Chapter 85: S-cla.s.s hazard ent.i.ty (1)
The Defense garrison was located about 1 km outside the Datong city wall.
The most central part was the Command Situation control room.
Dozens of monitors were showing the status of each wall in real-time.
“Commander. Ten units escaped from the B-13 barrier, damaging 3 aircraft tanks and injuring 30 men.”
“Commander. The searchlight on the D-5 barrier was broken, and a request for a.s.sistance came in.”
The monitoring officers were delivering reports from each unit and relaying them to the commander.
A moustached middle-aged man was sitting at the top of the barracks tent.
He was the brigade commander, Major General Mak Wu-cheong.
General Mak Wu-cheong was sweating at the information he was hearing every second.
He was a competent commander who blocked the Gates for 40 years, but this was his first time encountering such a terrifying situation.
‘I am going crazy.’
Normally, the role of the National Guard was to block the enemies from infiltrating the wall.
But this time, the situation changed.
This time, they were all blocking the ent.i.ty of the Gate from coming out of the barrier.
‘d.a.m.n it! Why did the Gate open in the middle of the city?’
The worst place for a Gate to open.
The Gates never open in the same place.
The Gates always moved positions little by little, but a situation where the Gate position changed entirely was scarce.
And that was happening right now.
Two days ago, exactly 29 hours ago, due to the Gate opening in the southwest of the wall, Datong city was unable to respond properly.
The inside of the wall was overflowing with ghost-like things.
It was a horror.
Despite hiding in bunkers, people were scared out of their wits.
The statistics were still not available, but it was estimated that there were more than a million casualties.
Finding survivors seemed hard.
‘The only thing the military can do is to stop them from coming out entirely.’
Everyone felt so powerless.
There was no way to kill the hazard ent.i.ties.
The National Guard research team was looking for weaknesses, but they haven’t found any.
“30 aircraft tanks have been destroyed, and more than 5 hundred people from the National Guard have been killed. Reinforcements must arrive quickly.”
The Defense forces from the 5 close-by cities had already sent reinforcements. They were also in a dangerous state, so they couldn’t send their entire force.
“Commander!”
When the commander was in thought, someone entered the barracks of the control room.
It was the sergeant guarding the outside.
“Haven"t the reinforcements arrived?”
“The 3 teams of the Murim a.s.sociation from Beijing, Shijiazhuang and Baoding have arrived.”
“Is that so?”
Mak Wu-cheong couldn’t help but feel disappointed.
It was good that the Murim people had come to help them, but what they needed more than anything now, was military support.
But he felt glad that they came anyway.
“Guide them to the barracks where the secondary support team is stationed.”
However, the sergeant"s report wasn"t done.
“Commander. And it seems like the Ministry of Security and Intelligence Agency have come with the Beijing Murim team.”
“What?”
Commander Mak Wu-cheong jumped out of his seat.
The Ministry of Security was the core department under the State Council, including the Ministry of Defense, Ministry of Public Security and Civil Government and Judiciary.
And the head of that important department had come to where the Gate was open without even contacting him.
‘Oh s.h.i.t.’
He grabbed his head, feeling pain.
He knew why.
‘It is dangerous, so I asked them to wait.’
But they came.
As he was about to leave the barracks, a man in his late fifties, wearing a protective suit with pale eyes and wrinkles on his face, entered.
“Commander Mak!”
“Director!”
He was Cho Hyung-mu, the director of Internal security.
Commander Mak Wu-cheong hurriedly saluted the person.
This man wasn’t his direct superior, but if he was higher than the head of State Council.
However, the director Cho Hyung-mu of the ministry of Internal Security, raised his voice as soon as he entered.
“Commander Mak. What are you even doing now? Why hasn’t the rescue operation been carried out yet!”
“Director. It wasn’t…”
“What do you mean! My son and daughter-in-law are in a dangerous place right now. I don’t see the son and wife of Cho Hyun-mu, the head of Internal security!”
Commander Mak Wu-cheong couldn’t help but feel embarra.s.sed.
The Gate opened and this man was asking to send a team to rescue his son and his wife.
“Aren’t the Murim a.s.sociation teams being kept on stand-by too?”
‘Who told him?’
Mak Wu-cheong frowned.
He seemed to know that the second support team of the Murim a.s.sociation was on stand-by.
“Director. We put them on stand-by because we don’t know the weakness of those ent.i.ties yet…”
“Are you going to stand back and keep watching till then?”
He couldn’t answer that.
‘Even though he has no idea what’s going on, he comes in and screams, not knowing how dangerous an S-cla.s.s ent.i.ty is!’
Mak Wu-cheong, who was losing his patience, spoke in a slightly stronger voice.
