I started the day with some light stretching.It was to clear the dizziness in my head.Once my body warmed up, I kept going and swung the wooden stick that was propped against the wall.I swung it lightly — but the speed was anything but light.Movement is a single, continuous flow.It slices through the air.And then.[Single Slash LV.7][Piercing Strike LV.6]After linking Single Slash with Piercing Strike, the tip of the stick came to a halt.Fffzzzt—!!Only a chilling sound cleaving the air rang faintly.The combination of the two auxiliary techniques was still not perfect.But I knew the key, so improvement was only a matter of time.I sheathed the stick and fell into thought.“Hmm.”‘I need to train my body more diversely now.’Combat experience alone wasn’t enough.Only by continuously developing the body could I see beyond it.I replayed the fight in my head.The battle with [Behemoth].‘If the auxiliary techniques I could use in that extreme state were just the foundation…’Did I lose him in that desperate moment?No.By then, I would’ve already driven Behemoth into a corner—and torn him apart.‘I’m still far from enough.’The last recorded trait for humanity’s strongest weapon after the fight with [Behemoth] was…【Humanity’s Strongest Weapon LV.2 (90%)】Only a measly ten percent remained to reach the next level.[Auxiliary ~Nоvеl𝕚ght~ Skill: Piercing Strike (LV.6)][Auxiliary Skill: Single Slash (LV.7)][Auxiliary Skill: Mountain-Splitting (LV.2)]Overall, the proficiency of my auxiliary skills had built up well enough.That might be why it felt especially frustrating.There wasn’t much time left until the showdown with [Behemoth].and too little room left to grow before then.‘Am I rushing too much?’Perhaps thinking I had to take down Behemoth alone was arrogance.My hand trembled slightly.Maybe because the fight was imminent.Or maybe it was just obsessive impatience — I couldn’t quite tell.What started as a small exercise to sort out my tangled thoughts had, unintentionally, deepened them instead.Feeling a bit stifled, I opened the window.The cold air cleared my mind.At that moment.“Why did I…”Yung’s voice came from where he lay sprawled on the floor.“Are you awake? You must’ve been tired.”“Oh dear… what an embarrassing sight.”Yung sat up, clutching his forehead — maybe from a bad headache.Watching him, I handed over the bottle of water I was about to drink.“Ah, thank you.”He drank the cold water cautiously.After choking and coughing a few times, he steadied and bowed his head.“I’m sorry.”“Mistakes are something anyone can make.”There was a hint of apology in Yung's troubled face.But I really didn’t seem to think it was a big deal.Judging by how he’d been lying there, him collapsing hadn’t caused me any real inconvenience.I’d simply thrown something like a blanket over him.Anyway.“I’m thinking of going to see Mother soon.”“…….”“Want to come?”At the casual offer, Yung flinched.“……No. I don’t think I have the face to see my mother right now.”He stood up with a wry smile and walked out toward the door of the quarters.His steps were still hesitant.I watched his hesitant back for a moment with indifferent eyes.“Can I ask you something?”A low voice.“Ask.”“How do you become this strong?”“Hmm.”Yung’s question was a hard one to answer.I’m a different kind of human than most.Our starting points were never the same—so under normal circumstances, I would’ve called it impossible.But I sensed this was a time for comforting words.Sometimes what people need is encouragement, not words that tear at the soul.“Why do you want to be strong?”“Well…”Yung hesitated.He wasn’t the kind of man I knew him to be.“How strong do you want to be?”“As strong as you.”“Then I think you should first find why you want to be as strong as me.”“…….”“When you have a purpose, the means will naturally follow. Do you know chess?”“Yes? Ah, a little.”“In chess there’s a piece called a pawn. At first it’s the weakest piece, worth the least compared to the others.”“…….”“But when that pawn reaches the far end of the board… it becomes the most threatening and powerful piece.”That was why it was called a pawn.On the chessboard of annihilation, if you reach a certain point, you’ll become an irreplaceable, powerful existence.Knowing that potential, I could say it with confidence.“You’re like a pawn.”“You only met me yesterday, didn’t you?”Of course not.He’d already shown something.“Instead of seeing your weakness and giving up, you chose to face it head-on. There aren’t many things more admirable than that, I think.”***A vast hall.The scent of tobacco lingered in the air.A young woman with black hair lounged back and sent a subtle look.Why did her gaze feel more intense than the biting cold that chilled the skin?“One of my children behaved rudely last night.”Erhi Mergen began in a dry voice.“He said he wanted to become stronger.”“Hmm… It wouldn’t hurt to teach a child who might one day be like a younger brother.”