Escape
The flamethrower Gong Won-goo had unleashed turned out to be less fun than he'd hoped, but the wide-area techniques the Montage crew employed proved remarkably effective.
Get caught in an area attack, and you lose the initiative.
Claiming the right to strike first in battle carried considerable weight.
By now, Ganjeol Point was simply collapsing, one-sided and absolute.
"Hey! Leave Badugi alive! I told you to capture the executives alive! Hey! Gu-sik, you! I'm talking to you, you bastard!"
At that, Oh Gu-sik yanked the knife out of Badugi's gut as the man staggered. A moment later, and his axe would have split Badugi's throat clean open.
Gu-sik turned, shot Won-goo a sidelong glance, then moved off to finish off the rest of the Ganjeol Point forces.
Yeong Chi-soo trailed after him at speed.
"Landing the finishing blow on a man already half-dead, then strutting about it."
In truth, it was hard to call what Gu-sik had done capturing Badugi at all. The man had already been drained dry holding back the tide of enemies pouring in, and Yeong Chi-soo's stones had left him reeling, unable to gather his wits.
"Still, those two make a hell of a combo. Especially the telekinetic kid — if he keeps growing, he'll be no joke at all."
Pacific remarked.
"Psychic types have always been broken once they grow."
"Aren't they strong even without growing?"
"They get stronger when they grow. That's why they're rare Gifts. Enhancement types are the most common, see. But here's an interesting tidbit for you—"
As he spoke, Won-goo was sweeping his gaze across the entire battlefield.
And yet the clash drawing his particular attention was the one between the Shelter Ark survivors and Sde.
Of every fight raging out there, that one was the most ferocious and the most brutal.
On top of that, Sde possessed a peculiar escape ability, which meant Won-goo had no choice but to keep watching.
"So that's what you were talking about. Hye-ji! Get up top, now!"
In an instant, a murky fog bloomed around Sde.
It was so dense that from the outside, the people inside could barely be made out at all.
Thud!
With a single motion, Won-goo vaulted atop the Trailer.
Hye-ji climbed up after him just as lightly, then settled smoothly into a sniper's stance.
"Is it... all right for me to fire?"
"That rifle is yours now. So you're the one who fires it."
"Wouldn't it be better if you did it, Director?"
That would never do. Won-goo was a man who believed that a single real situation taught you far more than a hundred clumsy rehearsals ever could.
So he couldn't let an opportunity like this slip.
It was a chance for his own crew member, Jeon Hye-ji, to grow by leaps and bounds.
More than anything, he'd set a few configurations on the rifle beforehand.
The point was that he hadn't told her about them — but since he'd hidden them deliberately, there was no reason to bring it up now.
Won-goo steadied Jeon Hye-ji with a calm voice.
"Don't worry. You've practiced plenty, haven't you? Hmm?"
"That's right."
"You'll keep using that rifle as your weapon from here on out. So it's time you tried its other modes."
"This is...?"
"Sniper mode. You've got a scope now, don't you?"
"Ah... then someday I could be like you, Director—"
"The flamethrower? That's a door you open much, much later."
"Yes, sir."
"Anyway, get your stance set. It's coming out soon."
Hye-ji dropped into a prone firing position. A rock-steady one, too.
Most of the fighting was nearing its end. Survivors had begun surrendering in dribs and drabs.
Which effectively meant the battle was over.
And yet there were unmistakably those who kept resisting to the last.
The ones with the most to lose from defeat were usually the ones who fought to the bitter end.
So it was the executives, surrounded by their tight-knit inner circles, who were holding out longest.
But there was one man still resisting to the end who belonged to no such category.
Sde.
Fighting to the last, he finally drew his final card.
The strange fog he deployed in moments of crisis.
Such a bizarre technique that even Won-goo — brimming with information gathered from the future — couldn't identify what it actually was.
Won-goo donned A-One's Tinted Glasses.
Holding his breath, he studied the fog.
The crew stood quietly, watching him work.
About a minute passed, perhaps.
Then, while the Ark people flailed about inside the murk, a figure slipped quietly out beyond the fog's edge.
