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Chapter 34
“—Emergency in the First Research Wing! This is top priority! All clan members, proceed to the research wing immediately…!”
“—The main family has dispatched the Guard Corps and Special Unit. Estimated time of arrival: five minutes…!”
“—Young Master Cho Seong-hwan is heading to the research wing! I repeat, Young Master Cho Seong-hwan is on his way…!”
“The Pungyang Cho Clan’s communication network is going wild. The plan worked.”
Across from the Pungyang Cho Clan’s skyscraper—
On a rooftop overlooking the skyline of Hanseong, two men stood.
One wore the hollow-cheeked mask of Fool Mask, Imetal.
The other, sharp-eyed, wore the scholar’s mask, Seonbital.
“Their response speed is way faster than I thought. If this keeps up, they might actually suppress it before the Royal Guards even arrive.”
“We can’t let that happen.”
At the worried tone of Seonbital, Imetal checked over the gear he had prepared for this mission:
A grenade launcher and heavy machine gun strapped across his back.
A curved sword hanging from his belt.
And in his hands—a massive anti-tank rocket.
He looked less like an infiltrator and more like someone marching off to war.
“It’s been three years since we’ve gone head-to-head with those noble bastards, hasn’t it? How does it feel, Imae?”
“Good, bad—doesn’t matter. It’s always the same.”
Imetal’s reply was short, but the grin tugging at the corners of his lips betrayed his cold voice.
“Messing with the nobles? That’s always fun.”
****
“—Barrier Seven breached! Traps are useless!”
“—Why the hell is that thing going berserk all of a sudden when it was nearly dead?!”
“—It’s coming this way! Guards! Where the hell did they—?!”
Puh-seok—!
The researchers’ heads burst apart before they could even scream.
The heavily armed guards assigned to protect them had long since been torn to bloody chunks and scattered across the research wing.
Against the monsters ripping apart reinforced exosuits like tofu, the unarmed researchers might as well have been a neatly set dinner table.
The beasts devoured the guards’ corpses, as if trying to sate years of hunger.
But then—
One of them suddenly froze, sensing something strange.
And in the next moment—
Kuwaaaang—!
A blast of compressed wind ripped through the hallway, tearing the creature apart in an instant.
“—Krrrk?!”
“—Kwoooaaargh—!”
The monsters froze, their eyes flashing with wariness as one of their own vanished.
It was an alien power—yet at the same time, eerily similar to their own.
Aura Force.
“…Things just got complicated. Badly.”
From the hallway, where the monsters’ eyes were fixed, a man walked out.
Over his black combat uniform hung a crimson over-robe.
On his chest blazed the crest of the Pungyang Cho Clan.
And in his hand—rather than his usual curved sword—he carried a flail, the weapon favored by the clan’s aura users.
“Young Master. The situation is urgent, but for you to take the vanguard is too dangerous—”
Ppahk—!
A dull crack sounded as the face of the guard beside him snapped sideways.
The man who threw the punch was Cho Seong-hwan.
Gone was his usual mischievous grin—replaced by a face on the verge of exploding in fury.
“Cut the crap and give me the report.”
The low, simmering growl in Cho Seong-hwan’s voice froze the guard’s shoulders.
“…The source of the rampage is the basement, from the shipment that arrived just now.”
“We’ve secured the video data. Here—”
A holographic feed appeared before Cho Seong-hwan’s eyes.
It showed a guard opening a container… and the tentacles that lashed out at him.
The monster bursting out, tearing the man’s body to shreds.
“…The cargo that was supposed to hold people… had a monster inside.”
As Cho Seong-hwan checked the surveillance feeds from around the building, his face twisted.
It had been only five minutes since he received the report that the shipment from Busan had arrived.
And in that mere five minutes, years of painstaking research had gone up in smoke.
The monsters he had secured with such care.
The researchers he had paid dearly to recruit.
Even the precious monster heart that was forming in the central sector.
Grind…
* * *
It was certain now.
Someone who knew of the cargo transport schedule had tampered with the shipment on its way to the laboratory.
The fact that the Pungyang Cho Clan was secretly researching monsters…
And the fact that new experimental subjects were being brought in—someone had known.
“Kim Chang-woon.”
The name left Cho Seong-hwan’s lips instantly.
A stray dog picked up from the Andong Kim Clan.
But that was impossible.
From the moment the shipment arrived in Busan until their return to Hansung, that man had never once left Cho Seong-hwan’s sight.
‘In addition to the local informants, I had three of my own men shadow him. Reports came in every single minute. During that time, he never touched the cargo… hell, he never even approached it.’
His guards and underlings were all left behind in Hansung, so there was no way he could’ve orchestrated sabotage in a city like Busan, where he had no connections.
The most suspicious man was, ironically, the most innocent. A situation bizarre beyond measure.
“Any other clues or evidence?”
“None so far. To confirm the details, we’d have to analyze the vehicle that carried the cargo—but the building’s a monster den now…”
There was no guarantee the vehicle had survived, nor the time to go retrieve it.
The more he thought about it, the more suffocating it became. But Cho Seong-hwan shook his head, casting aside his thoughts.
“Kim Chang-woon. Where is he now?”
“After returning to Hansung, he went straight to his quarters.”
A small relief, at least.
Had he hidden within the Andong Kim Clan’s main estate, extracting him would’ve taken far longer.
“Send word to the main family. Secure Kim Chang-woon the moment he leaves his quarters. I’ll interrogate him myself.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
That would suffice for now.
What mattered most was time.
