Chapter 49 – Flame Spitting Crocodile (2)
4.
December 31, 2016, was the first day that humanity faced off against monsters.
Humanity was lost.
Not only did the monsters turn out to be much stronger than they had expected, but were very clever as well.
It was the same with Kim Tae Hoon. He had paid a painful price to come to that realization whilst fighting the Black Snake.
He didn’t know that the Black Snake would be so strong, he didn’t know that the Black Snake would be so smart, and he definitely didn’t know that fighting it with nothing but The Sword of the Commander and Telekinesis should have been, by all accounts, a death sentence.
And the result?
He had danced with death.
Apparently, Lady Luck had been smiling upon him, otherwise how is that he came out of that fight alive? The entire fight from beginning to end was a mess.
He had no intention of making the same mistake this time against the Flame Spitting Crocodile.
‘I need to make thorough preparations for this.’
And so he studied the beast. Since he couldn’t just go and dissect the Flame Spitting Crocodile, Kim Tae Hoon needed to thoroughly inspect its habitat, behavioral patterns, and its worm-like physical structure.
"I need a new manual.’
At the same time…
He was in need of instructions on how to utilize better his Telekinesis.
Merely being able to control weapons with his Telekinesis was not enough.
He needed something more.
Kim Tae Hoon needed to make theory into reality. There were limitless ways he could utilize Telekinesis, and it had long since become time to explore his ability.
But time was limited, so he could only choose one or the other.
‘We have enough firepower. We just need to come up with ways to effectively utilize our equipment.’
The solution Kim Tae Hoon picked in the end…
‘If we could fly through the air, it would be no different from an attack helicopter. There would be no movement constraints.’
Levitation.
If Kim Tae Hoon were to fly around with the equipment retrieved from the ammunitions company and the 17th Division’s subdivision arms supply warehouse, he wouldn’t be too different from an attack helicopter.
It wouldn’t be an easy task.
If it was, he would have already attempted to do so with his Telekinesis at will.
"I’ll figure it out somehow.’
There was no other choice.
If he can accomplish it, he’ll survive, but if not, then he’ll die.
But Kim Tae Hoon would manage to do it.
Pushyu!
With that, Kim Tae Hoon stepped onto the sky and pulled the trigger on his Panzerfaust 3.
5.
The purpose of an anti-tank rocket isn’t to decimate a tank.
It’s possible to mount a larger anti-tank rocket to a combat helicopter, but you wouldn’t expect something of that caliber to be carried around by the infantry.
Afterall, a tank isn’t just a moving lump of iron. It’s like a small fortress. If even the infantry could carry around a weapon with enough firepower to completely destroy a moving fortress, then no country would invest money into manufacturing a tank worth five million dollars.
Therefore, anti-tank rockets emphasized penetration over destruction.
When combating a tank, the priority lies within punching holes into its insanely thick armor plating.
The Panzerfaust 3 was like a swordfish’s bladed snout, whose purpose was to punch through a tank’s armor.
Pushyu!
The sh.e.l.ls propelled through the air. A screeching of the wind was left behind in its wake.
The target, the Flame Spitting Crocodile!
Keuro?
It was only after the elongated, pointed end of the sh.e.l.l nearly reached the crocodile that it noticed the projectile flying towards him.
Gwagwagw.a.n.g!
A loud explosion immediately rang out.
It wasn’t just an explosion.
The force of the explosion was concentrated at the tip of the explosive. Like the point of impact on a water hydraulic cutter, it penetrated right through the Flame Spitting Crocodile’s thick, leathery skin.
Kaaaah!
The crocodile’s screams resounded throughout the area.
Watching the scene with bated breath, a small smile broke out on Kim Tae Hoon’s face.
‘I can’t even laugh."
It was obviously a serious injury.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to sentence it to death.
The scream it had let out for just mere moments before was proof enough. It was far from a death throe, and was nothing but a venting of its pain.
‘Even after the rpg penetrated through its armor, it still survived…….’
Kim Tae Hoon, having handled modern weaponry in the past and had launched a Panzerfaust against other people before, he had a good understanding of the power behind the blast.
However, he couldn’t stay bitter for long.
He was not disappointed.
Holding the Panzerfaust in his right hand, he retrieved a grenade from his belt and juggled it with his left hand.
Ting!
The safety clip launched off the grenade on its own before the pin soon followed suit.
With its mouth open and writhing in pain, Kim Tae Hoon chucked the grenade into the Flame Spitting Crocodile’s mouth.
‘I have to move as soon as I hear the explosion.’
Kim Tae Hoon said to himself. He was waiting for the signal, which, in this case, was the soon-to-be-heard crocodile’s screams.
Kw.a.n.g!
It was long before he heard the antic.i.p.ated explosion.
