Episode 79 [Magic Engineering City, Laputa – 3]
——————————
Airship ‘Friedwen’ slowly heads towards Laputa. We started to lower our altitude.
Woo-woo—
It was a smooth movement, more like sinking in water than landing. During that short swim, Park Jun-mo held on to the window frame and exclaimed in admiration like a child taking a plane for the first time.
“Wow… Wow…”
Dozens of skyscrapers floating thousands of meters in the sky radiated sunlight and flashed with different lights from time to time, and the blue sky behind them was like the sea, and the clouds were like water mist. It felt like.
It was only natural to be fascinated by the mysterious and magnificent scenery.
However, Lee Hyun-wook’s impression was quite different.
‘As expected… it’s noticeably different from the way I remember Laputa.’
When I faced Laputa’s real face, I felt a bit of a difference.
Hyunwook Lee had memories of seeing this city up close as he had infiltrated Laputa in his previous life. And the Laputa in his memories… was a fortress of villains called the ‘Devil’s Castle’.
And unlike now, it had a somewhat bizarre design with a dark red color and tentacles sprouting out.
‘Yes, it was a long way from such a beautiful appearance.’
At that moment, those hellish memories began to unfold before my eyes.
A corner of the strong memories of his past life… Lee Hyun-wook was riding an airship at that time as well.
Fuuuu——
He was staring blankly at
the dark red Laputa hanging on the distant horizon in the magnificent darkness where the black sea and black sky were indistinguishable .
At that time, someone’s urgent voice struck my ears.
“-shit! The unidentified weapon at the bottom of Laputa is functional again!”
At the same time, the lower part of Laputa opened and red light was seen leaking out.
– caution! ‘Sudasanar bombing’ begins in the area.
With a strong warning message, the edge of the night sea began to turn red.
A dazzling red light, like the beginning of a sunrise….
“Damn it! Warn the naval fleet!”
“—It’s late!”
Everyone had no choice but to blind their eyes to the red rays shooting out from Laputa. The intense ball of energy, which could be mistaken for sunlight, fell towards the Allied naval fleet surrounding Laputa. Qua—ah—ah—ah—ah—
ah— —!
Heavy drinking, heavy drinking— My ears were deafened by the continuous heavy drinking.
Kugugugu…
After that long blow, half of the fleet was destroyed, and the rest were swept away by the tsunami and drowned.
“…….”
Heading toward Laputa . The Dungeon airship ‘Gate Sentinel’ had no choice but to stop in shock
, and those on board could do nothing but remain silent.
At that time, a man broke the silence.
“…Now we are the only ones left. And to put it another way, Only we can do it.”
His voice was quite firm, like a handful of hope blooming in despair.
“Listen, everyone. This operation cannot be abandoned. It must succeed.”
“…….”
“If we hesitate and turn around here, we will end up in a dead end. But I am confident that if we break through that obstacle, we will definitely face a new horizon.”
The man who boosted the heroes’ morale like that was the commander of the operation to attack Laputa, and
his name was… Gordon Price.
‘Yes… landing on Laputa was the worst trap.’
It was an impregnable fortress and a labyrinth that could not be escaped. Those who were called the hope of humanity had walked into the abyss, led by a misguided guide named Gordon Price. That day, 13 S-class players joined the villain’s mad scientist group ‘Black Door’
. ‘… and was used as material for a terrible biological experiment and became a source of nutrients to strengthen the necromancer’s abilities.
However, the appearance of Laputa in front of him at this moment was clearly different from the ‘Devil’s Castle’ in his memories. Instead of the gloomy dark red color, it was shining brilliant white.
‘…It seems that it was probably shaped differently depending on various requirements.’
Yes, this is a game, and completely different results are drawn depending on the various quarters. This time, Laputa appeared to be beneficial to humanity as it appeared by blocking the wave. ‘So… the
incredible weapons and technologies I experienced back then are now under my control. .’
Laputa was a city, a research facility, an arsenal, and a military base.
