Chapter 144: Episode 144

After finishing the cleanup at the rebel garrison, we arrived back in Mutwara around ten in the morning. As soon as I got back to my quarters, I took a quick shower and, without even bothering to return to the Magic Tower, collapsed onto the mattress and fell asleep.

I basically passed out. I didn’t even dream; I slept as if I had truly lost consciousness.

’Knock, knock.’

I woke up to the sound of someone knocking on the door. I looked out the window. It was starting to get dark.

-You’re awake, Tower Master. The current time is 16:00.

’I’m not awake yet.’

No matter how much I slept, it wasn’t enough. As I pulled the blanket over my head, the knocking came again.

“Who is it?”

“It’s me. You’re not up yet, are you?”

“Ah, Hong Yeon. Come in.”

Not wanting to get up at all, I used <Wind Fort> to move the door latch. With a click, the lock was released, and Hong Yeon cautiously entered, her eyes darting around.

“…Excuse me.”

Still under the blanket, I just waved a hand.

“You see I’m sleeping well, right? I’m going back to sleep now.”

“I came because I knew you’d be like this. The command meeting is soon. You have to attend, too.”

“Ugh. I don’t want to. Can’t you just make an excuse that I’m not feeling well?”

“You want me to face those people in the meeting room alone? You’re the one who made me the commander, so you have to back me up!”

I rolled over and buried my face in the pillow.

“Don’t wanna.”

“Trying to act cute won’t work! And stop it, you’re giving me the creeps!”

“Creeps? That’s harsh. You hurt my feelings, so I’m going to sleep.”

People around me often tell me I get childish when I’m sleepy. But what can I do? I’m sleepy. I pulled the blanket up to the top of my head, taking a firm defensive stance.

Then, Hong Yeon strode over and ripped the blanket off me.

“A grown adult shouldn’t be throwing a tantrum, get up—!”

Hong Yeon stopped mid-sentence, her face turning crimson all the way to her ears.

“Ah, ahh, ahh…!”

Why is she reacting like that? I looked down at my body. I was shirtless, wearing only a pair of trunk-style underwear. It was a hot region, so I had been sleeping with just underwear on under the blanket.

“M-m-m-my apologies!”

The flustered girl spun to flee, but I shot out my arm. <Wind Fort>, which still had some duration left, slammed the door shut. ’BANG!’ Hong Yeon froze, startled.

“Where do you think you’re going after waking me up?”

I roughly swept my messy hair to the side and sat up. Hong Yeon turned back stiffly.

“I-I’m sorry!”

“Is sorry all you have to say? Huh?” My eyes were glazed over as I trudged toward her.

“D-d-don’t come any closer! I’m warning you!”

She instinctively moved to draw her sword, but unfortunately for her, it seemed she hadn’t brought it. That meant I had the upper hand. I confidently approached her. Well, it wasn’t for any grand reason; my playful side had just kicked in. It was a bit too late to stop now, so I decided to tease her.

“I-I-I told you not to come any closer!” she squeezed her eyes shut and screamed, her face a mask of terror. “You smell like sweaaaaat!”

Yusin was stunned into silence.

Ah. I suddenly snapped back to my senses. I looked down at my body again.

It was true. Sleeping with a blanket in the hot weather had left my whole body sticky with sweat. I glanced back and saw the mattress was soaked through, too.

“Hurry up and wash! You idiot!”

Caught off guard by the unexpected blow, Hong Yeon quickly fled outside, slamming the door shut with a loud BANG! A sudden wave of self-loathing washed over me. ’So she wasn’t embarrassed, she was horrified by the sweat?’

-You brought this on yourself, Tower Master. That was a bit much for a prank.

’Ugh, I’m not in my right mind when I’m sleepy.’

I trudged into the bathroom.

* * *

After finishing a cold shower and changing into clean clothes, I came back out. The cold water shocked me back to my senses, and I fully registered the crazy thing I’d done in my half-asleep state. I cautiously knocked on her door.

There was no response, but I was sure she was inside. I stood in front of the door and apologized profusely—that I was sorry, that I didn’t have any strange intentions, that I must have been out of my mind from sleepiness, and so on.

A moment later, the door opened with the creak of an old hinge, and Hong Yeon peeked her head out.

“I-I’m the one who should be sorry. I shouldn’t have just thrown back the covers like that.”

“…Let’s just go to the meeting room.”

We collected ourselves and immediately entered the command building.

“It’s the Commander!”

“The Hero of Tanzania!”

Thanks to their recent achievement—wiping out in a single stroke the rebels they hadn’t been able to handle for years—the way people looked at the newly appointed Commander Hong Yeon had completely changed.

Salutes and greetings came from every direction. She accepted each one without a hint of annoyance, the very picture of a young commander.

“You’ve got a knack for this,” I remarked, watching her ask the soldiers if they were having any trouble.

She turned with a prim expression and jabbed me in the side—a clear signal to stop teasing. But the endless greetings were an ordeal. Despite our early start, we arrived at the command center’s conference room just in the nick of time.

Everyone rose to their feet to greet Hong Yeon. She took her seat at the head of the table, and I sat beside her. Next to me was Scorpion, the highest-ranking rank-4 hunter, and on her other side sat General Augustine.

“Then let’s begin the meeting.”

The shy young woman who had nearly fled at the sight of my bare chest had vanished completely. She definitely had the makings of a leader. Was it innate charisma? Her unique, unapproachable aura certainly played a part. Moreover, her recent achievements had solidified her authority, and even the senior rank-4 hunters now treated her with deference. It seemed Scorpion had taken the time to speak with his juniors beforehand.

“Rank-4 Charlie, what’s the situation at Point B1?”

“The monsters have begun their advance, and it’s becoming increasingly difficult to hold the line.”

