The Returner

Chapter 226: Isn’t there anything that can be done? (1)

Kwaa-boom!!

The tank spewed out a large lick of flame.

The shell flew like a streak of lightning and crashed into the armour belonging to a tank on the opposing side. It bore a hole through the armour plating, and molten metal gushed into the interior of the tank.

“Aaaaahk!!”

Along with the short but loud screams, the tank stopped moving. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what happened inside the tank that had stopped moving after shaking around for a bit.

“D*mn abominable sons of b*tches!!”

The defence forces of Ukraine found itself helpless against the squadron of the Russian Federation’s tanks that invaded their borders without any warning whatsoever.

“Just what the hell are they thinking?!”

It wasn’t as if the Russians had been moderate in their actions until now, but still, this would be their first time trying to push through with tanks in no holds-barred open warfare. An event unthinkable when considering the negative sentiments of the international community was unfolding in reality.

Even if Russia was a powerhouse nation, it still couldn’t openly invade its neighbours when the whole world was watching. Yet, it had broken that unspoken rule.

“What about our ability users?!”

Typical firepower alone wasn’t going to cut it. Of course, that didn’t mean Ukrainians had no choice but to sit back and do nothing, did it?

“They are en route!”

“What the hell is taking them so long?!”

Normally, ability users formed a defensive cordon around large cities and towns rather around the borders.

Their job was to speedily defend the locations where a Gate popped up. The most important part of the mission was to minimise the losses to human life, so it was only obvious that they would prioritise areas with many people.

“They should arrive soon, sir.”

“D*mn it!!”

Vitaly Bolodmirovic gnashed his teeth and glared at the battlefront. His troops were desperately resisting against the enemy forces, but too bad, Russia’s weapons were technologically superior and more advanced. Worse still, Ukrainians lost out in the overall numbers game, too.

And also...

“Euh, euh!!”

Despair filled up Vitaly’s face.

He immediately realised who those humans appearing between the gaps of the advancing tanks were.

The ‘KGB’.

The former pride of the Soviet Union, the KGB, changed to the FSB in modern times and its heritage had come to an end then. However, the crazy Russians, under the pretext of regaining their glory from the days of the Soviet Union, named their ability user agency the ‘KGB’.

Thanks to that, the KGB that wasn’t really the KGB was born, and sure enough, that name soon began striking fear into the hearts of nations once more as a symbol of terror. The KGB’s ability users received intense training as per the instructions of their government and now, they were often rated as the strongest combat force in the world, alongside their counterparts in the United States of America.

Until the sudden meteoric rise of the Republic of Korea, that was.

Although their iron-clad international repute had developed some cracks in it due to the man referred to as the walking, talking, ticking time bomb, Yi Ji-Hyuk making his entrance, the KGB remained a force to be reckoned with by other nations.

And the ability users of that organisation had bared their vicious fangs in the direction of Ukraine.

Vitaly looked at them with despair thickly filling up his expression.

*

“Now that’s a nice expression.”

Vladimir Bergenev lowered his binoculars and grinned insidiously.

Even before Black Monday, Ukraine pleaded with the international community to stop the advent of the Russian Federation, and after Black Monday, Russia was far too busy sorting out all the Gates opening up within its borders and didn’t have any leeway to mind the business of its neighbouring nations.

Russia’s territory was bizarrely huge compared to its overall population, so it was only obvious that they had to work full-time to stop Gates from opening up.

However, they had finally found some leeway recently and the regime had gained some semblance of stability now.

“So, you’ve slept peacefully during all this time, haven’t you?”

Realising that Russia simply didn’t have any room to spare, Ukraine openly began provoking and mocking their neighbour and continuously poked the beast busy minding its own business. So, it was time to pay for their indiscretions.

“International community?”

Vladimir cackled ominously.

The whole concept of the ‘international community’ had devolved into something similar to catching floating clouds now.

Each country had barely any spare breathing room from defending against Gates opening up in its borders, yet trying to police the peace and order in the international politics by cooperating with another country?

What a stupid dream that was.

The current situation easily proved that.

It had already been three days since Russian troops waltzed past Ukrainian borders; other countries had only sent warning messages, telling the aggressors to cease the invasion yet no real, actual, tangible responses had been made so far.

“From here onwards, power rules.”

Just like how it was back during the Cold War-era.

Vladimir stared at the Russian ability users charging towards the Ukrainian soldiers and cackled ominously.

