The Returner Chapter 61

"I said, get back!!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Hearing that unusually urgent tone of voice coming from Yi Ji-Hyuk's mouth, all the hairs on Choi Jung-Hoon's skin stood up.
He was capable of sounding urgent like that? Really?
Yi Ji-Hyuk was someone who treated a dang Ogre as one would treat a little dog, so Choi Jung-Hoon couldn't help but feel utterly terrified after hearing the youth's shouting.
"Run away!!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Choi Jung-Hoon too cried out as loud as he could. But unfortunately, the Spectres were far too fast for the densely-packed formation of soldiers to retreat in time.
"Euh-ah-ah!!"
"What the hell?!"
"No!! They are coming!! Retreat!!"
BlamBlamBlamBlam!!!
Soldiers reflexively fired their weapons at the incoming Spectres, but bullets simply went through the monsters without dealing any damage whatsoever.
*SFX for a sinister grin of a Spectre*
Emitting shrill and ominous cackles, Spectres pounced on the hapless humans. Seeing this, Yi Ji-Hyuk began gritting his teeth.
"Damn it." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
There was no need to fear Spectres that much. They were immune to physical damage, just like the Braad, but conversely, that also meant they couldn't inflict any physical damage either.
So, Spectres were classified as low-class monsters back in Berafe.
However, if these Spectres were the same as the ones from Berafe, then…. Then, the problem became both simple yet utterly frustrating to solve.
Why? Because, Spectres possessed humans, that's why.
Those possessed by a Spectre would lose all sense of reasoning and begin to run amok in frenzy, or act with only one thought ruling their minds. And that thought was to find the best method to kill as many living creatures as possible, and carry it out no matter what.
Under the current situation, that could've only meant one thing.
BlamBlamBlamBlam!!!
"Ah-ah-ah-ahk!"
"Ahhh!! Help!!"
Soldiers being possessed by the Spectres began firing their guns all over the place. And the others receiving this unexpected friendly fire fell bleeding, unable to mount any form of defense at all.
"What the hell is wrong with them?!"
"Hey! Restrain him!! I said, restrain him, now!! Push him down with your bodies if you have to!!"
Unable to bring themselves to shoot their own comrades, soldiers surrounded, and then used their own bodies to wrestle the possessed ones to the ground. Too bad for them - as the number of the possessed continued to increase, the efforts to restrain the victims would only become tougher and tougher.
"Mister Yi Ji-Hyuk!!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
After hearing Choi Jung-Hoon's desperate cries calling out to him, Yi Ji-Hyuk shouted back as well.
"Right, divine power!! Don't you have an ability user with 'divine power' or something?!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk continued to grit his teeth.
If one thought about it, then it was pretty easy to see why Spectres were classified as low class monsters back in Berafe.
Why? Because, there was an abundance of priests in Berafe, that's why.
But, what about this world's religions?
Well, it was like comparing heaven and earth when looking at the influence of religion in Berafe, where the divine powers actually manifested for all to see, and that of Earth.
Hell, the prestige and influence exercised by the Earth's biggest religion when it was going through its most potent period, would only be comparable to that of the smallest cult worshipping some unknown deity back in Berafe.
Indeed, Berafe's societies were ruled by the various doctrines of the religious entities, which naturally meant you'd find far more priests and clerics than beggars on the street.
So, monsters like Spectres were nothing more than a low-class mob that would be killed off with a single shot of the magic, 'Holy Light'.
However, what about here?
Would there be anyone on this side capable of exorcising Spectres on Earth?
"Divine powers?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"Yeah!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"I have no idea what you're talking about…" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Craptastic.
For a moment there, Yi Ji-Hyuk was at a loss as to how he could solve the current crisis.
The last ditch solution? Why, that was actually quite simple - kill all those possessed by the Spectres.
In Berafe, when the adventuring party lacked the presence of a priest for some reason, killing those afflicted by the Spectres were the most commonly-accepted method to deal with the situation.
….Because, there was no other way.
