Chapter 45: North Korean Border Command (3)
“Pressure? What exactly are you implying?”
Commander Kwon Hyeok-gyu spoke in a calm tone, but Jin-young could clearly sense the growing anxiety within him.
“Senior, do you know who Captain Kim Dae-woong’s father is?”
At Jin-young’s question, Choi Hee-yeon began operating her watch.
The moment the name Kim Dae-woong came up, a flicker of bewilderment crossed Kwon Hyeok-gyu’s face.
“He’s currently the Director of the Ministry of National Defense’s Awakener Policy Office. Recently, there have been instances of him making contact with high-ranking members of the Chinese Communist Party, so he’s under close observation.”
“Is that so?”
After Choi Hee-yeon’s brief briefing ended, Jin-young studied Kwon Hyeok-gyu’s expression.
Confusion and suspicion had replaced the earlier bewilderment on his face.
“What are you talking about? Contact with the Communist Party?”
From his expression, voice, and mental world, it was clear he wasn’t acting.
He hadn’t even considered the possibility that a high-ranking official in the Ministry of National Defense could be colluding with the Chinese Communist Party.
Choi Hee-yeon continued.
“The information obtained by the Intelligence Department so far ends there. Without directly interrogating the two parties, we can’t know what kind of secret talks they had.”
“Director Kim colluding with Communist Party officials…? Why on earth…?”
Kwon Hyeok-gyu muttered while pressing his forehead.
Jin-young hadn’t expected the Communist Party to be involved either, but now he was starting to get a rough sense of what was happening.
‘Them again.’
According to the Chinese delegation he had recently met with Yoon Soo-ho, the Chinese Communist Party wasn’t being run by the General Secretary, but by Zhu Yinchang.
And Zhu Yinchang was part of GODS.
It seemed increasingly likely that Zhu Yinchang was involved in the Monster Wave as well.
“Shall we find out what Director Kim discussed with those Communist Party officials?”
“…How exactly do you plan to find out?”
“Just a moment.”
Ignoring Kwon Hyeok-gyu’s question, Jin-young took out his smartphone and dialed someone.
—Yes, junior.
“It’s me, senior. One small favor.”
—…Go ahead.
Na Ji-hwan’s voice over the line sounded momentarily startled, but Jin-young paid it no mind.
“Please bring the Director of the Awakener Policy Office from the Ministry of National Defense to the Border Command. As quietly and discreetly as possible.”
—Ah… Understood for now.
Na Ji-hwan seemed to have something more to say, but he didn’t press the issue and ended the call.
“Now we just wait. It’s almost dinner time—shall we grab a bite? Is the food here decent?”
Kwon Hyeok-gyu was utterly speechless at Jin-young’s brazen nonchalance.
***
‘What the hell is this guy’s deal?’
Kwon Hyeok-gyu watched Chae Jin-young scrape every last bit from his tray and pondered.
The power he sensed was only low-grade Awakener level, and the man was young—clearly a rookie agent.
Yet somehow he was treating the senior agent beside him like a subordinate.
A thousand thoughts swirled chaotically in Kwon Hyeok-gyu’s mind.
And he arrived at one conclusion.
‘Something’s off. Better not touch this one.’
The moment that thought crossed his mind, Chae Jin-young spoke.
“Not eating?”
“I’ve lost my appetite…”
His appetite had vanished long before they even reached the mess hall, so Kwon Hyeok-gyu’s tray remained untouched.
“Then can I have yours? The food here’s actually pretty good. Would’ve been nice to serve in a place like this. Oh, not saying I’d reenlist or anything.”
Chae Jin-young casually reached over and took Kwon Hyeok-gyu’s tray while chattering away.
‘This guy is definitely not normal.’
As Kwon Hyeok-gyu shook his head, Choi Hee-yeon suddenly raised her hand.
“Here.”
“Long time no see, senior.”
A man approached with a smile on his face.
It was Na Ji-hwan, an investigator from the Intelligence Department.
Because their main duties differed, meetings with senior Choi Hee-yeon were rare.
But the brief moment of warmth vanished the instant he saw the man sitting beside her.
“Senior Na, you’re incredibly fast.”
At Chae Jin-young’s remark, Na Ji-hwan nodded.
“I would’ve waited a bit if I’d known you were eating.”
“Senior, join us for a meal?”
“…I’m fine.”
Na Ji-hwan declined politely and turned to Kwon Hyeok-gyu with a greeting.
“First time meeting you. Na Ji-hwan, investigator with the Intelligence Department. You’re Commander Kwon Hyeok-gyu, correct?”
“Yes, nice to meet you. I never thought I’d have occasion to meet an Intelligence Department investigator. The feeling is… quite strange.”
Even though he wasn’t the one under investigation, Kwon Hyeok-gyu couldn’t help feeling tense.
Seeing even the investigator shrink back from Chae Jin-young only deepened Kwon Hyeok-gyu’s unease.
After scraping his second tray completely clean, Chae Jin-young stood up and asked,
“Where’s the Director?”
