Chapter 157

Tududududu!
Multiple helicopters have arrived over Howland. Amidst a burst of intense propeller sound, the choppers lowered their altitude. Then a rope was lowered from inside the open hatch.
Ghost and several other agents parachuted into the city, including Kim Yi-hyun, who was too scared to land and drew his gun and began a perimeter guard.
“Clear. No visible hostiles.”
-What about detection?
“Yes, there are no moving creatures within a 150-meter radius.”
“The same goes for heat detection.”
Kim synthesized the reports from the detectors.
“Looks like there’s no ambush.”
-You have poor boundaries. You should have seen me coming.
We’ve been working hard on this operation since the preliminary stages.
The professor discussed the plan with several people over and over again. He anticipated more than a dozen possible scenarios and prepared for them.
We’ve also accounted for cases where combat doesn’t happen immediately. From now on, it was time to reduce the number of cases one by one, depending on the opponent’s reaction.
-Are they trying to pull you in?
“Well, I don’t know. We’ll see, but we’re safe for now.”
-All right, we’re going to land, I’ll keep covering you.
The pre-dropped operatives spread out and expanded the perimeter. There was no attack until all the helicopters landed safely.
Kushan, the last to disembark, looked around.
“……Eerily quiet, for such a bustling city.”
Howland.
It used to be a popular vacation spot in its own right.
It was a beautiful island nation with sparkling emerald waters. But now the waters are dried up and the cities are covered in white sand.
“Have you ever been to Howland?”
“A moment for work. That was a long time ago.”
“You don’t look old, but how long have you been working for….”
“The answer is that nothing is what it seems.”
At Anima’s question, Kushan glanced at the members of the Albatross. They were each taking their weapons from the still boyish member.
One by one, the armor and weapons that had been compressed to fist-sized pieces returned to their original volume. Kushan wasn’t the only one who gasped at the sight.
Chelsea’s reaction was particularly odd.
“Hey, boss, boss. Doesn’t that look like an easy way to make money?”
“Get a grip, man. This is not the time for bullshit.”
I buried the fact that I thought the same thing before I even heard it.
I didn’t want to be seen as Chelsea’s equal, no matter what.
After quickly cleaning up, the professor instructed.
“We’ll start with a search. Teams one through five, spread out and look around. The rest of you, stay on alert at this point and signal me as soon as you see the slightest sign of anything. …….”
This was as previously briefed. Each team included one person with a detector spell. This person would be covered by the rest of the team and navigate quickly.
“Keep Dustborn on schedule.”
“Yes.”
His team consists of six people, including himself.
The team is made up entirely of Dustborn, with no Lab agents mixed in. I brought all but Noctane and a few members of the Kilikia branch, who were incapable of combat.
At first, the professor was reluctant to include Dustborn in the search party. His combat skills are second to none, but unlike the other teams, he doesn’t have anyone who specializes in search and rescue.
But as it turns out, it wasn’t.
Because Dustborn is a socialized beast.
“I trust you, Arya.”
“Lazy.”
Although never officially signed, Arya was considered more of a Dustborn player than a lab. It’s no wonder, since he and Asterike stick together like gumdrops.
And today, by being mobilized as a member of Kim’s team, it was confirmed. When I get back, I’ll have to sign a contract. I could easily envision a future where I would have a tantrum while explaining it.
“Sniff.”
Arya, clad in body armor, began to sniff the ground. The triangular ears that sprouted from the top of her head twitched. Kim shook his head in satisfaction at the military dog-like behavior.
The picture is a bit silly, but it was an excuse.
To avoid suspicion when you find an enemy’s lair in a flash.
“If I had a rap, I could have just gotten away with it.
For now, I needed to be careful.
The moment they’re labeled evil, they turn into mad dogs.
Move southwest and explore for a while.
Under Kim’s precise guidance, Arya caught on.
“…It’s an unpleasant smell. The smell of blood. The smell of rotting corpses.”
