Chapter 84
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Translator: 8uhl
Chapter: 84
Chapter Title: Incheon, the Demon World, the Black Market - 5
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The Red Moonlight Herb, a material item capable of eradicating the Swallow,
About 15 tons of it had been prepared.
This was far more than Lee Hyun-wook had expected.
‘To procure so much in such a short time… he really is a big shot in the black market.’
The Red Moonlight Herb had little practical use, so its circulation was typically low. But as luck would have it, a large stockpile was sitting in a black market broker’s warehouse, and Red Hole bought it all.
‘Good. From now on, it’ll be easier to get my hands on anything I need.’
This was the greatest advantage of forming an alliance with Go Jun-cheol, a titan of the black market.
“So, what do we do with this now?”
Go Jin-hwa asked.
The most effective method used to eliminate the Swallow that had overrun the Amazon was to create and install a kind of ‘holy object’ that generated a ‘debuff’ affecting only the Swallow.
Doing so would transform the entire area into an environment where the Swallow could not survive on its own.
‘But there’s no time to develop such an item right now.’
Instead, there was a more physical method: forcibly ‘feeding’ it the herb.
“Now, please grind and boil this Red Moonlight Herb until it forms a sticky substance. It’s a simple concoction, so even a non-alchemist Player can create it with just a few ingredients.”
“Ah… so we just spray it over those black vines like an herbicide?”
Lee Hyun-wook shook his head at Go Jin-hwa’s question.
“No. Simply mixing it with water and spraying it would be a temporary fix. It would retreat for a moment, but once the water evaporates, it will advance again. To completely wipe it out, we need to ‘inject’ it directly into the colony’s core.”
At that, Go Jin-hwa felt a sense of bewilderment.
“What? Inject it? How do you inject that monster directly? I can’t even imagine it.”
Go Jin-hwa said, looking at the writhing Swallow approaching in the distance.
Rumble—rumble—rumble—
A wave of black vines, churning up the ground as it slowly advanced…
She vividly remembered the scene when it had approached before, dragging several villagers into its mass.
The black vines would grasp a person like tentacles… then force fine rootlets into every orifice—eyes, nose, mouth, and anus. When that happened… all their bodily fluids would be sucked out in a matter of seconds.
‘Damn it…’
She squeezed her eyes shut.
Indeed, approaching it directly to try something…
‘…is no different from walking into the monster’s maw.’
But Lee Hyun-wook nodded as if he already knew all this and answered with ease.
“Ah, I’ll take care of that. You don’t need to worry.”
…He was saying he would handle it himself.
He then proceeded to explain, without hesitation, all sorts of information—where the Swallow colony’s core, the ‘Core Line,’ was located, and the movement patterns of the massive colony.
As Go Jin-hwa took in all his explanations, she was amazed at every turn.
‘…How does this man have such detailed information at his fingertips?’
He seemed like a scholar who had studied monsters for a long time.
Strangely, she found herself trusting and relying on him.
‘It was the first time I’d ever seen Dad rate someone so highly… He’s really not an ordinary man.’
Her father, Go Jun-cheol, had urged her to keep a close eye on Lee Hyun-wook.
“…Jin-hwa, that man is someone who could one day grasp this entire country in his hands.”
Go Jun-cheol was widely acknowledged to have a sharp eye for people.
It was a necessary virtue to establish oneself as a big shot in this perilous underworld.
And yet, after just a few words, he had acknowledged the man named Lee Hyun-wook.
‘Maybe Dad… is dreaming of escaping to the surface world through this man.’
They had been driven out of the real world and built a new home in the dungeon,
but this incident had made them realize anew just how unstable this world was.
Therefore, Go Jun-cheol believed he couldn’t let his descendants live in a place like this.
In other words, they, everyone in Red Hole village, longed for the day they could walk on the surface again.
‘Yes, to be honest, I have no intention of living here forever either…’
Lee Hyun-wook might be their lifeline.
Of course, grasping that lifeline wouldn’t be free…
***
Before long, five hours had passed.
“Here, we’ve completed the ‘essence’ as you requested. And we’ve also procured 500 iron stakes.”
The ‘Red Moonlight Herb Essence’ Lee Hyun-wook had requested was now ready,
and along with it, the 500 stakes made of ‘Dungeon Steel’ he had ordered had arrived.
Lee Hyun-wook inspected the two items.
“Yes, this is perfect.”
