───Crack!

"Enemy infiltration in the Delta sector! Confirmed enemy numbers: 2!"

"Engaging 2 enemies in the Beta sector. I'll manually operate the gate and enter."

Light beams shoot through the darkness toward each other, illuminated by the flames of napalm.

Tossing grenades and laying down sticky mines, I fire steam-type napalm rounds at the temporary blockhouse. Each moment feels like it’s been split into microseconds, and I can feel the passage of time in every pore of my skin. As a result, time fluctuates between feeling unbearably slow and terrifyingly fast.

The recoil felt from my position. Each time I pull the trigger, enemies slump to the ground as if their strings have been cut... However, what’s even more frightening is the enormous metal mass in Eugene’s bag. Given its weight, he throws the bag off during combat immediately.

As a grenade flies in and flames erupt right before my eyes, I hide behind cover and turn my head to the right, only to meet a pair of piercing blue eyes.

"…That won’t explode if shot, right?"

"It’ll explode in an hour even if it’s not shot."

"Yikes."

On the large metal sphere are mechanical devices connected by wires.

Just as Eugene said, in one hour, the sensors connected to the mechanism through those wires would continuously transmit incorrect speed and G-values to that warhead, turning the massive metal chunk into a colossal fireball that would vaporize any caught enemies at the atomic level.

That’s why Eugene, I, and Logan and Dice, who went to the other side, planned to hide this bomb deep within the base and escape to the designated withdrawal point.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Eugene and Logan, who seemed to have worked together in the past, always presented a clear operational plan—activate the bomb, drop it into enemy territory, and run. The rest would be solved by personal physicality.

It was truly simple.

I wished those who see operations as intricate puzzles or gears could learn from this.

"How much further to the target point?"

"Just about 50 meters more."

"Okay. Oxygen is running low, so wear your masks and let’s wrap this up."

Fwoosh!

I put on the oxygen mask. A cool, refreshing air rushes in as Eugene and I both disperse the napalm vapor into the air. Then, the igniting powder behind the canister detonates, producing another burst of flame in the air, and the oxygen concentration drops below 10% in an instant.

What happens next is obvious. As we quietly hide behind cover, the sounds of gunfire and voices gradually begin to diminish. About two minutes later, I see friends who are heading towards eternal rest, as if they are sleeping.

They will wake up again, of course. But where they wake up—on a boat in the River Styx or here—is something nobody knows.

"I’ll open the door."

Screech!

There was no answer, but the sound of a gunshot confirming a kill served as a response. The thick gate opens, allowing air to flow in. After that, it’s simple. Shoot at all visible lights, activate night vision, move through the room, and close all gates to prevent anyone from leaving.

Slowly, it seems the other side has established a certain level of engagement tactics; they’ve started bringing in new lighting and activating manual opening functions, or outright destroying the gate control systems to keep the doors from closing.

The intensity of the skirmish is increasing. But ultimately, it doesn’t matter much; even without placing the warhead in a specific location, the explosive power of the nuke would at least guarantee some level of results. In other words, if the maximum possible result is 100, at least 70% of the result could be assured.

And frankly speaking, the odds of any enemy defeating Icarus operators in combat were not very high.

"Tracking mine! Take cover!"

"Ah, ahhh! Aaaaah—!"

Boom!

A loud explosion erupts as a grenade detonates. Following that, a pulse sweeps across the map. The positions of twenty-five enemies are instantly marked, along with any penetrable walls. Thus, enemies hiding behind thin steel plates collapse within seconds.

The only downside is that the ammunition consumption is a bit high. But for today, Eugene and I have unified our weapons to MK47 Mutants, meaning the 7.62x39mm of the Russian military’s AK-type rifles are compatible with our guns.

There aren’t many friends carrying green tips—here they’re black tips—so that’s a pity, but at least it’s compatible. Just pulling out an AK magazine lying around allows us to fire bullets as if they were ours.

"50 minutes left. We need to solve this in 15 minutes to avoid the explosion."

"Ugh, no matter how much you whip me, it won’t work. There are too many enemies!"

Regardless, if you endure patiently, you will prevail—though, in reality, we hadn’t advanced; the enemies were retreating. Specifically, they had fixed the doors to an open state using manual operation and were retreating to form a defensive line in the back.

