Chapter 339. Main Research Center (1)

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“Can you read anything?”

Hansoo asked Kiriel, who continued to stay focused with her hand on the ground.

“Please, wait a moment!”

She hadn’t been able to read anything with her area skill.

Which meant that nothing had happened recently, at least.

-Sssssss-

As the range decreased and the effectiveness multiplied, she was able to delve deeper and read even more memories.

Kiriel started off from the most recent event near the elevator and started to read through them.

Soon-

‘… What is this?’

Kiriel started to frown.

— Damn it! Run!

— Bastards! You attack us from behind after forming an alliance?!

— Please! Don’t leave me behind, please!

Countless strange attacks were flying around the elevator and turning the whole place into a mess.

-Crunch!-

-Crack!-

‘Huh… What?’

Because the attackers hadn’t reached the land she was reading, she couldn’t figure out their identities.

She could only see the countless adventurers being killed off like flies from those strange attacks.

But soon she realized that she didn’t really need to read the memories of other areas.

-Boom! Boom!-

She could feel the vibrations of the ground getting stronger.

Which meant that something was coming.

Something was coming to crush those adventurers that were running away.

But as Kiriel continued to read the memory.

-Whoooosh!-

Someone was pulling strongly on the back of her clothes.

“Ahh!”

Because of the external stimulus, her Psychometry was shattered and she was forced back out into reality.

‘Damn… I almost saw it! So close!’

But as she turned around…

-Booooooom!-

The ground exploded right where she’d been standing.

‘Huh?!’

Kiriel frowned at the beam attack that was exactly the same as the one she’d seen in the memories.

Indeed, her guard had been down because she’d been using her Psychometry.

She wouldn’t die from it, but it was clear that an attack of this level would hurt her to some degree.

But as kiriel quickly activated her skills to defend against the fragments and the flames that came from the explosion, somebody was already standing before her.

-Titititing!-

Hansoo had pulled Kiriel behind him and deflected most of the damage with the hammer.

-Rumble-

‘This is the spirit, huh? How useful.’

Kiriel looked at Hansoo absorbing the residual flames into his body, but then turned to the thing that had attacked her in the first place.

‘A robot?’

-Kacha-

She’d thought it would be an abyssal beast or an underling of Clementine. But the thing that was actually coming towards her was a robot.

-Rumble-

It looked like a construction machine all clad in some metal alloy.

The laser beam weapon that had attacked her was attached on top of it, alongside a cannon.

Overall, it looked very similar to a tank.

-Rummblee-

Though the 10-meter-tall giant machine approaching her looked quite threatening, her expression remained indifferent.

‘How boring.’

Kiriel cracked her knuckles and surrounded herself in flames as she mumbled.

The 5th zone.

A giant metal city, and the giant barrier that surrounded it.

The extremely advanced technology.

She expected everything within this place to fit the look of its surroundings.

But what the hell was this?

‘It just looks very generic. Even the Akadus of the 2nd zone looked more advanced than this.’

Kiriel sighed as she thought of the silver androids controlled by Gwanje, the lord of the 2nd Zone.

-Kiiiiiiing-

Energy started to gather at the giant cannon on top of the machine.

-Boooom!-

It fired towards the humans that still hadn’t run away even after seeing it.

The energy was so violent that the attack had melted down the surrounding land, destroying the debris.

‘Wow, that’s a bit strong.’

Though it looked lame, its might was dimensions apart from the Akadus.

But Kiriel only shrugged her shoulders as she took something out from her pocket.

-Whoooosh!-

Kiriel used the object to quickly draw lines in the air.

And as the beam smashed against the space Kiriel had just been drawing on.

-Claaangg!-

The laser split into two halves and flew past her, exploding in the space behind her.

-Booom!-

Kiriel used the force of the explosion to accelerate her charge forwards and drew a vertical line.

And as the object in Kiriel’s hand cut through the air…

-Clank!-

… The huge metal robot split in half, its two parts falling down.

-Kirurururuk!-

The tank struggled and made strange noises as it attempted to turn its cannon to attack again, but it was futile.

Deep within its metal walls, the tank’s core had been split apart as well.

And with a final groan, the tank soon stopped moving.

Kiriel checked the insides to see if anybody was riding it, but it was empty.

‘A robot is indeed a robot. But damn, this is a really good one.’

Kiriel looked at the object in her hand in shock.

[Ark-Roa’s Fang].

It was only the Ark-Roa’s fang in name, but its might was actually countless times stronger than the fangs of an Ark-Roa itself.

It was capable of splitting the air apart and deflected light.

Unlike its noble appearance, which resembled an ivory tusk, the might hidden within it was no joke.

‘That fairy was one hell of a nuisance in the tutorial, but at least they’re properly giving out rewards, huh?’

Kiriel rubbed the fang’s soft curves as she looked towards Hansoo.

‘He fought even harder than me, so he should have received a better reward than mine, but he only got part of an artifact.’

Kiriel tried to imagine what it would look like once it was completed, and then spoke to Hansoo.

“Looks like this is all there is to it. I think these are the ones that roam around this area.”

These things were more than strong enough to threaten normal adventurers, but they were a bit lacking when it came to transcendents like herself.

