3.

Kim had several habits. One of them was to check his left wrist as soon as he opened his eyes.

It was still true.

'Ah.'

Kim Tae-hoon first checked his left-hand wrist rather than the fact that he was in the passenger seat of a car when he opened his eyes.

Of course, his eyes always came in with a watch on his wrist, and when he saw the watch, Kim Tae-hoon was surprised.

'Why?'

He saw a smartwatch.

'Why?'

Kim Tae-hoon did not use a smartwatch.

The features of a smartwatch, with its GPS function, could not go three days without charging, had the poor waterproof function, had weak durability, and even had the possibility of being hacked, were cuffs for Kim Tae-hoon.

But now the smartwatch was around Kim Tae-hoon's wrist.

It was hard to understand.

But what was really hard to understand was that Kim Tae-hoon's body did not listen to him.

'My body …'

He tried to move his arms and hands to touch the smartwatch, but his body did not listen to him.

Rather, his body moved of its own. Instead of moving his arms, he was looking at the man approaching him through the car window that went down.

"Boss." The man who approached him handed a paper cup to him, and he got in the car. "It's coffee."

There was lukewarm coffee in the paper cup.

"The only thing left was mix coffee, and of course, I took out the sugar."

Instead of the bright black hue, the mixed coffee had a murky brown light.

It was also a coffee that Kim Tae-hoon really hated. Coffee was his only hobby, so mixed coffee was an insult to his hobby.

However, the mixed coffee did not come into Kim Tae-hoon's eyes. The face of the man who handed him the coffee did.

He was a man with a wounded face. The three slits across his face, in particular, were obviously done by the claws of a terrible monster.

It was fortunate that his face was not torn right off. On the contrary, Kim Tae-hoon was still able to recognize the owner of the face.

'Jang Sung-hoon?'

Jang Sung-hoon was the man in front of him. Jang Sung-hoon, who was older than Kim Tae-hoon knew.

'Jang Sung-hoon!'

Of course, Kim Tae-hoon tried to call his name, but he was not allowed to either.

'Ah.'

At this moment, Kim Tae-hoon had to look at everything he did as an observer.

"You've made your wish known to have a cup of coffee before you die. Isn't mixed coffee, coffee too?" Jang Sung-hoon spit out and smiled lightly.

At that moment, a huge wind, an intense force that shook the world, passed through Kim Tae-hoon's car and Jang Song-hoon.

Jang Sung-hoon turned his head around with a frightened look. "Damn it, it's already here."

'What's come?'

At that moment, he talked. "Jang Sung Hoon. You've had a hard time."

"Boss."

"You go alone to Gyeongju."

"Boss!"

"I want you to meet with Commander-in-Chief Lim Hyun-joon there and deliver my message."

The door of the car he was riding in opened up.

In the meantime, Kim Tae-hoon, looking at himself as an observer, organized what he saw and heard carefully.

'Gyeongju? Alone? Commander-in-Chief Lim Hyun-joon?'

When the door opened, Jang Sung-hoon took a step back, and Kim Tae-hoon got out of the car.

At the same time, the trunk was opened by itself. Various weapons came out of the open trunk like birds, and they began to hover around Kim Tae-hoon.

Spear, knife, arrow, headstone…

Kim Tae-hoon looked at each of the weapons and finally said to Jang Sung-hoon, "If I fail this hunt, abandon Korea."

"Shit, this is ridiculous! Boss, you don't have to die! You have no reason to die! You always told me! You fought to survive! Because of those damn bastards…"

OOOO!

At that moment, he heard an eerie cry that could not be compared to any animal in the world.

"Kuck!" The cry took the focus from Jang Sung-hoon's eyes at once. He fell down like a broken doll. Kim Tae-hoon brought him up and sat him in the driver's seat after supporting him.

When the car door was closed, the car started to run on its own.

At the same time, a huge shadow fell over Kim Tae-hoon's head.

A wind strong enough to pull out the roots of a giant tree whipped around Kim Tae-hoon. Turning into the gale, he looked up at the owner of the shadow with his eyes widening.

