The Returner-Chapter 425: I shall go and speak to Yi Ji-Hyuk (5)

“They have launched, sir.”

“...Insane b*stards.” (Christopher McLaren)

Christopher McLaren stared at the images of airborne nukes on the giant monitor and gritted his teeth.

“Do they have any d*mn idea what will happen afterwards?” (Christopher McLaren)

You wouldn’t be able to kill a demon king just because you started raining down nukes on one. Christopher McLaren arrived at that conclusion after witnessing the advent of two demon kings with his own eyes.

No matter how powerful the weapon was, there would be no point if you couldn’t hit the target in the first place. Similar to how a cannon with a broken control lever would be useless in a fight, in other words. These sorts of weapons would be ineffective against demon kings capable of using teleportation at will.

If you were dead-set on using nukes, then you had to blow it up near their vicinity, instead.

Nukes riding on missiles would never reach the demon king’s location. Either they were blown up before that, or the demon king would simply teleport out of there.

“Stupid Commie b*stards.” (Christopher McLaren)

Those fools always had been a bunch of pain in the neck.

Russia might cause more incidents overall, but at least the Russians had some common sense and could be reasoned with.

The Chinese government had this tendency of lowering their heads when needed, but if they sniff an opportunity to get on top of you, then they would pounce on you like a pack of crazed dogs wanting to ‘pay back’ everything ten fold or some such.

So, dealing with China would invariably leave one feeling rather deeply fatigued. The situation this time had gone beyond the level of what’s acceptable, though.

“Sitrep.” (Christopher McLaren)

“Missiles have flown past the high altitude mark. Soon they should land in Sichuan, sir.”

“Dam*it.” (Christopher McLaren)

“Hotlines from other countries are ringing off the hook, sir.”

“Understandable. Tell them to leave the missiles be, for now.” (Christopher McLaren)

Christopher McLaren could only groan bitterly.

According to the Non-Proliferation Treaty, if a nation decided to launch a nuclear strike, then another country or countries had the right to strike back with their own nukes.

However, China had deployed nukes in their own territory, causing much confusion with others on whether to retaliate or not. So, after a period of hesitation, they probably wanted to find out first what America’s stance on this matter was.

“They want to wreck their own home with their own nukes, so we can’t really argue with them, now can we?” (Christopher McLaren)

The crux of the issue was with the uncertainty over the ripples created by those nukes.

How would the demon king react after getting ‘hit’ by the nukes?

If those missiles ended up as the catalyst in hastening the demon king army’s march, then China would become the one responsible for destroying the world.

“...Concentrate all available satellites on the location. We need to see the progress for ourselves.” (Christopher McLaren)

“Yes, sir!”

Christopher McLaren placed his hand on his chest.

There was no god. He knew that much.

But at least in this moment he so dearly wished to borrow the powers of some divine being upstairs.

“Please...” (Christopher McLaren)

He found himself stuck in a position of praying for success despite knowing that failure was the only possible outcome. He thought that was one sad position to be in and ended up bitterly chuckling out.

*

The 62nd demon king, Araksis abruptly raised its head towards the heavens. 𝒇r𝙚𝙚𝓌𝙚𝑏𝗻𝑜𝘷𝗲𝘭.c૦𝑚

“Hoh-oh?” (Araksis)

It was feeling sleepy at the moment, yet an amusing event was about to happen soon. The creature’s sensory perception that could not be compared to any human being had discovered some things approaching its position at high speed.

“How amusing.” (Araksis)

Araksis let out a cheery chuckle.

The demon king was almost dying of sheer boredom recently, so it’d be only too happy to oblige if humans were willing to start something first.

The ‘restriction’ placed on the marching speed.

That was one of the commands the great one had issued to all the high-ranked demon kings dispatched to this world.

All of the demon kings were supposed to be on an equal footing, but that wasn’t strictly true. In theory, they all possessed the equal amount of authority, but as the differences in strength were as clear as day, the weaker demon kings could never exercise the equal amount of authority as the stronger ones.

If the weaker demon kings didn’t follow the whims of the ‘great one’, then well, someone like Araksis would no longer be able to stay as a demon king.

...The dead couldn’t be a demon king, after all.

That’s why Araksis had to suppress its urges. Even now, it was doing its very hardest to suppress its urges to turn this entire world into a smouldering wreckage.

