Chapter 153

Chapter 153

Bam!

‘Huh? What was that?’

As nearly everyone thought this, black smoke appeared fleetingly, and in an instant, it transformed into a giant drake. Since it had emerged without warning, the users around it flinched, but Arthur only sighed.

“Why did you come out? I didn’t even summon you.”

“Well, isn’t it pet appreciation time? I make you more respectable just by existing, so I need to come out like this and show myself from time to time.”

Of course, Cruze had already seen Arthur’s pet, Toothless, so she wasn’t surprised. However, no one else had come across the dragon before. Notably, Quiet Heaven and Ellie started screaming after seeing Toothless. This was a common reaction when pets met Toothless.

“Having a member of the dragon species as a pet?”

“C-crazy. Why would a dragon want to sign a slave contract!”

Yet, at that moment, Toothless’ eyes glowed coolly, and a heavy aura radiated from him. As for how strong that aura was, it was at the same level as the ones belonging to the One-Horned Fire Snake or the Eight-Tailed Fox, Heavenly Flower. Of course, Quiet Heaven had also trained in the Dao for a long time, and its seals had recently been released; however, in comparison to a member of the dragon species like Toothless, Quiet Heaven was a step below.

‘Insane. Its aura is on another level.’

Merlin felt stunned after feeling Toothless’ aura. Obviously, there were no guarantees as to who would win in a fight, but Toothless seemed to be approximately as strong as his master, Arthur.

‘In a normal game, something like that would only show up as something a user summoned for three seconds.’

If such a powerful summoned pet appeared and existed for too long, players would complain that the game was bugged and imbalanced; thus, it was amazing that such a formidable pet could be summoned at will. Typical users would probably see Toothless as merely a flying dragon, but Merlin knew that Toothless was a top-tier summoned beast.

“Wow! I would love to have a pet like that….”

Ilyia stared and admired Toothless with an indecipherable expression. Toothless had a sleek, streamlined body with shiny black scales. When Toothless spread his wings, he was easily over 30 meters long, and he also gave off a gleaming blue aura. Even though Toothless was a monster, he had a stunning appearance that made it impossible to look away from him.

Toothless was definitely good-looking. If Quiet Heaven and Ellie were ordinary compact cars, then Toothless would be a Ferrari or Lamborghini. It wasn’t a lie when Toothless said that his existence made his owner more respectable.

/You have obtained the required number of participants! Start mission?/

After seeing the pop-up message, Arthur looked back at the others.

“Ready?”

“Yeah, let’s start.”

“Right, let’s start.”

/Response received. Searching for field. Complete. Starting mission./

As soon as the message disappeared, the surrounding scenery changed. They arrived in a barren wilderness that didn’t even have a single tree.

“Where are we? The gravity here is a bit oppressive.”

“It’s about three times what we’re used to. It doesn’t seem like the gravity is from a magic spell… I wonder what world we’ve been transported to?”

The relatively overwhelming gravity bared down on the party. With gravity being three times stronger, this meant tha an 80-kilogram individual would be burdened by an additional 160 kilograms.

Even so, the party members didn’t seem fazed. Arthur had reached the pinnacle of his Reaction Technique, and he didn’t even feel the change; Cruze possessed such bountiful aura power that she was free from the force of the additional gravity. Meanwhile, Merlin cast a gravity spell to lessen the impact on his body. Hence, these three quickly acclimated to their new surroundings.

“Ah, dang. It looks like we’re the weakest link.”

Ilyia complained as she fought against the increased gravity. Unlike Arthur, Cruze, or Merlin, Ilyia and Arc bore the brunt of the additional force without any way of counteracting it. There was so much force pressing down on their shoulders that, if the ground weren’t firm, their feet would have sunk long ago.

“The vegetation here is unique as well. This isn’t Jin or Panitris… so one can only conclude that we’ve arrived at a completely different planet. Is this that rumored place called Noah?”

