024
Chijik.
At some point, noise began to arise from the communicator mounted on the helmet.
Whether it’s due to interference from the Arcane Ruins or because it’s underground, external communication has been completely cut off.
Thud, thud.
I checked the underground map on my retina display and moved forward. In the distance, gunshots could be heard as echoes. The gunshots resonated in a muffled manner and dispersed in all directions. Because of this, it was difficult to determine the exact direction of the gunshots.
One thing is certain. Somewhere in this labyrinth, a fight is brewing. Soon, we too will face the enemy.
Woohoo.
The reconnaissance drone moved first, following my gesture.
Five minutes had passed since we entered the underground passage. The once suffocatingly narrow passage had become spacious enough for vehicles to pass through.
Ssuk.
I stopped at the corner and gave a hand signal. The platoon members also stopped walking in silence. Everyone must have been looking at me with a puzzled expression.
Even with the sight of a reconnaissance drone equipped with precision sensors, nothing was visible.
‘But it’s strange.’
I couldn’t explain it exactly either.
It was just a sense of discomfort through intuition. It was as if my feet had stopped at the edge of a cliff. If I took one more step from here, I would fall to my death.
Even though I waited, it was quiet. There was no response. Unable to wait any longer, Codelock came over to me and tried to give me some advice.
T-ing!
At that moment, there was a sound of a metal string snapping.
Ku- Woong!
There was a loud noise from the ceiling, and at the same time, metal balls fell down. The reconnaissance drone exposed to the attack was hit by dozens of balls and shattered. The balls that missed were also stabbed deep into the ground.
If we had gone forward without any suspicion, several people, including me, would have died instantly or been seriously injured.
‘It’s a classic trap.’
The cruder the ship is without any electronic systems, the easier it is for reconnaissance drones to miss it.
“How did you know?”
The surprised Codelock muttered. It wasn’t a question I had expected an answer to, and I had no intention of answering.
‘What a headache.’
If all the passages were like this, the entrance would be delayed. I felt impatient.
‘I am…….’
I was having unsoldier-like thoughts right now. My brow furrowed in self-pity.
‘… … I want to meet Lillian Ramones before Ilay. If she’s still alive.’
I want to avoid Ilay and Lillian meeting. Ilay will definitely try to save Lillian.
Illei is also an excellent soldier. If he is determined and ‘consumes’ his platoon members, he can quickly overcome traps like this.
‘Me too.’
If I put my platoon in the lead and use them one by one, I can get down to the basement faster than anyone else. If it was really necessary for the mission, I would have done so. However, the reason I was rushing now was for an extremely personal reason.
I did not want to waste a loyal soldier for my personal feelings and purposes.
‘Then I have no choice but to take the risk.’
I closed my eyes and brought up each sense one by one. When you focus on one sense, the others tend to become dull.
However, I have expanded my cognition with the Archie’s combat technique. Thanks to this, I can maximize all my senses equally. Hearing, touch, smell, and even taste, just like pressing a switch on a machine.
I opened my mouth slightly and stuck my tongue out. The scent particles floating in the air could tell a lot of information when they touched my taste buds.
Ssuk.
I opened my eyes half-heartedly. The visual field contains the greatest amount of information. The vision was so clear that it gave me a headache.
My mind recognized the vast amount of information being sent by my heightened senses. My awakened brain was hungry for energy.
Thud, thud, thud.
As the heartbeat increases, the blood vessels dilate. The surging blood is constantly pumping glucose up to the head.
‘Go.’
I sent a signal and went forward.
Suddenly, I didn’t like the slow behavior of the platoon members following me. No, actually, they weren’t that slow.
Damn, I’m so annoyed. Suddenly, everything around me was so annoyed. I was so angry that I wanted to elbow the following Codelock in the face. Emotionally, I wanted to kill him.
… … All of this is because my brain is under too much pressure. I know that, so I suppressed my emotions and held them in. The irrational and unreasonable anxiety and anger I feel now are the price of strength.
My brain is groaning in pain, almost screaming.
Certainly, there is a reason why your head gets messed up after practicing the Archetypes combat technique for a long time. Anything breaks down when you go beyond the limit. I knew this vaguely, but now it feels real.
‘In a battlefield, the amount of information that needs to be processed increases dramatically.’
It seemed like my platoon members sensed my ferocity. I also sensed their agitation.
bang!
I quickly reached out and fired my pistol. The automatic gun turret on the ceiling broke. Like a machine, I eliminated every threat as soon as I detected it.
After passing through the passage guarded by the automatic gun turret, a door appeared. Codelock did not say anything about the danger anymore.