Lee Hyun-wook used ‘Metal Transmutation’ to carve a long hole inside each stake, then submerged them in a container filled with the essence. Bubbles rose to the surface as the essence seeped into the holes in the stakes.
‘And now, let it harden.’
Hyun-wook planned to drive these into the Swallow’s core and then ‘shatter’ them.
That was the ‘forced injection’ method.
“Now, please load all of these onto that airship over there.”
Go Jin-hwa followed Lee Hyun-wook’s finger and looked at the massive object standing to one side.
The shield and airship, <Prydwen>.
Several hours had passed since she first saw it appear, but she was still struck with awe.
‘Just how many things does this man have? And they’re all top-tier items, too.’
Hugin, Laputa, Prydwen… She was almost excited to see what other items he would shock her with next.
Meanwhile, Park Jun-mo and Yeo Sang-min were inside Prydwen.
Lee Hyun-wook had instructed Park Jun-mo to board the airship with Yeo Sang-min.
‘From what I know, Yeo Sang-min has an otaku streak, so he’ll likely be interested in equipment like airships.’
He was destined to one day manage not only the airship but all of Laputa.
To cultivate such talent, it was necessary to spark his ‘interest’ as soon as possible.
That was why he had intentionally let Yeo Sang-min look around inside.
Inside Prydwen, Yeo Sang-min was excitedly looking around and talking with Park Jun-mo,
but when Lee Hyun-wook entered, he grew timid and nervously glanced his way.
He had the expression of a six-year-old caught playing with a friend’s toy.
“…Park Jun-mo, we’re departing soon.”
“Ah, yes! I’ll get ready.”
As Prydwen ascended, the eight Players from Red Hole who were part of the operation couldn’t help but marvel. Having grown up here since childhood, they had never experienced flight.
‘And the ride on an airship is incomparably smoother than on an airplane.’
It floated up—smoothly and steadily with magical power, without any ‘thrust.’
Therefore, it felt less like being on a plane and more like riding a high-speed elevator.
“Prydwen, ascend to an altitude of one thousand feet.”
Whoooosh—!
And even without Lee Hyun-wook piloting it directly, basic operations could be controlled like this, with voice commands. Of course, delicate maneuvers required manual control, so he planned to practice whenever he had the chance.
Soon, something down below, writhing like black veins through the hazy sand dust, came into view.
Looking down at the hellish sight, the Players from Red Hole let out sighs.
“Ugh, it really hits you that our land is dying. Damn…”
“Damn it, I swear when I climbed the back mountain two months ago, everything this far out was green…”
And on that back mountain, Go Jun-cheol and hundreds of other Red Hole residents were standing.
“…Everyone in our village has high hopes. We’re counting on you.”
Lee Hyun-wook nodded at Go Jin-hwa’s words.
He had no intention of disappointing them.
‘In that case, there will be a definite reward.’
Just then, the interior of Prydwen was bathed in a pale blue light.
Whee—! Whee—! Whee—! Whee—!
An alarm sounded as the rear of Prydwen began to open.
The scene was just like a military transport plane opening its cargo bay door, the ‘ramp door.’
Whoooosh—!
Wind rushed through the open door, swirling inside.
This was the signal that something was about to begin, so everyone turned to look at Lee Hyun-wook.
“…Alright, commencing Operation 1.”
Lee Hyun-wook walked to the ramp door and looked down at the ground.
- Swallow: Stage 1 Tentacle (LV. 61)
- Swallow: Stage 1 Tentacle (LV. 60)
- Swallow: Stage 2 Tentacle (LV. 63)
- Swallow: Stage 1 Tentacle (LV. 61)
.
.
.
Through the Insight Lens, hundreds of pieces of information began to appear.
‘Just like this, the Swallow colony is both a single entity and a multitude of monsters.’
However, touching those was a waste of time.
No matter how many you cut off, they would just keep regenerating.
In other words, if you didn’t know the strategy, you were in for a world of hurt.
“Alright, from now on, we’re going to make it ‘rain’ to properly attack that thing.”
The rain he mentioned wasn’t a rain of steel.
“Mages, focus your water magic on that spot over there!”
At Lee Hyun-wook’s command, the six mages aboard Prydwen approached the ramp door and stood in a line.
Soon, all sorts of water-related spells like Water Ball and Water Cannon were fired, scattering in mid-air and pouring down onto the Swallow colony.
