57. Human, Do You Desire to Mate?
57. Human, Do You Desire to Mate?
Floor 1: Cave Ants — Subjugation complete
Floor 2: Cave Ants and a small number of Soldier Ants — Subjugation complete
Floor 3: Soldier Ants and 1 Ant Captain — Subjugation complete
Floor 4: All individuals except the Queen — Subjugation complete
And finally — Floor 5
Right in front of the Ant Queen's nest, the Safe Room
I slowly turned to look behind me.
"If we just take down the Queen, it's over..."
"It's a shame... actually, it's not a shame at all!"
"We made a nice haul~"
"...Ugh."
The crowd buzzed.
All the parties that had been hunting Cave Ants, including mine, had gathered together to join the Ant Queen raid.
The fact that the raid leader was — of course, not me — was fortunate, if anything about this was fortunate.
Yeah.
I wasn't the leader.
In fact, that made sense. From the start, the very idea of a mere student cadet getting mixed in with seniors who had graduated or dropped out of the Academy to do something was an absurd situation.
I wouldn't have done it even if they'd asked me to, anyway. The problem was, I said I wouldn't, but they forced me to.
"Haaaaah..."
"You seem very anxious."
".........."
The person sitting beside me, smiling brightly, was none other than the staff member who had always given me a fair price for the ants.
The one who had handed me their business card before.
Honestly, I'd thought they were a rather kind person back then, but now that I saw it, there wasn't a robber as brazen as this one.
"This... this is a fraudulent contract..."
"It's not fraud; it's a strictly official request. Didn't you accept the request, Chrono?"
"You submitted the request on your own!"
"So, do you not want to do it?"
"Noooooo....."
This wasn't a matter of want or not want, you know...
So utterly speechless, I dropped my head down deep.
At this, the staff member let out a small laugh and patted me on the back.
"We're not expecting too much from someone who's still a student cadet. You just have to hold off the Cave Ants like you usually do, and it'll be over. Whether you fail or succeed, the compensation will be paid out diligently, so isn't this a deal where you only gain?"
"................"
Well, that is true, right?
If I weighed it as loss or gain, it was overwhelmingly a gain.
Right now they weren't telling me to clear it alone. If I led that many parties and charged in with a brute-force attack, no matter how bad the situation got, we could clear it somehow.
And if even a small share of that clear was distributed to me, the proficiency reward from it would grant me far more than hunting a few monsters ever could.
However, the reason I kept grumbling even knowing that was — that this entire process happened without a single word to me.
"Please don't look so glum. This is also, in my own way, consideration for you, student cadet."
"Consideration...?"
Consideration? Are you out of your goddamn mind?
I stared intently at the staff member, who then counter-asked me seriously.
"You transferred your authority regarding requests to me, yes?"
"It was less a transfer and more... no, from the start, why would that be a transfer—"
"—Because that is the nature of a contract."
"..........."
Just to ask out of curiosity,
"Am I being pushed around because I'm a student cadet?"
"No? On the contrary, I'm showing my own form of sincerity in order to scout you for the Athena Guild!"
".............."
If this garbage is sincerity, I'd rather you just rented a room out there and just fucking screwed me. It'd be a lot more appreciated.
Though it'd probably be a surprise inspection, right? Perfect setup for the FBI to kick the door in and bust in.
'...What am I even saying right now'
My mental state was a mess.
It was already a done deal from the start; there'd be no answer even if I kept grumbling.
"Injustice. I'm used to it."
I slapped my cheeks and stood up from my spot.
"Used to injustice! You're truly a talent suited for the Athena Guild!"
"......Ugh."
I suddenly wanted to sit back down.
***********
Once again, let me ask:
A student cadet who hasn't graduated the Academy, and hunters who have dropped out or graduated.
How vast was the gap between these two?
Probably, if you compared them to main characters like a heroine or the Protagonist, it would be the difference between heaven and earth.
