Chapter 15 – Assembler
Did heaven give you a gift for all your hard work? One shot I shot hit him right in the head.
Puff.
In one hit, all of his eyes were crushed.
Bang! Bang!
When I approached it a little closer and gave it an aiming shot, it flew cleanly over the nose, and steam came up from the cross section.
[Back off!]
I immediately fell back, and at the same time his fingers brushed the space where I was.
Crackling!
I thought I avoided it, but maybe it was because my fingers were so long? The front of the riot gear was torn in length. It is an armor that can withstand even a lion’s scratches, and it has tremendous cutting power.
It attacked me with his head blown off, then flesh filled up from where it had been severed with a gurgling sound.
“Is the Immortal God appearing now!”
[No, it’s a little different.]
3 bullets left. But I don’t know if I’ll be able to kill them even if I shoot them all. I shot the net launcher before he finished regenerating.
Bang!
The first shot was fired with his left hand, but the entire net became entangled in his arm and sealed his left arm.
Bang!
Thanks to that, the second hit me all over.
Cheer up!
The carbon fiber net, which could immobilize even a beast of a beast, tumbled into an unsightly posture.
“Kyaaaaagh-!”
He cried out like crazy and struggled, but to no avail, only to have red scars all over his body.
In the meantime, I ran past him. You don’t have to fight this guy. The only goal is the control room!
Chin!
I tried to avoid it as much as possible, but he reached out his right arm and grabbed my ankle. Somehow, in that brief moment, the net was ripped open enough to pull his arm out.
His arms, which had only had thick muscles until just now, were covered with pangolin-like scales.
Quadang!
“Aww!”
He pulled out his shotgun and aimed it immediately.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Sparks flew and the arm holding my ankle was cut in half, but still blocking my movements.
“Fuck!”
He threw down the shotgun and pulled out a fire axe, striking it repeatedly.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
There was a metallic sound and the sound of flesh being torn at the same time, and sparks and blood spattered each time.
In the meantime, something strange happened to his body. Everywhere on his body bubbling, and scales sprouted all over his body, as well as his arms.
[Kyaaaaagh-!]
As he shouted, the scales rose vertically all at once and stood up like blades, cutting off the net in an instant.
Quaang!
It was at that moment that I cut off his arm.
Shudder.
As I shook off his arms, three tentacles protruded from his shattered head and burrowed into my face.
Simplicity and honesty!
The polycarbonate, which only scratched despite the protesters’ spears, was pierced at once.
1 strand was blocked, 1 strand barely got through, and the other strand stopped right in front of my eyes.
Shhh-! Shhh-!
I cut off the tentacles that were struggling violently as if they wanted to tear my eyes open with an army knife. The moment he pulls out and throws the shaking tentacles attached to his helmet.
Pooh!
His foot flew in and kicked me in the stomach.
“Cuck!”
It was like seeing stars in front of my eyes. My body swelled up and flew away, barely holding back the rising vomit. If you throw up leisurely now, you will die right away.
“Kyaaaaak-!”
I shot a net launcher at the guy who was running towards me who hadn’t woken up yet.
The last grenade flew and hit him, and he got up and ran down the hallway within two seconds of tearing it apart.
Empty.
I don’t even have the energy to carry a fire ax anymore. He ran with the last of his strength, butheheard the sound of his scream coming from behind him getting closer and closer.
When I finally reached the entrance to the lower area control room, I took out my employee ID and checked in.
[Welcome to the entry. Manager Seo Jin-soo.]
A middle-aged male voice, the default value of the operating system, welcomed me.
At the same time, a scream was heard from behind. The one whose head had been regenerated was glaring at me with 8 red eyes. His severed arm is also already attached.
“Kyaaaaa-!”
“Close it!”
Click.
A few more seconds could have killed me, but the door closed faster.
Thud! Thud!
A dull sound echoed over and over again, but to no avail.
The entrance to the lower area control room is made thicker than other places in preparation for a riot by residents, so heavy equipment must be mobilized to break through properly.
Through the surveillance cameras, I saw him frantically attacking the door.
Every time it hit the body, it collided with the scales all over its body, sparking dazzling sparks.
[Jinsu, curiosity later. Now is…]
“I know.”
I cut her off and went to the computer in the control room.
“It has been a really long journey.”
Blue light penetrated the computer cluster and soon all the monitors in the control room were outputting codes that were rearranged.
Artemis had taken control of this place.
At that point, the sound from the door stopped. It seems he left after realizing he couldn’t break down the door either.
“Kyaaaaagh-!”
After a final roar, it disappeared.
[You can stop the machine now.]
Is it some kind of siphon principle? Just like when you transfer oil from oil drum to oil drum, if you suck it out with your mouth the first time, it will move on its own after that.
“How long will it take?”
[Forty-seven seconds ahead.]
A video record from a surveillance camera played on the screen. It was a video of the monster that had been chasing me until just now.
