Murim vs. Space Monsters
"By the way."
"Hm?"
The moment they accepted the freighter purification request, the client had texted them the dock address and told them to head over. It wasn't a call to depart immediately—the roster was full, so the point was to gather everyone and walk them through the schedule ahead.
After walking a short distance, Calsira turned to Jincheon with a question.
"A freighter will have its own defensive systems, so we'll need mechas to neutralize those. But after that we still have to go inside the ship ourselves, right?"
"Yeah, that tracks."
Purification work meant people entering the vessel, pushing all the way to the power core, and eliminating the Mother. Once the Mother died, every Crypter aboard went inert, which made the core the natural final objective.
Attacking from outside with mechas or ships sounded simpler, but the power core was still running—it was only being drained by the Mother. Inflict enough damage on it and the freighter would be destroyed, scattering or obliterating the cargo in the blast. Digging a direct tunnel straight to the core at the ship's heart would only let Crypters pour out through the breach and swarm the work machines. As long as the Mother stayed safe, Crypters could survive in vacuum; they would simply latch onto heavy equipment and mechas and tear them apart.
"You're only interested in mecha combat. Why take this job at all?"
Even with all those complications, Calsira still couldn't see why Jincheon—who had cared only about mecha fights—would suddenly show interest in a Crypter purification request. Heliane pricked up her ears as well.
"Back on twenty-first-century Earth, horror movies about space monsters attacking people used to drop every time you thought you'd forgotten them."
Jincheon explained carefully, knowing no one from this world would understand the reference.
"People fighting back against space monsters that guns can barely touch. And the monsters that break through that resistance, devour people, and spread pure terror."
A smile curved his lips.
"An ordinary person would drown in helplessness and fear. But what if someone who actually has the power to fight goes toe-to-toe with those monsters?"
"So you just want to fight the fantasy monsters from the movies yourself."
"See? You get me."
"I understand you. That doesn't mean I agree with you."
In the end he had taken the job purely out of the desire to fight creatures that had only ever existed in fiction. Heliane still couldn't quite believe this man had once ruled as the strongest in another world. He was acting like a kidult.
"Haa. Purification work isn't something you can take lightly…"
"Seriously, don't worry about it. If it comes down to it, I'll just handle everything myself."
The gulf between a man who could destroy a planet alone and people who had never seen that power was on full display.
"Heh heh heh. Murim man versus space monsters."
Whether he noticed Heliane's feelings or not, Jincheon was smiling to himself, perfectly satisfied with a title that sounded like a cheap B-movie.
"The pay really is insane, though. Seven hundred thousand credits per person."
"Anyone responsible for shipping Larium would have that kind of money. Plus purification work is brutal."
"Hmm. If I'd known this was coming I might've held off on the upgrades a little longer."
"Who could have predicted it would turn out like this? We pinched every credit for the upgrades just in case, but with this payout we can do even more."
Of course none of them planned to stop at the modifications they had already made. They had only reinforced mobility because that was all they could afford; plenty of other upgrades still waited on the wish list.
Some time later they stepped into the dock the client had indicated and found a small ship waiting along with several dozen people.
"Ohh."
Jincheon let out a soft sound of appreciation at the looks they gave him.
Every last one of them is a pro in this field.
It wasn't forced intensity—the strength in their eyes was natural, settled. If veterans who had clawed through countless crises existed, these were the eyes they would wear.
"New faces."
"Never seen them before either."
The mercenaries murmured among themselves, openly puzzled by Jincheon's group. At the same time, the Tucan who had been flailing and wailing three days earlier stepped out of the ship with a solemn expression.
"Ahem."
His basic frame helped, but the way he carried himself now made it hard to believe he was the same man who had been blubbering yesterday.
"Looks like everyone's here."
He had appeared with a dignified cough, yet to Jincheon's eyes he still looked exactly like a man with one foot hanging over a cliff. Failure here meant a fall, and that was precisely why he was putting on such a show of bravado.
"I called you all here to give you information before the purification begins."
He transmitted the freighter's internal schematics to everyone present.
"Cruiser-class freighter."
"Interior's nice and roomy, at least."
"Shortest route to the power core is…"
Like true professionals, they immediately began sketching out attack vectors and entry plans from the data.
"I'll be honest. I'm a complete outsider to this field. All I know is that purification is extremely difficult and that it takes preparation time. From your expert perspective, how long will it take to get ready?"
