Chapter 58

Chapter 58

I’m stunned, that’s the only way I can describe it.
“Shit. You freak.”
The Al Quamar member’s hand shook as he gripped the knife.
The tip of the blade touched Mithril’s forearm. He stabbed with all the force he could muster, but he felt no sting.
Not even a scratch. This was not the first time. Time and time again, blades and bullets pounded against flesh, but not a drop of blood flowed from Mithril’s body.
Billion!
The back of a hand covered in a blue mineral flicked. A motion like chasing a flying insect. With an effortless gesture, the human’s skull was crushed and sent flying dozens of meters.
Mithril’s combat was very simple. He simply stomped and smashed everything in sight. His incredible durability made defense and evasion unnecessary.
“Hmm.”
Mithril glanced around the execution chamber. The smoke had already cleared. The people had cleared out, leaving only the Legion and Al Quamar here.
And, most of them were dead.
The Legion didn’t have many survivors either. The bodies of Atlantans, regardless of affiliation, piled up like mountains.
Soon the main body arrived. I had them wear gas masks just in case, but it was overkill. There’s no point in using gas to dispose of the residual sugar.
“Leave 20 people, no, just 10.”
Bang, valid!
Gunfire rang out like thunder.
There were those who cringed. Atlanta natives who’d converted to the Legion. They’d been acting like assholes, but now that they were in combat, they seemed to have gotten their act together.
The thinning worked moderately well.
“You survived well. You’re moving up in the ranks.”
After thanking them for their efforts, I walked away. I heard gasping breaths among the corpses. As he pushed aside the trash in his way, a human figure emerged.
“Waiter, didn’t you know this was going to happen?”
“Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh…!”
Darun’s condition could not be described as holy to say the least. Both of his legs were ruptured and he was bleeding and sweating like crazy. The pain was so intense that he could barely use his spells.
Mithril squatted down in front of Darin. It was hard to watch him try so desperately to steady himself, so he spat phlegm at her head.
“I let parasites like you live. I can’t be bothered to uproot them all at once. If I wipe out their strongholds, kill their bosses, it doesn’t matter. The subsidiary organizations and whatnot will set up new strongholds overnight.”
He made a circle with his hand.
“So we tried to squeeze some money out of them… and make an example of them. I think the pigs in Atlanta have gotten so used to us, we needed to shock them.”
Mithril clicked his tongue in annoyance, his prediction only half correct. An adjutant soon approached him with some news.
“Mantra was sniped…?”
“He’s got a punctured lung, and we rushed him to a nearby hospital, but as you know, Atlanta’s medical care isn’t exactly stellar, and our equipment is outdated.”
“It must be those merchants.”
“The shell casings were found on the roof of a building about 200 meters from Mantra’s location at the time. We’ll be sure when we check the surveillance footage.”
A great loss. Mithril remembered the merchant named Hyun from earlier. All the unforeseen problems had come from him.
A spell that creates smoke bombs and other equipment. It was a very easy ability to create variables. It’s a shame that we didn’t get to keep it.
“Ha, ha, ha.”
A small chuckle broke out. At his feet, Daran grunted.
“Asshole. You got a good one in the back of the head.”
Mithril’s face hardened into a grim line. He glanced down at Daran briefly, then continued to relay the situation to his lieutenant.
“You didn’t miss it, did you?”
“He’s using a vehicle to get away. I’ve sent four platoons in pursuit.”
“Location. Where are you moving to.”
“It’s…….”
The adjutant hesitated for a moment, then shuddered. The glare was vicious. Despite his relaxed demeanor, Mithril’s stomach was boiling with fire.
Because it was my mistake. If I had planned better. None of this would have happened if we’d caught the shady people disguised as merchants in the first place.
“Answer.”
“Gu, looks like we’re headed to the border.”
“……border?”
Mithril wasn’t the only one who panicked. Darun’s eyes widened. I thought we were heading for the hideout, but fleeing the country?
Heh, and Mithril spat out a hollow laugh.
“Looks like you’re the one who got stabbed in the back.”
He grabbed Darun by the hair and rose from his seat, forcing him to hand over to one of his men who was slaughtering the remnants nearby.
