Chapter 11: Reclaiming Busan
The 19th wave had begun.
What spilled out of the gate was, of course, goblins.
The difference this time was that where before they'd been almost entirely common goblins—a good ninety-nine percent of the horde—now warriors, archers, and great warriors were mixed into the ranks.
The number of orcs, meanwhile, stayed the same.
Bang! Boom! Bang! Boom!
The orcs' heads started bursting open one after another.
And even with the orcs dying off, the great warriors were still there—or maybe that was exactly why things changed. Unlike last time, when the goblins had grown listless and wandered aimlessly, now they began to roar, as if freed from their masters' grip at last.
But standing in front of these low-intelligence goblins were soldiers upgraded far beyond the last battle—combat troops and maintenance crews running at full capacity thanks to Pitasha.
Kuwaaaaaaah—
Raptors, each with a flamethrower mounted right in its jaws.
Pshoo—
KWAAAAAAANG!
The Heavy Weapons Units were lifting RPGs two-armed and firing them off.
The 19th wave was wiped out in the blink of an eye by the machine legion.
The 20th wave went much the same way—only the orc count had crept up a little.
Then how strong are orc warriors or orc great warriors supposed to be?
What about the ogres?
I honestly don't know if I can hold out.
I'm not saying this to be dramatic or talking about ending it all—I genuinely just don't know how long I'll survive.
When I go back this time, I've got money I've been saving up.
I'm going to give all of it to my parents and take a trip with them.
My dream was always to travel all across Europe. For now, I'm thinking of going somewhere, even if it's just a little.
Of every post that would appear after mine, this one would draw the most attention.
"…It's too early to give up."
Reading my post had only driven more people to despair. So I wrote another one, hoping to give them something to hold onto.
You'd find out eventually once you return, so I'll just tell you now.
My unique trait is Machine Legion Commander—I'm the commander of a legion made of machines.
Among my many abilities, I have a crafting ability.
I'm planning to use it to make swords, blades, that kind of thing.
I can make subspace pockets too, though small ones.
Forget things like beds—just bring a sleeping bag.
Tell me whatever you genuinely consider essential.
Let me know what would make you think you could at least clear up to wave 10 with it.
Oh, and fair warning—I'll be using a special method to make sure nothing you get can be used back on Earth, so don't worry about that.
Just drop any comment you like.
"…There."
Ding!
Ding!
Comments began flooding in almost instantly.
Unsurprisingly, the most common requests were for cold weapons. This was an era when plenty of people back home trained in swordsmanship, spearmanship, and knife fighting, so those would be the most immediately useful.
"I can make elixirs too… but didn't she say only the highest-grade ones can do that?"
The medic, specifically.
Apparently, working together with the maintenance crews, that unit could produce both potions and elixirs.
My current goal was simple: use coins for nothing but food and potions, and clear up to wave 10.
The whole climb to wave 10 would take a week.
"Repeat."
I kept running the repetition myself for now—Pitasha was busy building factories and completely transforming the castle.
"Hey. Is everything going smoothly?"
"Oh, Master! The factories—yeees, I've built two so far! Mass-producing ordinary swords is probably already happening back on modern Earth anyway, so artifacts come first. Right?"
"Right. Focus on artifacts for now. The kind that can't be used on Earth. You know that, right?"
"That's easy~ We just make them run when they're disconnected from Earth, don't we?"
"…Isn't it easier to make them work when they ARE connected?"
"Aww, come on, this level of tech is nothing to me. Hehe."
That's what it was like—she treated modern technology like it belonged in the Stone Age. What could I even say to that?
The one shame was that this world could technically be linked to Earth, but linking them would apparently cost an absolutely obscene amount of coins.
For now, keeping as many people on Earth alive as possible came first.
"I'll summon three thousand low-grade maintenance units and five hundred mid-grade ones."
KWAAAAAAAANG—
Clank.
Clank.
A massive gear turned, spilling light across the chamber, and before long the maintenance units emerged. The newly minted ranks sprinted straight for the factories.
"What should I do with this?"
The Trait Enhancement Ticket from clearing wave 19.
And the Question Ticket and Return Stone from clearing wave 20.
