The Time-Limited Leader Makes the Raid a Success - Chapter 139



Only Noblemtl

Episode 139

139. If you want to use me, become a dragon and come to me.

Kang Mu-hyeok gave his final instructions to Noh Song-rin.

“All retreat in five minutes. Tell Mr. Joe and other high-ranking hunters to conduct a delaying action. See you at the patrol base.”

Then, he asked Nosongrin to burn the map with Mana. He might need the map later, but it didn’t matter because he had already stored all the information in his head. Rather, he was worried that if the enemy got hold of this map, his plan would be discovered.

Noh Song-rin’s steps became heavy as she watched Kang Mu-hyeok staggering and holding his cane.

“Is it okay if I go alone?”

“It’s okay, we still have a way out.”

“That’s not it… … .”

“Gil-young will support you. Your body is still able to endure it. I hope you save the child named Cheol.”

“Hey… Hey, kid. Take good care of the captain.”

“Yes. I will definitely get you to base safely.”

Noh Song-rin went to find Park Cheol-i according to the information she received from Gil-yeong. Fortunately, the explanation was more accurate than the note that Mr. Cho had given her.

I ran with an anxious heart and soon found the remains of a collapsed building.

Nosongrin listened down. He heard low breathing and groans of pain.

He said, carefully clearing away the debris.

“Cheol-i. Park Cheol-i.”

At first there was no answer, but after a while a trembling voice was heard.

“No, sir… … ?”

“You’re an old man? If someone heard you, they’d think you were an old man…

Noh Song-rin, who discovered Park Cheol-i through the debris, flinched for a moment. It was because the child had lost one of his arms. She already knew this, but when she actually faced him, she didn’t know what to say. At times like this, she regretted Kang Mu-hyeok’s words more than her own rank.

“Sir… this.”

In the debris that had not yet been cleared away, Park Cheol-i handed over the object he had been holding in his arms.

Karambit knife.

A simple, inexpensive, and ordinary weapon for one’s own use.

Noh Song-rin, who was outside the rubble, hesitated for a moment and then stepped back slightly. Park Cheol-i took off the sword he had been carrying on his waist from a blind spot and threw it roughly around. Then, to ensure the child’s safety, he cleared away the remaining rubble and caught the sword.

“Mister Carl… Can you fight now?”

Park Chul-yi and Kim Gil-yeong had a misconception. It was common sense that hunters could only demonstrate their skills by using their main weapon.

Unfortunately, the Karambit sword was not Nosongrin’s main weapon. It was simply a matter of taste. Furthermore, at Nosongrin’s level, even hunters of the same level were not easily affected by weapons.

Noh Song-rin did not point this out. Instead, she answered while firmly holding the karambit sword.

“Oh. I definitely got it, kid.”

Noh Song-rin checked Park Cheol-i’s condition.

‘You’re still alive after losing this much blood. It’s a miracle. The mana wound also played a part. Did you cut off your arm and burn it to reduce the amount of blood loss? That’s probably why you can’t regenerate. For some reason, the rest of the bleeding stopped on its own.’

Park Cheol-i asked tearfully, noticing Noh Song-rin’s uneasy expression.

“I can’t be a hunter anymore, right? I don’t have arms… … .”

“What are you worried about when you haven’t even woken up yet?”

“Still.”

“There are plenty of hunters who are lacking in something. There are even one-armed swordsmen among the famous hunters. It all depends on how you do it.”

“Ah, I see. I can do it?”

“Yeah. If you just work hard… What the hell am I saying that’s not right… Hey, are you sleeping? Come on, Inma!”

Noh Song-rin suddenly tapped Park Cheol-i’s cheek as he lost consciousness. She quickly checked his pulse. Fortunately, it was beating vigorously.

Noh Song-rin stared intently at the child’s face. Long tear stains formed at the corners of Park Cheol-i’s eyes.

“If only it weren’t for that damn contract. Ugh!”

As I finished clearing the debris and carefully picked up the child, I felt a presence nearby.

It was a six-person enemy party.

Noh Song-rin activated the interpretation artifact that he had used during the Russian expedition and had not yet returned.

I wanted to ask, was it really necessary to do this? I wanted to hear the excuses they were making.

“Here’s another Bangtz.”

“I guess this guy couldn’t run far.”

“Are you late because you were saving the kid? Hey! I’m sorry, but I can’t just let you go. Hehe.”

“There’s no need to ask. As expected, it’s as expected. Letting go? Who is who?”

Noh Song-rin placed Park Cheol-i on the flat floor and held the karambit knife in his hand.

“Is that kid crazy? There are six of us.”

