Stop, Friendly Fire!

"That bastard, did he lie to me...?"

"They might’ve gotten two calls for help at the same time, so they might be confused."

Kratia said persuasively. Lee Shin Woo accepted it, nodded his head, and said.

"...Yeah, they’ll probably be here soon. Let’s just get everything that’s hidden here."

"Over here, Shin Woo."

They were in the midst of looking for any hidden artifacts or Perium within the castle while using Rem as covertly as possible to keep watch.

"It’s all been useless stuff."

"Yeah, but it was still a strong reaction. Ah, this is it."

They found a discretely hidden storage house within the castle. Upon analyzing and opening it, they found a huge quantity of Perium inside. To be exact, it contained 25 million Perium. It was a significant sum of money, but Lee Shin Woo wasn’t excited in the least from such a ’small’ sum. He asked her if she wanted him to split it into three parts and give her 8.4 million, but Kratia just shook her head.

"Kratia, are you studying Perium?"

"I haven’t started on that yet. Moreover, Perium didn’t exist in my original world."

"Really?"

Apparently, levels and skills existed in Kratia’s original world surprisingly. If that’s the case, then did that mean that this world was more developed than her own world? If not, then was the reverse true? Kratia replied simply to the inquisitive Lee Shin Woo.

"Surplus, incalculable karma comes in the form of Perium. In other words, you would receive karma in a different form in a different world. It’s not better or worse than any other worlds’ karma."

"Surplus karma, huh..."

Lee Shin Woo stored the Perium and muttered. Surplus karma. It was through this surplus karma that Shino Rendu gained new equipment. In other words, Perium responded to Shino Rendu’s new karma and had the ability to change. If Lee Shin Woo was able to control the direction it changes in, then...

[Master.]

While Lee Shin Woo was thinking about how he would approach Perium, Rem reported to him. It was information regarding the long-awaited enemy forces.

[I see a giant flying monster from afar. It’s moving incredibly fast and there was an undead riding on top of it.]

"Oooooh!"

A Monster Rider had appeared! Lee Shin Woo hadn’t seen any monster riders, aside from some goblins riding atop wolves, so there was no way he wouldn’t be excited at the news.

"Jin!"

"No matter how hopeful you sound, I’m not going to sprout wings."

"You can’t make them? After all, you made springs out of steel."

"I can’t!"

Well, even if he could make wings out of steel, Jin wouldn’t be able to fly in the sky. After all, Steel Wing was an attack move in Pokemon.

"You’ve given me pretty much all of the flying monster bones thus far, yet nothing has happened. Give it up already."

"Tch... Rem, how’s it going over there?"

[It’s strange. There’s only one coming over here. It seems like a scout. What would you like me to do?]

It was easy to forget, but Rem was a level 6 elite. Although it was focused on support skills that relied on stealth, Lee Shin Woo had reinforced it with thousands of bones, so it now possessed combat abilities befitting its level. Taking down a scout wouldn’t be an issue for Rem.

"A scout... Alright, take it down."

[Understood.]

Nothing good would come of their opponent getting info on them before they even fought. Lee Shin Woo ordered Rem to take it down, following which Rem charged forward, piercing through the monster’s body while maintaining its stealth.

[Kuhahk!?]

Lee Shin Woo watched as the flying monster’s corpse, as well as the undead riding atop it, fell from the sky and shot one of his floating swords at it. He’d hit the mark, of course.

"What will they do now? Will they send more scouts, or will they just attack us right away? How exciting."

They probably didn’t know that Lee Shin Woo had already been aware of their scout and that he’d intercepted it. Lee Shin Woo imagined the Vulture General’s flustered expression and grinned, and then leisurely collected the flying monster and the scout’s corpses.

"You’re going to give me that bone, aren’t you?"

"You never know. Take it. Think of it as taking a tonic."

"I told you, I’m not going to sprout wings..."

Lee Shin Woo gave Jin both the flying monster’s bone, as well as the scout’s bone. He was acting like a test-taker who sent in his application to Seoul University, despite knowing that he wouldn’t get in. [1]

However.

"Huh...?"

"What is it? Are your shoulder joints feeling itchy?"

"No, that’s not it."

Jin said and looked embarrassed. Lee Shin Woo looked on in anticipation, as though he was absolutely sure that it had worked this time, but unfortunately, it hadn’t worked out this time either.

"Stop deluding yourself and just focus on the coming battle, you dumbass."

"Damn it, I guess it didn’t work this time either..."

30 minutes passed. Lee Shin Woo stationed the Giants in front of the catapults, and the level 7 elite, Ellata, was prepared to shoot herself into the air with her ability to manipulate the earth.

[Arogan, you’re ready, right?]

[Of course I am... They’re really making us wait...]

They’d even formed a plan that involved shooting Arogan into the air. Once he was there, he would taunt the enemy forces, acting like a magnet to pull a large number of them down to the ground.

[Master, they’ve arrived.]

[We’ve come as you’ve commanded, Sir Paul Zero!]

The Pauls arrived after completing their mission. Lee Shin Woo ordered them to prepare for aerial warfare as well. If need be, Lee Shin Woo would Instigate their flying mounts to control them.

’The Vulture General, huh. Is he going to be level 7 or level 8? If he’s level 7, then there’s nothing to be afraid of. But if he’s level 8, then we’ll probably struggle a bit... Even so, it doesn’t feel like we’ll lose. Even if the unexpected happens, we should win with our current forces.’

