EP 28 – No Country for Superman (9)
“You can’t give me money? What do you mean?”
“Six teams. Did you not retreat during the operation? Because of that, the movement of the 3rd team was also twisted, and the 1st team had to deal with the additional battle. Only those related expenses will be deducted from the remuneration of the 6th team.”
An Australian outpost built on the outskirts of ruins. Under the UN flag fluttering in the sand, the castle went back and forth. The workers who were carrying the munitions from the tent in the trucks flirted and watched the two men fight.
First, the Hunter asked the staff harshly.
“While moving to RP, we had three non-operational engagements! In the process, we lost 11 hunters, including the deputy team leader. Then we managed to retreat in the 4th battle, and it wasn’t our fault, it was the tactical team’s fault, was it?”
“Why is that the tactical department’s fault?”
“I went on the route that they indicated, and I was attacked 4 times!”
“How do we believe that? do you have a video What by-products did you collect?”
video? I took a picture and sent it to headquarters.
by-product? It was collected by supporters dispatched from the headquarters.
However, the head office says nothing has been confirmed.
At this point, the angle will come out.
Headquarters was determined to bury Team 6.
At this, the team leader of Hunter’s Mobile Team 6 kept his mouth shut. The employee hesitated for a moment at the lively eyes, but he did not back down believing in the authority of the company.
“Ah, there is no problem with my rules. If you have voluntarily retreated, you have to take responsibility for it.”
“… … Hey. Chief. Let’s say it out loud. It’s a stone that we rolled, isn’t it?”
“What else are you talking about!”
“In order to be dispatched to Australia, the average amount of mana stones absorbed by the guild members must be at least 20kg, right? That is why we, who were small and medium-sized guilds just before dispatch, were hired under the name of 6 teams.”
To be sure, the Ministry of Health and Welfare put some conditions on the recruitment of PMCs to go to Australia.
No criminal record, 80% of dispatched personnel are above level 5, medium-sized company or higher based on total assets, no activities of transfer groups (Joseon Labor Party, Han Seung-moon Anticafe), etc… … .
One of them was that the average amount of mana stones absorbed by the guild members had to exceed 20kg.
This was the standard that came from Han Seung-moon’s order for elite manpower, but the problem was that there was no way to stop the expedient.
“We hired a small guild on a short-term contract and set the standard! You won the dispatch to Australia! You don’t want to give me money, so you’re tinkering with me, aren’t you?”
“This is a big deal, you’re a yangban! Let the operation fail and stop talking nonsense!”
“gibberish? 11 people died for this bastard, did you say that?!”
“uh… … ! Whoa!”
The hunter, who was raging to the end, grabbed the employee by the collar, and several wooden boxes nearby exploded like a hand grenade.
The shards of wood stuck to the workers, causing small scratches, and as drops of blood fell on the sandy desert, people began to run away in confusion.
“Ugh, uh-huh-!”
“Hunter went wild! It’s a storm!”
“what are you doing! Call the sheriff! Call the sheriff!”
The moment when an intact forward base turned into an Abigail.
Someone walked up and stopped their fight.
“What kind of bullshit is this? Stop it.”
“All, you. Are you a sheriff?”
“It’s not the sheriff.”
Behind the man in a neat suit, six magistrates followed.
“This is Han Seung-moon.”
* * *
“How was the scene?”
“… … It was like a beggar.”
“Is that right?”
At the hotel provided by the Australian government, the division commander was coming, so the tea with toothpaste on the floor was overwhelming.
It means something clumsy and luxurious. The toilet is shiny, but the water doesn’t drain well.
Anyway, in such a place, I said to Hong Seon-ah.
“I came here because there was a rumor among the Hunters. For some reason, things are a little bit like a dog with a lot of variety.”
“I couldn’t handle it on my own.”
“I understand.”
There are rules in everything. Mathematics has formulas, and business has stakes. Even in love, there is something called affection.
But politics is not like that. Everything in the world has its own rules, but politics has no such thing. So politics is difficult.
“Whew… … .”
My head is throbbing.
Right now, even the conflict between the high-ranking and low-level hunters is entangled in financial, emotional, and tactical issues. But looking at the situation, that’s not all.
Contrary to my expectations of looking at the battlefield with papers, Koreans in Australia had quite a variety of complex problems.
“… … First of all, let me tell you about the big issues. I don’t know what to start with.”
“There are a lot of problems. The low-ranking hunters and the high-ranking hunters said they didn’t want to fight together, the PMCs had autonomy, so all kinds of sicknesses were exploding, every time a monster crawls out of an unexpected place, someone dies, and the day before yesterday, gangsters with guns ride motorcycles in the desert. Install and go-”
“OK. stop.”
It’s just a headache to hear.
