The Returner - Chapter 446

“All personnel have entered the training area without any issues, sir.”

 

“Mm…” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

Song Jeong-Su received that report and his expression hardened.

 

‘It’s finally begun.’ (Song Jeong-Su)

 

It all felt so much more real now.

 

Humanity had basically betted everything of theirs on those inside the dome.

 

‘Hope, is it.’ (Song Jeong-Su)

 

Song Jeong-Su could only chuckle softly.

 

What a futile, vain hope this was.

 

The whole world was clamouring to join in the activity that originally began as a desperate last-ditch effort to grasp at the straws. Governments with some amount of leeway were throwing tantrums or begging incessantly to have the ability users from their respective nations included in the training program.

 

Japan ended up being excluded in the planning stages but her government was still requesting to be included through the official diplomatic channels even now. Although the Korean side hung up the phone on them while saying, “Ask the Americans!”

 

“It’ll work out, yes?” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

Yun Yeong-Min asked, but Song Jeong-Su could only sigh.

 

“No one knows that, sir. All we can do now is place our faith in them.” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

“Mm…” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

It wasn’t as if Yun Yeong-Min didn’t know that. What he wanted to hear was some kind of consolation, some words of comfort. However, Song Jeong-Su wouldn’t be the right person to ask for such things.

 

“And now, it’s up to us.” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

“Indeed.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

Yun Yeong-Min nodded with a hardened expression.

 

‘Who’d have known that their absence would feel this large?’ (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

All those inside the dome with Yi Ji-Hyuk as their lead shouldn’t be able to come outside for a while. If they failed, then the complete annihilation of the human race was a certainty. It couldn’t be helped either if the world was destroyed while they were getting stronger, too.

 

The current case was basically them betting on some blind luck in a losing gamble. If it worked, it’d be the literal jackpot, but it wouldn’t matter if they lost a bit quicker than expected.

 

They shouldn’t expect any help from Yi Ji-Hyuk and the NDF, so if something happened within the Korean peninsula, they needed to solve it themselves.

 

Yun Yeong-Min was reminded of that stark fact and came to realise how large the absence of Yi Ji-Hyuk & Co was. Also, how much easier his presidency had been all thanks to their hard work until now.

 

‘I would have preferred to be not reminded of such things.’ (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

Just as Yun Yeong-Min sighed helplessly, the intercom noisily beeped at him.

 

“What happened?” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

He answered the call and a swift reply came his way.

 

– “Sir, a call from the Americans. Christopher McLaren is requesting to speak to you.”

 

“Connect him through.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

Shortly afterwards, the call got connected.

 

– “First of all, I’d like to express my regret in getting in touch with you in this manner.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

“Not at all. I’ll always welcome your call. Alright, then. What can I do for you?” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

– “It seems that I’m the bearer of bad news today.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

“Bad news, is it?” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

– “Yes, Mister President. It’s truly bad news.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

Yun Yeong-Min spat out a lengthy groan.

 

If Christopher McLaren was willing to say it’s bad, then it should be a really bad one. The American had this dignified side to him so he’d not raise a fuss over something minor.

 

“I haven’t heard anything yet but it feels like my heart is ready to stop beating, Mister McLaren. Alright, so what happened? If I wait for any longer, I might really suffer from a heart attack so please be direct.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

– “The rate of the demon kings advancing forward has gotten faster.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

“…Mm, well. I don’t think calling that bad news doesn’t even adequately cover it.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

Song Jeong-Su hurriedly took over from Yun Yeong-Min.

 

“Just how much faster are we talking about?!” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

– “Over three times.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

“Son of a b*tch.” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

Song Jeong-Su spat out a groan and leaned against the couch.

 

“Surely, there can’t be anything worse than that.” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

– “Regrettably, I’m afraid there is.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

“Please hurry up with it, then! This is no time to build up anticipation for an amazing reaction, now is it!” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

– “Gates have begun reappearing.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

“What was that?!” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

Song Jeong-Su’s eyes shook powerfully.

 

What was he even saying? Gates were what?

 

“But, we haven’t received any reports regarding that?” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

– “Gates are spreading first from Africa. And some have already opened near Europe as we speak.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

“Just how much worse will things get…” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

Song Jeong-Su buried his face between his knees.

 

If God really existed, then he must be a truly wicked villain. If that’s not it, then maybe he had a horrible hobby of watching and enjoying the sights of humans falling to despair.

