The Time-Limited Leader Makes the Raid a Success - Chapter 420



Only Noblemtl

Episode 420

#420. It’s war now.

Yokosuka Port, Japan, Maritime Staff Office.

“The operation to reclaim Okinawa begins now.”

Maritime Self-Defense Force Chief of Staff Minato Suzuki was a soldier who was nearing retirement, but he was passionately carrying out his military duties to protect his country, which was in danger from monsters.

He was watching the ships of the 1st Escort Force approaching Okinawa.

Although they were nothing more than dots on a map of a huge screen, they were an elite force that would secure a beachhead as soon as the advance party, consisting of hundreds of Hunters, landed in Okinawa.

Expectations for this operation were that high.

“Lord Yoshimura!”

Chief of Staff Suzuki spoke to a small monitor placed on one side of his seat.

An old man who looked tired was looking at the staff officer on the screen. The wrinkles on his face were not spared by the passage of time, but his sharp eyes held the strength of any young hunter.

“Will this operation be successful?”

Chief Suzuki asked with an anxious voice. He felt like a shepherd seeking answers from God. He didn’t know if the direction of his question was right, since his opponent was one of the lords who could be called the gods of the Japanese hunter world.

But the answer he heard was not the answer he wanted.

-I was definitely against it.

Gen Yoshimura.

The veteran who had been through the Great War was dissatisfied with the Maritime Self-Defense Force’s operations.

Being invited as an advisor for this operation would have been avoided if the Japan Guild Federation had not earnestly requested it.

When support did not come from the lord he trusted, Chief of Staff Suzuki refuted with wavering eyes.

“But isn’t this operation something that even Lord Kishin Takeru agreed to?!”

-Kissin? That guy? Hahaha, he really agreed? He didn’t just watch?

Yoshimura’s taunts echoed through the speakers. A scene flashed through Suzuki’s mind.

The sight of Kishin opening his mouth without even making eye contact while taking care of me.

‘This operation… I think it would be good to try it.’

At that time, I thought Kishin’s words were agreement.

-Listen here, Chief of Staff.

Yoshimura opened his mouth in a polite, soothing tone. Suzuki focused on his mouth without answering.

-Passion is good, but how long are you going to have the government and military intervene in the fight against monsters? Don’t you really know that it’s more efficient to leave this to the hunters and have the government play a supporting role?

“What good is telling a soldier about that? Isn’t that something for politicians to decide?”

-This operation also came from the Prime Minister’s Office, right?

“No. This is a defense… … .”

-Even though this old man has stepped back from the front lines, there are still many ears listening.

“… … .”

-Why do you think that guy Kishin won’t say anything about this operation? He’s a man who’s been through both the Great War and the Small War. He’s also one of only three S-ranks in Japan. He probably doesn’t know, but he probably knows the results of this operation without having to watch it. Haven’t you ever thought that the reason a man with a dragon in his stomach won’t open his mouth is because he’s very dissatisfied with the government’s actions?

“… … .”

-The Prime Minister’s Office must have been unsure of the fact that they put the Chief of Staff forward as the face of this operation. The election is coming up. The LDP is not as strong as it used to be. They must have wanted to show the government’s competence in countering the monsters. They must have wanted to receive help from Gildanryun, but they want to take all the fruits. This is something Kishin hates.

Suzuki kept his mouth shut. The world says that the Self-Defense Forces are not an army, but he considered himself a soldier protecting his country.

Although the role of the military has been limited since monsters appeared in the world, they have never forgotten that it is their responsibility to protect the country and its people.

However, his true feelings were being used in the power struggle between the political world and the hunter world.

Yoshimura clicked his tongue slightly and looked at the chief of staff who had absolutely no political sense.

‘That must be why he was able to stay in that place for so long. It’s a place where you have to be oblivious to get your neck stuck.’

Amidst the silence between the two, the operator’s report on the start of the operation came up.

Yoshimura was sharing the tactical monitor that Suzuki was looking at. It showed dots approaching Okinawa.

