Chapter 151
Chapter 151
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 151
Chapter Title: There's Something Special About Mages (9)
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Her subordinates were whispering among themselves, but their captain remained composed.
‘The ones who survive are the strong ones.’
Kim Suhyun. Humanity’s first mage. Korea’s top asset, a walking tactical weapon... There were too many titles attached to him just from the names that followed him around. With this level of difference, there was no room for jealousy or anything like that. He simply felt like someone from an unimaginably distant realm.
Among China’s superpowered users, there were plenty who harbored competitive resentment toward Kim Suhyun, grinding their teeth in frustration. People like Liu Xin or Jin Luo-gong were that type. Superpowered users overflowing with pride in their own abilities.
But she harbored no such competitive spirit. Extreme realism. That was the reason she had survived this long.
‘Harboring competitive feelings toward Kim Suhyun would be idiotic. You don’t feel rivalry toward a dragon, do you? Just acknowledge that the strong are strong. Avoid them and don’t cross paths—that’s all there is to it...’
As she clenched and unclenched her hand, a paper bird that vaguely resembled a real bird took flight. It had zero combat capability but was excellent for reconnaissance—her superpower.
Her subordinates kept looking back regretfully.
“Let’s go. We’ve destroyed everything except the base itself, so we’ve done half the job. Leave the rest to the ones getting paid more.”
“......”
Even so, when her subordinates dawdled, the captain shook her head. They were her own men, yet she couldn’t understand them. Wasn’t survival the most important thing? And yet they couldn’t grasp their place and kept hesitating like that.
‘Foolish bravado is really...’
This wasn’t the first time she’d crossed paths with Kim Suhyun. Of course, she hadn’t clashed with him directly that time either. To be precise, she had been the first assigned to the mission around the Redwood Forest.
Internal team issues had caused it to be handed off to another team back then, but looking back now, it was a blessing in disguise. If they’d gone, they all would have died. After that incident, there had even been an investigation into Jindo for a while.
That didn’t mean she held any particular animosity toward Kim Suhyun. The feelings she had for him were similar to those she had for the dragon in the Dragonia Basin.
‘I get that you’re strong, so please, let’s never meet again.’
* * *
“This Hell Crocodile might look tough at a glance, but there’s no need to panic. Its weak point is the belly, but if you have a superpowered user, you don’t even need to target it specifically. Moderate attack power can pierce right through, and even if it holds out, it’s not all that fast to begin with, so don’t panic—just confirm the kill. Oh, and some pretend to be dead sometimes, so don’t get too close.”
“Haha! As if a monster would do that!”
“......”
One of Uncle Jo Company’s members covered his face with his hand.
“I see. Hell... Crocodile... weak point is the belly...”
The two mercenary team leaders were treating Suhyun’s words like sacred scripture. To the point where Suhyun himself felt embarrassed saying them.
“Aren’t you moving?”
When their pace slowed, Choi Jae-ho signaled from up ahead. He shot the two team leaders a sharp glare. Suhyun might be untouchable, but they weren’t. They were just rookies from the new team.
Sure enough, under Choi Jae-ho’s glare, they cowered and bowed their heads.
“We were delayed explaining. Let’s move.”
“Whew, scary.”
After Choi Jae-ho turned away, Kim Joo-young muttered that, and Suhyun shook his head as he replied.
“If that’s scary, you shouldn’t work on Cameron Planet.”
“Ah, I don’t mean scary-scary...”
“What made you start working as a mercenary on Cameron?”
“Superpowered users can strike it rich quick, and mercenaries are the way to do it. There’s a limit on Earth.”
It was a dilemma every young superpowered user faced after awakening. Some chose to endure quietly out of fear of death, while others sought to seize the opportunity they’d stumbled upon. Mercenaries were the choice of the latter.
“What about those guys?”
“Ah, Dan-seong’s similar... but Gu-san’s a bit different.”
“?”
“Joo-young and I gathered similar people to start fresh, but that guy came from a famous mercenary company. Know Omega?”
Omega. He remembered. It was a government direct team before the Dragon Slayer Project. Of course, the Dragon Slayer Project had shattered it, and it hadn’t recovered its previous strength.
“I know it. Decent company, from what I recall. Did it split up?”
“Yeah, a while back.”
“Well, that’s common on Cameron.”
A single team or superpowered user disappearing could shake a mercenary company. Let alone several teams vanishing at once.
“And he left that place?”
Excluding Jindo and Suhyun’s team, there were three attached mercenary teams now. Kim Joo-young and Yi Dan-seong were sticking close to Suhyun, asking questions incessantly. In contrast, the team leader named Gu-san, in charge of the other group, wasn’t approaching Suhyun and was just doing his job from afar.
He hadn’t shown it openly, but there had been a prickly attitude, and now Suhyun understood why.
‘I’m different from these greenhorns, huh?’
Being in a major mercenary company made it easy to delude oneself about one’s position. Choi Jae-ho had strutted around like he was offering something grand when proposing a sub-team leader spot in Jindo to Suhyun.
Sub-teams in big companies were superior in most ways to top teams in small ones. Not just treatment, but the experiences available differed greatly.
In short, that was his way of expressing he was on a different level from newbie mercenaries. From Suhyun’s perspective, it was laughable.
‘Whatever, they’ll do what they do. No need for me to babysit.’
