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Seong-Il was exhausted, but he couldn’t sleep. It wasn’t because he was sleeping in the street without a blanket, nor was it related to the fact that the little devil had set a time limit for the sacrifice. In fact, he just really couldn’t stop thinking about his son. Unlike what he had claimed during his big lecture at the time of his divorce, his ex-wife was living a better life than he had expected as she was currently working at a local mart and dating the owner.
However, his son was having a rough time since he was going through a stormy period of adolescence. Rather than feeling liberated after the divorce, Seong-Il felt guilty for not taking care of his son. Then, this chaotic situation occurred out of nowhere.
“Umm… About that…” Seong-Il opened his mouth.
“How do I know what you’re referring to if you’re talking in such a vague manner?” Seon-Hu replied bluntly in an informal manner.[1] The younger man had spoken casually ever since he had asked Seong-Il to call him Odin. Seong-Il had originally thought he would never get used to someone younger than him speaking informally to him, but it actually didn’t annoy him after hearing it a few times in a row.
Seong-Il now thought that age didn’t matter as Seon-Hu would be his partner as they went through hardships together. Come to think of it, he believed speaking casually to each other would be better than treating each other like business partners.
Yes, we can be friends.
“Your association stated that the time outside this place is frozen while we are here. I saw one of you speaking on the television,” Seong-Il said.
Seon-Hu shrugged. “Then, you should have prepared for this.”
Seong-Il grumbled, “Even if I did, the soldiers would have taken everything away from me.”
“Whatever.”
“You must have achieved a lot in the past. What did you do in society other than joining the World Awakened Association? You must have had a job outside.”
Seon-Hu replied shortly, “Fund manager.”
Seong-Il’s eyes lit up. “I knew it when I first saw you, Odin. Wait, but what were we talking about?”
Seon-Hu responded patiently, “That the time has stopped outside. You must be worried about your family, right?”
Seong-Il groused, “Of course. This fucking place even brought over babies who haven’t fully grown. Ki-Cheol might be somewhere around here. Kwon Ki-Cheol is my son.”
Seon-Hu nodded. In the Stage of Advent, the survival rate of socially successful people, also known as vipers in suits, was quite high in his past life. They all had spouses and children as well, but their lives had been mainly focused on themselves, not their families. Therefore, their drive to survive was solely derived from their desire to live selfishly. However, ordinary fathers and mothers were like Seong-Il as they all gained energy and motivation from the family they had left behind.
And they were often used by those vipers in suits.
When those who often threatened subordinates and flattered their superiors with authority came to power, they did more terrible things than military dictatorships did, as they had no qualms or consciences.
Therefore, Seon-Hu had negative feelings toward the ragtag military unit that had formed, but he did believe that it was fortunate that Lieutenant Lee Kyu-Bum was the one taking power over the first stage. In extreme situations like this, people were bound to unite to form a group, and one of them naturally had to be the leader.
Seon-Hu shoved that line of thought away and stared at Seong-Il. He saw the face of a father who was clearly worried about his kid.
“The chance of being selected as an Awakened is very low,” Seon-Hu said.
The other man grimaced. “I know, but he might be one of the few. After all, who knew that I would be here? By what standard did the System choose me? It should have only brought people like the lieutenant.”
“Any more questions?” Seon-Hu asked.
“So… you are saying that I can go home if I pass all this crap?”
Seon-Hu nodded. “Yes.”
Seong-Il sighed. “...I envy you. It would have been better if I had awakened prior to this.”
“It’s not too late. Not a bit...”
Seong-Il somehow felt uneasy after hearing Seon-Hu’s quiet reply.
Seon-Hu continued, “...since you are risking your life every single moment.”
“Gotta face the music, might as well be now. Shit. I can’t sleep anyway, so let’s go now!”
Seong-Il gulped his saliva down while staring at the darkness beyond the boundary.
Seon-Hu stopped him. “Not yet, so sleep when you have time.”
“But is it really okay for me to sleep? If we don’t sacrifice someone within the time limit, our heads might explode, right?”
***
Seon-Hu had been paying attention to the notification window, and there was only an hour left before the given time was over. He planned to wait another half an hour, but if the lieutenant couldn’t resolve the situation by then, he was going to finish it himself. Of course, Kyu-Bum would be the one executing the victim. The group would first become disordered after something like this, but it would soon quiet down without an issue as these groups always did.
[Quest ‘No Title’ has been completed.]
