Chapter 370: Blazing Flames of the Battlefield[R-18] (87)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 370: Blazing Flames of the Battlefield[R-18] (87)
“Sir Seo-yun, we have arrived.”
The helmsman’s voice echoed through the ship. I slowly opened my eyes.
Beyond the transparent window, a grim planet loomed, filling my vision. An ash-gray atmosphere, red clouds tinged with sunlight, and a roughly scarred surface. A landscape where people might have once lived.
“Are there any other readings around the planet’s orbit?”
The helmsman moved his hands, checking.
“There are no signals on the radar. No electromagnetic interference either.”
“Good. I’m deploying. Wait for me in orbit.”
“Yes, sir. Orders confirmed.”
I rose quietly from my seat. I moved to the hangar where my unit was waiting and immediately prepared for launch.
—Clang.
The front hatch opened, revealing the entry passage. Before me stretched an endless gray sky.
“Let’s go.”
My unit plunged straight toward the atmosphere. The thermal coating burned away as red flames enveloped the frame. Even as the entire unit was engulfed in frictional heat, I suppressed a laugh.
“Feels like I’m in a sauna.”
As the entry angle changed, my body was crushed by gravity. A pressure that felt like it could shatter every bone in my body, but I had long since transcended such limits.
‘A normal person would have burned to death before even entering the atmosphere.’
The unit pierced through the air, and the landscape of the surface slowly came into view.
Altitude: 8,000 meters. A collapsed city was visible. As I drew closer to the surface…
『Signal Detected』
A red warning window popped up on the unit’s internal communicator.
I turned my head to look at the instrument panel. On the right spectrum panel, a phase wave was fluctuating faintly. The frequency’s interference pattern had a regular rhythm, too precise to be mere static.
‘This isn’t normal interference. Someone is intentionally hiding something.’
I switched the unit to low-altitude reconnaissance mode and began searching along the surrounding terrain.
Within a radius of several kilometers, the area was mostly forest, rock, and land reclaimed by nature. There were no artificial traces, except for one old downtown area at the center of the signal interference.
‘The interference is strongest here.’
I landed the unit on the outskirts of the city, on what was essentially a collapsed highway.
After activating the auto-camouflage net, I opened the cockpit hatch, jumped out, and grabbed a military dagger and a magazine from my belt.
A ruined city, long untouched by human hands. A dense forest enveloped the edges of civilization.
Before long, a small metal plate buried in the dust in the middle of the road came into view.
I stopped and knelt down.
Traces of being wiped by hand. Someone had definitely been here.
I brushed off the dirt and read the letters on the plate.
Lise Blake & Ian Blake
“...Blake?”
I traced the names. The letters were corroded, and there were marks where someone had forcefully re-engraved them. A metal plate covered in black rust. This was a grave.
And the name matched the one I was chasing: Aaron Blake.
‘He’s definitely here.’
I quietly removed my hand, certain. Aaron Blake was nearby.
Marks brushed into the dust on the ground caught my eye.
They weren’t just natural marks. They were from heavy military boots.
I bent my knees and examined the ground. Regular footprints. The path led between structures before disappearing in the center of a collapsed building at the southern edge of the city.
“...They end here.”
The spot where the footprints stopped was bare ground. It was covered in dust and looked perfectly normal to the naked eye.
I slowly tapped the ground with the sole of my foot.
Tap, tap, thud.
“...Hmm.”
It was hollow inside.
I swept away the dust and knelt. As I scraped the ground with the back of my hand, a metal door was revealed.
And in the center of its frame was a small, indented seam.
I drew the dagger from my belt. I carefully inserted the tip of the blade into the groove of the seam, and the joint of a small metal cover lifted slightly.
I hooked the handle and slowly lifted the door. With a low grinding sound, light spilled out from below.
A bluish incandescent light. Proof that someone was still using the space below.
I checked my magazine and spread my aura sense wide. My senses slowly seeped into the darkness below the stairs.
‘There are definitely people down there.’
Not just one or two. I could feel the presence of quite a few people.
I gripped my dagger and descended. After a long staircase, a hallway appeared. At the end of the hall was a steel door. And beyond that door, I could sense people moving about hurriedly.
‘They already know I’m here.’
The thought had barely finished when—
—Click!
Panels on both sides of the wall opened simultaneously. Gun barrels emerged from within the walls, and kill-drones poured out from hatches above.
“So you prefer a rough welcome.”
Muzzles flashed as a storm of bullets rushed toward me.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!!!
A narrow hallway, multi-directional fire. The drones precisely formed an encirclement and closed in.
I twisted, planting my feet on the wall and sliding along it.
I deflected the bullets from the front with my arms, then rolled my shoulder and spun, knocking one drone away.
My body reacted faster than the bullets.
A drone on the ceiling quickly changed its angle and approached from behind.
“Did you think I wasn’t watching my back?”
The knife that flew from my hand pierced straight through its central circuitry. At the same time, I destroyed a turret with my pistol.
BOOM!!!
The explosion echoed through the narrow hall. Using the blast as cover, I kicked off the wall and shot forward.