The order to throw him in jail was a bonus.
“I’m coming, too. Ismail’s over there.”
* * *
“You’re catching up.”
A glance behind him alerted Westcreek to the presence of his pursuer. The recoil of the spell had subsided, and his mind was back to normal.
I may not catch up right away, but I can’t let them follow me forever. I had to shake it off before I could reach the safety of the lab.
No worries. Even if the details of the plan were figured out on the spot, if it was an escape, it was decided in advance. This situation was envisioned before we even entered the country.
“Keep going. We just need to get to the border.”
“…Is this really how you’re coming back?”
“What’s wrong?”
Turkam frowned at the nonchalant question.
“We’re the only ones running away!”
He becomes impatient and raises his voice. In stark contrast to his cringing, Kim’s reaction is lukewarm at best.
“I mean, what’s wrong with that?”
“Weren’t you a collaborator, weren’t you trying to help them kick out the Legion, at least that’s what I thought.”
Kim crossed her arms and chose her words. It would have seemed like a betrayal if she didn’t know the details of the situation. He had been so focused on the operation that he had neglected to explain.
The whole premise is wrong, so to speak.
“You must have some kind of giant delusion.”
“It’s an illusion.”
“I told you this: Al Qaeda is a criminal organization.”
It’s not a resistance with great patriotism. Just a group of criminals.
“The only reason they’re against the Legion is because they want their rice bowl taken away from them, so let’s put aside whether or not that’s possible, and let’s say we somehow work together like you said and push the Legion out. Then what? What do you think happens?”
“Isn’t …… back to the way it was?”
“Do you want to go back?”
The leash is in al-Qamar’s hands. He will use Ismail to dominate public opinion and bleed like a legion.
It will only change from a military dictatorship to a cartel dictatorship. Life may be better for the people, but it is far from stable.
“We’re going to have to reveal our affiliation at some point, and that’s going to put the lab in a very awkward position, because we’re helping a criminal organization take over the country.”
“But that doesn’t mean we can leave Legion alone.”
“That’s for the military to do.”
But Atlanta’s army is broken. With only the criminals left to fight the foreign forces, Atlanta is already defeated.
‘Well, at least he’s the only hope.
Kim glanced at Ismail. He didn’t look like he deserved to be awake, so she pulled his coat over him. He was exhausted and now asleep.
Ismail’s presence is essential for a formal intervention in Atlanta. From there, it’s out of the hands of the ops team.
It’s up to Kushan to decide.
“There is a harvest.
Mantra, who should have appeared as a mid-boss in a later stage. The message didn’t print, so I can’t be sure, but I also don’t think Turkam was lying.
“Do I have to witness it to get the message?
It’s a plausible hypothesis. There’s no shortage of characters who have died out of the blue somewhere outside of the established narrative, and it’d be a mess if I told you all about them.
And the life and death of the mantra was trivialized to the point of being trivialized.
“There is a chapter of dissension within the Legion.
If not the rest of the cadre, at least Mithril is preparing for independence. The Legion does not tolerate traitors, which means the Legion and Mithril are bound to clash sooner or later.
“It’s just so unbalanced.
Any damage on either side was an advantage for Kim. She thought she was lucky, then retracted it from her head. In the end, it was the result of the accumulation of his work.
Now all you need to do is get away and you’re done.
“……ha.”
Kim craned his neck to look at the ceiling. It had only been a few days, but she was tired of thinking, tired of working her brain.
Kim closed his mouth and the car went silent. It was quiet enough that it didn’t seem like they were in the middle of a chase.
Westcreek wiped the blood from his body with a towel and turned away, watching Kim enjoying the brief respite.
‘There’s a reason Ghost thought so highly of you.
Unrivaled combat abilities. Rare and useful spells. Aside from his value as such an agent, Kim was an exceptional human being.
He was the kind of commander we didn’t have in the lab.
She doesn’t have a gentle personality like Leila. Nor does he command like a professor.
But there’s a silver lining.
There is no stubbornness, no needless courting. If necessary, he uses criminals and strikes them down, even if it looks like he’s walking a tightrope on one leg… but in the end, he pulls it off.
“I wouldn’t say it’s a lack of connections.
