Quest (2)
Du-ho examined the android’s waist as it lay on the workbench.
On the surface, it looked no different from a human being.
Swish, swish—
He carefully peeled back the synthetic skin, and the intricate machinery beneath it was laid bare.
Zzzt!
As the parts-detection skill activated, a hologram overlapped the android’s body. Red warning windows flashed over every damaged section, while part numbers and condition readouts floated in the air.
No. LBJ-06, waist joint damaged - severe
No. LS-23, left servomotor overheated - replacement required
No. SC-44, sensor cable severed - replacement required
It was like looking at a game interface.
When he blinked, his vision returned to normal; when he focused again, the diagnostic data snapped back into clarity.
Sure enough…
This is huge.
It worked not only on Isto, but on androids too.
But his admiration lasted only a moment.
At the information displayed before him, Du-ho’s brows drew together.
“The damage is worse than I expected.”
He pressed a hand to his forehead.
Hah.
That idiot Park Gyu-tae.
If he didn’t know what he was doing, he should’ve left it to me. Why’d he have to touch it?
After sending Du-ho off to Bundang, he must have roughly tinkered with it and then just covered it back up.
In short, he’d botched the repair, then run a startup test and ruined the surrounding parts too.
Of course, Du-ho had expected something like this to some degree.
“That’s why I brought supplies.”
He opened the box of parts he’d brought from the department. Joint components, servomotors, and sensor cables were neatly arranged inside.
From among them, he took out the best LBJ-06-compatible part.
Unfortunately, it wasn’t a perfect match.
But who did they think his department was, calling it “Machine Upcycling”?
“We can make something new out of this.”
Of course, he’d do it differently from before.
I should use metal manipulation.
He gathered mana at his fingertips.
Combining six years of experience with the power of a Mechromancer, he calmly began reshaping the part.
And whenever he did, a notification appeared.
Proficiency is increasing.
“What, it grows the more you use it?”
Well, that was good news for him.
Before long, the part was finished.
Smiling in satisfaction, Du-ho picked up a rotary tool and etched the initials “LDH” onto the edge of the part. It was a habit he always kept when restoring something.
If he had to put it into words, it was a kind of craftsman’s pride.
“All right, shall we replace it?”
Just as a swell of satisfaction rose in Du-ho’s chest—
Experience gained.
Effect:Experience gained.
Duration:N/A
Experience gained.
Effect:Experience gained.
Duration:N/A
Experience gained.
Effect:Experience gained.
Duration:N/A
A notification kept popping in his ears nonstop.
He didn’t know what was happening outside the Garage, but just from the message window alone, he could picture Isto’s performance.
This guy…
He’s not overdoing it, is he?
He worried, but there was nothing else he could do.
Then why had Du-ho brought the android out here at all?
Part of it was to frighten Deputy Park, but it was also to test whether he could balance hunter life and department work from now on.
More than anything, he would need to sharpen his skills here in the Garage if he wanted to properly tune Isto’s parts.
And someday, every new super-intelligence that gets summoned will probably be mine to fix too.
It felt like the bigger picture was gradually taking shape.
As though he had read Du-ho’s thoughts, Isto’s voice rang out.
Oh~
-I’ll do even better and live up to Du-ho nim’s will, hamda!
Don’t push yourself!
No sooner had he said it than—
Wheeeerreeeek…
The System spat out a bizarre sound, as if it had lagged. Probably dozens of ratkins had just been flattened all at once by Isto’s fist.
Hah… honestly.
He had no idea whether the creature was obedient or just outright rebellious.
Shaking his head, Du-ho focused on the task at hand.
“First the cables….”
Rattle, click—
With practiced hands, he removed the damaged parts one by one.
He remembered every screw and every cable exactly.
Well…
As long as you remembered the disassembly, reassembly was easy.
Reassembly was simply the reverse of disassembly.
Click—
As he slotted in the new part, Du-ho muttered to himself.
Honestly, the guy was weird.
“But somehow, he feels trustworthy…?”
He finished the job and lifted his head.
The android’s pupils, which had expanded wide, were now contracting and expanding in repetition.
It meant the unit was now functioning normally.
By now, Deputy Park’s face was probably worth seeing.
Was he losing his mind?
Or maybe…
“Did he run away, saying some emergency came up like I did?”
