After David calmed the later-arriving members with a half-false story, and I finished speaking with the team members as well, Catherine said to me,
“Let’s talk in private.”
Seeing Margreta nod, it seemed all right to follow her.
Catherine entered David’s office.
Judging by the fact that she had chosen the office as the place to talk, I could guess what had happened.
David had lost real authority and had even been driven out of this room.
Without the slightest hesitation, she sat in the chair David used to sit in.
As I watched her, Catherine said,
“You don’t need to look at me like that. David will continue managing the base. I intend to handle only hunting and combat.”
“The person with final responsibility must have changed, though.”
“That’s only natural. David was in charge of the advance party, and the main force is my responsibility.”
Catherine placed both hands on the desk the blacksmith had worked so hard to make.
“Then will the work I’m in charge of change as well?”
“To be honest, I’d like that, but it seems difficult. You’re with us, but you don’t belong to us—you belong to the Intelligence Bureau. And there’s someone with you who’s difficult to treat carelessly.”
As expected, choosing Margreta had been the right answer.
For now, I still couldn’t accomplish everything with my own strength alone.
Until the connection with Earth was cut off, I needed to have a line somewhere.
For me, that was the Geographic Information Bureau, and Margreta.
The Intelligence Bureau would eventually want something from me as well, but right now, I needed them.
If my work wasn’t going to change, there was no need to be tense.
I asked in a relaxed manner,
“Then tell me why you called me aside.”
“I need information on the scout monster you captured. How you caught it, where you caught it—everything. I’d like you to tell me all of it.”
It was a question I hadn’t expected.
I looked at her with puzzled eyes, and Catherine said with an expressionless face,
“I’ll pay a separate information fee. You don’t intend to monopolize information when Earth is facing destruction, do you?”
Money and a threat.
I hadn’t expected to hear both at the same time.
The woman in front of me was interesting, just as Soph had said.
[She’s a practical person who’s thrown away all formality and courtesy. Annoying as a colleague, but not bad as someone to make deals with.]
That remained to be seen.
Telling her wasn’t difficult.
The problem was that I didn’t know whether she’d believe me.
So before I told her, I asked again.
“Are you thinking of hunting the scout monster?”
If she wasn’t thinking of hunting the scout monster, there would be no reason to ask.
“Yes. Before going to the city where Sterling lost his comrades, I intend to confirm the enemy’s strength.”
[That’s not all, I’m sure.]
I knew what Soph meant.
“You’ll want the black stone too.”
Catherine nodded with a calm expression.
“Yes. That’s correct. Because you brought back a new black stone, our plans have changed significantly. When there’s a black stone containing nearly a hundred times more energy, there’s no reason not to go after it.”
Seeing her answer so directly, it was hard to tell what her true intentions were. I couldn’t tell whether she had deliberately concealed it or simply hadn’t said it.
This woman, in a different sense, wasn’t easy to deal with either.
I was worried whether the main force could fight the scout monster well, but for now, I decided to tell her what I knew.
“I fought the monster here, at the terraforming ruins, and at the old base that has now become a lake. Both times, I was able to kill it by using the terrain and the power of the ruins.”
I could bring it down on my own now, but I didn’t say that.
If I did, they might underestimate the monster’s strength.
“The monster’s hide can’t be pierced by the spear of an energy user. And most of the monster’s attacks are made with its tentacles…”
I explained in detail.
The monster’s strengths and weaknesses, and the fact that it would stop if the black stone was removed or destroyed.
Catherine transcribed my words onto paper.
The pencil and paper she was using now were also things I had brought.
When the explanation was over, she stared at the paper and sank into thought.
I asked her,
“Seeing as you intend to hunt a scout, you’re trying to find where the monster will appear based on my story, aren’t you?”
“Yes. This area, the former base, and the place called the warehouse ruins all seem possible.”
If they went to the factory city, they would definitely encounter one, but fortunately, it seemed they weren’t going there yet.
“We can search all of them while hunting.
