Chapter 197
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 197
Chapter Title: The Hero, Accumulated Power - 2
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People often speak of the ‘tide’ turning.
This refers not only to natural phenomena like the flow of air but also serves as a metaphor for major trends or shifts in the mood of human society.
Right now, that tide was shifting in the Demon King’s favor.
This was because the Demon King’s side had begun distributing a strange item called the ‘Demon King's Invitation,’ shaking the foundations of a humanity that had united around Lee Hyun-wook. Consequently, a sense of anxiety was intensifying across all layers of society.
‘And so, the supply of material items to the Taebaek Armory has plummeted in just one day.’
It had all happened in a matter of days.
The tide had turned with just a few incidents.
‘A large number of factions have also started to rise up and band together, claiming they’d rather build their own bunkers than invest in me…’
It was the classic last resort: if they couldn't stop the end of the world, they would build an ark.
The immediate result of this shifting tide seemed to be just a reduction in weapon production, but in the long run, it could be seen as a decrease in the number of allies who would fight alongside him.
Furthermore, there was no telling what kind of butterfly effect this would have, potentially tripping Lee Hyun-wook up down the line.
‘But with this one scene, I can bring the momentum back to our side.’
Lee Hyun-wook had come to the Arabian Sea to change that tide.
*Whooosh—*
Aboard the Prydwen, he looked down upon the vast ocean. He was in the middle of the open sea, the Arabian Peninsula barely visible as a faint outline to the far east.
All sorts of mana communications flew into his ears.
- *Chk—* Target approaching point A-3. Estimated time of arrival: 129 seconds.
- This is Red Tank. Troll blood has been dispersed at point A-3. Moving to point A-4.
These were the mana communications exchanged between the 11 airships and 14 high-speed boats floating in the nearby waters.
They were surrounding a single target on the map, each carrying out its mission as they slowly herded it toward the final destination.
- *Chk—* Target has reached A-3. Appears to be consuming the troll blood.
However, on the sea map, there was no movement whatsoever on the surface of the water near the marked location of the target.
*Swaaaaah…*
On the contrary, it was so calm that only the sound of gentle waves could be heard.
This was rather strange.
If the so-called ‘Leviathan,’ that massive beast, was churning through the water, there should at least be some ripples. Yet, no discernible change could be detected by the naked eye.
Moreover, modern technologies like ‘radar’ and ‘sonar,’ which should be able to detect moving objects in the sea, failed to pinpoint its exact location.
“...Is there really something down there?”
Behind Lee Hyun-wook, a man in sunglasses asked doubtfully.
He was an internet broadcaster who went by the name JJJ, the nation's top influencer with a staggering 500 million subscribers.
“Hmm… From what I can see, it’s so quiet it looks like there isn’t even a single fish. So, when does the broadcast start? I have both a fear of water and heights, so I’m starting to struggle a bit.”
He clung tightly to the Prydwen, his face tense as he grumbled.
Lee Hyun-wook had promised him exclusive broadcasting rights for this operation and brought him along.
This was more advantageous for security than hiring a conventional broadcasting company.
“Can’t you see anything, JJJ? That eye of yours is quite famous, isn’t it? ‘Hunter’s Eye,’ you called it? The one that gives you additional information just by looking at a monster?”
Lee Hyun-wook asked.
‘Still, it won’t be as accurate as my vision, which has absorbed the Eye of Horus. It’s probably just an enhanced sense of intuition…’
Completely unaware of this, JJJ’s lips twitched, pleased to receive a compliment from none other than Steel Rain himself, and he peered out the window.
“Um… what do I see? Are you, by any chance, talking about the mana concentration on the sea surface?”
“Yes. We’re currently tracking its position based on that. There are high-level mages aboard those airships to detect mana.”
“Well, I can feel a slight protrusion of mana in a specific area, but that alone isn’t enough to be certain that there’s something incredible in those calm waters, is it? This so-called ‘mana footprint tracking’ is a pretty old-fashioned method now.”
Lee Hyun-wook nodded.
“That’s true. However… a beast of its caliber must have a way to perfectly conceal itself. So this is the best we can do.”
Wasn't the Leviathan a being comparable to a dragon, after all? If such a creature made a concerted effort to hide, it would naturally be difficult to detect with the senses and technology of mere humans.
That was how the beast had gone undetected for years, preying on ships and spreading tales of horror.
But Lee Hyun-wook was different.
His senses were now focused on the two magitech crows, ‘Hugin’ and ‘Munin’…
‘…Good, I can finally see it.’
- <One-Eyed King's Insight> set (2/2) has been activated!
