The Weight of a Hero (6)
To wipe out the Dirty Kraken, the Navy deployed the destroyer Yi Seong-gye.
There were 314 crew members aboard in total.
Officers, petty officers, and sailors moved through every corner of the massive vessel, each carrying out their assigned duties.
Three hours and twenty-three minutes after departure, Private Park Taemin spotted something on the radar.
“Petty Officer Jung, sir. You should take a look at this.”
“Hm? What is it?”
Corporal Jung Beom-gu studied the screen.
There was some kind of organism gliding freely through the sea. Judging by the way it moved...
“This... It’s not a submarine.”
Corporal Jung Beom-gu sprang to his feet.
“I’ve found it!”
The report went up the chain at once.
Captain Um Il-seop, who had given Choi Yongki a Navy coin, opened the door to the captain’s cabin.
“Captain!”
“Cough! Damn it, you startled me.”
Captain Han Juseok was coughing hard, apparently shocked by the door flying open while he was secretly smoking.
Captain Um Il-seop frowned.
“Captain, you know smoking’s prohibited inside the ship.”
“I know that. I know it better than anyone, but come on—give a man some leeway.”
Captain Han Juseok, glancing nervously at Um Il-seop, casually set the long cigarette on the edge of the ashtray.
Um Il-seop snatched it out and ground it out in the ashtray without hesitation.
“Hey! You’re really cold, you know that?”
For all their differences, the smooth-talking Captain Han Juseok and the stubborn, inflexible Captain Um Il-seop actually got along surprisingly well.
Um Il-seop stood at attention and reported, “Captain, the Dirty Kraken has appeared.”
“Well damn! So the bastard finally showed himself. What a vile creature!”
The captain, who always spoke in warm, folksy dialect, shivered.
The Dirty Kraken’s appearance near the Yi Seong-gye was no coincidence.
According to intelligence, the creature had an intense curiosity about humans.
At the moment, the sea was full of Navy ships, both large and small.
So the fact that the Dirty Kraken ignored the smaller vessels and approached the Yi Seong-gye, which carried more than three hundred people, was only natural.
“Captain. Should I issue Code 1?”
On a large ship, the captain’s authority was absolute.
Han Juseok held the rank of colonel.
Even if an admiral with stars on his shoulders were present, the captain’s order came first at sea.
“Ome.”
Han Juseok took a breath.
Code 1 meant luring the Dirty Kraken away and buying time while retreating.
In the meantime, the fast attack boats would move quickly toward the Yi Seong-gye, and the hunters, including Choi Yongki, would move in to exterminate the Dirty Kraken.
Captain Han Juseok opened his mouth.
“Okay! Code 1.”
“Understood, Captain!”
Um Il-seop immediately relayed the order.
“Helmsman, switch to manual!”
The Yi Seong-gye slowly turned its bow in a wide arc.
It was angling toward the place where the Dirty Kraken was coming straight on.
Beep. Beep.
On the radar, the sea monster with multiple legs kept drawing closer.
Private Park Taemin swallowed hard and adjusted his black-rimmed glasses.
“Petty Officer Jung, sir... We’ll be okay, right? I’m shaking so badly I feel like I’m gonna die.”
Private Park Taemin, age 21.
He had been attending a university in Seoul, then taken leave and enlisted.
Born and raised a bachelor, he had the modest dream of getting a girlfriend after discharge.
“How would I know, idiot? If they tell us to jump, we jump.”
Corporal Jung Beom-gu, age 22.
A fine arts student, he dreamed of becoming a webtoon artist after his service.
His family consisted of his parents, one younger sister, and one younger brother.
The fifty or so sailors, including them, moved with disciplined precision.
“Contact with the fast attack boats is complete!”
“Target distance, 4.8 miles!”
Private Park Taemin swallowed again.
By then, the smile had vanished from Jung Beom-gu’s face.
The Navy knew full well that facing a monster meant risking their lives.
When the distance to the Dirty Kraken dropped to 1.3 miles, Captain Um Il-seop raised a hand.
“Begin Code 1!”
The Yi Seong-gye changed course again.
The Dirty Kraken was cautious and cunning.
Even if it attacked the shore with its tentacles, its main body never came onto land.
