The Cave of Extreme Cold (2)
After obtaining the committee’s approval, Lewis moved immediately.
He contacted the Korean Gate Administration and also sent a separate email to AbsoluteSafetyFirst.
If the Korean Gate Administration happened to omit his proposal on their own authority, he intended to contact AbsoluteSafetyFirst directly and seize an even greater opportunity.
However, the Korean Administration did not omit the cooperation request from the United States.
They… or rather, Cha Seong Hyeon, delivered the cooperation request from the U.S. to Seon Yul exactly as it was and asked for his opinion.
[All the information about the Cave of Extreme Cold has been sent through the community mail. You can review that and make your decision.]
Cha Seong Hyeon gathered every piece of information the Administration could obtain, added the information they requested from the American side, and sent everything to Seon Yul.
“They seemed to have the mindset of giving whatever the U.S. wants.”
[Yes, we might even be able to receive the S-grade Wish Boxes that the United States currently possesses. Should I try negotiating further?]
“Hm… Wish Boxes are nice, but…”
The opponent was the United States.
That country… the one people used to say had abducted and tortured aliens to develop weapons even before the age of mana civilization began.
Because of that, there were a few things that interested Seon Yul more than Wish Boxes or items.
“The opponent is the United States… What would count as really extracting something valuable from them?”
In truth, he wasn’t very concerned about the strategy for conquering the Cave of Extreme Cold itself.
Even before receiving the information from Cha Seong Hyeon, Seon Yul had already conducted a certain degree of analysis about the Cave of Extreme Cold.
The information provided this time would probably make that analysis even more complete, but in any case, the Cave of Extreme Cold was already a place Seon Yul had classified as one of his next conquest targets, so the analysis was largely finished.
Therefore, Seon Yul’s attention was inevitably more focused on the reward than on the conquest itself.
“I’ll think about it a bit more and let you know. Give me a few days.”
[Understood.]
Having bought himself some time, Seon Yul began seriously considering what the maximum reward he could extract from the United States might be.
While thinking about it, he even paused his Sandworm hunting and stayed inside Absolute Space.
To Seon Yul, the United States was like a treasure vault.
There were countless things he could potentially extract from them.
However, even if the U.S. were currently taking a submissive stance, it would be impossible to extract everything in one go.
And considering the capabilities of the United States, if Seon Yul demanded something specific, they might infer clues about his abilities and combat style from that request.
“But I can’t just let this opportunity slip away…”
You can’t refuse to make soybean paste just because you’re afraid of maggots.
Seon Yul decided that it was unavoidable if the United States obtained some information about him.
“Let’s go with a smokescreen strategy. I’ll hide what I truly want behind something else and confuse the U.S.”
After thinking for an entire day, Seon Yul came up with a good idea and immediately contacted Cha Seong Hyeon.
[What? You’re saying we should also demand compensation?]
“Yes. Demand compensation for cooperation in the name of the Republic of Korea Gate Administration. Say that it’s something we’ve already agreed upon… and tell them that if the Korean Administration doesn’t receive compensation, AbsoluteSafetyFirst will not move either.”
[We don’t need compensation. It would be better if AbsoluteSafetyFirst received more rewards…]
“It’s compensation I want, but I’m trying to receive it through the Administration. So please just do as I say.”
[But why go through the trouble of… Ah!]
Cha Seong Hyeon, who was extremely intelligent, immediately understood what Seon Yul meant.
[That’s a good method. Then the compensation we’ll likely request would be… modern weaponry, correct?]
“As expected, you understood right away.”
[The United States has many excellent weapons.]
Cha Seong Hyeon replied with a slight smile.
“Among those good weapons… I’d really like to get my hands on a railgun.”
[I’m somewhat familiar with railgun research. I also know roughly how far the U.S. railgun development has progressed, so I’ll extract their railgun technology down to the marrow.]
After the Gate invasions began, people discovered that gunpowder weapons could not be used inside mana fields.
At that time, railguns had been the first alternative weapon to attract attention.
However, it was later discovered that electrical energy, although not as severely as gunpowder, also slowly dissipated within mana fields.
After that discovery, interest in railguns faded again.
“I’d like more than just obtaining the technology. If there happens to be a prototype railgun already built, I’d like to bring that back as well. Would that be possible?”
[I’ll make it possible. And if there isn’t a prototype railgun with the latest technology applied, we’ll receive the technology transfer and manufacture one ourselves. South Korea actually has quite advanced railgun technology as well. Of course, not to the level of the United States, but if they provide the technology, we can build it.]
When it came to modern weapons like these, the United States possessed technological power that could practically be described as ‘outside the standard.’
Because of that, competing with the United States in modern weapons technology was a foolish endeavor.
However, as Cha Seong Hyeon said, South Korea also possessed fairly advanced weapons technology, so his words were neither lies nor exaggeration.
“I’d appreciate it if you could do that. And in addition to that, please say that I want an S-grade Wish Box.”
[The Wish Box… that’s the decoy, right?]
“Haha. Let’s keep that a secret between you and me.”
[Of course. Other than the Director, I won’t tell anyone. Since this isn’t something I can carry out alone, I’ll need the Director’s approval, so please understand that part.]
“Yes, then a secret known only to the two of you.”
[Understood. I’ll proceed immediately.]
Cha Seong Hyeon ended the call and immediately contacted Lewis on the American side to begin negotiations.
And Seon Yul… began preparing to conquer the Cave of Extreme Cold. The negotiations over the reward were not yet finished, but there was a simple reason he began preparing in advance.
