The Returner

Chapter 320: Ahjussi, why are you coming out from there? (5)

Rhee Jin-Cheol became completely speechless.

The spectacle laid out before his eyes was simply impossible to be described as man-made.

“....Isn’t this just way too much?” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

A helpless chuckle leaked out from his mouth.

Sure, he saw the advent of lightning rain straight out of hell with his own two eyes. Meaning, he had predicted an end result pretty similar to this. However, there was a noticeable difference between making a prediction and witnessing it first-hand.

“How can a human....” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

How could anyone wearing a human’s skin do something like this?

This was crazy enough to remind him of those ‘miracles’ performed by the noble Comrade Supreme Leader, currently passed down as a bit of a joke among the North Koreans.

‘If he wanted to, he could become an actual king.’ (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

If Yi Ji-Hyuk went to a country with an adequately-low level of education, and show off some of his miracles like this, then those people might worship him as a real god or something.

Even here in the Democratic People’s Republic itself – how many wouldn’t be moved beyond tears if they were shown the current Yi Ji-Hyuk?

Heck, even Rhee Jin-Cheol himself was feeling his chest flutter from this display of absolute and overwhelming might. Maybe not worship him as a god, but still, respect and follow after him, probably.

‘Why does such a person have to be a South Joseon man??’ (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

An enemy nation that wasn’t really an enemy.

Rhee Jin-Cheol was greatly pained by the fact that such a nation was blessed by the presence of Yi Ji-Hyuk.

“W-what, what the hell, just happened.... here??!” (Kim Ryong-Seong)

Kim Ryong-Seong’s confused voice helped Rhee Jin-Cheol regain his wits.

“Ah....” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

This affair wasn’t over yet.

Didn’t that guy say that he’d adequately fry these monsters, so the job of finishing them off would be left to the North?

And sure enough....

The monsters that looked all dead and buried began writhing, and slowly raised their bodies back up.

“They are still alive?!” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

Rhee Jin-Cheol couldn’t figure out whether these monsters were incredible for surviving such a barrage of lightning, or that Yi Ji-Hyuk was incredible for ensuring that the monsters wouldn’t get killed off by his barrage.

“W-what are you all doing?! Hurry and fire away!!!” (Kim Ryong-Seong)

Kim Ryong-Seong’s flustered and urgent voice brought out a deep frown on Rhee Jin-Cheol’s face.

“Didn’t I tell you to fire?!” (Kim Ryong-Seong)

“Comrade commander.” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

“Fire....” (Kim Ryong-Seong)

“Comrade commander!!” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

Kim Ryong-Seong was jolted wide awake by the loud yell and quickly looked at Rhee Jin-Cheol. The latter must’ve bit his lower lip really hard as blood was leaking from there. He spoke in a quiet voice.

“You must calm down, comrade.” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

“....Ah.” (Kim Ryong-Seong)

“This is no time to lose your mind.” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

“R-right. That’s right.” (Kim Ryong-Seong)

“In any case, cannons don’t work on them. This is a job we need to take care of starting from now, so rather than uselessly wasting your energy, please back away.” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

“Will it be fine? Isn’t the defensive line far too wide?” (Kim Ryong-Seong)

“Our people getting tangled up with those monster b*stards will present an even bigger headache, wouldn’t you say? If we want to save even just one more personnel, you must tell them to retreat, now.” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

“B-but....” (Kim Ryong-Seong)

Rhee Jin-Cheol scowled deeply. He quickly realised what Kim Ryong-Seong was worried about, and came up with a solution on the spot.

“Don’t retreat all the way but form a new defensive line somewhere behind us to create a smaller area to defend.” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

“Ah, that might work!” (Kim Ryong-Seong)

Rhee Jin-Cheol inwardly clicked his tongue.

You couldn’t retreat in North Korea. As a matter of fact, the North even shunned the very idea of tactical retreat.

The Party never explicitly forbade retreat, sure, but the current political climate of the North, where anyone could be dragged down by their opponents even with smallest mistakes imaginable, caused the higher-ups to become far too hesitant in their decision making.

On top of this, Kim Ryong-Seong wasn’t a creature of impossibility like Rhee Jin-Cheol. No wonder the former was worried about saving his own skin first.

‘I get it, but....’ (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

Rhee Jin-Cheol shook his head.

Now wasn’t the time to feel dissatisfied with the way the Party was run.

‘If only we hadn’t seen that man....!’ (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

He knew very well that his Democratic People’s Republic was in a far worse situation than the South. Even the regular citizens knew this fact.

