Ch.106106. Evacuation (2)

Thirty minutes later, over 100 buses carrying refugees began to slowly depart from Ulsan Airport.

Soldiers from the allied forces escorted the buses on both sides, but in reality, traveling from Ulsan Airport to Gyeongju wasn’t a difficult journey.

The Industrial Road had already fallen into the hands of the Balhut Cult, with checkpoints stationed at regular intervals, making it difficult to find alternate routes to ambush the refugee convoy.

Moreover, attacking refugees would mean abandoning the public relations campaign the Cult of Immortality had been waging. Any leader with sound judgment wouldn’t make such a poor move.

Above all, attacking refugees by circumventing Ulsan Airport would require the Cult of Immortality to prepare for significant losses.

“This is really easy. Who would be crazy enough to actually attack refugees?”

“There’s a saying: know yourself and your enemy, and you’ll win every battle. Let’s proceed with caution.”

The Industrial Road was clear, and the buses carrying refugees were heading smoothly toward Gyeongju.

To maintain formation, their speed was limited to 40 km/h, but considering they were transporting over a thousand refugees, they were moving at a reasonable pace.

They had escorts and were moving at a decent speed. Anyone who tried to interfere would likely face retaliation.

“They’ve arrived.”

“Yes. Join the escort team now.”

“Understood, Deputy Son Sang-hui.”

What made an attack even more difficult was that new forces were gradually joining the existing escort troops.

They encountered several soldiers at checkpoints set up for security and surveillance along the Industrial Road. When the refugee buses approached, these soldiers left their posts to join the convoy.

“Were there any suspicious objects caught in the surveillance network today?”

“No. We didn’t detect any movement from monsters or undead.”

Having been on duty at the checkpoints until just now, these soldiers could provide real-time updates on the areas they had been monitoring, which reassured the refugee convoy that they could prepare for any potential dangers in advance.

Son Sang-hui asked the checkpoint soldier about the surrounding situation, and the soldier replied that they hadn’t detected any monsters or undead, the cult’s main enemies.

“No monsters or undead, you say. Were there any other movements?”

“No. We haven’t seen any survivors or Awakened either. However, some Awakened have stealth skills, so we can’t completely rule out the possibility that they might have evaded our surveillance.”

She also asked about other movements to determine if there was any activity from the Cult of Immortality, but the answer was negative.

The soldier said they hadn’t seen any survivors or Awakened, but considering the vast array of abilities Awakened could possess, they couldn’t rule out the possibility that someone might have evaded the cult’s surveillance using some unknown skill.

Since the Cult of Immortality already had the ability to control the undead, it was a reasonable answer.

“Understood. Please take care of the rear of the refugee buses.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Unable to return to Ulsan Airport based solely on that assurance, Son Sang-hui asked the newly joined soldiers to guard the rear and continued moving forward.

As they absorbed soldiers from surveillance checkpoints stationed at key points along the road, successfully strengthening their forces, Jin A-yeon, who witnessed this, smiled complacently and spoke.

“This is an easy win. Easy win.”

“It wasn’t difficult. Phew. That’s a relief.”

Jin A-yeon was jubilant, as if victory was already assured, and Son Sang-hui, listening to Jin A-yeon’s excited voice, also sighed in relief, seemingly reassured by the soldier’s report that nothing unusual had occurred.

It truly was an easy win.

The number of soldiers continued to increase, and surveillance information was constantly being updated.

They were moving forward while eliminating as many variables as possible. All that remained was for the refugee convoy to safely enter the cult’s territory, and that would be the end of it.

“Then to the next checkpoint…”

Just as they were about to move to the next area to update surveillance information and recruit more soldiers…

“Report! Unknown entities detected 100 meters ahead!”

“What!?”

“Huh!?”

Son Sang-hui and Jin A-yeon were shocked by the sudden appearance of enemies.

The previous report had said there was nothing, but now… truly out of nowhere, unidentified groups had appeared.

“Report! Unknown groups have appeared on the left and right sides of the refugee convoy! This is unbelievable! On the right, they could have used buildings as cover to bypass us, but the left side was farmland with no cover! They couldn’t have bypassed our surveillance!”

Unbelievable reports kept coming in.

