Chapter 209
Chapter 209
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 209
Chapter Title: 93. The Man from Jeju (2)
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A helicopter with two rotors was heading toward the grayish-white expanse.
There were six people on board, including the pilot.
Everyone except me was an Awakener.
The average age was early twenties, but the mood inside the chopper was heavy, deathly silent.
The reason I was riding along was, as always, my pathological curiosity.
The idea of luring monsters had been proposed long ago, but it lacked feasibility and never came to fruition.
You could see that just by unfolding a map of South Korea.
Where exactly would you lure the monsters to?
The capital region was out of the question, of course. Gyeongsang? Jeolla? Chungcheong or Gangwon?
It was absurd.
And there were practical issues too.
It wasn't much different from the question of who would hang a bell around the cat's neck.
Even scholars couldn't agree on what monsters truly were, so directing them to a specific location was nonsense.
Woo Min-hee had pulled off that impossible feat.
According to her, it was a method first discovered in Japan.
I thought it was just like them.
Japan was a place where the docile populace never resisted, no matter what tyrannies the state committed.
The Japanese government had forcibly driven out the residents of the Tohoku region and turned it into a monster baiting site.
In the process, ten million people lost their homes and hometowns, reduced to wretched refugees, but instead of condemning the state, the Japanese discriminated against and despised the displaced.
The way Japan lured monsters was a paradigm shift.
When monster hordes frequently attacked Awakener training facilities near rifts, the government hypothesized that monsters were drawn to Awakeners emitting waves similar to small-types. They locked up large numbers of combat-ineligible Awakeners in collective containment facilities and observed monster movements.
The monsters ignored the nearby military base and swarmed the Awakener containment instead.
That was how the monster-luring facility was invented.
Ironically, it was called a lighthouse.
Woo Min-hee had benchmarked the method and built a similar lighthouse north of Paju.
"That's the lighthouse."
A woman who hadn't spoken a word pointed out the window.
Beyond a vast sea more ochre than blue, a shabby, rundown city sprawled, and beside it stood a colossal structure that made me doubt my eyes.
"That's the lighthouse?"
It loomed over the city like a massive rectangular block formed by cramming together thousands of apartment complexes, hunkered on the ridgeline like a threat.
It evoked the image of a gigantic, earthly-scale honeycomb.
Hexagonal cells, each the size of several apartments lined up, clustered endlessly.
What intrigued me wasn't the building's shape, but who built it.
"Who made that? Something so enormous."
The grayish-white-stained city below was probably Kaesong.
A North Korean city.
No matter how superior Korea's civil engineering prowess, constructing something like that after the war was impossible.
Even if they had the capacity, it would all have been relocated to Jeju Island.
"North Korea built it."
The woman with "Lightning" embroidered on her combat suit's chest answered curtly.
She looked barely into her early twenties, but her eyes held deeper anguish than Woo Min-hee's.
Gazing down at the massive honeycomb outside, she continued.
"It was the final refuge for the Kim dynasty and Pyongyang nobility."
But the Kim regime and Pyongyang elites were slaughtered by enraged North Korean citizens before reaching that hexagonal honeycomb.
After the nation collapsed and most of its territory was overrun, South Korea's National Crisis Committee took over the refuge.
A sanctuary for a tiny elite had transformed into a lighthouse to save ordinary South Koreans.
Flashes of light flickered from the honeycomb.
Luring signals.
The helicopter slowly descended into the ruins of the old kingdom.
Beyond the helipad, a tall, lean, handsome man with several children behind him waved both arms energetically.
I had a feeling I knew who it was.
The man from Jeju, right?
"Why are you so late!"
This guy, though.
"I've been waiting!"
He seemed awfully flighty.
*
They say life is seven parts luck, three parts skill, but no group relies on luck more than Awakeners.
Even with the same abilities, some snag top committee posts while others end up as battlefield fodder.
The luckiest Awakeners were probably the first and second cohorts of the New School.
