Empire of the Ring

The situation seemed to literally have become violent in desperation.

The remnants of the IS after their headquarters were destroyed built the new command and encouraged people to fight in a holy war, and the response was insane. Religious fanatics started to launch attacks everywhere.

They did not attack buildings or public facilities but targeted people passing by as their subject. Whenever there was any public gathering, the fanatics tried to run people over with vehicles or wielded a deadly weapon. Because of the public fear of terrorism, cities could not function as normal. People did not dare to gather at a public place.

Youngho and Jong-il were the only ones walking on the streets. They were at a café near the British Museum which was now empty. They sat at the table outside. Since they were the only customers at the café, they had coffee in a careless manner.

“Only people like us come out to have coffee. Who else would come to have coffee in this situation?”

“If a car driving next to us suddenly dashes at us, we can’t help to be injured either, especially when those vehicles are loaded with bombs.”

“Well, I hope someone jumps at me now so I’ll beat him down.”

“Oh, you can’t cause a scene. We might be on TV if you do.”

“You said people don’t recognize Asians very well.”

“Did I say that? But you know, I have a westernized appearance.”

“You don’t say! Please, you’re a typical Asian.”

“Hey! People used to ask me where I’m from, back in Korea.”

“Oh, enough with the outdated humor. By the way, these European cities used to live on tourism revenue, and now they have come to this, I guess only southeast Asian nations are benefiting from this.”

The two had finished their work in London and enjoying their time at a cafe after they came out to have a tour around the city. They came to London to meet the British Foreign Secretary and sign a memorandum of understanding for intelligence force partnership.

They also planned to visit the education and training sites of the British intelligence service, but because of the current circumstances, the British intelligence service was too busy.

They decided to tour around the city as their schedule was reduced. But since the city’s big tourist spot—the British Museum was empty, and they were just spending their time having coffee at a café.

“Okay, I think it’s enough for sightseeing. Let’s go back to the hotel and leave early tomorrow.”

“I’m going to fly the jet tomorrow, okay?”

“Oh, man. Aren’t you tired of flying?”

The two brought a six-passenger jet this time since they did not want to fly on a public airplane when terrorist attacks were going on everywhere. Although the two had supernatural strength, they would not survive in an explosion just like normal people.

When the two were arguing about who was going to fly the jet on the way back to the autonomous state, they saw a flash of light on one side of a square near them.

As Jong-il wished to meet terrorists earlier, a real explosion happened before their eyes.

***

It was a bomb attack by a vehicle.

They heard the explosion at a cafe which was 300 meters away from the site. They immediately ran to the scene.

A building was bombed, and the entrance to the building was almost destroyed, which blocked the pathway into the building. There was a collapse caused by the explosion, but there was still no fire yet since the two got there so fast as they moved like a flash of lightning.

The two went to clear the rubbles as if they had promised before and took out people trapped under the debris and rubbles as quickly as possible. Their suits soon got ruined.

“Jong-il. You need to stop that man’s bleeding first. I think he’s artery is bursting. I’ll go save the people inside.”

“Don’t go too deep inside. The building might collapse.”

“Okay, stop the bleeding first and pull away those people from the building.”

Youngho squeezed himself into the building, replacing debris on the way. When he got in there, people were on the ground everywhere. Giving the first aid was secondary. Fearing that the building might collapse, he rushed and carried the people out in both of his arms. As he did that two more times, the loud siren went off.

Further collapse was not happening.

It was an old stone building, but it was built so sturdy that it did, so only its entrance was destroyed. But the aftermath of the explosion was enormous. The explosion broke every window of the building and of other buildings around it.

Many people were in pain due to the explosion and its boom. It was hard to distinguish who were rescuers and who were casualties by look. Youngho and Jong-il’s jackets and pants were torn and ragged here and there. It seemed that they were scratched and ripped from sharp edges of the debris of the building. They were so busy rescuing people that they did not know what had happened to themselves.

“Did we move that heavy thing, really?”

“I don’t even know. We just lifted anything we could without thinking.”

“The flame is now bursting. We would’ve been in danger if we were a little late.”

Not long after the firefighters and ambulances arrived, the flames burst.

