Timer
"Bullshit."
"Bullshit? Why would I lie?"
"......?"
"Don't they call you an idiot back in your organization?"
Begonia's twitching eyebrows went still, and a killing light kindled in his eyes.
"So they do call you an idiot."
"A deal is a deal. But there's life after a deal ends."
"Don't bother with threats that won't land. Do they call you an idiot or not? I'd bet they do. The genuinely stupid ones are always the stubborn bastards who can't read the room. I don't know what possessed you to latch onto me, but you and I are in very different positions. I cut a deal with your higher-ups, and you're the one who came here to fulfill it. So you don't have to be meek about it, but you damn well shouldn't be an annoyance."
"You have a long tongue."
Begonia brushed it off with a dismissive snort.
"And you have an empty head."
"......?!"
"What would I possibly gain from lying to you? The satisfaction of winning a pissing contest? Trust is something we've built in this line of work too. Run your mouth with nonsense and you lose out on a reputation like that."
"You call that a reputation? It's closer to notoriety."
"Then why did you reach out to a man swimming in it? Begonia, was it? Think carefully. Don't bite off more than you can chew."
"......"
This time Begonia didn't answer right away, letting the silence stretch.
"You're betting the Administrators won't intervene?"
"They won't. That's why we're going to Slow."
"Are you certain?"
"Want me to write you a contract? Promising no intervention?"
"No need. If they do intervene, I simply withdraw from the field."
"Right. That works."
"And......"
"What I mentioned earlier — that's not for you. Not now, anyway. What I actually want to know is this: how do you plan to handle Ganjeol?"
"Do I need to explain that? All you have to do is lead me to him."
"Wrong. We need contingencies for the scenario where you fail to finish Ganjeol properly. And Ganjeol isn't the only one there. We need at least a rough picture of your capabilities before we can coordinate with you."
"......"
"Are you the same type as Ganjeol?"
"No. But I will not lose to him."
"An idiot *and* exhausting. Have you ever actually fought him?"
"I have not."
"Then have you at least seen him fight?"
"Not firsthand."
"And yet you're sitting there with the gall to say you'd definitely win? Infuriating."
"No one can defeat me in a one-on-one fight."
"Sure, sure. So what about Number Four?"
"A confrontation with her cannot be assessed on simple terms."
"Weren't you just saying no one could beat you? What are you, a chameleon with your tongue? You flip your shit whenever it's convenient."
"......"
"Oh, clamping shut the moment it turns unfavorable. Fine. If a one-on-one with Number Four actually happened, could you win? Or not? Just answer that."
"I do not believe I would lose."
At that, Gong Won-goo let out a dry chuckle, and the crew watched the war of words between Begonia and Won-goo with amused expressions.
But no one stepped in.
"'I do not believe I would lose'... Funny way of putting it, but close enough. You're a Reinforcement type, aren't you? Right?"
"......!?"
Begonia's eyes went wide. He was genuinely startled.
"Don't look so shocked. What other type could spew that kind of blind confidence without a care for matchups?"
"......"
"And going so far as to claim you'd win no matter what — that means your Gift has something to do with regeneration, recovery, or resistance. Am I right?"
Begonia gave no further answer.
"Good. We're all set. Dan-shin."
"Yes, Director!"
"Go around to the Heads. Tell them to come to Sanghae's place."
"Who should I contact?"
"Abal, Montage, Sapiens. We'll pick up the rest on our way up. Hurry — tell them we're ready to move."
Gong Won-goo prepared meticulously, but once the plan was set, he executed fast.
When the groundwork was done, he didn't drag his feet. He struck.
That was his way, and thanks to that way, the personnel of Sabbath had gathered in front of Slow.
It had taken longer than expected, since they'd had to detour around the territory occupied by the Arctic Giant.
Even so, there was fire in every eye out there.
They had already fought a war against Ganjeol Point.
War was cruel precisely because it always left grudges behind.
They had fought a savage one, and so Sabbath was brimming with hatred for Ganjeol Point.
Even in victory, there had been no shortage of sacrifices.
On top of that, the fact that Ganjeol Point had started all this on a whim had stoked their morale further.
They looked down on us that much.
Nobody said it out loud, but everyone felt it.
"Alright. Let's gather round."
Won-goo stepped out in front of the crew, who had been lying in wait in secret.
"Under normal circumstances, someone outside the Heads shouldn't be the one giving a speech. But since I'm the one who planned this whole affair, I'll keep it short."
Everyone hung on his words.
"Today, we end Ganjeol Point. The only things inside that place are Ganjeol and the bastards of his coalition. Which means whatever comes out of there, you don't hesitate. And here's the most important part: this incident was not provoked by us. We are innocent victims who simply can't afford to sit back and take it. They broke the rules first — that's why this raid is happening. Don't hesitate for a second. Let's tear it all down fast."
"That's right. All of this happened because that bastard Ganjeol saw us as his X, innit."
"Exactly. If he'd been even a little afraid of us, would he have pulled something like this?"
Fresh added the final word. Then Won-goo called the Heads together to run through the operation one last time.
"Okay. Let's confirm the plan again. No hesitation — but no need to go overly aggressive either. Once Ganjeol's done, the whole place falls with him. Montage, hyung-nim."
"Yeah."
"You're punching open the entrance first, right?"
"You know it. Leave it to me. Our Joce is perfect for kicking off a fight."
"And everyone else — just make sure we don't take a knife in the back. Got it?"
"Course."
