SSG 240
by CristaeIt was uncomfortable. As he issued commands to the robots, Yuseong couldn’t help but think so.
The robots’ built-in A.I. was by no means bad. They didn’t reject his orders nor misunderstand them. They reacted promptly and coordinated well with Yuseong and the other robots.
Still, it was inevitably awkward compared to when the strategy guide was directly controlling them.
‘I really had become dependent on the strategy guide.’
But after this incident, the strategy guide had become all the more difficult to trust. He really needed to consider carefully whether to leave the robots under its control after this was all over.
Tatata-tatang!
-Kieeeeeek!
Even so, the robots were doing a pretty good job of taking down the monsters and beasts. So far, Yuseong hadn’t had to pull the trigger once himself.
He hoped this would last until the very end.
‘Wishful thinking.’
He sighed as he checked on the robots’ status.
Even after losing direct control from the guide, the robots had fought well up until now. But now, they were experiencing serious malfunctions.
They still moved, but jerkily, like people with convulsions, their entire bodies shuddering—he could no longer expect them to be effective in combat.
‘Forget combat—they can’t even be used as shields.’
In the end, Yuseong had the robots withdraw. It seemed the space itself was an issue; as he pulled them back to a certain point, their movements returned to normal.
‘From here on, I have to go alone.’
Another sigh.
How long had it been since he’d gone to fight beasts alone, without robots? And this time, he had to deal with monsters entirely on his own as well.
And that wasn’t his only problem.
‘At this point, I have to assume all electronics can malfunction here.’
His loss of function in the powered exoskeleton, which began about the same time as the robots, backed up that suspicion.
As a result, Yuseong had to abandon the exoskeleton as well.
‘I half-expected it once the robots stopped working, but it still doesn’t feel good.’
Even back before he knew about Ark, when he was just barely getting by, he always wore a powered exoskeleton—even though it was old and nearly ready to be scrapped, it still helped in battle. Now, he had to fight without even that.
There was something deeply strange about preparing for battle with just a gun and his bare body.
Honestly, if all he’d had was a gun, he would have been truly discouraged.
But he had come prepared.
He unloaded a large box he had strapped to the back of the exoskeleton. When he opened it, he found a large, heavily packed bag, a suit of armor, and several potions.
First, Yuseong took out a potion and drank it.
It was a potion brought from Ark.
A product of Cooking Day, who had started mass-producing various items after advancing, it temporarily boosted one’s stats.
‘I really owe Cooking Day a lot.’
His blacksmith skills had improved enough that he could now make his own weapons and armor, but potions were still beyond him.
Especially special potions, which required an advanced alchemist class—so he had to rely entirely on Cooking Day.
Still, Cooking Day never seemed to see it as putting Yuseong in his debt.
‘With everything I’ve gained from you, of course I can do this much. Don’t worry about it.’
He didn’t even ask what Yuseong wanted it for, just made it coolly.
Joining Jemotdaero had really paid off.
The potion Yuseong drank boosted his strength. Immediately, he felt stronger.
Not that he was planning to go hand-to-hand with monsters or beasts with just this, of course.
He tossed the empty bottle aside and pulled out the suit of armor from the box.
A gleaming, silver, well-crafted metal armor.
Of course, just wearing these iron plates wouldn’t stop a monster or beast’s attack. But this was no ordinary suit of armor.
It was a suit he’d made in Ark.
Its game defense stat applied in reality, so it was much more protective than regular iron armor. However, just as it had a game defense stat, it also had stat requirements.
This one required Strength.
Which meant it was far heavier than regular steel armor.
Even with his nanomachine-augmented strength, Yuseong had trouble wearing it, so he needed the strength-boosting potion.
Of course, he could have made the armor to match his own strength, but then its defense would inevitably drop.
‘You have to use every resource you can.’
When facing monsters and beasts, you had to be completely prepared.
He put on the armor and equipped a machine gun and a laser gun as well. He slung the large backpack on his back.
‘Let’s go.’
Leaving the familiar exoskeleton and robots behind, Yuseong descended alone.
Dudududududu!
The machine gun blazed. The beast’s body was ripped apart.
-Kweeeek!
Even while screaming that filthy cry, the beasts did not stop charging at Yuseong. Disgusting, no matter how many times he saw them.
But this was the same combination—machine gun and enhanced rounds—that had taken out a monster. The tremendous firepower made short work of the beasts.
Click!
He swapped magazines, pulled out more ammo from his bag, and reloaded the empty magazine, then attached it to the ammo belt on top of his armor.
Having finished his preparations again, Yuseong unfolded a piece of paper. It was a map of the lab, prepared by the strategy guide.
Normally, any record he needed would be saved in his wrist computer, but no electronic device could be expected to work in a place where nothing electronic functioned. Afraid it could get damaged, he’d left it behind.