Seon Yul intended to clear the Cave of Extreme Cold alone, without anyone else’s help.
According to Cha Seong Hyeon, since it was a negotiation between nations, it would take at least about a week.
Even after the negotiations concluded, they would still need to negotiate how to form the raid team.
In other words, it would take at least half a month, possibly a full month, before the raid actually took place.
So before that… Seon Yul intended to simply clear it alone and then demand the reward.
After all, what the United States wanted was help conquering the “Cave of Extreme Cold,” so clearing it outright would be the truest form of assistance.
“Teamplay isn’t really my style…”
The reason Seon Yul accepted the U.S. cooperation request was that clearing the Cave of Extreme Cold alone seemed possible.
If that hadn’t been the case, he likely would have rejected the request.
***
At the time, Cha Seong Hyeon personally traveled to the United States to conduct proxy negotiations with Lewis…
Seon Yul had already returned from Australia to Korea, completed all preparations, and began planning the route to the Cave of Extreme Cold.
The Real Painting [The Door] ability was excellent in many ways, but the limitation on travel distance was somewhat disappointing.
As Seon Yul’s level increased, his maximum mana also increased, which slightly extended the maximum travel distance as well.
But even so, it was still somewhat disappointing.
“Move to Rausu, Hokkaido… then to Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky in Russia. And from there to Adak in U.S. territory.”
With three maximum-distance movements, he could barely reach Adak Island in Alaska.
However, Adak was only a small island serving as a stepping stone. To reach the true destination, he would need two more movements.
“From Adak to Dillingham, Alaska, and finally to Port Alsworth, the final destination.”
A total of five movements.
For these movements, Seon Yul had carefully gathered plenty of photos of each destination.
Some cities had already become dead cities, while others were still inhabited.
So for places where people still lived, he searched for doors in public locations to avoid causing trouble.
For abandoned cities where buildings might have collapsed, and doors might no longer exist, he gathered multiple photos as backups.
“Preparations are complete…”
Not only had he fully replenished the ammunition he had used during the Arakne raid and hunting, but he had also purchased weapons suitable for the Cave of Extreme Cold from the General Store.
Incidentally, this weapon was one that Seon Yul had registered in the General Store earlier when he visited the Defense Research Institute, thinking it might be useful someday.
“This trip will probably take about two days just for the travel again.”
The travel time was similar to when he went to raid Arakne.
“The problem is whether there are other users in the Cave of Extreme Cold…”
At this moment, Seon Yul’s greatest concern was the possibility that the United States might have already stationed users at the cave.
Of course, the probability was low.
Stationing people in advance at a place no one visited would simply be a waste of manpower.
Especially when the reward negotiations weren’t even finished yet, deploying personnel would be excessive.
Seon Yul knew that as well, which was why he intended to clear the Cave of Extreme Cold as quickly as possible.
For Seon Yul, time was as valuable as gold.
So he immediately drew a door in the air and set off.
Seon Yul arrived at the final destination, Port Alsworth, in roughly two days—more precisely, 36 hours.
However, the Cave of Extreme Cold was still about 200 kilometers away from there.
And the route required crossing extremely rugged mountains, in a region where monsters also appeared.
“Phew… It’s quite far.”
After briefly entering Absolute Space to confirm the direction of the destination, Seon Yul came out, nodded slightly, and began walking.
Two hundred kilometers was certainly a long distance, but if he ran diligently, it seemed possible to arrive within a day.
Unlike before, he had no intention of proceeding extremely cautiously and slowly.
Seon Yul planned to run as fast as possible as long as his stamina allowed, and if he encountered monsters, he would deal with them immediately and continue running.
Among the monsters appearing in this region, the most dangerous ones were only around Ogre-class.
For Seon Yul, they were not much of a threat.
Tap, tap, tap.
Seon Yul began running along the rugged mountain path.
The physical capabilities of a magic user above level 60 far exceeded normal human standards, so running up a mountain path like this was not particularly difficult.
As expected, it took exactly one day from Port Alsworth to the location of the Cave of Extreme Cold.
Naturally, he had encountered monsters several times along the way.
But each time, he reacted quickly, eliminated them in an instant, and continued running without rest.
That was how the journey took only a single day.
“Hoo…”
Even though Seon Yul’s physical abilities were exceptional, running continuously for 24 hours through rugged mountain terrain without sleeping inevitably left him feeling fatigued.
“Is that it?”
After catching his breath for a moment, Seon Yul lifted his head and looked at the Cave of Extreme Cold.
A massive cave deep within rugged mountains.
The entrance alone was about 15 meters high and nearly 10 meters wide.
From its sheer size, the Cave of Extreme Cold was anything but ordinary.
Fortunately, neither along the path nor near the cave had he seen a single user.
Perhaps because the reward negotiations had not even concluded yet, the United States also seemed not to have sent personnel in advance.
“Still, I don’t know when they might deploy people, so I should clear it quickly.”
Inside the Cave of Extreme Cold was a hive-type SS-grade raid gate.
The species of the hive was the Glacier Bats.
The Glacier Bats were creatures whose entire bodies were composed of cold energy, possessing such intense freezing power that even mere contact could freeze whatever they touched.
Inside the cave were countless numbers of these Glacier Bats.
Fighting them inside the confined space of a cave, where even touching them had to be avoided, was naturally extremely difficult.
That was why the conquest was so challenging, ultimately earning it the classification of an unconquerable gate.
“But I’m different.”
Seon Yul had already thought through how he would conquer the Cave of Extreme Cold.
First, he slowly moved toward the cave entrance.
Then he stared at the entrance and began slowly focusing his mind.
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