9th Grade Civil Servant In Another World Chapter 123 - Corpse Flower (5)

“They keep coming endlessly.”

“Mindlessly throwing bombs won’t be enough.”

Oscar gasped as he drew his gun.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Bang!

I wiped the sweat that had formed on my palms against my pants and glared at the research facility grounds that flashed brightly beyond the explosions. The building stood precariously with only its steel framework remaining.

“Don’t shoot! Get down!”

Suddenly Assad’s voice cracked like thunder, and I quickly threw myself to the ground.

Bang!

The air above my head vibrated.

“Neighhhh!”

Along with a thudding sound, I heard a horse cry out and thrash wildly. Ah, the horse pulling the carriage…

I crawled along the ground and pressed my body tight against the concrete wall.

“It’s a sniper.”

Johann, who had also lowered his body, whispered.

“Yeah, on the roof of that ruined building, right? Must be the only one with his wits about him. What do we do?”

“Someone has to go deal with him.”

Erika said coldly while wiping dirt splattered all over her mask. I stared at her blankly for a moment before nodding.

“Anyone confident?”

A brief silence fell. This was different from direct combat.

Johann—no good, since he values his own life most.

Assad—no good, since he needs to stay here and command.

As for me, well, there’s no need to even consider it given my physical abilities alone.

“I’ll do it.”

A determined voice rang out. Hannah, our reliable comrade.

“I’m quick on my feet. I’m confident.”

“No, I’ll go.”

Before we could say anything, Philip stepped forward. He tightened the straps on his jumpsuit’s thighs and stood up.

“But—”

“First Lieutenant Decker would be more suitable. That guy has exceptionally good night vision.”

Johann cut off Hannah’s protest with a dry tone.

“Once you take out the sniper, you know what to do?”

Philip gave a short nod at my words, then vanished in an instant.

***

Ratatatata!

While Philip Decker ran along the wall, countless bullets rained down on the main gate.

With the intruders’ movement restricted by the sniper, the drugged Ossels had turned around and were pouring bullets without looking back.

“Damn, should have gone together.”

Since they’d decided so quickly, he hadn’t thought it through, but rather than hiding behind the wall and engaging in a firefight, it would be safer to retreat to the rear and strike the sniper from behind.

He needed to hurry.

“Hup!”

The moment he turned the corner of the wall, Philip, who had been running fast, put strength into his legs and kicked off the ground. As his foot struck the wall, his body bounced smoothly.

Thud!

A rough texture met his gloved hand. Philip, who had grabbed onto the barbed wire atop the wall, exhaled slowly. He kicked the wall once more with his foot and stretched his body out.

With a rolling landing, Philip touched down inside the wall like a cat and stayed perfectly still for a while, holding his breath.

After confirming there were no signs of people nearby, he slightly raised his head. He crawled toward the building that was on the verge of collapse with only its skeleton remaining.

Crooked steel beams piled up haphazardly, dirty cloth covering miscellaneous items, and stone debris occasionally falling down. It was utterly desolate, as if flaunting that demolition wasn’t yet complete.

He felt around his face to check if his mask had torn.

He was wrapped in black from head to toe. On a cloudy night without even a moon, he wouldn’t be visible even if he were right in front of someone.

Philip quietly grabbed onto the steel beams and began climbing.

Swoosh, swoosh—the sound of fabric rustling and whoosh, whoosh—the sound of cutting through air were drowned out by the explosions and gunfire.

Like a monkey, he leaped between the steel beams, advancing slowly, floor by floor.

‘About five stories?’

It wasn’t a very tall building. Since it was a place for shady research, there would have been no need for it to stand out.

This was the top floor.

Philip tensed his arms and pulled his body up between the building materials piled in a jumbled mess.

Whoosh—his body flew through the air. As if defying gravity, as if he felt no weight at all.

He aimed to land on a steel beam just wide enough for one foot. But…

‘Damn it!’

Philip found himself staring directly at the sniper who had been looking right at him. No, at his gun barrel.

Bang!

The gun muzzle spat fire.

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Philip’s body plummeted. Bouncing off the tangled steel beams, he ended up wrapped in a large piece of cloth that hung like a hammock between the pillars.

