Chapter 222
Chapter 222
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 222
Chapter Title: 95. Omen (4)
-----------------------------------------------------------------
"W-Who are you?"
Instead of answering his question, I asked Defender over the communicator.
"Any other guests besides me?"
"No, none. Why? Is someone there?"
"We've got an uninvited guest."
"Hold on. Get them out of the car first."
I aimed my gun at the doctor's family and spoke in a low voice.
"Get out."
"You're not even hospital staff. What gives you the right to..."
"Get out."
The doctor's family climbed out of the car.
In the tense atmosphere, the doctor suddenly bowed his head to me.
"P-Please. I beg you. Can't you just look the other way? We have to leave this place in this car. If we don't, we're all dead."
Footsteps approached.
It was Defender.
"Something's off."
He emerged from the hospital side.
"No one's here."
Defender spotted me and the doctor.
He asked the doctor,
"Where are all the doctors and nurses who were here?"
"They all went to Chuncheon."
"Chuncheon?"
"Yes. There's talk that monsters are going to overrun this place soon."
The doctor's words didn't seem like lies.
Monsters really were on their way, after all.
The problem was that no other doctors here meant Da-jeong wouldn't get her treatment.
"...We still need to get at least one round of treatment."
I could understand Defender's dilemma.
Chemotherapy had to be done properly.
Leaving it half-finished would definitely cause problems.
I told Defender,
"Why not just head to Chuncheon? She can get treatment there."
"...That could work."
Defender gave a wry smile.
"It's a bit embarrassing, but after I joined the Legion faction, I haven't racked up any big achievements. Coming all the way here instead of a top-tier hospital in Chuncheon was my own screw-up..."
Defender squatted down in front of the car.
He continued with that wry smile.
"Even if we go back to Chuncheon now, I doubt we'd secure a hospital bed."
I stared at him quietly, then asked abruptly,
"This first round of chemo isn't the last one, right?"
I had a feeling it wasn't.
Defender sighed and nodded.
"We've almost got it beat, but the doctor said we should monitor for at least three months."
"I see."
I approached the doctor's family.
I held out the keys to them.
"SKELTON?!"
Defender jumped in shock, but I didn't waver.
"What the hell are you doing?"
Defender shot to his feet and stood in front of me.
I grinned at him and said,
"So you need a specialist, huh?"
"A specialist?"
"Yeah. If Da-jeong's going to get the best treatment."
I had no intention of playing along with political soldiers like Kim Byung-cheol.
But if it could help my friends, I wouldn't hesitate.
*
"Sunbae, you're still in Seoul? I thought you'd gone back to that bunker with the fancy toilet in the center."
As expected, Kim Daram showed her discomfort the moment she saw me.
But it didn't last.
She scanned my expression and asked,
"What brings this on?"
She must be in a tough spot too.
She'd faced large-scale monster assaults before, but not many as a commander.
Having someone experienced like me around was naturally welcome.
"Leaving all these people to die doesn't sit right with me, and besides, there's someone who needs treatment."
"Treatment? Who?"
"I'll tell you later. Anyway, none of that matters until this situation's over, right?"
"True enough."
I stared at the map alongside Kim Daram.
A massive monster assault was bleak in itself, but terrain-wise, it wasn't utterly hopeless.
If we had to defend all of Seoul, it'd be tough, but the area we controlled was just a portion, much of it shielded by the Han River as a natural barrier.
Monsters tended to avoid water.
They'd probably swarm the bridges.
The nearest were Yanghwa Bridge and Seogang Bridge.
If they funneled onto the bridges, we could turn those narrow bottlenecks into kill zones.
"If we can just keep them from crossing the river, this might turn out easier than expected."
Kim Daram nodded.
"If we block them at the river, it could be an easy fight like you say."
"When's the ceremony?"
"Soon."
Kim Daram sipped her coffee while gauging my reaction.
"You attending, sunbae?"
"...Just observing."
Massive monster hordes were gathering across the river, but the National Assembly building buzzed on, oblivious or not.
The star of the show was none other than Kim Byung-cheol, one of Korea's top power players.
Wearing a military cap emblazoned with his general's rank, he huddled with fellow generals, murmuring in low voices.
Then the time came.
The generals returned to their seats, and Kim Byung-cheol took his.
Hundreds in the assembly hall and galleries watched as the Chinese delegation appeared.
Some wore Chinese military uniforms; others were in casual civilian clothes.
Among them was the female hunter I'd spoken to before.
"We will now begin the surrender signing ceremony with the Chinese government."
As the announcer said, the Chinese reps sat on one side of the table, Koreans on the other.
Kim Byung-cheol was naturally among the Korean reps.
"General Kim Byung-cheol is now reviewing the conditions proposed by the Chinese government."
The announcer narrated his every move.
"It appears General Kim Byung-cheol has just found an unsatisfactory clause."
Kim Byung-cheol picked up a page and barked something at the Chinese.
"General Kim Byung-cheol has demanded revisions to the unreasonable clauses!"
Cheers erupted in the assembly hall.
It was gratitude and support for Kim Byung-cheol's meticulous handling of national affairs.
"..."
Nothing to say to that.
What mattered was what came next.
