WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 292: Sacramento (7)

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Two steps to the side. After securing an angle of fire, Gyeoul thinned out the mutant horde with aimed shots that functioned like suppressive fire. He was not trying to kill everything in sight. He was lowering the enemy’s density to give the allies breathing room. The worst-case scenario right now was the number of mutants overwhelming their side’s momentary stopping power.

At the same time, he tried to make contact.

“This is David Actual! All units, focus only on your front!”

He snapped the gun aside, flung out the empty magazine, inserted a new one, and emphasized the order again.

“I repeat! Focus only on your front! Stop worrying about this side!”

His words were rough because he had to shout over the furious gunfire. Also because the situation was that urgent. While the troops deployed on the outer perimeter were fretting over the attack on command, and while some of them crouched down to avoid getting caught in defensive fire from this side, 「Crisis Detection」 and 「Combat Sense」, linked by tactical 「Insight」, screamed mad warnings of a threat from beyond the perimeter.

Shake them from inside and outside at once, then bring them down. It had to be the decisive move of the most cunning monster. It might also have been something the plague horde had learned from the operation to eliminate Tricksters, Preventive Scalping. The tactical concept of removing the individual exercising control first.

“Close the door!”

At Gyeoul’s firm order, the communications officer standing awkwardly inside the vehicle pressed the close button. With the sound of a motor winding a chain, the command armored vehicle’s rear hatch began to rise.

“Control the perimeter! Tell them to hold their current positions! And coordinate with higher command! Once air support arrives, take out the anti-aircraft guns first!”

The communications officer barely managed to nod.

Foster dropped the magazine while reloading. The operations officer immediately let go of the rifle and switched to pistol fire. Tatang! Tang! Two shots to the torso, one to the head. Instinct carved into the body through training came out mechanically.

It would have worked on a human. But the short special mutants, probably altered children, had an astonishing lack of pain response. Far more so than even other mutants. Small or not, they were still special mutants. So pistol fire lacked power, even with frangible rounds that shattered inside the body. In the footage they had reviewed beforehand, these were the things that clung to arms with their teeth even with half their bodies hanging in tatters. A bullet struck one in the head, but it must not have been fatal. The shot that pierced below its diaphragm only weakened its breathing and caught at its footing.

A well-honed longsword fell over it. The one whose cervical vertebrae were cut by the blade’s vertical drop finally tumbled in a spray of red. It scraped along the asphalt and slid with its own momentum all the way to the operations officer’s feet. Its remaining eye rolled, and its teeth clacked, but everything below its neck refused to move. Foster shuddered and fired two more shots into the head. Emotionally, it was an unavoidable waste.

The key was mass. The weight behind a skilled cut far exceeded the stopping power of a bullet. The force of a charge and forward-moving body weight locked into precise technique, and some were even split from top to bottom by a single cut. An upper body with a beating heart writhed above strands of small and large intestine spread across the ground.

“Second Platoon! Hold your current position!”

[But if we send the Heavy Infantry to your side...]

“That is an order! First Platoon, Third Platoon, hold your defense! Block Second Platoon’s rear! Make sure nothing from this side hits Second Platoon from behind!”

Gyeoul’s sharp orders continued without a break in his fire. The hostage was one thing, but they could not let the Trickster escape. The reason it had gone up to the upper floor, where its retreat could easily be cut off, was first to provoke them, but it must also have been confident it could get out at this moment.

“Frag out!”

The intelligence officer warned them about a grenade throw. It was shouted the instant it was thrown, so there was no time to stop it.

Kyak!

A grenade thrown without waiting for the fuse to shorten was perfect for a mutant to target. It leaped, palm swinging to strike the grenade away. In that moment, its wrist tore open. Two shots from Gyeoul. The next instant, the monster passed the peak of its jump and snatched the grenade with its remaining hand as it fell. The first attempt missed, the second succeeded. Realizing it was too late to throw it, it hugged the grenade just before it detonated. Boom! The crouched special mutant burst in midair. Its lightened body fell and got in the way of its own kind.

