Whoosh…
The anti-aircraft bases on Bukhansan Mountain were completely engulfed in flames.
The cause of the fire was the sudden impact of unidentified meteors.
Dozens of asteroids smashed the anti-aircraft guns that were keeping a wary eye on the sky.
Boom!
That majestic sound still resonated now.
No, it had become even more powerful, several times over.
Dududududu…
We were moving in a helicopter.
Thanks to the destruction of all the anti-aircraft bases and guided anti-aircraft guns surrounding the defense line.
And then…
“Now it really begins.”
Boom!
Rumble!
Sitting in the transport bay of the Black Hawk, I began deploying all sorts of items stored in subspace.
From a 25kg chrome-plated dumbbell, frag grenades, P999K radios, Korando, Retona, 2.5-ton trucks, and even the Black Hawk itself.
I also didn’t forget to mix in fireballs empowered by the force of gravity.
Boom-!
As expected, the impact was overwhelming.
With a deafening roar, the objects crashed down, blowing away the very ground itself.
Billowing heat rose like clouds.
Although we had obliterated all of the enemy’s major strongholds, there was something far more important.
And that was…
Ding!
[You currently possess 2,819 Mana Stones.]
[You currently possess 2,827 Mana Stones.]
[You currently possess 2,841 Mana Stones…]
The balance in my account steadily increasing.
It had nothing to do with .
The retrieval range couldn’t reach from the helicopter.
Even so, Mana Stones were still being collected.
In short…
“So this is the function of the dimensional account.”
“Yes, it is.”
Lancelot, sitting next to me, elaborated.
“As long as you have a dimensional account, you can obtain Mana Stones just by ending another being’s life.”
A fully automated system.
Now there was no need to bother activating to gather Mana Stones anymore.
All I had to do was hear the sound of objects dropping, and listen as the enemies’ lives were snuffed out.
Nearly 3,000 Mana Stones.
An amount that would’ve been unimaginable before, yet the sense of frustration remained.
Because I had heard the following news from PAX.
[To reach Level 4, you need 10,000 Mana Stones.]
‘Damn, that’s insanely expensive…’
Despite the rapid growth, the required amount had jumped tenfold again.
I couldn’t even begin to estimate when the next level-up would happen.
We were almost at our destination.
With the helicopter descending, the enemies’ screams became clearer.
“Kuwaaaargh!”
A blood-curdling scream.
What I was killing weren’t humans anymore.
To be exact, they were things that used to be human.
Pointed ears pierced through their skin, and their entire bodies were covered in rough green skin.
They were once human, but had now become more monstrous than any monster.
Lancelot explained further.
“…These are quasi-8th Order beings. They’ve undergone artificial modifications to acquire ‘Repulsion’.”
“Quasi-8th Order? Repulsion…?”
I asked, two unfamiliar terms popping up.
Lancelot spoke.
“All dimensional beings have ranks. We call these ranks ‘Orders’. And repulsion is…”
Seeing is believing.
As if showing me would be quicker, Lancelot gestured to Bedivere, who was sitting behind us.
Clink!
Bedivere pulled out a rifle that was stashed in the transport bay.
Then, with practiced precision, he aimed at the ground.
Bang!
“…!”
The head of the mutated human, mixed with green skin, snapped backward.
I never knew that Bedivere, a medieval knight, was such a skilled marksman…
But there was something even more surprising.
“…It’s still alive?”
“What enables that is ‘Repulsion.’”
For an ordinary human, that shot should have been fatal.
However, the creatures possessed an outstanding defensive ability that could only be seen in skeleton knights.
Lancelot added.
“Repulsion is a kind of right. The right to be safe from beings lower than oneself. Of course, it’s not absolute. Just as my lord once defeated Gawain.”
“Lower beings, huh…”
In other words, those mutated monsters were on the level of 8.5-order nobles.
It didn’t seem like they had followed a normal path to get there.
Come to think of it, I remembered their plan to use prisoners as ‘sacrifices’.
“So they’re offering sacrifices to obtain that ‘Order’ thing?”
“That’s probably not it. Reaching the quasi-8th Order isn’t that difficult if you use shortcuts. More likely, it’s a stepping stone to rise even higher.”
It became clear to me.
The 1st Corps had crossed a line they never should have.
And on top of that, they were preparing to offer their own kind as sacrifices.
‘These guys are completely insane…’
This wasn’t just a coup anymore; it was a full-on team kill aimed at all of humanity.
The half-goblins who had reached the quasi-8th Order were no different.
According to the lieutenant, no one had forced them.
They had willingly joined the plan of their own accord.
Thus…
Before I knew it, we had arrived at Seokyeong University.
This was where the commander of the 220th Brigade, who had orchestrated the entire operation, was stationed.
The large central sports field covered in green urethane.
The helicopter stirred the air as it gradually descended there.
Dududududu!
Leaving behind the helicopter’s whirling rotors, I stepped onto the ground.
It was time to search for the brigade commander.
As the person in charge here, he would likely have information about their plan.
Of course, I didn’t need to take the lead myself.
—-
[Lancelot]
Rank: [7th Order]
Description: [One of the Knights of the Round Table. Can be summoned through the power of Camelot.]
Attribute: [None]
Options: [Penetration], [Acceleration], [Immunity], [Leadership], [Critical Hit]
—-
Lancelot was the strongest among the Knights of Camelot.
Unlike Bedivere, who was of the 8th Order, Lancelot had the label of being a 7th Order attached.
