[The enemies are heading to C-3. All waiting forces, assemble near that area!]
A loudspeaker voice came down from the ceiling.
I figured that even if we could hear it, it wouldn’t mean much to us, since they were using terms only they understood.
But.
“This way is C-3...”
As if that had only been my assumption.
First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok listened to those messages and—
“Just as I thought. This really is the direction of the exit.”
“......”
“Next is over there. Break the right wall.”
Without hesitation.
He was guiding us straight along the escape route.
KABOOM!!!
Corporal Seo Suhyeok punched through the wall with gunfire.
Then Corporal Gwangil smashed the weakened, holed-out wall and pushed forward.
As that happened, I glanced at the First Lieutenant.
‘First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok...’
To be honest.
His ability as a commander wasn’t all that outstanding.
His ability as an area buffer was excellent, sure, but...
Compared to another commander-type awakened person like Jo Beomseok, he’d be lacking in both natural talent and experience.
And what we expected from him was just his role as a buffer, and his role as a figurehead.
“Next, over there!”
But.
[......The enemies are moving toward the escape route via the shortest path. Forces waiting on detour routes, move immediately.......]
Right now.
He was leading us along the shortest path.
‘The information coming from the loudspeakers was limited.’
It was hard to believe, but—
It meant First Lieutenant Kim was using that limited information to identify our current position,
then going even further and back-calculating the escape route, guiding us there.
“Next is over there...!”
The First Lieutenant, doing all that calculation, was breathing rough as if it was taking a toll.
Even so, it was definitely an absurd ability.
‘If it were any other time, even if he said we should go that way, I wouldn’t have believed him easily.’
Most of the Legion understood that he wasn’t some incredible powerhouse.
‘Even if we found out later that his directions were right... we’d have been thrown off, not knowing how he knew.’
Because the First Lieutenant we knew didn’t have an ability that impressive.
...But.
“First Lieutenant.”
“Hm.”
“This....”
This wasn’t any other time.
“Is this what you told me about last time?”
“Yeah.”
Not long ago.
After the first meeting here in Seoul ended,
I asked the First Lieutenant why he’d made that unilateral choice during the meeting.
‘The reason First Lieutenant Kim started thinking this Seoul was ominous.’
He gave me a few reasons then,
but there was only one I could accept.
“...I know it’s hard, but please keep it up.”
“Yeah... I’ll try.”
And that reason—
was related to the ability he was showing right now.
‘Still, thanks to him, we lived.’
If it weren’t for the First Lieutenant,
we would’ve had no choice but to interrogate the subdued soldiers by feeding them cooked food.
Because we didn’t know which direction led out of here.
And even then, there was no guarantee those soldiers would even know the layout of this complicated underground shelter.
“We’re almost there!”
Riding on First Lieutenant Kim Hyeon-seok’s performance,
just when it felt like we were finally about to succeed in escaping this deep underground—
“...What the hell.”
There were several people standing there.
Blocking the escape route.
“What was the problem?”
*****
“...What was the problem?”
The ones blocking the escape route.
They were a little different from the ones we’d seen up to now.
Simply put, their equipment was different.
‘They’re not holding guns.’
Most of Seoul’s forces were non-awakened forces.
Firearms were stronger than most awakened people, so they were still plenty formidable—
but they weren’t that effective against our squad.
On the other hand.
The ones blocking us now were different.
“You could at least tell us what the problem was, couldn’t you?”
-COO.
Translucent birds flapped their wings beside the man.
...The one blocking us was the man with the second-highest level among the awakened people I’d seen so far.
Jang Youngwoong.
“You heard me. We don’t know either.”
“You don’t know? What a shameless lie.”
While talking to him, I swept my gaze around.
There were others blocking us besides Jang Youngwoong.
‘Seoul’s awakened people...’
Seoul didn’t have many awakened people, but they did exist.
And now, they were standing in our way.
Not only that—
“That’s why we can’t just let you go.”
CHK-CHK...
Behind us, soldiers who had caught up to us were already aiming their guns at us.
And.
“Suppress them.”
