I Will Forge the Path!
"Heh, heh, heh. In the end, it’s those South Korean bastards who are the problem. You’ve snatched away the opportunity for our Republic to grow significantly. That Green Magic Stone is mine!"
Kim Jeong-yoon giggled as he stared at Cheon Yooshin. Was he on drugs? His pupils were slightly dilated. Yooshin brushed aside the bullet floating in front of his face with his hand and spoke.
"You moron, the Green Magic Stone is mine."
"Everything in the Republic is mine, I tell you!"
"If you were going to be like that, you shouldn't have called me, or you shouldn't have asked for help. Why are you acting like a prick after catching everything? If you had set the condition that items from the gate were yours from the start, I wouldn't have even come here."
"Th-that is…."
Kim Jeong-yoon stammered. A cold, chilling smile spread across Cheon Yooshin’s lips.
"Then, let’s wrap up the ending for our protagonist, Kim Jeong-yoon."
Yooshin walked toward Kim Jeong-yoon with heavy, deliberate steps. At that, Kim Jeong-yoon’s face turned deathly pale.
"W-wait!"
"Ah, why again? Let’s just go out in style like a boss, okay?"
"C-can’t you spare me, just once?"
"This guy is a total lunatic. You’ve sent so many people to kill me, and now you’re asking to be spared?"
"If, if you just spare me, I’ll give you anything you want. I am the Chosun People’s…,"
At that moment, Yooshin lunged at Kim Jeong-yoon like an arrow and struck him in the chest. Kim Jeong-yoon let out a scream as he toppled backward. Yooshin stepped on the neck of Kim Jeong-yoon, who had collapsed to the floor. If he applied just a little bit of force, the neck bone would snap easily.
"Ugh!"
Yooshin spoke to the groaning Kim Jeong-yoon.
"The people you killed probably begged just like that. Begging you to please spare them. But you probably didn't even pretend to listen, did you? Isn't that what those people were? Of course, those bastards deserved to die too, though."
His gaze fell upon the dead North Korean officers nearby. Bastards not even worth the pity. Bastards no different from this pig of a man. Yooshin turned his head to look at Kim Jeong-yoon again.
"You want to be spared? I’ve dealt with guys like you enough to know. Do you really think I’d spare you?"
"I, I have a family…," Kim Jeong-yoon struggled.
"Hmm, shut your mouth."
Yooshin’s voice was laced with iciness.
"Cut the cliché excuses. You’re the one who started this. But I’m the one who decides the end. So go to hell with those things; that will be the true resting place for trash like you."
Just as Yooshin was about to apply force to his foot, Kim Jeong-yoon made one last desperate struggle.
"I-if you kill me, this place will collapse…,"
At those words, Cheon Yooshin sneered.
"What a load of crap."
Not worth listening to any further. Crack! He snapped the neck bone just like that. Breaking the neck of an ordinary person, not even a hunter, was far too easy for Yooshin.
"Hahaha, you finally did it."
Park Hae-soo, who had been watching from behind, walked over. This was a genuine incident. Killing the Kim family of North Korea. However, he had no intention of stopping him from the start. Cheon Yooshin wasn't the type to be stopped even if he tried.
Coming here, he had witnessed the suffering of countless people. The border between South and North Korea was not just a simple boundary line. It was a clear line separating two completely different worlds. Things unimaginable in South Korea were happening here like everyday occurrences. The people living within the borders of North Korea were suffering from hunger, living their lives deprived of even the most basic freedoms. Meanwhile, these people, the power-holders, were living in luxury on top of their blood and pus. Feeling this stark contrast, Park Hae-soo thought that if Cheon Yooshin hadn't killed the bastard, he might have done it himself.
"Let’s rest for a moment. Yooshin-ssi, we will handle the cleanup."
Park Hae-soo’s gaze, spoken in a reliable voice, turned to the table in the corner of the room. Ordinary telephones sat there, but the meaning they held was anything but ordinary. South Korea, the US, China, Japan, Russia, etc. It was a hotline connected directly to the top leaders or high-ranking officials of each country.
Park Hae-soo picked up the receiver connected to the Blue House. After a few rings, a firm yet polite voice flowed through the receiver.
-This is the Blue House National Security Office. What is the matter?
Park Hae-soo took a deep breath and answered.
"Hello. This is Park Hae-soo, Team Leader of the Hunter Management Department’s Hunter Conquest Team 1."
For a moment, the sound of someone gasping for air was heard over the receiver.
-Team Leader Park Hae-soo? How is this phone… No, please report the current situation.
Park Hae-soo answered calmly.
"Code One has been eliminated. We are currently inside Bunker 6. The exact coordinates are…."
