< 53. 21st Century Robin Hood (7) >
***
Minjun had visited the bank after business hours, so it was after dark when Cathy contacted him again. When she summarized the information she had received from the police, Minjun was a little surprised.
“So the police had a feeling where the Red Star base was all along?”
– Yes. Unlike those who insist on strict secrecy like the Human Rights Solidarity, they also conduct business in the public sector. It’s like turning a blind eye, but…
“That’s true. Surprisingly, such an obvious trick often works well.”
– That’s right. Moreover, because it was so popular among the people, it was impossible to raid it or sweep it away with special forces without solid evidence.
Red Star has a strong image of a righteous thief who fills in the blind spots of welfare that the country does not care about.
Although they called for revolution in words, they never actually committed any full-scale acts of overthrowing the state, and their main means of making money were by robbing the coffers of large corporations or threatening others using scandals as an excuse.
Therefore, the police were afraid of provoking the common people by accidentally provoking them. They thought that it could ignite the suppressed resistance spirit. In other words, they thought that it could provide an excuse for the poor, who were desperately looking for someone to vent their anger on, to rise up.
But that’s only the police’s position, and Minjun’s thoughts are different.
“So, where are you?”
– Oh, that’s right···.
Minjun couldn’t help but curse after hearing the following words.
“These little bastards are really···.”
Cash also spoke in a bitter voice.
– When I first saw it, I doubted my eyes.
“You made your base inside an ordinary school?!”
There are more than one or two private schools that they run through their camouflage foundations, and Red Star has established its base on the largest school site among them.
The intention was obvious.
“There was a reason why the police couldn’t do whatever they wanted···.”
– Yes, because the media could easily broadcast a very ugly picture, like a special forces unit with machine guns running through a schoolyard in a slum area.
“I’ll move quietly on my own, so the press won’t have to sniff around. I’d better get this out there right now. Before they find out the spy is dead. Aren’t the kids supposed to be home anyway? They’re not going to be stuck at school 24 hours a day…”
-······.
“······Cassie, really?”
– Yes, it’s a boarding school.
Minjun asked back in a bewildered tone.
“There’s a private boarding school inside the Oak Community?!”
– We gather children from poor families and feed them for free, provide them with a place to stay, and even provide them with education.
He felt his head pounding. From the outside, there are no such great people. So, his popularity will not subside.
“There’s nothing I can do. If I delay any longer, they’ll notice and I might get in trouble.”
If I were to do it, today was my only chance.
The only difference is that we have to do it more cautiously and with more constraints than we initially thought.
For example, it is impossible to set fire to an entire building and then blow up the projectiles one by one as they emerge.
“But it’s not like there’s no way at all.”
After hanging up the phone, Minjun headed to the address that Cassie had given him. It was a strangely large private school within the Orc community.
He clicked his tongue as he looked at the building from outside.
“You were aiming for it openly.”
His target was visible in the center of the ‘ㅁ’ shaped dormitory and classrooms. The building used by the Red Star officers.
Since the land was registered as educational land, it was reported as a faculty and staff residence, but the building was too large to be used solely for that purpose, and it surrounded the facilities where the children stayed like a shield.
‘No matter what, we can’t attack in this condition.’
The lights were still on in many classrooms, including the dormitory building.
Minjun thought that he should evacuate the civilians first.
Papat!
He threw the talisman into the air, creating a hazy mist. The faint energy surrounded the entire school grounds, forming a barrier. A boundary that no one could enter without his intention.
As it was getting dark, there was no reaction from inside, as if they had not noticed the changes outside.
Minjun left only one narrow escape route. The strategy itself is no different from hunting raccoons, where you only open one entrance and force smoke into the hole to make them pop out.
However, I had no intention of setting it on fire because it would put the children inside at risk.
Because whatever method you use, just give them a reason to come out on their own.
Chomp!
A dagger made of black stone passes through Minjun’s wrist.
Knock! Knock!
Drops of blood flowed down the skin.
Swish!
Recite the spell softly.
There is a special ability called necromancy, which is distinct from the black magic category of necromancy.
