Chapter 76 – The opponent is

In the center of the monster’s corpse, which had stained the waters of Baengnokdam Crater Lake red, mana began to condense.

Swaaaaaaa—

When a monster was destroyed without a trace by a powerful impact, the mana stone—which would have been destroyed as well—often reformed in this manner.

A small amount of mana and essence tended to leak during the process, but overall, it was a negligible amount.

Tap—

I picked up the condensed mana stone from the air before it could fall.

“Good.”

I grinned.

However… as expected, there was a price for overexerting myself.

Zing—

Just from smiling, the muscles in my face tightened as if they had cramped. That wasn’t all.

Every time I moved, the muscles throughout my entire body screamed in protest.

Even though my ability isn’t a physical-type, it was because I had forced the operation of mana to strengthen my body.

Thanks to that, I was currently virtually incapacitated. When coupled with the penalty of having to shut down the Legion, even if only for a moment, it was an ability that brought more harm than good in many ways.

In a sense, it was a form of ‘mutual destruction.’

Meanwhile, I spoke to Yoon Sanghoon, who was staring at me with a dumbfounded expression, seemingly appalled by this shocking destructive power.

“Please heal me.”

“Ah… yes!”

As he began to treat me, I gave a signal to the Invisible Gladiator, who was cautiously keeping a watch behind him, to step back a little.

Needless to say, my memories of the past are not complete. Furthermore, there was no guarantee that he would be the same as in the previous turn. He wasn’t even my former comrade to begin with.

Still, I couldn’t be completely unarmed in front of someone I had only just met.

Thus, it was an inevitable measure.

“Shall I polish your shoes now, as promised!”

Fortunately, Yoon Sanghoon was someone who was quite strong on his own, yet occasionally showed a fragile side…….

It seemed he was just as I remembered.

Seeing him like that, I pulled the Gladiator back completely and—

“There’s no need for that.”

I grinned.

And this time… the muscles in my face didn’t hurt.

* * *

For a while after that, I watched from a distance as Sanghoon finally brought his business to a close.

He slowly scattered his wife’s ashes from the jar he had brought into the lake, sometimes smiling and sometimes weeping.

He seemed to have forgotten that I was behind him, which I thought was a good thing.

‘It’s not something for me to interfere with.’

I left him to focus on his own affairs, while making sure that nearby monsters could not approach.

Even Poppy, who usually growled for no reason, seemed to be mourning quietly this time.

After spending some time like that, Sanghoon emptied the remaining contents of the jar into the lake and stood up.

“Siwoo-ssi, thank you so much.”

He wore an expression I had never seen on him in the past. It was none other than… a look of relief.

* * *

“Ah, you’re four years younger than me….”

Sanghoon chattered incessantly.

“Just call me Hyung comfortably.”

“Huh? Uh… should I?”

I was astonished. In my previous life, he always maintained a distance. It seemed things were intended to be different this time.

Actually, he wasn’t a talkative person to begin with.

“But the plane blew up, so how do we get home now?”

“Ah… that.”

“Do we have to swim back?”

“…….”

However, it seemed his way of thinking wasn’t much different from his previous life. I shook my head at him and pointed to the materials the Worker Bugs had painstakingly gathered.

“We have to reassemble this.”

Naturally, I hadn’t been able to collect all the Mithril or Adamantite. So, about 20% had to be patched up using surrounding trees.

Also, to compensate for the weakened hull, I had to remove many interior items, such as beds… but after investing another full hour, I managed to shape it into something quite plausible.

Then, I summoned the Armored Transport Plane again.

Grrrr-clunk! Clatter!

The Armored Transport Plane began to fly, making unstable noises. Fortunately, this time, there was no need to fly across the entire Korean Peninsula in this state.

It was only a flight of about five minutes toward the resort where Gwak Sangyong’s family was staying. There, we met Minju, who had been waiting for my contact, and were able to return home quickly.

* * *

Upon returning to the Shopping Mall 6th Floor, we immediately became the center of attention for the women.

Sua was the first.

“Oh my! Who is this?”

Hearing that, Minju added excitedly,

“He’s so tiny!”

Even before the Spatial Teleportation, she hadn’t been able to take her eyes off Poppy. Even Seoyeon, who is very shy, came over and commented.

“…Cute.”

But… the party in question had a consistent reaction.

Poppy, shaking like an aspen leaf as if he had a vibration motor attached—to the point where one wondered if he was okay—

“Grrrr— Woof! Woof! Woof woof!”

Began barking, wary of them.

“Wow, even his barking is cute.”

“Can I touch him?”

“Ah, yes, go ahead.”

However, everyone, including Sanghoon, didn’t seem to mind. After being hugged by several people in turn, Poppy eventually descended to the shopping mall floor and began to walk on his own.

“Yelp!”

At some point, he got startled, tucked his tail, and ran back to Sanghoon.

When we all looked to see what the cause was…….

“Ding?”

It seemed he had been startled by a Worker Bug.

* * *

Afterward, I introduced Sanghoon to everyone.

I also explained that he was a Restoration Ability User.

