Chapter 82. Back to Busan.
Chapter 82. Back to Busan.
'I'll see them again someday, if the chance ever comes.'
After a moment's reminiscence, I flicked away the spent cigarette, walked a long way—as far as my feet would take me—and settled beneath a large tree to meditate.
'I haven't meditated since I transcended...'
In truth, transcendent beings had no need for it. The purpose of meditation was to accumulate mana and raise one's realm and mana circle, or to replenish depleted mana—stages that transcendent beings had long since surpassed.
After a good stretch of meditation, night fell and the chirping of insects began filling the air around me.
I had walked deep into a place untouched by any human foot. I spent the day there, and when morning brightened and noon was drawing near, I returned.
* * * * * * * *
By then it was well past morning, and the busy sounds of people carried through the air. When I stepped into the tent, the siblings, Chaeyeon, and Jia were all deep in conversation.
"Did you sleep well?"
"..."
Having more or less figured out who and what I was, the siblings stared at me with odd expressions.
"Representative, thank you."
Yuto abruptly voiced his gratitude. I could guess why, but I simply waved it off.
"Forget it. I just figured seeing for yourself once would beat hearing about it a hundred times."
"Representative, were all the people I saw in my dream friends of yours?"
Friends.
At that word, my expression turned strange and a soft scoff escaped me. To them, my face probably looked wistful.
"As you probably realize by now, there was once a kid just as ignorant as you. That piqued my interest, so I decided to lend you a hand. That's all."
"Ah, either way, my debt to you remains unchanged! I'll keep working hard from now on. Thank you!!!"
He dropped to his knees and bowed his head at the slightest provocation.
"A man doesn't throw himself on the ground like that—it's unbecoming. Dumbass."
"Y-Yes, sir...!"
"Most of the researchers should be here by now, so let's eat lunch and then get moving."
We prepared the retort-pouch rations we'd brought, ate lunch, and began to move out—with the Awakened at the head, the researchers in the center, and our troops bringing up the rear.
The area around the facility was open, so there was no real threat. Since the power plant itself hadn't been destroyed, once we arrived and just before we went in, everyone except me changed into radiation suits.
If you could maintain a seamless layer of mana over your body, there was no need to worry about radiation. But no one here could sustain and control mana for that long yet, so they all suited up.
The researchers positioned in the center were constantly using radiation detectors to check for leaks.
'Come to think of it... what would actually happen if mana and radiation merged...?'
We minimized the use of firearms, eliminating zombies with melee weapons instead, and made our way to the specially constructed fuel storage. There, we extracted the nuclear material and began carefully wrapping it in radiation-shielding foil.
Perhaps because the material radiated heat, sweat streamed down people's foreheads, visible even inside their protective suits. After a long stretch of work, all the material in the storage was safely packaged and placed into subspace. Then one of the researchers spoke up.
"Now we need to extract the material that was being used as fuel rods."
"Is that dangerous?"
"On the surface, the reactor is no longer in operation, but to be safe, we should completely shut down the plant before extracting it. If something goes wrong—a suit is damaged or a radiation leak occurs—you'd be exposed and die on the spot before you could even react."
Heeding the researcher's advice, we all headed for the reactor control room. Inside, there were bodies—presumably former employees—and it looked as though they had starved to death. We carefully gathered the corpses in one place and offered a brief prayer for the dead.
"How long will the shutdown take?"
"Hmm... factoring in bringing the output under control, inserting the control rods, and then cooling time, I'd say about a day."
"Then we'll be stuck waiting here, no way around it..."
"Even so, we're fortunate that there's no radiation leak."
The control room was larger than expected, so people rested however they could—some sat in chairs, others lay on the floor. Looking around, it was clear a long time had passed since anyone died here; white dust had settled thickly in many places.
At that moment, Chaeyeon, as if something had suddenly occurred to her, asked,
"Sihu, you know that egg we got last time?"
"Ah... that's right. I'd completely forgotten about it."
"What happens if it hatches?"
It wasn't just any bird—it was the egg of Ziz itself that would be hatching. With me around, of course, it wouldn't pose much of a threat, but the potential fallout was absurd. The Japanese side also knew we had collected the egg, so word could easily spread to other countries.
It had been created through Ziz's mana, but since it was ultimately going to hatch naturally, even I had no idea what would come out.
