Steel-Eating Player Chapter 66

Episode 66. [Conspiracies, Quests, Demons – 3]

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Author’s Note) Some of the contents of episodes 63 to 65 feel somewhat coincidental. In order to correct the part, modifications were made as follows. Sorry for the inconvenience

1) Hell’s Grasp: This plant-type monster that appears in the underground parking lot is not just a security guard, but as a ritual to summon a demon called Abaddon progresses, ‘hellification’ occurs and is occurring throughout Seoul.

2) According to number 1 above, the government was also aware of the ‘hell-inducing phenomenon’ occurring throughout Seoul, and

when Lee Hyun-wook contacted Woo Seong-myeong, he was not completely unaware, but was aware of the situation to some extent.

3) However, because the government could not discover the ‘event map’, it was not aware that this event meant ‘summoning Abaddon’.

Ki Baekjun, the master of Taesan Guild, was talking on the phone with someone right now.

“The summoning of Abaddon will proceed without a hitch. Yes, the current quest progress is 61%.”

The content was about the demon summoning currently taking place in Seoul.

“As you may have heard, the Korean government has been continuously requesting relief from ‘Saint Dome’. Even though we stopped the 4th wave, we are still infested with undead monsters. “But at a time like this, when the demon summoning was recognized… it’s strange that the saint didn’t appear.”

Saint Dom was the world’s largest ‘sanctuary’ right under the stem of the world tree in the Republic of Chad.

The priests and paladins who lived there were of the highest level in the world.

Therefore, among villains who use dark powers, he was the number one nemesis that must be eliminated.

“More than anything… there’s no way we can watch Seoul, the city where Laputa appeared, get further ruined, right? That’s the direction not only the government of this country but the entire world wants… all kinds of interests like that will inevitably summon a saint and use a large-scale purification skill. “I will make you write.”

Yes, the important keyword in this case was actually not ‘demon summons’ but ‘saint summons.’

“Honestly, there is no way to stop the demon Abaddon summons other than the power of a saint. In the next 36 hours, all Calamity Shard requirements will be met. Until then, wouldn’t it be nonsense for anyone on this earth to find 20 secret locations hidden throughout Seoul? Haha—”

He laughed bitterly and shook his head as he heard something over the phone.

“…And just in case, I’ve prepared the next plan. You don’t have to worry.”

***

“And… I want you to give me access to the government [Arsenal No. 1].”

Woo Seong-moon couldn’t help but feel puzzled by Lee Hyun-wook’s bold request.

“No. 1 Armory…”

During the wave, [No. 2 Armory] was provided to the Steel Company.

It was a timely choice. As a result, it helped save Seoul. Of course,

the operation resulted in a considerable number of people . Items were lost, but it was to save Seoul, so there was no way it was a waste of a few dozen items.

The only thing that was puzzling was… I couldn’t understand why it was needed at this moment. All

I had to do from now on was open the hidden ‘event map’. It’s a tracking job.

To put it simply, you’ll have to move quickly, so a large amount of weapons will only become a burden.

“In this situation… is there a need to mobilize a lot of weapons?”

At that question, Lee Hyun-wook shook his head.

“Oh, you misunderstood. We don’t need as many weapons as last time.”

He extended his index finger:

“I just need one thing.”

“Um, something…”

“I need that ‘Hugin’, which is said to be stored in Armory No. 1.”

Huginn is one of a pair of ravens raised by ‘Odin’, the highest god in Norse mythology, and was known to travel around the world to gather all kinds of information and pass it on to Odin. Based on that myth, an item called Huginn is also used to ‘acquire information’

. It was implemented as a legendary grade item specialized for. And through various channels, it is now the property of the Republic of Korea government.

When using Hugin, all senses—or specific senses—can be expanded up to 50 times.

