Free Web NovelA theft occurred.
Someone entered Pyo Won-sang's staff train and stole valuables.
The culprit was caught immediately.
Park Hae-min. One of the four Awakened sent to me by Kang Han-min.
I couldn’t understand why someone would do such a thing in a train practically wallpapered with CCTV footage. But what I understood even less was Park Hae-min’s reaction after being caught.
"I'm sorry. Really sorry. I meant no harm. I was just bored. I was going to return it anyway. Honestly, there’s no place to even exchange this junk, and with all those cameras, I didn’t think I wouldn’t get caught."
I wasn’t expecting remorse, but the level of brazenness was absurd.
"There was some personal curiosity, too~."
Pyo Won-sang didn’t say much and let the matter slide.
Instead, he called me aside.
"Well, what can we do?"
If you take off the filters, Pyo Won-sang is actually a decent guy.
He reads the room well, quick on the uptake, and has a flexible mindset.
If asked whether he’s talented, I’d say no, but among the riffraff in Jeju, he was one of the few I found actually reasonable.
From his side too, his assessment of me must’ve improved.
Especially after the whole situation with Tak Min-su’s crew. freёweɓnovel.com
After all, whether I stayed passive or not, I did openly take his side and step in—that's a fact.
"That's about average for a Kang Han-min kid. Arrogant to the core. It’s not like talking to them makes a difference either. Think of him as a bear living in your house. The ideal option would be not living with a bear at all, but since we're already stuck on the same train, we just have to endure it. At least, unlike wild bears, they don’t attack people without warning, right?"
I was aware of the friction between Kang Han-min and the Jeju faction, but the exact nature of their relationship was based solely on my speculation.
Now that the stage was set, I carefully asked,
"What do you think of Kang Han-min the Savior?"
Pyo Won-sang looked at me quizzically but didn’t seem alarmed.
Just as I was probing him, he was probing me, too.
We could roughly gauge each other’s position on Kang Han-min.
"A being above the clouds."
Pyo Won-sang smirked with a cynical expression.
"Honestly, isn’t he basically the only god left in Korea? No one can say anything to him. The man literally fights monsters in the Rifts every day and tries to close them. And he doesn’t even chase personal gain. He stoically stands against the monsters. But still..."
He was about to reveal what he’d been hiding.
"I just wish he'd communicate a little more. And keep his Awakened in check."
As he said—Kang Han-min is a being above the clouds.
He doesn’t overtly challenge the Jeju Committee, but his presence and the power of the Awakened gathered around him are so immense that the committee has no choice but to back down.
And it doesn’t even seem to cost much to maintain.
I hesitated for a moment.
Should I say something critical or not?
I made a quick decision.
To understand Kang Han-min, it seemed better to communicate with the Jeju Committee.
So I said it gently.
"What?"
That the Awakened on this train are, for the most part, the ones discarded by Kang Han-min.
"Probably everyone except Moon Yang-gyeong. Don’t they all seem defective to you too?"
It felt like a betrayal of trust, but it couldn’t be helped.
This suffocating situation—doubting Kang Han-min’s intentions every single day—needed a breakthrough, and the key was held by the Jeju Committee.
I might not like them, but pushing away the keyholders is something only children or senile old men would do.
"...I see." freёwebnoѵel.com
I checked Pyo Won-sang’s expression.
For the first time, he openly showed a look of genuine surprise.
Then, a sly—or perhaps clever—smile crept onto his lips.
His keen eyes focused on me.
"To be honest, I thought you and the Savior Kang Han-min were from the same school, same class, same team, even had personal meetups in Seoul. So I assumed you were allies. There were hints suggesting otherwise, but this is Korea, right? A society driven by school ties, regional ties, and blood relations."
I quietly listened to him.
There was no need for interjections.
That would only cheapen me.
Well, someone as clever as Pyo Won-sang must’ve already pieced me together.
The past where I had to step down and live in exile due to being overshadowed by Kang Han-min, the inferiority complex, the ambiguous relationship—all of it.
The only thing they don’t know is the precarious hope I’ve pinned on Kang Han-min.
"Let’s keep this between us."
Indeed, Pyo Won-sang is someone I can talk to.
