Chapter 255
Chapter 255
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ace
Chapter: 255
Chapter Title: 83. Even Short Tails Wag (1)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Yoo Ji-tae scanned through the children's records and spoke.
"Yeoreum's going to win."
Bom, facing him, shook her head.
"Gaeul's going to win."
Their gazes clashed in midair. Yoo Ji-tae grumbled in a sullen voice.
"Team Mochi has already completed their third mission."
"Team Rare has gone in for their third one too."
"What I mean is, Team Mochi finished their third mission yesterday."
"I know. But that's just a one-day difference, right?"
"You're underestimating a day too much. You have no idea how big a difference that is."
"How big is it?"
In truth, it wasn't that big...
The top rankings were decided by the slimmest margins, but with nearly 100 days left, the overall flow of mission completions mattered far more than a single day.
So when he shut his mouth, Bom asked.
"Why'd you change your tune, Ajusshi? You were saying Gaeul would win just a little while ago."
"I did. And I still think that."
"Then why? Are you biased toward Yeoreum because she's your disciple?"
"No. Aren't you the one biased toward Gaeul?"
"Yes."
"Because you're her magic teacher?"
"That's part of it. Truth is, I started hating Yeoreum this morning."
Bom's delicate brow furrowed as she said that.
"Again?"
"Yeah. This morning, I happened to glance at Yeoreum's watch. Guess what Yoo Yeoreum had saved my number as?"
"What'd she save it as?"
"..."
She worked her lips, then let out a sigh.
As if she couldn't even bring herself to say it.
"Anyway, I got sexually harassed..."
"Oh dear."
"So I changed Yeoreum's name in my contacts too."
"To what?"
"..."
It must have been something pretty bad.
"Anyway, there's... stuff like that..." Bom subtly tried to slip away.
What is it? Why won't you tell me either one?
He turned his head. Around then, Winter was staring intently at Yoo Ji-tae. And sneaking glances at Bom, too.
He whispered to Winter.
'You know something, don't you.'
Her head bobbed up and down.
'What'd Yeoreum save it as.'
Winter held her hand perpendicular to her mouth. Yoo Ji-tae leaned in to bring his ear close, and Winter whispered.
'...Gaeul's insoles.'
After finishing, Winter giggled "kikihi," making Yoo Ji-tae burst out laughing too.
Calling a person "insoles"...
Bom seemed genuinely furious. She was the type who didn't even curse when someone splashed champagne in her face. In Bom's vocabulary, that was practically on par with double curses, wasn't it?
On the other hand, something else piqued his curiosity.
The fact that she'd pissed Bom off that badly.
So, what on earth had Yeoreum saved Bom as?
While Yeoreum and Gaeul's competition continued.
A fierce rivalry was unfolding in the Alliance as well.
Between Jefferson, who got to do what he wanted.
And Kang A-jin, who had succeeded and craved even greater success.
The day after ordering the pursuit of Quasar.
Kang A-jin extracted the location of one of Quasar's Inner Mongolia bases, the anti-Alliance terrorist group. But only a few remnants remained; the executives and commanders had already fled.
A day later, Jefferson, operating a separate pursuit team, located the executives who had escaped from the Inner Mongolia base. But they all had small grenades in their mouths and suicided without a trace right there.
At the morning briefing, Jefferson criticized Kang A-jin.
"A-jin. You should have been more cautious. It feels like you rushed the pursuit so obviously that they all knew."
"I'm envious of your leisure when we don't know when the next terror attack might hit."
Her words carried thorns. Jefferson's eye twitched.
"Jefferson. Isn't letting all eight executives suicide at the chance for capture the real thing needing improvement?"
"Improvement? Come on, that's a awfully convenient answer. How do you capture troops already prepared to die and fleeing?"
Yoo Ji-tae watched silently.
In the end, both had done well, but both fell 1% short.
They had let slip a hard-earned trace of Quasar.
And signaled to them that the Alliance's pursuit was closing in.
They probably wouldn't stay quiet.
