A Meta-Defining Character
"The situation isn't looking good."
Lena said in a chillingly frigid voice as she drew the pistol from her coat.
The opponent was a being with its own unique title.
A Quasi-Named Grade entity, like the Carapace Lord; it was clear this thing would be no pushover.
In the current situation, facing such a monster head-on was an act of folly.
Lena's senses quickly swept across the ship.
The top priority right now is...
It wasn't dealing with the creature, but neutralizing the ship itself so that this Troller-class Mobile Aircraft Carrier could no longer pour out reinforcements.
Arva, like Lena, assessed the situation with cold rationality.
"Moi, Lena! Ignore that thing! The target is the fusion core—! Finish it quickly and extract!"
She chose to evade the immediate danger and fulfill the commander's orders.
However, Arva's command...
"Ah, aaah..."
...was not reaching a certain ECHO who had already fallen into another world.
"A Quasi-Named Grade Astral..."
From the moment Aurum revealed itself, Moi had been feeling a chilling tremor piercing through her entire body.
The overwhelming pressure emanating from the opponent was incomparable to the Specters and Knight-class Astrals she had faced until now.
A long time ago.
Even the medium-to-large-scale Astrals like the Cryptrain or the Tempered that she had to fight while escaping the Ark felt like mere toys in front of this existence.
"..."
Moi's brown eyes shifted toward the pitch-black dagger she held.
[Like the Queen’s Calamity that Pomen wields, this is a weapon just for you, Moi.]
An Artifact created solely for her, a gift from the Commander.
Just recalling his image made her Core grow hot.
And an uncontrollable desire began to dominate her entire body—a desire to use these new claws he had placed in her hands to disassemble the mechanical monster before her, piece by piece, leaving nothing behind.
"Ah, aaah..."
If she did that...
Then, the Commander would once again...
[Well done, Moi. Tonight, come find me in the commander's office with your sister Rai.]
Would he drive that hot, hard cock into her deepest depths once more, speaking in that tender yet commanding voice?
Drip...
As the vivid memories of last night rushed back, Moi unconsciously twisted and crossed her thighs.
From inside, a warm, sticky liquid had been leaking out like a broken faucet for some time now.
"Moi!!"
"I'll—I'll handle that monster!"
Leaving Arva's urgent shout behind, Moi kicked off the ground in a low stance like a hungry beast and charged toward Aurum.
"I will—! I'll definitely kill you!!"
In her eyes, she saw only a sacrifice to be offered in exchange for the Commander's sweet love.
"Good grief, you imbecile...!"
Arva was momentarily flustered by Moi's arbitrary movement, but she quickly regained her composure and recalculated the situation.
Should we attack Aurum, following Moi? No. That's likely the worst choice in this situation.
If they got bogged down here, they wouldn't be able to stop the Troller-class carrier's movements, and the main force on the ground would inevitably be pushed back by the endlessly pouring Astral units.
"Tsk."
It couldn't be helped.
They had no choice but to leave this spot to Moi and carry out their original mission.
Considering Moi's combat power, even if the opponent is a Quasi-Named unit, she won't be taken down easily.
Above all, Moi had the Artifact personally bestowed by the Commander.
For now, they had to trust in that, if not her, at least. Arva turned her back coldly and spoke to Lena.
"Lena! We're going! While Moi buys us time, we have to destroy the ship's core somehow!"
"But Moi...! She can't do it alone! The opponent is a Quasi-Named Astral!"
"We have to trust her. And we trust the Commander's choice."
Lena hesitated for a moment at Arva's decision.
However, seeing Moi—who was not pushed back in the slightest against Aurum, but was instead unleashing a fierce assault—Lena bit her lip and followed behind Arva.
◇◇◇◆◇◇◇
Boom! Kaboom!
In the distance, loud explosions accompanied by flashes of light erupted from the surface of the massive Troller-class Mobile Aircraft Carrier that seemed to blot out the sky.
"...Eh?"
Was it a success? Already?
"Commander!"
Just then, Lapis approached me, panting for breath with a massive Saint Hammer slung over her shoulder, to report.
"Arva, Lena, and even Moi. All three have successfully boarded the ship."
"And... what about you?"
"I don't have a flight gear. Actually, the reason they managed to get on the ship is that I launched them up with my strength."
Lapis wore a proud expression as she spoke.
I nodded with a bewildered face.
"Oh? R-Right. Good job, Lapis."
Flight gear?
Wait, there was such a thing in this world?
It was something I hadn't seen in the game, and since it was a type of item that never appeared, I hadn't even thought of it.
There were occasionally ECHOs with armaments that looked like wings, but I thought that was just part of the character design; I never imagined that one actually needed such equipment or armament to fly.
I'll definitely have to improve this point once we return to the Ark.
The Astral bastards are raining bullets down from the sky, while we're just scuttling around on the ground?
There was no way we could compete.
"Sigh..."
I felt like the mountain of work I had to do was growing taller by the second.
Regardless, after the explosions on the ship, the number of Astrals pouring out periodically stopped increasing.
Fortunately, it was evidence that Arva was performing her mission properly.
If so, it was now our turn to run wild.
"Wipe out the remaining bastards before their numbers increase—!"
