[What's life anyway, you just live as you live]
[What's life anyway, you just live as you live]
A quiet night, and the mountain was filled only with the sound of insects chirping. However, there were people climbing the mountain, taking advantage of the darkness.
There were exactly ten of them. With not a single house nearby and only the faint moonlight for light, they climbed to the target point as if they didn't even need night-vision goggles.
"Team A, arrived at the target point. Team B, commence operations."
[This is Team B. Radio confirmed. No civilians within a 500-meter radius. Deploying sound-dampening Force Field. Please be aware of the field's radius to ensure no unforeseen incidents occur.]
"Roger."
A faint Force spread out from somewhere, wrapping around and blocking the area they were in. The place that had been filled with the sound of insects suddenly went quiet.
The Force Fields deployed by the Interferometer Force Users blocked all sound from escaping. The area of a field one person can deploy isn't large, but when several people deploy them simultaneously, the area is quite wide, so there was no problem.
Night is good for moving secretly, but not suitable for doing loud things. However, if you just block the sound, you can cover up most things.
The ten Force users who entered the Force Field drew their respective weapons. Since they could block sound, using firearms might be effective, but they didn't equip them because they already had information about the target they were facing and judged that firearms wouldn't be effective.
The target should be treated more like an Enemy Species than a Force user. Therefore, the weapons used alongside auxiliary equipment are primarily cold weapons.
"Any readings?"
"Enemy Species reading detected. It seems to be inside that rock cave."
The cave entrance, created by large rocks piled up like a dolmen, was quite large—big enough for an animal like a bear to live in, not just a small animal. Seeing the readings on their radar coming from right in front of them, the target seemed to be inside that cave.
"First, use tear gas. If there's any human part left, it should react at least a little."
"Understood."
They waited behind bushes and trees, guarding the cave entrance, and threw a couple of tear gas grenades inside. Along with the sound of them hitting something and rolling, the sound of gas being released was heard, and white smoke slowly began to rise from inside the cave.
Whether human or Enemy Species, they are different in many ways, but in the end, they are living things. What is needed as a living thing is, first and foremost, breathing.
3 weeks without food, 3 days without water, 3 minutes without air. Even if it's half-monster, there's only a difference in time; it's not much different.
"Readings detected! It's coming out soon!"
"Vanguard! Move up!"
Three Force users operated their equipment and stepped forward. They advanced with a specially crafted, heavy club in one hand and a shield large enough to cover their upper body in the other.
Their role is to efficiently deal with the enemy and draw attention. Since all three are Force users with the trait of Electricity, they use specially crafted shields that can threaten targets by conducting current through them.
Before long, a massive lump of flesh burst out of the cave. The three, having set their shields at an angle, braced themselves for the collision with the beast. And they collided immediately.
Bang!
".......Huh?"
They had collided. But something was different.
They had braced their hands on the shields expecting several times the impact of a bull charging, but the force they felt was pitifully weak. Of course, considering the mass of the giant lump of flesh, being thrown lightly was a threatening enough impact, but it wasn't the level they had imagined while preparing.
"Were you looking for him?"
"......!!!"
And then, a man walked out of the cave.
Since they were all Force users, they could see as clearly as day even at night, but because of the tear gas smoke, they couldn't see him well. However, the voice was clear enough to confirm that it had definitely been modulated.
"He had some sanity left, too. But since he was drifting in and out like he had dementia, he was holed up in the mountain because he was scared of hurting people. I cut his life short after talking for a bit."
Before long, the man who emerged from the cave, clearing the smoke, was a freak wearing a mechanical mask. Because they had already heard about it from their superiors, and because he was a famous person, they knew his name.
"Raccoon Man!!!"
"I was waiting because I knew you guys would come. I was in that cramped cave for a bit, and I was getting restless."
His eyes weren't visible, but contempt dripped from his voice. An unknown pressure turned into tension, and cold sweat naturally trickled down their backs.
"If I'm like this, imagine how he felt?"
Choi Ak said, looking at the already dead Test Subject.
The sound of someone swallowing saliva was heard, and the sound of them gripping their weapons tighter followed.
"Do you want me to tell you that those who don't want to die can run away? Do you even have the right to ask for that?"
Choi Ak cracked his knuckles. Pop, pop, a threatening sound came from his fingers.
"Since I have things to ask, shall we start by subduing you?"
"Call for support right now.......!!"
And then, no sound was heard.
They only saw the darkness rushing in front of them at the very end.
I don't know who opened their eyes first, but it wasn't long before everyone who had fainted opened their eyes.
Team A, specialized in combat, and Team B, specialized in support. They were all captured and gathered in one place.
"Uh.....?"
