Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense

Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense

157 – Fly

Although Nautilus had a designated space for transporting the injured, Myung-jun deliberately had Skyler sit on his lap as they moved to find James. This was to utilize Skyler’s abilities to track James’s location in real-time while moving at high speed.

As Myung-jun had hoped, Skyler, sitting on his lap, used her abilities to their fullest to inform him of James’s location.

“James just encountered an aberration and changed direction a moment ago. He’s currently moving at 3 o’clock.”

Receiving fresh water from the drink dispenser inside the cockpit, she was operating eight surveillance water dragons simultaneously to track the locations of both the boss and James in real-time.

“How far are they?”

“About 10 kilometers.”

“And the distance between James and the boss?”

Seeing Myung-jun biting his lip in frustration, Skyler cautiously spoke.

“Please don’t be too angry. James is doing his best for you, Myung-jun…”

“Have you ever played online games?”

Skyler, taken aback by the sudden question, answered.

“A little.”

“Then you know about high-level players hunting difficult monsters for low-level players, right? In our country, we call it ‘jeol’ or ‘bus.'”

“Oh, we call it ‘carried.'”

“Yes, that. Do you know what’s the most annoying thing when doing that?”

“What is it?”

“When a low-level player, who would die with one hit, tries to get a hit in and ends up dying next to the monster. Knowing that I was coming as an ally, James should have stayed put. You tried to stop him, right?”

When Skyler nodded, Myung-jun continued.

“Yes. But he didn’t listen. He said that with the little time left before the overflow, he had to help you catch the boss quickly.”

Myung-jun looked at the counter displayed in the corner of the screen.

The red numbers showing the time left until the overflow warned him that less than five hours remained.

What irritated Myung-jun was precisely that ‘remaining time.’

“There’s still almost five hours until the overflow. And that’s more than enough time for me to take down one boss. Of course, the more time left, the more efficiently I can fight, but I don’t want casualties occurring just to save a few minutes during the strategy.”

Seeing Myung-jun genuinely angry, Skyler desperately defended James.

She admitted that it was partly her fault for not actively stopping James from luring the boss, and explained that James made such a decision because the gate boss they encountered was exceptionally cunning and strong.

Although James knew well how immensely powerful Myung-jun was, he judged that he needed to buy even a little more time for Myung-jun because the boss of this gate was on a different level of strength.

“The Striker that Mr. Brown was on wasn’t destroyed in a battle with the boss. In fact, the boss didn’t even participate in the battle. It was as if the boss deemed the Striker unworthy of being its opponent. And we concluded that the boss made that judgment after single-handedly destroying the two Strikers that entered first.”

“Why did you come to that conclusion?”

“There were no bite marks at all. The wreckage of the Assault Type and Universal Type Strikers was sliced into multiple pieces as if cut by a sharp blade. Our conclusion was that the cockpit was split in two by an attack so fast that even an Awakened, with their significantly enhanced reaction speed and dynamic vision compared to ordinary people, couldn’t react in time.”

Skyler imagined whether the firepower she had seen from Myung-jun would be effective against the boss of this gate.

However, considering the boss’s movements she had witnessed, she judged that even Myung-jun might find it difficult to deal with the boss.

James had made a similar judgment, which was why he had taken the risk to act directly.

“Of course, I know that Myung-jun is one of the strongest in all of humanity, but the boss of this gate is on a completely different level. In front of that speed, even Myung-jun’s power might not be effective. Even the mighty Striker couldn’t put up a proper fight and was destroyed.”

Listening to her voice filled with warning and fear, Myung-jun spoke.

“So, to put it bluntly, James went to lure the boss because he thought I might struggle against it? And you think the same, Skyler?”

“It’s not that we underestimate you, Myung-jun, but the boss is unimaginably strong…”

“The gate boss isn’t the only one beyond your imagination. The strength I possess far surpasses what you can imagine. Destroying a Striker in one hit? I can do that too. Not just one, but even if fifty attacked at once.”

Myung-jun’s eyes began to sparkle with anticipation instead of anger, and he thought to himself that he might have to use ‘that,’ which he hadn’t used in real combat since testing.

‘That’ which Myung-jun thought of was the ultimate combat module installed in the Elimination Suit, which he hadn’t even used against Moon Hee-cheol, the second strongest in humanity.

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‘That guy is the gate boss…’

James’s body was in a terrible state, having narrowly escaped death several times while shaking off the minions chasing him.

The only fortunate thing was that the aberrations, which had been relentlessly pursuing him, fled in fear as soon as they reached the vicinity of the boss.

However, the reaction of these aberrations only fueled the fear in James’s heart.

The fact that these powerful aberrations were afraid to approach the boss indicated just how strong the gate boss was.

‘I need to steel myself.’

James was also afraid to approach the boss.

But driven by a superhuman sense of responsibility that transcended fear, he forced his reluctant steps forward.

Finally, when the boss came into his view, he realized that the boss was asleep.

‘Asleep? There’s no way it hasn’t noticed my approach.’

Looking at the boss, which resembled a giant black panther, James thought.

Of course, the gate boss had noticed James’s approach.

It simply allowed him to come closer because James was too weak to be worth reacting to.

To the boss, the strength of James, one of the EDF’s elite, was less significant than a mosquito’s strength from a human perspective.

Instinctively realizing why the boss was ignoring him, James was actually grateful for his weakness.

If he had been strong enough to attract the boss’s attention, he wouldn’t have been able to get this close.

‘I would have become a corpse the moment I entered its kill range.’

