Free Web NovelThe site was under police control.
Even back when I was just a student, it made no sense to me that only a single sedan-type patrol car and four officers were deployed in an area where a mutation-type extradimensional creature—back then, that was the official term—had killed over ten people.
But the officers stationed at the scene seemed to understand their own predicament.
Their faces were nervous and worn out, they had automatic rifles slung across their backs, and their vehicle was parked facing the outer road, engine running, as if they were ready to bolt at any moment.
That scene wasn’t only strange in my eyes.
“Where’s the military?”
“I mean, even if it’s a mutation-type, if this many people have died, shouldn’t the military be here?”
“Those guys won’t be able to handle it.”
The other trainees getting off the bus noticed it too.
“When more guards show up, you get more flies buzzing around.”
Son Tae-gang approached us.
Jang Ki-young followed a few steps behind, hands behind his back, and gestured with his eyes.
I understood.
He was telling us to bring this guy and his crew along.
Clack! Clack!
Weapons were handed out.
Most of the others were given large-caliber rifles specialized for fighting mutations, but I opted for a military-grade assault rifle.
Sure, the large-caliber rifle might pack more punch per shot, but it's heavy and bulky.
It can do bursts too, but the recoil is massive—enough to nullify any advantage in firepower.
It’s a decent choice against mutations, but unless you're used to it, you can’t exploit its strengths. That’s why I went with what I knew.
“Park-sunbae. Here!”
Woo Min-hee, my assistant, handed me extra magazines.
Her gaze was... intense.
You could call it sparkling, maybe even overwhelmingly so.
That shine in her eyes likely held the freshness of youth—but also, perhaps, the arrogance of someone who's never been rejected in her life.
It was a bit much, but I didn’t look away.
“Thanks.”
She returned my thanks with a bright, refreshing smile.
Then someone came up from behind and tapped me on the shoulder.
It was Lee Sang-hoon.
“Yeah... Park Gyu is still Park Gyu.”
“What the hell is it this time?”
Lee Sang-hoon let out a sigh and looked up at the sky.
“Some people have to go through hell to get anyone to notice them. Meanwhile, Park Gyu-sunbae does absolutely nothing and girls line up for him. But even Woo Min-hee? Damn.”
“She’s just curious.”
“Curious?”
I had an answer ready, but I didn’t say it out loud.
It’s common.
People our age confuse curiosity with affection.
Affection is loving someone for who they are—but curiosity? The moment that mysterious layer is peeled away, everything disappears like a mirage.
A while later, Jang Ki-young assembled the teams.
Because this mission was different from our usual training and focused heavily on scouting, we divided into two teams of about fifteen each.
One team was led by another instructor’s student. I was in charge of the other.
Naturally, Woo Min-hee and the rest of the juniors followed me.
After the mutation report, police had been dispatched, but they too were killed by the mutation. Since then, the entire area had been sealed off.
The officers’ bodies were barely recovered, but rumor had it there were still many corpses left in the village.
It didn’t take long before we found one.
On a deserted pavilion under a massive weeping willow that had probably stood for centuries, a decaying body lay sprawled.
The sound of people retching echoed around me.
We had seen cadavers in dissection labs and battlefield footage, but seeing a body right in front of us—this gruesome, this heavy with dread—was something else entirely.
With a detached gaze, I examined the body for clues.
“Knew it.”
Son Tae-gang, who had been behind me, suddenly spoke.
“This was done by a human.”
That’s how it looked.
Determining the cause of death for a body in advanced decomposition isn’t easy, but the gunshot wound through the chest was clear.
“It wasn’t the mutation?”
Voices murmured behind me.
I let them talk.
The situation had changed.
Distrust is more dangerous than disorder.
Besides, we’re elites.
After a bit of murmuring, ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) everyone calmed down and looked at me.
Park Hyuk-min approached.
“Hey, Park Gyu. What now?”
Even without him saying it, I could guess.
