NOVEL NEXT
Chapter 136: Checkmate
Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense
136 – Checkmate
As soon as the hole Soo-bin had made was wide enough for their bodies to pass through, Kei and Soo-bin jumped into the underground facility corridor.
Kei then led Soo-bin to the place where the strong smell of blood was coming from.
There, they found a soldier whose ankles had been severed by Soo-bin’s halo, bleeding profusely and writhing in pain.
“Ugh. The smell is that of a regular person, not an Awakener. Won’t Myung-jun hyung be angry?”
“I told you, we can reattach them. Just wait a moment. Hey, can you hear me?”
Park Tae-il, who was losing consciousness due to the excessive bleeding and the screams that had strained his throat, suddenly saw an angelic figure appear before him and wondered if he had arrived in heaven.
It was no wonder, as the sight of Soo-bin in her white and black suit, with a glowing halo above her head, resembled that of a nun.
However, the angel who had come to him at the moment of death grabbed his collar with her delicate hand and began to slap his face mercilessly with the other.
“Get! A! Hold! Of! Yourself!”
“Ow! Ow! I’m awake! I’m awake!”
“Good. I’m sorry for cutting off your ankles, but understand that it was an unavoidable situation. If I hadn’t, the person we’re protecting could have died.”
Soo-bin took out a cylindrical medikit from the utility belt attached to her waist.
Soo-bin pressed a button on one side of the cylindrical medikit and poured its contents onto Park Tae-il’s severed ankles.
“Aaaargh!!! Huh? Oh? It doesn’t hurt?”
“It’s a nano-type medikit that instantly paralyzes the pain transmission system, stops damage to the wound area, and creates temporary blood vessels to prevent necrosis. It won’t reattach the bones of your severed ankles, but it will definitely buy you some time.”
“Oh… ohhh…”
“If the pain is gone, answer my first question. Is there someone imprisoned here?”
“Yes. My mission was to eliminate him in case of an emergency.”
“Is he down that corridor?”
When Park Tae-il nodded, Soo-bin asked,
“Then I’ll ask you a second question. Regarding your severed ankles, do you want to live the rest of your life limping after being treated at a military hospital? Or do you want to come with us and get perfectly healed with no aftereffects?”
“Will you really treat me!?”
“To be honest, I don’t care what happens to your ankles, but our boss does. If he finds out I severed the ankles of a regular soldier, he’ll definitely have something to say. He’ll probably scold me for making a poor kid, who was already dragged into service, into a cripple.”
“…If I go with you, it will be considered desertion.”
“Then just say you were kidnapped. From now on, you’re our prisoner.”
As Soo-bin spoke kindly to the soldier whose ankles she had severed, Kei muttered to himself,
‘So this is what the Korean saying “giving the disease and then the cure” means, as Myung-jun hyung explained.’
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With the pain in his ankles magically gone, Soo-bin’s angelic appearance, and her kindness in promising to heal his wounds without any aftereffects, Park Tae-il’s willpower completely crumbled.
Not only did he reveal the location of the confinement room where Sergeant Park Seung-ho was held, but he also provided the passwords to the remaining confinement rooms.
Thanks to Park Tae-il’s help, the two easily found out the location of Park Seung-ho’s confinement room and moved straight towards it, leaving him behind.
They stopped in front of a closed door made of special alloy.
“The password he gave us was…”
As Soo-bin entered the numbers, the sound of numerous locks disengaging could be heard.
– Ssshhhh –
The door, designed to be impossible to open with human strength, began to slowly open with the sound of hydraulic cylinders in operation.
Inside, a man dressed in army fatigues was crouched in a corner.
“Who… who are you?”
The moment Kei saw the man’s expression, he felt an overwhelming surge of emotions that almost took his breath away.
It wasn’t just from the man, but from the entire room, filled with a sense of deep regret.
“Kei? What’s wrong?”
Soo-bin couldn’t understand why Kei was looking around the room with such sorrowful eyes.
From her perspective, the room was spotless, without a speck of dust or a single stain.
However, to Kei, who perceived the space through his sense of smell rather than sight, the room looked like a massive torture chamber.
The scent traces of blood from punching the walls until his fists bled, the smell of plastic from a game console shattered in a fit of rage, and the lingering scent of tear stains even after changing the pillowcases.
The scent traces left throughout the room were screaming at Kei with a volume that felt like it would burst his eardrums.
‘Please let me go home.’
Leaving Soo-bin to keep watch, Kei slowly walked towards the man.
With tears welling up in his eyes, he spoke,
“Hyung, are you the one imprisoned here?”
Even though Kei already knew the man was their rescue target, he wanted to hear it from the man’s own mouth.
The man in army fatigues looked at Kei with surprised eyes and said,
“How did you know…? Who are you?”
“We’re a rescue team sent to save the poor soldier imprisoned here in place of our boss.”
“If you mean the boss…”
“Since you’re an Awakener, you must know the Liberal Clan, right? I’m Ito Kei, a seeker from the Liberal Clan. That pretty-faced but tough-looking woman over there is Lee Soo-bin, another Awakener from our clan.”
“A watchdog and a nun with halos? Why would the Liberal Clan…”
Kei explained the rough outline of their mission to Park Seung-ho, who was still looking at him with wary eyes.
Kei explained that he had detected the pheromones carrying Park Seung-ho’s feelings of injustice from various products released by KGL.
Upon hearing this, Cha Myung-jun, the leader of the Liberal Clan, decided to rescue Park Seung-ho.
To facilitate his rescue, Kei and Soo-bin from the Liberal Clan completely isolated the research facility from the outside and subdued all the Awakeners guarding it.
