Chapter 31. Hunting for Snakes, Part III
Translator: Khan
Editor: RED
8.
The Capital Defense Command planned to hang a leash on Kim Tae-hoon and the Mac Guild. Major Oh Se-bum’s role in the kidnapping operation was as a watchdog.
‘Damn it! It’s over…’
It was also the task that none other than Lee Hyuk directly gave him.
He was going to do his job well, of course, and he had the time to relax to do it. There was no threat to him in Bucheon without Kim Tae-hoon.
‘This operation is over!’ It was at eleven o’clock in the evening that his thoughts had changed. As soon as he saw that the men who were waiting on the roof of the university hospital for the kidnapping of Ahn Sun-mi were taken down by two men who had suddenly appeared, his spine froze coldly in crisis. The operation had failed.
‘They knew it all, damn it!’
No, it was not an operational failure.
‘Failure is a word used to express its appetite where the beast tried to hunt, but the game ran away. No one uses the term failure in the situation where a predator is screaming in a trap prepared by a hunter.’
‘What do I do?’
Of course, when he saw the scene, he no longer wanted to be in Bucheon. He was going to get out of Bucheon.
‘Who do I go to?’
The problem was where to run. Oh Se-bum, who was going to run away, wondered whether he should go to Lee Hyuk at this moment or Lee Ki-soo. If he followed orders, he should go to Lieutenant General Lee Hyuk. Lee Hyuk sent him to Bucheon.
‘No, not Lee Hyuk.’ But it was not the case for Oh Se-bum. It did not seem proper for him to get an answer from Lee Hyuk.
‘I have to leave Seoul now.’ What he needed now was not to prepare for the Mac Guild’s counterattack, but to run away.
Why should he do that? ‘I do not know when the monster Kim Tae-hoon will come to Seoul.’
Kim, who had grasped the intentions of the Capital Defense Command, could not stay still.
Lee Hyuk also knew that, and when Major Oh went to tell him the news, he would ask Major Oh to escort him. However, Major Oh had no intention of escorting Lee Hyuk, who would be the top target of Kim from now on.
‘Major General.’ Oh Se-bum started running for Lee Ki-soo.
9.
“We’ll run away.”
12:11.
From Bucheon City Hall to Namsan Tower in Seoul, Major Oh ran the distance with only two legs, but Major General Lee Ki-soo did not give him a chance to breathe.
Major Oh paused for a while to catch his breath and asked, “Right, right now?”
Instead of answering, Lee Ki-soo turned his head and looked around. There were only trees around. He could not find any indication of a person being around. No matter what they said, no one would overhear it.
“If it’s not now, there is no chance to run away.” So, Lee Ki-soo spoke on the spot.
“Yes?”
“Where’s the main force of the Mac Guild?”
“They’re all in Yeoju City…”
“The Mac Guild that read our plan and set up the trap, will not leave their main power in Yeoju City, and are already moving to Seoul.”
At the moment he heard that, a map of the capital area was drawn in Oh Se-bum’s mind. ‘Ah.’
It was as Lee Ki-soo said. The Mac Guild, who had known the intentions of the Capital Defense Command, would not stay in Yeoju City and go to the Sobaek Mountains. What would happen then?
“They’re going to build a trap for a siege.”
The could not run away to Bucheon and Incheon. Those were the areas of the Mac Guild. The same was true of the northern Gyeonggi and Gangwon areas. It was the area of the 8th Mechanized Infantry Division.
In such a situation, more than 6,000 elites of the Mac Guild would come to Seoul from Yeoju City, which was located in the southeast of Seoul?
“That was his plan.”
Then, the siege of Seoul would be completed. Moreover, in order to move from Bucheon City to Seoul, they would have to cross the Han River, but in Yeoju City, there would be a little burden.
“There are no troops there.”
“Well, yes.”
Crucially, there were few troops in the southeast of Seoul. Currently, the main power of the Capital Defense Command was concentrated in the west and north to guard against the Mac Guild and the Eighth Mechanized Infantry Division, and the south and east were virtually open holes.
There was no room to stop the Mac Guild’s sudden attack. Six thousand elites organized to clean up monsters in the Sobaek mountain range would enter Seoul without any bleeding. It would not be easy to get out of Seoul at that time.
“Then where—”
“We move to Daegu first. We’re ready to move. We will travel from the Han River to Paldang Lake.”
So now was the golden time.
“Call Colonel Jang So-gook.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And I… Argh!” Lee Ki-soo, who was talking, screamed in pain at the moment.
“Aaaaaaargh!” He fell to the ground, holding his right thigh, screaming.