Kim Tae-hoon, who was watching himself, also looked at the monster.

It was the dragon who had passed by that night.

A huge dragon, with glowing blue eyes filled with anger!

4.

Clatter!

Ahn Sun-mi confirmed Kim Tae-hoon's pupil condition, and she got up from her seat by turning off the small flash she held in her hand.

Behind her were Bang Hyun-wook, Jang Sung-hoon, and Kim Soo-ji, waiting anxiously for Ahn Sun-mi to talk.

Ahn Sun-mi said with a firm expression, "He is sleeping."

The three of them cocked their heads, rather than be surprised by the answer that came out.

"Yes?"

"As I said, Kim Tae-hoon is sleeping, and he is sleeping very deeply."

"So he is... sleeping now?" Bang Hyun-wook made a ridiculous expression even though he said the words himself. It was not a situation to spit out cute, sweet words.

"I'm glad, though, I thought he was going to die." However, at the word 'sleep', Bang Hyun-wook briefly sighed relief.

It was not a strange reaction. Sleep was not a negative word for the public.

On the other hand, Ahn Sun-mi's expression remained firm. "It's not lucky to fall asleep suddenly, and we don't know when this sleep will end," she said to the other two after clicking her tongue briefly at Bang Hyun-wook's words.

"It looks like he's asleep, but I can't make any judgments more than this, because I can't take MRIs or CTs. He is not sleeping because of fatigue, but he ate something strange, so we don't know how long this sleep will last."

It was a very serious situation to a doctor; someone eating an unidentified liquid and falling into a sudden sleep.

"Excuse me." Jang Sung-hoon changed the subject. "I am suddenly curious, but when there is no boss, who's in charge? Is it Lieutenant Kim Soo-ji?"

"Well..." As soon as Kim Soo-ji tried to answer the question, she looked at Bang Hyun-wook.

The general soldiers would follow Kim Su-ji's words, but Bang Hyun-wook's case was a little different. Bang Hyun-wook was not a soldier, and he had no military experience.

In addition, the absence of Kim Tae-hoon was a situation where all preconditions were different.

Except for Kim Tae-hoon, Bang Hyun-wook was the only one who could fight properly against monsters that could use fear.

So should Kim Soo-ji give such an order to Bang Hyun-wook, or should Bang Hyun-wook move independently?

Of course, they had never agreed on this part.

That's why Jang Sung-hoon brought up his words. If they had not agreed, it was time to make the agreement.

'If there is no big brother, then...' Bang Hyun-wook also fully understood the situation.

Without Kim Tae-hoon, Bang Hyun-wook was now the most important player. In a sense, he was in the same position as Kim Tae-hoon.

'Am I replacing big brother?' At that moment, Bang Hyun-wook turned his head slightly. At the end of his gaze, he saw a flame rising far away.

It was the flame of the survivors who were outside of the Mac Clan area.

They were afraid of Kim Tae-hoon's warning, but it was impossible for them to completely abandon the lingering attachment.

Even if Kim Tae-hoon was scary, it could not be denied that the Mac Clan was the only lamp of hope in the present situation.

How could they abandon their hope? When they turned their back on the lamp, only the darkness and despair would be left.

'I'm his substitute.'

In the mind of Bang Hyun-wook, even as he looked at the survivor group, the conversation that he shared with Kim Tae-hoon came up once again.

In the conversation, he added the assumption that if he replaced Kim Tae-hoon.

"Wait a minute." Ahn Sun-mi caught the wrist of Bang Hyun-wook, who had started to worry about the survivors.

"I'll talk to him." Pulling his wrist, Ahn Sun-mi led Bang Hyun-wook away.

Ahn Sun-mi stopped at a place where the other two would not hear their conversation.

"What are you going to tell me, sister?"

Ahn Sun-mi said to Bang Hyun-wook, with a stiff face full of freckles, "Recover your senses."

"What?"

"I'm telling you because the situation is important. Bang Hyun-wook, wake up. Are you going to take the survivors?"

