Chapter 22
Chapter 22
"Caught me."
As soon as Han Min-ah spotted the iron ball in my hand, she took a step back.
Her gaze turned sharp in an instant.
Wariness bristled all over her body like frost.
"You... what are you? Were you an Awakened?"
I slowly raised both hands.
As if to show that I wasn't a threat.
"Calm down. I don't have any ill will toward you."
A moment of silence passed.
Han Min-ah's brow slowly furrowed.
She had an expression like she was chewing something over.
"......So that was it."
It was a low, cold voice.
"The reason you were so indifferent when I revealed that I was an Awakened."
"That's right."
Because I was an Awakened, I was able to remain unfazed even when facing another Awakened.
Han Min-ah pressed her lips together.
She slowly crossed her arms.
It was a self-defensive gesture, as if she were wrapping herself up.
"So why did you hide it?"
It was more of an accusation than a question.
"Just... because I couldn't trust you yet either."
"That's......"
She tried to refute something, then stopped.
She let out a short sigh.
She was convinced.
Because she would have made the same choice in the same situation.
"Yeah, well. Since we've come this far, it can't be helped."
Then, her eyes flashed, and she lifted her chin.
"Instead, you're a physical-type Awakened, right? Take the lead."
"Sure, why not."
I was going to do that anyway.
Because in a party, the mage is supposed to be in the back.
The newly acquired implant prosthetic arm.
A perfect opportunity to test its power had arrived.
"Kiiiiiik!"
The sound coming from the end of the passage was different from before.
It was heavier.
Just as an ant colony has worker ants and soldier ants, it seemed these mutants also had clear roles.
— Blade Mutant.
They were nearly twice the size of the worker type.
Their bodies were as thick as a carapace, and the surface was worn smooth from friction.
That wasn't all.
Around their mouths and at every joint in their legs, thin, long blades like razors were protruding.
It was a form that would tear flesh just by grazing it, not even needing to stab.
"Looks like it'll be tricky, huh?"
Han Min-ah quietly powered up her ability while looking at them.
Her fingertips began to glow faintly.
However.
"Wait, stay back."
I took a step in front of her.
At that moment.
Three Blade Mutants kicked off the ground simultaneously.
It was a pincer attack.
Without a sound, they shot at us, alternating between kicking off the walls and the floor, splitting the angles.
— Deploying combat augmentation system.
My vision changed.
A transparent hologram unfolded before my eyes.
Like a HUD.
The mutants' trajectories were drawn as lines.
The predicted impact points were marked in red.
Speed, angle, even timing.
Everything was calculated and laid out before my eyes.
"Huh......."
As I watched with admiration,
The first one swung a blade longer than a sword vertically downward.
The prosthetic arm moved.
I caught the blade with my bare hand.
Pachang—!
A roar as the reinforced metal collided with the blade.
The blade shattered.
The severed fragments flew in all directions.
"Kkieeeeek!"
The prosthetic arm pushed relentlessly into the mutant's gaping mouth as it screamed in pain.
Pajijijik.
Electricity flowed. The mutant's body convulsed, and it died instantly, emitting smoke.
But in that split second.
"Kiaaa!"
"Kuaaa!"
The remaining two dug in from the blind spots simultaneously.
One from the front, one from the side.
It was an angle where I couldn't see both directions at once with my eyes.
But the prosthetic eye already knew.
'There are no blind spots.'
The trajectories of the two were clearly drawn, along with the predicted collision point.
The prosthetic eye finished the calculation.
The command was transmitted to the prosthetic arm.
The elbow joint of the prosthetic arm rotated 180 degrees in reverse.
The elbow struck the face of the one flying toward the back of my head with precision.
"Keeeeeek!"
The one that flew off with a scream, coincidentally, collided head-on with the other one that was rushing from the front.
The two tangled and rolled on the floor.
Two birds with one stone. It was like billiards.
That wasn't the end.
Wiiiing—.
There was a sound of something spinning rapidly inside the arm.
It was a wire.
The wire, ejected in a noose shape, dug precisely into the necks of the two tangled mutants.
Ujik—.
The sound wasn't even loud.
It just snapped.
A dull, short sound as the mutants' heads and bodies separated.
I stood there blankly.
"Huh......."
I felt hollow.
In reality, I had done practically nothing.
The attack, the defense, the judgment.
This prosthetic arm and prosthetic eye handled it all.
I had merely authorized the commands.
'As expected of an implant!'
Just one arm and one eye.
It was like this with just that.
It was simply overwhelming.
"......Amazing."
Han Min-ah approached.
As if she couldn't believe it, she slowly looked around at the scattered Blade Mutants.
The severed cross-sections were clean.
Even the bones had been separated without hesitation.
"Huh....... These guys' outer shells aren't usually this hard, either."
