“We’re abandoning the village.”
The order was given in the temporary command post at the center of the fishing village. Three hours remained until the entire area was scheduled for incineration.
Every available light had been gathered to illuminate the yard of the village chief’s house, where the post had been established.
“We will begin the evacuation as soon as preparations are complete,” Sergeant Hwa announced.
“What about the civilians who refuse to leave?” Jae-hee asked cautiously.
“We will lead them away by force.”
Razor clicked his tongue, arms crossed. “They’ll just get in the way.”
“…In that case, we’ll be forced to leave them behind.”
“Just cut ‘em loose from the start.”
“I can’t do that.” Sergeant Hwa was adamant. “Our platoon’s mission is to assess the anomalous phenomenon and rescue any civilians. We cannot abandon our duty.”
Razor wasn’t backing down. “You need to think about what’s more important. You’ll get your whole unit killed trying to save a bunch of stubborn old coots who won’t listen.”
“…”
“You have to consider which option is more efficient. Shit. What does a sergeant with temporary command know, anyway?”
“…”
“Think hard about what your platoon leader would have done if he were still alive—”
“Who here doesn’t know it would be more efficient to abandon the civilians and escape on our own?” Sergeant Hwa snarled, her voice low. “But if we operate that way, then why does the military even exist?”
“Say what?”
“We might as well replace everyone with mercenaries like you who only chase money ‘efficiently.’ Why bother wearing our country’s flag on our shoulders and our unit patches on our arms?”
“…”
Momentarily stunned, Razor shot back, “You have to know when to cut away the rest for the sake of something more important. Isn’t that the mark of a commander?”
“And what’s the result of cutting things away, again and again, in the name of protecting ‘what’s more important’? Isn’t it this world we live in now?”
Sergeant Hwa didn’t yield an inch. “Every other region was neglected because nothing mattered but Seoul! The lives of ordinary citizens were ignored because no one mattered but the higher-ups!”
“…”
“People are so obsessed with protecting short-term efficiency that they’ve all forgotten how to see the bigger picture. Isn’t the result of all those choices… this crumbling world we have now?”
Razor didn’t yield an inch, either. “And if we hadn’t pursued even that short-term efficiency? We wouldn’t have even gotten the chance to see it crumble. The world would have ended long ago!”
“…”
“You only get to spout your high-and-mighty ideals if you’re alive to do it. Hell, acting like it’s some noble cause to die for a bunch of old strangers you’ve never even met…”
Glaring at each other, the two of them suddenly whipped their heads toward Jae-hee.
“Oi, Jae-hee Han!” Razor barked.
“Huh?!”
“What do you think?”
“Uh, why’re you asking me…?”
Razor had a point, prioritizing immediate survival. But so did Sergeant Hwa, prioritizing the values that efficiency had cast aside.
The problem was, there was no point in asking Jae-hee.
How the heck am I supposed to know who’s right?
Jae-hee felt his brain turn to stone faced with such a difficult question. He was just a pitiful, pathetic petty thief.
Just then.
“Hey, dudes!”
Status Window burst into the command post, his hands full of plastic bags. “Time to eat! The soldier bros whipped something up for us desu!”
“…”
“…”
It was bibimbap—a makeshift mix of dried rations, Matdasi sauce, and spices.
Jae-hee nervously accepted a bag, glancing between the two silent figures, and scooped some of the bibimbap into his mouth with a plastic spoon. And…
“Holy! It’s delicious!”
His eyes widened at the unexpected flavor.
Maybe it was because he was starving?
While the bibimbap looked like slop, it tasted unbelievably good. Jae-hee practically shoved his face into the bag and devoured it.
Status Window, just as unabashed, shoveled it down as well.
His appetite gone, Razor passed his share to the two of them. “Here. You two split it.”
“Really?!”
“Why are you being so nice all of a sudden desu?!”
“It’s just military chow, what the… Ah, forget it. You two eat up.” Instead, Razor pulled his usual carton of sterilized milk from his pocket and started sipping.
Meanwhile, Sergeant Hwa held her own bag, staring at it for a long moment before she slowly began to speak.
“My parents died in a suicide pact.”