Gyeoul could not stop it because more urgent targets had appeared. Ones wearing body armor, or ones carrying acid babies on their backs. They seemed to mean to close the distance before throwing the acid babies. That way, the babies would not burst above their own heads.

A different engine sound from the armored vehicle drew closer. It was the Humvee that had been escorting the command armored vehicle from the start.

“DAYUM!”

A curse came from the turret. The heavy machine gun had malfunctioned. Clack, clack! The jammed live round was forced out, then it fired again. Each time gunshots like cannon fire boomed, the mutants exposed in the line of fire were torn into pieces that could never be put back together.

Yet only one died for every several rounds.

Trying to disperse the firepower, the mutant horde spread wide to the left and right, and before long, they no longer fit in one field of view. They crawled out in swarms from the thick smoke over the long-split road. They looked like demons crawling out of a sulfurous hell. Regular variants filled the numbers that special mutants alone could not provide. Many of them held things torn from vehicles, like doors, over their heads.

Mortar fire was impossible inside the minimum range.

‘Even if it were possible, I would have stopped them from firing.’

Even on a day with little wind, mortar shells had a minimum margin of error. Gyeoul was one thing, but with bad luck, a shell could fall on the tank stuck in the pit. What if it hit the rear of the vehicle, the weakly armored engine grille, and ignited the fuel? The crew would not even be able to escape.

‘Did it really calculate this far...?’

The idea of using the tank as a shield to limit direct attacks on the crack.

Even if that assumption was true, grenade launcher fire had no such limit.

Another Humvee protruding from the left of the command armored vehicle fired airburst grenades in succession. It was a downpour of steel fragments pouring onto the mutants. The ones with shields somehow held out. But more of them tumbled back down before they could finish crawling out.

The fight at the outer perimeter was growing fierce as well. The first sensory correction had been right.

“Lieutenant!”

Gyeoul pushed Foster up onto the armored vehicle. Foster had been having trouble breathing for a while now. If a mutant managed to get close, Foster would be helpless.

At that moment, a sudden gust of wind swept in.

[Guns, Guns, Guns.]

An attack helicopter appeared like a mirage, curving around the top floor of an abandoned hotel, and tore up the road. Explosions from autocannon rounds raced several times in different straight lines. It was not the sort of power that could be blocked by something like a car door. Perhaps Communications Officer Evans had relayed the situation accurately, because the pit where the tank should be stayed outside the attack range every time.

It would have been good if they could send the rest of the staff into the armored vehicle now, but Gyeoul’s command armored vehicle had not yet received acid-resistant coating. If it took a direct hit from an acid baby, everyone would be in danger. They also needed to stop the mutant horde here in case it headed for the Treasury Department building.

Captain Singh let go of the sword. It must have lodged wrong in bone, because no matter how hard Singh pulled, it would not come free. Gyeoul bought the Captain time to reload. Gyeoul’s own ammunition had run almost dry at some point.

“Give me a magazine!”

The First Sergeant and the Captain each threw him a spare magazine.

But smoke was rising from the reddish barrel. This was no situation to control his rate of fire. If he kept shooting the way he had until now, it would not last long.

It would either warp or rupture.

The latter could kill Gyeoul. The weather had been hot to begin with. The hottest part of the season had passed, but it was still summer. Even with 「Survival Instinct」, it was close.

Fortunately, the split earth was no longer spitting out living corpses. Maybe the way was blocked by the remains rolling down, or maybe they had judged this raid a failure...

Grurrr, grurrr.

A dragging metallic sound mixed with the booms. Others might not have heard it, but for Gyeoul, it was far too clear an ill omen to miss. When he confirmed what it was, he felt stunned.

Beyond the slowly dispersing smoke, a mutant was dragging over a burning gas cylinder.

Then again, how many gas containers must have been left behind in an abandoned city...? Even a small pressure cylinder that looked like something used for an RV was heavy enough to be a serious burden for a small special mutant. Worse, it had been caught in an autocannon blast, leaving one arm torn off. Its ruined face was red with strain. It showed no concern at all for its one remaining hand burning away.

