Episode 96. [Fear of war, preparation for war – 1]
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“Are they the ones who just declared war? ”
Kim Se-hee from the Hope Guild office asked while looking at the news bulletin.
“Uh, um…”
Park Cheol-soo, who made eye contact with her, scratched his head as if he wasn’t sure about this issue, and Lee Hyun-wook, who was sitting on the sofa, answered instead. “At least
. “That never happened in the last war.”
“If it’s the last war… is it the war to restore Shanghai?”
Hyunwook Lee nodded,
“Yes, China mobilized all its might to wage war against the Black Orc Kingdom. “That period is divided into a total of four major wars, but neither side did anything like declare war, and they were all surprise raids without notice.”
It was natural in the first place. Humans also do not declare war when attacking monsters. In other words, it is natural that they do not recognize each other as countries, and they do not regard each other as subjects to be treated ‘humanely’.
“Hmm… But why did they declare war this time?”
…Well, Hyun-wook Lee was also contemplating that point.
Meanwhile, an anchor and an expert on the TV news were having a conversation.
– …Should we say it is the current military power of the Black Orc Kingdom? Or should we say it is the difficulty of conquering it? In any case, it is quite high. You say that if it invades our country, is it possible to stop it?
– That would probably require the mobilization of not only all AMT forces but also all civilian guild forces to be able to stop it.
– That means it can’t be seen as a fight against monsters we know . Doesn’t this mean that it could really end up at the level of an all-out war between countries?
– Yes, didn’t China already fail in the last ‘war’ to restore Shanghai? In fact, there are many views that it was not a failure but a defeat. And from then on, a large-scale war will already occur again. It was predicted that this would be the case. Strangely enough, the target has become us.
– But the reason for the declaration of war is ‘Laputa’?
– That’s right. The Orcs say that Laputa contains items belonging to the Black Orc ‘ancestors’, but it is not clear what it is. So far, the government has kept quiet about Laputa…
‘Well, it’s the weapon of the Black Orc ancestors…’
At that point, Hyunwook Lee thought he should ask Talos.
There’s no need for a story like that to come up. There must have been something.
– But before the 2nd wave, China was much stronger than it is now, right? They say it had a military power about 5 times that of our current country…
– Yes, there were a lot of players because it had a large population, but the 2nd wave It lost a lot of its power during the war between Wave and Shanghai.
– Then there would be little chance for our country to win. Hmm… Is there any room for a diplomatic solution with the Black Orc Kingdom? For example, the item called the ancestral relic they want. U….
such a not-so-hopeful story was bound to come out, and naturally, the entire Republic of Korea fell into shock and fear. The Korean stock market crashed overnight, and foreigners continued to flee. ‘…yeah, that’s their primary target
. ‘is intended to incite fear.’
That was one of the reasons behind this sudden declaration of war.
Situations like this had happened several times in previous lives, where villain forces used the Black Orc Kingdom to create war clouds in East Asia. ‘It’s
like when North Korea frequently fired missiles . same.’
If you create fear like that, an economic downturn will inevitably occur, and furthermore, chaos and internal strife will occur, making it easy for the villains to exploit the gap and achieve their desired goal. So what is that ‘desired goal’ now
? It was important.
‘They’re clearly trying to do something…’
But that evening, I got a call from Woo Seong-moon.
And the content… I expected it, but it was so absurd.
– A person has appeared in China who claims to have administrator authority for Laputa. Also… he’s a pretty famous ranker.
A group in China claimed that the ‘Chinese Laputa key possession theory’, which had been circulating in China for some time, was true.
– The Chinese guild is called [Hongdo (紅道)], and they contacted us 40 minutes ago and told us to hand over access to Laputa since they are the administrators of Laputa. Haha… Then, when the Black Orcs invade the Korean Peninsula, we will be able to stop them very easily.
His voice was as if it were absurd.
“I see. But if the story spreads, it will cause trouble in many ways. Since we have not disclosed any information about Laputa, our people will inevitably worry that China really has such authority, which will only increase their anxiety.”
That was obvious. If there were voices in China saying that China is the true owner of Laputa and that they should demand it from Korea, Korean public opinion would respond by urging the government to reveal the truth – – Yes, that’s how it will go. But it’s a bit strange
. Well… the Chinese side also added a somewhat absurd request to meet and discuss if there is another Laputa manager in Korea.
