March Novel - Chapter 7

“Installation complete.”

With a sharp salute, his subordinates withdrew. Gi Taejeong tapped his tablet with an indifferent expression, and a hologram floated up. It was a three-dimensional blueprint that allowed him to peer into not only the office they were currently in but also the main passages inside the house.

“The wiretap installation should be finished by tomorrow evening at the latest.”

“Should it be finished?”

“…It is scheduled to be finished. I’ll correct myself.”

“Snap out of it, Second Lieutenant Park. Don’t forget our purpose here; we’re imitating those gangster bastards.”

“Understood.”

Gi Taejeong clicked his tongue lightly and snapped his fingers. As the blueprint zoomed in, the internal scenery became clearer. On the small screen, the bustling people looked just like toy soldiers. This must be the boss’s office. If so, the boss must be stroking his newly made nameplate… And this looks like the house itself, so the guys diligently moving their hands must be the affiliated players. Then, are those swarms of guys timidly retreating the operatives carrying out the mission?

“They seem to be moving too obviously.”

“It’s almost time for guests to arrive, so I thought it would be better to move boldly. If the guys disguised as security hesitate in front of guests, those monitoring them will find it suspicious.”

The disguised soldiers began to exit the building in perfect formation. The interior of this massive vertical city, a twin building seven stories underground and seven stories above ground, was as complex as an ant farm. While the main attraction was a gambling den for Hwatu cards, there was also a casino floor with hired dealers, and a place with three or four large rings. In other rooms with the same structure as this office, regular patrons were being entertained by courtesans, and in the underground workshop, debtors were having their organs harvested alive.

“Even if they’re just gangster bastards… it doesn’t hurt to be careful. Simple missions where everything is clearly visible usually have the highest chance of failure.”

“Yes. Then what should we do with Lee Sehwa?”

“Lee Sehwa…”

Lee Sehwa, Lee Sehwa… Gi Taejeong leaned deep into the sofa’s backrest, muttering a name unfamiliar to his tongue.

“How long has it been since that patch was attached?”

“A little over forty minutes.”

“He must have pissed himself silly and passed out.”

The guy was dragged to the bathroom with a tearful face. At first, he seemed to be shouting something, but now he was quiet. Come to think of it, the sound of water had stopped a long time ago. Had he washed off that grotesque appearance? The tanning spray was probably cheap anyway, so it would have come off easily.

“Pregnancy is possible, huh…”

“According to the blood test results, yes.”

Gi Taejeong indifferently swiped the hologram screen sideways. The blueprint illuminating the building’s interior disappeared, and a passport photo floated up. Lee Sehwa. Transferred from District 2 to District 4. Age twenty-one. He was still young now, but in the photo, he looked much younger.

“There’s a possibility he tampered with his resident registration. Being a District 2 resident and a male capable of pregnancy wouldn’t have been a very positive thing for him.”

“If he had that kind of talent, he wouldn’t have lived like this until now, would he?”

Gi Taejeong flicked his finger, and the youthful face in the hologram trembled slightly, as if on the verge of tears.

Forging public documents requires a considerable amount of money. Moving residential areas is the same. A place where a resident outside the city walls could procure a large sum? It’s obvious, isn’t it? Would there have been a dealer who would give such a large sum of money to a guy who had nothing but his body to solve both problems? More importantly…

“Well, let’s say he managed to get the money somehow. But if he did, Lee Sehwa wouldn’t be living so normally.”

Even to Gi Taejeong, Lee Sehwa’s face didn’t look bad. If he were a loan shark, he would never have let a guy like that, who exposed all his weaknesses and came to him on his own two feet, off easily. He would have made him take clients until he was worn out, and then, when he was no longer useful, torn his body into pieces and sold them off. Just like the debtors squirming in the underground workshop a little while ago, having their internal organs harvested.

“Then, did Second Lieutenant Kim succeed after all? Did he really make such a drug…”

Gi Taejeong silently exhaled a long stream of smoke. It was a silent affirmation.

The forms of war have evolved in various ways. However, no matter what advanced weapons were developed, humans were still the ones making the key decisions. Whether it was command, infiltration operations, or large-scale sieges, the beginning and end were ultimately up to humans.

With all possible weapons already out, the military, after much deliberation, decided to cultivate talent specialized in warfare. Monsters closer to beasts than humans – obedient, with excellent physical abilities, judgment specialized for combat, and loyal only to the instincts of survival and obedience.

Gi Taejeong was an early test subject of that project and one of the few survivors. Originally, his surname was not Gi but Ga. This was because he belonged to the ‘Ga’ group, among groups divided from Ga to Ha.