A brief silence flowed from across the receiver. And then.
-I-is that certain? Is it true that Code One has been eliminated?
Code One. It was slang used at the Blue House, and Code One was the word referring to Kim Jeong-yoon.
"If Code One refers to Kim Jeong-yoon, then yes. Since Kim Jeong-yoon has died, no one knows how the internal situation in North Korea will flow. So please send the fastest plane. You must get us out of here urgently."
Only then will more people not die. The North Korean hunters and soldiers blocking us. However, he didn't utter the final words. The other side wouldn't understand. How many soldiers and hunters Cheon Yooshin had killed within North Korea. Further casualties had to be prevented. There were surely some bad guys to the bone, but because of the unique nature of North Korea, there were definitely those who had no choice but to follow orders.
-Understood. I will report to the President immediately and send a special operations team. We will rescue you in the shortest time possible, so please hold your current position.
"Understood!"
The moment he took a deep breath and hung up the receiver, a sound rang in his ears.
Rumble…!
Huh? What on earth is this sound? Before he could even harbor any doubts, Cheon Yooshin’s angry shout reached his ears.
"You son of a bitch! You really made it collapse?!"
Yooshin scanned the surroundings quickly. The words that pig Kim Jeong-yoon had said. If you kill me, this place collapses. He had thought it was a lie told to survive. It wasn't a movie, so he hadn't thought such a thing would actually happen. But this sound happening now, the collapse that had begun to deviate from nature. Others might not feel it, but Yooshin was feeling and seeing the movement of nature as if it were right in front of his eyes.
The mountain is collapsing. The aftermath caused by the bunker, which had been bearing the weight of the mountain, failing to do its job. Gulp. Even if it were Yooshin, he couldn't save everyone. At most, one person in each hand. But he couldn't choose who. If he wanted to save them, he had to save them all, or else just run away himself. If he just ran away himself, he could live easily. Abandon these people and run away? It wouldn't be of much help to him, but they were people who had kept him from being bored while he was here.
Strength naturally went into his fists. Rumble, rumble, rumble! At that moment, the sound of earth collapsing beyond the bunker ceiling rang in everyone’s ears. Now everyone knew. That in a little while, the bunker, cracked like a spiderweb, would collapse. Even now, dirt and sand were falling little by little from between the cracks and settling on people’s shoulders.
At that moment, Baek Woohyun ran over with a desperate expression.
"W-we must get out."
It’s already too late, you old man. A situation where the path out might have already collapsed with earth and sand. There is no path. Then!
'I will forge the path!'
Damn it! Still, curses come out naturally. Yooshin, who kicked the bastard’s corpse all the way to the wall, shouted.
"Everyone gather around me! If you don't want to die!"
Before even knowing what was going on, Baek Woohyun took Yooshin’s words.
"Everyone move! Move quickly to Cheon Yooshin hunter’s side!"
Following Yooshin and Baek Woohyun’s words, people began to gather in a hurry. It’s hot with over 100 people gathered in a narrow space. How could he abandon these people and leave? The people who followed his words without a single doubt.
"What do we do!" Baek Woohyun shouted from among the people.
"There’s no time now. Grab the person next to you. You have to make it like one long chain!"
Even I am not sure what I have to do from now on. In the shortest time, pierce the path and send the people out. But it was obvious that there would be people left behind among them.
'The hunters have to do that for them.'
Fortunately, Baek Woohyun was brilliant. Even if he didn't know exactly what was what, he understood Yooshin’s intent.
"Hunters must intervene in between! The hunters must be the axis!"
Not a single person was in confusion. In an instant, 100 people were connected like a giant human chain.
"Everyone hold on tight!"
At the same time as Yooshin’s shout, a tremendous vibration shook the entire bunker. The ceiling cracked, and giant rocks and piles of earth poured in like a tidal wave. It was when everyone’s eyes were squeezed shut.
"You damn son of a bitch!"
Along with Yooshin’s curse, an amazing thing happened. It is the law of nature that all things without wings, things that have a trivial weight of 1 gram, fall to the ground. At least on Earth. The earth and large rocks that were pouring over their heads had stopped in mid-air.
"Th-this is nonsense."
"It, it’s a miracle."
Everyone stared at the earth and rocks stopped above their heads with their mouths agape. But while everyone was gasping in admiration, veins were bulging on Yooshin’s face. Sweat like a waterfall was pouring down from his forehead.
Fly. It is a Fly magic that most demons, and even most humans living in the Abyss, learn. Anyone could easily lift an opponent or an object through Fly magic. But this moment is different. Because he was supporting the weight of the entire mountain, not his own body or a light object.
One by one, they began to turn their gaze from the earth above their heads to Cheon Yooshin. There was no one who didn't know who had created this miracle right now. At least here.
