The starting point is Arizona, where the Lysium mine is located.
This time again, Lee Yong-soo’s driving skills shone through.
“It’s much better.”
He was exhausted from crossing the Pacific Ocean.
Perhaps it was because of the experience of pushing myself to the limit that this flight felt unusually easy.
Even though monsters occasionally flew in, we were able to cross the American continent without much difficulty using Lee Yong-soo’s driving skills and my shipping skills.
It took about three hours to get to Chicago.
After successfully landing on a wide open space, we loaded up our new vehicle and headed to downtown Chicago.
Buildings lined up like a forest, and a beautiful river surrounding the city.
Unlike the desolate West, it was a landscape that allowed us to see another side of America…
“This is really…”
The traces of destruction were that evident.
Cars parked everywhere, utility poles that looked like they could fall over at any moment, and corpses strewn everywhere.
It was so different from the current Korea, which is protected by Pax FC.
That’s what America was showing us.
This is exactly what destruction is like.
And…
That wasn’t all.
“Kaaaaaaaaaah!”
“Keiyeek!”
It started with a fierce cry.
At the same time,
Woot woot woot!
Monsters began pouring out like crazy from the alley across the street.
“Kuwaaaaaaaah!”
A multitude of monsters, including goblins, orcs, gnolls, and drakes.
What was surprising was that they moved in unison.
“…What the heck?”
Monsters that came from different dimensions.
They were enemies of man, but at the same time, they were enemies of each other.
So, the current situation cannot help but be very disconcerting.
Lee Yong-soo raised additional questions.
“Were your eyes originally like that…?”
The monsters’ eyes were bloodshot red.
That wasn’t all.
Droopy limbs and languid movements.
It was a zombie, hands down.
Of course…
Doo doo doo doo!
Toodoodoodoo!
“Keeeeeek!”
“Kkieeeek!”
Even so, they could not be our opponent.
A rifle with increased durability up to level 4.
Because it uses level 1 bullets, the problem of the rifle exploding is completely solved.
It was the perfect weapon for catching zombies.
Like that…
The road was cleared in an instant.
Crunch.
Yong-soo Lee and I put down our rifles together.
Right after the destruction began, I remembered that day when the National Intelligence Service had been firing their guns at the Wyverns… But what was more urgent was the monsters in front of me.
“Why do they move in groups? And it’s in such a strange state…?”
Lee Yong-soo’s question.
It was something I could only shrug my shoulders at.
I could understand that there were a lot of monsters.
Unlike Korea, the United States lost multiple bids.
Invasion would have occurred from countless dimensions.
“Now we should check it out little by little. The Awakened people of Chicago would know something.”
The destination was set.
A bustling area in front of the lake, also known as the ‘Loop.’
Because that was the base of the Chicago forces that Yoo Seong-cheol had told us about.
.
.
.
Boooooooo.
Crossing the city center, we finally reached the ‘Loop.’
The first thing that caught my eye was the giant speakers hanging from the Chicago Hilton Hotel.
-Notice from the Northern Liberation Army. Survivors, please come to the Hilton Hotel here. There is drinking water and food. I’m notifying you again. Survivors…
The North called itself the Liberation Army.
It wasn’t exactly wrong, though, since we were fighting an invasion from another dimension.
“…At this point, it really feels like a movie.”
It was Lee Yong-soo’s impression.
The epitome of the ‘American’ apocalypse.
But despite their grand ambitions, the Chicago Awakeners were in crisis.
Like a scene from any apocalypse movie.
“Kaaaaaaah!”
“Keeeeeek!”
Boom! Boom!
Hundreds of monsters swarm the hotel entrance.
They were knocking on the steel-clad hotel door, without exception.
Although they were a liberation army that advocated survival, the monsters that came looking for them wanted nothing more or less than slaughter.
Meanwhile, for us…
“It seems like you’re not looking for survivors… but rather a savior.”
They just looked pitiful as they were cornered.
I couldn’t help it.
Crunch!
I have no choice but to take up arms again.
It was another chance to experience a plausible ‘American’ apocalypse.
We were greeted by our local representative from Chicago, Kate.
“I see. In Korea…”
Operations Headquarters Chief Yoo Seong-cheol, who was called in through the portal, confirmed our identities to her.
Korea’s hotline has been cut off.
She couldn’t hide her surprise at the fact that support had arrived from so far away.
Above all…
“Thank you. I thought it was really over now…”
They were in a very tight spot.
It’s been a week since they were unable to kill the monsters and just held on.
I couldn’t help but ask.
“What the hell are those monsters? Like zombies…”
“Ah, that’s…”
Phew.
Kate let out a shallow sigh and continued speaking.
“Strictly speaking, they’re not zombies. They’re just high on drugs.”
“Is it medicine?”
“It’s the Southern Commander’s ability. It’s the ability to create a potion with an unidentified ingredient, and it’s more addictive than you can imagine. It even has a brainwashing effect on monsters… so even the monsters move according to its tastes.”
The Southern Army’s advance was faster than expected, including capturing the dwarf factory.
Behind this was the unique ability of the Southern Commander.
Kate continued talking.
“The problem is that they are now spraying it in gaseous form. They put it in strange cannons and shoot it towards our camp…”
“If it’s a cannon…”
The dwarves’ cannon.
It couldn’t have meant anything else.
The Liberation Army was unaware of the dwarves’ existence.
