BXBX NOVEL Chapter 111: Pre-emptive Attack (2)
Choi Hyuk reported the data collected by Naro to the Virgo Cluster.
Not long after the Virgo Cluster investigated themselves did Commander Mack personally contact him. She bowed so deeply that her blue hair tumbled down. She was expressing that she was sorry in the manner people on Earth, specifically in Korea, would.
{I am ashamed. I am sorry I didn’t notice this sooner. The result of the investigation was that 3 more Kahur Kabkuns were detected besides the 10 you found. As the Kahur Kabkuns were well-hidden, it would have been difficult for you to detect.}
“... There are a lot.”
{There are. Their levels aren’t low either. Although you have destroyed quite a few middle-ranked Kahur Kabkuns before, they were all mostly underdeveloped ones. The ones detected this time are sturdy, having been completed a long time ago. There will probably be monsters that even you will have trouble dealing with.}
“Finished a long time ago? They’ve been there for a long time? They aren’t newly created?”
{Yes, they aren’t newly created. They were simply dormant and are now being reactivated. Like you know, Dragonic was a planet that had been captured by the monsters a long time ago. Although it was assigned as the earthlings’ colonized land, strictly speaking, that place is still within the monsters’ territory. The Kahur Kabkuns used when the monsters attacked have still remained intact.}
“But, from Naro’s analysis, rather than being neglected for a long time, they looked to be active.”
{It seems like they recently started becoming active again. Haa... To be honest, Dragonic is located at the Virgo Cluster’s frontier. The reason why it was allowed to be a colonized land for earthlings, who used to be deferred consumables, was because the higher-ups decided to expand the alliance’s territory.}
According to Commander Mack, Dragonic was a planet whose location made it look like it had seemingly been stabbed into the monsters’ territory. Earthlings, who used Dragonic as their colonized land, had unknowingly been treated as special ‘airborne’ troops as part of a ‘landing operation’.
{Because it’s so dangerous, we conducted a large-scale cleanup of the dimensional wasps’ nests, which serve as information relay stations for the monsters, in the entire region. Also, we repeatedly launched waves of attacks in that region. It was an attempt to conceal the fact that earthlings had arrived on Dragonic... However, it seems that a flaw in our containment opened while we were dealing with the Kahur Kabkuns, that have been increasing drastically recently. The monsters found out that Dragonic contains the colonized lands of karmalings. As a result, earthlings have fallen into danger. I am sorry.}
Mack bowed her head deeply once more.
Yet, Choi Hyuk was calm. Although he had never thought that there would be 10 Kahur Kabkuns, he had already guessed that the reasoning behind the alliance assigning them Dragonic as their colonized land wasn’t all good. Knowing that the monsters resided in a different dimension, it seemed that they thought they could secretly nibble away at the monsters’ territory and regain Dragonic, but they already had an ‘if it fails, it fails’ attitude from the start. Since only earthlings, who were deferred consumables at the time, would suffer even if they failed, they didn’t have a guilty conscience about failing. Among the facts learned by analyzing information about the alliance with Naro, there were a few bits of information that let him guess these circumstances. He wasn’t surprised.
People without strength would suffer anyways. Because of this, receiving an apology wasn’t what was important.
Choi Hyuk asked,
“Well, instead of an apology... Will you provide support?”
Mack’s eyes looked up sharply. Her blue pupils didn’t waver in the slightest.
{Of course, we will! Since the base of the earthlings, who are members of the alliance, has fallen into danger, of course, we will. Bilu{1} and Tangka. I’ll send those two warrior leaders.}
Commander Mack’s blue hair swayed as she assured,
{It’ll be tough, but it’s not to the point of despair. I’ll make you win. Earthlings will become stronger through this fight.}
“What welcome words.”
Choi Hyuk grinned like an upright warrior of the alliance.
Commander Mack acted quickly.
She sent an order to the 7 overseers...
{13 Kahur Kabkuns have been detected. From this point onwards, all earthlings’ space missions will halt. You will quickly eliminate the enemies that have appeared in Dragonic first. Bilu and Tangka, warrior leaders of the Virgo Cluster, have been dispatched. Earth’s overseers will be in command of the dispatched warrior leaders and have the authority to plan the strategy. You will decide on a commander-in-chief and notify the dispatched warrior leaders.}
The overseers, excluding Choi Hyuk and Richard, simply became disoriented at the sudden announcement.