He immediately picked up the radio and handed it to the professor.
-What are the visible traces?
“No. I think there must be a hidden facility.”
-Okay, just keep going. Don’t stop talking.
From here, Kim didn’t need to lead the way. Once he got a hold of the tail, Arya led the group to the source of the odor without a hitch.
“Professor, I found it.”
A location some distance from the city center. There was a structure jutting out of the open ground, covered in sand like a quilt. It resembled an air defense bunker leading underground.
There were dried bloodstains in the doorway. Even without her animal sense of smell, she could smell the stench rising from the basement. It was so unbearable that Arya had to cover her nose.
The scattered teams regrouped at Kim’s location.
“Looks like an underground cistern.”
Kushan looked at the structure and realized. The current Markus would need a lot of life support. There was no better place for him to hide his body.
“Mr. Hyun. What’s the state of affairs inside, has anything changed?”
“It’s quiet as a mouse. I’ll have to go down there to find out.”
“The odds aren’t in our favor. We don’t know the size of the enemy, we don’t know the layout, and we don’t want to go in blind. We might as well take it down with explosives.”
The professor’s opinion was immediate. Normally, Kim would have agreed with him. At first, I felt proud of the growth of the ‘player’ who couldn’t do anything.
This time, however, is an exception.
Kushan hits the player as he tries to object.
“No, you can’t do that.”
“Why?”
“I’m not questioning the professor’s judgment. It’s a separate matter. If there is a Markus Dressner here, he’s not the only one we shouldn’t kill.”
Markus Dressner. The last king of Shalem.
The Celbrox Lab, built on the territory of Shalem.
This was enough to correlate them.
Anima shot Kushan a sharp look.
“Isn’t it past time to be loyal?”
“It’s not about that. If Markus dies…….”
The words were spoken in the space of a breath.
“It’s going to be a repeat of the catastrophe of 44 years ago.”
In 2000, 44 years ago.
There were “cataclysms” that occurred simultaneously around the world, causing countless casualties. For a long time, disasters that had been localized began to sweep across continents.
A statement that it will recur.
The content was the same as the doomsday bullshit. But the messenger was different. The moment it came out of Kushan’s mouth, it was weighty.
“We apologize for not explaining this up front. But it’s a prediction based on proven data, and I want you to take it as a fact.”
There was a moment of silence.
The eyes on Kushan were not favorable. For hiding things that should have been communicated in advance. Most of all, what he had just said made me suspicious of his actions.
It was time to step in.
“I need to hear about it after it’s all over. I trust you won’t kick me out. It’s a matter of trust.”
“…… Of course. I don’t know if I’ll be able to convince you.”
“It’s up to us to decide if we’re convinced or not.”
Dustborn, who had been the closest to the lab so far, cleared the air by pointing it out. Anima’s eyes softened as she seemed to take it in stride.
“Okay, let’s deal with what’s right in front of us. Do you want to dive in?”
“If it doesn’t blow up, I guess that’s the only way to go.”
“In that case, we’ll take the lead.”
The professor readily agreed.
“I’d appreciate it if you did. Can the Knights of the Golden Lion join the front line?”
“Feel free to give me orders. You’re my commander right now.”
Through a series of conversations, Kim was convinced.
“I’m finally getting away from the labs, and I’m okay with individual behavior.
The professor has certainly grown up. She wouldn’t be so quick to scream at the top of her lungs now. Now that she had nothing to gain by sticking around, she could focus on Dustborn.
At the end of our discussion, we were interrupted.
“Let’s dive in.”
Heavily armed Albatross members went inside first.
A brisk march forward, not even bothering to mask the rattling of armor. Stealth was of little use when the helicopter was brought in in the first place.
A passageway that could fit three or four people side by side. The stench grew stronger as we descended, and we began to see bodies lying on the stairs.
Quickly searching the corpse, Ghost ripped off the tags.
“It appears to be a soldier of the Legion.”
“Infighting, if you will.”
