The Best Defense Is Overwhelming Firepower
Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack—
CRASH!
The short-haired woman with the spear was hurled out of the building, blood spurting from her mouth.
It was Yoon Seunga, the B-rank awakened of Gangnam Shelter under Yoo Byungtae's command—and she had been flung precisely beneath an unidentified flying craft.
"Hkk."
Blood streamed from Seunga's mouth as if her insides had been ruptured.
If these bastards catch me, they'll put me through something worse than death.
A wave of despair washed over her, and a dark thought even flickered through her mind—could she kill herself by biting off her own tongue? After all, she was a physical-enhancement type awakened.
But she didn't give up. She struggled desperately to rise.
There's no way Mother could survive alone in this world.
Using her spear as a crutch, she managed to pull herself to her feet.
"Play nice and we'll treat you right. Haha."
"Come to think of it, isn't this one from Gangnam Shelter?"
"Gangnam's a pain in the ass to deal with."
"Since when did we ever stop to think before doing anything?"
Chattering among themselves, the men sauntered leisurely out through the doorway.
"Huh?"
"Huh?"
They both spotted it at the same time. A flying object hovering ten meters above the woman's head.
"Wait, that's…."
"What the hell is that doing here…?"
"Nobody said anything about it shooting people…."
Viiiining—
The gun barrel mounted on its underside began to spin, round and round.
"Uh… uh?"
"Shit. No wonder the day felt lucky."
That was their final epitaph.
TU-KWAKWAKWAKWAKWA—
Ten thousand vacuum compression rounds per minute hammered into them without mercy.
Thud. Thud.
Zombie or awakened, physical-enhancement type or not—beneath Hyperion's javelin, all were equal.
"…."
Seunga had seen it with her own two eyes, and still she could hardly believe it. It was like witnessing something alien—something utterly impossible for this day and age.
What did I just see?
What hovered in the sky above was a flying craft that could not exist in reality. Blue flames jetted from ports scattered across the front, rear, and sides of the hull, and its metallic body floated aloft with a regal grace, reflecting the sunlight. The front section was made up entirely of gun barrels, while a massive rotary cannon hung mounted beneath.
Since when could aircraft just float in place like that, so quietly?
And it had dispatched a B-rank awakened that easily….
The firepower was absurd. Not even a single second had passed between the awakened ones standing alive and lying as corpses.
"Huh?"
Then she saw the person descending the helicopter ladder from the craft, and her astonishment deepened.
Kim Yeongsik. The man branded as an ability-less nobody and driven out of the shelter.
"Yeong… sik?"
It was Kim Yeongsik alright—shaggy hair, a slightly unsteady gait, and an honest, good-natured face. He seemed startled at the sight of her.
"Seunga? What are you doing here of all places…."
Then he went rigid with alarm, hurried over to her, and pulled a syringe from his pocket.
Pook.
"Eh?"
Her whole body shuddered at the needle sinking into the nape of her neck.
"You son of a—I'll kill—"
She couldn't finish the sentence. It was as if a cool, soothing massage had swept through her—vitality surged back into every limb, and her wounds began to knit closed. The drug, apparently, included a painkiller as well.
"Ahem. I'll pretend I didn't hear that."
Her ears turned red. Oblivious or not, Yeongsik simply smiled.
"So how did you end up all the way out here?"
Seunga opened her mouth, then couldn't bring herself to go on.
How am I supposed to say I came out here to investigate you? To the man who saved my life?
"…."
"Well, I can roughly guess, so you don't have to force it out."
Seunga's heart ached at the thoughtfulness that seemed woven into Kim Yeongsik's very being. The one who had saved her mother, the one who had rescued her when the Slatters took her captive, the one who had just saved her life now—it was always him.
And always with that face, as if it were nothing at all.
She opened her mouth to say something—
Then.
Chwararak—
"Huh? Ah. Got it. Seunga, hold on a sec!"
Yeongsik faltered mid-thought, gave a nod, and turned toward where the ladder had descended.
"Seunga."
"Huh? Yeah?"
"I've got somewhere I urgently need to be right now, so let's talk later. Leave a marker behind and I'll come find you."
"W-wait…!"
He scrambled off, grabbed the ladder, and hung on.
Wuwoong—
And so Yeongsik receded into the distance, shouting something or other.
-Hypenim!! I haven't gotten on yettttt, AAAHHH—
Watching him wail as he dangled from the ladder, she shook her head back and forth.
The words I couldn't say—I'll get my chance someday.
"…."
Seunga left a marker for Yeongsik and set off in search of a place to hide.
Between the days-long extermination hunts, Yeongsik's eyelids kept drooping shut.
True, Hyperion handled the hunting all on its own—but that still meant he had to stand by watching, and tend to his own tasks in the meantime.