“Director… the gatekeepers and Murim warriors who came with us and went inside, lost contact with us within 30 minutes after entering. As a commander, I need to be careful…”
“Ahh! Commander Mak is saying that it doesn’t matter if civilians die or not. Even if you close the Gate as soon as possible, you are done.”
In the end, Mak Wu-chang gave up.
As a soldier, he didn’t have the knack to argue with politicians.
In front of the barracks.
Around 400 Murims warriors had gathered in protective suits.
They were from the Murim a.s.sociation of 8 cities around Datong city.
Hearing that an S-cla.s.s Gate opened, the elites who came in were all above Super Master level.
8 cities, including Tianjin city.
Even before the Gate, Peng Neung-gyeom, descendant of the Hebei Peng clan, have always supported others.
‘A lot of people seem to have gathered. Hehehe.’
Opportunities to target an S-cla.s.s core were rare.
Despite the danger, the Murim people flocked to it like moths to fire.
And there are some famous ones here.
[The fact that Hong Pal-son, the head of Beijing Murim a.s.sociation, is here, is the most shocking.]
The most surprising one.
Normally, the branch heads of the a.s.sociation never stray too far from their areas.
However, the S-cla.s.s core was a different story.
Bu Do-kyun of the Six Life Insurance was also there.
Peng Neung-gyeom, who was looking around, couldn’t hide his shock when he saw someone.
‘That person?’
They were wearing hazmat suit helmets, but he would never forget that face.
‘The monster from Shenyang city Gate?’
Chun Yeowun.
‘Did he come with the 3rd support team?’
No way.
Chun Yeowun wanted to fly above, but due to the aircraft tanks moving around, he couldn’t.
At the same time, he discovered the Murim warriors gathered in the place.
Seeing that they were heading into a war, he hid among them.
Feeling the gaze on him, Chun Yeowun looked at the man.
‘Descendant of Peng clan.’
He thought that it was some unknown person staring at him.
But he recognized the person.
However, since he didn’t have much interest in him, he turned away.
The only objective Chun Yeowun had was to enter Datong city without being noticed.
“Lord. Ugh… these clothes… are d.a.m.n s.h.i.tty.”
Hu Bong, who was next to him, looked out of place as his body felt tight with the protective suit.
It was because he was wearing a suit that didn’t fit his size.
Chun Yeowun focused on the man who was explaining the strategy instead of listening to Hu Bong’s grumbling.
“Use the goggles on the helmet, and you can see the ent.i.ty. Never take it off.”
The special goggles used by the National Guard.
It was equipped with a function to distinguish the ultraviolet wavelengths.
“We will tell you the precautions before entering.”
The officer of the National Guard turned on a large monitor and began his briefing.
“This is the photo of the hazard ent.i.ty.”
Whisper!
‘What the h.e.l.l?’
‘It looks like a ghost.’
It had a form similar to that of a human. It walked on two legs.
However, everything else was blurry, and every time it moved, it left footprints like particles.
The Murim warriors mumbled as they saw it.
“First, they can go through walls about a meter thick. We do not even know where and when they will come out and so be very careful.”
“If it can pa.s.s through walls, then won’t our attacks just pa.s.s through?”
A warrior raised his hand and asked.
At that, the man shook his head and pointed to the ent.i.ty.
“It was the second thing I was about to say. It can’t go through everything. Things like physical attacks and bullets don’t work. But it was said to have a high level of energy.”
“High level of energy?”
“According to the first team"s last words, they said that when high-level heat energy is used, it would be effective.”
Which meant, only heat-induced energy attacks could work.
Fortunately, since most Murim people were of higher level, they could use sword energy.
“However, even if energy and heat were used, they don’t feel much pain, and if they are still left in one piece, it can continue to move, so be careful.”
“Huh?”
Which meant that it had to be shredded or crushed.
And that was the most difficult thing to do.
“The third is to avoid any direct close contact with them. Never let them touch you.”
Beep!
The man pressed a b.u.t.ton, and a photo was shown.
The person who touched that ent.i.ty looked frozen dead.
“It is an ent.i.ty which goes past humans too, and if it does, you will die of hypothermia. The warriors are no exception, so if in any chance they come for you, avoid touching you and move away.”
Silence reigned.
Till a moment ago, they were all interested in the S-cla.s.s core, but this warning was so scary that they went stiff.
Only now did they realize why the 1st team never survived.
Being a.s.signed to fight an S-cla.s.s was the worst.
“That is what we managed to find out so far. If you could learn anything new, please let us know through the radio right away.”
The information they had now was the cost of countless sacrifices in the last 29 hours.
Now, the new batch had to find out further information.
“If you don’t have any questions, this briefing…”
“The ent.i.ty. What should we call this ent.i.ty?”
A Murim warrior asked.
Most hazard ent.i.ties were named once discovered.