Of course, getting away would not have been easy.
Before I came here, I tipped off Manager Ham Bong-sik in the transport department to come by this afternoon.
The corners of Du-ho’s mouth lifted slightly.
Soon he would head back to the department with the android and enjoy watching Deputy Park’s reaction.
Experience gained.
Effect:Experience gained.
Duration:N/A
Level up!
Effect:Level up!
Duration:N/A
The alert tone still echoed in his ear.
Isto punched through a horde of ratkins.
With a single blow, dozens of them burst apart, sending blood and flesh spraying in all directions.
There was no need to go hunting for ratkins anymore.
They had already fallen for the provocation and were swarming him on their own.
Screee! Chitter!
Another several dozen charged at him at once.
Whenever that happened…
Whoosh—
Isto’s arm swept through the air in a half circle.
The ratkins were sent flying, and by the time they hit the ground, they were already dead.
Oh~
-Has it been ten minutes already? Still easy, still easy.
When Isto turned his head, hundreds of ratkin corpses were already strewn across the ground and trees.
Then one ratkin twitched.
It was pretending to be dead.
Isto saw it, but pretended not to.
Fwoosh—
One ratkin bolted away at top speed.
Isto watched its retreating back with interest.
Hmm…
-Looks like it’ll guide me, so I may as well follow~
It was probably heading to the Queens Ratkin.
Tap, tap.
He followed at an unhurried pace.
As the noise of battle faded away, it felt like a stroll through the woods.
Isto?!
-What is it, Du-ho nim? Something happen?
The System suddenly went quiet.
Aha!
-Then open your status window.
Hold on….
A moment later, Du-ho’s shocked gasp came through.
“Wha—!
You already killed 999 of them?”
-Yep. I’m on my way to the Queens Ratkin now.
What?!
-Oh! It’s a little embarrassing to be surprised by that. I’m a super-intelligence, remember.
Not long after, a huge cave entrance came into view.
Grrrrr…!
The cry of a beast echoed from inside.
The ratkin that had fled there seemed to be getting chewed out.
Tap, tap.
Isto calmly stepped into the cave.
And soon found the ratkin shaking in front of a massive Kings Ratkin.
-Ooh. I came to the right place.
The moment Isto picked up a stone from the floor, the Kings Ratkin’s axe came down to hack at the fleeing ratkin.
Whoosh— Thwack!!!
The stone Isto threw shot through the air and shattered the ratkin’s head.
At the same time, a huge hole tore open in the Kings Ratkin’s abdomen, and it was smashed into the wall behind it.
Well now.
-That almost made me fail the quest. Wait. Come to think of it, Du-ho nim would’ve been in danger too.
Failing the quest meant death.
Tap, tap.
Isto stopped in front of the wall where the Kings Ratkin had been pinned, and the LED eyes in his head narrowed into thin slits.
Hmm…
-You’ve got a pretty good disguise, don’t you.
He immediately swung a fist out wide.
BOOOOM!!!
The cave shook as the wall collapsed.
And then…
Grrrrrrrr!!!
Six Kings Ratkins were encircling a gigantic Queens Ratkin as if shielding it.
-One, two, three… six of them. Not bad.
They were far larger monsters than the ones he had seen in the rift.
Isto picked up the magic stone from the fallen Kings Ratkin.
Crunch, crunch!
He swallowed the magic stone like it was candy, and a fierce light burst from his chest.
Mm~
-All right, time for you lot to be cleaned up.
As if it understood him, one of them swung a massive axe.
Kraka-kakakak!!!
The ground split open, sparks flying. But Isto had already stepped neatly aside.
-That level of attack is well within the expected range, hamda.
Boom!
His counterpunch punched straight through the Kings Ratkin’s abdomen and exploded out the other side.
The remaining five closed in at once, but it meant nothing to Isto.
Whoosh—
As he twisted his waist and swung his arm, chunks of Kings Ratkin flesh sprayed through the air.
It took only a few seconds.
Tap, tap, tap…
Isto continued deeper inside.
He stopped.
Before him stood the Queens Ratkin.
A monstrous body easily over three meters tall.
Several newborn Queens Ratkins were nursing at the sagging flesh of its chest.
Screeeeeek!!