Boom— Boom— Boom— Boom— Boom— Boom—
Furthermore, they lowered a hose connected to a pre-prepared water tank toward the ground.
Swoooosh—
A considerable amount of water poured down like rain.
At that, the Swallow’s tentacles stood erect, reaching toward the sky as if to drink in the moisture.
The sight of hundreds of strands writhing toward the sky resembled a colony of black sea anemones.
“Ugh, that’s disgusting…”
It was at that moment.
Rumble—thud—thud—thud—!
“Hey! Look over there!”
Park Jun-mo, who was monitoring the ground, spotted something.
It was an incredibly thick bundle of vines, tangled in a circular shape, looking like a giant black pumpkin.
“—Hey! Just as you said, something emerged from the spot where we made it rain!”
This was the reaction Lee Hyun-wook had predicted.
‘As expected… when it rains, the Core Line comes out itself.’
Lee Hyun-wook examined it closely through his Insight Lens.
- Swallow: Core Line (LV. 99)
The Swallow colony detects moisture with its tentacles, moves toward it, and absorbs it. The absorbed water flows to the central ‘Core Line,’ where ‘growth’ occurs, generating new vines.
In other words, the Core Line is a vital organ, so it always remains hidden deep underground.
However, there was one specific case where the Core Line would absorb water directly…
‘When it rains.’
The reason was to conserve the unnecessary energy required to draw water from the tentacles and transport it through a long passage to the Core Line.
That was why Lee Hyun-wook had made it ‘rain’ to lure the Core Line to the surface.
Understanding a monster’s ecology was also part of a ‘raid.’
“So, you’re saying if we hit that and ‘inject’ the herbicide, the colony will become necrotic?”
To Go Jin-hwa’s somewhat excited question, Lee Hyun-wook nodded and reached for something.
“Alright! Mages, everyone clear out! Dropping boxes 1 and 2!”
At Lee Hyun-wook’s shout, the mage Players standing near the ramp door moved to either side, and two metal boxes slid furiously between them and fell out of the airship.
And the moment they had fallen to a certain altitude—
‘Shatter—’
Craaack—!
The boxes crumbled, and a total of 500 iron stakes scattered in all directions.
Lee Hyun-wook extended his left hand toward them.
Whoom—
Dozens of the iron stakes pointed their sharp tips downward and aligned themselves.
Immediately after, they began to accelerate,
and soon, onto the Core Line that was drinking the rainwater—
Th-th-th-th-th-thud—!
they plunged down in unison.
Yeo Sang-min watched the scene, utterly astounded.
‘…Crazy! How can he hit them all so accurately?’
But that wasn’t the end of it.
Cra-cra-cra-cra-cra-crack—!
The 500 iron stakes exploded all at once, creating a storm of metal fragments.
Rumble, rumble, rumble...
It was a spectacular scene as the top of the incredibly tough Core Line was blown away completely.
‘Gasp… I’ve seen something like this somewhere before!’
Yeo Sang-min racked his memory.
And it seemed to be a scene from an old war movie he’d once watched on DVD.
Yes, that… it resembled an aerial bombardment, a precision strike at that.
The power of a modern weapon that could devastate a wide area in a single blow…
But he knew well that such immense firepower was a relic of a bygone era that didn’t work on monsters.
No matter how powerful a bombing looked, it couldn’t even break a single troll’s barrier…
‘But that was all a Player’s power, so it works on monsters!’
In other words, it meant he could inflict immense firepower, comparable to modern weaponry, on a monster!
‘Crazy, was a scene like this… possible for a single person?’
And Lee Hyun-wook’s attack wasn’t over. Guided by his senses, countless metal fragments moved like insects, burrowing into the wounds of the Core Line.
‘Good, the essence should have seeped in enough.’
Lee Hyun-wook sensed that this operation had been a success.
“Wow… it looks like that bundle of vines is screaming.”
Gurgle— Gurgle—
Just as Park Jun-mo said, it writhed and tangled like a swarm of insects doused in pesticide.
“Wow… it really worked. It’s stopped moving and is burrowing deep into the ground.”
“Yes, it has the immediate effect of forcing it to retreat, and in the long run, it will slowly wither and die.”
It began to burrow into the ground.
It looked as if it were fleeing…
Waaaaah—!
From afar, the cheers of the Red Hole residents on the hill could be heard.
To them, it must have looked like Lee Hyun-wook’s strike had hit its mark.
