Chapter 10: The Quarterly Battle and a Glimpse of the Extraordinary

The large-scale battles, held quarterly in February, May, August, and November each year, were, in simple terms, operations to utterly annihilate the monsters’ lairs without a trace. Based on data tracked by the National Security Agency’s research team, investigation teams from across the country were dispatched to the sites, where they had to continuously work to sever the monsters’ lifelines, even when facing imminent mortal danger.

During this period, clocks across the nation seemed to halt. Government offices, companies, schools, and even shops of all kinds closed their doors, as civilians were forbidden from venturing outside.

Thus, there was an imperative to conclude these large-scale battles as swiftly as possible. The quicker and more flawlessly they were completed, the greater the rewards bestowed upon each team.

“Vice-Captain, what’s Team 1’s fastest record for a large-scale battle?”

“Days? What are you talking about? They’ve finished one in under twelve hours before.”

“Whoa, are they insane?”

“Absolutely insane. Especially Ryu Yishin.”

As Jung Hanseol rode in the car Yoon Sehee was driving, he casually listened in on the team members discussing Team 1, and dared to speculate that this large-scale battle might conclude more quickly than the last. If they were deployed to the same location as Ryu Yishin’s Team 1, of all people, it might very well be possible.

“My sister told me that team’s youngest member caused quite a stir recently.”

“A stir? What kind of stir?”

“Apparently, they injured a civilian. Seems they got demerit points for it.”

“That bastard will be burning with zeal to make up for it.”

After Jo Jinwoo’s remark, a heavy silence descended upon the car. Yoon Sehee, gripping the steering wheel, chewed on her lip before letting out a hollow laugh.

“I wonder if we should be more wary of Ryu Yishin than the monsters themselves.”

Lee Seokhyun, seated in the passenger seat, nodded quietly, as if in agreement, while Jo Jinwoo gazed out the window with a face full of discontent. Hanseol, however, had been continuously recalling the moments he had encountered Ryu Yishin ever since he became the topic of conversation among his team members. As if drawn by an irresistible force, he couldn’t stop thinking about him.

His cold gaze, which revealed nothing of his thoughts; his voice, as calm and composed as his eyes; and even the faint smile that briefly softened his facial muscles—every detail was so vivid, as if Ryu Yishin’s image from that moment was deeply etched into his mind. He was an extraordinary individual, not just in ability, but also in appearance and the aura he exuded.

‘The problem, however, was that he seemed to have caught the attention of such a person.’

“Hanseol, what are you doing? Hurry and get out.”

“Oh… right.”

The car had arrived at the Central Branch’s Second Dormitory, which would serve as their accommodation during the large-scale battle. Jung Hanseol, who had been engrossed in thoughts of Ryu Yishin and oblivious to their arrival, only then snapped back to reality at Jo Jinwoo’s call, scrambling in a flurry.

Jo Jinwoo, watching him intently, burst into laughter and ruffled Hanseol’s hair.

There was no time to dawdle in the parking lot. Carrying their packed bags, the members of Team 7 entered the dormitory and moved in perfect coordination, even without specific instructions. As with the previous large-scale battle, Hanseol would be sharing a room with Jinwoo, meaning they would be inseparable.

“Hanseol, look at me.”

Jinwoo called out to Hanseol, who was wearing a bulletproof vest he’d pulled from his duffel bag, with a holster clumsily strapped over it, and deftly adjusted his gear with practiced hands. After ensuring Hanseol had his pistol, jackknife, extra bullets, and grenades—all the items he would carry during the battle—Jo Jinwoo tapped Hanseol’s back with a satisfied smile.

“There. Let’s go.”

“Right.”

Only after donning a special material jacket, thick yet highly functional, was Hanseol finally ready to leave the room. When they descended to the lobby, all the team members had already gathered. Upon spotting Yoon Sehee’s signal, Hanseol and Jinwoo immediately joined, and Team Leader Joo began a quick inspection. After checking their weapons, radio conditions, physical state, and plans, Team Leader Joo curled both corners of his mouth into a grin and offered a playful remark.

