The Secret Transport Operation
Pyordo had come here to carry out an order issued directly by Pride. He ran through the command in his head once more: the task of transporting the heart of the 8-star superhuman Eun Ma-hyun.
They were moving the heart to the capital under the borrowed name of the police headquarters' special investigation unit. To the outside world it had been announced that the heart was being transferred to the Raymond Grand Prison in the capital, but the true destination was a secret sector within the capital's underworld. That was why underworld operatives—not actual members of the special unit—needed to embed themselves temporarily inside it, and that was precisely why they had been sent here.
We're only joining temporarily anyway. Why the hell do we need basic training?
Pyordo's brow furrowed on its own as he recalled the lecture that had followed Agni's blunt instruction: since they were entering the special unit, even temporarily, they had better memorize the fundamentals.
As expected, I really can't stand cops.
Maybe it was because he had climbed this far by following the classic failure route—from runaway teenager to street punk to full-blown thug. Either way, his heart was packed full of resentment toward the police.
Still, even this kind of dirty work ends today.
In the middle of his worthless underworld life, a real opportunity had finally arrived. Pride—one of the highest executives who served the Four Kings—had personally chosen him.
He must have seen my potential.
Once this job was finished, he could live like a king as Pride's subordinate. No more reading the room, no more watching his back. A thick smile spread across his lips at the thought.
"Heh."
With his heart fluttering, Pyordo climbed into the automatic carriage that would carry him all the way to the capital. The moment he sat down, he mercilessly smacked the back of the head of the colleague beside him and spoke in a playful tone.
"Drive carefully. If the cargo in back gets damaged, we're both fucked."
"Aw, boss, don't worry. I've got ten years of accident-free driving under my belt."
"A license that's just for show and you're acting all cocky?"
"If you're that worried, why don't you drive yourself, boss?"
Pyordo wasn't the only one in high spirits. The other colleagues who had grown close while preparing for this mission felt the same. Being selected by Pride carried exactly that much weight—like winning the lottery in the middle of an ordinary life.
But they didn't know. They had no idea that Pride, whose ability left everyone else in the dust, would never keep incompetent subordinates like them at his side.
Step. Step.
Trading jokes and laughter, the convoy of vehicles carrying them rolled out of the downtown area of the Mendelssohn Grand Territory one after another.
The sun had already set. On a pitch-black road with no streetlights in sight, the automatic carriages raced forward, trusting only their headlights. The steady rumble of engines provided a monotonous ASMR backdrop while Pyordo, who had been fiddling with his smartphone the entire time, finally gave in to boredom. He opened his mouth wide enough to tear his face and yawned hugely.
"Boss, I'm sleepy too."
"Fall asleep at the wheel and you're dead."
How long had he even been driving? Pyordo lifted his eyes from his phone and shot the driver a disgruntled glare.
"At least put on some music."
"No data, dumbass."
"Bullshit. I saw you burning data reading webtoons the whole time."
"This little shit—were you seriously staring at your boss's phone instead of watching the road?"
Boss my ass. We're only a month apart in age.
It's a crime I was born in January.
At Pyordo's grumbling the driver stuck out his lower lip in a pout.
"Huh? Uwaaaaaah?!"
Suddenly something burst out of the darkness beside the road and into the carriage's path. The driver yanked the wheel hard, but it was too late. The bumper slammed into whatever had appeared with a heavy thud. As the object was sent flying, Pyordo's irritated roar exploded from the passenger seat.
"Hey, you idiot! I told you to drive carefully!"
"It was force majeure! You saw it, boss! It jumped out of nowhere!"
"Don't use fancy words like force majeure!"
The lead vehicle stopped. The rest of the convoy behind it slammed on their brakes in unison.
What the hell did we hit? A wild animal? Pyordo stepped out to check and toss the corpse off the road.
"What? It's still alive?"
He chuckled at the sight of the thing twitching, trying to stand.
The silhouette struggling upright on four legs looked like a deer or a roe. Or perhaps one of those roe deer that frequently appeared near the Mendelssohn Grand Territory. Whatever it was, the creature had terrible luck. It had dared to block the path of someone about to become one of Pride's closest aides.
"......"
Pyordo watched silently as it approached. But as the creature stepped fully into the headlights, the confidence on his face gradually gave way to confusion.
Black, rotten, festering blood that could not possibly have formed only moments ago. A foul stench that grew stronger the closer it came, invading his lungs. Eyes without focus. Skin turned pale from a body that had already gone cold.
It was no living being. Only the eerie aura of the dead filled the walking corpse. Pyordo yanked out his weapon and shouted.
"It's an undead!"
Every face in the convoy hardened at once.
In this world, no result existed without a cause. Therefore, undead could not appear naturally for no reason. A dark mage capable of raising them had to be nearby.
