Chapter 270

Rusted Rhapsody (3)

There was a thick fog inside the building. Kang Shin-hyuk immediately noticed that it was high-density magic. Not only that, he felt some sort of willingness inside of it...

"Is it alive?"

"It is a nanobot."

Vita explained calmly.

"There are countless nanobots produced by the contaminated Gaia system spread in the air, so they try to invade us and inject us with magi."

"Oh."

He had heard that it was difficult to manufacture a magic machine at the nano level, no matter how precise the design, but here they were. Shouldn't Claire, not him, be here?

"After the connection to the Gaia system's main body was disconnected, the robots established a more enforced dominance in a narrower range. Most of the insurgents collapsed here. The reason I held up..."

"Is because you're an android?"

"Yes. The Gaia system cannot control all nanobots individually, so I only had to hack the ones that contacted me. That's how many of them were subjugated to me."

"Is it possible to turn all of the nanobots in here into yours?"

"After securing the nanobots like that, the Gaia system won't touch me. Actually, even now, magi hasn't invaded me."

Was that the reason there was no fog in a 30cm radius around her? Of course, Kang Shin-hyuk was also safe from it, as he covered himself in spiritual power. He applied Light Mastery to it, causing a crackling sound like insects striking a lamp as it rejected the fog. If he could, it would be nice to take a sample later to show to Claire, but it was probably impossible.

"So, where are your colleagues?"

"Be on the lookout; it will be coming soon."

The situation suddenly changed in her words. The fog, realizing it couldn't invade Kang Shin-hyuk or Vita's body, began to coalesce into a certain shape. Specifically, it formed a thick, round cylinder like a cannon.

"Shin-hyuk!"

"Yeah!"

Kang Shin-hyuk quickly drew Phoibos and fired a light bullet. The bullet slammed into the cylinder and scattered it. When it was spread out into the form of fog, there wasn't much that could be done, but if it were united, it could be annihilated with a single bullet.

"You're amazing, Shin-hyuk...!"

"Let's go; I think more are coming."

As they moved forward, oddly enough, the fog that filled the basement was retreating behind them. Gaia's system, realizing that the nanobots couldn't fight, retreated. Instead, there was a loud thud of something heavy hitting the floor above them. Periodically, the sound grew louder.

-An object with a higher security level is approaching.

"I'm sorry, but I don't know what that is."

Kang Shin-hyuk felt rather excited as he loaded another light bullet into Phoibos, concentrating his spiritual power and Light Mastery in it. He added his Golden Dragon to it, carving the image of a dragon onto the light bullet.

'Certainly, my ability has grown. Before, I couldn't engrave it onto other energies.'

Before his trait evolved, it would only reveal itself against strong enemies or when his emotions were elevated, but he could handle it as naturally as breathing now. That wasn't all, either. These days, whenever he used his abilities, he could feel a strange tickling sensation. It seemed that if Shin-hyuk could only take one more step, he would evolve, but he was feeling stifled that he couldn't yet. There was nothing more he could add now; he was manifesting them at its peak. Yet, something was still missing.

"Shin-hyuk, are you coming?!"

Vita's sharp voice rang out, and the ceiling thumped again. Then, it was pierced with a roar. Falling down was an android similar in feature to Vita, but with an enormous difference in size. Additionally, the blade and gun attached directly to its body reinforced the inhuman impression, but the surprising thing was that the fog scattered in all directions began to flock to it.

[Intruder found, immediate sanctions!]

"What, shit!"

It shot the gathered magi in the form of a laser at Kang Shin-hyuk and Vita. He took out a huge square shield prepared for situations like this, set it up to cover Vita and himself, and poured his spiritual power in it. The magi concentrated on it and tried to melt through it, but the spiritual power covering the shield turned to soul poison to eat at the magi.

'I'm glad I made a shield.'

But he couldn't be relieved. The SS-rank shield was being pierced gradually by the laser. It felt humiliating, even though the shield had no skill and was less complete than his other works. It even had soul poison coating it!

'Even if I scatter the magi with a light bullet, it can gather again. I have to split it up myself.'

Would absorbing it work instead? It was worth a shot. First, he pulled out the Great Heavenly Spirit and put it in his belt as he organized his thoughts.

"Now ready to hack, Shin-hyuk!"

"Vita?"

"Let's begin!"

Vita stretched one hand forward from behind the shield. A lump of tiny particles emerged from her hand with a whitish glow - it was the nanobots she had secured so far. He was sure he could feel spiritual power in them too.

'No, now's not the time to sit still and look.'

Kang Shin-hyuk steadied the shield to cover Vita and then jumped into the air. The android was aiming for him rather than Vita, so the laser twisted to where he was moving. It drew a line vertically through the building's interior, but before it reached him, it suddenly scattered. That was because the nanobots fired off by Vita started to hack it right away.

"Synthesis!"

A flare fired off from Phoibos hit the android's muzzle. Immediately after the explosion, it stopped firing and pulled out the blade attached to its body, right as a hedgehog raised its thorns at it... Hedgehog?

"Onyx!"

-Myuu!

Kang Shin-hyuk put away Phoibos and drew the Growing Scythe as he called out to Onyx. The android pointed its blade at the hedgehog, but Onyx bit it as if he had been waiting.

"Shin-hyuk, I will stop it from moving... Now!"

"Okay!"

The enemy stopped with exquisite timing as Kang Shin-hyuk jumped up and swung the scythe into its head. Of course, the enemy wasn't human, so sticking a scythe through its head wouldn't kill it. He had to give it his all and pull the scythe as it was!

-Quickly!

He drew a straight line through the torso of the giant android. When Kang Shin-hyuk landed, the android's torso had split in half and fallen onto the floor.

-Myuuuuu!

"Now, wait... Nanobots!"

Onyx started eating the android's body in earnest, starting with the blade, while Vita recovered all her nanobots from the android. The amount she collected had clearly increased.

"You hacked it?"

"Yes. I've been thinking about it since the first time I took out the nanobots, but thanks to you, I was able to succeed."

"Thanks to me?"

"Yes. I was able to drive away from the magi, thanks to your light powers."

"Ah."

He nodded and bowed. Vita seemed to deal with spiritual power as well, so the only difference was the power of light in Phoibos.

"I haven't even had a chance to experiment so far. I wonder if the Gaia system will strengthen it for me..."

"In other words, you had some determination to see it to the end today."

"Yes. If you help me a little, it would be possible to stop all objects in this building like this."

Listening to a little bit more, it seemed that it was impossible to fully take over a robot larger than a nanobot from the Gaia System, and the degree to which she could halt them was limited.

"So, eat it all, Onyx."

-Myu!

The machine created by the contaminated Gaia system was a delicacy that Onyx had never experienced before. It ate the robot in a craze, filtering out the parts that weren't metal.

"Then, we'll move forward, Shin-hyuk. We need to before Gaia strengthens its defenses."

"Wait, before that..."

He reached out to Vita, and she instinctively held out her head to him.

"...No, that, nanobots."

"Yes?! Oh, I see!"

Could it be that she wanted him to pet her? Kang Shin-hyuk once more agonized over whether this android was really a machine, but she quickly produced the group of nanobots she had accumulated. He covered them with light.

"This kind of reinforcement is also possible! It can effectively drive out magi and stop the enemy."

"No, wait."

That was just a taste. Kang Shin-hyuk didn't try to recognize the countless nanobots as individuals but decided to consider them all as his allies. With his hands wide open, he activated his trait.

The results were astounding.