## Chapter 207 – Commencement of Total War (3)
***
“As ordered… I will take care of it.”
Crazy Chain, without a hint of emotion, rushes towards Dowa and Jiwoo.
– Swish, swish, swishㅡ
In the past, she became a villain and wielded her chains to satisfy her sadistic desires, but now, as a test subject and human weapon, she wields them solely to kill the enemy on command.
“Haaah…!”
Dowa kicks off the ground and leaps into the air to avoid the chains flying in from multiple directions simultaneously, then unleashes a large fireball from her hand while suspended in mid-air.
‘Predict where she’ll dodge the fireball…!’
Jiwoo, instead of the massive club she used to block the chains, takes out a sniper rifle, aims, and anticipates where Crazy Chain will evade.
– Swish, swish, swishㅡ Thudㅡ!
Crazy Chain, without even blinking, hooks her chain onto the building’s outer wall to avoid the fireball, hanging in the direction Jiwoo is aiming.
‘Now…!’
– Bangㅡ
Not missing the opportunity, Jiwoo’s sniper rifle fires an armor-piercing round, piercing Crazy Chain’s shoulder the moment she steps back onto the ground.
“……”
Crimson blood begins to gush from the hole created through the black bodysuit, but Crazy Chain shows no change in expression.
Instead, she precisely pinpoints the direction from which the bullet came and stares directly at it.
– Swish, swish, swishㅡ Clangㅡ!
She quickly throws her chain towards the sniper rifle, and Jiwoo barely manages to block the incoming chain by raising her rifle.
“That chick… she clearly got hit by an armor-piercing round, but she’s acting like it’s nothing…?”
An ordinary person would be screaming in pain, unable to move, but she doesn’t even flinch, leaving Jiwoo bewildered.
– Tap… tap…
Crazy Chain slowly walks towards Dowa and Jiwoo again.
“The wound… it’s healing….”
The hole in the bodysuit from the bullet remains, but the wound where blood was gushing has instantly closed up.
The modified humans they were fighting earlier also had impressive regenerative abilities, but not to the extent of healing wounds in just a few seconds.
Gunshot wounds would usually take at least several tens of seconds to heal gradually, and even that was difficult due to the flames from Dowa’s hands.
“Ughhh…! These zombie bastards…!!!”
“Groooaaan… Graaaaaaaah…!!!”
To make matters worse, during the brief pause in Dowa and Jiwoo’s support fire, the heroes fighting the modified humans started to get pushed back again.
“Let’s prioritize dodging her attacks first… and then focus on taking down the modified humans.”
“Okay…!”
With one A-class hero unable to handle even one modified human properly, the two decide to prioritize dealing with the tenacious modified humans first.
***
Meanwhile… Si-hyun pushes through the modified humans from the rear, heading towards the center of the battlefield.
As he physically pushes back the modified humans with his own body, Lumi and Ruilin, supporting him from both sides, use their combined attacks to subdue them.
“These guys… even after being torn to shreds like that, they get up so quickly….”
The problem is that unless they subdue and knock down dozens or hundreds of them at once, the modified humans they defeated earlier regenerate to some extent and come back.
Not only is their regenerative ability impressive, but the modified humans themselves have tremendous strength, breaking out of the ice even after Lumi freezes them solid with her ability.
“At this rate, it feels like there’s no end… we need to find their weakness.”
Even the top predators in the ecosystem have natural enemies or weaknesses, and even machines malfunction when their power source or core components fail.
Modified humans are still humans who have been mutated, so even with their regenerative abilities, they must have a weakness.
“Among the ones we’ve knocked down… there must be some that aren’t regenerating. We can see which areas they were attacked in.”
“Understood… I’ll look for them as you said, Brother!”
While Lumi and Si-hyun fend off the attacking modified humans, Ruilin quickly runs towards the fallen ones, as Si-hyun suggested.
‘This one’s thighs and chest… that one’s head…’
The modified humans all have ice shards embedded in their bodies from Lumi and Ruilin’s combined attacks, making it difficult to pinpoint exactly which area was attacked to prevent regeneration.
Moreover, they could regenerate and attack her at any moment, and the smoke from the explosions made it hard to see, forcing her to heighten her senses.
After examining about twenty fallen modified humans, she noticed one striking commonality.
‘These bastards… are their heads really their weakness, like zombies…?’
The modified humans regenerated, with new flesh growing and clinging together, even when their limbs and vital organs in their chest and abdomen were attacked.
