Chapter 179
Chapter 179
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Translator: uly
Chapter: 179
Chapter Title: Murphy's Arrival
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The members of the Desert Superhuman Unit were in a state of confusion.
Once they realized it was their captain's doing, they raised their voices.
"Captain! What is this...!"
"Have you finally lost it from the heat?"
"These days, hair transplants last twenty years. Don't be too disappointed!"
The squad members' banter was full of cheeky vigor.
It gave a pretty good idea of how they usually got along.
But in the next moment, they could no longer keep up the playful tone.
"You idiots! Open your eyes wide and look properly!"
"Uh...!" Something burst out from the thick smoke.
Its form was obscured by the dust covering it, but it was clear it harbored hostility toward them.
"It's the enemy!"
"Real combat situation! Non-combat personnel, fall back!"
That was right.
Those were monsters.
Thanks to the explosion just moments ago, the monsters had broken free from their restraints, recovered from their wounds, and were charging in rapidly.
The superhumans unleashed their abilities in response to the sudden assault, but they grimaced.
These monsters were no easy opponents.
"Excuse me!"
At that moment, Roze charged into the battlefield.
The monster, struck by her triple combo, exploded from the waist up like fireworks.
She weaved through the superhumans effortlessly, smashing every monster in her path.
Even the superhumans flinched at her destructive path.
But realizing she was on their side, they joined the fray.
'She really can't control it, after all.'
I observed the battlefield closely.
As I'd suspected lately, it was clear these monsters couldn't be controlled.
Otherwise, no matter how much of a preemptive strike they'd taken, they wouldn't have let them attack the outpost.
Not when it would give their enemies leverage.
But the monsters' current behavior—attacking anything living on sight—was no different from starved beasts. Then, suddenly, a sandstorm kicked up.
Sand and dust from across the outpost swirled toward the supply line, spinning rapidly.
'Saladian!'
The rotation sped up further.
It was no mere wind—it was a full-blown storm.
And that wasn't all.
The sand grains clumped together on their own, forming countless spiked iron balls.
Soon, the sandstorm mixed with iron balls expanded its range.
Grrrrraaah!!
As the suction grew stronger, even the monsters couldn't resist and got swept up.
The terrifying speed and iron ball barrage turned them into bloody pulp in an instant.
"I'll kill every last one of them." It was nothing short of a miracle.
The sandstorm was merciless.
It shredded the massive supply line beyond recognition, forcing even Roze to pull back in alarm.
"Looks like he's properly pissed off."
"You think he'd stay calm with trash like that invading the outpost?"
The sandstorm raged for about three minutes.
As the rotation slowed, it suddenly dispersed, dumping everything it had swept up onto the ground.
Iron balls formed by abilities, supply line debris, and what seemed to be monster remains scattered in a mess.
But then, those bloody lumps started wriggling!
"They're still alive!"
"No way."
Even in that mangled state, they hadn't died.
Fortunately, not all of them were like that.
Only about seventy—a little over half—showed movement.
Ten seconds after starting to twitch, limbs and heads began sprouting from the bloody lumps, and by twenty seconds, they were already walking.
By thirty seconds, they moved even faster than before.
"Their vitality is insane. Take them down one by one, make sure they're dead!"
"What are you doing there? Get back now!"
"...Aaaagh!!"
The first casualty emerged then.
It was one of the outpost soldiers.
Blinded by the thick sand, he'd been caught off guard and pounced on by a suddenly emerging monster.
A startled superhuman quickly pulled the soldier free, but half his body had already been torn away—he was dead.
"Damn it...!"
"Fall back! Regular troops can't handle these things."
"...L-Look at that!"
What happened next was even more horrifying.
The monster that attacked the soldier absorbed the blood and flesh it had torn off, regenerating the body parts it had lost.
The parts it had forfeited to the sandstorm began regenerating too.
But the sight was gruesome.
"Eek! What kind of freak is that?!"
They'd been grotesque as mere bloody lumps, but now they were outright nightmarish.
As skin regenerated, the body erupted in large and small tumors.
Eyes formed on what passed for a face—eyelids absent, eyeballs bulging, severely bloodshot with nerves clinging like vines.
The epitome of revulsion.
"Die!!"
Even battle-hardened superhumans couldn't stomach it and unleashed a barrage.
Under the concentrated abilities, the monster vanished without a trace.
But the shock lingered.
'I guess we didn't see that before because there were no casualties.'
It was a sight even I'd never witnessed.
Could they keep mutating by consuming things like that?
If so, their danger level was far beyond what I'd initially thought.
'No way they've already experimented on this.'
The military wouldn't be ignorant of it.
I sincerely hoped they wouldn't volunteer to test it as I landed on the ground.
Saladian nodded at me.
"Not a single one can be spared."
"I can assure you none heading this way will escape..."
I sensed his intent to probe my abilities through the shorthand.
But I ignored it and took the bait.
"If any try to hide or flee, I'll handle them."
Saladian had surely noticed my sensory abilities to some degree by now.
Otherwise, my actions wouldn't make sense.