In other words, it could be seen as one huge society where all functions were gathered together.
By obtaining this, Lee Hyun-wook had completely swallowed up a very large part of the future
. “I think we’ll land soon.”
Friedwen landed in the airship port of the tallest skyscraper in the ‘upper city’.
‘This is the order tower, the control tower that manages all of Laputa.’
After getting off at Pridwen, the group crossed the translucent sky bridge and stood in front of the door to the ‘Order Tower’.
Then, a neutral voice flowed into Lee Hyun-wook’s ears.
“Laputa’s ‘master authority’ has been confirmed.”
Kugugugu——
The huge door slowly opened like a castle gate.
“Welcome to the Administrator. “My name is [Talos], Laputa’s assistant artificial intelligence.”
‘Talos… I never thought this voice would sound so lovely.’
Talos, Laputa’s artificial intelligence… I remembered the scene where they were attacking all kinds of turrets with a warning message to eliminate intruders. And at the end, it appeared as the 30m-sized ‘Orihalcon Giant’.
‘Even King Hantaesan couldn’t stop Talos’ kick and flew away…’
After walking down the long hallway, they soon came across a facility that really looked like a ‘control tower.’ It was a circular structure with all walls made of glass, allowing one to look down on all sides of Laputa.
Ugh——
Then something like a round ball came down from the ceiling.
And the surface of the ball—an emoji-like expression appeared on the screen.
「(^_^) Hello! Welcome to Laputa’s command tower, ‘Eye in the Sky’!”
“—Wow! Is this a monster?”
Park Jun-mo said that and took a step back. Sparks crackled from both of his hands.
Most of the ‘beings’ that appear in this game were monsters, so it was natural for him to react like this.
Then Talos’ expression changed to a confused one and ran away. He went up to the ceiling as if hitting.
“(0_0) Oh! You must not attack me! The cost of repairs will be enormous! Also, there is a risk that this Laputa system will not work for a while, so I earnestly request that you not do so!” And then, Park Jun-mo blood
. He turned around from a distance and approached Lee Hyeon-wook, but didn’t he see a tearful expression on his face on the screen? “
Hey, Manager of Laputa… I’m Talos, who I greeted you a little while ago.
” I didn’t know it was a character…’
I wondered if it was the giant who was stomping on A-grade players to death like bugs.
“Yes, nice to meet you. “I guess your role is to assist me?”
「(^_^) Yes, that’s right. “You can ask me anything and give me any instructions.”
“Then, from now on, I would like you to explain what I can do, focusing on the important things.”
What I was most curious about and needed the most at this moment was how to use this huge object.
“Ah! The administrator values practicality! But usually, when you first enter, you usually inspect this glorious city, but starting with that course is not a good idea.” “What do you think?”
“No, I don’t think I’ll know anything even if it takes several weeks to look around the whole place, so I’ll check the functions first.”
“Yes, I will. But as you can see just by looking at it, Laputa is a huge facility! Since there are so many features, the description might be a bit long. Please understand!
After that, Talos started giving a lot of explanations…
‘Hmm, it’s useless…’
This artificial intelligence guy… seemed to lack sense. When I asked him to explain the functions, he recited almost all of the things that can be done in Laputa, including life, hobbies, research, air defense, etc., like a manual.
‘……I don’t need to learn these trivial things.’
Lee Hyun-wook was not alone in ‘operating’ this Laputa. And in the long run, it would be necessary to train and deploy a large number of specialized personnel so that Lee Hyun-wook would not have to worry about it.
‘And one of them… we can get it right now.’
One of the key crew members of the ultra-large airship [Gate Sentinel] to be built in the future was now wandering around as an independent. Lee Hyun-wook intended to find the man as soon as he went down to the ground.
“Aside from those trivial functions, Talos, um… I guess it has some special functions?”
“Yes! There are a lot of special things. Magma sauna, 1 km skydiving, etc.”
“No, I mean… I’m talking about special privileges that only administrators can use.”
