The First Hunter

Chapter 24. Bucket List, Part I

Translator: Khan

Editor: RED

1.

The sky was gray. The gray, bluish sky was ominous. It was like the end of the world.

“Cough, cough…” In that ominous world, Kim Tae-hoon was coughing. It was not just a cough. Whenever he coughed, his throat and lungs felt scratched by sharp pieces of iron. The pain sent shivers down his spine.

When he stopped coughing, his mouth was itchy. The tickling in the mouth was due to blood, and it was running down his mouth as it popped out of the blood clots.

‘What’s going on?’

It was a plain sign of death. Kim Tae-hoon, who dreamt of dying, was surprised at his own situation.

‘Why do I feel-.’ Even at this moment, his five senses were not playing their part. He couldn’t hear well, he couldn’t feel any sensation in his fingertips, and he couldn’t feel the bloody smell or the bloody taste at all. Even his eyes were dim.

‘What the hell is going to happen to me?

It was something that could not happen to him, who had superhuman eyes and ears from the Eyes of Black Snake and the Hearing of a Bell-tailed Rat.

‘Tell me anything.’ At this moment, he urged himself.

‘Tell me now!’ He was going to die soon, and he wanted to give himself any clue to avoid this death!

However, Kim Tae-hoon, who was now dying, did not hear such longing. So, he didn’t say anything. In addition, there was no one around him at this moment to say anything for him. There was no Jang Sung-hoon to talk to him, no Ahn Sun-mi to tell the wish list, and no one to prove his death. There was no word. He only looked at his left-hand palm without saying a word.

– 170712 Colonel Lim Hyun-joon is killed, stop it.

– 180203 Cho Sung-yeon’s death. Make him president.

– 180504 The meltdown of Kori Nuclear Power Plant starts, stop it.

‘Ah.’ Kim’s left hand had a message written to himself to watch at his death. In addition, it was not just a message.

‘Bucket list.’ It was a bucket list, a must-do list before he dies. It was also unnecessary to say why.

The future which he could see by Napoleon’s Golden Glass was arbitrary. No matter how much he talked, it’s not likely to see it all in a dream. If death was scheduled, the surest way was to see a message to send from beginning to end.

In other words, at this moment, Kim was waiting for his death. He had no intention of avoiding his own death or challenging himself, just waiting for inevitable death to come.

‘What the hell happened to me?’

Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa! At that moment, he heard a sound in the distance. While looking at the palm of his hand, he lifted his head and looked at the deafening roar. His dim eyes reflected the angelic look. It was an angel made of gray smoke.

‘That…’ Of course, it was not an angel.

‘Flare?’ A plane, which was more familiar with the nickname “Angel of Death” than “AC-130 Gunship”, fired a flare. The scene did not last long.

As the Angel of Death approached, he focused more on his palm than on looking at it.

He concentrated all his senses on the palm of his hand.

His dream ended there

2.

Incheon International Airport…

There were VIP lounges from various airlines within the airport, bound to surprise the first visitors with their size. In one of the VIP lounges, two men were burying themselves on a soft sofa and facing each other. The looks on their faces were not very good. One was massaging his temples with his eyes closed, and the other was frowning enough to distort his whole face.

One of them, the man with a frown, said, “Boss, can I ask you a question?”

Kim did not answer Jang’s question.

“The more dreams you have, the better the situation you should have, but the more you keep dreaming, the worse the situation seems to get, instead of better.”

Again, Kim did not answer, since the question, which didn’t have to be answered, already had an answer.

“Fuck.” Jang, who knew the answer, had answered his own question.

“Meltdown?”

Kim dreamt of his fourth death. In the dream, he had a bucket list for himself on his palm.

It was as it was said. He left the bucket list which needed to be done before death. It was a wise move. It was not just a clue, but a clear statement of what to do. It was the kindest death he had ever seen.

“I’m crazy. After we kill the dragon, the following threat is radiation? We’ll have to stop a meteorite next time. Should we build a spaceship, land it on a meteorite that’s coming to the Earth, and explode a nuclear bomb? There was definitely such a movie… Bruce Willis…”

But the content was never kind.

“We will save Colonel Lim Hyun-joon, so let’s start there.”

There were three things in the bucket list.

First, they should save Colonel Lim Hyun-joon, who would die soon.

“Who is Cho Sung-yeon? Boss has to make him president.”

Second, after saving Cho Sung-yeon, he should be elected president.

“And Kori Nuclear Power Plant… No way! It’s really fucked.”

Finally, they should stop the meltdown at the Kori Nuclear Power Plant.

When Jang mentioned the last item, he covered his face with his hands. His hands, covering his face, were trembling from the heart.

“It’s definitely something you should do. If you don’t, everyone dies.”

The Kori Meltdown forecast was so shocking.

“It would be a land of hell. But unlike Chernobyl or Fukushima, there is no way people can rush to deal with it.”

Even Jang, who was not an expert on nuclear power plants, was so shocked that his hands and feet were shaken as he imagined the future.

Jang, who expressed his miserable feelings, said desperately, “No, we’d rather be safe. Monsters won’t be safe from radiation.”

