Steel-Eating Player Chapter 44

Episode 44. [ Seoul, the city of the 4th wave – 2 ]

———————————

Gyeryongdae, Daejeon [National Gate] [Response Committee Integrated Command Center]

There were people who influenced the Republic of Korea.

They were representatives of large guilds and high-ranking government officials.

However, most of them were actually remote meetings using holograms projected by mana crystals, and the agenda was, of course, the closure and erosion of the area within a 10km radius of Seoul Station –

that is, the 4th wave.

“Hmm… this is just a rumor.”

Although the best people in Korea gathered together, their response to the current situation was vague.

“That’s right. “What difference would it make if we got together and wasted time like this?”

“Well, honestly, we have to admit it now… there’s nothing we can do.”

Those words seemed so irresponsible and incompetent, but they were true.

There was really nothing that could be done.

Wave Zone did not have entry ‘conditions’ like during the Seoul Station Unlucky event.

No front entry – meaning no one can enter or exit.

“It’s hard to even hear the internal situation properly…”

Although it was possible to communicate through ‘mental connection’ between high-ranking wizards, it was quite limited and communication occurred once every 30 minutes at most.

“…Now, what I’m saying is that we need to quickly prepare for the post-Wave world!”

There were even calls to give up this proactive response altogether.

Since there was no way to use force outside the wave zone, the idea was to not pay attention to what happened inside and focus on ‘post-action measures’ while waiting for the access restrictions to be lifted in five days.

“Wait a minute…”

Of course, not everyone was so indifferent.

A woman wearing a white shirt came forward to raise a counterargument.

“Now, are you saying that you are going to just leave over a million citizens in the wave zone alone?”

She was Kang Seo-yoon, ranked 4th in Korea’s player rankings.

“And preparing for the after-erosion period – do people who know what happened to the eroded cities say that now? This is an unprecedented situation that could result in the loss of not only the wave zone but also the entire Seoul metropolitan area! “Shouldn’t we first think about preventing erosion from happening?”

It was such an obvious statement, but the crowd’s reaction was just shocking.

“Hey, Representative Kang, who wouldn’t want to save Seoul? But there has to be a way.”

“That’s right. What’s the point in a situation where it’s difficult to communicate with the troops inside, let alone deploy troops…” “

That’s right. The only time we can intervene is in five days, and preparing for then is a much more reasonable strategy. It’s not about saving Seoul. “Saving this country requires choice and focus.”

Kang Seo-yoon held her head in response to each protest.

“It’s fucking easy to rationalize it like that… Still, does it make sense to just let go?…” “-What

are you saying now!”

Kang Seo-yoon jumped up from her seat.

She wasn’t a hologram, she was actually in this meeting room.

“Let me just say one more thing.”

“…….”

“Everyone, there must be a guild member in the wave zone that you can contact, right? If those players come together and respond with one force, it’s still quite a force. Isn’t it?”

“…….”

“Is there a guild master who identified the number of guild members in the wave zone and gave instructions for response?”

“…….”

“……Yes, probably not. Still, it’s a bit weird that there isn’t even one person.”

“…….”

“The guilds have been looking out for themselves and keeping each other in check, so even in times like this, they don’t work together. It’s not too late, so we need to instruct the guild members to join forces and respond!”

Even though she insisted, the response was still agitated.

“Ha- Do you think Representative Kang’s wave is not normal and is going to say yes and go out to die just because we told him to? “I don’t understand why CEO Kang doesn’t know that even though he runs the guild?”

“That’s right. Although some may step forward out of a sense of justice, the majority will remain quietly hidden.”

Players of this era were the best, so they were essentially freelancers.

Although they belonged to a guild, there was no need to obediently follow the guild’s orders as long as there was nothing to regret. As long as their level was high, they could always move to another guild and make a good living. However

, In fact, how many people would follow an order to go out and violently kill someone?

Kang Seo-yoon slammed the desk.

“If you don’t act like a human being, I’ll have to make you look like a fucking mess!”

“-What what?”

“Okay, we will reward you with items from our Zmunnarae guild.”

Everyone looked like they were wondering what that meant.

“For each player in the wave zone who removes an erosion factor, we will award one ‘Heroic Tier’ item and the most active player will receive one ‘Legendary Tier’ item.”

The idea was to make her respond actively, even if it meant offering compensation.

But a legend…

As soon as those words came out of her mouth, many people in the audience raised their heads.

“…Yeah, you suck too, right? Yes, please spread this news to your guild members.”

