The Retired Max-Level Worker Wants to Rest - Chapter 15

Chapter 15: Survivors

TL/ED – Miso

In my past life.

When I was a construction robot Worker.

“Yes, sir? Give the order!”

A Worker wasn’t a Combat Soldier. But when it came to capturing an enemy base, the Worker was the one who had to go in first.

-We’re seizing the Control Room! Disable the defense systems and take control of the power regulation room!

The commander’s orders.

The Combat Soldiers protected me.

And I infiltrated behind enemy lines.

‘Why do humans always have to fight each other?’

One side, the Central Government.

Another, the Provisional Government.

Another, the Human Alliance.

Another, the Cosmic Allied Forces.

Was it all just to claim legitimacy? The names were different, but every one of them insisted they were the true embodiment of justice, the rightful government representing humanity.

-P-please, spare us!

-We don’t know anything!

-We’re Workers, just like you. Please, just let us live!

Workers had gathered in the Control Room.

The commanders had already fled.

The Combat Soldiers were waging guerrilla warfare throughout the base.

‘Same story everywhere.’

Commanders.

Elite Combat Soldiers.

Those so-called “nobles,” as they were nicknamed, didn’t even treat non-nobles as human beings. Of course, people varied, but when their own lives were on the line, most of them made similar choices.

Click-

The Combat Soldier beside me raised his rifle.

The order from above was to kill them all.

But I reached out and stopped him.

-Those are our orders.

“Wait. Just give me a moment. You know we’ve been short on manpower lately.”

-……I’ll give you five minutes. Any longer than that and I can’t look the other way.

“Thanks.”

I had asked the favor.

The Combat Soldier glanced around, then stepped outside.

“Alright, everyone, get out of your Turks. Surrender and you won’t be killed. You’ll be treated as prisoners of war.”

Back then, I think I still had some faith.

They were fellow human beings, after all. With the Brakta as a common enemy, did humans really need to do this to each other?

-You, it’s you, isn’t it? It’s me, Dan!

Dan.

There was no way I wouldn’t recognize him.

About two years prior, there had been a battle where James, a former bakery owner, and Cecile, a former military nutritionist, had sacrificed themselves to save me.

Dan was a friend I’d believed had died in that battle.

We’d known each other for a year, so we’d been pretty close.

“……Dan? What are you doing here?”

-I survived that fight alone. Everyone else died. I ran. Then the Provisional Government forces picked me up.

I see.

I was glad he’d survived.

I’d thought everyone there had died.

“I’m glad you’re okay. Come work with me. The treatment here is actually pretty decent. Disarm and get out of your Turk-”

That was when it happened.

Dan walked toward me.

Something was off about him.

His pupils were trembling and sweat was pouring down his face.

Ratatatatat-

Behind the Turk Dan was riding in.

A Space Marine had been hiding there.

He’d opened fire on me.

“……Gah.”

The front glass of my Turk shattered.

Several holes were punched through my thigh and abdomen.

-I-I’m sorry!

Dan shoved me aside.

The Workers who’d been clustered together rushed for the exit. The Space Marine didn’t spare me a second glance, hiding behind the Workers as he moved.

Using Workers as human shields.

That was just everyday life.

“Dan. Even so, how could you- Gah.”

I coughed up blood.

Dan stared at me with trembling eyes.

But then he left.

……Barely five minutes had passed.

Ratatatatatat-

They were all wiped out.

In many ways, it was an incident that stuck with me.

* * *

I was thinking as I drove the Light Tank.

Then something struck me as odd.

‘Five survivors?’

When we’d first arrived here.

There had been about fifteen people total.

Subtract the three of us, and that left twelve.

‘When the Creeds showed up, seven died and five escaped?’

That was no easy feat.

I’d seen lightning spread across the area back then.

What if someone’s first ability was lightning magic?

‘Paralysis would make it possible, but-‘

The problem was the Trials.

The first Trial and the second Trial.

I checked the map.

‘Wasn’t the Brakta horde supposed to pass by our base on its way over there?’

If so, then it was plausible.

But could the system really have that many blind spots? If they’d faced similar Trials and fended them off?

Their levels would be high.

