I Became a Hive Mind in the Game

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Hunter. It’s a term commonly used in modern fantasy, especially in web novels like gate stories, to refer to professional monster hunters, and this is not particularly different in Project Monster.

Their main job is, of course, monster hunting. As most players enjoy the game as hunters, their activities are depicted close to orthodox RPGs.

It’s a structure where they belong to NPC guilds or player guilds, receive and perform quests, and receive rewards and monster corpses as compensation to strengthen themselves.

Therefore, it’s not particularly strange for those two who look like hunters to come to such a remote place. Especially since this forest is home to many animal-type monsters, it would be good for hunting.

‘A close-range psychic and a modified human shooter combination?’

The woman is carrying a huge greatsword on her back and wearing a black bodysuit with a short black coat. On her waist, she’s carrying a thin sword, possibly a auxiliary weapon, and a pistol that appears to be an energy weapon.

On the other hand, the man is carrying a laser medium machine gun in a full-body power suit that looks solid just by looking at it, with heavy armor and even a barrier field equipped. From this, I inferred their professions.

Especially since that power suit is one sold in some large corporation’s store and one I used when I was a reinforced soldier intermediate hunter that even I couldn’t afford, I could also predict that they were roughly intermediate hunters.

‘If they’re intermediate… I definitely can’t be detected.’

The hunter’s rank is divided into the same grade as the monsters they can handle. So these two can hunt medium-grade monsters alone at the very least, which is comparable to being able to take down an armored vehicle single-handedly.

Therefore, just as I was deciding that I absolutely must not be detected, suddenly the connection with the Hive Scout that had alerted me to the hunters’ appearance was cut off.

‘…We’re fucked.’

After checking the Hive Mind records to see who killed it, the situation was, of course, that it had been detected and killed by those hunters.

Unlike other monsters, the Hive Scout’s appearance itself is close to the typical Hive Mind series’ unique arthropod-like form, such as crustaceans, insects, or spiders.

Of course, there’s a possibility that they didn’t think there was a Hive Mind since there are plenty of animal-type monsters that look like arthropods, but…

In any case, they’ve found a suspicious creature—a new species, so it’s almost certain that the hunters will report to the association or guild about the suspicious individual, also to receive a reward.

And once the report goes up, they will search this area no matter what, and if my existence is detected in that search, I will meet my end at the hands of the incoming human army at that moment.

Although this is an example assuming the worst-case scenario, I must prevent it as long as there’s even a slight possibility.

This also means that I must definitely kill those two hunters.

Since there’s a high possibility that those two are just guild members of a small to medium-sized guild or individual hunters, not some chaebol’s second generation or a promising talent of a large guild, if I kill them to silence them, the probability of a search coming is very low.

‘Alright, let’s prepare…’

Therefore, the moment I decided to kill those two to silence them, suddenly the Hive Scouts that were on reconnaissance at regular intervals started dying one by one.

‘…It’s them.’

Checking the Hive Mind records, it was certain that they were being killed by those two, and moreover, I could roughly infer their location through the order in which they were being killed.

Now all that’s left is the hunt.

‘Move, Hive.’

I sent out the Hive Raptors and a large number of monsters to drive them for a certain kill in that direction.

※ ※ ※

“Miss, it might be better to retreat and report…”

“Sejun, just shut up and shoot! Is this the time for that?”

At the same time, the two hunters were saying this while dealing with the visible crustacean-like monsters in order.

It was an action the female hunter took out of anger, thinking it was like voyeurism that monsters, whose basic nature is hostility towards humans, were quietly hiding and observing them.

If it were an ordinary hunter, such impulsive behavior that goes against the manual would get them kicked out of the guild and blacklisted the moment they did it, but well, what can you do?

That female hunter is none other than the youngest daughter of the chairman of Seonggwang Group, one of South Korea’s top 10 conglomerates, and at the same time, a member of Seonggwang Guild, directly under Seonggwang Group.

For this reason, the male hunter—Sejun—was quietly assisting her without being able to do anything. No matter how much of a top prospect and bodyguard of Seonggwang Guild he was, if he got on the wrong side of her with her terrible personality, he could be kicked out.

“Behind, incoming!”

“Thanks—Hap!”

