64 Episode 64 - Armed Forces Demonstrations, Part I (1/2)
Chapter 23. Armed Forces Demonstrations, Part I
Translator: Khan
Editor: RED
1.
'What is important in war?'
'There are countless answers to this question. Someone will pick a powerful weapon, and someone will pick a thoroughly trained soldier. There is no correct answer. The important thing is the situation. Sometimes someone needs a powerful weapon, sometimes someone needs elite soldiers. So if someone wants to hear an answer close to the right answer, someone has to change the question.'
'What will be more important if the situation of having to fight against unknown monsters came up?'
The Mac Guild gave their answer: the manual.
”There is a Goblin community in Incheon First High School.”
”We'll kill them after we throw the smoke bombs in. How many Goblins are there?”
”About fifty, I suppose.”
”Ten soldiers and six hunters will be enough.”
The manual.
”I checked three Mud Trolls in the apartment complex in Ganseok-dong.”
”We can lure them down the road and then burn them with a flamethrower, and according to the manual…”
”Three hunters and two flamethrowers are allotted per Mud Troll. The number of soldiers depends on the number of monsters that eat the dead bodies. The Mud Troll takes only the heads and abandons the rest.”
”Eleven hunters, thirty soldiers, and take claymores.”
The manual that taught how many weapons and power were distributed to monsters, and how to fight.
”There are Sabretooth Wolves and Werewolves at Incheon Terminal.”
”We'll have to set up a camp in the terminal intersection and finish all the monsters which come in with firepower.”
The answer the Mac Guild gave was the manual.
The Mac Guild had built a manual.
Under the direction of Kim Tae-hoon, they made a manual of the system's information about the characteristics of monsters through repeated monster hunting; what kind of tactics were effective to hunt monsters; how many troops were needed, and so on. Furthermore, they had enough troops and weapons to carry out the manual.
To the hunters and soldiers of the Mac Guild, Incheon City was not the land of monsters dominated by fear.
”Well, let's kill all the monsters today!”
”We'll only pay twenty percent of the monster stones we acquire. If we don't kill enough, we'll lose as much as we don't.”
It was like California, where the nineteenth-century gold mines were found. The gold rush had begun.
There was, of course, a problem.
”We found a monster in the Gwangyo Park that looks like the head of Big-nosed Orangutans. Its eyes… yellow.”
”We've never seen such a monster before, have we?”
What if you saw a monster for the first time, which you cannot do anything about with only the manual?
The answer the Mac Guild had prepared was simple. ”Master will go.”
Kim Tae-hoon was the most obvious answer.
2.
April of 2017 has begun.
The harsh winter, which had seemed not to end, disappeared like a mirage, and the warmth began to fill the place. However, the scenery of the Republic of Korea, where warmth came, was worse than winter before the snow disappeared.
The world, where humans had been gone for only three months, became surprisingly harsh. The city looked degradeded as if it had been decades since the disappearance of people.
When Lieutenant Colonel Yoo showed photographs and images of Fukushima and Chernobyl for training to prepare for the leakage of radioactivity to the members of the 35th Commando Battalion in the past, it was similar to the scenery seen there.
But the landscape changed the moment he entered Incheon, which was rated as the most devastated according to a report he had received two months ago. He felt the energy and vigor.
And when he entered the Ganseok Ogeori, he was able to hear the voices of children with bright laughter and powerful shouts for the first in a long time.
”Come with me! Come with me!”
”Ball! Ball! Watch out for the ball!”
If children are not whole of heart, they don't laugh.
Lieutenant Colonel Yoo initially thought it was an illusion, a hallucination.
”Have you arrived?” But the moment he met Kim Yu-ri, and the moment he saw her firm expression, he could see that all this was not a fantasy when he entered the coffee shop set up for him. He had to chew on the terribleness at the report of Sergeant Kim Yu-ri.
”A traitor—”
There was a traitor within the Capital Defense Command. The traitor was trying to get the relics of the Capital Defense Command. Their trick killed valuable soldiers. The traitors were committing atrocities and massacring civilians if necessary.
It was a story that made him go crazy.
”Yes, I suppose so.” However, the most terrible thing was the current situation that Lieutenant Colonel Yoo could not help believing in the report of Kim Yu-ri, and the reality that he had to think that it was right.
There was already a sign. 'There was an enemy inside from the moment the woodblock printed edition of Daedongyeojido was lost.'
After grasping the identity of the relics, the Capital Defense Command, of course, immediately collected relics from museums and libraries throughout Seoul. In the process, they were able to secure the copies and original plates of Daedongyeojido. At that time, all operations of the Capital Defense Command were planned based on the Daedongyeojido.
'It was also thanks to Daedongyeojido that we sent a rescue team to Incheon.'
It was also because of the Daedongyeojido that they gave national treasures to the rescue team. They confirmed that there was a green-grade monster in Incheon through Daedongyeojido, and they judged that it was possible to rescue a VIP by avoiding the green-grade monster if they were helped by Daedongyeojido. Otherwise, they would not have sent a rescue team.
However, the rescue team failed, and soon after that, the Daedongyeojido disappeared. Worse, Lieutenant Colonel Yoo did not inform others of this.
'I should have done it then. I should have done it somehow, not hidden it.'
I didn't, not I couldn't.
In the first place, there were few who knew the existence of Daedongyeojido, and the few were those in power of the Capital Defense Command.
If the loss of Daedongyeojido was publicized, it was natural that someone should bear responsibility among those in power. But the person with a sacrificial mind could not survive in the Ministry of Defense of Korea now. That was why the 35th Commandos and Lieutenant Colonel Yoo started their outside activities.
Anyway, the information that he had got earlier from the Daedongyeojido map was valid. Based on the approximate information, he had to do external activities to acquire more detailed information. Of course, for him, the outside activities were not much different from walking in a minefield.
'Fucking hell.'But there was a lot more hell than that. 'Incheon was an ant lion's pit. The information from Incheon… was a trick to eat up the rescue team.'
Incheon was an ant lion's pit made by traitors. For the rescue of VIPs and the recovery of national treasures, the Capital Defense Command should send Awakeners armed with relics to Incheon repeatedly.
And the information actually kept coming. It was reported that Kate Kennedy was still alive in Yeongjong Island, that she had contacted the rescue team, and after recognizing the existence of the rescue team, she repeatedly signaled that she had survived.
If there had been no such information, he would have never told Kim Tae-hoon to rescue her there.
But now, the information of the report itself was likely to have been a trick.
No, maybe the person who received the report and gave the order might also be one of the traitors.
'Is Major General Lee Ki-soo a traitor?'
Major General Lee Ki-soo.
He was one of the most powerful men in the Capital Defense Command, and he became an Awakener. As soon as he was awakened, his Energy rank was C, and he was also the head of the Investigation Department of the Ministry of Defense.
He was a former head of the military police, the subordinate unit of the Capital Defense Command, and one of the best elites.
'Then Colonel Jang So-gook is a traitor, too.' Colonel Jang So-gook, who was currently the head of the military police, was one of the right-hand men of Lee Ki-soo.
The fact was horrifying.
'No way...'
One of the roles of the MP was to be responsible for the security of the president's schedule. On December 31, 2017, the President's schedule was to ring the Watch-Night Bell on January 1. It meant that the military organization that most clearly grasped the president's every move on December 31 was the military police.
But if the Commander of the MP, Colonel Jang So-gook, was a traitor?
'I'm sick of it.' The most troublesome thing was that they were the superiors of Lieutenant Colonel Yoo.
”What about Kim Tae-hoon?”
”He's out hunting now.”
”Hunting?”
”Yes, he went on a monster hunt.”