Rusted Rhapsody (4)

-Bang!

The noise rang out through the building. Even though the windows were shattered by the shock, the main structure was surprisingly fine. Terrible shocks continued to spread throughout the building, but it only converged from the inside and didn’t burst out.

“Damn, if I had known it was on the top from the start, I wouldn’t have started in the basement.”

“However, thanks to that, my troops have increased.”

Now Kang Shin-hyuk and Vita were on the 5th floor of the building. After breaking through the 7th floor of the basement and realizing what they were looking for wasn’t there, they immediately turned around and started running upward. If Kang Shin-hyuk could’ve grasped the entire space with his spiritual power, they wouldn’t have wasted that time, but the building filled with magi was the worst environment for extending his spiritual power. Although, that magi laid out like a protective shield was also keeping the building standing.

Thanks to the rapid increase in the number of nanobots Vita could handle as they explored the underground, the speed that they were progressing at was gradually increasing. The contaminated Gaia system was now actively responding by sending out strange monsters, realizing that they were growing stronger from the nanobots it sent.

-The enemy is coming! It’s a metal ghoul!

Immediately after the administrator issued a warning message, such a monster that was a corpse covered in cold metal appeared. It was the fusion of undead and machine. If the evil android, which was the prototype of Vita, had a body in the machine, then this monster was a machine implanted into an undead. Kang Shin-hyuk looked at it with narrowed eyes.

‘I knew right away that this world was playing according to the will of the contaminated Gaia system, but this isn’t right.’

Until the world collapsed, what had been the meaning of human life, which was divided into cities and slums? Perhaps the contaminated Gaia system tried to reproduce the confrontation between humanity and monsters with its own power. Giving meaning to and even trying to imitate Jormungand, which indiscriminately attacked humanity!

‘It created a threat, thereby selecting and controlling humanity… It was like that, using the world as a stage for its clumsy play.’

The experimentation had ended in failure. The rusty civilization collapsed as planned. The only thing left in this world was the Gaia system, which was forcibly holding the dead and the few who had yet to die.

-Kyaaaaah!

-Human… Are you alive?!

-Alive, a living human. A living human!

A crowd of metal ghouls ebbed towards them through the corridors.

“Vita, alright?”

A golden mist had wrapped around her. The group of nanobots reinforced by his trait had gathered to the point where they became visible. They converged and overflowed around her, the result of them exploring the basement. Vita sent some of the nanobots to grasp the enemy’s information and responded immediately.

“I believe Gaia has noticed this trick and started preparing for it!”

“Then, Onyx! I choose you!’

-Myu!

Onyx jumped off of his shoulder excitedly. To be precise, he was sent forward with Kang Shin-hyuk’s Wind Mastery, using his stealth to remain in hiding as he rocketed forward.

-Ah!

-Kiii?!

Onyx flew like a missile and quickly hit the leading ghoul. At that moment, all of the groups stopped. It was because Onyx synchronized with all of their movements.

-Myuuuuu!

He picked only the machine part of the ghouls and stopped it. He didn’t even need to bite into it himself anymore. He emitted his soft and silent gold magic that covered the ghouls and melted down the mechanical devices in them.

-It’s already a great boss monster.

“I think so too.”

As long as the target is made of metal, it could stop them and destroy the metal… The result was as cruel as a ghost story. The ghouls were twisting bizarrely and then fell over as holes formed in their bodies.

-Kii, kii…

-Kua…

Onyx’s ability wasn’t originally that powerful. Rather, it could be said that he wasn’t very good at handling his magical powers yet. However, as they continued to battle with monsters made of metal, Onyx began to grow accustomed to their metal properties and adapted to the use of his gold magic so that now he could eat and kill enemies at this ridiculous speed.

-Myu!

“Oh, good job.”

The metal ghouls breaking through the walls and corridors made it seem like the climax of a zombie movie, but it took less than a minute to put them all down. Of course, if the enemy moved under the Gaia system’s direct control, Onyx couldn’t easily use his magic, but then, they only had to hack it with Vita’s nanobots.

“Go. We still have some time left!”

“Yeah!”

The party broke through the building in a hurry. If they listened closely, they would be able to hear a faint popping sound from the outside. Shin Eunah and Claire were fighting. Even though they had defeated so many enemies, it was just a drop of blood compared to Shin Eunah, who was running wild outside.

