I Have Returned, but I Cannot Lay down My Gun

───KWA-ANG!

“…Huh?”

“Shit, what was that sound?”

“Wake up, wake up! What was that sound!?”

“Emergency deployment alert! The deployment point is… Columbus Circle?”

“Central Park is just ahead, this is a problem… Junior, catch!”

“Yes!”

3:30 AM, Central Park.

The dawn, dark and quiet, was literally covered in silence and shadows. The sound of a massive explosion, as though it were pounding on my heart, echoed from somewhere. As soon as it rang out, all the mutated people, including me, jumped out of bed like springs.

In a hurry, we dressed with whatever gear we could grab, barely managing to get our water-logged equipment together. While checking that the special features linked with our gear were functioning, the lights turned on.

The harsh light hurt my eyes, but in that moment, Logan opened the cabinet, grabbed my firearm, and tossed it over to me. No matter how much we treat our firearms as extensions of our body, in situations like this, there's no time to overthink.

While inserting rounds into the magazine, the reason for the deployment hit me.

“Did you say a Valkyrie crashed at Columbus Circle? What the hell happened?”

“When have we ever known the reason before deploying? We’ll find out when we get there.”

“Stop talking and catch the damn magazine!”

While loading eight magazines full of deadly rounds, I prepared four grenades in the grenade pouch on the multi-purpose pack on my right thigh.

Once I inserted the magazines into the chamber and pulled back the bolt to chamber a round, I set the safety on the control lever. In just 1 minute and 30 seconds, all four of us were ready.

Rapland had already dashed toward HQ wearing nothing but a short-sleeved shirt and shorts—wolves don’t feel the cold much—while we quickly rushed out from the Alpha-grade mutant dorm.

The other members of the Dagger Team, led by Owens, were stationed a little farther from the Alpha-grade mutant dorm, so a quick reunion was necessary.

Before even 10 seconds had passed since we gathered outside, Owens, the operations team leader, and the entire Eagle Team had already assembled.

But that was the end of the personnel check.

“…This is clearly an incident site. No need to go to HQ.”

“I’ve requested the gate to be opened. We can head out right now.”

Far to the south, at the far left of Columbus Circle, black smoke was rising.

• "Dagger Team, is this all we need to do?"

• "Alright. Let’s give it a try. We only got one day of leave because of these bastards, so we can afford to be a little aggressive."

• "Understood. We're gathering equipment and will arrive at Two Bridges in three minutes."

• "There’s always a way."

• "Junior, are you watching this? If you want to be under me, you'll have to do stuff like this."