The Spatial Ability User Who Puts Safety Above All Chapter 12

Appearance (1)

 

[Giant Armored Beetle (B) Raid Event]

[(39°05’09.9″N 125°49’32.2″E)]

[Participants: Gandara, StatusEffect, Bulldozer, K-Tbone, Hyejeong, OneShotSniper, BeastKing, JungleCoffee, Perere, Tsuyu, Whirlwind, AbsoluteSafetyFirst]

[Real-Time Contribution Ranking: None]

• “Is that participant list for a B-rank raid for real? How are they supposed to clear this with that lineup?”
• “They seriously gathered only nobodies like ghosts.”
• “Still, aren’t Gandara, StatusEffect, and Perere from the Impact Guild? And a few look like they’re from major corporations… This doesn’t seem entirely made up of unknowns.”
• “Sure, they’re from Impact, but they’re not even rankers. Hunter-level users who couldn’t become rankers? Their level is obvious.”
• “Hey, do you think becoming a ranker is child’s play? You’re mocking them for not being rankers! Are you even hunter-level yourself?”
• “Well, rankings aren’t perfectly accurate anyway, so obsessing over whether someone’s a ranker or not isn’t that meaningful.”
• “Without a ranker, this number of people is nowhere near enough to beat a B-rank raid monster… Looks like we’re heading toward another disaster event.”
• “Nah, at least this time the event duration is long. The Bureau will probably barely manage to suppress it.”
• “Twelve hours? Yeah, the Bureau should be able to handle that.”
• “If they force-clear it through outside intervention, it won’t be easy,y though. If there’s a ranker nearby, someone should help.”
• “If you join a raid as an outsider, you don’t get rewards even if it clears. Who would help?”
• “You never know… Maybe there’s a righteous ranker out there…”
• “Righteousness? Are there still users who have that kind of romantic fantasy emotion?”
• “Of course there are. Quite a few rankers actually act with a sense of justice.”
• “Hey, that’s just the Bureau’s image management at work. You still believe that?”
• “Stop the nonsense and go to the betting thread that just went up. Looks like all the high-risk bettors are piling in, and the betting amounts are skyrocketing.”
• “Ugh, gamblers are everywhere. Do they think this community is a betting site?”
• “Honestly, no gambling site is safer than this community.”

…….

…….

 

The temporary raid event announcement post on the community was filled with all sorts of comments.

As they were saying, this raid was shaping up to be a very difficult battle.

But difficult didn’t mean they could give up.

The Bureau immediately organized a strike team to send north while simultaneously communicating through the network with the eleven connected users, doing everything possible to clear the raid.

 

***

 

“Motherfu– There are way more summoned entities than expected.”

The Giant Armored Beetle that appeared this time looked like an enormous beetle.

When it slightly lifted its hard wings and shook its body, countless calf-sized beetles dropped from it and scattered in all directions.

It was impossible to count precisely, but there appeared to be at least twenty-five flying around.

[“This isn’t even the main body! Damn it!”]

The voices of the raid participants echoing in the situation room were uniformly grim.

“Damn it… How long until the strike team arrives?”

“Even at maximum speed, at least three hours.”

“Sigh… At least the event duration is long.”

Director Jeong shook his head in frustration.

But at that very moment…

[Boom! Boom boom!]

Explosion sounds erupted through the participants’ speakerphones.

[“Huh? What’s that?”]

[“Whoa… Who is that? Control room, do we have any participants capable of long-range strikes?”]

“We don’t believe so. What’s happening?”

[“Suddenly… the summons are…”’

[BOOOOM!]

[“They’re… exploding.”]

A user with long-range attack ability was respected regardless of grade.

Such abilities were usually called ‘Emission-type’ abilities. The longer the range, the more valued the user.

It was inevitable since firearms could not be used and only cold weapons were viable, long-range attack types were rare and precious.

Some ‘Enhancement-type’ users tried imitating snipers with monstrous bows, but that was merely an imitation.

True sniping required Emission-type abilities.

But what was happening near the Giant Armored Beetle now was real sniping.

Not emission-based mana sniping.

Actual, literal sniping.

Seon Yul had exposed only the long barrel and high-magnification scope of a Barrett M82 slightly outside Absolute Space and was performing genuine sniper fire.

“Two down… next…”

He carefully adjusted the barrel, making sure the magazine never left Absolute Space.

The reason he could use a gunpowder weapon like the Barrett M82 inside the mana field was that the ammunition containing gunpowder never left Absolute Space.

It was an attack method no one else could replicate.

Only Seon Yul, possessor of Absolute Space, could perform this true sniping.

Bang! BOOM!

