Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense

Chapter 39

039 – Deja VU

In a small café in Changwon, Gyeongsangnam-do, a beautiful woman was sipping her coffee at a table in front of the café. The café had a simple yet trendy design, perfectly fitting the term ‘Insta-aesthetic’. The woman had flawless white skin and wore a pure white dress that complemented her complexion perfectly. Her long, straight legs and wide-brimmed hat she wore made her surroundings look like a canvas. Consequently, the eyes of men around her were drawn to her, darting glances in her direction.

“She’s really pretty.”

“Should I talk to her?”

“Come on, with looks like that, do you think she doesn’t have a boyfriend?”

“I feel like I’ve seen her somewhere before…”

Most men gave up on talking to her simply based on her appearance, but among them, a few courageous ones existed. They thought that they could tolerate any pain for even the slightest chance to be acquainted with her. One of those brave individuals approached her and asked,

“Excuse me…”

“What is it?”

Her voice also harmonized beautifully with her appearance, making the man momentarily forget what he was going to say. He shook his head and launched into a pre-prepared pickup line.

“Have we met somewhere before?”

It wasn’t just a pickup line. He genuinely thought he had seen her somewhere before.

She responded, not with an ‘No?’ or ‘Where?’ as he had expected, but with a blindingly beautiful smile,

“Ah! Maybe we have?”

“What?! Have we really met before?”

“No, I’ve never seen you, but you’ve probably seen me. Because…”

The man’s expression hardened in an instant as he looked at the smartphone screen she showed him. Written on the screen were the chilling words “Murder Suspect Wanted” and an astonishing reward of 40 million won.

“You probably saw me here, right? I was even on the 9 o’clock news. So, why did you talk to me? Are you a cop?”

“No?! No, I’m not!”

“Are you going to report me then? 40 million won is not a small amount.”

“Absolutely not. I’m sorry. I must have mistaken you for someone else.”

The man hastily bowed several times to apologize and quickly left.

Left behind was Soo-jeong, muttering to herself while holding her cup of coffee with a disappointed expression,

“It would have been okay if he had reported me…”

“He didn’t rashly report because senior simply didn’t look like a murderer.”

At that moment, Myung-jun, who had brought a small cake on a tray, spoke to Soo-jeong with a smile.

Soo-jeong accepted the tray with a bright smile.

“‘So, If it were you, would you have not reported it? Assuming we had nothing to do with each other?”

“No, I would have reported it immediately. I’m a stickler for rules. Besides, both of us are high-risk individuals. We’ve killed secret agents of the government with special abilities. Reporting is natural in that case.”

“Do you think they reported us too?”

As Soo-jeong subtly gestured toward people watching them from a distance, Myung-jun nodded.

“Probably. But it will take some time to set up a full trap. They hastily dispatched a small team last time and failed, so they will carefully set an inescapable net this time.”

Just then, the sound of a glass shattering under pressure came from a table a bit away from the two.

Soo-jeong turned towards the noise, shook her head slightly, and whispered softly into her earpiece.

[Mr. Ho Chang, the main feature of the Mk-14 and Chameleon suit might be appearance alteration, but it’s still powerful armor. Be careful with the strength. Although it may look like you’re holding the glass with your bare hands, in reality, you’re wearing thick mechanical gloves.]

[I’ve taken note of it.]

[Well, the purpose was to draw attention anyway, so it shouldn’t be a big problem. But don’t forget, the objective of this operation is not Mr. Ho Chang but to focus attention on the two of us.]

[Understood.]

Far away, having ended their communication via the implant behind their ears, they resumed their casual demeanor.

Ho Chang rushed over with a surprised expression, while Soo-jeong turned to her special-shaped tablet PC.

It looked like a transparent tablet you’d find in a futuristic movie.

It functioned like a regular tablet, displaying multiple images on the screen. Myung-jun stared at it, then asked,

“Senior.”

“Hm?”

“Do we really need that kind of fancy gadget? There are normal-looking ones.”

“It’s not cool otherwise. We have the chance to use unimaginable future technology, so I don’t want to use outdated stuff.”

“What do you see on that ‘future gadget’?”

“Several dozen vehicles approaching us. But I’m not sure which organization they belong to.”

“Doesn’t government vehicles usually have their name on them?”

“There’s a name, but it’s an abbreviation I’ve never seen before. Have you heard of an agency called EDA?”

“I have.”

While it might be a first-time hearing in this world, Myung-jun was affiliated with the ‘Gate Crisis Laboratory,’ known as GCL, in his previous life, and its higher institution was EDA.

Myung-jun spoke in a speculative tone, as if guessing, ‘Could it be something like this?’

“Isn’t it an acronym for ESP Defense Agency, given that Extra-sensory perception is called ESP in English?”

“Oh, that’s persuasive. So, all these people who are rushing towards us right now are special public servants from an organization that was hastily put together not even a week ago? Are they all Awakeners?”

Myung-jun pondered the number of Awakeners in South Korea at this time and shook his head.

