God Control's One-Coin Clear: Endless Express (4)
The laborer conscription was set for two thousand men. All companies under the 1st Battalion were to assemble at the tail car training ground. Understood?
“Laborer conscription set for two thousand men. All companies under the 1st Battalion assemble at the tail car training ground. Acknowledged.”
The man repeating the adjutant’s words was a fresh Guardian recruit who had just returned from the 3rd Company.
A bottom-rung Guardian, as they were called.
The adjutant gave a slight nod.
“Get over there and back.”
“Yes, sir.”
The bottom-rung Guardian cut through the laborers’ residential zone and headed for the 1st Battalion’s garrison car. It was a place ordinary laborers never set foot in once in their lifetimes, but the distance itself was short.
When he reached the door of the 2nd Company Commander’s quarters, the recruit knocked carefully.
Knock. Knock. Knock.
No answer came.
At that moment another Guardian appeared beside him.
“Company Commander, sir? Are you in?”
“What’s up, rookie? You’re back already? The commander stepped out for a bit. He’ll be right back.”
It was a senior Guardian from the 2nd Company. In his hand he carried a massive hunk of raw meat.
“You have something to report to the company commander?”
“Yes. The battalion commander has issued an assembly order for every company under the 1st Battalion.”
“Ugh. We’re screwed.”
The senior Guardian’s face crumpled.
“Looks like we’ll be preparing for deployment soon.”
“Yeah.”
The senior shoved the chunk of meat into the recruit’s arms.
“See that cabin right there? One of ours is inside. Go feed it.”
“We keep something in a passenger cabin?”
The bottom-rung Guardian looked confused. A cage? The kind used for animals?
“New arrival while you guys were out on expedition. It’s no joke. You’ll shit yourself when you see it. Just toss the meat in and come back.”
“Corporal, this is urgent—”
“Tsk.”
The senior frowned. The recruit’s survival instinct as a low-rank made him shut his mouth instantly.
“It’s literally ten steps away. Won’t take long. You understand, right? We still have to get the others ready for deployment.”
The senior Guardian muttered a few more disjointed words and sauntered off.
The recruit let out a long sigh.
“Slacking off even at a time like this. Guy’s got balls of steel.”
As the senior had said, the cabin really was right in front. The recruit told himself he would finish quickly and hurried on, determined to deliver his report.
The moment he stepped inside, his jaw dropped.
“What the hell…”
The cabin that was usually spotless from constant cleaning had been completely demolished. At the center of the wreckage stood a massive cage.
“Oh, tiger’s dinner delivery.”
“Has it really been that long already? No wonder I was starving.”
“Huh? Isn’t that the 3rd Company rookie?”
“Whoa. Kroll! You guys made it back?”
The two Guardians standing watch over the cage greeted the recruit—Kroll—warmly. They were also his seniors, though not by as wide a gap as the one who had given him the meat.
Kroll asked, “What happened here? Why is the cabin like this?”
“Man, it was chaos. This tiger bastard came out of nowhere and smashed the whole place to pieces…”
“They said five men died.”
Kroll’s eyes widened. “Five fatalities?”
“Yeah. Look. Right there.”
Kroll followed the senior’s gaze into the cage. The first thing he saw was white fur striped with black.
He swallowed hard without realizing it.
Maybe it was the story about it killing five Guardians, but even from behind, the creature radiated a crushing pressure that weighed down his soul. Only then did Kroll realize the tiger was so enormous it would take three average Guardians combined to match its bulk.
“It’s seriously no joke. If the regiment commander hadn’t been there, another dozen Guardians would’ve died.”
“Because of that one bastard they’ve been working the laborers half to death lately, using the excuse of building a theme park.”
“They must think it’s ridiculous too. A theme park? The one that only exists in the foremost car.”
One of the seniors hurled the chunk of meat at the tiger.
“Feeding time, kitty!”
Splat.
The meat stuck to the tiger’s broad back for a moment, then slid slowly off. The tiger’s back quivered faintly.
“I warned you I would not tolerate such rude behavior any longer.”
A low, rumbling growl.
Kroll shouted in shock, “It’s speaking human words right now?”
“Get back!”
The senior shoved Kroll behind him.
KRRRRAAAAAWWWWR!
The cage shook violently, as though the creature were trying to prove it was human. The white tiger stood upright on two legs, glaring at Kroll with golden-yellow eyes. It seemed to believe he was the one who had thrown the meat.
