39. Princess Run (14)
***
Carl Hood was an agent brought in from South Africa, a wizard, and his primary weapon was a 20mm machine gun.
Originally developed to be mounted on tanks or helicopters, but modified to be carried by individuals as an exception, this weapon is something that no race other than trolls can use. Not only is it heavy, but it cannot withstand the heat. While carrying an ammunition box on his back that is much heavier than the machine gun, he holds the sword with both hands and maintains a firm grip so that he can fire at any time.
There was thick fog all around. I stared hard into the empty space from the terminal rooftop, but I couldn’t see anything with my troll eyes. My human companion next to me grumbled about the same thing.
“Damn, it’s fucking gloomy. I can’t see anything… This is the worst environment for defense.”
I totally agree. The dampness on my skin was incredibly creepy. It wasn’t just the weather that gave me goosebumps. They were really nervous.
“Have you seen the photos from the scene?”
“no.”
“······I’ve been working in this industry for a while now, but this is the first time I’ve seen anything like this.”
They were talking about the scene where Bradley and his dead comrades were found. The most horrifying aspect of what they found there was in an area that could not be photographed.
“Bradley was rather lucky. The rest were tortured to death in ways too gruesome to even mention.”
A heavy silence flowed between the two. The flesh and blood left at the scene were merely the result, and until that happened, they had had to go through a living hell.
“···The culprit is, after all, that one, right?”
The swarm of insects that attacked the street were said to be undead. Furthermore, there was only one reason to waste time torturing and killing them while being pursued.
The troll spat out harsh curses.
“Damn, if you get involved with a black magician, your three generations will be unlucky. When those guys hold a grudge, they chase you to the ends of the earth! Even if you try to find them and kill them first, they hide like cockroaches and cause trouble.”
“But we’ll be okay, right?”
The human companion glanced down at his feet with his chin, hinting at the person inside this building, next to the princess.
They were now working with someone who was considered a legend among the agents.
The fact that there is a lot of work for immigration agents means that there are a lot of alien criminals and that security is weak. So, while it is not widely reported in the media or heroized, at least among agents, there is a famous name.
Yeo Min-jun.
“You’re an agent who has been on operations with Elder Dragons several times.”
Operations that involve heavy-assed dragons are bound to be equally important, lethal, and dangerous.
The fact that a non-dragon race was mobilized to such a scene was, of course, only a supporting role for the dragon, but it was still a great thing.
The number of cases that Carl Hood knows of alone is already on his five fingers.
Operation to track down and eradicate the perpetrators of the bombing of the Committee’s district office.
A hostage rescue operation on a hijacked spaceship that landed illegally at a Moscow terminal.
Operation to eradicate the Oslo School, the mastermind behind the serial kidnapping and massacre of European non-Europeans.
Operation to stop the spread of mutant infections in the Ghoul community in Bangkok.
Lastly, the ‘July 1st Incident’, which was not reported in the newspapers at all and was only whispered about among a few agents.
Carl tried to suppress his anxiety.
“Yeah, a veteran agent like that should be able to beat up anyone. So you don’t have to worry too much···.”
“Eww!”
The troll couldn’t finish his speech because his conversation partner let out a scream that was as loud as his heart.
“What?! What’s going on?”
“who is this?!”
Other agents who had been standing guard on the rooftop came running in a hurry. The comrade who had fallen to his knees continued to scream, making his bones shiver. He looked down at his hands. Everyone who witnessed it was shocked.
“no?!”
Starting from the tips of my fingers, blisters of various sizes swelled and burst, melting my flesh. Flesh dripped down like thin, flour-like dough.
The agent was being dissolved alive.
“Ugh!”
As he watched, Carl also saw traces of bleeding under his skin. Instead of melting away like a human, he repeatedly became inflamed and healed. However, other races that did not have innate healing abilities were quickly defeated.
“It’s poison!”
Some managed to tear off the detox scroll, but their already damaged bodies could not be restored.
At that moment, gunshots rang out from the Incheon Airport fence.
