The hologram replicating Supreme Commander Choi Yul’s form flickered and crackled even more violently than before. It was because of the savage energy emanating from Seo Eui-woo.
“Kwon Jae-jin, that’s enough. Don’t bother talking to him. Let’s go.”
A mirage-like haze rose around the blue hologram. It was fortunate that they were speaking remotely—if Choi Yul had been physically present, he might have suffered a heart attack from the sheer ferocity of Seo Eui-woo’s ability.
“I’ll capture all the generals immediately and initiate coordinate transfer.”
Seo Eui-woo had no intention of considering any negotiation terms. He was resolute, unwilling to expose Kwon Jae-jin to any danger.
“We’ll retreat first and use a psychic ability in a secure location. Then, once we track down Choi Yul, we just need to crush him. It’ll be risky if we have to do it while being pursued and fighting… but there’s no other way.”
At those words, the ease in Choi Yul’s demeanor subtly shifted. The affable, next-door-neighbor-like attitude faded, and he murmured with a slightly hardened expression.
“Captain Seo. Are you truly going to go through with this? You intend to see it to the end?”
Kidnapping all the generals…
At first glance, it sounded like nothing more than an empty bluff or bravado.
No matter how powerful Seo Eui-woo was as an S-Class Esper with S-Class Guiding, the idea that he could simultaneously transport all the generals via coordinate transfer was absurd. Even more so, the notion that he could use his psychic ability on all of them at once was outright impossible.
It had to be a bluff.
And yet, there was something undeniably unsettling about Seo Eui-woo’s presence. The instincts of a man who had ascended to the pinnacle of the military command structure whispered a warning to Choi Yul. This wasn’t the time for logic—it was the time to trust his gut.
“What exactly… is it that you want? The lives of the mutants?”
Choi Yul took a step back.
Even if Seo Eui-woo had been bluffing, with the generals taken hostage, launching an all-out battle was no longer an option.
“You’re asking not just to spare Kwon Jae-jin but all of them… Is that your demand?”
“There is only one thing we want.”
Jae-jin responded in a flat tone.
“Reformation.”
“…Reformation?”
Neither negotiation, nor politics, nor compromise.
“Systemic reformation.”
That day, Kwon Jae-jin had not come for a negotiation—he had come for a revolution.
“Jae-jin…”
“Eui-woo, I understand. Just a moment.”
Barely managing to restrain Seo Eui-woo, who was at the edge of his patience, Kwon Jae-jin swallowed tightly.
“I have heard your words well, Supreme Commander Choi. There is no denying that you have done your utmost for humanity in an era of bloodshed and war.”
There was no room to refute it.
It was a flawless argument.
It was true that Kwon Jae-jin had grown up under the protection of Awakeners. It was also true that, as an ordinary human, he had been able to maintain his humanity and live for 26 years thanks to the brutal nature of the current regime.
However…
“…But tell me, how long ago was that?”
Jae-jin’s sharp gaze turned to Seo Eui-woo. He looked at his youthful face, then back at Choi Yul—a man with a face lined with the wrinkles of age.
“If you are truly thinking about humanity’s future, Supreme Commander, then let me ask you this: how much longer do you intend to cling to the existing system?”
It had been nearly a century since the first Gate Impact occurred.
Yes, nations and military forces had preserved humanity through ruthless and rigid control. Because of that, civilization and peace—at least a semblance of what once was—had been maintained. Kwon Jae-jin himself was one of the beneficiaries of that system. But in the end, that was all in the past.
“If you insist on stubbornly adhering to the old ways, then why develop Guiding drugs? Why create Healing Factors? Why continue researching Creatures and Gates? Why keep expanding Pioneer Zones?”
They had even attempted to capture and dissect Kwon Jae-jin himself, an S-Class Mutant Guide—just for research.
“All of that… isn’t it for the sake of progress? To move forward?”
“……”
“And yet, while investing every effort into advancement, you insist on indiscriminately executing Mutants? On maintaining absolute control over Awakeners? That is nothing but complacency. A cowardly excuse. A double standard!”
Stagnant water always rots.
Without movement, it is nothing but dead weight.
“I cannot accept this. Do they really have to be killed? Can’t they simply be placed outside the system? Mutants could be separately educated and managed. The same goes for young Awakeners who haven’t completed formal training. Instead of erasing them, they should be given another chance.”
Perhaps, in the early days of the New Government, when the military had just been established, such measures had been impossible. But now? The times had changed.
Residential Zones continued to develop. Pioneer Zones expanded without pause. Special Residential Zones thrived with surplus resources. Even Seo Eui-woo lived alone in a sprawling 3,000-pyeong luxury estate.
And yet, they still claimed that uncontrollable Awakeners had to be slaughtered? The idea was laughable.