Whether he postured alone or not, as long as he followed Suhyun’s orders, Suhyun wouldn’t care. After this job, they wouldn’t cross paths anyway.
March after march. Suhyun was used to jungle terrain like this, but the other mercenaries wore irritated expressions. Even Choi Jae-ho, Jindo’s second team leader, was the same.
During a brief rest, Choi Jae-ho spoke up.
“What do you think about this comms blackout?”
“Who knows. Could be anything. Maybe the comms facilities got smashed by chance.”
“Then wouldn’t someone have come in person?”
“There must’ve been circumstances preventing that. With monsters rampaging for a while, it’d be cautious to venture out.”
“Or maybe...”
“?”
“Could be the Calcutta Gorilla showing up again?”
‘Ah, this guy.’
Suhyun realized what he was worried about. Calcutta Gorilla. Choi Jae-ho had tasted bitter defeat against one before. It wasn’t unreasonable for him to worry.
“If it shows, we catch it again.”
“No, that’s... Wouldn’t it be fine to just grab the survivors and bail?”
“Why? Think I can’t catch it?”
“Ah, no.”
Caught off-guard, Choi Jae-ho flushed red. The previous Calcutta Gorilla hunt had been a success, but for the main player Choi Jae-ho, it had been an inexplicable operation. They’d been swept up in chaos, and when it ended, the gorilla was caught.
That’s why he couldn’t feel confident. Whether this force could safely take down a Calcutta Gorilla.
“Don’t worry. We can catch the Calcutta Gorilla just fine.”
“......”
Though anxious, Choi Jae-ho nodded for now. The decision was Suhyun’s, and he trusted a mage of that caliber wouldn’t recklessly endanger his own life.
* * *
“What the hell?!”
“Don’t panic—fall back.”
Suhyun spoke in a low voice as he clenched his fist. A troll charging from afar came into view. Back then, he would’ve targeted vitals with tricky maneuvers for the hunt, but now there was no need.
Whoosh!
A blazing spear spiraled forward like lightning. The troll instinctively reached out an arm to block, but the flame spear pierced through the arm and into its torso.
‘What kind of superpower is that!?’,
Choi Jae-ho, watching from the side, gaped. He knew trolls well and flame-type superpowers even better. He’d never seen a flame superpower with that kind of power.
Most flame-type superpowers nicknamed flame arrow or flame spear got those names for their appearance, not penetration. High-penetration techniques were common in solid superpowers.
But Suhyun’s superpower transcended common sense. Even as an artifact, he’d never heard of one like that. The power was national treasure level.
The troll began to burn.
“Loot it!”
“Hunt and grab later. Not the time now.”
Suhyun, who’d been kindly explanatory earlier, now issued cold orders. The sudden troll pack had thrown the mercenaries into disarray. Only Jindo’s second team and Suhyun’s team stayed calm.
“Hold formation! Just pin their feet. I’ll burn them.”
Choi Jae-ho moved busily with his men. A team with multiple superpowered users had no reason to fear trolls. Even with their strength and regeneration, they had ways to bind and kill.
“Arghhh!”
Relentless clacking echoed. Spray-firing had depleted magazines fast. Kim Chang-sik looked at the other members pitifully.
“Hey, hey, don’t shoot like that! It’s pointless...”
“Good. Go handle them.”
“Huh?”
After taking down two more, Suhyun ordered his members to clean up the rest. Relatively safe combat was always good training.
Freeze the trolls, curse them, poison them, smash with amplified strength, slice from behind with teleport, blow vitals with explosions... Nearly every superpower available came out. Watching the colorful superpowers handle trolls, Choi Jae-ho was shocked again.
‘Those guys, what the...?’
The new mercenary company members were purely impressed by the skillful fighting, but Choi Jae-ho was astonished for a different reason. He knew the old Uncle Jo Company members.
‘All of them... superpowered users?’
Even with artifacts, wielding them that freely without superpowers would be hard. Choi Jae-ho recalled a rumor he’d forgotten for a while.
‘There really is something there...!’
Kang In-gyu, who had successfully cursed the troll this time, sighed in relief and looked up. His eyes met Choi Jae-ho’s.
“Eek!”
Personality didn’t change. No need to fear, but Kang In-gyu tensed up at the sight of Choi Jae-ho. Seeing that, Choi Jae-ho felt a breakthrough open.
‘Right, that guy’s here! He was originally Jindo anyway, practically sent by me... Perfect for grilling.’
In doing so, Choi Jae-ho completely forgot his old vow. After being humiliated by Suhyun, he’d sworn:
-I’ll never get tangled with that guy again!
People didn’t change easily.
* * *
“Something’s off.”
“What?”
“Trolls don’t show up in packs like this. Remember hunting? How much ground we had to cover to find one.”
“Oh, yeah.”
“For them to gather like this. The trolls around here must be nearly wiped out.”
“Maybe from the gate explosion?”
“No, it’s been time—doubt they’re still clustered. Anyway, stay cautious. Something’s weird.”
But upon arriving at the base, what greeted them wasn’t traps or waiting enemies, but staff bustling to salvage the facilities. Ragged and scurrying about, they spotted the distant mercenaries and raised hands in cheers.
“...What?”
“They’re fine?”
“Fine is good. Let’s go hear what happened.”
Suhyun scanned the surrounding facilities as he walked. Roughly but thoroughly destroyed. Definitely monster work, but...
‘Smells fishy.’
It reeked strongly of something artificial.