Episode 48. [ Dongdaemun Station, erosion factor, giant sword -3 ]
———————————==
“… …Please. “Yes, I will contact you again.”
Kang Seo-yoon, ranked 4th in the Korean player rankings, ended a phone call with someone.
Just in time, the news was playing on the wall-mounted TV.
– …Amid growing criticism of the government and guilds for failing to come up with a solution, the future of South Korea, which has emerged as a top player powerhouse, is becoming uncertain.
“It’s only because the countries that were on top have sunk that they have risen relatively…”
It was true that South Korea was considered the most powerful player powerhouse of the present era.
However, the reason was not because the players in this country were all great, but because the powerful countries that were doing well at first—the United States, Germany, and China—were swept away by the wave one after another.
Thus, Korea’s international standing rose, but…
‘…this time it was our turn.’
Perhaps this country was also destined to sink.
– oh my-! My son is in there! Please save me!
News screens began to reflect the images of people gathering and protesting somewhere.
The image of a middle-aged woman crying and pleading to save her family trapped in the wave zone. Young players, burning with chivalry, are rioting, saying they will break through the wave zone at any moment
… “They should step forward, but instead of them, there are some better-off guys…”
She felt bitter and turned off the TV.
Then I opened the door and went outside.
Then a loud commotion overtook her.
“—Communication has been established 3 times. yes! It’s called the White Tiger Guild!”
“This is new information! There are corpse golems roaming Dongjak-gu!”
“what? “Then doesn’t that mean there are death wizards around?”
Dozens of employees were busy coming and going in a huge space where all kinds of people were mixed up.
This was the situation room set up in the basement of the [National Gate Response Committee Integrated Command Center].
Of course, what we are currently responding to is the 4th wave.
It wasn’t that damn ‘after action plan’, it was focusing on this very moment.
In other words, it was a ‘control tower’ prepared to prevent ‘erosion of Seoul’.
And the chief ‘head player’ of this organization was Kang Seo-yoon.
This type of work is usually handled by a high-ranking government official…
but this time, she was given the armband for a variety of reasons.
“Mage 13 has been connected to an unknown player. We will record the conversation.”
“We are communicating with B-level player Lee Cheol-hee, located in Daelim 2-dong, wizard number 44.”
“Communication with wizard number 51 has been lost… It looks like we were attacked.”
And the main task of this ‘control tower’ was ‘communication’ with players inside the wave zone.
Persuade and rally internal players to find the cause of erosion.
The decision makers in the control tower agreed that this was the best thing that could be done from the outside.
So, he was currently communicating with players inside the wave zone by mobilizing 35 high-level wizards.
“Emergency communications officer, how did you reach any place?”
Hearing Kang Seo-yoon’s words, the man sitting at the highest place turned his head.
“Ah, there are a few places so far. But the reaction is…”
“Ha… Why won’t you come forward even if I give you a legendary item?”
“Yes, well, I don’t want to die. If this had a strong central point, people would believe in it and gather together… Ha—since there is nothing, everyone says they will wait and see for now.”
“Well, I don’t want to carry a gun on my back…”
Well, the wave was on a different level from an ordinary gate.
It was an incomprehensible hurricane that had never been overcome before.
Who would want to go into it?
Therefore, the ‘centre point’ ‘I needed
someone who I could trust and follow…
‘…then those who covet the items and cash rewards will begin to secretly come together.’
The problem was that we had not yet found a talented person who could become such a focal point.
Why on earth is there not a single such person in the vast land of Seoul?…
“Ah! But… only one place gave a positive answer. “Even before we reported the news, they were already carrying out systematic response operations.”
Kang Seo-yoon’s eyes lit up.
Who on earth could they be, the force that took action early in a wave zone where there were no dreams or hopes?
“Oh! Where is it? Is it a guild? What is the leader’s level? “How many people are gathered?”
she poured out the questions.
However, for some reason, only bitterness appeared on the emergency communications officer’s face.
“But that’s… AMT. The 1st Battalion, 3rd Port Horse Brigade, located in Namsan, formed a special operation team this morning and began an operation to search for erosion factors.”
“Ah…”
I was looking forward to it, but it wasn’t something I was very happy with.
‘Why, AMT…’
In particular, the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Port Horse Brigade was not a special forces unit, but a unit centered around soldiers.
In other words , She judged that it wouldn’t be a very useful force.
Then, someone came up behind her.
It was a middle-aged man in a white suit.
“Huh? “Representative Ki, what’s going on here?”
Ki Baekjun was the head of Korea’s 3rd guild ‘Taesan’ and ranked 10th in Korea’s player rankings.
“I came here personally to bring you positive news.”
“yes?”
“Just in time, one of our guild’s main strategy team was attacking the open gate in Heukseok-dong.
“ah?”
