Ambush

"What, you lost contact with the North Korean delegation?"

In the presidential office, President Ahn Dong-gil tilted his head at the news that his New Year's mission to North Korea had been cut off.

"Isn't it just a communication blockage? It's not like their hotline is reliable."

Even after China was torn apart, and an unreliable North Korea gave up its nukes and quieted down, the decrepit infrastructure remained.

Even now, cell towers are often blown up in bad weather, knocking out communications, and there aren't many hotlines between the two Koreas to begin with.

Even for the South Korean government, which aims for a gradual collapse and reunification of the country, the problem is difficult to solve.

North Korea's refusal to accept help outside of the hunters is a sign that it is trying to extend its power in any way it can.

The less we hear about the South Korean traitorous cabal in the paradise that is ours, the better.

"Is there anything unsavory going on in North Korea?"

"Yes, all of North Korea is being monitored by U.S. military satellites, so there is no movement."

"Then there's no problem?"

President Ahn shrugged off the aides' answer.

"But what about TTG Temple? When is he coming back? He's leaving today, right?"

"Yes, he left tonight from Dulles Washington Airport. He's being escorted by U.S. Air Force planes, and ours will take over."

The aide added one more thing.

"The Japanese government has offered a joint escort, what do you say?"

"Grrr—their intentions are obvious."

Leon's official schedule for the new year was to be with President Ahn Dong-gil. With governments and businesses around the world clamoring to get in touch with Leon after the announcement of Dragonia, the God of Gold and Contracts, President Ahn Dong-gil is a man on a mission.

He would be the first to contact the leader of the Ten Thousand Gods Temple and discuss the Dragonia Contract, a financial revolution.

'I'll even get a commission for the relay, hehehe——'

TTG Temple doesn't officially pay taxes, but it does pay the South Korean government by packaging its expenses accordingly.

And since TTG Temple is based in South Korea, contracts signed around the world and the 1% commission are bound to go through South Korea.

In fact, a huge amount of goods will pass through Korea, so they will be able to take advantage of that alone.

"That's what the Japanese are after, isn't it?"

"Yes, they're probably confident that they'll be the first to see it after Korea, and they're hoping to at least invite a cadre of TTG Temple officials for the New Year's official business."

"Queen Beatrice and Lord Yakt Spinner are effectively the Lionheart's agents, so I'm sure they'd be happy to invite either of them."

Japan is not alone. Countries from neighboring Russia and Taiwan to Europe were eager to make contact with the TTG Temple

Right now, the influx of strangely high-profile ministers to the New Year's official presidential protocol event was a clear indication of their intentions.

"Heh, heh, heh——"

President Ahn Dong-gil felt his status rise with the influx of visitors from around the world.

When Oh Kang-hyuk, the president of the association, went all-in on TTG Temple, he thought he was crazy, but now he realized it was the foresight of an old man.

'My prestige is rising, my stats are stacking up, and I'm very stable!'

Once Leon and TTG Temple arrive, we'll roll out the red carpet and prepare for the welcome party, hold a banquet, and meet with the newest survivor, Grand Duchess Karina.

Most importantly, I'll need to figure out how to handle the Dragonia contract.

As long as he does the basics, the Korean economy will be at an all-time high in the new year, so what could be easier?

"Tell Secretary Kim at the Ministry of Defense to make sure the ceremonial squadrons are trained, and that any ministers who show up at the welcome ceremony acting like it's a family reunion will be fired by me!"

"Yes, yes—!"

But the next day, President Ahn Dong-gil is faced with the crisis of a lifetime.

* * * *

The work of the demilitarized zone, which cuts the Korean Peninsula in half and divides the people, has been similar for 80 years.

Both sides have soldiers patrolling the demilitarized zone.

There used to be a lot of incidents of cross-border fire, shipboard mines, and cross-border incidents, but they all but disappeared when North Korea began to rely on South Korea's Hunter contingent.

At best, North Korea fired a few shells into the sea off Yeonpyeong Island. Even then, North Korea had toe the line, much to the chagrin of the South Korean government.

