Chapter 300: O-Rank Combat Record – 『GM』
Chapter 300: O-Rank Combat Record – 『GM』
the end of all peace begins at an unexpected time and place.
Following the establishment of the Management Bureau, the dark reality of the past met a swift end, and the number of Hero casualties plummeted.
Even on the Eurasia front, once the site of the most ferocious battles, humanity pushed beyond the Great Barrier, advancing once more to reclaim the land.
We—even those of us who had guarded the front lines the longest—forgot the past.
To humanity, the Otherworld had become nothing more than a mere hostile nation.
The Management Bureau turned its gaze away from Otherworldly beings and toward internal enemies.
Everything returned to a state of peace.
In terms of absolute time, it was a brief period of tranquility.
However, that time was so comfortable for everyone that it erased the word "extinction" from the minds of all, including ourselves.
The terrifying voice of a Public Enemy Designation was treated as a joke.
The ominous signs of Otherworld Erosion were felt as nothing more than a distant roar.
In this newly built era of peace.
Just as extinction was becoming an obsolete concept.
With a white light that rose above The Sea.
We came face to face with The End.
* * *
The beginning was simple.
A white Pillar of Light surged from the Atlantic Ocean.
It was far too suspicious to ignore.
33° 31' 48" N.
38° 04' 47.5" W.
Somewhere along the Mid-Atlantic Ridge.
The moment it appeared, numerous nations adjacent to the Atlantic successfully observed it.
The Management Bureau, which monitors vast areas, also captured its existence the instant it manifested.
And it wasn't just the various national agencies and the Bureau with their specialized equipment that noticed this Pillar of Light.
Excluding those on the opposite side of the globe who were physically unable to see it, even ordinary civilians could look past the horizon and see the white Pillar of Light soaring into the sky.
The appearance of such an extraordinary phenomenon threw the entire world into an uproar.
People used communication networks to spread the word that a strange Pillar of Light had appeared.
Media outlets from every country chimed in with their own theories about the pillar.
Each nation and the Management Bureau quickly concluded their consultations.
They dispatched exploration units toward the Pillar of Light that had formed in the Atlantic.
The first to arrive on the scene were U.S. fighter jets.
They launched countless data analyzers toward the Pillar of Light, but the results that came back were always the same: it was a mass of pure light.
There were even analyzers that charged directly into the Pillar of Light due to malfunctions.
Yet, even those analyzers passed through the Pillar of Light completely intact, without a single scratch.
This allowed for filming inside the pillar, but the results showed nothing special—just a mass of light.
In the end, time passed without anything being discovered.
A day after the Pillar of Light's appearance, an attention-seeker, perhaps hoping for a scoop, secretly trespassed into the restricted zone in a private plane.
Through a personal broadcast, he showed the form of the Pillar of Light to the entire world.
And through him, we were able to obtain invaluable data.
Perhaps, without him, we would never have observed the scene of it walking out from the Pillar of Light.
At the time, the Bureau and the various nations were focused only on the phenomenon of the Pillar of Light itself, observing the whole thing from a distance or filming magnified sections. The location this attention-seeker was broadcasting from was not a place the Bureau was monitoring at the time.
Three minutes and twenty-four seconds after he began his live broadcast, and just before the Bureau could urgently arrest him, he shouted that he saw something. He magnified the base of the Pillar of Light, the point where the pillar met The Sea.
There, he filmed it walking out.
It was a humanoid Mutant with a face resembling an upside-down nautilus.
It was gaunt, without a single muscle, its bone structure clearly visible beneath corpse-pale skin.
Perhaps it had once possessed flesh before withering away, for its sagging skin was folded in places as if it had melted.
The skin clinging to its bones had seemingly synchronized with them, creating a grotesque appearance where the shape of the joints was visible through the surface.
Despite its cursed, eerie, pale purple skin, its form could be described as humanoid.
Perhaps that was why the cameraman felt emboldened to get closer.
Its stature was only about 160cm, and as we later felt when facing it directly—
Unlike other high-ranking Otherworldly beings, one couldn't feel even a shred of pressure from the thing.
Aside from its bizarre appearance, it was an entity from which no fear or pressure could be felt.
That was likely why the plane approached it without hesitation.
-Can you see this? That's the Anomalous Entity that came out of the Pillar of Light….
The attention-seeker who bravely brought about the ruin of humanity.
Before he could finish his sentence.
The monster slowly turned its head toward the camera, meeting its gaze.
The moment those maddeningly empty, unfathomably deep hollows met the camera lens.
The broadcast cut out.
What had happened?
The Bureau’s observation data later provided the answer.
James K. Howard, who had wanted attention and succeeded in leaving his name in history just as he desired, was annihilated on the spot.
By the monster's mere gaze, the space where the plane had been was enveloped in white light, and no trace of him was ever found again.
Considering the global catastrophe that followed, we should have been dispatched during that "golden time."
If we had, the ensuing disaster would not have occurred.
We should have suppressed that frail-looking entity the moment it revealed itself, as quickly as possible.
Four minutes after it appeared on the broadcast.
Humanity broke all previous O-Rank damage records.
The broadcast lasted only four minutes, but thanks to his earlier boasting about filming the Pillar of Light, James K. Howard's broadcast had 1.2 million viewers at the time.
Of those 1.2 million viewers.
Except for those who were B-Rank Heroes or higher, or those using the Bureau’s cognitive filters, everyone died on the spot.
No, not everyone died.
A handful of people went mad in that instant, their minds shattered beyond repair.
From that handful, the catastrophe that would destroy humanity began.
Simply because the monster's gaze was broadcast, the official death toll was at least 1.19 million.
