The Returner

Chapter 420: Been a while (5)

“So that’s why you are doing this?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Yes.” (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Yi Ji-Hyuk found himself dragged to the demolition site by Choi Jeong-Hoon. After taking a good look at the NDF agents who had morphed into construction workers, he began cackling loudly.

“Why does it look like you guys finally found your calling?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Hearing that, Yun Hyuk-Gyu’s face contorted in displeasure.

“This is harder than it looks, you know.” (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

“Ng, I know.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Why don’t you work, too? You get paid a monthly salary like us, right?” (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

“What can I do about that when they keep paying me even though I said I don’t want it? Come on now, I only wish to live like a regular dude, yet they keep involving me in this stuff so what can I do?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Just who brought this guy here?!” (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Yi Ji-Hyuk was currently sitting in the passenger seat of Choi Jeong-Hoon’s car, leisurely sipping on the Coke can with a straw.

For Yun Hyuk-Gyu in the middle of performing hard labour while caked in all the choking dust, that sight was probably the most detestable one he could think of right now.

“Vice director-nim brought him here. Did you forget already?” (Kim Dah-Hyun)

The window on the rear door rolled down and Kim Dah-Hyun’s head poked out from the opening.

“And why the heck are you in there?” (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Kim Dah-Hyun smiled sheepishly.

“No, well, it’s not like I’m much of a help in this situation, and I didn’t have much to do anyway, so... I mean, someone like me would only be a hindrance to you all when we’re in a demolition site full of explosions going off all the time, right?” (Kim Dah-Hyun)

“Get the hell out of there if you don’t want to hold your funeral today.” (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

“...Roger that.” (Kim Dah-Hyun)

Kim Dah-Hyun didn’t say anything else and exited from Choi Jeong-Hoon’s car. If he insisted on staying inside for a bit longer, then Yun Hyuk-Gyu might have blown him away along with the car itself. If that really happened, then never mind Kim Dah-Hyun, it’d be Choi Jeong-Hoon having a heart attack.

“Hey, what are you guys doing over there?” (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young, finishing up her round of inspection just then, discovered these three men busy exchanging banters and frowned deeply.

“If you have time to loiter around, do more work instead! More work, please!” (Seo Ah-Young)

“I’m sorry, director.” (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

“It’s only been a couple of days since we started this operation, yet you’re already lazing around?! I can already imagine just how badly you must’ve lazed around in the sites that I didn’t go to! You should at least try to give it your all after taking such a lengthy break.” (Seo Ah-Young)

“...I’m really sorry, ma’am.” (Yun Hyuk-Gyu)

Yi Ji-Hyuk stared at Seo Ah-Young for a bit, before forming an enlightened expression.

“Wow, so that’s how it was. I thought that folks in directorial jobs start acting like boomers because of their age, but I was wrong. It’s the position that turns people into kkondaes.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“What, did, you, say?!” (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young began gnashing her teeth.

“You’re merely a quartermaster, though.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“You said you’ve never been drafted before, so what the hell?!” (Seo Ah-Young)

“When did I? I’ve been drafted at least fifteen separate times, you know?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Euh...” (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young shuddered in rage after she got pushed back by logic.

Just why did Choi Jeong-Hoon have to bring this utterly hateful guy to the demolition site?

When she told him to do something, Yi Ji-Hyuk replied oh-so glibly that ‘I don’t have powers anymore so what can these two little cute hands do to help anyway’. So she told him to go over there and do some paperwork or some such instead, but then he readily countered with the excuse of ‘I’m pretty slow in the head so I don’t even know half of these words’.

Yi Ji-Hyuk was fiercely burning the torch of “I’ll never even lift a finger even if I die” and waste his time goofing around.

“Uh-whew, that b*stard.” (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young continued to grind her teeth but she didn’t go out of her way to bite Yi Ji-Hyuk’s head off.

She knew full well how much torture he had to go through until now, and the price he had to pay towards the end of it all. Even if people called her a ‘witch’, she didn’t want to demand anything else from Yi Ji-Hyuk, at least not right now.

Honestly speaking, she wanted him to rest for even longer if possible.

...As long as he was out of her sight, that was.

If he stayed out of sight and took that much-deserved break then she’d be far, far more understanding of his plight. But seeing him sitting inside the car and sipping Cola nonchalantly in the middle of an operation site like this was driving her up the proverbial wall here.

Just! Go! Over! There! In a corner somewhere! Somewhere not here!

Why did Mister Choi Jeong-Hoon park his car over here, anyway?! (Seo Ah-Young’s inner monologue)

“Aaaaaahk!!” (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young suddenly yelled out at the heavens above, then spun on her heels to leave, an utterly fed-up expression etched on her face.

“Tsk, tsk.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk tutted as he watched her departing back.

“She better get hitched soon.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Before her spinster hysteria went even further out of control, that was.

