Ch.320320 Busan (4)

It took less than 10 minutes for the Hwarang to annihilate the Iron Flower Group.

A top-tier Awakened wearing dragon armor was literally no different from a human weapon, and with the assistance of the dragon armor, they could use attacks and magic that would normally be impossible.

They could be likened to high-speed fighter jets, and having such fighter jets freely engaging in combat was truly nothing short of a nightmare.

After the Iron Flower Group’s base was submerged in blood and flesh, the Hwarang began searching the blood-reeking headquarters.

“How terrifying…”

“This is the power of the dragon armor bestowed by the Dragon God.”

The Seorabeol Mage Association members accompanying the Hwarang could only gape in shock at the terrifying slaughter the Hwarang had demonstrated, while the Hwarang continued their search as if it were perfectly normal.

As they searched through the bodies of Iron Flower Group members that had been reduced to lumps of flesh, some Hwarang found wooden pieces hanging around their necks, with faint engravings on them.

“Mage, what is this?”

“Hmm. It’s a type of magical engraving. From what I know, raiders have some sort of communication system to recognize each other.”

“I see.”

It was a kind of communication system.

In other words, the organization the Hwarang had crushed was merely a cell in a larger network, and the real Iron Flower Group was hiding somewhere, controlling these cells.

But now that they had discovered their communication system…

“Can you track them?”

“I’ll need some time.”

This meant they could track the location of the Iron Flower Group’s main force.

And the mage dispatched from the Seorabeol Mage Association, living up to the Hwarang’s expectations, determined where this item had come from after just a small investment of time.

“It’s from Changwon.”

“Then we head to Changwon immediately.”

So the Hwarang headed to Changwon, made contact with the local administrators there, and…

“By royal command. We’ve been informed there are traitors here. The Hwarang will assume your administrative authority until we eliminate these traitors.”

“Do you have orders from the homeland?”

“Yes. Orders written by Priestess Baek Seol-hwa herself. You may verify with the homeland if you wish.”

In an instant, the Hwarang took control of Changwon’s entire administrative network, and simultaneously began deploying Hwarang throughout Changwon to focus on regional stability.

They even managed to establish a proper justification thanks to recent events.

“We are entering a period of intensive crackdown due to recent unfortunate incidents. Citizens, please rest assured. We Hwarang will protect Changwon.”

“The Priestess is very concerned that other cities might be threatened following the terrorist attack in Busan!”

With the announcement of a terrorist attack and under the pretext of an intensive crackdown period, Hwarang were deployed throughout Changwon.

As the Hwarang, the direct royal guard of the Priestess, were deployed in Changwon, the city’s security began to improve dramatically. The local administrators greatly welcomed the Hwarang’s deployment, and consequently, the movements of the Iron Flower Group hiding in Changwon became more cautious.

From the Iron Flower Group’s perspective, with the Hwarang suddenly conducting security crackdowns, they remained completely still to avoid the Hwarang’s notice. Unfortunately for them, the Hwarang’s target was precisely the Iron Flower Group, and the intensive crackdown period was designed to make the Iron Flower Group stay put out of nervousness.

If they had instead cooperated with other villains and thrown Changwon’s security into chaos, the Hwarang would have genuinely deployed most of their forces to stabilize Changwon’s security.

“The rest will eradicate the Iron Flower Group’s headquarters. I swear in the name of Dragon God Bahamut.”

“We swear in the name of Dragon God Bahamut.”

Using the Seorabeol Mage Association and Changwon administrative officials, the Hwarang reconstructed everything from the encrypted documents used by the Iron Flower Group to their coordinates, and even obtained the blueprints of their headquarters.

They had even compiled information extracted from an Iron Flower Group executive kept alive for interrogation, completing perfect preparations for the assault. The Hwarang, having finished their preparations, donned the dragon armor bestowed by Dragon God Bahamut and slowly began their expedition.

“It’s truly dark under the lamp.”

“It’s something the Changwon administration couldn’t handle on their own.”

The Iron Flower Group had established themselves in an abandoned underground freight tunnel beneath a collapsed elevated highway.

Before the apocalypse, it had been like an artery connecting urban areas, but after the apocalypse, this dark tunnel became an underground passage secretly used by raiders with unsavory activities, including illegal drug trafficking.

