TRPM 221

The battle had clearly begun with the Albatross PMC at an advantage.

Their equipment was superior, their combat power greater. And with the surprise attack having already cut down many of the doppelgängers, there seemed nowhere for the Albatross PMC to lose.

But…

“(These bastards—what the hell? Do they have no fear of death?)”

“(The boss said it earlier. These probably aren’t human.)”

When the doppelgängers charged with utter recklessness—prepared to die—the Albatross PMC had to hesitate.

The doppelgängers didn’t break through the Albatross PMC’s bullet rain, but the effect was undeniable.

‘(We won’t lose even like this. But it’s going to take time to suppress them all.)’

If they charged like that, any reckless advance might leave one of the team badly hurt. That was the conclusion Morris reached, and he issued orders over the comms.

[(Heavy weapons teams—destroy every cover you can see.)]

The reason the doppelgängers’ suicidal charges were so threatening was that they could spring out from unexpected places and ambush. But what if there was no cover to hide behind until the ambush? The fewer places to hide, the harder ambushes became—and the more the advantage swung to Albatross PMC.

[(Crush them thoroughly, and do it fast.)]

They wouldn’t let their guard down. Morris had learned from an earlier message that Core Earth was essentially Oracle’s subsidiary organization. If it was Oracle’s offshoot, then it was a given they’d be using Oracle’s gear.

So…

[(They’ll probably use that stuff too.)]

Following Morris’s comms, the Albatross PMC operatives focused on killing doppelgängers while watching for strange movements. Then, at one moment—

“(…! They’re coming…!)”

“(The aura’s heavy…)”

Each of the Albatross operatives felt their ki grow heavy. It was the equipment Oracle had lately been using whenever they appeared.

“(Now! Press them!)”

As soon as the doppelgängers activated their devices, they charged the Albatross team. Of course—

rat-a-tat-tat…!
rat-a-tat-tat…!

This attack failed too.

“(What…?)”

“(Wow… I’d heard stories, but experiencing it firsthand is gross.)”

“(Really… if we’d been careless, we could’ve been in danger.)”

The Albatross PMC men were fine. The reason was simple: they knew the doppelgängers had devices that crippled aura usage and they had countermeasures ready.

‘(There are plenty of testimonies from people struck by those devices.)’

People hit by that gear experienced a heaviness in their ki and in their bodies. Some awakened like Yeon Mirae or Han Geon-woo could force themselves to move despite it, but they were still weaker than usual. If Albatross had been fully affected, they would have been pinned in place and finished off.

But—

‘(If the device makes awakened people’s ki heavy… how does it affect someone who has no ki at all?)’

The answer: it has no effect.

Knowing that, before smashing through the underground facility’s ceiling, Albatross PMC personnel depleted their ki as much as possible and then jumped down. That choice meant they couldn’t use abilities during the fight, but it was worth it.

‘(Suppressing them is within our armament level even if our abilities are disabled.)’

Considering the level of hacking ability present, there might be a powerful specialist underground, but that kind of strong opponent could be handled with AM rounds instead of regular bullets.

“(Still, we should secure the device ASAP.)”

Morris muttered as he felt the slight sluggishness from the residue of ki he’d left to use comms. His top priority was securing the infected, but if time allowed he intended to capture the doppelgängers’ devices.

Then—

rat-a-tat…!
“(Tch…)”

Gunshots rang out toward them. The Albatross operatives ducked behind a man in powered armor. Because the armored man could see straight ahead, Morris asked the heavy-gunner in the armor.

[(Doppelgänger?)]
[(No. That’s… )]

The heavy-gunner pointed his barrel toward the direction the bullets had come from.

[(It’s a humanoid from Chicago.)]

[(…I see.)]

Morris glanced and saw doppelgängers corralling infected into a container-like box in the truck. There should have been humanoids on the truck too, but they’d been missing—apparently they’d been repaired here and sent out to stop them.

‘(They must’ve repaired them here and sent them to block us.)’

The humanoids themselves had been destroyed before, but if this truly was Oracle’s branch, it’d be unsurprising that they had the capability to repair them. Luckily, they clearly couldn’t fix them that quickly; only a few repaired humanoids had been launched right away.

[(Prioritize the humanoids. Their number is small now, but if more are repaired and keep coming, it could get out of hand.)]

In Chicago, awakened had been overwhelmed not because each humanoid was particularly strong but because there were just too many of them. To avoid a similar situation, Morris split his forces: one slow-advancing team to secure the infected, and another to handle the humanoids.

[(We don’t have enough men to do everything. Fortunately, the enemy’s escape routes don’t seem to be on the surface, so have the surface team come underground.)]
[(Understood.)]
[(Leave only the minimum force as a precaution and bring everyone down.)]

