Convict Unit: Black Parade-Chapter 137 : Mission 10: The Hunters of Old (10)

December 11, 2050, 1:00 AM.
South watchtower, Cheongnyangni Gate.
A hand emerged from the darkness, picked up the communicator, and made a call.
Beep.
The other end answered immediately. Its owner spoke from the shadows.
“HQ, this is Goshawk. Commencing scheduled , over.”
«Goshawk, this is HQ. , over.»
“All clear. No anomalies in the sector. Over.”
«Copy that. Maintain your watch. Out.»
Click.
The scheduled ended, and the line went dead.
The hand in the darkness slowly lowered the communicator.
Its movement was unnervingly stiff, like a corpse stirred long after rigor mortis, joints grinding in a deathly creak.
Because the hand did indeed belong to a corpse.
Its wide-open eyes were vacant, its blood-soaked body long dead. A network of silver threads was connected to the corpse, manipulating it like a marionette.
“Scheduled successful.”
Behind the corpse stood the prisoner who had forced it to call HQ. He turned his head and spoke, his face hidden by a pure white mask. Callsign: Puppeteer.
“According to the intel I pulled from this one’s head, they in every hour, on the hour. The next team relieves them at 0800.”
“Roger.”
The one receiving Puppeteer’s was Ghost.
The group occupying the south watchtower was the Black Parade’s Deck 0 team.
As the team’s leader, Ghost slowly surveyed her surroundings.
The inside of the watchtower was a bloodbath.
After infiltrating the Cheongnyangni Gate through a back way, the Deck 0 team had made capturing the watchtower their top priority, striking with lethal speed.
The three veteran soldiers of The Knights stationed there had been assassinated without a chance to fight back.
South watchtower of the Cheongnyangni Gate: secured.
The three corpses of the veteran Hunters stood at attention, bound by silver threads.
Ghost stared at their faces for a moment.
“What is it, Ghost?” Puppeteer tilted his masked head toward her. “Is there a problem?”
“…”
“They’re terrorists. Traitors who threaten the lives of tens of millions. Is there any reason we can’t make use of their corpses?”
“No. It’s just—” Ghost turned away from the fallen veterans. “I knew them.”
Puppeteer’s eyes widened slightly behind the mask.
Ghost muttered bitterly, “Every Hunter in The Knights… they were all comrades. We fought together on the front lines thirty years ago.”
To think that the brothers-in-arms she had fought beside decades ago were now enemies to be eliminated by any means necessary.
As Ghost wrestled with her thoughts, Puppeteer’s voice cut through the silence, stark and cold.
“Ghost. Whatever ties you have to the past, do not hesitate when the time comes to strike. Our lives are in your hands. If you falter at the critical moment, we all die.”
Puppeteer gestured toward the window.
From the high vantage point of the watchtower, the glittering nightscape of Seoul was clearly visible.
“And it won’t just be us. Every citizen in Seoul, and by extension, every person in this country, will be in danger.”
“…I know.”
Ghost squeezed her eyes shut.
When she opened them again, the hesitation in her sharp blue gaze was gone.
“When the time comes to strike, I won’t hesitate. Don’t worry.”
“We’ve been at this ‘work’ together for decades, yet you still cling to a soft spot.”
Puppeteer cast her a sideways glance as he laid his hands on the dead Hunters’ heads.
Derisively, he added, “It’s about time you let go of that human heart.”
“…”
“We are nothing more than cogs in the machine of this nation. That is enough.”
The conversation ended there. Puppeteer connected his threads to the dead Hunters’ heads and began extracting any remaining information.
Ghost turned to the rest of her team.
The members of Deck 0.
Ghost.
Puppeteer.
Firestarter.
Cleaner.
Poison Centipede.
Leaning against the walls and floor of the watchtower, each of them was resting, clad in a poncho. From beneath their hoods, their eyes glinted with murderous intent.
“Within the next twenty-four hours, forces from the Gate Defense Bureau and the Hunter Association will begin to pressure The Knights from the outside.”
Ghost shared the information she had received from Hae-eun Seo.
“Until then, we lie low and use this place as our base. When we get the signal, we move.”
Exhaling a puff of ash from under his gas mask, Firestarter asked, “And by ‘move,’ you mean?”
Ghost reaffirmed their primary objective. “We make a beeline for the heart of the Cheongnyangni Gate and… end the Iron Knight.”
Her hand tightened around the hilt of the jet-black sword at her waist.
“Fast. And clean.”
***
December 11, 2050, 1:30 AM.
Central control room, Cheongnyangni Gate.
Shin-woo rubbed his tired eyes and set down the stack of papers in his hand.
They were printouts of various scenarios, contingency plans for how the government might respond to their demands.
The first round of talks, which had ended thirty minutes ago, had gone exactly as he’d predicted.
It had been nothing but a stall tactic.
“I expected them to drag their feet on our demands, since we still have some time,” Chevalier, the vice-commander in full plate armor seated beside him, grumbled.
“But for them to feign complete ignorance about the forces they sent is absurd. We presented them with evidence of the engagement, and they still denied everything.”
They’re not our troops. We don’t care if you kill them.
Director Yang had been adamant, and indeed, the intruders hadn’t been soldiers.
Their gear was mismatched, their fighting styles chaotic.
They showed no discipline, no sign of team training, just a wild flailing of their individual Awakened abilities… like a pack of savage thugs.
Worse, when their infiltration failed, they had all detonated the bomb collars around their necks, blowing themselves to pieces.
Such extreme methods were beyond what a normal military unit or guild would employ.
