“Retreat! Retreat!”
The proud voices of the paladins who had mocked us were nowhere to be heard anymore.
Bullets with the [Penetration] option pierced through their silver armor like paper, and the paladins, startled by this unfamiliar weapon, fell back in a hurry, scrambling away in retreat.
Of course, our bullets were faster than their desperate escape.
Thanks to this, we managed to shoot down about half of the paladins who had been taunting us up front, and most of the rest met their end as well, caught in the blast of additional Hellfire missiles.
However, a priest with healing abilities was among them, so a few managed to escape despite our efforts.
“…Even so, they won’t get far.”
There was no way they could escape from this place, Yeouido.
The ‘Gate Core’ they had to protect would still be sitting right in the National Assembly building.
Thunk!
Thunk!
I shipped six Black Hawks in a row in front of Noryangjin Fish Market.
Thud, thud!
The sound of rhythmic military boots.
The special forces members moved efficiently, each heading to their designated positions.
They were all top-notch marksmen ready to fire at a moment’s notice, but…
That wasn’t the only thing.
“Everyone to your positions!”
A good number of them were also specialists capable of operating the helicopters.
Two pilots took their places in the cockpit of each helicopter, while six soldiers boarded the transport section.
In the helicopter I boarded, as usual, Lee Yong-su was in charge of piloting.
However, since we needed a technician to fire the equipped missiles, a weapons controller from the Joint Chiefs of Staff took the co-pilot’s seat.
I, along with Kim Sol and Bedivere, boarded the transport section with our enhanced rifles.
Meanwhile, Lancelot, my eldest sister, and the remaining soldiers stayed behind to hold back the enemies on the ground.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
The six Blackhawks ascended into the air.
Their majestic formation was a sight to behold.
I briefly caught a glimpse of the paladins sneering at the helicopters, but…
Boom!
Crash!
I immediately began their education.
The glass of a high-rise building in Yeouido shattered.
Below, a paladin clad in heavy armor was engulfed in flames.
Hellfire missiles containing both [Penetration] and [Explosion].
Each helicopter was loaded with sixteen Hellfire missiles.
“Hee… Heek!”
The paladins’ faces twisted in horror.
Hellfire falling from the sky.
It was more than enough to instill fear in them.
Thud-thud-thud-thud…
The helicopters, now fully airborne, started to gradually approach the National Assembly building, where the enemy’s stronghold was likely located.
“What’s… that?”
I spotted an unfamiliar sight.
I clearly remember seeing the National Assembly building completely collapsed.
But over that spot, the frame of a strange building was rising.
Clang!
Clang-!
The sound of hammering transmitted through the specter.
The sound was clear and pure enough to pierce through the helicopter’s propeller noise.
That’s when it happened.
Boom!
Bang!
The source of the noise was the second helicopter flying alongside mine.
The second Blackhawk’s body shook, spewing black smoke.
A long spear, glowing with a dazzling light, was lodged in the helicopter, and pitch-black flames began to flare up beside the engine room.
“…These bastards.”
The culprits were the paladins on the ground.
They were using their superhuman strength to hurl spears at the helicopters, striking them down.
The sacred energy emanating from the spears made it clear—these were truly ‘Holy Spears’.
– Down! Down!
The frantic voice of the pilot of the second helicopter came through the radio.
I also sent a signal through the radio.
“Eject!”
Unlike fighter jets, helicopters don’t have emergency ejection systems.
If hit, it essentially meant certain death.
But it was fine.
The maximum capacity of the Level 4 Subspace was a staggering 100 people, and all the soldiers participating in this operation had already been registered in the Subspace.
Clunk!
There was no hesitation.
The pilots and soldiers in the transport section leaped out of the helicopter.
As if in response to that faith, I saved every one of them flawlessly with .
Shuuuuuuuuk!
The pilotless helicopter started plummeting to the ground.
And then…
Boom!
Boooooom!
It vanished without a trace, consumed in a chain explosion of its loaded missiles.
Shwaaaaaaaak!
Bang!
The enemy’s spears kept flying, and our helicopters continued to crash.
Once I had secured all the falling soldiers in the Subspace,
“…Looks like it’s just us now.”
Only one helicopter remained in the sky—my helicopter, Number 1.
