Surviving in the 121st Century - Chapter 44



Only Noblemtl

*

General Donchava was even more outraged by the fact that he had been feared by the Council of Sioux, especially since the fear was not directed at the Council of Sioux.

It would have been better if he had been afraid of Shiol. He would have tried to find a way to subdue those in front of him and make them kneel at his feet.

But what Donchava was afraid of was not the power of Sioll, but the fact that there had been many nations that had passed through Sioll before him. The general only understood one of the nations that the mayor of Sioll had spoken of. He did not know the rest. He had never heard of them.

The general was afraid of being forgotten like that. How many nations, generals and warships that were pushed out of the center, had fled to the far-off border of Shiol? And how many of them had returned? Who survived the flight and reclaimed their territory?

The story of the western frontier city of Shiol was also famous in the Central Continent where he lived. It was an ancient city of the Esai who believed in the sun as their religion, and it was said to be found beyond the ocean and the forests and plains. However, there was no general who claimed to have taken over the territory with their aid.

So the plan to ally with them and receive supplies and military support seemed like a really brilliant and ingenious plan until I got there. It seemed like a secret plan to easily defeat the rebels and the Urata Trading Union.

But now, General Donchava’s mind was filled with only suspicion, fear, and anger at that fear. That was why he had released all his precious metals in Sioux, as if possessed by evil, to buy supplies and hire mercenaries.

I am different. I am different from the previous foolish generals. I will definitely return. I will definitely get it back. I will be remembered as the leader who reclaimed his land, as the returned superman.

“···certainly.”

Donchava turned the humiliation and fear he felt in the council of Sioux into self-deception and anger, clutching the arms of his chair as if they would break. His eyes were fixed on the airships soaring through the clouds in the distance.

The observation officer’s voice echoed through the bridge.

“Enemy battleship identified! This is the Urata Trading Union!”

“General! Enemy Battlewing squadrons are targeting the deck and guns! We need to deploy our squadron as well!”

“Sector 32 armor is completely destroyed! Sector 27 armor is half destroyed!”

Reports echoed throughout the bridge. Donchava, determined, threw down his armrest and stood up.

“A surprise attack without a declaration of war! You bastards who don’t know honor! The deck officer, dispatch all flight squadrons immediately! Turn the bow to the left, and the defense control officer, activate the local defense shield! The local defense shield will be centered around the bridge, engine, and the already destroyed armor! All guns except for the anti-aircraft guns, aim straight ahead! The target is that Urata ship!”

On the busy bridge, Donchava’s eyes sparkled.

*

“I didn’t expect this.”

An air battle? Jincheol felt astonished as he looked out the window at the enemy warships and flying airplanes. If all the Rabitos were fighting in airships, it was only natural that there would be an air battle. Jincheol had expected that much.

But I didn’t expect a fight like this to break out before I even reached the East. I had planned to rush out as soon as I saw land, but before I could, an enemy warship appeared.

Moreover, the bigger problem was that there was little a single mercenary could do in a dogfight between these flying battleships. The loud siren sound and the entire battleship shaking made it sound more like he had landed in the middle of some disaster than a battle.

At that moment, flames flashed around the enemy battleship approaching from afar. Behind the flames, there was smoke and a strange silence. Then, a loud crackling noise shook the ship. It was the enemy cannon fire again.

“Eww!”

“Ahhhhh! Save me! Save me!”

“Keeeeeek! Thunderbolt! Thunderbolt-!”

The mercenaries immediately panicked. On the ground, they fight with guns and swords. I haven’t seen the wars of this era, but when I think of the Esai nobles running wild with a single sword, I can roughly guess how the mercenaries and everyone else fight.

The mercenaries here would have been the same. None of them had ever experienced an air battle like this or been caught in a bombardment. No one on board would have expected such a fight.

And this was Jincheol’s first time experiencing this type of aerial combat.

In the first place, air combat in the 21st century war was a battle between cutting-edge fighter planes. It was not a situation where huge air battleships fire their cannons and launch fighter planes like now. This was closer to a three-dimensional sea battle, and at first glance, it was a battlefield where infantry with only rifles and swords would have little influence.

At that moment, a chill ran down Jincheol’s spine once again. The sense of crisis was incomparable to the one he had felt when he had just gotten out of bed. Jincheol ran to the entrance of the dormitory and shouted.