“Major General?” Oh Se-bum, who was surprised and looked at Lee Ki-soo, immediately saw why Lee Ki-soo was making such a noise.
“Keuk!” A Sword had passed through the right thigh of Major Oh. But he did not fall to the ground. He stood upright on his left leg and shouted, “Kim Tae-hoon!”
At the end of the cry, Kim Tae-hoon was there. He was carrying his bag with a sheath on his back, and he was slowly approaching Major Oh and the fallen Major General Lee.
Major Oh’s body was trembling at the sound of his heavy footsteps approaching. ‘Fucking hell.’
In addition, Kim’s eyes, which were black even in the dark, had given Major Oh the most overwhelming fear from any stares he had ever encountered.
The fear caused Major Oh’s Energy to rise to the extreme. His body began to pump up its strength.
‘Other than now, there is no chance.’ Major Oh’s instincts shouted, ‘This is the only chance to kill Kim Tae-hoon!’
So, Major Oh ran like a sports car, like a machine, and his body began to accelerate. He narrowed his distance to Kim at once… and that was the cause of his defeat.
‘Ah.’ As soon as Oh Se-bum punched Kim Tae-hoon, he realized that his body was moving on its own. The fist that had to be directed toward Kim’s face moved toward Kim’s left. It was a magic trick.
‘Fuck!’ It was a magic created by Kim’s Telekinesis, and Oh’s fist was drunk on the magic and stuck elsewhere.
On the other hand, Kim’s fist was accurately directed to Oh’s face.
Whack! Kim’s black fist shattered the face of Oh Se-bum.
“Fuhub!” Major Oh fell to the ground spraying teeth. The blood began to flow out of his fallen head like spring water, and his body began to twitch.
Kim walked toward the fallen Lee Ki-soo as he passed the body of Major Oh.
In the meantime, the Sword of the Imperator, which was stuck in the thigh of Major Oh, removed itself and re-entered the sheath.
Click! When Kim heard the sound of the Sword being stuck in the sheath, his footsteps stopped. He looked down at the head of the Lee Ki-soo, who had fallen to the ground.
“You are a member of the Six Snakes.”
The face of the screaming Lee Ki-soo went white. “How, how did you-”
Kim knew that he should not know. That was the biggest reason for making his face white.
“What was your mission?” Kim Tae-hoon asked him a question.
Lee Ki-soo’s face was white, but as if he was awake, he closed his mouth tightly instead of answering. He remained silent.
Kim used his own Telekinesis to control the Arrow in Lee’s thigh. He slowly pushed the Arrow deeper.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
Kim moved his Arrow very slowly, like a cicada larva.
“Aaaaaaaaaaaargh!”
He squeezed a scream from the mouth of Lee Ki-soo.
“I’ll let you talk, or even scream.”
“Argh!” In front of the pain, Lee Ki-soo was rather patient. It was because he was now aware of Kim’s intentions. ‘He won’t kill me.’
Kim wanted to get something from him, and as long as he wanted to get it, his life could be spared. It was worth keeping him alive. On the other hand, the moment he said the information Kim wanted to know, he would be dead.
‘He is going to keep me alive until he gets information from me.’
‘I’ll start acting.’
Kim could not help but notice what Lee Ki-soo was thinking about. “We’ll negotiate.”
“I didn’t, I didn’t say anything.”
“You don’t have to tell me everything. First, we need to set up a negotiation table. Take out one of your cards. That’s the price for a negotiation table.”
And it was not the first time for Kim Tae-hoon to deal with those who regarded this kind of information as a lifeline.
“I will not say anything-”
“If you want to beg for your life with information, you have to judge what’s right, or if you really want to die-”
Tsreung! During the words of Kim, the Sword of the Imperator rose by itself, and then it was inserted close to Lee Ki-soo.
“Just kill yourself.” At the message, Lee Ki-soo gave a trembling look at the Sword of the Imperator. He just looked at it. He had no reason to kill himself for keeping silent to save his life.
“… how did you know about the Six Snakes?” In the end, Lee Ki-soo talked.
“And how much do you know about the Six Snakes?”
“That’s-”
“The headquarter of the Six Snakes is Taiwan, and its purpose is to support the chaotic countries to secure the ruling forces. From that point of view, who should the Six Snakes approach? You, or me?”
Lee Ki-soo’s eyes trembled again. “No way—”
“The deal has been around for a long time, and I doubted why the Six Snakes had contacted you, not me.” This remark, of course, was not true.
