Chapter 148
ㅡKkikik..!
Shhk ㅡ !!
The various troop-type golems, all dressed in identical pure-white armor, displayed decades of veteran-level combined-arms combat, making the battle look almost like a slaughter.
Like a white wave sweeping across a dark red sandy beach, it left the hundreds of hunters fighting on another route utterly dazed.
The total number of A-rank hunters in South Korea is a little under 1,000.
South Korea’s 50 million people include a massive 10 million living in Seoul, but because of the nature of the hunter profession, if too many A-rank hunters gather in one place, they end up splitting the same pie and lowering their earnings.
Across the entire Gyeonggi region, there are about 250 A-rank hunters, so considering they’re an ultra-high-income elite profession, the number located in Seoul is actually rather small.
Each city forms some kind of alliance system called a guild, and depending on the guild’s size, anywhere from as few as ten to as many as several dozen A-rank hunters coexist. If there are fewer than ten A-ranks, it’s closer to a clan or crew, so calling it a guild is somewhat debatable.
“You’re overflowing with power—!!!”
Watching Galahad, captain of the heavy infantry, smash the head of an elite giant troll to pieces with a single blow, Yu Chaerin thought.
There were about four or five forces estimated to be S-rank. The A-ranks already on site numbered over seventy. At Nova, even if you gathered all the A-rank hunters currently active there, including the half-retired ones, there were only around seventy. As for S-rank, there was only herself.
Of course, if you turned your eyes to B- through D-ranks, the numbers would swell into the hundreds, but not all of them were combat jobs.
In other words, the current Eve Project was.
‘It’s basically at the level of the top guild in just about any country.’
While I was blankly watching the battlefield for a moment, the wave of white metal pushed the front line all the way to the Gate, to the point that some of the golems in the rear had nowhere to stand and were taking a break.
From the armored troll that had roared bravely out of the Gate, only to be pierced by Bradamante’s lance and turned into a slightly wild kebab, less than a minute had passed.
“Phew.... Phew-huh....”
Yu Chaerin, relieved at the feeling that she was alive, plopped down on the floor and began to ramble.
“Be grateful to me.... Osung Group.... If I hadn’t been good to Eve.... you’d all be dead...”
* * * * *
ㅡClunk!
Since the Gate had basically surrendered and monsters were no longer coming out, the Hunter Management Association’s Gate mana decomposition device truck drove into the Gasan Digital Complex. Given the technology involved and how absurdly expensive it was, it was a precious piece of equipment that couldn’t be handled carelessly. The problem was that it was dangerous to drive it over roads that were already completely wrecked.
ㅡThud, thud, thud!
Instead, six heavy-infantry golems clung to both sides and kindly gave the two-ton cargo truck a palanquin ride to the Gate, giving the truck driver an experience he could never have had in his life.
ㅡWhiiiiiir....
A device that rapidly consumes the mana emitted by the Gate. Ophelia had said it worked by giving proper stimulation to a special artificial mana stone that has the property of attracting mana, quickly capturing the saturated mana in the air.
“It’s all over..?”
I had borrowed the enhanced cavalry’s griffin, gone to the smithy, and fully upgraded the veteran soldiers, but when I came back, the battle was already over. Considering that seventy A-rank hunters had suddenly been added, I guess that made sense.
“Hmm.... The veteran soldiers in the smithy will be disappointed.”
Everyone had been super-upgraded and was just like, “If a monster so much as comes into view, we’ll beat it to a pulp,” and now that everything was over, if I told them to take it easy for a bit, would they hate that.
ㅡClack, clack!!!
ㅡKreeeeek!!!
“Hehe, good job, soldiers!! You fought so well!!”
The rookie golems were so happy about winning that they were jumping around with their hands in the air. They were even doing headbanging like they were playing guitar with greatswords, and banging their shields with maces, clanking away. The griffins and cavalry were also in full celebration mode, rearing up and flapping their wings like crazy.
