Chapter 94
Three days later.
At last, a black tide rolled in over the horizon.
“Multiple mutants ahead! It’s a wave! All units open fire!”
Rat-tat-tat-tat!
Boom! KABOOM!
The entire Northern Front was engulfed in flames.
At the beginning, the battle was a clear military victory.
The 1st Company and 2nd Company, deployed at the center, unleashed overwhelming firepower backed by abundant ammunition.
Brand-new rifles and grenade launchers from Guro Foundry flashed as they fired, and the mutants melted down before they could even approach.
“Hahaha! This is nothing! Wipe them all out!”
The 1st Company commander’s triumphant voice rang over the radio.
In contrast, the outer ridge assigned to Captain Kim Hyeongjun remained quiet.
Occasionally a few stragglers leaked through, which were calmly cut down with short bursts.
But—
Two more days passed, and the situation changed abruptly.
[1st Company! Weapons overheating! Malfunctions everywhere!]
[Hey! Bring spare barrels! Hurry!]
[Mortar team! Why aren’t you firing support! The line’s breaking!]
The radio network began filling with screams.
Captain Kim raised his binoculars and looked toward the central front.
Just as he had predicted.
He could see 1st Company soldiers kicking their rifles with their boots and jamming cleaning rods into their chambers.
Some soldiers, in their panic, forced the triggers and had their guns explode—falling to the ground clutching their faces.
The rear support fire also fell silent.
The Guro-made mortars had been firing continuously; their baseplates sank into the dirt or their barrels warped, sending shells falling wildly off target.
“AAAAAGH!”
As the wall of fire weakened, starving mutants rushed the trenches in an instant.
The 1st Company commander’s scream tore through the radio.
[The line’s breaking! Support! I said fire support!]
Then—
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
A series of crisp detonations rang out from Captain Kim’s rear positions.
Clear. Bright. Evenly spaced.
A rhythmic symphony of death.
“Lieutenant Choi.”
Whoooosh—!
Mortar shells sliced through the air toward the central front.
BOOOOM! KABOOM! KRAAASH!
“…!”
Captain Kim grabbed his binoculars again and watched the impact points.
The blast radius was different.
The explosive force looked about 1.5 times stronger than a standard high-explosive shell.
The accuracy was nearly miraculous.
The shells landed just 10 meters in front of the friendly trenches, directly above the heads of the advancing mutants.
[W-What was that?! Who fired?!]
[We’re saved! We’re saved!]
The 1st Company soldiers, moments ago drowning in despair, erupted in cheers.
Atlas-made shells were like erasers.
Every time one fell, dozens of mutants simply vanished.
“We’re moving too! Support fire, bearing eleven o’clock!”
Captain Kim also released the ammunition he had been conserving.
The Atlas-made K-2 rifle in his hands had been firing for three days straight—and still shot as smoothly as the first moment.
Ratatatatatat!
Perfect automatic fire without a single jam.
Overwhelming accuracy that chewed apart enemies from beyond effective range.
When the battle finally ended, the result was brutally clear.
The units of Park Jinseop’s line, who had taken the best positions, suffered heavy casualties and their defensive line was shattered.
Meanwhile, Captain Kim and the units aligned with Kang Cheolmin, who had supposedly been stuck on the outskirts cleaning up scraps—
“Captain! Look over there!”
A soldier pointed.
There lay a mountain of mutant corpses.
Thanks to support fire and precision strikes, even the mutants pushing toward the center had been swept up.
“This… the kill count is insane.”
Captain Kim stroked the still-intact barrel of his overheated rifle and smirked.
“Indeed it is.”
He looked far toward the direction of Seoul.
If he earned a promotion and was transferred to the Capital Defense Command, he might even meet the person who created these monstrous weapons.
CRUNCH—!
Under Shin Gyuhwan’s fist, a command desk made of titanium alloy crumpled like paper.
No—
“Crushed” was the more accurate word.
Before the rage of an S-Class Awakened, remnants of pre-Collapse civilization meant nothing.
“Park Jinseop.”
A cold voice that seemed to rise from the depths of hell.
At the sound of his name, Colonel Park Jinseop, the operations staff officer, trembled violently.
“Y-Yes! Supreme Commander!”
“Was this your doing?”
It wasn’t a question.
It was confirmation of something already known.
Shin Gyuhwan’s eyes were no longer those of a human.
Fresh from the battlefield, his body still carried the sickening smell of burning mutant flesh.
That alone made every officer in the control room struggle to breathe.
