NOVEL NEXT Chapter 10 - Déjà Vu (2)
After finishing proving my credentials to the viewers, the broadcast proceeded much more smoothly.
Anyway, everyone is suspiciously sincere about this kind of thing.
As I was chatting while looking at the chat window that had calmed down a bit, a cheerful notification sound was heard.
[Hiki – Thank you for the 1,000 won donation]
-How does it feel to be on the battlefield?
“The feeling… It varies depending on the situation, but usually, it’s chaotic.”
If a battle is unfolding right before your eyes, it’s chaos itself.
Bullets are flying everywhere, explosives are detonating, and human flesh rains down from the sky like rain.
You have to shout until your voice is hoarse to communicate through the gunfire coming from all directions and the continuous explosions.
In the midst of this, if enemy air support or armored support arrives, you can indirectly experience the end of the world.
In the face of the approaching disaster that devastates everything around, everyone realizes how fragile and powerless humans are.
If the battle is happening far away, it’s somewhat better.
At least you don’t have to worry about dying from a stray bullet.
Listening to the faint, gentle noise of distant combat can actually make you feel at ease.
Is it because recognizing that the threat is far away instinctively relieves tension?
Anyway, it’s much better than having a battle at close range.
Of course, due to the development of long-range strike technology, there’s no safe place as long as you’re on the battlefield, but at least you can gain psychological stability.
-Sounds scary as hell?
-Of course it’s scary with bullets flying from everywhere
-It must be hard to stay focused and endure when people are dying around you
I nodded at the viewers’ reactions and added:
“It’s very scary. Especially in urban warfare situations. You become intimidated because you don’t know what might pop out from where.”
-What’s urban warfare
-Combat that takes place in urban areas
-Oh
Solomon is a country that has accumulated considerable wealth due to its oil business.
It was a natural phenomenon for urban development to progress actively in an economically stable country.
The people involved probably never imagined that those tall buildings and complex building layouts would double the horrors of urban warfare.
Most decent buildings were plastered with snipers and anti-aircraft missiles, and the unnecessarily numerous buildings, alleys, and corners drew everyone entering the city into a swamp of death.
“Thinking about it now, most of the memorable battles took place in urban areas.”
Until the birth of the Cerberus platoon, I was deployed in urban recapture operations as part of the volunteer forces.
Even after recapturing major cities, we had to deal with Jibro forces attempting to advance frequently and rebels aiming for our backs within the city.
There were units fighting outside the cities, but at least ours wasn’t one of them.
Our role was closer to dealing with hidden rebels.
-Is a soldier’s CQB somehow different?
-Can’t you just throw a grenade and go in?
“Well, we tended to refrain from using grenades as much as possible.”
-?
-?
“There were often cases where civilians who hadn’t evacuated remained inside buildings. It would be troublesome if civilians got caught up in it if we threw a grenade just because we thought someone was inside the building.”
I actually witnessed this with my own eyes.
The squad leader next to me said he would clear a commercial building, threw a grenade, and ended up dismembering a little girl and an unarmed woman.
The lethal radius of a grenade is about 15m, which is wider than you might think.
If you consider the danger radius, it’s at least 50m.
Due to its characteristically small size, it tends to be underestimated, but the power of a grenade is much stronger than depicted in games or movies.
The fragments that fly in all directions at the moment of explosion will tear apart anything standing nearby.
Throwing something with this power into an enclosed indoor space?
Limbs will fly off equally, whether civilian or rebel.
-If war breaks out, shouldn’t you flee? Why stay put?
-All my home and money are here, so I should protect it
-Lol just run away with your house deed lol
Most viewers’ reactions showed they couldn’t sympathize with the response of Solomon’s citizens.
War has broken out and enemies are approaching, yet they do nothing and hold out.
It was a rather unrealistic story for a country that belongs to the wealthy category like Solomon.
