Chapter 74
9.
Shortly after Private First Class Park Boseop's warning, Kim Seojun's group could feel a tremor.
It was not a violent tremor.
Rumble!
The tremor was just enough to lightly shake a pebble on the ground.
Amidst that tremor, Private First Class Park Boseop spoke in shock.
"I-Is this perhaps a Behemoth?"
At that question, Major Lee Hyena and Jo I-Hyeon's expressions stiffened.
On the other hand, the three, including Kim Seojun, who had already experienced a Behemoth, thought differently.
They spoke with certainty.
"No."
"Pardon?"
"You can't call it a Behemoth with just this much."
Then Noah Winston picked up a pebble from the ground and lightly tossed it into the air.
Tap!
The pebble fell, and she said, looking at it.
"It has to be at least this much to be a Behemoth."
Upon that fact, Private First Class Park Boseop his expression went blank.
Even in the midst of that, the sound of the continuous sound of massive things moving reached Private First Class Park Boseop's ears.
"T-Then what is this?"
Kim Seojun answered Private First Class Park Boseop's question.
"It's the sound of Mogs swarming in."
"Mogs?"
"A Behemoth grows larger the more it eats. And the very first thing it eats is Mogs."
The very first signal announcing a Behemoth's appearance was the large-scale migration of Mogs.
"After growing in size by eating Mogs like that, it devours everything in sight."
Hearing those words, Private First Class Park Boseop's expression stiffened.
Of course, it was the same for the rest of them.
In particular, the expressions of the three who had directly experienced a Behemoth were worse than ever.
Because they knew.
"The Chinese raised the Mogs, right? The numbers wouldn't be ordinary, would they?"
"Apart from that, Planet Kingclench is a place rich in Beta Gas."
There were too many things on Planet Kingclench to make a Behemoth massive; too many things for it to eat.
And the larger a Behemoth grew, the more its hunting difficulty increased.
Furthermore, everyone had heard from Kasaknat.
Once a Behemoth ate even stars, it became an adult that made everything in space look laughable.
"There's no way space battleships could come all the way here, either."
Crucially, Kim Seojun's Group could not currently choose its final card, the option of indiscriminately dropping nuclear bombs from space.
A bad situation in many ways.
Of course, the worst part was this.
‘What happened to the precognition?’
Kim Seojun had foreseen his own death, and that death was caused by a Behemoth.
Moreover, everyone now understood to some extent.
Honestly, at first, none of them understood why Kim Seojun would die.
He could just run away; he just had to do that, so why would he die?
But now the situation had changed.
According to the information obtained from Kasaknat, if they left the Behemoth as it was, all the planets within Gate 7, as well as space itself, would be in danger.
"Kasaknat."
And Kim Seojun had obtained a method to prevent that crisis, and the Kim Seojun everyone knew was someone who would choose that method without hesitation.
"Could I see that Black Hole Bomb?"
At those words, Kasaknat answered.
[I acknowledge your abilities. However, this is not a simple matter. It is also something permitted only once.]
He was saying he wouldn't give it.
It was a valid point.
Kasaknat making a declaration of surrender in the battle with Kim Seojun wasn't simply because he was weak.
Kasaknat's combat abilities were at a level that only Kim Seojun could handle; by human standards, they were at an absurd level.
Above all, Kasaknat was someone who had already come here to hunt the Behemoth.
Would someone who had embraced that as his destiny for his entire life, someone who was willing to sacrifice his life for the balance of space, hand that destiny over to someone else?
[Above all, it is a highly dangerous item. It is not an item to be taken out into everyone's space.]
Above all, if it is an item capable of hunting a Behemoth, it is a highly dangerous item even from the perspective of the xeno species.
Carelessly taking it out was, in itself, a very dangerous act.
[Even now, I keep it solely within my space.]
Thus, the Xeno Species kept such items in a space that only they could use.
"Your space?"
At that point, Jo I-Hyeon asked a question.
"Are you perhaps saying you use subspace?"
"Subspace?"
"I mean, a personal space."
While answering, Jo I-Hyeon looked at Kim Seojun and said,
"Like the one Staff Sergeant Kim uses."
[Hmm?]
At that point, Kasaknat reacted.
[You can use that? As far as I know, the technology of the human race has not reached that level.]
The technology called Subspace that Kasaknat used was a very special technology even for the Xeno Species.
"I can use it."
Kim Seojun responded to that explanation.
Normally it would be something worth hiding, but it was different now.
In order to gain Kasaknat's acknowledgment, he had to show the cards he held.
[I cannot believe it.]
Of course, Kasaknat couldn't believe those words right away, and Kim Seojun didn't waste words on him.
