SOG Ch 58

In the end, Jin Dae-ho’s speculation was half correct and half wrong.

The reason why the team members considered Go Woo-jin their leader had a separate explanation.

The answer was ‘survival rate.’

The team leader remembered Go Woo-jin crawling to rescue a team member who was held by a pyrokinetic Esper during a pirate suppression operation and gained a hint from there. He secretly searched for records. He collected the video footage of the previous E-SOF battle captured by drones, as well as official statistics.

The results were astonishing. Since Go Woo-jin joined E-SOF, there had not been a single fatality or severe injury in the E-SOF unit.

A survival rate of 100%.

It was a record achieved by E-SOF’s unit after Go Woo-jin enlisted.

It was an unparalleled achievement among the seven special operations forces. Considering that the E-SOF unit’s fatality rate had been higher than that of regular special units composed of civilians before Go Woo-jin’s enlistment, the achievement was even more remarkable.

“I will only confirm the target’s status and return.”

Back to the present, Go Woo-jin repeated the same words with a composed face.

The sandstorm was getting hotter. The team leader brushed away the small grains of sand hitting his cheek and ear with an impatient gesture.

Thwack, he spat out a sand grain that had entered his mouth. Unfortunately, the wind was blowing from Go Woo-jin’s direction, so he was hit by the wind…

‘… This punk, he didn’t intentionally create the wind, right?’

The team leader looked at Go Woo-jin suspiciously, then sighed and lightly patted his shoulder. He often felt a sense of self-consciousness, but he was adapting to the situation.

“Frankly, cooperating with this brat does make things easier.”

During the Mentosa Island incident, there had been a point where it clashed with the orders from Director Yoon Seo-mi, who had paid him quite a bit of hush money.

This operation was not really like that. There wasn’t much he was inferior to this brat in, and there was no need to constantly monitor the E-SOF members or exhaust himself by confronting them.

Let’s take it easy. The team leader muttered to himself quietly.

“Come to think of it, your suggestion makes sense. Having a few team members stay back to ensure a thorough conclusion of the situation isn’t a bad idea.”

“I’ll stay behind alone.”

This brat to the end.

For a moment, profanity was about to burst out, but Jin Dae-ho spat out the bitter feelings in his mouth along with the gust of sandstorm.

He knew that Go Woo-jin was not doing this to openly quarrel with him. What he meant was that going alone was the most efficient way to search the building that had collapsed due to an explosion, with concerns of additional collapses.

It was his own method that had achieved a survival rate of 100%.

“How much time do you need?”

“An hour.”

“Understood. I’ll send a helicopter again in an hour. Until then, take responsibility and confirm the target’s status. That’s an order.”

The team leader added a few firm words to save face and turned his back. From a distance, he walked towards the military helicopter that was producing a dreadful noise with its propellers, duh-duh-duh-duh.

The team members who had been saved by Woo-jin expressed their concern for him as he stood alone. Go Woo-jin, as usual, just nodded his head.

Finally, Chief Chae Seong-hwan approached.

“Return with style! Don’t unfasten the safety pin!”

Chae Seong-hwan patted Go Woo-jin’s shoulder and firmly held onto a black bag as he headed towards the helicopter. He was particularly prone to motion sickness.

The twenty-three members of the force who had been sent to District Z quickly climbed inside the cargo. The TY-07, named after President Kim Tae-young, gradually ascended. The massive 16-meter-long fuselage moved away with the strong wind striking his clothes. Go Woo-jin remained alone in the rocky area’s ruins, gazing at the sky as the helicopter turned into a black dot and disappeared.

And the wind stopped like it never happened.

Go Woo-jin easily climbed over rock piles and hills, descending below 20 meters into a valley. Passing through gently sloping mounds of debris and the nearly extinguished embers, he approached the collapsed building. The hiding place of the target was a two-story building about the size of a small laboratory. He observed from a slight distance, and then, carefully infused the faint breeze into the heap of debris.

With his eyes closed, he created a rough mental map with the movement of air and energy, relying on his sense of how the wind was blocked. Aligning it with the internal layout he had obtained from previous intelligence, he could soon vividly visualize the interior.

The team leader had operated the heat detection device and stated with certainty that there were no signs of life. However, as a precautionary measure, Go Woo-jin had put on the bulletproof helmet he habitually carried and aimed his assault rifle before boldly entering the interior of the rubble.

What followed was a monotonous process.

