Chapter 84
Chapter 84
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 84
Chapter Title: The Grim Tally
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Wang-sik sat facing Sera.
Though his expression was calm, Wang-sik knew he was tense.
It wasn't because of the tight dress she wore, which revealed even more of her figure than last time.
Sera was as captivating as ever, but what made Wang-sik tense was the list she was holding out.
"This doesn't seem like the time for pleasantries."
Sera, apparently deciding that no jokes would land right now, offered him the list.
On it were the names of the friends he had yet to find.
"Only..."
"We have confirmed seven survivors so far."
Rage boiled within Wang-sik.
"Eighty are confirmed deceased. Only two are missing. Of those two, we haven't confirmed one's death, but the chance of survival is slim. They fled into monster territory. No one has seen them since."
Sera calmly continued to deliver the results of her investigation.
"The other one was taken by Kelliard. They vanished when he did. As of now, we have no leads to track them."
Kelliard.
The greatest black magician on the continent.
A man still spoken of as a legend.
"Taken as a test subject?"
"That's our assumption."
Wang-sik gritted his teeth without realizing it.
When they were first abducted, the ones who showed the most interest in them were the mages.
For mages who conducted human experiments, humans from an unknown world were an irresistible material. More than eighty of his friends had fallen into their hands.
Wang-sik had been one of them. Having experienced it firsthand, he knew just how slim the chances of survival were.
"Should we continue the search?"
They had finished the job far faster than Wang-sik had expected. And they must have concluded that they couldn't track the two missing people on their own.
Even so, they gave Wang-sik the choice.
"This is enough."
"Then our long contract has come to an end."
Wang-sik could only nod.
"We've recovered seventeen bodies. And this is the location of the survivors."
Sera started to say something more, then stopped.
"We can discuss our other contract when you visit again."
Wang-sik nodded, and as Sera disappeared through a back door, a man entered to guide him to the warehouse.
What he saw in the warehouse were fragments of bone.
Only about five skeletons were relatively intact; for the rest, they hadn't been able to find the entire body.
Still, he knew it wasn't a lie.
That was the kind of organization the black market was.
With a stoic expression, Wang-sik collected the remains of his friends.
A funeral was held.
It was a simple ceremony, like before, but this time, many more attended.
All the survivors had gathered in one place.
Three hundred people went missing.
Twenty-nine were rescued.
Adding the seven newly confirmed survivors, the total came to a mere thirty-six.
Two hundred sixty-two dead.
Two missing.
It was a devastating result.
Even so, they couldn't mourn for long.
"I'll go bring back the rest of our friends."
He had to bring back the seven survivors.
Only then would Wang-sik's first goal be complete.
How were the seven survivors living?
Wang-sik had a good idea.
Here, outsiders were treated worse than beasts.
Was it because they held a grudge against Earth?
No, they didn't resent Earth.
They simply regarded its people as insignificant and worthless.
A species to be conquered one day.
They were treated the same as the monsters they subjugated on the continent.
So there was no way they were being treated like human beings.
The first friend was living as a slave to a fallen noble. When the family collapsed, they sold off all their slaves, but he was one of three who hadn't been sold because of his poor health.
He limped on one leg, and his left hand was useless.
So when Wang-sik offered to buy the slave, the noble didn't even bother to negotiate. He just told him to take him for five gold coins.
"Take him?"
"Is there a problem?"
Wang-sik held his tongue.
He averted his gaze from the noble who spoke of a person as if he were an object and left the mansion with his friend.
Even then, his enslaved friend followed five paces behind him, a fearful look on his face.
There was no life in his eyes, no will to even try to escape.
He was simply not dead.
This wasn't living.
Only after they were outside the city walls, where few people were around, did Wang-sik pull his friend into a tight embrace.
"Why... why are you doing this?"
"I'm sorry. I'm so late, aren't I? It's me, Wang-sik."
"Wang-sik?"
It seemed to take him a long time to recall the name. Then, as if the memory had finally surfaced, his friend spoke.
"Wang-sik, you can't do this. You have to run."
That's what his friend said, his expression vacant.
"It's okay. We're going back to Korea. You've suffered enough."
"No. If they catch you too..."
"Everything's okay now. Don't worry."
Wang-sik embraced his friend again.
The situations for his other friends were similar.
For the three who were slaves, he simply paid for their freedom.
One wept, another told him to run away with a look of despair, and the last one didn't believe it was real until the very moment they arrived back on Earth.
The fourth friend was living as a mercenary under a false identity.
He had been enslaved by a noble but managed to escape.
There were quite a few friends like him, but their chances of survival were slim.
They were either killed when their identity was discovered or died while working as mercenaries.
Still, he had found his living friend and brought him home safely. His friend thanked him dozens of times.
The fifth friend was a slave in a factory, and the sixth was a henchman for a back-alley gangster, forced to do his dirty work.
He had kidnapped women, disposed of dead bodies, and even took the fall for a crime, spending three years in prison in someone else's place.
In front of the gate, that friend wept his heart out for ten minutes, as if in repentance.
And he met the seventh and final friend in a brothel.
When his friend began to undress before him, Wang-sik had no choice but to act.
"I'll buy you."
Pretending to be a customer, he called the brothel's pimp and paid a large sum to free her.
Just like the others, he revealed his identity in a deserted place, and his friend collapsed to the ground.
"We're going back to Earth now."
It was only then that the blank expression on his friend's face began to clear.
"I'm not going back."
"Why?"
"There's someone I have to kill. I don't care if I die. I have to kill that bastard."
Wang-sik didn't ask why. All the friends who had survived this place had people they desperately wanted to kill.
"How can I live if I go back like this? What can I do with this body?"
He couldn't say he understood.
What would it mean for a woman to be forced to live such a life?
