Jin-Woo and I stood together, tired and dirty. "It's done," I said, my voice rough.
"For now," he said quietly, looking at the survivors. "But what comes next? The Association will be here soon. They'll want answers. How do we explain any of this? Neither of us can say we have a system which made us grow this stronger."
He was right. I was officially an E-rank. Jin-Woo, to the records, was still a C-rank during this Jeju operation, though his real power was a secret. How did we beat a swarm that killed S-ranks and other hunters far stronger than us from around the world?
'Gaia,' I thought. 'We need a story. Something believable for the Hunter Association.'
"You require a plausible weakness for the mutant insects," Gaia's voice responded, calm and logical. "Ask Vespa. Even powerful mutations have biological roots. What would her kind fear?"
I looked at Vespa, who stood silently nearby. "If you were to have a weakness, something humans could exploit even in your mutant form, what would it be? Something we could tell others."
Vespa tilted her head, her violet eyes thoughtful. "Our biology, though advanced, is still insectile. Our systems are highly sensitive to chemical signals.
A powerful, synthesized pheromone disruptor could cause systemic paralysis. It would confuse hive commands and induce neurological shutdown. It is a believable Achilles' heel for creatures of our origin."
It was perfect. A scientific-sounding weakness. We could claim we discovered it, used an experimental device as a last ditch effort to defeat the ants.
'Good. That works for the ants we killed and the ones Jinwoo took as his shadows. But what about the rest?' I asked Gaia, gesturing to the remaining swarm and Vespa. 'If we say we used a disruptor, it means they're either dead or they fled. But she's coming with me. And these ants can't just roam free.'
"A valid point," Gaia conceded. "For that, I am unlocking one of your first system reward skills. I am designating it… 'Rizz Army.'"
I blinked. 'That name is incredibly cringe.'
"You may rename it as you wish. Its function is what matters. It is a personal pocket dimension, linked to my essence. An infinite, dormant space where you may store living followers who swear allegiance to you, and those that have those servitude marks on their abdomen. You may envelope them and summon them at will. To activate, visualize the space enveloping your target and speak the command word."
A pocket dimension. It was exactly what I needed. 'What's the command word?'
"The activation phrase is: 'Store.' To retrieve, visualize the individual and speak: 'Deploy.'"
Simple. I turned to Vespa. "Gather every remaining ant. Right here."
She did not question. A silent pulse went out. The remaining ants—soldiers, workers, a few lesser hybrids—streamed into the throne room, forming a still, silent crowd.
I focused, visualizing the pocket dimension Gaia described. I looked at the swarm and spoke firmly. "Store."
A shimmering, transparent wave of energy flowed from me, engulfing the entire group of ants. In an instant, they vanished, as if swallowed by the air itself. Only Vespa remained.
She looked at the empty space, then at me. "An impressive trick. I hope you will mate with me soon, master. Our offspring will be magnificent." Her tone was as factual as ever.
"Not now," I said, my voice leaving no room for argument. I focused on her. "Store."
The same wave enveloped her. She gave a final, emotionless nod before she too disappeared into the pocket dimension.
I let out a long breath. It was done.
I turned to Jin-Woo, who had watched everything with an increasingly baffled expression. "Okay," I said, laying out the plan.
"Here's the story," I said, laying it out carefully. "We arrived just as the international teams were being overrun. We saw the scale of it—S-ranks dying. We knew we couldn't fight head-on. So we didn't. We fell back, avoided direct engagement, and scouted."
I paused, making sure Jin-Woo was following. "We found one of the Association's forward research camps. It was wrecked, but not everything was destroyed. There were crates of prototype gear—experimental non-lethal weapons.
Sonic projectors, resonance emitters, crowd-control frequency modulators. They were meant for dispersing monster hordes or disrupting magical formations. All separate units, all labeled as unstable or incomplete. But the technical manuals were still there."
Jin-Woo's eyes narrowed slightly, thinking it through.
"We put it together," I continued, getting into the explanation. "Literally. We took parts from different broken machines and combined them into one big device. I got the idea from… okay, don't laugh… from Power Rangers."
Jin-Woo blinked. "Power Rangers?"
"Yeah," I said, feeling a bit silly but running with it. "When I was a kid, I loved that show. The part where their individual Zords combine into the Megazord? Or when their blasters link up to form a bigger cannon? That's what I remembered. Each of these prototype units was like a separate Ranger weapon—useless on its own, but maybe powerful if you connected them right."
