CH 235

Reable snapped his fingers, and a GodTube video popped up. It showed a video of the one-eyed giants.

“Cyclops are a very powerful race. They are one of the Transcendent Races,” Reable said.

“A Transcendent Race?”

“Races that are predestined to become Transcenders from birth. That’s what we called them. They are few in number, but very powerful. Of course, becoming a Transcender doesn’t make you a God.”

‘What the hell? That’s so overpowered!’

“Huh? I thought you already knew that there are a surprising number of such races!” Reable said.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

“Of course you do! The infamous Dragon race is also a Transcendent Race!” Reable spread his arms. “Dragons, Giants, Phantoms, Demons… These are all Transcendent Races! Anyway, back to what I was saying earlier, those guys in shorts look like low-level warriors, but the others are definitely hard to deal with even with your current power.”

“You mean they are stronger than the [Slow Forest Shade]?”

“Yes, they are. Especially since that one is leading them.”

Reable pointed to the Cyclops that towered above all the others.

“That’s the Cyclops’ Warlord. Uhm~ In military terms, he’s like a one-star general. And he has the power to match that title.”

Reable started to laugh as if he found his own words funny.

“Of course, he is not as strong individually as the [Slow Forest Shade], but the fact that he is leading an army of that size is what’s important. With that many soldiers, they’re actually significantly stronger and more difficult to deal with than the [Slow Forest Shade].”

‘I can’t believe it… They’re a Transcendent race, and they also have some sort of trait that makes them stronger as their numbers increase?’

“Well, you can only watch what’s going on anyway,” Reable said.

‘I guess I can only pray that the weapons developed by the U.S. work on them.’

With that thought, he stared at the GodTube video that Reable had turned on. He saw something flying from the corner of the screen.

«The missile strike has begun, Master.»

‘Yeah, I hope it works. Really, I hope it works.’

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Unlike normal technologies, Arcane Engineering skills came with many limitations regarding mass production. This was why the potion industry only made and sold D-grade potions—it was hard to get higher-quality equipment for potion making. The world’s most infamous Master Mechanic, Jung Bi-Ga, had managed to escape these constraints to some extent, but even she had not completely transcended them.

However, if the skills were used properly within those limits, the products created could be quite effective and powerful. With that in mind, nations sought to harness the knowledge of Arcane Engineering skills to create so-called weapons of ultimate destruction.

Naturally, they couldn’t mass produce these weapons of ultimate destruction, but they tried their best to produce them in as large numbers as possible, even if it meant exploiting skills, Magic Stones, and—where necessary—people.

As expected, the United States had made significant progress. While their products had not yet reached the realm of ‘ultimate destruction’, they had nevertheless succeeded in creating a weapon of destruction that could effectively deal with monsters protected by mana and mystical powers.

This was the weapon that was now soaring through the sky at supersonic speeds.

As a platform, it had the Tomahawk Land Attack Missile, also known as the TLAM. The Tomahawk missile was developed in the 1970s by the defense contractor General Dynamics Corporation. It had a range of about two thousand kilometers and had the advantage of being mass-produced and cheap compared to other missiles.

In fact, the United States had made and fired thousands of them in the pre-dungeon era. A single missile cost less than a billion won. That was, of course, a lot of money for the general population, but it was one of the best bangs for their buck when it came to missiles.

The missiles that were flying toward the giant monsters were a modified version of the classic Tomahawk. They were called ‘Tomahawk Monster Attack Missiles’, also known as TMAM.

Craftsman Hunters used their skills to make a large quantity of Magic Stones into powerful explosives and used them as warheads and fuel source for the TLAM. The resulting weapon was not only much more powerful, but also significantly faster; originally, the Tomahawk missiles could only fly at a subsonic speed, but the modified TMAM were supersonic.

The combination of physical explosives and skill-infused explosives resulted in a blast of unimaginable power.

These insanely powerful weapons were designed to take out special monsters that completely ignored non-magical attacks.

In some actual incidents of Dungeon Break, monsters had been stopped in their tracks using TMAM. Therefore, they were a strategic asset that the United States did not sell to other countries. The manufacturing process was also highly confidential, and those involved in the production received special protection.

Hundreds of these destructive weapons tore through the sky and flew straight toward the stronghold made by the one-eyed giants.

However, the United States did not know what the giants were capable of.

Just as the missiles reached the upper layers of the atmosphere and were coming down hard on the Cyclops fortress, a column of light erupted from the entire stronghold. It knocked the missiles off their trajectory like they were mere feathers. Instead of falling all at once toward one point, they flew back up and spread before exploding at a high altitude.

No one would have expected this to happen.

The destructive weapons that were flying toward the stronghold continued to explode in the air, with most of them deviating from their trajectory due to the defensive measures taken by the monsters. Only a few missiles fell near the stronghold, and their power was shocking—tremendous explosions shook the entire city.

However, the aftermath of the explosion was equally shocking. Even these nuclear-level missiles, at close range, were not enough to put a dent in the rubble barricade that the Cyclops had built.

Hundreds of missiles wasted…and the Cyclops were still standing.

