Chapter 196. The Road Not Taken (2)
“Here. A report summarizing the team members’ abilities and weaknesses.”
“Thank you. I’ll distribute it to the team.”
“Don’t just skim it. Read it carefully. This order came directly from the Director.”
“Understood.”
The head of the Personnel Bureau’s Field Support Division Two, Heo Gong, was in a foul mood.
“Twenty-four hours. Wrap it up within that time.”
“I’m sorry?”
“You heard me. Move.”
No preparation. One day. An entire team to eliminate. They even labeled it as an internal cleanup. He should’ve known from the moment his division was assigned instead of Division One. Division Two was specialized in direct combat, while Division One was an assassination unit.
So this is busywork, Heo Gong thought.
Even if done perfectly, it was an annoying work that would earn him nothing. After all, they were going up against fresh hires, meaning it was small fry. No glory to be gained there.
However, since the director himself had issued the order, he couldn’t afford to be careless either.
“Let’s finish quickly and get some rest.”
“Yes, sir.”
“How about drinks afterward? It’s been a while.”
That was how casually he’d briefed his subordinates.
Bang!
Everything changed when a gunshot rang out from the bound hostages. The next instant, a golden streak of light snapped into a right-angle turn and punched through the back of someone’s skull. At that moment, Heo Gong revised his assessment.
Maybe this isn’t just busywork.
No conventional firearm could produce an angle like that. It had to be an ability that belonged to an employee.
It must be Kim Ji-Eun... I didn’t expect her to have such an ability.
As unexpected as it was, Heo Gong wasn’t caught entirely off guard. Ji-Eun had simply shot a decoy prepared to counter Eun-Ho’s Acceleration skill—a scarecrow destined to fall.
[Void Convergence has been disassembled.]
Beneath the white mask and combat uniform, the swarm of insects writhed. Thousands of void-creatures, bound together by his command, had lost their core from a single gunshot.
Through the gaps in the mask, down the sleeves, and between the jacket and trousers, six-legged black insects poured out. What remained collapsed onto the sand like a cotton doll stripped of its stuffing.
“Shit.”
“That’s insane.”
A low murmur spread among the team members as they held their positions.
Heo Gong’s voice slammed down on them with crushing weight. “Silence!”
His subordinates expressed their concerns.
“Are you alright?!”
“What was that just now—”
“There’s no need to panic,” Heo Gong replied.
His subordinates were still shaken despite knowing what had just been destroyed wasn’t the real body. He could see why. The enemy abilities were beyond anticipation.
“That wasn’t in the report! Was our intel wrong?!”
“What if something else unexpected shows up?”
These weren’t desk jockeys twirling pens in an office. With every fight they joined, they put their lives on the line. They couldn’t just shrug and say that things happened when reality diverged from expectation.
“Kreeeeek! Kreeeeek!”
Shit. Even the birds are insane.
As if the chaos wasn’t enough already, the flapping, shrieking flock only worsened Heo Gong’s headache. No one knew when the restraints had been cut, but the muzzles lay scattered across the sand.
Eardrum-shattering screeches rang out as the birds collided with those just taking flight. Sand and feathers spiraled together, churning into a blinding storm.
Oh gosh. It's a total disorder.
However, suppressing chaos was also the leader’s job.
“Locate them. Strike while they’re distracted,” Heo Gong barked, as if engraving the order into their mind.
The team finally snapped out of it and returned to their assigned positions.
“Yes sir!”
They can’t escape anyway.
To prevent any chance of escape, his units had already formed a wide perimeter. One squad was even stationed along the wall at the edge of the desert. Their targets had nowhere left to run.
“What about the hostages?!”
“They’re already gone!”
Still wasn’t a problem. As long as they were still inside this area, he could always find them.
He gathered the scattered insects back together. “Void.”
Scritch—
“Fifty meters to the left! And height is two meters!”
Thinking about where the shout came from, he kept Lee Eun-Ho in mind and gave his command. “Find their footprints!”
[Void Manipulation has been activated.]
Then, he closed his eyes, sensing the movements of the black insects that served as his limbs. Their six legs churned through the desert at blinding speed, skimming the sand like water striders.
He’s not here. Then could he be over there?
Moments later, he opened his eyes.
“Enemy sighted! Thirty meters ahead at three o’clock!” a crooked grin tugged at his lips as he barked the order. “Bombard them!”
Thud! Boooom!
The artillery barrels roared, hurling shells in high arcs. A shell larger than several human heads slammed into the ground. Not even massive Go stones would survive that, let alone footprints.
