The commander of the Gangneung airbase slammed the situation board with his fist and shouted.

“Goddamn it! If only the railgun was operational!”

The railgun wasn’t stationed at this base—it was deployed in Daegwallyeong.

The Namsan Monster Defense Tower had four railgun turrets.

In contrast, Daegwallyeong only had one railgun turret installed. Its surrounding close-range defenses were also inferior compared to those at Namsan.

Still, that railgun could snipe the wyvern. In fact, the railgun was originally designed to take down monsters like the wyvern.

But that turret was damaged in the last battle and was still under repair.

The base commander hesitated. If the boss monster, the wyvern, entered the airspace above the base, the damage would be catastrophic. In the worst case, they could be completely wiped out.

“We take it down over the sea before it gets here. Launch every fighter that can fly!”

This base was equipped with a squadron of fully mechanical propeller fighters that required external equipment even to start. But being mechanical meant they could still fly despite the current electromagnetic interference—though their firepower was weak.

Until now, they hadn’t been deployed. Sending up just a few aircraft against hundreds of monsters would’ve been suicide.

But now, things had gotten so urgent that even that squadron had to be mobilized.

The operations officer, flustered, tried to stop him.

“Commander, it’s too dangerous!”

“You want us all to die instead? I’ll take full responsibility. Launch them! Target the wyvern! Ignore everything else!”

Seo Jung-woo shouted to the transport plane pilot.

“What’s the most powerful weapon on this aircraft?”

“That thing you’re firing right now! The 20mm is all we’ve got!”

“Then change direction!”

“Yes, sir! I’ll immediately turn away! We’re low on fuel. Everyone prepare for parachute deployment…”

“Towards the wyvern!”

“What the hell are you talking about?”

“If we run now, that thing will shoot us down first. We’ve already drawn all its aggro!”

The pilot, upon hearing that, finally realized they couldn’t escape. The wyvern, being a boss monster, couldn’t possibly be unaware of how many monsters this transport plane had taken out.

And the wyvern was faster than this transport plane.

“D-damn it!”

The pilot ducked his head and shouted up at Seo Jung-woo.

“You do have a firearms skill, right? And it’s high-level, right?”

“Whatever you're imagining, it’s higher than that!”

“Shit. Then please save my ass! My kid’s first birthday is next week!”

The transport suddenly veered in a wide arc. With its heavy cargo load, the fuselage groaned and twisted. But there was no time to turn slowly.

The 30-meter-long mid-sized monster wyvern flew straight toward the transport.

The pilot screamed.

“It’s too fast! Faster than we can turn!”

Seo Jung-woo’s detection skill picked up several killing intents. The sources of that bloodlust were moving rapidly toward the wyvern.

“Allies have arrived! They’ll buy us time to complete the turn!”

Aerial monsters swarmed toward the first squadron of propeller fighters that had taken off from the ground. A fierce aerial battle broke out immediately.

Amid the chaos, the second squadron rose and charged toward the wyvern. Their machine guns blazed, sending streaks of orange tracer rounds flying.

But the 12.7mm machine guns of the fighters had no effect on the wyvern. Those were meant for small flying monsters.

A twin-prop fighter equipped with a 20mm autocannon followed behind and opened fire.

The 20mm rounds were slower than the 12.7mm, but each shot packed much more punch. One round struck the wyvern’s torso.

The massive wyvern staggered slightly. But that was all. With barely a scratch, it flipped in the air with a sharp motion.

A single twin-engine fighter couldn’t match the wyvern’s agile aerial maneuvers. Worse, that one hit had been the only direct strike. The fighter chased the wyvern’s erratic movements, firing 20mm armor-piercing rounds like mad, but it was futile.

Suddenly, the wyvern flapped its wings hard and shot upward. Despite its 30-meter frame, it moved as nimbly as a small bird. The surrounding air swirled into a storm. Two small fighters caught in the turbulence spiraled down and crashed.

Having risen high, the wyvern dove straight down. Its target was the twin-engine fighter.

The tail gunner screamed as he pulled the trigger.

“Aaaaahhh!”

The machine gun had no effect on the wyvern. Its razor-sharp talons flashed as it dived at high speed. Whether it was its beak or claws, anything that touched the thin metal plating of the aircraft would shred it like paper. The gunner’s face turned pale.

