HACKED 88

The casting range of Ja-myeong-go’s skill, ‘National Treasure of Nakrang’, is a plane with a total area of 100㎡ or less. The area of the Library District is several thousand times that. Even if limited to the entrance area, it is about several dozen times larger.

So how did he lay the skill across that entire vast territory? The method is simple.

One just needs to draw very thin lines at intervals of a few centimeters and cross them horizontally and vertically. From a distance, it would look roughly like barbed wire or a net.

By doing this, the ‘area’ of the skill’s physical manifestation is minimized while the ‘territory’ in which the skill operates is maximized. If I had just a bit more time, I would have made it into a honeycomb structure of connected regular hexagons to push the efficiency per unit area to the limit, but I was in a bit of a hurry for that.

Of course, this was a method that couldn’t be used in the <No Lifer> in-game. In <No Lifer>, skills were activated with a single touch, and it was a universal rule that the territory of designated range skills—so-called ‘floor skills’—was either a circle or a square centered on the caster.

It’s just a minor bit of cleverness. If the other Compilers in this <No Lifer>-a world have even basic intelligence, they must be doing at least this much. I can’t be the only one falling behind by staying tied to the framework of a game.

‘Now I have to tell the Agent to hand over the actual “Fragment of the Key to the Door Leading to Reality”.’

But with San Gun right next to me, I simply can’t bring myself to speak. That clear-eyed madman… no, that cloudy-eyed madman—I’m afraid that if I even utter the “Re” of “Reality,” he might instantly rip my heart out.

His hand holding my arm was warm. However, I felt as if I were freezing cold starting from the spot where he held me.

Ultimately, I chose to take one step back to advance two steps later.

‘Let’s strip that Agent bastard of everything after this merge is over.’

If it follows the pattern so far—though there’s only been one pattern, anyway. If I become the final winner in this merge, there is a high possibility that ‘Fragment of the Key to the Door Leading to Reality (3)’ will appear as loot.

At that time, while recovering the third key fragment, I can just recover the first and second ones held by the Agent as well. If he refuses to hand them over… then I’ll really have to consider methods involving the use of force.

“But, wait a moment.”

The key fragment issue was important, but there was a more urgent problem right now. Why is San Gun, who should be inside the library right now, here?

“San Gun, how on earth did you get here? I locked the Library District entrance earlier.”

“Because I didn’t enter there in the first place.”

Ah, so that’s… No, wait!

“I passed down the instructions through Chirpy earlier. I said everyone except for the Agent and Ja-myeong-go should assemble in the Library District and prepare for battle.”

I hadn’t expected the private meeting with the Agent and Gumiho—which I had attempted secretly—to drag on so long. Especially Gumiho… I really didn’t know that he would stand me up in a completely empty room and try to suck me dry down to the very marrow… I really didn’t know. Damn it.

Regardless, by the time I returned, more than half of the Incarnations had already scattered to prepare for battle. So, while applying rough first aid to my injured arm, I asked Chirpy to play the role of messenger.

Therefore, I thought San Gun would have naturally encountered the enemy inside the Library District by now. Why is the person who should have been doing that here right now?

“I only listen to my Master’s words. I don’t listen to the words of some scrap of paper.”

He declared boldly. It was absurd.

“It’s not like you’ve particularly listened to my words either…”

“What are you talking about? I have always been loyal to you. Where else would you find a guy like me who would give you his liver and gallbladder?”

I asked, suppressing the fire rising inside me.

“Right now, both the front and back gates of the Library District are sealed. Since I’ve turned the power system to power-saving mode, I can’t even unlock them for you again. What are you going to do?”

“I’ll take care of that myself.”

“Pardon?”

“You know my skill.”

“San Gun’s skill is… Ah.”

Is he planning to use ‘that skill’? If it’s that, he might be able to open the locked Library District by himself.

San Gun, letting go of my arm, strode past me. His black dopo fluttered, creating a chilly breeze. With every step, a small clacking sound came from the longsword at his waist.

He stopped in front of the panel of the central command room. A giant window taking up an entire wall stretched out across his vision. He glanced back at me and then gestured with his eyes toward the front.

“Myeong. Look.”

Following those words, I approached the window. Outside the window was the same scenery as always. The sun and moon rising and setting, clouds floating by occasionally, and an empty sky with nothing in any direction…

‘Huh?’

