The World's Largest Base Gets Cleaned Out
All hell had broken loose.
The largest U.S. military base in the world had been cleaned out—stripped bare. And not by some foreign armed force, but by a single individual.
That fact alone was enough to flip the world on its head. The real problem, though, was the culprit's identity: a Player.
Interest in the Tower and the Players was already sky-high. Conspiracy theorists and skeptics were locked in endless debate, but the top leadership of every nation held a slightly different stance.
Cooperate. But stay wary.
They had felt, directly or otherwise, just what kind of power Players possessed. Beings who had surpassed human limits. If those people armed themselves with skills and items and turned hostile against the world, who could stop them?
In an all-out war, maybe. But assassination, terrorism, bombing runs, disruption—those were impossible to prevent.
This incident proved it. The defense systems hadn't even registered a Player, which was exactly why the ROK-U.S. Combined Forces Commander had been grabbed so easily. No lives were lost, but they had forfeited weapon assets whose value couldn't be measured. Of course the culprit finished his business and strolled out of the base. The news spread across the entire planet in an instant—along with a warning that Players needed strict oversight whenever they were outside the Tower and in the real world.
"My ears are itching."
Seong Yujin dug a pinky into his ear canal and blew. He didn't bother thinking something like Who's badmouthing me? It was too obvious. By now there had to be hundreds of people who wanted him caught and dead.
"Chunbae. You full?"
"Kku-aaaaaang—!"
Chunbae, dangling from Yujin's arm, let out a huge cry with thoroughly satisfied eyes. It was a level of fullness the little beast had never experienced before.
"Whoa. Our Chunbae. Didn't know your belly could get this big."
The teddy bear, only a little larger than a palm, had stuffed weapons into its mouth without end. Even so, the feeling was that it still wasn't even half full. Enough to make the earlier worry—What if it maxes out?—feel embarrassing. Chunbae was a glutton of the highest order.
"So what do I do with all this now?"
Having shaken the pursuing helicopters and vehicles in seconds, Yujin scratched his head. As that Ryan-whatever had said, modern weapons weren't the kind of thing that exploded just because you chucked them. Arming. You had to set the detonation conditions, mount them on a dedicated platform, and link everything up. Most of what Yujin had grabbed had completely skipped that process. He'd simply scooped up whatever was stacked and waiting. Personal and squad weapons were fine to use as-is, but the rest weren't. He needed a method.
Not like I didn't think this through.
Yujin wasn't an idiot. He wasn't some snot-nosed kid either. Of course he'd considered a way. The problem was whether it would actually work.
"Hmm."
After a moment's thought he scratched his head again.
"It'll work out somehow."
He'd already done the deed. No point chickening out now. Yujin took off toward Seoul, stealth from the Moonlit Black God Cloak [C] fully engaged.
"…Isn't that Seong Yujin?"
"Probably."
"What's he doing over there?"
"What it looks like—staging a hostage situation. General Ryan Brown is the hostage, and he's roughly looting U.S. military weapons."
"I have eyes. I'm asking why he's doing it."
"How should I know?"
Lee Ki-seok sat in the newly formed SID director's office, massaging his temples as he watched the footage that had suddenly arrived.
"This is going to cause problems, isn't it?"
The competent but tactless agent Jang Ji-won asked.
"Of course it will."
Yujin's face had been plastered across the CCTV. Given American intelligence capabilities, they already had more than enough time to dig up everything about him—and about his relationship with the South Korean government.
"We'll need to prepare a response."
"What do you intend to do?"
"First we arrest Seong Yujin, then negotiate with the American side…"
"And you think that's actually possible?"
It was the most realistic option—aside from the part where it was impossible.
"I know Players are strong. But they aren't beings that can't be subdued. There are already reports that China has successfully captured Players multiple times."
Lee Ki-seok knew that. It wasn't unique to China; it had happened in most countries where human rights were fragile. Seong Yujin, however, was different. Even among the extraordinary Players, he was not ordinary. He was special. The man blocked and dodged bullets while holding a single sword. Personal firearms wouldn't cut it against someone like that.
I'd probably need to bring a tank.
And even then he couldn't be sure.
"Stop talking nonsense and locate Seong Yujin first. I'll go meet him myself and—"
"No need. I'm already here."
Suddenly a voice came from right on top of the desk where he was sitting. Empty air—nothing there at all.
Flash—!
The SID agent who had been talking with Lee Ki-seok drew his pistol from his coat with incredible reflexes and aimed.
"Who's there?!"
He locked on perfectly even though nothing was visible, zeroing in on the exact source of the voice.
Of course.
Kiiing—!
