Chapter 238: Dangerous Choice – 1
#1
Along with the catastrophic disaster of the Gold Dragon in downtown Los Angeles, what happened in the colonies had also spread around the world. The total number of missing persons and deaths found has reached nearly 4,000. Considering the recent trend of stabilizing the monster damages in the US, this was one of the biggest damages that they had in recent years.
But the United States did not come up with a solution…
While it’s not perfect, everyone expected that they should be able to track that monster. They mobilized hundreds of drones in addition to the Oracle system, however, the dragon was very difficult to trace because of its teleportation skills. Of course, it’s hard, but not impossible, and they were constantly following the dragon’s tracks. The only thing that they haven’t done was to attack it.
One of the main reasons was its behavior. Dragons do not set their nest like the monsters that everyone knew and spread around, terrorizing every place they go.
Their raids have defeated at least a Tier 11 monster. They’ve gathered all the possible hunters at their disposal but they could still not trace that dragon.
The second reason was that the dragon is an 11-tier aerial monster.
In cases where they caught the sight of the monster, the National Guard would summon its mobile fighters and helicopters, but they were no match against it.
Rather, the missiles they launched fell into the center of the city, producing greater damage.
The third and final reason was that the battle took place in LA, the center of American industry.
They had no safe zones to work with since the attacks had caused ma.s.s panic.
Some people may compare this catastrophe to that of the Ogamus.h.i.+, which occurred in downtown Tokyo, but not all of Tokyo’s citizens had to be evacuated at that time. There were talks of evacuating the entire population of Los Angeles, and the US stocks crashed.
The media has shown that the Gold Dragon was moving towards Las Vegas. Many monster scholars have made a lot of predictions about this move, the most credible of which was that there was something on the Las Vegas side that attracts the Gold Dragon.
Based on traditional fantasy or medieval mythology, they speculated that it was a gold dragon’s egg nested somewhere, or some precious metal such as gold. The citizens of Las Vegas were frightened and were ready to evacuate, saying that dragons could do something different than what they did in LA.
Of course, if you ask the Gold Dragon L why she’s going to Las Vegas, she’ll say just one word.
“It’s shopping. shopping.”
To pinpoint L’s current reasons, she was condemning humans while shopping and touring.
Somehow, she was more focused on shopping than the original purpose of human condemnation, but dragons rarely act as they originally intend. A variety of wonders made by humans aroused the curiosity of the dragon.
At first, it was a purpose for refilling the cigarettes that Baeklin left long ago. L was surprised with the variety and the incomparable quality of tobacco to that of Korea. There were so many fascinating objects to explore. L chose her destination to Las Vegas, the Sin City through the recommendation of a shopkeeper.
“Ah, so annoying.”
People were reluctant to go to the streets because the Gold Dragon could turn into a human, and L became uncomfortable wandering around as a human polymorph. She could wander around in the body of the Gold Dragon, but then, she would not be able to shop at the human scale.
‘Change to be transparent.’
Avoiding the eyes of flies over her head with a simple verbal word, L walked into a fairly large mall nearby.
“Oh…”
Originally, there was also the habit of dragons to like beautiful and s.h.i.+ny things, and the luxury storefronts on the first floor, which can never be found in Elus, excited L’s eyes. In particular, what caught her eye were various precious metals and cosmetics corners.
Dragons don’t necessarily identify as male or female, but L had the basic nature of a female body. The egg of Red Dragon, which plays the role of an evil G.o.d in Elus, took on a masculine personality so she naturally took on the role of feminine G.o.d. Hence, she also liked to decorate.
Precious metals were originally L’s interest, but the human cosmetics that had developed over hundreds of years were enough to steal her heart.
“Along with Baeklin, humans are useful too.”
There were similar things in Elus but compared to what’s in front of her now, she considered what she had on the other side primitive.
L was considering a very productive idea of kidnapping a few humans who can make this kind of thing while she was walking around the mall.
“Are you here already? I need to wipe it away.”
As she clasped her hands over her head, everyone fell on the floor like a broken doll. They didn’t die, they all just fell into a deep sleep.
“Lalala …”
Originally the idea was to kill all the humans in this store and then take everything, but she found some nice stuff and felt good, so she just let them faint as a way of providing mercy. With a satisfying smile at her mouth, she waved once again, and everything inside the store floated up in the air as if something invisible was carrying them.
As L opened a huge subs.p.a.ce, the objects gathered into it.
After completing a satisfactory ‘shopping’ trip, L closed the subs.p.a.ce and left the mall lightly.
“Prepare for the flight attack.”
“Roger that.”
The squad leader commanding the attack helicopters hovering behind the building, mainly in the mall, said while swallowing his dry saliva. He wanted to pour missiles into the building, but the only thing that he could do at the moment was wait for the dragon to come out.
“Squadron leader, by the way, if you are a monster who can do shopping, isn’t there enough room for dialogue? She looked so pretty in the picture…” One flight member gave his opinion, but what follows is the flight leader’s yell.