"And Agari."
"I know my job. No need to explain."
"Good, that's all I need. Say it once more with feeling: our crew — Won-goo's Services does not look back. Once the road is open, the Trailer drives straight through to Ganjeol's manor. So nobody gets hurt and nobody dies. Everyone does their own job and does it well. Are we clear?"
The Heads nodded. Won-goo handed the map of Slow he'd been carrying to Lee Hyun-sung.
Then he looked at his wristwatch.
"It's almost twelve. Everyone moves out now. When the clock hits twelve exactly, we start a precise three-minute timer and go in. So don't forget — the road has to be open within that window."
The Ganjeol Point personnel guarding Slow's entrance couldn't get their bearings through the sudden ambush.
Won-goo climbed onto the Trailer's roof and watched the situation through his binoculars.
Beep-beep-beep!
The watch timer went off. Won-goo didn't hesitate and moved the Trailer out.
Still standing on its roof.
The Trailer rolled past Slow's entrance at a speed so fast it bordered on abnormal.
Montage's crew cleared the entrance while the rest pushed deeper, carving through the swarming Ganjeol Point soldiers.
Those soldiers were not remotely prepared.
They had never imagined survivors raiding a Shelter.
A Shelter was inviolable ground, a place guaranteed safety no matter what happened outside.
Conflicts broke out within shelters often enough, but never once had anyone attacked the shelter itself first.
And yet that was exactly what was happening now.
It went beyond shock — it was outright disbelief.
They hadn't even the faintest measure of combat readiness.
The difference between being properly geared and not was enormous, and among survivors there were those who treated Reinforcement Pills as mandatory for every fight.
Those very cases were now spilling out into the streets without so much as a pill, let alone weapons or armor.
Some were half-naked. Some had run straight out of a meal.
"What the fuck is going on!"
One man screamed.
"Sabbath! Sabbath is attacking! The main gate's already fallen! Report upstairs now! Move!"
"Why would Sabbath attack us? No — how? What about the Administrators?"
"That's the problem, there are no Administrators! They all vanished — every last one of them! Get inside and spread the word. What are you doing out here without a single piece of gear!"
The man who'd burst out with a two-handed sword chewed out the half-naked one.
Even in the chaos, he'd made the correct call.
The textbook move was for whoever held a weapon to buy time, and for whoever couldn't arm themselves to raise the alarm instead.
"Move! Now!"
"O... okay."
It was a reasonably rational judgment. But it didn't last long.
Vreeeeeeeeng!
The cry of the Trailer at full sprint.
And the speed was hard to believe coming from that massive hulk of a vehicle.
CRUNCH!
The Trailer plowed straight through the two-handed swordsman who'd turned to look back.
The man was flung aside, launched skyward, and vanished. As he flew, he'd already lost consciousness, his body flopping like a wooden puppet for good measure.
The half-naked man, who'd watched it all and turned to run.
A rod shot out from the Trailer's window and unfolded into a massive spear.
Pacific's weapon.
The spear threaded the fleeing man's spine as he sprinted at a diagonal to escape the Trailer's charging line.
It was a spear even Pacific could barely swing on his own, but with the Trailer's momentum behind it, there was nothing difficult about it at all.
"Director Gong! Is this Trailer's speed right? It's insane-fucking fast!"
Speed had a way of getting people's blood up.
The Trailer was running far faster than it ever had before.
"I fed it some coins! We're past 300 right now!"
It could hardly be anything but a insane speed — a Trailer exceeding 300 kilometers per hour.
Add in its sheer mass, and it was effectively a Large Species charging at breakneck pace.
Won-goo's crew intended to ride that momentum in a straight line all the way to Ganjeol's manor.
The manor was big and sprawling.
And, in an act of monumental stupidity, it sat at the far end of a perfectly straight line running from Slow's main gate.
According to the intel they'd acquired, the site had been chosen with the help of a geomancy-reading shaman and a pathfinder. The best location in Slow had originally been elsewhere, and they'd relocated it.
Thanks to that decision, reaching Ganjeol became that much easier for Won-goo's crew.
All they had to do was drive straight.
It wasn't impossible something might block the way, but they'd judged the odds to be slim.
This was a raid.
Had they prepared properly and thrown up barricades, maybe. But nothing on earth was stopping a rampaging mad Trailer in the middle of a surprise attack.
Even if someone with Kim Yang-cheon's divine strength had appeared, the current Trailer would have flattened him.
With the coins poured in, it was several times stronger than the Trailer they'd known.
Bam-bam-bam-bam-BAM! Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Quite a few things got snagged along the roadside, but it didn't matter.
The Trailer didn't shed a single kilometer of speed as it barreled toward Ganjeol's manor.
The compound wall came into view, and a sizable force of guards stood watch in front of it — but they were of no help whatsoever.
They'd all just watched several bodyguards who'd tried to block the Trailer get bowled over like bowling pins.
Getting out of the way was pure instinct by that point.
KRAAAAA-BOOM!
The Trailer tore through the wall and plunged deep into the heart of the manor.
It pushed in until the wheels could roll no further.
In an instant, the manor was pandemonium.
And there sat Ganjeol at a table, eating his meal. With a drink alongside it.
Frozen mid-motion, spoon still raised to his lips, Ganjeol turned to stone.
Then his eyes met Gong Won-goo's, newly emerged into view.
"You built this whole shitshow and your food still goes down easy, you dog-fucker? Drinking on top of it? You're dead today, you son of a bitch!"