‘……Huh? What does this mean?’
At that point, Lee Hyun-wook was able to sense their purpose.
‘As expected, what they’re after is the robbery of [Laputa administrator authority], right?’
The purpose of putting pressure on the Laputa manager by creating a situation where he had no choice but to show up like this was to identify a target to assassinate. Of
course, Lee Hyun-wook had no intention of responding to that scenario.
“There is no way what he said is true, so there is no other purpose. “There will be.”
– Yes. I won’t be swayed by obvious things.
Yes, there is a saying, ‘don’t feed an asshole’. The answer was not to react to the absurd political maneuvers that caused such noise.
‘It gets complicated if I grab the world’s attention by taking that bait for no reason.’
Woo Seong-moon then said that he was monitoring the area around Shanghai with a military satellite, but that there was no movement of the main Black Orc troops yet.
‘As expected, the declaration of war was nothing but obvious fear-mongering.’
Therefore, while preparing for possible infiltration, the government focused on the fact that this incident was a ‘show’ with a different purpose.
But…
‘…but that doesn’t mean the Black Orc invasion was false.’
In fact, a few years later, the Black Orc Army invades the Korean Peninsula.
The ragged fleet that decorated the sky and sea simultaneously struck and occupied the west coast and installed ‘totems’ that caused erosion, ultimately leading to Jeju Island becoming a colony of black oaks.
‘But this time the timing will be brought forward.’
Since Lee Hyun-wook defeated all of the villains’ plans, there was a high possibility that they would pull out the Black Orc card a little early.
‘The way to deal with them is… with great firepower.’
We needed a deterrent that would prevent anything from invading this land, and a destructive power that would make us come to our senses so that we could never harbor ambitions again.
For example, a big gun that would blow up the fleet before landing…
At that time, I received a call from Yeo Sang-min, who was waiting in Laputa.
– Hey… It is said that this dwarf man succeeded in communicating with the people of his hometown. I think I need to get ready to move soon.
The technicians who will build that powerful gun will soon arrive.
***
[Hidden Quest]
– Encounter with a Dimensional Traveler – 3
You have named the colony of Gray Mountain Dwarves.
They are scheduled to appear through the ‘rift’ in 8 days.
Be prepared for unexpected ‘accidents’ at that moment.
* Quest Rewards: Differentially paid according to performance.
And today was the 8th day.
Soon a portal opens in the sky and the dwarf race appears.
‘And in it… the wyvern will fall along with it.’
That is why Laputa was now preparing for the ‘siege war’.
“Now Team 3, move to the railing outside B43!”
“Freeze wizards are gathering around the center here!”
Not long ago, a new department called ‘New City Planning Department’ was created within the Special Secret Police Bureau, and the [Bhyeongrang] team, a secret department that was involved in blocking Abaddon’s summons, was provided as the main force.
There were a total of about 100 players mobilized in that way.
“Install a magic turret on tower 8 over there!”
In order to deal with powerful flying monsters called Wyverns, they were installing items in the form of anti-aircraft weapons throughout Laputa, and
among them was the [Thunder’s Mace], an ‘artisan’ grade weapon that completely wiped out the iron armored insects of Mt. Blue Dragon during the wave.
‘But lightning attacks are not very effective against wyverns.’
That’s what Lee Hyun-wook thought as he looked at the scene.
In the first place, wyverns were a species that flew at high altitudes and were highly likely to be struck by lightning, so of course their body structure was designed to repel lightning, and they were bound to have considerable resistance to electricity. If that were the case,
then What is the best way to subdue the wyvern?
Lee Hyun-wook knew the answer very well.
“Bring all the boxes from Yeo Sang-min’s Republic of Chad.”
“Are you going to install it here?”
Lee Hyun-wook nodded.
Then, from far away inside the Order Tower, another Yeo Sang-min jumped out, got into the Friedwen of the airship port, and drove it this way.
Uuuuu——
“Hmm, how should we land here?”
“No, don’t land, just move a little to the left.”
Then, as if through voice recognition, Friedwen immediately moved.
