Now that I’d returned to Bimanar,
there was something I needed to talk about first.
“You guys......”
After getting back and talking with the other soldiers for a bit,
I was in the command-and-control room at the center of Bimanar.
And there,
I looked at the faces of the squad-leader-level soldiers sitting in the control room with me.
Minjae hyung, Suhyeok, Gwangil......
Squad Leader Sanga, Grandpa Park, Corporal Lee Gongwoo, and others.
To report to the Legion Commander who’d returned after a long time,
it looked like the senior people from each department had all come.
‘It’s good to see them after so long.’
And—
what else would you even say after seeing their faces again?
You ask how they’ve been.
“How’ve you been?”
“Haha, we’ve been doing well.”
“Hehe. If anything, we heard the Legion Commander went through a lot.”
“Don’t even start. Seriously. Thought I was gonna die.”
Still—
because I knew these guys would come if I held out just a little longer,
I could grit my teeth and survive no matter what.
“Mm.”
“Hm?”
But then—
maybe because of the aftereffects of using powerful magic last time,
someone still looked a little pale.
“Honestly, I thought I wouldn’t feel much since I’ve kept seeing your face this whole time......”
Sergeant Lee Minjae stared at my face hard,
then suddenly snorted and said,
“But seeing you like this, it’s still good to have you back.”
“Ah.”
I didn’t have to struggle to understand what he meant by I kept seeing your face.
“You mean the [Droplet]s.”
“Yeah.”
“Come to think of it...... how did you handle things about me?”
I left only the Bimanars behind and went to Gyeonggi Province.
Because I figured they’d operate while pretending to be me.
But now—
the soldiers who crossed the Wall and came to Gyeonggi Province
would’ve learned about what “I” had been doing here, too.
Meaning—
“It’s like the same person was in multiple places.”
But even so,
none of the soldiers pointed that out.
I’d been wondering how they’d gotten past that, but—
“First, we started hiding the Droplets’ appearances from two weeks ago.”
“Hm?”
“We handled it like you crossed the Wall first for the mission.”
So that’s why they welcomed me back like it’d been a long time.
“The Association will have my story spread all over. Is that really fine?”
“You said you operated as an assassin, not a chef. It’s not like your face sketch is circulating—so even if they hear about you, they’ll probably just think it’s someone with the same name.”
“......Is it really that easy?”
“It won’t be that easy, but...... even if it becomes a problem, it won’t matter.”
“Huh?”
When I tilted my head,
Minjae hyung made a slightly complicated expression.
“Actually...... there was a similar issue in Gangwon too.”
“What are you talking about?”
“There was some confusion for a bit, but...... in the end it wrapped up well. That artificial spirit...... it’s pretty smart.”
“It wrapped up well......”
“You could say public opinion formed that it wouldn’t be strange for Private First Class Shin Youngjun to be in multiple places at once...... something like that. If you try to understand it in detail, it’s a headache, so just let it go.”
What kind of bullshit is that?
I didn’t know what had happened, but
the point was it wouldn’t become a big problem.
“Well, the Legion Commander is back now. I’ll give you a brief report on what happened while you were gone.”
Anyway, like that,
the report began under Sergeant Lee Minjae’s lead.
“Even calling it a report, there isn’t that much. We just kept repeating territory expansion.”
“Not much, my ass.”
That battle between the giants and the Legion—
I only watched from far away, but—
“Looked like you guys got insanely strong.”
That alone was enough to feel
the unit members’ growth.
‘Even if you were stacked with every buff imaginable...... pushing the giants that far.’
Especially the squad-leader-level combatants’ growth stood out.
Minjae hyung’s lightning that erased a giant at the start went without saying, and
Gwangil and Suhyeok too—
no matter how much it was coordinated fighting with other unit members, they still each took down a giant.
“Well, there was a lot of this and that.”
“Honestly, I thought it’d end way faster...... but there were places that were tougher than expected.”