“No, if there were that many Awakeners, they wouldn’t have sent only two people to catch us last time. If we roughly calculate the current frequency of gate appearances in South Korea and the probability of awakening through awakening stones…”

“Calculate?”

“We would have to estimate that there are around 10 Awakeners in South Korea right now.”

“Including the two we killed last time?”

“Including those two, but not including our clan members.”

“Wow, that 40 million wasn’t for nothing. Killing two precious Awakeners like that…”

“Exactly. That’s why they will go all-out this time.”

Before Myung-jun could finish speaking, dozens of vehicles sped into the plaza and simultaneously hit the brakes.

Then, numerous special forces agents dressed in black protective suits started pouring out.

“Target confirmed. Target confirmed. Both Alpha and Beta, who are wanted, have been confirmed to be at the same location.”

“The target is a dangerous individual with the ability to effortlessly eliminate two special agents who are awakened. All units are advised to avoid hasty engagement and maintain distance.”

“Team 3 is on standby at the designated location.”

“Two minutes until sniper deployment is complete.”

Amidst an overwhelming encirclement as if the Hulk himself had appeared in the city center, Myung-jun and Soo-jeong were having a casual conversation with utterly relaxed expressions.

Then, a loud sound blared through a loudspeaker into the ears of the two.

“Attention to all citizens in the plaza! This area is where a special murder suspect has appeared, please leave the scene immediately! I repeat, follow the instructions of the agents on the scene and evacuate quickly!”

“What, is this for real?”

“Are these the ‘Awakener’ announced by the White House a while ago? Can they actually use superpowers?”

Despite the menacing content of the warning broadcast, some citizens promptly left the scene in fear. Unfortunately, most of the gathered crowd were spirited young men and women in their 20s.

Living up to their modern-day, risk-taking youth culture, they became excited as if they were watching a movie scene when they saw special forces agents clad in black bulletproof vests and armed with rifles.

Then they took out their smartphones and began to film the soon-to-be thrilling scene.

“What are you doing! Why aren’t you evacuating the citizens?!”

As a figure who appeared to be in charge shouted, an agent holding a megaphone lowered his head and said,

“We are currently facilitating the evacuation.”

“What about the target?”

“They are not moving. They’re probably aware that they are being surrounded.”

“Be cautious! the target may blend into the crowd to escape, so all units should be alert.”

“Understood! What should we do about citizens who are not evacuating?”

The man looked at the numerous people holding their smartphones with a dissatisfied expression.

Then, he took out a massive greatsword from a black sheath on his back and slammed it into the ground.

-KWAAAAANG!-

With a collision sound that was hard to believe was produced by a human-sword impact with the ground, a massive crater was formed, and rock fragments flew in all directions.

Startled citizens then lifted their heads in the direction where the man had been.

“If you don’t want to die, get the hell out of here!”

Only then, realizing the severity of the situation, the crowd began to scream and evacuate the area. The man with the megaphone lowered his head.

“Isn’t that too harsh a measure for civilians?”

“Better than them staying and becoming casualties. If anyone has a problem with it, I’ll say I took unilateral action.”

The man frowned at the words of the man with the greatsword.

He didn’t like such ‘Awakener’ way of thinking.

Backed by full support from the South Korean government, the newly established agency EDA had ambitious plans. Park Moon-soo, originally a special agent of the National Intelligence Service, applied for a position at EDA after hearing that the agency would deal with special abilities and the Gate Incident.

There, he met ‘Awakener’ he had long been curious about, but their character and attitudes were nothing like the ‘superheroes’ he had imagined.

“A new aristocracy for the 21st century…”

A unique sense of authority for looking down on those who aren’t awakened.

Their actions often displayed the underlying belief of, ‘Who dares to say anything to me, an Awakener?’

Whether it’s police or the military, one should never take such drastic measures against civilians, but the awakener often acted recklessly, as if to say, ‘What can you possibly do to me?’

This was a ‘common characteristic’ that all the awakener Moon-soo met had.

‘Damn it, you cause the incidents, but I have to do all the paperwork.’

Thinking about the mountain of complaint documents that would be piled up at the headquarters, Moon-soo felt a stomachache coming on.

However, the man with the greatsword didn’t pay any attention to Moon-soo and began to walk towards the table where Myung-jun and Soo-jeong were sitting.

“Hold on! We haven’t received the contact orders yet…”

“I’m just saying hello, just saying hello. I have no intention to fight, so relax. Besides…”

The man with the greatsword wasn’t looking in the direction of Myung-jun but somewhere else.

“It seems we should be concerned about more targets than just those two.”

“Are you talking about the big guy?”

The man nodded.

“Yes. It would be good if he’s innocent, but if he’s on the same side as the target, we should deal with him too. If not, according to statistics, he’s just a civilian and we should chase him away.”

The man took a radio from his belt and issued instructions to the sniper team on standby on the roof to keep an eye on Ho Chang’s movements.

Then, he started walking towards the target.

This was the first official contact between the South Korean government and Myung-jun following the U.S. White House’s announcement about the Gate Incident.

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