“Yes!”
RATATATAT!!!
Their gunfire.
FWOOOSH!!!
The awakened people’s skills.
They crashed down on us.
“...Gwangil!”
Awakened enemies in front.
Soldiers rushing in from behind.
“Protect Sergeant Shin and the First Lieutenant!”
“Hngh!”
Caught between attacks from both sides,
Corporal Gwangil shoved me and the First Lieutenant back against the wall, then wrapped both of us in his arms.
SHHHK....
The madness seeping out from inside him
rose up and blocked the space in front of me and the First Lieutenant.
“Protecting is something I can do! But then the fight—!”
“You’re asking the obvious.”
At Corporal /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ Gwangil’s words,
Corporal Seo Suhyeok leveled the guns in both hands at the enemy.
“I’ll do it.”
RATATATAT!!!
Corporal Seo Suhyeok’s return fire against the enemy’s barrage.
I had no choice but to widen my eyes at what it produced.
“...Sergeant Shin.”
“......”
“Please understand.”
Corporal Seo Suhyeok’s shooting had absurd killing power.
So strong that if he tried to suppress that killing power, his combat ability itself would drop sharply.
Up until now, at least, he’d been holding back because of my request...
...but not anymore.
“There’s no room to go easy anymore.”
“...Yeah.”
If he tried to suppress his killing power, his combat power would plummet—
but if he stopped hesitating to kill, it was a different story.
“Ghk...!”
Every time a bullet snapped out of Corporal Seo Suhyeok’s muzzle,
at the same time, one person—
no, several people—
had their lives erased in an instant.
‘This is the one situation I wanted to avoid.’
Grinding my teeth,
I watched and thought to myself.
‘We’re at a disadvantage. Corporal Seo Suhyeok’s judgment... is right.’
If it were only soldiers with guns,
we could’ve fought with some breathing room.
But now it was different.
‘The only ones who can properly fight on our side right now are Gwangil and Seo Suhyeok.’
Meanwhile, on their side, there were armed soldiers and—
[Awakened Person: Jeong Yuhyeon]
[Explosion Mage Lv.19]
[Awakened Person: Kang Taegwang]
[Strike Warrior Lv.20]
—awakened combat power as well.
[Skill - Chain Explosion]
KABOOOOM!!!
There weren’t many awakened people,
but their quality wasn’t low, either.
“Behind me!”
Facing the awakened attacks,
Corporal Gwangil protected me and the First Lieutenant, taking those attacks with his own body.
Corporal Gwangil could endure gunfire and those attacks to a degree,
but me and the First Lieutenant could only blunt a large portion of the impact with the Legion combat uniform.
We’d still take a meaningful hit.
‘Me and the First Lieutenant aren’t combat personnel.’
We’re contributing to the fight through cooking and command buffs, sure—
but if you exclude those buffs, in this situation we were closer to dead weight.
“Guh...!”
Corporal Gwangil had to focus everything solely on protecting the two of us.
So he couldn’t participate in the fight properly, and had no choice but to absorb the enemy’s attacks head-on.
...If there was anything fortunate—
RATATATAT!!!
“Guhhk!!!”
—it was that Corporal Seo Suhyeok
was fighting with overwhelming combat power.
“Damn it...! What is that gun supposed to be?!”
“Don’t stick your head out! The instant you do, you die!”
At someone’s order,
the soldiers hurriedly ducked behind cover—
BANG!
“...Correction! You die even if you don’t stick your head out!”
“Punching through walls and hitting people... what, does he have X-ray vision?”
“What a lunatic monster...!”
Corporal Seo Suhyeok’s bullets pierced cover,
massacring soldiers as if he could see what was behind it.
“Th-then what are we supposed to do?!”
“Just fight back! You die either way! The best option is to suppress him fast!”
The killing power of Corporal Seo Suhyeok, once murder was permitted, went beyond imagination.
Soldiers kept pouring in endlessly,
but before fresh troops could even replenish, they were already corpses under his bullets.
But...
‘Even that has a limit.’
Corporal Seo Suhyeok’s firepower only held as long as the resource called bullets held.
