Chapter 100

Chapter 100

A man lying inside the compartment, hooked up to more mechanical devices than anyone else.

That man was Kang Young-chan.

“Is that really Team Leader Kang Young-chan…?”

The sight of Kang Young-chan that Do-jae saw was nothing short of shocking.

His face had aged drastically, his skin was wrinkled and shriveled, and his hair had turned completely white.

If not for his wolf-like eyes and protruding mouth, he would have been unrecognizable.

“It’s Team Leader Kang.”

Kim Hwan-soo stood with his arms crossed, gazing into the compartment with a worried expression.

The two watched Kang Young-chan silently for a long while.

Do Jae was the first to speak.

“Has it been like this since then?”

The “then” Dojae referred to was the time of the Gaeseong campaign.

The time when dark clouds spread, the Red Oak Priest appeared, and Kang Young-chan collapsed.

Kang Young-chan, collapsed like that, was carried on Kim Hwan-soo’s back and transported straight to the expeditionary force headquarters.

And Dojae didn’t know what happened after that.

“He was fine for a while…”

Kim Hwan-soo began his explanation.

The story went like this.

Kang Young-chan had been in a coma for a full day immediately after collapsing.

After that, Kim Hwan-soo wanted Kang Young-chan to undergo further examinations, but Kang insisted that he knew his own body best and immediately declared he would head out on the punitive expedition.

However, the core mission of the Gaeseong campaign—hunting the Red Oak—was already complete, and he was assigned to his original task.

But that didn’t last long.

As time passed, reports began to slow down, and contact grew increasingly sparse.

Unable to wait any longer, Kim Hwan-soo went out to find Kang Young-chan himself and eventually discovered him collapsed at his own home.

At that point, Kang Young-chan’s condition was already nearly identical to what it is now, and he was immediately transferred here for treatment.

“Is there any improvement? What is Team Leader Kang Young-chan’s condition now?”

“There’s no progress. We’re barely slowing the aging process.”

Tap tap.

Kim Hwan-soo approached the partition glass and tapped it with his hand.

Judging by the dull sound, the glass was undoubtedly quite thick.

“This chamber controls the flow of mana. It prevents external mana from entering and internal mana from leaking out.”

“I see.”

In truth, Dojae already knew the chamber was blocking mana, as he sensed absolutely none of Kang Youngchan’s presence from inside.

If it weren’t, he would have sensed it through the golem’s nerves already. Inside the chamber, it felt like a void.

“The various machines are devices for life support and aging suppression. But that’s all. There was no way to restore it to its original state.”

Kim Hwan-soo stepped away from the compartment and crossed his arms again.

He bit his lip and looked at Dojae.

“To be honest, I wish you would return to the expeditionary force. But I suppose that won’t happen.”

“Yes, I have no intention of leaving the Guardians at this time.”

For the time being, Dojae had no plans to leave the Guardian Guild.

Even if Kim Hwan-soo offered the same conditions.

It wouldn’t be easy for Dojae, whose name was etched among hunters, to return to the extermination force. Moreover, he had a request from Song Deok-hoon and matters with Jeong In-gon, so leaving Suhwo was by no means a good choice.

Of course, Dojae was satisfied with his current situation; it was also the optimal one.

“Well, fine. For the future, that side is better for me too. I can’t force a bad choice for the immediate present. But right now, the extermination force needs Kang Young-chan. An S-rank is a huge asset just by their existence and name alone. Director Park?”

Kim Hwan-soo grabbed a man passing by, who could have been a researcher or a doctor.

They were both wearing protective suits, making it hard to tell who was who, but Kim Hwan-soo somehow managed to single him out.

The rank insignia faintly visible beneath his suit hinted at his high standing.

“What is it, Chief of Staff?”

“Do you have the Kang Young-chan data now?”

“Yes, I brought it with me for the records.”

“May I take a look?”

Director Park handed the chart board he was holding to Kim Hwan-soo.

Kim Hwan-soo flipped through a few pages before showing it to Do Jae.

“Take a look at this.”

The material Kim Hwan-soo showed him contained a simple diagram of the human body.

It was the kind of diagram you’d only see in a hospital, dotted with small marks here and there.

Flipping a few more pages revealed X-ray images where sharp, pencil-like objects were clearly visible.

“What are these?”

“The things we’ve been struggling with. They’re the pins we inserted during the Transcendence Stone experiment.”

Dojae looked back and forth between the X-ray images and Kang Youngchan, deep in thought.

These hearts embedded within the body.

They were undoubtedly anchoring Gelahan’s mana.

Then I thought, wouldn’t it be possible to just pull them out?

“Wouldn’t pulling them out be the solution?”

“It’s not that simple. Every extermination force that tried to pull these cores out ended up dead…”

Dojae looked at Kang Youngchan once more.

He looked around and saw dozens of extermination soldiers lying in the compartment.

They were all waiting for death, with this unknown core embedded within them.

Perhaps they too were Gelahan’s sacrificial lambs.

Kim Hwan-soo placed his hand on Dojae’s shoulder and said.

“I heard from Park Do-hwan. That you took the Transcendence Stone. Do you know much about it?”

The true reason Kim Hwan-soo had summoned Do-jae.

It was to ask Dojae to remove these seeds.

He had expected the story about the Transcendence Stone to reach Kim Hwan-soo, the Chief of Intelligence Operations.

Therefore, he wasn’t flustered.

“So the main point is whether you can remove the cores used in the research.”

