The Spatial Ability User Who Puts Safety Above All Chapter 61

Arachne Raid (1)

 

Having made his decision, Seon Yul began preparing the things he would need for the Arachne raid.

He replenished the ammunition he had consumed quite heavily during the battle against the Baekdu Bloodline, and refilled all the consumables for the K-9X and K3 stealth tanks that were stationed in one corner of Absolute Space’s combat zone.

Since food and water could be purchased whenever necessary, he did not bother stocking them in advance.

After completing all preparations, Seon Yul immediately set off for Australia.

Naturally, his means of transportation was ‘Real Painting [The Door].’

As expected, Seon Yul could not travel to Australia in a single jump.

This essentially confirmed that The Door’s maximum range was around 1,500 kilometers.

The straight-line distance from Jeju Island to his first destination, Perth in Australia, was over 7,000 kilometers, so he had no choice but to travel in several stages.

So first, Seon Yul moved from Jeju Island to Taipei, the capital of Taiwan. Although Taiwan had managed the Gate crisis as successfully as South Korea, it was a separate matter that a few years ago, it had ultimately been absorbed by China after failing to withstand China’s all-around pressure.

In any case, after moving to Taipei, Seon Yul then traveled to Manila in the Philippines.

At present, the Philippines has completely given up managing several of its islands, leaving them to become monster dens, but at least Luzon Island, where the capital Manila was located, was under strict control.

Even after arriving in Manila, he had only made it about halfway.

From Manila, Seon Yul moved again to Kota Kinabalu in Malaysia, and from there directly to Bali in Indonesia.

He had already used The Door four times just for travel, yet he still had not reached Australia.

After quietly resting in Bali and replenishing his mana, he finally moved to Port Hedland in Australia, setting foot on the Australian continent after five transfers.

But his travel was not over yet.

Lastly, Seon Yul made a sixth jump from Port Hedland to the city of Perth, finally bringing the continuous journey to an end.

Naturally, there was no one who knew that Seon Yul had arrived in Perth.

He had not entered through an airport by plane; he had simply appeared naturally near the back door of a restaurant famous for its food in Perth. No one had any idea that Seon Yul… no, Absolute Safety First. was here.

From the beginning, Australia had completely opened its borders to foreign entrants, so foreigners like Seon Yul were seen everywhere, and no one paid them any special attention.

On the Australian continent, there were only five cities that still belonged to the nation of Australia.

Sydney, Perth, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Port Hedland… just these five.

Australia now existed only as a union of these five cities.

For that reason, they relied on foreign mana users, essentially mercenaries, to compensate for their weakened national power.

This was also the sorrowful help they had obtained in exchange for offering Death Field, the finest hunting ground in the world, completely free of charge.

“Whew… Even just traveling like this is no easy task.”

Seon Yul had not made all six jumps consecutively without pause.

Each time he traveled, he had to move close to his limit of 1,000 to 1,500 kilometers, and after each jump, he needed to spend several hours replenishing his mana.

As a result, it had taken nearly two full days to reach the city of Perth.

At times like this, he was once again reminded of just how convenient Absolute Space’s method of movement truly was.

However, now that he had arrived here, as long as he did not completely withdraw from Australia, he would be able to travel back and forth between Korea and Australia at any time in an instant.

Having arrived at his first destination, the city of Perth, Seon Yul slowly walked around the city while waiting for his expended mana to recover.

Of course, this was not his final destination.

The place he intended to reach was Lake Lefroy.

And the city name closest to Lake Lefroy… or rather, that used to be closest, was Kambalda.

Seon Yul had already thoroughly searched the internet and found an old photograph of a certain building in Kambalda West.

As long as the building had not collapsed and the door in the photograph still existed… he would be able to activate The Door using that door as a reference.

Once his mana was fully restored, Seon Yul moved to an empty place and carefully outlined a door in the air.

If this jump succeeded, it would yield considerable benefits in terms of both time and cost.

Tssst.

Fortunately, the door was completed.

Now it just needed to open…

Creeeak.

‘Okay!’

As soon as the door opened, Seon Yul quickly pulled on his safety helmet, draped the mithril cloak over himself, and stepped inside.

Ssssh.

Kambalda West had now completely become a ghost town, and white spiderwebs were plastered everywhere.

However, these were not webs spun directly by the ultra-giant tarantula Arachne, but webs created by the large tarantulas born by it as they roamed about.

There was no need to be particularly cautious of these webs, so Seon Yul brushed them aside casually while looking around.

As expected, this place was notorious for being an unpopular hunting ground even within Death Field, so not only were there no users in sight, but there were hardly even signs that any users had passed through.

In short, it seemed that no one would notice, no matter what kind of chaos he caused here.

‘I can set this place as the point.’

From the beginning, Seon Yul had intended to set up camp in either Kambalda West or Kambalda East and then begin the full-scale raid.

While looking around, he searched for the tallest building in Kambalda West.

Unfortunately, Kambalda was not a bustling city but merely a somewhat large town in the middle of the desert, so there were no high-rise buildings at all.

The largest structure nearby was a recreation center on the outskirts.

Seon Yul moved there and lightly climbed up to the rooftop of the recreation center.

‘For now, I’ll designate this as the primary camp…’

After opening an entrance to Absolute Space on the rooftop and stepping inside, he checked a map of the nearby area on the internet.

Lake Lefroy, located right beside Kambalda, was an extremely wide lake.

