TTOA Chapter 109

The hologram depicting Chief Choi flickered and glitched more intensely than before. It was due to the murderous ability Seo Eui-woo was emitting.

“Jae-jin, that’s enough. Let’s not talk to him and just go.”

Heat haze was rising around the blue hologram. It was fortunate they were communicating remotely, because if Chief Choi were actually here, his ferocious ability was enough to cause a heart attack.

“I’m going to immediately bind all the generals and teleport.”

Unsurprisingly, Seo Eui-woo wasn’t considering any kind of negotiation. He was adamant and unwilling to expose Kwon Jae-jin to any danger.

“We should get out of here first and then use Mental-type Ability in a safe place. After that, it’s just a matter of finding Choi Yul and flipping his mind. It would be quite dangerous to be chased and fight at the same time… but it can’t be helped.”

At those words, the relaxed expression on Chief Choi’s face subtly changed. The demeanor of the friendly neighborhood man vanished, and he muttered with a slightly hardened face.

“Captain Seo. Do you truly intend to do that? To see this to the end?”

Kidnapping all the generals…

When you think about it, it just sounded like empty boasting.

No matter how much Seo Eui-woo was an S-rank Esper and receiving S-rank Guiding, to lead all the generals and teleport was excessive. Moreover, using Mental-type Ability on all of them was even more absurd.

Of course, it seemed like a bluff, but Seo Eui-woo’s momentum was unsettling. Chief Choi, at the apex of the military’s leadership, felt a suspicious warning from his intuition. Trust your gut feeling over logic right now.

“What exactly… do you want? The lives of the Late-Blooming Espers?”

Chief Choi took a step back.

Indeed, even if Seo Eui-woo was bluffing, he couldn’t rashly start an all-out war with the generals held hostage.

“You’re asking us to spare not only Kwon Jae-jin but all of them…? Is that what you’re demanding?”

“There’s only one thing we want.”

Jae-jin replied monotonously.

“Revolution.”

“…Revolution?”

Not negotiation, not politics, not weighing the pros and cons.

“Systemic revolution.”

That day, Kwon Jae-jin had come not to negotiate but to incite a revolution.

“Jae-jin…”

“Eui-woo, I understand. Just a moment.”

Kwon Jae-jin barely managed to stop Seo Eui-woo, whose patience had reached its limit, and took a quick breath.

“Chief Choi, I’ve listened to you well. I can’t deny that you’ve done your best for humanity in this bloody era of warfare.”

Honestly, he couldn’t refute it.

It was impeccable logic.

It was true that Kwon Jae-jin had grown up under the protection of Espers, and it was also true that he had been able to maintain his humanity and live for 26 years as an ordinary person thanks to the cruel current system.

However…

“…But when exactly did that happen?”

Jae-jin looked at Seo Eui-woo with sharp eyes. He looked at his youthful face, then back at Chief Choi. A wrinkled, middle-aged face.

“If Chief Choi is so concerned about the future of humanity, then I would like to ask. Until when are you going to adhere to the existing system?”

The first Gate Impact occurred nearly a century ago.

He understood that the nation and the military had protected humanity based on relentless and strict control. He knew very well that he had been able to maintain the same peace and civilization as before because of that. Kwon Jae-jin was one of the beneficiaries. But, in the end, it was just a thing of the past.

“If you’re going to stick to the old ways until the end, then why are you developing Guiding drugs? Why are you making Healing Factors? Why do you keep studying creatures and Gates? Why do you keep increasing the Frontier Districts?”

They had even captured and tried to dissect Kwon Jae-jin, an S-rank Late-Blooming Guide. To study an S-rank Guide.

“Isn’t that all… to improve? To become better.”

“…”

“While spare no effort for such endeavors, you unconditionally kill Late-Blooming Espers? You unconditionally control Espers? Isn’t that a complacent response? A cowardly excuse. A double standard!”

Stagnant water was bound to rot someday.

It was useless if it didn’t flow.

“I still don’t understand. Do you have to kill them? You can just exclude them. You can divide, educate, and manage Late-Blooming Espers separately. The same goes for young Espers who haven’t completed regular education. Instead of killing them, you should give them another chance.”

A long time ago, the military in the early days of the new government may not have had the capacity, but no matter how you looked at it, times had changed.

The Residential Districts were steadily developing, and the Frontier Districts were constantly expanding. The Special Residential District was even more spacious. Seo Eui-woo alone lived in a luxurious 3000-pyeong mansion.

In this situation, to say that all uncontrollable Espers must be killed only drew a hollow laugh.

