The Limits of Calculation
“The Absolute Zero Flower... melted?”
Choi Minseol muttered, her face filled with shock.
Without a moment's hesitation, I lunged toward her.
“How...? Through calculation...? With that level of processing power...?”
Choi Minseol seemed unable to comprehend the situation, failing to react.
Only then did she snap out of it, her eyes snapping wide.
A chilling sensation of death rippled down my spine, spreading through my nerves.
I slammed my fist, bolstered by the power of Strong Arm, into the ground and propelled myself forward.
Boom!
An explosion erupted exactly where I had been standing a split second ago.
Riding the shockwave of the blast, I hurtled toward Choi Minseol at breakneck speed.
“Tch!”
White snowflakes began to cluster around Choi Minseol.
I reached out and activated my item.
Whoosh!
The black dagger, Karwennan, flew straight into my right hand.
Just before making contact with the snowflakes, I activated Karwennan's skill, Dusk Step.
Item Grade: S
Dusk Step: Allows the user to enter the shadow sea up to 3 times a day.
Indestructible
Deals critical damage to magical entities.
Splash.
Plunging headfirst toward the ground, I sank into the Shadow Sea.
Looking up, I saw Choi Minseol's feet through the surface of the shadow.
I thrust Karwennan upward, aiming straight for her foot.
“Kyaah!”
Karwennan pierced through her shoe, impaling her foot completely.
I lunged for a second strike, but this time, the blade bounced off.
The ground beneath Choi Minseol's feet was rapidly freezing.
...Is she freezing the soles of her feet to use as a shield?
The Shadow Sea felt exactly like ordinary water.
If I stayed trapped down here, I would suffocate.
I swam a short distance away.
Splash!
“Phew, pant... pant... pant...”
“That hurts... Ah... Seriously, people have such wild imaginations... I always get hit with attacks I never see coming.”
Choi Minseol squeezed out a tear.
Her stabbed foot was frozen solid.
She was managing the pain and stopping the bleeding at the same time.
“Didn't I say we should talk in a bit? Are you really not going to listen to me?”
Choi Minseol raised her voice, scolding me like a disobedient child.
Instead of answering her, I called out to CP.
“CP.”
“Huh? Ah! Yes, Mister!”
“Get those two out of here.”
The moment the words left my mouth, I charged forward.
Bang! Bang!
Several explosions went off around me, but I evaded them all.
Closing the distance as much as possible, I thrust the dagger forward once more.
Screeech!
The sound of the dagger grinding against ice echoed.
A swarm of snowflakes clung to the blade, instantly freezing it along with the hand holding it.
“This dagger is the problem. Honestly, there are way too many items with bizarre gimmicks...”
Choi Minseol snatched the dagger from my grip and examined it.
She spoke with a look of sheer confusion.
“Huh...? It's different? A Goblin's... Dagger?”
And then, I erupted from the Shadow Sea.
Splash!
“Kyaah!”
Before my entire body had even cleared the surface, I swung my dagger.
The tip of the black dagger grazed Choi Minseol's throat, but it immediately began to freeze over.
“H-How...?!”
Choi Minseol stared at me with disbelief in her eyes.
In the next instant, the completely frozen "me" dissolved into smoke and fell to the ground, reverting into a ring.
Choi Minseol furrowed her brow in frustration and groaned.
“An item—!”
From within the Shadow Sea, I had used the retrieved ring to create my clone.
◈ Effect: Creates a perfect clone of the wearer with identical physical capabilities.
While the clone copied my physical abilities, it did not replicate my equipped items.
Since the newly created clone did not possess Karwennan, it was immediately ejected from the Shadow Sea.
Then, it pulled off a bluff by wielding a cheap Goblin's dagger.
Meanwhile, I held my breath to the absolute limit, biding my time within the Shadow Sea.
Waiting for the exact moment Choi Minseol let her guard down and directed her snowflakes toward my clone.
Crack, crackle...
The snowflakes that had targeted my clone swarmed toward me, rapidly freezing both the dagger and my body.
A single drop of blood trickled down Choi Minseol's neck, but that was it.
“Ha... sigh... Impressive. To think you managed to get this close. Yes. But... just stay frozen for a bit. I'll cut off your limbs later, and then we can have a nice, long chat.”
