Chapter 166
Chapter 166
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 166
Chapter Title: 80, Breed (5)
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"Did you... kill them all?"
Jang Joo-im asked from behind me.
"Not all of them. Just took out some."
"How about our robot?"
"It's fine."
In truth, it wouldn't have made much difference even without the robot.
Killing people with a 7.62mm machine gun in a narrow, straight corridor without a single piece of cover wasn't all that hard.
I'd managed to take out five because I'd lured them in. If I'd just opened fire from the entrance, I might not have gotten a single one. Still, I'd definitely seized the initiative.
Now the real fight began.
But there was something nagging at me.
Crying echoed from behind.
It was coming from the room with the kids.
I warned the researchers.
"What are we going to do about those kids? They're giving away our position completely."
"Ah, it's just... opening the door right now would be awkward."
"Why?"
"They're in cahoots with the raiders."
Not exactly, but I didn't bother wasting energy explaining.
But those kids' wails and whines would carry straight to the raiders camped at the corridor entrance beyond. Any experienced soldier would pinpoint our location.
And sure enough.
Bang! Bang!
Sporadic shots rang out.
Clang! Clang!
A few bullets whizzed through the air, but some hit the robot.
The robot's reaction was sluggish.
Tricked by the human tactic of popping out from cover, firing a quick shot, and ducking back, it just lumbered side to side, unable to commit.
"Pull the robot back around the corner."
"Pardon? Back? You're not using the robot?"
"I can bring it out again when I need it."
Jang Joo-im, his face drained pale blue, nodded and maneuvered the robot backward.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
As the raiders' gunfire continued, the robot retreated around the bend in the corridor.
"What now?"
Jang Joo-im asked over the radio.
"Let them shoot. What we need is time, right?"
It was 9 p.m. now.
We had to hold out another ten hours to see the sun.
That aside,
"I'm scared!"
"Mooommm!"
"Teacher? Teacher!"
Why were those kids screaming like that?
They were nothing like Sergeant Jang's kids.
The problem was that their noise kept exposing our weakness.
A shadow flitted past the entrance in the darkness.
The second wave was coming.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Machine gun fire.
They'd already mounted a machine gun over there and were spraying bullets our way.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!
Good call pulling the robot back.
If not, its sensors or camera might've been smashed.
"Looks like more are coming,"
the copilot's voice came over the radio.
I cracked the door open and peeked down the corridor.
The second wave.
These guys had come prepared.
The strict discipline, the coordinated movements—they weren't ordinary raiders.
They were a proper armed unit.
"Bring the robot forward again."
"Should I attack?"
"No. Just the feed. Show me the screen."
Jang Joo-im shared the tablet linked to the robot's viewpoint.
The only night vision gear we had was on the robot.
I borrowed its eyes to check the enemy's equipment.
Sure enough, the first wave was recon. This was the real deal.
One guy was carrying a flamethrower.
Using the kids' cries as a beacon, he was creeping forward, hunched low.
"Hold position."
I flung the door open and fired into the darkness.
Bang! Bang!
I wasn't aiming to hit.
And indeed, no one was struck.
But it must've been a close shave.
Rat-a-tat-tat! Bang! Bang!
The fierce return fire told me as much.
Thanks to that, I pinned down their positions.
The moment their gunfire stopped, I broke cover and, in that split-second flash, targeted the flamethrower guy.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Whoosh!
A brilliant fireball bloomed in the corridor.
"Aaaagh!"
I reloaded as the enemies engulfed in flames scrambled away.
"What was that just now?"
The pilots radioed in, surprise evident.
"Plenty more enemies left."
I hammered home the reality. We hadn't even killed ten yet.
And then.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!
The machine gun roared again as enemies crawled forward on their bellies, firing.
Thud-thud!
Bullets raked the door we were hiding behind.
Even Jang Joo-im screamed like a kid then.
"Smoke grenades!"
The copilot's voice came through.
"They're using smoke."
I asked Jang Joo-im,
"Can that robot see through smoke?"
"Uh, probably. It has infrared too."
"Yes. Take them out."
Jang Joo-im hit the button.
The killer robot at the corridor's end reactivated its red sensors.
