Ch.6666. Anti-Psychic, Part 1

“What the heck is that……..”

After seeing the object that her leader, the Hive God, had thrown into the middle of the enemy camp as supposed support, Seri was puzzled about its identity.

‘……..A rock?’

The reason for her confusion was that the object the Hive God had thrown appeared to be nothing more than an ordinary, lumpy rock. Apart from having a slightly metallic sheen, it didn’t emit any psychic energy nor did it seem to have any special functions—it just looked like a completely ordinary rock.

Given that it had no propulsion system attached, it seemed like it had simply been picked up and thrown, either directly or using psychic power. Judging by how it had flown so quickly, embedded itself in the ground, and remained undamaged, it must be quite sturdy.

‘Why something like that?’

Of course, Seri couldn’t understand the intention behind throwing such an unidentifiable object, so she simply retreated while staring at it in bewilderment.

Meanwhile, the same question applied to the monsters of the Pyongyang Hive Mind… no, to the Pyongyang Hive Mind itself, which had been hit by that rock.

Though startled by the sudden impact of what appeared to be a rock flying in without context, they were merely surprised and quickly moved to avoid it.

A few unfortunate lower-ranked monsters were crushed underneath, but that was just a simple traffic accident, an unexpected mishap.

Therefore, the Pyongyang Hive Mind planned to send about five mid-ranked monsters to investigate the rock while the main force continued on its way.

But then, something unexpected happened.

“……..?!!!”

The moment the five monsters approached within about 10 meters of the rock, the connection between the five mid-ranked monsters’ bodies and the Pyongyang Hive Mind was completely severed.

This shocking sight surprised not only the Pyongyang Hive Mind itself, but also Seri, the Griffin Cavalry, Anitheus, and the Ironbreaker who were watching.

But unfortunately for the Pyongyang Hive Mind, there were still plenty of surprises left.

…………Twitch!

※ ※ ※

Amid the strange silence, the rock suddenly twitched—then began to vibrate violently.

The vibration was so intense that the entire surrounding area shook as if hit by a mild earthquake through the ground where the rock was embedded.

Before long, the vibration stopped, and instead, the entire rock began to collapse—then it broke apart into dozens of rock fragments and transformed into a new form.

To describe its appearance in familiar terms, it resembled a rock golem, earth elemental, or stone spirit commonly found in fantasy.

However, unlike typical earth elementals, it didn’t float in the air in human form with rocks hovering around it. Though called a golem, it was more accurately a humanoid robot made of rock.

It stood about 6-7 meters tall, with a short but sturdy lower body and a well-developed upper body, resembling the muscular physique typical of shonen manga characters.

Unlike when it was in rock form, faint blue light leaked through the cracks between the rock fragments making up its body, and crucially, a blue jewel—the core—glowed in the center of its torso.

This being, whose appearance seemed more suited to medieval fantasy than modern fantasy, seemed to survey its surroundings briefly before charging toward the Pyongyang Hive Mind’s monsters that had stopped nearby.

Whoosh—Crunch!

The rock golem—tentatively named “Golem”—charged with a speed unbelievable for a 7-meter stone giant and swung its fist. The mid-ranked monster, disconnected and motionless, was instantly pulverized into well-mashed meat chunks upon impact.

The fact that a mid-ranked monster—specifically a 4th-grade large, heavily armored type known for high defense even without a barrier—was defeated in a single blow meant that this golem was definitely not at the mid-rank level.

—!!!!

Consequently, the Pyongyang Hive Mind hastily upgraded this entity’s threat level to severe while analyzing the severed connection situation and producing results.

The moment they entered within a certain range, all psychic connections were severed, and furthermore, the disconnected individuals showed life signs but couldn’t move without their souls and couldn’t activate their passive-like barriers.

And the only conclusion that could be drawn from this was:

The Pyongyang Hive Mind determined that this rock monster(?) was a solitary entity with high-grade anti-psychic abilities.

——!!

Having fought against monsters with anti-psychic abilities before and knowing their nature and dangers better than anyone, the Pyongyang Hive Mind hurriedly tried to withdraw nearby monsters, but—

Thudududududududu—Kwaaang!

