Gazing at the monster, presumed to be a dragon, which had shattered half of Rithsia and nested there, Brigadier General Yoon Seonghun took a cigarette from his pack and lit it.
A graduate of the Military Academy, he was 43 this year. Although his original rank was Colonel, it would not be an exaggeration to say he was promoted quite early.
When Brigadier General Jang Min-seong took over the 17th Division and the military district, he unified the three units into the Gyeongin Integrated Command and promoted himself to Major General.
Yoon Seonghun was appointed as the commander of the Bucheon Defense Brigade, a brigade under that command.
After the unification, the headquarters moved to the 17th Division headquarters, based on the previous Airborne Brigade’s base.
It was formed with two Special Forces battalions and one infantry regiment, and Yoon was appointed its commander.
Though the 17th Division headquarters was located in Bucheon’s Songnae area, it was technically part of Incheon administratively, so when the game started, it was conducted under Incheon’s jurisdiction.
However, because of Bucheon’s high population density and concentration of marts and convenience facilities, they couldn’t afford to lose it. So, a separate unit was created and entrusted to Yoon.
Yoon Seonghun was exactly that kind of person to Jang Min-seong.
A trusted subordinate who could be given a region to manage; he was essentially his right hand.
“Wow, that thing’s really huge. Isn’t it as big as what you’d see in The Lord of the Rings?”
“It seems smaller than that.”
“Hey, Captain, did you watch that too?”
“Among people worldwide, it’s probably rarer to find someone who hasn’t seen The Lord of the Rings.”
“True, that’s fair.”
Unlike the overwhelmingly charismatic and spirited Jang Min-seong, Brigadier General Yoon Seonghun was somewhat lighthearted and approachable.
Maybe that’s why he looked much younger than his age.
Despite his neat hair and battle uniform, it wasn’t easy to look like he was in his mid-to-late thirties.
“I’ve arranged a place for the morning briefing. Shall we go in, Brigade Commander?”
At the Operations Officer’s words, he nodded and walked with him toward the prepared briefing room.
It was an office in a commercial building not far from Rithsia.
“Oh… how did you manage to get a place with a beam projector like this?”
“Captain Jeonghoon worked hard on it.”
“Booking places like this is a hassle, a real hassle. From now on, let’s skip the unnecessary formalities and just do everything verbally. If it’s difficult, radio communication will do.”
“Yes, understood.”
“But since Captain Jeonghoon worked hard, shall we have a proper weekly meeting?”
As Yoon Seonghun sat down, all the staff officers and commanders took their seats.
Meeting Captain Jeonghoon caught the signal and launched the PPT through the beam projector.
“Briefing from the Operations Office will begin.”
“The areas currently under our control include Sosa-gu in Bucheon, Bucheon Station South, Bucheon City Hall, the adjacent apartment complexes, and the Sinjung-dong Station area. In Sosa-gu, the Josenjok villain organization we pressured is still resisting, so one Special Forces regional battalion has been deployed. However, the Josenjok villain leader possesses unusual abilities, making him difficult to capture, so the operation is taking longer than expected.”
“The Josenjok bastards, did they just spend their days playing games after coming to Korea? They have all sorts of abilities, don’t they?”
“Yes, that’s correct. Still, since their main base was destroyed and they scattered, wiping them out is only a matter of time.”
“Enough of the other region updates. Report on the dragon-related situation.”
The Operations Officer waited for the PPT slide to switch and then spoke again.
“There has been no direct engagement so far, so we cannot confirm the enemy’s combat strength. However, judging from how it easily destroyed Rithsia in just two attacks, we estimate its destructive power to be considerable, so we are preparing thoroughly. The entire Special Forces 1st Battalion has been deployed, and five Hyeongung units have been positioned.”
Hyeongung was a domestically produced man-portable anti-tank weapon, commonly known as an RPG rocket.
“Only five units? Will that be enough?”
Yoon Seonghun tilted his head in doubt, and the Operations Officer, looking uneasy, was ordered to turn the PTT page.
The video displayed the Bucheon City Map, dotted with various large and small red points.
“Since the game started, six giant transmission bodies have been observed, and troops and Hyeongung units were pre-positioned in areas suspected to be their drop points.”
A transmission body was military jargon referring to the red light of a spaceship deploying monsters onto the ground when the game began.
Although their exact locations were unknown, the brigade used scouts and CCTV from Bucheon City Hall to roughly confirm their whereabouts.
Yoon Seonghun quietly observed the data and said,
“Looking closely, except for the dragon, none of these have any connection to the areas we occupy or plan to occupy.”
“Yes, that’s true, but…”
Yoon Seonghun wiped his dry hands and looked at the Operations Officer.
Unlike his usual light demeanor with a smile, his face was now grim and cold, and his voice was deep and subdued.
“Hey, Operations.”
“…Yes! Chief!”
Under the harsh tone, the normally casual Operations Officer felt the sudden imposition of military discipline and even stated his rank clearly.
Yoon’s sunken voice continued.
“Has it appeared?”
“Not yet, sir.”
