Future War (4)

At Kim Dokja's request, Gong Pildu was guarding Chungmuro Station, leaning against the station's flagpole for a brief rest.

"Tsk…."

Regardless of Kim Dokja's request, he looked thoroughly foul-tempered, his face twisted into a scowl.

"Why the long face, Pildu?"

"Get lost. Don't bother me."

I sat down beside him and tried to strike up a conversation, only to be met with that prickly reply.

"Come on, we're on the same boat now. No need to be like that, right? Besides, I'm grabbing some lamb skewers later. How about we ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠share a drink over them?"

"What? How the hell are you getting food like that at a time like this?"

"Like this."

At my words, he let out a snort of disbelief — so I bought a bottle of soju from the General Store and held it out to him.

"Wh-what?! What the hell is this…!"

Gong Pildu looked thoroughly flustered, his eyes darting back and forth between me and the soju bottle.

Ahh… right. Because of me, he never even got the chance to properly oppose Kim Dokja before — and then suddenly he was fighting us. And this is the first time he's seeing my abilities, too.

"Consider it a gift. Keep it."

I flashed a grin at Gong Pildu, who was still staring blankly at the bottle in his hands, then stood up from my seat.

"Oh, right. Pildu — get those turrets of yours ready to deploy at a moment's notice. We've got uninvited guests coming soon."

"What? How the hell would you know that?"

Gong Pildu carefully set the soju bottle down beside him and fixed me with a suspicious glare.

"Earlier, the Dongdaemun folks said they wanted to form an alliance with us, right? You actually believe that?"

"So you're saying it could be a diversion?"

"That's Pildu for you. Sharp as ever — just what you'd expect from a group leader. They lured our representative Dokja and a few of our core members away, so our fighting strength here is down."

I cast a glance toward the Line 4 tracks running in the direction of Myeongdong as I spoke.

"Pretty soon, the ones who actually allied with Dongdaemun are going to come charging in here. Quietly tip off the others for me."

"And what about you?"

"I'm going to have a little chat with them."

"A chat? With invaders coming to take over our station?"

Gong Pildu looked at me like I'd lost my mind.

"I just want to give them one chance. Honestly, even if it's just the two of us, I figure we could wipe them out."

"Hmph! Big talk."

Gong Pildu snorted under his breath, then began carefully tipping off the people nearby.

Those who heard his warning looked briefly startled, but soon carefully drew whatever weapons they had on hand and kept a wary eye on the Myeongdong side.

Thud-thud-thud-thud—!

Before long, the sound of dozens of people running came echoing from the tracks toward Myeongdong.

I feel a little bad for old man Pildu. We've barely been on the same team, and I already lied to him.

Mercy? As if I'd show any of that to them. They're not my people — why would I bother?

Right now, my only goal is coins. No way I'm leaving them alive.

Still, since I'd already said the words, I'd at least go through the formality of offering them a chance to surrender. Not that they'd actually take it.

"Hey—! We already know about your ambush! How about you just quietly surrender?!"

While pretending to offer them a chance to surrender, I bought grenades from the General Store ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and slipped them into my pocket — ready to pull out at any moment.

"Uh, uh? Boss, I think they've already spotted us. What do we do?"

"You idiots! Just charge! All we need is to plant the flag! Just punch a path through to the Chungmuro flagpole!"

"Y-yes, sir!"

Just as expected, they ignored my surrender offer and came sprinting toward Chungmuro Station with weapons in hand.

"Dozens of them, huh. Swarming like ants. Enchant — Cold attribute on the grenades."

Ping!

I pulled the pins and lobbed the grenades at the dozens of people mindlessly charging toward Chungmuro Station.

Whoosh!

"Huh? Something's flying this way! Watch out!"

"What is that? Some round object? A ball?"

The Myeongdong Station people never even considered that the round objects I'd thrown might be grenades. They were about to pay the price for that failure.

BOOM!

"KRAAAAGH!!"

"Aaaagh! My leg—!!"

With their lives, that is.

"Stupid bastards."

I quietly sneered at them. To think the enemy would throw something and they wouldn't show even a shred of caution. Truly pathetic.

Those hit dead-on by the grenades died instantly on the spot. They were the lucky ones, though — no prolonged suffering, just instant death.

But where some find fortune, others are always met with misfortune. And for those standing near the ones who died instantly, fortune was nowhere to be found.

Struck by shrapnel from the cold-enchanted grenades, their wounds froze over or the fragments punched clean through their bodies.

Thanks to that, every last one of them screamed in agony.

"Two left."

Whoosh!

BOOM!

"Hwaaagh!"

"S-save me! I-I can't move my body!"

With just two grenades, more than twenty people were dead or critically wounded.

Watching it all unfold right in front of him, a man wearing a flag with the word "Myeongdong" scrawled across it like a headband shouted desperately at his group members. He was the leader of Myeongdong Station.

"R-retreat! Retreat…!"

The Myeongdong Station people scrambled to flee at their leader's command — and that was their mistake. He'd just exposed his own position.

Bang!

Thud.

"What an idiot. Advertising that he's the leader like that."

I looked down at the corpse of the Myeongdong Station leader, a small hole punched clean through his forehead by my sniper rifle.

The Myeongdong Station survivors, who'd just watched their leader die so pointlessly, froze stiff in their half-turned fleeing postures and simply stared up at me in a daze.

I looked down for a moment at the Myeongdong people gazing up at me with expressions of pure despair, then pulled the pin on my last remaining grenade.

"Fuck… those Prophet bastards. Nobody told us there was a monster like this at Chungmuro…."

