NOVEL NEXT Ch. 70
“Rose Princess is an immature individual among the Blood Clan Lords.”
Hae-eun continued the briefing.
On the screen was an image of Rose Princess, taken from inside the Gangnam Station Gate. She was a humanoid monster wearing a red crown and a red dress.
“As the name ‘Princess’ suggests, she has not yet ascended to the throne. This appears to be her first expedition to build her own ‘Castle.’”
Not understanding, Jae-hee raised his hand. “What’s a Castle? And what throne?”
“That’s just a pretty way of putting it. The concept is simple: she builds a nest and produces thralls.” Hae-eun switched to the next slide. “It’ll be faster to just show you.”
The screen now displayed a massive, red factory. A closer look revealed that its red exterior was a tangled mass of countless blood vessels.
“This is the Castle of ‘Chairman Ma,’ the Blood Clan Lord who devoured the entirety of China’s Guangdong Province.”
“It looks like… a factory.”
“It is a factory. It used to be a semiconductor manufacturing plant, I believe. He made it his Castle and now produces his ‘thralls’ there.”
A series of photos followed. Humans, turned into ‘stock,’ hung like prey in a spider’s web. Lumps of flesh poured out from the open factory gates. A red territory spread widely around the factory…
“They build their nest in an area where they’ve caused a Dungeon Break, and use any available humans in the area as ‘stock’ to produce ‘thralls.’”
“…”
“That is the way of the Blood Clan: expand their territory with their thralls and cultivate their power.”
Watching the presentation, Status Window gagged. “It’s like the Xenomorphs from Alien…”
“It’s similar. These filthy worms are less traditional vampire, more alien parasite.”
Thwack!
Hae-eun struck her palm with her cane and smiled fiercely. “If we lose Gangnam Station, the heart of Seoul will end up looking like this.”
“…”
“Do you know what the real estate in Gangnam is worth? We can’t let some upstart just roll in and claim it. We’re going to have to work hard as the demolition crew on this one.”
The last part of the presentation listed the battle logs from previous engagements.
Silken Bodhisattva, looking them over, asked in a daze, “It says here that even the Hunter Association’s elite unit, Spring Thunder, was annihilated. Is that true?”
“Yes. They were annihilated.”
The strongest of the Hunter Association’s direct units had been wiped out?
The convicts looked stunned.
“Aren’t they a unit made up entirely of A-Rank or higher Awakened? The Association’s strongest unit?”
“If they got wiped out, this seems like a job for the Five Heroes.”
As the convicts murmured amongst themselves, Silken Bodhisattva stepped up to ask, “What are the esteemed Five Heroes doing that has us cleaning up their mess?”
“They’re busy. And there are complicated, headache-inducing politics and interests involved,” Hae-eun said with a meaningful smile. “We are deploying at the special request of the Hunter Association.”
“We really are everyone’s janitors, aren't we? The military, the government, the Hunter Association...”
“We have to play our cards right and take what we can from all sides,” Silken Bodhisattva said, sighing.
She glanced around at the assembled convicts. “Even if we’ve gathered our own elite… a Lord raid during a Dungeon Break? I don’t think a few pennies a day will cut it for this one.”
“The reward is one million Credits per person.”
One million!
Everyone was shocked at the unprecedented amount.
Hae-eun continued without missing a beat. “An additional one million for the one who successfully kills the boss. On top of that, I’ll add bonuses calculated from various other contributions.”
“…”
“I’ll meet any other demands you have as best I can, but remember this: you are prisoners, and you have been conscripted by the state.”
The commander’s voice was as merciless as a blade. “Which means you don’t get to go on only the easy and comfortable missions.”
“…”
“Of course, I’m not just throwing you into the jaws of death.”
Hae-eun changed the slide. “The main reason the Hunters who faced Rose Princess before were annihilated was because they weren’t prepared for Mental Corruption.”
A photo of Rose Princess appeared on the screen, her eyes censored with a mosaic.
“Rose Princess possesses an Evil Eye, which she uses for Ocular Arts that are presumed to corrupt and control the mind.”
Not understanding, Jae-hee whispered to Ghost, “What does that mean?”
“She uses magic with magic eyeballs.”
“Aha.”
Hae-eun snapped her fingers. “Not making eye contact is the best option, but that’s difficult in practice. So we’ve procured some equipment.”
One of her subordinates brought over a box and opened it. Inside was a pile of thick glasses.
Jae-hee was puzzled. “What’s with the glasses?”
“They’re called Blind Lenses. An expensive piece of gear provided by the Hunter Association.”
Hae-eun perched a pair on her nose to demonstrate and grinned. “As long as you’re wearing these glasses, they will automatically ‘censor’ the monster’s Evil Eye. That will prevent Mental Corruption, which should make this mission quite manageable.”
Aside from Mental Corruption, Rose Princess’s only abilities were bloodsucking and physical combat. It seemed she couldn’t use wicked spells like other big-name Blood Clan members.
Perhaps because she was an immature individual, she had yet to properly awaken her own unique powers.
“Most importantly, we have the Demon Lord Decapitator herself right here. This should be more than doable.” Hae-eun gestured to Ghost. “Isn’t that right, Ghost?”
“…”
As Ghost stared back icily, Hae-eun gave her a deep nod. “For this mission, I am authorizing the use of your ‘trump card’ from the very beginning.”
“…”
“Since it’s inside a Realm Erosion zone during a Dungeon Break, it might take some time to activate the ability. But if you can use it, you should be able to slice a Gate Lord to pieces with a single stroke.”