It wasn’t that there was nothing. There was something. Something that I couldn’t tell if it was an island, a UFO, or a meteor. I felt like a captain who had been sailing alone on a vast ocean for a long time and finally discovered another ship.

“There’s something there. Although to me, it just looks like a black dot.”

“It’s probably the opponent’s Pantheon.”

“…….”

I felt as if a heavy stone had been placed on my heart. The enemy’s stronghold, which I had only vaguely confirmed through system notification messages, was right there, within visible distance.

During the last merge, I used a room closed off on all sides without windows as a base, so I had no chance to see the outside scenery. I also didn’t even think to look at the scenery because I suffered the humiliation of vomiting blood and fainting as the Pantheon sustained damage.

The reason I chose a room without windows was because of Hwarang’s insistence. Did he say, ‘We must prepare for sniping that could fly in from anywhere at any time’? Only now do those words make complete sense.

‘If the dimensions are ‘clashing’ physically in this way… if the gap narrows further, sniping might truly be possible from here.’

I once again thought it was a good thing I listened to Hwarang back then. Although there were no Incarnations among <IsItPresbyopiaCrap>’s forces with such excellent sniping abilities, there was no harm in being prepared just in case.

“It looks like a mass of buildings. It’s similar to our Pantheon yet somewhat different. I see a lot of wires and steel frames. It’s getting closer slowly but constantly.”

This was information I couldn’t perceive with my ordinary human vision. The Agent, who was watching from behind, added:

“It is my personal opinion… but it looks like a floating Kowloon Walled City.”

Spoken like a modern-origin Incarnation, he gave a metaphor perfectly suited to my level.

‘So, that Pantheon that looks like the Kowloon Walled City and our Pantheon are gradually getting closer.’

While mulling over that fact, I suddenly opened my mouth.

“…I’ve been thinking about something for a while.”

I was absolutely lacking in information regarding the new phenomenon called ‘Dimension Merge.’ It was something I had never experienced in the game. So I had been setting up various hypotheses and trying to fit them together…

“In the beginning, our Pantheon and the opponent’s Pantheon were completely separate dimensions. Then, as the ‘Dimension Merge’ occurs, a point of contact is created… and once the ‘Final Winner’ is decided, they merge into a single dimension. Like cell fusion.”

However, there is a difference between biological cell fusion and this dimension merge. While cell fusion can result in multinucleated cells with multiple nuclei inside one cell membrane, in a dimension merge, only one power source—that is, only one Compiler—can exist in one Pantheon.

But that wasn’t the important part.

“Both <IsItPresbyopiaCrap> last time and <DriedAnchovyLowerEnds> this time sent only one unit, meaning 6 people, at the very beginning. The Presbyopia whatever guys only deployed one unit at a time after that as well. It was only when they were on the brink of annihilation that they sent several units composed only of low-rare Incarnations at once. I don’t know how this Compiler will act, but so far, it’s still only one unit.”

Let’s say they sent only one unit at first for the purpose of scouting and exploration. But it’s strange that they only dispatched one unit at a time after that. Once they’ve grasped the power of our Incarnations or the structure of the Pantheon to some extent, wouldn’t it make sense to gather all available forces and enter an all-out war?

Our Incarnations are clearly few in number. No matter how high our rarity is or how good our stats and skills are, if the opponent has hundreds of Incarnations… no, even if they had just dozens of 3-star or 4-star ones, we would be defeated by being outnumbered. If there were several 5-stars, we would obviously be crushed.

‘Then why didn’t the opposing Compilers use the easy and convenient strategy of human wave tactics?’

“So what I’ve surmised is.”

San Gun, the Agent, Ja-myeong-go. All three Incarnations were watching me without even blinking. I exhaled the breath I had inhaled deeply and spoke my conclusion.

“Initially, the number of Incarnations that can be sent to the opposing camp through the ‘Hyper-Dimensional Gate’ must be limited. Probably just about one unit. Then, as the merge progresses, the synchronization rate between this side and that side increases, so I suspect the number of dispatchable Incarnations also increases.”

“That is a plausible point. Beyond just being plausible, I believe it is the truth with a very high probability.”

The Agent expressed his agreement. Ja-myeong-go also nodded heavily. San Gun, who had been listening to my words without any particular reaction, finally opened his mouth.

“So, Myeong-ah. In a word.”

“…….”

“You’re saying that if we don’t want to die, we have to settle this quickly.”

It was a clean, one-line summary.