He must have completed it.
The quest was literally just a prank as it didn’t have a name and a reward. In fact, Seon-Hu was surprised due to two reasons. One was that the people had somehow finished this quest without his intervention. After all, it was impossible to choose one victim and execute the person without being strong-minded. Vipers in suits would carry out without concern, but the lieutenant didn’t seem that psychopathic. Well… at least he didn’t for now…
Another reason was that the lieutenant had never visited Seon-Hu to ask him for help in selecting and killing the victim. If the group had decided to draw straws to come to a decision, Kyu-Bum could have demanded several things in order to exclude Seon-Hu and Seong-Il from the process.
A few minutes later, Kyu-Bum appeared at the barricade with a young soldier. Pain and anguish was etched into his face, and his mouth was closed tighter than usual. Seon-Hu wasn’t curious about how they chose the victim or the execution process as he had already noticed a few drops of blood that had been splattered on Kyu-Bum’s combat uniform. It meant whatever the method they chose, Kyu-Bum ended up doing the dirty deed at the end.
“I need your cooperation on one thing,” Kyu-Bum said.
“What is it?” Seon-Hu asked.
Kyu-Bum winked at the young reservist who had accompanied him.
The reservist’s name, Han Dae-Ju was written on the Marine Corps red name tag, and blood had also been spattered on his name tag. It seemed that the mobilization of reserve troops was carried out in Korea as soon as he was discharged from the military. Dae-Ju thought he was fortunate to have accepted the draft. If he didn’t respond and was branded as a deserter, he could have been executed a few minutes ago like the actual victim.
He couldn’t stop thinking about the face of the victim, who had cried and screamed for help. He felt like he could still feel the heat of the dead victim on his hands. Three people, including himself, had dragged the guy to the back of the building, and the lieutenant had stabbed a dagger in his neck.
Dae-Ju glanced at the scary lieutenant and recalled what he said.
“Dae-Ju, make sure you speak formally to me in honorifics, okay? Don’t consider me a friend even though I’m the same age as you.”
The voice of a person who had just stabbed a knife into a victim's neck was quite calm and gentle. Therefore, that frightened him even more.
Dae-Ju shifted his gaze from the lieutenant to Seon-Hu.
“That… um… let me explain.”
“What?” Seon-Hu responded.
“About the wave… If it’s similar to a defense game, isn’t it easy at first?”
“Game?” Seon-Hu asked.
Dae-Ju stuttered, “Yes, the defense game.”
“That’s bullshit.”
“Huh?”
Seon-Hu told Kyu-Bum to take the reservist out of sight. When Dae-Ju stepped back, Kyu-Bum spoke first. “We want you to leave the next wave on us, not the fifth wave. Our military needs to experience actual battle. Also, that’s not the only reason.”
Seon-Hu was about to explain his thoughts thoroughly to the lieutenant but ended up deciding not to. Instead, he merely said, “We won’t have any conflicts if we don’t intervene, Lieutenant.”
Kyu-Bum said, “I’m politely asking for your cooperation.”
Seon-Hu shook his head. “This is called a notification, not a request for cooperation. Let me tell you again, Lieutenant. Let’s not meddle with each other so we can move on to the next stage. I will never interfere with whatever you do, so don’t even pay attention to what I do.”
***
[It’s not as much as the first wave, but I gave you plenty of time to prepare. I’ll look forward to what you showed me before. By the way, those of you who are in the north building, please evacuate to a safe spot.]
[Until the Second Wave: 19 hours 59 minutes 59 seconds]
The buildings in the north vanished silently, and new boundaries appeared as the road expanded. Right after that, Seon-Hu crossed the barricade and entered the village with Seong-Il. People were looking at them with obvious hostility. When some of the reservists tried to approach them, Kyu-Bum stopped them and ran toward Seon-Hu.
He protested weakly, “This is not what we talked about. You shouldn’t show up without informing us.”
Seon-Hu replied while walking, “I’ll yield the south to you guys. We can talk about the price later after the wave. You’d better focus on preparing for the real battle.”
“...”
“You don’t need to worry about it. Clearing up the north won’t stop the wave.”
Soon, Seon-Hu and Seong-Il disappeared into the northern boundary. Kyu-Bum stared in that direction with a troubled look on his face before turning his head back toward the people. He gathered the soldiers as they needed to break down more buildings and use the pieces to reinforce the barricade in the south. Also, they had to examine if there was a problem with the distribution of combat supplies such as insignias and items, and Kyu-Bum had to provide clear guidelines to the non-combatants in the event of the battle.
