Chapter 705: Occupied City

606th Defense Regiment.

Their original mission was defense.

The object of their defense was the capital of the United Kingdom, a nation with the largest territory, the most advanced civilization, and the most excellent culinary culture in the world.

Naturally, the 606th Defense Regiment considered it a great honor and committed to grueling daily training.

They were guarding the heart of the greatest nation in history, and by extension, Her Majesty the Queen.

However, as fate would have it, they were sent to Randa, far from their original mission.

The reason for the deployment was military aid under humanitarian grounds. Ironically, the sin-proud city, once claiming to be the wealthiest in the world, had almost fallen overnight, attacked by an army of corpses from the sewers.

Comedy of comedies.

The peak of it all was that the Royal Army, on a nearby mission, ended up saving Randa.

Rumor had it that the corpse army fled the moment they saw the Royal Army’s banner.

Naturally, the saved Randa begged the Royal Army to protect the city, clutching at their legs. As a result, the 606th Defense Regiment was deployed to Randa, a fate they never expected.

They didn’t have enough numbers to guard such a giant city. Unsurprisingly, the sentiment of the 606th Defense Regiment, now stuck in Randa, was something like this.

“Damn this city.”

Soldier A muttered as he smoked a cigarette in the middle of the night. Despite being in the middle of an operation, he was smoking. Clearly, he didn’t care about keeping his position hidden.

“Hey, hey. Put out that cigarette.”

Another soldier, Soldier B, walked up and tried to stop him.

“Come on, give me a break. We’re in the rear, aren’t we?”

“Hey.”

“We’ve been stuck in this depressing place for days. At least let me have a smoke.”

Soldier A pointed at the darkened streets of Y-District, sighing.

Soldier B stopped too. Because truly, this place was quite unsettling.

Streets long abandoned, unmanaged and left to decay; collapsing buildings and hastily built shacks; unnerving graffiti and totems; countless corpses. It looked like a landscape from a world that had already ended.

And then there were the beggars, the mutants, and the gangs. There were so many of them.

Though it had been cleaned up now, it had been chaos when they first arrived.

Not only were the gangs armed with various makeshift weapons, but they were under attack from giant mutants called Ogremen and Hounds, dog-like mutants.

But a gang is still just a gang. They were no match for actual soldiers when it came to discipline, equipment, or basic combat skills.

Soldier B, feeling a sudden wave of futility, asked Soldier A for a cigarette.

“Heh. You feeling it too?”

“Yeah, what are we even doing here? Fighting gangs, mutants, cleaning up beggars… Ugh, I hate it.”

“At least we’re just guarding the rear now. That’s a relief.”

“True. The main offensive is being handled by Pinkman and the Randa Defense Force. But why the hell can’t they move forward?”

Soldier B voiced his frustration about the stalemated front.

Even Y-District, which had been troublesome at first, had been cleared of gangs. But for some reason, Z-District was still at a standstill.

“Is it that Anti-Development Committee? I heard they’re pretty strong.”

“They’re just a bunch that got routed by corpses.”

“True, but let’s not completely dismiss them. They’ve got some serious treasure, if the rumors are accurate.”

Soldier B nodded in agreement.

When they cleared out the gangs in Y-District for security purposes, they found a massive stash of wealth during the confiscation process.

Not only gold, silver, and jewels but also lost artworks and ancient antiques. A soldier with a background in art appraisal practically drooled.

It was presumed that the Anti-Development Committee had used that wealth to buy off the gangs, and thanks to this discovery, morale was kept afloat. Everyone believed they’d get a nice bonus once Z-District was cleared.

“Do you think the rumors are true?”

“What rumors?”

“The whole clean-up. They say it’s for public order, but isn’t it really about hidden treasure?”

“I thought it was because of the witch. You know, the evil witch who dealt with Dark Sorcerers and worshipped demons. What was her name, Ma, Ma-”

“-What are you lot standing around for!”

As Soldiers A and B conversed, a third voice suddenly interrupted with a loud scolding.

“P-Platoon Leader!”

“Damn you! Smoking on the job! Normally, I’d give you a thrashing, but I’ll let it slide today. Move it!”

“Move? Where?”

“We’re heading to Z-District! There’s been a call for reinforcements—it might finally break open… Damn it! Wipe that look off your face, I hate it too!”

Following the platoon leader’s shout, Soldiers A and B quickly fixed their expressions and scanned the area.

Damn it. He wasn’t joking. The entire unit was moving into action.