Since the culprit was a human, not a mutation, we should hand it over to the military or police.
But this was our mission.
Even if it was just a one-time event right before graduation, it wasn’t something to treat lightly.
“We’ll finish the sweep.”
Son Tae-gang mumbled again from beside me.
“The first report said a villager went on a rampage with a gun, right?”
I ignored it.
He’s an outsider.
His claims might be worth keeping in mind, but I had no reason to act based on them.
What I heard from Jang Ki-young was this:
[A mutation-type extradimensional entity of unknown origin has appeared, killed armed police, and massacred numerous civilians.]
No mention of humans.
It’s possible a human threat could fall under the “mutation” umbrella, but our mission directive was clear: eliminate the mutation.
We began searching the village, slowly.
There were more bodies than expected.
Within an hour, we’d passed twenty, closing in on thirty.
“Looks like the whole village was hit.”
My classmates approached with grim expressions.
But no one called to stop the operation.
Despite what Son Tae-gang said, there were clear signs some of the victims were attacked by a large predator.
Like a head torn off, or a single blow that shredded the torso from chest to groin with claws.
And the footprints near the bodies? They were undeniable proof a mutation had been here.
There were human traces too.
In a tiny room, reeking so bad it felt like we’d suffocate, we found a corpse tied to a chair, tortured, and executed.
Unlike the others, this one had been killed within the last three days.
Click– click–
I’ve heard people say the right to know supersedes all constitutional rights, but when you watch someone exercising that right, it’s hard not to feel uncomfortable.
They wield that higher cause like a badge of superiority.
But in the end, they just want to profit and gain recognition from their coverage.
Maybe I’m bitter because Son Tae-gang and his crew are slowing everything down.
He spends more than ten minutes examining each corpse.
“Definitely more than three people involved. Footprints, plus the fact they tied up a big, muscular adult male and dragged him alive.”
Him rambling unsolicited thoughts grated on me.
“Have you checked everything?”
If it weren’t for Jang Ki-young’s orders, I would’ve left him behind.
Another reason I held back was that this was still South Korean territory, not a battlefield—at least for now.
“Do you know who this guy is?”
Son Tae-gang gestured at the tortured corpse.
I shook my head.
“He’s a famous wrecka. Known for being a tough bastard.”
“A wrecka?”
“Guys who run reaction channels on YouTube. You don’t do much internet stuff, do you, Park Gyu?”
No point replying to pointless questions.
He kept talking anyway.
“There’ve been rumors about disappearances in this area. You probably don’t know, but this place was supposed to be a luxury shelter zone for the upper class.”
I ignored him again, but Lee Sang-hoon walked over.
“Never saw anything like that on the news. If something that sensitive leaked, the major outlets would’ve been all over it for weeks.”
“Of course it didn’t.”
Son Tae-gang snorted. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm
“When there’s profit to be had, there’s no such thing as party lines. Like when local council members, originally unpaid volunteers, all voted to pay themselves salaries. Or that high-rise in Busan—the fall guy went to jail, and the rest was swept under the rug.”
I stopped Lee Sang-hoon with a glance before he could argue.
He’s a journalist.
No matter how much Lee knows about politics or real estate thanks to his wealthy upbringing, he can’t outtalk someone who’s bled in the trenches of journalism.
While Lee stayed quiet, Son Tae-gang smirked and kept going.
“But the villagers here opposed it. The village head who took bribes from the brokers was in favor, but the former head—who didn’t get paid—flipped the table out of spite. But think about what kind of world we live in now. A fantasy world with monsters. A whole village can vanish and it’s just another accident. There are even hitmen roaming around, charging a few million won per kill, ever since North Korea collapsed.”
He glanced at the corpse.
“Even this body shows clearly different times of death, doesn’t it?”
I stepped outside the house reeking of corpses.
My teammates were waiting.
We tallied the numbers.
Thirty-two dead.
Five were killed by humans.
The rest, by a mutation—likely a dog-type.
