Steel-Eating Player - Chapter 54

Episode 54. [ Heroes of Seoul – 3 ]

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“Oh my… what is this…”

Park Jun-mo’s body was struck by lightning. It was absorbing electric current.

He stared blankly into space.

You were probably looking at some ‘system message’.

However, he soon came to his senses and extended his hand towards the high-ranking warlock on the rooftop.

Then, a blue electric current began to radiate from his body.

Hold it——!

The current tangled in one place and became elongated, like a spear.

“Wow, it’s amazing…?”

Park Jun-mo threw the ‘Lightning Spear’ with all his might at the boss monster.

Flashing— In the blink of an eye, a blue straight line was drawn between his grip and the rooftop.

Kwa——ang——!

The entire railing on the rooftop was crushed. Pieces of concrete flowed down,

but the high-ranking warlock dodged the attack by leaping backwards.

But

that wasn’t the end.

Park Jun-mo opened his hands, and the spear of lightning spread out like a net,

enveloping the bastard as if grasping him.

Hold it, hold it——!

The high-ranking warlock’s body was swept away by a blue electric current and was thrown backwards.

Still,

as expected from the boss monster, he opened his eyes wide and prepared a teleportation spell even while being electrocuted.

But at that moment, Lee Hyun-wook pointed his left hand at the guy . I stretched out and

dozens of spears, including Palenote’s, were shot out. I

was in an electric shock state so I couldn’t react.

Pow! Pow! Pow! All the way! Pow!

In an instant, as many as 22 spears were thrown all over my body.

And… ..

‘Shred!’

T-Uh-Uh-Uh—!

…There was no ending more certain than this.

– Congratulations! You have defeated the boss monster ‘High-ranking Warlock (Red Orc)’!

“It’s really over…”

With this, we have protected the erosion factor and All obstructions have been removed.

Lee Hyun-wook moved the Living Armor to eliminate any remnants still alive and turned on the Mana Messenger.

“The situation is over. Evacuate the civilians and clean up the scene. And… come up on top of Park Jun-mo.”

After giving that order, they immediately began searching the rooftop.

Soon, they discovered the ‘erosion factor’ hidden under the pile of stones on the altar.

A bundle of roots sprouted from it, penetrating the department store and extending all the way down to the basement.

In the next three days, the entire Gangnam area was to be covered with the roots of this devil tree.

‘There is no way that such a dreary landscape will ever be reproduced.’

If you remove this, the building forest in Gangnam will not turn into a ‘devil’s ruin’.

In other words, a large part of Seoul can be saved.

Lee Hyun-wook ripped off the World Stone entangled in the roots and crushed it in one go.

Evil—!

– You destroyed the ‘World Stone (Wave)’!

Gooooo——

Then the open gate on one side of the rooftop began to collapse.

And just like when I got Moglei, the moment the gate disappeared, an item was created.

Ungh—

Lee Hyun-wook stretched out his hand and grabbed it. It was a very small round object.

– Obtained Misteltein’s Seed (Unknown).

‘Finally…’

[Item information]

– Name: Seed of Mystiltein (Unknown)

– Effect: None

In Norse mythology, Mystiltein is the weapon of god killing that kills ‘Baldur’, the god of light, Odin’s son. (Mistilteinn) It is said that it was a twig of ‘mistletoe’ and this item also followed that tradition.

However, since it was a fraudulent item in many ways, it was not dropped in a completed state, and

the seed had to be planted in the ground and a long time and effort had to be spent to make the ‘tree’ bloom.

But there was one problem. The mistletoe was a ‘parasitic tree’.

In other words, as a plant that grows parasitic on another tree, it was necessary to find a tree to nourish it.

‘…It cannot be attached to just any tree; it must be at least a sacred tree.’

It would be perfect to have a ‘world tree’ in the center of Africa, but it was not possible at the moment.

In many ways, just because you got your hands on a seed, it wasn’t an item you could see its power right away.

‘But it’s a relief that it didn’t fall into the hands of the villain.’

There were dozens of heroes killed by this weapon that Lee Hyun-wook knew. This is because, no matter how strong the defense and strong vitality, Mystiltein ‘ignored’ them all.