As expected, the Go stones shattered, and the sandstone mounds exploded apart. Shrapnel rained down like hail, while the crater belched debris like a downpour.
“B-but there’s no one...”
There were no chunks of flesh, no blood, nothing.
“They couldn’t have gone far! Widen the bombardment!” he shouted the order, but instead, a bullet flew in from behind, dropping one of the artillerymen.
Bang—!
“Guh!”
Another soldier, the one closest to the Go stones, had his limbs severed.
“Fall back!”
Arms and legs were sliced clean off by refined, concentrated force. There was not a shred of hesitation in the execution. Before the soldier’s severed limbs could fall into the sand, light had already left his eyes.
Splash—
Blood spilled across the blazing desert, red clots clinging to the sand like a warning. It felt as if they were saying, “Come any closer, and this is what happens. Leave now if you don’t want to end up like this.”
A chill ran through the unit. The warmth of a comrade that had existed moments ago returned as a cold, silent threat.
Is this the result of Kim Ji-Eun’s shooting and Lee Eun-Ho’s Acceleration and Swordsmanship combined?
He had assumed Acceleration was merely a movement-speed enhancement, but that apparently wasn’t the case. Speed-type abilities were common within the company. Even his team had at least two users. However, as always, direction mattered more than speed.
Did he really plan and execute all of this in that tiny window of time?
Thinking that was absurd, Heo Gong’s face twisted behind his mask. “... Lee Eun-Ho. What did the report say about him?”
“It stated that he had sharp thinking and considerable combat power. And that his Acceleration skill made him elusive and unpredictable.”
Elusive and unpredictable?
That word was far too shallow to describe this.
He’s dangerous.
Instincts honed over years of battle screamed at him. If he treated this like a joke, he could end up on the losing side.
I need to cut him down at the root.
The rising sense of crisis crystallized into certainty. This time, he walked forward without using a decoy.
Thump.
“Sir!”
“There’s no need for you to engage personally!”
“We’ll handle trash like that ourselves!”
Heo Gong let out a cold, derisive chuckle. “Hah. Trash?”
It was just a roundabout way of admitting their own lack of understanding.
“Sir?”
In a fight, momentum mattered more than raw power. They had lost the initiative long ago.
[Void Manipulation has been deactivated.]
In that case, he was ready to abandon the slow, methodical approach of searching one by one. It was time to step in personally and crush the insolent rookies’ morale, grinding those smug faces into the sand.
He then drew his massive greatsword and unleashed a jet-black current of energy. “Sword Force.”
Feeling its heavy weight, he flicked his wrist and spun it. He pushed power, mass, and speed to their limits, forging a single, overwhelming rotation.
[Void Release has been completed.]
Fwooooosh—!
An endless abyss bloomed, and a vortex of darkness tore through the gritty desert wind.
[Void Convergence has been assembled.]
Then, another self took form from the reassembled insects.
Fwooooosh—!
Two greatswords began to spin, giving rise to two voids on either side.
“I’m going. Watch my back.”
“Yes sir!”
The swelling darkness began to engulf the desert. Sand vanished as if drawn into the maw of a whale.
The first to fall were the Go stones. Caught between the twin waves of wide-area attacks, they were knocked aside, flipped over, and shattered. Next was the entrance to the underground base, and after them was Eun-Ho’s team.
I have to crush them completely.
This was the moment. If he let them live now, they would return someday as a greater threat. It was almost certainty, an instinct honed by experience.
“Artillery! What about rockfall?!”
“It’s ready, sir!”
Even if it seemed excessive, it was better to be thorough. With that resolve, he issued the order.
[Rockfall - Charges Ready(10/10)]
It was a siege-class weapon specially procured through the director’s influence. In localized combat, it rivaled the god-tier armament, Meteor Strike.
No matter how exceptional Lee Eun-Ho could be, he couldn’t possibly block falling stone. It was a battle Heo Gong could not lose.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
Just then, the rate at which Go stones were being placed began to slow.
“Seven o’clock! Near the Go stones!” he spotted where the remaining stones were being concentrated and shouted. “Drop it!”
The moment the order was given, the sky darkened. What appeared overhead was a colossal mass of stone. Then, a boulder filled the empty sky, so massive that it blotted the sun.
[Rockfall has been activated!]
[9/10]
After a mechanical voice rang out, the rock began to fall.
Thuuuud—!
[8/10]
It was as if another world had descended, with the sky giving way. The desert was crushed like insects ground beneath a boot.
[7/10]
A rain of dirt poured down as though the heavens had split open.
“Whoa... They must have been completely erased.”
“At this level, even a god wouldn’t survive.”
