The Returner

D +3.

“Dam*it! Fire! I said, fire!” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

Colonel Lee Gong-Yeong in charge of the Han River defence line’s upper section was roaring out loudly while glaring at the distant horde of incoming monsters.

“Those dumb*ss leaders of mine...!” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

The demonic beasts continued to rush towards the Han River like a massive pack of crazed wild dogs. Sure, the human side was also utilising a massive number of combatants to create the defensive line and they were currently pouring out all the firepower currently available in desperation, but all they could do for now was to barely maintain this line. Anything more would be asking for too much.

“If they have brains, they wouldn’t have set up a defence line here in the first place!” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

If they were fighting against human enemies then setting up the defence line by the river would have proven to be effective. No matter how many enemy soldiers showed up, one still had to take on the risk of crossing a river, and if you use ships to cross it, then it didn’t take a genius to figure out that the vessels would instantly become sitting ducks.

Of course, humans were capable of coming up with clever strategies of landing behind the enemy lines or unleashing paratroopers, but the monsters simply marched on straight ahead.

At a glance, it might seem like the defenders had found an ideal place to hunker down and defend, but the reality turned out to be anything but.

“They are going underwater! Sir, a portion of the enemies have gone underwater!”

“Son of a b*tch.” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

Lee Gong-Yeong slammed his commander’s baton down.

“Airstrikes are incoming! We only need to hold on for a little while longer!” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

“Bullets don’t work, so how can we hold on, sir?!”

“Then go die or something, you as*hole!” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

The adjutant’s pained protest was met with an angry yell from Lee Gong-Yeong. The latter then spat out a groan with a hollow face.

‘Dam*it.’ (Lee Gong-Yeong)

A river was an obstacle that humans would have to find with a way to traverse safely, but to these demonic beasts, it didn’t present any problems whatsoever.

If those beasts had some functioning instincts then they would’ve tried to swim across, giving the humans a chance to shoot them down somehow, but there was nothing to be done about the monsters walking across on the bottom of the river.

Humanity’s weapons were not strong enough to pierce through the deep river water and damage the monsters sticking to the riverbed. Meaning, all that volume of water acted like a protective barrier shielding the monsters.

Even if humans could attack the monsters across the river, the moment they slipped underwater, all the previous methods of attack would instantly become useless.

“F*ck!” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

Lee Gong-Yeong stared at the several layers of barricades placed near the riverbanks and quivered in anger.

He felt his rage boil up while staring at the KSF agents standing behind those barricades.

“Bloody hell. I never guessed that one day I’d feel sorry for those ability user b*stards.” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

The monsters that couldn’t be stopped were trying to rise up from below the water’s surface and that left humans with very little options. The best thing they could do for now was to deploy the ability users around the riverbanks and stop the demonic beasts from invading the land.

And since it’d not be possible for them to fight while dodging countless bullets and shells raining down from behind, regular firearms and cannons wouldn’t be able to attack the monsters making landfall, save for a handful of sniper rifles.

Meaning, the monsters had to be stopped purely with the strength of the ability users.

“It’ll be hell.” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

Lee Gong-Yeong clenched his teeth.

If only he could, he’d dearly love to capture all the brainless higher-ups who came up this stupid operation and shove them in the frontlines. It would’ve been so much better if the plan was flexible enough to be changed on the whim, but unfortunately, it was too late to do anything now.

The moment humans give up on the defence line and retreat, the demonic beast clogging up the river on the other side would march forward even faster than before.

If the Korean army gave up on all the carefully-positioned barricades and this stronghold, then regrouped on a field somewhere to face off against the monsters again, then they would experience an unprecedented defeat never before seen in history.

They were caught in a rock and a hard place. All Lee Gong-Yeong could do for now was to trust the ability users and pour out all the available firepower on the other side of the river.

Still, there was this one thing he simply had to acknowledge, at the very least.

“What about our supplies?” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

“We have enough, sir! We are getting a constant supply of ammunition as we speak.”

“...F*ck me. Not sure whether or not I can call that as one helluva impressive ability.” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

It was a mystery to him that they still had a steady supply of ammunition even after firing so much at the enemies. The amount of empty cartridges generated during one day was already enough to create a mountain, yet even more bullets were being wheeled in.

‘They sure are working their butts off with producing the supplies, yet why did they have to go and set up our stronghold in a location like this one?!’ (Lee Gong-Yeong)

The Republic of Korea had entered the state of full-on war. All available resources were devoted in manufacturing ammunition and enough provisions to feed a million-plus soldiers fighting in the frontlines. The evacuated civilians also needed to be fed as well, so basically all existing things had been converted to manufacturing provisions.

