While First Lieutenant Kim and the two corporals attended the meeting.
I used [Environmental Assimilation] to hide my body as I set out to rummage through this bunker.
‘My condition isn’t great, but.’
If it came down to it, I could handle cooking at least one dish.
I looked over the underground shelter’s corridors this way and that.
‘CCTV.’
All along the corridors, there were CCTV cameras that looked like they’d been installed here from the beginning.
But.
‘Doesn’t look like they’re running.’
These people were maintaining even that military.
But separately from that, keeping communications functioning in this world right now wasn’t easy.
At best, voice could be managed somehow—even if only through wired lines.
But complicated signals like CCTV footage would collapse quickly even over wired connections.
Which meant.
‘Good news for me.’
There were soldiers posted all over inside the shelter.
I crept up on those soldiers without them noticing, and then—
THUD.
“Urk...!”
When I struck the back of their neck with the handle of my kitchen knife.
They went down without being able to put up any real resistance.
No matter how bad my condition was, most of them were ordinary people who hadn’t even awakened.
If you ignored the fact they had guns, they were the kind of opponents even my level-five self could’ve subdued easily.
“Heave-ho.”
After I laid the soldiers down.
I placed a dish on each of their bodies.
“Eat these up and enjoy.”
[Forced Feeding]
After confirming the food seeped into their bodies.
I spoke to the ones who were passed out.
“I’ve got a few questions.”
“...Nngh.”
I’d tested it once back in Gyeonggi, but.
With my cooking’s effects having gotten quite a bit stronger—
“An...ything...”
If I fed them a dish of [Honesty].
Even if they were unconscious.
They would answer my questions—if only in their sleep talk.
“Good. Then first question. Seoul’s awakened population looks way too small. Is there a reason?”
“...Awa...ken... aptitude... there aren’t many....”
“Huh. There aren’t many awakening aptitude people?”
At that.
There was only one response I could give.
“...What the hell is that?”
Awakening aptitude.
I’d never heard that term in my life.
“People... born with the talent... to awaken by killing monsters....”
“Huh?”
If they meant zombies, I could understand it to a point.
With zombies, you couldn’t awaken just by hunting them—you had to get lucky and kill the core inside, so it was basically a coin flip.
But.
“You’re saying you can kill normal monsters and still not awaken?”
“People with the talent to become an awakened person are extremely rare... I’ve killed monsters too... but I failed to awaken.”
“What kind of bullshit is that.”
“Even among that small minority, it’s rare for someone to reach high levels....”
They were even saying.
That depending on the awakened person, there was a level cap on how far they could go.
‘So only Seoul has different rules applied?’
That made no sense.
Thinking there had to be some other reason, I threw out my next question.
“I’ve asked someone else this before. Back then, they hid it. This awakening aptitude thing—are you treating it like classified info among yourselves?”
“It’s not... like that. If you’re a Seoul citizen, everyone knows it. But... the commander said never to tell outsiders anything related to awakening....”
“...Commander?”
“He said if we dodged it by saying it was an impolite topic, they wouldn’t ask anymore... I don’t know why he told us to hide it, but....”
Seoul had different rules than other regions.
And the fact they wanted to hide that from outside forces meant—
‘That guy they call their commander knows.’
It meant he recognized how strange it was that only Seoul had different rules applied.
“Anything else your commander told you to hide from people from other regions?”
“...Additional construction inside the shelter. It was a pretty large-scale project, so most people know... but he told us not to mention it.”
Construction inside the shelter.
That was probably those barrier walls Gwangil was talking about.
“And besides that... the guard detail for Sector G-3 deeper inside the shelter.”
“Sector 3?”
“A secret zone inside the shelter where they post guards while even mobilizing awakened people. He said we must never tell anyone about that place, no matter what....”
Seoul’s awakened numbers were pathetically low.
And yet they were mobilizing awakened people to guard a space.