[That entity seems to have the ability to reconstruct its own body as needed.]
“In addition to the ability to regenerate? It is very complete.”
Another video played on the screen at my question.
[Bang!]
This is the video of when the head was blown off.
In the part where the head regenerated while bubbling, the outline of the whole body was displayed, and the outline after regeneration was completed was shown again.
When the two outlines were transferred to the 3D graphic and overlapped, it was confirmed that the size was reduced, albeit weakly.
[Strictly speaking, that’s not a magical regeneration. It’s just disassembling other parts of yourself and reassembling them in the necessary parts for an instant.]
“Is it that you can defeat it by making a rag with a weapon with strong firepower?”
[With a shotgun, you’ll have to fire hundreds of rounds.]
“How about a flamethrower? What if I bake it at all so that it cannot transform the body?”
[Probably less effective. I will deal with it by transforming the shell into a strong fire-resistant skin.]
“What a monster. A mutant or that guy. How many more will there be out there?”
I thought about the army of monsters that must still be roaming around beyond the barricade at the entrance of the government building. I’m safe right now, but how long will I last?
[But now they are all dead.]
Weiying.
All the computers in the control room shouted in unison with a loud sound. This symptom occurs when the CPU and memory are occupied to the limit. I’ve been through this twice already.
[Complete transfer of full operational rights. Temporary control of the operating system is terminated. From now on, I function as the Manual.]
It was the voice of a middle-aged man I had heard often.
A smile formed on my lips, and at the same time Artemis’ face appeared on the large front panel.
[Look, I am everywhere now. I can feel the rights and power that I should have enjoyed seeping into every corner of this land. Jinsu, you worked hard to complete the difficult task.]
The screen changed, her face disappeared, and numerous surveillance camera images were transmitted in a grid pattern.
All I see are infestations, many infestations, more infestations, endless infestations.
Corridors strewn with blood and soot
Occasionally, there was a room with a body that had been hanged.
[Until now, those monsters have been both a threat and a nuisance. How can uncivilized bugs force me to do such hard work?]
I sat in the office chair. It feels like the accumulated fatigue is bursting out all at once.
[We’ve suffered enough already. Be at ease. A new sanctuary will soon be rebuilt on this cleansed land.]
The screen changed to show the inside of the hydroponic cultivation facility.
Home to a giant nest that sprayed gas all over the shelter. The entire inside and outside of the building was almost covered with bizarre chunks of meat.
Six walls.
A building that bleeds.
Unpleasantly warm heating.
Each time I thought of an appropriate description, I felt disgust.
In the middle was a mass of flesh that appeared to be the main body of a giant nest. It was a heart
Pounding. Pounding.
Slowly but intensely pulsating, it seems to be pumping the gas and nutrients created inside to the branches extending upward.
“Is that the body of a sea anemone?”
Cause of the explosion.
[Right. It’s the first thing to get rid of.]
“How?”
[You know that this is a hydroponic cultivation facility, right?]
A small screen was created and enlarged.
It was kind of like a plumbing plan, and it was scattered all over the hydroponic facility.
At first, I thought it was a blueprint for a sprinkler installed on the ceiling. It was different.
[That facility is not intended to grow only one or two crops. Grow various crops as needed at that time, and use the growth accelerator to produce fruit quickly. If you look at the process, would you say it feels more like manufacturing than cultivation?]
Dering.
Along with a small system alarm, liquid began to fill the many empty pipes.
[When planting new crops after harvest, isn’t it too wasteful to remove the old ones one by one? Because manpower is always limited.]
All liquids have filled the piping.
[Those sprinklers are also used to put out fires in case of a fire, but they are also used to thaw previously grown plants and convert them into manure at the same time.]
The screen was showing the name of the solution, but it wasn’t the sulfuric acid I vaguely remembered.
The name was a combination of complex alphabets and numbers, and it seems that it was newly developed for this purpose. It must be an acidic poison with deadly power.
“It would be perfect if there was a fatal accident. I will never work in a place like that.”
[If a human manages it, that would be the case. But this place is managed by machines. When carrying out the purification work, the bioreactions in the area are checked in several stages. So that there is no ‘accidental’ pouring of the solution in the presence of people.]
Now Artemis seemed to know what she was going to do.
Dering.
A small selection window appeared on the screen, accompanied by a system beep.
There are two choices
Approve and cancel.
[We need to make mistakes now. I need your approval. Mistakes are the exclusive property of humans, right?]
Artemis seldom laughed.
Subsequently, the manual’s warning voice was played.
[Warning. A large number of biosignals are detected in the hydroponic cultivation area. Would you like to proceed with the purification process?]
[Estimated death compensation required for the process is 5 billion. Five thousand. Four hundred. Sixty. 30 thousand. One. No see.]
[The established death compensation budget is 0. Won. No see.]
[Administrative permission is required to proceed.]
“I approve.”
At the same time, the rain of purification poured down from numerous sprinklers all at once.