‘Didn’t I hear that we’re going to get reinforcements from Japan and Southeast Asia, too?’ (Lee Gong-Yeong)

Even if he didn’t want to, he had to acknowledge that man’s diplomatic and political wherewithal.

Who would’ve guessed that Yun Yeong-Min turned out to be the most ideal president to have during a wartime situation? Lee Gong-Yeong certainly thought of him as nothing more than an empty sabre-rattler, that’s all. An extreme populist, at that. But the current Yun Yeong-Min was cutting a fine figure of an astute leader, making one wonder if there would ever be another president as accomplished as him even into the future.

“Besides his lack of basic military common sense, that is.” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

Lee Gong-Yeong loudly yelled out in anger while looking at the demonic beasts continuously plunging into the river water.

“F*ck! Keep firing! Don’t stop hitting them! And tell them to hurry up with installing the anti-tank mines where the enemies aren’t crossing the river yet!” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

“Yes, sir!”

“And where’s my airstrikes?! F*ck, did the air force b*stards trade their planes for candies or something?! How long are we supposed to wait here?! And call the b*stards at the artillery squad and tell them hurry the hell up with the bombardment, now!” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

As soon as his words came to an end, flames of explosions blanketed the other side of the river accompanied by the deafening roars.

155mm cannons continued to spit flames out. Shells fired from a distance that eyes could not see exploded grandly on the other side, then exploded again.

“...F*ck, pobangbu.” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

If only the budget invested in those cannons were redirected to the foot soldiers instead; Korea’s army would’ve been seen as the world’s top elite force.

But it was an undeniable fact that cannons provided more help than individual firearms in this situation. Even if the distribution of budget didn’t account for an eventuality of this nature.

The riverbank on the other side had been utterly devastated, but Lee Gong-Yeong’s expression remained gloomy.

“It’s about time they emerge from water.” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

A chill ran down his spine while staring at the river’s surface writhing ominously like that. Humans just didn’t have any method to keep out these accursed demonic beasts inside the water.

Sure, they could use missiles, but their explosive power would be greatly reduced in the water. So, rather than wasting valuable firepower that way, it’d be more profitable so to speak to simply hit the monsters when they came out of the water, instead. Even Lee Gong-Yeong agreed with that.

Some stupid admiral wanted to shoot torpedoes and sent miniature submarines to Han river, but all of them ended up as a bunch of scrap metal and got buried on the riverbed.

Lee Gong-Yeong had to wonder what madness drove that dumb*ss admiral to deploy submarines to a river. Especially one teeming with countless demonic beasts, too.

“Dam*it!” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

The Japanese Self Defense Force’s navy was lending assistance, but even then, the plan to have their warships travel upriver and use their artillery went out the window pretty early on. Han river had turned into a river of death a long time ago, that’s why. Not even a bird could fly over the water’s surface; the moment it tries to land, monsters would erupt out from beneath the water and pounce on the poor bird like a pack of crazed dogs.

“F*ck...” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

Finally the monsters began rising up on the riverbanks. The ability users loudly roared out and began their barrage of attacks. Ether shots of all colours and shapes emitted rays of light as pretty and spectacular as fireworks during festivals. 𝗳𝘳𝒆𝘦𝑤𝐞𝚋𝗻𝚘𝘷𝘦𝙡.𝑐𝐨𝘮

‘Bloody hell.’ (Lee Gong-Yeong)

Lee Gong-Yeong pulled his steel helmet down and clenched his fists tightly.

Once he got going with his complaints, he won’t be able to stop himself. His mouth might constantly spit out cusses and angry yells, but he knew that if they lost this place, then the rest of Korea would also be lost as well.

Everyone defending this frontline should know that fact all too well, too.

The soldiers holding and firing their firearms until the barrels turned red-hot should all be feeling the same thing right now. If the guns they used couldn’t hurt those d*mnable creatures, then they might as well use their teeth to rip and bite the enemies to secure this location!

That was their grim determination filling up the chests of everyone standing in this defence line.

“Keep firing!” (Lee Gong-Yeong)

Lee Gong-Yeong’s yell was buried amongst the roars of the cannons firing.

*

D +5.

“Jesus, there’s so many.” (Chang-Sik)

Choi Chang-Sik was evacuated to the city of Daejeon and immediately got dispatched to work in a factory.

His job was to carry the delivered raw metal scraps inside the factory.

Majority of the manufacturing process took place in Gwangyang and Pohang, but some posited that at least one manufacturing facility had to be located nearer the battlefield, and as a result, a blast furnace had been urgently brought up from Pohang to be installed here in Daejeon.