‘I’ll twist your mind.’ The time and effort he had spent to make this trap were not small. Once it was more important than ever to get more information from the Six Snakes, he had thoroughly prepared to get the information.
Kim looked for a way to shake Lee’s psychology and how to get information from the other’s mouth. He had gathered a lot of the survivors under the Mac Guild, including psychologists.
“I—”
“My job was to send the monster stones I had acquired through monster hunting in Korea to Taiwan, and in return, I received relics and information, so it was a deal rather than a mission.”
“I—”
Lee’s eyes were not shaken anymore by the attack of Kim. Instead of shaking, they were just blurred. “I was on a mission… to find a legendary relic.”
At the moment of hearing that, Kim immediately pulled out the Arrow in the thigh of Lee Ki-soo.
“Yaaah!”
“What legendary relic?”
“Manpasikjeok and Geumchuk…” Lee Ki-soo poured out information obediently.
At the moment of hearing that, in the memory of Kim, Jang Sung-hoon came up with a word against Colonel Lim Hyun-joon.
‘Were there really a Manpasikjeok and Geumchuk?’ At that time, Jang mentioned them as a joke.
‘But is that real? That’s why.’
On the other hand, Kim was able to understand the intention of the Six Snakes and the movements of Lee Ki-soo.
If the purpose of the Six Snakes was simply to secure the military power of Korea, they would have been more active. The Capital Defense Command would have been in contact with the Eighth Mechanized Infantry Division.
Except for Awakeners, the Eighth Mechanized Infantry Division, which absorbed the front-line forces, was much more powerful than the Capital Defense Command.
But the Six Snakes did not do that. They hid themselves and caused confusion.
Finding what they wanted to have in the chaos was the point.
The ultimate thing the Six Snakes wanted was not the power of the Republic of Korea but chaos here. The Republic of Korea must remain in chaos so that they could get what they wanted.
What they wanted was not just a relic. If it were a real relic in a textbook, or in a museum, they would have already taken it. In other words, what they had been looking for had an unknown location and existence.
Here, Kim did not forget the advice of the second death.
‘They really exist.’ It was the advice to put Green Dragon Crescent Blade and Kusanagi, which existed only in the imagination, legend, and mythology, on the wish list.
They were what the Six Snakes wanted. They were not real relics, but the legendary relics that existed only in stories!
‘If so, it means that there is a relic in Taiwan that can roughly grasp the location of the legendary relics.’
Kim stopped thinking there for a while. “I guess you still haven’t gotten them since you’re here.”
There was a lot of information to get. “I’ll save you.” So here, Kim released the tension on Lee Ki-soo.
“To be honest, Lee Ki-soo, your life is important to me, and if we bite each other, we have nothing to gain. Rather than, the first thing we have to do is to find why the Six Snakes hid each other’s presence from us.”
At that moment, the focus came back to the eyes of Lee Ki-soo. “Well, yes.”
Click! The Sword of the Imperator inserted in the ground went back into its sheath.
“Above all, if we fight like this, my side will also suffer greatly. If you had not known my identity until now, you would have asked for help to deal with me… I am not going to be bled by the supporting force. Major General Lee Ki-soo, you have to stay alive to talk to them.”
At this part, Lee Ki-soo no longer felt much pain. ‘We can live.’
Knowing that Kim had many reasons to save him, hope for his survival brightened Lee’s face.
“Uh?” At that moment, Lee Ki-soo’s body began to sink into his own shadow.
“Er? Uh? Uh!”
While Lee Ki-soo was surprised, his body fell into shadow for a moment.
At the same time, gray smoke began to bloom around Kim. The smoke filled the surroundings in an instant. Kim stopped breathing.
On the other hand, his eyes were shining, and his ears were open. His vision and hearing began to absorb all the information around him.
‘No sound, no sight.’ However, nothing was captured by Kim’s senses.
In the meantime, shadows scattered under the heavy smoke began to move. Ten moving shadows! The shadows escaped from the thick smoke. At that moment one of the shadows rose as it was. The rising shadow soon became a human form. That was not what the person directly involved wanted.
Damn! The bitter sound of the person was the evidence. The bitter words were the man’s last words.
Thunk! A Sword was stuck in the chest of the person who showed up, and Kim saw a dead body, his chest pierced by a Sword in the thick smoke. The man was wearing black clothes and a black mask that only exposed his eyes.
He was a Ninja. When Kim saw a man dressed like that, he stopped looking around. Instead, a ring of fire began to form around him.
Anger Soaring!
Rumbling!
The crazy explosion at Cheonggye Mountain covered Namsan Mountain.
