Chapter 20 – Military Base (1)

After leaving the burning rest area behind, it took about an hour more of walking before we found a new place to stay.

Our new lodging was a roadside shack labeled “Apple Orchard” along the national highway. It was a makeshift stall selling fruit to passing drivers, like I had seen in my previous life.

Though visibly flimsy, the shack surprisingly showed almost no signs of damage. Perhaps because no one had remained there.

Thanks to that, it was sufficient for spending one night.

We decided to stay there for the day, laying out blankets without a fire.

“It really was a trap. To think undead had appeared long before the Demon King fled here…”

Hoffman’s voice came through the darkness.

Though it had been a while since nightfall, it seemed Hoffman still couldn’t sleep.

Probably because of what the ghost at the rest area had said.

Seeing that I couldn’t sleep either, it must have been equally unsettling.

Judging by her steady breathing, the elf girl seemed to have fallen asleep right away.

Even sleeping like that, she would wake up faster than anyone if someone approached, so there was no problem.

For Hoffman, who revered the Hero, it must have been shocking to confirm that the Hero had indeed fallen into the Demon King’s trap.

But my reason for being unable to sleep was similar yet different from Hoffman’s.

The Demon King’s kingdom…

Had the Demon King already established a kingdom in North Korea, Manchuria, and parts of Siberia?

In fact, when the Demon King first appeared on our continent, the situation was similar.

By the time people became aware of the Demon King’s appearance, parts of the monster and heteromorphic territories had already been transformed into the Demon King’s land.

Although it wasn’t like establishing the Demon King’s kingdom in human territories as in this world, even then it was worthy of being called the Demon King’s country.

Back then too, people knew undead lairs had appeared in monster territories, but didn’t pay much attention. Only adventurers were interested in those lands.

After several years of that, undead suddenly poured into the human world.

That was the start of the Great War.

‘North Korea becoming the Demon King’s kingdom must be because the gate opened here?’

Though not as remote as Africa, Siberia or the Amazon, settling in the isolated land of North Korea must have been fortunate for the Demon King too.

Moreover, it was a militarized nation full of firearms instead of monsters.

If the Demon King had properly devoured it, a Demon King’s kingdom with powerful firepower would have been created.

And a Demon King’s army with enough firepower for a single undead unit to annihilate the Hero’s party.

If there’s any consolation, it’s that the Demon King’s army may not be complete yet thanks to the Demon King’s hasty escape.

Or should we be afraid that the Demon King’s army with firepower might cross through the gate again?

In the end, like Hoffman, I found it difficult to fall asleep easily.

Nothing happened until morning came.

Though we didn’t sleep as long as the previous day, we got up as soon as the sun rose.

After a quick breakfast, we headed towards Seoul along the national highway.

Since the Demon King’s army had gone south before us, the south wasn’t safe either.

But we couldn’t go to North Korea, which had become the Demon King’s country.

Moreover, I had business to attend to in the south.

We continued walking towards Seoul.

Strangely, the number of undead gradually decreased as we walked.

There had been zombies wandering sparsely, though not many, among the stopped cars, but their numbers sharply declined.

Eventually, by lunchtime, no undead were visible along the road.

It was odd.

Normally, the number of undead should increase closer to flat land and cities, but it decreased as we got closer to Seoul.

In most cases, there was only one reason for this.

And soon after, we were able to confirm that reason.

The houses that finally appeared along the national highway were different from the ones I had seen in my previous life.

Those houses were full of burn marks.

Nothing remained intact in the burned houses. Of course, there were no living people either.

Instead, there were walls with holes and shattered parts everywhere, burned corpses, and scattered pieces of ragged bodies.

Destroyed military vehicles and smashed weapons were also visible.

Traces of war I had only seen in movies in my previous life, not battlefields of the continent.

It was evidence of a modern army fighting against the undead.

“The army of this world fought against the undead too.”

Both Hoffman and the elf girl understood the situation at a glance.

Hoffman looked at the destroyed military vehicles and moved his finger in the direction we were heading.

“From the traces, it seems the army of this world defended here and then retreated.”

He tilted his head, looking at the scattered weapons and military vehicles.

“If they retreated, all the dead soldiers would have become undead, so I understand why there are no soldier corpses. But judging by the traces, they seem to have retreated too easily.”

Is it because he’s a mountain soldier? He could tell at a glance how the situation had progressed just by looking at the traces.

“To retreat so easily with such powerful weapons… I don’t understand. Are there no priests or knights in this world?”

Moreover, he guessed the reason in one go.

As expected, he wasn’t just a simple potion-addicted soldier.

I casually answered his question.

“Maybe there were no people who could use mana, rather than knights…”

“What? That can’t be. I can clearly feel mana though?”

I could feel mana now too, but in my previous life, mana definitely did not exist.

“Didn’t you say the soldiers retreated?”

“Yes. They seem to have moved systematically even while retreating. It looks like the army hadn’t collapsed until then.”

“Then let’s go to where the soldiers retreated.”

We should be able to get more information there.

At my words, Hoffman took the lead.

The traces of battle continued along the national highway for a long time.

Signs of fighting and spilled blood.

After a while, we came across a long wall.

A long stretch of wall with barbed wire on top, and guard posts behind the wall.

I could tell at a glance.

This was a military base.