“intruder!”
While the agents resisted the poison, the security force, which had been on high alert with several times the usual number of personnel, was facing off against unexpected enemies.
“Shoot! Shoot!”
Bullets rained down. As the turret rotated, those hanging on the edge of life and death were running towards the direction in which they were firing.
They were a horde of zombies.
Hundreds, no, thousands? The commander gritted his teeth as he confirmed the sight.
Where on earth can you find numbers like that?
The only land route to Yeongjongdo is a bridge that is strictly controlled. It wouldn’t have flown in from the sky. Teleporting that many at the same time is also impossible. So…
“Damn it, Seagun!”
Their rag-like clothes clung to their rotten skin. They were soaking wet with seawater. They were taking advantage of the undead’s strength of being able to move without any problems even if they couldn’t breathe. They must have used magic to increase their weight so that they wouldn’t float on the surface, and then guided them to walk on the shallow seabed.
Tata-tat!
A heavy gunshot rang out, sparks and dirt flying across the ground. Some zombies were torn to shreds, but even with one or two limbs missing, the undead ran fiercely and quickly reached the wall.
Kwaaaaah!
It wasn’t a movement that was released without purpose. It was clear that there was a magician controlling them somewhere. They ran only toward the terminal. It was the place where the jump ship that Princess Vermi would ride was moored.
“Contact the agents! Quickly!”
The guard who was holding the communicator as instructed by him suddenly screamed and fell down. The communicator that he had dropped was covered in crushed flesh.
Soon, people began to melt everywhere.
***
“Branch Manager, I will give you an update on the situation.”
“Yes, brother. Come in.”
The man standing in front of the head of the Korean branch of Solidarity for Human Rights reported the news he had just received.
“The mercenaries have arrived on the scene. They say they just released the poison and zombies.”
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“Zombies… I guess their base is orcs or goblins?”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Races that society does not pay attention to even when they disappear. It was a method that was in line with the justice and philosophy of the Human Rights Solidarity. Because it was a way to weaponize and target the murdered races in order to drive out the alien races.
Still, the branch manager looked slightly displeased.
“Will that work? Even a first-class disaster undead failed. The enemies have experienced it once, so they must have deployed someone with abilities that are at odds with undead on the scene.”
“So this time, the mercenaries will take it upon themselves to kill Princess Vermi.”
Poison and zombies are literally just secondary means. The man nodded, knowing that for now he had no choice but to calmly wait for the results. Then he changed the subject.
“What about President Oh Man-sik?”
“I’ve been imprisoned at the Jenkinson Company headquarters. As you know, the dragon himself has created a barrier there… It seems like our abilities won’t be able to break through it.”
“There’s nothing we can do. We give up.”
In the end, to them, O Man-sik was nothing more than a throwaway card. The branch manager was confident that no matter how viciously the immigration office interrogated him, he would not be caught.
“Oh, and the branch manager.”
“yes?”
“I’m talking about that Bukhansan warehouse.”
A while ago, the Human Rights Solidarity’s intelligence organization received a piece of intelligence. It was about a new ‘treasure’ that had arrived at Jenkinson’s second rare. What piqued their interest was that if there was a problem with it, it would be enough to shake Jenkinson’s political position.
Biting the Achilles heel of that red dragon was one of the long-held desires of the Human Rights Solidarity. If there is a vacuum in the balance of power and the dragons fight each other, it will naturally cause chaos among the politicians, bureaucrats, and businessmen who are connected to them. There are so many things that can be done if the shackles they have placed on society are loosened.
So the branch manager sent personnel to Mt. Bukhan several times, but as expected, they concluded that it was impossible for them to break through the dragon’s barrier. On the last attempt, they got quite deep inside, but a forest fire suddenly broke out. It seemed to be part of a defense system to drive out intruders. In the end, those who were sent had no choice but to return empty-handed.
“Chief, I think that forest fire may not have actually been called for defensive purposes.”
“?!”
