SSG 261
by CristaeEpisode 261
The land ahead slowly drew closer. Really, just a little, just a bit farther to go.
Boom!
But the giant monster’s attacks were still ongoing. On top of that, having discarded the reinforced exoskeleton lowered both defense and mobility, which was a problem.
Fortunately, however, the giant monster’s accuracy had significantly dropped.
Whoosh!
Just now, too. A pillar of water soared up, aiming for Yuseong, but it erupted slightly away from him. It didn’t even slow his running speed, let alone threaten his life.
It was probably due to the injury that blew off half its head.
‘That’s at least a relief.’
There was a reason he had endured the humiliation of falling in the sea once again.
He had already given up on the idea that even with half its head blown off a monster would stop moving. Monsters were just that kind of thing.
Still, he didn’t let down his guard completely. The monster’s attacks didn’t hit him directly, but they didn’t miss by much either. There was always a chance he could get hit by bad luck.
-Kyaaaaaa!
Moreover, perhaps thinking it couldn’t kill Yuseong this way, the monster started charging directly at him.
Bang! Bang!
Columns of water still shot up, but their frequency had clearly decreased. Thanks to that, Yuseong could run a bit more easily.
‘There’s really not much left now!’
He glanced back. Unfortunately, the distance between him and the monster was shorter than the distance between him and land.
It looked like he’d have to tangle with the monster at least once.
But in other words,
‘Once. Just once will do!’
Yuseong steeled his resolve.
“Fuck!”
But not even two seconds after his resolve hardened, a pillar of water exploded beneath his feet and Yuseong cursed his shitty luck.
‘Of all times, now!’
He was really unlucky.
Of course, even this time, Yuseong evaded the pillar with his excellent reflexes, but the real problem was that he was being chased by a monster.
When he looked back, the distance between himself and the monster was almost nothing.
‘Yeah. I would’ve had to face it at least once anyway.’
It was just that the moment had come a little sooner.
He looked at the land. It seemed so close, like he could reach it if he reached out his hand. Honestly, at this moment, the land looked far more alluring than that delicious black bread.
-Kuaaaah!
The sound of ice breaking mixed with the monster’s chilling roar echoed around. Yuseong stopped fleeing. Rather than showing his back while running, it was better to brace for a final attack.
Spewing blood into the air, the giant monster opened its enormous jaws and charged at Yuseong. Even with half its head gone, that damn mouth was unfortunately unharmed.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
He fired at its face with the rifle he had bought just earlier. It was a move made on the logic that it was better than doing nothing, but what could a few tiny bullets do to a creature still moving with half its head gone?
“Tsk!”
He tossed the rifle aside. He opened his eyes wide, ready to react to anything at any time.
The monster looked like it would bite and swallow him any moment.
But its next move was unexpected.
‘Water jet!’
Blue water blasted from the black monster’s jaws. It was the same high-pressure attack that split any ship or ice cleanly in two on contact.
Just when it looked like it would bite him, it suddenly shot water instead. It seemed the monster was trying to catch Yuseong off guard.
Moreover, at this distance, there was no need to worry about the monster’s biggest weakness, its poor accuracy.
Boom!
The spot where Yuseong stood was blasted by the stream. Ice shot up everywhere, and water sprayed in all directions. But the monster wasn’t done; it thrashed its head from side to side.
Crash! Crack!
The water stream followed, destroying everything around. It was as if, in case Yuseong had dodged, it was scorching the surroundings.
But the moment it saw something fly through the air, the monster realized something had gone wrong.
It was a large shield. With the enormous water pressure from the monster’s stream, the shield was flung into the air, and Yuseong was behind it.
‘Made it!’
He had prepared it, knowing the giant monster could use water attacks.
Not just for defense, but the shield had high resistance to water-attribute attacks. Yuseong’s prediction was exactly right, and the shield blocked the monster’s water stream.
‘I can’t use it a second time, though.’
Even with just one hit, cracks appeared all over. If it took another hit, it would surely shatter.
But once was more than enough.
Yuseong abandoned the ruined shield and bought a new one. But it wasn’t necessary.
The giant monster kept blasting water. But thanks to its terrible accuracy, every jet just grazed past Yuseong.
Meanwhile, the shock of stopping such a powerful stream launched Yuseong into the air.
Towards the land he had so longed for, Alaska.
Thud!
Yuseong’s body landed. The impact from falling flung his body over the ground, rolling him over and over. He had crashed down hard and forcefully, breaking and bursting parts of his body.
But that didn’t matter to Yuseong right now. He was just happy to see the true earth beneath the white snow.
“Ha, hahahahaha!”
Laughing like a madman, Yuseong stood up. His whole body hurt and creaked, but he had nanomachines and potions.
He gulped down a potion and ran inland.