I drew my sword with my left hand, cut the hinges, and kicked the iron door straight at me.
“Keeeeek… … !”
A scream was heard and then disappeared. The rebels who had hit the blown iron door were blown all the way to the wall and crushed there.
“this……!”
The enemy’s voices were heard as a single word. That means my actions are fast and the enemy’s reactions are slow.
I ran in without thinking, and started shooting and swinging my sword as if I knew where the enemies were originally.
Ssung!
My sword passed over the rebel’s neck. I kicked the head that fell lightly with my foot and hit the face of the one who was standing there dumbly. The weakling must have slipped and fell down as soon as he received the head.
In the midst of all this, a rebel soldier who looked like a veteran tried to aim his gun at me. However, aiming at me was impossible for him.
I used my high-powered body to move between walls and ceilings. There was never a straight line between the muzzle of the gun and me.
Floating in the air, I calmly pulled the trigger.
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bang!
A bullet hole appeared in the forehead of the rebel who was aiming at me with the sound of a gunshot. As I landed, I stepped on the head of the weakling who had fallen earlier.
Woozijik!
Under my feet, the enemy’s skulls shattered and their flesh crumbled like tenderloin.
All the rebels beyond the door were dead. I swung my sword in the air, shaking off the blood.
“… … Don’t be stupid, keep following me.”
I said I was angry. I was angry, actually. It’s just that the direction of the anger is unclear.
This level of emotional expression is inevitable. Right now, my nerves are so sharp that I feel like screaming for no reason.
The platoon members who had been watching like spectators passed through the door late with trembling faces. They followed me without even knowing what was going on.
The same thing happened twice more. I was in the lead and dealt with the enemy’s ambush and surprise attack alone. Even Codelock eventually shook off his worries and made a face of disbelief.
The hostility of my platoon members who had been secretly stabbing me in the back completely disappeared.
This is my way. No, it is the Empire’s way. Force and convince.
* * *
The basement of the fortress became wider as it went down. There were also places where rooms stretched out to the left and right along the corridor-like passage. From here on, it was not a passage, but a residential area where people moved around and moved around.
And the resistance grew fiercer. The rebels were hiding in a wide open space and pouring out fierce firepower.
‘They’re forming a defensive line here. It’s a good tactical decision.’
As we were advancing at breakneck speed, we were blocked at the entrance to a wide open space. I used my reflector to check the enemy’s defense line.
bang!
The reflector shattered instantly after being hit by a bullet, but this moment was enough.
I chewed over the visual memory I had acquired like a camera. The number of troops on the defensive line was about a hundred. Behind them were retreating non-combatants, some of whom appeared to be nobles.
‘I caught up with them all. Maybe Lillian is in that group too.’
I racked my brain trying to figure out how to get through this place.
“Sergeant, reinforcements will be arriving soon. The platoon that entered through the other entrance will also come this way. Or there may be a platoon approaching from the rear. The passage structure is double-sided.”
Codelock continued to offer advice without getting tired. His persistence was commendable. There was some truth to what he said.
But my platoon’s advance was faster than the others. It would take quite a while for the other platoons to join us.
‘I guess it’s okay to wait.’
I closed my eyes and cooled my head. It was quite a stretch. It had been a long time since I had overworked my brain like this. My nervous system was under a lot of stress, like pain tolerance training.
Yes, I’m basically torturing myself right now.
Ta-Ang!
Gunfire erupted from the rebel lines. It wasn’t aimed at us.
There was a commotion behind the rebel lines. As Codlock had said, there was another platoon approaching from the rear.
There seems to have been a platoon that broke through the underground labyrinth at a similar speed to ours. It’s obvious who it was.
‘Ilay Kartika!’
I bit my lower lip. I was sure of it. He was the only platoon leader who would rush like this, except for me. Even if the rest of us had the ability, we would match the speed of the other platoons.
In any case, the enemy’s firepower is now divided between the front and rear.
“Now is the time, we are going in too.”
I quickly sent a signal. I charged in as soon as I gave my platoon members instructions on the order of entry and direction of response.
Two platoon members carrying shields as big as their bodies stood at the front. Each squad had one shieldman. It was a position that was avoided due to the high mortality rate.
We will move through the narrow passage, closely behind the shield guards. The moment the narrow passage ends, we will also disperse and begin to counterattack.
Ta- ang! thump!
The defensive line’s firepower poured into the shield.
It is difficult for a single type of metal to stop explosions, gunfire, and even energy weapons. That is why the Empire uses laminated shields made of multiple layers of metals with different protective properties.