Normally, such a topic would have killed anyone’s appetite, but Jae-hee and Status Window were too hungry to care, and Razor had no appetite to begin with.
With all three of them watching her, Sergeant Hwa continued.
“My parents worked in a factory. They were caught in a Gate incident and badly injured, then they were let go without any real severance pay. With no way to make a living… they said there was no hope left in this world. They said we should all die together.”
Her voice was steady despite how painful the memory must be. “They said that just staying alive was too hard, so we should end it. That it was the rational choice.”
“…”
“They asked me to die with them. A child not even ten years old.”
“We promised we’d die together.”
That was the voice the Phantom Tyrant had used against her.
It hadn’t been a monster’s fabrication. They were the actual words her mother had spoken to her as a child.
“It was a classic method. They lit charcoal briquettes.”
Sergeant Hwa slowly closed her cat-like eyes, recalling that day. “They barricaded the door with several locks from the inside so no one could give up halfway. The three of us lay down together under a blanket, with briquettes lit up.”
“…”
“My mother told me that if I just went to sleep, it would all be over when I woke up… She held my hand and told me to sleep soundly.”
Sergeant Hwa’s hand clenched into a tight fist.
“But I didn’t want to die.”
“…”
“When I came to my senses, my parents had already lost consciousness from the carbon monoxide. I was dazed. My throat hurt, my eyes stung, and I was suffocating. In agony, I desperately crawled toward the door.”
A bitter smile touched her lips. “I struggled with all my might against the locked door, but it wouldn’t open.”
“…”
“Even then, I knew. I knew that even if I opened that door and survived, the rest of my life would be nothing but misery.”
Sergeant Hwa slowly lifted her head, looking past the collapsed ceiling at the sky above. It was a hazy white, blanketed in fog.
“I knew I’d be cold, poor, and hungry. But I didn’t care. I felt like I would give anything just to take one more breath of clean air.”
“…”
“As I gripped the doorknob, screaming and struggling with all my might… a strange power suddenly surged up from within me, and I burst right through the door.”
Faint burn scars remained on her hand. She clenched her fist, hiding them from view.
“I Awakened that day.”
“Whoa, you’re an Awakened?” Jae-hee exclaimed.
“C-Rank. Nothing special. At best, my ability only lets me break through obstacles…”
Sergeant Hwa looked a little embarrassed to have revealed it. “Anyway, that’s how I survived. I became an orphan, but I never starved thanks to being an Awakened. As soon as I came of age, I enlisted as a non-commissioned officer.”
Having finished her story, she looked back at the convicts.
“The suicide pact might have been a rational decision from my parents’ perspective. Their livelihood was gone, and with all the Gates opening, the world was collapsing day by day. Everything seemed hopeless.”
“…”
“To them, it might have been more efficient to end their lives before they had to endure any more suffering.” She paused, then spoke in an unwavering voice. “But still, I wanted to live.”
Sergeant Hwa picked up her spoon, dug into the bibimbap, and stuffed a large bite into her mouth.
“I’ve had plenty of offers to leave and become a Hunter, but the reason I stayed in the military is because I believe it’s one of the few ‘inefficient’ groups left in this country.”
“…”
“To save the citizens who have been abandoned by the world, trapped behind locked doors and left to die. That’s why I live as a soldier. That’s what the Gate Search Battalion is for.”
“…”
“And that’s why I won’t give up on those residents so easily.”
Razor shook his head. “You chose the wrong profession. You should’ve been a politician.”
“Haha… That doesn’t sound too bad. I suppose it’s all right to dream. If we make it out of here alive.”
Sergeant Hwa shoveled down the rest of her bibimbap. After taking a long, cool drink from her canteen, she gestured to the prisoners, who had also finished eating.
“Had your fill? This is your last break. From now until we break through that wall of fog, there are no more.”
The convicts got to their feet and gathered their gear. Sergeant Hwa collected her own helmet, rifle, and map, then gave a firm nod.
“My platoon will protect the civilians to the very end. That’s why our Gate Search Battalion exists, and it’s an agreement I have with all my soldiers.”
She turned to Razor, whose expression was still sour. “However, I won’t force this upon you.”
She unholstered the grenade launcher from her hip and offered it to him. It was the weapon loaded with the special rounds that could neutralize the Realm Erosion—the one that could break through the fog.
