The Regressed SSS-Rank Supporter Who Turned Dark - Chapter 51

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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#Episode 51
Whoooosh!
The bike carved through the muddy seawater.
Combat erupted the moment we fled.
Rat-a-tat-tat! Rat-a-tat-tat-tat!
Machine guns mounted on the tactical vehicles roared to life.
Boom, crash!
Whoooosh, boom!
Grenade launchers and anti-tank rockets unleashed their fury upon the surging monsters.
Chain explosions tore through the Mudflats.
Monster remains, mud, and seawater intermingled and scattered in all directions.
“Don’t stop firing!”
“Right flank, shoot to the right!”
The sheer number of enemies bearing down on us was staggering.
Twisted silhouettes writhed beyond the fog.
Damn it.
There are far too many.
At this rate….
Kaboom!
Kaboom, boom, crash, crash, kaboom!
Artillery shells rained down relentlessly from both sides of the road, forming a curtain of devastation.
This firepower wasn’t ours.
Allies.
It had to be the fire support waiting outside Jebu Island.
“…!”
I glanced up at the sky without thinking.
Rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
Whiiiiiine!
Allied attack helicopters and drones filled the sky, having arrived without warning.
The enemy didn’t remain idle.
Of course they wouldn’t.
“Shrieeeek!”
“Screeeee!”
Multiple gargoyles and various flying creatures emerged, clashing with our aerial forces.
Boom, crash!
Kaboom!
An aerial battle raged overhead, and its debris rained down upon us.
Shattered wings, torn flesh, burning metal fragments tangled together and fell like rain.
At this point, calling it an escape felt almost embarrassing.
This was war.
Humanity and monsters.
Massive forces from both sides collided, painting a hellscape across the battlefield.
‘Things are finally quieting down.’
Ironically, amidst this chaos, my mind was more serene than anyone else’s.
The more intense the battle became, the colder my thoughts grew, and my perception sharpened to crystalline clarity.
The noise, the shockwaves, the unspeakable horrors—all external stimuli were merely analyzed and processed as data.
Explosions became waveforms, screams became coordinates and distances, blood and debris filtered into the category of things no longer worth my attention.
My vision was clear.
Everything moved as if in slow motion, each moment stretched and deliberate.
“Kyaaaaaaah!”
A sound reached me.
‘Right flank. Closing in. Three, two….’
Gripping the steering wheel with my right hand, I drew the double-barrel sawed-off shotgun with my left and twisted my body around.
Choi Yu-ra’s shoulder, perched behind me, made an excellent gun rest.
Boom!
“Gack!”
The gargoyle flew backward in tatters.
“You insane bastard! What were you thinking firing a gun right next to my ear!”
“Watch the rear! I can’t keep track of everything!”
I barked back at Choi Yu-ra’s protest, then drew the [Luck] card.
Debris rained down from above—far too much of it.
Action was necessary.
There was an old saying about dying from a stray bullet; at this rate, I’d be crushed under rubble instead.
– Grant fortune to you and your companions.
Following the Goddess of Fortune’s whisper, I heard the sound of dice rolling.
Rrrrrr….
[Luck increased by 90%!]
Not bad.
At least the odds of dying in some ridiculous accident had diminished.
Like, for instance, being struck dead by falling debris.
Drrrrrrrrrrrrk….
The sound of tracked treads echoed from ahead.
A heavy, grinding sound that pressed into the earth.
I gradually reduced speed.
This wasn’t some game of chicken, and I certainly couldn’t ram into a friendly vehicle.
Soon, a massive metal form emerged, pushing through the haze.
An armored personnel carrier.
“Dismount!”
“Dismount quickly!”
As the hatch opened, mechanized infantrymen poured out and unleashed suppressive fire upon the monsters charging toward the road.
Soon after, Hunters from the Defense Strategy Department descended on ropes from the Black Hawk helicopter hovering overhead.
“Cha Eun-sung!”
“If Cha Eun-sung is here, please raise your hand! Is Cha Eun-sung present?”
“Who the hell is this Cha Eun-sung!”
