Touching Behind (2)

The mine was about two hours on foot away from the city. The soldiers who had engorged themselves on the food provided by Kang Shin-hyuk after he constructed the walls and cleared the field were the first to volunteer as his guides to the mine. Despite their worries, they were not attacked on their way because the monsters in the area had already been sorted out to some extent, and the active ones were flocking towards the city with terrifying momentum.

“They were originally like that?”

“They instinctively move to where there are a lot of people. It wasn’t that bad before, but since the mutants appeared…”

“They’ve become more aggressive.”

“That’s right. So even in the mine, you have to be careful…” The mine, as far as the soldiers were concerned, was hell itself. They wouldn’t dare go there if Kang Shin-hyuk wasn’t with them. However, they seemed to misunderstand that Kang Shin-hyuk would fight, yet the truth was that he had no intention of doing so.

“This is the mine. There will be a ton of monsters hiding in there…!”

“Yes.” Upon entering the mine, the soldiers glanced at Kang Shin-hyuk and clearly wanted to fall back. However, he pointed to one side of the wall.

“Attack there.”

“Yeah?”

“Speak quietly so they don’t notice.” Giving little attention to the soldiers, Kang Shin-hyuk looked over the walls. Now that the quantity and quality of his spiritual power had grown greatly, he was able to grasp the location of living beings easily. So, no matter how many of them hid, they could be seen clearly with his eyes.

“Attack over there. I can’t fight, so I’ll tell you their locations.” It was natural for Kang Shin-hyuk, but it was incomprehensible to those who had been driven to the brink of destruction. However, in their eyes, he was an apostle of God. The soldiers looked nervous as they stepped toward the part of the wall he was pointing at quietly. At that instant, a golden scratch crossed his eyes, and their bodies began to overflow with power.

“Unbelievable…?!”

“Now, attack!” They had experienced the same yesterday, so they were quick to move. They stabbed into the wall.

-Kyaaaak!

Then, the monster popped out screaming, but it had already lost a lot of strength because of the surprise damage it had sustained. They quickly finished it off.

“Amazing, Anvil!”

“You could tell where it was…” Hearing their cheers, Kang Shin-hyuk nodded in satisfaction.

“I’ll lead you this way, so don’t be scared and follow along. We will clean up the mines today.”

“…Yes?”

“I’ll continue to buff you, but I won’t fight myself. That is very important to take note of.”

“Ah… okay.” It might sound like nonsense, but the soldiers already believed he was an apostle. No doubt, they assumed some disaster would come for them if he violated a taboo. The reality wasn’t too dissimilar to that. Kang Shin-hyuk led them further in after retrieving the usable monster parts.

-Kiiii!

-Kyaahahaaaa!

-Kyaaak!

-Kooaaahk!

There were many monsters in the mine, too many. It was like they had all gathered here from across the world.

“Huk…huk…”

“This is impossible, we’ll die here…!”

“No, you can do it.” Kang Shin-hyuk gave them recovery potions (unfortunately, status potions weren’t allowed) and cheered them up. With his trait, their exhausted bodies were restored.

-It’s almost like a blessing to them.

‘Has my existence come to the point where I can be called a spirit?’ He was backing them up simply because he couldn’t use his own strength. The soldiers continued to battle, half-enchanted, but he knew they would be grateful when they realized that they would grow from the constant fighting against strong enemies.

“Well, this seems to be roughly organized.” As promised, by the end, they had dealt with all the monsters in the mine. The soldiers were exhausted, but Kang Shin-hyuk let out a satisfied laugh as he looked at the blue veins running throughout the walls. Right after, however, his expression soured.

“I should’ve made a pickaxe…”

-A 130,000HP bonus for the cute appearance of members who regret their own mistakes!

“Thank you, but I’m a little angry right now.”

-50,000HP bonus!

Kang Shin-hyuk trembled at the administrator’s teasing. Even when plowing the field, he had just resorted to using a sickle to decrease his workload, but would that work for mining?

“Well, I can try it.” Thus, he brandished his scythe. The sight was silly enough to cause the soldiers to laugh, had they not seen him plow the entire field with those very same scythes.