He clicked his tongue again as he looked at the large combat ships of the Maritime Self-Defense Force that Japan used to be proud of.

‘Kishin Takeru. Even so, isn’t this a bit too cruel? Not saying a word about the Naga method that has failed in the past. Are you trying to drive the young hunters of Japan into a dangerous situation?’

Although Yoshimura was the same lord, he had no power to stop Kishin’s tyranny. This was because Kishin was an S-rank hunter. He could have asked the other two S-rank hunters to stop Kishin’s atrocities, but such an option was impossible in the first place.

Of the other two S-ranks, one was Kishin’s disciple, and the other was a practitioner with no interest in worldly affairs.

In particular, the performer was known to be a person with skills higher than Kishin, but he was obsessed with the hypothesis that there was a realm higher than S-rank, and continued to act out of touch with the circumstances of the real world.

‘Anyway, there isn’t a single one of those guys who truly cares about people’s lives. Those S-rank guys in Japan, you know.’

The Japanese people and the hunters were just pawns to them.

Perhaps, S-Rank was a realm that only those who were far removed from common sense could reach.

Beep beep!

While Yoshimura was lost in thought, a change occurred on the tactical monitor.

One dot is missing.

Chief of Staff Suzuki jumped up from his seat and shouted.

“What’s going on?!”

The operator’s amazement immediately came out.

“Oh, Kongō-II-class escort ship Kanazawa! The ship has been… occupied! The wheelhouse and radar have been compromised! That’s why the signal was cut off!”

“What?! How can that make sense? There’s no news of any encounters with the enemy?”

“Surprise attack from underwater! Remaining battleships engaged!”

“What the hell is going on? The monsters are counterattacking?”

While Suzuki’s expiration date was frozen in place, Yoshimura stared at the missing dot with complicated, sunken eyes.

‘It’s the beginning. Get out… You guys are clever.’

He recalled when he went to the Mediterranean to volunteer during the Great War.

At that time, we hunted monsters without any borders. It was a time when we couldn’t survive without helping each other. It was a time when if you didn’t help, they wouldn’t help you. We had to help other countries, even if it meant preparing for future disasters.

In the memories of Naga Yoshimura, who faced it at that time, it remained as a monster that gave him quite a hard time.

‘Sending a Hunter Mobile Strike Force by helicopter from beyond the Okinawan horizon? It sounds like a plausible operation, but… I wonder if it will work against organized monsters.’

Yoshimura got up from his seat and left the area illuminated by the video monitor.

I was thinking of going straight to see an old friend.

“This isn’t just a Japanese problem. I have to contact them shamelessly.”

* * *

There are over 14,000 islands in Japan.

The number of islands changed every year as volcanoes erupted under the sea to create new islands, and others were washed away by waves and disappeared beneath the sea surface.

This Japanese characteristic was useful for expanding maritime territory before the Gate era, but it became a headache after monsters appeared in the world.

These very islands have become a paradise for sea monsters.

Fortunately, after the Great War and the Little War, Northeast Asia became relatively safe from sea monsters, but the Japanese islands still became a hotbed of monsters due to gates that were created on small islands and monsters flowing in from the Pacific Ocean.

So, there were frequent cases of completely abandoning the island. It was difficult for the hunters, who were insufficient to defend the vast Japanese archipelago, to go out to each and every small island.

‘That’s just an excuse. The truth is that it doesn’t make any money. It’s just a hassle to cross the waterway and it takes up a lot of time, so I don’t do it.’

Besides, there was nowhere to escape on the sea.

Island hunting is the type of hunting that has all the conditions that hunters most dislike.

Nevertheless, the reason why A-rank hunter Higa Minato set out to reclaim Okinawa was because it was his hometown.

The situation in Okinawa, as reported by the media, is desperate.

If there was any silver lining, it was that they rarely ventured that far inland.

For the amphibious Naga, the best habitat was near water. Unless there was a river, inland areas where it was difficult to find water to soak in were not very attractive to the Naga.

‘My friends must have gone as deep into the ground as possible.’

