Chapter 74
─What? You really got it? Wow, the Italian Hunter Association is finally clearing out twenty years' worth of stock.
“Was it that famous an item?”
─Hm, famous? This one item says it all: it's the one Kaiser tried to buy.
“Whoa.”
Then it really must be an incredible item.
─It's probably the only item in the whole world that lets you fly without mana cost or penalties.
“Why couldn't Kaiser buy it?”
─The person who acquired it insisted it could only be sold to someone who'd made a lasting contribution to Italy.
“Oh, a patriot.”
─The accepted story is that the owner got fed up with Kaiser throwing money around and just donated it to the association.
... No matter how much you dig into that Kaiser guy, all you find are bizarre stories.
─Anyway, what you've done is certainly enough to qualify, but that was only the eligibility requirement—and the asking price couldn't have been cheap... Looks like Lucia covered it.
“How much was it?”
─50 million points? And that was discounted. The regular price is 100 million.
“.....”
Man, I've only managed to save up a little over ten million so far.
─Anyway, flying isn't as easy as it looks, so you'd be better off learning from an expert.
“Can you recommend anyone?”
─She's right there.
“Who?”
─Who do you think? Lucia. It's not like people with flight skills or flying summons are a dime a dozen.
“She's really busy rebuilding the city, though.”
If I went to bother someone that busy and asked her to teach me how to fly, I wouldn't be surprised if she took back the cloak she'd given me.
Guess I'll just teach myself.
**
The runway had been damaged again by an aftershock, and the earthquake had also damaged my private jet, which needed a safety inspection by the manufacturer. I had to stay in Sicily for a while.
In its own way, that was good for the city.
Senior Choi Kang said he was feeling stiff, so he went to the reconstruction site and was doing work worthy of heavy machinery. Ms. Gyuseon was also making large quantities of the lowest-grade potions and treating countless people at the hospital.
And me?
“I mean, I can fly, but...”
The speed... was no faster than walking.
Come to think of it, the item's description did say it was proportional to movement speed.
Using the Sacred Site function to get a movement speed bonus of up to 1,000% did make me frighteningly fast, but it was too frightening.
There was no in-between.
In the end, I had no choice but to seek out an expert.
Even if she was busy, she could probably spare a word or two.
In response to my question, she smiled and readily summoned Iris the eagle, then took to the sky herself.
Yeah, that's the kind of flight I had in mind.
Was I just walking through the sky?
“Gliding, accelerating, and falling aren't mutually exclusive. Think of it as falling under the force of gravity, then using a glide to ease the fall and pull back up. Repeat that cycle, and you'll accelerate.”
Falling, huh.
I thought I was starting to get it.
I slowly rose into the sky, then dropped a few meters before spreading my wings again.
After repeating that a few times, gravity's acceleration definitely added to my speed, and I sped up in an instant.
So that's how you do it.
“Oh, you're picking it up fast.”
“This is fun.”
Was flying really this fun?
I finally understood the phrase written on the paper she'd given me.
Wasn't it something about how, once you'd flown through the sky, your eyes would always be drawn to it?
Still, it was a little disappointing that there was a limit to how fast I could go by gliding.
“If I had some kind of propulsion... Hm?”
Suddenly, an idea came to me...
It was only a vague idea for now, but fortunately, I had someone who could turn it into reality.
**
I went straight to where Ms. Gyuseon was.
Ms. Gyuseon had made enough potions to be useful, so she was taking a break. Her eyes lit up as she listened to my idea, and she nodded.
“That’s definitely possible.”
My idea was...
Methanogens that lived in the stomach of a fire lizard.
A kind of rocket engine that used Methanobrevibacter ignis as propellant.
Fill a heat-resistant engine shaped like a fire lizard's stomach with a bacterial colony, then make a nozzle for it to vent through.
Then the high-pressure methane produced by the bacteria would combust as it shot out through the nozzle, creating tremendous thrust.
Even when I wasn't flying, the high-pressure combustion gas could be used as a means of attack.
Well, with Gluttony around, other means of attack did feel a little less impressive.
There could be dungeons that required powerful firepower, depending on the gimmick.
“If we attach nozzles like these to both arms...”
“You'd be able to freely control the thrust depending on the direction of your arms.”
I could also adjust my speed by controlling how much methane the bacteria produced.
This looked pretty good, actually.
“Would you like me to make you a prototype?”
“... You can do that?”
“Metalworking is difficult, but... I can print it in plastic with something like a 3D printer, then use False Gold Alchemy to temporarily turn it into metal.”
“Huh, you're right.”
“It won't be very precise, though...”
When Ms. Gyuseon held out her hand, the soil clumped together and took the shape I'd envisioned.
And when she used False Gold Alchemy on it...
It became a propulsion unit made of dull black metal.
“I can do things like this, too.”
... This Transcendent-grade alchemist is insane.
I put the propulsion units she'd handed me on both arms and filled them with methanogens.
Just in case they caught fire, it was essential to boost my fire resistance with flame-resistant bacteria, too.
But how much methane should I produce?
Maybe this much...
The moment I thought that...
“Huh?”
Athena, who was beside me, covered my body...
Pshhhhhhh!
At the same time, accompanied by a tremendous roar, my body shot straight up into the sky.
When I came to my senses, I was so high up that I couldn't even tell where I was.
The propulsion units had already shattered and vanished, so I hurriedly started gliding with the Wings of Icarus.