The next day, Yoo Ji-tae's prediction came true.
While the Alliance's forces concentrated in Inner Mongolia, the enemy targeted elsewhere. In the heart of the Gobi Desert, 30 Alliance Mongolian garrison soldiers fell to Quasar's air raid. Most were found as corpses.
Southern Mongolia. Gobi Desert.
Yoo Ji-tae inspected the desolate scene with Jefferson and Kang A-jin, his two aides in tow.
Traces of collapsed or burned tent artifacts. Carcasses of a few nomadic livestock or piles of trash scattered about.
And in the center, human heads skewered in a row on a massive spear shaft. As if on display.
Words carved into the corpses' faces with knife marks. Thanks to the ability Fallen Babel (S), he could read them immediately. Insults mocking the Alliance.
Yoo Ji-tae approached. He touched the face of the corpse with the most holes.
"Ah, that's filthy, Chairman."
Ignoring the soldier trying to stop him, he pried open the clenched jaw by hand.
And pulled out the tongue. Amid wriggling maggots, something blue clung to it. He brushed off the maggots and scraped the blue substance with his finger to smell it.
The stench of the corpse wafted, followed by a familiar scent.
"The forensics team is analyzing the components. Currently presumed to be poison."
No.
This smell was KSR-08a. An obscure fast-acting hemostatic agent.
This was a sign of torture.
They had to stay alive long to torment them longer.
He placed the soldier's tongue back and closed its wide-open eyes.
"Number of bodies?"
"Twenty-five. The other five were probably dragged off by beasts. There are bloodstains."
It had been nearly a day since the bastards left.
They couldn't catch them right now.
The geography was the issue. The Gobi Desert's erratic westerlies. And the sand mixed in carried murky mana. This thug of a wind erased every trace it touched.
The targets' level was a problem too. The perpetrators had such negligible presence. If they were Rankers, he'd have tracked and smashed their heads by now. Their low level made pursuit harder.
Their movement patterns differed from previous regressions. Of course. Even average superhumans could burrow under desert sand and hide easily. Spatial inevitability was low.
Even Yoo Ji-tae, with 90 years in the Alliance including nearly a decade near Mongolia, had no sharp ideas.
How to catch these mongrel bastards...
If he hunkered down and traversed the desert for three days, he might snag something. But that wouldn't balance the cost. Time wasted.
As he pondered, the communications soldier shouted.
"Urgent dispatch from Alliance HQ!"
"What is it?"
"Quasar sent a video to the Alliance side!"
"When?"
"J-just now!"
Yoo Ji-tae's eye twitched.
The bastards harbored malice toward the Alliance. He could guess the video's nature without seeing it.
Jefferson and Kang A-jin approached him.
Soon, a video rose on his watch hologram.
A bucktoothed face dominated the center uncomfortably.
A foreign language spilled from his mouth.
— Hello? You fucking Alliance dog bastards?
Kahaha! As he cackled, others laughed along from the side.
He thought immediately.
At least six voices.
Enclosed space. Metal walls and ceiling?
Familiar structure. Inside a super-heavy mana-mobile desert armored vehicle A50.
The engine roared. Filmed en route somewhere.
— I'm Kadan Nihum. You fucking pricks. Son of the Krun Nihum you killed.
— Babbling about world order from behind the scenes. Gathering power for war? It won't go as you think.
— We don't run. We don't bow to power.
— God will judge you in righteousness.
— But who is that God?
— It's me.
Again, kahahahat! Laughter erupted, surrounded by raucous cheers. Kill! Kill! As they chanted, the man shoved a gun barrel somewhere.
The screen shifted. Mouth and eyes covered in cloth. A young missing Alliance soldier.
His rank: Private Second Class. Exposed skin covered in wounds. Bloodied overall. Tears streaming.
— Ung. Why cry? Getting soft on me?
The bastard mocked.
— Open wide. Ahh.
— Not listening? Ahh! Won't open? Ahh, good boy.
— Now, two choices.
