The Limits of Intuition
Thoom!
The moment the tungsten projectile fired from the railgun slammed into the earth, a geyser of dust erupted like a waterfall. It was a silent warhead, overturning the ground through sheer velocity without heat or flame.
Out of the debris, Kang Sihyeon emerged. He was leaping across the rising boulders, charging straight toward me in a straight line.
"Minigun!"
I aimed the multi-legged tank's secondary weapon, the minigun. It was already spun up and ready.
The six barrels spun, spitting out a hundred armor-piercing rounds per second to form a wall of lead. I intentionally shook the targeting reticle to scatter the impact points randomly.
The approaching Kang Sihyeon threw himself to the side.
If he always chooses the absolute best option, then I just have to reduce the number of options available to him. Yoo Hyeyeon had already demonstrated this. His broken finger was proof.
"CIWS!"
The upper joints of the tank's eight legs slid open, revealing machine gun barrels. It was a close-in weapon system designed to intercept missiles or aerial threats. I swiveled the barrels toward Kang Sihyeon and opened fire all at once.
Countless dots became lines, and those intersecting lines drew a plane. A literal wall of bullets swept over Kang Sihyeon.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
The sound of bullets hammering metal rang out.
At the same time, the ground split open, kicking up clouds of dust.
Through the haze, I saw Kang Sihyeon shielding himself behind the plate armor he had stripped from Baek Yeonju. The ground around the breastplate, which was driven deep into the dirt, shuddered violently.
The kinetic energy of the bullets is being dispersed into the ground through the armor!
"Unguided rockets! Delay fuse! One second!"
The rocket hatches on the tank's chassis popped open. The launched rockets detonated simultaneously at point-blank range, engulfing Kang Sihyeon in a tempest of fire. Blocking bullets from the front? Fine, then I'll just saturate the entire area.
"Cough."
Kang Sihyeon coughed as he burst through the flames. Smoke billowed from his once-pristine suit.
I brought every barrel I had to bear, cutting off his path.
"Hmph!"
A transparent barrier materialized in front of Kang Sihyeon.
The moment the bullets touched the barrier, they vanished, only to reappear behind him and bury themselves in the ground.
The bullets are temporarily being quantized!
But it wasn't absolute invincibility. A few bullets bypassed the barrier and flew straight for him. Kang Sihyeon deflected them with swift sweeps of his dagger.
He leaped onto the chassis of the multi-legged tank and slashed.
The bizarrely twisted black dagger lunged toward my throat.
Mister!
Clang!
I summoned a Tokarev to block the blade.
The moment the dagger struck the Tokarev, the pistol crumbled into dust and vanished.
Corrosion? Weathering?
"Oh?"
Kang Sihyeon's mouth parted in slight surprise.
If he always calculates the optimal choice, then I just have to hide my moves until the very last millisecond. The Tokarev hadn't existed in his calculations until the moment I summoned it.
"Then I shall factor that in from now on."
Dagger in hand, Kang Sihyeon's arm blurred in a bizarre trajectory, aiming for my neck.
I summoned Tokarevs to block, ducked based on pure instinct, and when all else failed, rolled across the top of the tank.
Even amidst the chaos, the tank's machine guns kept pouring lead at him.
"Keep firing! Don't stop!"
I summoned a Tokarev in each hand, aimed at him, and pulled the triggers.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
A crossfire woven from the tank's CIWS and my dual Tokarevs, intersecting from multiple angles.
Yet, Kang Sihyeon pinpointed the gaps in the net of fire with terrifying precision, sprinting across the narrow chassis. I hurled the Tokarevs at him and shouted:
"Phoenix Ornament Hairpin!"
Light gathered in my hand.
◈ Effect: Telekinesis (B)
◈ Description: Allows the user to freely manipulate objects weighing under 5kg within a 5-meter radius.
The discarded Tokarevs froze in midair, swiveling to aim at Kang Sihyeon.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Caught off guard by shots coming from an impossible angle, Kang Sihyeon halted his advance and swept his dagger to deflect the bullets.
He stopped.
Now.
"Fire everything!"
Every single barrel swiveled toward him.
A storm of bullets enveloped Kang Sihyeon in a perfect sphere.
Kang Sihyeon's body vibrated, leaving afterimages as he moved. He deployed his barrier, but dozens of bullets still bypassed it. Even so, he managed to dodge or deflect every single one with his dagger.
