Master Smith Under Ministry of National Defense - Chapter 97

097 – Battle for the Internet

“120,000 degrees?!”

“That much is necessary.”

“The temperature I usually raise when capturing a Gate Boss doesn’t even reach 20,000 degrees. And just controlling that temperature alone brings pain equivalent to enduring about an hour in a sauna of around 100 degrees. But you want me to raise it to 120,000 degrees? I might really die from it.”

“Nevertheless, it must be done.”

“Why?”

“For the same reason I flew to the other side of the Earth and fought risking my life with Banara. Because there’s no one else besides you who can do it, Taylor.”

“That’s a line fit for a hero. I never thought the Captain was such a romantic person.”

“It’s for reasons other than romance. It’s practical.”

said Myung-jun.

“If I hadn’t stopped Banara back then, he would probably have descended upon the world in a completely reinforced form. At that time, it would have been a situation where not only my power but pouring the entire force of the Liberal Clan would still not have been able to stop it. I just wanted to avoid such a situation.”

“But isn’t the Leviathan unable to come out of the sea? Rather than doing it like other countries did, shouldn’t we just abandon the sea…?”

“Then the internet will be cut off.”

“What?!”

“You didn’t know? 99% of global internet traffic is connected via submarine cables. If we can’t stop Leviathan, it will attack the submarine cables. Then almost all communications except satellite communications will be paralyzed.”

Taylor, hearing Myung-jun’s words that the world’s most powerful monster must be captured just because he wants to use the internet, couldn’t hide his astonishment.

Then, laughing like crazy, he patted Myung-jun’s shoulder.

“Ahahaha!! Hahaha!! The internet! The internet! Hahaha!!”

After laughing like that for a while, Taylor wiped tears from the corners of his eyes and stood up with an infinitely serious look.

“Yes, I will. As the Captain said, the internet is one of humanity’s most precious treasures above all.”

Due to the intense heat covering his body, Taylor couldn’t recall any further memories.

As an Awakener, he could withstand temperatures exceeding 200 degrees without getting burned, but that didn’t mean he could ignore the pain caused by the heat.

Feeling the pain in his right hand that felt like it would catch fire at any moment, Taylor thought to himself.

‘I want to let go of this spear right now.’

However, a single word from Myung-jun was preventing his hand from releasing the spear.

‘Because there’s no one else besides you who can do it,’ Myung-jun said.

This task, even the strongest Myung-jun in the world couldn’t accomplish, only he could do it.

Recognition of the world’s strongest man. It was stimulating Taylor’s pride deeply engraved in his genes as a man.

‘I want to succeed no matter what.’

Taylor, who now proudly ranked as one of the world’s top closers, was actually an Awakener who was treated as a nobody when he first awakened.

His ability, the ‘ability to control heat’, was either useless unless facing extremely rare fire-type monsters or required him to stand still and concentrate while using it, making Taylor even more useless in parties.

An Awakener who needed to concentrate for over a minute even to attack a single enemy.

Taylor, who believed that his awakening would lead to a brilliant life, felt firsthand in numerous parties how useless his ability was.

“Your specialty… is controlling heat?”

“Yes. If I concentrate in one place, I can gather heat generated nearby or disperse heat concentrated in one place to another.”

“Hmm… Would you like to give it a try?”

Taylor showed his ability to numerous party leaders, but the hunters who saw his ability all shook their heads.

“You can’t participate in combat at all while concentrating? It’s not a skill we can use in strategies.”

“We thought you had a flame-type ability since you said it’s the ability to control heat, but it’s a bit different from what we expected. You should try finding another party.”

Eventually, Taylor became a participant in dungeon raids wearing equipment for ordinary people, just like before his awakening.

And Myung-jun, after hearing about Taylor’s situation, asked him to join the Liberal Clan.

“Taylor, your ability isn’t meant to be used like that. Come to us. We’ll make weapons that only Taylor can properly wield.”

“But even catching one goblin with my ability takes time…”

“Then don’t catch the goblin.” Myung-jun said.

“You have the potential to become the world’s greatest closer. With proper equipment, it’s a powerful ability that can defeat any boss in one blow, regardless of their strength.”

Since meeting Myung-jun, Taylor’s life had changed completely.

“Raids aren’t done alone. Boldly delegate the parts you can’t do to other team members.”

“If you handle heat manipulation well, you can bestow temperatures beyond physical limits to your equipment. Train to enhance your strengths rather than covering your weaknesses.”

“Taylor’s position is a closer. He was brought over from baseball’s closer role. The role is simple. Deliver a blow enhanced to the best of your current ability to the gate boss.”

“Here, this is your new weapon. Designed by Senior Soo-jeong and completed by me.”

Taylor looked at the spear in his hand. A blazing red spear that seemed to scorch the user just by holding it, emitting intense heat, even steaming.

In the center hole of the spear’s blade, the crystal torn from Banara’s heart by Myung-jun was endlessly heating the tip of the spear, spewing out white flames that seemed to blind the eye.

‘A task entrusted to me by the Captain, something only I can do.’

Taylor began to concentrate harder to control the heat spreading in all directions.

At the same time, Soo-jeong saw through the monitor that Taylor’s body temperature was rapidly decreasing.

Inside the storage room captured by the thermal camera, all the heat spreading out seemed to be absorbed into the tip of the spear as if sucked in.

