Ch.8787. No Escape Even in Death

In truth, hunters weren’t highly regarded on this modern battlefield that resembled conventional warfare.

After all, hunters were merely forces capable of dealing with medium-level monsters of the high-mobility small/humanoid type that regular military forces found difficult to handle. In a full-scale war, charging into close combat would naturally result in death under concentrated fire.

This was especially true since most of the medium-level monsters from the Bomb Spider possessed at least tank-level firepower, and could easily overwhelm mediocre medium-level hunters in close combat.

However, this battle was somewhat different.

First, the proportion of humanoid medium-level monsters among the monsters was extremely low. From the Hive Mind’s perspective, these humanoid medium-level monsters were essentially specialized troops designed to counter hunters.

Without such humanoid medium-level monsters present, the monster infantry of Bomb Spider-04 had significantly reduced close combat capabilities. As long as Bomb Spider-07 (Theo) didn’t appear, medium-level or higher hunters could potentially dominate the monster infantry one-sidedly.

They could break through enemy rifle fire by relying on their shields, and with their superior physical abilities, medium-level hunters could visually track and dodge heavy weapons fire. Against monster infantry, the exchange ratio for medium-level hunters was around 1:1800.

Oh, and even low-level hunters possessed weaponry and specialties surpassing elite military infantry, so they weren’t entirely useless against infantry either.

Meanwhile, as hunters were making their mark—Nano-Tech had developed a new product that could help resolve this crisis.

They created machine-monsters by supplementing lost parts of dead monster bodies with nanomachines, extracting the brain, injecting nanomachines, and forcibly controlling them.

These “Monster Machines” were being mass-produced continuously using the endless supply of monster corpses as materials.

However, to be honest, the “Monster Machines” weren’t particularly powerful weapons in terms of combat capability.

Since the biological core was usually destroyed when killing monsters, the heart had to be replaced with a lower-output artificial core. The irregular body weight caused balance issues, making movements jerky, and above all, the software was subpar.

Monster Machines were operated by humans linking their consciousness to a mechanical brain… but few people could skillfully control a quadrupedal body with a tail right away.

Naturally, their combat effectiveness was quite low—even when made from medium-level monsters, they were perhaps half as powerful as the originals… but they had clear advantages.

First, Monster Machines were very inexpensive.

With just a monster corpse, depending on the damage, a medium-level Monster Machine could be produced for just 10-20 million won. If there was no one to control it, it could simply be left to an AI algorithm.

The difficulty in controlling them could be solved by using low-level infantry monsters—Hive Infantry—to create Monster Machines. These were not only humanoid but also cost less than 10% of medium-level Monster Machines, ranging from 650,000 to 1.5 million won to produce.

Therefore, the Korean government, which had been holding out at the cost of innocent lives, immediately mass-produced these Monster Machines as soon as they were developed and deployed them to the front lines. Thus began a war where the only loss was financial.

Additionally, an unexpected variable appeared on the front lines.

The ghosts of the fallen, which had occasionally been reported in sightings before, formed groups and appeared on the precarious front lines to assist in defense.

The legend of this army of the dead reached its peak when Yu Se-ah, who had died in battle, appeared as a faint ghost and repelled Bomb Spider-07 (Theo).

Thanks to these weapons and various variables, the Korean government was able to completely block Bomb Spider-04’s offensive—

Unfortunately, the sacrifices made in this process were by no means small.

※ ※ ※

Rewinding time to when the offensive was still ongoing and Monster Machines had not yet appeared.

At a defense base in southern Gangwon Province, South Korea, another fierce battle was about to begin.

Woom-woom-woom. Woom-woom. Woom-woom-woom.

[W-what?! Why are the m-monsters taking cover and shooting—]

“Shut up! Hey! Didn’t anyone train this kid properly?!”

As the shield made buzzing sounds when hit by monster lasers and energy bullets fired from behind cover, Sergeant Shin—the squad leader of the 131st Heavy Armored Infantry Squad—shouted at the rookie who had only been assigned to the unit for four days.

Heavy Armored Infantry. This military branch, created after the war with monsters began, simply consisted of heavily armed soldiers wearing powered armor suits and handling heavy weapons, making up about 20% of active military personnel and forming the core of modern warfare.

They wore armor plating capable of withstanding laser rifles, underwent various physical enhancement procedures, and fired heavy machine guns or shortened energy cannons with the assistance of their powered suits.

While Heavy Armored Infantry were often portrayed or described as walking light tanks… reality was harsh.