It looked like he was using rounds as efficiently as possible—piercing several bodies with a single shot and all—
but with that many enemies, the limit of bullets would come quickly.
And besides—
‘No matter how incredible an awakened person Corporal Seo Suhyeok is...’
I turned my gaze
to the man watching us from far away with his arms crossed.
[Jang Youngwoong]
[Lv.34 Intelligence Agent]
‘He’s also an awakened person in the mid-thirties.’
The higher an awakened person’s level climbed, the bigger the gap between levels became.
Seo Suhyeok was a powerhouse whose skill didn’t match what you’d expect from level 30—
but I couldn’t be sure whether he’d be stronger than a mid-30s awakened person.
‘If that guy seriously moves to suppress Seo Suhyeok...’
Even if Gwangil joined the fight, I honestly didn’t know if we could win.
In the end.
If we wanted to break through here smoothly, there were only two ways.
“Ah, damn it.”
Use the Royal Guard in the shadows...
Or—
“I was trying to hold back from doing things that are bad for my body.”
—have one of the two non-combat personnel
act as combat personnel.
******
If all of them were monsters, or clear-cut enemies,
I would’ve pulled out the shadow forces without hesitation, but—
‘Aside from whatever Jang Youngwoong is hiding... the rest of them look like ordinary people.’
We’re fighting like this right now,
but they’re still ‘humans’ who might become allies someday.
I couldn’t pull out the secret strength in the shadows.
The moment I did, I’d have no choice but to deal with every witness.
“Gwangil.”
“Sergeant Shin?”
I lightly pushed away Corporal Gwangil’s body as he was protecting me and the First Lieutenant,
then slipped out through the gap and said—
“Thanks for being considerate, but...”
“...!”
“Looks like I have to put in some work too.”
I shoved my hand into my clothes,
and put a piece of food into my mouth.
‘Within reason. Just the minimum dose.’
[Of the Blue Waterdrop-]
[You are suffering from severe aftereffects! Additional buffs will negatively affect recovery.......]
What I ate was Waterdrop jelly.
Its effect was [Environmental Assimilation].
“S-Sergeant Shin!”
SHHHK....
My body, completely assimilated with the surroundings, turned transparent.
Even Corporal Gwangil couldn’t precisely find me anymore.
CREAK....
Of course.
The side effects hit immediately.
I could clearly feel every joint in my body creaking.
‘Either way, with my current condition, it’ll be hard to fight properly. So then.’
I moved at the fastest speed my body would allow, thinking.
‘What I can do is... an ambush.’
An ambush using [Environmental Assimilation] was always effective.
Since I’d been protected inside Corporal Gwangil’s arms until just a moment ago,
most of the enemies probably hadn’t even realized I’d suddenly vanished.
Right now, the only meaningful hit I could land was the first strike through an ambush...
Even so.
[Soul-Melting Poison - Nepenthes]
That one attack
would never be weak.
‘One chance. Then...’
With that thought,
I aimed at the person who needed to be removed first.
‘Sorry, but you’ll have to step aside for a moment...’
Toward Jang Youngwoong—the man who had only been watching the fight from afar—
I swung the two daggers in my hands.
“...Yeah.”
...But then.
“This happened last time too.”
My ambush while hiding my body through environmental assimilation—
the ambush I’d expected to be perfect—
-CLANG!
“!?”
Got knocked away by Jang Youngwoong’s weapon as he swung.
‘What—!?’
I couldn’t help but panic internally.
“An abrupt ambush the moment you suddenly vanish from sight.”
It was an attack that had always worked, even on opponents stronger than me.
“Even though I didn’t participate and just watched, because I wanted to make sure I didn’t miss it this time... it was stealth so advanced I couldn’t even track your presence.”
No matter how he was a strong man in the mid-thirties.
I had believed the first strike would land no matter what.
“If I hadn’t known it was an ambush coming from the lower right...”
To block it.
And on top of that—
“I definitely would’ve fallen for it again.”
Like he knew
exactly where my attack would come from...
as if he’d known in advance.