Back then, even those now treated like trash Awakeners were prized just for being Awakeners, advancing rapidly with preferential treatment.
Skill mattered little.
Yang Sang-gil, now long gone, wanted young, malleable Awakener friends to check us old-school hunters.
Thus, New School 1st and 2nd cohorts rocketed up without even seeing real battlefields.
Jung Ho-kyung, head of the "Kaesong Lighthouse," was one such golden generation lucky boy.
"Argh!! If only there were more! This isn't enough to fill the kids' bellies!"
His demeanor was, well...
"Over the top."
His voice dripped unnecessary emotion, his gestures and expressions extreme, constantly muttering unasked soliloquies—it made me wonder if he had ADHD.
"Haa. Relax! Yourself! You've handled tough stuff like this tons of times! There's still next chance!"
As he rambled, Lightning approached me.
Up close, faint scars traced her eye sockets.
Well-healed, but the remnants suggested a deep wound.
She fixed her faintly glowing eyes on me and asked in a flat voice.
"Terribly sorry, but do you know how to drive a forklift? One team member claimed he could, but when we tried, he said it was different from what he drove and backed out."
Her speech seemed standard, but faint North Korean inflections lingered.
Maybe her hometown was this northern land.
Entertaining the thought, I readily agreed.
Vroooom---
Well, what couldn't I do? I'm pretty good at forklifts too.
Especially after mastering them fully during my company days.
I shuttled between the chopper and helipad like a man possessed, unloading cargo smoothly.
Nothing tricky.
Except for Jung Ho-kyung's incessant nonsense beside me.
This guy sure talks a lot.
"We're Korea's last beacon now! How can you slight the last beacon like this!"
"Legion faction, Assembly faction—none of that matters! What's important is South Korea! The nation's future is in our hands. Why doesn't anyone feel the thrill of this grave, sacred duty?!"
"Grrr! Lost another farm sector yesterday! I staked my life to protect the livestock, but now it's risky! Pastures are running low!"
I wasn't the only one ignoring him.
Lightning and her crew dismissed him even more thoroughly.
Whenever he twisted dramatically, I'd jolt and stare, but they ignored him completely, no matter what he did.
After forklifting all cargo into the warehouse, Lightning approached.
"Good work."
She met my eyes.
A very faint smile touched her lips.
"I objected when you said you'd come along at first, but I didn't expect you to have such skills."
"......No more tasks?"
"None from us."
Lightning glanced at Jung Ho-kyung, twisting in the distance.
"That guy might."
She called him "that guy."
If he was school alumni, she'd at least call him "senior."
No respect at all, then.
"Best not to take his requests."
Lightning whispered to me.
"Agree once, and he'll work you to the bone."
No sooner had she spoken than Jung Ho-kyung approached.
His gaze was on Lightning.
"Ha-yeop."
He called her name.
"Since you're here, can you help out? Monsters got into the food sector. I want the kids to have some meat, but can't do a thing because of them."
They seemed acquainted, but not on good terms.
Her face soured.
"Sorry, but we're here for resupply. Didn't hear any other orders from Commander Woo."
"The kids are starving. Huh? They'll die of hunger? You bring this paltry food and what? Clear one food sector, and it'll feed the kids for three months! Help out. You're school too, right? What'd we learn there?!"
He raised his voice, but Lightning's expression didn't twitch.
She waited for him to finish, then stared coldly and shot back.
"If you have a request, ask Commander Woo directly."
Jung Ho-kyung tore at his hair.
"Argh! Why's everyone like this! No sense of duty?! At least duty! Passion maybe not, but duty—that's what hunters are! Awakeners!"
Honestly, not a good look.
A grown man acting like a kid.
"Then we'll be off."
The Awakeners, Lightning included, boarded the chopper.
Lightning beckoned me too.
"......"
A bit too quick, isn't it?
Not like a sudden gust sweeping dust.
