Ch.55Who Messed With My Son?

Private Kim Joonyoung’s excellent driving skills had the Lamborghini racing up the steep mountain road.

Lee Seokgyu’s personal vehicle #25 was getting increasingly dirty with dust, mud, and scratches from the bumpy mountain path and branches—quite unbecoming for a foreign luxury car.

But that didn’t matter. He could always buy a new car anyway.

“The coolest! Man! Among many men~ That’s me! The truly! Awesome man~!”

If a Lamborghini could help protect the homeland, what did it matter if this “piece of junk” got damaged?

Lee Seokgyu was humming military songs with a grin on his face, ignoring the increasingly scratched Lamborghini as he thought about catching the bad guys.

A little while later.

Deep in the high mountains~♩ The silent landscape~♫

Suddenly, his phone rang.

He was in good spirits until he heard what his wife had to say.

“W-what? Shinwoo was attacked?!”

“Yes. They’re saying it was just a petty thief, but I don’t think so. It’s just my intuition, but I feel it might be connected to the case you’re working on.”

“…! Okay, I understand. Tell Shinwoo that Dad will come visit him again as soon as he finishes work. I love you. I’ll hang up now.”

Click.

From that moment, Lee Seokgyu stopped smiling.

He could only frown with a grim expression, thinking about the fact that his son had been attacked.

‘The puppet master controlling the lower body of the entity named Angel, and Shinwoo being attacked in his hospital room at such timing… Could this really be a coincidence?’

The story was suspicious from the beginning—a mere thief subduing my proud daughter and stealing only Shinwoo’s phone before running away.

If it were a real thief, they would have robbed a jewelry store instead.

This meant it was a carefully planned attack!

“How dare someone target my fragile son…!”

Thanks to his incredibly reliable Sophia, Lee Seokgyu was a son-doting father, not a daughter-doting one.

Because of this, he was furiously shouting at the thought that Shinwoo, who seemed like he would die if someone just poked him, could have actually been killed.

“Who dares touch my son! If I find you bastards, I’ll blow all your heads off!!”

After climbing, falling, rolling through the treacherous mountain terrain, and finally getting all four tires punctured, he arrived at an abandoned factory located in a remote mountain area.

There, Lee Seokgyu’s anger reached its peak.

“…Miss.”

“…What?”

“That phone… where did you get it?”

“This? Well… I got it from a boy I like. Why? Do you want me to sell it secondhand?”

Normally, thieves would hide stolen items as a basic rule.

But Katarina kept holding the phone she had “received” from Shinwoo.

And since it was none other than Lee Seokgyu himself who had bought and activated that phone…

“Hey, you bitch.”

“Bitch?! Geez… Has this old man not learned anything despite his age? You speak like absolute trash…”

“From now on, I’m arresting all four of you for national subversion, kidnapping, and acts of terrorism. And you in the middle—know that if you move even slightly, you’ll die by my hands without exception.”

Lee Seokgyu warned all four Villain’s Troupe members who had come out of the abandoned factory.

Then, as if to prove he wasn’t lying, he immediately began channeling power throughout his body.

Rumble rumble rumble.

“T-the ground is shaking?!”

“No, this isn’t the ground…”

“It’s the entire mountain shaking.”

A National Authority-Level figure of Korea.

As he prepared for battle, the entire mountain ecosystem began to tremble, causing Riverine, Dorothy, and Paul to gulp nervously.

They all realized one thing.

That sacrifices would be inevitable if they wanted to take down the man before them.

“Don’t move.”

“D-don’t move, he says?!”

Dorothy looked around as if pleading for everyone to stay still.

Riverine was too terrified to move a finger, and Paul merely touched the hilt of his black sword with his thumb, not daring to draw it.

Could this end peacefully if they played it right?

“Fuck that!”

…absolutely not.

“Let’s see just how strong a Korean National Authority-Level hunter really is!”

Katarina began slowly walking toward Lee Seokgyu, who had warned her while stretching her hands.

And following her actions…

“Private! Sergeant!”

“P-Private Kim Joonyoung!”

“Sergeant Choi Hansol!”

“This mountain will soon collapse.”

“I-I’m sorry, what did you say?!”

“So get down from here quickly, starting now.”

Lee Seokgyu gave orders out of concern for the two soldiers behind him.

The soldiers were momentarily stunned by his words.

“U-understood!”

In the military, orders from superiors must be followed.

And since this command came from the Army Chief of Staff of the Republic of Korea, considered the most powerful military branch in the country, they knew he wouldn’t say such things without reason.