Instead of offering hollow understanding, he pulled his collapsed friend into a tight embrace.
She was fated to be held in the arms of countless men, but Wang-sik's warmth was different.
But that alone couldn't comfort her.
A ruined life.
A shameful past.
Her self-worth as a woman shattered, she began to tremble as the memories of her past flooded back.
Just as fear threatened to consume her mind, she heard Wang-sik's voice.
"Thank you. For staying alive."
Wang-sik said, stroking her back.
"Out of three hundred, not even thirty survived. I heard all the news myself, and I carried more than fifty bodies. That's why I'm so grateful that you're alive."
When his friend's trembling stopped, Wang-sik met her eyes.
"Don't worry about how you'll live when you go back. There's a lot for you to do. And there are things I really hope you'll do. And no matter what you do, you won't be alone. Our friends are waiting for you."
"Friends?"
Wang-sik nodded.
"But I have to kill..."
"We'll kill them. We're just putting it off for a little while, and you don't have to do it yourself."
"What do you mean?"
Wang-sik's voice was still gentle and comforting.
"Because I'm going to kill every last bastard in this world. So you don't need to resent any single person."
His words filled her with both fear and sorrow.
Wang-sik had been abducted just like her; there was no way he had lived a normal life.
Yet the way he calmly promised to kill everyone gave her chills.
But the fear soon faded.
Because she had felt the same way.
"If I had the power, I would have wanted to kill them all too."
"Shall we go now?"
"Thank you."
Only then was Wang-sik able to take his friend home.
The rescued friends were all taken to the hospital.
To help them find peace of mind, the friends already at the base decided to take turns caring for them.
That night, after the long task was finally over...
Wang-sik stood on the rooftop of the Giam Island base, looking up at the sky.
The sharp, shining crescent moon felt like it was carving a wound in his heart.
"I want to blame even you."
He had risked his life to save his friends.
It was his reason for living, the strength that had kept him going until now.
He appeared calm on the outside, but Wang-sik had clung to the task with obsessive desperation.
'Too many died.'
Outsider slaves.
Used like lab rats, they were beings scorned for no reason, even among other slaves.
If only they hadn't been outsiders, more than half of them would have survived.
They were all human.
But just because they were from a different dimension, their survival rate was less than ten percent.
"Can't I ever find some peace?"
He had finished a great task, yet his heart ached even more.
He couldn't say this to anyone else. So he hurled his resentment at the unresponsive night sky.
"Hoo."
He let out a sigh to soothe his frustrated heart and turned his gaze to the communal cemetery, bathed in a soft light.
"It's not over yet."
That was why his heart wasn't at ease.
He had only finished one of many tasks.
"I'll keep fighting."
Looking at the graves where his friends were buried, Wang-sik steeled his resolve.
—The Russian Intelligence Service was adamant about meeting you.
Before crossing over to the Azelan Continent, Wang-sik called a number he had saved long ago.
—We've been waiting.
He arranged to meet them at Incheon Port.
"You've arrived."
Andrei of the Russian Intelligence Bureau greeted Wang-sik, who sat in the passenger seat, with a simple nod before handing him a document.
"Have you ever heard of the Devist Nolan Church?"
Devist Nolan.
It was a new religion.
It had started in the United States and began to rapidly expand its influence after several celebrities were revealed to be members.
At first, it was dismissed as a cult, but its image had completely changed.
That was after a man known as one of America's wealthiest businessmen donated his entire fortune, claiming to be following the church's doctrine.
Astronomical donations continued to pour in, and as the church members continued their volunteer work, scholarship programs, and active support for developing nations, it came to be known as a religion that surpassed nations.
Only the name of its leader was known, so there were still non-believers, but its doctrine was relatively liberal, so it spread quickly, especially among the younger generation.
"A man named Phils Visto was a member of the Devist Nolan Church."
"It sounds like you're saying there's a problem with this religion."
"The American intelligence agencies are also keeping a close eye on it. We suspect it's related to the gates."
"A religion and the gates..."
Then again, it wasn't so strange when you thought about it.
On the Azelan Continent, the power of religion was immense.
The religions on Earth were not without power, but not to the extent of those on Azelan.
They could use divine power like magic and served gods who actually existed.
And since they still demonstrated the power of their gods for all to see, priests were treated on par with nobles.
However, there weren't as many priests as there were on Earth.
"We have selected an elite team and begun an investigation. We are approaching this cautiously due to our relationship with the United States."
This wasn't just because of Wang-sik's request; it was something Russia had to find out for its own sake.
However, since the church's base was in the US, a large-scale investigation was impossible.
"We will uncover everything."
The fortunate thing was that the Russian Intelligence Bureau was leading the operation.
They would never give up.
"We will continue to report to you periodically."
"No. I didn't ask you to share information because I wanted reports."
"Then what is it that you want?"
"Contact me if you need my help."
A flicker of surprise crossed Andrei's eyes at those words.
"I seem to have made a great misunderstanding."
He was an honest man. In truth, he hadn't been comfortable with giving this kind of report. But Wang-sik's single comment dispelled his unease. Perhaps because of that, he was able to speak more freely.
"I have a message for you."
As Wang-sik waited, Andrei lowered his voice more than usual—an instinct when conveying something important.
"The VIP said that if you ever want to drink good vodka, you should come see him anytime."
It wasn't an ordinary invitation.
To be able to meet the Russian president privately meant becoming his friend.
"It seems he's aware of the situation in Korea."
"He has been paying close attention ever since his meeting with you."
The subtle relationship between the United States and Russia was woven into this.
As the South Korean president moved to strengthen cooperation with the US more quickly than his predecessor, the Russian president had chosen Wang-sik.
"Please tell him I will visit him soon."
"Thank you."
Andrei looked relieved.