However, I was keenly aware of the dangers of weapons produced in ‘factories.’
It was quite surprising that it could be fired without gunpowder, but who would have thought that it was being used for the purpose of spraying drugs?
And…
The consequences were before us.
-Ahh!
-Eek, heehee!
Knock knock.
Along with the sound of struggling, a scream of some kind was heard.
Kate let out a sigh as if she was about to turn off.
The screaming protagonists were Chicago’s Awakened, drug addicts fired by the Confederates.
-Ugh!
Boom! Boom!
They beat on the walls, cried, and tried to shake off the effects of the drug they were addicted to.
That painful voice sounded painful to me too.
“…Please wait a moment.”
Unable to bear it any longer, I called Pax FC for help.
Woof woof!
Dozens of Paxman healers emerged through the portal.
They spread out in unison into the rooms where the addicts were staying.
-Ugh…
-Huh…
A much more relaxed reaction.
However, it only relieved the pain and was not enough to completely shake off the drug addiction.
A feeling of helplessness set in, but there was no time to delay any longer.
Now it’s time to get to the main point.
When the situation was more or less settled, Yoo Seong-cheol asked Kate.
“I want to meet Glenn. I plan to support the North.”
The US federal government has long since collapsed.
In some states, state governments filled that role, but in many cases, as in Chicago, local representatives formed the center of power.
Glenn Ford.
He was an Awakened being with priestly abilities and the leader of the liberation army that united the forces of the major northern cities.
A person you must meet in order to unite with the North.
But Kate revealed something unexpected.
“He is missing.”
“…Yes?”
And the story goes back to a few days ago.
“He personally went down south with key personnel. To find the ‘factory.’ He said that even if there was no way to get them addicted to drugs, if he could just stop the factory they had taken over, he could change the situation…”
“So, did he go missing in the South?”
“That’s not it. I received a radio message that they had found the factory and were returning, and I also heard that they had passed Cincinnati without any problems. However, when they arrived here in Chicago…”
Glenn Ford, who successfully completed the operation.
But what caught him was not the South, but something else.
“There’s a great forest formed in Indiana. It’s one of the occupied areas formed by consolidation, and while flying over it, it just…”
The conclusion was simple.
It is said that he crashed into an extra-dimensional forest that appeared in the occupied territory.
“Wait a minute, if it’s Indiana…”
When Yoo Seong-cheol, who is well-versed in American geography, asked, Kate answered.
“That’s right. It’s right next to Chicago. The Great Forest is less than 50 miles away.”
“Have you searched?”
This time I asked.
Of course, I had to meet him, and he knew the location of the dwarf factory.
Kate nodded to my question.
“Of course I tried. But… It’s a land that’s practically impossible to search. Airplanes are shot down as soon as they fly, and the search parties that entered by land were just wandering around and barely managed to return alive. The returned Awakened ones testified that the forest was constantly changing. They couldn’t find their way, even with a compass or anything…”
It was truly a vast forest surrounded by the unknown.
The leader of the Northern Army who fell there, Priest.
Although the horse was reported missing, Kate no longer seemed certain of his survival.
“…Maybe I’m just holding on to vain hopes.”
She bowed her head deeply and slowly shook her shoulders.
“But when Lord Glenn was here, there was hope. Even though it was limited, the priest’s ability could purify the aura of the drug. But now…”
That was when.
-Ahhhhh!
-Hehehe!
A scream came out sharply from the next room.
It was becoming clear that the healers’ treatment was only a stopgap measure.
And…
The sound broke Kate’s last pillar.
“There have been twenty-five bids that the US has lost so far. Of those, the gates have closed in less than five. But the Southern Commander…”
She calmly assesses the enemy’s strength.
To me, that voice sounded like another scream.
“He’s a real monster who uses the monsters that pour out from there like his own limbs.”
These were not the words of a city leader.
It was even more unfortunate for us, who had come to help them, to hear such words, but her despair was so heavy that we could not bear to reprimand her.
And…
My job was to make clear the hope they had yet to discover.
“Priest, you are alive.”
“Yes?”
Kate suddenly raised her head.
Yoo Seong-cheol and Lee Yong-soo also looked at me as if wondering what on earth I was talking about.
Priest, when I heard that Glenn had crashed into the Great Forest.
I immediately used the Chamber of Commerce’s messaging system in the subspace.
“I looked it up.”
A messaging system that can be applied over fairly large distances.
He was free to specify in detail who would receive the message, and asked Pax to check if there was anyone in the forest who could receive the message based on Glenn’s name and gender.
And the result is…
[Message sending is possible.] It was a report of the priest’s survival.
“Come here for a moment.”
The rest was simple.
Leading Kate and her group to the hotel window.
Now the dark night was gone, and the early morning sun was slowly rising.
Indeed, Kate was right when she said it wasn’t that far away.
Because under the bright sky that seemed to be mixed with gray, the great forest of Indiana that had swallowed the priest was visible at a glance.
And…
“It really was…”
“Then, if you just follow that…”
“…What, what is that?”
Yong-soo Lee and Seong-cheol Yoo nodded their heads as if they now understood.
Kate, on the other hand, looked dumbfounded.
It was worth it.
A power she could never have imagined.
Above the dense forest, out of nowhere, a giant red arrow appeared that I had pointed at Glenn.
A hologram that stands out clearly.
That was going to be our milestone.
First the priest, and then the factories in the south.
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