WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 298: Sacramento (13)

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The boundary between seasons was the deadline. On September 1, a new policy came down from divisional command.

「Prioritize enemy annihilation over hostage rescue.」

By any common-sense standard, it was an impossible order. But there was a reason for it. Signs of starvation had been observed among the mutants. Cannibalism was less an act of desperation than a warning that the end was near. If the monsters had nothing to eat, what human food could possibly remain? One rescued survivor testified that the mutants had fed them cockroaches. Later, even those had been eaten by the mutants themselves, leaving nothing to give the hostage.

How long could a person stay sane after monsters forced them to eat roaches?

After receiving the policy, First Sergeant Merriweather summed it up like this.

“People like Papillon only exist in movies.”

If the hostages had at least been kept together, they might have been able to comfort one another, but the mutants had not given the slightest thought to human mental survival. The most recently rescued survivor had been found completely deranged, and the body was on the verge of death as well. No matter what they tried to feed the survivor, they screamed and vomited it back up.

Three hostages still remained in mutant hands.

An attack that disregarded their safety might, in fact, be for their sake. That was command’s judgment, and it was also the opinion of citizens sick of taking losses on a favorable battlefield. The argument was that they had already done enough for a handful of hostages.

‘Honestly, it’s an unpleasant line of reasoning...’

In the end, it came down to mindset. And Gyeoul agreed that this was the best option.

Some criticized the army’s strategy, saying none of this would have happened if the city had simply been kept under blockade. Since mutants were capable of Metabolic Suppression, they argued, the mutants would have had no reason to starve like this if the army had not forced exhaustion on them by setting up fortified positions inside the city and cutting off underground routes. The hostages would have remained safe for longer too.

Stupid nonsense.

To Gyeoul, it was irresponsible backseat advice from people who bore no responsibility. As long as the city was in mutant hands, the survivors downtown were effectively hostages of the plague too. Suppressing metabolism did not make calorie consumption vanish altogether either. In the end, what those attention-seekers were advocating was nothing more than a delayed catastrophe.

[Push in! Push in!]

Jin-seok’s sharp voice came through the command console. The helmet camera feed came in cleanly, without a single line of noise. While surveillance equipment had been steadily installed along the underground routes, receiver antennas had been placed along with the cable cameras. Lights mounted on the armored suit brightly lit the dark space.

Reserve troops were waiting above ground. Once the Heavy Infantry of 2nd Platoon opened a route, another platoon would follow and hold the secured area. Since the route was cut off every few blocks, the mutants had no choice but to confront the Heavy Infantry or burst out onto the surface.

In a confined space without even Grumble, Heavy Infantry were nearly invincible.

[Kueeeeeek!]

A small group of mutants burst out of the smoke, which had grown thicker the farther they advanced. The distance was too short to answer with gunfire. Jin-seok reflexively leaned forward. Boom! His view shook. But with his center of gravity pitched forward, he met the mutants’ charge like a fortress wall.

[Die, you fucker!]

The curses that slipped out in a crisis were still in Korean. Jin-seok grabbed a monster clinging to him like a leech with one hand and crushed it in his grip. The force of the contracting artificial muscle was like a powerful bear’s bite. Crunch. Crack. The infected leg bones snapped easily. When he swung it as it was, the legs, with only muscle left, stretched like rubber bands. Its head struck the wall like a flail. The neck broke, and brain matter sprayed out.

Then he kicked the monster clinging to his leg away like a ball and sprayed support weapon fire one-handed at the one charging along the wall. The sight of flesh tearing apart at a distance close enough to smell it was like watching a cheap horror movie. Blood and organs surged from the abdomen shredded by the hail of bullets. Twisted intestines caught on the muzzle like rope. Feces thinned by blood dripped down, drop by drop.

Captain Singh voiced concern.

“The Heavy Infantry platoon may develop emotional problems later.”

“I think so too.”

Gyeoul agreed. PTSD was no exception even for soldiers who piloted drones, but the likelihood did rise with how directly a soldier experienced combat. Jin-seok already had a tendency to grit his teeth and push through, which made it worse. The same went for the platoon members under his command.

Besides, the soldiers’ fatigue had already built up badly.

Lieutenant Foster reported.

“Battery consumption is far above average. I’ll adjust the expected operating time. Seventeen minutes until attack halt. 3rd Platoon is entering Passage A-2.”

Then Foster coughed lightly. Even after being told to rest, the operations officer had stubbornly come out and taken a seat in the command armored vehicle, insisting on not lying in bed when the operation ended. Gyeoul had accepted the repeated requests.

‘It’ll be over soon anyway.’

If they did not consider the hostages, wiping out the mutants was easy.

As Boar Hunt moved toward its final stage, the number of troops deployed to the city was growing by the day. At this rate, it felt as though there might be more humans than mutants.

Maybe the numbers had already reversed. The mutants in this city had practically been abandoned for the sake of preserving the plague’s total population. Their numbers had never been overwhelming to begin with, and they had only been steadily whittled down, with no reinforcements from outside.