"Of course..."

"I'm the opposite." At the word of 'the opposite', Bang Hyun-wook closed his mouth.

On the other hand, Ahn Sun-mi did not stop talking.

"I don't think you have understood the situation yet, but who do you think was most relieved when the boss told the survivors not to come?"

Things had changed.

If Kim Tae-hoon did not wake up like this, the life and death of Mac Clan will be in the hands of Bang Hyun-wook.

Bang Hyun-wook was so strong. He consumed the most monster stones next to Kim Tae-hoon, and his Energy rank, which could be said to be the most efficient in battle with monsters, was higher than Kim Tae-hoon.

The only problem was that...

"The soldiers, our soldiers were the most relieved."

Bang Hyun-wook could only fight well, but he did not know how to control the people around him.

"Will you accept the survivors? Then who will be in the most danger? Who will be harder to protect? To be frank, you and the boss aren't going to get tough, because fighting is the same."

It was the evidence that Bang Hyun-wook had lingering doubts about the survivors just now.

"After all, the soldiers will be in charge of the minutiae. The risk is the same. The boss and you, who always deal with strong monsters, are in great danger. But the risk won't be greater for the survivors, because you won't mind the survivors when you have to kill something like a Black Orc."

Kim Tae-hoon had relentlessly rejected the survivors. Even using the threat of his murderous spirit, he did not give any sympathy to the survivors.

"But ordinary people are different. The soldiers will fight to protect survivors from a number of monsters. What if soldiers die? Will you regret it then? Or are you sure you won't even regret it?"

What Kim Tae-hoon did was not just for himself, but to increase the possibility of the entire Mac Clan's survival, as well as himself. Therefore, the distinction between good and evil was not important in Kim Tae-hoon's actions.

The important thing was that Kim Tae-hoon's actions were the best for Mac Clan, and if he was a member of the Mac Clan, he should follow the best course of action.

If you do not like it, you can leave the Mac Clan, as Kim Tae-hoon said.

Bang Hyun-wook could not respond to any of these words from Ahn Sun-mi. Of course, it did not change his mind immediately or make him agree with Ahn Sun-mi's words.

'Damn it...'

However, Bang Hyun-wook was more a grown child, than a young man.

Ahn Sun-mi understood Bang Hyun-wook. He was not even twenty years old yet, a freshman in a society with not even a year of social experience.

So Ahn Sun-mi gave him advice as a senior in life.

"We don't need survivors to just open their hands and take something from us. Remember, we don't need just survivors to protect."

Just then, Jang Sung-hoon shouted out, "Boss!" At his cry, Ahn Sun-mi and Bang Hyun-wook turned their heads at the same time.

'Ah!'

Kim Tae-hoon, was now standing.

"Big brother!" The two hurriedly approached Kim Tae-hoon.

"Major, are you all right?"

"Boss, are you okay?"

Kim Soo-ji and Jang Sung-hoon, who were nearby, asked his condition first.

However, instead of answering, Kim Tae-hoon gave a long sigh after checking his left-hand wrist, a G-Shock watch still there.

'It was a dream.' The white mist from his mouth brushed through the darkened sky. But the breath was not long.

'No, it wasn't a dream. Crisis... it's a crisis I'll be in someday.'

He couldn't afford to breathe another sigh.

'That's what it meant to make me dream of a crisis, which meant that I was dreaming of the day I would die.'

"Boss! Boss! Wake up, do I need to I slap you?" Jang Sung-hoon spoke to Kim Tae-hoon again.

As soon as he saw Sung-hoon's face, Kim Tae-hoon's feelings began to get complicated. It was the sensation of feeling for someone else instead of himself filling his heart.

But when he thought of the dragon, they disappeared like a mirage. All emotions disappeared, and only feeling of fear and despair began to take their place.

At this moment, Kim Tae-hoon was more desperate than ever.

"I'll ask you one thing; I'd like anyone to get me a cup of coffee, whatever it is."

A cup of coffee...