The man told Jenkinson that there was a rumor going around that something had been stolen from the warehouse. The branch manager couldn’t believe the story.
“No, then surely not?”
“Yes, it is possible that someone started that forest fire and broke through the dragon’s barrier.”
The branch manager’s expression hardened seriously.
“If that’s true···.”
Two questions arose in his mind.
First, why did a forest fire break out and a theft occur on the very day that the Human Rights Solidarity brothers approached the warehouse?
Two, if there really is a group that succeeded in breaking through the dragon’s barrier… what exactly is their identity?
***
“Chief Secretary! Get the Shutan people on board and launch the jump ship right now!”
“Yes? But···!”
The moment he heard screams outside, Minjun instinctively knew that the attack had begun.
‘Damn, you’re so ignorant you’re brave!’
Minjun immediately finished his ‘brief report’ to the committee and then fired the rest of his words at Blair.
“Emergency jump code!”
The chief secretary looked at him in surprise. He looked like he was asking how you knew that.
“With the terminal manager out of town, someone had to be left in charge, and it had to be you, right?!”
“Everyone… who are you?”
Since the outbound blockade has been lifted for Princess Vermi’s jump ship, you can leave Earth right now without crashing into the dimensional barrier and being crushed.
The problem is that the code is needed to launch the jump ship, which can only be produced by the committee and is only available through the committee.
Normally, you would need to get approval from the committee to jump each time and then enter the code, but there is no time for that now. And for this kind of situation, the terminal manager at the departure level has a separate code that allows him to authorize an emergency jump at his own discretion.
Of course, it can’t be abused arbitrarily since the committee will conduct a post-investigation… Minjun thought. After all, it was something that was made to be used at a time like this.
Minjun gave instructions to the rest of the agents via radio. All personnel currently able to move were to escort Princess Vermi and her entourage safely to the jump ship.
In the meantime, he planned to do something else.
We must find the culprit who is committing terrorism here and kill him. This time, for sure!
“!”
The crocodile shouted something as he saw his back as he hurriedly left. Since there was only one Shutan in the room, no one except the frying pan could hear it. And Minjun did not look back.
“I… princess?”
The princess muttered something under her breath as Blair held out the frying pan, almost as if talking to herself.
This time, the only thing that heard those words was the cooking utensils.
“Yeah. Anyway, we’ll meet again soon.”
***
Minjun, who came out of the terminal building and flew into the sky, soon discovered the culprit of this situation.
‘How confident. As if telling me to come find it myself!’
Someone was standing where he was looking. As soon as he saw that figure, a language that only Minjun could read came to mind.
– Bounty: 200,000 talents.
The reports and testimonies of long-term prisoners like Min-jun are sufficient grounds for the committee to set a reward.
The assailants are charged with two crimes: murdering Bradley, an asset of the committee, and committing an act of terrorism against a dimensional leap terminal jointly invested in by the committee and the South Korean government.
Perhaps he himself has no idea, even in his dreams, what the consequences of his actions have been.
‘You annoying brat, this time I’m going to kill you at all costs!’
After reading the ‘message’ left at the scene of Bradley’s murder, Minjun thought of two suspects.
But one of them was quickly forgotten.
There are three reasons.
First of all, if the culprit was her, she would not have left a message in English.
If she had a tendency to be obsessed with the memories of the happy times of the two, she would have left messages in the language used at that time. How obsessed was that…? Min-jun was sure. If the moment of reunion ever comes, the other person will appear in the exact same ‘human’ body from that time. Even if they get their original bodies back, it will be on purpose. It was a bet.
And secondly, he uses a lot of black magic, and even that is somewhat poorly done by his standards.
Even if we assume that she regained her memories and was able to use the black magic she couldn’t use when she was a prisoner, this was a bit strange. The corpses offered as black magic sacrifices at the scene remained in the form of organic matter instead of mummifying or turning to dust like Min-jun did. It was absurd. If it were her, she would have overdone anything, and there was no way she would have done anything lacking. She would have thought it was ’embarrassing’ to show these traces to Min-jun.