"There he is. Those bastards came prepared in their own way, I'll give them that."
"Where? I don't see anything."
Pacific couldn't spot Sde even though the man had emerged from the fog.
"He's taken quite a beating. Lost his weapon, too. And it looks like an arm's gone. Hye-ji, you see him?"
"No, Director. I can't see him."
So Won-goo pulled off A-One's Tinted Glasses and set them directly on the prone Hye-ji's face.
"Can you see him now? Nine hundred meters out."
"I can see him now."
"Good. Then just pull the trigger."
And Won-goo stared at Sde with the naked eye.
Now he understood why nobody had been able to find him.
Even outside the fog, Sde was still wreathed in it — like a blanket of mist draped over his shoulders.
Slipping free of the fog in that fashion, no one would ever be the wiser.
Sde had milked that trick for all it was worth, many times over — but today, that too came to an end.
Because Won-goo had prepared a special round specifically to take him down.
"Now!"
At the signal, Jeon Hye-ji squeezed the trigger.
BAAANG!
The round launched with a savage recoil.
"That's it."
Won-goo knew from the trajectory alone.
A hit.
A headshot, no less.
Though it hardly mattered even if it hadn't been.
When he'd unlocked his third Milestone Trait, the cursed rounds had gotten a serious upgrade as well.
All that mattered was landing the hit. The moment the potent curse took hold, Sde would be drastically weakened — and a weakened Sde was not a man built to survive.
He was the type to have sown enemies far and wide, after all.
This round was several times more advanced than the one he'd spent on the insect summoner Kang Yu-min.
Time alone would not make it fade.
A faint smile crept across Won-goo's face.
But the smile died quickly.
CRACK!
The instant the round touched Sde's body, everyone's faces crumpled.
Won-goo's included.
Because the shot that should have connected had been stopped dead by an invisible barrier.
Sde, seeing the fissured barrier, turned and fixed his gaze precisely on Won-goo's crew.
It was only a heartbeat, but the look was more than enough to be felt.
"Son of a... he really is no ordinary bastard."
"Director..."
"It's fine. This isn't your fault. This happened because I didn't expect that bastard to come this prepared to bolt. Call it my misjudgment. Hye-ji."
"He's really something else. He had a barrier ready in that state?"
"It's fine. It probably left a sour taste in his mouth, anyway. One look tells you that thing was single-use."
"You think?"
"If it weren't single-use, he'd have gotten far more value out of it mid-fight. A man with his skills could've manufactured openings with it a dozen times over."
"Fair point..."
"There's a chance it's a rechargeable barrier, though."
"Even that couldn't block the round you just fired. It was a heavy hitter, I'm telling you. Did you really think I wouldn't anticipate a barrier? I anticipated it. If it had been an ordinary barrier, the round would've punched straight through."
"How much?"
"Ten coins' worth."
"Oof... on a single shot?"
"Yeah. I fully intended to send him off. Best case would've been those Ark bastards finishing him for us, but somehow... it didn't feel like they'd properly planned it out."
Won-goo said this with a tilt of his head, gesturing toward the Ark Shelter people. Whether he'd read the tangle of feelings behind it or not, Lee Hyun-sung pulled out a cigarette and offered it over.
"Bless you... thanks, Hyun-sung."
"Not at all, Hyeong-nim!"
"And next time we meet, I won't be letting him slip away like this. Now that I know how the fog works. Hyun-sung."
"Yes, Hyeong-nim!"
"Go tell Montage-hyeongnim that Sde's already bolted. Tell him the man's gone."
"Yes, sir."
"Haah... how the hell did these bastards get away this time?"
Seeing the Four Magic Monks vanish into thin air, Won-goo couldn't hide his bitter exasperation.
"I'm sorry, Hyeong-nim."
Lee Hyun-sung bowed his head. Jo Mu-sa bowed his alongside him.
"It's not your fault. Those bastards must've had some trick hidden up their sleeves."
"What kind of ability, though? They left one man behind."
"They did, didn't they."
"It is a portion difficult to determine, that part."
Mu Beob-sa said this as he passed over the profiles of the Four Magic Monks. Not photographs, but profiles with a rough sketch of their features drawn in.