I heard the exploration team members know the roads best. For the first search, I’ll use the exploration team members as guides.”
My eyebrows twitched on their own.
Since it was difficult to order me around, was she planning to use my team members?
When my expression turned unpleasant, Catherine immediately continued.
“They only need to do it once. After that, they can return to their original exploration duties.”
She noticed right away and added an explanation.
As expected, she was a troublesome opponent.
From her perspective, there wasn’t much of a problem, and it might even have been her own form of consideration.
But I couldn’t accept it that way.
She wanted to split up my team members and send them separately to places where scout monsters might be?
That was absurd.
Instead of going along with her words, I offered a new suggestion.
“Then we should just guide you directly to where the scout monster is.”
At my words, Catherine’s expression changed.
It was the first time her expression had changed since entering this room.
Her brows drew together.
“Not where it might be, but where it is?”
“Yes.”
When I nodded at her question, the wrinkles on her forehead deepened.
“How do you know that?”
“As you may have heard, I have a detection ability specialized in sensing ruins and monsters.”
Unable to hold back any longer, she set down the paper and pencil and stared at me.
“But how can you know that from here? Even if you have an ability like that, there should be a range limit.”
At her serious question, I shrugged.
“I don’t think I need to explain the method… Just let me know as soon as you’re ready. The exploration team will guide you.”
With those words, I immediately turned away.
To tell the truth, it wasn’t that I didn’t need to explain it—I couldn’t.
Naturally, I hadn’t found it with my own senses. My senses couldn’t reach that far.
The one who had found the monster wasn’t me, but Soph.
[You found it, right?]
At my question, Soph answered again.
[One has been caught in the magic circles I’ve scattered around. It’s near the wetlands. It was heading toward the warehouse ruins.]
The magic circles he’d scattered around referred to the alarm magic we had laid out around us every time we camped.
Soph had kept maintaining the magic circles even after each camp ended.
Thanks to that, my dark energy had been leaking away, but it couldn’t be helped in order to protect the terraforming base.
The new commander, Catherine, handled matters like lightning.
In half a day, she finished reorganizing the hunting teams and completed preparations to go find the scout.
Thanks to that, we too had to gather in the lobby again before sunrise.
Before the sun rose, more than a hundred people gathered in the lobby.
In the lobby stood the new hunting teams, mixed from the main force and advance party, divided by team.
Aside from one team with more than twenty members, the others were teams of ten.
Thirteen teams faced outside, waiting for the sandstorm to stop.
My exploration team members and I stood a little apart from them.
Unlike the team members, who were slightly excited, I was very tired.
“Haahm…”
Seeing me yawn, Hanna said with a worried expression,
“You look tired.”
I didn’t just look tired. I was actually tired.
“I barely slept. And I don’t have much energy left…”
After gaining energy, I could go several days without sleep, but if my energy was lacking, there was nothing I could do either.
At my words, Hanna glared at Margreta.
Margreta seemed not to notice Hanna looking at her, as she was busy stroking her whip.
Every time she stroked the whip with a smile, tiny sparks leapt from it.
The whip also looked different from yesterday.
The ornate handle was no different from before, but now, patterns were engraved all over not only the handle but the rest of it as well.
Those patterns were magic circles Soph had engraved last night.
Because of that, as soon as I had recovered all my energy, I had to use it all up.
At least since this was the terraforming ruins, I could replenish the black stone’s energy again.
Hanna, who had been glaring at Margreta, turned her head to look at the other team members.
“It’s because of those people that you didn’t get enough sleep.”
Tom and Sergeant Wu, who had been staring at my backpack with excited faces, turned their heads at her words.
“It was killing two birds with one stone.”
The reason I couldn’t sleep was that I had stayed up all night bringing weapons from the box buried in the underground ruins.
Because items disappeared in transit, I couldn’t bring the entire box with me.
I had to take the weapons out of the box one by one and carry them by hand.
After moving all of them like that, dawn had eventually broken.
“If you think about it, this is because of the new commander.”