"I'll have to think about that after everything's over, once we're back in Gimpo."
'They say birds think the first living thing they see when they hatch is their mother...'
If that happened, we'd gain a huge asset. Unlike ordinary birds, this one would be capable of communication on a human level, with high intelligence, and at that size, it could even be ridden.
'Wait a second... if it's a chick, what do we even feed it? Do we give it bird feed...?'
At the sudden thought of having to raise a bird, all sorts of pointless worries flooded my mind.
I killed time with useless thoughts, we ate dinner, and the researchers took turns standing watch through the night to manage the reactor's cooling systems and control rod replacements.
Then, once all the preparations were complete, someone began shaking me awake.
"Representative, everything is ready."
"You've worked hard. Any issues?"
"No, sir. The temperature has dropped steadily and stabilized, the output has been cut, and there are no leaks. Same as yesterday—we just need to wrap it all in shielding foil and carry it out."
We drained all the coolant, went down ourselves, and completed the extraction. Then we moved back to where we had landed the helicopter.
A few people had naturally stayed behind to guard against any unforeseen trouble, and when they spotted us, they waved cheerfully.
"Everyone, good work. We'll start her up right away."
"Yes, sir. Hard to believe we're finally heading home after all this time."
Despite the noisy roar of the helicopter, most of the group fell fast asleep. The only ones awake in the chopper were me and the Special Forces Commander.
"You must be tired. You should get some sleep."
"No, sir. In my line of work, pulling an all-nighter or two is nothing."
"Still, an awful lot has happened..."
"Yes... sometimes when I wake up, I still can't believe the world has changed this much..."
We reminisced about the past, continuing a conversation that was short yet felt long, all the way to the refueling stop in Busan. At one point during our talk, Chief Petty Officer Lee Geun-cheol's voice crackled through the headset.
"We'll be landing in Busan shortly."
At the announcement of landing, people began to stir one by one, yawning so wide their lips looked ready to split. The helicopter doors opened and everyone stepped out, stretching and cracking their joints to loosen up stiff bodies.
'Come to think of it, I wonder what happened to those people at the department store.'
Whether they lived or died wasn't my concern—I was just genuinely curious. Whatever their situation, we'd decided to go back to the department store and scavenge a fair amount of supplies. In times like these, the more supplies, the better. "Too much is as bad as too little"? Not at all. The more, the better.
We had a few people stand guard around the helicopter, just in case, while the rest of us went inside. Naturally, the ones on standby wrote down the things they needed on scraps of paper.
Food, clothing, shelter—the essentials for survival. When it came to clothes, we grabbed whatever our hands could reach. Coats, underwear, athletic wear—we swept it all up indiscriminately.
'Whoa... what the hell kind of underwear is this...?'
Surprise flickered through me at the sight of underwear that utterly failed at its stated purpose of covering anything important. We also pocketed a bit of jewelry here and there, along with a few watches and the like.
One thing was certain—apart from our own group, there wasn't a trace of anyone else inside the department store. Not a single ki signature.
'Either they're all dead, or they packed up and left for somewhere else.'
"Since when does a department store have a golf course and a spa...?"
"Oppa, there's an ice rink here, too."
Like a country bumpkin, I was caught a little off guard. The department stores I knew had shopping areas, a food court, and a movie theater. That was it.
We grabbed everything there was to grab, and as we were heading down the stairs to leave, the radio crackled to life.
— Kzzzzt...
"This is the helicopter team. A group that appears to be survivors has approached us."
In all likelihood, these were the people who had been here before.
"For now, confirm their weapons and keep them subdued. We'll be there soon."
"Roger."
Everyone who heard the transmission descended together to the first floor.
"Representative, they're probably the ones who were using this department store as a base..."
"Most likely, yes."
The helicopter's engine noise was so loud that they must have figured we might come back, so they bet on that and made their way here. After all, I had mentioned I'd return in about two months.
'I never expected they'd actually trust me and wait...'
When we reached the area where the helicopter and our people were waiting, sure enough, it was the same group I'd seen at the department store that day. But their numbers had dwindled since last time.
And then, the snake-like middle-aged man spotted me, waved his hand as though we were old friends, and swaggered toward my group, showing off with every step.
"Well now, young man, it's been a while. You said you'd come rescue us, and here you are, true to your word."
The nauseating display made my eyebrow twitch.