It was an intelligent beast, and they could not afford to let their guard down for a second.
The plan was to lure the Dirty Kraken and then flee toward land.
They would keep at least two kilometers between themselves and the monster.
Code 1 was, by design, a somewhat passive strategy.
It was because Choi Yongki had made one thing abundantly clear.
“Under no circumstances are you to engage the Dirty Kraken head-on.”
For the Navy’s safety.
To keep losses to a minimum.
For an effective tactic.
They would not allow any contact with the Dirty Kraken.
“Target is following us!”
As expected.
Like a fish that had spotted bait, the Dirty Kraken gave chase.
Um Il-seop’s eyes widened.
It bit.
To put it another way, the silhouette on the radar was now like a long tail attached to the Yi Seong-gye.
“Maintain cruising speed!”
The Yi Seong-gye’s maximum speed was 38 knots.
Compared to a fast attack boat, of course, that was slow, but at roughly seventy kilometers an hour, it was still quite fast.
Fortunately, the Dirty Kraken wasn’t especially fast either.
Run, and chase.
Run, and chase.
...
The dull game of tag between the Yi Seong-gye and the Dirty Kraken dragged on.
“Distance from the enemy remains at 1.3 miles.”
“...”
Suddenly, Um Il-seop was gripped by a bad feeling.
Remains?
That was strange.
It wasn’t getting farther away, and it wasn’t getting closer either.
It was simply keeping pace at a fixed distance.
Is that intentional?
The Dirty Kraken continued to follow them at exactly the same distance.
How long had it been?
Beep. Beep. Click.
“Huh? The target has disappeared!”
At Park Taemin’s shout, everyone tensed.
Captain Han Juseok barked, “Disappeared? You sure it ain’t a machine error?”
“I-I’ll check again, sir.”
The Dirty Kraken had vanished from the radar without a trace.
It felt as though they had all been bewitched by a ghost.
“Slow to a stop, for now!”
The Yi Seong-gye gradually reduced speed and came to a halt in the middle of the vast sea.
Apart from the cutting-edge multi-function phased-array radar, infrared detection, and electro-optical tracking systems, it was armed to the teeth.
And yet the monster had slipped out of its watchful grasp.
Where the hell had it gone?
“Activate the sound sensors!”
They switched on the sound sensors and listened carefully, hoping not to miss even the faintest sound beneath the water.
The Yi Seong-gye, with three hundred people aboard, fell into silence for a long moment.
The sunlit sea glittered as though nothing in the world was wrong.
No unusual noise could be heard.
Um Il-seop grew more and more anxious.
Did we lose it?
Maybe it had noticed the trap and fled.
If so, all the Navy assets being deployed across the open sea would have been for nothing.
Tomorrow, the day after, a week later, even a month later—they would have to keep doing this, with no end in sight, until the Dirty Kraken finally showed itself again.
Damn it!
Um Il-seop swallowed his frustration.
But the Navy didn’t know the truth yet.
The Dirty Kraken was pressing forward flat against the seafloor like a catfish, closing in fast.
Beep!
A red dot appeared on the radar, and the alarm sounded.
“Captain! It’s here!”
“Where?”
“W-well...”
Something was charging toward them at terrifying speed beneath the Yi Seong-gye.
The moment the red dot reached the ship—
BOOM!!!
With a thunderous impact, the vessel lurched as though an earthquake had struck.
“Ugh!”
“Guh!!!”
The Navy all lost their footing and fell at once.
Like a child who had found a fun new toy, the Dirty Kraken repeated the same attack again and again.
It pulled away, then slammed back in, relentlessly targeting the underside of the Yi Seong-gye.
“Brace for impact!”
The destroyer shook nonstop, as if it had been struck by a torpedo.
...No way.
Clutching the wall, Um Il-seop staggered precariously.
It was hard to make sense of.
How could an 8,000-ton destroyer be shaken this badly by a single giant octopus?
The secret was mana.
The Dirty Kraken, which could manipulate mana freely, was hurling shockwaves with every headbutt.
If you thought of it in terms of raw force, it was no different from slamming a massive iron ball into the Yi Seong-gye.
Bang! Bang! Crash!
At this rate, the hull might actually tear open.
