Ch.43A Rigged Gamble (2)

What is this?

Weren’t we supposed to be in this together?

The Weapon Kaiju acknowledged me as one of its kind.

That’s why when I first destroyed the bathroom, it deliberately created an opening for me to transform.

After all, if I had taken a direct hit from a Special-class Kaiju while in human form, I would have died instantly without even having time to react.

Yes, up until now, we were clearly playing a coordinated game.

But now, right before my eyes, the Weapon Kaiju is spraying saliva everywhere while swinging around a lightsaber like some Jedi… no, like the Weapon Kaiju it is.

Even though I want to calm it down, my Kaiju jaw can only make growling sounds that further excite the “hero” she has become.

Woong.

Wong.

Woowoong.

“This laser sound that emanates with every swing! If I wanted to, I could slice through even a 2,000-meter building in one go!”

“Krururk?! Kruk!”

The thick laser slash grazes the tip of my nose.

I need to block that blade somehow, but it’s like an intuition.

I instinctively knew.

If my body made contact with that highly concentrated beam of light, even my current Kaiju skin wouldn’t remain intact.

‘I probably wouldn’t be cut in half immediately… but it would hurt like hell.’

This was a first.

Until now, I’d just fought while taking hits, but this was a battle of evasion and retreat.

So this is what a real “fight” is like.

Come to think of it, all the enemies I’ve faced so far were quite weak by my standards.

I crushed the Violence Kaiju with violence, and I broke the Sword Kaiju’s blade.

I also beat up the Radiation Kaiju while being exposed to radiation, and the Mosquito Kaiju… I literally exterminated it.

But this time was different.

Indeed, this was a “Special-class Kaiju” that wasn’t even released due to balance issues even during the 5th anniversary right before the <Kaiju Front> game shut down.

The Weapon Kaiju.

She was on an entirely different level from all the Kaiju I had encountered so far.

“Hehehehe! Take this! Sio-h… no, lightsaber!”

Woong

Wong.

Seriously… looking at her behavior, she’s like a child who just unwrapped a toy.

The problem is that this toy is a genuine lightsaber that could split a continent in half if swung incorrectly.

‘I need to get rid of that thing first…’

Her swordsmanship appears wild but shows absolutely no openings.

Indeed, she could be called the mother of the Sword Kaiju.

I’ve nearly had my head cut off several times when I tried to go in on instinct but had to dodge at the last second.

But openings always appear eventually!

“Cough! Cough!”

“Kruk?!”

This seemed to be that moment.

“Ugh… is it because all my cells have already mutated into cancer cells? I’m sweating a bit…”

Even Kaiju below Special-class have powerful bodies that are completely immune to disease.

So this weakness would only be temporary.

It was obvious she would recover on her own and charge at me again soon, so I took the opportunity to quickly try to take the lightsaber…

“…hehe.”

“Kruruk?”

…or so I tried?

“Got you!”

No, damn it.

Dear Weapon Kaiju.

We’re not really fighting for real, are we?

Woowong.

“Kruruk?!”

Was she acting all along?

Come to think of it, a Special-class Kaiju wouldn’t struggle with something like cancer cells.

Because in the original work, the “Cancer Kaiju” was only a Semi-1st class, far below Special-class—arguably even more of a pushover than the Sword Kaiju.

‘I’ve been tricked!’

“She hit him!!!”

The lightsaber’s slash finally cut my body diagonally with precision.

At the same time, I could hear the cheers of the laboratory staff who had stopped evacuating.

I could see them all hugging each other and jumping up and down beyond the shoulder of the Weapon Kaiju, who was either acting or genuinely overjoyed—I couldn’t tell anymore.

And my body, sliced by the lightsaber…

“Krararark?!”

‘C-cold…!’

I thought it would be unbearably hot.

But it was the opposite—my body trembled with a coldness like I’d eaten an entire tub of ice cream in one day.

Shiver, shiver, shiver.

“Oh, ohhh…! A body that only feels cold after being hit by my lightsaber… so cool!”

No, you crazy human… no, Kaiju.

I thought we were in this together! Who brought a card shark to our friendly game?

I’ve lost count of how many times you’ve cheated.

Woong… click.

“Ah, the batteries are all used up…”

Wait, that thing runs on batteries?

I thought it was some high-tech scientific equipment designed with advanced technology incomprehensible to modern civilization.

If I had known it ran on mere batteries, I would have just doused it with water earlier.

…while I was thinking this.

Crackle.

Whoosh.

“…Kruk?”

‘Oh, shit…’

Why does this person keep changing genres all by herself?

At this point, I wonder if she came to the wrong story.

“In my right hand, Thor’s hammer that can generate infinite electricity! In my left hand, Hades’ sword that never extinguishes!”

The Weapon Kaiju, holding a shiny hammer and an ashen sword that burns in real-time in both hands.

As she charged at me again, having lost all reason, I felt something.

Thump-. Thump-.

Perhaps it’s because she’s the first formidable opponent I’ve faced since becoming a Kaiju.

For some reason, I felt my blood boiling more and more as time passed.

***

Humanity’s greatest fighting force.

