WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 222: The End of April (9)

──────

The war situation might not be quite that bad.

On the fifth day, Gyeoul found new evidence to support his guess.

“Could this be... a special mutant?”

Morales sounded doubtful even while asking. Private Mason answered.

“Wasn’t the one earlier just a messed-up freak too?”

The wording was a little rough, but in Gyeoul’s experience, Mason was closer to the truth. The mutant collapsed in front of them had four thick, muscular arms. Its upper body looked that much more threatening, but its balance was off in every direction, and its center of gravity was a mess. In the end, even using the extra arms like legs, it had only managed the speed of an ordinary run. No matter how powerful those swinging arms were, they meant nothing if the lower body wobbled.

As Mason said, the one earlier had been the same. The deformed mutant mixed in with the group that interrupted breakfast had a great many eyes. Besides the normal pair, it had another pair on its back and two more pairs on its arms.

Having no blind spots was an advantage, but its ability to process visual information could not keep up with all those extra eyes. The ones on its arms seemed to be the problem in particular. Every time it used its arms to attack, its direction and posture twisted out of shape. In the end, they had watched the monster exhaust itself and vomit. It must have been dizzy.

‘It’s rare to run into things like this...’

Deformed mutants were creatures he had barely encountered, despite crossing the end of the world again and again. They were stepping stones of trial and error in the process of mutating the human body into a functional weapon.

This was only Gyeoul’s guess, but the full nature of this world could only be discovered through experience and thought. Unless he paid the countless stars embedded in his lonely emptiness as the price to obtain 「Omniscience」. Still, Gyeoul believed it was infinitely close to the truth. He told the soldiers as much.

“I don’t think it’s an ordinary mutant. I’d call it a byproduct of the process that creates special mutants.”

“For something like that, we haven’t seen any until now... Shouldn’t they show up more often?”

“I don’t know. If they were judged useless, they were probably eaten. Letting them go to waste would be inefficient.”

“...Good grief. If that’s true, they really do every damn thing. Fucking monsters.”

Mason, who had asked the question, looked openly disgusted.

In the past, Gyeoul had wandered through ruins looking for abnormal remains to verify this hypothesis. It was not easy, in a world where other remains lay scattered everywhere. To begin with, mutants fed by breaking bones and sucking out the marrow. Bones scattered that way were often mixed together until it was hard to recognize their original form. Just like the other remains at the ranch where he had found Xcel.

Even so, he had once found decisive evidence. It was the scene of plague hunting plague. The one being eaten had looked bizarre. It had several appendages that were neither arms nor legs, and it was difficult to guess their function. The very fact that their function was difficult to guess already made it a target for elimination.

The Department of Defense would likely reach a similar conclusion after reviewing this footage. Whatever Gyeoul’s opinion might be, the finest minds in this world would be gathered there. A functioning government was helpful in many ways.

“So that means they’re sending out not only ones that haven’t fully grown, but even ones they would normally eat, just to fight. If they’re that desperate to fill out their numbers, the monsters must be dead set on breaking through the blockade line.”

Gyeoul affirmed Morales’s hope.

“The composition of the mutants has been changing quickly over the last few days. I think the redeployment of forces from the northern front may be affecting it too. Even if they weren’t as large as California’s, the forces in the Washington or Oregon directions weren’t small. If we believe this, then four million have been added to the eastern front.”

He said it while holding up the new tactical PDA, where information was constantly updated. Of course, it was hard to blindly trust information related to the war situation. It was obvious that lies and exaggerations meant to maintain morale would be mixed in. The quarantine-support Tactical Support Group that Gyeoul had almost joined was proof of that. The squad members were skeptical too.

But when such convincing circumstantial evidence stood right in front of them, that changed the story.

“So from the mutants’ perspective, this is an all-in showdown?”

“Yes. I get the feeling that if we somehow get through this crisis, mutant density will drop sharply. So we need to work hard too. To ease the burden in the east.”

Everyone reacted more positively to Gyeoul’s words than before.

‘Is the cruelest month really ending?’

Gyeoul remembered the president’s figurative expression. It had only borrowed a line of poetry to express welcome, but it felt fitting for the current situation. Manifest Liberation had originally been prepared as an operation that would not fail under any circumstances. To make that happen, they had gathered an army of over ten million.

Although airstrikes across the Central Valley had been paralyzed, two million troops had been scattered, and they were locked in a hard fight against mutants that increased their numbers by hunting survivors, Manifest Liberation could resume any time as long as they thwarted the plague’s offensive. The problem was that cracks in the front made the rear dangerous. As far as manpower went, they still had more than enough. Even now, they had to be busy churning out new divisions.

America’s recovery of its mainland would become a major turning point in this world. The length of the front would shrink dramatically, and surplus forces would increase in inverse proportion. If they used that capacity to push south and secure the Panama Canal, North America would become far safer than it was now.

Woof!

