Chapter 74

Author's Notes:

Thank you very much for your continued support of my humble works.

This is just a brief message, and I noticed that the feedback from the person who posted below disappeared, but I received a comment that "similar settings can be found in other works." I am aware of this, but I don't mind at all, so please feel free to use or quote the settings as you like. If you happen to mention it in your feedback, it would be appreciated, but... well, you don't have to go through the trouble.

I'll provide a few more details in the afterword.

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They arrived at their destination, and Shifty reported from deep inside the housing.

The report was positive, but Moore looked around with a suspicious expression.

"Commander, I will fire a signal flare. We need to join Neon and Absolute with Anis."

"Yeah, understood. Please."

Rapi next to him nodded, selecting a signal flare from the grenades lined up on the belt hanging from her waist. She attached it to the grenade launcher under the barrel of her assault rifle. Moore watched her do it out of the corner of his eye, but something seemed off—there was a disparity between the information they had received and the actual scene.

"…Shifty, are you sure Heretics were really defeated here?"

[Yes, according to the coordinates, that's correct.]

"...There's nothing...---Well, there is something, but..."

—It's too flat.

He swallowed the words he was about to say, and just then, Rapi fired the signal flare towards the sky. The deflated sound of the launch echoed, and a flash of magnesium lit up the sky a few seconds later. What had been descending with a deployed parachute shattered. A bit delayed, gunshots reached them from a distance. Rapi sighed and turned her gaze towards Moore.

"...Eunhwa found the signal flare. And... it seems quite angry still."

"...Ugh... Maybe I should practice dogeza..."

Maxwell, the brains of the Metis squad, seemed to sense that she would have to stand up again. While she was muttering, Leader Laplace sent her gaze around and then tilted her head.

"...But, there's nothing here."

"...Shifty, I'll ask again, are you sure about this place?"

[Yes, Commander. There's no mistake.]

"...It's strange."

Moore voiced his second question just to be sure, but Shifty affirmed it. Maxwell tilted her head, and then Rapi nodded.

"It's too flat."

"Yeah, right? The place where we fought the Heretics shouldn't be this clean."

"In the preliminary information, it said that the moment the Heretic was defeated, it exploded, creating a crater, right? I heard it turned into a wasteland..."

The town was exactly the same. If there had been an explosion large enough to create a giant crater, the surrounding buildings should have been blown away by the shockwave.

Despite that, for some reason, he couldn't sense any trace of the shockwave hitting the majority of the collapsed or partially destroyed buildings.

With a click, he unconsciously disengaged the safety of his assault rifle.

"Don't you remember?"

"Give me a break... The Metis squad almost died too. How could I remember?…"

They had been on the brink of destruction along with the Absolute squad during that fierce battle. Maxwell muttered, implying that her memories from that time were vague. Then, she speculated.

"...Could the coordinates be fake?"

"Um... Let me match the terrain and nearby environment, okay?"

In response, Shifty operated the device in her hands. Soon after, the matching results appeared. A sound of Shifty swallowing reached Moore's ears, shaking the housing.

"—! It's a fake terrain!!"

—At that moment. Something resembling four tentacles shot out from the ground at an incredible speed, heading towards Rapi and the Metis squad. It pierced their bodies in an instant, and Moore witnessed it through his scope.

Reflexively, he aimed his assault rifle and pulled the trigger, tracing the tentacle-like object that had pierced their bodies, firing to sever it. Similar scenes had occurred during the Blacksmith's time, he thought absentmindedly.

"—Rapi!"

"—I'm okay!"

Rushing towards Rapi, he supported her back with his left hand, checking for injuries. It seemed like she was pierced right below her chest. Amazingly, she seemed unharmed. After removing the remnants of the tentacle that had pierced her, Rapi asked the Metis squad about their injuries.

"Minor injuries!"

"Just scratches!"

"Insignificant attempt! I'm fine too!"

"...I envy you girls."

If they were human, they would have suffered some internal damage—perhaps even their lungs—if something had pierced them. Moore unintentionally let out a voice of envy as he supported Rapi on his back. She smiled faintly but withdrew her expression. Immediately, she asked the operator.

"Shifty! Any Rapture reactions!?"

[There's... There's no Rapture reaction! There's a high possibility of interference jammers under the fake terrain!]

"What's the scale of the terrain?"

Listening to Rapi's inquiry over the radio, Moore watched her, but she seemed fine. There was a hole in her body, but the catalyst leakage was minor.

He must have felt his considerate gaze. Rapi turned her reddish eyes towards Moore and nodded, indicating that he didn't need to worry. As he was about to step away, he lightly tapped her back with his mechanized palm.

"Analysis complete! The ground at the current location is elevated by about 200 meters compared to the past!"