‘I just need to smoke it someday and ask Kang Hee-seol to convert it into a weapon I can use.’

Lee Hyun-wook stuck the seed deep into his inner pocket.

Besides that, there was a lot to be gained from this battle.

First, I acquired two items from the bosom of the boss monster, a high-ranking warlock.

– Obtained the Dark Wood Wand (rare).

– Obtained an ancient coin from the Underground Kingdom.

‘I guess I can give this wand to Park Jun-mo.’

In fact, as we saw earlier, Park Jun-mo’s ‘current control’ was fully possible with bare hands.

However, the wand was still able to act like a kind of antenna as a medium for utilizing abilities.

Of course, if you develop a ‘sense of control’ like Lee Hyun-wook in the future, there will be no need to use a wand.

And then I checked the second item, ‘Ancient Coin of the Underground Kingdom’.

Even though it was metal, it wouldn’t have any special abilities if absorbed.

‘This can be used later when the Dwarf race appears.’

The monsters coming out of the gate weren’t all hostile.

There were also people with considerable intelligence who interacted with humanity from their first appearance.

The Dwarf race was one of them.

They later appeared all over the world, established villages, and interacted amicably with humanity. Their item-making skills and level of magic engineering were such that most human blacksmiths could not imitate them.

And this ‘ancient coin of the Underground Kingdom’ was the highest unit of currency among the Dwarves. Currently, it may be nothing more than a so-called ‘miscellaneous item’, but its value changes from the moment dwarves appear.

‘Tsk, I can’t use everything I got today right now…’

Anyway, around the time I finished searching for items, Park Jun-mo came up to the rooftop.

“Um… Sergeant Lee Hyun-wook…”

The guy looked somewhat lost.

“I just saw a very strange… system message.”

Lee Hyun-wook nodded,

“I know, there’s no need to explain.”

I could tell without even listening. The ability growth message should have popped up.

“ah! As expected, Sergeant Lee Hyun-wook is like this too!”

At Lee Hyun-wook’s words, Park Jun-mo nodded with an expression that seemed like he had expected it.

Lee Hyun-wook, who was in the same F grade as him, noticed his rapid growth method.

“Listen carefully, Park Jun-mo, don’t tell anyone about that and don’t show it.”

“yes?”

“You don’t want to be subjected to biological experiments, right?”

“……”

Park Jun-mo’s expression hardened at those words.

A biological experiment…

In fact, if the F-class ability, known for its non-growth characteristics, suddenly improved, it would be more than an issue. It will become a subject of some kind of research, and like the cliché in movies, agents wearing sunglasses may come to visit….

Park Jun-mo recalled that scene and innocently nodded his head repeatedly.

“Huh!” yes! “I’ll keep my mouth shut!”

Naturally, it was never a good idea for ability growth methods to be made public.

‘For now, it’s enough to say that Park Jun-mo has achieved achievements like me.’

A lie like this would be discovered someday, but it had to be delayed as much as possible.

‘Anyway, is this guy’s method of growing his abilities electric shock… or lightning…’

The growth methods for growth characteristics other than level were often absurd because they were unique.

Although we will have to check later, it is highly likely that Park Jun-mo was not simply ‘exposed’ to electric current.

‘Inferno’, which is said to improve its abilities when exposed to fire, actually needs to be exposed to fire of over 1,000 degrees Celsius. That’s why he built a huge furnace in his residence.

‘There are probably conditions such as voltage and current above a certain amount.’

Still, in Park Jun-mo’s case, it was a somewhat normal way of growing up.

‘There’s something more plausible about me having to swallow a piece of metal, right?

Of course, there were many more unusual growth methods than Lee Hyun-wook.

‘The funniest thing of all was Hantaesan.’

Lee Hyun-wook couldn’t help but laugh twice as he thought of Han Tae-san.

King Kwon (奉王), ranked 2nd in the Korean player rankings, was always famous for ‘training with closed doors’.

And so, each time it reappears, it comes back much stronger.

That is why his training in closed doors was a wonderful image of a true martial artist’s mysterious asceticism.

But the reality is….

‘I guess he locks himself in an empty basement and does 10,000 sit-ups a day?’