Just the soldiers numbered seventy, and then there was Grandpa Galahad and Bradamante too, so it was seriously a lot.
“Princess!!”
“Eeek!! Bradamante!!!”
“This old man, did you see how I fought?!!”
“Yesss!!!!! It was super cool!!! Bradamante was amazing too!!!”
From the moment the new soldier joined, those two commanders had been fighting earnestly while pouring out mana like crazy. Now the rank-and-file had really increased too, and they’d become the commanders of a super-strong army.
“You repaired them really well too!! Weren’t you tired??”
ㅡCheep-
“Heh-heh.”
Suri waved its wings dismissively, as if to say, “This is basically as easy as sitting down to take a dump.”
I hadn’t done anything, but suddenly the soldiers swarmed me, grabbed me, and lifted me up into the air for a cheer toss. Luckily there was no ceiling above, so I didn’t smash my head into any pipes.
For faster travel, I had left Ophelia at the smithy and come alone, but now I was thinking I should call her over.
“Ophelia! Please come here!”
ㅡFwoosh
But Ophelia looked kind of strange. Her hair was all messy, and she was sweating buckets.
“Ophelia? You look tired. Are you very worn out?”
“Princess.... There has been a riot at the smithy.”
“Eek!!!?”
No, why? Was making the rookies stronger the problem?? But I even made them a full super-upgrade, stronger than the rookie kids, didn’t I???
“Once I announced the ceasefire, the soldiers started protesting, asking to be let fight more. It seems the reason was that they had no place to use their newly strengthened power.”
“What do you mean by that? Isn’t it better when it’s all over...”
Ophelia was connected to the internet, so after she told them over there that the fighting was over and they didn’t need to go, it seemed Minyum and the others got furious and started complaining about what the hell this was. But thinking about it, I kind of understood it too....
They’d gotten so much stronger that if a real fight broke out, I felt like I could sweep everything away myself, and then the enemy suddenly disappeared. It was like cheating with augments and getting a surrender at 15 minutes, or pulling a 3-star 5-cost and then having the last enemy rage-quit.
“Uh, then what do we do...”
“I soothed them properly.”
“Huh, how?”
Ophelia lowered her voice so the soldiers nearby wouldn’t hear, and leaned close to my ear as she said.
“I told them to endure it because the princess would be giving them a morale-boosting performance.”
Oh my God.
* * * * *
All around, monster corpses were piled up so high you couldn’t tell whether this was Gasan Digital Complex or the inside of some easy-farm dungeon. I healed every golem with minor injuries, and just by saying a few words to each person who came by, my skill level went up too.
[I boosted the morale of the battlefield. The rank of the Powerless Princess rises. Powerless Princess : B -> B+]
ㅡClack!
“Where? Your lower back hurts? Hmm, got it.”
ㅡWhirr
“Where does it hurt? Your head feels fuzzy? Hmm..?”
ㅡWhirr
“Your chest hurts? What is with this one?”
ㅡWhirr
There was definitely someone who lined up twice. There are 70 golems here, but it feels like I healed at least 100. They all look exactly the same, so it’s hard to tell them apart.
“Sigh, done.”
I started clearing out the monster corpses inside the city area, using the healed golems and the upgraded veteran soldiers who had been protesting at the smithy.
They said minotaur and troll hides sell well overseas if processed and sold, and mana stones were coming out in such mountains that if we sold everything, it looked like we’d be able to buy two or three houses.
By the time the healing was finished, people from the Hunter Management Association were already swarming in, and there were even reporters everywhere, so it was total chaos.
ㅡInterview!!! Can we get an interview ㅡ !!!!
ㅡMiss Eve!! Please look this way once!!!
ㅡWaaah!!! Hunter insurance planner Kwon Doyoung!!!! I’m here to be your strength ㅡ !!!
“Whoa, that guy came again.”