But.
No gunfire.
"It's jammed!"
Jang Joo-im shoved the tablet screen at me.
"The robot's jammed!"
"What do we do?"
"Gotta clear it manually."
"..."
The worst crisis yet.
Without the robot, we couldn't hold.
We had to fix it.
But our fighters were me and the two pilots.
If I went to repair it, the pilots alone would face over 25 trained killers.
Impossible.
We needed more fighters.
Researchers were useless.
So then,
Click-click!
I slammed magazines into two rifles.
"Mr. Jang."
"Yes."
"Grab these and follow me."
"I-I can't fight."
"Follow me. If you want to live."
Darkness is fair.
It hides both sides equally.
I slipped silently toward the kids' room.
Faces pressed against the glass.
Sergeant Jang's kids.
I glared at them and asked,
"Can you fight?"
The kids nodded.
I looked into their eyes.
Hatred.
A grim fire like mine burned in each of theirs.
"Open the door."
"What?! You're letting those kids out!?"
"Quiet."
Bang!
A bullet whizzed between us.
Jang Joo-im's face went ghost white.
"Hurry!"
I dragged him by force.
He finally opened the door.
Sergeant Jang's kids burst out from the doorway.
I blocked them and thrust out rifles.
"Take cover. Didn't Sergeant Jang teach you?"
The boy with bruises on his face nodded at me.
The one I'd beaten.
Behind him, a scrawny girl glared at me with wide eyes.
I offered her a rifle too.
She shook her head and handed it to the smaller boy.
"He shoots way better than me."
She grinned. Seeing that smile, I said,
"I'm fixing the robot now. You two hold the gang. You, come with me."
The boys nodded.
Jang Joo-im whispered to me,
"Y-you sure? What if they hold a grudge..."
"They'll just end up caught by the gang again, scraping by."
To the girl, I said,
"Let's go."
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Gunfire erupted behind us.
From the kid I'd beaten.
Fierce return fire exploded back.
Amid the hail of bullets, we belly-crawled to the corridor's end.
"Hold this tight."
The gun was M60-based.
I popped the feed cover and checked inside with the lantern.
Sure enough, a round was jammed in the chamber.
I yanked it out quick.
Short job, but gritty residue clung to my fingers.
Weird it hadn't jammed sooner.
No proper ammo feed at all.
Click!
I closed the cover and radioed,
"Everyone cover. Move the robot."
Vrrr—
The robot's red sensors flashed.
Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat!
Another lethal barrage.
It pierced the smoke, shredding the enemies resting inside.
"Aaaagh!"
"Cheol-min's hit!"
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Every burst brought screams and shouts from the enemy. They fired back fiercely, but we had a steel monster.
"Retreat! Retreat!"
I heard them falling back.
Second wave repelled.
"Mister, you're pretty good."
The scrawny girl stared at me.
"...You're the ones."
The fight wasn't over.
"Stay here."
"Huh?"
"Got somewhere to be."
Business to handle.
I bolted for the emergency passage we'd secured pre-fight.
Time for a flanking maneuver.
I climbed the makeshift ladder and flung open the manhole.
Cold air seeped into my skin as I scanned around.
Someone was there.
"?"
Pants down, squatting.
Taking a shit, probably.
In that instant encounter, my axe moved first.
Thwack!
"..."
I recovered the radio from the dead man's body.
Raiders' chatter came through.
"Damn! Too much resistance."
"Can't use the RPG?"
"No line of sight."
"Scout just radioed—incheon side, choppers inbound."
"Coming here?"
"Push hard, all at once."
I melted into the shadows and watched the entrance.
Raiders massing toward it.
Going for the final assault.
Checked my gun and ammo, then dashed forward in cover.
They were prepping their push.
Shield-bearing soldiers up front.
Final assault.
Rat-a-tat-tat!
Bang! Bang!
Relentless gunfire from both sides.
By the rhythm, Sergeant Jang's kids were pouring it on too.
No quarter given in the firefight, I swung to their flank.
Raiders reloading behind the entrance wall came into view.
I hunkered in hangar debris, gauging distance and wind.
