I only revealed this information to the officers.  

The others also seem quite shocked.  

“It is a bit surprising. But we don’t have any major complaints, really.”  

The silver lining is that most of the soldiers are local, excluding the 423rd Battalion.  

Even among them, there are likely fewer dissatisfied ones compared to the soldiers from other regions who have families there.  

“Don’t tell the soldiers about this.”  

“For morale?”  

“As you’ve guessed, even if that barrier opens up someday, it’s still just a speculation. The fact that the path to other regions is blocked isn’t enough to cover up.”  

It’s something that will have to be said eventually, but there’s no immediate need for it now.  

“This really throws a wrench in our plans.”  

Corporal Seo Su-hyeok said while looking at the map.  

“The original plan was to gradually advance to the Gyeonggi-do region by following this subway line…”  

“Well, that plan is now cancelled.”  

“But we can’t just give up on advancing to other regions.”  

Staying only in Inje-gun isn’t necessarily a bad choice either.  

Small towns have sprung up around the base and bunkers.  

“If we keep on the current course, housing the survivors and hunting monsters to grow our forces, we could achieve a fairly stable growth. But…”  

Min-jae hyung sighed as he looked at me.  

“I suppose your thoughts would be the opposite.”  

“You know me well.”  

Stable growth isn’t bad either.  

But the problem is, Inje-gun was never a densely populated city to begin with.  

“It was a city that maintained its economy thanks to the many military bases. But now that those soldiers have been wiped out, housing the arriving survivors and growing will soon reach its limits.”  

That’s why I had considered the route of subjugating the monsters.  

If we gradually occupy the military bases scattered throughout Inje-gun, we could secure a lot of weapons.  

But the limiting factor is the manpower to actually use them.  

In the end, we need to maintain our forces here and expand our presence to other cities.  

If this base and bunker are the main strategic points, then now we need to multiply our outposts.  

“The regions we’re currently considering within Gangwon-do are about three places.”  

Min-jae hyung laid out the map and spoke.  

“Chuncheon, Sokcho, and Yanggu-gun.”  

“I understand the other two, but Yanggu-gun? Isn’t that a relatively small place compared to here?”  

It was Lieutenant Kim who answered Sang-ah’s question.  

“The headquarters of our legion is located there.”  

“Huh? Our guild headquarters?”  

“No, not the headquarters of the Awakened Legion… I mean the corps headquarters of the superior unit of the 423rd battalion.”  

“Ah, I see!”  

The 12th Corps of the Republic of Korea Army Ground Operations Command,  

which the 423rd Anti-Aircraft Artillery Battalion is subordinate to.  

That’s the very legion headquarters where those two drivers were supposed to head to when Lieutenant Kim sent them away.  

In fact, it’s not just our battalion.  

The 12th Corps is responsible for the defense of the central and northern regions of Gangwon-do.  

Even this ammunition depot is part of the 12th Corps Logistics Support Group, supporting the 12th Corps.  

The tank battalion we recently recaptured is part of the armored brigade under the 12th Corps.  

The military bases scattered around are mostly under the 12th Corps.  

‘When we came down from the mountains, the fact that the corps headquarters was in the western Gangwon region was quite an important factor.’  

I didn’t expect to hear the news that the military bases were wiped out.  

Lieutenant Kim spoke in a serious tone.  

“It was my mistake to hastily send the drivers away from the base. But still, I think we need to check on the status of the higher headquarters.”  

“Hmm. Based on our experience so far, the corps headquarters doesn’t seem likely to be intact either.”  

“That may be true, but as long as we don’t abandon our identity as a military unit, it’s something we have to do.”  

Corporal Jeon Kwang-il expressed his concerns about Lieutenant Kim’s words.  

His concerns weren’t entirely unfounded, but…  

The stronger the military unit, the more powerful the monster that seems to have taken over it.  

‘The corps headquarters, of all places.’  

I can’t even imagine how strong the creature there might be.  

“It would be difficult to confirm it through a spirit barrier, wouldn’t it?”  

“Yes… Not only is the distance is an issue, but most of the military bases have blocked Bangul’s approach. I’m truly sorry I couldn’t be of help to our benefactor…”  

“No, there’s nothing to apologize for. It can’t be helped.”  

Soo-ah was being overly polite, to the point of being burdensome.  

Well, if push comes to shove, we could just send in some vampires as expendable scouts.  

“If you insist on checking the corps headquarters, it would be difficult to simply drag the soldiers along.”  

“How about this? We can slowly absorb the nearby military bases as we advance northward, and then make the push for the headquarters once we have enough of our forces.”  

“That’s too slow to begin with. Wasn’t that the reason we were looking for other ways to expand faster.”  

 Somehow, the discussion turned into a heated debate about whether or not to advance to the corps headquarters.  

Just as I was about to chime in with my own thoughts,  

“Excuse me, Sergeants.”  

“The corps headquarters is in a strategically important location. There’s nothing wrong with quickly securing it, is there-”  

“I’m sorry to interrupt, but…”  

A soldier opened the door and entered, followed by a man.  

“Please, please help me.”  

“Huh? Help you with what?”  

“Who are you, coming here of all places…”  

“Please…”  

The man suddenly collapsed to the floor without any further explanation.  

The words that came out of his mouth as he fell were quite significant.  

“The dungeon… The dungeon has swallowed the city…”  

Dungeon.  

…Dungeon, he said?  

Unwittingly, the next course of action for the unit had just been decided.