Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense - Chapter 110: Expected Blow

Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense

110 – Expected Blow

“Kraaaaaah!!”

Seeing the crimson light bursting from Silvares’ fingertips, Hee-cheol instinctively covered his eyes with his left arm and staggered backward.

Then, after waiting for a while without any change, he looked at Silvares with a bewildered expression.

“What?! What is this?! Why aren’t you committing suicide! Argh!! You wretched creature, crushed by your sins. Suffer in torment from your sins and die!”

She looked at Hee-cheol in good condition and ordered once again. Hee-cheol, bewildered, regretted missing the optimal timing for a counterattack and covered his eyes again.

And seeing no change, he looked at her again.

In her eyes reflected his astonishment.

“You! Have you truly never felt an ounce of guilt in your life?! Really?! Do you think everything you’ve done in your life was right?”

“Isn’t that obvious? If it were really wrong, I would never have done it.”

Silvares couldn’t help but feel dumbfounded at Hee-cheol’s words, spoken as if they were the most natural thing in the world.

For any sentient being living with intelligence, it was normal to have at least some sense of guilt in their hearts.

Even she, using her abilities to the fullest extent towards him, could evoke endless rage and disgust towards herself with just the smallest emotions, like making the blanket cold while sleeping.

However, her abilities were completely ineffective against Hee-cheol, who had no trace of regret for any of his choices.

An individual of the type known as ‘extremeness,’ where one ability had no influence on the other, literally corresponding to ‘extremeness.’

Living for tens of thousands of years, conquering sentient beings in hundreds of parallel universes, and facing a type of creature she had never seen before, she realized that she had fallen into a trap.

‘You little bastard. You fooled me!’

In fact, her appearance in this place was not of her own will.

She simply followed the orders given to her by the divine being, the ‘Nebula’, which is above the Twelve Divine Beings, ruling the outer universe and governing the destiny of all existence.

She arrived on this planet following a strong feeling that said, ‘If I go to the planet called Earth at this timing, something good will definitely happen.’

And there, instead of something good, she encountered the worst opponent who could perfectly handle her throughout the entire universe.

It could be considered a kind of ‘sacrifice’ handed to Hee-cheol by the heroic nebula to restrain Myung-jun, who had rapidly strengthened by eliminating two of the Twelve Divine Beings even before D-DAY began.

‘If you swallow when it’s sweet and spit out when it’s bitter, why me, among so many other lords?!’

She didn’t know it, but there were reasonable reasons why she was chosen among the Twelve Divine Beings.

Hee-cheol, even though he was considered one of the strongest among the 8 billion people on Earth, his combat power was not strong enough to defeat a celestial being like Myung-jun directly in a pure battle, unlike Myung-jun. Therefore, the Heroic Nebula chose Silvares as a ‘sacrifice’ to help Hee-cheol grow. By descending to Earth through an overflow phenomenon, she was destined to hand over the 9th-grade crystal to Hee-cheol and face defeat. She tried to think of a way to escape this crisis, but the situation was not favorable for her escape.

Hee-cheol’s awakened profession as a ‘dollmaker’ was his most powerful ability when besieging a single target with hundreds of dolls, but as a specialist in mental domination, she had no combat power to confront those dolls.

She extended her arm in surrender.

“What’s this, giving up?”

“Surrender.”

“Surrender?”

“It’s humiliating, but unfortunately, my abilities don’t work on you. It’s also impossible to mentally dominate soulless dolls. And you value rationality and efficiency more than anyone else, right? Then accept my surrender. If you wish, I can make you the king of this planet.”

“That’s not possible.”

“Not… possible?”

“Right now, there’s no one around here except me, so there’s no problem. But the moment I capture you and take you to where people are, I might have to fight against other humans besides you. Of course, there’s a possibility that you’ll fight on the side of humans as you said, but it’s better to secure a result that is certain rather than gambling on such a possibility.”

Upon understanding the meaning behind Hee-cheol’s words, Silvares exclaimed with widened eyes, “Wait! Just a little more conversation!”

But her words were cut short.

Suddenly, Hee-cheol’s doll approached her from behind and pierced her chest in an instant.

She looked at the crystal held by the doll’s hand that pierced her chest. It was shining brilliantly even to her eyes.

“This… little…”

As Silvares collapsed onto the huge pool of blood she created, Hee-cheol approached her.

“All right then.”

Then, receiving the crystal from the doll, he said, “How do I take this to Korea?”

A 9th-grade crystal obtained at the cost of thousands of sacrifices within the territory of his own country. Hee-cheol knew well that the Communist Party leadership would never hand it over willingly. Even if it was a rightful loot, it was too precious to hand over to another country for that reason. Perhaps they would threaten to cancel all the promises they made to assist in suppression and refuse to hand over the crystal unless he agreed. No, the likelihood of that happening was too high.

Realizing this, Hee-cheol summoned one of the dolls to his side. Then, he opened the doll’s chest, put the crystal inside, and dismissed the summoning.

And shortly after, Hee-cheol found himself facing off against a large-scale People’s Liberation Army unit that surrounded him.

“Are you uninjured?”

A Korean woman fluent in Korean spoke among them, and Hee-cheol replied.

“You must know there hasn’t been a real fight since you’ve been monitoring. Excuse me, but who are you?”

“I’m Song Yeon-bi, Deputy Director of the Central Military Committee’s Records Department. This is Comrade Hao Ran from the Political Bureau.”

Comrade.

Hee-cheol felt awkward knowing that one of the seven most powerful figures in the Chinese Communist Party had appeared in person. He couldn’t help but feel that ending this situation amicably would not be easy.

With that in mind, Hee-cheol launched a preemptive strike before the other side could bring up the topic.

