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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Xrecker
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Team 4, whose duel had been slightly rescheduled to Thursday, arrived on the scene to find not their usual opponents, Team Guerrilla, but five women fully clad in suits and helmets.
“Team Leader. I think we have a problem.”
After the ordinary soldiers got out of the vehicles, Seira, who had gotten out of her parked car, heard that there was something wrong with the duel and rushed to the scene.
“What? Why is Hunter Killer here?”
The schedule had been adjusted, but she hadn’t been told that the opponent had changed. Above all, Team Hunter Killer was exclusively handled by the Seoul branch’s Team 3, and their opponent hadn’t changed at all in the past 10 years.
“We’re not sure either…. The details are different from what we were told. What should we do?”
Seira knew the Seoul branch’s Team 3 very well. About 10 years ago, when Team 3 was reorganized, the name Hunter Killer already held a high reputation.
The members were different from the current ones, but befitting the reputation of Hunter Killer, people with outstanding abilities were always assigned, even when the members changed. There were several such teams among the numerous superhuman groups on Earth.
A team with a high reputation. To match this, the 6th Spacetroe Fleet, which had landed on Earth, wanted to create a team of elite soldiers in the area. For that reason, the reorganization of Team 3 was carried out very carefully, and Ruche, who had been called the strongest ace in space, was appointed as the team leader of Team 3.
The composition of the Team 3 members was solely Ruche’s choice, and the members she personally selected from the numerous soldiers of the 6th Fleet were assigned to Team 3. Of course, in that process, A was also selected by Ruche and assigned to Team 3.
When they were in space, Seira had been in the 6th Fleet with A, but Ruche had been in a different fleet, so they had never met. Nevertheless, Seira knew very well why Ruche had chosen A.
The newly reorganized Team 3 was supplied with the highest-performance equipment. They were equipped with the best equipment that the 6th Fleet could currently provide, so outstanding that, unlike in other regions, strengthening their combat power with new supplies was impossible.
Of course, it was not equipment that could be compared to that used in space warfare. If they were to supply equipment with power beyond common sense, they might violate the rule of no killing. As a result, Team 3 was one of the teams composed of the best soldiers in the 6th Fleet, and all their equipment, except for their vehicles, was of the highest level.
Nevertheless, the reason why Team 3 had never once defeated Team Hunter Killer was that, both then and now, Team Hunter Killer was composed of the most elite members among the superhumans, and their abilities were so exceptional they far surpassed those of other superhumans.
“This is a huge problem.”
Seira sighed at the news that the team in front of her was Team Hunter Killer, not Team Guerrilla. However, Seira’s concern was not about having to face Team Hunter Killer.
Team Hunter Killer was just as flustered.
“What? It’s not Team 3.”
They couldn’t see each other’s expressions because they were wearing helmets, but after Pink’s words, everyone’s gaze turned to Red. Red, her fists clenched, gritted her teeth from behind her helmet.
“That bastard of a headquarters director…”
Red, no, Team Hunter Killer, knew Team 3 better than anyone. Although they always won, their coordination was excellent. Although they always won, they never let their guard down.
Due to Team Hunter Killer’s undefeated legend, some people in the Earth Defense Alliance perceived the Spacetroe Seoul branch’s Team 3, which Hunter Killer faced, as a weak team.
But Red always refuted that. The Spacetroe Seoul branch’s Team 3 was by no means weak. Because they were enemies, because they fought them every time, she knew them better than anyone.
She knew that the headquarters director had been trying to manipulate the results several times. But she never thought he would do it so suddenly, without any notice.
There had also been occasional talk of proving that Spacetroe’s Team 3 was not weak. But to prove that, another team would have to fight them, and from Red’s perspective, she was not confident that another team could beat Team 3.
In the end, a clumsy attempt at proof would bring a defeat to the Earth Defense Alliance. For Team Hunter Killer, whose purpose was to change the perception of superhumans, even a single additional defeat was unacceptable.
But in this situation, they couldn’t just leave and go to where Team 3 was. In the end, the act of leaving itself would be a defeat.
“We’ll settle this when we get back.”
The members understood Red’s anger. Yellow patted her on the shoulder, saying they should just deal with the situation for now, and Red nodded.
Just as the duel between Team Hunter Killer and the Spacetroe Seoul branch’s Team 4 was about to begin.
“This is different from what we were told, isn’t it? Ruche, did you know?”
“No, I had no idea.”
