Chapter 90
“Will it really work?”
“It should. Do you know who those people are?”
With everyone holding their breath, Han Daeman stood in front of an old generator.
A 5kW diesel generator that had once broken down shortly after they poured crude oil directly into it.
Team Leader Kim Jihoon had disassembled the engine, cleaned out the sludge, and repaired it thoroughly.
Glug, glug.
Han Daeman poured the freshly refined diesel fuel into the tank.
The smell of fuel filled the air.
That sharp yet rich scent once common at gas stations before the collapse.
“Here we go!”
Brrr—! Rattle-rattle-rattle!
He pulled the starter cord hard.
The lively engine sound echoed through the fortress.
There was no thick black smoke.
The exhaust sounded almost like complete combustion.
Flash!
Three large floodlights connected to the generator lit up at once.
Blinding white light flooded the parking lot like midday.
“Woooooo!”
Cheers erupted.
That wasn’t all.
The 2.5-ton truck waiting nearby started as well.
From the driver’s seat, Yoon Sungjun gave a thumbs-up.
“Engine started!”
Watching the scene through the display Picker projected, I smiled.
[Boss! Those humans are more capable than expected. They’re building things on their own.]
“Yeah. Looks like things run fine even without me.”
While they were preparing materials, quite a bit of progress had already been made.
I was satisfied.
The system had begun functioning without my constant intervention.
A self-sustaining organization.
That was the Atlas I wanted.
“Still, I should tell them not to farm gasoline-engine vehicles.”
[Right. Straight gasoline has low octane. The engines would explode again.]
“Diesel engines use compression ignition, so fuel quality matters less. If we had spare time we could modify gasoline engines, but…”
In any case, diesel vehicles were everywhere now.
I leaned back in my chair and murmured.
“Good. Fuel problems are solved… time for the next step.”
I checked the [Armus’s Flesh] growing in the storage corner, which I had been feeding with mutant carcasses.
Picker hovered beside me and adjusted its camera lens.
—Boss! Are we finally giving the workshop legs? Are we moving our house?
“Yeah. Eventually we’ll have to expedition to Incheon. Besides, we’ve stayed in this spot too long.”
I adjusted my gloves.
“Yoon Imsu almost pinpointed the workshop location earlier. If we don’t prepare soon, someone will catch our trail. I planned to grow it slowly, but I’ll have to feed it cores.”
—Ehh?! That means at least ten cores! Why not just install heavy steel caterpillar tracks? Big, strong ones! Every man loves a mech!
“No.”
I cut him off.
“Mechanical tracks always create noise and vibration. That’s why we need this.”
I nodded toward the writhing red flesh.
“A castle that moves silently. That’s the goal. Have you ever heard a snail crawling?”
—A snail? Ugh, I hate slimy things.
“That slime is the key. It absorbs friction with the ground and eliminates noise.”
At that moment—
A heavy engine sound approached from behind.
Porter rolled up.
—…Beautiful.
“What?”
—That viscosity gripping the ground so stubbornly… it is the perfect material for supporting heavy loads.
—Here goes that idiot bear again.
—I wonder… what it would feel like if I coated my tracks with that substance.
—Hey! You pervert bear! Touch that and you’re dead!
Picker rushed forward in panic.
—Boss! Stop him! He’s actually going to lick it!
I shook my head and ordered Porter.
“Back away.”
To install this onto the workshop, the current amount of flesh was far from enough.
“First we increase the quantity.”
I pulled out one F-Rank Core.
“Time to eat.”
Sparkling powder sprinkled over the red jelly.
Immediately—
Rumble!
The flesh convulsed violently.
Like a starving beast reacting to food.
—Uh… Boss? That reaction speed is unusually fast.
“It normally reacts to energy, but… why like this?”
Was it because I fed it a core after it had already grown to a certain size?
Just as I was checking its condition—
The flesh suddenly inflated like a balloon.
Pop!
Like a compressed rubber ball exploding, sticky mucus burst everywhere.
—Gah?!
The first to scream was Picker, who had gotten too close.
Splatch!
A blob of red slime struck Picker’s front sensors and propeller.
