Chapter 699: 100%

“You just now.”

“What... did you say......?”

The beastkin stared at me with stunned expressions.

For some reason—

Their faces were filled with shock.

As for what I had just said...

It had only been my brief exchange with Corporal Jeon Gwangil.

I was about to repeat the words for them—

Flinch.

At that moment.

For some reason—

'No.'

Toward them—

I felt a strange intuition telling me I absolutely should not answer their question.

Only after that instinct settled into my mind—

Did I recall something.

'I’m pretty sure... I was warned to be careful when speaking names.'

The names of ordinary living beings might not matter.

But... transcendent existences were different.

I already knew how important a Divine Name was.

Even powerful divinities could only act within the domains defined by their Divine Names.

And—

'Mirinae as well.'

The being who had taught me that fact—

Was undoubtedly one of those transcendent existences.

Perhaps this intuition was a warning connected to that.

If so—

“I didn’t really say anything?”

I feigned ignorance.

And turned my head away from them.

“Anyway, Gwangil.”

“Y-Yes, sir.”

“That last part wasn’t because of me.”

Originally, there had been something else I intended to tell Corporal Jeon Gwangil.

But instead—

“You accomplished that yourself.”

“......!”

“What I did wasn’t anything special.”

I changed my words.

“Sergeant Shin......!”

'...This guy’s ridiculously simple-minded.'

Gwangil looked deeply moved even by that vague answer.

His eyes were already turning teary as he stared at me.

Unfortunately—

“.......”

The five beastkin were different.

They stared at me with strange expressions.

“...Gyeyu, Gyeonsul.”

“Yes, Senior Sister Miyang.”

“You two return to the Martial Hall. Inform the others about what happened here and help Junior Brother Ujin.”

“Then what about the remaining three?”

“We.”

The ones who had intended to leave.

Among them, only the dog beastkin and rooster beastkin continued walking away.

The remaining three turned back.

“As Senior Sister Miho and Junior Brother Seohwan suggested.”

The monkey beastkin, Shin Jong.

The snake beastkin, Sarin.

And the sheep beastkin, Miyang.

“We’ll stay with them a little longer.”

Martial artists possessing tremendous power, who had survived to the very end in a ruined world.

Three of them—

Became guests residing within our unit that day.

***

Those who had originally intended to leave.

Three beastkin martial artists had now settled into our unit as guests.

'...Hmm.'

As for why they had suddenly decided to remain with the Legion...

Even I had quite a few thoughts regarding that matter.

But no clear answer came to mind.

'Fundamentally, they’re guests of Miho and Seohwan.'

Those two had successfully awakened.

Meaning they now possessed the will to live together with us.

If any sort of problem arose, those two would probably inform me first.

So for the time being, I decided to stop worrying further about them.

They possessed outstanding skill, along with loyalty and integrity.

Having them remain with the Legion was far more likely to be beneficial than harmful.

After that...

'Well, it was back to searching the Church again.'

Just as before—

We resumed postwar cleanup.

Searching through the hidden spaces within the Church that even the believers themselves had never known about.

And identifying the monsters and laboratories hidden throughout the facilities.

'This is pure manual labor....'

The scale was simply too enormous.

There were countless areas requiring investigation.

Of course—

It was not entirely meaningless work.

“Those documents in that laboratory. Give them to me.”

While examining one of the hidden laboratories—

Luca, one of our military doctors, approached me and spoke.

“I don’t mind, but why?”

“It seems the awakened researchers devoted themselves entirely to research. There’s quite a lot of fascinating work here. Especially in biotechnology.”

“Uh... I mean, human research is useful and all, but is it really advanced enough for even you to reference?”

Luca was an absurdly skilled healer.

The other military doctors in the Legion were also highly talented, but none of them even remotely compared to Luca.

And after this incident, Luca had even become included within the domain of the [System].

So I had trouble believing human research could truly serve as useful reference material for someone like Luca.

“Most of my own research was conducted without caring about methods or morality whatsoever. But once you start caring about such things, restrictions inevitably appear.”

“Ah.”

“To reach the level I originally achieved while still preserving ethics would require an unimaginable amount of research. But...”

Luca examined part of the records while speaking.

“These documents contain traces of deep anguish. Most of the experiments those scholars conducted fundamentally required them to step beyond the bounds of humanity... and yet, even so, there are clear signs that they struggled against it. They were carrying out the commands handed down by their god while desperately trying not to cross the line any further than necessary.”

I recalled the researchers’ diary Lee Sanga had read.

Those researchers too had originally been nothing more than ordinary humans.

“Well... in the end, it seems every last one of them crossed the line regardless. But the process of that internal struggle should still prove helpful for me and the other military doctors.”