“You’re all just afraid. If you embrace change, you’ll have to expose the bloodstained history you’ve kept buried. You’d rather keep things exactly as they are, convincing yourselves that you’ve never been wrong—that all you’ve ever done was for the sake of humanity.”
In the end, there were far too many secrets they were hiding.
The extermination of Mutants, the execution of those who failed to complete formal education, the existence of psychic abilities, the existence of nuclear weapons, the Healing Factor, the horrifying reality of Guiding…
If even a single one of these secrets were to leak beyond the walls of the Special Residential Zones and into general society, the regime would be shaken to its core. Perhaps that was why they couldn’t allow even Mutants of ordinary civilian backgrounds to live—because they feared that the secrets buried within the Special Residential Zones might spill out.
“…For someone who only Awakened four months ago, you certainly know a lot. Guiding drugs, Healing Factors, research, unqualified individuals… Did Captain Seo teach you?”
Choi Yul murmured imposingly. The false benevolence in his tone was gone, and the leisure in his expression vanished completely, leaving only a sharp charisma. His face, now rigid with tension, bore deep lines, and his lips curled into a distorted grimace.
This seemed to be his true face. The flickering, distorted hologram only made his appearance more grotesque.
“Oh, yes. You see, I’ve lived these four months as if they were four years.”
“…Huh. I see.”
Kwon Jae-jin responded indifferently, and Choi Yul clicked his tongue inwardly.
He had assumed that, since both Seo Eui-woo and Kwon Jae-jin were still young, a few well-placed words would be enough to sway them. But he had miscalculated.
Seo Eui-woo was disturbingly antagonistic toward the higher-ups—far more so than any properly trained Awakener should have been. And Kwon Jae-jin, who had been an ordinary civilian until recently, was shockingly well-versed and coldly analytical regarding Awakener society.
Choi Yul carefully scrutinized the two of them.
If things weren’t going to go his way no matter what, then perhaps it was better to make a decisive move before it was too late—
Just then, Kwon Jae-jin spoke again.
“I also know about the Creature Wave.”
The moment the words Creature Wave left Kwon Jae-jin’s mouth, Choi Yul’s expression visibly faltered. The same went for the other generals, who had previously been barely moving their eyes.
“…How do you know about that?”
That was classified information.
Even if Captain Seo Eui-woo had fed him other intel, the Creature Wave was a restricted-access research project classified under a special clearance level—only a handful of researchers knew of its existence.
Even for a formal Awakener like Seo Eui-woo, such knowledge would be impossible for a frontline soldier to access. And for Kwon Jae-jin, a mere Mutant, to know about it? It should have been impossible.
“Did you have another collaborator? One of the researchers from the R&D division?”
“The Creature Wave will break out soon.”
Instead of answering Choi Yul’s suspicion, Kwon Jae-jin simply relayed what he intended to say.
“The damage will be catastrophic. Three Pioneer Zones and one General Residential Zone will be shut down. The death toll will reach an all-time high during your tenure, Supreme Commander. Moreover, half the officers present in this room will be held accountable and forced into disgraceful retirement—including you, Choi Yul.”
“…What?”
“The one who will replace you as the next Central Military Chief is Deputy Minister of National Defense Byun Ja-seong. Ah, or is he not a deputy minister just yet? By the way, your official retirement speech was rather striking. ‘Humans may perish, but humanity will not.’ That was it, wasn’t it? Is that your personal motto?”
Gradually, the expressions of the generals shifted into open shock.
“Humans may perish, but humanity will not.”
It was a phrase that Choi Yul had repeated time and time again in strategy meetings.
There was no way a Mutant should have known something like this…
“You wanted a negotiation first, so let me lay out our terms clearly for you. We will prepare for the Creature Wave. We will fight against the oncoming Creatures and, in the process, we will enact a complete overhaul of the military system.”
“……”
“I don’t know how long it will take, or how much of it we can achieve, but our direction is set in stone. From now on, Mutants will not be slaughtered. Guiding will be conducted humanely. And if they so choose, they will be free to travel between any Residential Zone without restriction.”
“……”
“In a few decades, or a few hundred years, all of you will be relics of the past. Control, discipline, and segregation— all of it will become nothing more than remnants of history. So tell me—can we still negotiate?”
He was curious.
Had the military high command truly only ever been acting out of duty, giving their all for humanity?
“If you refuse, Seo Eui-woo will take every general in this room and rip through their minds with his psychic ability. We will reprogram your thoughts to suit our agenda—just as you’ve done to Awakeners all this time.”
Would they still believe themselves righteous when the roles were reversed?
“And as for you, Supreme Commander Choi Yul… you will have to run. You will live the way Mutants have—hiding in fear, never knowing when you might be captured.”
He wondered what Supreme Commander Choi’s answer would be.
