The Returner

Chapter 29: Allow me to show you what defeat truly means (4)

The Flame Witch’s demonic flames stylishly flared up.

“So, you’re saying...” (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young tried to cool herself down with her hands acting as fans.

If she couldn’t get the flames under control, then she might end up roasting the man standing right in front of her alive even before she could do something about it.

“...That was the reason why you were playing a video game?” (Seo Ah-Young)

“No, wait, I was really planning to stop after only one round, but I had no idea this guy was such a dirty player, I swear!” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

“Yeah, sure. Whenever people lose, they claim their opponents were playing dirty, unfair, etc, etc...” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“What the?! But you actually played dirty, did you not?! Are you a footballer?! Were we playing football, instead?! No, wait! This is beyond even the level of football!! I thought we were in a bloody Muay Thai ring, what with you elbowing me all the time!!” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

“Well, I’m pretty good with a Muay Thai character, so that must be it.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Oh, so that’s why you performed actual Muay Thai on me, is that right?” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

...This second round of tit-for-tat was unfolding quite splendidly, but what an unfortunate timing this was – this argument only served to stoke Seo Ah-Young’s furious flames even more. Well, she didn’t care one bit for video games, after all.

“You two better shut it before I glue your faces and hands to the f*cking joysticks.” (Seo Ah-Young)

“...Yes, ma’am.” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

“Roger.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Seo Ah-Young then proceeded to shout even louder.

“Just what the hell were you thinking?!” (Seo Ah-Young)

Choi Jung-Hoon clamped his mouth shut.

Even if he had ten mouths, he still wouldn’t be able to come up with a good excuse.

“Just where are we right now?! Isn’t this where a Gate is about to open up? You don’t even have enough leeway to manage the situation properly, yet you waste time by playing a video game?! Mister Choi Jung-Hoon! Why are you behaving like this?? Did you lose your mind because of stress? Are you actually implying to me that you wish to get fired? What were you thinking!!” (Seo Ah-Young)

“My apologies, ma’am.” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon was sweating inside his mind.

If it weren’t for damn Yi Ji-Hyuk’s elbow, he wouldn’t have shown such a pathetic sight to anyone right now...

“Hey, ahjussi.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“.....Yes?” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

“Looks like you need to polish your skills a bit more, you know? You sucked big time just now.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Oh, dear Lord.

I shall willingly step into the gates of hell right after I murder this b*stard. (Choi Jung-Hoon’s inner monologue)

“Hey! You are the cause of this, you hear me! What stupidity possessed you to play a game here? What was it!!” (Seo Ah-Young)

Yi Ji-Hyuk shrugged his shoulders.

“Oh, I’m sorry. I apologise.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

...Now, that – that was very odd.

To think, the unofficial king of sarcastic remarks was apologising without a retort?

“Don’t you know that you are not allowed to do whatever you want within the restricted area?” (Seo Ah-Young)

“I genuinely didn’t know. I’m sorry.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“No, that is why!! Urgh.....” (Seo Ah-Young)

....So, what could she say to him now?!

Seo Ah-Young’s body began to tremble.

She wanted to get angry!

She wanted to vent some steam!

“That is why!” (Seo Ah-Young)

“Yes, miss. It was all my fault. I am really sorry.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

....Stop apologising!!!!

Start retorting back to me!!!!

So I can find a way to attack you!!

If you keep apologising like that, how will I be able to vent now?!?! To whom?! (Seo Ah-Young’s inner monologue)

“Mister Choi Jung-Hoon!!” (Seo Ah-Young)

“.....Y, yes?” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

“Don’t you know you shouldn’t have done that?” (Seo Ah-Young)

“....Ah, in the end, it’s me.” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon raised his head and stared into the distant blue sky. For some reason, he was missing his mother terribly today, who had passed away a while ago.

She was really happy when Choi Jung-Hoon told her that he had passed the Civil Service Examination.

If she knew her precious son would end up being treated like this, surely she wouldn’t have been as pleased back then.

...And the reason for the distant clouds looking blurry definitely wasn’t because of the teardrops forming on the corners of his eyes.

“Excuse me....” (The adjutant)

It was then, a saviour appeared just in the nick of time.