We whispered to each other, so that Team Guerrilla wouldn’t hear. We didn’t know how to prepare ourselves for an opponent we were facing for the first time. Of course, they had countless strategies in their heads to deal with any enemy. But the current situation was too bewildering to adapt and start the duel right away.
“We should just start the duel, right?”
“Yeah. We’ll have to check the details when we get back.”
Kruger discussed with Ruche and decided to proceed with the duel.
“The strategy will be the same as when we face Team Hunter Killer. Maintain your positions and move appropriately according to the situation that unfolds.”
Before the duel, we kept our mouths shut and nodded at Ruche’s instructions.
“You’re always getting beaten by Team Hunter Killer, let’s see how much of a bunch of losers you are!”
At Indigo’s taunt, everyone’s gaze sharpened. I couldn’t see their faces behind the helmets, but I could feel it.
“You guys, calm down.”
It was very important not to make a sound, but I spoke in a small voice to calm my colleagues. I could feel the gazes of my colleagues who had heard my voice through the helmet’s communication. I understood how they felt. But if they got heated and lost their composure, they could ruin the duel.
I had already encountered Team Guerrilla twice. At the restaurant, at the team dinner.
At the restaurant, I was able to subdue them because of the situation. At the team dinner, I didn’t retaliate to minimize the damage.
In the end, there was no way to know the true strength of Team Guerrilla. I had a rough idea of their members and strategies from the data, and I also knew that they always lost to Team 4.
But Seira, the team leader of Team 4, was a person with skills far superior to mine. Because it was a team led by such a person, I couldn’t help but think that they could beat Team Guerrilla. I had to be on my guard. The opponent had changed, but I had to maintain the same level of tension as when we fought Team Hunter Killer.
I couldn’t let my reason be shaken. I had to face the duel in the best way I could.
“What are you doing? Scared?!”
Ignoring Indigo, who wasn’t even wearing a helmet and was treating us lightly, my colleagues and I rushed forward at the same time.
Team Guerrilla had a total of 7 members. Among them, the three who were most deeply ingrained in my memory were Indigo, Gainsboro, and Khaki. Especially since the three of them were in the vanguard, they were the opponents I, who stood in the vanguard of our team, would clash with first.
As I was running towards the most annoying one, Indigo, the rear guard of Team Guerrilla threw various throwing weapons. Daggers, shurikens, and even hand axes. They quickly threw a handful of weapons they had.
They flew in a steady parabola, but although they flew clearly, the individual directions of the weapons were all over the place, full of openings. Still, some of the weapons were flying towards the vanguard members who were rushing with me.
There was no need to dodge. Our team’s rear guard was behind me, and there were no slouches who would miss such flying weapons.
Soon, the steel balls thrown by Ban, who was in the rear, collided with the throwing weapons flying in the air.
The sound of steel clashing against steel echoed, and the flying weapons lost their momentum and fell to the ground. I arrived right in front of Indigo.
Indigo, his eyes filled with a fighting spirit, threw a right punch at me. Kruger, who came in from the side, grabbed his arm and twisted it back, blocking the attack. At the same time, my kick landed on Indigo’s side.
The moment I felt the impact, Kruger let go of Indigo’s arm, and without releasing the force I had put into the kick, I sent Indigo flying onto the dirt floor of the construction site.
The moment Indigo got up, Jack, who had jumped in the direction he had flown, kicked him in the back, and he lost his balance and spat out a curse.
“You bastard!”
Just as he was about to turn and attack Jack, another colleague in the vanguard threw Khaki, whom he had captured, at Indigo.
In the end, Indigo and Khaki, who had collided with their own teammate, fell to the ground.
‘This is working?’
I had always rushed at the Hunter Killer members in the vanguard with support from the rear, but they had dodged all the support attacks from the rear with speeds that were hard to follow with the naked eye and then sent me, who had rushed at them, flying.
Kruger, who had suffered the same fate, was also quite surprised and was looking at the fallen Indigo and Khaki.
Soon, our colleagues who had reached the rear guard of Team Guerrilla were subduing them. The mood of the duel, with a one-on-many situation, quickly turned in our favor. Having been so used to defeat, I wondered if this smooth situation was actually a trap.
“You fucking bastards!”
The risen Indigo threw a brick that was lying next to him.
Just as I lowered my body to block the flying brick, Kruger, who was standing next to me, gestured. Having been together for a long time, I knew the reason he was giving me a hand signal. He was asking me to leave it to him.
