Chapter 70
Chapter 70
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 70
Chapter Title: 42. Paradise (3)
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"What? Medical checkup? What's that?"
"Medical check."
"Ah. But is that even possible?"
Among my neighbors, the ones whose health I was most worried about were the sniper mom and her daughter.
I'd convinced her to come along for checkups.
"Camp Dutch Goose."
Rebecca murmured with gloomy eyes as she stared at the old U.S. air base.
"What's it like?"
An air base that stored tactical nukes.
That was the rough info I had.
As soon as war broke out, the U.S. military swiftly recovered their strategic assets and abandoned the base.
"That's where my husband was stationed."
"Your husband?"
"I was in Daegu. He was here."
"Where'd he go?"
"Back to America, probably."
"That's a relief."
"I'm searching online."
Her eyes were bloodshot from surfing the net all night, but she stared ahead with fierce determination.
Gripping her daughter's hand, she added quietly,
"I don't want to leave my girl without a dad."
I got what she meant.
Looking at her, I said sincerely,
"Hope you find your husband."
Rebecca, her daughter, and I entered the U.S. air base together.
It wasn't the Americans occupying it anymore—it was Park Cheol-ju's people.
They looked pretty shocked to see me bringing strangers.
"Wh-what?"
"Foreigners? In U.S. military uniforms?"
"What's with the kid?"
In the midst of the murmurs, one man approached me.
Gu Sung-jun, Park Cheol-ju's son-in-law.
"What's this? Who are they?"
"My relatives."
"Relatives?"
Kim Pil-seong tilted his head, eyeing Rebecca.
"Are they really relatives...?"
"My little brother's wife. So, my sister-in-law."
"Isn't it 'sister-in-law'?"
"Ah, I'm a bit international, so I'm clueless about family terms."
Gu Sung-jun looked like he couldn't see what difference it made but kept it to himself.
I let him think I was ignorant.
"This way."
Gu Sung-jun led us into the underground U.S. facilities.
They were decently cleaned up, and one room had been turned into a pretty solid infirmary.
Rebecca, who'd been inwardly grumbling, gripped her daughter's hand tight at the sight.
The neatly arranged medical tools must've inspired some trust.
"Where's the doctor?"
When I asked, Gu Sung-jun suddenly donned a white coat, flicked on the surgical light, and put on an otoscope and stethoscope.
"I'm the doctor."
Gu Sung-jun gave a wry smile and handed me his phone, showing a photo of his old self.
University hospital doctor—a professor, no less.
"Alright, let's get started."
The checkups began.
They drew blood, pried open my mouth and pressed cold metal on my tongue, checked blood pressure and vision, tapped my knee with a reflex hammer, and so on.
Gu Sung-jun eyed me with mild surprise.
"I heard you've been living in rough conditions..."
"Living one with Mother Nature."
"I see. But most who live like that end up dead."
Spot on.
If you just tossed this Park Gyu into the wild, he'd die too.
"How am I?"
"Perfectly healthy. As fit as our chairman."
My turn was done.
Next up: the sniper mom and daughter.
Rebecca fussed a bit, but Gu Sung-jun spoke fluent English and had a knack for calming people.
I worried she might blurt something stupid, but as long as she stuck to English, she was fine.
Su, uncharacteristically for an American kid, didn't catch some of his technical terms.
Each time, Rebecca stroked her head and whispered explanations.
It was a heartwarming sight.
Good call bringing them here.
After their exams, Gu Sung-jun approached me.
"Your sister-in-law and her daughter are decently healthy. About average for these times. Chronic malnutrition and possible vitamin deficiencies. We'll know more once the bloodwork comes back."
Gu Sung-jun stood.
"Blood tests take about a day."
A whole day.
Felt like forever.
Pretending to adjust my belt, I casually asked,
"You heading to Jeju with them?"
"Pardon?"
He looked at me.
"Going to Jeju with the chairman?"
"No. I'm not going."
"That plane looked slick."
"Gulfstream. Toy for the world's billionaires."
"Who's flying it?"
"We have a pilot. The chairman got his license back in his youth, though. Oh, I have one too. U.S. private plane license."
Talking planes brought a smile to Gu Sung-jun's face.
"Your wife coming along?"
The smile vanished as he shook his head.
"Died in the shelling. With our kid."
