SSG 237

Episode 237

Yuseong stood in front of the giant monster’s corpse.

It was a gruesome and hideous sight, battered by countless bombardments. An ordinary person would have frowned in disgust, but Yuseong felt no discomfort at all.

‘I won!’

Because it was proof of victory.

Though he wasn’t completely certain, based on his previous experiences, he figured this giant monster was probably among the strongest of all monsters.

Perhaps, even during the past war between humans and monsters, there were only a handful of such creatures.

‘And I defeated one of them.’

It was impossible not to feel exhilarated.

It hadn’t even been that difficult. Of course, the damage wasn’t insignificant, but his life had never truly been in danger.

Besides, in Ark, Yuseong now owned as many as four cities. Such losses could be fully recovered in time.

It was incomparable to the days when he risked his life just to hunt down a single beast.

‘Even if there are more creatures like this, I can definitely take them down.’

He felt confident.

But he was not arrogant.

If creatures like this attacked in groups, even Yuseong would find himself in a crisis in an instant.

However, as long as he remained cautious like now, he doubted he’d ever truly face danger again.

‘Let’s go back.’

Before leaving, and in accordance with the quest window that appeared right after defeating the giant monster, he cut off a part of its body.

Then he turned away from the battlefield and headed for the nearest shelter.

---

He took a full day’s rest. The battle had ended relatively easily, but it was still a matter of life and death. Thanks to the nanomachines, he felt no physical fatigue, but mentally, he had accumulated a fair amount of exhaustion.

But that was as far as anything special went.

The next day, Yuseong returned to his usual daily routine as always.

He merely checked the crater once again where the giant monster had been.

He was curious, and also because another quest window had popped up.

This time the quest window required him to search the crater.

Yuseong now made a huge profit because of his cities, but the quest window rewards were still not negligible. Since it wasn’t particularly difficult, Yuseong followed the quest’s instructions.

The crater appeared on the screen.

It was as if it had never been filled with monsters, beasts, and the giant monster like before—the inside of the crater was now completely empty.

‘Nothing special stands out…’

Aside from being a crater, it was only remarkable in its desolation, typical of this world.

‘If anything, the only unusual trace is those left by the monster’s movements.’

But surely the quest window hadn’t promised such a substantial reward just to see that.

Yuseong ordered the robots to search every corner of the crater. Remembering how large the crater was, he sent a fair number of robots, and the search proceeded quickly.

But not a single robot found anything unusual.

The same went for Yuseong, who was searching through multiple screens.

‘There’s nothing peculiar.’

He reached that conclusion.

The quest window seemed to agree, as it marked the quest as complete. But as if still not satisfied with the search results, the quest window issued another request.

To bring some soil from inside the crater.

‘Just what is this place, anyway?’

Though puzzled, Yuseong had the robots collect soil.

But he kept one robot scanning the surroundings.

‘Still, how did this place come to be, anyway?’

To his knowledge, there were various ways a crater could be formed.

A volcano could explode, or a powerful bomb could make one.

And…

Yuseong had the robot look up at the sky.

The world’s distinctive cloudy sky came into view.

‘The other way is a meteor.’

Perhaps the object that made this crater was a visitor from space.

‘Or maybe an invader.’

Maybe it was because of the alien invasion movie he recently watched with Hyewon in the other world, but such a thought crossed his mind out of nowhere.

---

After defeating the giant monster, Yuseong’s daily life was literally peaceful.

There was nothing that threatened him in reality. Though he remained highly alert in case another giant monster appeared, perhaps out of luck, or because such creatures were rare, all he saw were ordinary monsters and beasts.

If he pushed north a little further, he felt he could reach the Bering Sea.

It was the same in Ark.

Since the war with the Alliance Guild, there had been no major incidents.

Because of the no-war period that follows wars, battle was impossible, and most of the Alliance Guild’s forces had been absorbed, so no one dared to mess with Jemotdaero, whose power had grown overwhelmingly.

Utopia also did not provide any massive events.

There was a widespread sense among players that, since so much content—teleports, city occupations, wars—had been released all at once in a short period, there wouldn’t be any large-scale events or updates for a while.

And as if to prove those expectations, Utopia was quiet as could be.

Some players grumbled about it, but most were satisfied with the current situation.

To be precise, players were too busy adapting to the already implemented content to bother complaining about Utopia.

While Jemotdaero was quiet, wars were breaking out here and there, and the invasion of demons was still ongoing.

But at least for now, Yuseong was unrelated to any of that.

He simply broadcast, leveled up, and developed his cities.

Yuseong strolled through the streets of Mordin.

