Emergency Alert
The phone’s shrill alarm rang out like thunder, jolting Jang Hwa-young awake in a flash.
Her upper body shot upright on reflex. Ugh. Her body felt strangely stiff compared to her usual state. She pressed her palm flat against the ground and furrowed her brows deeply.
The alarm kept blaring without pause.
Already the room was fully illuminated. The usual 4 a.m. biological alert that had always gone off before was out of commission this time—battery dead.
The insistent ringing continued.
She realized she was completely naked. Her two arms were barely covering her breasts. At the same time, yesterday night’s events flashed through her mind. The memory of her own loud cries resurfaced. Heat exploded across her face. …What the hell did I do? What the hell did I do?
The alarm still blared.
Lee Kang-jun was nowhere beside her. What luck. If he’d been there to see her like this right now… she didn’t even want to think about how that would’ve gone. She quickly swept her eyes left and right, searching for her clothes. The phone wouldn’t stop crying for her to pick it up.
The alarm kept ringing.
The hell. Jang Hwa-young snatched up both her panties and the phone at once. She glanced at the screen. It was her little brother.
What on earth could’ve happened at this hour? She still had a full day until she could go back.
She tapped the call button. Immediately Jang Chul-min’s sharp voice came through the speaker.
“Sister!”
“Hey, keep your voice down! I almost had a heart attack.”
“No, sister, it’s an emergency!”
What? Another emergency? These days the incidents were piling up more than ever.
“Another one? …How high?”
“Grade one.”
Even the highest rank. The body she’d been about to slip into her panties froze for a second.
“Where?”
“50th District.”
The moment she heard the district number, Jang Hwa-young’s brows drew together tightly. She moved the phone from her left ear to her right.
“But that district isn’t under our jurisdiction. The 55th branch should handle it on their own.”
“They’ve issued a support request. They contacted the 45th branch chief directly. He told me to pass the message along to you.”
“If there’s a support request, do we just drop everything and go? They need to sort out their own messes. …And there are so many people under me. Why me?”
“The situation looks pretty serious.”
“That’s their problem to deal with.”
“Direct orders came from headquarters.”
Only then did Jang Hwa-young press her lips into a tight line. If headquarters was issuing the order, she couldn’t argue anymore. Serious, they said. Not even an excuse.
“…How serious?”
“From the live updates, it’s completely devastated. It’s not just a handful of monsters appearing. It’s total chaos. …Not even officially reported yet, but nesting has occurred as well.”
“Nesting?”
The proper term was Nestilize. Sometimes called “nesting.” It described the expansion of monster habitats. That was an entirely different level of crisis from just monsters showing up.
If nesting had already started, a support request made perfect sense. One branch simply didn’t have enough power to handle something that massive.
She let out a small sigh, pressing her palm to her forehead.
“Fine. I’ll send the car right away. I’ll be ready.”
“It’s already been dispatched. That’s why I called you.”
“Got it. Talk to you later.”
“Yes, sister.”
Beep.
Jang Hwa-young set the phone down and exhaled heavily. She raked her fingers through her messy hair on the left side.
“Senior.”
Hup!
Jang Hwa-young jumped in surprise at the voice coming from behind her. Right now she was in nothing but panties… Yesterday’s events were yesterday, and this was right now.
“Eh! Kang-jun, wait! Just a second!”
“I’ll turn around.”
“Yeah, okay, just a sec.”
Jang Hwa-young quickly turned her head to confirm he was facing away and swiftly pulled her panties up. Then she crawled on all fours, snatched her top and pants from the floor, and threw them on. She roughly combed her disheveled hair with her hands.
“All… done.”
When he turned around, Lee Kang-jun looked completely different from the passionate man she’d shared last night’s ecstasy with. As if nothing had happened at all… exactly like that. The lewd, filthy mouth that had once spewed dirty talk now spoke only polite, respectful words.
“I’ll prepare breakfast while you shower.”
“Yeah… sure.”
Lee Kang-jun bowed politely and headed for the kitchen. The clinking of dishes echoed from there.
For a moment, last night felt like a dream. But the traces left on the sheets and the fact that she’d been naked made it clear it wasn’t. Her heart pounded hard. She desperately wanted to flee the room right now.
She rushed into the bathroom, slammed the door, and clicked the lock. Hoo.
Looking in the mirror made her want to die of shame. She’d acted all dignified and smart, yet down below she’d been screaming at the top of her lungs in front of an even younger man than herself. …What would he think of her? She wasn’t internally cursing her as some lewd slut, was she…?
Her cheeks burned. She stripped off her clothes and hung them on the hook, turned on the water, and stepped straight into the cold shower. Her mind finally cleared. Only then did the situation sink in. She pressed both hands hard against her cheeks.
“Pull yourself together, Hwa-young.”
Lee Kang-jun was supposed to be Hye-yeon’s husband. Last night had been unavoidable, but the secret they now shared had to stay buried forever—something that would be taken to the grave.
Jang Hwa-young washed all the complicated feelings away under the cold water. The fire had flared a little, but she couldn’t let it burn through the entire mountain and field.
Once they left here, she’d forget everything. Just let it all go and return to normal.
…But she couldn’t forget that overwhelming sensation at all. Like late-night burglary. It seeped into her body like a drug. She’d quit smoking cold turkey for decades, yet this feeling was far more addictive and impossible to shake.
No. She had to forget. If it went any deeper, real trouble would come. She wasn’t the type to drag her feet like an idiot. She shook her head hard.
