1.

It was July in Daegu City. It was hot, and even in the shadowy buildings, it was sweaty and irritating.

The same was true of the messy office on the sixth floor of the ruined eight-story building, and the woman gasping in it. Her body was covered with sweat.

Fuck! The woman was untidy, and her hair was cut short, like a man's. Her hair was covered with oil and sweat, and her sweat, was black and dark as if she had not properly washed for a long time.

Nevertheless, she was attractive enough that she could call herself a beauty, and especially a lacrimal point under her left eye was impressive. In addition, the lacrimal point was the most obvious evidence that she was an actor, Lee Yeon-ah.

'It's the worst.'

Lee Yeon-ah had been an idol singer and had been popular during her idol days. After turning to an actress, she had appeared as the main supporting actor in a considerable number of films and had appeared twice in public TV dramas.

She was not the woman who had been always under the glare of light, and she was not the kind of woman who could gasp for breath in this place.

'Everything is the worst.'

Her misfortune began on December 31, 2016, as everyone else's did.

That day she was on her way to Seoul after finishing a drama shoot in Busan. The first monsters she saw began to mingle with or crush the cars running on the Gyeongbu Expressway, as if killing ants. At the absurd sight, her manager escaped out of the Gyeongbu Expressway with an amazing show of driving skill.

'At that time, I should have run to Seoul.'

The end of the nightmare that had started was Daegu City.

Daegu City was the only place with very few monsters to appear, and the survivors flocked to Daegu City. To be precise, only those who came to Daegu could survive.

Until then, she had the hope that this nonsense would be stopped. With that hope, she followed the orders of the Second Operations Command. It was not enough to just follow. She had helped the Second Operations Command to reassure people. She used her fame to become the face of the Second Operations Command in front of people. In addition to her, entertainers and celebrities came out to help the activities of the Second Operations Command. It was a kind of talent donation, and at the same time, it was a struggle to benefit.

'If I would have run to Seoul at that time, I might have died, but I would not have seen those mad bastards do anything crazy…'

At some point, the situation began to change. No, the situation didn't improve over time. The support that they thought would come soon did not come, and millions of people who flocked to the collapse of the social infrastructure created an unimaginable disorder. Looting took place all over the place, and once arson occurred, it would be a real disaster. But that was not the worst.

'Those bastards took people to the monster's dens and they forced people to work… the crazy bastards.'

The Second Operations Command began to make strange moves from a certain moment. The first abnormality was when the Second Operations Command headed to Gyeongju City with those who committed a crime and were isolated or imprisoned.

At first, no one was very interested in it, and most of them welcomed the move; at least, no one wanted to share the space with the criminals. However, there was no support to the massacre of the criminals who had gone to Gyeongju City.

It was a natural thing, for there were plenty of hungry monsters in Gyeongju, and the smell and sweat of thousands of people were not different from the smell of delicious food.

The problem arose after the Second Operations Command began to send people to Gyeongju City repeatedly.

There were people who started to doubt the fact that even criminals being thrown into hell was inevitable, and everything changed when it became known that the reason was to dig up the royal tombs and ancient tombs in Gyeongju City.

People asked the Second Operations Command why thousands and tens of thousands of people risked their lives and walked through the royal tombs and ancient tombs of Gyeongju with nothing but shovels and songs.

The answer to that question was simple: they were shot dead. The Second Operations Command did not spare r those who complained and voiced their opinion.

'Damn it.' After that, the Second Operations Command forced not only criminals but also innocent people who did not commit crimes into Gyeongju City, and they forced them to work.

From then on, only two categories of people remained in Daegu. Those who were obediently taken away, and those who did not want to be taken away. Lee Yeon-ah was the latter. She did not want to be taken away, so she became a member of the Résistance.

"Here!"

And that was why she was breathing hard in the ruined building.

"She's in here!"

"Fucking bitch, you're a rat in a trap."

She grit her teeth at the voice in front of her building.

'How the hell do they know where I am? Did they use a spell?'

