Chapter 22
At present, my Undead Rise skill could only control three kinds of bacteria.
That meant I’d have to give one up temporarily.
No choice.
“I’ll unsummon No. 2.”
[The skill ‘Reverse Summon’ is being used on ‘Caulobacter Crescentus’ and its bacterial colony.]
“I’ll fill the empty slot by resurrecting the bacteria inside that thing’s stomach. Undead Rise.”
There might be countless kinds of bacteria inside a monster’s stomach, but Mician only showed me the dominant ones, such as those that formed colonies.
That was the colony with a name so long it was hard to even say.
[Would you like to use the Undead Rise skill?]
[Target: 651,100,319,052 corpses of the Methanobrevibacter Igneus strain.]
If I was going to do it, I might as well go all out.
Let’s burn it all.
“I’m counting on you.”
I felt a huge chunk of my mana drain away.
That was because I’d chosen to raise the maximum number, without worrying about how long I could maintain them.
It was time to raise the largest army of undead bacteria I’d ever summoned—something I’d never even attempted before.
[Warning! Your current mana is insufficient to maintain this number of individuals for long. Do you wish to proceed?]
“Of course.”
There were so many undead that I wouldn’t even have been able to dream of summoning them temporarily without the ‘Understanding of Harmony’ skill.
(3) Methanobrevibacter Igneus
─Population: 651,100,319,052 individuals
─Ability: Produces 18.7 g of methane per second per 100 million individuals (base amount: 0.178 g, increased by 205% due to Control).
Bacteria that could normally produce 0.178 g of methane per 100 million individuals had been strengthened by my control, allowing them to produce a whopping 18.7 g.
And I’d summoned 651.1 billion of them. Even if I maintained them for just one second...
That would produce roughly 120 kg of methane gas.
I could feel my mana draining away as soon as I summoned them.
But I held out as long as I could.
Until they produced more methane than that thing could handle.
I counted one second, two seconds... all the way to five.
“Reverse Summon!”
[The skill ‘Reverse Summon’ is being used on the ‘Methanobrevibacter Igneus’ bacterial colony.]
“Haaah!”
My mana had nearly been drained away.
My mana pool had barely 5% left.
If I’d maintained them for even one more second, I probably would’ve lost control of the entire bacterial army.
And in those five seconds...
─Screeeee!
The king lizard let out a spine-chilling scream.
Of course it was in pain.
Its stomach must have been stretched to the point of bursting with 600 kg of methane, and the bacteria had devoured so much organic matter to produce it that they’d even torn into its internal organs.
They’d only been symbiotic while they were alive.
The 650 billion undead bacteria I’d resurrected were simply carrying out my orders without mercy.
And the creature, unable to bear the 600 kg of methane, tried to force it out.
I’d heard roughly how it worked during the briefing: methane formed inside the stomach passed through a small throat, shooting out like a nozzle. The high-temperature friction there ignited it, making the creature breathe fire.
The adult version probably worked in a similar way.
But that was only when it had a reasonable amount of methane.
When its entire stomach was filled to overflowing with methane...
A flashback occurred.
Anyone who’s learned a bit about welding knows this.
A backflow of oxygen can cause a gas cylinder to catch fire and explode.
“Goodbye.”
Instead of the flames shooting out from the nozzle in its throat, the fire traveled back into its overfilled body.
Then the 600 kg of methane gas in the king fire lizard’s stomach ignited all at once.
At the same time, I flattened myself against the ground.
I closed my eyes to protect my vision, covered my ears against the blast, and raised my abdomen slightly off the ground to brace against the shock wave.
To keep my eardrums from bursting, I opened my mouth and even yelled, “Aaaaaah...!”
Who knew the nuclear explosion response training I’d learned in the military would come in handy like this?
At the same time, Athena spread out in the form of armor, completely covering my back.
[300 million Magmophile individuals are protecting you.]
And the bacterial army protecting my entire body by secreting a substance with extreme resistance to flames...
I’d prepared as well as I possibly could.
As I prayed I wouldn’t die from sheer bad luck...
I saw the enormous explosion turn everything before my closed eyes pure white.
The blast was so deafening that all I could hear was a high-pitched ringing.
How much time had passed?
When the ringing finally faded, I opened my eyes and lifted my head.
“Oh my God.”
I’d thought mushroom clouds were something you only saw after a nuclear explosion. I never expected to see one here.
A small but billowing mushroom cloud rose above the fire lizard, which had vanished without a trace.
All that remained in its place was a deep crater.
Only then did I notice the system messages that had appeared.
[Your level has increased!]
[Your level has increased!]
I’d gained two levels.
[The hidden boss, ‘Fire Lizard Leader,’ has been subdued!]
[A Great □ Achievement!...]
What?
That system message looks like it glitched.
And there’s nothing after it.
Has this happened before?
As I stood there bewildered, a new message appeared before me.
[You have achieved an impossible achievement. The system failed to calculate your reward.]
[Recalculating reward.]
[Impossible Achievement! You have accomplished a feat impossible at your level.]
[You have been awarded the title ‘One Who Makes the Impossible Possible’ as a reward.]
[As an effect of obtaining the title ‘One Who Makes the Impossible Possible,’ all stats increase by 11%.]
...What is this? An impossible achievement?
[The sudden survival mission, ‘Survive for 10 minutes against the Fire Lizard Leader,’ has changed into the subjugation mission, ‘Exterminate the Fire Lizard Leader.’]
Only after seeing the next message did I understand.
So I was only supposed to survive for ten minutes?
“You should have told me that first!”
Damn, I nearly got myself killed trying to take it down to the very end.
Still, I’d somehow managed it, so now it was time to claim my reward.
I scrolled down to read the next message.
