NOVEL NEXT Chapter 18: Solo SSS-Class Space Battleship
༺ Solo SSS-Class Space Battleship ༻
Youngsik couldn’t wrap his head around what he was witnessing.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
As the gatling gun fired, zombies exploded and fell to the ground without fail.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
“Ah….”
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Each time the barrel rotated and fired, the zombies collapsed en masse, swept away like waves.
The gatling gun continued to fire at regular intervals without rest.
Although its power was somewhat lacking, often failing to finish them in one shot, Youngsik felt like he understood why Hyperion had chosen Vacuum Compressed Bullets.‘If air is compressed into bullets… There’s no need to worry about ammunition.’
Even if it was an Apocalypse novel, firearms were still a threat to the Awakened. However, the obvious downside was that ammunition was consumable. Three years had passed since the apocalypse began. There was no way manufacturing plants were still running, so ammunition was naturally running low.
The shelter did have firearms, but they were basically kept for emergencies.
However, Youngsik did not need to worry about spending bullets.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
No zombie could resist the relentless air bullets. If the aim was fixed onto a single target, it had the power to bring down buildings.
“What on earth….”
The area was cleared of zombies. Hyperion, perhaps to attract zombies, bombarded them without turning on its stealth and silencer functions.
Drooling zombies, drawn by the noise, faced a fate no different from the ones that came before. They all exploded and lay cold on the ground with holes in their heads.
A massacre.
It was, quite literally, a massacre.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
After the last horde of zombies fell, silence descended on the area.
There were no more in the vicinity.
“Hehe.”
To be so overwhelmin….
That was when Hyperion’s lower hatch mechanism activated.
Pwhooooosh- Click-
“Huh?”
The floor opened and wind rushed in between Youngsik’s legs.
Whirrrr-
The seat Youngsik was sitting on descended. He realized what it was implying.
“Are you telling me to get off?”
Upon roughly understanding, Youngsik jumped off the seat and safely disembarked. At least, unlike earlier, Hyperion had lowered its altitude. Youngsik ran a finger under his nose.
D-Doesn’t that mean we got a bit closer? R-Right?
Youngsik was moved even by such a trivial and slight consideration.
Thud.
“Mm?”
A bag and tongs fell at his feet.
“Ah…!”
Youngsik realized what he had to do.
It was telling him to collect Bloodstones, which were found inside zombies ever so rarely.
“….”
Youngsik looked around at the zombie flesh scattered messily around and broke out in cold sweat.
“P-Please let the n-next upgrade be an automatic collection device…!”
Still, wouldn’t this much of a request be granted? Right?
Leaving the unresponsive Hyperion behind, Youngsik rolled up his sleeves and started picking up Bloodstones.
Well… At least there wasn’t a risk of being attacked by zombies while collecting. As such, he was more at ease.
***
“Boss… What is that?”
“….”
“Am I seeing this right?”
“I don’t know, you dumbfuck.”
On the rooftop of a high-rise building far from Youngsik…
Four Awakened were using scopes to watch the unbelievable scene unfolding in the distance.
“What even… is that?”
“Haha. I can only laugh at the absurdity.”
“An Awakened? Or a Shelter Ability User?”
“Whatever it is, it’s no ordinary matter.”
“How are we even supposed to deal with that?”
“….”
The boss leading them felt just as perplexed.
“It is an order from Leader, so we can’t fail either.”
“I’m gonna go crazy.”
“But he’s alone, right? Will he really keep riding on that?”
“Let’s finish him off when he disembarks. Then that… fighter jet just becomes ours, right?”
Gulp-
The sound of someone swallowing made them all shut their mouths. Although unspoken, it was natural for all of them to feel greedy.
A flying war machine with such power?
Just one of those machines could make this whole damned world feel not all that scary anymore.
“Uh, uh, he’s landing!”
“Oh!”
“It seems like he got off to pick up Bloodstones. Can’t we just attack him now?”
“That’s right, by the time he notices us, it’ll be too late. Let’s take him down quickly before he gets back on the flying vehicle.”
They descended from the rooftop and started moving quickly towards Youngsik.
The unidentified flying object had effortlessly knocked down over a thousand zombies, so the mere act of collecting Bloodstones would take him ages.
The flying machine hovered silently in the air. Meanwhile, Youngsik was completely unaware of their approach.
“Haha. Taking down one ordinary person like him should be easy. He isn’t even an Awakened.”
“Don’t get careless. If that punk gets on the vehicle, there’s nothing we can do.”
“Let’s go!”
They suppressed their excitement with great difficulty and charged at Youngsik.
“Kekekek!”
“Whoooo-”
“Seems like I’ll get to taste some blood for the first time in a while.”
***
“Ooooh….”
At Youngsik’s feet lay four chunks of meat.
“….”
They were the attackers who had been miserably shredded.
Youngsik recognized them as Awakened under the command of Yu Byungtae. Moreover, they were those who mainly handled the dirty work.