“Alright then, let’s all meet alive.”

“Oh, seriously, Team Leader!”

Regardless of Yoon Sehee’s exasperated complaints thrown at his back about such jokes, Team Leader Joo led the members who would move with him out of the building. Yoon Sehee, eventually shaking her head in resignation, nodded to her own team members before heading to the parking lot to move to Inseosan.

Inseosan boasted a total of ten hiking trails. Trails 1 through 5 were assigned to Team 1, led by Ryu Yishin, while trails 6 through 10 were allocated to Team 7, led by Joo Youngmin. Specifically, Team 7’s strategy was for Team A, moving with Team Leader Joo, to start clearing from trail 6, and Team B, moving with Vice-Captain Yoon, to begin from trail 10, thereby tightening their encirclement.

“Vice-Captain, what’s Team 1 up to, anyway?”

Upon arriving at Inseosan, a fifteen-minute drive from the Second Dormitory, Team 7’s members began to move, splitting into Teams A and B as planned. While ascending the relatively gentle initial stretch of the trail, Lee Seokhyun broke the silence with a question.

Yoon Sehee nudged a small stone on the ground with the toe of her boot, her gaze fixed on the earth below. Though she couldn’t see to the deepest depths, her partial clairvoyance allowed her to discern the monsters’ presence beneath their feet.

“I heard that team assembled at sunset.”

“Crazy, they’re incredibly gung-ho.”

“I wouldn’t be surprised if they cleared everything and started coming over to our side.”

Perhaps because the altitude was still low and the slope relatively gentle, it seemed no monsters had dug tunnels to form a lair this far in. Yoon Sehee lifted her gaze, answering Lee Seokhyun’s question with a shrug. Jo Jinwoo, who had picked up a twig from the ground and was playfully poking Hanseol’s side, frowned at the chilly air, clicked his tongue, and spoke.

“Let’s hurry.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, quickening their pace up the mountain. Throughout the ascent on the darkening mountain path, as the sun completely set, Hanseol had to hold tight to his nerves. Unlike Espers, who were born with vision as bright as midday even in darkness, Hanseol was constrained by his limited sight in the gloom.

The pale moonlight filtering through the branches and Jo Jinwoo’s steady hand guiding him were Hanseol’s only lifelines.

According to information from the research team, the monsters inhabiting Inseosan were active during the day and would retreat into deep tunnels they had dug once the sun set, sleeping for an average of fourteen to sixteen hours. Due to data suggesting they drew strength from light for their attacks, they had no choice but to move without even using flashlights, so as not to provoke the monsters.

“Wait a moment. Something’s strange here.”

Yoon Sehee, who had been briskly leading the way up the mountain path, stretched her right arm out to halt her team members’ steps and pointed downwards. Where her hand indicated, several small holes were visible, resembling an ant colony.

After a moment’s contemplation, she aimed her loaded gun at a hole and fired. The ground rumbled, and muffled, stifled screams, as if hitting a solid wall, began to emanate from below. Not long after, a tremendous tremor, like an earthquake, shook beneath their feet. Yoon Sehee casually swept some dirt over the holes with the edge of her boot to loosely cover them, then spoke.

“Their speed is incredible. They must be moving upwards. How on earth did they dig these tunnels?”

The tremor gradually intensified, becoming so strong that it felt as if the entire mountain was vibrating. Yoon Sehee quickly pulled out her radio to report the situation to Team Leader Joo, while Hanseol, clenching his legs to keep his balance, swallowed hard. His heart pounded fiercely, and his palms grew steadily damp with sweat. The tension clung to his skin, making his entire body feel increasingly heavy.

“Let’s hurry up too.”

Lee Seokhyun abruptly uttered these words and immediately began to run, with Yoon Sehee nodding once and following behind him. Jo Jinwoo, watching the two from a step back, gripped Hanseol’s wrist tightly and posed a question, not truly expecting an answer.

