Chapter 34
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
-“Emergency in Research Building 1! Top-priority matter! All clan members, head to the research building immediately…!”
-“The main house has dispatched the guard unit and special forces. Five minutes until arrival…!”
-“Young Master Jo Seong-hwan is heading to the research building! I repeat! Young Master Jo Seong-hwan…!”
“The Pungyang Jo Clan's comms network is going haywire. The plan's a success.”
Across from a high-rise of the Pungyang Jo Clan, two men stood on a rooftop overlooking Hanseong's skyscrapers. One wore an Immaetal mask missing its lower jaw. The other sported a Seonbi-tal mask with sharp, piercing eyes.
“Those bastards are reacting way faster than we thought. If we leave it like this, they might suppress it before the Imperial Guard even shows up.”
“We can't let that happen.”
At the wary tone from the Seonbi-tal, the Immaetal checked his gear for this mission. A grenade launcher and heavy machine gun slung on his back. A hwando at his belt, and an anti-tank rocket in his hands. He was armed to the teeth, like he was heading into war.
“Charging straight at those noble pricks after three years? How's it feel, Immae?”
“Good or bad doesn't enter into it. Same as always.”
The Immaetal gave a curt reply to the Seonbi-tal's question. But unlike his flat tone, the mouth visible on his mask twisted into a deep, satisfied grin.
“It's always a pleasure screwing over those yangban bastards.”
“Wall 7 breached! The traps are useless!”
“Why's that dying bastard suddenly going berserk like this?!”
“It's coming this way! Guards! Where the hell did they all…!”
Crack!
The researchers' heads exploded without so much as a scream. The heavily armored guards meant to protect them had long since been reduced to scattered chunks of meat throughout the research building. To the monsters ripping through their reinforced exosuits like tofu, the researchers in their flimsy protective gear were nothing more than a gourmet meal laid out on a platter.
Crunch, crunch.
The monsters devoured the dead guards' corpses, as if slaking a long starvation. But it was short-lived. One beast lifted its head, sensing something off.
And in that instant—
KABOOM!
A blast of wind pressure from one side of the building tore its body to shreds in a heartbeat.
“Grk?!”
“GRRAAAAH—!”
As one of their pack vanished, wariness filled the eyes of the monsters still gorging on the food before them. A foreign power. Yet eerily similar to their own in some way.
It was aura.
“Things just got messy. Real messy.”
A man strode out into the corridor where the monsters' gazes converged. A red overcoat draped over black combat gear. The Pungyang Jo Clan crest emblazoned on his chest. And in place of his usual hwando, a flanged mace gripped in his hand—a weapon favored by the Pungyang Jo Clan's aura users.
“Young master, the situation is dire, but you taking the vanguard is too danger—”
Smack!
A dull thud, and the approaching guard's head snapped to the side. The punch had come from Jo Seong-hwan, his usual playful smirk gone, replaced by a face on the verge of eruption.
“Cut the bullshit and report.”
The guards following behind stiffened at Jo Seong-hwan's low, sunken voice.
“The epicenter of the rampage is the basement—the cargo that just arrived.”
“Video data secured. Here…”
At the same moment, footage appeared before Jo Seong-hwan's eyes. Guards opening the container. Tentacles lunging at them. The monster bursting out after shredding the guard's body.
“A cargo hold meant for people… had a monster inside.”
His face twisted as he reviewed the surveillance footage from across the building. Just five minutes since the report that the shipment from Busan had arrived. In that brief span, the fruits of years of his painstaking research had gone up in smoke. The monsters he'd painstakingly secured. The top-dollar researchers he'd recruited. Even the monster cores being generated in the central sector.
Crunch.
It was clear. Someone who knew the cargo transport plan had tampered with the shipment en route to the lab.
Someone who knew the Pungyang Jo Clan was secretly researching monsters. And that they were importing test subjects.
“Kim Chang-un.”
The name flew from Jo Seong-hwan's lips. The mongrel picked up from the Andong Kim Clan.
But that was impossible. From the moment he'd arrived in Busan until now, returning to Hanseong, the kid hadn't slipped his sight once.
‘On top of the local informants, I had three personal watchers on him. Every move reported by the minute. The punk didn't so much as touch the cargo… hell, he never even got near it.’
With his guards and underlings all left in Hanseong, there was no way he could've pulled strings in a place like Busan with no connections.
The prime suspect was squeaky clean. A bizarre situation.
“Any other leads or evidence?”
“Nothing yet. To get details, we'd need to analyze the transport vehicle, but with the whole building a monster nest…”
No guarantee the vehicle was intact, and no time to fetch it anyway.
The more he thought, the more frustrated he got, but Jo Seong-hwan shook his head to clear it.
“Kim Chang-un. Where's that bastard now?”
“He returned to Hanseong and went straight to his residence.”
Small mercies. If he'd holed up in the Andong Kim main house, extracting him would've taken time.