“Stick with us. But if the situation gets too dangerous, you and your people should escape on your own.”
“…”
Dumbfounded, Razor took the grenade launcher and asked grudgingly, “Why?”
A faint smile touched Sergeant Hwa’s lips. Her answer was simple.
“Because you’re citizens of this country, too. It’s a soldier’s job to protect.”
***
The group decided to take the shortest escape route out of the fog: the road that followed the coastline north.
“The road is relatively wide, and since it runs along the coast, we have less to worry about from the seaside,” Sergeant Hwa explained.
“Those tiger monsters swim just fine,” Razor muttered. “They flanked the lighthouse, remember?”
“They aren’t as fast as they are on land. And they can’t hide the sound of splashing water. It’s still to our advantage to stick to terrain that’s inconvenient for them.”
After some relentless persuasion from Sergeant Hwa, about a dozen residents had agreed to leave on their own two feet. The elderly woman looking for her son, however, refused to leave the village until the very end.
Sergeant Hwa decided to carry her. She ditched her military pack, strapped her spare magazines and sidearm to her thighs and forearms, and hoisted the old woman onto her back.
“We’re going now,” she said.
“My son… my boy…”
The old woman’s limbs flailed weakly, but Sergeant Hwa didn’t even flinch, her footsteps like steel as she moved forward.
The soldiers formed a perimeter with the civilians in the middle and the convicts bringing up the rear, watching their backs.
The escape went smoothly at first. The fog was thick, but everyone had thoroughly memorized the terrain. The coastal road, though in poor condition, was still functional.
“…Something’s not right.”
But before long, Razor sensed that something was off.
“Why aren’t they coming after us?”
It was too easy. By now, there should have been a pursuit, an ambush, something.
Just then, the sound of pounding paws—thud-thud-thud-thud—began to echo from far behind them.
“It’s them!”
“Ah, fuck! Speak of the devil, and here they come!”
Jae-hee hesitated before cautiously murmuring, “Well… more like tiger-demons, really.”
“Can you quit with the smart-ass comments for once? Huh?”
The pack of Foghowlers slowly closed in, as if tightening a noose, but they didn’t actively attack.
They didn’t try to stop the group from escaping north. They just followed silently, watching the humans flee.
Why? Jae-hee wondered. Why are they letting us get away?
Hounded by the leisurely pursuit of the Foghowler pack, the group hurried north along the road.
At last, they reached the wall of fog.
Clack!
Without hesitation, Razor raised the grenade launcher, aimed, and fired.
FWOOMP—!
BOOM!
With a blinding flash, the surrounding air warped. The next moment, a clear path opened before them, the fog completely gone.
The Realm Erosion neutralization round had worked.
“It worked! We broke through!” Razor shouted in triumph.
Just a second later, a long whistle echoed from the south.
Wheeeee—
Then, the breach in the fog instantly repaired itself with a great hiss. A thicker, wetter fog cascaded down like a waterfall, filling the gap.
Everyone spun around, stunned.
THUD! THUD! THUD!
Colossal footsteps boomed from far to the south.
Soon, the giant figure of a monster emerged from the gloom, its blurry silhouette resolving into solid form. It had a long neck like a giraffe, a massive body, and a mane of flowing gray fur.
The Gate Lord, the Phantom Tyrant, was looking down on them.
“It was a trap.” Cold sweat streamed down Razor’s face as he spat out the words.
Thud-thud-thud-thud…
The pack of Foghowlers appeared from behind the Phantom Tyrant, fanning out to encircle the humans as they approached at a relaxed pace.
Razor trembled with rage. “They were toying with us from the start, those rotters!”
This entire wall of fog was the Phantom Tyrant’s hunting ground. No matter how much its prey struggled to break through, it could simply spew more fog and seal the breach.
The humans thought they had found an escape route by reaching the wall.
They were wrong.
To the monsters, their prey had just walked right into the killing field, making it that much easier for them to die.
“Hee hee…”
A wall before them.
Monsters behind them.
As the humans stood completely cornered, the grotesque laughter of fiends mimicking human voices rained down on them.
“Hee hee hee hee hee…”
There was no escape.