Return
On a pitch-black night, the city center of Gibro, a nation in the Middle Eastern conflict zone, lay hushed and still.
On the outskirts stood a private residence that drew the eye far more than the humble buildings around it ever could: a broad yard, high walls topped with barbed wire, guards armed with rifles posted at every corner, and a professionally trained military dog standing watch at the entrance.
Eight black shadows moved toward the house, their very appearance advertising that this was anything but an ordinary home.
Hidden in the darkness between the alleys, they carried heavy firearms in their hands.
Just before stepping out onto the main road leading to the house, the shadow at the front raised a hand to signal a halt.
Without a sound, everyone obeyed and stopped where they were.
The lead shadow counted the people behind him, then took out his radio.
“This is Cerberus 1. Charlie 2, respond, over.”
Crackle—
After a brief burst of static, an aged woman’s voice flowed out of the radio.
[Charlie 2, received. Proceed.]
At that moment, the black clouds that had been covering the sky drifted apart, and pale moonlight began to spill down onto the ground.
The light that slipped between the alleys started peeling the black shadows away, piece by piece.
The white hair of the man standing in front caught the moonlight and glimmered faintly.
“On the target building’s rooftop, beyond the clothesline with the white T-shirt hanging on it, I’ve confirmed one sniper. Can you verify from your side?”
[Affirmative. Confirmed.]
“Copy. Kill him on signal, over.”
[Roger. Charlie 2 out.]
“Cerberus 1 out.”
After ending the radio exchange, the man studied the guards around the target building through his binoculars for a moment.
It looked as though a shift change was underway; most of the men stationed outside were heading indoors.
The man then used hand signals to address the dark-haired female soldier standing behind him.
Cerberus 2, kill the military dog at the front gate on signal.
Understood.
Next, he signaled the blond female soldier standing third in line.
Cerberus 3, kill the guard standing on the second-floor balcony. Everyone else, hold.
Understood.
For a moment, silent communication passed between them, and the rifles of Cerberus 2 and Cerberus 3 settled on their targets.
Both soldiers steadied their nerves with measured breaths, then fixed on the enemy torsos through their scopes.
The white-haired man calmly checked his wristwatch and picked up the radio again.
“This is Cerberus 1. Kill the targets at 2:10 a.m., over.”
[Wilco. Charlie 2 out.]
“Cerberus 1 out.”
After the woman’s reply came through, silence once again settled over the alley.
Tick—
Tick—
The steady second hand of the watch hammered against the soldiers’ chests like a baton.
The white-haired man slowly raised his arm, ready to give the signal.
Five seconds.
Four.
Three.
Two.
One.
“Fire.”
Tak—!
Tak—!
With the brittle, wood-splintering crack peculiar to suppressors, the muzzles of the soldiers’ rifles flashed.
The man quickly checked through the binoculars and gave a satisfied nod.
The guard on the balcony had collapsed against the railing, and the military dog lay dead with its head blown apart.
As he readjusted the rifle slung over his shoulder, the woman’s cold voice came over his radio.
This is Charlie 2. Target down.
“Roger. Cerberus 1, moving in through the front gate.”
Copy. Charlie 2 out.
“Cerberus 1 out.”
He tucked the radio into his jacket, gripped his rifle, and took a slow breath.
Inhale—
Exhale—
His closed eyes opened, and blood-red irises revealed themselves.
Cerberus 2 placed a hand on his shoulder, signaling that she was ready.
“Good...”
The white-haired man, Cerberus 1, murmured as he lowered his face behind his ballistic visor.
The red smile painted across his mask curved into a sinister grin.
“Let the surprise party begin.”
The first thing we saw the moment we entered the building was a man sitting quietly in the yard.
Wearing a black chador and niqab, he spotted us and immediately shouted at the top of his lungs, then came running toward us.
“Don’t shoot! I’m a civilian! Please, help me!”
“Stay calm and don’t come any closer. If you approach any further, we will open fire.”
I gave the order calmly, but the man ignored it and kept screaming as he ran toward us.
