Bound For Australia (3)

Meanwhile.

Only now was Kang-hoo checking the information on the three constellations he had plundered from Yun Cheol.

After killing Yun Cheol, the schedule had moved so fast that he had kept putting off the check until now.

‘So that was it.’

The reason Yun Cheol had been able to aim the mana-shot rifle at him without using his hands had been thanks to this constellation.

With this, it would be possible to move three daggers or longswords in the air as if using sword-control techniques.

He could also use a pistol or mana-shot rifle placed in an unexpected position, like Yun Cheol had.

It seemed highly likely to be useful for creating variables. Strategy would be important.

‘…Now I get why Yun Cheol was called a grim reaper.’

It was a terrifying ability.

Leaving a mark meant that even if the opponent entered absolute stealth, he could still know where they were.

Strictly speaking, he could not see the opponent’s outward form.

But since the mark would not disappear, pinpointing their location became easy.

Yun Cheol must have sniped many enemies with this ability. That was why he could build a reputation that even if you hid, you died.

The meaning of the tooltip—a mark that does not disappear under any condition—was enormous.

It meant it ignored even an “absolute proposition” like absolute stealth. It sat above matchups.

‘Wait.’

Seeing the constellation ability, Kang-hoo tilted his head at a thought that suddenly surfaced.

It did not cleanly revert everything, but it was still a constellation that could reconnect severed breath.

In game terms, it was like giving you one coin. You could call it an extremely precious chance.

But.

‘The reason this option didn’t activate for Yun Cheol… is because it was plundered before the Buddhist of Reincarnation could function?’

A short answer followed from the Dimension Plunderer.

Only then did Kang-hoo feel pity for Yun Cheol for the first time.

Hadn’t the constellation he thought of as solid life insurance left him due to plundering?

The life he believed would surely open its eyes again was gone, and by now he would be somewhere in hell.

It was the most pitiful death. Well, if that was fate, it was fate.

Perth Airport, Australia.

It was a famous airport that functioned as an international hub as the westernmost airport in Australia, but

Now it had become a military airport that civilians could never use. The atmosphere around it was bleak.

Even before the plane landed, they had already seen fighting below the windows.

Still, the airport’s defenses were strong, so the defensive line was holding firm.

A thick outer wall called the “Wall of Life” was effectively blocking hybrids from approaching the airport.

It was thick and quite tall, making it a wall that was easy for defenders to target hybrids from.

“Hyung, we’re switching planes once at Perth Airport to go in, right? We’re not walking from here?”

Park Dong-jae asked Kang-hoo, but the answer came from somewhere else.

It was Ayane.

“Dong-jae, what were you doing during the briefing?”

“Ah, that’s what I missed while I was talking with you for a bit. Did you hear it?”

“Yeah. I heard everything even while talking with you.”

“Your multitasking is no joke.”

“They said we’ll take one more plane to go in.”

“Okay!”

Kang-hoo smirked, having missed the timing to answer in the end.

After landing,

While they moved for processing, Park Dong-jae kept chattering with Ayane the whole time.

It was the kind of pace where Park Dong-jae spoke ten times and Ayane answered about twice, but they matched well.

Ayane’s reactions were better than expected. She even seemed to find Park Dong-jae cute.

Of course, there did not seem to be any romantic feeling at all—she looked exactly like someone dealing with a little kid from the neighborhood.

Since their route would diverge from the Rikou Guild’s from here, they greeted Fumiya and An Yeong-ho in advance.

It would have been good to coordinate with An Yeong-ho as well for this raid, but they could not.

According to Fumiya, without An Yeong-ho, the entire team’s stamina sustain dropped sharply.

He said the dependence had grown higher than he expected, and even he was surprised.

In other words, it meant the guild members could fight more aggressively trusting An Yeong-ho.

Since that made the guild members’ stamina drain heavily, An Yeong-ho’s value rose along with it.

‘It’s definitely busy.’

Perth Airport was crowded with countless hunters. Kang-hoo was not the only one interested in subjugating hybrids.

From what he saw, there were quite a few hunters who looked like they had come from Africa or Latin America as well.

Many had come at the guild level, and it seemed similar in form to the Rikou Guild this time.

‘Movement is the problem.’

Kang-hoo had been worried for some time not about reaching Perth Airport,

But about getting from Perth Airport to the Western Australia hybrid zone.

Here, the surrounding defenses were at least firmly set up, so even if hybrids approached there were ways to respond.

But in the Western Australia hybrid zone, there were almost no areas you could confidently call “safe.”

At best, there was only a temporary runway prepared for light aircraft landings and a base camp.

This was not a place with dense defensive facilities, so there was concern it could be exposed to danger at any time.

As expected.

The document an official from the Australia Hunter Public Safety Bureau handed to Kang-hoo’s party included this.

It meant that both the risk and the reward were entirely on them. And that they would strive to share information.

