I looked around.
In all the memories I’d seen so far, Seoul’s scenery had been way too intact.
It was so unreal that I’d even recoiled in shock, thinking it made no sense.
“It does look pretty intact, though.”
“There are traces of destruction here and there.”
Not anymore.
“Considering monsters showed up, it’s absurd for buildings to be this intact. Looks like those so-called government types defended pretty well.”
Just like the soldiers were saying.
It still looked fairly intact overall.
But in places, I could {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} see things that didn’t fit the surrounding scenery.
“Destroyed and weathered buildings.”
It didn’t look perfect like before.
Looking at that, I thought.
“The battle in Yeouido.”
There was one thing that had nagged at me back then.
“For the scale of the battle, the destruction was way too severe.”
Sure, monsters had poured down from the sky.
Facilities getting wrecked, that much could happen.
But compared to how Yeouido looked in my memories outside that moment, Yeouido back then had been destroyed far too badly.
No—setting destruction aside.
Buildings that had looked fine up to that point had been covered in dust, like they’d been abandoned for over a year.
“It wasn’t that our soldiers were so strong that buildings shattered that easily.”
The battle in Yeouido, and even the buildings that had crumbled strangely easily in the Seoul fight that—by my sense of it—had only happened a few hours ago.
To begin with.
If those buildings had truly been intact, then no matter how strong our soldiers were.
They wouldn’t be cracking and collapsing from a few hits by soldiers who weren’t even squad-leader level.
And yet the reason they fell so easily was......
There was only one thing I could guess.
“If they were already half-destroyed to begin with, then sure.”
The exterior had just been dressed up to look flashy.
If the essence underneath was already collapsing and rotting everywhere.
Then it made sense that even ordinary soldiers could bring buildings down easily.
Once I got that far, one method came to mind.
And to confirm whether that idea was true.
I carried out destruction as broadly as possible.
And as a result.
I learned one fact.
“This power has a crack you can exploit.”
The bizarre phenomenon spread throughout all of Seoul was definitely powerful.
But it was something you could break.
I stared blankly up at the sky and thought.
“So there’s no ambush this time.”
They must’ve decided our rampage last time was the reason the previous ambush happened.
After concluding that the attack meant to remove me had been interpreted as an attack aimed at the Legion in Seoul.
This time, they’d chosen not to launch that ambush at all, and instead had made up their mind to remove me some other way.
But.
“Everyone. This is going to sound like insanity, but listen carefully. Starting now, we’re destroying this city.”
“Excuse me???”
Unfortunately for them.
I had no intention of stopping now.
*****
Every time our unit moved to destroy the city.
Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan and his troops kept stepping in to obstruct us.
{I believed you were comrades...... but it seems I was mistaken. All forces!!!}
Soldiers who had been through countless battles with monsters, and a commander who had led them through those countless battles to victory.
Their offensive was certainly formidable, but—
“Ghk...... are those really humans like us?”
“If you think you’ve suppressed them enough, return to the destruction! Remember, our goal isn’t suppressing the enemy—it’s destroying Seoul!”
One hundred warriors composed only of the Legion’s strongest.
They weren’t at a level our opponents could actually suppress.
And around the time suppression would finally be complete.
This world “repeated” again.
{Good thing I established a security posture just in case...... all forces!!!}
“Ignore them—deal with them just enough and keep destroying!”
“Loyalty, loyalty!”
And each time the repetition progressed like that.
Their response began to grow a little more extreme.
“They’ve realized something’s wrong over there now, too.”
We’d noticed it.
No—more precisely, we’d noticed that this man named Jang Youngwoong kept rewinding time in Seoul.
And by now, they would know that we’d noticed his power.
If so.
It was obvious what they would do.
“They’ll try to suppress us.”
The initiative to trigger the repetition was on their side.
Even if we beat them, they could just repeat it again and again.
But if we got suppressed even once, it was over.
“If they isolate First Lieutenant Kim and me, then trigger that repetition, I’ll end up forgetting everything again.”
I had to keep pursuing my objective.
And at the same time, I could not, under any circumstances, be suppressed by them.
It was a condition so unfair it was insane, but I had to pull it off.
{Good thing I deployed forces forward in advance, just in case....... All forces!!!}
At first.
It was only that the forces that had been waiting at nearby garrisons, for some reason, began deploying a bit further forward.
