Riches and Bitches: I have a gate to an isekai and leveling-up system!

Chapter 285: Breaking point (5!!)

"Open fire."

The very moment the order rang in Willy's ears, he followed the standard procedure. His left hand moved up, securing the weapon's barrel in a firm, steady position. Then, his forefinger slipped over the safety, ensuring the gun was ready. Finally, following the slip, Willy's finger moved down the guard of the trigger before slipping inside…

And pulling the trigger down.

Bang.

The automatic rifle shook in Willy's gun as the low-caliber projectile hit the first target.

The victim didn't go flying. He didn't even lose his footing, only as little as stumbling a bit when a series of several bullets shot from all sorts of different angles suddenly found their way to his body.

Willy's target took a step forward, then another… And then suddenly spat out blood and fell down to his knees, dying before his face could even strike the ground.

'Next,' Willy thought, turning his whole body along with his gun.

Take aim, breathe out, and squeeze the trigger so that you won't know where the shot actually gets fired.

Glance if the gun reloaded itself properly, take aim, and squeeze the trigger.

Take a breath, fix a new target, take aim…

The automatic rifle continued to shake in Willy's hands as more and more of the uniformly dressed soldiers of this world fell to the ground, pierced by a huge number of bullets.

All over the battlefield, the same scenario continued to happen. Wherever the local allies of the employer appeared to struggle, Makary's men would come to the rescue in an extremely simple procedure.

Breathe in, take aim, breathe out, shoot, reload, repeat.

Kill all those who went inside the protective circle, kill those who keep the breach open, suppress those who try to reinforce the breaches, fill in the gap, and establish firing positions all over the protective circle of allied forces.

Continue reading on M V L

While complex in its entirety, the procedure to which Makary's soldiers adhered was as simple as it could get when it came to its practical execution. In a sense, simplistic pragmatism was the very essence of the modern military, in spite of all the technological advances made since the times when such simplicity was warranted by one's extremely limited means.

Yet, out in the field where things could change in a matter of seconds, those pragmatic considerations laid the foundation for why turning the tides of the battle turned out to be so freaking simple if not outright easy. And pragmatic tactics in combination with dreadfully lethal guns…

"Front Squads, advance ten steps beyond the circle and secure the perimeter! I want a reinforced nest beyond the circle of our allies, spaced no more than twenty meters apart!"

This time, it wasn't the squad or even the platoon leader's voice that rang in Willy's ear. This time, it was Makary himself speaking in the familiar, low tone, as he passed the orders directly to the sum total of the troops that already crossed this magical gate to another world.

***

"Things are going quite well," Makary muttered, more to himself than to me as he stared down at the sky-view of the ongoing battle displayed on the holographic projector table mounted on the inside of one of the commanding trucks.

On it, dots of various colors moved around, with the internal processing unit adding all sorts of secondary data to the display, to mark off the things that were impractical to showcase on the scaled-down model like the lines of fire, dotted lines marking the current target of each of the platoons…

With the help of the integrated AI, there were even all sorts of markings signifying the places of special interest or strategic value…

But all of those were only accurate to the battlefield the AI was trained for, with the enemy also using modern firearms and with the threat of an artillery barrage constantly looming over everyone.

"All are those firing nests necessary?" I asked as I turned my eyes to the several tens of grayed-out points marked on the map from the very moment Makary spoke his orders to the microphone. "I understand that this is a standard tactic for establishing a perimeter, but…"

Feeling Makary's gaze fall on my face, I hesitated a little and averted my eyes.

"But?" Makary inquired after making sure to switch the channel of his comms from general access to the hierarchical one.

The chain of command existed for a reason, after all, and it was generally better for the man to give his orders to the primary officers who would then distribute them towards the officers directly in the field.

In this way, while the general order remained, it was up to those acting on the scene to decide what was the best way to go about fulfilling the goals designated by the supreme commander of the battle.

"They are going to scatter long before your people get all those nests up."

My reasoning was simple.

I saw what modern weapons could do to a dense crowd of people, especially when their tactics were pretty much limited to running it down. A tactic that would work well given their numerical superiority over the army of locals…

But a tactic that grew obsolete from the moment machine guns and high explosives made their way to the battlefields.

'Thinking about it, if this was an RTS, I would report the enemy commander for trolling and throwing the game out of spite,' I thought, turning my eyes down to the tactical situation displayed on the holographic table.

