Chapter 251: Who is at the Lead (1)

Around a month ago,

1st of October. 2:05 pm.

The Second Night had come.

A 2.5 metre humanoid monster walked out of the fissure. With a black body covered with thorns, it was a frightening monster having the strength rivalling that of a single digit ranker.

The monster happened to be armed with countless abilities suited for massacre. It shot out approximately 500 black blades and only aimed at the weak organisms to effectively destroy their necks and hearts.

The Association's initial response to the incident was remarkable.

'One' had killed the monster in just 27 seconds.

Immediately after that, the body of the monster let out a large thud and exploded with a burst of flames.

That was when the monster's ability and the identity of the 'augmentation' that Vintage Clock had warned of was revealed. [Seven Hearts]. It was most probably a blessing that had disappeared in the ancient past of a different dimension. The owner had seven lives and the heart exploded with every death.

With each decreasing life, the monster's body exploded like a bomb. The explosion would cover the entire area as the scattering fragments and ashes would come together in the distance and form a new life.

Season (Yu Jitae) quickly saw through that and alerted the command centre of the Association of its traits and abilities. There were 7 explosions as a result and a few towns in Mongolia were caught up in the explosion and turned to ashes.

However, thanks to Yu Jitae's quick realisation, the Association's rapid judgement and the wise response of the well-trained soldiers of the Association, there were only few casualties from the incident.

That seemed to be the end of the incident.

It was 11:17 pm.

But after exactly 5 minutes, at 11:22 pm, the embassy of the United States inside Mongolia was caught in an explosion.

17 staff and related personnel died from the incident, with 107 casualties. And the deputy president of the United States, Rick Vanderbilt, just happened to have visited the embassy at the time to congratulate soldiers of the Association.

The deputy president died from the explosion and the only source of consolation was that they somehow managed to find his body.

He was a well-respected politician and the world with the United States in the centre was shocked. Several extreme anti-Association news broadcasts referred to the incident as the '8th explosion' as people began flooding the Association with buckets of criticism.

*

The roads were in tatters.

The remains of the crumbled buildings rode the wind and scattered as dust. It was hard to find any place that was normal after a war. Every sign of nature was burnt to ashes while man-made structures were left behind as hideous remains.

Yu Jitae placed a foot on that place.

"Hello. Season!"

From the other side of the remains, a woman approached him with a wave of her hand. She was Kang Ahjin, one of the agents belonging to the 5th Command Room.

"Heard everything's going great for you."

"It seems it's true that news travels very fast. Have you heard it already, Chief Advisor?"

"Everyone's talking about you so who wouldn't know."

"I think it's natural to do better with more hard work."

"Confident, aren't you."

"Was that too arrogant? It's all thanks to you, Chief, of course!"

Kang Ahjin heartily laughed out loud.

The '8th explosion' of the embassy during the Second Night – Kang Ahjin visited the scene with Jefferson and was the first one to propose that the explosion wasn't due to a monster's ability with evidence to back off her claim.

Later, Zhuge Haiyan of the strategy council verified Kang Ahjin's claim and the Association was able to escape the false accusation.

Why did you think it wasn't due to a monster's ability?

Yu Jitae had asked her back then.

– It is all because I have great respect for you, Chief Advisor.

And that was Kang Ahjin's reply. She was saying that she had fully trusted in the sudden words of him, the prophet, but was in fact just her currying favour.

"Do you still think that?" he asked.

"About what?"

"That you discovered it out of your respect for me."

"I still do. But honestly, I think I just got lucky. It was fortunate that I came across a fragment of the bomb."

"I see you're more honest now after a raise."

"Well. Some people are just born lucky right? It must have been thanks to my luck that I got to serve you from the side as well, Chief."

In fact, it was a problem Yu Jitae would have solved even if Kang Ahjin hadn't done it herself.

For the Regressor, it was just one less tedious task away from his hands but it was a hard-won accomplishment for Kang Ahjin, a 3rd grade agent of the 5th Command Room, and the Association gave her ample rewards.

She had a special promotion going up by 2 grades. Now, she was in charge of completing the prophet's tasks alongside Antonio Jefferson.