Thinking this, James approached the boss as stealthily as possible.

Then he gathered all the remaining strength in his body and activated his Awakened ability.

-Swish!-

In an instant, dozens of chains shot out from the ground towards the gate boss.

However, the chains, which had the power to shatter rocks, turned into hundreds of metal fragments and rained down before they could even touch the boss’s body.

Despite seeing the boss easily dismiss his strongest attack, James was not disappointed at all.

He had expected this outcome from the beginning.

‘An attack that can be blocked in one strike by the boss, which even the Striker’s full power couldn’t penetrate, wasn’t expected to work. But still…’

Amidst the rain of shattered chains, a thin chain, about the thickness of a pinky finger, shot upwards.

The boss didn’t bother to pay attention to this thin chain, as it was too weak to be of any concern.

James, who summoned the chains, knew very well that the strength contained in such a thin chain couldn’t inflict any damage on the boss.

But it didn’t matter.

The purpose of that thin chain wasn’t to damage the boss.

-Swish!-

As James smiled, the thin chain struck the boss’s snout.

Then, as if trying to tickle the boss, it began to rapidly attack the nose area repeatedly.

-Swish! Swish! Swish!-

Of course, the damage these attacks inflicted on the boss was no more than the annoyance of a buzzing fly, but for James, that was enough.

After all, humans swat at flies on their noses not because it hurts, but because it’s annoying.

And just as James intended, the boss, feeling ‘stressed’ by the annoying attacks on its snout, turned the chain into dust.

Then, it slowly began to lift its eyelids.

“Aaaaahhhhh!!!”

James gathered all the remaining strength in his body before the boss could look at him.

He was certain that the moment the boss opened its eyes and looked at him, he would meet the same fate as the chains he had summoned.

At that moment, two chains emerged from the ground beneath James and firmly grabbed his feet.

“Catch me if you can!!!”

Knowing that running away on foot was impossible, James chose to fix his feet to the chains and use them to escape.

The speed at which the chains he summoned moved was much faster than his full-speed running.

While James, riding the high-speed chains, disappeared from sight in an instant, the boss slowly lifted its eyelids.

It then raised its front paw and gently rubbed the snout that James had tickled.

‘What was that guy?’

Grimpanther pondered for a brief moment as it watched the meaningless attack and escape of the human who had come for no reason.

It wasn’t difficult to track down the gnat-like human even after finishing its thoughts.

After a fleeting moment, Grimpanther realized that the gnat-like human had dared to ‘provoke’ it.

‘Provoke…’

At that moment, the giant mushrooms around Grimpanther began to crumble into tiny pieces as if struck by hundreds of sword strikes.

‘How dare a mere human!!!’

Whether it was a diversionary tactic or a last desperate act before death, it didn’t matter to Grimpanther.

The fact that such a fragile being, which would turn into a piece of meat with just a breath, had made him feel this way was what displeased Grimpanther.

Grimpanther stood up as slowly as he had lifted his eyelids.

Then he turned his head in the direction James had fled, already out of sight.

And at that moment.

The massive aberration, standing 10 meters tall, 25 meters long, and weighing nearly 20 tons, vanished from the spot as if it had teleported.

It left behind an enormous shockwave as if an explosion had occurred.

As Grimpanther began his ‘pursuit,’ he cut through the forest filled with giant mushrooms, creating a straight path as if someone had erased the forest with an eraser.

At the end of that path, James was running for his life, regretting his decision to provoke Grimpanther.

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***

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When Myung-jun, flying in Nautilus, spotted James, the massive aberration resembling a giant black panther was leaping into the air, ready to tear James apart.

Seeing this, Myung-jun urgently used the ‘Photon Laser,’ the fastest attack among the weapons mounted on Nautilus, to attack Grimpanther.

Although its physical stopping power and damage were weak, the laser attack’s characteristic speed of light made it the fastest weapon available.

The Photon Laser’s output varied depending on the charging time, and Myung-jun could increase its power if he wanted. However, lacking time, he attacked Grimpanther with the basic output that required no charging.

-Bzzzzzz!-

The laser fired from Nautilus struck Grimpanther’s forepaw just as it was about to slash James in half.

However, Grimpanther’s forepaw, which had the durability to withstand the strongest long-range firepower of the Support Striker without a scratch, easily shrugged off the Photon Laser’s attack and continued its assault on James.

Startled muscles momentarily tensed up for a split second.

However, that split second, less than 0.1 seconds, was enough to create the ‘gap’ James needed to avoid a fatal injury.

“Aaaaahhhhh!!!”

The attack that should have split James’s waist in two instead grazed his calf, causing his body to tumble to the ground, separated from the chains.

Screaming in pain from his severed legs, James soon showed a joyful expression, realizing someone had attacked Grimpanther.

A laser attack that accurately hit Grimpanther’s forepaw from a distance, saving his life.

The only person capable of such a performance, as far as he knew, was Cha Myung-jun.

At that moment, Grimpanther’s roar, filled with rage at the fact that James was still alive, echoed in all directions.

-Roar!!!-

Then, with eyes full of fury, Grimpanther began to glare in the direction from which the laser had been fired.

In the distance, barely visible even to Grimpanther’s keen eyesight, something unfamiliar was approaching through the air.

Seeing this, Grimpanther felt his fur stand on end.

‘Strong.’

A peculiar sense of discomfort that reminded him of the many powerful beings he had faced across countless universes.

The unidentified flying object approaching Grimpanther exuded an ‘ominous’ aura more intense than any opponent he had ever faced.

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