SSG 259
by CristaeThe news that Yuseong was the CEO of Gospel continued to set the world ablaze. As shocking as it was, Yuseong kept fueling the fire without pause.
Yuseong not only did Q&As with viewers in-game, but also willingly participated in media interviews.
Of course, if it had only been Yuseong’s word, people wouldn’t have believed it. They would have written him off as a liar or a braggart.
However, once reporters started investigating and confirmed everything Yuseong said was true, people responded with deep admiration and praise.
Even the most dogged tabloid journalists failed to detect Messiah’s fabrications. It was proof of how perfectly Messiah controlled this world.
Of course, Messiah wasn’t a hostile AI, nor was Yuseong a human supremacist obsessed with humanity’s self-rule, and so he didn’t feel any anxiety about that fact at all.
He simply continued to monitor his rising attention score and prepare for the future.
“It’s almost time to land in America.”
[I agree.]
“That’s still the best plan, right?”
[It seems the most viable.]
“I’ll have to risk my life, though.”
[Was there ever anything you could do in your world without risking your life?]
“That’s true.”
But risking his life always brought intense fear. That was true even for Yuseong, who had overcome countless trials.
[It’s good to think it over, but please finish as quickly as possible. There isn’t much time left. If you’re late, you’ll have to wait a year, and there’s no guarantee Savior will be safe in the meantime.]
“It must be nice to just talk from a safe place.”
[I don’t have a mouth. Also, if I were in your position, I wouldn’t feel fear. I am a machine.]
So that’s what it means to get more than you bargained for. Joking with an AI got him nowhere.
But it did somewhat calm his fears.
“…Alright. Let’s begin.”
It was time to risk his life once again.
It stuck its neck high in the center of the Bering Sea. Massive size, hideous features, and above all, those glowing blue eyes proved it was a true monster, humanity’s nemesis.
It didn’t move, looking almost like a statue erected in the middle of the sea.
But beneath that stillness, its senses were spread wide.
Krrrk!
It let out a low sound. Its lips even twitched as if in a smile.
Humans.
Its mind was filled with nothing but that thought.
How long had it been since it last saw one?
To bite, swallow, crush, grind—a rush of delightful memories danced through its head.
It never thought it would see it again, but suddenly a lone human appeared, melting the monster’s heart with love.
It wanted to bite the human to death right away.
As soon as it saw the human, it wanted to rush in, but unfortunately, the human was on land.
In the sea, the monster was near-omnipotent, but on land, it grew too weak. So, with a human right in front of it, all it could do was lick its lips.
But not all hope was lost.
For whatever reason, the human began to cross the sea.
Though he bundled up tightly so as not to be seen, that did not work on the monster.
But the human kept vanishing every time an attack was made—he must have some means of escape.
Remembering this made the monster emit an irritated growl.
Fortunately, the human continued entering the sea. He clearly had some business that required crossing.
Which meant more opportunities would come.
Swish!
The monster turned its head. Far out in the sea, it sensed the human’s presence. It swam toward where it sensed him.
The giant monster swam incredibly fast. Even on the narrow Bering Strait, it was impossible to outrun it and make landfall.
The monster spotted a familiar boat.
-KRAAAAA!
It opened its jaws wide and charged at the boat, biting down.
Crunch!
Like a cracker, the boat was crushed effortlessly. But again, no human corpse.
-Krrrk!
Despite its disappointment, the monster turned and headed back to where it had come from. That was the spot from which it could reach anywhere in the Bering Sea fastest.
The monster leisurely swam back, hoping it would soon drink fresh human blood again.
Yuseong had fled to another world to escape the monster’s attack. But this time, he immediately returned to his own world.
This time, the departure was not for another experiment, but to lure the monster as far away as possible. He had to move in a hurry before it returned.
‘Not that it’ll do much, but…’
It was better than nothing.
Yuseong quickly donned his reinforced exoskeleton and gathered the essentials.
‘It’s been a long time since I truly risked my life.’
His “extra life”—his ability to shift worlds—had already been used.
‘No turning back.’
He hesitated to the end—maybe he should save his cross-world shift. But if this attempt failed, he’d never be able to use this trick again; the monster would adapt.
‘Better to use the chance to put more distance between me and the monster.’
Yuseong started to walk.
He was at the seashore, heading toward the coast. Naturally, the rough, black ocean should have appeared soon.
But what he saw was not a hellish, yawning sea, but a field of pure white ice.
The Bering Strait, near the Arctic, is covered in ice for more than half the year. You can cross all the way to Alaska “on foot” over the ice.
