Chapter 178

“Uwaaaah!! I don’t want to go to training! Please just let me sit out this one time…!”

“How many times have you said that and managed to ditch so far?! The Commander is properly sharpening her blade for this one, so you’d better brace yourself!!”

“Forcing a sick patient who’s missing a whole finger to drag himself along, do you have no human heart, Deputy Commander?!”

“Why the hell are you shifting the blame onto me for you skipping your meals? Besides, losing just one finger leaves you perfectly functional. You won’t even qualify for a disability pension.”

These absolute monsters with brains entirely packed with muscle.

When my finger had been devoured by Mala-nim, my seniors had been genuinely thrilled, saying, “Hayan has finally become a real man.”

All while showing off their own burn scars from battle or sections where parts of their internal organs had been gouged out.

To think I had to eat and sleep with those idiots for two whole weeks while undergoing special training.

And of all places, all the way in Japan, where there was nowhere left to run.

In that ruined nation where no humans currently lived, thousands, tens of thousands of types of monsters lay in wait.

The purpose of this training was to establish a forward outpost for the Special Unit in that very place.

Utilizing the undersea tunnel that the Dragon Immortal had whipped up out of nowhere not long ago, a hundred Awakened from Division 3 would make landfall all at once and wage an endless battle against monsters—a plan that sounded reckless just by listening to it.

The most horrific part was that those idiots weren’t the only ones in South Korea who had raised their hands in approval for an operation that was practically no different from a suicide charge.

“Thinking our strength alone would be insufficient, I inquired with The Old Gods’ Wound, and a positive response came back in less than a day.”

“Ooh, is that true?!”

“Yeah. In fact, the Sword Immortal, who recently visited Japan himself, said he would come personally to give us guidance.”

“Kahaha! If the Sword Immortal is coming, completely pacifying the entirety of Japan isn’t just a dream.”

“Let’s just establish a Special Unit Division 3 Bureau altogether!”

An indescribable stench of sweat and blood vibrated among the swordsmen gathered at the training ground.

Because they had wrestled so much with demon corpses in the Necropolis, the smell of death had practically seeped into their very bodies.

Watching the seniors—who had reached the peak of their physical prime and couldn’t control their raw power, sending poor training dummies flying up to the ceiling while stuffing Ascetic Energy Bars down their throats—I felt the urge to commit suicide for the first time in my life.

To think they had transformed into such bizarre entities during the time I hadn’t seen them due to various missions.

Even Kang Ha-neul, who was the only slim and reasonably good-looking one, had been reborn with a physique capable of tearing space apart with pure muscle after mastering Extreme Magic.

And I was the number one item… no, junior, that those seniors packed whenever they went out for training.

“Your role is the most important in this training, Hayan.”

“Is it magic?”

“Nope? You have to prepare the meals. Someone has to cook the food, right?”

“Didn’t you enter through a special hire by utilizing your experience of cooking with monsters inside irregular Gates? We’re counting on you this time too.”

I had been designated as the mess boy who could relentlessly whip up food in any extreme environment.

Thanks to that, despite pulling off that entire live show, getting out of training became impossible.

The only reliable corner left was for Yoo Se-byeol to override things and save me, given that we were no longer in a simple superior-subordinate relationship, but even that seemed far from easy.

“I can’t. Grandfather specifically told me that I must bring you along with me.”

“Why?”

“He… said we should… go on a double date…”

With whom?

With the Sword Immortal and Yoo Se-byeol’s grandmother?

When Yoo Se-byeol’s mature personality, the Sword Immortal’s senility, and the madness of Division 3 combined, it brought about the horrific result of a double date with octogenarians in a foreign land where a Night Parade of a Hundred Demons was taking place.

Like that, after forty rejections, three fake illnesses, and eleven escape attempts went down in vain.

By the time exactly seventy-two hours had passed, I was passing through the undersea tunnel while riding inside a black van.

