Stop!
As I stepped through the gate, I glanced toward the central barracks of the base camp and thought, Ah, I knew it. I really miss Renka.
Kimitsu Department Head. He was the chief of the Gate Development Department at the Oriental Development Company. I'd heard the man was somewhere inside those barracks, but unfortunately I had no way to lure him out and deal with him alone.
If Renka were here, I could've called him out by himself somehow...
With only Murasaki in tow—the guy I'd barely managed to drag through the entrance with me—there was no chance of ordering around an executive from a massive state-backed corporation like that. The area around the central barracks was swarming with Oriental Development staff and other hunters, so sneaking in to handle it quietly was out of the question. Regrettably, dealing with Kimitsu would have to wait for another opportunity.
I pushed the disappointment aside and focused on my other target.
Major Aoki first.
Kimitsu might have been the one pulling the strings, but right now, at this very moment, the one actively slaughtering Koreans in their designated zone was Major Aoki.
“Murasaki. Let’s head that way.”
“What? That’s the Korean district—”
“Oh, you didn’t know?”
I kept talking as we moved.
“Lately the disappearances in the Korean district have made Korean hunters avoid the place, so it’s practically empty. Perfect spot for a duel.”
“Hmph…! You have a point.”
After tricking Murasaki into entering the Korean zone again, we had only taken a few steps past the base camp when the crowds disappeared. The moment we were alone I pointed in a random direction and shouted.
“Whoa! Look over there! A dinosaur!”
“What? Where? Where is it?”
Murasaki whipped his head around to look, and—
Clang!
I slammed the flat of my blade into the back of his skull.
“Urk…”
He actually fell for that.
I checked Murasaki’s breathing. He was unconscious but otherwise fine. I dragged his limp body back near the base camp, left him there, and turned back toward the Korean district.
As I pushed deeper in, I thought, Definitely fewer people than yesterday or the day before.
Whether it was the rumor about dangerous magic beasts or the fact that Major Aoki had been steadily reducing their numbers, I only spotted the occasional squad of four or five Korean hunters. Even after venturing quite far in, their presence was noticeably thin.
I slipped past the rare Korean hunters and the magic beasts I occasionally encountered, moving farther into the depths.
But Major Aoki was nowhere in sight.
Did I take the wrong path?
Maybe he was still back at the base camp barracks. He could have already hunted enough Koreans for the day and gone back to shower like yesterday…
Just as the thought crossed my mind—
“F-fuck! What the hell is that bastard?!”
A desperate shout echoed from beyond the narrow cave passage. The distance and the cavern’s acoustics distorted the words, but it was clearly Korean.
“Director Kim, run! Get out of—”
“Goddammit… Stay back! Stay the hell back!”
“Aaaaagh!”
I hurried toward the sound. All the while I heard frantic shouts, the sharp crack of gunshots, and the heavy thuds of bodies hitting the ground.
When I finally drew close, I hid behind a jutting rock and peered out.
Major Aoki!
In the wide cavern, Major Aoki stood gripping that bizarre bayonet from before. Three hunters already lay dead on the floor while two remained on their feet.
“F-fuck! Die already!”
Even awakened individuals only possessed one or two special traits. They weren’t superior to non-awakened people in every way.
Take Lee Yuha, for example. Her ice abilities were exceptional, but in every other respect she was simply a delicate girl.
So if an awakened person was ambushed before they could activate their power, or if they failed to land a clean hit and allowed their enemy to close the distance, they could be cut down before they even had a chance to respond.
The scene unfolding right in front of me was the perfect illustration.
“F-fuck! Why the hell are you doing this to us?! You piece of shit…!”
One hunter cursed as he unleashed a wave of flame, but Aoki instantly dove behind a nearby boulder to dodge. The moment the hunter paused to catch his breath and the flames died, Aoki shot forward like lightning and drove his blade into the man’s throat.
“Gack… glurk…”
“Brother Bae!… You goddamn monster, what the hell are you…!”
Another hunter raised his revolver and fired a magic round, but Aoki snatched up a bulletproof corpse, used it as a shield, then hurled the body at the gunman as he charged.
The hunter who had let Aoki close the distance abandoned reloading and desperately drew the sword at his waist, but a blade was never going to be enough.
This crazy bastard…
Even though Aoki was a non-awakened, he had been “hunting” awakened hunters using nothing but the speed granted by his sword, along with his natural swordsmanship and combat experience.
“P-please, just spare me! I’ll do anything! Please, Japanese hunter, sir!”
The last Korean hunter, now alone and collapsed in despair, begged as Major Aoki slowly advanced on him.
I can’t just stand here and watch.
Time to begin. I pulled the red stone from my inner pocket and gripped it with both hands.
Constructing a mana formula is difficult, but destroying one is simple. All you have to do is pour mana into the most vulnerable point of the circuit and trigger a backlash.
Just as I would infuse my sword with energy, I channeled mana into the weakest point of the circuit engraved on the red stone. Moments later—
Crackle… boom!
It wasn’t an audible sound, but a kind of mana noise—like a fuse blowing—rippled through my mana senses.
Perfect.
At the same time the entire cave began to shake violently. The space created by the red stone was twisting in on itself, and everything built on top of that space started to collapse.
A gate of this scale should take roughly thirty minutes to fully collapse.