But what if they weren't that? What if they were just ordinary extras? What if the student cadets, just barely scraping by, somehow forced themselves to graduate and move forward?
What if even that was just a gathering of people living however they could, without any special blessings?
Tudada da da da da da da!
"Kieeeeeeeek!!!"
This shit was a mess.
I bashed in the head of an ant trying to ambush me from behind with the butt of my gun, killing it.
"Ur! Are you still alive!"
"Don't worry about me~~~! I'll reapply the buff!"
Since she had an incarnation body, Ur was still alive and well.
However, that only meant Ur was still alive and well. The other parties were almost entirely on the verge of annihilation.
And the other solo hunters?
They had either fled long ago, or been caught by the ants and turned into meatballs for a meal.
"Eu, aah, aaaaaah!!!"
I shouted, feeding bullets to the ants swarming in from all directions.
"You said it'd be fine! You said it'd be fine! You said you wouldn't make a student cadet do anything!!"
"That's... well... I'm sorry!"
"Do you think saying sorry fixes everything?!!"
The staff member apologized while earnestly stabbing with their spear.
It wasn't that the parties were particularly weak or anything.
It was just that the difference in numbers was too great. Overwhelmingly so.
With parties of only a few dozen people, we couldn't handle the ants that numbered into the thousands, aiming for ten thousand.
'How the hell did I clear this before?'
A question that suddenly came to mind. Just as my ears were starting to go deaf from the gunfire, I finally recalled the strategy for the Ant Queen.
No, There wasn't even a strategy to speak of.
"The Queen! We just have to kill the Queen...!"
Kill the Ant Queen.
If you killed the Queen, all her subordinates would flee.
Therefore, when playing the game, the main strategy was to feed an Agility Buff to a character with an AoE Skill so they could use their AoE first, then solely Focus Fire on the Queen.
And now, I just had to do that exact thing in reality...
"Party B wiped out! Our retreat is blocked!"
"No...!"
...As if that would work, right?
When it was a game, a maximum of 5 monsters appeared, so it was possible to physically endure, but the moment it shifted to an open world board, this became a real-life version of endless Avici hell.
'God... no, Cronus....!'
A prayer slipped out of my mouth without me realizing.
In the face of the overwhelming spectacle that made me clasp my hands together, resistance was irrelevant. Running away was the right answer.
'No, it's not that there's no strategy at all...'
As I said earlier, I just had to take down the Queen.
I just needed to kill the Queen, just defeat the Queen — but too many people were watching for me to stop time and hunt her.
So for now, Time Stop was off the table.
Ultimately, all that was left was to kill her with my own power — but regrettably, the unlock level for the Anti-materiel Sniper Rifle was 15.
My current [Firearm Mastery] level was 9.
If I only needed one more, I'd hunt a nearby ant and raise it, but the difference was just too huge at level 15.
".....Haah."
If I could just unlock a Rifle, things would get a little easier.
I quietly lowered the gun in my hand.
"I'm sorry. We're going to die like this because of me."
"It's fine. I'm used to injustice."
".....What?"
Right.
This was injustice.
Injustice and irrationality.
A taste all too familiar to any Korean man.
Should I call it the taste of shit? So familiar with that reality-like taste, foul and putrid yet still demanding you spit out an answer, that I was sick of it.
"Later, give me your pussy once."
"...What did you say?"
"I said, give me your pussy once. This is a promise, got it? No taking it back later?"
"Wh-what is that...."
There was no need for more words.
I hurriedly opened my skill window and distributed my points.
"These were points I was going to use to unlock Rifle....!"
On top of that, I added a whole slew of other Mastery skills.
Actually, I'd planned to add skills that were better and more cost-effective than these...
'Right now, the immediate takes priority'
Right now, my life was the immediate priority.
Gripping my dagger and gun tightly, I screamed out loud.
"Ah!"
I want to have sex—!
[Holy Weapon] activated.
