Chapter 70
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Translator: Ace
Chapter: 070
Chapter Title: End-of-Service Sergeant Kim Yo-han - [7]
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Kang Jun-chi trailed off, as if it was hard to answer right away.
"Hmm..."
Seok Jang-sil pressed for a response.
"You're not seriously planning to overthrow the government like this, right? Storming the Blue House and demanding a regime change or something?"
"Why go that far?"
"Then what exactly do you want?"
Everyone's eyes in the bus focused on Kang Jun-chi's mouth. Finally, he spoke up.
"I just want to take down the Special Task Force and that bastard Han Hee-seok. It'd be great if we could scrap the law letting them mobilize Awakeners too..."
There were probably more than a few Awakeners who wanted to sigh at that limp response.
I was one of them. Damn it.
A legion of top-tier forces gathered like this couldn't be demanding something so trivial. The higher-ups who had been tense and fearful of us Awakeners on this bus—how much would they mock us upon hearing those demands?
Even if they called us superhumans or whatever, they'd conclude that we were ultimately scared of state power, and our demands were nothing special. They might keep pulling the same crap going forward.
To really change things, we needed to demand more than that.
Thankfully, I wasn't the only one thinking that way. Kim Hyeong-man spoke up.
"And what other demands should we make?"
Seok Jang-sil turned to look at him.
"You want to demand even more from there?"
"We have to. This is a show of force, after all, isn't it? We gathered in a rush, so we haven't nailed down our protest goals properly, but we still need to make every demand we can. When else are we going to get a chance like this to come together again? We have to do it now while we can."
"So, what demands come to mind right away...?"
And Kim Hyeong-man answered.
"I think we should use this opportunity to overhaul the existing Hunter Association or straight-up form a new one ourselves."
"Come to think of it, didn't you complain on HuntWeb that the Hunter Association doesn't do jack?"
"Exactly. With the Hunter Association already existing, and even a small group of six getting monitored just for drinking together, it was hard to form any group. But let's promise right here to make one! Or remake the existing one from the ground up!"
It was something everyone there could agree with. The current Hunter Association just followed the country's orders under the excuse of public interest. It was no different from a lawyer hired by the defendant siding with the prosecutor because they couldn't defend a criminal.
Kim Hyeong-man raised his voice even more.
"I can't stand that puppet organization anymore. I can't take seeing some guy who's never hunted so much as a deer acting like association president and spouting off!"
"Then who becomes the new Hunter Association president?"
"Anyone who properly represents our interests. Even if they're lining their own pockets, I don't care as long as they do it while fighting for us. Hell, if they use the association as a springboard to politics, we'd welcome it. It's only natural, but right now there isn't a single Hunter-turned-politician with a gold badge..."
After that, Kim Hyeong-man went on a passionate rant about the need for an organization that truly represented our interests—a perfect fit for someone raising Elma. As his nickname suggested, people in that line of work couldn't tolerate their group's losses.
"So, taking down the Special Task Force and its leader... plus forming a Hunter Association here and now—that's it?"
I spoke up at Seok Jang-sil's question.
"I have one demand I'd like to make too..."
"What is it?"
"Shouldn't we demand they pass an anti-discrimination law for Awakeners or something like that?"
It must've seemed out of left field.
"An anti-discrimination law for Awakeners?"
"Isn't the root of all this the government abusing extralegal measures against Awakeners? We have to stop them from keeping it up!"
"Keep what up exactly...?"
"They throw Ice Awakeners in prison without evidence or shove them into camps! They try to kill wanted Awakener criminals outright because they're hard to subdue! They bug S-rank hotel rooms to figure out what they're thinking! We have to stop all that. They're all transcending the law just because we're Awakeners—shouldn't we put a stop to it?"
They'd just glanced at Baek Dam-bi when I mentioned Ice Awakeners, staying calm, but not for the rest.
"You're right. But do you think yelling for a new law will make them pass it right away?"
"With this incident, they'll have to do something, right? There are legislative procedures, so it'll take time, but anyway..."
From what I could hear, a serious discussion was underway among the gathered Awakeners. Even Kang Jun-chi was nodding—maybe because his name came up—and I clenched my fist tight.
Everyone was excitedly chattering away inside the bus.
Then came the sound of propellers. Looking out the window, there was a helicopter flying alongside our bus.
"What's that? Military chopper gonna fire a missile at us?"
"Looks like a news helicopter."
"Ah, probably filming footage to air on the news."
"If they report on us, what spin do you think they'll put on it?"
"Obviously some trash take. Those guys just broadcast whatever the government tells them, news or articles."
As everyone grumbled with clear grudges against the media, Kim Hyeong-man grinned mischievously.
"Should we stop them from filming?"
With that, he stuck his middle finger out the window. A single beam of heat ray shot from its tip and hit the news camera lens, melting it right before my eyes.
"Well, well, now that their camera's busted, they're pulling out smartphones. Gotta get the news out somehow, huh?"
Kim Hyeong-man clicked his tongue, and I chimed in.
"Why not just shoot it down? No cars around, so it should be fine."
"You wanna kill them?"
"Not that."
Instead of explaining, I teleported.
I popped into the news helicopter, where the reporters and crew were staring wide-eyed, smartphones aimed at us.
"Hey there."
I grabbed them and the pilot, then teleported again. Dropping them off by the roadside left the chopper empty, and when Kim Hyeong-man fired another heat ray, it exploded outright.