‘Her magical power is infinite, but her stamina isn’t. I have to complete the mission as soon as possible…’

The reason they entered the building was to rescue Vita’s colleagues, who were held by the guards of the Gaia system. However, Kang Shin-hyuk realized something halfway through them exploring the building. That Vita’s colleagues were already dead. There was nothing in this building for life to survive. Even under the best conditions, if one were constantly exposed to the dark magi filling the interior of this building, they would die quickly and become undead.

‘…Vita.’

However, Vita’s expression, though she probably realized that fact sooner than him, didn’t change. No, maybe she had known it from the start, but she came anyway. Was she really trying to get revenge for her dead comrades? If so, it was really stupid… But it was also very human.

“Why do you look like that, Shin-hyuk?”

“…No, it’s nothing.”

Kang Shin-hyuk swallowed back what he wanted to say. Whatever awaited them on the top floor, he would be with Vita. That was the least sincerity he could show, having left her alone for ten years.

***

They soon entered the 6th floor, then the 7th and 8th. They advanced by defeating all the mechanical undead they encountered without wasting time. It was like they were a heroic party climbing the tower to level up. More and more nanobots followed Vita, and the gold magic that Onyx handled was constantly increasing. However, at this rate, they would run all day without reaching the top. When Kang Shin-hyuk considered that, suddenly, the whole building shook with a terrible roar.

“Shin-hyuk, look!”

“Uh, ah, wow…”

The glass windows of the building burst out. Vita sent some of her nanobots to look outside, then shouted loudly again.

“Magi is going outside rapidly…!”

Kang Shin-hyuk could also feel the magi in the hallway leaking out.

“Shin Eunah has forced their hand.”

“But if such a large amount goes outside, the undead who absorb it will become stronger…”

“That’s okay because it’s Eunah. My senior probably prefers it that way.”

And thanks to her strength, they could pick up the pace. Kang Shin-hyuk pulled out Phoibos and looked at Vita.

“How about it, can you break the ceiling now?”

“Ah…! Yes, I will help!”

It wasn’t easy to harm the building due to the magi filling the space, but an opening was created by Shin Eunah. Vita, who recognized it a second later, sent nanobots to the ceiling. They absorbed the remaining magi to weaken the ceiling.

“We will go through several in a row. You know what I mean?”

“I am preparing.”

“Okay, then… Go!”

-Bang!

The light bullet smashed the ceiling and soared forward. The debris began to pour down, but Kang Shin-hyuk ignored it and continued to fire off Phoibos. Vita worked with him and fired off nanobots to weaken the ceiling. Their breathing naturally synced up as they worked together.

-Kyaaaah!

-Kiiii!

-Remove the threat!

-Identifying threatening objects that pose a threat to management facilities!

9th floor, 10th, 11th… Whenever the ceiling collapsed, the monsters gathered on it fell together with terrible screams, but they were quickly disassembled and destroyed by Onyx and Vita’s nanobots.

-Bang!

13th, 16th, 20th. Kang Shin-hyuk continued to fire bullets without tiring. His energy right now was infinite because of the Great Heavenly Spirit in his belt. It was constantly sucking up the magic that was everywhere around them. However, Kang Shin-hyuk’s intent to penetrate the top floor of the building this way soon failed.

-Serious damage to the entire management facility. Pause the managed systems and perform recovery operations.

A mechanical voice could be heard throughout the building. Subsequently, destroyed pieces of the building were slowly knitting themselves back together. It was as if this building was the body of Gaia.

“Ha.”

Naturally, the density of magic in the building began to increase again, weakening his bullets. Kang Shin-hyuk hurriedly grabbed Vita and Onyx and spurred through the air to rush through the repairing ceiling. Of course, due to the energy filling the building, it was impossible to understand the space properly, let alone move through it.

‘Did I break through to the 30th floor? Before Eunah reaches her limit, somehow reaching up there…’

He thought it would be difficult, but it felt so stuffy that it was annoying. Kang Shin-hyuk even considered looking for an answer on the trading board after a long time.

-Myuuuuu!

Onyx, who had absorbed all the machines that fell down in the process of breaking through to the 30th floor, roared cutely and stretched out his thorns. It seemed that they were growing longer. No, they actually were flickering and stretching out!

“Hm?”

-Myuuu!

Kang Shin-hyuk grew nervous that maybe he had eaten too much, but Onyx’s thorns stretched out like electric wires to stick to the wall.

“Huh?”

“Shin-hyuk.”

Suddenly, the wall cracked open to reveal a hidden elevator.

-Myu!

Onyx cried out proudly.

Now he had learned some hacking skills.