I gestured with my hands, mimicking linking parts together. "The sonic projector had an emitter dish. The resonance modulator had the power regulator. The frequency broadcaster had the control circuitry.
They weren't meant to connect, but their ports were standard Hunter Association issue. I just… matched the shapes. It was basically fancy LEGO with wires. I'm not an engineer, but you don't need to be one to plug a square connector into a square slot."
Jin-Woo's expression shifted from confusion to a faint look of understanding.
"So we linked them all," I said. "What we built was basically a high-powered, directional ultrasonic array—a giant, jury-rigged sound cannon. It blasted a focused beam of sound waves at a super high frequency.
To us, it's just a quiet hum. But to anything with an exoskeleton and antennae? It's like screaming directly into their brain. It targets the specific nervous system of bugs—insects, spiders… ants."
I shrugged. "It wasn't genius. It was just… remembering cartoons and not being afraid to try a stupid idea in face of death when all the smart ones had already gotten people killed."
I nodded toward where Cha Hae-in lay sleeping. "And when they asked where we got this idea from, where we had a critical piece of intel. We say, before she was captured, Cha Hae-in managed to signal us. Her last flare wasn't just a distress call—she used a hunter's emergency data-pulse function on her comms.
She didn't have time for deep analysis, but she's one of the best scouts alive. She sent raw observational data."
Jin-Woo leaned in, listening closely.
"It wasn't a detailed report," I explained. "It was flashes of what she saw while fighting. Time-stamped notes. Things like: 'Ants freeze for 0.5 seconds after high-pitched metal screech,' or 'Hybrids twitch and look east when distant clicking starts.'
She noticed patterns in their reactions as much as she could in such a short time—how they coordinated attacks not by sight, but by sound and vibration. She pinpointed that their commands weren't magical; they were physical. A specific range of sound."
I let that settle. "That was the key. She didn't give us the exact frequency. She gave us the clue that there was a frequency. We took her observations about what made them flinch or hesitate, cross-referenced it with the specs from the sonic emitters we found, and guessed the right range to blast through trial and error. Without her notes telling us what to look for, our machine would have just been useless noise."
I let that sink in. "So we used it. We aimed the array and blasted that ultrasonic frequency across the compound. We weren't attacking their bodies. We were jamming their lines of communication.
The sound waves created massive interference in the specific range they use to send signals—clicks, vibrations, all of it. It was like static drowning out every radio in a war room."
I gestured to illustrate the effect. "The ants closest to the broadcaster were hit with the full force of it. They couldn't send or receive orders. They just froze up, isolated. The ones further out didn't get the full jamming, but the chain of command was broken.
They stopped getting coordinated instructions. Without those signals telling them what to do, their formation fell apart. Some ran in confusion, others just shut down. The swarm's coordination shattered. That break in their system, that loss of their hive link, is what let us get through to the captives."
Jin-Woo was nodding slowly now. The story was taking shape—improvised tech, critical intelligence from a top hunter, and a targeted, clever solution.
"The majority of the swarm," I said, "confused and with their chain of command broken, retreated inland. We don't know where. We didn't chase them. Our mission was recovery, not extermination. We got to the survivors, sedated them for safe extraction, and got them out."
He looked at me. "And the queen?"
"If there was a central queen, she would have been the most protected. She'd be deep in the island by now, regrouping. But with their communication shattered, it might take them days or weeks to reorganize, if ever."
"And us?" Jin-Woo asked. "An E-rank and a C-rank pulling this off?"
"That's the beauty of it," I said. "We're not S-ranks. We don't have the power to fight monsters head-on. So we have to use our heads. The Association always thinks with mana and muscle. They throw power at problems.
We used knowledge. We used tools they'd already built and discarded. We used intel from a smarter, stronger hunter who did the hard work of observation. We survived because we were too weak to be proud, and too smart to just die."
I met his gaze. "It's believable because it's true in spirit. We did use our wits. We did find a weakness. Cha Hae-in did provide the crucial insight. We just… embellish the method. The Association will eat it up.
It makes them look good—their gear, their top hunter's brilliance—and it explains why two low-ranks are the only ones walking out of this mess. They'll be too embarrassed to question it closely, because the real question will be why they didn't think of it.
