Taking Down the Twin-Headed Eight-Armed Ogre! (4)
The left face extended one of its left hands, its expression carved with an iron will that refused to yield even an inch this time.
It welcomed the golden orb plummeting toward it with ferocious speed.
The right face, already in possession of four orbs, had no intention of letting this one go either, so it simply let its body be dragged along as the left side wished.
At that moment, the ogre’s left face was smiling with pure bliss.
Like a baseball player reaching for an easy infield fly, it thrust its hand toward the sky, grinning ear to ear… and then…
The 7-ton wrecking ball, painted gold, caught perfectly on the three fingers of the ogre’s left hand.
Crunch—
Yet those fingers, each as thick as an adult’s thigh, simply vanished the instant they touched the golden sphere. There wasn’t even time to register them snapping or breaking.
Booooooom~
The golden orb slammed directly into the left face, driving straight through the skull, brain, eyes, nose, mouth, teeth, tongue, and facial skin before burying itself deep inside the ogre’s shoulder.
In that instant, the right face felt as though billions of tons had crashed down on its left shoulder.
It was like the weight of all hell itself had settled there.
The giant ogre collapsed on the spot.
It didn’t simply fall over, nor was it driven into the ground.
Once again, the most accurate description was that one entire side of its body had collapsed.
Gwooooooooah~
Yet the twin-headed eight-armed ogre was truly an astonishing creature.
Even after taking the full force of a 7-ton projectile accelerated by gravity from over a hundred meters up, the monster refused to die.
It even thrust both of its right hands forward at once, trying to dig the golden projectile out of its own shoulder.
Kuhahahahaha~
With a thunderous roar, the ogre finally wrenched the massive sphere free and hurled it away. In human terms, its mental fortitude rivaled that of Yi Sun-sin and Guan Yu combined.
The right face stared at the gaping hole where its left face—something that had existed the moment it turned its head since birth—had been. A profound sense of loss washed over it, as if half of its very being had been torn away.
The creature shoved a hand into the ragged shoulder wound and fished out a spiked leather necklace, which it promptly hung around its neck.
It must have belonged to the left face. The fact that it bothered to retrieve and wear the item even now suggested it was incredibly precious.
Then it reached in again, scraping up what remained of its brother—brain matter, blood, bone shards, and horns now reduced to a handful of green sludge—and began to slurp and crunch it down noisily.
Kuhuhuppuhuhu~
Watching it sob and wail while performing the act, it didn’t seem driven by hunger. It looked more like some kind of funeral rite or ancestral tradition passed down among twin-headed ogres.
Afterward, the ogre began crawling forward while staring at the ceiling.
It appeared desperate to leave the danger zone.
Its four left arms, now dangling lifelessly as if their nerves had been severed, looked even more pitiful.
The creature traveled dozens of meters before collapsing with a heavy thud and falling asleep.
No matter how monstrous its vitality and physical resistance, taking a direct hit from a 7-ton wrecking ball was apparently more than it could stay conscious through.
Jiiiing—
A short while later.
From a distant corner of the floor, a single human and dozens of Rotters descended via the waypoint.
They quietly circled around the sleeping ogre to avoid waking it, then began dragging the golden projectile—now drenched in green blood—using a net woven from steel wire.
Of course, without the human pushing and rolling the massive sphere with both hands, even dozens of Rotters pulling with all their strength wouldn’t have moved it so easily.
Drip, drip, drip…
How much time had passed?
The twin-headed ogre—no, the now single-headed ogre—opened its eyes.
The first thing it did was look at the spot where its left face had been.
The enormous hole left by the massive sphere was already mostly filled in with new flesh.
The recovery rate was nothing short of miraculous.
Krrruuuung~ Krrung~
Then the ogre caught a scent.
Ouing?
It was the sour, fermented aroma of spoiled grapes—the creature’s absolute favorite.
Drip, drip, drip…
It perked its ears.
Its highly developed sense of smell and sensitive hearing both locked onto the same location.
Fifty meters away.
The ogre approached cautiously, eyes fixed warily on the ceiling above.
From a distance, it could see a thin stream of liquid trickling down from the ceiling.
Thin by the ogre’s standards, of course. To a smaller creature—say, a human—it would have looked like a modest waterfall.
The ogre finally drew close and glared upward in a state of extreme tension.
It had no idea whether another threat might come falling down.
Even while maintaining the highest level of alertness…
It stuck it out.
Its long tongue…
Slurp, slurp, slurp~
Sluuuuurp~
Awooooah?
It was delicious.
The lingering pain from the golden impact only made the spoiled grape juice taste even sweeter, like pure honey.
But then…
Drip.
The fragrant stream suddenly stopped.
Eeeing?
The ogre felt bitterly disappointed.
It wanted more…
Just a little more…
That was when it happened.
Drip, drip, drip…
Far off in the distance, dozens of meters away, another stream of grape wine began to fall.
The ogre rushed over and extended its tongue once more.
Yet it never lowered its guard.
Both eyes remained locked on the ceiling where the liquid fell, watching intently for any dangerous objects—like another golden sphere—dropping from above.
Lick~ Lick~
Sluuuuurp~
Soon enough, that stream dried up as well.
The disappointed ogre licked the floor clean, lapping up every drop that had spilled earlier. Even then, its eyes never left the ceiling.
Drip, drip, drip~~
When the ogre turned toward the sound, it saw wine falling again from the original spot, wastefully soaking the ground.
This time the creature moved to the first point far faster than before, catching the liquid with its tongue.
When the flow stopped, it naturally shifted toward the second point.
And!
Its prediction had been correct!
The sweet-and-sour liquid had begun falling from the second point once again.