Since Australia had not originally been the one to request hybrid zone subjugation first, even this much counted as doing the basics.

Foreign hunters had flocked to the hybrid zone subjugation, regarded as a land of opportunity, and access had been permitted.

Since they had come thinking they would suffer by choice, even being given shared information was something to be grateful for. That was how Kang-hoo saw it.

Pang! Paaang!

Kugugung! Kugung!

Sounds of mana cannons firing rang out from everywhere.

The mana cannons must have been high output, because the ground seemed to shake each time. The firepower seemed substantial.

“There’s no need to worry. It’s the Wall of Life—it hasn’t been breached even once in the last five years.”

The Public Safety Bureau official receiving their signatures shrugged with an unconcerned expression.

Here, mana cannons being active was a common occurrence, but it would feel unfamiliar to hunters who came for the first time.

But right then.

“Huh?”

Park Dong-jae, who had finished signing early and had been looking out the window, tilted his head.

At the same time, Kang-hoo and Ayane’s gazes turned too. They could see the reason for Park Dong-jae’s voice.

Krrrga-ga-ga! Krrrga-ga-ga!

They could not tell what was happening on the far side, but for some reason, hybrids were climbing over the wall.

Immediately entering combat readiness, Kang-hoo said as he slightly turned the official’s head toward the opposite side.

“Today’s record will get reset.”

The official, who turned back with a scoff, only then understood the meaning of Kang-hoo’s words.

“Fuck? That can’t be!”

Wheee-oo! Wheee-oo!

An emergency alarm sounded.

The announcement system began urgently reporting the sudden change in situation.

-Gate One. Hybrids are crossing the wall. Gate One. Firepower concentration is required.

“Wow… are we really this unlucky? It was fine for five years, and it happens on the day we arrive?”

Park Dong-jae grumbled.

Of course, by the time they recognized the problem, Park Dong-jae, Ayane, and Kang-hoo were already in battle stance.

“If hybrids crossed the wall, that means the outer defense of the wall got neutralized. Looks like they just stacked a wall stupidly.”

“Like making a mountain out of corpses or something?”

“Then the piled corpses can take the barrier’s attacks instead. It buys them time to climb and cross.”

“They’re insane.”

“Hybrids don’t have fear. And the Australian hybrids also have a separate command system.”

At Kang-hoo’s words, Park Dong-jae and Ayane nodded.

Unlike North Korean hybrids, which often acted individually and only received broad-scale command,

Australia’s hybrids had many upper-tier hybrids acting as mid-level commanders.

The best-known among them was the “Yellow-Eyed Magician.”

A magician with yellow eyes who had become a hybrid yet had not lost human intellect.

Before Western Australia became a hybrid region,

He was known as a mutant that emerged after numerous religious facilities in the area were devoured by hybrids.

Bang! Baaang!

Shuaaa! Kuaaa!

The clash between the hybrids that had crossed the wall and the hunters trying to stop them escalated instantly.

At first it had looked like only one or two had crossed the wall, but now it was in the tens and hundreds.

At this point, it could only be seen as hybrids deliberately deploying human-wave tactics on one side to cross the wall.

As alarms kept requesting fire support, Public Safety Bureau forces deployed at other gates began converging on Gate One.

Because if the hybrids that crossed began roaming inside the airport, the entire Perth Airport could become endangered.

If Perth Airport fell, all international routes spreading from it as a hub would vanish.

Even for the stable maintenance of major cities in Western Australia, Perth Airport’s safety was important.

“Kang-hoo, what should we do?”

“Hyung, should we go over there too?”

“No, wait.”

Even though anyone could see that the hybrids’ main attack seemed to be toward Gate One, Kang-hoo thought differently.

He felt the attack was too straightforward.

Hybrids often had a side that was faithful to instinct, sometimes charging thoughtlessly when they smelled humans.

But that was about individual hybrids left without a leader, and a large-scale attack like this was different.

The very fact that they were offering sacrificial victims in an orderly way, then crossing the wall, meant there was strategy.

From their perspective, it was obvious the defenders would concentrate firepower to stop them—would they keep sending hybrids into that battlefield?

No matter how fearless hybrids were, they would not want to enter a known hellfire.

“First, this way.”

Kang-hoo pulled the two of them out in another direction.

Then he used the Corruption’s Wings and floated up into the air to see the situation beyond the wall.

The wings’ duration was short—30 seconds—but it was enough for a first grasp of the situation.

As expected, the situation at the wall matched Kang-hoo’s picture.

They were neutralizing the wall with a mountain of corpses, and using the hill formed by piled corpses as a path to cross.

The problem was—

‘As expected.’

Kang-hoo’s mana tracking caught the movement of a hybrid detachment.

Another group of hybrids was taking a wide detour around the battlefield, aiming for another outer wall of the airport.

A feint to the east, attack to the west!

The hybrids’ tactics were more advanced than expected.