The whole world could do nothing but watch.

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

‘I guess that doesn’t work.’

“Oh~ That’s the trajectory reversal magic spell. It’s definitely one of the most effective ways to block long-ranged attacks.

“Trajectory reversal? Is that a spell that can deflect anything that’s flying at you?”

“Bingo! It’s a spell that completely reverses the direction of the attack. You know, like the supreme comeback ‘no, you’ and the universal counter ‘no, your mom’ ~ The principles are similar~”

‘Wait, that’s possible?”

Reable continued.

“That is why the missile went the other way. In any case, it’s a high-level spatial expansion spell, so it cannot just be countered with Dispel or similar techniques.”

“I see… so that’s why…”

“Yes. We could use a magic cancellation spell on the entire area, but I’m sure the monsters have a way to counteract that. The spell is powerful enough to even block spells that summon meteors and things like that! It’s as simple as just reversing their trajectory.”

‘That’s so overpowered! I had no idea a Transcendent race with intelligence could be this scary. How much does that spell cost in Likes?’

«That is a Class 8 magic spell. You need to increase your magical ability to Class 8, learn that spell, and then learn a few more spells and skills to use it on that scale. That would cost you around one hundred million.»

Ji-Cheok was dumbfounded when he heard that. It was bad enough that the trajectory reversal spell cost a lot of Likes, but that also meant that the Cyclops could use Class 8 magic spells!

‘So you’re saying that these monsters can summon meteors too, right?’

«There is an 8 Class magic spell called Summon Small Meteor Shower. True to its name, it summons a bunch of small meteors, and although it is not as powerful as a Class 9 meteor spell, it is still powerful enough to destroy a city.»

‘That’s crazy! I guess I shouldn’t leave them alone like that. But.. What can I do? How do I deal with those monsters?’

Reable was telling him to leave them alone because there was nothing he could do about it, but Ji-Cheok had a nagging feeling that if he didn’t do anything, the entire human race would be, in simple terms, fucked.

‘My Minor Intuition is hammering my head right now.’

“I think we need to have a meeting and come up with a contingency plan”

“Ho~ You didn’t give up?”

“You think I’d give up just like that? No way. If I have to, I can always give up at the final moment.”

Reable chuckled at his words.

“Hope is the first step on the road to disappointment. I wonder what fate awaits our Ji-Cheok~”

Turning away from Reable, who was still enjoying the spectacle, Ji-Cheok called Ji-Han.

As he waited for his boss to pick up the phone, he cursed the government of the United States.

‘Those bastards. If they had these missiles, they should have used them on the Manaforming Forest. I guess those missiles are too expensive to help us, huh? Assholes…’

—Yes, this is Ji-Han. Are you calling about the Cyclops?

“Yes. I think we need to talk about what’s going on.”

‘I should check with him first before doing anything.’

⁎ ⁎ ⁎

Ji-Han was surprised at the sight of Ji-Cheok flying over space. Certainly, Ji-Cheok from this timeline was different from the many Ji-Cheoks in the past.

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Each time he traveled back in time, Ji-Cheok was always different. Sometimes he was a Healer, sometimes he was an Archmage. Sometimes he summoned Spirits, and other times he was a blacksmith.

And in some timelines, Ji-Cheok tried to save people even though he had no ability at all.

Ji-Cheok was a human with a rather strange system of values. He saved the person in front of him, but it was not an automatic, reflexive action. Instead, after being tormented by the moral dilemma for a while, he would eventually decide to save them.

He would put his life on a scale and weigh it against everything else, decide it was heavy enough, and then ignore that and jump in anyway.

Ji-Han couldn’t count how many times Ji-Cheok had saved his life. Over and over again, Ji-Cheok would save him.

That was why despite seeing Ji-Cheok stronger and more powerful than ever before, Ji-Han was not surprised. He had expected that it would come to this.

That was what made everything so fun.

‘I guess this is why he is the Fragment of Chaos.’

Ji-Cheok was a being that would create a different type of fate every time the timeline repeated itself. The more he defied his own fate, the more he changed.

It was a good thing. Ji-Cheok’s growth was directly linked to his own survival. Ji-Han just hoped that he would survive to see the salvation of their world. He also hoped that Ji-Cheok would not die before him.

“Where… are we?”

Ji-Cheok looked around.

“This is one of the underground bunkers built by the former North Korean military. Until a while ago, it was being used by a secret society called the Black Hand.”

“And now?”

“Well, as you can see, it’s empty now.” Ji-Han shrugged.

“Wow~ You cleaned it up pretty well! It’s not easy to clean up like this. I suppose you can do it because you can manipulate Causality, but I don’t think any of the Gods can do it like this.”

Reable stepped out of Ji-Cheok’s shadow.

“Huh? You really did follow me.”

“Of course! You and I have a contract, so I can always follow behind you if I want to. And I can always lend my power to you, don’t forget~”

“I don’t know if I will ever need to use your Necromancer skills. Wouldn’t it be easier just to summon you, Reable?”

“That’s an option, but I might not be able to come. You gotta think about all the options~”