Tap tap tap tap tap.

The two soldiers immediately began running back down the mountain path.

“Hmm~. Being from the same peninsula, I thought the South would use low-ranking soldiers as meat shields like the North does, but I guess things are different here?”

“Are you comparing our Republic of Korea Army to those communist North Korean bastards?”

The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Since Katarina had visited North Korea once before, she made the comment out of curiosity.

But…

“How dare you compare the Republic of Korea military to such things…!”

The last pride of the ROK Army that should never be touched.

After hearing the words “I thought you were on the same level as North Korea,” the current Army Chief of Staff, Lee Seokgyu, finally lost his patience and prepared to fight for real.

“Eeeek?! Is he coming? Is he really coming?!”

“L-leader! I’ll help you!”

“Stay put, Riverine! If you interfere, you’ll be torn apart first!”

Katarina gripped her suicide daggers strapped to both thighs in reverse grip and took a fighting stance.

But the next moment.

Half of her head exploded before she could properly register what happened.

Bang!

“…Huh?”

The opponent was clearly still far away.

The man she thought would approach her had thrown a punch into empty air toward her.

At that moment, his supersonic fist pushed the air like firing a cannon, sending a shockwave as a long-range attack.

“Taekwondo – Supersonic Straight Punch.”

“Sh-shit…!”

Her vision split in half.

Her consciousness was fading.

She could hear her subordinates screaming—how embarrassing to show them such a pathetic sight.

Well, nothing to be done about it.

“Let’s try again!”

With that, Katarina’s eyes closed as the world was enveloped in white light.

***

Lee Seokgyu was exchanging blows with Katarina, each of his punches changing the terrain.

The once steep mountain landscape had already become about half flat ground.

Following Katarina’s orders, the remaining Villain’s Troupe members who had evacuated people from inside the abandoned factory could now only watch the battle between the two.

“They’re both amazing…”

“L-leader, how many times has she died already?!”

“At least a couple of times, I’d say…”

As Riverine said, Katarina had already regressed through ten parallel worlds.

She had thought that two or three regressions would be enough to subdue someone who was merely a National Authority-Level from a country ranked around 18th in global hunter power!

‘What kind of crazy monster is this?!’

Before infiltrating Korea, Katarina had done at least basic research on the country’s key figures as part of her preparation.

And because of that, the current situation was even more unbelievable to her.

After all, the person before her was supposed to be a “Beast Hunter” whose specialty should have been rear support!

‘Is it that in this country, Beast Hunters are all specialized in direct combat, like that blonde girl I met before?’

She had already died ten times against a Beast Hunter who hadn’t even summoned his beast.

As a result, Katarina felt a scratch to her pride and was about to launch a somewhat reckless attack just to see this man’s summoned monster, but…

Whoosh!

“Tsk…!”

As she ducked, she had to straighten her back and immediately create distance to avoid the heel that was descending toward the crown of her head along with its shadow.

“Phew. Is the world hunter ranking wrong? You’re much stronger than you look, old man.”

“……”

“No joke, you’re stronger than most National Authority-Level hunters from Japan, which ranks 6th in global hunter power. …Do you perhaps have any double-digit stats?”

Katarina tried to initiate conversation using the brief opening.

However, Lee Seokgyu’s expression remained surrounded by hostility as always.

Seeing this and thinking persuasion was impossible, Katarina was about to resume her stance when…

“You seem to have an interesting ability.”

“…!”

“Strangely, very strangely, I feel as if you know my attacks in advance when you dodge. Is this your ability?”

Unlike herself, who had only one life.

In the midst of such an intense battle, he had even analyzed her ability.

“Is it the ability to see the future? No, that doesn’t quite fit since there are parts you awkwardly fail to dodge. Then what kind of ability is it?”

“Wow… this guy gets more impressive the more I look at him.”

To think there would be so many “cool men” in this small country.

If she had known, she would have visited the South first instead of the North.

Thinking this, Katarina was trying to take a leisurely cigarette break.

However, even such a smoker’s courtesy seemed like a luxury.

“By now, both the civilians and my two subordinates should have made it down the mountain.”

“…What?”

“It’s quite ironic to say this to terrorists, but I appreciate that you released the civilians trapped in the factory.”

While acknowledging the praiseworthy aspects even from an enemy…

“In return, I’ll try my best to ‘capture’ all of you alive.”

Lee Seokgyu took a deep breath as if saying it was really time to end this, looking at Katarina and the remaining three Villain’s Troupe members behind her.

“Come forth.”

Looking down at his shadow, he finally gave the command.