Humans overwhelming the plague even in scale. Gyeoul found it strangely novel. Local phenomenon or not, this twenty-seventh apocalypse world had broken the mold in all sorts of ways.

“Incoming from Gray Task Force. Engagement in front of city hall. No issue with blocking the escape route.”

After hearing the communications officer’s report, Gyeoul switched screens. A feed appeared, showing a group of mutants driven out onto the road by the pressure from the Heavy Infantry and one-sidedly annihilated under crossfire. Heavy machine guns and high-speed grenade launchers had been arranged so their fields of fire crossed in three layers, and they were firing in volleys.

Gyeoul gave a short order.

“Relay to 2nd Platoon. No need to consider retreat.”

Foster checked.

“Will that be all right?”

“It’s not as if they can’t move at all once the batteries run out. At the very least, they can withdraw under their own power. The distance isn’t long either. Rather than losing about an hour to charging, it’s better to pressure the enemy hard and finish this quickly.”

“Mm, ngh, understood.”

The sick operations officer agreed, and the communications officer passed it on.

By Gyeoul’s calculations, the current power remaining was enough to break through the remaining section.

[Trickster spotted!]

Tension rose at a Heavy Infantry soldier’s warning. Not because it was a difficult enemy to deal with, but because the presence of a special mutant also raised the chance that a hostage was nearby.

Gyeoul gave no additional orders.

[Hey! You bastard, put the grenade launcher away! Forward! Forward!]

Jin-seok, the platoon leader, fiercely scolded a platoon member who was about to fire a grenade. Just because the order said to prioritize annihilation over rescue did not mean they could ignore hostages entirely. It was the kind of situation that would weigh on the soldiers.

Kyaaaaaak!

If it went out through the manhole overhead, it would immediately run into crossfire. With nowhere to flee, the Trickster’s rib cage flashed like heated metal. But microwaves could hardly stop Heavy Infantry. As the mechanized soldier advanced while shielding his vision with his arm, a whip made of muscle flew at him next. Naturally, it was a lash charged with intense bioelectricity. But the armored suit had been designed from the start with battles against cunning special mutants in mind, and it was protected against external current.

Crunch!

A boneless arm was crushed in his grip. Blood spurted. The monster screamed. Jin-seok yanked the special mutant hard, as if hauling in a fishing line, and ordered the platoon.

[Push! Push no matter what! You won’t die, you idiots! Check for hostages!]

At the same time, he crushed the Trickster down. It was a brutal grapple. The Trickster was larger, but the Heavy Infantry had the advantage in strength. He did not twist its neck right away because he was taking into account its control over the mutants.

[It doesn’t look like there are any hostages!]

[Check properly! If someone’s still alive by now, they’ll be hard to tell apart from a mutant!]

As he said that, Jin-seok steadily disabled the Trickster. He broke bones, bent joints backward, crushed muscle so it could not move, then used the special mutant’s whip of flesh and muscle like rope to tie it down. Hah, huff. His ragged breathing made the radio crackle. The battery level shown on the monitor plunged by 4% in the blink of an eye. It was in the red zone.

Even so, Jin-seok’s composure was impressive.

‘He keeps getting better.’

Gyeoul raised his assessment of Jin-seok. His profanity was rough, but his orders made sense every time. In real combat, where a person’s mind could easily go blank, that was excellent.

By the time the battle ended, every Heavy Infantry soldier was stained with crushed blood and flesh. Once the excitement faded, exhausted groans came from here and there. The armored suit’s power only supported the weight of the armored suit itself. Moving their own bodies was still tiring.

On top of that, their role demanded violent close combat. It was routine for them to trust their defenses and throw themselves in, or to collide with mutants charging at full strength.

Not long ago, someone had even suffered a hernia.

[Ugh... There’s no way this is a hostage, right?]

While searching for a hostage with the HUD battery warning light blinking, one Heavy Infantry soldier lifted a skeletal corpse.

Squish, squish. A comrade who had stepped through blood and flesh examined the corpse and lightly scolded the soldier.

[No way. Look at the rotted skin. Throw it away. It makes me sick.]

The last part was not a joke. One soldier had already vomited inside an armored suit.

“David Actual to David 2 Actual. Gather your troops and come up to the surface. We will proceed with charging and resupply. Withdraw to our location with the armored vehicles.”

When Gyeoul gave the order over the radio, Jin-seok’s view, which had been fixed blankly in place, swayed upward. It looked as though he had been crouching against a wall and was now getting up.

‘He’ll be happy when he hears the news, right?’

There was something to tell him that he would be glad to hear.

The returning 2nd Platoon went through the washdown process while still wearing their armored suits. The disinfectant sprayed at high pressure carried an acrid chemical smell. Some soldiers struggled to scrape bits of flesh and bone from the moving parts. For places they could not reach with their own hands, they had to help one another.

Gyeoul approached Jin-seok after he raised his visor.

“Good work.”

“Aren’t we still in combat?”

“This area is mostly a mop-up now. No matter how much I’m the one in charge, interfering in every detail of other Companies’ command would be a bit much.”

