When the car they were chasing suddenly stopped and someone got out, Captain Jo snorted.
The person who got out of the car wasn’t carrying a gun—he wasn’t holding anything at all.
On top of that, he had raised his hand and was pointing at the car rushing toward him.
Sitting in the passenger seat, watching the other man’s foolish antics in the glare of the headlights, Jo could only be dumbfounded.
He had heard the man had once operated alongside special forces, but judging by the way he was acting, it seemed that had been nothing but an empty rumor.
To think they had brought an entire platoon of elite soldiers just to abduct someone like that.
It felt like they had prepared far too much.
Was that why?
When the ground shook and the car went flying into the air, he was bewildered.
‘He pointed with his hand and the car flew into the sky? Did he use some kind of superpower?’
But that absurd thought vanished at once.
A year of war experience dragged him back to reality.
‘We’ve been hit!’
He grabbed the hood with one hand and curled his body in.
The military vehicle that had seemed as if it would rise endlessly into the sky plummeted back to the ground the next instant.
The ground rushed up toward them, illuminated by the headlights.
Kwaaaang!
With the sound of impact, his memory went blank for a moment.
Beeeeep!
A ringing filled his ears, and he was so dizzy he felt like he might vomit.
He forced open his closing eyes and looked around.
‘All the windows are shattered, and the ground is above my head.’
The ground wasn’t above his head. The car had flipped over.
A sour smell rose in his throat, but he forced it back down and shouted loudly.
“Is everyone all right?”
Answers came to his rough voice.
“Sergeant Kim Yeongsu! I think the inside of my mouth is all torn up... but I’m fine everywhere else.”
“Kh... Corporal Ha Cheolhui. One of my arms won’t move. I think it’s broken.”
“Sergeant Yu Huimin. I’m fine too. But Staff Sergeant O seems to be dead.”
After hearing his men’s replies, he turned to look beside him.
There was no need to check closely.
A face drenched in blood, and a chest pierced by rebar.
The driver was dead.
‘Two dead, one wounded. Including me, three are still in one piece.’
“What happened? It felt like we were attacked... Could it have been a drone?”
At Corporal Ha’s dazed voice, Captain Jo grimaced.
For now, there was no way to know whether it had been a drone or a mine.
Besides, that wasn’t what mattered right now.
“Get a grip! We have to get out of the car now! Everyone out through the opposite window!”
At Captain Jo’s words, the men who had been half out of their minds came to their senses.
“Damn it!”
“Move!”
“Kraaaagh! Shit, that arm’s broken!”
The surviving soldiers grabbed their injured comrade and crawled out through the shattered window.
They leaned their backs against the overturned military vehicle and checked their surroundings.
“The ground’s completely overturned. Even an anti-tank mine wouldn’t do this much...”
While Sergeant Yu looked back in horror, Sergeant Kim checked the other vehicle that had flown through the air with them.
“Vehicle confirmed. There are survivors!”
He quickly sent hand signals toward the other vehicle lying on its side.
“They say four mobile, one dead, one wounded!”
Hearing Sergeant Kim’s words, Captain Jo thought that at least there was some luck amid the misfortune.
At the very least, more than half of them could still fight.
They had taken a proper hit, but it wasn’t over yet.
He raised his head and looked beyond the overturned car.
Since the headlights were no longer shining like before, all he could see was the silhouette of the stopped car.
It was the same for his subordinates.
“There’s a car up ahead. Person confirmed in the driver’s seat.”
Corporal Ha, who had brought out the night-vision goggles despite his injured arm, checked even the inside, but he did not give the answer Jo wanted.
“No one outside the car?”
“No one!”
At those words, the captain signaled with his hand.
‘Enemy nearby!’
The moment the soldiers who confirmed the hand signal quickly loaded their weapons, a scream rang out from the vehicle on the opposite side.
“Kgh!”
Along with the scream, a small flash of light.
Thud! Thud!
This time, without even a scream, people were sent flying one after another with dull impacts.