"…Maybe I should ask the others."
"Hmm. All good options… but what do I ask?"
Sponsors, first of all.
"…I've been avoiding that topic ever since, honestly."
Still, I planned to at least step back in before returning to Earth.
Just as I was mulling over what to ask, Hwang Jinhyeok came up with a brilliant idea.
That seemed like the best option by far.
In novels, mana stones were usually kept close by during training while the practitioner meditated and awakened their mana. I figured they could be used in much the same way.
"I'll use my Question Ticket. Tell me how ordinary Earth humans can grow stronger using mana stones."
To grow stronger through mana stones, one must filter out the impurities within the mana stone and then absorb its purified essence.
"Absorb…? Then how do you filter out the impurities?"
Your Question Ticket has already been consumed.
"Goddammit… Ah! Pitasha!"
"Yeees… yes, Master!"
The moment I called, Pitasha came flying in on a drone.
"What is that drone?"
"Oh! I can't build anything better yet—I'm still missing the materials I need…"
"No, it's… that size, and you can actually ride it?"
It was a drone in name only—it looked more like the flying saucer some alien would pilot. If not for the propellers studding its rim, I'd have genuinely mistaken it for a UFO.
Anyway, that wasn't what mattered right now.
"So—filtering impurities out of mana stones. Do you know how?"
"O-of course I do! But whether I can actually implement that technology right now… hold on a second."
Come to think of it, she'd said that the more waves I cleared, the higher the level of technology she could implement.
Which made sense—if summoning just her had instantly unlocked planetary warships or whatever, then obviously pushing through every wave would unlock everything, wouldn't it?
"Nope! You'll need to clear at least wave 40 before that unlocks! And I'll need multiple highest-grade medics, too. Oh, and it'll also burn through a ton of money?"
"That's fine. It's elixirs and the like, right?"
"Yes! You mean the Elixir of Awakening, I think! It's the elixir required when a swordsman awakens their aura, or when a mage awakens their mana!"
"I see… Got it. The castle repairs are fine for now, so build the factories first. Artifacts and subspace especially. Understood?"
"Yes, Master!"
She answered with bright energy and vanished from my sight.
I watched Pitasha go for a moment, and the instant I realized I'd been awake for nearly twenty hours, sleep crashed over me. I used the teleportation machines installed throughout the castle interior and arrived at my room in seconds.
Thump.
"Haaah…"
A room held at the perfect temperature and humidity, and a body bone-deep exhausted. Without so much as a thought of washing up, I fell straight asleep.
Five whole days had passed.
I'd produced tens of thousands of artifacts—cold weapons and subspace pockets that could be bought for roughly a hundred coins apiece.
And production was still running.
"And finally… summon one hundred high-grade maintenance units. Do me proud, all of you."
The high-grade maintenance units would follow Pitasha and build machines.
What kind of machines, you ask?
Autonomous combat drones.
For starters, drones capable of handling goblins all the way up through the warriors. Pitasha had personally programmed the designs into them, so production was proceeding at a careful pace.
"Get the factories running first… and then, it's time to return."
Crack.
The moment I shattered the Return Stone, light spilled out from my body.
And when I arrived back on Earth—
"…What is this place?"
Shaaaaaa—
An endless expanse of ocean stretched out before my eyes. Not some remote island, but…
"…Busan?"
Busan, of all places.
But this spot on the outskirts of Busan had been reduced to ruins.
Flutter.
Papers were scattered across the ground.
The Republic of Korea still stands! Do not be afraid! Come to the shelters immediately. Shelter locations are…
"The goblins were never suppressed? Pitasha—summon. And… summon every single combat unit."
At once, thousands of combat troops began filling the space around me.
The third step of my unique trait's path granted a full fifty thousand.
And the reward for clearing this stage was a Trait Evolution Ticket.
I hadn't decided how to use that one yet.
Even so, my machine legion already numbered roughly seventy thousand—and of those, forty thousand were combat and reconnaissance troops.
"Move out. Eliminate only the goblin forces Pitasha has on record. And… the orcs too."
If orcs were here, odds were high that this devastation was their doing.
"Exterminate them."
My objective: the liberation of Busan.