Rust - Chapter 1045

Only Krnovel

RUST -1045

Piece by piece, roots digging into the concrete road.

Quaddukduk-

The sound of destruction was clearly heard amidst the chaos of gunshots and screams. Roots that had grown to the size of a person’s arm were now digging up the road.

It seemed as if the roots were digging into the ground, but instead of reaching up to the sky, the thin brown tree that had grown together began to spread out sideways.

The sight of a plant that devoured a road in just a few tens of seconds, spreading its territory in all directions. The branches that weave in all directions like a net and the leaves that bloom along the branches create a small green space in an instant.

The sight of the corpses and injured people piled on the ground being completely transformed into nutrients. The small green space grew larger in real time, and an area with a radius of over 1km was transformed into a jungle.

As the blood, flesh, wounded, and protesters within range disappeared into the jungle, Maru headed to the next building.

As we broke through the outer wall of the building with the New Clips, what greeted us was a bomb.

“You son of a monster!”

“Die!”

The vines entangled the soldier, but could not stop him from pressing the detonator.

Kwaaaaang-

A huge explosion blew away an entire floor of the building, and black vines shot up in an instant, wrapping themselves around the floor.

The shock of the chain explosion that followed. The upper floors exploded, then the lower floors exploded, and the building, which was hit by the sandwich between the upper and lower floors, began to collapse.

‘Fuck.’

The soldier who pressed the detonator was clearly not in his right mind. Zuriririk- Maru, who had pushed away the collapsing rubble with vines, escaped with two running jumps.

Because he came out in a hurry, his acceleration was a bit lacking, so instead of going to the upper floors of the building next door, he went through the middle floor and what Maru saw was Indonesian soldiers going down the stairs.

It was going down, abandoning the upper floors. So, the building that was just torn down was already an empty building.

‘These kids… What are they thinking?’

You’re going out of the building? Outside, it’s a jungle full of carnivorous plants?

“?”

“!”

My eyes met with those of an Indonesian soldier who was going down the stairs and the floor that had been cut through the middle in a unison. There was no emotion in the Indonesian soldier’s eyes. He only reacted with a blurry focus.

“think!”

“He came this way.”

As one of them shouted, the soldier next to him shouted in succession. Seeing the soldiers reacting without any surprise or fear, Maru erased his thoughts and rushed forward.

Shukak-

Following a short, concise swipe of the sword, vines sprouted from beneath his feet and wrapped themselves around the staircase. In an instant, the soldiers on the upper and lower floors were turned into fine fertilizer.

“He came up the stairs!”

The sound of ‘the stairs are coming in’ echoed up and down. Then came the explosion and shaking. The madman had blown up the lower floors while the soldiers were still inside the building.

Flames and smoke billowed up the stairwell, and the swaying building began to collapse like dominoes, starting from the lower floors.

The moment the vines with physical force momentarily supported the stairwell and part of it, Maru broke through the inner wall of the stairwell and came out.

‘You crazy kids.’

The vines that wrapped around the floor ran upward along the outer wall of the collapsing building and hurled the ball toward the next building like a sidearm pitcher throwing a ball.

What Maru saw when he landed on the rooftop overlooking the helicopter pad was an empty base. The Indonesian army had withdrawn.

‧

An adjutant reported the situation to the Indonesian commander, who was moving through the underground arcade.

“The bombing was successful, but it missed.”

“As expected. It’s not easy.”

Based on the information known so far, the King of the Holy Kingdom acted alone. This means that his unique ability cannot distinguish between friend and foe.

If they had the ability to clearly distinguish between friend and foe, there was no reason not to receive help from the Korean military in eliminating armed refugee groups in Korea.

‘Even if I use my unique ability, I’ll only use it on buildings as long as the civilians below are alive.’

As expected, the monster was attacking the buildings one by one. Each building had a platoon to company-sized unit of ability users, but they were unable to stop it.

Even though various ability users combined their powers, they could not catch it, and even a heavy machine gun using monster bullets could not stop it.

Well then, there is only one way.

The only way is to turn the entire building into a trap.

Give your soldiers a battle stimulant and use the troops in the surrounding buildings as bait. When they come over, blow them up. Bury them.

