Convict Unit: Black Parade-Chapter 130 : Mission 10: The Hunters of Old (3)

«Is
this
all the country has to offer me—to offer us—after thirty years of devotion…?»
No one had an answer for that question.
Ryu Yeon kept his mouth shut.
«…As I informed you at the outset, you have seventy-two hours from noon today… I'll wait until noon three days from now.»
Shin-woo's raised camera panned once over the bodies of the Baekdo Unit sprawled on the floor.
«We can end this peacefully. Let's not continue to waste any more precious young lives.»
“…”
«The next contact will be at midnight tonight. I hope to hear a better answer then. Over.»
Shin-woo's hand covered the camera.
The screen went dark, and soon the connection cut out.
A long silence hung over the darkened conference room.
Ghost released a long sigh.
There was nothing else she could do.
***
December 10, 2050, 6:00 PM.
Seoul. Yeouido. Gate Defense Bureau Headquarters.
Outer Waiting Room.
Ghost found herself absentmindedly rummaging through her empty pockets.
Ever since leaving the conference room and retreating to this corner of the waiting room, her chest had felt tight, her head a mess—she craved a cigarette something fierce.
Iron Knight…
She furrowed her brow deep in thought about her old comrade, still fishing for a nonexistent smoke.
Suddenly, someone tapped her on the shoulder.
She turned in surprise to see Jae-hee.
He glanced around with wide eyes, then cautiously handed her something.
“Master, here.”
“…?”
She looked—it was a red ginseng candy.
“I snagged it from the break room over there!” Jae-hee winked. “Let's sneak some together, Master!”
Then he unwrapped his own ginseng candy, popped it in his mouth, and started chewing.
For a moment, Ghost just stared at the boy's face, his cheeks puffed out like a quokka's.
The chaos in her head settled a bit.
She slowly unwrapped the candy and put it in her mouth. Not her taste at all, but she needed something to occupy her mouth with this mad cigarette craving.
Jae-hee grinned. “Tasty, right?”
…Hell, I need a smoke.
Still, it was better than nothing.
Ghost managed to calm down a little, and Jae-hee, peeking at her expression, breathed an inner sigh of relief.
How long had they waited like that?
By the time master and disciple, sitting side by side, had dissolved and swallowed their third ginseng candy, the waiting room door opened.
Ryu Yeon and Hae-eun entered together.
Ghost shot up from her seat and strode straight over to Ryu Yeon.
“Archmage!” she barked.
Ryu Yeon smiled awkwardly. “Ghost.”
Standing before him, she fiercely fired off the question that had been gnawing at her from the start.
“Why the hell did you—a leader of the opposition, a congressman representing Hunters—not stop President San Kim and his bill, but vote in favor of it?”
Ryu Yeon sighed and raised both hands. “For the same reason I told Iron Knight.”
“‘Let’s not put weapons in the hands of children’? ‘Let’s regulate Awakened abilities for the sake of future generations’?”
Ghost snorted. “You and San Kim aren't the types to give a damn about pretty words like that. You're both stone-cold pragmatists.”
“…”
“Spit it out. What's the real goal? Why is the President pushing this law? And why did you go along with it?”
“…”
“Answer me! I have a right to know!”
“…I can't tell you yet.” Ryu Yeon met her eyes, refusing to say more. “But I can say this: Both President Kim and I are trying to protect the world.”
“That's what we're
all
doing…” Ghost's face twisted. “We're all… busting our asses to protect the world…”
A brief silence followed.
“All right, all right, enough with the pedantic, boring talk!”
Hae-eun clapped her hands sharply and stepped forward. “Let's talk practical measures.”
“Practical measures…?”
“The bigwigs' meeting came to a conclusion.”
Hae-eun glanced at Ryu Yeon, who nodded bitterly.
She explained, “The government will not negotiate with Iron Knight.”
“…!”
“He's not the type to back down, and the government cannot accept his demands. Our only option is to neutralize him. It’s just a matter of how.”
Ghost's tightly sealed lips slowly parted. “Then, Iron Knight is…”
“There are over twenty charges we could slap on him. Occupying a Gate, threatening national security and the lives of the people.”
Ryu Yeon's voice was heavy, but certain. “No matter how this ends, Iron Knight will die. He can't survive. Absolutely not.”
“…”
“We can only help make his end as honorable as possible…”
“Help how?”
“By wrapping this up cleanly, ending it before he disgraces himself further. And the only person who can do that…”
Ryu Yeon looked straight at Ghost.
“…is you, Ghost.”
She gritted her teeth. “Are you telling me to kill Iron Knight with my own hands?”
Ryu Yeon didn't bother replying. Hae-eun just crossed her arms over her chest.
“No. Hell no. I can't do it.”
As Ghost turned her head away, Ryu Yeon carefully placed a hand on her shoulder.
“Ghost.”
“Iron Knight was our
leader
!” she yelled, flinging his hand off. “Have you completely forgotten just because a few years have passed? How we fought in that war?”
“…”
“Who brought the five of us together! Who rallied the people and stood at the very front to fight the monsters!”
It was as vivid as yesterday.