“This is the first time such a being has ever appeared in the world, so it hasn’t been announced, but we call it Ghost.”
Ghost.
Literally meant Ghost.
There was no word more appropriate than this.
And the soldier added.
“Any more questions? So, this concludes the briefing. We ask those who are called to remain in the last group and the others to depart in the vehicles to the site.”
With that, the man called out a list of names.
Most of them were warriors of the Beijing Murim a.s.sociation.
‘The diversion…’
Chun Yeowun, who heard the conversation inside the main barracks, knew why this was happening.
These people were a special team made to rescue the son and wife of the Internal Security director.
If the other Murims found out about this, they would hate the Defense.
“Come this way.”
Whoo!
The others headed to the military truck, which was prepared in advance.
“Hu Bong.”
“Whoa! Lord. Try this one. We can even see the other side of the water!”
Hu Bong put on the goggles and looked around.
Hu Bong, a person from a thousand years in the past, surely was shocked at this new era.
And this was a natural reaction.
“Stop it and let’s go.”
“Alright. Lord… Woah! Lor-Lord! There is a strange-looking wagon moving without horses! How the h.e.l.l!”
Tatatak!
“Ump! Ump!”
With the constant words, Chun yeowun turned irritated and sealed his mouth. Thanks to that, Hu Bong kept his mouth shut until they entered the city.
30 seater military trucks moving in four directions.
To the wall from the north, east, south and west side.
Since they weren’t sure where the Alpha was, they were sending people in all directions.
As they got closer, the Murim people began to behave weirdly, some were nervous and some...
‘S-cla.s.s core.’
People with greed for the core.
Not being scared, they even declared that they would get the S-cla.s.s core.
“Idiots.”
There were people who looked at them and clicked their tongues.
One of the people who didn’t like them was Oh-hyeon, the branch head of Tianjin Murim a.s.sociation.
“Huhuhu, leave them.”
“Senior Peng!”
“Everyone has different ways of overcoming their fear.”
“Is the senior afraid?”
Oh-hyeon looked at Peng Neung-gyeom, who was still looking calm.
According to the briefing, the Ghost was scary and something they had never tackled before.
If the ent.i.ties were this scary, he couldn’t even think how terrifying the Alpha would be.
“I trust senior.”
The reason Oh-hyeon chose this truck was because of that.
As far as he knew, Peng Neung-gyeom was one of the top three Murim warriors who had come here.
He believed that if he stuck with him, he could survive.
“Don’t trust this old man.”
“Hh?”
“But your choice isn’t wrong.”
Peng looked at someone sitting in the front.
It was Chun Yeowun.
Just like Oh-hyeon did, he got on this truck because of someone.
“Someone you know? Looks young. Very young.”
In Oh-hyeon’s eyes, Chun Yeowun was like a little kid.
He couldn’t understand why Peng Neung-gyeom was so interested in him.
“You will find out soon.”
“Is that so?”
Oh-hyeon didn’t care much about those words.
But as soon as the truck pa.s.sed the front gate of the wall, the meaning was well understood.
Clank!
As soon as the gate opened and the truck entered, a number of Ghosts, which were trying to come out of the wall, rushed to the truck.
Shhh!
They moved so fast that the ones inside the truck couldn’t even see where they were coming and going.
There was no way that ordinary people could have survived.
“d.a.m.n it!”
Push!
The driver accelerated the truck to shake off Ghosts.
The road on the inside of the wall was flat, so it was easy to escape.
However.
Srrr!
The speed of Ghosts chasing the truck was too fast.
“They will catch up.”
“Everyone! Get ready!”
Srn! Srrr!
The Murim warriors in the back of the truck pulled out their weapons and induced energy into them.
“Haa!”
Slash!
They used sword energy slashes to block the Ghosts from catching up.
Thanks to that, the truck accelerated and gradually moved away from Ghosts.
“Done.”
“We lost them for now.”
The Murim warriors" faces turned a little calm.
But a problem arose.
“Eikk!”
The driver yelled.
And the Murim people looked ahead to see what happened.
“N-No…”
“Ghost!”
Many Ghosts were flying in the direction the truck was going.
At first glance, it seemed like there were hundreds of them.
Ghosts ahead and Ghosts behind.
‘W-what should I do?’
The driver was confused and turned pale when someone said.
“Keep going.”
“Sorry?”
The driver was shocked, when someone got onto the top of the bonnet of the truck.
It was Chun Yeowun.
‘W-what is he planning on doing?’
Oh-hyeon looked at the man with shocked eyes.
At that moment, Chun Yeowun stretched out his hand towards the front.
And.
Wheik!
Hundreds of flaming swords appeared around the moving truck.
Such a majesty made the fear of Ghosts forgettable.
“W-what is that?”
The eyes of the Murim warriors, including Oh-hyeon, widened at the majestic scene.