The Regressor Only Protects Me [EN]: Chapter 190

190. 3 Days (1)

Mangyeong.

Despite the valiant efforts of Choi Hyun-ji, Jung Hyun-soo, and Ha Yoon-ha, the Hunters relentlessly pushed into the city.

Though Mangyeong’s Players fought admirably, they couldn’t defend the entire city.

The streets began to be littered with the corpses of Ogres, and Mangyeong faced a dire crisis.

Due to prolonged warfare and occupation, most of Mangyeong’s supply lines were cut off, forcing them to desperately hold on with their remaining stockpiled food.

Now, Mangyeong’s remaining territory was only 15%, including the Anyang Sports Complex, where the monster was hidden.

A nurse’s voice echoed loudly in the middle of the stadium.

“Make way! Make way!”

Drrrrrrr-!

A gurney carrying Emperor Ha Yoon-ha sped into the stadium.

She had suffered a gunshot wound to her left thigh and was being rushed to the doctor.

The nurse attending to the Emperor looked at the numerous patients lining the hallway and shouted.

“Make way! Please!”

The hallway was already filled with countless neglected patients.

The medical staff was doing their best, but they were severely understaffed.

The gurney carrying Ha Yoon-ha bypassed the waiting patients and headed straight for the doctor.

The doctor, covered in blood, greeted Ha Yoon-ha.

“A gunshot wound?”

“Yes, doctor.”

The bullet that pierced her thigh had hit a vein, causing blood to gush out like a fountain.

The doctor had treated many Players during the League [a competition or event involving individuals with special abilities].

Players generally had a much higher self-healing ability than ordinary people.

Therefore, most gunshot wounds could be completely healed within a week.

However, Ha Yoon-ha was the Emperor of Mangyeong.

The sooner she healed, the sooner the command structure would be reactivated.

Moreover, Players could recover faster with surgery.

The doctor said to Ha Yoon-ha, who was gasping for breath.

“We’ll proceed with surgery immediately, Your Majesty. Please bear with the pain.”

There was no anesthesia for the surgery.

The flesh had to be cut open, the bullet fragments removed one by one with tweezers, and then stitched up with clean thread.

The Emperor of Mangyeong was no exception.

The doctor was about to begin the surgery when Ha Yoon-ha, lying on the gurney, grabbed his wrist.

Firmly!

The doctor was startled and looked back at the Emperor.

The Emperor, though breathing heavily, said.

“I’m… fine… because I’m a Player. I’ll… heal quickly.”

“Players aren’t invincible, Your Majesty!”

“Please… take care of the other patients… Please.”

Ha Yoon-ha struggled to sit up on the edge of the gurney.

The doctor and nurses tried to stop her, but Ha Yoon-ha stubbornly got up.

“Your Majesty…!”

“Your Majesty…! You need to receive treatment!”

Ha Yoon-ha ignored their pleas, opened the glass door, and stepped into the hallway.

She gazed at the patients in the hallway, waiting endlessly for the doctor.

Blood was flowing down her leg, but seeing the other patients, she felt pity and compassion.

She limped through the patients.

This place was originally a hallway with a food court, souvenir shop, and restrooms, but now it was filled with various military rations and weapons.

Ha Yoon-ha looked at them and smiled.

“Haha.”

A meaningless laugh.

Without anyone’s support, she walked into the stadium.

In fact, no one gathered here was free enough to attend to the Emperor.

As she entered the stadium, a clear view opened up. There, the monster was still stuffing food into its maw.

There were five Ogres dedicated to feeding the monster.

Moreover, the monster was getting stronger and bigger every day.

Food was severely lacking.

It wasn’t that Kang Si-on and Ha Yoon-ha’s calculations were wrong.

The monster’s food consumption increased at a constant rate as its size grew, which was consistent with the formula derived from long observation.

So, in theory, no matter how big the monster got, there shouldn’t have been a food shortage.

Ha Yoon-ha had prepared enough food to last at least two or three months.

But there were two problems.

First, the Hunters’ offensive was far beyond expectations, cutting off the supply lines to the stadium.

