When the Other Side Acts Like Trash
I confirmed the existence of a hostile faction and pondered ways to track their base. While uncovering their motives and true identities was important, I pushed those concerns to the back burner.
Tracking
“I can track about 20 items of this size,” Park Yun-seong said after I summoned him.
Jang Hoseop began discussing the logistics with him.
“What’s the range?”
“When I tested it last time, I could reach Yongsan Station, but I’m not sure now. It’s definitely increased.”
Park Yun-seong’s core skill was the ability to locate items he owned. I intended to use this to scatter bait.
“Boss.”
“Yeah?”
“We need to scatter things they’d actually want to pick up.”
“True.”
“But the tracking ability is affected by how precious the item is to Yun-seong, as well as its weight and size.”
Various items were piled on the conference table—things Park Yun-seong had brought.
“Food items like this don’t trigger the skill.”
“I’m sorry. I should have kept them with me for a while…”
His skill was influenced by his perception. To track their location, we had to scatter things someone would be tempted to pick up, but finding the right items was difficult. Considering the size and weight constraints, we were also short on quantity.
“What’s this?”
As the deliberation dragged on, a notebook suddenly caught my eye.
“That’s my diary.”
A diary—that would count as a precious item, wouldn’t it? A crafty idea struck me.
“I’ll give you a new notebook. Let’s experiment with your diary.”
“Yes.”
I tore out a page from Park Yun-seong’s diary and asked if he could track it.
“Oh? Yes! It works perfectly. I think I could even track multiple pages.”
After some discussion, we decided to use the unused pages of the diary. Simply tearing them out and scattering them wouldn’t work if no one picked them up, so we filled them with appropriate content.
“You write it yourself.”
“Yes. What should I write?”
“Since their goal is to find Samira’s location… Boss, how about some ‘territory marking’ text?”
I nodded, and Jang Hoseop and Park Yun-seong put their heads together to draft the message.
“Hoseop, leave some of them as if they were dropped by accident. That’s the only way they’ll pick them up.”
“Understood. And we’ll throw these out, too.”
I felt bad for Park Yun-seong, but we decided to scatter some of his small personal belongings outside Samira’s sphere of influence as well.
“Report everything you lose. I’ll make it up to you.”
“No, it’s fine! It’s my job, after all.”
When I promised to compensate him personally, Park Yun-seong answered spiritedly.
“I just hope they actually pick them up.”
“Wouldn’t something like this ballpoint pen be worth picking up?”
“Who knows. Oh, and on the back of the paper…”
Beyond scattering bait, I decided to increase our employees’ external activities. We were simply doing what we could.
This plan was built on the assumption that they were deploying scouts, and it could end up being a futile effort.
That evening.
“Boss. I’m back.”
“Yeah, did you scatter them all?”
“Yup.”
We had mobilized all of Samira’s personnel to scatter the bait in various locations. Starting tomorrow, I would go out myself to find their base.
“By the way, you were writing something on the back of those papers for a long time earlier.”
“Oh, that? It’s just a note saying that whoever picks up this paper will have good luck.”
I had asked just in case Jang Hoseop had written something useless.
“We’ve increased our defenses… we’ve done everything we can. I don’t know how this will turn out.”
We continued talking while having dinner with the group. Surprisingly, no one seemed overly worried.
“Even if they do attack, what can they do? We have Lee Hyun-nim.”
Jangsu-ajusshi voiced the reason.
“Still, we shouldn’t be careless. They say even a lion does its best when catching a single rabbit.”
Auntie Sujeong chimed in immediately. I just listened to their conversation.
And the next day.
“Lee Hyun-nim.”
“Yeah.”
I was walking around with Gi Eun-chae when I received a message via spirit stone.
“They say the location tracking has begun.”
Someone had taken the bait.
One of the pages from Park Yun-seong’s diary had traveled quite a distance. Someone had picked it up, and Park Yun-seong was following that page via location tracking. The page had stopped at Namsan.
“To be precise, it’s about halfway up Namsan. On the western side…”
I gathered with the executives in the conference room. Jang Hoseop explained the progress.
“This… it has to be that woman’s doing, right?”
“Who knows.”
Jang Hoseop was jumping to conclusions. The woman he mentioned was the Awakened who had been demanding we disclose our information on the Square.
“What was her name?”
“Yeom A-hyeon. A former assemblywoman, level 21.”
Yeom A-hyeon had previously inquired about joining us. When we asked which region she was in, she said Jung-gu, so we had ended the conversation there.
“Namsan is a bit ambiguous. It straddles Yongsan-gu and Jung-gu… and those people seem to be struggling with food supplies, too.”
The timing was indeed suspicious. Ever since Yeom A-hyeon demanded information disclosure, rescue seekers had started going silent.
However, if one considered Samira’s day-night wheat harvest as the cause for both, it could just be a coincidence.
“Forget it. It’s not that important. We just need to go to Namsan.”
I had actually intended to head straight to Namsan. Jang Hoseop had requested this meeting, so he must have had a reason.
“Boss… I’m not certain, but we need to probe them.”
“Why?”
“Because it’s an opportunity to absorb their forces.”
As expected, there was a reason.
“And if we miss our timing because of that?”
“I think it’s still fine. Samira has the capacity for it.”
“We don’t even know their exact combat strength.”
I wasn’t unconditionally against Jang Hoseop’s opinion. I, too, was sick of hearing that we lacked manpower everywhere. It meant I wanted him to spill his thoughts quickly.
“If you give me a little time, I’ll design a plan.”
“How?”
