Chapter 10: Nutrient Harvest

“Attack.”

Shells fired from twenty-three Mana Cannons.

The mages and Spirit Masters, who had been relaxing without a care, were blown to pieces before they even realized what hit them.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

The bombardment continued relentlessly.

Whenever one side of Kuongi’s Mana Cannons overheated, he would turn his body and continue the barrage with the cannons on the other side.

But the enemy didn’t just sit there and take it.

They grabbed their Staffs or summoned spirits to counterattack.

Flame magic flew toward Kuongi and exploded nearby.

Though the shockwave reached him, Kuongi’s Chitin Gauntlet merely dented slightly.

Kuongi moved in an S-shape, avoiding any direct hits.

“What are those things!”

“How can there be a Dimension Warship in the Kraken Sea?”

“Don’t tell me, it’s the Admiral…?”

“Idiot! Does that look like an Elf Dimension Ship to you?”

“Still, it’s just one. Let’s smash it quickly.”

The attacks against Kuongi intensified.

Mana Cannons and Ballistas stationed on the ground swiveled to target Kuongi.

But they never managed to fire.

Warriors and Scouts slipped through the crops, ambushing the pirates from behind and destroying their weapons.

“Report to the Admiral! The Farm is under attack! One enemy Dimension Ship and a large number of ground forces!”

The pirate in charge of farm management shouted as he drew his sword.

“Who the hell dares attack us? I’ll make sure you live to suffer eternal torment.”

Ever since the Blacktree Pirates became rulers of the Kraken Sea, the Farm was rarely attacked.

Only the truly insane or brazen dared to intrude now and then.

Anyone who did had their Family and Friends enslaved—and this time would be no different.

Clang.

A skilled swordsman and Spirit Master himself, the manager burst out of the office, ready to slaughter the intruders personally.

What greeted him was a bizarre creature with four sickle-like claws.

“What is this thing…?”

Swish.

Lutal swung his four sickle-claws several times, but the attack was so fast it sounded only once.

Just like that, the Farm’s strongest pirate was finished.

Crash!

Lutal tore through the office wall and slaughtered everything inside.

Before the sheer cutting power of the Aura Blade, everything was equal.

Nothing could stop it—space itself was sliced apart in its path.

“It’s almost over.”

In just one minute after the battle started, thirty percent of the pirates had been wiped out by Kuongi and the Cannon Giant’s bombardment, making defeat impossible.

“Told you maxing out firepower was the right choice.”

If Kuongi and the Cannon Giant weren’t here, they would still have won, but with heavy losses.

Even if winning could make up for the loss now, you couldn’t always guarantee victory—so the firepower build was definitely the way to go.

The pirates scattered in all directions.

Some hid among the rubble, while others dug into the ground.

“Kiiik! Kik!”

“You want to chase after them? No need. We’ll send out Walkers.”

“Kik!”

Kai sounded disappointed.

Choi Kangjoong sent out Walkers, and Apocalid spores began to spread.

[Dimensional Devouring begins.]

All the plants in the dimension melted and turned into liquid.

The Nutrient Fluid flowed through pipes formed from Apocalid spores, moving into the Soil Pit.

Nutrients kept rising steadily.

As expected, the Evolution Points totaled one hundred thousand, but the nutrients were more than ten times that.

“Dimensions this big have plenty of nutrients, too.”

There was enough to summon another Titan Class, and then some.

But this time, he planned to reinforce the ground troops.

The Titan Class was powerful, but conquering a dimension ultimately relied on Scouts, Warriors, and Giants.

If a species like IANT hid underground, no amount of bombardment could wipe them out.

“Let’s summon three Cannon Giants, eighty Warriors, two hundred Scouts, and a hundred Walkers.”

From the Soil Pit, Apocalids of each class crawled out.

Now there were three hundred Walkers, three hundred Scouts, one hundred Warriors, and six Cannon Giants.

“I started with just one Walker and one Warrior, and now look at this.”

With this much, he could devour even a dimension with a city.

A City Dimension required at least one hundred thousand people in a small dimension, so absorbing it would net over a million Evolution Points and Nutrients.

If he devoured the nearby Farm Dimensions too, the nutrients would multiply even more.

