Chapter 1
Chapter 1
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 1
Chapter Title: Species Conflict
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September 2080.
Beneath a clear autumn sky, washed clean by the rain, the massive skyscrapers of Gangnam-daero near Gangnam Station stretched out.
Between the buildings, a bizarre transmission tower glowed with a blue light.
And below it, on Gangnam-daero, office workers with employee IDs swinging from their chests walked briskly, heading somewhere.
12:30 PM.
An ordinary lunch hour.
The only officially sanctioned break for the hard-working employees who toiled day and night.
They dragged their tired bodies along, moving at a quick pace to get lunch.
If they dallied, their entire lunch break could vanish.
“Ah, what should we eat this time?”
“It’s a bit tricky… Should we go back to that place from last time?”
*Vwoosh—*
A massive gust of wind suddenly blew from somewhere.
“Kyaaaah!”
“Wha… what was that!”
*Swoooosh—*
A giant shadow passed over the heads of the startled people.
They instinctively ducked and turned their heads in the direction the shadow had gone.
*Craaash—*
A tremendous roar echoed as gray smoke billowed up in the distance.
The atmosphere suddenly changed, the surroundings growing chaotic as the blare of horns and the screech of tires filled the air.
People, sensing the danger instinctively, faltered for a moment before their pace quickened.
Their faces showed a mixture of anxiety and a weary familiarity, as if they were sick of it all.
“Here we go again.”
“Of all times, why during lunch? So annoying!”
*WEEEEEE—*
A strange noise, reminiscent of the start of a war, resounded throughout the city.
*Whirrr— Clank, clank, clank*
From beneath the massive buildings, layers of sturdy iron plates shot upwards.
Like an armadillo sensing an external threat and protecting its body, the iron plates began to envelop the surrounding buildings.
While citizens flooded into the underground air-raid shelters.
The back of a young man could be seen, struggling against the current of people like a salmon swimming upstream.
“No. I told you, it’s difficult for me to take on a case like that! Honestly…”
The young man, with neat, natural brown hair and a beige trench coat fitting for the autumn season, was complaining to someone on the other end of the call.
*BOOM—!*
Suddenly, the sound of a large explosion erupted from the middle of the city, followed by shouting.
“Kuoooo—!”
A wyvern in the form of a human female opened her mouth wide and let out a monstrous scream.
“Aaargh! My caaaar!”
Next to her, a mercenary in black combat gear was on his knees in front of a completely crushed luxury sports car, screaming in despair.
He turned, unable to contain his rage, raising and lowering his weapon as he threatened the wyvern.
“What are you gonna do about my car! You stupid lizard bastard!”
The two of them yelled at each other in different languages.
“Ha! You think you can catch me with a toy like that?”
“What are you saying, you reptile bastard! Stop hissing and speak properly!”
Meanwhile, the young man was still arguing with the voice coming from his phone.
“No. Anyway, it’s hard for me to do that kind of work. I’ll buy you a drink later!”
He gestured for a few high school students who were watching the fight to step back as he walked steadily toward the scene.
“I didn’t come here to fight! Drop your weapon now!”
“Damn these idiotic lizards! You think the people of Earth will welcome you? This is why you all need to be wiped out!”
The mercenary, unable to control his excitement, began to squeeze his finger on the trigger of his weapon.
Seeing this, the wyvern’s eyes flashed with fury as she swung her arm.
*Swish—*
*Clang—*
The moment the wyvern’s claws, which had moved first, were about to shred the mercenary’s face.
*Ting—! Thwump!*
The sound of something deflecting and something being grabbed rang out simultaneously.
The wyvern’s face, not having achieved the desired result, contorted and then filled with bewilderment.
Her line of sight was higher than usual.
“Huh?”
She realized her body was floating in mid-air.
Turning her head, she saw an unidentified, large, purple gate.
*Voom— Voom— Voom—*
A giant, rugged, stone hand emerged from the gate, gripping her body tightly.
She struggled in the air, shouting.
“Wha-what is this!”
The young man, who had approached her side, flipped through an old book made of worn leather and yellowed parchment and ended his call.
“Yes, sir. Well then, I look forward to working with you. If you have any other, more difficult problems, I’ll help you then. Take care.”
From another blue gate that opened to the young man’s right, a giant mechanical hand shot out.
The bullet from the weapon the mercenary had just fired was embedded in that mechanical hand.
*Whirrrrr—*
The mechanical hand began to spin wildly, 360 degrees.
The weapon in the mercenary’s hand flew towards the mechanical hand as if drawn by a magnet.
“Haaah.”