Seeing that magical sight, So-eun, who was watching the monitor next to Soo-jeong, muttered as if possessed.

“That…?”

“Yeah. That.” Soo-jeong said.

“That’s the weapon of Edward Taylor, the strongest spear of the Earth and the top closer of the Liberal Clan. It’s called the ‘Blazing Spear’.”

Realizing that Taylor’s attack preparation was completed not through experience but through sensation, Soo-jeong immediately gave an order.

“Mr. Ho-chang, now’s the time!”

Then Ho-chang, almost catching up with Leviathan, took a deep breath, twisting the control lever strongly, and shouted.

“Ahh!! Even if I die, I’ll become a ghost and disturb the Captain’s dates!!”

With that, Ho-chang, screaming, leaped into Leviathan’s mouth, which turned 180 degrees from the direction it was fleeing, at a speed several times faster.

The appearance of Leviathan’s teeth and mouth reflected on the monitor was even more gruesome than Ho-chang had imagined, but Ho-chang didn’t even have the luxury of thinking about it.

The fact that if the timing was slightly off and he got stuck between the teeth, he would break apart even though he was considered the toughest Awakener on Earth seemed so certain that he didn’t even need to experience it firsthand.

Ho-chang clenched his teeth, narrowing the distance between him and Leviathan’s teeth from above and below in an instant.

And darkness enveloped him.

‘Please, let it be a success.’

Myung-jun looked down at Leviathan, which had swallowed Ho-chang with an anxious expression. Hoping that Ho-chang had successfully avoided Leviathan’s teeth, and that he could activate the ‘Needle’ properly to reach the target point.

[Mr. Ho-chang, are you okay?!]

Myung-jun’s earnest voice was transmitted through the microphone, but there was no answer from Ho-chang.

[Mr. Ho-chang?! Did he fail?]

[There’s a vital sign. If he got stuck between the teeth, he wouldn’t be safe, so he must have entered.]

[Then why isn’t he answering…?]

At that moment, Ho-chang’s voice, sounding like a scream, echoed from the speaker.

[I’m busy! I’m busy! Aaah! This bastard has so many tiny teeth on his tongue!]

[Mr. Ho-chang!]

[He succeeded!]

[It’s on the verge of failure! If we keep going like this, it won’t be the teeth but the tongue that will break me!]

Despite saying so, Ho-chang continued to rush forward, mercilessly crushing the countless spikes coming towards him.

Of course, Ho-chang’s movements did not inflict any damage on Leviathan.

The building-sized spikes that Ho-chang was smashing were nothing more than tissues sticking out like hair on Leviathan’s tongue from Leviathan’s perspective.

Ho-chang’s actions were not to inflict damage on Leviathan but merely to move further inward.

And finally, Ho-chang, reaching the target point, pressed the button attached to the control lever to detach the cable supplying power to Leviathan’s shield.

[Power cable detached. Switching to internal battery for main power.]

[I know, damn it!]

Knowing well that it was now a race against time, Ho-chang quickly attached the cable he had disconnected from his back to the giant anchor-shaped device.

Then, he struck the giant button in the center of the device with his fist and shouted.

“If you like swallowing so much, try swallowing this too! You dirty fish!”

[Harpoon Spear countdown initiated. Please evacuate from the current location immediately.]

As soon as the cable was detached, Ho-chang started running towards the entrance.

In his ears, the voice guidance announcing the countdown was spreading like the countdown of a time bomb.

<Harpoon Spear launch in 10… 9… 3… 2… 1. Harpoon Spear action initiated!>

The harpoon spear, a giant anchor-shaped device similar in size to a 10m abyss, had numerous thorns split at the end, shooting out in all directions like spikes.

And as the countdown reached 0, the numerous thorns, numbering in the tens, shot out in all directions like missiles with a tremendous explosion.

Attached behind were numerous cables, much thinner than the one Ho-chang had connected a moment ago but identical in shape and color.

Thus, the collectively launched thorns drew trajectories resembling a giant fireworks display, piercing through numerous tissues near Leviathan’s throat.

But the movement of the ‘fishing hook’, developed by Soo-jeong to catch the largest fish in the world, had truly begun from now on.

<Harpoon number 1, second fixation initiated.>

<Harpoon number 2, second fixation initiated.>

…

..

.

<Harpoon number 92, second fixation initiated.>

From the main body, the auxiliary harpoons once again exploded outward with a thunderous noise, mercilessly tearing through Leviathan’s muscle tissues.

It was like a grand fireworks display exploding, scattering numerous small sparks once again.

The only difference from the first explosion was that the second explosion occurred within Leviathan’s flesh.

<All harpoons secured for the second time.>

[Injecting fixation solution!]

Not satisfied with just inserting numerous needles into the flesh, Soo-jeong injected a kind of ‘adhesive solution’ into the holes pierced by the cables, filling the torn tissues.

As a result, a massive amount of special adhesive was sprayed into the numerous holes pierced by the cables attached to the second harpoons, and these solutions began to harden Leviathan’s tissues in an instant due to the second explosion.

With the giant restraint device, which could never be removed unless the throat was completely torn apart, completed, Soo-jeong sent a communication to Myung-jun.

[Securing completed.]

Upon receiving this message, Myung-jun bent down, grabbing the fixation lever on the deck, and issued the command to Pyeongtae, the highlight of this operation.

“Commencing the fishing!”

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