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Chapter 18: Motivation (2)

I visited Lee Sang-hoon’s father’s funeral when he passed away.

It was a good death.

Having had Lee Sang-hoon at an old age, he lived a more than plentiful life. Additionally, he was bedridden for 3 years due to cancer, enduring treatments that were like torture just to stay alive. 

The place was packed with mourners.

Adjacent to the special suite in the mortuary where his father lay was a small, ordinary room.

It was a dim and nearly empty room, where the sounds of carous revelry next door could be heard.

The floral tributes were from companies I was seeing for the first time.

At the center of the dimly lit mortuary was the portrait of a man who even at the time looked young. Beneath it were only those who appeared to be his wife and children bowing their heads, listening to the noise coming from the next room.

The stark contrast left a strong impression on me, one that I remembered for quite some time.

What brought back this memory was a comment from Kim Daram.

"They say the funeral hall will be open until dawn tomorrow. It may be harsh, but having a funeral hall open in a university hospital in times like these is, in a way, a privilege in itself.”

"Are you going?"

"I have to."

Kim Daram sighed as she replied.

"I don’t want to go, but I must. He was my sunbae, my team leader, and my director. Why? He even came to my wedding and gave 30,000 won as a gift, so of course, I have to go."

"Was the minimum 30,000 won back then?"

"No, it was 50,000 won even then."

"Ha, typical Lee Sang-hoon."

"Typical of Mr. Lee Sang-hoon."

For a moment, we reminisced and shared bitter smiles.

Kim Daram broke the brief silence.

"Are you coming, too, Sunbae?"

"Me?"

Declining is the right thing to do. 

It made sense, and I had my reasons.

Yet, for some reason, I couldn't give a direct answer.

"Uh, well."

"I know. There’s a Capsule on the way, right? It’s night right now too. No need to risk it and end up with a double funeral. Just pray for his soul from afar."

I wanted to continue the conversation, but it naturally cut off.

I sat in the bunker, contemplating in the ensuing silence.

Countless thoughts crossed my mind, but it felt like grasping at a rope made of sand.

Nothing clear came to mind.

I focused on the most recent past.

Lee Sang-hoon had suggested we have a drink together.

Maybe it was a gesture of reconciliation.

Or maybe it was a call of help to me.

Above all, what did he mean by "behind your head" in his final words?

The dead don’t speak.

Thus, Lee Sang-hoon would not answer my questions.

Nevertheless, I decided to go find him.

I felt an unreasonable compulsion that only by going to that place could my unresolved questions be answered

I ventured through the pitch-black darkness relying on my bicycle.

I could have used a vehicle, but the roads were blocked by barriers I had set up.

To move silently, the bicycle was my only option.

However, my plan was thwarted by the loud noise and lights of an approaching motorcycle.

"What are you doing? Over there?"

The man, revealing his wariness and asking curtly, took off his night-vision goggles and showed his face

We recognized each other almost simultaneously.

"What the... Isn’t this Park Gyu?"

It was Baek Seung-hyun.

A year my senior, he acted under the guise as a freelance hunter to handle all sorts of dirty and dangerous tasks behind the scenes. The National Committee’s handyman.

"Where are you headed?"

"Seoul."

"I need you to come with me for a bit."

He looked towards the distant lights.

"Can't you just let me go?"

"Well, I'd like to, but..."

Baek Seung-hyun put a cigarette in his mouth, wearing a bitter smile.

"...I'm not the one in charge."

His radio crackled with static, followed by a voice that was young, brash, and unmistakably violent.

Baek Seung-hyun's radio cracked with static, followed by a frivolous and childish yet sufficiently violent sound.

“Ahjussi, what is it?"

I quietly observed Baek Seung-hyun.

"A hunter?"

He put his night vision goggles with three lenses back on and nodded toward the lights.

"One of our esteemed hoobaes detected you."

"Detected..."

Baek Seung-hyun snorted.

"Real hunters, unlike relics like us."

In the end, I stood before the barrier I had been trying to avoid.

There were no other options.

Today, I was going to pay my respects, not add more bodies to the pile.

A group of people stood under the distant, glaring lights.

At the forefront were military police.

They weren't the issue.

If anything, they were just the background.

The real problem was the three figures standing arrogantly behind them.

They wore matching jackets, each adorned with a patch depicting a roaring tiger baring its teeth.

Roaring Tiger.

The insignia of the new breed of hunters trained and raised according to the latest doctrines that emerged about six years ago.

To them, our old-generation hunters are referred to by these young ones with a term like:

"Ahjussi."

A young man who looked to be in his early twenties with dyed blond hair called out to Baek Seung-hyun.

"So, what is this person?"

Behind him stood a man with a large shield on his back, yawning, and a woman constantly looking at her phone.

"A former hunter."

Baek Seung-hyun’s expression and demeanor, though he didn’t bow his head, gave the impression of having done so multiple times.

"A former hunter? Like Ahjussi?"

"Haha, exactly."

