Railgun (2)
Seon Yul hooked strands of Arachne’s thread onto the triggers of the Minigun and the GAU-19 he was holding in each hand, then pulled them tightly backward.
Keeping the wires under tension as he pulled them back, he held them in his mouth and fixed the Minigun and GAU-19 onto their mounts.
Having freed both arms by using every possible method at his disposal, Seon Yul slowly stepped back a few paces and grabbed the ‘K4 High-Speed Grenade Machine Gun’ that had been prepared behind him in advance.
Even at this moment, the glacier bats were gradually pushing their way further into Absolute Space.
Gripping the handle of the K4 high-speed grenade machine gun, Seon Yul checked the ammunition connected to the weapon.
‘I prepared it just in case, but I didn’t expect I’d actually have to use this.’
What Seon Yul had prepared wasn’t simply the K4 high-speed grenade machine gun.
The rounds connected to it…
They were white phosphorus shells.
White phosphorus is known as the flames of hell. The reason he hadn’t used the K4 grenade machine gun from the start was that, during the process of exploding and burning, white phosphorus released toxic gas. Seon Yul didn’t particularly want to fight while inhaling that kind of unpleasant gas.
Of course, Seon Yul was already wearing a gas mask that granted the effect of immunity to all poisons, so that the toxic gas wouldn’t have posed much of a threat to him. But even so, he simply didn’t like the idea.
To be honest, he had expected that even without resorting to this, the Gatling guns firing incendiary rounds would be enough to clean everything up.
But since that judgment had turned out to be wrong, there was nothing he could do.
Holding the K4 high-speed grenade machine gun, Seon Yul was still maintaining the continuous fire of the two Gatling guns using his mouth.
‘Let’s finish this!’
In that state, Seon Yul immediately pulled the trigger of the K4 high-speed grenade machine gun.
Thump-thump-thump-thump—KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-BOOOOM!!!
The glacier bats, which were already being roasted by all kinds of flames, were now engulfed by the hellfire known as white phosphorus.
And naturally…
The glacier bats were pushed back again, unable to properly enter Absolute Space.
It was no longer a question of whether they would push forward or be held back. The firepower concentrated at the entrance of Absolute Space had turned the entire area into a literal hell, to the point that breaking through now seemed completely impossible.
No matter how anyone looked at it, this was Seon Yul’s victory.
No matter how many glacier bats the gate spewed out, there was absolutely no way they could break through this level of firepower.
And if that was the case…
Then, in the end, the one that would collapse was the gate.
***
The reward negotiations between the Korea Gate Management Bureau and the United States Gate Management Bureau were concluded without much difficulty.
Now the only thing left was scheduling the actual clearing operation for the Cave of Extreme Cold, and the American side expressed its desire to set the schedule as soon as possible.
The United States stated that it had already sent an advance team to Alaska, and that the main force would depart in a week. They asked that the Korean personnel, including AbsoluteSafetyFirst, also travel to Alaska at that time.
In other words, they were asking them to come to the United States within a week… an extremely tight schedule.
However, because the United States was pushing things so urgently, Cha Seong Hyeon had no choice but to contact Seon Yul with the details of the agreement.
And around the time he contacted Seon Yul…
The advance team sent by the United States had already arrived at the entrance of the Cave of Extreme Cold in Alaska.
The advance team sent by the United States Gate Management Bureau had gone through a difficult journey before finally arriving at the Cave of Extreme Cold in Alaska.
The reason their journey had been so arduous was that in order to reach Alaska, they had flown around the Pacific Ocean.
Unlike the United States, Canada and Alaska did not have perfectly controlled mana fields, so mana fields existed sporadically like landmines throughout those regions.
Because of that, flying in a straight route would have been extremely dangerous, so they deliberately chose a flight path over the Pacific Ocean where no mana fields existed.
Even then, since Dillingham was the only place in Alaska with proper city infrastructure, they first traveled there and from that point onward had to reach the Cave of Extreme Cold almost entirely on foot.
The United States had already dispatched the advance team when the reward negotiations began, and it had taken roughly ten days for them to reach this location.
