Whirrr!
Whirrrrrr!
“Urghhhh!”
The merfolk began to die one by one.
The vanguard commander of the merfolk, Hideki, couldn’t hide his astonishment.
‘Why? Why are they dying?’
It was the rank and repulsion power he had acquired by borrowing the strength of the Sharite Dimension.
No matter how much achieving Level 10 allowed one to obtain a rank, gathering a thousand mana stones was no easy feat.
Even compared to the Japanese average, there were at most twenty rank holders in Busan.
It was unimaginable that they could stand against the 300 merfolk.
But…
Aaaaargh!
The deafening screams of his comrades echoed.
The awakened ones of Busan, with their cloaks fluttering, were slicing through the merfolk as if they were cutting tofu.
‘…How did the situation come to this?’
The original plan had been to fight guerrilla-style in the enemy’s urban areas, turning the battle into chaos.
After all, even on land, the merfolk possessed overwhelming strength and stamina.
However, faced with a completely twisted situation, he had no choice but to quickly revise his strategy.
“Fall back for now! Retreat!”
“What about the wounded? What should we do about them?”
“Leave them and retreat! At this rate, we’ll all die!”
Pitter-patter!
Splash!
Spraying their distinctive mucus, the Merfolk quickly retreated into the sea.
“Phew…!”
Only then could they catch their breath.
The contaminated seawater stretching from Fukuoka began to heal their wounds.
“Water is our mother. She is our blessing…”
“Reformation” implies fixing the old and making it new.
Ironically, the Reformation Awakening Society had completely abandoned the ideologies of old Japan.
What Hideki was muttering was a new mantra given by the Sharite Dimension.
It was the ideology of another dimension, blessing the new bodies they had gained as merfolk.
However…
“Ughhhhh!”
The ocean, which had been a blessing, suddenly turned into a curse.
An electric shock that burned their scales black.
Its source was unknown, but whenever the enemies’ rifles pierced the surface of the water, a dizzying shock enveloped the merfolk.
“Grrrrrrrrk!”
Foaming at the mouth, the merfolk began to float to the surface one by one like rotting fish.
Moreover…
Bang!
Bang!
Intermittent flares exploding completely obscured their vision.
Zzzzzzing…
The ringing in their ears and the loss of their sense of direction.
The sea, once filled with white emptiness and electric shocks, was no longer their mother.
Instead.
‘…Hell, this is hell.’
That was the only fitting name for it.
“Haah! Haah!”
Hideki furiously swam through the water.
He struggled to suppress the panic brought on by the constricting pressure in his chest and his blind sight, rushing to escape the crisis.
“Ughhh!”
Busan, which he had wanted to seize in its entirety, was slipping through his grasp.
But the leisure he had allowed himself had been a fatal mistake, and Hideki was not foolish enough to repeat the same error.
Barely escaping the danger zone, he spread his gills and bellowed in a resonant voice.
“Fire! Fire the cannons!”
They were all merfolk.
But that didn’t mean they were all the same type of merfolk.
Brrr…
Merfolk with bellies swollen like pufferfish began to appear one by one.
Their enormous bellies were packed with rocks and pebbles they had swallowed in advance.
These were to be used as cannonballs to fire at Busan.
Hideki gave his order.
“Target the hotel! Aim directly at the hotel!”
Whooshhh!
Dozens of rocks flew toward the headquarters of the Busan forces.
At first glance, it seemed like a primitive attack.
It would appear to be nothing more than mere stones.
If one were to think back to the once-mighty fleets of Japan, the firepower of the Reformation Awakening Society would seem like a clear decline.
However…
“Not everything is as it seems.”
Hideki was confident.
The rocks they launched were imbued with the power of the 8th Order.
It carried enough power to tear through thick bunker walls, let alone ordinary concrete, like paper.
Boom!
Boom!
Hissssss!
Steam spewed out of the gills of the cannon-firing merfolk.
This would reduce Busan to rubble, but Hideki didn’t care in the slightest.
“You brought this on yourselves. How much better would it have been if you’d just listened when I spoke nicely? I would’ve treated you as cute little slaves.”
Whoooosh!
His heart felt lighter now.
Hideki gazed with satisfaction at the red rocks painting the sky.
The bombardment focused on the hotel.
Soon, that massive hotel would crumble like a bunch of wooden chopsticks, but…
Ding!
“…Ding?”
A strange noise ruined Hideki’s moment of admiration.
Ding!
Ding!
The merfolk’s cannonballs were bouncing off.
Like plastic BB pellets shot at a wall.
Upon closer inspection, the hotel was now covered in a smooth material that hadn’t been there before.
“…Why? Why isn’t it breaking? Why!”
It was truly baffling. But
Swoooosh!