“Huh— But really… is that it? I honestly still can’t believe it.”
Go Jin-hwa said, finding it hard to believe.
“If there’s another colony, we can just deal with it the same way. The Swallow is a catastrophe you’re helpless against if you don’t know how to respond, but if you do, it’s a manageable phenomenon.”
Hearing those words, Go Jin-hwa felt… as if she were receiving a prescription from a doctor.
‘…So damn cool.’
That was what Yeo Sang-min was thinking.
The man he had been denying, Lee Hyun-wook… seeing him in person completely changed his mind.
‘Yeah, he’s definitely the so-called savior of Seoul. But for him to be F-rank, that’s…’
Then, his eyes met Lee Hyun-wook’s.
“……”
But he spoke as if he had read Yeo Sang-min’s mind.
“Seeing this makes it even harder to believe I’m F-rank, doesn’t it?”
“Ah…”
Honestly, it was true. The scene just now was believable even for an S-rank.
His suspicion—that Lee Hyun-wook was a deceased S-rank being hidden by the government—seemed far more credible now.
“Yeo Sang-min, stop rotting in a dungeon like this nursing your cynicism and follow me.”
“Why me, of all people… And what… what would change?”
“At the very least, you’ll be able to find out whether your complacent defeatism is real or not.”
They were bitter words, but Yeo Sang-min didn’t feel angry.
“…Potential is something you can only confirm by trying.”
At those words, Yeo Sang-min felt an inexplicable surge of indignation.
However, there was no time to dwell on any sentiment.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!
A tremendous roar echoed from somewhere.
Rumble, rumble, rumble—!
It sounded like an earthquake, like the ground collapsing.
Looking down from high up in Prydwen, it wasn’t hard to find the epicenter.
A rocky mountain that had, until a moment ago, been covered in the Swallow’s tentacles,
a section of it was crumbling down.
Soon, a massive cave entrance appeared there.
And…
- (!) A sign of a quest has been discovered.
Not the ‘arrival’ of a quest, but the discovery of a ‘sign.’
This meant a hint that could lead to a quest had been found.
‘A quest… It seems defeating the Swallow was the trigger.’
Come to think of it, the appearance of this Swallow was a special event in itself.
Meaning, since he had defeated it, some kind of ‘reward’ would appear.
‘And it’s probably related to the Adamantite Mine…’
In the original world, the hidden stage, the Adamantite Mine, was discovered after the Taesan Guild defeated the Swallow.
That meant the two events were very closely related.
‘Good, the profits are rolling in on their own.’
Lee Hyun-wook turned Prydwen’s nose toward it.
“We’re landing over there.”
Following his command, Prydwen landed at the cave entrance.
- You have entered the hidden stage ‘Adamantite Mine.’
“…Huh?”
“A hidden stage, what’s this?”
And at the entrance to the hidden stage, they discovered something strange.
“Isn’t that a gate?”
A purple shimmer, yes, it definitely looked like a gate.
But a gate inside a gate…
None of them had ever heard of such a phenomenon, so they couldn’t hide their bewilderment.
But Lee Hyun-wook shook his head.
“No, it’s slightly different. That… is a rift.”
A rift was a temporary dimensional door, a type of portal, like a gate.
However, if teleportation was a door between locations within the same dimension,
a rift was a passage between entirely different dimensions.
It was a very rare phenomenon that even Lee Hyun-wook had only seen a few times.
“…Everyone be careful. We don’t know what might come out—”
Whoosh—!
Before he could finish his sentence, something really did shoot out.
It was a massive, brown chunk of scrap metal.
Clang—crash—thud—thud—thud—!
It shot out at a tremendous speed, crashing into various parts of the rocky mountain before getting stuck in a pile of rocks.
Rumble, rumble...
It was some kind of airship.
A moment later, its door began to open.
Clank—creak—creak—
But perhaps because the door was dented from the crash, it stopped halfway.
And through the gap in the door, a head popped out.
“...Ugh! What are you staring at! If you’re not here to kill me, give me a hand!”
It was… a dwarf, with a large, bulbous nose and a bushy beard.
And in Lee Hyun-wook’s eyes, its identity was displayed as a single line of text.
- Dwarf Wanderer (LV. 49)
“…Damn it, are humans always this heartless? Hmph!”
And…
- (!) A quest has arrived.
‘…It’s finally starting.’
It seemed it was about time for the parts needed to run Laputa to start pouring in.