Chapter 69
Chapter 69
The target of this hunt was the Ghost Bats.
They lived in colonies inside the underground parking lot of a half-collapsed department store.
“This operation will be led by the two of you. I won’t intervene.”
“What? Just the two of us?”
“To design the AI for a new drone, I need combat data—various variables that occur in real battles and coordination data between units.”
In particular, I needed to observe how the air unit (Picker) and ground unit (Porter) cooperated, and whether any delays or errors occurred during the process.
“I believe the two of you can complete this mission on your own.”
“Oh! Boss! You finally recognize my true value!”
This was the first time I had given Picker full command authority without preparing everything in advance.
“Don’t worry! With my brilliant control, I’ll turn those rats—no, those bats—into skewers! Get the praise stickers ready!”
“Light creatures only understand the value of weight when they taste a heavy harpoon. Boss, this Porter will prove the true power of mass.”
Their reactions were completely opposite.
I couldn’t help smiling.
Despite their constant bickering, their teamwork during the slime hunt had not been bad.
That was probably because the workshop system allowed them to coordinate almost instinctively.
Soon after, Picker and Porter arrived at the department store.
“Begin.”
At my signal, Picker moved first.
Whir—
White frost blasted from the nozzle beneath Picker.
Frost Burst.
The air at the parking entrance froze instantly, covering the area in white frost.
The plan was simple—seal the narrow entrance with freezing air so the bats could not escape.
Not a bad idea.
Screech—!
A chilling ultrasonic noise echoed from the darkness.
Dozens of faint shadows burst through the frozen air.
“Huh? What?”
Picker panicked.
Any creature passing through that freezing blast should have had its wings frozen and shattered.
But the bats were unharmed.
More precisely—
Their bodies vibrated slightly, shaking off the frost.
“They’re dispersing the frost with vibration.”
As expected from a D-grade mutant, they weren’t easy prey.
They rushed past Picker at high speed and swarmed toward Porter on the ground.
“How dare such weightless creatures challenge me.”
Porter’s back-mounted quad launcher opened.
Thump! Thump!
Sharp steel harpoons shot into the air with explosive bursts of compressed air.
At that distance and speed, the attack should have been unavoidable.
But—
Whoosh.
The harpoons passed straight through the bats.
No.
They didn’t pierce them.
They passed through illusions.
“Huh?”
While Porter hesitated, the real bats appeared one meter away from the harpoon trajectory.
They were bending light in the air to disguise their position.
Like a mirage.
That explained the name Ghost Bat.
Their ability wasn’t simple invisibility.
“You little—! How dare you ignore my perfect calculations! Hey! Bear! One o’clock! No—eleven o’clock! Ugh!”
Picker shouted frantically.
But Porter’s harpoons continued striking empty air.
The matchup was terrible.
Against fast and stealthy flying units, a slow ground unit and weak frost attacks had clear limits.
Screech!
The bats swept across Porter’s armor.
Their claws scraped the steel plating.
Fortunately, they could not even leave a scratch.
Porter’s defense was solid.
The problem was visibility.
The bats began clinging to Porter’s camera sensors.
Black bodies covered him like a swarm.
“I cannot see. Their light weight… is unpleasant.”
Porter spun in place, firing harpoons wildly.
It was useless.
Then Picker dove down and shouted.
“Move! All of you move! Screw it!”
Picker deployed Frost Burst at maximum output directly above Porter.
Whooooosh—
Powerful freezing air engulfed Porter.
The bats clinging to him froze instantly and dropped to the ground.
“Ha! See that? That’s the power of Picker!”
But the celebration didn’t last long.
The frozen bat corpses became lodged in Porter’s tracks and tangled in Picker’s propeller guard.
“Hey! Hey! Get off! If you’re dead, fall properly!”
The corpses clung stubbornly even in death.
Picker’s flight became unstable.
Airflow was disrupted, and the added weight caused battery consumption to skyrocket.
“Damn it! Dirty creatures! Don’t you know basic manners? If you die, you’re supposed to respawn! Oh… right, this is reality. Anyway, fall off!”
Picker ranted like someone raging during an online match.
Of course, the mutants could not understand.
They simply screeched and attacked.
[Battery Remaining: 45%]
Only five minutes into the battle, Picker’s battery had dropped by half.
At this rate, he would run out of power fighting the small fry.
The swarm showed no signs of thinning.
When frozen, the bats used the bodies of their dead companions as shields and kept advancing.
“Hey! Have some sportsmanship! Attack one at a time!”
Then Porter’s voice came through the comm channel.
“They obstruct my lenses. Be my eyes.”
“I’m busy enough already! Shoot here!”
Even without vision, Porter fired improved incendiary shells using Picker’s map data.
Flames erupted repeatedly, burning bats in the air.
But there were simply too many.
Then—
The air in the underground parking lot began vibrating strangely.
It wasn’t just vibration.
It felt as if space itself was twisting.
“Boss… this feels bad.”
Picker quickly climbed in altitude.
At that moment, a massive shadow moved within the darkness.
It was one and a half times larger than a normal Ghost Bat.
Blue mana circuits ran through its wings like veins.
The C-grade named mutant Phantom King had appeared.
The creature opened its mouth.
SCREEEEEECH—
Picker’s vision flashed white.
“My eyes! My eyes!”
A high-frequency ultrasonic blast.
Not a physical sound.
It was a mana wave that directly struck electronic circuits.
Noise filled Picker’s HUD.
“Boss! I can’t see!”
Picker wobbled, nearly crashing.
Meanwhile, the Phantom King glided calmly above Porter.
When its wings sliced through the air, the surrounding space warped.
Invisible blades formed.
BOOM!
Porter’s Bio-Composite Armor, which had once withstood Union turret fire, dented violently as sparks flew.
