Chapter 36
Chapter 36
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Translator: penny
Chapter: 36
Chapter Title: The Young Master of a Noble House
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“Ren…… Engineer Maintenance Team Leader?”
At Kang Geohan’s call, her head whipped around. Spotting him, her eyes went wide.
“Uh…… Huh? Kang Geohan Yellow?”
“I’m White now.”
“Oh, right. Sir Kang Geohan White Knight. Congratulations.”
Ren Engineer had spoken casually to him before, but the moment he mentioned “White,” she switched to polite speech out of respect.
“Fancy running into you here. I heard you were headed somewhere else…… Are you going to the eastern border by any chance?”
“Oh, Sir Kang Geohan White Knight too?”
“Yes.”
“Ah-ha? What a pleasant surprise.”
Ren Engineer flashed a grin and asked,
“You here to check out the Gigants too, Sir White Knight?”
“Yes.”
Her smile deepened.
“Do you like Gigants?”
“I love them.”
The answer came instantly.
Of course it did.
Just as he loved big, beautiful muscles, he also loved massive, beautiful Gigants.
The stronger he got, the more impressive the muscles he could build—and the stronger he got, the more incredible the Gigant he could pilot.
How could his heart not race?
Especially when piloting one made that colossal machine feel like an extension of his own body!
Ren Engineer, who had been leaning against the railing, plopped down onto the floor. Gazing down at the Gigants lined up below, she patted the spot beside her.
“Have a seat here.”
“Huh?”
“Sit. You said you love Gigants.”
“Oh, sure.”
He had no idea why she was suddenly telling him to sit, but if she said to sit, he sat.
“There’s this saying, you know.”
Ren Engineer, her eyes sparkling as she inspected the Gigants, continued.
“If you truly know something, you’ll truly love it. You say you love Gigants, Sir Kang Geohan White Knight, but you don’t know them inside and out yet. So you can’t really say you love them for real.”
What’s this? This otaku vibe radiating off her……
“So, now that you’re officially a Rider candidate trainee, let’s go over some basic knowledge. Even Riders need to know this stuff.”
It was a bit preachy and otaku-ish, but Kang Geohan liked it. He was serious about Gigants, after all.
“I’d be grateful to hear it.”
Kang Geohan perked up his ears and listened intently to her explanation.
Satisfied, Ren Engineer smiled and spoke in a sing-song voice.
“First off~ there are seven core components to a Gigant.”
First, the Gigant Heart. It was the Gigant’s power source, which unleashed godlike strength, and the device that controlled the input and output of that power.
Its power, multitasking speed, and precision varied depending on classifications like double core, triple core, 4-thread, 6-thread, and so on.
Second, the SPU, or Sensory Processing Unit. This device granted the Rider godlike perception.
The better the performance, the more targets it could recognize at once, the smaller the targets it could detect, and the faster the targets it could track.
The Pectoralis he’d piloted at the training camp had recognition capabilities good enough to instantly identify 1,000 written numbers the size of beans. Superior Gigants could even let you perceive attacks fired at supersonic speeds from close range, apparently.
If the Gigant Heart had sufficient output, countering a supersonic attack at supersonic speeds was entirely feasible.
Third, the main armament bay. It stored the primary weapons ready to be drawn and used at any moment.
Fourth, the reserve armament bay. It took longer to load weapons from here, but it stored more weapons and supplies for prolonged fights or changing situations.
Fifth, the cooling system. This handled the massive heat generated by the Gigant Heart, SPU, and so on.
Sixth, the Gigant’s external armor.
Seventh, the Gigant Rider. They integrated and operated all these systems while providing the energy to drive the Gigant Heart.
After hearing all this, one thought popped into Kang Geohan’s head.
‘……It’s like a computer.’
Gigant Heart: CPU.
Sensory Processing Unit: GPU.
Main armament bay: RAM.
Reserve armament bay: SSD or HDD.
Cooling system.
External armor: case.
And the Gigant Rider: power supply and motherboard.
Thanks to this, Kang Geohan gained a much clearer understanding of what a Gigant was.
While Kang Geohan sorted out his thoughts, Ren Engineer kept going.
“And these parts are made by…… basically processing materials sourced from nature. Like this.”
This part was pretty surprising too.
The components that made up a Gigant were far too sophisticated to be created from scratch with Laniakea’s technology.
So instead, they extracted and refined things from nature. Fancy talk for “nature,” but Laniakea’s wilderness was a continent blanketed in the corpses of ancient gods, demons, and transcendent beings.
Just like he’d seen before—breathing mountains and other bizarre phenomena, or powerful monsters. Dissect them properly, and you’d find byproducts covered in incredibly complex circuits. They were called “Oparts.”
Gigant components were made by processing those Oparts.
That was why the technicians had celebrated like it was a festival when Kang Geohan conquered the Monster Forest. Pioneering new territory meant mining massive hauls of Oparts.
Even Oparts too low-grade to build Gigants with could be studied to sharpen their own technological edge.
Ren Engineer said,
“So…… take good care of the Eastern Pioneering Unit, okay? Bring back some good Oparts, and I’ll upgrade your Gigant for you.”
Like upgrading a computer—expanding the main armament bay or swapping the Sensory Processing Unit.
“You get an even stronger Gigant, I get to study Oparts and deepen my Gigant knowledge, win-win, right?”
In the end, the conclusion of Ren Engineer’s long-winded explanation was: bring her any Oparts you find, and she’d upgrade it to the best of her ability.
