When humanity first encountered the Mog, it was shocked.
However, humanity was confident.
Fighting against them wasn’t easy either.
“The Mog may be terrifying, but there’s no reason humanity can’t defeat them!”
Humanity’s technology was already advanced enough to travel through space.
“We only need to protect the mines. It shouldn’t be difficult. If we build barriers and arm them, those damn Mog won’t be a problem.”
Furthermore, from humanity’s perspective, there was no need to wage an all-out war against the Mog either.
After all, humanity’s goal wasn’t to abandon Earth and migrate to new planets.
“I-It’s a Tank Bug!”
It was enough to protect the infrastructure necessary to extract resources, and they thought something like that wouldn’t pose any problem.
However, that idea completely collapsed with the appearance of one species of Mog.
At Private First Class Park Boseop’s words, Kim Seojun and Major Lee Hyena didn’t respond.
They simply looked.
Nor did they ask any questions.
There, four kilometers from the mine where Kim Seojun’s group was located, three gigantic insects could be seen moving rapidly.
Rrrrrrrumble!
For starters, those insects looked like larvae.
They were heading toward the source of the tremors they could now feel beneath their feet.
They were covered in something extremely hard that resembled tank armor.
They measured approximately 40 meters long, 5 meters wide, and stood around 9 meters tall.
However, unlike ordinary larvae, their exteriors weren’t soft, nor did they look as though they would burst and spill liquid if struck.
Their size was simply astonishing.
And those gigantic creatures moved at around 70 kilometers per hour.
Rrrrrrrrrumble!
They were monstrously large, as though a heavy-duty trailer had been doubled in size.
“Their bodies are swollen to the limit. There’s no doubt they’re full of Bomb Bugs.”
However, what was truly terrifying was something else.
They were terrifying in many ways.
That was what made them so fearsome.
Against those powerful explosions, the defenses created by humanity were left completely helpless.
Tank Bugs carried creatures called Bomb Bugs inside them, insects approximately one meter long.
And, just as their name suggested, Bomb Bugs exploded.
Furthermore, Tank Bugs didn’t travel alone.
The same was true for armored units, including tanks.
For that reason, every Space Marine who saw a Tank Bug said exactly the same thing.
‘We’re fucked.’
Of course, it wasn’t as though Tank Bugs were some kind of universal solution for the Mog either.
It was literally an enormous army.
There were three Tank Bugs, and alongside them advanced 77 Thorn Snakes and approximately 2,000 Mogdogs.
Furthermore, when a Tank Bug wasn’t carrying Bomb Bugs inside it, it was nothing more than a large and durable insect.
And the number of existing Tank Bugs was extremely small.
They also had several problems.
For starters, they consumed so much energy every time they moved that they needed long periods of rest.
“It’s obvious they’re heading toward a headquarters.”
And on planet Amotia, their most likely objective was to destroy one.
That was why Tank Bugs were never mobilized without a clear objective.
At the breeding grounds where Mog were produced, approximately one Tank Bug would usually appear for every thousand Mogdogs born.
At that point, Kim Seojun immediately opened the map and traced the direction in which the Tank Bugs were advancing.
Furthermore, in the current situation, it was practically impossible to expect support from space.
Unless it was a headquarters with considerable military strength, there was practically no chance of holding out against that army.
“If they continue in this direction, they’re heading toward the Polish headquarters.”
Then he checked where the route led.
Upon hearing the word Poland, all three of their expressions hardened.
Korea maintained good relations with Poland in many respects, and particularly in the defense industry, the two countries had maintained deep ties for a century.
To the point that they were spoken of as brother nations.
Those ties continued to exist even now, and the two countries also provided each other with a certain amount of support in space.
And in Kim Seojun’s case, it was even more significant.
Their relationship had been so close that Kim Seojun knew how to swear in Polish better than the Poles themselves.
During his time as an active-duty soldier, he had interacted quite a lot with Polish soldiers.
Even on planet Amotia, if one checked the records of the Korean headquarters, it could be seen that they had received a considerable amount of support from the Polish headquarters.
It was then.
At the very least, they had to warn the Polish headquarters.
Wooooooooosh!
In any case, they couldn’t simply ignore the situation.
Furthermore, every vehicle that appeared carried the Polish flag.
Three transport aircraft appeared above the terrifying Tank Bugs and the Mog army, making the wind roar.
And from each of those transport aircraft came five motorcycles.
They were hover bikes that, instead of circular wheels, had wings similar to those of a drone.
But no matter how bad a situation was, there was always something worse.
When one lived as a Space Marine, experiencing all kinds of terrible situations was an everyday occurrence.
“The Suicides have appeared.”
The moment he saw them, Kim Seojun’s expression hardened.
“Suicides?”
And the worst of all was carrying out an operation from the very beginning with the assumption that you would die in order to accomplish the objective.