"...They went through the trouble of filling it up and even building structures on top of it. What a hassle."

"It seems so. I wonder what they kept so precious to hide it like this?"

Maxwell, after throwing away the remnants of the tentacle, lightly tapped her chest where the hole was and made a comment along with Moore.

"They must be serious over there too. Heretic fragments—"

[—Multiple Raptures in the sky! We will soon engage... What the!?]

At the same time as Shifty's warning echoed from the depths of the housing, countless Raptures emerged from the ground, surrounding them like seeds sprouting from the soil. It looked as if tips were peeking out, resembling faces. Honestly, it wasn't a pleasant sight. Anyone with collective fear or trypophobia would undoubtedly harbor latent fears.

(Tl Notes: That's a horror show, alright.)

As Moore clicked his tongue at the sight, he immediately raised his voice towards the microphone.

"They're trying to sandwich us from above and below! Shifty, what's their scale!?"

"There are over a hundred!"

The number was substantial.

This would undoubtedly turn into a chaotic battle.

"You cowardly villains...! Learn some shame and stop ambushing us!"

"Well, well. But it's good they showed themselves, right?"

"Of course!"

"Hehehe... Good! It's the only way!"

Laplace and Drake of the Metis squad deployed their weapons, and Maxwell, with a thick cable attached to her back, aimed her homemade sniper rifle.

Observing this from the corner of his vision, Moore found it hard to suppress the urge to smile.

"—Prepare yourselves, villains! Your wicked plots will vanish under the righteous light emitted by us, Metis! Encounter!!"

As Laplace declared the engagement, the ground-based Raptures surrounding them and the formations of red-eyed flying enemy aircraft above them ominously lit up.

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It seemed like they were all preparing to attack simultaneously. Sensing this, Rapi pointed her assault rifle at the enemy horde and called out to Moore, who was back to back with her.

"Commander! Please don't leave my side!"

"...I can't stay like this. If we clump together, we'll be the target of concentrated fire. We need to spread out."

"But... I understand. Just don't go too far, okay?"

"Sure, I'll be careful not to go too far away."

He probably intentionally responded in a way that could be interpreted differently. Rapi let out a sigh, but she felt a bit relieved. The fact that they could still exchange banter was a sign of their composure.

Feeling a moderate level of tension that didn't paralyze his entire body, Moore prepared for combat. Just then, one of the Rapture's gun barrels, aimed by Rapi, started to glow.

"They're coming!"

As she issued the warning to Moore, Lapi pulled the trigger. The subsequent gunshot marked the official beginning of the intense battle.

In battles like these, where chaos reigned supreme, the commander's abilities were tested to the utmost. For the soldiers, it felt like a sort of luck test.

Despite there being enemies everywhere you looked, the shouts, roars, and screams from all directions easily disrupted the ability to distinguish between friend and foe.

This became even more pronounced in chaotic battles. It was possible to accidentally shoot at allies who stood reflexively in the line of fire, and instances of shooting superiors one disliked in the chaos of battle, pretending it was a stray bullet, were not uncommon.

There was a reason why bullying within units was strictly prohibited, and this was one of them.

—But that's not a concern here.

Moore couldn't help but smirk. The optical sight (ACOG) attached to the top of his assault rifle was meaningless at such close range.

The enemies were right in front of his eyes. He couldn't feel the breath of life; instead, he faced a mechanical, alien enemy attacking him in groups, emitting multiple beams of light.

While rolling on the ground to evade their attacks, he fired shots and half instinctively destroyed enemy aircraft. As soon as the magazine ran out, he immediately replaced it. He pressed the button of the bolt stop on the assault rifle with the palm of his hand, sending a round into the chamber, then continued to hit the bolt forward assist, forcefully closing the chamber.

He aimed the muzzle, placed his finger on the trigger, squeezed it, and released it.

Three short bursts shattered the core of the Rapture, silencing it.

He showered bullets at the Raptures advancing on the ground and the enemy aircraft attacking from above, then, the bolt stop clicked again. He was out of ammunition.

As he moved to change the magazine with practiced hands, he sensed the friction of metal against metal from his side.

Glancing sideways, he noticed an enemy aircraft approaching, its gun barrels converging with a suspicious red light.

They were already less than 3 meters away. Moreover, there were no rounds in the chamber.

It must have been a reflex.

Throughout history, being attacked at such close quarters almost always led to melee combat—hand-to-hand combat.

Gripping the assault rifle with both hands, he shifted his body toward the approaching Rapture. Stepping forward with his right leg, he followed with his left, simultaneously thrusting the assault rifle horizontally while extending both arms straight out. —It was a frontal strike.

