The First Hunter

Chapter 23. Armed Forces Demonstrations, Part I

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

1.

‘What is important in war?’

‘There are countless answers to this question. Someone will pick a powerful weapon, and someone will pick a thoroughly trained soldier. There is no correct answer. The important thing is the situation. Sometimes someone needs a powerful weapon, sometimes someone needs elite soldiers. So if someone wants to hear an answer close to the right answer, someone has to change the question.’

‘What will be more important if the situation of having to fight against unknown monsters came up?’

The Mac Guild gave their answer: the manual.

“There is a Goblin community in Incheon First High School.”

“We’ll kill them after we throw the smoke bombs in. How many Goblins are there?”

“About fifty, I suppose.”

“Ten soldiers and six hunters will be enough.”

The manual.

“I checked three Mud Trolls in the apartment complex in Ganseok-dong.”

“We can lure them down the road and then burn them with a flamethrower, and according to the manual…”

“Three hunters and two flamethrowers are allotted per Mud Troll. The number of soldiers depends on the number of monsters that eat the dead bodies. The Mud Troll takes only the heads and abandons the rest.”

“Eleven hunters, thirty soldiers, and take claymores.”

The manual that taught how many weapons and power were distributed to monsters, and how to fight.

“There are Sabretooth Wolves and Werewolves at Incheon Terminal.”

“We’ll have to set up a camp in the terminal intersection and finish all the monsters which come in with firepower.”

The answer the Mac Guild gave was the manual.

The Mac Guild had built a manual.

Under the direction of Kim Tae-hoon, they made a manual of the system’s information about the characteristics of monsters through repeated monster hunting; what kind of tactics were effective to hunt monsters; how many troops were needed, and so on. Furthermore, they had enough troops and weapons to carry out the manual.

To the hunters and soldiers of the Mac Guild, Incheon City was not the land of monsters dominated by fear.

“Well, let’s kill all the monsters today!”

“We’ll only pay twenty percent of the monster stones we acquire. If we don’t kill enough, we’ll lose as much as we don’t.”

It was like California, where the nineteenth-century gold mines were found. The gold rush had begun.

There was, of course, a problem.

“We found a monster in the Gwangyo Park that looks like the head of Big-nosed Orangutans. Its eyes… yellow.”

“We’ve never seen such a monster before, have we?”

What if you saw a monster for the first time, which you cannot do anything about with only the manual?

The answer the Mac Guild had prepared was simple. “Master will go.”

Kim Tae-hoon was the most obvious answer.

2.

April of 2017 has begun.

The harsh winter, which had seemed not to end, disappeared like a mirage, and the warmth began to fill the place. However, the scenery of the Republic of Korea, where warmth came, was worse than winter before the snow disappeared.

The world, where humans had been gone for only three months, became surprisingly harsh. The city looked degradeded as if it had been decades since the disappearance of people.

When Lieutenant Colonel Yoo showed photographs and images of Fukushima and Chernobyl for training to prepare for the leakage of radioactivity to the members of the 35th Commando Battalion in the past, it was similar to the scenery seen there.

But the landscape changed the moment he entered Incheon, which was rated as the most devastated according to a report he had received two months ago. He felt the energy and vigor.

And when he entered the Ganseok Ogeori, he was able to hear the voices of children with bright laughter and powerful shouts for the first in a long time.

“Come with me! Come with me!”

“Ball! Ball! Watch out for the ball!”

If children are not whole of heart, they don’t laugh.

Lieutenant Colonel Yoo initially thought it was an illusion, a hallucination.

“Have you arrived?” But the moment he met Kim Yu-ri, and the moment he saw her firm expression, he could see that all this was not a fantasy when he entered the coffee shop set up for him. He had to chew on the terribleness at the report of Sergeant Kim Yu-ri.

“A traitor—”

There was a traitor within the Capital Defense Command. The traitor was trying to get the relics of the Capital Defense Command. Their trick killed valuable soldiers. The traitors were committing atrocities and massacring civilians if necessary.