It was not a simple physical strike.
The attack distorted space itself, crushing the armor.
“I have never felt such weight.”
Porter staggered.
But the Phantom King had already vanished again.
Stealth and spatial distortion.
The monster attacked from invisibility, overwhelming the two AI units.
“I can’t see it! Where is it?! Hey bear! Shoot something!”
“Target unidentified. Cannot fire. Wasting ammunition is a sin.”
“You stubborn rock!”
Picker was going crazy.
An invisible enemy.
Attacks that barely hurt but constantly harassed them.
And worst of all—it interfered with his circuits.
This was more than a bad matchup.
Then—
A calm, familiar voice entered their communication channel.
“Stay calm.”
Watching through the monitor, I made a quick decision.
“The problem isn’t firepower. The problem is accuracy.”
The Phantom King’s pattern was simple.
Approach under stealth.
Disrupt Picker with ultrasonic waves.
Strike Porter with spatial distortion blades.
The attacks damaged Porter but were not lethal.
That meant—
Neutralize the stealth and the ultrasonic disruption.
Then the monster would be nothing more than a large bat.
Lethal firepower was unnecessary.
Using silicon and a portion of Armus Flesh, I quickly designed a solution.
[Manufacture]
Particles of light gathered.
A special round appeared—silver casing containing blue core powder.
[Fluorescent Adhesive Spray Round]
Grade: D
Explodes into a cloud of ultra-fine adhesive powder mixed with fluorescent material.
I placed the ammunition box directly into Porter’s storage.
“Porter. Catch.”
Almost instantly, Porter’s internal storage glowed blue.
“Supply confirmed. I feel the weight.”
Click. Click.
Porter’s quad launcher reloaded automatically.
Ammunition switched.
“Forward 120 degrees. Spread fire.”
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Four rounds spread through the air in a fan pattern.
The Phantom King twisted its body to dodge.
But the rounds were never meant to hit.
BOOOOM—
The shells exploded mid-air.
Fluorescent mist flooded the entire parking lot.
Zero lethality.
But the moment the powder touched the Phantom King—
Its movement froze.
SCREEEEECH?!
The faint veil around its body vanished.
Its grotesque true form was exposed.
Stealth neutralized.
The sticky powder also restricted its movement.
“I can see it! My vision’s back!”
Picker shouted.
The screen cleared.
At the center floated the confused Phantom King.
“Bear! Now!”
Picker dove down, pouring out his remaining battery power.
Frost Storm: Absolute Zero
A blast of extreme cold struck the Phantom King.
Crack—!
Its massive wings froze instantly.
The heavy ice-covered body fell toward the ground.
“Finishing.”
Porter’s engine roared.
Tracks scraped against concrete as sparks flew.
Target: the falling ice mass.
WHRRR—
The tip of Porter’s Hyper-Vibration Ram vibrated violently.
Using a collapsed pillar as a launch ramp, Porter leaped upward.
CRASH!
The sound was not dull.
It was like a giant sheet of glass shattering.
The frozen body of the Phantom King shattered into fragments.
It was the first time Porter used the Hyper-Vibration Ram in real combat.
The results exceeded expectations.
A C-grade named mutant—even one with high defense—had been sliced apart like tofu.
“Approved.”
I nodded with satisfaction.
With that level of power, even armored vehicles or defensive walls could be pierced.
Porter was no longer just a porter.
He was practically a siege weapon.
“Hey! Stop crushing them, idiot!”
On the screen, Porter was still stomping the bats in anger.
“We have to bring them to the boss! If you destroy everything, what are we supposed to collect?!”
“…Light creatures do not require intact forms.”
“Yes they do! Want the boss to scold you?”
Picker fluttered in front of Porter.
Only then did Porter’s engine finally stop.
Soon, the underground parking lot was silent.
Picker and Porter began collecting the spoils.
First came the Phantom King’s remains.
Despite being shattered, the key materials remained intact.
C-Grade Core
Then its wings.
[Spatial Distortion Membrane]
Grade: C
A biological tissue capable of refracting light and mana, enabling invisibility and spatial distortion.
Not just stealth.
It could hide mana waves as well.
Finally—
Ghost Bat Stealth Hide (D-Grade) ×218.
Although weaker than the membrane, the quantity was overwhelming.
This was enough to coat the entire Toad unit and even the Poison Bee swarm with stealth materials.
“Good. A solid harvest.”
I left the cleanup to them and reviewed the combat data.
The key to victory was obvious.
The special ammunition deployed at the right moment.
If I had simply sent more drones from the beginning, the battle might have ended faster.
But then I would not have learned the limits of Picker and Porter.
“In the end, real-time resupply decided the outcome.”
Without my support, they would struggle.
If they ever had to fight alone again, overwhelming force would be necessary.
I also realized the limitation of relying on a single Porter for supply.
If Porter was immobilized, the supply line would collapse.
That meant only one solution.
“I should install storage on Picker as well.”
Currently, Picker could only scout, command, and perform minor frost attacks.
But if he gained the Spatial Tethering trait?
He could launch grenades, special rounds, and explosives created in the workshop in real time.
“I’ll mount it on his legs.”
An infinite ammunition system.
Aerial bombardment raining explosives from the sky.
Porter had obtained the Berserk trait thanks to the Rampaging Heart from the Iron-Tusk Boar.
But why were named mutants unique?
Because only one existed.
Even if I hunted other boar-type mutants, I wouldn’t get another Rampaging Heart.
“Hm… maybe I should assign a spatial artifact directly.”
Something like the Subspace Hip Bag Pig once used.
When I used Enchantment, an item’s inherent property usually transferred to the target.
Before, I couldn’t afford such experiments.
But now the situation was different.
I had military supply payments.
And the taxes that Yoon Sungjun’s group would soon deliver.