[‘Rampage’ Penalty]
[Severe Aftereffects]
[By forcibly pulling your own power forward, you incur tremendous aftereffects.]
The aftereffects of [Rampage].
The thing I had been somehow holding back crashed over my whole body the moment I was alone.
“Grrk.......”
My vision went black from the pain.
Tears, snot, and drool mixed together and smeared the room.
“Hic.......”
The stacking from [Absolute Palate] had put a burden on my body too.
But this wasn’t even close to the same league.
Because I had [Calm Mind] in my system at all times.
I couldn’t even pass out—just writhed in pain.
And with that mind that was calm to the point of being unnatural, I thought:
‘I probably...... could have swallowed the Association for myself here if I’d wanted to.’
I remembered what Junggu had said.
On the way to Central Branch.
—There’s only one virtue a man who’ll be a focal point needs.
—Overwhelming power...... enough to make everyone accept him!
I had.
Shown them that, this time.
And yet.
I had deliberately chosen not to take this Association.
For two reasons.
‘I’m not a Chair...... I’m a Legion Commander.’
When Junggu had said that back then.
Included in those words was the request that I take the Association’s top seat.
But.
‘I mustn’t do that.’
I’d thought that from the moment I first heard him.
‘I’m nothing but an Outsider stopping by for a bit.’
The one to lead these people.
Has to be someone who belongs to them.
Even if, one day, they end up under my command.
That has to happen because their own leader chooses to come under the Legion.
It must not take the form of Legion Commander Shin Youngjun hiding his identity and becoming Chair of the Association.
‘Right now, the only one who can lead this Expedition Force...... is General Jo Beomseok.’
If there had been someone else, I’d have appointed that person as commander.
But even Jo Jun was lying there like that.
‘There was no other option.’
Because I thought so.
I used my authority to solidify Jo Beomseok’s command.
And then I simply took one step back.
And.
The second reason.
‘Because this so-called overwhelming power...... is this much of a burden.’
This time I’d used it because I had no choice.
But the side effects of [Rampage] were far worse than when I had stacked dishes fourfold.
“Grrk.......”
The pain that made it hard to even breathe had been going on for hours.
This level of power was not the kind of thing I could ever throw around lightly.
On top of that—
[Vital Energy Loss]
[By forcibly pulling your own power forward, you incur permanent loss of vital energy.]
When [Rampage] ended.
I felt that something inside my body had been reduced.
It wasn’t magic power or stats.
It was more like...... something more fundamental.
Something closer to what a human is born with.
‘Probably something like lifespan.’
The thing that’s set from birth.
A human’s life force itself.
I could feel it.
Being shaved away in great chunks.
“Haah...... haah.......”
Who knows how many hours later.
Just as the pain finally began to ease a little.
“Damn it, why me.......”
The emotion that slipped into the place the pain left behind.
Burst out before I could stop it.
“Why the hell does it have to be me.”
Just a year ago.
I’d been nothing but an ordinary soldier who’d taken a leave from college to enlist.
Even if I’d adapted to this changed world through all the fights since.
The resentment was still there.
“Why do I have to go through this kind of shit.......”
All that strength that had nowhere to go clenched the blanket tight.
I could feel tears seeping out and soaking the pillow.
Only now, when no one could hear me.
Could I barely spit out complaints and grumbling like this.
“I want to go home.......”
Only after a long, long time like that.
Did I feel the reason that had been blown away by pain slowly return.
‘......Home, huh.’
Even if I had muttered it in that much pain, still.
I couldn’t help being taken aback by my own words, and a little laugh slipped out of me.
‘My home should be somewhere here in Gyeonggi Province. And I say I want to go home.’
It seemed.
The house I’d lived in with my family was no longer my home.
Because the home I pictured now.
Was that overly rough and chillingly cold place somewhere beyond that Wall.
That enormous fortress.
It had become that.
“Yeah...... home...... I have to go home.”
I’m nothing more than an Outsider.
The moment I achieve my goal.
I’ll go straight back home.
Only.
“With Mom and Dad.”
When I go home.
I’m not going back alone.
“Preferably as soon as possible.”
To do that.
There was still quite a lot I had to do.
*****
The pain rampaging through my body lasted for over a day.
Even after that, my condition was honestly the worst it had ever been, worse than that, even.