“I’ll separate their combat personnel.”
If the people pulling strings to find Samira’s location were indeed Yeom A-hyeon’s faction, they would have a mix of ordinary people and Awakened, just like us. Jang Hoseop’s plan was to weed out the individuals who needed to be removed, including their leadership, and absorb the rest.
“Samira can afford to get bigger.”
“True.”
“And if it turns out not to be them, we can just go to Namsan then. Boss… you’re an irregular.”
I know. I had just been doing my best to survive since the first day of the Cataclysm, and I intended to do the same this time. By any means necessary, in the most efficient way possible. Jang Hoseop’s words meant that for our needs, we could afford to take a slight detour. Because we had the capacity to do so.
I nodded.
“Fine. Do it. What do you need?”
“I’ll contact Yeom A-hyeon through the Square. In the process…”
I had thought about charging in immediately because I was confident I could win. I considered this, too, as a way to balance things, like a challenge to become stronger.
Jang Hoseop contacted Yeom A-hyeon through the Square. In the meantime, the others began preparing for the expedition. The goal was to finish this within the day.
“Boss. We’ve made contact.”
Yeom A-hyeon’s side had replied quickly. Jang Hoseop created a private post and gave her the password.
“Ugh, seriously. Why can’t people trust others’ words?”
Jang Hoseop muttered to himself. It seemed Yeom A-hyeon was suspicious of him. And rightfully so. There was a history of bad blood. Aside from the constant taunting, Jang Hoseop had used his skills to wreak havoc in the comments section every time Yeom A-hyeon posted something. Because of that, even those who had initially agreed with her had largely turned away. The reason being that she was too greedy.
“Starting the conversation.”
Regardless, it didn’t take long for Jang Hoseop to draw Yeom A-hyeon out. I entered the post he provided via Yuna’s spirit stone.
It seemed there were quite a few things I didn’t know about.
Jang Hoseop exchanged pleasantries and got to the point. I’m not sure if those were pleasantries, but anyway. Jang Hoseop brought up the topic of the day-night wheat.
Jang Hoseop revealed some information to lure Yeom A-hyeon, offering to trade seeds. Yeom A-hyeon took the bait immediately.
With this, the probability that she was in Namsan rose significantly. How many places in the middle of Seoul could secure a large cultivation area? Jang Hoseop continued to flood the chat with comments, outlining conditions for confidentiality and what they needed to prepare in exchange for the information. Finally, he demanded a face-to-face meeting with a time limit.
It was almost lunchtime. Jang Hoseop pressed Yeom A-hyeon to decide immediately. Eventually, the appointment was set. When we exited the Square, Jang Hoseop wore a meaningful smile.
“Boss. It seems like it’s them, right?”
“Looks like it.”
The meeting place Yeom A-hyeon had chosen was on the path from Samira to Namsan. Even though we had never told her our location.
“She’s fucking devious. Acting all righteous in front of everyone.”
Now it was time to hurry and prepare.
“Damn. If I knew this, I would have posted more offensive memes.”
“What?”
“I thought she was a truly righteous person, so I went a little easy on her.”
“You went easy on her, and that’s the reaction you get?”
A thought suddenly occurred to me. At least on the Square, Jang Hoseop was the true irregular.
“But what are offensive memes?”
“That… um. It’s better you don’t know. The mental damage is significant.”
I didn’t ask further.
I led the Awakened out. We left only the bare minimum of forces, including ordinary people, at Samira.
“Wow… it feels like we’re going to war. Bringing everyone along like this makes me feel secure, though.”
“It is a war.”
There were nearly 80 Awakened alone. Most of them weren’t even level 10, but they all had skills. Samira’s Awakened were even well-armed.
“Senior, aren’t you nervous?”
“What about you? You look fine, too.”
“Hmm… because it’s raining?”
I observed the emotions of those following me. Everyone was much more tense than usual. It was raining heavily, and it was dark despite it being daytime. We were facing a battle against humans, not monsters.
Were Jang Hoseop and Lee Yuna the strange ones? My group, including them, was relatively less tense.
‘No, is it a difference in experience?’
There was a difference even between the regular employees and the interns. Experience would have an impact, but it also seemed to depend on the person.
“Carrying swords and spears like this makes it feel somewhat barbaric.”
With Jang Hoseop’s muttering, the conversation ended, and we walked in silence through the ruined city. Fallen signs and road traffic markers lay about grotesquely. There was no interference from monsters, and Namsan came into my view. Then, just as the uphill path toward Namsan began:
“How annoying. They could have come down a bit further.”
It was a desolate residential area. A multitude of people were gathered at the top of the hill. They looked down at us.
“The numbers seem similar, right? Or not?”
“Wow… there are quite a lot of them over there, too.”
After a brief standoff, a man pushed a wheelchair out from the back. I pulled the hood of my raincoat down low and took over the wheelchair.
“Ugh, they swarmed out like a pack of dogs.”
Chairman Park was sitting in the wheelchair. As we began to move again, the opposing group also descended the hill. The fairly wide path became filled with people. Then, as everyone stopped at a reasonable distance:
Creak, creak.
I pushed the wheelchair a few more steps forward. A woman in a suit walked out from the other side.
‘Heels?’
In this weather, in this situation. Her attire was incomprehensible. Also, unlike Chairman Park and me, who were wearing raincoats, a man on their side was holding a large umbrella.
“Hello. My name is Yeom A-hyeon.”
I kept my mouth shut and spread my Target Detection wide.
“I am Chairman Park.”
Instead, Chairman Park began the conversation as promised.