Thick iron chains on all four limbs clanked with every movement.
The senior Guardian calmly pulled Kroll farther away.
“It can’t get out anyway. The regiment commander himself infused this cage with magic power.”
“T-that’s not a tiger!”
“It is a tiger. One that walks on two legs and… well, uses its front paws like hands.”
The other senior shook his head.
“The regiment commander suddenly decided he wants to bring that thing inside.”
“Sigh. We’re the only ones suffering for his whim.”
“Outside the train, all sorts of monsters roam around.”
“It gives me the creeps how much it looks like a person. Ugh.”
One senior nudged the other. “That’s what they call the ‘uncanny valley,’ right?”
“Uncanny valley? I know about the bountiful valley, though.”
“You crazy bastard—the Red Sector A one?”
“Yeah. You know it too?”
The two seniors burst into giggles.
Kroll couldn’t understand them. How could they laugh with a monster like that right in front of them?
The white tiger—more precisely, the white tiger beast—glared at the human Kroll and tore into the raw meat he had brought. Viscous, bright-red blood dripped from the corners of its mouth.
Goosebumps erupted across Kroll’s skin. He took a step back.
“I-I have a report to deliver to the 2nd Company Commander, so I’ll take my leave first.”
“Look at him, scared stiff.”
“Can’t blame him. You pissed yourself the first time you saw it.”
“Ha, try it yourself. There weren’t even shackles back then.”
Kroll returned to the company commander’s door without even managing a proper goodbye.
The 2nd Company Commander had returned. After delivering the message to both the 2nd and 1st Companies, Kroll hurried toward the laborers’ residential zone. The order delivery had gone smoothly, but the slight delay in the cabin left him feeling burdened.
At that moment, a grave voice called out from behind him.
“There’s no need to rush that much. Troops need time to prepare for deployment.”
Kroll froze mid-step. The instant he recognized the voice, he spun around and shouted a crisp salute.
“Loyalty! Private Kroll, 1st Company, 3rd Battalion of the Guardians! I greet the Regiment Commander!”
“At ease.”
“At ease!”
Regiment Commander.
Excluding the legion commander—the Dragon Slaying Sword Guhyul—this was the highest rank within the organization known as the Guardians. Since the legion commander position was essentially an honorary title created to honor Guhyul’s power and achievements, the regiment commander was, for all practical purposes, at the absolute top.
Gulp.
‘Why would the regiment commander come all the way out here?’
The regiment commander and his direct units always kept the engine room within their defensive perimeter. In other words, they were stationed at the very front of the train. The 2nd and 3rd Battalions, who handled supply duties near the tail cars, almost never crossed paths with them.
“I hear there was an incident.”
Kroll instinctively lowered his head.
“Report.”
“Reporting! Total strength fifty. Twenty-nine casualties. Current strength twenty-one! Incident details…”
After listening to the full report, the regiment commander stroked his chin.
“The wyverns carried the supply containers off to their nest. Well, it’s not entirely incomprehensible. They’re intelligent enough to understand that those are valuable resources for us.”
“Yes, sir.”
“So not only did you lose the supply containers, you couldn’t even recover the bodies of the dead?”
“I’m sorry, sir.”
“This isn’t for you to apologize for. It’s because that brainless company commander died before doing his damn job.”
The bottom-rung Guardian lowered his head even further. The weight behind those words felt like it could sever his entire career as a Guardian.
“Tsk. Tell the battalion commander this: even if half the battalion dies, they must retrieve those supplies.”
The regiment commander had not anticipated the incident at the wyvern nest. With war on the horizon, securing supplies was more critical than anything else.
“I will deliver the message.”
“Go.”
Clatter. Clatter.
Inside the truck.
Two hundred laborers stood in perfect formation under the Guardians’ command.
They had already left the train aboard the convoy.
Taeyang and Lan were mixed in among them.
“It’s… it’s too cold.”
“I know. Want to share this?”
The truck carrying the battalion commander and his direct Guardians was large, sturdy, and properly insulated. The rest were not. They were big but fragile, offered terrible ride quality, and—most importantly—could not block out this murderous cold.
It couldn’t be helped.
The commander’s truck was meant to protect key personnel and transport the vital supply containers. Laborers, from the Guardians’ perspective, were cheap resources.
Taeyang handed over the blanket he had been wearing. The pair had hastily overpowered two laborers and stolen their clothes.
“We got through without being caught. Nice.”
“By the way, the fan. It’s not noticeable, right?”
