WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 224: The End of April (11)

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The air-raid shelter built in a gap in the forest was like a small fortress. Its structure was specialized for stopping a living plague. But why here, of all places? That was unclear. Maybe it had been meant as a shelter for tourists who would never come. Or was it the result of inefficient administration born from chaos? Gyeoul followed the wall, tilting his head.

[Bzzzzzt-]

The instant static crackled, casings rattled and flew. Blood sprayed from the direction Gyeoul had aimed. Rustle! A large body tore through the undergrowth and fled. Other things leapt out in the opposite direction. Bait meant to buy time. It had been an ambush that hid its scent by using the wind, but the distance it had to run was long, and there were too few of them. If there had been many, they would have already registered on Gyeoul’s senses from much farther away.

Creatures that did not even know they had been abandoned died one after another under the mobile unit’s concentrated fire. The blood spilling beneath the dusk gleamed dark brown in the sunset filtering through the canopy.

The blood trail inside the undergrowth soon stopped. Even for a mutant with regeneration far beyond a human’s, that kind of healing was impossible. It had to be a Trickster. All it had to do was cauterize the wound with electricity.

“Do we pursue? It feels like a trap.”

Gyeoul agreed with Morales.

“I think so too. Looks like it went out hunting hunters, but even if we don’t chase it now, it’ll come bother us again on its own. Let’s finish the search first and prepare in our own way.”

The static that had flashed by in an instant lingered much longer in Gyeoul.

Before long, they found the entrance. The place where a door should have been looked oddly bare. Inside was an open space with only the ground cleared. It was good for defense, since they could concentrate firepower, but it was also easy to isolate. The intent was obvious. The enemy meant to slowly wear down and kill the hunters tied down by the rescue signal. The forest had short engagement distances, an environment favorable to the plague. It might intend to draw in additional search parties and turn the place into an antlion pit.

Just as he thought that far, a flock of birds rose from the forest as the sun went down. Then came the loud crack of snapping wood, and part of the mutual aid line formed by giant trees collapsed.

Boom. Heavy tremors shook the ground several times. It was blocking the road. Had it waited while gnawing at the trunks? Or was there a Grumble? Either way, it did not matter. Gyeoul calmed the unit.

“Get communications connected first. We need to request air support.”

A satellite antenna unfolded at the center of the clearing. Perhaps because the area was walled in on all sides, there was less radio interference.

Gyeoul connected his PDA and worked the screen, then furrowed his brows slightly. Morales asked.

“What is wrong, sir?”

“The item I wanted isn’t there. I think another team requested it first.”

He had planned to request unmanned turrets. They had begun deployment early this year, but production was low, so they had been assigned to the blockade line first. Perhaps because of the operation’s importance, they had been added to the list of available support. Within a designated range and for a set time, they shredded every heat source they could not identify as friend or foe. Since they were computer-controlled heavy machine guns, there was no need to doubt their firepower.

His plan had been to set up killing zones wherever the trees were sparse, then hit and run aggressively.

“Then what do we do? Should we withdraw for now and come back in?”

“No. I’ll talk to Marigold.”

If they had enough combat strength, deliberately walking into the trap was an option. A trap also concentrated the trapper’s forces. Why had the Central California front collapsed in the first place? It was worth thinking back on Sergeant Osborne’s testimony.

Bell Base responded positively to Gyeoul’s request.

[David Actual. We’ll send another package. Callsign Hammer Fall, an Apache flight from the 61st Aviation Squadron. If the timetable is accurate, it’ll be far more useful than unmanned turrets.]

It was an unexpected offer. A Trickster entering range did not guarantee that it would self-destruct. Cunning special mutants had limited numbers. But an attack helicopter flight was a different story.

He knew some people argued that they should exploit that and force close air support despite the risk. In other words, overwhelm the special mutants’ numbers with production capacity. It was an argument that gave no thought to the pilots who would risk their lives on an uncertain possibility. To those sitting safely elsewhere, other people’s lives were always light.

Of course, Marigold was not that insane. After hearing the details, Gyeoul nodded. It was possible enough. A double-edged sword, though. If the timing slipped, this side would be in danger.

‘Still, there were Noise Makers still active.’

As the mutants became more intelligent, the noise disruption devices had been destroyed one after another. But a few remained in this forest. One in particular seemed to have gotten caught in a tree during its drop, judging by its height. His PDA picked up its signal. It would be hard to activate directly inside a forest full of obstacles, but an attack helicopter flight would be different.

Once the communication ended, Gyeoul gave orders to the unit.

“We move at 0300. Let’s set up a defensive line. Lay Claymores from there to there. Every one we have. Once we get the ammunition resupply, you can rest. I’ll take watch.”

No one objected when the commander said he would stand fixed guard. They had gotten used to it over the past few days. He was devoted, but he never failed to take the rest needed to maintain his combat strength.

Most of all, their rest was most efficient when Gyeoul stood watch.

