Chapter 60 – Incheon Landing Operation (2)
3.
Ggiriri!
A strange sound came from a quiet, still road.
Ggiririg!
There was a large, heavy vehicle that could easily cause the ground to tremor, the sound coming from the caterpillar tracks holding the vehicle up.
‘I’m getting gooseb.u.mps.’
‘Did tanks originally sound so scary?’
It was an eerie sound.
It wasn’t simply an uncomfortable sound.
In a battlefield, the tank was an impeccable weapon used to reach an end, and as such, it was a weapon with few options left in terms of improvements.
In other words, it was a weapon whose sound could easily drown a human in fear.
If by hearing that sound you didn’t feel a chill down your spine, then you would be a monster, not a human.
Ggirig!
The tank came to a stop, the road regained its calm.
But it wouldn’t be long before this tranquility comes to an end. As a contingent of riot police surrounded the tank, the riflemen surrounding the tank gulped, the tank making them nervous.
Gwagw.a.n.g!
At that moment, the tank’s barrel rang thunderously.
4.
Coming down from the building, Kim Yuri ran towards Ganseogogeori.
The road she was running on wasn’t someplace she could sprint.
The road was chock-full of cars and other obstacles.
“Huu!”
However, that didn’t stop Kim Yuri running without hesitation. Her movements were incredible.
Hwik!
She would jump over smaller cars in one go.
Kw.a.n.g!
As for vans, she would step and stride over them.
As for trucks, she would slide under them instead of going over.
“Wh, what’s that?”
“There’s something coming!”
Black Panther, it was the only thing that the watchguards could describe her as.
They were so surprised, they forgot what their jobs were for a moment.
“Alert! Alert!”
“Raise the flags! Raise the red flag!"
Snapping back to reality, the guards started to raise the flag they needed to.
They were using a 2002, red demon T-s.h.i.+rt as their red flag.
“Flag?”
The guards atop the high bridge over Ganseogogeori noticed the flag fluttering in the air.
“Red Alert!”
The complexion of the guards on the bridge paled.
One of them immediately picked up a loudspeaker and began to shout.
– Evacuate! Evacuate!
There were others also shouting with just their voices.
“Enter here! Everyone enter the station through here!"
Their facial expressions getting worse, they kept shouting as the situation became more hectic.
The situation degenerated.
“The kids, get the kids!”
“Escape into the buildings!”
It was worse for those near the kids.
There were people carrying kids that had started to cry, running to wherever they could find shelter.
Children that couldn’t find their caretakers or anyone else that could take them to safety ran around before falling to the floor and crying.
It was chaos.
This was what Kim Yuri was aiming for.
The situation was much too urgent for Kim Yuri to try and explain one by one, so she intentionally scared the guards into raising the alarm so that the survivors in Gangseogogeori would evacuate.
There was only one thing that she needed to yell with her voice.
“Tanks are coming! Watch out for the sh.e.l.ls!”
She shouted at the top of her lungs so that everyone on the bridge would hear.
As a soldier, she knew well. She knew what the main target of a tank driver would be if the driver had the intention of destroying the survivors’ base in mind.
“Get down from the bridge!”
Gwagw.a.n.g!
At that moment, a thundering noise pa.s.sed over the bridge.
n.o.body could react to the sound as it pa.s.sed by in an instant.
Gwaang!
They only reacted after the sh.e.l.l flew over their heads and smashed into the building behind them.
“Ahhhh!"
“Sh,sh.e.l.ls!”
Yells started to pervade spring forth from numerous places.
Gwakwakwa!
At the same time, the building that was struck by the sh.e.l.l began to spit out rubble and debris as though it were vomiting up blood.
Kwagw.a.n.g!
The tanks loaded up and shot another sh.e.l.l.
Gwaang!
Even before the panic could spread, the second bombardment struck another building.
“Uehaaaaa!”
None of the survivors of Ganseogogeori could make a clear and rational judgement.
‘d.a.m.n it!"
It was the opposite for Kim Yuri, who in this situation could maintain her cool.
She had gone through a lot and had acc.u.mulated a decent amount of battle experience.
Thanks to her time in Seoul, she knew what would happen after the tank fired a round from within the forest of buildings.
So it was only natural that she would know what decision the survivors would make.
It was in moments like this that humans would decide to place themselves over everyone else in the name of survival.
And the first thing to die because of that selfishness…….
“Waaaaaah!"
“Mommy! mommy!”
….would be the kids.
That was one of the reasons why it was so hard to find kids in areas where the monsters had swept through.
Even worse was the fact that the dead bodies of the children would often times be hard to even retrieve. The bodies of younger children were always the first to be consumed.
Kim Yuri bit her lips.
‘I have to choose.’
The situation at hand was urgent.
The tank began to spew out sh.e.l.l after sh.e.l.l, the survivors ducking into buildings for cover as the other buildings that were struck with the sh.e.l.ls began to collapse.