“No. We’re already here, so stop worrying. Once you’re drafted as a Guardian they don’t really check your background.”
More precisely, they rarely caught anyone. To the upper classes, rats and laborers were all the same anyway.
The two continued whispering back and forth. Lan had even smeared soot on her face because her appearance was too refined.
Normally all eyes would have been on Taeyang and Lan, but right now every laborer was too busy chattering excitedly among themselves.
“Attention!”
One of the Guardians shouted, and the noise died instantly.
“Wow, there are so many people…”
“Shh.”
Taeyang quickly covered Lan’s mouth with his finger.
Guardians were existences who offered their lives to protect the train from ferocious monsters. The laborers who owed their continued survival to the Guardians’ sacrifices were clearly inferior in status. This applied even to citizens of the affluent class.
The only rank treated as equal to Guardians was “Engineer.” Guardians could summarily execute any lower being who overstepped at any time. In the current wartime situation, that authority was even harsher.
The laborers in the front row received bundles of pills from the Guardians.
“These pills activate the fire-attribute mana sleeping inside your bodies. They let you endure the extreme cold for roughly five hours. Each person takes three. Anyone caught taking more than three will be summarily judged on the spot. Begin distribution!”
“Begin distribution!”
The laborers repeated the command and passed the pill bundles backward.
“Listen while you receive them! Our mission is to drag a container located three kilometers from our current position back here. The container is inside a nest those damn lizard bastards recently built. In other words, we’re raiding one nest. Anyone who doesn’t understand? Raise your hand.”
No one raised a hand. The atmosphere suggested that doing so might get your neck cut off immediately.
Once every laborer had received their pills, the Guardian shouted again.
“All personnel, consume one pill immediately!”
“Consuming pills!”
Even without water, the laborers swallowed the pills without complaint. The freezing cold seeping into the truck was that brutal.
Taeyang chewed and swallowed his pill the moment the order was given.
RUMBLE—!
The truck suddenly shook violently.
Human screams drifted in from outside.
“Ambush! It’s an ambush!”
KIIIIIIIIIII!
The dragon’s roar came through far more clearly.
Hyeonhye gauged the enemy from the sound alone.
Hmm. Wyvern? Drake? One of the two.
“Get out! Get out and fight!”
The Guardian threw the truck doors open.
Whooooosh—!
Freezing air swirled in, coating the interior with frost. Thanks to the pills, no one shivered.
“Oh. I can feel hot mana circulating through my body.”
Lan stroked herself in fascination. Since she handled mana professionally, she sensed the flow more vividly.
The laborers who had seen the situation outside, however, fell into panic.
“It’s way too big!”
“They want us to fight that thing?”
“Get out! Get out and fight!”
“W-wait! I’m not mentally ready yet—”
Thud!
One laborer’s severed head rolled across the truck floor. Steam rose from the stump.
“If you don’t get out right now…”
CRAAAAASH!
Before the sentence finished, a massive claw punched straight through the truck wall and the Guardian’s chest.
The claw alone was as large as an adult’s torso.
“Guhk.”
Clang.
The sword slipped from the only Guardian inside the truck.
The laborers fell into complete hysteria.
“Uwaaaaaah!”
“Save us!”
“Fuck! No one told us they were this insane!”
CRRRRREEEAK—!
The truck’s cargo bed was ripped wide open. A reptile’s vertical-slit pupils stared down at them.
It’s a wyvern.
Wyvern.
A sub-dragon—the species whose body structure most closely resembled true dragons. The natives of Endless Express simply called these sub-dragons “dragons” as well.
The only absolute monster that players generally referred to as a “dragon” was the white dragon Untara. That didn’t mean sub-dragons were weak. They were imitations, but their template was still a dragon. There was no way they would be weak.
KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!
Having pinpointed its targets, the wyvern’s front claw crushed three men at once.
CRUNCH.
The moment three laborers died, the truck was completely torn open.
“Lan, let’s go!”
“I’ve been ready!”
Lan had already pulled out the fan hidden inside her clothes and swung her arm in a wide arc. Taeyang entrusted his body to the wind as naturally as breathing.
A pupil the size of a human head locked onto Taeyang.
KIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!
“Man, that’s annoyingly loud.”
Taeyang twisted at the waist in midair.
Starburst High Kick
Whoosh—!
A swarm of silver stars wrapped around Taeyang’s foot.
BAAAAAAM!
The wyvern’s skull caved inward.