A small dog barked. Gyeoul stopped thinking and turned his gaze. Private Schultz looked flustered under everyone’s attention, and beside Schultz was a small dog wagging its tail furiously. The wrapper from an apple-flavored sauce in a combat ration rolled across the ground. It was high in calories, low in sodium, and liquid, so it put little strain on digestion. Exactly the sort of thing one might feed to a bony dog.

Gyeoul gestured.

“Step back. It’s not sanitary. It might have rabies.”

Gyeoul had experienced harm from wild animals several times, whether directly or through people around him. Rabies had a fatality rate no lower than Morgellons. In other words, if you caught it, you died. Even if you did not run around in a brain-dead state. As far as he knew, preventive vaccination for ordinary combat troops had only been administered in Central and Southern Command by the standards of the pre-disaster U.S. mainland. Periodic shots were necessary too.

“Uh... Understood.”

As expected, either Schultz had not been vaccinated or too much time had passed. Schultz backed away with a dark expression. But the dog kept clinging, causing trouble.

“It knows we saved it. If the situation were better, someone might take it in and raise it.”

Harper sighed from the saddle, looking down. More than one person looked regretful. To soldiers worn down mentally, a tiny bit of cuteness would feel that much larger.

The dog wagged its tail at everyone. It had been chased by the deformed mutant. The breed was probably some kind of dachshund. Maybe because it was happy, it even spun in place and barked in a clear, yapping voice. It was noise they could not control. Even without the hygiene issue, they could not take it along.

It was relatively common for soldiers, or whole units, to keep animals. But the quarantine war was different from an ordinary war, and their mission was not an ordinary mission either. Gyeoul coldly turned his mount.

“Leave it and follow me. A request for support came up nearby. We’re going to cover survivors.”

Ha! Xcel correctly understood the low command. The mobile unit picked up speed. At first, the dog ran alongside them too, excited. But it fell farther and farther behind. Its pitiful barking grew distant behind them. A moment later, it vanished far beyond the wind. Schultz let out a silent sigh.

Dozens of sheets of paper flew in from the road ahead. As they passed, Gyeoul snatched one. It contained information for survivors about supply drop locations, assembly and retreat routes, precautions, communication channels, and so on. Tens of thousands of these were being scattered every day.

Tatata! Tatatatata! Gunfire echoed from ahead. On the open horizon, a platoon-sized force was engaging a mutant horde around supply crates. The mutants approached using the terrain. Gyeoul drew the anti-materiel rifle. Even though he had let go of the reins, his posture was stable. The technique of 「Riding」, the agility of 「Movement」, the precision of 「Firearms Mastery」. He twisted his upper body and used his left arm as a rest, and the rifle shook faintly each time the horse’s hooves struck the ground. Taang! The shot fired at the exact moment. The back of a ghoul’s head, still unaware of the distant cavalry, exploded into pieces.

Semi-automatic fire continued. Every shot was lethal.

Graaaaaaah!

It was an unexpected Grumble. But Gyeoul pulled the trigger the moment it roared. The special round, priced two hundred times higher than an ordinary rifle bullet, pierced its throat in a single explosive strike and destroyed the medulla beneath its brain. The charge that should have followed the roar never came. It still moved, but only thrashed. A slow death. Unless they were gamma grade, with outstanding durability and defense as their patterns began to change, the ones in this direction were all still pre-enhancement types.

In the meantime, the mobile unit members also drew their guns, but even through 4x ACOG scopes, the targets were still small. Unless they were fairly close, it was hard to expect hits while shooting from horseback. Still, they fired.

Dududuk! Dududuk! Dudududuk!

Any individual that flinched away from the bullets was close to a ghoul. Gyeoul immediately identified them and pierced their hearts with the last round in one magazine. Puhk! It was a sound heard with the eyes. Bones, flesh, and pieces of organs burst out of their bodies.

The group caught between the survivors and the cavalry was wiped out in an instant. The mutants in other directions were erased quickly too. As the distance closed, Alejandro received Gyeoul’s hand signal and pulled out a spare weapon. It was a six-shot grenade launcher. Thut-thut-thut-thung! Grenades arced over the heads of the defeated stragglers. “Take cover!” The survivors flattened themselves to the ground. A chain of explosions across the line tore the approaching mutants to shreds. They looked as if they were being cut apart by thousands of invisible blades.

The engagement ended with light machine gun fire. One of the beaten soldiers had secured an 800-round backpack from a crate and poured brutal suppressive fire onto the ridge where mutants were charging in. It was called suppressive fire, but most of the group had lost the individuals capable of exercising leadership and were simply running in blindly, so they could not avoid annihilation. The few that thought of evasion or cover were killed by aimed shots.

“Who is the senior officer?”

The one who stepped forward at Gyeoul’s question was a Lieutenant with a stunned expression. The name was Casper.

“They said cavalry would come to save us, and it was actually true...”

That had been written on the leaflet. The batch scattered on the third day had even included an illustration. No, why? Whoever suggested that had an absurd amount of time on their hands, Gyeoul thought.

“Huh, not Lieutenant, but Major?”

