The Moving Fortress (5)
Word had come that the helicopter was finished — welcome news — and Hanseong sent Phantom to the hangar. The replica had been standing right in front of Special Mission Battalion headquarters, so it reached the place in no time.
And then—
"Ah, Mage. You're here already."
He came face to face with Jihye, only just arrived. The timing was good. Confirming the finished helicopter's specs would require her in the end no matter what. But before that... the materials came first.
The core ingredient of an Elixir, bought at auction. Hanseong drew the Dark Dimension Essence from his Inventory and held it out to her.
"Take this."
"Yes? This is... oh?"
Her eyes flew wide. A moment later, still dazed, Jihye asked where he had gotten it, and Hanseong told her he had won the bid at a VIP auction. Then he pressed on.
"So you can make an Elixir with this, right?"
"Yes. If I enter the Tower and buy the remaining materials, I think I can. Only, I've just come out of the Tower, so to go back in..."
A seventy-two-hour entry restriction would be in effect. She couldn't make it right away. Hanseong caught what she meant to say and nodded as if he understood.
"It's not urgent. Take your time."
"Oh. That's a relief, then."
Jihye smiled, the tension leaving her. With the materials for the Elixir delivered, she and Hanseong headed for the hangar where Minjae was waiting.
A clang, then a long grinding rumble — the iron door hauled itself open with a racket. When it stood wide, familiar faces were there to greet them. Subin and Minjae.
"Ah! Welcome, Mage."
"Oh? You got here awfully fast."
"I happened to be nearby. But..."
The helicopter slid into Phantom's view: an AH-64. He studied that enormous airframe in silence, and a strange sense of wrongness crept over him. Hanseong pinned down what it was almost at once.
"It looks bigger than last time."
The whole craft had grown since he had seen it before. At the murmur, Minjae grinned.
"You saw it clearly. That's right."
"We upgraded the airframe to match the Power Source's specs," Subin added. "So it can carry more people than before."
Where two could ride before, four could ride now at most. The rotors and the armor plating had been rebuilt to a far higher standard as well.
"Please look over the detailed specs yourself."
At that, Jihye stepped forward. As she had the last time, she checked the helicopter's information, then whispered the whole of it in a voice meant for Hanseong alone. Two things had changed. The greatest, without question, was the maximum ether the Power Source could hold — it had risen sharply.
It used to be ten thousand, didn't it.
Swapped now for the Steel Machine Golem's Power Source, the ether it could store maxed out at fifty thousand. A full five times as much. That meant it could cover a far greater distance in a single flight.
And the next change... Fuel economy. The AH-64 had burned a hundred ether per kilometer; now it was fifty, the efficiency doubled. And if he used the special effect, Save Energy? He could spare still more ether than that.
"With the better economy, the maximum range jumped as well. In raw distance alone, it's far better than before."
Minjae supplied the rest. The old maximum had been a little over 150 kilometers, and even that only with Save Energy. Now, by the simplest calculation, it stretched to at least 1,000. And if they used Save Energy on top of that?
Japan would be nothing. From the base in Suwon to the city of Sendai, where the liberated rift waited, was about 1,200 kilometers. Keep Save Energy running and fold in Teleportation, and it was a distance he could cover without much trouble.
"Oh, and we hated to throw the old Power Source away, so we recycled it as an auxiliary battery."
"An auxiliary battery?"
"Yes. We left it in there."
Subin pointed at the helicopter's copilot seat. A cube about the size of a small oven sat there, holding ten thousand ether; mounted on the side of the AH-64's Power Source, it would feed ether in on its own. Hanseong listened without a word, turning the idea over.
An auxiliary battery... A device for stockpiling ether. Used properly, couldn't it apply to a person, and not only to a machine? If so, he would have a way to recover mana besides potions — and he could pour out far more skills than he could now.
"There's something I want to ask."
"Yes? What is it?"
Hanseong passed the thought along to Minjae and Subin. A moment later the two of them smiled awkwardly and scratched at their cheeks.
"Uh, we haven't actually tested that yet..."
"Shall we give it a try?"
"Yeah. I'm counting on you."
"Yes, understood. Might as well."
"Nothing to lose, after all."
Straightforward. He liked that. Hanseong smiled without a word. In any case, that was the whole of the briefing on the AH-64. All that remained was to grant the craft the Moving Fortress skill.
Phantom could do it, but... then the effect would fall to twenty percent of what it should be. He didn't want that, so Moving Fortress, at least, he would cast himself. Which meant the helicopter had to be moved first.
Perhaps because he had emptied the Inventory ahead of time, the helicopter slipped inside without a scratch. Minjae and Subin stared, eyes round with surprise.
"What? The helicopter..."
"Uh — where did it go?"
The two of them were plainly thrown. Hanseong gave them a short account of the Inventory, and once they understood, they nodded.
And then—
"Um, Mage."
Subin spoke up of a sudden, her voice careful.
"Are you boarding right now?"
"That's the plan. Why?"
"Ah, then I'll come with you. I need to explain how to use NOAH."