His face showed no emotion as he stated the horror plainly.
So detached, it sounded like someone else's story.
"Sorry."
"No need. It's just how things are. Plenty have it worse than me, so what can you do?"
Gu Sung-jun sighed.
"If you need a spot, ask Kim Pil-seong. He'll hook you up with something good."
"Good spot?"
"You know the Legion Corps?"
"Of course."
"They're always recruiting talented hunters. Heard some junior of Kim Pil-seong's is in charge. Might know her?"
"Junior?"
"Yeah. A woman."
"Name?"
"Dunno. She was short, I think. Around your age. Maybe a bit younger vibe, but definitely not early twenties."
A woman entered the infirmary then.
"Professor. Kim Pil-seong's looking for you."
"Ah, yeah. Be right there."
Gu Sung-jun excused himself and left.
Before going, he glanced back.
"Oh, blood results tomorrow. Swing by again. It's close."
After he left, I rejoined Rebecca and her daughter.
They looked pleased.
Su even had a popsicle; Rebecca was bent over, chomping a big bite of her daughter's.
Su scolded her in English, but Rebecca's mouth was full of ice, so she couldn't reply properly. Then a brain freeze hit—she clutched her head.
"Mom. You're too much."
Once the commotion settled, mother and daughter stared at me in unison.
"Thanks, Skeleton."
"Thank you."
I sent them off first.
They pedaled off amiably on their bikes, heading slowly toward the greening meadows.
Watching them go, I sank into thought.
"...Whew."
Who was that Legion Corps head Gu Sung-jun mentioned?
Kim Daram, maybe?
The Kim Daram I'd lost contact with—no news, radio snatched by someone else?
Kim Daram's solid.
We meshed well, quick on the uptake, great at navigating people.
Of course, flaws too.
Way too grudge-holding.
Especially if she took offense—she never forgave.
Calling Lee Sang-hun "Mr. Lee" to the end? That stemmed from something he did.
The rift hadn't healed even working same place, same treatment.
Her ending up in the Legion Corps? Totally plausible.
If she's alive,
that'd be great.
But why this chill?
That nuke-like object from yesterday nagged at me.
More than that, during my casual probing, Gu Sung-jun slipped the truth: he confirmed heading to Jeju.
Contradicts Ji Young-hee's story entirely.
She said Japan.
Japan, Jeju, plane, nuke, chaebol chairman, Kim Daram.
"..."
Nothing but bad vibes.
The air around me felt suffocating.
As I rose to get fresh air, someone stood at the door.
Tall, sharp-suited elderly man.
Park Cheol-ju.
Staring right at me.
Something to say?
As I watched, he approached with slow steps.
"Got a pistol?"
He glanced back.
At the armed guys? But they ignored him.
Bodyguards too indifferent to their charge?
I asked,
"Pistol?"
"Sell me one? .45. Something with .45."
"What for?"
"Leisure."
"Don't you have one, Chairman?"
Park Cheol-ju reached into his pocket and pressed a cold, heavy lump into my hand.
Gold bar.
"ESFP."
He said.
"I'm actually ESFP."
No clue what he meant.
But his eyes desperately craved my pistol.
I handed it over.
"You know how to use it?"
"Nope."
"Flip this for safety off. Grip here, mag drops. Pull trigger, bullet flies—you know that part."
Park Cheol-ju listened gravely throughout.
No sign of the mania from our first meeting.
Is this his real face?
Just a hunch.
He pocketed the pistol and glared at the plane with furrowed eyes.
"Ogasawara Islands. Know 'em?"
"Heard the name."
"Nice place. Not the most beautiful, but my favorite. A paradise, really."
"Paradise..."
"You got a paradise?"
"Dunno."
I thought of my bunker.
Not in the dictionary sense.
Just practically—no better spot than my bunker.
"I like it here."
"Then that's your paradise."
"Is it?"
Paradise with a toilet in the middle.
What kind of paradise is that?
"Haven't found mine yet. Thought I built one, but they smashed it. Even if they hadn't, it'd end the same."
"Why?"
"Places you call paradise? Flaws start showing one by one. You don't call a place paradise if it bugs you."
That's when I spotted someone approaching.
Ji Young-hee.
"Paradise stops being paradise."
"Could be. Then what's the point if flaws keep piling up?"