It was a story that made him go crazy.

“Yes, I suppose so.” However, the most terrible thing was the current situation that Lieutenant Colonel Yoo could not help believing in the report of Kim Yu-ri, and the reality that he had to think that it was right.

There was already a sign. ‘There was an enemy inside from the moment the woodblock printed edition of Daedongyeojido was lost.’

After grasping the identity of the relics, the Capital Defense Command, of course, immediately collected relics from museums and libraries throughout Seoul. In the process, they were able to secure the copies and original plates of Daedongyeojido. At that time, all operations of the Capital Defense Command were planned based on the Daedongyeojido.

‘It was also thanks to Daedongyeojido that we sent a rescue team to Incheon.’

It was also because of the Daedongyeojido that they gave national treasures to the rescue team. They confirmed that there was a green-grade monster in Incheon through Daedongyeojido, and they judged that it was possible to rescue a VIP by avoiding the green-grade monster if they were helped by Daedongyeojido. Otherwise, they would not have sent a rescue team.

However, the rescue team failed, and soon after that, the Daedongyeojido disappeared. Worse, Lieutenant Colonel Yoo did not inform others of this.

‘I should have done it then. I should have done it somehow, not hidden it.’

I didn’t, not I couldn’t.

In the first place, there were few who knew the existence of Daedongyeojido, and the few were those in power of the Capital Defense Command.

If the loss of Daedongyeojido was publicized, it was natural that someone should bear responsibility among those in power. But the person with a sacrificial mind could not survive in the Ministry of Defense of Korea now. That was why the 35th Commandos and Lieutenant Colonel Yoo started their outside activities.

Anyway, the information that he had got earlier from the Daedongyeojido map was valid. Based on the approximate information, he had to do external activities to acquire more detailed information. Of course, for him, the outside activities were not much different from walking in a minefield.

‘Fucking hell.’ But there was a lot more hell than that. ‘Incheon was an ant lion’s pit. The information from Incheon… was a trick to eat up the rescue team.’

Incheon was an ant lion’s pit made by traitors. For the rescue of VIPs and the recovery of national treasures, the Capital Defense Command should send Awakeners armed with relics to Incheon repeatedly.

And the information actually kept coming. It was reported that Kate Kennedy was still alive in Yeongjong Island, that she had contacted the rescue team, and after recognizing the existence of the rescue team, she repeatedly signaled that she had survived.

If there had been no such information, he would have never told Kim Tae-hoon to rescue her there.

But now, the information of the report itself was likely to have been a trick.

No, maybe the person who received the report and gave the order might also be one of the traitors.

‘Is Major General Lee Ki-soo a traitor?’

Major General Lee Ki-soo.

He was one of the most powerful men in the Capital Defense Command, and he became an Awakener. As soon as he was awakened, his Energy rank was C, and he was also the head of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Defense.

He was a former head of the military police, the subordinate unit of the Capital Defense Command, and one of the best elites.

‘Then Colonel Jang So-gook is a traitor, too.’ Colonel Jang So-gook, who was currently the head of the military police, was one of the right-hand men of Lee Ki-soo.

The fact was horrifying.

‘No way…’

One of the roles of the MP was to be responsible for the security of the president’s schedule. On December 31, 2017, the President’s schedule was to ring the Watch-Night Bell on January 1. It meant that the military organization that most clearly grasped the president’s every move on December 31 was the military police.

But if the Commander of the MP, Colonel Jang So-gook, was a traitor?

‘I’m sick of it.’ The most troublesome thing was that they were the superiors of Lieutenant Colonel Yoo.

“What about Kim Tae-hoon?”

“He’s out hunting now.”

“Hunting?”

“Yes, he went on a monster hunt.”

The remark silenced Lieutenant Colonel Yoo. At this moment, he was in urgent need of dialogue with Kim.

