Chapter 185: Occupation Strategy (1)

Ten days had passed since the appearance of the aberrant mechanical monsters.

"

Haaah

." Ji Seok-Hyun yawned as he arrived at the conference in the portable barracks, ready for the morning meeting as usual. Nodding to the Hunters who had arrived before him, he made his way to his seat.

Hunters were needed to guard the siege weapons, so not all of them were present today. Only the representatives or deputy representatives from each participating country's raid team, as well as one other person, were expected to attend.

Lin Chao, the Chinese team's representative sitting beside Ji Seok-Hyun, turned and commented, "Hmm, it seems Guildmaster Kim Ki-Rok isn't attending today's meeting either?"

"Ah, yes. He said there's something he needs to check," Ji Seok-Hyun explained.

"Something he needs to check..." he muttered, stroking his chin thoughtfully.

Clearly curious, Lin Chao gave Ji Seok-Hyun a look, silently urging him to elaborate.

Ji Seok-Hyun relented. "He said he's working on an idea to increase the effectiveness of our siege and reduce the enemy's strength."

Lin Chao raised an eyebrow. "But it seems you haven't heard the full plan either?"

"That's right," Ji Seok-Hyun admitted. "He's keeping it a secret in case the mechanical monsters are spying on us. He thinks they might be able to learn our languages from all the battle footage they've accumulated during this campaign."

"I see." Lin Chao nodded in understanding. "It seems unlikely, but it's possible. With opponents like these, we can't underestimate them."

The Humanoid Mechanical Monsters had already shown they could identify a Hunter's weaknesses by analyzing recorded battle footage. So it wasn't out of the question that they could comprehend Earth's languages too. Given their mechanical forms, it was also reasonable to suspect they might develop wiretapping or similar methods, making caution necessary. Even on Earth, technological advancement was the fastest-developing factor in intelligence warfare.

"They really are a tricky foe," Lin Chao grumbled.

"

Haaah...

you're telling me." Ji Seok-Hyun shook his head with a sigh and folded his arms.

They'd been warned this would be a long raid, but he'd never imagined it would take this long. The effectiveness of their siege weapons in tearing down the city's walls had also been greatly reduced with the appearance of the Giant Mechanical Monster and the five-headed mechanical monster.

Ji Seok-Hyun narrowed his eyes and muttered, "It certainly is curious..."

Perhaps because of his conversation with Lin Chao, Ji Seok-Hyun felt his own curiosity about Kim Ki-Rok's secret plan growing.

He'd first heard about this idea a week earlier. After finishing his guard duty, Kim Ki-Rok had approached him to request permission to leave the barracks with the rest of his guild, saying there was something he needed to confirm. Ji Seok-Hyun had readily agreed and even helped persuade Lieutenant General Akabe, the overall commander of the raid. The lieutenant general had approved the request without hesitation.

Given Kim Ki-Rok's exceptional talent for gathering information and his knack for unique, unconventional ideas, both Ji Seok-Hyun and the lieutenant general hoped he might come up with a breakthrough that could push forward their stalled plan to take the city.

Once the representatives or deputy representatives from each country's raid team had arrived, the tightly shut door opened again and Akabe entered the conference room.

The first thing he said was, "My apologies for my lateness."

The Hunters didn't have time to respond, however, as Kim Ki-Rok walked in right behind Lieutenant General Akabe with his usual politeness and sly smile. "Oh my, I also apologize for arriving so late."

Having heard rumors of his activities, the Hunters looked at him with anticipation.

"Guildmaster Kim Ki-Rok, would you please explain what you have discovered?" Lieutenant General Akabe prompted as he took his seat.

"Understood. Let's see now, let's see..." Kim Ki-Rok muttered, pulling a bundle of documents from his subspace pocket and moving toward the laptop connected to the projector. "I just got back to camp, so I don't have any presentation materials prepared, and I haven't filmed anything to show you. Ah, if you're wondering why I set up beside this laptop, it's just to get everyone's attention."

He looked up at his audience with a smile, then glanced down to check his documents again.

When he finished, he raised his head and continued, "A week ago, the DG Guild left the barracks and patrolled the surrounding area."