Park Jinseop dropped to his knees instinctively.
“M-Misunderstanding! I’m a victim too! It was Guro Foundry’s trick—!”
“Shut up.”
Shin Gyuhwan had no intention of listening.
He flicked a finger.
Park Jinseop’s body lifted into the air.
An invisible hand of gravity gripped his throat.
“Ghk—!”
“Because of you, hundreds of my soldiers died. And you call it a misunderstanding?”
Shin Gyuhwan’s voice was quiet.
But the killing intent within froze the air.
He slammed Park Jinseop to the floor.
“Your head should be taken as an example…”
He paused.
He knew killing Park Jinseop would not eliminate corruption within the military.
It would only create chaos.
“…Remove his rank.”
“…What?”
A punishment worse than execution.
Park Jinseop’s face turned pale.
In this ruined world, the rank of colonel in the Capital Defense Command meant power and protection beyond measure.
“From this moment on, you are a Private Second Class. You are demoted and dishonorably discharged. Get out of my sight immediately.”
Being expelled from the shelter as a Private Second Class—
It was a punishment more cruel than death.
Park Jinseop collapsed and wailed on the floor.
No one pitied him.
“Let me go! Let go!”
After Park Jinseop was dragged away—
“Kang Cheolmin.”
“Lieutenant Colonel Kang Cheolmin, reporting!”
Standing in the corner of the control room, Kang Cheolmin rushed forward and saluted sharply.
Shin Gyuhwan glanced around the wrecked control room.
“The operations officer position cannot remain vacant. Lieutenant Colonel Jeong Hyeonuk will serve as acting officer.”
He turned his gaze toward Kang Cheolmin.
“Kang Cheolmin, you are promoted from lieutenant colonel to colonel effective today. Your new position is Chief of Logistics Staff, and you will concurrently serve as commander of the 7th Logistics Support Group.”
Chief of Logistics Staff.
In practice, the position overseeing all supply and logistics across the Capital Defense Command.
Before the Collapse, it had been held by a major general.
“Sir! I will faithfully carry out your command!”
Kang Cheolmin answered firmly.
“That’s unacceptable! Mortars are heavy weapons! We cannot adopt Atlas products without proper evaluation procedures!”
Capital Defense Command Headquarters, Basement Level 3.
Major Kim from the Finance Department slammed the table during the budget review meeting.
Across from him sat Kang Cheolmin at the head of the table, calmly flipping through documents.
“The field test has already been completed.”
“That was unofficial use! It’s not even in the doctrine!”
“Doctrine?”
Kang Cheolmin smiled faintly.
“Major Kim, isn’t that doctrine something written before the Collapse? Tell me—what’s crawling on the Northern Front right now? Tanks, or mutants?”
The room fell silent.
“Two Atlas mortars in Trench Three stopped 300 mutants, including a C-Grade Giant Elephant Spider. Didn’t you read the report?”
Kang Cheolmin slid a document across the table.
The first page showed a perfect impact pattern from Atlas mortars and a glowing evaluation written by Captain Kim Hyeongjun of the 3rd Company.
“If your men had been inside that trench, would you still be quoting doctrine?”
Major Kim’s face flushed red.
But he had no rebuttal.
The battlefield results proved everything.
“…Approved.”
Kang Cheolmin nodded and moved on.
“Next item. Contact Atlas to confirm whether they can repair armored vehicles and self-propelled artillery.”
The “Bomber” would probably accept the offer immediately.
Kang Cheolmin had already noticed Kang Sinhyeok’s interest in military technology.
If Atlas’s technology improves, it benefits the military and the nation.
In Kang Cheolmin’s eyes, the future was already visible.
The moment Atlas caught up to U.S. military technology, the balance of this war would flip completely.
The clock of national reclamation that had stopped ten years ago would start ticking again.
And if we reach the end of that path…
We might gain the power to reshape the entire world.
The meeting ended swiftly.
As Kang Cheolmin left the room, he smiled bitterly.
The Supreme Commander’s trust.
The position of Chief of Logistics Staff.
He knew he hadn’t earned any of it alone.
It’s all thanks to that man… the Bomber.
Without him, Kang Cheolmin would still be an ordinary logistics officer cleaning up Park Jinseop’s messes.
And I don’t think I’ve repaid the debt yet.
Inside the Guro Foundry factory director’s office.
Choi Manseok stared at shards of expensive whiskey bottles scattered across the floor and roared in fury.
“Idiot! I thought he’d at least last a few months!”