“Mmph, mmph!”

“Uh-huh, just endure it a little. We’re almost there.”

Not only were my hands and feet bound, but my eyes were also covered, so I couldn’t discern the time or place.

I could only gauge our rough location based on the sounds drifting in.

『Mala-nim. Shall we forget everything that happened until now and make up?』

『La-la-la~ La-la-la-la~ La-la~. La-la-la~ La-la~ La~ La~.』

Even Mala-nim, who was my sole hope, refused to cooperate with me because she was no longer subjected to getting her food disposed of using leftovers from the cafeteria.

“We’ve arrived. Let’s unpack our gear first in the safe zone secured by the advance team and organize the vanguard layout.”

“What should we do with Hayan?”

“If we untie him now, this guy will run away all the way back to Busan, so tie him to a leash around tomorrow and put him inside the Commander’s tent over there.”

“Bathroom! I urgently need the bathroom!”

Having barely been released like that, I looked around the surroundings.

The place where this training was being conducted was one of the famous mountains in northern Kyushu, where the undersea tunnel connected.

The dense trees that rivaled Mount Cheonsan and the eroded soil that was reminiscent of the Demon Realm made me doubt whether this was truly a scenery of Earth.

The monsters that had poured out from the Gates for years had devoured each other, restructuring the mountain into their very own ecosystem.

“If you’re done unpacking, everyone gather up.”

Summoning her subordinates, Yoo Se-byeol strictly enjoined them not to step outside the safe zone without authorization.

The sheer number of monsters flocking over upon hearing the commotion was an amount we couldn’t handle on our own.

“We borrowed a few Magical Siege Turrets, but since they’re strictly for holding down this position, they won’t be of massive help.”

“Where are we supposed to pioneer?”

“If you follow the mountain range down south, an alluvial plain will appear. We plan to make that place the forward outpost for the Special Unit.”

“Is there any reason to drag it out? We’ll organize three teams and run them twenty-four hours a day.”

Rest, combat, and maintenance.

It was a declaration from Kang Ha-neul that they would slaughter every single monster in sight for two weeks, turning the entire area into a wasteland using a tactic that only the swordsmen of Division 3—who had been reborn into slaughter machines through countless tempering—could pull off.

At this point, a question arose as to whether it wouldn’t have been better to form an alliance with Division 4 and cross over.

Pioneering would have been far easier with the support of mages, so why did they bring along only the swordsmen from The Old Gods’ Wound?

Just as the curiosity in my mind was tickling my brain, Yoo Se-byeol shook her head.

She directed the division members to split into four teams instead of three, contrary to Kang Ha-neul’s opinion.

“Are you telling us to run it in two shifts?”

“No, I’m telling you to get more rest. Leave one team out as a reserve.”

“We’re perfectly fine, though.”

“Our bodies are practically itching for a fight, you know. Right, Hayan?”

“…”

“I am saying this because the enemies we have to fight aren’t just the monsters located here.”

“Is there something else? Like the remaining Awakened in Japan?”

Yoo Se-byeol did not answer the seniors’ questions.

Instead, based on the information obtained by The Old Gods’ Wound side, she designated the subjugation targets in the mountain and the plain.

To my surprise, a total of four Super-Class monsters lay in wait, two of each kind.

Receiving the photos of the monsters that were reminiscent of the Four Auspicious Beasts, the fighting spirit of the division members ignited in an instant.

In particular, they cast their eyes greedily upon a monster that appeared to be an sub-species of Tartaruga.

“It’s a waste to just kill that guy, isn’t it?”

“Let’s drag it to Seoul. We need to show those Division 4 bastards that we can raise a turtle of our own too.”

“Exactly! Even the Saint of Salvation pulled it off, so there’s no way Division 3 can’t do it.”

“But by what means are we going to pass through the tunnel with an entity that massive?”

“We can just chop it into pieces, transport it, and assemble it again.”