6.
Bureureung!
The vehicles transporting the artillery that had been frozen as a result of exposure to Fear began to move once more along the cleanly maintained roads.
Koong koong koong koong!
The Crocodile Wolves began to mindlessly run after the retreating vehicles.
Kaaah! Ka!
Sensing something, some of the Crocodile Wolves broke off from the rest of the mob and turned towards a dilapidated building off to the side of the road.
The Crocodile Wolves had sensed the presence of the soldiers who had stayed behind and had set down claymores in a bid for time.
The first crocs to encounter them were the ones that first entered the building.
Poohoohoo!
An Awakened let loose a huge flame from his mouth.
Hwareureu!
The flaming ball of death sweepingly engulfed two Crocodile Wolves rus.h.i.+ng through the door without notice.
Kyaaaa!
The two Crocodile Wolves screamed as the flames stuck to their flesh and threatened to consume them.
The pain didn’t just stop there.
“Throw it!”
At the same moment the Awakened who had spit flames from his mouth twisted his body and dodged out of the way, two water balloons flew towards him from a distance.
Cheulpik!
The flying water balloons struck the Crocodile Wolves’ bodies, the contents of the balloons showering the crocodiles.
Hwareeeeeuuuuu!
The sudden flaring of the flames was telling of the contents of the water balloon. It was clearly not water that was inside the balloons.
It was lighter fluid.
The lighter fluid in the water balloons made the flames on the crocodiles’ bodies roar.
Kaaah!
While the two crocs panicked at the entrance, another crocodile appeared.
However, that crocodile died the most gruesome death of the three.
Kwajik!
Like a bolt of lightning, a hammer shattered its skull.
“Alright!”
The man who had destroyed the crocodile’s head was none other than Bang Hyun Wook.
Aside from Kim Tae Hoon, Bang Hyun Wook held the highest rank in the Mek Guild, and was the first to free himself from the shackles of the Flame Spitting Crocodile’s Fear.
In fact, by fighting against the Fear with his Energy, his entire body was at its peak.
It was as though he were drunk on medication.
But above all, there was no hesitation in Bang Hyun Wook’s eyes.
“Draw! Draw! Let’s leave our mark here in the new world! Draw!”
A complete absence of hesitation.
It wasn’t just Bang Hyun Wook as well.
In that building by the side of the road were a number of Awakened, ready to wage war against the crocodiles.
Not a single speck of hesitation could be found in their eyes.
Of course, they had a reason.
“Fire! Don’t worry about wasting, just fire!”
“Keep firing!”
For one, they had a powerful weapon known as the rifle.
“Whichever ones you kill are all yours to loot! Even if it’s just one more, kill them!”
“There’s an orange-eyed one over here!”
They also had permission to claim whichever ones they killed.
But without a doubt, the biggest reason was something else.
“Oh my G.o.d!”
“What’s wrong?"
“I-it collapsed!”
It was the fact that Kim Tae Hoon was here.
The squads here had no choice but to win.
7.
The Panzerfaust had left a glaring wound on the Flame Spitting Crocodile’s back.
Kaaaah!
So it was only natural that the Flame Spitting Crocodile would scream.
A loud roar not for the purpose of inflicting Fear, but out of pure pain.
Before long, its roar started to turn to one of anger, then to one intended to inflict Fear.
Teubsuk!
A grenade suddenly appeared, flying towards the Flame Spitting Crocodile’s snout, entering its mouth. There was an explosion.
Kw.a.n.g!
The sound of the explosion was m.u.f.fled. Which made the situation even creepier. The true intensity of the explosion was lost within the crocodile’s body.
The explosion robbed the crocodile of its voice.
It also put the Flame Spitting Crocodile in a daze, making it unable to reason properly.
Its head was throbbing with an intense headache, its brain was in a daze, and all of its senses were overloaded by the intense sound and shock brought about by the grenade. In short, it fell into a panic. It was impossible to try and think clearly in such a situation.
At that moment, the Flame pitting Crocodile lowered its posture and crouched its body.
Like an armadillo.
It was the only thing it could do if it wanted to maximize its own survival.
That was the only reason why it did so.
"As expected.’
That was also the reason why Kim Tae Hoon had injured its back.
If it was a human, you could say that he had aimed for the crocodile’s shoulder blades.
‘Even the Flame Spitting Crocodile would react the same way.’
He had confirmed against the Crocodile Wolves a few times now. What does the monster known as the Crocodile Wolf do when it finds itself in a life threatening situation? What kind of instinctive action does it take when taking on a serious injury.
He knew that when injured by a sneak attack, it would go as low as it can.
Therefore, he injured its back.
By lowering its posture, the injury on its back would stand out.