But it isn’t always possible.
‘Only possible around February, they said.’
That’s when the ice is the broadest and thickest.
‘I’m not sure if it’s February right now.’
But the season seemed similar, so it was probably about right.
That didn’t mean he could cross as if it was a frozen lake in midwinter. Cracks, open water, and drifting arctic ice floes blocked his way.
And the stinging cold battered his body.
Worst-case, chunks of ice could break off and drift into the Pacific.
But there was enough chance to succeed.
‘Because people in that world have made it already.’
He learned this while researching the Bering Strait. Some people had crossed it on ice over five days.
‘I’ll be even faster.’
With the buy menu, he didn’t need to pack food. Thanks to the reinforced exoskeleton, he moved faster than most, and thanks to nanomachines, keeping up body temperature and fighting fatigue would be much easier.
‘He couldn’t sense me on the ice.’
He’d already tested this by standing on a big ice floe by the shore for a long while.
At that time, the monster never appeared, even though Yuseong wandered for a long while on ice above the sea. Only a few beasts crawled out onto the ice by chance.
‘If I fail now, it’s all over.’
The monster would be surfacing in the southern sea where he’d lured it. While it was still far away, Yuseong wanted to hurry as much as he could.
‘Let’s go.’
The reinforced exoskeleton took its first step onto the white ice.
The Bering Strait relentlessly held Yuseong back. Wrapped in cold-weather gear from the other world and aided by nanomachines, the cold still hammered at him.
And that wasn’t the only obstacle.
On the ice, land-dwelling creatures could also move.
Which meant that on the ice, you could encounter mainland monsters and beasts too.
-Kyaaa!
Bang! Bang!
Yuseong fired his gun at a beast he’d run into by bad luck, all without slowing his stride.
‘I hope I don’t meet a true monster…’
For average monsters, a rifle would do. But if one call for the rail gun, that was trouble.
He doubted the ice could withstand the railgun’s massive recoil.
‘Whether they live on land or sea, every monster and beast just needs to be killed.’
He handled the charging beast and kept going, until his path was finally blocked by the sea.
‘A lead.’
Where the ice had split, the sea was exposed. Getting close there meant a high chance of the giant monster noticing.
Yuseong stepped back. Then, after putting some distance between himself and the lead, he started running hard.
“Hup!”
Thud!
He kicked off hard on the ice. With his speed and the exoskeleton’s strength, he launched high into the air.
Crack!
The hard kick shattered the ice behind him.
His body soared over the black seawater, landing on the opposite ice.
Thunk!
He landed safely on the ice.
“Phew!”
He sighed in relief at having crossed safely.
Crack!
A sinister sound came from the ice beneath his feet. Yuseong sprang into action, instantly ditching the exoskeleton and abandoning his plan to keep moving with it.
Bam!
No sooner had he jumped forward than the ice broke, swallowing the exoskeleton into the sea.
But that wasn’t all. Cracks in the ice radiated out from the broken spot.
‘Shit!’
Panicked, he dashed forward.
Crack! Crack!
This ice wasn’t very solid—every step he took, the ice kept breaking. But with nimble movement, Yuseong barely avoided falling into the sea, zigzagging onward.
At some point, he no longer felt the ice breaking beneath him. He gradually slowed down and looked back.
Chunks of shattered ice drifted in the water. His exoskeleton had already sunk out of sight.
He wanted to breathe a sigh of relief, but having just experienced the ice breaking under him, he quietly opened the buy menu.
He bought a new exoskeleton. Then, since he’d been holding onto the strap the whole time, he pulled it in.
A box floated to him at the spot where the exoskeleton had sunk.
It was the storage module he’d attached to the top of his exoskeleton. Designed to float, it kept its contents safe even after the exoskeleton sank.
Yuseong opened the case. Inside were a few emergency items. He took out a battery and fitted it into the new exoskeleton.
Vrrrr!
With the new exoskeleton online, he strapped the box to its back and set out again.
Nights are short in the northern winter. Even though pitch-black darkness engulfed everything, Yuseong kept going.
Of course, wandering without a light on floating sea ice was suicide, so he installed big flashlights all over his exoskeleton to light up the surroundings.
It was a dumb move, broadcasting his location for miles in this world, but he had no choice.
‘If you want to cross to Alaska at night on the ice, you have to take risks.’
Luckily, a blizzard helped conceal the light.
Of course, the same blizzard also made it hellishly hard to see, the very reason he shone the lights in the first place.