‘What? There are 13 Kahur Kabkuns?’
An emergency meeting was set up.
**
The day before the emergency meeting.
Richard, wearing his ‘work clothes’, observed the ‘hunt’.
The hunting method was simple. The secretly deployed ‘Der Schatten’ gathered as many strong monsters as they could and passed them over to the ‘prey’.
Once they were surrounded by monsters beyond their level, 9 out of 10 ‘prey’ would die. It would be futile no matter how much they struggled.
Penelope’s{2} troop, which was conducting a monster cleanup mission, didn’t notice anything different at first. They had initially thought monsters, that were stronger than the ones usually seen here, had appeared, but at some point, they were completely surrounded. They not only lacked the numerical advantage but also faced difficulty in terms of individual capabilities as well. The newly appeared monsters possessed enormous heads that made up half their body. They swung their enormous heads with their thin, elastic bodies, similar to that of bamboo, to attack, and even if their attacks glanced off members of Penelope’s troop, the attacks possessed such an incredible force that they made their ribs ache.
Kwaoo! Kwaoo!
Whenever the sounds of their heads smashing down resounded in the wind-
Break! Crack!
Terrifying sounds of bones breaking and denting could be heard everywhere. Human bodies became broken and smashed, leaving their remains littered on the ground like popped water balloons.
Penelope’s troop quickly realized the situation they were in.
Above all, they became disheartened. ‘Ahh, so this is where I die.’
They burned the last of their loyalty to save Penelope.
“Troop leader! You need to escape!”
However, Penelope pushed past her subordinates, who gathered to protect her, and came forward instead.
“No! Everyone can live. We can break through! Holy Light Scatter{3}!”
Possessing wavy hair and large eyes, Penelope showed no sign of being taken aback even though she was surrounded by strong monsters in an unexpected place.
When Penelope, Camilla’s sworn sister, shouted while rushing forward, a bright light appeared around her. Bathed in this light, her subordinates’ wounds slowly stanched, and their fear-stricken hearts calmly regained their cool.
Bang! Slice!
That wasn’t all. Whenever she swung her sword, which was immersed in light, the monsters, that had overwhelmed the warriors with their powerful strength, were shattered and sliced. The monsters’ incredibly solid-looking, enormous heads were split like watermelons.
Although she always looked gentle, she was incredibly resolute whenever she wielded her sword.
Penelope showed off her powerful strength while healing others. Following behind her, her troop members recovered their hope and courage.
“Wow! We can break through!”
However, there was someone else who had a headache because of this.
“They really are about to break through.”
Richard, who ordered ‘Der Schatten’ to push Penelope into a corner, clicked his tongue.
“Well, I personally came here in case this happened.”
It had been a long time since he had personally taken action on the field. He had come in case something happened as it was difficult to restrain a bigshot like Penelope with decent skill, and as expected, he personally had to act.
Whoosh!
Richard, who had been observing Penelope from afar, disappeared from his spot with a whoosh. Richard’s Speed had already increased from when he had just reached the 5-star level, reaching 100 Speed at the 5-star level. If he was determined to act, there weren’t many existences that could perceive his movements.
This was the same for monsters. He passed between monsters like the wind while he stealthily oscillated his karma.
‘Shockwave.’
Baaang!
His karma, which was oscillating so subtly it was difficult to notice, flew towards Penelope.
Just then, as if she felt something, Penelope narrowed her eyes as she glanced at the place Richard was a moment ago.
“Who is it?!”
Of course, this was after Richard had left that spot.
Penelope frowned.
“Who was it?”
If Richard had slipped up, he might have been caught by Penelope.
‘Huh... Did she sense something?’
Richard calmed his astonished heart. What he was most cautious of, even more than failing the mission, was getting caught.
Something had appeared and disappeared abruptly. Unable to confirm its identity, Penelope tilted her head.
“What was that just now?”
However, she couldn’t think about it for long.
This was because an enormous head attempted to headbutt her.
“Hmmp!”
Like she had until now, she wielded her sword to split its head. However, at that moment, something stealthily penetrated her defenses.