Of course, it wouldn’t be so easy to secure one’s own life.
It was for this reason that she prioritized herself over the survivors.
She didn’t want to get too involved.
Her life existed for the sake of the mission, not for the sake of rescuing some kids, and so as a result, she would not so easily risk her life.
Her orders weren’t suggestions, they were commands.
Now that she was here, her orders were no different from her life.
But to be fair, any sane person would do the same.
However, it was in this moment that she was worried.
Seeing Kim Tae Hoon move to save the children, Kim Yuri was conflicted.
But her concerns disappeared faster than expected.
‘He’s doing the right thing."
From what she had seen, everything that Kim Tae Hoon did generally tended to produce good results, but whenever she herself did things strictly based on what her directives outlined, she would find herself in a rut.
The results proved whose actions were correct.
Thinking that, all hesitations disappeared from Kim Yuri’s mind.
Kim Yuri once more turned into what a streak of light like a black panther and dashed towards the crying children.
Gwagw.a.n.g!
Kwagw.a.n.g!
The third and fourth shots rang out at that moment.
Ggeuaaahk!
At the same time, screams began to reverberate from where the sh.e.l.ls landed.
5.
Surrounding the K1A1 tanks were a contingent of Looters riflemen escorting the vehicles.
It wasn’t a strange sight.
Tanks were incredible weapons, but they weren’t well-suited for every scenario. Afterall, there were weapons that could trump tanks.
For example, an anti-tank rocket could penetrate the side panels of a tank and pose as a big threat.
As such, it wasn’t surprising that riflemen were escorting the tanks.
Ggwallim!
So as such, it wasn’t unexpected to find that the riflemen"s ears would ring whenever the tank fired.
“f.u.c.k, why are we only just now using such an awesome thing…… if we had used these earlier, then would we have had to bother with the skirmishes that we got into with those punks? Am I right?”
It was inevitable that an a.s.sa.s.sin would use that opportunity created by the loud roaring of the cannon.
“Huh?”
Up in a building somewhere, the guard that was talking turned his head to get an answer from his colleague.
At that moment, he laid eyes on a collapsed body with a twisted and a black fist flying towards his face.
Bbagak!
The black fist smashed a freaking crater into the man’s face.
"Keuk!”
That short grunt was the man’s last will and testament.
Having instantly overpowered the two, Kim Tae Hoon used his telekinesis to wrench the rifles out of their hands.
Catching the rifles, Kim Tae Hoon fired them into the sky.
The shots rang out over the tanks.
“It’s gunfire!"
“It’s from over there! It’s over there!”
The Looters began to swarm towards the gunshots. Kim Tae Hoon simply waited for them.
And right when they emerged…
Tutu! Tutu! Tutu!
He shot them one at a time.
It was neither difficult nor time consuming.
It was much easier for Kim Tae Hoon to simply pull the trigger on a gun as the Looters walked in one by one. Compared to making an arrow or a sword fly through the air with Telekinesis, shooting a gun was definitely much easier.
“Ggeuk!”
The Looters who entered Kim Tae Hoon’s line of sight were lucky enough to see a short-lived display of Kim Tae Hoon’s skill.
Kim Tae Hoon could taste a bitter feeling in his mouth.
It was a bitterness far exceeding that of coffee"s.
"The worst kind of sin.’
None of the enemies he had faced since the emergence of monsters were good-natured, but ever since then, there was no enemy worse than this one.
The reason…… it was of course because of the kids.
Kim Tae Hoon had no intention of becoming a hero. n.o.body would ever doubt that Kim Tae Hoon was a murderer. It wasn’t just Kim Tae Hoon either. Those who led similar lives to that of Kim Tae Hoon were all murderers. But even for people like them, they all had lines. Lines that they wouldn’t cross.
Children was one of those lines.
Despite all of the battlefields that Kim Tae Hoon had braved through, he still wasn’t a monster that would target children.
Ggwallim!
So for all these people related to the tank, he would show no mercy.
Kim Tae Hoon unsheathed the sword on his back.
6.
One at a time, the tanks that had been firing their cannons stopped.
“Ggeuaahk!”
Screams rang out from where the gunshots had rang from.
Two men were sticking out of their tank, staring into the distance towards the direction where the screams came from.
“What is going on?”
They could audibly hear screaming from the place that the gunshots had rang from and where their comrades had flocked to.
“Hey! Hey! What’s going on!”
One of the tank operators couldn’t help but vent his frustration.
He just wanted to plop right back into the tank, shut the hatch, and start operating the tank again.
But of course, he wasn’t given the order to. There needed to be people keeping an eye on the surroundings.
It made the situation even more unbearable.
‘I’m going to go crazy.’
The tank that had once been a bastion of safety was now like their prison.
It was only natural that the tank operators’ head started to become saturated with fear.
Amidst the chaos, something fell from the sky.