If there was a traitor, it could not be handled by internal force alone. So, with outside power, he had to cut off the affected area, and Kim was the only knife that he could use now. Above all, Kim Tae-hoon was now occupying Incheon.

‘Monster hunting… he is taking over Incheon steadily.’

Kim was rapidly making Incheon the land of the Mac Guild.

‘Is Incheon really the land of the Mac Guild?’

In addition, Incheon City was a major area that could not be compared with Bucheon City. Incheon International Airport as well as Incheon Port were the closest passage for Seoul to contact overseas. The existence of the harbor was especially important.

There was Gimpo International Airport near Seoul, but it was virtually impossible to communicate with overseas by plane. Currently, the value of Incheon Port was absolute because Korea has to use the ships for exchange with foreign countries.

There was one more thing. ‘There is an LNG production base in Songdo, Incheon.’

A production base for liquefied natural gas in Songdo, Incheon.

‘There should be quite a stockpile.’ It was impossible to produce new gas in Korea where there was no gas, but basically, there was stockpile in the LNG production base. And now that there were not many survivors, the stockpile of the Songdo LNG production base could last for a few months or more, not a few days.

Furthermore, if the situation got better and gas imports from overseas become possible, the Songdo LNG production base would be a very important base for Korea. Even if the gas was imported, it was useless without a base to process it.

The Mac Guild taking over that area? From then on, the Mac Guild was not simply a threatening force group.

‘It’s dangerous.’

It was the warlord threatening the Capital Defense Command.

Above all, Kim Tae-hoon did not simply leave the results.

‘The Mac Guild’s move is dangerous in the view of the Capital Defense Command.’

They left hope. The hope that remained had rooted and grown. Kim’s presence grew like a tree all over the world. And now the Capital Defense Command, which was the Korean government, had no room to cut and manage it. It was a reality.

In a world where people had to walk by foot, not by a horse, to come from Seoul to Incheon, and where they didn’t have any communication equipment, Korea was now a huge land, not a small land.

‘A sharp knife can be used with a sack.’

It was then- Whoopee! – that the Ganseok Ogeori began to stir. It was easy to figure out who caused the disturbance.

‘There you are.’

Lieutenant Colonel Yoo got up. He moved out of the coffee shop immediately, and his men who were waiting with him moved. Of course, Kim Yu-ri was among them.

When they were out, they saw a truck coming down the street. On the hood of that truck, coming down a road that was now cleared, was a furry monster with long horns like spears and a huge nose as big as its horns.

A Big-nosed Orangutan?

After the Twin-head Ogre left Yeongjong Island, the head of the Big-nosed Orangutans had settled in Incheon City.

‘Did he kill it?’

It was strong, and it was smart and mean. There were always hundreds of Big-nosed Orangutans around it, and if the situation was disadvantageous, it ran away, sacrificing some of its fellows, and then gathered the other Big-nosed Orangutans together and made a new congress.

‘Did he kill it alone?’ Above all, the body in the huge hair was not large, and it had a talent to hide in a small space.

‘It would not have been easy to chase it.’ It was not easy to kill it. And it was cruel.

When the Big-nosed Orangutan found in Seoul was destroyed, they rescued more than five hundred survivors from its pack. The survivors were in terrible condition even if they were not dead. Most of them were insane.

Now, the cruel monster appeared, its rich silver fur painted with its own blood. And…

“It’s been a long time, Lieutenant Colonel Yoo.”

Kim Tae-hoon also appeared with the monster, in a way that showed he wasn’t hurt at all. He confirmed Kim Yu-ri behind Lieutenant Colonel Yoo and said again, “I will go straight to the point, as I have heard from Sergeant Kim Yu-ri. Leave the traitors alone.”

“What the hell is that-”

“If I ask you to find them, can you find them?”

