Chapter : 96
Return (1)
Even though it was still young, the monster was no ordinary creature; its strength was remarkable. Yet, in terms of temperament, in front of Suhyun it was still just a rookie whose blood had barely dried. The young tiger seemed to understand the situation after a few hits.
“Good, good.”
“…What is that?”
Lee Dojeon was shocked when he saw what Suhyun had brought after not seeing him for a long time. No matter how you looked at it, it was a cub of a Poshukan tiger.
“I found it along the way. But how’s the work going?”
“Is there any difference in our work? We just endure day by day.”
“Wait a little longer. I’ll bring you good news. And the others?”
“They left after leaving only contact information.”
Lee Dojeon chuckled lightly, perhaps recalling his encounter with Suhyun.
After meeting Suhyun, Lee Dojeon went around gathering the scattered runaway mercenaries: Contact, Daeseong, and Samdurong. They weren’t a huge company, but combined, their numbers were considerable.
At first, they were bewildered but eventually convinced by Lee Dojeon’s proposal. As he said, their situation couldn’t get any worse.
They first wanted to see Suhyun’s face. What kind of guy was making such a bold proposal?
- “What… is that guy?”
Contact’s team leader, Yang Junyoung, was an experienced mercenary who had survived countless battles. His judgment had been proven by surviving so much without superpowers. To him, Suhyun looked nothing but like a rookie.
- “Isn’t he too young? Maybe a subordinate?”
- “It’s him.”
- “What? Really?”
Though not loudly, Suhyun noticed the movement of Yang Junyoung’s lips and understood what he was saying.
- “Rude, aren’t you?”
- “Ugh!”
- “Team leader!”
- “You have awful manners to the person who’s going to clear your names.”
Yang Junyoung, hit unexpectedly, grimaced and gestured to his team not to interfere. He had indeed made a mistake. If the team intervened and made a scene, things could go wrong.
But if he let himself be hit like this without reacting, he wouldn’t be Yang Junyoung.
- “Are we… testing me?”
- “L-Let’s stop. That person is…”
- “If you can, try it.”
- “Alright!”
Knowing Suhyun could rip Yang Junyoung’s limbs apart with a snap of his fingers, Lee Dojeon tried to stop him, but Suhyun encouraged it instead. Yang Junyoung roared like an old lion and charged.
- “Huff, huff!”
Everyone’s eyes widened. Lee Dojeon was especially stunned. Suhyun wasn’t using superpowers, yet he dodged every attack without taking a single hit.
- “Don’t runaway mercenaries do any physical training? Already tired?”
- “Y-You…”
Thunk!
With a single kick, Yang Junyoung spun around and fell—a total humiliation.
- “I told you to bring only those we need at full strength, not washed-up losers!”
- “N-No… that’s…”
Lee Dojeon said in disbelief. These were far from washed-up. Contact had once been a well-known mercenary company.
- “You bastard. Come here! How dare you disrespect the leader!”
One of the team members stepped forward, enraged at their leader’s humiliation, rolling up his sleeves to glare at Suhyun.
- “So you think you’re clever enough to escape… ugh!”
He was flung backward.
- “Who do you think you’re talking to without rank? You think I’ll play along just because someone like you asks?”
Only then did they realize Suhyun was an esper, a telekinetic of the highest grade.
- “He used superpowers just now?!”
- “S-Stop it.”
It was Yang Junyoung who stopped them. Rising, his wrinkled face filled with embarrassment, he said:
- “I didn’t use telekinesis. I underestimated him.”
- “Well, you were actually easy to underestimate.”
- “…I admit I misspoke. I apologize.”
- “Fine. Then let’s talk.”
The conversation dragged on, but in the end, everyone reached a satisfactory result. It was actually Yang Junyoung who actively persuaded the other mercenary companies during the discussion. Everyone agreed there was no hope in the current situation and decided to gamble on the slim chance Suhyun could clear their names. Realistically, it also helped that Suhyun was supplying resources—surviving here without supplies would have been grueling.
“Should we call them?”
“No, it’s pointless to see them face to face. Just pass the message. I’ll head back soon. The city must be in chaos by now.”
Lee Dojeon couldn’t possibly imagine that the Dragon Slayer Project had failed and caused such upheaval.
“I’ll supply the materials through the route I mentioned before. Preserve your strength. A rusty sword is useless before you even swing it.”
“I’ll remember.”
“Good.”
Even while talking, Lee Dojeon’s eyes flicked anxiously. He flinched each time the tiger moved in Suhyun’s arms.
“Why are you so jumpy? Distracting.”
“W-Well… it’s just distracting me a bit…”
“I found the cub by chance. Want to try raising it? Think you can?”
“Well…?”
“If it can’t train or attacks, you can just kill it.”
- Grrr?
The cub tilted its head. Even Lee Dojeon, knowing how monstrous it would become as it grew, couldn’t help feeling his heart race at how cute it was.
Compared to the city, the elves’ village was primitive, but by Poshukan standards, it was civilized. The first thing Suhyun did upon returning was take a bath.
“Ugh, I’m dead tired.”
“What on earth is that?!”
The first to rush to Suhyun after he finished bathing was Shaina. Hearing the news of his return, she came running, only to find Suhyun absent and a tiger cub in his place.