The Changwon administration knew about this but lacked the manpower to manage it, so they only monitored it without actually daring to crack down on the area.

“Use the night vision function built into the dragon armor.”

“Understood.”

It was deep and gloomy underground, and without lights to illuminate the interior, it would be impossible to distinguish friend from foe.

However, the dragon armor worn by the Hwarang was designed to enable combat in any situation, and for situations like this, night vision magic was engraved into the armor.

As the Hwarang entering the tunnel channeled magical power into their armor, the dragon armor recognized the situation and granted night vision ability to the Hwarang’s eyes, allowing them to clearly see everything in the tunnel.

“Had we rushed in thoughtlessly, even our Hwarang might have suffered considerable damage.”

“There’s a magical trap on this wall. It seems the Iron Flower Group has mages in their ranks.”

“Mages, huh. Probably illegal mages or, worst case, fools expelled from the Mage Association.”

Still, it seemed the enemy had prepared their defenses well, as threatening magical traps were installed along the Hwarang’s path.

All of these were rendered completely useless by the dragon armor’s detection abilities, but if an ordinary Awakened without dragon armor had gotten lost and reached this place, they would have been instantly killed by these powerful traps.

Seeing this, the Hwarang raised their assessment of the Iron Flower Group’s scale and were somewhat tense at the fact that they even had mages in their ranks.

“Enemy!”

“Seems they had detection magic.”

“I knew it. It’s not like we properly mastered stealth skills.”

And the presence of mages meant they had crisis detection magic to monitor for external intruders.

Despite moving stealthily and staying in the Iron Flower Group’s blind spots, somehow they had detected the Hwarang’s infiltration and entered combat readiness.

Normally, high-level stealth skills could evade crisis detection magic, but for the Hwarang wearing such flashy dragon armor, stealth skills were practically useless. In fact, for covert operations, National Intelligence Service agents were preferred over the Hwarang.

“It’s a frontal battle. We can’t lose anyway.”

But despite being discovered, the Hwarang were confident.

They believed they couldn’t possibly lose with their dragon armor, but that thought was soon…

“Bring out the weapons sold by the Chinese! Shoot everything at the Hwarang!”

“What… is that?”

The Iron Flower Group members, using a derogatory term for Chinese people, flung open the wall behind them, revealing an unknown magical weapon that even the Hwarang had never seen before.

It looked somewhat like a toy ray gun, or perhaps a massive weapon resembling a cannon.

It appeared more like a siege weapon than something meant to target people, and as this unknown weapon faced the Hwarang, it charged with magical power and fired.

“Deploy shields!”

Instantly, the Hwarang gathered in one place and deployed a massive magical barrier to defend against the projectile, but the vanguard Hwarang witnessed with their own eyes as the trusted magical barrier shattered before them.

As the barrier was destroyed, the dragon armor of the Hwarang at the front was somewhat damaged, but the Hwarang were not cowards to be frightened by just that much.

They quickly realized that the enemy’s weapon needed time to charge, and the Hwarang charged at the Iron Flower Group, forcing a chaotic battle in the confined space, and the Iron Flower Group had no means to stop the Hwarang’s charge.

“We must destroy or capture that unknown magical weapon!”

“Stop them! Stop them now!”

The Iron Flower Group’s formation collapsed, and some members—who appeared to be executives in the Hwarang’s eyes—attempted to flee deeper into the tunnel using the magical weapon as a decoy. Some Hwarang formed a pursuit team and began following closely behind them.

Moreover, realizing that the magical weapon was almost single-use, they broke their tight formation and split into groups to block all tunnels, thoroughly cutting off the Iron Flower Group’s escape routes. The only Iron Flower Group members who had fled early and avoided the Hwarang’s blockade would be thoroughly pursued and captured by the pursuit team.

After fleeing, the suspected Iron Flower Group executive arrived at an old power plant’s underground bunker.

This would normally be called a dead end, but surprisingly, this organization seemed to have a secret means of escape.

“To think the Iron Flower Group has teleportation magic circle technology. It shouldn’t be practical yet.”

“Hahahahaha! How does it feel? Finally tasting defeat! Hwarang!”