Getting your hands on a profile like this wasn't difficult, even for someone who'd never crossed paths with the monks in this area.
All you had to do was ask a few survivors who'd tangled with them before what they looked like, and there it was.
Survivors generally had good memories. And to last long out in the Field, it paid to commit even the smallest details to memory.
All the more so when it was the face of someone with a notorious reputation in the region.
"Couldn't we narrow it down by height and build?"
"The monks all have similar physiques, it seems."
"One thing's certain — it's not the eldest. That one's vestments were a little different."
"How did they even break out... We had them bound in Tail Dog's Tail."
"We'll find them if we look. It won't be comfortable, though. They left a man behind."
The Four Magic Monks had abandoned Jeongjin, their third, as they fled.
"They dumped him because he was dead, surely?"
Pacific asked. Then Mu Beob-sa added one more remark.
"That is a portion that cannot be known."
"...?"
"I happen to know a portion about reading faces, you see. I can't speak for the others, but that eldest one was no ordinary face."
"Spare me the physiognomy. So what's your actual take, Beob-sa?"
"It is my thought that they may have sacrificed him."
"..."
"..."
Pacific and Gong Won-goo exchanged a brief look.
It was the kind of thing that happened often enough in an apocalyptic world. And yet it was a leap too far to treat as settled fact without a shred of evidence.
"Old man. That's a stretch."
"Shall we wager on it, that portion?"
"And how exactly would you verify that?"
"The world is wide, yet those meant to meet will always meet — that is a portion of how it works. They call it fate, that portion."
"Been reading Eastern philosophy lately, have you?"
"Forget the wager. Let's clean up fast. We need to get back quickly — Sapiens can't hold that place alone."
"Ttaeng-gu!"
At the voice calling him, Won-goo turned his head.
Only one man on earth called him Ttaeng-gu.
Oh Gu-sik was approaching slowly, drenched head to toe in blood.
He hadn't pulled off any spectacular feats, but he'd contributed enormously to thinning Ganjeol Point's numbers.
He walked up and held out a slip of paper with his bloodstained hand.
"The list of what I need. Have it out front of the Trailer by tomorrow. Keep your word."
But Won-goo didn't take the offered paper.
"...?"
"Already told them to drop it off. You jackass."
Oh Gu-sik crumpled the paper in his fist.
"There were kids, too. Make sure the kids eat well. I threw in some snacks, so feed them properly."
"..."
"What are you staring at?"
"Well, you always were good at handling this sort of thing. For a man with what's inside you."
"And what exactly is inside me?"
"You don't trust a soul."
"I don't trust you. My own crew, I trust."
"That know-it-all attitude of yours. I always hated that, Ttaeng-gu."
"I just hated you, Ttaeng-sik."
"Go eat a bag of dicks, you son of a bitch."
And with that, Oh Gu-sik turned away. Yeong Chi-soo glared at Won-goo for a moment, then followed after him.
"Hey! I had them put books in too. How are the kids supposed to learn their letters otherwise?"
Oh Gu-sik's footsteps halted briefly.
Then he resumed walking, facing forward.
"Half of it landed, you think?"
Pacific asked.
"Doubt it."
"Even with you dangling a carrot like that?"
"That man thought Black Shelter was paradise. Now that illusion's shattered — you think he swallows that easily?"
"Maybe he figures he's just one step over the line?"
"Maybe... I'd say that's likely enough. But he still won't move for now."
"You think?"
"Because he's seen it. He's probably revising his plans as we speak."
"Spell it out for me. Revising what, exactly?"
Pacific's brow furrowed.
"He just watched Ganjeol Point get butchered. You revise the plan, obviously."
With that, Won-goo walked over to Badugi, who was being hauled over in bindings.
"Hey! Baduk-i."
"...?"
"Didn't show up, did he?"
"..."
"How does a man with eyes that bad for people survive a world this brutal?"
"..."
"Watch and see. Whether Ganjeol ever sets foot outside that shelter of his again. That bastard won't be poking his head out from here on — mark my words. He's the type to stay put in that hole even as every last one of his limbs gets lopped off. That man is."