Chapter 63: Episode 63 – Incheon Landing Operation, Part IV
Chapter 22. Incheon Landing Operation, Part IV
Translator: Khan
Editor: RED
11.
“What the hell is that?” A man in his mid-thirties threw a beer can in his hand with a rough cry, as hard as he could toward the man in front of him.
Puck! The can, half full of beer, hit the man in the head.
“Argh!” The man who was hit by a can of beer screamed and fell down.
Poowhat! At the same time, the beer from the can burst out and soaked the body of the man who had fallen on the floor.
“Do you think they seemed to be annihilated? Did they seem to be annihilated, or were they annihilated?”
The smell of beer rising like a haze, and a man in his mid-thirties… From the mouth of group leader Yang Seok-chun, who was called the Plunderer in Incheon City, angry words spilled out like thunder.
“Are you fucking kidding me, you bastards?” He was not satisfied with the beer cans, and he threw the things around him indiscriminately, including the beer cans that had not even opened yet, and even the bottles of liquor. He was clearly anger beyond control.
“Tanks! Tanks!”
But none of the people there thought his anger was overpowering.
“I sent tanks and they were annihilated! Can you believe that? You bastards!”
A tank.
Even for the users, it was a terrifying weapon, and no one had imagined defeat, of course. All he could imagine was the remnants of the violence the tank would produce. But those who put up the tanks were annihilated. What was worse, it was impossible to judge even if they were really annihilated.
“Fuck!”
No survivors, and even those who went to check on the situation did not come back. All of this was making his anger a reasonable anger, but not by much. Moreover, there was one more fact that angered him.
‘My life is at stake for this work.’ This was not just about looting survivors.
The story began with a man who came to Yang. He told Yang, “The government forces in Seoul will soon enter Incheon City.”
‘If we mess this up, we’ll all die at the hands of the government troops!’
It was something Yang couldn’t pass on.
Under the name the Plunderer, Yang and his fellow men committed numerous and terrible crimes.
Robbery, murder, rape, and arson were basic, they tortured people for boredom, and they kidnapped children as hostages and took food from the survivors. Those who suffered from the violence and witnesses were everywhere at Ganseok Ogeori.
If the government had done its job, Yang and his men would have been sentenced to death immediately.
‘Damn it, damn it, damn it!’
But now the government was in a situation where it could not do the job, and the government would arrest Yang and execute him neatly on the spot by firing squad instead of life-time imprisonment.
‘I have to run, I have to leave Incheon as soon as possible!’
But he can not make war against the government forces. He decided that he had to run away as soon as he heard the story.
‘I need it.’
The problem was that there was no place to run away in the world now. It was a world full of monsters. The dragon’s mouth was the only place he could get away from the tiger’s.
So he needed the Cross of Paik Jung-joon, who was at the center of the survivor group.
‘I need the Cross of that damn priest!’
If he had the thing that kept the monsters from approaching, he would be free from the threat of the monsters anywhere.
The man who told the story about the government army also participated in his plan. He also said he was a fugitive and needed the Cross of a Saint, and would help him get the cross.
The help Yang had received was how to operate the tanks, because the man knew how to drive the tanks and how to shoot the cannon. After learning how to operate the tanks, Yang sent them to finish the survivors’ group. Naturally, the story should have ended there. It should have ended…
“Give me a real fucking reason! Find out why they were destroyed!”
It was not over. He was crazy and went mad.
“Bo-boss! Boss!” A man hurried into the factory, and he ran up to the angry Yang, looking like a ghost.
“What is it?”
Yang held a nearby bottle of wine, and if the man in front of him started talking about bullshit, he was going to hit his head with a bottle. But Yang never swung the bottle.
“A Black Knight is running wild!”
“What? A Black Knight?”
It was really crazy, and it was starting to get crazier.
12.
Thump! A horse climbed up on a car that had now become scrap metal. The horse was bizarre. It was not a living horse, for one thing, but a horse made of clay. And it was not a usual horse, either. Unlike a normal one, it had a spear in its chest.
Neigh!
Atop that harshly breathing horse, there was a knight wearing only lower body armor. He was a warrior rather than a highly experienced veteran who had been on a battlefield for many years.
The warrior was also made of clay, and the sword in his hand was also made of clay.
But there was no rugged or crude feeling anywhere about the horse, the warrior, and the sword in his hand. Rather, it was the opposite.
“What are you doing! Fight! Fight!”
The movement of the horse that leaped toward the plunderer who shouted out was more sleek and intense than a living horse. Shh!
The skill of the warrior made of clay, who wielded a sword, as the distance from the plunderer narrowed, was excellent, and the sharpness of the clay sword, which cut through a human body with a single stroke, was amazing. There was no crude or poor element anywhere.
