Grim Specter, Part 8
Thud!
The capsule carrying the explorers slammed into the ground. As the hatch hissed open, Seol Ha-woon stepped out, his brow furrowing as if his leg were giving him trouble.
Even that simple grimace looked like a scene from a movie.
Thud! Thud!
Two more capsules crashed down in quick succession.
Psssshhhh.
A particularly loud hiss echoed through the area, accompanied by a sudden, thriller-like soundtrack.
Seol Ha-woon turned toward the sound.
"Are you the mercenaries?"
The camera panned to reveal the two mercenaries.
"Pleasure. I am Akiman."
"I'm Smeshion."
"...Ah."
Lee Si-ah gasped. Their faces were terrifyingly fierce. Her anxiety began to mount.
SilTalk was flooded with laughter. The other contestants' fans were having a field day.
Lee Si-ah typed, "What do you mean, eaten alive?" but her own hands were shaking.
"Are they even... human?"
They didn't look like it. Akiman looked like a ruthless assassin from some demonic cult, and Smeshion wasn't even flesh and blood—he was a machine.
"Let's go."
Seol Ha-woon calmly led them toward the village as if nothing were amiss.
"What's wrong with his expression?"
Seol Ha-woon's face always looked like that!
Lee Si-ah bit her nails nervously.
"Are you the village chief?"
"...Yes. What brings you... here?"
"I came to protect the village."
The chief looked startled at Seol Ha-woon's words. The camera panned across the village. It was in ruins; not a single building remained intact.
"As... as you might have seen on your way here, this entire area is dying. Too many villages have vanished. Eaten by magical beasts, leaving nothing behind."
Starving children stared at them with wide, hollow eyes.
"We are also considering relocating... but whether we run or not, if we encounter the beasts, death is the same..."
At that moment.
"A weak race."
Smeshion's heavy, mechanical voice delivered his first line, casting a dark shadow over their prospects.
The chat was in absolute chaos.
"How can they know everything from just one line?"
But deep down, she knew they were probably right. Lee Si-ah wiped her sweaty forehead.
"My lord. Can this village... truly survive?"
"Yes. It is possible. If you just follow my words, it will be more than enough."
Stepping into the center of the village, Seol Ha-woon quietly surveyed the hopeless, ruined space.
Then, he turned.
"Mr. Akiman."
Akiman didn't reply. He didn't even look at him.
To him, Seol Ha-woon said:
"Please handle the logging."
A cold wind swept through the ruins. Akiman remained silent. Seol Ha-woon held his gaze for a moment before turning to Smeshion.
"Mr. Smeshion. Please handle the quarrying."
"Ah, why are you doing this, Ha-woon?"
Lee Si-ah pressed her hand to her temple. You couldn't use S-rank mercenaries for such menial labor. They already looked incredibly dissatisfied. He should be coaxing them gently!
"..."
"..."
Both mercenaries remained silent.
Akiman cracked his neck from side to side. Smeshion's mechanical eye whired, glowing a deep, ominous red.
The screen suddenly cut to a different perspective.
"Ah."
It was Kate. She was also accompanied by three S-rank mercenaries.
Fine, Seol Ha-woon is doomed. Let's see how you handle this.
"Mr. Ellis, your talent is related to space, correct?"
"Yes."
...This side seemed incredibly smooth. Ellis, an S-rank wearing a wizard-like cloak, was already highly cooperative.
"Also..."
Ellis tore a rift in the air, and a cart piled high with food dropped to the ground. Kate's eyes went wide.
"These are things I usually carry around. Please use them as you wish."
What? That's completely broken.
"Hey~ I think this wall will be finished soon!"
Kellinic, the archer, waved from atop the wall with a bright smile.
"Great. Then, Mr. Min Seok-jae. Could you and the other mercenaries flatten the ground in front of the wall? We need to do some repair work."
"Sure thing~"
Min Seok-jae was a friendly-looking middle-aged man. His face was warm, but his body was terrifyingly muscular.
"Wait..."
This side was going perfectly. In fact, it was flawless.
The rivalry that had been building between the two since the previous field labyrinth was finally tearing apart.
"Stop swearing, damn it."
Lee Si-ah reported them. And the next one. And the next. She reported all of them.
"Yes! Great! We can build the wall like that!"
Jo Woon was also working hard alongside his mercenaries. Having hired A-rank mercenaries as a unit, he seemed to have established a horizontal, cooperative relationship.
"Keep it up, everyone!"
Yun Hwa-rim was also moving systematically with numerous B-ranks.
Lee Si-ah turned off SilTalk.