The Hunters shouted my name while each wielded their abilities to hold back the monsters.
What… what is this?
My concentration shattered because of them.
“…I am Cha Eun-sung.”
“Are you truly Cha Eun-sung?”
“Yes.”
“Let me verify.”
The team leader of the Hunter squad compared the photograph written on the tactical card wrapped around his left arm with my face.
“Confirmed. Let’s go.”
“Pardon?”
“We’ve been ordered to extract Cha Eun-sung.”
I see.
There was a reason they called out this name the moment they landed.
“Are you saying you’re only supposed to take me?”
“That’s correct. You are our highest priority extraction target. So…”
“I refuse.”
“I… beg your pardon?”
“I’m not leaving now.”
It wasn’t some trivial sense of justice or conscience.
I’d abandoned such things so long ago I couldn’t even remember when.
“All these people followed me here trusting only me. I can’t just slip away first. That wouldn’t be right.”
“Extracting you first doesn’t mean the Defense Strategy Department will abandon the others.”
“I understand that. But if we’ve come this far, we should leave together. And…”
I pointed upward at the sky.
“Screeeech!”
“Screeeeeech!”
An even greater swarm of gargoyles was descending upon us.
“Can you handle that? If you can, then we go.”
“…”
The other side fell silent.
Attempting a helicopter evacuation in this situation would be suicide.
Indeed, our helicopters were rapidly retreating while suicide drones filled the gap they left behind.
Helicopters were extremely vulnerable to small flying creatures like gargoyles, so we had no choice but to counter with drones instead.
And…
Whoosh!
A sharp tentacle burst from the mudflats beside the road and coiled around the Special Task Force Team Leader.
“…!”
A sickening crunch.
The Special Task Force Team Leader’s spine snapped, his body cleaved in two and crumpling to the ground.
It happened in the blink of an eye—so fast I couldn’t even react.
“…Damn it.”
I unleashed a barrage of bullets toward where the tentacle had erupted from.
A wet splatter.
Black ink exploded everywhere—clearly some octopus-like creature had caused this Awakening.
But there was no time for rage.
A heavy whoosh.
The sound of something massive hurtling through the air.
A deafening crash.
Something enormous completely flattened one of our armored vehicles.
Everyone froze in horror at the sight.
“A monster…!”
“Insane. This is insane.”
A colossal creature easily fifteen meters long.
Resembling some grotesque mudskipper, it possessed a frame massive enough to crush armored vehicles like tin cans.
“…Mudflats Sovereign.”
The name escaped my lips.
* * *
Mudflats Sovereign.
Literally the ruler and king of the mudflats.
A five-star monster—one of the boss-class creatures that emerged during Awakening events in mudflat terrain.
Its two eyes rose above the surface, scanning the surroundings with predatory intent.
“Grrrrrrgh….”
The Mudflats Sovereign lowered its body.
A horrific screech.
The already-crushed vehicle compressed further into a pancake.
When the Mudflats Sovereign lowered its body, it meant….
“Everyone, scatter!!!”
A tremendous surge.
As I shouted, the Mudflats Sovereign launched itself skyward.
A thunderous impact.
The Mudflats Sovereign descended upon the densely packed mechanized infantry.
Nearly a dozen soldiers vanished.
If it could pulverize armored vehicles, reducing a handful of humans to paste would be child’s play.
“You damned mudskipper bastard!”
“Die, you son of a bitch!”
The enraged soldiers unleashed a relentless barrage upon the Mudflats Sovereign.
Machine guns, anti-tank weapons, grenades—a barrage of conventional firepower descended upon the Mudflats Lord.
Whiiiine!
Boom, crash!
Drones laden with Etherium bombs slammed into the Mudflats Lord and detonated.
“…It won’t work.”
A bitter murmur escaped my lips.
As the flames and smoke from the explosions cleared, the Mudflats Lord’s form became visible.
At first glance, it appeared to have sustained considerable damage.
But the Mudflats Lord’s next action shattered that hope into pieces.
Squelch, squelch!