It wasn’t hard to guess there had to be something important there.
“Where is that sector? What’s inside it?”
“...What’s inside...”
The guy who’d been answering obediently.
Started to frown.
“I don’t know.”
“You don’t know?”
“The only one who could go inside... was the commander.”
“......”
After that, he shut his mouth.
Meaning this was as far as his information went.
The deepest part, huh.
“Tell me the route to get there.”
“Turn right and then....”
Following what he told me.
I headed for the deepest part of this shelter.
*****
The shelter’s layout was more complex than I expected.
Strong cooking also burdened my body, so the effects of what I’d eaten were on the weaker side.
[Environmental Assimilation] probably wouldn’t last that long either.
Dragging my uncooperative body along.
I ran as fast as I could before the effect ended.
And I managed to reach the place that soldier described.
And then.
[Ingredients Identification (Enhanced)]
[Primates - Human Species]
In front of it, standing guard.
I found a group.
‘Yeah. Of course they posted a guard.’
If even soldiers weren’t allowed inside.
It would be stranger if no one was guarding it.
If they were ordinary soldiers, I could knock them out fast like the last guy.
But the problem was—
[Intermediate Guard Lv.21]
‘Awakened people, too.’
Awakened people I could barely find in Seoul.
And not just any awakened people—fairly high-level ones were standing guard at the entrance.
‘I can’t handle this alone.’
My body wasn’t in good condition, and I couldn’t properly use buffs through cooking.
My raw stats were high enough that I could probably deal with one or two somehow, but—
There were those awakened guards, and the number of soldiers nearby was also considerable.
‘If I can help it, I don’t want to use this, but.’
I hesitated for a moment.
Then I stomped lightly and muttered while tapping the floor with my foot.
“Looks like.”
When I first came to Seoul.
I’d still been considering the possibility of building a friendly relationship with the people here.
So.
I’d been trying to avoid mobilizing power I absolutely couldn’t let others discover.
The one saving grace was—
“You’ll have to take care of it.”
-Leave it to us.
Right now, here—
Other than that guard force, there were no eyes watching.
Sssrk....
The shadow beneath my feet spread wide.
In this deep, dark shelter, shadows were already pooled everywhere.
CRUNCH!
“...Ghk!?”
“What—!?”
For my bodyguard squad to fight.
It was the perfect environment.
“Ambu— guh—!”
Shapes burst out of the shadows.
And because of them.
The ones who’d been standing guard were subdued so fast they didn’t even realize they were being attacked.
‘A guard force that even included fairly high-level awakened people.’
Even if it was an ambush.
Normally, they wouldn’t have been so weak you could wipe them out in an instant like this.
Even if we mobilized our unit members, there would’ve been an actual engagement.
But.
“Good work.”
-Ah. It is nothing but an honor that we can finally be of help to our master’s master.
Not now.
“You watch for anyone approaching this place. If someone comes, subdue them appropriately as long as you don’t expose yourselves.”
-Yes.
Maybe I should call it luck.
After the fight in Gyeonggi.
Inside my shadow... I’d ended up with quite a few usable subordinates.
“Then....”
With a creaking sound.
I opened an old iron door and stepped inside.
“Let’s see what’s in here.”
...And in that moment.
I had no choice but to frown.
Because.
‘This smell.’
Ever since I came to Seoul.
All I’d been thinking was how everything here looked way too intact.
But this place—
“...The smell of {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} corpses.”
The only place inside this Seoul.
That was utterly, completely ruined....
Filled to the brim with nothing but the stench of death.
*****
“This is...”
That horrifyingly thick stench of death the instant I opened the door and walked in.
When I smelled it at first, I thought they’d piled corpses up in here.
But.
“There’s nothing here?”
Instead.
The inside was an empty hollow.
Just dark and wide.
No special structures, nothing at all—an honestly empty space.
The floor was cold, damp soil typical of deep underground.
