Urban Warfare: The Scrap Golem Crisis
Sergeant: Baek Jaesung 15
Port Elizabeth
This beautiful port city, located in the south of the Republic of South Africa, is said to be one of the country's premier tourist destinations alongside Cape Town.
True to its reputation, you could spot foreigners from all sorts of continents and countries milling about Port Elizabeth. It felt just like being in Myeongdong back in Korea.
The Republic of South Africa is apparently one of the places on the African continent where dungeons pop up with unusual frequency. The epicenter of these frequent outbreaks is said to be in the Northern Cape province, deep inland. That's why all the landing battalion troops dispatched here so far have set up their forward bases there.
One month ago, a dungeon suddenly appeared north of Port Elizabeth in the Eastern Cape province.
Not only had there never been a single dungeon outbreak in Port Elizabeth itself, but none in the entire Eastern Cape province. The South African government was completely unprepared for this historic event. With most dungeon hunters tied up in the Northern Cape, there was no proper initial response, leading to a staggering 50,000 casualties.
"And the casualty numbers are still climbing."
Shara Swanel manipulated her tablet PC and showed us a few photos.
The images, set against the backdrop of a crumbling city, were packed with tragedy. A boy sobbing while clutching his blood-soaked father. A woman staring vacantly at the rubble of a collapsed building. Firefighters desperately conducting rescue operations.
"I took these myself."
"Whoa. Makes you wonder if we should even be lounging around here like this."
Sujin muttered as she looked at the photos.
If things were that dire, we should be deploying to the site right away. Did we really have time to leisurely chow down on seafood here?
"The dispatched forces are probably still coordinating with our government. Anyway, let me brief you on the dungeon. As you might have guessed, it's an open dungeon. It appeared in a village called Ben Aivies to the north of Eastern Cape."
When a dungeon's emergence causes massive civilian damage, it's almost always an open dungeon. Unlike closed dungeons, which are pocket worlds unto themselves, open dungeons mean monsters invading human territory. Once one forms, pretty much everyone nearby who isn't a hunter is as good as dead.
The intense mana pressure alone makes it impossible for civilians to move properly, let alone escape. Kids and the elderly can die just from prolonged exposure inside an open dungeon.
"The dungeon's provisional name is 'Urban Warfare'. The monsters emerging from it are mechanical types."
Along with her explanation, Shara showed us photos of the monsters on her tablet. They were rusty robots pieced together from scrap metal.
From the pictures, they looked so shoddy you had to wonder if they could even kill a person, let alone function properly. The kind of pathetic design even kids wouldn't fear.
"A variant of Steel Golems, huh."
But you can't judge a monster's threat level by looks alone. Yeonji stared at the photo thoughtfully before voicing her assessment. Shara nodded and elaborated.
"Exactly. They're called Scrap Golems. Despite their appearance, the estimated raid difficulty is 7-rank."
A 7-rank by foreign standards equated to about 8-rank in Korea.
At 8-rank, even a fully armed civilian stood no chance without exploiting weaknesses with specialized gear.
Against hordes of these, you'd have no choice but to deploy the military.
"The real issue with this dungeon is how fast it's spreading. Half of Ben Aivies has already been overrun. Worse, the monsters are venturing beyond the dungeon boundaries and hitting civilian areas."
The more I heard, the more urgent it sounded. I squeezed some lemon juice over the umami-packed lobster and tossed out a question.
"So, what's the South African government's response been like?"
"They've issued an emergency muster, pulling in dungeon hunters from across the country. Roughly 1,000 in total."
1,000
A number that's impressive yet underwhelming. They'd probably scraped together every local and foreign hunter operating in the country.
"What matters in a dungeon raid isn't just the raw number of hunters."
Shara nodded at Rina's sharp point. Whether a dungeon gets cleared boils down to the number of skilled hunters. Stack a mountain of 10-rank scrubs, and it's meaningless.
The silver lining was that open dungeons played well to swarm tactics. To fully clear one, you need to cull the monster population below a certain threshold. More bodies always help.
Of course, you'd still need elites to handle bosses and named monsters.
"Among the hunters active in South Africa, the top rank is 5-rank. Probably around 10 of them."
"Hm. South Africa's got a thriving dungeon scene, doesn't it? Kinda surprising there aren't more heavy hitters."
