"Mission success."

"It really is a success."

"The 42nd Unit’s mission has been successful. There are no casualties, so that’s good. It went a lot smoother than we thought."

"..."

"The 7th Unit has also completed their mission."

"…"

"Rafael has entered basement level six. I think he’s deviating from the route, so please adjust."

"Okay, noona,"

I[1] said.

"The same goes for you, Commander."

"I've already confirmed it."

"I've confirmed it as well, noona."

"Redeploy the unit."

"Recalculating route..."

"We need to treat the wounded in basement level four. I’m reminding you in case you forgot."

"Acknowledged."

"The success rate of the current mission is about ninety-eight percent. I’ll send you the errors, so please send me a fix, and I’ll send it to the field commanders right away. You have two minutes."

"I’m busy, noona,"

I replied.

"I’ll do it,"

Jin Cheong said.

‘Yeah, you should do it. You’re the reason behind all this.’

"It was a mistake letting that incompetent fool take care of this mission. I’ll find out exactly what went wrong. It'd be great if we could implement it in the following missions,"

Jin Cheong remarked.

"What? That was your mistake. Stop the nonsense,"

I retorted.

"How absurd. How could you say it’s not your fault when you’re the one who’s controlling the field? I told you several times that this mission was important. If you paid that mission as much time and attention as you did on your

precious

Blue Guild, we wouldn’t have to experience failure,"

Jin Cheong retorted.

"Why are you suddenly bringing up the Blue Guild? Everything has to be set up before I can do anything. What’s the point of planting high-quality seeds and using good fertilizer when the ground itself is rotten? The mission itself was bad from the start, man. Your plan was trash,"

I replied.

"It’s not even funny anymore. I’ll explain it again one by one, but I wonder if you’d understand it with that brain of yours,"

Jin Cheong said.

"Here we go again. You two, stop fighting,"

Lee Ji-Hye chimed in.

"We’re not fighting."

"We're not fighting."

"Ah! Stop fighting! Stop arguing! Is it really important to figure out whose fault it is? You two must have nothing to do. Are you so free that you can argue with each other right now?"

Lee Ji-Hye remarked.

"I have work I need to do, but I can completely control the situation. Of course, our Commander Jin can't do that, so I’ll be the bigger man and admit defeat. You’re at your limit, right? I’m sure your puny brain is struggling to keep up. Is that you gritting your teeth?"

I asked.

"That's so absurd that I don't even want to answer that, but I’ll say just one thing—"

"Ah, just stop already!"

‘Look at you, pretending to be calm.’

I could see Jin Cheong doing some calculations while gnashing his teeth.

His eyes had long become bloodshot. How dare he act so relaxed when he was struggling to keep up?

‘I'm winning this one.’

He couldn’t see my situation here, but I could see him.

It was kind of childish, but this evil scum’s situation was funny.

Honestly, he didn’t have any luxury to talk or relax.

He was overdoing it, as he didn’t want to lose face, but his efforts were gnawing away at his confidence. It seemed that he got himself just a little bit of free time, as he decided to argue with me to save his face.

I wiped away the blood dripping down my nose and nodded quietly.

‘He's annoying, but he’s incompetent.’

I truly didn't want to acknowledge it, but it was undeniable that he was actually doing this kind of work. He was like a chess piece that popped up when I needed it the most.

It was encouraging to know that there was always someone I could use at the right time and at the right place.

We prepared the overall plan together, but the chance that all of this would go according to plan was very slim. There'd always be variables regardless of our efforts, and mistakes could happen at any time.

The crux of the matter was our reaction time. We had to react as fast as possible to variables that would certainly appear, and the key to this mission was how quickly and reliably we could put the derailed train back on track.

‘This is where talent comes in.’

I had eyes, but Commander Jin was moving the troops using just his brains. In that sense, it was kind of surprising because the amount of data he could take in was limited, unlike me.

Moreover, he couldn’t look at the overall situation using a telescope. He could only assume the situation based on the field commanders’ reports and the blue dots on the screen.

"Oppa, I’ve confirmed that Rafael has changed his route. We've updated the missions of each unit. Commander, please acknowledge."

I saw the troops moving on the map. The troops, which were the blue dots, instantly changed directions while checking the missions assigned to them.

"Understood."

The blue dots spread out and grouped up repeatedly.

The troops naturally mixed together and divided while they were moving. It was different from Tactical Kim Hyun-Sung, whom we used during the Republic War. There were always chess pieces available to use on the battlefield, but inside this Underground Temple, I had to prepare the chess pieces myself.

If I wanted to ensure that Rafael wouldn't lose in his game of tag with Bahamut, I had to keep finding the best and shortest routes as fast as possible. The reason there was so much back and forth was that I had to guide the troops to the shortest routes as well.

Variables would appear not just in battles but during the movement process as well. For example, Commander Jin's job for our overall plan was to play

Tetris

by joining the puzzle pieces and handing them over to me.

I had yet to receive a useless puzzle piece from him. It was like he had been giving me the long pieces, but the components I needed to make something useful out of it were always within my arm's reach.

Sometimes, he'd even send a blueprint to me, so it was hard to figure out the appropriate task for him. Actually, there wasn’t a need to know that. I understood Ji-Hye noona, and Lee Ji-Hye understood Commander Jin.

The plan was changing nonstop, and it felt like a living organism as it moved in real time. I couldn’t really explain it, but the system made it. Yes, the system made it. We didn't make it ourselves.

We were simply trying our best to use each other in the most efficient way, and the system somehow made a way for us to share data, plans, and tactics in the most efficient way. We also find out how to actually execute them.