When Okinawa was first attacked by Naga, his childhood friends from before he became a Hunter called him.

Help me. Save me.

It wasn’t a call to Minato, who was far away in mainland Japan, to ask for help directly. It was a call to ask for instructions on what to do.

Minato advised them to hide as far away from the water as possible. The call was soon disconnected, but he hoped they had followed his advice.

‘Children, just wait a moment. If you survive, I will come and save you.’

The moment I made that promise.

bang!

Suddenly, a loud noise was heard.

Minato instinctively sensed that he had been attacked. He opened the hallway door to exit the cabin.

A scraping sound of metal was heard from outside the ship. Self-Defense Force crew members were running down the corridors, shouting.

Just like Minato, the hunters from their assigned cabins were also coming out into the hallway armed.

“what’s the matter?!”

“What’s going on? The monster cubs are here!”

“You quick-witted kids. How did you know we were coming?”

The hunters found their way to the deck. It was their first time on a warship, so they were confused about the path, but they moved with their keen senses to find the place where they could smell the sea.

“There’s a door over there!”

One of the hunters discovered the deck door and was running out when suddenly the door was torn open and a half-human, half-beast monster came out with a spear extended.

Kwajik!

“Crash!”

The hunter was struck by an unexpected blow and fell backwards. Fortunately, his armor seemed to have blocked the attack.

“This water snake bastard, how dare you take my expensive armor?!”

The Hunter nervously stabbed his sword into Naga’s abdomen. The pungent smell of blood filled the ship.

The sword stuck in his stomach let out a low growl as he extended his spear once more. The hunter dodged the spear and stepped back.

At this signal, water poured in from the deck entrance like a leaking ship.

“Damn it! Nagaga is coming!”

“Tanks! Block the hallway! Ranged attackers, move to the back row!”

The Japanese hunters suddenly found themselves engaged in a battle on board the ship.

Fighting monsters in a narrow area lined up in a row. It was an environment I had experienced in the maze inside the gate, but the narrower corridors of the battleship were more restrictive than I had thought.

The hunters were forced to go out and engage in a power struggle.

“What is this… This isn’t even sumo!”

The tanks in the front line fought shoulder to shoulder with each other, leaving only one shield behind. If they were pushed back, they would die.

Even though we haven’t set foot on Okinawa soil yet, the bloody battle has already begun.

Minato bit his teeth as he thrust his sword through the gap in the shield behind the tank.

‘I feel like this is going to be a day with more scars.’

* * *

While Kang Mu-hyeok was boarding the train to Seoul, the news was full of reports about this incident.

Among them, what caught Kang Mu-hyeok’s attention was news from Japan.

[Okinawa recapture battle. The Maritime Self-Defense Force 1st Escort Force retreats. Part of the Hunter Strike Force lands in Okinawa.]

Although the breaking news did not provide detailed information, Kang Moo-hyuk was able to predict how the battle would unfold.

‘I guess they let their guard down while trying to launch an over-the-horizon landing operation.’

It was an operation to simultaneously deploy troops to the shore using high-speed landing craft or helicopters from beyond the horizon where the enemy on the shore was not visible.

It was a strategy that was used several times in the Mediterranean War during the Great War.

‘Everyone suffered great damage. The larger the Naga group, the wider their radius of action, but the longer the reconnaissance distance. It’s also difficult to see well under the sea.’

The Hunter’s detection abilities were also ineffective against sea monsters.

Not only was the sea so vast a problem, but it was also impossible to use detection skills 24 hours a day.

In addition, the detection skill was limited to a few hundred meters at best. Even hunters specializing in that field could not go beyond kilometers.

However, Nagara had the ability to easily detect the presence of ships floating on the water, even from deep in the sea or far away.

With such scouts spread out all over the place, it was impossible to sneak up on the water.

Kang Moo-hyuk decided that he had to put into action the plan he had been keeping in mind ever since this incident.

‘From now on, it’s war. And this war can’t end in a short battle.’

It was time to take a longer view and make solid preparations.