Chapter 268: It’s unusual – 1
#1
Time had slipped along. Winter had pa.s.sed all throughout summer and now, fall had come.
“Wow, Master Archer… he did a clean job,” one man said as he looked at his smartphone while sitting on a bench at the side of an old brick building that looked like a bunker. Inside the smartphone he was now holding, there was a huge four-legged monster falling in the dark shade.
“The 9-Tier Monster Forwor, which suddenly appeared in our German city of Hesen, has finally fallen. So for this monster wave…”
Unlike other countries, Germany did not create and call monsters by their own names. All monsters were collectively called Forwor, and only monsters that need to be distinguished were numbered and called.
“Can’t he sweep up our Canada once?”
People no longer saw the nine-tiered monster with the same level of fear as in the past. The perception of the wave was changing in a way that it’s seen as a natural disaster.
“Ha, stupid government…”
He shook his head as soon as he knew it was only wishful thinking. As quite a few experts have already pointed out and were known through various programs, now the world had not actively sought the 9-Tier Monster Raid by the Master Archer. Of course, that was not the official position. Admitting as so would make them deserve to be stoned by those who lost their families and homes by monsters.
However, the more the fear of monsters was reduced by the Master Archer, the more frequently the media in each country used the term “national a.s.sets or resources” to its own monsters. They said that that’s why they have to protect it. The monster raid of one country must not be left to the Hunter of another country.
Some countries have cautiously called for a revision of the Master Archer’s raid policy.
The current condition of the Master Archer’s raid was the right to create strategy and owners.h.i.+p of the nine-tiered monster. Of course, it was an undeniable fact that the voice was getting louder, although it was still only a small minority’s opinion.
The U.S. was the first to formulate a policy to deal with nine-tiered monsters in its own country.
The U.S. had already been in the strongest position in terms of monster raids before the Master Archer appeared that it successfully raided the two Tier-9 Monsters that lived in its country through a combination of the military and Hunters.
Countries with strong national power gradually began to refrain from asking the Master Archer for a raid.
Of course, the underdeveloped countries, which were still unable to handle the Tier-9 monsters on their own, were steadily taking over their territory with the help of the Master Archer.
“Jenkins! Where are you!”
“Oh, I’m out there.” At the call of his colleague, Jenkins stood up and shouted.
“Your s.h.i.+ft has begun!”
“Okay. I’ll be right back after I go to the restroom.” At his colleague’s cry, he shoved his phone back in his pocket.
Entering the bunker after going to the bathroom, he went straight down the stairs to the bas.e.m.e.nt. Pa.s.sing through the thick steel door, he entered a room packed with dozens of monitors and radar-like facilities.
Half naked, his colleague, leaning on a chair and sipping a cold Americano, said, “What’s for dinner tonight?”
“As usual. Canned food and stew.”
As if he had asked what was too obvious, his colleague shook his head.
“Believe it, next time you supply, please send me some vitamin-infused fruits. You’re going to get sick later.”
He smiled bitterly at his colleague’s complaint. “Okay, let’s ask for a can of fruit.”
“Yes. Now, let’s change!” He got up from his seat and stretched himself.
The monster alert post’s schedule involves three people working in 12-hour rotations. It was difficult to even meet women, let alone loved ones because they were deployed in mountainous areas every six months. State positions and high salaries were the only reasons they did this job.
It was when he walked lightly and tried to leave the control room…
Zing! Beep beep! Beep beep!
Suddenly, with a loud alarm, the machines in the room began to operate with a loud noise. The screen flashes red, and the words “alert” immediately switches to “emergency.”
“What’s wrong with this?” The colleague, who was about to step outside, hurried back to his seat and shouted. He was surprised because the devices installed at the guard post began to ring in unison. Almost all of the measuring instruments were announcing the changes in mana concentration, which makes no sense because their area was nearly 100 kilometers in diameter.
“Is this crazy? Why is it malfunctioning?”
It was reasonable to suspect the malfunction of the device at first because it did not make sense otherwise.
“Was it like this before?”
“No, I’ve never seen this since it was fixed three months ago?”
“Believe it, how the h.e.l.l did they fix it?”
According to the original manual, the first priority was to send all data, including observation records, to the headquarters after calling a colleague who would be resting at a rest area immediately, but Jenkins concluded that the device malfunctioned for now. That was the only explanation they had.
And as if he had been right, all the devices went silent a moment after.
“d.a.m.n it, I’ll have to call the repairman back.”
“Shouldn’t we report it?”
“What kind of report do you want to do? Do you want to send it? Detection of increased mana across 100 kilometers on all sides?”
A man shook his head in his words. Yes, that’s why he didn’t understand common sense.
“How much has the figure gone up?”
“Number?”
