CH 203

Smoke rose from various parts of the city. Accompanied by deafening explosions, buildings collapsed, and mechanical robots busily searched for their next human targets.

“Eek!”

A man hiding in a building screamed. He locked the building’s front door and hid himself while staying completely silent, but soon, a mechanical robot soldier, with a height of about 2 meters, broke through a wall and entered the building. It was holding up a gun that it had obtained from a human target. The T-41 model mech robot had its own weapon, but it procured a local human weapon because it was programmed to take such action when its own weapon was out of bullets.

“Someone… s-save me…”

The man implored the robot for mercy, but that wasn’t going to affect the T-series mechanical robot, which even the Legion didn’t recognize as its own [Species].

Bang!

Accompanied by a loud noise, the man’s head was blown to smithereens. Soon, the space behind the mechanical robot shuddered and opened as if it had been waiting for this moment.

Whirl!

Two magic circles with a diameter of about 3 meters floated in the air. The magic circles floated in the air for a while, shedding a soft white light, and then turned into a single circular sphere, which soon burst like a water droplet, spitting out two young men.

“Fuck. What kind of mission needs to be conducted in such a hurry?”

“Still, compared to the difficulty level, they’re giving us a lot of gem points. Oh, is that the objective target?”

Men's clothing wasn’t the kind that could be seen in reality, yet, it was familiar to most if not all people on Earth. Holding a Bastard Sword while wearing plate armor, one of the two men’s getup was something people often wore in the Middle Ages. What made the image more believable was that the warrior was a Westerner. He was dressed as if he had just jumped out of a medieval fantasy movie. The T-series mechanical robot, uncaring about its opponent’s wardrobe, started to move.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The mechanical robot pulled the trigger of its weapon while aiming at the man, but the bullets fell helplessly to the floor, unable to pierce the force field around the man’s body, let alone get to his plate armor. The man was employing a type of defensive barrier that absorbed kinetic energy.

Crack!

And right after that, the man’s Bastard Sword shattered the mechanical robot’s body. The other man, dressed in mage garb, started to complain.

“Hey, you idiot! Don’t break it!! Something like that can sell for over 5 gold!”

“Oh right… Hey, but now that we’re Level 10, do we have to be so careful over a pitiful 5 gold?”

“You need to save to live well, idiot… huh?”

As the man was berating his party member, a sound like a camera flash going off was heard, and soon, a beam of light rushed in after blowing away an entire wall. It was truly a surprise attack, but to users who were accustomed to all sorts of surprise situations, this wasn’t anything to be particularly surprised about.

Crackle!

A defensive barrier shield appeared in front of the two users and blocked the light energy attack. Of course, the defensive barrier shield would break if the incoming attack exceeded a certain limit, but in the current case, the defensive barrier shield was able to handle the oncoming attack’s power level.

“Oh, they’re weak. Probably Level 5 or 6 at best?”

“Mech robots. They’re weak against physical strikes and electricity-based attacks.”

Crackle! Pop!

The warrior wielded his sword and the mage started casting thunderbolt spells. Although the mechanical robot soldiers were extremely dangerous for modern humankind, a single Master level user could easily defeat a whole army of these mechanical robots. Moreover, the mechanical robot soldiers possessed limited armaments and size, as they were made to be [at or around modern human capability levels]. Hence, these mechanical robots were no match for the two users.

“How long do we have left?”

“Almost done… Huh?”

At that moment, the mage’s expression turned into a frown. It wasn’t because of the bodies scattered all over the place; the users’ minds were protected by the system’s defensive barriers and familiarity with death. However, what puzzled the mage was the fact that the surrounding background looked oddly familiar. The city was already in ruins, but what remained looked quite familiar.

“What’s the matter?”

“I… know this place,” the mage muttered to the puzzled warrior.

“You know this place?”

“This… This is the city square with the Liberation Monument in it. It’s located in the central region of China. I came here during my last trip to China.”

“What are you talking about? This mission’s map is based on Earth?”

The mage tilted his head as his frown deepened. He heard moans from between the collapsed buildings.

“Oh, is that Alaska? What the heck? Are we in-game?”

“… Do you recognize me?”

Alaska, who was a male mage and a popular user who MCed for a game broadcasting channel, which focused mainly on DIO, groaned at the unexpected situation. In his eyes, the injured civilian man was marked as an [NPC].

“Hey, what is that guy talking about?”

“You don’t understand? Ah, right… You didn’t input Chinese into your interpreter. No… wait…”

Alaska, who had accumulated enormous amounts of knowledge and entered the realm of an archmage, fell into a state of shock and chaos.

“What the hell? What’s going on?”

This sort of situation was happening all over Earth. Although Master level users traveled all over the universe to conduct missions, it was impossible for them to not recognize the world they lived in. Even if they considered everything as just a game, the Masters, and the tremendous power they exerted in real life, left a strong impression on the human survivors.

However, that fact wasn’t something that was immediately apparent to everyone around the world.

‘An EMP (Electromagnetic Pulse) attack. They shut down all the electronics around me.’

Yongno, no, Merlin threw away the smartphone he had picked up. The circuit was burnt out and recovery seemed impossible.

‘But why? Even if they didn’t paralyze our electronic systems and devices, they have the power to wipe out humanity. Are they trying to prevent humans from running away in a car?’

