Ch.1525-1+

# 152. 5-1+

In terms of operational efficiency, it would make sense to have Yuri, Arang, or Seyeon act alone, but due to the lessons (trauma) painfully learned on the third floor, I never deployed anyone alone in dangerous areas.

That’s why I assigned Seyeon and Arang to the decoy team, Yuri and Danya to the agitation team, and the rest to the preparation team.

Our standby location was none other than where we had caught Iseratio.

According to information gathered by our reconnaissance team, they hadn’t even begun restoration work on that place.

The memories made it scary, and there was a possibility that demonic energy still lingered there, among other reasons… but anyway, what better place could there be for those psychos to meet their end?

“Remember. Focus on luring them rather than engaging in combat. You need to tease them a bit. You know what I mean?”

“Leave it to us.”

“If you’re not sure, just… yeah. Do it like Yuri. That’ll work.”

“Oppa! What’s that supposed to mean?!”

“It means you’re the best.”

“Ha! Oppa seems to have forgotten what Seyeon unni’s nickname was and how she behaved in the game after seeing her modest appearance…”

“Yuri?”

“There are stories that would make you absolutely sh-mmph! Mmmmph! Mmmmmmph!”

Seyeon covered Yuri’s mouth with a sweet smile. I felt an unspoken pressure—telling Yuri that it wouldn’t be fun to say more, and telling me not to ask any further questions.

“Off you go.”

“Yes. We’ll be back. Yuri, see you later.”

“Tch. We’ll be back too!”

I trust all my squad members, but Seyeon was the ultimate reliable tank among them. She had been with us from the very beginning, never causing trouble, taking care of my mental state, and performing her duties excellently.

I was curious about what Yuri was trying to say, but there was no need to dig into such matters. Especially not now as we were about to begin the operation.

“Well, preparation team. We should get ready too, right?”

The decoy and agitation teams departed. We in the preparation team had various things to prepare. There weren’t many trees here to set on fire.

‘But instead, there are numerous abandoned buildings. Let’s make good use of them.’

It wouldn’t be easy to take advantage of geographical features. Those rotten bastards must have stayed in this city for a long time.

But… would those desk-bound magicians—obsessed with magic, demons, and worldly power—know about tactics that would make people say, “What a dirty way to play the game”?

“There’s that expression again.”

“What? It’s cute.”

“Cute? That?”

Let’s ignore the women’s trivial conversation. Our previous mission involved a demon, but this case was also an official mission that required focus.

It absolutely had nothing to do with Subin’s slightly contemptuous expression, nor with Soyu noona saying it was cute and making me smirk.

**

Agitation team: Yuri and Danya in her Ayore form.

After moving away from the main group in silence for a while, the two stopped in front of an abandoned building.

“Danya. Should we split up here?”

“Huh? But Seonghyun said we should stay together—”

“I don’t mean completely separating.”

Yuri pointed to several locations around them.

“We should spread out just enough that we can quickly run to help each other, making the operation more efficient. Why should we gather all those trash together? We’re trying to eliminate them all at once to save time and reduce risk. But if we stick together exactly as instructed, it’s not much different from taking them out one by one.”

“Your point makes sense, but why didn’t you mention this when Seonghyun was planning the operation?”

“First, hardly anyone besides Oppa can come up with good plans. Second, if I had raised objections then, it would have taken him more time to formulate the strategy. Third, what Oppa is concerned about is completely solo action in dangerous areas, so this should be within acceptable limits.”

Yuri stretched her entire body with a grin. Though it looked like a mischievous smile, she didn’t seem to be playing around.

“It’s impressive how he can come up with something on short notice, but this plan isn’t as thorough as his usual ones. He probably knows this too. But after what we’ve been through… Anyway, Oppa laid out the broad framework, so we need to fill in the details ourselves. Danya, with your combat experience, you understand what I’m saying, right?”

“…You mean field commander’s discretion?”

Yuri shrugged. Danya quickly considered the situation.

‘Her opinion is more rational. Seonghyun is smart, but he cares too much about these females to plan completely logically.’

Seeing Danya contemplating, Yuri added one more thing.

“We just need to not get caught.”

“…Ha.”

“The decoy team is probably thinking the same thing as me. Want to bet?”

Danya chuckled and asked.

“If we both bet on the same outcome, what’s the stake?”

“In that case…”

Yuri answered as she walked down the left path.

“We’ll get lots of praise from Oppa!”

“…Not bad.”