"Everyone awake?"
Just as they were failing to understand the current situation, Choi Ak spoke up. No one was tied up, but they couldn't move their bodies. It seemed he had used some special restraint method, as they couldn't move below the neck. Even their Force had no reaction at all.
"Alright, let's start a game of truth. Hyung is in a fucking foul mood right now, so if you don't answer, there won't be a second chance, so answer well. Got it?"
"......."
He spoke playfully, but the atmosphere was anything but. Choi Ak leaned down and made eye contact with one of them who couldn't move, then asked.
"Where did you guys come from?"
".....Can't tell you—"
Crunch!!!
At that moment, the man's head twisted. About 720 degrees. It was natural for his neck bones to break, and it was dangling, barely attached to his body by a single layer of skin.
The person next to him screamed as the person beside him was left with his neck practically severed.
"Ugh, Aaaaaaah!!"
"P-please, spare me! We only did what we were told! Please!"
"If you do everything you're told, would you die if they told you to die? Where the fuck are you getting that bullshit from, you asshole?"
Choi Ak threw the one who died instantly into the back of the rock cave.
And he asked the same question to the second person.
"Where did you guys come from?"
"Th-that's......uh....."
"Eliminated."
Squelch!!!
With those words, Choi Ak plunged his hand into the man's chest. He crushed the ribs and his hand reached the heart.
"G-gugh! Aaaaaaaah!!"
Seeing the hand buried in his own chest, he screamed in the face of the fear and pain that washed over him. But no matter how much he screamed, no one would come to help.
And while he was still alive, he ripped out his heart while he was still conscious.
They say humans remain conscious for a few seconds even after their heads are cut off. If that's the case, for a Force user, consciousness remains for a while even if their heart is ripped out.
"Here, your heart."
Choi Ak showed the heart to the man whose heart had been ripped out. It was still twitching and beating faintly.
And squish, he squeezed his hand, bursting it right there. Reddish blood and flesh fell to the ground.
With that, the man died. Whether the cause of death was excessive bleeding, heart extraction, or shock, I don't know, but it's fortunate because that would hurt less.
"I plan to kill you more painfully as we go on. You can look forward to how creative I am. Even Satan would ask me if I'm even human."
Some screamed, some went insane, and some trembled.
They had killed people too, but it was natural for their attitude to change when they became the target.
"How could you be so cruel.....! You bastard! He has a daughter starting elementary school next year! Fuck, what kind of way is that to kill someone!"
Choi Ak's gaze turned toward the man who shouted. He was likely close to the man who had just had his heart ripped out while alive, and he was venting his resentment.
Quietly, Choi Ak asked that man.
"Where did you guys come from?"
"You son of a bitch! I fucked your mom, what are you gonna do about it!!!"
".........."
Watching the man shouting as if overcome with rage, Choi Ak dragged him over and threw him to the ground.
"Do it! Do whatever you want to do!!! You dog! You idiot wearing a raccoon mask!"
"Okay, I should give you what you want, right?"
Choi Ak grabbed the man's arm. He grabbed his wrist and put strength into it, pulling it off.
Skin tore, muscles ripped, and the joints let out a death rattle. The arm he pulled off was bleeding frighteningly from the shoulder.
"I should pull off all your limbs before you die from blood loss."
"Aaaaaaaah! Gaaaaaah! Uaaaaaaah!!"
Screaming, he thrashed his head, which was the only thing he could move, but it was meaningless.
Choi Ak pulled off the other arm and even pulled off his legs.
The man, who had become a living roly-poly without arms or legs, was still breathing. A Force user's vitality is different from a normal person's, so despite having a body that should have died from shock long ago, he was still alive.
But that wouldn't last long either.
"Any last words?"
"Ugh, ah......"
Choi Ak asked the man. He would stop breathing before long due to the blood loss. The moment the man was about to say something, as if it were a final mercy.
Crunch!!!
He stomped on his head and crushed it. Red blood and white brain matter splattered everywhere.
"I asked if you had last words, I didn't say I'd listen."
At least those who died with their necks broken or hearts ripped out didn't suffer for long, but that man suffered for quite a long time before he went.
Here's one thing: this interrogation increases in intensity as it goes on. Although the intensity suddenly spiked due to an unexpected event, it won't go back down.
Choi Ak asked one man again. Trembling, unable to make eye contact, he had peed his pants without realizing it.
"Where did you guys come from?"
"Uh, uh-uh, uh, w-we, are, from, the, Re-Reverie, Research Institute, we, a-are......."
The sight of the man, unable to control his trembling teeth and body, barely speaking, was pathetic, but he was the first to answer.
Choi Ak patted his shoulder and said.
