The Proposal (3)

The moment Detection laid the information bare, Hanseong understood exactly how Minjae felt.

…Yeah. This is worth begging for help.

Physical-attack immunity, and damage absorption on top of it. Physical-attack reflection as well. Killing the thing by any physical means was flatly impossible. Its only weaknesses were magic and sorcery, and the trouble was that mages and shamans were rare classes to begin with. Here, at least, it meant no one but Hanseong could bring it down.

And something else had been nagging at him for a while. On the map, new red dots kept appearing around the Steel Machine Golem every ten minutes. Anyone could see it was manufacturing minions.

I really should take a look.

After a moment's thought, Hanseong decided to use Mark on it. He would have to keep an eye on the creature for the subjugation anyway. There was a problem, though.

…Right.

Now that he thought about it, he had used Mark on the Vampire Tree that morning. The memory came late, and a troubled look crossed his face. The problem solved itself almost at once, though. The special effect of the wristwatch he had just received would take care of it.

Let's try it.

He pressed the button on the side of the watch. The hour hand spun in a blur, and a notification appeared before his eyes.

So that was how it worked. Hanseong selected Mark.

The land around the Steel Machine Golem unfolded. The instant the shared vision came through, Hanseong's eyes went wide.

"...!"

The first thing he saw was scrap heaped into a mountain, as if every piece of junk in the city had been dragged to a single place. At its center sat something so vast it beggared description—a colossal monster crouched there, perfectly still. He knew it the moment he saw it.

So that's…

The Steel Machine Golem. He had never imagined it would dwarf even the Ether Plunderer, and that thing had been the size of a ten-story building. Dismay welled up at a bulk that left every expectation far behind.

It lasted only a moment. Another sight seized him: the golem's minions being born.

Clank! Clatter! Rrrumble!

Machine soldiers bustled without pause. They scavenged abandoned cars, traffic signs, and lengths of rebar from all over the city, then dumped the wreckage in front of the golem. Once the pile was large enough, the Steel Machine Golem swallowed it in a single gulp. A short while later, it spat something back out.

Minions. Nothing else. In a single cycle the Steel Machine Golem produced anywhere from ten to twenty of them, and the new servants headed straight into the city. Watching it happen, Hanseong understood why the machine soldiers already numbered in the thousands.

The city is overflowing with materials.

Abandoned cars alone ran into the thousands, and there was no shortage of other places to scavenge scrap. Leave the thing alone, and the minions would multiply without end. Then it would stop being Uijeongbu's problem alone. The more servants it gained, the faster the Steel Machine Golem would grow.

Better to erase it quickly.

Hanseong's eyes glinted cold. He drew his gaze off the golem and fixed it on coordinates roughly five kilometers away, where a warehouse supermarket stood. Hundreds of blue dots were huddled there together.

That must be…

Where the Uijeongbu survivors lived, Minjae among them. Hanseong used Precise Observation on the spot.

Not long after, he found the one he took for Minjae. The furniture section on the second floor of the mart: a boy lying at a slant across a bed, smartphone clenched in his hand. He looked like a high school student, and he couldn't stop coughing.

"Enchanter."

"Kaff! Y-yes? Yes?"

The guess hardened into certainty. Proof enough was the boy ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠beyond his vision answering through a cough. Having pinned Minjae's location, Hanseong spoke in a voice that had settled into calm.

"Before the subjugation begins, there's something I'd like to ask."

More precisely, something he wanted confirmed. One question he had been waiting to ask ever since Minjae introduced himself as an Enchanter. Hanseong converted ether into mana and woke the magic eye dwelling in his left eye. Staring straight at the boy, he brought out the name that had been gnawing at him.

"The Necromancer, Kim Tae-min."

The name had barely left his mouth before Jihye's shoulders flinched. Of course they did. From the earliest days of the Cataclysm, she had been bound to the necromancer by an ugly fate. Hanseong pressed on.

"Have you heard that name?"

"No. This is the first time."

Minjae shook his head. Blue light bloomed from his body. Truth. Seoyeon, who was with him, looked just as lost. After a moment's thought, Hanseong spoke again.

"Then one more question."

"What is it?"

"Since the Cataclysm, have you registered anything you made at the Auction House and sold it?"

"Ah, yes. A few times."

Minjae agreed without hesitation.

"I sold a hammer that enhances strength, a coat with a bulletproof function, and a ring with an enchant effect."

The details followed at once. The last of them—the ring with an enchant effect—matched exactly the ring on Hanseong's finger. Which meant the necromancer hadn't received the Enchant Ring from Minjae himself. He had bought it at the Auction House.

"I see. That answers it."

The question had come undone rather emptily. Still, the lingering unease was gone. This time it was Minjae who spoke.

"Um, then... would it be all right to move on to the Steel Machine Golem?"

"Ah, yes. Please."

The explanation began. The champion monster, the Steel Machine Golem, and its minions, the machine soldiers—all of them carried skills that either granted immunity to physical damage or absorbed it. Ordinary attacks barely worked.

