The moment Yeomyeong shouted, the Saintess rose from her seat.

Three seconds left. She opened the back door of the truck.
Two seconds. She raised her rifle and aimed.
One second. She fired.

Bang!

The shell casing flew up, and the bullet left the barrel. Cutting through the air and defying fate, the bullet collided with its target.

An anti-tank rocket.

In the original future, that rocket should have blown the truck apart with one hit, but it exploded with just a single bullet.

KWAANG!!!

The aftermath of the explosion swept through the back of the truck. It rattled, and the rear wheels wobbled, but that was all.

Standing on the still-moving truck, the Saintess made a "V" sign with her fingers toward the stunned mercenaries.
A brief silence followed.

Amid the bewilderment and tension, Yeomyeong was the first to move. After briefly scanning the outside, he didn’t hesitate and jumped out of the back of the truck.

“Hey! Where are you going?!”

The Saintess shouted, snapping the mercenaries back to their senses. They quickly checked the situation outside.

“What the hell is all that?”

“…We’ve got a tail.”

Five trucks and over a dozen motorcycles.

They had anticipated an ambush, but who would’ve thought they’d be facing numbers that could rival an entire mercenary group?

“Hey, driver! How did you not notice this until now?!”

One of the mercenaries screamed in panic. Commander Kwon, observing the attackers, spoke up.

“It’s magic. Not a single engine sound... they’ve clearly come prepared.”

Just as Commander Kwon said, there was no sound coming from the vehicles tailing them.
There was no doubt about it — this was magic, and it had to be the work of a high-level magician.

“This situation feels oddly familiar,” muttered Kim Mansu, recalling the recent events in Northern Manju. He glanced at the commander, whose expression mirrored his own.

“Their numbers are too large for them to just be after the dragon’s rib. These people are here for something else.”

The commander quickly assessed the situation and grabbed his weapons — a massive machine gun and a greatsword, both suited to his large frame.

“Those who aren’t superhumans, stay and protect Darulma and the truck. The rest of you, get ready to engage. And Saintess, you—”

Before he could finish his command, the Saintess had already leaped out of the truck, cradling a bundle of weapons.
The sound of her hitting the ground echoed after her.

“…It seems she intends to fight with us.”

Commander Kwon finished his sentence, then jumped out of the truck. Kim Mansu and the superhuman mercenaries followed like seasoned soldiers, leaping after him.

Thud!

The cold air of Manju brushed against the mercenaries as they landed. The wretched atmosphere of the battlefield.

BRROOOOM!

Only now did the spell break, and the engines of the motorcycles roared, piercing the mercenaries’ ears.

The mercenaries immediately took up combat positions, but instead of charging at them, the motorcycles veered off in a long arc.
Were they trying to avoid a fight? No, it was clear they intended to chase after the truck.

‘They’re trying to cut us off. There must be a commander giving them orders.’

It was evident that these attackers were not just ordinary thugs but people with military training, possibly mercenaries themselves.

Commander Kwon raised his machine gun and shouted.

“The priority is the motorcycles! Don’t let them get near the truck!”

No further instructions were needed. The seasoned mercenaries responded immediately.

The rifle-wielding mercenaries opened fire, while those with short-range weapons sprinted toward the enemy.

DUDUDUDUDU!!!

The attackers on motorcycles didn’t sit back either. They returned fire with their guns or threw grenades to disrupt the mercenaries.

But the mercenaries here were all superhumans. Their mobility and reflexes far exceeded those of the motorcycle riders.

While the motorcycles toppled one by one, the mercenaries took minimal damage and maintained the upper hand.

In the end, with casualties mounting, the motorcycles gave up fighting and turned their focus back to the truck.

“Right side! Don’t let them flank us!”

Fate’s cruel twist. The mercenary tasked with covering the right side had just finished reloading.
The motorcycles seized the opportunity and surged into the blind spot.

A moment of carelessness had created a gap. Commander Kwon could already picture the truck being torn apart in his mind.

‘If we lose the truck, we’ll be exposed to the next wave of attacks. I have to prevent that...’

As he fell into deep thought, something flew toward the flanking motorcycles and exploded.

KA-BOOM!!!

It was a familiar explosion. How could he not recognize the rocket that had struck the back of the truck just moments earlier?

Commander Kwon instinctively turned to see where the rocket had come from. And there, his eyes met the Saintess’s, who was throwing away the now-empty rocket launcher.

While the other mercenaries stood with their jaws dropped, the Saintess raised her twin rifles and gestured toward them with her chin.
The meaning of the gesture was clear: hurry up and finish off the remaining motorcycles.

“…Do they teach military training in the Sacred Nation these days?”

One of the mercenaries cracked a dry joke, but Commander Kwon scowled and shouted.

“If you have time for jokes, you should be fighting! Are you going to let the rookie handle everything up front?!”

Commander Kwon’s reprimand had an immediate effect. The battle resumed on the vast plains of Manju.

 

With the sounds of gunfire behind him, Yeomyeong focused on what lay ahead.
Five trucks encircled him.

