Chapter 202 – DMZ Battle (2)

“We’ve started broadcasting the resident evacuation notice!”

“The Defense Battalion is on its way with emergency support!”

The urgent reports kept coming.

Lieutenant Colonel Baek Hyun-joo was staring at a large monitor screen.

On it, the battle situations unfolding at each guard post were being displayed in real time.

When a situation became too dangerous during a fight, they were to fall back and prepare for the next engagement.

That was why they had deliberately created primary and secondary battle points, preparing not for a battle to win, but for one not to lose.

“Guard Post 3 has been surrounded!”

Lieutenant Colonel Baek Hyun-joo bit her lip hard.

She was sure she had drilled it into them multiple times.

Bravery is good, but don’t recklessly risk your lives.

Of course, she knew why they were fighting to the death.

There was a village near Guard Post 3.

If that post fell easily, the villagers who hadn’t evacuated would be in danger.

It seemed they had chosen a reckless path to buy time.

Even so, she felt no desire to praise them for it.

Lieutenant Colonel Baek Hyun-joo had been criticized for being a woman, for lacking a soldier’s spirit, for playing it safe.

But during the first-generation Gate War, she had been a warrior who led the charge more bravely than anyone.

However, because of that, she had witnessed the deaths of countless soldiers.

Young men with bright futures ahead of them had their lives meaninglessly cut short, like falling leaves.

They didn’t have to die.

They could have minimized the casualties, but recklessness had led to greater sacrifices.

“Any platoons available for support right now.”

“None, ma’am.”

“Is that it? Shrink the defensive line if you have to and send support. Are you just going to let them die?”

Guard Post 3 was certainly defensible, with supplies and sentry guns. But the enemy was monsters.

Literal monsters.

The orcs’ vitality was tenacious. Magic bullets might be a different story, but they were hard to take down with regular ammunition.

Rat-a-tat-tat, tat-tat!

A hail of bullets fired in rapid succession. And one by one, the orcs fell.

“Squad members from Guard Posts 17 and 19 are heading to support Guard Post 3.”

They were fighting quite well.

Was it because they were fighting with their backs to the wall?

“It’s already too late.”

The Lieutenant Colonel touched her forehead.

The opponent was bad news. Of all things, there was a champion-grade orc among the horde.

Orcs loved to fight the strong.

Whether it was their own kind or another species.

Orcs didn’t care about things like bloodlines. Only strength. They followed only the strong.

An orc experiences countless battles to reach the champion grade. Each time, they tattoo their bodies.

An orc with many tattoos on its body. It was an honor permitted only to a champion.

Belatedly, the people inside the command center recognized the Orc Champion.

Fifteen heroes, who had fought against fear for the sake of civilians and their comrades, were now isolated inside the guard post.

In this situation, there was no way to save them.

“Damn it.”

It was a common sight in this line of work.

Warriors who fought bravely ultimately meeting their end.

She had experienced it many times, but she still couldn’t get used to it.

Just then, one of the monitoring agents saw something strange.

“…?”

He saw four orcs sprawled on the ground, groaning in pain.

Just a moment ago, those same orcs had been perfectly fine, searching for prey.

The monitoring agent panned the camera.

“Huh?”

Four orcs had been instantly subdued by one person and were now crawling on the ground.

The Lieutenant Colonel saw what the monitoring agent was seeing.

A strange light flickered in her eyes for a moment.

“S-Someone…”

Now, everyone was staring at one person on the divided CCTV screen.

“Someone started taking down the orcs!”

He began to wipe out the orcs, to the point where you could almost call it a one-sided slaughter.

“Who is that? What is he?”

The command center fell into chaos at the appearance of the unidentified man. But one thing was clear: he had started hunting the orcs.

“Squad members from Guard Posts 17 and 19 are engaged in combat!”

“Explosion at Guard Post 3! Fire uncontrollable!”

“Unidentified individual, entering Guard Post 3!”

The hunter who had appeared out of nowhere single-handedly charged into the besieged Guard Post 3.

“Huh?”

At that moment, everyone watching the CCTV held their breath.

“Whoa! Whoa!”

A blade made of light extended.

A golden blade.

