Steel-Eating Player - Chapter 84
Episode 84. [Incheon, Demon World, Black Market – 5]
—————————
Red Moonlight Herb, a material item that can exterminate Swallows.
That’s the medicine. About 15 tons were prepared.
This was a much larger amount than Lee Hyun-wook had thought.
‘To get so much in such a short period of time, the black market is definitely a big deal.’
The red moonlight herb was rarely used, so circulation was low. However, at that time, a lot of it was piled up in the warehouse of a black market broker, and Red Hall bought them all.
‘Okay, in the future, when I want to get something, I’ll be able to get it more easily.’
This was the biggest advantage of forming an alliance with Ko Jun-cheol, a black market tycoon.
“Now what should I do with this?”
Go Jin-hwa asked.
Among the ways to exterminate the Swallows that had covered the Amazon, the most effective method was to create and install a type of ‘sacred object’ that generates a ‘debuff’ that only acts on the Swallows. By doing so, the entire area can become home to the Swallows
. ‘But now there is no time to develop
such items.’
Instead, there was a method of forcefully ‘feeding’ the herb through a somewhat physical therapy.
“Now, just fold this red moonlight herb, boil it, and make it into a sticky form. Since it is a simple mixture, even if you are not an alchemist player, you can create it with just a few ingredients.”
“Ah… so I just have to spray it on those black vines like herbicide?”
In response to Go Jin-hwa’s question, Lee Hyun-wook shook his head.
“No. Just making it with water and spraying it is just a stopgap measure. It will retreat for a moment, evaporate, and then move forward again. “To kill it off, you have to ‘inject’ it directly into the core of the colony.”
At that point, Ko Jin-hwa felt puzzled.
“Huh? Injection… How do you inject it directly into that monster? I can’t even imagine.”
Go Jin-hwa said that and looked at the Swallow writhing in the distance.
Ku-gu-gu-gu–
Waves of black vines slowly approaching as they tore through the ground…
When that thing approached, there was a scene where several villagers were dragged in. I remembered it vividly.
The black vines grab a person like tentacles… and force their roots into every orifice, including the eyes, nose, mouth, anus, etc. When that happens… the entire body’s fluids are sucked out in just a few seconds.
‘Fuck…’
She narrowed her eyes.
After all, going directly up there and trying to do something…
‘…is no different from approaching with the teeth of a monster.’
However, Lee Hyun-wook nodded as if he already knew everything and answered too easily,
“Oh, I’ll take care of that. “You don’t have to worry.”
…They said they would take care of it.
He then explained without hesitation all kinds of information about where the ‘core line’, the core of the Swallow colony, is located and the pattern in which that huge colony moves.
Go Jin-hwa listened to all the explanations and felt surprised at every moment.
‘…How does this man know so much detailed information?’
The sight made me feel like a scholar who had studied monsters for a long time.
Strangely enough, I come to believe and rely on it.
‘It’s the first time I’ve seen my dad value someone so highly… but he’s not normal either.’
Her father, Go Jun-cheol, advised her to keep a close eye on Lee Hyun-wook.
“…Jinhwa, that person is someone who will one day take over this country.”
Go Jun-cheol was known by everyone to be accurate when it came to how he looked at people.
It was an essential virtue to establish himself as a kingpin of this dangerous underworld.
He recognized a man named Lee Hyun-wook just by exchanging a few words.
‘Dad, maybe… he might be dreaming of escaping to the surface world through this man.’
After being kicked out of the real world, they established a new home in the dungeon, but
this incident made them realize once again that this is an unstable world.
Therefore, Go Jun-cheol thought that he could not allow his descendants to live in a place like this.
In other words, all of these Red Hall villages were looking forward to the day when they could walk on land one day.
‘Well, honestly, I don’t have any plans to live here forever…’
I didn’t know that Lee Hyun-wook would become their friend.
Of course, grabbing that rope isn’t free, but…
***
Five hours have already passed.
“Well, I have completed the ‘sulce’ as you requested. And I have also obtained 500 iron stakes.”
Before we knew it, the ‘Red Moonlight Herb Essence’ that Lee Hyun-wook requested had been produced, and the
500 iron stakes made of ‘Dungeon Steel’ that he had ordered had also arrived.
Lee Hyun-wook checked two items.
“Yes, it’s just right.”
