Chapter 6: Special Forces (1)
“There were hundreds of civilians in there! Are you out of your mind!?”
It was a dream.
It was definitely a dream, yet it felt as vivid as if I had just lived through it.
“So what? Are you trying to get all your subordinates killed again like last time? I refuse.”
“Kim Woojin! Disobeying orders means summary execution! Put that down!”
“The mission I received was only to annihilate the monsters.”
“We’re soldiers! We have a duty to protect them!”
“Can’t you see the subordinates dying right beside you, Team Leader? My comrades matter more to me than those people.”
“You crazy bastard…!”
“If we die, who’s going to fight those monsters? Then it won’t be hundreds—tens of millions will die.”
Why did the memory of that day appear as a dream?
Was there still a shred of guilt left in me?
From that day on, we didn’t sacrifice ourselves to rescue civilians.
It was because every team member agreed with my opinion.
Only after losing half of our unit did we fight for ourselves instead of others.
The symbol of fairness and justice, the living model soldier of this era.
Team Leader Park Daeho eventually turned a blind eye to my opinion as well.
He must have rationalized it, believing it to be for the greater good.
In the dream, I was holding a detonator.
The moment I pressed it, an entire large shopping mall would be blown away.
Hundreds of civilians inside would die as well.
Along with thirteen upper-tier monsters.
I didn’t hesitate and pressed the button.
By now, an enormous explosion should have followed.
* Beeeeeep -!
What was that sound?
In the next instant, my eyes snapped open.
My dress shirt was soaked with sweat.
I could feel the hard, cold floor beneath me.
In the dark interior, only an unidentified sound could be heard.
No, it was a familiar sound.
I had definitely heard it before.
“Damn it!”
Muttering under my breath, I sprang to my feet like lightning.
I opened the pantry door and yanked the plug out of the large-capacity coffee pot.
“T-That’s because hot water wasn’t coming out of the purifier….”
Next to the flustered Assistant Manager Gu sat an opened cup of ramen.
Seeing that awkward expression on his face made anger surge up inside me.
But for now.
“What’s going on!? Just now…!”
“Shh!”
Han Yeahee and Lee Sang-ho entered the pantry.
I couldn’t see them clearly in the darkness, but their faces must have been pale as well.
I pressed a finger to my lips.
As if on cue, everyone swallowed hard.
After that, we focused all our senses on our hearing.
What had the decibel level been just now?
It wasn’t precise since I had heard it half-asleep.
Fortunately, the thing near the 14th-floor elevator didn’t seem to react.
I approached the window and checked on them.
It seemed they had poured out of the cracks overnight—their numbers had increased exponentially.
The fact that they weren’t showing any particular movement was a small blessing in misfortune.
“Ha.”
With a short sigh, I glared back at Gu Daehwan.
“What do you think you’re doing right now?”
“I’m sorry. I was just so hungry that I ended up…….”
He wasn’t even worth cursing.
I had no intention of reforming him, and aside from being reborn, there was no answer for a bastard like him.
I felt like it would be easier on my mind to just kill him.
If I left him alone, he’d clearly do something even worse.
“Woojin?! What are you doing right now!”
“Hey! Intern Kim!”
I drew my real sword and pointed it at Gu Daehwan.
Han Yeahee immediately stepped in front of me, and Lee Sang-ho hesitated behind us.
“Step aside, Yeahee.”
“No way……. You’re not serious, right?”
“Do you have a problem with it.”
“Are you really trying to commit murder?”
“After what we just went through, do you not understand the situation? We almost all died.”
“No matter how suicidal he was, a person shouldn’t kill another person!”
“If he did something deserving of death, then he should die.”
To me, it was only natural.
If something became a burden, you discarded it, and for the greater whole, you sacrificed the lesser.
Call it inhumane if you want.
That was the only way to survive.
“Assistant Manager Gu understands well enough too. He won’t make this kind of mistake again. Right, Assistant Manager?”
“Again, a mistake. That’s funny. Do you have two lives, Yeahee?”
“No. I want to live too. Just like my life is precious, Assistant Manager Gu’s life is precious as well.”
Inside the pitch-dark office.
Han Yeahee’s eyes welled up.
Tears glimmered in the moonlight.
It was a completely different quality from the light reflected on the sharp blade.
“Woojin, you weren’t this kind of person. The Woojin I knew was warmer than anyone else.”
“That man died a long time ago.”
I shoved Han Yeahee aside.
With a lightly extended hand, her slender body rolled helplessly across the floor.
By the time I stood in front of Gu Jihwan, his pants were already soaked.
“P-Please, I was wrong……! Please! Please spare me! I’ll do anything you tell me! Anything, I swear!”
“Pathetic bastard.”
Gu Jihwan crawled toward me and grabbed onto my pant leg.
Along with my disgust, I felt a slight sense of heaviness.
I didn’t want to insist that my values were right.
I knew it wasn’t a matter of right or wrong.
Han Yeahee wanted to live like a human being, and I simply wanted to live.
I had long since abandoned pointless questions like what the right answer was.
“P-Please……!”
I raised the sword high.
Han Yeahee covered her face with both hands.
“Gah……!”
A red line was drawn beside Gu Jihwan’s lips.
It was such a shallow wound that not even a drop of blood clung to the blade.
“Don’t scream.”
“Ghk, ghk!”
“Remember what happened today every time you look in the mirror. It’ll be better for you that way.”
“Ghh…!”
“That’s the end of senior treatment.”
