'……There are a lot of them.'
Dozens of red dots were closing in around the embassy residence.
'Trained movements.'
[Skill 'Indomitable Mind' is now active.]
[Suppressing unnecessary agitation and enforcing cold logic.]
Honestly, I couldn't afford to be optimistic. The weapons Ludwig had provided were merely stopgap measures. We were smack in the heart of enemy territory, thoroughly outnumbered. The enemy kept swarming in, but we had nowhere to run and no supplies.
'At this rate, I might actually die.'
Of course, I had always crossed the line of fire at the very front, but this was different in nature.
All the victories I had scraped together until now were the result of thoroughly rigging the board with cheat skills. I had merely manipulated the enemy from a position of consistent advantage, backed by maphack, modern knowledge, and the know-how of a veteran gamer.
But not this time. Even back at the banquet hall, if my instincts had been a split second slower, it would have been over.
Of course, I alone might have slipped away somehow using [Bullet Time]. But what I had to protect wasn't just my own life.
If those red dots stormed into the building, it wouldn't end with me alone. Minister Josef, and the subordinates who followed me trusting my lead—they would all be slaughtered.
'I'm anxious. How long has it been since I felt this?'
My body began to tremble faintly at the horrific mental images. Right now, I was feeling fear.
Ding—
[Skill 'Indomitable Mind' is now active.]
[Forcefully suppressing unnecessary emotional agitation.]
Who knew how many times it was by now—the automatic activation of [Indomitable Mind].
"…Hoo."
The effect was unmistakable. My head went ice-cold. My trembling hands stilled, and my pounding heartbeat subsided.
Taking deep breaths, I analyzed the enemy movements on the [Minimap].
They were approaching from three directions. The main force at the front gate was spearheaded by rioters meant to be used as shields. And then there was the mobile unit scaling the fence, plus the assassination squad trying to infiltrate through the sewers.
"Colonel! Large hostile force approaching!"
Hanna's voice crackled over the radio. Her [Mana Detection] was backing up my [Minimap] information with pinpoint accuracy.
"Roger. Erika, take two guards and seal off the rear basement entrance. Major Seraphina, stand by at the first-floor barricade. If they close within fifty meters, light them up without hesitation."
"Yes, Colonel."
Click, clack.
The lobby chandelier went dark, and the embassy interior was swallowed by pitch-black darkness. Only the flames burning outside the windows flickered, dimly illuminating the interior.
I firmly shouldered my submachine gun in the darkness.
At that moment.
Boom—! Craaash—!
The front gate iron fence buckled with an explosion. Through the thick smoke, armed rioters began pouring in.
"All units, open fire!"
Ratatatatat—!
At my command, the first floor of the embassy residence was engulfed in muzzle flashes.
"Gwaaah!"
"Th-the Imperial bastards are shooting!"
The vanguard collapsed, spurting blood. They seemed flustered, apparently not expecting live ammunition to be sprayed without warning right from the start.
'Status Analysis.'
[Target: League-affiliated Infiltrator A]
[Emotion: Damn, they were already prepared?]
[Target: League-affiliated Infiltrator B]
[Emotion: We took losses, but it's fine. The core is the infiltration squad on the flank!]
"You stupid bastards. Did you think you could fool my eyes?"
I glanced at the [Minimap] in the corner of my vision. The movements of those trying to exploit blind spots were clearly visible.
"Hanna! Two o'clock, on the fence! Three climbing up!"
"Confirmed!"
Barely a moment after her voice came through the radio—
Bang—! Bang—!
The three red dots poking their heads over the fence vanished like a lie—plop, plop.
"Right-side breach team silenced!"
"Good work. Keep picking them off."
As the mobile unit was cut down, the situation at the front began to change as well.
Once the rioters who had charged in blindly became meat shields, the infiltrators began reorganizing their ranks and returning fire with pistols and shotguns.
Bang! Ching!
Bullets embedded themselves in the lobby's marble columns, sending shards flying. With their overwhelming numbers, the density of the barrage itself was on another level entirely.
"Colonel! There are too many of them! The defensive line is buckling!"
Seraphina cried out, crouched behind cover.
The personnel defending the first-floor lobby were me, Seraphina, and three embassy guards—that was all. With dozens storming in at once, we could barely raise our heads.
"I'll use mana! Please grant permission!"
Seraphina's silver hair fluttered. Killing intent swirled in her blue eyes.
"Permission granted. But no overpowering. Disperse your mana in fragment form and shred everything within a thirty-meter radius to the front!"
"Understood!"
Seraphina thrust her rifle forward.
Vrrrrm—
An ominous vibrating sound. Chunks of condensed mana gathered at the muzzle from her fingertips.
Kwa-kwa-kwang—!
With an ear-splitting tearing sound, dozens of blue-white mana fragments swept across the front lawn. A merciless area-of-effect strike like an oversized shotgun going off.
"Gwaaaah!"
"My leg, my leg!"
Enemies caught in the mana fragments were torn apart like rags. The front lawn instantly became a quagmire of blood and flesh.
