Chapter 036
A sound like a hammer pounding iron in a forge from another world rang out cheerfully across the Siberian plains.
With clang after clang, countless rapid strikes battered the equipment Nikolai was riding. Of course, it wasn't taking any serious damage. It had been built to be that sturdy.
"Not very warm, huh? Can't be helped."
Black flames clung to the front armor of his machine, gleefully burning away its durability.
I was deliberately controlling the Paradox Monster Flame so it wouldn't touch the rear armor. After dealing with him, I planned to strip it off, hand it to Choi Seung-gi to make protective plates, and sell whatever was left.
Sure, the front armor was far superior in terms of sturdiness—but ripping off armor plates came second to killing Nikolai.
"You look pretty relaxed. Even turning your eyes elsewhere."
Thud. With that sound, my extended spear smashed into the transparent plate protecting his face. Crack. Spiderweb-like fissures spread across the glass.
"Shame."
I'd thought it might go all the way through by now. Guess I needed to wait a bit longer.
—No, why is this breaking?!
The moment cracks appeared in the glass that had been stubbornly blocking attacks until just now, Nikolai visibly panicked.
"Hit it, and it breaks."
That wasn't all. The flurry of spear strikes finally succeeded in carving scratches into his front armor, one after another.
Which meant it had softened.
"Feels like I've been burning it for almost twenty minutes."
This wasn't the Paradox Monster Flame I'd used on Gyodong Island. At this scale, the core of the Corruptor I'd faced back then would've died in about thirty seconds from catastrophic muscle loss.
And yet this thing lasted twenty minutes. Not quite solid mithril by the standards of my old world, but at least a mithril alloy—maybe one-tenth pure—in durability.
"But still."
The fact that my attacks were starting to leave marks meant even that absurd defense was nearing the end of its lifespan. Before long, it'd feel like clay.
"Here. A present."
After pressing the attack a little longer, I carved a heart shape ♡ into the front armor with my spear tip.
—You damn bastard!
Then, with a series of heavy thuds, all the armor plates encasing his body detached and fell away. So he'd decided to ditch the softened armor—dead weight at this point—and boost his speed instead.
He didn't just remove the armor. He also detached the massive cannon proudly mounted on one arm and tossed it aside.
With the armor gone, the machine's power source was revealed.
"Can't eat that."
It radiated immense mana, but it clearly wasn't something edible.
The glowing core looked furious, vibrating violently as it heated to a deep crimson.
—Haa… hoo…
Heat haze billowed up around the power source. It looked scorching hot at a glance.
"It's cold out. You should dress warmer. Why're you stripping like that? It's embarrassing."
I took my stance, drawing up mana, and provoked the half-naked Nikolai.
Bang! With a bursting sound, he vanished—then reappeared right in front of me, swinging a blazing beam saber.
Nearly ten strikes per second poured down on me. You could honestly compare that rate of fire to a machine gun.
He'd long surpassed what a human body could achieve—and so had I, blocking and dodging it all.
—You monster. Die, die! I'll grind you into nothing right here!
Eyes and ears working in tandem, I deflected his attacks, anticipated the next, and searched for an opening to counter.
One clean hit would be enough. By shedding all his armor and cranking his output, he'd gained agility worthy of admiration—but the price was that a single solid blow would end him.
—If it comes to this, I'll self-destruct!
"Wow. That's a thought only the Japanese army would come up with. Thanks for the laugh."
But there was no way this thing had a self-destruct function. This wasn't a cartoon.
It's the same reason no pilot would ever want to fly a plane with a built-in explosion feature. What lunatic would?
Besides, that thing looked expensive. In the end, the machine—pushed beyond its output limits—let out a groaning, strained sound.
"You hear that? That's the bell tolling for your life."
Nikolai didn't answer. Thick black smoke poured out of his equipment, the turbine whine gradually fading until it stopped completely.
"Any last words?"
At my question, he lifted the protective plate covering his face with a hiss of escaping air.
"Spare me. Please. I didn't want to do this."
"Should I? I mean… it's not like I can't."
As I said that, I drove my spear into his head. No one survives with a spear buried in their skull.
What I'd said about sparing him was just a tactic—to stop him from making a final, desperate move. This wasn't a sparring match; it was a battle. And in battle, the loser dies.
"About five minutes left…"
Lee Se-eun's seal was almost completely broken. And Nikolai's underlings, who'd charged in so confidently, lost all their swagger the moment they saw a hole punched clean through their leader's head.
I had a little breathing room. Calmly, I examined the seal binding Lee Se-eun.
"Impressive work."
Complex and precise, sturdy yet cleverly arranged. I had to admit—it was a very well-made seal.
Still, not so intricate that I couldn't follow its flow and structure.
"He's definitely within three kilometers…"
Tracing the mana would lead me straight to whoever cast it. Watching Lee Se-eun detonate greatsword blasts one after another inside the seal, I clicked my tongue.
"If I find him, I can kill him for sure."
By now, the one maintaining that seal was probably coughing up blood.