We couldn't compare to Korea, but scraping a whole country and coming up short on 4-rank+ hunters was shocking.
If it were a peaceful nation with no dungeons, fine—but this place dealt with outbreaks regularly. Wasn't this a bit much?
"Unlike Korea, most South African dungeons have poor profitability. The real talents all head overseas."
"Ah, gotcha."
Profitability boils down to dungeon efficiency. Hunters make bank by slaying monsters and harvesting byproducts, but those byproducts don't scale consistently with difficulty.
Some dungeons are monster farms with premium drops. Others are barren wastelands with trash loot.
People flock to the former. Even in Korea, low-profit dungeons are ghost towns.
By the time we'd chatted through all that, the plates on the table were spotless.
The lobster was bursting with flavor, and the fresh oysters were divine. It would've been perfect to savor the view of the vast ocean beyond the glass windows, but the interview left no room for leisure. A shame.
As we finished eating, Shara stood first.
"Thanks for the interview. We'll probably meet again. I'm heading to Ben Aivies too."
Jisu beamed and asked,
"Did you come here today just to snag interviews with the dispatched troops?"
"Hehe, sharp one, aren't you? See you later. No pretending you don't know me in Ben Aivies."
Shara winked and turned away. She paid our bill at the counter and left the restaurant. No drawn-out goodbyes—cool as ever. She was clearly plotting to cross paths again.
"From those photos earlier, the situation looks worse than I thought."
Sujin said with a worried frown. Even we, with our fair share of dungeon runs, had never operated in an area with such heavy civilian losses. Tension for what lay ahead was inevitable.
"Don't worry. Who are we?"
I patted her shoulder to ease her nerves. She quickly smiled and nuzzled her face against it.
"Unni! No fair! Don't play weak! You're the strongest out of all of us!"
Jisu called her out, and the others burst into light chuckles. Nice to see them relaxed.
*-*-*
The next day dawned.
Over a dozen military trucks were lined up in the harbor by 5 a.m., when we assembled. Colonel An Seokho's expression was far graver than usual.
"Jaesung, you hear where we're headed?"
Hwang Cheolmin whispered beside me, low enough not to reach the company commander. This gossip's mouth rarely shut.
"Where?"
"Some place called Ben Aivies. Up north, apparently."
Matched what Shara had told us yesterday.
Before I could reply, the company commander spoke up.
"Good. Everyone's here. Our destination today is Ben Aivies, about 500km north. It's the site of an open dungeon outbreak—half the village is already overrun. Primary objective: set up relief camps outside the dungeon perimeter. This is real ops from here on—no more jokes. Got it!?"
He delivered the briefing with all humor stripped from his voice.
""""Yes, sir!""""
The 3rd Company roared back—all but me, who just mouthed it. Rina elbowed my thigh.
"Load up the relief supplies. We leave by 0700 sharp—move!"
The supplies were no joke. We hustled back and forth inside Cheonghaejin, loading the trucks.
We'd turned into impromptu stevedores. Food and medical supplies dominated, followed by tent materials, clothing, generators, daily necessities. Over 100 tons total.
But with 30 dungeon hunters handling forklift-level loads, we wrapped unloading in 30 minutes flat.
"Alright! Mount up! Let's roll!"
We piled into the military vans. 500km away, estimated travel time: five hours.
Our cargo would arrive later. Standard protocol: personnel first, supplies follow.
"Confirm personnel and gear."
No rifles or packs, so gear check was just berets. All six of us present.
"Driver, move out."
"Yes, sir. Departing."
And so we headed for Ben Aivies.
*-*-*
The roads were decently paved.
Like I'd seen in Port Elizabeth, South Africa's infrastructure was way better than I'd first imagined. Dodged a bullet—no dirt roads for five hours of car hell.
I was fine, hardened by hellish wagon rides in the Geukcheonsen world, but Rina would've hated it.
Light traffic let us fly.
The scenery was barren—nothing like Korea's mountain blanket. Wide-open plains had their charm, though I tired of it quick.
"Mmm...!"
Hwang Cheolmin threw his head back and dozed. Most of the company followed suit. Even Company Commander An Seokho nodded off. Tough break for the driver.
"Jaesung."
Han Seungjin suddenly spoke up. The weird vibe caught me off guard.
"I've been curious for a while... What do you think about Darkness Control?"
Out of nowhere, Han Seungjin dropped the odd question.