Chapter 71 – Mercenary (2)

After Sun-woo’s contact, one Humvee came rushing toward the cliff at high speed. The car stopped urgently behind the earth wall Sun-woo made, and five people wearing military uniforms and heavily armed jumped into the earth wall from inside.

“Bravo Team arrival complete.”

One of the people who entered the earth wall enclosed on three sides reported the situation through his headset.

The people who entered were black and white people boasting tremendous builds, and they looked exactly like people who had rolled around battlefields for a long time.

“Hey! Sun-woo!”

And one of them was someone Sun-woo knew. It was Michael.

But Michael didn’t seem to be well-recognized among them either. When Michael recognized Sun-woo, the other people’s expressions slightly frowned.

‘What on earth is it this time…’

Seeing his interpersonal relationships a mess every time they met, he couldn’t help but sigh even in this situation.

Sun-woo only exchanged eye greetings with Michael and opened his mouth toward everyone. First, work came first.

“The underground base is wrapped in tremendous concrete walls all around, making it difficult to confirm the inside. Instead, there’s a place where infiltration is possible, so I’m making a passage leading there. Everyone just needs to follow me.”

At Sun-woo’s words, the brown-haired white man who seemed to be this team’s captain nodded, and this summoner team jumped into the underground cave following Sun-woo.

Sun-woo’s curiosity was soon resolved. Because while descending the cave, Michael standing behind Sun-woo told him what had happened.

“When we arrived here loaded with summoners for the operation, my senses immediately started screaming. That it was exactly a place to die.”

Michael tapped his head with his finger. His abilities <Sixth Sense> and <Survival Ability> seemed to have sent signals.

“So I pushed my insertion order back as much as possible by any means necessary.”

Sun-woo could understand at this point why he was avoided by other summoners. By any means necessary… He was scared to even ask what methods were used.

“Well, as expected, the front teams all died in droves, and I was sweating bullets at the gradually approaching turn when you appeared just right. I immediately raised my hand and squeezed into this team. They couldn’t refuse since I said I was on the same team as you.”

Sun-woo had no choice but to sigh. It wasn’t ordinary nuisance. Fortunately, when moving together with Sun-woo, he did his share sufficiently, so he should be grateful(?).

Remaining somewhat awkward, the party continued walking downward.

The summoners searching ahead with flashlights didn’t know, but Sun-woo was continuing to make the cave far ahead.

A few minutes later, the party realized there was a concrete ceiling above their heads.

“This base is strangely thinner at the floor than other walls or ceilings. Other places are hard to break through, but this underground base’s floor seems possible to penetrate.”

Before they knew it, they had descended below this underground base’s floor.

“There’s no reason to make the underground base floor thick since it won’t be hit by shells or missiles.”

The mercenary-origin summoners seemed to take Sun-woo’s question as natural. At the team leader’s words, the other summoners all nodded.

“Then should we install explosives here? But with this level of explosion, they’ll notice, right?”

Sun-woo shook his head at the team leader’s question. He took out his sword from his phone and poured internal energy into it.

The summoners were surprised by the suddenly appearing burning sword. They seemed to have thought Sun-woo was just a superpower user or mage who could move earth.

Sun-woo looked at the sword with a slightly troubled expression. The magic(?) the dragon incarnation mage had cast on the sword was gradually showing its effects.

At first, the sword only had a slight red glow, but recently when he poured internal energy into it, it blazed red like this.

Thanks to that, he ended up looking like he was carrying a fire sword or light saber, but there was still some utility.

Using it as a torch at night… Or when cutting something like now. The sword dug into the concrete, and the parts the sword touched melted down from the heat surging from the sword.

Thanks to that, Sun-woo could cut through concrete without greatly raising internal energy.

“Now which direction should we go?”

After entering inside the base through the hole Sun-woo drilled, the team leader carefully asked Sun-woo. He seemed to have become cautious because of what Sun-woo had done just before.

They too had performed missions with other martial artists. Thanks to that, they had eyes to gauge the level of martial arts.

At least Sun-woo’s martial arts were peak-level or above. And he also had magic to move earth. He wasn’t someone to treat carelessly when grouped with Michael.

The place they came up to seemed like a kind of warehouse. Though considerably empty, sacks were piled here and there.

The underground base was unexpectedly quite intact.

It could be because they entered the lowest level, but more likely the outer walls wrapping the underground base were that solid. And there was one more reason.

“Tsk, even bunker busters couldn’t push down to this base thanks to the cliff above.”

As one team member said, the US military had even used bunker busters that could strike bunkers dozens of meters underground, but they seemed unable to damage this place blocked by the several-hundred-meter cliff above this base.

“Really well-positioned.”

Anyway, now that they knew the base was intact, they had to consider whether to continue forward as is.

“Going southeast seems good. The people’s deployment seems to be guarding that direction. But the interior seems intact, will we continue proceeding?”

Fortunately, perhaps thanks to the thick outer walls, detecting surroundings was fairly possible inside here.

