“Can you tell me why?”
At that.
Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan [N O V E L I G H T] flinched for a moment, then—
“...That’s rude.”
He replied in a voice that turned stiff.
“Isn’t it improper to ask about information on awakened people?”
Just like he said.
Asking about awakened people wasn’t proper.
What Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan was saying was an obvious fact.
But.
Hearing that, I had no choice but to give a bitter smile.
‘It’s a lie.’
Because I could clearly taste that bitterness.
And because of that—
I could be sure about the thought that had settled in my head.
‘Hiding information about awakened people isn’t strange in itself. But the fact that that reason is a lie is strange no matter how you look at it.’
It was an obvious fact that asking about awakened people was improper.
And yet I’d tasted the flavor of a lie.
Which meant—
‘Among these people, asking about awakened people isn’t considered improper.’
Even so.
Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan used that reason to try to hide things about awakened people from us.
“...You’re right. That was rude of me.”
“Ahem. Well. Be careful next time.”
I slightly bowed my head and apologized.
And beyond that bowed head, I brought up a system window.
[Guild Message]
[Chef : Telling all unit members.]
Seeing Seoul’s intact scenery.
The countless people who had survived here.
Looking at that, I’d even felt happy.
The fact that so much of humanity had survived, and that this country’s capital still stood, made me purely happy.
[Chef : Present-day Seoul is not normal.]
But unfortunately—
[Chef : Gather and report as many strange points as possible, as long as you don’t get exposed.]
That feeling.
Probably wouldn’t last long.
*****
My suspicion of Seoul wasn’t 100%.
Because the start of this suspicion was that unknown thought lodged in my head telling me I had to confirm First Lieutenant Kim’s level.
‘Maybe that was a trap set by some other monster trying to mediate the conflict with Seoul.’
If so,
What I needed to do was ultimately simple.
‘Find the cause of this wrongness.’
If that cause was something we could end without clashing with Seoul, that would be fortunate.
I’d feel bad for doubting them, but as a result, we’d be able to wrap this up without much friction.
But if it wasn’t.
[Magic Boy : Like you said, I’m urgently getting soldiers ready.]
Even if we had to use force—
We’d have to resolve the cause of that wrongness.
[Seamstress : But even if we go as fast as possible, it’ll take three days. Considering the Seoul-side strength the Legion Commander mentioned, it’ll be tough with a small force.]
[Magic Boy : We used up a lot on the Gyeonggi expedition. No matter how hard we try, any more than that is impossible. Even this is already pushing it hard.]
Well, best case was that it wouldn’t come to that.
But for a worst-case scenario, we’d even prepared support from the main force.
And.
“Yeouido itself hasn’t changed much. They put up a wall around the outskirts, and they dug something like a moat where it connects to the surface... but inside, it’s not that different from when I lived here.”
With that as our baseline,
We began a close investigation into Seoul.
“Then there aren’t any strange points.”
“No, no. That’s what’s strange.”
“Huh?”
“Honestly, Yeouido’s got a lot of companies, but whether it’s a good place to make a stronghold is... kind of questionable.”
The combat engineer guy who said he’d lived in Yeouido spoke.
“They went out of their way to leave all those office buildings. Some of them even block the defenders’ lines of sight and are shaped in ways that interfere with a siege. If it were me, I would’ve bulldozed about half the useless buildings and built towers there.”
“Hm.”
“Since we arrived in Seoul, I’ve felt it, but... there are definitely traces that there were battles, and yet the exteriors of the buildings are maintained almost perfectly. There’s no way the buildings weren’t destroyed, so they must’ve done repair work afterward... but I don’t understand why they’d go out of their way to restore damaged buildings back to their original state.”
Even in Chuncheon, where we’d settled,
We took advantage of the fact the central buildings had been removed by Dasmuru’s monsters and built our facilities there.
But.
“It feels like they’re obsessed with maintaining Seoul’s original form. I don’t know why, though.”
