Chapter 21: When the Dimension Gate Opens
*
The group led by Gang-ho and the survivors set off from Yanggang-do, located near Baekdu Mountain, heading towards Pyongyang. Fortunately, the road conditions were not too bad, allowing for a smooth journey.
“I think we should spend the night at the next village, if it’s safe,” suggested Reina, who was driving a large armored vehicle.
“We just crossed into South Hamgyong Province. We should reach Pyongyang by tomorrow,” she added.
“Let’s do that,” Gang-ho agreed as they pulled over just before dusk at a village.
After traveling without a single stop since their departure, everyone was tired, but considering the brutal fight they had endured underground, the journey felt quite peaceful.
“It all looked the same on the way here. Whether urban or residential, the building conditions and hollowness,” observed one of the group.
“Yeah. Not a single person or animal in sight,” Reina chimed in.
The group began sharing their thoughts about what they had seen and experienced during their travels. Initially, they had kept their mouths shut, their eyes filled with anxiety, but they seemed to be adapting a bit.
Having survived unbelievable near-death experiences underground, facing a dead world upon emerging could feel surreal.
For someone like Gang-ho, who had lived on the edge of life and death, it was hard to imagine how the ones who had only focused on research felt.
“We should patrol the area before night falls,” Gang-ho stated as he stood up.
“I’ll go with you,” Reina said.
“I’ll go too,” Lisa added.
Both Lisa and Reina stood up in unison, and Gang-ho alternated his gaze between the two before nodding.
“Alright, let’s all go then. Satoshi.”
“Me too? Ah, understood!” Satoshi replied, finally climbing out of the vehicle.
Inder, who had been slow to join in, also expressed his desire to accompany them.
“I’ll go too. There’s plenty to check out,” he said.
Gang-ho paused for a moment, glancing at Inder. While having him along could be helpful, he looked like he still needed to recover.
“Are you sure you’re alright? You don’t seem fully healed,” Gang-ho asked, concerned.
“I’m fine. It was just a fainting spell from the shock,” Inder assured him.
After a brief moment of thought, Gang-ho nodded. He felt that he could manage to protect just one Inder.
“Just make sure to wear a protective suit,” Gang-ho instructed.
“Of course.”
The village consisted of ordinary apartment complexes. It resembled a small new town, much like the villages they had passed before.
The buildings stood intact, showing no signs of destruction. The roads were relatively clean, but everything seemed aged, dry, and dusty, reminiscent of old, neglected furniture.
Most notably, there were no signs or traces of life, human or otherwise.
“Could it be because of the Dimension Gate the doctor mentioned?” Gang-ho wondered aloud.
Although the sentence was hanging, Inder understood Gang-ho’s question.
“Not sure. I haven’t heard anything about this situation, so I can’t give a definitive answer,” he mused.
Then he turned his gaze towards Gang-ho.
“By the way, what does your Disaster Manual say?” he asked.
Feeling as though Inder seemed to know something, Gang-ho immediately explained the phenomena he had experienced.
“My Disaster Manual has been updated. The content has expanded significantly.”
“I thought so. In a way, this could be a new world. There must be plenty to incorporate,” Inder remarked.
Gang-ho felt an uneasy excitement at those words.
‘A new world.’
Whether this was good or bad, the phrase left a deep impression on Gang-ho.
Inder, despite Gang-ho’s emotional turmoil, looked more serious as he asked, “So, where did the Dimension Gate appear?”
“The first Dimension Gate was in Cairo, Egypt, the second in Machu Picchu, Peru, the third in Agra, India, the fourth in Cancun, Mexico, the fifth in Seoul, the sixth in Jerusalem, Israel, and the seventh in Hiroshima, Japan. That’s about it,” Gang-ho recited.
Inder nodded, as if he already knew or at least had a guess about those places.
“I think there might have been a coordinate error with the Dimension Gate in Seoul,” he suggested.
According to Inder, the seven Dimension Gates formed in locations where energies similar to parallel worlds were concentrated. This was how Dimension Gates appeared in places often deemed mysterious or ancient ruins by humanity.
Under such criteria, Seoul and Hiroshima were exceptions.
“Hiroshima at least makes sense as the first place to experience an atomic bomb in human history, but what about Seoul…?” he pondered.
His speculation led him to think that a Dimension Gate should have opened in some ancient Chinese civilization site instead of Seoul.
‘Makes sense.’
Though he didn’t verbalize it, Gang-ho found this explanation plausible.
“What’s important is what happens when that Dimension Gate opens, right?” he asserted directly.
Inder nodded in agreement.
“Truthfully, that’s something I worry about too,” he admitted, letting out a long sigh at the end.
It seemed he knew something but was hesitant to share, and Gang-ho didn’t press further.
‘There must be a reason.’
Instead, Lisa asked a question that had been gnawing at her.