Spreading his mana, he sensed a familiar presence from each truck — the twisted mana signature of the Shepherds.

Just like at the Northern Manju base, Yeomyeong couldn’t understand why the Korean government was pulling such stunts in Manju.

A complicated political issue? Or perhaps an extension of the “insanity” that Seti had mentioned?

There was no way to be sure, but one thing was certain.

If he messed up their plans here, the government would undoubtedly start paying attention to him.

It was different from when he had secretly killed Shepherds while hiding as a dung beetle. Now, Cheonyeomyeong was a name that had emerged into the world.

As these thoughts briefly crossed his mind, Yeomyeong drew his sword and swung it through the air.
Ting!

The bullet aimed at him ricocheted off, clattering to the ground. The reverberations in the blade told him this wasn’t just any ordinary bullet.

‘...Special rounds?’

For them to successfully ambush a mercenary corps with more than a dozen superhumans, they had to be prepared with some tricks.

Yeomyeong didn’t need to think any further. He infused mana into his legs. The energy of Pahyanggyeol rippled through him, and his body accelerated like a flash of light.

“Kill him!”

The moment a voice filled with twisted mana rang out, the doors of the trucks burst open, and humans spilled out.

Their eyes were bloodshot, drooling as they staggered, the mercenaries were anything but normal.

‘Zombies? No… They’ve infused living humans with twisted mana?’

Though their bodies were filled with distorted mana, the real problem was the location of the mana.
The brain. Without exception, the twisted mana had taken root in their brains.

Yeomyeong scowled and tightened his grip on his sword.

Despite their grotesque appearance, these mercenaries were far more dangerous than ordinary zombies. The fact that they were armed with firearms and assumed shooting positions without hesitation proved that.

DUDUDUDUDU!!!!!

As expected, a barrage of precise gunfire poured down on him. Yeomyeong zigzagged to avoid the bullets as he ran.

But avoiding every bullet in the open plains of Manju was impossible.

One bullet grazed his cheek, another hit his side, two pierced his chest, and four embedded themselves in his left hand, which he had raised as a shield.

‘None of them are fatal.’

Relying on his regenerative abilities to endure the injuries, Yeomyeong closed the distance between him and his enemies. He pulled a grenade from his waist and hurled it.

With the strength of a superhuman, the grenade didn’t follow an arc — it flew in a straight line like a baseball pitch.
KA-BOOM!!
The grenade exploded, and the unlucky mercenaries’ limbs were blown apart.

Though the gunfire continued, the enemy’s firing line now had a gap.

Yeomyeong didn’t miss that opportunity. In an instant, he dashed into the gap, reaching the mercenaries in no time.

Boom!

It started with the Remington MH750. Then, the standard iron sword. And finally, Pahyanggyeol.

Yeomyeong employed every technique he knew, giving the mercenaries the “rest” they deserved. Like a farmer harvesting crops, he felled the infected mercenaries without pause.

As their numbers visibly dwindled, a distorted voice rang out once more.

“Shoot! Kill him!”

At the command, the mercenaries opened fire recklessly, caring little if their own comrades were caught in the crossfire.

RATATATATATA!!!

They pulled the triggers over and over, determined to sink bullets into Yeomyeong’s body, no matter who else got hit.

But their efforts were futile. Yeomyeong threw himself behind the truck for cover, using the corpses of fallen mercenaries as shields to evade the gunfire.

Though a few bullets did manage to hit him, his regeneration abilities far surpassed those of other superhumans. As long as his brain wasn’t directly hit, he could withstand even special rounds.

In the end, the battle turned into a tedious war of attrition. A seemingly endless battle between a superhuman with exceptional regenerative abilities and an army of human shields.

And the victor... was Yeomyeong. Eventually, the mercenaries’ numbers dwindled to the point where they could no longer stop him.

As Yeomyeong granted the few remaining mercenaries their final rest, he scanned his surroundings.

The smell of gunpowder, blood, and foul stench filled the air.

Amidst the overwhelming stench that made him feel suffocated, he searched for the source of it all.

The Shepherd, whether wearing a pig’s head or a cow’s head, had to be dealt with. Only then could this tedious fight come to an end.

‘...Where is he?’

But locating the Shepherd wasn’t easy. Could it be that his senses were dulled by the twisted mana seeping from the dying mercenaries? Something ominous brushed against his back, just out of reach.

It was as if...

“O, Immortal King!”

At that moment, a distorted voice echoed in his ears. Yeomyeong immediately fired his shotgun in the direction of the voice.
Boom!

The specially treated bullet hit the enemy. But what it shattered wasn’t a body — it was a mana-formed shield.
Crack! The shield splintered, scattering mana dust.

‘A shield? Proper magic? How?’

Yeomyeong frowned as he finally saw his opponent’s face, and then it all made sense. This wasn’t a Shepherd wearing a pig or cow head.

It was a grotesquely twisted horse’s head.

Bloodshot beast-like eyes locked with Yeomyeong’s. Just as Yeomyeong moved to swing his sword, the horse-headed figure finished chanting.

“Corpse Explosion.”