The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 100

#100. Anyang Station: All-Out War (1)

Bisan-dong, the Dong-an Assault Team’s base.

Assault Team Leader Kim Jung was sweating profusely as he frantically packed his bag.

Across the bridge, the apartment complex was ablaze, and the defeated Dong-an warriors were fleeing back to their base.

A warrior with an arrow sticking out of his forearm stumbled towards Kim Jung, panting.

He knelt down and cried out.

“Leader…! They’re all… dead! What… what are we supposed to do? Huh? Orders…!”

At the desperate warrior’s question, Kim Jung yelled, trying to sound authoritative, but failing miserably.

“I don’t know!!! You son of a… figure it out yourself!”

“Le, Leader…?”

Kim Jung hurriedly stuffed the last of his belongings into his bag.

Warriors were screaming everywhere, but Kim Jung was deaf to their cries.

The commander, who should have been the most composed, was the most panicked.

He was trying to escape. Not from Kang Si-on of Man-gyeong, but from Park Ji-soo of Dong-an.

‘I’m going to be killed…! I have to run!’

Park Ji-soo had given him six thousand troops to occupy Bisan, but those troops had been brutally massacred by Man-gyeong.

Therefore, if he returned to Dong-an, he would surely be executed.

Kim Jung planned to surrender to Kang Si-on.

He wanted to save his own skin by surrendering.

If he played his cards right, he might even get a position in Man-gyeong.

After all, he was a key commander in Dong-an.

“Leader…! No!”

“No!”

“Get out of my way! You useless bastards!”

Thwack-!

Kim Jung shoved aside his subordinates who were trying to stop him and ran towards the burning apartment complex.

The first Dong-an assault team was utterly defeated.

Despite having overwhelming numbers and superior weaponry, they were thoroughly routed.

Kim Jung had been completely outmaneuvered by Kang Si-on from beginning to end, and in the end, he couldn’t win.

That’s why Kim Jung chose to surrender.

“Sur-render!!!”

Kim Jung ran through the burning apartment complex.

He raised both hands in the air and shouted to the Man-gyeong soldiers on the battlefield.

“I sur-render!”

“Sur-render!”

“Who is the commander here?!”

“I unconditionally surrender-!”

Tap… tap….

Sparks rained down around him.

In the center of the chaos, Kim Jung faced the Man-gyeong soldiers surrounding him.

All of them were haggard, wearing gas masks, and panting, their weapons at the ready.

Kim Jung’s eyes darted around wildly.

He looked around, trying to find the commander, and then shouted desperately.

“Who is the commander…? I am the leader of Dong-an. Ah, you know!!! …I will tell you all the information about Dong-an…! I! I am a key executive! So please, just spare my life…!”

Thud-!

Finally, he knelt down.

The soldiers pointed their weapons at him.

Kim Jung, terrified by the blades, trembled.

A silence fell over the scene.

Kim Jung looked around, finding it strange that the soldiers weren’t saying anything.

Then, someone walked forward, supported by a young boy.

“….”

Kim Jung, still trembling, looked at the man.

The man’s eyes behind the gas mask were sharp and intense.

A man with emotionless eyes, like a dead person.

His face and fire suit were covered in blood.

He was the lord of Man-gyeong, Kang Si-on.

The way the surrounding warriors treated him and the palpable tension in the air told Kim Jung everything he needed to know.

Based on this, Kim Jung immediately sensed that he was the commander.

Slowly. Slowly.

Kim Jung crawled towards Si-on like a turtle on the scorching floor.

And he carefully grasped Si-on’s shoes with both hands.

It was a sign of complete submission.

“I will be very helpful. Really… very helpful… I was Park Ji-soo’s… the core force of the Dong-an lord…”

Kim Jung forced a smile and slowly looked up at Si-on.

But Si-on’s face remained impassive.

He slowly lowered his upper body and met Kim Jung’s pleading eyes.

Swish.

Si-on, who had taken off his gas mask, was sweating heavily.

Si-on took a deep breath and swept back his sweat-soaked bangs.

Then, he put his hand on the top of Kim Jung’s head and shook it slightly.

Si-on’s low, gravelly voice echoed in the air.

“You’re saying… you’ll be helpful to me?”

A cold and dark voice.

Kim Jung trembled as he answered.

“Ye… ye… ye… ye….”

It’s terrifying.

That was the first feeling Kim Jung had when he looked into Si-on’s eyes.

How could a person exude such a terrifying aura?

The man in front of him was far more intimidating than Park Ji-soo.

“…Tell me. How can you be of help?”

“…I, the core information of Dong-an….”

“War information? Players…? Or what kind of information?”

“War information too… th, that’s right… various things….”

“That you guys are advancing from two directions?”

At Kang Si-on’s words, Kim Jung froze.

Si-on’s words continued.

“Do you have information about Dong-an’s players, the Doll Catcher, the Mounted Warrior, the Frog, the Invisible, and other key player forces? Pretending to take over Bisan, bypassing it and advancing towards Myeonghak Station? Or, after taking over Ilbeonga [an area in Anyang], trying to drag me to the negotiating table to prevent the war from prolonging? Can you tell me the total number of Dong-an warriors or key weapon information? Your culture and the atrocities you’ve committed against civilians so far, Park Ji-soo’s decrees, and city information? Or, are you going to tell me about the new mineral? Ah-. So tell me. How can you be of any help to me? What information can you give me besides what I already know?”

“….”

“Since this war started, the outcome has already been decided. You guys have been constantly harassing the workers of Man-gyeong for the past few months, and we were angry. Now it’s your turn to pay the price.”

“….”

“…Anything else you want to say?”

“….”

“…I guess not.”

