A Space Marine Got a Status Window

“I want the range.”

When Jo Yihyeon gave him two options, Kim Seojun chose range without the slightest hesitation.

“Just give me five days.”

And in response to Kim Seojun’s choice, Jo Yihyeon asked for time.

As soon as they heard how much time she needed, everyone was surprised.

It wasn’t because five days seemed like too much time in such an urgent situation.

‘Even properly tuning a car takes more than a week, doesn’t it?’

What surprised them was that she could achieve results in only five days.

Furthermore, the place she was in now wasn’t the American headquarters, where she could receive all kinds of support, but the Polish headquarters.

Achieving results in only five days in a place like that was practically a miracle.

“I’ll leave it in your hands.”

And from Kim Seojun’s perspective, there was no reason whatsoever to reject such a miracle.

Of course, that didn’t mean they could completely relax either.

“We don’t know when the Mog or China might attack.”

They were in a situation where it wouldn’t be strange for an emergency to arise at any moment.

“Even if nothing happens, five days from now we’ll have to attack the Chinese headquarters.”

Moreover, five days from now, they would have to do something completely absurd and insane.

Travel to the distant Chinese headquarters and attack it.

They had five days to prepare for a war, and moreover, a war that involved an expedition!

That was why everyone mentally prepared themselves.

Those five days would be busier, more intense, and more brutal than ever.

And they also expected Kim Seojun to demand exactly that from them.

“That’s why, during these five days, everyone……”

Kim Seojun spoke to them.

“Let’s rest as much as possible.”

“What?”

As soon as they heard that, everyone showed stunned expressions.

Kim Seojun explained it more precisely.

“Sleep soundly for at least ten hours a day and increase your calorie intake.”

He wasn’t telling them to rest a little.

He was telling them to truly and properly rest.

Those words came from Kim Seojun’s experience.

He knew.

Even if they spent those five days preparing and practicing something, they wouldn’t be able to do more than scratch the surface.

And there was something Kim Seojun knew especially well.

“As long as your physical and mental condition remains intact, the Stimpaks will be more effective, their effects will last longer, and their aftereffects will be less severe.”

In the end, what determined victory or defeat in war was the effects of drugs.

After hearing that explanation, no one questioned his words.

From that moment onward, everyone began to rest.

And on the third day, Jo Yihyeon appeared and spoke.

“Done! I increased the range! That said, the reload time will probably be about 1.5 times longer than normal.”

She showed them the Thunderclap whose upgrade had been completed.

Kim Seojun’s group was surprised.

“Didn’t you say it would take five days?”

“Yes, but the Thunderclap turned out to be much more impressive than I expected.”

Even Jo Yihyeon seemed surprised as she answered.

“China definitely didn’t manufacture this. Even if they built it, they didn’t do it with their own technology. The vehicle’s stability surpasses that of any battle tank currently in existence. It’s even superior to what I was developing in the United States. In any case, that made things easy. I didn’t have to do any reinforcement work.”

That was good news in many ways.

From that moment onward, Kim Seojun’s group began calculating the right moment.

“Uh, Sergeant Kim, when are we going?”

The moment to head toward the Chinese headquarters.

Kim Seojun answered.

“It’ll come soon.”

“Soon?”

“There’s a very high probability that we’ll soon receive a request for support from Japan saying that they’re being attacked by China.”

Everyone tilted their heads in confusion at that answer.

Kim Seojun explained.

“If China can control the Ghost Bat, they’ll naturally use the Ghost Bat to destroy the main forces of the Japanese headquarters and then attack using their own troops.”

Everyone was surprised by those words.

Kim Seojun continued with a more serious expression than ever.

“I sincerely hope that doesn’t happen.”

Because if the situation developed exactly as Kim Seojun had predicted, it would mean that China really was capable of controlling even the Ghost Bat.

‘The things I imagine could go wrong usually end up becoming reality.’

Unfortunately, everything unfolded exactly as Kim Seojun had predicted.

— This is the Japanese headquarters! This is the Japanese headquarters!

Thirty-one hours after they finished increasing the Thunderclap’s range, a request for support arrived from Japan.

— We’re under attack!

And Japan reported.

— China has attacked us!

Major Lin Jiayi.

When she ordered everyone on planet Amotia to be killed, most people thought the same thing.

It would be an extremely difficult task.

However, Major Lin Jiayi was confident.

It was impossible for her not to be.

“First, we’ll strike them using the Ghost Bat, and then we’ll send the Mog to destabilize them. After that, we’ll finish them off ourselves.”

