Ch.2020. Kobold

“······A mercenary group formed by Chinese refugees and remnants of the Russian Siberian garrison forces.”

“Yes. After verification, that assessment appears to be correct.”

“Then what about this 7-meter giant armor and more than three armored vehicles? Do you think remnants and refugees could use such equipment?”

“The giant armor was salvaged from abandoned wreckage, and upon inspection, the armored vehicles are tractors with welded steel plates. It’s not… completely implausible.”

One week later, at the chairman’s office in Seonggwang Group headquarters.

The chairman was meeting with the head of Seonggwang Group’s intelligence team, who was reporting on the investigation of the mercenary group his daughter had mentioned.

“So, there’s nothing suspicious or connected to serious crimes?”

“No. Dealings with brokers and smugglers are common in the north, and we’ve confirmed there are no criminals or criminal activities of concern.”

“······That’s fortunate then.”

While saying this, the chairman was calmly reading the mercenary group’s capabilities detailed in the report.

[Mercenary Group Detailed Roster

• 67 Infantry

Comparable to low-rank hunters. All armed with Russian standard laser weapons.

• 6 Psychic Users

Members of the refugee group. The strongest psychic user is mid-rank lower tier, the rest are low-rank average level.

• 3 Improvised Armored Vehicles

Tractor-based. Welded steel plates with rotating turrets and Chinese laser heavy machine guns.

• 7-meter Giant Armor

Pre-4th generation model. Core systems intact but in poor condition.

• Additionally, 94 refugees under protection.]

“Would this······be a problem?”

“A single hunting team from our Seonggwang Guild could eliminate them. Of course, considering they survived in the harsh northern region, they must have potential. It wouldn’t be bad to include them in the young lady’s newly formed team.”

With these words from his bodyguard, who was also a high-rank hunter of Seonggwang Guild, the chairman was finally convinced there were no issues with this investigation.

Even if there were problems, he was further reassured by the guarantee that they could be handled.

“Good. Then proceed accordingly, Intelligence Team Leader. And our Guild Master.”

“Understood, Chairman.”

“Yes, Chairman.”

※ ※ ※

‘Great! I succeeded!’

Monitoring the situation through the Hive Mind, I was ecstatic about successfully infiltrating the mercenary group disguised as humans.

This success meant I could now provide identities for the Nina-79 series, and with these identities, I could accomplish all sorts of things.

I could infiltrate specific groups, build influence to secure political power, detect reconnaissance operations that might attack me or expose my presence early on.

Going further, I could actively move to infiltrate monsters disguised as cargo into enemy territory, or even cause disruption through assassinations of key figures.

This might sound exaggerated, but the important point is that these fake mercenaries could serve as a bridgehead to the human world.

After numerous improvements, the Nina-79 series, despite being monsters subordinate to the Hive Mind, have developed to the point where they’re indistinguishable from humans, so there’s no worry about being discovered.

And to prepare for unforeseen circumstances, I’ve produced a special infiltration team commander monster who maintains an independent consciousness despite being subordinate to the Hive Mind.

‘Can I trust you with this?’

“Yes, Mother. Gladly, if that’s what you wish.”

‘Mother·····huh. Hmm······.’

This one who always makes me uncomfortable by calling me “Mother” is Theresia, a Grade 4 single-species monster and the crew member of the giant armor.

In appearance, she’s unmistakably a voluptuous blonde, blue-eyed Slavic beauty, and even a thorough medical examination would only confirm her as human.

But her true nature is a monster created by extensively modifying the Hive Mind’s biological tissue into human form, with partial distribution of subordinate control abilities to command the disguised mercenary soldiers separately.

Though she’s a Grade 4 monster, most of her capacity is invested in proxy Hive Mind functions, effectively giving her psychic abilities comparable to the lower tier of Grade 7 monsters.

Additionally, she’s genetically designed to feel maternal affection toward me, and in emergencies, a psychic bomb within her body would detonate—I’ve taken great care in controlling an entity with independent consciousness.

“Then, I’ll be going now. Mother.”

‘········Yes, take care.’

Of course, there was a slight miscalculation in that maternal affection developed in me as well, but it was within acceptable parameters.

So I watched Theresia gear up and board the giant armor to leave the base, then set aside my concerns and began handling the next tasks.

Regardless of personal feelings, there was much to attend to in my legion, which had just entered an expansion phase.

※ ※ ※

Though I’m trying to hide my expansion through underground routes, naturally there are plenty of monsters who can easily detect such activity.

Cases where they actually figure out how and to what extent I’m expanding are extremely rare, but detecting the vibrations is child’s play for mid-tier monsters of Grade 6 or higher.

Of course, few monsters that detect it can actually reach the location, but “few” means some do exist—with Kobolds being a prime example.

Kobolds. Humanoid monsters resembling a mix between moles and lizards, naturally occurring in various grades from Grade 10 at minimum to Grade 5 at maximum, depending on the individual.

As their appearance suggests, they primarily live underground, specifically in tunnels dug by Worms, giant moles, or ant monsters, or in natural caves, and possess innate mining abilities independent of this.

Despite these mining abilities, Kobolds typically prefer to employ low-grade mining slave Kobolds or tame underground animal-type monsters skilled at digging rather than excavating directly themselves.

Their diet normally includes meat and plants, but peculiarly, they can also consume and digest rocks and metals.

These digested materials gradually integrate into their bodies, starting from the skin, which means fully grown Kobolds essentially have bodies of metal or rock, making them extremely difficult opponents in underground environments.

Consequently, with these characteristics, Kobolds were naturally the first monsters we encountered during our expansion into North Korean territory, and this encounter quickly escalated from confrontation to war.

Initially, the Kobolds merely aimed to repel us as invaders of their territory, but once they discovered we possessed large quantities of precious metals (shooters/blasters), the frequency of engagements increased.

As a result, what began as sporadic skirmishes intensified over time, eventually developing into a major war with tens of thousands of united Kobold groups clashing with my legion.

Despite this enormous scale, the Kobolds’ strategies and tactics were remarkably simple.

They typically deploy mining slaves fed only rocks as front-line meat shields to wear down enemies, then send in elite troops to finish off the exhausted opposition.

This tactic is highly effective against ordinary Hive Minds or other monsters that primarily use close-combat infantry, but its efficiency drops significantly against humans or types like me that emphasize ranged firepower.

Bullets can be replenished easily, and the rocky bodies of mining slaves are readily penetrated by energy weapons or lasers, while humanoid monsters generally lack ranged firepower.

Their ranged attacks are limited to psychic abilities or thrown weapons used by a few shamans in the group, and even if Kobolds gather all available psychic users, they’d still be less than half our legion’s strength.

Of course, the occasional mid-tier or higher Kobolds were challenging opponents.

Having consumed large quantities of various metals, their bodies are essentially metal masses, and they further enhance this with force fields, boasting formidable close-combat capabilities.

Moreover, since their bodies aren’t completely metallic, they maintain considerable agility despite exceeding 5 meters in height, further enhancing their close-combat prowess.

To illustrate this prowess, a Grade 6 Kobold could dominate a Grade 5 Hive Tank in close combat.

······However, conversely, apart from this specific advantage, Kobolds are no match for me. They cannot surpass the Hive Mind in numbers, quality, or any other aspect, which is only natural.

As a result, just over a week after the full-scale war began, the Kobolds had essentially lost most of their deployable forces and disintegrated.

It was the inglorious end of the Korean Peninsula’s Kobold population, which had been estimated to exceed 80,000.