Next, we went for a tour of the castle, and he seemed particularly interested in the utilization of Monster Materials.

“Oh… so this is the organ that collects mana?”

Apparently, he wasn’t a veterinarian.

Seeing him adapt quickly in various ways, I left him be and focused on my own tasks.

First, I registered the essence of the monster caught at Baengnokdam in the Advanced Research Facility.

“Mana Absorption Amplification Essence, huh….”

It seemed it was a monster that absorbed more mana from the atmosphere and grew stronger and stronger.

It appeared to be the reason why Sanghoon could never surpass it, no matter how hard he tried in his previous life. It was a monster that grew gradually, just as he did.

‘I’m expecting a great synergy with the Mana Facility.’

It seemed it would be quite helpful in solving my mana problem.

Hoping the essence analysis would finish quickly, I moved on to the next pressing issue.

“Next is the Demon Villain of the east.”

The contract with Gwak Sangyong. It was time to enter the next stage.

* * *

Meanwhile, Gwak Sangyong, having reunited with his family, looked much brighter.

He was conducting an executive meeting, and the agenda was preparation for the next battle. They were also accelerating the merger of their forces with Siwoo.

“How is the preparation of supplies for the battle going?”

“We are planning a cooperative relationship with the Merchant Alliance.”

“Things are flowing quite favorably since they already have a relationship with the Lord.”

“We have also decided to unify the currency and exchange it using Worker Bug Coins.”

Gwak Sangyong smiled brightly.

“That is quite a relief.”

“How much net profit can we expect?”

“According to current estimates, it’s over 400,000 Worker Bug Coins. We can also bring in some additional incidental income.”

“If it’s that much….”

“Yes, if things go well, we might even be able to start a civil engineering business.”

“I’m looking forward to that.”

For Siwoo, Worker Bug Coins were just pieces of metal that could be printed out, but it was different for other factions.

Possessing Worker Bug Coins was a way to restore modern civilization, such as roads and buildings.

They also took on the role of performing products of numerous past civilizations, such as growing crops and other chores.

In other words, the current position of the Worker Bug Coin was essentially the ‘price of civilization.’

To put it another way, only the Korean Peninsula, where the trade of Worker Bug Coins was active, was almost the only place in the world preserving civilization and even developing it further.

In particular, its value as a currency was unrivaled.

Even in the United States, where civilization had not yet declined as the only other place in the world, the value of the dollar was losing its strength.

In the United States, the most commonly used currency now was 5.56mm rifle ammunition. Instead of scraps of paper, they were moving toward a real economy with tangible value.

Even so, the very existence of a currency was impressive in itself. Other countries that had held out for a long time were slowly collapsing.

Among them, core talents from English-speaking countries belonging to the Five Eyes, such as Australia and the UK, were somehow fleeing to the United States, but the majority of humanity was not so lucky.

For instance, Africa had long since perished.

Even Russia, due to the endless Siberian Front, had abandoned Moscow and fled to Saint Petersburg.

As Moscow fell, the massive amount of monsters finally flowing into the continent were turning Central Asia and Europe into ruins.

China also lost Beijing and had no choice but to move south to Shanghai. Perhaps it was a blessing that the Korean Peninsula was on the periphery of the Siberian Front.

Otherwise, instead of snowballing, I would have had to focus even more on immediate combat. Of course… the situation would change even more once the Civilization Bulldozer arrived.

* * *

I used the Observation Ship to monitor the Villain located in Namhansanseong Fortress.

The fellow, whose real name was unknown and was thus called the ‘Reaper’… was an estimated [Black Mage].

While summoning and commanding a small elite of powerful demons, he also skillfully fused and used monsters.

Unlike Choi Seunghwan, who grew his power while hiding among humans, he was virtually no different from a Mutant.

To him, ‘contact with humans’ was…….

Simply ‘combat.’

Furthermore, unlike Choi Seunghwan, he was also excellent in main-body reinforcement abilities, yet he wasn’t the type to step forward and fight.

And he also didn’t seem to care about troop management simply in terms of hitting and receiving in combat.

For example, the fact that he settled in Namhansanseong Fortress, which is easy to defend and sparsely populated, was proof of that. Moreover, it wasn’t just Namhansanseong Fortress now, but a form where he had built a powerful citadel with added defenses.

Therefore… killing him, who possessed all these advantages, was not an easy task.

‘I couldn’t kill him in my previous life.’

There were many times I pushed his forces hard, and I raided his main base several times. But I never actually killed the Reaper himself.

Time and again, he escaped like a rat, set up another main base elsewhere, and continued to threaten humanity.

‘This time will be different.’

But this time was different.

Thanks to the experience of the previous turn, I knew at least four methods he used to escape. I was starting with knowledge of a significant number of his retreat routes.

Naturally, this was a considerable advantage.

‘At first, he’ll definitely try those methods.’

Being highly capable of learning about combat, he had become more meticulous as time went on. However, this time, I didn’t intend to give him the chance to grow like that.

‘This time, I’ll catch him at the start.’

This time, I planned to catch him decisively from the first blow.

‘To do that, I’ll need some preparations….’

I began to devise a detailed plan.