The soldiers gathered.

Their equipment was familiar, resembling what I had seen when meeting the Chinese mercenaries.

Each was armed with rifles equipped with laser sights, well-fitted with body armor, and carrying grenades and other gear.

There were sixteen of them—just the combatants. Workers weren’t included in this count.

Not one of them was a non-threat, but the most dangerous among them was Kim Pil-seong.

In the brief conversation we’d had before, he mentioned serving in China just before the war.

Back then, the enemy wasn’t monsters but fanatics.

He hunted humans.

Now, my former comrade and other trained killing machines were here to end me.

The situation was horrific, yet strangely, I felt a sense of calm.

It was almost dreamlike.

I’d imagined scenarios like this thousands of times, dying and killing over and over again in my mind.

I hadn’t told my neighbors about this.

I didn’t want to drag them into it.

This was a fight I had brought upon myself.

I couldn’t bear to see others die because of my stubbornness.

Of course, I had tried to request support from Woo Min-hee. I’d wanted to inform her that the Legion faction had found me and was intent on killing me.

But after the helicopter went down, I couldn’t get through to her.

Interference? Jamming? I wasn’t sure.

Or maybe she was simply ignoring me.

It was possible. Her long-standing psychological issues could be flaring up again.

That woman thrived on tragedy.

If it wasn’t present, she would manufacture it, inhaling sorrow like a drug.

That sadness was the essence of her illness, the only thing that made her feel alive.

Despite my grievances, she might still send help.

But for now, I was on my own.

“Form into groups of four. Sweep and secure all suspicious areas while maintaining perimeter awareness. The only counterattack they can mount is an ambush. As long as you don’t give them that chance and pin them down in a hole, it’s over. Even an S-Class Hunter is still human. They can’t deflect bullets like an Awakened.”

Kim Pil-seong sounded like an experienced commander.

“Don’t cluster together. There’s a chance they might have high-powered weapons.”

The soldiers fanned out loosely, covering one another as they combed every inch of my territory.

Thud.

I heard footsteps directly above my main bunker.

Were they headed up the hill?

“Do we know their exact location?”

One soldier shouted from above.

“I heard they’re below the hill. Check down there.”

In front of the entrance to my main bunker, I’d placed a large boulder.

Even I couldn’t use the entrance without first removing it.

I hadn’t just placed the boulder; I’d also shoveled dirt to fill in the gaps, making it nearly impossible to spot unless you were extremely observant.

My plan was simple: I wanted them to find the decoy bunker and enter it.

But they were stubbornly focused on searching the area around my main bunker, likely tipped off about its general location.

“There! There’s something that looks like a vent!”

They finally found it.

I heard the soldiers quickly moving.

“Yeah, it’s a vent. I’ve never seen one like this, though.”

“Toss tear gas in.”

They threw in tear gas canisters.

Not a chance.

Their tricks could be countered with the press of a button.

I hit the large red button labeled Exhaust on the control panel for the ventilation system.

Viiiiiing—

The propellers installed in the ducts roared to life, expelling the harmful gas back toward the soldiers.

“Cough! Cough!”

“What the hell?!”

The sound of violent coughing and hacking was music to my ears.

“Fall back! Fall back!”

The motion sensors blinked again.

Several sensors flashed simultaneously, but one area hadn’t been triggered—southwest of my main bunker.

There were no enemies there.

Click.

I grabbed my rifle and recoilless launcher and headed for the emergency passage.

Behind the main door lay a network of tunnels leading to multiple decoy bunkers.

Thirteen doors.

Twelve led to decoy bunkers, and one to a garage.

I quietly opened the door marked 5 and hurried down the tunnel I had dug myself using an excavator and bulldozer.

Another steel door.

I didn’t know what might be beyond it, but I didn’t hesitate.

I opened it and aimed my weapon.

Nothing.

The sensors weren’t wrong.

Through the observation windows in the bunker, I could monitor the area.

The enemy soldiers had spread out along the ridgeline near the main bunker, focused on the vent now spewing smoke.

“Toss grenades in.”

“The holes are too small. They’ve been drilled tightly, like a showerhead.”

Kim Pil-seong was standing in a blind spot, pressed close to a pile of scrap near the bunker’s entrance.

It wasn’t the behavior of a Hunter.

It was the habit of a soldier.

That scene told me everything I needed to know about Kim Pil-seong.

“…Hah.”

I took a deep breath.

Should I target the isolated figure of Kim Pil-seong, or aim for the cluster of soldiers?

Taking out Pil-seong would guarantee one kill, but the latter option could take out up to five at once.

