The Archmage’s Destruction Strategy - Chapter 33

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————

#033. Approaching Death

Temporary Situation Room of the Tianwu Guan Information Department.

This place, designed solidly enough to withstand continuous nuclear attacks, was at the forefront of restoring the Chinese Government that had collapsed after D-day.

And after the failure of the nuclear attack carried out to eliminate the Corrosion Entity that invaded Beijing, it had also become the place with the most powerful authority among all Chinese Government agencies.

In that very place where China’s most core power could be said to be gathered, Information Department Director Li Wei, Lieutenant Colonel, was silently looking down at a map of the Chinese mainland spread across a massive table.

Since the day they decided to drop nuclear weapons on Beijing and more than half of China’s Awakened forces were sacrificed, the remaining Awakened forces had become the only sword and shield the Chinese Government could use.

And this place that commanded them was what could be called China’s brain.

“Report from Hebei Province Communication Point 7! Surveillance target, codename ‘Dragon Monster’ group, beginning westward movement!”

“Report from Shandong Province Communication Point 12! Entity presumed to be ‘Dizzy Demon’ has changed movement route! I repeat, movement route has…!”

Of course, the reports they received were not through the wireless communication systems that had developed brilliantly in the 21st century.

Since the existing communication networks using wireless communication networks had completely collapsed after D-day, the Chinese Government was barely maintaining its reporting system through wired communication networks created for emergencies.

Using wired communication networks buried like spider webs deep underground, intelligence agents under Tianwu Guan dispatched across the continent were sending reports to the central situation room.

Now the entire situation room was as noisy as a marketplace with the shouting of communication soldiers.

Intelligence agents scattered across each region were simultaneously submitting urgent reports that the Corrosion Entity groups they had been monitoring suddenly began moving all at once, as if by appointment.

According to the communication soldiers’ reports, intelligence officers moved small monster-shaped figures on a giant board game modeled after the Chinese mainland.

Then the scattered dots began connecting into one massive line.

“Comrade Lieutenant Colonel… this seems strange. Their movement… it’s as if, as if they’re all heading in one direction like iron filings drawn to a single magnet.”

Young officer Chen, Major, approached Li Wei while wiping cold sweat and spoke.

Chen was right.

Hundreds of red and black painted figures across the entire Chinese mainland – north, south, east, and west – were moving as if by appointment, like a swarm of crawling insects toward one nameless point on the continent.

Li Wei’s sharp eyes were staring at that point.

“What are the analysis results of the target location?”

“That’s… strange. Within a 100-kilometer radius of those coordinates, there are no major forces on our side, nor even densely populated cities. It’s just… abandoned wasteland.”

‘They all started moving toward a place with nothing? Why? What on earth is there?’

When Tianwu Guan’s plan to concentrate their strongest available forces at one point to eliminate the apocalypse-level Corrosion Entity ended in miserable failure, Tianwu Guan spread their remaining Awakened forces thinly across the country to prevent them from being wiped out all at once.

Then they began conducting guerrilla warfare, accepting the sacrifice of intelligence agents while selectively targeting only weak Corrosion Entity groups in hit-and-run tactics.

In that process, countless civilians died, but the Party didn’t care.

Humans were abundant to the point of rotting, while the number of Awakened was limited.

So what Li Wei was concerned about now was how much Awakened casualties could be expected from the enemies’ movements.

If their target was this situation room, they would need to move all equipment to a new shelter immediately.

Li Wei, who had been closing his eyes and drawing a map in his head for a moment, opened his eyes again and spoke.

Eliminating numerous variables and possibilities.

“…I order. Tell all Awakened positioned on the enemies’ routes to immediately leave their current positions and retreat. And we also begin evacuation preparations. If the enemies gathered in one place simultaneously surround this place, our remaining forces would be unable to respond.”

“Yes! Understood!”

This should do it.

Although they might not know what the enemies were targeting, this would be the only way to preserve their forces until the next opportunity came.

And at that very moment, Chen, who was about to turn around and deliver the evacuation order, looked at Li Wei and spoke.

His voice was mixed with fear stemming from childhood experiences.

“Comrade Lieutenant Colonel, that movement… doesn’t it look like the movement of beasts fleeing from a wildfire? That kind of scene where predators and herbivores are mixed together running in one direction.”

“Have you seen a wildfire with your own eyes?”

“I saw one from a distance when I was young.”

“Then it might look that way to your eyes,”

“Are you saying it looks different to your eyes, Comrade Lieutenant Colonel?”

“I haven’t seen wildfires, but I have experience hunting.”

Li Wei shook his head and spoke. His eyes were cold as ice.

“That’s not a panicked flight.”

Memories from the past, when he was eliminating poachers in border areas. The sensation from those days when he narrowed the encirclement while reading even the breathing of beasts came back to his entire body.

“That’s positioning for a hunt.”

Li Wei pointed to one spot on the table with his finger.

The very place that all the figures made in the form of various terrifying monsters were looking at in unison.

“When hunting foxes, the hunting dogs released move exactly like that. It’s a perfect encirclement maneuver concentrating all forces at one point to annihilate a single target.”

“Then what on earth is in that wasteland that makes them do such a thing?”