They had done everything possible, yet he had the thought he didn’t want to entertain. “But if they somehow survive even this, then it’s total war. We’ll even grind their bones to dust if we have to. Let’s kill them.”
***
[The Death Swamp has been activated.]
[You have entered the Desert Fortress.]
Eun-Ho and the team survived. They couldn’t afford to lose this battle because their territory lay beneath the Desert Fortress.
“That was brutal, Hyungnim!”
“Holy fuck! If we’d stayed up there, we’d be some damn human paste.”
Sol-Ah scolded the Swear-Master, who was shivering as if goosebumps had broken out all over him, “Stay still. Your treatment isn’t finished yet.”
The healer’s faint blue glow met the blotchy redness on Swear-Master’s skin. Only after confirming the redness was calming did Eun-Ho look away.
“Are you ready?” Eun-Ho asked.
Ji-Eun, who had been chewing on her nails nervously behind the tightly packed group, nodded. “Yes!”
Eun-Ho looked up at the sliver of sunlight shining through the gap formed by the fallen boulders. “Then let’s go up.”
The moment Ji-Eun’s brows knit together, all of them floated. “Hup!”
“Ooh! It’s working, Noonim!”
“Aaaah!”
Except, even the bed beneath them rose.
Fwoosh—
Yeo-Jin and Sol-Ah stared with wide eyes, bursting into admiration.
“You’re amazing, Unnie! How did you do that?!”
“I thought you could only lift people!”
Ji-Eun hesitated before answering, “Ah... Actually, that’s not supposed to happen...”
Eun-Ho shut down the chatter in place of the kind-hearted Ji-Eun. “Don’t talk to her. She needs to focus.”
Then, Jae-Hyuk tilted his head curiously. “But doesn’t this bed look kind of familiar?”
“J-Jae-Hyuk! There are enemies over there! Get ready to fight!” Ji-Eun shouted, flustered, her ears turning red.
“Ji-Eun! You have to concentrate!” Eun-Ho said firmly.
“Ah, all right!”
The rattling bed steadied, and only then did Eun-Ho allow himself to take in the scene below. “Wow. It’s a total mess.”
“Damn, isn’t that basically a meteor strike?” the Swear-Master muttered.
They had known the rockfall would drop boulders at designated locations, and that it was a god-tier weapon borrowed for the job. They just hadn’t expected this level of destruction.
“Well, let’s stick to the plan,” Eun-Ho said.
“Hey, look over there!”
Through the hazy dust cloud, masked soldiers rummaged between the rocks, searching for their corpses.
Looking down at them, Eun-Ho tossed out a line like bait. “You won’t find us even if you search for a week.”
The black-masked figures jerked their heads upward in unison, giving off an unsettling feeling.
“What the hell?!”
“We were already up here. But I guess you didn’t notice?” Eun-Ho wasn’t done. “Oh. Maybe your brain couldn’t even handle that?”
The bait had to be juicy enough to chew on.
“You little!”
“Get them!”
Some of the masked soldiers launched themselves into the air and others burrowed underground. The rest charged forward like the wind.
Eun-Ho couldn’t see their faces, but he felt their shock and rage, along with the looming sense of danger. He gathered it and led it. “Ji-Eun!”
“Yes!”
“Hold on tight!”
“O-okay! Hiieeek!”
Then, the flying bed shot forward, leaving a tail-like contrail behind it.
Thuuud—!
As if trying to clip that tail, massive boulders came crashing down. The vast desert was pockmarked like the surface of the moon.
“Go faster!”
Thuuuud—!
Again and again, boulders grazed past or crashed down right in front of them, forcing evasive maneuvers. Others slammed down beside them, sending shockwaves that nearly toppled the bed.
“We’re almost there!” Just as Eun-Ho realized the interval between impacts was shortening, a wall marking the far edge of the desert came into view. “Hold on tight!”
The bed hurtled toward the massive gray stone wall as if to smash straight into it then sharply curved upward.
“Aaaaaaah!”
“It’s okay!”
Then, the rocks came down.
Thuuuuud—!
They fell and fell again, smashing the wall over and over.
Thuuuuuud—!
Following that, the wall collapsed like a petulant child kicking over a stack of toy blocks.
Ding!
Then, a message surfaced amid the debris of the fallen wall.
[Congratulations!]
[The Wailing Wall has collapsed.]
[You have overcome the Third Trial.]
Nice. It worked!
[All trials have been overcome.]
[Stagnant convection resumes.]
[Frozen land begins to thaw.]
[Restrictions from heat and cold have been lifted.]