‘Still, Gi is less likely to be ridiculed than Ga, right? Changing it to Kim would be too obvious, but Director Giis something I can just say I misread…’

The official who handled the registration documents at the time, after much deliberation, changed the surnames of the children belonging to the ‘Ga’ group to ‘Gi’. ‘Taejeong’ was the name of his first successful operation. The names of the other kids were all like that too. Bullet, Tank, Landmine… Some guys got names like that, so ‘Taejeong’ was pretty decent in comparison.

He was grateful for the consideration of the official who worried about him, but then as now, Gi Taejeong had no particular thoughts. Before being dragged into the military, he was an orphan, confined in a detention center as a ‘Ga’ group test subject, and after commissioning, he was called the ultimate weapon. Anyway, no one called him by his name, and no one would in the future. He survived with a disgusting tenacity. Somehow, he survived and even became a brigadier general. Now, to be filled with regret over a surname or a name, the sky he had trampled underfoot was already distant.

“But for Lee Sehwa to become pregnant due to Second Lieutenant Kim’s drug…”

“Second Lieutenant Kim is indeed General Oh Seon-ran’s person. They’ve grown remarkably close in the past few years, haven’t they?”

“Yes. General Oh is known to be against ‘Harvest’ more than anyone else.”

The military, realizing how convenient monsters like Gi Taejeong were, wanted to produce a few more human weapons like him. However, subsequent similar experiments carried out in secret all ended in failure.

The disheartened researchers, after much deliberation, came up with the idea of lineage inheritance. They argued that if excellent soldiers were bred, there would be a greater chance of creating equally excellent killing machines, subtly bringing up insane notions like the greatness of nature and the instinct for procreation, which were now long dead. Gi Taejeong was, of course, considered the top candidate for a breeding stallion.

At first, he thought it was nonsense. There were clearly male individuals born with the ability to conceive, so why bother manipulating an impossible body? It was troublesome, and more importantly, there was no guarantee that the child created that way would have superior physical characteristics. But some individuals thought it was a very good idea, even giving it the project name ‘Harvest’ and pushing for its implementation. They were clearly blinded by the thought of receiving kickbacks from various pharmaceutical companies.

“Whether he received orders from Oh Seon-ran or if it’s just a show put on by that drug addict Second Lieutenant Kim, we need to root out all of it this time.”

That way, those bastards who talked about him even having to pop out babies would quietly disappear.

Even without the ‘Harvest’ project, quite a few high-ranking officials wanted to get children, that is, seeds, from Gi Taejeong. It was an era where rank was the ultimate privilege. Regardless of what was said, Gi Taejeong was the youngest brigadier general, so any child born to him would be able to serve actively until commissioning. Moreover, since he was an orphan of unclear origin, there was also the calculation that they could fully seize Gi Taejeong’s influence by citing the sole legal bloodline and parental rights.

Those bastards, blinded by the inheritance of wealth and honor, began to drug Gi Taejeong’s food and water. Kidnapping, intentional arousal, threats… Of course, none of it ever worked on him, but it was still a pain in the ass. Gi Taejeong absolutely detested drugs and children.

“This is getting more interesting than I thought, isn’t it? There must be a reason why Second Lieutenant Kim pretended to oppose ‘Harvest’ in front of Oh Seon-ran.”

Well, in fact, the reason was obvious. He must have had something he wanted to hide from others, and based on past experience, it was highly likely to be a money issue. Bribes, slush funds, tax evasion… things like that. Maybe all of them.

“It seems… Second Lieutenant Kim wanted to appear unrelated to the kickbacks he received from the pharmaceutical company, didn’t he?”

“I just dipped my toe in, thinking of screwing over Second Lieutenant Kim… but at this rate, I might accumulate all my achievements and get discharged.”

Second Lieutenant Kim was the eldest son of a prestigious medical family and a key figure in the ‘Harvest’ project. Perhaps more than half of the drugs people secretly tried to use on him came from that bastard Second Lieutenant Kim’s pocket.

Even though the drugs didn’t cause serious damage, they were annoying and irritating, and he had vowed to kill that bastard someday. Then, he caught signs of Kim suspiciously roaming outside the city walls. The fact that Second Lieutenant Kim was a drug addict was an open secret, so no one seemed to care, but at the time, Gi Taejeong was in the mood to cause a massive incident. He had just returned after single-handedly annihilating a small country. The excitement, heated by blood, wouldn’t easily subside. He wanted to smash something, and his veins throbbed with the desire to cause trouble. So he put someone on Second Lieutenant Kim. To find something to latch onto and really kill him this time.

But what do you know, after digging, it wasn’t just the actions of a simple addict. There was something more. It seemed clear that the guy was distributing drugs on a fairly large scale. Even with someone he trusted, it wasn’t a matter that could be taken lightly, so this much was actually enough. But… thanks to Lee Sehwa, it seemed he could reap an unexpected harvest. ‘Harvest,’ huh… That was a word he wanted to use himself.