Then, from deep beneath the waves, a strange voice echoed up.
“Kh. K-kek! Th. This. Is. Fuu. un!! As ex. pected, mak. ing. humans suf. fer. is the most fun!”
The impacts hammering the Yi Seong-gye suddenly stopped.
“C-Captain...”
The sailors stared at the monitor showing the outside situation and swallowed in horror.
Above the surface of the sea, the Dirty Kraken finally revealed itself.
A sleek head with three eyes and a crooked mouth.
Eight tentacles writhed as if each were a living creature in its own right.
“I’m. go. ing. to. kill. all. of. you! Heh. Hih!”
Um Il-seop shouted, “Captain!”
Code 1 had failed.
They needed a new strategy.
Captain Han Juseok bulged with veins in his neck.
“Code 4!”
To the Navy, four was an ominous number.
And yet the reason such a code had been prepared at all was simple.
It represented the desperate will to survive in the face of doom.
Um Il-seop immediately took the captain’s meaning.
“Battle stations!”
As soon as the order was given, the Navy scattered into position.
“All hands to battle stations!”
“Two! Three! Battle stations!”
The sailors put on their helmets and protective gear.
“Corporal Jung Beom-gu! Battle station complete!”
A shrill siren blared throughout the Yi Seong-gye.
“All 51 guns loaded!”
“All guided missiles switched to active status!”
“Search radar changed to concentrated mode!”
Captain Han Juseok gripped the radio with grim determination.
“Fire.”
Smoke erupted from the Yi Seong-gye.
Kwoaang!!!
The missile launched into the air and struck the Dirty Kraken dead on.
Gray smoke billowed everywhere.
“Report!”
“Direct hit!”
“Target vanished from radar!”
Had they succeeded in annihilating it?
The sailors’ faces brightened for only a moment.
“Heh. Heh! I’m. sti. ll. he. re!”
The Dirty Kraken vanished beneath the water and then surfaced again.
“Kih-kih. Foo. ls.”
There wasn’t a single scratch on its body.
It hadn’t dodged the missile. It had knocked every one of them away with tentacles imbued with mana.
“Grrr...”
Chills ran down Um Il-seop’s spine.
He had crossed death’s line more than a few times in his life, or so he had believed.
But the Dirty Kraken was the first thing to ever cast him into this kind of despair.
“My. turn.”
The Dirty Kraken’s face, which had almost seemed to be smiling, turned vicious.
A tentacle shooting out from its body lunged straight at the Yi Seong-gye.
“Evasive maneuver!”
“It’s too fast!”
“Too late—!”
CRACK!!!
The tentacle drove straight into the iron hull of the Yi Seong-gye.
A hole was punched clean through the ship.
“Aaagh!”
One sailor lost consciousness after smashing his head against the edge of the violently shaking deck.
“We’ve got casualties!”
“Port engine overheating!”
“Fire in the starboard engine room!”
And to make matters worse, flames spread inside the ship.
“We’ll extinguish the fire!”
The sailors seized the hoses and frantically sprayed powder everywhere.
Water poured from the piping in the torpedo room.
“Flooding has started!”
Gradually, the inside of the Yi Seong-gye began to fill with water.
“Goddamn it!”
Anyone could see the outcome of the battle.
Only now did the reason Choi Yongki had so fiercely opposed a direct confrontation with the Dirty Kraken sink in.
At this rate, we’re finished.
Captain Han Juseok had to make a decision.
They had to get out.
“Launch the lifeboats—!”
That was when it happened.
“If. you. all. come. up. here, I. might. let. you. live.”
The Dirty Kraken’s nauseating voice rang out.
“Re. ally. If. you. lis. ten. to. me, I. ’ll let. you. live.”
Every Navy member’s gaze turned to the captain.
There was no way lifeboats could save all three hundred of them.
The Dirty Kraken had offered them a choice.
Obey obediently and save the majority, or resist and save only a few.
Um Il-seop and Captain Han Juseok exchanged a look.
For the sake of the Navy...
There was no other choice.
Captain Han Juseok nodded.
Whatever the creature was plotting, this decision was for the Navy alone.
Um Il-seop said, “All hands to the deck!”
