The Monarch's Resolve at the DMZ
The area where military activity is strictly prohibited by mutual agreement.
That is the literal meaning of a demilitarized zone.
There are several places around the world designated as “demilitarized zones,” but for Koreans, the term immediately brings to mind the border between North and South.
“Back when I was in the military, I hated even looking at this place.”
I grimaced and glanced beyond the iron fence.
“Mister Yu, were you a soldier?”
“Our country has mandatory conscription, unfortunately.”
If my regression had happened before I enlisted, I would have been utterly devastated. I had no desire to experience that life a second time.
The full roster of the Yeokcheon Guild, along with the Golden Circle team.
The greatest fighting force I could currently muster had gathered before the DMZ.
Ping Lei slowly scanned the tense soldiers with a suspicious look in his eyes.
“Master, isn’t a demilitarized zone supposed to be safe? Why do those soldiers look so nervous?”
“Beyond that barbed wire, it may be called a demilitarized zone, but it’s really a battlefield.”
“Didn’t you say it was demilitarized?”
“You’re too naive to believe that.”
Division and armistice.
They say secret incidents occur in the DMZ all the time.
When I asked one of the soldiers on guard about the atmosphere here, he only replied,
“You can hear gunfire sometimes, but we don’t really know what’s happening on our side.”
……That was all he said.
Well, anything more would be military secrets. Telling me would probably get him in serious trouble.
After hearing the soldier’s answer, Ping Lei’s face turned deathly pale.
“Master, isn’t this place dangerous?”
“You’re a player now. Are you seriously scared of guns?”
“Even so, guns are still guns. There’s a psychological aversion, you know.”
This guy really is a coward at heart.
“They say that stopped happening once the gates started appearing.”
“Phew, that’s a relief.”
“There are still landmines left, so just watch your step.”
“Wait, that’s even worse……”
“That’s why you need to pay close attention to the briefing.”
Though I was speaking to Ping Lei, I was actually issuing a stern warning to the entire guild as I explained the situation inside the DMZ.
“This is a map that records the existing information along with the locations of all the gates we’ve identified so far.”
Safe zones without buried landmines.
Routes used by North Korean soldiers.
And the territories claimed by the monsters that emerged from the gates.
The farther we moved from the barbed wire, the less precise the information became, but most of the reconnaissance team were non-awakened, so it couldn’t be helped.
“The information gathering was difficult, so it may not be of much help……”
“This is more than enough.”
I bowed my head and expressed my gratitude to the reconnaissance team member.
Information gathered by non-awakened soldiers.
I didn’t know the exact process, but I was certain they had risked their lives to obtain it.
“So where are we attacking first?”
Ellen waited for my orders.
Golden Circle.
Yellow Storm.
Mugeuk.
And even the powerhouses who had been my allies or enemies in my previous life.
When I suddenly met their gazes, a chuckle escaped me without thinking.
“Master, when you smile like that, you look really suspicious, you know?”
“I have no choice but to agree this time. Whenever Master smiles like that, something always goes wrong.”
“Uncle, you’re not about to give another weird order, are you?”
Words filled with so-called trust.
Good.
Since Golden Circle had joined us, we needed to build proper teamwork. Time to whip them into shape.
* * *
The half-otherworldly DMZ.
Aside from the landmines, every inch of it was dangerous.
The moment we crossed the barbed wire and began our full-scale advance, we encountered monsters.
“Kurrk! Kurrrrk!”
A group of high orcs charging forward with their signature snorting sounds.
There were easily hundreds of heavily armed orcs.
“Just looking at those ugly faces pisses me off.”
Ellen muttered with clear anger in her voice as she kicked off the ground.
Her body swelled to more than twice its normal size in an instant.
She activated her unique ability, Incredible, and charged straight into the middle of the orc horde.
Iron Protection
Boiling Strength
The Golden Circle supporters, apparently used to this sort of thing, calmly applied their buff skills without panicking.
She charged forward with the force of a cannonball.
BOOM—! Blood droplets and pulverized chunks of meat scattered through the dust cloud.
“These guys are so damn easy!”
“Kurrk! Crazy human!”
“Kurrrrk! Surround her!”
The blue-skinned monsters, high orcs, encircled Ellen.
“Your opponents are us.”
“There’s more than one leader here.”
They fixed the monsters’ attention or triggered instinctive fear, forcibly dispersing the aggro.
While the high orc pack was thrown into confusion—
“Khhhh. You lot. Do you really have the nerve to take your eyes off me?”
Ellen slammed her clasped hands into the ground.
The impact, comparable to the White Tiger Dominating Kick, shook the earth violently.
The high orcs caught in the strike range of Rage Hammer were smashed into unrecognizable pulp.
Even the monsters that had kept their distance didn’t fare much better.
Multi-Casting
Prominence x 5
Area-of-effect spells erupted in succession, engulfing the high orcs whose formation had been broken.
“Kurrrrrrk!”
Agonized screams poured from the high orcs’ throats.
Golden Circle had seized the momentum almost immediately after the battle began.
They wiped out the hundreds of high orcs in the blink of an eye.
“The orcs from gates and the Tower are this weak?”
Even after the fight ended, Ellen continued to grumble.
It made sense.
The monsters created by imitating the residents of the Tower of Babel were far weaker than their originals.
“Hmm. The reputation of America’s top team isn’t just for show.”
“We’ll have to step up our game too. Their breakthrough power is impressive, but the way they support it and manage aggro is even more so.”
