The Reunion
[As of today, White Night, Cheongseol, and Hunter Choi Taemin have resolved to unite under a single name.]
On the TV screen, Kang Iseol spoke in a calm, resolute voice, even beneath the relentless barrage of camera flashes from the press corps.
Beside her sat Yoon Jiseok of the Cheongseol Guild and my brother-in-law.
The moment the word Hyeolcheon left Kang Iseol's lips, the press conference hall erupted into murmurs.
To the average ear, it was hardly a name that inspired warm feelings.
But I was watching the screen with the corners of my mouth curled upward.
Putting Kang Iseol and my brother-in-law front and center had been a sound choice. After all, most people already knew who stood behind them — the returnee who had cleared the Yeouido Gate. Me.
Good. The stage is set rather convincingly.
In a Korea with no true superpower of its own, there would likely be no one left to make a nuisance of themselves around me anymore.
The problem was the enemies waiting outside Korea's borders.
I turned off the TV with the remote, briefly recalling what had happened inside the gate yesterday.
G-Ghost is in China. If you trace the dark web servers around Shandong Province, you'll find his location for sure, I swear—
Amid the agony of having his fingers torn off, Kuroda Sho had spilled everything he knew about Ghost's whereabouts without hesitation.
Of course, that hadn't been all.
He'd also poured out every piece of information he had on Babel — from how he'd come to join them in the first place, to the fact that they were preparing for the trials to come.
The problem was that none of it was particularly useful.
That bastard Ghost watched everything unfold. There's no way he's still sitting in his hole. He saw Kuroda get captured by me in real time.
There'd been no need to ransack an empty hideout for nothing, but I'd told Wei Jinsheng to look into it anyway — there were bound to be things worth confirming through him.
Leisurely sipping the tea set on the table, I picked up my phone and opened the hunter-only community app.
And sure enough, the real-time board was ablaze with talk of the press conference that had just ended.
Most of the posts were either astonishment at the sudden birth of a massive alliance or jokes about the somewhat off-putting name "Hyeolcheon."
But as I browsed the board, I soon found myself reading a freshly posted thread I couldn't ignore.
The thread had stolen all the attention away from Hyeolcheon, and all I could do was let out a dry laugh as I read it.
An unidentified freak crushing an entire battalion of North Korean awakened soldiers single-handedly and marching due south in a straight line.
Earth was hardly crawling with people reckless enough to attempt something so absurd — and in my mind, the only humans capable of such a thing belonged to the Blood Cult.
"So... I wonder who's come."
Just then, the cry of a magpie drifted in from outside the window.
"All units, hold your combat positions!"
Near the Military Demarcation Line that bisected the Korean Peninsula, Park Jaehyun of the Hunter Management Department was surveying his surroundings with a face graver than it had ever been.
Only last night, intelligence had arrived reporting that the North's defensive line had been utterly devastated — by a single individual.
Monster breaks had occasionally occurred on the northern side before, but nothing like this had ever happened.
The attacker wasn't a monster but some unidentified person, and that person was now heading straight south — toward South Korea.
That was precisely why Park Jaehyun had come out to the Demarcation Line. Officially, at least, managing awakened individuals entering from abroad fell under his jurisdiction.
"Seriously, is this lunatic really punching straight through a minefield?"
"Insane. An anti-tank mine just went off and his speed didn't even drop? Everyone, hold defensive formation! Do NOT fire first under any circumstances until we receive orders to engage!"
Watching the awakened soldiers shout with taut faces, Park Jaehyun wiped the sweat streaming down his brow.
They'd scraped together every awakened fighter they could from northern Gyeonggi — Dongducheon, Paju, Yeoncheon, and beyond.
Ordinarily these men would have blown raspberries at any government summons, but even they understood the gravity of the situation. Everyone was wound tight, watching the mines detonate in chain reactions in the darkness far away.
Should I have begged that person for help after all?
It was at that very moment that Lee Jaeseong's face flashed through Park Jaehyun's mind. The strongest awakened individual he knew of was Lee Jaeseong, without question.
The problem was that he had neither the justification nor the personal connection to ask such a favor of him.
KWA-BOOM! Bang! Bang!
It was the moment a massive boulder beyond the southern barricade exploded into fragments.
A black figure burst from the cloud of dust, and moments later a single man could be seen standing atop the southern fence.
"Hrk...!"
A breath of pure despair escaped the lips of the awakened soldier guarding the barricade.
And Park Jaehyun, staring up at the man calmly looking down on them all, swallowed hard.
A battered, grotesque set of martial robes, slick with dried sweat.
In an instant, Park Jaehyun reached his conclusion: the man was a returnee from Murim. The attire bore an odd resemblance to what Lee Jaeseong wore.
"This is, th-the sovereign territory of the Republic of Korea. May I ask the purpose of your visit..."
Even with his voice trembling, Park Jaehyun addressed the man.
It was at that very moment that the man's gaze turned to him.
And the instant their eyes met, Park Jaehyun felt his legs about to buckle beneath him — because both of the man's eyes were stained crimson, like those not of a man at all, but of a beast.
Yet the man, who had seemed ready to lunge at him at any second, soon let out a short, contemptuous laugh.
"The Republic of Korea! Are you certain?"
"...Th-that's correct?"
