Chapter 75
Chapter 75
Pik, pik, pishuut—!
Soft bursts of compressed air filled the space, without even the sound of gunpowder exploding.
A concealed killing intent too subtle for human reaction speed to even perceive.
“Uh…?”
One of the Machine Society soldiers at the front clutched the back of his neck and collapsed.
Thud.
The others fell like dominoes.
In that split second, the pupils of Jibgae, the operations commander standing at the center of the formation, contracted sharply.
Trait: Synchronization.
After gaining the ability to treat weapons as if they were part of his own body, Jibgae had made a radical decision.
He severed his own limbs and replaced them with mechanical components.
Sensors embedded in his mechanical arm calculated the trajectory of death in less than 0.01 seconds and transmitted it directly to his brain.
His body moved before conscious thought.
His upper torso twisted at an unnatural angle.
A cold breeze brushed past his right shoulder—the anesthetic dart narrowly missed.
But that wasn’t the end.
Dozens of darts were flying toward him from all directions.
“Graaah!”
Jibgae forcibly opened the exhaust valves mounted on his back.
Boom!
A thunderous explosion erupted as high-pressure black smoke blasted outward.
The sudden air pressure deflected the incoming anesthetic darts, scattering them in every direction.
Because of that, Yoon Imsu, who had been frozen beside him, narrowly avoided being struck.
But it wasn’t perfect.
One dart, deflected off angle, embedded deeply into the junction where Jibgae’s mechanical arm connected to his biological tissue.
“Ghh…!”
He felt the anesthetic spreading through his veins.
For an ordinary person, that would have meant instant unconsciousness.
But Jibgae was a madman who had severed his own limbs to survive.
Whiiiiir!
He pushed the engine on his back to its redline, then forced the superheated exhaust heat to flow backward into his neural interface instead of venting it outward.
Sssss—
The smell of burning flesh filled the air as Jibgae coughed out smoke mixed with blood.
“Cough! Cough!”
The intense heat burned the anesthetic out of his body.
His bloodshot eyes gleamed like a demon’s.
“What kind of bastard are you?! Stop hiding like a rat and come out!”
Watching the scene, Picker couldn’t hide his admiration.
“Wow, Boss. Did you see that guy? He’s roasting his own flesh just to burn out the poison. What a hardcore lunatic!”
Picker spoke casually, but my expression had stiffened.
How strong must someone’s will be to do something like that?
I definitely couldn’t go that far.
Still, I shouldn’t lose confidence.
I had my own strengths.
For example, even in desperate situations I refused to give up and always searched for another solution.
Wasn’t that how I gained the Manufacturing ability?
“Shadow. Drain his strength a bit. Consider it a performance test.”
If I wanted to capture Jibgae alive rather than kill him, I would have to reveal Shadow’s presence.
“Understood.”
Shadow emerged from the shadows of the ruins.
The black stingray-shaped drone deliberately deactivated its stealth and hovered in the air.
“A drone? You’re kidding me!”
Jibgae roared and raised his right arm.
Click. Click.
His five fingers opened, revealing gun barrels.
BRRRRRRT!
The barrels spat fire.
But Shadow was no longer there.
Like it had skipped through space, it slipped between the bullets, leaving only afterimages.
“Come here, you damn fly!”
Jibgae’s reaction speed was indeed impressive.
An ordinary enhanced soldier wouldn’t even be able to follow Shadow’s movements with their eyes.
But thanks to his mechanical eye and Synchronization trait, he kept tracking it.
“Analysis complete!”
Picker shouted excitedly.
“That guy’s core size is only F-Rank, but his real combat power is much higher! Possibly close to D-Rank!”
That seemed about right.
“He can use his mechanical body more freely than his original body. No wonder he’s the Machine Society’s second-in-command!”
“Still not enough to beat Shadow.”
When none of his shots landed, Jibgae’s patience snapped.