Next, another soldier came to report.
“It seems like these people aren’t stockpiling monster byproducts. At least, I’m sure there aren’t any inside Yeouido. Handling monster byproducts is work, so if you’re going to store them you need facilities, but I didn’t see a single one.”
“Because there are few awakened people, they don’t care about materials for production?”
“If that were the case, they would’ve at least burned the monster corpses, but I didn’t see traces of that either. I’d understand if they burned them and then even cleaned up the traces neatly... but why go that far?”
And.
Corporal Seo Suhyeok, who’d been looking into the distance from the rooftop, said.
“The military deployment bothers me a bit.”
“Deployment how?”
“Most of the troops are on the outskirts, so I thought they were deployed to guard against enemies coming in from the outer edge of Seoul. But when you look closely... it’s the opposite.”
“The opposite.”
“Those troops are deployed in a way that makes it easier to fight enemies on the inside than enemies on the outside. The roads, the positions, too.”
Corporal Seo Suhyeok’s brow furrowed.
“It’s a deployment that looks like they’re expecting fighting to happen on the inside. They did invite survivors from other regions, so you could say they’re being wary... but still.”
He said that, then looked at me.
“Sergeant Shin.”
“Yeah.”
“If this place is suspicious like you said, wouldn’t it be better to go back to Gangwon?”
I scratched my head and answered.
“I’d like to, honestly. But they say survivors from other regions have already arrived here.”
“Ah...”
“Like I said when we came, if there’s a trap here, we can’t just abandon those people and leave.”
“I understand, but.”
Even with my answer,
He spoke with concern.
“Can we actually figure anything out just by collecting information like this?”
“Ahem.”
“Like you said, once I looked, there are quite a few parts that bother me. But...”
“Well, most of it is at the level of ‘I guess that could be the case.’”
It felt suspicious, sure.
But it wasn’t blatantly strange, either.
“Deriving some kind of result from this information... doesn’t that seem difficult?”
As he said that, he suddenly widened his eyes and opened his mouth with a maybe expression.
“No, wait—Sergeant Shin, do you actually know something?”
“Huh?”
“You already have some information... and this vague stuff is enough in your situation, like that.”
“Ahh. So that’s what you meant.”
At his words,
I chuckled and answered lightly.
“Nope. Nothing like that.”
“Yes?”
“It feels suspicious, but I’m being honest—I don’t even have a clue what it is.”
“...Sergeant Shin.”
He looked at me like he couldn’t believe it.
I gave him a smirk in response to that stare.
“What are you acting all surprised for. It’s not like I was ever some brain-type guy, right?”
“Still, it’s not like your instincts have only been right once or twice, so I thought maybe it was something like that again.”
“Unfortunately, this time I’ve got nothing.”
“...Then isn’t this information gathering meaningless? Without any countermeasure, just collecting information like this—does anything change?”
“Ah, about that.”
Yeah.
I’m not exactly a smart guy.
But.
“It’s not like I said we don’t have a countermeasure.”
“Huh?”
With [Taste Bud Enhancement], I could tell it was suspicious—
But only that far.
I couldn’t guess what was happening here right now.
But.
I slightly turned my head and looked at the man who’d been receiving all these reports alongside me.
“First Lieutenant Kim.”
“...Yeah.”
If you asked whether we had no countermeasure—
“Well, listen... you remember, right?”
“...Yeah.”
That wasn’t it.
*****
“All representatives from each region have gathered, so I’ll guide you to the meeting room.”
After some time passed like that,
A soldier came and began guiding us.
The path to the meeting room was pretty complicated.
So much that I thought it felt like the secret bases I used to see as a kid.
Normally I would’ve just watched it without thinking much,
But—
[Sharpshooter Team Leader : It’s a bit complicated, but... I think I can remember it somehow.]
In case something happened,
We memorized the entire route we took.
And that wasn’t all.