That was also why the United States wanted to hurry the deployment of the main force.
But…
The advance team that had finally reached the Cave of Extreme Cold was staring at the cave entrance with expressions of complete disbelief.
The reason for their disbelief was simple.
Astonishingly, the Cave of Extreme Cold had disappeared.
The mana field that should naturally have existed at the Cave of Extreme Cold was nowhere to be found. The place that had once been called the Cave of Extreme Cold had simply… collapsed, with even the entrance blocked.
And as if kindly explaining, the following words were written in front of the largest rock blocking the collapsed cave:
“Cave of Extreme Cold cleared. AbsoluteSafetyFirst.”
Although it had been written neatly in Korean, every member of the advance team was a mana user, so to their eyes it appeared in English.
Completely dumbfounded, the advance team checked their GPS several times.
They also searched the surrounding area to confirm whether they had perhaps come to the wrong location.
But that wasn’t the case.
They had come to the correct place.
It was an utterly incomprehensible situation, but one thing was certain: the Cave of Extreme Cold no longer existed, and only the completion message remained.
After confirming everything, the only thing left for them to do was report this fact to headquarters immediately.
While the advance team sent by the United States was wasting their trip like this, Seon Yul had already returned to Korea and was on the phone with Cha Seong Hyeon.
[W-what? You… cleared the Cave of Extreme Cold?]
Cha Seong Hyeon’s voice coming from the other side of the phone carried both shock and disbelief.
“Yes, I cleared it. I was the one who did it. I coordinated perfectly with the United States in advance, so you can just ask them for the reward.”
[Does this… really count as coordination…?]
“If the United States says this isn’t coordination, tell them never to talk about cooperation with me again.”
Seon Yul had nothing to lose.
Well, he did want the railgun quite a bit, but in this situation, Seon Yul clearly held the upper hand.
When the positions of 갑 (the one with power) and 을 (the subordinate side) were clear, it was fine to act boldly.
[Understood. I’ll relay that immediately.]
“Oh, and the railgun… once you receive it as the reward, please organize the details as you mentioned before and let me know. Once everything is sorted, we can meet again at the Magic Defense Research Institute like last time.”
[I’ll make sure that’s handled perfectly as well.]
Cha Seong Hyeon behaved as if he were even more disciplined than usual.
He couldn’t help it. The fact that someone had cleared a raid gate that was said to be absolutely impossible to conquer…. alone, no less, was almost impossible to believe. And if it truly was real, then Absolute Safety First was unquestionably the Korea Gate Management Bureau’s golden lifeline.
To be more precise, since he was already a golden lifeline, it would be more accurate to call him a golden ark.
***
“We’ve been completely… outplayed.”
After receiving Cha Seong Hyeon’s call, Louis hurried to find Director Iron.
He then reported the entire situation.
“…Is something like this even possible?”
“I was too complacent. Even though I knew there was a very high possibility that Absolute Safety First had defeated the gigantic tarantula Arachne alone… I believed that, due to the terrain and the nature of the monsters in the Cave of Extreme Cold, AbsoluteSafetyFirst wouldn’t be able to clear it alone.”
“But it happened.”
“Yes… I’m honestly extremely shocked, but we need to deal with the situation that’s already unfolded.”
“What should we do? Should we just give him the reward he asked for?”
“It feels very unpleasant, but I think we should. That way, we can keep the door open for future opportunities and formulate new plans.”
“Opportunities… Is persuasion really the only answer? The way AbsoluteSafetyFirst is demonstrating its power right now… It’s too dangerous. The balance of power could collapse.”
“He’s certainly an extremely dangerous mana user, as you said. Persuasion might not be the only answer. But in my opinion, persuasion is still the better option for now.”
“Why?”
“As I report every day, the rate at which gates are spreading is gradually reaching dangerous levels. It’s still difficult to make a precise prediction, but if humanity eventually fails to keep up with the rate of gate expansion… the situation will become truly dangerous.”
“I know that. We discuss it every day.”
“That’s exactly why persuasion is necessary. Mana users who possess power beyond normal standards, like AbsoluteSafetyFirst, must be secured no matter what.”