“We received a call that the attack was completed an hour ago, and after a brief maintenance, we decided to start searching for the cause of erosion. This is a fairly capable team, with one Grade A member and three Grade B members.”
Seo-yoon Kang nodded repeatedly with an expectant expression, and Baek-jun Ki smiled.
“I thought it would be good to unite the players around those friends.”
***
“…it won’t take long.”
Just before entering the tunnel, Lee Hyun-wook spoke as if he were sure.
However, Ahn Min-tae, who accompanied him, honestly expected a fight that would not be short. This was because if you entered that dark tunnel, there was a high probability that you would encounter a ‘boss monster’.
‘I don’t know what will come out, but it will definitely be a huge guy.’
It was hard to imagine catching the ‘Wave’ boss monster right away, not even a regular gate.
Of course, I believed that Lee Hyun-wook would somehow be able to do it, but…
‘No matter what, it’s natural that it will take a lot of time.’
Ahn Min-tae thought so.
But…
“Crazy…”
Now he stuck out his tongue in surprise.
The target was, surprisingly, Lee Hyun-wook.
‘Anyway, it’s a boss monster—!’
The reason was that the boss monster turned into red mush with just a few gestures.
Even…
‘I think it took about 10 minutes… does this make sense?’
Yes, it was 10 minutes ago.
While they were going through the tunnel, they encountered a Line 1 train blocking the road. At that time, Hyunwook Lee said that it appeared that a boss monster had built a nest inside it.
And indeed, it was curled up inside.
Kkeeheh–!
The name of the boss monster was ‘Hell Rat Mutant’, and from Min-tae Ahn’s memory, it was a rat the size of a brown bear with two heads and six tentacles that wriggle like snakes on its back.
Everyone was instantly stunned by the bizarre appearance.
However, Lee Hyun-wook spoke with a calm expression as always.
“Tsk—you chose the wrong nest, but you chose it too wrong.”
And as always, he slowly raised his left hand.
Yes, that was the beginning.
Lee Hyun-wook threw hundreds of iron balls into the train and caused ‘shredding’ one after another.
Fur-burr-burr-burr-buck!
Then, the metal pieces bounced back and forth inside the narrow train car and mercilessly stabbed the boss monster.
Naturally, the boss monster tried to get out of it, but something strange happened.
‘The iron pillars inside the train moved like snakes and began to bind the boss monster!’
Ahn Min-tae looked carefully. The numerous stainless steel handles attached to the inside of the train—the frames were collapsing all at once, tying up various parts of the boss monster’s body like iron chains… Min-tae Ahn didn’t know it, but
that was the ‘metal transformation’ that Hyun-wook Lee had recently developed.
The solid stainless steel was transformed and instantly tied up the guy’s body.
But that thing couldn’t completely stop the movement of that big guy.
With just one struggle, they snapped.
But Lee Hyun-wook was not unaware of that.
thud-!
He immediately moved four Living Armor units and blocked the back door to prevent him from coming out.
He then ordered the wizards to shoot ‘freezing magic’ into the space between the train and the tunnel.
Blah blah blah—!
The narrow gap was filled with ice, making it impossible to escape through the window.
In other words, it seemed like the boss monster was completely trapped inside the train.
Immediately after that, Hyunwook Lee focused his energy on the metal inside the train.
Hundreds of iron beads placed in advance were ‘crushed’ and ‘deformed’ into sharp points.
They began to spin noisily, entangled with the boss monster.
Because it was inside a narrow train, not a single piece could be avoided.
Qua-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-!
Even the boss monster couldn’t withstand such an insane attack, and
blood splattered on the window. Then, later, a piece of flesh flew in and stuck to his chin.
Ahn Min-tae felt goosebumps rising as he watched that scene.
‘What is this… it’s not a blender…’
Ahn Min-tae’s impression was accurate.
As if the train had become a giant blender, it trapped the boss monster and tore it to pieces.
Lee Hyun-wook even ordered Park Jun-mo to pour all the ‘electric current’ into the train… This was to stun the struggling guy and make it a little easier to replace it.
‘Evil! After all, the best devil is a human!’
In this way, the boss monster was unable to escape from the train and
was divided again and again for about 5 minutes due to the sin of choosing the wrong nest.
Qua-ga-ga-ga-ga-ga-!
Even though the thing seemed to have stopped moving, Lee Hyun-wook continued to turn the ‘mixer’ without stopping.
It only took 10 minutes to get there.
In that short period of time, an unrecognizable ‘something that was once a boss monster’ was born.
“Ouk-!”
“Damn… it looks like ground meat.”
Looking at that horrible sight, I felt nauseous even though I was wearing a gas mask.
“How could this happen…” Still, it’s the boss monster of the wave…”
Ahn Min-tae asked in a state of fascination, but Lee Hyun-wook didn’t think it was a big deal.
“Raids can sometimes become strangely easy if you use compatibility properly.”