Truth was, I wanted to stick around longer.
To confirm, I asked Lightning.
"When will you return here?"
"Soonest three days, latest four? Why?"
"Got something I want to check briefly."
Three to four days.
I could handle that.
Especially this facility.
It piqued my interest.
The old regime's final refuge.
The honeycomb structure was intriguing, but above all, I wanted to witness firsthand how this lighthouse drew monsters.
If it operated permanently, it painted a grim human survival scenario: prosperity for the many through sacrifice of the few.
"Ah. I see. So you're the Professor?"
As expected, Jung Ho-kyung wasn't thrilled about me.
Makes sense.
The ones hating us old-school most fiercely were the New School 1st and 2nd cohorts, closest to us.
Those who stole seats are harshest to those they stole from.
"But we don't really need old-school hunters here."
Even hearing my callsign, he was lukewarm.
Eventually, he avoided my eyes, replying perfunctorily.
"Sorry, no good rooms available. Can't provide decent food either. If you're okay with that, stay a few days."
The chopper left.
With the note he gave, I navigated the honeycomb maze to find my quarters.
Most hexagonal structures connected via rooftops of the thick walls forming their sides, except some.
My lodging required crossing such a rooftop passage.
Walking the apartment-15th-floor-high concrete wall, I peered down.
Each honeycomb cell had character.
Some turned entirely into farms for crops, others into pastures with grazing cattle.
This structure was probably designed with isolated compartments: minimize loss if one fell to monsters, reclaim quickly if invaded.
Of course, the walls didn't block monsters perfectly.
I looked below my feet.
Beneath the sheer walls, the hexagonal grounds teemed with unidentified grayish-white structures.
Spider-types nesting, looked like.
Some cells had two small-type monsters frozen as if dead simultaneously.
Jung Ho-kyung's assigned room was beyond such monster turf.
< Morandong >
A faded, luxurious sign and hallway greeted me.
But inside the luxury lurked tackiness.
A North Korean elite refuge.
CCTV cameras dotted the corridor, operational, with doors lining both sides.
Each door had a prison-like barred window at the top, and gazes pierced through from behind them.
Even here, children lived.
I found my room: Revolution Room 33.
Opened the door, checked inside.
Pinned my nose.
A charred human-shaped mark remained.
Beyond the blackened stain, traces of countless maggots crusted over.
Body removed, but the stench lingered.
"......"
Jung Ho-kyung. This guy.
I knew he didn't like me, but this was excessive.
As I pondered contacting Woo Min-hee, the door opened.
A tall late-teen boy appeared before me.
"Mister. What're you doing there?"
Short-cropped hair, delinquent vibe.
A lighthouse kid.
"Jung Ho-kyung sent you to that room?"
"Yeah."
The boy smirked, spitting curses.
"That's the better one, at least."
He pointed across to another room.
I opened it.
Garbage dump.
But better than a rotting corpse spot.
Cleared cobwebs, dusted, dumped trash aside, made it livable.
As I cleaned, kids gathered to gawk.
Their eyes gleamed faintly, eerie, like zoo monkeys.
But weren't they the animals?
Unlike me, freshly bathed to impress Woo Min-hee, these kids were uniformly filthy.
Clear signs of not washing for ages.
"No showers here?"
I asked a girl scratching her head nonstop.
"Broken."
She blinked.
"Broken?"
"Yeah."
"They won't fix it up top?"
"Tell 'em, but no. Always short on people."
A nearby young boy snickered, adding.
"No passion."
The kids laughed.
I eyed the apparent leader, the late-teen boy.
"Where's the shower room?"
"Whatcha gonna do?"
"Just look."
He sent a kid to guide me.
A communal shower for multiple users.
Large tub in the corner.
But long-neglected: filthy, tiles missing, pipes rusted.
Yet simple structure, exposed to outside.
And in one corner, a small puddle of water.
Water was coming in.
Which meant...
"......"
Time to show some skills in a while.