Chelsea and Asterique are among the clubs that trust and follow Kim. He also seems to have a good relationship with the Professor, not to mention Ghost and Leila. Turkam doesn’t seem to be happy.
Westcreek himself realized this during the operation. Even without detailed tactical orders, it felt like every move was calculated. A sense of being a cog in a wheel.
‘I heard that the MOU was a proposal from the prefecture….’
As an agent of the Lab, I can only call it a blessing in disguise, and a disaster for the Legion. Kim will continue to improve as both an agent and a commander.
But that’s after we’re all back on our feet. It’s too early to talk about future growth in peace.
They were still in the middle of enemy territory.
“Crazy, the road is blocked!”
A barricade appeared on an empty road.
Fifty or so soldiers blocked the road, ready to fire. The men guarding the outskirts of the capital had apparently gotten the message and moved.
“What do I do, this. Do you break through?”
“Step aside.”
“You want me to run through the woods?”
“Oh no, they’re coming from behind. Hurry up!”
If we stop on the road, we’ll be pinched from front to back. Ismail is this way, and Mithril will be following with lights in his eyes. We can’t afford to lose time.
“Holy shit…. You can go, you can go!”
The car swerved sharply. Turkam gripped the steering wheel tightly, his upper body pressed against it. The car bounced frantically over the bumpy road.
Bang, valid!
Several bullets hit the tightly closed car door. It wasn’t bulletproof, of course. With a loud crash, the backseat window shattered.
“Focus. It’s better than last time.”
“Come on!”
“At least there’s no building rubble falling on my nose.”
Turkam didn’t respond further, just rolled his eyes.
Focus, focus, focus… but Kim wasn’t wrong. Maybe it was the result of repeated learning, but I was more relaxed than when I was actually chased by a dangerous man.
The orderly forested streets also played a role. As you can see from the streets, Atlanta is a country that puts a lot of emphasis on landscaping, and the small size of the country means that every inch of it has been touched.
I’ve had a few crashes since then.
By the time they reached the border, the van was a hive of activity, with tires barely rolling. It was in no condition to be driven to a safe house.
“That’s enough.
Border checkpoints.
Kim chose to go straight for the jugular. Not to be mean or to taunt her opponents, but because it’s the most recognizable.
You can see the movement of your troops from the outside. This was the case right now. The only road leading out of the country is lined with barricades and soldiers.
Once again, it was Kim who gave the signal.
Cheat!
Kim threw a smoke bomb out of a broken car window.
To a Legion soldier, it was ridiculous. The smoke doesn’t clear the way, and it’s more than 500 meters away. It’s more like blinding me.
All you have to do is wait patiently and fire as soon as you are in effective range. The commander cleared his throat once before giving the order.
5 seconds, 10 seconds.
It was the moment the commander realized he was behind schedule. A rickety vehicle raced straight through the smoke.
“Crazies. Shoot!”
Toodoo-doo!
Simultaneous bursts of gunfire rocked the checkpoint. Headlights were shattered and the bumper was riddled with bullet holes. A bullet shattered the windshield and lodged in the car’s interior.
The tires didn’t fare as well. The car lost its center of gravity and swayed uncontrollably. Its speed plummeted and it stopped before it hit the barricade.
There was a short pause.
“…….”
The soldiers still stood guard, guns drawn. But no one jumped out of the stopped car, and there was no sign of distress.
No one is on board. The commander looked away. The smoke in the distance had grown thicker, making it impossible to see the enemy’s movements.
“Did you abandon your car?”
It was a stupid decision, and even if you did take cover, it was only for a moment. Once the smoke clears, you’re completely defenseless. All the soldiers had to do was wait and see.
Worst of all, reinforcements are still coming. I don’t know what they’re thinking, but any hope of getting out of here alive is gone.
It was just what the commander had in mind.
-Doo-doo-doo-doo!
A sound was heard. For a moment, the heads of several soldiers turned, including the commander.
For some time, there was a dot in the sky. The dot grew rapidly, its shape becoming clear. A chunk of iron flew in a straight line toward the checkpoint.
“Heh, chopper?”
The commander’s jaw dropped in disbelief.