We debated whether to continue or call in the authorities.
If we were only facing mutations, fine—but if armed humans were involved, then legally and procedurally, military and police should take over.
At the time, even licensed Hunters weren’t allowed to use firearms to kill criminals.
Doing so would be outright murder under the law. We weren’t acting under any lawful authority either.
Jang Ki-young’s answer was vague.
“I understand the situation. But I leave it to your judgment.”
Vague words, clear meaning.
Proceed with the mission.
Whether humans were involved or not.
Some of the team were uneasy, but most nodded in agreement.
Our seniors who returned from China told us the stories.
What happened over there.
How they ended up killing more people than monsters—not urban legend, but truth.
To Jang Ki-young, this wasn’t just about practicing field ops—it was a live lesson in handling hostile humans.
That’s probably why he didn’t warn us about human threats.
Because in China, civilian hostiles never gave warnings.
Clack. Clack.
My teammates began switching weapons.
A wise move—though I felt too many were switching to rifles.
I couldn’t overrule their individual choices, so I requested a different loadout for my team.
“Sunbae! Over here!”
Woo Min-hee looked me dead in the eyes—almost uncomfortably so.
Was there really some meaning behind locking eyes?
I took the gear the same way I always did—without much thought.
“Sunbae?”
She seemed unhappy with that.
“Did something upset you?”
Unlike before, she now openly looked disappointed as she stared at me.
She clearly expected an answer, but I kept it brief.
“No.”
Her face stiffened, but I turned away.
“Hey, Park Gyu. That was kinda cold.”
Lee Sang-hoon and the others approached.
“She was clearly flirting, and you just shut her down right to her face. That’s rough, man.”
“Yeah, that was stone cold.”
“Not like you’re some kind of unicorn.”
They grumbled, laced with envy, but it didn’t mean much to me.
We were deep in a place where death loomed overhead.
I gazed at the dead village frozen in time.
“Hey.”
I spoke to Son Tae-gang for the first time.
He’d been chatting with his cameraman the whole time and looked genuinely surprised I addressed him.
“You said you’ve been to India.”
“Yeah. Went there. Tried going to China too, but I badmouthed one of their officials in the past, so I got rejected at the Beijing airport.”
He rolled up his pants to show me something on his shin.
There was nothing there, but he claimed it was a scar.
“Got beat up by public security. Still hurts.”
I didn’t care about his war stories.
I asked for the info I actually wanted.
His eyes lit up with curiosity.
“Oh? Asking me that here? You really are the top of your class.”
What I asked about was the kind of people who stay behind in abandoned warzones.
Hidden survivors. People hiding their homes.
But anything alive leaves traces of its life.
This village had no electricity, water, or even phone and internet service for some reason.
Electricity, you notice the absence immediately—but when it’s gone, the discomfort is massive.
Same with running water.
When things we take for granted vanish, our behavior changes completely.
Son Tae-gang might be on a different ideological track than me, but he’s older, and has more experience.
That experience deserves respect.
“Shit.”
He said it casually, but hit the nail on the head.
“In India, a rich guy built a luxury bunker, but he got found and mobbed because of his waste. People don’t realize how important septic systems are. They just assume they’ll work.”
He looked around.
“The water’s been off for about two weeks, and it’s dry season, so the smell’s even worse.”
I nodded and called my team.
“In my judgment, mutations are dangerous—but armed humans are even more so in this case. So we’ll prioritize securing the human threat first, then track the mutation.”
We’ve trained for anti-personnel combat at school too.
They’re nervous since this is real, but everyone has the basics down. They’re ready to kill if they must.
“The enemy seems to be armed with hunting shotguns. Compared to our gear, that’s nothing. We have the upper hand. They’ll likely avoid confrontation and hope we pass. Use that.”
The second sweep began.
Not for survivors or mutations this time—but for a murderer.
And I wasn’t going to follow Son Tae-gang’s method.
I had a better one.
