Chapter 95
3.
[Hydra’s Poison Bullet]
The moment he saw the result from the Hero-grade Relic Box, Kim Seojun’s thoughts temporarily halted.
It wasn’t out of disappointment - that is, disappointment over the fact that paying 1 Million Points had yielded nothing more than a single bullet.
Rather, it was the opposite.
Kim Seojun felt a sense of wonder at that moment.
'Poison.'
He couldn’t help it.
“Something incredible came out.”
The weapon known as poison was something humanity had used throughout its history.
And naturally, humanity tried to use poison as a weapon in the war against mog as well.
No, it wasn’t just a matter of trying to use it.
Doctor Space had said it too.
If they could find a biochemical weapon or a toxic substance that worked on Mogs, the war against mog would become laughably easy.
But in reality, no one had managed to discover a poison that would work on Mogs.
Of course, it wasn’t strange.
Wasn’t a mog an entity that survived even in the extreme environment of space?
But what if a poison that could work on Mogs appeared here?
Its value would be indescribable.
Furthermore, under normal circumstances, such a poison wouldn’t appear, but the poison Kim Seojun obtained was no ordinary poison.
'There’s a high chance this will work.'
It was a poison created by something that transcended the laws of the universe - the status window.
Even in mythology, the poison arrows of the Hydra used by Herakles were something that caused agony even to gods.
Its power would be extraordinary.
This was a weapon, meaning it was like a sure-kill move, capable of killing a powerful mog individual with a high probability.
It meant it was worth 1 Million Points, or even more.
'I hope I won’t have to use it, though.'
Of course, because of that, he couldn’t immediately assign it significance, so Kim Seojun stored Hydra’s Poison Bullet in the most important case on his suit.
After that, he looked straight ahead and soon sent telepathy.
“Then I will begin the rescue operation.”
4.
Kim Seojun spoke before carrying out the rescue operation.
“If I die, the inventory will disappear too. It’s dangerous.”
The inventory was dangerous.
At those words, Priest Babamut and the children stepped out of the inventory.
There was no need for them to take the risk of potentially dying alongside Kim Seojun.
Also, just because they were in the inventory didn’t mean they could be of any help to Kim Seojun’s Group.
Of course, decidedly, Priest Babamut still had no faith in humans.
On the other hand, the remaining comrades were different.
“Are you okay with this?”
None of Kim Seojun’s comrades had any intention of leaving the inventory just because it was dangerous.
“Are we okay being in here? So you’re asking if we’re okay with a place on a planet with an alien civilization where we can soak to our heart’s content and drink cola?”
Of course, it wasn’t because the inventory was comfortable, like Noah Winston had said.
“Staff Sergeant Kim.”
They were already resolved.
“If we die, we die together.”
The resolve to share life and death with Kim Seojun.
Faced with that resolve, Kim Seojun didn’t say anything more.
He closed the inventory like that, and then set out to carry out the mission alone.
Everyone, including Kim Seojun, armed themselves with resolve.
[Then I will begin the rescue operation.]
Therefore, the moment Kim Seojun entered Mog’s Nest, the atmosphere inside the inventory also filled with more tension than ever before.
And they prepared.
“Everyone knows, right? The moment the signal comes, we jump right out. Seojun’s life is the first, second, and third most important thing. I’m sure you all know without me saying it, but I’ll say it just in case. We can die. But Seojun must not die.”
The preparation to die in Kim Seojun’s place was complete for any situation.
No one objected to Noah Winston’s words.
Even Jo I-hyeon nodded.
Amidst such resolve, everyone prepared.
Of course, the one who was the most resolved among them was Kasaknat.
He stood near the entrance of the inventory, right at the entrance.
Still.
Without a single movement.
He was ready to be the first to step out of the inventory and do whatever it took whenever the situation arose.
He waited in that state.
Kim Seojun would send a telepathic message for the right moment.
And when 44 minutes had passed since the operation began, everyone could hear it.
[This is Kim Seojun.]
Kim Seojun spoke.
[I have located the rescue target. It is right in front of my eyes.]
“Huh?”
Everyone was surprised by those words.
Despite having the compass and Kim Seojun’s great abilities, this was a situation where they viewed the possibility of failure as higher than the possibility of success.
But far from failing, he had succeeded in less than an hour?
At that point, Noah Winston sent telepathy.
[You’re not joking, right?]
[I am not.]
Kim Seojun said to everyone.
[I was lucky enough to find them right away.]
During that telepathic exchange, everyone made dumbfounded expressions.
[However, there is one problem.]