The only reason we were still intact was thanks to Kim Sol, who was in the transport section.
Chaaaang!
Chang!
After leveling up repeatedly over the past week.
Now, she was able to form a shield even some distance away from her body, and using her exceptional reaction time, she was alternating between the two doors of the transport section, deflecting the incoming spears with lightning speed.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
On the ground, Lancelot led the troops to suppress the enemy’s spear attacks,
Chaaaang!
and in the transport section, Kim Sol continued to knock away the spears.
Finally, we reached the enemy’s starting point.
The spot where the National Assembly building once stood.
At the top of the central stairs, a priest dressed in unusually extravagant robes was proclaiming something in a booming voice.
A blindingly white priest robe.
He was draped in a red shoulder cape and wore a hat embroidered with gold thread.
He shouted.
“Listen, people of the Earth dimension!”
Ziiii…
His voice boomed as if it could shake the earth.
His shoulder cape billowed toward the sky, and using that momentum, he started to declare their doctrine to us, sending his voice through the air.
“The gracious Goddess Emes has spoken! There was a prophecy in the beginning, concerning Earth and this land of Korea! Let the leaders of your people hear it. I have come to announce that you are the chosen people!”
The interdimensional fanatic suddenly started sweet-talking us, but…
“Your Earth is nothing more than livestock granted to Emes! As two-legged cattle, lick the sacred feet of Emes to prove your worth and behold the heaven that will be built on this land! These are the words of the Goddess Emes!”
He made my head throb with the typical nonsense of fanatics.
“What’s with these crazy bastards…?”
It was a different approach from the King of Knights who wanted to pickle Earthlings, or from the primitive tribe Tonatiuh who wanted to roast us alive.
It seemed there were a variety of reasons and justifications for invasion.
They were all equally fanatical.
What was utterly absurd to us was a clear and certain future to them, like rails laid out on a track.
“Target is within range!”
The voice of the weapons controller officer sitting in the co-pilot’s seat came through.
The strange building framework was now quite close.
The place where Emes dimension’s starting point was set, where the ‘Gate Core’ awaiting hatching was placed.
The place we needed to destroy.
I grabbed the radio and responded.
“Fire!”
Pshoooo!
Whoosh!
Sixteen Hellfire missiles shot out rapidly.
Boom!
Boom!
The deafening explosions surged like powerful waves, but…
“It’s not breaking…?”
The target remained intact.
The building showed no signs of damage.
Instead, it was slowly reinforcing itself with steel plates on its exterior.
Considering the battle had only been going on for less than an hour, the construction speed was terrifying.
“Ship.”
I even tried dropping a helicopter loaded with Hellfire missiles vertically onto it…
BOOM!
“…Damn it.”
The mysterious structure encasing the ‘Gate Core’ merely shuddered from the blast, but its imposing form was unchanged.
As if mocking me, the priest’s speech continued.
“Blasphemy! You children of Earth! Do you truly think you can destroy the holy temple blessed by the Goddess? Constructed with white wood imbued with the goddess’s grace and sacred iron, this framework shall become an ark for the slaves of Earth to bear upon their shoulders. These are the words of Emes!”
Each syllable pierced my ear, sharp and clear.
Just as my annoyance was slowly building…
“……?”
A massive tent set up beside it caught my eye.
It was an enormous tent about half the size of the original National Assembly building.
There were no paladins to be seen here.
Only laborers from the Emes dimension, tirelessly moving in and out of the construction site, caught my eye.
The framework rapidly taking shape.
The workers moving like ants below it.
It wasn’t hard to guess the purpose of this tent.
“…It’s a materials warehouse.”
Shwaaaaak!
Shwaak!
One by one, Holy Spears began to fly at us with deadly precision.
Through the radio, I relayed my plan to the cockpit.
“Let’s crash!”
Clunk!
Without a second’s delay, the cockpit door opened.
Using , I safely transported Lee Yong-su, the weapons controller officer, my younger sister, and Bedivere out of the helicopter…
Boom!
The pilotless helicopter plunged straight into the ground.
.
.
.
Vrrrrm.
We immediately emerged through the portal again.
Around forty special forces soldiers took the lead in practiced formation.
Our destination was the material warehouse in the Emes dimension.
“…Die!”