That surprised me.
“Even with Taejun there, there were fights that were rough?”
The reason I could leave for Gyeonggi Province without worry was because
my buddy’s prophecy had been absurdly effective.
It was power that would weaken once the Wall opened, but
inside Gangwon, it still had absolute effect.
“Most places weren’t a problem, but...... the monsters that were in the Legion headquarters area, and the ones settled in Gangneung were bad.”
“Gangneung?”
“Do you remember? When we first came down from the mountain range.”
Our unit was stationed in the mountain range dividing Yeongseo and Yeongdong.
We’d agonized over which side to head toward.
“But Sergeant Park Taejun didn’t tell us to go to Yeongseo first for no reason.”
We’d headed west on Taejun’s recommendation.
Back then I’d just gone, sure, whatever, but
thinking about it now, there’d been a reason for that recommendation.
“If it hadn’t been Sergeant Lee Minjae’s quick thinking back then.......”
“Told you. Back then it was just luck.”
“No one thinks that was luck.”
As they reported what happened in Gangneung,
they drifted into recalling that memory among themselves.
‘......What is this.’
I could tell just from hearing it that there’d been a huge battle, but—
‘Why do I feel like I’m getting left out?’
Honestly, just hearing about it, I couldn’t feel it at all.
Watching them talk about something I didn’t know made me feel weirdly sulky.
“Other than that, among the humans we met in battle, we got some to join the guild, and we formed alliances with others.”
“Ah. Come to think of it, I even saw monks on that battlefield.......”
“One of our most representative alliances. A guild called [Myoyang Temple] still remains, but they handed over territorial control. There are a few more allied guilds like that.”
Calling it an alliance—
it sounded more like they’d effectively come under us.
“Was there backlash?”
“Fortunately, no. If anything, they were the ones being proactive.”
They’d been the ones who didn’t want to join the Legion at first,
but after staying friendly for a long time, our image must’ve improved a lot.
And lastly—
“Looks like the fortress changed a lot too.”
Of course it would, since Bimanar would’ve been leveling up facilities on its own.
But the biggest change was—
“Wasn’t the exterior originally like this?”
If it used to be closer to a circular fortress,
now it was, how should I put it, longer—
taking the shape of a massive battleship.
“That’s only when it’s flying.”
“Huh?”
The one who answered was Corporal Lee Gongwoo.
“It seems like its role as a fortress on the ground and its role while flying are different. It changed shape as it rose into the air. It’ll probably return to normal once it goes back down.”
Ah, right.
For [Mobility], a thinner form would catch less wind resistance than a circular one.
......That aside—
“Going back down?”
A flying fortress like this has ridiculous performance.
It was also incredible as a ground fortress, but
this makes it a moving gun platform with that defensive power.
Honestly, if it weren’t for this fortress’s firepower, even we might not have been able to kill those giants.
“Oh. This fortress. It won’t be able to stay up forever.”
“What, so it’s like that?”
Meaning it couldn’t keep showing this form constantly.
“Mm. Would you like to follow me?”
I followed them.
We soon arrived at Basement Level 2 of the inner keep.
[Magic Power Reservoir]
The place where the Magic Power Reservoir had been installed.
And that Magic Power Reservoir was—
“......Is that... allowed to look like that?”
“Yes. For now.”
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG!!!
It was operating with such a huge noise that it felt like something had gone wrong.
Maybe heat had built up; the entire structure was stained red.
“Basically...... keeping this fortress floating in the air takes an enormous amount of magic power. Think of it like missiles or rockets. Most of their fuel gets spent at the start, lifting off from the ground.”
Right.
It’s a fortress this big.
No matter how absurd the makers’ technology was, there’s no way it wouldn’t take energy.
“But magic power will pour out infinitely from the [Underground Mine], right?”
“That’s true, but in the end, the reservoir has to absorb it to convert it into Bimanar’s power.”