“You mentioned the mutant experiment was conducted to counter entities from beyond that Dimension Gate, right?”
“That’s true. It is indeed,” Inder confirmed.
“Then, was the explosion at the power facility on the 10th floor an intended experiment?” she inquired.
Everyone understood Lisa’s implication behind the question.
‘Ah, exposure to the electromagnetic field?!’
Lisa’s guess was spot on.
“Officially, it doesn’t appear that way, but I think that might be the case. It seemed that every floor conducted its own experiments,” Inder explained.
Reina let out a sigh at this.
“I learned about it while staying on the 9th floor to oversee, but when I requested to get updates on the situations in other floors, my request was ignored.”
Though it had been mentioned in detail earlier, what they newly learned deepened everyone’s thoughts.
To ease their tension, Inder added more context.
“Although I’m technically a member of the board meeting, I never felt inclined to exercise my voting rights. However,” he began, introducing a couple of mid-reports shared at a higher level regarding their projects.
First, he mentioned that a relatively successful and satisfactory experiment was the special serum trial.
“Here we have Major Han Gang-ho and Captain Reina as prime examples.”
At that statement, everyone gasped in shock.
They were already aware of Gang-ho’s condition, but it was Reina’s mention that took them aback.
Reina chuckled a little, albeit a bit bashful, as she shared her own story.
“That’s right. I’m classified as a half-elf.”
“… Huh?”
“Wait, did you say ELF?!”
The expressions of everyone were priceless as they processed this information.
Some instinctively began to scrutinize Reina’s ears.
Noticing their gazes, Reina smirked.
“Of course, you look at my ears first,” she laughed, though there was a hint of melancholy in her expression for a moment before she explained brightly.
“While I called myself a half-elf, to be precise, I’m a created elf.”
“……?!”
The surprises kept coming, but slowly, they began to understand the meaning behind her words.
Reina continued explaining.
“As Dr. Inder said, like how Gang-ho received the special serum injection, I did too. And it’s a half-success. So, technically, I’m a half-elf.”
“Ah, I see.”
Lisa and Satoshi gasped in unison.
‘Goodness, how could humans do this to other humans…’
As a fellow scientist, Lisa felt a wave of anger welling up.
But Reina insisted there was no need for such outrage.
“If it weren’t for the serum injection, Gang-ho would have died. I’m actually grateful for it.”
She didn’t go into the details of her story. Instead, she shared another remarkable piece of information.
“I don’t think you know it well, but do you have any idea what kind of special serum you were injected with?”
Looking at Gang-ho with curiosity, he shook his head in response.
Realizing this, Reina shrugged as if to say she expected that and continued with an explanation.
“The special serum injected into Gang-ho is likely of an otherworldly lineage.”
Everyone, including Gang-ho himself, was taken aback by this revelation, but they couldn’t deny its plausibility.
“Considering what you said, that seems likely,” Gang-ho nodded in agreement.
Reina continued, “Look at Gang-ho’s physical capabilities. Does that strength, defense, or speed seem manageable by a human body?”
“No! It’s absolutely impossible!” Satoshi vehemently agreed.
“I’m the same! You saw me run, right? And dodging enemy attacks?”
“O-Of course!”
Lisa nodded vigorously in acknowledgment.
At this point, Inder stepped in again.
“Now think about this. How do you suppose these subjects received their special serums? From the genes of unbelievable beings.”
Finally, everything began to click together in Lisa’s mind.
“The Dimension Gate, they must have already been in contact with those entities!”
Inder nodded, a pleased look on his face.
“While the serum trials have a relatively high success rate, it’s still a grim gamble. Just look at the fact that only these two made it out alive from the World Species Repository.”
Having processed this, Lisa spoke as she looked over her own body.
“So, the electromagnetic exposure trial doesn’t seem like such a bad thing either then, since there are two of us too.”
“Ah, I….” Satoshi caught on late.
‘Me, empowered by both the serum and radiation, Reina with abilities from only the serum, and Lisa and Satoshi from the exposure trials.’
Gang-ho mentally sorted them out. He thought of Wolf too, who had been in the same category as him, even though he was no longer with them.
“We can’t be the only ones, can we?”
Reina questioned, and Inder nodded in reply.
“Probably not.”
Then what had happened to everyone else? Where could they be?
While lost in such thoughts, suddenly, a chilling sensation enveloped Gang-ho’s entire body.
“……!”
He swiftly turned his body toward the center of the apartment complex.
A moment later, the others did too, albeit with a slight delay.
“What is this…?!”
“Ugh, it smells incredibly rotten!”
“Unbelievable.”
It was a sensation that transcended their five senses and physical awareness.
This, too, was one of the powers possessed by the mutants.
What they were feeling now was the first encounter with fear they had ever experienced.
Gang-ho gritted his teeth.
‘It’s too strong. It’s on a different level.’
*
To be continued…
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