One Hunter or five soldiers.

It didn’t take long to decide.

I visualized their positions in my mind, emerged from the bunker, and fired the recoilless launcher.

The moment I showed myself, at least two soldiers spotted me and instinctively aimed their rifles.

“There!”

Too late.

The recoil sent a powerful shockwave behind me, blowing away dust and grass as the black projectile shot out.

“Get down!”

Their screams were drowned out by the explosion.

BOOM!

The blast struck the ground near the vent, engulfing the soldiers in flames and debris.

As rocks and gravel rained down, I tossed aside the launcher and fired into the cloud of dust.

Rat-tat-tat-tat!

Just hit one.

Two would be better.

If three were hit, I could die content.

When the magazine emptied, I discarded the rifle and retreated back into the decoy bunker.

Thud.

The door closed.

Thud.

Another door shut.

Thud.

The heavy steel door leading to the main bunker sealed shut.

The situation returned to square one.

Above me, I heard no human voices except for a few muffled groans.

They were likely regrouping, assessing the situation.

About a minute later, Kim Pil-seong’s voice rang out.

“Park Gyu.”

The K-walkie-talkie buzzed.

“You know there’s no turning back now, right?”

I didn’t respond.

There was no need.

What caught my attention was that the southwest sensor, which hadn’t been triggered earlier, was now blinking continuously.

They had entered one of the decoy bunkers.

Three of them.

I watched through the only video feed set up in the decoy bunker.

One soldier pointed at the cheap camera.

Click.

With the press of a button, they disappeared from the screen.

BOOM!

The ground shook as one of the decoy bunkers collapsed.

Three more down.

If I’d managed to kill five earlier, that made eight.

Half of them were gone.

Maybe more. I couldn’t confirm the full effect of the recoilless launcher.

“Where’s the entrance? Huh? Tell us where the entrance is! My men are dying out here!”

Kim Pil-seong’s frantic voice came through the listening device.

Who was he talking to?

“A gap beneath the roots of a dead tree? Got it. I’ll check.”

I exhaled deeply.

Kim Daram.

She was feeding them my information.

For some reason, she had decided I was expendable.

It wasn’t an unfamiliar experience.

People falling away, one by one, was a common pattern in my life.

But I had thought she would be different.

Kim Daram, my junior and former partner, was one of the few I thought would always stay by my side.

Together, we had outshined even the legends of the Old School Hunters.

I’d even gifted her one million won at her wedding—a fact her husband never forgot, always referring to me as “the one who gave a million.”

And yet, here we were.

I pushed the dark thoughts aside and closed my eyes tightly.

Rustle, rustle.

The sound of rocks being moved came from above.

They had found the entrance.

“Park Gyu,” Kim Pil-seong called out from beyond the door.

“I never liked you much, but damn, you’ve got no allies left, huh?”

“…”

“Your junior practically handed over the entrance, knowing full well you’d die. What do you think about that? Isn’t she amazing?”

I snorted at his words.

A hearty laugh echoed from the other side.

When it subsided, Kim Pil-seong spoke again.

“Bring the welder.”

Click.

“No need for that,” I said, unlocking the door.

“I’ve opened it.”

I stepped back slowly and donned my gas mask.

As expected, two tear gas canisters clattered into the bunker, spewing white smoke.

I feigned coughing, lifting the mask slightly.

“Cough! Cough!”

Footsteps rushed toward me.

But—

Thud!

“Aaaaargh!”

The stairs leading into my bunker were treacherous.

Deliberately uneven, coated with wax, and designed to trip anyone careless enough to descend hastily.

A primitive trick, perhaps, but effective.

Clang! Clatter!

At least two of them fell.

The white smoke obscured everything, but I had imagined this scene thousands of times in my dreams.

Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!

Like shooting fish in a barrel.

Panicked gunfire echoed back, erratic and wild, striking the walls and ceiling.

A dead man’s finger must have been squeezing the trigger.

When the smoke cleared, two corpses were visible.

As expected, one had a twisted ankle that looked almost broken.

“Boss,” one of the soldiers muttered weakly.

“This guy in there… He’s no joke.”

Their morale was shaken.

And not just theirs.

“That guy used to scare off mutants with just a glare. Who the hell is he? Is he an Awakened or something?”

The soldiers were faltering.

It was inevitable. Losing more than half their team would demoralize even the most hardened veterans.

Kim Pil-seong finally responded, his voice cutting through the silence.

“Professor.”

He practically savored my callsign.