“What’s the matter?” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Switching back to the full-on ‘responsible government official’ mode in the blink of an eye, Choi Jung-Hoon welcomed the new person, his saviour into the conversation.

“Don’t you dare try to gloss over this, you hear?!” (Seo Ah-Young)

He couldn’t hear what Seo Ah-Young was shouting about. Nope. He definitely could not hear her!

“Hurry up and tell me what is happening already!” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Speak up already, will you?! I need to escape from this situation ASAP! (Choi Jung-Hoon’s inner monologue)

“The rate of the Gate changing is faster than expected.” (The adjutant)

“What?” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon’s expression became dignified in an instant.

“How much faster are we talking about here? Please explain to us in detail.” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

“The minimum amount of time required for a Gate to go from the initial appearance to its full activation usually took around three days, am I correct so far?” (The adjutant)

“Yes, that’s the accepted norm.” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

“However, we estimate it only has been around 25 hours since its appearance, yet it’s on the brink of activation.” (The adjutant)

“Hmmm.......”

With a serious expression, Choi Jung-Hoon stared at the Gate.

‘The real problem is that, actually, this isn’t a unique case...’ (Choi Jung-Hoon)

About a week ago, cases of Gates opening up sooner than expected began happening all around the globe and the frequency of such events was increasing at an alarming rate.

Although not every Gate displayed such a behaviour, most countries had already experienced this phenomenon at least twice already.

‘This cannot be normal.’ (Choi Jung-Hoon)

If this phenomenon became the new norm, then all of the military response plans humanity had cooked up would become completely useless moving on.

Plus, there was a high probability that the equilibrium of many smaller nations, only managing to survive solely due to the support of bigger countries, would tilt to the wrong direction in a heartbeat.

However, all of that was a matter to worry about later on. What’s important was this Gate right here, right now.

“Where are our agents?” (Seo Ah-Young)

“On location.” (Doh Gah-Yun)

Doh Gah-Yun raised her hand and pointed to a direction.

Three people revealed themselves among the cordon of soldiers.

“Huh?”

A muscle-bound man walking in front suddenly pointed at them in recognition and stomped his way towards in an obvious display of rage.

It was none other than the ‘Iron’ Park Sung-Chan.

Thanks to the incident back at a certain department store, he had to endure as the building’s support pillar for a few days. He immediately recognised Yi Ji-Hyuk and began throwing angry words at the youth.

“You son of a b*tch!! What a good timing this is! Do you have any godd*mn idea what I had to go through because of you, you b*stard?!” (Park Sung-Chan)

Too bad, Yi Ji-Hyuk’s reply was rather on the short side.

“Who?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“What?! It’s me, me!! You, don’t you remember?” (Park Sung-Chan)

“Do we know this guy?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

When Yi Ji-Hyuk inexplicably asked him, Choi Jung-Hoon found himself nodding his head almost out of reflex.

“He, he’s from that department store thing...” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

“Ah!” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk lightly clapped his hands once as if he remembered, and nodded his head.

“Ahh, so you are the guy from back then. It’s a pleasure to meet you.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

‘...He really has forgotten about him.’ (Choi Jung-Hoon)

The problem here was that Yi Ji-Hyuk wasn’t acting like this to torment the poor guy. Seriously though – wasn’t it a moral thing to do? To at least remember the poor sob you had turned into a human support pillar for three days straight without even so much a warning?

Of course, that wasn’t Yi Ji-Hyuk’s fault anyways, technically speaking, so there wasn’t much to be said about that, but still.

Of course, Park Sung-Chan definitely did not share the same opinion.

“Pleasure to meet me? A ‘pleasure’?!?! Hey, you smelly son of a b*tch! Do you have any godd*man idea what I had to go through during those three days because of you?!” (Park Sung-Chan)

“You were stuck there for three days?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“That’s right! I was there for three days! Three!!” (Park Sung-Chan)

“Oh.....” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk asked back with a really apologetic expression.

“For three straight days?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“That’s right!! I was stuck there for three days supporting that pillar and I couldn’t move a single inch!!” (Park Sung-Chan)

“In that case....” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“What now?” (Park Sung-Chan)

“What about, you know, toilet?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Suddenly, the surroundings became dead quiet.