The more we got used to the system, the more stable it became. The system was doing its own debugging. It was catching errors and addressing them, as well as resolving variables. It also gave us new ideas that we could explore. In other words, this program was making it easy for us to navigate this battlefield.

‘It’s pretty convenient.’

"

Roooooooooooar!

"

Rafael was being obstructed by many things, but we had many cards up our sleeves. A variable had also appeared, but we'd soon have a way to deal with it. The hole that appeared from out of nowhere had filled itself up.

The probability graph was moving on its own without my intervention. As the gears and cogs worked together, the parts were also moving in the vast Underground Temple.

The dots on the map were moving and interacting with each other.

They were all moving to complete their missions.

Of course, their destination was the same.

“Mission complete. Checking the next mission.”

“We’re merging the units.”

“We've completed our mission! Leader!”

“Commander! What should we do next…”

Kabooooooom!

"There are injured members, and we'll proceed with a rescue mission.”

“Move! Move!”

“The boss! We have encountered the boss!”

"

Roooooooooooar! Wah… Woooooooooo!

"

The screen was changing. My hands and eyes moved nonstop so that I could give everyone their next mission. At the same time, I had to keep an eye on Rafael and focus on him so that I could grasp what he was doing.

— We've received a report from the Friendship Clan. Their members have thoroughly exhausted their mana, so they have been incapacitated.

"The rearguards of Friendship or whatever are to move to the safe zone. They reached their limit faster than I thought."

As the battle went on, more and more people were dropping out of exhaustion. There were mages who had used up all of their mana, priests with no more holy power, archers with no more arrows, and vanguards who could no longer move from fatigue.

I was anxious, but I wasn’t worried at all.

‘It’s a good thing.’

This was all because it meant that they managed to exhaust themselves without dying. There was a certain amount of resources a person could utilize. If they had used their resources in the most efficient way, I ought to be happy about it.

Of course, it’d be nice if they used everything they had until the end, as the vanguards of the Friendship Clan looked like they still had some stamina left.

"Colonel Smith?"

— This is… Colonel Smith.

"Twenty-three combat personnel will be heading down there. We’ll be using the same method we used with Captain Sophia. You’ll receive your order in one minute, and the mission will begin in about five minutes, so be on stand-by."

— Understood, Father Lee Ki-Young.

Ugh

, my apologies. I’m currently in battle…

"Once this is over, I want you to reconsider my offer of joining our Blue Guild."

— That’s…

"This is the first time I asked someone to join us twice."

— …

"Why do you think it's my first time doing this? Was it because I didn’t need to make another offer? Or was it because of my bad habit of destroying them if I can’t have them?"

— …

"I trust you know what I’m trying to tell you."

— Yes, sir.

The raid against Templar Extra was still ongoing, and it was about time I recycled the incapacitated units. I could see Colonial Smith, sporting a stylish mustache, firing magic bullets with a frown on his face.

However, I was sure he wanted to join the Blue Guild as well.

"Report any variables immediately."

— …

"You have two hours to complete your mission."

— I’ll do… my best…

It was a good thing that the world had many competent people.

BOOM!

The battlefield was changing. Colonel Smith and a few troops continued the difficult fight, but Templar Extra’s side wasn’t the main dish. The main dish or stage had yet to be made.

"A big chunk of the mages have exhausted their mana."

"I don’t think they manage to shatter even his outer shell."

"I sent the combat-related data, oppa. I've also analyzed his movement patterns. It may not be that helpful, though…"

We'd buy time, gather data, and weaken his outer shell. Then, we'd gather even more data once the monster had his turn. The success rate of the mission that we were going to execute skyrocketed, and it was all thanks to the data that we had gathered.

At this rate, the expedition team would achieve their goal faster than expected.

"Start the mission."

"Mission complete. We have completed our mission.

"Mission complete. Not bad."

"Mission details sent."

"Acknowledged. No edits necessary."

The blue dots on the map moved to surround the monster, but it wasn’t a perfect circle. They were so far from the monster that it was embarrassing to say that they had it completely surrounded.

𝘧𝑟𝑒𝑒𝘸𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝓁.𝘤𝘰𝓂

Some of the units couldn’t even see the monster due to the debris, while the others were on stand-by on a different floor.

However, this wasn't such a bad sight. It took the monster a ton of effort for him to reach the circle, so I was sure he wouldn’t use his turn so easily.

‘We’re not the only ones exhausted.’

Perhaps the monster was tired as well. I was talking about mentally, not physically. He was probably feeling useless emotions such as annoyance, anxiety, anger, and nervousness. The monster was moving instinctively.

His movements were simple and easy to read, but he couldn’t completely abandon his human side. There was a high chance that was the case, as he was really obsessed with a single item.

‘That’s what’s going to take your life.’

The exhausted Rafael flew up.

"Start the mission."

Rafael let go of the shining feather.

"

Roooooooar!!!

"

Spells were fired from all directions, but one thing that was different from before was that they weren’t aimed at the monster. They were aimed at the small feather that was falling helplessly from the sky.

“

Hahahahahahaha!

” I laughed.

— How cruel.

“

Hahahahahahahahahaha!

” I couldn't stop laughing.

— …

“It’s easy to bring down anyone with a glaring weakness,” I said.

The monster blocked every single spell using his enormous figure, and he did that to protect the tiny, shining feather. The monster desperately wanted to protect the angel's feather, and we could use that to push the monster into a corner.

1. Lee Ki-Young’s POV ☜