SSG 257
by CristaeEpisode 257
‘I want to find out what kind of creature it is.’
The last time he saw a giant monster, he was able to confirm its appearance thanks to the relay device. But he couldn’t install a relay in the ocean.
‘No, if I think about it, is it possible?’
Yuseong loaded a robot, a relay, a solar generator, and batteries onto a boat and sent it out.
‘It works!’
But he couldn’t keep it going for long. Such a small boat wouldn’t last in the harsh weather of the Bering Sea.
‘I just need to know if there’s a giant monster, and if there is, what kind it is.’
Yuseong sent a considerable number of boats to the area where communications were lost.
Boom!
One of the boats lost connection. Yuseong moved quickly. He sent all the nearby boats toward the boat that lost contact.
‘…Is that it?’
A large mass appeared on the screen.
A creature with no arms or legs, resembling a giant snake, stuck its neck out over the water’s surface. Its noticeably blue eyes, visible even from a distance, confirmed it was a monster.
Swish!
The giant monster turned its body. Then it opened its mouth wide.
Bzzt!
One monitor disappeared. But right before that, he got the scene he wanted.
‘Does it control water?’
A stream of water fired from its mouth like a cannon and struck the boat.
‘Let’s check a little more.’
Yuseong sent the other boats closer to the creature.
“Hm.”
This experiment taught him quite a few things.
As he first suspected, the creature fundamentally manipulated water. And the ocean is filled with more water than can be imagined.
‘Beating it at sea is impossible.’
As he thought, the only way was to lure it to the shoreline and kill it there.
Fortunately, the monster began to behave as Yuseong wanted.
It started to move in the direction the boats came from—in other words, toward Yuseong.
Yuseong began preparations just like when he fought the last giant monster. He placed a bunch of howitzers and railguns and stacked up a mountain of ammunition.
‘At least it doesn’t seem as hard as the last one…’
Looking back, the last one was really overpowered. Its immense detection range, reach that exceeded even that range, and attacks that struck in the blink of an eye.
But the greatest advantage of the monster he faced now was water. If he could lure it somewhere with little or no water, he had a good chance.
‘If I move inland, it’ll chase me.’
Yuseong believed in the monsters’ obsession with humans.
But—
‘…You bastard.’
Seeing the monster stop some distance from the coast, Yuseong let out a sigh.
A standoff without a real standoff continued. There was distance, but with the monster’s eyesight, there was no way it couldn’t see Yuseong. In fact, whenever Yuseong moved widely along the shore, the monster also slid along in the same direction.
‘It knows. It knows it’s at a disadvantage on land.’
At some point, the monster disappeared.
But Yuseong didn’t think it had given up and left.
‘There are lots of places to hide in the sea.’
He stared forlornly into the surging sea, but he couldn’t see into the depths.
He tried sending out a few more boats, but there was no particular reaction.
‘…Looks like I’ll have to take the risk.’
Either way, he had to cross the ocean, which meant he had to get rid of the monster.
Yuseong boarded a boat himself.
He had sworn never to cross this ocean by boat, but unexpected situations always happened.
‘Still, I can’t just ride it as is.’
If the monster saw him on the boat rather than on land, all the ordinary beasts and monsters would definitely charge at Yuseong.
Yuseong went into the cabin and welded shut all the surroundings with steel plates. He checked the outside world via cameras installed around the boat. Plus, it was equipped with sonar.
Vrrrr!
Yuseong set off. Luckily, he wasn’t attacked by monsters or beasts right away. He seemed to have successfully fooled their eyes.
‘If this keeps up, I might be able to head straight for America.’
Maybe he’d been overly afraid of the unpredictable monsters and beasts under the sea.
But that notion was shattered in just a few minutes.
Crash!
As always, Yuseong was transferred to his two-story country house. He walked down to the first floor and drank a glass of water.
[Welcome.]
He waved once at Messiah’s usual greeting and sat down on the sofa.
[Do you have something on your mind?]
“It’s just about how to get to Savior.”
[You mean crossing the Bering Sea.]
“More precisely, it’s about the giant monster nested there.”
[Is it strong?]
“That too, but the environment is completely in its favor.”
Yuseong gave a rundown of the giant monster. Messiah was someone worth consulting for battle advice.
“And in the end, the monster jumped out of the ocean, bit the boat, and smashed it… I think.”
[You’re not sure.]
“As soon as the boat shook violently and I heard the crash, I escaped to the other world.”
[Are you sure it was the monster?]
“I checked the mass with sonar. If there were another monster that big, I’d have to give up on crossing the sea.”
[The beasts and monsters didn’t find you, but the giant monster did. It must have a special detection ability, just like the last one.]
“I think it can detect anything in contact with water or in close proximity to it.”
