Chapter 397

Team Leader Choi—or rather, Choi Minwoo—thought,

What should I do?

His heart pounded wildly, but his mind was ice-cold.

Only thirty minutes had passed since the battle began. The hastily constructed defensive line had collapsed the instant the fighting started, then been torn apart as the highest-grade monsters slipped through the gaps and ran rampant without meeting any resistance.

Just like now.

Crunch!

Sharp fangs tore savagely into a human throat.

The Lycanthrope tossed aside the Hunter, whose last breath escaped in a wheeze, and let out a roar.

—Awooooooo!

Those became the Lycanthrope’s final words.

Whoosh! Slash!

Its gray fur turned red as its body toppled sideways. Choi Minwoo took its head off with a clean strike, then bent backward without a moment to catch his breath.

Whoooooom! Crack!

The blow missed him by a handspan.¹

An ax blade rippling with ominous magical power grazed past Choi Minwoo and smashed the heads of two nearby Orcs.

The headless knight, a Dullahan, attacked the human in front of it without the slightest hesitation, despite having killed fellow monsters.

Swoooooosh! Slash!

—Krrk!

“Guh!”

As the enormous halberd swept back and forth, the humans and monsters caught within its reach were hacked to pieces.

A Dullahan was an A-rank monster that required three Hunters of the same rank to handle safely.

But Choi Minwoo slipped past its attack and thrust out his sword without hesitation.

Now!

A short exhalation.

Then a strike like a flash of light.

Thud!

The blade, enchanted with three different spells and forged by a Master Artisan, pierced the Dullahan through the shoulder.

It might not feel pain, having already died once and become undead, but its body was still human.

The muscles and tendons in its right arm were severed, and the halberd dropped heavily to the ground. Choi Minwoo did not miss the opening.

Shhhhhk!

A white blade of aura cleaved the Dullahan in half at the waist. It must not have been dead for long, because rotten blood sprayed from its collapsing body and splattered across Choi Minwoo’s face.

But despite the overpowering stench stabbing at his nose, he did not so much as twitch an eyebrow.

Choi Minwoo was gripped by the tension of the battlefield, cold reason, and a faint exhilaration.

That makes ten.

That was how many A-rank monsters Choi Minwoo had defeated by himself today. Including those of lower grades, the number had to be well over fifty.

Was I always this strong?

If he answered that question honestly, the answer was no.

Perhaps because of the Arch Lich’s influence, the monsters he had encountered in China were slightly stronger and far more ferocious.

Even so, Choi Minwoo had been able to distinguish himself in such a chaotic battle because he had been blessed with two strokes of luck.

The first was—

The Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique.

The Mana Cultivation Method he had learned directly from Jin Taekyung.

Choi Minwoo had his doubts about Jin Taekyung’s claim that it was a family heirloom passed down through generations. But he had no doubt whatsoever that it was an outstanding secret technique.

The Jin Family’s Cultivation Technique allowed him to control his energy reliably while greatly improving how he distributed his strength. The immense mana he had gained while learning it also gave him the stamina to keep fighting without tiring easily.

And his second stroke of luck was—

—Gwoooooar!

Boom!

A length of rebar swung with berserk force and smashed through the concrete road.

Choi Minwoo stepped on the ogre’s thick arm and sprang upward, bringing his sword down with all his strength.

Thrust!

The aura-infused blade split the ogre’s crown as easily as tofu.

Thud.

The four-meter² giant dropped to its knees with a heavy crash. Standing on the dead creature’s shoulder, Choi Minwoo quickly swept his gaze over his surroundings.

He’s not here.

Screams and death filled the hellish scene on every side.

But the monster was nowhere to be seen. The monster who had displayed unbelievable power the moment the battle began—the commander of the monster army and leader of the Death Knights.

Where the hell is he?

Choi Minwoo clearly remembered the Black Knight sweeping aside dozens of Hunters with a single blow.

If the creature had truly committed itself to the battle, the humans might have been annihilated before they lasted even thirty minutes.

But for some reason, the Black Knight had not appeared again.

Was it the monster’s arrogance? Did it consider the battle too insignificant to warrant its involvement?

Choi Minwoo could not understand it. But the Black Knight’s absence was both his second stroke of luck and his final chance to make a decision.

We have to retreat.

The urban battle had already lost all meaning. The monster army, numbering around ten thousand, had already covered the city like a swarm of ants. Among them were more than a hundred A-rank monsters.

The humans were outmatched in both numbers and strength.

Nearly half of the thousand Hunters from the Public Security Armed Forces Department who had held the front line were already dead or wounded. And more than half of the damned People’s Liberation Army had thrown down their weapons and fled before the monsters even reached them.

The armored units, reduced to heaps of scrap metal, and the air force, becoming prey for the flying monsters, were simply more of the same.

Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat! Boom!