They had to have some kind of special ability.

Even if they’d set up at a Medium Base, it wouldn’t be that safe a location if they couldn’t operate the Control Room.

‘This won’t be easy.’

I was already treating them as hostiles.

Of course, it seemed like I was the only one thinking that way.

-Survivors! I really thought there wouldn’t be any!

Cha Yu-ra’s voice came over the radio.

She sounded excited.

-Still, it’s a relief. The more of us alive, the better. I thought everyone besides us had died on the first day.

I’d thought the same thing.

Part of me had hoped otherwise, but I hadn’t really expected it.

Dong-cheol chimed in too.

“Right! The more people, the better. When we head back, it’d be great if we all went together.”

Pure optimism.

But I understood.

If they’d lived in a peaceful world like Earth, I would have believed the same thing. And sure, those survivors could be good people.

‘Even so, I can’t let them take the initiative.’

People change.

In extreme situations.

When their lives are on the line.

They’d kill others if it meant survival.

‘I’ve seen it plenty of times.’

It had been a world of endless war.

In my past life, people like James, the former bakery owner, or Cecile, the former military nutritionist, were rare.

‘Even when I told them I’d save them, some couldn’t trust me and ended up dying struggling to get away……’

Dan came to mind again.

The holes that had been punched through my abdomen and thigh still ached sometimes, even now. Even though this was an entirely different body.

He’d gone through all that trouble to escape, and he hadn’t even survived. He’d died in an explosion, limbs already mangled.

“……We’re almost there.”

One kilometer remained.

I slowed down.

“Yu-ra, you can snipe from that rocky hill, right?”

-Yes, I can.

“Provide cover fire from there. We’ll go in, just the two of us.”

-……Understood.

One thing I was grateful for was that she followed orders without question at times like this. She didn’t drag her feet insisting that survivors couldn’t possibly be enemies.

That alone was enough.

Vroom-

I sped up again.

Then I spoke to Dong-cheol.

“Stay sharp.”

“……Got it.”

He hesitated for a moment, but he didn’t ask why.

“Thanks.”

“For what?”

“For going along without arguing.”

“……Of course. If it weren’t for you, we’d already be dead. Your word is gospel to me! Heh heh.”

After that, there was silence.

We closed to 300 meters.

As I slowly decelerated.

Bang-!

A gunshot rang out.

Strangely, it wasn’t a regular round.

The glowing trajectory and the shrapnel on impact with the ground.

‘A Mana Bullet?’

That was the logical conclusion.

But I didn’t stop.

Bang-!

Another warning shot.

I needed to get closer.

Bang- Ting-

The enemy round struck our Light Tank.

Sorry, but this was titanium alloy. Most attacks couldn’t get through it. Light Tank or not, a tank was a tank.

And then.

Click.

I fired the machine gun.

Ratatatatatat-

Of course, I didn’t aim at anyone.

I aimed at the ground in front of them.

Babababam-

The ground was literally torn apart.

It was called a machine gun, but it fired Turret rounds. Each bullet was as big and heavy as two index fingers pressed together.

The destructive power was incomparable to a Gauss Rifle.

‘What’ll it be?’

I waited.

Continued fire would mean they wanted a fight. After that display, the smart move was to surrender and come out.

Then.

Flutter-

A white flag appeared from their side.

Of course, I didn’t fully trust that either.

I stowed the machine gun and moved closer.

When I reached the front gate of the base.

“……Who are you people?!”

A middle-aged man came out shouting.

Two men flanked him on either side. Their clothes were surprisingly clean, and they looked well-fed, not visibly thinner.

Maybe they could be trusted……

Just as I was thinking that.

-Oppa, something’s off.

A transmission came in from Cha Yu-ra.

Her [Clairvoyance] ignored obstacles. It meant she could see directly through the walls of a building.

“What’s off?”

-The three men look fine, but the two women in the room furthest back…… they’re practically starving. They can barely even stand.

“……Locked up?”

-No, it looks more like they barricaded themselves in. They locked a steel door from the inside and piled everything they could in front of it.

The picture was becoming clear.

But I needed to confirm it.

“Dong-cheol, you heard that?”

