WeTried Translations

Translator: Coughing Baby

Editor: Coughing Baby

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Little Prince in the Ossuary

Chapter 86

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Night by the Lake (4)

“Damn, there’s no way. We can’t cross.”

Jeffrey said it with a deep sigh. He was not exaggerating. Every officer gathered around the Humvee agreed. With everyone watching him, Gyeoul studied the map one more time, tracing the upper reaches of Burrito Creek.

The creek began at High Mountain to the south. Water running down the mountain’s northern slope fed into the low ground west of Santa Margarita Lake. Even if every channel dried up by drought had come back to life, the odds of finding a spot where vehicles could ford, even with an upstream detour, were very slim.

Gyeoul made his decision.

“We leave the vehicles.”

At first, no one understood what the boy officer meant. If they abandoned the vehicles, how did that solve anything?

Gyeoul proposed a single-rope crossing. They would throw a grappling hook tied to rope, secure it, then cross while hanging from it. Jeffrey had expected the mission to be called off, and his face crumpled. Even veteran Corporal Liberman looked rattled.

“We should’ve brought the launcher. I should’ve seen this coming. That was short-sighted.”

The U.S. military grappling-hook launcher worked on the same basic principle as an air gun. Compress air with a compressor, load the hook, then fire. It was not common equipment, because almost nobody ever needed it.

There were also grenade-type grappling hooks fired from a rifle muzzle. But those were too small to hold a person’s weight. And they did not have one anyway.

Gyeoul spoke again.

“We have hooks, right? Then we throw by hand. Move. If we’re any later, we might lose even this option.”

The river was rising by the minute. Once the area was fully flooded, it would be too late. Jeffrey answered.

“With wind like this, I don’t know if it’ll work. I’ll round up the guys most confident in their throwing.”

Luckily, they had enough hooks. Even as they tied ropes to them, the soldiers looked unconvinced by what they were about to do. Sergeant Elliot muttered.

“I mean, sure, we trained this, but I never thought we’d actually use it in real ops...”

Corporal Liberman snapped at him.

“There’s a reason for every drill, dumbass.”

“Who said there wasn’t? I’m just saying life throws some crazy stuff at you. Maybe nobody in the whole Army has ever had to do this.”

Even after choosing a narrower point, the throw distance was close to forty meters. And they had to do it in rain and hard wind. It was difficult even for Gyeoul, despite his 「Throwing」 correction.

At first, the soldiers moved like cowboys in a western. They stood in place, spun the rope, and threw. The hooks were dragged off by rough gusts and splashed into mid-river one after another. As failures piled up, stubborn pride kicked in, and they started throwing closer to proper manual form. The correct posture was a running start for inertia, then committing the whole body at release as the rotating rope came around.

Splat.

The finish looked pathetic every time. Soldiers wiped out on their throws and ended up with mud all over their faces. Those still waiting snickered. Then they soon ended up in the same state. The muddy soldiers started cheering each other on.

“Come on, engineers! This is your specialty, right?”

“Shut up!”

One engineer charged forward full of spirit, only for the wind to steal his hook and dump him flat. Still facedown, he lifted only his head to track it. The hook flew in a clean arc, then missed the target tree by a wide margin. The engineer dropped his forehead into the dirt.

Gyeoul did not hold back either. A commander’s job was not to stay neat and dignified. So what if he got muddy? The rain would wash it off anyway. The grit getting inside his clothes was unpleasant, though.

Time passed. Just as Gyeoul considered wasting experience points to raise 「Throwing」, a restrained cheer broke out. At last, one hook caught on an oak tree across the river. The soldier who did it pumped his fist. Nearby soldiers slapped his shoulder and helmet.

Gyeoul gathered everyone and gave orders.

“Move the vehicles up there. Looks around forty meters higher than the riverbank. Even if the low ground floods, we shouldn’t lose them. There are trees around, so camouflage will be easy. Tank crews, stay and guard the vehicles. The main gun has range, so we can get fire support in an emergency. Move now. Check how much visibility you can secure to the east and report.”

A little later, the tank commander reported they could fire direct out to 1.3 kilometers. Even from the far bank as the reference point, that still gave them one kilometer. Corporal Liberman looked pleased.

“After we cross, we still have about five kilometers on foot... and twenty percent of that route is within tank range. Even if those half-dead things chase us after everything goes to hell, we’ll have some peace of mind.”

Jeffrey asked Gyeoul what he thought.

“Lieutenant-nim. Should we cross in personal combat gear? Round trip is ten kilometers, so even counting going in, opening the floodgates, and coming out, we can wrap it in three or four hours.”

personal combat gear meant no rucksack, just basic weapons and ammunition. Gyeoul shook his head.

