A helicopter with two rotors was heading towards the grayish area.
There were six people on board, including the pilot.
Everyone except me was an Awakened.
The average age was in the early twenties, but the atmosphere inside the helicopter was heavy, and the silence was almost oppressive.
The reason I was on board the helicopter was, as always, my pathological curiosity.
The concept of luring monsters had been proposed long ago, but it was considered unrealistic and unlikely to come to fruition.
You could see that just by looking at the map of South Korea.
If you’re going to lure monsters, where would you send them?
The capital region? That’s out of the question. Gyeongsang, Jeolla, Chungcheong, or Gangwon?
It was all nonsense.
Moreover, there was the very practical issue of who would bell the cat.
What monsters were, even scholars disagreed on, so the very idea of luring them to a specific location was ridiculous.
Yet, Woo Min-hee had done it.
According to her, it was a method first discovered in Japan.
It seemed very Japanese to me.
Japan is a country where its citizens never resist, no matter what oppression the government inflicts.
The Japanese government had forcibly displaced people from the northeastern regions and created monster luring facilities there.
During that process, millions of people lost their homes and became refugees, but instead of protesting against their government, the Japanese turned on and looked down on the displaced refugees.
The method Japan used to lure monsters was a paradigm shift.
When monster groups began frequently attacking the Awakened training facilities near rifts, the Japanese government hypothesized that monsters were drawn to the Awakened, who emitted waves similar to those of small monsters. They then placed unfit Awakened in mass detention facilities and observed the movement of monsters.
The monsters, instead of attacking nearby military bases, gathered around the Awakened detention centers.
And thus, the monster luring facility was invented.
Ironically, it was called the Lighthouse.
Woo Min-hee had benchmarked this method and created a similar lighthouse north of Paju.
"That’s the lighthouse," she said, pointing out the window.
Without a word, the woman gestured toward the endless, ochre-colored sea that stretched beyond the bay. Beyond the sea, a shabby, dilapidated city sprawled, and beside it stood a massive structure that almost made me question my eyes.
"That’s the lighthouse?" I asked.
The massive, rectangular structure, which seemed to occupy the entirety of a 3,000-unit apartment complex, loomed like a threatening presence over the city.
It resembled a gigantic, global-scale beehive.
Each side of the structure had rows of hexagonal cells that seemed to go on forever, packed together like a swarm.
What I was curious about was not the shape of the building, but who had built it.
"Who built that? Such a massive structure."
The grayish city was likely Kaesong, a city in North Korea.
No matter how superior South Korea's civil engineering capabilities were, it was impossible to build such structures after the war.
Even if such structures had existed, their resources would have all been moved to Jeju Island.
"It was built by North Korea," the woman with the callsign Lightning answered gruffly.
She looked to be in her early twenties but had eyes filled with deeper, more profound sorrow than Woo Min-hee.
She looked out at the massive beehive-like structure and continued speaking.
"It was the last refuge for the Kim Dynasty and Pyongyang’s aristocrats."
However, the Kim family and the Pyongyang aristocrats were killed by the enraged North Korean citizens before they could reach the hexagonal beehive.
After the collapse of the country and the erosion of most of the territory, the Republic of Korea's Seokwiwon took over the refuge.
The small group of aristocrats had become a beacon of hope for the ordinary people of South Korea.
Lights flashed from the beehive.
It was a signal to lure.
The helicopter slowly descended towards the ruins of the former kingdom.
Beyond the helipad, a tall, ❀ Nоvеlігht ❀ (Don’t copy, read here) lean man, accompanied by several children, vigorously waved both hands at us.
I thought I recognized him.
Was he the man from Jeju?
"Why did you take so long to get here?" the man shouted.
But this man...
"Did you keep us waiting?"
He seemed lighthearted, almost too carefree.
No matter how capable you are, some people end up taking key positions in Seokwiwon, while others become expendable pawns on the battlefield.
The luckiest Awakened are probably the first or second generations of new schools.
In those days, people who would now be considered "junk Awakened" were treated as valuable simply because they were Awakened, and quickly rose in rank.
Skill didn’t matter much.
Back then, Yang Sang-gil, who is now gone, wanted the younger, more manageable Awakened to act as a counterbalance to us old-school hunters.
As a result, the first and second generations of new schools quickly advanced without even properly experiencing the battlefield.
Jung Ho-kyung, the person responsible for the "Kaesong Lighthouse," was one of those lucky golden generation people.