“I was promoted.”

“Ha...”

The Lieutenant’s eyes were blank, and Casper still looked dazed for a long while. The hand gripping the gun trembled. Casper must have been the senior platoon leader or Company commander of some Company. Even so, this was still decent. Seeing that all the unit patches of the troops together were the same, Casper’s ability was at least above average, even judging conservatively.

“Lieutenant Casper, can you lead your unit to the assembly point?”

“Uh, can’t you come with us? No, could you come with us? Please.”

“I’d like to, but our priority right now is hunting Tricksters. We can stand watch while you replenish ammunition and eat. We also need to rest briefly... assuming no other orders come in before then.”

The reason he did even this much was that there was a large difference between Gyeoul being present and absent, even for a short time. Even now, some soldiers were collapsing. When startled comrades turned them over, they had fallen asleep as if fainting.

The voices of soldiers taking out ammunition could be heard complaining as they unlocked the locks.

“Damn it, why the hell did they lock it up like this! We almost died earlier because we didn’t have ammo!”

The blockade line command, and beyond it the Department of Defense, was extremely wary of weapons and ammunition falling into mutant hands. It would be impossible for ordinary mutants, but if an individual above a Beta Ghoul had precise hand movements and high intelligence, it might learn how to use firearms. Even if that was only one individual out of dozens or hundreds, the foundation of tactics against mutants would have to change.

There were also statistics showing that mutants gnawed away more than half of the food dropped into contaminated zones to support civilians.

That was why number locks had begun to be attached to airdropped supplies, especially weapons and ammunition. The password was written on the box as simple arithmetic. Something like 1100 + 700 + 90 + 2. This too came from the judgment that writing it plainly would be dangerous.

For soldiers who had nearly been wiped out while adjusting locks with shaking hands as the enemy charged in screaming, there was nothing to do but curse the deskbound types. Because of America’s infamous public education, some soldiers even struggled with basic arithmetic. In Gyeoul’s view, though, it was an unavoidable preventive measure.

============================ Author’s Note ============================

#What was it...

There was something I absolutely had to say in the Author’s Note, but for some reason, I can’t remember it...

Is it because I’m getting old...

#Q&A

Q. MasterKalsolum: @(serious) I “do not eat” sweet-and-sour pork sauce. I eat sweet-and-sour pork with the soy sauce they give you for dipping fried dumplings.

A. That is just soy sauce-flavored fried pork.

Q. UnlimitedOne: @Can we see Humpbacks as individuals that intervene in the growth of newly born immature individuals or the creation of enhanced variant? The first infected individuals who were not born through reproduction, the clothed ones, should be individuals that cannot receive Trickster control, but since they are described as being controlled, maybe Humpbacks are involved in that kind of mutation too? Though Tricksters might have gained that ability while advancing to beta...

A. I like it when readers make guesses this way and that. Haha.

Q. Calpis: @Therefore, it is best to stay away from dangerous sweet-and-sour pork and keep chicken close. Chimen!

A. I used to like chicken a lot too, but chicken these days is too salty for me to eat... BBQ isn’t even especially tasty, but the price keeps going up...

Q. Skooma: @Like a fool, I scattered my coupons before reading this novel. Please punish this hasty reader with consecutive chapters, author!

A. How are consecutive chapters a punishment? The author is the one getting punished... Seeing you tell lies like this, you must be a very wicked person. As expected, there are no good readers for this novel...

Q. ddfasfd3000: @I can’t believe I don’t get to read the Author’s Note. Anyway, is the Humpback an individual that produces infected or accelerates growth?

A. The Author’s Note is harmful text, like Joara’s terms of service, so it’s fine if you don’t read it. As for the Humpback’s role... well... haha...

Q. KTH: @For people from engineering colleges, there is a magic that makes trigonometric functions easier numbers than ordinary constants. Maybe that is why people who graduate from engineering colleges lose their childlike innocence...

A. Trigonometric functions look like easy numbers... Since things like that are possible, most heroes who save the world must be from science and engineering... Liberal arts people with weak combat power are crying.

Q. FakeSmirk: “visiblle” > “visible”

A. Thank you. I’ll fix it.

Q. CurryRice: @It has often been implied in the novel that when Gyeoul deals with virtual personalities, he treats them sincerely, not as virtual. Then, while going through several rounds until now, has he never suffered severe PTSD from close virtual personalities dying? It seems like there must have been good people in previous world settings too, and people who became precious to him even if they weren’t as precious as Gaeul.

A. I’m reluctant to explain a character’s psychology, but since you might feel it breaks plausibility, I’ll answer briefly.

He feels sadness, but it is a quiet sadness. It is calmness that comes from familiarity. There are lives more terrible than death, and he died in a world of people living such lives, and he himself longs for rest. Because of that, he does not feel an intense sense of loss when parting with virtual personalities who lived more human lives than people in the outside world.

Of course, it is not nonexistent.

It is also the reason Afterlife Insurance recommends world settings like this.

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried