4.

Ground Zero Café…

The grove in the center of the Pentagon was like the heart of the Pentagon. The reason it was the heart was simple. That was where John Smith was. The fact was the obvious reason for the heart.

"Kim Tae-hoon of the Mac Guild?"

"Ah."

John Smith was such a person for the Pentagon: the organization's center, the core, and all-in-one man. He was a man of violence who could fight against a monster with overwhelming strength in an age full of monsters. In short, he was the strongest man in the Pentagon. To John Smith, Kim Tae-hoon's presence and his visit were, of course, not pleasant.

"That's him. That's him."

Kim Tae-hoon complicated his mind, made his chest stuffy, and caused irritation and anger. It was all there.

"Mao, didn't you say he was dead?" John Smith was angry and irritated by Kim's appearance, but showed no other feelings.

"He must have been alive." There was no sign of panic. Mao's pale, weary look and John Smith's face were perfectly contradictory.

"Huh."

Seeing Mao, who looked like a frightened little boy, John Smith asked no more questions. He didn't even have questions. He rose immediately from his seat and walked out of the cafe without any hesitation.

There was no one to stop him. The strongest man here was John Smith, and no one could stop him from doing anything. Of course, there was no one who could protect and escort him, the strongest. Protecting John Smith was an insult to his strength.

When John Smith left the cafe, he was able to face Kim Tae-hoon.

"I am John Smith, the head of the Pentagon."

Introductions were over. Considering the characters of the two, the introductions were all they could do to each other at this time.

"You said you are Kim Tae-hoon, what did you come here for?"

Kim Tae-hoon did not answer John Smith's question. He gave a brief notice. "You can choose whether to cooperate by yourself or to cooperate by force."

John Smith laughed at the notice, as if he were grateful that Kim Tae-hoon had said that.

"Yes, you should do that." He nodded further. "It's fun for you to come out like that."

John Smith was a Hunter who had been chosen by God beyond his natural level. He was different from the beginning. When the monster appeared, he became an Awakener, and from the moment he became an Awakener, his ability was different. All his ranks were above B rank. Among them, Energy and Mana were A rank.

It was so ridiculous that it could not be explained simply by the word "luck". It was more appropriate than anyone to say that God had chosen him.

Of course, he was different from the beginning. He was on the eating side, not the being eaten side, from the start. He had destroyed or devoured quite powerful monsters, as well as clumsy Awakeners.

He was even different from the starting point. Most people entered the age of monsters in homes and buildings with nothing, in blocked subway stations, and in big marts. John Smith entered this era in the military. In the U.S. military, regarded the strongest in human history, he had started a war with monsters.

He had not experienced a real defeat or crisis. In the days of monsters and repeated fighting, he felt bored. It was the boredom that there was no enemy to fight against with his full power. It was the thirst to test his strength properly once again. Those who had power at the apex were supposed to have it!

"When I heard about you, I wanted to fight you."

"It's my last warning. Decide whether you will cooperate or not." Kim Tae-hoon gave notice to John Smith.

John Smith smiled instead and pulled up the Energy inside. His eyes turned golden. The golden light that began in his eyes wrapped around his whole body. His muscles were swelled to bursting and at the same time became so strong that even a bullet could not pierce them. The muscle fibers had become steel.

It was a clear answer. John Smith had no intention of cooperating. That was all he could do.

As soon as John Smith finished all preparations for the battle, Kim Tae-hoon finished everything.

Whack! Kim Tae-hoon's body narrowed the distance to John Smith at once, and his black fist made John Smith's golden body a headless body. It was a futile but natural result. If a puppy was not afraid of a tiger, the result was obvious.

John Smith, who lost his head, fell to the ground, just like that.

'What is this?'

'What the hell?'

No one moved. Everyone stood there paralyzed, unable to even swallow.

It was Ground Zero. Literally, everything became zero without being able to resist.

Only one man moved there. Mao Spencer appeared before Kim Tae-hoon.

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5.

The Spencer Family where Mao was adopted was a noble family of England.

Theirs was not a great story. The Spencers needed a talented person to shine and decorate their family, and Mao, a Hong Kong-born child with an outstanding talent for art, was their desired person.

For Mao, the Spencers were the best stage to unleash his talents to the fullest. It was no loss to anyone. The life after he had the name Mao Spencer was so flat. Everything he wanted was his.

There was no failure, no frustration. It was the same after the advent of the monsters. By the time the monsters appeared, Mao was managing artifacts for a new exhibition of the British Museum. Behaim's Globe was one of them, and the Codex Gigas was also one of them.

There were a lot of relics in his hands. Even Mao was preparing for the exhibition by filming all of them over and over with his camera.

The first person to discover the relics was Mao. That alone was the end of the game. Mao was able to grasp the value of relics before anyone else after the arrival of the monsters, and the name Spencer became a power in a chaotic age.

