If You Must Die, Then Die
I froze for a moment, unable to hide my Dew Lens. Once I snapped out of it, the idea of concealing it vanished completely. The other party had already detected its existence anyway. Even so, the way he turned his gaze to converse with the person beside him made it clear he wasn’t particularly concerned about me.
“Which agency handled the risk assessment this time?”
“The Freedom Guild Union.”
“What a shame. Their performance has dropped again.”
“That would mean…”
When the man dressed like a Victorian-era butler showed clear signs of panic, the President let out a soft chuckle.
“It’s fine. It’s only B-class after all. If they’ve established a proper manual, there shouldn’t be any casualties.”
With that, the man hurried after the President, who continued walking at a leisurely pace. His secretary, I suppose. Surely not an actual butler?
In any case, neither of them seemed wary of me… For now, I fixed the lens coordinates on the President. When I turned my attention back to Seo-hyun, the situation had already concluded.
The golem had been reduced to a pile of rubble. Black powder flowed from the gaunt man’s body as he stood atop the debris, fiddling with his phone. The guides below were frantically trying to restore order.
“You! Hurry and fix the equipment! Tell all the retreated members to regroup here on your way!”
But the gaunt man stopped him.
“No need. An official order from above will come soon, so just wait.”
A moment later, the gaunt man pocketed his phone and descended from the rubble. He was now in charge of the group. With a flick of his fingers, he gathered the guides and issued commands.
“All executive members below E-class will escort team members below E-class and evacuate. Anyone else below C-class is to move to the reserve position. If no reserves are present at the location, wait there.”
Even while giving orders, his attitude remained unchanged—lethargic and visibly annoyed. The executives, unable to gauge the situation’s severity because of his seemingly naive demeanor, hesitated. The gaunt man added,
“Gate rank has been adjusted. It’s B-class.”
Only then did the executives snap to attention.
““Yes!””
Their responses were suddenly crisp and disciplined. The problem was that every one of them was below C-class. They all vacated the area at full speed.
Seo-hyun, who had been fidgeting anxiously, was swept along after them. But one of the executives spotted her and snapped,
“Why are you following us?!”
Seo-hyun asked back in confusion, “Huh? Aren’t we escaping?”
The executive pulled rank without hesitation. “You’re A-class! Stay behind and fight!”
Seo-hyun froze in place with an expression that practically screamed thud. The gaunt man shambled over like a zombie, let out a heavy sigh, and asked,
“Want to run away?”
Seo-hyun looked up at him with a tearful face and nodded. For some reason, the gaunt man spoke with a look of firm resolve.
“If you have the money to pay the penalty fee, go ahead.”
When Seo-hyun answered, “I don’t have any money…” and slumped to the ground, the gaunt man stared down at the top of her head like he was looking at a burst caterpillar. Why does he look so disgusted…?
Clicking his tongue, the gaunt man started walking. “You and I are the advance scout team. We have to cover the workload of five full teams, so move your ass.”
Seo-hyun still seemed to have some hesitation left. She glanced back with a sobbing expression, then whined as she followed him.
“Don’t leave me behind…”
While the two of them advanced in a zigzag pattern, a meeting was underway on the President’s side. A command vehicle that looked like it was equipped with radar was parked in a clearing. The grassy field of roughly two hundred pyeong, surrounded by forest, served as the operation’s command post.
The President stood in front of a tent that appeared to have just been erected. The five people surrounding him were likely the officers responsible for directing this mission.
“A golem of that level is manageable, right? Any damage reports coming in?”
“Of course not. More importantly, it looks like we’ll need to organize a separate scout team.”
“Ah. In that case, our reserves would be perfect. We have two detection specialists among them.”
“Still, shouldn’t we leave it to the ‘Mad’ side? Their average rank is higher, isn’t it?”
They had been speaking at an oddly loud volume, clearly intending for the President to hear, but one comment made them all freeze.
“Well. That side did spend the most money, after all.”
A single second of silence. Yet it felt unbearably long and awkward. The following remarks were delivered at even higher volumes, as though trying to paper over the thick residue of discomfort.
“Haha! Exactly! Those vehicles were all provided by Mad Extreme, weren’t they!”
“Wow—everyone knows how those people never cut corners on equipment!”
“And I heard their salaries are insane?! Just how much are they spending on labor costs!”
The officers laughed loudly in unison while carefully watching the President’s reaction. He casually changed the subject.
“How long until closure?”
The officers answered with bright expressions, as if they had been granted absolution.
“We can’t handle it ourselves. We’ll pull out the moment it gets dangerous.”
“Right. It’s unfortunate, but the exploration rights will likely be transferred elsewhere soon.”
“Oh! We’re not complaining. Something like this is practically a natural disaster, so we can fully accept it. The Union as well.”
The President smiled bitterly and shook his head.