"Ugh! I wish we had more, but this is barely enough to feed the kids!" he complained.
His behavior was... over the top.
His voice, filled with unnecessary emotion, his exaggerated gestures and expressions, and his constant muttering of things no one asked about made me wonder if he had ADHD.
"Ugh. Let’s relax! I've done difficult things like this plenty of times before! There’s always next time!" he rambled on.
While he kept shouting, Lightning approached me.
Upon closer inspection, I noticed faint scars around her eyes.
They were well-healed, but judging by the deep marks, it looked like she had suffered significant wounds.
She looked at me with her softly glowing eyes and asked in a dry, emotionless voice.
"I'm terribly sorry, but do you know how to operate a forklift? One of our team members said he could, but when we tried, he couldn’t do it because it was different from what he used to drive."
Though she spoke in standard Korean, I could still detect traces of North Korean speech.
Perhaps this woman was from here, from North Korea.
I imagined that and agreed to help.
Vroom—
Well, there’s not much I can’t do, and forklift driving is one of the things I do fairly well. I had fully mastered it when I worked at a company.
Using that skill, I unloaded supplies from the helicopter and moved them with precision.
It wasn’t difficult, aside from the incessant nonsense coming from Jung Ho-kyung.
He was really talkative.
"We’re the last light of Korea! How can we not treat the last light with respect?" he shouted.
"It’s not about factions like the Legion or the National Assembly! What matters is South Korea! The future of South Korea is in our hands! Why isn’t anyone getting excited about that important and holy responsibility?" he continued.
"Ugh! We lost another farm area yesterday! I risked my life protecting the livestock, but now it’s dangerous! The pasture is running out!" he complained.
I wasn’t the only one ignoring him.
In fact, Lightning and her team were even more thorough in ignoring him.
Every time Jung Ho-kyung twisted his body dramatically, I flinched and stared at him, but Lightning’s team didn’t even glance in his direction, let alone show any interest.
Once the supplies were all unloaded and stored in the warehouse, Lightning came up to me.
"Good work," she said.
She met my gaze.
She smiled ever so faintly.
"When you first agreed to come, I had some reservations, but I didn’t expect you to have so many skills."
"...Is there anything else I can help with?"
"No. We’re good here."
Lightning glanced at Jung Ho-kyung, who was still twisting around in the distance.
"I don’t know about him, though."
She referred to him as "that person."
If he were from our school, at least there would be a "senior" coming from her.
There was no sign of respect, meaning there was no respect at all.
"You’d better not do him any favors," Lightning warned me.
"If you do, he’ll try to use you until the very end."
As soon as he finished speaking, Jung Ho-kyung approached us.
His gaze was fixed on Lightning.
"Hey, Lightning."
He called her name.
"Since you're here, could you help us out? Monsters have come into the food area. I want to feed the kids some meat, but because of the monsters, I can't do anything."
They seemed to know each other, but it was clear that their relationship wasn't great.
Judging by Lightning’s expression, it was as if it was starting to rot.
"I'm sorry, but we’re here for supplies. We haven’t heard any other instructions from Colonel Woo," Lightning replied.
"No, the kids are starving. Huh? The kids are starving to death? You brought just this little food, and what do you want me to do with it? If we can find just one food area, we can feed the kids for three months! Just help us out. You're from the same school, right? Huh? What did we learn at school?!"
Jung Ho-kyung raised his voice, but Lightning’s face didn’t budge.
She waited for him to finish and then stared at him coldly before responding.
"If you need something, ask Colonel Woo directly."
Jung Ho-kyung tugged at his hair in frustration.
"Ah! Why is everyone like this?! Why’s there no sense of duty?! Huh? At least we should have a sense of duty, if not passion! That’s what being a hunter is, right? That’s what being an Awakened is!"
Honestly, it wasn’t a very pleasant sight.
It was hard to believe that someone, no matter how old, could act this way.
"Then, I’ll be on my way," Lightning said, as she and the other Awakened boarded the helicopter.
Lightning gestured for me to follow.
"....."
New n𝙤vel chapters are published on freeweɓnøvel.com.
Isn’t this a bit too quick?
It wasn’t like a sudden gust of wind sweeping everything away.
I wanted to stay a bit longer.
To be sure, I asked Lightning.
"When will you be back here?"
"Maybe in three or four days? But why do you ask?"
"I have some things I want to check out here."
Three or four days, huh.
That’s a manageable amount of time.
Above all, this facility.