80 meters. Calm breeze.
Good range practice conditions.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
My gun barked.
Each shot dropped a man.
"Where?! Which way!"
"Ambush! More of them!"
Over the radio,
"Robot, advance."
Rat-a-tat-tat!
The robot answered my call with gunfire.
I felt the bunker raiders panic and flee.
At that point, I stopped shooting.
Didn't want bodies piling in my zone, and no appetite for cornered rats' last stand.
Morale broken, the raiders piled into trucks and fled.
*
Scattered skirmishes followed, but they were meaningless potshots.
The chopper arrived ahead of schedule, and we were rescued.
No deaths, no injuries.
Naturally, the transport showed no battle damage either.
The raiders had dreamed of capturing the pilots alive and hauling them to their base.
As the plane was repaired, the captain and copilot approached me.
"We owe you our lives."
"No, think nothing of it."
I glanced at Sergeant Jang's kids watching from afar.
Thought about praising them, but it didn't suit me.
Instead, I asked the question that'd bugged me.
"Sergeant Jang—did you kids kill him?"
"Us? Why? He was gonna die anyway, even if we did nothing."
The scrawny girl shot back with the world's most wronged look.
"We even kept vigil at his deathbed!"
"...Really?"
She pulled out her phone and showed a photo as I eyed her skeptically.
In the dark room, a dying man surrounded by kids flashed a V-sign at the camera.
"..."
Despite clear signs of agony, he wore a strained smile.
Sergeant Jang.
His life was wretched, but his end wasn't lonely.
"Um."
As I reflected on one man's close, another girl approached.
From the International Residence.
She extended her hand to the scrawny girl.
The scrawny one blinked puzzled at the offered hand.
"Sorry. I honestly looked down on you."
After a hesitant moment, the scrawny girl gave a wry smile and clasped the hand of this girl who was different yet somehow the same. Time to settle accounts.
The kids stood.
Ones with "breed" and ones without.
Sergeant Jang's kids looked at me.
I had nothing to say to them.
It was Jang Joo-im's call.
As he hesitated, the captain and copilot approached him.
"Take them."
"Pardon?"
Jang Joo-im startled.
"Take them all."
The captain glanced at Sergeant Jang's kids.
"Kids with this much grit? They'll be useful anywhere."
"B-but!"
"You know about the Anti-Awakened sightings, right? We'll need them. Young blood with guts. These kids have more spine than most soldiers. So what if they have a record? It's that kind of world."
Turned out the transport captain had more pull than I'd thought.
Jang Joo-im beside me chimed in knowingly.
"Analysis says even one Awakened won't be enough for the battlefield ahead. Word is the great hunter Professor discovered an Anti-Awakened—new strain."
"..."
"Hunter Park Gyu, why the sudden face? Your expression!"
"...No, it's nothing."
These guys didn't know my callsign?
Did Woo Min-hee not tell them?
A bit awkward to say it myself now.
"Um."
And even that chance slipped away.
The International Residence girl again.
"Thanks, mister."
She had business with me this time.
"..."
"Something wrong?"
"No. Nothing."
"Why don't you ask? Aren't you curious? About my family."
"Need to?"
I sighed back at her.
She blinked, then smirked primly as understanding dawned.
"You seem softer than you look."
"Going to Jeju?"
"Yes."
"They say you die if you go."
"Still going."
She gazed at the transport.
Those eyes, once defiant toward me, now held regrets and longing I couldn't grasp.
"...I want to go myself to the place my brother dreamed of so much, see it with my own eyes. Even if I die, I can tell him what I saw. Better than dying here, right?"
"You must've given your parents hell."
"Yes."
Vroooom—
The transport's props spun up powerfully.
Jang Joo-im called to the kids.
"My name's Do-hee. Jin Do-hee. If I survive, if I can get here, I'll call on the radio."
"Professor."
"Huh?"
"My callsign is Professor. PROFESSOR."
"Ah, yes..."
Jin Do-hee boarded last.
Under chopper and soldier watch, the transport taxied the snowy runway and lifted into the sky.
The plane departed.
Carrying kids, not breeds.
May they become our hope.
End of 80, Breed (5)