Chapter 200 – DMZ (3)

The entire world is at war with the Gates.

Unlike other nations, South Korea is also at war with something else.

The world’s only divided nation.

A demarcation line symbolizes the land split between North and South.

The Korean Demilitarized Zone.

Also known as the DMZ.

Here, soldiers from the North and South stand guard, their guns aimed at one another.

“Reporting.”

“Don’t.”

The company-grade officer froze, taken aback by his superior’s words.

His superior, a middle-aged woman, was staring out the window.

She could see soldiers moving out of the barracks for patrol, and Gaders working alongside them to carry out the operation.

She let out a quiet sigh. Just because she didn’t want to hear it didn’t mean she could just cover her eyes and turn away.

“Just kidding. Report.”

“Yes, ma’am. The dungeon field expanded by one kilometer yesterday. The search party eliminated 37 goblins, 15 orcs, and 2 ogres.”

Goblins were low-rank monsters, orcs were mid-rank, and ogres were high-rank.

It was a whole gift basket of them.

As the middle-aged superior listened to her subordinate’s report, she rummaged inside her pocket. She felt the sharp-cornered paper pack at her fingertips.

She put a cigarette to her lips and continued speaking.

“Forget that. The casualties.”

“The casualties are…”

The officer hesitated for a moment before continuing.

“One platoon was wiped out, and 17 were injured…”

The middle-aged woman immediately turned and strode forward.

The officer was not short.

He was 180 cm tall. Yet he and the woman were about the same height. No, perhaps her well-toned physique made her seem even taller.

*Thwack!*

“Ugh!”

The officer hopped in pain after his superior kicked him squarely in the shin.

The commander murmured with cold, dead eyes.

“Have all the officers assemble.”

“Yes, ugh. I, I understand. Chungseong!”

She didn’t even glance at the officer as he limped out of the room.

An entire platoon was dead.

The injured ones would be fine as long as they weren’t permanently crippled. Wounds heal eventually.

But the dead couldn’t be treated.

The middle-aged woman chain-smoked, burning through one cigarette after another.

It seemed the ashtray was never empty of cigarette butts.

Innocent soldiers were dying.

Unlike countries with volunteer militaries, South Korea was a nation of conscription, where young men were forcibly drafted.

There were Gaders from the agency to prepare for the Gate disaster, but due to budget shortages, cheap national army soldiers were handed guns instead.

Before, even in a divided country, there were no casualties because there was no fighting. But things were different now.

The number of soldiers dying because of the Gates was steadily increasing.

And the worst of it was here, in the DMZ.

This place where North and South Korea confronted each other.

Thanks to the lack of human interference, the demilitarized zone had preserved its nature perfectly, becoming a paradise for flora and fauna.

But paradoxically, it had also become a paradise for monsters.

The Gate that had unluckily spawned in the DMZ was unstoppable.

The Gate immediately became a dungeon, creating a field, and the DMZ was no longer human territory.

Thanks to the monsters pouring out of it every day, there was never a day without a report.

‘Ogres, of all things.’

Now, even high-rank monsters were appearing on a daily basis.

No, this was still manageable. Not long ago, a couple of 3-star boss monsters had suddenly burst out, leading to a chaotic battle that lasted until dawn.

Her heart ached when she thought of the soldiers who had died in that battle.

As a commander, was it too much to ask that these men, forcibly conscripted to defend their country, could return home safely?

“All officers have assembled!”

“Good.”

She stepped out of her office.

She had to chew out the officers, if nothing else.

To reduce the number of casualties, even by a little, everyone had to be on edge.

“Hey, you bastards. Are the soldiers hamburger patties? Why do you keep grinding them up? Huh?”

The commander started yelling the moment she entered the conference room where the officers had gathered.

“You at least volunteered for this. Aren’t you ashamed to face those kids earning a few bucks a month?”

In truth, the number of casualties in the DMZ had been gradually decreasing.

That was thanks to the change in command here.

She preferred methods that reduced casualties rather than ones that guaranteed victory.