That guy who’d said he was Dohui unni’s classmate had come too, shouting and making a huge racket. I was inside the rest tent set up by the Hunter Management Association, guarded by golems, and after sitting in a chair for a bit, someone outside poked at the tent cloth.
“Huh. Who is it?”
“Eve, would it be okay if I came in.”
“Ah!!”
An extremely familiar voice.
“Utaha unni!! And Teacher Baek Sangjun. Ah! And Chaerin unni too!”
“What, you’re being a little cold toward me?”
“Yep.”
Teacher Baek Sangjun and Chaerin unni both looked completely exhausted, and their clothes were dirty too. Teacher Baek Sangjun looked a little worse. Utaha unni had been fighting really earnestly too.
“Eve, really thank you. If it hadn’t been for you, who knows what kind of problem we would have had....”
“Hehe.... Really? I’m glad I was able to help.”
“You were strong, Eve.”
“Heehee.”
Honestly, it’s not like I’m the strong one, but whatever. Isn’t that just how golem masters are? Though I’m not even sure if I’m a golem master....
“Everyone worked hard. So what happens now?”
“You slept through theory class, didn’t you.”
“That stuff is boring...”
“Now we’ll start the follow-up by compiling the surrounding damage and selling off the Gate Break loot.”
Teacher Baek Sangjun explained a bunch of things, but I think the other stuff wasn’t really related to me. The most important thing was the ratio for dividing up the sales proceeds.
“I’m not sure how this part will be handled.... Since there’s no precedent for it.”
“Hmmmm.... I see.”
Apparently, when that many people do a joint battle, they end up arguing for quite a while over the payout. There’s Nova, Union, Mujin, and tons of small and midsize guild members, plus a few unaffiliated hunters as well.
Because it isn’t like one person just casually killing one monster; everyone fights together, so settling the payout by kill count is almost impossible. So some guilds attach body cams to their hunters, and with drone cameras too, they work hard to argue for their share.
“At the very least, Eve’s share will probably be set at over 50 percent.”
“Huh, with this many people here, I’m getting half of it?”
“That’s because the number of monsters that appeared was highest in the last two hours.”
“Ah, I see.”
Come to think of it, at the end it really started pouring out like some kind of desperate last-ditch pattern, so I was a little surprised too. Good thing I had made a ton of troops in advance and summoned them just in time.
Utaha unni had been fidgeting next to me for some reason, then came closer and asked me.
“Eve, could that person by any chance be....”
“That person? Who?”
“The one who sniped the Cyclops.”
“Ah, right. The new golem...”
“Huh?”
“Huh?”
“Ah.”
“Huh.”
Right. Come to think of it, the teacher and Utaha unni didn’t know that the one whose appearance had already changed, like Ophelia, Grandpa Galahad, or Bradamante, was a golem.
“Ah, no, I mean, that...”
“E-Eve! Have you been hanging around golems too long? I mean people, people!”
“Right, right. People. The thing was.... That’s right! A new person came by! Um....”
Atalante, who had sniped the Cyclops and brought it down in a single shot, isn’t here right now. She was only temporarily summoned because I was in such a hurry, and if I want to remake her I’ll have to wait 80 hours.
“I said she went off to rest a bit, so she’s not here right now! What do we do..?”
“I see. Mm.... I wanted to thank her.”
“Ahaha, I’ll definitely pass it on to her later.”
“Please do. If I can meet her, I’d like to meet her too....”
“Mm~ Okay. If possible..?”
I guess I’ll try to make her again as soon as possible.
Because....
* * * * *
“Ugh....”
Seriously, these guys. I upgraded them so they could fight, but they got so strong that they went and built a stage inside the Gate and everything. They even finished the stage in one day, so if I hadn’t had Atalante ready in 80 hours, I would’ve had to do it right the next day.
“Princess, the soldiers are waiting outside.”
“O-Okay, I know already....”
“Haa....”
Never again will I do anything like a pep dance for them, seriously..!