“Let’s get this over with quickly. If we’re late for another party at the prison, we’ll get in trouble.”

They came closer, snickering and aiming their weapons.

Noh Song-rin asked a question.

“Inma, do you know what I hate the most?”

“What the hell is this kid talking about now?”

“It’s the sound of children crying. I really don’t want to hear it. But─”

“Shut that crazy bastard’s mouth. It’s annoying. Tsk!”

“Why are you making the kids cry and making a fuss?!”

Noh Song-rin ran out.

The karambit sword that had been warmly warmed in Park Cheol’s arms a moment ago had grown cold. The blade flashed several times, and streams of blood flew into the air.

The six hunters were unable to put up even a single proper fight before they fell to the ground with their throats slit and the sound of phlegm boiling.

“Those bastards.”

Noh Song-rin spat on the dead hunters and left the place, holding Park Cheol-i in her arms and holding a knife in her hand.

* * *

Goeulji received a call from Kang Mu-hyeok, who was moving to the patrol base.

Tension built up as he ordered the final operation to be carried out.

-I’ll double check, Goeulji Hunter. There are at least three to four anti-aircraft artillery units for the big monsters, and of course there can be more. In addition, there are many ranged magicians and archers.

“It’s annoying. Even the most skilled magicians would be reluctant to infiltrate through the air. You’d be exposed on all sides. If you were on the ground, you wouldn’t be able to avoid it.”

– Well, it’s usually hard for a hunter. It was too much for a local hunter.

“Wow, is that impossible?! Chief Kang, there’s something my grandfather always tells me. ‘This guy is no ordinary person.’ I’m not an ordinary hunter.”

For a moment, Kang Mu-hyeok felt like refuting the idea.

‘I think that means something else?’

Personality is more important than skill.

But with superhuman patience, he kept it out of his mouth.

-Okay, I’ll believe you. In 10 minutes, start the operation.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m Goeulji. I’ll show you what an extraordinary hunter is like.”

After ending the call, I started the timer on my smartphone app.

I set the time for 10 minutes, sat on the floor, closed my eyes, took a deep breath and meditated, and soon the timer rang.

Goeulji slowly opened his eyes.

“Let’s see who wins?”

Pfft!

The town kicked the ground and soared into the sky.

* * *

“theory!”

“Eww, again? This guy is losing so many games today? How many games is he going to win?”

“Hehehe! This looks like all of your salary for this month will be deposited into my wallet.”

The hunters who were playing mahjong on the rooftop of a half-collapsed building in a corner of Shinuiju were enjoying a peace that was completely different from the intensity of the prison village.

Just as they were about to start a new round, one of the hunters who had a cigarette in his mouth looked up at the sky in surprise.

“Huh? What the heck! Six o’clock! I got a sensor! Ugh, big!”

“What is it? Is it a wyvern?”

“No… It’s a hunter.”

The detection series skill he possessed went beyond tracking objects and was a way to detect their size based on their strength. Naturally, he only sensed their enormous size, so he mistook them for large monsters, but he was soon shocked when he realized their true size.

“He’s high-ranking! He’s an A-rank hunter!”

“Initiate the attack!”

“Prepare the anti-aircraft guns! Bring me the mana stones!”

The long-range dealers who had turned the mahjong table upside down began to fire skills and arrows into the air.

The attack did not start only in this building. Anti-aircraft defense units located in all directions began to respond.

The anti-aircraft gun barrel turned toward the sky. The anti-aircraft gun, which had been charged with mana stones and electricity, quickly gained heat and began spitting out fire.

It was an anti-aircraft gun that was almost useless except for base defense due to its large size and large power consumption, but it boasted excellent performance in aerial infiltration of airborne monsters and magic hunters.

but.

“What is that? That doesn’t seem right.”

“Don’t try to drop it! Just push it away! Don’t let it stick to you!”

“Eww!”

Kwaaang! Boom! Bang! Crack! Kuang!

The building where the mahjong game took place has now become a scene of chaos no less than a prison village.

The mahjong members were also pure-blooded.

Other buildings were still spewing out dozens of beams.

“Whoa, this was a scary high school student.”

Hyun Jeong-geon, who discovered an anti-aircraft gun emplacement on the way, broke out in a cold sweat when he saw the building being destroyed as he approached to deal with it. If he had been up there, even he would have been seriously injured.

“When Captain Kang said he was going to use a secret weapon and plan the operation, I couldn’t believe it. He really planned it out and deployed it. Wasn’t it Iron Will C-class? It’s a guild that you wouldn’t know about even if you knew about it.”

Hyun Jeong-geon’s face was smiling, unlike a moment ago when he was on edge.

