Ch.7474. The End?

The time had come.

‘I’m counting on you, Royal Guard No. 3.’

I transformed the Royal Guard monster into a flying type (similar in appearance to the pterosaur-wyvern seen in media like games), attached one anti-psychic bomb to each of its hind legs, and sent it flying toward the target.

Of course, the Pyongyang Hive Mind wouldn’t simply allow it to approach quietly, so I mobilized numerous monsters as meat shields to counter its defenses.

There were 13,000 Hive Wyverns, 6,000 Hive Wing Drakes, and about 1,000 Hive Starlights.

However, these 20,000 mid-tier flying monsters were merely meat shields, and if even a single one got caught in the anti-psychic explosion, all connections would be severed, potentially causing a catastrophe…

‘…I’m sorry, everyone.’

Prepared to sever the psychic connections in an emergency, I had no choice but to send them into harm’s way.

If even one monster with an active psychic connection were caught in the anti-psychic bomb’s explosion, the anti-psychic wave would travel through the psychic connection and affect all connected monsters.

This would completely release control of all connected monsters, and furthermore, the stronger a creature’s psychic aptitude, the more severe damage it would suffer.

So inevitably, I had to be ready to sever the connection in an emergency… but from my perspective, this was a terrible act of cruelty to the monsters whose connections would be cut.

Normally, even if these monsters die, their souls return to me through the psychic connection, allowing me to inject those souls into newly created monster bodies.

That’s why I don’t feel much emotional change when giving monsters missions that likely mean death for the individual—but if the connection is severed, it’s a different story.

Without the psychic connection to recover their souls, if they die this time, they truly die completely with no possibility of revival.

Therefore, my heart wasn’t at ease… but with time being of the essence, I couldn’t directly devise a countermeasure for this issue.

So, there was no choice.

…I had to rationalize it as a necessary sacrifice and move on.

※ ※ ※

The 20,000 flying monsters, faithful to my instructions, soared through the sky, advancing rapidly toward the rock giant.

The speed of the flying monsters concealing the Royal Guard monster carrying Little Boy (the anti-psychic bomb) in their midst easily exceeded the speed of sound.

Therefore, it didn’t take long for them to reach the rock giant, which, despite being faster than expected, wasn’t agile due to its size—

They approached the rock giant diligently, sacrificing their bodies in the process.

From missiles launched by humans to the insanely dense psychic beams pouring from the red gem embedded in the center of the rock giant’s face.

In the face of overwhelming firepower, the 20,000 monsters rapidly diminished, with only 300 remaining by the time they reached an altitude of 200 meters, but it didn’t matter.

‘Go, Royal Guard Unit 3.’

Among these 300 monsters, the Royal Guard monster carrying the anti-psychic bombs had survived and managed to drop the psychic bombs.

‘Self-destruct!’

And now it was a race against time.

First, I hastily activated the self-destruct function embedded in the Royal Guard monster, then quickly recovered its soul.

Considering the amount of energy used on the Royal Guard monster and the time I invested in it, this preferential treatment was worth hundreds of times more than the souls of the 300 mid-tier monsters.

Meanwhile, I hadn’t completely given up on those 300 mid-tier monsters.

I tried to somehow make them kill each other and recover their souls, but performing such a complex operation while the bomb was falling from just 200 meters was physically impossible.

Therefore, I hurriedly severed all psychic connections with these 300 monsters and shared my vision with monsters waiting at a high altitude beyond the reach of the wave—

BOOOOOM! BOOOOOM!

Simultaneously, the anti-psychic bombs landed and exploded with a time delay, exposing the rock giant directly to a total of two anti-psychic bombs—Little Boys.

Unlike nuclear bombs or other high-explosive bombs, anti-psychic bombs don’t leave massive explosion traces—like the iconic mushroom cloud—as a result of detonation.

Instead, when the bomb explodes, only a red anti-psychic wave spreads from the bomb.

And the first thing exposed to this red wave was none other than the blue psychic barrier that the rock giant had deployed around itself.

CRACK!

The blue psychic barrier began to distort from the point of contact with the wave, then shattered like breaking glass, and the recoil from the barrier’s destruction shook the rock giant’s body.

Large cracks formed in the rock masses that made up its body, and blue psychic energy spurted from the crevices like blood seeping from wounds.

It was certainly a serious injury, but not one that couldn’t be recovered from.

Somehow, the Pyongyang Hive Mind possessed the ridiculous trait of resistance to anti-psychic attacks, allowing it to successfully reduce the damage from the anti-psychic bomb.

But this was only the damage from the first bomb.

The second bomb—the second Little Boy—made direct contact with the rock giant’s body without the interference of a psychic barrier and exploded, emitting a red wave—

BOOOOM!!!

As the red light spread throughout the rock giant’s body where the wave touched, the rock giant slowly began to collapse.

The blue psychic energy leaking from the cracks all over its body had turned red at some point, and over time, these red-leaking cracks spread throughout the entire body of the rock giant.

Starting with the gem in its head shattering and turning into mere garbage mixed with rock fragments and flesh, its entire body collapsed.

The cracks spread to its shoulders, causing both arms to fall off, and the rock arms that hit the ground shattered completely, perhaps due to the impact.

The torso also collapsed sequentially, and the cracks spread to the legs almost instantly, causing the lower body and legs to collapse almost simultaneously.

The rocks that formed the rock giant’s body shattered, and the various organs inside burst out, breaking down into bloody chunks of meat.

It was a rather anticlimactic end for what had been my greatest nemesis, and I stared blankly at the pile of rocks with mixed feelings.

But separately from that, I felt the need to prepare for the various threats from humans that would come as aftershocks of using the anti-psychic bombs.

To put it in real-world terms, what I thought were mere warlords suddenly brought out 3.5-generation tanks and 5th-generation fighters from somewhere, then dropped two old-fashioned nuclear weapons.

So from now on, the human side would begin to directly assess my danger and start serious countermeasures, and I couldn’t rule out the possibility that they might even attack me with weapons like anti-psychic bombs.

‘…It might be a bit early, but should I start now?’

Therefore, I felt the need to prepare for a full-scale war with the human world using all the forces I had been secretly infiltrating and replacing humans with, and even going as far as using nano-spirits.

In fact, the key was to use pre-prepared space exploration monsters and launch devices to escape into space as quickly as possible while the war continued—

■■■■■■■■■■───!!!!

‘…What is that!’

But then. Suddenly, a powerful psychic wave strong enough to reach me from far away erupted.

…And the source of the psychic wave that I quickly located was, incredibly, from inside that pile of rocks.

‘No way… it’s still alive after all that?’

I wanted to dismiss it as impossible, but considering all the exceptional characteristics of the Pyongyang Hive Mind from the beginning, it would be too foolish to declare it impossible.

So, I maintained my vigilance, closely observing the interior of the rock pile while moving my forces—

At that very moment, with a thunderous sound, something burst through the pile of rocks from within.