There were only two dimensions in the Kraken Sea populous enough to be called cities.

The Blacktree Pirate base and the Black Market.

“The Black Market should be easier to take than the pirates’ base.”

As a commercial district, the Black Market naturally had less military and defensive infrastructure than the pirate base.

“Since so many criminal Organizations have a stake in it, no one dares mess with it, right?”

With so many Organizations profiting from the Black Market, attacking it would turn them all into enemies.

Not that the Blacktree Pirates would just stand by, either.

But for the Apocalid, whose nature was to devour and multiply, it was simply a bountiful source of nutrients.

“I hear every kind of crime happens there anyway. The world would be better off without it.”

Choi Kangjoong was about to send the Apocalid toward the Black Market, but ran into a problem.

“I don’t know where the Black Market is.”

All the living creatures in the drug farm had become nutrients, so there was no one left to ask.

“Oh well. Let’s start devouring the nearby dimensions.”

[Brutal Lord has detected the nearest dimension.]

[Dark Eye has detected the second closest dimension.]

“You two each go devour a dimension. I’ll take Kuongi and attack another.”

“Krrk! Krrk!”

“Eek! Eek!”

Lutal and Kai each took their chosen class and headed toward the nearest dimensions.

Choi Kangjoong piloted Kuongi toward a dimension situated between them.

While moving, Choi Kangjoong turned on his computer and logged into Dimension War.

It had been ages since he last played, but he wasn’t here to actually play.

He had some nagging questions about the Apocalid and wanted to check something.

“What the…?”

There was no Apocalid in the single-player species selection menu.

He’d cleared the Apocalid campaign on every difficulty several times, but now it was gone, as if it had never existed.

All posts about Apocalid had vanished from the Dimension War community.

Even the strategy guides Choi Kangjoong had posted were gone.

“This is creepy…”

He couldn’t check the information, but it wasn’t a bad thing.

No one else could learn about the Apocalid’s characteristics through Dimension War now.

There was a big difference between knowing even a little and knowing nothing at all.

“Well, let’s just say this works in my favor. That means I’m the only one who knows about Apocalid now.”

The thought of being the Apocalid’s sole master pleased Choi Kangjoong even more.

“Maybe I’ll get some exercise while I wait.”

Choi Kangjoong stood up and took off his clothes.

He stripped down to his underwear and pulled out his armor.

Clank.

It was just a really sturdy outfit, but wearing it gave him a sense of stability worlds apart from everyday life.

“Let’s go.”

Choi Kangjoong left his room, stood in the entryway, and looked in the mirror.

No matter how often he saw it, the armor was always impressive.

Just looking at it filled his chest with pride.

“Huh?”

Choi Kangjoong leaned in close to the mirror.

He’d been born with thin hair, and after that incident, stress-induced hair loss had left many bald spots.

But now, fresh green sprouts were poking out of those areas.

“What the…?”

He shook his head.

The new shoots were firmly rooted in his scalp.

There were hundreds of times more new hairs than the ones falling out.

“What happened? Is this because of the Chitin Gauntlet? Or the Psionic?”

He considered the Chitin Gauntlet the most likely cause.

It was the only Evolution that directly affected the skin.

“If I level up the Chitin Gauntlet, will my hair get even thicker?”

Choi Kangjoong imagined a full head of hair.

Hair he could style however he wanted, with no fear of it falling out.

“I’ll have to gather more Evolution Points to upgrade the Chitin Gauntlet soon.”

He’d prioritized firepower, but boosting defense with the Chitin Gauntlet next wouldn’t hurt.

“First, let’s head out.”

Choi Kangjoong covered his head with the armor and stepped outside.

He took the stairs down and jogged a lap around the park near his apartment.

Even after running, he wasn’t out of breath at all.

“Thanks to species evolution, my stamina has really improved.”

For a shut-in gamer, poor stamina was always the biggest hurdle to losing weight.

But once he became an Outer Mind, that problem was solved.

He was fine after running for thirty minutes straight.

After an hour, he finally started to sweat and feel a bit tired.

People chatting on benches watched him in amazement as he ran without slowing down.

‘This is a first.’

Choi Kangjoong had never been better than others at anything but gaming.

