Chapter 104 – Operation: Bro, Why Are You There? (6)

"It's them!"

Lee Shin-Woo yelled as if he'd found the bully who had taken his beef patties.

"Those wicked beasts are our enemies!"

[The lord has given the order: annihilate them!]

[Follow the lord's command!]

Once the Knight Leader repeated Lee Shin-Woo's command, the surrounding undead responded by raising their weapons and advancing. Their spirits seemed great enough to topple even a mountain!

A few of them hadn’t been caught up in the mood, though, and timidly asked, [I feel the energy of a living at their front...]

"Is that really important right now!?" Lee Shin-Woo yelled.

[Kuheok!]

To an undead, their instinct to go after the living trumped everything else. Well, he supposed their deeply ingrained instincts were too strong, and they wouldn't meekly nod and obey his order when a living being was present!

Therefore, he needed to make them overcome their basic instincts.

"We're upholding the imperial decree! We’ll take care of the living being later!"

[I-I understand!]

Because of how intimidating Lee Shin-Woo was, the dumbstruck undead pushed aside any hostility towards Kratia and Jin, focusing instead on the Golem Chimeras.

Lee Shin-Woo sent a message, telling his two companions to seize this opportunity and get out. Despite his shock, Jin instinctively rushed away from the undead. While they were well within the undead mages’ range of attack, the mages were now focused entirely on the Golem Chimeras and let Jin and Kratia go unscathed.

[Un...dead...?]

[We...will...enemy...]

[Kuhik... Kill them, kill them!]

[You're...trying to kill us again...!?]

[I'm sick of...the Empire...and the Emperor...!]

[Kill them! Kill them all!]

The army of chimeras that had been chasing after Jin and Kratia like madmen shifted their attention to the undead troops led by Lee Shin-Woo. The magical stimuli had awakened the Golem Chimeras from their long slumber in the facility. While they resented Kratia for having a healthy living body while they did not, their hatred towards the knights and soldiers marching in the name of the Empire was considerable as well.

Jin and Kratia have done a good job gathering them.

Be it the chimera with human limbs attached to a regular Golem’s body, or a twisted human body with two cores inserted into its flesh, all of them had a similarly bizarre but great fighting spirit, which was truly an astonishing sight to behold. However, the undead troop's morale was no joke, either.

“How dare you murder the Mage Leader! Kill them with extreme prejudice!”

[As you command, my lord!]

[Stop these awful beasts from reaching the rest of the Empire! We have to take care of them ourselves before one of the twelve generals comes!]

[Kill themmmmmmmmmm!]

And thus thousands of level 5 Flesh Golems and Chimera Golems clashed with the undead force, which averaged at level 4 but amounted to six times their number!

"Hoo... Nice. Shall I try acting like the Undead Commander?"

In this world, numbers alone couldn’t overcome a qualitative difference in strength; thus, it was quite obvious that Kadinan's undead forces would lose. However, Lee Shin-Woo's level 7 intermediate Command and Instigate could make up for the difference! Now was the time for him to test just how much better his Command had gotten after absorbing the Undead Commander's bone and leveling up!

“They're just worms rebelling against the Empire! Are you going to lose without even fighting back!?”

[Kuheuk...Kuaaaaaaaaahk!]

[We are...knights of the Empire! The swords of the Empire!]

[The swords of the Empire! We are the swords that cleave evil![1]]

Instigate and Command synergized ridiculously well, with the former steering emotions a certain way and amplifying them, and the latter boosting the morale and combat abilities of his troops.

The combined effect of the two skills made so great a difference that even Lee Shin-Woo himself was dumbstruck; almost as if on cue, a message popped up before him.

[Instigate amplifies the effect of Command. All friendly forces' morale has been raised almost to its limit. All offensive and defensive capabilities of your forces increase by 20%! A part of your subordinates can now use Bone to Bone, staking their lives to inflict a critical injury upon their enemies.]

His voice reached all of his troops thanks to Instigate, and a faint red energy covered their bodies. Moreover, a random selection of his troops had gained a skill that would enable even level 4 Skeleton Knights to inflict a critical injury on level 5 enemies!

A skill? Is it a result of Command? If not, is it Instigate’s doing? And more importantly, Bone for Bone is kind of...

It wasn't flesh for bone, but bone for bone[2]. Lee Shin-Woo didn't really feel like that change was necessary, but he soon realized that it would be incredibly disrespectful to the skill if he kept thinking like that.

He heard the sound of bones cracking across the battlefield, as well as powerful strikes that caused the Chimeras to visibly falter and retreat.

[Proud knights of Kadinan! Give up your lives for the lord!]

[If I can help the lord even with this rotten body, I will do so as long as he asks it of me!]

[Should this body die again and again a hundred times over...! [3]]

Lee Shin-Woo was deeply moved as he saw the weak knights resolve and sacrifice themselves to damage the Chimeras. What an auspicious result!

[Knights of Kadinan, show them your loyalty towards the Empire! Mages of Kadinan!]

[Uoooooooh!]

[We'll burn all those wretched worms and prove our loyalty to the lord!]

[We Kadinans are one!]

Lee Shin-Woo enthusiastically raised his voice to stir the troops further, and the undead responded in kind; they raised their swords and wands, shouting alongside him. An outside observer might think that Lee Shin-Woo had been their commander for 30 years!

"Is that really Shin-Woo?"

"Yep."

"Why is Shin-Woo there?"

"I don't know. But I'm kind of curious as to who the 'Bro' would be in Plan B..."

"Huh!?"