In addition to being able to control the Mog, under her command were no fewer than four Psyker Agents whose existence hadn’t been publicly revealed.

But above all, she possessed an ability.

“Afterward, I’ll find the remaining survivors.”

An extremely special ability that allowed her to discover what others tried to hide.

As their first target, they chose the Japanese headquarters, which ranked seventh in terms of the size of its forces on planet Amotia.

The operation proceeded without incident, and soon she was able to hear the results.

— This is the Japanese headquarters! This is the Japanese headquarters! We’re under attack!

Naturally, that transmission, which the Japanese headquarters had sent to everyone on planet Amotia, was also received by the Chinese headquarters.

As soon as she heard it, Major Lin Jiayi waited.

“We’ll receive good news soon.”

And on the second day after the Japanese headquarters had sent its request for support throughout planet Amotia, Major Lin Jiayi was able to hear it.

Kaboom!

With a sudden roar, every facility in the Chinese headquarters began filling with the intense red light of the alarms.

“The headquarters is under attack!”

As soon as she heard that, Major Lin Jiayi’s expression hardened.

It wasn’t an incomprehensible situation.

The Chinese headquarters had declared war on everyone on planet Amotia, and it was already known that it had attacked the Japanese headquarters.

In such a situation, the option of directly counterattacking the Chinese headquarters was perfectly valid.

However, there wasn’t any country with the forces and courage necessary to choose that option at that moment.

‘They’re attacking us after the American headquarters fell?’

After all, the first thing Major Lin Jiayi had done was destroy precisely the country capable of doing something like that.

However, she didn’t think for long.

In the space age, there was a basic principle everyone had to follow to survive.

The moment you were attacked, you had to choose as quickly as possible between two options.

Fight or flee.

And Major Lin Jiayi had only one option at that moment.

Counterattack!

“Who is the enemy?”

That was why she immediately tried to identify the target of her counterattack.

“That……”

At Major Lin Jiayi’s question, the subordinate soldier couldn’t answer immediately.

Major Lin Jiayi spoke.

“We’re in an emergency wartime situation. From now on, if you take too long to answer my questions, I’ll summarily execute you.”

“……I-I’m sorry!”

As soon as he heard those chilling words, the soldier answered.

“W-We can’t see it!”

“What did you say?”

“Th-The enemy…… w-we can’t see it.”

At those words, Major Lin Jiayi drew the pistol at her waist.

It was a warning.

If he was spouting such baseless nonsense, she would keep her word and execute him right there.

And she was convinced that she would soon have to pull the trigger.

After all, the Chinese headquarters had just suffered an obvious attack, and moreover, one carried out with an extremely powerful weapon.

That meant the enemy had to have at least a battle tank or some armored vehicle of equivalent power!

And yet they couldn’t identify it?

“What does the radar detect?”

If it were something as small as a person, it would be understandable, but it was impossible for the radar not to detect such an enormous object.

“I-It isn’t detecting anything.”

However, as soon as she heard that answer, Major Lin Jiayi’s eyes wavered slightly.

But she didn’t completely lose her composure.

She knew.

‘It’s an armored vehicle with Stealth capability.’

There were many technologies capable of rendering even the most advanced radars useless.

And in situations like that, there was no choice but to check using physical methods instead of radar.

“Determine the direction the attack came from and send reconnaissance drones.”

Immediately after receiving her order, several reconnaissance drones began taking off from the Chinese headquarters.

“One kilometer ahead, nothing!”

The drones began transmitting information at one-kilometer intervals.

“Two kilometers ahead, nothing!”

As though it were a countdown, everyone held their breath, waiting for that number to stop.

“Seven kilometers ahead, nothing!”

However, when it reached seven kilometers, the atmosphere began to change.

“Ten kilometers ahead, nothing!”

And finally, everyone heard it.

“Th-There’s nothing.”

Whirrrrr!

Hundreds of reconnaissance drones crossed the wasteland, producing an unsettling sound.

And beneath them, Kim Seojun, Park Boseop, and Major Lee Hyena held their breath while remaining covered with camouflage cloaks.

Shortly afterward, Park Boseop spoke.

“Sergeant Kim, I can’t hear any drones nearby anymore.”

Kim Seojun responded.

“The operation was a success.”

As soon as Kim Seojun heard that the improved Thunderclap railgun’s range exceeded fifteen kilometers, he immediately explained his plan.

They would attack the Chinese headquarters from more than fifteen kilometers away, just when its defenses were at their most relaxed.

Immediately afterward, he would store the Thunderclap in his Inventory and they would hide.

That was all.