“Urgh, gah…”

He wriggled like an insect for a moment. His body wouldn’t respond properly, and he felt burning pain in his forearm. Blood was flowing out like a turned-on faucet, staining his jumpsuit.

‘Did it go through?’

He grabbed his trembling forearm. Judging by the level of pain, the bullet seemed to have cleanly passed through his arm.

‘Lucky.’

Twisting his body the instant their eyes met had been a stroke of divine inspiration.

‘But now what?’

There was no time to be lost in thought. He quickly pulled the cloth over himself to cover his body. As he watched the ceiling through a small gap he’d left, the sniper’s face suddenly appeared between the steel beams.

With Philip’s good night vision, he could clearly see the sniper frowning. How about from the other side?

He quietly held his breath and stayed perfectly still, playing dead.

The sniper seemed to be trying to find Philip with his naked eye alone. If he used a light, his own position would be exposed too. Lucky for Philip.

After concentrating with his gun aimed for about five minutes, the sniper seemed to give up, lowered his gun, and pulled his head back.

Then the sound of footsteps began coming from above.

He was coming down for a confirmation kill.

‘I’ll manage somehow!’

Gripping his pistol, he wiggled into position. The moment the steel beam above his head shook with a creaking sound—

Ratata!

The cylinder spun rapidly as bullets flew out.

‘Fake out!’

No scream came from the opponent. Instead, there was a thunk as a bullet ricocheted, and the cloth tied to the steel beam tore.

“Gah!”

Instead of the falling cloth, Philip grabbed onto a steel pillar. As his full body weight bore down, burning pain spread through his left arm.

Gritting his teeth, he gripped the pillar so hard his fingers bled. Before the sniper could come down here, he had to secure higher ground by any means necessary.

“Urgh, graaaah!”

With his face covered in tears, he roared and exerted strength until his muscles felt like they would burst. After building momentum several times, his legs finally hooked onto the pillar.

Perched on the pillar, Philip threw a punch at his opponent who had rushed right up to him.

Thwack!

The sniper, who had been staggering while trying to dodge, took a hit to the solar plexus and tumbled backward. However, he flexibly regained his balance and instantly closed in to kick Philip.

“Hup!”

While bending his waist backward to dodge, Philip simultaneously reached out to grab his opponent.

Stab!

A gleaming dagger plunged into Philip’s hand.

“Guh!”

But Philip clenched his fist and swung it hard. Blood droplets that scattered hit the sniper’s eyes, making him grimace.

Now was the only chance.

Crack!

With his full-strength punch, the sniper’s teeth flew out and his nose broke.

“Gah-hahk!”

As he staggered, Philip quickly pulled out the dagger embedded in his left hand and swung it.

“Huk!”

A clean strike. The sniper, his throat deeply cut, opened his eyes wide, then his body fell backward.

Crash!

A moment later, a loud noise came from below.

“Hah, hah…”

When Philip glanced down, the sniper was sprawled out with his limbs bent at unnatural angles, bleeding.

“Ha, nothing special.”

Chuckling with a “heh heh, cough cough,” Philip struggled to get up. His legs trembled so much it looked like he was dancing.

Using the dagger, he cut off some of the cloth he’d hidden in earlier and tightly bound his bleeding left arm and left hand. Biting down with his teeth to tie knots repeatedly made his gums ache.

“Alright, now…”

Using only his right hand as much as possible, he climbed the steel beams again.

He wanted to take his time, but he couldn’t afford to. The noisy sounds from the ground still hadn’t stopped.

Forcing strength into his exhausted muscles, Philip perched on the top floor building materials that were precariously stacked and surveyed the open area in front of the ruined building.

Hell on earth.

It was filled with nothing but monsters who felt no pain even when torn apart or shot, charging forward relentlessly.

He opened the bag at his waist. It contained nearly ten standard Ossel grenades.

Philip divided the grenades between both hands and, enduring the pain, swung his arms. Then he squeezed out his remaining strength and shouted.

“Go to hell, you reactionary bastards!”

He could see Lieutenant Colonel Johann Werner and the rest of those scoundrels, along with Hannah, quickly duck behind the wall.

Right after that—

Boom! Boom boom boom bang!

The grenades that had fallen to the ground exploded in a chain reaction.

“Whew…”

After the blinding explosion faded, nothing was left moving in the open area.