“Wouldn’t it be possible that the public could become Awakeners if they were exposed to radiation? Shall we take a test? Can I become a Doctor Manhattan in the Watchman?”

Dr. Manhattan, referring to the character of DC Comics, who was exposed to radiation and had supernatural powers, was certainly not something sane or serious. Kim, who was rubbing his temples in front of Jang’s complaints, stopped his hands.

Kim opened his eyes.

“Meltdown refers to the core melting phenomenon caused by poor core cooling. There are three major stages of core cooling. The melting of the fuel container only occurs in meltdown, and then the meltdown of the reactor core penetrates the hangar where the fuel rods are stored. The last melting of nuclear fuel just scatters it on the ground.”

Jang also looked serious in front of Kim. “You know it well.”

“One of the lessons most special forces take often is on nuclear power plants.”

“Really?”

“Its because nuclear power plants are the most effective targets that terrorists can attack. Any damage to the nuclear power plants can lead to a meltdown, and that fear is much more effective than an airplane bomb.”

Kim stopped talking for a while. There was a sense of silence and tension. After he put his mind together amidst the tension, he spoke again. “If it were a melt-through or melt-out, I would have clearly specified the situation.”

“Not the worst?”

“It would be the worst if left untouched, but at least not at that moment.”

“It’s a little comforting to hear that.”

“The important thing is the first dream.”

“Yes?”

“What did I tell you in my first dream?”

At the sudden question, Jang recalled. As usual, Jang could recall the shocking story Kim had told him during the night in front of the library of Wonmi, Bucheon, as clearly as Kim could. “You had a hard time. Go to Gyeongju by myself, where I could meet with Commander-in-Chief Lim Hyun-joon and deliver your words…”

Jang’s face hardened as he was speaking. “Gyeongju! At the time of the first death, the Kori Nuclear Power Plant had not melted down.”

The Kori Nuclear Power Plant was located in Busan. The straight distance from Gyeongju was about sixty kilometers. If the Kori Nuclear Power Plant caused a meltdown and radiation leaks started, Gyeongju could never be a hub. This meant that at the time of his first death, Kori Nuclear Power Plant did not experience any meltdown.

“Based on the information of the first dream, Kori Nuclear Power Plant was never a problem.”

“Then why…”

“Someone must have caused a problem.”

“What? What kind of a nut does that cause? When it bursts, we’ll all die!”

“I suppose he has no desire, no interest, no affection, and no intention of staying in the Republic of Korea.”

Kim closed his eyes again.

‘The Six Snakes.’ It was clear that the Six Snakes were the source of all these nightmares. They would not have the right power right now.

And Kim, who learned lessons and information through his third death, could not have allowed the Six Snakes to be safe. ‘That’s why.’

In other words, the Six Snakes were pushed by Kim to abandon the land of Korea, and it was highly likely that they left a Pandora’s box, the Kori Nuclear Power Plant, for reasons of vengeance or checkmate.

‘Unintentional actions might have unexpected consequences?’ It’s a damned thing.

‘It was definitely an AC-130.’

But it was not meltdown that made Kim’s mood worse at this moment. He saw the AC-130 gunship firing flares before his death.

Angel of Death.

The flares of the AC-130 gunship, which had such an eerie nickname, could not be said to have a very powerful killing power in itself. In the first place, the flare was designed to deceive infrared guided missiles.

It was unlikely that he died in the attack. The important thing was the owner of the Angel. ‘America.’

The scene was the clearest evidence that the United States had expressed hostility toward him. ‘The U.S. attacked.’

And the evidence was much scarier than anything else, the meltdown phenomenon of Kori Nuclear Power Plant mentioned above to him.

‘After the dragon is America.’

To be honest, he couldn’t see how to win the war. He couldn’t even imagine.

That’s why he left it. There was no way to win the war, so he left a bucket list in the sense that he should not start the war itself. In the terrifying confusion and fear, it was the only lighthouse. Therefore, he made it clear.

‘I will stop the assassination of Colonel Lim Hyun-joon.’ As the bucket list said, the first thing to do was to save Colonel Lim Hyun-joon. There was no other worry right now. ‘The work to be done is simple, so let’s be simple.’

When he thought so, he felt like he was getting rid of his headache. But such peace did not last long.

“Ummm…” Inside the VIP lounge, a soldier in uniform appeared.

“What’s going on?” Jang, instead of Kim, was the first to answer.

The soldier slowly talked after hesitating for a moment at the sight of Jang. “We found a survivor.”

“A survivor?” Jang looked puzzled.

There were survivors at Incheon International Airport, where there was not a bird to see beyond the mess? Furthermore, when a survivor appeared, they did not need to report to Kim directly. Kim was more than the head of the Mac Guild. For those who lived under the name of the Mac Guild, he was virtually like God. However, this meant that they were required to report the discovery of a survivor in such a hurry…

“Who the hell is it? A daughter of the President of the United States?” In other words, it was highly likely that the survivors were not ordinary people.

“Well… Kate Kennedy, the daughter of the U.S. Ambassador to Korea.”

As soon as Kim heard that, he put his hand to his temples again.