Chapter 32. The Moon of Seoul, Part I
Translator: Khan
Editor: RED
1.
Rumbling! The explosion that started at Kim Tae-hoon’s body shook everything around him. The trees that filled Namsan were shaken like waves, and stones flew like leaves.
The same was true of a human body. “Ahhhhh!” The ninjas, swept away by the huge explosion, began to roll like garbage, screaming. It was not easy for anyone to regain their balance on the slope, but the ninjas regained their footing almost instantly.
“しっかりしろ!”
Wake up! They reacted immediately to someone’s cry. The ninjas stopped on the slope and pulled swords from their waists.
Whiz! The ninjas held leaf-shaped throwing-knives between the index finger and the middle finger, between the middle finger and the ring finger, and threw them at the same time toward Kim Tae-hoon.
Swish! Dozens of throwing-knives, which cut through the wind thinly and sharply, moved toward Kim, drawing a unique trajectory like a boomerang.
It was like a shower. No matter how big his eyes were, there was no place to avoid them.
But Kim was not surprised by the showers of throwing-knives. He did not actively respond. What he did at this sudden attack was open his black Eyes wide, open his ears as wide as possible, and to stretch his arms out with his palms open, as if pushing an invisible wall.
Ttuk! Dozens of throwing-knives that were heading for Kim stopped in the air. Then they fell to the ground with a sound like falling rain.
The sight gave the ninjas a look of horror that could be seen behind the masks.
‘Oh, my God.’
‘What the hell is this…?’
The Ninjas’ thinking stopped in that state. It was an error. Just as the program that received the uninterpreted command stopped, the ninjas, who assumed that Kim would avoid or pause, were forced to stop in front of this action taken against the throwing knives.
Kim, on the other hand, moved.
‘I set a bait.’ Kim took the gun out of his waist and pulled the trigger toward the ninjas who were far away.
Blam, blam! The gunshots were like a thunderstorm waking up the dumbstruck ninjas.
‘Gun!’
‘We must avoid it!’
The ninjas refocused their minds and focused all their five senses on Kim.
‘They took the bait.’ This was what Kim has wanted.
Zing! They focused on the gunshot; in other words, they did not focus on the Arrow.
Thunk! The Arrow of Sun-sin, the relic of the great Admiral that did not need an explanation, began to reproduce the nostalgia of the past. It began to penetrate the skulls of the ninjas, who were totally focused on the gun in the hand of Kim Tae-hoon, and who had stepped on the land of the Korean Peninsula in the midst of these turbulent times.
Ping! When the third shot broke out, no one was looking at Kim anymore, just dead bodies that had lost the focus in their eyes were crumpled near the devastated area of Namsan.
However, Kim did not care about their dead bodies. His gaze hurriedly chased one person. It was a dead body with a dagger in his chest that stopped his gaze.
“Hoo.” The moment Kim found the dead body of Lee Ki-soo, his eyes closed.
‘Fucking hell.’ Kim’s mouth was twisted. His expression could not be easily seen, the feeling that Kim felt now was intense.
He had succeeded in seizing the psychological gap of Lee Ki-soo. If the conversation had continued, there would have been a big income.
But all that was left now was regret. There was no way to get information from the dead Lee Ki-soo. So, regrets rose in Kim’s head, and the questions followed regret again and again.
Where did they come from? ‘The forces of the Six Snakes must have built power in Japan, too.’ It was, of course, Japan. This part was so blatant that it was absurd.
‘Lee Ki-soo asked for help to check me out.’ The problem was the capacity.
The fact that there was enough room for elite Japanese Awakeners and ninjas in Korea meant that Japan had built some power within the Japanese archipelago.
‘This is beyond what I expected.’ But it was not easy for them to send ninjas if it was the power of Japan that Kim has known. Japan was not a weak country, but basically, it lacked the most effective army power to deal with monsters, and there were very few army trainees who were decisively skilled, as well as weapons.
When they rescued the Japanese VIP, the Japanese government had used its ties with Korea to ask Kim for help. Here, the great surveillance system that Japan boasted of would have been destroyed with the appearance of monsters.
The strength of Japan was that it had a good preparation for disasters, but expectations for monsters were not good. There was a big difference between an earthquake and the monsters. Of course, with the advent of monsters, Japan should have been a much worse mess than Korea. At least that was what he had thought.
‘I did not expect that Japan would already have this much power.’