{Good thing I stationed all subordinate forces nearby, just in case....... All forces!!!}
“......There are a lot more of them, but ignore it and keep destroying!”
After several repetitions.
The enemy numbers started swelling little by little, and then—
{Good thing I redeployed every weapon that had been assigned elsewhere to this area, just in case....... All forces!!!}
“......Sergeant Shin?”
“Yeah, that one’s kind of hard to ignore.”
Next.
All kinds of military hardware, pulled from who-knows-where, was deployed and aimed at us.
At this point.
Even our unit couldn’t just handle them casually anymore.
But.
“......Let’s eat.”
“Enjoy your meal!!!”
On my side.
I still had a card I hadn’t played yet.
SCREEEEEECH!!!
After eating my cooking, the unit went berserk, rampaging against the entire Capital Defense Command force spread across Seoul and smashing the city to pieces.
If the cooking’s performance hadn’t been boosted, we would’ve had to withdraw at this point.
{It was hard to believe the Northern Legion would march south to target us.......}
Now.
Maybe they’d decided to take it all the way to the end.
{Good thing I secured support from other groups just in case. Capital Defense Command, Seoul Autonomous Vigilante Corps, Counterterror Unit, Presidential Security Service, Police Special Forces, Marines Veterans Association, Religious Organizations Coalition, and so on—every armed group in Seoul!}
“Insane.”
Before we could even properly begin the destruction.
All kinds of groups said to be spread across Seoul swarmed in and even launched the first strike against us.
“Cough.......”
“Sergeant...... Shin, there are too many of them......!”
From here, even the unit members who’d eaten my cooking were starting to struggle to respond.
If we screwed up, casualties could happen on our side, too.
“Up until now, they didn’t look like they were trying to kill us.”
I didn’t know why, exactly.
But for some reason, they’d wanted to bring the Legion under their command.
Except for a special case like me, they hadn’t shown any attempts to kill Legion members.
“But not anymore.”
They weren’t hesitating to kill now.
If a Legion member died, and then that “repetition” happened.
Whether the dead Legion member would come back or not...... I had no way of knowing.
“We can’t let anyone die.”
If that was the case.
Hmph.
TAP. TAP.
I thumped the ground with my boot and spoke.
“Hey.”
-Yes.
A polite voice answered from beneath my feet.
“Looks like you’ll have to work.”
-What do you mean?
“Spread out in all directions and cause destruction.”
If they were coming at us with sheer numbers.
Then we’d do the same.
-Destruction. Not a bad idea...... but aren’t they human?
It was a short question.
But the intent inside it wasn’t hard to understand.
The nobles of the night are a species that grows stronger by drinking blood.
But I’d placed restrictions on feeding on humans.
With those restrictions, their strength would be weakened as well.
“This time is the exception.”
Then.
“Don’t watch my face—follow your instincts.”
-......!
At those words.
The ones who’d been trapped in the shadows, forced to suppress their instincts.
Forced to obey only my commands.
-The children...... will be very happy.
I felt the stir of their delight.
And then the countless presences I’d sensed inside the shadows spread out across all of Seoul.
*****
“Now then, General!”
“What is it!”
“We got a message from the Police Special Forces!”
“What message!”
Seoul had been busy preparing for battle lately.
That military force entrenched in the north.
After it became known that they were actually a rebel force dreaming of insurrection, a greedy organization seeking to place the entire Republic of Korea under their rule.
Every faction spread across Seoul joined forces and prepared to respond to their invasion.
“It’s a little strange that the invasion is made up of only about a hundred soldiers, but still.”
Anyway, the preparation had been quite successful.
They were able to take the upper hand against the invading Legion soldiers.
But now—
“The special forces are withdrawing from the battlefield! They say they’re moving to the rear!”
“......!?”
The coalition among those forces.
Was beginning to collapse.
“We can suppress those rebels with just a little more pressure, and you’re telling me they’re suddenly leaving the battlefield! Why!”
“Th-that is.”
Every armed group in Seoul was made up of people acting in earnest to protect Seoul.
It was hard to believe they’d suddenly pull back, but—
“They say monsters have suddenly appeared all over Seoul......!”
“What?”
“They’re attacking indiscriminately—not just buildings and facilities, but people too.......”
The reason they were withdrawing.
Was also to protect Seoul.