***

“What a d*mn mess.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk scratched his head.

He saw skirmishes taking place in various regions of the planet. It was simply impossible to tell just where one should start doing something, anything, to sort this mess out.

The start was with Russia-Ukraine, while a rather suspicious atmosphere was permeating throughout the entire Europe as well. Meanwhile, Palestine and Israel were already engaged in an open conflict at the moment.

As for the Middle East, one wrong move, and World War 3 might break out at any given moment there.

“Groan....”

Yi Ji-Hyuk spat out one sigh after another.

Just sorting out the Gate problem alone proved to be hard as heck, yet what was he supposed to do to resolve this situation?

“Just what is up with these fools??” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Dunno.” (Ye-Won)

Yi Ye-Won replied disinterestedly.

“Isn’t war something that happens all the time? The way I hear it, there never has been a time in human history without a war happening somewhere.” (Ye-Won)

“Whew....” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

She wasn’t wrong there.

Wars happened all the time in Berafe, too. There were various reasons why, but ultimately, those reasons didn’t really matter. Regardless of why, wars broke out anyway.

At some point in time, Yi Ji-Hyuk even wondered if these idiots just wanted to fight each other so they started war for no reason whatsoever.

He wasn’t planning to deny the fact that violent streak slept within the human nature, but still, why now all of a sudden? Couldn’t they see that fighting among humanity would only accelerate their own demise?

“Groan....”

“Mom, this is boring. Let’s watch variety shows instead!” (Ye-Won)

“Should we?” (mom)

Hearing that, mighty flames of heavens erupted within Yi Ji-Hyuk.

“What the heck, there are wars breaking out all over the world, so who cares about some variety shows?!” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ye-Won shot him a glare without holding back.

“Why not?!” (Ye-Won)

“N-no, well....” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ye-Won’s head leaned at a crooked angle as she continued her glare.

“What can I do?” (Ye-Won)

“Mm?”

Yi Ji-Hyuk instantly became speechless.

Wars were breaking out even when humanity was facing a grave situation where they might perish together with one wrong move, so he said something out of frustration when his family seemed to not care about it one jot.

However, he just didn’t know what to say if she came out like that.

“N-no, what I’m saying is....” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ye-Won disinterestedly cut her brother’s words off.

“It’s not like I’m gonna enlist and starting shooting guns, nor am I going to fly to Russia, so what do you want me to do here? You think anything will change if we watch the news and go, ‘Oh my gosh, oh my gosh’ over and over again??” (Ye-Won)

“No, not really.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“So? What should I do, then? Ng? Oppa?” (Ye-Won)

“....My bad.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk was brought down on his knees by his sister’s faultless logic. No matter how hard he racked his brain, he just couldn’t come up with a rebuttal.

“Stuff like that is for the important people higher up to worry about, or for someone like you, oppa, who might get dispatched there immediately. Kids like me? It’s fine for us to watch variety shows and giggle away. Oppa, how can you not know stuff like that?” (Ye-Won)

“Euh, euh....” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

It feels like I’m being treated like a dolt here, but I’ve got nothing to fight back with!!

Come on, Yi Ji-Hyuk!! Think, man! Think!! (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)

“R-right! You, you really said something smart! Your own oppa might get called out to one of those places any time now, so how can you be so disinterested in what’s happening around the world?!” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Your oppa might be in danger, you know?!

However, Yi Ye-Won remained steadfast from Yi Ji-Hyuk’s pace.

“Oh, so you are going there?” (Ye-Won)

“Mm? N-no, I don’t know that yet.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“In that case, tell me when you’re about to. It hasn’t even happened yet, so why should I start worrying about in advance?” (Ye-Won)

Park Seon-Duk quickly took her daughter’s side.

“She’s right, son. Besides, why are you getting irritated at your own sister? She’s allowed to watch whatever she wants to on TV!” (mom)

“Yes, mother......” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

The dejected Yi Ji-Hyuk’s head drooped lower and lower.

Was I the one in the wrong?

Really now? (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)

He had plenty of things to whine about, but too bad, he had no one to whine to.

While suppressing this sense of sorrow in his heart, Yi Ji-Hyuk turned around to leave.

“Are you going to wash up?” (mom)

“Yes, I need to go to work.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“But, it’s in the middle of the day? You are going to work now?” (mom)

“Nah, I still need to go.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

He now kinda understood the mindset of those managers that went to work even during their off days. Because, rather than stay in the house while being henpecked by their significant others, it was a whole lot more preferable to go to the office where they could act like kings, instead.