Everyone already knew Kim Ki-Rok had gone out to check something, but they listened patiently.

"As you may know, our DG Guild is honored to have a Spiritualist among its members. The spirits assisting her can spy on the mechanical monsters without being noticed. It was easy for us to rescue the inhabitants of the Patera Dimension because the mechanical monsters can't see souls," Kim Ki-Rok explained.

In his usual roundabout way, he explained that he'd borrowed Kim Ji-Hee's Spiritualist abilities. But what exactly had the DG Guild gone out to confirm, and had they succeeded?

"After leaving camp, our DG Guild secretly followed the mechanical monsters we saw leaving the city." Kim Ki-Rok paused to gauge the expressions of those present. "The mechanical monsters are all connected by the same network, so if they want to scout outside their territory, only one needs to go. That's why I thought it was strange that so many were leaving the city."

"It couldn't be that they were leaving to request reinforcements, since we've seen that they can wirelessly transmit information. Basically, their battle footage is uploaded the instant before they're destroyed. If they wanted support, they could have sent the request using the same signals without leaving the city."

The Hunters had noticed mechanical monsters occasionally departing the city. Sometimes, they flew over the walls, and other times, Animaloids slipped out through the gates. The prevailing theory was that they left to launch surprise attacks on the Hunters.

"I thought so too at first, since there have been cases where the mechanical monsters leaving the city managed to sneak up on a Hunter. But then I had another thought," Kim Ki-Rok said with a thin smile. "What if those surprise attacks were just an illusion?"

𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

"An illusion?" someone repeated.

"That's right. The mechanical monsters don't know we can call on the spirits. But they must know we have some way of spying on them. The way we prepared for their attacks in advance and found weak points in the city with our siege weapons shows we have some means of gathering intelligence they can't detect."

Kim Ki-Rok's reasoning was convincing.

"So I started to suspect their continued attempts at surprise attacks might all be a distraction. The next time one slipped out to try and ambush a Hunter, I treated it as a diversion, borrowed Ji-Hee's ability, and..." Kim Ki-Rok trailed off, lifting his hand and pointing at the ground. "I asked her to look underground."

"Underground?" Lin Chao echoed, tilting his head in confusion.

"To be precise, I asked her to look for any mechanical monster that might have used the distraction to leave the city by tunneling under the desert. And just as expected, we found evidence of a mechanical monster leaving the city through a tunnel beneath the sand. We tracked it and discovered where it was heading," Kim Ki-Rok revealed triumphantly.

"So where was it going?" asked the Japanese S-Class Hunter, Nakasone.

Kim Ki-Rok grinned. "A mine."

It was Nakasone's turn to sound like a parrot. "A mine?"

"That's right. A mine full of Pastera, which the mechanical monsters need to manufacture more of their kind and repair the damage we've done to their city. I already knew from the rescued inhabitants of the Patera Dimension that there's an underground mine beneath the city serving as their main source of Pastera. However, I've suspected for a while that they couldn't meet all their production and repair needs with just that one mine."

Kim Ki-Rok paused and glanced at the window. The curtains were closed, hiding the distant city.

"Well, it's possible they had a large stockpile somewhere..." he continued. "However, that seemed less likely as the number of mechanical monsters never seemed to decrease despite the constant battles. That's why I suspected the mechanical monsters leaving the city for surprise attacks were actually covering for others transporting Pastera for their factories."

"Hunter Kim Ki-Rok." Daniel Jackson, attending as his country's deputy representative, called out in his native language.

"Yes, Hunter Daniel?" Kim Ki-Rok responded politely.

"You said you tracked a mechanical monster that left the city by hiding beneath the sand and followed it to its destination. Is that right?"

"That's correct."

"Does that mean you want to seize and occupy their external mines to cut off their supply of Pastera, draining their reserves needed to produce more mechanical monsters and repair the city?"

"That's right," Kim Ki-Rok admitted.

Daniel Jackson was momentarily speechless.

Since the failed large-scale offensive, the mechanical monsters hadn't launched serious assaults, but their surprise attacks had been frequent, sometimes several times a day. On the day a week ago when Kim Ki-Rok had requested his guild be taken off guard duty, Daniel Jackson recalled that a mechanical monster had slipped out to launch a surprise attack.