This style of destroying evidence… the NIS? No… even the NIS couldn’t afford to throw away assets on this scale.
But they’re too high-spec to be street thugs or some back-alley Hunter guild. They had at least some semblance of organization…
The pieces clicked into place. Shin-woo knew who he was up against.
He had never faced them directly, but he had heard the whispers. The name of a certain unit.
“The Angel Unit.”
“The Angel Unit, sir?”
“The 1004th Probationary Unit. In other words, a convict unit.”
Human bullets for a broken world.
Shin-woo smiled bitterly. “So, our opponent is Hae-eun Seo.”
“Do you know her?”
“Very well. We go back more than thirty years.”
Thirty years ago…
An image flashed through Shin-woo’s mind: a little girl, trailing behind the Five Heroes through the ruins of the world.
“That kid… always fighting the world with everything she had.”
The smile slowly faded from Shin-woo’s lips.
If Hae-eun truly was the opposing commander, then the strongest piece she would deploy—her Queen—was…
Lost in thought, Shin-woo suddenly waved his hand and ordered, “Activate the jammers.”
“The jammers, sir?”
“There are more flies inside our walls. Block all communications so they can’t receive orders from the outside. We’ll abandon our current channels and switch to the emergency frequency.”
“As you command.”
“And Vice-Commander. I’m putting you in charge of hunting down the intruders.”
“Leave it to me, sir. I’ll kill them all.”
“You can beat anyone they send, but there’s one exception. Do not engage a woman with white hair and blue eyes.”
Chevalier thumped his chest plate. “I can defeat any opponent, sir!”
“No, not her. If you find her, call me immediately.”
Chevalier hesitated for a moment before bowing his head. “Understood.”
“And…” Shin-woo chose his words carefully. “If… you happen to see… a young kid with curly hair and a sort of roundish face… like a puppy? Or a capybara? A quokka?”
“Sir?”
“Whatever. If you see a boy like that, don’t kill him either. Capture him if possible.”
Shin-woo recalled the young man he’d met in Seoul. Ghost’s disciple, he’d said.
If so, there was a chance he had come along for this.
“Old soldiers must fade away when their time comes, but we have to leave seeds for the future. Isn’t that why we’ve served for so long…?”
Muttering to himself, Shin-woo gestured to Chevalier and finished, “Go, Vice-Commander. I’m counting on you.”
“As you command.”
After saluting Shin-woo, Chevalier left the control room with his personal retinue.
Watching his subordinates scatter to their duties, Shin-woo was suddenly overcome with a profound exhaustion.
He hadn’t slept in nearly two days, had fought several intense battles, and had even conducted video negotiations with the government…
…I’m tired.
Leaning back in his chair, Shin-woo slowly closed his eyes.
Just for a moment… I’ll rest…
He felt his men tiptoe forward, gently draping a blanket over him.
And quietly, slumber claimed him.
***
“Mister Iron Knight,” a soft voice called out.
Puzzled, Shin-woo turned around.
Before him lay a scene from thirty years ago.
The ruins of Seoul under a red sky.
But the faces of the people shone with hope.
This place is…
A beat later, Shin-woo recognized the memory.
It was right after they had defeated the Demon Lord Deyana Ludens and taken a commemorative photo.
The heroes and survivors were preparing a meal. They had scavenged ingredients from the ruins and were cooking together.
He could see Ghost, crouched down and clumsily tending a fire, and the Archmage beside her, blowing on the embers.
And laughing at the two of them, covered in soot, was a little girl—Hae-eun Seo.
An unconscious smile formed on Shin-woo’s lips as he watched them.
“Mister Iron Knight.”
The voice came from his side again.
He turned to see the Savior—Seong-ah Yu—standing on a hill of rubble.
The Saint of Light who had led them to victory in the war.
Shin-woo approached her, a playful smile on his face.
He asked, “What is it, our dear Savior? Craving something special for dinner?”
Seong-ah fidgeted, her eyes darting about before she began cautiously, “Well, I figured… you were the only one I could talk to about this, Commander…”
“Oho, is this about matters of the heart?”
“No, it’s not like that…!” Blushing, Seong-ah swallowed hard.
Her next words were completely unexpected.
“What if… just what if all this fighting… meant nothing?”
“…What?”
As Shin-woo stared in shock, Seong-ah’s words tumbled out.
“What if, in the near future, the monsters we barely defeated come back, and the people who united fall apart and fight each other?”
“…”
“What if… no matter how hard we struggle, we’re doomed to fail in the end?”
Looking up at him with trembling eyes, the girl who had already saved the world once asked her question.
“What are we supposed to do then?”
***
December 11, 2050, 6:00 AM.
Central control room, Cheongnyangni Gate.
WEE-OOO! WEE-OOO! WEE-OOO!
An emergency siren blared, bathing the control room in crimson light.
Shin-woo was violently jolted from the thirty-year-old memory.
He shot out of his seat, the blanket that had been covering him falling to the floor.
“What’s going on?!”
“S-Sir!” one of his men monitoring the Gate’s readings cried out, his voice trembling.
A familiar sense of dread washed over Shin-woo as he shouted back, “What is it?!”
“The Gate’s spatial distortion values are…!”
“Is the Gate opening again?”
“Y-yes, but… these numbers… I’ve never seen anything like this.”
His subordinate’s next words made Shin-woo’s face go pale.
“These are numbers we haven’t seen in thirty years… They’re completely unprecedented!”
Shin-woo whipped his head toward the Gate Room.
Crrrack… crrrraaaack…
Emanating an ominous violet light, the Gate was slowly cracking open.