Danya agreed to the bold young female’s proposal. Adventure. Wasn’t this also an adventure? Her heart began to pound with excitement.

**

Decoy team: Seyeon and Arang.

After temporarily storing the fragment of Edenic they received from Seonghyun in their inventory, the two approached the scene of destruction and reconsidered his instructions.

“I should be the one holding the fragment, right?”

“Yes, unni. If I infuse my sword with holy power, it might look similar to a holy sword from a distance.”

“But we’re supposed to stay together anyway. So does it matter who holds it?”

“About that… I think we could be a bit separated. What do you think?”

“What? That wasn’t in the plan.”

Seyeon said while infusing her sword with a bit of holy power.

“The reason I was included in the decoy team despite not participating in reconnaissance must be because I can make this look like Edenic.”

“I guess so. And Subin unni probably wanted to prepare various spells too.”

“Right. But if we stick together, we completely waste that advantage. It makes no sense. And you’re neither weak nor slow enough to need my protection.”

“The squad leader must have known that.”

“Of course he would know, but he didn’t mention it. Or rather, couldn’t mention it. After Yuri unni nearly died acting alone under the leader’s orders on the third floor, it became taboo.”

“So you know that and still want to disobey the squad leader’s orders?”

“Literally speaking, yes, but I’m trying to understand the leader’s hidden intentions. Why did he form the teams this way? If he really wanted to enforce two-person teams and maximize the effectiveness of decoys or agitation… does it make sense to put the person with the Edenic fragment and the only person who can imitate it in the same team? Him of all people?”

Seyeon shook her head as if that couldn’t be right.

“Arang unni now surpasses even Yuri in pure speed, and I have the lowest risk when alone. Being too far apart would be problematic since we wouldn’t know each other’s locations, but if we spread out appropriately, we can operate more efficiently.”

“That’s true, but…”

“Unni.”

“Yes?”

“We just need to not get caught, right?”

“…Huh? Seyeon?”

Hearing Seyeon’s words and seeing her expression, Arang was momentarily puzzled but soon broke into a smile.

‘Right. She was also part of that duo.’

For Arang, Seonghyun’s words were almost absolute, but she couldn’t deny that Seyeon’s proposal was appealing.

“Alright. Let’s do it that way.”

“Thank you. If this becomes a problem, I’ll take responsibility, so don’t worry.”

“Who do you think I am?”

Arang disappeared, concealing herself with magical energy.

– As long as we don’t get caught.

‘Right. Arang unni used to hang out with us a lot too.’

After briefly thinking about Arang’s gaming days, Seyeon took out the sword she received from Seonghyun and infused it with holy power.

Creating a radiance so bright that the blade was barely visible, making it hard to distinguish, she began running straight toward where the crazed magicians were unleashing their spells.

**

“Unbelievable. Unbelievable! UNBELIEVABLE!! We who minimized the cost to open a rift in the world and even summoned a demon, can’t take over a single city!”

BANG- BANG- CRASH-!

“Those damned prayer-mongers have considerable resistance to demonic power, making it difficult to break through their barriers.”

“Ha. The same cowards who hid like frightened pheasants when the demon appeared…”

“If this drags on any longer, it won’t be good. We either need to crush them with all our might or leave this city to seek another opportunity. Either way, sooner is better.”

“Isn’t the latter just running away?! Besides, it would be difficult to find another place as conducive to our activities as this city! Let’s crush them with all our might!”

Though collectively referred to as crazy magicians, not all of them had lost their minds. More precisely, some were sane in their madness. Otherwise, how could they have thought to summon a demon in a perfectly normal city?

Anyway, it was extremely stressful for them that the demon they had barely managed to summon two weeks ago had suddenly vanished, and the lord and church forces were so tenaciously resisting.

More power!

Overwhelming power!

For these magicians who had tasted its fragments and become intoxicated by it, boundaries no longer existed. The reason they hadn’t used “forbidden” magic until now wasn’t to maintain some minimal standard, but because they had planned to occupy this place and continue using it.

Frustrated to the extreme at being blocked by these insignificant beings, they finally decided to use forbidden magic and were about to spread this decision to all magicians.

“Tower Master!”

“What is it?!”

“E-Edenic!”

But then.

“The fragment of the sword that pierced the demon is moving around!”

“W-what did you say?”

“L-look at this!”

“I got rid of the demon, and now some worthless scraps are running around. If I had known, I would have cleaned them up along with the demon.”

*Fluttering pages*

“Find it!”

“Pardon?”

“Find it right now!”