Not only that, their military strength also lost out, too. Wasn’t the reason for pursuing nuclear capability related to the country’s inability to wage a sustained warfare?

Despite all of this, he believed that they wouldn’t lose out in the ability user combat force.

Now that the aspect of warfare for the whole world was shifting towards ability user battles, he truly believed that all that weakness would be overturned in one single breath.

If only it wasn’t for that monster, that was.

“Well, there are some things in this world that you’re better off not knowing.” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

Rhee Jin-Cheol shook his head to get rid of all the useless thoughts and roared out loudly.

“Let’s go! We gotta kill those monsters before they recover!” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

“Yes, sir!”

The People’s Ability User Brigade rushed out towards the still-collapsed monsters.

*

“Wow~.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk watched them and cackled to himself.

“That guy, he’s pretty quick on the uptake, isn’t he?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

They might have started on the wrong foot, but Yi Ji-Hyuk did appreciate the fact that the Senior Colonel was quite snappy compared to the other North Koreans he met so far. Also, since they hadn’t gotten into a major tangle before, he didn’t feel all that much of a bad blood between them, too.

“What do you mean, he’s quick on the uptake? Ah, well. Maybe he is quick. Quick to run away, that is.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

It seemed that Choi Jeong-Hoon didn’t have any good impression, however.

But then again.... The North did try to hit the South in the back when the latter group was busy dealing with the monsters, so it’d be strange to see no leftover emotions between them. Wasn’t one of the most infuriating things during gaming happened to be someone sneak attacking you while you were hunting down some mobs?

Humans would almost lose their collective minds when their gaming avatar died from something like that, so imagine how bad it might get if real people almost got killed; yup, it’d not be strange for them to become irreconcilable enemies.

“I thought you weren’t going to do much? Haven’t you used up quite a lot of energy with this?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“....Well, uh, I couldn’t control my powers all that well, so....” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk scratched his head.

Initially, he wasn’t planning to cause such a huge scene, but well, he got carried away by the overflowing Mana inside of him and used a tiny bit too much power just now.

“You see, I haven’t felt like this in a long while, so...” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk also felt a bit embarrassed by his blunder and said some stuff he’d not usually say.

“Okay, so. Will it be fine to let the North’s people mop up the rest?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“H-mm....” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

A strange grin suddenly floated up on Yi Ji-Hyuk’s lips.

“A-again?? What are you thinking of doing next?!” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Choi Jeong-Hoon discovered mischievousness hidden behind that smile and yelled out in panic.

Whenever Yi Ji-Hyuk made that face, another incident was sure to follow. Choi Jeong-Hoon knew this fact oh-so-well, so that smile came across as the devil’s grin to him.

No, hang on. Maybe he really was a devil?

“I ain’t gonna do anything, though?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk cackled and patted the crouching Oh-Sik’s head.

Woof, woof!

Oh-Sik also barked in happiness, too.

“It’s not that I wanna do something, but I’m just gonna observe.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Just observe?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Do they look like easy prey to you after I left them in that state?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“............”

Yi Ji-Hyuk’s cackling continued on.

‘Bunch of weaklings.’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

If Berafe and Earth started fighting, it’d only result in mutual destruction. That was an undeniable truth. However, when it came to defending against monsters of that calibre, then Berafe was several times better equipped than Earth.

That was the difference between two places – the former having developed suitable response system against monster invasion for the past several tens of thousands of years, while the latter had not much of an immunity against the monsters.

High-ranking Priests might not be able to block, say, a shot from an anti-material rifle, yet they were indispensable anti-monster weapons capable of blocking thousands of monsters by themselves. As for the high-ranking sorcerers, each one was capable of altering the nearby terrain.

High-ranking knights might not be able to exercise the level of destructive power of a tank, but when fighting against monsters, they could create barricades that no tanks could even come close to.

“These guys, they’ve been living blindly while fighting easy targets.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

They all seemed to be overconfident of themselves, thinking that they had established suitable response tactics during the past 5 years. However, real monsters weren’t something that could be defeated so easily.

The NDF had to get tangled up with Yi Ji-Hyuk to realise how powerless they were. America had to walk the same path later, too. And now, it was the turn of North Korea to realise that.

*

“It’s not working!”

“I hear you, so continue attacking!!” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

“Yes sir!”

“C-comrade! Monsters are standing back up!”

“I told you, I have eyes too!” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

Rhee Jin-Cheol was this close to losing his mind.