Officially she was now a 1st grade agent.

Her work was still the same and she still helped Yu Jitae and One, but her authority had increased by severalfold.

"Good morning Chief!"

"Good morning Chief!"

When Yu Jitae entered the temporary conference building of Mongolia, soldiers of the Association saluted him. Sitting down on the highest seat, he went straight to the topic and asked for the conclusion they drew.

"So. Who's the disrupter."

His habit of going straight to the topic bewildered some of the soldiers but one of the assistants, who had already gotten used to it, quickly opened his mouth.

"It's the terrorist group, 'Quasar'."

They were the ones that had planted a bomb inside the embassy.

*

In the past, before the New Era.

There were terrorist groups formed by Islam extremists, namely 'Taliban' and 'Boko Haram'. Ones that murdered and committed crimes under their god's name.

Going through the New Era, a portion of them came to a surprising and renewed enlightenment. It was the thought that 'Aren't we humans, in fact the same as gods?'

Because unlike the past, where everyone had to lead lives on almost equal grounds, some humans managed to obtain all sorts of powers that exceeded other humans. They were then called superhumans.

Immediately after the New Era, humanity faced various big problems under topics like the following. Can humans and superhumans co-exist? Can humans be considered equal despite the immense difference in ability?

Extreme thoughts led to convictions; differences in convictions led to divided organisations and divided organisations resulted in wars. There were various wars and by the time monsters no longer became a pressing problem, wars between cold weapons and supernatural abilities broke out.

If the current chairman of the Association, Chaliovan, didn't step up and repress the confused world with righteousness, and if he couldn't move the omnipotent sovereign, Witch Valentine, around like his servant, humanity might have been divided into complete disunion.

Regardless, Chaliovan succeeded and the group of terrorists indulged in elitism became the first target of subjugation.

But for some reason, the terrorists revived again and again like cockroaches. In the end, they even held hands with demons but this was something only Yu Jitae knew of in the current era.

They had forgotten their original objective and the sole driving power of their existence became their hatred against the Association.

Besides, they were so insincere with coming up with a name for themselves that they had a different name in each iteration. It seemed that they had decided on the name [Quasar] for the 7th iteration.

Quasar.

A celestial nucleus, huh…

If left alone, they would constantly try to grab at the ankles of humanity and the Association. They were a force that had to be gotten rid of.

"Please let me take care of this again."

"You?"

"Yes. We are aware that Chief Advisor is already busy so we would rather not add any more burdens."

He was indeed so busy whenever he was at the Association that he did not even have the time to sit down so he readily gave her the permission.

"Right. Good luck."

But right after sending Kang Ahjin away, he called Jefferson.

"It's me."

– Yes Chief.

"I need you to help locate and subjugate Quasar. Stop everything you're doing right now for the time being."

– Hmm, I heard that Agent Kang Ahjin was in charge of it. Should I lend her a hand?

"No. You form a separate group of your own. It's not like they only have a few bases. If you need to, use my name whenever."

– Yes.

"Catch all of them and bring them to me."

– Yes sir.

Jefferson did not ask him for the reason. It was the proof of the small trust he had.

It was better to make sure things were more certain because Quasar was a tedious opponent in the first place, plus the fact that the actions of the demons of the 7th iteration were being affected by the Hostility.

And Jefferson. This man was a military genius. In other words, he was the best suited for all types of military tactics out in the field. He was someone he could trust for a task like this.

Before ending the call, Yu Jitae asked.

"Are you still wearing your squid mask these days?"

– Sorry? Ahh, I'm not. I've gotten rid of them all.

"Why did you. You need to keep your rank 1 position."

– Don't people only get distracted when things aren't working out? There is no need for that anymore sir. Besides, I don't even have the time to.

"Not meeting any women either?"

– Not at all. Not a single one.

'Hauh… how far can you take me?'

'My car always runs down the Autobahn.'

Remembering the dirty talk Jefferson had been sharing with a woman, he joked.

"Why not run down the Autobahn."

– Ouh, my gosh. Please forget about that…

Leaving behind the voice of the middle-aged man who was made to reflect on his shameful past, Yu Jitae walked out of the Association.