Youngsik could understand why Byungtae employed such people. It wasn’t possible to only have good things come out of running the shelter; sometimes, dirty work was necessary. Moreover, it wasn’t feasible to just push away Awakened with such poor qualities; employing them for such tasks wasn’t a bad policy when thinking of shelter operations.
However, Youngsik had never expected that he would be their target.
He was, after all, their comrade.
Unbeknownst to them, Youngsik had saved their lives numerous times. He had devised strategies against evolved entities that grew increasingly powerful and shared custom attack tactics to ensure safe raids for them.
“….”
As such, he had never anticipated being backstabbed like this.
“Sigh. What a waste. He ended up just killing off such valuable Awakened.”
Though of somewhat poor quality in terms of personality, an Awakened was still a significant force for ordinary people just from their mere existence.
“It’s none of my business now, though.”
A Shield Ability User, a Tracking Ability User, a Wind Blade Ability User, and a Physical Enhancement Ability User had foolishly attacked him and met their demise.
Initially, they had only surrounded and threatened Youngsik.
They must have thought it was safe because he wasn’t aboard Hyperion. However, what they didn’t realize was that he was essentially one with the craft.
‘Tch….’
Youngsik wiped the blood on his face with his sleeve.
‘That punk, Byungtae….’
He was startled when they first attacked.
A casual kick from one of the Awakened sent a zombie’s innards flying, hitting his face and sliding down.
-There’s no need for further discussion. I have a few questions. What is that flying object above? Did you create it with your Ability?
-….
-Why are you not speaking? You won’t survive if you keep up with that attitude.
-If you hand over the control method and that machine, we’ll let you go.
-Kekek. Boss! Isn’t that way too generous?
-You probably know already, but we’re quite skilled in interrogation. So, we ask for your cooperation.
They seemed to disregard Youngsik completely, instead showing great interest in Hyperion, the unidentified flying object. Greed filled their eyes.
-That’s one slick craft, ain’t it?
-Can it really hover in the air like that? What is this? How is that even possible?
-Even superhumans like us exist now. What is there that could not be possible?
-From a brief glance, the rate of fire seems fast, but I’m pretty sure each shot seems weaker than a standard firearm, right?
-Hmm. Yeah, now that I’m examining the bodies up close, there are quite a few non-penetrative wounds.
-By the way, I don’t see any bullet traces, huh?
-Just thinking about riding this is making my heart race.
Up until then, Hyperion just leisurely hovered in the air.
Then, the Tracking Ability User jumped towards Hyperion’s lower part. He seemed to plan on climbing into the cockpit through the open hatch.
And it was then that Hyperion’s gatling gun fired.
“ARGHGHGHGHHGHG!”
While the Awakened generally had far superior physical abilities compared to ordinary humans, that didn’t seem to mean they could withstand Hyperion’s barrage.
The other Ability Users hastily deployed shields and prepared for attack, but…
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-
The shields briefly withstood Hyperion’s onslaught, but could not endure the air bullets that fired more than 10,000 rounds per minute, or over 200 rounds per second, thus being crushed like tofu.
‘Eugh….’
And with that, the fate of the other Awakened fared no different.
Hyperion had turned the Awakened into chunks of meat in an instant. And for some reason, Youngsik felt like Hyperion was not in all that good of a mood.
How he could sense the mood of a chunk of machinery was a mystery to even Youngsik himself.
Was it due to his attribute of being its steward?
When he inspected Hyperion’s outer armor closely, he found a small scratch, less than 1 cm, from the final attack of the Wind Blade Ability User.
“Mm… So was that why?”
After tidying up the area and boarding Hyperion, he realized that its Power had slightly increased.
“Is it gaining Power not just from feeding it Bloodstones but from killing as well?”
Bloodstones were virtually the only reliable currency in this apocalyptic world. So, if it could be saved as much as possible, then….
Swoosh- Swish- Swoosh-
Fat chance of that. What did he even expect?
The moment he had such thoughts upon boarding, all the Bloodstones were sucked in
“….”
Youngsik just gave up on the concept of thinking itself.
He had no intention of rebelling against Hyperion, which had just turned Awakened into minced meat in seconds.
[Initiating Automatic Hunting.]
[Searching for optimal hunting locations.]
Beeeeep-
Soon, the screen displayed hundreds of red dots.
‘Mmmm… That area is known for frequent appearances of evolved zombies, though….’
Youngsik was a bit worried, but he had no choice in the matter anyway.
Hyperion quickly flew to a location dense with zombies.
[Initiating combat.]
Whirrrrr- Clickk.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-
Like a high-level player rampaging in a low-level hunting ground in a game, Hyperion mowed down zombies in droves.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM-
For the sake of Hyperion’s growth, the poor zombies began to be sacrificed. Zombies were effortlessly sliced apart, making Youngsik momentarily pity them.
While watching this scene, Youngsik was at a loss for words.
Zombies Waves, a veritable disaster just waiting to come.
But perhaps, for Hyperion, it was just another free EXP event….
***
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