To be honest, if Hong Seon-ah had taken care of it, there would have been no time to spare, but I can’t even expect political experience from a veteran hunter in his mid-20s.
“Whew… … .”
Most of all, it wasn’t me who told Hong Seon-ah to believe in me.
“The President of the Association.”
“yes?”
“Let’s hold hands after a long time.”
* * *
Fire is very dangerous. But people don’t know that. This is because every time you cook ramen, you handle the fire.
It can also be referred to as a kind of insecurity. However, if the size of the fire increases a little, the story changes.
You feel an instinctive fear.
So, the height of the fire was over 1m. The swaying figure begins to look like the tongue of a snake. I can feel the hot wind blowing like a fan.
In the end, the fireworks soared louder than people and buildings. Thick smoke obscures the sky. When it reaches a level where it eats and destroys all things.
“… … How amazing.”
“I do not know. That’s what I see every day.”
Fire becomes mysterious.
Sparks that scatter like petals are transferred to the ground. The transferred flames get bigger than humans. The endlessly growing flames color the sky red.
That wonderful fear was more of awe than horror.
The horizon thus created was as red as the setting sun.
“In the wilderness where only cacti and weeds are scattered. It burns like a wildfire. How many mana stones did you get to become this strong?”
“I think I became a pig because you expressed it that way… … ?”
“Anyway, let’s go on a magic diet. Because one person is stronger than a bomber squadron, doesn’t the other person feel a relative deprivation?”
“yes… … .”
Hong Seon-ah and I were moving forward, turning the plains to ashes. Her ability, which she had been using for a long time, was unfamiliar, but it wasn’t too difficult because she had the rhythm of digging a tunnel at the risk of her life in the Shinbundang line.
Instead, it was very difficult that the output increased tremendously. Of course, it wasn’t shocking because Jiyoon was less than him.
“… … .”
I looked around. Wildfires spread across the barren fields. A flame burning without firewood was like magic.
However, if there was anything that could be done with firewood, it was weeds and monsters that sprang up sparsely. The skin turned to ashes, but the shiny mana stones remained, proving the existence of the monster.
As the manastones formed like that were shining, this place shone softly like a salt desert.
“The number of magic stones is no joke. Do you eat all the Manastones you have obtained by yourself? Or would you like some foreign cars?”
“I eat everything except the cost of living. Hunters these days have a taste for spending money, but I’ve learned that if you lack strength, your friends will die.”
“… … Huh.”
Dressed in a light half-coat, she hung around with a submachine gun attached to her waist. It wasn’t an angular gait like a soldier, but somehow it felt like a lioness’s life.
As I suddenly thought, Hong Seon-ah as a hunter was a really scary person.
I took her hand and swept around her with flames once.
“Being a monster like this reminds me of the old days. It has changed a lot.”
“The message is too old.”
“A lot has happened. In particular, Hong Seon-ah and I seem to have spent mostly dark times together.”
“… … Yes.”
“I’m telling you that Seon-ah and I are close. Don’t get too strong. It’s hard for Jiyoon to think about one thing. If it’s too strong, I’m afraid.”
“… … I’ll keep that in mind.”
Conversation with Hong Seon-ah was always difficult.
I could feel the shadow of a dead man named Kim Chun-shik, and above all else, she was afraid of me, and I was in a position to scare her.
Nevertheless, it is a fact that does not change that she represents Korean hunters. As the industry fluctuates, the Apgu faction and the Dongdaemun faction are thoroughly united, and now the two factions have merged to such a degree that they are almost indistinguishable.
To be honest, the Apgujeong faction was good at slicing monsters and the Dongdaemun faction was good at cutting people.
That’s the first generation Hunter.
Apgujeong faction and Hong Seon-ah have a love-hate relationship, and Seol Jin-woon is at the center of the Dongdaemun faction.
“… … .”
If Hong Seon-ah showed her political power and gathered the first generation of Hunters.
I may not have thought of her as a friend.
“… … Gosh. ride well monsters.”
Maybe that’s why she left politics. To not buy boundaries for me. If so, that would have been a very wise choice.
In fact, I am running the Hunter Association through trusteeship through President Cheon Geum-soon, and it was an act that was established with the active support of Hong Seon-ah, president of the association.
That was the reason I kept sitting Hong Seon-ah as the president of the association.
She was smart when she should be smart, stupid when she should be stupid, smart enough to figure out what’s going on, but dumb enough to not know how to react.
In other words, he was a person who knew how to discriminate.
“Where do you think the problem of hunters came from now, Hong Seon-ah?”
“What is the problem? boy soldier? 2nd Generation Hunter Barrage? Lack of moral sensitivity? Political isolation?”
“… … Not in Korea, but in Australia.”
“ah. That, of course, is because of the monsters.”
“In what sense?”
“The monster is stronger than I thought.”