And the reason that dark mage had suddenly revealed himself before them was obvious. He was after Eun Ma-hyun's heart.
They showed up faster than expected.
There might be an ambush—Pride had already warned them. That was exactly why they had chosen automatic carriages over magic trains or airships: to avoid harming ordinary citizens if an attack occurred, in accordance with their agreement with the Ellemental Kingdom.
But he had never imagined an ambush would come the instant they left the Mendelssohn Grand Territory.
Was the information leaked?
Otherwise there was no way the timing could be this perfect, as if the enemy had been waiting.
This mission just got a lot harder.
Thinking that, Pyordo activated his magic tool and swung it with all his strength at the deer-like undead.
Whoosh!
Flames coiled around the tool spread across the undead's skin. The creature staggered backward. At the same time, the fire briefly illuminated a fragment of the truth hidden in the darkness.
"......"
It wasn't just one. An endless sea of undead had already surrounded them completely.
As the flames died and the quiet darkness surged forward, Pyordo felt true terror.
What kind of insane number is that?
He had only caught a glimpse, yet the sheer scale was more than enough to inspire fear. In fact, the briefness of that glimpse made the terror even worse—because it meant that beyond what little they could see, even more undead were closing in, hungry for their lives.
He's controlling all of them?
Compared to other ability users, dark mages started with pathetically weak stats. But high-ranking dark mages could display a divine power that overwhelmed their peers. One of the reasons was exactly this: the ability to raise a vast army alone and wage war against an entire faction single-handedly.
In other words, either an extremely high-level dark mage capable of commanding that many undead had appeared, or a large group of dark mages had come to summon them all. Either scenario was equally catastrophic.
"Uwaaaaaah!"
One man, unable to endure the fear, screamed and bolted backward. His mind must have snapped at the approach of death. In a situation where cooperation was barely enough, his selfish action should have been condemned—but no one blamed him. They felt no obligation to help one another anyway, and every last one of them was desperately suppressing the same urge to run.
Crunch!
A moment later, the man's foolishness brought a horrific result. A goat sprang from the darkness and tore out his throat. That was only the beginning. Tigers, alligators, fish that crawled across the ground, a massive elephant, and nameless birds poured out of the shadows. They bit, twisted, crushed, and pecked until the corpse was dismantled piece by piece and dragged back into the dark.
The last thing the group saw was the man's face—neck already bitten clean through, unable to scream, frozen in an expression of pure agony before disappearing into the night.
Pyordo gripped his magic tool tighter, his face like stone.
"Stop hiding and come out already!"
He shouted. Their opponent clearly possessed the power to kill them all in an instant. The only reason he hadn't done so yet was because he had some purpose in mind.
I never should have taken this mission.
Damn that Pride bastard, throwing me into a deathtrap like this.
Just moments ago he had been thrilled at the prospect of becoming one of Pride's closest aides. Now that death was staring him in the face, every trace of loyalty had vanished. All that remained was rage toward the man who had sent him here.
If it meant surviving, he would gladly hand over Eun Ma-hyun's heart to the enemy.
"How foolish."
Goosebumps erupted across Pyordo's back. The voice had come from directly behind him. He slowly turned his head. A man stood atop the roof of the automatic carriage, grinning down at him.
"From the moment you left the Mendelssohn Grand Territory, I've been right here on top of this carriage the entire time. I never even hid."
His frame was so gaunt his cheekbones jutted out sharply. A savage glint poured from his long, slit eyes.
"I had expectations since you were the team transporting Eun Ma-hyun's heart, but you're all so weak you can't even serve as a warm-up."
Or had they been deliberately chosen because they were weak? At the man's chuckling words, Pyordo's eyes flew wide open. He finally understood.
Pride had sent them here from the very beginning with the intention of having them killed.
"Please, spare me—!"
The instant he realized the truth, Pyordo reached desperately for the man's ankle. The attempt failed. The arm he had stretched forward had already been severed from his torso.
"Aaaaaaargh!"
After that, horrific screams erupted from every direction. Blood sprayed high into the dark night sky. The undead swarm devoured every survivor, mutilating the corpses beyond recognition.
The man ignored the hellish scene as if it were nothing. He ripped the carriage door off its hinges, smashed open the safe inside, and picked up a heart that was still twitching and pulsing with life.
"I've received the invitation you sent quite well, Pride."
By the time the entire process was over, not a single survivor remained around the man. Only the risen dead were left. From between the undead that had melted back into the darkness, multiple gazes crept slowly toward him.
"I'll go meet you right now."
Feeling the warmth of the heart that still carried fresh body heat, as if it had been pulled from a chest only moments ago, the man standing before the carriage's headlights broke into a deep, expectant smile. He wondered what kind of gift Pride had prepared for him.