The Second Cataclysm (3)
After a moment of silence…
“… They must be crazy.”
China was planning an unimaginable atrocity.
For a brief moment, I found myself unable to speak.
Ring!
Another call request was made on a separate line from the line where I spoke to the Senator.
I talked to him before he picked it up.
“There’s a call from the Korean government.”
In the hologram, the Senator replied as if he already knew.
“It seems that both governments, the United States and South Korea, have ended their discussion.”
It became a situation where Taiwan’s president and other key officials of the administration and the military had been quarantined inside the Taipei Dome.
The military command, including the vice president who was staying outside the dome, quickly formed a temporary base.
They sent help requests worldwide, judging that they couldn’t solve the current situation with their capabilities, but most of them had no concrete solution.
According to experiments conducted by the Taiwanese hunters outside the dome, cracks on the wall were created when introduced with shock using Mana.
However, The gap was only wide enough for a single person to barely pass through, and it recovered after a short time.
It seemed impossible to completely overturn the situation only by sending a few hunters inside through such efforts. They had no choice but to judge so.
But they couldn’t just launch missiles either, so while everyone was hesitant, China was trying to put that absurd plan into action.
“What’s the launch time that the Chinese government announced?”
“It’s 24 hours from now.”
If the missiles were fired immediately without notice, a disastrous massacre would take place outside the dome as well.
It seemed that China considered that even they couldn’t handle an incident of that level.
That’s why they must’ve given them a grace period.
Taipei citizens outside the dome had already begun evacuating after being warned of the bombing.
It was noticeable what kind of chaos would be unfolding at the scene.
“That’s just one day. I think that’s enough, but I’ll check it out for the last time.”
I talked to the Korean government on the phone, confirmed the Senator’s conjecture as accurate, and called another person.
The response was quick as if he was on standby.
– Yes, Guild Master?
It was the researcher with droopy dark circles under his eyes. J/V’s CTO, Jonathan Gray.
I skipped the formalities and got to the point.
“Can you get it moving in 24 hours?”
He had a pale face full of fatigue, but his eyes were intense.
The Chief Technology Officer answered with a burning look of enthusiasm.
“Of course, it will be ready by then, and we’ll be able to ship it out! You’ve already read the manual, right? It must be hard to memorize because it’s quite long…”
Of course, there’s nothing to worry about if it came to memorizing.
“Then, I’ll leave you to it.”
Taiwan’s ‘ordinary hunters’ gave up infiltrating the Dome because they thought nothing could be done about the situation with their power. The other countries failed to send reinforcements because they couldn’t find a solid solution to it.
But it was already prepared in Korea.
Hunters with exceptional standards and powerful means to replace ballistic missiles…
And all the related personnel had already agreed.
*
The world immediately protested China’s unilateral announcement and pointed out that it was practically an act of war, but they didn’t even pretend to hear it.
The Taiwanese military was also prepared to respond to the pre-announced artillery attack, but it was impossible to put up their anti-aircraft defense with their troops fully.
“No way. No matter how crazy they may be, would they actually launch the missiles?”
Time went by with many doubting about it.
Twenty-four hours had passed since the Chinese government issued an ‘evacuation order’ to Taipei citizens living in the People’s Republic of China’s territory, not Taiwan’s, according to their claim.
Dozens of medium-range ballistic missiles were fired from missile bases in Shandong, Zhejiang, and Fujian provinces in mainland China over time.
“They launched them! They actually did!”
Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
Sharp siren noises throughout Taiwan, as well as neighboring countries, ripped people’s ears.
The expected time of impact was only a few minutes. Everyone predicted a disastrous outcome.
It was then that an unexpected event occurred.
Late at night, the central point connecting the Korea-China coastline- on the West Sea.
At that time, when there were rarely ships traveling, a huge island was floating in the air.
Dozens of elongated objects similar to the cannon opening sprang up from its side.
And it quickly concentrated blazing energy as if it didn’t need to warm up.
Zoom!
Artillery shells with intense power cut through the air.
It thundered through at a speed that seemed to ignore the laws of physics and rushed toward the designated coordinates.
And a few seconds later…
The command of the Chinese military’s missile command was sent in chaos.
They confirmed that the IRBM they fired at Taiwan disappeared from the radar without a trace.
*
While China was enveloped with shock…
Dark darkness fell in the campsite of aliens, which was built in front of the Taipei gate.
As they were diurnal, just like humans, most of the Ogatu were asleep, and only the guards were on duty, spread throughout the vast area.
Their bodies were similar in shape to humans, but they had pale, corpse-like skin. Small chats came and went from all over the place, perhaps to soothe their boredom. Their language sounded similar to how human ears perceived seagull noises.
“How many of our troops have crossed so far?”
“There are over a thousand now.”
“We won’t relax until we get 10,000.”
“Yeah, it’s always been that pattern.”
They hadn’t yet started internal control, although they already blocked any movement by building the dome.
Their mission was to preoccupy the area around the Gate. They would then form a base until the rest of the troops arrived. That was because they knew that the natives in the dome couldn’t escape anyway.
They chatted leisurely without knowing that missiles that were supposed to blow up their entire vicinity had been shot down en route.
It happened in a split second. A colossal structure with a diameter of more than 3 kilometers appeared on top of them.
There was no air resistance involved in the enormous object’s movement, and no noise or glare could be heard or seen.
It suddenly appeared on the dome’s boundary but couldn’t be seen from below because it was covered by an optics light source.
The artificial island, Imperial Tactical Fortress, which floated hundreds of kilometers away from the open sea seconds ago, slowly opened its lower compartment.
Whoong!
A faint ray of light shoots down five strands.
Each beam of light was shaped like a tube that had an empty interior.
The moment it touched the surface of the dome…
Weeeeing!
