Chapter 55
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 55
Chapter Title: Come Out, You Who Touched My Son
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Thanks to Private First Class Kim Jun-young's excellent driving skills, the Lamborghini was already speeding up the steep mountain road.
Lee Seok-gyu's personal car No. 25 was getting surprisingly filthy for a foreign luxury vehicle, covered in dirt, battered by the bumpy mountain path, and scratched by tree branches everywhere in the woods.
But who cared about a car? He could just buy a new one anyway.
"Cool! Guys! So many~ But it's me! The real! Coolest man~!"
If one Lamborghini could protect the homeland, what did it matter if this piece-of-shit ride got trashed?
Ignoring the Lamborghini as it accumulated more and more scratches, Lee Seok-gyu hummed military tunes with a big grin, fantasizing about beating the crap out of the bad guys.
A little later.
High mountains, deep valleys~♩ Silent mountain shade~♫
His phone suddenly rang.
That good mood lasted until he picked up the call from his wife.
"Sh-Shin-woo was attacked?!"
"Yeah. They say it was just some petty thief... But I don't buy it. No way it was a random crook. Call it a mother's intuition, but I have a feeling it might be connected to that case you're chasing."
"...! Got it. Tell Shin-woo that Dad will rush back to the hospital the second I'm done with work. Love you. Gotta go."
Click.
From that moment on, Lee Seok-gyu stopped smiling.
He just scowled darkly, fixated on the fact that his son had been attacked.
'The puppeteer controlling Angel's lower body... and Shin-woo getting hit in his hospital room right at that timing. Is this really a coincidence?'
The story didn't add up from the start—a so-called petty thief overpowers his proud daughter, steals only Shin-woo's phone, and bolts? No way.
A real thief would've hit up a jewelry store or something.
This was a meticulously planned assault!
"Who the hell dares lay a hand on my fragile boy...!"
Thanks to his rock-solid daughter Sophia, Lee Seok-gyu wasn't a doting dad on her—he was all about his son.
The thought that puny Shin-woo, who looked like he'd drop dead from a light tap, had nearly actually died sent him into a berserk rage. He bellowed loud enough for all to hear.
"Who's the bastard who touched my son?! If you're the ones I'm after, I'll blow every last one of your heads clean off!!"
After climbing, tumbling, and rolling through the treacherous terrain until all the tires blew out, they finally reached the abandoned factory in a remote corner of the mountains.
That's where Lee Seok-gyu's fury hit its peak.
"...Miss."
"...What?"
"That phone... Where'd you get it?"
"This? Uh... well... A cute boy I like gave it to me. Why? You want me to sell it to you used or something?"
Any normal thief would hide their stolen loot.
But Katarina kept clutching the phone she'd "received" from Shin-woo.
And the one who'd bought and activated that very phone? None other than Lee Seok-gyu himself.
"Hey, you bitch."
"Bitch?! Geez... This old fart's got zero manners for his age. What a foul mouth..."
"I'm placing you four under arrest for treason, kidnapping, and terrorism right now. And you in the middle—you so much as twitch, and you're dead by my hand. No exceptions."
Lee Seok-gyu issued his warning to the four villains who had emerged from the abandoned factory.
To show he meant business, he tensed his entire body.
Rumble rumble rumble.
"Th-the ground's shaking?!"
"No, it's not the ground..."
"The whole mountain's quaking."
A national powerhouse of Korea.
As he prepared for battle, the mountain itself—a full ecosystem—began to tremble. Reverin, Dorothy, and Paul each swallowed hard.
They all realized it.
Taking down the man before them would require sacrifices.
"Don't move."
"D-don't move, she said?!"
Dorothy glanced around, pleading for everyone to stay put.
Reverin was paralyzed with fear, not daring to twitch a finger. Paul merely rested his thumb on the hilt of the black sword at his waist but didn't draw it.
The atmosphere seemed ripe for a peaceful resolution if they played it smart?
"Fuck that!"
...Yeah, right.
"Let's see just how strong a Korean national powerhouse really is!"
Katarina cracked her knuckles, grinning like it was a treat, and started strolling toward Lee Seok-gyu as he issued his warning.
Following her lead...
"Private! Sergeant!"
"P-Private First Class Kim Jun-young!"
"Sergeant Choi Han-sol!"
"This mountain's about to collapse."
"Y-you're kidding, right?!"
