Guns and Brains (2)
Together with President Sung, I first stopped by the Dohwang-ri Police Substation to collect my gun and ammunition, then drove out to his warehouse.
The warehouse sat deep in the forest, tucked among layer upon layer of mountains, as if he were trying to hide something. Shouldn't a logistics warehouse sit close to a major road?
"For a warehouse, this is awfully deep in the woods."
"Land's cheap out here. Got the building itself for next to nothing, too."
That was President Sung through and through.
Leaving the small talk behind, I pulled the truck up in front of the warehouse — but President Sung showed no intention of getting out.
"Getting cold feet now? Aren't you going to help me drive out the mantis?"
"Aigoo, honestly~ You've got the face of a young lady in her twenties, but you're hopeless with modern gadgets."
President Sung climbed down from the truck with a swagger and pulled out his smartphone.
"These days, you can handle everything with just this phone, you know."
He started jabbing at the screen. With a clamor of mechanical noise, thick iron bars began sliding down over the warehouse windows.
"That mantis thing gets sluggish once it gets dark, right?"
"Did some studying overnight, did you?"
"Of course, of course~ In this business, you fall behind the second you stop learning~"
He was spouting this with an absurd amount of self-satisfaction when his thumb hesitated over the last button.
"Would you hurry up already?"
"Well... if I open the freezer door... the electric bill..."
"Oh, for crying out loud!"
"Alright, alright already!"
President Sung squeezed his eyes shut as if steeling himself, then mashed his thumb down on the screen.
A moment later, a dull mechanical rumble sounded from inside the warehouse, followed immediately by something thrashing about with violent, fluttering wingbeats.
I reflexively drew my gun and aimed toward the noise, but fortunately the mantis didn't seem strong enough to smash through the iron bars.
"It's making an awful fuss just because we opened a freezer door... that's odd."
"It's been starving for about three days. Probably doesn't have much strength left."
President Sung tried to sound as if none of this bothered him in the slightest, but his legs were trembling like aspen leaves.
"We should keep an eye on things, though. Is there somewhere nearby we can watch the CCTV?"
"There's a manager's office right next door. You can see the whole interior from there."
"Then let's head over."
When President Sung and I stepped into the manager's office, a scene of chaos greeted us. Someone had clearly fled in a panic when the mantis burst out — coffee stains soaked the floor, and a security uniform had been flung aside in a heap. It was a mess, but thankfully there were no signs anyone had been hurt.
President Sung, however, clearly didn't like the look of it. He clicked his tongue and switched on the monitors in the back.
Several black-and-white screens flickered to life, and on one of them, a massive mantis appeared. The creature seemed rattled by the sudden blast of cold, wandering around the warehouse with no idea what to do.
Those enormous forelegs of its — perfect for seizing prey — were apparently no match for thick steel plate or iron doors. It flapped its grotesque wings, trying to fly up toward the roof, only to smash into the ceiling and drop limply to the floor. Then it would get up, wander around, and knock over stacked goods. That was about all the giant thing could manage.
"Everyone pissed themselves and ran from just one of those?"
"It may not look like much, but at that size, tearing a person apart would be nothing."
I answered without much energy, and President Sung's baseless confidence seemed to deflate a notch. He dragged over a chair and dropped into it without a word.
"Even with a good freezer system, cooling that entire warehouse down to midwinter temperatures is going to take a while, isn't it?"
"Hmm? I suppose so. But that freezer unit was originally designed to drop this whole space below freezing, so it shouldn't take long."
"Then sit tight and play some games on your phone. Don't go trying to make yourself the hero of some story."
"Do I look like some third-rate extra to you?"
"Yes."
Honestly, he looked closer to a third-rate villain than an extra, but at least he'd agreed to stay put, which would make the job a lot easier.
For a while, President Sung quietly stared at his phone or watched the mantis fl around on the CCTV. I kept my gun ready, watching the screens with him, and occasionally checked outside whenever a commotion sounded from the warehouse. The freeze-the-mantis operation was proceeding very smoothly.
Around the time the sun began to sink, the mantis that had been raising hell for so long finally stopped moving in front of the warehouse's main door. We decided to prepare for the next phase.
"The security cameras are starting to frost over. Looks like the freezer's doing its job."
"Of course it is! I've got a good eye for these things."
I ignored President Sung's remark and leaned in close to the monitor to check the mantis's condition. Through the frost-hazed screen, its massive wings hung half-limp. Those scythe-like forelegs it had been holding up so proudly were drooping just as weakly. Leave it like that overnight and it would freeze solid for sure.
"Looking at it now, I think I can save you a bit on that electric bill, President."
President Sung's face lit up. It couldn't have been more than a few bucks, but he sure looked happy about it.
"It's sitting right in front of the main door, so I'll take it out quickly with the gun. You stay put here, and when I give the signal, open the door."
"Huh? Oh, oh, got it, got it~!"