It is not widely known on Earth, so only those with extensive knowledge and extensive experience in other worlds, like Secretary Jenkinson, know about it.
While the former controls the bodies of the dead, the latter controls the souls that wander the underworld without a body. It is a secret art that lends power to ghosts that are invisible and inaudible to ordinary people, making it possible.
“Okay, come here.”
Following his lead, the wandering ghosts begin to gather around him.
I wouldn’t be able to control it for long like the soul of the woman who was killed in the explosion today, but for now, it was enough to control it for a little while.
There was a chance that Minjun, a black magician, could also use necromancy, albeit clumsily.
In the very early days of his life as a prisoner, he was given the task of tracking down and killing a notorious necromancer in a certain world. It was not an easy task to capture the wanted criminal who had his entire body transformed into a cyborg in order to extend his lifespan, but when the situation became dire, he escaped with only his brain extracted and mounted on a drone.
But in the end.
‘Got it!’
After a long chase, the flying culture tank was blown to pieces and met its end.
However, this did not stop the sorcerer from gathering all his strength at the last moment and pouring a curse on Minjun.
‘What the hell! That kid is going to die and go crazy!’
——————
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=Squeak! Kikikikick!=
‘Eww!’
All the ghosts that the wanted man had been dragging around as his followers, instead of regaining their freedom the moment he died, rushed at Minjun. The purpose of the curse was for hundreds of ghosts to take over Minjun’s body and take control away from his soul.
However, the curse did not come true as the sorcerer intended. The ghosts that were supposed to overwhelm Minjun’s soul and drive him into consciousness somehow escaped from his body again, screaming terribly as if they had been burned the moment they made contact with his soul. The screams were so terrifying that they were still vivid in my memory.
Although it failed, the curse did not completely disappear, and the spirits changed their tactics. They continued to follow him and whisper all sorts of horrible things in his ears, destroying his mind and taking over his body before committing suicide.
Minjun, who drank strong alcohol every day to avoid going crazy and tried to sleep, eventually came up with a plan to survive.
Even now, no one else in the entire dimension has used a spell that uses black magic instead of spiritual power to produce the effects of necromancy. Even Minjun himself doesn’t know why this is possible.
“Gyaaaah!”
Let’s wait a moment, the same mental wave that echoed in Minjun’s memories was recreated in reality.
=KiKiKiKi! Kikki···.=
“What, what the hell is this! What the hell!”
=I’m in pain… Save me… I’m in pain…!=
“It’s you, teacher!”
Inside, chaos broke out as the ghosts that had been pushed throughout the school let out strange laughter and made threats.
Just because it’s a school run by Red Star doesn’t mean everyone is brainwashed. Minjun’s intention was to make the ordinary students who hadn’t been selected by them run away voluntarily.
“It’s blocked here!”
In the dorms, students rushed out of the classrooms and bypassed areas where they could not set foot because of the thick fog. As a result, they had no choice but to head towards the intentionally dug-out escape route.
It was the moment when the fastest children ran out of the school gate.
– Students, please be advised. Students, please be advised. It is dangerous outside, so do not move around carelessly, and return to your dorms and wait for further instructions···. I repeat! Everyone, do not move, stay inside your dorms···.!
Minjun cursed again without realizing it.
“You little shits···!”
In this situation, there was only one reason to prevent evacuation.
They know that the more students that remain on school grounds, the less the enemy has available to them. They won’t be able to just fire rockets at the building.
In other words, the intention was to use children as meat shields.
but.
“Gyaaaah!”
“What should I do? Follow me! Keep following me! Mom!”
Announcements telling students to remain in their dormitories were of no use to the students who were terrified and panicked.
The ghosts guided the children to the retreat as if they were herding sheep. Minjun watched the children quietly evacuating from the darkness. Most of them were orcs and humans. At this point, it would have been expected for the faculty to mix in and evacuate together, but there were no adults in sight.
After the evacuation was somewhat completed, Minjun entered the school.
The target was, of course, the building in the center of the site, which was judged to be Red Star’s headquarters. After opening the door and entering, I headed straight underground.
bang!
Breaking down the hidden door revealed an internal structure resembling a bunker, begging for its questionable purpose in a school.
And the first person to block Minjun’s path was an unexpected opponent.
“I’m dying!”
An orc in a school uniform runs towards you.
The moment he saw the outfit, Minjun felt anger and irritation rising to the tip of his head. He suppressed his boiling emotions and dodged the attack. In the hands of the orc, who was clearly a minor, was a magic sword-shaped artifact that was not easily obtained in this neighborhood. A clear aura flowed along the blade.
The boy was a person with supernatural powers. Weapon Master.
Pot!
“Ugh!”
Although it was already clear that he had been brainwashed, Minjun placed a light curse on the boy instead of killing him. He received a weapon, but it seemed that he had no artifacts with anti-magic powers, and he immediately fainted and fell down. The curse had a mild concussion effect. Without looking back, Minjun continued to descend the stairs while gritting his teeth.
There were several more attempts to block his descent, and fierce resistance of its own met him.
Every time, similar things happened again and Minjun’s expression became increasingly cold as ice.
Those who were blocking were all minors and had special abilities. The density of the crowds revealed that this school was a place where special abilities discovered from all over were gathered and trained.
But whoever it was, it wasn’t even pointed out in the first place. The executives who gave the order would know that fact.
In other words, if Minjun had been less skilled or had a more ruthless personality, none of the children would have survived. The executives were basically ordering them to throw away their lives.
Life is a disposable thing.
bang!
When Minjun kicked the last iron gate, he finally found the people he had been searching for.
Sparks flew from his eyes.
“what?!”
“This far already!”
While the brainwashed children were sent outside to fight, the cadres were trying to escape in front of the underground secret passage.
However, the secret door that should have been open was covered in a smoky fog that Minjun had spread.
The blocking effect is the same in any direction, above ground or underground, as long as he does not acknowledge it as a ‘way out’.
“——-!”
Among the executives, an orc who appears to be a person with supernatural powers shouts a battle cry. He rushes towards Minjun.
“This reactionary bastard···!”
Minjun’s two arms didn’t move this time.
Kwajik!
Instead, a black shadow stretched out from its back, forming the shape of a monster, and it swung its massive fist. A black flash tore through the space, revealing the orc’s face, which was sunken into a horrifying shape.
“Eww! Hurry up, hurry up!”
Only then do the executives’ expressions turn into fear. They try to escape through the fog, but as before, the closed space does not allow them.
Kyaaaaah!
Minjun took another step forward, and the monster roared.
Black wind blew and blood splattered everywhere. The sound of bones breaking, crunching, squeezing flesh, sobbing. Some people croaked as if something was stuck in their throats and then stopped. Some people begged for their lives until the very end and then fell silent with a dull thud.
After a while, everyone except for a few executives selected by Minjun was scattered all over the place in a horrifying state.
He walked through blood that reached his ankles.
“Ah, ah··· ah···!”
I stare at the oldest looking man among them.
Minjun asked a question.
Calm tone.
“Where is the talent?”
A short question that encapsulates why he is here and what he wants from the Red Star executives.
The opponent also immediately figured out the intention. Then he distorted his face and shouted.
“That… that was an accident!”
***
=Yes? A ghost could be trapped in a bank vault?=
A few days ago, Ghost Ha Eun-seong accepted the woman’s proposal.
There were practical reasons for thinking of her younger siblings, but it was also because the story she told aroused Ha Eun-seong’s compassion. His sense of solidarity as a ghost was so strong that he followed ghost protests that he couldn’t even participate in in the first place.
What the woman asked Ha Eun-seong was to find the location of her trapped colleague, the poor ghost.
If it had been for any other purpose, I might have refused.
‘Since he’s already dead and can’t die again, that ghost guy might have to stay captured by the dragon for thousands of years… No, he’d be lucky if he just stayed trapped.’
However, the words the woman said as soon as Ha Eun-seong accepted were unexpected.
The first thing they asked me to do was search the vault at the head office of a certain bank.