He'd probably guessed I had some detection-type ability, even if not precisely.
"Good. I'll leave it to you."
With that, Saladian unleashed his ability once more.
This was the third large-scale activation already.
The thick dust enveloping the area coalesced into three enormous, razor-sharp buzzsaws.
Each buzzsaw interlocked and spun at incredible speeds before flying at the monsters, slicing them apart in one go.
That wasn't the end.
Halved, then halved again, and again.
It ground them down until the chunks were smaller than fists.
A true thousand cuts, ten thousand shreds.
The mangled flesh twitched for a while before movements weakened and finally stopped.
'Can't touch that right now.'
A brute-force, wasteful method—but none more thorough.
I worried about Saladian's emotional state for choosing it.
He seemed fine on the surface, but he was surely boiling inside.
'Where are they?'
To ease the burden on my mind, I'd narrowed my sensory range to the max.
Still enough to cover the outpost.
In the dust-shrouded view, I meticulously tracked each monster's position.
Most headed toward the superhumans, drawn by the noise.
But a few moved oddly.
'That one's underground?'
It was moving slowly, so not dead.
Sand made for soft cover, but was it intelligent enough to hide?
More likely just inching away after getting buried.
Either way, the outpost troops hadn't noticed.
"Nothing caught at that spot?"
-Response is faint. Iron particles in the sand are scattering radar waves.
R3D3 replied, marking the aliens caught on radar.
But positions were vague.
Diffuse like light through a window—wide areas.
Terrain played a part, compounded by the monsters' inherently weak alien signatures.
'If they can't detect them even this close, it'll be trouble.'
I grimaced and moved.
Mid-charge, I punched the ground.
Moments later, a monster burst through, lunging to grab me.
"One down."
I drew my blade, channeling piercing energy at full power.
Superior regeneration? Block it from the inside.
Piercing energy, destroying from within, was poison to these monsters.
The blade sank deep into its torso, sending the monster into violent spasms.
I hammered its body with max piercing energy injections.
Each hit bloated and burst the flesh purple.
Even after withdrawing the blade from the now-still upper body, it lay motionless like a puppet with cut strings.
'Works great.'
Piercing energy was highly effective against monsters.
Like injecting venom.
'My power's definitely stronger now. Or is it better balanced?'
More accurately, I could finally wield my full strength properly.
Thanks to Roze's special training.
I headed for the next target.
After dealing with all four underground ones, Saladian's side was wrapping up too.
'About twenty left.'
I could just watch now.
As I scanned around with that thought, I sensed something approaching the outpost.
"...And here it comes."
Multiple aircraft, including fighters and shuttles.
The fighter squadrons arrived near the outpost and began circling overhead, while the shuttles— just like when we arrived—opened hatches mid-air, dropping off passengers.
Thirteen in total.
My senses confirmed they were the ones I'd detected in the city HQ building earlier.
'...They're still busy over there.'
I went to greet them in Saladian's stead.
"This is the Desert Superhuman Unit's independent facility. To what do we owe the visit from all you officers?"
I blocked their path, questioning the unauthorized intrusion.
The Alliance forces and superhuman units collaborated often, so they weren't strict on such minor issues, but I did it to test the waters.
One stepped forward.
A man in goggles covering half his face.
His outfit was neat yet practical, with colonel insignia on his collar and cuffs.
"We heard the supply shuttle we sent was destroyed."
"That's a swift response."
"Prompt action on matters concerning the Alliance's security is only natural."
The man replied in a calm, businesslike tone.
"By the way, your name?"
"Murphy. I'd prefer Colonel Murphy. Leonard acting captain."
"...Murphy?"
My mind blanked for a moment.
'That Murphy?'
I scrutinized Colonel Murphy's face again.
Hard to make out with the goggles, but the short hair matched the Murphy I knew. "Now that you know my name, how about letting us through?"
"..."
"Are you listening?"
As I stood silent, Murphy pressed.
When I still didn't react, his agents stepped up, surrounding me threateningly.
The vibe was they'd use force if I didn't move.
But I wasn't worried.
In this situation, whoever struck first would be in the wrong.
If they did, it'd actually be perfect for me.
Before tensions escalated, someone intervened.
"What're you doing?"
Roze stood beside me, asking.
Though addressing me, her gaze was on Murphy and the military personnel.
She released her presence, and despite their numbers, they held back.
Only Murphy remained composed.
"You're Superhuman Roze, I presume."
He knew Roze too. "Huh? You know me?"
"I'm personally a fan of yours. How could I not?"
That was probably a lie.
The Murphy from the original story wasn't the emotional type to fanboy.
"Your recent hive nest assault in the Uranus star system was impressive."
"Looks like they really do know us, Lemon."
Roze whispered to me, glancing my way at Murphy's words.
"Anyone who watches the news knows."
"Really?"
"Yeah. No need to make a fuss."
"Mm."
Roze had no idea her fame.
Billions probably knew her face at minimum.
Either way, she was too naive for frontlining conversations like this.
I stepped forward and opened my mouth.