-…What the hell happened? Did a Gate open?
“No, sir. It was Captain Seo Eui-woo’s doing.”
-Captain Seo? S-Class Seo Eui-woo?
“Yes, sir. Captain Seo Eui-woo took down everyone single-handedly. The mission was a failure. We neither captured nor eliminated the mutant, and it is presumed to have escaped with Captain Seo.”
-Huh? Are you joking? What the hell… Lieutenant Colonel Jang, you’re here. Isn’t Captain Seo part of the 1st Special Task Force? Major Mateo is completely useless, so you explain.
Lieutenant Colonel Jang Tae-san slowly blinked.
He had no desire to report his direct subordinate—a comrade who had been with him on countless missions.
“…It’s all true,” Jang Tae-san answered solemnly.
“Captain Seo overwhelmed the entire unit using immense Esper abilities. It seems an S-Class Guide drastically enhances an Esper’s powers.”
-Enhances… abilities?
“S-Class Guiding supposedly does that. Major Mateo testified as much.”
-No, wait, hold on…
“As it stands, capturing or eliminating the mutant is no longer the issue. If we are to deal with Captain Seo… something like a bomber jet might be necessary.”
Even that was uncertain. Would a tank or an entire fleet even be enough to take him down?
-Guiding enhances an Esper’s abilities…? Are you seriously expecting me to believe something that absurd?
“I will provide a full report once we return to the Center. Either way, continuing the mission is impossible. The healing factor has been depleted, the team’s weapons and equipment are damaged, and we need resupply.”
-Hah… Lieutenant Colonel Jang. I still have to report to the higher-ups, you know? The Major General, Lieutenant General, and General are all waiting on my briefing with their necks craned. And you’re going to be this vague? How the hell am I supposed to clean up this mess?!
“……”
-Tsk, you’re still the same as ever. Since our training days, you’ve never been good at this. Never.
Brigadier General Oh brought a 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 your star badge. At your age, tsk!
“……”
-I understand for now. All personnel, return to the Center. Submit a written report, and the responsibility for this mission failure falls on Major Mateo, the leader of the search unit. He’ll be lucky if he gets off with just a demotion. That’s all.
Click.
Brigadier General Oh disconnected the call. The transmission screen went black.
A bleak wind blew.
As the severely wounded were loaded onto the transport helicopters one by one, no one dared to speak. Not Major Mateo, not Lieutenant Colonel Jang Tae-san, not a single member of the Special Task Force.
Everyone who had witnessed Captain Seo Eui-woo’s abilities was still trembling in fear. Even for experienced awakened soldiers, who had all come close to death at least once in their careers, today’s events were beyond anything they had ever faced.
Up until yesterday, Captain Seo Eui-woo had been their comrade. Now, he had become a monster beyond dimensions.
Would a written report even begin to convey this shock?
If the higher-ups could pry open the witnesses’ skulls and examine their memories, perhaps then they’d believe it. But could they even begin to grasp the terror those who had experienced it firsthand felt?
Even with two lives to spare, no one would want to face Captain Seo in battle. Fighting that thing with a clear mind was impossible, no matter what orders came from above.
***
The Central Crisis Management Special Strategy Headquarters—commonly referred to as the Center—was a government-affiliated military organization.
Ordinary people, having only seen awakened individuals through the media, often dreamed of visiting the Center at least once in their lifetime. Just once, before they died.
To the general public, awakened individuals were a professional elite earning tens to hundreds of billions in annual salaries. They were more popular and sensational than celebrities, admired as heroes chosen by fate, the pinnacle of human evolution.
Though Kwon Jae-jin had never particularly admired awakened individuals, he had been somewhat curious about what kind of military facility the Center was. He just hadn’t expected to visit it under these circumstances.
Southeastern Special Residential District.
A soft white light shimmered over the massive and imposing Central Building of the Center.
Soon, two silhouettes rose into view against the sun.
One was Seo Eui-woo, wearing his characteristic warm smile. The other was Kwon Jae-jin, his eyes filled with tension.
“……It’s huge,” Jae-jin muttered, giving a brief impression of the Center.
It was far larger than he had imagined.
Even just the Central Building alone made Seo Eui-woo’s mansion seem laughably small in comparison, resembling a grand fortress. And with the surrounding structures and land included, it could easily be mistaken for a mid-sized city.