“I don’t think Mugeuk falls short in breakthrough power, though?”
“Kuk, the problem is we’re lacking supporters and long-range dealers. Yellow Storm actually has the better situation.”
“If we fought like that, we’d run out of firepower and get wiped out.”
The two rankers analyzed Golden Circle’s combat style and capabilities, their competitive spirits blazing.
“Hey. Korean rankers. All that chatter won’t do you any good.”
“What do you mean?”
“Your guild master beat every single one of us.”
“……Is that true? Junior?!”
Shin Junseok asked in shock.
“Was it okay to tell them that?”
“What? I figured you would’ve bragged about it to your guild members by now.”
“We had to protect the Rockefeller guild master’s dignity too.”
“What about our dignity?”
Ellen shot back in a playful tone.
“Well…… you don’t seem to care about your own dignity in the first place.”
“Junior, you really……”
Shin Junseok muttered in a stunned voice and let out a deep sigh.
Hong Yunsu lightly patted his shoulder.
“I thought I’d finally found a hint on how to catch up from behind.”
“The farther the goal, the stronger the fighting spirit burns.”
“Haha, let’s both do our best.”
Excuse me.
Why are you two suddenly bonding in this situation?
In my previous life, they barely acknowledged each other’s existence. Seeing them so close now felt strangely off.
—Hehe, do you truly not understand the reason, partner?
“How would I know?”
—I think I have a pretty good idea.
“Then what is it?”
—You read other people’s hostility so well, yet you’re strangely dense at times like this.
Nyx let out a teasing laugh with a mischievous expression.
Ugh.
I should just stop talking to her.
Ellen proudly flexed her arm.
Thick veins popped out clearly across her muscular forearm.
If she got me in a headlock, I’d probably die.
“Even though we lost to you, we’re still pretty useful, right?”
“I wonder if it’s appropriate to call America’s best team merely ‘useful.’”
“I’ll take the compliment anyway. Haha!”
Ellen laughed heartily.
“What about the corpses?”
“I’ll hand looting rights over to Mister Yu. You’re our leader for the time being, after all.”
“Then I won’t refuse.”
I smiled and reached out toward the high orc corpses.
Using Devour on the high orcs.
The high orc corpses crumbled into gray powder and collapsed.
“W-what the hell is that?!”
“It’s my unique ability. Devour.”
“No, why are you turning those expensive high orc corpses into powder?!”
“……”
Right.
I had forgotten.
Devour had once earned me the infamous title of “the ability that turns gold into shit!”
* * *
Devouring the essence of the high orc.
Essence Grade: Ancient
Essence Devoured: 100%
You have perfectly absorbed the essence of one species.
Skill — Uraz Berserk has been added.
Uraz Berserk
Grade: ★★★
Type: Active
Whips the body with rage to draw out power beyond its limits.
During the duration, Strength, Agility, and Endurance increase by 50%, and grants strong resistance to movement-impeding debuffs.
Maintaining sanity becomes difficult after activation.
*Duration — 300 seconds.
A skill whose name means “red berserker” in Old Norse.
In my previous life, since I hadn’t obtained Demon’s Wrath, I used this as my trump card.
The essence of the Rage Ape resonates with the high orc’s essence.
The duration of Uraz Berserk has doubled.
The Rage Ape essence I obtained in the tutorial.
Since its nature was similar to Berserk, it created a synergy effect.
Even when deactivated, the synergy itself wasn’t nullified, so it was a nice little bonus.
“Mister Yu. Shall we advance again?”
“No. Wait a moment.”
I rested my chin on my hand, deep in thought.
Demon’s Wrath and Uraz Berserk.
Both were powerful enough to be called decisive battle buffs.
Their natures were also quite similar.
Because their fundamental essences were different, no synergy effect had been granted between them.
But what if I artificially fused the two essences?
Using Fusion Qigong.
Please select the fusion targets.
“Fuse Uraz Berserk and Demon’s Wrath.”
God’s Wrath has been registered in Fusion Qigong.
Fusion Skill — 3/5
You may register another fusion skill after 168 hours.
If your skill list is full, you must delete one. Deleting a previously registered skill also requires the same waiting period.
God’s Wrath
Grade: ★★★★
Type: Active
Converts intense rage into power.
Grants complete immunity to mental attacks and prevents any stiffness from wounds.
All stats increase by 400%.
*Duration — 10 seconds
Immunity to stiffness.
Immunity to mental attacks.
And a 400% increase to all stats.
Hah. The options were so absurdly good that I was speechless.
“No wonder that bastard became a Monarch.”
Rene Davis.
Even an incomplete Fusion Qigong was this powerful. I couldn’t imagine how many benefits he must have gained from it.
“Master. Is something wrong?”
“Ah, no. It’s nothing.”
“Everyone is waiting for you.”
At Lee Jiyoung’s words, I looked around.
Yellow Storm, Mugeuk, and Golden Circle.
Team players who would be hard to match even if you searched the entire world were all focused on me.
I could savor the joy later.
“Now that we’ve confirmed Golden Circle’s capabilities, let’s show the rest of the guild members’ skills as well.”
Preventing the coming apocalypse.
Flawless teamwork was more important than anything else.
And fortunately, there was no shortage of targets nearby for the guild members to demonstrate their combat abilities on.
“Junior. We’ll show you what we can do.”
“We won’t disappoint you.”
The two rankers burned with determination.