The moment I threw the grenade at them without a shred of hesitation, they muttered curses under their breath and accepted their fate.

BOOM!

"Pildu."

"Y-yeah? Wh-what is it?"

Having just watched me clean up most of the Myeongdong Station people in a matter of moments, Gong Pildu stared at me with his mouth hanging open. Still, the moment I called his name, he snapped back to his senses and looked at me properly.

"I've handled most of them, so mop up the rest with the Chungmuro people. And for the record — don't touch the flag."

"Got it…."

Gong Pildu's eyes briefly lit with greed as he spotted the red flag lying near the Myeongdong Station leader's body — but the moment I stopped him, he flinched and answered in a small voice.

"I'm going to check real quick if there's anyone worth Extracting a skill from."

The subway tracks had become a carpet of corpses in an instant. I walked among the bodies, searching for a worthwhile Extraction target — but unfortunately, there was no one worth the effort.

Tsk… nothing but coins, huh. How the hell did these guys even survive with such garbage skills?

I hadn't expected much, but walking away with nothing but coins still left a sour taste of disappointment.

"Jinwoo!"

"Hm?"

Kim Dokja's voice called out from behind me. I turned toward the sound.

"Oh, Dokja. You're back already."

"Just as you predicted, Jinwoo — it was a trap. A diversion, at that."

"Good thing we figured it out in advance. Ah, and this is the flag I got from killing the Myeongdong Station leader."

"Thank you."

Kim Dokja picked up the red flag that had fallen near the Myeongdong Station leader's corpse.

Having acquired the Myeongdong Group's flag and evolved hers to red, Kim Dokja glanced around the area for a moment, then looked at me and said,

"But… you could've held back a little, Jinwoo."

"Hmph! He offered them a chance to surrender first. Why show any more mercy to bastards who just charged in headfirst?"

Unexpectedly, Gong Pildu spoke up in my defense. I looked at him in surprise, and when our eyes met, he gave a prim little snort and turned his head away.

"Dokja. Before the Myeongdong Group remnants died, they mentioned the words 'Prophet' and 'information.'"

"…Is that true?"

Kim Dokja asked in startled surprise, and I nodded as I looked at her. She lowered her head in thought, then turned her body toward the tracks leading to Dongdaemun History & Culture Park Station.

Just as she turned, Lee Hyunsung arrived at Chungmuro Station with Kang Ilhoon slung over his shoulder, accompanied by Yoo Sangah and Jung Heewon.

We looked down at Kang Ilhoon, who had been bound with Yoo Sangah's Thread Binding. His eyes darted around frantically, clearly terrified by the situation he was in.

"…What are you going to do with me now?"

"That depends on how useful the information you spit out is."

At Kim Dokja's words, Jung Heewon spoke up.

"The constellations already classified him as an 'Evil Person' anyway. Want me to try some torture?"

"Why go through the trouble of torturing him? If he won't talk, we just kill him."

The moment she finished speaking, Kim Dokja drew her blade. She pressed the tip against the ground and dragged it along, building an atmosphere of dread.

Screeech.

"I'm going to count to three. If you don't open your mouth by then, you die."

Kang Ilhoon's face went deathly pale at her words.

"One."

‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠

Kim Dokja slowly approached Kang Ilhoon as she counted. At the sound of the blade scraping across the ground, he swallowed hard, cold sweat beading on his forehead as he looked up at her.

"Two."

Screeech.

As the bone-chilling sound drew closer and closer, Kang Ilhoon's body began to tremble violently.

Ssshk.

"Thr—"

"Dongmyo!"

And the moment Kim Dokja's blade came right up to his face, he squeezed his eyes shut and cried out.

"…A-at Dongmyo! There are people who gave us information about Chungmuro…! Th-they call themselves the 'Prophets'…."

Kim Dokja smiled at the information spilling from Kang Ilhoon's mouth — but then her face hardened.

"Khh—khhk…!"

Kang Ilhoon's condition had suddenly taken a drastic turn for the worse. His eyes began rolling back, whites showing, and he tried to bite down on his own tongue.

Seeing this, Kim Dokja urgently shouted at Yoo Sangah.

"Sangah, seal his mouth with your threads!"

"Yes!"

At Kim Dokja's command, magical threads shot from Yoo Sangah's hands and clamped shut over Kang Ilhoon's mouth. But was that really necessary?

"Did you really need to stop him, though?"

"What do you mean, Jinwoo?"

"Even if someone bites their tongue clean off, people don't die that easily. It's an urban legend — bad information."

The group stared at me blankly. Ignoring their gazes, I continued.

"Sure, there are three theories about how biting off your tongue could kill you. First, excessive blood loss. Second, shock from the pain. Third, the nerves controlling the tongue snap, the tongue rolls back into the airway, and you suffocate. But I've heard all of those are baseless."

I paused mid-sentence, out of breath, took a deep breath, and then pressed on.

"There are zero documented cases of someone successfully committing suicide by biting their tongue. There are only cases where the tongue got severed and the person lived just fine. It's completely wrong common knowledge. Meaning whoever put that suggestion on Kang Ilhoon is an idiot who doesn't even know that much. Don't tell me you all actually believed that nonsense?"

The group flinched, then looked down at the unconscious Kang Ilhoon with sheepish expressions. Kim Dokja spoke up as their representative.

"Then what about just now?"

"Put nicely, we stopped the tongue of someone who could give us information from getting cut off. Put poorly, it was just a pointless show. Doing it or not doing it — nothing would have changed either way."

As my words settled, silence fell over the group.