Both his hands were hidden behind his back, so I couldn’t confirm whether he was armed.
I gave him one last warning as he kept coming.
“Final warning. Stop right there.”
“Please, save me! Plea—”
Tak—!
With a single precise shot, I blew out his carotid artery.
As his throat burst apart in a spray of flesh, the man staggered and then toppled backward.
Thud—!
Clink—
The moment his body hit the ground, a chilling metallic sound rang out.
Something felt off.
“...”
I carefully shoved his twitching body aside and confirmed the source of the noise.
It was a grenade, and the pin hadn’t even been pulled.
He was definitely working with the rebels.
That screaming bastard had been trying to alert the enemy to our presence.
When I cautiously checked the window, the interior of the building, which had still been lit just moments ago, was now pitch-dark.
They’d noticed us.
So today’s infiltration had failed.
To think they’d leave a bait like that out in the yard just to be annoying.
But the operation still had to continue.
If we didn’t catch her here, the war would only drag on.
I wasted no time giving the order to the squad.
“Cerberus 4, Cerberus 5, cut the power. Everyone else, cover the windows.”
“Understood.”
Cerberus 4 and 5 immediately moved toward the breaker box attached to the exterior wall, while the rest of us covered the windows and advanced to the front entrance.
There was still no movement inside.
They were probably waiting in hiding, planning to ambush us the moment we went in.
Not a bad strategy.
They’d likely planted IEDs all over the place and were just waiting with detonators in hand.
If the operation had gone according to plan, that would have made things fairly troublesome.
In a mission where we were supposed to infiltrate quietly and kill the enemy, we couldn’t just go blasting away with guns and explosives.
But what was the situation now?
Since they already knew we were here, nothing we did to this house mattered anymore.
“All the better for us...”
“...?”
Cerberus 2, who had been covering the windows, tilted her head at my mutter, clearly puzzled, but quickly turned her attention back outside.
About two minutes later, all the exterior lights attached to the building went dark.
The cutoff had succeeded, and now we had to go in and force our way through a firefight.
“Everyone, put on your night-vision.”
“Night-vision on.”
At my command, the others lowered the night-vision goggles attached to the fronts of their helmets.
By then, Cerberus 4 and 5 had also rejoined the rear of the formation and put theirs on.
I didn’t need night-vision goggles.
Why would I bother with that cumbersome junk when I could see perfectly well in the dark anyway?
It was heavy, it narrowed your field of vision, and it was just an obnoxious contraption all around.
Besides, every time I wore night-vision goggles, my body seemed to decide it was getting seasick and rebelled against me.
I’d tried them once out of curiosity and ended up puking up the combat rations I’d had for dinner.
My precious chicken curry...
Tap—
Cerberus 2 placed a hand on my shoulder, letting me know she was ready.
First, I calmly checked the front door handle.
Click—
The rotation felt normal.
With all my focus concentrated at my fingertips, I gently pushed the heavy wooden door open.
Creak—
“...Booby trap. Remove it.”
“Understood.”
A thin wire was visible beneath the door.
It was clearly connected to an IED.
Clack—
Cerberus 6 crouched beside the door and snipped the wire with the wire cutters she’d brought along.
“Removal complete.”
Tap—
Tap—
I tapped the top of her helmet twice to let her know I’d understood, then tightened my grip on the rifle.
Cerberus 2 placed a hand on my shoulder again, signaling that every member of the team was ready.
“Entering.”
Creak—
Beyond the fully opened front door, a dark hallway and a staircase leading to the second floor came into view.
I swept the interior quickly, but there was no sign of the enemy.
Two doors on the left, one on the right.
No space beneath the stairs.
I’ll take the right side.
Cerberus 3 and 4 took the doors on the left, while 5 and 6 took the ones by the stairs.
I assigned Cerberus 8, who was at the very back of the formation, to cover the upper stairs, then pressed myself against the wooden door on the right.
Cerberus 2, standing opposite me, signaled that she was ready.
Creak—
There was no booby trap under the door, and the interior still wasn’t visible.
I decided to be a little bolder and open it further.
