I Just Came to Secure the Truth
Somalia.
Once a country known for its chaotic public order, this place had now become even more of a hellscape.
The borders with Ethiopia and Kenya had tightened to a focus on sealing the frontiers, for most of Somalia’s territory had been eroded by what was called a Monster Field phenomenon.
Long-abandoned gates had begun to erode the surrounding areas, monsters pouring out from them in endless waves.
This was happening nationwide across Somalia, turning the entire country into a region where monsters lived.
Because oceanic and aerial monsters refused to leave Somalia’s territory, the world’s nations showed no intention of exterminating the monsters here.
Among the awakened worldwide, there were quite a few forces capable of engaging monsters in battle.
Yet every country feared their awakened leaving home, for villains could strike from anywhere and gates could open at any moment.
Even South Korea, which possessed the largest number of awakened, was no exception.
In Korea, villains ran rampant, forcing the government to keep powerful awakened on permanent standby.
Especially since the Kangin Guild sat at the absolute pinnacle of all awakened in the country, the government could not mobilize them freely without the guild’s cooperation.
And the villains active in Korea never stayed in Korea.
Awakened grew stronger the longer they remained in power-rich Korea, so even when committing crimes they had no choice but to flee overseas to escape hunters’ pursuit.
If capture seemed inevitable, they would rather take the loss and run abroad.
So Gang-seok’s faction was no different.
Kidnapping the eldest son of Baekho Guild, using him as an experiment subject, and killing him was merely one minor crime among countless others.
In addition to that, So Gang-seok’s group had kidnapped, raped, murdered, and terrorized countless others, so thoroughly that no one in Korea remained unaware.
“What on earth is he thinking?”
Yet So Gang-seok’s movements in Somalia made no sense to his subordinates.
“Why would he come all the way to distant Somalia instead of nearby Southeast Asia?”
“I don’t know either. The boss never explained, so how am I supposed to figure it out?”
“There’s always a guess.”
“Is there? Then do you know?”
“No, I don’t.”
Even his subordinates could not understand So Gang-seok’s intentions in coming here.
And the researchers who had left the path of human experimentation to follow him felt the same way.
“Studying as monsters is fun, but it’s starting to get boring.”
“A talented young girl would make a perfect experiment subject.”
“Throwing Baek Seo-jun, the eldest son of Baekho Guild, into the rift was a bit regrettable.”
“Hahaha, experiments are about regretting the failure, never the success.”
Despite knowing their complaints, So Gang-seok refused to leave Somalia.
***
“Then, miss, I’ll be back for a moment.”
“Where are you going? You don’t have anything, do you?”
“Ah, it’s fine. When I kill the villains, I take their things, so I have money. Of course, I won’t need it since I’m leaving now.”
“Where are you going?”
Seomun Ye-jin watched me leave with worried eyes.
That look seemed to say, “Without any identity, where are you going?”
“Somalia.”
“What?”
When I honestly answered, Seomun Ye-jin tilted her head. She was clearly doubting her own ears.
“Where?”
“Somalia. I’m going there for a bit.”
When I repeated it, Seomun Ye-jin realized she had not misheard and stared at me with a strange expression.
“Do you have a ship I can secretly board?”
“No need for a ship. Space travel is enough.”
At my words, Seomun Ye-jin asked in surprise.
“You can do space travel too?! Amazing!”
She was surprised by my power, but did not suspect my words as lies.
Since I had demonstrated my strength in front of her, it was only natural to assume I could use space travel.
In fact, this world already had artificial portals, and for a long time an agreement had existed among advanced nations to dispatch hunters in emergencies.
Though space travel technology and users were not common, it was not so strange that I possessed such ability.
“Then I’ll be back.”
“Yes, come back!”
While listening to Seomun Ye-jin’s farewell, I placed my hand on Lamia wrapped around my neck and activated space travel.
Since coordinates were already set, I moved to a sparsely populated place near So Gang-seok.
Whoosh!
And because it was deserted, the first thing I saw upon arrival was a Minotaur wielding a massive axe.
With crimson eyes, drooling, swinging the axe at me, I immediately turned my head.
“Kuaaa…”
When I turned, the Minotaur’s body—already pierced with countless holes—was rapidly fading.
But I clicked my tongue at the aura I felt here.
“How ridiculous.”
Somalia, a Monster Field.
So Gang-seok was here.
“So Gang-seok, what was I thinking coming all the way to Somalia and being here.”
I had felt unease the moment I detected this guy in Korea.
Why would an SSS-class villain come all the way here to live?
The question had begun.
And the immediate question after was what this guy was doing.
I’ve been locked up the whole time.
The So Gang-seok I knew—whether from the original story or direct experience—was not a villain who would stay quietly locked away.
The one I knew was a hedonist. A hedonist who mocked others, inflicted pain, and expected scenes that would be fun.
And even stranger was that despite the distance, I could not properly sense what this guy was doing.
I knew the location, yet could not sense what he was doing?
Even if it was with spread-out aura, if I willed it I could sense the dust on a woman’s underwear on the opposite side of the Earth.
And coming here, feeling from close range, I could be certain.
- Seo-jun, this doesn’t seem serious?
Lamia spoke to me in a worried tone.
Since I understood why she was worried, I nodded.
“Yeah, it’s a more serious situation than I thought.”
The Monster Field in Somalia.
Would the people of the world know what was happening here?
100% they would not know.
If they knew, they would never have left it alone.
“This crazy bastard is conscious right now.”
What So Gang-seok was doing here was consciousness.
Through unprocessed gates, Somalia’s places had become Monster Fields, not much different from dungeons inside gates.
And dungeons or gates were ultimately fragments of a perished world, and entities like Lamia had built systems to automatically generate these gates.
With that system, hunters steadily fought monsters and grew themselves.
Not just fighting, but by hunting monsters they obtained magic stones as energy sources, giving humans a clear motive to hunt monsters.
The system was operating automatically now that Lamia was with me…
“The one targeting this world is trying to do this from the beginning.”
- Really, I don’t understand either. I targeted this world to devour it, but didn’t interfere unnecessarily. But this is… just a prank.
“Yeah, it’s a prank.”
The consciousness happening here.
It was exploding the power of the gate that had turned most of Somalia into a Monster Field.
If this gate’s power exploded, it would not end with Somalia’s destruction.
Nearby countries like Ethiopia would disappear without a trace, and the remaining power of the spread-out gate would stimulate the gates of distant countries and cause them to go out of control.
“The Fox that Devours the World seems to be controlling So Gang-seok’s consciousness.”
- I think so too, Seo-jun. What are you going to do? You’re not enough to fight The Fox that Devours the World yet.
“I know. But the guy didn’t come here himself. He just controls So Gang-seok’s consciousness, right? The guy hasn’t even adapted to this world yet, so it won’t be easy to incarnate.”
Even with the resistance of this world’s will to survive, like the original Lamia, the guy would not come yet, and the range of interference would be limited.
- But if my existence is exposed, it’s dangerous. I must hide my presence.
“Yeah, it will be. So, Lamia, wait for a moment. I’ll solve the problem alone and come back.”
Is it really… I had only come to secure the evidence video containing the truth of Baek Hyeong-won and Kim Yu-jeong, but I ended up confirming a much larger catastrophe than I thought.