Alexei, who had been listening, explained his plan.

“I shall split that guy’s back with my axe, so everyone just carry five hundred tons each.”

“Oh, that sounds good.”

“As expected of the smartest brain among us!”

“Hayan over there claims to be a mage, yet he can’t even come up with a brilliant idea like this when it’s actually needed.”

Good grief, my head hurts.

Is this exactly how a normal person feels when entering a village of one-eyed people?

Unable to watch the agents establishing a full-blown turtle dissection operation any longer, I stepped out of the tent using a headache as an excuse.

On the outskirts of the camp, logging and guarding were taking place, and construction for installing the tentacle turrets was in full swing.

Since only Division 3 and The Old Gods’ Wound had come, I was the sole mage here.

I quietly spread my mana across the entire mountain and plain so that the laborers wouldn’t notice.

『There really isn’t much of anything, though?』

『Not?』

『I mean the enemies in the vicinity. It’s exactly as Commander Yoo Se-byeol said.』

The only entities from which strong mana could be felt were the four Super-Class monsters, completely matching the locations marked on the map.

Of course, catching all of them and pioneering the mountain and plain within two weeks was no easy task, but considering our forces—which even included the Sword Immortal—it felt like it would be a rather trivial battle.

Then again, the Bureau wouldn’t select a dangerous location when choosing land to turn into a battlefield.

If so, then what exactly was the enemy that needed to be destroyed that Yoo Se-byeol mentioned?

“Hey, um… Hayan.”

“Yes?”

Right on cue, having finished the meeting, she stepped outside.

Her black hair, which had begun growing longer at some point, now reached below her pelvis, to the point where I wondered if it wouldn’t be a hindrance in combat.

After confirming that no one was around, Yoo Se-byeol subtly drew closer and spoke carefully into my ear.

“Grandfather asked to see you, so… can you come to The Old Gods’ Wound camp with me for a second?”

“The Sword Immortal?”

To be frank, I didn’t particularly want to face him.

Why should I feel any fondness for meeting an old geezer who broke his promise with me and fled all the way to Japan back then?

Seeing him babble nonsense about a double date or whatever, it was obvious that he had a reason for dragging me all the way here this time too.

I liked Yoo Se-byeol, but her family—including Yoo Cheol-jin—remained uncomfortable figures to deal with.

“I’m a bit busy, you see. If I don’t prep the ingredients before the sun goes down, I’ll get scolded by the seniors.”

“We can just eat Ascetic Energy Bars for dinner tonight. Please, the truth is, the most important person in this training is you, Hayan…”

See? There really was a scheme after all.

It looked like I would have to clearly draw a line this time around.

It was something I felt when I went to Ground Zero with Cheon So-baek previously, but just because the three women—Yoo Se-byeol, No Yeon-hwa, and Cheon So-baek—knew my identity didn’t mean I had to grant everything while having my weakness unilaterally held.

On the contrary, they were the ones who had narrowed the psychological distance first, so their walls crumbled easily at a small emotional reaction from my side.

My childhood friend had personally taught me through experience about this thing called “push-and-pull” by pushing and pulling me off a cliff, after all.

I didn’t want to hurt Yoo Se-byeol, but the scope of relationships I could harbor extended strictly to her.

To regard even Yoo Cheol-jin, who recently regained his senses and returned to the mansion, or the Sword Immortal Yoo Chae-seon as special figures, there were already far too many people around me.

As I deliberated, I brought words of rejection to my lips.

“I am sorry, but I am an agent of Special Unit Division 3, not an individual from The Old Gods’ Wound side, let alone a swordsman. Unless it is an official directive given by you as the Commander due to work, I have absolutely no intention of forming a closer relationship with them…”

“If you come and listen to what he has to say, I’ll let you touch my feet however you want during the training.”

“You should have said so from the start. Let’s go quickly, the sun is going to set at this rate.”