* While Hugin and Munin are active, all senses are amplified by up to 80 times. You can also ‘see through’ a certain density and volume, and you can perceive the form of any being if you detect powerful mana.
As the two items triggered their set effect, Lee Hyun-wook felt his senses explode.
“Hoo…”
He felt a slight dizziness, while at the same time, it was as if every nerve in his body was running wild, like he was on drugs.
*Swaaaaaah—*
Next, the sound of this massive ocean churning felt like a panorama, and he could even intuit where the updrafts and downdrafts were occurring.
‘…Ugh, I feel sick.’
It was similar to what he had felt when he first acquired and operated Hugin.
But he soon collected himself, tensing his nerves and focusing his multiplied senses into a single point, moving them slowly as if operating a microscope.
Then, hundreds of meters below the surface… he detected a colossal shadow moving with utmost stealth, enveloped in a ‘mana tube.’
*Wooooo—*
Lee Hyun-wook focused his senses to get a more detailed look at its appearance.
- Ruler of the Deep Sea ‘Leviathan’ (LV: 205)
‘…Slightly more powerful than Azhi Dahaka.’
A massive body about two hundred meters long… it was a giant crocodile with fins, reminiscent of the ‘Mosasaurus’ that lived in the Cretaceous period.
*Gooooo—*
And the beast was opening its enormous mouth, sucking in water like a drainpipe to consume the troll’s blood scattered in the sea.
‘Good, it’s completely lost in its meal.’
Lee Hyun-wook recalled a documentary he had seen in his past life, titled <Hunting the Leviathan>, which detailed the process of raiding the beast.
In it, the raid leader had said that the Leviathan was incredibly gluttonous and considered land creatures, which it couldn’t normally access, a delicacy.
They had confirmed that if they sprinkled ‘troll’s blood,’ which was full of mana, the beast would lose all reason and rush toward it frantically. They had used that to lure it into a trap.
Lee Hyun-wook was now following that same strategy.
‘It’s about time to make it take the bait.’
- *Chk—* Steel Rain, we are about 5 minutes from point A-4. I will now order the ‘Net’ teams to stand by.
The voice belonged to Team Leader Lee Kyo-joon, who was also on-site, overseeing the operation.
“Yes, please do.”
Lee Hyun-wook turned his head to look at JJJ.
“Let’s start the broadcast now.”
“Ah, okay— Got it!”
JJJ snapped his fingers, and his ‘manager,’ who was sitting next to him, opened a bag and began pulling out and setting up all sorts of filming equipment, including a camera.
“Alright, just press this button and the live broadcast will start. Are we a go?”
JJJ asked with an excited expression, holding the camera.
“Yes, begin.”
“—Okay, today I’m going to write a new chapter in the history of internet broadcasting!”
He chuckled with glee and started giving various instructions to his manager.
“Hehehe— For the broadcast title, let’s keep it short and simple: <Collab with Steel Rain Lee Hyun-wook>!”
Soon, the broadcast began with quite a bit of fanfare.
“—Hello, viewers! I’m the VJ who risks his life to bring you live commentary from the most intense raid sites, JJJ! Do you know where I am right now? Well— no one could possibly imagine this! This is… probably the first time it’s ever been revealed to the world, the flagship of the Steel Fleet, the Prydwen!”
He approached Lee Hyun-wook and asked him to say a word to the camera, but Lee Hyun-wook didn’t even glance his way.
“...Um, it seems Steel Rain is a bit busy.”
He said awkwardly.
It wasn't as if he had given him exclusive broadcasting rights to play along with the content of the show.
‘All he has to do is broadcast this scene to the entire world.’
Lee Hyun-wook focused his mind solely on this operation.
And finally…
- …The beast has reached the net area!
Upon hearing that message, Lee Hyun-wook immediately gave the order.
“Enter ‘Ghost Mode’ now.”
At his words, the ‘Yeo Sang-mins’ in the cockpit got busy.
“Yes! Activating Ghost Mode!”
Next, a series of beeps sounded, the airframe shuddered once, and he could feel a dense concentration of mana being doped over the entire body of the Prydwen.
The Prydwen was now in a ‘cloaked’ state, rendered invisible to the naked eye.
Following that, ‘Silence magic’ was applied, completely muffling the sound of the already quiet ‘Gnome-made Magitech Engine.’
This, too, was all the power of magitech.
*Whoooosh—*
Having concealed its presence as much as possible, the Prydwen began to move at super high speed toward a single point.