The bloodstains continued along the wall, eventually leading to the main gate of the base.

In front of that gate was a defensive line made of now-broken metal barricades and military vehicles.

Burned and destroyed military vehicles were scattered in front of the main gate, along with crumpled barricades and burned corpses strewn about.

“Judging by the remaining traces, proper resistance ended here. It seems most died when this place fell, and only a few fled in all directions.”

The traces of escape led inside the main gate.

“There are also traces of undead following behind those who fled.”

Even without Hoffman’s words, seeing the traces of undead pursuing, it seemed no one had survived.

They were defeated while coming out of the base to deal with the undead.

Then it looks like they were annihilated while fleeing back into the base they had departed from.

It wasn’t strange, as I had seen this many times in our world too.

“Weapons that are only effective against humans…”

Although Hoffman still seemed to find it hard to accept.

I thought I knew why the military base of this world was defeated.

“The soldiers here didn’t fight ordinary undead, but the Demon King’s army.”

I poked a blackened bone rolling on the ground with the tip of my sword.

Black smoke could be seen flowing from the bone fragment pierced by the sword.

“Don’t tell me, these are skeleton creatures?”

“They don’t seem to be Knight-class, but probably Elite-class.”

The Demon King’s army’s main force that regenerates even when destroyed unless attacked with mana.

Most of the enemies I had fought were these skeletons.

The fact that only human corpses remained was because the opponents were these skeletons.

This bone fragment probably remained due to the brute firepower of this side’s army.

“Even if there were no knights, there should have been believers. Why couldn’t they kill even one?”

“…”

I couldn’t say anything to Hoffman’s question.

There were people who believed in God in this world too.

It’s just that there were no people with holy power like on the continent.

I couldn’t pretend to know, but if I did, I might get caught up in a religious debate.

“It doesn’t seem like anyone survived, but we should check anyway. There might be skeletons left too.”

With my words, we stepped inside the base.

A long straight path leading inward from the main gate.

The entrance road, similar to what I had seen every time I was on leave in my previous life, was littered with blood and debris.

“Cleaning this place would be hell.”

As I muttered softly, remembering the cleaning I did for the division commander’s visit, Hoffman looked at me with a strange expression.

The parade ground and base buildings we saw after going up the entrance road were in just as much of a mess.

Shattered windows and scattered corpses.

“Urrrgh.”

And moving corpses, zombies, scattered around the parade ground.

However, no skeletons were visible, and the number of moving corpses was small compared to the size of the base.

“They fled here but ended up becoming undead.”

The corpses remaining on the parade ground were ordinary(?) zombies.

Ordinary(?) corpses wearing military uniforms but unable to shoot guns.

Even Hoffman could handle such corpses sufficiently.

Thud. Thud.

The corpses didn’t even get halfway to us before their heads were pierced by Hoffman’s arrows.

Corpses sprawled on the ground.

The corpses with arrows in their heads twitched and tried to get up again.

Although Hoffman could sufficiently stop such undead, unfortunately he couldn’t destroy them.

Instead, I cut off the heads of the undead struggling to get up.

“They’re not holding weapons.”

Looking at the decapitated soldier corpses, Zahina made a disappointed expression.

As she said, the decapitated corpses were not holding guns.

Moreover, most of the guns we had seen on the way here were not in good condition.

It was unfortunate for her, unable to use her sniper rifle because she had run out of bullets.

“We’ll be able to get some soon.”

I reassured her.

After all, the reason we came in here was for her weapon.

After killing the corpses wandering the parade ground, we entered the building attached to it and realized why there were so few soldier corpses outside.

Inside the building, corpses of soldiers were piled up in the corridors and barracks.

Bodies stabbed with swords and riddled with bullet holes.

“The comrades killed the soldiers who became undead. I’ve seen this in units without knights or priests… I didn’t expect to see it here.”

It was the attack method the Demon King’s army had shown when they first swept across the continent.

A gruelling tactic of injecting powerful negative energy into the base to turn soldiers into living corpses, making unit members fight each other.

This caused tremendous damage in the early stages, after which knights or priests who could use mana were stationed in all units, and soldiers were made to carry holy water.

“Without priests or knights, and no holy water, they couldn’t have won.”

“The matchup was bad.”

Passing by the corpses, I looked around inside the barracks, but unfortunately almost none of the guns that should have been racked there were visible.

Did they take them when leaving the base?

As we wandered through the barracks, Zahina carefully examined the few remaining guns.

“These weapons are a bit different from the one I have. It doesn’t look like there are any arrowheads here…”

Seeing Zahina trying to collect guns anyway, I waved my hand.

“You don’t need to take those.”

“What? Aren’t these the same weapons? The arrowheads stuck in corpses and walls seemed to be fired from these weapons… Wouldn’t it be easier to get those arrowheads?”

Is it because she’s an elf?

She really had a good eye for detail.

It wasn’t wrong, but there was no need to collect the guns lying around in the barracks.

Because there were better guns than those racked in the barracks of a rear echelon, mobilization division.

After looking around the parade ground and barracks building, I thought I knew where the building I wanted to go was.

The structure of military bases is predictable after all.

I was about to lead the party members out of the barracks building and move towards where the armory seemed to be.

At that moment.

Bang!

A gunshot rang out from the direction of the armory.