At my command, the ECHOs reorganized their lines and started a fierce assault once more on the Astral bastards.
Furthermore, Podic, who had been subtly reading the room among the ECHOs until now, seemed to have found courage and was stepping forward against the Astrals.
[Poooooo—!]
With a grotesque roar, Podic's attack, extending a long shadow, snatched a Specter floating in the sky.
"Hold on tight—! You boobie monster!!"
Not missing the opening, Helena of the Cerberus squad kicked off the rooftop powerfully and soared into the air.
Tututu—!
The Specter's machine gun spat fire fiercely toward Helena.
Ting! Titititing! Ting! Ting!
However, the crude shield—the unique ability of Helena's Artifact, Hell's Gatekeeper—appeared and deflected all the bullets.
Having successfully closed the distance, Helena rotated her body in mid-air and slammed her hard heel down on the creature's Energy Shield with a crash!
Then, through the minute crack created by the blow, she shoved her most prized weapon, Hell's Gatekeeper, straight in.
"Let's see if you can withstand this too."
The Specter tried to twist its body quickly to avoid the muzzle aimed at it, but...
[Poooooo!]
Podic's shadow wrapped around the creature's body like a sturdy rope, rendering it immobile.
Kaaaboooooom—!
A thunderstorm of shotgun blasts erupted at point-blank range.
Struck by countless pellets, the Specter's red core burst open cleanly, like a ripe watermelon.
Starting with that, we focused our attacks on the Specters in the sky one by one, bringing them crashing down to the ground.
Bang! Ba-bang—!
I also didn't miss the opportunity, utilizing my shooting skills to the fullest to snipe the Specters' cores in quick succession.
Acquired 1600C.
Acquired 1500C.
Acquired 3000C.
Unlike zombies, Astrals were incredibly powerful individuals.
Maybe that was the reason…
Because the Cash they gave was incomparably higher than that of the zombies.
As I watched the Cash pile up, a sudden curiosity struck me.
"...Then just how much is that thing worth?"
The Troller-class Mobile Aircraft Carrier visible in the distance.
When I caught the Carapace Lord before, I think I got close to 300,000 Cash... If so, wouldn't that giant ship be around the same level?
I looked through the scope of White Tiger to examine the deck of the Troller-class ship.
And there, I witnessed an unbelievable sight.
"..."
Moi, the Broken Fang.
She was fighting a one-on-one battle against a giant mechanical monster that resembled a snake.
...Aurum?
And that thing was a creature that existed clearly in my memories.
Aurum, a Quasi-Named Astral unit.
It appeared as the final boss of Chapter 7 or 8 of the main scenario in the mobile game Echoes of Humanity — ECHO; it was a named boss that could be defeated without much difficulty if one had consistently grown their Astral Deck.
Moreover, it was a kind of combat power gauge that appeared frequently during events or daily missions.
Its weakness is...!
Its weakness was, surprisingly, the giant snake-like lower body armed with sharp blades.
After blowing away all the armor of the lower body, it could be suppressed relatively easily by using a burst-damage dealer to slam full damage into the exposed weak point, the Astral Core.
Conversely, the upper body, which looked like the naked body of a seductive woman, was extremely hard, so attacking it provided no benefit.
Of course, there were perverted users who tried to suppress it by aiming a minigun specifically at the nipples...
But doing that here would mean not having enough lives even if I had ten.
Anyway, to effectively blow away the lower body armor...
I needed an ECHO capable of powerful area-of-effect attacks, like Helena.
Or a rifle dealer who could continuously pummel the lower body.
But all I could see now was Moi facing Aurum alone.
Where are Arva and Lena?
They weren't visible no matter how much I searched for them through the scope.
Presumably, while Moi dealt with the creature, the two of them were smashing the Troller-class Mobile Aircraft Carrier.
"It doesn't seem like it'll be easy for Moi alone..."
I muttered, knitting my brows.
No matter how much of a Tier 0 damage dealer Moi was, especially against the Astrals, she was still a cub.
Facing a Quasi-Named unit all alone should have been impossible.
"???"
However, the situation was unfolding completely differently from my expectations.
Moi wasn't aiming for the lower body, the weak point.
Rather, she was digging in frantically toward the hardest part—the upper body.
And every time the Surge Blade in her hand flashed, Aurum's mechanical parts were torn away helplessly like sheets of paper.
"...Wow."
This is a Tier 0 dealer?
Isn't this beyond a must-have character? She was quite literally the Meta itself. This is the level where you should just quit the game if you can't pull her.
Watching Moi face Aurum single-handedly with the Surge Blade, the corners of my mouth curled up unconsciously.
"Is this the power of an Exclusive Weapon?"
Seeing her use it so well made the purchase worth it.
It was an overwhelming performance that made the 100,000 Cash not feel like a waste at all—in fact, it felt cheap.
And simultaneously, the calculator in my head began to spin rapidly.
If we destroy that ship... how much Cash will come in? Considering the size... Plus, the parts we can get from that ship will be enormous, right?
I immediately issued orders to the ECHOs.
"Clear the Astrals one by one and close the distance toward the Troller!"
"Yes, Commander—!"
A stage set by Moi.
I couldn't let this golden opportunity to acquire a massive amount of Cash slip away.