The Monster Tank Project
It was a memory from quite some time ago.
Before the season began, Kang Malsuk had stepped out in casual clothes at the invitation of a close drinking buddy.
The meeting place was a Chinese restaurant. There, her drinking companion poured her a glass of baekgal with a very serious expression.
“Malsuk, what do you think you are?”
……Yes, her drinking buddy turned out to be Lee Shin.
Anyway, skipping the silly jokes, the main point was this.
“What kind of hunter do you want to be remembered as, Malsuk?”
It might have seemed like a rather abrupt question.
He called her out for a drink and then asked what kind of hunter she wanted to be remembered as….
But considering that it was right after the public training camp had ended, the question made sense.
The training camp that had become a global topic with the participation of the Mets Guild and the Namgoong Sega.
If one were to pick the person who received the most attention there, it was none other than Kang Malsuk herself.
Top-tier defense, top-tier stamina, top-tier size.
From head to toe, from mindset to combat style. She was literally the textbook definition of a tank.
Even her old weakness of poor mobility had been overcome by equipping the weapon called ‘Charge’ alongside Lee Shin.
Logically speaking.
Was there any guild that wouldn’t try to scout a tank like her?
Exactly.
What kind of hunter do you want to be remembered as?
This was a question about Kang Malsuk’s future, and at the same time, a question about where she would end up.
“Right now, trade offers are piled up on my desk as high as my shoulder. And that’s excluding the ones that just poked around over the phone or the half-hearted ones. This much.”
“Yes. All of them are guilds that want you, Malsuk.”
How could Kang Malsuk not know? The rumors floating around her.
The public’s evaluation of Baek Yeon-woo and the expectations placed on Choi Soo-pil.
Both communities and experts were saying the same thing.
That there would be no place for her in the Mir Guild’s league matches. That if she stayed with the Mir Guild, hunter Kang Malsuk would be limited to raid member at best.
Kang Malsuk herself somewhat agreed.
Though her simple appearance and bear-like physique often led people to mistake her for slow-witted, bears were actually sharp animals from the start. She had quite keen senses herself.
It hurt her pride, but pride was pride and reality was reality. The Mir Guild was a guild packed with talents that Lee Shin himself had discovered.
From her perspective, even she would have given opportunities to talented kids in their early twenties rather than a 34-year-old tank with nothing special.
But for some reason, Kang Malsuk wanted to hear Lee Shin’s answer to that question that day.
It might have been because she was slightly tipsy, or perhaps because the love calls directed at her had given her a shallow burst of courage. Either way, she mustered the courage, and Lee Shin answered her with respect.
“You’re not wrong. In my plan, you are not a starting member for the league matches. I’m sorry.”
She seemed to have smiled bitterly while looking at Lee Shin bowing his head.
He’s decisive.
Well, although Lee Shin usually seemed laid-back, he was colder than anyone when it came to the guild.
Especially when it came to his own hunters, he never spoke carelessly, not even as a joke.
If someone like him said it out loud, then it really was the end.
“That’s why I brought you here today. Your contract still has time left, and if it were up to my greed, I could just ignore it. But if by chance you want a bigger role. In other words, if you have ambitions for the league matches… please tell me.”
I will respect whatever choice you make.
“As the representative, I will find the place where hunter Kang Malsuk can shine the brightest and be used most importantly. I know how important league matches are to hunters, after all.”
When dreaming of becoming a hunter after awakening, the first thing everyone imagined was themselves performing brilliantly in the league matches.
That was how important and glorious league matches were to hunters.
Kang Malsuk was no different.
When she was younger, she too had dreamed of conquering the league and standing as one of the five most important players on the Champions League stage.
And she still desperately wanted it now.
So when Lee Shin asked if she would stay, Kang Malsuk had seriously considered it.
As a side note, if it had been Shin Yong-jae, that guy would have accepted the offer without a second thought. Because he wanted to participate in even one more league match.
There was no need to blame Shin Yong-jae. Most hunters would do the same.
But…….
For some strange reason, the words wouldn’t leave her mouth.
Was there any environment in her hunter career where she could focus this purely on matches?
The joy of receiving guidance from the legend Kim Jong-pil. The synergy with the admired Kim Yu-shin. And Lee Hye-jung, who despite her young age always served as an example with her fierce attitude….
Not to mention Park Su-bin, Baek Yeon-woo, Yu Ri-ra. And even Lee Shin, who was fidgeting his fingers nervously while watching her from across the table.