Unidentified groups were surrounding the refugee convoy on both the left and right sides.

The right side had roads and villages, so it was plausible that they could have hidden in the nearby forest using bypass routes. But the sudden appearance of forces on the left side was simply unbelievable.

“Sigh. They’ve gone mad after all.”

“Where could they have come from?”

“Who knows? Wherever they came from, they’re enemies we need to defeat, right?”

Currently, there was a large farmland to the left of the refugee convoy, with absolutely no cover or concealment.

There was no way to evade the surveillance network of the checkpoints, yet somehow, unidentified enemies had been positioned while completely avoiding the checkpoint’s line of sight.

It was a scene that could easily be attributed to negligence by the checkpoint surveillance, but…

“Surveillance! Are the opponents monsters or zombies?”

“W-well… they look more like zombies in appearance.”

The problem was that they weren’t the typical zombies known to the Balhut Cult.

The surveillance soldier who reported the current situation to Son Sang-hui answered her question ambiguously, and from that ambiguous description, Son Sang-hui could only deduce:

“If they’re zombies, they’re zombies. If they’re just similar to zombies… are they variants like spider zombies?”

“That seems likely. These are entities we’ve never encountered before.”

She could guess that those attacking this refugee convoy were new variants that the Balhut Cult had never encountered before, similar to spider zombies.

The surveillance soldier agreed with Son Sang-hui’s assessment, saying they were encountering these entities for the first time, but his expression suggested he wasn’t sure exactly what kind of entities they were.

Their questions were answered by Jin A-yeon, who was carefully observing the current situation through binoculars beside Son Sang-hui.

“It seems they’re not variants, pretty lady.”

“Do you know what they are?”

“Yes. I know them well.”

Jin A-yeon confidently stated that the entities discovered by the surveillance soldier were not variants.

She seemed to know about the beings approaching the buses carrying refugees, as she prepared her weapon for battle.

“They’re an army. That’s what they are.”

“An army?”

“The Cult of Immortality. Their army.”

Yes, they were the army that the Cult of Immortality boasted about.

Son Sang-hui swallowed hard at Jin A-yeon’s words that this was the army controlled by the Cult of Immortality, the main enemy of the Ulsan Resistance.

“An army… but…”

According to Jin A-yeon, the unidentified group approaching them was the army possessed by the Cult of Immortality, right?

“Those are just bones!”

“Yes. Those shabby things seem to be the main force of the Cult of Immortality. We call those bone creatures ‘skeletons.'”

“But those are literally skeletons!”

What they saw was simply an army of shabby-looking skeletons.

Of course, they were shocked that these weren’t the zombies commonly seen during the apocalypse, but skeletal soldiers with only bones remaining. Son Sang-hui could now understand why the surveillance soldier had been so confused.

If they had been zombies, they wouldn’t have been surprised and would have handled them according to protocol, but these were something they had no idea how to deal with.

“They look crude, but they’re carrying weapons too.”

“Right? Zombies, unless they’re variants, don’t have the intelligence to use weapons. But these at least have enough intelligence to use the weapons they’re carrying.”

“This isn’t good. Those weapons… if you get hit by one, you’re headed straight for tetanus.”

They were carrying weapons that ordinary zombies wouldn’t use.

Of course, these weren’t weapons trained by a craftsman’s hand like the rifles or broadswords carried by the cult’s soldiers; they were swords and shields made of decaying bones.

However, many Awakened knew that this alone was threatening enough.

Such weapons carried the risk of tetanus, which could cause serious injury if one wasn’t careful.

“Still, an average Awakened can quickly destroy them if they’re just careful about the opponent’s weapons. They may look shabby, but they’re stronger than ordinary zombies.”

“That means… ordinary people would have a hard time dealing with them, right?”

“Exactly. Ordinary people find them difficult to handle. That’s why many people have died to these things.”

The fortunate thing was that the entities visible before them were ordinary zombies by zombie standards.

Jin A-yeon advised that if one was just careful about the weapons they were carrying, they could be quickly defeated. Son Sang-hui, thinking there must be more to it, asked:

“Are there stronger entities as well?”

“Of course! Among them, there must be non-commissioned officers or commanding entities that control these skeleton fellows. Named ones.”