“Great…”

But perhaps she thought that was a reasonable way to respond,

guild masters who joined her plan began to come out one by one.

“In that case, “We at Osang Group will bet $30 million on the group that eliminates the factors causing erosion.”

“Good, our Haitai Guild will also contribute $20 million!”

In this way, a total of 50 million dollars in Korean won was added to the compensation of about 55 billion won. Of course, since the won began to bottom after the 4th wave began, it is difficult to make a simple comparison, but it was a huge amount of money. Kang Seo-yoon watched the situation and said

, “You’re such an asshole. You have to use money to

buy a way to solve a national crisis…”

It was definitely a wrong era.

***

Thump-thud-

The undead elite monster Zombi Troll is very It was a unique monster. This

is a case where a troll with the highest recovery ability was cursed with a type of magic and became a member of the family of death.

Therefore, it does not feel pain and no matter how much damage is inflicted, it recovers instantly. It can even take

damage with ‘holy power’, which is the weak point of the undead. Even if it is inflicted, it will recover

even if it is inflicted. As an opponent, it was… indescribably difficult.

Such a terrible monster was now shattered into pieces and lying on the road.

”

This is ridiculous…”

Lee Jeong-jun, the man who stood in front of AMT, couldn’t believe what was happening before his eyes.

Eating hundreds of zombies as experience points was amazing, but this was really…

‘How on earth is this possible?’

Even after seeing it, he couldn’t understand it.

That’s why Lee Jeong-jun recalled the scenes that took place before the zombie troll fell.

‘…The cargo bays of the first two trucks were opened.’

There was a huge number of weapons in it.

When the AMT commander, whose rank was unknown, named Lee Hyun-wook, raised his hand, the weapons appeared

and- Shhhhh!

Hundreds of spears flew out on their own like missiles to zombie trolls. It started to get stuck in his body.

But there was no way he could stop that big troll with just physical damage. No, it didn’t seem like it could even give him the slightest shock

,

let alone stop it.

Even though the guy had spears all over his body, he didn’t care and advanced…

Boom-Thump-Thump-Thump-

Even his steps became faster and faster.

Lee Jeong-jun only had about 200 meters left to go before he was trampled by the thing.

Until then…

“Ugh! Don’t you know it’s useless? If you want to save your men, retreat now!”

…I was so dazed that I screamed like crazy.

I wanted to just leave him behind and run away, but if I had that kind of personality, I wouldn’t have made up my mind to save the refugees at the Jangchung-dong community center in the first place.

I did not want to see these brave soldiers die in vain.

However, Lee Hyun-wook only frowned for a moment and did his job without paying any heed.

There was no fear in his eyes. As if he would win of course….

Even the soldiers under his command were sweating coldly but were faithful to their respective tasks.

“-Ahn Min-tae, are you ready for the freezing magic?”

“yes! A total of 21 rounds are ready.”

When he gestured, the wizards rushed forward and fired freezing magic.

Blah blah blah—

All of them hit the troll’s upper body and formed a solid ‘ice restraint’.

But this time, too, it was to no avail.

Even though dozens of spears were attached to his body and half of his body was frozen, he never stopped.

Thump- thump- thump- thump-

Before I knew it, the guy was getting very close. Just fifty meters away –

the rotten smell emanating from its body began to sting the tip of my nose.

‘I can’t help it now. We must leave them alone and run away.’

With those thoughts in mind, Jeongjun Lee turned around and motioned for his colleagues to go quickly, but one word from Hyunwook Lee stopped them in their tracks.

“Shred-.”

Per-uh-eok-!

“…Huh?”

With the explosion, a large part of the zombie troll’s upper body was blown away.

In particular, his left arm was completely cut off, and he spun around in the air, spraying blood in all directions, and then

boom!

He broke the show door of a commercial building and entered.

“What is it?”

It was a scene that made no sense in common sense.

I saw an iron ball exploding and blowing off a zombie’s ankle, but its destructive power was not enough to affect a troll. The skin and flesh of a zombie troll are incomparably tougher and harder than those of a zombie. Then, on earth

. How…

‘…Ah! It’s because of the ice magic!’

Yes, that’s how it was possible.

The spear is driven in first, and then a freezing spell is shot on top of it to rapidly cool it.

When that happens, the person’s blood coagulates and becomes tightly entangled with the tip of the spear.

Like a tongue sticking to cold ice cream –

that’s how it is. If the metal explodes – that’s how a terrible and destructive phenomenon occurs. A

simple but ingenious blow caused enormous damage.