“In the trunk. Shall I bring him out?”
“…Trunk?”
Kwon Hyeok-gyu wondered for a moment if he’d heard correctly.
“No. The mess hall’s too open. Commander, where’s the most discreet spot around here?”
“…Follow me.”
Kwon Hyeok-gyu led the Intelligence Department agents toward the headquarters building.
Halfway there, Na Ji-hwan stopped by the car, picked up a large bundled sack, and hurried after them.
“Packaging is nice and neat. I wouldn’t even recognize who it is.”
Kwon Hyeok-gyu deliberately ignored Chae Jin-young’s insane remark and opened the door to the Commander’s office.
Na Ji-hwan set the sack on the sofa and immediately began unpacking it.
Inside was none other than a middle-aged man.
“Kim Won-gu, Director of the Ministry of National Defense’s Awakener Policy Office. I knocked him out to handle this quickly and discreetly.”
At Na Ji-hwan’s explanation, Chae Jin-young nodded, then asked,
“Did you notice anything strange about this guy?”
“I put him under the moment we met, so there wasn’t time for conversation…”
“No, I don’t mean that. I mean—didn’t you sense anything like mana?”
At Chae Jin-young’s words, not only Na Ji-hwan but also Kwon Hyeok-gyu and Choi Hee-yeon tilted their heads in confusion.
“We know him as a non-Awakened civilian…”
“You’ll see soon enough.”
Chae Jin-young cut off Na Ji-hwan and turned his gaze to the unconscious Kim Won-gu.
That instant—
Crack—
Kim Won-gu’s arm twisted violently in an unnatural direction.
“AAAARGH!”
Kim Won-gu snapped awake with a scream.
Choi Hee-yeon and Na Ji-hwan watched as if this were routine, but Kwon Hyeok-gyu was shocked in multiple ways.
First, no matter how much authority Intelligence had, he never imagined they would use violence against a 1st-grade public official so casually.
More importantly, seeing an arm twisted from a distance without any visible mana made him realize the source of the discomfort he’d felt all along.
The awakened Kim Won-gu looked around with a face mixed with panic, fear, and rage.
“Wh-what the hell! You people… Wait—Brigadier General Kwon? What are you doing here right now?”
When he spotted Kwon Hyeok-gyu, confusion flickered across his expression.
Kwon Hyeok-gyu, still watching with suspicion, glanced briefly at the Intelligence agents before directing a question at Kim Won-gu.
“Director Kim. Let me ask you just one thing. Are you really colluding with the Chinese Communist Party?”
“What? Who am I supposed to be colluding with?”
Kim Won-gu raised his voice in disbelief.
But Kwon Hyeok-gyu spoke with sunken eyes.
“And yet, Director Kim… your arm just got twisted, and you seem perfectly fine. Doesn’t it hurt?”
Even for a hunter, that kind of pain wouldn’t be easy to shrug off—let alone for a civilian.
Yet after the initial scream when his arm broke, Kim Won-gu had remained eerily composed.
One might think he had exceptional mental fortitude, but this seemed beyond that.
“Of course it hurts! Brigadier General Kwon, are you seriously doubting me right now? Or have you already forgotten how you climbed to that position?”
“I got here purely on my own merit. What exactly did you do for me that you’re bringing up my rank?”
Kwon Hyeok-gyu refused to be swayed by Kim Won-gu’s insinuation and shot back with a fierce glare.
“So that’s how you want to play it. Let’s see what happens when you touch the Director of the Ministry of National Defense.”
Kim Won-gu reached for his smartphone with his uninjured left hand.
But before he could press a button, the phone floated out of his grasp and hovered in midair.
“Wh-what the…?”
Crack—
The smartphone disassembled itself in the air.
As Kim Won-gu stared vacantly upward, a man in a black suit appeared before him.
“Kim Won-gu. Who gave you the black mana? The Communist Party? Or GODS?”
“Wh-what are you… talking about…”
Crack!
His ankle twisted 360 degrees, bones shattering.
“AAAARGH! You son of a—! You’re making a huge mistake!”
Kim Won-gu rose on his uninjured right foot and began gathering black mana.
Just as he swung his fist toward Chae Jin-young—
Sssss—
His body froze solid.
The skin on his left hand began peeling away in thin layers, blood streaming down.
“Ugh…!”
It felt like a razor was slowly slicing his skin—layer by excruciating layer.
The floor quickly pooled with blood, and Kim Won-gu’s face grew paler by the second.
Watching the horrifying scene, Kwon Hyeok-gyu thought to himself:
Good thing I decided not to touch this one.
“People with black mana really are tough. But having your bones shaved away still hurts, right? I hate loud noises, though.”
The moment Chae Jin-young finished speaking, Kim Won-gu’s tongue was yanked out of his mouth.
“Mmph! Mmph—! Wai—!”
Panicking, Kim Won-gu screamed as if desperately trying to say something.
“Go ahead.”