Thanks to her efforts, they had recently started receiving magic bullets, and a support unit of C and D-rank special hunters had been established.

But it wasn’t enough.

“Stop that bullshit about finding spent casings and just unload everything! Don’t give me that crap about recovering every damn casing and making a fuss over firing a single shot!”

The ridiculous thing was, even on this front line, they were still looking for spent casings.

She understood the purpose was to prevent accidents, to stop unfortunate incidents.

But if it was causing more harm than good, they should stop doing it.

The dungeon field within the DMZ was gradually expanding.

A Gate disappears once its core is destroyed. But a dungeon field, once created, does not.

However, if you kill the dungeon’s boss, you can stop the field from expanding any further.

They knew the method. But they couldn’t execute it.

Because the dungeon was, of all places, inside the DMZ.

They couldn’t just launch a military operation to go kill the boss.

It would literally be considered a military provocation against the other side.

The same went for hunters.

And it wasn’t as if they could negotiate with North Korea.

North Korea was a nation that denied the existence of the System or the Awakened.

Over there, anyone identified as Awakened was executed by firing squad.

They killed their own Awakened, so there was no way they would tolerate those of an enemy nation.

In the end, the best they could do right now was to hunt down the monsters that wandered out past the armistice line, but the problem was the recent, frequent appearance of high-rank monsters.

The commander didn’t feel any better after tearing into the officers.

There was no solution.

Her only comfort was that since she had volunteered for this post, the number of casualties had dropped significantly.

A military commander is supposed to wage war effectively.

There’s no need to be sensitive about every single soldier’s life.

It’s a matter of sacrificing the few to save the many.

She knew that, yet she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“Damn bastards.”

“…”

“Does it hurt a lot?”

“No, ma’am.”

“How much could it hurt getting kicked by an old lady? Right?”

“No, ma’am. It hurts.”

“You’re going to report me for assaulting a subordinate, aren’t you.”

“…No, ma’am.”

She bantered with the officer in front of her, then lit a cigarette.

“I think you’re smoking too much, Battalion Commander.”

“Then do something so I don’t have to.”

It was an excuse—she had no other way to relieve her stress, so she turned to cigarettes.

“It’s not your fault.”

Of course, chewing out the officers would at least make them focus a little more on safety.

“The Disaster Management Agency.”

The government body that managed the nation’s hunters. It also held the authority to operate government-controlled special forces.

It was literally growing into a group with immense power.

“Those sons of bitches.”

If she had known it would come to this, she should have taken the position of Director of the Disaster Management Agency when she had the chance.

They were only deploying hunters to visible areas to boost their own performance records.

When the places that truly needed strong hunters were places like this.

“If we just had a few S-rank bastards, we could take down the dungeon boss.”

“It wouldn’t be easy.”

“I know.”

With just a few S-rank hunters, they could attempt to clear the dungeon boss.

South Korea had recently acquired many more S-rank hunters, after all.

But there was no one willing to venture into this remote, dangerous demilitarized zone for a hunt that paid nothing.

“That guy, the Delivery Man, he’s a special Gader, right? Can’t we borrow him for a few days?”

She’d heard that an S-rank called the Delivery Man had recently been dubbed the ‘People’s Hunter,’ making a name for himself not just domestically but overseas as well.

She remembered seeing him in the newspaper a few times.

“That won’t be possible. You’re on bad terms with Director Shin Chae-ho.”

“That bastard.”

As a first-generation Awakened, she and Director Shin Chae-ho did not get along.

It was likely because they had always had differences of opinion during the few operations they had conducted together in the past.

Shin Chae-ho was the type to use and discard people like pawns on a chessboard for his own benefit.

Of course, in an era of war like this, such a person might be necessary.

But what she didn’t like, she didn’t like.

“Well, it’s not like one S-rank can do much anyway.”

From what she could see, this Delivery Man character was part of the same family as that treacherous snake.

She had no need, nor the ability, to accept help from someone like that.