"I-is this possible…."
Someone muttered in a voice full of awe. However, Yooshin had no time to pay attention to them. At this moment.
Magi 321 has been consumed.
Magi 523 has been consumed.
Magi 569 has been consumed.
Messages notifying him of the consumption of Magi were arriving incessantly. At this rate, even his near-infinite Magi could never be safe. Gritting his teeth, he shouted.
"Uaaaaaaah!"
And then he began to push both hands toward the sky. At that moment, the laws of the world were twisted once again. The earth and giant rocks began to slowly rise upward as if going back in time. Completely ignoring the law of gravity, tens of thousands of tons of weight soared toward the sky. The ground Yooshin was standing on couldn't withstand the force and cracked and twisted.
"Get lost, you bastards!"
At the same time as he shouted once more, Yooshin concentrated all the Magi he had and thrust it toward the ceiling. Then, black Magi erupted explosively from his fingertips. The Magi soared toward the ceiling like a living creature. In an instant, the giant rocks and earth disappeared as if erased by an eraser, and the clear sky was visible through a small hole the size of a person’s head. Yooshin’s Magi continued to grow in size, annihilating more rocks and dirt, and the hole grew larger at a rapid speed. A passage toward the sky had opened. At that moment, Yooshin threw Baek Woohyun, who was nearby, with all his might.
"Ura-cha-cha!"
Then, Baek Woohyun flew into the air like a doll, and the people Baek Woohyun was holding flew into the sky in succession. The floating debris that Yooshin hadn't been able to deal with was blocking their movement and vision. But at that moment!
"Hunters, what are you doing! Step on the debris and jump up!"
Baek Woohyun, and the other hunters, only then realized. What they had to do right now. The floating debris in the air was no longer an obstacle. Rather, it played a role like stepping stones. However, no matter how much they were hunters, it was impossible for them to keep rising by stepping only on floating debris in the air while carrying 70 non-awakened people. At first, they seemed to gain momentum, but soon the people began to lag behind. At this rate, there was no answer. But at that moment.
Their bodies felt as light as feathers. As if someone were pushing their backs. And that was.
"You morons! Hurry up and climb!"
It was Cheon Yooshin who had cast Fly magic on them. It was an absurd ability. To cast Fly magic on all hundred or so people. Like that, one by one, they began to escape from the terrible bunker that had been like a grave. As soon as Baek Woohyun and the others put their legs on the solid ground, they collapsed. Their faces were mixed with fear and relief. It had to be. If there had been even a slight error, even a slight mistake, they wouldn't have been able to escape from that crazy bunker.
Park Hae-soo, who was gasping for breath, said to Baek Woohyun with an exhausted face.
"Wh-where is Cheon Yooshin hunter? Did he come up?"
Baek Woohyun shook his head and looked at the hole they had escaped from.
"He hasn't come up yet."
At Baek Woohyun’s words, everyone struggled to lift their heads and focused their gaze on the hole they had come out of. Expectation and anxiety crossed in their eyes. What Cheon Yooshin had just performed was a miracle that no other hunter could create, no, it was no different from a divine act. But could he exert such ability without limit? They looked at that place with a desperate heart, hoping that Cheon Yooshin would rise from the hole as soon as possible. However, nature can never be defeated. It can only be stopped for a moment. Nature was filling the hole he had forcibly pierced once again. Through earth and sand and giant stone rocks.
In an instant, the landslide began again. Like an angry tidal wave, it instantly filled the hole Yooshin had pierced.
"Ch-Cheon Yooshin!"
"N-no!"
"Crazy, why isn't he coming out!"
People jumped up from their seats. And Yoon Heewon threw her heavy armor to the floor and shouted.
"Damn it! I knew this would happen! I thought he was overdoing it! Let’s go rescue him quickly!"
Her voice trembled. The moment Yoon Heewon was about to kick off the ground, Baek Woohyun grabbed her arm.
"What is it!" Yoon Heewon shouted in rage.
"It’s not enough to go quickly, let me go!"
Yoon Heewon tried to shake off his arm, but she couldn't handle the strength of a tanker. Deep sadness was etched in Baek Woohyun’s eyes.
"It’s too late to go now. It has already collapsed."
At his words, the strength drained out of Yoon Heewon’s body. Tears welled up in her eyes. Although he had been mean to them, he was a person who had always been on her side whenever it was a decisive moment. Even at this moment. He was a person with enough ability to escape the bunker alone. Such a person had sacrificed his own body to save them.
"Hey, Cheon Yooshin! Do you think we’ll acknowledge it just because you sacrificed yourself for us! Why are you dying, why!!"
It was then.