“There were usually two reasons why civilians remained in urban areas. Either they had too much to give up if they evacuated, or they were forced to stay due to threats from rebels.”
Sometimes there were people who stayed in the city out of patriotism to help the regular army, but.
There were also those who occasionally exposed the terrain and the location of our forces to the enemy.
From our perspective, who were suddenly forced into a self-imposed hard mode, they were the biggest bastards ever.
If there was any consolation, it was that both Solomon citizens and the government actively punished these people.
Those who actively cooperated with Jibro forces often fled to enemy territory, and those unlucky enough not to escape were lynched by citizens, turned into a bloody mess, and dragged away by agents of Solomon’s counterintelligence agency, ‘NIA’.
Rumor has it that those taken by the NIA never return.
I decided not to imagine what happened to them.
As I was trying to shake off the unpleasant memory, a donation notification sound rang from the speaker.
[Hyojini – Thank you for the 1,000 won donation]
-What kind of people are these rebels?
“Ah, right. Did I forget to explain about the rebels?”
Feeling a sudden ‘oops’ moment, I checked the chat window.
-Yep
-Yeah, you didn’t explain
-You only explained the war background
“Oh no.”
Seeing the positive reactions from viewers, it seems I really did forget and skip over it.
Where on earth did I leave my mind?
“I’m sorry. I must have missed it because I was nervous on the first day. Shall I explain now?”
-Yes please
-It would be appreciated
Perhaps because it was a very minor mistake, the chat window was quiet.
Were the chaotic internet broadcast stories I heard just legends after all?
Damn you, Jennifer.
You scared me so much saying the internet broadcast chat window is a modern-day Colosseum.
Next time I see you, I’m going to stuff a plate of fermented skate into your mouth.
Feeling a bit relieved at the viewers’ reactions that were tamer than rumored, I turned on the paint program.
I guess I can explain roughly like on the first day.
“Rebels existed throughout Solomon even before the war. Their goal was regime change. To overthrow Solomon’s long-ruling dictatorial regime and break free from U.S. interference. To achieve this goal, the rebels were engaging in sporadic armed struggles across the country.”
While continuing my explanation, I started drawing a simple mind map by dragging the mouse.
“Ariel Harad, who was the president at the time, had been wielding power for 7 years. He placed all his closest allies in key ministerial positions, controlled the media, and committed corruption.”
While catching my breath for a moment, one viewer raised a question.
-With a guy like that as president, what was the U.S. doing?
I could only answer with a bitter smile.
“The Harad regime was pro-American. Moreover, they were also excellent customers who consistently purchased lots of American weapons.”
-Oh I see
There’s a reason why most of the guns and equipment we used were American-made.
If there was one achievement for Harad, who messed up everything else, it was military reinforcement.
Thanks to exchanging old Cold War-era equipment for brand new models and expanding the mandatory service target, despite the front line being pushed back one-sidedly right after the war started, we were somehow able to buy time to regroup.
Meanwhile, there was an issue of diverting some of the defense budget to build a personal resort, but let’s skip that as it’s not immediately important content.
“Anyway, with such a blatant dictator monopolizing the presidency, people’s discontent began to grow. And various terrorist groups began to move, riding on this atmosphere.”
It started with terrorist attacks by extremists spread throughout the Middle East.
Terrorist attacks targeting government agencies and key figures became the catalyst for expressing the pent-up antipathy of the oppressed citizens.
“Terrorist organizations quickly grasped the situation and propagandized that their goal was to overthrow the dictatorial regime. And she was always at the center of it.”
The one who should have been caught in Operation Cobra.
“The rebel leader who plunged Solomon into chaos.”
The one who screwed me and my comrades over multiple times.
“The devil who dragged countless comrades down to hell.”
The Black Wolf of the Desert.
Black Scorpion.
Death God.
The many aliases that refer to her.
I saw the face of that devil that everyone knows about but no one has seen.
“…One of the craziest bitches in human history”
Natalie ‘Alpha’ Arties.