The soldier’s body was torn apart in midair, his blood spraying among the vampires.  

Seong Chol was a man who had recently awakened after being a captive of the raiders.  

But now, with all the guild’s equipment and buffs, he shouldn’t have been weak.  

“Tch. The taste of the blood is unpleasant. Better than nothing, I suppose.”  

Walking out covered in the dead soldier’s blood was a woman.  

Blonde hair, and crimson eyes.  

She couldn’t just be a random foreigner passing by.  

I recalled the words of the captured vampire:  

“Our ruler is the Queen… a noble of a different lineage than us commoner vampires.”  

“Sergeant Shin, that woman, in my opinion…”  

“I’m thinking the same thing.”  

That is the leader of the vampires.  

The monster that has devoured the surrounding survivors and made them her servants.  

‘…We’ve never had a soldier from the guild die before.’  

He may not have been a comrade from the very beginning, but he was someone who was going to fight alongside us.  

The first casualty of the unit.  

Just a moment ago, I had resolved to avoid casualties as much as possible.  

And he was killed without me even being able to do anything.  

This just… really pisses me off.  

“Gwang-il.”  

“Reporting, Corporal Gwang-il.”  

“The boss mob has appeared. You know what to do, right?”  

“Yes.”  

A growling beast sound came from the nodding man’s mouth.  

“Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!  

Boom!!!  

Unleashing his maximum frenzy, Gwang-il’s fist struck towards the Vampire Queen.  

She must be a true boss for a reason.  

The Queen narrowly evaded the attack, but…  

“So, this is the power of a warrior-class. You do pack a punch.”  

The Queen seemed to be breaking a sweat seeing that attack.  

If it had connected, it would have definitely been a critical hit.  

“Supporting Corporal Gwang-il!”  

“Stick in order of level!”  

Looks like she thinks she’s pretty strong.  

But the battle situation is already overwhelmingly in our favor.  

“Tch…! Those accursed paladins!”  

Just one monster showing up isn’t enough to change the tide.  

As the elite soldiers with high levels from each squad engaged her, she was pushed back helplessly.  

But then,  

Ack!  

Her hand grabbed the nape of one of our soldiers.  

I thought he was about to die too but the Queen’s target was not that.  

Her crimson eyes shone with a strange light as she gazed into the soldier’s eyes.  

“Obey me.”  

“…Yes.”  

” Byeong-min!?”  

The soldier nodded his head.  

What the hell.  

Is this similar to the Eye Monster’s ability from the tank battalion?  

The Queen holding the soldier spoke.  

“Answer my question. Who is the strongest among you?”  

The first person that came to my mind at the Queen’s question was Private First Class Gwang-il.  

‘Is she targeting Gwang-il!?’  

Indeed, he was delivering an incredible performance against the Queen.  

If asked to name the strongest in our unit, nine times out of ten, Gwang-il would be mentioned.  

But it seems that was just my own thought.  

“That… that one is.”  

Byeong-min pointed his finger towards me?!  

“Him? He doesn’t look that strong, but…could it be my charm doesn’t work on him?”  

“He may not look it, but Sergeant Shin’s strength is more than meets the eye…”  

“Oh? Tell me more.”  

“Even before his Awakening, Sergeant Shin slew a monster with just a kitchen knife…”  

Well…  

Hmm, what can I say.  

The statement wasn’t exactly wrong.  

“It was Sergeant Shin who finished off the White Spider Queen during the tank battalion’s reclamation operation, and that flesh monster that had been controlling the plunderers.”  

“Hmm!”  

“He even walked alone into the depths of a dungeon and effortlessly slew the boss and returned unscathed.”  

“Interesting, that’s quite impressive.”  

“Even Corporal Gwang-il, renowned for his strength, often says he’s no match for Sergeant Shin, so there’s no disagreement among the unit…”  

“I see.”  

The Queen seemed surprised at how formidable I apparently was.  

“He didn’t look the part, but he seems to be a truly great warrior.”  

She looked at me with an intrigued gaze.  

No, I can more or less understand why the misunderstanding arose.  

“In that case, if I were to eliminate him, your unit’s combat power would be greatly diminished, correct?”  

“It’s not quite like that… Our unit’s combat power is over 70% dependent on Sergeant Shin’s buffs. If he were to disappear, our unit would be so weakened that we couldn’t survive in this world…”  

“Hahaha! Indeed, that seems to be the case!”  

It’s nice that they’re evaluating me so highly, but…!  

“That was a good answer.”  

Thud!  

The captured soldier’s body was flung away. Fortunately, he didn’t seem to have died.  

“It means that with you gone, the rest can be easily handled by my underlings.”  

So, you are the problem.  

The Queen nodded as she said this, looking at me.  

As she pointed her finger at me, a dark shadow began to gather around it.  

“No, you are misunderstanding-”  

“Come with me then.”  

The dark energy swirling around her coalesced and shot towards me.  

“Damn it!”  

I hastily took a defensive stance and dodged, but the shadow seemed to have some kind of special ability and continued to chase after me.  

“Sergeant Shin!”  

“Protect Sergeant Shin!”  

The soldiers came rushing to defend me, but unfortunately, they were a bit too late.  

Prick.  

The moment the black shadow touched my body,  

Whoosh, the sight of the soldiers rushing to protect me vanished.  

No.  

It’s not that the soldiers disappeared.  

‘The one who disappeared would be… me, I suppose.’  

When I came to my senses, I was no longer in the dark bunker.  

Looking up at the sky,  

I saw a blood-red sky, an unrealistic sight not of this world.  

“Am I… dead?”  

This must be the place called Hell, where I arrived the moment the Queen’s attack hit me.  

As I was thinking this,  

“Welcome to my domain, human.”  

A figure suddenly appeared before my eyes.  

The Queen greeted me.  

“Consider it an honor. You are the first I have invited to this place.”  

Ah.  

Damn it.  

‘At least it’s not Hell, but this still seems like a pretty troublesome situation.’