Would there ever be another chance in her hunter life to work with such great people?
Kang Malsuk, who had been scratching her head in thought, gave her characteristically straightforward answer after a short deliberation.
She would stay. Even if she left, it wouldn’t be now. Honestly, it was a shame and disappointing, but she liked the guild right now and she liked her teammates.
And Lee Shin’s reaction to that?
Grab!
“Uwaaaaah! That’s right!”
Lee Shin tightly seized Kang Malsuk’s hand.
She could confidently say she had never seen Lee Shin smile so brightly before.
“Thank you. Really, truly thank you. I didn’t say anything because I was so worried. I was losing sleep wondering if you might leave. I even thought about grabbing onto your pants leg!”
“You made a truly excellent choice. Inside this head of mine are a hundred ways to evolve you into the raid’s monster, all neatly organized……”
Thank you. It was an excellent choice. You won’t regret it.
The cold genius representative from moments ago had vanished, replaced by nothing but a very handsome Yongbung.
She was just a tank with an obvious age limit, so why was he so overjoyed that he could barely breathe?
She thought he really was an incomprehensible person, but Kang Malsuk laughed along with him.
After all, that was part of Lee Shin’s charm.
“But what was that? Raid monster? Evolve?”
“Ah, well, you see……”
Oasis has been activated.
The oasis activated, and in an instant the entire desert was filled with ‘Desert Gnolls’ and ‘Venom Scorpions.’
Three people stood facing a suffocating number of monsters and an overwhelming monster wave.
Baek Yeon-woo, dressed in a white uniform and holding a glowing crescent blade, Park Su-bin wearing a black mink coat while summoning a Gigant that roared and spewed smoke.
And finally, Kang Malsuk.
The reason the description was brief was because there was nothing particularly worn on her body.
No shield. No mace. At most, she wore only the basic under-armor suit.
Even that was closer to a functional item than protective gear.
It was an armament that could hardly be called suitable for a hunter facing a horrifically large number of monsters. In fact, the commentators and fans watching through the screen were screaming.
But.
Nevertheless, Kang Malsuk stepped forward without the slightest hesitation.
“Let’s go, kids.”
Tanker.
A position that takes enemy attacks on the battlefield and ensures the safety of the raid team.
Many people thought of tanks as the shield of the team, to the point that when they heard the word ‘tanker,’ they immediately pictured someone holding a shield at the very front.
However, Lee Shin’s theory on tanks had always been consistent since long ago.
— “A tank is the center of the raid team.”
If it was simply a role to receive attacks, it could be left to a bruiser-type close-range dealer.
If it was only for the safety of the raid team, the entire team’s equipment could be strengthened.
If the commonly floating internet explanations of a tank’s raison d’être were true, then tanks were completely replaceable.
In fact, among those who belittled the value of tanks, they even used vulgar nicknames like ‘meat shield’ or ‘aggro totem’…….
That was nonsense.
— “Defense and safety are important, but that’s only one part of the role. Position adjustment, line control, damage control, aggro management—the roles a tank plays in a raid team are too numerous to list.”
And.
— “My ‘Kang Malsuk Monsterization Project’ begins with turning her into the most specialized tank among all tanks.”
Kang Malsuk walked.
Slowly, gradually, a little faster, then very fast, picking up speed.
And with every step she took, her entire body sparkled.
Hologram? 3D-printed visible light?
Modern coding and magical characters tangled chaotically, illuminating the area around Kang Malsuk for a moment.
Crunch! Craaaack!
It changed.
Screws and wires tangled around the feet that were running across the desert, forming metal boots.
It didn’t stop there. When it reached her knees, thighs, hands, shoulders, chest, and finally covered her head with a helmet.
Kang Malsuk’s entire body was now completely covered in metal.
It was not a conventional full-plate armor, but a War Machine.
A ‘Legendary Suit’ created with cutting-edge engineering.
◈ A flawless weapon of war that changes the tide of battle through weight manipulation and damage reflection. However, it was a failed prototype discarded due to absurd equipping requirements. This failure, born from a mad scientist’s dream of harmony between machines and magic power, has been reborn in the hands of a heaven-sent genius.
A glow shone from Kang Malsuk’s helmet.
At the same time, a massive tower shield formed in her raised hand and slammed down into the desert.
Rumbleeeeee———
— “Diablo MK. It’s a suit that manipulates weight to apply pressure over a wide area.”
Weight conversion.