“I do not know. If the monster was really strong, I don’t think this three months would have happened. Because it’s worth fighting monsters, doesn’t it give them the strength to fight among themselves?”
“I will correct my words. It’s very difficult to deal with monsters here. Because the old way doesn’t work. So, the upper-middle-level hunters who competed with experience and tricks became powerless. On the other hand, the value of the top hunters who pushed with overwhelming firepower jumped.”
Hong Seon-ah smiled and shrugged.
“So, things happen between the low-ranking hunters and the high-ranking hunters. When we go to Korea, we are all high-ranking hunters, but here we have a class.”
“… … It seems that the problem is that I hired only the elite manpower and brought them in.”
“Because people with high self-esteem are running as pawns. Besides, if it was Korea, you would be sacrificing the veterans who were running wild by trapping them and using the terrain.”
This was strategic, not political. I decided to take her insight soberly.
“Ugh. I think the president of the association is right.”
“… … .”
As soon as I nodded my head without a moment’s delay in pointing out the mistake, Hong Seon-ah looked at me with a strange expression.
Anyway, I thanked her.
“thank you. I know roughly how to solve it. I have no idea why this happened, but now I feel like I have some sense of it.”
“… … no. I don’t know why, but do you know the solution?”
“Because this is my style.”
“… … .”
I understand the situation, but I don’t know what to do. That was the reason Hong Seon-ah called me. I decided to answer that question.
“The area we are burning right now is the area that Samsung Hunting Agency and GS Defense Agency are in charge of. It is the SK Hunters jurisdiction where there is a fuss because of the smoke.”
“It’s the third guild. Are those uncles good at hunting today?”
“no. Big companies don’t do business that way. They gave up hunting today to show me well, and I understand that they are hunting by stealing the jurisdiction of small and medium-sized guilds.”
“… … Is such bullying even possible here?”
“As I said, large companies don’t do business that way. You must have lobbied for the small business leadership. Then, the yangbans who run small and medium guilds will take about 5 times their income today into their back pockets.”
“… … Hunters?”
“Small and medium-sized guild hunters won’t get paid because they couldn’t hunt today. Then, high-level hunters and low-level hunters alike will set up companies. And Hong Seon-ah and I are going to stay here for a day or three.”
“… … .”
“Then the hunters who used to fight each other would come together and form a union or whatever. And the fight will naturally become reconciliation. Hunters will be able to improve on their own in the process of arguing with unions and companies.”
After I finished the explanation, I sent a glance to ask if I had any questions, and Hong Seon-ah lightly shook her head and said to me.
“You seem too optimistic. I don’t think the world will roll like dominoes like that… … .”
“You just have to make it roll like that.”
“… … yes?”
“I have already given instructions to large corporations to take the hunting grounds of small and medium-sized guilds. I also sprayed NIS agents who would set up a union among the hunters.”
“Aha.”
“… … .”
“Is this how politics works?”
“… … Don’t follow me.”
* * *
“hey! Jinwoon!”
“… … sister?”
Yeo Do-yeon sighed and approached Seol Jin-woon. Seol Jinwoon shook his head, wiping the blood from his face with a handkerchief.
“What are you doing here?”
Jinwoon Seol is the vice president of the Korea Hunter Association, but at the same time the head of the Asian branch of Knights Without Borders.
So Jinwoon Seol led the Asian knights and joined the European region. Instead, Hong Seon-ah leads the first-generation hunters in Korea.
“It’s nice, but I’m surprised. How the hell did you come? The area in charge of Korea is 700km further north of here-”
“I ran.”
“Ugh.”
Yeo Do-yeon proudly raised her thumb, and Seol Jin-woon quickly understood and moved on to the next question.
“Then why did you come?”
“Do you pick it up?”
“It’s not… … .”
“Whew. don’t talk Nawabari in Korea is uproar now. Hunters strike and unionize, it’s no joke. I’ve been cluttered for a few days and came out for a while.”
“It’s Korean.”
“… … It’s a very painful point.”
“ah.”
Seol Jin-woon suddenly remembered that Yeo Do-yeon’s relative was Han Seung-moon. It was a fact that we sometimes forgot because we had different genders and different genders.
When Seol Jin-woon told the truth, Yeo Do-yeon narrowed her eyes.
“Am I not that much like him?”
“… … It used to be similar After Minister Han Seung-moon became minister, he felt a little more weighty.”
“Then I have no weight?”
“How many kilograms do you have?”
“He’s a flyweight, you bastard. It’s true.”
“Ah, ah… … !”
They talked and naturally headed to the hunting grounds.
There was no mention, but it was a natural step.
If the hunters met, wouldn’t it be the first to untie the body?
The problem occurred in the hunting grounds.
“Write.”
“Why?”
“… … Why do you think this monster is stronger?”