Chapter 92

The most important thing right now was finishing this fight. That much was still a fact. The stagnant wait continued. Since cutting the woman’s neck, things were quiet for a while. Then they tried provoking them by tossing out some body parts, but didn’t do anything else after that.

Yohan didn’t know what was happening inside the building, though he could guess. It was unlikely that they were raping the women since they didn’t know when they were going to attack. Most likely, they were waiting to ambush or snipe them.

‘How much time has passed?’

It was dusk. The sun was setting in the horizon and darkness spread across the sky. Finally, Yohan heard what he was waiting for.

— “Kid, it’s me. I’ve arrived at Sang Dong Station. Can I come over?”

“I’ve been waiting. Yes, cross the border and come to the S zone parking lot.”

Soon, they were joined by the old man and his mercenaries. The old man extended his hand to Yohan and Yohan grasped it.

“Did you get the item?”

“Of course boy. We aren’t mercs for nothing.”

“How many did you get?”

The old man held up three fingers. Yohan nodded.

“Not as many as I thought.”

“We did manage to get more, but there weren’t any batteries. It would be nice if we had a charger. Chul Goo, give it to him.” The old man gestured with his head and Chul Goo placed a yellow box on the ground. Inside were three pairs of night vision goggles and some grenades.

“Thank you. What about the other items?”

“I haven’t gotten them yet. You said you wanted these first.”

“I did.”

“Great. Keep your promise.”

Yohan nodded his head. The old man managed to deliver the items sooner than he expected. He wasn’t lying when he said that he knew all the areas nearby and that he could get whatever they needed.

“So this is your camp. It’s a nice big place.”

“Yes. Since there are a lot of people at the family association, you can move some of them here.”

“But the border wall is pretty weak though. How many people were you thinking of leaving behind?”

“I’m not sure exactly. At least 10.”

“I see. Got it. Cold-hearted bastard.”

“What do you mean?”

“I’m going to make them into good fighters and work them hard. I’m good at educating idiots.”

Yohan shrugged. Honestly, he didn’t really care. As long as he wasn’t going to butcher them and eat them, it was none of his business since he had already decided to ditch them.

“I’ve said this before, but we don’t fight wars.”

“That’s fine.”

This was his fight and Yohan also hadn’t decided if he wanted to continue working with the mercenaries yet. It would be bad to ask more from them and be indebted to them. Instead, he thanked the old man once more and called his recon team.

“Sweeper, Ha Jin, Hyuk, and Corporal Ong, come to the parking lot. Saeri, take Sweeper’s place and Jung Hwan take Corporal Ong’s spot.”

The four people arrived immediately as Yohan commanded. He explained his plan.

“We’re going to ambush them tonight.”

“Huh? Just the five of us?” Sweeper asked.

“Yeah. I’m going to explain the plan, so listen carefully.” Yohan began the briefing and the recon team members listened quietly. The old man and his mercenaries stood nearby with their hands behind their backs. They looked entertained as they observed the scene. Yohan pointed at a window on the building currently housing their enemies.

“You see how that room is lit up? As you can see, there is sustainable energy providing electricity to the recon team shelter. Since they have good vision, even if the sun goes down, they won’t be using night vision goggles or flashlights.”

The recon team shelter had stand-alone solar panels, which was the source of its electricity. It could store up to 10 car batteries worth of power, enough to keep the building lit up throughout the night. With the lights on and with the fact that the enemy knew they had geographical advantage, they would be susceptible to attack if things suddenly went dark. Yohan moved his finger to the corner next to the solar panels on the roof.

“That box. Inside the switchboard box is a battery, controller, fuse, as well as the inverter. If you disconnect the wires in there, the electricity will instantly go out. We’ll destroy the box with a molotov and grenade. Once it’s completely dark, we’ll start the raid.”

There would be a brief moment of complete darkness once the lights went out. In that time window, the recon team would use the night vision goggles that they had prepared to take advantage of the darkness. Sweeper shouted in excitement once he heard the plan.

‘What in the world goes through his head?’

“Wow…I didn’t think they would use them like this. But will it be okay? I think it’ll be impossible for them to kill all the men inside, even if they’re busy looking for flashlights.” The mercenaries muttered to each other.

“There’s no need to kill them all.” Yohan replied, overhearing them. “The entrance will be the most heavily guarded location. We’ll probably have one minute until they’re able to see again after the lights go off. In that one minute we’ll kill everyone that we can find. Go take your positions at the entrance. The other recon team members outside will fire their guns to create some confusion. During that time, we’ll go underground and take out the people there.”

“And then?”

“We’ll burn them all.” Yohan replied with a violent smile. “Once we get the people out, they’ll have to worry about getting burned alive.”

Yohan’s plan sent chills down their spines.

“Ha Jin, start practicing throwing to the roof. First throw the molotov. If that doesn’t shut off the electricity, throw the grenade right at the box. Corporal Ong, you cover Ha Jin during this. Once the mission starts, you tell everyone else waiting outside to start shooting all at once. Hyuk, Sweeper, and I will be near the entrance. We’ll enter as soon as the lights go out.

“Oh, us three again?” Sweeper mumbled to himself. However, he was happy.