— Gun or my dick—which do you shove in your mouth?
As his mouth clamped shut, the terrorist smashed the young soldier's jaw with a spiked gauntlet. Crack—jawbone shattered, mouth opened. "Ooh!" exclamations burst.
— Ahh. Lord! Today we send another stillborn of witch Valentine. Where should this poor boy go?
— He's the devil's spawn, so hellbound.
His one-man prayer and revelation ended.
Laughter bloomed.
And the gun barrel flashed.
Bang!
Kang A-jin's eye twitched. Jefferson's face darkened.
A groan came from someone watching alongside.
Head exploded, contents splattering the armored vehicle interior. Yoo Ji-tae noted that point.
— This is just the start. Expect more! Got it?
— God breast you!
The bucktoothed one groped his nonexistent breasts.
The video ended there.
"These fucking goddamn shits—!"
Jefferson exploded in rage, unable to hold back.
He yelled.
"Hey! What does HQ say? Tracking comms coordinates?"
"They started the moment it transmitted, but resolution's dropping!"
"Fuck! What good is dropping resolution in the desert!? Anything at all!?"
Jefferson ground his teeth. Kang A-jin started hounding her subordinates too.
"Replay the video at 0.2x speed! Check again!"
Meanwhile, Yoo Ji-tae replayed the video multiple times.
The only traces: carelessly captured instrument panels and sporadic holograms of the external scenery.
Traces had to come from here.
Yoo Ji-tae focused.
His senses sharpened like bristles.
The time of the world he perceived stretched.
He meticulously noted every scrap of info in the video.
"Pull up the map."
"Y-yes, sir!"
At Yoo Ji-tae's order, a subordinate soldier hurriedly displayed the Gobi Desert hologram map.
Not easy.
How to pinpoint a location from sand as far as the lens's visible horizon?
Unlike finding baby dragons that blared their presence.
This was impossible, regression or not.
He wasn't a god.
But replaying silently, one pinpointable item appeared.
The sky's clouds each had unique shapes.
Today's weather was clear. Visibility immense. Cloud forms reflected in the hologram exterior were distinct in the 3-minute video.
He checked the time.
Exactly 17 hours 31 minutes since the incident here.
He checked specs.
A50 weight: 17.8 tons. Mana engine: 1950 horsepower. Climb angle up to 72 degrees, but hilly paths drained mana stones due to fuel efficiency.
Avoided high sand dunes. Route traced.
Checked instrument panel.
Speed: 81 km/h. Fuel near empty. Almost O-ringed, but low fuel meant low power output. No protective magic deployable. Terrorists wouldn't let fuel drop for fun.
Meant no spare fuel reserves.
Finally, an oddity struck him.
They executed the hostage inside the vehicle.
Question: Why, when it'd get messy?
Answer: Dumping him soon.
So they'd clean or abandon the vehicle.
Question: When do people exit a vehicle?
Answer: Upon reaching destination.
He looked up at the sky again.
Vision sharpened. The world seemed to stretch outward from him. Distant horizons filled his eyes.
He distinguished the clouds.
Comparing panel info and exterior scenery continuously, he marked seven nearby spots with dots. Places with matching cloud clusters.
"Season? That's..."
He ignored Kang A-jin's words.
Still seven because nearby cloud forms shifted with time.
Seven. Too many cases. And targets still moving...
As he agonized.
"New video from the targets!"
The communications soldier shouted.
Jefferson vented frustration again.
Knowing they couldn't be caught easily, the bastards openly provoked.
"Timestamp!"
"Current time!"
Yoo Ji-tae yelled.
"Send the video to me first. Now!"
"Yes, Chairman!"
The soldier transmitted.
Again, predictably vile: slowly slitting another hostage's throat.
Same location. Inside the armored vehicle.
But Yoo Ji-tae fast-forwarded to 8x, scrutinizing the hologram exterior sky. Then looked to the real sky, confirming one of the seven marked clouds nearly perfectly matched.
He drew a V on the map.
Found them.