“Let’s hold a little longer.”

Nothing in this world is permanent.

We do have an overwhelming edge right now, but the animal called human always looks for a solution.

What left a bad aftertaste for me was the enemy’s excessive passivity.

Even as we hammered Jeon Si-hoon’s quarters with shells, they hid behind buildings, making only timid advances and token resistance.

The only thing you could call a counterattack was the Awakened’s strike—and they broke and ran in under three minutes.

This isn’t the Jeju Awakened style I’d assumed.

Among the Awakened who looked late teens to early twenties, I spotted men and women who looked mid-to-late twenties and into their thirties.

They’re likely the ordinary soldiers doing “madangsoe” grunt work for the Awakened group.

There might even be a Hunter among them.

Either way, they are putting various restraints on their young Awakened.

Even if they can’t give orders, they can easily influence others indirectly by advising or flagging risks.

WHAM!

Their passivity does help with the immediate verification, but it’s not quite the picture I drew.

I wanted a decent number of casualties in the opening phase.

Not because I take pleasure in killing.

The death of a single comrade provokes anger, but multiple «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» comrades dying simultaneously breeds fear and panic.

My opening picture was them collapsing quickly and scattering.

But they’re hunkering—pathetically, yes—behind buildings and watching us.

That sticks with me.

“Drones! We’ve got drones!”

Good thing I didn’t mute her.

Honestly, being a bit noisy isn’t grounds to mute this one.

Muting the observer on high ground overlooking the whole battlespace is no different from an ostrich shoving its head into the dirt.

The hatch is already open.

I keyed the radio.

“Where are they coming from?”

“Between those two buildings. They’re coming in now.”

“What floor?”

“Yi-er-san-si... around the thirtieth!”

I immediately popped my upper body out and brought my muzzle up.

There.

Tat-tat-TANG! Tat-tat-TANG! Tat-tat-TANG!

I dropped the drone on the third burst.

I wanted to watch it crash, but I ducked back through the hatch in a hurry.

Tatatatatat-TA-TANG! Bang! Bang!

The Awakened group that spotted me threw instant covering fire.

“If there are still drones up, we’re in trouble.”

Gong Gyeong-min gritted his teeth, ramming a shell into the breach.

Hauling another round, I answered as I loaded.

“Yeah. Quite a bit of trouble. But we can’t exfil now.”

“If they bring in combined arms, the two of us can’t hold. We only got that one because they didn’t lay down cover, right?”

He wasn’t whining from fear.

Objectively, he judged we were courting unnecessary risk, so he raised a counterargument.

We’ve done this a thousand times on battlefields—argument, rebuttal.

I learned in these battlefield debates that this friend who seems carefree and optimistic is, unexpectedly, logical.

“Even if we pull back now, the drones will chase. And if we’re going to deal with drones anyway, burning them down here is right. Visibility’s superb, routes are limited by the buildings, and we can turn those limited routes into our advantage—like just now.”

“What if they cover?”

“Then we answer with shelling.”

“We’ve only got so many shells.”

“They’ve only got so many bodies.”

“What if the Awakened put up reflective fields?”

“Anyone carrying more than a pistol is either a regular soldier or a low-level Awakened. You can safely assume anyone with anything else isn’t a regular Awakened. Even if a field goes up, the tank we’re in will be fine.”

I fixed him with a look and put weight on the last line.

“We’ve come this far. Just a little more.”

“I don’t remember you saying things like that back when you were the Professor.”

“Saying what?”

“Abstract stuff.”

I snorted and added,

“Five rounds. Let’s feed them five more.”

We had eight rounds left.

Given that reloading a shell takes over a minute, we’d need at least ten more minutes of fighting.

If we were trained up like ROK tankers, we might shave that down, but that’s not happening overnight.

WHAM!

The main gun smacked the Tower again.

A distant howl rippled back.

A fairly big chunk sheared off the Tower.

I checked the meter.

[ Echoes of the Dead – Chatter ]

No need to swing between hope and despair.

“They’re coming!”

While I was reloading, Gong Gyeong-min yelled.

Finally they were counterattacking.

Some old hand with tank experience must have told the kids he usually bullied how to handle it.

They moved pretty soldier-like in practice.

Snapping to cover—swift, simultaneous.

Bang! Bang!

They even laid down a healthy dose of seemingly meaningless covering fire.

They’re not the problem.

Right now, the only things that threaten a tank are drones and Awakened.

Drones are dangerous, but Awakened aren’t exactly easy either.

Besides reflective fields, they’ve got a handful of offensive powers.