We didn’t bulldoze through the enemies, but as long as we reach the lower levels, we’d be fine.

Once the enemies had all exited the room, I released the manual control on the door, completely shut it, and fired bullets into the controls for the reinforced door. At that moment, the enemies who had formed a defensive line beyond the room sensed something was wrong and started shooting, but it was already too late.

We quickly descended the stairs and shot up all the lights and CCTV we could see, then entered inside. The area revealed itself, set up with shabby beds and recreational facilities.

───Boom!

"Phew, finally I can put this damn heavy metal down."

"You’ve worked hard."

While I made time-delay traps with grenades and fishing lines collected from fallen allied troops, Eugene carefully loosened the screws on the locked storeroom door and slowly opened it. A pile of coverings showed the musty smell of mold, dirt, and concrete wafting from around the storeroom.

Lifting the 300kg metal mass with a grunt, Eugene placed the warhead down beside the pile of coverings and then neatly stacked some military uniforms atop it.

Coming outside and re-tightening the screws connecting the storeroom door, Eugene added:

"Do you think the enemies will notice that within 30 minutes?"

"I don’t think they’d find it even in three years."

"Then it’s done."

Then, checking the text messages, I saw a notification that Logan and Dice had finished the installation about three minutes ago. Since there had been a wireless silence, I couldn’t reply, but they had evidently wrapped things up more quickly.

Quickly responding, Eugene patted my shoulder and spoke.

"Let’s head out now."

"Good."

After that, it was simple.

All the paths we came through were smashed with CCTV and lights, so the enemies had no idea where we had gone. As the enemies were busy breaking down the iron doors they had locked themselves into, we had already reached the entrance to the Delta sector, and now we leisurely watched the enemies, who were using armored vehicles and sirens to search for intruders.

When we reached the rendezvous point, the space shimmered, and two familiar figures appeared.

"So, what should we ride out on?"

"We need to move at least 10km within 30 minutes for safety, so we should take a vehicle if possible."

"Unfortunately, we only have an ATV."

Somehow, I had a bad feeling about that.

And there was no reason for that feeling to be wrong. The two who brought out the ATV hidden in the hangar, as if carrying a sack of rice, blatantly started it up, and Dice had a half-dazed expression. I was similar. But we had to get the job done, so I projected a hologram of the way outside.

Taking the back seat behind Eugene amidst the noise of the sirens, I had a minor commotion as I accidentally sat with my snake tail draped down, but I quickly adjusted my position and strapped myself in to prevent being thrown off.

The moment our backs pressed together, the roar of the engine echoed.

"What’s that sound?"

"Who’s there…? It’s the enemy! The infiltration team is over there!"

"We’re on the ATV! Open fire!"

Of course, there were only four or five who were alert, and bullets pierced the brows of friends who tried to shout that they found the infiltration team.

Leaving behind the allied troops sprawled out on the floor like discarded puppets, we raced up a slight hill that seemed to have been perfectly carved. At the same time, there was a swoosh. As the remote hacking round struck the northern gate, the barrier that was about to rise was brought down.

Naturally, the barrier went back up to prevent any follow-up pursuit.

"Ugh, this speed is insane!?"

"Hold on tight, I’m going to drift."

"Whoa, we’re going over 90km/h, if we turn we’ll flip—ugh!"

Of course, we wouldn’t flip. The weight of the user was half that of the ATV. I never imagined I would feel the term "overcoming inertia with body weight" here.

Regardless, amidst such shenanigans, we entered the 5th Highway through the northern gate. The unnecessarily blue sky and the self-propelled artillery units visible several kilometers away, and the roadblock personnel diligently firing their guns nearby as if they had received the news of the situation.

However, as Eugene passed by and I followed up with a steam napalm hit, they really enjoyed it. The flames caught onto the checkpoint facility, and fortunately, the enemies were only knocked down by the explosion’s aftermath, so in a way, it might not be lethal.

However, in stark contrast to my thoughts, vehicles began to follow us.

"Please take care of this."

"As long as you don’t zigzag in the middle…Whoa! Don’t turn!"

"I won’t stop you if you want to drive instead."

Of course, I readily took up my weapon. If I took the wheel, I would probably ruin the ATV.