“Everyone get out! Now-”

The next moment, intense light, rainbow scattering, and overwhelming impact swept through. There was no time to activate the defense shield. Jincheol felt his body being shaken to pieces. It felt as if a giant several tens of meters tall had picked up his body, stirred it around like a soda, and thrown it on the ground.

Only after an unknown amount of time, whether it was an instant or an eon, did Jincheol realize that he was buried under the collapsed rubble.

“···”

I continued to breathe quietly and calmly felt the state of my body. Where did I feel pain? All over my body, arms and legs. I wiggled my fingers and toes, and everything from my thumb to my little finger moved. Fortunately. It didn’t seem like anything was cut off.

“···Ugh!”

The next moment, Jincheol pushed away the debris covering his body – it seemed to be part of the ceiling – and stood up. The heavy iron plate sounded like a piece of paper. He pushed it forward and it rolled around and flew into the air.

Jincheol stood there blankly, staring straight ahead, because of the part that had flown into the ’empty space’.

The dormitory was in shambles. A strong wind blew through the gaping wall, and the collapsed debris flew through the gaping wall. Flames spewing smoke and crackling wires swayed. In contrast to the completely destroyed dormitory, the sky beyond was vast, and clouds that were round like hills drew a distant horizon.

Enemy warships were still flying above the clouds, as if they were natural objects fixed there.

“Fuck… I should have just taken a boat….”

I was planning to go 30 days early, but I ended up going 30 years early. The plan to get free food as a mercenary and then get off quickly when I got to the land seemed like a really good plan. After all, Ishanka was the one who gave me the guarantee, and this Jaso Federation didn’t seem like it would last long. But that was before the enemy battleship showed up.

“Here…! Save me…!”

Jincheol, who was blankly staring at the formation of fighter jets flying across the sky, soon realized that he was hearing a voice from nearby.

I quickly walked over to where the sound came from and overturned the debris. A voice burst out from under the bed and steel pillars.

“Save me, save me…! I can’t escape…!”

“What? Was it you?”

It was a stone fist. A bushy-haired, hairless gorilla was crawling under the rubble. I swept it away, and it squeaked and got out of the way.

“Ugh… I haven’t heard of, I haven’t heard of, a fight like this… What about, what about other people…?”

At Doljumeok’s words, Jincheol silently turned over the debris and threw it. Several pieces of iron flew into the air, and then the arms, legs, hands, heads, and internal organs that had been lying there scattered into the sky. Doljumeok trembled.

“I, that’s all···?”

“Now it’s just the two of us in this dorm.”

Jincheol’s eyes sank deeply as he watched the scattered debris. A really shitty feeling was coming back to him. A feeling he thought he would never feel again, having fallen behind in this era. A cocktail of seething anger, despair, and helplessness. What were those mercenaries of Siol expecting when they boarded the ship?

Jincheol suddenly reached out and grabbed Doljumeok by the collar. The bastard’s eyes were half-open.

“Hey. Come on, Inma.”

“Ah, uh uh··· uh···”

There was a slap. Jincheol had slapped Doljumeok’s cheek. Thanks to that, Doljumeok’s eyes, which had been loosening, regained their strength. He spat out his broken teeth with a “Ugh.”

Jincheol looked at him with bewildered eyes as he saw his molars rolling around in his palm.

“···”

“What, Inma? I didn’t tell you to come to your senses.”

“Well, but the teeth···”

“Get new teeth later. The campos also get silver teeth.”

Stone Fist was free from panic, but he fell into a new sadness. He was now missing a few of his molars. Jincheol raised his hand again after seeing that.

“Wait a minute! Come to your senses! Stop hitting me!”

“Okay? Okay. Now we need a way to escape this ship.”

“What? Escape? How?”

Then, a loud bang-bang sound echoed through the ship. Doljumeok almost convulsively flapped his wings and fell to the ground, while Jincheol, on the other hand, moved towards the newly opened balcony. When he looked out, he saw that it was not around here, but a little above the ship that seemed to have been shelled.

At that moment, an amazing scene was seen. Some of the flying shells were blocked by a blue barrier and exploded in the air without reaching the hull. It was a scene that seemed to come out when the protective shield on Jincheol’s right arm was hundreds of times larger.