“You’re just… afraid. Because to change, you’d have to reveal the history you’ve been smearing with blood. So you want to stay silent and maintain the status quo. You want to comfort yourselves that you’re never wrong and that you’re only dedicated to humanity.”

When you looked closely, there were more than one or two secrets they were hiding.

The Late-Blooming Espers disposal, the unqualified Espers disposal, the existence of Mental-type Ability, the existence of the Core, Healing Factors, the miserable state of Guiding…

Any one of these were critical issues that would shake the regime if they leaked out of the Special Residential District and into general society. Perhaps that was why they couldn’t keep Late-Blooming Espers from ordinary backgrounds alive.

Because they were afraid that the secrets hidden in the Special Residential District would leak out.

“…You know a lot for a Late-Blooming Esper who manifested only 4 months ago. Guiding drugs, Healing Factors, research, unqualified individuals… Did Captain Seo teach you?”

Chief Choi muttered oppressively. The benevolent, relaxed smile vanished, and he exuded a sharp charisma. Only his stiff, wrinkled eyes and twisted mouth were visible.

This seemed to be his true self. Moreover, the hologram was distorted, making him look quite bizarre.

“Oh, yes. I spent those 4 months like 4 years.”

“Hmph, I see.”

Kwon Jae-jin replied nonchalantly, and Chief Choi clicked his tongue inwardly.

He thought he could easily win over Seo Eui-woo and Kwon Jae-jin with a few words because they were still young, but that wasn’t the case.

Seo Eui-woo was hostile to the higher-ups to an extent that he couldn’t be considered a trained regular Esper, and Kwon Jae-jin was knowledgeable and cold about the Esper society to an extent that he couldn’t be considered someone who was an ordinary person until recently.

Chief Choi slowly examined Seo Eui-woo and Kwon Jae-jin.

If things weren’t going to go his way no matter what, it would be better to make a decision before it was too late…

Just then, Kwon Jae-jin added a word.

“I also know about the Creature Wave.”

As soon as the word ‘Creature Wave’ came out of Kwon Jae-jin’s mouth, Chief Choi’s expression noticeably crumbled. The other generals, who had barely been rolling their eyes, were the same.

“…How do you know that?”

It was top-secret information.

Even if Captain Seo Eui-woo had taught him the other things, the Creature Wave was classified as a restricted research from the Research and Development Department, a special-grade secret that only a small number of researchers could know.

Even Seo Eui-woo, a formal Esper, could never know that information as a combatant, let alone Kwon Jae-jin, a Late-Blooming Esper.

“Was there another collaborator? Someone from the Research and Development Department?”

“Soon, the Creature Wave will break out.”

Kwon Jae-jin told Chief Choi, who was suspecting him, only what he needed to say.

“The damage will be enormous. Three Frontier Districts and one general Residential District will be closed, and the number of deaths will be the highest during Chief Choi’s term. Also, half of the officers in this room will take responsibility and retire in disgrace, and Chief Choi Yul, you will be one of them.”

“What…?”

“Byeon Ja-seong, the Vice Minister of National Defense, will succeed Chief Choi as the next Chief of the Central Military. Oh, he’s not the Vice Minister yet, is he? By the way, Chief Choi’s official retirement speech was very impressive. ‘Humans may die, but humanity will not die,’ was it? Is that perhaps your motto?”

Gradually, shock dawned on the faces of the generals. ‘Humans may die, but humanity will not die.’ It was Chief Choi’s habit of speaking that he had been uttering at every strategy meeting.

There was no way a Late-Blooming Esper would know this…

“Since you wanted to negotiate first, I will clearly state the negotiation plan now. We will prepare for the Creature Wave. We will fight the swarming creatures and achieve a major reorganization of the military system.”

“…”

“I don’t know how much time it will take or how much we can achieve, but the direction is clear. In the future, Late-Blooming Espers will not die, Guiding will be done in a humane way, and we will change things so that we can freely travel to any Residential District if we want.”

“…”

“If decades or hundreds of years pass like that, all of you will become figures of the past, and control, discipline, and isolation will become relics of the past. How is it? Can we negotiate even like this?”

He was curious.

Whether the military leaders really had a mission for humanity and had been doing their best.

“If you refuse, Seo Eui-woo will take all the generals here and ransack their brains with Mental-type Ability. We will manipulate their thoughts to our liking and control you just like you have done to Espers so far.”

Whether they could be proud even if the tables were turned.

“And Chief Choi Yul, you will have to hide from us. You will experience the pain of Late-Blooming Espers who have been holding their breath, afraid of being caught at any moment.”

What would Chief Choi answer?