SSG 233

Episode 233

It was inside a huge crater in the middle of a flat wasteland, as if a meteor had fallen.

In the center of the pit, a small mountain was standing tall.

It was a peculiar landform.

If there were a pit at the top of the mountain, that would make sense. You could explain it as a volcanic caldera.

But here, it was the opposite.

Even Yooseong, who didn’t know much about geology, found the sight strange enough.

It didn’t take long for his curiosity to be answered.

But having that question resolved wasn’t a good thing. Yooseong would rather it had remained a mystery.

The robot looked down into the crater.

‘Hm?’

Yooseong frowned.

The crater was packed full of beasts. Here and there, he even saw what appeared to be kaiju among them.

‘Is this even possible?’

Beasts usually hid in artificial structures, or if not, would just wander around. Even though the number of beasts had recently increased, their behavioral patterns had never changed.

And yet, here in this crater, so many beasts had gathered.

‘And even kaiju too.’

Clearly abnormal.

‘Should I get closer?’

But the density of beasts was far too high. Even if they didn’t recognize the robot as an enemy, if it bumped into them, they could perceive it as an obstacle and attack.

‘Should I just wipe them out instead?’

He’d done his best to avoid fighting beasts, but for the sake of investigating something this important, combat had to be considered.

Of course, if combat was necessary, he’d have to bring more firepower.

It was while Yooseong was still hesitating—

Sssrrrk!

Something moved on the screen.

At first, he thought it was a kaiju or a beast.

But it wasn’t.

‘…Is the mountain moving?’

It was exactly that.

The mountain inside the crater was twitching.

It wasn’t a large mountain, at least not compared to those he’d seen while crossing northern Korea with his robots. But it was still big enough to be called a small mountain.

That huge object was moving.

Shrrrrk!

Above the ridgeline, something crawled over. It looked like a massive earthworm. Its appearance alone would trigger not just disgust in most people, but outright terror.

But it wasn’t threatening just by its looks.

Ruuuuumble!

The hill-like shape was moving even more. What looked at first like a giant rock set on the ground rotated slowly, almost as if it were a ball rolling. At the same time, from crevices all over what looked like caves within the “mountain,” countless earthworm-like things stuck out their faces.

By then, Yooseong understood.

What he thought was a mountain was not a mountain at all.

‘…Kaiju!’

Yooseong wasn’t easily shocked, but right now his face was pale.

‘That size…!’

The bigger a kaiju, the stronger it was. He couldn’t even guess at the strength of a kaiju as big as a mountain.

But Yooseong shook his head, forcing down his fear.

‘There’s no reason to fight, anyway.’

That place was far from where he was, in what used to be Mongolia.

‘Since it’s stayed in the crater so far, it probably won’t leave.’

He could just avoid the area when he crossed the Bering Sea later.

‘Still, I need to gather information.’

It might come in handy someday. Yooseong had the robot take as many pictures and videos of the giant kaiju as possible.

Since it was a kaiju, it probably wouldn’t attack the robot as long as there was no obvious threat.

‘Those look like… heads?’

The giant earthworm-like things poking out from what he previously thought was the mountain’s body followed the robot’s movement. Zooming in, he saw that each one had eyes and a mouth.

‘A kaiju made only of heads. How does it move?’

Did it roll like a ball when it wanted to travel, like just now?

But then he realized something.

‘Is that thing… watching the robot?’

Kaiju and beasts never paid any attention to robots—why was this thing staring at one?

Chills ran down his spine.

‘I need to pull back the robots…!’

But it was too late.

Click!

The screen showing the robot’s perspective went black. No warning, no sign.

‘Was it destroyed?’

Yooseong quickly checked the robot signals. There was nothing. It was certain—they’d been taken out.

‘But this is…’

A robot could get destroyed. But the number of lost signals was too high.

He’d spread out several robots around the crater because the location info wasn’t precise.

That meant aside from the robot that discovered the giant kaiju, there were quite a few others near the crater.

And now, every robot in the crater area had lost its signal at once.

‘Wait, can you even call that “nearby”?’

No one would call a place “near” when it was tens of kilometers away.

If this really was because of the giant kaiju—

Yooseong swallowed hard.

This was a monster on a completely different scale.

‘I really need to stay away from that thing’s area.’

But he couldn’t ignore it completely either. In this damned reality, you never knew what would happen. He had to gather as much information as possible now.

Yooseong started marking the places where signals had been lost, the crater, and where the still-active robots were, analyzing it on a map.