Alongside NPCs, there were many players visible.

A city with its coordinates revealed could have war declared on it by other cities, but this was not without its advantages.

To enjoy the contents near the city, players would visit, and part of the money they spent would go as tax to the city’s owner.

In fact, even among Jemotdaero’s members, the cities newly captured this time were more profitable than the original, invasion-proof cities.

Except for the cities seized from C.O.T.S., the rest had their coordinates made public by the original guilds, so players had begun visiting them.

Mordin, especially, because it started out large and had plenty of content around it, brought in far greater profits than the other cities.

So there was no reason for Yuseong to be dissatisfied with the current situation.

His peace continued even in the other world.

Originally, it was his world and Ark that made his life spectacular, not the other world—so it was only natural.

He ate food, spent time with Hyewon, and wandered around sightseeing.

No matter how trivial it was, life in the other world always brought Yuseong joy.

Thus, perhaps for the first time in his life, Yuseong spent his days peacefully in all three worlds he inhabited.

It was surely what he had always longed for.

But along with his happiness, Yuseong also felt unease.

It felt as if his peace was as fragile as glass, something that could shatter at any moment.

---

Fortunately, Yuseong’s peace lasted quite a while. The northern expansion went smoothly, and life in Ark and the other world remained stable.

At last, Yuseong finally got to see the terrain he’d sought.

‘Is that the Bering Sea?’

A vast sea appeared on the screen. At last, he could see the long-awaited Bering Sea.

Of course, to reach his true goal, the Bering Strait, he needed to go a bit further north.

‘It’s different from the other world, as expected.’

In the other world, the Bering Sea was truly an extreme ocean—bitter cold, fierce storms, endlessly hostile to humans.

But the sea before him now was extremely calm.

Of course, that didn’t mean it was safe. In fact, there was no such thing as a safe sea in this world.

‘I wonder how many monsters and beasts are in there.’

Because he had to cross the sea, Yuseong first went to its nearest point and checked the situation. He immediately understood.

The sea was every bit as dangerous as the land.

As soon as he walked along the coast, beasts burst out of the water and rushed at him.

As expected, the wretched monsters were infesting the sea as well.

So, even without violent storms like the other world, the danger was the same.

‘No, maybe storms would be better.’

Even so, he had no thought of giving up. Yuseong had always found a way to overcome monsters and beasts and had come out victorious.

He would do so again this time.

However, if, upon checking, he felt the situation was different…

‘Then I’ll just give up.’

He was sure something important was at his final destination, North Carolina, but even so, it was nothing more than curiosity. Like most people, Yuseong valued his own life more than curiosity.

‘Anyway, I’ve arrived at the Bering Sea, so I’ll reach the Bering Strait soon enough.’

Yuseong stood up. Having confirmed everything, he planned to return to Ark.

‘Move me to the Bering Strait.’

He gave the command to the strategy guide and was about to turn his body while opening the bag of bread at his side when he paused.

‘What the?’

Nothing changed on the screen. The robot was not moving.

‘Is something wrong?’

As usual, Yuseong asked the strategy guide for clarification. But for some reason, there was no reply.

‘Hey! Hey!’

Still no answer.

“Strategy guide?”

This time, he called out loud. He even shouted.

But the result was the same.

‘…The strategy guide disappeared?’

His mind went blank. He remembered when his connection to Ark had been temporarily lost in the past.

He even threw away the bread he was holding and rushed to the virtual reality device.

Luckily, the power came on. But that alone didn’t ease his anxiety. He climbed into the machine and activated it.

His vision quickly changed, and he was standing at the very spot where he’d logged out earlier.

‘I’m connected!’

As relief washed over him, he let out a deep breath.

He looked around, checking outside as well. Everything was as he remembered.

At least it seemed nothing catastrophic had happened in Ark.

“Strategy guide! Are you there?”

Perhaps he could communicate with the strategy guide from here. But here, too, there was no response.

‘What the hell happened?’

The first thing was to get a grasp of the situation.

Yuseong switched between reality and Ark, looking for anything else that might have changed aside from the strategy guide not responding.

‘Thankfully, everything related to Ark is working normally.’

Ark’s login and gameplay, even the purchase window, were all operating as usual.

However, all the robots operated by the strategy guide had come to a stop.

‘This could be a bigger problem than I thought…’

The number of robots Yuseong had purchased easily exceeded several hundred. Controlling them all at once was no simple task.

Of course, most were equipped with highly advanced A.I., so it wasn’t impossible, but he couldn’t handle them as skillfully as the strategy guide could.

That meant that the efficiency of all combat, exploration, and expansion in reality would sharply plummet.