In the meantime, after he grasped Stonehenge's ability to move through space, Mao then put into practice the idea that he only imagined before.

Mao moved to Taiwan with everything. He was quickly aware of the limitations that the country of England would face in the age of monsters. In England, Mao Spencer was just an outstanding man, but the moment he appeared in Taiwan with everything, he could be a savior. There was no worry about choosing between hero and God, the difference was obvious.

After that, everything went smoothly, as planned and as hoped. Mao created a group called the Six Snakes, and he used the relics of the British Museum and the Taiwan Palace Museum to extend the influence of the Six Snakes.

In an era of chaos, the truth of the Six Snakes was the only truth that could deal with the confusion. Mao, who created the truth, was like God. That was what he wanted.

Mao didn't want to be the ruler of the world. He didn't mean to be a king or an emperor. He didn't mean to be a mortal, with only one line in the history books, and a name and a story left.

God! As time went by, he wanted his existence to become more and more enormous and great. Mao did not want to be a man who was loved or chosen by God, he wanted to be God himself. So, at this moment, Mao was confident that he would be God himself and immortal.

'There's still a chance. I'm not dying. No, I can't die.' So, Mao was confident that he would not die here today. 'If I live here, no one can kill me.'

That was why Mao appeared in front of Kim Tae-hoon.

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6.

"You're smaller than I thought. I thought you'd be an absurd monster."

The first meeting between the two, Mao and Kim Tae Hoon, which could not be explained as simply enmity, was achromatic. They were looking at each other with ghastly expressions on their faces, and their words showed no emotions. There was only a general notice.

"I'd heard that you were dead… Did you disguise your death just for this? That's amazing. You have hidden yourself from my eyes like that in this age. No, maybe it's just that I really wanted to believe in your death."

The relationship between the two was not close enough to tell the details to the other.

"Of course, it's not very important now."

It was a relationship where either side had to disappear to attain what they wished, nothing worse, nothing better.

For Mao, that was all of the conversations he had to share with Kim Tae-hoon. In addition, it was not as important as he said. No matter what the process was, Kim Tae-Hoon was alive and standing in front of Mao, and Mao's actions now were only to survive.

So, Mao went straight to the point."If you kill me, the Mayan Calendar will be destroyed immediately. If the Mayan Calendar is destroyed, exactly 15 days later, the Quetzalcoatl will appear in the world."

It was a threat.

" Quetzalcoatl is a monster in a different dimension than the two purple grade monsters you've encountered. Even if you kill it, then half the world will already be burning." It was the most powerful and formidable of all threats.

"You're the only one who may survive."

The threat was enough to make saying something like he intended to shoot nuclear weapons laughable. In fact, Mao's words were not false.

"In the Codex Gigas, called the Devil's Bible, there is information about monsters. So, I hope you don't take my words for nothing. The Quetzalcoatl is a disaster greater than you can imagine."

Mao, after intimidating him, began trading on the basis of the threats.

"If you spare me, I'll hand over the Mayan Calendar. That's all. After that, you will try to kill me even if I tell you not to kill me. Isn't that a simple story? You just let me go once, get the Mayan Calendar, and kill me afterwards. No matter where you look, it's not a losing business."

Kim Tae-hoon answered the proposal.

Blam!

A single shot from somewhere penetrated Mao's chest. It was made by a gun floating in the air under the power of Kim Tae-hoon.

"Ugh!" Mao knelt on the floor, a startled look in his eye, his hand grabbing his chest where the bullet had penetrated.

Mao shouted out loudly, burning the life that was escaping him. "If, if you kill me, the Mayan Calendar!..."

"I'll give you three reasons." Only then did Kim Tae-hoon speak to Mao.

"One, all I believe in is my colleagues, my men, and my comrades. Mao, you are not included in those." A gun floating in the air came into Kim's hand, and he pointed it at Mao's head.

"Two, I'm not here for a deal, I'm here for the price of the blood that has been shed so far, as well as the price of the blood that will be shed in the future."

"You, you're making a mistake, if the Quetzalcoatl wakes up..."

"Three, when it wakes up, I'll just kill it. That's why I'm here."

Blam! The conversation finished, Kim Tae-hoon pulled the trigger again. There was just one more shot. Kim Tae-hoon no longer needed to speak to Mao.

Kim Tae-hoon, who had killed the two without a break, now spoke to the crowd. "I will only say this once. Decide whether you will cooperate on your own or not."

The crowd didn't answer but lifted their hands overhead in a flash.

Seeing that, Kim Tae-hoon took a jade bird out of his sleeve and spoke to it. "Jang Sung-hoon, the judgment is over. Starting now, we're going to hunt the Quetzalcoatl."