Chapter 236: Chapter 236- Busan (Part 1)
Exhaling a small breath, Talon wiped the blood and sweat off his face as he looked up. After hours of killing, the exhaustion finally caught up to him. It wasn't unbearable but he still felt like his energy was depleted greatly.
'I think we should stop here… We have already done more than what we needed to.' He thought to himself.
At first, Talon expected that he might just do 70% of the work by the end of the day. But, after brutally massacring that many monsters in one fell sweep, that progress was boosted way further.
He was certain that the rest of the monsters lurking somewhere weren't going to be a problem even if they didn't get rid of them right now.
'Fuuh, I want a shower so bad… My smell is horrible.' Just a small sniff of his body made him frown hard. Being covered in this much blood and flesh wasn't a nice feeling at all.
So, with that in mind, he picked up the communication device to contact the rest of the group to meet up again at the designated spot they agreed on. However, as he was about to click the button, the device suddenly started ringing loudly.
"Hm? Someone is trying to contact me first. Is it the others?" He murmured as he responded.
The moment he picked it up, he heard a familiar voice through the speaker. "Hey, Talon, where are you right now?"
The voice belonged to Hyun-Jae and she seemed oddly in a hurry which made him even more alerted.
"I'm still in the forest up north. Why? Did something happen?" He asked confusedly.
"Yes, you need to come back. Something happened but I can't tell you over the phone." She replied.
"Ok, I'm on my way." Talon didn't waste a second asking any further questions since he knew she was going to explain when he was back. She had a good reason as to why she didn't tell him.
'I hope everything is ok.' With a worried look on his face, he contacted his group and told them to immediately return to the cars as fast as possible.
The trip back was quick as Talon had to go full speed. He didn't know what was awaiting for him back at the base so even with a calm mind, he couldn't stop himself from rushing back as fast as he could.
An hour later, he was back at the base as he rushed to the main building. The moment he walked inside, he found everyone sitting around the table waiting for him. Hyun-Jae, Sophie, Chin-Hwa, Shin-Il, Soomin, Young-Soon, Mo-Shin, and a few others who were a part of the planning team.
These were the highest positions in the entire base. They were there for a reason and Talon was certain that it wasn't a simple one.
"Talon! Oh my god!" Sophie exclaimed as she rushed toward him. "Are you ok?"
The moment their eyes landed on him, they had varying reactions to his appearance.
The way he was covered completely in blood sent chills down their spines. He simply looked terrifying.
"I'm fine, it's not my blood. More importantly, what happened?" He said as he approached Hyun-Jae. "Your call didn't sound good."
Hyun-Jae looked worriedly at him for a moment. She wanted to comment on the blood but decided to keep it for later since Talon said he was fine.
"We received a message signal." She said.
"A message signal? From who?"
"From the people in Busan." She replied with a serious look. "I didn't reach the call in time so it's only a message now."
"The people in Busan?" Talon raised an eyebrow. "What did they want? Did they find something?"
Talon was already aware of the situation in Busan so far from what Hyun-Ki said. He had mentioned that the group there was huge, composed of at least a few hundred people who went there with the single purpose of clearing the entire area that leads to Tsushima across the ocean from all the monsters that lived in it.
He already had plans of going there right after returning to Seoul so this call was expectedly not a problem until it became a problem right now.
"Sigh, sit down and listen." Hyun-Jae sighed as she rubbed her temples tiredly.
The young man obliged and took a seat next to her. Then, Hyun-Jae pulled the device out and clicked a few buttons before she put it down and went silent, leaving the record to speak for itself.
"SSSHHHHHHH…" The cryptic noise of the device began slowly before it was quickly replaced with a voice.
"Shhhh… Can you hear me? Shhh… We are sending a message from Busan for the usual update on the mission. Things were going smoothly so far. We came across some monsters on the shores but they weren't a threat. But, we have a problem. We have a visitor here."
'A visitor?' Talon looked even more confused as he listened to the next words said by the man carefully.
