TTOA Chapter 105

#105

“……What’s going on? Did a Gate open?”

“No, it’s the doing of Captain Seo Eui-woo.”

“Captain Seo, S-rank Seo Eui-woo?”

“Yes. Everyone was overpowered by Captain Seo Eui-woo alone. The mission also failed. We failed to capture or kill the Mutant, and it is presumed that he escaped with Captain Seo.”

“Huh? Are you kidding me? What is… Lieutenant Colonel Jang, you’re there. Isn’t Captain Seo under the 1st Special Task Force? Major Ma is useless, so you explain.”

Lieutenant Colonel Jang Tae-san slowly opened and closed his eyelids.

He had no desire to accuse his direct subordinate and a member of the unit he had worked with on numerous missions.

“It’s all true.”

Lieutenant Colonel Jang replied solemnly.

“Captain Seo subdued the team members with immense power. It seems that an S-rank Guide dramatically enhances an Esper’s ability.”

“Ability… enhancement?”

“That’s what they say about S-rank Guiding. Major Ma testified so.”

“No, huh…”

“Therefore, capturing or killing the Mutant is no longer the issue. To face Captain Seo… we’ll need something like a bomber.”

In fact, even that is difficult to estimate. It’s hard to judge whether we could handle him even with tanks or a fleet.

“Guiding enhances an Esper’s ability…? Are you saying such an absurd thing is possible? You want me to believe that?”

“I will provide a detailed report after returning to the Center. In any case, it is impossible to continue the mission. We have exhausted our Healing Factor, and the team members’ weapons and equipment are damaged, so we need to replenish our supplies.”

“Heo-heoi, hey, Lieutenant Colonel Jang. I have to report to the higher-ups, don’t I? The Major General, Lieutenant General, and General are all eagerly awaiting my report. Are you going to work so bluntly? How am I supposed to clean up this mess!”

“……”

“Tsk, you’re really… still the same. You’ve always been bad at this since your training days. This. This.”

Brigadier General Oh put his wrinkled hand to his mouth, opening and closing it like a duck’s beak.

“You lack eloquence. That’s why you still haven’t earned a star badge. At your age, tsk!”

“……”

“Okay, I understand. All team members are to return to the Center. Submit a written report, and Major Ma, the leader of the search party, will take responsibility for the mission’s failure. It will be fortunate if it ends with just a demotion. That’s all.”

Click.

Brigadier General Oh’s communication was cut off. The transmitted screen also went black.

An eerie wind blew.

While severely injured personnel were boarding the transport helicopter in order, no one dared to open their mouths rashly. Not just Major Ma or Lieutenant Colonel Jang, but all members of the Special Task Force.

Everyone who witnessed Captain Seo Eui-woo’s power was still trembling with fear. The experience of surviving death is something that any Awakened with a long career as a combatant has had at least once, but what happened today was not on that level.

Captain Seo Eui-woo, who was a colleague until yesterday, has become a monster beyond dimensions.

Will this shock be conveyed even if we submit a written report?

If they could open the brains of the witnesses and examine their memories, they would believe it, but could they even convey the fear of those who experienced it firsthand?

Even with two lives, I wouldn’t want to face Captain Seo. Fighting that thing with a clear mind is impossible. No matter what orders come from above.

*

Central Crisis Management Special Strategy Headquarters. A military organization under the government, commonly called the Center.

Anyone who has encountered Espers through the media would have curiosity about wanting to visit the Center at least once. At least once before they die, that is.

This is because, to ordinary people, Espers are envied as a professional group earning tens or hundreds of millions of won in annual salary and living luxurious lives, as celebrities who are more popular and newsworthy than entertainers, and as heroes of humanity chosen by fate.

Although Kwon Jae-jin did not envy Espers, he had some curiosity about what kind of military facility the Center was. However, he never expected to visit it in this way.

Southeastern part of the Special Residential District.

A white bubble of light spread subtly over the dignified and massive Central Building of the Center.

Soon, the shadows of two people standing against the sun rose side by side.

Seo Eui-woo with a gentle smile and Kwon Jae-jin with a tense look.

“…It’s wide.”