A sound of alarm rang throughout the settlement.
The guards, who were leisurely relaxing, yelled in unison.
“Alert! Alert!”
The source of the mess was falling from the dark sky.
The Tactical Fortress’s rays were easily cracked through the dome’s surface, and they were preventing it from recovering again. They weren’t enough to break down the entire dome, but they could at least make a small hole.
And as if to ride down the tubes, five people from high altitude fell into the dome.
It was the biggest Awakened who moved before anyone else.
“The hostages are there.”
Adam moved quickly.
Like the other time when we attacked the Botarch, he was in charge of the hostages again.
It was a task distributed in consideration of one’s ability.
“Alert! Intruder!”
Instead of distributing the paralyzed humans throughout the camp, the Ogatu put them in one place. It was for the sake of easy management. Of course, they didn’t forget to concentrate on a lot of guards there in case of emergency.
Although it wasn’t a bad choice, logically speaking, it eventually became the worst choice because of one
The being aiming for the place was capable of ‘packing’ hostages rapidly while simultaneously slaughtering the guards there.
‘First, put a shell on the humans.’
The prisoners were piled up, unconscious with their mouths sealed.
Their bodies were restrained with an installation that looked like a mixture of a cargo pallet and a coffin.
It was preparation done to ease pushing them into the forced Awakening device and letting them enter the Gate later on, but as a result, it helped Adam rescue them easily.
‘I truly get to do all sorts of things on Earth.’
It was inevitable since he was cooperating with the successor.
“Attack! Attack!”
Instead of weapons used to paralyze hostages, the Ogatu unit fired Mana shells made to kill.
They had weapons that were hard to see at the tutorial stage.
But it wasn’t that astonishing for Adam.
‘That’s worse than shooting a sword energy using most of the standard skills.’
Adam overpowered their bombardment with only a few gestures and created a thin blood film on his back.
Shortly after that, a scene occurred where he seemed like he was throwing a cloth and opening it. A thin-looking but powerful shield quickly covered the prisoners.
After protecting the prisoners and simultaneously preparing to ‘suck’ them in…
“Die!”
Swoosh!
Body deformation happened in the blink of an eye.
Countless needles sprayed from his pores in all directions.
“!”
In an instant, the Ogatu guards became flesh and intestines clumps and scattered everywhere.
A thick layer of blood fog settled down.
Adam was the only one standing in good condition.
The prisoners, wrapped in the blood film behind his back, hadn’t come to their senses just yet, but they weren’t in any harm.
Adam mumbled through a communication device in his ear.
“This side is done.”
Seo Jin-Wook’s answer came right back.
– Alright. This side will be ready soon.
The two humans and a sword, Nate, Hibiki, and Genograche, also swept the aliens from all sides and took their souls out.
Aiming at the bodies that Hibiki froze with a spell, the [Guardian Program] multi-caliber cannonballs fired, shattering them.
The golden-armored demon charged on top of the wave that the undead monsters swept through. Like a Border Collie that ran on top of a flock of sheep, he stepped on zombie shoulders and heads as he fired sword energies against the aliens.
And not far away, there was a purple storm that broke the enemy with more relentless force than anyone else.
He ran in a straight line like a tank.
Along the intensely pushed trajectory, crushed limbs and pieces of white and red flesh flew around.
“G-aaaargh!”
“Stop it! Stop him! Stop him!”
The war situation was entering an unexpected phase for the Ogatu unit.
They, who had an absolute advantage in numbers, couldn’t suitably defend against a small number of intruders, causing their battlefield formation to collapse.
All of them were above S-Class Awakened in human standards and were equipped with what Earthlings lacked, yet it wasn’t working.
One thousand units versus five people… It was a ridiculous imbalance, but it was mockingly easily pierced.
‘Where are you?!’
Seo Jin-Wook swung purple sword energy constantly as he tried to find the target.
He followed the Mana’s flow around him by using both [Penetration] and [The Successor’s Eyes].
He had only one goal: the artifact that formed the barrier of this dome.
“!”
Not long after, he finally found it.
[Arta’s Sword Dance!]
“No!”
Mana struck the battle tent, penetrating the alien that was trying to protect it with a scream until the end.
Boo-boom!
Whoooong!
At that moment, the dome, which was completely covering 10km of space around it, disappeared in an instant.
“You bastaaard!”
In front of Seo Jin-Wook, a man who appeared to be the Ogatu unit commander revealed itself. Hate and anger flared up in its blue eyes.
“How dare an uncivilized race like you…!”
I understood its words’ meaning through interpretation magic, but I had no intention to reply to it.
What’s important at that moment was that the dome blocking the place from external attacks had finally disappeared.
Without hesitation, Seo Jin-Wook instructed Euclid, who remained in the Fortress’s cockpit, through telecommunications equipment.
“Now!”
Immediately, the Tactical Fortress, which was hiding in the optical display, appeared.
It was finally revealed to the eyes of those below, and the commander looked up stiffly.
“T-that’s-“
A look of surprise stained his face.
“A Tactical Fortress?!”
He froze up.
“H-how? That’s not supposed to be available in the tutorial world…!”
It was a powerful weapon that even the world residents, who had already entered the Main Quest for a long time, couldn’t easily get their hands on.
It was supposedly impossible to be spotted on Earth that just started the Main.
The commander’s retina staring at it was engraved with rain streams made by hundreds of strands of light from the mobile fortress.
That was the last view he saw.
Bam! Boo-boo-boo-boom!
The storm of the lasers burned through the air.
Every time it hit the ground, an Ogatu soldier was oxidized to fog, and only the burnt marks and blood lumps scattered all over the point of impact remained.
It was an accurate and precise blow that didn’t send shock waves to nearby buildings, prisoners, or allies.
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