“Play the bulls.h.i.+t later. It’s a monster that killed thousands of humans already!”
Of course, as the squadron said, it was incredibly pretty, but it’s just another terrible monster that was hundreds of meters big. And now… the monster was quietly flapping its wings behind his helicopter.
“6 o’clock! 6 o’clock!”
The co-pilot, who discovered the dragon rather late, shouted, as the dragon’s giant paws had broken the helicopter’s rotor like branches. Without saying what the flight commander had to say, the dragon grabbed the helicopter with the forefoot on the other side to pick off the missile sitting at its base before throwing it on the other helicopter at its side.
*Kkwala Laak!*
The sound of the explosions of helicopter was followed by the dragon’s cry as if it was fun.
#2
“The Archery Master? …”
“They don’t have enough information about the Gold Dragon and can’t do a raid right now.”
“Argg…”
At the response, the US president shut his mouth with a sorrowful look.
He felt like just pus.h.i.+ng the raid to go in with all the means he can, but the raid was based on thorough information gathering and combat simulation. He couldn’t say much about their lack of raw information.
In addition, the influence of the Master Archer surpa.s.sed the president of the United States. Unless there was a means to negotiate, he couldn’t do anything.
But he had to something more than just waiting. Just a little while ago, his two squadrons were wiped out by that dragon.
“See if we could appeal to their public media.”
“Yes, sir.”
The public opinion in Korea was like a pile of dry logs. If he could give it a little spark, it would burn well on its own.
He figured this would be of some good pressure and called for the Secretary-General of the US Hunter Secretariat, Jean Tefman.
“Did you call them already?”
“What happened to the Phoenix raid and Berserker raid?” The president asked as Tefman moved in.
“I have cancelled my old raid schedule. I will prepare a new raid as soon as I arrive. ”
“Is that enough?”
“We’ve recently replaced the equipment, so the overall power has increased significantly. I heard you raided a tier 9 monster in Arizona this time. If you cooperate with the military, I think you can do this without any difficulty,” Jean Tefman confidently spoke, but the president’s face didn’t get better.
“It is possible? Do you know what will happen if you fail? The experts said that if we were just going to watch the Gold Dragon destroy everything, we might as well drop a nuclear bomb in LA in an attempt to stop it.”
“The raid should not be premised on failure.”
“Hey, you must misunderstand me. I am saying that you should not consider failure after taking this challenge.
Looking at the screaming president, Tefman swore to the Master Archer internally.
This was all his fault. In the past in similar situations, they were tolerant of some inevitable sacrifices but after the appearance of Jaehw.a.n.g, the people’s standards were raised. As they easily raided the high-level monsters, the word “sacrifice” faded at some point in people’s minds.
As a result, his position also lost a bit of its authority.
Formerly the Secretary-General of the US Hunter Secretariat, no one could ignore him but now, all everyone was talking about was Jaehw.a.n.g.
Of course, he was not dismissing his ability. He raided a lot of Tier 9 monsters in the United States, and his country was able to recover because of that.
He himself has gained a lot…
The Master Archer did not take the credit of hunting Tier 9 monsters for himself. He also held a joint raid with the Phoenix raid and the Berserker raid and acknowledged their stake. Although he actually raids a 9-tier monster alone, he acknowledged the other raids’ contribution in terms of dealing with other monsters.
So technically he was their hero, but the following statement from the US president ruined his pride.
“Stop preparing raids for Phoenix and Berserker raids and dispatch Emperor and Thor to Korea.”
“Excuse me?”
“I heard that they are acquainted with the Master Archer. It’s better to send them as amba.s.sadors and encourage them to raid the Gold Dragon as soon as possible.”
‘This guy and that guy… everyone is about that archer…’ Jean Tefman clenched his fist at the president’s words.
At that moment, he decided to use it.
“President Sir.”
“Yes?”
“There is a way to solve that Gold Dragon predicament even without that archer.”
The President’s eyes widened at his words. It wasn’t a good idea to wait for the Archer anyway, so Tefman’s words attracted the president.
“What do you mean?”
“In fact, there’s a project that the US Secretariat has secretly pursued by the US government’s Secret Research Inst.i.tute.”
“A secret project?”
“Yes. It’s still experimental, but I’m sure that it’s strong.”
There may be one or two secret studies that the United States cannot reveal to the outside world, but the President has not heard that a means to fight against an immense monster was being studied.
“What is it?”
Jean Tefman, when asked by the president, began to explain it with a firm look.
In fact, it was a bit of an impulsive talk. If exposed to the outside, it would be hard to justify its unethical means, but he decided that his beloved United States should no longer depend on the hunters of a small East Asian nation.
The president, who listened to everything Tefman said, said with a serious look, “Are there means to control it?”
“Yes, we have enough.”
In response to Jean Tefman’s response, the president sat down for a while to contemplate.
If what he said was certain, it might be possible to conquer not only that Gold Dragon but also Elus and even the Dark Earth. The president made up his mind and said, “Good. Run it.”
“Yes!”