“General Jo Beomseok.”
“......You’ve come.”
When I somehow endured the pain and went to find General Jo Beomseok.
He greeted me with a haggard face.
“......I must apologize again. I’m sorry. Back then I...... wasn’t in my right mind.”
“I told you already. In the army, saying you’re sorry doesn’t mean a damn thing.”
Dragging my creaking body along.
I sat in the chair in front of him.
“Your face looks pretty badly damaged.”
“......Well, this much is nothing.”
In my case, the problem was that my insides were rotting, but I looked fine on the outside.
General Jo Beomseok’s face, however, was swollen all over.
“Compared to what you gave me...... it’s a cheap price.”
“.......”
Whatever else you say.
He was a man who’d just made a mistake in the heat of the moment, but he did have ability.
It seemed he understood well enough what value the thing I’d done for him held.
“In any case, let’s start with the report.”
“Since when does the commander report to a mere grunt.”
“I just feel like doing it. While you were resting, I finished most of the cleanup. There are plenty of wounded, but fortunately almost no deaths. Even...... my grandson.”
Jo Beomseok’s face relaxed with relief.
Watching that expression, I carefully asked:
“......What happened to Captain Jo Jun?”
“His injuries are so severe they say it’ll be hard for him to regain consciousness for at least a few months. As commander it’s a shame to lose such an important piece of fighting power...... but for me, the fact that he’s alive at all is a blessing.”
At that.
I thought to myself:
‘I-I’m saved......!’
It was truly an awful thing to think, but.
If Captain Jo Jun had been treated so well that he’d completely recovered and woken up.
—Come to think of it, what was I thinking just before I passed out......
—Ah! Mister Shin Youngjun’s identity!
He might’ve remembered something like that.
And I could’ve ended up dead right then and there.
In my position, the fact that he was still unconscious was the best-case scenario.
If his condition had been too good, I’d actually been considering using [Special Sauce] to put him back to sleep for longer.
“That’s a relief. Anyway, I may have said it half-jokingly...... but if something like that happens again, I really won’t forgive you next time.”
“I know. And...... even if you hadn’t said that, I already planned to do better from now on.”
As he answered, Jo Beomseok’s gaze turned a little colder.
“You may not know this...... no, even I didn’t properly realize it myself.”
“?”
“But it seems Jun was quite an important person to me.”
His tone was very flat.
But the emotion inside it was not.
“He has a gentle personality, so he was never the kind of person who fit the army in the first place...... and yet he said he’d achieve the dream his grandfather couldn’t, and volunteered for the army no one wants to join these days.”
“.......”
“He had plenty of shortcomings, but he never once complained when this nagging old grandfather of his went on and on. Because he’d been lacking from the start, you could see him growing, and growing fast.”
Inside that voice.
Was something freezing cold—and at the same time hot enough to burn.
“Those are the bastards who did that to Captain Jo...... of course I have to do better.”
“.......”
It wasn’t exactly a positive emotion.
But given the enemies we were facing, that anger was going to be very useful in fighting them.
“Anyway, was that why you came to see me?”
“No, of course that’s not the only reason.”
I stood up.
And gestured for him to follow me.
“The bastard who did that to Captain Jo.”
“......!”
“I’m about to interrogate him. Come with me.”
*****
“You’re here.”
When we entered a certain room.
Park Junggu came out to greet me.
But.
“What’s with that face?”
“......It’s nothing.”
The expression on Park Junggu’s face as he greeted me was, how should I put it.
It looked full of dissatisfaction.
“It doesn’t look like ‘nothing’.”
“It’s just...... you know how it is.”
“Sir?”
“It’s like when there’s a scene you really want to see, and you think it’s about to start...... but then suddenly some other scene comes on instead. Something like that. It’s nothing, so ignore it.”
“......?”
I didn’t really get it.
But it didn’t seem like any serious complaint, so I decided to let it go, just as he said.
“In any case, just as you asked, all the group leaders are waiting inside. Let’s go in.”
“Yes.”
And so.
I went into the building together with Jo Beomseok.
Inside the room there was a small compartment made of transparent glass.
And inside it was filled with some kind of unknown smoke.
“How is he?”
“We burned sleep incense just as you said, and just in case, we burned all kinds of poisons together with it.”
