Ch.7575. Mechanical Angel

The life form that appeared from the pile of rocks was… surprisingly, not that large in size.

Judging from visual information, it appeared to be a small monster barely reaching 2 meters in height, and amazingly, the creature that emerged from inside had a humanoid form.

More specifically, its entire body was made of metal, with a pair of metallic wings attached to its back.

‘…How is that possible?’

If I were to describe it, a mechanical angel would be fitting. This monster had a dual structure consisting of an inner body perfectly modeled after the human form, covered by armor.

The armor surrounding its body was specialized for mobility and made of a silvery metal—mythril—making it quite lightweight.

Mithril. Also called true silver, this metal is inspired by the mythril commonly found in fantasy novels and games—a bright, silvery metal.

This mythril is formed when monster skeletons with high psychic conductivity undergo metamorphosis deep underground and transform into metallic substances. As a result, it possesses superior psychic conductivity while having low density, making it extremely light for a metal.

Thanks to these characteristics, mythril is one of the best all-purpose materials for crafting equipment for psychic users in the game, and the same applies in this world.

In other words, having a body entirely made of mythril means that the entire body has extremely high conductivity for psychic energy, enabling the use of tremendously powerful psychic abilities.

‘Given its size… perhaps that level is impossible.’

Of course, even a super monster with a full mythril body would be limited by its mere 2-meter height, so it couldn’t produce the overwhelming firepower—comparable to a nuclear warhead—of a rock giant, but even so, this mechanical angel before me is still a Rank 0 monster.

It has pure output 5-7 times that of a typical Rank 1 humanoid monster, and psychic abilities based on transcendent computational power secured thanks to its body being made of mythril, which can function as a quasi-quantum computer.

Add to that its small size and weight allowing for overwhelming speed and mobility, and considering that all the Hive Mind monsters that appeared in Pyongyang were likely controlled by this thing, its combat experience and skill must be exceptional.

‘What am I supposed to do about this…?’

As I was racking my brain over the viciousness of this mechanical angel, which seemed to combine all sorts of troublesome elements—suddenly, a question occurred to me.

Apart from the monster control issue, if I were hit by the main body, the recoil would shatter my entire body, so how could something with several times my psychic capacity survive an anti-psychic bomb whose power increases exponentially in proportion to psychic ability?

‘…Does it have something special?’

I wondered if there might be some ability that provides resistance against anti-psychic bombs, but… this kind of simple speculation wouldn’t lead to any conclusion.

‘Ah, forget it! I’ll just assume it doesn’t work on it!’

Therefore, I judged that since the original single entity in Pyongyang had split into 7 entities due to the anti-psychic bomb, it must have some resistance—

‘I probably couldn’t hit it anyway.’

Considering that hitting something so fast would be incredibly difficult, I began contemplating ways to defeat the mechanical angel that was once the Pyongyang Hive Mind, utilizing thousands of auxiliary brains.

Fortunately, its size had shrunk from 1 kilometer to just 2 meters, and while it might have resistance to anti-psychic bombs, it doesn’t seem to have complete immunity.

As such, the mechanical angel had been downgraded from an overwhelming catastrophe that could be described as indescribable to just an incredibly powerful monster.

After running simulations with my auxiliary brains, several strategies came to mind.

※ ※ ※

First, before discussing strategies, there was something I needed to acknowledge.

That is, there currently exists no force capable of facing this mechanical angel head-on as an equal.

Theo is obviously outmatched in every aspect, Theseus would be treated like a punching bag, and my strongest Rank 1 monster, Teio, can’t even move and has inferior psychic abilities compared to the mechanical angel.

Therefore, the first method that came to mind was to actively utilize myself as a Rank 0 monster, but… this approach had a fatal flaw.

The mechanical angel’s mobility was so exceptional that no indirect method could successfully land an attack on it.

It could easily avoid bombardment from the base, and even if I used nearby monsters as mediums for psychic attacks, it would use its overwhelming mobility and psychic abilities to find and eliminate the threat before I could even activate them.

I tried various other methods of attack, but they were all completely countered, so I finally reached a significant conclusion.

To face this mechanical angel possessed by the Pyongyang Hive Mind, I would need a specialized monster directly possessed by my main body.

Since my character in the game era was a mid-range psychic user, I still vividly remember those combat methods, and I’ve absorbed the experience accumulated through hundreds of thousands of battles.

Additionally, the vessel I would create—possess—would incorporate far more advanced technology than that mythril mass, so I had a good chance of winning.

Anyway, although I had formulated a countermeasure… several problems still remained.

Creating a high-level vessel for temporary possession by the main body takes considerable time, and even with shortcuts, it would take at least several hours.

But in those few hours, the mechanical angel could reach the main base at its speed.

Therefore, I needed monsters that could buy me enough time—so I decided to release a large number of monsters implanted with anti-psychic abilities to gain time.

These monsters, created to cause havoc when dropped into enemy territory, were originally intended for deployment in enemy headquarters but lost their purpose due to the development of Special Orders, a complete upgrade, and were consequently frozen and stored underground.

But given the current situation, now was the perfect timing to release them.

The anti-psychic equipped monsters resembled pterosaur-type sub-dragons with wings for forelimbs, similar to Hive Wing Drakes or Hive Wyverns.

However, they were at the maximum size for Rank 4 monsters, about 20 meters in body length, with well-developed muscles giving them powerful physiques, and their anti-psychic abilities were strong enough to affect an area within 1 meter around them.

Ah, and these monsters aren’t connected to each other due to the anti-psychic abilities, so one might worry they might attack each other and self-destruct.

But while they aren’t connected, they communicate using pheromones—and most importantly, there’s a Rank 3 giant anti-psychic pterosaur that serves as their leader.

This Rank 3 monster, the alpha and leader of the pterosaur monsters, became the leader in a purely animalistic way—through strength.

They were genetically manipulated to establish hierarchies and form packs, and were given a kind of mental disorder that prioritizes achieving the pack’s goals over individual survival—

‘I can’t believe this actually worked…’

By implanting a device in the leader monster’s brain that operates purely mechanically without using psychic abilities, I made it capable of harboring irrational hatred and violence toward designated targets.

Anyway, after preparing these time-buying monsters, I temporarily deactivated their anti-psychic genes, put them in egg-like capsules in a dormant state, and loaded them onto the catapults I had used before.

The total number was about 2,000.

These catapults, primitive but with tremendous range thanks to the materials used, were pulled back and then released with full force—

With a crisp twang sound, they launched toward the location where the mechanical angels and my monsters were currently engaged in battle.

And now, it’s a race against time.

It’s a contest of whether I can complete my vessel first—or whether the mechanical angel massacres the time-buying monsters before then.