Chapter 19: The Invasion from Beyond, and the Counterattack (3)

The Hunter Association President gathered mana around his staff and hurled a fireball forward.

It looked like he’d just landed a solid hit on the monster, but it still wasn’t enough to stop the enemy.

“Should we retreat?”

“There’s no need for that.”

The President seemed a bit flustered, but he was keeping it together.

Back before my regression, I might have panicked at the beginning of a situation like this…

But not anymore.

For the last five years, I’ve been fighting monsters.

Compared to what I’d seen before the regression, this was nothing.

“Let’s stay calm and shoot.”

Bang!

I shot out one of the monster’s legs and brought it down.

The Association President smashed another one approaching us with his staff.

He hadn’t just swung it.

The staff, strengthened with mana, splattered metal fragments and joints with every blow.

“That’s the last of them. Four down.”

I reloaded my rifle and finished off the monsters lying on the ground.

“Better safe than sorry.”

The Association President poked the robot with his staff.

The humanoid robot didn’t move, and a dull metallic sound rang out.

Ming Ming came up beside us, keeping a sharp eye on our surroundings.

“Ming!”

“Yeah. Let’s clean this up and get moving.”

The President and I slowly looked over the remains of the monsters sprawled on the ground.

Maybe there’d be something worth taking.

The President tilted his head.

“Doctor, do you understand what the dragon’s saying?”

“I just answer whatever seems easiest.”

“Not that it matters much anyway.”

“More importantly, it’s my first time fighting a real monster like this. Leveling up is easier than I thought, isn’t it?”

“Yes.”

It had only been a week since the first Gate appeared.

This was just the second Gate, and so far, all we’d had to do was keep outsiders under control.

It made sense that this was everyone’s first real fight.

“But these robots… they’re protecting something, right?”

“They’re guarding the Nest Core, most likely.”

The question was what exactly was at the core.

I’d seen something similar before my regression, back in Busan.

They must have set up a factory, or something like a facility to create monsters.

We made our way to the center of the Nest.

At the heart of the Nest, steel spiders prowled about, and a domed structure stretched overhead.

“This won’t be easy.”

“Indeed.”

The Association President snapped his fingers, and violet light shimmered from his staff.

We scanned the dimly lit center of the Nest.

The dome-shaped structure, built by monsters, blotted out the sky, and in the middle of the Nest sat four unfinished skeletons.

The skeletons of massive monsters.

It looked like they’d just been assembling them.

“Ming Ming. Burn them all.”

If four monsters that size had come to life, it would’ve taken at least seven or eight Hunter Raid Parties to handle them.

If the monsters had succeeded in breaching Busan, things could have been much worse.

Ming Ming unleashed fire on the motionless skeletons, and a few of the smaller steel spiders scattered away in fear.

As I watched the scene, memories from my previous life surfaced, and I activated the Seeker’s Trait again.

[You have destroyed a Machine Church monster under construction.]

[+20 Exploration Points.]

[Enlightenment Level 2 Progress: 150/200.]

The Enlightenment gauge was skyrocketing.

It meant I was uncovering a lot—and that there was plenty here to research.

Especially that one: the humanoid robot.

Once we got it back to the Supernatural Science Research Institute, there would be a lot to study.

It had been a valuable research material even before my regression.

After all, it could offer clues to building a walking robot.

I glanced at the Association President.

“By the way, did your level go up a lot?”

“Yes. I’ve been hunting pigeons the last few days, whenever I had the chance.”

You level up from catching pigeons? That’s new to me.

When I checked the President with my mana sight, purple mana flickered around him.

He was noticeably stronger than when we’d first entered the Gate, just a few hours ago.

A few monsters make a big difference in the early stages.

The Hunter Association President is an S-rank talent.

Of course, high rank doesn’t guarantee victory or strength, but in the end, rank reflects latent potential.

The President is an Awakened with almost limitless potential.

With his skill at manipulating puppets, his strength multiplies even more.

He was someone I should have recruited earlier.

I took out my camera and snapped pictures of our surroundings.

Documenting the characteristics of monsters is vital if we want to fight them well later.

If we have to run another operation here, targeting the Nest should be our priority—especially with powerful elite entities present.

The President and I harvested crystals from the wreckage of the shattered robots.

The crystals were a type of Magic Stone.

Essential for crafting weapons and for research.

It would be a hassle, but somehow we had to get the monster hearts we collected here back to the Research Institute.

Considering how much effort the Government of Korea put into localizing tank and jet fighter engines, this was an incredible research opportunity.

***

The items recovered from the Gate were quickly and urgently transported to the Research Institute.

Especially important were the Magic Stones—and the hearts.

The most vital cargo traveled by helicopter.

Literally, the situation was changing by the day.

Events were unfolding at a breakneck pace.

As if the fate of those who had to deal with the situation didn’t matter in the slightest.

Well, perhaps it wasn’t indifference.

The Gate’s purpose was, after all, to destroy human civilization and take over our world.

We were now in the monster quarantine chamber at the Research Institute.

Because expansion work had only started a few days ago, there was only one monster in proper containment at the moment.

A machine, about the size of a washing machine, emitting a gloomy bass sound like a beating heart.

Dr. Ryoo put on his goggles and stared gravely at the surveillance camera in the quarantine chamber.

“Have we ever used the quarantine room before the Gate incident?”