“…Uh, what is Steel Rain trying to do now, you ask? I just got a rough explanation myself, but you’ve all heard the news, right? The… the cargo ships that were bringing supplies to the Korean Peninsula kept sinking? We’re going to find out whose handiwork that was and catch them! Wow, we’ve already surpassed 100 million viewers!”
Those 100 million people would spread the news across the globe, and in an instant, the entire world would witness what was happening here.
Just then, Lee Hyun-wook gestured to JJJ.
“JJJ, come over here.”
“Yes?”
“There, film that!”
At his words, JJJ and his manager approached the ramp door with the camera.
They followed Lee Hyun-wook’s finger and looked at a spot on the sea.
There, four high-speed boats were moving quickly, dumping chunks of minced meat into the water.
“Ah, what are they doing now, you ask? Apparently, they’re spreading bait! They say there’s an incredible beast in that water, but honestly, I’m still not sure! I haven’t even seen the tail of this scary monster… huh?”
It was then.
“…Look over there! So-something is coming up!”
A massive shadow began to rise slowly from the surface of the sea, which was stained crimson with troll’s blood.
But in that moment, JJJ couldn’t help but let out a gasp—*Huk!* It wasn’t just surprise; it was a biological shock.
- Warning! Due to the Terror of the Deep Sea, all stats are greatly reduced. (-30%)
“—*Gack!*”
Just by seeing its shadow, JJJ froze for a moment and stumbled backward. Then, trembling, he fell flat on the floor.
The so-called Fear, the primal terror exuded by a different class of monster like a dragon, had washed over him.
“N-no… E-e-even from this far away… I’m hit with Fear… *Hk! Hah! Hah!*”
He gasped for breath and crawled on the floor, moving deeper into the Prydwen.
Since there was still a considerable distance, as long as he didn’t look directly at it, he could escape the effects of the Fear.
“*Sob*— I-I’m not kidding, and this isn’t staged. H-holy… I’m already starting to regret coming here.”
He managed to continue the broadcast by simply filming Lee Hyun-wook’s back with the camera in his hand.
“Ughhh— I don’t think I’ll be able to watch it with my own eyes and provide commentary. Instead, I’ll use a magic drone to let you all see, so p-please bear with me.”
At his gesture, his manager, who had been vomiting nearby, painstakingly crawled over, took a magic drone out of a large bag, and launched it out of the ramp door.
The broadcast screen then switched to the magic drone’s camera view, and JJJ continued to speak while watching the screen.
“Phew, I’m finally calming down a bit. Everyone, I may look like this, but I’m level 43, and my raid knowledge rivals that of any expert, wouldn’t you say? For it to emit this level of Fear from so far away, honestly, that thing is dragon-class. I’m sure of it.”
He gasped for breath but continued to chatter nonstop.
“But do you know what’s different from a dragon? It’s in the fucking deep sea. That means it’ll be even harder to catch than a dragon! In my opinion… uh… there might be almost no way to do it.”
Despite Lee Hyun-wook being right in front of him, he fearlessly offered a pessimistic outlook.
Then, as if facing backlash from his viewers, he raised his voice and began to explain.
“Hey, don’t just criticize blindly, think about it for a second! Whatever you throw at it will be blocked and nullified by the sea, and you can’t just dive into the water and fight it! If that monster dives thousands of meters deep, even Steel Rain’s Morglay drop won’t work!”
His point, even in Lee Hyun-wook’s view, was quite accurate.
‘So he didn’t become the top internet broadcaster just by luck? The guy has some analytical skills.’
As he claimed, the field boss monster ‘Leviathan’ had the worst raid conditions imaginable.
No matter how many powerful Players gathered, how could they possibly catch a beast that operated at least hundreds of meters underwater?
Lee Hyun-wook agreed.
“…JJJ, you’ve put it very accurately. It seems your success is well-deserved.”
“Hahaha… Thank… huh? Th-then…”
His face, which had been smiling awkwardly at Lee Hyun-wook’s compliment, slowly darkened.
“Uh, uh…”
Right now, the Prydwen was flying toward that monster, and if his guess was correct… weren’t they heading straight into a very dangerous place?
“…How are you planning to catch that thing?”
He felt a chill run down his spine for a moment as he stared at Lee Hyun-wook with a blank expression.
At that, Lee Hyun-wook smirked and said.
“But for me, it’s possible.”
Lee Hyun-wook blatantly asserted his power.
And just then—
- *Chk—* Net 1, activating.
Along with that mana communication, a strange phenomenon occurred.
*Rumble—rumble—rumble—*
A deafening noise filled the entire world.
It was the sound of the sea churning.