I adjusted the concentration of the napalm. From vapor to liquid. The liquefied napalm, thickened with various mixed agents, shattered against the front windshield of the enemy vehicle, obscuring their vision with a purple liquid, while the powdered explosives mixed in ignited all at once, causing flames to begin scorching the windshield mercilessly.

Thus, the moment the bulletproof glass shattered, it was only natural that flaming shards of glass poured into the driver’s seat.

───Screech! Bang!

"Oh dear, I hope they meet a peaceful end."

Meanwhile, medium machine guns mounted on GAZ Tigers began joining in one by one.

Rushing with polyurethane foam, I aimed precisely at the rotation mechanism part and detonated it, literally causing it to solidify. Furthermore, since it blocked the external camera, the machine gun became just a decoration.

At that moment, while I couldn’t penetrate the glass, I could certainly shatter their line of sight. One of the vehicles collided head-on with another parked vehicle, retiring it on the spot. While it might still function, the driver likely received quite a shock.

As I gradually erased the enemies one by one behind the shield, we soon found ourselves about 15km away from the explosion site.

Fortunately, the nearby area was already reclaimed by our forces. Thus, the enemies pursuing us were all obliterated by our firepower, and we parked the rather battered ATV. Following that, a casual fan meeting ensued.

"No, Eugene! What kind of trouble did you cause this time to suddenly appear here?"

"Sign this, please! Sign!"

"Wrap your tail around me, ah! My shins…!"

"Wow, the anti-meme army boot performance is insane."

Of course, naturally, a few of my fans were among them, so an unexpectedly warm atmosphere unfolded… but today was not yet over.

Turning off the ignition completely, Eugene fiddled with his watch, and soon began gathering users one by one, eventually collecting more than 40 of them.

"Alright, everyone, take out your popcorn and 3D glasses… please look in the direction I point."

"Oh, what’s this? Is there something happening again?"

"You’ll know when you see it."

At that moment, a whiff of caramel popcorn wafted through the air.

Naturally, even in this dark world, humor and fun were not lost, and within seconds, various female avatars donned 3D glasses with star shapes, square shapes, and even candles on their heads, sitting on the ground and munching popcorn.

Meanwhile, a countdown suddenly appeared before my eyes. Everyone except the four of us turned their expectant faces toward the direction Eugene had indicated.

Five seconds passed—

───Kuuuuuu…!

"…Huh?"

"What? No way?"

"…Teacher, that’s a mushroom cloud, isn’t it?"

"That’s right. Isn’t it beautiful?"

A sight that surpassed imagination unfolded.

In that moment, Dice stifled a giggle and formed a camera, capturing the scene, and after a few flashes, the nuclear explosion viewing event concluded.

"Really… I’m not sure how to express this, but you’re the best, Teacher. You deserve first place."

"Haha, thank you."

That’s definitely not a compliment.

Of course, I couldn’t voice that thought.

With the wrath of the atom, the path to the Lewis-McCode Joint Base was opened.

"An emergency call? What’s going on?"

"At the Maginot Line… an explosion presumed to be a nuclear explosion has occurred. Considering the estimated radius and the radiation leakage, it’s presumed to be roughly two 1kt explosions."

"The enemy stronghold has been completely obliterated."

"Huh."

With a dazed expression, Captain Powell opened his mouth, stammering as he looked at the screen.

"What does the Dagger Team have to say?"

"They added that it’s not their doing."

"That makes sense."

For some reason, the word "for now" stuck in my throat. It felt scratchy. But that fact would be clarified later when we checked the operation logs, so the truth didn’t matter for the moment.

Even as that happened, holographic maps displayed the size of the epicenter and the estimated extent of damage to the enemy fortress’s structures. It was only an estimate because the existence of enemy air defense systems made it difficult to obtain a reliable result through UAV reconnaissance.

Of course, things would change going forward.

"Prepare for SEAD and cruise missile bombardment. Order the Dagger Team to position themselves at the highest altitude for laser guidance as soon as possible. Now that the enemy territory is in disarray, this is the perfect opportunity."

"Understood. I’ll issue the orders immediately."

"Commence the final glory operation as of now. Assemble all staff!"

With just one step.

The cornerstone adorned with nuclear power was laid down, opening the path to Seattle.

'Finally…!'

The operation advisor, Captain Powell, and everyone working in the operation control room tightened their grips.

The operation to reclaim America had begun.