Of course, it was not a lake filled with water like real lakes, but a dry lake filled with salt. Nevertheless, its size was enormous.

Fortunately, from the position of the primary camp he had chosen, most of the lake area fell within a 25-kilometer radius.

In other words, the entire lake lay within the operational range Seon Yul had envisioned.

‘Not bad.’

Satisfied with his current position, Seon Yul finalized the camp location.

After settling in, he opened two entrances to Absolute Space facing different directions and deployed the K9 and K3.

‘Preparation is complete, so…’

Having finished all combat preparations, Seon Yul summoned a mana brush in his right hand and began drawing a crow in the air.

Scratch. Scratch.

Perhaps because he had practiced in spare moments…

The crow drawing that initially took around 20 seconds to complete was now finished in about 16 seconds.

Once the drawing was complete, Seon Yul infused it with mana, breathing life into the crow.

‘Go.’

He then sent it flying outside Absolute Space.

From this point onward, Seon Yul intended to locate Arachne’s exact position through the Spike Crow.

Whoosh.

The Spike Crow flew over Lake Lefroy, scouting the surroundings.

Fearing it might be caught by spiders if it flew too low, Seon Yul made it fly at the maximum altitude it could reach.

After all, what he needed was only Arachne’s approximate location.

Especially since Arachne was labeled an ultra-giant raid monster, there was no way he would fail to spot it.

Quietly inside Absolute Space, Seon Yul received reconnaissance images delivered by Spike Crow every 30 seconds.

Unfortunately, the reconnaissance images transmitted by Spike Crow were a different concept from ‘line of sight,’ so he could not open an Absolute Space entrance based on them.

The Spike Crow made a wide circle around Lake Lefroy from the right.

Seon Yul waited patiently without growing impatient.

Then, after about ten minutes…

At last, the long-awaited scene arrived through Spike Crow.

‘Found it!’

A faint black figure is visible in the distance.

Even though it was seen from very far away, its size appeared enormous.

Arachne looked larger than an American aircraft carrier; merely looking at it was enough to feel overwhelmed.

‘So this is what they mean by ultra-giant monster.’

The largest monster Seon Yul had faced so far was the Mountain Turtle.

It had been called ‘Mountain’ because it looked like a small mountain, but Arachne appeared several times larger than even that.

‘Well, being big actually makes things easier.’

Yet Seon Yul found himself thinking that the bigger Arachne was, the more convenient it would be.

With that thought, he ordered Spike Crow to approach Arachne a little closer to observe it more precisely.

But…

Swoosh-Boom!

Amazingly, the moment Spike Crow drew near to Arachne, something shot out from Arachne’s direction and shattered Spike Crow to pieces.

“Huh.”

Feeling the link severed as Spike Crow vanished, Seon Yul stared toward the area where Arachne was.

‘Its senses must be extremely sharp.’

Spike Crow had not even touched a web, yet Arachne had detected its presence with ease.

That meant approaching Arachne would not be easy… and he could understand why countless mana users had failed in the Arachne raid until now.

‘But that doesn’t matter to me.’

Seon Yul grinned faintly.

After a slight smile, he immediately boarded the first K9X.

For this raid, Seon Yul had purchased two additional K9Xs from the All-Purpose Shop.

A total of three K9Xs were now prepared.

He had spent 190 kilograms of intermediate magic stones all at once, but that was precisely what he had been saving them for, so he did not feel it was wasteful.

In any case, having prepared three K9Xs, Seon Yul immediately began inputting various parameters into their fire control support systems.

‘I’m not fighting in its territory.’

From the outset, Seon Yul had no intention of battling inside Arachne’s domain. What he wanted was to lure Arachne into the battlefield he had prepared.

The difference between fighting on the opponent’s battlefield and fighting on one’s own was immense.

This was not merely a matter of whether it was advantageous to the opponent or to himself… it was the difference between a battlefield that favored the opponent while disadvantaging him, and one that favored him while disadvantaging the opponent.

Of course, this was a fundamental principle that most users already knew. Yet despite that, users had still forced their way into Arachne’s nest to fight it because there had been no method whatsoever to draw Arachne outside.

From the beginning, half-baked long-range attacks from a half-baked distance had failed to penetrate Arachne’s web defenses.

In the end, because it was impossible to lure Arachne out, large-scale forces had no choice but to enter its nest to fight it.

‘First, lure it out.’

After finishing inputting firing parameters into all three K9Xs, Seon Yul created another Spike Crow and sent it outside.

This time, instead of approaching Arachne, he planned to observe its movements from afar.

After dispatching the Spike Crow to act as an observer, he widened the entrance of Absolute Space sufficiently through Overrun.

This also consumed magic stones, but it was unavoidable if the three K9Xs were to conduct proper bombardment.

By the time all preparations were complete, Spike Crow was transmitting a distant image of Arachne.

‘Okay, just as expected, the position hasn’t changed.’

Since the position remained the same, there was no need to adjust the firing parameters.

Seon Yul quickly set all three K9Xs to automatic fire mode.

“From the ready gunners… fire!!”

He pressed the firing start buttons one by one.

Boom–boom–boom!

All three K9Xs roared as they spewed flames, launching high-speed glide shells toward the designated coordinates.

Seon Yul continued controlling all three K9Xs while watching the scenes transmitted by Spike Crow.

The high-speed glide shells tore across roughly 20 kilometers…

And began falling onto the body of the ultra-giant tarantula, Arachne.