Chapter 385
[The ‘Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood’ tells you not to be greedy and to join forces with other mortals.]
“What the hell are you talking about? Get lost!” Isabella replied firmly and with no hesitation. She wouldn’t even listen to a good god constellation, so it was even worse that the berserker constellation was speaking to her.
Don’t be greedy and join forces with other mortals? It was clear that the berserker constellation was afraid of Isabella succeeding in the raid.
[The ‘Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood’ threatens you to fear what will happen next.]
“I told you to shut up!”
***
[The ‘Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood’ apologizes.]
“?”
-?
[?]
Choi Yeonseung paused from his discussion about how to attack the mechanical dragon. The berserker constellation had suddenly spoken to him.
‘What does he mean? What?’
The meaning behind his apology...
[The ‘Warrior Stained with Madness and Blood’ says he failed to convince Isabella Meyer.]
‘Ah, it’s no big deal.’
For a moment, Choi Yeonseung had thought the berserker constellation had devised some kind of plan or that he was about to betray him, but that wasn’t it.
Choi Yeonseung didn’t expect anyone to manage to reason with the US hunters anyway...
‘All that’s left is to show them what I can do.’
“Are you ready?”
Everyone nodded at Choi Yeonseung. Monster raids always worked more or less the same way, regardless if those involved were A-grade hunters or E-grade hunters.
Tankers would be in the frontline, and the damage dealers would take the rear. If the martial artists, including Choi Yeonseung, distracted the mechanical dragon, all the other hunters could unleash all of their attacks.
“Is this the new armored suit?”
“It’s cool, but... Why is it so ugly though...?”
The Icarus hunters were puzzled as they were equipping the armor Dragon Solution had recently made with cutting-edge materials. Certainly, it was so advanced that everyone thought it would dominate the market and keep the other companies in their place.
It was a light and practical military-style suit, and its powerful defense would instantly activate upon impact. Additionally, hunters could feel the magic power coming from this suit. The potency of the magic power directly reflected the power of the Abyssal materials which had been used.
‘It’s going to be crazy when they reveal this.’
‘This is far greater than what everyone has been estimating.’ contemporary romance
There were many rumors circulating about the armor Dragon Industry would release soon. Of course, everyone had expected it to be high-quality, but even the most optimistic people wouldn’t have expected it to be this impressive.
This one was much lighter and felt more durable than the armor of the previous generation!
The Icarus hunters were wondering how all the other hunters would react when the armor was revealed.
...But of course, nothing in this world was perfect. The weakness of this Dragon Armored Suit was its design. The Icarus hunters had never seen a design where the emblem of the company adorned both the back and the front of the armor.
They almost felt embarrassed wearing this armor!
“Excuse me, Hunter Choi Yeonseung. Isn’t this too extra? Are you actually going to release it with this design?”
The hunters recalled some past incidents. Countless good products had flopped due to poor design and bad marketing.
Maybe, just maybe...
“Of course not.”
“Phew...”
“We’re glad... Wait. Hunter Choi Yeonseung, if you won’t release it like this, then why does it have this design in the first place?”
“The marketing department asked me to do a good job promoting the prototype.”
“...”
“...”
The hunters were appalled. Those cold-hearted capitalist bastards...!
“Why? You don’t like it?”
“N-no, it’s not that...”
At Choi Yeonseung’s question, the Icarus hunters shook their heads. Those from the Mount Hua Sect and the other A-grade hunters were wearing the armor without saying anything, so they couldn’t be the only ones complaining, especially given how dire the situation was.
‘Once I find out the name of the person in charge, I’ll grab them by the collar.’
Kuoooooh!
Suddenly, they heard an eerie sound that seemed to come from the depths of a huge mechanical device. At the same time, there was an unpleasant hissing that sounded like a steam explosion.
The hunters present couldn’t see what was making that noise, but they had a pretty good guess.
“The mechanical dragon is coming,” said the technician in charge of the detection device with a grim expression.
***
If one were to classify the A-grade hunters, Choi Yeonseung and Han Seha would be close-range types, while Antony and Kwon Yeongseung would be long-range types.
Notably, Kwon Yeongseung was relatively good-natured for an A-grade hunter. Thus, it was fortunate that Antony would be stuck with him and not Han Seha.
“You acknowledge my skills. As expected, Koreans know how to appreciate talented individuals.”
“Y-yes...”
Kwon Yeongseung was realizing that Antony was somewhat of an odd individual. The other hunters cast him looks of pity.
“That Kwon Yeongseung guy is really patient. To think he’s able to put up with Schneider...” said Elisabeth.
Smallwood added, “I need to quickly reach A-grade so he stops acting like that...”
Because of Antony, their desire to reach A-grade had become stronger than ever! They thought that after reaching A-grade, he would leave the clan and wander around by himself, living a miserable and lonely life.
They still had no idea what kind of rotten food Antony had eaten for him to decide to stay in the clan.
At any rate, all the other hunters were anxious to reach A-grade so they could laugh in Antony’s face and stick it to him!
‘I really can’t get used to the atmosphere.’
Whittaker, the healer of the raid team, looked around. He couldn’t believe that they were just blindly following Choi Yeonseung into what would most likely be carnage.
Whittaker found this very startling. It seemed like they had all gone crazy as a group.
The Icarus clan was supposed to be a clan full of aces from all over the world, and such hunters were the kind of people who wouldn’t do anything that didn’t benefit them. However, they were now acting as though they had gone mad overnight.
Of course, it was true that everyone would receive huge rewards if the raid was a success, but even so, shouldn’t they be realistic and consider the possibility of failure?
