Yeon-su seemed to struggle for a moment while hugging Yeon-hee and finally opened her mouth.
“Well, since there’s plenty of time until the finals, let me explain everything now. What I’m about to say is something I heard directly from Maeng Seong-yong of the Hunt Team, so think of it as official.”
“Yes!!”
“Ah, wait a minute. Should I call your comrades in the audience? I think it’d be better for everyone to hear this together.”
“What?”
‘… Is that for real?’
That meant our party members were also included in the Great Beast subjugation.
Concerned that Yeon-su might change her mind, Yeon-hee quickly contacted her comrades.
A little later, everyone from the White Alliance party leader Arin to Ha-yoon, Joo-ah, and Eun-young gathered in the waiting room.
‘I can hear my heart pounding from here.’
Kang Yeon-su, one of the top hunters in our country, was calling us for a presentation.
It’s hard not to feel nervous.
Azraelon, nestled in Eun-young’s arms, stared intently at Yeon-su.
Noticing that Azraelon wasn’t an ordinary cat, Yeon-su and Azraelon exchanged glances for quite a while.
“Hehe— what an interesting team. First, a skeleton and now a cat…”
“……”
(Skeleton, what the heck is that monster?)
‘A monster? You mean Kang Yeon-su?’
(I don’t care about its name. Just… the magic power I feel seems stronger than backward flow.)
The ‘backward flow’ Azrael was referring to was Eun-young’s grandmother.
‘Come on. Isn’t that obvious? Eun-young’s grandmother is a support-type.’
(Hmph… What do I care about your classification criteria? Strong is strong, and weak is weak.)
‘Ignorance, indeed.’
To Azrael, Eun-young’s grandmother was practically an enemy.
Unconsciously, they tended to evaluate the power of their enemies highly, and seeing someone as strong as Yeon-su was shocking.
“Whoa—”
“Phuhaha…”
“I’m so nervous…”
Upon hearing the news from Yeon-hee, the comrades who rushed over couldn’t contain their excitement.
“Ahem— I’d like to discuss this in a more orderly space, but there’s not much time left. I need to go to a meeting soon, too.”
“Yes, yes!!”
After quickly scanning the members of the White Alliance, Yeon-su got straight to the point.
“The subjugation expedition against the country-destroying great beast, Devouring Creeper. Originally, it was only supposed to be Yeon-hee participating, but the conclusion is that all of you will go together. Of course, only if you all want to.”
“Ahhh! Really?!”
“Woooah!!”
“Hehe… Awesome…”
“Are we allowed to talk about this now?”
“What? Ha-yoon, did you already know?”
“I heard it from my mom this morning. She told me to decide whether to join the subjugation team.”
“And what did you say?”
“I said, ‘If I’m not here, would this party function? I sacrificed myself for your sake.’”
“Ooooh~”
Noh Ha-yoon seemed to have heard from the ‘Witch’ already.
But she said she didn’t know the details.
Even if it’s essentially walking into a death trap, they were excited because of the potential honor they could gain from this subjugation.
Subjugating a country-destroying great beast was a glorious thing in itself. It was akin to being chosen as a national representative.
Undoubtedly, there must be ongoing lobbying to get included in this subjugation team.
Maeng Seong-yong would be unaffected by it, but other hunters in the TF team would think otherwise.
‘It probably won’t be that dangerous, either.’
Everyone figured they wouldn’t place hunters who were just hitting the B-rank at the very frontlines.
After all, Maeng Seong-yong’s reason for bringing us along was likely to handle the lesser threats derived from the great beast’s main body.
Having just Yeon-hee alone was equal to carrying a middle-sized force.
Still, there was no reason to underestimate the subjugation.
‘The elite spawns derived from the main body would be hard for us to handle. However, if we respond as a team against common soldiers, it should be possible. They are probably going to move individually due to their nature.’
“Okay— let me briefly explain about this Devouring Creeper. I’m sure you all know the basics, but just in case.”
For the next ten minutes, Yeon-su summarized the essential information we needed to know, and it went roughly like this.
– The Devouring Creeper is a plant-type great beast that grows by absorbing nutrients from the earth as well as flora and fauna.
– The main body has not moved from where it initially appeared in Deokcheon, South Pyongan Province, but its roots have continuously expanded, now eroding over 20% of North Korea’s territory.
– The main body spawns a fixed number of offspring (elite soldiers), and after a certain time, the elite soldiers will also give birth to offspring (common soldiers).
– Unlike the main body, all the soldiers are human-type monsters. They vary in appearance, and some occasionally take on human forms, so we must ensure that we have at least one perception-type hunter in the group.
– The elite soldiers are presumed to range from A-rank top tiers to S-rank.
– Unlike the main body, elite soldiers have no limits on spawning offspring (common soldiers).
– Common soldiers possess combat power at the B-rank upper mid-level.
– All common soldiers exhibit individualistic tendencies.
– Every soldier immediately responds to intrusions in their assigned area from the moment they are born.
– They are naturally vulnerable to fire-type attacks.
– All soldiers are generally physically enhanced and occasionally, rare ability-wielding mutants may appear.