After activating his inventory, he spoke.
"See for yourself. Go inside."
[Go inside?]
And a moment later, Kasaknat, who had entered the inventory, spoke.
[Oh, Jumara.]
10.
The moment he entered Kim Seojun's inventory, Kasaknat was momentarily at a loss for words.
Honestly, Kasaknat thought the civilization level of the Human Race couldn't compare to that of the Xeno Species.
So in front of the inventory Kim Seojun showed him, Kasaknat couldn't help but be mesmerized.
[This is a realm that only a Great High Priest can achieve, so how can a human...]
Of course, Kim Seojun's Group was surprised by the words that followed.
Didn't that mean the Xeno Species had the technology to implement this absurd thing?
In that situation, the one who regained his senses was Kim Seojun.
They hadn't come in here simply to show off the Inventory.
"The Behemoth hunt is very important."
The elimination of the Behemoth that would soon become active on Planet Kingclench.
"Kasaknat, do you have experience hunting a Behemoth?"
Here, Kim Seojun now questioned Kasaknat's probability of success.
That was quite an important part.
From the perspective of Kim Seojun's Group, if Kasaknat failed, it practically had no other option but to run away.
Regarding that, Kasaknat didn't put on any unnecessary bravado.
[I have envisioned it countless times.]
This meant he had only done it in his head.
"Excuse me, Staff Sergeant Kim."
At that moment, Private First Class Park Boseop opened his mouth.
"No matter how I think about it, going inside the mouth of that massive monster seems like a crazy act."
It was courage.
"Going inside there is too dangerous, even if it's you, Staff Sergeant Kim."
Courage to keep Kim Seojun alive somehow.
And it was a very rational thought.
To humanity, including the Space Marines, a Behemoth was an existence akin to terror itself.
It was an existence that devoured anything, even nuclear bombs.
But to go inside the mouth of that existence and set up a bomb?
And even set it up and come back out?
Private First Class Park Boseop could not accept Kim Seojun's dying like this.
"We don't even know what its mouth looks like, do we?"
That was why he spat out those words even knowing he was overstepping his bounds, and Kim Seojun answered him.
"It's similar to a kind of grinder."
"Pardon?"
"Inside a Behemoth's mouth, sharp rocky materials protrude and continuously clash together to finely crush whatever comes in, like a grinder. But it lacks precision more than you'd think."
At that continued explanation, everyone shut their mouths.
It was the same for Kasaknat.
He merely looked at Kim Seojun without raising any objections to his explanation, and under that gaze, Kim Seojun continued speaking.
"Whatever goes in is finely crushed. It is also so massive that it can devour anything. Eating something like a battle tank is like a human eating a single piece of candy. Also, anything too large to eat, it doesn't eat, but simply crushes."
Continuously, without stopping.
"However, because it is so large, gaps exist. In fact, after it devoured a Battle Tank, it once took 20 seconds for the tank to be completely chewed up—that is, until the chewing sound disappeared."
It went without saying, but it was a tale of experience.
A tale of experience from when Kim Seojun saw Behemoth's mouth, the passage to death, up close.
"Also, a Behemoth's speed is constant, like a machine."
And it wasn't simply something he had seen once.
Kim Seojun had stared at that Behemoth's mouth for over 4 hours while riding in a military truck.
"Clack, clack, clack, clack."
And the memory of that time, the chewing sound of the Behemoth coming from behind that Military Truck, still lingered vividly in his ears.
"It's about this speed."
That was the reason Kim Seojun had formulated a Behemoth Hunt plan.
"Gaps exist. If you aim for those gaps and go in, it's not impossible to go deep inside, nor is it impossible to come back out."
At those words, Kasaknat answered.
[How do you know that?]
Noah Winston provided the answer to that question.
"Because the human who is right in front of you is the winner who won a long-distance race, running with a Behemoth right behind him."
[Oh, Jumara.]
At that answer, Kasaknat spoke in surprise.
[Has the human race become so corrupted as to treat a Behemoth as amusement, to play a game determining a winner with a Behemoth? How!]
"Huh? Ah, it's not that. Ah, sorry. It's a joke, a joke."
At Kasaknat's subsequent words, Noah Winston hurriedly made Kasaknat understand.
What kind of experience had Kim Seojun gone through?
And having heard that explanation, Kasaknat merely looked at Kim Seojun with still-surprised eyes.
To think there was a being in the whole world who had gone through such an experience!
What was even more surprising was that the being who had gone through such an experience was now saying he would go into that Behemoth's mouth once again.
At that point, Kasaknat spoke.
[Is all of this the truth?]