“Wait, then they……”
That was precisely what the Polish headquarters on planet Amotia had decided to do.
“What?”
Upon hearing that, Private First Class Park Boseop was horrified.
In other words, they intended to face that monstrous army using three transport aircraft and barely fifteen hover bikes?
“They’ve come to try to change the Tank Bugs’ direction by any means possible or, at the very least, buy time.”
It was madness.
Even Major Lee Hyena was horrified.
“That’s absurd. It’s suicide.”
It was madness capable of sobering up even someone completely high on Stimpaks!
“If you’re going to die anyway, no one wants to simply die without doing anything.”
Instead of being surprised, he understood.
However, Kim Seojun reacted differently.
He could even identify with them.
‘For a Suicide unit, they have too few forces. If they’re going to do it anyway, they should make sure they do it properly. Fifteen hover bikes are too few.’
That was why a question occurred to him.
Kim Seojun knew because he had personally seen and experienced how, when someone was cornered to the worst possible extreme, even something like death eventually began to seem insignificant.
That meant they inevitably had little firepower!
Hover bikes had excellent mobility, but they couldn’t carry a large amount of heavy equipment.
‘And the Polish headquarters established on planet Amotia is fairly large.’
Both the quantity and quality of its troops were incomparable to Korea’s.
Furthermore, unlike Korea, the Polish headquarters ranked ninth on planet Amotia.
And yet they had only sent that many forces?
“Um…… Sergeant Kim.”
Either the Polish soldiers there had ignored their superiors’ orders and were acting on their own.
There were only two possibilities.
Or the situation at the Polish headquarters was so bad that this was everything they could mobilize.
Whatever the answer was, Kim Seojun’s group had to make a decision.
Both Private First Class Park Boseop, who had asked the question, and Major Lee Hyena, who was observing the situation, had reached the same answer.
“What do we do?”
The Tank Bug unit was like a bulldozer.
It was impossible to stop it with only the people they had there.
Run.
They only had to remain hidden, hold their breath, and wait for that storm to pass them by.
“We’ll support them.”
Furthermore, the Tank Bug unit still hadn’t detected Kim Seojun’s group.
Kim Seojun answered them first with his expression.
The two were horrified when they heard him.
“What?”
“What?”
With that expression on his face, he said.
Nor did he want to do something insane like that.
He didn’t want to do it either.
At those words, the two were half-convinced.
“First, we need to analyze this calmly. Right now, Poland is practically the only place on planet Amotia that would be willing to accept Koreans. If the Polish headquarters falls, the only places we could try turning to would be China, Japan, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, or the United States.”
It was true that Korea had many allied countries, at least officially.
To be exact, every country capable of sending ships into space had proclaimed during the space age:
“Humanity is one!”
Furthermore, planet Amotia was in a situation where a Queen could be born at any moment.
“Furthermore, right now it’s practically impossible to receive outside support on planet Amotia. We can’t expect everyone to help each other, but at the very least, we need a lot of people to survive in order to keep the Mog under control.”
But the situation on the ground was very different.
Watching a fire from nearby with a backpack full of gasoline on your back while thinking, ‘So warm!’ was complete madness.
“If the Mog were heading toward China, I wouldn’t be saying this.”
One could calmly watch a fire if it was on the other side of a river.
Above all, the moment the value of rescuing the survivors fell below the risk involved in doing so, there was a high probability that the higher-ups would change the rescue operation into an extermination operation.
Of course, every rule had exceptions, but this wasn’t one of them.
“And we need a lot of survivors on this planet. If the number of survivors drops too much, the higher-ups will never act out of humanitarianism.”
After all, the one who now held command authority was Kim Seojun.
In truth, it didn’t matter whether they agreed or not.
After Kim Seojun explained that much, no one opposed his opinion.
If he ordered them to do it, they had to do it.
How were they going to do it?
The problem was something else.
After all, if they ended up entering combat, one way or another, she would have to take the lead and directly face that horde.
However, not even Lee Hyena, who until that moment had advanced like a bulldozer crushing everything in her path, had the courage to charge at those Tank Bugs.
At that question, Major Lee Hyena’s expression hardened considerably.
Gulp!
It was the first time Park Boseop had seen a Tank Bug.
And the moment he saw it, Park Boseop literally pissed himself.
For Private First Class Park Boseop, the situation was even worse.
And now he had to fight something like that?
It wasn’t a metaphor.
Even though the horde was four kilometers away and wasn’t even heading toward them, fear had already completely crushed him.
‘I can’t do it.’
Park Boseop was about to say it.
“I-I……”
“Park Boseop.”
Kim Seojun spoke to Park Boseop.
The only thing he was certain of was that he would become a burden and end up getting in their way.
Regardless of whether it was an order, he had no confidence that he could carry it out properly.
“Y-Yes? Yes?”