Her relaxed smile returned.
The biting cold crept past my shoulders, tightening around my heart.
“A chat? Sure... there are things I want to ask you, too.”
[Initiating Calculation]
Light flickered beneath my feet.
Countless sparks of light coalesced into a larger glow, which in turn gathered to form a massive, brilliant mass of energy.
“But as for having limbs cut off...”
[Beginning materialization. Drawing power from the prosthetic arm's backup battery.]
The mass of light swirled, slowly taking shape.
The first thing to manifest was a colossal steel cylinder, a single unit weighing several tons.
This massive block of weight added immense downward force to the dagger aimed at Choi Minseol.
Crack, crunch.
Unable to withstand the crushing weight, the ice began to fracture and shatter.
“...that's going to be you, Choi Minseol.”
[Calculation Complete]
Boom!
An explosion erupted between Choi Minseol and me.
It wasn't an attack aimed at me.
“Cough, cough!”
Blown back by the shockwave, Choi Minseol coughed as she tumbled across the ground.
She had triggered an explosion to blast herself away before the dagger could pierce her throat.
Meanwhile, the light beneath me expanded further, swelling into a colossal entity that filled the entire alleyway, finally revealing its complete form.
“A multi-legged tank...”
Choi Minseol muttered in disbelief, her face pale with shock.
“Through calculation...? How...? Don't tell me...”
But her shock was short-lived; a bright smile soon spread across her face.
“You have an AC Series with you too, don't you?!”
“Minigun!!”
The six barrels mounted on the top of the multi-legged tank began to spin.
A torrential downpour of armor-piercing rounds rained down on Choi Minseol.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Clang-clang!
Clang-clang-clang!
Some of the armor-piercing rounds ricocheted, some were deflected back, and most fell uselessly to the ground, but I didn't care.
“CIWS!”
The upper sections of the tank's legs slid open, revealing machine gun barrels.
At my gesture, all eight barrels unleashed hell upon Choi Minseol simultaneously.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat-tat...!
The relentless barrage continued without pause.
Shards of ice sprayed in every direction.
Choi Minseol's snowflake defense was incredibly fast and powerful, but it had a clear limitation.
The speed at which the ice froze.
When I had thrust my dagger with the power of Strong Arm, it had definitely pierced through her ice, advancing even if only by a fraction.
It was just that the ice thickened faster than the depth of my pierce.
In that case, the solution was simple.
Attack faster than the ice can freeze.
“Tokarev!”
Wielding dual Tokarevs alongside the minigun and CIWS, I poured a relentless storm of lead into her.
A dense fog of pulverized white ice kicked up, completely obscuring Choi Minseol from view.
But there was no reason to slow down the tempo of my assault.
The continuous sound of shattering ice meant she was still standing right there.
Dududududu...!
Dudududu...!
Dududu...
Bang.
I emptied every single round.
The machine gun barrels warped under the extreme heat, and the minigun's muzzle glowed a dull, angry red.
The thick white mist, born from the clash of ice particles and searing bullet heat, slowly began to dissipate.
“Did I get her...?”
No, why would you say that flag-raising line right now...!
Crash!
A heavy impact of mass colliding with mass sent a violent shudder through the multi-legged tank.
The resulting shockwave blew away the remaining mist, revealing what had been hiding beneath.
A riddled, heavily perforated wall of ice.
The ice created by her snowflakes had almost entirely lost its structural integrity.
However.
Crouched beneath the ruined ice wall was a massive hunk of iron.
“A multi-legged tank...”
A multi-legged tank, identical in model to the one I was piloting, slowly rose to its feet.
“Surprised? It's not like this is the first time you've seen me use a multi-legged tank.”
I had indeed seen it often on the battlefield.
She would hack the Machine Species' multi-legged tanks and temporarily turn them into our own assets.
But that was in reality.
This was the Internet... There shouldn't have been any tanks here to begin with.
“You said this was round two, right? Let's get started!”
Boom!
The two multi-legged tanks slammed into each other.
Colossus against colossus.
Mass against mass.
Cylindrical legs clashed, and with every heavy impact of their hulls, nearby windows shattered and ancient buildings tilted on their foundations.
“Hup...!”