This was a war of attrition.
Would a bullet bite into him first?
Or...
I continuously summoned Tokarevs alongside the tank's weapons, maintaining the barrage.
His grey coat tore to shreds, and with every movement, the spray of blood grew heavier.
It felt like I was just a hair's breadth away from victory.
But my limits arrived first.
Whirrrr...
The violently spinning minigun ground to a halt, and the CIWS, which had been spitting endless lead, fell silent.
We're out of ammo.
"Cough!"
Kang Sihyeon spat out a thick glob of blood.
Bullet wounds riddled his body.
I summoned five Tokarevs, pushing the hairpin's five-kilogram limit to its absolute max. Drawing my own dagger, I lunged in for close combat.
"Ugh!"
Kang Sihyeon raised his dagger to block my strike. I manipulated the floating Tokarevs to fire from his blind spots. For a fraction of a second, he seemed to vanish, reappearing on a path that perfectly evaded the bullets. Just as I tried to track his movement again, a cold shiver ran down my spine.
I aborted my attack, pulling back my dagger and rolling backward.
His blade sliced through the empty air where I had stood a millisecond prior.
I redirected the Tokarevs to intercept him as he pursued me.
"Urgh!"
He leaped backward, landing off the tank.
It was the first time.
The first time he had retreated.
"Cough... gasp... What are you?"
Kang Sihyeon asked.
Thick, dark blood dripped from his lips.
"How can a human control a multi-legged tank? And with such high proficiency..."
He was asking the obvious.
"I practiced."
"Practice?"
That day, when I cleared the Event Zone where the multi-legged tank made its debut alongside Lee Jun.
When I clung to the tank, CC had copied its data.
Thanks to that, my neck-hub was stuffed to the brim with the tank's data. Even after compressing it over and over, there wasn't a single byte of spare space.
Since then, whenever I had free time, I practiced operating the multi-legged tank on the Internet. Now, I knew every single gear, wire, and weapon of this machine. I could move it as if it were my own body.
If physical contact is broken, the hack will disconnect. It will revert to its original AI, so please be careful.
I've never actually fought a tank before, since I usually just smash the jamming drones and call for backup the moment they show up, but...
"I see. Practice. Come to think of it, they say skills are merely the result of creating shortcuts through repetition and practice... A realm of intuition that I can never possess."
Kang Sihyeon stood up.
All emotion drained from his face.
"I shall stop pretending to fight like a human. From now on... I will fight like an artificial intelligence."
Clang!
Beams of green light erupted around Kang Sihyeon.
The light surged into the ground, the sky, and the surrounding space.
He's hacking the server!
"Missiles!"
The side panels of the tank slid open, launching micro-missiles.
The missiles split into multiple warheads, tracing chaotic arcs through the air as they homed in on Kang Sihyeon.
Boom! Crash!
Explosions blossomed, filling the air with searing heat.
Out of the smoke, something massive lunged toward us.
I raised the tank's front legs like a shield.
Thud! Crash!
A massive chunk of the earth slammed into the tank. Dirt and stone shattered into shrapnel, raining down everywhere.
Screeech!
The tank tilted violently. The ground beneath us was turning into a swamp, dragging the machine down.
"Hover!"
High-pressure air blasted from the undercarriage, lifting the tank slightly. Even though it was called hovering, it wasn't true flight. It was merely a function to reduce the tank's weight to traverse unstable terrain.
F is targeting the entire area for hacking! The environment itself is turning hostile!
"Close quarters!"
I drove the tank forward, charging straight at Kang Sihyeon.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
With the hover system active, the tank moved with surprising agility.
I slammed the massive, shield-reinforced front leg down to crush Kang Sihyeon.
Crash! The surrounding earth rose up to block the strike. To make matters worse, the ground behind us dissolved, causing the tank to tilt precariously. At this rate, we would capsize.
"Max hover output!"
Roaaar!
The turbo blowers beneath the chassis roared, forcing the tank upright.
A side hatch slid open, and a cylindrical emitter slid out.
No sound was heard.
Instead, a heavy vibration rippled through the air, felt directly against the skin.
"Ugh..."
Kang Sihyeon clutched his head and stumbled.
A low-frequency beam.
At 0.1 Hz, it was well below the human range of hearing, but the human body registered it all too clearly.
