KEG 70

“By now, the terrorist must be getting ready to leave the village.”

This was the village they had entered to hide. With the place in such shambles, they must be preparing to make their escape.

There was only one entrance to the village accessible by vehicle.

If I guarded that spot, they would show up.

“What if they don’t take a car?”

This was Taebaek, Gangwon Province, where heavy snowflakes were swirling and the snow was piled up to our waists. Trying to escape on foot up a mountain path would be suicide.

No matter how powerful an Esper they were, they wouldn’t survive this weather.

“They might use a portal.”

I ran through the blizzard toward the church.

If the elder was the terrorist, he would have fled long ago.

“It’s dangerous! Come inside!”

When I reached the church, I heard the elder shouting. He [stolen content]was guiding residents wandering through the snow into the church. Inside, they had turned the heater up to the highest setting and used every available towel and blanket to warm the elderly.

Was this just a clever act, or genuine kindness?

I took a step toward the church.

“Don’t go!”

A shout came from behind me.

“The elder’s ideology is dangerous!”

It was Kang Byungwook.

He was standing on top of a snowplow, gesturing for me to come to him.

“A soldier like you shouldn’t go to someone like that!”

“So is it okay for me to go to you?”

“Trust me! I’m on your side!”

After a moment of hesitation, I made my decision and climbed into the snowplow at Kang Byungwook’s gesture.

Vroom!

As soon as I got inside the snowplow and fastened my seatbelt, Kang Byungwook started the engine.

The loud roar of the engine, the shaking chassis, the intense smell of gasoline.

Everything dragged me, who was suffering from my lacerated wounds, back into a harsh reality.

“Um, but what about your collegue…?”

“I don’t know.”

“Oh no, we have to find him…”

Kang Byungwook’s tone was subtle.

It sounded like he himself had to find Lee Yuksam.

“Anyway, the villagers are all being deceived by that elder. This whole mess is probably all his fault!”

No.

It’s my fault.

My trolling has destroyed the village.

“Did you see the watch and glasses that elder was wearing?”

“No.”

“They’re all designer brands. He sure loves redistributing wealth, that filthy bastard…”

I knew nothing about designer brands.

To me, the glasses were just glasses, and the watch was just a watch. But after seeing Kang Byungwook so worked up, I could tell the elder’s accessories were expensive.

“All of that is totalitarian ideology.”

“Is that a bad thing?”

“It’s dictatorship! Dictatorship!”

Breath puffed out of Kang Byungwook’s grumbling mouth. Maybe it was his emotions, but it looked like steam from a locomotive.

“He pretends to care, but behind the scenes, he was lining his own pockets. Just like the privileged class he used to criticize.”

I turned around and looked at the church. The elder, now a tiny speck in the distance, was going in and out of the church, helping people.

“Don’t be fooled. I was tricked for ​stolen content​a moment too, but I finally came to my senses. I shouldn’t have gotten involved.”

“But isn’t he saving people’s lives?”

“So what! His motives are shady!”

Admittedly, his declarations were a bit grandiose. Talk of an “end-times spring” and how the economic system works.

Yet all he actually did was hand out food and blankets.

Apart from distributing the mana stones he received from somewhere, it was just a welfare center.

“He did act like he was going to change the world, though.”

“Exactly! He is really a smooth talker…”

“But why did you pick me up?”

At the out-of-the-blue question, Kang Byungwook turned to look at me. He scolded me as if I were ridiculous.

“Well, you and your friend are both outsiders here! I was trying to help you out!”

“Out of goodwill?”

“Yes, I can’t stand by and watch this situation any longer!”

Kang Byungwook turned on the windshield wipers. The snow that had stuck to the windshield blocked our view.

It felt as if the car had become a sealed chamber.

“What’s wrong must be set right. I don’t want my hometown to fall into further ruin.”

The snow must have frozen by then, because it wouldn’t come off even with the wipers on.

“I must protect this land where my wife and child are buried.”

His words were sincere.

Kang Byungwook leaned out the window and wiped the windshield with his sleeve. As he wiped with all his might, cracks began to form on the windshield.

“I don’t want to lose my loved ones to money anymore.”

Kang Byungwook kept wiping the smudged window. It was something he did in hopes of moving forward.

But the vehicle was breaking down.

“Is that why you copied mana stones?”

Kang Byungwook stopped what he was doing.