 

Seriously now, getting annihilated in one go would be far more preferable than this torture. He felt like he’d lose his sanity first before he died while watching humanity gradually being suffocated to death like this.

 

“However, I can’t give up yet and that’s another problem in itself. Hah, hahaha…” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

Song Jeong-Su pulled out a cigarette and mouthed it.

 

“…Ah, may I?” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

“Go ahead, please. Let’s do something like that on our own discretion without asking for permission. This is no time to sweat over the president’s authority or whatever.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

“I know that now is the time to say something that respects the presidential authority, but as I don’t have much energy to do so at the moment, I’ll just smoke this cigarette.” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

Song Jeong-Su lit the cigarette up and roughly spat out the bluish smoke.

 

“…First thing first. We must inform the KSF.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

– “Mister President.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

“Please speak.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

– “With China in literal pieces right now, the sole remaining representative of Asia is South Korea. Japan has lost her influence a long time ago, and even Southeast Asia is in the midst of breaking apart as well. Meaning, Korea must step up to the plate now.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

“Can’t China recover at all?” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

– “Their leadership structure has been completely obliterated. The after-effects of Beijing’s destruction is much worse than we anticipated. The surviving executives of the Communist Party are doing their best to restore some semblance of order, but it’s still a chaotic free-for-all at the moment.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

“Mm… Your response is?” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

– “We are aiming for a reconstruction through Taiwan, but as it turns out, the mainland Chinese hate the Taiwanese guts more than they hate the Japanese. We thought it’d work out since they split from the same country, but well.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

“You managed to hold on to your position with such a level of discernment?” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

Even if the Blue House blew up and caused the deaths of the sitting president as well as the members of the ruling party, the populace still wouldn’t entrust the North Korean regime to take over the governance. And that’s basically what the Americans were attempting to do here.

 

– “Whether it’s the Taiwanese government or the surviving Communists, we need to support someone to sufficiently resolve the crisis, but as we need to focus all of our attention internally, I’m afraid resolving this matter will be rather difficult.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

“I understand what you’re trying to say.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

– “I see. Well, then.” (Christopher McLaren)

 

After the sound of the call getting disconnected came through the speaker, Song Jeong-Su began to audibly tut.

 

‘America is also on the decline.’ (Song Jeong-Su)

 

If an event of this nature happened at a time where the demon kings hadn’t shown up yet, then America as well as every other surrounding country would’ve done their absolute hardest to butt in. They would’ve come up with all sorts of excuses and pretexts to divide and rule China.

 

But doing that was impossible right now.

 

Rather than salivating over potential benefits from a distant land, the uncertainty of the immediate survival took priority. America, for instance, had already recalled all of their armed forces stationed throughout the world in order to prepare for the eventual showdown with the demon king.

 

If they failed to defeat the demons, then it’d really be the end of the world.

 

“For now, we don’t have a choice but to defend to our best abilities and pray that Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk finishes their preparation as soon as possible.” (Song Jeong-Su)

 

“Mm, that’s true.” (Yun Yeong-Min)

 

Song Jeong-Su let out a grave-sounding groan and stared outside the windows.

 

‘Please hurry up, fella.’ (Song Jeong-Su)

 

***

 

“Keuh-eeeeeeu…” (Michael)

 

Michael was crawling on the floor.

 

Dust continuously got sucked in and out of his wheezing mouth, but he just didn’t have the mental or physical leeway to mind all that grating particles mixed his spittle right now.

 

All of his attention was focused on the foreign energy sources circulating inside his body.

 

How should he go about describing this sensation? Should he say, it feels like two snakes, one made out fire while the other ice, were wiggling and coiling all over his innards?

 

This sensation, and the horrifying pain that defied any attempt to describe it in mere words, ensured that he couldn’t even lift a single finger at the moment.

 

Cough!

 

Eventually the energies circulating inside his body calmed down. Michael coughed out some phlegm of blood and laboriously pushed himself off the ground with both of his shaking arms.

 

He raised his head only to discover the mug of Yi Ji-Hyuk, currently sitting on a beach chair and nodding his head.

 

‘God d*mn it.’ (Michael)

 

Michael was confident of overcoming any harsh training.

 

Because, he found his pain to be nothing to cry about after comparing it to the suffering of his fellow countrymen. He planned to follow the order even if it said not to sleep for a month, and he thought he was prepared mentally to endure and swallow whatever insults came his way.

 

However, Yi Ji-Hyuk’s method simply crushed all of his determination.

