Chapter 272: 44th Floor: The First Crisis
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 272: 44th Floor: The First Crisis
[Returning to the beginning.]
It was absurd.
My SS-rank reward had just been downgraded a level while I was still going, "Uh... uh...?"
Did I do something wrong without realizing it?
No. I was just standing by, trying to figure out the situation, when this happened.
An unknown lifeform? With transparent tentacle legs? Something like that had suddenly invaded our Marine Facility, dragged away the crew, and sunk the whole thing.
What the hell was I supposed to do from 25,000 kilometers up in the air?
Was this trial... even designed to be cleared?
For the first time in a while, I felt the desperate urge to summon the Administrator.
*
Flash!
The moment I opened my eyes, I saw two men with slightly bewildered expressions.
The big Black man was Ludger, and the skinny white man was Fergus.
"Uh, o-okay... capsule opening complete..."
"W-Wait a minute... something's weird."
Of course it was weird.
In the last run, I'd woken up slowly, as if from a deep sleep. This time, the moment the door opened, I shot my eyes wide open with a deep scowl on my face. It was enough to startle anyone.
Ludger, perhaps thinking the Super Soldier was suddenly attacking, stumbled backward, fumbling for the pistol in his pocket, his hand repeatedly missing its mark.
"Hey, Ludger... why are you so jumpy? Hey, you okay?"
"I'm not okay. We don't have time for this."
Shing!
This time, I walked out on my own and equipped the Arcane Nano Suit.
With a series of clicks and whirs, the high-output space suit fitted itself onto my body.
"Huh? Wh-What the!"
"Don't worry, this is the technological prowess of Misailris Industries. More importantly, there's a problem at the Marine Facility. I'm deploying immediately, so open the emergency launch chute."
"What? A problem at the Marine Facility? What kind of problem?"
Come to think of it, last time I wasted all my time chatting and joking around with these guys. I didn't have that luxury now. Perceived time: about five minutes.
I had to reach our Marine Facility within five minutes.
The distance I had to cover in five minutes was 25,000 kilometers.
For reference, the distance from Seoul to Busan is about 400 kilometers.
I had to fly an unbelievable distance.
"No time to explain! No, I'll open it myself. You two run to the situation room!"
"Huh?"
Bang!
I kicked off the ground and shot forward.
Ten seconds.
I reached the exit where the escape pods were located.
The lock was sealed tight.
If I force it open, everyone here will die. Dammit!
Using brute force wasn't a good idea.
[Beep! Please enter the password.]
Right, I have that.
I used Hacking to open the door.
Decompression time? We'd all be dead by the time that was over.
After confirming the door I'd come through was shut tight, I used Hacking once more to open the door leading out into space.
FWOOOOOSH!!!
The pressure difference automatically sucked my body out.
There was no time to get in an escape pod. I surrendered my body to the flow of air.
WHOOSH!!
Beeeeeeeeeeeeep—
My eardrums went numb, and all sound vanished.
Just like that, I began a vertical descent toward the blue planet.
It took twenty seconds to get this far.
Good, I'd cut down the time.
Now I had to travel 25,000 kilometers in four minutes and twenty seconds.
Just surrender to gravity? I'd be floating in the air for hours.
Planet Rene's gravity was about 0.7 times that of Earth's.
The weaker gravity meant it would take even longer than on Earth.
Dammit, there's only one way!
Right, I'd already used it a few times, so there was nothing to be ashamed of!
To reduce air resistance and open 'that,' I disengaged the suit again.
Lee Do-hee was now completely naked in space.
It wasn't so bad, since all my stats increased.
Let's go...! Rocket!!
First, I used the skill on my shoes to create foot panels and build up some initial speed, then—
FWOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
I released a stream of purple fuel from my pussy.
I almost lost my balance for a moment but quickly righted myself and accelerated.
I could always replenish the fuel later.
And since this trial had a lot of water, keeping it empty might come in handy if we started sinking, right?
I could almost hear the chat window erupting in shock again, but this was a real emergency!
Ooh!
My uterus swelled from the reaction, which felt strange, but I nonetheless increased the amount of fuel exponentially.
I accelerated at a speed unthinkable for a human body. The atmosphere, where air truly began, was about 100 kilometers away. Until then, I could keep accelerating.
Dammit, still not enough!
I was still too slow.
The situation wouldn't be over just because I arrived.
I had to catch the unidentified monster and save the tilting Marine Facility!
FWOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!
More, more!
Faster!!!!
Nnggghhh!!!!!
Gasping for air in the vacuum, in this moment, I became a living rocket!!!
A little more!!!!
Enough to use up every last drop of fuel!!!
FWOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSH!!!!!!!
In the frictionless vacuum of space, a naked Lee Do-hee continued to accelerate, even blasting divine power from her arms.
The planet, which had looked like a small satellite, grew larger in real time.
A deep blue ocean.
An endless sea stretched out beneath the white clouds.
After what felt like about three minutes,
WHOOOOSH!!
I began to feel the air. Just in time, my pussy fuel ran out completely.
Th-th-th-th-thud!!!
The light particles of the atmosphere slammed into my body. I had officially entered the thermosphere.
They were just small, light hydrogen and helium particles, but my speed was so immense that it felt like being hit by cannonballs.
My speed dropped rapidly.
"Keuk..."
The impact would have crushed a normal human instantly, but my defense stat of over 10,000 allowed a human to enter the planet's orbit.
I flew on, burning through the atmosphere with frictional heat like a flaming asteroid.
TH-TH-TH-TH-THUD!!!!!
In an instant, I broke through the thermosphere and entered the mesosphere.
My eyes stung.
My body was scorching hot.
My speed was dropping drastically.
An asteroid several kilometers wide would be less affected due to its mass, but for Lee Do-hee, who weighed a mere 60 kilograms, each particle was like stepping on a landmine.
Just a little longer, hang on!
FWOOSH!!!
The clouds parted in an instant, and the ocean came into view.
My speed had decreased significantly, but I didn't have much distance left.
An endless ocean.
All I could see was a terrifyingly vast expanse of water.
Wait, where's the Marine Facility?
From 25,000 kilometers up, being off by even a few degrees in my angle could result in a difference of hundreds of kilometers.
Found it! To the far right!!
The structure was bigger than I thought, and with nothing else in the ocean, it was easy to spot. It was also perched right on the edge of the horizon.
I had to change direction.
All I had left were the foot panels.
The maximum number was 100.
This is it... I'm going for it!
[Strength]
Forty stacks!
My strength stat increased by 2000. On top of that, I used divine power to reinforce my thighs!
I gathered power in my sturdy thighs and stomped down hard.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!
With each step, I put all my strength into it, gathering power until my thighs felt like they would burst.
Behind me, sonic booms erupted as a flaming, naked Lee Do-hee soared through the air!!
The Marine Facility looked like it was tilting.
The distance closed in an instant, but...
Wait, how do I slow down?
I'm so fucked!!!
KABOOOOOOOOOM!!!!
[Returning to the beginning.]
- is what I thought would flash before my eyes, but I managed to swerve at the last second and crash into the surface of the water.
KWAAAAAAANG!!!
The water, touched by my incredible speed and scorching body, evaporated instantly, causing a massive explosion.
Dammit, how deep did I go?
I'd slammed headfirst into the water's surface and briefly lost consciousness.
I re-equipped the Arcane Power Suit and activated its skill, Power Jump.
[Power Jump]
It created a foot panel to jump from.
Fwoosh!
Lee Do-hee resurfaced.
I could see the facility, swaying and shaking as if it were about to capsize!
Fuck! Not on my watch, you bastards!
I flew straight ahead, smashed through a wall, and entered the facility.
CRASH!!!
"Aargh!?"
As luck would have it, the man I'd seen before regressing—Rodmill, was it?—was there. He was perfectly fine.
However, just like before, red warning lights were flashing.
I made it just in time!
There was still hope.
Now, that guy named Mickey would open the door and come in.
BANG!
"What's going on, Rodmill!"
I cast Divine Shield on Mickey, summoned my spear, and charged.
"Hm?"
"Aaaaaaaah!!!"
Mickey shrieked in surprise when he saw me rushing toward him.
"......??"
"Y-You... you're that Super Soldier! What, how did you get here? And why is there a hole in that wall?"
"Eh...?"
I spread my senses out wide.
"......."
Nothing.
There was nothing but water!!!
"Huh...?"
BZZZZZZZZT!!!
And then something like a taser was jabbed into my back.
It stung a little, which meant it packed enough power to kill any ordinary human several times over.
"What, why are you okay...?"
"Eh...?"
All three of us wore the same expression: "Oh, we're so fucked!"
*
A short while later, in the Marine Facility's situation room.
"This incident was a result of a malfunction in our Misailris equipment, so we will provide ample compensation..."
"No, was it really a malfunction? And you're not a robot! Who are you trying to fool, pretending to be one!"
"Ahem... wouldn't you say the detection components are robotic... sir? It definitely detected something coming up here..."
"There are no miniaturized robots that can be detected from 25,000 kilometers away. Even specialized exploration spacecraft can't do that! And there was no such function in the catalog when we bought you!"