When I asked Kim Jinkyung—who’d been waiting inside the building.
She stared into the glass with a detached expression and said:
“I made sure to use things that would put as many debuffs on his stats as possible. By now he should be weakened to about the level of an ordinary human.”
A small glass space filled with smoke.
Inside it.
A man tied to a chair, unconscious.
“Jang Ji Han. One of the Association’s only five executives.”
Kim Jinkyung stared at the man with a cold expression.
And at her explanation, Jo Beomseok added:
“He’s the Shooting Unit Captain who commands all the Association’s shooter-types, and he’s the Association Chair’s sworn brother.”
“Sworn brother, huh.......”
“Among all the Awakeners in the Association, he’s top class at long-range shooting. Especially at ultra-long-range sniping. On top of that, he creates special arrows with unique abilities and uses them...... he’s a versatile man in many ways.”
In the expression with which he looked at Jang Ji Han.
There was a mix of emotions.
“He was the sniper everyone agreed was the Association’s strongest.”
“‘Strongest’, huh...... his evasive maneuvers were pretty pathetic, if you ask me.”
“......What?”
“Knowing his position was blown and still staying on the same floor makes you seriously question his qualifications as a sniper.”
When I said that.
Jo Beomseok stared blankly at my face.
“I-Is that so. Since that man always killed the enemy with his shots before they could get close, none of us knew that.”
“That just means he’s been lucky up to now. I’m guessing he’s never gone through proper sniper training. Am I right?”
“......It’s true, I know he wasn’t a soldier before awakening. He did archery. I suppose someone at your level can see things like that.”
At that moment.
Someone ground his teeth and said:
“That son of a bitch...... betrayed us?”
It was an Awakener from Eastern Branch.
Heo Yunchang.
“That’s right. We knew there’d be a traitor inside, but...... who would have thought there’d be one among those who went on that first expedition.”
“......You knew there was a traitor?”
“Yeah. The reason I opposed the strike during the meeting last time was with that traitor in mind.”
“Good grief.”
Jo Beomseok looked at me and said:
“So when you said that traitor wouldn’t be able to know the operation details back then, this is what you had in mind.”
“Pretty much.”
If the traitor was outside.
Then of course they couldn’t know what operation we were planning, no matter what we came up with.
“We probably don’t even need to ask why he betrayed us. He was probably captured while fighting monsters and agreed to cooperate in exchange for keeping his life...... or something along those lines, right?”
Staring coldly at the sleeping man, Kim Jinkyung spoke.
“To protect his own hide, he sold out humanity...... a piece-of-trash bastard.”
At that.
I shrugged and answered:
“Well, we don’t know the exact details yet, do we.”
“Do we really need to look into it any further? It’s all but obvious already.”
“Still, we went to the trouble of gathering to find out, didn’t we.”
Every branch’s leader was present in the room.
“Jongdu.”
Among them.
I called out to one man.
Then—
“Y-Yes! Did you call for me!!!”
Unlike the prickly attitude he’d had in the past, Kim Jongdu came flapping over with all kinds of fuss.
“......What are you doing.”
“Sir? Oh, nothing! You called, so!”
“......?”
I had no idea what his problem was, but anyway.
“These glass walls make me a little nervous. If he tries to escape, there could be a problem. Can you reinforce them so that even if he goes berserk inside, it won’t matter?”
“Ah, understood!”
And so.
Kim Jongdu stepped up and reinforced the walls.
“You can put out the sleep incense now.”
“All right.”
When Kim Jinkyung lightly waved her hand.
The smoke inside dissipated.
“......!@%!@......@.......”
“......?”
“What’s he saying.......”
Mumbling something strange and unintelligible.
Jang Ji Han opened his eyes.
“......Ah.”
He stared at us with blank eyes.
Then slowly shook his head and spoke.
“......I see, so I was captured.”
“That’s right.”
I fixed the image of what he had just done in my mind.
Then calmly opened my mouth.
“You know the situation already, so we’ll just ask you a few questions.”
“......Heh, so you’re that monster of a man from back there. If I’ve been caught like this, it can’t be helped. If I answer properly, will you let me live?”
“Well, that depends on how you answer.”
“Fine then. Go ahead.”
I glanced back, checking who was behind me.