But now he had to acknowledge it. Japan was equipped to hunt powerful monsters.
It was obvious that the ninjas were dispatched to Korea, and the ninjas actually counterattacked Kim after they were struck by Anger Soaring.
‘The relics they secured are not common. No, if the Six Snakes are behind them, they surely have excellent relics.’
Kim’s Anger Soaring was comparable to a green-grade monster’s, and if they could hold it off with pure Energy, they would not have been slain helplessly by him. It meant that they had overcome the fear with the help of relics. It also meant that they could maximize their power against a green-grade monster.
‘… Kusanagi.’
‘Above all, it is clearly in Japan. There is the relic of unheard-of that has been mentioned in the myths in Japan.’
It was none other than Kim Tae-hoon, who had guaranteed it through his dream-death.
At that moment, Kim heard a disturbance.
“Search!”
“Encircle the area! Circle it wide!”
It was the sound of those who were surprised by the noise at the heart of the Capital Defense Command, Namsan Tower.
It was also a signal that Kim should take his next action. He opened his eyes. Opening his eyes, he looked at the moon above the sky.
‘I will finish it before the sun rises today.’ There was no tremor in his eyes.
2.
The hospital director’s office…
There were a lot of people in the place where Ahn Sun-mi usually worked alone. It was crowded with men, to be precise.
“What the hell is going on?!”
Ahn Joo-hyung and Ahn Jae-hyung were surprised by Ahn’s shout, but Jang Sung-hoon shrugged his shoulders.
“It’s nothing.”
“So, what the hell is going on?”
“We’re going to take this chance to destroy the Capital Defense Command and take over Seoul. I’m sure it’ll be settled as early as tomorrow morning.”
At the calm appearance of Jang, who had spoken such crazy words, Ahn looked at him as if he was an idiot. It was the same with the twin brothers who had been deployed to guard them.
‘He is talking about the mission that our troops have been planning using all sorts of means and methods, but we haven’t even dreamed of, like buying things at the local supermarket.’
‘As early as…’
The two of them, members of the 8th Mechanized Infantry Division, knew well what efforts they had made to take down the Capital Defense Command. But the Capital Defense Command was more than they thought.
If there had not been a problem in the Capital Defense Command, Colonel Lim Hyun-joon would have taken over Seoul on behalf of the country.
However, the two brothers could not deny Jang’s words.
‘Well, if it is that monster…’ Nothing else, but they had seen Kim’s ability, and they thought that he could do anything.
However, Ahn was different. “Explain it to me.”
She could not understand everything in the words of Jang. No, that wasn’t what mattered to her now.
“It’s simple. If we show a loophole on purpose, the Capital Defense Command will come to attack the loophole, and we’ll be attacked by the first punch. As you know, whatever we do after we are beaten, is for self-defense, right? At least it’s both our faults, and the other side which is beaten more is the worse off.”
Jang, who was speaking, smiled lightly. “Well, don’t be too sorry, because information security is important, and I couldn’t tell you.”
“That’s not what I’m sorry about!” At that moment, Ahn burst forth with anger. It was an explosion of the agony and the anger she had been having.
At her appearance, the light laughter on the mouth of Jang began to turn into a bitter laugh. It was not hard to know why Ahn exploded with fury, because he was quick-witted.
‘Finally, she is furious.’ Jang knew Why Ahn was angry now.
She was worried that she might become a useless person just like this, and that she might be abandoned by Kim as soon as she became a useless person.
‘Well, we are all the same.’ It was not her own concern. It was the worry and concern of all those who have been with Kim from the beginning. By looking at Bang Hyun-wook, they knew that. He was killing monsters like crazy to catch up with Kim somehow, and Lieutenant Kim Soo-ji was doing her best in her role.
The problem was that Kim did not care for them or look back. The people who had followed Kim were upset. They wondered if they were doing well, and they were worried. Then they exploded with anger.
‘Then, Lieutenant Kim Soo-ji is going to explode next?’
The first explosion was Bang Hyun-wook who lacked patience, and now Ahn Sun-mi had exploded.
But that would not change Kim. He would be the same in the future.
“Sister Sun-mi, don’t think he’ll care about you. He won’t care if you get married and become his wife.”
Therefore, at this moment, Jang did not say nice things to Ahn.
“Find your own place.”
Jang knew better than anyone else.