Although it was renowned for its lamentably low patience threshold even among the demon kings, the perception of time flow between demons and humans was not the same, to begin with. Araksis had at least enough patience to sit still for hundreds of years if it needed to be.

But just like pouring oil on a flame, humans had oh-so kindly stepped up to scratch the demon king’s itch.

“What a bunch of considerate idiots.” (Araksis)

Araksis stared at the sky with a deeply pleased face.

According to humanity’s time, three minutes remained until those flying things reached the ground.

Although short, from Araksis’s perspective, such a length of time could also be seen as cruelly long as well. So, the demon king began to ponder seriously how it should go about responding to this attack to derive maximum enjoyment.

“So, that’s what humans call nukes.” (Araksis)

Araksis licked its lips.

The demon kings were the invaders tasked with conquering this world using their brute strength, but the thing was, none of them were so dumb that they would ignore some basic information about the world they were invading.

Even more so when it came to demon kings; comparing their intelligence to an average human would be bad manners in the extreme.

So, Araksis knew full well about the most dangerous things to look out for in this world: the nuclear weapons.

The pinnacle of weapons developed by humanity that in terms of pure destructive capabilities, its power could even exceed that of a demon king.

It was indeed a weapon that exceeded one’s common sense, making one wonder how a race as inept as humanity could have come up with such a powerful weapon in the first place.

‘What if I get hit by that?’ (Araksis)

...It’d be an utter annihilation.

Even if not, it’d suffer a level of impact that almost reached annihilation. So it must avoid getting hit by the nukes at all cost.

The thing was, though, those weapons were simply too slow and the demon king might as well take a nap if those things were to hit it in the first place.

Dodging them would be too easy, in other words.

“And there’s no fun in that.” (Araksis)

Araksis fell into a dilemma of sorts.

Indeed, avoiding those missiles was way too easy. And doing that would extend its boredom even further.

‘We’ve been told to cautiously march forward, but...’ (Araksis)

Suddenly, a twisted little grin crept up on Araksis’s face, as if it had finally thought up of a way.

“Now let’s see. One, two, three... eighteen of them, is it?” (Araksis)

Araksis lifted one of its arms into the air. Blackish liquid-like substance began trickling out from the raised arm.

This substance fell to the ground like bits of droplets then began ballooning up in size, before assuming the forms of massive birds.

Kuah-rahrahrahrahrah!!!

These monster birds, now resembling large wyverns, screeched out and started a loud commotion.

Araksis watched this spectacle unfold and cackled ominously.

“Since I don’t know how to deal with this, I better ask the rest of you, instead. Alright, so. How am I supposed to block those things?” (Araksis)

The monster birds powerfully flapping their wings and flying around the demon king as if to create a protective cordon, suddenly all rose up into the sky. And with the kind of speed that no living creature should be able to produce, began flying in certain directions.

“So, I should eliminate this thing called a fuse, but... Mm, I don’t know what that fuse thing is. As for the second method...” (Araksis)

Araksis scratched its head.

“I knew it. Things have become so inconvenient since that fool Narusius got himself killed. If that guy was still around, he’d have sorted this problem in an instant.” (Araksis)

Narusius was thought of as the most intelligent out of all the demon kings, so that fool getting killed off by Yi Ji-Hyuk proved to be a pretty sizable loss for the demon world.

Because of its massive ego, it acted like a monumentally stupid moron by attacking Yi Ji-Hyuk all on its own, but the truth was, other demon kings always thought of Narusius’s pool of knowledge and its ‘scholarly ambition’ as a form of a convenient encyclopedia you could carry around at all times.

But now that such a demon got itself killed, other demon kings no longer had someone to ask for advice when something they hadn’t encountered before occurred.

‘If we somehow fail here, then Narusius’s absence would have played a big role in that.’ (Araksis)

Araksis spat out a groan.

“Should I say, as expected of the 99th demon king? Even though he’s in that pathetic state, he still knows how to stab us to cause as much pain as possible, doesn’t he?” (Araksis)

That event should be chalked up to Narusius making a fatal mistake in analysing Yi Ji-Hyuk’s and its own combat prowess, but none could deny the fact that whatever happened back then, Yi Ji-Hyuk was still responsible for it.

Honestly, Narusius wouldn’t have done something that stupid if it wasn’t for Yi Ji-Hyuk’s existence. One should never forget that he was the ‘irregular’ human capable of always producing an unexpected situation and an unexpected result.