“We must defend that position at all costs. I’ll assign three more available rank 5s to you. General Augustine, can you send additional support to the mountain defense line?”

“I will look into it.”

“Thank you. As this is an urgent matter, could you compile a report detailing the support by 20:00 today? No, I’ll come to the military base myself to confirm.”

“You don’t have to go that far…”

Hong Yeon never overlooked a single detail. As she commanded the room, the tension grew palpable, and the other hunters responded in kind. Now it felt like a proper meeting.

“That should suffice for the defense route check. Rank-3 Kim Yusin.”

Hong Yeon’s red hair swayed as she turned to me.

“Yes, Commander.”

“Rank-3 Kim Yusin’s contribution to the recent expulsion of the rebels was immense. Now, I would like to proceed to the next stage. The Alliance’s directive is to capture the major city of Linda, and we wish to press our advantage by launching an offensive. Do you have a plan?”

“Of course.”

I stood, and all eyes focused on me.

“As you know, I haven’t been in Tanzania for long, so I’ve been studying. The taves have three major strengths. First, the sheer volume of monsters they produce, as if from a factory plant. Second, a flawless command structure centered on their legion commander. And third, their constant evolution in response to human weaponry. As for everything else…”

I offered a faint smile.

“They are riddled with weaknesses. The taves are inefficient, incomplete, and not at all difficult to defeat.”

Hearing the hunters murmur amongst themselves, I plugged a USB drive into the PC and projected a file onto the screen.

“This is a satellite image we received with cooperation from the U.S.”

’If you can call Ea’s hacking ‘cooperation,’ then I suppose it is.’

“Many people describe the entirety of Tanzania as being covered by the living field, but this is false. The northern region, where the legion’s offensive began, is completely covered by the living field, but as you move south into the central region, the amount of empty space becomes overwhelmingly larger.”

Everyone nodded as they examined the satellite image. The northern part of the photo was entirely purple, but farther down, green and brown became more prominent.

“The living field is a type of monster, and it absolutely requires ‘flesh.’ This means it cannot be spread indefinitely. In fact, you can see their legion commander is having more trouble securing flesh than in the beginning, forcing them to lay down the living field more efficiently as they move south. They aren’t expanding their territory chaotically but are creating ‘paths’ for the taves monsters to advance, connecting their territories. This is the very weakness we will exploit.”

I spoke as I moved a piece on the map.

“A small city like Linda isn’t the issue right now. We are going to retake Tanzania’s primary city, Dar es Salaam.”

Dar es Salaam was a port city on the Indian Ocean. With support from the Alliance, we would launch a landing operation to capture it. Then, from Dar es Salaam, we would push our forces straight west, severing the living field’s paths. It would be like drawing a truce line, blocking the very thoroughfares they depend on.

“Do you see? There are only these four paths connecting the northern and southern fronts.”

I drew an X over the four points connecting the central and southern regions.

“If we block just these four paths, the connection between the north and south will be completely severed.”

“…Hmm.”

“Once the living field is cut, not only will the taves be unable to cross, but they will also be cut off from the control of Selegma, the legion commander in the north. The entire southern front, their greatest strength, will fall into command chaos. At that moment, we will strike Iringa, the core of Selegma’s southern front, where over thirty plants have been discovered.”

I marked Iringa with an X.

“After that, we just need to clean up the isolated, disorganized monsters—who have lost their reinforcements and their legion commander’s control—with the firepower of our ground troops. With this, we can reclaim half of Tanzania’s territory.”

The room fell silent. Everyone exchanged uncertain glances, murmuring to one another. Just then, Zhang Wei raised his hand.

“Rank-3 Kim Yusin. Let’s say the last rebel operation was a stroke of luck. Isn’t this plan a little too fantastical?”

“Why do you think so?”

“It sounds nice to say we’re severing the connection between the north and south, but in reality, it’s a suicidal stunt, breaking through the heart of enemy territory in a straight line. Do you think the legion commander will just stand by and watch? They’ll send forces from the north to attack us.”

His tone was grating, but it was a decent point. I held up a finger.

“First, Selegma’s northern monsters cannot cross the severed living field. At best, all they can do is launch ranged attacks while attempting to reconnect it. The job of the forces defending the blockade is simple: hide and wait at the designated points, and when the monsters start laying down their vomit to reconnect their territory, we pour firepower onto that spot and eliminate only the living field.”

Without another word, I played a video. It showed monsters creating the living field. They would eat flesh, vomit it onto a spot, and spread the mucus. Only after repeating this process several times did the living field complete itself, slowly spreading to its surroundings before stopping.

“It takes quite a while, doesn’t it? We can just watch, and when they’ve crossed about halfway over the blockade line, we’ll unleash our firepower to destroy it.”

I held up a second finger.

“Second, the primary mission of the centurion commanders and company captains not under the legion commander’s direct control is regional defense. In other words, if we destroy the four points, those who have lost the commander’s control will do nothing more than defend their own sectors. Normally, if we were to attack a key area like Iringa, all nearby monsters would swarm to defend it, but without the legion commander’s orders, that won’t happen.”

Everyone started murmuring again.

“As Rank-4 Zhang Wei said, cutting through the middle of enemy territory might seem unrealistic. But if you flip that assumption on its head, doesn’t it look incredibly easy? Just think of it this way.”

I took a roll of correction tape from my pocket.

“If we just eliminate the living field in these four narrow passages…”

I ran a line of white correction tape over the four routes connecting the north and south. Then I circled the vast landmass below them.

“We get this entire, massive southern region. Is the operation still complicated? It’s a simple tactic. It’s a gamble, yes, but the reward is immense.”

I crossed my arms.

“The decision is yours.”

* * *

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