 

Michael thought that in order to master this thing called Mana, one at least had to be able to ‘move’ something. Proactively, to boot.

 

But all he did after entering this dome was…

 

“You still can’t sense it?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

 

Yi Ji-Hyuk tutted loudly, then raised his hand up. At the same time, a cloud of Mana emitting brilliant light began forming above Michael’s head.

 

The German ability user dazedly stared up at that cloud.

 

“Heeeeiiik?!”

 

“No, noooo!!!!”

 

Screams began exploding from all around Michael. His fellow ability users, all collapsed to the ground with nary a hint of energy left to even lift a finger, witnessed the cloud of Mana and were trying to stagger back up to their feet.

 

Well, they wanted to escape from here, that’s why.

 

Unfortunately, Yi Ji-Hyuk didn’t seem all that interested in their desires at the moment.

 

He simply drew his finger downward, and the cloud above their heads began descending on them.

 

“Keu-heup!” (Michael)

 

Michael clenched his teeth hard.

 

His back tooth must’ve been broken already because he thought the teeth back there weren’t closing properly somehow.

 

He wasn’t trying to endure while gritting his teeth here; if he didn’t do that, he might bite his tongue off while thrashing about in this horrendous pain.

 

Just as he clenched his teeth, the Mana cloud blanketed Michael and the others.

 

“Kkeuh-eeeeeeeuh…” (Michael)

 

The sensation of Mana digging into his entire body could be felt far too clearly. At the same time, his body began expanding like a balloon. This disparate energy infiltrated his flesh and began circulating in his veins once more. It felt like all of his tightly-ballooning blood vessels were about to explode.

 

“I’m not asking you to endure the pain! Feel it! Feel what’s inside your bodies!” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

 

Talking is cheap, you son of a b*tch! (Michael’s inner monologue)

 

If only he could, Michael oh-so wanted to rush towards that brazen b*stard and tear his tongue out right now.

 

Too bad, that was impossible for him right now. He couldn’t even take a single step forward, after all.

 

His knees eventually gave in. His face was falling towards the dirt floor again, yet his arms didn’t even react. Michael literally kissed the ground and while thrashing about in pain, he groaned and grunted helplessly.

 

The pain wrecking his innards were so immense that despite his face being the first thing to hit the ground from the standing position, he didn’t register any pain from the impact.

 

Such minor pain might as well didn’t even exist right now. The pain felt from all corners of his innards was far greater, after all.

 

‘How long… how long am I supposed to do this?’ (Michael)

 

For how long?!

 

The cycle of getting hit by the Mana cloud and thrashing about on the floor repeated itself seemingly for the whole day. If this continued, then forget about sensing this Mana or whatever, they would kick the bucket first.

 

Yi Ji-Hyuk inwardly clicked his tongue while watching all these people rolling around on the ground.

 

‘Yeah, it’s difficult, alright.’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

 

Just like how it wouldn’t be all that hard to guide a land dweller to an ocean and say, “See? This is an ocean”, all these people here understood what Mana was and what kind of an existence it was, too.

 

But then, what if you told the same land dweller that, now they understood what an ocean was, they needed to go underwater and live like a fish?

 

That was basically what these people were doing right now.

 

…Pouring sea water non-stop in their mouths and nostrils until they developed gills.

 

This method sure was a barbaric and stupid way to go about it, but well, one might be allowed to claim that the sole consolation of this method was that you didn’t need several generations for the evolution to occur.

 

Without a doubt, some folks here should succeed in enduring against this pain and managing to grab hold of the tail of the illusive beast called Mana.

 

‘They need to sense it with their own bodies.’ (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

 

Explaining verbally ad nauseam was pointless.

 

Would someone with no knowledge of fire understand what fire was just because you verbally explained it?

 

If the person was oblivious to the effects of fire but wished to learn more, then the fastest method would be to shove their hand inside the flames.

 

Although there would be some ‘losses’, the resulting effect would be crystal clear.

 

Unsurprisingly, Yi Ji-Hyuk was someone who chased after the absolute effectiveness while willing to risk the adverse side effects, and as a result, it was the poor ability users bearing the cost of his actions by almost half-dying right now.

 

“At least they do have some determination, I’ll give them that much. Wouldn’t you agree?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

 

Yi Ji-Hyuk shifted his gaze over to a ‘lump of meat’ wiggling in front of him and smirked deeply.

 

“Hey, Alpha?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

 

The lump wiggled once more after being called Alpha.

 

< 446. Is their relationship good or bad -1 > Fin.