“Hmm…”
After hearing Louis’ explanation, Director Iron quietly nodded.
“Once the artificial mana ability systems being developed by countries around the world reach a certain level of completion, humanity will once again be able to suppress the suddenly increasing number of gates to some extent. But as you know, the system will never just sit back and watch that situation. It will definitely… do something absurd. That’s why we must continue gathering power capable of surpassing the system’s expectations.”
“The Avengers Project…”
Director Iron knew exactly what Louis was referring to.
“Powerful mana users are always necessary.”
Louis nodded with a smile.
“It can’t be helped. Give them the full reward… and have the intelligence department discuss what to do about AbsoluteSafetyFirst and report the results.”
“Understood.”
In the end, the one in the superior position won, and the subordinate side lost.
And thus, the railgun and the S-grade Wish Box were delivered to the Korea Gate Management Bureau.
***
As expected, the United States possessed a prototype of the latest railgun.
However, unfortunately, although the railgun itself had been almost perfectly completed, it lacked the charging system that constituted the most important part of the railgun.
Originally, the railgun would only be truly complete if its charging system were connected to a Small Modular Reactor (SMR).
But the United States refused to hand over the SMR technology connected to the railgun, stating that the small modular reactor technology could never be leaked.
Even from Seon Yul’s perspective, it was somewhat unreasonable to insist on receiving that as well.
Since the railgun and the SMR clearly belonged to different technological domains, he had no choice but to accept only the prototype of the latest railgun.
However, unexpectedly, Cha Seong Hyeon solved the SMR problem.
As befitting a nuclear powerhouse, South Korea possessed quite advanced small modular reactor technology, even if it wasn’t quite at the level of the United States.
They had even developed a prototype to a certain extent.
Cha Seong Hyeon persuaded Director Jeong, and Director Jeong, in turn, persuaded the Presidential Office and the government.
As a result, Cha Seong Hyeon managed to obtain the prototype SMR and connected it to the prototype railgun obtained from the United States.
Minor technical details were not an issue because South Korea already possessed the necessary technologies.
Thus, in less than a week, the railgun was completed, and Cha Seong Hyeon immediately contacted Seon Yul.
Upon hearing the good news, Seon Yul sincerely expressed his gratitude, and the two met again at the Magic Defense Research Institute just like before.
Once again, there was no one else at the institute… only Cha Seong Hyeon was there to greet Seon Yul.
“You can take this as it is.”
Cha Seong Hyeon said this while pointing to the railgun placed inside the underground secret warehouse of the Magic Defense Research Institute.
The railgun wasn’t extremely large.
Due to the nature of railguns, the barrel was extremely long, and a small modular reactor was attached to the rear. But even when everything was combined, it was naturally smaller than the K9X.
The barrel was simply very long.
The weight was roughly ten tons.
At this weight, there was no need to purchase it through the All-Purpose Shop to remove the weight limit.
Currently, the external import weight limit for Absolute Space was sixteen tons, so bringing the railgun inside wouldn’t pose any problem.
In fact, he absolutely had to bring it in.
Just earlier, the moment Seon Yul saw the railgun, he registered it in the All-Purpose Shop and checked the price…
It was 710 kg of intermediate-grade magic stones.
That was far too expensive. Since it was a weapon whose research hadn’t even been properly completed yet, it seemed the price also included all the research and development costs.
“Uh… I don’t need to worry about radiation, right?”
Seon Yul started with a question that suited him perfectly.
“We paid the utmost attention to radiation shielding when we built it. You can use it without concern.”
“Ah, thank you.”
After expressing his gratitude once more, Seon Yul remained still.
Sensing the situation immediately, the quick-witted Cha Seong Hyeon stepped aside.
Since the Wish Box (S) had already been received through the community mail, the only thing left was to take the railgun. As soon as Cha Seong Hyeon stepped aside, Seon Yul immediately opened Absolute Space and placed the railgun inside.
At last, Seon Yul had become the owner of a railgun.
With a satisfied smile on his face, he then returned to Jeju Island.
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