“Jung Hanseol, you can run, right?”

The eerie night air, the pervasive darkness, and the knowledge that monsters swarmed beneath their feet all combined to infuse a deep sense of dread into his very bones. Yet, without time to calm his racing mind, Hanseol was pulled forward by Jo Jinwoo’s hand, forced to run up the increasingly steep mountain path. *Thud-thud-thud*, the footsteps of the four filled the formerly silent mountain air, even as the ground tremors grew ever more violent.

His breathing grew uncontrollably ragged. While the other team members ran up the path effortlessly, Hanseol continuously lagged, unable to match their speed. Each time the distance between them threatened to widen, Jo Jinwoo would powerfully yank Hanseol’s arm, urging him to quicken his pace. ‘If only I had diligently done my running, as Jinwoo-hyung told me to,’ he thought, swallowing belated regrets and gasping for breath.

“Hanseol, wait a second.”

“H-huh, what?”

Jo Jinwoo quickly pulled Hanseol behind him, drew his gun, and accurately aimed and fired at the heart of a monster approaching Hanseol. Before Hanseol, who had lost his balance and stumbled, unexpectedly landing on his backside, could even comprehend the situation, gunshots erupted from all directions. Looking up, he saw Yoon Sehee and Lee Seokhyun, their gazes fixed in different directions, unhesitatingly shooting down the slowly approaching monsters.

“Jinwoo, hurry up!”

“Yes, coming!”

The air currents suddenly shifted, bringing with them a suffocating tension. The situation was rapidly escalating. Hanseol suppressed the extreme fear that made his legs tremble, barely managed to stand, and drew his pistol from its holster. Urgent voices, rampant gunshots, the ear-splitting screams of monsters, and the sounds of rupturing flesh—in this critical situation, his heightened hearing, compensating for his limited sight, sharply registered every sound.

“Jung Hanseol, focus! Four o’clock!”

Hanseol, who was slowly making his way up towards his teammates, instinctively spun around at Jinwoo’s voice, raising his gun into the air. From the direction Jinwoo indicated, a bear-like monster, as tall as Hanseol himself, was approaching, exhaling furious breaths and growing steadily closer. Its steps were slow, but its massive size was instinctively terrifying, threatening enough to make him freeze in fear.

Recalling Jo Jinwoo’s words never to close his eyes when firing, Hanseol managed to aim at the monster’s head and pull the trigger. Even though the bullet pierced precisely through its forehead, the monster merely let out a pained shriek, still alive, as the shot lacked an Esper’s power.

Hanseol struggled to suppress his growing fear, diligently firing bullets into the monster’s head and chest. His jaw clenched tightly, beginning to tremble. He had to take down this monster, no matter what, if he was to alleviate even a little of his teammates’ burden.

“Hanseol, well done! That’s enough, just get up here!”

Yoon Sehee, while single-handedly cutting down monsters that sporadically burst from the ground, urgently shouted to Hanseol, who was struggling at the very bottom. Hanseol glanced at the monster, which finally toppled with a stagger, and turned to run towards Yoon Sehee’s position. Even in the dim surroundings, he could see the bullets fired by his teammates, imbued with their unique abilities, flying and flashing brightly. He figured he could use those as a guide.

The moment Hanseol gritted his teeth and prepared to run, a powerful tremor, as if shaking the very foundations of the earth, erupted beneath his feet.

“O-oh…!”

Hanseol, swaying from the powerful force that made it impossible to maintain his balance, struggled to escape, but his efforts ultimately proved futile. The ground, which had sunk endlessly like a sinkhole, swallowed him whole.

“Hanseol!”

“Jung Hanseol! Hanseol!”

Hanseol’s body plummeted endlessly down the gaping hole, like an artificially dug tunnel. Overwhelmed by fear beyond his limit, Hanseol lost consciousness and was sucked relentlessly downwards. Only the hollow cries calling his name echoed through the eerie mountain.