“Mother, as I said, I—”“Even if you refuse, Kyle, my offer stands.”Mergen chuckled, delighted by his embarrassment.She crushed the remaining tobacco and exhaled a plume of smoke.“Has communication with the Ark Unit been finalized?”“Fortunately, there’s nothing unusual at headquarters.”She nodded at the news.“Then you’ve come to discuss tactics and strategy.”“At least I know more about the entities than most.”“There are divided opinions within. The question is what to resolve first. What do you think?”Mother’s question was about priorities.With Behemoth absent, striking the East could be one approach.But I already guessed Mother’s intentions.“Behemoth and the massive mutant wave in the East. At first glance, it might look like an opportunity to bring the East back to order while Behemoth is away.”If her plan had truly been to sweep the East clean in his absence, she wouldn’t be this calm.“Still, Behemoth comes first.”“Why?”“The wave in the East isn’t something you can clear overnight. It’d take at least a week of steady work.”“But if he recovers and returns and starts commanding those monsters, it will be a headache, won’t it?”Indeed.Behemoth can control the entities.They don’t follow Behemoth out of loyalty, but he’s learned the specific sounds that those entities respond to — like a high-frequency range from the Order of Silence cult — and can use them freely.If Behemoth returns and begins controlling the entities, what then?Hundreds of thousands of [Plague Waves].The strange evolved creatures that reddened the horizon.All of them might simultaneously march on the [Catacomb Center].A terrifying scenario.If that happens…‘We’d have to abandon the East.’We’d have to give up the East.Even if it could be stopped, the damage would be catastrophic.In that case, abandoning this place and finding a new base might be the right move.But.Could Mother have not foreseen even that?“You don’t intend to just wait until he returns to his nest, do you?”“Of course not. I wanted to confirm — what do you think?”With that, Erhi Mergen rose from her seat.She approached a circular globe in the center of the table.“Activate.”A whirring hologram rose.The landscape of the East unfolded.A recreated map of the ruined East, showing where and how many entities were clustered.From that map I could read Mother’s intent.“This is…”“It won’t be easy to cleanly remove the entities in the East as things stand. Even if not impossible, it would require heavy sacrifices.”Numerous red zones marked on the map.Beneath the red zones lay piles of high-explosive bombs.It didn’t look like they planned to merely kill the entities.And strangely, one area had a dense concentration of explosives.The location was—“Are you suggesting… turning the East into a wasteland?”A sluice gate controlling the river that flows through the city center toward the East.“Kyle.”“Mother, you do realize what these explosions would mean, don’t you?”“If you can’t have everything, civilization isn’t the priority.”“The Pommel android production district will be drowned.”“In the worst case, yes. But a leader must be prepared to assume the worst.”Mother had already prepared everything.Primary blasts would collapse major buildings in the East.Secondary blasts would open the sluice gates and flood the East.But since she’d used the phrase ‘worst-case scenario,’ the hologram map hinted at a final stronghold.“Don’t make that face. It’s just insurance. The worst hasn’t come yet.Hmm…”She calmed her mixed feelings.If she planned for the worst, she also had strategies for the ideal scenario.My voice fell heavier than I expected as I spoke.“What’s the most ideal approach?”“Obviously, tear him to pieces the moment he comes ashore.”With that, Mother pointed to a spot on the map.“That location?”“If we can do that, we’ll concentrate all Liberation Front forces there.”It was an unexpected place.It was a residential complex.Not just some small neighborhood — a dense district of high-rise apartments.Meaning—“Urban warfare?”“You’re observant.”The plan was to use the concrete walls as fortifications and turn the area itself into a kill zone.If we then set up an armored shield as a secondary barrier…In theory, aside from the evolved entities, no one could cross that absolute slaughter zone.However.There was one fatal problem.“Do we have enough ammo?”The important thing was munitions.At that question, Mother’s mouth curved with the smirk of someone who’d been waiting.“It will be insufficient. But if we can lure them to that spot, we’ll have one more weapon to use.”A weapon to use instead of ammunition.Something like bombs.But this wasn’t something a few bombs could solve.My curiosity deepened.“What is it?”Mother fetched her tobacco instead of answering.She struck a match.Ssssh—“White phosphorus.”That was all I needed to know.

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