Creeeeak—
An old, battered television sat on a table, and behind the sofa...
A woman with a rifle.
Tak—!
Thwack—
Cerberus 2 killed the target instantly.
The bullet punched through the woman’s head, spraying flesh in every direction.
Thud—!
Her body fell backward with a heavy sound.
There was no other entrance to this room.
No other enemies were visible.
Tak—!
“Target down.”
Cerberus 2 delivered a confirming shot to the woman’s eye for good measure.
Her skull was already clearly blown open, but you could never afford to let your guard down.
Once, I’d run into rebel child soldiers high on drugs; they’d taken eight rounds of 5.56 mm to the torso and were still running around firing their weapons.
That girl soldier kept moving and fighting until I put a round through her head to finish her off.
One girl even kept pulling the trigger after a bullet had already gone into her head.
She didn’t stop moving until a grenade blast tore her organs apart.
Anyway, on a battlefield, you saw all kinds of absurd, grotesque things.
There was no guarantee today would be any different.
“Cerberus 1, room clear.”
The instant I spoke to the team outside, suppressor cracks rang out in rapid succession.
Tak—!
Tak—!
Tak—!
Then came the others’ reports.
“Target down. Cerberus 3, room clear.”
“Target down. Cerberus 5, room clear.”
“Moving to the second floor.”
The members who had killed the enemies hiding in the rooms came back into the hallway and rejoined the formation.
Now it was time to go upstairs.
Clang—
I turned around and began climbing the stairs, keeping watch on the second-floor railing behind me.
Something was visible beyond the railing, but I couldn’t tell whether it was an armed person or a civilian.
Clang—
The moment I climbed one more step, a woman who had been lying prone suddenly jumped up and shouted.
“God is with us—!!!!”
Tak-tak—!
Before she could finish, I fired two rounds and punched air holes into her chest.
Her body started to fall backward, and then, all at once, she began spraying an AK rifle wildly.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat—!!!!
“Down!”
Bullets came flying straight toward where I was standing, so I threw myself into cover in a panic.
Rounds chewed into the wall and ceiling, scattering dust everywhere.
If you’re going to die, die cleanly.
She was either reflexively pulling the trigger before consciousness left her, or she was still barely alive.
Click—
Click—
“Grrrrr...”
The woman kept firing until the magazine ran dry.
When the gunfire finally stopped, it seemed she was out of ammunition.
I calmly brushed the dust off my head and asked the squad, “Report status.”
One report after another came in.
“No issues.”
“No issues.”
“No issues.”
“No issues.”
“No issues.”
“No issues.”
“No issues.”
Thankfully, no one had been wounded by a stray round.
The operation could continue without issue.
Once again, I aimed my rifle toward the second floor and started up the stairs.
The hallway mirrored the first floor’s layout.
Aside from the enemy I’d just shot down, no one was in the corridor.
On the left side of my line of sight, I noticed a potted plant sitting in front of one of the doors—except there was no grass or flowers in it.
A pot that might as well have had I’m suspicious written all over it.
That was 100 percent an IED.
Who knew what kind of madness those crazy bitches had hidden inside that pot.
Since I couldn’t see any visible wiring, it looked like a wireless detonation setup.
I signaled Cerberus 2, who was following behind, that there was an IED at the door.
She nodded to show she understood.
“Grrr...”
Tak—!
I put a bullet into the head of the enemy groaning on the floor to shut her up, then pressed myself against the outer wall of the room on the left.
With a suspected IED sitting right in front of the door, there was no way to enter it by the book.
“Set the C4.”
In that case, we’d just blow the wall apart.
Cerberus 6 attached the C4 to the wall, checked the setup, and flashed an OK signal.
Now all that remained was to step back and hit the detonator.
Hiding against the wall of the room on the right, I signaled to Cerberus 6.
Boom—!!!!
“Aaaagh!!!!”
With an enormous blast, the wall shattered to pieces.
A short scream rang out from inside, suggesting someone had been in there.
“Move in!”
I rushed in with my rifle raised and checked the room.