Meanwhile, Jin and Kratia had successfully completed their mission and escaped from the battlefield. They watched as the undead troops led by Lee Shin-Woo and the Chimeras they'd gathered from the facility fiercely fought against each other. They struck up an amicable conversation about what was happening.

Upon reuniting, they had instinctively kept a watchful eye on the other—obviously without ill will—and even argued with each other, but facing the spectacle laid out for them by Lee Shin-Woo, they had no other choice but to put aside their differences.

"You might be right,” Kratia conceded. “I can't keep up with that. The genre's completely different."

"What did I tell you?"

They watched the battle between the two forces whilst resting and letting go of the overwhelming tension from gathering the mob for the past few hours.

The difference in strength due to the level disparity was clear, but Lee Shin-Woo's Command and Instigate were used to great effect. Actually, Lee Shin-Woo's troops seemed to be gaining the upper hand bit by bit! Perhaps his skill in commanding was even better than that of the Undead Commander, Count Nellopa, even though Nellopa had the Commander’s karma.

"What exactly have you guys been doing...?" Kratia asked.

"Didn’t you catch a glimpse while you were with us?"

Then again, this was Lee Shin-Woo, who had divided an army and caused them to self-destruct. Thinking back to what she had witnessed, it wasn't really that surprising for Lee Shin-Woo to commandeer an entire army against another.

"He seems a lot stronger too."

"Actually, his increase in strength is a lot more pronounced than these abilities he’s now using. He's been fusing skills..."

"Fusing skills... It must be tough traveling alongside a monster like that..."

"Don't call my partner a monster."

"Oh...?"

She'd thought that they'd completely reconciled by now, but it seemed like they were still at odds. Kratia pondered whether or not she should say something at this point, and her lips parted, but ultimately, she decided to change topics. There was something bothering her anyway.

"Are you sure none of the twelve generals would come?"

"Seems that way."

"The seniors I met before told me to keep a low profile in level 3 danger zones. That I shouldn't make a fuss, and if I did, a big shot would show up."

"I feel like it's been several hours since Shin-Woo started making a fuss."

"I see..."

From the very beginning, the reason Lee Shin-Woo had infiltrated the city and acted under the radar was to avoid an encounter with one of the twelve generals. He had used all the means available to him to tie up all the loose ends and move as quickly as possible; so long as the generals didn't have rockets on their feet, they wouldn't be able to catch Lee Shin-Woo.

Lee Shin-Woo was daring, but he wasn't an idiot. He'd formulated this plan after carefully assessing his own abilities.

"That's what’s scariest: his plan wasn't made out of pride."

"I'm a bit intimidated too."

Fortunately, things got a little better between Jin and Kratia again. They watched the free-for-all between the undead and the Golems like they were enjoying some war movie. Eventually, Kratia finished recovering her mana and stepped forward, intending on lending a hand.

"It seems like they're evenly-matched, so it should be fine if I sabotage both sides, right?"

"But you can't let them aggro on you."

"I know at least that much," Kratia responded nonchalantly and covertly drew upon her mana. Jin's goblin fire blazed immensely as he observed her.

Jin hadn't noticed before since they had only been charged with provoking the Chimeras in the testing facility, but now that he had a chance to watch her use magic, he realized how absurd the amount of mana she possessed was.

"You..."

"Huheut."

Kratia simply offered a subdued smile to the shocked Jin and got to work. She was going to look for an open area before casting her spell. The large-scale debuff would freeze the mana of all those within the area, as well as disrupt their teamwork.

Before that, however, she had to understand all the different mana in the area first, so it was an incredibly difficult task. Still, the effects would be covert and immediate, so there was no better spell to use in this situation...

"H-Huh...?"

Unfortunately, she couldn't continue with the spell. Kratia's usually pale face became even paler. Her complexion now resembled that of an ice statue.

"Did you fail?"

"No, that's not it." Kratia firmly denied, and demanded a clear answer from Jin. "You said the twelve generals weren't coming!"

"They're not. Shin-Woo made sure that they wouldn’t come."

"Then what the hell is that!?"

"I have no idea what you're talking...about... Huh...?"

Jin replied in frustration, but finally saw what she was talking about with his high agility. The moment he saw it, he checked what it was and was dumbstruck; then he messaged Lee Shin-Woo.

[Jin Taylor: Shin-Woo, is that part of your plan!?]

"Advance more aggressively... Huh? What do you mean if it's part of my plan? It's a perfect plan."

[Jin Taylor: No, it's become imperfect just now!]

"Huh...?"

Lee Shin-Woo had noticed their unwanted guest’s approach later than Kratia or Jin, not because his abilities were worse than theirs, but because his command over the undead was just that important. In any case, it was fortunate that he was able to figure out what they were talking about after listening to Jin's warning.

"T-The hell..."

There was something pushing through the dense, rotten trees beyond the mountain range at an incredible speed.

It was violently radiating a ridiculous amount of mana, and his nonexistent eardrums threatened to burst from its scream; the familiar monster barreling towards them was...

"Bro..."

Lee Shin-Woo couldn't help but acknowledge that ‘Operation - Bro, why are you there?’ had been completely derailed.

[Lv7 Treasure Eater]

"Steve, why are you there!?"

1. T/N: Could be a reference to Sanger Zonvolt from Super Robot Wars.

2. T/N: A Chinese saying adapted to Korean. Sacrifice your flesh to take their bone. Basically, take a superficial injury to inflict a severe injury. But Toy Car replaces the "flesh" part with bone because they're skeletons and they have no flesh. It really doesn't translate well as a skill name.

3. T/N: A reminder. The words of Jeong Mong-ju of the Goryeo dynasty. It describes one's steadfastness, loyalty, etc.