Gu Jihwan clamped his mouth shut, enduring the pain.
I sheathed the sword I had been aiming.
If he screamed, I had intended to cut his throat on the spot.
“Assistant Manager! Are you okay?!”
Han Yeahee, who had already brought the first-aid kit, was tending to the wound.
Lee Sang-ho, who had been behind us, collapsed to the floor as if his legs had given out.
I looked at each of them in turn, then left the pantry.
Because of that bastard, I had almost died twice. In just one day.
Normally, I would’ve killed him without hesitation.
The reason I didn’t bother staining my hands with blood was because I judged there was nothing to gain from it.
I had faced two crises, but what they remembered was only one.
If the price for secretly trying to eat some ramen was death, it was too harsh a punishment.
At least, that was how it was from their perspective.
Until we reached the shelter, I needed people.
It wasn’t that I valued their abilities.
I just needed arms that could carry luggage and eyes that could watch my back.
Han Yeahee’s resistance was stronger than I’d expected.
The look in her eyes, her expression.
If I killed Gu Jihwan here, Han Yeahee wouldn’t listen to me anymore.
The same went for Lee Sang-ho.
He might submit for now, but he’d always be trembling in fear.
He might look for the right chance to run away or stab me in the back.
I’d be creating variables myself.
Therefore, killing Gu Jihwan now was a net loss.
“Woojin.”
I had lain back down when Han Yeahee approached.
I looked at her without getting up.
There was no light, but I could tell her expression was heavy.
“You did well. But I hope something like this doesn’t happen again.”
“That’s not something you should be saying to me.”
“Life is precious, you know. I believe you think so too, Woojin.”
Yeah, well, she wasn’t wrong.
What life wasn’t precious?
Still, abstract and emotional words like that couldn’t shake my values.
Even a Juggling roaming outside in search of prey was a life, wasn’t it.
“The world is divided into those who give help and those who receive it, and those who are necessary and those who are unnecessary.”
“…….”
“Keep that in mind.”
That night, Han Yeahee didn’t come to my side.
She was probably tending to Gu Jihwan.
Or maybe trying to protect him.
[01:25]
The clock was still glowing red.
Even while we were doing this, monsters were continuing to pour out.
Their cries grew louder and rougher.
For now, I had to sleep.
Tomorrow might be another exhausting day.
---
The third day I had mentioned arrived.
People were already awake early, staring out the windows.
They were probably anxious about leaving this place.
“The monsters increased a lot overnight. Why is this happening?”
“They won’t increase any further.”
The glow of the clock returned to its original blue.
This confirmed the hypothesis that the clock indicated the timing of the monsters’ appearance.
“Today is the third day. Are you really planning to escape? There are so many monsters—wouldn’t it be better to hold out a bit longer?”
“Gu Jihwan, go make some coffee.”
“Ah…. Y-Yes!”
At my words, Gu Jihwan moved briskly.
It was a speed I’d never seen from him before.
Taking a sip of the warm instant coffee made me feel more awake.
I continued while looking at everyone.
“There’s no point in holding out longer. We’ll just starve.”
“Using soldiers as bait to escape—that plan is still valid?”
“Yes.”
After the incident, the President and other key figures had moved their residence to Busan.
Considering the time it would take to establish a command headquarters, devise a plan, and deploy troops—
“As early as today, or at the latest tomorrow. That’s when we move.”
“Will soldiers really come?”
“They will. They need to check the site to plan the next operation.”
“Fine, let’s say we succeed in escaping according to your plan. But we haven’t even decided on a destination.”
“I already have.”
“I didn’t hear anything. Yeahee, did you?”
When Han Yeahee shook her head, Lee Sang-ho spoke in a slightly agitated voice.
“Hey, Intern Kim. Sure, we’re following your orders, but shouldn’t you at least discuss something like this with us? This isn’t something you decide unilaterally.”
“Your opinions aren’t important.”
“What…?”
“If you don’t like it, go somewhere else. I have no intention of forcing you.”
With an awkward expression, Lee Sang-ho pulled his phone from his pocket.
“Sindorim Station didn’t even make any broadcasts. We can’t be sure there’s a shelter, or that it’s safe.”
“It’s safe. There’s a shelter too.”
“How can you guarantee that.”
Sindorim Station was a place I had briefly stayed with my team before the regression.
I remembered that there were many survivors and the system was well organized.
Of course, that was still years in the future, but if a shelter hadn’t been established immediately after the incident, it would’ve become a ghost station.
People wouldn’t gather in a place crawling with monsters.
“Intern Kim, this is a very important issue for us.”
“It’s a sure thing, so stop nitpicking.”
“…….”
When I glared at him, Lee Sang-ho, who had been about to snarl, quickly tucked his tail.
I continued speaking to everyone.
“The most suitable place to avoid monsters is underground. All the stations around here are above ground. And near Sindorim Station, there are two large supermarkets. To find a better place than this, we’d have to travel much farther.”
“How about going farther away from here instead?”
“The area near Gocheok Dome is safe.”
“That can’t be…. There are so many monsters.”
“That’s only for now. They keep moving in search of prey. As time passes, the area around the source becomes quiet. Like the eye of a typhoon.”
Han Yeahee nodded.
“‘It’s darkest under the lamp.’”
“Well, the choice is up to each of you.”
I had said everything that needed to be said.
I walked up to the window and looked outside.
The sky was high, and there was no wind.
It was the perfect day for parachuting.