He also called in reinforcements to make up for the firepower lost by dividing teams. Morris made the best decision he could in that moment.

“(Retreat! Fall back!)”

The doppelgängers judged they couldn’t face Albatross PMC head-on in that state and began to pull back. The direction they retreated toward—

“(Oh, damn…)”
“(Are they going to use the infected as hostages…?)”

They were loading infected into containers.

The doppelgängers had noticed Albatross PMC avoided firing in the direction of the infected.

[(Boss, what should we do?)]
[(…Judging by how they’re stuffing the infected into containers, the infected themselves are the objective. So don’t worry—they’re not going to kill them.)]

Rather—

[(They’ll try to send those containers full of infected to Oracle. Stop them from sending the infected.)]
[(How?)]
[(Can we hack it?)]
[(We’ve been trying, but it’s not working. Looks like the hacker’s still alive.)]

Morris glanced at his team.

[(If we neutralize that hacker, we can hack the facility somehow. Where is the hacker?)]
[(One sec… tsk, they’re hiding among the infected with other doppelgängers.)]
[(That’s enough.)]

They couldn’t spray a hail of bullets without risking the infected, but—

[(Snipers—possible?)]
[(Of course.)]
[(Then shoot them.)]

Morris signaled over comms and—

bang!
thud!

A deafening shot rang out. The head of a doppelgänger hiding among the infected exploded.

[(Damn…!)]
[(Up high!)]

The doppelgängers immediately figured out where the shot had come from: the facility’s ceiling. They sprayed fire at the ceiling. Sticking to the magic-concrete ceiling, hidden inside a concealment device, a sniper revealed himself.

[(You good?)]
[(No. But thanks to the kevlar under the concealment suit, I survived. I’ll pull back to treat my wounds.)]
[(Good job.)]

The sniper used the equipment to slip away quickly. Morris received a comms update.

[(Hacking complete. By the way, these guys are really crazy.)]
[(How so?)]
[(They dug a straight tunnel hundreds of kilometers underground. The containers have propulsion units that move them at near-supersonic speeds. Once those units activate, every infected container will rocket down the tunnel to somewhere we can’t reach.)]
[(Can we stop it?)]

[(We disabled remote activation, but each container has an emergency manual activation button. That has to be stopped on-site.)]
[(Understood.)]

They’d cut remote activation—thanks to the hacker. But the emergency buttons on the containers had to be physically prevented.

[(That must be it?)]
[(Looks like it.)]

The buttons were out in the open in an exposed area with nothing to hide behind, so it seemed manageable: eliminate any doppelgänger near the buttons and the manual activation should be stopped.

[(We’ve arrived.)]
[(Good. Then—)]

With reinforcements arriving, Morris planned to position troops so the doppelgängers could never press the emergency. But then—

“(Everyone—charge…!)”

At that moment the doppelgängers gambled. With every other avenue blocked, this reckless bet was their last hope.

“(Someone—hit the button…!)”
“(!)”
“(!)”
“(!)”

If Albatross PMC’s victory condition was to prevent anyone from pressing the button, then conversely the doppelgängers’ win condition was simply to have anyone hit it.

‘(We only managed to load about seventy percent of the infected into the containers…)’

Better than nothing.

“(Damn it!)”
“(Shoot! Fire on them all!)”

Albatross PMC unleashed everything at the doppelgängers. Most of them were shredded by the gunfire, but—

“(…!)”
“(Tch… using their own kind and infected as shields…!)”

A few doppelgängers used dead doppelgängers or the infected they hadn’t managed to containerize as shields while rushing the button. The former could be torn apart with heavy weapons, but the latter complicated matters: some PMC members couldn’t pull the trigger because they refused to shoot infected who might still be treatable.

“(With this…!)”

One doppelgänger, using infected as a shield, reached the button.

“(Victory is ours!)”
bang!

It mashed the button as if smashing it.

“(…?)”

That was all. The button had been pressed, but the propulsion units on the container did not activate. In fact—

thud…!
boom…!

They seemed to disassemble cleanly and fell to the ground.

“(Morris. I hope I’m not too late?)”
“(Hah… you arrived just in time.)”

Above the container stood the Artist—Han Geon-woo—sword in hand.

“(What…?)”
“(Everyone, freeze~.)”

Before a doppelgänger could respond, magic circles burst into being on every doppelgänger’s body, binding them. The doppelgängers turned to see who had used the spell.

“(If you move, you don’t know what horrors await you.)”

The mastermind who bound them—the Great Magus, Chairman Shin Hanji—smiled as he spoke, and everyone witnessed the scene.