Episode 037
Lee Hayoon staggered forward with a deathly pale face and brought her hand up to the scanner in front of the building.
— Authentication complete.
As the door opened, Lee Hayoon vomited a mouthful of blood once more.
"How's your body?"
A man wearing a hood and a military uniform was waiting inside.
"Captain… I'm sorry."
At Lee Hayoon's words, the man let out a small sigh. At that faint sound, Hayoon's body trembled slightly.
"You made it back alive. That's enough."
At the captain's words, Lee Hayoon clenched both fists tightly. In truth, it wasn't enough.
"You worked hard. Enduring Lee Se-eun's attack would have been difficult even with your seal. Focus on recovery."
Lee Hayoon answered, "Yes, sir," saluted, and turned her body.
"It's a small failure. When you're walking toward something far away, stumbling once in a while is inevitable. Since when has our people acted like drowned rats after a single failure?"
Gojoseon, Goguryeo, Balhae… At the captain's remark, Lee Hayoon nodded.
"Thank you. I won't fail next time."
"That's all I need to hear. Don't lose your pride."
After Lee Hayoon left, the man checked his watch and stood up, heading toward another room. Sitting on the bed was Kim Jihyun, her face exhausted.
"How's your body?"
Kim Ji hyun slightly removed the respirator covering her mouth and answered.
"Little by little… it's getting better."
Yoo Chanseok's Paradox Flame had burned away all of her muscular strength, but muscle could be rebuilt through training. In other words, it could be recreated.
Even though everything had been burned away, with the captain's help to keep her alive and through Jihyun's continued effort, her body was indeed improving little by little.
At the very least, the fact that she could speak and show facial expressions was something to be grateful for.
"But I still can't even walk properly."
Recovery wasn't coming easily. Her heart and lungs, in particular, were still being forcibly moved through her own mana, gradually reducing their dependence.
"I believe you'll overcome it."
"That son of a bitch… I'll kill him with my own hands."
She burned with rage toward Yoo Chanseok, but she had already lost too much. By the time Kim Ji hyun returned to her original level, Yoo Chanseok would likely have reached a realm she could no longer catch up to.
But he didn't bother saying that.
Revenge. Leaving Kim Ji hyun's room, the man checked the bow slung over his shoulder once. Even now, he could go to Siberia and kill him with a single arrow—but he couldn't do that yet. He needed Yoo Chanseok's mana pattern as a hunter.
"If I can just find a way."
Sealing or binding him was impossible. With Yoo Chanseok's abilities, such things would be easily broken.
There was no method other than taking it away. The man went down to the underground level.
"Dr. Seo Gyeonwoo."
In truth, the title "doctor" didn't suit Seo Gyeonwoo very well. His lab coat was smeared with all kinds of sauces and food stains.
His bulky body couldn't be fully concealed by the coat, and he wasn't even wearing clothes on his upper body. Thick tufts of hair covered the heavy-looking mass of flesh.
The doctor, who had been holding up a large pizza with both hands and noisily chewing without even cutting it, finally noticed the man and stood up.
"Buuurp."
A fanfare-like burp echoed through the room. Wiping his mouth and further dirtying his lab coat, Dr. Seo Gyeounwoo offered a belated greeting.
"What brings you here?"
He didn't look likable at a glance, but appearances weren't important. In some ways, he hardly looked human—but without a doubt, his head was a treasure chest filled with dazzling jewels.
"How's the progress?"
"It'll take time, but it seems possible."
If the words "seems possible" came from Seo Gyeonwoo's mouth, then it was worth placing hope in that possibility. When something couldn't be done, he said so clearly.
"However, it still requires a sufficient budget and time."
Gulp, gulp. After downing a large plastic bottle of soda, Seo Gyeonwoo wiped his mouth again with another burp and added,
"Do you think support will be available?"
The man nodded at his question.
"That won't be a problem. But hurry."
"I'll do what I can. Still, it's a shame. If we could've figured out the principles behind that barrier generator, it would've helped quite a bit."
"The journey across Siberia is long."
Lamenting over something that had already failed wasn't very productive. There would be several more chances anyway, and success just once would be enough. With that, their conversation ended.
After the situation was resolved, the train began running along the tracks once more, and we were holding a meeting in the command room.
The train had passed Khabarovsk. Next, it would go through Irkutsk and head toward Novosibirsk. And along that route, one major problem lay in wait.
"It's practically the biggest reason the Trans-Siberian Railway isn't operating properly."
Lee Se-eun's expression was far more serious than before. She pointed to a location on the map projected in front of us.
"Bratsk. A city near which a Class-1 erosion zone—commonly referred to as a 'refrigerator'—is located."
Amethyst picked up where Lee Se-eun left off.
"It's an erosion source similar to Canada's Winter Closet, one of the so-called Great Eight."
Fortunately, its level of danger didn't seem to be on par with Winter Closet. Thanks to the countless efforts made to reconnect the Trans-Siberian Railway, a fair amount of information about the Bratsk erosion source had been gathered.
"Our objective this time isn't to eliminate a Class-1 erosion source."