If he gets caught in the collapse and dies, that’s great, but even if he doesn’t, he’ll be buried under hundreds of thousands of tons of debris and it’ll take a while to get out.

‘Once you bury it, the monster plant might finish it off.’

Slashing? That also required space. A plant that had grown stronger by eating the sacrifice could finish off the one that was unable to move. Maybe it would even be possible to capture the one.

“Enter enemy building 13.”

“The enemy has entered the stairwell.”

“Initiate engagement with retreating allies.”

“Blow it up.”

The commander ordered the bombing, even though there were friendly forces remaining. If the battle had already begun, annihilation was inevitable. In that case, it would have been right to bury them together.

“blasting!”

They responded by immediately blowing up the building, but were unable to capture the monster from the Holy Kingdom.

“On the verge of collapse. We broke through the enemy staircase.”

“The collapsing building is climbing vertically.”

“Jump to the roof of enemy building 22.”

The guy was truly a monster. The distance between Building 13 and Building 22, which had just been blown up, was over 400 meters. He jumped over it in one breath.

Since he went up from the middle floor to the rooftop, it should be considered as flying rather than jumping. The commander’s face was frowning at the overwhelming mobility that was far beyond his expectations. Wrinkles formed around his eyes.

“Building 22. What about the troops?”

“The eviction has been completed up to Building 27.”

“Still within range? That’s a relief.”

“Shall we blow it up?”

The commander, looking at the map, shook his head.

“No. We need to lure him in. Lure him to point C.”

“All right.”

Point C. It looks normal on the outside, but there is an underground space where carnivorous plants have taken root. If you lure the monsters of the Holy Kingdom there, you will fight the carnivorous plants.

“While the monsters are fighting each other, the main force heads to Malaysia.”

“What should the troops do when they land in Cambodia?”

“You should proceed according to the original plan. Unless the guy has two bodies, he won’t be able to support both Cambodia and Malaysia at the same time.”

Now that the jungle has taken root in Singapore, a defense line has been created. Originally, it should have been created in Thailand or Cambodia, not Singapore, but for now, this is the best we can do.

Once created, the jungle will become a natural barrier that nothing can pass through, except for the sinkhole monster for the time being.

If the new government’s words are true, then the sinkhole monster will eventually become food for the plants, so we should have built a defensive line as high as possible… But who would have thought that a monster from the Holy Kingdom would cause this much chaos?

‘There won’t be any benefit.’

I wanted to ask. Why on earth are you interfering with Indonesia’s work? Why are you doing this after you said you were going to withdraw from Southeast Asia?

The commander folded the map and began walking again. The important thing now was to secure the ground.

‘We need to secure a safe land from volcanoes, earthquakes, and tsunamis.’

We had to secure the land at all costs. That was the only way to save the Indonesian people. This was a war for survival. A war that had to be won by any means necessary.

Some may say that it is a country without faith. Some may say that it is a country of traitors. But what good is it to say that it was a good country after the country has been destroyed?

‘The reconnaissance party that went to Australia was completely destroyed, so there is no other way.’

Australia has become a hellhole filled with mutant monsters, a place so horrific that a heavily armed reconnaissance force can be wiped out in a matter of hours.

‘New Zealand is also impossible. And New Zealand is not safe from earthquakes and volcanoes.’

Above all, New Zealand was teeming with people who had escaped from Australia, and there was no way Indonesia would make room for them.

If the empire had not drawn Indonesia into the Southeast Asian war, it would not have been able to seize this opportunity. The only way for Indonesia to survive was to secure territory in a safe place in Southeast Asia.

To do so, some sacrifice and humiliation had to be endured. Even if it meant sacrificing people to carnivorous plants. Even if it meant using an unidentified sinkhole monster.

Kwaaaaang-

The commander looked up at the falling cement dust and broken ceiling tiles with the sound of explosion and started walking.

======

Kisun and Hood were analyzing Indonesia’s crazy behavior.

[Even though it’s a neighborhood with no credit, isn’t it going too far?]

[It’s not that they don’t have credibility. They do keep their contracts with European countries and English-speaking countries.]

So, it was Hood who explained that the commander would hit the easy guys. For some reason, Ki-sun felt bad as a former (?) Korean. If Korea was defeated in Southeast Asia, it was because they were easy.