“…What’s that?”
There wasn’t even time to figure out the answer.
“…A boat? No, that’s…”
At first glance, it was unmistakably a humble fishing boat.
A small vessel that could be used as a simple fishing boat.
However, its hull was covered in thick green armor that curved to form a roof, and the bow featured a peculiar head-like structure.
No matter how you looked at it, it seemed like an imitation of something.
It was as though a turtle’s shell had been attached to a dragon’s head…
“…Wait a minute.”
Hideki stopped in his tracks.
He was a former officer in the Japanese Navy.
He was well aware of the extraordinary ship built by a Korean admiral, the one that had dealt Japan a devastating defeat in the past.He knew of it, of course.
But…
“No. Anything but that…”
Its structure was clearly unsuited for modern warfare.
In fact, even acknowledging it made him feel insulted.
Which shipbuilder in today’s world would think of attaching a turtle’s shell and a dragon’s head to a warship?
Romanticism.
It was nothing but romanticism.
But that very “romanticism”, embodied in the K-Turtle Ship, threw Hideki into a pit of utter humiliation.
“Attack! Please…! Even if we lose, we can’t die to something like that!”
Those bound by the past will only be left behind.
Past glory remains in the past.
Recalling the ideals of the Reformation Awakening Society, Hideki ridiculed the anachronistic spirit imbued in the K-Turtle Ship.
But…
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Dozens of cannonballs fired from the turtle ship.
The fiery explosions quickly engulfed the merfolk on the water’s surface.
CRASH!
BOOOOM!
Aaaaargh!
Aaaaack!
The merfolk were reduced to foam in the sea, one after another.
In stark contrast, turtle ships continued pouring out from Busan Harbor.
Dozens. No, hundreds.
Or perhaps even more than that.
Hideki, well-versed in history, foamed at the mouth.
“…That! That’s not twelve ships! What the hell is that!”
Only then did he realize.
Forget the Reformation or anything else…
Power and numbers were all that mattered.
Amid the romantic delusion surrounding the merfolk, Hideki only grasped this truth at that moment.
***
“Phew, this will be over soon.”
Watching the merfolk being swept away like a storm, I muttered leisurely.
Meanwhile, in front of me, a submarine brought by Yoo Seong-cheol floated calmly on the sea.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff had sent navy personnel to operate the submarine, and Lee Yong-su also stepped in to assist with its operation.
Yoo Seong-cheol spoke.
“This is a Jang Bogo-class submarine. It’s a 1990s model, but it’s still an active-duty submarine, so it should serve your purposes just fine.”
Nodding, I immediately asked PAX to store the submarine.
[This item falls under the ‘Military Unit’ category.]
[Calculating registration cost…]
Ding!
[The total cost required for registration is 2,675 mana stones.]
“…Why is it so expensive?”
“Haha… Submarines are always like this. Compared to helicopters, they’re much more expensive.”
The price was steep, but there was no turning back.
After all, I needed to infiltrate Japan quietly.
Fortunately, the cost wasn’t too much of a burden for me at the moment.
[The cost has been received.]
[Remaining mana stones: 46,784.]
Swoosh!
I immediately shipped the submarine I would be using to travel.
Clatter!
A ladder extended down from the entrance of the submarine.
Along with Lee Yong-su and the personnel from the Joint Chiefs of Staff, I boarded the submarine.
Clank!
The entrance shut firmly, like the lid of a container.
As I thought about Busan, where the battle was still raging, I muttered to myself.
“…Well, they’ll handle it just fine.”
The sea was already filled with the floating corpses of merfolk.
The situation was essentially secured in our favor.
Thanks to that, I could head toward Fukuoka with a light heart… or so I thought.
Beep- Beep-
The radar at the control seat started emitting a sound.
One of the analysts gestured toward me.
“…You need to take a look at this. Something’s still out there.”
“…What?”
On the green radar screen, slowly drawing circles, a white dot appeared.
A dot so massive that it couldn’t even be compared to the others.
Clack!
I immediately put my eye to the periscope.
The far-off horizon over the sea came into view.
And there, I saw…
“…What is that?”
A massive gray object was surging toward Busan.
Rumbleeeee!
Swooosh!
It had the imposing appearance of a battleship.
But the sound it made was unmistakably the cry of a living creature.
Hisssss!
Contaminated seawater spouted like a fountain from its back, and merfolk were entering and exiting the holes scattered across its body.
As if it were an aircraft carrier.
A battleship whale.
Perhaps such a grand name would suit it.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Hundreds of turtle ships were relentlessly firing “fireballs” at the creature, but…
Boom!
Boom!
Hissssssss…
Only waves of heat erupted, leaving not a single scratch on the creature.
The fireballs were 2nd-circle magic.