The young man let out a weary sigh, his eyes sharpening as he began to quietly lose his temper.
“Do you still not know that if you cause a thoughtless incident like this in the middle of the city, you’ll be kicked off Earth?”
“Uh… huh? Wait. I’ve seen you somewhere before. Ah, damn it.”
The mercenary pointed a finger at the young man and stammered.
He wore a pained expression for a moment, trying to remember someone, then snapped his fingers as if he recalled.
“Ah, that’s right! I saw you on an incident scene YouTube channel! Negoti-alien Park Shin-ju!”
Hearing the name Park Shin-ju, the wyvern’s face turned pale.
A feeling that she had gotten into some serious trouble.
The young man furrowed his brow and took out his police badge and ID.
“I’m Park Shin-ju, a U.C.I.D. police officer and Negotiator. I think I know what this is about, so let’s not cause any more trouble. Okay?”
He began to placate them with a look of utter boredom.
“Damn it, I did nothing wrong! That lizard bastard is the problem!”
Shin-ju raised his head and looked up at the blue transmission tower installed in the distance.
“Alright. The Connect seems to be working just fine, so if you have any complaints, now’s your chance to air them all out. I’ll listen.”
The bizarrely shaped blue transmission tower visible in the distance was an alien language translator called ‘Connect.’
The blue membrane spreading from the tower enveloped the entire city in a dome-like shape.
Within that dome, humans and various alien species could converse with each other in the language of the country where the tower was established.
The mercenary, having lost his weapon, started shouting at the top of his lungs as if this was his chance, pointing a finger at the wyvern.
“That lizard bastard landed like an idiot and crushed my car! And besides that, I was saving the citizens here!”
“Do you not realize your own words are contradictory?”
Shin-ju clicked his tongue, dumbfounded.
“In broad daylight like this, what, was this Dragonkin going to start eating people?”
“Hmph, you never know.”
The mercenary glared at the wyvern, who was being held quietly.
“That’s not true! I don’t eat people!”
“Ha! How can we believe that? Because of you Dragonkin, we feel like we’re living in the mouth of a monster every day!”
The mercenary’s words made the wyvern’s face twist in anger.
“Fleeing your own civil war, desperately trying to survive by running to this already cramped South Korea. Why the hell do we have to walk on eggshells around these lizards?”
Shin-ju nodded silently and gestured for the mercenary to keep talking.
The mercenary paid him no mind and continued to spew words like a waterfall.
“Not all Dragonkin are bad, you say? Sure! It might seem that way for a moment!
But do you really think those Dragonkin see us as equals? They probably just see us as chunks of meat!
To them, we’re no different from ants! You get it?”
Shin-ju wore a bored expression.
As if there was nothing more to hear, he opened the old book.
“You think that damn peace treaty will protect us forever? We have to protect our own bodies!”
The mercenary continued to point at Shin-ju and shout.
His words echoed, ringing throughout the city.
“……”
After a brief silence, Shin-ju tilted his head and observed the mercenary.
“…Are you done now? Feeling a little less stressed?”
The mercenary lowered his head and muttered, as if he wasn't finished.
He slowly raised his head and glared at the wyvern.
“Hey, mark my words. We’re still getting requests from people to hunt you down. Just you wait. The moment you become even a slight threat, you’ll be added straight to our kill list.”
“Hey! Mister! Don’t you think that’s enough?”
“Ah, and come to think of it, I wonder if your family is already on the list?”
In that instant, Shin-ju’s expression turned ice-cold.
He bit his lower lip and glanced back at the wyvern.
She was already glaring at the mercenary with eyes burning with rage.
“You son of a bitch…!”
*K-k-k-krak—*
Fragments began to fall from the giant stone hand.
Shin-ju’s face contorted from the sudden surge of strength.
“Ah, damn it all…”
The stone hand holding the wyvern began to pry open.
*Krak— K-k-k-krak—*
Her body, which had maintained a human form, slowly began to swell into the shape of a dragon.
Shin-ju calmly spoke to her.
“Ms. Wyvern, what is your name?”
She answered as she transformed into a dragon.
“It’s Kandora. If you interfere with me killing that man, you won’t get away unscathed either.”
“See? I told you we need to get rid of them.”
Ignoring the mercenary’s taunts, Shin-ju coldly and calmly carried out his official duties.
“Ms. Kandora, I’m placing you under arrest for violating space flight regulations.”
“What?”
“Ms. Kandora, not twice. You should have circled three times in the air so the people below could clearly see you before landing.
You know, if you mess that up, an earthling or another alien could get crushed under your feet! Honestly, you thought there was no difference between two and three times, didn’t you?”