Just moments earlier, the military had notified him that all transactions were terminated.
Knock knock.
The workshop foreman entered cautiously.
“Director… I need to tell you something.”
“What?! Can’t you see the situation? I’m furious right now so get out—!”
Choi Manseok stopped mid-shout.
Behind the foreman stood dozens of men in black work uniforms.
“We’re here to collect what you promised.”
The foreman spoke quietly.
Only then did Choi Manseok remember.
The 500 survivors he had lured in with promises of shelter residency permits to meet military production quotas.
He had never intended to reward them.
“Promise? What promise? The factory’s about to shut down and you think I should take care of you too?!”
Choi Manseok shouted in rage.
“Get out! You insects!”
After the military’s official trade cutoff notice—
A smell more disgusting than rotting mutants began spreading through the factory.
The smell of betrayal.
“Team Leader Oh! What are you doing?!”
Assistant Manager Park from Production Line 3 shouted in shock.
The notoriously strict Team Leader Oh was walking in and out of the central vault as if it were his own home.
With skilled, practiced hands.
“What does it look like? Taking my share.”
He snorted and shook a leather pouch.
Clink.
The sound of dozens of F-Grade cores colliding.
The most beautiful sound in the ruined world.
“H-Have you lost your mind?! If the director finds out—!”
“The director? Hahaha!”
Team Leader Oh burst into laughter.
“Assistant Manager Park. Haven’t you realized yet? This ship is already sinking.”
He shoved the pouch into his coat.
And that wasn’t all.
Rare metal ingots from display cabinets, antibiotics from the infirmary—everything went into his bag.
Like a shopper sweeping goods during a clearance sale.
“This place is finished. Find your own way out. Like I am.”
Assistant Manager Park couldn’t say anything.
And it wasn’t just Team Leader Oh.
The same thing was happening across the factory.
The awakened guards who once whipped workers into production were no longer watching the lines.
Instead they gathered in groups, securing escape routes and dividing the remaining materials.
When the king named Choi Manseok lost power—
The dogs guarding the castle were the first to bite their master.
“Did you hear? No dinner rations tonight.”
In the underground level of Production Line 2.
One man muttered helplessly.
The despair in his voice spread quickly through the 500 survivors.
“What? No dinner? Then what are we supposed to eat?”
“Work? What work! The military contract’s gone! We’re finished!”
The murmurs turned into anger.
Anger turned into murderous intent.
They had carried molten steel at the bottom of hell, deceived by the sweet lie of shelter residency permits.
The only reward they received was Choi Manseok’s curses.
“That bastard Choi Manseok tricked us!”
“Let’s kill him! Starving to death or dying fighting—it’s the same!”
In one corner, the oldest man among them spoke in a trembling voice.
“But… one use of his [Metal Melting] ability and we’ll all…”
The rising flames of anger faltered.
Choi Manseok was a B-Class Awakened.
One swing of his hand could send boiling molten metal crashing over them.
That fear held them down.
“Yes, he’s strong. But he’s production-type.”
All eyes turned to the speaker.
“He’s not tough like a combat-type, and he’s not fast. He won’t even imagine we’d resist. There are 500 of us. If we rush him all at once, he can only melt the first few dozen in front.”
His eyes shone.
The eyes of someone with nothing left to lose.
“Someone will grab his throat. More of us will choke him than will melt in his steel!”
His words weren’t logical.
But for those drowning in despair, they were more powerful than logic.
A spell turning fear of death into madness called hope.
“That’s right! We’re 500!”
“Let’s show him what insects can do!”
The murmurs grew into a roar.
Five hundred voices became a tidal wave of fury surging toward the upper floors.
“Damn it… everyone’s gone insane!”
Amid the chaos, Han Cheolsu slipped away quietly.
Having worked at Guro Foundry since its early days, he knew how terrifying Choi Manseok was.
Charging blindly like that would only lead to meaningless deaths.
Han Cheolsu hid behind a pile of scrap metal.
Then he carefully unwrapped a bundle of old cloth from his chest.
Inside was a U-Link terminal.
In Guro Foundry, only Choi Manseok and a few executives possessed one.
A symbol of power.
His uncle Han Daeman, who had defected to Atlas, had given it to him recently.
—Right… your mother’s grave is still in Guro. It’s hard to decide right away. But if you change your mind, contact me.
Han Cheolsu turned it on with trembling hands.
Thankfully, the battery still had charge.
[Uncle! A riot is about to break out here.]