And the number of Heroes and Bureau staff who survived was about a thousand.
It is impossible to grasp the exact numbers due to the events that followed, but approximately nine thousand people survived despite seeing the gaze without any special protection.
Normally, these nine thousand should have been celebrated for surviving a 1% survival rate.
Mental collapse techniques are rare but relatively common, and with the Bureau’s financial power, mental restoration prescriptions for civilians are feasible.
However, the Mental Domination imposed by this monster was of a different nature.
Regarding this, a dozen or so survivors among the nine thousand contaminated souls testified about what happened.
They stated that the moment they made eye contact, their consciousness immediately faded, and the flesh and muscle of their entire bodies began to melt away until only bone remained.
The melted flesh then turned into something indescribable and reattached itself to the bones.
Consequently, the appearance of the survivors is nothing short of horrific.
Except for one person who was extremely lucky and underwent no mutation.
The one with the least mutation had both arms turn into flesh-blades capable of cutting through anything.
The one with the greatest mutation melted completely, becoming an amorphous creature spewing bubbles.
And while their bodies were mutating, they claimed someone whispered to them amidst a massive headache.
To kill everything.
Everything in their vicinity.
Thus, on that day, humanity faced a hell where nine thousand monsters, Mutants, and creatures of at least B-Rank were unleashed upon human settlements.
Later, when the method to prevent the mutation and the headache was revealed through the survivors, it became a catastrophe that made everyone howl in despair.
The person with the least damage, whose skin had only slightly melted.
They said that the moment the headache began, they took the headache medication they always carried for migraines with some water, and it subsided.
Others also said they calmed down after drinking a glass of water that was nearby.
However, that information only reached the Bureau after everything was over.
And among those whose mutations were complete, the only survivor was the one who became an amorphous creature while showering, washed down the drain, and consumed a large amount of water.
For the rest, it was clear they could not be helped once the mutation was complete.
The Bureau attempted to place those they successfully captured alive into water tanks, but no matter how much time passed, the victims' consciousness did not return, leaving no choice but to dispose of them.
And so, peace collapsed.
The number of victims began to rise rapidly.
The monster that caused this catastrophe disappeared back into the Pillar of Light under the Bureau’s watch.
The Bureau and the various nations, busy dealing with the sudden influx of numerous enemies, pushed the disposal of the Nautilus to a lower priority.
Even though over a million victims had already emerged, that was likely the most effective timing to stop the Nautilus.
Considering the ruin that was to follow.
One day after the first mutation.
The Bureau quickly brought the chaos under control and, despite the lack of a Public Enemy declaration, designated the Nautilus that appeared from the light as O-Rank and began planning an operation.
But soon, they realized something was wrong.
Within a single day, the Pillar of Light had grown noticeably in size.
Reports had already come in from the Observation Team, but because the mutation crisis was more urgent, the review had been postponed.
The initial observation recorded a Pillar of Light with a radius of 50m.
But now, 25 hours after the Nautilus was first captured.
It had transformed into a Pillar of Light with a radius of approximately 241m.
Shocking facts continued to follow.
The Pillar of Light had a property of doubling its diameter approximately every 11 hours.
The Observation Team reported that the moment the Nautilus first appeared 25 hours ago, the nature of the Pillar of Light had changed.
The moment anything touched the Pillar of Light, it was annihilated.
Numerous observation instruments had already been destroyed upon contact with the pillar.
As a result, humanity was informed that in seven days, they would be swallowed by the Pillar of Light and wiped out.
Humanity had squandered one of its precious eight days on an attention-seeker's "miracle."
However, that information was suppressed.
Seven days until the end of humanity.
The moment this became known, society would collapse.
Therefore, truth was mixed with lies.
A public press conference was held, stating that the Nautilus was a dangerous entity and that the Bureau and each nation would do their best.
Even while such press conferences were being broadcast.
Countless trials and errors continued.
Nuclear missiles, A-Rank Heroes available for immediate deployment, Otherworldly Power suppression devices.
Even the remnants of the Phoenix that had been sealed away.
However, all those attempts ended in failure.
Whether the nukes were fired into the Pillar of Light or detonated near it.
It was proven that they had no effect whatsoever.
The resident A-Rank Heroes of the Bureau, who were hastily dispatched, vanished the moment they attempted to enter the pillar, despite being fully prepared.
The Otherworldly Power suppression devices sent with the Heroes only proved to be useless.
Thus, we were quickly summoned. Because the situation was dire, each of us entered the Pillar of Light the moment we arrived.
But the information we gained was insignificant.
In the center of the Pillar of Light.
We could see the Nautilus standing blankly, shielded by a barrier.
The only small hope was that S-Ranks.
Or top-tier A-Ranks.
Would not be annihilated upon contact with the Pillar of Light.
However, even I could not break that barrier alone.
I could only scream in agony as I watched my comrades vanish.
I had no choice but to retreat, promising to return.
* * *
Three days passed like that.
The radius of the Pillar of Light: 22.511km.
Time remaining: 4 days.
The final golden time before its area expanded exponentially.
Everyone who could be mobilized, including those who had entered the Pillar of Light and returned, gathered here.
Since the space around the Pillar of Light had begun to warp, making a surprise attack via teleportation impossible.
The 20 most vital assets of the Management Bureau.
Based on the old classification standards:
13 S-Ranks and 7 A-Ranks.
Along with countless Heroes who, while unable to enter the Pillar of Light, could assist our entry by holding back the myriad mutated entities that had appeared around it over the past three days.
We boarded the vessel the U.S. military provided, carrying the hopes of humanity.
The CVN-65 Enterprise.
Praying that its name would once again ring out with the sound of victory.