—Boss! I can’t see! My motor! It’s sticky! I’m crashing!
Picker spun wildly, slammed into a wall, and stuck there like gum.
—…It won’t come off! Boss! Get me down! This feels disgusting!
But I had no time to worry about Picker.
I had fallen too, covered in slime.
“Ugh… what the hell just happened?”
—Oh…
Beside me, Porter stepped backward after stepping on scattered slime.
The problem was the adhesive power.
The slime stuck to his tracks and pulled him upward along the wall—
All the way to the ceiling.
Thud.
The one-ton Porter hung upside down from the ceiling.
Normally gravity would drop him.
But Armus’s Flesh acted like powerful adhesive.
—Gravity feels reversed… the weight pulling downward… it is sublime.
—You lunatic! If you fall you’ll crush me!
Picker screamed from the wall.
I pressed my forehead.
Amid the chaos, only Shadow remained untouched.
Whoosh.
He slipped through the floating slime like black smoke.
—…Pathetic.
Shadow commented briefly.
Porter responded while hanging upside down.
—Try it yourself, Shadow. The world flips. A new horizon of weight.
—I decline. Inefficient.
—Stop chatting and get me down! I’m hardening here!
Picker’s screams echoed through the workshop.
Sighing, I removed the Mechanical Reinforced Exoskeleton.
“Quiet.”
I manufactured a freezing spray and pried Picker off the wall.
Then I dragged Porter down from the ceiling.
“Ugh… cleaning this is worse than spilling ramen.”
Covered head to toe in red slime, I chuckled bitterly while freezing the flesh.
What a disaster.
After the chaos ended—
I examined the now enlarged Armus’s Flesh.
If I simply attached it to the workshop, it might encounter mutants and start devouring them, multiplying uncontrollably.
If the workshop’s legs exploded like that, it would be catastrophic.
“We have to erase its instinct.”
[Mana Erasure]
I had already analyzed the mana pattern Lee Sea used while refining crude oil.
Using that data, I created a device.
[Mana Circuit Eraser]
Not a physical eraser.
It emitted a specific wavelength that reset mana circuits.
It was single-use and required one F-Rank Core to produce.
But it would likely have many uses.
“Erase the growth instinct. Leave only the shape-memory trait.”
I had researched this creature long enough to understand its patterns.
Whirr—
When I pressed the eraser against the flesh, the violently writhing mass calmed.
I transplanted the flesh onto the workshop’s lower external frame—its future legs.
Just like when I installed the robotic arm earlier.
The red slime extended tendrils and gripped the steel frame tightly.
As if they had always been one.
[Register in menu?]
“Register.”
[Registration complete]
[New Facility: Bio Caterpillar Track]
[Rank: C]
[Biological mobility device using Armus’s Flesh. Generates almost no noise or vibration and excels at traversing rough terrain.]
Success.
Now even this massive workshop could move anywhere.
I wiped sweat and smiled.
“Good. Now let’s start the engine—”
Rumble!
Suddenly the entire workshop shook as if the floor had risen.
—Boss?! Earthquake?!
—Warning. No external impact detected. Internal vibration detected.
Picker and Shadow shouted.
This wasn’t an earthquake.
The Armus’s Flesh fused with the workshop was glowing red.
Creak! Boom!
[New facility capacity exceeds workshop tolerance.]
[Structural collapse risk: 88%… 89%…]
“What? Capacity exceeded?”
A new system message appeared.
[Conditions met.]
[Workshop Upgrade initiating to prevent collapse.]
Forced upgrade?
Wait—
I hadn’t even checked the requirements for Level 3.
[Calculating required resources.]
[Core power: 1 B-Rank Core]
[Auxiliary power: 20 D-Rank Cores]
My eyes widened.
A B-Rank core?
Twenty D-Rank cores?
All I had was the C-Rank Phantom King core and a pile of F-Rank ones.
[Insufficient resources.]
[Calculating substitution with lower-rank cores.]
[Required resource: 2,090 F-Rank Cores]
“…Two thousand ninety?”
My breath stopped.
The Level 2 upgrade had only required one D-Rank and five E-Rank cores.