But at that moment, the seal restraining Lee Se-eun dispersed.
"Sly bastard."
The instant he realized things had gone wrong, he released it. Which meant he'd already fled.
"Damn it. This is annoying."
And the moment the seal vanished, Lee Se-eun went on a rampage with her greatsword. Each slash became a storm, each step shook the ground like an earthquake.
"What a fiery temper."
Mana spilling from Lee Se-eun's body was warping the air around the area into a heat haze. If mana was affecting the world this visibly, it meant she was quite literally letting it pour out of her entire body—wasting it in streams.
As if wielding this much mana were nothing to her.
Which, for someone like Lee Se-eun, it really wasn't.
"Good work."
While I was dealing with Nikolai's demoralized underlings, Lee Se-eun joined in. There was no way they could hold out, and the situation was cleaned up in an instant. Afterward, Lee Se-eun walked over to me.
"Good work. You exceeded expectations. Hard to believe, but you could aim for a partner hunter position anywhere you go."
It seemed she'd been observing my fight with Nikolai even while smashing the seal. Instead of replying, I held out my hand. Resting on it was a reward candy.
"Thank you for the meal."
When I popped the candy into my mouth, the Jannabi hunters looked at me in shock. What's with them? You give candy to eat, so I ate it.
"Probably you're the only one who actually eats them."
At Lee Se-eun's words, I asked back in disbelief.
"Then what, do people build Legonil or something with these?"
"Everyone collects them. If you gather enough, you can even show them off."
So the candy she gave me was basically a trophy? Sucking on it, I replied,
"Is there some kind of hunter aptitude or psychological test I skipped?"
I was starting to think you couldn't become a hunter unless you were especially unhinged.
After wrapping things up, the train started moving again.
And that's when I ran into a mildly unpleasant situation.
"You're saying the Korean military is going to reclaim the equipment I dealt with?"
The Korean army was insisting on taking the equipment Nikolai had been riding.
"It's equipment that was originally developed with funding from the Korean government."
"And then it was stolen and put to good use by some bandit-like bastard roaming around Siberia."
I replied coldly, then swept my gaze over the officer dispatched by the Korean military.
"I took him down. Naturally, it's my spoils of war."
"Hunter Yoo Chan-seok. I'd like to ask a favor. If that equipment is released onto the market as your spoils, it would severely damage the Korean government's prestige."
The officer explained that the repercussions would be similar to U.S. nuclear missiles flooding an Iranian marketplace.
On the surface, it sounded reasonable.
But I couldn't bring myself to believe him.
According to what Lee Se-eun had told me just moments ago, the one who had forcibly sealed her belonged to the Descendants of Dangun.
That made it far too strange.
Nikolai had obtained and operated special equipment used by the Korean military. To brazenly wander around using such gear, one of two things had to be true.
Either he possessed power great enough to completely ignore the Korean government—
Or the Korean military was tacitly permitting Nikolai's actions.
Nikolai and the Descendants of Dangun seemed connected. On top of that, I'd long harbored doubts about the relationship between the Descendants of Dangun and the Korean government.
Should we really trust the Korean soldiers riding this train with us right now?
I couldn't.
"I'll say it again. This is my personal spoils of war, taken by my own hands."
"This isn't a request. It's an order from the Military Security Support Command."
So they were pulling that card here—making it clear this was effectively a command, not a request. At that point, I decided to try a little maneuver of my own.
"Then what about my trouble? Shouldn't I at least get something? People who did nothing are going to show up and take everything?"
I wore an aggrieved expression, but at the same time clearly signaled that I was willing to yield a step or two.
"Then… how can we reach an arrangement that satisfies both sides?"
Perhaps he'd picked up on my gesture, because his tone suggested he was willing to compromise as well.
"I'm not asking for much. I want the armor from the Korean military equipment Nikolai was using, as my spoils."
At my words, the officer let out a low "Huh…" and made a troubled face.
"We can't give you all of that."
"Then give me the front armor."
He contacted someone, then shook his head.
"I'm sorry. The front armor is—"
"Then what can you give me? This is driving me crazy. Fine. I'll take just the rear armor. I won't compromise beyond that."
After making another call, the officer returned with a slightly relieved expression.
"Higher-ups have approved that much."
"I'd like to trust your word, sir, but I'd appreciate receiving the directive in official written form."
If it was on paper, they wouldn't be able to change their tune later. At my words, he nodded.
"Understood. You should receive the official document within two to three hours."
I smiled inwardly. In truth, the front armor that had been properly burned by the Paradox Monster Flame now had strength on the level of polymer clay kids play with. Even if they took it, they probably wouldn't find any real use for it.
After the conversation ended, I quietly watched the officer's retreating back.
"At this point, it's safe to consider it confirmed."
There was no hard evidence, of course.
But circumstantially, it was reasonable to infer that there was some kind of connection between the Korean government and the Descendants of Dangun.
Until evidence emerged to refute that, I decided to proceed under the assumption that the Korean government and the Descendants of Dangun were indeed connected.