"I hunt for new ones. Endless journey. Find one, get disappointed, move on. Same there."
"Like Zeno's paradox."
"Yeah. Zeno's tortoise. Seems catchable, never is. But hey."
Ji Young-hee, nearing us, called out.
"Chairman."
Park Cheol-ju glanced at her, continued.
"Isn't the hunt for paradise the fun part?"
He gazed fondly at his plane again.
"Ogasawara. Ogasawara."
Chanting his dreamed paradise like a mantra, Park Cheol-ju turned away.
After he left, I asked Ji Young-hee,
"Heading to the Ogasawara Islands?"
She nodded.
"Yeah. Didn't I mention?"
"When do you leave?"
"Not long. Day or two?"
"Got it."
Back at the bunker, I radioed Woo Min-hee right away.
Had to.
The plane's destination looked like Jeju to me.
Fallen chaebol chairman—pretty packaging for a nuke stuffed with malice, dropped on the Jeju government that betrayed them. Revenge strike.
Plausible scenario.
But before spilling, one question.
"Jeju's crucial, right?"
"Yeah."
Woo Min-hee answered half-heartedly.
"Why? It ain't?"
"Can you tell me even a bit about what you're doing?"
"Suddenly?"
Her voice sharpened.
Thick displeasure.
Normally, I'd drop it.
Couldn't this time.
"It's important."
"Sunbae. You know your position?"
"Yeah."
"Civilian. If I don't spill, you could get branded Legion Corps depending on the angle."
"...Woo Min-hee. Please."
She couldn't see, but I bowed my head.
Just her breathing over the radio for a while.
After a brief silence, her hollow laugh.
"Park Sunbae. You can beg, huh."
"..."
"Why not beg sooner?"
Mocking tone.
No answer for mockery.
Just silence disguised as reflection.
Heavy quiet passed; Woo Min-hee spoke again.
"Back then, if you'd begged Kang Han-min, you wouldn't be stuck in some weird hole now, right? Honestly, everyone knew you'd outrank Lee Sang-hun Sunbae. And now..."
A sharp scrape assaulted my eardrum from the speaker.
Her prosthetic scratching something?
Petty sadism, but so her.
I waited for her reply.
"...We're closing the rifts."
Worth the wait.
Heart pounding, I asked,
"...Feasible?"
"Succeeded on the lowest-grade rift in India. After losing 99.8% population, but still."
"...!!"
I clenched my fist unwittingly.
If my eyes were flammable, they'd be ablaze.
Lee Sang-hun stood before me.
That smug prick grinning at me.
So he's finally stabbing me in the back.
The rich kid I'd always outdone.
Had to stifle the hollow laugh.
Woo Min-hee hates non-verbal noises.
Instead, felt blood race through me, awaiting her next words.
"Kang Han-min and Na Hye-in are closing the Jeju rift now. At tremendous cost."
Truth from her.
"Don't post online. I'll hunt you down."
"Online what?"
"Don't, then I won't. Hanging up?"
Time for my truth.
"Found a nuke."
I laid out the facts: Park Cheol-ju, private jet, Chinese guy, Kim Pil-seong, Ogasawara, the nuke.
Woo Min-hee's reaction: short, heavy.
"Jeju, obviously."
She snorted.
"Drop a nuke on Jeju. That's the goal."
Never liked Woo Min-hee, but her thinking matched mine.
She snickered.
"Kim Daram's idea, maybe?"
"Kim Daram? In Legion Corps?"
"Probably."
"You don't know?"
"You don't smell it, Sunbae?"
I pictured her cruel smile.
Probably grinning in a dark lab, flexing prosthetic fingers painted wavy.
"She sang that Jeju song, right?"
"...Yeah."
"Can't have paradise? Burn it down. Fits that Janus bitch."
Sounds like her.
Kim Daram would.
If alive, sheltered by Legion Corps, wouldn't she want to kill everyone who ditched her—the Jeju betrayers?
Burn the paradise she once dreamed of?
"Thanks for the intel. Good call reaching out. Wouldn't have known without the tip."
"...Likewise."
"Big fight coming. Stay out. You could die."
War brewing in my turf.
Disaster I summoned.
No choice.
Can't lose Jeju.
Lee Sang-hun's paradise lingers there.
Named Hope.