Hyunwook Lee used ‘metal transformation’ to dig a long hole in an iron stake and then immersed it in a vat containing the essence. Then bubbling—bubbles rose. The slime was seeping into the hole in the iron stake.
‘And harden it like this.’
Lee Hyun-wook planned to drive this into the core of the Swallow and then ‘shred’ it.
That was the ‘forced injection’ method.
“Now, please load all of these onto the airship over there.”
Go Jin-hwa followed Lee Hyun-wook’s finger and looked at the huge object standing on one side.
[Friedwen], a shield and airship.
It had already been several hours since he had seen its appearance, but he was amazed once again.
‘Anyway, what is this man doing? ‘Do you have this many? They’re all top-level items, right?’
Hugin Laputa Freedwen… I was looking forward to what other items would shock me in the future.
Meanwhile, Park Jun-mo and Yeo Sang-min were inside the Freedwen.
This was because Lee Hyun-wook ordered Park Jun-mo to stay inside the airship with Yeo Sang-min.
‘As far as I know, Yeo Sang-min has an otaku temperament, so he would be very interested in equipment such as airships.’
He was scheduled to one
day manage not only the airship but also the entire Laputa. In order to cultivate such talent, it was necessary to make him feel some ‘interest’ as soon as possible.
That is why he intentionally made Yeo Sang-min take a look inside.
Friedwen . Ahn Yeo Sang-min was chatting with Park Jun-mo and looking at things as if he was excited, but
when Lee Hyun-wook came in, he looked at him and hesitated.
It was like the expression of a six-year-old child who was caught playing with a friend’s toy.
“…Park Jun-mo . “We will be leaving soon.”
“Oh yeah! “I will prepare.”
That’s how Friedwen flew up, and the 8 players from Red Hall who were mobilized for the operation couldn’t help but admire. They had grown up here since they were children and had never been able to experience flying.
‘And the airship’s ride quality is incomparably better than that of an airplane.’
It floats very stably with magical power without any ‘output’.
That’s why it felt like riding a high-speed elevator rather than an airplane.
“Prydwen altitude rises to 1,000 feet.”
Woouwoo——!
And even if Lee Hyun-wook did not control it directly, he was able to give voice commands for basic operations like this. Of course, manual control was necessary for delicate maneuvers, so I planned to practice from time to time. Soon, it was twitching like a black vein in the hazy sand dust below
. Something caught their eye on the street.
Looking down at that hellish scene, the players of Red Hall sighed.
“Ugh, it really feels like our land is dying. Two….”
“Damn, when I climbed the mountain behind it two months ago, everything up to this point was green…”
And there were hundreds of Red Hall residents, including Go Jun-cheol, climbing the mountain behind it.
“…Our village. “Everyone has high expectations. Please take care of us.”
Lee Hyun-wook nodded at Go Jin-hwa’s words.
He didn’t intend to disappoint them.
‘If you do that, there will be a definite price.’
At that time, the inside of the Prydwen asked with a blue light.
Wham—! Wham—! Wham—! Wham—!
Then, with an alarm sound, the rear of the Prydwen began to open.
It was like opening the ‘lamp door’, the cargo door of a military transport aircraft. It was the same scene.
Huuuu——!
The wind blew in through the open door and stirred the inside.
This meant that something was finally starting, so everyone looked at Lee Hyun-wook.
“…Now, operation number 1 begins.”
Lee Hyun-wook walked to the ‘lamp door’ and looked down at the ground.
– Swallow: Level 1 tentacle (LV. 61)
– Swallow: Level 1 tentacle (LV. 60)
– Swallow: Level 2 tentacle (LV. 63)
– Swallow: Stage 1 Tentacle (LV. 61)
.
.
.
Hundreds of pieces of information began to emerge through the Insight Lens.
‘In this way, the Swallow colony is not only one entity but also multiple monsters.’
But touching them was a waste of time.
No matter how much you cut them, they would continue to regenerate. In other words, if
you didn’t know how to attack them, you had no choice but to go through a lot of trouble.
“Now, in order to properly attack that guy, I’m going to sprinkle ‘rain’.”
The rain spoken of here was not the steel rain.
“Wizards, please focus your water magic on that spot over there!”
At Lee Hyun-wook’s words, the six wizards on the Pridwen approached the lamp door and stood in a line.
Soon, all kinds of water-related magic, including water balls and water cannons, were fired, and they scattered in the air and poured down on the Swallow colony.