Thirdly and finally, the enemy… killed Bradley first, not Minjun.
Damage to the committee’s assets will result in a bounty being set. This will restrict your actions and hinder your efforts to kill Min-jun. It doesn’t matter if the bounty is set after the final objective of ‘killing Min-jun’, but it is something you should avoid doing as much as possible before that.
So he confidently guessed the suspect’s identity and reported it to the committee, and they trusted Min-jun’s testimony and set a reward.
The suspect stood before his eyes.
The moment their eyes crossed, the other person smiled with a twisted cheek. A muttering voice came clearly to his ears. It was English with a Nordic accent.
“Finally, we meet again. You have no idea how much I have missed you!”
A few years ago, Minjun nearly destroyed a school of black magicians from Norway.
At the time, there were so many to track down and they were hiding in every corner of Europe that many elder dragons worked together to hunt them down, but the leader was eventually lost.
Meanwhile, the Master who had escaped at that time announced his revenge, but the targets of his grudge were eight Elder Dragons and one Quarter Elf.
So the master of the school came up with a rational and dark plan worthy of a black magician.
First, catch and kill the weakest opponent. Aim for a situation where it moves separately from the Elder Dragon!
“How I have longed for the day when we would meet again like this and tear you to pieces with my own hands!”
The man standing before Minjun is a notorious black magician who has yet to be captured despite being pursued by 26 governments and eight elder dragons.
At the same time, for Minjun, he was the enemy of his former colleague.
His mouth opened and a voice full of anger came out.
“Theo Christiansen!”
***
A few hours before Incheon Airport was attacked.
A woman entered a terminal of some dimension located close to Earth.
The battle suit that tightly wrapped around her entire body was neither Earth’s nor this dimension’s style. Although it was clothing, since this was a dimension where humans were rare, the woman attracted many people’s attention.
She had her hair cut short and approached the terminal staff with brisk steps, as if she was dancing. She seemed unable to suppress her excitement. Even by human standards and the standards of the natives of this dimension, she was of a small build, so the staff behind the counter did not immediately notice her.
“hey.”
Only after hearing the call did he crane his head upwards and discover a human looking up from below.
“Oh! Sorry. I didn’t see it.”
“It’s okay. That can happen.”
A voice that sounds like humming.
“I came to get the jump code. I think the committee has already approved it.”
The employee, who had checked the identification number of the plane she had mentioned, looked at the screen for a moment and then nodded.
“Yes, the approval has been completed and the code has been issued. But… the destination dimension is listed as ‘Earth’?”
Next to the dimension name was written the terminal she would arrive at: ‘Incheon, South Korea.’
“I don’t know if you know, but this dimension is currently under a limited lockdown by the committee. You can enter freely, but you can’t leave, so once you enter, there’s no telling how long you’ll be trapped. Is that okay?”
“Oh, it doesn’t matter.”
The woman smiled brightly.
Repeating the same thing over and over again.
“That doesn’t matter.”
The receptionist wasn’t used to reading human expressions, but she had seen similar species before, so she assumed it was a sign of joy.
“I hope you’re having a good time?”
The woman simply smiled without saying anything.
Meanwhile, the staff tilted their heads as they checked the passenger information. According to what the list showed, the woman was not human.
‘Why does this species insist on transforming into humans? It must be quite inconvenient.’
But that question was quickly erased from my mind. There were indeed many different races, cultures, and tastes in the dimension. It was a waste of time to ponder and figure out the reason for all of that. The employee wrapped the chip containing the jump code around his antenna and handed it to the woman.
And then he asks, as if he just remembered it belatedly.
“······Ah! The ship you’re taking isn’t a regular ship but a chartered ship, so there’s no call sign registered at the destination. I can put one in for you, but is there a name you’d like?”
It was a kind of ‘temporary designation’ that would be registered in the Earth’s computer system.
Then the woman answered firmly without a moment’s hesitation.
“Del.”