Like a wounded beast, he compressed the hydraulics in his mechanical legs to the limit.
BOOM!
He launched himself from the ground and closed the distance with Shadow instantly.
The engine on his back glowed red.
“I’ll burn you to ashes!”
Exhaust Storm.
FWOOSH!
Superheated steam surged outward, heating the surrounding air to several hundred degrees.
It was a wide-area attack with no room for evasion.
But Shadow didn’t dodge.
Instead, it opened a launcher beneath its body.
Pik—
The projectile fired was not a bomb.
It was a thin capsule-shaped round.
The moment it collided with Jibgae’s superheated storm—
Boom!
The capsule burst, scattering red powder like mist.
Fluorescent Adhesive Spray Round.
Mixed within it was powdered flesh from Armus.
The substance reacted violently with the intense heat.
Gurgle… gurgle!
“What—what is this?!”
Jibgae shouted in shock.
It wasn’t ordinary adhesive.
The red slime-like substance wriggled like a living organism, forcing its way into the exhaust ports and engine gaps.
The more heat it consumed, the larger it grew.
“Aaagh! Get it off!”
The flesh that had infiltrated the engine began trapping the heat.
The heat that should have been expelled was now sealed inside.
The temperature inside Jibgae’s suit skyrocketed.
He writhed on the ground as if being boiled alive by his own heat.
Only seconds remained before the engine exploded.
In the corner, Yoon Imsu, who had been trembling in fear, suddenly widened his eyes.
That red substance… heat-reactive growth…
Pieces of the puzzle came together.
The red catastrophe that had attacked Mapo Bridge recently.
And how it had disappeared.
Right. The Bomber killed the slime… and turned its remains into a weapon.
In truth, he had doubted the military’s claim that they killed the slime.
So he had continued investigating.
Because of that, he knew the slime’s weakness.
“Cold…! We need something cold!”
Yoon Imsu forced his trembling body to move.
He ran toward the Ground Exploration Device lying nearby.
The emergency cooling nozzle designed to prevent overheating.
Without hesitation, he powered the device and aimed the nozzle at Jibgae.
Sssssss—
White coolant gas blasted onto the red slime.
The boiling flesh instantly hardened into gray stone.
Dropping the nozzle, Yoon Imsu pulled a monkey wrench from his belt and rushed forward.
Clang! Clang!
He smashed the frozen mass.
The hardened flesh shattered like glass.
The clogged exhaust port cleared, releasing black smoke.
“Hah… hah…”
The engine explosion had been prevented.
Yoon Imsu collapsed to the ground, breathing heavily.
“Oh.”
Freeze it.
Then shatter it.
The exact same method I had used to kill the slime.
And he figured that out instantly?
“Not bad.”
Yoon Imsu was more capable than I expected.
His thinking process felt strangely similar to mine.
And the way he swung that wrench wildly reminded me of myself during my awakening.
“Boss! Look at that glasses guy! The mana waves in his heart and head are insane! That looks like a dual core!”
Picker was right.
On the screen, two cores were glowing inside Yoon Imsu’s chest and head.
Even after scouting with one hundred Honeybees, I had only found two people with dual cores.
Lieutenant Colonel Kang Cheolmin.
And Yoon Sungjun.
After observing Yoon Sungjun, I had become certain.
Dual cores indicated high potential.
Yoon Imsu…
He was someone worth recruiting.
“Shadow. Draw out their abilities to the end.”
“Understood, Boss.”
At that moment, Jibgae staggered to his feet.
“You… damn… bastard!”
His body trembled from the sudden drop in temperature caused by the coolant.
But he raised the Finger Gatling again.
If he wanted to survive, he had to kill that drone.
“Manager Yoon! Watch closely! Track where it moves! Your eyes are sharp!”
“Y-Yes!”
Yoon Imsu adjusted his glasses with trembling hands.
When he had frozen the slime earlier, he had felt something strange.