“As promised, the Gate Boss has been dealt with. So, I believe it’s now time for the Chinese government to fulfill their promise.”

Although Hee-cheol deliberately emphasized the ‘promise,’ Hao Ran, who had risen to the position of a member of the Political Bureau solely through political power, was by no means an easy opponent.

“I’ve heard about the situation roughly. However, it seems we need to discuss something a bit troublesome.”

“Troublesome? What do you mean?”

“Unfortunately, matters that require the approval of the Party’s leadership are needed for matters discussed by the field operators. The operator handled it on their own, and the Party’s leadership has concluded that they cannot accept those conditions.”

“But I distinctly heard from the operator that they had obtained the approval of the Party’s leadership?”

“That was a lie from the operator. Since we didn’t receive any reports.”

‘Expected as much.’

Hee-cheol gritted his teeth. The audacity of the opponent trying not to add additional conditions but to pretend the promise itself never existed was utterly disgusting.

Of course, with Hee-cheol’s abilities, he could eliminate everyone here and escape safely. However, if that happened, it could lead to a war between China and South Korea. So, Hee-cheol smiled gently and said to Hao Ran.

“Oh my! Is that so?! What an outrageous act by the employee! The person in charge must be held accountable.”

“Indeed. The person who took the liberty of handling a matter that jeopardizes the future of the Party and the people is under urgent arrest. Haha… truly a difficult situation. Although it was a crisis for the nation, to conduct such important negotiations on one’s own accord.”

‘It’s a mistake. I rushed too much. At the very least, I should have met with the Party Secretary, or even a member at the level of Comrade Hao Ran, to secure the promise. But even if I did that, they would have found another way. Maybe even a member at the level of the Political Bureau would have been silenced.’

‘What should I do?’

Hee-cheol’s mind quickly started spinning, excluding the option of eliminating everyone present. At the same time, to buy time for thought, Hee-cheol spoke to Hao Ran.

“But even if it was a wrong promise, I risked my life believing in it. So, you should give me the appropriate compensation, shouldn’t you?”

“Of course. Please tell us what you desire.”

“What I want is the same as what was originally proposed.”

“Are you asking me to join hands with the South Korean government and participate in a public bid by the Liberal Clan? And if I succeed in winning the bid, we’ll share the designs and equipment fairly?”

“That’s correct.”

“That’s difficult. We have to fight against the Allied Nations and the European Union without knowing the expected bid price.”

“Didn’t I offer to cover half of the costs from South Korea?”

“That’s not enough. How about this? As a gesture of assistance, I’ll offer more than 10% of the equipment. In return, how about the Chinese government monopolizing the designs?”

“That’s an unacceptable condition, as you know, right?”

At that moment, Hao Ran, sensing the bitterness hidden in Hee-cheol’s words, brought up a sudden proposal.

“Alright. Then let’s give you half.”

“Really?!”

“But you have to hand over the crystal stone you obtained from the Gate Boss earlier.”

‘I knew they were aiming for that.’

Hee-cheol quickly scanned the surroundings and assessed the deployment of forces. Then, he sighed and said to Hao Ran.

“Alright. I’ll hand it over.”

“Really?”

“But since I’ve taken a risk, I’d like a personal reward.”

“A personal reward?”

“Around $200 million would be appropriate.”

Hao Ran’s lips curled slightly into a smile, barely visible to Hee-cheol’s eyes. It was the reaction Hee-cheol had hoped for. It seemed like he intended to accept the money, even if it appeared to be his intention to do so, given the impossible situation of escape.

Hao Ran smiled brightly and said to Hee-cheol.

“Is it a personal account?”

“Yes. Wouldn’t it be every man’s dream to have a secret account in the Bahamas? The Korean government will never find out about what happened here, and everything will be buried in secrecy.”

“Even as a fellow Korean, you have a level of flexibility that is different from the rigid Liberal Clan representative. Alright! I had prepared for such an eventuality, wondering if something like this would happen. Deputy Director Song Yeon-bi.”

“Yes.”

“Prepare $200 million.”

Before Hao Ran finished speaking, Song Yeon-bi swiftly manipulated the tablet and showed it to Hee-cheol.

There, the balance of a $200 million account at Corner Bank, a private bank in the Bahamas, was displayed.

“The password is here.”

Hee-cheol confirmed the note he received from Hao Ran and asked him.

“Did you know the amount I would demand in advance?”

“No, of course not. But the Party had prepared several secret accounts of various amounts in advance for such situations. I’m giving you one of them.”

“Then if I had requested a different amount, you would have given me a different account?”

“That’s right.”

“All right. Since I’ve received the money, I should also hand over the goods. Please wait a moment.”

Receiving an unimaginable amount of money as an ordinary person, Hee-cheol was even humming a tune as he summoned his doll.

And such an attitude from Hee-cheol caused Hao Ran to let his guard down, something that would never have happened under normal circumstances.

Just before Hee-cheol was about to open the chest of the doll he summoned to grasp the crystal stone, Hao Ran realized the truth.

“Wait! Director! Stop!”

However, despite Hao Ran’s urgent tone, Hee-cheol reached out and firmly grasped the crystal stone. Then, he focused all his mind and will on the crystal stone.

– Wooooooom!!!! –

At that moment, a burst of multicolored energy emanated from the crystal stone that Hee-cheol held, enveloping him. Seeing this, Hao Ran urgently ordered his soldiers,

“Attack! Attack! We must prevent them from absorbing the crystal stone no matter what!”

However, despite Hao Ran’s frantic command, the soldiers were unable to take any action. It was because thousands of dolls summoned by Hee-cheol were surrounding each soldier, pointing swords at their necks.

These were dolls of a number incomparable to what Hee-cheol could summon before.