Finally, Kei assured him that if he wished, the Liberal Clan would guarantee his freedom, even if it meant turning the entire South Korean government into their enemy.
Listening to Kei’s explanation, Park Seung-ho unconsciously pinched his cheek.
The reality that the world’s strongest and most influential clan had come to rescue someone who was supposed to be dead felt like a dream.
However, the pain in his cheek told him that this was not a dream but reality.
“Kei, it’s almost time for the external isolation to be lifted.”
“Let’s go, hyung. You might be confused and bewildered, but for now, you have to trust us.”
Seeing Kei’s eyes filled with nothing but pure goodwill, Park Seung-ho nodded.
Even if this opportunity turned out to be another trap in his miserable life, he couldn’t let go of the only lifeline that seemed to lead to hope.
Seeing Park Seung-ho nod, Soo-bin said,
“Alright. Then I have one favor to ask. There’s a soldier outside with severed ankles. Can you carry him? We need to take him to the Liberal Clan to reattach his ankles.”
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“We’ve fallen into a trap.”
From the moment she had been watching them without a single movement, Yoon Se-ah, the director of EDA, spoke to Myung-jun.
Myung-jun, chewing on the ice in his glass, responded to Yoon Se-ah,
“By saying that, are you acknowledging the existence of a victim imprisoned in the underground facility?”
“Depending on the circumstances.”
“Director Yoon Se-ah!”
“Director!”
As Park Moon-chan and Nam Joon-woo shouted simultaneously, seeing Yoon Se-ah acknowledge Myung-jun’s suspicions with a calm expression, Yoon Se-ah spoke,
“Minister, Director. It’s already too late to deny it. Considering the time the contact with the facility was lost and the abilities of the Awakeners from the Liberal Clan, we must assume that the rescue of the target has already been completed.”
Nam Joon-woo quickly racked his brain.
How to navigate this situation, how to mitigate the international criticism that they had stripped their own citizens of their rights and freedoms and forced unilateral sacrifices like slaves.
The conclusion he reached was to employ the stance that the South Korean Ministry of National Defense had always taken in similar situations, known as ‘denial.’
“Sorry, but the Ministry of National Defense cannot acknowledge the claims of the Liberal Clan. Frankly, in a situation where external connections are cut off, the Liberal Clan could have arbitrarily placed a fake victim in the underground facility.”
“So, you’re saying that our Liberal Clan fabricated a non-existent victim, used that as an excuse to illegally infiltrate the Gate Research Facility, and is now conducting a scheme to slander the South Korean government?”
Seeing Myung-jun articulate exactly what he wanted to say, Nam Joon-woo felt a cold sweat run down his spine.
Unfortunately for him, Myung-jun’s attack did not end there.
“Anticipating such claims, I instructed that the entire rescue operation be recorded with the video cameras installed in our suits. The truth will be evident once you see the footage.”
“But that footage could serve as evidence that someone was indeed imprisoned in the underground facility, or conversely, it could prove that the Liberal Clan arbitrarily infiltrated the Gate Research Facility and carried out aggressive actions. Do you think it’s justifiable to ignore official procedures and arbitrarily cross another country’s borders? Just because the reason is just, it doesn’t mean the aggressive process is justified!”
Nam Joon-woo was relying on that very point.
The verification process, which should have gone through official requests, was conducted by the Liberal Clan using unauthorized force.
Just as they had crossed the Chinese border and killed Moon Hee-cheol in the Tibetan Plateau, this incident also had the potential to become a significant international controversy, which was Nam Joon-woo’s only point of criticism.
However, Myung-jun, completely unfazed by Nam Joon-woo’s threatening remarks, calmly asked him,
“Minister, aren’t you mistaken about something?”
“What do you mean I’m mistaken about?”
“About which side, the South Korean government or the Liberal Clan, is the bigger villain in this situation.”
Myung-jun said.
“As you mentioned, crossing borders without permission can indeed be problematic. However, if it is to rescue a poor individual who is being exploited by the government and deprived of their freedom, no country would particularly take issue with it. In fact, even the citizens of South Korea would support us.”
“That’s the most absurd nonsense I’ve ever heard. You think the South Korean citizens would support the Liberal Clan? Do you have any basis for such a belief?”
“Are you familiar with the term PTSD?”
“You’re referring to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, right? The condition that affects veterans or individuals with severe trauma…”
“That’s correct. And the majority of South Korean citizens exhibit symptoms similar to PTSD regarding the military. For example, the emotions they feel when they see someone like this.”
Myung-jun held out his phone and showed a video.
In the video, a middle-aged woman was shouting at people while wearing a placard around her chest.
The placard had a message written in red letters, as if in blood:
“Please reveal the truth about my son’s unjust death during military service!!!”
“This… this person…”
“As you might guess, this isn’t just a random video for explanation. The woman in this video…”
“Is probably the mother of the victim who was imprisoned and declared dead in the underground facility of the Ministry of National Defense.”
Upon hearing Yoon Se-ah’s words, Nam Joon-woo and Park Moon-chan looked as if the sky had fallen.
If Moon Hee-cheol had gone so far as to declare Park Seung-ho dead to hide his existence, then the very existence of this woman was a fatal Achilles’ heel that would utterly destroy all the legitimacy claimed by the South Korean government.
Seeing the two men with despondent expressions, Myung-jun delivered the finishing blow.
“Oh, and of course, this woman is currently residing in Japan under the Liberal Clan’s utmost protection. And shortly, she will be reunited with her precious son, whom the South Korean government had declared dead without even finding his body.”
It was a perfect checkmate, leaving no room for escape.