"Hooah!"

At a GOP guard post near the demilitarized zone, Sergeant Kim, who is about to be discharged from the army after one year and 10 months of service, gazed up at the clear starry sky.

"You're about to be discharged, but you're swearing."

"Hmph, tomorrow, I'll take all my vacation time and end this tedious military life. Park Il-hoon~ you stay and I go~"

"Ahhhh—!"

Although peace with North Korea is said to have been in place for a long time, the South Korean army still hasn't relaxed its vigilance against the North Korean army.

After all, it was the righteousness of the ROK army's existence, and whenever they got bored, they would launch a few missiles.

Surprisingly, however, the GOP along the truce line remained calm, as North Korea's main provocations were limited to non-combatant surface shelling of the coastline.

There used to be a lot of talk about wooden ships and mines, but the North Korean military was wary of the South Korean government and avoided provocations that would cause casualties.

If all goes well, the military life with elk and boars will come to an uneventful end.

-Grrrrrrr—!

They believed it, until a strange noise rang out in the silence of the truce line.

"No, someone is cultivating the plants in the middle of the night…"

"You crazy guy, someone is driving a cultivator in this place!"

At Sergeant Kim's harsh rebuke, Corporal Park turned his gaze toward the source of the noise and saw——

"Ha— fuck."

-Whoosh!!!

Dozens of aircrafts were flying toward their ceasefire line.

As the two privates watched North Korean transport planes approaching from nowhere in the wee hours of the morning, they were reminded of a fighter pilot who defected from North Korea 50 years ago while leading a MiG plane.

* * * *

The North Korean pilots were guided to Suwon Air Base by a squadron of South Korean fighter jets scrambled to the scene.

Dozens of planes made soft landings at Suwon's combat airfield, with one MiG with an aging landing gear crashing to the ground, but no one was killed and the pilots were safely handed over to the NIS.

"So, Mr. Lee Sang-hyuk came here with the intention of defecting? Is everyone thinking the same thing?"

"That's right! I've come down here with my comrades from the Nara Air Force, please believe me!"

"Ah, yes—"

North Koreans defecting from North Korea is nothing new, but this was the first time in the 80-year history of the Korean Peninsula that a group of North Koreans had descended on an airplane.

NIS investigators wanted to be thorough and cross-examine each of the 40 North Korean pilots separately.

If there was a lie, someone would find a loophole but they found too many loopholes.

"I mean, from the Fifth Army, from Park Jin-sang, from-"

"You just said it was Liu Kyung-soo's division. No, are you already changing what you said a few minutes ago?"

"That, that's not—!"

"My house is not far from Pyongyang, so— No, is Abadi from Wonsan? No, that— Kaesong? No, it's not——."

"I've come down with a special order. I'm here on a special mission to deliver a very important message to our comrades in the DPRK, a very important message to deliver to our comrades in the DPRK."

"——Lee Jinsu?"

It's 1 p.m. on the 28th, three hours after the mass arrival of North Korean fighter pilots.

All 40 defected pilots stood still like a broken clock, at exactly the same time.

The halt was bizarre to the NIS agents watching through the magic mirror.

"What, what's going on? What happened?"

"Tell them to get out of there, something's wrong!"

The bombs planted on the 'traitors' were activated without any orders from the officers who instinctively sensed the 'danger'.

"Ah, I knew it──"

The pilot's eyeballs popped out of his head in despair.

-Wheeing! Weeeeeee!!

"Shoutout to all agents in the facility! Demon outbreak inside! Monster outbreak! Awakened suppression force, move quickly!"

December 28, 2032, 1:00 PM.

A monster outbreak at the National Intelligence Center in Naegok-dong. Contamination sources are expanding.

* * * *

"Fuck fuck fuck!!"

The presidency is supposed to be a place of dignity. If reporters found out he was swearing in a government building, let alone in his office, the pro-opposition press would have a field day.