“Huh? No, no, wait, the toilet, uh, ah....” (Park Sung-Chan)

“I mean, looking at your big physique and all, you must be a big eater, am I right? So, to not go to a toilet for three whole days, does that mean...” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“No, no! It’s nothing like that!!!” (Park Sung-Chan)

“....Did you use diapers?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“NOOO!! I absolutely did not wear one!!” (Park Sung-Chan)

Park Sung-Chan could feel the people around him slowly back away. He desperately denied and wildly waved his hands around.

“No, it was not like that!! I’m telling you the truth!! Really!!” (Park Sung-Chan)

“You actually held all of it back? For three days?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Of course!!” (Park Sung-Chan)

“Really?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“If things continued for even ten seconds more, I wouldn’t even be able to stand here.” (Park Sung-Chan)

“That’s a relief.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk’s lips formed a relieved smile.

“What the hell, that isn’t important!! You sly son of a b*tch!!” (Park Sung-Chan)

Park Sung-Chan’s muscles quivered dangerously as he shouted out.

“Argh!! You are being noisy, so go to a corner and bury your head there!!” (Seo Ah-Young)

“Just who.... Yes, ma’am. I’ll bury my head there. That shouldn’t be too difficult...” (Park Sung-Chan)

As soon as Park Sung-Chan saw the scary, demonic expression etched on Seo Ah-Young’s face, he slinked off to a corner without a single shred of hesitation.

“Tsk, tsk, tsk.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

The sound of Yi Ji-Hyuk clicking his tongue stabbed the muscle-bound man’s ears quite painfully, but he simply closed his eyes and continuously reminded himself.

‘I will end up in Hell if the Witch gets p*ssed off at me...’ (Park Sung-Chan)

He should know, since he had prior experience...

‘Still, what the hell is up with that b*stard?’ (Park Sung-Chan)

Now that he was a bit more calmer, Park Sung-Chan found a room to wonder about the identity of this youth who could relaxedly click his tongue right in front of the infamous Flame Witch.

Unless he was a real big shot, such a thing was unimaginable.

Just as Park Sung-Chan’s curiosity regarding Yi Ji-Hyuk was reaching a peak of sorts, Seo Ah-Young somehow managed to wrest back control of the chaotic situation.

“So, what you’re saying is, you don’t have a concrete time frame when this Gate might open?” (Seo Ah-Young)

“Yes, ma’am. It reached around 95% not too long ago, but then, has stopped advancing since. Currently, it has not made any movements at all.” (The adjutant)

“Where is Colonel?” (Seo Ah-Young)

“He’s contacting the headquarters as we speak.” (The adjutant)

“Does he think the higher-ups know what to do in a situation like this?” (Seo Ah-Young)

The adjutant found her retort a bit hard to answer back, so he didn’t.

Seo Ah-Young frowned deeply and shifted her gaze back to the Gate.

Its red surface was rippling ever so gently. And when that rippling surface opened its mouth, many monsters would pour out in the blink of an eye.

“The rate of evacuation?” (Seo Ah-Young)

“Everyone within the radius of 5 kilometres has been evacuated.” (The adjutant)

“Five? Are you messing with me right now? You think that’s going to be enough?” (Seo Ah-Young)

Choi Jung-Hoon spat out a long sigh next to her.

“Ma’am, you know it’s very difficult to do a mass evacuation in the middle of a city. Just to evacuate that 5 kilometres, not only we had to utilise the local police’s help, we even resorted to using the local community leaders, too. And the evacuation itself is still ongoing right now. If we could, we might even end up asking ants to help us out here.” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

“Oh, is that why you were busy playing a video game until now?” (Seo Ah-Young)

“..............”

It was then, Choi Jung-Hoon came to a chilling realisation.

This.... She was not going to let this go, like, forever.

Until the day he managed to escape from this rotten woman’s oppressive rule, she would readily torment him with this incident, over and over again.

‘When this situation is over...’ (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon’s hand tightly grasped the resignation letter within his pocket.

“You lot, stand by and don’t you dare to slack off.” (Seo Ah-Young)

““Yes, ma’am.””

The other two ability users who had arrived alongside Park Sung-Chan replied to her while standing absolutely dead straight.

Yi Ji-Hyuk tilted his head slightly while he looked on from the side.

