The Golden-Eyed Expert
My prediction about the Stage 5 Expert had been spot on. After wandering around, every creature that looked like a native organism turned out to be a golem made of seaweed. They worked like Santa’s helper elves, repeatedly assembling random boxes and stuffing items inside them. Once thirty minutes had passed, I returned to the rendezvous point and ordered the corporate zombies to report what they had learned.
“Let’s hear it, one at a time.”
But none of them had uncovered any special strategy. The seaweed golems had built a perfectly balanced defensive system. A surprise assassination or two was easy enough, yet if it came to open war, their modern firearms would make them a difficult enemy. Then one of the zombies spoke up.
“It’s strange, though. I took down three of them and checked their weapons. They’re using completely modern firearms. Seeing monsters wield human weapons felt… off. Even the models match Earth’s exactly.”
Those words struck me like a hammer. Why firearms? They were mimicking Earth’s civilization.
Really… is there actually a Santa here?
I stored the zombies away for now. The only way to satisfy my curiosity was to go inside. I decided to search with the keyword “mimicry” in mind.
Watching the golems closely, I noticed each one had a strictly defined role. The sentries only stood guard. The ones wrapping random boxes only wrapped boxes. The carriers that brought items in from deeper in the Steel Archipelago only carried cargo. If I followed the carriers, I could reach the heart of their operation.
Swish—swish—
Siling’s tentacles were perfect for tailing someone. The suction cups let it move freely along walls without making a sound. After following one of the delivery golems for about an hour, I arrived at a massive warship. It floated majestically among the countless pieces of drifting debris, looking as though it belonged to another world.
Is this… Santa’s factory?
The atmosphere here was completely different from the outer areas. Compared to the floating islands filled only with worker golems, this place was clearly a military facility. Tank golems, jet golems. They moved about in organized formations, as if conducting military drills. Security was extremely tight. Even with the tentacles, slipping through the front entrance unnoticed seemed nearly impossible.
Whatever they were guarding, it was the warship itself. I moved into a blind spot in their patrol routes and searched for a suitable window. Eventually I found a quiet, unguarded corner. I summoned Baengnae and tucked her under my arm, then brought her close to the glass.
“Baengnae, get rid of this.”
“Roger.”
Baengnae possessed a hundred different skills. That meant she had monopolized a hundred Fruits of Good and Evil all by herself. Any excess fruits that couldn’t be distributed had gone straight into her stomach.
Shhhk—
Baengnae pressed her palm against the window. Moments later, the glass around her hand began to melt. There was no noise, no smoke. The window simply softened and dripped away like ice cream under heat.
Hisss—
It was her skill Melt. It demanded intense concentration and stamina, but the effect was absolute. One of Baengnae’s top ten skills.
After creating the hole, Baengnae slipped inside and posted herself as lookout while widening the opening. Once it was large enough, I followed her in.
“Good work. Let’s go.”
The interior was surprisingly ordinary. I had never been on a real warship, but it matched exactly what I had seen in movies. Come to think of it, not only the firearms but the floating structures themselves were saturated with human technology. Without knowledge of Earth’s culture, they could never have replicated it so precisely.
“Is Santa actually human…?”
“Mmm, dunno.”
“Yeah, who would know.”
Baengnae and I walked normally down the corridor. Unlike the heavily guarded exterior, the inside had almost no troops. Whenever we found a door, we opened it and kept searching. Bedrooms, kitchens, storage rooms—ordinary spaces. Then I felt a strong vibration.
Thump—thump—
“Huh…? You feel that too?”
“Yep. Thump thump.”
The rhythmic pulsing felt like some kind of machine running on a fixed cycle. Instinct told me the facility the golems had been guarding was the source. We quickened our pace, following the vibration.
Thump—thump—
After wandering through the complicated interior for a while, we reached a vast hangar. We had emerged on the fourth floor. Below us, countless machines were operating, stamping out something. In the center of the hangar stood a gigantic cylindrical device moving up and down, producing the vibration I had felt.
Thump—thump—thump—
I was about to head down when a sudden sense of wrongness stopped me. There were no golems in sight. The only living thing in my field of view was Baengnae, yet I could feel something else was here with us. I immediately stepped back and spoke.
“Who’s there…?”
Baengnae looked at me and answered, “Baengnae’s here.”
Not you…
I sent Baengnae behind me and warned in a low voice, “If you don’t come out right now, I’ll destroy everything around here indiscriminately. I’ll count to three. Three… two…”
Just as I was about to say “one,” a human-shaped figure appeared five meters in front of me. It hadn’t moved or been summoned—it had been there the whole time, simply unseen until now. And the figure was extremely strange.