Kaang!
Something fell in front of the tank located at the back.
Koong!
It was the sound of the tank’s barrel smas.h.i.+ng into the floor.
‘Huh?’
"What?’
Looking at such an unexpected scene, both tank operators drew up a blank expression.
So while the two were still dumbfounded, the man that had cut off the barrel in one stroke landed on the ground, immediately running up to the tank before jumping like a spring.
Before landing on the tank, the man swung his sword in a horizontal slash.
Swiik!
The two drivers with their upper bodies sticking out of the hatch were unfortunately in the line of fire, the sword cleanly slicing through their necks.
The man grabbed one of the bodies of the now deceased tank operators, dragging it out of the open tank hatch and tossing it off to the side.
“What the?”
Confused about what was going on, the man inside the tank couldn’t help but leak a question.
But no worries, the man with the sword, Kim Tae Hoon, swiftly replied.
Puhuhu!
Kim Tae Hoon spit out a ma.s.sive fireball into the tank.
“Ggeuuuaaaaaah!”
A bone chilling scream reverberated from inside the fiery tank interior.
“The rear! The rear!”
Hearing the screams, the tank in the front swiveled its gun around.
“Turn the barrel around!”
The long barrel rotated towards the rear.
However, once the barrel had turned around, Kim Tae Hoon had disappeared.
Koong!
Like jumping from rock to rock in a river, Kim Tae Hoon lightly leaped off the tank and landed on the one whose barrel had turned around.
Swiik!
Just like the previous time, Kim Tae Hoon cut down the two men whose bodies were exposed through the tank hatch.
Then he waited.
Kim Tae Hoon waited near the entrance of the tank with his sword floating in the air thanks to his Telekinesis.
“Wh-what’s goi……”
It wasn’t long before a man poked his head out like a mole, at which point Kim Tae Hoon promptly pulled him out by the neck.
The man’s pelvis and legs smashed into the lip of the hatch in the process. It was enough to cause bruising.
“Ggeuahk!”
So of course the man would open his mouth and scream in pain.
However, as soon as Kim Tae Hoon crushed the man’s left flank where his ribs were, the screaming died down.
“Ggeuh……”
He couldn’t breathe or scream– he had a mouth but could not.
Kim Tae Hoon tossed the man out of the tank. The man was squirming on the ground like an earthworm.
Afterwards, Kim Tae Hoon turned towards the sole remainder– the driver.
"Get out.”
7.
There were four sh.e.l.ls.
Just four.
Worst of all, the tanks did not fulfill what they had set out to do.
The sh.e.l.ls aimed at the Ganseog Elevated Bridge soared right over it and hit the buildings across the street.
However, the tanks that had set out to turn Ganseogogeori into h.e.l.l didn’t exactly fail.
“S, save……”
“There are people trapped under the rubble!”
“Waah, mommmmy… … !”
"Cough, cough!”
There were people calling for help whilst pinned under rubbles, children lost and frightened in soiled clothing crying out for their parents, and incessant coughing inside the thick cloud of dust could be heard.
In the midst of all that chaos, Kim Yuri was the only one moving about with a level head.
She moved the children to a safer area and immediately began to help the survivors.
“Put your hands up!"
What stopped her was the sound of a gun locked and loaded pointed towards her.
Kim Yuri complied. She raised both arms high into the air. She slightly bit her lips.
‘Such a stupid thing to do……’
If she had ignored the children, her own safety wouldn’t be in question as it were.
But she didn’t. She had responded to the crisis. It was clear that she did something stupid.
However, her conscience was clear.
“Father! Father!”
The man pointing the rifle towards Kim Yuri suddenly called out for a father in a loud voice.
A young man dressed in a black priest outfit made his appearance. The young man looked at Kim Yuri and asked her some questions.
“What is your name miss?”
“Answer him!”
Under his threat, Kim Yuri complied and told them of her ident.i.ty.
“My name is Kim Yuri. Sergeant First Cla.s.s of the 35th Battalion Special Forces under the command of Capital Defense Command.”
Those present were surprised to hear what she said.
On the other hand, the young man in the priest’s outfit continued to question her.
“The 35th Battalion Special Force…… then have you come to save your colleagues?”
This time, Kim Yuri was the one to be surprised.
‘By colleagues does he mean……’
However, the conversation between the two stopped.
“F-father th-there’s a person floating in the sky!”
A man ran to the side of the father while shouting.
“What?”
“A p-person is walking on air and heading towards our direction!”
“Just what kind of……”
“Th-there!”
“Huh? A p-person?”
Kim Tae Hoon had made his appearance in the sky.
Everybody looked up towards Kim Tae Hoon.
‘Ah.’
Kim Yuri could feel what Kim Tae Hoon was trying to convey with his approach.
‘This is how you create an effect.’
Kim Tae Hoon, the b.a.s.t.a.r.d really looked like a savior now.