Noah was supposed to be a Sci-Fi world that possessed otherworldly monsters and advanced technology. Until now, DIO only sent users to Panitris, where magic was prominent, and the martial arts-focused world of Jin. User contact with Noah had been avoided.

‘Probably because of its advanced tech.’

Yongno couldn’t convert his high intelligence and observation skills into anything meaningful, but Merlin understood the crux of the situation instantly. Surprisingly, the advanced tech in DIO crossed over and overlapped with the real world. In other words, the progress in DIO regarding science and civilization primarily mirrored what already existed on Earth.

“Well, I guess it doesn’t matter where we are. We just need to complete the mission.”

After Ilyia said this, everyone nodded in agreement and opened their quest windows.

[Mission: Rescue

Time Limit: 00:29:11

Objective: Rescue a Being

Description: Rescue the test subject named [Lucy], who is held hostage on the eighth sub-basement floor of a secret research center on the planet Lucy.

Looting Enabled/Subject: Anything related to the research center.

Minimap is not operational.

You will be rewarded the same amount of gem points regardless of when you finish within the allotted time limit.]

“A new planet and a research center… this must be a Sci-Fi world.”

“Looting enabled… I hope there’s something related to computers or tanks. Loading!”

Cruze gently waved her hands and materialized a Barrett M82, a powerful long-range sniper rifle, from thin air.

“Hey, give me a pair of handguns while you’re at it. We may need some mid-range weapons in case.”

“Ugh, so needy. Loading!”

Cruze materialized a Desert Eagle and handed it over to Wukong. Then, he plucked a strand of hair from his head to make a holster and placed the handgun inside.

“The gravity here is stronger, so make sure you compensate for the additional drop in trajectory.”

“No problem.”

After flashing a smile, Wukong started moving away from the party members. As if he had used some sort of magic spell, Wukong quickly disappeared.

“Quiet Heaven, do some reconnaissance.”

“What about the additional gravity?”

After Quiet Heaven spoke, Merlin petted its head. Soon, a gravity spell was cast on the eagle.

Flap!

Quiet Heaven spread its wings and flew up into the sky. Since there was no Minimap, the reconnaissance would have to start from a vantage point. It didn’t take long before Quiet Heaven sent a three-dimensional image of the surrounding environment and geography to Merlin.

“Found it. The research center is to the southeast.”

“We don’t have much time, so let’s hurry!”

Vroom!

At some point, Cruze had materialized a silver-colored Tomahawk motorcycle, so she started speeding towards the objective. Without much delay, the party arrived before a three-meter-tall lattice grid door.

“It’s a door! What do we do now?”

“What do you mean what do we do… we do this!”

Boom!

Without skipping a beat, Cruze materialized and shot a round from a rocket launcher, blasting the door into pieces that scattered everywhere. She then charged forward.

“Shouldn’t we sneak in quietly?”

“We only have thirty minutes to finish the mission. We’ll simply rush the place and- huh?”

[Stop!]

At that moment, the ground broke open, and a five-meter-tall, giant green robot popped out. It was a bipedal-type mech covered in heavy armor. Cruze’s eyes, as well as Merlin’s, grew wide.

“A robot!”

“A bipedal mech?”

Not caring whether Cruze or Merlin was surprised, the robot lifted both hands. Based on the hold at the end of its hands, it was clear that these were barrels for some sort of weapon. As she saw this, Cruze materialized a pair of submachine guns and aimed them at the robot.

[Fighting an armored mech robot with handheld heavy artillery… what kind of dumb-]

The pilot sitting within the robot was taken aback by the absurd scene, but once Cruze pulled the triggers on both submachine guns, an unimaginable scene unfolded.

Bam!

[Ack?!]

Cruze’s gun wasn’t any normal gun. The only standard aspects it had were its firing mechanism and use of bullets, but the force behind the bullets was on another level. Like the weapons and arrows used by martial artists, Cruze’s bullets were imbued with something extra, making the force behind her attack tremendously destructive.

