Ch.8National Authority-Level VS National Disaster-Level

The Angel entity immediately reacted upon being attacked.

Instead of using the small wings on its arms, it spread the large wings that had sprouted from its back and leaped upward.

“That thing…”

“Is it planning to continue the battle in the air?!”

The crew aboard the aircraft carrier and the naval base headquarters were shocked as they watched the Angel take a combat stance for the first time.

The time it takes for a fighter jet to start up, take flight, and break the sound barrier.

About 2 minutes.

In contrast, the Angel took only 3 seconds to create a sonic boom as it soared upward.

It was overwhelming.

And thanks to the creature’s movement, the naval base’s high-powered detection equipment successfully calculated the Angel’s ability stats.

“Admiral! We’ve just completed measuring the Angel entity’s agility stat!”

“Its agility stat is 1.13!”

“What?! 13?!”

“…! Rolling…!”

I held my breath as I heard the news alongside everyone else.

Although Hunter’s Blood had a maximum stat cap of 20, the effective maximum in this game was actually 10.

This was so well-known across gaming communities that double-digit stats in Hunter’s Blood were considered nearly impossible to achieve for both monsters and humans alike.

Even my final stats, created through countless efforts and luck, only reached 14.

‘But an agility of 13…?’

What kind of monster was this?

Even in the original work, this was a level that would only appear in the very final stages.

Just as I thought this.

Whoosh. Swoosh.

Rolling, who had been standing on the deck, was nowhere to be seen, her eyes darting in all directions as she tried to track the Angel that was breaking the sound barrier and creating air waves.

But she would soon be in trouble.

Agility stat 13.

That fact was like a death sentence, plunging the entire naval base that had measured it into a pit of despair.

How could anyone possibly defeat such a creature?

But.

“Quite a fast one, isn’t it?”

In this situation, only Mr. Lee Seokgyu, who was holding his daughter Sophia against one side of his chest, showed a calm reaction.

No, rather than calm, it was more like he trusted his wife.

Whiiine.

And as if responding to her husband’s faith.

CRACK!

“Wh-what, whaaaaat?”

“Got you.”

The equipment she had set aside for the sake of her happy family.

The armament that had once granted her National Authority-Level status at the cost of her life – Baekho.

Time to break the sound barrier: a mere 0.2 seconds.

The Angel, which had been flying high before suddenly descending to target Rolling, was instead countered and had its solar plexus completely impaled by a heavy lance.

“Th-that’s impossible…!”

The American soldiers in the cafeteria.

“H-how can this be…?”

“How can a Commander Hunter have such power?”

Everyone at the naval base observing the battle was astonished.

Only Lee Seokgyu, who knew Rolling… no.

Only he, who knew the “Assassin Hunter Rolling” once called Swift, smiled slightly.

“The Angel entity appears to have sustained critical damage!”

“R-Rolling’s measured agility stat is… 1.14?!”

“Agility stat 14! In terms of speed, that’s among the top five in all of humanity!”

“Of course. She’s my wife and someone’s mother after all!”

Mr. Seokgyu laughed heartily at the base personnel who were making a fuss.

An agility stat of 14?

I was just as shocked as everyone else at the base, completely dumbfounded.

The crew aboard the aircraft carrier probably had the same reaction.

“Mom is amazing! So cool! Just like Superman!”

“Haha. You think so?”

Was the situation over now?

The Angel entity on the monitor had its solar plexus completely pierced through.

Even a National Disaster-Level monster would perish from such a fatal wound.

I wouldn’t need to transform after all.

…or so I thought at the time.

I had no idea why this incident would come to be called the worst in the history of the Republic of Korea.

Why it would be known as the Smiling Monster Incident.

“It’s not over yet!”

It was the moment when everyone at the naval base and aboard the aircraft carrier froze—just as they had been stretching, shaking hands with colleagues, and embracing each other in relief.

At the same time.

“Kya, kyahahaha…”

“Urgh?!”

It was clearly a fatal wound.

Rolling, who instinctively felt it wasn’t over, pulled out the lance she had thrust into the solar plexus.

“KYAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA-!!”

The monster finally began to laugh, just as recorded after its elimination.

Its face, which had appeared like an elegant woman, tore at the corners of its mouth and opened its black, pupil-less eyes while making a chilling laugh.

Simultaneously, white flesh began to sprout from the hole in its solar plexus, arbitrarily filling in the wound.

“That’s…”

“Regeneration ability?!”

A National Disaster-Level monster that could also regenerate.

At that sight, everyone at the aircraft carrier and naval base had to swallow their breath in fear.

Except for one person.

Rolling, who stood proudly before the creature.

“Done barking?”

“Kyaha?”

“Then here I come.”

“Rolling!!”

Lee Seokgyu, watching his wife through the monitor, shouted with a bad feeling.

However, his wife, who turned her head to look back, simply smiled.

“It’s okay. I’ll definitely win and come back.”

She turned to face forward again and broke the sound barrier in 0.2 seconds.

A lance strike that could shatter the Angel’s head in one blow flew toward it as it gradually backed away.

However.

Here, a truth was revealed.

“Kyaha!”

“Huh?”

“Th-that…!”

The first to shout while watching the monitor this time was Brigadier General Talisman, the admiral of the American aircraft carrier in Korea.