At the man's words, Park Jaehyun gathered himself and replied. And it was then that an utterly incomprehensible sound burst from the man's mouth.
"So this is... the land of my Cult Leader?"
"...I'm sorry?"
At those words, Park Jaehyun began to wonder whether his own ears were playing tricks on him.
"MY CULT LEADEEEERRR!"
I could only smirk as I watched Kang Samsik shatter the perfectly intact windshield of a car and come hurtling toward me.
"I-it is I, Kang Samsik, in the presence of the Cult Leader!"
He slammed his head straight into the asphalt with a resounding crack, screaming all the while — his face a mess of tears and snot.
His devotion was more than I could fully comprehend, but the problem was that this wasn't Murim. It was twenty-first-century South Korea. Right this second, Park Jaehyun stood gaping at the shattered windshield of his own car.
"All right, all right. Calm down first."
"H-how could you leave me behind and depart without so much as a word?! Do you have any idea how forsaken I felt?!"
I scratched my head roughly as I watched Samsik bawl like a child. It was undeniably a moving reunion — I just hadn't imagined that of all the people the Blood Cult could have sent, it would be Samsik.
Wait, come to think of it... that actually makes perfect sense.
While I was sorting out that thought, I saw Park Jaehyun approaching.
"...M-Mr. Lee Jaeseong. Is he an acquaintance of yours?"
"You insolent wretch! How dare you utter the Cult Leader's sacred name so carelessly? Do you wish to die?!"
I couldn't help but sigh at the sight of Samsik baring his teeth and glaring at Park Jaehyun. It was hard to find a single sane man in the entire Blood Cult, but even among them, Samsik was a little special. How should I put it?
His loyalty was too strong. Far too strong.
"...Samsik. Shut your mouth."
"Yes? Yes, Cult Leader!"
Watching him grovel so promptly, I turned my gaze back to Park Jaehyun.
"He's someone I knew back in that other world."
"I see..."
"A f-friend! To think the Cult Leader regards me so! Should I die today, I would have no regrets whatsoever!"
I shot a sidelong glance at Samsik, who had abruptly burst into wailing, then offered Park Jaehyun an awkward smile.
Come to think of it, it was honestly a blessing that Samsik was the one who'd come. Better a man who treated my every word like holy scripture than some other lunatic — with anyone else, the fallout could have been far worse.
"No trouble on the way here, I assume?"
I asked just in case, and Park Jaehyun replied that apart from his car's windshield, nothing else had happened — within South Korea, at least.
"Of course not! Now that I have set foot in the holy land where the Cult Leader was born, how could I dare spill blood so carelessly?"
"I wouldn't exactly call it a holy land... no, never mind. Forget it."
I made a bewildered face at Samsik's proud declaration.
Having taken custody of Samsik from Park Jaehyun — after promising to keep him from causing any trouble — I sent the official on his way.
"You've had a long journey. By the way, did you come alone?"
"Yes. The others said they would first ascertain your will before moving, so I came ahead."
I nodded at Samsik's answer. I hadn't known things would unfold this way myself, so it was a shame the rest of the Blood Cult hadn't crossed over all at once — but there was nothing to be done about it.
I let out a small, hollow laugh as I looked at Samsik gazing up at me with bright, shining eyes. Only his tail wasn't wagging — otherwise, he looked exactly like a dog reunited with his master after years apart.
"Come with me. There are people I want you to meet."
"People to meet, my lord?"
"That's right. I'll introduce you to my family."
"M-my Cult Leader's... family?"
Samsik's eyes glittered at my words.
Frankly, that reaction did worry me just a little — but I couldn't very well leave unattended a man who'd crossed into an entirely different world the moment he laid eyes on me.
God only knows how the kids are going to react to this one.
"That idiot Kuroda... I should never have listened to a word out of that moron's mouth..."
An abandoned underground bunker on the outskirts of Shandong Province, China.
Ghost — Babel's intelligence officer, wielder of the Clairvoyance ability — muttered irritably as he splashed flammable liquid across dozens of monitors and the main server.
To think a monster like that was hiding in Korea. Kuroda obviously spilled my location the moment he was caught. It was a given.
Ghost hurriedly gathered his belongings and prepared to set the computers alight. If he dawdled, that horrifying man might descend on him at any moment.
Even the mere memory of that man's face made Ghost's eyeballs throb with a dull ache.
Bzzzt—.
His phone rang at the very moment he was about to light the fire.
"Are you preparing your escape properly, Ghost?"
At the mechanically warped voice coming through the phone, Ghost flinched despite himself.
The caller was the head of Babel — Black Sheep.
The problem was that Black Sheep spoke as though he already knew everything — including the fact that Ghost was fleeing right now.
"B-Boss... th-that's not it, it's just, Kuroda, he..."
"I know. What happened to Kuroda is regrettable, but there was nothing to be done."
At Black Sheep's answer, Ghost could only swallow dryly.
"Hurry and hide yourself somewhere safe. Soon, a true trial unlike anything before it will make its appearance."
"...What?"
"When the new age opens, our Babel will step into the forefront."
It was at that moment the connection cut off with a blunt click.
Stunned by Black Sheep's unexpected words, Ghost simply stared at the dead phone in his hand.
[The tutorial is now ending.]
It was at that very moment that the message appeared before Ghost's eyes.