She poked the severed neck with her foot.
It made a heavy sound.
"Just how strong are you?"
"Haha......."
"And what was up with that elbow rotation? Didn't it break? And where did the wire come from?"
Questions like a machine gun.
But that wasn't what was important right now.
"Hmm....... I hear sounds coming from far away."
Han Min-ah shut her mouth.
Beyond the tunnel, from deep within.
Things that I couldn't tell if they were crying or howling were surging in waves.
"Get ready."
"......Got it."
This place was their base.
I couldn't let my guard down.
Furthermore.
— Vibration detected on the ground.
"......What?"
At the same time.
Peoeok!
The ground exploded.
"Keeeeeek!"
"Holy shit, you scared me!"
Han Min-ah stepped back.
I reflexively lowered my body.
And at that moment.
Kwaaaaang!
The prosthetic arm moved first.
Faster than my judgment.
It struck the head of the mutant that was bursting through the ground.
Ppaaaak!
The head flew off.
The headless body was convulsing.
However.
At the same time, the ground rose up from all sides.
'So these guys dug tunnels.'
No wonder there were so many tunnels.
"This way!"
There were too many of them.
If the ones pouring out of the underground tunnels joined in, there would probably be thousands.
I didn't doubt Han Min-ah's ability.
But stamina and mental strength have limits.
Fighting a war of attrition here was not the answer.
We pushed our bodies into the hole the mutants had come up from.
Tat-tat!
After we entered the hole, we hurriedly blocked the tunnel.
Then.
Dudududu.
Vibrations rang out above us.
Countless mutants were passing over us, running toward the surface.
They hadn't noticed us.
"Phew.... let's keep going."
The tunnel was bigger than I thought.
Even though one mutant was about twice the size of a human, the tunnel was spacious enough to walk through standing up.
We moved for several minutes, holding our breath.
"Over there....... There's something."
The smell came first at the end of the tunnel.
A smell of rotting things mixed with living things.
Humid and hot, like flesh melting.
And the sound.
Ggulleok...... Ggulleok......
"That is......."
We frowned at the same time.
It was a hatchery.
A massive lump of flesh was embedded like a furnace.
It was round and pulsating, looking like a heart or a womb.
Something was being pushed out from various places on the surface.
Breaking through a sticky membrane, in a half-finished form.
In front of it, mutants were carrying corpses.
Human corpses. Zombies.
They were pushing everything, even ones with missing limbs, into it.
"Huh....... These things are just like bugs."
"How on earth did they evolve?"
It was ominous.
They said there were millions of corpses buried in this underground.
If all of them were raw materials.
Then there were that many mutants, too.
I stared blankly at the hatchery for a moment.
Then, suddenly.
An interesting thought occurred to me.
'Couldn't I...... pour something into that furnace?'
However.
I don't know about mutants, so I can't just put in acid or poison.
What if they get stronger after I put it in?
'Let's use the Alchemist Gallery.'
A place full of insane people.
But a place where ideas that no one else would think of come from.
I posted on the gallery.
[Guys. Anyone have something I can pour into a bug hatchery? They're bugs that eat people.]
└[9th Grade Sage] : Bugs that eat people...... suddenly I'm curious about how they taste!
└[Houmun Cloth] : Can't you just kill them all?
└[To Mix or Not to Mix That is the Question] : Hoho, Gallery Owner! Are you interested in mixing? Whisper me!]
└[Alchemist of Copper] : Copper! Copper! If you add copper, it's a universal solution!]
"Hmm......."
I see one useful guy.
To Mix or Not to Mix That is the Question.
I sent a whisper.
└[Gallery Owner] : What's good to mix?]
└[To Mix or Not to Mix That is the Question] : Hmm...... The characteristic of bugs is that there are many of them. It's best to put something in the hatchery to make them fight the existing ones.]
'Gasp.'
As soon as I heard that, the steps opened up in my head one by one.
If the newly born mutants in the hatchery kill the existing mutants?
Fighting fire with fire.
'I just need to sell those corpses and take the profit!'
As expected.
They said he was insane.
To think of such a brilliant idea.
Normally, one would think of acid or insecticide.
But that person was different.
His way of thinking was different.
"Then what would be good."
To make mutants attack mutants.
It needed some kind of trigger.
Then, suddenly.
I thought of zombies.
"Zombie's zombie......."
I realized it.
Infecting the mutants with the zombie virus.
"That's fucking awesome."
I executed it immediately.
└[Gallery Owner] : Do you happen to know about zombies? I want to make a zombie virus that works on these mutants.]
└[To Mix or Not to Mix That is the Question] : Hmm...... There are mutants in the shop. I'll try making one!]
A moment later.
A potion appeared in the shop.
[Name] : Mutant Zombie Virus
[Classification] : Potion
[Required Ether] : 500 million Ether