Not too long after that, Choi Jeong-Hoon returned and climbed into the driver’s seat.

“Have you been enjoying your break?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Well, it’s okay-ish in its own right, but I still can’t figure out why I need to be here.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Being out of sight usually leads to alienation in one’s heart, you see. Besides, we’re all one family, aren’t we? We should at least see other people’s faces as often as possible, wouldn’t you say?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Oh, it’s not because you were jealous of me staying at home playing games while still drawing salary?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“...Maybe a little.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Choi Jeong-Hoon grinned wryly.

There were a couple of reasons why he decided to bring Yi Ji-Hyuk to this place. Even if the latter couldn’t use his abilities anymore, he was still an agent of the NDF so it was only right that he worked like everyone else. And for sure, Choi Jeong-Hoon did feel rather deeply annoyed that Yi Ji-Hyuk was playing games at home and taking it easy.

Of course, the biggest reason was...

‘If it’s here, they won’t try anything too rash.’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

...Not knowing how Christopher McLaren would act next.

Also, it was hard to tell what Song Jeong-Su and Yun Yeong-Min would choose to do if the situation continued to head down in this direction.

If a situation called for some crafty manoeuvring, these folks called politicians would become even more crafty than a venomous snake. It was practically impossible to judge such people on the foundation of friendship and the weight of all the relationships built up until now.

Although a corner of Choi Jeong-Hoon’s heart kept saying, ‘No, they wouldn’t do that’, it’d not be such a bad idea to prepare for all contingencies, indeed.

No matter how brazen they got, they still wouldn’t invade this particular location filled with the NDF agents and try to kidnap Yi Ji-Hyuk.

‘I need to station people around his residence, too...’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Of course, he hadn’t forgotten that Yi Ji-Hyuk’s house boasted two nonsensically powerful gatekeepers that even the entirety of the NDF wouldn’t win against. However, the real crux of the matter wasn’t about stopping any would-be intruders but ensuring that they didn’t show up in the first place.

If Yi Ji-Hyuk found out that the South Korean government made a deal with their American counterpart and tried to hand him over as a subject in some unsanctioned human experiments, then it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the end result would not be good for everyone involved.

‘Hang on, they wouldn’t try to tail Alpha, right?’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Choi Jeong-Hoon continued to go through all sorts of the ‘Earth annihilation’ scenarios in his mind before roughly shaking his head.

Things surely wouldn’t devolve that far, right?

“You know, I’m bored.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“I’ll buy you a notebook PC.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“No wifi here, so what good would a notebook do for me?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“I’ll also buy the mobile wifi plan for you, then. And I’ll even pay for the subscription fees, as well.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“...Can’t I, like, commute to the office or something?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Of course not.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“But I literally have nothing to do here...” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“You didn’t commute because you had things to do in the office anyway, am I wrong? Just take it as the office location’s been changed temporarily.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“But there’s no computer here!” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“I said, I’ll buy you a notebook!” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Don’t you know that a notebook feels totally different from a regular desktop?! Besides, there’s no place for a mouse so how can I even play my game?!” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“You’re on the clock, so how can you even think about playing computer games?!” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“You said it yourself, didn’t you? I’ve got nothing to do at work, so I might as well play games!” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

You know, at this point he should just get kidnapped already.

It’s probably for the good of this world. Goddammit. (Choi Jeong-Hoon’s inner monologue)

Choi Jeong-Hoon massaged the back of his neck and spat out a groan.

‘No, calm down.’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Yi Ji-Hyuk behaved like this everyday, so there was no reason to get worked up here.

“Urgh...” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Having remembered once more just what kind of a person Yi Ji-Hyuk was, Choi Jeong-Hoon couldn’t stop himself from sighing nonstop over and over again.

Here he was, doing his best to protect Yi Ji-Hyuk, yet the man in question had no clue about that and continued to act like an as*hole. But if he came clean and revealed the truth of “The Americans and our government are targeting you so I’m trying to protect you”, Choi Jeong-Hoon had this premonition that the whole country might end up getting blown up all to hell.

Feeling helpless about this situation, all he could do was to stick yet another cigarette in his mouth.

“What are the demon kings doing now?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Other than the ones already active, no additional demon kings have shown up so far.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“So there are active ones?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“The city of Los Angeles is basically half destroyed while Germany is almost completely wiped off the map at this point.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“...Aigoo, I guess no more Benzes, then.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Well, that’s not a problem since they have factories in other... No, hang on, that’s not important here.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Choi Jeong-Hoon quickly recovered his wits and continued on.

“The biggest issue is that we can’t stop the demon kings. Every conceivable method is being utilised right now but none have successfully stopped a demon king from advancing forward.

“In LA, all of the city’s residents have been evacuated even before the demon king got near the city and in Germany, the chancellor made the correct decision early on and had most of their citizens evacuated to other European nations.

