Chapter 62

Until now, the 「Ants」 Kwon Mu-seop had caught had come straight toward us.

On top of that, they were large, so if one knew the direction, hitting them by shooting was not difficult.

But look.

Rustle, rustle, rustle, rustle—!

At the dazzling footwork of Ant No. 26, which was targeting us.

Because it was moving back and forth in a state that made one suspect emotional instability, Kwon Mu-seop, who could not see, could not respond.

Because of that, the heavy rifle was passed to me.

I revived the memory of my body and took my stance.

PFFT—!

Along with a gunshot swallowed by the silencer, the 「Ant」’s body lurched.

PFFTPFFTPFFT—!

When I unleashed burst fire, the 「Ant」 collapsed where it stood.

-Oh, you shoot well?

Thank goodness……!

I relaxed my tension and aimed again.

PFFT— PFFTPFFTPFFT—!

When I predicted its direction of movement and fired, the 「Ant」 collapsed without fail.

Just as I thought it might fall like this.

SPLAAASH—!

The 「Ant」 vomited transparent mucus toward us.

That sticky substance flew easily across 40m and poured down on us.

CRINKLECRINKLECRINKLE—!

In an instant, my vision was blocked, and the noisy sound of foil rang out.

Manager Kwon Mu-seop had spread out a foil blanket and blocked the 「Ant Lines」.

“Did any lines touch your body?”

“No, they did not touch me.”

Kwon Mu-seop relaxed in relief and removed the foil blanket.

It seemed vomiting up 「Ant Lines」 had been its final struggle.

The 「Ant」 had toppled over dead, and the area around us was full of transparent mucus.

I burned the 「Ant Lines」 with a blowtorch and made a path.

Then Yoon U-jeong whistled.

-Wow, you’re better than I thought. Manager, I think you can leave the gun to Do-un.

Am I finally escaping weakling status!

But Manager Kwon Mu-seop still seemed to lack trust in me.

“Won’t it be heavy? This is not flat ground, but a mountain path.”

-Come on. He’s completed military service too, Manager.

“Still, a little.”

It was the same even when Yoon U-jeong expressed it again.

At Kwon Mu-seop’s steady distrust, I felt embarrassed and muttered,

“Manager, I’m not that frail.”

“No, I’m not saying you’re frail…….”

Kwon Mu-seop tried to explain something.

But after beginning, the silence grew long.

Manager, if you do this, it just sounds like I really am frail.

Perhaps Kwon Mu-seop noticed that the mood had become strange, because he soon confessed as if resigned.

“Actually, Director Kim U-in warned me.”

“Mr. Kim U-in did?”

“Mm, he said if I pushed you around like during the 「Warehouse Club」 incident, he would not let me off…….”

Huh, really?

“He called me separately last week and said that. Don’t do anything useless with you in tow, and take care of you as gently as possible. He threatened me for almost 1 hour. If you get hurt for no reason, this time he really won’t let it go…….”

-Director Kim is scary, isn’t he?

“That’s right. He’s scary.”

He really must be scary.

Seeing as he repeated “he won’t let it go” twice.

And I was not the only one afraid of Kim U-in…….

It was truly fortunate that he was a doctor.

If he were on the opposite side from saving people, he would have been far more frightening.

“So, Do-un, you really must not get hurt.”

“…….”

Looking at Kwon Mu-seop, who was repeatedly telling me this, I finally realized it.

The reason why the Manager, who had outstanding skill and experience, sometimes felt shabby.

Our Manager has no middle ground…….

“Manager, I understand what you mean, but you don’t have to be that overprotective. Just treat me like…….”

I was about to say, “like the other agents,” but stopped.

Thinking about it, I felt I should be careful with my words around this man with no middle ground.

“……I will be careful not to get hurt. I’ll hold the gun too. This much is really all right.”

“All right. Then I’ll ask you to.”

Looking at Kwon Mu-seop, who smiled brightly, I nodded again.

To think a superior with both skill and character could look like the neighborhood idiot older brother.

If this was a talent, then it was a talent too.

---

Another 8 hours passed.

It had now been 15 hours since we entered 「Ant Hill That Steals the Five Senses」.

If I were to make a midterm evaluation at the point where we had come about halfway, it was truly smooth.

To the point that I wondered whether I had not been dragged into a Special Zone, but had come mountain hiking with my workplace superior.

There had been a few mishaps where the timing for renewing the brand got tangled along the way, and we had to catch 「Ants」.

But even that was not particularly difficult.

On top of that, it would become even easier going forward.

The number of 「Ants」 remaining was now 4.

The sections we had to avoid also decreased greatly compared to before.

The 「Stone Towers」 to use for the remaining 14 hours were left in plenty along easily accessible skirt trails.

Now we were in a situation where we only had to enjoy the winter mountain and kill time.

If I had fallen here alone, I would probably have been in an uproar, fighting a life-and-death struggle against the 「Ants」.

What would it have been like without even the Bureau’s support?

Those belligerent 「Ants」, the 「Stone Towers」 I would have had to find blindly, and the sudden cold would all have been fatal.

But everything in the 「Ant Hill」 with Manager Kwon Mu-seop was truly smooth.

Even the state of the woman caught in the 「Ant Lines」.

“I have something to ask…….”

When we went to find her for the third time, the woman no longer shouted.

She merely asked us calmly, much more composed than before.

“If I die here, will you convey everything to my parents?”

“No. Information about this area is not disclosed to civilians. It will be conveyed to your bereaved family as a simple accidental death.”

“Then what do you usually explain it as?”