Hmmm.
After every battle, he had to polish Hyperion painstakingly. Until the thing positively gleamed, no less.
"You know… there's an auto-cleaning function…."
Yeongsik muttered timidly.
> [Power reserves must be conserved for rapid upgrades.]
"I-is that so?"
> [They must be conserved.]
But when you factor in the time spent cleaning… it wouldn't really matter either way, would it? C-could it be that you actually prefer being washed by me…?
Had I been misunderstanding Hyperion all this time? Cold on the surface, but secretly…?!
Naturally, he lacked the courage to ask directly. And how could he not?
> [Human. Are you feeling sleepy at your current level?]
> [Human. Scrub harder.]
> [Human. Where exactly is your mind wandering off to?]
> [Human?]
Right. Never mind. You're probably just the type who can't stand seeing me slack off.
> [There will be no rest until the dimensional relay is installed after Stage-3 evolution.]
Yeah. No idea what that means, but I'll just do as I'm told.
"By the way, Hyperion—where are we headed right now?"
Yeongsik, who had never properly heard the destination, voiced his curiosity.
Bip—
The destination flickered onto the screen.
"?!"
The moment Yeongsik saw the screen, his drowsiness evaporated.
"That place…."
It was where the largest Slatter horde in the country had gathered. The territory alone seemed large enough to swallow several shelters whole.
"S-so you're saying we're going THERE? Isn't that way too dangerous…?"
Because Yeongsik knew the original story, he knew exactly what kind of monsters lurked there.
An S-rank awakened—the mid-story boss of the novel—and countless A-rank awakened besides.
Every awakened Hyperion had harvested so far had been B-rank or below. And from A-rank onward, the gap between ranks was astronomical.
Which meant that place, teeming with dangerous freaks, might genuinely be lethal.
"What about reconsidering? It really could be dangerous. Awakened abilities come in all kinds of bizarre flavors, you know."
> [It is the optimal choice for rapid power acquisition and growth.]
"…."
Ah….
Apparently, Hyperion had classified awakened humans as elite monsters with great EXP drops.
After checking the power-source growth rate following that last skirmish, he'd confirmed they had made for quite the generous serving of experience—so it wasn't exactly wrong.
Still dangerous, though….
"Uh… what about the defenses…."
"Defen—"
"Def…."
"No, I said…."
Hyperion… what exactly are you trying to become? Are you planning world domination or something?
Yeongsik's inner cry, of course, went unheard,
"Yeah. Right. The best defense is a good offense…."
—and what left his mouth was a resigned sigh instead.
"…Even by my standards, that kid's built different."
"…That is a somewhat extreme growth trajectory, Your Majesty."
"Excuse me? Somewhat?"
Karlstein stared at Aria, his face a portrait of disbelief.
The silver-haired beauty gave a curt nod, her expression cool as ever.
"By that measure, the choices were perfectly respectable."
"…."
"Truly, a child worth every ounce of the effort I put into raising her."
The artificial intelligence loaded into Hyperion was, as a rule, subjected to Aria's rigorous review and strict vetting before ever being installed. That would hold true even for that prototype.
Which meant Hyperion's AI could hardly escape Aria's influence.
"Hmm."
At any rate, thanks to that, the relay problem looked likely to be resolved quickly. Once that thing was installed, he could probably muddle through to the next phase of the plan.
"The Eternium composing Hyperion's frame keeps the ether supply flowing smoothly, you see."
Eternium was a mineral that, when bonded with ether, could replicate matter—a power verging on creation itself. Beyond the reach of any scientific definition, it had earned the name "God's Metal." Even within science fiction, no less.
Eternium was one of the single most crucial elements of the ever-evolving Hyperion, and it was also the material used in ether weaponry. In short, when it came to ether conductivity, no other mineral even came close.
"But are you sure it's okay for its personality to be like that? If it ever slips out of control, it'll be a headache… and I'd rather not put off the relay problem any longer."
At that, Aria let out a laugh that could only be described as amused.
"Pfft."
Karlstein, who had known Aria for a very long time, felt a strange chill crawl up his spine.
"No one who received MY education would ever make so foolish a choice."
"…."
Absolute certainty, without a sliver of doubt.
It was rare, but there were times when Karlstein found Aria genuinely frightening.
Maybe it was that overbearing big-sister(?) aura of hers….
That very moment, somewhere far, far away.
Hyperion's hull lurched with an unsteady jolt.
"Wh-what was that? Are we under attack? We haven't even arrived yet?!"
Yeongsik, who had been dozing off, wiped his drool and looked around wildly.
> [Nothing happened.]
"Huh?"
Hyperion chose not to mention that it had felt, for some inexplicable reason, as though a cold shiver had just run down its frame.