Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense

Chapter 69

069 – The Protagonist Appears

“Everyone, calmly and orderly evacuate! We still have a distance from the attack point, so everyone can evacuate safely!”

Watching thousands of people exiting the buildings and moving again, Arin, observing through her drone, let out a deep sigh of relief. Then, as she tried to move the drone to the next location, she collapsed right there.

“Ms. Arin!”

Approaching her on the boat, a Brazilian government official extended a helping hand. Arin weakly raised her hand.

“I’m… I’m okay. Just leave me be.”

“But…”

“There’s no time to rest right now.”

Three more location remained. From the cat-and-mouse game with Banara, her mental state was shattered beyond recognition due to the drone manipulation surpassing her limits. Nevertheless, she clung to the boat’s railing and staggered to her feet.

Once again, she directed her will towards her drone.

– Goooooo –

The condition of Night Stella, responding to her will and moving again, wasn’t great either. Not only had she consecutively used the hypersonic afterburners, which had a limited operating time, but she also performed rapid high-speed maneuvers that placed a tremendous burden on the aircraft.

Furthermore, the Telethic Network, which drew immense crystal energy at once, was a considerable strain. Since a while ago, the crystal drive on Night Stella had been emitting a high-frequency noise, like the machine screaming, which painfully pierced Arin’s ears.

As the sound stabbed at her ears like a machine’s scream, Arin spoke to her drone with a soothing voice.

“Just a little more… Let’s hang in there a bit longer. I’ll muster up some strength too.”

– Goooooo –

“Alright. Be good.”

Contrary to her concerns, Night Stella continued to race through the sky above Manaus at a rapid pace. Finally, as the evacuation orders were delivered from the remaining three location, she collapsed again due to the overwhelming fatigue and nausea, vomiting once more.

“Uwaaah!!”

It was far more agonizing than the vomiting after the cat-and-mouse game with Banara. Since she had already expelled everything in her stomach, there was nothing but a slightly bitter liquid coming up, even if she vomited.

Amidst the pain of her throat turning inside out and her throat burning, Arin, feeling the pain as if someone was repeatedly pounding her back with a fist, dry heaved in a frenzy.

Watching her in pity, Marcos, the Brazilian government official, looked at the girl, not yet twenty, writhing in pain amidst lack of oxygen.

Then, even within her dizzying view, he watched her staggeringly grab the railing and stand up again. Unable to bear it, he grabbed her shoulders.

“Stop now. Hasn’t the evacuation order been fully transmitted already? Now, take a break!”

“We need to… make sure everyone… evacuated properly…”

“Leave that to the police there!”

“I’m sorry. I can’t just leave it like that.”

Once again, she sent her drone flying. However, Night Stella, whose power was almost depleted due to repeated hardships, couldn’t move as swiftly as before, executing her commands at a sluggish pace.

However, even that slow speed was much faster than regular drones. Arin moved Night Stella towards an area near the expected combat zone of these monsters. There, she began scanning the remaining citizens.

‘No one here.’

Due to the limited remaining energy, Arin couldn’t use a wide-range scan. Instead, she narrowed down the range and meticulously explored every corner, searching for where people might be. As soon as she spotted remaining individuals, she moved the drone to persuade them to evacuate.

– Why aren’t you evacuating?! This area will be swept away by those monsters in a little while! –

“Sorry, but I have things to take care of…”

– Is property more important than life?! Move quickly! We don’t have time! –

However, persuasion was not smooth. It was easier to convince those who believed there was still time, but it was challenging for those trying to grab even a bit of their property. When encountering such individuals, Arin used the Telethic Communicator to directly convey her will to their brains, substituting for persuasion.

All to save at least one more person. However, convincing someone who had completely given up on life proved impossible.

– Please, run away! –

In this precious moment, encountering an elderly woman sitting and knitting, refusing to evacuate, Arin tried to persuade her with the utmost determination.

Even with a telepathic message almost at the level of hypnosis, the grandmother just smiled and didn’t move.

– Why aren’t you fleeing? –

“Leave this old lady alone and go persuade others.”

– You can escape! There’s still time! –

Sending her will once again, the grandmother shook her head.

“Lass, I’m not from here.”

She showed Arin a family photo beside her.

“Lass, I’m from Bosnia. Escaped from a country completely ruined by civil war, I circled the globe just to survive. I’ve experienced things no one else has. So, I know better than anyone what it’s like to lose a home.”

Rather than losing a home, she would prefer to die in her own home. Her word filled with the strong determination, Arin had no choice but to move the drone.

And there were more people like her.

“Our mother can’t move from her bed. There are many patients in the hospital who still can’t move. As a doctor, I can’t abandon them.”

“I worked so hard to build this property. I won’t leave until I take everything!”

Seeing people choosing death over losing precious things, Arin felt an overwhelming sense of sorrow.

‘I wish I could persuade Orléans somehow…’

The problem was that it was impossible. Just a while ago, she could communicate with Orléans because Night Stella, her drone, acted as a relay in the communication dead zone. But now, Night Stella was hundreds of kilometers away in Uusi, and there was no means of communication with Orléans. In the end, during the time when Arin could do nothing, the moment she feared the most arrived.

In the outskirts of Manaus, a city of two million people where evacuation was still ongoing, clashes occurred between the Brazilian government forces, determined to protect the city, and the monsters. Despite their burning will, the government forces cleanly gave in to the monsters’ onslaught in just two minutes.

– Arghhhhhh!!! –

Soldiers caught in the grasp of monstrous hands larger than tanks were torn apart while still alive. Giant creatures approached tanks after casually enduring tank shells demolishing concrete buildings, then tore the tanks apart with their bare hands.