“I don’t think sending unnecessary troops and heavy weapons to areas we don’t even occupy was a good move. Is there really a need for us to wait and then launch a preemptive strike that causes casualties? Isn’t that just needless death?”
“…”
“But look here—if we leave this place unattended, Bucheon City Hall, the core of our information network, could collapse. And that’s not all. If it turns southward, it’ll head straight for our base, our base!”
“That’s right!”
“We should spend our time shooting confirmed visible enemies rather than wasting it preparing for unseen threats! Do you not realize how dangerous that thing is?”
“Apologies, sir.”
“Huff… Deploy all the heavy weapons like the Hyeongung units from other areas here immediately. Everyone, remember, we’re not here to monitor, but to kill that thing. Understand?”
All replied in unison, “Yes, sir!”
Only then did Yoon Seonghun relax his expression and move on to the next briefing.
“Alright, speaking of which… what happened to those gangster groups we beat up while the 17th Division was playing politics?”
“You mean the Bucheon Brothers Clan?”
“Yes, the ones with their hideout in Bucheon Station. Their boss and deputy were killed and scattered, right? No signs of regrouping?”
“Yes, without a center of gravity or anyone to replace it, they couldn’t resist our attacks properly and fled scattered to the Bucheon Bukbu Station area.”
“Wow, I heard that the boss who took down the 17th Division wasn’t just any ordinary fighter?”
“He was quite a strong one. He could kill monsters like Giant Hunters or Gray Orcs in a single fight. A monster himself, truly.”
“Heh… so the monster who killed that monster is an even bigger monster still around here, huh?”
At those words, the intelligence officer brightened and said,
“Fortunately, the battle footage between the Bucheon Brothers Clan boss and the one who killed him was captured and remains stored without being erased from the CCTV.”
“Really? Can we watch it now?”
“We can play it immediately.”
Just as Chief Jeonghoon prepared to play the recorded CCTV footage,
knock, knock.
The sound of knocking at the meeting room door caught everyone’s attention.
“Who is it?”
The Operations Officer spoke in place of Yoon Seonghun, and the door cautiously opened.
A female lieutenant peeked in carefully and said,
“Reporting, Sir! The personnel officer here. Residents from a nearby apartment complex have come looking for you…”
“Apartment residents? Where?”
“From a place called Seonga Village. What should we do?”
Yoon Seonghun showed a weary expression.
They weren’t the first to come calling like this.
“Tell them we’re busy and to wait.”
“Yes, sir!”
***
“Yes, sir!”
Taehyun, who had been quietly listening, frowned.
‘Tell them to wait because we’re busy?’
Sure, since it was meeting time, telling them to wait made sense. But the tone behind those words was unmistakably unpleasant.
“But… isn’t something a bit strange here?”
No sooner had the female lieutenant guided the villagers to a seat than Mrs. Kim Sunja spoke up.
“Why?”
Taehyun asked disinterestedly, recalling how the woman had immediately shrunk back and anxiously scanned the surroundings when she first entered the unit, clearly uncomfortable.
“Because everyone’s uniforms are all different. Are military uniforms usually this varied?”
At her words, Taehyun’s expression hardened as a memory flashed by.
She was right.
He had long since been discharged and the combat uniforms had changed, but as a reservist, it was impossible to be indifferent to military attire.
Even to his eyes, there were some wearing uniforms clearly different from the army combat uniforms.
“Special Forces.”
A middle-aged man among the self-defense volunteers who came with her spoke up, drawing everyone’s attention.
“That unique uniform? That’s Special Forces.”
“Special Forces?”
“They have airborne insignia on their chest. And if you look at the shoulder patches… I think they’re from the 9th Airborne based in Bucheon.”
“…Ah.”
Only then did he recall hearing there was a Special Forces unit here.
Did the 17th Division and Special Forces combine? Did the government issue some order?
Yet, the military personnel didn’t seem to be actively recruiting civilians, and the soldiers’ glances were icy, as if annoyed by the presence of these people.
“Government said they’d run shelters with military units… have they stopped that now?”
As another woman from the women’s association said this, everyone shook their heads.
Taehyun glanced up slightly.
The meeting room was made of glass walls instead of partitions—half frosted, but the upper half transparent enough to see roughly inside.
Everyone was staring at the beam projector screen.
‘What is this? CCTV?’
Noticing the date displayed on the video playing on the projector, he guessed it was CCTV footage.
In the partially visible footage behind the frosted glass, a person spewing black flames and another shooting red flames from their hands were fiercely fighting.
‘So they have abilities like that…’
To Kim Taehyun, who thought he was quite strong himself, their battle made him feel like a frog in a well.
Their fight resembled a fantasy movie or animation.
Judging by the soldiers’ focused watching, those two were clearly persons of interest…
‘Oh, he died.’
Taehyun watched in a daze as the man with black flames perished, staring blankly at the man with red flames on his hand.
The footage was unclear, and the faces weren’t recognizable, but the red-flamed man was tall and solidly built.
‘Who on earth could that be?’
While dazedly watching the footage,
“They say we can come in now.”
The female officer led the Seonga Village residents to Brigadier General Yoon Seonghun.