“Oh, my God!” “Where on earth does that monster come-”
In many ways, it could be explained by conventional common sense.
Tututu! Someone pulled their trigger at the rider. But it was useless, too.
Pook, pook-pook! The clay horse and the warrior’s body were pierced by the rain of bullets, but that was all. The horse and the warrior did not shed blood, nor did they moan.
Neigh! The shots just caught its attention.
Bang, bang! The warrior crossed a vehicle like jumping over stepping stones, narrowed the distance to the gunman at a breath, and cut his opponent down with a single stroke.
Neigh! The clay horse did not stop there. It ran faster toward the next enemy.
‘We’re done.’ The plunderers lost their wills to fight at a presence outside common sense.
Then, something else out of common sense happened. The clay warrior on the horse, who did not care about the rain of bullets, began to fade.
‘Huh?’ Soon it turned into a small clay sculpture.
“Where did he go?”
The plunderers, not many of whom were left, stared at this sight outside common sense.
Twang! An arrow without feathers came to them.
“Huh?”
The Arrow that had to be called a silent assassin began to kill the plunderers quietly.
‘That’s great.’ Kim Tae-hoon, who watched all the scenes from the sky, looked at his right hand with his black-colored eyes.
======
[Basic Abilities]
– Strength: 265
– Health: 237
[Special Abilities]
– Energy: C Rank
– Mana: C Rank
– Telekinesis: A Rank
– Defense: C Rank
– Mana Resistance: C- Rank
========
‘I can use it for less than 5 minutes with Mana of C rank, and it is a disadvantage.’
Horse Figure Type Earthenware.
The power of a relic that became a horse warrior who did not stop from the moment of injecting Mana was overwhelming and beyond impressive.
‘But the combat power…’
The mobility that the horse showed was impressive. Its speed was worthy of a top sports car, and it showed moves that the sports car could not show. The clay warrior’s combat power was overwhelming, and its sword skill was accurate and ruthless so that its young appearance was unashamed; and as it chased the enemy, he aimed for the perfect gaps between them.
Finally, the sharpness and power of the sword were not equal to the Sword of the Imperator on his back, but it was excellent enough to be compared to it.
‘I cannot guarantee my life against it in a mere close battle.’
All of these comprehensive elements were so terrifying that his spine went cold, just imagining facing the Horse Figure Type Earthenware. So he was satisfied.
‘I got the best partner.’
The combat power of the Horse Figure Type Earthenware itself was enormous, but the harmony with him was more satisfactory than that.
The Horse Figure Type Earthenware was a partner who could earn attention and time against a green-grade monster. While the Horse Figure Type Earthenware bought time, his options in the air with his Telekinesis were infinite. There would be no more perfect combination.
‘There is no reason to hesitate to fight against the green-grade monster anymore.’
– Boss! Run away with…
– Taang!
– That’s a load of bullshit.
He heard a small disturbance. He pulled his eyes off the back of his right hand. He had seen enough of the power of the Horse Figure Type Earthenware. So now, it was time to perform his original duties here. He began to fall toward the ground.
13.
A man came into a coffee shop, its glass wall shattered and doors non-existent. It was Kim Tae-hoon, who put a Sword on his back instead of a bag.
The first thing he saw in the coffee shop was a shelf next to the counter. Originally full of cakes, there were only fragments of broken glass and blood dripping from someone cutting into it. On the bottom of the counter was a trace of someone picking up a trampled Tiramisu cake and eating it.
The gruesome traces were everywhere. The wooden chairs and desks were not visible, the counters were already shattered, and the expensive espresso machines were also ripped off in this mess.
Only the coffee beans that filled the shelves here and there were fine. It was because coffee did not fulfill their hunger, and they could not eat them easily. No one wanted to be a coffee thief.
It was a good thing for Kim Tae-hoon. He picked one bag of Colombian coffee out of the various kinds of beans on the shelf. Then he put bottled water into the stainless-steel kettle in the drawer. For fire, he used solid fuel. After opening the solid fuel he had brought, he spat a flame toward the fuel.
Ptui! As soon as the burning saliva reached it, solid fuel began to burn. He put the kettle on the tripod of solid fuel.
The next task was to crush the beans. After peeling off the sealed wrapping paper, he smelled the fragrance of the beans, and he immediately took them out. Then he began to break the beans with his black-dyed right hand. The hard beans became powder in his grasp.
A few minutes later, when he the hot water was prepped under the dipper, the coffee fragrance began to circulate in the coffee shop for the first time in about three months. His thinking began as soon as he took a sip of coffee.