Under a sky as red as blood.
In a city turned to hell, monsters flooding in like a tidal wave—the sight of Iron Knight's back as he carved a path forward.
Their leader, lifting up despairing comrades, endlessly roaring for victory.
Those agonizing, horrific, yet fiercely glorious days…
“Have you forgotten who led us from the front lines of that war?!”
Ghost covered her face with her hands and hung her head.
“Iron Knight was a hero who saved this country… this world.”
“He was. And now he's a terrorist threatening this country and this world.”
Ryu Yeon's voice was soft, but cold as ice.
And it was the unvarnished truth.
“The outer defenses at Cheongnyangni Gate are solid. Infiltrating with a small, elite team to assassinate Iron Knight… is the cleanest, most optimal way to resolve this situation.”
“…”
“And you, Ghost, were the strongest of us Five Heroes in single combat.”
Ryu Yeon's hand returned to her shoulder, pressing with subtle force.
“In a one-on-one fight, you could take down anyone… you even slew the Demon Lord.”
“…”
“You can take down Iron Knight, too. Can't you?”
Ghost's eyes widened at his next words.
“More than anything, you're supremely skilled at this kind of mission.”
“…!”
“Infiltrating enemy territory and assassinating a target… all the black ops missions you carried out for ten years after the Gate War were exactly this kind of work, weren't they?”
Jae-hee stared in shock. Ghost bit her lower lip hard.
Thirty years ago, after the Gate War ended.
Monster invasions had dwindled, but society was still in chaos.
Awakened rose up across the country. They seized territory, subjugated the non-Awakened, and became warlords.
The Republic of Korea teetered on the brink of shattering.
It was then that Ghost made a certain deal with the government.
She retired as a Hunter and received a license to kill. And in the shadows, she wielded her blade.
She hunted down anti-government forces across the country, assassinating their leaders.
Ten years later, the warlord factions had been eliminated, and the peninsula was stabilized.
An assassin who killed anyone the state ordered.
The Republic of Korea's sole holder of a license to kill. The solo executor of decapitation strikes.
Callsign: Phantom—that was Ghost.
“Ghost. I know this is a dirty request. But please, one last time. Get your hands bloody just once more.”
“…”
“Iron Knight is already on a rampage. He's become a true monster, willing to release monsters and kill people. To protect the world… we have no choice but to eliminate him.”
Ghost squeezed her eyes shut.
The war had ended, and so much time had passed.
But they were still standing in the same place: a mire of blood and corpses.
And now, the time had come to bury an old comrade in that muck with her own hands.
After a long silence, Ghost slowly opened her mouth.
“…Tell me the specifics. What exactly is the plan to deal with Iron Knight?”
Snap!
Hae-eun flicked her fingers smartly, stepping forward to declare, “This is where our Black Parade finally gets to shine!”
***
December 10, 2050, 7:00 PM.
Seoul. Capital Defense Command. Inside the sprawling barracks.
Dozens of prisoners wearing bomb collars sat in rows on metal chairs.
Just shy of fifty in number, they were grouped by their decks.
The scrawniest bunch was the Deck 1 team.
“Shit, we're clearly out of our league here…” Razor gnawed his thumbnail, scanning the room.
Deck 2's Cheil Mojik, Deck 3's Glasses Society, and Deck 4's Team Shakespeare were all powerhouses, to be sure.
But the aura rolling off the prisoners from the “upper decks”—Decks 5 through 8, who had to clear ten or more missions just to get there—was terrifying on a whole other level.
And it wasn't just the upper-deckers. Over in the corner, the Deck 0 inmates were hunkered down, their vicious appearances oozing a black menace.
Everywhere he looked, they were in a different league.
“Fucked. We're so fucked. We're absolutely, one-thousand-percent
fucked
… We're heading into some insanely dangerous shit. And we're all gonna die…”
As Razor muttered, he noticed it was oddly quiet beside him and whipped his head around.
Status Window was lounging back in his chair, his face utterly at ease.
“Oi, fatass. Why the hell are you so chill? Aren't you worried?”
“Huh? We've got our lucky Boy-kun with us, don't we desu?”
Jae-hee had also been assigned to the Deck 1 team.
Status Window patted his belly smugly. “The way I see it, as long as we stick close to Boy-kun, we won't die so easily desu. So don't sweat it desu.”
“…”
“Well, if things go south, we can just restart the game~ Yeah, if we die, we die~”
Was he in denial or just an idiot…?
Shaking his head, Razor looked up and scanned the area again.
“So, when is our esteemed lifeline going to show up?”
No sooner had the words left his mouth…
Fwump!
The front flap of the barracks was thrown open, and Hae-eun strode in. Her military escort followed, with Ghost and Jae-hee right behind them.
“To all you fine ladies, gentlemen, villains, and trashy convicts who've been living high on the hog off the taxpayers’ dime!”
Hae-eun bellowed with gusto as she surveyed the dozens of prisoners packed into the barracks.
“The time has finally come to repay that debt.”
Basking in the collective glare of every prisoner, the commander roared with cheer, “Effective immediately, Operation Retake Cheongnyangni Gate begins!”