*Kwa—gwa—gwa—gwa—*
To be more precise, it was the sound of the Water Spirit King and the water spirits under his command using all their power to create multiple whirlpools in the sea around the Leviathan.
Following that, as if in a miracle of Moses, the sea began to part, revealing the seabed.
*Swaa—aaa—aaa—*
And it was happening in four places. A closer look revealed that the sea was parting in the shape of a rectangle.
In other words, the ‘netting area’ had been ‘isolated.’
“Wow… what is that? H-how can any power control the sea like that… Doesn’t it look like a rectangular block of ice? But still…”
However, that alone seemed utterly insufficient to contain a large-scale boss monster of a dragon’s caliber.
“…If that thing puts its mind to it, it could break through the whirlpools with just a few struggles and cross the parted sea, couldn’t it?”
Lee Hyun-wook nodded in agreement.
“Yes, you’re correct again.”
“Uh, yes, but that means you predicted this…”
Lee Hyun-wook nodded once more.
“Now, we’ll haul it up with the second net.”
- *Chk—* Net 2, activating.
That was…
- Warning! A ‘gravity field’ has been activated in this area!
“Ah! Th-this is…”
Lee Seong-yoon, the man known as the Gravity Mage, had poured all his mana into reversing the gravity of a specific area.
*Swaaaaaah—*
At that, the rectangularly sectioned ‘netting area’ began to soar toward the sky.
No, at this point, ‘falling’ would be a more appropriate expression. After all, falling meant being pulled by gravity.
*Kwa—a—a—a—a—!*
The scene was so bizarre and surreal that JJJ’s jaw dropped, and he quickly shut it again.
For a section of this seemingly infinite ocean to be lifted into the air in a perfect rectangular shape, as if scooped up by God in a box…
He struggled for a long time to find the right words, and then, unconsciously, he muttered something strange.
“…Viewers, you are now looking at the world’s largest, most beautiful, and most dangerous aquarium.”
It was only natural that every being within those billions of tons of water was uprooted along with it, and the massive shadow—the Leviathan—could be seen writhing as if in a rage.
*Wooooo—*
A cerulean light began to flash, as if the beast was preparing to attack in its fury.
Just then, Lee Hyun-wook spoke into the mana messenger.
“Alright, now weed it out.”
At his command, the rectangular block of water that had been soaring due to the reversed gravity burst with a *pop—* and scattered into dozens of streams.
Then, only the Leviathan was left, hanging alone in that space.
A crocodile-shaped monster with a long jaw and a long tail… its size was truly overwhelming, but its current state seemed pathetic, like… a single Nile crocodile caught in a net.
*Gra—aa—aa—aa—!*
The beast let out a roar and thrashed its massive, webbed limbs to swim, but with the water drained away, it couldn’t move.
In the end, it shot a cerulean beam from its mouth in a desperate struggle. But whether it was because it fired randomly in its panic, or because it had lost its sense of direction, unable to adapt to the inverted gravity, the beam merely scraped harmlessly at the empty air.
In the meantime, Lee Hyun-wook gave the final order.
“Now… bring out the harpoon.”
Just then—
*Wooooo—*
A large airship moved in close, right under the Prydwen. It then docked with the bottom of the Prydwen with a loud *clank—*, locking into place.
Next, the ceiling of the new vessel opened to the left and right, revealing a long ‘rail.’ Inside, four Morglays could be glimpsed, loaded like bullets.
Just then, someone from the cockpit shouted.
“—Diverting Prydwen’s power to the Gauss cannon!”
At that, the Prydwen came to a halt in mid-air, its functions reduced to a minimum, and an enormous amount of mana was transferred to the attached airship—or more precisely, to the area around the rail.
*Giiii—iiing—*
Soon, a cerulean light began to slowly heat the rail…
With a *clank—*, one Morglay was placed on the rail. The rail then slowly rotated, aligning itself in a straight line with the Leviathan thrashing about in the distant sky.
JJJ, who was watching this, asked.
“…Are you seriously going to shoot a Morglay like a gun?”
Lee Hyun-wook slowly nodded.
“The reason I’m going to the trouble of broadcasting this scene today is…”
He turned his gaze to the camera and continued.
“…because I hope that no one wishes to stand at the end of this large barrel.”
The next moment, the rail flashed.
From here to there, a single streak of light was drawn, and in complete silence, the space along that straight line shimmered and distorted as if it were being crumpled.
And the Leviathan’s massive head vanished.
Then, a moment later, a long scar was etched across the surface of the sea.
In a single strike, the tide turned once again.
“…”