Two covered while two advanced. They built overlapping fan-shaped killing zones. Each mine was camouflaged under weeds and fallen leaves.

A little later, parachutes drifted down from the sky. There were no unmanned turrets, but they had secured a promise of more than enough other weapons and ammunition. When they opened the first box, the first thing visible was a minigun (M134). Even after being lightened, it weighed nineteen kilograms. Excessive firepower, with six barrels rotating and spraying up to six thousand rounds per minute. It came with a mount, but Gyeoul lifted it with one hand.

“How do I look? Like the Governator?”

The unit members laughed under their breath. He was imitating a certain movie actor who had once been governor of California. The scene where that actor fired this heavy weapon in a film was famous. Though he had handled it after lowering the rate of fire because he could not manage the recoil, and even the current Gyeoul would struggle to handle it properly at maximum speed.

A high-speed grenade launcher was added to that. They had enough firepower to pulverize hundreds of bodies even if they flooded through the entrance.

“It feels empty. Should we light a fire?”

The unit members looked startled at Gyeoul’s suggestion.

“Will that be all right?”

“Why not? Those things obviously know we’re here anyway.”

It was a kind of provocation. Gyeoul left through the entrance alone and wrapped detonation cord around a suitable tree. After moving well away, he pressed the switch.

Bang! A flash and roar snapped a small, young sequoia. He dismounted and dragged the entire thing back.

“Major. Is it all right not to hurry with rescuing the survivors?”

Gyeoul answered the worried Morales.

“We don’t know exactly where they are, so we can’t just barge in, can we? No need to worry too much. Sick hostage-takers won’t kill the hostages easily. Think of them as bait to keep us here.”

As he said that, he swung his crowbar. Crack. Thwack. Wood chips flew. After driving the crowbar in deep several times, he bent it, and firewood split away. He repeated the work without any sign of strain. If smoke rose, the survivors would see it too. The mutants would naturally try to block their approach. If they could identify the direction from that noise, it would help. It would be rough, but better than moving with no information.

He burned small splinters as kindling. The firewood was not dry, so it produced a lot of smoke. After the fire grew larger, Gyeoul tried putting on night vision. He wanted to check whether the light interfered, just in case. It was for the soldiers more than for himself. In the normal green view, he saw Xcel.

Alejandro grumbled.

“Mutants get to screw, horses get to screw, and what am I doing here...?”

Slightly flustered, Gyeoul hurried over. Not to stop them. He just needed to soothe Murcielago, the mare Schultz had named. During mating, a kicked stallion could be seriously injured, or even killed. Even this would not have been possible without 「Riding」 at level 10.

“You did not come to stop them, sir?”

Schultz looked doubtful. Gyeoul nodded without turning back.

“There were signs. There’s a limit to suppressing instinct too. If we force them to stop, they might act strangely during the operation.”

“But what if my horse gets pregnant?”

“There’s no guarantee she’ll get pregnant, and the operation won’t last long enough for that to become a problem.”

The audience from another world howled. The content was the same as Private Alejandro’s lament. Mutants got to screw, and animals got to screw. Gyeoul paid no attention to the log and stroked Murcielago. At the same time, he asked Schultz, who looked better than before.

“How’s the dog?”

“I think its mouth is bothering it, but otherwise it seems fine.”

The dachshund with its mouth tied had tried to remove the cord with its short front paws as soon as it was freed from luggage duty. Schultz kept stopping it by tugging on the leash made from dangling restraints and warning it. After whining again and again, the dog glumly accepted the lesson.

The horses’ mating ended in twenty seconds. Gyeoul gestured to Schultz.

“Untie it.”

“Sir?”

“I said untie it. It doesn’t matter right now.”

They were deliberately lighting a fire, so what did a barking dog matter? Even if an engagement broke out, it would be a defensive battle. The dog might be frightened by gunfire, explosions, and the plague’s chorus and go wild, but they could not keep it tied forever. It had already spent half a day as luggage. He did not want to see a dog they had gone to the trouble of saving lose its mind, and he wanted even less to see it bite someone.

The downside had to be treated as the price of the soldiers’ psychological stability. Schultz looked more at ease than before too. Gyeoul nodded.

“I’m glad you look all right, though.”

“Yes. It does not seem to have any particular injuries. If we keep feeding it well, it will recover.”

“I meant you, Schultz. You’ve looked unstable in a lot of ways since that day.”

If it had gotten a little worse, he had been planning to rotate Schultz out, even if it took some strain. There were reserve mobile unit members like Private Wesley. Better that than carrying a risk factor around.

“I am sorry for worrying you. Did you allow me to bring this one along because of me, sir?”

“That wasn’t the only reason.”

Gyeoul denied it, but Schultz did not look convinced. It was not a misunderstanding that had to be cleared up.

“Was seeing the infected fetus that shocking?”