From Whittaker’s perspective, it seemed like other hunters were blindly following Choi Yeonseung without even thinking about the chances of success.
Madness!
“Don’t you think so?” Whittaker asked Illeya next to him.
Illeya shook her head, which caused Whittaker to sigh in resignation.
‘She’s lost it too...’
Whittaker vowed to do anything to ensure that he walked out of this alive!
“There are roughly five minutes before the mechanical dragon arrives! Everyone, go to your positions!”
The moment to take action had finally come. Before they moved, Illeya placed her hand on Whittaker’s back. Even though he was a healer, he was a B-grade hunter nonetheless. Thus, his physical prowess far exceeded that of low-rated hunters. But even so, he was completely frozen by Illeya’s touch.
‘...?!’
Whittaker got goosebumps, not just because he was taken by surprise, but because he could sense an ominous aura from Illeya.
“W-wha-what? What are you doing, you crazy Russian?!”
Do your best to ensure we succeed in this raid. If we fail, I’ll kill you myself.
That wasn’t her own voice, but that of a constellation, which made Whittaker realize that Illeya was a household member.
It wasn’t that there were no hunters in the Icarus clan who served constellations. He just hadn’t expected the constellation itself to threaten him like this.
“Uh... I don’t know who you are, but your household member might be in trouble once the raid is over.”
That is none of your business. Just focus on completing the raid. Use all your magic power, every last bit of it!
‘...!’
Whittaker had tried to persuade the opponent somehow, but the constellation could see right through it. After all, a constellation had a hundred times more experience than a hunter. f(r)eeweb(n)ovel
Whittaker felt cold sweat running down his back.
“I-I understand. I’ll do my best.”
Illeya didn’t let go of her hand even after he finished speaking. Whittaker gulped as he could still feel the threatening magic power against his back.
‘Shit... Which constellation is it? Why is it doing this?’
Even more frustrating was the fact that he mostly likely wouldn’t be able to talk about this with anyone.
-That Russian took orders from her constellation and suddenly threatened me, her colleague!
-Oh, what did she threaten you with?
-She told me to do my best in the raid!
-...Are you on something?
The conversation would probably go like that... Besides, Illeya’s image within the clan was much better than Whittaker’s...
‘Shit...’
***
Boom!
Choi Yeonseung lightly kicked the air and disappeared.
Han Seha admired his finesse. The sound he made by kicking the air was elegant, soft, as though he were playing a stringed instrument.
But the melody was followed by a bone-chilling roar, announcing destruction.
BANG!
The massive mechanical dragon started shaking, and soon after, all the metal mechanisms attached to it exploded, flying in all directions with deadly speed.
‘Whether it’s with high penetration power or just with a high amount of power of existence, I need to crush it with this attack.’
Instead of compressing internal energy and shooting concentrated energy, Choi Yeonseung decided to deliver the heaviest hit he could to this dragon. He wouldn’t be able to defeat a monster of this size even if he pierced one or two parts of his body. He had to rattle the monster’s insides with a tremendous shock.
The mechanical dragon kept quivering as Choi Yeonseung kept flying all over the place. Watching him move like that, the Mount Hua Sect hunters burst into cheers.
However, the mechanical dragon didn’t stay still. Following a clattering noise, blue flames erupted from all over its body.
[The mechanical dragon is casting Magic Missile.]
“Huh?”
“Wha...?”
The hunters were taken aback by the world message.
Magic Missile was 1st-circle magic that everyone used. One could learn this spell by simply watching a tutorial on Youtube...
Of course, some high-level hunters had improved and refined the Magic Missile, turning it into a terrifyingly powerful skill. However, the mechanical dragon couldn’t have practiced and honed this skill; it was using it out of nowhere.
What was it trying to do?
“...”
“...”
Everyone found out a second later.
The dragon launched numerous missiles, which exuded tremendous magic power.
“Uh... That...”
“Get ready to defend!”
The hunters were unfazed and prepared to fight back. The rain of missiles was terrifying, but they were confident they could stop it.
This would test their defensive abilities!
...However, only a few of the missiles were flying directly at them. Most missiles were scattered and only hit the areas around the hunters.
“The dragon is worse at aiming than I thought?”
“I think I blocked everything.”
As the hunters were talking among themselves about what had just happened, Choi Yeonseung suddenly paused as he was slicing apart the missiles in the air.
He realized the missiles were flying to where the robots were dwelling.
***
Bang!
Choi Yeonseung quickly flew toward the area of the robots and landed before the missiles hit. They weren’t traveling at a very high speed, so there was still time to evacuate.
“Get out of there! Get moving!”
-What is wrong with you?
“Missiles are coming this way! Evacuate for now!”
-We are fully capable of repelling them. Maybe it is because organisms can’t make accurate judgments, but we are different. Besides, isn’t that a weapon we made?
“...Do you think that the mechanical dragon will just shoot that and be done with it? The best way to deal with the missiles is to avoid them altogether. They could hit the facilities around here...”
-Don’t look down on our technology. We can destroy and rebuild as much as we want.
“Fine, whatever you say. Now will you evacuate?”
-We won’t do it because there is no reason to do it. We can block the attack.
Choi Yeonseung was at a loss, so the goddess of sloth whispered something to him.
-I guess it’s better to do your thing.
-Yeah. I was thinking the same.
Choi Yeonseung approached the robot and slammed his fist into the ground.
“If you don’t evacuate right away, I’ll destroy you along with the missiles.”
-...That is a barbaric threat. Do you think we will succumb to the intimidation of organisms like you?
Choi Yeonseung punched a rock next to the robot, shattering it.
“Do it.”
-...I agree.