"Get down the mountain. Now."
Concerned for the two soldiers behind him, Lee Seok-gyu barked the order.
The soldiers froze for a split second.
"Y-yes, sir!"
But in the military, orders were orders.
And no way would the Army Chief of Staff—the leader of Korea's mightiest force—just say something like that lightly.
Thud thud thud thud.
The two soldiers bolted back down the way they'd come, sprinting through the mountains.
"Hmm~ I figured soldiers from the same peninsula would use low-rank grunts as meat shields like up north, but this place is different, huh?"
"You comparing our ROK Army to those North Commie bastard pigs?"
Katarina had actually visited the Democratic People's Republic of Korea once, so she said it out of curiosity.
But...
"How dare you lump the Republic of Korea Army with that trash...!"
The final pride of the ROK Army—one you didn't touch.
Hearing "on par with North Korea" snapped Army Chief of Staff Lee Seok-gyu. He dropped all pretense and prepared for the real fight.
"Eeeek?! H-he's coming?! He's coming?!"
"L-Leader! I'll help!"
"Stay put! Reverin. Jump in and you'll be the first one shredded!"
Katarina gripped her suicide daggers from her thighs in reverse grip, matching her stance for battle.
But the next instant.
Before she could even register it, half her head exploded.
Bang!
"...Huh?"
The enemy was still far off.
She'd expected him to close in, but instead, he threw a punch into empty air.
That punch broke the sound barrier like firing a cannon, the shockwave blasting her from afar.
Taekwondo - Supersonic Straight Punch
"Sh-shit... arm...!"
Her vision split in half.
Consciousness fading.
She could hear her subordinates screaming—sorry for showing them this mess, kids.
Oh well, nothing for it.
"Let's try that again!"
With that, Katarina's eyes closed as the world drowned in white light.
Lee Seok-gyu traded blows with Katarina, each swing reshaping the terrain.
The steep mountainside was now half flattened into a plain.
At Katarina's command, the rest of the villain group had evacuated everyone from the factory first. Now, they simply watched the duel.
"Both of them are insane..."
"L-Lea-Leader's died how many times already?!"
"At least ten, for sure..."
As Reverin said, Katarina had already regressed ten times across parallel worlds.
She'd figured a national powerhouse from a country ranked around 18th in global hunter strength would fall in two or three loops.
'What the hell is this freakish monster?!'
Before sneaking into Korea, Katarina had researched the country's key figures as intel prep.
And that's why the current situation baffled her even more.
The guy in front of her was supposed to be a Beast Hunter—rear-support specialist!
'Is everyone in this country like that blonde girl I fought before? All Beast Hunters optimized for frontline combat?'
She'd died ten times already to a Beast Hunter who hadn't even summoned his beast.
Her pride scratched, Katarina itched to see his summon beast, so she launched a reckless assault.
Whoosh!
"Tch...!"
The instant she ducked, a heel shadowed her crown—she snapped her back straight to evade, then leaped back to create distance.
"Whew. Isn't the global hunter rankings screwed up? This old guy's way stronger than he looks."
"......"
"No cap—he's tougher than your average national powerhouse from Japan, world rank 6 in hunter power. ...Any chance his stats are two digits?"
Katarina tried chatting to buy time in the brief opening.
But Lee Seok-gyu's face remained wrapped in hostility, no dice.
Figuring persuasion was hopeless, she reset her stance—
"You've got some intriguing ability."
"...!"
"It's uncanny, but you dodge like you know my attacks in advance. Is that your power?"
Unlike her, he had only one life.
Yet amid the brutal fight, he'd analyzed her ability?
"Precognition? Nah, doesn't fit—you slip up sometimes. So what the hell is it?"
"Whoa... This old man's legit the more I see him."
Who knew this tiny peninsula had so many "real men."
Should've started down south instead of north.
Thinking that, Katarina reached for a smoke break anyway.
But even a smoker's breather was a luxury here.
"By now, the civilians and my two men should be off the mountain."
"...What?"
"It's ironic telling terrorists this, but thank you for releasing the people trapped in the factory."
He gave credit where due, even to enemies.
But then—
"As thanks, I'll do my utmost to take you all alive."
Lee Seok-gyu eyed Katarina and the three villains behind her, signaling it was time to end this. He took a deep breath.
"Come out."
Gazing down at his own shadow, he finally issued the command.