"I am a newly created prototype, an ultra-super-power-unlimited soldier. I apologize for the deception. Misailris will also compensate for that matter."
I was currently bowing my head in apology.
I couldn't prove there was an unidentified monster, and if I said I'd seen the future, they'd obviously treat me like a crazy bitch. So, I was making the excuse of an "equipment error" and promising compensation.
I'm sorry, Mr. Misailris CEO. But you're rich anyway.
I still had no idea what had happened.
Apparently, there had been no attack from an unidentified monster.
The tilting of the facility I saw at the end was due to the massive impact I caused when I crashed into the ocean, and Rodmill was in the situation room because he'd been contacted after I ran away (?) from the spaceship.
The red warning lights had gone off because I'd smashed through the outer wall, and Mickey had burst through the door because he'd heard the wall break while on his way to report the anomaly caused by the sudden meteor impact (?).
"But seriously, how did you get here? You flew 25,000 kilometers in five minutes? Did I hear that right?"
"[That's right. She jumped out of here like she was committing suicide and just flew off. There was some kind of purple jet engine? thing shooting out from behind her.]"
For the record, my interrogation was being conducted in the situation room with a communication link open. Ludger, on the spaceship, was gesticulating wildly as he spoke.
"Th-That is a Misailris company secret. There's a hidden emergency space-propulsion fuel, which has just been completely depleted."
Shit, come to think of it, if I start over from the beginning, will it be refilled? If not, this trial is screwed...
There was a high probability that the unidentified monster had detected my approach and fled. I didn't know for sure, but I decided to believe that.
"Okay, fine... let's say you have fuel. But how did you survive atmospheric entry at that speed?"
"This is the pride of Misailris: our super bio-armor."
"Yeah, right, something to be proud of, you punk!"
"...No wonder the anti-Super Soldier taser didn't faze her."
"[They really did make something incredible. The performance is amazing! The problem is that it malfunctions. Because of the emergency opening of the outer wall, our stealth mode was disabled and the ship switched to combat mode. It was a huge pain in the ass to sort out.]"
"As I said, that was entirely my... no, Misailris's fault, and we plan to provide sufficient compensation."
Still, as I talked about compensation and admitted it was a mistake, everyone's expressions began to soften.
"[Phew... so it wasn't a Super Soldier rebellion, then? That scared the hell out of me.]"
"Is it because she's pretty? She committed an act of near-terrorism, but I can't bring myself to hate her."
As the tension eased, everyone let out a small sigh.
"That's a relief. I thought Misailris was pulling something to seize the Giro."
"Uh... is what you have here that amazing?"
"Of course! If we extracted all the Giro Gas here, we could probably make a hundred of you."
"W-Well, that's not quite..."
"[Shouldn't you not be making weird, malfunctioning machines like that? The only thing that works right is her looks!]"
"I-I'm not a machine! I'm a person!"
"[You said you were a machine earlier!]"
"Alright, alright, she said it was a mistake, so let's leave it at that."
And so, despite leaving a rather strange first impression, the first crisis passed safely.
Then we went through introductions again.
"[This here is Ludger. He pissed his pants in fear when he saw you charge off.]"
"[N-No, I didn't!!! I never did that! Hey, the newbie's going to believe you!!]"
"I'm disappointed in you, Mr. Ludger."
"[Graaaaaah! I didn't!]"
Ludger.
He had the build of an MMA champion, but he was fun to mess with.
He was kind of a pushover for his size.
"What are we going to do about that hole in the wall..."
Rodmill.
The man who was dragged off and killed at the end of the previous run, and the one who acted as the leader of these four men.
"I-I'll repair it!!"
On the other hand, he was a bit suspicious and a little petty.
He was the type to drop hints instead of saying things outright.
"Ah~ Don't do it now, do it when it's convenient for you~ Take it easy."
"Can I work when it's convenient for me, too?"
Mickey.
A crew member on the Marine Facility, a rather laid-back guy.
There was also Fergus on the spaceship, but they said I didn't need to worry about him since he stayed on the ship.
Ludger was originally supposed to come down with me, but since I dived down alone, he would be coming down slowly a little later.
"Hmm... alright, Mickey, you can show the newbie around. Give her any empty room."
"What, me?"
"I'll stay here and check if there's anything else out of the ordinary. That Super Soldier might be telling the truth."
"Oh... so you believe me!!"
"No... not necessarily, but we did have some equipment malfunctions before you arrived."
Right, I don't know what it is, but I wasn't mistaken. In this ocean... there's something.
Through the gaping hole in the outer wall, the deep blue sea churned.
There was definitely something suspicious in this ocean