NOAH, the special artificial intelligence — Subin's unique skill, installed in the AH-64 to handle autonomous flight. It was a function he would be using for the first time, so hearing her out would be wise. Even so, a flicker of hesitation remained.
Boarding together means... he would have to show Subin what he really looked like. Revealing himself to someone he had known for so short a time was no small burden. The hesitation did not last.
The White-Faced Ghost Mask will do. Copy the appearance of A, administrator of the Tower, and be aboard the helicopter before they arrived. That was all. With the problem settled, Hanseong called for Jihye.
"Jihye."
"Yes, Mage."
"Bring Subin to where I am."
"Understood. Should we go right now?"
"Yeah. I'm counting on you."
That was the last of it. Jihye left the hangar at once with Subin in tow. Hanseong, for his part, left Minjae's farewell behind him, stored Phantom in the Inventory, and put on the White-Faced Ghost Mask.
His appearance was now that of A, administrator of the Tower. Only the outside had changed. He was still bound to a wheelchair. With the Collector's help he moved to the clearing in front of the base, then released the AH-64 stored in his Inventory.
All right. Let's begin.
Drawing close, Hanseong reached out and ran a hand along the fuselage. A low breath, and he used his unique skill.
White light wrapped the helicopter. A little later it was gone, as if it had never been there. Another moment passed, and a familiar notification rose before his eyes.
From the moment the Remote Support Blessing took hold, the work was as good as done.
Good. Perfect.
With the Moving Fortress complete, Hanseong sat in the seat behind the cockpit with the Collector's help, the wheelchair he had been using stored away in the Inventory.
And then—
A dry female voice came with it, and green subtitles printed themselves on the empty air. This had to be the special AI Subin had spoken of. NOAH. Hanseong looked over the list of administrators and touched the third entry. A new voice rose, and new subtitles with it.
At NOAH's words, a list of every function currently available unfolded before his eyes. Autonomous flight, of course — and combat support, emergency landing, route prediction, the detection of enemies nearby, even a function to conceal the craft itself.
There really is no end to these.
Hanseong looked over NOAH's many functions with open curiosity. In the midst of it, he felt a familiar presence not far off. Brakes screeched. A military vehicle pulled up nearby, and Jihye and Subin stepped out. They came toward the helicopter and met the eyes of Hanseong, already aboard — and, with nothing to choose between them, both of them startled.
"...!?"
"M-Mage? That appearance..."
"This is what I really look like."
A lie, of course. He tossed the answer off, and passed the truth to Jihye alone: that he had hidden his real appearance behind the White-Faced Ghost Mask he had obtained before. Jihye, now in on it, nodded in silence as if she understood. Subin was a little startled herself, but she found her composure again almost at once.
Before long, both of them were aboard.
"Ah, NOAH's already active."
Seated in the pilot's seat and starting a simple check, Subin opened her eyes wide. She turned toward Hanseong behind her and spoke again.
"Did you set an administrator?"
"Yeah. Some kind of grade came up..."
"That's right. I put limits on NOAH's functions according to administrator grade."
A precaution, she explained, in case someone not on the administrator list ever boarded. The maximum grade was level 9, and a level-9 administrator could freely use every function NOAH possessed. With the explanation finished, her report followed.
"Preparations for departure are complete."
She turned to Hanseong.
"Before I activate autonomous flight, we have to set a destination. May I ask where you're headed?"
"Japan."
"I see. Japan... wait, what?"
Subin asked it again, startled. Jihye, by contrast, was unfazed — she already knew the plan. Whether Subin was shocked or not, Hanseong simply went on with what he had to say.
"Sendai. No — we should start with Fukushima."
Before he entered the liberated rift, he had to deal with the monsters and the rift's owner. For that, Fukushima, where a defensive line had already been raised, was the better place to begin. Just then Subin's flustered voice reached his ear.
"Y-you're going that far?"
"Yeah. The liberated rift has to be dealt with."
He answered flatly, and gave her a brief account of what would happen if a liberated rift was left alone. Subin looked startled, hearing it for the first time.
"Ah... so that's what it was."
She nodded, as if she understood. Then, her face set with resolve, she spoke.
"Understood. Then please confirm the final destination one more time."
"Japan. Fukushima."
A more precise spot could only be fixed once they were close. Finding the rift's owner meant going through Open Map. For now, though, Fukushima remained the final destination, and when he said as much, Subin nodded again.
"Yes! Then we'll depart."
She moved to lift off. But just before the rotors spun up, Hanseong stopped her.
"Ah — wait a moment?"
"Yes? Why?"
"Let's move to Ulleungdo first."
"Uh, you mean... you want Ulleungdo set as a temporary waypoint?"
"No."
Hanseong shook his head and corrected her.
"I have a skill that can move us all at once."
"Ah! The one you used in Busan..."
Right on the mark. Hanseong grinned. Shift from the Suwon base to Ulleungdo and take off from there, and he could save the fuel.
A vast magic circle etched itself into the ground. A moment later the helicopter, wrapped in pure white light, vanished like smoke between one blink and the next — and everyone aboard with it.