In fact, ‘Hell Mutant’ was not a very powerful boss monster to begin with.
‘He is just a sentinel of the gate behind him.’
As the danger of the monster called Hell Let was focused on the overwhelming ‘number’ that was constantly pouring in, the boss monster was designed only to guard the gate, which was a kind of balance. To those who did not know that fact, it would have seemed like an incredibly overwhelming battle. ”
Now
. “Go inside.”
“Ugh…….”
With Lee Hyun-wook in the lead, we entered the train that had been used as a blender until just now.
Sticky blood was splattering here and there like jelly.
“Damn it…”
And there were metal pieces everywhere, so if you made a mistake, your clothes and skin would be torn.
But there was a sword stuck on a piece of flesh. It was the cloud sword.
– An unknown aura rises from the sword of the cloud. (100%)
‘Luckily it got stuck in the heart.’
By absorbing that bastard’s blood, the number finally reached 100%.
The moment Hyunwook Lee retrieved it, another system message appeared before his eyes.
– congratulations! The potential of the Cloud Sword has been released and upgraded to ‘Unsoo-amsu’!
‘Potential has finally been unleashed.’
Lee Hyun-wook confirmed the information about the Cloud Sword, or rather, ‘Unsuamsu’.
[Item Information]
– Name: Cloud Master’s Hand
– Effect: Absorbs water and emits ‘water fog’ or ‘electricity’.
The existing ‘water fog release’ skill still existed and ‘light release’ was newly added.
Woowoowoo――
And on the wavy sword body, something that looked like ancient Chinese characters was engraved.
They instantly gave off a white light, and
then
an electric current lingered around the entire blade of the Cloud Sword.
‘Now you won’t have to rely on Park Jun-mo when you need a surprise attack.’
As I thought when I first held this sword, the combination of steel and electricity was truly amazing.
Of course, it would take some practice to use it properly, but now was not the time.
“Listen carefully, I killed the boss monster, but the ‘World Stone’ did not appear.”
“…yes?”
“Is there such a case?”
If you defeat the boss monster, the ‘World Stone’ will appear.
And destroying it closes the gate.
This was the basic formula for dungeon raiding.
“There are various reasons, but one of them is the ‘erosion factor.’ Keep moving forward.”
They passed the train, came out on the other side, and advanced again into the darkness.
There was no time to delay as we found evidence that the target was not far away.
At that time, Hyunwook Lee discovered something.
“Um… just look at the wall here for a moment.”
Park Jun-mo raised the flashlight and shined it on the place Lee Hyun-wook pointed. There
was something black stuck between the cracks in the wall of the concrete tunnel.
“Huh? “It looks like a crystal.”
Lee Hyun-wook took out a dagger and scratched it off.
“…What is that?”
“It’s dungeon iron ore.”
– You have obtained dungeon iron ore (grade 3).
It was a representative material item that could be obtained in a dungeon.
If a blacksmith player reforges this, it can be made into Dungeon Steel.
“Yes? Is that what the hell grows here?”
“This is proof that ‘dungeon conversion’ is taking place.”
“That means….”
“To put it simply, it means that erosion is in progress.”
Erosion progresses very quickly throughout the five days, and on the last day, an explosive ‘cataclysm’ occurs. The land literally turns over and the climate changes so drastically that earthquakes and storms occur in the surrounding area. This is a small part of the precursor to the phenomenon
. It was sprouting from there.
“Anyway, it’s a good sign for us right now. “It means the erosion agent is very close by.”
The group accelerated their advance a little more.
And after about 5 minutes more…
“Look there! It’s the gate!”
Finally, a purple shimmer came into view.
There were dozens of Hellets gathered around it, but they were able to deal with them without any problems, and the party searched the area. Then, about 10 meters away beyond the gate, they found something. “On the ground here
. There is something!”
A red stone was stuck on the concrete floor between the cracks in the railroad tracks, and red blood vessels were sticking out and writhing. It looked as if a seed was taking root.
Thump—thump—thump—thump—
and this periodic vibration rang out.
What can I say… yes, it felt like a heart.
“It’s a World Stone!”
Min-tae Ahn said that and Hyun-wook Lee nodded.
“It is precisely the erosion factor.”
“Huh! Is that so?”
“Ahn Min-tae, don’t just train, do some studying.”
As such, the identity of the ‘erosion factor’ was the ‘World Stone.’ When
the World Stone takes root on the Earth’s surface and causes large-scale topographic changes, that is ‘erosion’, and
even if it is not a wave, the World Stone that has been left for a long time causes erosion. I did it too.
Anyway—
‘Okay, I’ve blocked one with this.’ Lee Hyun
-wook
fired a Pale Note and hit the World Stone .
Cracks appeared on the surface with a loud noise, and then it exploded.