It was already too late, as the golem had quickly approached them and was swinging its fists.

The golem, which actively used its long, developed arms to move like a gorilla, alternating between quadrupedal and bipedal locomotion, was surprisingly agile.

Therefore, there was no way to stop the approaching golem after it had thrown the four neutralized mid-ranked monsters nearby, knocking down three mid-ranked monsters—

Crunch!

Starting by grabbing one mid-ranked monster and splitting it in two, the monsters were simply disconnected one by one due to the anti-psychic effect as the golem got closer, their barriers disappearing, rendering them powerless and slaughtered repeatedly.

Of course, naturally, the Pyongyang Hive Mind couldn’t afford to lose one of its top forces—a 1st-grade high-ranked monster—and took action.

It had a somewhat worthwhile plan to use mid-ranked monsters as bait and then have the high-ranked monster escape toward its main base (Pyongyang), but… it couldn’t possibly succeed.

The 3rd-grade monster, the golem, which was evaluated as having power in the upper ranks of 3rd-grade, slaughtered all the mid-ranked monsters in just a few dozen seconds and immediately pursued the high-ranked monster.

Unfortunately for the Pyongyang Hive Mind, the high-ranked monster was wrapped in heavy armor and wasn’t very fast due to its body structure, so it was eventually caught by the golem that was running madly without sparing itself.

The anti-psychic effect was equal to everyone, so it was perhaps inevitable that even a high-ranked monster would be disconnected the moment it came within 10 meters of the golem and be slaughtered.

And about an hour after massacring all these monsters.

Crumble…….

The rock golem, which had been indiscriminately slaughtering monsters around it for quite some time, suddenly stopped glowing and slowly crumbled into powder.

※ ※ ※

‘That’s a relief…….’

While relieved that things had been resolved well, I was also reassured as I watched the gradually collapsing golem (tentative name).

It might seem like something went wrong since it started to collapse after being active for just over an hour, but this was actually much more natural.

It was used as planned—a one-time A-rank anti-psychic equipped high-grade monster—and was disposed of as soon as its lifespan ended, without attacking our side with its remaining energy.

To explain in more detail, this golem is a kind of prototype monster.

It was created using the nano-virus and monster biological tissue that I had used during the orc subjugation, equipped with an A-rank anti-psychic ability that appeared only once in the game, designed to subjugate the Hive Mind.

However, despite being a 3rd-grade monster, its lifespan was only about an hour, making its production cost too high, and above all, the biggest headache was that once activated, it couldn’t be controlled due to the anti-psychic ability.

Additionally, this thing wasn’t particularly invincible.

It was practically invincible against the Hive Mind—specifically the Pyongyang Hive Mind’s monsters or monsters that mainly use psychic abilities—but it was incredibly vulnerable to other enemies.

With a lifespan of just over an hour, it would likely self-destruct before a battle ended if it entered a prolonged fight, and honestly, its combat power was somewhat ambiguous except for its anti-psychic ability and decent physical capabilities.

Most critically, its barrier was neutralized due to its excessively high anti-psychic rating, which was particularly fatal—bluntly speaking, about four tanks from this era could take it down if they concentrated their firepower.

Therefore, since this project had been abandoned despite even creating a dedicated physical catapult… there was no particular problem in consuming it like this.

Rather, I concluded that it was ultimately beneficial since it saved the valuable forces of Seri and the other two.

That’s enough about this story; meanwhile, regarding the war situation—things were gradually turning in our favor.

‘By the way… they must be getting desperate now?’

The reason was that I had thrown in Special Orders at the beginning of the engagement to destroy the main facilities located in Pyongyang.

Pyongyang seemed to have entered a total war stance, pouring in all the resources they had produced so far, but that could only last a day or two.

Given all the disruption I caused, making it difficult to recover quickly, the enemy’s resources should be decreasing as time passes… but…?

‘Huh?’

The actual reduction in enemy forces on the battlefield was much less than what I had calculated using super-intelligence.

Of course, there was some reduction compared to the initial numbers… but even considering that, in a normal situation, their forces should have been reduced to less than half by now, given the consumption on the front lines and the destroyed facilities.

‘………….’

It seems that something unusual has happened on the enemy’s side.