“The boss can’t afford to look back, because he is just too busy looking right in front of him.” It was too much for Kim to just look at the matters facing them right now.
“And now we have to solve the invisible problem.”
After completing his words, Jang turned his gaze from Ahn, who had her mouth shut, and looked at his bag with a sideways glance.
‘If we get the Capital Defense Command, the only remaining area is the Gyeongsang Province.’
‘As soon as the Mac Guild takes the Capital Defense Command, the entire area except Gyeongsang and Jeolla Provinces will become the territory of the Mac Guild. Moreover, as long as Chungcheong Province is already secured, securing Jeolla Province will proceed smoothly. There is no monster above the blue grade.’
‘The only thing left is the area of Gyeongsang Province. It will not be easy, but the area will be cleaned up in three months.’
‘Jeju Island is now irrelevant to the subject.’
‘Jeju Island will be left, and Jeju Island has a dark-blue grade monster, so we will postpone the attack to later, and anyway, the Mac Guild will regain most of the country of Korea.’
‘Then we’ll have to go through North Korea and go to the continent, or we’ll go across the sea to Japan.’
‘And that is the starting point. It is never the end. If we remain isolated in the Korean Peninsula, we will be the prey of the world powers and those who will lead a new order. We have to move to live. We must go without rest, whether in the sea or on land.’
‘At that time, Daedongyeojido is virtually useless.’
‘As soon as the world becomes a stage, Daedongyeojido, which has been the best guide of the Mac Guild so far, becomes useless.’
‘We have to start a struggle for survival once again on a stage where we do not know where the monsters are, and where our enemies are.’
‘It is none other than Kim Tae-hoon who has to stand at the forefront and make the way.’
He could not afford to take care of someone like that.
“Well, let’s move now.”
Jang could not afford to look back, either.
“Let’s see the boss take over Seoul, because it’s a historic moment going to appear in the textbooks.”
3.
At the moment of the huge explosion, troops gathered around Namsan Tower, where Lee Hyuk was located.
“Everyone, watch out!”
“Don’t lower your guard!”
The best elite soldiers, who were preparing to protect Lee Hyuk, were ready for the chaos. They were not the inexperienced ones; they had survived in a world full of monsters, and they had increased their stats by eating monster stones with the continued help and support of the Capital Defense Command.
They were the most reliable soldiers of Lee Hyuk. However, Lee Hyuk, who was escorted by them, was clearly aware that nothing could stop the typhoon that would come to him now.
‘Kim Tae-hoon is here. We can’t stop him.’
Therefore, Lee Hyuk told his determined subordinates, “When Kim Tae-hoon comes, send him to me.”
“Yes?”
“Don’t stop him when he comes, just let him go.”
“But, but…”
At the order of Lee Hyuk, his guards looked white. But no one asked him or tried to persuade him. They did not even try.
Kim had already shown them; he showed them what he was like and everything in the battle with Albino Goblin without holding back.
That was why Kim showed his ability without filtering it.
‘I think it was also a strategic move that he showed his identity in Cheonggye Mountain.’
There had been always a reason for Kim’s actions. Even if he showed his strength, he did not show it without a reason. It was a ploy to use in the future.
‘He sent the troops to Yeoju City to siege Seoul. It was also a ploy.’ Moving the troops to Yeoju City was not just a move to deceive the eyes. It was also a strategic move.
‘Chang Young-sung made a monster.
‘This ability is not an ability you are born with. It is an ability to be cultivated with long training and made through countless practical exercises in battle.’
‘No…’
Kim was not born with this ability. He went through training which others could not stand under the goal of protecting his country.
‘The Korean government has created a monster.’
Since then, the Korean government had put him into all kinds of practical exercises, unlike its original purpose, for the sake of the Korean government’s taste and the interests of those in power.
Even though there was no need to go to the Middle East, he carried out operations without proper support for the interests of businesses and politicians on the battlefield of the Middle East, and even though there was no reason to go to Africa, he carried out his duties against all kinds of enemies. In the process, he lost many colleagues and learned lessons in return.
In other words, if Kim had been just an ordinary soldier, his ability would have been incomparably low.
‘This is karma.’ When Lee Hyuk reached that point, he smiled bitterly.
“Lieutenant General…”
And that was the last laugh he could make today.
“Ki-Kim Tae-hoon is coming down from the sky.”
Kim Tae-hoon was floating under the moon of Seoul…