As he spoke, he entered the coffee shop where Lieutenant Colonel Yoo was sitting a little while ago. He checked the water in the kettle, which he had prepared for Lieutenant Colonel Yoo, and put the kettle on the portable gas burner and turned on the light.

Tack! Tack! Lieutenant Colonel Yoo, looking at the direction of the gas burner’s unique sound, came back into the coffee shop with a look of no small wonder. His expression wrinkled as soon as he saw Kim’s face again.

Lieutenant Colonel Yoo said, revealing his twisted feelings on his face, “Are you kidding me?”

“What kind of joke?”

“Are you ignoring me?”

“You’re the one who hid the mission.”

Lieutenant Colonel Yoo opened his eyes wide. Kim did not avoid his gaze. There was no reason to avoid it.

Kim was also a Major in the military. Major was never an easy rank. The Major rank couldn’t be easily controlled by the rank of Lieutenant Colonel Yoo. Without the rank, the story was completely different.

Kim was a monster that killed a yellow-grade monster by himself, and Lieutenant Colonel Yoo was a normal person who would lose his mind if he was exposed to the fear of an orange-grade, let alone a yellow-grade.

“I have two options.”

“To keep in touch with Lieutenant Colonel Yoo, or to go to Seoul and get in touch with the traitors.”

Predator vs prey. The position between the two now had to be explained like this.

“Major Kim Tae-hoon-”

“And I’m still a soldier, and I don’t need a bridge, Lieutenant Colonel Yoo.”

At that moment, Lieutenant Colonel Yoo was able to realize it with heart and head. ‘The sword … is me.’

At this time, Yoo realized that Kim was not a sharp sword that he could wield for his own sake, but that he was the one who could be wielded for Kim’s sake.

“You’ve changed a lot.”

Kim did not answer.

“I’ll tell you what, let the traitors of the Capital Defense Command act on their own.”

“Tell me why.”

“The fact that Lieutenant Colonel Yoo didn’t even know the existence of a traitor means that the higher side is in collusion with the traitor.”

“Then we’re just going to leave them like this?”

“Have you ever seen a whistleblower win in the history of the Ministry of Defense of Korea, or have you ever seen a general who committed a scandal sink low?”

Lieutenant Colonel Yoo was silent. That was a fact that even God could not deny.

“Their purpose is simple, anyway, to steal relics and get them by failing missions.”

“That’s pretty simple.” Lieutenant Colonel Yoo expressed his twisted mood.

“There’s no place to complain about stolen goods.”

“… you want to take them?”

However, at the words of Kim, Lieutenant Colonel Yoo had to forget that he should express twisted mood.

“Isn’t it better than for traitors to fill their stomach?”

“What’s going to fall on me while you fill your stomach?”

The story was not one that could be judged by personal feelings.

“Don’t you think you can sell me on your own, rather than I tell you what to do?”

Lieutenant Colonel Yoo was silent, to prevent a sighing of his own heart. The kettle on the gas burner began to boil as if to represent the heart of Lieutenant Colonel Yoo.

“… you’re asking me to bet my life on you.” Lieutenant Colonel Yoo said, to clarify the situation.

Kim was not going to be used by Lieutenant Colonel Yoo. On the contrary, Kim made clear his intentions. He said he would use Lieutenant Colonel Yoo.

“Then give me more confidence.” In this situation, Lieutenant Colonel Yoo had only one choice. No, he was being forced to make a choice.

There was a traitor in the Capital Defense Command who was taking the assets of the Capital Defense Command, and Lieutenant Colonel Yoo could not get involved in the group of traitors, and could not get rid of them.

In the Capital Defense Command, there was no rope for him to hold. In the end, the rope that he could hold was the only one that was visible at this moment.

If this was not coercion, what was coercion?

Kim was willing to show Lieutenant Colonel Yoo how great a rope he was.

“I’ll hunt a green-grade monster on Yeongjong Island. Bet after that.”

With those words, Kim picked up the kettle. A time of silence followed.