Makary's troops were advancing all over the place. By now, they've plugged all of the breaches within the protective line around the gateway and were actively pushing through those very gaps to establish the first few firing nests.

"You might actually be right," Makary muttered as he glued his eyes to the tactical situation on the screen.

Before long, Makary's hands rushed all over the holographs, removing most of the grayed-out pieces and re-arranging the few that he left.

"I'm sending the new battle data over, apply right away," Makary pressed one of the buttons at the side of the holotable, using its interface to manipulate the channel he was speaking on. Then, he raised his eyes and looked at my face. "Any further insights?"

There was no irony or sarcasm in his voice or his eyes. Even though between the two of us, ninety-nine percent of battle knowledge and experience was on Makary's side… I was still the one more used to how things went in this world.

"To be frank, I never really worried much about the rank and file topic," I replied after taking a few seconds to gather my thoughts and process them. "Some of the enemies might have barriers, and others might find some tricky way to attack back. So, some casualties are inevitable, but I believe we could pretty much do whatever we want and we would still win the battle."

I took in a deep breath while Makary pierced my face with an intense and long stare.

"But?" he then muttered, easily figuring out that what I said was merely an introduction to the one problem lingering in my thoughts.

"But I'm worried about how things will go with the princess and that other, nearly unkillable fucker," I replied right away.

This wasn't some sort of young adult drama for me to build up the tension by holding the information back.

Just like the entire military lingo was constructed to cut on the time it took to report, just like how the entire hierarchy served the same purpose, just like every tiniest aspect of how the modern military operated was aimed at increasing the flexibility and decreasing the time necessary to implement orders…

Just like all of those things, I decided to make my point as clear as possible, as quickly as possible.

"I have yet to hear a single complaint from the pilots of the Maglev we sent to suppress the princess," Makary's voice grew slightly fainter as a look of concern appeared on his face.

With the lingering smoke from when Makary's army made its entrance making it hard to see far into the air, it should still be possible for the two of us to look up and check on the Maglev in question… If not for the fact that we were currently locked inside the armored core of the commanding truck!

Still, if a Maglev were to go down, not even the thick armor of the commanding truck we were in would suffice to keep the effects of powerful electromagnetic discharge from affecting us.

"How are things on your end, guys?" Makary asked after pressing a series of buttons at the side of the holographic table.

"Executing the third pattern of movement, sir," the pilot's voice didn't have even the tiniest hint of distress or anxiety. "For now, we are guiding the target away from the battle, but…" the pilot hesitated for a second.

"Speak up," Makary, sensing that something was wrong, urged the man to continue.

"Sir, if I may…" This time, the pilot hesitated for real. "I have a feeling that she could bring us down if given enough time and room to work with. I've put the cannons on auto-tracking, but even with the AI optimization, we just cannot land a single damn shot!"

In the end, it wasn't the distress or anxiety that was the first emotion I'd heard in the pilot's voice.

It was merely a frustration of their hunt turning a lot more tricky than they anticipated.

"To think she could avoid a Maglev's barrage…" Makary muttered, keeping his thoughts collected enough to mute his mic before actually uttering even a single word. He then raised his eyes from the holograms and to my face. "Just who is she to do that?"

Responding in kind to Makary's intense stare, I considered all my options for a moment…

"She's a supreme, just like Fay's mom," I revealed while stealing a glance at the girl silently hanging on my arm. "And if not for Madam…" I recalled the sense of slight existential dread I got when I first met the woman.

And in an instant, a sense of overwhelming weakness assaulted my mind, nearly making me bend in half.

"If not for Madam, she would've likely killed us all by now," I revealed, only to feel Fay's hands tighten over my arm a bit. "And I believe she's the key to ending this war once we chase all of her troops out of the forest."

Throwing my opinion out, I then turned my eyes towards the holotable, unable to shake off the feeling of uneasiness that the mere thought of supremes gave me.

And looking down at the holotable... I couldn't help but think of just how many free experience points I was missing out on just because my system didn't consider me a part of the ongoing battle.

'Wait, if that's the case...'

"If you say so," Makary commented on my explanation in an empty way, more to buy himself some time to process it than to actively reveal his thoughts on the matter.

"Actually, I have one request for right now," I spoke out, forcing the man to raise his head from the holotable again.

"What is it?" Makary asked, slightly raising his eyebrows in response to my sudden request.

"I want to give everyone some sort of order they will all follow but one that won't affect their actions."