The goal was simply to pass safely through the erosion zone it controlled while riding this train.
"We'll start entering the erosion zone shortly after passing Ulan-Ude."
So there wasn't much time left. What kind of monsters would we be dealing with?
"Slimes."
"…That's a slime?"
On the screen, transparent slimes the size of houses surged like waves.
Their body temperature was said to be roughly equivalent to liquid nitrogen. Getting hit wouldn't end at mere frostbite.
"If we're careless, our primary equipment could be destroyed, so be careful, everyone."
Frozen metal breaks easily—and the temperature of those slimes was absurdly low.
"But their weakness is fairly clear."
Amethyst shared the information identified by the Embargo Tower.
"A core, huh."
Inside the bodies of those slimes—composed of ultra-low-temperature gelatin—was a core that controlled the slime.
"The problem is that after destroying the core, the remaining gelatin can be absorbed by other slimes."
Along with the explanation, Amethyst played a video.
It showed hunters fighting two slimes. After successfully killing one, the surviving slime devoured the dead one's gelatin and grew even larger.
"Figures it's Class-1. Annoying as hell."
The more you kill, the bigger the remaining slimes become.
I'd fought plenty of amorphous monsters before. Of course, I didn't know how much of my experience and knowledge would apply here…
Rewinding the video once more, I clicked my tongue.
"From what I see, the impacted areas harden."
You couldn't really call this a slime. Ordinary slimes are squishy, so piercing the gelatin to target the core isn't that difficult. But this one was different.
"They also have mana resistance. On top of that, they can recover damage by wrapping living beings in their gelatin and digesting them."
So, to sum it up: they have mana resistance and physical resistance, recover health by killing opponents, and even if you do kill one, the others get stronger?
"We'll have to focus on driving them away. They're not something I want to fight."
Everyone nodded at my words. As monsters from a Class-1 erosion zone, there would be plenty to gain from killing them—but they didn't look like easy prey worth being greedy over.
Putting aside fear and danger, every single one of their traits was downright nasty.
"In twenty minutes, we'll enter the erosion zone. Brace yourselves."
It would be nice if we could minimize casualties, but this was a Class-1 erosion zone. There was no way everyone would make it through alive.
After the meeting ended, we all moved to our assigned positions.
"Just looking at it makes my eyes sting."
Standing atop the train's cargo, I used mana to ward off the cold while scanning the surroundings.
A boundless world of pure white stretched endlessly before us. According to reports, the current temperature was nearing minus thirty degrees Celsius. Ever since it became an erosion zone, it retained this cold regardless of the season.
"I heard the Winter Closet zone in Canada averages minus seventy degrees," Han Sang-ah said, standing beside me on the cargo.
Minus seventy. Even tuna freezers were only around minus fifty—that was worse than that. Compared to that, this was practically mild.
From here on, no one lived in these lands. Partly because of the climate, but…
"There they are."
Because of those things.
Giant slimes, easily five meters tall, were approaching the train.
Before I could even grab my radio, someone had already reported it—the sirens began blaring loudly.
"To think they're fast enough to keep up with a moving train at that size."
Their speed was terrifying. Dozens of tentacles formed of gelatin slammed into the ground, and they moved by pulling their main bodies forward through those tentacles.
The sight of the slimes advancing, their entire bodies leaking pale white frost as they used their tentacles like tripwires, was overwhelmingly oppressive.
"Get ready! Those with long-range attacks, move first!"
With the shout, all kinds of mana-woven mysteries poured toward the advancing wave of slimes—flames, fire, darkness, light…
"That's impressive," Han Sang-ah muttered.
I shook my head.
"That won't even come close."
Mana resistance, was it? Not just for show—this was the real thing. As the dust kicked up by the bombardment scattered in the wind, the slimes continued advancing without any noticeable damage.
Unless we stripped away that mana resistance first, it'd be hard to deal meaningful damage from long range.
"…What a pain."
Paradox Flame was also an ability generated through mana. So mana resistance wasn't a matter of whether it could burn or not.
The firewood is soaked.
That's what mana resistance was like. I could burn away the elasticity that held their bodies together, or even their vitality—Paradox Flame was capable of that.
But everything Paradox Flame could burn was drenched by mana resistance.
Just as you need to dry firewood before burning it if it's wet, Paradox Flame first had to burn away the mana resistance before it could incinerate anything else.
I grabbed the radio and spoke to everyone.
"I'll strip away their mana resistance."
Even without mana resistance, their bodies hardened when subjected to impacts beyond a certain threshold.
I wouldn't be able to land a fatal blow—but I could definitely deal effective damage.
"Anyone with a long-range weapon like a bow—lend it to me for a bit."
I mainly used a spear. To set those slimes on fire with that, I'd have to jump off the train.
— I'm nearby. I'll cooperate.
A reply came immediately, and I was able to borrow a bow and arrows. Watching this, Han Sang-ah asked the obvious question.
"You know how to shoot a bow?"
"It was a required general education course in college."
"…That's the first I've heard of that."
Leaving Han Sang-ah with her unnecessarily serious expression, I picked up the bow.
Haven't held one of these in a while.