Of course, there was another method of using a holy artifact, an item filled with divinity, to exorcise the monster, but would there be such a thing on this planet?
Still…..
"What a pain!!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
If Yi Ji-Hyuk went on an unchecked killing spree here, then the ensuing chaos would be no laughing matter, that's for sure. Also, rather than the problem of finding someone mad enough to actually believe his reasons for killing all these people, the real headache would come from the fact that not one person alive would readily accept the explanation for his actions.
If he got lucky, then it'd only be at the level of him being labelled as a mass murderer….
'If no one was looking right now, I'd have…'
No, hang on a bit.
Even without any witnesses, I'd still feel reluctant to do that. (Yi Ji-Hyuk's inner monologue)
Even if you counted every person killed by the history's worst dictators, bloodthirsty kings and the crazed mass murderers, Yi Ji-Hyuk easily had killed far, far greater number. So, in other words, he was a monster, a devil, a bona fide demon king.
Even he himself was well aware of this fact.
Which means, it was a very odd thing for him to feel reluctance about killing someone.
'Is it because I'm no longer in Berafe?'
Yi Ji-Hyuk gritted his teeth yet again.
The thing about the 'first time being difficult to overcome, but from the second time onwards, things would get easy', that was actually all true.
However, even for him, it proved to be rather impossible to put that truth into actual practice.
'Think, man. Think, Yi Ji-Hyuk! C'mon!'
What were the other effective methods when dealing with Spectres?
Garlic?
That wasn't it.
Silver crosses?
Nope.
Maybe, salt….?
Salt?!
Immediately, Yi Ji-Hyuk swivelled his head and stared at the ocean.
And then, a grin promptly formed on his face.
Almost right away, Yi Ji-Hyuk went poof! from the spot, and reappeared in the midst of the chaotic soldiers.
"Heok!"
The muzzle of a rifle was immediately shoved into his face, but Yi Ji-Hyuk calmly reached out and grabbed the possessed soldier, still pinned down on the ground.
"Hey, ahjussi." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
The soldier was foaming at the mouth and tried to bite into Yi Ji-Hyuk.
"If you know how to swim, well, that'd be great, but… don't blame me for this, okay?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Because, I'm trying to save your sorry a*s here, you know! (Yi Ji-Hyuk's inner monologue)
Yi Ji-Hyuk then simply chucked the possessed soldier towards the sea.
A human threw another human being, yet that thrown human flew like a cannonball fired from a cannon, and flew for almost 100 metres towards the cold water.
"Kyahhhhh~!!!!"
As if that poor sob still retained a sliver of his mind, he began screaming at the top of his lungs.
"Holy moly…."
The unaffected soldiers surrounding Yi Ji-Hyuk stood there watching, their jaws hitting the floor.
"….He's actually flying…."
A human being was flying like a bird before gradually falling towards the ocean surface.
PHUR-URNG!!
It was only a measly human, yet the impact noise was as loud as a whale falling back into the water after a spectacular leap in the air.
"He's probably dead." (A random soldier #1)
"Yep, he should be dead." (A random soldier #2)
"I'm sure he's totally dead now." (A random soldier #3)
Even under the current crisis, this sight was so memorable that almost all personnel stopped what they were doing and admired the result.
But, Yi Ji-Hyuk didn't stand still.
"They are going to die anyways, so, might as well!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
At least, he placed a Shield spell on the guy's body, and was planning to do the same to all the victims, so at a bare minimum, none of them should die from hitting the water. He hoped.
Well, them drowning or becoming shark snacks were none of his business, though. That was for Choi Jung-Hoon to worry about.
"Get out of the way!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk pushed soldiers out of his way and then, began rhythmically grabbing and throwing the possessed soldiers into the sea, one at the time.
Swish! Swish!! Swiiish~!
And so, people began flying like a flock of birds.
Without a doubt, these possessed soldiers no longer retained their minds, yet as soon as Yi Ji-Hyuk approached, they visibly paled in complexion and began running away.