‘This place is stupidly huge. It’s so big it’s hard to search.’
He couldn’t just go straight to the bottom floor, either. If there were monsters or beasts in other rooms, he could get surrounded and ambushed.
‘At least the layout isn’t complicated.’
Taking out beasts that stood in his way and even the occasional monster, Yuseong secured each floor one by one.
Finally, he reached the floor just above the very bottom.
Step, step.
He carefully descended the stairs, tense at the prospect of the final floor.
He hadn’t encountered anything particularly odd so far. That made it more likely the ether was leaking from the bottom floor.
‘The cameras here were the first to go out, which is even more suspicious.’
He finished descending the stairs.
The bottom floor had a much higher ceiling than the others.
‘This must be where they did monster and beast research.’
He checked for enemies.
‘There are a lot.’
It made it even more likely that the source was here.
‘Two monsters and fourteen beasts?’
Not an easy number to face. Yuseong took a deep breath and stepped out in front of the monsters and beasts.
Thump!
-Kieek?
-Keek?
He struck the wall, making noise to attract attention. The monsters and beasts all turned toward him, their eyes filled with madness.
-Kyaaaaaaak!
-Kieeek!
‘That reaction never changes.’
Yuseong turned and bolted up the stairs, waiting at the upper landing.
The monsters and beasts stormed onto the stairs.
-Kaaaak!
Thud!
-Kiiiiiik!
With so many monsters and beasts jammed into the narrow passage, chaos erupted as they crashed into each other. The monsters, not being equals to the beasts, started attacking any beasts who got in their way.
Huge wounds appeared on the bodies of beasts being attacked, and some were even killed as their heads burst.
‘Oh, nice.’
That was, of course, a good thing for Yuseong.
Especially since it meant they were all tightly packed together.
Yuseong tossed a potion he’d prepared in advance.
Another Cooking Day special potion.
Pop!
The potion shattered, and a white mist rapidly spread.
Crash!
Instantly, white freezing spread everywhere, covering stairs, walls, and ceiling—and enveloping the monsters and beasts.
-Kiii!
The beasts twisted their bodies. But the frost, anchored firmly to their skin, hampered their movements.
-Kaaaak!
However, the monsters, proving tougher than the beasts, started breaking the frost. For now, their movements were still limited, but they might free themselves soon.
Yuseong’s response was to throw four more potions at once.
Pop pop pop pop!
-Kieeek!
The monsters, barely breaking free from the frost, could not withstand the simultaneous assault of four more freezing potions. Their bodies froze white—needless to say, so did the beasts.
Though there were too many beasts to freeze all at once.
But that actually worked out better.
The remaining unfrozen beasts, blocked by their frozen kin on the stairs, turned and started attacking the frozen ones.
Though the high defense of their kin prevented them from getting through quickly.
So, Yuseong gained a brief moment to breathe.
On the landing, frozen like ice statues, stood monsters and beasts.
Of course, he didn’t expect to keep them like this forever.
But it did give him time to calmly punch holes in their bodies.
Yuseong aimed his machine gun at the frozen enemies.
Dududududu!
Enhanced rounds poured out. Ice shards flew and bodies were riddled with holes. The monsters and beasts died, still frozen solid.
As the frozen kin in front were destroyed, the remaining beasts charged at Yuseong again. He threw another batch of freezing potions.
He finished off the rest in the same way.
Frozen flesh and blood covered the stairs. Stepping over them, Yuseong headed down.
He set foot on the lowest level again. Having killed all the monsters and beasts inside, the area was quiet.
‘No more, right?’
If it had been a top-tier monster, it might have hidden in silence and ambushed Yuseong. But since even these monsters and beasts were weaker than the ones from his world, it seemed unlikely that a higher monster would appear out of nowhere.
‘So this is what they were researching.’
On the wide worktable lay monster corpses Yuseong had killed, surrounded by mysterious experimental devices.
But what caught his attention wasn’t any of that.
‘That must be the cause, right?’
In the center stood something sticking up over two meters high.
It was pointed, long, and its black gloss looked like it was made of crystal—a stalagmite of black stone.
A presence that clearly did not belong in this place.
‘If there was something that odd, I’d have been warned in advance.’
But it didn’t matter. In an emergency like this, nobody would scold him for wrecking the subject or facility.
‘Not that I care anyway.’
He aimed his machine gun at the black pillar and pulled the trigger.
Dududududu!
The machine gun hammered the pillar.
He worried it might be incredibly tough, but thankfully, its durability wasn’t too great. Chunks were knocked off by the enhanced rounds.
Pop!
Before long, the pillar shattered.
‘Is it over?’
He desperately hoped that would solve everything.
‘…What’s that?’
But it seemed things were not over yet.