It was a symbolic weapon that anyone with even a slight interest in hunters would recognize.

“Lee Hyunbin!”

Someone recognized Hyunbin and shouted.

The Tactical Director of the Hanul Guild.

A Special Guard of the Disaster Agency.

And a global hunter, tacitly praised as the strongest in the country.

The sense of security that came with the title of ‘the best,’ not just a simple S-rank, was immense.

The moment they saw him, everyone felt it.

That all the survivors in the guard post would make it back alive.

The Orc Champion stepped forward. Its subordinates, following it on the hunt, were still unaware that a true monster had arrived nearby.

That was their misfortune.

Hyunbin stepped between the fear-stricken soldiers and the triumphant orcs.

The soldiers’ eyes widened at the person who had suddenly appeared, and the Orc Champion’s face contorted.

*Swoosh!*

Hyunbin swung the glowing sword.

“Yeeaaah!”

The people in the command center, watching it happen in real time, clenched their fists and yelled.

Lieutenant Colonel Baek Hyun-joo was surprised to see her subordinates getting excited, as if a festival had suddenly broken out.

‘Just because of one person’s arrival.’

This was a war.

The war wasn’t even over, yet seeing her subordinates celebrate so enthusiastically, a dry laugh escaped her lips before she knew it.

She had seen a sight like this once before.

When the Gate crisis began, humanity suffered defeat after defeat.

It was a situation where they could do nothing but run.

Then, people who had begun to awaken won victories against the monsters.

The cheers that had erupted back then were still vivid in her ears.

People called them heroes.

Whatever the reason, it was a stroke of immense luck that the nation’s strongest hunter had appeared at this critical moment.

‘So that’s the so-called Deliveryman.’

The man called by the ridiculous name, the Deliveryman.

The term ‘delivery’ wasn’t meant to be derogatory. On the contrary, it was a sign of affection.

Getting a delivery feels good. That’s how people thought of Lee Hyunbin.

Literally, the nation’s hunter.

He himself didn’t know everyone, but every man, woman, and child in the Republic of Korea knew him.

“If Hunter Lee Hyunbin is providing support, we should be able to clean this up quickly.”

“Wow, the nation’s strongest hunter just shows up here? Can the timing really be this good?”

The command center was a crucible of excitement. As if the battle was already over.

“Everyone, snap out of it! Is the battle over?”

Only at the Lieutenant Colonel’s words did the command center calm down.

Even she, the commander, had to admit the timing was dramatic.

It had only been a matter of time before the orcs broke through their lines.

“Confirm the troops’ positions and report any damages. Check if there are any monsters besides the orcs. Move.”

Snapping to attention at the Lieutenant Colonel’s command, the command center staff moved with perfect coordination.

The atmosphere, which had become unexpectedly buoyant due to Lee Hyunbin’s presence, settled down.

“No civilian casualties.”

“Evacuation to the shelter is complete!”

“The 12th Infantry Brigade will arrive in ten minutes!”

Support from nearby units was also arriving quickly.

Now they could minimize the spread of the damage. The problem was whether North Korea would launch an airstrike in a situation like this.

‘The damage on the North Korean side must be much worse.’

North Korea didn’t have a proper hunter system.

The reason they suppressed awakeners was simple. They could become an obstacle to the power structure.

Without magic bullets, they couldn’t effectively fight monsters.

If a 3-star boss monster had gone to the North Korean side, all hell would have broken loose.

‘They should’ve distributed the magic bullets meant for North Korea to the front lines.’

Damn politics and diplomacy. Then and now, there’s no end to them giving away rice and mana stones.

“Battalion Commander, Hunter Lee Hyunbin has a message.”

“Hunter Lee Hyunbin?”

The Lieutenant Colonel was curious about the message Lee Hyunbin had sent. After hearing it, she couldn’t believe her ears.

‘He’s going to herd them?’

Herding, a word used literally for rounding something up.

The meaning itself wasn’t difficult.

Simply put, it meant he was going to go out and slaughter the orcs by himself. But he had specifically asked for the message to be relayed to the command center.

“Check Hunter Lee Hyunbin’s movements and bring me the report.”

