The Shaman Desires Transcendence

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People pouring down as if they were meteors.

There’s nothing parachute-like on their bodies.

Dressed in shabby uniforms, they drop upside down with their heads bowed.

Their hands are clasped together, and their legs are tightly together, forming a straight line.

Hair whipping around like a mad whirlwind.

A terror that seems about to turn their bodies into mush at any moment.

Yet, despite all that, the expressions of the warriors are utterly serene.

As if they have experienced this countless times before.

They lift their hands together, as if trying to mimic a scene from some famous movie where a Buddha holds the world in his palms.

But isn’t it because he is a Buddha that he can do so?

The falling warriors were not Buddhas but rather beings closer to Mara.

Their very lives represent the realm of desire; how could it be any different?

Clasping their hands does not carry meaning beyond a simple gesture, and even if they close their eyes and wear compassionate expressions, the stench of blood emanating from their bodies spreads far and wide. Moreover, the energy they summon is filled with an ominous look, clearly indicating that it was accumulated demon energy gained through defiance of the heavens.

“Om—”

“Om—”

“Om—”

Thus, what they do is imitation and mockery.

Mimicking the Buddha without the Buddha’s heart, following the monks without the desire for enlightenment, and wielding martial arts rooted in slaughter with ominous intent and demon energy.

They uncross their hands and stretch out.

So that their arms can touch the ground.

But what they extend is not their palms but their fists.

Not hands that suppress a broad area, but fists meant to shatter and pierce to kill.

Finally, the fists of those who fell from such heights hit the ground.

Kugugugung—!

Kwaaaang—!!!

With a deafening roar, the sound of their landing echoes through the city.

As a gunshot slices through the parched night sky, the warriors begin to etch their marks into the earth as bullets pouring down from the heavens.

Kwaaaang!

The swirling demon energy threatens to destroy their bodies.

Skin reinforced by special procedures.

Part of a new technique specially modified for military use.

All of this was more than enough to turn mere humans into bullets.

Their power too.

Even their fate.

Kwaaaang—!

What great future could await those who fall from the sky?

Didn’t the great god Hephaestus from ancient Greek mythology end up crippled with a broken leg after falling from the sky?

If even gods cannot escape gravity, how could mere humans?

The shot bullets hold no value anymore.

Bullets fired with gunshots become crumpled, embedded in bodies, or perhaps shattered beyond recognition, making them difficult to trace.

The same goes for those who fell from the sky.

They hesitated not to discard their lives in an instant and, as a result, vanished without a trace.

Like a gunshot that echoes loudly only to disappear without an echo; so fleeting.

But they certainly left scars.

Even after their bodies turned into a handful of blood, or even if their bones were shattered and they awaited death in despair—

—their act of ‘imitation’ clearly had an effect.

Kugugugu—

Their outstretched fists operated like mass weapons, wrecking everything they encountered.

Leaving marks as if scratching a soft cake with nails, the ground where they fell is left with gaping holes. The asphalt road flips and transforms into heaps of rubble, and the demon energy cycling within them bursts forth upon impact, turning the surroundings into chaos.

Like an explosion when a bomb is struck with a massive hammer.

Their bodies were, in themselves, mass weapons and bombs.

“Hundreds of bombs…”

Such power isn’t too shabby.

The results of the martial arts they performed while falling and the explosive demon energy unleashed upon their deaths are quite impressive.

But… objectively speaking, that isn’t a very wise thing to do.

To use soldiers who can be utilized one against a hundred as bombs.

There’s no greater waste than that.

Warriors are not made overnight.

They learn techniques, build energy in their bodies, undergo training, and achieve enlightenment.

Only then can a warrior capable of handling one portion be created.

“Of course, those warriors are different. They are the ones mass-produced by some method in the military.”

They could be described as fake warriors.

Yes.

The demon beings that would appear in works featuring warriors as protagonists are precisely them; disposable weapons in human form.

“Sinners.”

Those pouring down from the sky are sinners.

Marked as “unredeemable” by the Communist Party of China.

Like those sentenced to death, whose organs are harvested or sold for research, they are classified as targets for “recycling.”

Even if they’re alive, they are entities that only cause harm.

Thus, to serve China, it is right to sacrifice their very bodies.

The Communist Party gladly modified them with that mindset.

Through torture and brainwashing, they broke their spirits.

Forces them to absorb demon energy that causes immense pain if they don’t cycle, making them train in demon power using that pain as a whip.

And once they’ve gotten used to it, they use drugs to suppress their minds, allowing their bodies to go berserk, and reinforce them with procedures.

To prevent absurd occurrences where they explode and are wasted before hitting the ground.

Of course, that procedure is very inefficient and has severe side effects, making the cost of the procedure cheap, but the price of those side effects is excessively harsh.

Simply hardening skin means their organs get shattered, and merely enhancing muscles significantly increases the likelihood of heart attacks, while just hardening bones puts tremendous strain on their brains, risking cerebral vascular rupture at any time.

It can be said to be power obtained at the cost of life itself.

And even that is far too insignificant to be called power gained at the cost of precious life.

Those with a sound mind would surely refuse such procedures…

But the subject of the procedure is not them.

As they forcibly learned demon power, as they forcibly had drugs injected into their bodies.

Those procedures also proceeded without their consent, and their lives and their uses were the same.

They are disposable weapons.

Consumables dropped instead of bombs.

Before the regression, the mercenaries referred to them like this.

爆殭屍 (Bio-Weapon).

Alive but not living.

Dropping their bodies as commanded.

They mimic warriors, yet in truth, they are closer to biological bombs.

The biological weapons of the Communist Party of China.

But one might have such doubts here.

While it is understandable that they are consumables, isn’t this method inefficient?

Wouldn’t it be enough to simply let them loose in a crowded area? Isn’t this strategy wasteful as it requires dropping them from the sky?

If they can at least mimic warriors, they’d be useful in close combat, and even if they die without defeating the enemy, wouldn’t it be better to utilize them by exploding demon energy?

“Of course, if they are used alone, then yes…”

That statement isn’t wrong.

In fact, most utilize them that way.

However… in operations aiming for urban warfare or civil war and suppression, they are sometimes used differently.

Purluck.

People begin to pour from the sky again, where the bio-weapons were dropped.

Unlike the shabby uniforms from earlier, they are dressed in dashing military uniforms.

They drop quickly headfirst just like the bio-weapons did, but when they reach a safe height, they unfold parachutes to land safely.

Then, using the spring steel at their waists, they pull out military swords and cut the parachutes, rushing toward the remnants of the bio-weapons that fell earlier.

Are they trying to save their comrades?

Even though they use them as consumables, do they have some sort of attachment to their comrades?

“Not likely.”

The bio-weapons are marked as unredeemable by the Communist Party of China.

Merely coming into contact with them reduces social security points, and getting too close risks becoming a sinner themselves. They would avoid them at all costs; they wouldn’t accept them as allies.

Naturally, their approach to the bio-weapons is not driven by camaraderie but necessity.

The warriors lift their swords as they move toward the bio-weapons.

And they begin to reap their blood.

Thud.

Thud.

The bio-weapons, with their bodies torn apart and wrecked, smear their spilled blood on their fingers, while those still maintaining their original forms bleed as their bodies are cut by swords. Those who had clung to life until now lose their lives by the warriors’ blades, thus ending their pitiful lives as consumables…

Thus, the warriors smeared with the blood of sinners perform magic.

“Berserk” magic.

A battle spell performed using the corpses of fallen comrades.

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