“Do your best, son.” (dad)

“Argh, what the?! That surprised me!!” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk jumped in fright and shouted out.

“W-who...? Ah, dad?!” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk gasped in surprise as he stared at his own father with an apron draped on.

“Have you been on a trip somewhere? It’s like, I haven’t seen you in a really long time?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“B-but, I’ve been at home all this time....” (dad)

“Really? That’s so strange, though.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

If that’s the case, why didn’t he make his appearance sooner?

Did the mister director forget about my dad?

Even then, there is the head writer and stuff, so he must’ve not been forgotten completely....

....What the hell am I even thinking about here? (Yi Ji-Hyuk’s inner monologue)

Yi Ji-Hyuk urgently shook his head and looked at his father.

“S-so.... What were you saying just now, dad?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“I said, ‘Do your best’, son.” (dad)

“Oh....”

It seemed that a father was still a father. Wasn’t he the one most worried about his son in this entire family?

“At first, things start this way.” (dad)

“Pardon?” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“But, a little while later, they start gradually forgetting about you.” (dad)

“....F-father....” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk hurriedly hugged his father, Yi Cheol-Joong, tightly.

“That’s how it is supposed to be for a man, son. Once their backs are warm and bellies are full, we are relegated to useless extras.” (dad)

“It’s like you’re right about everything, dad. I was being fawned over in the beginning, but now, I can’t even get a decent meal at home.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

It had become Yi Ji-Hyuk’s daily routine to eat left-overs nowadays.

Back in the past, he was treated like a king even though he was lazing around at home, but ironically enough, now that he had started working for a living, he couldn’t even receive treatment anywhere remotely near that.

“You don’t have long until you become like me, son.” (dad)

“Oh. Well, I don’t want to....” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Yi Ji-Hyuk quickly shut his mouth before he blurted out his inner thoughts. However, his generous father gently patted him on the back as if he understood full well.

“A man must endure and live on. That’s the climate of our current times. That’s how the world is operating right now. A man might have been able to raise his voice back in the past, but you think that’s allowed in this day and age? You do that, and I guarantee you, they will leave you. Or chase you out. A man fending for all by himself is.....” (dad)

“D-dad, you know, I gotta go to work soon.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

Father’s shoulders drooped visibly. Could those sparkling things near his eyes be sweat drops from his heart?

Yi Ji-Hyuk’s own heart ached, but there was nothing he could do now. The situation was getting worse as they stood here shooting the breeze, so it seemed that he needed to get to the office as soon as possible.

“In any case, let me go wash up first.” (Yi Ji-Hyuk)

“Sure thing, son.” (dad)

There was no trace of energy in his father’s reply, but regardless, Yi Ji-Hyuk headed straight to the bathroom. That was when father’s lamentation could be heard behind his back.

“And they said that no matter how well you raise your kids, they are still useless....” (dad)

What a template complaint that was.

*

“Just what on earth is going on here?” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon stared at the computer monitor with a concerned face.

The monitor was currently showing the map of the world where conflict zones were being marked in real time. Red spots were visible on several spots of the map.

The problem was the fact that these red spots began appearing since not too long ago. After the life-or-death struggle against Beltreche came to an end, international disputes suddenly gained momentum. It was as if all the underlying issues under the calm surface were brought up all at the same time.

“This can’t be happening, unless someone was manipulating things from behind the scenes....” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Indeed, something like this couldn’t have occurred naturally, now could it?

Choi Jung-Hoon grasped his head. Just one Gate crisis was no different from an extinction-level threat to humanity, yet new crises kept happening around the globe and he was at a loss as to what he should do now.

“Groan....”

“Is it really bad?” (Seo Ah-Young)

Seo Ah-Young asked Choi Jung-Hoon.

“H-mm. Not sure how I can explain this to you. If a big Gate suddenly pops up in the middle of a war, now that’s going to become a serious issue. A really big crisis will unfold then.” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

“Well, the army is more or less useless in the Gate defence operations, anyway. I’m sure you only need the ability users, don’t you agree?” (Seo Ah-Young)

“That is exactly the problem.” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

Choi Jung-Hoon pointed to the computer monitor and spoke.

“Ability users are being deployed in the battlefield. Meaning, ability users are now being used in the war.” (Choi Jung-Hoon)

< 226. Isn’t there anything that can be done? -1 > Fin.

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