"Anyways, contact me if there are any problems."

– Yes sir. I will get back to you with good news.

Yu Jitae had no time to rest.

Some time in the near future, something very important was going to happen at Unit 301. He had to increase the time he spent with the kids a bit more.

***

Gyeoul thought to herself.

After going somewhere and playing with Yu Jitae some time ago, the red bastard was less sensitive and became more docile. Perhaps because of that, she no longer returned a serious glare from a joke and it was more enjoyable to tease her.

"…Stoopid, hobo hair?"

She used her hands to shake her own bangs.

"What did you just freaking say?"

Gyeoul would run away with a chuckle whenever Yeorum glared back at her.

That was how she tended to tease her.

However, teasing with the same thing more than 3 times was not fun and there weren't that many things to tease Yeorum with. Gyeoul joked around for a few days but she lost interest after getting smacked a few times on her head.

One day, Yu Jitae and Bom went out in the morning to buy breakfast but they did not come back for a very long time.

"Uuung. Why aren't ahjussi and unni coming back? I'm starving to death…!"

"Hmm…"

It just happened to be Yu Bom x Yu Jitae combo. With a reasonable doubt in mind, Yeorum sent a message.

[Me: Sir]

He replied straight away.

[Yu Bom's Dildo: Ye]

[Me: Are you buying tomorrow's breakfast or something? Where are you.]

[Me: Don't tell me you're doing something strange in broad daylight??]

[Yu Bom's Dildo: No]

[Me: Then why aren't you cominngg -.-]

He soon sent a photo. The line was too long and they had to wait. Inside the picture, Yu Jitae had the usual dull look while Bom had a faint smile.

[Me: Hurry up. I need to go exercise]

[Yu Bom's Dildo: Coming]

[Me: Are you on your way?]

[Yu Bom's Dildo: Soon]

[Yu Bom's Dildo: It's our turn next]

[Me: Kk. Hurry up. Yu Kaeul this pig is dying right now]

"Oi. Look here," Yeorum said.

"Unn?"

"Express your hunger with your face."

Hearing that, Kaeul gave a bizarre expression which made both Yeorum and Gyeoul burst into laughter.

"Ah, that's fu*king funny."

"Hehe."

Yeorum then sent the photo she just took to Yu Jitae.

[Yu Bom's Dildo: ?]

[Yu Bom's Dildo: What is going on]

[Yu Bom's Dildo: What's wrong with her face]

He soon called her. 'Why are you actually surprised?' 'Kyahaha! Ahjussi! Was I really that weird!?' The three of them again laughed out loud from Yu Jitae's reaction.

After hurrying him, Yeorum ended the call.

Like that, the three of them were sitting down on the sofa waiting for the two to come. Unable to control her hunger, Kaeul went to the kitchen looking for something while Gyeoul, sitting on the sofa, looked back and forth between Yeorum and Kaeul. Suddenly, an abrupt and innocent curiosity popped up in her mind.

"…Unni."

"What you brat."

"…Why is your chest smaller than Kaeul-unni's?"

"What?"

Gyeoul pointed at the kitchen, towards the upper body of Kaeul who was wearing a tight t-shirt. She could see a big bulging line that was slightly even burdensome to look at.

That was when she received a strange response.

"How's that a problem? I can make it bigger anytime."

"...Uinng?"

A problem?

Gyeoul realised something odd behind her words.

She was simply curious why one was big and one was small and the difference that caused it. Her unnis did not fine-tune their bodies with polymorphs and their current appearances were like their default versions formed naturally. Gyeoul's question was because she was curious what her own future self would look like.

However, Yeorum's response was a little bit aggressive, as if there was the assumption that Kaeul was better than her.

Gyeoul also did not miss Yeorum's discontent gaze staying on Kaeul for three seconds or so.

She thought to herself. Does this red bastard feel competitive against Kaeul-unni or something?

She could remember the two of them being like that quite recently. They originally weren't like this but it was perhaps after they both started learning how to fight that it had begun.

Thus, Gyeoul decided to ask her.

"…Unni."

"What now, brat."

"…Between unni, and Kaeul-unni. Who's stronger?"

Yeorum's eyes twitched.