“You were the best among us. But no, you’re not an Awakened.”

Schlring.

The sound of a sword being drawn echoed from beyond the open door.

“You’re just an ordinary human,” Kim Pil-seong’s voice came, steady and cold. “Just better trained, better at controlling your emotions, and better at fighting than most.”

Clang!

The sharp sound of a blade striking the wall rang out, followed by the clatter of smoke grenades being tossed into the bunker entrance.

Pssshhhhhh—

White smoke began to billow out, swirling as the grenades spun.

What were they planning?

I stayed silent, observing as ghostly hands reached through the fog, dragging out the bodies of the fallen.

I didn’t interfere.

Let them take the corpses. I hated the idea of my bunker being sullied further.

In retrospect, it was a wise choice.

Clink.

Grenades were tossed where the bodies had been.

Three of them.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Three explosions echoed, followed by three more grenades being thrown.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

It was a pointless effort.

The entrance to the main bunker was a steep staircase, and the grenades could only follow limited trajectories.

Moreover, I had constructed a slanted barrier near the final step, filled with dirt and sand to absorb explosions—a trench specifically designed to nullify grenade attacks.

To be thorough, I’d even installed a grenade net at the entrance.

Breaking through this defensive setup would require nothing short of dynamite.

A moment of stillness followed before something shiny appeared just beyond the blind spot of the entrance.

A mirror.

Bang!

I shattered it with a single shot.

“How are you still alive?” Kim Pil-seong’s voice came, now tinged with genuine unease.

“Well enough,” I replied calmly, keeping my weapon trained on the entrance.

He sighed before speaking again.

“You know we’ll win in the end, right?”

I didn’t respond, but I understood his point.

I was holding them off for now, but that’s all it was—holding them off.

I was alone, while they were an army.

They had equipment, reinforcements, and even time and biology on their side.

True to his word, Kim Pil-seong did nothing else.

It was the most terrifying strategy—prolonging the stalemate.

A time-tested tactic: wear down the defenders until they collapse under the strain.

Rustle.

I tossed a glucose candy into my mouth, letting it dissolve as I relaxed my body.

Thoughts swirled in my mind, but I tried to keep the negative ones at bay.

I widened my eyes, staying alert, waiting for a shift in the situation.

Hoping for that single unexpected chance.

For some reason, I felt drowsy.

It was similar to the feeling I had experienced in China.

Perhaps, to someone who had witnessed so much death, the act of falling asleep felt dangerously close to dying.

Buuuuuum—

The sound of an approaching truck snapped me back to full attention.

The truck came to a stop, followed by the hurried footsteps of more than ten people.

Reinforcements?

In my current position, all I could do was speculate.

“Is the work done?”

Kim Pil-seong’s voice echoed again.

“Almost complete. Once the warhead is loaded, everything will be ready.”

Workers, then.

It seemed they had brought over the airport workers.

“Is the chairman on board?”

“Yes.”

“As soon as it’s finished…”

Before he could finish his sentence, gunfire erupted from the direction of the runway.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The sharp report of a pistol.

I recognized it instantly.

The sound of the pistol I had once sold to Cheol-joo in exchange for a kilogram of gold.

Bang!

“Aaaaargh!”

A pained scream rang out from the base.

The soldiers who had been silently waiting in front of me suddenly sprang to life, climbing the hill to get a view of the airstrip.

I moved to the periscope to observe.

It was Park Cheol-joo.

He was shooting the workers.

Three were already sprawled lifelessly on the ground, and the last one knelt, pleading for his life.

That man was his son-in-law, Go Seong-jun.

“…”

I had no way of knowing what had transpired between them, but the story of a son-in-law and father-in-law was ending in tragedy.

Bang!

A merciless bullet pierced Go Seong-jun’s forehead, and he collapsed.

Park Cheol-joo boarded the plane.

Viiiiiiing—

The airplane’s engines roared to life.

“Stop him!”

Kim Pil-seong shouted.

“Stop him, damn it!”

Buuuuuuum—

The vehicle that had brought the reinforcements roared back toward the runway.

But its noise was quickly drowned out by another sound.

Sshhhhhhkkkkkkk—

“What?”

That sound...

Sshhhhhhkkkkkkk—

There was no mistaking it.

The air-tearing roar of jet engines.

A fighter jet streaked through the sky.

“Who is it?! Whose side are they on?”

The soldiers’ sharp cries filled the air.

Then, the long-silent radio buzzed.

Personal ID: REDMASK.

It was Woo Min-hee.

“Senior, are you still alive?”

She had finally answered my call.