One shot per target.

From within the safest possible space, Seon Yul calmly eliminated the summoned entities.

 

[Real-Time Contribution Ranking:

AbsoluteSafetyFirst 12.4% / Gandara 0.09% / StatusEffect 0.07% / Bulldozer 0.01% / Perere 0.01%…]

• What is this? AbsoluteSafetyFirst? Who the hell is that? Why did he suddenly go berserk?
• It’s only been like five minutes, and he’s already at 12.4%? Wait, it’s still rising? Is this speed real?
• Is he a Noblesse-level user?
• I know almost all Noblesse-level user IDs worldwide. There’s no one like that. If that ID really is Noblesse-level… either he’s unregistered, or he’s going to become one soon.
• An unregistered Noblesse user? That makes no sense… A new one seems more likely.
• But that makes no sense either. Even with an SSS-grade ability, to pull this off, he’d need to be at least above level 50 — the Soldier limit. How could he have never exposed his ID before?
• This is insane. It’s 15% now. The speed is crazy.

……

…….

 

While the entire community was shocked, those in the Bureau’s situation room were even more stunned.

Gandara’s live feed showed another summoned entity exploding before their eyes.

“AbsoluteSafetyFirst… where did this guy even come from?”

Director Jeong checked the participant list again.

It was the first time anyone had seen that ID.

Yet he was unleashing unbelievable long-range firepower.

They didn’t even know from where he was attacking.

Gandara reported that the attacks seemed to come from a hill ahead, but nothing visible could be seen there.

“With this kind of firepower… maybe…”

An investigation would be needed later. For now, clearing the raid was what mattered.

But if things truly continued like this, it seemed possible that the raid could be cleared.

Of course, the key factor was how much longer the user ‘AbsoluteSafetyFirst,’ who was currently displaying overwhelming firepower, could keep it up

Seon Yul eliminated exactly 26 summoned entities in five minutes.

He cleared them first because the eleven users couldn’t even focus on the main body due to being overwhelmed by the summons.

If the main body moved elsewhere, everything would become the worst-case scenario. Relocating and resetting the Absolute Space position was the last thing Seon Yul wanted.

As expected, freed from the summons, the eleven users began attacking the Giant Armored Beetle in earnest.

“Phase one complete… Phase two will be the main body.”

The Barrett M82, which he had initially been skeptical about, proved satisfactory in terms of firepower.

Even though they were summoned creatures, they looked at least orc-level. And yet the Barrett blew them apart in a single shot.

Sure enough, even a gunpowder weapon could deal with monsters as long as it could actually be fired.

After ignition, it was simply a massive chunk of metal carrying kinetic energy into the target, so it retained enough power to function even within the mana field.

But the main body was a different story.

So Seon Yul pulled out an anti-materiel sniper rifle far more powerful than the Barrett M82.

“MÁDI Griffin 30mm. This should be enough to seriously damage the main body.”

This rifle, which used depleted uranium rounds, boasted roughly ten times the power of the Barrett M82.

Its drawbacks were tremendous recoil, reduced accuracy as a result, and the unproven durability of the weapon itself.

However, none of those three weaknesses applied to him.

First, the tremendous recoil could easily be absorbed by Seon Yul’s physical abilities, which far surpassed human limits.

Second, the decrease in accuracy was irrelevant. He was firing at a target so massive that missing would have been harder than hitting it.

Lastly, the rifle’s durability was not an issue because it was being fired from within Absolute Space.

Everything inside Absolute Space was maintained in perfect condition. No matter how many times he fired the Barrett or the MÁDI Griffin, they would never deteriorate.

With every drawback eliminated, only the advantages remained.

And then there was one more advantage.

[Powerful Strike]

Click… click…

Seon Yul activated the Powerful Strike he had been saving.

At first, he had thought Powerful Strike could only be used with melee weapons like a spear.

But after testing it just in case… surprisingly, it could also be applied to firearms.

Originally, the skill enhanced the act of attacking itself by infusing it with mana. Naturally, that mana should have affected the gun as well, causing the gunpowder to degrade and the bullets to fail.

But it didn’t.

Seon Yul suspected this was due to Absolute Space’s condition-maintenance ability.

Even the fundamental rule that mana rotted gunpowder was effortlessly negated by Absolute Space.

Which meant Powerful Strike was now applied to the MÁDI Griffin.

In other words… its power wasn’t merely ten times that of the Barrett… but potentially dozens of times greater.

BOOOOOOM!

Seon Yul finished preparing and pulled the trigger on the MÁDI Griffin.

A 30mm depleted uranium round tore through the air… and slammed directly into the Giant Armored Beetle’s head.