‘As expected, there is no delay in processing work if you use Yeo Sang-min.’
In this way, Yeo Sang-min’s presence greatly increases work efficiency.
‘Anyway, I’ll soon have to tell you how to improve that guy’s abilities.’
Yeo Sang-min also had an extra-level growth mechanism in which the number of ‘alter egos’ increased by one every time he ate a specific item. Although the item was originally rare, it could be obtained on the black market. Cheolkkeok—Lee Hyun-wook picked up an iron box from Pridwen
at
4 I pulled the dog down.
And inside, there was something that looked like a tree vine, and a brilliant light flowed out as if to prove that it was by no means an ordinary object.
“Wow…”
That was… this time… again, a vine from the world tree. ‘ Anyway,
the World Tree is really a fraud.’
It was not for nothing that the Republic of Chad lived off of one of the world’s trees.
‘In that respect, if Laputa were grown well, wouldn’t it be just as good?’
As this floating city of Laputa is also a ‘super level object,’ the more it is developed, the more benefits will come. The Gray Mountain Dwarf tribe that will move in here today will be the first step. “Hey, how did you get these precious items
? Right? This kind of thing doesn’t seem to be distributed well even on the black market…”
Naturally, this was sent by airlift from Emilia Müller, and was later processed for a special purpose at the Gangjeongdu workshop. The
manufactured item that was created in this way….
[Item information ]
– Name: Hook of the World Tree (Skilled)
– Effect: If you hang the ‘hook’ on the end of a vine somewhere and give it mana, you can very easily pull it in with mystical power.
This will be the ‘weapon’ of conversion to deal with the wyvern. And
after a while….
“Okay! We’re ready to open the dimensional door!”
Soiler shouted in the central square of Laputa’s ‘upper city center’.
Behind him was the old airship he had been riding in, and its bumper had some kind of sharp mechanical device attached to it. According to
Soiler’s words, that was the dimensional gate. It was a device that opened the
“How can I start right now?”
Hyunwook Lee nodded to Soiler’s question.
“Yes, I’m ready, so let’s invite the family.”
Then, team leader Lee Gyo-jun, who was standing next to him, ordered the troops scattered throughout Laputa to prepare for battle through Mana Messenger.
“Hahaha! “I never thought such a happy day would come!”
Soiler cheered and pressed the button on the remote control.
Then, a beam of light emitted from the pointed part of the device, reached about 100 meters in the air, and began to gather into a ball. After a while… the space at that point is crumpled like a thin plastic film.
Go—oh—oh—oh——!
Just like that, a purple gate opened in the sky above Laputa.
Gulp—
someone behind me swallowed dry saliva. The members of the Bihyeongrang team were all seasoned elites, but this time they seemed nervous.
Well… the appearance of the ‘Wyvern’ was predicted. If I had any idea what kind of creature it was, I couldn’t help but feel nervous.
Each individual is level 85 or higher, and they are very picky predators that travel in groups… Once they appear, it takes more than a month to subdue them, and a no-fly order is issued in the area.
“Hehe… Please let it end without incident…”
They knew that if they couldn’t control it properly here… they could end up scattering disaster on Seoul down there.
That was exactly the part they were afraid of.
At that time, the purple gate began to wriggle.
“—It’s coming out!”
Hung—!
The first thing that appeared was a grey-brown old airship, and it was enormous, appearing to be thirty times larger than the one Soiler was riding in.
Rattling—
“Hahaha! It came out! “That is our mothership [Grayslug]!”
After that, various types of airships came out in droves and increased their altitude towards the sky. But aren’t they driving well or are they bumping into each other in the air like bumper cars?
“Hahaha! Anyway, I’m jumping around excitedly—!”
But Soiler was still smiling brightly.
Maybe… it seemed to happen quite often.
‘I wonder if he’s a technician I can trust with these things…’
Soon a total of 12 airships lined up in the sky, and among them, he was the last one. The lid of the airship that came out opened and someone stuck their head out.
“Soiler—we’re all out, so close the door right now!”
“Oh that’s right— get out of my head….”
But—
ke—eh—eh—eh——!
‘Yeah, I thought I’d be late like last time.’
As this was also an event, battle was inevitable.
Eventually, in the blink of an eye, five wyverns lined up and escaped.