About three hundred people climbed up onto the deck.
The Navy stood face-to-face with the Dirty Kraken floating on the surface.
“...That thing looks vicious, Petty Officer Jung.”
“That crazy octopus bastard. Why the hell did it drag us out here?”
“Maybe it really does want to save us?”
“If so, that’d be great, but...”
Corporal Jung Beom-gu and the rest of the Navy clung desperately to that sliver of hope.
Captain Han Juseok stepped forward.
“I’m Colonel Han Juseok. On behalf of the Yi Seong-gye...”
“Shu. t. Up. Be. quiet! I’ll. kill. you?”
The Dirty Kraken cut him off.
Then it pointed at each Navy member one by one with a tentacle.
“Twelve. Sixteen. Thirty-two...”
From the way it was acting, it seemed to be counting the number of sailors.
The strange thing was that it was counting in multiples of eight.
“Seventy-two... Tsk. Too many. Not. good.”
The crooked corners of the Dirty Kraken’s mouth lifted.
“You. guys. kill each other. I’ll. let. half. live.”
“What?”
“I’ll. save. the. oth. er. half!”
In an instant, the air on the deck turned frigid.
Each of them was swallowed by a hideous possibility.
Kill the comrades who had shared life and death with them—by their own hands.
And do it just to survive.
The Dirty Kraken’s order trampled on human dignity itself.
“Don’t be ridiculous!”
Captain Han Juseok threw a harpoon.
“You think we’d listen to that garbage? What kind of octopus is running its damn mouth?”
The harpoon never even made it to the Dirty Kraken’s body. It dropped weakly into the sea.
The monster’s face twitched.
“Oh? You. hu. man. scum. dare?”
A tentacle pierced straight through Captain Han Juseok’s abdomen.
It happened so fast it was impossible to follow with the eye, and no one could react.
“Guh!”
With a final gasp, Captain Han Juseok collapsed.
“Heh-heh! Nice. very nice!”
The Dirty Kraken pulled out the bloodied tentacle and twirled it in the air.
Sticky blood splattered across the faces of the sailors standing nearby.
“Captain!!!”
Um Il-seop caught Han Juseok in his arms.
With great difficulty, Han Juseok parted his lips.
“Um... Captain. Don’t... ever do what that bastard says.”
“Medic! Medic!!”
“Even now...”
“Stop talking! You’re bleeding—!”
“...I’m leaving the rest to you, Um... Captain.”
The eyes of Captain Han Juseok, who had been bleeding out in torrents, soon lost all light.
“C-Captain...”
The Dirty Kraken said, “See. I. told. you? If. you. all. kill. each. oth. er, I’ll. let. you. live.”
The corpse in Um Il-seop’s arms was growing colder by the second.
In that instant, memories of Captain Han Juseok flashed through his mind.
“Um, when are you getting married? Are you going to spend your whole life guarding the sea and die a bachelor? Hurry up and get hitched. I’ll make sure the condolence money’s generous! Hahaha!”
Veins bulged in Um Il-seop’s eyes.
“You, you...”
The Navy felt much the same.
“S-save me...”
“N-no way...”
“How are we supposed to fight that? I can’t do it.”
Overwhelmed by terror, they all stumbled backward from the Dirty Kraken as though they had agreed to do so.
Um Il-seop hated himself.
Here he was, facing a monster that toyed with humans.
And he was this powerless.
This pathetic.
His mind sank into a pitch-black darkness.
The only sliver of light left was...
Hunter Choi Yongki.
Until he arrived...
I have to hold out. No, I absolutely have to hold out.
Um Il-seop closed Captain Han Juseok’s eyes with his palm.
Then he pulled a white handkerchief from his pocket and covered the man’s face.
“Don’t fall back!”
Um Il-seop rose to his feet.
“From this moment on, I, as the executive officer, take command of the Yi Seong-gye!”
The commander, who had sunk into despair, forced courage into his shaking chest.
The Navy, who had lost all will to fight, barely managed to regain their reason.
“All hands! Back to position!”
“Back to position!”
Um Il-seop strode forward and snatched up a submachine gun.
“All-out attack!!!”
The gun roared to life.
The Dirty Kraken lifted its tentacles with a cruel smile.
---