Si-on already knew all the information about Dong-an.

About half of it was reliable intelligence gathered by Ha Yoon-ha, and the other half was Si-on’s own deductions.

But even those deductions had now been confirmed as true.

He could tell from Kim Jung’s reaction.

Si-on didn’t need to keep the Dong-an commander alive.

Besides, to appease the anger of the soldiers surrounding him, he had to execute the enemy commander.

Si-on straightened his knees and stood up.

He put on his gas mask again and turned away coldly.

“…Cut off his head.”

At the lord’s command, a soldier holding a sharp Chinese dao [a type of single-edged Chinese sword] slowly approached Kim Jung.

“….”

Kim Jung couldn’t say or do anything while lying prostrate, and the soldier carried out the order without hesitation.

He couldn’t sever the head with one blow, so he struck several times.

Swoosh-. Thwack! Thwack! Thwack! Crack!

* * *

Meanwhile, at Anyang Station, both sides were preparing for urban warfare.

There were no decent defensive positions near Anyang Station, and even if they fortified the nearby apartment complex, Park Ji-soo had no reason to attack it.

Besides, from Dong-an’s point of view, fortifying defensive positions was quite an undertaking just to capture one place, Bisan-dong.

In this situation, Man-gyeong was celebrating victory after victory in the Bisan-dong Pamian complex, and the news was also conveyed to the Dong-an defense force at Anyang Station.

“That son of a bitch. He was so confident.”

The lord of Dong-an, Park Ji-soo, muttered to herself and summoned a subordinate.

The subordinate immediately approached her and bowed his head.

“Send a new player to Bisan-dong. Additionally, send 10,000 troops. Immediately, by tonight.”

“Yes.”

Flippity-flappity.

A warrior who received the lord’s order ran out.

Anyang Station is a complex shopping mall connected to the station, and it is a major station in Anyang where Mugunghwa [a class of train in Korea] trains and Line 1 to Seoul pass.

Man-gyeong and Dong-an.

Since both forces had their roots in ‘Anyang City,’ Kang Si-on and Park Ji-soo both wanted to control Anyang Station.

Anyang Station is the heart of Anyang City.

It is a symbol.

Immediately after the Korean War, when Anyang was still a small rural town, Anyang developed its commercial district around Anyang Station and grew into a large city.

Anyang Ilbeonga, along with Beomgye Station, Pyeongchon Rodeo Street, and Pyeongchon Academy Street, is also home to the best commercial district.

A place where commercial districts are concentrated is like an oasis in the desert for survivors living in the apocalypse.

This is because the remnants of the existing modern society remain the most.

The lords turned commercial districts into cities and collected taxes or built defensive positions around them.

Anyang Ilbeonga, along with Bisan-dong and the Pamian apartment complex, was Si-on’s core defense area.

This was a place where Si-on had been in charge and wandering around from the beginning, and the rooftops of the buildings were already full of bridges they had installed.

“…What, what is that?”

The lord of Dong-an, Park Ji-soo, could only stare blankly at the bridges connecting the buildings.

There were no defensive positions on the 6-lane road, but the situation was different inside Ilbeonga.

Man-gyeong soldiers were moving busily on the bridges connecting the buildings of Ilbeonga.

Their orderly movements were truly impressive.

Someone approached the lord of Dong-an, who had been watching for a while.

It was a Dong-an scout who had been observing Man-gyeong’s movements.

“Most of the first floors are blocked with barricades and obstacles. Siege warfare seems inevitable to subdue the defensive forces hiding in the buildings.”

“…It’s going as expected. Well, it doesn’t matter.”

The lord turned around and looked at ‘it.’

It was a siege weapon ordered by Park Ji-soo to destroy the enemy’s ‘building fortress.’

She smiled at its magnificent appearance.

The symbol of Dong-an was painted on ‘it,’ which was painted in red.

The Dong-an warriors standing on it were each holding weapons.

The lord gestured again and opened her mouth.

“Hae-tae [a mythical fire-eating dog in Korean folklore].”

A man who had been sitting still stood up at her call.

It was a man wearing a black mask and no shoes.

Although the winter cold had not subsided much, he was wearing short sleeves and shorts.

Moreover, the exposed muscles and the double-edged saw, nearly a meter long, hanging on his shoulder were enough to make even the warriors of the same Dong-an tremble with fear.

He was truly a ‘warrior’ in every sense of the word.

“….”

Hae-tae’s height was close to 2 meters [approximately 6’6″].

He never spoke.

He showed no emotion.

He was a killing machine that only moved on the orders of Lord Park Ji-soo.

Park Ji-soo believed that there was no ‘rival’ for Hae-tae.

Even when the war with Uiwang was in full swing, Hae-tae’s power was truly terrifying.

Park Ji-soo ordered.

“Go and give them a taste.”

“….”

Hae-tae walked.

He walked barefoot on the cracked asphalt.

As he moved, the Dong-an warriors hesitated and gave way.

His steps towards the battlefield were unwavering.

“Now… how are you going to come out? Si-on. How are you going to struggle? Struggle as hard as you can. You’re mine anyway.”

Hae-tae’s deployment meant that Dong-an was unleashing its most powerful weapon.

Man-gyeong would have to respond in kind.

Otherwise, they would all die.

Park Ji-soo wanted to find out what Man-gyeong’s ‘most powerful weapon’ was.

She was curious to know just how strong he would be.

“Advance team. Commence the advance.”

At the lord’s command, a warrior holding a trumpet blew the instrument vigorously.

Booooooo-.

With the sound of the trumpet, the warriors began to advance.

The main force of Dong-an advanced towards the main force of Man-gyeong.

(Continued in the next episode)