“If we hand this case over to the anti-Oh Seon-ran or anti-Kim faction… I think you, Brigadier General, could be discharged within a year. General Oh Seon-ran is an individual who works arbitrarily on the enemy’s side, so there’s considerable dissatisfaction among the elders, and as for Second Lieutenant Kim’s family… well, there’s no need to say more.”

Gi Taejeong whistled casually. Boy soldiers like him, who were commissioned around the age of ten, had to be tied to the military for at least forty years. However, if they achieved outstanding accomplishments, their mandatory service period could be shortened. So, some of the survivors would throw themselves into dangerous missions like moths to a flame. Even though they were treated poorly, they could accumulate a lot of money in the military, dreaming naive dreams of getting discharged quickly and living a normal life with that money.

Gi Taejeong had no such cute aspirations. He had diligently accumulated achievements simply because he hated seeing those bastards who tried to hold his leash and swing him around. Thanks to his recent brilliant military achievement of single-handedly crushing an enemy nation, he had five years left until discharge… but if he properly investigated this matter, it seemed he could even shorten it to one year, just as Second Lieutenant Park said. The thought of those old men, who tried to tie him to the military, making such a good mess of their faces, made his dick stand up in ecstasy.

“As you know, Brigadier General, the case itself doesn’t seem difficult. However…”

“I know. It’s a matter of how much evidence we secure.”

It was difficult to get acquainted with the house boss and establish contact without Second Lieutenant Kim’s knowledge, but other than that, there was nothing to it. Even if it wasn’t openly flaunted, anyone who took an interest and dug into it could infer Second Lieutenant Kim’s suspicions.

It was a big problem, of course, that an unauthorized project, arbitrarily named ‘Harvest,’ involving human experimentation outside the military, and even using drug couriers, was being carried out. The drug that supposedly enabled pregnancy might not be composed solely of narcotic ingredients, but it was clearly an unauthorized and dangerous substance.

The Human Experimentation Prohibition Treaty was this year… its 15th anniversary, wasn’t it? Of course, everyone was doing nasty things under the table, but all countries on Earth had agreed to this treaty because they didn’t want to see others succeed. If it were ever discovered, it would provide an excuse for the whole world to tear them apart.

Yet, Second Lieutenant Kim was acting so nonchalantly, probably because he had someone he trusted. He must have intended to pin the manufacturing methods and drug distribution entirely on Lee Sehwa. He would claim it was the work of criminals in an illegal house, and he was infiltrating to uncover it… If he made such an excuse and handed over the identities of the criminals, other countries would find it difficult to pick a fight.

“Even if it wasn’t me, there must have been others interested in this matter. But the fact that Second Lieutenant Kim’s business has run smoothly until now without any significant problems…”

Honestly, it was probably because it was annoying. As he emphasized to Second Lieutenant Park repeatedly, a seemingly simple and obvious task can sometimes be harder to handle than a dangerous mission shrouded in mystery. Moreover, other officers were not directly targeted by ‘Harvest’ like Gi Taejeong. So they would have taken a bite and immediately pulled out. Waiting for someone else to dig into it, lest they get tangled up and it becomes troublesome.

“First, I’ll compile a list of individuals who would welcome weaknesses in Second Lieutenant Kim’s family. And General Oh, of course. The enemy of my enemy, we can request cooperation from them most safely.”

“Is there evidence that Second Lieutenant Kim transported and experimented with drugs through Lee Sehwa?”

“Yes, we have a voice testimony from another courier.”

“Is that all?”

“It is, but we also secured CCTV routes matching the courier’s testimony, and more importantly, Second Lieutenant Kim and Lee Sehwa are scheduled to meet a few more times, so if we use Lee Sehwa to record a hologram then…”

“No. That’s not enough.”

Gi Taejeong tapped the head of his cigar with his fingertips in a steady rhythm. It was a habit he had when deep in thought.

“The important hypothesis right now is that Lee Sehwa became pregnant because of Second Lieutenant Kim’s drug, right? That he conducted human experiments on a lower-class citizen who lacks legal protection, using a manufacturing method stolen from an unauthorized project. And that a general-level official also received kickbacks in the process – that will be the crux of the trial.”

“That’s true, but…”

“Did you say Second Lieutenant Kim and Lee Sehwa are definitely scheduled to meet?”

“Yes. He’ll have to dispose of the remaining drugs, and above all, if Lee Sehwa’s constitution has indeed changed, Second Lieutenant Kim will definitely reach out. If we can then persuade Lee Sehwa to confess about the drug Second Lieutenant Kim manufactured, it would be absolutely perfect.”

“Hmm…”

“So that you, Brigadier General, don’t have to worry about this matter, I will…”

“Then, in addition to that, if Lee Sehwa actually gets pregnant, wouldn’t that be game over?”