[You have completed the subjugation mission, ‘Exterminate the Fire Lizard Leader.’]
[As a reward, you have been given a random artifact-grade equipment item selection ticket.]
...I didn’t read that wrong, did I?
“A selection ticket for an artifact-grade equipment item?”
Legendary-grade equipment had incredible performance and value, but it couldn’t compare to artifact-grade equipment.
Unlike legendary-grade items, of which multiple copies could exist, artifact-grade items were unique.
There could only be one in the world, and only one person could own it.
In other words...
Equipment with unprecedented, irreplaceable attributes could suddenly appear in the world.
For example, an artifact-grade accessory that Brandon Phillips, one of America’s strongest Hunters, had acquired in a Stage 53 dungeon was famous.
After the U.S. government threatened him, Brandon sold it to them for around $100 billion—about 130 trillion won—and it was practically seized from him.
No one knew exactly what it did, but its current estimated value was over 2,000 trillion won.
But since it was owned by the U.S.—the so-called ‘nation of a thousand trillion’—they probably wouldn’t sell it even if someone offered 2,000 trillion won.
It was such a famous story that even I’d heard about it back when I was an ordinary person.
It had been posted on community sites as a meme called ‘Sucker Makes 130 Trillion Won.jpg.’
“...At this rate, maybe I’ll...”
Yeah, right. Don’t jinx it.
At least I’d confirmed I’d get to choose an artifact-grade item.
And lastly...
[Because you completed a hidden mission, the entrance to the Stage 50 Gate, ‘Inferno,’ has been discovered.]
[All qualified individuals may now access this Gate.]
“Huh?”
A Gate inside a Gate?
It was rare, but not unheard of.
Man, that’s a brutal name.
The Stage number is even more terrifying, though.
That Gate was just a pipe dream for me for the foreseeable future.
It was probably a Stage only the top-ranking Hunters in the U.S. could clear.
...But, you know.
“...Huh?”
Did I, by any chance...
discover a new Gate?
And not just any Gate...
[One Gate remains to bring peace to the State of Hawaii, United States.]
This place was down to its last puzzle piece, too?
**
I left behind the newly discovered Stage 50 Gate, a prize I couldn’t possibly enter, and was ejected outside.
“What took you so long?”
Zephyros sounded nonchalant, but concern was written across his face.
“Where’s the chairman?”
“Sleeping in the car. Looks like you cleared it just fine.”
Zephyros had spotted the golden glow that only appeared when a Gate was completely cleared and snapped a picture before it had fully faded.
“Now we have proof, so he can’t deny it. But you took longer than I expected.”
“The Gate was harder than I expected...”
“Don’t tell me...”
“I bet that’s exactly it.”
Zephyros clapped a hand to his forehead.
“Why is it that something strange happens whenever you go into a dungeon?”
“By the way, didn’t you get some kind of message?”
“...Me? No.”
So the information about the Stage 50 Gate wasn’t public yet. It was mine alone for now.
“Are there any Gates in Hawaii that are impossible to clear?”
“There aren’t any Gates in Hawaii that are impossible to clear, but there are undiscovered ones. The Hawaii state government and the Hunters Association have thrown everything they’ve got into finding them, but they still haven’t. They’ve searched all over Hawaii and even the nearby seabed, so the entrance must be hidden.”
Just as I thought... I’d found the final puzzle piece.
Zephyros saw me glance at the sleeping chairman and furrowed his brow.
“You... Don’t tell me.”
How perceptive of him.
“I think that’s what happened.”
“A Matryoshka Gate?!”
Like a Matryoshka doll, where another doll appears when you open it, Hunters often called Gates that contained other Gates ‘Matryoshka Gates.’
“That’s right.”
“Good heavens...”
Zephyros had been the first person to clear this Gate.
That had been over twenty years ago.
The truth about the dungeon had finally come to light after twenty years, so it was no wonder he was surprised.
I gave him a rough account of what had happened.
If I told him I’d killed the Fire Lizard Leader and gotten an artifact reward, it would’ve been too much to believe, so I just said I’d completed a hidden mission.
“So that’s why it took so long...”
“This information will make money, right?”
“Make money? Of course! A tremendous amount! And...”
Zephyros couldn’t finish what he was saying.
Having already made a huge profit from information alone through the DDF (Dungeon Development Fund), I knew how to invest.
“If we invest in Hawaii’s DDF, we could make a decent profit, right?”
“Phew, probably... And on top of that...”
“On top of that?”
“This is America! The land of finance and derivatives!”
Zephyros chuckled briefly before speaking in a low voice.
“Korea only has products with two-times leverage because of Financial Supervisory Service regulations... but in America, you can get leverage of four or even five times.”
Even if I didn’t know much about investing, I knew what four- and five-times leverage meant.
If it went up 1%, it would rise by four or five times that amount: 4% or 5%.
On the other hand, if it dropped 1%, it would plunge by 4% or 5%.
I hadn’t thought of that...
In that case...
Just how much would we make?
Even if it went up just 100%, that would mean a 500% increase with five-times leverage.
It was a shame we didn’t have more capital to invest.
Just then, Zephyros spoke to me with utmost seriousness.
“Hey, borrow a hundred billion won from me for the short term.”
The reason he’d suddenly made the offer was obvious.
If I invested that hundred billion directly in a leveraged product, it could come back as several hundred billion.
But Zephyros was clearly saying he wanted to give me that opportunity.
“...Are you sure?”
“I have to pay for the information. If I tried to reap all the benefits from information like this myself, it’d give me indigestion. My hands are shaking, too. Take it while I’m offering.”
“Then I gratefully accept.”
“All right. Let’s both get rich.”
The reward for risking my life against the Fire Lizard Leader had come back to me in a way that was almost too generous.