Then, with a shout like a scream, gunfire rang out.
“You monster!”
Tatatang!
Thanks to the tracer rounds mixed among the bullets, he could briefly make out the situation on the other side.
In front of his subordinate, who was firing his gun, stood a man holding a spear.
It was the man who had gotten out of the car a moment ago.
The soldier was spraying bullets at him, but the man was dodging every shot as if he were watching the muzzle.
The next instant, the spear swung.
Slice.
Before the light of the last tracer round vanished, Captain Jo saw his subordinate—the one who had been firing—cut apart along with his gun.
The sight was so shocking that, for a moment, he felt as though even the military vehicle his subordinate had been leaning on had been sliced apart by the spear.
“He really is a monster!”
With those words, Sergeant Kim shouldered a recoilless rifle.
The other soldiers set their selectors to automatic as well and madly opened fire toward the vehicle on the opposite side.
Tatatatat!
Bullets poured toward the vehicle on the other side, and the man hid behind it.
Sergeant Kim aimed the recoilless rifle at the car.
There was no time to repeat orders, nor to check whether anyone was behind him.
He was about to pull the trigger immediately.
But before he could, he saw something flash near the car.
What had flashed was a translucent spearhead flying toward him.
Thud!
The spear lodged in his head, and he dropped the recoilless rifle without even managing to pull the trigger.
Thump.
The moment the startled soldiers looked at the spear, the spear embedded in Sergeant Kim’s face began to glow.
Flash!
Lightning struck down from the sky.
Kwarururung!
The lightning that fell onto the spear electrocuted not only the already-dead Sergeant Kim, but all the soldiers around him as well.
The two soldiers closest to Sergeant Kim lost their lives the instant the lightning struck.
Captain Jo, who had been a little farther away, survived.
But he too had been electrocuted and could not move his body.
Step. Step.
As his body trembled, he heard footsteps approaching.
Even as he shook violently, Captain Jo raised the pistol in his hand.
The footsteps stopped.
A man stood before Captain Jo.
He was a handsome young man dressed in ordinary casual clothes.
A man with deep, dark eyes and sharp features.
Seeing him, Captain Jo clicked his tongue.
To think he was a man with eyes like that.
There had been no way to know from a photograph that the target had eyes like that.
Even if not for those monstrous abilities, if he had known the man had eyes like that, he would have thought twice.
Even as he thought that, Captain Jo aimed his gun at him.
And with a trembling finger, he tried to pull the trigger.
Tap.
Before he could fire, the gun had passed into the other man’s hand.
After checking the gun, the man suddenly furrowed his brow.
“You think I can block bullets? I don’t think this is the situation to test that right now.”
Thinking that the words made as little sense as the man’s skill, Captain Jo closed his eyes.
**
[It’s a simple shield spell that uses the repulsive force of electromagnetism. Since the coordinates can’t be moved quickly, it can’t be used in close combat, but it should be fine when dealing with something like a gun.]
While I was taking care of the attackers, Sopeu seemed to have thought of a new spell.
It sounded like a good spell, but I couldn’t test it now.
“Besides, there’s no need to deliberately take an attack I can dodge.”
Because I had been fighting monsters and energy users on that other star, I hadn’t properly understood my own strength.
I had become stronger than I thought.
My body, which utilized energy; my magic; Sopeu’s help—every part of it had gone beyond the human level.
Although I had launched a surprise attack, I had smashed an entire platoon armed with heavy weapons head-on, all by myself.
I looked around once more.
No one had run away.
There had been loud noises at night, but the checkpoint was some distance away.
Even if they had heard the sound at the checkpoint, they were on the same side as the attackers, so they would have ignored it.
“Next is cleanup.”
Since I didn’t know how the situation would unfold, I needed to hide the traces first.
I began putting the corpses and other objects into the box.
“A recoilless rifle, a machine gun, several rifles, grenades, and even C4 plastic explosives. Why did they bring so much?”
Looking at what they had brought, it was fortunate none of it had gone off when the cars flipped.