“I’ll have to see if we can get support from Tushin later. No, they went under, right? Shinhwa Guild, then. Well, they probably won’t come either, not wanting to get on the Disaster Management Agency’s bad side.”

Just then, the phone rang.

Seeing it, her brow furrowed slightly.

A phone call at a time like this was never good news.

Then, the captain’s cell phone also began to ring.

Not just the military line, but the battalion commander’s phone was ringing too.

A sudden sense of foreboding washed over her.

The battalion commander answered the phone. She listened to the frantic report pouring into her ear.

“What kind of bullshit is that!”

The battalion commander couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

“The fence is down, and the demarcation line has been breached?”

Even if her unit had no Awakened hunters, many of its members were combat-experienced. There was no reason for them to collapse so easily.

That is, under normal circumstances.

“Tell all nearby units to get their asses over here! Contact headquarters too!”

She had received reports recently that the monster population inside the DMZ was reaching saturation point.

“Dammit.”

It seemed the problem had finally festered and burst.

“For fuck’s sake.”

A breach of the demarcation line meant the damage would no longer be confined to the ‘military.’

It meant civilian casualties would now occur.

***

There was a village near the DMZ.

The village had a population of about 200 people.

It was a place where people made a living mostly through farming or community-run businesses.

They were exempt from the duties of taxation and national defense.

*Rat-a-tat-tat! Thud, KABOOM!*

Suddenly, the sounds of gunfire and explosions erupted from all directions.

*WEEEE-OOOOO-WEEEE-OOOOO!*

An emergency evacuation siren blared.

—This is a real situation! This announcement is a real situation! All residents hearing this broadcast, please evacuate to the shelters. I repeat…

It had been a peaceful village where, despite living near the demarcation line, they had never really felt the threat of war.

Faced with the sudden atmosphere of war that had descended overnight, they hurriedly packed their belongings.

—What?

“H-honey. It’s, it’s an emergency. Come quick.”

—Wait, what are you talking about?

The woman was trembling as she spoke to her husband on the phone.

She was so terrified she had barely managed to make the call.

Her mind told her she had to flee immediately, but her vision went dark, and she couldn’t think straight.

It was then.

“Mommy, Mommy~.”

Hearing the voice of her daughter, who hadn’t even started elementary school yet, the woman’s mind snapped back into focus.

*You idiot.* She had been in a daze, but how could she forget that her child was playing outside?

As if she had never been afraid, she threw the phone down and bolted outside.

The woman saw her child peeking out from the gate in the front yard.

“Mijin! Come here! Come here!”

She cried out desperately, but the child just looked at her mother once, smiled brightly, and then went back to peeking outside the gate.

The woman rushed over and swept her child into her arms.

Outside, the sound of exploding shells still echoed.

Her legs wouldn’t move, but right now, in this moment, her mind was racing.

Running outside with her child in her arms was not a good idea.

*Kieeeek!*

*Grrrrr!*

The horrific roars of beasts came from outside.

The sound sent a chill down the woman’s spine.

If she moved without understanding the situation properly, not only she but her child would die.

Escaping from monsters while carrying a child was impossible.

“Mommy.”

“It’s okay, Mijin. Mommy’s here.”

She was powerless to fight. But she could protect her child.

Her hands trembled uncontrollably, but she forced herself to stay sharp. One wrong move and the child in her arms would die with her.

She wanted to cry her eyes out, but with her daughter watching, she bit her lip hard to hold it in.

The child, however, seemed to feel safe in her mother’s arms and was smiling brightly.

“Mommy, the man from TV is over there!”

Then, her child said something strange.

*Crunch, Crack!*

The sound coming from just nearby wasn’t the sound of firearms.

It was the raw sound of violence.

The woman cautiously peered outside the gate.

The old iron gate creaked, and she flinched in spite of herself.

It seemed to have suddenly gone quiet. Mustering her courage, she gently opened the gate again and looked out.

“…!”

There was nothing outside.

Only the monster fluids splattered on the ground proved that it hadn’t been a hallucination.