Until just before the battle started, the Brazilian government forces were ablaze with a sense of duty. For their homeland and people, driven by the fervent sense of duty, they were determined to repel the monsters’ charge from this defense line. However, even the most fervent human will was nothing more than a sandcastle in front of overwhelming helplessness in the face of the monsters’ irresistible force.

The sight before them was a horrifying scene where comrades, burning with a sense of duty just moments ago, were tragically dying. The merciless slaughter, where there was no time even to delay, instilled enough horror in the minds of the soldiers on the scene to bring up the word ‘massacre’.

‘It has truly begun.’

Confirming through the drone’s interface that all regular communication had been completely blocked, Arin realized that the monsters had entered the city. She also learned that the Brazilian government forces had failed to hinder the monsters. With a sorrowful expression, she moved her drone toward the battlefield.

There, she looked at the building where the grandmother who was knitting a while ago lived. In the direction she was looking…

“Kwaaaaah!”

Debris of collapsed houses. Flames created by exploding gas. Overwhelming destruction trying to erase any evidence that humans lived in this place filled the space where the grandmother’s house once stood. The same fate awaited the place where the hospital was.

“Aaaah! Save meee!”

A doctor who, until a while ago, declared that he would rather die with abandoning patients, was now screaming for salvation as he fled. Next to him, numerous nurses who had decided to stay in the hospital were meeting a tragic end.

Witnessing this, Arin, shedding tears uncontrollably, remembered what Orléans had said.

‘Arin, my dear. Hero activities cost an astronomical amount of money. Our sponsors don’t support the clan solely for promotional effects.’

At the same time, Arin recalled what Myung-jun had said on the day they first met.

“Whenever you feel like the heroic life you dreamed of is going awry, press the button next to you.”

Which judgment was correct?

She felt the weight on her chest. Between ignoring the Clan Master’s orders and forcibly involving the Liberal Clan and doing her best. However, faced with the unfolding tragedy before her, there was only one decision Arin could make.

– Thunk. –

When she forcefully pulled her fingernail into the gap beside her glasses, the plastic cover hiding the button broke, and her fingernail split. Nevertheless, feeling the pain in her fingertips more intensely, Arin pressed the broken end of her fingernail strongly against the button hidden inside her glasses.

At that moment, through the bone-conduction earphones embedded in her glasses, a dry mechanical sound echoed in her ear.

[Emergency Beacon Activation. Calculating minimum power required for situation recovery based on collected combat data.]

[Calculation complete. Minimum of 3 or more Clan members with Rank 5 or higher required for situation recovery. Energy residue calculation for forced teleportation in progress… Failure. Insufficient energy residue in decision route. Recalculating current summonable personnel… Summonable personnel: 1. Initiation of Teleport Beacon (Teleport beacon) for forced summoning begins.]

In an instant, the lower part of Night Stella opened, and an appendage resembling a rod with a crystal attached shot out.

Simultaneously, Night Stella, having consumed all the remaining energy in the decision route, fell to the ground without strength.

Looking at the approaching ground in an instant, Arin unintentionally shouted.

At this moment, what was more precious to her than her own life was the drone.

Her drone, floating at a height sufficient to be destroyed if it fell to avoid attacks from this form, was in danger of losing power and colliding with the ground.

However, in the gradually darkening camera screen, she could see a dazzling light emanating from the beacon embedded in the ground.

And right next to it, the person she most wanted to see was being summoned in the midst of the formless crowd, bathed in dazzling light.

As if the light was gathered to create it, he stood confidently in that place, as if he had anticipated that something like this would happen.

And with one hand, he accepted Night Stella falling from above his head.

[Auxiliary power activated. Camera and recording module available.]

At that moment, the dimming camera turned on again, and in Arin’s view, Myung-jun’s face, looking down at the drone’s camera, appeared.

Then Arin spoke to Myung-jun, who held the drone with a somewhat awkward voice.

“I thought it was a function to send a rescue signal, but I didn’t think it could forcibly teleport.”

– Well, that’s possible, but it’s not cool, is it? The protagonist is supposed to appear at the most dangerous moment. –

“But there are too many opponents. Can you afford to wait until all the citizens evacuate?”

– No. Are you misunderstanding something? –

“Yes?”

In response to Arin’s question, Myung-jun flicked his index finger and said.

– I thought you might consider it as a function to send a rescue signal, but it’s not important to wait for time once you’ve used the forced summon function. The question is whether those guys with just that number can stop me. –

Having said that, Myung-jun took out a temporary battery from his pocket and charged Night Stella’s energy.

So that she could properly observe her own battle while controlling the drone.

Then, looking at the thousands of unfamiliar monsters approaching with a sense of crisis as he saw the light emitted from the beacon, he said.

– I’m curious about one thing, did you get permission from the Clan leader before using the beacon? –

“No.”

– Well, I thought you wouldn’t. But that’s not important. From the moment you used the beacon, I received an official request from the Servihum Clan, and what happens next is entirely your responsibility. –

Myung-jun’s tone did not imply a message to Arin to take responsibility. As long as he was being called, it meant that she had to be prepared to take that level of responsibility.

With Myung-jun’s thoughts transmitted as they were, Arin nodded her head, moving the drone up and down, expressing her agreement with Byung Jun’s opinion.

“You didn’t have to say it. I already had that in mind.”

– Good. Then, since you’ve received the ‘commission,’ handle it thoroughly. –

“Alone?”

– I’m Alone is enough. –

The moment Myung-jun finished speaking, Arin realized why Myung-jun firmly held the top spot in the world rankings among countless Awakeners worldwide.

A completely different kind of massacre, turned upside down from a little while ago, began unfolding in Myung-jun’s hands.

It was an overwhelming combat style that clearly demonstrated the ‘enormous difference’ in power between Orléans, the strongest awakener she knew, and Myung-jun.

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