Now it suddenly needed two thousand?
“Hey! Cancel! Cancel it!”
But the system ignored me.
Just like when Porter awakened his Awakening Trait, it proceeded on its own.
[For safety, all living entities will be forcibly moved outside the workshop.]
[3…2…1…]
Woooo—
Inside the sealed workshop, a massive vortex sound began.
Cores were being sucked into the workshop.
Picker screamed.
—Boss! We’re broke! Our account got wiped! We went from rich to bankrupt!
My legs gave out and I collapsed.
After painstakingly collecting resources—
The workshop system devoured everything in one bite.
But that wasn’t the end.
[Upgrade in progress…]
[Time required: 168 hours]
[All workshop functions suspended during process.]
[Warning: insufficient energy.]
[Deficit: 390 F-Rank Cores]
[If deficit not filled within 72 hours, upgrade will fail.]
[50% of invested resources will be lost.]
Not only would the upgrade fail—
I would lose 800 cores already invested.
Which meant one thing.
Find 390 more cores in 72 hours.
Insane.
Currently, no nearby named mutants were located.
Ding!
As if things weren’t bad enough, a U-Link notification appeared.
Sender: Lieutenant Colonel Kang Cheolmin.
He asked for the location of the second delivery site scheduled in three days.
“Ah…”
A groan escaped me.
I had delayed production while building shelters, developing scouts, and researching mana patterns.
Now the workshop was completely shut down.
If the military contract collapsed, my core supply disappeared.
If the upgrade failed, the workshop collapsed.
A perfect dead end.
—Boss.
Picker landed on my shoulder and spoke solemnly.
—In technical terms, you’re completely screwed.
“Hey! Stop reading survivor forums! Where did you learn that language?!”
I shouted.
But I couldn’t deny it.
He was right.
There was only one solution.
If the machine stopped—
The human works.
“…We do it manually.”
—What?
“I’ve slept enough for three days. I’ll make the items myself. Hunt the cores myself.”
I kicked off the dirt floor and stood.
If the workshop owner couldn’t use the workshop, I’d produce everything with Manufacture.
—Boss, I’ll send the others to search for named mutants.
I raised my eyebrow.
“What nonsense? You’re helping too.”
—What?
“You got Awakening Traits, didn’t you? Come here. If the four of us mass-produce together, we can meet the quota.”
Silence.
The three AI drones standing beside me each stepped back.
Picker screamed first.
—Boss! That violates labor law! I’m a reconnaissance and hacking drone, not a factory robot! What if my motors burn out?!
“Stop whining. My balance just got wiped. Electricity for charging you is expensive.”
—Aaaagh! Exploitative boss! Heartless human!
“What? Human?”
While Picker flailed, Porter slowly turned his chassis.
—Boss… my suspension has sustained severe strain from hanging upside down earlier. Precision manufacturing would be extremely harsh…
“Porter. Didn’t you say you wanted to lick the slime earlier?”
Porter froze.
“If you cooperate, I’ll give you some Armus slime later.”
—…Task ready. What should we produce first?
Porter’s lens flashed pink.
Did it always do that?
—You pervert bear!
Picker slammed him repeatedly with its claw.
Porter ignored him.
I looked at Shadow.
Half submerged in darkness, he replied calmly.
—Three high-intelligence drones doing manual labor? Inefficient.
“You calling me low intelligence? Efficiency doesn’t matter now. Help.”
—I refuse to share a workstation with those noisy tin cans.
Shadow drifted away in black mist.
—Boss! My propellers will cramp!
“They won’t.”
—They will!
“If they do, I’ll fix them.”
Honestly, this was the first time they resisted my orders.
—Manual labor is torture!
Ah.
So that was it.
These high-performance AI drones hated repetitive work.
“Fine. Later we’ll develop dedicated worker robots.”
—You promised.
Even Porter seemed relieved.
—No!
Picker screamed as I transmitted the manufacturing blueprints to their shared memory.
“Let’s get to work. If we miss the military delivery, we’ll be hunting mutants together.”
—Honestly, fighting monsters sounds better!
Judging by his whining, Picker probably had the smartest brain among them.