Kim Seojun said to everyone, and at those words, Noah Winston smiled and sent a telepathic message.
[You found him, so what could be the problem? If push comes to shove, you can just put Kasaknat’s Son into the inventory and use the warp skill, right?]
The fact that there was no problem became a problem the moment he was found.
Kim Seojun said to everyone.
[Mogs are conducting biological experiments here.]
Words that no one had ever dared to even imagine.
5.
It didn’t take long for Kim Seojun to discover the location of Kasaknat’s Son.
First of all, he had the compass.
But the reason he found him quickly was that Kasaknat’s Son wasn’t hiding.
That is, Kasaknat’s Son had been captured by Mogs.
In truth, that was something that shouldn’t have been possible.
Mogs fundamentally did not eat living creatures.
They used Beta Gas as their Energy Source for all their activities.
In fact, even if they ate living creatures, they had no digestive function. The mouths they had were merely attack weapons meant for tearing into living creatures.
Naturally, they didn’t kidnap.
From Mogs' perspective, all living creatures except their own kind were targets to be killed and eliminated.
But Mogs had captured and kept a living creature?
By no means were there many reasons to capture and keep a living creature that they didn’t even eat.
And the moment Kim Seojun saw Kasaknat’s Son captured, he could understand the reason.
[Mogs are conducting biological experiments here.]
The Mogs were conducting some kind of experiment on the Xeno species.
It wasn’t mere imagination.
[What does that mean?]
[There are pools filled with liquid. The Xeno species are submerged in them.]
[Submerged them?]
[At the very least, it doesn’t look like they submerged them to eat them deliciously.]
Not just Kasaknat’s Son, but over hundreds of Xeno species were submerged in pools filled with a strange liquid.
Here, Kim Seojun gave up pondering.
Even if he pondered, there was no way to know what kind of experiments the Mogs were conducting anyway.
“This is.”
He just had a feeling.
'It’s just like humans'.'
That this behavior was, no matter who looked at it, just like humans.
In this vast space, humans were the only ones who captured and researched other species for some purpose.
Furthermore, Mogs had lived a long time since encountering humans.
In that process, Mogs had experienced being subjected to biological experiments by humans quite a bit.
No, it wasn’t just quite a bit.
China alone had conducted countless biological experiments on Mogs, and had even researched the cyclops to figure out a way to pilot Mogs.
And even if it wasn’t China, all nations, including America, tacitly conducted many biological experiments on Mogs.
If Mogs had learned, if they had evolved to match humans, that experience would surely have been applied in some way.
If so, what kind of result would Mogs, having researched humans and Xenos, produce?
Whatever it was, it would be a horrific result that was hard to even imagine from the perspective of humans and Xenos.
Of course, this was just a feeling, the extremely personal thought of a human named Kim Seojun.
But Kim Seojun knew.
“I hope this is just my delusion.”
Those bad imaginations usually tended to become reality.
The worst-case scenarios Kim Seojun thought of tended to become reality with a fairly high probability, especially.
At that point, Kim Seojun recalled.
“If Doctor Space had seen this far…”
At that moment, Kim Seojun could understand a little more the feelings of Doctor Space, who had given up on life.
Of course, Kim Seojun was different from Doctor Space.
He had no intention of giving up on life even in the face of that despairing imagination.
On the contrary, he overflowed with reasons to live.
Above all, what Kim Seojun had to do here was clear.
[I will secure Kasaknat’s Son.]
To retrieve Kasaknat’s Son before any problems arose.
Also, this wasn’t an easy task either.
[He is submerged in an unknown liquid. Everyone inside the inventory, please put on your suits. Also, implement a quarantine measure on the rescue target as soon as I put him in the inventory.]
It was a situation where it was unknown what state Kasaknat’s Son was in, and therefore, swift measures were needed in many ways.
[Send telepathy once all preparations for the measures are complete.]
Kim Seojun waited like that, and a moment later, the signal came.
[We’re all ready! You just need to put him in.]
The moment those words fell, Kim Seojun took a deep breath.
“The moment I rescue him.”
This was his resolve.
“The Mog Legion will move.”
It was obvious, but the moment the experimental subject disappeared, the Mogs here would definitely grasp that fact and immediately take action.
This meant that an unfathomable number of Mogs would move to catch Kim Seojun!
There was a high possibility that it would become incomparably more dangerous than when he had sneaked in here.
And that thought soon became reality.
The moment Kim Seojun confirmed Kasaknat’s Son, pulled him out of the pool, and put him into the inventory.
Oooooooh!