“Tsk. Do we really have to hold a meeting down in this underground place?”
“Ah, well...”
“It’s cramped as hell, and the air’s bad.”
When the huge Corporal Jeon Gwangil openly vented his irritation,
The guiding soldier sweated buckets and shrank back.
“This wall, too...”
After being irritated for a while, Corporal Jeon Gwangil frowned, then—
BANG!
“It’s nothing but gloomy, and I don’t like it.”
“......”
He started walking while thumping the wall with heavy hits.
Seeing him look like he had a nasty temper, the guiding soldier couldn’t say anything and only kept guiding us.
[Berserker : I had a feeling, and yep. This wall... it’s not an ordinary wall.]
Of course.
It wasn’t that he suddenly got into a bad mood or anything.
[Berserker : It’s thick and hard. Even for a bunker, it’s excessive... and listening to the sound, it feels like there’s something inside. Since it’s a bunker, maybe it’s a barrier...?]
The higher an awakened person’s level, the sharper their senses became.
As a combat type, Corporal Jeon Gwangil’s physical senses could be sharper than mine in some areas.
[Berserker : If what I’m sensing is right, the barrier inside this is going to be insanely thick, too. Even for me, it’d take quite some time to break... This isn’t a facility you’d find in a normal bunker.]
He smiled like he was having fun.
[Berserker : Looks like they remodeled it later. Interesting. Were these people planning to lock an awakened person up inside?]
At that, I felt goosebumps rise.
‘All of this was information we could only get because we decided, on purpose, to suspect them.’
If I hadn’t confirmed First Lieutenant Kim’s level—
I wouldn’t have had reason to doubt them.
I wouldn’t have noticed these suspicious points.
And then—
‘If they tried to attack us, we’d be blocked by those walls, unable to escape, and we’d be wiped out.’
A complicated route, and thick barrier walls.
Since we were moving for a meeting, our proper combat personnel were only Seo Suhyeok and Jeon Gwangil.
Even us, we would’ve had no choice but to be trapped.
Without even dreaming of escape, we would’ve been hunted down by the enemy.
If there was anything fortunate—
‘We’ve made every preparation we can.’
And so.
We arrived at the meeting room.
*****
When we stepped into the meeting room,
I could feel the gazes inside.
“...That’s the Legion.”
“Hm.”
The emotions in those eyes were interest and curiosity.
They didn’t know what kind of group the Legion was.
They didn’t know what kind of power we had, either.
They were observing us like we were interesting.
“We came from Daejeon.”
“Gyeonggi...”
After that,
Introductions began for the people from each faction.
Among them were people with surprising abilities.
People that made you wonder how they’d survived until now.
...And people who were observing others with somewhat special abilities.
‘Not important right now.’
But.
What mattered to us right now wasn’t them.
“...We came from Gangwon.”
We were the last to introduce ourselves, but
Rather than introduce us in detail,
First Lieutenant Kim finished with a very brief self-introduction.
“We started from a surviving military unit and grew our strength by gathering civilian collaborators. We are the Legion.”
On our side, it was to hide our information as much as possible, but
Some of the people who’d been looking at us with curious eyes looked a bit disappointed.
And then.
Toward us—
“...Sorry to interrupt introductions, but I have a question.”
“What is it?”
One of the government-side figures asked, with a strangely furrowed brow.
He was looking at First Lieutenant Kim and the soldiers standing on both sides of him.
“Are those three the only people from the Legion participating in this meeting?”
“Yes.”
To that question,
First Lieutenant Kim nodded calmly.
“They are Corporal Seo Suhyeok and Corporal Jeon Gwangil. Excellent soldiers who support me.”
“......”
And.
While the three of them attended the meeting and actively talked—
‘Then....’
[Environmental Assimilation]
I—
Walked out of the open meeting room with confidence as I thought.
‘Where should I start digging?’
Because the secret this land was hiding was probably
In the deepest part of this land...
Somewhere in here.