“Will they let me join? Manager Kang doesn’t like me, though. I guess they could just cut my salary a bit. No matter how much I think about it, I think it’ll be more fun than when I was in Titan.”

* * *

Goeulji quickly ascended to a height that his detection skills could not reach, and surveyed the entire city with Shinuiju at his feet.

A trait known as telekinesis.

To be precise, it was the ability to understand and control space, but when this trait was first discovered, people only saw it moving objects in the air and classified it under the category of superpowers.

However, as the Hunters’ level increased, they realized that the ability was not limited to telekinesis, but they never changed the name once they had given it.

“It’s hard to fully grasp everything from a distance. Do I have to physically bump into it?”

The town absorbed the cold air from the north.

“Ugh, my throat is freezing.”

She let out a loud noise in her sore throat and suddenly began to descend.

The beginning is a free fall without using any abilities.

As it fell from the sky, just before entering the detection skill range, it started flying at high speed with its head pointed towards the ground.

‘Ugh, it’s snowing. I should’ve brought goggles. Who knew we’d have to fly? Oh no! The attack is starting? Should I speed things up a bit?’

Boom! Kwakwang! Boom bang bang bang bang kwagwagwagwagwag!

Fireworks exploded in the sky. Light flashed and burned the air. It was a destructive force that would have dealt a great blow even to a small town if it had been hit directly.

Fortunately, the attack did not reach Goeulji. The shelling only hit the afterimage left by her high-speed flight.

But she wasn’t completely unscathed either. A tactical retreat. She couldn’t land on the ground and had to turn around to focus on evasive maneuvers.

As Goeulji performed aerobatic maneuvers over Sinuiju, zigzag patterns began to form, and fire gradually began to focus on him.

She waited for her time.

‘Anti-aircraft guns aren’t invincible.’

It didn’t just have the disadvantage of being large in size and requiring a lot of launch resources.

There was a good reason why anti-aircraft guns could not be used as the main weapon.

‘Okay. The shelling has slowed down a bit. Maybe they’re trying to cool down the barrel? Or maybe they’re exchanging mana stones.’

Goeulji did not miss this opportunity.

【scourge】

The hammer of gravity, stacked on top of her raised hand, was lifted.

And the moment the hammer comes down.

Kwaaaaah! Kuuuu!

One of the anti-aircraft gun positions was completely destroyed.

“This is it! You piece of shit!”

bang!

The moment he paused to use his skill, a magic spell hit Goeulji directly. He instinctively put up a defensive barrier and was not hurt, but Goeulji looked defeated.

‘I got hit for nothing. I’m exhausted. There are still a lot of guys to deal with.’

The first step in the final operation was to destroy this air defense network.

In order for the helicopters that were to be supported to be safe, they had to be removed in advance so that the next task would go smoothly.

‘If you try to destroy the base in one breath with your skill, you will inevitably have to stop. You will be attacked every time you do that.’

It would take a lot of energy to defend yourself like that. It would also take a lot of time.

Go Eul-ji knew that Kang Mu-hyeok was not at ease. She could easily grasp the situation just by looking at the fact that he had called her earlier than expected.

At that time, I remembered the harsh training I received from my grandfather.

‘A well-calculated hunt is the best. But sometimes you have to go overboard. Especially when it comes to protecting people, you have to do your best to protect yourself.’

Goeulji took out a hairpin from her bosom. Her hair was twisted by telekinesis. She muttered as she put the hairpin in her bun.

“There’s nothing I can do, Grandpa. I’m doing it the way I was taught.”

The hairpin shone, and Goeulji’s eyes shone with the same light.

“Don’t push yourself too hard, okay?”

【Sonic Boom】

Phew!

Goeulji’s body accelerated to its maximum.

* * *

“80% of the Yeonjeongmun-dae has retreated! More than 70% of the Hwangdongsu-dae has retreated. The rest… It seems like they won’t be able to come.”

“Cheon Deok Su Dae… is half gone. The other hunters’ lives and deaths are uncertain.”

Hunters were flocking to the patrol base based in the old Sinuiju Prison.

Both enemies and allies.

They were forming a defensive formation against the collapsed concrete walls here and there, but the walls were of little help. They were just there for psychological stability.

People went into the basement of the building in the center of the base. It was too small to accommodate everyone, so children, women, and the elderly were given priority. The rest were put in the relatively sturdy prison cells.

Kang Moo-hyuk was standing in an empty playground. It was dangerous no matter where he was. It was better to be with Noh Song-rin for command.

“Is the child okay?”

“I handed it over to this guy called Congressman. There’s no medicine, and I don’t know what’s going to happen. If we lose here, it’s over anyway.”