And that ability is now applied to Lee Hyun-wook. If this were to happen, the range of the detection ability of the [Demon Chaser] would increase by 50 times. As a result, it would demonstrate overwhelming efficiency in tracking the ‘event map.’ ‘You think of Hugin here…’ Woo Seong-moon was impressed once again. Lee

Hyun

–

wook The more I looked at him, the more I saw him as an amazing person.

Especially at a young age, he had mature insight.

However… he was not well-versed in everything.

‘Of course, even if you know a lot, you can’t know everything…’

The existence of Hugin and I knew the function and instantly thought of how to use it

, but I couldn’t figure out the fatal problem hidden in the item called Hugin.

For a moment, I placed my hopes on this man, but it seemed like I couldn’t entrust everything to him.

Woo Seong-moon lowered his head with a bitter expression . “ I

’m sorry, Sergeant Lee Hyun-wook, but that item is currently practically unoperable.”

“…Can you tell me what the reason is?”

“Hugin, of course, is an item that has tremendous effects, just as famous as it is…”

There was one fatal flaw in Hugin that was not disclosed.

“…That item consumes a lot of mana just by manifesting its function.”

Usually, the skills built into the item did not consume mana, but there were exceptions.

“Unless you are an archmage with a total mana of over 10,000, you will not be able to use it for less than 5 minutes even if you use it while wearing a top-level ‘mana tank.’ I can’t. So, we are unable to utilize it at all.”

If it had been something that could be easily used in the first place, it wouldn’t have been stuffed into the armory like that.

This item was called ‘over handicap’. It’s an item that clearly has great functionality, but is virtually impossible to use because it has a ridiculous penalty…

But at that point, Hyunwook Lee secretly smiled.

“Director Woo, I think it will be possible.”

“…yes?”

Woo Seong-moon wondered how many times he had asked “Yes?” today.

Every time he ran into some kind of difficulty, Lee Hyun-wook would say that only he could do it. It

was so bad that he wondered if he was making fun of himself.

“… No way, right now . “Do you mean your total mana amount is over 10,000?”

“Yes, let’s just say so.”

“Huh—what is this…what kind of accomplishments have you achieved…”

Lee Hyun-wook’s mana is currently 59441, and even the ‘recovery speed’ was overwhelming. The ‘

Aether Engine’, an engine created by digesting the dwarven Great Mountain Engine ‘

Now, his heart was the powerhouse of mana itself, so it was natural.

Woo Seong-moon, who didn’t know the inside story, looked like he couldn’t understand.

“…I’ll say it again. I hope you can trust me.”

Woo Seong-moon looked at Lee Hyun-wook’s face.

‘Clearly… he is full of firm confidence. There is a basis for it.’

Woo Seong-moon nodded slowly,

“…Good. But first, let’s bring Hugin and test it.”

As Woo Seong-moon looked, the wizard’s aides opened a portal to [Armory No. 1], and

a moment later, a government agent came out from inside with a large hard case.

“Now, this is Hugin.”

A high-ranking wizard in the position of security officer unlocked the multiple security spells placed there and opened it.

Clunk—

there was a black sphere the size of a bowling ball inside.

Lee Hyun-wook took it out carefully.

– Obtained ‘Dormant Hugin (Legendary)’.

[Item Information]

– Name: Dormant Hugin (Legendary)

– Effect: Activates by infusing mana.

Lee Hyun-wook held the object with both hands and injected mana into it.

Woowoowoo——

Then the sphere slowly unfolded and suddenly took the shape of a black crow.

Of course, it was definitely not an ordinary crow.

Not feathers, but scales—or rather, a brilliant blue light bloomed from a body that looked as hard as metal. And a blue glow slowly emerged from the pupils, creating a strange atmosphere.

‘And this is actually a mechanical life form created through ancient magic engineering.’

So later, Kang Hee-seol and the seven dwarves created ‘Imitation’ based on this, and

dozens of cloned Hugin and Munin were launched into the sky and made into the eyes of the demon machine army.

Of course, it was still impossible to catch up with this ‘original’.