Second, the amount of food the monster consumed had increased exponentially since the war began.

At this rate, Mangyeong wouldn’t last long.

The remaining time until Mangyeong’s destruction, as reported to Ha Yoon-ha by her aide, was only three days.

Only three days.

In fact, it was already four days past the day the hero was supposed to return.

Ha Yoon-ha despaired at her own powerlessness.

With the monster as a backdrop, she sat down.

Her legs gave way from the overwhelming sorrow.

But she got up again and walked into the stadium.

The League is merciless.

The weak will perish without mercy, and the strong will gain everything.

Someone once said that humans are creatures of adaptation.

But no one in this stadium, in this desperate situation, could adapt.

Ha Yoon-ha cautiously called out to Kang Si-on.

“Hero…”

But the only answers were the groans of soldiers and the monster’s roars.

* * *

Lee Joo-yeon, Lee Se-beom’s sister and Kang Si-on’s teammate in the first round of the League, walked into the gun-filled downtown.

Her hometown, now returned to, was utterly devastated.

The streets were piled so high with corpses that there was no room to step.

Lee Joo-yeon scanned the corpses, searching for her brother’s face.

She figured that if Lee Se-beom was alive, he would be by Kang Si-on’s side.

Lee Se-beom had told Lee Joo-yeon.

Never trust Kang Si-on.

He lives for his own gain, always and everywhere, and if our siblings become useless, he will abandon us without hesitation, he said.

Lee Joo-yeon had felt this a lot while watching Kang Si-on’s younger brother, Kang Joon-ho.

The two were very similar.

Kang Joon-ho had been with them for a long time, but the image of Kang Si-on she had felt inside the shopping mall in the first round was as clear as yesterday.

But Lee Joo-yeon wanted to believe in the very small emotion that remained in her heart.

That people have affection, that people’s hearts are kind. That circumstances only change people.

She still believed it.

Then a gunshot rang out.

Bang-! Bang-!

Guns blazed. Hunters fired at a man in the street.

The man ran through the blood-stained streets, eventually collapsing with a bullet in his back.

Despite being shot, the man did not give up his will to live.

He groaned and crawled on his stomach.

The Hunters, not wanting to waste any more bullets, approached the subdued man and finished him off by stabbing him in the neck.

Then he made eye contact with Lee Joo-yeon.

To the Hunters, Lee Joo-yeon looked like a crazy woman.

Her whole body was stained with blood, and her emotionless eyes were only staring straight ahead as she walked.

As another Hunter raised his gun, one stopped him.

“We need to save bullets. It’s the President’s special order.”

“…Understood.”

The Hunter pulled out a military dagger from his combat vest and approached Lee Joo-yeon.

Although Lee Joo-yeon didn’t intend it, the two were approaching each other.

Then, the sky flashed with thunder and lightning, and someone flew into the opposite sky.

That someone crashed into a building, making a tremendous noise.

The events happening in the sky were battles between Players that had been going on for over a week.

As the Hunter got closer to Lee Joo-yeon, he gripped the military dagger in reverse and tried to strike down at once.

But Lee Joo-yeon twisted her body, dodging the Hunter’s sword.

“?!”

The Hunter, preparing for her to counterattack immediately, pulled out the pistol he was wearing on his waist.

But Lee Joo-yeon did not counterattack.

She just kept walking forward.

The Hunter pulled the pistol slide and shouted, aiming at her.

“Stop! If you don’t want to die.”

At that voice, Lee Joo-yeon slowly turned her head to look at him.

Her eyes were truly dead.

Eyes with no movement, as if from a dead corpse.

Clearly, the Hunter was aiming a pistol, but it was the Hunter who was trembling with fear.

Lee Joo-yeon said.

“Just go. I want to avoid unnecessary killings.”

The Hunter couldn’t help but frown at her words.

Lee Joo-yeon’s words meant that she could kill everyone here at any time if she wanted to.

No one could hear those words and not feel offended.

The Hunter smiled mockingly, slightly pulling the trigger.

“Bullshit.”

Bang-!

The Hunter pulled the trigger without hesitation, and the bullet flew towards the back of Lee Joo-yeon’s head.