The Queens Ratkin’s cry made the entire cave tremble. But Isto remained unfazed.
Hmm…
If I wipe you out, the first floor of the Abyss will disappear too. Why would the System issue a quest like this?
Question marks kept popping up in his LED eyes.
Tilting his head, Isto picked up a small axe that had fallen to the ground.
Whoosh—
He drew his arm back and threw it.
The instant he did, despair flashed across the Queens Ratkin’s eyes.
Swirl— crunch!
The axe pierced straight through its head, and the queen’s cry was cut off.
Silence.
Isto slowly looked around.
When nothing changed, an exclamation mark appeared in his LED eyes.
Aha!
-So the first floor is being maintained because Du-ho nim’s quest is still active.
Clank, whirr—
Having finished repairing the android, Du-ho was performing a final inspection. The upcycled parts were assembled so neatly now that even if Deputy Park complained, there would be nothing to fault.
“This one’s done.”
Main quest cleared!
Effect:Main quest cleared!
Duration:N/A
As the status window appeared, Isto’s voice reached him.
-Du-ho nim, it’s handled!
Du-ho stared blankly at the quest window.
“…So I avoided death after all.”
The truth was, when they’d told him he’d die on failure without any real reward, he’d thought it was absurd.
-Du-ho nim, now it’s time to crack the hidden quest, hamda.
Ah! Right.
Du-ho stepped out of the Garage.
Somewhere nearby, he could hear the sound of something crunching.
Looking over, he saw Isto stuffing magic stones into his pockets and chewing through them one by one.
Just as Du-ho was about to praise him—
Good grief!!
He couldn’t believe his eyes.
Hundreds of ratkin corpses were strewn across the entire forest.
“You did this… alone?”
-You’re out already? I was eating because I got hungry, hamda.
“R-right. Good work.”
-No, no! More importantly, I think we should start looking now, hamda.
“You’re right.”
But his thoughts were a mess.
How am I supposed to find amorphous alloy?
He glanced around absentmindedly.
Was there even a mine here?
Even if there were, there was no way amorphous alloy would just be buried in the ground.
It was an alloy, after all—something manufactured and processed, not natural ore.
The quest window clearly said it was a Mechromancer’s ability….
He had no idea if that was the right answer.
But there was only one way to find out.
“Should I try the parts-detection skill?”
-Hmm, I agree, hamda.
Zzzt—
Du-ho’s vision wavered slightly.
As the parts-detection skill activated, the outlines of the forest began to layer over one another.
“Good thing this one doesn’t have a time limit.”
-True.
How long had he been walking?
He kept wasting time with no real results, and impatience began to creep up on him.
“We can’t just wander around blindly like this….”
-Maybe there’s another way?
“…Who knows.”
He was just about to give up and turn around when—
Fragment - amorphous alloy
Huh?
He rubbed his eyes and checked again.
A strong reaction was definitely there.
Without hesitation, Du-ho ran toward it.
-Oh! It’s the cave where the Queens Ratkin was, hamda.
“R-right?”
-Yep.
As it happened, the reaction was inside the cave.
Following the direction indicated by the parts-detection skill, he entered and was greeted by a blood-soaked scene of utter chaos.
Kings Ratkin corpses lay strewn everywhere, and axes were scattered across the floor.
Did they hide it somewhere in here?
But no matter how carefully he looked, nothing seemed unusual.
The detection window in front of him still pointed to one thing.
“…An axe?”
He finally lifted one and examined it closely.
The surface was smoother than a mirror, and from different angles, a strange rainbow sheen rippled across it.
It definitely wasn’t ordinary metal.
Du-ho dared to hope.
He gathered mana at his fingertips and slowly sent it into the axe head.
Wooooong—!
The entire axe burst with blue light as mana flowed through it like water.
Anyone could see this was no ordinary situation.
Du-ho shouted at the top of his lungs.
“I found it… I found it!!!”
At that cry, Isto came running.
Ooooooh!!!!!
-I almost got fooled completely, hamda!
Even Isto’s LED eyes sparkled with admiration.
Who would have imagined that a beast’s weapon could be made of amorphous alloy?
“Isto! Even a tiny chip of this stuff is ridiculously expensive… and the entire axe head is a lump of amorphous alloy!!!”
And then…
There were two more identical axes lying on the floor.