The mercenaries' faces visibly relaxed. Clueless employers usually fixated only on reclaiming their property, ignored everything the experts said, and demanded an immediate assault. Specialists who needed careful strategy, gear, and role assignments would walk away in disgust, leaving green rookies to attempt the job and get wiped out. The freighter would simply vanish into the galaxy, cargo forever lost.
The Tucan was still an ignorant employer, but the fact that he was ready to listen made him a decent one.
"Before that, one question. How far is the target from here?"
"Mmm… the engines were already damaged before they fled, so it's probably still sitting in place. At average speed, eleven days out."
"Was the Crypter ship that attacked smaller than this one?"
"It was."
"Then the original Crypters have already settled into the new freighter."
The veteran mercenaries peppered the client with questions, steadily building their picture.
"An experienced Crypter can move the ship by other means even with a broken engine."
"What? Th-then what do we do?"
"For now we can still find it near the original coordinates. If we fail, though, it'll leave for somewhere much harder to track."
"Uuuugh…!"
The longer a Crypter Mother survived and the more it fought humans, the more experience it accumulated. Experienced Crypters gradually learned human machinery until they could replace broken components with their own bodies. That was exactly why the named Crypter known as the Predatory Queen was so terrifying—she could wring one hundred twenty percent performance out of a Calsorn Empire warship.
"In that case we'll spend one day here dividing roles and buying the gear we need. The rest we can handle on the way."
"Understood. Then tomorrow we—"
A single day fell within expected parameters, so the Tucan was about to nod when a rough-looking man with a Crypter-claw scar across his face cut in.
"Hold it."
He stopped the conversation just as it was wrapping up.
"There's something I want to know first."
His gaze locked onto Jincheon's group. The other mercenaries, who had been focused on the job, belatedly realized the same issue and turned their eyes as well.
"There are plenty of mercenaries, but purification specialists are rare. That's why I remember most of the famous ones in this sector—and farther out."
The man had a fierce face, a sharp scar, and a solid build. The look he fixed on Jincheon's party would have made children cry on the spot as he strode closer.
"But I've never seen any of you before."
Jincheon answered with a smile.
"Good memory. You're right. This is our first time."
"First time?"
"Ha. Is this bastard serious right now?"
"A bunch of rookies showing up for purification work?"
The other mercenaries looked equally incredulous.
"Hey. Walk away while I'm still being nice. This isn't a kids' game."
"W-wait! Counting them, the roster is full…!"
"Then drop them and wait until three more people show up."
The Tucan client protested, but the mercenary advised waiting for replacements—for their own sake and for the client's.
"Pfft. Heh. Heh heh heh."
"You're laughing? You think this is funny?"
Jincheon let out a laugh that sounded forced out of him, and the mercenary's face grew even darker.
"Novels and comics really are different from reality. I was planning to reveal I was a hidden powerhouse at the critical moment, but I got cut off at the gate."
"Stop spouting nonsense I can't understand."
Jincheon had originally wanted to play the classic hidden-master role—holding back until the crisis, then appearing with a flourish. Now he simply dropped the act.
"Watch your mouth. I came here to help you freeload this job."
"…What?"
"Normally I'd beat every one of you down and take your shares for myself. But this time I'm here half for fun."
"What the hell has this bastard been babbling about this whole time?! Speak so we can understand!"
Unable to make sense of any of it, the mercenary reached for Jincheon's collar.
Jincheon simply traced a circle in the air toward the man's hand with his index finger.
Whoosh! Crash!
"Ghk?!"
The man's body spun hard around his own arm and slammed roughly to the deck.
The rest of the mercenaries shot to their feet, killing intent flooding toward Jincheon.
"What? Why aren't the security bots coming?"
One mercenary was down because of Jincheon's move, yet the peacekeeping security bots stayed silent.
Of course they are. Like some robot could ever grasp the subtle principle of Yi Hwa Jeop Mok.
If Jincheon had simply stretched out an arm and thrown the man, the bots would have leapt out and issued a warning to both parties. But the security bots linked to the dock cameras registered the fall as the mercenary simply collapsing on his own, so they never appeared.
"Kh… kuh…"
The downed mercenary rose, rubbing his lower back where he had slammed hard onto the deck.