Wheeeeeen—
Sure enough, the blaring signal marked the end of the show.
Soldiers rushed into the assembly hall.
They reported to Kim Byung-cheol.
He made a troubled face.
"We haven't even started yet."
Kim Byung-cheol clearly valued completing his show over the safety of those gathered.
If things were easier, he might've pushed the event through.
But the situation was far from easy.
Boom! Bang!
Field artillery roared, freezing the room instantly.
The battle had begun.
*
"Multiple monsters assembling along the riverbank. Connecting visual feeds."
"Numerous mid-sized variants confirmed."
"Armored regiment deployed to Seoul. Awaiting orders."
The assembly hall turned into an operations center.
Generals and officers there to observe the surrender mingled below the podium, exchanging urgent opinions as messengers dashed in and out with real-time updates.
The front was in a lull.
The monster horde lurked across the river without major movement, though some probed the bridges and drew fire.
If we could drag this out, it'd be ideal, but I knew better.
Monsters weren't that straightforward.
They lacked true intelligence or thought, yet occasionally they'd pull off clever moves that caught humans off guard.
"Sunbae."
Kim Daram approached and handed me a canned coffee.
Pre-war production date.
I took it without refusing.
"Blocking the bridges has definitely slowed the monsters down."
"You ever seen an assault this big before?"
"No. Scattered attacks, sure, but nothing this organized."
She sipped her coffee, gazing wearily at the Han River outside.
"...If we can stall like this, we might repel them without heavy losses."
"Hope so."
As the lull set in, Kim Byung-cheol's impatience reignited.
"Monsters can't cross the river? Then we can continue the ceremony, right? Hey, Team Leader Kim. What do you think?"
He kept calling Kim Daram to confirm it was safe.
She opposed resuming each time, citing risks, but the mood was shifting toward him.
Especially his ops officers pushed hard for it.
"If monsters fear water, they can't reach us here."
"All Han River bridges monitored. Some damaged, but any mass movement on key bridges can be shelled immediately."
"Special forces deployed along the river. Ready to demolish bridges on your order."
Like me, everyone focused on the river.
Seal the river, save the position.
Sound logic, but monsters defied logic.
As Kim Byung-cheol and the military, plus the Chinese, geared to resume,
A messenger burst in, panting.
"Massive monster horde spotted southeast of Seoul! Multiple groups advancing this way over land!"
What I'd feared happened.
Some monsters bypassing Seoul far to the south, heading via land toward Legion-held territory.
Even stubborn Kim Byung-cheol couldn't push the ceremony now.
"What do we do?"
He had monster combat experience.
Probably wiped hordes with firepower in kill zones.
But field battles against them? Barely any.
"Sunbae."
Kim Daram came to me.
"What now?"
"They're not pulling people back anyway, right?"
"W-Well, yeah."
"Then we've got one option."
Shell them.
Thin their numbers with artillery before they arrive.
Drones lifted into the sky.
Dozens of guns beyond the assembly swiveled east.
No civilians southeast, no troops deployed.
Drones were our eyes.
The Legion's military drones looked rugged and reliable.
"No need to kill every monster with shells. Prioritize mid-sizers like Annihilators that cause mass casualties."
I watched the monitors with Kim Daram, waiting for monsters to appear.
Soon, plenty streamed west along the roads.
"...Monsters are targeting us, alright."
Kim Daram muttered distastefully.
"You think they can actually think?"
Monsters lacked brain-like organs, so they didn't think like humans—a known fact.
Their actions were plant-like, brutally simple.
But some hunters believed monsters thought like us.
Especially when ambushed like this; it fueled the idea.
I believed most had no reason.
But a tiny few did.
The one I'd missed.
The "General" type—it thought, and commanded others based on that.
Just a hypothesis, though.
"Drones have locked onto enemy horde."
"Fire!"
The guns at the entrance roared in unison.
Shells streaked skyward with thunderous booms, arcing into view on drone feeds after a delay.
Boom! Bang!
Shells hammered the monster column.
Monsters reflexively raised deflection fields, but with no targets to deflect, the merciless blasts shredded them one by one.
"Woooah!"
"Artillery's the queen of the battlefield!"
Cheers rang out in the hall.
But they didn't last.
Pop! Pop!
The drones feeding us visuals exploded one after another.
Some monsters wielded EMP-like powers.
It was known they could disrupt electronics, but reacting this fast? Even I hadn't expected it.
"This is bad. Drones are down. Now..."
Kim Daram paled.
My junior was a strong hunter, not commander.
She handled her duties, but leading groups exposed weaknesses.
Time hadn't changed that.
Kim Daram was still Kim Daram.
"Kim Daram."
I called her.
"Sunbae."
She looked at me pleadingly.
"No drones? Send people."
"People?!"
She recoiled.
"Beyond Dongjak-gu, no humans live. Just monsters, mutations, zombies. Sending people there means instant death by new monster types, let alone observation."
"Not quite. One place still has people."
"W-Where?"
I smiled and drew a line on the map.
"?"
Southeast Seoul was lawless, yet stubbornly human life persisted there.
"Know the Leaning Apartment?"
"The Hope?!"
I nodded.
"I'll handle observation from there."