Whenever he faced life-threatening danger, the world seemed to slow down.
And become clearer.
Jibgae knew it too.
That’s why he trusted Yoon Imsu’s eyes.
Mana rippled faintly from Shadow’s thrusters.
Left.
It was preparing to turn left.
“Left! Descend at fifty degrees!”
At Yoon Imsu’s shout, Jibgae twisted his body.
He trusted Yoon Imsu completely.
RATATAT!
Flames burst from his fingers.
At the same moment, Shadow dove left exactly as predicted.
Predictive shooting.
The bullets covered Shadow’s trajectory.
Clang! Clang!
A hit.
Sparks flew from Shadow’s black armor.
“Got it! I hit it!”
Jibgae cheered.
But Yoon Imsu’s expression didn’t brighten.
Sparks had appeared.
But Shadow’s movement remained unaffected.
Instead, it accelerated using the bullet impact as propulsion.
“Front! Straight ahead!”
At Yoon Imsu’s scream, Jibgae swung his rocket-equipped left arm.
Boom!
Shadow was knocked backward like a sheet of paper.
Jibgae grinned triumphantly.
“That’s how it’s done, you tin—”
His shout stopped.
Shadow rose from the dust cloud.
Its smooth black armor was completely intact.
“What…?”
Jibgae’s eyes trembled.
Armor-piercing rifle rounds hadn’t worked.
Even the rocket arm strike had done nothing.
At that moment Yoon Imsu saw something.
While performing evasive maneuvers, Shadow had briefly opened and closed the launcher beneath its body.
…It could have fired.
When Jibgae swung his rocket arm and fell into a brief delay.
Shadow’s targeting reticle had been perfectly aligned with Jibgae’s forehead.
But it didn’t fire.
It wasn’t that it couldn’t hit.
It chose not to.
“…Stop.”
Yoon Imsu’s lips trembled.
The wrench in his hand felt heavy.
“Let’s stop…”
“What? What are you talking about? We almost had it!”
“No… we’ve already lost.”
Clang.
Yoon Imsu dropped his wrench and rifle.
Then slowly knelt.
Overwhelming defense.
And the leisure to toy with them without killing them.
The drone itself wasn’t the problem.
The one who created it—the Bomber—was beyond anything they could challenge.
“Damn it! Manager Yoon! Get a grip!”
Jibgae couldn’t understand.
But when Shadow simply hovered silently, he finally realized something.
The drone had never intended to kill them.
“Grr…!”
His pride shattered.
Why spare us?
Are they trying to extract information?
If he couldn’t escape alive—
Then I’ll self-destruct.
With trembling hands, he manipulated the engine control unit on his chest.
He released the limiter and reversed the fuel flow.
He would turn himself into a bomb.
“Senior Sergeant… your foolish junior goes first!”
Whiiiiiii—
The engine roared and glowed red.
But—
Pishuut!
A sharp impact struck his back.
A steel harpoon fired by Shadow had pierced through the main pipe connecting the engine and fuel tank.
Pssssss—
The engine sputtered out.
The mechanical limbs froze like scrap metal.
“Ah… ah…”
Jibgae lay collapsed on the ground.
Creak… thud.
Heavy footsteps echoed through the fog beyond the waste hill.
Through the mist emerged a giant.
A towering figure wearing a modified exoskeleton painted matte black.
A grotesque mask covered the face.
A red lens glowed.
The Bomber…
Yoon Imsu forgot to breathe.
But the terror didn’t end there.
Behind the giant, Porter appeared like a moving boulder, its engine rumbling.
And above—
The sky was filled with the Honeybee and Toad drone legions.
“…Ah.”
It was an army.
Not the power of a single individual.
Yoon Imsu trembled violently and lowered his head to the ground.
He couldn’t even beg for mercy.
Watching the overwhelming scene, Picker muttered quietly.
“Wow… Boss… I almost feel bad for those humans.”