[Yes. Now that I think about it, there was no commander when we traded with the Holy Kingdom.]

[No. It is also a lie to say that the Holy Kingdom currency will be the base currency, and then change it to the Imperial currency.]

Hood said coldly. When Maru forced the sinkhole to close, the fact that Southeast Asian countries banded together to respond was also a kind of tactic.

[Well. Even so, why did you suddenly attack a country that was allied with you?]

[Because we didn’t expect them to intervene. And it could be due to a chain of volcanic eruptions.]

Indonesia has had so many volcanoes and earthquakes that it has often been compared to Japan. The analysis is that the country’s downfall from the great disasters in Japan may have psychologically stressed the Indonesian people.

[Did he strike out because he was afraid that Indonesia would perish like Japan?]

[Because humans can do anything to survive.]

It wasn’t a wrong statement. Those who follow him and become cannibals and vampires say it’s for survival.

[Then wouldn’t it be better to go to Australia rather than going north?]

[Australia has become a paradise for mutant monsters. Most of the survivors in Australia have escaped to New Zealand.]

I get why Indonesia went crazy. So what about the carnivorous plants taking over the new government and the sinkhole monsters seemingly allied with plants?

Perhaps he thought he was using it to survive. Ki-sun’s narrow eyes narrowed even more.

[Even if the new government is pushed out by the king, the military will continue its operations because there is no way out.]

[Yes.]

Indonesia had the second largest number of landing craft in Asia, behind only China.

Indonesian troops on the island of Sumatra have disappeared into the volcanic ash and dust. So what are they doing? How are they moving?

[We will conduct a landing operation in Malaysia.]

An operation to capture Singapore, lure the Malaysian army towards Singapore, and then use landing ships to cross the Malay Straits by the shortest route to attack the Malaysian capital area.

[Since they have already stationed troops in Cambodia to support the Vietnamese civil war, they will probably be planning to join forces with the Cambodian army to attack Thailand.]

If the troops occupying Malaysia had advanced north, they could have attacked Thailand from at least three directions. And Thailand’s asymmetrical power was weakened because the royal family and the sacred elephants were annihilated, and the royal guards and guards made up of capable people were also annihilated.

[It was definitely worth a gamble.]

[Yes.]

Ki-soon and Hood nodded. In the meantime, Na-ju-yeon told them the results of the plant analysis that Maru had brought.

[The analysis results show that it is different from the individual in Switzerland.]

In Switzerland, a giant mutant tree controlled other plants, and the plant that spread to Indonesia was the type that did not have high intelligence as an individual plant, but became intelligent when it gathered in a colony of a certain size.

[Simulation results confirmed that the colonies can communicate with each other.]

That was not good. It would have been known that the military junta that had taken over the new Indonesian government had been swept away by Maru.

[And the plants appear to be resistant to sinkhole monster erosion.]

It wasn’t just the Indonesian mutant plants that were the problem. Most plants were found to be resistant to the sinkhole monster’s infestation and erosion.

[If there had been no resistance, the green bridge would have collapsed under the secretion of the sinkhole monster, I guess.]

[Based on the data so far, it seems that carnivorous plants and sinkhole monsters are rival species. They can’t stay on the same side forever.]

Hood and Ki-soon analyzed the data. The important thing was Ki-soon’s prediction that the alliance between the carnivorous plant and the sinkhole monster would not last long.

The sinkhole monster made other animals and insects its companions. If insects and animals become sinkhole monsters, how will carnivorous plants survive?

The sky is covered in volcanic ash and dust, photosynthesis is impossible, and the water and air are acidic. You have to eat meat to survive. What if all that’s left is a sinkhole monster?

[First, they must have joined hands temporarily to catch humans, who were easy prey.]

[It’s also important to note that the sinkhole monster communicated with a carnivorous plant.]

[The method of communication is most likely chemical or psycho-social.]

Ki-soon’s head was spinning.

[Diana. Report to the King immediately.]

[All right.]

There was no need to go all out and try to eradicate the carnivorous plants and sinkhole monsters. Once the people were evacuated, the hungry carnivorous plants would start hunting the sinkhole monsters on their own.