‘Oh, this is an extremely extraordinary attack. They are using everything to raid.’

But even then, Lee Jeong-jun couldn’t feel at ease.

Ugh…

Even with that huge attack, the zombie troll didn’t fall.

It only hesitated for a moment and took another step forward.

Boom –

‘After all, it’s still undead! It has one arm.’ Just because it’s cut doesn’t mean you can catch it!’

Even if he had used up so many weapons and skills to cut off an arm, he couldn’t retire.

And if the fight was repeated, he would recover from his wounds and his allies would run out of weapons…

He showed great strategy and ability, but unfortunately, he won. It was an opponent that could not be defeated.

But…

Ka-ga-ga-ga-ga-!

Suddenly, a strange sound began to be heard from inside the guy’s body.

Then, the large man began to tremble and tremble. Blood was pouring out from all the pores of the body, as if a pipe was pouring out something.

Pudeo deo deo —

that was the guy’s intestines.

To be exact, it was pulverized intestines.

“Uh…”

Lee Jeong-jun thought for a while. It was only at the end that I realized what had happened:

‘Crazy… zombie troll from the inside…’ I changed it!’

The moment the spear embedded in the body exploded, countless pieces of metal must have entered the body, and by exploding and manipulating them again, the organs were literally ground from the inside.

Ka-go-go-go-go-go-!

Even a zombie troll couldn’t withstand such a crazy attack.

Just like that, the huge body collapsed onto the asphalt with a loud thud.

……That was it.

Jeongjun Lee thought back to what he had seen and finally realized.

‘What is this person? And… it wasn’t a situation for me to interfere at all, right?’

At that moment, Lee Jeong-jun made eye contact with Lee Hyun-wook and was startled.

“Ah…”

Lee Hyun-wook’s eyebrows furrowed ever so slightly. But that alone made my heart sink.

“What you know isn’t everything in the world.”

Lee Jeong-jun’s mind came back to him at that brief conversation.

“…Did you think that just because it was AMT, you wouldn’t be able to do it?”

Lee Jeong-jun could not refute and became dumbfounded.

Lee Hyun-wook turned around and slowly looked at the terrible scene he had created.

Since the battle was over, he had to pay compensation and do maintenance.

‘I used up quite a lot of weapons, but I still haven’t done anything.’ There is room.’

He brought out half of the battalion’s weapons, and also asked the battalion’s engineers and blacksmiths to improvise weapons to be used solely for ‘shredding.’ And in the case of iron beads, he ordered them in large quantities from Kang Jeong-du a point before the wave started

. There were still 3 more boxes of 1,650 items left.

“Park Jun-mo, just bring out the 4 bags.”

“Yes, I understand!”

Soon, Park Jun-mo took the sack and opened it wide, and Lee Hyun-wook stretched out his hand towards the bloody battlefield.

Then, something rose up from between the piles of undead corpses.

It was a ‘mana stone’, an energy source that drops when you catch a monster… It was truly a huge number

. Lalala——

They began to fly under Lee Hyun-wook’s control and enter the bag.

“Wow… Corporal Min-tae Ahn, how much is this?”

“Even at 60,000 to 80,000 won per piece, I think it would be about 45,000,000 won.”

While the company members were admiring the huge number of Mana Stones,

Lee Hyun-wook had three items in his hands that were not just random items, but really good items.

‘As expected, the income is large.’

First of all

– I acquired the ‘Secret Key (Event)’.

‘It is a wave event item. A lucky box must have been created somewhere in Seoul.’

You could get a high-value item inside a box that could be opened with a key.

Of course, such a box was randomly generated, so it wasn’t easy to find.

If you could find it, you would receive a special benefit that couldn’t be obtained through any other route. .

Then, the second

– ‘Spirit Stone (Level 3)’ was acquired.

‘This is a real stone, so I can’t swallow it, and I have to give it to Kim Se-hee, a spiritist.’

And lastly…

– I acquired ‘Orichalcum’.

Of the three, the one I was most satisfied with was the legendary metal ‘Orichalcum’.

‘It is worth more than Orichalcum Adamant. It’s metal.’

Adamant costs 1.3 million won per 10g, but orihalcon costs over 100 times that price. It has the

highest magic affinity, making it virtually the best among magic metals.

And, based on Lee Hyun-wook’s experience in his past life, it can increase magic resistance. It was one of the few metals that could be absorbed.

However, regardless of the price, it was so rare that it could not be absorbed freely.

‘So, it is an ability that must be consumed as much as possible when possible.’