“…Ha!” Kang Shin-hyuk began to swing the scythes crazily into the wall. Stone powder rained down on him as impure ore sprang out and rolled onto the ground. He was using his Wind Mastery to collect and process the stone dust as he swung the scythes, sorting the ore at the same time. It looked very silly from the outside, but in reality, he was using ridiculously high-level techniques.

“This one is done, so shall we move on to the next?”

-If you finish mining the next vein in five minutes with your scythe, you will receive a special administrator bonus!

“You’ve learned some bad things from Earth.” Rather than crushing the administrator’s hopes, however, Kang Shin-hyuk willingly accepted the request and received a large amount of HP as a bonus. It took nearly ten hours to get to the mine and clear it out, but it took less than two hours to dig up tons of ore.

“Well, I need to purchase additional inventory slots.”

-It is 5 million HP per slot.

“Good thing I got that bonus.” Inventory was becoming more expensive now, but he was able to secure five additional slots, for a total of twenty.

‘Okay, this much…’ The amount of cargo that could be stored per compartment was approximately 200 kilograms. Shin-hyuk put everything he could away and left the rest to the soldiers. Some of it would be used for the Ord kingdom, so that was fair.

“How did you dig up this much?”

“I didn’t think this mine had this much Brenite.” The soldiers had been relaxing while Shin-hyuk mined and were astonished to see the result. Among them were the soldiers of Ord who had been around before the end of the world; they were particularly impressed by the sight of the brilliant blue Brenite.

“Okay, then let’s go.” He bought a sturdy bag from the Hero Universe to hold the remaining ore, and then he led the party out. A strange sight awaited them, however.

“…Do you see what was in the sky?”

“I see it.”

“A black hole…” Kang Shin-hyuk stood still and looked up at the endless sunset sky and the huge black hole in the middle of it.

“Administrator.” His voice trembled.

“Didn’t you say I wouldn’t be caught if I didn’t fight in person?”

-I was aware of it being that way, but they seem to have been watching this world since the start.

A similar thing had happened in the dungeon he entered with Baek In-ha and Hyeongju Ahn.

“What the hell?”

-You are the one who holds the entire universe’s attention.

The administrator sounded almost proud in response, but now wasn’t the best time.

“If it’s too late, there’s nothing to worry about, damn it!” Kang Shin-hyuk threw the bag he was holding down and pulled out the blue cow from his inventory. Then, he called Onyx out and passed him off to the soldiers.

-Myu?!

“Onyx, lead these soldiers back to the city. Guys, listen carefully. This little guy is stronger than you.”

“Master Anvil?!”

“Go!” The blue cow charged violently, running so fast that it left behind an afterimage.

‘It’s huge, shit.’ The closer he got to his target, the more he could see. The creature coming out from the hole in the sky was bigger than any other monster he had encountered so far.

-In this small world, it is retaining its original size.

The administrator explained briefly, clearing Shin-hyuk’s confusion. Just like the belt he made had grown into the size of a city wall, or his sword that had become massive, this monster was maintaining its shape. Even taking that into account, it must’ve originally been large. Even his large sword would look like a chopstick compared to it.

-Quoooh?

The monster that appeared had a green crystal embedded in its head. Its cry filled the world, causing the inhabitants of the Ord kingdom to tremble. They could never cope with it on their own. Kang Shin-hyuk increased his speed and threw out his Godslayer sword. It became enormous as he wrapped it up with a spiritual wind, flying straight towards the monster’s eyes.

-Quoooh!

It bounced off harmlessly.

-You cannot break its shield by throwing it. You have to swing it yourself!

“That’s crazy.” Kang Shin-hyuk was aware of what that meant. He had to grow in size like that monster.

“Ultraman is so outdated…” No, it was being rebooted, so perhaps he could ride on its popularity. Kang Shin-hyuk grabbed the sword that bounced off and made up his mind.

-No need to worry too much, member.

Only

An unexpected message appeared.

-As long as they intervene first, it is possible to work properly with the Hero Universe. There is nothing more to hide.

“…Huh?”

-You have entered a request for support. Mirang has accepted the request.

Support? Accept? As Kang Shin-hyuk’s eyes widened, the administrator continued confidently.

-Three minutes, member. Hold on for three minutes.

“…How?” Kang Shin-hyuk muttered lifelessly as he looked up at the ultra-giant beast before him.

“It’ll be down to the wire.”