Ch.8181. 1+4

After my words ended, the interior of my domain was momentarily plunged into silence.

Whether my confession (though a lie) was too shocking, Yoo Se-ah stared at me blankly in shock, while I was contemplating what to say next.

And just when I felt my thoughts were sufficiently organized.

[After experiencing that incident, having become a fragile Level 10 monster, I thought.]

“…………….”

I carefully articulated the lines I had prepared in my mind, setting the mood deliberately.

[I didn’t come to hate humans—as I said this, Se-ah’s face brightened ever so slightly—but I could no longer trust them.]

“……..Senior.”

[Yes, and then I thought.]

“……..”

[Humans are not beings that should be left free, but rather must be subjugated and controlled under the hand of a transcendent ruler.]

After reciting the exact ideology of the politician hunter who was one of the mid-bosses from Season 5, Se-ah looked at me with a face showing incomparable shock.

This was because Season 5’s theme was about humanity’s effort and yearning for free will, and reflecting this faithfully, the campaign’s protagonist emphasized freedom to the point of having somewhat anarchistic tendencies.

And now I (the Season 5 protagonist) had calmly stated something that directly contradicted my own values, so there’s no need to explain how shocked she must have been.

The transformation of a senior she admired more than anything was certainly a sufficient cause for such shock.

Anyway, while Se-ah was completely frozen from the shock, I judged that now—when her heart was utterly shattered—was the perfect moment to deliver the finishing blow.

So I—made a bold move here.

[Se-ah.]

“…………y-yes.”

[With you by my side, we can control humans together. So I’ll give you a choice.]

I was attempting to recruit her.

[Will you join me and work toward my goal, or shall we resume this fight?]

“…………”

Hearing those words, Se-ah fell into silent contemplation.

Since I also needed time, I patiently waited for her answer.

“……..I’m sorry, Senior. I’m too foolish to sympathize with what you’re saying.”

It was a response straight out of a cliché, and exactly what I had anticipated.

[Yes, I knew you would say that.]

So I gave a bitter smile and replied, then pulled out the greatsword I had thrust into the ground, wrapping its blade in flames once more.

And then—

[Let me say one last thing, Se-ah.]

“…………What is it, Senior?”

[Ah. It’s nothing much. Just—]

[—You’ve always had a strong tendency to let your guard down.]

Saying that, while buying time, I activated the coffin for which I had already mimicked the biometric code and entered the password—1q2w3e4r—transferring control to my side.

“Wha—!”

KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGANGGG!!!!!!

As the coffin split open on both sides, an overwhelming torrent of energy erupted from the maximum firepower cannon that emerged from within, and Se-ah, caught defenseless, was blasted away.

And right at that moment.

[That’s how it was……..yes.]

Having reconfigured the coffin that had been customized for Se-ah back to my original settings, I completed the psychic connection with the power source (a Level 0 monster’s core) embedded in its central unit and aimed toward where Se-ah had been thrown.

After all, she wouldn’t have died from just that.

“Keuugh………..ugh.”

Of course, while not dead, Se-ah had sustained quite critical injuries.

Beyond her tattered clothing, serious wounds were forming with blood beading up, and blood was flowing over her closed right eye, likely from a cut above it.

And in that condition, she not only drew her greatsword but was also holding a plasma pistol in her right hand—

KWAAAAAAANG—!!!!

Without hesitation, she fired at me, and once again, the battle between monster and human resumed.

※ ※ ※

Se-ah was incredibly strong.

As a reinforcement-type psychic user, once she began using her psychic powers in earnest, she gained physical abilities that could overwhelm even high-rank monsters.

With these physical capabilities using skills that normally allowed someone with merely upper-mid rank physical abilities to face high-rank monsters, her combat power was comparable to a natural disaster.

She deflected tens of thousands of shells fired from the coffin’s machine gun by creating sword winds with her greatsword, and broke the neck of a high-rank monster (Dolphin Man Emperor) manifested through mist with her bare hands.

