SOG Ch 31

Bang-!

A sharp gunshot tore through the darkness.

One after another, Bang! Bang, Bang! The gunshots continued. Arghh! A short scream followed. It was the dying words of the noncommissioned officer who had just run out.

And the creepy silence followed.

…

Maybe.

It was only been about three seconds.

Thud. The sound of something heavy falling to the ground was heard.

“…”

Nam Myung-seong and Seon Jae-chan couldn’t breathe in the curtain-like darkness. They were the only ones left in the storage room. Two more seconds passed. Step, step, step, the sound of heavy footsteps began to blend in between the silence.

Phew. Seon Jae-chan let out a silent sigh in the darkness.

The lights went out, and the noncommissioned officers who were the first to leave… seemed to be dealt with. The lights that went out unexpectedly must have been turned off by the mysterious attacker.

The owner of the steps seemed to have no intention of hiding his presence. Thanks to being an E-class Esper, Seon Jae-chan, who has a little bit of freedom in his vision, whispered very softly, “Uncle.” And held on to Nam Myung-seong.

The two of them moved quickly. They quickly hid behind a large storage cabinet lined with boxes, close together like one body.

There was a gap between the round concrete wall and the storage cabinet. It was fortunate that the large boxes were stacked without gaps. The problem was that everything inside was like explosives.

The two dug into the gap side by side. They sat down with their bodies pressed against each other. The stinky smell of the box comes right in front of his sweaty nose. Step, step, step, the ominous footsteps also got closer.

Creeaak…

Finally, the sound of an open hinge scraped the bottom of his chest.

‘I’m really going crazy.’

He was running out of time. They have about 26 minutes before the bombs explode, and they must escape without being seen by the man who attacked the soldiers.

Jae-chan pretended to be calm, but the siren alarm went off like crazy in his head.  Seon Jae-chan squinted through his sweaty eyes as he examined the hundreds of boxes around him.

A single bomb would almost certainly set off a chain reaction of other bombs. The 30-minute time limit was most likely set to allow the person who triggered the bomb to escape the danger zone.

He needed to get out, and he needed to send an evacuation notice, but he couldn’t because the lights were off. If he turned on his phone screen, he would be seen as clearly as a candle in the dark.

Nam Myung-seong, who had been silent beside him, gently tapped Jae-chan on the shoulder as he looked toward the dark entrance, trying to figure out a way out.

“-?”

He saw Nam Myung-seong pointing his head beyond the shelves. It was on the side of the attacker. Jae-chan blinked his eyes and lowered his head slowly. He carefully placed his chin on Nam Myung-seong’s lap and moved his head to secure his field of vision.

He noticed bright red digital numbers appearing in the darkness in the distance.

[00:26:13]

The timer kept eating time by one second.

The attacker stood tall in front of him. Only the timer light was on, so only a fairly robust physique was faintly reflected in the flickering light, but nothing else was known.

Soon, a large black hand, resembling a large spider, engulfed the red number. Oh. The opponent wore black gloves. TThe gloves that would have handled soldiers rummaged through the detonator under the timer with a rough hand. Seon Jae-chan held on to Nam Myung-seong.

‘…’

He had a rough idea of how bomb disposal squads worked. They never attempted to touch the bomb, unlike the characters in the movie. They usually detonate it in an uninhabited area, such as the wilderness, after cooling it with liquid nitrogen and immobilizing it. They didn’t want to endanger anyone by fiddling with the wires in an attempt to stop the bomb.

In other words, even minor mishandling can result in the bomb exploding. Should he keep holding his breath like this? Or should he take the risk and run away?

Beep.

Seon Jae-chan and Nam Myung-seong, who were holding each other with only their heads sticking out, froze.

[00:25:29]

The timer, which had been flashing bright red like the eyeballs of a beast in the dark, had stopped. 25 minutes 29 seconds. Time passed in terrible silence, but the number did not move further in that state.

The bomb stopped.

“…”

The relief was as thick as hot water bursting down the heart.

It was such a deep relief. As their skin touched, he could feel Nam Myung-seong relaxing faintly as well.