“I don’t know what it is. There might be a target they absolutely want to catch, or perhaps…”

Li Wei, who suddenly changed his thinking, gave another order.

“I withdraw the previous order. All Awakened should gather at designated coordinates instead of evacuating.”

“But isn’t that an order prohibited since the Beijing incident? It’s an act that directly ignores operational precedent.”

“Then attach conditions.”

Li Wei cut off his subordinate’s words and added quietly.

His voice contained blade-like determination along with eerie curiosity.

“Maintain safe distance and absolutely do not engage first. This isn’t a summons order for the purpose of participating in battle. Emphasize that it’s merely to deal with an ’emergency situation.'”

“An emergency situation… what kind?”

“There are two reasons why hunting dogs move to catch prey. One is when there’s a target they really want to catch there.”

“What’s the other one?”

“When there’s an opponent they absolutely ‘must catch’ there.”

***

At the same time.

Sung-jun was sitting cross-legged in deep meditation in the middle of a wasteland where cold moonlight was shining down.

Carried by the desolate night wind, his dead teacher’s voice pierced his ears like a hallucination.

‘…If you continue like this, you’ll die, Sung-jun. And certainly at that.’

A faint smile appeared on Sung-jun’s lips.

‘I know, Teacher. There’s probably no one more certain of my death than myself.’

Just the fact that the precognitive Yejigwi had moved made everything clear.

It meant that creature had clearly witnessed his ‘death’ in the future.

That was an unavoidable, confirmed fate.

But Sung-jun had no particular intention of avoiding that fate.

‘If I must die, I should gladly die. But don’t think I’ll die quietly.’

With his eyes closed, he began to carefully consider each of the thousands of spells the Previous Demon Lords had imprinted on his soul.

It wasn’t simply about choosing powerful spells.

For his plan to succeed without error, he needed to use spells with very ‘special conditions’ in the correct order and at perfect timing.

The spell list Sung-jun was creating was both a massive blueprint for the battle about to begin and a list of requiems to be played at his own funeral.

***

Another wasteland more than 20 kilometers away from where Sung-jun was.

“Hah… damn, tails again.”

Shirasaki Miyu irritably flipped a coin into the air.

The metallic clink cut through the anxious silence.

The Coin of Fate that fell on the back of her hand was unfailingly showing the tails side with the picture drawn on it.

“Still…?”

Yeonse-a asked while biting her dry lips. Her voice carried anxiety that grew thicker as time passed.

“Still seems like it. You can see it too.”

Shirasaki Miyu sighed deeply and answered curtly.

However, her sigh was closer to lamentation about the start of the fight being delayed rather than dissatisfaction about getting tails.

For her, a natural battle maniac, waiting time like this doing nothing was like torture.

“If things proceed according to plan, will Teacher be alright?”

“I don’t know that either.”

Shirasaki Miyu’s words were true.

In fact, the luck accumulated by the Coin of Fate guaranteed Shirasaki Miyu’s own survival, not the survival of Sung-jun, who was someone else.

So in this plan, the only one who could be absolutely safe was herself.

Conversely, the safety of Sung-jun, who had accumulated misfortune to the extreme, was rather on the uncertain side.

Shirasaki Miyu fidgeted with a small piece of crumpled paper in her pocket.

“Your teacher asked me for just one thing. Keep throwing the Coin of Fate until it comes up heads, and when heads comes up, immediately release all the luck accumulated in my body at once. And…”

Shirasaki Miyu focused her attention on the piece of paper she had been fidgeting with in her pocket.

The note that Sung-jun had earnestly warned her never to unfold until just before opening her luck.

Though she was dying to know what was written inside, she desperately suppressed her desire to check.

Sung-jun’s warning that the entire plan could crumble just from her reading the contents in advance was grating on her nerves.

A single moment of misjudgment could turn everything into failure.

‘Let me flip the coin again.’

Just as she was about to throw the coin again with another deep sigh, Hyeon-jo, who had been watching her, drew his iron mace at lightning speed and said.

“Wait, hold on. Someone is approaching.”

As if there was no need for him to say it, Shirasaki Miyu had also already taken a combat stance with Baphomet in her hand.

In her other hand, she still gripped the Coin of Fate she had been about to throw moments before.

Only Seoa, who wasn’t an Awakened as strong as the other two, watched them both with a frightened expression.

And at that moment, like a scene from a martial arts movie, a man came running by kicking off the air several times and landed silently before them.

His speed was so fast that it created the illusion of a dot-like figure suddenly appearing before their eyes in an instant.

And the man who had ‘flown’ through the air stopped mid-air and looked down at the three people, saying.

“What exactly are you doing here?”

When Seoa saw what was hanging from the waist of the man who had flown over, she finally understood why Hyeon-jo and Shirasaki Miyu had reacted so intensely.

On the man’s belt, nine jade orbs were sparkling brilliantly.

‘Nine Origin River…? Seo Moo-gyeol wasn’t the only Nine Origin River practitioner?’

The nine orbs hanging from the man’s waist.

They were not simple accessories.

They were proof that the man before them was another supreme Awakened with the strongest martial power throughout the entire Chinese Mainland.

—————
This chapter was translated by Lunox Team. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
—————