Jae-jin spat out a short impression after seeing the Center.

The area of the site was larger than he had imagined.

Even if you only look at the Central Building, it’s like a huge castle that makes Seo Eui-woo’s mansion look small, and if you add the surrounding buildings and grounds, it looks like a small city.

The Education and Training Center rising to the left of the Central Building and the Research and Development Center rising to the right were ascending into the sky like twin dragons, and around the buildings, the Center’s airfield, trenches, and partitions were lined up in layers.

Even if you only look at the airfield, several military helicopters, fighters, reconnaissance planes, and transport planes were lined up endlessly, and the sections were divided in various ways.

What’s even more surprising is that it’s the exclusive airfield for the Army Special Task Force. The Navy and Air Force Special Task Forces each had facilities at different designated coordinates to suit their mission characteristics.

Looking at it this way, the Center was truly a grand military facility that could be called a city.

Seo Eui-woo pointed out each one from above with his finger and began to explain kindly.

“There are sensors on the partitions. They recognize movements and read the Identification Tag, so if an intruder who is not registered in the Center enters, a security alarm will sound. Whether it’s an outsider, a Creature, or even a wild animal.”

“Ah…”

“You see those tall pillars around? Those are security lights and surveillance camera towers. They turn on the lights at night to illuminate the area, and they monitor the Center site 24 hours a day without blind spots.”

“……”

“Internal security is even more thorough. The precision of the security system is also on a different level. The top floor where we will infiltrate, the Military Strategy Headquarters, is the best of them all.”

This time, Seo Eui-woo lowered his finger to the floor and pointed to his feet. The top of the building covered with a round dome, right there.

The Military Strategy Headquarters has a different section even within the Central Building, so you have to use a specially isolated elevator to enter, and before that, you have to complete the Awakened Identification Tag verification, followed by personal identification and a full-body scanner for security checks. In the first place, you can’t enter without permission.

“If things go wrong, a security alarm will sound, and A-rank bodyguards will rush to kill us. In the meantime, the VIPs are all equipped with emergency facilities to evacuate by coordinate movement.”

Listening to this, it’s not an easy task.

Hiding in the Military Strategy Headquarters, which is difficult to even approach normally, and even manipulating the minds of generals… It was an idea that no one with a sound mind would even dare to think of.

Well, it’s natural that it’s not easy.

It’s the pinnacle of power, the military’s top brass… Security would be thorough, not lax.

Kwon Jae-jin lowered his eyes and slowly looked around the Center site, then opened his mouth.

“…So, do we just have to wait now?”

“Yes. Until an emergency strategic meeting is called.”

“……”

It’s an inappropriate feeling to have at a time like this, but the Center looked beautiful. It was so systematic and ideal that it was hard to believe that it was a hotbed of negativity that instrumentalized Awakened and killed Mutants.

A sense of stability felt when the right thing is in the right place.

The Center had such an impression.

The neatly maintained barbed wire, the supply boxes stacked in rows, the training ground that has produced combatants for many years. Stakes and tires. Sturdy ropes. Managed signs. The slowly fluttering flag of the New Government…….

Not even one trivial thing was made carelessly.

I could see the dedication to human survival and struggle on the surface covered with Creatures.

“It’s difficult.”

Jae-jin spat out another short impression.

Now his gaze was leaving the Center and heading far north.

It was the place he had visited with Seo Eui-woo just a moment ago.

Before coordinate moving to the Center, the two first visited the northern border wall of the Special Residential District.

Of course, even saying “visited” doesn’t mean they went there peacefully.

Because they smashed it to pieces.

Border walls are classified into two types.

Inner border walls that divide residential districts from residential districts, and outer border walls that divide residential districts from the outside.

In other words, the inner border wall is used to divide human residential areas such as the Special Residential District, the 1st Residential District, and the 2nd Residential District, and the outer border wall is the real border wall where patrols are conducted along with a protective barrier to prevent Creatures from the outside of general residential districts.

Before coming to the Center, Seo Eui-woo destroyed the inner border wall north of the Special Residential District.

The reason was simple.

That’s how an emergency strategic meeting would be called.