From Kim Ki-Rok's account, with the help of the spirits contracted to Kim Ji-Hee, they were able to track down the hidden mechanical monsters as soon as the diversions left the city. This meant that even if Kim Ki-Rok had waited a day or two, he should have discovered the mechanical monsters transporting Pastera soon after leaving for his private investigation. However, it had been a full week since Kim Ki-Rok had received permission.

Letting out a heavy sigh, Daniel Jackson asked, "You definitely found more than just one or two mines, didn't you?"

"That is correct," he replied with a proud smile. "We've found six mines in total."

The mechanical monsters in the city couldn't have held out this long with just one mine. They managed thanks to the resources from seven mines, including the six located outside the city.

"The mechanical monsters know how important their Pastera supply is, so there are quite a few stationed at each mine. But if we can seize and occupy the mines, it will greatly help us clear this Gate," Kim Ki-Rok explained.

If they seized the mines and the metal stores within, the city would lose most of its material supply, forcing production to slow down. Furthermore, the mechanical monsters would have to limit repairs to only the most critical parts of the city.

"Thanks to Japan's teleportation expert, Hunter Kayano, distance isn't an issue. She can ride Pegasus Mandong to confirm the locations of the mines," Kim Ki-Rok added.

With teleportation, the Hunters could travel long distances instantly, so reaching the mines wouldn't be a problem.

"How many monsters are stationed in each mine?" Lin Chao asked, sensing they might be able to clear the Gate sooner than expected.

"There are three hundred in each mine," Kim Ki-Rok answered. "As for the aberrant mechanical monsters... well, let's just call them mid-bosses. They're all hiding in the keep where the First Mechanical Monster is located, and they're stronger than any humanoid or Animaloid Mechanical Monster. But you won't find any mid-bosses in the mines, only humanoid and Animaloid types are stationed there."

Since only humanoid and Animaloid Mechanical Monsters were present, they wouldn't need a large force to occupy each mine.

"Each mine has its own mechanical monster production line, but it's much smaller than the city's factories. They can produce more mechanical monsters, but at a very slow rate," Kim Ki-Rok assured everyone.

The mines had no walls, no mid-bosses, and their production of new mechanical monsters was slow, making them ideal targets. As the Hunters recognized the significance of this information, the representatives turned to Lieutenant General Akabe for his thoughts.

"Lieutenant General Akabe, have you already agreed to Kim Ki-Rok's plan to seize and occupy the mines?" Lin Chao asked.

"That's right, I have. Since we have to occupy the mines as well as seize them, we'll have no choice but to disperse our troops. But if we don't cut off their supply, our situation will remain stagnant," Akabe said, grimacing bitterly.

The mechanical monsters had taken heavy losses in the large-scale offensive ten days ago, so he expected the Gate to be cleared more quickly—a relief, given their own casualties. But that hadn't happened. Including the mine beneath the city, the monsters had drawn on seven mines to ramp up production and recover.

Straightening his expression, Lieutenant General Akabe addressed the Hunters with a serious tone. "There's a high possibility that another large-scale offensive, like the one ten days ago, might break out when we move to take the mines. And unlike before, our numbers will be greatly reduced, putting us at a bigger disadvantage."

If the mechanical monsters maintained control of these mines, the situation would only worsen the longer the raid dragged on.

"We knew from the start that the city could produce more and more mechanical monsters. I believed that as long as we kept fighting, our presence would restrict them from collecting or transporting more materials, and our situation would improve over time. But that wasn't the case. Thanks to their seven mines, they've been able to keep up production and repairs," the lieutenant general admitted.

He paused for a moment, regaining the attention of those who had been distracted or lost in thought.

"The longer this goes on, the worse it gets for us. So, I now announce that our raid team will seize and occupy the seven mines. By claiming the metal for ourselves, we'll choke the city's supply, prevent repairs, and increase the effectiveness of our siege. Once we've inflicted major damage, we'll immediately charge into the city and keep fighting until we can finally defeat the First Mechanical Monster."