“Tell the main house. Secure him the moment he returns. I'll interrogate him personally.”
“Understood.”
That would do for now. Time was the priority. Suppress the monsters before the Imperial Guard arrived on the scene, and erase every trace.
He could always hunt down and kill the suspect later, at his leisure.
“All hands, battle stations.”
Shing!
The clan's guards drew their weapons at their young lord's command. Monsters were gathering in twos and threes. Meaning every guard and researcher below was already dead.
“Slaughter the monsters infesting the research building. Ensure none escape. Be thorough—and swift.”
Thud!
No verbal reply. The instant the order dropped, they charged the beasts as one.
The monsters, sensing the movement, raised their claws with roars of their own.
And the moment they clashed—
KABOOM!
The floor beneath Jo Seong-hwan exploded, flames and debris engulfing his suddenly isolated form.
“What?!”
“Young master?! What the hell just—”
“Anti-tank rocket! From below!”
“Who the fuck would—”
The guards locked in combat with the monsters couldn't protect him. Jo Seong-hwan tumbled to the lower floor in the blast.
He clutched his head from the shock, but his grimace had nothing to do with the explosion.
“You!”
From the smoke and debris, his attacker slowly emerged.
Bombs dangling from a frame clad in white robes. A hwando in hand, aura pouring from its blade. And finally, the mask covering the face.
Jo Seong-hwan knew exactly who it was.
“Hwae… you traitorous scum, I'll rip you apart!”
Traitors. The word twisted the Immaetal's mouth into a sneer.
“Bold words from the lunatics breeding monsters in the heart of Hanseong.”
“So you knew about that—which means this mess is your doing?”
“Who can say? Might've just been passing by.”
“Bullshit.”
Jo Seong-hwan leveled his flanged mace at the Immaetal with a curt retort.
Boom!
Aura swept the area as he braced for combat.
“I'll cut your limbs off while you're still breathing. Gotta ship what's left back to the main house and dig through your brain piece by piece.”
“……Suits me fine.”
The Immaetal felt his body tingle facing the onslaught of power.
‘Jo Seong-hwan's the Pungyang Jo heir and a member of the Imperial Guard, Joseon's top aura user unit. No way any aura user matches him head-on.’
But that was enough. He'd lured out the clan's elite, and the surprise attack had scattered their focus.
Mission accomplished.
“Let's play with this lowly clown till we drop.”
All that remained was surviving until the Imperial Guard arrived—by any means necessary.
The operation's going smoothly. Cargo entered the lab, monsters rampaged, Immae's infiltrated. All according to plan.
I'd shaken the Pungyang Jo surveillance and returned to my lodgings, but my work wasn't done. If anything, it was just getting started.
“The rescued test subjects… er, people?”
-“We're protecting them for now. Malnutrition, infections, PTSD… not a single one's unscathed.”
“Do everything you can. I'll cover the costs, so don't hold back.”
-“Music to my ears… but…”
The Bu-ne-tal on the line via Chorengi-tal trailed off suspiciously. Unlike the flexible Immaetal, he clearly didn't like Hwae dancing to my tune.
“What? Something bothering you?”
-“…This op really gonna land a real blow on the Pungyang Jo?”
So that's what it was.
“Nah. No way.”
I replied calmly.
“They've got five labs in Hanseong alone, dozens across Joseon. Blowing one up? Barely a scratch.”
-“W-what?!”
“Plus, their aura users aren't pushovers. Even if Immae ties up Jo Seong-hwan, they'll clear the lab monsters before the Imperial Guard arrives.”
The Sedao intel goons aren't idiots; no way they'd show up unprepared for something this big.
My words made the Bu-ne-tal's voice turn furious.
-“Then what? Everything we did was for nothing?!”
“Yep. All for nothing.”
We'd raised hell smuggling in that monster, but it was like throwing eggs at a rock.
“But that 'nothing' will make them miss the most important thing.”
-“The most important…?”
On the way back, I'd bought some ‘Honey Butter Chestnut Jelly Revision’ and popped one in my mouth. Selling this crap as a new product? The nation's food tech is doomed.
“The Pungyang Jo guards. They can kill monsters, sure… but they don't know how to 'dispose' of them.”
The Bu-ne-tal stayed silent, urging me on.
“Quick question. Rifts birthed a catastrophe: monsters. What's the first rule for fighting those bastards?”
-“First rule?”
No easy answer. Not surprising. Hundreds of years since King Gwangjo Lee Cheol-heon crushed the northern rifts and the absolute defense line was set. Most Joseon folk have never even seen a monster up close.
Only one group knows this rule now: the Iron Tiger Army battling on the Northeast Front.
I continued.
“Monster combat's first rule: incinerate every victim killed by monsters, and every monster corpse. Not a scrap of flesh, not a drop of blood left behind.”
-“Incinerate… burn them?”
“Yeah. And the second rule?”
I paused, then pressed on.
“Never forget the first rule.”