The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 95

#95. Guerrilla Warfare (1)

ToonToon zipped across the asphalt.

The schoolyard still showed sparse patches of snow and newly sprouting grass.

This was the athletic field of Buhung High School in Anyang, currently serving as a forward base for Doan.

Park Ji-soo, who was gathered with her warriors on one side of the field, grilling meat, spotted her and grinned.

“Oh, Sophia!”

“…….”

Sophia quickly steered ToonToon towards her.

The Doan player, wearing a goblin mask, dismounted ToonToon and bowed to Park Ji-soo.

Park Ji-soo handed Sophia the tumbler she was holding.

It was warm cocoa.

The two spoke in English.

“How was it? Those guys.”

“Their defenses weren’t strong. Almost strangely so.”

“……Really? See? Am I right?”

“Yeah. They were trying to lure us in deeper.”

“Puhahaha. Ah, right, right.”

Park Ji-soo laughed heartily, pulled Sophia along, and sat with her staff.

Park Ji-soo brought Sophia snacks and drinks.

She picked up a chocolate cookie and quietly muttered.

“But… something felt off about it.”

“What is it? What is it?”

“The enemy’s lord should know the importance of Bisan, but there were hardly any combat troops. They’re probably plotting something else. We need to be careful.”

Crunch, munch.

Sophia carefully chewed the chocolate cookie.

Park Ji-soo and her staff were focused on Sophia, looking like they wanted her to say more.

Sophia ate the chocolate cookie, glancing around at the staff.

“That’s it.”

But the answer was short.

Park Ji-soo looked around at her staff, then chuckled and patted Sophia’s back.

“Uh… okay. Got it. Right? That’s enough. Hey—! What’s with those eyes at Sophia, who came back after all that trouble?”

“……Sorry.”

Park Ji-soo also had military commanders.

And they were in charge of Doan’s core staff.

The order given to Sophia was simply to check the enemy’s defenses.

After all, the more important strongholds for Park Ji-soo were Anyang Station and Anyang Ilbeonga [a wealthy district in Anyang].

Anyang Station, Anyang Ilbeonga.

These were some of the most resource-rich areas within Anyang City.

Frankly, Park Ji-soo judged that even if she only took Anyang Station and ended the war, Mangyeong would self-destruct on its own.

And that thought was correct.

Anyang Station was an area that steadily supplied resources to the police forces even while they occupied it.

Currently, most of Mangyeong’s economic power also came from Anyang Ilbeonga.

Doan’s troops were rapidly gathering at Anyang Station.

Sophia was scheduled to be deployed there now.

Thump-!

At that moment, a burly man with a huge lumbering sword approached Park Ji-soo.

“My lord. Please send me to Bisan.”

“…….”

Park Ji-soo glanced at Sophia, then looked at the man.

Kim Jeong.

He was a commander under Park Ji-soo.

“Five thousand is enough. If you give me five thousand, I will offer Bisan to you, my lord.”

The staff was the first to react to his words.

“Five thousand……?”

“Five thousand won’t be enough.”

“That’s right. With five thousand…….”

Despite the staff’s concerns, Kim Jeong laughed heartily.

“Puhahaha-! Five thousand is enough. I’ll destroy everything in sight and bring back thousands as slaves. I promise.”

Kim Jeong’s voice was full of confidence.

Certainly, Kim Jeong had demonstrated tremendous combat power in the all-out war with Uiwang, playing an active role on the front lines.

With his combat power, he could easily crush Bisan’s defenses.

In fact, Park Ji-soo herself had to pour all her energy into capturing Anyang Station, so she didn’t have the *余裕 [yoyuu – Japanese for ‘leeway’ or ‘room to spare’]* to pay attention to Bisan.

Park Ji-soo pouted, but decided to trust him.

“Alright, fine. I’ll give you six thousand. Go and wreck everything. You can kill them all.”

“Ah, yes! My lord. Trust me!”

Thus, the main force for Bisan was composed of six thousand warriors led by Kim Jeong.

Now, all the remaining troops would be deployed to Anyang Station.

There, Mangyeong’s main force, led by Jin Jae-hee, was entrenched. If they clashed, it would be the biggest battleground.

Park Ji-soo ordered the adjutant beside her.

“Bisan, six thousand, commander is Kim Jeong. Prepare them.”

“Yes, I understand.”

The warrior who received the lord’s order quickly entered the school.

Soon, warriors with weapons emerged from the school in groups.

They were all wearing tattered clothes of different colors.

Their appearance could hardly be called an army; it would be more accurate to describe them as wandering people who had been driven from their long-time homes. Their cheeks were sunken, making them look like corpses.

But their eyes were different.

They had the eyes of murderers, as if they would kill someone without hesitation at any moment.

In this expedition to Mangyeong, Lord Park Ji-soo had promised them the introduction of slavery.

Slaves, slaves, slaves.

Perhaps it was the most dizzying yet sweetest word for humanity.

The United States abolished slavery with the Civil War, and Joseon [historical Korean kingdom] abolished the slave system through the Gabo Reform [a series of sweeping reforms in Korea in 1894].

But now, Park Ji-soo was reviving that slavery here.

Weren’t slaves who did the work that one had to do the most precious luxury in the post-apocalyptic world?