The man and woman behind him shot me icy glares.

I knew well what emotions lay behind those looks.

Contempt and disdain.

The blond man tilted his head in confusion.

"Why would a former hunter avoid the proper main roads and take a shady route? He's not a criminal."

Baek Seung-hyun glanced at me.

His face, struggling to contain his humiliation, seemed to want to transfer his frustration onto me.

"To go to Seoul."

I answered.

Baek Seung-hyun's eyes widened.

As if something big was about to happen.

Ignoring him, I continued.

"Quietly."

I turned my gaze to the blond man.

He looked at his companions with an incredulous expression, an awkward smile on his face.

"This guy is something else."

"What class are you?"

I asked sternly.

The smile vanished from his lips.

The man with the shield furrowed his brow, and the woman who had been glued to her phone lifted her head.

A sudden, tense atmosphere enveloped us like an unexpected blizzard.

The blond man glared at me with cold, piercing eyes and enunciated slowly.

"Twen. Ti. Eth"

"I'm from the thirteenth."

Yes.

I am their sunbae.

A heaven-like sunbae, in fact.

But these youngsters thought differently.

"Anyone before the eighteenth generation isn't a sunbae."

The kid in the back interjected.

"With a few rare exceptions."

They approached me.

As if promised beforehand, their eyes simultaneously glowed faintly like lamps.

"How could we call someone no different from those soldiers standing blankly over there our sunbae?"

A sarcastic sneer appeared on the blond kid's lips.

"Ahjussi, have you awakened? Do you have powers?"

I shook my head.

"Then you're not a sunbae."

Humanity, fighting monsters with its survival at stake, was consistently on the defensive.

When about 30% of the population had disappeared, anomalies began to be observed.

Some humans started exhibiting supernatural abilities akin to magic, using them to fight back against the monsters.

Scholars analyzed these phenomenons as manifestations of psychic energy resulting from high-level mental processes and gave them the unremarkable name, "powers."

Ironically, these new abilities resembled those of the monsters, the enemies of humanity, but it was already a predetermined future that the new blood with that power would quickly push out the old-school hunters like us.

These young people were the heralds of that foretold future.

"Since you went to the same school, you must know how dangerous that Capsule is, right? Go back."

Rationally, it might be the most reasonable solution.

However, I felt I couldn’t just leave like this.

Why? These friends.

They were denying the life I had lived.

That hurts.

It would undoubtedly leave a deep wound.

In the lonely bunker, where my thoughts were already growing more numerous, this wound might fester, mingling with old scars and rotting deeper.

Moreover, Lee Sang-hoon's unseen face appeared in my mind.

It was as if he was telling me,

To give it a try if I could.

"You’re saying that Capsule is the problem?"

Then I must try, right?

"What are you planning to do?"

"Aren’t you saying that if I deal with that Capsule, you'll let me pass?"

"You're a funny guy. What can an old-schooler like you do? Go ahead, give it a try."

The blonde stepped aside.

"If he succeeds, Ji-hye will escort him to Seoul personally."

"Why me?"

The blonde laughed, and the woman snorted.

Complete disregard.

Thanks to that, the stage was set.

The hoobaes who didn't acknowledge me as a sunbae pulled the military police back.

"Everyone, please get back beforehand in the cars There's a chance, however small, that a monster might appear."

Among the many people, only Baek Seung-hyun stood behind me.

He had his motorcycle ready with the engine idling, prepared to move at any moment.

"I appreciate the thought, but it's not necessary."

"...Park Gyu."

I turned to him with a grin.

“Don’t you know who I am? Sunbae."

According to the now-obsolete combat doctrine, there were two ways for a hunter to deal with a monster in a small-scale skirmish.

One was to pinpoint and snipe at areas where the monster's defensive field wasn't deployed.

The other was to engage the monster in close combat.

I had mentioned this to Chairman Jae Pung-ho as well.

Approaching a monster was extremely difficult, but if you could get close, there were opportunities.

It's true.

If you can enter the minimum distance where the monster can deploy its defensive field, if you have the courage and skill to confront the monster within that dual arena,

You can kill them.

"..."

I took out two axes.

This pair of axes, both blades and handles painted black, were among the few items I kept when I retired.

"Fighting! Senpai~!"

A mocking voice called from behind.

I quietly stared at the Capsule and swung one of the axes.

The moment the axe struck its target, two black spots appeared in my vision like dead pixels on a screen.

These provided two pieces of information.

One, the monster had deployed its reflective field, and two, the position from which it would counterattack using that field.

As I swung my axe down, I blocked the axe blade that was aiming for my neck with the other one.

Clang!

Retracting the axe, I launched a second attack.

The same two spots marred my vision in succession, and my body moved like a machine, executing attack and defense simultaneously.

After repeating the same exchanges several times, the whistling I heard from behind ceased.

But that wasn't important anymore.

A vortex that seemed to pull me in formed in front of me, its spiral arms rotating like a galaxy and creating a twisted space before my eyes.