Of course, he wasn’t reckless and prepared everything that he could for the coming battle. The seven fully charged Breath of the Lightning Gods sparked, as though waiting for the moment that Lee Shin Woo would shoot them out.

"Ugh, my Lightning Resistance is going up again."

"But seriously, when are they going to be here?"

Despite their scout being dead for close to an hour now, he didn’t see anyone in the sky. There was no way that the scout was so far from the main force that it would take them an hour to get there, and it would make sense if there was another scout or a follow-up squad sent in after, yet the sky was empty.

"They’re not traveling underground while acting as though they’re coming from the air, are they?"

"I looked just in case, but I don’t see any signs of that."

Kratia looked perplexed and tilted her head. At that moment, their second scout appeared. They knew that their previous scout had been taken out, yet they sent one that looked similar and was also similarly leveled!

Lee Shin Woo was speechless and ordered Rem to intercept the scout.

"The hell are they doing? Are they looking down on... Huh?"

[Keeeeehk!]

But the moment the scout helplessly fell from the sky, Lee Shin Woo realized that he’d made a mistake. The scout knew it was going to die, yet it held a crystal ball close to its chest.

"Heup!"

Lee Shin Woo thought it was some sort of communication line, so he immediately shot out one his swords and destroyed it. The moment it shattered, he belatedly wondered whether it was some sort of explosive item and regretted it, but fortunately, it wasn’t. While it wasn’t a communication line like he’d first thought it was, Kratia knew what it was upon collecting a piece of the crystal ball.

"This is... a visual transmitter."

It was a term he was unfamiliar with, but the moment he heard it, he recalled something.

"Does it transmit an image of what is observed?"

"Yeah. It’s way more expensive than a communication line, and because it’s a one-way street, it’s not used very often. However, when it’s difficult to relay something in words, there’s nothing better than an image, so there’s still a demand for it. Honestly, I didn’t think a scout would carry around such a precious item..."

"And by sacrificing that transmitter, the enemy knows the condition of our troops..."

Lee Shin Woo smiled bitterly. As expected, it was indeed a different world from the one he knew. He thought he’d gotten used to it here, but he hadn’t expected this surveillance method to have existed.

Of course, they had intercepted the scouts from afar, but they must’ve seen his army and relayed it back to them, so the scouts had indeed fulfilled their duty. He should’ve destroyed the transmitter or whatever right when he saw it, but he was being punished for being so laidback when he saw that there was only one scout.

"There’s a jammer that blocks this type of artifact, but only countries’ governments use them. The fact that they’re able to use image transmitters means that... there might be a jammer in the capital."

"Then does that mean we can’t use Huginn’s Eye?"

"Huginn’s Eye is a level 8 artifact, so most jammers won’t be able to stop it. Especially if we limit its range and increase its output. Then, there shouldn’t be any way for them to block it."

Good. Then, they got him good this time, but he would pay them back by using Huginn’s Eye later. Lee Shin Woo thought he would need to learn more about the types of magical devices from Kratia and turned around.

They were finished scouting, so they would come at him in some way or another. Now was not the time to be angry; now he should be encouraging his troops and perfecting his preparation for the coming conflict.

"...But why aren’t they coming?"

Three more hours passed. Lee Shin Woo wondered whether he was wasting his time. They flew in the air, so why the hell were they so slow? Were they getting a feel for him right now? Were they waiting for his troops to be exhausted from their preparation?

"They should already know that our forces are comprised of the undead, so they should already know about their endurance. ...And there’s no way they know I’m a hero."

Although Kratia was the only human here, she was not only covered in robes, but she was also hiding her energy well. As she was buried in the undead, it would be difficult for them to determine that she was a human just by seeing an image of her. Lee Shin Woo couldn’t comprehend what they were doing and tilted his head.

"What should we do? Should we just keep waiting?"

"...No, they’re not going to show up, even if we keep waiting. They’re either waiting for us to slack off, or they want to move somewhere else. Either way, just staying here won’t accomplish anything. ...Let’s go."

"Go where?"

"Here."

Lee Shin Woo opened his minimap and pointed to a single point in a level 3 danger zone. It wasn’t very far from here, and of course, it was situated in the Intermediate City, so heroes wouldn’t be there. At the same time...

"If they don’t move, then we’ll just have to go around breaking stuff. We’ll go from here, all the way to here... We’ve already conquered two cities, so let’s make it our primary goal to conquer five total. If we do that and they still don’t show up, then they must not have come to fight us."

"Shin Woo, this..."

"Yeah."

The five dots that Lee Shin Woo had marked on his minimap (of those five, two of them had already been conquered) were connected, and he solemnly declared.

"In order to draw them in, we’ll conquer five cities in the shape of a cute star."

But was Lee Shin Woo expecting too much?

They had gone around and destroyed the three cities without even concealing their presence (With an army this size, even if he tried, he wouldn’t be able to conceal them. Even if they were unlucky enough to encounter a hero, he hoped that they wouldn’t attack, so long as they didn’t look back at them). Then, Lee Shin Woo’s Commander of Terror title evolved into Commander of Fear (the abilities of all the subordinates under his command would increase by 15%), and after purifying the cities, he gained permits to God’s secret shop, stat bonuses, and more money. However...

"Why the hell aren’t they coming yet!?"

"Wow, it really is in the shape of a cute star!"

"Kratia... No, never mind."

In the end, he never clashed with the Vulture General’s forces.

[1] T/N: Seoul University is considered one of the best universities in South Korea.