So as a result, he would be able to figure out where the beast’s heart was located.
Beyond that open wound would be a beating heart.
It would be beating more and more violently, as a direct response to the situation it was in.
A sword, like a bolt of lightning, flew towards the beast in a bid to stop its heart.
8.
“The creature has fallen! The boss has done it!”
A soldier with a radio receiver in his hand said to Chang Sung Hoon with a smile on his face.
However, Chang Sung Hoon didn’t smile after hearing the report.
Instead, he told the soldier.
“Work towards clearing the area and controlling the situation. Organize a few search parties to seek out any surviving pockets of monsters and count the number of casualties. Send whoever needs medical attention to the hospital.”
“Yes sir!”
In the midst of giving out his commands, he couldn’t help but recall the rank on his uniform.
Corporal.
That was his rank. A real soldier. And to be quite frank, there was almost no real difference between the other ranks.
However, the Mek Guild wasn’t an army.
Because even considering that, it was clear that Chang Sung Hoon was the one who was in command at the moment.
‘This is why powerless humans look forward to the onset of war. Those who’ve lived their lives like peasants before the war can suddenly become a general by the time the war ends.’
It wasn’t even funny how fast it could happen.
Chang Sung Hoon’s face hardened.
Any sort of rank was good. The important part, however, was that Chang Sung Hoon was now serving as a staff member.
Packaged in with his new role as a staff member was the responsibility of settling the aftermath of the battle, which left him no time to cheer for victory.
‘Looks like boss has become an unimaginable monster. He aimed and shot an anti-tank Panzerfaust 3 and then chucked a grenade all while levitating in the air…… apache helicopter, he’s literally just an apache helicopter.’
To be quite honest, he thought that this would be an extremely difficult battle.
Although he was equipped with firepower that was incomparable to when he had fought against the Black Snake, the fact that his opponent this time was leading hundreds of other monsters could not be ignored.
On top of that, a monster’s Fear ability was very intimidating.
Even if you were able to deploy powerful firepower, everything becomes useless the moment you are exposed to Fear.
A squad consisting of ordinary people was like a feeble candle in front of a monster’s Fear.
"Well, it’s nice that it was resolved too easily.’
But in the end, the battle ended really easily.
Although the success could be attributed to the extensive amount of preparation, but ultimately, it was because of Kim Tae Hoon.
Kim Tae Hoon had absorbed the experience and lessons from when he fought the Black Snake.
‘As expected, he was amazing.’
He would only get stronger from today. He’ll consume the monster stone from the Flame Spitting Crocodile and gain new powers.
Furthermore, it was the route that Kim Tae Hoon had chosen to better survive.
As a result, it was easy for Chang Sung Hoon to guess what Kim Tae Hoon’s next course of action would be.
‘But other than that, did he say he was Kim Hyun Seouk?’
Kim Hyun Seouk.
Hearing about Kim Tae Hoon was like divine intervention– a heavenly sign indicating to him the path of survival. He had promptly dropped the cup ramen in his hand and left behind the instant rice he had been preparing and left Gw.a.n.gmyeong City.
And out of everything he had revealed, there was one crucial bit of information.
‘There’s a facility in Gw.a.n.gmyeong City designed to make components for solar power generation.’
There was a fairly large factory that produced solar power components in Gw.a.n.gmyeong City.
The general public was not privy to his information. An ordinary person wouldn’t be interested in such a thing.
So naturally, Kim Tae Hoon and Chang Sung Hoon didn’t know either. And none of the survivors knew either.
‘They’ll need to capture it no matter what.’
Therefore, it was an essential information. It was information that could change the fate of the Mek Guild and all of the survivors under it.
There was no way to advance society without electricity.
On top of that, quality of life and life expectancy would go up if they could maintain a sustainable source of electricity.
Therefore, Kim Tae Hoon’s next objective would be to secure the solar power plant.
‘We must secure the facility unconditionally…… but that guy will be a problem.’
The problem was the existence of a green ranked monster in Gw.a.n.gmyeong City.
Quite frankly, if it were up to Chang Sung Hoon, he would choose not to go there.
To enter the lair of a monster whose exact power was unknown and whose strength was most likely incomparable to the other monsters they had faced thus far was tantamount to suicide.
But regardless of that, Kim Tae Hoon would go.
It’s because he knew. He knew that he couldn’t sit still with his eyes closed and wait for the danger to come to him.
‘So this is what it feels like to have Superman as your boss.’
Chang Sung Hoon stretched his neck before fis.h.i.+ng out Daedongyeojido and laying it out before him. He carefully observed the Gw.a.n.gmyeong City area.
“Huh?”
Breaking out into a cold sweat, a frigid tingle ran down Chang Sung Hoon’s spine.
"Wh, where did it go?”