The expression on his chin as if he was thinking about those words.
“ah! You are talking about [Power Craft]! “Yes, can I explain right away?”
I finally understood.
Existences like the World Tree and Laputa would later be called ‘transcendent objects’.
They generate powerful blessings in the area just by existing.
However, if the administrator intervened and made adjustments, the function could be greatly improved.
‘That’s [Power Craft], and the World Tree is also used that way.’
Donald Harris, manager of the World Tree, bestows a wide-area healing blessing on the area once every six months.
Excluding Saint Emilia Müller, this is the highest level of wide-area healing magic, revitalizing the old energy concentrated within the World Tree while simultaneously increasing the ‘life force’ of the area.
‘The magic herbs from Chad that grow during that period are so effective that it is worth the price.’
Even during that period, if there is an area of the World Tree, all diseases disappear as if they have been washed away.
That’s why there are millions of pilgrims visiting the World Tree around that time of year.
Of course, the Republic of Chad strictly controls entry, so not everyone can enter…
‘So, Laputa can also be used in that way to make huge profits.’ Lee Hyun-wook envisions
a future in which Laputa will demonstrate a production capacity greater than that of a developed country. I imagined for a moment.
But…
“Well, by the way… most of the special functions are currently unusable.”
“…Why?”
So the explanation began again.
It begins with the story of the gnomes who were the designers of Laputa long ago. To summarize…
After Laputa was attacked by an unidentified enemy, the five factions of Laputa moved to different dimensions with the important core parts that make up Laputa. It was said that he was secluded.
‘Isn’t this just an obvious backstory?’
Lee Hyun-wook listened halfway through the story, then sighed and waved his hand.
“Okay, so what ‘parts’ do we have to find by finding the gnome’s ruins?”
“Yes, that’s right! As expected, you understand quickly!”
To put it simply, it meant that in order to use unlocked functions, you had to complete quests. Even if you get such a great privilege, it was structured to promote gradual growth as a ‘game’.
‘The fact that I obtained [Fridwen] from the gnome ruins is part of that. It’s really annoying…’
“But you can still use some of the basic permissions.”
“Really? Show me that.”
“(^_^)7 Yes! I’ll prepare it right away!」
[Laputa: Power Craft Function]
1) Area Blessing (applied)
2) Balivalvir Designation (applicable)
Unfortunately, it seems that there are only these two at the moment.
Number 1 was a blessing given to the entire region in Seoul today.
“What is Balibalbir number 2?”
“Yes, Laputa is an aerial city and can bestow ‘blessings’ on the area below.”
“Yes, I know that.”
“However, Balibalbir is a function that provides concentrated benefits to a small area.”
Balibalbir was the name of the area ruled by Laputa in [Gulliver’s Travels].
In other words, it designates the place where Laputa’s influence will be maximized. I was able to see it.
“Ah, can I think of it as some sort of designation of a magic engineering special zone?”
“Yes, that’s an appropriate interpretation!”
Since it was a magic engineering special zone… it was a matter of no need to worry about where to use it.
“Okay, let’s use it now.”
Then, a map of Seoul appeared in front of Lee Hyun-wook, and Lee Hyun-wook selected the area near Kang Jeong-du’s workshop.
“Can I apply the name ‘Balibalbir’ to that area?”
“Yes, I will apply.”
– ‘Balibalvir’ has been applied to the area!
* Significantly increases the EXP increase rate of crafting players. (+50%)
* The ‘production success probability’ of all items increases significantly. (+50%)
* ‘Unexpected birth in failure’ is applied with a certain probability. (10%)
‘Good, I gave Kang Jeong-du another wing.’
With this, it seemed that one more foothold was prepared for the magical engineering ‘Super Gap’.
***
After reviewing a few more functions, Lee Hyun-wook took out the Eye of Horus Piece No. 3 (Legendary).
‘If you absorb this, your eyes will change… There is no better place to faint than here.’
Gulp— –
(unknown amount of time) left until metal absorption.