But she didn't close her eyes tightly.

"Capture her alive! She would know where Cho Sung-yeon is!"

"Can we just capture her?"

"You guys, the first one to catch her can fuck her first! If you keep her mouth unhurt, everything is okay!"

"I am finally fucking her, I've been waiting for this day-"

Despite the ghastly and miserable talk of the soldiers toward her, she never showed any weakness.

'That's a load of bullshit. How did I keep my virginity in the entertainment industry? If I am fucked by you guys, I'll set my body on fire.'

Rather, at this moment she checked the number of bullets in her own cartridge belt.

'There's one left. Only one bullet is left.'

When she put the magazine in the K2 rifle she was holding, she still had about forty rounds of ammunition.

'I can take three of them.' She weighed the amount of ammunition left and the life of a man.

"Hoo!" Then she drew her breath. Her eyes cooled down as she breathed, her eyes slowly lost all hope.

'The last moment… I will kill myself.' Finally, with the readiness to die, she thought of a man's face in her mind.

'At least I have to save the captain. If he dies, it's over.' She remembered the face of the man who had fought against the Second Operations Command for justice, not injustice.

"Hoo!" The moment she finally breathed, the moment she prepared for the battle, the moment her concentration reached its peak, her sense of smell finally caught the odor.

'Hmm?'

'What is it?'

Deep, gentle, yet intense… a fragrance that was not like other fragrances.

'Oh, this was the aroma of coffee.' The scent was a coffee flavor.

'Oh, God, I forgot the flavor of coffee.'

She felt a lump in her throat then, surprised by the first smell of coffee in some time, the coffee flavor she used to savor. It was because she felt deeply how precious the things she had lost were.

On the other hand, her reason tinged her.

'Where does this coffee smell come from?'

'Who is it?'

It was not an illusion, because the fragrance was too thick as an illusion.

It was clear that this was not the smell of the soldiers of the Second Operations Command, the dogs of the military who risked their lives trying to rape her. So, the soldiers who entered the building and started running up the stairs like dogs had no choice but to stop in front of this coffee smell.

Sniff!

"What is it? What does it smell like?"

"I've smelled it a lot of times… coffee! Coffee!"

The soldiers also looked surprised by the smell, as it had been some time for them as well. They were surprised that they had forgotten the smell that had been blowing all over the world just half a year ago, and they were also surprised that the odor was in a ruined building. Their surprise turned into tension.

Gulp! Then one of them gave a sign with a swallow. "We'll go to the fifth floor, and be careful if it's a trap."

"Yes."

With the order, those who had been climbing the stairs opened the door and entered the fifth floor of the building.

'Hoo!' Lying on the stairs between the fifth and sixth floors, Lee Yeon-ah, who was about to shoot at the soldiers who were coming up, held her breath again. She heard some voices: starting with the voice of a soldier, passing the voice of a man she had never heard before, and even the sound of the direct fire order.

- There! There's someone over there!

- Stop moving. If you move, I'll kill you.

- Fire!

After that, there was no sound for a moment.

'What's going on?'

Thud! And after a while, Lee Yeon-ah heard things fall on the floor, one after another. She could tell that the sound was the last sound of those who had abruptly become dead.

'What, what...?' So, she had to panic. She had heard the sound several times when a dead body fell, but she has never heard them without a shot.

But her surprise was not the end of it.

Huck! Lee Yeon-ah was able to tell that the coffee smell was gradually getting stronger. The source was getting closer to her.

Screech! The door to the stairs, which had been closed, opened again by itself. The doorknob moved on its own, and the door opened itself. A voice came from beyond the open door.

"Drop the gun."

It was a warning. It was a warning to Lee Yeon-ah herself. At the warning, she worried, and when the worry was over, she took the gun upside down instead of throwing it away. She pointed it at her head.

'If I am taken any information…' And without a moment's hesitation, she pulled the trigger.

'Ah!' But the trigger didn't move. The reason was simple. She didn't know that the safety was on.