"Chief. By any chance, is there any discarded food?"
The scene shifted back to Seol Ha-woon, but the S-rank mercenaries were nowhere to be seen. Was the conflict resolved, or not? Why did the editors always cut things like this?
Lee Si-ah watched, her heart in her throat.
"Discarded food?"
"Yes. Food that has become inedible, destroyed, or contaminated."
"Ah! Most of the chickens in the poultry farm died due to the beast's toxin. We've buried them for now..."
"Then...?"
Seol Ha-woon turned around.
The two mercenaries, Akiman and Smeshion, were standing there blankly, looking as menacing as ever.
"What are you doing? Logging and quarrying. I clearly ordered you."
No, why is he doing that again? Ha-woon, please!
"..."
"...Orders?"
Akiman radiated a chilling intent to kill, and Smeshion's eyes flashed a brilliant, blood-red. A laser-like glare pressed down on Seol Ha-woon's forehead.
And then... a cross-cut.
"Hup!"
Kate was working tirelessly. She was personally erecting the headquarters, crafting automatic crossbows, and gathering information from civilians to map out the area...
"There's no news about the flattening work."
With a sigh, she walked outside the wall.
Lee Si-ah felt a pang of jealousy. The flattening work she had assigned to Min Seok-jae must have been completed by now.
"...?"
As expected, Kate's eyes went wide. Her face was painted with shock.
It must have been done incredibly well.
But instead of showing the scene, the editors cut back to Seol Ha-woon.
Back to Seol Ha-woon.
He was still facing off against Smeshion and Akiman, the very mercenaries he had chosen.
"Sigh..."
As a fan, it was agonizing to watch. It felt as though the production team had deliberately set this up to compare him to Kate.
"Didn't you hear me? Mr. Smeshion is quarrying, Mr. Akiman is logging."
"Orders?" Smeshion growled.
"Yes. Orders."
Seol Ha-woon didn't back down even an inch. It would have been so much easier if he had just smiled, laughed it off, and said, "No, of course they aren't orders. We're all in this together."
A chilling wind swept past.
Smeshion glared at Seol Ha-woon. Akiman did the same. Their gazes were so intense they felt almost bloody.
Two against one.
Yet Seol Ha-woon didn't back down. In fact, just as a faint blue spark seemed to flash in his eyes...
Akiman suddenly turned on his heel.
"Hmph."
Smeshion also let out a heavy grunt and stomped away.
The chat was utterly bewildered as the camera followed their paths.
Akiman walked into a dense grove of trees and suddenly drew his sword, swinging it in a flash.
He was logging.
Smeshion stomped over to a rocky hill and—CRASH!—began shattering the boulders with his bare hands.
He was quarrying.
The chat was flooded with question marks.
"...Huh?"
Even Lee Si-ah couldn't believe her eyes. Two S-rank mercenaries were actually doing manual labor.
As the reality of the situation slowly sank in, the tone of the chat completely flipped.
Lee Si-ah wanted to celebrate, but she held back. It was too early to gloat.
No, not yet. They might still do a terrible job.
Immediately, the perspective shifted.
"What is this..."
Kate's face was painted with horror as the camera panned to show the area in front of her.
The ground she had asked to be flattened was a complete disaster. Tableware, food waste, empty alcohol bottles, and the remnants of a campfire were scattered everywhere.
"What is going on here... Excuse me!"
She grabbed one of the lounging mercenaries. His face was already flushed red.
He was completely drunk.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"Ah~ Seok-jae hyung, *hic*, told us not to bother and just drink, haha..."
"Seok-jae hyung?"
Just as Kate's brow furrowed in anger...
"Yaaawn. Yeah, I told them not to. Why flatten it? It's a pain in the ass."
Min Seok-jae appeared, yawning loudly.
"Why? I clearly—"
"Because I didn't want to. Why bother flattening the ground? It's too much trouble."
"..."
"Hey, hey, sit down everyone. Let's play a board game. Do you guys know Blue Marble?"
He plopped down on the ground with the other mercenaries, pulling out a board game.
It was indeed Blue Marble.
"Mr. Min Seok-jae."
"Alright, roll the dice~"
Kate called his name again, her voice tight.
"Mr. Min Seok-jae."
Her face was turning red with anger.
"Mr. Min—"
"Ah, what! I'm saying this because it seems like the young lady doesn't know how the world works, but seriously. Do you know what kind of asset I am? Do you know how much I usually get paid to work? I should be getting ten times this much! Right, boys?"
The other mercenaries chuckled and nodded in agreement.
The chat exploded.