Gyeoul fired without hesitation.

Gek!

The special mutant died instantly from the bullet that broke through its eyeball. The gas cylinder rolled across the ground on its own. A bullet fired by someone unknown hit the cylinder and kicked up sparks.

Contrary to common sense, pressure cylinders did not explode easily. If you wanted to make one burst by shooting it, you needed something like a heavy machine gun.

‘But if it is already on fire...’

The lower the pressure dropped, the higher the risk of explosion. It was hard to believe it had been full to begin with. It was a time bomb.

Gyeoul grabbed the sword hilt the Captain had let go of. Crunch! With strength beyond human limits, he pulled it free in one stroke, then ran forward and cleared a path. His cuts were meant to remove obstacles, not kill. And evasion came before killing. Even the still-living mutants racing forward could not stop that sprint.

Thud! Gyeoul’s body shook. His body armor caught friendly fire. He recovered his staggering balance with a roll. Hot sweat fell in heavy drops. A filthy mass of flesh crushed under the palm pushing against the ground.

At last, after sliding to a stop beside the gas cylinder, Gyeoul ignored the flames and shut the valve. His thick gloves and new combat uniform should hold for a moment, he thought. Even so, the pain of cooking flesh rushed in. Despite the risk of dying from shock, it had been Gyeoul’s own choice to set pain to match reality. He still felt the same. He gritted his teeth and endured it.

But the fire did not go out.

Gas continued to leak from the valve loosened by heat.

Gyeoul decided to trust the tank’s frontal armor and threw the pressure cylinder into the pit. Given the weight, it was a 「Throwing」 close to a fastball. Then he hurriedly stripped off the burning glove and pressed the radio’s transmit button.

“Valor 1-3! This is David Actual! You are absolutely not to leave the vehicle!”

A tank wrapped in heavy armor would protect the people inside even under concentrated bombardment, as long as it was not a direct hit. The tank itself would merely be disabled. Since there was no telling when it might explode, the crew’s wait could be longer than expected. It might not explode at all, but that was the best case, and hard to expect.

[David Actual! This is David 2-1! We are facing the Trickster! It has no escape route now!]

Was that so?

While Foster and Second Platoon communicated, Gyeoul recovered the sword, turned, and struck both sides. Two regular variants that had rushed to point-blank range split along different diagonals. Their hearts, exposed by cuts through the rib cage, were masses of muscle distorted like tumors. Their wounded lungs convulsed.

The rest were nearly cleaned up. Only a few remained because no one could fire in Gyeoul’s direction.

“You should not have done that, sir.”

The First Sergeant, who had fought through the fierce battle, protested with a stern expression. It almost sounded like a scolding, but as the most senior noncommissioned officer in the unit, First Sergeant Merriweather had the right to say it.

“I am sorry, Sergeant. It was too urgent.”

“...”

“Lieutenant. The Trickster? Is it still with the hostage?”

Foster climbed down from the armored vehicle with a groan and reported with an uncertain expression.

“It is showing strange behavior.”

“Strange behavior?”

“Yes. The other threats have been eliminated, so I think you can see for yourself.”

Gyeoul tilted his head. What on earth was it doing?

Woooooogh! Woooogh! Wooooooooo!

Surrounded by Heavy Infantry, the Trickster was screaming and shaking the hostage child by the collar. But... there was a reason Foster called it strange behavior.

‘Is this thing... throwing a tantrum right now?’

It was truly an animal’s rage. The kicks it slammed into the ground were so powerful that its bones broke, and from striking the wall like mad, one whip-like deformed arm was covered all over in bloody bruises.

Then again, the assault just now had been precise enough to chill even Gyeoul. From the mutant’s point of view, it must have been an attack it had prepared and waited for.

Even so, this individual seemed incredibly hot-tempered. Just as people differed from one another, it was true that mutants had individual differences too...