Kim Seojun’s gaze was completely serious as he spoke.
“I need your help.”
“I need you to help me.”
He was still afraid.
At those words, Park Boseop’s trembling began to subside.
“I-I’ll…… I’ll try.”
However, when someone needed him that much, he couldn’t simply refuse.
And above all, didn’t Park Boseop already owe Kim Seojun his life several times over?
‘I can’t do it.’
And the moment she heard that, Lee Hyena also finished mentally preparing herself.
She began imagining herself charging toward a Tank Bug and bringing her axe down on it.
The two began imagining, each in their own way, a fierce battle and the most terrible situation they could conceive.
Finally, Park Boseop expressed his determination.
Upon hearing the words Tank Bugs, both of their expressions twisted even further.
“First, the Polish hover bikes will launch their offensive and draw their attention. The Mogdogs will be the first to react. I don’t know how long the Polish soldiers will be able to hold out against that reaction, but the horde’s speed will decrease. That’s when we’ll intervene. Our targets are the Tank Bugs.”
Then Kim Seojun told them.
At those words, Park Boseop couldn’t even respond anymore.
He simply shifted his eyes from side to side.
“Private First Class Park Boseop, you’ll take me toward the Tank Bugs. I need to provide supporting fire.”
The moment he heard those numbers, Park Boseop automatically began calculating mentally.
“One, two, three…… No, I think three will be difficult.”
In front of Park Boseop, Kim Seojun began calculating.
“The distance……”
‘One hundred meters? Two hundred meters? Three hundred meters?’
“Two. I think two should be enough to be safe.”
He assumed Kim Seojun was speaking in units of one hundred meters.
In other words, he would have to drive the military truck until they were three hundred meters from the Tank Bugs.
With one eyebrow raised.
With an expression that practically said—
“D-Do you mean two hundred meters?”
At Park Boseop’s question, Kim Seojun looked at him.
“What are you talking about?”
“What? No, it’s just…… you want us to get within t-two hundred meters of those Tank Bugs now……?”
“There’s no reason for us to kill ourselves in such a complicated way. I’m talking about two kilometers.”
‘What the fuck are you talking about?’
“What? Two kilometers?”
“That’s right. If you can get me within two kilometers, then I’ll try to do something.”
“B-But those are Tank Bugs, right?”
No matter how hard he tried to visualize it, he couldn’t imagine how a mere rifle could penetrate the exoskeleton of a Tank Bug, which was several times tougher and thicker than that of a Mogdog.
At those words, Park Boseop tried to imagine the situation.
Kim Seojun knew that as well.
“Fortunately, we now have a weapon capable of damaging a Tank Bug.”
That was precisely why he had decided to carry out that operation.
“A weapon? We had something like that?”
“I borrowed it for a moment. I just have to use it a little and return it.”
At the question, which practically meant, ‘If we had something like that, why didn’t you use it earlier and only bring it out now?’, Kim Seojun replied.
Booooom!
It was then.
And as soon as the explosions rang out, one of the Cyclops moving through the sky emitted a powerful sound.
In the distance, the sound of bombs exploding rang out.
It was the sound of the bombs the hover bikes were dropping.
Wooooooong!
Upon hearing that sound, the Mogdogs that had been charging wildly forward began to change the direction of their charge.
Crack!
Kiiiiiiiiii!
The Thorn Snakes also stopped and began driving their tails into the ground.
The moment he confirmed that, Kim Seojun gave the order.
“We’re moving right now!”
Park Boseop immediately got into the vehicle.
The military truck began racing directly toward the Tank Bug horde.
Vroooooom!
Kim Seojun and Lee Hyena climbed into the back.
‘Damn it.’
Naturally, Kim Seojun didn’t want to do something like this either.
But what other choice did he have?
At that point, Kim Seojun closed his eyes.
And Kim Seojun’s life had always been like that.
If he wanted to survive, he had to do it.
Not once had he willingly entered hell.
To be exact, he had gone because they offered him more money, but he had never imagined it would end up turning into hell on such a massive scale.
“Three kilometers!”
‘I don’t even know anymore whether I’m the one who enters hell or whether places turn into hell when I arrive.’
That lament began to disappear as the distance between them and the Tank Bugs started to shrink.
It was then.
He prepared for combat.
And the instant they were three kilometers from the Tank Bugs, Kim Seojun raised Hawk Eye’s sniper rifle.
[An event mission has appeared!]
[Combat has begun.]
[You will receive a reward if you eliminate a Tank Bug with One Shot, One Kill!]
And the moment he heard them, an expression of disbelief appeared on his face.
‘What the fuck are you talking about? How am I supposed to kill that thing with a single shot?’
Kim Seojun heard the notifications.
[The mission reward is the Platinum-rank skill ‘Inventory’.]
It was completely absurd.
Then, the Status Window answered him.