[That’s a reasonable guess since it manipulates water. What about its detection range?]
“I don’t know. I’ll have to keep checking.”
[With your life on the line?]
“There’s no other way.”
Yuseong grabbed a snack pack nearby and ripped it open.
His life was very precious to him, too, but now was the time to risk it for the future.
The salty taste helped loosen the heavy feeling on his mind.
Bang!
Another boat was destroyed. From a great distance, a stream of water shot out and sliced the boat clean in half.
But once again, all that spilled into the sea were fragments of the boat and black oil—no blood or flesh.
The giant monster, which had blasted the water stream in an attempt to finally kill its prey, soon realized.
His attack was useless again.
-Krr, KRAAAAAH!
The giant monster roared at the sky. The sea, which was unusually calm for the Bering, suddenly turned rough.
‘I’m sure now.’
Once again fleeing to another world, Yuseong nodded.
‘I can’t fight that thing at sea.’
He tried arming robots to attack, and tried detouring far around the last place he’d encountered it. But none of it worked.
The sea was simply too strong an obstacle.
‘But I still have to cross.’
It was truly an exasperating challenge.
‘…It’s fine. I still have enough time before my attention level rises too much.’
His attention score had jumped after the last event. With what had been set up as a rivalry—though since Jemotdaero rose to prominence, it had faded—he had just completely smashed C.O.T.S.
But he still had a long way to go. He needed much more attention.
‘I’ll have to keep raising it.’
But Yuseong’s somewhat relaxed attitude didn’t last long.
[There is something strange happening with the link to that world.]
Yuseong held his head. He had just risked his life to prod the monster and run away. This was hardly the moment for stressful news.
“Right, damn. Like things ever go right for me.”
[There is merely a huge obstacle. If you succeed in emigrating to this world, you will live in comfort your whole life, so please do your best.]
“If it were Savior I’d get it, but hearing that from you is ridiculous.”
If it were a living being, he would have clocked it across the back of the head.
“So, what exactly is wrong? Is it like before when Ark access was blocked?”
[That was because I cut off access from my side, unrelated to this incident.]
“Hearing that just makes me more pissed off.”
[Still, it can’t be helped. At any rate, nothing will immediately change. It’s just that a particular kind of ether is seeping into the ether channel connecting this world and that one.]
“So? Explain in plain language.”
[Think of it as someone hacking Ark through Savior’s channel.]
In Yuseong’s world, there weren’t even any humans, let alone hackers. And even if there were, they wouldn’t be capable of hacking Ark. But if it was the one occupying Savior, he knew.
“Hades?”
[That is very likely.]
He remembered those green eyes and it sent a chill down his spine every time. Honestly, when the giant monster blocked his way in the Bering, he’d paradoxically felt a bit of relief.
It at least delayed the time before he had to face the owner of those green eyes.
Hades weighed heavily on Yuseong’s mind.
But now, as if to say he had no time to rest, his enemy pressed him ever harder.
“What kind of damage do you predict?”
[I cannot say. But there won’t be a moment when Ark suddenly goes down. Crossing between worlds won’t be easy for that one, either. But if left unhandled too long, nothing good will come of it.]
“So basically, I still have to cross the Bering, huh.”
[More importantly, you need to quickly find a way to raise your attention score. I do not know Hades’ exact abilities, but one thing is certain: right now, you cannot stand against him.]
“So I have to create another event.”
[That, too. But there are other ways.]
“Other ways?”
[Your attention score is the interest people of this world have in you. So you don’t necessarily have to use Ark as a vehicle. That world’s culture was mostly hollowed out to focus their attention on Ark, which is why Ark is optimal for raising your attention score.]
“There’s another method?”
[I have a few ideas. Shall I execute them?]
Yuseong nodded.
“Do it.”
He had no time to pick and choose methods now.
Gospel. That was the name of a corporation whose value had skyrocketed worldwide in recent years.
Appearing like a comet with its futuristic hologram technology, Gospel continued to transform the world by releasing all kinds of new technologies.
It was often half-jokingly said that, if only Gospel had ten more years, it could advance the world by 300 years.
But Gospel faced as much fierce resistance as it did hype.
Not only the companies pushed aside by Gospel’s emergence, but even nations began to keep a wary eye on Gospel.
The technologies it revealed all had world-changing potential for the economy and the power to greatly enhance military might.
But their resistance was shattered by the authority of Messiah, who was all but ruling the world from the shadows.
Gospel grew unimpeded and captured ever more attention, and curiosity about Gospel’s owner followed suit.
However, the owner and CEO of Gospel remained a total mystery.
The only thing known was the name, Lee Yuseong.
But one day, a rumor began to spread that Lee Yuseong, owner and CEO of Gospel, was also Lee Yuseong, renowned as the strongest player in Ark.