"You son of a—huh?"
Mid-curse, ready to charge again, he caught a glimpse of the nano-suits clinging tightly to the women's bodies beneath their outer clothes.
"Damn it. Looks like they're wearing high-performance nano-suits."
Jincheon himself wasn't wearing one, but the man apparently decided it was simply a type that didn't show on the surface.
"If you're wearing a nano-suit strong enough to drop me with a finger, you'll at least be useful in a fight."
Having felt it firsthand, the man who had first challenged them gave a grudging nod of acknowledgment and returned to his place.
"With just a finger?"
"Do nano-suits that powerful even exist?"
"That's why the bots never registered it."
None of the mercenaries understood—or even knew of—the principle of Yi Hwa Jeop Mok. They simply assumed Jincheon had toppled a solidly built fighter with nothing but finger strength.
…Some weird misunderstanding just took root, but explaining martial arts would only make them not believe me. Better let it go.
Jincheon decided that trying to explain internal energy here would only shatter the slowly improving mood, so he kept his mouth shut. Fighting space monsters was fun, but watching other people fight was also something he wanted to enjoy.
Nothing's more entertaining than watching small fry thrash each other, after all.
"If you've still got a problem with it, we'll take the most dangerous roles. If things go south you can just abandon us, run, and reorganize your formation, right?"
"Wait, Jincheon?!"
"Isn't that a little too dangerous?"
Heliane and Calsira were startled by Jincheon volunteering for the riskiest work, but—
"Pwahahahaha!"
"We've got one hell of a rookie here!"
"New blood these days ought to show that kind of spirit."
—the other mercenaries burst into noisy laughter, clearly liking his guts.
"Hey, newbie."
The mercenary who had tried to grab him and gotten thrown spoke up again.
"You've clearly got skill and the confidence looks good on you. So go build experience on small-ship purifications. I'm saying this for your own good."
The reason he had first picked a fight so aggressively was to keep Jincheon's group from dying pointlessly. Now that he had confirmed their ability through the nano-suits with his own body, he offered serious advice, believing they could become even stronger with more experience.
"I'll say it one more time. I came here to help you freeload this job."
"…Your choice."
In the end the mercenary who had tried to persuade him stepped back.
"Heh heh heh. Guys like that always start screaming for their moms the second they meet a Crypter."
"Anyone want a bet? Five hundred credits says that bastard's crying within ten minutes."
"Come on, with an ego that big he's not breaking in ten. Seven hundred says he lasts fifteen."
The mercenaries snickered and wagered on how many minutes it would take Jincheon to start bawling. Jincheon memorized every one of their faces and smiled.
This is the best part. Looking forward to the moment those faces fill with pure shock.
"Uh… anyway, since things seem settled, we'll depart tomorrow at three in the afternoon."
The Tucan gave them the departure time and the rally point after launch, then dismissed the mercenaries. Most already had their specialized gear ready or needed only time, so they headed for the shopping district to buy basic equipment and ammunition that could be purchased on the spot with credits.
"What were you thinking, saying something like that?"
"The most dangerous roles… Even with nano-suits, who knows how long we'd last against Crypters…"
Heliane and Calsira pushed back against Jincheon's unilateral decision, but he only smiled at them.
"You don't need to worry."
"You're strong, but we—!"
"No, that's not what I mean."
Cutting Heliane off mid-sentence, Jincheon wore a smile almost identical to the one he had worn the first time he had thoroughly violated them.
"It's an eleven-day trip at the estimated time, right? That's more than enough for me to make both of you awaken your Inner Qi."
"But we still haven't felt anything like Inner Qi so far."
"That's because I left it to your own initiative. This time I'm doing it differently."
"…"
"…"
The two women instinctively felt a chill at that smile.
"On Terra there's something called Spartan education. Eleven days should be plenty of time for the 'aftereffects' to heal."
"Wait—aftereffects?"
"In that case, shall we go buy weapons first? Laser swords, pistols or submachine guns for starters…"
"Hold on! What do you mean, aftereffects?! What exactly is that?!"
"How much ammo should we bring? Just in case…"
Completely ignoring their protests, Jincheon sank into his own world, deciding what weapons to purchase. Watching him blatantly dismiss their words, the two women felt a fear of the unknown so sharp that cold sweat beaded on their skin even with the nano-suits' temperature regulation running.