"A day ago… An unknown Japanese man was found near our current location. He was injured and unconscious so we couldn't identify him. He had woken up a few hours ago and he said that he had crossed the ocean to reach us. We cannot deny or confirm his claims. He seems to know about the current plan and he is asking us to bring him back to the base. We are asking for permission to do that, Sir!
We shall await your response as soon as possible."
After that, the record went completely silent as the message ended. What was left after that was solemn silence.
"... This sounds ridiculous no matter how many times I hear it." Chin-Hwa clicked his tongue with an annoyed look on his face. "How did he cross the ocean when it's choke full of monsters and ended up on the chores?"
His question was the first oddity in this entire story. Everyone knew how ridiculous it sounded since they themselves tried to do something similar and it didn't go smoothly. Talon himself almost died because he tried to cross the Han River.
Now, imagine that but perhaps tens of times worse. It didn't make any sense that someone could do that and Talon couldn't.
"So he's lying?" Shin-Il asked confusedly.
"No, that's probably not the case since he did mention this man knew about the plan. It can't be a coincidence that he ended up there." Sophie shook her head.
"But it still makes no sense," Soomin interjected. "Unless he's some kind of monster with more power than Talon, it should be impossible."
As they heard that, everyone naturally went to look at Talon. He was the most knowledgeable when it came to this and so his opinion mattered the most.
The young man seemed to be deep in thought as he looked down. His mind was working through the entire thing as quickly as he could.
"Talon?" Hyun-Jae called his name gently, making him look up.
"He is probably not lying. But, he also didn't cross the ocean the way we might think."
'It couldn't be using sheer power because that is impossible. It has to be something different… A method that keeps him away from facing monsters.'
Talon also remembered the detail about the man being heavily injured which meant that even though his plan worked, it wasn't completely safe.
Looking up, Talon stared at Acrypha who was nonchalantly floating around. He wanted to ask her about her opinion. But, for some reason, the moment he looked at her, something clicked in his head and his eyes widened.
In a moment of inspiration, he somehow got an idea, rather quickly. An idea that he wasn't sure was possible or not.
"Hey, Acrypha." He spoke in a mysterious tone. "What are the chances that someone gets an ability related to flying early on?" He asked.
The woman thought for a moment before she replied. "It's not that rare. Abilities related to flying are quite common in all worlds. Though, they can vary in power and efficiency. Wait, why are you asking tha-... Oh…" It didn't take long for Acrypha to reach what Talon was looking for and she could only laugh.
"You're one hell of a genius… I couldn't even think of that." She said with a weird smile.
Talon's lips widened into a grin. "Haha, this is so stupid…" Facepalming, he looked at his group.
"I think I know how it happened."
"Really?"
"He didn't cross the ocean using power. That would be impossible. He had crossed the ocean in a way where he would only have to worry about one particular type of enemy." Then, Talon slowly pointed up. "The ones in the sky."
His words snapped everyone's mind in a moment.
"He flew…" Hyun-Jae murmured in a moment of realization. "But, how? Fighting jets had no chance of doing that."
"They don't. But, skills do."
"A skill that makes you fly? How is that possible? We never came across one so far."
"It is possible, we just didn't find it yet and they did."
"That also explains why only one person crossed the ocean and reached Busan. It's because he's the only one that can fly." Sophie murmured. "Talon, you're a genius!"
"I said that first." Acrypha rolled her eyes.
"But, that doesn't solve anything. The problem is still there. He had reached Busan which means that he is there to be the link between Japan and our side and make sure things are going according to their plans. If they realize that we took over this base, things won't end nicely." Hyun-Jae interjected.
Their entire plan that they built so far would go to ruin in a second if their enemy realized they weren't dealing with Hyun-Ki as they expected. They were instead slowly falling into the trap Talon had set up for them.
However, that same prey is now crawling out of that trap with sheer coincidence and luck.
'I have to bury them again quickly.'
"We are going to Busan, now."
A//N: If you enjoyed reading, don't forget to support the book with GT and PS. Thank you!