"Yes."
The moment he heard that answer, Kasaknat opened and showed his palm.
It was a gesture of comfort.
Comfort was sent toward the human who would now advance toward the Behemoth's mouth.
Along with that comfort, Kasaknat pulled out a baseball-sized orb from his Subspace and spoke.
[May your holiness become a star in space.]
1 hour later.
"Ah!"
The pebble that Private First Class Park Boseop had been watching on the ground floated up higher than his height, and he shouted.
"The Behemoth has appeared!"
11.
Mogs were a terror to humanity, but among them, the most terrifying existence was the Behemoth.
When the existence of the Behemoth was first made known, a significant portion of humanity on Earth felt Behemoth phobia, and later, Behemoth Phobia was recognized as an actual illness.
As such, humanity invested an immense amount of time and effort to overcome the Behemoth.
Even state institutions that always raised objections when spending national taxes would stamp their budget approval without arguing in the face of the justification, 'We are researching weapons to hunt the Behemoth.'
Of course, there were as many questions as there was terror.
The biggest question was this.
Why couldn't they grasp, discover, and handle that endlessly massive existence in advance?
Regarding that, experts said.
"A Behemoth is born deep underground, and for a short time immediately after birth, it consumes Mogs to inflate its size immensely. The speed at which it inflates is highly explosive."
It truly appeared in the blink of an eye.
Therefore, making a proper response or taking measures was practically impossible.
It is the same now.
They had grasped the movement of the Mogs, and from then until the Behemoth was born, it took a mere 1 hour.
And the size of the Behemoth that appeared was enormous.
The highest point of its body was 785 meters, and while its body length couldn't be measured exactly, it exceeded 7 kilometers.
So, simply put, it was the size of a fair-sized mountain.
And the entire body of the mountain-sized caterpillar was covered in unidentifiable scales.
"My god."
The moment he looked at the Behemoth from a distance, about 50 kilometers away, Private First Class Park Boseop lost his mind at its massiveness.
He had heard stories until his ears bled, but the shock he felt the moment he saw it in person was beyond that.
"It's still a baby."
"Pardon?"
"I said it's still a baby. Look at the height. It has to be over 2,000 meters to be a real one."
Noah Winston even called this a small size.
"And a Behemoth isn't just terrifying because of its size. It's that the absurd thing moves at an incredible speed."
Of course, what was truly marvelous wasn't its appearance itself.
The Behemoth was a moving living creature.
And not just moving, but moving very violently!
RUMBLE!
When it started moving like that, just as Noah Winston had said, the pebbles on the ground floated up higher than a person's height.
A human body couldn't possibly be fine either.
It was to the point where keeping one's balance wasn't easy.
"That's why it makes no sense."
In that situation, Noah Winston looked at Kim Seojun as she spoke.
"Because just running fast isn't enough to avoid that monster."
Kim Seojun, who had survived something whose very existence was a disaster.
"What's even funnier is that you've experienced that, yet you're going to face it again."
However, what was even more astonishing was the act Kim Seojun was about to do.
Kim Seojun was now preparing to ride the Uryong and charge toward the Behemoth.
There, Noah Winston spoke with sincerity.
"Seojun, why on earth are you doing this?"
Kim Seojun, who had boarded the Uryong, did not answer that question.
He couldn't answer.
Noah Winston's words were right.
Hunting a Behemoth was a crazy act.
"It's not like anyone's giving you anything for hunting this, right? Isn't that so?"
And even if he succeeded in that crazy act, Kim Seojun would gain nothing.
‘It is just as Ms. Winston said.’
It certainly was.
Of course, if he didn't hunt the Behemoth, everything on Planet Kingclench was dead meat.
The Resistance they had saved would also have no way to live.
Even if they somehow fled through the Gate, returning to Gate 7 in the end would be impossible.
Crucially, after devouring the planet, the Behemoth would become an untouchable disaster, and at the end of that disaster would lie the ultimate destruction of Earth.
It was something someone had to do, and right now, the only one who could do it here was Kim Seojun.
‘Even if I do this, I gain absolutely nothing...’
However, looking at it objectively, Kim Seojun gained nothing.
It certainly was like that.
[An Event Mission has occurred.]
[A reward will be provided upon defeating the special Behemoth within the time limit.]
[Upon the mission's defeat within 24 hours, the mission reward is a Diamond Ticket.]
[Upon the mission's defeat within 12 hours, the Mission Reward is a Precognition Skill One-time Use Ticket.]
[If it is defeated within 1 hour, the Mission Reward is the Transcendent Rank Skill 'Warp'.]
‘Huh?’
Until he heard those notifications.