"The one mercy is that they're quite slow. That's how we've managed to get away until now."

Hanseong already knew that. Through Mark, he had watched the machine soldiers move. Even so, they couldn't run forever.

If those soldiers grow any more numerous…

Eventually there would be nowhere left to flee, and after that they would be wiped out in an instant. The Steel Machine Golem had to fall before then.

"Another trait is that it only roams while the sun is up."

The Steel Machine Golem moved only by day. At night it shut itself inside its territory and devoted itself to making minions. Mark had confirmed that as well.

"Then couldn't we hit it at night?"

Jihye offered the idea. On the face of it, the guess was sound. If the thing couldn't move after dark, a first strike ought to be easy. Minjae answered in a troubled voice.

"We thought the same at first, but we realized soon enough it was a mistake. The moment the sun goes down, it uses a skill called Fortification."

"Fortification?"

"Yes. It can't move, but in exchange its damage-absorption skill and its attack-reflection skill both turn on. We confirmed the effect."

Jihye closed her mouth as if the words had stuck there. Absorption alone was a headache, and the thing had a skill that threw attacks back on top of that. Just thinking about it, the enemy was a damned nuisance.

"So if we're going to attack it, it has to be while the sun is up. At least then it doesn't reflect anything."

Minjae finished with a sigh, as if venting his own frustration. But that was only his guess, not the fact. The reflection skill Detection had shown on the Steel Machine Golem appeared to trigger only against physical attacks.

Which means it's meaningless against me.

The only thing Hanseong had to watch for was damage absorption. Even that, so long as it was absorption and not immunity, was bound to have a ceiling. Dump overwhelming firepower on it in a single instant, and the problem would solve itself. A thought struck him then.

Huh. This might be easier than I thought.

It was half past eight in the evening. The sun was fully down, so the Steel Machine Golem would stay shut in its territory and not move until dawn. A body the size of a mountain made a perfect target besides.

And the conditions aren't fussy.

It had nothing like the Wolf King's skill that restored all its life at the brink of death, and it wasn't sitting in some special environment like the Dream World.

In that case…

The answer was simple. Bring every ounce of firepower to bear and burn its territory to nothing. Done thinking, Hanseong activated every Magic Sphere stored in his bracelet.

The Magic Spheres took their places in the empty air. In case the firepower fell short, he cast more on the spot. Twenty spears in all leveled their points toward the north.

That finishes the preparations.

All that remained was to watch the result. If this failed, he could think of another plan then.

With a sound like air being torn apart, the twenty spears left the base and streaked toward Uijeongbu.

The outskirts of Uijeongbu. A warehouse supermarket.

Minjae lay at a slant on the bed, quietly watching his phone, waiting for the mage's answer. Then, all at once, his face went white.

"Hrk! Cough, cough!"

A violent fit took him. When the coughing finally eased, the people nearby drew in.

"Minjae. You okay?"

"Your medicine? You haven't taken it yet, have you?"

"...No. I was trying to save it."

"You can't do that. The worse things get, the more you have to take it properly."

His companions fussed over him. Minjae managed a weak smile. He had suffered from asthma since he was little, and without his medicine he fell into spells like this often enough. The pills would fix it, of course, but just now even that wasn't easy.

Three days left, maybe?

He glanced at the medicine packets in his pack and let out a quiet sigh. In the old days he would have ransacked the pharmacies scattered through the city and stocked up. Now that they couldn't roam downtown as they pleased, medicine was hard to come by.

…No idea how much longer I have to hold out.

So he meant to endure for as long as he could bear it. The one mercy was that he had secured the cooperation of the Fire-Lightning Mage. Right now, that was their only hope.

Of course, the story about him taking down a champion monster alone is probably a bit exaggerated…

Even so, it meant he had the skill to face one. Add the help of the Suwon Provisional Government, and their odds ought to be good enough. Settling the thought, Minjae gripped the phone that still hadn't answered. He forced the cough down and spoke.

"Um, could I ask you one thing?"

"Yes. What is it?"

"It's just... when do you think the subjugation will start..."

Fortunately, the reply came at once. Minjae asked, carefully, when the operation would begin. He needed to know in advance if he was going to ration his medicine. A moment later, the mage's answer returned.

"In ten..."

Ten days? Surely it couldn't take that long. Minjae frowned. Longer than he'd expected. A moment later he accepted it anyway. The Steel Machine Golem was a difficult opponent; preparations that thorough would take time. But then—

"Nine. Eight. Seven..."

"...?"

The answer he'd thought was finished kept going. What was this? A countdown, out of nowhere? So the first reply hadn't meant ten days? He was still floundering in the confusion when the shouts came.

"M-Minjae!"

"Look over there! Something's coming this way...!"

His companions were all pointing outside, alarm plain on their faces. Startled, Minjae looked where they were pointing. Beyond the pitch-black night sky, something bright was flying toward them. He tilted his head.