He also sighed for a moment. Seon Jae-chan opened his eyes and squinted into the darkness. It could only mean one thing when he succeeded in defusing the bomb once and for all, something that even the bomb squad would never attempt.

He must be the one who planted it.

The one that suddenly came to mind was Director Yoon Seo-mi or Black Swan. Either way, if they sent a bomb into Mentosa’s Castle, they would have sent their underlings along with it to detonate the bomb at the right time.

A Black Swan member would have known how to defuse the bomb. It was not yet certain that the perpetrator was Director Yoon Seo-mi, but it appeared clear that at least that man was deeply involved with the explosives stack. He also attacked the soldiers in order to conceal the situation in which the bomb was discovered.

‘… We shouldn’t get caught.’

The crisis was dealt with, but then another disaster struck. What happened to the soldiers? Were they dead? If so, the attacker would do the same to him and Nam Myung-seong.

Fortunately, Jae-chan was confident in not being caught.

Nam Myung-seong, who was trembling with fear, clutched him a little tighter. It was possible to ‘hide’ not only the body but also the intended area in a short period of time and within a limited range. It was the reason he could conceal his clothes and shoes. Jae-chan considered hiding Nam Myung-seong with him.

Nam Myung-seong had been trembling for a while. When even the soldiers had run away, Jae-chan wondered why he was still holding out.

Meanwhile. The briefcase containing the deactivated time bomb quietly closed. For a brief moment, even the red light of the digital numbers disappeared, leaving only an afterimage of the numbers in front of his eyes.

The sound of heavy footsteps began to approach in a blur of light.

‘…’

What.

Can he see in the dark?

The wide stride entered precisely into the narrow aisle between the shelves. Seon Jae-chan realized that the premonition he had hoped was false was confirmed by the man’s unstoppable appearance. The opponent was a strong man who quickly subdued two strong young soldiers armed with guns.

Of course, there was a chance he was an Esper.

… It’s all right. Even so, Jae-chan was confident that he will not get caught. He took hold of his throbbing heart. The researcher under his father had said this about him.

‘The amount of energy near the bottom is disappointing. The ability itself is extremely rare. It also has the characteristic of being advanced.’

‘Unless it’s at least an A-class Esper, especially one with a developed sense of energy, being seen through will be difficult during the hidden state.’

In other words, it was worth trying if the opponent wasn’t an A-class or higher Esper.

He hoped his opponent wasn’t an A-class. tried to pretend to be calm. That was until he heard footsteps rushing toward him in a straight line.

He froze and looked up at the approaching figure.

As the distance gets close, he began to vaguely recognize his opponent.

A cold-blooded executioner. An expressionless face as if wearing a mask. Seon Jae-chan let out a sigh. Nam Myung-seong’s trembling in his arms was becoming stronger.

His eyes, fiercely burning in search of prey in the dark, seemed to instinctively recognize the strangeness of this place. The black hand stretched out. Seon Jae-chan had recognized the opponent before he could do anything cruel. He opened his parched lips. He called out his name before it was too late.

“-Woo-jin-ah!”

Woo-jin! He repeated it several times, in case he didn’t hear him. The gloved hand froze. At the same time, Seon Jae-chan struggled to withdraw his ability. It was unable to listen for some reason as if it were clogged with a cork.

“…”

The figures of the two were revealed in the air like a transparent wave. Go Woo-jin’s eyes, which had been shining black, were a little shaken. His tightly clenched jawline loosened. Even his gloved fingertips trembled.

Darkness was meaningless to an S-class Esper, so the situation was clearly visible.

Seon Jae-chan, who was crumpled between the wall and the shelf, was tightly hugging a terrified old man. His face was pale and wet with cold sweat, and he stared back at him in the darkness.

*

30 minutes ago.

It was around the time when Seon Jae-chan started snooping around the underground bunker.

Go Woo-jin, who was staying at the accommodation in Mentosa Castle, received a phone call late in the evening.

– Do you like the gift I sent you that much? You can’t put it down.

A loud voice came out from the screen when the video call started. It was a young woman’s voice. Woo-jin, who was looking at the thick paper with slightly frayed edges, which was the gift she sent, then returned his dark gaze to the drawing.