Calculating Fortune from Misfortune
Crrraaaack—!!
The Xenos tentacles that had punched through the wall bloomed like a grotesque flower, spreading wildly in every direction. At the same time, an overwhelming brute force ripped the narrow breach apart, widening it into a gaping maw. Beyond the torn metal, a writhing ocean of flesh surged into view.
Every living thing that had been inside with it had, of course, been reduced to nothing more than nutrients. The Xenos specimen, having grown vastly stronger by devouring them, did not immediately turn its aggression toward the humans.
Instead, it focused on amplifying its mind-hacking waves.
Sy... s... tem... de... tect... ing... Xenos... res... ponse...
The warning that had been blaring through the augmented-reality interface and audio systems stretched and warped, turning into the nightmarish soundtrack of a fever dream.
The creature’s mind-hacking waves operated on a completely different principle from Han Yujin’s own mental intrusion techniques. It could corrupt not only beings with souls but even machines, so long as there existed any pathway for an external signal to enter.
Since every device in the Galactic Empire ran on ether energy, none of them could escape this kind of contamination. Using purely electrical energy was no guarantee of safety either. The important point right now was that even machines could not evade the Xenos’s mind-hacking.
Suddenly, the landing craft began to spin wildly, as if it had lost all balance, despite suffering no visible impact. The Xenos, apparently finished with its preliminary “conquest,” finally revealed its killing intent toward the humans around it.
Thanks to his accelerated cognition, the world seemed to slow to a crawl. Even within that sluggish flow, Han Yujin watched a Xenos tentacle whip toward a nearby soldier with alarming speed and let out a mental sigh.
He knew the squad member’s name. He knew the man’s age, what he had done before enlisting, and why he had joined. Over their short time together they had built a genuine rapport—one that could not be easily ignored.
This situation was therefore entirely different from when the native villagers had died.
Han Yujin had no intention of becoming some saint who cherished every life, yet he found it difficult to sit idly by while people he had deliberately befriended to avoid suspicion were slaughtered right in front of him.
In short, this was not a logical issue but an emotional one.
The kind of judgment that could not be neatly explained, where even a similar event occurring again might produce a completely different decision based on a few minor variables.
And precisely because of that, even if it was irrational and contradictory, his heart inevitably tilted toward accepting the loss.
Worldly affairs never go exactly as one wishes.
In the worst case he would only lose about a year. The relatively short timeframe was, truly, a silver lining within the misfortune.
Even after making his decision, he still hoped some loophole might appear that would let him avoid acting. He drew the arc-ether pistol from his hip and fired.
The speed was like lightning, the accuracy astonishing.
Thud-thud-thud—!!
Blue-white flashes tore through the chaotic interior of the craft, striking the tentacles with surgical precision. A considerable amount of blood sprayed outward, yet the perforated tentacles simply switched targets instantly, still moving with undiminished vigor.
As he lowered his stance to dodge the next incoming strike—
BOOM—!!
A roar different from anything before erupted as someone punched straight through the ceiling of the craft. The speed was so overwhelming that even Han Yujin, pushing his concentration to the limit, could only be shocked.
“Good thing I wasn’t late!”
The brisk voice ringing inside his head belonged to none other than Major Brenar.
Oh…!
Just when he thought everything had gone to hell, a savior had appeared.
As Han Yujin’s face broke into a genuine smile of admiration, the non-commissioned officer and remaining soldiers—who had already resigned themselves to death—showed similar reactions.
She was unmistakably a level-10 spiritualist. From the moment she appeared, she was already suppressing the Xenos.
Above her head floated a ring that seemed to blend light and darkness, spinning fiercely in complete silence. At the same time, a halo-like radiance gently emanated from behind her.
It was no ordinary glow. Wherever the light touched, space itself rippled and distorted like heat haze, preventing the Xenos tentacles from even approaching.
It had to be some form of space-time distortion. The scale did not appear large, yet any interference with space-time was practically an invincible power against a level-6 Xenos.
As if to prove the thought, a vortex of intertwined white and black light burst from Major Brenar’s outstretched hand and coiled around the Xenos.
It wrapped around every visible part, even the sections inside the cargo hold, sealing the creature in the blink of an eye. Then it began to contract rapidly, emitting a bizarre resonant hum.
A glimpse of massive amounts of blood exploding outward and flesh being crushed was visible, yet the speed of the compressing radiance never slowed.
It’s fortunate I didn’t act hastily.
If he had revealed his full power the moment he despaired, thinking all was lost, it would have felt refreshing in the moment but would have been extremely difficult to explain to the Brenar who had just appeared.
Just as he was relaxing slightly, believing the matter resolved—
From within the radiance that had seemed to be handling the threat smoothly, an abyss-like darkness suddenly erupted, flashing with bloody light.
“Hm…?”
Brenar, who had been about to turn her attention toward the people she had rescued, whipped her head toward it in surprise.
Aaaah…
The flashing bloody light came from a pair of eyes.
They let out a low sigh in a weary, aged voice that was utterly unlike anything a Xenos should produce. Then, in a language only Han Yujin could understand, it poured out its complaints.
“How can one be so unlucky…? To be discovered in this manner?”
It was a language he had heard once before, distinct enough to recognize despite his transcendent comprehension. What came to mind was the Inpi he had encountered in the Gangho martial world.
So it really was connected to a sorcerer!
And it had even mixed in Xenos.
