing an Islamic state, rejected other religions, and retaliated against countries that declared this to be terrorism.
Currently, they have grown to occupy 20% of Nigeria's territory, with heavily armed soldiers numbering 10,000.
The Nigerian government called them rebels and targeted them for subjugation, but 15 years later, they still hadn't achieved their goal.
"Drica, do you have a gun?"
"Yes."
There was a pistol in the passenger seat drawer.
"Stop the car for a moment."
We stopped the car in a deserted plain area, and I gave the gun to Drica.
"Shoot me."
"What?"
"I said shoot me."
I'd never been shot. So I wanted to check.
But Drica had an expression that said he absolutely couldn't do that.
"It's fine, so shoot."
Finally, after several attempts at persuasion, Drica pulled the trigger.
In response, I created Gang Qi with all my internal energy.
Bang!
The bullet hit my thigh. I had told him to shoot my heart, but Drica couldn't bring himself to do it.
Thud.
The bullet was completely crumpled and fell to the ground. Drica had an expression of disbelief.
"Again."
This time I loosened the Gang Qi protecting my body a little.
The result was the same, but there was pain.
"Once more."
I created Gang Qi with only about one and a half Gapja of internal energy.
This time the bullet struck my heart precisely.
"Ow, this hurts."
A bruise formed on my skin as well.
'It's much more powerful than I thought.'
Experiencing it directly, it wasn't something to ignore.
I gauged the bullet's power that way.
"Don't you have a stronger gun?"
"I can get one."
"Then get it and let's experiment again."
The next experiment took place a day later. This time it was a rifle.
"Try it in rapid fire."
I experimented first, and So Iryeon was next.
"Don't underestimate it, do it properly."
So Iryeon drew up both her external energy and internal energy to create Gang Qi.
Dozens of bullets struck So Iryeon's body, making holes in her clothes.
"Aw, this was my favorite outfit. Let me try once more."
So Iryeon released her internal energy and deflected the rifle fire once more with only her external energy.
The real bullets fell to the ground like plastic beads.
"It's nothing much, is it?"
So Iryeon dusted off her body and then pulled out clothes from her travel bag to change.
So Iryeon's resistance to bullets was ahead of mine. It made me think about whether I should train my external energy a bit more.
"Can you get explosives too?"
I wanted to directly test something like an anti-tank weapon called a bazooka. Because guns were more powerful than I thought, I judged it could be dangerous.
"That's a bit difficult."
"Got it. Cheong Ak-sal, do you want to try too?"
Cheong Ak-sal didn't have the external energy to withstand bullets. His internal energy was also just at the cutoff line.
His martial arts were tailored to ambushes and assassination techniques.
It wasn't martial arts that could create protective Gang Qi and move from the start. In conclusion, he couldn't deploy martial arts while being shot.
"I'm fine. I'll make sure not to get hit."
I roughly confirmed the power of guns.
"Remember. If a fight breaks out, Cheong Ak-sal hides your body first and focuses on ambushes, and So Iryeon creates Gang Qi before moving. And even normally, if there's a suspicious situation, create Gang Qi first, no matter what. Understood?"
I spoke with emphasis so that So Iryeon and Cheong Ak-sal could clearly understand.
'It'll definitely be a threat to half-baked fellows.'
It seemed you needed internal energy exceeding one and a half Gapja to withstand rifle bullets. At about two Gapja, it was just at the level of light bruising.
'Maintaining Gang Qi is the problem.'
Protecting the body with Gang Qi can't be maintained constantly. You create it momentarily as needed.
If you keep maintaining it, not only is the internal energy consumption large, but it also restricts your actions.
In the end, it's a matter of concentration and the depth of internal energy.
'Most martial artists wouldn't be able to withstand it.'
Since I have a body that underwent Hwangol Taltae, as long as I maintain concentration, bullets aren't a problem.
So Iryeon, who trained her external energy to the extreme, can respond even more easily than me since her skin itself becomes as hard as special metal.
However, in the previous life, there weren't even 30 martial artists who had reached this level.
Excluding those 30, it means they'd be hit even by the most basic weapon, guns.
'There must be a bit more now.'
I think I understand why the Hunters are being controlled by someone.
The weak ones can't beat weapons, and the strong ones can't beat the Hunters united as one, so they ended up being controlled.
Two days had passed since we departed from Lagos.
Finally, we were entering an area classified as the north.
"If we go north for just one more day, it's Baria's territory. I can't go any further with you."
Drica left, and So Iryeon sat in the driver's seat. She was the only one who could drive.
Screech!
The car that had been moving a little suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?"
"I pressed the wrong pedal. This is my first time actually driving."
Was this the traffic accident that the Witch told me to be careful about?
"Then I'll start again."
I sat in the back seat and witnessed a peculiar sight. It was Cheong Ak-sal discreetly fastening his seatbelt.
'Can we succeed?'
For the first time, I had doubts about my plan.