– ‘Hugin’ is activated and ‘all senses’ are expanded up to 50 times.

* Mana reduction per second: 24~120

If you increase the effect of this item to the maximum, a whopping 120 mana is consumed per second.

However, Lee Hyun-wook’s heart was currently able to produce about 98 mana per second.

‘As a result, we can maintain 22 per second… OK, almost an hour.’

He closed his eyes and felt the ‘sensory explosion’ caused by Hugin.

– Your senses become ‘congruent’ with ‘hugin’.

He felt his senses exploding in all directions.

The sound of insects chirping in a corner somewhere in the distance…

the smell rising from the trash dumped on the ground…

even the echo of an airplane passing over here was clearly perceptible.

“Huh…”

I wondered if this is what it would feel like to become a beast.

Hyunwook Lee closed his eyes and flew Hugin out of the underground parking lot.

Hiss—!

“Uh oh—”

As the legendary item disappeared out of sight, the government agents let out panicked voices.

However, Woo Seong-moon just calmly observed Lee Hyun-wook’s reaction.

It matched Lee Hyun-wook’s current Hugin and was soaring toward the sky.

Huh . Wow—

how far did it go up like that?…

‘…I can see it.’

Lee Hyun-wook’s vision overlooked the cityscape of Seoul,

and he could feel some dark energies writhing within it.

– Quest objective ‘Devil’s Secret Altar’ discovered.

– Quest objective ‘Devil’s Secret Altar’ discovered.

Yes, the [Demon Chaser] buff was functional and indicated the ‘quest goal.’

Lee Hyun-wook was so dumbfounded that he laughed.

‘No, I think we’ll find it too quickly at this rate, don’t you think?’

I only fired Hugin as a test, but I’ve already found two.

The combination of the skills obtained by digesting legendary grade material items and the legendary grade information items.

In a way, it was only natural that this level of ripple effect would occur.

Meanwhile, Woo Seong-moon and The aides were looking at him blankly.

He was closing his eyes and laughing, wondering what he was looking at.

“Wow, it’s already been 5 minutes…”

“No, how much mana is…”

Right then . Hugin returned and sat on Lee Hyun

– wook’s shoulder, and he opened his eyes.

A kind of engineering sound came from inside Hugin in his ears.

This proved that Hugin could be operated without difficulty.

Lee Hyun-wook was Hugin . After folding it and putting it back into a sphere-dormant state, I looked at Woo Seong-moon.

“Director Woo, I think I can operate it well.”

“Huh—Sergeant Lee Hyeon-wook, what is your total mana…”

Woo Seong-moon stopped talking while asking that question without realizing it.

“Big…”

I thought, right now is not the time to be inquiring about the details of this S-rank player.

It was also very rude for players to ask each other about their abilities.

What was certain was that there were only a couple of players in the world who could handle Hugin like that.

“So, Director Woo, you are going to follow my plan now?”

Woo Seong-moon nodded without hesitation.

Now, Lee Hyun-wook is the center of this response operation, both in name and reality.

“So, please tell me what you need to know about what you plan to do using Hugin.”

Woo Seong-moon said that and gestured, and aides from each field came over and prepared to carry out the action.

“First, please mobilize as many wizard players as possible.”

“Well, I would like you to tell me specifically what type of wizard you need.”

It wasn’t enough to guess what I would do as a wizard player.

“Yes, all you need is enough wizards to open dozens of portals in skyscrapers all over Seoul.”

Hyunwook Lee added one last word.

“…Maybe we can finish it sooner than you think.”

***

“—All teams will be on standby in 5 minutes!”

Lee Hyun-wook was standing on the roof of a building in Yeouido.

Behind him, government agents, including Woo Seong-moon, were busy going back and forth, carrying out various tasks.

‘If you launch Hugin, all quest targets in a radius of at least 5 km will come into view.’

However, the devil’s secret altar was currently spread throughout Seoul.

In other words, it was impossible to rely on Hugin’s flight to cover the entire Seoul.