“We don’t know that. If we’re really unlucky and the dam bursts while we’re moving, we might have to retreat to high ground and wait for the water to fall. Long isolation is possible, so no personal combat gear. We need at least three days of food and fuel, sleeping bags, and reserve ammo.”

“Huh? Three days? Do we really need that much? This whole area is low ground, so the water should drop in a day.”

“Maybe. Maybe not. Tell everyone to pack nine MREs each. Prioritize lighter menus if possible.”

MREs were not all the same weight. Depending on the menu, the difference could exceed 200 grams. It sounded minor, but across nine packs that came close to two kilograms. With lighter menus, the same weight could mean three extra meals.

If they had First Strike Rations (FSR), with their simplified contents, they could have packed even more. They did not have those now.

Corporal Liberman shook his sleepy head.

“I appreciate the thoroughness, but you don’t have to worry that much. My boys aren’t weak enough to fold over one or two kilos. Distance is short. Volume is the real problem. We’ll need to strip quite a bit from our packs.”

The soldiers moved quickly. Repacking took a little time. Gyeoul packed one for himself as well. Like the corporal said, weight was not the real concern.

Preparation was complete. Now they had to choose who crossed first. The soldiers stared uneasily at the humming rope. Conditions were nothing like an ideal training ground. They were also not fully sure the hook was fixed solidly. It held when several men pulled together, but no one felt safe yet. Someone had to cross first in personal combat gear, re-secure the line, and only then would everyone relax.

At that point Gyeoul stepped forward as if it were obvious, and the others stopped him.

“Leading by example is an officer’s virtue, sure, but Lieutenant Han takes it too far. Send our platoon leader instead. He’s stolen enough pay to earn this one.”

“Hey. Why are you picking a fight with me?”

Jeffrey snapped at Private Guilherme’s joke. It was light teasing.

Gyeoul hesitated briefly, but he did not give up the first crossing. Better to minimize risk. Why waste a rank-14 「Movement」 advantage?

The boy got onto the rope in personal combat gear. He had tied a thin line around his waist in case something went wrong. If he fell in, the soldiers would pull him out with it.

He hooked his right foot over the rope, let his left leg hang for balance, and pulled himself forward. He moved about as fast as a light run.

In a little over ten seconds, Gyeoul crossed the river, climbed onto the tree, and recovered the hook wedged between branches. On the opposite side, the soldiers loosened the rope so it sagged, giving slack for easier re-tying. Gyeoul jumped down beneath the branches. He wrapped the rope twice around the base of a massive tree and knotted it tight again and again. The same work was done on the other side.

Next, the soldiers hung the boy officer’s pack from the rope. The thin lifeline that had been tied to his waist was now used to pull the pack across.

There were a few shaky moments while the others crossed, but fortunately no accidents.

When the crossing was finished, Gyeoul checked his watch.

Current time: 8:51 p.m. If things went well, they might make it back before midnight.

The route began with a gentle climb. It was so narrow that even a single tank would struggle to pass. Even this cracked road had a name: Las Pilitas. The area had many Latino immigrants, so place and road names often made it hard to believe this was America.

‘There are neighborhoods where people hardly use English at all.’

The plan was to follow this oddly named road uphill, then once they hit the Salinas River, continue upstream. The dam was near the river’s source.

The uphill stretch ran for nearly one kilometer. As they walked, heat spread through their bodies despite the cold weather. Marching was like that. Gyeoul’s pack was also heavier than the others. Trusting his correction, he had stuffed in extra ammo and food.

The inside of his combat boots was soaked, which did not help.

Gyeoul was personally satisfied. He liked physical hardship. Pain was reality. That was why he had deliberately set his pain Sensory Synchronization rate higher.

After the climb ended and they came down from the hill, a prickling sensation rose in the soles of his feet, and then they reached the Salinas River. Their direction of march turned south.

How long had they walked along the rough riverbank?

Gyeoul shouted.

“Down!”

Most soldiers reacted almost by reflex.

Some did not.

Rat-tat-tat! Tat-tat!

Sharp gunfire cut through the deafening rush of water. Two slow-reacting soldiers were hit. The shots were clearly aimed, an intentional ambush. There were two attackers. Gyeoul was caught off guard. He had prepared for mutant attacks, but human attackers were unexpected.

“Two o’clock, fifty meters! Suppressive fire!”

Gyeoul shouted at full volume. Voice was still safer than radio.

Once he called the direction, the soldiers returned fire immediately. The enemy was concealed in riverside woods, which meant plenty of cover. Gyeoul did not expect many hits, but he wanted to keep them from escaping easily.

‘Who are they? In this run’s setting, anti-government armed groups haven’t appeared yet. Mexicans crossing the border?’

While the boy considered who they were and how to respond, Jeffrey called for the medic.