Rumble!
All around us, mutated goblin soldiers began to swarm.
Thud!
Lancelot launched himself forward.
Dududududu!
While I used the portal as a shield, Lancelot brushed off the flying bullets as if they were nothing.
Ting! Tang! Tiiing!
The bullets ricocheted off powerlessly.
Lancelot swung his sword.
Slash!
Green mucus mixed with red blood.
The half-goblin soldiers were split in two in an instant.
Realizing their rifles were ineffective, they charged in with fixed bayonets this time, but…
Clang!
Clang!
That didn’t work either.
As if their bayonets were coated in oil, they slid off harmlessly.
Lancelot had a far stronger repulsion force than they did.
While Lancelot continued fighting the soldiers, I once again summoned the wraiths.
Whoosh.
Ten wraiths circled around me.
“Find out where the brigade commander is. He can’t have gone far.”
Fwoosh!
The wraiths scattered in an instant.
They would pass through walls and doors of makeshift barracks and campus buildings, searching for his location.
Sure enough, it didn’t take long before a Korando vehicle was spotted trying to escape the campus.
In its hurried departure, the back seat of the vehicle was messily piled with disorganized documents.
But at the campus’s rear gate where the vehicle arrived…
“…?”
A fearsome teacher was standing, monitoring the student trying to skip class.
The giant one-armed knight, Bedivere.
“……”
The commander squeezed his eyes shut in despair.
Bedivere lifted the Korando with one hand,
Whoosh!
and hurled it with great force, like a shot put.
The Korando soared through the sky.
The grand scene concluded with a thunderous crash as the Korando smashed into the green urethane-covered ground.
Bedivere’s “delivery” was as swift and precise as PAX’s .
Cough!
“Ugh…!”
The commander of the 220th Brigade, along with his lieutenant who had been conversing with him, squeezed their way out from the wreckage of the crushed vehicle.
Thanks to the “Repulsion” Lancelot had mentioned, despite the severe impact, neither of them appeared injured.
They simply coughed, trying to calm their startled nerves.
The commander looked around and addressed me, clearly realizing that I was the one responsible for this sudden attack.
“…Who… are you?!”
He seemed curious about my identity, but even if I told him, there was no way he would know who I was.
I thought for a moment… I did have something I could flaunt now.
“I’m Colonel Kim. Senior.”
“Fuck, why the hell am I your senior?!”
He was cooler-headed than I expected.
Then again, he was the kind of person who would use humans as sacrifices, so I wasn’t surprised.
I asked him.
“What the hell are you doing? Why did you become a goblin? What’s the deal with the sacrifices?”
“……”
He didn’t answer.
Not that I expected him to.
I made a request to PAX and conducted a surprise audit.
“Register all the classified documents in that vehicle under .”
[Registering under the ‘Military’ category.]
[Calculating registration cost…]
Ding!
[The cost required for registration is 21 mana stones.]
“Proceed.”
Fwoosh!
The classified documents were sucked into the retrieval portal, and the expression on the goblin Brigade Commander’s face twisted in horror.
“N-no…!”
“…?!”
As he watched helplessly while the classified documents vanished, the commander suddenly acted out of desperation.
He pulled out a pouch of Mana Stones from his coat and,
Crunch!
He began to frantically shove them into his mouth, his grotesque goblin-like tongue flicking out as he devoured them.
“…What the hell are you doing?”
I used to prevent the rest from going into his mouth, but a significant amount of Mana Stones had already entered his stomach.
Strangely, the Mana Stones he had swallowed couldn’t be retrieved using .
“Kuweeeek!”
He didn’t stop there.
Thrust!
“…Urgh.”
With his goblin claws, now razor-sharp, he drove them into the neck of his lieutenant.
Without a hint of hesitation.
Splat!
The lieutenant’s body collapsed, cold and lifeless.
Meanwhile, the commander’s body underwent a wild transformation.
Crack!
Red hair sprouted from his scalp, spewing blood as it twisted and knotted on its own.
Below his hunched back, his thin arms grew longer, ending in claws.
Up until now, his form had been a mixture of human and goblin…
But now he looked much more like a pure goblin.
And one far stronger than any ordinary goblin.
Lancelot spoke in a tense voice.
“He’s… become 8th Order.”
However…
“And what Order are you?”
“Ah, I am 7th Order.”
As soon as he answered, the tension disappeared.
The brigade commander’s transformation had been so dramatic that I had momentarily forgotten how strong we were.
There was no need to be caught up in this farce.
“Dispose of him.”
“As you command.”
Fwoosh!
The goblin commander’s eyes widened.
A black shadow engulfed his pupils.
Slash!
Lancelot’s sword drew a long arc, and…
The commander’s grotesquely transforming body froze.
His severed head rolled across the floor.
“It’s a bit disappointing that we didn’t get more information from him…”
But I had already secured the classified documents that the commander had tried to escape with.
It didn’t seem like he would have told us much even if we had interrogated him.
At that moment,
“What’s this?”
Despite using , there were still some documents left on the ground.
Which meant they weren’t classified military documents.
There were two types of documents.
One was a stack of old parchment notes, about the size of memo paper.
The other was a single, stiff A4 sheet.
Unlike the A4 document written in Korean, the parchment was inscribed with unfamiliar characters from another world.
Surprisingly, I could easily read and understand both documents.
Both documents…
[Application for Dimensional Being Registration]
Had this title.
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