Kim Seojun had said they wouldn’t carry out any additional attacks after that.

The reason was simple.

‘If I’m not confident that I can annihilate the Chinese headquarters, I have to find a way to inflict the maximum damage with the minimum risk.’

That was the most efficient option.

And it wasn’t merely efficient.

Your headquarters was suddenly attacked, and you couldn’t find even a single trace of the enemy?

It was enough to drive anyone insane.

‘If you feel fear right when you’re intoxicated by victory, the impact is multiplied several times over.’

Furthermore, the impact would inevitably be even greater for the Chinese headquarters, which believed it had already secured victory.

And this was a battlefield.

It wasn’t a place where they could say they were psychologically shattered and could no longer continue being soldiers, request a medical discharge, or ask for permission to visit a psychologist and receive therapy.

To somehow discover the enemy’s identity and prepare for a mysterious attack that could come at any moment, everyone at the Chinese headquarters would have to spend day after day unable to sleep properly.

‘And the ones at the bottom are the ones who are really going to end up broken.’

Kim Seojun knew better than anyone how exhausting that was.

He himself had been forced to go out on reconnaissance missions while risking his life, dazed from lack of sleep.

By contrast, from Kim Seojun’s group’s perspective, there was practically no risk.

They had already achieved their objective.

Now they only had to quietly leave that place.

Nothing more.

In terms of efficiency, it would be difficult for a better operation to exist.

However, no one smiled at that moment.

They couldn’t.

“Sergeant Kim, what’s the next operation?”

Because Kim Seojun had prepared several additional plans for after that operation succeeded.

Naturally, that didn’t mean they would necessarily carry them out.

He had simply prepared several cards he could play depending on the situation.

And at that moment, Kim Seojun chose one.

“I’m going to make a bet.”

Twelve hours had passed since the attack on the Chinese headquarters.

The intense red glow of the emergency lights continued to cover numerous sections of the headquarters.

However, not a sound could be heard.

All the soldiers and employees of the Chinese headquarters remained at their posts, holding their breath.

Everyone maintained the highest state of alert, prepared to act at any moment.

Naturally, the exhaustion was indescribable.

The human body already began to feel uncomfortable simply after going twelve hours without sleep.

But spending twelve hours waiting under extreme tension?

It was enough to make anyone sick.

And they hadn’t merely been waiting.

‘A ghost! A ghost has come!’

Twelve hours had passed without them even knowing what had attacked them.

Twelve hours crushed by fear.

By that point, several dozen of the more mentally vulnerable people had already fainted and were lying in the infirmary.

In such a situation, everyone was waiting for one thing.

For their commander to give them an answer.

‘Damn it.’

And Major Lin Jiayi, the only person capable of giving them that answer, had a more rigid expression than ever.

It wasn’t because she didn’t understand the situation.

On the contrary.

Major Lin Jiayi understood perfectly well what was happening.

‘A Psyker is playing with us. They want to wear us down.’

All of this was the work of a Psyker with a special ability.

And the objective of that trick wasn’t a frontal war.

It was a war of attrition.

The reason her expression was so rigid was that, even knowing all of that, Major Lin Jiayi didn’t have many options.

What could she do against an invisible enemy?

And especially against one determined to remain completely hidden?

On the other hand, the Chinese headquarters couldn’t lower its state of alert either.

If by any chance another attack occurred, the fear would grow even greater.

Above all, the main forces of the Chinese headquarters were away attacking the Japanese headquarters.

Until they returned, they would have to maintain that tension.

That state capable of driving them to the brink of madness.

That was why Major Lin Jiayi was thinking.

‘They’ll attack one more time.’

There was a very high probability that the enemy would attempt some other maneuver to strike them before then.

And that would be the only moment when they could attempt a counterattack.

Major Lin Jiayi was waiting precisely for that opportunity.

It was then.

“Thirty kilometers away!”

Suddenly, someone shouted.

“We found a battle tank!”

As soon as she heard that, Major Lin Jiayi’s eyes gleamed.

“What do we do?”

Everyone thought the same thing.

They had to go capture it immediately.

If they managed to catch it, they could finally free themselves from that damned tension.

Major Lin Jiayi thought the same thing.

However, she stopped to consider something.

“If we send troops, they’ll definitely flee.”

The enemy wasn’t stupid.

As soon as they sensed someone pursuing them, they would react.

Furthermore, among them was a Psyker with a special ability capable of concealing an enormous battle tank.

Approaching while causing a huge commotion would be foolish.

“Then what do we do?”

At that question, Major Lin Jiayi examined the map and answered.

“Send the Ghost Bat.”