-Emergency in Research Wing 1! Top priority! All clan personnel, report to the research wing immediately…!
-The main house has dispatched the escort corps and special forces. Arrival in five minutes……!
-Young Master Jo Seonghwan is heading to the research wing! Repeat! Young Master Jo Seonghwan is……!
“Pungyang Jo’s communication network is going haywire. The plan’s a success.”
Across from the Pungyang Jo clan’s high-rise building.
On a rooftop overlooking Hanseong’s skyline, two men stood.
One wore Imae mask, its lower jaw left open and empty.
The other wore Seonbi mask, its sharp eyes the defining feature.
“They’re responding a lot faster than I expected. If we leave things as they are, they might actually suppress this before the royal guard even arrives.”
“We can’t let that happen.”
At Seonbi mask’s worried voice, Imae mask checked over the equipment he’d brought for this mission.
A grenade launcher and a heavy machine gun strapped to his back.
A hwando secured at his hip and an anti-tank rocket in his hands.
A heavy loadout that looked fit for a war.
“It’s been three years since we went at the nobles directly, hasn’t it? How does it feel, Imae?”
“Nothing to feel good or bad about. Same as always.”
Imae mask answered Seonbi mask’s question briefly.
But unlike his flat tone, the mouth exposed beneath his mask was curled into a grin as deep as it could go.
“Sticking it to the aristocrats is always a pleasure.”
“Barrier 7 breached! The traps aren’t working either!”
“Why is something that was half-dead suddenly going this berserk?!”
“It’s coming this way! The guards! Where did they all……!”
Crunch—!
Researchers’ skulls burst before they could even scream.
The heavily armed guards who should have been protecting them had long since become chunks of flesh scattered across every corner of the research wing.
The monsters that tore through their reinforced exoskeleton suits like tofu had no shortage of softer prey in the researchers, who wore nothing resembling proper protective gear.
Crunch. Crunch.
As though finally satisfying their long hunger, the monsters devoured the corpses of the dead guards.
But that only lasted a moment—one of them caught something in the air and raised its head.
And in that instant—
KRABOOM—!
A pressure wave launched from one side of the building tore the creature apart in an instant.
“RRRK?!”
“GRAAAUGH—!”
When one of their own vanished, the monsters that had been greedily feeding on the prey before them filled their eyes with wariness.
Something foreign.
Yet at the same time, a power that resembled their own in some corner.
Phase power.
“Things have gone sideways. Badly.”
A man walked out of the corridor where all eyes had turned.
A red durumagi over a black combat uniform.
The Pungyang Jo clan’s crest on his chest.
And in his hands, not the hwando he usually carried at his side, but a flail.
A weapon favored by the phase power users of the Pungyang Jo clan.
“Young Master. The situation is urgent, but it’s dangerous for you to take the front—”
Crack—!
With a dull thud, the face of the escort guard who had stepped beside him snapped to the side.
The man who threw the punch was Jo Seonghwan.
The playful smile he always wore was nowhere to be seen. His expression looked ready to detonate.
“Stop talking and give me a status report.”
At Jo Seonghwan’s low, flattened voice, the shoulders of the escort guard behind him went rigid.
“The source of the rampage is the basement—the cargo that was due to arrive this time.”
“We’ve secured video data. Here…”
At the same moment, video footage appeared before Jo Seonghwan’s eyes.
A guard opening the container, and the tentacle that lunged at him simultaneously.
And then the monster that burst out after shredding the guard’s body.
“The cargo that should have held people… had a monster inside it.”
He checked the surveillance camera footage from throughout the building, and Jo Seonghwan’s face twisted.
Five minutes since he’d received the report that the cargo from Busan had arrived.
In those five minutes, years of research he had built up had been wiped out entirely.
The monsters he had secured at great pains, the researchers he had recruited at great expense.
And the monster cores being generated in the central zone.
Creak.
It was certain.
Someone who knew the cargo transport plan had tampered with the shipment while it was en route to the research facility.
Someone who knew that the Pungyang Jo clan was secretly researching monsters.
And knew that test subjects were being brought in.
“Kim Changwoon.”
The name came out of Jo Seonghwan’s mouth immediately.
The stray dog picked up from the Andong Kim clan.
But that was impossible.
From the moment he arrived in Busan until his return to Hanseong just now, he had never once slipped out from under his eyes.
‘On top of the local informants, three personal surveillance agents assigned separately. His every movement was reported minute by minute. The entire time, that bastard never laid a hand on the cargo—didn’t even approach it.’
With all his guards and subordinates left behind in Hanseong, he couldn’t have plotted anything underhanded in Busan, where he had no connections.
The most suspicious person being the most innocent—a perversely contradictory situation.
“Any other leads or evidence?”
“Nothing yet. To get detailed information, we’d need to analyze the vehicle that carried the cargo, but with the entire building overrun by monsters…”
No guarantee the vehicle is even intact, and no time to go retrieve it anyway.
The more he thought, the more maddening it was—but Jo Seonghwan shook his head and swept the thoughts away.
“Kim Changwoon. Where is he right now?”
“After returning to Hanseong, he went to his lodgings.”
That was at least fortunate amid the misfortune.
If he’d taken shelter in the Andong Kim clan’s main house, it would have taken time to extract him.
“Send word to the main house. The moment Kim Changwoon returns, secure him. I’ll interrogate him personally.”
“Understood.”
That should do for now.
The most important thing right now was time.
He had to suppress the monsters and destroy all related evidence before the royal guard—having caught wind of the incident—came crashing in.
Seizing and killing the suspect could wait until later.
“Everyone. Combat ready.”
Shhhk—!
At the heir’s command, the clan’s escort guards drew their weapons.
