[Everyone get out! Get as far away from here as you can! There’s no time!]
Park Jin Hyuk, Koharu, and Violet heard Cha Jun Sung’s urgency, did not ask questions, and retreated from the battlefield. Cha Jun Sung looked up at the sky again. It is right in front of them. It is quite far, but it will not take 30 seconds at that speed.
[Switch to voice mode, microphone setting!] [A white phosphorus shell is falling from the sky! Get away from here immediately!]
Bang!
Cha Jun Sung said that and left with Hercules and Argos.
He wants to explain further, but he would be swept up in it and killed if he did.
“What is he talking about?”
“White phosphorus shell? The sky?”
Was it because there was not enough of an explanation? Was it because the message was not properly relayed? The Lifers did not leave, and stared into the sky. The white devil embraced them.
Boom boom boom boom!
The shell arrived at its destination and divided into several hundreds. The pieces are as small as a person’s fist, and scatter everywhere. White smoke comes out from the tails. It is the devil’s descent.
Bang bang bang bang!
There was a giant explosion and smoke billowing into the area around the input location, going through buildings and onto the street. If the attack had been concentrated in a place dense with Lifers, those on the outskirts would not have been able to get away. But the explosion and smoke went across the entire defense and covered a radius. Every way out was completely blocked.
4th stage body modification Lifers are melting. Even an average white phosphorus would have been difficult to handle, but it is a compressed and enhanced weapon of mass destruction from the level C store.
More than 1000 people died from the 1st blast, and another similar set of numbers burned from the smoke.
War Hammer looks down at his stomach. A piece of the shell went into his stomach. It would have gone straight through if the battle suit had not been there, but the armor caused him even more pain.
He first felt the pain of his internal organs melting. Then as the shell exploded, blood, flesh, and smoke splattered out. How could War Hammer of the 36 rankers die so pitifully.
The situation is pandemonium. Regular Lifers were already annihilated and those who had barely hung on with their battle suits were dying off one by one.
Bang!
A 4 story building collapses. It had not been able to withstand the shock of 3 or 4 shells going off. Tyrant lost 15 million points because of this building, but the number of points coming in is much greater.
“Damn it!”
Ping ping ping!
Cha Jun Sung dodged a shell fragment and cursed. Stopping for a moment to warn the other Lifers has brought danger to him.
Park Jin Hyuk and the others escaped in time. They keep radioing in, but he does not have the mind to respond and they cannot come in.
The smoke has already spread throughout the area.
“Save – save me. Save me!”
A Lifer next to Cha Jun Sung is liquifying. A heat that is thousands of degrees high is sticking to his body, so the battle suit does not provide defense.
[Energy…. Under 4%! Lifer Cha Jun Sung! Charging is urgent.]
He moved busily as he stuck the charger in his battle suit. His energy consumption was severe, so the level did not fall but it did not fill up either.
He needs to get out, but he does not see a path. All he can see is smoke that is trying to eat him up.
Pew pew pew pew!
Hercules uses a cannon and booster to try to blow the smoke away, but it is not enough. It does not even buy them a moment of time.
The battle suit’s hologram scans the field and draws out the terrain.
“How do I get out there?”
It is where there is the least smoke. It will soon be filled with white smoke as well. He needs to get out before then.
“Should I use this?”
Cha Jun Sung looked down at the ring on his finger. It is a protect ring. He had been saving it, but the time has come to use it.
[Not yet. I will pilot Hercules from now on.]
“What?”
Hercules left Argos with Cha Jun Sung, then ran toward the smoke. Battle suits cannot withstand it, so a metal armor definitely would not be able to. It melted within moments and stuck to the cyborg’s body.
[Self-destruct activate.]
“Hey! What do you mean self-destruct!”
[The explosion from self-destruction will push the smoke for at least a short amount of time. I saved Hercules’ system and sent it to the briefing room, so you can revive the system with points at any time. But it’s all over if you die.]
It is true. He cannot die in a place like this.
A few Lifers tried to run away into the sky, but were gnawed away little by little by the smoke.
[Get down!]
Bang!
Hercules self-destructs. He has helped Cha Jun Sung a lot until now, so it is sad that he has died. He can revive him, but it is not a good feeling.
Fragments hit his body. He embraces Argos and protects him so that he does not get injured.
[Now! Use the protect ring and escape!]
“Deploy shield!”
A blue and purple magnetic field forms a strong veil. Cha Jun Sung holds Argos and runs. As the explosion shrinks, the smoke gets closer. It really is persistent.
Bang bang bang!
People use all types of firearms like fever shots and grenades to make a path through the smoke, but no one was able to succeed because they were not as strong as Cha Jun Sung’s.
When the smoke touches the shield, it tries to get through in any way possible. If it goes through, Argos is 100% dead and Cha Jun Sung is in danger.
The shield’s color fades. Its output of power has been raised to 100%, but it is still eaten up by the white phosphorus shell.
“Ah!”
Cha Jun Sung expands the booster to full power. The energy he has left is 2%, but he would rather do everything he can if he is going to die anyway.
Cha Jun Sung escaped from a hell covered in white smoke. The shield broke at the same time.
The battle suit’s energy became 0%. He quickly charged it.
“You don’t think everyone inside there is going to die, are they?”
It is not just 1 or 2 people, but thousands. It goes beyond PK to a massacre.
Cha Jun Sung hears coughing in his arms, and quickly checks on Argos’ state. A shell fragment is embedded near his heart. Blood flows from there but also from his mouth because his lungs have been affected too.
“No! Hurry to the briefing room!”
He needs to go to the briefing room himself. He cannot go if someone else sends him.
[It is too late. The lungs do not matter, but the fragment has gone into the heart. It cannot be regenerated.]
Odin had said before that anything can be cured as long as it is not irreparable.
“The card. What about the card?”
“System… recognition disabled.”
Argos’ space compression bag has an owner recognition system on it, so it locks itself if he dies. It becomes garbage.
When an animal is reaching its death, it predicts that. People are the same. Argos does not want to believe it, but he knows that he will die soon.
“Sweden Stockholm….. Number 235-5….. Payment.”
He handed the space compression bag over to Cha Jun Sung and there is no way that he does not understand what this meant. In exchange for the card, he has asked that Cha Jun Sung help his family go on living.
“I understand.”
“Thank… you.”
Argos stopped breathing. There are 2 reasons why he chose Cha Jun Sung. He made an effort to save him until the end even though it was because of the card, and he is the only Lifer that he can see as he is dying.
“Did this happen because I got involved?”
Fated to die, it seems he could not have avoided death even if Cha Jun Sung had helped him. What is more serious is the massacre. There had been nothing about a white phosphorus shell in the notepad. He could not tell if he had forgotten to write it down or if Cha Jun Sung himself caused it, but it seems like the latter.
Tutututu!
While Cha Jun Sung looked lost, world federation Lifers run over to him. There are a lot of faces he does not recognize, but there are a few he knows.
“Mr. Cha Jun Sung!”
Lim Si Hyuk and Han Chang Jin call his name. Cha Jun Sung takes the card from Argos’ space compression bag and puts it in his own. He will deliver the remaining contents to Argos’ family. He means to pay them the value of the card separately as well.
“What happened?”
“A white phosphorus shell went off.”
“White phosphorus shell!”
Han Chang Jin is appalled. As a soldier, he will know about it in more detail than others do.
“Fall back!”