In the first place, Hugin could not escape more than 2km from the user.

There was no way to solve that….

“Currently, A total of 450 wizards were deployed at 50 locations on the rooftops of skyscrapers across Seoul.”

In this way, Hyunwook Lee requested that 50 ‘portals’ be opened throughout Seoul.

In other words, it moves back and forth between 50 points as if jumping in space and activates ‘Hugin’—quickly scanning the area.

Thus, the location of the ‘Devil’s Secret Altar’ is accurately identified, and

the ‘assault team’ waiting in the area surrounds the building and waits for entry.

‘And after confirming the locations of all secret altars, they attack at the same time.’

This operation was a complete blow by minimizing the chance for them to notice and react.

For this purpose, 85 training teams of 450 wizards were prepared.

It was an operation that would have been impossible if Lee Hyun-wook had been alone, or even if he had many colleagues.

This was possible only because of the power of ‘government’.

‘As expected… having the government on your back is a huge advantage.’

And on the other hand, it was possible because there was a person named Woo Seong-moon.

A true bureaucrat who devoted himself solely to the security of the nation…

However, Woo Seong-moon was scheduled to be assassinated just two years later.

After that, government power is eroded by the villain.

‘Governments around the world are already falling into their hands, and Korea is no exception…’

Naturally, I was planning to prepare from now on to prevent something like that from happening.

“Standby 3 minutes ago—!”

Soon, the wizards gathered together and began to deploy a ‘two-way portal’, and

magical energy was released from the tips of their wands and staffs, converging into one dot.

“Sergeant Lee Hyun-wook, you need to prepare soon.”

“Yes, I am already ready.”

“All right. “Then I will give you a signal right away.”

At that time, Woo Seong-moon came next to Lee Hyun-wook.

“Sergeant Lee Hyun-wook, I’m just telling you now…”

“Yes?”

“Actually, I have asked the saint for help in resolving this problem.”

Emilia Müller, an S-rank priest who is living in seclusion at ‘Saint Dom’ in the Principality of Chad,

has not responded to any requests for aid over the past few years.

However, if the entire city of Seoul was in crisis, the story would inevitably be different.

In fact, in her previous life, she also participated in the restoration operation of eroded Seoul…

“Fortunately, there was a positive response and we were preparing to welcome her.”

Yes, the saint’s wide-area blessing magic could have prevented the transformation into hell and blocked the summoning of demons.

However, the problem was that the cost required to deploy that one spell was astronomical.

“So, if there are signs that this plan will fail… scratch it. In order not to make it, I plan on not pushing too hard and waiting until the saint arrives. What is more important than anything else is the safety of Seoul. This point… please keep this in mind.”

Hyunwook Lee nodded.

“You will not fail.”

And at this point, Lee Hyun-wook was convinced of the real reason for the villains’ summoning of demons.

‘It was because of the saint, after all.’

Lee Hyun-wook was somewhat aware that there was a hidden intention in their movements.

The devil was clearly a being as powerful as a ‘world boss monster’, but

it was strange to summon a devil so openly

. The idea was to advertise that it was there so that they could respond early…

‘As expected, it was bait to draw out the saint.’

Originally, they had planned to assassinate the saint as an extension of the 4th wave, but

since that all went to waste, they came up with a new method.

‘But once I take care of this, there will be no need for the saint to be mobilized.’

At that time, a strong wind blew behind him:

“The two-way portal to A3 has been deployed—!”

The portal opened and the air in the area was shaking.

Soon, Hugin returned and landed on Lee Hyun-wook’s right side, and

he turned and walked towards the first portal.

‘Of course, they will not give up and aim for the saint. You have to keep a close eye on the variables. do.’

Like this, Lee Hyun-wook always thought about and prepared for variables.

But in reality, Lee Hyun-wook himself was the biggest variable.

It was the moment when he once again twisted the steering wheel of the truck named Villain in the reverse direction.