Beyond the darkness, many figures were preparing the camp. Even the engines of the exoskeleton gloves, which had been shut down for maintenance, were being fired up.

“Ah, seriously… huh?”

Just as Soldier A was about to mutter a complaint, a sound left his mouth, but it wasn’t a complaint.

That sound came when people saw something they shouldn’t. Like a grenade landing on your dinner table—it wasn’t entirely wrong. The only difference was in the scale.

Boom!

A loud, high-density metal impact rang out, and the exoskeleton gloves that had been on standby in the darkness were crushed to pieces.

The body and arms were completely shattered and separated. And it wasn’t just one.

All the exoskeleton gloves there were destroyed. Even those protected by a magic barrier while in operation.

How? With what weapon? From where? How many?

No one had answers.

The only thing they knew was that it was powerful and that there were multiple enemies. Otherwise, it would have been impossible to destroy the exoskeleton gloves simultaneously.

As the soldiers began to raise their guns to prepare for battle, gunfire erupted.

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Bang!

Gunshots echoed from various directions. Strangely, no one was killed.

Instead, all the soldiers’ personal firearms had been punctured and rendered useless. Exactly, without exception.

Oh no…

At that realization, an indescribable fear washed over the soldiers, causing their hair to stand on end. No one had died, but they knew they all could.

“Fire!”

Someone shouted. The darkness was now becoming more of a hindrance.

Click! Click! Clack!

The soldiers, having reached the same conclusion, all turned on their lanterns to light the surroundings and secure their vision. But there was nothing to see.

All they could see were the wrecked exoskeleton gloves and crushed military trucks. The enemy was nowhere to be seen. Not even a trace of their presence could be felt.

“This is… impossible…”

One of the soldiers who could use magic muttered, sweating profusely.

It made sense if one or two people had been sniped, but after such heavy fire that destroyed their exoskeleton gloves, the fact that not a single hint of the enemy’s presence was felt didn’t make sense.

To deliver such a powerful attack like that required a large number of people nearby. Yet not a single presence was detected. It was as if they were dealing with ghosts.

“All the communication devices have been destroyed!!”

“Sergeant Gel! Report to command immediately!!”

When the platoon leader heard the report that the communication devices were destroyed, he immediately commanded Gel, the magic user.

If Gel sprinted with all his might, he could report to the higher-ups right away.

Just as Sergeant Gel received the order and was about to move, he suddenly halted.

His heightened reflexes, honed through natural talent, training, and runes, caught something.

It was a spatial spell from far beyond the reach of current technology.

Without any magical light indicating its presence, the air distorted, and a bullet appeared in the sky, aimed precisely in their direction.

The landing point was the ground. But it was impossible to ignore. A single bullet carried an unimaginable amount of magic.

“Mo-”

Bang!

In the very moment Sergeant Gel opened his mouth, the bullet that had appeared from the void struck the earth, scattering blue lightning and causing everyone nearby to collapse unconscious.

Effectively, they were all wiped out. And it had all happened in under a minute.

A terrifying event to the point where they felt their skin crawling. But this was only the beginning.

This same attack was happening simultaneously around the entire 606th Defense Regiment surrounding Z-District.

“Second.”

“…Yes.”

“Could you hurry up a little?”

“Sure.”

***

“Damn it! Damn it! Support! We need supp-”

Clack!

The urgent request that had been coming through the military communication device was abruptly cut off like a knife.

It was clearly an emergency. But no one on the receiving end paid it much mind.

Not because they were heartless, but because the situation was the same across all the units currently surrounding Z-District.

“Where the hell did they come from?!”

“We can’t guess their firepower or their numbers! There’s nothing we can do!!”

It was an accurate assessment.

The only attack hitting the 606th Defense Regiment currently pressing down on Z-District was the ‘spatial sniper.’ The problem was, as they said, there was simply nothing they could do about it.

Somehow, it was more terrifying than the fact that this spatial sniper could destroy exoskeleton gloves, trucks, and golems with a single shot. It was their precision.

Despite the overwhelming firepower, not a single soldier was killed. Yet they remained under constant pressure, unable to fight back.

Their enemy’s capabilities, equipment, and numbers were impossible to gauge.

It felt like the entire regiment was blind while being targeted by thousands of snipers.

It wasn’t a fight; it was closer to traumatic, systematic execution.

No, it was worse. It wasn’t that they were killed in one clean shot—it was as if they were being humiliated, continuously missing the target.