The only saving grace is that this is a military facility, the Yongsan Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Aside from that, aides don't think there's a senior South Korean official who doesn't want to call names right now.

There was a sudden large-scale arrival of North Korean planes in the middle of the night.

They don't know the details, but it doesn't seem to have caused any real damage, and the Defense Ministry is calling it the largest defection of KPA troops since the Korean War.

But——

"You're sure there's a monster in the investigation room?"

"Yes, it was reported directly by the second-in-command of the National Intelligence Service. A unit of Awakeners directly under the NIS is currently suppressing it."

"That's not enough, call in the neighboring hunter guilds! We can't just push armored troops into downtown Seoul!"

President Ahn Dong-gil immediately declared a state of war, and the president followed wartime protocol and traveled to the underground bunker at the Joint Chiefs of Staff headquarters.

There, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and other generals were already present, and they jumped to their feet at Ahn's entrance.

"Welcome, Mr. President!"

The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff greeted President Ahn with a rare wave of his hand and took a seat at the head table. It's the first time President Ahn has been here since Black Gate broke out in the center of Seoul more than a year ago.

"I've heard a bit about it, but give me a quick rundown."

"Yes. Twenty-seven minutes ago, all of the North Korean pilots were killed."

"At the same time, there are reports of an unidentified monster inside. I wonder if it was aimed at terrorism from within."

"——"

Something is amiss.

A large convoy of North Korean planes disguised as homing missiles, and the pilots blow themselves up en masse?

Of course, a launch of this magnitude in Daenam-do would have been the largest in the 80-year history of the truce. In terms of scale, it far exceeded the Panmunjom axe incident or the shelling of Yeonpyeong Island.

However, the scale of the attack was ambiguous.

If a few dozen suicide bombers neutralized the NIS building, that was damage.

Of course, with monsters on the loose, it's not something to take lightly, but there were more than 10,000 hunters in Seoul.

"Do you have a hotline to the North Koreans right now?"

"Not since the delegation was cut off."

The timing was coincidental again and Ahn was starting to get confused.

"Are these assholes begging for food?"

"Yes, but this provocation is not on the scale of——"

"No, but it's not even a declaration of war. It could be an act of terrorism by an internal hardliner."

An ambiguous event that was too large to be a continuation of the Daenam-do outbreak, which had been uninterrupted for the past 20 years, and too small to be a declaration of war.

"For now, we'll have to issue a– Defcon 3, right?"

This is the equivalent of the Panmunjom incident, a state of war that hasn't been issued since the Korean War. However, the situation is too dire to issue a lower level.

Defcon 3 or Defcon 2. Just as President Ahn is about to break down in anguish──

"Your Excellency, this is an urgent call from the Korean People's Army! An unidentified submarine has shot down Air Force 2!"

"——?"

Air Force Two.

In other words, one of the South Korean government's high-level charter planes. It was the same charter plane that had recently flown TTG Temple members out of Washington Airport in the United States.

"Ma, where is the TTG Temple?"

"It's——"

At the assistant's hesitant response, President Ahn recoils in horror. Just as he was about to say no──

-Thud!

An unearthly explosion echoed above the underground bunker of the Yongsan Joint Chiefs of Staff.

-Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Emergency sounds echoed throughout the building. At the same time, the communicators were relaying urgent information in a white-hot voice.

"Yi, a monster landing has been confirmed in Incheon Harbor!"

"Large-scale monster wave near the truce line! Over 100,000 in size! Radar picked it up too late!"

"A mysterious bombing has occurred inside Seoul! There are reports that citizens— citizens have been monsterized!"

"A similar explosion has occurred in Naju City! A large army of monsters is said to be marching towards the TTG Temple!"

So many waves of information came at him suddenly and it was a flood of bad news, as if some event had triggered it but it wasn't just an outside disturbance.

"An unidentified force has stormed the Capitol, and they're human, not monsters!"

As if on cue, an army of humans stormed the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

The implications were obvious aside from the how and why.

A raid on the building where the president and military chiefs gathered at this time of year could only mean one thing.

War.