“What the hell, why isn’t the shield activated here? Is the shield selective? Are you saying it blocks shells by sight?”

A shield that only works on certain parts of the ship? Or is it a shield that someone actually sees and operates? Either way, it’s all the same shit. In any case, the mercenaries were in the lower cabins, which were not exactly the most important defense target. That means there must have been construction on the new balcony a little while ago, damn it.

Jincheol turned back to Doljumeok.

“Have you heard anything about being the dormitory leader here?”

“What, what? What are you listening to?”

“Something like a plan for moving in case of an emergency. Or a way to escape from this airship.”

Stone Fist raised his head from his prone position and answered awkwardly.

“No, there’s nothing like that?”

Jincheol immediately kicked the guy.

“That’s not true, how can that be possible on a battleship this size!”

“Really! I didn’t tell you that! In the first place, I’ve only seen the mercenary commander once!”

These kids with no plan. Did you really feed them food to use them as meat shields? Jincheol let out a hollow laugh because he was so dumbfounded. It was a laugh that came out because it was so shitty.

At that moment, the battleship shook again with a loud noise. Jincheol approached the gaping hole in the wall again and stuck his face out. To the stone fist behind him, it was an action that looked like that of a half-crazy man.

“They’re counterattacking too… It’s a little late.”

The Jaso Federation’s battleships also began firing their cannons toward that side. At that time, the fighter squadrons from both sides were flying around the battleships like flies, making a “Waeeeeung” sound, and were firing their machine guns, and the barrage of bullets that seemed to be from the battleship’s anti-aircraft guns were also being scattered in all directions. The flying battleships on the other side also had lights bursting out, and holes in their ships and blue shields were seen shining.

At that moment, a fighter jet flew along the wall of the battleship and grazed the hole through which Jincheol had stuck his face. Another fighter jet chasing it also passed by with a sharp shushing sound, and Jincheol, who followed them and lowered his head, soon saw the lead fighter jet crashing after losing one of its wings.

“···This is fucking over. If I stay still here, I’ll drown with the crashing ship.”

Jincheol turned around and started to walk briskly towards the inside of the ship. Doljumeok, who was lying flat in the corner, watched him anxiously, and as soon as he left the living quarters, he quickly got up and followed him.

“Hey, where are you going?”

“Archer.”

As I answered briefly and went out to the cabin corridor, I saw the siren blaring frantically and the mercenaries who were also half-sane and running wild. As they were doing that in the narrow corridor, everyone was bumping into things, falling over, and it was chaos.

Jincheol paused for a moment and looked around with sharp eyes. Then, he decided on a direction without hesitation and started moving. Doljumeok quickly followed and asked.

“What do you know about what you are going for?”

“First, go upstairs. We’ll steal a fighter jet and escape to the ground.”

I didn’t think about whether I could drive or not right away. First of all, there didn’t seem to be any safety devices or escape devices on this lower level. Otherwise, there would have been no way I wouldn’t have seen any other Rabito people besides the mercenaries.

Even as I moved through the corridors, the sirens, gunfire, and gunfire resonated. The ship rocked so much that I couldn’t continue walking.

Then, a loud explosion rang out, enough to shake the entire ship. But what was more frightening than the explosion was the creaking sound that followed the loud noise. It was a noise like misaligned iron rubbing against iron.

Jincheol muttered as he paused for a moment, leaning against the hallway wall and listening to the sound.

“This isn’t good.”

A ship on the sea sinks into the water. What about an air battleship in the sky?

“···I’m going to fall, damn it.”

“Chu, you’re saying we’re falling? Are you saying we’re falling?”

The stone fist that was following along made a frightened sound. Jincheol smiled at him while sweating coldly.

“I guess it looks like shit, right? So if you don’t want to get screwed, follow me.”

A bang sound erupted from above. The sound of a metal thud followed. Jincheol immediately ran forward. Doljumeok followed with a half-souled expression. As soon as they passed, the ceiling of the place was torn apart, and steel bars and debris poured down along with flames.

“Eww!”

“Get down! I want to get down! Get down on the ground!”

Screams and shouts of panic as they raced through the ship. The sight of mercenaries and rabbits running wild, not knowing what to do, flashed by. After the noise of metal disengaging just a moment ago, the entire airship was thrown into chaos. Fire, steam, and explosions followed from inside.