The laborers greeted us with raised swords.
Bang!
Bedivere swung his powerful arm to return their ‘greeting’, and…
Ratatata!
The special forces’ [Electric Shock] bullets pierced between the enemies’ eyebrows.
And so, when we finally reached the interior of their material warehouse,
“Wow…”
I couldn’t help but be amazed.
Piles upon piles of building materials emitted a soft glow.
Massive H-shaped steel beams, the kind you’d see at a construction site.
Blessed rebar stacked in bundles, displaying a panoramic array of colors.
And even mysterious cement that sparkled like sand on a beach.
“Wait…”
A sudden thought flashed through my mind.
“If this warehouse were gone…”
Their holy temple, which could become even more fortified than we could imagine, would be impossible to complete.
And beyond that…
“…We might even be able to destroy the ‘Gate Core’.”
I remembered the words of the fanatical priest.
He had called it a temple blessed by the goddess.
Judging by the way everything here radiated light, it was clear that this ‘goddess’ had preemptively bestowed her blessings on it.
But…
“The goddess doesn’t really know much, does she?”
This wasn’t some totem religion—who blesses steel beams, of all things?
So, I planned to give them a proper lesson.
Not only to those fanatics but to the Goddess Emes herself.
What real grace is.
“Pax, put this material warehouse into the Subspace.”
It would be the second warehouse to enter the Subspace, after the logistics warehouse.
Pax responded.
[Target designated. Do you wish to store it?]
‘Yes.’
[Storage initiating.]
“Ugh!”
A wave of nausea hit me, and Bedivere, my younger sister, and the soldiers wielding rifles protected me with all their strength.
And finally, when I regained my senses,
that familiar emptiness after storage filled my vision.
Beyond the now-vanished material warehouse, the empty horizon of the Han River came into view.
I moved quickly.
“It’s done! Let’s go!”
I deployed the helicopter immediately, and Lee Yong-su and my younger sister scrambled aboard.
There was no time to pick up Bedivere and the weapons controller officer.
Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
Perhaps because the entire warehouse had disappeared.
I could sense the enemy’s confusion.
Shwaaaaaak!
As if proving this, the spears they threw were notably increasing.
Chaaaang!
Chang!
There wasn’t even time to breathe.
Kim Sol frantically deflected the incoming spears,
and the propellers revved to their maximum.
Higher, climbing higher into the sky.
“Maximum altitude reached!”
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Without even a moment to reach for the radio, Lee Yong-su shouted at the top of his lungs…
And I murmured softly.
‘Ship.’
Like offering a small prayer.
And then…
Silence.
Beneath the helicopter, an enormous H-shaped steel beam appeared out of nowhere.
A softly glowing white H-beam, floating like a cloud.
Shuuuu…
That massive object slowly began to fall.
After all, ‘true’ blessings traditionally come down from heaven.
The weight of that grace was beyond comprehension.
Moreover…
“Ship.”
It was beyond measure.
Thuuuuuuuuung!
A sound that felt like it could split your head open.
That sound continued endlessly.
Thuuuuung!
Thuuuuuung!
Crash!
H-beams pouring down like rain, or perhaps like rays of light.
The blessed weight of them crushed the steel framework of the Emes temple as if it were a mere toy.
And then…
It wasn’t hard to anticipate the next result.
Crack!
A shockingly light sound.
Under the collapsed temple framework, the ‘Gate Core’ yolk spread out like blood.
“…!”
I couldn’t help but frown.
The yolk of life.
Inside that sticky golden substance, a tangled mess of tiny blood vessels intertwined with the organs of various unknown creatures, all jumbled together in an incomprehensible mass.
It was a truly grotesque sight.
Enough to make one feel nauseated.
And then…
All that remained was administrative procedure.
[Registration Number 0471: In the bidding competition conducted in the ‘Seoul’ region, the residents of the Earth dimension have emerged victorious.]
[Victory rewards of 5,000 Mana Stones will be distributed proportionally based on contribution.]
[A dimensional account will be issued to all 100 participants.]
[The business rights for the ‘Retel’ dimension previously held by the Emes dimension will be transferred to and held by the Seoul representative.]
Those stiff, bureaucratic Chamber of Commerce officials.
They announced our victory.”
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