It didn’t have much of an impact, so everyone just stood there blankly without any reaction.
” ……. ”
It was because I wasn’t sure if this was successful.
At that time, a line of system message appeared in front of my eyes.
– You have destroyed the ‘World Stone (Wave)’!
The moment they saw that, their eyes fell on each other. I ran into—
“That’s it! it’s okay! “We did it!”
“Wow!”
The 15-person search team cheered in unison.
They had accomplished an achievement that had only been accomplished once in history.
It must have been an indescribable sense of accomplishment.
Lee Hyun-wook also smiled, and his smile contained a different sense of pleasure.
‘Not only was it a great achievement, but it was also 550 ‘I have obtained billions of dollars and even hero grade items.’
Lee Hyun-wook also knew that there was a ‘prize money’ in this 4th wave.
‘Kang Seo-yoon is probably going crazy right now. He’s probably roasting the Guardian kids…’
So, the same amount was won in the previous life, but only 1 was won. It ended up being eliminated.
It wasn’t a problem that could be solved with compensation.
‘But this time, I’ll eat it all.’
Of course, since the 40 members of the Steel Company did it together, they had to share it to some extent.
However, as Lee Hyun-wook’s performance was overwhelming, his share was likely to be large.
‘Half of it will be invested as assets and the other half will be invested in a withdrawal-type guild. .’
Lee Hyun-wook was planning to raise Park Cheol-soo’s [Hope Guild] and develop it into his own organization.
At that time, a gust of wind began to blow in from somewhere.
Whoa, whoo—
The gate began to close, causing a change in air pressure in this tunnel.
The purple shimmer at the gate crumpled like paper and quickly coalesced into one dot.
‘…It’s finally coming out.’
Lee Hyun-wook looked at that place. As soon as the wave closed, something
huge
appeared.
It fell in the direction of gravity
and crashed into the concrete, making a loud noise.
Those who were excited at the sudden appearance were startled. He took a step back.
Park Jun-mo lifted the lantern and illuminated the object.
“What is that…”
Everyone looked at the object closely.
“It looks like a sword, doesn’t it?”
“Uh… it looks like a sword, but can you call that a sword?”
However, it was not a normal appearance like their reaction.
“It’s too big to be called a sword.”
As the saying goes, the sword was misshapen.
It was larger than a human to be considered a weapon held and wielded by a person.
At first glance, the vertical length of the sword body seemed to be over 2 meters, and
the width was also larger than the torso of an adult male.
From the handle to the tip, it was dark black. A huge sword….
While everyone was on guard for a strange object, Lee Hyun-wook walked towards the sword. He
stretched out his hand and grabbed the handle.
– You have acquired Moglei.
‘It’s been a long time.’
[Item Information]
– Name: Mogley (Hero)
– Effect
1) Mass Release (1~5): Releases the sealed ‘mass’ and grants the user ‘strong bones’. 2) Shockwave
: Generates a powerful shock wave. This destructive power is proportional to mass release number 1.
“Sergeant Lee Hyeon-wook, are you able to hold and swing that?”
Ahn Min-tae asked.
Yes, at first glance, it looked like it weighed more than a dozen kilograms. It was in a shape that was absolutely not suitable for holding and swinging as a weapon, and even a high-level barbarian player would find it difficult to use.
‘That’s why the Red Berserker was a monster.’
Red Berserker, a warrior-type villain who freely wielded such crazy weapons…
He once destroyed a large 8-story shopping mall by swinging only this weapon without any special skills.
It was indeed an enormous destructive power… but
honestly, it was much more powerful when used by Lee Hyun-wook, who defeated the guy and became its second owner.
Because….
“You don’t have to hold it tightly and swing it.”
Lee Hyun-wook released his hand from the hilt of the Moglei.
Then, he took a step back and slowly raised only the fingers of his left hand.
Then…
blah blah–
it slowly rose into the air, squeezing the concrete.
Its huge body appeared in the air. It stood tall.
’55kg…….’
Even though the mass was sealed and the mass was reduced as much as possible, it still weighed a whopping 55kg.
The reason Lee Hyun-wook was able to use this better than anyone else was simple. He used
that enormous mass through strength . This is because it can be controlled freely even if it is not
controlled by hand. And it is freer, more effective, and more powerful than swinging it by hand.
‘Right now, it can only be used at level 1 weight, but it will become much more powerful when the mass is released in the future.’
One of Moglai’s skills, ‘Mass Liberation’,
is divided into a total of 5 levels, and Lee Hyun-wook in his previous life was able to liberate it up to level 3.
At that time, Moglei’s weight reached a whopping 2 tons.
Lee Hyun-wook held that 2-ton greatsword thousands of feet in the air. I remembered that historic moment , when I had
dropped it and
given all its metal control to its
tip and smashed it into the head of a black dragon flying over Suwon .
“…It will make things easier.”