I showed him one of my hidden cards, and he immediately responded by revealing one of his own.
"There’s a strange rumor about Savior Kang Han-min."
And that card might just be more than I imagined.
I braced myself for what was coming next.
"Some say Kang Han-min might’ve killed the president."
I wasn’t all that surprised—I’d had my suspicions.
Still, a little surprise was necessary here.
I relaxed my trained poker face and asked him,
"Is that true?"
"Oh, just a rumor."
Of course.
"There’s talk, that’s all. The president, after the war, feared assassination so much that he isolated himself in a bunker. He only communicated through people he personally trusted. And the last person confirmed to have met him was Savior Kang Han-min... Or so said former Chairman Yang Sang-gil."
A clever man.
I had a lot I wanted to ask, but there were too many important things to talk about, and besides, Pyo Won-sang’s phone—which he had put on silent—was vibrating non-stop.
This train can’t run without him.
He alone handled military, administrative, civilian, and reconnaissance tasks.
He probably didn’t have much time left to spare for me.
I thought the conversation was over.
But there was one more thing.
"What are your plans, Captain Park Gyu?"
A sudden, fundamental question.
As I was silently weighing my response, Pyo Won-sang answered himself.
"I don’t think Seoul has a good future. So I have to prepare. This train is part of that preparation."
One thing became clear.
Even someone at the center of power like Pyo Won-sang had no faith in Seoul’s future.
He gave me a meaningful smile, trying to probe deeper.
"If you’re interested in my plan, just let me know."
The old me would have hesitated, overthought it, calculated every possible scenario, and then ended up doing nothing.
Professor was someone who avoided anything political outside of battle.
But now, Professor is no longer my only identity.
"I'm interested."
Today, I’m in the mood to be Eomchang.
*
He had hinted at it several times before, but Pyo Won-sang’s true intention was now clear through his own words.
The seizure of Shangri-La.
Pyo Won-sang believed that the survivor groups in the Yeongnam region were in worse shape than we imagined and lacked the strength to resist.
In fact, the survivor group we encountered in Tunnel City was on the brink of collapse.
Even the Tak Min-su faction, supposedly one of the Big Three, was barely hanging on through lies and tyranny.
Erosion may have played a part, but it was the attrition from the fight over Shangri-La that did the real damage.
"If Shangri-La hadn’t existed and those survivor groups in Yeongnam had retained their full strength, we wouldn’t be able to handle them with just our train. But since everyone fought over Shangri-La, they all wore themselves out. Groups with many Awakened have the advantage, since they consume fewer resources during battle."
We only saw the Tak Min-su faction, but Pyo Won-sang assumed the rest weren’t much different.
True to his meticulous nature, he also had a contingency plan for the worst-case scenario.
"If an over-level-10 Awakened becomes hostile, we’ll have to fight. But they’re still human. A bullet can kill them. An axe from the Captain can kill them too. We even have Chinese data on the successful elimination of over-level-10 Awakened. We’ve prepared a special kill team based on Chinese doctrine."
Killing an over-level-10 Awakened.
I don’t know.
I’ve heard of such cases, but never met anyone who said it out loud seriously.
Killing someone capable of sealing an entire Rift alone is too high-value a target.
As expected from a Jeju-born—he doesn’t even bother hiding such underhanded hypotheticals.
"Well, if it comes to that, we still have Director Woo, don’t we?"
He subtly hinted that he hoped I’d move Woo Min-hee on his behalf, but I ignored it appropriately.
Even though he probably understood my thoughts, Pyo Won-sang wasn’t offended.
Instead, he laughed heartily and changed the subject—at which point I started suspecting he had a real "surefire plan" up his sleeve.
"In any case, having someone like you at Shangri-La would be like gaining a thousand reinforcements. We’re not letting any Awakened in, after all. And whether Shangri-La is truly the last refuge or not remains to be seen—but it’s still better than doomed Seoul, wouldn’t you agree?"
As I talked with Pyo Won-sang, the train approached another tunnel.
A massive one, 1.2 kilometers long, in an area where power plants and other electricity-producing facilities were located. It was a zone where survivors were almost guaranteed to exist.