Brr!

Ting!

As they snapped out of their brief daze, the pilot acted, and the robot’s shoulders started shining brightly. This created an energy field that enveloped the robot and blocked any incoming attacks.

“Burning soul, heed my call….”

Arc mumbled a chant. The armored mech, as if it had regained its consciousness, screamed.

[You’re a special ability user!]

With a Clunk sound, the armored mech robot retrieved a rifle-shaped weapon from its leg. While retreating, the mech robot started firing laser beams.

Ping!

However, a droplet of water suddenly appeared in the air and distorted the light quantum of the laser beams, causing them to bend upwards and fly harmlessly into the sky.

Brr!

With their training in dealing with ability users who could control light quantum, the pilot calmly took out a flame-based weapon from its other leg. Then, they fired a barrage of devastating 30mm uranium bullets.

Bam!

[No way! That doesn’t make any sense!]

With a few swings of his sword, Arthur took care of the flame-based bullets. As he did so, his expression seemed as if he were asking what was so surprising.

“It’s not that unbelievable.”

Crack! Crunch!

With two sword flash strikes, the robot’s arms were sliced off. Cruze then yelled.

“Be careful! You’ll break it!”

“It’s not even yours. Why are you so worried about its condition?”

“I need to get ahold of it!”

Crumble!

Disregarding Cruze’s words, Arthur continued his attacks and chopped off the robot’s legs. When this happened, two other robots appeared.

[Denma! Are you alright?]

“Giga Strike. Part One.”

Arc suddenly appeared in front of one of the new robots and struck out with a spiritual qi-filled fist strike.

Click.

Arc’s magic power started operating and moving in a set pattern to cause an outward explosion. This had been what he was chanting and preparing beforehand, and an explosion swiftly followed.

“Cannon.”

Boom!!

With a deafening impact, the robot’s body flew ten meters into the air. It was hard to believe that a single person’s fist could do such a thing. The armored mech robot was well-built, so it wasn’t rendered immobile from Arc’s attack, but it did sustain significant damage.

“The cockpit… must be around the chest area.”

Once he deduced the basics of the armored robot’s structure and movement mechanism, Merlin lifted his right hand. Essentially, Merlin concluded that capturing the pilot would render the robot useless. It was a waste of energy to try and combat the armored robot face-to-face. After creating a fist-sized block of ice, Merlin sent it out through teleportation.

Crackle!

Yet, with a spark, the block of ice was deflected into the air. Arthur shouted.

“This thing… it’s a robot, but it has magic resistance. It’ll probably be more effective to use Penetration Power!”

However, rather than circulate his internal energy, Merlin started chanting a spell. Unless a relatively overpowered spell was cast, the robot’s level of magic resistance could probably block any direct attack. Hence, another method needed to be used.

Crack! Crack!

A wave of ice rose and seemingly grabbed the robot’s arms and legs, pushing it into the air.

[You monsters!]

Suddenly, a strange shockwave spread within the armored mech robot and scattered its magic power in an instant. Then, a body fell out. Merlin had used a magic-nullification ability to disperse all the magic barriers within a set area.

“Didn’t I tell you to use Penetration Power?”

With a confused expression, Arthur swung his draconic sword, Dustin, at the robot’s chest.

Boom!

The impact didn’t really make any sound, but a rush of air exited from the robot’s backside. Though the robot didn’t show any signs of outward damage, the collision definitely caused internal damage. Of course, the robot’s multi-layered armor and magic resistance scattered most of the Penetration Power in Arthur’s strike, but it didn’t take much to eliminate the living behind contained within.

Bam!

The other robot, which was teetering, also fell after being struck by Cruze’s rocket launcher round. Like this, everything was settled.

“Hey, what’s up with you? Why didn’t you use martial arts?”

“I’ve changed my occupation status to becoming a full-time mage, so it’s difficult for me to use martial arts now.”