She wanted to confirm his initial movements.

“Here it is, ma’am.”

The Lieutenant Colonel checked Lee Hyunbin’s movements, confirmed via the CCTVs installed everywhere.

“Does Hunter Lee Hyunbin have search abilities…?”

“Search abilities, ma’am?”

“No, that can’t be right.”

It was impossible for him to have outstanding combat skills, be an excellent porter, and have search abilities on top of that.

But Hunter Lee Hyunbin had pinpointed and provided support to only the most critical battle points.

It was as if he knew everything.

‘Besides, he shouldn’t know the geography of this area.’

His movements suggested he knew the lay of the land like the back of his hand.

There was something else that was strange.

“See anything strange?”

“No, not really… Huh?”

The aide answered his commander’s question with a puzzled tone, then saw something odd.

“He didn’t kill all the orcs…”

He was so unsure that he doubted what he was seeing.

He was deliberately incapacitating the orcs by cutting off their arms.

“Why do you think that is?”

“It seems to be because he’s short on time…”

Even the aide who answered was not confident.

It was strange to not behead an orc and just move on, even if he was in a hurry.

“Orcs have a certain nature. They have no rules. They’ll take another’s wife or child if they feel like it. They don’t have property either. But there’s one thing they worship. Do you know what it is?”

“…I’m not sure, ma’am.”

The aide saw the Lieutenant Colonel smile faintly.

“They only follow those stronger than themselves. They thoroughly abide by the law of the jungle. So, orcs can’t move without a leader. No, they *won’t* move.”

A dry laugh escaped the Lieutenant Colonel, unfitting for the situation.

To think there was a hunter who hunted by taking advantage of the orcs’ nature.

“Have all combatants retreat.”

“Ma’am?”

They were currently holding the line and surrounding the orcs to prevent them from spreading to other areas.

“We’re changing the point. Have all incoming support units move to that point as well.”

The battalion commander’s sudden order made the aide stiffen.

It was an order that didn’t make sense. No, it wasn’t like her.

But the commander just laughed, as if unconcerned by her subordinate’s worries.

“He’s too good a friend to be with a cunning old fox like Shin Chae-ho.”

She licked her lips, as if it were a real shame.

***

*Swoosh!*

“Guaaaargh!”

The arm of the orc warrior holding the sword was severed.

The creature howled in pain.

I mercilessly swung my sword and took its head.

There’s no need to set the stage anymore, so there’s no reason to let them live.

-Hero, the orcs are starting to gather!

I crippled the orcs rampaging around me.

Without killing them.

Why didn’t I kill them? Simple.

A dead orc becomes a good… no, a quiet one.

Orcs are creatures that worship the strong.

And when they ‘invade’ another place, a leader always accompanies them.

Turning the eyes of war outward to unite the home front is a method that’s been used since ancient times.

The new orc chieftain needs to show off his strength.

Normally, he would have scoffed at a weakened, injured orc. But to establish his authority and reign as the king of a new force, he needs the ‘strong.’

I want the orcs to gather in one place, and the orcs want to show off their power.

What a great win-win strategy, right?

Without an orc chieftain, their forces will scatter. In other words, it means unnecessary sacrifices might be made to hunt them all down.

-It’s the pheromones of an Orc Hero.

“Good boy.”

-Wow, it has so many tattoos.

I could see a large orc emitting pheromones.

It wore a face full of pride, confident that it was the strongest.

So typically orcish.

I only inflicted injuries on the orcs.

It wasn’t some change of heart, like I had suddenly realized the sanctity of life.

An injured orc entrusts itself to a strong individual who can protect it.

The strong one becomes the leader and emits pheromones.

Naturally, the orcs that were acting independently gather under the new chieftain.

It’s a trait only possible for creatures that are dead serious about war.

“You tax-evading bastards come to another country and start vandalizing property?”

“Grrrrrr!”

I don’t know if they understood me or not, but the illegal aliens started to roar.

The orc chieftain raises its axe above its head, inciting a cheer.

In the distance, I could see North Korean soldiers watching this way through binoculars.

I drew my two-handed sword.

It was time to see if my trip here hadn’t been a waste.