Chapter 98 – Nakdong River (2)

Hearing to scout the Nakdong River, I thought I would have to walk through undead territory for a long time again.

Moreover with remnants of the Demon King’s army left behind by the lich remaining in the surroundings, the journey seemed like it would be difficult.

But mocking such thoughts, the commander brought an unexpected scouting method.

It was a collaboration with the US military sooner than expected.

“Nice to meet you, The Knight. Ah, sorry. That title stuck from what we’ve been calling you. Your name was… Sir Egger right?”

In front of the helicopter, a man who looked like an intelligence agent among the soldiers extended his hand to me.

“I’m David from the US State Department.”

I examined the hand he extended briefly before shaking it.

Though the US State Department meant diplomat, his hand wasn’t a diplomat’s hand.

It was an assassin’s hand with calluses built up in specific places.

In this world perhaps closer to a spy.

“Is this State Department place like an assassins’ guild?”

Though I noticed what was going on and said nothing, Hoffman watching beside couldn’t hold back and asked him.

“What?”

The man, David, made an expression like he’d been hit at Hoffman’s question.

“Was it a secret? Looking at your body, you seem like someone who does that kind of work.”

Seeing the man’s expression, Hoffman said while casually stroking the dagger at his waist.

David sighed looking at the dagger Hoffman was stroking.

“Heh heh.”

“Haha, you’re not wrong.”

The soldiers listening beside also snickered hearing Hoffman’s words.

As expected, David’s State Department position was just an external title, and he actually worked for intelligence.

Then David was probably an alias too.

“Anyway I’ve come to you now as a State Department employee.”

After shaking hands with me he tried to shake hands with my party members in turn, but only Yerim took his hand.

“Ah, I forgot for a moment since we could communicate. Handshakes aren’t greetings for you all.”

Looking troubled, he tilted his head looking at me.

Then he had us board the US military helicopter.

“Let’s get on the helicopter first. I’ll explain the details as we go.”

The US military helicopter that landed in the parking lot in front of the chapel was a Chinook with two huge propellers.

Up close it was an extremely large helicopter.

The interior was spacious enough to have plenty of room left even carrying a US platoon and me and my armored party members.

I boarded the helicopter first, then my party members boarded in turn.

As soon as Hoffman boarded he started talking with the soldier beside him, and Zahina sat in her seat and immediately closed her eyes.

Among party members only Yerim looked around the helicopter with a curious face.

David made a disappointed expression seeing the party members.

Seems he thought we would be surprised or scared seeing the helicopter.

When everyone was seated, soldiers put helmets on our heads.

Then the helicopter’s propellers started rotating.

Thud thud thud thud.

The rotor sound filled the helicopter.

It was loud enough that ordinary people wouldn’t hear someone talking beside them.

Then piercing the rotor sound, David’s shout was heard. His words also came through the helmet speaker.

“Can you hear me? If you can hear, tap your helmet.”

Though I could hear fine without the helmet, I silently tapped my helmet.

“Good. Then we’re departing.”

Shortly after the helicopter started rising.

Through the window knights and mages could be seen watching the rising helicopter.

Though the knights just looked like they were seeing an interesting object, the mages were staring at the helicopter with sparkling eyes.

Eyes that clearly showed they wanted to completely disassemble and examine everything if they could.

The helicopter rising from the parking lot pointed its nose south.

After the helicopter departed like that, David’s shout was heard again.

“First I should apologize to you all. I’m sorry for making you move again without proper rest.”

All party members’ gazes turned to him at his sudden apology.

“You going out scouting again today is because of me. I chose you all as the people to go scouting with us.”

It was certainly strange.

The commander wasn’t a fool, there was no reason to send our party that had struggled for over a month on reconnaissance first.

I had worried if something was seen wrong, but there was no need to worry.

But why specifically pick our party?

Come to think of it, how did they send unmanned aircraft then?

“And I should apologize for one more thing. We have been watching Sir Egger and you all for a long time.”

“You were watching us? How?”

“Long-range magic?”

Yerim and Hoffman asked in succession at David’s apology.

David shook his head. Then he raised his hand pointing up.

“Ah, no. We were watching with machines. From up there.”

“You mean you watched with satellites?”

Zahina who had her eyes closed opened her mouth at David’s words.

“Ah, you know about satellites.”

“I studied.”

David made a sour expression at Zahina’s sudden words.

“I-I see.”

Hearing their conversation, Hoffman asked Yerim in a small voice.

“What’s a satellite?”

It was a sound buried in rotor noise that others couldn’t hear, but Yerim who had trained putting mana in her ears easily understood his words.

“It’s a machine that flies very high. A machine that flies so high it never comes down to the ground.”

After seeing Hoffman tilting his head at Yerim’s words, I opened my mouth.