Tears streamed from the woman’s eyes as she tried to speak calmly.

“It can’t be murder. If that happens, my mom will be left with unresolved grief and won’t be able to live.”

“…….”

“Suicide would shock them too much too, so I want it to be as natural a death as possible…….”

“We can make it that you slipped and died in the mountains.”

“That won’t do either. My dad likes mountains……. Just make it something like a heart attack. So there’s no one to resent or blame.”

The woman spoke with dignity even as she sobbed.

As Manager Kwon Mu-seop had intended, it seemed she had ultimately accepted death.

So she also seemed to have thought with all her might about how she should use this final chance.

“And I’m really sorry, but can you go to my house once?”

“If it is a house with a cohabitant, that will be difficult.”

“I live alone. My parents are in the provinces.”

“In that case, it is possible.”

“Please throw away what’s in the drawer beside my bed……. Please don’t look at what’s inside. And please delete my social media accounts too…….”

This, I thought, was an important part.

Because everyone had at least one embarrassing Pandora’s box they did not want to show anyone else, especially family.

Perhaps the woman herself found it funny, because she broke into a few faint laughs between sobs.

Then she cried again and murmured.

I was supposed to go have fun with a friend next week, she said.

It was painful to watch that sight, so I turned my eyes away.

Then I saw Kwon Mu-seop and was deliberately startled.

Even though Kwon Mu-seop could not see, he was facing the woman.

Rather, as if trying hard to meet her eyes, as if that was the final courtesy toward that woman.

“Thank you.”

The woman whispered, dyed white by the 「Ant Lines」.

“I’m truly sorry for swearing at you earlier…….”

“No. You have suffered greatly.”

The woman who had left her final words decided to live a little longer until we escaped from here.

Leaving the woman behind, we turned around once more.

Compared to before, when the sound of crying had clung to our backs, it was a very quiet farewell.

---

In 14 hours, that woman would die.

Not naturally, but with us helping her.

A kind of execution.

No, it was probably closer to a medical act helping her to eternal rest.

Either way, it meant ending one life, and there was no way that could feel like nothing.

It was an experience I wanted to avoid if possible.

“Manager.”

“Mm?”

Kwon Mu-seop, who had been walking while probing the ground with a wooden stick, reacted to my voice.

Now he walked just fine on his own even without Yoon U-jeong’s guidance.

A truly astonishing veteran.

Trusting in his experience, I spat out the question that had filled my mouth.

“What happens to that woman if the core of this space is destroyed?”

“Would it be right to weigh that?”

An unexpected counterquestion came back.

“Pardon?”

“The 「Ant Hill」 is an area where exploration has been completed. If we destroy the core, all the sacrifices and labor put in to find out the rules of this place will become meaningless.”

“…….”

“On top of that, if a new Special Zone appears, more sacrifices will occur. Even so, would destroying the core and saving that person be the right thing to do?”

Kwon Mu-seop’s voice and tone were still gentle.

So it also seemed like a question he was throwing not at me, but at himself.

-Even if the core is destroyed, she won’t live.

When an awkward silence flowed, Yoon U-jeong cut in.

-The contamination has progressed too far. If the core is destroyed, everything that composed the Special Zone disappears, and humans are released outside. If that happens, what do you think will happen to her?

Yoon U-jeong explained in a troubled tone.

-She’ll be flung somewhere with the arms and legs eaten by contamination cut off. Then she’ll either die of shock on the spot, or unless she’s lucky enough to drop right in front of an emergency room, she’ll die from excessive bleeding.

As Yoon U-jeong said, that woman had only her upper body left.

Her arms and lower body had already become one with the 「Ant Lines」 and unraveled completely.

Rather, the fact that she was alive was a miracle.

-Like everything in the world, some things can only be accepted whether we hate them or not.

Yoon U-jeong’s voice was troubled.

It also felt as if she was covering for Kwon Mu-seop.

So I did not ask anything more.

---

The remaining time continued to flow smoothly.

Rather, the situation of the agents deployed for Intensive Suppression Week was more of a mess than ours.

According to Yoon U-jeong’s report, Group 1 in particular was struggling against the fierce assault of the mercenary entities.

Because 「Big Cat」 had appeared in 「Island Where Blood Falls」 after 「Alpha」 and 「Gardener」, the operation was a total mess.

On top of that, the reorganization phase of 「Island Where Blood Falls」 would end tomorrow, but they had not even found the core’s location yet.

So after a short while, they were scheduled to pour their full strength into the mercenary entities blocking the entry route.

If they still could not break through, they would have to acknowledge the mission’s failure and retreat.

Despite such troubled conditions outside, the 「Ant Hill」 where we were was simply quiet.

Now the remaining time was a little over 9 hours.

If there were no variables, we would escape from here safely.

Of course, there was no way my life would go that smoothly.

-Manager, a bird has been observed in A-1 Area.

A bird?

“What kind of bird?”

-Black feathers and beak. Its body measurement from head to tail is approximately 60cm. The species appears to be “crow.”

“If it’s a crow, then that must be it.”

-Yes. It is the same species as the one that appeared while Do-un was in the 「Warehouse Club」.

That bird appeared here too?

Startled, I turned back to Manager Kwon Mu-seop.

Then I was even more startled.

Kwon Mu-seop was smiling.

With even his canine teeth bared, wearing an unusually savage face.

-Manager, the bird is luring Ant No. 5 and moving it.

Yoon U-jeong spoke seriously.

-It is now heading in your direction, Manager.

Once again, something absurd was about to happen.