They could not shoot recklessly because it might electrocute the child at any moment, and now it even let go of the child and started slamming its head into a stone pillar. Blood and bone fragments flew from the first merciless headbutt. The soldiers of Second Platoon also seemed too dumbfounded to think of shooting.

In the end, the monster slumped down with its skull broken.

“...”

Even for Gyeoul, this was his first time seeing a mutant kill itself in anger.

========== Author’s Note ==========

#Q&A

Q. Strawberry Munch Munch: @You have such a bad friend. At times like that, you are not supposed to eat wasabi. You have to inhale it through your nose.

A. I will just breathe through my mouth... T_T

Q. Third_Wing: @You are all so cruel. At times like that, doing consecutive releases makes it better! When Tunguska demands tribute, you kidnap them and supply childlike innocence like Peking duck!

A. Consecutive releases... what nonsense! Hurry up and bring me author Lee Yeongdo’s new work instead! (angry)

Q. Calpis: @He was a good soldier... I caught a cold too, so if the author tries using wasabi and tells us how it goes, I would be grateful hehe.

A. I tried eating it to give myself a reason to get mad at my friend, but unless you eat a serious amount, it does not work, and it does not last long either. Instead, it just makes you feel spicy and wronged, so your fever gets worse. Do not do it.

Q. Guaaaaak: @The cold virus of 40,000 years in the future gave birth to a terrible variant. To think the author, a Great Old One, would come down with body aches. Listening to what others say, apparently you get better if you do consecutive releases.

A. I said no consecutive releases... To begin with, if you are a good reader, should you not allow the author to rest when the author has body aches? Not the 40,000-year rest that passes by when you press recommend...

Q. Sunshine Nap: @It is cool to see him securing both the ethics and benefits of a superhuman... but I am scared ordinary people will see it, try to copy him, and end up in disaster.

A. A person’s world is other people. Without help from ordinary people, would it not be hard even for a superhuman to change the world of people? :)

Q. Bug: @Star Child’s control is... If a scientist comes into Afterlife Insurance and uses their own patent, a rollback would happen too... Truly the heroine! I can see yandere tendencies.

A. That is a misunderstanding. It is an operating policy unrelated to Star Child’s will.

Q. Deathandeath: @What a bad friend! Wasabi is only spicy, and it will not clear your nose. I strongly recommend Carolina Reaper! I have had a cold for a month too, so it does not feel like someone else’s problem. I hope you get better soon!

A. Carolina Reaper... I see. I fully understand your deep meaning that I should quickly leave this world and find eternal rest.

Q. qgegegqe: @Hmm, Captain Singh is fighting hard, but I get the feeling he will only get in the way instead... I can clearly see the people around him looking at Gyeoul and saying, “That is not human.”

A. Still, Captain Singh is top class in the human realm by setting. Please look kindly on him. Even if he is a bearded man.

Q. 2E2: @Traffic accident kick! How many ordinary soldiers is Gyeoul’s physical ability worth? Is 1 Gyeoul = 2 high school girls = 4 special forces soldiers?

A. No. High school girls in the era of the work have become stronger than they are now. 1 high school girl is about 5 Gyeouls. This is official setting.

Q. benihilc: @Seeing you thirst for the orchard owner’s new work looks like watching someone seek childlike innocence from a couple, which is very sad T_T It is not the orchard owner’s new work, but for the childlike innocence that must have been drained by your cold, I will recommend The Gold of Pirklieben. Personally, it felt like a bright and cheerful version of A Song of Ice and Fire. Or Polaris Rhapsody. Sadly, it is not in this neighborhood. It is on BrXge, run by Golden Bough Publishing, so I hope you go find it, try taking it once, and get healthy.

A. Unfortunately, that work does not seem to suit my taste... Still, thank you for the recommendation. :)

Q. Cloury: @I came over from Naver / I think it took me over a week to catch up with the serialization / Thanks to that, I bought 3 months of Noblesse too and put all my coupons into the author haha / Please keep writing good work / May your pen stay strong.

A. I am grateful no matter where you read from. I hope you will be satisfied all the way to the end.

Footnotes:

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