Suddenly, sparks erupted from the wyvern’s torso. The massive creature jerked to the side.

It missed the fighter and merely grazed past it.

The tail gunner hastily looked to the left. A large aircraft was flying in, firing its 20mm autocannon.

“A… a transport?”

The wyvern flipped its body again. Just like it had evaded the fighter’s attacks earlier, it thought it could dodge again.

But this time, it faced the wrong opponent.

Seo Jung-woo had already observed how the wyvern dodged bullets. Right before the creature flipped, he anticipated the movement and fired a predictive shot.

The 20mm armor-piercing round struck exactly where the wyvern flipped. It looked almost as if the wyvern had intentionally moved into the bullet’s path.

“Screeeeeech!”

The wyvern shrieked in rage and flipped again mid-air. Another round hit at the same spot.

These 20mm rounds could tear through small flying monsters with ease. Even though the wyvern was a mid-sized monster, the sustained impacts were wearing it down.

As the damage accumulated, the wyvern changed tactics. It flapped hard and soared upward.

But Seo Jung-woo had seen that move earlier, too.

Another armor-piercing round flew in and hit its wing this time. The fully spread wing twisted under the impact. As the wyvern attempted to sharply gain altitude, it faltered.

Seo Jung-woo clicked his tongue. They didn’t have many rounds left.

‘Should’ve been more conservative with the ammo.’

He had used up a lot of ammunition while hunting monsters in the skies above the base. Although the transport had carried a good stock of ammo, most of it was already expended.

Seo Jung-woo began pulling the trigger in short bursts. There was no ammo to waste now.

More rounds found their mark. The wyvern tried to evade by twisting and turning mid-air, but it was no use. The bullets chased it down like homing missiles. The damage was piling up. The wyvern’s hide began to tear.

The wyvern suddenly reared up into the air, opened its jaws wide, and let out a roar.

“Kiaaaah!”

It was qualitatively different from the cry it had let out earlier in anger. This powerful roar carried an energy that attacked the human mind.

The fighter pilots flying nearby screamed in terror, consumed by fear.

“Uwaaaah!”

The fighter jets that had climbed high into the sky began to lose control and plummet one after another.

The same happened with the transport plane’s pilot. He let go of the control stick and clutched his head with both hands.

“Uaaaaah! I don’t want to die! I said no!”

Seo Jung-woo drew his pistol and fired at the pilot. The bullet grazed the pilot’s nose and punched a hole in the plane’s ceiling.

“Ugh!”

“Grab the stick, now! If you let go again, the next bullet’s going in your ass!”

The wyvern’s mental attack causes panic by instilling fear in humans. But the fear the pilot felt from the wyvern was slightly weaker than the fear of a bullet grazing his face and the next one possibly blowing a hole in his rear.

The stronger fear brought the pilot back to his senses. He hurriedly grabbed the controls.

The wyvern’s mental attack had no effect on Seo Jung-woo. His mental resistance was so high that even curses didn’t faze him, so a mere wyvern’s roar didn’t affect him at all.

While using its fear skill, the wyvern had stopped moving mid-air.

‘It’s become an easy target, huh?’

Seo Jung-woo squeezed the trigger tightly. He poured the remaining 20mm armor-piercing rounds into a single spot.

The barrage of armor-piercing bullets pelted one of the wyvern’s wings. Sparks continuously flew from the wing, and suddenly, one of the wyvern’s wings snapped.

“Kaaagh!”

The wyvern cried out—not a roar this time, but a scream of pain.

With one wing broken, it could no longer perform the flashy maneuvers it had before. Now, merely staying afloat was its limit.

With its mobility lost, the wyvern was little more than a 30-meter-long target.

The airbase commander had been observing the battle through binoculars the entire time. The moment the wyvern’s wing snapped, he shouted.

“Now! Fire! Blast that bastard to hell!”

The communications system was still completely down, so the anti-air gunners didn’t hear his order. Instead, the communications officer fired a signal flare.

The ground-based anti-air batteries with the longest range and greatest firepower opened fire all at once. Since the range was long, many shots missed, but the gunners were seasoned veterans with extensive combat experience, so accurate hits soon followed. Some of the shells were far larger than 20mm rounds.