She also swung her greatsword to bisect dozens of buildings at once to change the battlefield to her advantage, and even shot down hundreds of missiles fired from the coffin using two plasma pistols.

But no matter how strong she was, her limitations as a human were clear.

She endured and survived until the micro-dimension collapsed due to the world’s restorative force, but at the cost of her left arm being completely destroyed and her entire body covered in bruises.

Considering it was a battle in extreme conditions where endless mid to high-rank monster equivalents attacked her and the environment itself was hostile, perhaps her injuries weren’t that severe…

[It’s over, Se-ah.]

“…………ugh.”

But at least now that she had to fight my machine, such considerations hardly mattered.

Seeing me approach with the coffin floating behind me, deploying four quad rocket launchers and two plasma cannons, Se-ah raised her greatsword with her only remaining arm and pointed it at me.

But even that was closer to a bluff as she barely held her trembling body together, which meant this fight had already ended in my victory.

So, as I approached to neutralize her before taking her to my base—

‘……..?’

From far away, I detected dozens of objects cutting through the air toward me.

Cone-shaped objects with pointed tips and propulsion units attached to the end.

Simply put, missiles fired by humans.

‘Surely……..they didn’t fire thinking it doesn’t matter if she dies?’

I momentarily had such an ominous thought, but thinking about it, even an injured top-tier hunter wouldn’t die from just a few missiles.

So the government must know this and is trying to do something about me by firing missiles…but it’s utterly ridiculous.

[With something like this, what do you think you can accomplish?]

After switching the coffin to interception mode to shoot down the missiles, I struck the back of Se-ah’s head as she showed signs of retreating, knocking her unconscious to leave no loose ends.

THWACK!

And without even letting her scream, I opened a spatial portal and transported her fallen body into a temporary holding facility—

BOOM! KWAGAGANG! KWAGAGAGAGAGAGAGAGANGGG!!

Matching the rhythm of the exploding missiles, I quickly flew toward and encountered those who were approaching—four high-rank hunters of South Korea.

“…………So it really was you.”

“‘The Keeper’………..”

“Tch, this won’t be easy.”

“……..Oh my.”

They too seemed quite shocked upon seeing my face, but unlike with Se-ah, I neither spoke to them nor paid them any attention.

After all, this meeting would be the last time the five of us would meet as enemies.

“—Here he comes!”

First, I targeted the hunter wielding a monster skull hammer who had reacted most quickly to my movement.

Since he was a reinforcement-type psychic specializing in transforming and strengthening his skin’s material, and was annoyingly fast, I decided to eliminate the tank first.

After swinging down my flame-wrapped greatsword with all my might, I used it as an axis to spin and deliver a kick when he slightly moved his body to dodge the attack.

THWACK!

As he flew far away from the direct hit, just as the other hunters who reacted a beat too late were about to attack me as I landed in the center—

[—Seri!]

“Yes, I’m going!”

Seri, who had been waiting on standby in the Iron Breaker, suddenly entered the battlefield through a spatial portal and thrust the lance-formed Anitheus with all her might toward the female telekinesis-specialized psychic user.

SHUNK!

“Keogh!”

Caught completely off guard, the woman coughed up blood and went limp, and just as Seri lifted the spear with the woman impaled on it—

[Enemy, eliminated.]

Through the next opened portal, Theo, who had attached all sorts of augmented weapons for this battle, entered the battlefield.

Particularly, with a large-caliber beam rifle created by embedding an entire psychic crystal into her arm, she fired immediately upon her entrance—

PYUNG!

“Kugh!”

The male hunter with twin swords barely avoided the attack by a hair’s breadth, but instead, the laser directly hit him as he was thrown back, though the damage wasn’t that severe.

It was truly amazing how his injuries weren’t that serious despite this.

Anyway, as the battlefield was thrown into chaos, I summoned the coffin that had shot down the missiles and deployed the gun barrels from inside—

[Fire everything.]

I unleashed an overwhelming barrage that I could confidently say gave them a taste of hellfire.

And the result was my victory, without a shadow of doubt.