At Sun-woo’s words, the team leader checked his headset and made a decision.

“Communication with outside is impossible due to jamming (radio interference). It seems better to continue proceeding first. Our entry inside might be discovered while requesting external support. Let’s finish before security gets tight.”

Though he didn’t know if it was the right decision, Sun-woo had come for support now. Since the leader made a decision, he had to follow.

The party exited the warehouse with Sun-woo at the front.

Shortly after, signs of people appeared again in the quiet warehouse. Someone came up through the hole Sun-woo made.

A man wearing shabby military uniform covered in blood all over, dragging an old-looking sniper rifle.

He was the sniper who had fired at Sun-woo. Having miraculously survived the missile attack, he had followed Sun-woo and the party down the cave.

Dragging his gun on the floor, he began chasing the people who went ahead.

Sun-woo and the summoner party carefully headed toward the base’s center under Sun-woo’s guidance.

They discovered what appeared to be laboratories, places with animal cages, and a place with giant generator facilities.

The party eliminated the forces guarding the generator with silenced guns, then stopped the generator.

They planned to make the base interior dark and stop all equipment running on electricity.

Even if the ventilator stopped and everyone suffocated, it wasn’t a bad situation for the party who could escape immediately.

But unfortunately, the result drew the worst card.

Whirr~

When one of the summoners lowered the switch, red emergency lights immediately turned on and emergency bells began ringing.

There seemed to be auxiliary power somewhere.

Though sneaking in became pointless, the party continued forward. There was no reason to stop here.

When the emergency bell rang, as expected, enemies began blocking the party’s path.

Fortunately, Sun-woo informed them of enemies’ appearance in advance, but the appearing enemies exceeded the party’s expectations.

Dogs and cats several times larger than their original size rushed at Sun-woo and the party. Probably animals contaminated with pills.

Though it was like lions and leopards rushing at them, the animals that became monsters all fell without even approaching the party.

Since they poured shotguns, machine guns, and even grenade launchers, though they were beasts strengthened by contamination, they couldn’t endure.

The summoner party hadn’t been summoned here, so they didn’t just bring their dedicated weapons.

They used their strengthened bodies to bring in as many weapons as they could carry. If Sun-woo’s passage had been wider, they might have brought tanks.

More beasts and people appeared after that, but it was difficult to block the party. Not only the beasts but with rifles and grenades, it was impossible to block Sun-woo who grasped opponents’ positions in advance and the party with powerful firepower.

The party rather had to worry about walls or ceilings collapsing from the grenades they fired.

Shortly after, the party defeated all defenses and arrived at the innermost part of the base they had defended.

One summoner began installing explosives on the large iron door blocking ahead, and meanwhile the team leader expressed thanks to Sun-woo.

“Thanks to you, we arrived here without difficulty.”

Without Sun-woo, there were quite many moments when they might have taken considerable damage or been annihilated due to suddenly appearing enemies. The other summoners all seemed to agree with the team leader’s words, but Sun-woo’s expression wasn’t very bright.

‘Too easy.’

Compared to missions so far, this mission was too easy. No matter how overwhelming the firepower was, the level of enemies faced was too low.

‘Could this place also be an empty shell everyone escaped from?’

Since they hadn’t seen a single contaminated summoner so far, thinking that way was reasonable. One person inside might be a contaminated summoner, but that one person seemed unlikely to cause any trouble.

But from Michael’s appearance gradually retreating backward, Sun-woo could tell his worry wasn’t baseless.

And Sun-woo who entered inside after blowing up the door learned his worry was correct.

The door’s interior was a huge hall with a large pillar in the center.

Various transparent panels were lined up surrounding the pillar, and desks with monitors lined up in rows were positioned in front.

This place looked like NASA’s control tower or the US military’s central operations room seen in movies, and the only difference from those places was the huge pillar in the center.

But unfortunately, this place seemed all closed. Electronic equipment wires were all cut off and machines had their interiors destroyed.

Instead, other objects were visible here. Bombs attached all over the pillar occupying the hall’s center.

“Too bad. I wanted to draw in more personnel. Only three teams is the end. I might get scolded later.”

In front of the pillar, a neatly dressed white man was lamenting while looking at the party.

“Well, can’t be helped. Everyone look here. Do you know what this pillar is? It’s the pillar responsible for this underground base’s core. If this pillar gets smashed, this entire base will all…”

Bang!

Before the excitedly chattering white man’s words finished, a gunshot crossed the hall. And a hole pierced the white man’s head as he slowly fell backward.

“What are you babbling about. Just block it before it explodes.”

The team leader muttered while lowering his gun. The team members chuckled at the team leader’s words, but one person, shouting with a pale face, existed.

“Not yet. Everyone’s in danger!”

The others looked at Michael with puzzled expressions, but Sun-woo grabbed Michael like lightning and flung his body outside the door.

Kaboom!

At that moment, the bomb tied to the pillar exploded.