“...I see. Then take whatever you need. I’ll inform the others.”

“Thank you.”

The Legion had already acquired tremendous technological knowledge from places like the “Underground Mine.”

Even so, the more technology we secured, the better.

The Underground Mine’s technology had contained little related to biotechnology, so this research would certainly benefit the Legion.

“Well then...”

The small child finished their business and departed.

And afterward, another figure approached.

“...Commander?”

“Hm?”

Seeing the person standing there, I couldn’t help making a slightly puzzled expression.

A woman with completely white hair.

“...Lee Hyeonjin?”

Lee Hyeonjin.

One of the core combatants of our guild...

And also—

'An Aberrant Devourer.'

One of the people possessing the most unusual classes.

Because she wielded such an abnormal power, she did not command a squad overseeing one of the standard class branches.

Even so, she was still an immensely powerful awakened.

Among close-combat classes, she stood at a level comparable to Corporal Jeon Gwangil.

“Unexpected. I figured you wouldn’t care much about cleanup work like this.”

She had originally been a police officer.

Even after the apocalypse, she had never abandoned that sense of duty. Normally, she spent her time traveling through dangerous zones rescuing survivors or hunting down criminals within Legion territory to maintain public order.

I had assumed she would immediately leave to resume such work once the battle ended...

“I wanted to talk about those researchers.”

“...Ah. I see.”

The moment she said that—

I understood why she had come to me.

“You mean the ones who shared the same race as you.”

“...Yes.”

Among those Church researchers—

Were people who belonged to the same kind as her.

***

After Lee Hyeonjin came to find me—

I headed together with her toward the Church infirmary above ground.

“Ughh....”

People lay there with agonized expressions.

What they all had in common—

Was that every one of their heads had turned completely white.

'Researchers carrying out the System’s secret missions.'

The mission given to them by the System had been to investigate the limits of what humanity could be defined as.

Included within that research had been the same Aberrant Devourer-related studies Hyeonjin herself had experienced.

At the final moment, after realizing the System’s deception, the researchers had transformed themselves into monsters in order to bury that truth forever.

If there was one fortunate aspect—

It was that they had not become monsters through greed like ordinary Aberrant Devourers.

Because of that, even after transforming into monsters, they had managed to preserve part of their humanity.

And—

'Using the same method as Lee Hyeonjin, we were able to restore them back into humans.'

Their completely whitened hair—

Was a side effect produced during the process of restoring those monsters to humanity.

'Cut living flesh from their bodies, cook it, then feed it back to them.'

Naturally—

The pain involved was beyond imagination.

That unbearable agony had left them in such a state.

“I wanted to ask how you plan to handle them.”

“...Hmm.”

Hearing her words while looking at the researchers—

I answered after some thought.

“As you know, their situation is somewhat different from the other believers.”

Most believers had acted according to the System’s doctrine of loving humanity.

As a result, aside from opposing the Legion, very few of them had committed acts that could truly be considered crimes.

In fact, many had rescued enormous numbers of people from other regions.

But these Aberrant Devourers were different.

'As Luca mentioned... these are people who crossed the line.'

We couldn’t simply treat them exactly the same as the other believers.

Their final treatment had not yet been fully decided, but—

“You probably already guessed why I came here, Commander.”

“...Mm.”

“I would like you to leave them to me.”

She—

Wanted responsibility for their treatment.

“I heard they returned to humanity through the same process I experienced.”

“That’s true.”

“In that case... doesn’t that mean they possess the same class as me?”

At those words—

I shook my head.

“It’s a little different.”

“Huh?”

“To begin with, they aren’t even the second example of someone returning to humanity through that method.”

The first case had been Lee Hyeonjin.

And those researchers belonged to the third case.

'The second case was those demon hunters.'

People who had wanted to abandon the classes they possessed.

I had once transformed them into Aberrant Devourers and then restored them to humanity, thereby changing their classes.

That process had allowed them to evolve from “Demon Worshipers” into “Demon Hunters.”

The reason they became Demon Hunters instead of Aberrant Devourers was simple.

'Apparently Aberrant Devourer is some kind of unique class.'

Classes with excessively unusual advancement conditions could apparently only exist in singular form.

Now that I understood the truth behind the System...

It almost felt like humanity’s collective unconscious had rejected the possibility of mass-producing overpowered classes through such absurd methods.

Because of that—

[Aberrant Corruptor]

Their current class was slightly different from Lee Hyeonjin’s Aberrant Devourer.

“It’s generally similar to yours... but if I had to describe it, it’s basically a downgraded version.”

“Ah....”

“Unlike you, they didn’t become this way by devouring things. They willingly tried to become monsters themselves, so they probably received a class like that.”