“I happened to bring it along… Luiril, hands off.”
“Touching it wouldn’t cause a problem, right?”
“No, no problem. Still, hands off.”
Even elves rarely saw a monster cub. Luiril pouted at Suhyun’s warning while trying to pet the young tiger.
“So, the Dragon Slayer Project? Is it over?”
Shaina nodded instead of answering.
“It’s better to see it firsthand.”
“True. Let’s just give our thanks and leave.”
Suhyun changed clothes and spent a long time expressing gratitude to Ethan and Ada, who had helped him. Maintaining good relations was essential. He would also need to supply the runaway mercenaries in Poshukan… Suhyun exchanged a meaningful glance with Ethan and shook hands.
On the way back, Shaina petted the tiger cub and asked:
“What happens when we return?”
“First, we’ll go through the proper return procedures…”
Since he had been missing, they couldn’t let it slide. The government would want an explanation and a health check. With most of the team gone, it was even more pressing.
“They might treat us overly kindly.”
“?”
Shaina tilted her head, not understanding. Suhyun closed his eyes and enjoyed the long-awaited rest. She would understand once they arrived.
“…”
As soon as the news of Uncle Joe Company’s missing team leader returning spread, the Development Planning Bureau immediately tried to fetch Suhyun. They didn’t care about appearances—they acted quickly.
“I was planning to rest a bit due to fatigue.”
“Oh? In that case… rest now, and we can schedule another time!”
“Enough. You called me here—why?”
“Team Leader Kim Suhyun, as head of our 6th Direct Team, how could we not be concerned about your disappearance and return?”
Lee Wonjae spoke sincerely, but Suhyun remained cold—actually acting cold, as if deeply hurt and resentful.
“Really? I wish you’d cared when I went missing.”
“…!”
“Then I wouldn’t have wasted all that time in that godforsaken place.”
Lee Wonjae broke into a cold sweat. He hadn’t imagined things would unfold like this.
When the news broke that Kim Suhyun, Uncle Joe Company’s team leader, had gone missing, he was in the middle of planning. Knowing Suhyun’s abilities, he thought the situation wasn’t right to invest resources. The company was essentially Suhyun’s one-man team. Without him, the team would collapse. Wasting resources there didn’t make sense.
“I… I’m sorry. The situation really wasn’t favorable.”
Excuses wouldn’t work. He had to be straightforward. Lee Wonjae shut his eyes and bowed.
“Really? So you couldn’t send even a single rescue team?”
‘Sending a regular rescue team would be useless in a place where you could go missing!’
Even internally shouting that, it would only make things worse to say it. Now he had to calm Suhyun down.
“Team Leader, your abilities are exceptional… we couldn’t send a rescue recklessly.”
“Compliments are compliments, but given the situation, I don’t find it comforting. I ordered my team not to search for me even if I went missing, but I didn’t expect the government to follow that logic. I’m beginning to doubt this so-called ‘direct team.’”
“…!”
A chill ran down his spine. Suhyun was indirectly expressing a desire to sever ties.
“So, the Dragon Slayer Project—did it go well?”
An obvious question. Lee Wonjae, trapped, shook his head with a grim face.
“Apparently, it failed.”
“‘Failed’ doesn’t even capture it; it’s a massive understatement.”
“Do we thank the government for not sending a rescue team…?”
Suhyun shook his head. She had played the part of the disappointed victim of the government’s betrayal enough. It was time to get to the point.
“Director, I’ll ask honestly. How much damage was done?”
“What kind of damage?”
Suhyun couldn’t help but laugh inwardly—there had clearly been massive damage.
“Well… casualties and equipment aren’t useful for me to know. I’m more interested in the status of the direct teams present. They’re all capable people, so even with the project failing, I don’t expect the damage to be that severe.”
Lee Wonjae raised a finger.
“One team was wiped out?”
“…All but one. The remaining team can hardly function in the future.”
“…”
Suhyun feigned a shocked expression.
“I want to see the data.”
Though she had seen the material before, it was better to double-check. One never knew what had changed.
During Cameron’s early exploration days, there was a saying: humans, even when they fall, grasp something and rise again. Even if an expedition suffered heavy losses, if they brought back data, there was always a way to overcome it.
The Dragon Slayer Project was no different. The participants were annihilated, but something remained: data on the dragon’s strength.
Lee Wonjae swallowed hard, reacting to the dragon in the footage. To him, that dragon would seem like a demon destroying everything he had built.
Suhyun rested her chin on her hand, expressionless, watching the video. She already knew the dragon’s power.
‘Fighter jets… same as before.’
In Cameron, flying monsters existed. The airspace required fast movement, unsuitable for normal humans, so the skies were rarely chosen as a battlefield.
But because it was a project, fighter jets had been deployed despite anticipated losses. The sight of steel wings filling the sky was breathtaking—until they all fell.
‘Telekinesis… gravity type.’
Unlike Suhyun’s telekinesis, this was downward-pushing gravity. The range was unimaginable. With a single flap of the dragon’s wings, the jets began to plummet. Sweeping away any resistance, the dragon soared. The countless humans below looked like pebbles to its eyes—there was not a hint of fear.