That was more than enough time to finish Aoki off and escape. And once killed inside the gate, he would leave behind no trace at all.
Aoki had already turned four men into corpses and was raising his sword to finish the last Korean hunter when he suddenly froze. Stone dust trickled from the ceiling and the floor trembled beneath his feet.
…What is this?
—Weeeeeeeng…
A siren wailed in the distance. I could faintly hear loudspeakers ordering an immediate evacuation because the gate was collapsing.
Tsk. That Kimitsu Department Head really screwed up managing the red stones…
Aoki muttered to himself, then added,
Still, I should finish what I started.
He raised his sword over the Korean hunter, who had already lost all will to fight and was sitting helplessly on the ground.
“Hiiiek! Please, at least spare my life! Just my life—!”
But there was no mercy. Just before Aoki’s blade came slashing down—
Clang!
Another sword blocked it. Major Aoki’s eyebrows twitched as he stared at the suddenly intervening stainless steel blade. Then he glared at the interloper gripping the hilt.
“…Who the hell are you?”
I kept my sword locked against Aoki’s while speaking to the still-seated hunter.
“This place is about to collapse. Run. Now.”
“Th-thank you…!”
The hunter scrambled toward the sound of the sirens. The alarms and emergency broadcasts had been blaring for a while, and the entire terrain was coming apart; the other hunters and company staff would evacuate on their own.
All except the one bastard standing in front of me. I looked at him and said,
“Last time I only defended myself and nearly lost.”
“What are you babbling about, you Korean!”
“Still, it’s fortunate.”
I adjusted my grip on the sword and continued.
“This time I can use my full strength.”
“What are you—Ugh? Aaaaagh!”
His left hand flew off.
“You handle a blade pretty well, I’ll give you that.”
Major Aoki clearly had plenty of experience with a sword. To reach that level of skill he must have cut down a great many people and magic beasts.
But here’s the thing: the reason I was a C-class hunter back in the 21st century was because the post-Catastrophe world was an insane place where sword masters flew through the sky and cleaved oceans apart.
What passed for mid-tier magic beasts here were nothing more than low-tier monsters there.
I had survived nearly a decade in that world, living by the sword. Our levels of experience were on completely different scales.
“What are you?! How did you do that?! A worthless Korean porter like you…! How can a kid like you—?!”
I took one slow step after another toward Major Aoki as he clutched the stump of his left wrist and screamed. I had no intention of cutting his throat right away. That would be far too easy a death.
Yes. In the real history I had lived through, men like this had existed. Scum who wore Japanese military insignia and slaughtered Koreans without a shred of guilt.
There was no way I would let such a bastard live comfortably, but I also had no intention of granting him a clean death.
“Shall I liberate your right hand next?”
“What the hell are you saying?! Speak Japanese, you Korean!”
“Or maybe I should slit your belly open and free your intestines?”
I raised my sword again. But from far off I heard a voice shouting in this direction.
“Shirabayashi, you bastard! So this is where you were hiding!”
Murasaki was sprinting toward us with his sword drawn.
“You dare deceive me—the son of the Jongno Police Chief—and then run away? I won’t hold back this time! Let’s settle this once and for all!”
I had planned to collect him on my way out after dealing with Aoki, but he had woken up sooner than expected. Still, I couldn’t afford to fight him right now.
Take care of Aoki first!
But the moment my attention shifted to Murasaki, I looked back and Aoki was gone. He was already fleeing into the distance.
Shit!
I broke into a run after him.
“Shirabayashi! Don’t you run from me!”
I ignored Murasaki’s shouts from behind and sprinted through the volcanic cave that was shaking harder by the second.
I can’t let him escape!
If Major Aoki made it outside, everything would be ruined. Worse—I’d be the one finished.
But running across violently shaking ground while lava boiled up everywhere was brutally exhausting.
Huff… huff… damn it…!
I’d noticed it before, but the body I’d possessed—Baek Chulyeon—had mediocre basic stamina. His nutrition was decent, but even back in the 21st century he would have been nothing more than an average high-school student.
So I simply couldn’t catch up to a trained elite soldier a head taller than me who had also received a speed enhancement.
Before long Aoki had reached the entrance of the base camp far ahead.
No!
The base camp was collapsing.
The floor split open as lava surged upward. The twisted, broken ground rolled like a ship on stormy waves. The fence surrounding the camp and all the tents and barracks inside were crumbling.
In the midst of that chaos the gate leading outside warped and shuddered unsteadily. The last remaining hunters and company employees were pouring through it.
Aoki leaped over streams of lava spurting from cracks and sprinted straight for the exit.
There’s no way I’ll die here at the hands of a mere Korean!
The distance between Major Aoki and the gate had shrunk to mere dozens of meters. Chasing far behind, I had no way to stop him. All I could do was watch his jubilant back as he ran.
I must devote my entire life to carrying out the Chairman’s will and the great cause of the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Society!
But then—
Far ahead, right at the gate that marked the end of Aoki’s escape route, someone stood blocking his path with a sword pointed directly at him.
In the darkness, flames flickered along the long blade.
“Stop right there!”
Black hair whipped in the hot wind, the dark crimson aura around her deepening in the glow of the lava. She thrust her sword forward and shouted with eyes that burned like fire.
“Major!”