The pistol was sliced on a diagonal like something out of a comic and slid apart with a soft shhhk.
"Let's leave the guns out of this. I've got plenty of those myself now."
Something began to take shape with a sliding shimmer. Glazing—like a form being layered into empty space.
"Hah—!"
"…Seong Yujin."
The startled agent finally sucked in a breath. Lee Ki-seok called the name calmly, as if he had expected it.
"You're not surprised?"
"I am surprised."
"Your face hasn't changed at all, though."
Yujin looked at him with genuine curiosity and plopped down right on the desk.
"You can step outside."
"But…"
"I'm fine."
A clear dismissal. The agent hesitated, then turned.
"Don't let anything that happens in here leak outside."
"Understood."
The agent nodded and left the room.
"Looks like you got promoted. Took me a while to find you."
"I already told your companion ahead of time."
"Didn't hear it."
Companion—probably Lee Sia. She'd mentioned meeting him during the last leave. She just hadn't passed the message along to Yujin.
"Well, you found me either way. I was looking for you myself."
"Because of what I did in Pyeongtaek, right?"
Yujin spoke with a completely unbothered face.
"What were you thinking, doing something like that?"
At last a crack showed in Lee Ki-seok's expression; his brow furrowed hard.
"Protests from the United States are pouring in over this. Far beyond what a country like ours can weather."
The president's hair was probably falling out from the stress by now.
"America did me dirty a bit. And I needed weapons while I was at it."
At Yujin's casual answer, Lee Ki-seok let out a long sigh.
"Those aren't things a private individual can even use. If you return them now and apologize—"
"Apologize my ass."
Yujin cut him off with a sneer.
"Don't worry too much about the U.S. They won't have the mental bandwidth to protest much longer anyway."
"What else did you do?"
"Not me. Their own people are going to do it."
It had been the same in the first timeline. A handful of Players on leave got drunk on their own power and caused every kind of disaster. Police were easy enough to dodge, and even if they got caught, they were back in the Tower within a week. No prison time. So the crime sprees exploded. Korea had been no different. Yujin almost warned him about it, then remembered something more important and opened his mouth.
"Anyway, that's why I came."
"What is it?"
"I need you to adjust the weapons I shook down so they can be used inside the Tower."
"…What?"
"It'd be nice if they just explode when I throw them. I don't need guidance or stealth or any of that. What do you call it—fuzes? Set those up for me."
Yujin smiled as he made the request. Lee Ki-seok stared at the walking disaster for a moment, then sighed even deeper.
"So you brought the weapons with that plan from the start."
If only. If only.
"Why didn't you talk to me first? We could have coordinated with the Ministry of National Defense and handled everything far more cleanly and simply."
Receiving support from the Korean military versus forcibly looting U.S. weapons. Which was more dangerous? The answer didn't even require thought. Yujin, however, clearly did not see it that way.
"American gear's the best, right?"
That much was true. Whatever else, U.S. weapons were the strongest in the world.
"…Ours aren't bad either."
"You ever spent a trillion on defense? If not, don't even bring it up."
"Urgh—."
Lee Ki-seok couldn't argue. Legal or illegal, stable or unstable—none of that seemed to matter to Yujin. The man looked at only one thing: performance.
"Like I said, a little payback on the side."
The way he said it while swinging his legs finally made Lee Ki-seok shake his head.
"So? How much did you bring?"
"Beats me."
There was so much he couldn't even remember what or how many.
"Got a big warehouse nearby?"
"There's a suitable place. Let's head there first."
"No, not 'suitable.' Actually big."
Lee Ki-seok thought of the gym the SID agents used, but that would never be enough.
"Factor in about fifty Tomahawks, if you would."
"…What did you just say?"
"Tomahawks. Cruise or ballistic, whatever. Those missiles."
Lee Ki-seok closed his mouth for a moment, unable to form words, then picked up the internal phone.
"What's the largest warehouse in the area? Somewhere we can block civilian eyes. …Is that so? Find me five places of similar size."
Apparently deciding one or two warehouses wouldn't cut it, he ordered five prepared in one go. Yujin smiled as if he liked the decisiveness and hopped down from the desk.
"Let's go, then."
He looked oddly excited. Watching Yujin's back as he led the way out, Lee Ki-seok pressed hard on his brow. Originally he had planned a completely different conversation—item combinations Yujin had requested, support measures for Players, and so on. Instead the discussion had veered into territory he never saw coming.
What a headache.
He already felt a migraine coming on. And so far it had only been child's play. When the endless parade of cutting-edge weapons began pouring from Chunbae's mouth, the word Lee Ki-seok had been holding back finally escaped.
"This crazy bastard…"