He followed the efficient path he had previously planned, cautiously breaking through blocked areas, and using compressed air bombs to clear away collapsing debris. With no colleagues at risk of injury, he had no reservations about using his available energy.

Finally, Go Woo-jin was able to confirm a barely recognizable corpse of an elderly scientist who had been crushed beneath a concrete wall. Gazing at the reddish-brown debris, he retrieved a radio from his pocket.

“Radio check. This is the final coordinates. I’ve located the body believed to be the target.”

Soon, a signal confirming reception returned. Although the deceased had been a criminal responsible for numerous civilian casualties, Woo-jin briefly expressed a short, sympathetic thought for a fallen foe. He collected bloodstains and fingerprints before preparing to leave the collapse site.

Go Woo-jin’s eyes narrowed as he was estimating the scientist’s outstretched fingertips and the direction he seemed to be aiming for.

He began carefully removing piles of various sizes from a corner where the scientist’s index finger seemed to have been pointing, revealing shelves and bookcases that began to pour out their contents.

After working for about ten minutes, Woo-jin was able to find the entrance to the stairs leading to the underground.

It was a bunker.

He looked back at the scientist’s body again.

Was he trying to reach there?

After inspecting his firearm, he gently pushed open the steel door, its paint chipped by military boots. The sturdy entrance quietly swung open, revealing a dark passageway leading underground.

“…”

The moment of hesitation was brief.

Once more, he retrieved his radio. “This is the final coordinates. Radio check. I’ve discovered a bunker.” The voice reporting echoed with a slight tremor.

• Permission granted for exploration.

The voice from headquarters echoed back.

Go Woo-jin lowered the night vision goggles attached to his helmet and adjusted the lens angle using the controls. While darkness meant nothing to an S-class esper, using an amplified low-light vision was still more effective in enhancing luminosity.

He also didn’t forget to obscure his own presence—a technique he had learned from Seon Jae-chan. Without that knowledge, he might have hesitated to continue the search alone.

He erased his presence and unhesitatingly leaped forward into the darkness as the iron door closed, plunging the area into perfect obscurity.

Adjusting the brightness of the goggles, the world manifested itself in shades of black and green, clearer than broad daylight. After taking in the dense, humid air, he carefully descended the rusted ladder in silence.

The interior of the bunker he eventually reached was in fairly good condition. Its deep underground location had played a part.

If the explosive force had been even slightly weaker and had given the scientist time to refuge in the bunker, perhaps the target might have been alive. It was such a solid space.

Shining the IR illumination ahead, he cautiously moved forward. Quietly, he stepped on the fallen debris, once the aftermath of an explosion beneath a military walker’s soles.

The first thing to come into view was a submarine—the remnants of the previous military regime.

It had been disassembled like a slaughtered sea creature, revealing an empty interior.

The target ‘Snow Leopard’ was a scientist who majored in reverse engineering within the military. His role involved dismantling and analyzing hardware of military equipment to replicate its technological principles. Had he even researched submarines? Woo-jin stored that information in his mind for now.

Soon, he determined that there were no life signs.

He lowered the muzzle of his gun. Apart from the submarine, there was nothing distinctive to identify. Though documents and records were scattered about, there was no specific directive from higher-ups to retrieve any items.

That was all there was.

It was when he turned his attention away from this unremarkable discovery that Woo-jin noticed something peculiar.

Among the papers containing submarine schematics, he found a slightly unusual pattern. It was like a mark, regularly placed at the bottom right corner of each paper, resembling a shape similar to a black feather.

In an instant, a sharp pain stabbed into one of his eyes.

He quickly covered his right eye with the hand that had been supporting the gun. Though he didn’t make a sound—thanks to training—it was an intense agony as if his eyeball had been emptied.

“…”

The heightened sense that had been acute just moments ago vanished as rapidly as it had come.

It was the first time he experienced it, and the sensation was so vivid that it was strange. Woo-jin stood still for a moment, slightly baffled. Even the flow of his own wavelengths seemed to be suppressed.

‘… Maybe it’s because my wavelength stability is poor.’

As he blew away the entire wreckage of the collapsing building, he guessed that the stability level had dropped to about 50. A mild headache and dizziness lingered.

Though far from a life-threatening situation, a disconcerting sensation remained. An unexpected pain. Woo-jin lowered the hand that had covered his eye and decided he needed to consult the researchers in District 1 immediately. He should also receive guiding before that…