‘There’s one still alive?’

Strangely, one robot still had a signal even though it seemed to be within the kaiju’s range. Yooseong quickly put that robot’s sight on the screen.

‘No sign of attack.’

What was the difference between it and the robots that were destroyed? Yooseong checked the camera, looking around.

‘The only thing is, there’s a small mountain here.’

Whether from nature, war, or time, the area around the crater was endless plain. The presence of a mountain stood out.

‘Is this one going to move, too?’

Burned once already, Yooseong stared suspiciously at the small mountain. Luckily, it turned out to just be a real mountain.

‘So this robot is definitely in range. Maybe it recorded the attack, though?’

Yooseong checked the robot’s storage for videos.

‘Here!’

A bright red line traced across the ground. It only lasted a split second, but it definitely appeared in the video.

‘Was that the giant kaiju’s attack?’

Some kind of optical weapon? Or something else?

‘Does it even matter.’

Either way, it’s dangerous.

‘Seems to be a straight-line attack. Range: tens of kilometers. Power: unknown.’

That was all he had. Not much to go on. Yooseong hesitated, wondering whether he should send more robots or retreat.

Thud, thud!

He heard footsteps through the robot’s microphone.

The robot’s camera turned toward the sound automatically.

‘Just a beast.’

Nothing strange—a robot bumping into beasts was routine.

But this beast was different from the ones he usually met.

-Kyyaaaak!

With claws extended, the beast charged the robot. The robot reacted instantly.

Fsssh!

A laser pierced through the beast’s head. It died on the spot. It wasn’t even a fight—just total robotic superiority.

But Yooseong felt no joy. Instead, his already-heightened sense of danger grew even greater.

‘A beast attacked first?’

Beasts usually didn’t even care about robots.

Once more, something strange was happening.

But it didn’t stop there.

-Grrrr!

-Woooo!

With strange howls, more beasts approached. All were staring straight at the robot, obviously making it their target.

Thud! Thud!

The robot fired lasers in all directions. Even dying, the beasts kept charging.

Even if beast populations were growing, these numbers were ridiculous.

-Graaaaaa!

To make matters worse, even a kaiju showed up out of nowhere, rushing the robot. The robot hurriedly drew its railgun.

Bang!

-Kyiii!

The railgun hit square on, staggering the kaiju. With a second shot, the kaiju’s face went down into the dirt.

While dealing with the kaiju, even more beasts got close. The robot opened fire again with its laser.

But at last, the robot was overwhelmed by sheer numbers.

-Kyyaaaaak!

The last thing on the screen was a beast screeching as it slashed at the robot with sharp claws.

That was it. The monitor, like earlier, went black. But Yooseong glared at that empty screen for a long time, as if it were his sworn enemy.

But just glaring wouldn’t change reality.

Letting out a long sigh, Yooseong began to think.

‘Kaiju and beasts attacking the robots… It must be because of that huge kaiju.’

Otherwise, there’s no reason beasts would attack robots out of the blue.

Two facts could be inferred.

‘The giant kaiju, unlike others, considers robots enemies as well. And it can control other kaiju and beasts.’

Both were serious problems.

‘All the more reason to never go near that region.’

Thankfully, as long as it wasn’t near the giant kaiju’s crater—“near” being a relative term—no kaiju or beast preemptively attacked robots.

So Yooseong headed north, far from Mongolia’s crater, focusing on the region once called Primorsky Krai.

‘What if there’s another one like that on the route to America?’

Especially if one showed up on both sides of the Bering Strait, on the Chukchi Peninsula and Alaska, it would be a nightmare.

But Yooseong didn’t know.

He didn’t need to worry about Chukchi or Alaska, for the worst was already advancing toward him.

That happened not long after encountering the Mongolian giant kaiju.

At the time, Yooseong was still sending forces north, pushing to secure a safe route.

But suddenly, some of the robots passing east through the Russian Far East and Manchuria lost signal.

“Huh?”

Of course, Yooseong was alarmed. A chill ran down his back.

It was exactly the same phenomenon he’d just witnessed not long ago.

‘No way!’

He sent other robots to the spot where the signals had gone dead. Those robots vanished as well—and this time, it was even closer to the Korean Peninsula.

He tried several more times. Each time, the robots disappeared, and each time the “dead zone” crept further and further south, closer to him.

Yooseong clenched his teeth. Then he diverted some robots that were much further north, working on route clearing, and sent them back toward the crater in Mongolia.

This time, they traveled without interruption.

And the crater they found was empty.