King Gwon had to do sit-ups all day long, morning, afternoon, and evening in order to improve his abilities…

That was the only complex and annoyance of Han Tae-san, a man overflowing with self-esteem. Even now, Lee Hyun-

wook chuckled again

as he remembered the sight of him doing sit-ups and sweating profusely by himself .

***

About an hour later, sorting out the situation reached its final stage.

“Okay, we’ll be heading to the shelter soon. Ah! If anyone is hurt, please let us know at any time!”

Rescued civilians were boarding four buses that had been prepared in advance.

Meanwhile, Lee Hyun-wook gathered the players who had fought together in one place.

“Thank you all for your hard work. Although there were sacrifices, many lives were saved.”

The players nodded at Lee Hyun-wook’s words, but looked embarrassed.

“We… didn’t do anything other than watch the amazing scene.”

“I was really surprised. The Steel Company wasn’t called heroes for nothing.”

“I admit it! I learned a lot about how to be so calm and organized in everything!”

Each person let out a word of exclamation.

Most of the actions they saw of the Steel Company were still truly unbelievable.

If I could survive the wave, I would probably have it as a snack for drinking for the rest of my life.

“By the way, it’s amazing that two erosion factors have been eliminated… It’s truly Seoul’s savior.”

Lee Hyun-wook shook his head at those words.

“It’s too early to be optimistic. “This disaster is not over yet.”

“Oh, right…”

Even though the two erosion factors were removed, the wave was still in progress.

“And it’s not something we can do alone. I would appreciate it if you continue to do your best to overcome this disaster. In just two days, the fate of Seoul will be decided.”

Everyone nodded at that,

“Yes, of course!”

“That’s right. Who will fight if we don’t fight?”

They were scared by the appearance of the world boss monster, but after seeing the Steel Company’s performance, their spirits rose again.

“And from now on, we are going to go back to the O Elementary School Shelter and spend the night. “If you want to accompany me, it may be a little inconvenient, but there are seats on the truck or bus over there, so you can take it.”

While Lee Hyun-wook was saying that, he was keeping an eye on the three men standing furthest behind.

They were Choi Min-seong’s subordinates from the Taesan Guild.

‘You must have noticed in the middle that their strategy failed, but you didn’t run away?’

Lee Hyun-wook thought they might escape the moment the barrier disappeared.

Therefore, he ordered Kim Se-hee to keep a close eye on them and subdue them in case of emergency.

But for some reason, he was still close to me with an iron plate on his face.

‘I’m going to judge that there’s no way I’ll die openly, and I’m going to stay a little longer to understand the situation.’

Lee Hyun-wook came to that conclusion.

And it seemed like the situation had finally been figured out.

The three men slowly began to leave the group.

“Where are you going there? It’s almost night, so let’s go in our truck.”

Park Jun-mo approached them and asked quietly.

“Haha… We will move separately. There is a guild office nearby.”

“Oh, I see. And… I feel sorry for what happened to my colleagues.”

Park Jun-mo bowed his head.

“…no. “I won’t feel unfair because he died while doing a good deed.”

With those words, they quickly left.

***

About five minutes later, the three men were standing in an alley far away from the department store.

“Huh… How the fuck did this happen?”

“Look! “I told you I was screwed!”

From the moment the department store’s barrier disappeared, they realized something was wrong.

However, that alone was not enough to guarantee failure and run away.

Because… it was a plan that could not fail no matter how much one thought about it.

So at first, I believed that Choi Min-seong had hastily changed his plan for whatever reason.

However, even after a long time, Choi Min-seong was not seen.

Only then did I have no choice but to admit it.

The plan completely failed….

“Shit! What did I tell you to change the plan inside the assistant team leader? He just failed and died inside!”

“B… But how on earth can that be possible? What will you say if the team leader asks? Are you going to just say I cut it because the team leader couldn’t see it? Fuck it… I need to find out what’s going on!”

“I’m going crazy…”

I had more than one question.

“Is there something strange? “Isn’t it normal for them to at least criticize us or show us some suspicion?”

If everything had gone according to plan, Choi Min-seong and his group would have targeted the lives of Steel Company.

In the process, there was a high possibility that they would have been exposed as being in solidarity with monsters.

But on the contrary, they didn’t care at all . They even said they were worried and said they were sorry for not using it.