“That’s right. Since you handle the Transcendence Stone, I wondered if you could restore Young-chan without extracting these cores.”

“I cannot give you a definite answer. I know nothing about what these cores are.”

Do-jae couldn’t make a definitive judgment.

If the core were absent, there might be a chance.

Hadn’t he experienced it before?

He had absorbed the mana of the Transcendence Stone—Gelahan’s mana—from Salta and the Skeleton.

First, he decided to touch Kang Young-chan directly and sense his mana.

“May I see Team Leader Kang Young-chan for a moment?”

“I’d appreciate it.”

***

Beep-beep-beep-beep-.

At Kim Hwan-soo’s gesture, Director Park opened the compartment door. Do-jae entered without hesitation.

After that, he began removing his protective suit. He heard Park, the manager, exclaim in surprise and try to stop him, but Kim Hwan-soo said it was fine, so he didn’t stop and took it all off.

“Kang Young-chan…”

Kang Young-chan’s appearance up close was even more appalling.

His breathing was uneven, and he was convulsing continuously.

He looked as if he could die at any moment.

Thud.

Do-jae placed his bare hand on Kang Young-chan’s chest.

Ever since entering the compartment and removing his protective suit, he could sense the Gelahan mana flowing within Kang Young-chan’s body.

Now, he intended to extract that mana and absorb it into the sealed memories.

He had handled Gelahan’s mana numerous times while infusing it into Young-jin.

He only needed to reverse that process.

But it didn’t go as Dojae had imagined.

Thud.

Dojae withdrew his hand and then placed it back.

It still didn’t work as he intended.

After several more attempts, he gave up and stepped back a few paces from Kang Young-chan.

“Hmm… as expected…”

Thud.

“Why did you do that?”

As Dojae muttered, Kim Hwan-soo pressed his face against the glass wall and asked.

After repeatedly touching and pulling away several more times, Dojae finally picked up his protective suit again, put it on, and stepped out of the compartment.

“I don’t think it’ll work without something extra.”

“What do you mean?”

“The dozens of shards embedded in Team Leader Kang Young-chan’s body are interfering with the extraction of mana from the Transcendence Stone.”

The shards embedded in Kang Young-chan’s body were tightly binding both his own mana and Gellahan’s mana.

Originally, those cores seemed to have served the role of blending the two manas, as a fused new mana could be sensed near the cores, but it was only in a very small area.

In all other areas, Kang Young-chan’s mana and Gelahan’s mana collided, consuming their original mana.

“Is it possible to meet the one who implanted this core?”

Do-jae decided he needed to know who had led this experiment.

He could forcibly suppress the mana around the core and extract Gelahan’s mana, but the risk was too great.

If Gelahan’s mana were to go berserk, Kang Young-chan could die.

Even if he survived, he might become Gelahan’s slave.

If that happened, Dojae would have no choice but to kill Kang Young-chan right here.

Ultimately, either way, the outcome would be the same.

He believed that if he understood the principle of this heart, he could safely absorb Gelahan’s mana.

“Hmph… If I could meet you, I wouldn’t have called you here.”

Kim Hwan-soo covered the chart and continued speaking.

“The research director overseeing the experiment vanished the day Park Do-hwan was captured. He took most of the research data and several of his closest researchers with him. Because of that, we couldn’t even create the medicine to stabilize the Transcendence Stone’s mana, leading to this situation. We’re doing our utmost to find his whereabouts, but perhaps because he’s also an exceptional Awakened One, it’s proving difficult.”

“An awakened one? Was the lab director an awakened one too?”

“You’ve probably heard his name too. Choi Dong-wook.”

Dojae had heard the name a few times.

He was a famous scientist back in the day, even making the news.

He was an outstanding scholar who achieved numerous breakthroughs by integrating mana into the field of life sciences, and he was also an Awakened One.

Choi Dong-wook, who had appeared so frequently in the media, had suddenly vanished without a trace at some point. Dojae never imagined he would be in the Extermination Corps.

“Then just give up. To be honest, even if you find Choi Dong-wook, Team Leader Kang Young-chan has no chance of regaining his original strength.”

“But we can’t just let him die like that… Research on mana accelerators is progressing actively. If we keep him alive, we could use him again someday.”

“Then we must find Choi Dong-wook as soon as possible.”

“Understood. We’ll focus all our efforts on that. Director Park, immediately locate Director Choi Dong-wook…”

“Commander, hold on a moment.”

Just as Kim Hwan-soo was about to call Director Park and order him to find Choi Dong-wook’s whereabouts, Do Jae stopped him.

Then, pulling out his smartphone, he asked.

“I heard MID has completely withdrawn from research on transcendence stones and mana accelerators. Is that correct?”

“How did you find out about that?”

Kim Hwan-soo was surprised.

And no wonder—Kim Hwan-soo hadn’t shared a single detail about MID with Do-jae.

Instead of answering Kim Hwan-soo’s question, Do-jae made another request.

“Please have MID rejoin the research. And order the current MID leader to find Choi Dong-wook. Then we’ll quickly learn his whereabouts.”

Kim Hwan-soo hesitated, deep in thought.

His hesitation likely stemmed from the underlying reason MID had been excluded from the research despite having handled the Transcendence Stone all this time.

“Hmm… I see.”

Kim Hwan-soo made his decision and agreed.

Upon hearing Kim Hwan-soo’s response, Do Jae found a number and dialed it.

After a few rings, the person answered, and Dojae said.

“Kim Soo-kyung, there’s someone we need to find immediately.”