Kyu-Bum, who was busy controlling the situation, suddenly felt people staring at him. Everyone was looking at him resentfully regardless of whether they were combatant or non-combatant, and they hurriedly turned their heads away when their eyes met his. The rumor that had circulated among the reserve forces had spread to everyone, and it was about how the lieutenant had been trying to make things worse as they didn’t have to fight the monsters if they took the one deviant’s help. In fact, Kyu-Bum had actually heard the rumor himself.
However, he stayed firm and didn’t hold a grudge against them. He had expected from the beginning that people wouldn’t cheer for the idea of handling the second wave by themselves. That was a natural mindset for the civilians and discharged reservists to have. He decided to work on establishing trust from now on, and the given time flew by quickly.
[Until the Second Wave: 0 hours 5 minutes 00 seconds]
There were exactly five minutes left, and the wave would start behind the barricade where the combatants had created a formation. They possessed long-distance skills but would have a close battle as the cooldown time on their skills was long.
Kyu-Bum walked out to the front. He had healing skills but judged that the group would fight more efficiently if he faithfully intervened in the battle as a commander. He believed he was more prepared, both physically and mentally, for a war than anyone else.
Everyone’s eyes turned to the notification window, where time was rapidly flying by. Soon, the given time ran out.
“We can do this!”
[The Second Wave will start.]
They are coming!
Monsters began to appear in the dark. However, they were furry and round like balls, completely different from the horrifying appearances of the monsters that had been broadcasted in the media. They weren’t running that fast either. In fact, these creatures were fat and waddled. They were so adorable that they reminded people of cute animal characters from cartoons.
Kyu-Bum did a double take as the serious mood he had created was disappearing.
He shouted, “You punks! Don't relax right now!”
However… Kyu-Bum was well aware of this ominous feeling.
***
Seon-Hu and Seong-Il walked out of the boundary, and the battle was just over. The corpses of people who couldn’t be recovered were randomly tangled with the bodies of Kciphos, and the scene in front of them was appalling. The people had been torn apart, and it was difficult to find an intact body.
Seong-Il came to his senses as he wasn’t the only one who had come out of hell! The groans from the injured and the smells of blood trapped the small village in a hellhole. The survivors could only blink at Seon-Hu and Seong-Il with blank looks in their eyes. Seong-Il’s eyes filled up with tears when he saw what had happened, and his legs wobbled. Then, he supported his body with a blunt weapon that he gained as a reward and looked at Seon-Hu.
In fact, Seong-Il couldn’t see Seon-Hu properly in the dark as the younger man was out of his visibility range. However, Seong-Il could tell how powerful Seon-Hu was just by the screams of monsters from all directions.
What if the lieutenant actually believed Odin? What would have happened if he actually listened to Odin and let him deal with the waves? Then this living hell wouldn’t have happened. These thoughts ran through his mind as he stared vacantly at the scene in front of him.
“We should help,” Seong-Il finally said.
Seon-Hu didn’t stop him and helped him recover the injured and dead bodies. Fortunately, the number of people killed in the battle was fewer than what they had expected after first encountering this scene.
“Ah, that’s a relief.”
Those who had been assigned as non-combatants were in good shape as they had stayed inside the arranged evacuation facility. They also came out and helped Seong-Il to take care of the casualties or looked for other things to do.
Seon-Hu had recovered a total of thirteen bodies. All of them, donning combat outfits, had risked their lives fighting and eventually lost them. When people’s glances shifted from the bodies to Seon-Hu, he approached Seong-Il.
He said bluntly, “We have done enough. It’s time to go.”
A new boundary had opened. They needed to leave at the moment to clear the newly opened area and wipe out the monsters waiting in the next wave. Seong-Il looked at the new boundary and suddenly came to a thought. Then, he sprinted towards the side where bodies were recovered.
“Why did you have to live such a hard life to have it end like this? I feel sorry for your family.”
Seong-Il sniffled and turned his back. Behind him was an unrecognizably damaged body neatly laid on top of the corpses. On the body’s uniform, the military badge of a lieutenant was attached to the chest.
1. Korean has formal and informal speech forms, which shows different levels of respect in the language. Formal speech is usually used to people older than the person, but Seon-Hu completely ignores that convention and basically talks down on Seong-Il. ☜