It was because they had teleportation magic installed for escape purposes.

The Hwarang couldn’t hide their bewilderment at the portal before their eyes, and the Iron Flower Group member, realizing escape was assured, began mocking and taunting the Hwarang.

If they entered this portal, the Iron Flower Group would arrive at the safest location, and since these portals were mostly one-way, even the Hwarang would be reluctant to enter hastily.

There was also the risk that they might lose their own escape route if they weren’t careful.

‘It’s not even a completed technology yet. More importantly, how did this technology leak out?’

And this teleportation technology was not yet a commercialized technology.

Of course, the Seorabeol Mage Association had once announced plans to commercialize it, but that research was said to require 10 to 20 years, and there was a high possibility that the cost-to-price ratio wouldn’t work out, so practical application was still far off.

Furthermore, teleportation magic circles didn’t guarantee absolute safety, and despite thorough inspections and safety checks by the Seorabeol Mage Association, they were accident-prone, causing terrible incidents like limb amputation or being lost in space-time. In reality, this escape route was essentially a life-or-death gamble.

“Running away like that. You must be the leader of the Iron Flower Group?”

“Ha. Haha. You damn dogs of Seorabeol. I never thought you’d find us this quickly.”

Thus ended the chase between the Hwarang and the Iron Flower Group’s leader, but the Hwarang pursuing the Iron Flower Group leader began to speak menacingly to break the enemy’s will.

“Wherever you flee, Seorabeol has already designated you as traitors. You will never be welcomed anywhere in Seorabeol.”

“Traitors! You call us traitors?! Don’t make me laugh! Seorabeol is the usurper, a dictatorial state that destroyed the great Republic of Korea!”

Even now, Seorabeol’s influence was spreading throughout the country, and once designated as traitors by the state, not only local governments but also Jin A-yeon, whom raiders feared most, would likely take direct action.

It was a threatening statement that they could no longer survive in Seorabeol, which was actually true, so it was essentially advising them to surrender right now. However, the nameless Iron Flower Group leader insulted Seorabeol as a dictatorial state that had destroyed the great Republic of Korea.

At those words, the Hwarang, having heard the same arguments often made during election seasons, merely gave a hollow laugh and calmly refuted.

“Unlike the Republic of Korea that abandoned us, Seorabeol is saving many people. Even now, we’re saving citizens from people like you. Shouldn’t you be apologizing to the citizens of Busan instead?”

“Seorabeol calls itself justice. But I ask, why do you seek to exclude all raiders! Don’t people like us have the right to live too!”

Oh, of course, Seorabeol didn’t exclude all raiders.

Even for raiders, if they had the justification that they couldn’t help but raid to survive, they would only be under some surveillance, and efforts were made to reintegrate them into society or send them to prison for rehabilitation.

Rather, those words were just a distortion of part of the truth, and the reality was…

“In the post-apocalyptic era, laws, ethics, and morals collapsed. We had to do whatever it took to survive, and we simply adapted to that reality. But Seorabeol? With armed Awakened and in the name of the Dragon, they mercilessly eradicated those classified as raiders, giving them no chance at all.”

“…What nonsense. So you think all the crimes you committed are innocent? Oh, of course, Seorabeol has also struggled with how to distinguish raiders. But we have no intention of forgiving people like you. We don’t want to go with you either. Rather, the citizens who suffered because of you are desperately hoping for your death!”

In the chaos following the apocalypse, countless people lost their lives, families, property, and dreams.

During this time, raider forces including the Iron Flower Group seized the opportunity in the lawless cities, occupying them and subjecting helpless citizens to human trafficking, robbery, massacres, and magical experiments.

In fact, despite their numerous atrocities, wasn’t it mercy itself that they weren’t declared traitors until the terrorist attack and were given the chance for rehabilitation?

“Seorabeol did not show mercy to raiders. That’s true. But mercy is given to those who deserve it.”

“You damn hypocrite! You will all perish!”

No one will know the final fate of the Iron Flower Group member who entered the portal.

If they’re lucky, they’ll survive, and if not, they might wander through space-time or have their body torn to pieces.

And the Hwarang watching this prayed to the Dragon God that it would be the latter.