According to prior data, they were attacks capable of reliably damaging even 8th Order beings.
The fact that it shrugged them off effortlessly meant…
“…It’s 7th Order.”
Japan had allied itself with other dimensions.
So it was only natural that monsters from other dimensions would also join the battle.
Swoooshhhhh!
The battleship whale steadily approached Busan.
I immediately relayed instructions to the personnel in the control room, and they all displayed expressions of disbelief.
“Approach it?”
“It’ll be fine. We’ll keep a portal open as a precaution.”
“Even so…”
The battleship whale was clearly preparing to ram straight into Busan.
With the 7th Order repulsion force surrounding it, it was impossible to predict how much damage Busan would suffer.
But…
“There’s no need to be so dramatic. It’s not like this is my first time taking one down…”
In the Sabros Dimension that had invaded Yongsan, I had already taken down two 7th Order monsters.
The weapons I had used back then were still in my possession.
There was the enhanced Holy Spear.
“Let’s approach this with some excitement. Today, this submarine will serve as both a whaling ship and…”
And the blessed H-Beam.
“…a nuclear submarine armed with SLBMs.” (TL: Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missile)
I planned to unleash it all from underwater.
But that wasn’t all.
Over the past week, I had fully maximized my shipping skill.
With a shipping speed of 500 km/h and a maximum range of 500 meters.
The result of pouring a staggering 8,000 mana stones into it.
Beep- Beep-
At my request, we gradually approached the whale.
Looking at its massive, silvery-white body through the periscope…
Ultimately, aiming wasn’t even my responsibility.
“PAX, unleash everything.”
Whoooosh!
<Tracking Delivery> activated.
Eight portals opened around the submarine, each releasing a Holy Spear.
Bloop! Bloop!
The spears advanced, releasing clear bubbles as they moved forward.
They looked unmistakably like harpoons.
What I had only imagined – dozens, hundreds of harpoons – now…
Thunk!
Thunk!
The massive whale’s flesh was pierced through, and the spears finally revealed their true impact.
Grooooooo!
The whale’s scream echoed like a ship’s foghorn.
Though it was bleeding from hundreds of embedded harpoons, this wasn’t the end.
“3… 2… 1, fire.”
Fwoooosh!
A massive ‘physical’ SLBM broke through the surface of the water and launched.
Swooooooooosh!
Its destination: 500 meters above the whale’s head.
After continuing its ascent, the dozens of H-beams, now standing tall in the sky, finally…
“……”
…began their frenzied descent.
Bang!
Bang!
Thud!
The whale’s head started to burst open.
The enormous weight of the falling H-beams drove the hundreds of embedded Holy Spears further into its body like nails.
Deep into the whale’s innermost flesh.
And so, the inevitable happened.
The giant whale flipped belly-up and floated lifelessly to the surface.
“…My God.”
The submarine crew gathered at the periscope.
Everyone was speechless.
***
Hissss!
After enduring numerous hardships, we finally arrived in Fukuoka.
I sent the submarine crew into subspace and retrieved the submarine itself into the subspace as well.
“You bastards, perfect isn’t it?”
The Fukuoka coastline was the very picture of calm.
Since no one had any idea I was here, using the submarine had been worth it.
It was time to begin two tasks.
One was finding Fukuoka’s Representative, and the other was locating the Japanese branch of the Chamber of Commerce.
Fortunately, one of those tasks was resolved quite easily.
[Fukuoka Representative]
A large hologram projected by the Chamber of Commerce.
An arrow on it pointed directly to the Representative’s location right in front of me.
Roughly a few hundred meters away.
Below where the hologram’s arrow pointed, two symbolic buildings stood side by side.
One was Fukuoka Tower.
The city’s landmark, towering high near the coastline.
The other was…
“…A conch shell?”
A giant conch shell-like structure placed right on the shoreline.
Judging by the light spilling out from various parts of it, I could vaguely guess that it served as a building.
After all, Japan had aligned itself with beings from other dimensions.
It wasn’t surprising that they’d have at least one bizarre alien structure.
The problem was…
“I can’t tell which one he’s in…”
The hologram’s positioning was frustratingly ambiguous.
The two buildings were so close together that the arrow, floating high above them, made it impossible to determine which building it was pointing to.
“…Well, I’ll just have to check them both myself.”
Buzz!
I opened a subspace portal.
From it, four skeleton knights stepped out.
Clang!
Mordred, Bedivere, Kay, and Hector.
All of them had the “Etherealization” ability.
“Pair up into teams of two and search. Find where the Fukuoka Representative is hiding.”
“Yes, my lord.”
Swoosh.
Their figures gradually faded.
Whoosh!
The four knights shot off like arrows.
To capture the enemy commander and deliver him to me.
****
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