A desk strewn with assorted documents, a chair knocked over by the force of the explosion.
And beyond them, a woman with a turban hiding behind a king-size bed.
I was about to pull the trigger right away.
But for some reason, an ominous sensation slid down my spine and stopped my finger.
If I pulled the trigger now, I’d get hurt.
Why?
My instincts had never been wrong, and when this happened, it usually meant something bad was about to happen to me.
Bang—!!
“You motherfu—”
Before I could finish cursing, the floor beneath my feet suddenly exploded.
Those crazy bitches.
They’d completely baited me.
So they’d planted a bomb in the floor.
Crash—!!
“Gah—”
Before I could recover from the blast, my back dropped straight through and slammed hard into the first floor below.
The impact felt like it was going to split my spine.
My insides twisted violently, and I couldn’t catch my breath.
My head went fuzzy under the wrenching sensation in my gut.
Thanks to taking my finger off the trigger, I hadn’t accidentally shot myself in the confusion.
And what good was that?
I was already in excruciating pain.
“!...!”
I tried to breathe, but the air wouldn’t go into my lungs.
Only the sound of air leaking from my mouth came out.
Tak-tak—!
Tak-tak-tak—!
Above me, I could hear the sound of the other squad members returning fire, but my consciousness seemed to be receding farther and farther away.
This...
This...
“Chris?”
“Hah...!”
Thud—!
“Ah...”
“Uh.”
Someone touched my shoulder, and I jolted upright so fast sparks seemed to burst from my eyes.
It sounded like someone was knocking on a watermelon.
“C- Chris, are you all right? You were sweating so much...”
“...?”
At the familiar female voice by my ear, I rubbed my eyes and slowly came to my senses.
As my runaway awareness returned, the face of the woman in front of me came into focus.
She wore an unremarkable khaki T-shirt, nothing distinctive about it at all, but her curving figure and overwhelming chest drew the eyes of every man nearby.
Of course, I’d been seeing that outfit for the better part of three months, so I wasn’t exactly thrilled by it anymore.
The woman looking down at me with her yellow-blond hair brushed back behind her head was named May Foster.
She was a British war correspondent, and someone whose life I’d saved more times than I could count.
“So it was a dream.”
Looking at her puzzled expression as she tilted her head at me, irritation rose up a beat too late.
Of all things, I’d dreamed that godawful operation.
Cobra Operation, one of the top twenty entries in my personal collection of the most fucked-up missions in memory.
Even the nasty sensation of falling from the second floor had been exactly the same, which only made me more annoyed.
“Chris?”
“It’s nothing.”
To May, who was asking me in confusion, I forced a smile and answered as brightly as I could.
Maybe my fake grin showed too much, because her face quickly turned red.
After hesitating for a moment, she asked me cautiously, “So... what are you planning to do in South Korea now?”
“...”
At that, I turned my head and looked around.
The air was filled with excitement, anticipation, and the thrill of travel.
People laughed and chattered while hauling heavy suitcases along.
Sunlight from outside poured in through the spotless glass wall, lighting my face with a brightness I had never seen on a battlefield.
This was Incheon Airport.
My homeland, South Korea, the place I had wanted to return to so badly.
The war was over.
It was time for me to lay down my gun.
I turned back and met May’s face, waiting for my answer.
The sparkle in her blue eyes made it clear just how eagerly she was hoping to hear what I would say.
“What am I going to do?”
“Yes. You gave up your Solomon citizenship and came back to South Korea, after all. Is there something you want to do here...?”
Her expression was full of expectation, and I couldn’t help but let out a snort.
The thing I wanted to do in South Korea, after coming back from war in someone else’s country, wasn’t all that special.
“I’m going to be an internet broadcast streamer.”
“Huh?”
“Pfft...”
Listening to the foolish sound May made, I could only laugh.
This is the story of a veteran who came back after three years of rolling through the war zone.
The story of a human weapon, the embodiment of the battlefield, the man they called the Demon of Solomon.
And the story of a Korean who had somehow ended up in a world where men and women had been flipped upside down.
---