The performance is definitely there, but...
If it works this well a second time, I might die.
If Athena hadn't quickly protected me, things could've gone badly.
“Phew, I almost went to Mars.”
I barely managed to land back at my starting point and let out a sigh of relief.
There were a few problems.
First, the durability of the propulsion units.
No matter how much False Gold Alchemy turned them into metal, the material reverted to its original composition once it took enough damage.
Since the original material was molded soil, it must have reverted even faster.
“This... now that I think about it, couldn't I just use Athena?”
When I asked Athena, a pair of Blood Gold propulsion units formed seamlessly over my hands.
No need to make them separately; that solved the propulsion units for now.
Next was the amount of methane...
I'd produced far too much from the start.
Even one-eighth that amount seemed like it would be enough to reach a decent speed.
I gradually adjusted the amount of methane and checked the level of thrust.
By the time I was more or less done experimenting, I could use it pretty freely.
There had been quite a few times when my lack of mobility had caused problems...
This was a slightly insane method, but...
It seemed like I'd completely made up for that weakness.
**
U.S. National Security Agency (NSA).
Since the Awakening era began, one of the new tasks added to the NSA, which had the world's best interception and eavesdropping capabilities, was tracking and monitoring powerful Hunters.
The United States believed Hunters could be used as weapons of war at any time in an emergency.
And Kim Segyun had recently been added to the NSA's list of surveillance targets.
The NSA director was now beginning a briefing on Kim Segyun before the Senate Armed Services Committee.
“Until now, his activities have been almost entirely focused inside dungeons, so there was no way to assess his combat capabilities... But what has happened over the past few days is truly shocking. First, what happened in Colombia.”
A satellite image of a mansion's roof appeared on the screen.
“This is the mansion of one of Colombia's drug lords. Kim Segyun visited the place, and it seems some kind of negotiation didn't go well, as the drug lord's side appears to have shown hostility. What happened after that took only a few seconds.”
The image of the mansion changed to thermal footage...
The senators couldn't hide their shock as the heat signatures of over a hundred people completely vanished in just a few seconds.
If they'd simply died, the thermal footage would've picked them up until their body heat had completely faded...
“They weren't killed. They were disintegrated. Their very existence disappeared at the molecular level. The problem is that the head of that narco outfit was a Level 60 warrior.”
“High level.”
“Yes, a high-level warrior who could even use aura. The problem is that even someone of that level couldn't withstand it.”
The senators murmured among themselves.
“That's completely different from our assessment so far, isn't it?”
“I thought we estimated that it could be defended against with high-level defensive magic or aura.”
“Yes, that was the conclusion we reached based on information gathered through various channels... But he must have gotten stronger in the meantime. The bigger problem is that he's still not even Level 40.”
“... That's the period when Hunters grow most explosively.”
Hunters generally experienced tremendous growth from Level 40 to 60, then reached a plateau after Level 60.
“On his way back to Korea, Hunter Kim Segyun received an emergency relief request in Catania, Italy, and took part in earthquake relief efforts. Based on the range of his abilities observed there, this is the result of a simulation we ran. If we fail to suppress him in advance by appropriate means... millions could die within ten minutes.”
“... Horrifying.”
“The good news is that he isn't some Islamist jihadist extremist or a lunatic like Ahmad Triain.”
“What's his disposition?”
“Ordinary. He's on the good side, if anything.”
“Can we recruit him?”
“Unlikely.”
As information related to the SG Group appeared, the NSA director continued.
“Recently, by selling his undead, he added shares worth approximately 80 billion dollars to his holdings, expanding his influence over the SG Group. We thought the South Korean government had given too much power to one person because of the WDDO, and that assessment was correct.”
“Tsk, that president of South Korea really is no pushover.”
“And this is the last piece of information. We obtained it just yesterday...”
A satellite image, captured frame by frame, showed Kim Segyun suddenly shooting into the sky while spewing flames.
“He rose to an altitude of one kilometer in just one second.”
“... Didn't you say he was South Korean? Isn't the rocket man that fellow up north?”
“Senator, this is no time for jokes. This is a huge threat to national security. Until now, our NSA's assessment was that his only weakness was mobility... But if he has a skill that gives him that kind of mobility on his own, everything changes. Flying one kilometer in one second means nearly Mach 3. That's like a man-sized F-22 Raptor flying at top speed.”
In other words, a Hunter who could fly through the sky at nearly Mach 3, erase millions of people if he wanted to, and was nearly impossible to recruit?
And he still had plenty of room to grow?
“... At this point, I almost wonder whether we can still call him human.”
“If we hadn't confirmed that last bit about his mobility, the NSA's recommendation would have been to plan an operation to eliminate him in an emergency. But as things stand... establishing friendly relations seems like the best course of action.”
At his words, one of the senators furrowed his brow and said,
“Since when have we used military force to deal with Hunters? Wasn't the basic principle that Hunters should be countered with Hunters? Isn't that why we poured so much money into supporting Kaiser Corporation?”
“In every type of simulation run using all of the NSA's supercomputers, Kaiser lost.”
“......”
Every senator's brow furrowed deeply.
The senators continued thinking for a long time, their faces full of concern.
One of them slowly spoke.
“If a hound gets old, replacing it with a younger one is one option.”
No one could have failed to understand what those words meant.
The problem was that, faced with such a radical suggestion...
Everyone could only agree and nod.