If Commander Catherine hadn’t been in such a hurry, there would have been no reason to stay up all night, nor any need to draw magic circles at night.
“That’s right. It’s all because of that Catherine robot.”
Margreta, who had kept pretending not to know, abruptly cut in.
Hanna glared at Margreta again, but Margreta smiled and hugged Hanna’s arm.
“Go easy on me. I’ll protect Hyeon well with this whip.”
At Margreta’s words, Hanna let out a sigh.
“I should be going too…”
I shook my head at her words.
“Not this time.”
Soon, it would be time for the Korean main force to cross over.
Hanna had to be here so they could move from the underground ruins to the terraforming ruins.
That wasn’t all.
Because of the dark light I had seen from the American main force, she needed to remain in these ruins.
That was also why I wasn’t going to move together with them.
Margreta comforted the regretful Hanna, and I looked at the person approaching us.
It was Catherine.
She stood in front of me and asked again,
“You said you won’t move together with us, correct?”
It was something we had decided yesterday when setting the departure time.
She had wanted to go together, but I had opposed it to the end.
I had no intention of traveling with people from whom I sensed a dangerous light.
She still seemed dissatisfied with that decision, but this was something I couldn’t back down on either.
“Yes. We’ll move ahead as a scouting party.”
Catherine crossed her arms and asked,
“How do you plan to leave traces? It’ll be troublesome if they’re hard to find.”
In its own way, it was a reasonable issue to raise, but she was saying it because we couldn’t go together.
I answered right away.
“You don’t need to worry. It’s a signal you can easily recognize and follow even from far away.”
At my words, Catherine frowned again.
It seemed she didn’t like my answer.
Still, she didn’t voice any dissatisfaction here and turned away immediately.
It was very like Catherine.
“How fascinating. It’s the first time I’ve seen Catherine’s expression change like that.”
Margreta stared curiously at Catherine as she left.
A moment later, the sandstorm stopped.
Beyond the sandy desert, the sun began to rise.
It was time to depart.
The hunting teams departed first.
Nearly a hundred people spread out in all directions, and we set off as well.
When I turned my head, I saw more than twenty people leaving the ruins after us.
It was the last team, including Sterling and Catherine.
They were the team the main force had prepared to hunt the scout monster.
Seeing them follow, we quickened our pace as well.
Not long after, we left the sandy desert behind.
The people who had been following us were no longer visible.
With the difference in numbers, the distance between us was bound to widen.
I stood on a mound and took out the box.
Tom and Sergeant Wu approached with their eyes shining.
I took the weapons out of the box and distributed them to them.
“They really are guns.”
Sergeant Wu stroked the rifle and sniper rifle I gave him with a moved expression.
Tom, however, looked troubled when he saw the weapon I handed him.
“Don’t tell me this is a grenade launcher?”
As he said, what I handed him was a large grenade launcher with an ammo drum attached.
“Luckily, it didn’t disappear and remained behind.”
I had been prepared for all of them to be gone, but fortunately, one had remained.
“But this is something you mount on a vehicle.”
Tom stared at the lump of metal on the ground with a sickened expression.
“If it’s you, Tom, you should be able to carry it easily.”
“But it looks like it’s over a hundred kilos… Huh?”
Tom, who had reluctantly lifted the grenade launcher at my urging, looked bewildered.
“It’s not heavy.”
Of course it wasn’t heavy.
Even I could carry this grenade launcher. If it was Tom, who could bring down a building wall, he could use it without much difficulty.
Now I had handed all the weapons over to the team members.
There were still weapons left in the box, so there was nothing to worry about going forward.
“Then let’s go.”
I set out with the team members and threw a rod onto the ground.
It was a rod I had taken from the box along with the weapons.
Fwoooooosh.
From the rod that had fallen to the ground—the smoke canister—red smoke began to rise.
A canister that produced smoke used to send signals.
There was no way they wouldn’t recognize this smoke.
Red smoke surged high into the sky.
Main Force Sortie (2)