Boom— Pop—pop—pop—pop—pop—
Also, the water tank that had been prepared in advance and the lake connected to it were draped toward the bottom.
Shoot—a—a—a—a——
A considerable amount of water poured down like rain.
Then the Swallow’s tentacles It stood upright towards the sky as if trying to catch the moisture.
It looked like a colony of black sea anemones with hundreds of strands wriggling towards the sky.
“Oh, this is so disgusting I’m going to die…”
That was right then.
Ku—d—d. —D——!
“Uh! Look over there!”
Park Jun-mo, who was monitoring the ground, found something.
It was an incredibly thick bunch of vines, twisted into a circle that looked like a giant black pumpkin.
“—uh! As you said, something popped out of the area where we sprayed the rain!”
This was the reaction that Lee Hyun-wook had predicted.
‘As expected… when it rains, the core line comes out directly.’
Lee Hyun-wook looked at it in detail through the Insight Lens.
– Swallow: Core Line (LV. 99)
Swallow colonies sense moisture with tentacles and move to absorb it. The absorbed water flows into the center, the ‘core line’, where it flows. ‘Growth’ that creates new vines occurs in the core line.
In other words, the core line is a very important organ, so it is always hidden deep in the ground.
However, there was only one case where the core line directly absorbed water…
‘That is. ‘It’s time to rain.’
The reason was that it was possible to save the unnecessary energy consumption of sucking water from the tentacles and moving it along a very long passage to the core line. That is why Lee Hyun-wook sprinkled ‘rain’ to induce the core line to rise to the ground
. .
Understanding the monster’s ecology well was also part of the ‘raid.’
“So, if you hit that thing and ‘inject’ the herbicide, the colony will die?”
In response to Go Jin-hwa’s somewhat excited question, Lee Hyun-wook nodded and stretched out his hand somewhere.
“Come on! All wizards, get out of the way! Boxes 1 and 2 are falling!”
At Lee Hyun-wook’s shout, the wizard players standing near the ramp door stepped aside, and between them, two metal boxes slid violently and fell out of the airship.
And the moment it crashed to a certain altitude—
‘Crush—’
Zeng——!
The box was crushed, and a total of 500 iron stakes were scattered here and there.
Lee Hyun-wook stretched out his left hand toward them.
Hung——
Then dozens of iron stakes lined up with their pointed heads pointing toward the floor.
Immediately after, the acceleration began and
soon over the core line that catches the rainwater—
bur—bur—bur—bur—bur—bur—!
They all fell down at once.
Yeo Sang-min looked at the scene and stuck out his tongue.
‘…crazy! ‘How can they guess everything so accurately?’
But that wasn’t the end.
Yea-that-that-that-that-jeong——!
The 500 iron stakes exploded all at once, creating a storm of iron pieces.
Kugugugugu….
It was a spectacular scene where the entire upper part of the strong core line was blown away.
‘Wow… I’ve seen something like this somewhere before!’
Yeo Sang-min recalled the memory.
And it seemed like it was probably a scene from an old war movie I once saw on DVD.
Yes, that… bombing using aircraft, it also resembled precision bombing.
The power of modern weapons that can devastate a wide area with a single blow…
However, I knew very well that that incredible firepower was a relic of an old era that did not work against monsters.
No matter how powerful the bombardment seems, it won’t be able to break through even a single troll’s barrier…
‘But that’s all the player’s power, so it works on monsters too!’
In other words, it meant that monsters could be inflicted with incredible firepower similar to that of modern weapons!
‘This crazy scene… was it possible alone?’
And Lee Hyun-wook’s attack was not over. Following his senses, countless pieces of metal were moving like insects, squeezing into the scratches of the core line.
‘Okay, the essence has probably soaked in enough.’
Lee Hyun-wook had a feeling that this operation was successful.
“Wow… I think that clump of vines is screaming.”
Cluck—cuck—cuck—
Just as Park Jun-mo said, it tangled and wriggled like a swarm of insects that had been sprayed with insecticide.
“Wow… it really worked.” “They have stopped moving and are digging deeper into the ground.”
“Yes, it will have the effect of regressing right now, and in the long run, it will slowly dry out and die.”
It started digging into the ground.
It looked like it was running away…
Waaaa——!
The cheers of the residents of Red Hall on the hill could be heard in the distance.