“... Kyak?!”
Booom!
That was the small pulse Richard shot. As soon as the pulse, that had been oscillating as subtly as the tremors of a flower, reach her shoulder, it suddenly burst, emitting a shockwave. The shockwave swept Penelope up as it exploded splendidly.
“Kuak...”
It was an unexpected attack. On top of that, it was an attack by Richard, who was one and a half levels stronger than Penelope. Penelope’s body faltered at the impact of the shockwave and momentarily fell into a state of exhaustion.
Using that opportunity, the monster’s enormous head smashed into Penelope. Since its timing was superb, to others, Richard’s sudden attack looked like the monster’s special skill.
Boom!
Penelope flew, smashing to the ground like a broken kite.
“Troop leader!”
Penelope’s subordinates hurriedly carried the fainted Penelope.
“We need to save the troop leader!”
Disregarding their lives, they rushed in like demons and ripped through the monsters’ encirclement. Fortunately, since Penelope had almost completely collapsed the encirclement, they could successfully escape with Penelope on their shoulders.
“It’s a success.”
Richard nodded as he saw the warriors fleeing as they carried the fainted Penelope.
**
The Ethiopian Sovereign Johan proposed,
“13 Kahur Kabkuns will be difficult to deal with. However, aren’t Bilu and Tangka on their way here, leading support troops from the Virgo Cluster? With them, I believe we have sufficient room for comfort. Let’s proceed with standard tactics. Let’s set up sturdy defenses and operate a detached force to take down the Kahur Kabkuns one at a time.”
The Queen of England Diana expressed her agreement.
“I agree.”
The 9 great sovereigns, who wielded Overseer Nasir’s authority, expressed their agreement as well.
“We agree.”
Sovereign Jessie actually went a step further and began to talk about what roles people would take.
“I think it’s best we pick two people as commanders. The defensive commander will be Overseer Camilla, and the commander of the detached force will be Overseer Choi Hyuk.”
It seemed he didn’t think anyone would object.
Well, this was his perspective. There weren’t simply a couple or a few Kahur Kabkuns but 13 of them. They didn’t have the firepower to take them all down at once. However, there was no way the other Kahur Kabkuns would stand by once they began to attack a couple of them. There was no doubt monsters would come pouring out once they attacked. That meant someone would have to defend against the outpour of monsters. They had to protect the countless number of non-combat-oriented colonizers and beginner colonizers as well as their assets, such as the buildings, in Dragonic.
That was why having a small elite troop destroy the Kahur Kabkuns while the rest firmly maintained their defense could be considered the best strategy.
However, just because it could be considered the best didn’t mean it didn’t have any flaws.
“However, won’t that take too much time?”
Choi Hyuk immediately pointed out a flaw.
To destroy the Kahur Kabkuns one by one as the rest defended. Although it was a safe and sure-fire method, it was also the method that would take the longest time.
“Even if it looks slow right now, making sure each one is destroyed will be the quickest method in the end.”
The Queen of England Diana refuted. She raised her long lashes as she tried to get Richard’s attention. It was a signal asking him to stop the hot-blooded Choi Hyuk.
Unfortunately, he betrayed her expectations. He instead took Choi Hyuk’s side.
“A sure-fire way, huh?... That might be the case if we were the only ones in the war. However, this war is a massive war between the alliance and the monsters. We don’t know what will happen. While the warrior leaders, Tangka and Bilu, may fight along our side right now, during a war, we have no guarantee they will continue to do so. My thoughts are that it is best to destroy the Kahur Kabkuns as quickly as possible even if sacrifices are made.”
Breaking everyone’s expectations, Richard took Choi Hyuk’s side.
Richard resolutely thought,
‘No matter what sacrifices we make, it’s best to destroy the Kahur Kabkuns even a second faster. We need to disregard defending and attack. Defending won’t work. If a strategy centered on defense rather than attack was going to work, then there was no way those heroes who were considerate of the weak would have been classified as ‘people to kill’.’
Richard’s decisions always contained careful calculations like this. Although they couldn’t confirm the reasoning behind his decisions at the moment, once time passed, they would realize that his decisions were correct. That was why Richard’s words always carried weight.
