13. Is a Reason Necessary?
“From now on, think about each breath you take. And from now on, all conversations will be replaced with sign language. You definitely memorized the hunter sign language at school, right?”
“Of course.”
Park Seong, along with Cha Ha-neul and the tanker Gong Sang-hun, stealthily approached the entrance with the most lax security among the guard zones they had scouted with the drone.
-Since it’s a scouting mission, we won’t kill them here but only knock them unconscious with sleeping drugs.
If they killed the goblins standing guard at the entrance, even if they finished scouting and withdrew, the bodies would remain and it would be troublesome.
Puff puff!
Cha Ha-neul, who approached precariously close, used a blowgun to silently shoot poisoned needles.
The poisoned needles had little pain but strong effects.
Perhaps because of that, the goblins that were hit soon yawned, leaned against something nearby, and fell asleep.
-Let’s go in.
Cha Ha-neul, who signaled Park Seong to enter, took the lead and entered the abandoned building with Gong Sang-hun.
-Let’s go down.
The 1st floor of the abandoned building had an open structure on all sides, so there seemed to be nowhere to hide or use as a shelter.
As they continued scouting, the three found stairs leading underground and carefully started descending.
If possible, it was better not to encounter goblins, but in unavoidable situations, Cha Ha-neul knocked the goblins unconscious with the blowgun.
Knocking out too many could make the goblins suspicious, so it was best not to overuse it, but in inevitable situations, there was no choice but to use it.
Thanks to that, the three who came down to the underground 1st floor could now see the true appearance of what could be called the goblins’ main base.
-This seems to be the soldiers’ quarters. During the day when the sun is high like now, they’re often sleeping. Also, the food storage is usually together with the quarters.
The three carefully moved and found the food storage.
Sometimes goblin soldiers who had woken up would wander the corridors sluggishly, but such goblins were secretly sent back to dreamland by hiding.
Then, Cha Ha-neul, who discovered the food storage, checked it first and warned Park Seong.
-It might be better not to look now. I won’t stop you if you decide to check, but you’ll have to decide quickly. It could become a lifetime trauma if it’s your first time.
There was no need for an explanation.
Even without an explanation, the rotten smell flowing out from the food storage made it seem like the nose would fall off.
What was certain was that Cha Ha-neul’s expression after checking the food storage was also not very good, so Park Seong’s fear outweighed his curiosity, but he steeled his resolve.
He had decided… no, he had to become a hunter.
He couldn’t give up because of fear after coming this far.
-It’s alright.
When Park Seong signaled that it was okay, Cha Ha-neul silently moved his body slightly to the side.
Park Seong, who poked his head through the gap and checked the goblins’ food storage…
‘Ugh!’
Park Seong hastily covered his mouth with both hands and forcibly swallowed the vomit back down.
But tears and mucus were already pouring out from his eyes and nose, making it difficult to even see in front.
Amidst that, it was fortunate in misfortune that his nose was blocked due to the snot.
Otherwise, he would have had to keep smelling the stench of human corpses rotting inside the food storage.
Naturally, the corpses were not normal.
They were cut into pieces, torn apart, rotten everywhere with maggots crawling…
It was a sight too frightening to even describe with words.
If there was a small hell in this world, would it be here?
-Rookies who lack experience sometimes fall into traps set by goblins and meet this result. For example, if they find two or three goblins and excitedly chase after the fleeing creatures, they might end up with this conclusion. Even though goblins are among the weakest monsters, belonging to the lowest tier. Shall we go back?
Park Seong shook his head at Cha Ha-neul’s question of whether to return.
-I can’t cause problems for the operation because of me. Let’s keep going.
If there was a lair of this scale, there must be a leader of the group.
No one knew whether the identity of the leader was an elite or a higher-level champion monster.
They could only hope it wasn’t a named monster.
If the leader was a named monster, their chances of survival would be extremely slim.
That’s why if they could just identify its identity and report the location, scale, troops, and type of leader of the lair to the command branch, they could receive a certain reward if the extermination succeeds.
The three quickly and stealthily passed the underground 1st floor and descended to the underground 2nd floor.
The 2nd floor was the goblins’ playroom.
It could be said to be the most important facility for goblins who enjoyed pleasure and amusement as much as humans.
And this place could be called… perhaps a worse hell than the food storage.
Squeak! Squeak!
Squee-eak!
Three goblins playing in the playroom.
But their so-called toys were not the kind of toys we commonly think of.
“Please… kill me…”
Squee-eak!
“…!”
-No…!
There was no time to stop him.
As if Cha Ha-neul’s order to never act recklessly had already been erased from his mind, Park Seong leaped forward like crazy and instantly drew his sword, slicing off the head of one goblin.
“You bastards!”
To make matters worse, the anger that had knotted up in Park Seong’s chest exploded, and there was no longer any reason left in his eyes.
Something that absolutely should not happen was unfolding before his eyes.