"Kuk…"
Groaning, Seraphina slumped against the wall. Because her [Mana Reflux] hadn't fully healed yet, the abrupt mana discharge was burdening her mana circuits.
'Status Analysis.'
[Name: Seraphina von Reinhardt]
[Status: Temporary Mana Deficiency, Dizziness]
Fortunately, it wasn't fatal. She was at a level where she would recover quickly if I cleared it up with [Hand of Tuning] later.
Meanwhile, loud explosive sounds came from the basement as well.
I instinctively checked the [Minimap]. On the rear gate side where Erika was positioned, red dots were swarming, but the narrow entrance allowed them to be blocked with grenades.
'She's holding up well.'
But this alone wasn't enough.
On the [Minimap], there were no signs of the red dots decreasing.
'I'm at the point where I can't tell if this is the Allied Kingdom or the League.'
Just how many infiltrators had they planted?
Click.
The bolt on my submachine gun locked back. The magazine was empty.
"Fuck, already on the second magazine?"
The moment I discarded the empty magazine and slapped in a fresh one.
An anomaly occurred.
"……!"
Beyond the front barricade, one red dot that had been hiding behind a collapsed statue sprang up in a bizarre trajectory.
'Status Analysis.'
[Target: League Elite Operative]
[Status: Suicide Attack, Prepared to Self-Destruct]
[Emotion: For the revolution…… I devote this one life!]
"What a crazy bastard."
A heavy bundle of dynamite was clutched in his hand.
The target was the center of the first-floor lobby where Seraphina and I were. If that went off, not only the barricade but the entire first floor would collapse.
The moment the bastard swung his arm wide to throw the explosive.
'Now.'
[Activating skill 'Bullet Time (Lv.2)'.]
The noise of the world faded into the distance.
Even the flickering of burning flames, the screams of soldiers, and even the black-powder sparks flying through the air began to move sluggishly, as if submerged in thick mud.
I calmly raised the muzzle of my submachine gun.
Sight picture. Target: the bundle of dynamite hovering in mid-air.
Only the movement of my finger pulling the trigger maintained normal speed in this slowed world.
Click.
The mechanical device operated at one-tenth speed. The trigger depressed, the firing pin advanced, and the hammer struck the primer of the round in the chamber.
Ta-aang—!
With a flash, the bullet left the muzzle.
Even at one-tenth, it was a speed barely possible to track with the eye.
The bullet pierced straight through the dynamite. Slow motion of the explosive bundle twisting and grotesquely expanding from the impact.
[Skill 'Bullet Time' is ending.]
And the moment the acceleration released.
Everything that had been sluggish sped up again.
Flames flickered violently, soldiers screamed frantically, and the expansion of the explosive reached its limit.
And.
Kwa-a-a-ang—!!
A massive firestorm erupted above the enemies' heads.
"Gwaaaah!"
"My eyes! My eyes!"
The shockwave sent window debris flying in all directions. High-temperature fragments rained down on the enemies' heads.
A fatal blow.
The core infiltrators' heads burst, and rioters began trampling each other in terror.
The red dots on the [Minimap] receded rearward like a receding tide.
"…They're retreating."
Seraphina reported, watching beyond the barricade.
"They've withdrawn out of effective range. They appear to be regrouping."
"Don't let your guard down. It's not over yet."
The first offensive had been repelled. A perfect defense, utilizing every resource and cheat skill at our disposal, without a single casualty.
But it wasn't time to smile.
'We're low on ammo.'
The diplomatic pouch that Field Marshal Ludwig had provided was excellent, but it had its limits.
Our expenditure of 9mm ammunition and grenades was greater than expected. If large-scale assaults like that came just two more times, we'd be wielding empty guns and fighting hand-to-hand with the stocks.
And that meant death.
"Situation report."
Static—
[Basement, mop-up complete. Two magazines remaining.]
Erika's voice, breathing hard.
[Rooftop, visual secured. No enemies approaching within a two-hundred-meter radius. But there are at least a hundred-plus personnel waiting beyond the alleys. Ammunition: fifty rounds remaining.]
Hanna's dry but precise report.
"Seraphina."
"Remaining ammo is one and a half magazines. I can fire two more magic rounds like the one before."
"…Roger."
I leaned against the wall and wiped my face. The acrid stench of gunpowder and blood stung my nose.
My options were narrowing.
At this rate, like I had done in Rosenheim, I might have to forcibly wring out my broken mana circuits to conjure crude ammunition through [Matter Conversion].
An act that devoured life while vomiting blood and spurting nosebleeds.
The paradoxical act of offering life as collateral just to survive.
I had to do that again?
Beep— Static—
Then, an alien frequency crackled from the small radio at my waist.
It wasn't an Imperial Army common frequency.
[…static, can you hear me. static, Imperial side. If you can hear this, respond.]
A cold, overbearing, somehow familiar woman's voice.
The Director of the Royal Intelligence Bureau, Sydney Wellesley.