“……Yeah.”

Park Dong-cheol clenched his jaw.

He seemed to have figured out what was going on.

In a situation like this, men and women were rarely on equal footing. Especially when the men outnumbered them?

It would only be worse.

‘If it were up to me, I’d just kill them.’

One sniper shot and it’d be over.

Yu-ra takes the shot.

Dong-cheol goes in-

‘Could they be stronger than Dong-cheol?’

It didn’t look that way.

Granted, the system’s power made it hard to judge easily, but the fact that they’d raised a white flag against the Light Tank’s machine gun gave me a rough idea.

‘What if Yu-ra and Dong-cheol had seen the Light Tank instead?’

Dong-cheol would’ve sliced through the bullets without getting hit. So there would’ve been nothing to fear, and he never would’ve raised a white flag.

“I’ll step out and draw their attention. Dong-cheol subdues them, Yu-ra covers. If things get dangerous…… shoot to kill.”

-……Understood. Click-

The sound of Cha Yu-ra chambering a round was deeply reassuring.

Then Dong-cheol.

“Think you can handle it?”

“……I’ll do my best to take them down non-lethally.”

“Good. I’d prefer that too.”

I moved closer.

And then they revealed their true colors.

“Ha, perfect, this works out. Turns out people give EXP too-”

The middle-aged man at the front.

He unleashed bolts of lightning from both hands.

The scale of it was bigger than I’d expected. From where I stood, it looked like it was blanketing the entire sky.

‘So this is a lightning mage?’

I wonder if I’ll learn something like that someday.

Crackle-

Clouds formed where there had been none.

Faint electricity coursed between the ground and the sky.

Lightning-?

-Watch out!

I felt it too.

But.

Bang-

Cha Yu-ra’s shot.

It was a single streak of light.

Thud.

The middle-aged man collapsed where he stood.

The lightning that had blanketed the sky evaporated in an instant.

-……Target down.

“We’re going in too.”

There was no reason to hesitate now.

I loaded a high-explosive round.

And then.

Thunk- KABOOM!

The gate blew apart.

At the same time, Park Dong-cheol threw open the door and charged out.

And then.

Whoosh-

He vanished.

“……How fast is that guy, seriously?”

I was about to rush out after him when I paused.

A moment later, Cha Yu-ra’s voice came over the radio.

-All targets subdued. Dong-cheol oppa is seriously fast.

“…….”

It was already over.

I guess there’d been nothing to worry about after all.

Anticlimactic, honestly.

“……We might be stronger than we thought?”

I said it over the radio.

Cha Yu-ra laughed wryly.

“Let’s rescue the people in the back first.”

I moved in quickly.

Cha Yu-ra mounted her bike.

.

.

.

Three men.

The middle-aged man who’d been shouting had a hole clean through his forehead.

Cha Yu-ra’s shot hadn’t missed by a hair.

The other two were alive. One had his arm cleanly severed, and the other was clutching a grotesquely twisted leg while coughing up blood.

Catching my gaze, Dong-cheol offered an excuse.

“……Didn’t think they’d be this weak.”

“No, you did well.”

We moved to the rear of the base.

There, we found a steel wall and door.

“It’s a bunker.”

“A bunker?”

“Yeah.”

I walked up to it.

And called out.

“We’re here to help!”

There was no answer.

Well, it wasn’t like anyone would blindly trust-

Click.

The door opened.

“……Are you a rescue team?”

A haggard woman poked her face out.

She was skin and bones, as if she hadn’t eaten anything for a week. Her lips were cracked and she was swaying like she might collapse at any moment.

“Want to eat first?”

“……Water, please, some water.”

I pulled water from my pack.

I could see the other woman behind her.

Dong-cheol snatched his water bottle and passed it over too.

“Take it slow. We’ll get you food too.”

I handed over a few blankets that had been lying to the side. Then I spotted the combat rations the men had laid out for themselves and started heating them up.

Glug- glug-

The two women drank desperately.

“Hnngh- Unnie, we’re saved. Waaahh-”

One of the women burst into tears, and the other tried to comfort her. Even that was done collapsed on the floor, too weak to stand.