The giant monster, perhaps not willing to give up, kept firing water streams at him. But once again, that awful accuracy held it back.
Yuseong looked back and flipped the monster off. Then he shouted with satisfaction.
“Screw you, asshole!”
He disappeared behind a rather sizable hill.
Bang!
A jet of water hit the hill, but even though it could split ships and ice in two, it could not pierce right through the hill itself.
Perhaps out of sheer rage, unlike in Siberia, the giant monster approached dangerously close to Alaska’s coast. But no matter what, it seemed unable to crawl up onto land.
-Kwoooooh!
Its cries, full of rage and frustration, filled the beach.
With the solid land as his ally, Yuseong felt relieved. He was definitely safer now, standing on firm ground rather than fighting on a single cake of ice in the middle of the sea.
But that was only in relative terms.
The monster, infuriated at losing Yuseong, was still rampaging at the shore, and there was no telling when another monster or wild beast might appear.
‘It’s not like monsters or beasts are gone just because I’m on a different continent.’
He quickly threw off his clothes.
Until now he had ignored it in his efforts to escape the monster, but ever since he’d fallen in the ocean from the railgun’s recoil, his clothes were wet and his body temperature kept dropping.
No matter how tough Yuseong was, at this rate he’d freeze to death from hypothermia.
He bought clothes and a towel from the purchase window and wiped himself dry, then dressed again.
‘Good thing that after my notoriety went up, even everyday items were registered for sale.’
If not, he’d have been forced to freeze to death.
Afterwards, he rushed to buy solar generators and batteries to secure power. He didn’t plan to charge them fully.
‘As long as they run for a bit, it’s fine. At least until I can leave this beach.’
The giant monster was still making a racket. He worried that the noise could attract other monsters or beasts.
But he couldn’t just go inland without any preparations. Alaska was marked on the purchase window’s map, but he couldn’t know where monsters and beasts lurked.
When he judged the batteries were sufficiently charged, Yuseong bought new reinforced exoskeletons, robots, and weapons.
“Fire!”
The robots pointed their railguns at the still-rampaging monster.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Standing on solid ground—not useless, flimsy ice—the robots’ railguns were deadly accurate.
Wham! Wham!
The railgun rounds hit the monster’s body in an instant, tearing its flesh apart.
The true body of the monster, which had used the vast sea as invincible armor, was incredibly frail.
Splash!
Its body fell over into the icy sea filled with ice floes. If it had just admitted defeat and left when Yuseong landed, it might have survived, at least.
‘That’s that.’
Watching the giant monster fall, Yuseong clenched his fist.
How much suffering had he endured because of that damn thing.
He’d been forced to dash across freezing, stormy ice instead of being able to cross the sea safely, hidden inside his ship, because of that thing.
And what about just before he crossed the sea, being chased by it?
“Ptooey!”
He spat toward the place where the monster fell, but didn’t go near the ocean. He was utterly sick of the sea. He didn’t even want to look at it for now.
‘Still, let’s stay here for a while.’
The main reason he’d planned to hurry into the interior was the monster’s rampage. But it fell too easily under the robots’ attack. Honestly, he had only meant the attack as a diversion to help his retreat, not to kill it.
‘Turns out, it was only scary in the water.’
He bought a bunch of generators and began recharging several batteries at once, then looked for a hollow to shelter from the wind and hunkered down. Leaning halfway against the wall, he bought black bread and took a bite.
“…It’s over.”
Only then could he finally relax a little.
Yuseong had at last reached the Alaska he so desired, but it didn’t mean his future would be all rosy.
He savored a bite of delicious black bread—but only briefly. He had to get moving again.
‘First, a base. Then, power supply.’
Yuseong had crossed the Bering Strait alone. Ice wasn’t a reliable environment for running with a whole army of robots. Even the reinforced exoskeleton was risky; how could the ice hold up if he spread several robots with batteries all around him?
‘They probably didn’t make it across the Reed.’
He’d thrown off his reinforced exoskeleton several times.
‘Still, bringing a few with batteries and swapping them in and out might have worked.’
But that was just hindsight. The important thing was that he’d arrived safely in Alaska.
Yuseong pulled up the map on his computer.
‘Will any shelters have survived?’
The bigger, the better.
‘The closest one is here. Are the batteries fully charged yet?’
It looked like he would have to wait here a bit longer.
That was fine. Yuseong started stacking up weapons and ammo for the robots.
Now that the giant monster was dealt with, he considered moving the supplies he’d left behind in Siberia, but quickly gave up on the idea.
‘Why bother? I can just buy new stuff.’
Yuseong was one of the richest players in Ark.
In no time at all, he had rebuilt a military force with a decent power supply. Once all the batteries were charged, his army was ready to move at any time.
‘Let’s go.’
Yuseong’s steps began to move toward the new continent.