At least for Park Seong, it was a sight that far exceeded the level of patience that could be endured for the sake of strategy and plans.
Before he could even think of patience, the goblins’ laughter shook his eardrums.
Just looking at the faces of the creatures enjoying and laughing at people’s screams made him want to vomit.
Telling him to just endure and watch that sight?
It might be a possible request for others, but definitely not for Park Seong.
The hunter that Park Seong dreamed of should never turn a blind eye in a situation like this.
“That crazy bastard!”
Cha Ha-neul’s mouth was cursing Park Seong, but before that, his body had already sliced the neck of another goblin that was next to him.
At the same time, Gong Sang-hun also turned one goblin into a bloody pulp in an instant with a charging leap.
The problem started now.
“Run away immediately! Don’t even breathe and scram!”
There wasn’t even time to grab Park Seong by the collar and curse at him.
They had to escape from here as soon as possible before the goblins swarmed in.
However, Park Seong’s thoughts were different.
“But!”
Thwack!
At that moment, Cha Ha-neul’s fist struck Park Seong’s face.
“If you say one more word, you’ll die by my hands, not the goblins.”
“It’s clearly my fault for putting you two in danger as well. I’m sorry! But if I have no choice but to leave these people here, I’d rather stay and protect them until I die!”
“This crazy bastard! We really don’t have time…”
Thudding sounds could be heard from above.
The goblins would probably fill the passageway within 5 minutes.
In other words, if they couldn’t escape from here within 5 minutes, they would die here.
“Why the hell are you doing this? You crazy bastard! Is there someone you know here?”
“No!”
“Then why the hell…”
“Does a person need a reason to want to risk their life to save another person?”
The sudden question momentarily stunned Cha Ha-neul.
“What?”
“When I was young, I was trapped in a collapsed building for a week and almost died, but the firefighter Jin Sang-cheol who saved me said those words. He worked day and night for a week, clearing the rubble to save me, whom everyone thought was dead, and he died from an illness because of that. That’s why I can’t run away. I know I have to run away… But I still think I shouldn’t do that. I’m sorry. So please, at least you two, hurry and escape! And I’m sorry again!”
“Damn it…! Hey Park Seong, listen carefully! You really met a good person. My motto is ‘Be a father who isn’t shameful to his child.’ So you should really be grateful to our princess. Got it?”
“You have a daughter?”
“I’ll see her face next month. Ah, is this what they call a death flag? Whatever. I won’t die anyway.”
Click.
“So that’s how it is.”
-I got it. I’ll request support right away and go, so just hold on a bit.
Thanks to Gong Sang-hun, who had already relayed the situation to Oh Seong-hee by radio, the situation was relatively quickly communicated without much time loss.
“Sa-save me… Please save me…”
Park Seong moved the woman who had collapsed and couldn’t move to a corner.
So that the effects of a possible battle wouldn’t reach her.
The problem was that another woman in the same situation as her was already withering and dying in the corner.
Nearby, there were already corpses rotting with flies and maggots crawling.
“Trash-like bastards…!”
“They say other monsters hunt humans to eat, but goblins rape and kill other species solely for pleasure. But above all, goblins are monsters that excel at learning by observing human behavior… It’s quite ironic, isn’t it?”
“But that doesn’t justify their sins.”
“I’m just saying. There’s no forgiveness or anything in the first place, right? We’re hunters and they’re monsters. Our job is to hunt them down, that’s all.”
“They’re coming!”
As the sound of goblins’ footsteps began to be heard from a nearby corridor, the three readied their formation and steeled their resolve.
* * *
“As you all heard, the training is no longer the problem now. We’ll return immediately, so get ready.”
Since the city was deep underground, communication with walkie-talkies was impossible.
Therefore, even if they wanted to request support, they had to go to the last checkpoint where wired communication was possible to contact the branch.
At those words, Yoo Jun-sang, Seong Yu-ra, and Lee Jun-mo finished preparing to return, but… only one person, Han Seol, did not.
He was preparing, but his preparations were a bit different from the others.
“What are you doing?”
“I heard the situation is urgent. I will go and save the three of them now.”
“Is he in his right mind? Are you crazy? What can a student do alone…!”
Oh Seong-hee couldn’t understand Han Seol, and Lee Jun-mo also tried to dissuade Han Seol from his recklessness, but Seong Yu-ra was different.
“It’s no use stopping him. Once this guy says he’ll do something, he does it…”
“I have a question. I heard that in field training, any mishap caused by individual actions is the responsibility of the individual. Then, is it correct that any gains resulting from it are also the individual’s share?”
“This guy, really…! Do as you please! I don’t have time to argue with you here.”
For Oh Seong-hee, the safety of her teammates who would be left in the lair was more concerning than the safety of Han Seol, whom she had met for the first time today, so she decided to move quickly.
A small smile spread across Han Seol’s lips as he watched the group leave.
“You clearly said to do as I please.”
