Ubermensch – Chapter 74

Chapter 74

Battles continued every three days.

Depending on the situation, joint operations with other raid teams became more frequent.

And as they did, they gradually got to know the others a little better.

“Gatling Vulcan! Ready to fire!”

On the day they decided to cooperate with Engineering Engineering Engineering, they brought a massive Gatling gun.

“…What’s that?”

“It’s our Engineering Engineering Engineering’s secret core heavy weapon, the Gatling Vulcan.”

Han Areum looked at the Gatling Vulcan with a proud expression.

“It boasts five times the firepower of a standard-issue core ray gun.”

“How many people operate it?”

“…Five ranged dealers.”

“If five people shoot and the firepower is five times, isn’t that meaningless…?”

“…”

Han Areum made a sullen face, and upon seeing that, the members of Engineering Engineering Engineering flared up and began to argue with Mason.

“Do you know how much effort we put into creating a structure that combines and separates five beam rifles?!”

“Get rid of your prejudiced view that belittles technological development by only looking at the results!”

“Apologize! Apologize to our Areum!”

Mason was bewildered by their intense reaction.

“So, sorry…”

He apologized first and then tilted his head.

‘Where are they angry about…?’

They were too complicated for Mason to understand.

Compared to them, the Mage Corps were easier to understand.

“Raid Leader Mason.”

“Raid Leader Simon.”

Simon Magus bowed politely, and Mason bowed back. Simon Magus was a dignified old man with a deep voice and polite manners.

‘If I were to age, I’d like to age like this.’

Of course, aging wouldn’t happen to Mason, a modified human.

It was during a meeting about battles and tactics.

Ding!

Simon Magus’ cell phone rang, and he said in a polite voice,

“Raid Leader Mason, would it be alright to end the meeting here today?”

“Well, we’ve finished all the important talk…”

Simon Magus nodded and started looking at something on his cell phone.

Purely out of curiosity, Mason peeked over Simon Magus’ shoulder.

“…”

There was a beautiful woman in a low-cut dress flirting.

<Chairman Oppa!>

Simon Magus manipulated the phone screen with a pleased expression.

-Bam bam! Simon-nim has sent 1,000 Moon Balloons!

Mason looked at Simon Magus.

“…”

His face looked happier than anyone else’s at any other time.

Mason made a wry face.

‘I shouldn’t age like this.’

Even while they were fostering camaraderie, battles continued every day.

More and more monsters began to mix into the goblin waves.

However, there were still zero casualties. They were perfectly blocking them without any damage.

Tactical cooperation, strategic movements, and so on.

The speed at which the enemy’s difficulty increased was slower than the speed at which the allies’ combat abilities increased.

‘Seo Yeonhee…’

And Seo Yeonhee played a big role in that tactical cooperation.

She looked at the distribution of enemies and allocated the allies’ forces, especially placing and moving Mason, the allies’ greatest power, to the right place at the right time.

Even the raid leaders, who were experienced commanders, were impressed by her flawless command ability.

‘We can do it.’

Standing by the Han River, Mason felt heat rising in his chest. They could do it. They could pull it off. They could kill the enemies, protect the bridge, protect their allies, and endure the winter.

Mason looked into the darkness.

Where he was standing now was south of the Han River. It was the land of humanity and a place overflowing with brilliant lights.

The north of the Han River was as black as ink.

No matter what popped out of it, the forces of light could stop them.

No.

He believed so.

That must be why.

Flash.

The eyes lurking in the darkness.

He didn’t notice the eyes full of murderous intent, staring at him.

“Kerrr륵…”

Disaster was approaching.

๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑

It was during the battle on the 37th day that he felt something was amiss.

‘Something has changed.’

Mason’s unique instincts sensed something was wrong before his reason did. Mason slowly began to think rationally.

‘What is it? What’s changed?’

With an anxious expression, Mason looked at Andrei, who was fighting beside him.

“Andrei, don’t you think something’s strange?”

“I was just about to say that to the boss.”

Andrei also had a strangely anxious expression. His experience seemed to have caught on to the fact that something was strange.

“Something… something’s a bit too easy?”

Mason contacted Seo Yeonhee.

“Seo Yeonhee.”

<Yes, Mason.>

“I don’t know what it is, but something’s strange. Look at the data.”

<Alright.>

A moment later, Seo Yeonhee resumed communication.

<The wave ratio is strange.>

“In what sense?”

<There are fewer monsters other than goblins.>

Mason finally realized it.

‘No wonder it felt easy.’

The Han River defense was getting a little more difficult every day. It wasn’t that the goblins were getting stronger, but that there were more and more monsters other than goblins.

In fact, the difficulty of the waves depended on the monsters other than goblins. Especially on the presence or absence of boss monsters or raid boss monsters.

Since the number of such irregulars had decreased, the fight was bound to become easier.

“Is it just us?”

<Yes, the monster ratio at the other two bridges is not much different from before.>

“Is that so…?”

Mason made a suspicious face and looked at Andrei.

“Is it just a coincidence?”

“I guess we have to see it that way for now?”

However, both veteran warriors knew.

Coincidence or not, it wouldn’t hurt to be careful.

But the problem was… in this case, they didn’t know what to be careful about or how.

“Seo Yeonhee, if you catch anything in the data, let me know right away.”

<Alright.>

Mason crushed and smashed the goblins. As if trying to shake off the uneasy feeling.

‘Something is happening.’