The sound of the attack continued. With a loud bang, the ship shook once more. Jincheol ran down the hallway to avoid the flames, then turned a corner. Then, he stopped for a moment.

The port side of the battleship had completely collapsed, exposing its interior. Jincheol stood at the edge of the wind-swept wreckage and checked the condition of the ship.

Amidst the chain of explosions and flames that rose from the section shattered by the artillery fire, both Rabito soldiers and mercenaries fell into the air without exception. The vast amount of materials that had been procured for a fortune in Shiol were also scattered.

Jincheol, looking down, realized that the clouds were getting closer. The airship was really crashing.

“Save me!”

“Eww!”

With a loud bang, a part of the ship’s hull blew off, sending people flying around like a joke. Amidst the flying sparks, debris, and smoke, the enemy warship could be seen approaching from afar.

Although it couldn’t compare to the Jaso Federation’s, the airship wasn’t without damage either. Flames and smoke were rising here and there in the lower levels, and some of them were even seen falling down.

But they were flying. They were rising from the sea of ​​clouds, rising higher into the sky, closer to the sun than they were falling. Jincheol’s eyes could see the port moving precisely in time with their movements.

The port lights and smoke continued, and the shock shook the ship’s hull. Jincheol held onto the wall and endured the shaking. The iron plate in his hands crumpled like a piece of paper.

“Where the hell are you?”

Jincheol raised his head and checked the upper level even though it was shaking. Unlike the lower level that was collapsing, the upper level of the airship, where the general and the command center were expected to be, was relatively intact. This was partly because the shield in that area had blocked most of the shells, and the armor plate itself seemed much stronger.

Jincheol, who had been wandering around, soon found the fastest way to get up there. He decided to climb up along the collapsed left side of the bridge.

“Hey, are you crazy! Where are you going!”

The stone fist that was following behind shouted at Jincheol as if he was crazy. Jincheol grabbed onto the protruding iron pillars and iron plates and climbed up, saying:

“You can either fall down there and die along with the ship!”

Flames and explosions were raging inside the ship. It was equally dangerous to run through the furnace or climb up like this.

“Oh, Tolkan···!”

Doljumeok eventually started to follow Jincheol up. It seemed like he didn’t have the heart to go back inside where the flames were blazing.

The airship was slowly falling, the fighters were tailing each other in crazy aerobatics, the cannons were firing, and the biting wind was blowing so hard that it was hard to open my eyes.

Then, once again, a nearby location was hit, and the hull shook. With each shake, the debris and people inside were scattered playfully into the air.

“Fuck! Is this right!?”

Jincheol made this groaning sound as he climbed the side of the airship as if he were climbing a rock face. Of course, the one who would really make such a sound was Stone Fist, who was trembling and following him from below. He was climbing up, his teeth chattering, his hands clenched tightly to the point where they turned pale.

In that chaotic situation, Jincheol, who had reached a certain level, jumped inside. After rolling around once and getting up, he saw that the room was a mess.

Originally, it was a room lined with wooden beds, furniture, and paintings on the walls, probably used by a fairly high-ranking officer. Of course, most of it had been smashed and blown away through the gaping hole in the wall. The owner of the room, Rabito, wearing an officer’s uniform, was also lying on the floor, welcoming the guest. If his lower body hadn’t been blown away, he would have welcomed him warmly.

Jincheol, who had been looking at the corpse for a moment, got up and walked briskly toward the entrance of the room. The door was closed, but it seemed as if the entire room was slightly warped and tightly interlocked, preventing it from opening.

Jincheol, who had been examining the door for a moment, took a step back and kicked the door open.

With a loud bang, the iron door crumpled and fell apart. Jincheol, who poked his head out through the open door, was able to find the rabbits running around frantically in the hallway on the other side.

“Come, come with me…”

Doljukkeum, who came up a step late, followed Jincheol with a pale face and trembling. Was it his survival instinct? It seemed like he thought that he had to follow Jincheol in order to survive.

Then, there was another explosion sound. The ship shook, and the twisting sound that had already been heard from the lower levels continued. It was the sound of the ship twisting, the sound of death.

Jincheol shouted.

“Did you hear that? If you don’t want to be caught by that sound, follow me quickly!”