Now normally, an operation like that would’ve taken several months but due to the reason of this being a wartime, the operation took only four days to complete.

As it was installed too hastily, there was an issue with operational safety but no one dared to mention that publicly. Even if the furnace exploded and killed all the workers, everyone silently agreed that it’d still be better than insufficient supplies causing the frontline to be lost.

“Urgh!”

Cranes and forklifts continued to bring in steel ingots without a single break. Most of the work was being taken care of by the machinery. So, the work people like Choi Chang-Sik had to do was...

“...Isn’t this, like, a scrap yard?” (Chang-Sik)

Chang-Sik stared at all the piled-up scrap metal resembling large hills and spat out a groan.

“Is it even okay to make bullets with stuff like these?” (Chang-Sik)

He asked aloud, and his question was answered by a man in his forties named Jo Gwang-Su, someone he became friends with not to long ago.

“Even if it’s not, what can we do?” (Jo Gwang-Su)

“But, this whole thing involves people’s lives, so shouldn’t we get proper metal somehow...?” (Chang-Sik)

“Where will you get those ‘proper’ metal ores, though?” (Jo Gwang-Su)

“...Huh?” (Cnag-Sik)

“If the war was taking place only in our country, then sure, we could’ve imported all the steel we need, but you know that all international trade has stopped, don’t you?” (Jo Gwang-Su)

“...Well, yeah.” (Chang-Sik)

“We don’t even have enough electricity, and I heard that oil reserves should run out pretty soon, too. So where would we go and procure more iron ores? What our country can pump out won’t even be enough. I mean, things are operating on nothing but grass already, and we’re really riding our luck, aren’t we.” (Jo Gwang-Su)

“You’re right.” (Chang-Sik)

Chang-Sik couldn’t help but realise once more that the situation was far bleaker than he imagined.

“Still, things are slightly better since they are recovering the spent shells from the frontlines.” (Jo Gwang-Su)

“...Don’t you find that funny?” (Chang-Sik)

“How so?” (Jo Gwang-Su)

“Those older bros who have been to the army told me this. The higher-ups would lose their sh*t over some spent cartridges during training, which are things that you wouldn’t have enough time to care about during the war itself. They said that if a single cartridge goes missing, the whole base is flipped on its head until it’s been found.” (Chang-Sik)

“Well, sure. That happens.” (Jo Gwang-Su)

“I wondered who’d be stupid enough to care about things like that during wartime situations, but now that we’re in war and the spent cartridges are still being collected anyway. I just found that funny, you see.” (Chang-Sik)

“I guess you are an easily amused type, aren’t you? Stop with your nonsense and carry those things along already. We gotta get back to work.” (Jo Gwang-Su)

“Alright.” (Chang-Sik)

Choi Chang-Sik loaded a lot of scrap metal on the A-frame, and lifted them on his back. He carried the load to the waiting truck nearby – that was their job. Using forklifts and cranes would’ve finished this job in an instant, but the machinery was all being used on ferrying around the steel without a break at the moment.

‘Man, they sure are pressing out a lot of bullets.’ (Chang-Sik)

So much steel was entering the factory without a rest, and Chang-Sik found it amazing that all that raw material had been processed so quickly.

“How are the things going over at the frontline?” (Chang-Sik)

“As far as I know, it’s apparently hell over there.” (Jo Gwang-Su)

“...F*ck.” (Chang-Sik)

“You’re still young so stop cussing, will ya?” (Jo Gwang-Su)

Uncle Gwang-Su lightly kicked Chang-Sik in the butt.

“Just when is that bro coming back?” (Chang-Sik)

“That bro? Who are you talking about?” (Jo Gwang-Su)

“...There’s this guy I know. He’s the guy who will instantly sweep away all those stinking monsters as soon as he comes back.” (Chang-Sik)

“Are you dreaming, son? Would we be doing this if something like that is even possible? Even America couldn’t hold on and had to give up on their eastern seaboard, and now I hear that they had to abandon their mid-east, too.” (Jo Gwang-Su)

“Not even the Americans can defeat that bro.” (Chang-Sik)

“Sure, sure. I’ll be happy too if that’s true. If only Superman or Sun Wukong was real, we wouldn’t be getting ransacked like this. Bloody hell, we are somehow holding on, but not too long from now, we’ll face shortages of food, too... I don’t know what’s going to happen anymore.” (Jo Gwang-Su)

Choi Chang-Sik dumped the scrap metal on his back onto the waiting truck.

‘Please hurry up, Ji-Hyuk hyung...’ (Chang-Sik)

< 458. So, you want to use us as meat shields? -3 > Fin.