‘Reading this thing’s memories should help out at least.’

Maybe she’d find a clue as to why that barrier had broken apart.

-Kiiiing-

“Ugh.”

Kiriel’s expression turned unsightly as she read the memory.

And Hansoo chuckled while watching her.

“If it’s a common weapon then it’ll only be useful once it’s mass-produced.”

“Ah…”

-Rumble!-

-Clank! Clank!-

Even before Kiriel could freak out at the hundreds of machines she had seen in the memories, those exact machines had already gathered around them.

-Kiiiiiing!-

Zzzzmmmm!

The Melchizedek’s machines had gathered after receiving the distress signal of the machine that Kiriel had just destroyed.

And the first thing they did was gather energy to attack the two of them.

‘Let’s see.’

-Booooooom!-

As Hansoo smashed the Mjolnir into the ground, a giant bolt of lightning smashed down from the sky, creating a pillar of lightning.

-Rummblee!-

Hansoo started to think about his next step as he swept apart the attacks of the countless machines with the lightning pillar.

No matter what happened here, he just needed to accomplish his job.

‘I need to sweep away Melchizedek.’

He always had to remember his job.

His goal was to win.

And the first requirement to achieve his goal was… annihilation of all obstacles that could deter his path towards that victory.

The strength in his hands was all for this goal.

The machine king, driven by his greed for material objects and information, wouldn’t be an exception to this as well.

He wanted to avoid it if possible, but he had been attacked the second he encountered his underlings.

And this would not end until he smashed apart Melchizedek’s main body located somewhere within the 5th zone.

‘Where… Where could he be?’

Hansoo looked around in various directions and mumbled.

‘It doesn’t seem like it would be on the 1st floor.’

The chances of Melchizedek being on the 1st floor were very low.

But these soldiers were reacting way too violently.

There were way more of them than usual as well.

Of course, it wouldn’t be weird for it to be in the first floor.

Despite being a machine, Melchizedek was a curious being that pretended to be a human as it roamed around the entire zone.

And if it was on the 1st floor, there was only one place it would go to.

‘The Main Research Center.’

-Ssssss-

Hansoo mumbled, and with a sweep of his Pandemic Blade, he melted over twenty of the robots.

He realized something after looking around.

In this giant metal city that was divided into various sectors with different facilities and functions, this place was where the Main Research Center was located.

Of course, this was something the humans had named it, but the name was very fitting.

‘If he’s here, then… jackpot.’

It would be even better if Melchizedek didn’t bring his elite soldiers with it, but just being near his current location was good enough.

Since it would be much better than if it hid behind its <Castle>.

‘If I can find him while I’m cleaning up these pieces of garbage, then… that really is a jackpot.’

As he focused, Hansoo thought of Melchizedek, who reminded him of an innocent child.

Then-

-Chiiijijijiikk!-

A dark aura started to gather around the tip of Mjolnir.

The Nine Dragons Spear.

Of course, the name was because the creator of this skill was somebody who wielded a spear.

The important thing wasn’t the name, but how the skill itself worked.

A skill which squeezed every drop of strength in its user’s body, including the user’s instinctive struggle for survival during its use, and then turned that strength into a destructive form of energy that smashed apart the user’s foe.

Every time another dragon was added, the pain one felt throughout their body was multiplied.

A skill which stacked the energy that was extracted out from the body through this process and used it to destroy one’s foes.

This was the Nine Dragons Spear.

Which meant that as long as one understood the method behind the extraction of strength, and how the energy was gathered, it didn’t matter what weapon was used.

-Kwaaaddddk!-

-Swooosh!-

Four dragons rushed out from Hansoo’s heart and started to intermingle with the lightning within the Mjolnir.

It wasn’t that four was his limit.

But rather that four was more than enough.

Hansoo lifted the hammer surrounded by black lightning and smashed it into the ground.

And the moment the hammer collided with the metallic land…

-Booooom!-

… The black lightning rode through the ground and started to spread out.

Like countless dragons charging towards their enemies.

-Zzzzzzttt-

-Boom!-

The streaks of black lightning swam through the land and smashed into the robots, blowing them up and melting them down.

It was like watching countless dragons chewing apart their prey.

-Rumble!-

-Boom!-

‘Woah…’

Kiriel split apart the robots one by one, dazedly looked at this scene where hundreds of robots were destroyed in an instant.

But there were another set of eyes that were watching this scene as well.

***

“What the hell is that?”

-Rumble!-

17 kilometers away from the elevator.

A man, who was lying between the buildings and watching the elevator, freaked out at the scene where hundreds of AR-1121s were being destroyed.

Though they were mass produced, those things weren’t so weak that they could be destroyed that easily.

Another man, who had been standing next to him, asked with a stern expression,

“Do you think he came down from above? Or came up from below?”

“How would I know?”

After hearing the annoyed voice of the man who was on the ground, the man with the stern expression frowned.

“You mean we’ll have to meet them to find out. Are you going to make contact?’

“Hmm…”

That man was too strong for them to just ignore and continue on with what they’d been doing.

The man on the ground, who seemed to be the leader, frowned at the words of his underling.