Chapter 48
Incheon Port, South Korea.
Twenty Chinese people who had secretly entered Korea from China stepped onto the ground.
"What an irritating little country."
The person leading the Chinese Returnees,
Guo Chong,
lit a cigarette and showed his annoyance.
He was a member of the National People's Congress.
After being demoted because of what happened with Tenzin,
he had now been assigned this mission.
"You useless trash, hurry up and get out here."
At Guo Chong's shout,
people began leaving the ship.
Every one of them looked strange.
Half monster,
half human.
They were Chinese Returnees.
Their number was significant.
China had the second-largest population in the world after India.
Naturally,
it also possessed a far larger number of Returnees.
However,
China was a communist country.
Under its dictatorship,
the rights of ordinary citizens were already weak.
The same applied to Returnees.
To Guo Chong, who worked for the Chinese government,
Returnees were nothing more than monsters.
Nothing more,
nothing less.
"Do not call us that."
One Returnee quietly stepped forward.
A horn with a blue-green shine like carved jade.
Jade-colored scales covering half his face.
Smooth skin and sharply defined features.
A man with a strange beauty.
[Qilin (麒麟)]
No one knew his real name.
But one thing was certain.
To the Chinese Returnees,
Qilin was both a hero and a leader.
He had rescued more Returnees from the Chinese government than anyone else.
"Huh?"
Guo Chong looked dumbfounded by Qilin's attitude.
He clenched his fist
and glared.
"What did you just say, you piece of trash? Do you want to be executed?"
"We came here because of a deal, not because we received your orders."
Qilin remained calm despite Guo Chong's attitude.
"Ha. Hahaha. Fine. That's how you want to act?"
Guo Chong smiled with a face full of anger.
"Then make sure you kill Baek Cheon-myeong."
"If you fail, not only all of you, but every Returnee still inside the laboratories will be executed."
With that,
Guo Chong boarded the ship again.
"And that includes killing everyone connected to Baek Cheon-myeong."
He left those final words behind
and departed.
"Tch!"
"What a piece of garbage."
The moment Guo Chong disappeared,
the Returnees cursed him.
They had suffered horribly at the hands of the Chinese government.
There was no way they would like Guo Chong.
But they couldn't disobey the Chinese government.
There was only one reason.
The Returnee test subjects still hidden by China.
To them,
other Returnees were their people.
To save others who had suffered the same fate,
they had no choice but to follow China's wishes.
"Enough. We only need to do what we came here to do."
At Qilin's words,
the Returnees straightened.
This mission was a chance for them to save their people.
China's greatest recent problem.
S-Rank Hunter Baek Cheon-myeong.
If they killed him,
they could save countless Returnees.
"Qilin, they told us to kill everyone connected to Baek Cheon-myeong too. What will we do?"
"We kill only Baek Cheon-myeong. That is enough."
The Chinese Returnees bowed their heads at Qilin's answer.
Among them,
Qilin was respected enough to be called a Great Hero.
He was known as a man of excellent character.
His righteous way of thinking served as a guide to the Chinese Returnees.
"Qilin, do you think the government will keep its promise?"
"If they don't, I will force them to."
"That's right. We only need to trust Qilin."
"We just need to finish our work properly."
Every Returnee supported him.
Their trust in Qilin was incredibly deep.
"We can talk about that later. We finish this within today and return."
"Yes."
The Returnees began moving immediately.
Speed was everything.
They wanted to rescue their captured companions as soon as possible.
They had no intention of wasting time.
The drive from Incheon to Seoul took roughly fifty minutes.
The Returnees were moving even faster than that.
Then,
"Hmm?"
One of the running Returnees narrowed his eyes.
Something was approaching from far away.
Something moving at incredible speed.
He narrowed his eyes to see what it was.
Then they slowly widened.
Long black hair whipped violently with the speed.
Beneath that hair,
crimson eyes shone.
Everyone present knew that man's face.
"B, B, Baek Cheon-myeong!"
"What?"
The other Chinese Returnees turned in shock.
They found Baek Cheon-myeong running directly toward them.
Confusion spread across their faces.
The target they had come to kill was personally running toward them.
Naturally,
they couldn't understand the situation.
But their response was fast.
Qilin was the first to slam his foot down and stop.
"He came to us himself. Good."
Crackle!
Blue-green sparks spread around his clenched fist.
"Everyone, prepare for battle!"
The Returnees drew their biological weapons.
Red muscular blades.
Long spearheads growing through their skin.
Greatswords made from spine-like bone.
Red biological cannons.
Every weapon looked grotesque.
China had wanted only one thing from its Returnees.
To use them as weapons of war.
That was why China had performed endless cruel experiments on them.
As a result,
their bodies had been fitted with countless biological weapons.
Their appearances were horrifying enough that they could barely be called human.
But for their people,
they were willing to use those weapons.
Click!
"Firing!"
One Returnee launched biological missiles.