“I saw the mana stone Pastor Kwon was carrying. It was a size that could never be obtained from the monsters in this village.”

Crack, crack.

The cracks in the window grew even larger.

“What does that mean?”

Kang Byungwook spoke without looking at me.

“Seongho-ssi, the truth is, tax evaders have infiltrated our village. They…”

“There were two identical mana stones. Since mana stones are natural objects, no two can be exactly alike.”

Crack, crack-

“They were identical, as if they’d been copied.”

Crash!

The car’s windshield shattered.

“You’re the terrorist.”

The elder harbored the same dissatisfaction with the current regime as the terrorist would, but aside from his portal ability, there was nothing about him that was particularly threatening.

There was only one person who held critical views of the regime and possessed the ability to throw the nation into chaos.

It could only be Kang Byungwook, the one capable of duplicating mana stones.

“The more we talk, the more I realize there’s no one else who fits the profile of a terrorist but you.”

I unbuckled my seatbelt and looked at Kang Byungwook.

Glass shards had embedded themselves in the sleeve of Kang Byungwook’s jacket. Shards rained down on me along with the blizzard.

“I am not part of the privileged class  like the elder.”

He was still speaking from outside the window, but Kang Byungwook’s piercing gaze was fixed on me.

“I am transparent and impartial.”

“How can you be so sure?”

“We are right.”

Fanaticism beyond certainty.

If he were a religious figure, he’d be a martyr by now.

“We’ve saved many lives.”

“So has the elder.”

“We are the good.”

Kang Byungwook got into the car and thrust his face close to mine. His eyes, wide from the biting wind and snow, were bloodshot.

The face of a man who believed that saving lives made him the absolute embodiment of good.

To someone, he must be a savior.

“We will reform the world with mana stones. We’ll make countless copies and distribute them to the poor.”

It would certainly be effective in the short term. Perhaps, like the Robin Hoods of old folktales, he could heal a sick society.

But that was just an idealistic fantasy.

I recalled what my junior had said.

“If that happens, people will stop working, fall into mental [Read on]illness, and become immersed in meaningless delusions.”

Without even realizing they’re dying.

They’ll be consumed by such fleeting pleasures.

“Then is there another way?”

I’d never thought about that.

I was the type to just get by, not the type to change things. I was the kind who just sat around complaining.

“Does what you are doing seem like a better reform?”

So I vented my grievances as usual.

“Is killing low-class Espers and causing chaos in society with mana stones what you call reform?”

“We’re going to break this cycle where people like Espers are sent into the gates and exploited for mana stone mining…”

Crunch!

“We’re going to break it.”

Kang Byungwook smashed the gearshift of the snowplow visit our sitehe was holding. A fierce blizzard swept into the cab.

I was turning pale from the cold and blood loss, but Kang Byungwook’s bloodshot eyes bulged as if they were about to burst out of their socket.

“Low-class Espers aren’t very good at hunting monsters.”

Drip.

The sensation of the bandage soaking through until liquid began to flow.

I wished my torn flesh would just freeze solid. Cold sweat trickled down my back.

“High-class Espers, Hunters, and the privileged class you despise so much, they’re the ones who handle the mana stones.”

Crunch, crunch.

Kang Byungwook gritted his teeth right in front of me and destroyed the car’s dashboard with his hands. His expression said he wouldn’t be satisfied even if he ground me up on the spot.

“If you were going to kill someone, you should’ve killed them.”

Smack!

My vision went white.

Did I get hit on the left side of my face?

My ears were ringing.

“The world needs us!”

He wasn’t wrong.

Mana stones, an unknown substance whose structure remained a mystery. And the extraordinary ability to even replicate them.

If there were more people like Kang Byungwook in the world, so much could change.

“What’s the problem with giving what’s needed to those who need it?”

Bang! Bang!

His kicks reduced the driver’s seat to a mess, and the steering wheel snapped off. The village’s only snowplow was being destroyed by his hands.

“You do nothing! It’s because of scum like you that society is rotting away!”

In a way, that’s true too.

But there’s a huge hole in his logic.

“…Look at the state of this village right now.”

I raised my head, gasping for breath. Then I turned my gaze out the window.

“You couldn’t even protect this land where your wife and child are buried.”

Here, where nothing but a vast, featureless snowfield stretched out as far as the eye could see. Out there, someone had died again today.

Death from loneliness, suicide, starvation, accidental falls.

Humans die and rot away.