Merlin stopped walking. He slowly advanced and unraveled his thoughts and came up with several hypotheses.

1. To prevent the filming of videos and to restrict contact with the outside world.

Search tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w for the original.

2. To forcefully log out anyone playing DIO nearby.

3. To prevent anyone from running away.

Hypothesis #1 was very convincing. In fact, due to the EMP shockwave, proper military forces couldn’t mobilize. The large explosions and word of mouth accounts could spread, but that wasn’t enough to properly assess and become aware of the actual situation happening on the ground. All rescue signals and communication lines were being blocked.

Besides, it had only been two hours since the first mechanical robots started appearing. State agencies were in a state of confusion, so they were unable to properly read the situation.

Hypothesis #2 was also a possibility. Merlin was convinced that this attack was related to the Noblesse, who were currently operating and running DIO. It didn’t make sense that extraterrestrial beings suddenly invaded Earth without any foreshadowing.

Merlin abandoned hypothesis #3. In the first place, these mechanical robot soldiers were very mobile, and since they were impossible to deal with without a full-fledged army and respective firepower, it would be more efficient to explode a few more bombs than to cast an EMP shockwave.

Clank!

At that moment, a giant mechanical robot soldier, after destroying a nearby building, raised its body and approached Merlin. The chest of the mechanical robot soldier, which looked like a human but without a head, opened up, and red rays of light began to gather. Soon, the mechanical robot soldier fired a beam from its chest beam, which possessed enough destructive power to blow down several buildings. The survivors, who were in hiding, trembled in fear; however, Merlin remained calm.

“I request thunder.”

Crackle!

As Merlin muttered, sparks flew from his right hand. Even a traditional Earth-based army armed with modern weapons would find it difficult to handle such a mechanical robot, but these opponents didn’t pose a threat to Merlin. On the contrary, Merlin found their low power level strange when compared to the seriousness of the situation.

‘They’re being constrained. There must be a reason why a stronger force wasn’t sent. They could easily wipe out humanity if they brought in something like a giant ship and launched a carpet bombing.’

Rumble!

Lightning struck. Like a waterfall, a great many lightning bolts flashed down with their high voltage currents and hit the mechanical robots. The giant mechanical robot soldiers’ systems seemed to be fried from the excess voltage, causing internal errors and instantly rendering the mechanical robots immobile and useless.

Gee-

“Do they have a self-destruct function?”

Seeing the body of the fallen mechanical robot soldiers turn red, Merlin calmly moved his hands. Instantly, the fallen mechanical robot soldiers’ bodies disappeared; they had been moved into the basement of a nearby half-destroyed building.

Whirl!

The ground shook from the self-destruct explosions, but there was no further damage or human casualties from their self-destruction. No matter what method the mechanical robots used, they weren’t a match for Merlin.

However, the problem was…

“I-is… is it over?”

“What’s going on… hey, isn’t that Merlin?”

“Merlin? Why is one of the Heaven above the Heavens here…”

“Why is an in-game avatar wandering around here? Also… what were those machines? I’m sure I had already logged out from the game!!”

“He saved us.”

“Hey, Merlin? What’s going on…”

The people gathered around Merlin. Their eyes were filled with a sense of bewilderment and suspicion.

Poof!

However, the background changed before Merlin could even offer an answer. Looking around his new surroundings, Merlin saw a huge iron tower collapsing.

“The Eiffel Tower…”

Before he knew it, Merlin was in Paris. This time, he was placed near a gunfight between armed men and a group of mechanical robots. The armed men were clearly losing ground and being pushed back.

“Ugh.”

Merlin sighed as he drew mana and prepared an AOE magic spell. Even if he dealt with these mechanical robots, the situation wouldn’t end. Another attack could be imminent. Second, there were too many people who had seen the Masters’ existence and participation in the fights, which may cause a larger problem in the near term.

Peace was over.

“I request thunder.”

Crackle!

As sparks flew, Merlin felt the people’s eyes focusing on him. Although he was equipped with an interpreter, he hadn’t inputted French, so all he could understand was their shouts of ‘Merlin’, which he heard intermittently.

Rumble!

Combat was simple. Merlin also used Irrational Hand Strike to quickly defeat all the mechanical robot soldiers.

“I shall now return, to the house I dream of…”

Merlin mumbled like a whisper. He entered a set of familiar coordinates and jumped through space.

Poof!

“Yongno? You…”

When Yongno, who had been lying in the room, came in from outside, Eunhye narrowed her eyes and scanned him up and down. Merlin’s garb, as he was wearing a large red hat and a mage’s robe, would probably make others mistake him as some sort of fanboy cosplayer.

The destination that Merlin had entered was Yongno’s house.

Of course, this was an unexpected action that the DIO management team probably didn’t want, but for Merlin, it was a necessary process that he needed to undertake to confirm something, so he continued to move without any hesitation.

Click.

When Merlin opened the door and entered Yongno’s room, he saw a young man lying in bed. The young man’s face, with earphones in his ears, was the same as his own. The only difference between Merlin and the being lying on the bed was the clothes they were wearing.

Merlin gnashed his teeth. He knew that the young man lying in bed was himself, Yongno.

“… Shit.”

He realized once more…

Peace was over.