Blazing-Fast Leveling

KWAANG—

The sound of Yoo Byungtae's fist slamming into the desk made everyone in the conference room flinch.

"Any objections? Anyone left who still wants to defend that bastard?"

Under his murderous aura, every gaze dropped. Nobody in the shelter wanted to draw the wrath of their leader, a man who might as well have been an absolute monarch.

Byungtae ground his teeth and clenched his fist, but inside, his thoughts were a different story.

What the hell happened?

He bit his lip, confusion churning in him.

They were a party of at least C-rank awakened, with B-ranks mixed in….

Unbelievably, every last one of them had been killed by that man.

"I don't know what methods he used, but he murdered four of our awakened and fled."

Granted, he had been the one to send the assassins first—but since none of them knew that, the point was moot.

"I will organize a pursuit team of awakened to hunt him down."

The murder of awakened beings was a grave crime that threatened the shelter's defense. If it went unpunished, discipline across the entire shelter would begin to crumble.

"But Leader… with the shelter war coming up, I don't think we can spare many people."

"And we can't ignore that, either."

"That?"

"You know… the, uh, 'Wave' or whatever it was he kept going on about."

At those words from one of his subordinates, Byungtae's expression hardened almost imperceptibly.

Even after I exiled him, that bastard's shadow still lingers?

The absurd speculation the man had once pushed—

That the zombies would soon begin moving in swarms centered around evolved variants.

At the time, Yeongsik's opinion had been dismissed as nonsense, plain and simple. There were too many problems staring them in the face to prepare for a future that might never come.

Besides, a zombie was a zombie, wasn't it? Mindless beasts, nothing more?

The evolved variants were admittedly dangerous, possessing special abilities of their own—but they were still creatures without reason. If the zombies had ever possessed true intelligence, humanity would have gone extinct long ago.

And so his speculation should have been self-evidently ridiculous.

And yet, the mere fact that he had said it was enough to make them waver—even with Byungtae himself stating otherwise.

That, more than anything, was what infuriated Yoo Byungtae.

Swallowing his anger, Byungtae spoke slowly and carefully. These awakened were vital resources for the shelter; mistreating them would accomplish nothing.

"Then we commit only the minimum personnel. The objective is tracking and investigation. Avoid engagement even if you find him, and if he has any collaborators, do not approach—report back only."

This was a man who had killed four awakened. Kim Yeongsik might have been an ordinary civilian, but there was no telling what cards he had hidden up his sleeve.

"Hmm… that sounds reasonable enough."

"That's our Leader for you."

"So who leads the pursuit team?"

"Shouldn't it at least be someone decent in combat?"

Byungtae already had a candidate in mind. His viper's eyes slid toward a woman seated in the corner of the conference room.

"Yoon Seunga."

Every head turned toward her. She had her head half-bowed, her expression hidden from view.

Byungtae smiled as he looked at her.

"You'll go yourself and take responsibility for the investigation. Find out exactly how Kim Yeongsik killed our awakened and escaped."

"…Yes, sir."

Seunga's face grew heavy and dark. At the sight, Byungtae's smile turned unpleasant.

He knew she couldn't refuse—because her mother was living in the shelter. As long as he held that hostage, Yoon Seunga could never defy him.

In a way, it was guilt by association.

Leaving her mother behind on distant expeditions. Being assigned to the pursuit of a comrade she'd once been close to. All of it was punishment for having defended that man before.

And the thought of facing that bastard across from her brightened Byungtae's mood considerably.

As long as her mother's in my hands, Seunga will never cooperate with him. She draws a hard line between public duty and personal ties.

And so the executive meeting came to a close.

"Lord Hyperion. Ordinary gunfire isn't going to do anything to that one."

TUKWAKWAKWAKWAK—

An evolved variant.

A hulking, musclebound evolved zombie that brought the Hulk to mind.

The Vacuum Compression Bullets only managed to slow its advance—they didn't seem to be dealing it any real damage.

And it wasn't alone, either.

FWISH—

"Gah!"

The view on his screen flipped upside down in an instant—Hyperion had pulled a violent evasive turn.

On the screen, an evolved zombie had fired out a tendril several dozen meters long, lashing at Hyperion.

FWISH—

Dodging the attacks of countless evolved variants with S-shaped evasive maneuvers, Hyperion carved its way through the ordinary zombies like a reaper through a field.

Of course, Hyperion wasn't just taking hits.

VRMMMM— ZRMMMM—

Plasma weaponry mounted on the vessel's bow.

The Plasma Focusing Cutter.

At the center of the weapon, shaped like a stag beetle's pincers, a red orb began to coalesce.

PJITSUTSUT—

On the screen, the evolved variants were locked on.

From Hyperion's bow, weaving left and right at ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠blistering speed, a beam of plasma erupted forth.

PJIIIIJIIJIK—

The instant four locked-on evolved variants lined up in a single straight path—

"Whoa…."

The beam fired for roughly three seconds, gouging through the earth.

Three seconds sounded brief, but given Hyperion's mobility speed, it was anything but.

Yeongsik shook his head slowly as he took in the scar the Plasma Focusing Cutter had carved into the ground in a perfect line.

A trench nearly a kilometer long had been gouged deep into the earth, and pale blue plasma currents crackled and spat from the fissures.

Everything but the musclebound evolved variant died on the spot. Flash-vaporized to ash in the blink of an eye.

"Hehehe…."

Somehow, an odd existential vertigo washed over him.

Normally, taking down even a single evolved variant required a party of five or more awakened running it like a raid, carefully and strategically… and here Hyperion was swatting them down without so much as a shrug.

It wasn't something he could spam, admittedly—but it wasn't as if the wait was unbearable, either.

CHWAAK—

Hyperion dropped its altitude and flew low.

PJIT—

From the orb at the very top of the vessel, a blue magnetic field burst forth and began spreading into an oval that draped over the ship.

PJIT—

A magnetic field unfolded around Hyperion with a twenty-meter radius.

VRMMMM—

The moment Hyperion swept across the battlefield, every scrap of metal within the field's range rose into the air at once.

VRMMMM— PJIT—

And from all that miscellaneous debris floating skyward, Hyperion began selectively siphoning up only the materials matching its pre-configured wavelength signature.

Tiny crimson crystals were sucked into the vessel's rear in the blink of an eye.

It was, quite literally, auto-hunting. Complete with a looting pet, no less!

Hmm.

The hunting speed was absurdly fast.

Thanks to the upgrade, Yeongsik had graduated from being the looting pet himself, but—

They're not going to decide I'm useless and throw me away, are they?

For no particular reason, Yeongsik felt a flicker of anxiety.

While the stage-zero baby (?) Hyperion blazed through the ranks of zombies, sweeping them up by the handful, a new update notice went up on the community.

And so, after the Head Admin's update notice went live—

new posts regenerated faster than the speed of light.

It was the highest traffic the Interdimensional Integrated Community had ever recorded in its entire history.