The Kurotsukidoo Extermination Battle

According to the boss, we had to do it now. If we delayed any longer, the only future left for us was one where we all died. After listening to what Rianna Holden relayed, it seemed Sawayanagi Azuma had foreseen several possible futures. The message probably meant I needed to select a trait right away. I had just leveled up and was thinking about putting off the choice until later when the telepathic warning arrived. In the future where I didn't pick a trait immediately, it looked like everyone would be wiped out. Hmm. That was pretty terrifying.

“Understood. I'll follow Azuma's advice.”

I spoke into the radio, then stepped aside into a quiet corner. Pulling up the level-up window once more, I decided it was time to choose a trait. Sawayanagi Tobey offered to stand guard while I made my selection.

The Pillar of Recovery appeared to be related to holy techniques. It probably restored people through sex with me. The Incantation of the Flame Tower was the usual fire-magic spell that kept showing up, but with my low intelligence, magic was useless to me so I skipped it. Machine Maintenance was exactly what the name suggested—a basic general trait for repairing machinery. There was no way I would pick the lowest grade of a general trait. None of these options seemed capable of saving us from the annihilation looming in the near future.

Before using the Yeouiju to reroll, I tried to figure out exactly what danger we were facing. Given that our current opponents were from Kurotsukidoo, the most likely culprit behind a total wipeout would be one of their high-ranking executives. From my memories, there were roughly five people in Kurotsukidoo capable of annihilating a superpower organization like Seryu. I excluded others of similar strength who specialized in one-on-one combat, since they couldn't eradicate an entire force. The ones capable of mass slaughter were the Kurotsukidoo patriarch Black Moon, the vice-patriarch Nikolai Yang, the execution squad commander Shadowless Ghost, the captain of the elite central unit Moonless Guard known as Moonless, and the Northeast Asia branch chief, Poison Ghost Tang Xiaohua.

I ruled out the patriarch and vice-patriarch immediately. Those two were far too important to ever set foot in Japan. The execution squad existed to handle internal traitors, so Shadowless Ghost was unlikely as well. That left Moonless and Tang Xiaohua. I doubted it was Moonless. We hadn't seen a single member of the Moonless Guard, and none of the battle reports mentioned them. Besides, it made more sense for the Northeast Asia branch chief to be here than for the central elite unit to travel all the way to Japan.

Tang Xiaohua—or Tang Shaohua—was an extremely troublesome opponent. In The Youngest Son of a Megacorp she served as a mid-boss you could encounter if you became hostile toward the Black Moon Party. She ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠specialized in poison for mass slaughter, yet she wasn't weak in single combat either. She was the kind of character that gave you a massive headache. Normal poisons could be ignored with high resistance stats, but the toxins she used couldn't be fully countered that way. You needed several additional methods. To fight her, you either had to raise poison resistance to near maximum to render her abilities useless, kill her instantly with a long-range sniper shot, or hunt her using summons that were immune to poison—like shadow panthers.

Speaking of shadow panthers, I could also envelop my entire body in the abyss to block poison. Unfortunately its current duration was only about a minute, so it wasn't ready for practical use yet. Even normally I avoided using it because the mental exhaustion was severe and the duration too short. Since Shadow Dominion was a legendary technique, its proficiency rose slowly. Once that improved, both mental consumption and duration would increase, letting me use it freely in real combat. But that wasn't an option right now, which meant I had no choice but to rely on a new trait.

“Ah!”

Of all times, why did Master of Martial Arts have to appear now? It was an incredibly useful trait that I had been hoping would show up, but the current situation made it impossible to choose. I could only pray it appeared again later. The second option, Will Shield, seemed similar to the mental protection ability Han Yugyeong possessed. I had no idea what the final one—Body Wrapped in the Abyss—actually did. After considering which trait would help against Tang Xiaohua, I made my choice.

After selecting the trait, Sawayanagi Tobey and I continued patrolling the area, cutting down every Kurotsukidoo squad we encountered. The follow-up forces from East Weapon and the main army of Taira Foods—Daisen-Taira Military Service, or DTMS—mopped up the remaining stragglers. The second-tier PMC known as the Taira Food Security Guard was apparently staying behind at headquarters to protect Nagumo Shian instead ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠of joining the front.

When the fighting finally ended, we had eliminated well over a thousand Kurotsukidoo soldiers in Kakunodate. Our own losses hadn't even reached a hundred.

