Ch.3838. Meanwhile, in the Human World

After the assault team returned with numerous casualties from the outpost elimination mission, South Korea was thrown into turmoil.

The returning assault team reported that the Hive Mind had forcibly incorporated another monster into itself, and that monster was none other than Mountain Lord (San-gun), considered South Korea’s strongest monster.

Of course, our secrecy-loving government treated this information as classified at the same level as the Pyongyang Hive Mind, believing its leak could cause massive social unrest. However, a separate shocking piece of news had to be made public.

That news was the death of Choi Seo-rin, the great hunter and hero ranked 5th in South Korea and 107th worldwide in monster subjugation, who had sacrificed herself while covering the retreat of allied forces.

Fortunately amid the misfortune, she had managed to destroy the Hive Mind “Bomb Spider’s” outpost, but this in no way justified her death.

As she was an irreplaceable resource, from South Korea’s perspective, it would have been a lesser loss if everyone else had perished while she survived.

Therefore, South Korea’s high-ranking officials gathered in a closed room to reach a consensus.

“Everyone’s here. I now call this emergency response meeting to order.”

Present were the President, Prime Minister, ruling party leader, the leaders of the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd opposition parties, ministers and vice ministers of each department, high-ranking generals from the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Also attending were guild masters who had at least one high-rank hunter under them, along with those hunters.

The topic these individuals—essentially the brains of South Korea—began discussing was the deployment of anti-psychic weapons.

In real-world terms, it was equivalent to deciding whether to use nuclear weapons.

“So, regarding deployment?”

“Obviously… we have to do it.”

Naturally, almost everyone agreed that the Hive Mind “Bomb Spider,” which had incorporated Mountain Lord, needed to be eradicated. But that wasn’t the problem.

The location of “Bomb Spider’s” main body hadn’t been confirmed, and the air defense network was so thick and wide that a medium-range anti-psychic weapon couldn’t strike the main body wherever it might be.

Unfortunately, the Bomb Spider’s main body was located quite close to South Korean territory, meaning that any attack beyond the air defense network would inevitably affect South Korean territory as well.

In other words, they found themselves in the contradictory situation of wanting to use anti-psychic weapons but being unable to do so.

“…The worries are mountainous.”

“Still, there is some good news.”

“You mean the Dragon?”

“Yes.”

Fortunately, the Hive Mind “Bomb Spider’s” headquarters was under renewed attack from the Dragon, which had suppressed their offensive and prevented an immediate invasion by Mountain Lord. Nevertheless, no one could view the situation positively.

This was because the Hive Mind was currently estimated to possess three high-rank monsters, including Mountain Lord.

Despite these consecutive misfortunes striking South Korea, the economy itself hadn’t collapsed.

Other countries were experiencing similar or worse monster attacks, and the explosive growth of nano-tech had stabilized South Korea’s economy amid these circumstances.

One might wonder how the growth of a single venture company could stabilize a nation’s economy, but examining the global situation would make it somewhat understandable.

※ ※ ※

The peace that humanity had found by counterattacking monsters with anti-psychic weapons was short-lived. While humans were mired in internal conflicts, monsters grew stronger and began rampaging across the world.

In Siberia, abandoned by Russia due to monster activity, the Winter Wolf Monarch, a Class 1 animal-type monster, led over 100 Class 3 Winter Wolf Generals and tens of thousands of mid-level Winter Wolves across the Ural Mountains, threatening Russia’s mainland.

In China, the world’s largest and officially only top-tier Hive Mind, Magic Insect (Ma-chung), which had grown by consuming China’s population, somehow developed monsters resistant to anti-psychic weapons and split China in half.

In the American Midwest, essentially a vast desert, Blue Dragons adapted to the desert environment and explosively increased their numbers through competition, eventually threatening the transcontinental railway.

The Mediterranean Sea, North Sea, and eastern Atlantic coast saw sardine-like monsters advancing onto land and devastating coastal areas, while numerous small and medium-sized Hive Minds began proliferating throughout Europe.

Africa, long since fallen to monsters, remained unchanged—thousands of high-rank monsters each occupying territories the size of small countries, evolving rapidly through fierce battles and survival of the fittest.

In South America, parts of the ground were suddenly submerged by the overflowing Amazon River, like a mangrove forest, while man-eating giant crabs, piranhas, carnivorous primates, and black panthers that once lived in trees began stealthily advancing into human territories.

South Asia—including Southeast Asia, India, and Australia—was also in terrible condition.

Coastal areas became uninhabited due to suddenly increased numbers of marine monsters like Shark Wolves and Dolphin Men, while various animal-type monsters swarmed in jungles, expanding their territories.

With the world literally falling into chaos, the demand for weapons and resources needed to make weapons was skyrocketing—

And as a resource, the nanomachines exclusively supplied by Nano-Tech were currently the most highly valued material.

These nanomachines, capable of transforming any material and theoretically applicable to almost any tool with countless applications, were coveted by all manufacturers.

Moreover, nanomachines were remarkably affordable given their performance, making them popular among actual users as well.

Even the conservative military selected new combat uniforms with optical camouflage effects using nanomachines for their next-generation combat uniform project, and ordinary citizens commonly purchased at least one set of one-touch underwear-type protective clothing using nanomachines.

Products merely incorporating nanomachine technology were selling like crazy, and anything with specialized nanomachine technology was considered top-tier.

A wealthy Middle Eastern individual even purchased a five-story, 500-pyeong mansion made entirely of nanomachines—illustrating the status of Nano-Tech, which exclusively supplied these nanomachines.

The factories producing nanomachines employed 30,000 simple laborers despite being 80% automated, but Nano-Tech wasn’t just a company that produced nanomachines.

The Nano Suit power armor series, starting with NS-01, had been developed up to NS-11 and continued to sell well. The newly released NS-11, in particular, had been adopted as standard equipment by 17 countries worldwide due to its outstanding performance.

NS-11, the eleventh version of the nanomachine-based power armor, was the first Nano Suit developed as heavy armor.

Though its heavy armor classification meant it couldn’t be compressed into a single bodysuit like other Nano Suits, it offered many additional advantages.

It was much easier to put on than other power armors, allowing one-touch equipping, and true to the Nano Suit series’ characteristics, it offered incredible flexibility despite being heavy armor.

With a small bioenergy core inside, it could generate a force field on the armor’s surface and deploy a psychic barrier, providing excellent defense.

The high-quality synthetic muscle fibers made of ultra-alloy particle nanomachines were extremely durable, and while the muscle fibers could break easily, they also restored themselves quickly.

The NS-11 featured one function not present in previous models: a learning capability built into the armor itself.

The more frequently a user wore the NS-11 in combat, the more its quasi-artificial intelligence adjusted the NS-11’s structure to match the user’s movements, almost “like a living organism.”

Once this function was sufficiently utilized and the quasi-AI completed its learning, the NS-11 itself became almost indistinguishable from a living being.

It could detect attacks the user missed and defend automatically, or even move independently to evacuate the wearer to safety if they lost consciousness.

Though somewhat risky, it could even switch to fully automatic operation mode, enabling automatic combat like a mobile MMORPG.

Given its ability to instantly transform even first-time users into battle veterans, thus reducing training requirements, it was naturally preferred by military forces.