Kandora stared at Shin-ju with a dumbfounded expression.
“And you, I’m arresting you for the illegal use of an alien weapon.”
“What! My face was about to get shredded by that lizard’s claws!”
As if he could no longer stand it, Shin-ju’s face contorted.
“If you hadn’t been holding a weapon, this situation wouldn’t have happened. You just don’t like that this Dragonkin is here. Isn’t that right?”
“Yeah! It’s a nuisance, isn’t it! You police know better than anyone that the number of incidents caused by these Dragonkin isn’t just one or two, right?”
The mercenary shouted back, not yielding.
“Korea should never have accepted these Dragonkin! Fucking idiots. I guarantee you, Earth will be destroyed by them.”
“Haaah…”
His patience reaching its limit, Shin-ju bit his lower lip and stared silently at the mercenary, his voice dropping low.
“Hey. That’s enough. Say one more word. I’ll throw you into a black hole.”
“What? A black hole? Go on, try it, cop! There’s a limit to bluffing…”
*Shhhhlick—*
Shin-ju opened the book.
He ran his finger over the text, stopping at a certain passage and beginning to chant.
*Rumble-rumble-rumble-rumble—*
A small black hole formed above the mercenary and Kandora.
The entire sky slowly turned black, and in an instant, a night scene unfolded.
The smirk on the mercenary’s face gradually stiffened.
Kandora’s face turned deathly pale, as if she had experienced a black hole before, filled with terror.
As the black hole grew, a viscous fluid began to drip from it, starting to engulf the mercenary and Kandora.
A pitch-black waterfall poured down before their eyes, revealing the vastness of space.
It felt like being sucked into the maw of some unknown beast.
The faces of the mercenary and Kandora began to stretch and distort like taffy.
*Snap!*
Just before their forms completely dissipated, Shin-ju quickly shut the book.
And just like that, the ‘Black Hole’ vanished in the blink of an eye.
The weather became clear again.
The faces of the mercenary and Kandora were drenched in sweat.
“Will you come along quietly together? Or would you rather enter the black hole?”
Shin-ju, acting as if nothing had happened, looked back and forth between them and continued the conversation in a gentlemanly manner.
As if a switch had been flipped, the mercenary’s posture was now meek, a stark contrast to before.
“I’ll… I’ll go to the police station.”
At the mercenary’s words, Kandora nodded silently in agreement.
“Excellent. In that case…”
Shin-ju chanted an incantation and opened a gate.
Beyond the gate, the interior of a police station was visible.
Shin-ju released Kandora and instructed her and the mercenary to step through the gate. Terrified by the black hole, the two of them meekly complied.
Once the incident was settled, Shin-ju offered a grateful handshake to the giant stone hand, as if greeting a welcome friend.
“Ah, Star of the Giant. Thank you so much for answering my summons. Thanks to you, the matter was resolved smoothly.”
The stone hand, called ‘Star of the Giant,’ gave Shin-ju a thumbs-up.
Shin-ju smiled and returned the gesture.
Then, he turned to the mechanical hand on his right and offered a handshake as well.
“Thank you for your help too, Jeg. Oh, and Silverfire is doing well. He asked me to send his regards.”
The mechanical hand placed the confiscated weapon on the ground, took Shin-ju’s hand, and shook it up and down as if to say ‘call me anytime.’
With Shin-ju’s farewells, the two hands vanished.
A moment later, Shin-ju picked up the weapon lying on the ground.
12 years ago.
Ever since space mercenaries began entering Earth, the issue of weapon importation had become a major controversy.
They, who considered their weapons almost a part of their bodies, became objects of fear and anxiety as they roamed the streets armed at all times.
However, the government of the Republic of Korea imposed no sanctions on the mercenaries’ conduct.
The cutting-edge alien technology received from them enriched daily life, and the weapon development industry based on it achieved tremendous progress, allowing Korea to join the ranks of advanced nations.
Governments around the world, upon encountering alien beings, realized a single truth that held true across the entire universe.
That their relationships were inevitably governed by the logic of power.
They learned the hard way that true peace could only be maintained when both sides possessed comparable military strength and power.
Shin-ju examined the weapon closely.
It was a weapon designed for self-defense, not for killing.
*Ting—*
Just as he was about to inspect it further, a text notification sounded, and a message window appeared before his eyes.
“What now?”
Code 300.
A-Class Alien Beast attack!
Civilian casualties reported!
Incident Level: A-Class
Dispatch immediately!!
- U.C.I.D. Seoul Central Office