Ch.6767. Anti-Psychic, Part 2

The moment I realized that an unexpected anomaly had occurred on the enemy side, I immediately mobilized all available means to gather information about Pyongyang.

I checked satellite images through the Defense Department’s military satellite administrators, whom I had replaced with monsters, and psychically hacked into the Defense Department’s database to search through all information.

I deployed specially-made Hive Flights capable of moving in the mesosphere beyond the stratosphere to avoid being caught in the enemy’s air defense network, and I also used psychic abilities to disguise attacks while scanning the enemy’s main base.

This was information gathering infused with my sincere determination to discover the essence of this phenomenon, and results were produced before long.

‘…They’ve already recovered?’

Surprisingly, despite the severe sabotage I had inflicted, Pyongyang’s monster production facilities had been somewhat restored and were churning out monsters.

‘This doesn’t make sense…’

I had almost completely destroyed their energy storage facilities, and not only demolished the facilities that extract nutrients from the earth’s veins and various production facilities, but I had even scattered anti-psychic materials over the ruins.

Therefore, as I was pondering the reason for this unrealistic situation.

‘…Wait a minute.’

After examining the current state of the front line as one method to confirm the reason, I was able to discern that there was some issue with the enemy’s—that is, the Pyongyang Hive Mind’s—forces.

‘Why are there so many mid-tier monsters?’

From a certain point when I determined the enemy’s numbers were decreasing, the Pyongyang Hive Mind’s army had an unusually high proportion of mid-tier monsters.

Until now, they had followed the standard ratio of about 1,000-2,000 regular monsters per mid-tier monster, but now the ratio had increased to 1 mid-tier monster per 300-400 regular monsters.

‘…Could it be.’

In short, the Pyongyang Hive Mind had somehow managed to restore its facilities, but with reduced production capacity, and was likely trying to compensate by producing an army primarily consisting of mid-tier monsters.

‘…Are they stupid?’

But from my perspective, I can only say that this is even more inefficient than before.

When monsters typically fight other monsters, close combat tends to dominate, but our side is, of course, not composed of typical monsters.

Even our basic infantry, the Hive Infantry-B, equips various heavy weapons—notably high-output laser cannons or biological rocket launchers—that allow roughly one in every 20-30 soldiers to reasonably counter a mid-tier monster.

Additionally, since my monsters strictly follow a ranged combat doctrine, our ranged firepower is absolutely formidable, to the point where a regular infantry platoon might be able to take down a close-combat mid-tier monster if they perform well.

So their efforts, while somewhat effective, will ultimately become meaningless if we just pay a little more attention.

…Though I never once thought that anything would particularly change even if they didn’t focus on producing mid-tier monsters.

Anyway, now that I know the cause, the solution is also quite simple.

‘Deploy!’

Since the Special Orders that had been depleted should have finished production by now, I’ll just send them back to Pyongyang to destroy the production facilities again.

‘…Oh, I almost forgot.’

Of course, simply teleporting them would certainly result in their defeat by the Pyongyang Hive Mind, which has undoubtedly prepared countermeasures, so I drew upon psychic energy for a diversion—

[Activating Primal Psychic: Sphere of Power (A).]

[Activating Primal Psychic: Spatial Manipulation (A).]

I created a sphere of pure psychic energy and hurled it toward the largest concentration of the Pyongyang Hive Mind’s forces while simultaneously interfering with them directly to teleport my units to about 200 meters above Pyongyang.

※ ※ ※

The operation results were excellent.

As a Grade 0 psychic-specialized monster, each attack I unleashed with considerable effort was roughly equivalent to a modern (21st century) cruise missile, and I fired no less than 17 of them.

Since this powerful attack could potentially wipe out over 30 million troops in a single strike, the Pyongyang Hive Mind used a barrier to defend against it—and during that time, the Special Orders were deployed through my teleportation psychic ability.

Having learned painfully from the previous attack, the Pyongyang Hive Mind was using various methods to block the Special Orders’ infiltration.

They had twisted the psychic coordinates of their entire base to prevent direct teleportation to the ground, and had blocked teleportation in the airspace above their entire territory in anticipation of aerial teleportation, but…

‘Hup!’

The security network installed in the airspace was only strong enough to be penetrated by a Grade 1 psychic-specialized monster, so it was a level of defense that I, a psychic user of equal caliber, could simply ignore if I intervened directly.

Therefore, the Special Orders I deployed in the airspace using my direct psychic abilities successfully descended using Giant Armor modified for landing, fulfilled their mission, and all perished.

They scorched the entire biological facility network in Pyongyang, which seemed to have been powered by energy stored underground or brought out from somewhere, and installed and detonated various explosives I had specially provided.

Additionally, one of the units, just before dying, activated an anti-psychic field generator that I had included just in case, causing the Special Orders’ corpses to be abandoned. During this time, the activated device decomposed the corpses and equipment into protein and metal devoid of any information.

Apparently quite irritated by my actions, the enemy emitted waves filled with anger intense enough for me to feel—and suddenly began using psychic abilities.

‘…?’

The powerful psychic energy emanating from Pyongyang surpassed the troposphere to reach the stratosphere, then the mesosphere, and finally broke through to the thermosphere—

Woooong—KUGUGUGUGUGU!!!

Using psychic energy like ropes, it began pulling rock masses floating in the thermosphere and hurling them wildly at my headquarters.

‘Meteor Storm? Somewhat clever.’

Of course, my headquarters’ anti-air defense capabilities boast enough firepower and precision to easily destroy such rock masses.

Ultra-large plasma cannons, similar in size to the 16-inch main guns of World War II-era battleships, hit the meteors and shatter them into pieces.

The fragmented meteors that continue to fall are then blasted again by smaller plasma cannons, and the remaining debris after two rounds of destruction is handled by hundreds of thousands of high-output anti-air laser weapons.

Having thwarted what appeared to be an attack the Pyongyang Hive Mind had cleverly prepared, without even using psychic abilities, the enemy became truly enraged and directly intervened in the front line.

It formed a hurricane of psychic currents in the middle of my advancing forces, and attacked my monsters with rain of psychic flames and psychic constructs from the sky.

It spread overwhelming psychic energy to bring entire specific areas under its telekinetic control, scorching the terrain to block paths, and once even drove Theseus to the brink of death.

It granted powerful psychic enhancements to the hundreds of thousands of monsters under its control, and brainwashed nearby wild monsters with mental psychic abilities to instantly increase its legion’s size.

‘This is… troublesome.’

Such psychic power demonstrated why Grade 0 monsters are likened to demigods, and I was inwardly racking my brain over how to deal with it.

To be honest, in terms of military strength, our monster army has a wider territory and more numerous and stronger monsters, but since the other side is the result of seven Grade 1 psychic-specialized monsters fusing together, it overwhelms me in psychic ability.

‘…Damn it.’

Despite using various devices and facilities that assist with psychic usage to counter the Pyongyang Hive Mind’s psychic abilities, we were inevitably being pushed back gradually.

‘Should I use… “that”?’

Thus, I was tempted by the urge to use “that” which I had been preparing.

The aftermath would be tremendous, and if I made a mistake, I could suffer the backlash—but the overwhelming return that could justify taking such risks tempts me.

A weapon that could annihilate the enemy with a single attack, but might also make me a target for the entire world’s vigilance and potential ganged assault if misused.

The identity of “that” was the anti-psychic bomb, which I had continuously improved and enhanced since first successfully creating it.