To the left of the Central Building stood the towering Training and Education Center. To the right, the Research and Development Center soared like twin dragons ascending into the sky. Around the buildings, layers of airstrips, trenches, and fortified barriers spread out in meticulous formation.
Even the airfield alone was staggering. Rows upon rows of military helicopters, fighter jets, reconnaissance planes, and transport aircraft stretched endlessly, with separate zones carefully designated for each type.
The most astonishing part was that this airfield was exclusively for the Army Special Task Force. The Navy and Air Force Special Task Forces had their own designated locations equipped to suit their respective mission requirements.
Seeing it in this way, the Center truly was an enormous military facility—one that could rightfully be called an entire city on its own.
Seo Eui-woo began pointing things out one by one, explaining with a friendly tone.
“There are sensors built into the barriers. They detect movement and read identification tags, triggering an alarm if any unregistered intruder enters the Center. Whether it’s an outsider, a creature, or even just a wild animal.”
“Ah…”
“You see those tall poles scattered around? Those are security lights and surveillance towers. They illuminate the area at night and provide 24-hour, uninterrupted monitoring of the Center’s premises.”
“……”
“The internal security is even tighter. The precision of the security system is on another level. The place we’ll be infiltrating—the Supreme Military Strategy Headquarters—is the most heavily fortified of all.”
This time, Seo Eui-woo lowered his finger, pointing to the structure beneath their feet. The rounded dome at the very top of the Central Building—that was their target.
The Supreme Military Strategy Headquarters was in a completely separate sector within the Central Building. It required a special isolated elevator to access, and even before reaching that, one had to go through identification tag verification, personal identity confirmation, and a full-body security scan. Entry was entirely impossible without prior authorization.
“If we mess up even a little, the security alarm will go off, and A-Rank guards will swarm in to kill us on sight. Meanwhile, all high-ranking personnel will be evacuated via emergency teleportation to designated safe locations.”
Hearing it explained like this, it really did sound like a ridiculous task.
Infiltrating a place that was nearly impossible to approach in the first place—and on top of that, manipulating the minds of the military’s highest-ranking generals? No sane person would even entertain the thought.
Well, of course, it wouldn’t be easy.
They were dealing with the absolute peak of military power, the top of the chain of command. If anything, the security should be even stricter than this.
Kwon Jae-jin lowered his gaze, scanning the expanse of the Center’s facilities before speaking.
“…So, we just wait now?”
“Yes. Until an emergency strategy meeting is convened.”
“……”
It wasn’t the kind of sentiment one should have at a time like this, but the Center was undeniably beautiful.
For a place that weaponized awakened individuals and exterminated mutants, it was so systematically structured, so idealistic, that it was almost hard to believe it harbored such injustice.
That feeling of stability that comes from everything being exactly where it should be—
The Center embodied that impression.
The neatly arranged barbed wire, the supply crates stacked in perfect alignment, the training grounds that had nurtured warriors for years.
The wooden stakes and tires. The thick, sturdy ropes. The well-maintained signage. The flag of the New Government fluttering gently in the wind…
Not a single element was placed without purpose.
It was the manifestation of humanity’s relentless effort to survive and fight back against a world overrun by creatures.
“…It’s complicated,” Jae-jin murmured, once again offering a brief impression.
Now, Kwon Jae-jin’s gaze drifted away from the Center, turning toward the distant north.
It was the place he and Seo Eui-woo had just come from.
Before using coordinate teleportation to arrive at the Center, the two of them had first visited the northern boundary wall of the Special Residential District.
Of course, calling it a “visit” didn’t mean they had left it intact.
They had utterly demolished it.
The boundary walls were classified into two types.
There were inner boundary walls, which separated different residential districts, and outer boundary walls, which divided human settlements from the outside world.
In other words, the inner boundary walls segmented the Special Residential District, the First Residential District, the Second Residential District, and other human-inhabited zones. Meanwhile, the outer boundary walls existed beyond the general residential areas, serving as a protective barrier against creatures and functioning as an active patrol line—the true defense perimeter.
Before coming to the Center, Seo Eui-woo had destroyed the northern inner boundary wall of the Special Residential District.
The reason was simple.
Because that was the only way to force an emergency strategy meeting to be convened.