A wave that violently shook the eardrums and the lymph fluid of the inner ear.
It wasn't lethal, but it was impossible to dodge.
I summoned a Tokarev, aiming at Kang Sihyeon as he stumbled out from behind his earthen shield.
Just as I was about to pull the trigger—
Something invisible seized my arm.
It felt as if a giant hand had clamped down on my entire body, pinning me in place.
He locked down the surrounding air!
"From this moment on, I dictate the physical laws of this space."
Kang Sihyeon stepped out of the debris, his face completely blank.
Mister, we're out of time. I'm going to push myself a bit.
The multi-legged tank dissolved into particles of light and vanished.
At the same time, a black screen generated by CC flickered into the corner of my vision.
Strings of incomprehensible code cascaded down endlessly.
Watching the tank dissolve into light, Kang Sihyeon spoke.
"Is that your limit?"
Crack.
The invisible hand crushed the fragile arm bones of my goblin avatar.
"It has been a while since I copied an S-rank player, so I was curious, but a human body is indeed inconvenient. Though your intuition in carving those shortcuts was impressive..."
I checked the remaining time.
Server Population: 71
Forced Server Shutdown Initiated
00:47
Text flashed across the black screen.
> Initiating return signal injection...
> Overriding local environmental lock...
> Injecting counter-calculation matrices...
> [RETURN SIGNAL INJECTED]
Mister, counterattack!
An invisible hand conjured by CC tore away the grip that was pinning me down.
"What?"
Shock rippled across the face of Kang Sihyeon—or rather, F.
The earth and air manipulated by F surged forward to seize me again, but identical forces of earth and air collided with them, neutralizing the attack.
"An equal processing capacity to mine? A human couldn't possibly...!"
Gravity inverted, the earth churned to swallow me whole, and the wind whipped into razor-sharp blades.
Yet, an identical force canceled out every single threat.
If processing power was equal, the battle was a stalemate.
But.
They forgot about me.
"A human shouldn't be capable of such calculations...!"
I channeled the power of Strong Arm into my fist and charged.
"Could it be...?"
F crossed his arms in a defensive stance.
But it was futile. My fist could not be stopped by mere human strength.
"An AC Series?"
The moment the question left F's lips, my fist—bolstered by Strong Arm—shattered his guard and buried itself deep into his solar plexus. Unable to withstand the impact, my own hand splintered. With an explosive tear, his body ripped apart, separating his upper and lower halves.
The green light that had been corrupting the surroundings rapidly receded.
Server hacking has been interrupted.
I summoned a Tokarev in my left hand and approached the fallen F.
He lay motionless. His entire lower half was gone. There was no way he could survive this.
00:13
I aimed the Tokarev at him.
Mister! We have to log out!
Bang!
The instant I pulled the trigger, the severed torso of F lunged upward, baring his teeth.
"Aaargh!"
"Ugh!"
I shoved my shattered right hand straight into his maw.
His teeth sank deep into my goblin flesh, and a virulent green light surged through my veins, racing toward my heart.
I pressed the barrel of the Tokarev in my left hand under his chin and pulled the trigger.
00:08
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
The bullets tore through my own arm and buried themselves into his jaw.
No exit wounds appeared on the top of his head.
The rounds were likely ricocheting inside his skull, turning his brain into Swiss cheese.
But.
The crushing grip of his jaws did not loosen.
00:04
"Gurgle... gurgle...!"
His eyes stared directly into mine.
I pressed the barrel directly against his eye.
The green light wrapped around my heart and began climbing up my spinal cord.
Mister!
00:01
I squeezed the trigger with the last of my strength.
And in that split second—
My vision went black.
Complete darkness.
I reached behind my neck and yanked the USB cable from my neck-hub.
Instantly, the filthy ceiling of my room, webbed with tangled pipes and cables, came into focus.
"CC? What about him? Is F dead?"
I raised my left hand. My worn, silver prosthetic arm met my gaze.
Over it, CC's message flickered.
"CC?"
It was then.
Whaaaail—!
Sirens installed throughout Maetan began to wail.
After screaming for what felt like an eternity, a distorted, barely intelligible voice crackled through the speakers.
*Static... crackle...*
Hostile artificial intelligence has breached Maetan... crackle...
As of this moment, Intra-Maetan, all networks, and power grids are being shut down.
All employees are instructed to follow the security forces' orders... crackle...