Of course, regardless of such personality or situation, these two are both veteran intermediate hunters. They have a record of hunting large grade 4 monsters together, and have also slaughtered various medium-grade monsters.

They even participated in a grade 7 Hive Mind subjugation operation when they were low-grade hunters, so they’re fighting confidently even in this situation where the existence of a highest-risk Hive Mind has been half confirmed.

Since full-scale infiltration or the appearance of monsters hasn’t been confirmed by the government and association yet, they thought that the Hive Mind hasn’t properly produced troops yet and is probably a low-grade Hive Mind.

Logically, there’s no possibility that a Hive Mind would show patience and not send attack troops towards humans while producing its monsters if it had the capacity to do so.

This is due to the monsters’ unique aggressiveness. Even animal-type monsters, which are said to be relatively calm and able to control themselves, go crazy and charge at humans when they see them, so how could a Hive Mind with even stronger aggressiveness not do so?

Therefore, they judged that they could subjugate a low-grade Hive Mind sufficiently with just the two of them, and while killing Hive Scouts and searching for the Hive Mind’s main body, they encountered them.

“Sejun, I’m right, aren’t I?”

“…Sigh. Yes, miss.”

It was a group of low-grade monsters, questionable if there were even 500 in total, mixed with new species they’ve never seen before and familiar monsters.

While it was clear evidence of a Hive Mind’s presence, at the same time, given the insufficient number of troops for a Hive Mind that produces tens of thousands of monsters in just a few days even if it’s low-grade, it undoubtedly looked like a Hive Mind that had just recently settled and started infiltration.

“Should I go first?”

“No, I’ll handle it. There’s no need for you to bother getting your hands dirty, miss.”

Therefore, Sejun stepped forward, lamenting that the female hunter he was guarding—Lee Sujin—was right. Normally, such a loose relationship would be impossible, but it was thanks to the camaraderie as comrades who had fought together on the battlefield.

Click. Thud.

Rattlerattlerattle—Boom!

After throwing an energy grenade at the face of a charging monster to gain the upper hand, he set the control lever of his laser machine gun to ‘×10/single shot’ and calmly began firing at the monsters.

The moment a monster touched the laser that momentarily appeared and disappeared from the muzzle, a hole was pierced in that part and the monster stopped moving due to damage to its central nervous system.

Watching the laser that penetrates at least 10 monsters at once with each shot, he continued the cleanup mechanically while wondering if these were really so insignificant.

And just 20 seconds after continuing this cleanup. The monsters all became lumps of meat mixed with exoskeleton fragments scattered on the ground.

This was the result of low-grade monsters charging at an intermediate hunter modified human shooter specialized in dealing with small fry.

“No enemy reactions in the surroundings, miss.”

“Good, let’s go find the Hive Mind’s main body then.”

Hearing Sejun’s report using the monster’s detection organs implanted in his body, Sujin got up from her seat and happily said while picking up the sword she had stuck in the ground.

As a psychic user, specifically a reinforcement-type psychic user specialized in body enhancement, with a slightly battle-maniac tendency, she was very happy to be able to cut a monster with good hand-feel after a long time.

“…I apologize. I need time to replace the magazine. Could you wait a moment?”

“Hm? Ah, that’s fine.”

“Thank you.”

When he carefully spoke after confirming that he had used up quite a lot of the laser gun’s power in the battle so far, Sujin freely gave permission.

So, as he was about to remove the laser gun’s dedicated battery magazine and take out a new battery from the charger connected to the powered suit’s battery.

“—!!”

Suddenly, lasers started flying from shaded areas all over the dense forest.

“Park Sejun!”

Of course, a few laser beams couldn’t penetrate the powered suit’s armor plates and barrier field, and while enduring those few hits, the psychic shield deployed by Sujin defended against the lasers.

“Reload quickly! Something’s not right!”

“Yes, understood!”

When Sujin, who had been feeling uneasy about the Hive Mind monsters with noticeably low aggressiveness from earlier, shouted like that, Sejun also felt very uneasy and quickly attempted to reload.

—Kishaaaaaaak!

Crack!

“Keu, keuuugh…!”

He would have undoubtedly acted like that if a medium-sized carnivorous dinosaur-like monster hadn’t suddenly appeared from their blind spot, with a barrier field around its teeth, and bitten into Sejun’s shoulder.