“You don’t need to worry about that.”
As they exchanged puzzled glances, the President explained.
“There will be no reexamination. This Gate must be closed by the ‘Freedom Guild Union.’”
An awkward atmosphere began to creep through the group. Everyone hesitated. Finally, the balding middle-aged man stepped up to speak.
“Um… but… it will be difficult for us to call in support.”
The President’s gentle smile never wavered. That was what made his next words so terrifying.
“Then are you giving up?”
Any soldier would have understood the implication from those words alone. But the man in civilian clothes who had interrupted apparently had no military experience.
“That’s correct. With this formation, defeating the True Boss would be nearly impossible, wouldn’t it? We’d have to pour in massive amounts of equipment, and the cost-benefit just doesn’t add up.”
The man was still snickering when he realized his mistake. The moment the President erased his smile and fixed him with cold eyes, he understood. And when he heard the words,
he probably wet himself a little.
The President stared at him for a moment, then smiled softly. He pulled a single document from his coat and handed it to the bald middle-aged man. Everyone held their breath as they watched.
“Th-this is…”
The middle-aged man’s hands trembled as he read. The President slowly turned his back to them.
“What the nation expects from those who take on public service is neither effort nor results.”
When he spoke again, a strange gleam had entered the President’s eyes.
“It’s devotion.”
Madness. Those gleaming eyes seemed to say, If you must die, then die.
The fifteen teams that had numbered over three hundred people shrank in an instant. Total personnel: fifty. The teams were split even smaller into ten groups. The smallest unit, naturally, was the two-person pair.
“We’re supposed to handle something like this by ourselves?”
At Seo-hyun’s question, Ha-baek looked down the cliff. Twenty meters below, a giant lizard was tearing into the corpse of a lycanthrope. It resembled a dragon at first glance, but ever since a real dragon had been discovered in the Tower, these creatures were only called wyverns.
“I don’t want to do it either.”
Ha-baek grumbled, then let out a small “Ah” of realization. He turned to look at Seo-hyun. She had already retreated three meters the instant she spotted the wyvern and was now shrinking back in panic at his sudden gaze. Yet the words that left his mouth were completely unexpected.
“You can handle it alone.”
“Huh?”
“I’m the team leader. You’re the team member. It’s an order. Get moving.”
When Seo-hyun froze with her mouth hanging open, Ha-baek offered encouragement.
“I know you only awakened recently and you’re still a rookie. But if you keep running from real combat just because you’re a rookie, you’ll stay a rookie forever. I’ll step in if it gets dangerous, so don’t worry and just go for it.”
Whether fortunately or unfortunately, Seo-hyun was weak to encouragement. She fell completely for Ha-baek’s half-hearted attempt to shove the work onto her because he was simply too annoyed to do it himself.
“Yes!”
With a resolute expression, Seo-hyun trudged to the edge of the cliff. She had already grown accustomed to the turbid mana inside the Gate. She could even faintly sense Cheon I-seul’s wavelength. So she jumped down with confidence.
But something felt wrong. The sensation of her organs being yanked upward by gravitational acceleration was far too intense. She had run at much faster speeds while fighting the lycanthrope without any issue.
Am I going to be in serious trouble when I land?
By the time the thought crossed her mind, it was already too late. Just before she hit the ground, a whirlwind surged upward and caught her like a cushion. Her speed dropped sharply, but it was still too fast. Even though she landed in a decent posture, her joints and muscles screamed in protest. Fear flooded in.
Was the combat strength she had displayed against the lycanthrope entirely thanks to Cheon I-seul’s buff? Had being recognized as an A-class Awakener been nothing more than an overestimation based on that single achievement? If those worries were true, did Cheon I-seul know? And if not, could he intervene before she suffered a fatal injury?
Those concerns made her body feel heavy. At that exact moment, the wyvern noticed her and began its charge.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud. Even crouched, the lizard stood five meters at the shoulder. The ground shook as it barreled toward her. Seo-hyun had to choose: run or fight. Fortunately, this time she wasn’t late.
Using the Instant Approach technique from Gyeokmun-sul, she closed the distance to the wyvern in a flash. A strange energy gathered at her feet—like something refreshingly cool, similar to xylitol gum. After she stopped right in front of the wyvern’s chest to deliver an attack, she finally understood the true meaning of what Cheon I-seul had told her yesterday.
The environment inside a Gate is like a wet sauna. It clearly shows me exactly where my skin is. That’s how I know.
Now Seo-hyun understood it too.
Where I need to move my skin.
The moment she stopped, the refreshing energy that had gathered at her toes dispersed rapidly. The postural adjustments of Gyeokmun-sul precisely controlled that flow, guiding it back together in a single place. As a result, when she finished settling into her attack stance, every last bit of it—every drop of mana—had gathered into her fist.