– They utilize tactics that allow them to strike from underground by sprouting root-like tentacles from their legs.
“They’re expanding towards the 2 o’clock and 8 o’clock directions from the initial occurrence site.
North Korea’s core forces tried to hold the last line of defense in Pyongyang three weeks ago, but they ultimately broke through.
Since then, we’ve allowed them to get to the stage where they can permit our entry.”
“Wow…”
“……”
Upon hearing Kang Yeon-su’s explanation, our comrades fell into silence altogether.
They were filled with unfamiliar information that they hadn’t heard in the news, especially reacting to the fact that elite soldiers could reach as high as S-rank.
“Don’t worry too much about the elite soldiers. From what we’ve grasped, there are 32 of them, and it won’t increase any further. It seems they are limited in how many elite-level soldiers they can maintain. However, since the elite soldiers can spawn unlimited offspring, they’ve multiplied unchecked.”
‘This is different from the memories from my previous life. Back then, sixteen elite soldiers were stationed around the main body, guarding it in all sixteen directions.’
That’s a whopping twofold difference.
With the rapid pace at which the world is changing, the monsters’ capabilities have also greatly improved.
‘The crux lies in whether we can defeat 32 S-rank elite soldiers or not. The problem is that not all S-rank hunters are the same.’
Jo Gi-man is also S-rank. Seok Ryu-hwa is S-rank, too.
They are in the same rank, but there’s a gulf between the two, akin to a difference from Andromeda.
That’s why countries like China have even added two more ranks above S-rank.
But if there happens to be a powerhouse among the elite soldiers that defies common logic, the plan would be in jeopardy.
No matter how weak North Korea’s forces are, seeing the situation they are in… should we assume that there’s a transcendent strongman among the elite ranks?
‘Hmm… Is that pushing it too far? If there’s a monster like Jo Gi-man, it would mean we’re going for the subjugation not to subjugate them but to be subjugated ourselves.’
Yeon-su, who had gone on the previous subjugation, didn’t mention there being such a strong opponent.
Of course, since everything had changed from that time, at least we should be aware of such dangers.
‘The biggest issue is that the moment even one elite soldier dies, the main body will resume its operations.’
The main body, acting as a “core” plant.
It was known to have zero combat power and focused solely on producing offspring and expanding its erosion.
I recalled that the main body had a fast spawning rate for elite soldiers, meaning we would need to cut down all 32 at nearly the same time to strike the main body.
Otherwise, we’d end up being swallowed whole.
‘The coordination among the subjugation team must be well-synchronized. Was it tough because it didn’t go well with the Chinese side last time?’
“It’s not just China. Russia also decided to intervene.”
As if she was reading my mind, Yeon-su spoke.
‘So, Russia too… That’s why the schedule has been moved up.’
“We’ll consider all the hunters who are disregarding their nations and participating as one team, and we’ll divide ourselves into several groups to infiltrate North Korea.”
Gulp—
My comrades all focused intently, not blinking an eye.
Yeon-su, satisfied with their reaction, nodded and continued.
“Team 1 will consist of the top hunters who will face the elite soldiers. I will be included in that team.
Team 2 will conserve energy in the rear and wait for the opportunity to strike the main body, consisting of fire-type top hunters. In our country, Seok Ryu-hwa is the representative.
And Team 3 will be responsible for subjugating the common soldiers on the outskirts and then narrowing down toward the center. You’re all going to be dispatched to this team.”
‘Our team’s role is just as important. They don’t eat people right away and tend to store them instead.’
“By the way, Hwa-ryeon and Shin Hee-won will also be on Team 3. Ko Hyuk is under probation.”
‘Probation… What a scary term.’
Yeon-su had said that if a guild member committed a mistake, they would always face probation.
But I later learned that the actual punishment was more severe than just probation.
Joo-ah, who had been listening quietly, raised her hand to ask a question.
“If we go there, will we be moving separately?”
“The parties you’ll join in Team 3 will be composed of six members each. Since there are five of you, it fits perfectly. Anyway, we will assign one A-rank hunter to each group. So don’t worry too much.
We’ve composed them with hunters capable of responding in case of variables. But you should brace yourselves for some odd personalities. We had to match the numbers as the scale of the team increased.”
‘It’s essentially about supporting an A-rank hunter.’
“Why couldn’t they stop North Korea? I’ve heard that our country’s awakening ratio isn’t vastly different.”
Regarding Yeon-hee’s fundamental question, Yeon-su shrugged her shoulders.
“It’s hard to get accurate information because it’s such a closed-off country. But it’s certain that China actively intervened against North Korea. Stories of Chinese hunters infiltrating North Korea to wear down their forces have been around for ages.”
‘I’ve heard that too. The reason they started that was due to the emergence of the great beast.’
After the great beast ‘Necrosquall’ appeared, it made a mess in China, and the Chinese government’s conclusion was shockingly territorial expansion.
‘When things get chaotic inside, the focus tends to shift outside… They must have laid the groundwork with North Korea for that purpose. Ultimately, you could say it succeeded, right?’
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