༺ This Awakened Will Do It For Free1A meme of the past when people used torrent websites. It’s used for porn ads. Things like this mom will do it for free or single moms near you, etc. ༻
Youngsik, tense with anxiety, wiped his face and sighed.
“Haaa.”
He freaked out when the mid-boss known as the Blue Ghost, with the help of Support-Type Awakened, soared into the sky.
Boom-
“EUAAAH!”
After all, the crystal spear the bastard fired struck the aircraft directly.
Why was this shocking? Because this was the first time Hyperion had ever allowed an attack to hit.
However, there was no mercy in the face of Hyperion’s incineration.
The reason for this was simple; after the Blue Ghost almost became the Red Ghost because of the Plasma Focused Cutter, the bastard had hurriedly retreated. And that evoked something truly terrifying and ruthless.
[How interesting.]
“!!”
It was the first time Youngsik heard Hyperion take such an interest, ever since it had learned about the disaster called the ‘Wave’.
For some reason, he also felt a twinge of jealousy.
It was similar to how, in his previous life, the cat that used to act all nonchalant when he fed it then showed particular interest to his annoying younger sibling who only kicked it around and teased it.
Moreover, wasn’t that punk called the Blue Ghost a scum of humanity?
He was the ringleader that created the term, Slater. A bastard who committed all sorts of misdeeds in a world already fraught with chaos and desperation due to the zombies. An Awakened who not only sinned alone but incited and structured crime into a group obsessed with pleasure and violence.
But now, it was interested in that kind of scum?
[He seems quite useful. Heh.]
“…?”
There was a subtle nuance to its manner of speaking.
[I must collect him without damage.]
Hyperion’s words erased all previous thoughts, as if they had all been pointless in the first place. Somehow, the word ‘collect’ did not sound all too pleasant.
What the… What the fuck. I’m scared.
From then on, it was Hyperion’s solo performance. Even though it only had Upgrades of Stage 1-12, it was unmatched. Aside from the Blue Ghost, who barely managed to land a telling blow, it was the very definition of invincible.
Hyperion stopped its unmoving barrage of attacks and started high-speed flight.
Rapid acceleration, abrupt stopping, changing direction, S-curves.
It performed all sorts of flying maneuvers and shook off the Slaters.
The Slaters tried to buy time using hostages as shields, but they were overwhelmed by Hyperion’s high-speed maneuvers. Hyperion mercilessly penetrated the head of a target as soon as an angle presented itself.
The Slaters thought they were shielded by the hostages, but no cover could be perfect. If a gap was visible, it hit with a small opening; if their posture was compromised, it pierced them straight through with a Vacuum Compressed Ballistic Autocannon.
It easily dealt with the Slaters, almost playing with them. Some crazed Slaters even choked their hostages to death, but the rest were unharmed. Perhaps it was because they hesitated to kill the hostages, just in case they had a chance to live.
And soon enough, only one Slater, the Blue Ghost, remained.
“I don’t know who is aboard there, but whoever you are, I will crush your skull! I swear I will, you bastard!”
Uh… It wasn’t me. You might not believe it, but it was Hyperion….
“I will chew up your intestines! I will show every person you know and every person who knows you what it means to live a life worse than death!!”
He was spewing all sorts of curses in his rage.
Hello? I’m telling you, it’s not me, okay?
“!%@&@##%!%@^#!!”
The swearing continued, so atrocious that merely hearing it was enough for his hands and feet to tremble.
“Uh… Hype-”
[It seems ‘education’ is needed.]
A slight tinge of anger could be felt from its voice.
[Only I am allowed to curse at the Steward.]
Whose fault is it that I’m getting cursed right n… W-Wait, what?
At any rate, though the statement was a bit strange, Youngsik felt a strangely ticklish sensation deep inside.
Ah…! Yes! That’s right! I remember now! Our house’s pig of a cat got fed by my sibling and eventually returned to my side.
[Starting the ‘education’.]
A merciless retribution followed.
Beams of high heat focused only on the bastard. Hyperion deliberately lowered its altitude to taunt him while firing incessantly. 128 beams focused on him, turning his crystallized body red hot.
At least from what Youngsik could tell, it seemed that Hyperion was intentionally avoiding lethal attacks.
“KEUAAAAAH!”
Was it perhaps due to the limit of his Ability? The bastard started feeling pain and his Ability started to weaken. And when that happened, Hyperion would stop attacking and leisurely wait in the air.
Then it beat the shit out of him again. And once again, it let him recover before beating the shit out of him. And when he was recovering, Hyperion reduced the output enough to make him feel pain and kept firing.
The bastard’s screams were non-stop. As the ballistic trajectories were subtly controlled so that there was no chance of escape, he was tormented endlessly until his mind broke.
Eventually, due to overusing his Ability, he passed out.
Even after he lost consciousness, Hyperion tormented him for a long while before sending a small flying robot to collect him.
[To think there was a human who could ‘generate’ such material with just the mere act of living.]