That day. I knew the anger Kruger must have felt on the day of the team dinner, so I decided to leave it to him for once.
Kruger kicked off the ground and went into the air. He grabbed one of the flying bricks and threw it at another brick. The brick, which was shattered in mid-air, turned to dust. After that, he blocked all the bricks that Indigo was throwing randomly, neutralizing his attacks.
Just then, a brick flew towards me. As I kicked it away with a roundhouse kick and was about to take a step and lift my other leg, I sent a communication signal to Kruger, who was coming down from the air.
Kruger, who had confirmed the next strategy by the number of beeps, fell right on top of me. The moment I felt Kruger’s weight on my leg, I sent Kruger flying towards Indigo, who was throwing bricks.
“You losers! Stop messing around!”
Indigo, all of whose attacks had been ineffective, belatedly discovered Kruger flying towards him. Kruger, using the acceleration, kicked Indigo in the chest.
“Keoheok!”
Indigo, who had rolled dozens of meters on the dirt floor, was slammed to the ground. The members of Team Guerrilla, who couldn’t resist the onslaught of our other colleagues, were all thrown to one spot.
‘Why are we winning?’
I was flustered by the leisurely atmosphere for the first time in 10 years. But the one who was more flustered than us was Ruche, who was always giving us orders.
When we fought Team Hunter Killer, unexpected situations always arose, and at those times, Ruche was busy giving orders and fighting.
But after one order, there was no need for further instructions, and Ruche just watched the duel from her spot.
“Everyone’s fighting well. You should have done this all along.”
All the soldiers of Team 3 turned to look at Ruche at the same time. We, wearing helmets, were making an expression that said, “That’s probably not just our problem, you know?!” from behind our helmets. There was no need to check one by one. It was obvious that all these guys were thinking the same thing.
“You cowardly bastards!”
The moment we turned, we turned back at the sound of Indigo’s voice from the front. We gathered in one place and prepared ourselves, in case Team Guerrilla rushed at us.
Indigo, who walked out of the thick dust, wiped his dirt-covered face with his hand and glared at us.
“I see how you losers fight, you cowardly bastards rushing all at once?!”
“…What the hell is that bastard talking about?”
Kruger spoke up while everyone was dumbfounded. I agreed with Kruger’s opinion.
What we were doing was a duel based on certain rules, not a sports game where we competed on our skills in an equal situation.
I was dumbfounded by his words, as if he were suggesting we play a fair sports game, but that was the second reason.
The first reason I was dumbfounded was that Indigo was the one calling us cowardly.
Although we were Spacetroe, both at the team dinner at the bar and now, Team Guerrilla had no idea of our identity. In other words, Team Guerrilla had unilaterally assaulted people who could have been civilians and had caused property damage at the bar.
I also didn’t understand why he was calling us losers. To be honest, one member of Team Hunter Killer was a more troublesome opponent than all seven members of Team Guerrilla.
I didn’t think of myself as a particularly great person. My combat abilities were average, and I thought my other aspects were average as well. That’s why I didn’t look down on others, but I could definitely say this to Team Guerrilla.
‘Their coordination is sloppy, and their individual abilities are lacking, who are they calling losers?’
Suddenly, I gritted my teeth. To think that these weaklings, relying only on their power as superhumans, were causing incidents in various regions while controlling the media, and were making the efforts of Team Hunter Killer, who were working harder than anyone to improve the perception of superhumans, in vain.
Because of these bastards, the efforts of my women were not being conveyed to the people, they were being ignored, and they were having such a hard time.
“Fight me one on one! Or are you scared to fight one on one?! You motherfuckers!”
He looked even more pathetic, shouting with such bravado, as if he hadn’t just been beaten to a pulp.
“Ruche, what should we do?”
“Go ahead. If it gets out of hand, I’ll step in.”
Kruger asked Ruche, the team leader, what to do about the duel, and Ruche, after assessing the situation, allowed a one-on-one duel. Now, all that was left was to choose who would go.
My colleagues, without exception, were all eager to step forward and crush Indigo.
I quietly approached Kruger and put my hand on his shoulder.
“Collect the data.”
“Huh?”
With those words, I parted the crowd of colleagues who had gathered to decide who would go and walked towards Indigo.
Today, we had received new equipment and had accessed new functions.
We needed to check the new performance, and we had a very good test subject right in front of us.
‘Go ahead and attack me as much as you want, you motherfucker.’
I felt my blood boil at the thought of using Indigo to freely test the new functions.
And I was a little annoyed.
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