“The Police Special Forces and the autonomous vigilantes prioritize maintaining order inside the territory more than responding to an external invasion.......”
Seoul still held the advantage in the fight against the Legion.
So they intended to move to deal with the monsters rampaging inside the territory—destruction even more severe than that.
That itself made sense.
What didn’t make sense was.
“Monsters suddenly appeared?”
Why, at a time like this.
Monsters appeared.
“......The monsters are too strong! The Religious Organizations Coalition and the Marines Veterans Association say they’re sending support over there too......!”
And then.
“A Presidential Security Service agent delivered this: with this sudden situation, the Acting Authority’s safety is under threat, so the security service will protect the Acting Authority in the underground bunker beneath the National Assembly Building......!”
“We also got a call from the autonomous vigilantes! They say the scale of the monsters rampaging across the city is more serious than the soldiers invading from the north, so they’ll focus on subjugating those monsters!”
“The Acting Authority...... what the hell is this?”
Those monsters.
Weren’t even at a scale that one or two factions could solve.
*****
“......Hoo. Byeongcheol.”
“Ah! Soldier 563rd Class, Kwak Byeongcheol!”
In the middle of Seoul.
An old man in red clothes, a cigarette in his mouth, asked.
And a middle-aged man of considerable age answered with an impeccably respectful posture.
“Looks like you’re seeing it right, sir!!!”
“Yeah? You’re saying that’s right?”
In the old man’s line of sight was—
“That absurdly huge snake wrapping an entire building and crushing it...... you’re saying that’s reality?”
“Yes!!!”
“This is garbage, seriously.......”
A snake of overwhelming size, with red-glowing eyes.
And countless monsters following that snake as they destroyed Seoul.
And it wasn’t only there.
“Director! You’re here!”
“What is it?”
“About ten minutes ago, that monster broke into Yeouido. It smashed the outer wall in a single blow and pushed inside...... we’re responding with Presidential Security Service forces for now, but it looks like it’s only a matter of time before it reaches the underground bunker where the VIP is......!”
At the center of Seoul’s current power base.
In Yeouido, a gigantic beast with black claws had appeared.
“Support forces are needed to the north?”
“Damn it—tell Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan to look at that monster’s face and talk!”
“If we lose this place, everyone starves to death! We protect our food ourselves!”
And in the region where Seoul’s key supplies were stored.
A lion with white hide appeared and went on a crazed rampage.
“Officer Park! Where did all the anti-air guns around here go!”
“Th-they were all redeployed to respond to the invasion in the north......!”
“Then how the hell are we supposed to bring that bird down!”
Flying low between high-rise buildings.
A gigantic monstrous bird that destroyed everything its wings touched, too.
KABOOOM!!!
“Most of the monsters in Seoul should’ve already been subjugated—where did these powerful monsters suddenly come from!”
Monsters rampaging everywhere.
Each one was a powerful enemy that required every armed group in Seoul to join forces just to subjugate.
“Every monster is at least on the level of the ones we faced during the military base subjugation.......”
Seoul had succeeded in subjugating every military base.
If they were given enough time and breathing room.
Maybe they could eventually kill those monsters rampaging right now, too.
But.
“There is no time or breathing room!”
And at that moment.
Lieutenant General Kim Myeonghwan received word that the 3rd Battery had fallen into the Legion’s hands.
*****
Deploy soldiers.
Feed them my cooking.
Even deploy the forces that were hiding in the shadows.
And keep destroying this city.
And like that.
Several times.
As we repeated it dozens of times, destroying the city over and over—
“Is this Seoul? It looks pretty intact.......”
“At this level, it seems about as damaged as Chuncheon where we’re stationed.”
The scenery at the point where the “repetition” began.
Started to change little by little.
“Is this Seoul......? It looks pretty normal.”
“At this level, it’s like a Gangwon city that’s less destroyed.”
And then.
A city that had been so intact it was excessive.
“Is this Seoul.......”
“Tsk. Looks like Seoul couldn’t stay intact either.”
As it gradually changed into something completely different.
“Stop.”
“......?”
In the world that repeated once again.
What appeared before us wasn’t Capital Defense Command soldiers like before.
“End it here.”
“Uh, who’s that guy now?”
It was the one responsible for this endless repetition.
Jang Youngwoong, a man with a gaunt face.