I opened the ammo box, loaded my rounds, and quietly stepped out of the manager's office.
The moment I was outside, tension washed over me and my legs went a little stiff. Frozen mantis or not, I couldn't be certain it was truly immobilized. If that pose was a last-ditch bluff — gathering strength for a final strike — the giant thing could come flying at me the instant the door opened.
I took a deep breath, then firmly braced my gun on a wooden pallet stacked in front of the warehouse door. Once I had my aim, I raised an arm toward the manager's office and signaled President Sung.
Creeeeak—
With a grating screech of metal, the warehouse's massive iron door began to open. Hot midsummer air met the warehouse's cold, and white vapor came pouring out through the gap — like a scene from a movie.
The door was halfway open, more than enough space for the mantis to burst through, but the creature didn't so much as twitch. Had even those proud wings frozen solid?
As the vapor slowly cleared, the giant mantis's grotesque form began to emerge. Layered, alien-like compound eyes. Legs bristling with sharp spines. Scythe-shaped forelegs. Just looking at it was enough to make my skin crawl.
I swallowed the scream I wanted to let out and finished lining up my sights on its head.
Right then, the door opened all the way, and the hot outside air came rushing into the warehouse.
Maybe it was the shift in temperature. The mantis's wings twitched — just barely — and I pulled the trigger on reflex.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Three shots rang out in succession. The frozen exoskeleton yielded easily to the bullets. The frozen mantis's head vanished without a trace, and several large holes punched through its torso. It had been frozen through, all right.
I raised a hand toward the manager's office and gave a thumbs-up.
A moment later, the manager's office door opened cautiously, followed by the sound of President Sung's hurried footsteps.
"Did you get it? Did you get it?"
"Yes. Your frozen mantis has been very neatly factored."
Only after seeing the remains — head gone, torso punched full of holes — did President Sung let out a booming laugh of relief.
"Hahaha! That's Huntsman Jang for you! If it'd been those Hunter types, half the warehouse would be wrecked by now!"
"You think so?"
I didn't agree, privately. Even an E-Rank, unless they were a complete nobody, wouldn't just charge in spraying bullets.
I pulled the borrowed phone from my pocket and called the Environmental Division. After a few rings, a familiar voice came through.
The way he leaned on that word slowly made it pretty clear what he meant: grab the goods first, before we get there.
"Yes~ Please take your time."
The call ended, and now came the pleasant part: settling accounts.
I kicked the smashed mantis head aside with my foot and strolled into the warehouse at a leisurely pace. President Sung hadn't been lying — the place was packed with every kind of goods. If this miser was willing to pay in merchandise, the shipments must have been seriously delayed.
Furniture, washing machines, refrigerators... I wondered if even in a world like this, plenty of people still wanted to live in luxury. Then again, who doesn't like a little luxury?
I unloaded the remaining rounds from the gun, slung it over my back, and began wandering the warehouse at my ease, picking out today's harvest.
The latest-model refrigerator would be a pain to haul onto my truck right now, and anything with AI support would be an electricity-guzzling monster — not a chance in a country house. What finally caught my eye was a laptop, its box plastered with loud advertising copy: Latest!Ultra High-Performance!
I could use a laptop at home, at least.
We didn't have a computer at the house, so this would do nicely. I called out to President Sung, who was taking out his frustration by kicking the hapless mantis's torso a few times.
"President! I'll be taking this!"
The instant he heard me, President Sung came trotting over to inspect what I'd chosen. He checked the laptop, then nodded with surprising ease.
"That much is fine. And it's a laptop, so I can just say the mantis stepped on it and smashed it."
"That easy, huh?"
"I figured Huntsman Jang was going to walk off with my car or something."
"What do I look like, a looter? Did you watch some movie last night?"
I carried the laptop box out of the warehouse, opened the truck, and carefully settled today's spoils in the back seat. In the distance, a used car was making its way slowly toward us. Behind it, a police car's lights flashed faintly — a few officers had come along as well.
A moment later, the Environmental Division officer and the county police climbed out of their vehicles and came over to me.
"Whoa, you wrapped this up fast."
"Thank you for your hard work, Huntsman Jang."
"Well~ I owe it to President Sung's enthusiastic cooperation."
I casually passed the credit his way. The young officer, who had no idea about our arrangement, took my words down at face value. Only the Environmental Division officer caught the meaning, a smile flickering so faintly it was barely there.
The officer, the police, and I walked over to where the mantis's carcass lay, and President Sung welcomed us with some truly bizarre gesturing.
"Aigoo~ You've all arrived!"
"Whoa, this thing is huge."
The officer and the police casually ignored President Sung's greeting and went straight to the remains. The officer kept snapping photos and pulled a tape measure from his pocket to measure the carcass, while the police talked with President Sung, investigating how the incident had unfolded.
Everyone was carrying out their assigned roles with remarkable coordination, really.
In the end, though, it was nothing more than a rigged game they'd all cooked up among themselves.