“If we want to get treatment outside, we have to win first.”

“Can you win this? I have a strong feeling that this is going to be a total mess.”

“I’ve done everything I could. The other side is also giving it their all. The only question is who will strike first.”

As soon as Kang Mu-hyeok finished speaking, new messages arrived one after another. They were all bad news.

“The Chinese kids came from the south and north. Oh? And the west too. Now all that’s left is the east… . At this point, what’s the point? Damn, my life is ending here.”

Kang Moo-hyuk wondered if he could have made a better choice. He ran dozens of simulations in his head, but no matter how much he planned, there was no way to avoid bloodshed.

If there is one way, it is to hope for the enemy’s mercy.

‘If they were such conscientious people, they wouldn’t have made such an attack in the first place. There’s no way out. We’ve lost contact with Mr. Joe. Did he get away on his own?’

A situation where the instructions themselves are no longer meaningful.

Even if Noh Song-rin was deployed, there was no way to protect the defense line that was collapsing on all sides.

Soon the walls of the base began to crumble. Chinese hunters appeared on top of the collapsed concrete piles.

The hunters of the prison village who retreated with their lives barely surviving due to injuries looked more like walking corpses than defeated soldiers.

Still, it was brave of them to fight this far without any equipment or supplies. If their skills had not been outstanding, they would have fallen long ago.

From the south, Yeonjeongmun, from the north, Hwang Dongsu, and from the east, Cheon Deoksu were retreating with their backs turned. They too had no strongholds anywhere.

“There are too many? How many can I kill?”

Noh Song-rin grumbled and stood in the empty seat to the west.

“That bastard, he’s not going to attack me?”

Cheon Deok-su spit out blood and took a deep breath. He was curious that his opponent was only surrounding him and not attacking him, but he tried to recover his energy a little before the final battle.

At that moment, the eastern column split left and right.

Jang Joong-sun appeared there.

Kang Mu-hyeok extended his hand to Noh Song-rin.

“Hunter Noh Song-rin. Can I have some interpretation items?”

“Are you giving and taking?”

“It is guild property.”

“Tch! I was going to take it to the grave.”

Kang Moo-hyuk took the interpretation artifact and stepped forward. Jang Joong-sun said.

“Is it really Kang Mu-hyuk?”

“Are we really going to judge what is fake in this situation?”

“It seems real.”

“So what was the purpose of surrounding us and stopping the attack?”

“I just thought this fight was pretty impressive. I didn’t know I could get hit like this by a human who isn’t even a Hunter.”

“It seems like I got hit not just once, but two or three times.”

“Haha! As expected, you’re really good at talking. Well, you need to have that much talent to be able to give Jang Joong-shin a hard time.”

Jang Joong-sun laughed heartily and relaxed as if his victory had already been confirmed.

A car with such incredible power that no one can possibly turn it over.

And a perfect dominant situation.

It was natural for him to feel like a winner.

“Let me make a suggestion.”

“Let’s go in and see.”

“How about becoming my subordinate? I’ll give you the position of Bugilma. Show off your abilities under me. It’s a shame for Mr. Kang to die like this, isn’t it?”

Kang Moo-hyuk stared at the sky, lost in thought. Jang Joong-sun waited long enough.

After a while, Kang Mu-hyuk said.

“I don’t mind being a subordinate since there’s always someone who’s superior anyway. But I’m not under you.”

“Why? Do I look inadequate? That’s because Mr. Kang doesn’t know me well.”

“Someone said it’s better to have a snake’s head than a dragon’s tail. But I’d rather have a dragon’s tail.”

“What are you talking about… … .”

“At best, a Chinese guild scoundrel. If you want to use me, become a dragon and come, you snakehead.”

Zhang Zhongxun’s complexion changed.

“You’re not the kind of person to listen to kind words. I’m ashamed that I was momentarily charmed by your abilities. I’ll kill you as you wish.”

Jang Joong-sun waved his hand. The Goryeo Alliance hunters’ spirits grew fierce. Hunters holding weapons filled with mana rushed forward.

“Damn it, Captain Kang! Is this really the end? Is there anything else?!”

Kang Mu-hyeok responded to Noh Song-rin’s criticism.

“of course…….”

Enemy hunters rushed towards Kang Mu-hyeok. Cheon Deok-su blocked his way.

“Yes.”

Boom!

A light fell from the sky and landed, shattering the ground. It flew in the direction the rushing hunters had come from.

“You’re not late, are you, Captain Kang?”

“That’s right. The final stage. Let’s get started, Goulji Hunter.”

“Yes!”