The starting point of his thinking was his conversation with Yang, the head of the plunderers. Yang confessed everything: how bad he had been, how he deserved to die, and who was behind him…
‘The man was in his mid-thirties. His hair was sporty. His voice was husky with a square face. A big dot was under his left eye.’
The information obtained from Yang gave Kim confidence in some hypotheses in his mind.
‘The woodblock-printed edition of Daedongyeojido, which was currently kept in the National Museum of Korea, is in the hands of the Six Snakes.’
The woodblock-printed edition of Daedongyeojido was a more valuable relic than any other one at this point. There were many editions of Daedongyeojido in Seoul. In the National Museum of Korea was the woodblock-printed edition.
There was no reason why the Capital Defense Command did not have had it. However, Kim thought that the Capital Defense Command did not currently possess it.
The first reason was that soldiers belonging to the Capital Defense Command had died in battle with the green-grade monster, the Bell-tailed Rat, in Gwangmyeong City, and the second reason was that Lieutenant Colonel Yoo did not dispatch his troops directly to Incheon City. This would not have happened if they had the Daedongyeojido with them.
‘The Six Snakes took the Daedongyeojido away.’ And now it was owned by them. ‘If it had not been for that, they could not have been able to work outside like this.’ The movement of the Six Snakes was evidence.
‘Their purpose is to take relics.’
The purpose of the Six Snakes was to take away the relics of the Capital Defense Command. Unlike in the past, the Capital Defense Command, which has lost Daedongyeojido, was now unable to engage in full-scale external activities. But that did not mean that they could not do outside activities at all. In the end, a small number of elites should be able to perform external activities. In order to increase the success rate of the mission, high-grade relics were inevitably paid out.
But what if the missions failed?
What if the team died on a mission?
Of course, the relics given out will be ones without owners.
‘The Six Snakes turns them into stolen goods, and then they take them away.’ That was, they stole the relics.
‘As long as Oh se-bum is around, they won’t have to worry about the stolen goods.’
Above all, the Six Snakes currently had Daedongyeojido, and the strongest Awakener of the Capital Defense Command, the road maker Oh Se-bum. They could identify the monsters’ whereabouts, and they had the strongest card that the Capital Defense Command could use, so the risk they took was not great.
However, at this moment, they had a very serious risk: Kim Tae-hoon. And the Six Snakes were now aware of the risk.
‘The day the Six Snakes contacted Yang was after I stunned Oh Se-bum.’
The reason why they approached Yang and informed him about how to operate a tank was to prevent Kim Tae-hoon from entering Incheon City and grasping their plans. When the plunderers put the tanks in front to kill all the survivors and get the Cross of a Saint, if they left Incheon City, there would not be left anything in Incheon City.
And the tricks against him were still in progress. ‘They have already revealed their teeth against me, I see.’
They failed to destroy the evidence by mobilizing the plunderers, so they would try another if he left it as it was. Of course, he did not intend to allow the attempt itself.
‘I will make Incheon my land so that they cannot perform any tricks.’
The Mac Guild’s landing in Incheon had begun.
14.
For Paek Jung-joon, the days of hardship that had begun after the appearance of monsters were different from the days of suffering experienced by others. His Cross protected him from the monsters. But it was not just an unconditional blessing. His Cross had brought him to the test. Humans who had no generousness and mercy to give to him, not monsters, rushed to take away his Cross and bite him.
To prevent them, Father Paik Jung-joon and his survivors, who made him the leader, had to point guns at the plunderers and pull the triggers. So, Father Paik prayed to God every day with the Cross: please do not let people come here where your favor is reached, don’t send anyone, please do not come with a pack of guns.
Now, hundreds of people were gathering, dressed in armor made of the leather of unidentified monsters. With guns and swords, they headed toward the Ganseok Ogeori, the sanctuary of the priest and the survivors.
‘Ah.’
Pit-a-pat!
The heart of Paik, who looked at the crowd, was pounding. But it was not from fear.
‘It is God’s favor.’
On the contrary, the heart of Father Paik was throbbing at this moment with a feeling that something unknown was rising. His heart rate was faster as the armed crowd approached him, standing on the overpass. Of course, it was not Paek who they were looking for. The man beside him, Kim Tae-hoon, who was wearing a Sword on his back, was the reason why they came here. They stopped in front of the overpass.
The woman at the forefront of the crowd saluted over the overpass. “Reporting! 134 hunters from the Mac Guild, 466 soldiers, and a hundred others have arrived safely.”
Kim did not salute or did not talk flowery words at the report of Kim Soo-ji. He looked down.
“The thing to do now is to dry the seeds of the monsters here.”
As soon as Baek heard his words, he was convinced that God had not abandoned humanity.
“Use any means and methods to remove the monsters.
“We will carry out the Incheon Landing Operation.”