Seeing Jincheol running out of the room, Doljumeok, who had been crawling on the floor, gritted his teeth, stood up, and followed him.

Jincheol ran out of the officer’s room and ran down the hallway, where he soon encountered the rabbits running around frantically. They shouted as if they couldn’t understand why Jincheol showed up here even though the ship was crashing.

“What, what! Esai? Are you a mercenary? Stop! Mercenaries aren’t allowed up here!”

“Stop right there! Show me your mercenary certificate-”

“Stop talking nonsense.”

Jincheol pushed away Rabito’s face, who was trying to block the way, with his palm. Rabito made a strange squeaking sound and fell backwards. The other one was able to avoid Jincheol’s touch thanks to quickly sticking to the wall.

But as soon as Jincheol and Doljumeok moved away, the guy shouted across the passage.

“Intruders! Lower-level mercenaries have entered without permission! Arrest them immediately!”

Several of the Rabito soldiers in front heard the sound and tried to block the road. Of course, they could not stop Jincheol and Doljumeok, who were twice their size.

“Eww!”

“Ouch!”

“Squeak!”

The rabbits were knocked out like pinballs hit by a bowling ball.

Jincheol, who had passed the Rabito scarecrows, immediately found a ladder leading upstairs. He quickly climbed up and found a wide space. It was a kind of hangar.

The crude-looking monoplanes that Jincheol had seen and their maintenance equipment were rolling around, and outside the wide-open hangar doors, fighter planes were flying around and gunfire was ringing out.

The hangar was a mess, just like the inside of the ship, already in shambles. With flames shooting out, steam pouring out of the pipes, and doors ripped off and tattered, it was already beyond repair.

Jincheol quickly looked at the fighters. There was no need to fly well. He just had to avoid crashing, so it was enough to be able to catch the wind like a glider.

But there were no intact fighters to be seen. Most of them were completely unable to fly, with their wings or internal parts detached, or were simply buried in the wreckage of a messy hangar.

“Fuck···”

“Hehe, heh···”

Jincheol and Doljumeok were momentarily speechless at the state of the destroyed hangar.

“You guys! Stand right there!”

While I was watching the situation in the hangar, other Rabitos came up the ladder, saying they wanted to catch Jincheol and Doljumeok. Jincheol was dumbfounded and asked.

“Are you following us now? Aren’t you going to escape?!”

The plump Rabito at the very front flinched at the shout. However, he soon recognized the soldiers behind him and drew the sword he had on his waist.

“Mercenaries cannot come from the lower levels! You will be arrested!”

“You idiots, this is no time to be talking nonsense! This ship is going down!”

“Nonsense! The Jasso Federation’s battleships are invincible! All personnel! Turn back! Catch the traitor!”

The Rabito officer waved his sword in the air, shouting crazy, and the Rabito soldiers behind him rushed in shouting, “Wow!”

Another thing that made Jincheol dizzy was that the Rabbit soldiers running towards him were holding tools like spanners and hammers. In fact, none of them had brought weapons because they were in such a desperate situation.

“You little bastards···”

There was no time to mess around here. The airship was falling in real time, and it was only a matter of time before the inside was completely blown away. So Jincheol decided to grab the head.

Jincheol jumped out as if he was being shot straight ahead.

The lead group of rabbits that had been running while shouting stopped in fear at the sight of Jincheol rushing forward. As a result, those running from behind bumped into them, and eventually, they all got tangled up and fell down.

Jincheol jumped over the heads of the fallen rabbits and did a somersault.

Jincheol flew through the air as if he had springs attached to his feet. Jincheol jumped over the wall of Rabitos that was beginning to crumble, and landed in front of Officer Rabito.

“omg!”

The startled man suddenly swung his sword at Jincheol. Jincheol grabbed the blade with his jaw and at the same time gently caressed the man’s face with his other hand. There was a heavy squeak and Officer Rabito’s eyes widened. The man fell to his knees.

After that, Jincheol stood in front of the other Rabito soldiers holding the sword he had taken. Then, he grabbed both ends of the sword in his hand, folded it twice as if he was folding a piece of paper, and threw it in front of them.

“···”

The Rabito soldiers blankly looked at Jincheol, the folded sword, and the slumped officer one by one, and then the next moment, they scattered in all directions with a scream of “Waaaaak!”