Chapter Eighteen. Flame-spewing Crocodile, Part II
Translator: Khan
Editor: RED
Kim Tae-hoon was the same.
It was in the battle with the Black Snake that he keenly felt it. He did not know that the Black Snake was so strong and clever, and he faced it with only the Sword and the power of his Telekinesis.
The result? He almost died. He was lucky to survive, and the battle with the Black Snake was a mess from beginning to end.
He had no desire to repeat that same mistake against the Flame-spewing Crocodile.
‘I need more definite and thorough investigation and inquiry.’
So he studied. He could not dissect the Flame-spewing Crocodiles, so he dug into the habits, behavior patterns, and body structure of a Wolf-crocodile similar to it.
‘I need a new manual.’
He tried something new that could be done with Telekinesis. It was not enough to use his Telekinesis to handle weapons freely.
It was necessary to make some of the infinite possibilities of the Telekinesis into a certain ability for himself, not just a possibility. Of course, time was limited, so he had to choose one of the possibilities.
‘The firepower is sufficient, and I need a way to use it, accurately and surely.’
The way he finally chose was levitation.
‘If I could fly in the air, then I could fight like a combat helicopter. It would be an unlimited battle in space.’
If he, who had a strong enough level of firepower from the supplies of the Ammunition Company and the subordinate units of the 17th Division, could fly in the sky, he could be compared to a combat helicopter, in fact.
It was not easy, of course. If he could have levitated every time he decided to do with his Telekinesis, he would have done it earlier.
But his troubles were not for long.
‘I’ll do it anyway.’
There was no choice. If he did it, he would survive, or he would die. So he did it.
Pushu!
He pulled the trigger on the Panzerfaust 3, while standing in the sky.
A tank is not just a moving mass of steel, it is like a small fortress. If an infantryman could have completely destroyed such a tank with a rocket launcher on his shoulder, no country would have made a tank costing $5 million per unit.
Because of this, antitank rockets focused on penetration, not destruction. The first goal is to make a hole in the surface of the tanks, whose steel armor was more than just thick.
The shell with a protruding snout, just like a stork, used by Panzerfaust 3 was the focus of this purpose.
Pushu!
The shell was fired in a burst.
The target was the Flame-spewing Crocodile!
Kr?
It only noticed the presence of the shell after the stork-end had already touched its body.
Boom! Boom! There was a loud explosion.
But, it was not just an explosion.
As the explosive force of the bomb exploded in front of the target, it was compressed into a stream like a water pressure cutter, and it pierced its tough skin like a pointed spear.
Kaaaaaah!, its scream rang out.
Kim Tae-hoon smiled bitterly, looking at the scene with black Eyes. ‘I can’t even laugh.’
It was definitely a severe wound, but it was not a fatal blow to send the Flame-spewing Crocodile to death at once. The scream was just for pain, not death throes.
‘It was hit by a rocket with the power to break through the surface of a tank, but it was only wounded badly.’
Kim Tae-hoon, who knew the power of modern weapons and had even fired a Panzerfaust 3 against a living human, had no choice but to smile bitterly.
But the bitter laugh was not long, and he was not disappointed.
Instead of being disappointed, he held the Panzerfaust 3 in his right hand and used his left hand to pull a grenade out of his waistband.
Ting! The safety clip of the grenade was thrown off by itself, and the safety pin immediately followed.
He threw it lightly toward the huge mouth of the Crocodile struggling in pain.
‘The moment I hear the explosion, I will move.’
At the same time, Kim Tae-hoon thought of a Sword coveting the blood of any target at any time, waiting for his command at this moment.
Bang!
He heard the grenade go off.
As soon as they were exposed to the fear, cars carrying the paralyzed artillerymen started running along the cleanly maintained road.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The pack of Wolf-crocodiles began to run like crazy to catch the cars fleeing before them.
Kya! Kya!
During the chase that began, some of the Wolf-crocodiles moved toward something they felt in the buildings near the road.
Some of the Wolf-crocodiles with keen senses did not miss out on the presence of those hiding in the building to buy time, including the claymore explosion.
The first thing that the Wolf-crocodiles that came into the building encountered was a huge fire that an Awakener blew out of his mouth.
Fufu!
The fire instantly engulfed the bodies of the two Wolf-crocodiles that entered the entrance carelessly.
Kyaaah!
Two Wolf-crocodiles were screaming at the fire that had stuck to their fur and the terrible pain that it produced. The pain was not over there.
“Throw!” Two water balloons flew in from the distance, which the Awakener who blew out
The balloon burst upon contact with the bodies of the Wolf-crocodiles writhing crazily in the fire, and it soaked the Wolf-crocodiles with what they were carrying inside.
Woosh!
The blazing flames made it clear that what was inside the balloons was not water. It was lighter oil!
The water-mixed lighter oil burned the skins of the Wolf-crocodiles.
Kyaa!
As the two Wolf-crocodiles who had become fireballs, were fussing at the entrance, a new Wolf-crocodile appeared.
It met the most terrible death.
Crunch!
A giant hammer that struck it like a lightning bolt shattered its head in a single stroke.
“Uh-cha!” The man who had killed the Wolf-crocodile in one blow was Bang Hyun-wook.
Except for Kim Tae-hoon, he had the highest rank of Energy in the Mac Guild, and he escaped the fear of the Flame-spewing Crocodile faster than anyone else. At the same time, the Energy of the struggle to overcome the fear forced him to energize his whole body.
He felt as if he were high on some drug. Above all, there was no hesitation in his eyes anymore.