But it is not invincible. The layered exterior is crumbling from accumulated damage. It won’t last more than a few seconds.
“Wait, yet, more.”
I scanned the enemies from behind the shield guard. I examined the enemies and classified them according to their level of danger, and checked the line of fire of high-powered weapons such as heavy weapons. There were about eight weapons that could hit me with one shot.
“I’ll move to the center. When the firepower is concentrated on me, spread out to the left and right for cover.”
At my command, Codelock’s eyes widened. But I was already ready to run, grabbing the shieldman’s shoulder.
Codelock is a capable adjutant. If I act, he will follow suit.
Whirl!
I jumped over the shield bearer’s head. I crouched down to protect my head and torso.
Ting!
Light gunfire won’t penetrate my limbs. What you need to watch out for is high-powered weapons. So I jumped out at the moment when about half of the high-powered weapons were reloading.
widely!
As soon as I landed, I kicked the ground and moved forward. It was fine to continue straight for about two seconds. The panicked enemies poured their firepower on me.
I ignored the pistol and rifle bullets. I had a helmet and chest armor, so I only had to protect my face. I covered my neck and head with my left hand and aimed the pistol with my right.
Bang! Bang!
He shot the soldiers who were aiming with high-powered weapons. With the sound of gunfire, the soldiers fell down like puppets whose strings had been cut.
Screams and horror echoed beyond the defensive lines.
I moved my arms in a predetermined order and pulled the trigger. The enemy’s high-powered weapons did not fire even once.
‘Eliminate the immediate threat first. Then, no matter how many enemies there are, it’s like dealing with a small number of them.’
In theory, anyone with a body of the same performance as me can do it. But in reality, nine out of ten times, you will fail. There are countless variables in real combat. So it doesn’t fit together as if it were planned out.
But if we can calculate it by including all of those variables, it’s a different story.
‘Archies fighting techniques.’
That made possibility a reality.
… … This is the end of my role. While the firepower was concentrated on me, the platoon members took up positions.
The platoon members advanced, scattered left and right. They were successfully breaking through the defense line. Compared to the rebels, our suppression force was an elite force and well-armed.
That doesn’t mean we didn’t suffer any casualties. One person died, and three or four people were injured to the point where they couldn’t move. However, compared to our major, our casualties were relatively light.
“I surrender! I surrender!”
As I approached the defensive line, a man who appeared to be a nobleman shouted. He surrendered along with the remaining soldiers.
“Codelock! Arrest them!”
I accepted the surrender, desperately resisting the urge to cut off the nobleman’s head. He would have been tortured to death anyway. If he had been a little more intelligent, he would have just killed himself.
I left the surrenderer to Codelock and went a bit further forward. The other side’s defense line was also nearing completion.
A moment later, I could see the platoon that had broken through the enemy’s defenses from the rear. As expected, it was that guy.
“Ilay.”
At my words, the guy standing among the corpses raised his head. He looked at me with a bloody face. The smile welcoming me was gentle, but it was a mask.
“I expected you to be the one fighting on the other side, Luca. There are quite a few members of the platoon left. I’ve always thought so… … You really are a kind person.”
I looked over Ilay’s shoulder. Ilay’s platoon was only about a squad left. They had ‘attrited’ half of their forces to get here.
“Join us here and get things fixed, Ilay Kartika.”
I said. At those words, the expressions of the Illei platoon members brightened. It seemed like they had gone through some hardships.
“Luka, you said you’d do me a favor soon, right? This won’t be too much to ask. Just take care of cleaning up here. I’ll keep following you.”
I noticed Ilay’s impatience.
“… … Did you see it?”
The guy probably found traces of Lillian Ramones or saw her in person.
Illai smiled awkwardly and touched her blood-stained neck.
“Haha, I guess I’ve become too close with you. You know me better than my own family. That’s all for now.”
Iley moved his platoon members further down without me having time to stop them. If I were alone, I wouldn’t know, but I’m a platoon leader with subordinates. I couldn’t follow right away.
“Phew.”
I sat down for a moment, exhaling. Then I took out my water bottle and tried to drink some water.
‘fu*k, Ilay Kartika. fu*k, Lillian Ramones.’
I really didn’t want to care. But it keeps on going in my head. It’s fu*king annoying.
Kwajik!
I couldn’t even take a sip of water. I unconsciously exerted so much force that the water bottle exploded in my hands.
Ssuk.
I wiped the water off my face with my palm.
There is no time to think. On the battlefield, you must always make decisions quickly. If you think about it, you must act.
“Code lock!”
Codelock jumped at my call.