Those who managed to stay amidst the deafening gunshots understood this.

“What! No casualties!?”

“Yes, sir! They’ve only destroyed our guns. They’ve used magic in their bullets to knock us out, but so far, no deaths!!”

“What the hell are they trying to pull?!”

The commander’s face turned pale as he reacted nervously to the report.

Despite firing a barrage of bullets like a rainstorm, no one had died. It was intentional. They were toying with them.

The commander didn’t see it as mercy. He saw it as a sophisticated psychological attack.

It was as if they were being told, ‘This is how far beneath us you are.’ Soldiers screamed and made panicked noises as they were caught in what felt like constant shell-shock.

Bullets flew from every direction, grazing their necks, and licking at them repeatedly.

There may not have been any casualties, but the battle was effectively over. Three thousand soldiers, incapacitated in just a few minutes.

Of course, it wasn’t like that for everyone.

Though most of the regular troops were paralyzed by sheer panic at the gunfire, experienced veterans, magic users, and combat mages tried to fight back in their own ways.

The veterans, recognizing that the enemy wasn’t going to kill them, tried to move despite the shooting.

The magic users moved at lightning speed to escape the range of the bullets and began searching the area.

The combat mages focused all their magic perception in an attempt to track the spatial sniper down.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Bang!

Rumble!

But it was all in vain.

Those brave soldiers who tried to ignore the gunfire received concentrated fire that broke their will by pushing their stress to the limit.

The magic users were knocked out or restrained by bullets containing lightning or ice magic.

The combat mages, despite joining forces to trace the source, were bombarded with rubber bullets without any success.

It was as though someone was watching them from above, pinpointing their every move.

There was a malice to the accuracy, as if they weren’t refraining from killing because they feared bloodshed, but because they would lose control if they started.

It was more than unfair. It was absurd one-sided slaughter.

This merciless attack didn’t spare even those who were pressing directly on Z-District.

That included Pinkman, the mercenary, and the conscripted Randa City Defense Force.

[This is 17-2! 17-2! Report from 17-4! 17-4 do you copy…?!]

The voice on the other side of the communication device sounded urgent.

Oliver, standing in front, turned around with his back to the gunfire behind him. There, the Zombie Puppet—Durance—was busy firing multiple sniper shots with his specially modified body, scattering spatial blasts.

“Aren’t you going to answer that?”

One of the Randa Defense soldiers looked between Oliver and the communication device before pulling out his gun and shooting his own device.

Bang!

With a sharp crack, the communication device shattered, its parts spilling across the ground like guts.

Oliver asked the soldier.

“Is that alright?”

“I was forced here; I didn’t come willingly. So, what do you want from us?”

As expected, the soldier from Randa quickly understood the situation.

Forget about the fact that this overwhelming sniper unit was a single Zombie Puppet standing behind Oliver. The real point was that no report had been made regarding Oliver’s presence up until now.

Not even a whisper about locating Fixer Dave, let alone identifying the source of these assaults.

In other words, neither the Royal Army, Pinkman, nor the Randa Defense Force were aware of Fixer Dave’s existence.

And yet here Dave was, revealing himself only to them. This could only mean one thing.

He wanted something from them. If he hadn’t wanted anything, he could have slipped past them just as unnoticed as his arrival.

The soldier felt a greater fear than any threat of violence.

“Can you take them away?”

Oliver gestured toward one side.

There stood the captured Selectors and a member of the Anti-Development Committee, bound in bandages.

“Release them.”

Without a moment’s hesitation, the Randa soldier obeyed Oliver’s request.

It wasn’t because he was eager to cooperate but rather because he had been forcibly conscripted by the Royal Army. He wasn’t particularly eager to die.

The Selectors and the Anti-Development Committee member, who had just been restrained by the Defense Force, were now propped up by those same soldiers.

Oliver used hand signals to invite them to follow him quietly, and everyone, as if enchanted, began trailing behind him in silence.

It was as if they had no other choice.

And just like that, Oliver effortlessly walked into Z-District, passing through the siege of 3,000 Royal Army soldiers.

He stopped.

Oliver turned around and looked at the Randa soldier once more.

“I’d prefer you didn’t report this… but if you do, it doesn’t really matter.”

A vague request. Oliver turned back and resumed his way.

After Oliver vanished from sight, the Defense Force soldiers finally began talking amongst themselves.

“Did we just meet someone?”

“No.”