I raised my tank's front legs, bringing them crashing down on the tank Choi Minseol was controlling.
Her tank slowly raised its own front legs to meet the blow.
Crash...!
The massive front limbs collided, tearing up the alleyway and bringing down surrounding structures.
Because of the sheer scale of the combatants, to an outside observer, the battle would have looked like a slow-motion, choreographed dance.
I recalled the girl in the black dress who had been standing beside her when she first appeared in the alley.
“The girl next to Choi Minseol... is she an AC Series too? Like you?”
Yes. We haven't spoken directly, but looking at the data flow accumulating in this area... she's using the exact same computational structure and code signature as me. But her capabilities are different. More importantly, she's barely performing any calculations right now.
“Then what about that multi-legged tank? Is it some kind of illusion or hallucination?!”
No, it's not an AC's ability... Choi Minseol is calculating it herself.
“What...!”
I looked up at Choi Minseol standing atop her tank.
Though her lips were curved in a smile, her face was heavily contorted, and she was drenched in sweat.
“A human's processing power...”
I knew Choi Minseol was highly skilled in electronic warfare.
Even during the war, she was a woman who hacked the Machine Species right in front of her as if it were the easiest thing in the world.
She had even breached the firewalls of the Machine Species' command structure to extract and analyze data on supply lines, troop deployments, and movement objectives.
“Does that mean an individual's raw calculation capacity is on par with an AC Series...?”
It's definitely superhuman. But... there's a clear limit to it. She'll probably reach it soon...
Crash!
Choi Minseol's tank raised its leg and stomped down on mine.
As the immense weight of the colossal mass concentrated on a single point, the alley floor gave way, unable to bear the load.
“Whoa!”
As my tank's leg slipped into the sewer, causing the entire vehicle to tilt violently, Choi Minseol spoke.
“Ah, as expected, this is exhausting. Let's call it here!”
With her declaration of the end, the tank she was calculating dissolved into light and vanished, and she plummeted toward me.
No, she leaped down with her arms spread wide.
A bright smile on her face.
I thrust my dagger along her falling trajectory.
Thuck.
The dagger sank deep into her abdomen as she free-fell.
There was no resistance whatsoever.
Instead, she wrapped her arms around me in an embrace.
Choi Minseol whispered in my ear.
“You've worked so hard, haven't you? Good boy. So proud of you.”
Her hand gently stroked the back of my head.
For a fleeting moment, it felt as though we had returned to our days on the battlefield—when we were commander and subordinate, mother and son, sister and brother.
But it was only for a split second.
I snapped back to reality and tried to twist the dagger embedded in her stomach.
“Ugh...!”
My arm wouldn't move.
Ice? No. I didn't feel any cold.
It simply wouldn't budge.
No, it was moving, but incredibly slowly... as if my entire body had been cast into extreme slow motion.
“I've throttled the bandwidth of the line connecting you to your physical body to the absolute minimum.”
Choi Minseol said.
She pulled the dagger out of her abdomen and froze the wound to stop the bleeding.
“Your movements have slowed down, right? Or maybe it feels like the world has sped up? The connection between you and your brain is extremely narrow right now. Don't worry. It'll widen again soon, and you'll be able to move normally.”
When I tried to move my finger, it felt as though it took dozens of seconds just to twitch it a single centimeter.
“Impressive. Even with an AC by your side, I didn't expect you to be this adept at fighting on the Internet. You use your skills and items in the perfect places. I used to think you were just a rigid, stubborn kid, but you're surprisingly adaptable, aren't you?”
She reversed her grip on Karwennan and spoke.
“Hmm... what should I do? It's been so long since we last met, and I have so much to tell you, but if I let you go, you'll just try to fight me again, won't you?”
Choi Minseol scratched her head as if deeply conflicted.
After keeping her head lowered for a moment, she slowly looked up, her eyes locking onto mine.
“Maybe... it really is best to just delete you from the Internet?”
It was then.
The multi-legged tank dissolved into light, and in its place, a small blonde girl appeared before me.
CC.
She stood between Choi Minseol and me, her arms spread wide.
As if to shield me.
Though I could only see her back, I could easily picture the expression on her face.
Choi Minseol spoke.
“It's been a while, CC.”