However, the uneasiness didn’t disappear.

‘What is it?’

That’s when it happened.

Thud!

“Ugh!”

Behind Mason, he heard someone scream.

“…!”

Mason reflexively turned around.

It was Jin Uiun, a warrior wearing light armor.

A stake as thick as a human leg was piercing his abdomen.

‘That stake…!’

He had seen it before. A smaller, thinner version, but he had seen it enough to be sick of it.

‘Scar’s subordinate, the Giant Hedgehog!’

Across the Han River, on the rooftop of a building, it was looking this way. The Giant Hedgehog, a monster that looked like a hedgehog on steroids.

‘Did it snipe from across the Han River?’

The Seongsan Bridge was 1,410 meters long. Almost 1.5 kilometers. To shoot a spine from that distance and take down a player in one shot.

It was already at the boss monster level before, but now it was clearly stronger.

Mason quickly blocked Jin Uiun and shouted,

“Move Jin Uiun to the rear!”

“Yes!”

But the enemy wasn’t going to just stand and watch. The Giant Hedgehog shot another spine.

Whee!

A trajectory aimed precisely at Jin Uiun.

Mason threw himself and took the spine with his chest armor.

Clang!

The spine failed to penetrate Mason’s chest armor and bounced off. No matter how big the Giant Hedgehog was, it wasn’t strong enough to pierce a tanker from over a kilometer away.

“Masika!”

<Yes!>

As Mason shouted, Masika and the ranged dealers opened fire.

The Revengers, no, the Under Dark Legion’s ranged dealer lineup boasted the best marksmen in Korea. They were elite ranged dealers, with 2-kilometer sniping being their basic skill.

Beams bombarded the Giant Hedgehog in an instant.

Then, the Giant Hedgehog jumped down and moved to the rooftop of another, lower building.

At the same time, it shot another spine.

Thud!

<Aah!>

A scream came through the radio. Mason gritted his teeth and shouted,

“What happened?!”

<He’s dead! It’s a countersnipe!>

Unlike bullets, beams had a clear trajectory.

The Giant Hedgehog had figured out the firing positions of the ranged dealers by looking at the beam trajectories and then countersniped a ranged dealer.

Unlike Jin Uiun, who was at least wearing light armor, ranged dealers were a class with almost no defense. Especially Masika’s snipers, who specialized in long-range phalanx tactics, were among the ranged dealers with the weakest defense.

So they had lost their lives from a single spine shot.

“Damn it!”

The Giant Hedgehog was one of Scar’s lieutenants. It was an enemy skilled in ‘how to deal with humans’.

It was enough that it ‘understood’ that there were tough enemies and softer enemies.

All it needed to become a deadly sniper was!

‘I have to do something about it.’

Mason clenched his teeth.

๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑๑ஓ๑

That day’s battle ended with one seriously injured and one dead.

The Giant Hedgehog, after the goblins were all but wiped out, retreated from the battlefield without hesitation, leaving a mixture of relief and immense anxiety.

“That guy, he’ll come again, right…?”

“He’ll come again…”

“Damn it.”

That night, a raid leaders’ meeting was held, including Seo Yeonhee and Oh Junghee.

Everyone, hearing about the Giant Hedgehog’s tactical movements, couldn’t hide their tension and anxiety.

“Scar’s remnants. A troublesome enemy.”

It wasn’t that there were no monsters that attacked from a distance. However, they tended to aim at enemies that were close rather than far away. It was an instinctive movement.

Because of that, they usually ended up being slaughtered after firing meaningless shots at the tankers.

But the Giant Hedgehog was the opposite. It was aiming for the most efficient enemy. It was an intelligent enemy.

“I will designate it as a boss monster-level special monster ‘Needle’.”

Oh Junghee said calmly.

“If you need any support for the subjugation of Needle, please don’t hesitate to ask…”

“Yes, thank you.”

But first, it was time for the players to put their heads together.

“Is countersniping difficult?”

“We tried, but failed.”

Mason shook his head at Han Areum’s question.

“It has a high-level boss monster-level barrier and durability. It’s impossible to kill it with one or two beams.”

“What about engaging in a firefight?”

“It changes its position every time it fires a shot. And it’s even learned how to retreat when it’s at a disadvantage.”

Needle was using the goblin wave as a shield. They couldn’t get close to Needle until they killed all the goblins.

The problem was that it retreated without hesitation when the number of goblins decreased.

Then Jang Geun-uk spoke up.

“Then how about sending a kill team?”

Oh Junghee, who had been listening quietly, opened her mouth.

“If you can secure air superiority, we can prepare a helicopter.”

“You’re saying prepare a helicopter, meaning you’re going to drop it in the middle of the goblin wave, right?”

“Yes.”

Oh Junghee answered curtly.

Seo Yeonhee spoke up instead.

“Let’s send Mason. We’ll transport him there by helicopter…”

“…And you want him to carve his own way back through the enemy lines?”

“Yes.”

She was telling him to jump into the middle of a massive army of monsters alone and bring back the enemy commander’s head.

Jang Geun-uk frowned.

“That’s crazy. That’s suicide.”

Suicide. It was literally that.

Getting there was one thing, but he had to be prepared to fight his way back from the edge of the enemy lines to the allied camp, through tens of thousands of monsters. Even for Mason, a superhuman, survival couldn’t be guaranteed.

“That’s a good idea.”

So Mason smiled.

Who would expect such a crazy move?

“Prepare it right away.”