Like Hyeonjin, they could hunt enemies and wield their power.

But the ratio at which they grew stronger by consuming enemies was incomparably lower than that of an Aberrant Devourer.

A clearly inferior version.

“Even so... they’re still similar to me.”

“That’s true.”

“In that case, my opinion remains unchanged. Please leave them to me.”

Even so—

She continued speaking as though it did not matter.

“It’s such a unique class... I went through countless trials and errors learning how to use its power properly. If I share my experience, they’ll be able to grow quickly as well. Any shortcomings compared to my class can be compensated for through that growth.”

“That may be true, but... do you understand? Fundamentally, those people are criminals.”

“If committing sins is the issue.”

Lee Hyeonjin gave a bitter smile.

“Then I’m hardly an exception myself, am I?”

“...Cough.”

She had maintained order in Chuncheon by “consuming” criminals.

It was true that many people had survived because of it.

But that was undeniably still a crime.

A case where sin and merit had canceled each other out.

“Please trust me. Reforming criminals is originally one of a police officer’s duties as well. Besides... they strangely don’t feel like strangers to me.”

“I see.”

“If you leave them to me... I’ll turn them into a force capable of repaying their sins quickly.”

At those words—

I stared blankly at her.

'Someone who has fought desperately on her own all this time.'

Her class was simply too unique.

So rather than belonging to a standard unit, she had always operated alone as a kind of special operative.

But if others with similar classes existed now—

She would finally be able to work alongside people like herself.

Not only would there be synergy, but her own safety would improve significantly as well.

'They are criminals... but they committed those sins while being deceived. And they already suffered enough pain while returning to humanity.'

Ordinarily, I might have simply overlooked it.

But considering all the achievements she had accumulated so far...

“...Do a good job.”

“Thank you!”

And so—

A brand-new unit was established within the Legion.

***

“Well then....”

Once everything had more or less entered its final stages—

I looked toward Jeong Sua and spoke.

“You and Lee Haein can discuss and handle matters regarding cooperation with the Church believers.”

“Yes, understood.”

“...I feel a little bad saying this after assigning it to you, but are you sure you’ll be alright? You already have a lot to do. I’m worried I’m pushing too much onto you.”

“Of course I’ll be fine.”

She replied with a light smile.

“They’re a religious organization. Naturally, people who understand religion should handle them. The members of the religious club I manage will likely communicate with them quite well.”

“Then that’s a relief.”

In the end—

It was decided that the Church would preserve its identity as the Church while becoming an allied force under the Legion.

Now that their faith had been corrected in the proper direction—

It seemed better to preserve that identity and treat them as allies rather than forcibly integrating them directly into the Legion.

“...Though in practice, you’re basically becoming subordinate forces rather than allies. But you don’t mind that?”

“Yes.”

Lee Haein and the believers—

Bowed their heads toward us.

“We are sinners. The fact that you are willing to forgive and accept us is already more than enough.”

“Didn’t I already tell you? You people were simply deceived. The only real wrongdoing you committed was fighting against the Legion.”

“That is merely the outcome. Had we won, the result could have become something horrific. Being deceived does not erase those sins.”

Mm.

Well, that was true enough.

“Having gained such a profound realization because of this, we shall repay those sins as subordinate forces under the Legion.”

“...I see.”

“You are Sister Jeong Sua, correct? We ask for your guidance and instruction as well.”

Looking at Lee Haein and the believers—

“...Of course.”

Jeong Sua smiled strangely.

A smile that made it impossible to tell what she was thinking.

Still, if it was her, she would probably help them adapt well to the Legion.

“Your Holiness....”

But at that moment—

“No. Commander.”

Lee Haein and the believers looked toward me.

With unusually serious expressions, they spoke.

“Finally, on behalf of all of us, we wish to say this.”

Slowly—

Countless believers bowed their heads.

“For your devotion... we sincerely thank you.”

And then—

The moment those words ended—

-Ding.

A small window appeared before my eyes.

Fortunately—

This time it was not some fake manipulated interface, but a genuine status window.

[You have successfully grasped the entire structure of the underground temple and gained the support of the former occupants!]

[Territory occupation successful!]

The postwar cleanup had more or less concluded.

The Church had entered beneath the Legion’s banner, and exploration of every internal sector had finally been completed.

And originally, this land had been divided between the Legion and the Church.

[Occupation War]

[Large Region - ROK]

[1. Steel Legion - 100%]

And so—

The entirety of South Korea now belonged to the Legion and its allied subordinate factions.

[IMPORTANT NOTICE]

[World Event - Occupation War Phase 2 is concluding!]

[A faction has achieved 100% occupation of a Large Region!]

[Completed Region - ROK]

The long, long Occupation War—

Had finally come to an end.