“Doc! Doc! Check the wounded!”

Then one of the hit men groaned and rolled to the side.

“Urgh, I’m fine! Check Gregg first!”

He had taken two hits and was still okay, thanks to his body armor. The medic ran to the other man.

The second soldier was not so lucky. He cried out in pain. It looked like a penetrating wound in the thigh. The medic pulled a tourniquet from the emergency kit and quickly wrapped it above the wound. After winding it like a band, he tightened the lever-like handle to reduce bleeding.

“LAW!”

“Hold! Cease fire, cease fire!”

Jeffrey, furious, was about to order a rocket shot, but Gyeoul stopped him at once.

“Why?! Why are you stopping me?!”

He was rattled, slipping into casual speech and then back into polite form in the same breath.

“Doesn’t this feel off?”

“What feels off?!”

Even for an ambush, only two men opening first was bizarre. He did not know why they attacked. But if those two were all they had, attacking was the worst choice. Running would have been better.

It was also hard to think they had additional armed support. There had been no fresh attack from any other direction.

Instead of explaining all that, Gyeoul kept his aim and slowly rose.

============================ Author's Afterword ============================

# I wanted to show readers a video of throwing that grappling hook, but if I upload it through the story settings, HTML cannot be used. Posting it as a notice also feels a bit weird...

I will put the address in the settings, so for now, please copy and paste it to watch. It is short. And a little funny.

#Q&A

Q. muze2000: I enjoyed this chapter ^^ @By the way, are you sleeping okay? If a chapter goes up in the morning, that means another all-nighter..

A. Yes, I pulled another all-nighter today. Why does this keep happening.

If I serialize only three times a week, this might be solved, so I should seriously consider it. :)

Q. DoltteongiBultteongi: @I’m curious about clear conditions for games in that world setting. Has Gyeoul ever cleared that game? The gallery users do not even seem to want a clear, so I started wondering whether there is no such thing as clearing the game, or if it is just so hard nobody can beat it.

A. Tripleon: DoltteongiBultteongi//The author already explained this. The game is cleared when the Control AI judges that humanity’s survival in that world is no longer under threat.

Q. Cheongnyuryeon: @Thank you for another great chapter today! If MRE tastes good, what awful things was he eating before... Ah right, U.S. food products... Listening to that appetizing description made me even hungrier. o_o I’ve been imagining Gyeoul’s usual food as about the cockroach nutrition bars from Snowpiercer. Is that about right?

A. A reader’s imagination is often better than what an author writes. I would like to leave that part to your imagination. Haha.

Q. MasterKalsolum: @I recently ate Korean military rations. Ha...... for a foodie, it was a painful time.

A. The author has backward taste buds and can eat old-model combat rations just fine. I mean Type 1 rations from before Type 2 came out, the flat greasy rice packed like a block in green square packaging.

Well, those were my military days, so my taste now might be different. Back then, I even thought Matdasi tasted good...

Q. Dohwawon: @Since this is about concentration and readability, please keep holding the gallery and Gyeoul story close and think hard about it. (That is my joy! I believe the more you think, the better the work gets.) Looking at TOM readings, it seems even zombies are affected. Elsewhere they would evolve only in stats or special abilities. Is Gyeoul’s TOM aptitude so high that their AI is also going wild? It is still early, so most of the gallery just feels uneasy... guaak gyaaak..!

A. It has reached the point where viewers ask whether this is even the setting they know. Gyeoul’s Days after Apocalypse is qualitatively very different from other people’s Days after Apocalypse.

Q. SpearOfGlory: @This is a scene that would make my engineer friend cry. Heat-wave warning or not, they say they have to build three bridges this month alone..

A. We should all be grateful to everyone carrying out their duty of national defense. Please comfort your friend well.

Q. DuskTaker: @I suddenly got curious, does Afterlife Insurance have many game genres? Puzzle, racing, strategy, things like that? In the novel, everything looks like zombie games, so I was wondering.

A. Of course there are many kinds. You can tell if you read the intermission.

Q. Lucidream: @Author... de..... de!!! Death!!!

A. Death! Death by overwork! Rest before overwork kills you! Summer vacation! Why, this distorted desire of the author!

Q. Parae: @Did the rangers in Santa Maria withdraw? Did they come to Fort Roberts?

A. Their mission is contaminated-zone reconnaissance, so Santa Maria is not a fixed garrison for them. They are not at Fort Roberts.

Q. OldPlatypus: @Leaving 700 minerals here so you can build a Command Center at the Hatchery

A. Thank you for the minerals. But why a Command Center at the Hatchery...

Q. Leepred: @I miss Matsumin

A. Since there are also many readers who strongly dislike it whenever chat appears, I will use it when needed, but I do not plan to increase its share.

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