And the more they try to extend the questioning the more they would be a laughing stock so they would simply take credit for the contribution and bury the matter without dragging it any more."
Jin-Woo gave a tired, grim smile. "Lies upon lies."
"To protect what's left," I said, looking at the field of sleeping women. "The truth would sound extremely insane. Try explaining to the higher-ups that the ant queen did all of this destruction, killing all the males and hunters from around the world, breeding with all those women, planting eggs in women's bodies.
Try explaining they did all of that just because they wanted to have sex with me, and that's why they evolved this fast—making a mockery out of all the hunters from around the world.
The males that got killed and eaten by ants as nourishment, while women had bestiality done to them, just because the ant queen wanted to have sex with me. If we said something like that to the higher ups, they'd lock us both up for psychosis."
And if they actually believed us, then that would paint targets on everyone's head—on us, on the survivors, on Esther and Jin-Ah. This story gives everyone an out. It gives the Association a victory they can understand. It lets these women be victims of a tragedy, not… not experiments."
He sighed, the weight of the deception settling on him, but he agreed. "Then we wait for them to wake up. We stick to the story. And we hope Cha Hae-in backs our play."
"She will," I said, my voice low. "She's pragmatic. She saw what happened here. She won't want to make their lives any more of a hell than it already is.
Remember, she agreed to disobey the orders to kill the women along with those ants, so that she can evacuate and save the survivors when others wanted to dispose of the women just because they were too risky to keep alive.
But in reality what it meant was they were too weak to prevent this from happening and saving them when shit hit the fan. She risked her own capture and accepted the same hellish fate like those other women just to make sure her team escaped.
She'll back the story because the truth would destroy them all over again. Plus, she's an official S-rank. Her words carry weight. And based on the limited knowledge I have of her personality, she wouldn't disagree to it"
I paused, and my tone turned colder. "And if she doesn't agree… then she'll have to die."
Jin-Woo looked at me sharply. "You would kill her? Cha Hae-in? An official S rank"
"Yes," I said, no hesitation in my voice. "I will protect Esther and Jin-Ah above everyone else. Above you, above her, above myself and you know that better than anyone else in this world. If anyone does anything that could bring harm to them, I will delete that person. Permanently."
I met his gaze. "You can sense it, can't you? My real strength. I'm at least S-rank now. And now I even have Vespa. She would burn the world if I told her to, just for the chance to mate. I have the power to follow through."
I looked back at the sleeping women, my guilt hardening into a cold resolve. "These women suffered because of me. Their lives are finished. They've lost families, homes, dignity—everything. The least I can do is protect them from falling from one monster's clutches into another's."
I spelled it out, the ugly future I saw. "If the full truth comes out, they won't be survivors. They'll be freaks. The families of the dead hunters will blame them. Society will outcast them. And the Association… some mad scientist in a lab will want to cut them open to see how the hybrids grew inside them.
Or worse, they'll be called 'compatible' and forced to breed with other monsters 'for the greater good.' They have no one to confide in anymore. They're in this hell because of my carelessness. They don't have anyone else to protect them. I will not let one more bad thing happen to them. I'll kill anyone who tries."
Jin-Woo was silent for a long moment. He looked from my face to the women and back. Finally, he let out a slow breath. "It's harsh. But it's not unreasonable. I understand."
The heavy tension eased slightly, shifting to something more practical. "What about Jin-Ah?" Jin-Woo asked, changing the subject. "You said she awakened. What wind attribute?"
"Yeah," I said, the coldness leaving my voice as I thought of her. "She was terrified at first. I've got a basic training plan for her. But she needs a confidence boost. A gift, maybe. Something to show her this power isn't just a curse."
Jin-Woo nodded thoughtfully. "These ants," he said, glancing toward the silent villa. "The ones you kept. The smaller soldiers, or even the hybrids… they could be perfect sparring partners for her.
They're fast, some of them use wind-like attacks, but they're under complete control. No real danger. She could learn to fight in a safe, controlled way."
I hadn't considered that. It was a good idea. "Yeah. That could work. And Vespa herself… I'll have her stand guard over Esther and Jin-Ah. An ant queen, hidden in a pocket dimension, as their secret bodyguard. Nothing will get near them with how strong she is."
We talked a little more, laying out simple, solid plans in the quiet evening. It felt almost normal, discussing gifts and training, amidst the field of broken survivors.
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