A massive reverberation began to shake Kim Seojun.
It was a familiar reverberation.
“The cyclops was making a sound.”
It was the vibrating sound made by the cyclops up in the sky.
And it was obvious what command the cyclops had issued at that moment.
“It must be a command to eliminate the intruder.”
From then on, Kim Seojun also moved quickly.
After quickly escaping the mog’s biological laboratory, he began to run with all his might.
Dududududu!
At that moment, Kim Seojun felt an intense earthquake, incomparable to anything he had felt before.
It wasn’t a real earthquake that had occurred.
The true identity of the earthquake was the sound of Mogs moving, that had been holding their breath inside Mog’s Nest.
The number was staggering.
It was impossible to count.
Kim Seojun could only estimate.
'It’s over ten million.'
It would be a number he had never faced before, an endlessly staggering number.
Faced with that number, even Kim Seojun, who had experienced all sorts of battlefields, couldn’t help but harbor tension.
It wasn’t just on the level of “there are a lot of Mogs”.
Because having this many ordinary individuals meant there were more than enough special individuals as well.
'There’s nothing special.'
Here, Kim Seojun told himself.
'It’s no different from what I usually do.'
Surviving the worst - that was what the Space Marine named Kim Seojun had done so far.
Compared to what he had done so far, there was nothing special about this moment.
And here, Kim Seojun didn’t do any pointless conserving.
[Physical abilities increase by 200 percent!]
He immediately used the Physical Enhancement Potion.
“Haste.”
After that, he activated haste and began to charge forward with all his might.
Kim Seojun’s charge was faster than a Hoverbike.
And naturally, no matter how much he used stealth, moving this fast meant his presence was bound to be discovered.
Even so, the reason he made such a choice was simple.
“There might be a mog that can see through stealth.”
That there might be a mog with a detection ability that would render his stealth ability useless.
He had never met such a mog, but here and now, making plans based on past experiences was no different from a suicidal act.
Anyway, if he was bound to be discovered, it was better to run at full power rather than move clumsily and slowly.
Kkieeeek!
Kkeueoeo!
The Mogs that recognized the presence of Kim Seojun made sounds to announce that he, who had started his full-power sprint, had passed by.
The Mog Legion began to move to chase Kim Seojun.
But Kim Seojun didn’t mind.
His speed wasn’t at a level the Mogs could keep up with.
Of course, there were entities that did chase him.
Kkieeeek!
A few Mogdogs chased after Kim Seojun at incredible speed.
Naturally, they weren’t ordinary Mogdogs.
Even among special individuals, they were individuals whose abilities specialized in speed.
Kkieeek!
Those Mogdogs went beyond just chasing Kim Seojun; they began to close the distance with him.
However, Kim Seojun didn’t particularly feel flustered or anything here.
There was no need to.
What was chasing him were three of them, and that was it.
And against those three, there was only one thing Kim Seojun had to do.
“Inventory.”
The moment he opened the inventory, Kasaknat and Major Lee Hyena immediately appeared and threw a fist and an axe at the Mogdogs rushing toward Kim Seojun.
Smack!
Crunch!
At those incredibly powerful attacks, two Mogdogs immediately began to roll on the ground.
Pow!
And the heads of the Mogdogs rolling on the ground exploded sequentially.
[Got two of them!]
Now, only one remained.
Pfft!
That one had its head pierced by the Philastergun Kim Seojun pulled out.
The situation was cleared up in an instant.
“The operation is a success!”
And this was practically the end of this operation.
There was nothing chasing Kim Seojun’s Group anymore.
Of course, it would be safer to widen the distance a bit more, but considering Kim Seojun’s abilities, there is no need to worry about pursuit.
Kim Seojun’s thoughts were the same.
“Great work, everyone.”
So he gladly happily uttered those words.
It was at that moment.
Uuuuuuuugh!
A sound they had never heard before, a sound that rang in their heads, shook everyone, including Kim Seojun.
And at that sound, everyone staggered.
Everyone except Kim Seojun collapsed on the spot.
Kim Seojun wasn’t perfectly fine either.
He had barely managed to keep his balance; the world Kim Seojun saw was spinning round and round.
“What in the world is this?”
It was a shock he was feeling for the first time, from the perspective of Kim Seojun, who had never wavered in front of any mog before.
In other words, it meant the owner of this sound was an entity Kim Seojun had never met before, which it actually was.
The status window told him.
[An event mission has occurred.]
[A reward will be given upon defeating the king.]
[The mission reward is a Legendary-grade Relic Box.]
What had just appeared was the King of Mogs.