One favorite—the technique that blooms white flame—has a tell and a delay, so you can dodge it if you watch, but inside a tank it’s a different story.

If they close to range, those white flames will roast us alive.

It isn’t like a flamethrower’s straight spray—Awakened fire creates a flowing sheet of flame that penetrates a set volume and burns everything along that trajectory regardless of obstacles.

Dudududududu—

I answered with MG fire and throttled their advance.

“Aaagh!”

At last, the first casualty.

At his death cry he flopped forward, scrabbled a moment, and stilled.

But there are still dozens we need to kill.

Kang Han-min’s guard advanced on the avenue I expected.

“Want me to send one?”

Gong Gyeong-min glanced over and asked.

“No—not yet.”

The words were barely out when he fired the main gun.

“Sorry. I can’t load anymore. My arms are shot.”

“Take the MG then.”

“Okay.”

We swapped places and I rammed a round home.

Even so, the guard didn’t stop advancing.

They really do fit “Kang Han-min cultist.”

They seem afraid of death, but they don’t show any intent to preserve their lives.

They were about to enter the danger zone.

Now it starts.

Dududududududu—!!

A grand welcome with the MG.

An Awakened tried to answer with a reflective field, but a reflective field is more blade than shield.

Meaning it lacks endurance.

If it’s staying power you want, the Executioner-type defense field is far superior.

When the reflective field blinked off, one Awakened was butchered by the MG and crumpled.

A “core talent” the state coddled like a sacred relic rolled in the dirt in a state worse than a line grunt.

This is war.

It’s also why, even as I hate monsters, I consider humans the most dangerous enemy.

With an Awakened down, one cluster broke and ran.

There was another cluster.

Luck wasn’t with them.

Or maybe we forced their luck to turn.

An eight-person team armed only with rifles and pistols ducked into an as-yet un-demolished building standing in the open to escape the MG rain.

“They’ve stepped onto the trap.”

“Good.”

Gong Gyeong-min swung the turret.

“Hold them there. I’m still clumsy with this.”

“Okay.”

Dududududududu——

His inexperience with the tank controls didn’t matter.

Until the MG overheated or we ran dry, they couldn’t do anything.

Meanwhile, other elements would push to threaten our flank—that was surely their plan.

“Got it.”

This battlespace was designed by us from the outset—a board rigged in our favor.

WHAM!

The gun spat flame, the column propping the shaky structure snapped—and the small building caved in.

No screams—just a rolling bloom of dust over the collapse.

A perfect swallow. 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Another group was sprinting toward another death trap, but either luck or a cold shiver turned them around and they fled full tilt.

The assault halted.

With one decisive strike.

Using the time that counterblow bought us, we did what we came here to do.

The main gun breathed fire again.

[ Echoes of the Dead – Chatter ]

No result yet.

We need more.

Well, we have no choice.

I don’t know how many Awakened and kids we’ll have to kill, but if that’s our job, I won’t balk.

I was thinking that as I reached to seat the next round.

“Hey. Park Gyu.”

Gong Gyeong-min spoke.

There was a faint tremor in his voice.

Sensing something off, I peered through the sight.

“What is that?”

With the successive shelling, the concrete had crumbled and an interior section was exposed—stained an unmistakable gray-white.

That alone was enough to creep you out, but something else shimmered in the gaps.

“Tentacles...?”

Something you could only call tentacles—like the legs of a cephalopod—were writhing just within the fissures, showing the slightest sliver of themselves.

Given the Tower’s size, those tentacles were not small.

“Can you aim for that?”

“I’ll try. Load a HE.”

“Got it.”

Enemies all around, Awakened who could swarm any second.

Even so, with the time we’ve spent together, we moved toward one goal like a single body.

Hit that grotesque thing.

Maybe that was the path to end this dangerous gamble whose end we couldn’t see.

“Loaded!”

“Good!”

WHAM!

Another shell flew at the Tower.

Target: the slit at the very top.

Straight at the unidentified writhing tentacle.

We held our breath, waiting for the blossom of fire with our eyes, when—

THUMP!

A shockwave rolled.

It was a monster, after all.

We’d seen one twitching tentacle, but in moments—several—no, a countless number of tentacles grabbed the shattered wall and tried to drag whatever massive thing lay beyond out into view.

A moment later we stared at the Tower, faces blanched.

A face.

Something you could only call a head-shaped face was being drawn out by the tentacles, revealing an indescribably hideous form through dust and pale fog.

A giant face with countless tentacles.

“...”

I’ve seen plenty of monsters, but never one this maliciously grotesque.

Gong Gyeong-min’s reaction wasn’t far off.

“W-what is that?”