“Oh my! I’m late again this time!”
Just like that, monsters with gray bodies and a wingspan of over 30 meters spread their wings in the sky of Laputa. As they passed through the gate, they looked around as if they were not used to the suddenly changed scenery. – Gray Wyvern (LV. 89) and sharp
teeth
. He exposed his face and let out a cackling sound.
At that time, Lee Hyun-wook raised his left hand.
Then, the ‘hooks of the world tree’ curled up behind his back began to extend towards the sky. The hook at the end was made of ‘metal’. Because of this, Lee Hyun-wook was able to control it.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
And in an instant, the wings of the Wyverns began to wrap around.
The power of the World Tree— their wings folded in an instant.
Tweet—!
And When I gave it mana and pulled it, it seemed to hold on for a moment like a huge fish caught on a fishing line, but soon it started to come in.
‘Wyverns are powerful monsters. But if they fall to the ground—’
Boom——!
Those huge monsters fall to the ground in vain. It crashed.
“—Now! “Let’s use all our attacks!”
Mobility, their greatest strength, is lost.
In other words, they become very easy prey.
“Team Leader Kim, hurry up! This is all experience points!”
“…Uh ah! Okay!”
At Lee Hyeon-wook’s words, Kim Se-hee summoned dozens of wind blades.
As he said, this was an opportunity to level up that would never come again.
***
After a while, junk-like airships landed all over Laputa.
“Wow! Soiler, is this really our new home?”
“Yes! Didn’t I find it well?”
“Oh my god, I didn’t find it well. Isn’t this Laputa, the greatest masterpiece created by the gnomes!”
“Hahaha! That’s right! We are blessed!”
Hundreds of Gray Mountain Dwarfs couldn’t help but be amazed. Like Soilers who came here for the first time, they were jumping around with excitement. About an hour
later, the Dwarves began to pack up their belongings. As a race of excellent engineers, they possessed all kinds of strange items. But
Lee Hyun-wook was looking for something inside.
‘…I finally found it.’
Among the dwarven equipment that was rusted like junk, there was only one piece of metal equipment that maintained a brilliant shine. At first glance,
it was an item made with gnome technology.
‘…It has finally arrived?’
As Lee Hyun-wook approached him, Soiler approached and smiled.
“Ugh—are you curious about what this is?”
“Yes, it looks like some kind of slot machine.”
It was truly a slot machine with a coin slot and a lever.
“This is something our species loves more than anything else, and it is our property!” It’s entertainment! “It’s a great item that can also be used as a food source!”
Lee Hyeon-wook stood in front of him while listening to his explanation.
Then he put a plastic bag down on the floor.
There was a bunch of metal lumps in it.
Jangle— Jangle—
And the moment the contents are revealed—
“Gasp—!”
The eyes of the dwarves around him turned at once.
“Oh no… that’s—!”
It was none other than the ‘Ancient Coin of the Underground Kingdom.’
“That’s nonsense! “There are so many ancient coins!”
Lee Hyun-wook asked Go Jun-cheol to collect all of this. Now the time has come for its value to be revealed, but it is still considered a ‘miscellaneous item’ whose use is unclear, so it can be easily purchased.
A total of 141 items were collected like that.
“Are these the conditions for moving this machine?”
Soiler nodded with a blank face.
“Okay… that’s the coin that can operate the [Gnome’s subspace material vending machine]. How did you get so many of those precious things?”
This slot machine-shaped item was a fraudulent item that would later become a must-have for the world’s most prestigious blacksmith guilds.
Because when you spin this, material items appear randomly.
‘And with extreme odds, something ridiculous may come out.’
Adamant, Orihalcon,
legendary metals that are so expensive, you can’t even show off your business card….
Sigh—
He put in the first coin.
Then the [Gnome’s Subspace Material Vending Machine] started to light up.
“Hehe—yes, you will definitely be lucky!”
Slap!
When Lee Hyun-wook turned the lever, the slot machine spun smoothly.
And the moment it stops,
bam— blah— bam— bam— bam—!
A somewhat childish but cheerful fanfare sounded.
“-crazy!”
With the dwarves watching next to him swearing violently…
And Lee Hyun-wook swallowed his saliva without realizing it.