At the same time, the Hunter who pulled the trigger, and the other Hunters who watched it.

Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud-!

One by one, green arrows were embedded in their temples, and they fell to the side.

The bullet only grazed Lee Joo-yeon’s hair and flew into the air.

Lee Joo-yeon glanced at the fallen Hunter once and turned her head.

She was now moving her powerless steps again to find Kang Si-on.

* * *

The soldier’s tent in Mangyeong is small.

It was so cramped that two adults could barely lie side by side.

Moreover, Lee Ho-seung couldn’t sleep properly because of his roommate’s, a senior soldier, neurotic snoring.

Also, the soldiers’ tents were lined up here and there, and at night, the sound of stifled panting could be heard from all over.

In fact, the senior soldier and Lee Ho-seung used the same tent as the same sex, but most of the roommates were assigned regardless of gender.

Lee Ho-seung thought to himself that people’s sexual desires seem to explode even more when they are driven to extreme situations.

Lee Ho-seung pulled the sleeping bag up to his head and barely managed to fall asleep.

His body, exhausted from nursing and guarding all day, soon fell asleep.

But what woke Lee Ho-seung, who had barely fallen asleep, was the gong of the 079 unit commander.

Gong- gong- gong- gong-!

Anyone who has heard the sound of a gong knows that it is a very annoying sound.

Lee Ho-seung cursed, saying X, X, because it was so noisy, but the unit commander’s gong did not stop.

The 079 unit commander shouted.

“Emergency sortie order from the hero! Everyone wake up and assemble within 10 minutes!”

Lee Ho-seung was startled by the emergency sortie order and took off the sleeping bag he had been covering.

Lee Ho-seung groped around, found his glasses, and shook his senior awake.

“Senior. Senior! It’s an emergency sortie order! Please wake up quickly!”

“Uh… what…? Ah…”

The senior, annoyed, barely got up and put on the clothes he had taken off.

Lee Ho-seung changed faster than that and came out of the tent.

It was early dawn.

The sun was precariously hanging over the horizon.

The 079 unit’s comrades began to come out of their tents one by one and assemble.

The unit commander, who was playing the gong, was standing in the front row, fidgeting.

Soon, Kang Si-on appeared in front of the unit.

He was saying something to the 079 unit commander, and the 079 unit commander was constantly bowing his head and listening.

Lee Ho-seung was standing with his unit members, and after some time, his senior came up, zipping up his pants, and asked.

“Ugh- shit. My hands are all covered in pee. All covered. What’s going on?”

“I don’t know yet.”

The 079 unit commander received something from Kang Si-on and immediately began to correct the unit members’ alignment attitude.

A soldier brought a wooden box and put it down in front, and Kang Si-on stood on the box.

Kang Si-on looked down at all of the 079 unit and said.

“I heard that Mangyeong is in considerable danger. So I need your strength.”

Kang Si-on was just standing on a small wooden box, but his gestures and words captivated all the unit members gathered here.

Kang Si-on acted normally, but he felt dignified.

Lee Ho-seung thought as he listened to his words.

‘Since Jae-hee was scolded by someone like that, it’s no wonder she was so dejected.’

Lee Ho-seung looked at Kang Si-on and understood on his own.

Kang Si-on continued in a soft voice.

Of course, the content of the mission was by no means soft.

“Within three days, our main force must break through the enemy’s defenses and enter Mangyeong. Before that, you must infiltrate the enemy’s travel route.”

That meant that the 079 unit was scheduled to be sent into the heart of the enemy.

Originally, Choi Myung-joon’s elite unit would be perfect for this mission, but there was no elite unit force in the main Mangyeong unit right now.

Kang Si-on urgently ordered the unit commanders to select support units to infiltrate.

The 079 unit commander was quite ambitious for success and volunteered for this operation as if to show off.

The unit members, who did not know this fact, could not help but be dissatisfied.

It was clear that it was a very dangerous operation.

“I wish you good luck.”

Kang Si-on left only those words and came down from the wooden box.

Lee Ho-seung kept his eyes on him until he disappeared.

(Continued in the next episode)