Hae-eun walked right up to Ghost and patted her on the shoulder. “It’s been a while. Show me what you can do.”
Finally, Ghost squeezed her eyes shut and reluctantly nodded.
“I’ll try,” she muttered.
Beside her, Jae-hee tilted his head. “Trump card…? Oh, you mean that thing that split the clouds?”
“…”
“Are you gonna teach me that technique later, Master?!”
Ghost didn’t answer, only pinching the bridge of her nose and sighing.
“This time, we will deploy three teams: a Strike Team, a Support Team, and a Reserve Team,” Hae-eun announced, laying out the formation.
“The Strike Team will be composed of attackers, the Support Team of support specialists. The Reserve Team will be on standby outside the operation area and will provide support in case of an emergency.”
The team composition for the mission was as follows:
[AA-Rank] Silken Bodhisattva
[AA-Rank] Hangman
[AA-Rank] Firestarter
[AA-Rank] Boy
[■■■■] Ghost
[AA-Rank] Little Lamb
[A-Rank] Shield Bearer
[B-Rank] Pathfinder
[B-Rank] Jail Mojik
[D-Rank] Status Window
[A-Rank] Grease Gal
[A-Rank] The Doctor
[B-Rank] Rabid Dog
Jae-hee was overwhelmed by the long list of names on the screen. How come there are so many…?
“All right, it’s been a while since we had an outing to the center of Seoul. Make sure you all dress up nicely.”
Hae-eun clapped her hands and added, “Oh, and the mission name is… ‘Kill The Rose.’”
The commander made a gesture with her hand as if snapping the stem of a rose.
“Let’s go pluck a Rose Princess.”
Thus began Mission: Kill The Rose—thirteen convicts assembled to slay a princess from another world.
“Deploy!”
***
Thwup-thwup-thwup—
Inside the transport flying toward Seoul, Jae-hee pressed his face to the window, eyes wide.
“Wow, it’s Seoul!”
Viewed from the sky, Seoul itself looked like one giant fortress. Indeed, the city was surrounded by an array of anti-monster defense facilities.
As Jae-hee oohed and aahed, Ghost snorted. “First time in Seoul?”
“Not exactly, but I’ve only ever been around the outskirts! This is my first time seeing the city center! And from the sky, no less!”
On the last mission, they had only approached the southern foot of Mt. Gwanak at night. This was his first experience flying right into the heart of Seoul in broad daylight.
“The buildings are so tall…” Jae-hee marveled at the dense skyline.
Thirty years had passed since the world had half-ended, but in the Republic of Korea, only Seoul remained a city packed with gleaming, new skyscrapers.
Ghost watched the cityscape silently with cool, steady blue eyes. She gazed at her hometown, glittering with a cold, merciless light.
Thud!
The transport landed on an empty road right next to Gangnam Station. The hatch opened, and the convicts assigned to the operation disembarked, already geared up.
The thirteen convicts briefly threw the area in front of the subway entrance into chaos.
Hae-eun expertly directed the traffic.
“Six hours have passed since the Dungeon Break began. We have eighteen hours left.”
Checking her watch, she adjusted her in-ear communicator. “Fortunately, the communication network is still operational. But since it’s a subway, there may be interference if you go too deep. You should be fine down to the first basement level.”
Jae-hee’s eyes widened in surprise. “There are communication problems even in Seoul? But this is Seoul! The city of super-fast networks! I thought the internet and phone service never went down here!”
“Well, the Realm Erosion is happening in real time. The fact that we have any signal at all is a miracle.”
Hae-eun gave the prisoners one last warning.
“The enemy is the Blood Clan. Vampires. They haven’t been active on the Korean peninsula, so we don’t have much awareness of them, but among all the goddamn monsters in this goddamn Gate War, they’re some of the most goddamn bastards of the bunch.”
“…”
“But you are all seasoned veterans. I have faith that you can achieve victory.” Hae-eun jutted her chin. “The Strike Team leader is Silken Bodhisattva.”
“Oh my~” Silken Bodhisattva fanned herself, covering her mouth. “I do love being the leader. I get a ten-percent Credit bonus, after all.”
“Eh! Really?!” Jae-hee exclaimed, flustered all by himself.
He hadn’t known about the team leader benefits. Maybe I should be more aggressive about getting the leader position from now on…
Hae-eun then designated the Support Team leader. “Support Team leader is Shield Bearer. Protect your team well. Don’t screw up like last time.”
“You can count on me~”
“Especially since old man Pathfinder has bad knees. You be sure to look after him.”
“Yessir~”
Pathfinder—the Guide geezer—swept the area with his dowsing rod, then smiled with satisfaction and patted his knees. “It’s nice here… no water veins…”
Jae-hee broke out in a cold sweat. Is that grandpa really going to be okay?
“I’m sure you’ll all coordinate well. On-site judgment comes first, but I’ll still lay down some simple tactics.”
Hae-eun gave her final, simple orders:
Pathfinder, Status Window—detect and scout enemy positions.
Shield Bearer, Firestarter—hold the line as the frontline shield.
Jail Mojik, Boy—second-line harassment and containment.
Silken Bodhisattva, Hangman—blast the field.
Little Lamb—cheer like hell.
And finally, Ghost.
“Wrap it up your way.”
“…”
Ghost looked displeased.
Regardless, Hae-eun clapped her hands together. “All right, let’s finish this quick and get some rest! Move in!”
“Move in!”
One by one, the convicts descended into Gangnam Station, its entrance gaping like the jaws of hell… unaware of what awaited them inside.