All the recon team members nodded their heads in unison. They had no doubt that the plan was going to go off without a hitch.

* * *

It was dark out. It was a new moon, so there wasn’t even sunlight reflected off of that celestial body. It was the darkest time of day. The recon team shelter was the only place that had light.

Yohan’s group moved with light footsteps, utilizing the shadows and blind spots as they walked around the building, pouring gasoline as they went. There wasn’t much time, but it was enough. They thoroughly soaked the area and moved a barrel of gas to a blind spot near the entrance. The top of the barrel was open.

Yohan, Hyuk, and Sweeper crept along the wall with their night vision goggles on. The sour smell of gasoline filled their nostrils. Waiting for the signal to begin felt like an eternity. Through their goggles, the world looked yellow. And through their yellow vision, they could clearly see some red figures moving around. They had practiced shooting with night vision on, it was now time to put that practice to use in an actual battle. Another second passed, but it felt like an hour.

Finally, they heard the sound of Ha Jin throwing a molotov. Their hearts started racing. The molotov was effective and, since it was relatively quiet compared to the grenade, it was unlikely the enemy noticed the sound. It was great that Ha Jin succeeded on the first try. The fire swallowed up the wires that were sticking out of the box.

There was a loud zap as the lights went out. The moment they went off, Yohan entered the building. As expected, there were a lot of guards. Two, four…eight people. The eight union members were still looking around, surprised that the lights had suddenly gone out. A few were struggling to get flightlights out of their bags when bullets struck them like thunder.

Semi-automatic fire filled the room. Gunfire, screams, and other noise alerted the building to the intruders. However, taking down eight people didn’t even take 30 seconds.

“Sweeper!” Yohan called out.

“Roger!” Sweeper took his position on the stairs, halfway up to the next floor. He got ready to shoot anyone that came down to buy time for the other two.

Yohan and Hyuk headed down to the underground area together. There were five people standing while everyone else was lying down with their face to the ground. They were outnumbered, but the enemy only had one flashlight. One flashlight was not enough to handle two agile combatants in the dark. Yohan calmly shot the man holding the flashlight in the head. Hyuk started firing behind him a split second later. It took only 15 seconds to eliminate the five enemies. The hostages reacted moments later and started screaming. Yohan and Hyuk opened the door to the underground chamber.

“Everyone, get out! Run to the building across the street!”

The camp members immediately began running and exiting the building. There was no order in the chaos and some people fell and got trampled on. However, everyone still managed to get out in time. Yohan and Hyuk joined Sweeper to assist him. There was already a pile of corpses where the stairwell turned. Suppression fire was coming down from the second and third floor. The trio fired back to deter the enemy from getting to the first floor. It took a few minutes for everyone to escape.

“There’s no one left inside.” Elder Park reported clearly. He was the last to exit the building. He was lending his support to Seo Jun and the pair walked as quickly as they could. Elder Park’s actions were noteworthy as everyone else was too busy taking care of themselves. The stairwell defenders killed two more enemies before Yohan shouted.

“Withdraw!”

Things were going smoothly. But then, from the top of the stairwell, someone was quickly descending without a flashlight. With their night vision goggles, they could clearly see that it was a short man.

“It’s Dwarf!’

They couldn’t shoot him. Dwarf was holding a round, black object. A grenade. At that moment, time seemed to freeze for Yohan. It was a familiar feeling. He felt like he was the only one that was able to perceive the slow passage of time. He immediately grabbed Hyuk by the hand. Sweeper grabbed his other hand almost at the same time. The three leapt over the handrail of the stairwell.

The grenade landed where they were just moments ago. It rolled for a split second before a loud explosion engulfed the area. The trio stood up at the same time and, without saying anything to each other, they all ran out of the building. Sweeper flicked on his lighter, kicked over the barrel of gasoline, and tossed his lighter onto the fuel.

There was a sudden whoosh as flames rose in an instant. The fire was like a bright red paintbrush as it followed the line of fuel, drawing a graceful curve around the building. Just as Yohan thought it was over, he felt a chill down his spine. It was his danger sense.

“Get down!”

There was another explosion as Dwarf walked through the fire and fired his grenade launcher haphazardly. Flames covered his body, but it did not stop his rampage. Even his eyes had melted from the heat and he didn’t know where his target was, but his random firing was a huge threat. Bullets also scattered throughout the air like fireworks, not targeting anyone in particular.

“Umph—” Yohan tried to suppress a groan as he felt a sharp pain in his back. A bullet had grazed him there. Despite wearing a bulletproof vest, it was so painful that it felt like his insides were burning up.

The fire on Dwarf finally reached the grenade launcher. With a massive explosion, the weapon blew up. Shrapnel slashed across his entire body and, finally, his shooting rampage stopped.

The trio were lying down on the ground. They raised their heads slowly. Before them was the recon team shelter. It looked like hell had broken loose outside, pouring all of its flames around the building. The building itself was completely on fire and the perpetrator of that fire was giving out a mighty roar. Ha Jin was still throwing molotovs, creating fires inside the building. The building had represented the recon team, but now it was transformed into a blazing inferno from hell. It was literally hell on earth.

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