The Mudflats Lord rolled through the mud.
Flesh that seemed torn away by the explosions knitted itself back together, and the wounds where shrapnel had embedded themselves writhed and sealed shut.
An absurd regenerative ability—absorbing the mudflats’ mire to heal itself.
Yes, that was what made the Mudflats Lord so terrifying.
This was the Mudflats.
At least within the Mudflats, it was nearly invincible.
Splurch!
As the Mudflats Lord twisted its massive body, the mudflats undulated like waves.
“Ugh!”
“Gah!”
Two soldiers who’d lost their footing collapsed in that instant.
Whoosh!
The Mudflats Lord lashed out with its enormous tail like a whip.
Splat!
The soldiers’ bodies burst apart in a shower of gore.
But that was merely the beginning.
Clang, clang!
The Mudflats Lord surged forward, gliding across the mud.
Its fins thrashed like a beast’s claws, and its fifteen-meter frame hurtled toward us at speeds exceeding one hundred kilometers per hour.
Crash―!
The armored vehicle flipped end over end from the Mudflats Lord’s body slam, tumbling across the mudflats before crumpling into a mangled hunk of scrap metal.
That was the beginning.
“Craaaaaash!!!”
The Mudflats Lord rampaged wildly, destroying everything in its path.
* * *
“It’s… it’s a calamity… That’s a calamity…!”
A terrified soldier cried out.
His finger pointing at the Mudflats Lord trembled uncontrollably.
I found myself in complete agreement with his assessment.
Yes, it was surely a calamity.
The Mudflats Lord was a 5-star boss monster.
Conventional human weapons were useless against it.
But that didn’t mean humanity had no countermeasures.
Hunters.
Those awakened by Ether’s selection.
As long as they existed, humanity could not be called completely helpless.
At the very least, we possessed the minimum strength necessary to stand against those creatures.
“…I won’t let it rampage unchecked.”
The axe in my hand.
Gripping [Madness’s Slaughterer], I advanced toward the raging Mudflats Lord.
I wasn’t the only one stepping forward to face this overwhelming calamity.
Those chosen by Ether.
“This damned mudskipper bastard!”
“I-I’ll help too!”
“Yeah! Let’s give it a shot!”
One by one.
Hunters drew their spirit blades and rushed toward the Mudflats Lord without hesitation.
Among us Hunters, there was no distinction of age, gender, or rank.
Freshly awakened novices.
Seasoned veterans who had seen countless battles.
Even I, who had returned from the past, did not hesitate to face the Mudflats Lord.
Our collective image was like that of beings driven by instinct.
As if our enmity toward this unknown enemy was etched deep within our very souls.
Perhaps this was the reason Hunters were born in the first place….
‘Let’s go.’
With that thought, I charged at full speed toward the ruler of these Mudflats.
With me at the vanguard, the other Hunters rushed forward toward the Mudflats Lord.
Flinch!
The Mudflats Lord lowered its body.
“Dodge!”
Whoosh—!
A massive shadow swept over my head.
“Dodge!”
I threw myself out of the way.
Crash!!!
The spot where I’d been standing moments before was crushed flat.
Splatter!
Mud and concrete mixed together, spraying into the air.
‘Fortune, Red Moon, Strengthen.’
In that instant, I drew three cards.
[Fortune] Critical Hit Chance increased by 100%!
[Crimson Moon] Attack Power, Attack Speed, and Slashing Effect increased by 150%!
[Reinforcement] Weapon grows stronger!
Enchant.
The cards’ power wrapped around the Madness Butcher.
The axe turned crimson, and as it grew in size, a subtle sheen flickered across its blade.
Whoooosh!
The ether enveloping the axe shimmered like dancing flames.
Boom!
The Mudflats Lord’s tail lashed out, aiming for me.
On the concrete road.
Thud!
I leaped with all my might to evade the attack, and the moment I landed, I rolled my body before swinging the Madness Butcher with every ounce of strength I possessed.
Screeeech!
The axe tore through the Mudflats Lord’s left fin.

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