'Why, why?' She was embarrassed by the fact.

In the meantime, a man carrying a deep coffee odor came toward her. There was no sound of walking up the stairs, since the man climbed the stairs in the air and stood in front of Lee Yeon-ah, who was lying on the stair landing between the fifth and sixth floors. He had bushy hair and there were two swords on his back. However, above all, his black Eyes were the most impressive and overwhelming.

"I, I-"

"My name is Kim Tae-hoon, the head of the Mac Guild, which manages the capital city Seoul, Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, Gangwon, and Incheon."

Even Lee Yeon-ah, who had made up her mind to suicide, was overwhelmed and she made a foolish expression. So, she answered without even knowing it, "I, I'm… Lee Yeon-ah."

"So?"

"Lee, Lee Yeon-ah. Lee Yeon-ah."

"So what?"

"Lee, Lee Yean-ah."

The man frowned strongly, leaving Lee Yeon-ah silent in front of him. Then he said, with a look that seemed to be truly unaware of her, "The unit, the rank, the information you wanted to hide so much that you chose suicide. All I want to hear is those three things."

With the words, Kim Tae-hoon had coffee in a mug in his hand.

2.

"They were wiped out? Does that make sense?" A soldier bowed his head at the question of the man who was pouring out sweat like a flood in the heat.

"How many people died just trying to capture a girl!"

The name of the man who yelled again was Jang Kyun. He was also a Major under the Second Operations Command. That was all.

Jang Kyun had only a rank, but he did not have proper power or status. He was not a Major in the first place, and it was only because of the mark on the back of his right hand that he was able to receive the high rank of Major.

The Second Operations Command needed to increase the loyalty of their Awakeners, and in that situation, all the Second Operations Command could do was to give them a decent rank. For that reason, there were more Majors than Second Lieutenants under the Second Operations Command.

"Get her right now!"

"It's dangerous, and Lee Yeon-ah could have set up a trap."

"So what? Get her now! We have to catch her, so we can find the true location of the Résistance!"

"Well, it's still dangerous-"

Currently, the biggest problem of the Second Operations Command was the Résistance, and Lee Yeon-ah was an executive of the Résistance. That was why Major Jang Kyun was furious to catch her.

"Get Lee Yeon-ah!"

Major Jang Kyun would be able to acquire the right power and status as soon as he caught the actress Lee Yeon-ah, who was the executive of the Résistance and all the Korean people knew her.

'Fucking bitch, I will catch her—'

There was also a desire to vent his personal sexual desires.

The men under Major Jang Kyun were angry, of course. 'Crazy bastard! You could go and catch her yourself. If we were able to catch her, we would have caught her.'

Everyone knew that they had to catch Lee Yeon-ah to clean up the Résistance. But she had never been caught.

Above all, even though they had known her location clearly, the troops who had gone to catch her were slaughtered. It was more likely that the place was a trap created by the Résistance than anything else.

'We should throw ourselves into such a trap?'

'We can't fucking run away…'

'Does it mean that we should die?'

"Major Jang Kyun." A man in the distance spoke; he was young enough to be described as a young man rather than a man.

Behind him was a man who was dressed in a suit that anyone could see was a ninja.

"Mr. Tanaka has something to say."

The young man was none other than a Japanese interpreter. Of course, the object of interpretation was the man in the ninja outfit behind the young man.

"If you give him permission, Mr. Tanaka will catch Lee Yeon-ah directly."

Major Jang Kyun was very pleased with the words of the interpreter.

"Really?"

"But he has a condition."

"Condition?"

"If he catches her, you'll have to give him a day or so."

Major Jang Kyun laughed at that.

'Well, she was famous in Japan, too.'

Major Jang Kyun couldn't help but notice the meaning of that, and he had no intention of complaining or rejecting the fact. Most of all, he knew the ninja had a very special ability. It was the ninja who had found the location of the elusive Lee Yeon-ah. Of course, he did not hesitate.

"Please tell him to give me a favor."