The monsters had begun gathering in clusters of three and four.
Which meant the guards and researchers on the lower floors had all become corpses.
“Exterminate the monsters overrunning the research wing. Thoroughly and swiftly—do not let a single one get out.”
Thud—!
No answer came.
Only the instant the order was given, everyone launched themselves at the monsters without hesitation.
And the monsters, sensing that movement, raised their claws with a howl.
The moment the monsters and the escort guards clashed—
KRABOOM—!
The floor where Jo Seonghwan stood exploded outward, and in an instant, flames and debris engulfed his solitary figure.
“What?!”
“Young Master?! What—what’s happening—!”
“Anti-tank rocket! Someone fired from the floor below!”
“Who in this situation could possibly—!”
The escort guards who had entered combat with the monsters had no way to protect Jo Seonghwan.
Jo Seonghwan, caught in the explosion and hurled down to the floor below.
He clutched his head at the sudden impact—but it wasn’t a mere explosion that twisted Jo Seonghwan’s face.
“You—!”
Through the smoke and debris, the one who had attacked him slowly stepped into view.
A body draped in white clothing, bombs hanging from it in clusters.
A hwando in hand, and from that hwando, phase power pouring out in streams.
And finally, a mask worn over the face.
Seeing that, Jo Seonghwan had no difficulty recognizing who this was.
“Hahoe… I’ll tear you apart and it still won’t be enough, you traitors!”
Traitors.
At that word, Imae mask’s mouth curved.
“Bold words. From lunatics raising monsters in the middle of Hanseong.”
“The fact that you know that means the chaos here was your doing.”
“Now, would it be? I might have just stopped by on my way past.”
“Bullshit.”
Jo Seonghwan answered shortly and raised his flail, leveling it at Imae mask.
Boom—!
Phase power sweeping the space as he dropped into combat stance.
“I’ll give you the special treatment of cutting off your limbs while you’re still breathing. I’ll need to send what’s left of your body to the main house so they can crack open your skull and dig through every corner.”
“……Works for me.”
Facing that surging force, Imae mask felt a tingling sensation spread through his entire body.
‘Jo Seonghwan is not only the Pungyang Jo clan’s heir but also a member of the royal guard—Joseon’s foremost gathering of phase power users. However skilled a phase power user I might be, going at him head-on would be hopeless.’
But that was enough.
He had succeeded in drawing the Pungyang Jo clan’s greatest fighting force here, and in distracting the man with a surprise attack.
That alone meant his part of the job was fully done.
“Come on then, let’s play until you’re good and sick of it—you and this lowly jester.”
All that remained was to survive by any means until the royal guard arrived.
-The operation is on track. The cargo entering the research facility, the monsters going berserk, Imae crashing in—all of it is going according to plan.
I’d escaped the Pungyang Jo clan’s surveillance and returned to my lodgings, but my work wasn’t finished.
If anything, now was when it truly began.
“The test subjects we rescued… the people, how are they?”
-For now, we have them under our protection. Malnutrition, bacterial infections, PTSD… there isn’t a single one who’s unharmed.
“Do everything you can for them. I’ll cover the costs, so don’t worry about that.”
-Well, that’s welcome news, but…….
Bune mask, communicating through Choraengi mask, let his words trail off, unconvinced.
Unlike Imae mask, who had more flexibility, he wasn’t happy about Hahoe being used by a noble like me.
“What is it. Something bothering you?”
-…This operation. Can it really deal a real blow to Pungyang Jo?
So that’s what this was about.
“No. Absolutely not.”
I answered in a calm voice.
“Pungyang Jo runs five research facilities in Hanseong alone, and dozens more across all of Joseon. Blowing up one facility won’t be more than a drop in the bucket.”
-Wh-what?!
“On top of that, Pungyang Jo’s phase power users aren’t soft. Even with Imae tying down Jo Seonghwan, they’ll be able to suppress the monsters in the research facility before the royal guard arrives.”
The power clan intelligence operatives aren’t fools—after something that big blows up, they won’t come in unprepared.
At my words, Bune mask’s voice turned sharp with indignation.
-Then what, everything we did was for nothing?!
“Right. For nothing.”
We went to all that trouble delivering a monster—but what we did amounts to nothing more than throwing an egg at a boulder.
“But because of that ‘for nothing,’ they’re going to miss the most important thing.”
-The most important thing?
I answered that, then tipped the ‘honey butter chestnut yanggaeng sujeonggwa’ I’d bought on the way back into my mouth. (+) [1]
Selling this nonsense as a new product. The food engineering in this country is done for.
“Pungyang Jo’s escort guards. They can kill monsters—but they don’t know how to ‘handle’ monsters.”
Bune mask said nothing, as if waiting for me to go on.
“Let me ask you something. Monsters—the great catastrophe born from the Rift. What is the first principle of fighting them?”
-The first principle?
No quick answer came.
That was only natural.
It had been hundreds of years since King Gwangjo Yi Cheolheon suppressed the Rifts that had overrun the northern territories and the absolute defensive line was established.
For all that time, the vast majority of Joseon’s people had never once encountered a monster themselves.
The only ones alive today who knew this principle were… the Iron Tiger Army, fighting monsters in the northeast.
I kept talking.
“The first principle of monster combat. It’s this: all personnel killed by monsters, and all monster corpses, must be incinerated completely. Not a fragment of flesh, not a drop of blood left behind.”
-Incinerate… burn them with fire?
“That’s right. And the second principle.”
I paused for a moment, then opened my mouth.
“Never forget the first principle.”
- 1. TLN: It’s basically a combination of honey butter + chestnut yanggaeng (jelly-like desert) + sujeonggwa (a traditional Korean drink)
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