“Well, it can’t be helped, then.” (Araksis)

Since Araksis didn’t know of any ‘gentlemanly’ ways to deal with this situation, might as well go with Plan B.

“Catch them.” (Araksis)

The demon king raised its hand high up, then clenched its fist tightly.

Kah-aaaaahk!

The monster birds accurately flew towards the nuclear warheads aimed at Araksis. Despite the projectiles not being fired from the same location but from throughout all of China, these black creatures accurately zeroed in on the missiles as if they enjoyed a perfect bird’s eye view.

Kah-aaaah!

The monster birds eventually discovered one of the missiles flying in at a tremendous speed, screeched out loudly and pounced on the weapon.

Cruuunch!

The claws of the birds tore into the sides of the missile. The flames coming out from the rear violently rocked while trying to propel the weapon forward, but the flock of the monster birds latching onto the projectile didn’t even budge an inch.

The creatures fixed their claws even harder on the missile then, began powerfully beating their wings.

The trajectories of every missile previously aimed at the ground began to slowly change.

And so... all the nuclear missiles initially aimed at the same spot changed their heading and began accelerating again.

*

“S-s-sir!! The trajectories! They’ve been altered, sir!!”

“What was that?!” (Christopher McLaren)

Christopher McLaren shot up from his seat, panic clearly visible on his face.

“Godd*mmit!” (Christopher McLaren)

The absolute worst-case scenario imaginable had indeed happened.

He already knew this operation would end in failure. The real issue was with the method of the failure itself.

The best possible way to fail would be for the nukes to land where the demon king was, just as China had intended, and get rid of the demon king army. The next best case would have been for the missiles to blow up mid-air, like what happened back in the Pyongyang incident.

As for the worst case... it’d be the trajectories of the missiles being altered and the nukes landing in completely unintended locations.

And right now, the worst imaginable scenario was playing out before their eyes.

“Godd*mmit! Hurry up and calculate their new trajectories! Do it now! Now, godd*mmit!” (Christopher McLaren)

Christopher McLaren shouted out while running up to the giant monitor.

“Are they going to fall where civilians are?! It’s not Beijing, is it?” (Christopher McLaren)

If the nukes fell somewhere near Beijing, then the country called China would instantly become paralysed.

Even if America was in a politically icy relationship with China, Christopher McLaren was not an idiot who failed to understand the importance of international cooperation during the state of the current world.

If China ended up in a no-government state of pure anarchy, then there was a real risk of East Asia, arguably one of the most important pillars supporting the world right now, falling into the gradual, rapid and irreversible decline.

“D-director, sir!”

“Where are they headed?! Where!” (Christopher McLaren)

“Sir, you need to see this for yourself!”

“What?” (Christopher McLaren)

Even before he could ask back, the image displayed on the main monitor changed to that of a map, and several red lines began stretching in all directions.

“...What the hell is this?” (Christopher McLaren)

Christopher McLaren dazedly stared at the map.

The trajectories hadn’t been ‘simply’ altered. No, they were ‘completely’ changed.

The nukes fired by China and scheduled to fall within China had all completely changed their trajectories and were now flying towards the rest of the world.

Basically, it was the same thing as nukes being fired towards every corner of the planet.

“T-the, trajectories...” (Christopher McLaren)

Even in that few seconds Christopher McLaren was staring at the map, the trajectories were being altered this way and that.

“Sir, we can’t determine the potential impact area!”

“The trajectories of missiles are being altered constantly, sir! The impact area for one projectile can be anywhere within one thousand kilometre radius!”

“What should we do, sir?!”

Christopher McLaren was left utterly speechless by this.

“W-what... what should we do now?” (Christopher McLaren)

Eighteen nuclear warheads that no one could predict where they would fall next, were currently flying towards the rest of the world. And after recognising this horrifying and tragic reality, Christopher McLaren fell down on his knees.

“You motherf*cking sons of biiiiii*ches!!!” (Christopher McLaren)

Christopher McLaren’s desperate cry loudly reverberated throughout the command centre.

The weapons of mass destruction often seen as a means to accelerate humanity’s extinction... had finally bared their fangs at humanity.

< 425. I shall go and speak to Yi Ji-Hyuk -5 > Fin.

(TL: I’m getting the shades of the Fallout franchise from these past few chapters for some reason. Must be only me, though.)

(TL: Also, my bad about the cliffhanger. XD See you next week.)