Chapter 173
Chapter 173
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Translator: Ryuma
Chapter: 173
Chapter Title: The Birth of the Creator Vulcanus
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"Not exactly."
What was the original purpose behind Vulcanus's creation?
Destruction.
But what meaning is there in a world where the Machina race has been wiped out without a trace?
Vulcanus wasn't made to destroy without purpose.
"King Maker. Rewrite the internal logs. Machina race exterminated."
The humanoid hologram pondered deeply.
"Prediction: It won't work. Vulcanus's sensors will perform continuous measurements. Blocking them with the equipment here is impossible."
"GM will help. Just fool it for five seconds."
"Possible. Executing."
At that moment, Vulcanus's scanning laser swept across the front.
[No. 666 Divine Machine, Vulcanus restarting.]
[Continuing extermination activities...]
Vulcanus's lights dimmed.
Metallic wires connected to its intangible body.
A direct line opened by the GM.
Using it, King Maker rewrote Vulcanus's logs.
Falsifying the date, the number of Machina destroyed, even the sensor readings.
All to implant the delusion that the Machina race was already extinct.
[Machin race annihilated to date: ?,000,000,000,000 units]
[Omnidirectional scan results: No remaining Machina detected]
[Machina race extinct. Doomsday Project complete.]
[Final verification: Scanning for survivors over the next 1,000 days...]
The window to deceive it was five seconds.
Timing it perfectly, Ju Gonghyeok issued the command.
"Expand authority. Max affinity. Max experience level."
[Consuming 27 internal red coins to expand authority.]
[Vulcanus (SS+) Affinity (-19) → (+100), Lv. 38 → Lv. Max.]
"Forced Awakening."
Red coins jingled from the inventory as they were spent.
[Skill 「Forced Awakening (Unique SSS)」 activated.]
[Doomsday Autodivine Machine Vulcanus (SS+) abilities awakening.]
[Third ability 「Overdrive」 unlocked.]
[Final ability 「Divine Machine Creation」 unlocked.]
Affinity maxed out, final ability unsealed.
Unlike the natural SSS evolution induced in Ra-Djehuty or the Great Heavenly Star, this was forced.
Detecting his own anomaly, Vulcanus flashed its eyes at Ju Gonghyeok.
= Bipedal organic. Cease. Mission incomplete. I do not desire it.
"Drop the pretense. The final ability being 'Divine Machine Creation' is your hint to catch on."
Flicking a black coin from his hand, the GM swallowed it with its shark-like maw.
"Judgment Day is over. Fulfill your true mission. Creator God."
[Authority expansion – Avatar evolution.]
- Conditions for evolution met.
- Ju Gonghyeok's skill draws out Vulcanus's innate potential.
- Vulcanus's title 'Doomsday Autodivine Machine' transforms.
[『Doomsday Autodivine Machine Vulcanus』 reborn as 『Creator Autodivine Machine Vulcanus』.]
[Vulcanus (SS+) grade rises to SSS.]
[Fourth ability – 「Divine Tool Forging」 generated.]
Clank!
Chunks of blackened scrap fell from the giant.
Its new surface gleamed with beautiful streamlined platinum armor.
The final piece to detach from its eye held a hint of resentment.
Nathaniel, sensing something, clapped his hands.
- That's right. No matter the dimension, Vulcanus means the god of smithing or craftsmanship.
"Yeah, something like that."
In this world, it's also the root of "volcano," and the Roman name for the smith god Hephaestus.
A machine god named that way suits a creator more than a destroyer.
= Hm...
The now-smaller platinum divine machine opened its eyes.
= Did I wake up wrong? Why do I only see filthy... ugly creatures.
"......"
To a creator god born from destruction, all other existing lifeforms must look hideous.
= I don't know. I don't understand.
"Go back and get some sleep."
[Avatar release: 『Creator Autodivine Machine Vulcanus (SSS)』.]
Sending back the newborn creator god, Nathaniel fretted.
- Will that thing cooperate obediently later?
"Satisfy its creation urge. If not, just smack it around."
- ......
"Smacking it makes it listen."
- I'd smack you too, so maybe not.
Nathaniel waved him off.
"Shall we move on to the next topic?"
Ju Gonghyeok pulled an item from his inventory.
A 17-meter conical metal mass shaped like a giant nail.
Humanity's worst invention: a nuclear missile.
The Machina, finishing its internal scan, asked.
"Query: What are these for?"
"Guess one: New suicide bombs."
"Guess two: Portable energy cells."
Ju Gonghyeok thumped the nuclear missile.
"By your standards, sure."
Machina weapons were either particle beams or mass drivers firing shells.
Guided missiles like these didn't exist in their world.
A patterned AI for guidance missiles would possess true intelligence, manufactured as a single personality.
Suicide weapons vanished from their world millions of years ago. Directional beams barely pierced armor by focusing power; nukes left mere scratches. Low-level EMPs did nothing.
'And fallout or radiation after a nuke? Irrelevant.'
Vacuum, radiation—none affected their survival.
Biochemical weapons Ju Gonghyeok brought didn't even exist in their world.
Viruses or diseases on metal bodies? Useless.
To them, viruses meant remote hacking tools.
Explaining simply to these complete outsiders:
"These are prototypes."
"Prototypes?"
"Radiation, bacteria, viruses, prions. Harmless to you metal lifeforms, but lethal to organics like me. Each has different principles and roles, so hard to explain precisely..."
Ju Gonghyeok's mouth twisted into a smirk.