“I’ll have to ask about this too.”
I put all the weapons, bombs, and other luggage into the box, and finally even placed the vehicles inside.
“No matter how I look at it, this is a scene that makes no sense.”
The sight of the magic circle spread over the box swallowing a large military vehicle was utterly impossible to understand by Earthling common sense.
[You flew forty light-years, and yet you find something like that strange. I find you stranger.]
I shrugged at Sopeu’s jab.
Once I had put in even the vehicles, the road was clean.
“Well, maybe not clean.”
In truth, the road was shattered as if it had been bombed.
It was because of the earth magic Sopeu had used first.
“I don’t think I need to put this back the way it was.”
Since it was a scout’s black stone, there was still plenty of energy left, but I couldn’t waste a black stone on something like that.
“Then there’s only one thing left?”
I glanced at the car standing in the middle of the road, then walked over to the unconscious officer.
His rank insignia had been removed, so I couldn’t tell his rank, but I could tell at a glance that he was an officer.
“Judging by his age, he doesn’t seem to be a second lieutenant or first lieutenant... and they wouldn’t have sent a field-grade officer, so maybe a captain.”
I could just ask that too.
“Then shall we begin?”
I woke the unconscious officer.
There were many things I wanted to ask. Seeing that the officer’s body was sturdy, I thought I would be able to hear a great deal.
**
Four hours later.
I woke my sleeping companion.
“It’s about time to get up.”
At my words, Jeong Ilsu forced his eyes open.
When he saw me, he sprang upright.
“The enemy?”
He pulled a gun from his waist and quickly checked the surroundings.
Then he looked at me with baffled eyes.
“Where are we?”
It was understandable that he was surprised.
We were now in front of the Panmunjom checkpoint.
“We’re in front of Panmunjom. You passed out, Mr. Ilsu, so I drove us here.”
At my words, he furrowed his brow and sank into thought.
It seemed he was trying to recall his memories.
“I’m sure the enemy attacked us back then, and Mr. Hyeonmyeong got out of the car, and then suddenly there was a huge explosion...”
I interrupted him in the middle of his sentence.
“It seems something like a mine went off. Our car must have been caught in the explosion too, because you passed out, Mr. Ilsu.”
In truth, when I got out of the car, I had knocked Jeong Ilsu out with electric magic.
However, because I didn’t know the proper strength, he hadn’t woken up easily, and I ended up driving all the way here.
“I had gotten out of the car, so I was fine. The cars rushing toward us got caught in the explosion too, so I was able to drive away.”
At my words, Jeong Ilsu looked over the car here and there, then stared at me intently.
[...Do you think it makes sense for a car caught in an explosion to be this intact?]
Still, I couldn’t very well damage a perfectly fine car.
Nor did I intend to deceive him.
Though I didn’t think I could deceive him even if I tried.
“...So that’s what happened. Understood. I’ll report it that way.”
As expected of someone who worked with Magreta, he understood my words well.
“Now I understand why you said you didn’t need an escort. I’ll be more careful from now on.”
However, he had become more deferential than I expected.
After finishing our conversation, we passed through the Panmunjom checkpoint.
We were able to pass through the checkpoint without issue.
After we passed it, Jeong Ilsu asked,
“How would you like to handle this incident? Should I look into it separately?”
At his words, I shook my head.
I had already heard enough from Captain Jo.
Who had given him orders, whom I needed to meet—he had done his very best to tell me.
“...Understood. Then what do you plan to do once you arrive in Seoul?”
At his slightly frightened words, I answered as kindly as I could.
“I’m going to keep resting at my older brother’s house in Seoul. From morning to night, I plan to laze around all day.”
At my words, he let out a small sigh of relief.
[Habitual lying is not good for a mage.]
I heard Sopeu’s words, but I did not listen to them.
Saying I would rest at home was not a lie.
I intended to spend most of my time resting inside the house.
I was thinking of going out for a very brief nighttime stroll, but that was something only I and the person I was going to visit needed to know.