Low-Orbit Reconnaissance Satellite (2)
As expected, unfortunately, the reconnaissance satellite did not function properly.
It seemed that there were issues both with the reconnaissance satellite placed in low orbit and with the small control center they had set up inside Absolute Space.
In short, the situation was a complete mess, but that didn’t mean they had any clear way to solve it.
Left with no other choice, Seon Yul decided to postpone the issue until the next time they returned to Earth-104, and instead explore Earth-001 using another method.
Naturally, in their current situation, the only other method available was… exploring by physically moving around themselves.
Of course, even though Cheon Li Yu’s Divine Eye had been weakened, she could still freely scout within a 40 km radius, so their exploration on foot would still be on a completely different level compared to others.
Seon Yul and Cheon Li Yu left the cliff area and moved further north.
The forest was vast, but they believed that if they kept moving in one direction, they would eventually discover something new.
After traveling about 20 km north like that…
Something new, something that hadn’t appeared before, was finally caught in Cheon Li Yu’s sight as she steadily scanned the surroundings.
“They look like magic users from our side?”
Through shared vision, the two of them discovered a group of people camping about 30 km away.
Judging by their clothing and appearance, they looked like magic users who had come from Earth-104.
“America? Or maybe magic users from somewhere in Europe…”
“Hm, I think they’re from the U.S.”
Seon Yul spoke with certainty in response to Cheon Li Yu’s speculation.
“How can you tell?”
“Look at the emblem engraved on their chests. That’s the abbreviation for the American Gate Administration… ‘AGD.’”
“Ah…”
After hearing Seon Yul’s explanation, Cheon Li Yu nodded slightly with an expression of understanding.
“Let’s watch them for a while and see how other magic users are adapting.”
In the end, for Earth-104 to survive, the performance of other magic users was also important.
So, since they had encountered other magic users anyway, Seon Yul decided to observe their activities.
The two opened an entrance to Absolute Space at a suitable location and began observing the American magic user team from afar.
The total number of people in that team was twenty-two.
It wasn’t a small number, but none of them looked particularly powerful.
Even the magic user who appeared to be the leader didn’t seem overwhelmingly strong; rather, he gave off an aura more like a well-trained soldier.
In fact, the team Seon Yul was observing was ‘Hellfire,’ a special-purpose user team equipped with the artificial mana ability system called ‘M-Type,’ developed by the United States.
They were all former elite soldiers who had undergone a procedure to be reborn as magic users by having the M-Type implanted.
The unit was composed of volunteers who were originally ordinary people from special forces backgrounds, and its name was Hellfire.
They were the seventh team sent to Earth-001 through the Main Gate that had appeared in Washington, United States.
***
“James. How much food do we have left?”
Lucas Brown, the leader of the Hellfire team, asked James Carter, his deputy leader and also the officer in charge of supplies, about the team’s current food situation.
“If we ration it, we can easily last three months. And if we happen to find edible plants or animals in this forest… it might last even longer.”
“And drinking water? We have enough?”
“We brought plenty with us, and the spring we found a week ago seems perfectly safe for drinking, so we shouldn’t run short.”
“Noah. Have the injured team members recovered?”
Noah Johnson was the Hellfire team’s medical officer and the only member of the team who was not an M-Type magic user but a natural magic user.
His awakened ability was, naturally, a recovery ability.
Although its rank wasn’t particularly high, he possessed a C++-rank ability called ‘Healing Touch.’
“No one was seriously injured, and everyone with minor injuries has already recovered. But fatigue has accumulated quite a bit… so maybe we should rest for a few days instead of hunting or exploring?”
After hearing Noah’s opinion, Lucas, the team leader, showed a thoughtful expression.
However, his deliberation didn’t last long.
“I’d like to do that too… but since we haven’t secured even a single Return Stone, we can’t afford to relax. There are twenty-two of us. If each person needs one Return Stone, we need twenty-two of them… and time is too short.”
After arriving here, they had hunted a considerable number of ordinary monsters, but all they had obtained were magic crystals and Soul Stones. They hadn’t acquired a single Return Stone.
At first, they thought one would eventually drop while hunting, so they hadn’t been particularly anxious.
But now, they were starting to get worried.
“Then, instead of not going out at all, how about we split the team in half and do a light hunt at that goblin area we found to the southeast?”
The one who proposed the compromise was the deputy leader, James.
After settling here, they had thoroughly searched the area within a 20 km radius and completely grasped the surrounding situation.
About 10 km southeast of their camp was a small goblin village, and they had previously hunted goblins on the outskirts of that village and obtained spoils.
“Will that be safe?”
“For goblins, if we just pick off one or two at the outskirts safely, half the team is more than enough.”
Among the monsters they had discovered nearby, goblins were the weakest.
Of course, even if they were weak, they were incomparably stronger than the goblins back on their home world, Earth-104.
However, the eleven M-Type magic users were not only magic users but also highly trained soldiers from special forces backgrounds, so they were extremely skilled at this kind of hunting.
“Alright. Everyone, be careful, and don’t push yourselves trying to hunt too many. At this point, we probably need to try hunting monsters of a different grade rather than just ordinary monsters… so once everyone’s condition improves, we’ll attempt that.”
Lucas believed they couldn’t keep hunting only ordinary monsters forever while hoping a Return Stone would eventually drop.
So he intended to try various methods to somehow obtain one.
In any case, once the eleven Hellfire team members left the camp to hunt, the remaining eleven stayed behind to maintain the camp and rest.