The two other Company-level task forces under Gyeoul’s command each had their own Company commander, so excessive involvement was unnecessary and improper. Broad orders were enough.

“Anyway.”

He brought it up casually.

“Lieutenant Park Jin-seok. Congratulations on your promotion.”

“...”

The people around him reacted faster than the man himself. Heavy applause spread in hollow metallic clangs. Jin-seok, who had looked like a still life of an exhausted person, checked suspiciously.

“Is it confirmed? Or scheduled?”

“It’s confirmed. I put you up for promotion review when the battle at Aidlin Power Plant ended. If anything, the processing was late. I think you’ll probably get a medal later too... Anyway, starting today, you’ll be receiving Lieutenant’s pay. Come to the Company commander’s office when we return to base. I’ll give you your rank insignia.”

After hearing the answer, the corner of Jin-seok’s mouth twitched. He was clearly pleased, but what he said while trying hard to remain calm was this.

“I was second as a combat group leader, but I’m advancing in rank first.”

An out-of-nowhere comparison with Yura.

“...Is that important?”

“It is not important.”

It did not look that way at all. Perhaps he realized it right away when he saw Gyeoul hesitate, because Jin-seok’s expression crumpled.

“Don’t tell me the 1st Platoon leader is being promoted too?”

“Well, I put both of you up for review together... Ensign Lee Yura was probably promoted today too, right? There were no particular disqualifying issues...”

“...I see.”

The area around them went quiet. The Heavy Infantry soldiers watched their platoon leader’s mood.

Jin-seok no longer looked even slightly happy.

========== Author’s Note ==========

#ForcedVacation

Naver told me that because of a company event, they would only accept manuscripts through next Monday if they were submitted by yesterday.

But they only told me that late last Monday afternoon...

I somehow made the deadline, but because I wrote while cutting down on sleep, I ended up with body aches again.

I am such a frail old thing...

#Q&A

Q. CurryRice: @This is a very minor question, but with Gyeoul’s physical specs, can he live an ordinary daily life?? If he’s somewhere without soundproofing, wouldn’t he hear every sound from outside and get distracted? And if a TV or monitor had bad image quality or low resolution, it feels like it would keep bothering his eyes lol.

A. Since the control personality selectively activates sensory correction depending on the type, it is not that severe. :)

Q. FullMetal: @I’m curious what kind of opinion you received. If it isn’t rude to ask, could you share it...

A. It was nothing major. The question was how someone could be electrocuted while wearing combat boots. They said it made everyone other than the protagonist look like idiots.

I had been putting off the edit because I was busy... It’s simple, but when my body hurts, even that becomes annoying...

Q. Creeden: @Public service advertisements haven’t appeared lately. It would be nice if one came out around now.

A. Early on, there was a short description of what kind of situation causes an intermission to appear. If you think about why intermissions have not been appearing lately with that in mind, you may start to suspect the author in all sorts of ways. Hehe.

Q. Strawberry Munch Munch: @Is this the place rumored across the whole galaxy as the place to hold a ritual for passing the civil service exam?

A. You may pray for passing every exam, including the civil service exam. I would like to benefit a little from successful readers too.

Q. Calpis: @Ride the popularity of filling a million dollars with leftover gifts that would be thrown away, and go to the White House! Long live Frozen!

A. As the owner of the White House, that would be impossible, but as a secretary, maybe... Frozen is not allowed because it must be ruled by Her Majesty Elsa.

Q. UnlimitedOne: @Trial... I see. / I liked that Gyeoul and Star Child seemed to influence each other’s changes. The airship in the last chapter too, and the mutants too. Though for these parts, it might have been better if they contained a little less childlike innocence.

A. Strange. I did reduce the childlike innocence content...

Q. BlueWave2: Author, were the stars influenced by Barbyeol?

A. No, they were not. Though I do like The Wind and Star Cluster.

Q. PainKillingPoet: @Could I describe that in old thing terms as wanting to throw everything away because it’s annoying, but even that is too annoying, so you hold it all close instead?

A. Uh... Old thing expression?... Mm... I think that’s a little different... Rather than throwing it away, it would be more like killing it or driving it insane...

Q. Third_Wing: @Is the wicked author not going to do something like multiple releases to mentally attack the human readers whose CSAT was postponed?

A. I would take more damage, so it would be a loss.

Q. qgegegqe: @A protagonist who is detached in many ways compared to the described age might be a characteristic of author’s novels...

A. Well... I’ve only written one fanfic and one original so far, so isn’t it a little early to discuss the overall characteristics of my novels?

Q. Strawberry Munch Munch: @I suddenly got curious. Gyeoul played several times before the current run, right? Then during that time, did he make efforts to raise the grades of skills, like combat ability and such, for example grinding, or reference strategies from other broadcasters? Or was it purely experience Gyeoul gained while enjoying(?) playing?

A. He did not deliberately reference them, but Insight, one of the technical corrections, also reflects big data, so you could say the records of Days after Apocalypse progressed by other people were indirectly conveyed to him as well.

Footnotes:

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