“You shouldn’t look down on us too much. Though mechanical civilization hasn’t developed like this world, we have plenty of other civilizations to replace it.”

We had knights, awakened ones, magic, and artifacts.

Though average knowledge level was low befitting a medieval world.

I glanced at Hoffman.

He was still asking Yerim what satellites were.

Zahina dealt a follow-up blow to David whose expression had hardened hearing my words.

“That’s called racial discrimination, right?”

Though Zahina said ‘racial discrimination’, it surely sounded like ‘racism’ to David’s ears.

“I apologize. I was rude to you all.”

David who had been turning his head to speak stood up then bowed to us.

At David’s apology, the expressions of soldiers who had been looking down on us also changed.

“Then I’ll continue. We’ve been watching you all by satellite since you crossed the Han River. We watched you being chased by the giant monster, fighting at the rest stop, and continuously scouting around after coming down to Daejeon.

Though our country also had people awakening supernatural powers, there weren’t many and their abilities weren’t impressive. But when powerful supernatural ability users suddenly appeared in the middle of a zombie-occupied country, we couldn’t help but take interest.”

Seems America had been continuously watching us by satellite.

“We don’t know other countries’ situations. Is your country alright?”

His expression darkened at my question.

“Better than other countries, but can’t say it’s safe.

Though we weren’t attacked by skeleton armies like Europe, China, or Russia, we had zombie outbreaks too.”

Seems America also suffered great damage from zombie outbreaks.

Many cities collapsed and many people died.

Still, the US government and military were maintained.

“In such a situation we couldn’t miss you all, especially Sir Egger. Because we thought you were the solution in a situation like now.”

That’s why they stepped in when I was in most danger.

“Though the result was completely unexpected, our thinking wasn’t wrong.”

“Originally after getting you out of that giant monster, we planned to guide you to a specific location and help you escape this country. That’s why we left contact location and radio.”

As he said, the cylinder dropped by the unmanned aircraft contained paper with address and coordinates written in Korean and English, and a radio.

“But suddenly a portal appeared in empty air, people came pouring through in groups, and even drove away the monster, so we who were waiting rushed over after urgently changing plans.”

His explanation made clear why the US military suddenly appeared.

“Then calling us for reconnaissance…”

“Yes. Though the newly appeared people are surely necessary for us too, still it’s better to go with people we know and can trust.”

Having watched us continuously until now, they must have finished grasping our tendencies.

Though we hadn’t always done good deeds and saved people, still better than completely unknown people.

“And though we heard many shocking stories in the meeting, there’s still much we haven’t heard. We hope you’ll tell us more in this opportunity.”

Though he talked roundabout, in the end it meant using us for cross-verification.

It was quite brazen, but ultimately asking for payback for saving us so I nodded.

When agreement with David finished, Yerim who had been watching for a chance opened her mouth.

“But where is this helicopter going?”

“The Nakdong River line.”

“Nakdong River? Then are there still people living below there?”

I looked at David at Yerim’s question.

“Yes. Beyond the Nakdong River hasn’t been occupied by zombies yet. Koreans still remain in parts of Gyeongsang Province and Jeju Island. The Korean government is on Jeju Island too.”

“They’re alive. Not all dead.”

David made a troubled expression at Yerim’s words with clasped hands.

“However, the situation isn’t good there either…”

Then beyond his words and rotor noise came explosion sounds.

Bang! Boom! Boom!

Continuous explosion sounds, sounds of bombs exploding.

While talking, we had already arrived at the Nakdong River.

When I threw my gaze out the window, David also noticed the helicopter had arrived at the Nakdong River.

After checking outside the window, David said to us.

“This is our first time seeing this close too. When the skeleton mage Sir Egger killed was here, neither helicopters nor planes could approach here.”

He meant they only monitored by satellite until now because of the lich.

But they could have flown unmanned aircraft.

“Unmanned aircraft were a hidden card. He didn’t just use magic that killed people.”

While listening to David’s words, I looked out the window.

When the helicopter tilted its body sideways, the long stretching Nakdong River came into view.

And thousands, tens of thousands of zombies running toward the Nakdong River could be seen.

Though there were many zombies in ordinary clothes, there were also many zombies in camouflage, zombies that had been soldiers.

That huge zombie horde surged toward the river, then was shattered by artillery shells.

The riverbank was full of shattered corpses and shell holes.

The Nakdong River with floating corpses was already dyed dark red, and shells kept falling on it.

Though they were destroyed in turn like that, the number of surging zombies didn’t decrease.

A seemingly infinite zombie horde.

But shells weren’t infinite.

Bang, boom…

As time passed, the shelling gradually decreased and finally stopped.

The zombie horde poured into the river.