“Come on! Come on! Let’s make a new movie here today! Come on!”
Bang Hyun-wook was not the only one not hesitating. In the building next to the road, a few Awakeners were ready to launch a street war against the Wolf-crocodiles, and they there was little hesitation among them.
Of course, there was a reason.
Tutu, tutu!
“Fire! Do not spare it!”
“Keep firing!”
They had a powerful weapon, a gun!
“We can eat if we kill them all! Kill another one!”
“Here is the one with orange eyes!”
They had received sweet permission to take all the things they killed.
Of course, the biggest reason was something else.
“Oh, my God!”
“What happened?”
“It’s down, it’s down!”
Kim Tae-hoon was here, and they were bound to win this battle.
Of course, it screamed. This scream was not to create fear, but a naive, painful one.
Kaaah…
By the time the scream began to turn into a fear full of anger, a grenade came into the giant snout, was caught in its throat, and then exploded.
Bang!
The explosion was not loud, so it was even more frightening. The intense explosion had only hovered in its throat.
The explosion took its voice for a while. It also took away its sense and reason. Its brain shook inside its skull, and all five senses were panicked for a moment by intense sound and shock. In such upheaval, a reason could not play a role.
At that moment, all it could do was to lower its posture and crouch down like an armadillo.
It was a filthy, miserable thing to do, but it was the only thing it could do instinctively.
Kim Tae-hoon hurt its back with the shell on what was called the wing bone, not the other place.
‘As I expected, it has the same reaction as a Wolf-crocodile.’
He tested the Wolf-crocodiles several times to see what instinctive action they took to survive when they were in crisis or seriously wounded.
He now knew that if a sudden attack was fatal, it would coil and crouch with its body as low as possible, like a snake. So, he hurt its back!
If it crouched, the wounds there would be open!
At the same time, he dissected a Wolf-crocodile and was able to gauge where its heart was.
The wound would be open, and beyond that, its heart would be beating. It would be pounding even more violently to live.
A Sword struck down in a lightning-like strike to stop that beat.
The soldier holding the receiver of the wired radio reported to Jang Sung-hoon with a bright smile. However, Jang did not smile brightly as soon as he heard the report. Instead, he told the wire carrier, “Get the situation under control, send a search party to check the surrounding monsters, and then count the number of the victims and notify the hospital.”
“Yes, sir!”
Jang Sung-hoon, who gave the order, recalled the rank on his uniform at that moment.
Corporal.
That was his rank. He was a low rank. And that rank has not changed much, even now.
Of course, the Mac Guild was not an army, so rank was useless and meaningless. But even so, it was certainly funny that he had virtually the right of command now.
‘So the lower-ranked ones look forward to war, and when war breaks out, if they survive, they can be generals, regardless of ranks.’
The humor that started it did not last long. His expression firmed up.
Whatever his rank was, it was all right. What was important was that he should now serve as a staff officer. It was time to worry about the settlement of victory, not the cheers for victory like a staff officer.
‘Boss is now a ridiculous monster, firing an anti-tank rocket while levitating, throwing grenades… He is an Apache helicopter!’
In fact, he thought this battle would be very difficult. Even though they had far more powerful firepower then they had when they had faced the Black Snake, the enemy was also leading hundreds of monsters, unlike the time of the Black Snake. Moreover, the presence of fear was very threatening.
No matter how strong the firepower was, everything would be neutralized when exposed to the fear. In addition, an army of ordinary people in front of monsters was like a candlelight in front of a wind.
‘Well, the easier the better.’
But the battle ended more easily than he thought. If he thinks about the reason, it was because of the full preparation, but the fundamental reason was Kim Tae-hoon.
Kim was willing to make the experience and lessons learned in the battle with the Black Snake his own.
‘He’s great.’
And he would be stronger again from today, because he would eat the monster stone of the Flame-spewing Crocodile and gain new power and strength. Furthermore, it was the way Kim Tae-hoon chose to survive. Therefore, Jang Sung-hoon was able to easily predict Kim’s next option.
‘Rather, Kim Hyun-seok?’
Kim Hyun-seok was lucky enough to find Kim Tae-hoon, the luck of the heaven; he was able to become a survivor, not a victim. At the price of a cup of ramen and some instant rice, he confessed everything he had seen and heard in Gwangmyeong City, and what he knew. There was a great deal of information he had given.
‘The factory that makes solar power plants is located in Gwangmyeong City!’
There was a factory in Gwangmyeong City, which produced solar power plants and was quite large.
It was a fact that the public did not know. If they were interested in it, you would not be the public. Of course, neither Kim nor Jang knew. None of the survivors knew that.
‘We must secure it.’
That’s why it was even more valuable information. The information was valuable enough to change the future of Mac Guild and survivors.
Without electricity, you could not use the technology of civilization. But if you steadily collected electricity through solar power plants, the quality of life and the probability of survival would increase significantly.
Therefore, Kim Tae-hoon would have made their next goal securing a solar power plant.
‘We have to secure it definitely… but there is a problem.’
The problem was that there was a green-grade monster in Gwangmyeong City now.
In fact, Jang would not go to Gwangmyeong City.
It would be a suicidal act to enter a monster den they knew nothing about, only that it was different from the monsters they had been dealing with.
But Kim Tae-hoon would go, as he knew that he could not avoid the danger of it coming, by closing his eyes.
‘I know what it feels like to have Superman as my boss.’
Jang shook his head, took out Daedongyeojido again, and looked at the area of Gwangmyeong City.
“Uh?”
He was frightened at that moment.
“Uh, where did it go?…”