Two drones from the left fired simultaneously. I twisted in mid-air and stomped on one drone’s head.
I shot the remaining one precisely with my pistol.
—Bang!
A perfect shot through its sensor—the machine’s eye.
The turrets, drones, and weapons that had filled the hallway now lay silently in a pile on the floor.
Only then did the hallway fall silent again. All that remained were the sparks from the drone wreckage, the bullet marks on the walls, and the sound of my own breathing.
Just as I took another step toward the end of the hall…
「Impressive.」
A voice flowed from a speaker somewhere. A low tone, mixed with static.
「At first, when I saw you crawl all the way here by yourself, I wondered what you were thinking. But after seeing you move... I understand.」
I slowly raised my gaze. I could feel his eyes on me from behind some surveillance device.
“Are you Aaron Blake?”
「Yes. I am Aaron Blake.」
I expected some half-crazed lunatic, but his voice was perfectly calm.
「I’ve wanted to have a word with you.」
“With me? Then let’s talk face-to-face. Stop hiding and talking.”
「That would be difficult. Facing you seems hazardous to my health.」
“Scared?” I asked with a smile.
「Perhaps. It’s just... a little too early for me to die.」
“So what is it you wanted to talk to me about?”
Aaron’s voice echoed from the speaker again.
「I was curious about you, so I did some research. I even learned about your family history. Did you know that your parents... were murdered by the Federation?」
At his words, I blinked once, very briefly.
‘Was that part of the lore?’
I searched my memory, but nothing came to mind. No, I was never interested in the first place.
“So what?”
「...What did you say?」
“Did you think bringing up my parents would be enough to win me over?”
I stared into the air and let out a short laugh.
“You wasted your effort on useless information. You would’ve learned more if you’d spent that time counting the number of hymens I’ve broken.”
For a moment, the speaker crackled with static.
“And if you want to win me over, you’ll have to try something more interesting. For example—”
I spun the pistol in my hand.
“Like making an android modeled after your dead wife and letting me use it as an onahole.”
「...You’re even more dangerous than I thought.」
“If you’re only realizing that now, it’s too late.”
I loaded a new magazine and walked toward the end of the hall. Red lights flickered along the ceiling.
「Just die here, Jin Seo-yun.」
“You just stay right there. I’m coming to kill you.”
—BOOM!
The steel door at the end of the hall burst open. Light spilled out from within, as if inviting me in.
“Well now, let’s see what fun toys you’ve prepared for me.”
I lowered my stance. I rose onto the balls of my feet, channeled energy into my dagger, and charged.
—THWACK!
The moment I crossed the threshold, the man in front of me was sliced in two with a single strike. The sensation of the cut was heavy. Not the feeling of hard bone, but of something mixed with metal.
“Enhanced humans?”
Most of the soldiers in my sight were already modified. Metal was embedded in the joints from their wrists to their shoulders, spines, and legs, and their eyes burned like red lights.
“Kill him!!”
At someone’s shout, hands clad in metal armor aimed their muzzles in unison.
I leaped up, spinning my dagger.
—SHINK!
Before the first bullet even flew, I stomped a drone out of the air. Before I even touched the ground, I fired at a second soldier—
Bang, bang!
—and pierced his forehead.
“It feels good to stretch my legs after so long.”
Two enhanced soldiers charged simultaneously. One had his entire left arm modified into a small shield, while the other’s forearm was a solid flamethrower.
“A flamethrower in a place like this? How stupid.”
I twisted, slipped into the shield soldier’s flank, and slashed his waist. The flamethrower soldier behind him immediately aimed his weapon at me.
—FWOOOOSH!!
A pillar of fire erupted, but I was already above his head. I bent the end of the barrel and pressed my pistol to his face.
—Bang!
His skull shattered, spattering not blood, but lubricant.
Another door in the room opened, and this time, heavily armed weapons appeared. A small walker dragging knee-high stabilizers. Two small turret-type weapons.
“Right. This is more like it.”
I readjusted my grip on the dagger and slowly lowered my stance.
My eyes naturally followed the flow of things. The way the walker’s stabilizers bent slightly the moment weight was applied to its knee joints. The turret’s rotation radius.
‘The first shot... all three will fire at once.’
I held my breath. For a moment, the turrets vibrated in unison, and—
—BANG! BANG-BANG-BANG!
An ear-splitting roar of gunfire. Bullets filled the air.
But I was already gone.
BOOM!
The moment I kicked off from the first shot, my body shot through the air. I skimmed across the floor, launched myself up, and landed on the walker’s cannon. The daggers in my hands crossed as they plunged into the walker’s sensors.
Zzzt!
The machine shuddered convulsively before collapsing on the spot.
“One.”
The other walker reacted, crawling forward on all fours. Without a moment’s hesitation, I moved behind it.
—CRUNCH!
I planted my foot on its turret and pressed down on its upper body. My strength crushed it from the top down, my foot piercing through its torso.
“Two.”
I turned my head and glared at the last turret.
That one was bigger than the other two. Its lower half was a fixed rotating base, and its upper section was equipped with both small missiles and armor-piercing rounds.