“Who knows...”

Maybe it was Jeon Si-hoon.

I wasn’t ready to admit that yet.

Even if it takes time to confirm it, I won’t rush to accept that the boy I rescued—the proud young man once called a hero—has become such a hideous thing.

“Hey.”

I tried Jade on comms.

“Yes.”

“You okay?”

“Other than this weird feeling, yeah.”

“No, at the top of the Tower.”

“The top? From here the building’s edge blocks it—I can’t see it right. More than that—don’t you hear it?”

I’d already picked up the threat she was about to name.

Helicopter rotors.

“Park Gyu.”

Gong Gyeong-min said.

I nodded.

Once again, our shared interests aligned.

Abandon the fight.

Meaning we were about to abandon this costly, precious fighting vehicle, the shells, the synthetic oils and onboard equipment—every valuable resource inside.

“Hold up.”

He suddenly stopped midway.

“?”

He put that damn plushie in front of the tank too and snapped a picture.

Facing the plushie so its face showed.

“What are you doing?”

“A person has to live with hobbies to recover their vigor.”

“Ah. Right.”

The moment the exchange ended, we ran flat out.

Feels craven—but what can you do.

A helicopter was up.

Sure, it could be an unarmed, civilian passenger bird.

If so, our pell-mell flight will be a long-running joke people chew on for ages.

But if by chance it’s a military helicopter, that’s different.

You die.

One hundred percent, you die.

Burned alive without even knowing what killed you.

For anyone who’s tasted a battlefield, the threat a gunship brings doesn’t compare with drones.

Drones are mud weapons that shine only when there’s no other major armament; the protagonists of the battlefield are always the heavy engines of war piloted by humans.

“Why run away so lamely when you were fighting so well?”

Jade, having joined the retreat, asked with an incredulous look.

“Because—”

Before Gong Gyeong-min could answer, a tremendous boom erupted behind us.

From the tank.

One strike, and the tank was scrap.

“That’s why.”

Rotor thrum drew closer.

Sounded like they were hunting us.

But the fog shrouding the city and the broken ruins masked us.

It helped that we’d routed their infantry before the helo sortie.

Even if they have sensor-types, sensors are scariest when you’re hiding; when you’re on the run like this, their ability doesn’t offer any silver bullet.

All the more since we’ve got a pretty good guide.

“Cui bian zou!”

Jade, in the rush, spilled Chinese.

She immediately led us toward an underground way.

She hustled ahead, chattering in Chinese, then realized she was in her mother tongue and translated for us in Korean.

“If they’ve got thermal cameras, fog won’t hide you.”

“I thought in gray-white fog, sensitive devices like that go dead.”

“Do they? Being careful doesn’t hurt, right?”

True enough.

Just the fact they smashed our tank—the Skelton—with a single blow shows the terror of human war machines.

Following Jade into the underground passage, we ran into a block.

An extinction-case—no, a zombie.

“Uuuhhhhh...”

I snorted and said one line.

“There are still some left, huh.”

“Things are like that.”

I took the axe instead of Gong Gyeong-min and broke trail.

I don’t know how many zombies I put down before a droning came from overhead.

“Just now. The ones who attacked us. Professor—Hunter Park Gyu, right?! Huh?! Hunter Park Gyu! Where are you?!”

The voice of Yoo Yang-seo, leader of Kang Han-min’s cult.

I’d suspected it, but yes—the hand behind everything happening now was the Kang Han-min cult.

“Find them! What are the sensors doing! Find them! Now!”

She was furious.

I don’t know how much she exchanged with someone, but it’s hard to imagine that prim, composed woman—who wore a lofty, mysterious smile like a trademark—having a fit like that.

Maybe that frantic hysteria is her true nature.

Min-hee has her hysterics too, but she doesn’t get that ugly.

With zombies, darkness, and Yoo Yang-seo’s shrieks in our ears, we reached a safe zone.

“Haa... haa...”

Looks like Gong Gyeong-min will sleep well tonight.

He was about spent.

No—he spent himself a long time ago.

He’s a first-rate Hunter; he made it this far on grit alone.

On the verge of collapse, my classmate asked with difficulty,

“How did it go?”

True to the author of the hypothesis, he ignored the pain in his body to check whether his claim had carried.

[ Valentine Mark-13 ]

I powered on the meter crafted by Valentine—one of the gods in my personal pantheon—and it gave us the following:

[ Echoes of the Dead – Stillness ]

Around the same time, Woo Min-hee’s subordinate confirmed that monster generation had been impeded or halted.

Gong Gyeong-min’s hypothesis was proven.