“I believe we did once. Remember that Crescent Moon Bear that appeared on the hills in Gwanak-gu last time…?”

Dr. Ryoo frowned, as if recalling an unpleasant memory.

“Ah, that one. It was pretty revolting.”

Not the best experience.

It was an Air Pollution Phenomenon accompanied by a mutated creature.

And this incident had happened before the Gate incident, hidden from the public eye and dealt with behind closed doors.

There had been a few unusual phenomena involving mutant creatures even before the Gate incident.

That’s why the Research Institute was established in the first place.

Thud… thud… thud…

Anyway, the ominous sound from the monster’s steel heart snapped me out of my thoughts.

Dr. Ryoo looked a bit frightened.

“What is that thing?”

“It’s an object recovered from the Machine Church Gate. We found it while dissecting the corpse of the Mechanical Dragon for transportation and steel recycling.”

“Ah, I see…?”

It was the mechanical device that had served as the Mechanical Dragon’s heart.

The steel heart was spherical, surrounded by a liquid metal that looked like mercury.

Some burn marks from the previous battle still remained, but it seemed to have healed a little.

Perhaps the liquid metal was generating some kind of chemical self-repair in the metal.

The monster’s heart was wrapped once with a high-strength ceramic chain, just as I’d requested.

From the Seeker’s perspective, mana was swirling thickly around it.

The heart was still alive.

Barely hanging on by a thread now, but there was no telling when it might suddenly awaken and attack us.

I used my Seeker’s Trait on the monster’s heart.

[You have discovered the Mechanical Dragon’s Heart.]

[+20 Exploration Points.]

[Enlightenment Level 2 Progress: 170/200.]

I looked at Dr. Ryoo.

“Well… no matter how incomprehensible and bizarre a supernatural phenomenon seems, it must be made of components. Even if their logic is different from ours, they still have their own logic.”

Trying to grasp the logic behind supernatural phenomena is never a waste of time.

Even if some aspects defy the laws of nature.

“So, you’re saying it’s like an organ for the monster?”

“Steel Spiders use liquid metal both as blood and as hydraulic fluid. It’s probably a similar principle here.”

The system window called this thing the monster’s heart.

A device that circulates liquid metal throughout the machine’s body.

The problem was, we had no way to open it up.

“Why is it wrapped in that white chain?”

“I requested it. The metal kept trying to absorb everything around it.”

Steel Heart.

It was closer to magic, to supernatural phenomena, than to any machine.

That phenomenon fused organically with steel, creating gigantic, dragon-like monsters.

We wouldn’t know the exact principle until we opened it up.

From my pre-regression research into Machine Church monsters, I remembered that these things were organic mechanical devices.

Machines that imitated living functions.

The Machine Church Gate was closely linked to steel.

If you think about it, it’s obvious.

The monsters that come out of there are made of steel.

They collect steel to replicate themselves, and even the environment inside the Gate is a rusting city of steel frames.

There was a similar incident before my regression.

We brought the remains of a Machine Church monster to the Research Institute, but once its heart arrived, it suddenly awoke and began trying to consume nearby machines.

It caused quite a few casualties.

I shook my head.

Focus on the research at hand.

Dr. Ryoo picked up his tablet.

“Doctor Lee, what do you think? The liquid metal seems to be part of the engine’s hydraulic system, but it’s hard to know for sure in this state.”

Should we bring in the ultrasonic equipment?

“I’ve been thinking about it. My guess is there’s a turbine spinning in the core. As for exactly what’s used as the working fluid and what’s used for fuel—we’ll have to open it up to find out.”

Dr. Ryoo frowned.

“Can we even open it? It’s dangerous just bringing any metal near it.”

We had to figure out a solution.

If that steel heart destroyed any electronic equipment that came close and kept trying to absorb any metal nearby—

Then there had to be a way to open it without using metal tools.

For now, the plan was to avoid using metal as much as possible and try dissecting the heart with only plastic and ceramic tools.

“Do we have any non-metal tools?”

“We should, I think.”

Surprisingly, when we checked the back storeroom at the Research Institute, we found a few sets of tools made entirely from ceramic and plastic.

Dr. Ryoo tilted his head.

“Why would we have these?”

“Well, for workers who need to get through airport security with tools… you’d need non-metal ones.”

“Airport security? I hadn’t thought of that.”

That’s why the Research Institute had plastic tools.

In any case, Dr. Ryoo and I stood before the monster’s steel heart.

“Let’s open it.”

We started by suctioning off the liquid metal with hoses.

The steel heart gave off a protesting, buzzing sound.

But it couldn’t stop the liquid metal from being removed.

“This is a bit scary.”

“Let’s get it over with.”

“Where are the other researchers?”

They’re busy.

There’s more to research than just this.

The golem, the Goblin Lord’s corpse, the tools for using Magic Stones.

There were countless things to study right now.

We couldn’t assign three people to just this one thing—especially since Dr. Ryoo wasn’t even a machine specialist.

“They’re researching other things.”

The cleaning was almost done.

The last of the black liquid metal was being removed, and the heart itself was starting to show.

I wiped away the remaining liquid metal with a rag.

Now we could see it.

We picked up our tools and opened the heart.

Dr. Ryoo pulled on the core, and together we lifted the cover.

“Ah, so that’s how it’s structured.”

“How strange.”

The heart’s interior was clearly alien technology.

Even at a glance, that much was obvious.