Even if it had been, there would have been nothing strange about it. The plague’s reproduction guaranteed a war that would continue for a long time. Maybe even after receiving education, it had only felt vague, and then the moment Schultz saw it, the horrible reality came rushing in.

Gyeoul kept watch and waited for an answer. In the quiet, the dog, whose mouth was finally free, barked yip-yip and spun in circles. Gyeoul signaled to the startled unit members that it was fine. Schultz’s answer came after a long pause.

“I suppose it showed. It is nothing, really. It reminded me of the past.”

“The past?”

“We were expecting a baby. A boy.”

“...I’m sorry. Was it illness?”

“It was terrorism.”

That meant Schultz had lost a wife and child together. Now that Gyeoul thought about it, Schultz was on the older side for that rank. It was not a problem in military culture, and given the state of the world, it was not strange either.

“I was out of my mind for a while, then I enlisted to get revenge. But once I actually experienced the battlefield, this was not the kind of fight I had imagined. Even when I killed the enemy, it did not feel real. I couldn’t feel that this was my enemy. Far from feeling relieved, I only grew more and more frustrated, and it felt like something was going wrong...”

“...”

“Then when I saw children shooting guns, I could not bear it anymore. It turned out I really had been taking my anger out on the wrong people. Damn it. I never thought the world would turn into this and I would enlist again.”

Schultz shook their head.

“I will make sure you have no reason to worry from now on. Is there anything else you would like to say, sir?”

“Nothing else, if you’re all right. But if it gets hard, tell me anytime.”

“This is really... It feels pretty awkward when you look after us in this kind of way, Major.”

“Why? I’m still the commander, aren’t I?”

That came from a major of an unusual age. Schultz laughed lightly.

After sending the soldier off to rest, Gyeoul slowly erased the expression he had put on. Then he mulled over the conversation that had just passed. There had been a discomfort in it that scratched at him.

The stone inside him, the one that never grew lighter, was sometimes the desire for revenge.

Schultz had said their past had been taking anger out on the wrong target. But Gyeoul had once said this. To the woman who no longer came, or no longer could, that if she wanted to hate, she would have to hate everyone in the world.

‘The people who made my parents, and the people who made those people, and the far more numerous people who made those people again...’

So the hatred that sometimes boiled up, the hatred that wished things would disappear, always aimed at the whole world. The weight of the stone was like the apocalypse. It was a heart that hated people. He wanted to stop thinking.

But was that not the very driving force that had created the world outside?

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

#Control AI, I AM

I just remembered something I meant to mention before and forgot.

In Chapter 213, Gates of Hell, the comment I had been waiting for appeared.

The Control AI referred to itself with a personal pronoun for the first time in that episode.

Thank you, Links4349.

Most readers probably noticed but did not say anything, but for anyone who did not know, I wanted you to know. :)

#Q&A

Q. UnlimitedOne: @It could be a stalemate, or something could blow up somewhere and everything could collapse... (horrifying) The fact that the government is still alive really is a huge advantage.

A. That is right. Government and order are tremendous forces. It will be mentioned in the story too, but you can see it as a butterfly effect born from Gyeoul’s efforts.

Q. AutumnWindFallingLeaves: @Now the East will collapse. And hasn’t Australia already collapsed?

A. It is easy to think that because of the April Vengeance arc, but in the story, Australia still maintains a government system. In fact, Korea and Japan do too. The problem is that they only occupy parts of island regions, so in practical terms it is not much different from anarchy.

Q. AboveTheSky: What I don’t understand is, why wear body armor against ghouls? Body armor does not protect areas that are easy to bite, does it?

A. Sadogun’s later comment was generally accurate.

First, the purpose of body armor is protection against fragments more than protection against gunfire. Since mutant hordes mainly carry out sudden close-range attacks, Danger Close artillery fire and bombing happen often. Situations where friend and foe mix together also occur fairly frequently. At times like that, protection against friendly fire is needed too.

You also have to consider that not enough time has passed for the supply system to change. Change in a huge organization is not that easy. If, while preparing a large-scale operation, they tried to change production facilities, select bidders, completely replace inventory, and push new supply, the administrative burden of logistics would sharply increase. Even if parts of the existing system do not fit the new reality, this is a situation where it is better to keep that system running.

As mentioned once in the story, the U.S. military is a group that unified all fuel as jet fuel to reduce administrative burden. Not because they lack common sense, but because they know that in the end, that is more efficient. America’s anti-ship missiles, which have lower performance than Russian ones, can be considered a similar case.

Q. PleasePickUpSoap: @Can we assume most naval power at sea was wiped out because of aquatic mutants?

A. It will be mentioned soon, but attacking large ships is not an easy task.

Q. Faunus: @I looked up the published book and it was 9,000 won with 2,000 won shipping. I want to buy it for my collection anyway. When it ends, will I be able to buy it cheaper?

A. I believe that will be difficult because of the fixed book price system.

The Author’s Note seems to be getting too long, so I will stop the answers here. :)

Footnotes:

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