At first I couldn’t understand it, but after hearing the explanation that followed, it started to make sense.
‘Ghosts don’t need to breathe, eat, excrete, expose themselves to sunlight, or exercise. In other words, they can be kept in a closed space, completely isolated from the outside world.’
Considering those conditions, there was nothing better than the vault at the head office of Changcheon Bank.
=Ah··· Yes. I understand.=
In the end, Ha Eun-seong suddenly ended up going to Changcheon Bank.
It was a place protected by a powerful exorcism to prevent spying on the internal structure, but as has already been proven, there was no device that could stop him.
Entering a bank vault for the first time in his life, he hid inside the walls and searched everywhere to avoid the risk of encountering a telepath.
Then, I discovered traces of a barrier that was incomparably stronger than anything I’ve ever seen before.
=Wow… That’s real. If it weren’t for me, I’d be kicked all the way to America if I even touched it?=
Of course, it was an isolation vault equipped with a great physical barrier, but Ha Eun-seong had no ability to recognize it and could only tell that it was an enormous exorcism circle.
When I broke into the safe within the safe.
=······!=
Ha Eun-seong saw the most beautiful light in the universe.
Ha Eun-seong, like most Earthlings, did not know the common sense that flashes of light tend to bewitch existence.
Just as the spirits of the spiritual world would go crazy and rush to see the evaporated talent, even he, who was classified as an intelligent being, could not escape the temptation.
When he came to, he was already reaching for it.
What was even scarier was that even after I came to my senses, I couldn’t stop moving.
Even though his common sense dictated that he would not be able to touch it anyway, he did so.
But, common sense didn’t work this time.
=······Huh?!=
The moment Ha Eun-seong’s hand ‘touched’ the talent.
At the end, a gentle wave rose and then, creating a violent flow, it all came together in one place in an instant. When looking at the movement from the outside, it seemed like it was just disappearing into thin air. However, Ha Eun-seong, who came into contact with it, could ‘feel’ something different.
=Huh? Huh?!=
The next moment, the huge light had completely disappeared.
Even after the bank’s alarm sounded and there was a commotion, Ha Eun-seong took full advantage of the fact that people couldn’t see him and searched everywhere, but he was unable to find the trapped ghost.
When I returned to Red Star and reported, she seemed unsurprised and explained:
‘Considering the appearance and characteristics you just described, and the condition in which it was carefully preserved… it was probably a talent.’
=Talent?=
‘Yes. It’s something like the currency used by aliens… They say that even if it receives a slight shock, it evaporates into the spirit world. I don’t know why they withdrew it. Maybe they were only keeping a few thousand talents for research purposes?’
Ha Eun-seong couldn’t quite understand what followed.
In short, the guess was that the moment they made contact, the balance of the barrier that held the talent was broken and the entire cosmic currency was ejected into the spirit world.
Since I had no knowledge, I could only nod my head, but even so, I felt uneasy.
In the end, these were the words I had to swallow inside and not tell the woman.
The moment the light disappeared, he felt something being absorbed into his spirit body.
But I decided not to drag on and on because I didn’t think the girl would believe me even if I told her.
It was also because he observed himself and saw that nothing had changed.
=Anyway, it definitely wasn’t in the bank. What should I do now? That ghost guy···.=
‘Don’t worry. We already have a few other places we’ve pointed out besides the bank.’
She explained with a smile:
Ha Eun-seong has proven her abilities once again by freely entering and exiting the bank headquarters, which boasts tight security, so next time, let’s try to break into a place where there is a higher chance of a ghost being trapped.
In other words, he wanted to send me to a more dangerous place.
When asked where it was, the woman answered like this.
‘Where would it be? Of course… it’s that dragon’s rare.’
The next place Ha Eun-seong had to infiltrate was Changcheon, the lair of the ancient dragon.
‘But before that.’
The woman spoke to Ha Eun-seong with a soft smile.
‘You searched the inside of that bank thoroughly, right? It would have been better if there had been no sudden accidents… Anyway, can you tell me everything you remember about the internal structure?’
< 53. 21st Century Robin Hood (7) > End