[Although the Photon Cannon BRX-2A is a low-grade, subminiature optical weapon, the fact that he withstood the attack for even a moment proves he’s an excellent metal. He will be very useful.]
Thus, the Blue Ghost was imprisoned by Hyperion, destined to be a mine to extract metal from until death found him.
Youngsik shook his head and, after requesting Hyperion, handed over the people who had been captured to a nearby shelter, before leisurely leaving.
***
Yoon Seungah was dumbfounded.
“Wait, what….”
When he left, I’m pretty sure it was only about the size of a slightly large car, though….
“Haha. You must be surprised.”
But now, it had returned in the size of a considerable warship.
“….”
Youngsik was embarrassedly scratching his head. At the same time, he looked somewhat proud.
Though it had grown in size, it still felt like the same model due to its similarities.
“Welcome aboard. To our space battleship.”
Space… what? Space battleship?
And our? There’s someone else here? I mean, I guess that makes sense. It would be more strange to operate such a large machine alo…..
[A new Steward candidate?]
Seungah was startled by the sudden voice. However, it was not heard again after that.
“What do you mean maid… Hype, even so, that’s too much….”
Youngsik was mumbling something incomprehensible.
“For now, welcome. Since we’ve moved to Stage 2, it comes equipped with basic living conveniences, so it shouldn’t be too bad of a stay.”
Space… battleship or whatever it was aside. Yoon Seungah was speechless after boarding, her mouth agape in astonishment.
A sense of stability that didn’t feel like they were even in the air. There was no noise either. Moreover, the place Youngsik took her felt like staying in a decent hotel room.
Putting aside the bathroom and shower stall, there were also all sorts of facilities, including a dining hall and a laundry room.
What was most surprising was that the facilities weren’t alike to ones she knew, even if they shared the same name. The technology visible everywhere was incomparable to hotels of the current era.
For instance, the shower room worked like an automatic car wash; you could enter and come out all fresh and clean in just three seconds. The laundry room? You could put clothes in and they came out perfectly ironed. Though meals were replaced with just a single pill, the technology was still jaw-dropping.
Could this simply be called technology? Wasn’t this magic? It was natural for her to have such thoughts. After all, it was that shocking.
“Apparently, this is nothing special? And that this is even standard for middle to lower middle class civilians….”
From what she heard, he had to endure living as a miser all this time. And that this was only possible because they had encountered some excellent sources of EXP.
She didn’t understand a word he said.
No matter how she went about it, it seemed likely that he had injured his head after being expelled from the shelter.
And honestly, it made sense for her to think so, seeing as how either talked to himself, made incomprehensible remarks, or even pleaded with the ship’s walls.
He seemed like a perfect example of a psycho in many ways.
“Anyway, rest for a bit. I’ll take you back within a few days.”
“Uh… Will it be okay?”
“Mm….”
She was worried about her mother in the shelter. It wasn’t without reason. After all, precursors of the disaster known as the ‘Wave’, which Youngsik had warned about all this time at the shelter, had been detected.
While she was waiting for Youngsik, she could observe zombies moving in hordes rather than attacking humans individually, seemingly obeying some command.
It was a chilling sight. The situation was not normal.
For humans, who were already dying in droves to mindless zombies, a horde of zombies acting with military-like coordination was truly a disaster in itself.
Awakened might be slightly better off, but considering Evolved Entities, one could never be completely at ease. There were plenty of entities that even A-Class Awakened couldn’t handle. And some that even S-Classes would not dare approach.
Considering that, what if such Evolved Entities swarmed all at once…?
It would be nothing short of a horrific disaster. If she could, she wanted to run to the shelter immediately, but…
“I’d like to fulfill your request, but there are things I need to do before the Wave occurs.”
“….”
“Don’t worry, though. The Shelter Ability isn’t to be underestimated. It will hold up until we arrive.”
Well, she did have a sense of shame. Youngsik had been subjected to all sorts of contempt and disregard in the shelter. Wasn’t he even expelled in the end? And yet, to think she was actually asking him to save the shelter.
To be more precise, she was requesting to save her mother, but for Youngsik, it probably meant the same thing either way.
Even as she spoke, she felt sorry towards Youngsik. However, she couldn’t help but be constantly worried about her mother.
She was anxious, but decided to wait quietly.
Being hasty wouldn’t solve anything.
Honestly speaking… She knew that returning to the shelter alone would not be a solution.
And exactly three hours later, she realized her choice was right.
After witnessing the spectacle of slaughtering over a million zombies in less than three hours, she couldn’t possibly think otherwise.
What on earth am I riding?
Days later, she was finally able to witness the shelter on the verge of collapse.
Contrary to her anxious heart, Youngsik could hear Hyperion’s voice.
[Initiating Selective Elimination.]
[Deploying all weapons.]
From the 37 types of optical weapons and 2048 gun ports of Hyperion, now evolved into a Dreadnought Battleship, countless beams of light struck down to the surface.