From their perspective, it looked like Lee Hyun-wook’s strike had worked. “
Huh—but really…is this the end? “To be honest, I still couldn’t believe it.”
Go Evolution said as if it was hard to believe.
“If there is another colony, you can deal with it the same way. Swallow is a catastrophe that you are helpless to face if you do not know how to respond, but it is a phenomenon that can be controlled if you know how to respond.”
What would Ko Jin-hwa say when he heard those words? It felt like receiving a prescription from a doctor.
‘… The dog is cool.’
It was Yeo Sang-min who was thinking that way.
Lee Hyun-wook, the man she had been denying… When she met him in person, her thoughts changed completely.
‘Yes, I am sure that he is the proud savior of Seoul. But this is an F grade… .’
Then our eyes met with Lee Hyun-wook.
“…….”
But then he said something as if he had penetrated Yeo Sang-min’s thoughts.
“After seeing this, don’t you even more believe that I’m in grade F?”
“Ah…”
Honestly, it was true. The scene just now was believable even if it was S grade.
What he suspected—Lee Hyun-wook being the S-class whose government died was much more credible.
“Yeo Sangmin, don’t be stuck in a dungeon like this and just be cynical, follow me.”
“Why on earth… and then what… makes a difference?”
“At least I can confirm whether or not your complacent defeatism is real.”
Although the words were bitter, Yeo Sang-min was not angry.
“…Possibilities can only be confirmed if you try.”
Yeo Sang-min felt an inexplicable anger at those words.
But there was no time to indulge in any sentimentality.
Coo-gu-gu-gu-gu–!
Because a loud noise rang out from somewhere.
Ku-gu-gu-gu-gu–!
The ground collapsed like an earthquake. It was a sound.
Looking down from high above Prydwen, it was easy to spot the epicenter. A section
of the stone mountain that had just been covered with Swallow’s tentacles
was collapsing.
Soon, a huge cave entrance appeared there.
And ….
– (!) I found the sign of the quest.
I found the ‘sign’ rather than the quest’s ‘arrival’.
This meant that I found a hint to obtain the quest.
‘Quest… It is triggered by defeating the Swallow. It seems like it was a trigger.’
If you think about it, the appearance of this Swallow was also a special event.
In other words, it could be interpreted to mean that some ‘reward’ would appear after defeating it.
‘And maybe it has something to do with the Adamant Mine…’
In the original world, Taishan After the guild defeated Swallow, the hidden stage, Adamant Mine, was discovered. This meant that the two events were very closely related. ‘Okay, the
profits roll in by themselves.’
Lee Hyun-wook turned Prydwen’s nose toward that place.
“It lands over there.”
Following his instructions, Friedwen landed at the entrance to the cave.
– You have entered the hidden stage ‘Adamant Mine’.
“…uh?”
“What is this Hidden Stage?”
And at the entrance to the Hidden Stage, I found something strange.
“Isn’t that the gate?”
It was a purple shimmer. Yes, it definitely looked like a gate.
But a gate within a gate….
None of them had ever heard of the existence of such a phenomenon, so everyone could not hide their confusion.
But Lee Hyun-wook shook his head.
“No, it’s a little different. That’s… a crack.”
A crack was a kind of portal between a gate and a temporary dimensional door.
However, if a teleport was a door between areas in the same dimension,
the crack was a passage between completely different dimensions.
It was a very rare symptom that Lee Hyun-wook had also seen only a few times.
“…Everyone, please be careful. What will come out?
Whoa!
Before he could finish his words, something really jumped out.
It was a huge brown piece of scrap metal.
Boom! Boom!
It flew out at a tremendous speed and hit various places on the rocky mountain. Then, it soon fell into a pile of rocks.
Kugugugu…
That was some kind of airship.
After a while, its door began to open.
Clunk-clack-clack-
But it stopped opening probably because the door had been dented by the previous collision. .
And then a head popped out through the crack in the door.
“……Wow! What are you just looking at! If you’re not the one who’s going to kill me, help me!”
It was a dwarf with a big bulbous nose and a bushy beard.
And in Lee Hyun-wook’s eyes, its identity was displayed as a one-line message.
– Dwarf Wanderer (LV. 49)
” …Damn, aren’t humans always this merciless? Grump!”
And…
– (!) The quest has arrived.
‘…It’s finally starting.’
It seemed like it was time for the parts to run Laputa to come out.