Gulp –

Lee Hyun-wook swallowed the precious orihalcon in one mouthful.

However, he was unable to activate the internal furnace and absorb

it quickly. This was because he had devoted all of his mana to the previous battle.

– Mana (12/1681)

Even during the battle, he was in formation. This is how much I drank three mana potions.

– Caution! You used too much mana. If you forcibly promote mana recovery, side effects will occur. You

could not take more mana potions than this. As explained, there were side effects. It was going to happen.

“Be on strict alert around Choi Tae-yong. “There might be one more zombie troll.”

“Yes, don’t worry!”

However, considering that they had not yet appeared despite this level of noise, fortunately they did not seem to be around here.

Lee Hyun-wook checked his watch.

– 18:01

The sunset was already setting. If night came, some of the undead would become even more violent.

‘ ‘I’ll have to hurry.’

At that time, someone came up.

“Um…”

It was Lee Jeong-jun and his colleagues.

Their expressions had changed quite a bit.

If just now they had blushed and tried to belittle and teach, now their faces have turned yellow and they don’t know what to do. I was in the process of not knowing what to say.

He bowed his head.

“I’m really sorry!” “I think I’ve been presumptuous and meddling too much!”

I must have done some quick self-reflection and apologized by bending my back to ninety degrees, but my forehead was almost touching my knees. Although he said some harsh things in many ways, he didn’t seem like a bad person.

“I apologize from the bottom of my heart! I crossed the line in thinking that I had to save the citizens first!”

“Yes, I know you were trying to give good advice. However, what he said contained a narrow-minded frame that those belonging to a specific group would inevitably be substandard.”

“Yes, that’s right. Actually, at first, I really blocked the way with that thought in mind… I’m really, really shameful and shameful.”

Lee Hyun-wook nodded.

There was no need to throw him out as long as he reflected and came out favorably.

And it would have been even better if he could use it.

“Then, we will escort you, so would you like to take the citizens to the north?”

“Oh, by any chance…”

“The shelter at DDP Station is small, so I think I should go to Dongdaemun Station, where there is a large shelter.”

But for some reason, Lee Jeong-jun’s expression began to spread with inexplicable disapproval.

“That’s what I mean…”

“Yes?”

“Actually… we were there until a few hours ago.”

“Well what happened?”

“It’s not a big deal, but it’s really…”

Lee Jeong-jun explained what happened in the past few hours.

He and his colleagues were near Dongdaemun Station before the wave occurred.

They were in charge of security for a certain guild event that lasted until dawn. .

At that time, a wave broke out, and I evacuated to the Dongdaemun Station shelter along with the event attendees.

“…I was in the shelter like that when a rescue signal came in around 8 a.m.”

“I heard the news was that the magic shield at the Jangchung-dong Community Center was broken?”

“Yes, we said we would save those people and come back, but… our employer was against it. But how could they leave over a thousand citizens in danger? We said we would go out on our own, and that guy…”

Lee Jeong-jun let out a long sigh again.

“He threatened us by saying that if he fired us and left, we wouldn’t even think about coming back. They said they would never open it even if I came. Well, there were a lot of zombies gathered around DDP, so we tried to go south.”

Hyunwook Lee tilted his head.

“I don’t quite understand. Who is that person and what right does he have to prevent him from entering the shelter?”

“That’s…”

Jeongjun Lee opened his mouth after swallowing dry saliva.

“That person is a re-elected member of the National Assembly and a C-grade player that you will know just by hearing his name. “He is also the actual majority shareholder of [Jonggak Guild], which was holding a shitty event until yesterday morning.”

Lee Jeong-jun spoke with a quite serious expression, but Lee Hyun-wook still remained calm.

The expression on his face asked if that had anything to do with it.

“Ah, so, given his personality, he may not really open it. It’s because he’s the most stubborn of all stubborn people…”

Lee Jeong-jun emphasized it again, but Lee Hyun-wook lightly shook his head.

“Monopolizing a public shelter is a serious crime that threatens the lives of others. If you do not open it, they will forcibly break in, arrest you, and detain you. In some cases, they may even kill you after warning you.”

“Ah…”

“If you treat a guy obediently who only values his own life, you will inevitably lose more lives. it’s okay. You don’t need to worry.”

“Oh, that’s true, but…”

“Then let’s go. We have to take the citizens, so we don’t have time.”

After saying those words, Hyunwook Lee got into the car.

Jeongjun Lee had a hunch.

There’s going to be quite a bit of commotion soon…