Chapter 35
Chapter 35
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 35
Chapter Title: What Happened in the Calcutta Jungle Zone (8)
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“That bastard lives here? Perfect.”
One of the Jindo Team’s power armor pilots muttered in a belligerent tone. No matter how powerful the Calcutta Gorilla was said to be, the humiliation of being toyed with and defeated by a mere monster wouldn’t fade away.
And they weren’t rookies, either. They were the ones who’d made a name for themselves in the Euterpe region. Being unfamiliar with the area wasn’t an excuse that would fly.
“Yeah. Perfect. The moment it comes back, we hit it hard.”
Choi Jae-ho felt the same way. The previous failure hadn’t shaken his position yet, but another one would completely tarnish his reputation. There was competition within the company, too. He absolutely couldn’t tolerate that.
At Choi Jae-ho’s command, the mercenaries began taking up positions. It was a textbook formation—one that allowed them to fluidly shift and concentrate firepower no matter which direction the monster came from.
“What the hell are those guys doing?”
“Setting up sensors.”
“I know that. But why are they putting them way over there?”
“There’s no point scattering them right around here. How many eyes do we have? They’re ringing the perimeter far out from here.”
“How far do those sensors reach?”
“They’re covering it with numbers.”
“Hah. Rich bastards sure are different.”
Even if they were lying in wait when the Calcutta Gorilla returned to its habitat, it might still detect them too late in a fight against something like that. No matter how advanced the tech got, the sensory acuity of monsters on Cameron Planet was beyond imagination.
That’s why they were planting sensors in a wide circle around the main area. It’d cost a fortune, but for a team like Jindo, it was no big deal.
“Uh...”
A mercenary who’d been installing sensors a bit farther out whipped around in alarm when a ping hit his comms.
A massive shadow loomed where he’d just placed the device. Tall trees blocked the line of sight for now, but in front of a large monster, those were obstacles that would shatter in seconds.
“C-Cal-Calcutta Gorilla!”
The ping was shared across the team. Wireless chatter from the panicked mercenary, signals from the sensor—there was no room for doubt.
“It’s here! Move!”
* * *
Suhyun’s instincts had hit the mark perfectly. The Calcutta Gorilla that Jindo and Code Green teams had been hunting was the female that had been chasing Suhyun. Losing her mate and rampaging through the area out of vengeance—it all matched exactly.
The moment she returned to her habitat, the Calcutta Gorilla sensed something was off. Her sense of smell might be weaker than the male’s, but female Calcutta Gorillas had other exceptional abilities.
A monster’s unique intuition, the unnatural tension from humans lying in wait with murderous intent... Humans judged logically and drew conclusions, but monsters sensed instinctively and acted. The Calcutta Gorilla realized someone was in her territory.
But the Calcutta Gorilla hadn’t let revenge make her stupid. She was the one who’d learned the lesson from the last fight, not the humans.
She could rip apart a human on foot without issue, but clashing head-on with power armor was risky. Even after summoning other monsters and tearing into the humans in various ways last time, it had been a close call.
In the end, she hadn’t been able to kill them all and had let the humans retreat in a group. She had no intention of repeating that this time.
“Uncle Jo Company to the left, Code Green to the right! Surround it! Don’t miss this chance!”
Choi Jae-ho was getting a bit excited. The last Calcutta Gorilla hunt had failed because they couldn’t find it. The beast had hidden and whittled them down bit by bit, but they’d never spotted it. If they’d faced it head-on, even a Calcutta Gorilla couldn’t have beaten them.
‘If we let it slip away, this gets messy!’
Tracking a monster that fled into the jungle was next to impossible. If they failed this time, they’d be stuck in another drawn-out war of attrition with it.
-Roaaarrr!
“Argh! Damn it all!”
Two of Jindo Team’s power armor pilots charged forward first. Boosters firing, they cleared obstructing foliage and rushed ahead. The mercenaries who’d gone out to support lit up with relief at the sight—like they’d come back from the dead. With the Calcutta Gorilla hot on their heels, it was only natural.
“Kill it!”
The German civilian-model Panther power armor was popular among mercenaries for its solid performance. The two pilots moved with the sharpness of their long experience, like they were showing off. They split to the sides to confuse it, then moved to pin it down.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat—
Flames spat from the built-in machine guns. The Calcutta Gorilla leaped back, shielding its face with its arms. Heavy rounds slammed into its thick forearms.