Among the giant trees, they had built sturdy tent barracks brought from Earth-104 on one of the few relatively flat areas, and they had neatly stacked all the supplies they had carried with great difficulty there.
From the moment the system mentioned the four-month time limit, every team or faction that decided to cross the Main Gate had prepared enough supplies to last four months.
Naturally, the sixteen teams that the United States had sent beyond the Main Gate had all crossed over carrying food, water, and various other necessities prepared by the U.S. to last for four months.
Because of that, the camp built by the Hellfire team looked quite respectable.
From the perspective of the United States, the Hellfire team was not among the top ten priority teams, and expectations for them weren’t particularly high.
Rather than expectation, they were more of an experimental team.
Even so, they were adapting reasonably well in their own way.
However, the Hellfire team had made one major mistake.
They did not fully understand how dangerous this place… this world’s ‘Forest of Darknes’, truly was.
The location of their camp was also not very good.
Of course, the Hellfire team had chosen this camp location after hunting monsters in the Forest of Darkness and determining that they could handle them sufficiently.
But the very judgment that they could handle them was a major error.
It was like someone blindfolded, touching only a small part of a giant elephant and mistakenly concluding that the elephant was a small animal.
And now, the price for that mistake was slowly approaching their camp.
Seven orcs.
At the very front was a large, muscular orc clearly distinguishable from the others, holding two large axes that looked as if they had been made by splitting animal bones.
These orcs belonged to the same group as several orcs the Hellfire team had hunted a few days earlier.
The elite orc standing at the front was something like a mid-boss of that group.
And surprisingly, these orcs possessed very high intelligence.
While the monsters that had crossed over to Earth-104 had, for some reason, their intelligence somewhat dulled and only rampaged according to instinct, the monsters of Earth-001 functioned as a full species in their own right.
“Kupkukukup!”
As the leading orc spotted the Hellfire camp in the distance, it barked an order to the orcs behind it.
They had come here to take revenge on the ones who had killed their kin.
Naturally, the orcs here were far stronger than those on Earth-104.
In fact, when the Hellfire team had hunted three ordinary orcs a few days earlier, all twenty-two members had fought with their full strength in a coordinated encirclement attack to defeat them, and there had been injuries in the process.
It was roughly equivalent to fighting three elite orcs back on Earth-104.
But now, seven such orcs had come to the camp seeking revenge.
And at the camp, only half of the Hellfire team remained.
“Kupkeuduk!!!”
The elite orc approached the camp with a savage aura, as if it could split the Hellfire members in half at any moment.
But at that exact moment…
Tzzzt.
An entrance to Absolute Space opened in midair behind the orcs.
“Krk!?”
Startled by the sudden abnormal phenomenon, all seven orcs turned their heads to look behind them.
And during that brief moment when the orcs had stopped…
Flames burst from the entrance to Absolute Space, and a sound rang out that resembled a giant letting out a thunderous fart.
Buuuuuuuuuk!
This was the sound of the GAU-8 Avenger unleashing its barrage.
Papapapapapapapapapapap!
Countless bullets poured out from the entrance of Absolute Space and instantly swallowed the seven orcs.
Yet surprisingly, the seven orcs did not collapse immediately.
If this had been Earth-104, they would have turned to dust the moment they were grazed. But here, the orcs raised their arms to form guards and endured the rain of 30×173 mm armor-piercing rounds that fell like a torrential downpour.
But they endured it only briefly.
The armor-piercing rounds that continued to pour from the GAU-8 embedded dozens of hits into each orc in barely ten seconds, ultimately ending the lives of the ordinary orcs.
No matter how different the ordinary orcs here were from those on Earth-104, they could not withstand the concentrated close-range fire of a GAU-8.
However, there was one different orc.
The massive orc that had stood at the very front.
The one who clearly looked like an elite orc had completely endured the concentrated fire.
More precisely, the 30×173 mm armor-piercing rounds could not penetrate his body.
“Kruuuuuup!!!!!!”
The creature hurled one of the two axes it held toward the entrance of Absolute Space.
Whirrrrr! KWAANG!
The axe flew into Absolute Space, but it seemed to hit something and stop.
The firing from the GAU-8 also ceased.
But by then, all the ordinary orcs except the elite one had already collapsed on the ground.
Some had already died, and those still alive were gasping for breath, looking as though they would stop breathing at any moment.
Seeing this, the elite orc roared in fury and immediately charged toward the entrance to Absolute Space.
It was intended to plunge into the entrance and slaughter the enemies inside.
He was an elite warrior of the Graymane Orc Tribe, an orc warrior who had once been acknowledged by Kumkaris, the eternal great chieftain of the orcs.
Because of that, the pride he possessed was immense, and for the sake of that pride, he had to tear his enemies apart immediately.
“Grrruph!”
And so, the moment he thrust his body into Absolute Space without hesitation…
Something happened that he had never expected.
The Absolute Space entrance is closed.
Slice.
The elite orc’s body was split apart, its upper half from the head to the chest separated from the lower half.
Just like long ago, when Seon Yul had first awakened the Absolute Space ability and severed the neck of an elite orc.
This time as well, Seon Yul used the same method to cut the elite orc’s body in half.
The elite orc possessed a tough and resilient body strong enough to deflect 30×173 mm armor-piercing rounds, but before the utterly absolute cutting power of the entrance to Absolute Space, it was nothing more than a lump of meat.
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