"Stop exaggerating, will ya!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk shouted out as he chucked another possessed into the sea.
"No, wait, I think they aren't exaggerating, you know….?" (A random soldier #1)
One of the soldiers subconsciously muttered out a retort.
He was thinking, Even I would've run away from you, you crazy b*stard!!
"Orya!!"
Yi Ji-Hyuk grabbed the last of the soldiers still on the ground and threw him into the ocean.
"W, wait!! He isn't one of them!!!" (A random soldier #2)
"Eh?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
The final guy thrown by Yi Ji-Hyuk began spitting out all sorts of colourful swearing as he flew in the air.
That man kept on crying out about sons of female dogs and droppings of male cows and some other random stuff similar in nature, but Yi Ji-Hyuk simply smirked back at the flying man.
"You should've said something, you know." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
You didn't even give him the chance!! (The author's own retort)
After sorting out the situation somehow, Yi Ji-Hyuk took a look around. The confusion lasted only for a brief moment, yet, there was a lot of casualties resulting from the friendly fire.
"Tsk."
Well, he had done what he could already.
From here onwards, it was out of Yi Ji-Hyuk's hands, anyways.
"Okay, so now let's see…." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Was Oh-Sik doing his job well?
Yi Ji-Hyuk spotted the Ogre busy going crazy like a wolf pouncing on the flock of sheep over yonder.
Usually, Oh-Sik would've played around with his prey as if to relish how much stronger it was, but even the big Ogre had realised the critical nature of this situation and was ruthlessly massacring everything that stood in its way.
"Nice work!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
KHWOAAAARRR!!
After hearing Yi Ji-Hyuk's encouragement, Oh-Sik began to rampage even harder. There were a few mob monsters that managed to run away in terror, but the remaining KSF agents ably took care of them.
"Well, it's going well, isn't it." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Things could've gone south real quick, but as they stand, the situation was coming to a conclusion in a satisfying manner.
And the most satisfying thing out of it all was the appearance of Oh-Sik.
If another Ogre-class monster had emerged today that he wasn't familiar with, even Yi Ji-Hyuk would've found the ensuing battle a bit of a chore, if he was being honest with himself here.
He would have to pour in a crazy amount of Mana to sort the monster out, but then, the amount present within his body was not enough and the potential supply found nearby was just about so-so. Ogres were naturally nimble, agile monsters so accurately nailing it with a wide-scale attack magic would prove to be a tough challenge even for him.
Thankfully, the Ogre Yi Ji-Hyuk knew crossed over, which meant he was able to make it surrender - read enslave - quite easily. He got to kill two birds with one stone, which was always nice.
"If I let that guy tag along, then surely, the work I'd have to do would decrease substantially, wouldn't it…..?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
While Yi Ji-Hyuk dreamed of a happy future, urgent voices could be heard from his behind.
"Noooo!!!"
"Stop them!! We gotta stop them!!"
"Oh, dear god!! We're doomed!!"
Hearing those, Yi Ji-Hyuk began tilting his head.
"Eh?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
What the hell are they talking about?
Just as he turned around to take a look, he found people rushing out from the nuclear power station in panic.
"What's the matter? What happened in there?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Choi Jung-Hoon hurriedly ran to one of the escapees, and after finding out what had happened, he shouted at Yi Ji-Hyuk with a deathly-pale complexion.
"S, someone must've slipped inside the power station!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"Someone?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"You know, those people who suddenly started acting crazy!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
People acting crazy? Those possessed soldiers?
Hmm. Right. The possessed does have a tendency to search for the method of causing the most number of casualties.
And if I was one of those possessed, then….
The method to cause the most number of casualties?
Mm… Right. Definitely, that means… (Yi Ji-Hyuk's inner monologue)
"….Apparently, it's impossible to shut it down." (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Right, sure, something like that. (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk brightly smiled as if that was par for the course.
"So, what happens next, then?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"….You've heard of Chernobyl, yes?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"Stop right there." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk thought he could kind of get the gist, and began kicking his brain into gear.