For them, this war was an expedition to obtain slaves.

The six thousand warriors who came out of the school building lined up in front of Kim Jeong.

Currently, Park Ji-soo had a total of 20,000 troops waiting inside Buhung High School. In a word, this place was a ‘warehouse of warriors.’

They had been eating and living inside the school for the past month.

The reason they could endure it was because of the slaves.

The expectation that they would be able to obtain slaves to serve their pleasures was their driving force.

* * *

Meanwhile, in Bisan, preparations for defense were in full swing.

Sion slightly opened the curtains and examined the enemy base across the Anyangcheon Stream [a major stream in the area].

The bastards were raising shields to prepare for ranged attacks, and the bridge was lined with corpses.

The ranged weapons were mostly bows, and there were no catapults or crossbows.

Besides that, the bastards were using slingshots.

They were using small branches that could be held in one hand with rubber bands attached as slingshots.

There was a difference in destructive power and range compared to orthodox ranged weapons such as bows and crossbows, but slingshots had their own advantages.

Fast rate of fire and portability.

In close combat, they could strategically gain an advantage over soldiers with swords.

But with just slingshots, they couldn’t compare to Mangyeong’s weapons.

“Tell the soldiers. Don’t neglect the construction of defensive positions and the installation of firewalls.”

“Yes, I understand.”

Sion left the master bedroom behind those words and headed towards the front door.

This place was originally a home, but now it was being used as a defensive position.

Many soldiers were already busy preparing for battle.

It wasn’t just this house.

The apartment stairs, floors, and rooftops.

Each apartment complex had solid countermeasures in place to defend against enemy attacks.

Building 103, core defense area.

From the 1st and 5th floors, guerrilla warfare area.

From the 6th to 7th floors, barricades, trap zones, and fire facilities.

The 8th floor was the first defense area of Building 103.

From the 9th to 20th floors, combat position area with all kinds of traps and preparations for guerrilla warfare.

From the 20th to 22nd floors, food supply warehouse and armory in preparation for prolonged siege warfare.

On the 23rd floor rooftop, bridges were installed to allow passage to other apartment rooftops.

It was the work of Mangyeong workers who had accumulated knowledge about bridges over the past two years.

The apartment complex, consisting of 36 buildings, was built as one castle.

“How’s the maintenance of the fire facilities?”

“Bring me some more vines here!”

“Put rebar in the spaces so they don’t become empty.”

“Twist the electric wires like ropes, that’ll make them sturdy.”

Sion continued to survey the battlefield.

The workers, no, the soldiers, were hurriedly installing barricades on each floor.

They gathered materials to make barricades, blocking entire stairwells, and twisted the city’s electric wires like ropes in between.

When the battle began, Doan’s warriors would have no choice but to climb the apartments, and Sion had prepared countermeasures for that.

There were only two ways to climb the floors here.

Take the elevator or climb the stairs.

But the stairs were thoroughly blocked by workers who had placed barricades, electric wires, traps, and weapons.

The bastards would have to defend against new allied attacks each time they climbed a floor.

Arriving on the 20th floor, Sion met a doctor checking medical beds in the living room and hallway.

The doctor approached Sion immediately.

“My lord, when will additional supplies of medicine and bandages be available?”

“Soon. Please wait a little longer.”

In addition, one doctor was assigned to each building.

Most of the supplies, medical care, meals, and maintenance were located on the 20th to 22nd floors.

Also, food and drinking water were all prepared for a month-long battle.

There was not enough space to store water, so most of it was stored in bathtubs or sinks.

The apartment is a solid fortress.

When the battle begins, it will be hell for the warriors.

100 soldiers in one building.

A total of 3,600 soldiers were deployed to defend this Pamian apartment complex.

Sion went up to the 23rd floor again.

There, the bridge was located.

A bridge connecting the rooftops of the apartments.

“Have you arrived, my lord?”

“Have you arrived, my lord!”

The captain of Building 103 greeted Sion.

He was the captain of the hundred soldiers guarding this place.

She bowed to Sion and led him to the bridge.

Frankly, from a modern point of view, it was a very crude bridge.

But after the apocalypse, this was Sion’s masterpiece.

The distance between the buildings was far, so it could not be built without modern construction equipment.

However, the ‘architect player’ hired by Bisan Madam solved this at once.

It was thanks to this architect player that it was possible to build the apartment complex into a castle.

The architect player next to the captain of Building 103 explained the bridge.

“We widely fixed the rebar on the rooftops of both buildings and connected them in between. These 50cm thick rebars were taken from nearby construction sites or buildings. Fortunately, Anyang is a large city, so we were able to mobilize various construction equipment. About 5 people can cross at a time at most.”

Architect player.

He had the ability to make all objects small.

And he could return them to their original size when he wanted.

His ability was of great help in building the bridge on the rooftop.

“Thank you for your hard work. It was a great help.”

“You’re welcome. Please be victorious, my lord.”

The width was about 50cm and it was connected with rebar, but underneath it was a cliff of 23 stories high.

Sion strode across the bridge.

Clunk, clunk!

It shook steadily each time he stepped on the bridge.

He went from Building 103 to Building 113, and comforted the soldiers there again.

Sion comforted everyone here from the position of the lord and returned to the core defense complex.