Chapter 20
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Translator: Silver Dragon
Chapter: 21
Chapter Title: Gang Sweeping Operation (4)
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Jinwoo's gaze, sweeping across the battlefield that had become a scene of carnage through his scope, halted at one particular spot.
A massive man roaring at the top of his lungs as he reorganized the crumbling cavalry amid the chaos.
The bloodstained axe in his left hand stood out especially.
'Blood Axe Dico.'
Information on the [Rising West] field boss flashed through Jinwoo's mind. A commander who was once a proper mercenary captain—a cut above the simpleminded gang leaders.
'He earned that nickname for his habit of killing cowardly underlings with his axe.'
That man was the head of this unit.
Sure enough, he caught sight of Dico swinging his axe at a subordinate frantically trying to retreat.
Blood sprayed, and the gang members, terrified, rushed forward again.
Jinwoo's finger lightly rested on the trigger.
Blowing that man's head off right now would be child's play.
But he couldn't do that.
Jinwoo didn't fire.
'Killing the leader now would shatter their chain of command, scattering them like headless chickens.'
What if he shot Dico here?
He could stop the invasion.
The problem was what came after—the remnants.
Scattered survivors wouldn't just flee far away. Under pretexts like revenge or plunder, small groups would keep harassing the village relentlessly.
Amateur villagers were even more vulnerable to such attacks.
'That would just rack up more losses. Hunting down every last scattered rat sounds like a pain.'
Leaving that guy alive and luring the enemy forces into one spot for a clean sweep carried risk, but it was the ideal approach.
Jinwoo decided to stage the scene.
The surest strategy was to create the perfect conditions for the prey to walk right into the trap on their own.
'Time to toy with them!'
Jinwoo's sights immediately shifted to the nearby lieutenants.
*
Dico fumed as he tried to rally his disintegrating cavalry.
"Fall back, now! It's just petty traps!"
Seeing bullets riddling the backs of survivors caught in the traps, Dico clicked his tongue.
'Damn it, these rabble are putting up more of a fight than they should.'
Just three days ago, the village only had a handful of hunters with shotguns.
Now it was swarming with militia armed to the teeth with proper rifles.
No telling where they'd gotten the weapons.
Even by his old soldier's eye, their trenches and barricades formed a solid defensive line.
Instead of dwelling on it, Dico stretched his hand toward another unit and ordered a charge.
"Everyone, charge! Smash right through those flimsy barricades with your bodies!"
Before his command could even finish, a faint popping sound echoed from the hilltop.
Pfsh!
"Gaaah!"
The squad leader of the charging unit, bellowing Dico's orders, collapsed with a hole drilled through his forehead.
"What the—?"
As Dico faltered, Jinwoo's second bullet flew. The standard-bearer signaling a flanking maneuver for the rifle unit tumbled from his horse.
"What?! Sniper?!"
Dico's face twisted in horror as he grasped the situation. A sniper with uncanny precision was picking off his command structure.
"Johnny! Head that way..."
"Yes, boss... Aagh!"
Blood erupted from the platoon leader's chest.
"Flank right and take out that rooftop..."
"Khek!"
"Damn it all!"
Every time he tried to issue an order, it felt like the arms and legs carrying out his will were being severed one by one—a horrifying sense of helplessness washed over him.
"The platoon's hit!"
His rage soon turned to icy dread.
Meanwhile, the villagers hunkered in their trenches fought desperately under the sheriff's command.
"Look! That gunslinger's taking out their big shots! They're just a disorganized mob now! Hold on a little longer!"
"Waaaah!"
"Defend the village!"
The enemy's assault visibly weakened.
The residents overcame their fear, barely holding the first defensive line.
But Dico's face drained of color, paling beyond rage and shock.
"Damn it! Where is he?! Get our own snipers on him..."
"We're getting sniped back!"
"What?!"
[Warning: The player's intervention has partially disrupted the world's causality!]
[Butterfly Effect Activated: Blackwater region's threat level readjusted. Trade Federation vigilance increased, bolstering support for nearby gangs.]
He realized a single invisible sniper was toying with them completely. It wasn't human skill. It was like a war god playing with his army as toys—an overwhelming sense of powerlessness.
"Everyone, take cover! Sniper!"
One subordinate screamed and wheeled his horse to flee.
"Where do you think you're running, you coward?!"
Kwachik!
Dico cleaved the retreating man with his axe.
Ruthless bloodshed!
"Don't retreat! It's just one sniper!"
The shaken underlings hesitated, then pressed forward again.