He’d always been below average in both academics and sports.

So getting complimented by anyone other than his Parents was a first in his life.

Energized, Choi Kangjoong picked up the pace.

Even after running another ten minutes, the admiration from others only grew.

‘So this is what it feels like.’

It was a sense of accomplishment he hadn’t felt in ages.

He thought he finally understood the mindset of those who worked hard to improve themselves.

‘Yunseo must’ve felt this way every day, huh?’

He’d seen firsthand how hard Choi Yunseo worked, so he knew better than anyone.

Choi Kangjoong wanted to become an older brother she could be proud of.

He didn’t need to catch up—just changing steadily would be enough.

He sped up even more.

His lungs burned as he pushed past his limits, then finally collapsed onto the dirt.

“Huff! Huff! Huff!”

He felt refreshed.

The weight in his heart melted away.

‘I’m going to come out here every day. Maybe I should sign up at a Health Club. There’s even a Hunter-Only Health Club.’

Choi Kangjoong decided to look it up when he got home and stood up.

“Kyaaa!”

He instinctively turned his head at the scream.

A woman in workout clothes was being chased by a dog.

But it wasn’t just any dog—exposed to mana, it was on the verge of turning into a monster.

‘Should I just run?’

Choi Kangjoong shook his head firmly.

‘I just promised myself to become a brother Yunseo wouldn’t be ashamed of, and here I am thinking of running away!’

Just then, the woman spotted Choi Kangjoong and changed direction toward him.

She must have thought he was a Hunter.

‘I’ve got armor. Even if I lose, I won’t die.’

With trembling steps, Choi Kangjoong forced himself forward.

The closer he got to the dog, the blanker his mind became.

He didn’t even realize when he’d drawn his Kitin Blade.

Slash.

The Kitin Blade swept in an arc, separating the dog’s head from its body.

Only when it was all over did Choi Kangjoong come back to his senses.

He’d acted without thinking, and when he looked down, the dog was dead.

Puzzled about what happened, he soon realized it was thanks to species evolution.

‘Combat Nerve!’

The higher the Combat Nerve level, the better Apocalid fought.

That trait applied to Choi Kangjoong, too—his body had moved on its own.

“Thank you! Thank you so much!”

The woman bowed repeatedly.

“Are you hurt anywhere?”

“No, I’m fine. Thank you so much for saving me.”

“I just did what anyone would do.”

“So you are a Hunter. Your armor is really cool.”

“Thank you.”

How long had it been since he’d received such a warm look?

“Um, could I have your number? I’d like to thank you properly.”

“I didn’t bring my phone with me today.”

“Oh, I see.”

The woman took that as a polite refusal, bowed again, and walked away.

Choi Kangjoong returned home.

He took off only his helmet at the entrance and looked in the mirror.

His face was half-vacant.

The incident replayed endlessly in his mind.

“I just did what anyone would do. Hahaha. Even if I said it, it sounds cool. Hahahaha.”

He struck one goofy pose after another, thoroughly caught up in self-admiration.

He imagined himself flying like a top Hunter, wiping out monsters and being praised by everyone.

“Come to think of it, if I get a Flight Ability Evolution Code, I could fly too, right? But are there any flying monsters in the Kraken Sea?”

Most of the Kraken Sea was made up of small and medium dimensions with low skies, so the odds of finding flying monsters were slim.

“It’s better to find one here.”

Choi Kangjoong took off his armor and sat at his computer.

He logged onto DimensionNet and searched for flying monsters.

“Harpies will do.”

They were well-known flying monsters, and there happened to be a Harpy gate nearby.

Being D-rank monsters, there was no chance the Apocalid could lose.

They moved in flocks, which was dangerous for Hunters, but not for the Apocalid.

“If I get the Harpy Evolution Code, will I just gain the Flight Ability, or will I get wings too?”

Harpy flight was more like an instinctive magic, and their wings were a Flight Auxiliary Organ.

“I’ll know once I get the Evolution Code.”

It was late, so he decided to go tomorrow.

Just then, his Parents arrived.

Choi Kangjoong ate with them, then went to his room and lay down.

He’d exhausted his stamina during the day and sleep came quickly.

Snore.