"It's a fact I already knew, but since you were the first to speak...... I won't kill you for now."
"Th-thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much, thank you.... sob, hic....."
Relieved that he had saved his life, the man expressed his gratitude and shed tears.
He was lucky.
Because one person was all that was needed anyway.
"One person is enough to cooperate. So you guys aren't needed anymore."
"Wh-what do you mean by that?! I'll tell you everything I know! So please, spare me too......"
"If you were going to change your attitude like that, you shouldn't have done this in the first place. You didn't do this without knowing what you were doing, right?"
Everyone here knows what they are doing and what they have to deal with.
They are registered as Force users belonging to the research institute, but in reality, their main job is doing this kind of cleanup rather than research support.
"We're only guilty of doing what we were told!"
"Is that so?"
Choi Ak said to the man who shouted.
"I'll let you move, so go bang your head against that rock and die. Isn't suicide better than dying painfully?"
"Uh....uh, that's....."
"It's the same 'doing what you're told', but you can't do mine while you do what those guys tell you? Look at this guy's double standard? I'll give you 5 seconds. Bang your head."
When Choi Ak gestured, the force restraining the man's body was released. His limbs could move, and his Force began to react again.
"One."
Counting the numbers, he waited exactly 5 seconds, and the man chose to attack Choi Ak, even if it was reckless, rather than banging his head.
His reason paralyzed by fear, he couldn't make a proper judgment. Seeing that everyone had already been subdued, he forgot that there was almost no chance of winning.
"Ugh, Aaaaaaah!!!"
He rushed at Choi Ak, wrapping himself in a violent Force Field and putting all his strength into his bare fist. It had a fierce power that would blow away anything it hit, like a wild bull, but such desperate efforts were meaningless.
"It would have been great if you used that mindset for other good things. Right?"
When Choi Ak gestured again, the man's body stopped just like that. The Gaia Force that had been violently erupting disappeared in an instant, and his body was stripped of its freedom again.
"You just bang your head."
As if an invisible hand were controlling a small doll, the man's body flew strangely and banged his head against the rock.
With exquisite force control, not to die at once, but at a level that could cause enough pain.
Thud!
"Ugh!"
Thud!
"Argh!"
Thud!
"Ugh......"
Thud!
"Aaaargh!"
By the time the sound of impact went past twenty, the man's groans stopped.
And only when the thud! sound changed to a half-squelch! sound did the man's body regain its freedom.
"Now, what should I do with the next guys?"
They could only scream.
But soon, no one was able to scream anymore.
"This is Team B. Requesting support."
[What happened?]
".......During the operation, Raccoon Man broke in and the operation failed. The Test Subject was killed, and Raccoon Man fled after killing everyone from Team A and all but 2 members of Team B."
[Is that true?]
The man on the other side of the radio asked as if he couldn't believe it.
[How did the members currently receiving this survive?]
"We hid our bodies and deployed a field to hide our presence the moment the incident occurred. It was a close call, but we managed to survive."
[I see.....]
"We need support here. We need a vehicle to recover us, and a cleanup crew to handle the Test Subject's corpse and the bodies of the team members."
[Understood. I will send support to your location now.]
After some time, two container trucks arrived on the deserted mountain road. One was a vehicle for the cleanup crew to destroy evidence, and the other was a vehicle for the survivors to return.
Dozens of people who got off the cleanup crew's vehicle moved in perfect order. And the person who appeared to be the leader among them approached the two survivors and said.
"A bolt from the blue. What's with that guy in the raccoon mask suddenly appearing out of nowhere?"
"......Tell me about it. But wasn't it a Raccoon, not a raccoon dog?"
"Aren't they both the same?"
"They're different."
The cleanup crew leader's gaze looked at the other team member next to the man. The sight of him trembling and looking only at the ground was like a scared baby rabbit.
"Why is he like that? Did he get shocked?"
"If the team member you were talking to just a moment ago had their neck twisted and heart ripped out alive right in front of you, you'd be like that too. Fuck, that Raccoon Man guy is not human."
"......The situation at the scene must be a mess. You've worked hard. Go back to headquarters and rest."
The two people got on the truck. Inside the container of the vehicle, which appeared to be a container truck on the outside, there were seats where several people could sit and travel, and simple medical facilities were equipped. It seemed to be a vehicle used when dispatching multiple Force users without attracting people's attention.
After boarding the car and knocking twice on the wall toward the driver's seat, the car began to depart.
The two people sitting in their seats let out a sigh.
Taking off the mask that half-covered his face, Choi Ak said.
"How was it? Is my acting still decent?"
The man, who had to spend the next 1 or 2 hours alone with the person who killed his colleagues, could only tremble in extreme fear.