Of course, that couldn’t be seen as sincere, but they were confused in many ways.

“Where on earth did it go wrong? And what are those bastards—!”

Really, there was not a single part that could be guessed at.

“Now, no matter what happens, I have no choice but to join Team Leader Chu.”

The other two men nodded at those words.

“Yes, if he were to… he would just deal with guys like that if he wanted to.”

If A-grade player Chu Kyo-yong was there, the Steel Company was nothing.

“Hey, since I can’t see anymore, take out the Mana Messenger.”

“Okay, I’ll contact the main university and tell them about this!”

For some reason, the man fell forward without being able to finish his sentence.

The other two men looked down at him. There was a red hole in his neck.

The two people looked at each other with surprised expressions.

At that moment…

“Oops!”

Something popped out through another person’s neck.

It was a silver arrow.

“Huh—!”

The arrow flew towards the lone survivor, and

he stumbled backwards and crashed into the wall.

At that moment, the arrow stopped right in front of his uvula.

Ugh—

“Please help me!”

Unable to move at all, he was trembling and rolling his eyes left and right.

“Please save me!”

He cried out desperately and looked left and right again.

But there was no one around.

At that time, a shadow appeared overhead.

He swallowed dry saliva and raised his head.

“I think I have a lot of questions…”

Lee Hyun-wook, the steel company commander, was floating in the sky.

“Ah…”

His body came down towards the ground very slowly, as if defying gravity.

“…How did you come up with an answer?”

The pale note that touched the man’s neck spun around.

It felt like it would pierce through that delicate flesh at any moment.

“Bwak! Please save me! I don’t know anything!”

Lee Hyun-wook nodded.

“Okay, I’ll only ask you one thing, so if you know anything, just answer that.”

“…….”

“Where is Monster Tamer’s ‘Heart Box’?”

“what? How did you do that…”

The man’s eyes widened. It was because a completely unexpected question was asked.

Lee Hyun-wook grinned.

“…You know? “Then can you answer me?”

“…….”

“I ask again. Where is Monster Tamer’s heart box?”

Monster Tamers capture monsters and make them their own.

And most of them sympathize with such monsters rather than dominate them and become companions.

In that respect, it was quite difficult to tame a powerful and violent monster.

However, Chu Kyo-yong was able to do that, and that is why he was active as the best monster tamer.

And the secret was thanks to the ‘Heart Box’, which extracts and stores the heart of a monster.

By using it, not only could violent monsters that did not recognize the player’s control be made obedient, but they could also be made into immortal beings like zombies.

In other words, if you just destroy it, you can neutralize Chu Kyo-yong, a grade A player.

“I can never… say— ugh—!”

Lee Hyun-wook forced his mouth open and started shoving something down his throat.

“Then you have to force him to speak… My method will be a little different from common sense.”

I tried not to swallow it, but the unknown thing pushed itself into my throat.

“Gulp—gulp—”

I ended up swallowing them all.

Immediately after, Lee Hyun-wook raised his index finger and pointed to his stomach.

And then I started drawing a circle…

“K-Ah!”

Something ripped through my stomach, causing indescribable pain.

Should I say that it feels like my internal organs are being eaten away little by little?…

“Kwaaaa——!”

That’s right, what Lee Hyun-wook fed the man was a handful of metal pieces.

“Ouch—”

Lee Hyun-wook covered the man’s mouth and spoke softly.

“think carefully. “No matter what your organization’s plans are, you die here.”

“…….”

“Forget everything, be comfortable and suffer… That’s all you can decide.”

“Bff…….”

Lee Hyun-wook believed in the power of this simple and clear method.

It was the result of using it countless times in my past life.

‘Most villains are selfish and evil. That’s their fundamental nature.’

In the first place, by doing selfish and evil actions, you will receive a ‘villain quest’.

There was no way that an organization made up of such people would have a special sense of solidarity,

so they implanted ‘potential magic’ in the members of the organization to grab their ‘life’ and make them follow the rules.

Then, if you make it so painful that you give up your life…

‘A member of a low-level organization betrays that organization too easily and chooses a comfortable death.’

The last card Ki Baekjun had prepared began to slowly turn over.