They were lucky that the fire did not start earlier since it was normal for the fire to catch up right after the explosion. Part of the reasons was that Youngho and Jong-il moved so fast.

As the two watched the fire sitting near an ambulance vehicle in distrait, some people came to treat their abrasions, but they did not feel the pain since they were too overwhelmed by the whole situation.

The helpers thought that the two had escaped from the bombed building.

They decided to pretend that they were one of the injured people. People would not believe them that they had moved such heavy rubbles of the building anyway. Also, they did not want to stick out.

As they watched the firefighters putting off the fire, someone offered them cigarettes. The two took the cigarettes and put them in their mouths without realizing that they had quit smoking a while ago.

“I’ve watched how you rescued the people. I just watched because I didn’t have the courage like you two. I was so surprised that I even recorded you on my smartphone.”

“…”

“Who the heck are you? How can a person be so strong like you?”

“When you face an urgent situation, everyone can exert such supernatural power. In fact, we’re surprised to see the debris that we moved. Can you see the video that you took?”

At Youngho’s request, the blonde middle-aged man passed his smartphone.

Indeed, there was a clear video of the two’s performances. When Youngho handed over the phone to Jong-il, he watched it for a while and pressed the delete button. He deleted the video without asking the blonde man’s consent.

The blonde man could not close his mouth because of Jong-il’s action.

“I’m sorry to delete it without asking. Our faces are quite expensive. You should only remember what you saw today in your head.”

“Oh, no. This was a valuable video… ”

“You should’ve tried to save people before you took out your phone and hit the record button.”

“You acted like heroes. I wasn’t thinking too much…”

“Anyone would’ve acted the same as we did in this situation. That’s how we saved lives today, didn’t we?”

The blonde man got silent, unable to answer Jong-il since every word Jong-il said was right.

***

The next day, the blonde man was seen on the TV news interviewing as an eyewitness of the explosion scene. He said that the faceless heroes were two Asian men in an excited voice. He explained what happened at the London terrorist attack scene to the world. He praised Youngho and Jong-il by referring them as heroes who saved many people by lifting heavy building debris like paper. He assumed that the two were supernatural human beings. Although the Asian heroes erased the video, he stressed that he was not exaggerating and asked to check CC-TVs around the site.

If Jong-il had not erased the video, the two would have appeared in the news, and the whole world might have been surprised by it just like terrorist attacks. However, there was no proof, the blonde man could not prove it to anyone since all the security cameras around the perimeter stopped working in the aftermath of the explosion.

Jong-il, who had been watching TV was dumbfounded.

“Hey, look at that shameless guy. He’s telling the whole world that he was busy filming us instead of trying to save people.”

“Man, you did a good job erasing that video. The world would’ve been noisy if you didn’t.”

“Jeez, we can’t even save people now when people are looking.”

“What if technicians recovered the smartphone?

“Hey, nobody’s going to believe him. Do you think the British authorities have nothing to do?”

“We should have taken the phone.”

“Even if they were to recover the video, people would think that the video was made up to make the two Asian men heroes. Who in the world can lift things that heavy? I didn’t know back then, but my body’s aching like crazy now. But you lifted the rubble that was way bigger than mine. How did you do that?”

“My body’s suddenly changed. The ring’s color has changed too.”

“Oh, now you’re becoming a real supernatural man.”

“I think it’s the same level of awakening that you usually see from fantasy novels, but I don’t know what it’s all about.”

“Why don’t you sit in a cave for a few days while meditating on it? Man, I should guard the entrance of that cave just in case you go crazy and try to mess up the world.”

“You’re even crazier.”

“Let’s go to the basement of the Grand Palace first. We’ll start with locking you up.”

“Oh, stop your nonsense. Let’s see what other changes are happening. I think there’s been another change since the London incident.”

“You don’t mean to rip me alive out of my skin, do you?”

“Do you want to keep talking nonsense?”

“I’m nervous because this never happened before. You got into other people’s business in that flea market and you’ve been pulled into this.”

“Fatima would’ve love to hear what you just said. No, I should tell this to Zeynep first and see how she’d react.”

“Oh, just kill me.”