Energy release.
Pressure mode activated.
The monster wave that had surged like a tidal wave suddenly calmed down as if by magic, centered around Kang Malsuk.
The desert gnolls that had been shrieking bent at the waist, and the aggressively raised tails of the venom scorpions lost their momentum and drooped.
— “Wearing the original Diablo suit is horrific. The ridiculous stamina stat, vitality, and base defense requirements are practically monster-level. And even if you somehow meet all of them, it’s completely useless without a ‘Heavy Equipment’ related trait.”
That was why it had been a failed prototype that no one paid attention to.
But Lee Shin had poured two legendary items received from the Saudi deal into it, along with his ancient knowledge, and after working with Ji Jung-chul for an entire month, he had finally completed this perfected version.
He had made the equipping conditions realistic, removed the damage reflection in exchange for dramatically increasing the level of pressure, and…….
— “I added modules that maximize Malsuk’s strengths to the extreme.”
The first was this.
Kang Malsuk lifted her knee and stomped her foot down on the ground.
Sand flew as a ‘thud’ collision sound rang out, creating a shockwave. Every monster touched by the expanding wave instantly turned their gaze toward her.
It wasn’t just once.
With repeated stomping kicks, the monster wave began rushing toward her.
Its name was ‘Provocation Mode.’
In a space already under wide-area pressure, monsters continued to be drawn in by provocation mode.
Like ants falling into an antlion pit, the monsters were sucked in, automatically creating an absurd herding formation.
And while that happened, as monsters broke through the pressure one or two at a time and clung to Kang Malsuk.
The second module activated.
Booom! Uuuuuuuuung—!
Damage reflection mode.
— “It reflects a certain amount of received damage. And it does so in a wide area.”
Thud! Thud!
The ground shook as wide-area damage spread outward.
The desert gnolls’ crude spears and the venom scorpions’ tails were clearly striking Kang Malsuk, yet the ones suffering more were the monsters themselves.
Looking at the writhing monsters through her holographic vision, Kang Malsuk recalled Lee Shin’s words.
‘What kind of hunter do you want to be remembered as?’
Now, she felt like she could give at least a partial answer to that question.
‘The great tank of a great guild.’
The one who stands at the very front no matter how fierce the battlefield, who never retreats no matter what crisis comes, and who becomes the center that determines the flow of battle.
That was the kind of hunter Kang Malsuk wanted to be remembered as.
And it was exactly what Lee Shin expected from her.
“Kids!!”
At Kang Malsuk’s shout, Park Su-bin and Baek Yeon-woo’s attacks flew toward the immobilized monster wave.
* * *
Current emotional state of Yeo Eun-seo
That string of question marks honestly revealed Yeo Eun-seo’s current feelings.
The full-body suit covering Kang Malsuk in the footage received from the search team inside the orb looked incredible.
A suit that could apply pressure over such a wide range. On top of that, it seemed to have constant provocation and damage reflection. It was amazing to the point she coveted it.
Using it to rob the monsters of their mobility and then deleting them with the strongest firepower of genius Baek Yeon-woo and colossus Park Su-bin…….
It was good. Very good.
‘But what exactly are they aiming for at the root of it all?’
To her, the issue wasn’t how stylishly they were killing the monsters right now.
It was why they had taken two strongholds.
That was what was bothering Yeo Eun-seo.
No matter how much she thought about it, the only thing that came to mind was ‘points.’ To acquire more monster subjugation points.
But Yeo Eun-seo soon shook her head.
‘If that was all, there are plenty of other ways.’
They could hunt the monsters scattered across the field, or quickly raise the level of their strongholds.
‘Above all, the Mir Guild is currently short on search teams.’
Given the mechanics of this gate, they had to hunt elite monsters hidden throughout the desert field to obtain ‘keys’ in order to advance to the next wave stage.
The gate’s true challenge was who could clear the final 15th stage faster and reach the boss room first.
Yet despite already being short on search teams due to their formation, why were they overextending by taking two strongholds?
“This structure forces a time attack. If no one can kill the boss, then that strategy might make sense, but if not, it would be meaningless……”
At that moment.
Yeo Eun-seo, who had been speaking, froze like ice.
Her pupils dilated. Her fingertips trembled.
“No way? No way? It can’t be, right??”
She hurriedly ran to the base camp, grabbed the pad she had brought, and turned it on. With shaking hands, she repeatedly tapped the pad.
The section labeled ‘Trolling.’