Sure, he had eyes too, so he could see the monsters slowly getting back up to their feet.

“This is way too d*mn much!!” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

Rhee Jin-Cheol gritted his teeth.

They were flinging Ether with everything they had at the seriously-wounded monsters, yet rather than getting hurt even more, these accursed things were actually recovering from their injuries, instead. And that simple fact was ruthlessly crushing what little pride Rhee Jin-Cheol had left.

‘Just what do we need to do in order to stop these things?!’ (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

Could they even stop them in the first place?

“Attack!! With everything you have, now!!” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

Bang!! Boom!!

Noises of leather drums being pounded on resounded out from all directions. They managed to kill one every once in a while, but that was about it. They were simply far too weak to fight against thousands of monsters.

“You stinking sons of b*tches....” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

Rhee Jin-Cheol muttered out powerlessly.

The sense of danger had dissipated by now.

The thoughts of that b*stard named Rhee Ji-Hyuk solving everything regardless of what they did took root in the corner of his heart. He just couldn’t deny that.

Meaning, he didn’t just lose in strength alone, but even his mind had been broken.

“Hahaha.....” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

Rhee Jin-Cheol laughed hollowly.

Monsters got up one by one and began growling.

“C-comrade!! What should we do now?!”

“We’ll get killed at this rate!”

And now, having seen the proud warriors of the People’s Democratic Republic whimpering like a bunch of little girls, what little remained of his pride was shattering into even tinier pieces.

‘I can’t even blame them.’ (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

He would’ve run away already if it weren’t for saving his face, as well as the weight of his position, weighing him down. Well, didn’t he already retreat once before?

“What do you mean, what?” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

Rhee Jin-Cheol turned his head and looked at Yi Ji-Hyuk.

“What else can we do besides begging?” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

*

“Kekekeke.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk cackled mischievously after spotting Rhee Jin-Cheol’s stare.

“I told you, he’s quick on the uptake.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“He doesn’t have a shred of man’s dignity, that’s all.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Well, you ain’t wrong about that one, too.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Choi Jeong-Hoon continued to carry the expression of still not liking this situation, but Yi Ji-Hyuk simply shrugged his shoulders.

“Okay, so... You want me to rake them over for a bit more?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Although I’d not mind that at all, but....” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Choi Jeong-Hoon could clearly see the monsters standing back up now.

“...But, they might end up getting killed at this rate. If the monsters start attacking, they will all die in an instant, right?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Probably?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Well, that won’t do. It seems that it’s time for us to take care of this thing now.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“H-mm....” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk smirked for some reason before making his reply.

“Well, sure. I guess so.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Choi Jeong-Hoon’s eyes began dyeing in the stains of puzzlement.

The current situation should prove to be ideal for Yi Ji-Hyuk. Now normally, he’d try to get something out of this sort of situation through negotiation and the like, but for some reason, he was willingly stepping forward here.

‘He’s aiming for something here.’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Unfortunately, Choi Jeong-Hoon didn’t even have the chance to figure it out as Yi Ji-Hyuk suddenly raised both of his hands up high in the air.

“Well, then. Should I feed the kids?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Pardon??” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Kekekeke.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Mana oozing out from his hands drew a strange symbol in the air, which then morphed into a massive black Gate.

“......Could it be?!” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Yi Ji-Hyuk shouted out at the air next.

“Hey, kids! Time to eat!” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Y-you must s-stop....” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Even before Choi Jeong-Hoon could dissuade him, though, the Gate opened its maw wide and monsters poured out like turbid floodwater.

“Uwaaaah!! You’re insane!!” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Kekekeke.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Madness began filling up Yi Ji-Hyuk’s eyes.

“Fighting monsters with monsters is the bestest method out there. Don’t you know the phrase ‘catch enemies with enemies’?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“That’s when dealing with the foreign invaders!!” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Aren’t monsters technically foreign invaders?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk exploded in a fit of laughter while watching the monsters crash-land, bloody foam bubbling out from their maws.

“You’re all very much starved, aren’t you! Go and devour!!” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Keu-rurururuk!!

Kkah-aaaaah!

The raucous, noisy howls of the monsters began ringing around the North Korean land. The soldiers observing the situation until then freaked out and fell on their butts after those demonic cries tore through the air.

“What the hell is he trying to do now?” (Rhee Jin-Cheol)

Rhee Jin-Cheol’s dazed mutter spoke on behalf of everyone’s mind just then.

< 320. Ahjussi, why are you coming out from there? -5 > Fin.