Mm… Mm….
…..
……..
*SFX for steam suddenly being released*
Steam began rising out from Yi Ji-Hyuk's head.
"I don't get it." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
He was quick on the uptake if it was about magic theories, but there was no way he'd understand anything about chemistry, you know!
Actually, he couldn't even be sure of nuclear science being in the category of chemistry, either!
Yi Ji-Hyuk asked in earnest.
"What needs to be done, then?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"Can you see the No.2 reactor over there?" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"Yeah, I've got eyes, you know." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"We need to cool that with a massive quantity of sea water, or block it up with equally massive amount of concrete." (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"Then, can it be used again?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"You're asking for a miracle there." (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Yi Ji-Hyuk nodded his head in understanding.
"Then, I guess there's no other choice but to do it that way." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"But, the rate of the meltdown is too fast! The guy did a real number in there! We gotta do something! Or else, nothing will be able to stop what happens next!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
Mm, so that's how it is.
So, like, that's the thing, right…..
Mm……
………
"So, what do you want from me now?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk tilted his head in confusion, which prompted Choi Jung-Hoon to panic even more and he hurriedly grabbed the youth's collars.
"What? I mean, look! Just… Do something about that No. 2 reactor! You clueless idiot, please! Otherwise, Busan will be history!!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"What the, did this guy lose his dang marbles or something?! Why the heck are you grabbing someone else's collar like this?! Only if you weren't such a weakling, I'd have just smacked you already….!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"I don't care if you smacked me around or not, as long as you do something about the reactor!!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"C'mon now, I'm not a dokkaebi bangmangyi, you know…" (Yi Ji-Hyuk) (TL note at the end)
Even if he was told to resolve this crisis somehow, what could Yi Ji-Hyuk even do here?
"Please!! I'll even increase your off days to ten!!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"For real??" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"You think someone's going to lie to you under the current circumstances?!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"Yeah. Politicians." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"….It is truly regretful that even I have to agree with you on that one, but look, I'm not a politician!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"Ohh, you're right. I forget that sometimes." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk nodded his head.
If he could get ten days off from work, then he was more than prepared to maintain the world peace if he had to!
But, uh, wait a dang moment.
Yi Ji-Hyuk quickly threw out a question.
"If I can ensure that the reactor will be reusable, what will happen? Fifteen days off?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"Saving the reactor is physically impossible!!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"Not asking you about that, but I am asking you about the off days, man!" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
"Fine, fifteen days off!! Fifteen!!" (Choi Jung-Hoon)
"Well then. I hope you aren't thinking of becoming a politician in the future." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk reached out towards the huge mass of Mana Oh-Sik worked tirelessly to create, and sucked all of it in.
Keureuk?
As if he had sensed something ominous was about to happen, Oh-Sik quickly turned around to confirm it.
*SFX for black Mana tentacles shooting out*
*SFX for monsters screaming out*
Oh-Sik hurriedly fell down flat on the ground, and almost immediately, black tentacles brushed past him and began to voraciously devour the remaining monsters.
Kiieeeck!!
Oh-Sik cried out in protest, but Yi Ji-Hyuk simply glared at the poor Ogre.
"Hoh? You dare?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
K, kee~eek….
Oh-Sik became docile again in an instant. Meanwhile, Yi Ji-Hyuk deeply smirked.
"Don't you know that life is a game of chances, you idiot? It's fine if you made it out alive at the end." (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk proceeded to suck in every single drop of Mana in one go, and then turned around to stare at the nuclear power station.
"Well, should I get to it, then?" (Yi Ji-Hyuk)
Yi Ji-Hyuk's eyes began exuding a dangerous light.
Fin.
(TL: the dokkaebi bangmangyi is a club wielded by dokkaebis in the Korean folklore. It's supposed to be a sort-of magic wand that could pretty much make anything come true, kinda like the Genie in a lamp. But with a lot less Robin Williams. Obvs.)