As expected, ‘unknown time’ appeared as it was a legendary grade item.
Even if the body’s furnace was running at full capacity, it would take a considerable amount of time. He informed Kim Se-hee and Park Jun-mo that he might faint and that this was not a chronic illness but a way to increase his abilities.
“Ah… So, you’re saying I can help you by my side all day?”
“Anyway, Team Leader Kim… I see that you always think negatively?”
It was Kim Se-hee’s characteristic to tick-tick every moment without even thinking about it.
However, when Lee Hyun-wook pointed that out, he looked quite embarrassed.
“—Huh? Well, when am I? Really….”
“Anyway, you don’t have to be next to me, and there is a training ground here, so it’s an opportunity for Team Leader Kim to grow as well.”
“Um… the training ground? Ha… So you’re saying I should study on my own all day?”
Kim Se-hee had an expression that was not very interested.
“Team Leader Kim, do you know what you said negatively just now?”
“…….”
“Anyway, it’s too early to be disappointed. Even if the training ground here is different, it will be very different.”
“Well… with such a high-tech facility, the scarecrow is made of gold…”
Kim Se-hee was about to speak but stopped.
This time, like Lee Hyun-wook said, I was sarcastic without even realizing it.
“Oh well…”
Lee Hyun-wook chuckled and shook his head.
“It’s not like that, you can gain experience while training.”
Only then did Kim Se-hee look surprised.
“…Yes?”
Experience level growth was an absolute factor for players. However, since experience can only be obtained by hunting monsters, you have to risk your life to increase your absolute specs by leveling up. However, it was possible to use a cheat key to safely gain experience while training
.
” Hey… isn’t that a complete scam?”
Yes, it was a transcendental object because it had a function that was close to fraud.
“Of course, it wouldn’t be as effective as actually catching a monster. Still, almost any environment, or almost any monster, can be simulated. Right, Talos?”
– ( _ ) Yes, that’s right! Laputa’s [Hyperreal Training Center] uses the ‘World Stone’ to create a realistic environment, providing an experience almost similar to reality to those undergoing training!
‘Okay, there’s a way to bring out Kim Se-hee’s potential.’
Kim Se-hee was originally scheduled to join the Black Tiger Unit and grow into the best assassin specialist.
As a result, he becomes synonymous with the Black Orc King ‘Stonox’.
Lee Hyun-wook was worried about how to give her a growth environment beyond that of the Black Tiger unit.
‘There is nothing more effective in improving a player’s skills than dealing with monsters.’
At the training facility here in Laputa, I would have been able to grow through intense practical experience.
“Ah, and lastly…”
Lee Hyun-wook looked at Park Jun-mo.
“Talos, by any chance… does lightning strike Laputa too?”
Laputa is located several kilometers above the ground,
which means it was the perfect place for lightning to strike in bad weather.
– Yes, that’s right. In bad weather, an average of 21 lightning strikes occur, and all of them are converted into energy.
“Really? By any chance. “Is it possible to predict when lightning will strike?”
– Based on the analysis of the current weather conditions, there is a 95% chance that lightning will occur this evening.
At those words, Lee Hyun-wook grinned and placed his hand on Park Jun-mo’s shoulder, and the boy flinched.
“Park Jun-mo, don’t you have a fear of heights or something? “I think we should go up to the top of the tower here.”
Then Park Jun-mo lowered his head and started muttering something.
“Oh, as expected… the ominous premonition was real…”
“Huh? Park Joon-mo, are you scared? Aren’t you still in an F-grade mind?”
“…Oh no!”
“Player Park Jun-mo’s health abnormalities have been detected. His heartbeat is abnormally fast!”
“…….”
By the time the three went down to the ground, they were expected to have grown even further.
‘And next time I come up, I’ll have to gather the manpower to move this Laputa.’
If only I could roll this transcendental object normally…’
Lee Hyun-wook would be able to reproduce the terrible scene he experienced in his past life in reverse.