A state-of-the-art combat helicopter lost its balance and plunged from the sky, exploding in flames. Around a dozen soldiers caught in the flying debris died without even having time to scream.

It was a horrifying sight, but they were fortunate in one respect: their deaths had been painless.

A moment later, the monster horde began tearing everyone else apart indiscriminately.

—Kraaaaaaang!

Whoom! Crack!

The foreleg of a Saber Tiger, carrying several tons³ of force, crushed a soldier’s limbs and burst his head.

The soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army were nowhere near as fast as Hunters, and the rifles they carried were little better than slingshots against the monsters.

Choi Minwoo clenched his teeth at the merciless slaughter unfolding before him.

Get a grip. You can’t save all of them.

He did not hypocritically preach about sacrificing the few for the many. He simply faced the situation with a cold eye and prepared himself to play the villain.

Could we have stopped them if he’d come?

Jin Taekyung suddenly came to mind, but that was nothing more than futile regret.

Even after he hounded the communications officer into frantically transmitting emergency signals, there had been no response.

A carefully planned surprise attack combined with thorough communications interference.

For now, all he could do was hope that one of the countless glass bottles cast into the sea would somehow reach Jin Taekyung.

Thud!

Choi Minwoo drove his sword into the chest of a charging Minotaur and shouted,

“Xiao Shen!”

His mana-infused voice pierced through the screams and thunderous crashes and reached one person’s ears.

Covered in wounds and blood as he fought back the endless stream of monsters, Xiao Shen answered with a battle cry.

“Speak!”

“Withdraw the Public Security Armed Forces Department. We have to retreat now!”

“What? But if we retreat now…”

Choi Minwoo already knew what the young Hunter was about to say.

Retreats—and the pursuits that followed—were when the greatest number of casualties occurred.

Especially in a situation like this. If the Hunters serving as the last line of defense withdrew, the People’s Liberation Army would fall straight into the monster army’s grasp.

“If we’re surrounded, it’s all over. Do you understand? Take the surviving Hunters and the rear units and get out of the city while you still can!”

“……Mr. Choi.”

“I know what you’re thinking. But we have no other choice.”

“……!”

Xiao Shen squeezed his eyes shut without realizing it.

He knew what the situation was. No—he understood it better than almost anyone.

The tide had turned sharply against them from the moment the battle began, and the humans had been driven all the way back to the hospital they were using as a temporary command center. If the monsters completed their encirclement—

Annihilation.

His deliberation felt long, but only a moment passed.

Xiao Shen opened his eyes and shouted with all his strength as he deflected the attacks raining down on him.

“Retreat! All Public Security Armed Forces Department personnel, withdraw immediately! The North Gate is open!”

In wartime, the orders of a commander like Xiao Shen were absolute.

All the more so when the military leadership, including General Liao, had not even shown their faces.

Good.

The soldiers might not have much hope, but the Hunters’ odds of survival would rise dramatically. If Xiao Shen made the right calls, many of them might break through the encirclement and survive.

Yes. This is enough.

Feeling his heart grow lighter, Choi Minwoo launched himself forward.

Not toward the North Gate, which the monsters had yet to block, but toward the People’s Liberation Army being slaughtered by the monsters.

It feels like I’m going to kill myself.

Why had he made this choice? Even he could not understand it.

Still…

For a man heading to his death, he felt surprisingly good.

Perhaps because dark clouds had gathered overhead, the wind was cool. And behind him, he had companions who would die alongside him, so he would not have to die alone.

Choi Minwoo suddenly spoke.

“Why didn’t you retreat?”

Xiao Shen, who should have been heading toward the North Gate, gave him a faint smile.

“What about you, Mr. Choi?”

“……I asked first.”

“Then I suppose I should answer first. Public Security Armed Forces Department!”

At the regimental commander’s call, the roughly three hundred Hunters following behind him let out a thunderous shout.

“To eliminate monsters and protect the people from every threat!”

“This is why we do not retreat. The 325 members of the Sichuan Province Public Security Armed Forces Department’s 1st Regiment, led by Regimental Commander Xiao Shen, have come to protect the people!”

Xiao Shen continued in a quiet voice.

“Now it’s your turn to answer, Mr. Choi.”

Choi Minwoo silently gazed at the thousands of monsters drawing closer, then suddenly muttered,

“Shit. There sure are a lot of them.”

“……!”

“That’s probably what he would have said. Then he would have fought harder than anyone else and won in the end.”

It was true. He had always been that way.

He had never backed down, no matter the situation, and he had never given up. Choi Minwoo had watched him longer and more closely than anyone else, so he knew.

That man, Jin Taekyung, was a hero of the new age. Choi Minwoo could never work miracles the way he did.

But still—

“It’s embarrassing.”

“What?”

“Jin Taekyung is technically my subordinate, you see. At a time like this, his superior ought to lead by example.”