Lick~ Lick~
Sluuuuurp~
It cheered inwardly. No matter how it thought about it, the ogre was immensely proud of itself.
The realization that its own foresight had allowed it to drink every drop without wasting any on the floor filled it with satisfaction.
The only sorrow was that it could no longer brag to the left face.
It immediately returned to the first point.
Drip, drip, drip~
Then the second point again!
Drip, drip, drip~
The ogre now darted rapidly between the two points, catching one hundred percent of the delicious juice without spilling a single drop.
There was no longer any room for denial.
It was a genius ogre!
During its fourth round trip.
Right at the midpoint between the first and second points.
A chilling sense of crisis ran down the back of its neck.
Ssssssssh~
Something heavy was plummeting straight toward it.
But by the time it noticed, it was already too late.
Once again, the ogre experienced the exact same crushing agony it had felt seventy-eight minutes earlier—this time directly on its back.
Baaaaaaaam—
The 7-ton wrecking ball had once again delivered a tremendous dose of G-force.
Thud—
By the time the wrecking ball—now returned to its original dark color—smashed into the creature’s back and crashed to the floor…
The ogre spread its four remaining movable right arms like a crab, arched its back, stuck out its rear, and staggered forward in an awkward, hunched posture.
Not even a groan escaped at first.
It realized that the flail strikes it had received from its irritable mother in childhood were nothing but childish affection compared to this hellish pain in its back…
Finally, the pent-up groan exploded.
Kk… pa… aaaaaaaaack~
In human terms, it was like being struck squarely in the back by a baseball-sized iron ball free-falling from a hundred meters up.
When one considered that even this colossal monster ogre was ultimately just a primate of skin, flesh, and blood, it was easy to imagine the agony of shattered spine and completely twisted internal organs.
Yet the twin-headed eight-armed ogre was, as expected, an incredible species.
Even through that pain, it did not immediately lose consciousness.
Perhaps the dozens of drumfuls of grape wine it had consumed had dulled the death-like agony at least a little.
It staggered hurriedly out of the danger zone.
Boom~ Crash~
Boom~ Crash~
As far away as possible…
As far away as possible…
And from that moment on, it felt it clearly.
The overwhelming drowsiness.
Sleepiness so powerful it could not possibly resist.
A crushing wave of fatigue that seemed to come from a different source than the back injury.
It understood that losing consciousness in this critical situation was unacceptable.
Yet its eyelids, now heavier than a thousand tons, kept sinking no matter what it did.
So it traveled as far from the impact site as it could manage, then, with a mental shrug of whatever happens, happens, sprawled out flat on its back.
Soon it fell into a sleep as heavy as its own body weight—24.7 tons.
Jiiiing—
And from a distant corner, the human and dozens of Rotters appeared once again through the waypoint.
Once more they quietly circled around the sleeping ogre, then rolled and dragged the projectile toward the magic elevator in exactly the same manner as before.
I had secretly hoped the second shot would finish the creature off.
Unfortunately, that level of luck wasn’t on my side today.
I had calculated the ogre’s movement speed and the wrecking ball’s fall time with perfect precision, but the shot had unfortunately glanced off target and struck its back instead of its head.
In truth, the ogre subjugation operation had always carried many variables.
The creature’s reaction speed, its vigilance level…
The timing and location where it would fall asleep…
That was why I had prepared multiple contingency plans.
Considering that, simply landing a hit was already an achievement.
Still, human greed is endless.
After returning to the first basement floor, I pulled out my shovel, fastened the secured harness, and leaped into the fifth sewer.
The fifth sewer.
The final muzzle I had dug specifically to deliver the last shot to that bastard.
However, the tunnel wasn’t fully opened yet.
It wasn’t due to laziness.
When I first dug it, I still hadn’t decided exactly where the end of the muzzle should point.
That decision had been made only moments ago.
The exact spot where the monster now lay sprawled out.
Using the 3D map provided by Dispatch Location in the master menu, I read the precise coordinates of that location—more specifically, the position of the creature’s head.
Simple calculations then told me the exact diagonal angle I needed to dig at.
All that remained was to swing the sacred titanium spade like a madman from the bottom of the fifth sewer, which I had already dug two-thirds of the way.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa—
The elite Rotter soldiers selected from each platoon were already performing the familiar pulley operation they had repeated many times, hauling the massive volume of dirt I excavated up to the surface of the first basement floor.
Dig! Dig!
In my short twenty-two years of life, I had spent nearly all of it digging the earth.
As a child, helping my farmer father…
During school archaeology excavation classes…
While on leave from university, doing manual labor to pay tuition…
In the military, because they said I was good at it…
I had never once thought shoveling was enjoyable.
I had prayed I could live without ever doing it again.
Yet here I am.
Right now, I am so happy.
In this very moment of shoveling…
I am truly happy.
At the end of this shoveling.
There lies my dream.
My desire.
My success.
My family.
My love.
My life…
All of it is there.
My name is Hwang Geumpa!
Eldest son of Hwang Sun-cheol and Yoon Mi-won!
Older brother to Hwang Eunpa.
Older brother to Hwang Dongpa.
Right now, at the boundary between the first and second basement floors of the tower…
I am shoveling!
Rumble~
Finally the earth gave way, and I found myself dangling in midair.
The fifth sewer had been fully opened.
I peered through the 10x scope and fired a laser straight down.
The red dot trembled exactly near the creature’s forehead.
Perfect.
I immediately ascended back to the surface.
The loyal squad of Rotter soldiers had already moved the wrecking ball into drop position.
I rolled the 7-ton wrecking ball and pushed it into the mouth of the fifth sewer.
The final bullet that would decide the success or failure of the ogre hunt slid into the muzzle and began its heavy descent, rolling downward with crushing weight.