“Various armies and ability users are waging bitter battles in many fronts but when they eventually do succeed in pushing the demonic beasts back, demon kings step up and flip the situation on their heads. Such events are repeating over and over again at the moment.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Mm...” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk nodded his head.

He wasn’t all that surprised since no matter who stepped up, they wouldn’t be able to stop the demon kings.

“What about China?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“That’s the weird part, actually.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Excuse me?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“...Well, isn’t China famous for their ‘human sea attack’ strategy?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Sure.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“But the Chinese government has withdrawn all of their troops and is focusing on evacuating their citizens from the area. It’s like they are planning to completely empty out the whole of Sichuan.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“And why is that weird?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“If we’re talking about another country, that would be the normal response but well, I figured that China would tell its men to shut up and just attack.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Wait, isn’t that more like Russia, instead?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“...Well, they operate in a similar manner, don’t they. Like, treating people’s lives like some worthless garbage or demanding an abnormal level of patriotism towards their nation, that kind of things.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“What the heck. Feels like I’ve heard that from somewhere before. Wait a minute, hey uncle, are you a Commie?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Ehheii! Keep it down or you’ll get people in trouble!” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Choi Jeong-Hoon hurriedly shifted his head this way and that to scan his surroundings. For some reason, he thought he could spot a suspicious-looking Daewoo Matiz driving past in the distance. [1]

He tried quite hard to calm down all the goosebumps gently breaking out on his skin and spoke up.

“In any case, it’s not clear what the Chinese are planning at the moment. We don’t have much information to go on, either.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Mm...” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk tilted his head a little before voicing his opinion.

“You know...” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Yes?” (Choi Jeong)

“I think I figured out why China is acting that way.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Oh?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Choi Jeong-Hoon’s eyes opened wider as he stared at Yi Ji-Hyuk.

This guy, he had this tendency of displaying his intelligence sometimes and impressing everyone around him.

“Okay, what could be their reason?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Isn’t that because they want to blow it all away to smithereens?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Blow it all away? Blow what away?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“You know, Sichuan.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“...”

Choi Jeong-Hoon became utterly stupefied just then.

“Eh?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“The Americans obviously can’t blow LA away with their own hands, and it’d be the same story for Germany too, right? Besides, the fallout would extend to all of the surrounding nations so they would desperately oppose that option, I think.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“...That sounds plausible.” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“But then, China wouldn’t have any qualms about such things, right? If there’s no answer by doing this or that, then... Wouldn’t they just hit the monsters with everything they’ve got while treating it like them giving away a portion of their territory or something? I mean, they aren’t targeting Beijing but Sichuan here, so wouldn’t you say that they might as well go through with the operation?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

...Let’s unpack what he’s saying here.

Okay, so. The Chinese government is trying to do what now? (Choi Jeong-Hoon’s inner monologue)

“Are you suggesting that they will deploy multiple nuclear arsenal in their own territory to wipe out the demon king’s army?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“Doesn’t it sound logical?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“B-b-but, it’s been proven through the Pyongyang incident that the nuclear weapons are useless against the demon kings. Am I wrong?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“That was only one missile, though?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk clicked his tongue.

“You already mentioned this to me. What is China famous for?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“...Human sea attack...” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Or to put it in another way, waging the so-called ‘material war’.

What if they focused all of their nuclear arsenal in Sichuan and bombarded that place?

‘...H-hey, even I’m getting curious about the potential result.’ (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Obviously every nation had already entertained the idea of using their nuclear weapons on the demon king’s army. Unfortunately there were several real-life restrictions from doing that. First of all, there was that precedence of an ICBM being rendered useless after its launch, and it was also really difficult to make that decision to deploy nuclear bombs in your own country.

“Are you saying they are willing to put up with the fallout radiation?!” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

“I mean, even Japan is fine, so...” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Fukushima...” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Which of the two would’ve left a bigger impact in the respective nations – Japan losing Fukushima or China losing Sichuan?

“Wouldn’t they be almost finished getting ready by now?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Uh, uh, mm...” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

Choi Jeong-Hoon’s head reflexively shifted towards the west.

He then quickly yanked out his phone and dialled a number. He quietly waited for the call to go through.

– “What’s going on?”

“Mister Minister, it’s Choi Jeong-Hoon speaking.”

– “I said, what’s going on?”

“...If a huge cache of nuclear arsenal is about to go off in China’s Sichuan, who should I call in order to find out about the potential ripples that could impact us?” (Choi Jeong-Hoon)

– “...What was that?”

The voice coming out from the phone’s speaker became rather grave.

< 420. Been a while -5 > Fin.

(TL: That Daewoo Matiz bit in [1] is a deep-cut Korean in-joke that will take forever to explain. Just know that the Korean netizens use “Matiz” as a slang for a government-sanctioned “suicide”.)

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