The time had come.

The monster was appearing.

"Holy shit! It really woke up!"

"It's a monster!"

"Run!"

Amidst everyone's panic, I calmly observed the silhouette of the monster forming within the light.

It had the appearance of an ancient statue with a long, human-like head.

A Dancer-type?

No, it was a Necromancer-type.

Not the worst, but certainly not an easy opponent.

At mid-range, it would be impossible to approach without trained allies.

But I was at zero distance from it, ready for close combat.

That already foreshadowed a certain outcome.

Thud! Thud! Thud!

Enduring the shockwaves that felt like they would crush my heart and guts, I waited for the monster to fully materialize.

It turned its head to glare at me and swung its grayish-white arm.

My two axes struck its arm.

Slash!

How long has it been since I felt like this?

The sensation of breaking them.

That familiar feeling awakened old memories.

The dance began.

The dance of death that I learned, that I was best at, and that is now becoming a forgotten tradition.

Within that dance, the monster was nothing.

Within the zero distance where it couldn't deploy its defensive field, it was just a lumbering, slow-moving old tree waiting to be felled.

Even as it glared at me, exploding with spikes from its body in a final desperate act, my dance already took me past the path of spikes to the destination of its head.

Slash!

The two axes embedded in the monster's skull.

I felt its convulsions through the handles of the axes.

This was once the only lullaby that soothed my endless hatred.

"This is... the Professor...?!"

Baek Seung-hyun's voice broke the silence.

Thud.

The monster, crushed, chopped, and tattered, collapsed to the ground.

White light flared from its body like flames, disintegrating it into white particles that vanished in the air.

Taking a deep breath, I retrieved my axes and turned around.

The hoobaes who didn't acknowledge me as a sunbae were staring at me with shocked eyes.

Faces that couldn't believe what they had just witnessed.

It’s natural.

They were from a different generation.

Educated and trained under different doctrines from us.

But they would understand, even if only a little.

That there were warriors who once dominated an era, who protected it.

"Give me a lift, will you?"

The one who shared those times with me, who paved the way for me, was waiting for me in the cold darkness.

"Ah, goodbye!"

The woman who had given me a ride hurriedly bid me farewell without looking back and left.

The corridor leading to the mortuary was the same as the one at Lee Sang-hoon's father's funeral.

Father and son were laid to rest in the same place.

But the atmosphere was markedly different.

There were no wreaths filling the corridor, no mourners.

In the half-abandoned darkness, a woman dressed up and glamorous enough to the point of not being able to tell her identity could be seen with her downcast head keeping vigil over the empty room.

Feeling a strong sense of déjà vu, I looked at Lee Sang-hoon's portrait.

"Sang-hoon."

Now I clearly remembered.

This is what he looked like.

"Moving to Jeju Island was Lee Sang-hoon's plan."

Kim Daram came to the funeral and called me outside.

"Sunbae should know why he planned something like this, right?"

I nodded and recited the theory we learned in school.

"...The intensity of a rift is proportional to the population around it."

"Lee Sang-hoon's plan was to send the best personnel to the relatively less intensive Jeju area to prepare for the future. As you know, monsters are an occurring phenomenon, not an army with intent."

"It's not something that guy could push through on his own."

"The president and the top brass agreed. The problem is..."

She looked back toward the echoing street with sorrowful eyes.

“Those not chosen would be abandoned. That's what leaked out and caused this mess."

"Why did he take all the responsibility alone?"

“Who would want to take responsibility for abandoning ten million lives? The lowest-ranking person involved in the decision-making would have to take all the blame”

"What about Sang-hoon's wife and son? They weren't at the funeral."

"They're already in Jeju."

"I see."

Kim Daram lit a cigarette.

"Moreover, Lee Sang-hoon, for some reason, named the plan after himself."

"The Lee Sang-hoon Plan?"

"The Lee Sang-hoon Plan. Why did he do that? He must have known very well that it wouldn't just end if he took the fall.”

"..."

I had a vague idea, but it wasn't clear.

"Oh, and one more thing. It's nothing major, but Lee Sang-hoon mentioned you before he died."

"What did he say?"

"He said he kept thinking of the back of your head."

"My head?"

"Yeah. He said that back in school, he always wanted to smack the back of that head, that always strutted around in front of him and blocked his way."

So that’s what it was.

Well, it must have been annoying.

I did block his path a lot.

"But he said it with a smile before he died. That he could finally give that back of the head a proper smack.”

"Was there a new discovery?"

Kim Daram sighed as she looked around.

"Who knows. He started grinning from ear to ear after meeting Kang Sunbae and then suddenly brought it up."

"Kang Han-min?"

"Sorry. That's a name you don't want to hear, right?"

"No, it's fine. I’ve toughened my mental with the unpopular Skelton training method."

"Unpopular?"

I looked around.

Beyond us, crowds were wandering through the darkness without even candles to light their way, shouting the desperate word 'survival.'

A world was coming to an end.

And I was there.