Choi Minwoo burst into laughter, loudly enough to leave Xiao Shen bewildered.

His heart felt as light as a dandelion seed, and an unfamiliar power unlike anything he had ever felt before surged through his body as he shot toward the enemy.

Mr. Jin. I’ll see you later.

If I survive today, as soon as possible.

If I die, as late as possible.

Let’s meet then.

Hissssss.

The blade of his sword, filled with aura brighter and more radiant than ever, pointed toward the enemies.

The suicide squad of more than three hundred Hunters roared loud enough to deafen the ears, their fighting spirit surging as they shot forward behind him like arrows.

“Waaaaaaaaah!”

Two Death Knights who had been leading thousands of monsters in the slaughter of the People’s Liberation Army looked down from their skeletal warhorses at the pitiful human force.

—Aksar. Garosh.

A moment later, the black wave swallowed the single white pebble.

The outcome had been decided from the beginning. Yet at the end of that battle, more fiercely fought than any before it, one man’s sword had never lost its light.

The two Death Knights dropped to one knee before the Black Knight watching them.

—In the battle—

—we achieved victory.

—Today, this glory—

—we offer to our Lord.

Their voices were clipped and devoid of intonation. Even at the news of victory, the Black Knight merely nodded without interest.

It had gone as expected. The humans had been unable to stop his mighty legion and had collapsed in a single stroke.

But if asked whether everything had unfolded according to the Black Knight’s wishes, the answer would have been no.

Those humans from before.

After breaking through the city and forcing the humans to retreat at the start of the battle, the Black Knight had turned his warhorse wherever the whim took him.

For some reason, he had returned to the strangely familiar place from the previous day, where he found something small.

Human? No. Not human. A child. And this is a shoe.

Memories and words surfaced one after another.

As the Black Knight had thought, it was a child’s shoe—a tiny infant’s shoe lost in the chaos and left behind without anyone realizing it had fallen.

The infinitely small, dirt-covered shoe seemed strangely familiar. Looking at it made his chest ache.

Hm? My chest aches?

What an unfamiliar expression.

The Black Knight’s body had been incapable of feeling pain from the beginning. His master had personally created him and bestowed a powerful blessing upon him. Naturally, he never tired and felt no pain.

More importantly, this was no time to be swayed by something so trivial.

—Lord.

—Is something wrong?

He did not know why he had done it.

The Black Knight tucked the shoe into a gap in his armor and changed the subject.

—No. Rather, quite a few humans managed to escape alive.

—We apologize.

—It was our failure.

—There must be a reason.

The Death Knights bowed their heads deeply.

—The humans’ resistance—

—was fiercer than expected.

—In exchange—

—we gained a small prize.

As if they had been waiting for those words, the densely packed monsters parted left and right to open a path.

A Troll approached cautiously, lowered the two figures slung over its shoulders, and stepped back.

The Black Knight’s eyes flickered as he regarded the “small prize.”

—They are humans.

—Yes.

The two loyal retainers answered in unison, then continued.

—Reap their souls yourself—

—and make them servants of our Lord.

—If you do so, Lord—

—you will grow even mightier.

They were right. Those two humans possessed rich, enticing souls.

If he personally reaped their souls and took them as subordinates, they would be reborn as even greater warriors. They might even prove worthy of commanding an entire force.

But—

Why?

The Black Knight realized that he was hesitating.

This was obviously something he had to do. Powerful subordinates would strengthen the legion, and strengthening the legion was an act of loyalty and devotion to the King of Death he served.

So why was he hesitating?

What is making me hesitate?

Ordinarily, he would have held back if something felt wrong. But the Black Knight had experienced this same confusion far too often of late.

The fact that he had forced himself to reach out might have been an act of defiance against himself.

—I will accept your suggestion.

Then, just as the Black Knight reached toward the two humans to reap their souls—

“I’ve been thinking about it carefully.”

A voice rang out through the air, and the Black Knight raised his head.

Someone stood atop the half-burned, half-collapsed hospital, framed by sunlight streaming through the dark clouds behind him.

“Ten percent is surprisingly high when you think about it. Hmm. Definitely higher than my chances of getting a girlfriend.”

The Black Knight’s eyes narrowed. He recognized that energy. He had sensed it from afar the previous day.

At last, he had come face-to-face with the owner of that immense heat.

—Who are you?

“Me?”

Swish. Tap.

It happened in an instant. The young human dropped rapidly from a dizzying height, yet landed as lightly as a leaf. He pointed to himself with one finger and grinned.

“I’m one damn lucky bastard.”

The next moment, the Black Knight saw it clearly.

The human’s finger shifting to point at him.

And every trace of emotion vanishing from the human’s face.

“You’re, what…”

His voice was cold enough to make even the dead shudder.

“You’re one damn unlucky bastard.”