He put not only the strength of his arm but also his entire body into the blow. Due to his mass, the Rapture, which was of equal or greater weight than Nikke, was hit head-on and staggered back.

Not missing the moment of vulnerability, he followed up with a series of strikes using the assault rifle. The specially designed assault rifle for Rapture combat, made sturdy for Nikke, was indeed effective. It wouldn't have held up if it were intended for human opponents.

However, at the moment he landed a lateral strike with the rifle butt, he felt a grinding sensation. He realized that applying more force might risk breaking the gun itself.

In that case— he swung his right leg, made of Goddesium, using his left leg as the pivot.

Artificial muscles densely packed beneath the Goddesium skin received signals from the brain through the connecting point linking the artificial and human muscles. Taking into account the excitement during combat, the signals were appropriately converted into muscle contractions for attacking.

—His kick caught the Rapture's side. At the moment of direct impact, a deafening noise, akin to metal clashing against metal, resonated, announcing a perfectly placed strike to those around.

Rapi and the members of the Metis Squad instinctively turned their gazes to the scene. The Rapture, kicked away like it had been sucked into a vortex, broke through the building's wall and was defeated.

Amid the strikes with the assault rifle, a black fluid catalyst, resembling waste liquid splattered from the Rapture's mechanical body, adorned Moore's face.

It looked akin to splattered blood.

"…Situation resolved—Commander!"

While scanning the surroundings and confirming that all the Raptures had been defeated, Rapi declared. Moore casually stepped on the fallen enemy with his right leg and pulled the trigger, letting out a single gunshot.

"...It seemed like it was still alive. Just wanted to finish it off..."

"...That shouldn't have been… definitely—no, it's nothing. Thank you."

He withdrew his right leg after finishing off the enemy. Moore was confident that Rapi had definitively dealt the finishing blow. In reality, he had pierced through the core. The Rapture shouldn't have moved a muscle anymore, but—if Moore says so, then that must be the case.

Trying not to dwell on it too deeply, Rapi shook her head and pulled out a turbo lighter as he approached, holding a cigarette in his mouth. Moore, who had stopped looking for an oil lighter upon seeing the turbo lighter offered to him, lit the cigarette.

"Thank you..."

"No. ...Is there something on my face?"

"Hmm? ...Ah... sorry."

The black blood catalyst from the Rapture adorned Moore's face, which was growing a thick stubble. Rapi reached out and wiped it away with her gloved hand, but it was quite sticky and didn't come off cleanly.

"...Is there something wrong with your body?"

"...No, there isn't, but... why is it?"

"No reason... If there's nothing wrong, then—"

He was a human who had controlled that mass during the battle with the Blacksmith. In that case, handling this level of situation should be a piece of cake.

Worried about him engaging in melee combat against the Raptures, she looked up at him, but she couldn't discern any obvious abnormalities.

"...I feel like the spot where the tentacle pierced me... is slightly numb. Those sneaky bastards... Did they use poison?"

"Is that so? I'm fine though?"

The conversation between Laplace and Maxwell caught Moore's ears, and he involuntarily glanced sideways at Laplace, but she shook her head gently from side to side. She seemed unharmed.

Moore, smoking his cigarette as usual, breathed a sigh of relief. At that moment, the ground at their current location began to shake violently, and a large sinkhole opened up.

〈T-The ground is unstable!! It's about to collapse!! Everyone, brace for impact!!〉

Large cracks resembling a spider's web spread across the ground. Even if they tried to escape, it was clear they wouldn't make it in time.

"─Commander!!"

No matter how skilled Moore was, he couldn't avoid this situation unscathed. In an instant, Rapi reached out her arm and tightly embraced him. At that moment, they were sucked into the gaping hole in the ground due to gravity.

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Author's Notes: In terms of the setting I established (?), well, let's just say it's part of the BCC... approximately... I guess? (Probably)

BCC stands for Basic Commander's Course, a training course for commanders in the game world. I didn't see any abbreviations related to commander training courses in the main game, so I introduced BCC in this work. Additionally, there are other courses such as the Command and General Staff Course, which is required for promotion to general, but these are not part of the official game setting.

Regarding the expression "hitting the bolt forward assist," it refers to a component found underneath the charging handle of AR-15 series rifles in the real world. This button-like part serves to force the chamber closed. Essentially, in AR-15 series rifles, you can pull the charging handle back to chamber a round, but you cannot push it forward. Therefore, if there is a chambering malfunction for some reason, pushing the bolt forward assist allows you to force the bolt into the chamber, making it ready for firing.

Captain Moore (formerly Second Lieutenant at that time) performs this action from the early stages of Chapter 0. However, this expression could potentially be a spoiler.

Well, leaving that aside—Raptures, run away, run super far away.