A beautiful woman with golden hair. Between the flowing strands, golden eyes gazed at me seductively. I swallowed once and asked, “Are you… Santa?”
It was a stupid question. She wore a black bodysuit that clung to every curve of her body. That appearance suited a spy far more than the master of this place. At my question, she smiled with interest.
“How amusing.”
Her gaze never left my eyes. Those golden irises stared at me as though trying to peer straight into my soul. Then her lips moved slowly.
“Returnee, you said you loved me, didn’t you?”
What…?
With that single line, I could finally guess who the golden-eyed beauty was. The third woman sent to me by Success Myth. The only user who had helped me when I first arrived in this world, and the only one to whom I had confessed my love. She was the Chameleon Summoner, the user whose nickname was “Expert.”
The Expert… was a woman?
Luna had cleared Stage 4 at an incredible speed. The chameleons she had trained had each become at least first-rate spies. Infiltration, stealth, and reconnaissance came naturally to them, so finding Fruits of Good and Evil inside the maze was child’s play. Thanks to that explosive growth, Luna reached Stage 5 in no time—and immediately noticed something strange.
Why did Stage 5 periodically hand out artificial objects to users? Curiosity took hold of her. She had wondered about the Returnee, but realistically there was no telling when she would meet him again. So Luna poured all her attention into unraveling the ocean’s secrets instead.
While chasing the event and its secrets, she finally reached the “end point of the floating debris”—the Destination. Then an offer arrived. The sponsor group known as Success Myth proposed sending her to the world where the Returnee resided. Luna crossed over into Baek Suhan’s Stage 5, yet she had no special way of locating him. More than anything, the Destination she had been investigating was far too fascinating to abandon.
Eventually Luna realized something. A user of the Returnee’s caliber would inevitably come to the Destination sooner or later. If she simply kept exploring while waiting for him there, everything would work itself out. And so her investigation of the Destination continued—through the time Baek Suhan was hunted by the “Golden Lord,” through the battle against the Clam King, even while he was running a hotel on the Equator. Luna focused solely on the Destination, digging deeper and deeper.
While she was enjoying herself like that, her man finally arrived at the Destination. Her curiosity had come looking for her on its own. Luna immediately activated stealth and began tailing Baek Suhan. When she finally caught up to the Returnee, he proved to be even more fascinating than she had imagined. Tentacles erupted from his arm, and rare minerals wrapped around his shoulder. His small summon melted the warship’s reinforced glass without the slightest difficulty. A facility that had taken her three hours to infiltrate, he had entered in less than ten minutes.
How curious. How impressive! How curious. How impressive!
While quietly tailing the Returnee, Baek Suhan surprised her once again. Her stealth had been detected. Even the master of the Destination hadn’t noticed her, yet he had seen straight through whatever method she used.
How fascinating…!
In combat, senses, and instinct, he was superior in every way. And now there was only one thing left to test. Luna revealed herself, heart pounding. Every man who had ever seen her had turned into a lovesick puppy. No one had ever resisted the honey trap of a former spy like Luna. So what would the Returnee’s first words be?
“Are you… Santa?”
Pfft—
Luna found the Returnee even more intriguing than before.
I was considerably flustered. It wasn’t as though I had never considered the possibility that the Expert might be female. Even if that were the case, I had thought it wouldn’t matter—after all, we would never meet. More importantly, the fact that the Expert had helped me greatly, regardless of gender, was undeniable. What I felt toward the Expert was clearly gratitude on the level of love.
But right now, I was extremely flustered. This woman was excessively attractive. It wasn’t just her face or body—though those were objectively beautiful beyond doubt. Beyond that, she possessed the form of a goddess of beauty descended to earth. Not some artificial beauty created by something like Phantom Beauty, but a level achieved through sweat and effort. Those elegantly toned muscles were a rapture capable of shaking any man’s heart.
I took a deep breath to clear my thoughts. I needed to analyze the situation first.
Get a grip. There’s no guarantee she’s really the Expert.
Weren’t Events always like that? They bewitched people, lowered their guard, then presented fakes to steal their lives. There was no proof anywhere that the captivating woman before me was the real Expert. I had to recognize that the Destination could easily become the end of my life. How many times had I been fooled by Events? These were never to be taken lightly—they were of terrifying difficulty.
I took a step backward. Seeing my expression, she whispered sweetly.
“Returnee… would you like a present?”