Jang Hwa-young steeled her resolve, twisted the faucet shut, dried her body thoroughly with a towel, and dressed again. Her panties were a bit damp, but there was nothing she could do about it right now.
She stepped out of the bathroom, used the hair dryer on her messy hair, and headed for the kitchen. Lee Kang-jun had set out a modest side dish and was already sitting at the table waiting for her.
“Oh, you’re here. Please sit down.”
Jang Hwa-young sat across from him. She’d decided to act emotionless, but it wasn’t easy. Lee Kang-jun smiled faintly and offered her food with an open palm.
“The car left from my family estate.”
“Ah, I got a notice from the branch too. They’re gathering even the D-grade personnel.”
“The 55th branch sent a support request. …And nesting has started.”
Nesting? She hadn’t heard that before. Lee Kang-jun’s smile vanished. That was a rather serious matter. Now she understood why they were gathering all the D-grade people.
“So that’s why you called.”
“Yeah, that’s what it seems like.”
“That’s a shame. …I still have a full day left.”
Jang Hwa-young heard that and suddenly let her gaze drop. She felt flustered for a second. Her eyes reflexively grabbed the chopsticks in front of her. She acted casual.
…What did he mean by “a full day left”? The next night, that meant… heat rushed back to her cheeks. But she forced herself to calm down. Thinking of Hye-yeon.
Lee Kang-jun watched quietly as Jang Hwa-young chewed only rice three times in a row without a single side dish and swallowed. A small laugh escaped him.
The comments flew in one after another, all laughing at the scene.
Lee Kang-jun decided to act even more nonchalant. He thought it might actually be more effective that way. He would casually drop just enough hints to make her think on her own.
Even though it would take time since he was at the maximum level of mental training, Jang Hwa-young wasn’t the type he could just force into bed right away. Some progress was necessary. Just like in the third playthrough, he’d needed a lot of effort to become her secret friend. Back then he’d probably used the bait of having a talent-filled baby with her.
It was boring, but maybe he should drop a little bait now.
Lee Kang-jun let a mischievous smirk tug at his lips. He’d grown up enduring a lot. That habit had become a dirty little habit.
“Last night… thank you. It wasn’t easy for you…”
“Eh? Ah… yeah. I’m fine. Yeah, you looked like you were struggling. It was only natural for me to help. It wasn’t that hard at all…”
A brief awkward silence fell. Until yesterday, the forty-something virgin had been the dignified, confident woman everyone knew. That image had vanished. Only the woman who’d been screaming loudly all night remained—the woman who had matured far beyond her years.
“Um… Kang-jun.”
“Yes?”
“What happened last night… you can’t tell anyone about it, understood? This… is our secret between just the two of us.”
Lee Kang-jun smiled faintly. Old memories surfaced. He’d once said almost the exact same thing to her.
“Sister, you can’t tell anyone about what happened last night. This is our secret. Got it?”
Of course she hadn’t said it out loud, but she definitely wouldn’t have brought it up to anyone either. The mature senior who always bragged about the age gap had been ashamed of how she’d been panting and moaning beneath the much younger Kang-jun. The dignified aunt figure was gone.
“Yes, I’ll keep it as a secret.”
Of course the dignified aunt figure didn’t exist in this fourth playthrough either.
· · ·
The black sedan carried the two of them out of the mountain villa and sped along with a low rumble. Jang Chul-min rode in the passenger seat.
“What’s going on? Tell me everything.”
Jang Hwa-young had returned to her usual confident, composed demeanor.
“Around four o’clock this morning, something happened. The center of the city seems to have become a labyrinth, but we can’t approach it yet, so I don’t have details.”
“Did you leave the helicopter at headquarters?”
“They’re planning an aerial assault. One of them took off, got hit, and crashed.”
Her brows tightened. Monsters were doing aerial attacks now?
“This time something feels off. There seems to be some kind of command structure. That’s all I’ve heard so far.”
“…It sounds like there’s a separate brain operating that thing.”
“I’m sure that’s the case.”
This kind of situation hadn’t happened in the past either. If you compared it to insects, it was like a queen ant directing a similar group of monsters. Of course, such cases were extremely rare.
“The nesting is coming from there.”
“Yes, probably.”
“What kind is it?”
“Arthropod type, and it walks upright.”
“Level?”
“We estimate at least 200.”
“…At least?”
“Yes.”
That would be tough. Lee Kang-jun thought as he listened. If even a cockroach was over 200, what came after?
Still, he wasn’t particularly worried. Jang Hwa-young was here. S-class heroes were basically a guarantee. It wasn’t a catastrophe or anything that would kill people left and right.
“I see. Then let’s go and check it out.”
“Yes.”
Lee Kang-jun had already called the team members before leaving earlier. He’d warned them that the return deadline might be pushed back a lot. They already knew about the incident in the 50th District. The news was blowing it up live right now. Not knowing was worse.
The conversation inside the car that had been going strong just moments ago had gone quiet. Lee Kang-jun gazed out the window. Green scenery rushed by. The sedan rolled smoothly over the dusty sand road, then suddenly switched to smooth pavement.
To reach the 45th District Hero Branch would take two or three hours. He leaned against the headrest and closed his eyes.
Jang Hwa-young glanced sideways at the back of Kang-jun’s head, then turned back to the window and let out a long breath.
Somehow, the back of her neck felt strangely uneasy.