It piques my interest.
The last refuge of the old kingdom.
The beehive-like structure is fascinating, and most of all, I want to see the true potential of this lighthouse that lures monsters with my own eyes.
If this lighthouse can operate permanently, it might be humanity’s survival scenario, where a few sacrifices bring prosperity to the many.
"Ah, is that so? So, you’re the Professor?"
As expected, Jung Ho-kyung didn’t seem to welcome me much.
It was to be expected.
The people who hated us Old School the most were the new school first and second generations, those closest to our generation.
Those who take someone’s position are always the harshest on those they’ve displaced.
"Well, we don’t really need any Old School hunters."
Even after hearing my call sign, Jung Ho-kyung reacted with indifference.
He eventually stopped looking me in the eye and said it dismissively.
"I’m sorry, but we don’t have any good rooms. We don’t have much food to offer, either. But if you’re fine with it, you can stay for a few days."
The helicopter lifted off.
Holding the note Jung Ho-kyung had given me, I searched for where I would stay among the countless hexagonal buildings.
Except for a few, the hexagonal structures required moving across the rooftops of the walls that made up the upper sections.
My accommodation was also connected by a passageway to one of these rooftops.
Walking on the thick concrete walls of what was probably the 15th floor of an apartment, I looked below.
Each hexagonal beehive had its own distinct personality.
Some beehives turned the whole area into a farm for crops, while others were made into pastures where cows roamed freely.
I assumed the structure was designed to separate areas so that if one was overrun by monsters, the damage would be minimized, and if monsters invaded, the area could be reclaimed quickly.
Of course, the barriers weren’t perfect in stopping monsters.
Looking below, the vast hexagonal area beneath the sheer cliff was filled with mysterious grayish-white structures.
It appeared that Spider-Type monsters had made nests there.
In another beehive, two small monsters seemed to have died simultaneously, frozen in place.
The place Jung Ho-kyung assigned me was beyond these monsters’ territories.
< Moran-dong >
A faded, luxurious sign and hallway greeted me.
But there was an unmistakable rustic feel hidden beneath the luxury.
It was a refuge built for North Korea’s high-ranking officials.
CCTV cameras were actively monitoring various spots in the hallway, and there were several doors on either side.
Each door had a barred window at the top, reminiscent of a prison cell, and I could feel eyes staring at me through them.
There were children in this place too.
I found my room. Revolution Room 33.
I opened the door and checked inside.
I held my nose.
There were dark, human-shaped stains left behind.
Beyond the dark, discolored stains, there were countless traces of dried-up maggots.
The bodies had been cleared, but the residual stench still lingered.
"....."
Jung Ho-kyung. This guy.
I knew there was no way he’d like me, but this treatment felt a bit too much.
I was considering contacting Woo Min-hee when the door opened.
A tall, late-teen boy appeared before me.
"Hey, what are you doing there?"
He had short hair and a somewhat delinquent look.
He was a child of the lighthouse.
"Did Jung Ho-kyung tell you to go to that room?"
"Yeah."
The boy smirked and cursed under his breath.
"That room’s the best one."
He pointed to a room on the opposite side.
I opened the door.
It was a trash heap.
But it was probably better than the place where the bodies had rotted.
I removed the spider webs, dusted off the room, and cleared the trash to make it a somewhat livable space.
As I was cleaning, the kids gathered around to watch me.
Their eyes glowed with an eerie light, giving them a chilling look, and they seemed to watch me like zoo animals.
But weren’t they the animals, not me?
Unlike me, who had cleaned up to look presentable for Woo Min-hee, these kids were filthy.
It was clear they hadn’t bathed in quite some time.
"Is there no shower here?" I asked a girl who kept scratching her head.
"It’s broken," the girl blinked and answered.
"Broken?"
"Yeah."
"Didn’t they fix it?"
"They say they’re short on people."
A young boy standing next to her chuckled and added, "They say there’s no passion."
The kids laughed at that.
I stared at the boy, who seemed to be the leader.
"Where’s the shower?"
"What for?"
"Just to see it."
The boy had one of the other kids take me to the shower area.
It was a communal shower that multiple people could use.
There was even a fairly large bathtub in the corner.
But it had been neglected for so long that it was dirty, broken in places, and the plumbing was rusted.
But despite the exposed structure, I noticed that a small amount of water had collected in one corner of the shower.
Water was still coming in.
Which meant...
"....."
Maybe I should show off my skills after all.