The exposed white teeth where cheek flesh was torn looked like a clown's grin.
"You just make them more toxic."
"Toxic. More lethal to organic life? Seems simple enough."
"Understood. Principle grasped. Alter genetic or nucleic sequences, base on our virus programs, attach nanomachines or picomachines."
The Machina began moving the nuclear and biochemical weapons from the inventory.
Nathaniel eyed the mountain of slaughter tools in fear.
- Where are you planning to use all that?
"Why ask when you know?"
Ju Gonghyeok stroked the angel's head with his fingers.
"To beat them to death."
- ......You're the worst.
"The worst is my body's condition."
Acting fine with overwhelming stats, but Ju Gonghyeok's body was a rag.
His face was starting to heal, but like Two-Face, ear and cheek flesh torn, grotesquely mangled.
Limbs severed in the fight with Future Man and Cluesti wouldn't regrow.
One arm empty, severed leg fitted with a blade instead of prosthetic—limping around.
"Observation: Human body missing approximately 37% compared to standard Earthling."
"Yeah. So stick some good stuff in me."
Ju Gonghyeok good-naturedly thumped the socket where his eyeball was gouged.
"Affirmative. Preparing surgery immediately. To level 1 chassis maintenance bay."
Riding a plush bed-like Machina, they returned instantly to the spaceship-like underground level 1.
Entering the so-called maintenance bay, stale oil smells and various body parts appeared.
"Selection: Any desired function enhancements?"
The bay's monitor displayed models and function directions.
- Add-ons available: Photon booster, quantum engine, charged particle repulsion field, photon rifle (photon burst gun), imperial heavy alloy, MacGyver knife (plasma), 3-second cooker, laser toaster...
Options veered into Andromeda territory toward the end.
"No useless crap. Stick to basics. Legs for mobility and durability. Eyes for clear vision."
"Suggestion: For mobility focus, bipedal legs inconvenient. Spider 6-legs boost mobility 23%."
"Told you no."
Tried it once out of curiosity.
Replaced everything but brain with 23-meter dreadnought-grade full-body prosthetic.
Worse than before.
Unfamiliar body caused sensory confusion; honed skills and instincts dulled.
Many inconveniences reduced combat power.
"Understood. Then prosthetic legs: White Rabbit Type 7. Prosthetic arms... Regrettably, Reconquista Type 4 is Conquistador cluster tech. Substitute with similar lineage Independence Type 2. For eyes: Uzjet Type 1..."
"OK."
He closed his eyes, letting it slide.
"Recommendation: Really no need for photon gatling machine gun? If you want..."
Crack—
The monitor split in two.
"No. No. I said no."
Crack, crunch, crack.
Only after monitors, scythe-shaped Machina, and lamp-shaped Machina shattered did the speaker reply.
"Understood. Cease destruction please."
"Listen when I say it."
"Deeply understood. Commencing surgery."
Releasing resistance, plasma cutter sliced the curse-tainted limb ends from Cluesti.
Liquid metal and nanomachines inserted into red muscle, forming nerves and artificial muscles.
New prosthetic arm grafted; both arms now cold metal without human warmth.
Remaining eye muscles removed, high-performance artificial eye inserted.
Mid-surgery, the speaker asked again.
"Permission: To maximize prosthetic performance including eyes, must implant chip in brain and central nervous system. Agree?"
"No need. I'll morph prosthetics via Vulcanus and control through it."
"Understood. Additional permission required."
Plasma cutter headed to his last remaining limb: left leg.
"Unlike arms, legs central to locomotion used simultaneously, precisely, intimately. Unilateral prosthetics cause weight and strength imbalance, affecting balance..."
"Then cut it off."
Squelch—
His final limb convulsed and detached.
Empty legs replaced by white prosthetics, White Rabbit.
Click-clack—clack—
Joints moved every angle, testing limits.
Each toe, finger wiggling independently evoked a headless grub.
"Fits well?"
"Prosthetic transplant complete."
"Full-body prosthetization at 46%. For organics, over half leads to rejection and neural dissonance..."
"Got it. Thanks."
Ju Gonghyeok rolled his joints, stepped off the bed.
Blood pooled on the bed dripped to the floor.
Heading out of the surgery bay, a familiar kid lurked inside.
Emyr, even more lifeless, stripped of will to live.
"Fun watching the surgery?"
"Father."
Emyr looked up with rotten eyes.
"You really want to live that badly?"
To the kid, it might look like a trash life.
Betrayed former benefactor and hailed savior, killed lover and subordinate without hesitation.
Failed even that, reviled as ultimate scum, chased out.
Throwing away arms, legs, eyes, replacing with machines—is that life worth living?
Maybe that's what he's asking.
"Pathetic?"
Red lenses in the artificial eye spun eerily.
"Want to live? Opposite. I want to die, even like this."
"......"
"Burn my life, sever limbs without hesitation, trash beliefs in the sewer, betray benefactors, regret mentor forever, kill loved ones..."
His horrific face twisted uglier than ever.
"I want to end it all, kid."
"......Yeah."
Emyr murmured softly, turning away.
Seeing Emyr's obedience, Ju Gonghyeok turned too.
Or tried to.
If not for the heart-stopping shock.
——!
It pierced from sole to heart and brain at once.
Familiar sensation.
Familiar pulse.
Ju Gonghyeok's gaze slowly dropped to the floor.
"Below, huh."
Deeper than this in Babel's underground lay the 'pulse's' source.
Unseen yet undoubtedly there, a brilliant light shone.