At his colleague’s word, the man who was sitting manipulated the monitor and said shortly, “It has to be a malfunction. It jumped from 3mc to 200mc in a second. And the rise is uniform…”
“200mc is the measurement limit.”
“Exactly, it’s nonsense.”
Even though their equipment had been used for decades, the mana figure, 200mc, indicates the emergence of a 500m gate in theory. No, one couldn’t even tell if it’s 500m or 700m since it’s up to the measurement limit. If they were to send this record to the headquarters right away, they will be reprimanded for dozing off or dreaming.
“Yes, it must be malfunctioning.” A man shook his head and left the control room.
It’s time to take a full rest. Of course, it’s been a long time since he’s erased the memory of the device malfunction from his head, but it wasn’t a system malfunction. They don’t know, but what they’ve been through now had happened all over the world simultaneously.
#2
A black shadow was cast over the huge landing site, which was about the size of four football fields put together. The light plate that reflected the landing site shook in the gusty wind.
SWOOSH….
A short time later, a plane landed with a strong wind. As the four rotors on all sides slowly began to stop, the people waiting around dragged their equipment towards the aircraft.
“Move!”
“Yes!”
It was Atlas, the personal fighter jet of the Master Archer. When a mechanic manipulated a large lever on the underside of the Atlas, its Dual Mana battery, which was equivalent to the size of a ton-heavy car, came down with a chirping sound.
“Hey! Don’t touch it and let it cool down first! wake up!”
There was a loud voice.
“Oh! Yes, I am sorry!”
A maintenance worker, who had just taken his hand towards the Mana battery, connected a long hose on the side to a pipe attached to the mana battery at the cry of the old man. While normal mana batteries would not require such a complicated procedure, the dual mana batteries on the Atlas were severely heated by using two seven-tier mana stones.
Because it was such an expensive battery, when the gas was not operated, liquid nitrogen should be injected and be forced to cool the battery before storing it. Then, the side of Atlas opened and a man appeared. He looked around for a moment and stepped down to the floor from the hatch.
“Thank you for your hard work,” the man with a bandit beard, who appears to be the team leader of the maintenance team, approached him and said with his head down.
Then, the man on the opposite side beckoned a giant flying object seen as a backlight.
“No, I’m afraid I came too late tonight. Let’s take a break today and do it tomorrow.”
The maintenance team leader shook his hand in his words. “No, we can’t be as tired as you are. You flew to Germany and raided the monster before coming here.”
“Haha, yes.”
Coming right back from the end of the raid in Germany, it just dawned. He felt sorry for waking those who were sleeping, and he looked at those who were working by sticking like a swarm of ants around Atlas.
“When you’re finished, let them rest a day tomorrow. Maintenance is important, but for me, your health is more important.”
“Yes, sir,” the bearded man answered, but he knew that it won’t be followed anyway.
He had no intention of pointing that out. Their thorough maintenance had left Atlas with no minor malfunctions ever happening. All the maintenance workers from the U.S., who sold Atlas, were tired and were pa.s.sing on their maintenance know-hows to them one by one.
Watching the chilly autumn wind and the stars in the early morning sky, In-Yeong, who was waiting in front of the front gate, bowed her head towards Jaehw.a.n.g. “Welcome home”
“Yes.”
Irumi walked quietly behind Jaehw.a.n.g. “The next week’s raid at Russia has been canceled.”
“Is that so?” Jaehw.a.n.g nodded at his words.
In the case of running a Clan, who usually goes overseas, they should’ve played a penalty for those who do cancel their request, but Jaehw.a.n.g didn’t do that. Some of the contracts they deal with in the first place were with weaker countries, and the penalty would allow developed countries to take advantage of those with less national power
Its side effects were the case now.
“The maintenance team must be happy not having to fly to Siberia.”
In response to Jaehw.a.n.g’s answer, Irumi was hesitating to say something but soon shook her head.
“Don’t be angry.”
It’s Jaehw.a.n.g who already knew how Irumi felt. Recently, there have been more and more raids being canceled in this way. Of course, she was not upset simply because the raid was canceled. Irumi’s anger was due to their ambivalent att.i.tude. Even if the cancellation was due to their choice, they announced to the media as if the negotiations with Master Archer had gone wrong. What’s funny was that when a gate occurs or a Tier-9 monster moves its habitat and causes a wave, they would ask Jaehw.a.n.g again for a helping hand, and Jaehw.a.n.g never rejected their requests. Irumi would want to withdraw all of their later bids, but Jaehw.a.n.g had them all accepted.
“But I think we should take some actions.”
If Jaehw.a.n.g uses his influence a little more aggressively, it was not possible to get a taste of business with Jaehw.a.n.g this way in the first place. It was not just the U.S. or Russia. In recent years, other countries were slowly turning to the World Hunters’ Office to change the existing conditions of the raid.