On the ridgeline above the 150-meter-long smaller tunnel at the entrance stood watchtowers, pillboxes, and flags marking territory.
We attempted to contact them.
But there was no response from within the tunnel.
Pyo Won-sang soon dispatched a small reconnaissance team with drones.
What they found wasn’t hostile citizens or armed warlords.
It was ruins, corpses, and people with empty eyes—dying.
*
Aside from gambling and kleptomania, Park Hae-min is honestly a decent guy.
Good looks, athletic, polite, unusually considerate for his age, and never one to say anything unpleasant.
He probably inherited a naturally kind personality.
The problem is, his thieving and gambling habits have ruined all those good traits.
Unlike the two female Awakened with actual character issues, Park Hae-min was the most actively involved in fieldwork among those Kang Han-min sent.
"You okay? Yeah, yeah, don’t worry. Your big brothers are here now, so everything’s fine. There’s a bed and yummy food inside. Come on, want to hold my hand?"
At a collapsing community, Park Hae-min didn’t wait for orders—he jumped into relief efforts.
He paid special attention to saving the children.
It’s said that adults love kids by nature, but the truth is kids prefer other kids, or people not much older than themselves—big brothers and sisters.
With his clean face, good personality, and lively energy, Park Hae-min was the perfect relief worker for abandoned children.
But human nature doesn’t change.
"My mom’s gold necklace is gone! It’s the only thing she left behind!"
Another theft occurred.
A recently rescued child cried out in front of Pyo Won-sang’s command post, wailing that her mother’s keepsake had vanished.
Pyo Won-sang showed a bit of annoyance but soon put on his sales-smile and ordered his staff to look into it.
Soon, the culprit was revealed.
When I heard the name, I honestly laughed.
"Oh, that? I was just holding onto it for a bit. It’s a valuable item, right? Someone might’ve tried to take it, so I just kept it safe. Is that a problem?"
It was Park Hae-min.
Wearing his usual cheeky smile, he looked around at the cold stares surrounding him like he was the one confused.
Pyo Won-sang came over to me.
"That guy."
He clicked his tongue.
"If he keeps this up, shouldn’t we kick him off the train?"
In truth, this wasn’t his first theft.
There were already three known incidents.
The increase in internal CCTV coverage was largely because of Park Hae-min’s stealing.
"...I’ll give him a warning."
I faced Park Hae-min.
Honestly, I had no personal feelings toward anyone Kang Han-min sent.
I didn’t ask for them. They weren’t my people. Most of all, they were believers in the god called Kang Han-min.
So I kept interactions minimal on purpose.
But this many repeated offenses—it was a different matter.
"I’m sorry, Captain."
Perhaps realizing the seriousness this time, Park Hae-min looked somewhat deflated.
"I won’t do it again."
A textbook apology.
I don’t expect apologies from others.
What matters is always action.
"I don’t care if you gamble or whatever. But at least while you’re on this train, don’t steal."
"I’ll restrain myself! No—I'll never do it again! If I do, I’ll cut off my own hand!"
"Pyo Won-sang doesn’t think highly of you. I covered for you this time, but there won’t be a next. If something like this happens again, you may be removed from the train."
I deliberately called Moon Yang-gyeong and Go Hee-seol to observe.
This wasn’t discipline—it was an ultimatum.
Park Hae-min’s expression changed completely.
And in that moment, I was reminded again that this guy is one of those elite types soaked in superiority complexes.
He offered a casual apology, but the moment his self-worth was threatened, his true nature came out.
With a different voice, Park Hae-min said,
"Wasn’t that kid going to die anyway?"
That was clearly crossing the line.
I stared him down.
Sensing the shift, Park Hae-min started to look nervous—but he still tossed out garbage into the air with that leftover elitist mindset.
"I mean, she had chronic malnutrition, intestinal blockage, asthma. Not important. Just a refugee. Military medics classify those kinds of patients as D. Give them painkillers and let them die."
I stared and spoke.
"If you ever say something like that in front of me again..."
Park Hae-min froze.
He clearly hadn’t expected this reaction.
"...Huh?"
Among the Awakened who were always treated like royalty, he was one of the elite.
But—
"I’ll kill you with my own hands."
I was an elite, too.
One of the very top.