“Take care of yourselves! No time to explain!”
At the same time Brenar’s telepathic command rang inside their heads, every member of the unit—including Han Yujin—was enveloped in the radiance she controlled and shot straight through the landing craft’s outer wall.
Almost simultaneously, the darkness that had been trapped shattered the binding force and swelled upward, radiating bloody eyes.
BOOM—!!
As Han Yujin hurtled through the air, he caught a glimpse of the landing craft exploding into countless fragments.
“Heh heh heh heh…!”
Even though a considerable distance had already opened between them, an intense telepathic voice struck his mind like a hammer.
The darkness that had swelled enormously while piercing the ether flames of the explosion was suddenly canceled out by the power Brenar emitted. It shrank rapidly and ultimately vanished.
Yet the moment she finished dealing with it, an overwhelming presence surged from an entirely unexpected direction—like a tidal wave.
The main body was coming.
The Xenos monster that had just been eliminated must have been nothing more than a fragment of the approaching entity’s consciousness temporarily descending.
And the fact that it still chose to approach after seeing its opponent’s approximate strength meant it clearly believed it had a chance of victory.
Having been hurled outside the landing craft from a great height, Han Yujin still had some distance before hitting the ground. Thanks to that, he was able to observe the clash between the unidentified sorcerer and Major Brenar while completely suppressing his own presence.
A single strand of darkness flew over in an instant and struck directly.
There was no other way to describe it.
The immense aura arrived a fraction later, pressing down on the surroundings like a mountain of stone. The strange light and pitch-black darkness radiating from Brenar merged, creating the illusion that the once-blue sky had suddenly gone dim.
Then came an indescribable shockwave accompanied by a deafening roar.
Since he could not afford to be noticed by them, Han Yujin simply allowed the wave to slam into him.
Bang—!!
Carried by the explosive force he never wanted, he plummeted toward the ground like a volleyball spiked with full power. For an ordinary soldier, it would have been a critical situation resulting in severe injury and immobility.
Of course, Han Yujin was no ordinary soldier. He immediately activated his parachute. The nanofiber canopy that burst from his backpack unfolded like wings, accompanied by a single-use ether field, and began to decelerate. The parachute itself was calculating the optimal shape and orientation for braking.
Even so, because he had been falling too fast, the deceleration was insufficient.
In the end, he crashed through countless massive branches of the vast forest in an extremely rough landing.
The instant he touched ground, he sank deep into the earth using the Five Elements Heavenly Escape Art and began to assess the planet’s true danger.
During that process, a stray thought crossed his mind.
The other soldiers must all be dead.
He had gone so far as to risk exposing his identity to save them, yet the situation had turned bitter.
At any rate.
It seemed that, quite unfortunately, an arcane sorcerer had been hiding on planet X-24. Moreover, that sorcerer appeared to have taken considerable interest in the Xenos—the Galactic Empire’s mortal enemies—and had been conducting various experiments on them.
Who was the one that transformed into that monster?
Judging by the feeling, it had probably been the chieftain. Recalling how terrified the being had looked, it must have known exactly what would happen to itself.
Just what has been occurring here?
The great chieftain who had possessed that staff-shaped ethereal weapon—now confirmed to be a dharma treasure—was undoubtedly a direct subordinate receiving orders from the arcane sorcerer.
Naturally, the briefing he had received about this primitive kingdom’s “brutal rule” rose to the surface of his mind.
It seems the rule wasn’t merely brutal.
Considering that those who could suddenly transform into Xenos had remained perfectly normal until they left their settlements, countless biological experiments must have taken place before such fusion results were achieved.
On his very first mission, he had stepped squarely into a pile of shit. The slightly amusing part was that the opposing sorcerer had also lamented their terrible luck at having their existence discovered by the Galactic Empire.
He remained deep underground for a while, organizing his thoughts.
A desire arose to actively exploit this unexpected crisis.
He had already steeled himself for the possibility that his identity would be exposed and everything would be ruined. Therefore, if he simply treated Major Brenar’s timely rescue as something that had never happened, this was essentially a free opportunity.
A soldier who barely survived an unforeseen accident and became isolated obtains a fortuitous encounter…
Since a real sorcerer was indeed hiding on this planet, it would not feel too forced even if cultivation manuals or artifacts related to that side were “discovered.” The leather he had personally harvested from the Kamayusgul Empire could also be disguised as something obtained here.
Naturally, he would have to observe the situation and move flexibly.
If luck is truly on my side, I may even be able to obtain that arcane sorcerer’s knowledge.
Anyone who would take interest in researching horrific cosmic monsters like the Xenos was clearly not sane. Still, as a sorcerer at the Nascent Soul level, the being surely possessed a considerable amount of useful knowledge.
Of course, such things would be stored in the deepest part of the kingdom, making it difficult to present them as a mere fortuitous encounter. Nevertheless, a harvest was a harvest.
Then, is now the right timing?
He could still sense the clash between Brenar and the enemy far above. The distance was great, so the presence felt faint and distant, yet it remained heavy and terrifying.
If the great chieftain was indeed at the late Core Formation stage as assessed, my Monghwan Yusim should be more than enough to deceive it.
As long as he was careful of the formation techniques the arcane sorcerer might have deployed, it seemed possible to rob an empty house.
The moment he made the judgment, he shot out from underground at tremendous speed.
His destination was the heart of the kingdom.