‘Even if I consider Choi Hyuk is acting like that because he’s a battle lunatic... Richard wants to go on the attack as well? If Richard thinks so, then there’s definitely a reason behind it...’
Sovereign Jessie, who proposed a defensive strategy, and the 9 great sovereigns all took a step back as they thought over the situation once more.
‘Richards wants to go on the attack? Euu... There’s definitely a reason behind it if Richard says it. However, that still means a significant number of people defending will reduce. If we attacked two or three Kahur Kabkuns at a time, with what people will we defend against the outpour of monsters from the other 10 Kahur Kabkuns? Is he saying he doesn’t care if the beginner colonizers live or die?... I have to stop this.’
Although the Queen of England Diana was influenced by Richard’s words, she was still stubborn on her decision. She was well into the process of creating schools that specialized in systematically teaching colonizers in Dragonic. In her mind, those schools were the future of humanity. She couldn’t let the future be destroyed.
She dragged Camilla into the conversation.
“To go more on the offense... There will be too many unnecessary sacrifices considering how uncertain its effects will be. Isn’t that right, Ms. Camilla?”
As she called upon Camilla, Diana believed she would bring supporting arguments. However, for some reason, Camilla was silent.
“Ms. Camilla?”
Diana asked again.
Yet, Camilla was silent, still lost in thought. Instead, Richard injected,
“Ms. Camilla. You should know better than anyone else. The monsters’ movements these days are unusual. Compared to when we first started colonizing, their numbers have multiplied and, above all, they are getting stronger. The more time we take, the stronger the monsters will get.”
At Richard’s words, Camilla tightly closed her eyes.
Normally, no matter how plausible Richard’s words seemed, there was a likely chance she would support the defensive strategy in the end as Camilla was a person who believed protecting the weak and the innocent was right. However, the circumstances had now changed. Penelope, who was like a sister to her, had fallen into a coma after suffering the monsters’ surprise attack. The healers said that she would brush it off and get up soon, but the shock was still there. The sadness she felt because Penelope was injured as well as the surprise and bafflement that came from the fact Penelope, one of the top experts within the Camilla Clan, had fallen into a coma due to the monsters near her colonized land kept alternating within her mind.
‘Something changed. It’s dangerous. It’s dangerous to leave the monsters alone.’
This realization crept into her heart by itself.
Because of it, Camilla had no choice but to nod, agreeing with Richard, in the end.
“I believe you have a point. The monsters’ growth rate is certainly too dangerous to leave things as they are. I too believe that attacking rather than defending is the best method.”
However, Camilla added a condition.
“Only, there will be a lot of people who will suffer losses with this decision. There needs to be a countermeasure set in place.”
At her words, Sovereign Yohan, who had been watching the situation unfold, added,
“You’re right. If we reduce the number of people defending and plan a large-scale attack, casualties are bound to increase and there will be many people dissatisfied with this. There will be people who possess forces or popularity that we can’t simply ignore amongst them. If we do not placate them properly, our strength may wane due to internal conflicts.”
Richard nodded heavily at their concerns as he said,
“Understood. I’ll try to persuade them.”
That was how the general direction was determined in the meeting that day. As they planned a strategy focused on attack, they would have to solidify a system of cooperation between the minor clans. Everyone thought this would be the most difficult process. There was no doubt the beginner colonizers would oppose it, fearing for their lives, and the forces of justice that protected them would rush forward in a frenzy to defend them. Also, if they didn’t placate those forces of justice well, they would have to owe them a favor, or else they, as well as those of good relations with them, would protest.
But what was this?
When it was actually brought up, there wasn’t a big opposition. They thought this would be a sensitive issue, but people were strangely quiet after they announced it. The number of those unhappy about it wasn’t small, but they couldn’t form a united force and would sporadically express their dissatisfaction before dying down.
Within this indecisive, strange silence, the ‘pre-emptive attack on the Kahur Kabkuns’, focusing on offense rather than defense, was decided and announced.
{1} Bilu, a 1023-quasarling, was one of the aliens who brawled with the overseers when they first arrived at Dark City.
{2} Penelope was the one Choi Hyuk met in the first advancement evaluation with the dimensional wasps.
{3} Tentative name. The author provided no Hanja (Chinese characters), making it difficult to figure out.