At first, a few sparks flew from the wyvern’s immobilized body, but then flames burst out with explosions. The explosions didn’t stop after just one—each successful hit triggered another massive detonation.

The wyvern’s tough hide was shredded. Bones broke, and its head was torn apart.

The 30-meter wyvern turned into a tattered rag and crashed to the ground.

The communications officer shouted.

“Electromagnetic interference has ceased!”

The base commander shouted as well.

“Missiles!”

“All anti-air missile batteries are operational!”

The base commander immediately grabbed the mic and shouted.

“This is the commander! Fire every defense missile we’ve got! Don’t worry about the inventory—wipe out every last one of those bastards above our heads!”

The anti-air missiles used against monsters do not scatter shrapnel. They are designed to collide directly with the enemy’s body and explode. Their power is more than enough to tear through a small monster.

About a hundred such missiles shot up into the sky almost simultaneously. White smoke trailing behind, they soared upward and homed in on the flying monsters, detonating upon impact. Some monsters tried to dodge with frantic wingbeats, but the missiles were far faster and more accurate.

A spectacular fireworks display unfolded in the sky. Flashes exploded everywhere. Missiles trailed white smoke like tails as they weaved through the air.

Monsters engulfed in flames plummeted one after another.

The base commander shouted into the mic.

“How do you like Earth’s firestorm, you monster bastards?!”

His voice boomed throughout the base via loudspeakers.

The missile launchers that had fired their short-range anti-air missiles immediately began reloading. The base still had plenty of missiles in stock.

Once they were able to fire missiles again, humanity’s weapons completely overwhelmed the monsters.

The flock of flying monsters that had assaulted the Gangneung airbase was wiped out in an instant.

The battle was over.

Only a few mechanical fighter jets and a single transport plane remained in the sky.

The base commander collapsed into his chair.

“Phew. Is it over?”

His adjutant, still trembling with excitement, spoke.

“W-we won. We survived!”

“Look at you, shaking over something like this. Back in my day…”

The air traffic controller reported in.

“The transport plane is requesting to land!”

The base commander jumped to his feet.

“What are you waiting for?! Clear the runway immediately!”

The transport plane’s door opened.

Lee Dong-hoon, the awakened with a trace analysis skill who claimed to work for the government, said to Seo Jung-woo,

“You really are no ordinary man. Even more than I imagined from the smell of gunpowder. Whew. I don’t know where you came from, but the bastards there are probably in hell now, not Japan.”

“I told you, I’m unemployed.”

Lee Dong-hoon’s eyes sparkled.

“If you really are unemployed, our agency would love to scout you…”

“I grabbed the last guy who said that by the collar and slammed him into the ground after discharge. Want to be next?”

Lee Dong-hoon raised both hands.

“Hahaha. No, no, nothing like that. Besides, our agency isn’t the military.”

“Military, agency—same difference.”

“Well, at least the agency is a bit better than the military. Ah, then you must’ve been in an awakened special forces unit before? I heard that unit used to be amazing. Were you there back in its glory days?”

“I don’t like people digging into my past.”

“Ah. Haha. I’ll stop.”

Lee Dong-hoon disembarked from the plane first.

The pilot greeted Seo Jung-woo.

“Thanks to you, I’ll be able to attend my child’s first birthday party. I almost ended up having my funeral instead of a celebration.”

“I don’t live around here, so I can’t attend, but I’ll at least send a gold ring. Give me an invitation, would you?”

“Oh, no need to go that far. Here you go.”

The pilot pulled a slightly crumpled invitation from his pocket and handed it over.

“You carry invitations around?”

“Sometimes the passengers on my plane ask for one. Ah, that agency guy already left. I should’ve given him one too.”

Seo Jung-woo unfolded the invitation. Along with the birthday party location, a bank account number was listed. In this world, where traffic is worse than in the other world, people who can’t attend usually just send the equivalent of the ring’s value.

Seo Jung-woo slipped the invitation into his pocket and stepped off the airstrip. The airbase commander was waiting for him right there.

The commander said,

“I’ve received the report on what happened. Thank you, truly. You saved us.”