Only then did Philip let his body slump. Drowsiness washed over him. Actually, it had been coming for quite a while.

***

“Aaaaah! My arm! My arm!”

“Sob, sob…”

Screams and sobs overflowed everywhere. On the bare ground of the research facility site where not a single building remained, there were only people rolling around clutching their severed limbs.

Whether the drug’s effects had worn off, or the pain was too much even for that to suppress.

“It’s amazing they’re still alive.”

With so many bombs exploding.

Erika squeezed her hand tightly from beside me. Though I couldn’t see her face because of the mask, it was surely pale as a sheet.

I could see Richard rushing over to the Ossels.

“I’ll perform first aid.”

Richard opened the medical bag he’d remembered to bring even in this situation and began stemming the monsters’ bleeding.

After watching blankly for a moment, he gestured to us.

“Come on, help me out.”

“Uh, okay.”

Daniel moved first, swaying unsteadily, followed by Oscar and Georg, and a few elves.

“Useless effort—”

“No, it’s useful.”

I cut off Johann’s words.

If doing that could preserve his conscience, if it could keep him from going insane, then it was more than useful enough.

“Mr. Decker!”

Suddenly Hannah jumped up and ran toward the ruined building.

“Oh right, what about Philip?”

I frowned and looked up at the ruined building, but I couldn’t find Philip anywhere.

“Stupid fool.”

Johann spat coldly and headed toward the ruined building. Then he nimbly leaped up the framework.

“Sheesh… What does he think he is, Tarzan?”

He soon came down in cooperation with Hannah, carrying the unconscious Philip on his back.

“I have no intention of interfering, but please tend to this guy first.”

“Understood.”

Richard looked at Philip’s pale face and rolled up his sleeves. His hands moved surprisingly well in coordination.

“All done? Well then, shall we get going?”

After treating the wounded, moving Philip to the carriage, and catching our breath.

Everyone finished reloading their magazines and mana stones under Assad’s command and completed their preparations.

“Alright, let’s open it.”

Oscar, who had been kneeling on the ground, spoke with a solemn voice. In front of the ruined building, among the scattered iron plates and steel beams, an artfully hidden iron door.

The door embedded in the ground like a sewer cover looked incredibly heavy.

“I’ll count to three, then pull. One, two, three.”

Assad and Oscar simultaneously grabbed the handle and pulled.

Grrrrrrr…

With an ominous sound, the iron door opened wide.

We carefully climbed down the ladder. Ahead was pitch-black darkness—

—or so I thought.

Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!

Lights turned on sequentially overhead, revealing a blindingly white, long corridor.

“Woof! Woof woof woof! Woof woof!”

Colin barked fiercely.

A group wearing white coats stood before us.

The moment we simultaneously aimed our guns with a click, the middle-aged man at the front of the group raised both hands.

“Please don’t shoot. I am Dr. Moritz Riepen, director of the National Research Institute. We have been waiting for you to arrive.”

“Haha…”

A bitter laugh escaped from my sense of futility.

“I see you knew how things would play out.”

“It’s probably an internal Ossel conflict, isn’t it?”

“And knowing that, you people holed up here waiting for the outside situation to end?”

“We could only guess from the explosions and gunfire, we weren’t certain. Besides, those Ossels…”

“You wanted us to eliminate them?”

When I asked coldly, Director Riepen nodded.

“They weren’t intentionally created test subjects, it seems.”

“How could we use Ossels as test subjects? We had our own headaches. Production was already insufficient, but Lieutenant General Kaiser took substantial amounts every month, claiming he needed them for his subordinates. Because he turned the Ossels assigned to security into addicts, they became very difficult to control.”

Director Riepen’s eyes as he spoke were lifeless, like a dead person’s.

“Woof woof woof! Woof woof!”

Colin was still barking while foaming at the mouth. Director Riepen turned to look at Colin with a slightly surprised expression.

“That dog…”

“Recognize him? I suppose you oversaw the biological weapons experiments too.”

“That’s correct. All research conducted at the National Research Institute passed through my hands. I also have custody of all the data. I’ll hand it over to you, so please don’t destroy the research facility. This is a place that serves under the Supreme Leader’s orders.”

“Why would we do such a thing? We’re all servants of the Supreme Leader.”

I smiled brightly.