Whether fighting monsters or in human warfare, Heavy Armored Infantry had clear limitations.

They had greater firepower than regular infantry due to their heavy weapons, but they had no means of resistance against enemies immune to that firepower.

The armor plating of their powered suits could block rifle lasers but was easily penetrated by proper heavy weapons. Being so heavy and slow, if they engaged in close combat with monsters, they would become nothing more than canned food in a moving coffin.

Nevertheless, Heavy Armored Infantry clearly demonstrated overwhelming combat power against low-level monsters, so their proportion gradually increased to the point where there were plans to replace all infantry with Heavy Armored Infantry, making them indispensable to modern military forces.

“Machine guns! Ready to fire!”

[[[[[[Yes, sir!]]]]]]

And now this indispensable 131st Heavy Armored Infantry Squad was engaged in fierce combat at this base—whose defensive forces consisted of only four automatic laser turrets and sixteen Heavy Armored Infantry—against at least four medium-level monsters and approximately a thousand low-level monsters.

“Fire!”

Pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew——!!!!

While the laser turrets formed a field of fire to suppress the monsters’ movements, twelve Heavy Armored Infantry with laser machine guns formed four teams of three, blasting away the monsters along with their cover.

Of course, such operations typically consumed excessive ammunition and energy due to the necessary volume of fire, but fortunately, this issue had already been resolved.

Modern soldiers’ laser-energy weapons received power from their powered suits’ batteries through connected lines, and this power could theoretically operate the powered suit for 48 hours, so ammunition concerns were unnecessary.

As they eliminated the monsters one by one, the monsters seemed to realize this approach was futile and brought out their secret weapon.

[T-tank! There’s a tank ahead!]

About 4 meters tall and at least 16 meters long. Its body, supported by four legs, was covered with thick, heavy carapaces and equipped with all sorts of threatening weapons.

Hunter claws protruded from its front legs at both shoulders, a biological flamethrower was hidden inside its mouth, a monster laser machine gun was attached to the tip of its tail, and a large, impressive cannon barrel peeked out from between the gun barrels on its back.

Commonly called a “tank” by frontline soldiers, this was Bomb Spider’s main medium-level monster.

“What are you waiting for? Fire!”

The moment the tank’s appearance was confirmed, Sergeant Shin gave orders to the three energy cannon gunners on standby, while he himself took out his plasma cannon and began charging it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The energy shells fired sequentially by the three energy cannon gunners passed through the base’s psychic shield and hit the front of the tank, but the tank blocked all three shells by concentrating its force field on its front.

With the force field thinned in this process, this was the perfect moment for Sergeant Shin’s modified plasma cannon to shine.

Whoooom—KABOOOOM!!!!

A high-density plasma beam shot from the illegally modified plasma cannon, charged to 170% beyond its maximum capacity, and directly hit the tank’s thinned force field.

BOOM!

With a thunderous explosion, the tank, now with a large hole in its head, fell over sideways and never moved again.

[[[[[[[Woooooooooah!!!]]]]]]]

The squad members cheered at the sight of the tank—which had been considered invincible due to rumors spreading about how many tanks it had destroyed and humans it had killed in this war—falling, but Squad Leader Shin frowned as he detached the overheated and damaged plasma cannon from his powered suit.

They had managed to kill one, but at least three tanks remained, and the only weapon capable of instantly killing a tank—the plasma cannon—was now broken.

“Haah…huh?”

Just as he sighed and began to draw his energy sword and plasma pistol—the secondary weapons for non-commissioned officers—

CRASH—pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew-pew!!!!

With a clear, crisp sound, the defensive shield finally gave way under the monsters’ fire, and laser shots began flying in from all directions.

[S-Squad Leader… what do we do now?]

For the moment, they were holding out thanks to armor plating that easily defended against rifle-grade lasers, but as the power of incoming lasers gradually increased, cracks began to form in the armor plating.

Even the automatic laser turrets had been neutralized by the enemy’s anti-heavy armor laser weapons, making this truly a desperate situation.

If this were a fictional story, a passing hunter or military reinforcements would have come to help them… but not in reality.

The military high command, preoccupied with reports that Pyeongchang was about to fall, wouldn’t send reinforcements to such a small, unimportant base with no critical equipment. After fierce fighting, these sixteen Heavy Armored Infantry were torn apart and well-digested by the monsters—

[Okay, got one.]

After being killed by monsters and having their souls transferred to the Hive God, fifteen souls simply became monster bodies, while Sergeant Shin’s soul was collected by the Hive God’s hand to be reborn as a member of the Special Order.