Bloodshot veins bulged in Dico's eyes.
He suddenly realized the sniper's game.
'He's keeping me alive on purpose! So my men can't scatter.'
Annihilation was only a matter of time at this rate.
'I'll owe the Federation, but Blood Axe Dico won't go down that easy!'
He abandoned the plan and, in a final desperate gambit, pulled a battered signal flare from his pocket.
Shiiiek—!
A red streak arced into the sky.
Watching through his scope, Jinwoo's brow furrowed for the first time since the battle began.
'A signal flare? That wasn't in the [Pioneer's Last Stand] event. A new pattern from raised difficulty? Or...'
It was the first crack in his perfect strategy guide.
As Jinwoo's mind raced to calculate the new variable, an ominous blue system window materialized before his eyes.
Jinwoo's face hardened as he read it.
'I got too complacent.'
Jinwoo realized his mistake.
[Rising West] had its own level scaling system.
The so-called Continental Liberation Linkage System.
If you dominated a region too hard and upset the faction balance, the enemy AI would adaptively respond to adjust difficulty—for fun and engagement.
From spawning stronger foes sooner on the small scale, to quest alterations on the large.
'The Trade Federation's army gets more aggressive based on liberation progress. Forgot about that!'
Jinwoo hurriedly aimed at Dico's head and pulled the trigger.
"Haha! Federation reinforcements! Blackwater's done for! The gold mine here is..."
A red dot appeared on Dico's forehead, and he slumped off his horse.
Jinwoo clicked his tongue at the bandits wailing in dismay, morale shattered.
'Guess I'll have to mop up the bandits myself.'
Soon, the system's warning became grim reality.
As if answering the flare, a second dust cloud rose from the western horizon.
Much larger and far more orderly than the first!
A world apart from Dico's rabble.
Glimpses through the dust revealed the Trade Federation's elite mercenaries marching in perfect unison under unified banners.
The real army dispatched to support the gang against Blackwater's fierce resistance.
The villagers' faces paled again at the sight of the Federation banners.
"No... that's..."
"God, please say that's our backup! Please!"
"No way! We're finished!"
The faces of the villagers, who had just clung to faint hope while holding their defensive line, now wore utter despair without a shred of light.
They'd beaten the gang, only for the Federation army to tighten the noose.
They were rats in a trap.
Despair blanketed the village like air.
Dico's gang was scattering now that their boss was dead.
But the far more dangerous Trade Federation regulars advanced, kicking up dust clouds as they closed the encirclement.
A perfect annihilation setup.
Even the old sheriff's face filled with resignation.
"Is this the end..."
Jinwoo on the hilltop was different.
'Not yet.'
His mind spun colder and faster than ever.
He alternated his scope between both enemy forces, piercing their numbers, formations, and predicted paths like a chess grandmaster in seconds.
'Dragging this into a war of attrition with those elites would dry us out first—we lack supplies, manpower, and training.'
The village's combat endurance was maybe an hour at best.
After that, it'd be a one-sided slaughter.
Of course, there was a solution.
'The best defense is a good offense.'
The quest goal was defense.
But that was for noobs playing by the book.
Clear condition? Bluntly put, blow every attacker's head off.
A glint flashed in his eyes.
Jinwoo broke his sniping stance without hesitation and stood.
He pressed the battered tin funnel to his mouth again and bellowed across the battlefield.
His voice thundered into the ears of the despairing villagers.
"Sheriff!"
The old sheriff in the trench snapped out of his daze and looked up.
"Take every last stick of dynamite to the village entrance stockade! Set it up now!"
"Wh-what? We're barely holding them off as it is..."
"No backtalk—do it! Everyone else, prep to fall back to the central square!"
Jinwoo's next order made the sheriff doubt his ears.
Abandon the hard-won defensive line and gather everyone in the most vulnerable village center?
It sounded like suicide.
"You're mad! That's just herding us together to die!"
The sheriff cried out, but Jinwoo didn't flinch.
His gaze said, 'Your call.'
The sheriff hesitated.
'But this man...'
Memories of the stranger's godlike foresight and overwhelming power flashed through his mind.
The sheriff gritted his teeth and bellowed.
"...Damn it! You heard him! Do what the man says! Move!"
The villagers scrambled to obey amid shock and disbelief.
Jinwoo swung his scope toward the newly arrived reinforcements and took aim again.
In his sights rode the commander at the fore of the orderly formation.
A man in expensive plate armor came into sharp focus.
'Cranking up the difficulty, huh? Fine by me, Providencia. Bring it on.'
The answer was a frontal assault.