She wished there weren’t any, but of course, there were non-commissioned officers and commanding entities hiding among those skeleton hordes leading them.

In zombie terms, a non-commissioned officer would be a variant zombie, and Son Sang-hui now had to face skeleton hordes mixed with variant entities while being surrounded from three directions.

“So it really is an army made up of undead. This… is really difficult.”

“Yes, it’s difficult. If you don’t completely destroy the head, they’ll persistently rise again.”

A truly difficult battle was anticipated.

They weren’t attacking first; they were clearly ambushed and had to fight while protecting the refugees.

“Then let’s prepare for battle.”

“Understood.”

However, they didn’t despair or become pessimistic; they silently prepared for battle.

Son Sang-hui and Jin A-yeon were Awakened who had overcome many battles, too experienced to despair over just this much.

And the soldiers they led were brave soldiers trained through many battles.

“Soldiers, focus on escorting the refugee convoy! Form a phalanx formation as practiced!”

“Yes!”

Son Sang-hui immediately began constructing a phalanx formation to escort the refugees, using riot shields they had prepared to block the enemies’ movement and prevent them from attacking the transport buses.

The riot shields they had brought in anticipation of this situation could instantly become a massive wall between the buses and the skeleton hordes.

Watching the wall being built step by step, Jin A-yeon boldly declared to Son Sang-hui, who was commanding the soldiers beyond the shield wall:

“Then, may I go wild in style? I’ll take care of the non-commissioned officers and commanding entities hiding among those hordes in one go.”

“Can you do it without our help?”

With a sharp smile, Jin A-yeon declared she would bring back the heads of their leaders. Son Sang-hui asked if she was really okay with this, her expression questioning.

Jin A-yeon’s declaration was that she would handle the non-commissioned officers and leaders hiding among those hordes without the help of the Balhut Cult.

The visible number of skeletons was estimated to be over a thousand.

Finding non-commissioned officers among over a thousand troops was by no means an easy task, Son Sang-hui thought.

“I can do it. If it’s me, I can.”

‘It feels like I’m looking at Seol-hwa.’

As if there was no problem at all, Jin A-yeon elegantly twirled her spear and slowly took her stance.

Seeing Jin A-yeon with a fierce smile, her face transformed into that of a warrior, Son Sang-hui could glimpse the image of Baek Seol-hwa from the past.

She lamented her own weakness, having relied solely on that reassuring presence and courage, but…

“I’ll leave it to you. And I’ll be your guide. Keep your communication device on.”

“Huh? Do you know where the commander is?”

“Yes.”

Still, she would do everything she could on this battlefield.

Son Sang-hui volunteered to be Jin A-yeon’s guide, declaring that she would find all the non-commissioned officers and commanding entities hiding among the army.

“I’m a surveillance type. Detecting strong enemies is easy for me.”

“That’s a useful ability! We could make an invincible combo!”

She was a surveillance type and could track entities with powerful magical energy among them.

It would be very easy to inform Jin A-yeon of these tracked entities through the communication device.

“And I’ll also request reinforcements from the cult. It seems there will be more battles than expected in this refugee escort mission.”

She also put in a request for reinforcements from the cult in case of unforeseen circumstances.

Even if Jin A-yeon failed, she was determined to save the refugees, thoroughly preparing for what was to come.

“Isn’t this enough?”

“To ensure everyone returns safely, we need at least twice this much. It’s for the safety of the refugees.”

However, when Jin A-yeon asked if the soldiers here weren’t enough, Son Sang-hui replied that it was a necessary expense to ensure everyone’s safe return.

As if finding that reassuring, Jin A-yeon turned her head toward the undead army and said:

“Then… let’s hold out until reinforcements arrive!”

Trusting Son Sang-hui behind her, she began hunting for the non-commissioned officers and commanding entities hidden among the skeleton hordes without any hesitation.

“We’ll hold out somehow. Everyone, I’m lifting the restrictions on Bahamut Bullets! Let’s all fight with everything we’ve got!”

“Ooooohhh!”

Son Sang-hui also lifted the usage restrictions on the Balhut Cult’s secret weapon, the Bahamut Bullets.

At her declaration, the Balhut Cult soldiers eagerly replaced their loaded magazines with new ones and aimed their gun barrels at the enemies before them.