The ceiling seemed to be concrete, but it looked like it hadn’t been maintained in a long time—dust and mold covered it.
So I couldn’t help but feel confused.
‘Why would they post guards for a place like this?’
I frowned as I looked around the space for a moment.
Then I stuck out my tongue.
“Hoo.”
The moment I sucked in a hard breath.
I could taste the air brushing past my tongue.
A powerful fragrance of death.
“This way.”
I walked toward where that scent felt the strongest.
And what was there—
‘It’s just a wall.’
A normal wall.
Like the ceiling, it was coated in dust and mold.
The only thing unusual was—
“Someone... was here?”
The soil beneath it was slightly dug out.
As if someone had been sitting there for a long time.
A pit carved out to about the size of a human body.
The stench of death filling this space.
Was coming from that pit.
“This is it?”
The sensation on my tongue was telling me there was something here.
But what I could see was only this.
A space so empty it felt absurd to guard it with a full security detail.
I’d even infiltrated the place, and I still couldn’t find anything that would harm them.
And yet the commander here had ordered it to be guarded thoroughly.
‘There has to be a reason....’
I couldn’t figure out what it was.
I considered spending more time searching, but that was only possible when there was at least something to go on.
After hesitating for a moment, I let out a sigh and muttered.
“...Well, it’s not like I’ll think of anything just by worrying.”
This was all the information I could pull right now.
And it was impossible for me to draw any conclusions from it.
“Figuring that out.”
But.
“Isn’t my job.”
There was a way to reach a conclusion.
And it wasn’t like it didn’t exist.
*****
After learning everything I could.
I turned around and retraced my steps without hesitation.
“First Lieutenant Kim! Do not forget your position!”
When I returned to the meeting room.
I saw those government-side figures shouting at First Lieutenant Kim.
And in response, First Lieutenant Kim just stood there with his arms crossed, silent.
-First Lieutenant Kim.
When I stepped up behind him and spoke.
I felt him flinch.
-The reason their awakened numbers are low is....
Calmly, I recited the information I’d gathered into his ear.
-This is all I could collect for now. So now.
After realizing something was off about Seoul.
We needed a way to find the cause of that suspicion.
I’d collected information blindly.
But honestly, I wasn’t some genius who could figure things out from it.
Even so.
There was a separate reason I’d worked this hard to gather information.
-You can use it.
That reason was this man.
First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok.
“Answer...!”
“...If you’ll excuse me for a moment.”
While the Seoul-side figures screamed.
First Lieutenant Kim abruptly cut them off and slid a hand into his jacket.
“...?”
People stared like he was about to pull out a cigarette.
But what came out—
“What is that.”
“...A lunchbox?”
What he took out was.
A small lunchbox.
Without caring about anyone’s eyes.
First Lieutenant Kim silently ate it.
“Whew.”
And after finishing his meal.
He let out a satisfied sigh.
“...What the hell is he doing....”
An utterly absurd situation.
The people, who’d been too stunned to even speak, were about to hurriedly open their mouths again—
“Hey, Mr. Moderator.”
The one who spoke first.
Was First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok.
“...Me?”
“Answer me one thing.”
There was a sharp light in his eyes that hadn’t been there before.
Watching him, I thought—
‘Back in the day, I would’ve thought this was just swagger too.’
Back in the military, First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok had been a clearly useless officer.
After awakening, he’d become excellent as a commander, but.
Even then, he still wasn’t someone you’d trust with a situation this important.
But.
‘That changed a little starting not long ago.’
Not long ago.
First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok reached level 30 without even realizing it himself.
An awakened person who reaches level 30 gains an ability specialized to them.
And what he got was—
[Skill]
[Meeting Expectations]
[By consuming a large amount of mana, you can exert the same ability as how outsiders evaluate you.]
“This isn’t the first time we’ve met, is it?”
“...!”
At those words.
The man running the meeting—his face—was dyed in shock and horror.