S-class heroes of the Hero Association.

Their power varied throughout history, but what’s certain is that everyone who has reached this position deserves to be revered as humanity’s ultimate weapon.

In the current generation of S-class heroes, which is considered “not bad,”

Yoon Ha-eun, who ranks 5th, was currently watching the two Kaiju that had broken through the underground and gone outside, thinking:

I still have a long way to go.

“Their movements are too fast… I can’t follow them with my eyes at all…”

Light connects with light.

The two Kaiju, who had gone beyond fighting on the ground and were now using the air as footholds, were creating countless constellations under the darkening night sky.

The lines of light moving at what seemed like the speed of light illuminated the entire airspace above the Hero Association like a blueprint.

And this became the “catalyst” that ignited the fighting spirit of all the heroes in the building.

“So that’s a Kaiju…”

“The enemy we must defeat!”

“But can we win against things like that?”

“If you’re scared, quit now. This isn’t an easy place to be.”

Meanwhile.

‘You can keep up with movements at this level?!’

Perhaps because she had enjoyed herself thoroughly.

Like a man experiencing “sage time,” the Weapon Kaiju had sufficiently tested her weapons.

When she first came to her senses, she thought she was screwed.

Because she seemed to have acted “like she was in another world” after momentarily losing her grip on reason.

After completely destroying the research wing of the Hero Association, she was now engaged in a second battle in mid-air.

Yet her fellow Kaiju was still keeping up with her movements.

After her initial shock at seeing Kang Jang-hoon, she was now in a state of amazement.

‘How many weapons have I broken already? 1? 3? 5? Or could it be more than 10?!’

The performance of my weapons when used seriously was equal to or greater than high-ranking Kaiju.

But how many of those weapons had he withstood…?

His body, covered in what looked like black armor, had small marks here and there, but there wasn’t a single wound that looked fatal.

And the most surprising thing was his combat sense.

‘Has he already adapted to my movements?’

True to her alias as the Weapon Kaiju, she could use all the techniques of every weapon in this world.

That is, she could use all possible methods of using weapons—her very existence—including not only current techniques but also forgotten styles from the past.

So she could demonstrate countless movements each time she changed the weapon in her hand, but he was trying to dodge in advance in response.

“Kraaaaaa-!”

“Has he lost his reason? …Or has he ‘evolved’ according to instinct.”

It had been a long time since she’d seen it.

A Kaiju that could “grow.”

She thought only the “Human Kaiju,” who had risen from the lowest rank to the highest like herself, was capable of such a thing.

To think there was another “raw gem” of that caliber.

And that gem was none other than a human-side Kaiju just like herself.

This made the Weapon Kaiju increasingly “obsessed” with Kang Jang-hoon.

‘At first I just wanted to get to know you, but I’m becoming more and more interested in you.’

“Kraaaaaa!!”

Who would have thought.

That I, the Weapon Kaiju, would become interested in something other than hammering in my workshop.

In the first place, what is your alias?

Your alias, Jang-hoon, which even I, revered as a god among Kaiju, cannot identify.

Suddenly curious about this, the Weapon Kaiju avoided his instinct-driven movements that were about to grab her head.

“Ma’at.”

She discarded all the weapons she had been holding in both hands and summoned a small golden rod shaped like a tree branch.

On the surface, it looked like just an elegant cane that an elderly person might use.

But this “weapon” was one of the masterpieces that the Weapon Kaiju had been creating since she arrived in the human world, even before the city-state called Hero City was established.

It was a treasure of a world that had already disappeared, but had made her, a Kaiju, revered as a god.

Namely…

Tap.

“Let me see your true nature.”

The divine weapon Ma’at.

Its ability was simply to look into the “inner world” of whoever the tip of the cane touched.

‘No matter how well you hide it, if it’s your inner world, I’ll be able to know your alias, Jang-hoon.’

Thus, in frozen time, the Weapon Kaiju began to be drawn into Kang Jang-hoon’s inner world.

She felt a refreshing sensation like flying through space as she floated deeper inside…

Thud.

“…Huh?”

She thought she would continue going in.

“I stopped?”

That can’t be…

This wasn’t the physical world where common sense applied.

It was a space made only of the unconscious, where nothing could be manipulated freely except by an intruder with a clear mind.

But suddenly her body stopped as if it had been “rejected.”

Shiver.

“…Sweat?”

This was strange.

It was the first time this had happened.

At the same time, she was one of the highest-ranking beings among Kaiju born from human fears.

The Weapon Kaiju noticed an unfamiliar sense of discomfort as she realized she was sweating cold sweat out of fear—something she had never experienced before.

She quickly took out a cloak that concealed her presence and hurriedly put it on, but.

Shiver!

“…!!”

It was useless.

These weren’t “eyes” that could be fooled by such a thing.

When she came to her senses, there were countless eyes staring at her from all directions, regardless of whether she had made herself invisible or concealed her presence.

“■■■■■■■■.”

Under an incomprehensible black sun.

An absolute being speaking in an incomprehensible language immediately threw out the Weapon Kaiju, who had even wet herself in fear.