....??
A voice that filled the entire cave.
The Ant Queen and tens, hundreds, thousands of ants turned their eyes towards me.
Amidst them, I quietly exhaled and spoke.
"──────[Triple Excel]."
I stretched 1 second into 3 seconds.
"[Triple Step] [Shadow Step]"
I increased my speed.
I slipped past the ants blocking my way.
Det, dedet?!
In the blink of an eye, the distance closed right up to her nose.
I pressed the muzzle to the Ant Queen's head and said.
"The revenge of the points meant for Rifle unlock."
[Zero Range Shot]
"The revenge of the points meant for [Assassinate]."
[[Passive: I Only Look Forward] activated]
[Zero Range Shot damage +100% increase]
"The revenge of the points meant for [Sanctuary Declaration]."
[[Passive: Gun Genius] activated]
[Final damage increased +50% when using firearms]
"I'll collect it all in pussy payment!"
[Twin Boost]
I tripled the velocity of the bullet being fired.
The trigger pulled. The bullet advancing. And at its end—
———Taaang!!!
Det, chyaaaaat!!!!
Half of the Ant Queen's head blew off.
───Crack
"Ki, eeeeeeeeek!!!!"
Along with a bizarre sound, a disgustingly painful agony shot through both my wrists that had fired the gun.
'It hurts...!'
Fuck, it hurts!
It hurt enough to bring tears to my eyes!
It hurt so much I wanted to drop the gun in my hands immediately...!
Det... deret, degiyaaaaaak!!!!
"Fuuuck....!!"
The Ant Queen, still enduring and alive with a monster's typical vitality,
at the same time, began screaming and drawing the surrounding ants towards her.
'If I hesitate, I'm dead'
Enduring the pain, holding back the tears, I raised my gun.
And then, at last, my...
Det, dedet! Wait a moment, wa!
"...The fuck?"
Why was that thing talking?
The Ant Queen, half of her brain matter leaking out, spoke to me.
Human, mating...?
"............."
Well, she did bring that up, but,
If so, then instead of such a shabby slave wench, won't you come into the embrace of this refined me, wa! I'll squeeze you so much tighter than that trash wench, it'll feel great, wa!
"Ah."
The Ant Queen spread her legs towards me.
Since she was a Queen, her appearance was an awkward mimicry of a human form rather than an ant's, but,
Depffft! Have your eyes rolled back in your head at the sight of my refined cloaca,??
"Fuck."
This wasn't it.
"You fucking bitch."
Det?
Bang! Bang! Baaang!
Tudada da da da da da!!
Thud, crack, craaack!
........Det, chyaaaaaaaaaa!!!!
...
..
.
"Heouk! Heup, heouok.... heooeok....!"
After I lost my reason, I didn't remember what happened next well.
However, if there was a point of enlightenment,
"I should have used 5,700 characters...! I should have told them not to play that damn collab DLC...!!"
It was that I came to reflect on the actions of my past self,
the one who had consistently ignored everything.
And,
"....Huh?"
When I tried to clasp my hands together in prayer,
"What... is this?"
"...Are you okay?"
The fact that my hands hung limp like a marionette with its strings cut.
Seeing my hands, completely crippled with not a single ounce of strength in them, I finally realized.
"Ah."
My hands right now.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack!!!!"
They were fucked.
As an aside.
"You always come back injured somewhere whenever you go out, don't you?"
"I'm sorry..."
I returned straight to the Academy and got my hands treated immediately by the infirmary nurse.
They'd definitely been shattered, but seeing them move just fine, I guess this was to be expected of the infirmary nurse.
'Well, it's the infirmary nurse, so of course'
No matter if something's broken, you're poisoned, you're hemorrhaging, or you're in a near-death state, it all gets better if you go to the Infirmary.
Even the Hero who goes into a coffin gets resurrected if they go to church, so a broken hand or two is a cut that gets resolved at the Infirmary level.