What is that? A meteor?

No. It didn't look like a meteor. It wasn't falling out of the sky so much as crossing over from somewhere else. Then what? Curiosity was just rising when the shining things passed through the sky overhead. He turned to follow them.

"Don't tell me...!"

Minjae's eyes flew wide. He had realized what lay in the direction they were headed. Dropping altitude all the while, they slammed into the ground as one—toward the champion monster that ruled Uijeongbu. Toward the Steel Machine Golem.

KRA-KOOOOM!

A deafening roar followed the first impact. Then the great explosion began, and the shock of it reached even the warehouse supermarket, kilometers from the strike.

"Aaaah!"

"Wh-what is that!?"

The building shook like mad. Around him, his companions screamed and dropped to the floor. The blasts didn't stop. As if they were only now beginning, a chain of detonations and shocks rolled over the whole area.

Bang! Kra-koom! Boom!

How long it ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠went on, he couldn't have said. When more than a dozen explosions had finally ended, the tremor that had been rattling the building was gone without a trace. Minjae, who had buried his head deep in the bed, carefully lifted it. At the view outside, his mouth fell open.

"My God..."

The heart of the city had become a ruin. The grotesque mountain of scrap was gone, and so was the Steel Machine Golem, vanished without a trace. He was still blinking blankly at a sight he couldn't believe when his companions cried out.

"L-look outside!"

"The machine soldiers...!"

Every one of them was pointing out the windows. The Steel Machine Golem's minions, which had been prowling around the mart, collapsed as if their strings had been cut. They tumbled across the ground as nothing more than lumps of scrap. Minjae's eyes went wide again. Minions that had been perfectly fine, all of them failing at once, could mean only one thing. And then—

"The Steel Machine Golem has been subjugated."

A flat voice came through the phone. The Fire-Lightning Mage. Minjae snapped back to himself and asked, his voice shaking.

"J-just now, that... was that you...?"

"Yes."

The mage confirmed it without hesitation. The moment Minjae heard it, goosebumps raced over his whole body.

The mage is in Suwon right now.

The proof was that they were speaking through the phone Seoyeon carried. And from Suwon, he could use a skill all the way to Uijeongbu? More than simply casting it—he had put down a Champion Monster in a single blow. He had even ignored attack reflection and damage absorption.

Minjae swallowed, throat dry, before he knew he was doing it. The power left common sense so far behind that fear gave way to awe. With it came the words he had heard from Seoyeon.

He said he killed a champion alone…

It hadn't been an exaggeration. He was still blankly taking the fact in anew when the mage spoke again.

"Enchanter."

"...Yes?"

"I'll ask for compensation for this cooperation separately, later. Nothing I want comes to mind just now."

"Yes, yes! P-please do!"

"Ah, and..."

The mage let the rest trail off. After a brief pause, he made an unexpected offer.

"Now that the encirclement is broken, how about joining the Suwon Provisional Government? It would be a little easier for me to ask favors of you that way."

An invitation to the Suwon Provisional Government. In truth, Minjae didn't trust anything calling itself a provisional government. After the Cataclysm, he had figured the nation of Korea was as good as gone. Being turned away at the door by the Sejong Provisional Government had only deepened the refusal.

But the Suwon Provisional Government…

Was ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠different from Sejong's. He could tell that much just from the fact that they had moved troops to rescue the citizens trapped in Hwaseong. And the mage was in Suwon. He wasn't part of the provisional government, but Minjae expected him to stay there for a while. That, surely, was why they were urging him to come. He was still quietly turning it over when a woman's voice came through the phone.

"The ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Suwon Provisional Government welcomes every survivor living in Uijeongbu!"

Captain Lee Jihye, by the sound of it. According to Seoyeon, she held a fairly important post in the Suwon Provisional Government.

"If anyone has trouble getting around, we'll send military vehicles. So please think it over carefully, and decide!"

An attitude nothing like Sejong's. When the promise came that they would take every survivor, Minjae's heart wavered. With their main fighters wiped out, the Uijeongbu group desperately needed somewhere that would protect them. He answered, cautious.

"Understood. I'll talk it over with the others and contact you."

"Yes. I'll look forward to a wise decision."

With the mage's reply, the long call ended. Minjae set the phone down, sighed, and looked around at his companions.

"...You all heard that, right?"

"Uh, that is... they're telling us to come to Suwon..."

"That's right. I'll take opinions starting now."

Nothing good would come of dragging the debate out. Minjae coughed once, short, and put the question to the companions gathered around him.

"If anyone is against going to Suwon, raise your hand."

"..."

No one did.

"Then, those in favor..."

This time every hand went up. Minjae's included. Not a single dissent. Unanimous. He let out a breath of a laugh.

"Then it's decided."

Minjae took up the phone again. A little later, when the line connected, he reported the result of the vote they had just held—along with the answer that they would join the Suwon Provisional Government.