“First question.”
I lowered myself to his eye level.
And looked straight into his eyes as I asked.
“Are you really Jang Ji Han?”
“I am. Can’t you tell?”
At my question.
Jang Ji Han let out a snort like he’d been asked something stupid, then stretched his neck to look behind me and said:
“There are plenty of familiar faces back there. You can ask them to check.”
“Then second question.”
Regardless, I calmly threw him a second question.
“Did Jang Ji Han betray humanity?”
“Well, you know...... I didn’t really want to end up like this either......”
The bastard smiled wickedly.
There was no sense of remorse at all.
“But what choice did I have if I wanted to survive?”
“You son of a bitch......!”
“What, I wondered if it was you, and it really is Mister Junggu, isn’t it? I didn’t think you’d still be alive.”
Hearing the rage in Junggu’s voice.
Jang Ji Han chuckled.
“A reckless guy like you whose brain doesn’t work at all, I thought you wouldn’t live long. Looks like Miss Iseo’s been working hard, huh?”
“You fucking son of.......”
Junggu couldn’t hold back his anger and tried to step forward.
“Third question.”
I reached out and stopped him.
Then asked the next question.
“Are there any traitors besides Jang Ji Han?”
“......Heh. If I answer properly, you’ll at least spare my life, right?”
“Yeah. How you’re treated depends on how sincerely you answer.”
“In that case, I’ll trust you and answer. As for traitors besides me......”
He hesitated for a moment.
Then squeezed his eyes shut and opened his mouth.
“There are many others besides me.”
“......!”
At those words.
I could feel the people gathered there react in shock.
‘So this man wasn’t the only traitor......!’
‘Just how many people betrayed us in that first raid party......?’
The first strike had been made by the Chair and the Association’s very best.
Our Expedition Force had been judged comparable ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) to that best only after we’d revived hardware like that tank.
Even if you accounted for the fact that that evaluation didn’t include me, it was a fact that they’d been an army of terrifyingly strong people.
“And...... this is a real secret.”
And.
That wasn’t all.
“Right now, among you...... there’s a traitor too.”
“......W-What did you say?”
“I never said the traitor was only outside, did I?”
Shock ran through the people.
An enemy inside.
Was a danger beyond comparison with any traitor outside.
“How about this. If you promise to let me go, I’ll tell you who that traitor is.”
“......How are we supposed to believe you?”
With a grim face, Jo Beomseok asked.
“Well, you don’t have to. But can you really go on without knowing who the traitor is?”
“.......”
“You seem to have built up your strength a bit. Especially that guy I’ve never seen before—where did he come from...... he’s impressive, I’ll give you that. But that’s all.”
Jang Ji Han actually chuckled as he answered.
“As you go deeper in, more power will come crashing down on you.”
“.......”
“Your operations will leak, and in the end, some of you will be captured, just like us. Among them, more traitors will emerge...... and in the end, the number of traitors will just keep growing.”
“Damn......”
“If you can’t believe me, the solution’s simple. Just kill me. I don’t care. Whatever happens after I die isn’t my problem, is it?”
At his relaxed answer, people ground their teeth.
“If there really is a traitor among us.......”
Someone muttered.
‘If what he’s saying is true, this Expedition Force will walk the same path as the first raid party.’
‘What are we supposed to.......’
Their confusion was written plain on their faces.
And after roughly sweeping my gaze over those faces.
“Well, I’ve heard what you have to say.”
I spoke with a flat expression.
“......?”
The leaders around me stared at me blankly.
They must have been wondering how I could stay so calm.
After hearing something that shocking.
“Then...... since we decided his life would depend on how sincerely he answered.”
Of course.
There was a reason I could.
“Let’s check just how sincerely he did answer.”
“What?”
I turned my head.
To the very back of the people gathered there.
“Han Iseo.”
“Yes.”
I spoke to the woman who had been hiding in that shadow.
And had heard every word.
“Answer me. Was what this man said true?”
Then.
She slowly walked out of the shadows.
SWISH.
The woman leveled a guillotine blade at the bound Jang Ji Han.
And declared:
“No!”
Heh.
“At no point since he woke up has this man!”
At her voice.
I thought to myself:
“Spoken a single word of truth!”
Well.
I figured as much.