The helicopter crashed into the road with a deafening boom!, shattering completely and belching flames and smoke. Everyone burst into applause.
"Wow!"
Back when I worked with the Korean Awakener Alliance, we'd begged for airtime and got ignored every time. Getting revenge like this felt so damn good. Seeing their blank faces staring at the chopper they'd just abandoned—pure satisfaction.
I didn't care how the media spun this or what the public thought. Let the Nazi wannabes who love stirring up mobs worry about that crap.
We just needed to claim the rights that were rightfully ours. As superhuman Awakeners, all the rights those non-Awakener scum were hogging that we deserved.
The mood got even rowdier as the bus sped on.
"Huh?"
Everyone's smartphones buzzed.
Gate alert. Location: Seoul. Looked like it was nearby.
"Something about Behemoth? Where at?"
True to form, even in this mess, everyone acted like proper Hunters.
The bus changed course toward the alerted location.
Our bus raced past cars fleeing the opposite way and arrived before a Gate rippling in the air.
And there we saw the beast lurking inside.
A colossal creature so immense it seemed forged by a god himself—nothing else could explain its existence.
"Behemoth..."
The mythic monster was right there.
Part of Behemoth's face peeked from the expanding Gate in midair.
Behemoth was a manticore from Sword World that had awakened to gigantification thousands of years ago.
Over those millennia, the massive manticore had awakened not just to heat ray abilities but also stone spirit powers, becoming infamous as a 400-meter rock spirit that shot down fighter jets and attack helicopters with beams from its tail.
I eyed the face emerging from the Gate.
Normal rock spirits looked like mismatched rocks forcibly jammed together due to varying sizes, but not Behemoth.
Were its body rocks fused so long they'd become one? They formed a single, solid shape as if born that way.
Thus, the manticore's grotesque face was perfectly carved into the stone.
Its ugly, repulsive features took on a divine aura at that scale.
It didn't look like some living thing at all—more like a surreal construct from the heavens to punish the earth, gazing down at us.
To be precise, Behemoth seemed to be staring at Kang Jun-chi.
As a rock spirit, Behemoth could see Awakeners' souls. It could gauge Kang Jun-chi's power and might with the naked eye.
And having moved because Kang Jun-chi was absent, it now seemed to retract its hunting intent upon confirming his return.
"It's retreating!"
Sure enough, Behemoth backed away. Just one step inside the Gate, but it felt huge to us.
As Behemoth withdrew in an instant, the Gate contracted too.
Meanwhile, Kim Yo-han—ever the former journalist—had filmed the whole thing.
"This'll kill on the internet, right? Plenty of doubters saying Behemoth only stopped because of you, Jun-chi. Now everyone'll see what happens without you!"
Right. With this, Kang Jun-chi had proven he was indispensable to this country.
Kang Jun-chi looked immensely pleased, sporting a smug grin despite doing nothing special.
Separate from his small-minded personality, he craved attention and validation from the masses. You could tell from how he kept uploading "educational" videos to his streaming channel despite not needing the money.
Maybe having his ego stroked like this boosted his confidence?
"Great show, everyone. Now let's head back to where we were going!"
Even after we boarded the bus and set off again, he refused to stop.
If soldiers blocked us, he seemed ready to crash right through. With dozens of powerful Awakeners here plus himself, it was totally doable.
Unfortunately, what blocked our path wasn't soldiers or the Special Task Force.
Dozens of minutes later, a group of suits stood before the bus.
We stepped off and faced them. They stood there with awkward smiles and spoke.
"Ah, our brave Hunters who always toil for the nation! It's an honor to meet you like this. A shame it has to be right after that incident. Before we talk, let us apologize first..."
I didn't know their exact titles or names, but they looked like politicians I'd seen on TV channels. They'd come out to greet us.
Kim Hyeong-man, who seemed well-versed in politics, scanned them and muttered approvingly.
"Whoa, five gold badges and even the National Security Minister?"
If these big shots had stiffly told us to scram, even I'd be pissed, but luckily they weren't dumb enough to bark at a horde of pumped-up Awakeners.
They all looked seasoned with age, having lived through the bloody turmoil of recent modern history. They'd learned that in tough times, raw violence trumped law or status.
Ahead of the big shots, Kim Hyeong-man and a few other smooth talkers stepped up to relay our demands.
The likes of me, Kang Jun-chi, and Seok Jang-sil—famous for our raw power—stood behind with arms crossed, lending weight to their words.
"See, that bastard Han Hee-seok could run wild because the country sets a tone of ignoring the law with Awakeners. That's why we're gathered here dissatisfied..."
Kim Hyeong-man seemed tense speaking to such VIPs, rambling a bit, but it didn't matter.
Top Hunters like me, cozy with Park Mi-hyeong or the Incheon Mayor, always had a politician or two in their network. We could iron out details through them later.
Meanwhile, it was hot out.
Sweat poured down the faces of these higher-ups who'd come to meet us in the blazing sun.
Seeing them nod along with "yes, yes" without complaint or lecturing, my brain flooded with dopamine.
Someone like me, who views the Korean nation as something only Nazis would idolize, feels differently reading Korean history than they do.
When the Mongols conquered Goryeo or the Qing forced King Injo to kneel, Nazis might feel humiliation. Me? Pure thrill.
The thrill of some immense external force shattering the old order and hierarchy beyond the rulers' wildest dreams...
That was the thrill I felt now.
Today, we Awakeners gathered here had won. Whether against the Special Task Force or the government—debatable—but our victory was clear.