Even when we first liberated the Underground Mine,
the reservoir had nearly burst while absorbing that magic power.
The source itself is infinite, but there’s a limit to how much can be converted into usable power.
“Right now, we’ve pushed capacity to near the limit and we’re running it.”
“So that’s what this is...... it looks like it’s about to explode.”
“It looks like that, but it’s still stable. If we increase capacity beyond this, it’ll be a problem, but for now it’s fine. The issue is that even with capacity increased this much, while it’s flying, the stored magic power actually keeps decreasing.”
“Then how long can it last?”
“If we do absolutely nothing, it’ll last two months. This time we fought too, so it looks like we’ll barely make it past one month.”
Meaning—
once the Wall disappears, we return to Chuncheon and that’s it.
“After that, we’ll need to focus on charging and stabilization for one to two months.”
“Huh.”
It was a shame we couldn’t keep using this airborne fortress’s power,
but on the other hand, it meant that [N O V E L I G H T] after about two months of stabilization, we could raise it again.
I’d have to be satisfied with that.
“Next, I’ll report what happened on the production side.”
Anyway, like that,
I received reports on what happened in each department.
‘These guys went through a lot too.......’
More reports came in than I expected.
Even this was just the rough overview—
I’d probably need another report later for the details.
“Our report ends here.”
Only after quite a long time
did the reporting finally wrap up.
Then Minjae hyung looked at my face and said,
“Next is your turn.”
“Huh?”
My turn?
“Haven’t you already heard everything about me?”
While I was lying down, I’d told the soldiers who snuck in the rough outline,
and my movements were well known throughout the Association, so they would’ve heard through that too.
Still, asking me to talk about it felt a little strange—
but—
“Still, we want to hear it from you.”
“......Ah.”
Only after seeing the soldiers’ expressions as they looked at me
did I understand why.
I snorted softly.
‘No need to feel sulky.’
Even if we were apart,
my affiliation is, to the end, this Legion.
And
I’d reunited with the other Legion members after a long time.
So—
what we had to do was obvious.
“Where should I start.”
You swap updates,
and talk some shit.
“There I was, right after crossing the Wall, panicking because my clothes all burned up......”
There was a lot to explain.
It’ll definitely get busy soon, but
‘Before that Wall opens, for a few days at least.’
Spending it chatting with friends I hadn’t seen in a long time
wouldn’t be so bad.
*****
“Oh, Private First Class Shin. What brings you here?”
“Just figured we should talk.”
“Talk after a long time? Didn’t we see you a week ago?”
“Did we? Whatever, don’t worry about that. How’ve you been lately?”
“I’ve been.......”
After that,
I wandered around inside Bimanar
and invested time talking with the other unit members.
“Benefactor...!”
“Oh, it’s been a while. You doing well?”
“Yes. They said you performed another miracle......!”
“Stop exaggerating.”
Because the “Bimanar” had been filling in for my role,
the Legion members acted like they’d been close with me until recently.
But—
‘There are plenty who enlisted while I was gone.’
Among them were ones who knew the “Bimanar” but were seeing me for the first time.
Still, I wanted to stay as friendly as possible with the Legion members.
Before that Wall opened, at least, I planned to get acquainted with the Legion members who’d come over to Gyeonggi Province.
Since that took more time than I expected,
by the time it was finished—
[Time remaining until the Beginner Protection System ends: 0 days 12 hours 32 minutes.......]
before I knew it,
there was less than a day left until that Wall opened.
WOOOOOOONG......
Along with that,
Bimanar began moving toward the heat wall to return to Gangwon.
Before returning to Gangwon after the long mission,
I sat in my room and stared into empty space.
I’d handled all urgent matters.
So what I needed to do now was—
[Return to your home region, or survive until inter-region protection ends. (1/1)]
[Reward: Differential payout based on influence exerted in the moved region.]
[The maximum payable reward will be granted.]
Time to check the reward.