However, the ones who were attacked in the head regenerated very slowly, and those whose brains were completely destroyed couldn’t even twitch.
“Ah… Brother? Their weakness is their heads! We need to destroy their heads!”
Ruilin relays this information to Si-hyun using the radio device on her ear.
“Head? Okay… roger.”
Si-hyun quickly radios the other Slaves, informing them that the head is the weakness that can stop the modified humans’ regeneration and defeat them.
***
Sooa watches the situation from a distance away from the battlefield.
Along with Chaeryung, who is using her clones to brief Si-hyun on the battlefield situation, she is taking refuge on the rooftop of a high-rise building next to the Union headquarters.
“Really… is it okay for me to just stay here?”
Sooa watches the fierce battle between the modified humans and the heroes, feeling uneasy because she, as the leader, can’t do anything.
If she had even a small ability, she could somehow be of help… she regrets.
That regret keeps making her feel like she’s committing a sin.
“Nyaa? It’s okay! Master wants you to be safe, Sooa.”
Chaeryung hugs her tightly, reassuring her that she doesn’t need to feel that way.
“It’s difficult for me to step up and fight like you, Sooa… but I’m doing everything I can to help Master. So… you don’t have to worry too much.”
Due to the nature of her abilities, Chaeryung can be active in various fields, but she doesn’t particularly excel in combat.
In combat situations like this, she often plays a supporting role or stays out of it altogether, so she can understand Sooa’s feelings about not being able to directly participate in the battle.
“Really… is it okay….”
Despite Chaeryung’s comfort, Sooa doesn’t feel at ease.
Even the Director General, who hates and tries to push her away, initially refused Kaiser’s offer, saying he would overturn the Union with his own power.
But here she is, the leader, standing idly by, so no matter how many times she’s told it’s okay, the uneasy feeling doesn’t go away.
“If you’re so uneasy… why don’t you go fight?”
“Nyaaaat?! Who’s there!”
A woman’s voice is heard from behind Chaeryung and Sooa.
“Th-this voice… it’s definitely…!”
Hearing the familiar voice she has heard countless times, Sooa’s heart drops.
It was the voice of her precious blood relative, who she had heard was missing and disappeared somewhere a few years ago while she was battling illness.
“Long time no see… Sooa, Unnie.”
“You…!”
Clutching her trembling hands, she turns her head towards the voice, confirming that the voice she remembers is not a lie.
The woman with pink hair that Chaeryung mentioned, Kaiser, was her twin sister who had suddenly disappeared a few years ago.
“And… Trickster, it’s been a while, hasn’t it?”
Kaiser, the president of Shadow Company and the mastermind behind the current terrorist attack on the Union headquarters, and Sooa’s twin sister, Jia, waves at Sooa and Chaeryung with a bright smile.
“Kaiser… how did you know to come here…?”
Chaeryung turns the clones that were monitoring the battlefield towards Jia, preparing to counter her attacks.
“Whoa, whoa… there’s no need to be so aggressive, is there? Trickster was once my colleague and subordinate… and Unnie is literally my dear sister. It’s been a while since we’ve seen each other, so why don’t we sit down and have some coffee?”
However, Jia smiles nonchalantly, as if nothing is wrong, and slowly walks towards them.
As if she were greeting family or friends she hadn’t seen in a long time.
“Jia is… the Kaiser leader…?”
But Sooa couldn’t bring herself to happily greet her missed younger sister.
It was hard to believe that her precious twin sister, who she thought had disappeared and died, was actually the leader of a villainous group plotting to destroy the Union headquarters.
The fact that Jia, who smiled at her and told her she would get better soon the last time they met, was now trying to attack the Union that her father and she were a part of, made her even more bewildered.
If they hadn’t met in this situation, she would have run to her and hugged her tightly. She wanted to tell her how much she had missed her and how sorry she was for making her worry.
She couldn’t accept this overwhelming reality.
“What’s your purpose… for coming here instead of the battlefield…?”
Like cats raising their tails and bristling their fur when wary of an opponent, Chaeryung also raised her tail and ears, guarding Kaiser with sharp claws.
She knows she doesn’t have the ability to fight Kaiser, but she still has to protect Sooa as ordered by Si-hyun.
“It seems like you’re not willing to resolve this with a conversation? I didn’t want to force anything on you two.”
Jia frowns as if she’s disappointed by their aggressive attitude, then reaches out her hand towards them.