“Sure. These tear marks look just like the ones I saw in Shamalsina.”
No one else noticed, but Kim did.
One of the bodies tossed aside like trash was no ordinary soldier.
“Soldier.
It’s like the mini-me you saw in St. Kitts.
It is a puppet of Markus’ consciousness.
In other words, the godmother murdered Marcus’s doll.
It’s a blatant betrayal. The purpose was plain to see.
The Godmother is planning to set off a bomb.
“I don’t know if I can stop it… but I’ll do what I can.
When I reached the bottom of the stairs, I was greeted by an open space.
An agent wielded a searchlight to illuminate the darkness. Numerous pillars connected the floor to the ceiling. The place reminded him of an underground temple. There was blood and bodies everywhere.
Behind the pillars, the shadows moved.
Bang! Bang!
“Approach and subdue!”
Albatrosses and Golden Lion Knights charged at the order, which came as if they’d been waiting. The detectorists counted less than a hundred enemy soldiers, not a great number.
“We support with fire. Save your spells.”
Kim entered the battle with only one [Ivory]. He added his already perfect marksmanship to his hit compensation. A stray bullet pierced the head of a soldier who jumped from a pillar.
Knights rampaged through the streets while gunners cleared the perimeter.
A member of the Albatross, running at a speed far beyond that of a normal man, slashed at the enemy with a blunt instrument. A sword wielded by a member of the Order of the Golden Lion decapitated a man, bone and all.
“It works great.
By that point, each of them had surpassed the skills of a 4-star agent specializing in melee. Among them, Albatross Deputy Leader Anima and First Knight Nord stood out. Their neat swordsmanship was impressive.
It was a one-sided slaughter.
By the time Kim emptied one magazine, the battle had already reached a lull. Anima returned to the ranks, her sword covered in blood and debris.
“Looks like it’s just the common soldiers. No one named Godmother.”
“I’ll have to go deeper. I’m sorry, but I don’t have time for maintenance.”
“That’s fine. Let’s move on.”
I listened to the back-and-forth conversation and changed magazines. After a while, I felt eyes on me. Anima was staring at Chelsea and Kim with a strange look in her eyes.
“Why do you see it that way?”
“No, because you two shoot so well it’s kind of offensive.”
“A good shot is a good shot, and what’s a bad shot?”
“Accuracy is accuracy, but the timing is haunted….”
Suddenly, Kim cringed at the memory.
It seems like just yesterday that I was being called an asshole for shooting a gun.
It resumed its movements with a keen sense of urgency. The detectionists continued to cast spells, scanning the area, and it wasn’t long before they saw a response.
“There is a person in front of this.”
Detection isn’t universal, so we had to be careful. We moved cautiously, but not creepily, keeping in mind that it could be a decoy, and soon the “reaction” came into view.
She was a woman whose limbs were bound by shackles attached to a pole.
“He’s injured, please help…….”
“Leila, just calm down and let me take a look.”
Kim approached the woman, escorted by a group of men.
Up close, the scene was gruesome: limbs torn off one by one. Pus and blood stained the wounds as if they had been burned by fire.
I’ve seen a lot of ugly things in my life, and I was instantly disgusted. It could have been a corpse, but when I put my hand to its bloody mouth, I felt a shallow breath.
“I’m surprised you’re still breathing.”
His face was badly scarred, as if he’d been pounded into the asphalt. I couldn’t recognize him, and as I wondered what to do, his tattered eyelids opened.
A pair of jewel-blue eyes were revealed.
It was only then that I recognized who the woman was.
“The Saint of Shamalsina, alive and well.”
She saw him as he saw Nephrites.
“Ah, ah, ah…….”
Nephritis gasped softly and shed tears like chicken shit.
“Wow, you got it, angel….”
Kim’s expression turned serious.
I tell Leila, who gives me a nervous glance.
“This is a big deal. I think it’s crazy.”
Surviving as a One-Star in a Dead Game – Chapter 158 (158 of 223)