He focused on the “ring of light” that had stopped the white knight’s spear in mid-air.

At the same time, he realized.

“So that was the power that stopped our aircraft carrier…!”

Just as he said, the bottom of the carrier submerged in the sea had been fixed in place by that giant ring of light surrounding it.

“What is this! It won’t move at all!”

“Kyahaha?”

The lance, fixed in the ring of light, remained suspended in the air no matter how much force was applied.

While distracted by the weapon, Rolling herself became directly fixed in the ring of light.

“M-my body…!?”

“Rolling!!”

“Mom…?”

Everyone watching the situation through the monitor fell silent.

Only her husband called out with a trembling voice, and their daughter’s voice was about to be filled with pain.

The next moment brought pain like bones breaking and internal organs bursting.

“Kyaha!”

“Kuhak?!”

A ring of light summoned right next to the Angel’s head sent a fist through it, striking Rolling’s abdomen precisely.

As the restraining ring of light broke, Rolling flew backward, crashing into several parked fighter jets on the ship before finally stopping.

She immediately stood up again, but her condition was visibly poor.

“Rolling! That’s enough! I’ll go now! Hide somewhere!”

“N-no, sir! You were originally vulnerable to aerial combat!”

“Shut up. I’m going. I have to go!!”

“Army Chief of Staff, please calm down!”

“Someone come quickly and help stop him!”

The naval base was now busy trying to stop Lee Seokgyu, who was trying to put down his daughter and swim straight to the sea.

“Huff, huff…!”

“Hunter!”

“We’ve come to fight too!”

Unable to stand by any longer, the American soldiers all came out onto the deck armed, willing to serve as meat shields.

“Kyahaha?”

“Urgh?!”

Zing.

None of the hundreds of soldiers who came out onto the deck could fire even a single monster-killing bullet they had loaded.

They were all immediately fixed in place by rings of light.

“Kyahahahahahaha.”

“You bastard…! Ugh?!”

If she could just avoid those restraining rings of light.

If she could turn this into a simple battle of specs, she might be able to win.

However, even Rolling, who was trying to break the sound barrier again with that thought, knelt on one knee and coughed up blood as her hope was crushed.

[Overheat! Overheat! Disarm immediately!]

“Over…heat…?”

“Rolling! Stay still! Please! Don’t use it anymore!!”

The armament “Baekho” was a treasure that awakened Rolling’s new talent when she thought she would end as a Commander Hunter, but it was also a cancer that ate away at her life.

Power without a price is always like that.

She became the owner of Baekho as a suitable wielder due to her overwhelmingly high synchronization rate with the armament, but she suddenly remembered the warning she received from the Association when she got it.

“Ms. Rolling. I must warn you not to use the armament Baekho for more than 5 minutes.”

“What? Why?”

“Because your body won’t be able to handle it beyond that. Well, if you want to die, feel free to keep using it.”

…Why was she suddenly remembering this now?

“Is this what they call your life flashing before your eyes?”

It felt like every bone under her skin was creaking.

Her vision was blurry, and the blood vessels protruding from her skin looked like they might burst at any moment.

In fact, a blood vessel in her left eye had already burst, causing tears of blood to flow.

But.

Still.

She had a job to do.

“Honey! Shinwoo! And Sophia!”

Whether for better or worse, this would probably be her final charge.

Before that, Rolling turned her head just before breaking the sound barrier again to look at her family who would be watching her.

And enduring the pain, she smiled as always and spoke to them one last time.

“I love you all. You know that, right?”

“Rolling! No! Rolling! Please! Don’t do it!! I’ll do it! I’ll do it instead, so don’t do it!!”

After completely cutting off communications, his wife took her stance, and Lee Seokgyu, restrained by the soldiers, wailed.

Sophia, who had been quietly watching her mother through the screen, looked at her father beside her and slowly crouched down, trembling.

Originally, when she looked up again.

Sophia would have had to witness her mother’s intestines spilling out firsthand.

But in this moment of fear, she suddenly thought of someone.

“Shinwoo?”

The moment she called out the name of that person who always made her feel warm when nearby.

“UWAAAAAAAAAAAA-!!”

A tremendous roar came through the monitor.

At the same time, information about a new monster appeared on the naval base’s observation radar.

“A-a new monster response is approaching the aircraft carrier!!”

“…What?”

“It’s one thing after another? Another monster after the Angel?”

“Yes! According to observations, the monster is currently approaching by r-running on the sea…?”

“It appears to be human-sized! But its information is… huh?”

BOOM!

Before the staff could finish their briefing, he had already kicked off the sea surface and landed in front of Rolling, who was preparing for her charge.

“…! You are…”

At that moment, the strength drained from Rolling’s body as she prepared for death, and all the soldiers on the deck held their breath.

Lee Seokgyu and the other staff members who witnessed the creature through the monitor had the same reaction.

Only Sophia was looking at the pitch-black monster reminiscent of the grim reaper with bright, curious eyes.

“This response perfectly matches that of the humanoid monster that was reported lost in Jamsil!”

The humanoid monster from Jamsil that was thought to have disappeared.

The monster that had saved two of her subordinates.

“Kya-ha, ha…?”

For the first time at its appearance.

The smile disappeared completely from the Angel’s face.