“I thought they would have concentrated almost their entire force on Kakunodate like the reports claimed, but that doesn't seem to be the case,” Mimata Chieri remarked in the post-battle conference room where the East Weapon and DTMS contingents that had linked up in Kakunodate were gathered. Her comment was a subtle jab at DTMS, whose scouting had been off despite having been in charge of reconnaissance the entire time. After all, Daisen City was far closer to Kakunodate than Akita City.

“It looks like East Weapon's noisy assault forced them to pull back into Senboku City,” the DTMS commander, Iwate Motohito, drawled lazily, shifting the blame for their scouting failure onto East Weapon. DTMS had originally been responsible for Senboku, yet even after losing the city they strutted around acting as if the fault lay with East Weapon and the Taira Food Security Guard. Since DTMS was a PMC sent directly from Taira Group's central headquarters, they clearly ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠had powerful backing.

“Annihilation battles are our specialty. We'll take the vanguard this time,” Iwate declared. With Kurotsukidoo's numbers drastically reduced after losing over a thousand troops, he seemed eager to claim the credit for victory in the war against them.

Mimata Chieri glared at him, clearly fed up and about to speak, but I whispered into her ear to let them have it. She closed her mouth. It was a bit cold-hearted, but I fully intended to let most of DTMS get wiped out. Once the war ended, the resulting gap in manpower would force Nagumo Shian to outsource Taira Food's protection to East Weapon for a while. Without DTMS acting as the eyes and ears of Taira Group's central leadership, I would be able to develop the mithril mine together with her. That was why I had told Mimata to yield the vanguard.

In fact, we had been about to offer ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠it ourselves, but since they were volunteering in order to claim the glory of ending the war, I couldn't have been more grateful.

“Hmph… Fine. I'll be watching to see just how well DTMS performs.”

“Heh heh heh. We'll show you an advance on an entirely different level from East Weapon! We'll depart immediately, so feel free to sleep or follow along as you wish.”

It was about two-thirty in the morning when we had fully suppressed Kakunodate. Now it was two-fifty. Their plan seemed to be to launch an immediate attack on Senboku City—twenty minutes away—around three-ten, before the enemy could prepare. After fighting Kurotsukidoo nonstop until now and even losing Senboku, their thinking was far too simplistic and careless. If these were ordinary rabble it might have worked, but their opponent was the Northeast Asia branch chief of Kurotsukidoo. Someone who had survived countless life-or-death battlefields to rise from lowly soldier to branch leader could not be handled by the likes of Iwate Motohito. Of course, Iwate himself had no idea he was marching toward Poison Ghost Tang Xiaohua.

“Ugh… I really hate guys like that.”

“Same here. He was constantly hitting on all the female Seryu members, you know?”

When Mimata Chieri shuddered while glaring at Iwate's retreating back, Sawayanagi Azuma chimed in beside her. The audacity of flirting with Seryu women…! Once again I felt certain that sending them ahead to face Tang Xiaohua—borrowing the enemy's blade to kill the enemy—had been the right call.

“We'll follow slowly from behind.”

“Investor, you want that DTMS commander to die, don't you?” Sawayanagi Azuma, who had already seen the future, asked me directly.

“Not just the commander. I'd like most of DTMS to be sacrificed.”

“What are you talking about, Junior?” Mimata Chieri, who still didn't know the full story, asked.

I explained the situation I desired to both Sawayanagi Azuma and Mimata Chieri. I told them I believed Tang Xiaohua was waiting for us in Senboku, and that DTMS would become an obstacle to the future I wanted. That was why I had yielded the vanguard.

“As expected of you, Junior. You're even thinking about East Weapon's future contracts.”

“Investor! What about us?”

Mimata Chieri looked moved that I had considered East Weapon's future requests, while Sawayanagi Azuma stared at me with an expression that clearly asked why she and her people had been left out.

“East Weapon has a lot of personnel so you have some breathing room, and Seryu went through quite a lot during this operation. You all deserve to rest for a while.”

“That's true… Everyone's been asking for vacation. We'll match your schedule, Investor. How about we all go somewhere together to play?”

My schedule was already tight enough… In three days I had plans with Yukiko, the following week I was going to America with Alice, and then I'd have to return from vacation. Still, maybe a weekend trip would work.

“How does the weekend three weeks from now sound? We can play from Friday through Sunday.”

“I want to come too!”

And just like that, a new three-days-two-nights itinerary with the Seryu members and Mimata Chieri was added to my already packed schedule. This time it might be good to bring along the boys and girls we had rescued. It would be a chance for everyone to get closer.