As soon as Chae Jin-young released his tongue, Kim Won-gu let out a sigh of relief and began to speak.
“Y-yes… it’s true I met with a high-ranking member of the Chinese Communist Party. But I have never met anyone from GODS.”
Hearing the confession, Kwon Hyeok-gyu’s face hardened.
Surface-level diplomatic relations with China were neither good nor bad.
Of course, compared to before the Great Change, invisible conflicts had deepened considerably.
Since the Great Change, China had been conducting all sorts of covert operations to swallow Korea whole.
From the assassination of Ri Taek-su in the past, to the Red Flower Society’s Black Rose operation, to the atrocities the Chinese delegation had attempted—
And countless other incidents that never surfaced.
That was why the Intelligence Department had designated China as a potential enemy state, and the ROK military had been preparing for war with China.
Kwon Hyeok-gyu was currently defending the country from the North Korean contaminated zones, but he knew full well that the moment those zones disappeared, the target would shift to China.
“Director Kim… this is nothing short of treason.”
Kwon Hyeok-gyu glared at Kim Won-gu with a furious expression.
Kim Won-gu waved his hands frantically and turned to Chae Jin-young.
“I-I never gave those Communist Party bastards any benefits! On the contrary, I only squeezed things out of them. Yes… just like you said, I received black mana.”
“You were supposed to be a normal civilian, right? You’re perfectly fine even after receiving black mana.”
Chae Jin-young studied him with genuine curiosity.
“At first, when I accepted the mana, I thought I was going to die. But once I took it in… it felt like I owned the world.”
Recalling that moment, Kim Won-gu’s face became entranced with ecstasy.
From the looks of it, this wasn’t some cheap imitation like Black Rose or Bloody Rose—it seemed to be a special method exclusive to GODS.
Something they used only on targets they absolutely needed to recruit.
At that moment, a good idea occurred to Chae Jin-young.
If he could figure out how to stably inject black mana…
“What about your son? He received black mana too, right?”
At the follow-up question, Kim Won-gu flinched, then nodded.
“…Yes. Dae-woong received black mana as well. This was all for him. They said he’d gain power far beyond ordinary hunters and would even be protected from contaminated zone monsters.”
“If you really wanted to protect your son, you could’ve just reassigned him to the rear. You had that kind of pull.”
“That’s…”
“By the way, next time it might be his neck that snaps. I’m not great at controlling the force.”
When Kim Won-gu hesitated, Chae Jin-young casually dropped the chilling remark.
“…In exchange for Dae-woong gaining that power, he agreed to serve in Paju. They told him the dangerous area was Gangwon Province, not Paju.”
“Who told him that? The Communist Party guy?”
“…Yes.”
Chae Jin-young grinned and turned to the others.
“Let’s head to the Paju guard post where Captain Kim Dae-woong is stationed. You all go ahead.”
Choi Hee-yeon and Na Ji-hwan left without a word, but Kwon Hyeok-gyu seemed to have something to say.
‘This is my office…’
In the end, though, he had no choice but to follow the Intelligence agents out.
Once they were alone, Kim Won-gu whispered to Chae Jin-young like he was sharing a secret.
“I’ll keep my mouth shut about today’s illegal torture and interrogation. Just get me out of here safely.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll send you to the safest place in the world.”
“Wh-what do you—”
Sssht—
“Package received.”
Kim Won-gu’s body was seized by tentacles and dragged through the portal.
***
Chae Jin-young arrived at the Paju guard post where Captain Kim Dae-woong was stationed.
When he had spread psionic energy thinly and widely earlier, it had been uncertain.
But now that he was close, it was unmistakable.
There was someone here with black mana.
Like Min Hae-joon and the other GODS members, if they concealed black mana thoroughly, ordinary hunters would find it difficult to detect.
At minimum, you needed to be 2nd-grade to sense even a hint of it.
And even then, if the opponent was high-level and hid it perfectly, it would be nearly impossible to notice.
Like how Yoon Soo-ho, a 1st-grade, had completely failed to identify Min Hae-joon’s true nature.
Of course, Jin-young could detect it easily with psionic energy.
There was only one person with black mana.
That had to be Captain Kim Dae-woong.
‘But this guy’s mana feels… a bit unusual?’
It was definitely black mana, but it had an impurity mixed in—like something adulterated.
Yet it didn’t feel crude like someone who had taken Black Rose or Bloody Rose.
『I need to see it directly.』
As soon as the tentacle spoke, Jin-young converted his psionic energy into psychokinesis.
BOOM BOOM BOOM!
The figure of Kim Dae-woong, who had been resting inside the barracks, smashed stra
ight through the wall and flew out.
“Wh-what the hell!”
Struck by lightning out of a clear blue sky, he shot to his feet.
Sure enough, the black mana had strengthened his body enough to withstand that level of impact.
But more importantly—
‘Do you know what it is?’
『It has the scent that contaminated zone monsters love.』
Kim Dae-woong possessed mana that attracted contaminated zone monsters.
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