‘She must be a real big shot, huh.’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

After getting constantly entangled in her business through various circumstances, he was beginning to think that she and her crew were actually a bit of a funny joke, but now that he saw how she carried herself around here, she must’ve been a person of a really high station.

“And you...” (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young turned her attention to Yi Ji-Hyuk and then, groaned out at a length.

Just what should she do about this man?

Seo Ah-Young began massaging her forehead almost out of reflex.

She might end up with premature wrinkles at this rate...

She haven’t had a single day recently where she could stop frowning. All because of him...

For now, she decided to forget about Yi Ji-Hyuk, and glared at Doh Gah-Yun instead.

“What were you thinking?!” (Seo Ah-Young)

Doh Gah-Yun replied with her trademark deadpan expression.

“Thoughts not necessary.” (Gah-Yun)

“What now? Are you telling me you’re not thinking about anything?” (Seo Ah-Young)

Doh Gah-Yun shook her head.

“Need to revise. Not about no thoughts. Thoughts not necessary right now.” (Gah-Yun)

“What are you even talking about?” (Seo Ah-Young)

“Found near Gates’ locations, always. Always, unseen problems occur.” (Gah-Yun)

“Uh?”

“Not necessary to cause an incident. Incidents naturally occur. The certainty, 100%, when outside his home.” (Gah-Yun)

Choi Jung-Hoon’s expression became seriously crumpled as he turned to look at Yi Ji-Hyuk.

“Now that I think about it...” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Today was the third time they saw this youth outside his house.

But, Gates appeared on all three occasions, and Yi Ji-Hyuk always got entangled in them somehow.

Even today.

‘It’s a bit... vague, though.’ (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Well, the thing was, last time it was Choi Jung-Hoon who took the youth to the Gate’s location, while today, it was Doh Gah-Yun. So, it was slightly incorrect to say he got entangled wherever he went, actually.

‘What the... If we take that into consideration, doesn’t that make him a walking, talking Gate generator? Or, even a bipedal Apocalypse?’ (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Of course, there was no way a human being would be able to directly influence the Gates and where/when one appeared. Still, only showing up in places where Gates did appear was a talent in itself.

A talent that was followed around by a massive heap of misfortune, to boot.

“T, the Gate is showing some change!”

Choi Jung-Hoon’s head swiveled towards the direction of the timer.

96.

The number showing up on the equipment now showed 96, changed from the previous 95.

“Well, since we don’t know when it’s going to open up, so everyone, get ready to... what the f*ck?!” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

97, 98, 99....

In the blink of an eye, the values continuously changed upwards.

“The Gate!!It’s going to open!! The Gate is opening!”

Seo Ah-Young shouted out in a resolute voice.

“To your positions!!” (Seo Ah-Young)

All the ability users quickly stepped back.

Even the soldiers surrounding the area also retreated, just as quickly!

“Eh?”

While being dragged away to safety by Choi Jung-Hoon, Yi Ji-Hyuk tilted his head in confusion.

Shouldn’t those ability users or whatnots stand in front of the Gate and stop whatever came out from there?

“Where is Colonel Jeong In-Soo?!” (Seo Ah-Young)

“It’s Sir to you, got that?! I’m here already, so shut up and retreat now!” (Jeong In-Soo)

Jeong In-Soo had already returned to the command post, and was shouting out his orders.

“It’s opening up!!”

“Get ready to open fire!”

Accompanying the nervous voices of the soldiers, the Gate began emitting a bright light, and then – the doorway to another dimension opened up.

From there, several strange formless shapes that kinda resembled clumps of water, or even air molecules, began to pop out, one by one.

“What the hell are those?” (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young frowned and shouted out.

Choi Jung-Hoon’s reply was incredibly quick.

“It’s an unknown type!! Everyone, be careful!” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Indeed, they were now facing a never-before-seen monster type.

“Users, get ready! Colonel Jeong In-Soo!” (Seo Ah-Young)

“I know! Ready to fire!” (Jeong In-Soo)

Yi Ji-Hyuk stared as this scene unfolded, while his eyes were trembling greatly.

“What the hell? Isn’t that....?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

< 29. Allow me to show you what defeat truly means -4 > Fin.

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