“Keep pouring it on! It’ll break eventually!”
“I know, you idiot!”
While his teammate laid down fire, the other pilot closed in on the Calcutta Gorilla. Two might be tricky, but with two more power armors and support incoming from behind, it was a win to just tie it up in close quarters.
“Come on, you cocky monster bitch!”
-Rrrgh!
“Huh? It’s jumping!”
“Don’t let it!”
Widening the distance, the Calcutta Gorilla zigzagged through the jungle to throw off their aim. The pilots gritted their teeth.
“It’s running! What now?”
“You call that a question? Block it no matter what! Go for melee if you have to! We’ve got two more suits anyway. Just tie its legs!”
‘Easier said than done...’
The pilots clicked their tongues inwardly. They were confident in a fight, but pinning down a beast that nimbly used the terrain to flee was a whole different story.
No helping it, though. They had to make it work. They knew the situation well: let it go now, and they’d be chasing it endlessly again.
Boom!
Right on cue, Code Green’s team leader Oh Byung-hwan arrived in his power armor. Instead of radioing, he extended the suit’s arm and pointed ahead. No further explanation needed.
Chase it.
“Fuck, we’ll wear it down eventually!”
The three pilots pursued the Calcutta Gorilla in perfect sync.
* * *
“Is this really okay?!”
“If you wanna go, go ahead. I’m not taking responsibility for what happens.”
Meanwhile, Uncle Jo Company’s members stayed put. Suhyun pulled out his Barrett M110 and finished assembling it with speed and precision that drew admiration from Park Su-yong watching nearby.
‘I bought this for dealing with monsters like that one, but I didn’t think I’d actually use it on the real deal.’
“No, if you say don’t go, then we shouldn’t... but...”
The mercenary trailed off at Suhyun’s words. Suhyun’s judgment hadn’t been wrong once so far. Hard to argue strongly against that.
“We can’t just sit here forever. Breaching the contract would be a headache.”
“We’ll go.”
“?”
The mercenaries gave Suhyun puzzled looks. If they were going, shouldn’t they team up now?
When the first mercenary to spot the Calcutta Gorilla reported back safely via comms, Suhyun had already pieced it together.
Right now, the Calcutta Gorilla was luring the humans into a trap.
It could’ve killed a lone human like that before the pilots arrived. But it had let him escape until the pilots showed up and opened fire, then tucked tail and ran?
Too obvious.
Monsters learned just like humans did. If a beast that had clashed with power armor before was luring them like this, it meant it had some plan to counter them.
Compared to that, Choi Jae-ho and Oh Byung-hwan were too hasty. Confidence in their skills was fine, but this was Cameron Planet. Variables popped up even in familiar territory—more so in unfamiliar spots.
Click!
“Alright, let’s move. Same formation. Kim Chang-sik and I up front, Park Su-yong and Jeong Seong-jae on the flanks. Kim Dong-wook and Gorgan in the rear. Move relative to the power armor. If things go south, the power armor’s our lifeline.”
With this time delay, the two teams ahead would trigger whatever trap the Calcutta Gorilla had set. Suhyun planned to observe and respond. Selfish? Maybe, but no choice.
‘The idiots who rushed ahead are the fools.’
No one batted an eye anymore when Suhyun gave orders. At his word, the mercenaries moved out in unison.
* * *
“This goddamn jungle!”
The pilots gnashed their teeth as they chased the Calcutta Gorilla. The jungle terrain hindered monsters chasing humans, but it screwed humans chasing monsters just as bad. Without those damn trees, they’d have caught it by now.
The Calcutta Gorilla bounded from tree to tree, dodging attacks. Its massive bulk shattered trunks with every leap, but it didn’t care.
The pilots doggedly sticking to its tail finally spotted an opportunity. Far ahead, the dense trees thinned out into a rare clearing in the Calcutta Jungle Zone. Lure it there, and they could rain fire on it.
All three thought the same. They subtly herded it, careful not to tip it off. Never imagining they were the ones being herded.
‘Finally!’
As the obstructing trees fell away, the Calcutta Gorilla seemed to panic, head swiveling as it leaped high. A single tree stood in the clearing’s center. The pilots sneered. That dodge worked in thick jungle, but in open ground? Useless.
They burst from the jungle right after. Close the gap, land, then pound the exposed beast.
Squelch!
“?!”
The sensation wasn’t solid ground—it was something soft, tilting, sinking.