The monsters had to be suppressed, and all evidence erased before the Royal Guards caught wind of the incident.
Killing the suspect could wait.
“Everyone, prepare for battle.”
At the heir’s command, the Cho Clan’s guards drew their weapons.
All around them, monsters were gathering. Which could only mean—the researchers and guards downstairs were already nothing but corpses.
“Exterminate every monster in the research wing. Ensure not a single one escapes. Be thorough, be swift.”
Twohak—!
No replies came.
At the instant the order was given, every guard charged headlong at the beasts.
Sensing the movement, the monsters too raised their claws with guttural roars.
And the moment monster and guards collided—
Kuwaaaang—!
The floor beneath Cho Seong-hwan erupted, fire and debris engulfing his body in an instant.
“What?!”
“Young Master?!”
“What just—what the hell just happened?!”
“Anti-tank rocket! It came from below!”
“Who the hell would—at a time like this?!”
The guards, locked in combat with monsters, could not protect him.
Swallowed by the blast, Cho Seong-hwan crashed to the floor below.
Clutching his head from the sudden shock, his face twisted—not from the explosion itself, but from recognition.
“…You bastard!”
From within the smoke and rubble, his assailant slowly stepped forward.
A man clad in white, bombs strapped all across his body.
In his hand, a curved sword, radiating streams of Aura Force.
And over his face—another mask.
At a glance, Cho Seong-hwan knew who it was.
“Hahoe Mask…! Treasonous scum, not fit to live even after being torn apart!”
At that word—traitor—the mouth beneath Imetal curled into a grin.
“Look who’s talking. You lunatics raising monsters in the heart of Hansung.”
“So you admit this chaos was your doing?”
“Maybe, maybe not. Could be I just happened to pass by.”
“Bullshit.”
Snapping the word, Cho Seong-hwan raised his flail, aiming it at Imetal.
Kwoong—!
The moment he assumed his battle stance, an overwhelming tide of Aura Force swept through the air.
“For you, I’ll make it special. I’ll hack your arms and legs off while you’re still alive. Then I’ll send your carcass to the main house and dig through your brain until not a scrap is left.”
“…That works for me.”
The crushing tide of power made Imetal’s entire body tingle.
‘Cho Seong-hwan is not only heir to the Pungyang Cho Clan, but also a member of the Royal Guards—Joseon’s strongest corps of aura users. No matter how powerful, no ordinary user could stand against him head-on.’
But that was fine.
He had already achieved his goal: to lure the Cho Clan’s greatest weapon here, and split his focus with a surprise strike.
With that, his mission was as good as complete.
‘All that’s left is to play with you, noble brat… until I get bored.’
The only task now was survival—
Survive, by any means necessary, until the Royal Guards arrived.
***
—The operation is running smoothly. The cargo’s inside the lab, the monsters are rampaging, and Imetal has made his entrance. Everything is going according to plan.
Though I had returned to my quarters, safe from the eyes of the Pungyang Cho Clan, my work was far from finished.
No—this was where it truly began.
“The rescued test subjects… no, the people. What about them?”
—We’re protecting them for now. Malnutrition, bacterial infections, PTSD… not a single one of them is in good condition.
“Do everything you can for them. I’ll cover the costs, so don’t worry.”
—That’s good to hear… but…
Through the Choreng-i mask, I could hear Bunetal’s doubtful tone trail off.
Unlike the more flexible Imetal, it was clear he hated the idea of bowing to a noble-born like me, a noble family.
“What’s this? Something bothering you?”
—…This operation, are you sure it’ll really deal a blow to the Pungyang Cho Clan?
So that’s what it was.
“No. Of course not.”
I answered in a calm, even voice.
“The Pungyang Cho Clan runs five labs in Hansung alone. Across all Joseon? Dozens. Destroying one lab is barely a scratch on their skin.”
—Wh-what?!
“And don’t forget—the Cho Clan’s Aura Force users aren’t pushovers. Even if Imetal ties down Cho Seong-hwan, the rest will have purged the monsters in that lab before the Royal Guards arrive.”
The government intelligence dogs aren’t fools. With chaos like this, of course they’d be prepared.
At my words, Bunetal’s voice sharpened in anger.
—Then what, all we’ve done is useless?!
“Exactly. Useless.”
We stirred up all that chaos, smuggled monsters into their facility—but in the end, it was nothing more than an egg hurled against a boulder.
“But thanks to that uselessness, they’ll miss what really matters.”
—What really matters?
I popped a bite of the “Honey-Butter Chestnut Jelly with Cinnamon Punch” I had bought on the way home.
This crap was being sold as a new product? The food engineering of this country was doomed.
“The Cho Clan’s guards—they can kill monsters. But they don’t know how to dispose of them.”
Bunetal stayed silent, waiting for me to continue.
“Here’s a question for you. The catastrophe born of the Rifts—the monsters. What’s the number one rule when fighting them?”
—Number one rule?
No answer came quickly.
And that was natural.
Yi Cheolheon of the Royal Throne had purged the Rift in the northern regions centuries ago, erecting an Absolute Defense Line. For hundreds of years since then, most Joseon citizens had never once laid eyes on a monster.
The only ones who knew the rule were those still battling monsters in the northeast—the Iron Tiger Corps.
I went on.
“The first rule of monster warfare: Burn every victim slain by monsters, and every monster corpse. Burn it all—down to the last drop of blood, the smallest shred of flesh.”
—Burn it… incinerate them?
“Exactly. And the second rule is this—”
I paused for a moment, then spoke again.
“Never, ever forget the first rule.”
---The End Of The Chapter---
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