Kang Geohan smiled and agreed. He didn’t know how skilled the Eastern Pioneering Unit’s technicians were, but someone with this kind of passion could only be a plus.
“Anything else you’re curious about?”
“Oh, well……”
Their conversation continued on in a cozy murmur.
Dusk fell. Outside the windows, hazy landscapes blurred by, and in the Gigant hangar where shadows danced about, the two sat side by side. She chattered on softly, and he tossed in questions now and then.
It was peaceful. Enjoyable.
* * *
The journey proceeded smoothly.
-This train is passing through the Sea Lake region. Siren monster voices that entrance people may be heard, so please close your windows. We repeat……
Clunk.
Kang Geohan closed the window. Outside, blue waves rippled across the sea, reflecting sunlight. Called a lake, but its vast expanse looked like an ocean no matter how you sliced it.
Kang Geohan recalled the terrains he’d passed over the last two days.
Fairy Plains, Beast Forest…… All lands yet to be fully pioneered.
‘Human territory is so small……’
Raenkall Kingdom.
The kingdom where Kang Geohan lived resembled a ‘ㄷ’ shape—though not a clean one, more like a tree root with branches sprouting off.
Like kingdoms on Earth, human lands were riddled with dangerous uncharted wilderness, making full development of the territory extremely difficult.
Humans pioneered like mining ore—targeting easier regions first, twisting borders into mazes.
The Kingdom Train followed the main routes, knitting the kingdom into a single cultural sphere somehow.
‘Even so, Gigant development has made pioneering boom. Before that, they were too busy defending existing lands from monsters to even think of expansion……’
No matter how he thought about it, he felt reborn into a great era.
Had Kang Geohan been born on Laniakea a century earlier, he’d have been thrown into a brutal survival game without escaping serfdom.
But now? It was the pioneering age, riding Gigants to expand human domain.
An era that set the heart racing.
Every time that thought hit, Kang Geohan felt anew grateful for Gigants—and an unbearable urge to train.
Davis blinked as Kang Geohan shot to his feet.
“Off to train again?”
“Yeah. No time to rest. Get up, Uncle. Time to train together.”
“Ugh…… Not with Sir Kaltz again……?”
“Of course! Sir Kaltz. Please take care of Uncle Davis today too!”
“Yes. I’ll train him properly.”
“Eek…… My whole body’s still aching……”
Davis grimaced like he’d eaten shit but hauled himself up anyway.
Still, his training hadn’t been for nothing. His shoulders were broad as pancakes, his back ramrod straight. His forearms were firm yet sleek.
Combining strength training with demonic essence training had transformed his body quickly.
He hadn’t learned combat techniques yet, but Sir Kaltz rated him able to toy with most young men in his current state.
Kang Geohan had changed just as much.
No one could imagine his old skeletal frame now.
His chest was broad and sturdy, his waist slim, his muscles rippling wildly under his clothes. His skin glowed, giving him a handsome knight vibe anywhere he went.
Achieving this in just half a year was thanks to the power of demonic essence, of course. Though Kang Geohan still felt he had a long way to go.
On the way to the physical training room, they ran into Helena.
“……Sir Kang Geohan White Knight…… You trained to death yesterday and you’re out already……?”
“You just got out too.”
“……I came out because I figured you would.”
Helena shook her head and dragged her weary body along.
“Don’t you feel any pain? I’m dying from demonic aches.”
“Feeling demonic aches means you’re growing, right? How could you stop? Besides…… gotta grind hard before the Heavenly Tribe medicine wears off.”
Helena nodded slowly.
“True…… Ever since taking the medicine like you suggested, my demonic essence has been surging like crazy.”
“That’s the fun part. Come on, let’s train hard today too! Let’s see what percentage we hit on lifts!”
“……I lost by a hair yesterday, but today’ll be different.”
Helena burned with competitive fire once more.
Just as they entered the physical training room, Kang Geohan sensed the atmosphere was off from usual.
“This all you got? Even for rookies, Rider candidates at this level? You expect us to entrust missions to these losers? Pathetic!”
It was the “Train Pressure” area he visited daily since the first day on the train.
There stood two boys and a girl he hadn’t seen before, with Gerot White standing before them, head bowed low.
“Gerot White, was it? Is this the level of commoner knights? Did I expect too much?”
One young master scowled and raised his voice as Gerot White—uncharacteristically—shrank back.
“Don’t you know what the eastern border’s like? Don’t you know why the Destor Marquis House got wiped out? It’s not just monsters—it’s local skirmishes with enemy nation Logot. Real combat! Real combat! Dangerous enough to crush a powerhouse house! You punks have no business there with that skill!”
The other two tried to restrain the ranting young master.
“Enough. It’s unbecoming.”
“You’re setting the bar too high.”
But the one in the middle ignored them.
“Hmph! Even lowborns need to face reality, don’t they? Calling these clowns knights…… They’ll just get in the way. A disgrace to His Majesty who elevated you lot!”
It was verbal abuse tearing down all White-surnamed high knights who were Rider candidates. Yet even the normally arrogant Gerot could only hang his head in silence.
Having grasped the situation, Helena muttered, unable to hide her agitation, grinding her teeth.
“Nobles……”
In class-ridden Laniakea, these were the starry unattainables: the offspring of nobles.
The young masters of noble houses
seemed awfully dissatisfied with the rookie Rider candidates led by Gerot for some reason.