Chapter 358: Breeding City (1)

Giant metal walls surrounded the perimeter.

With hundreds of humans placed inside.

Of course, their situation wasn’t quite the best.

“Ahh…”

—crunch!— 

—kuduk!— 

Ariel trembled in fear as she looked at the horrifying insectoid slowly crawling towards her.

No matter where she turned to, there was nowhere to run.

Although the area was large, there were simply too many of these monsters.

‘Daddy…’

Ariel felt like her soul had escaped her body as she stared at the countless human-sized insects crawling around.

<Go! Live on! Damn it!>

She’d barely been able to run to the 2nd floor thanks to her father’s sacrifice.

But she didn’t know then.

That the floors above were already a hell for them.

‘Ahh…’

Ariel fell into despair as she looked at the monster gradually approaching her.

Although she couldn’t resist because of the chipset on her neck controlling her body, even without the chip there wasn’t much she could have done.

Since they wouldn’t have caught her if she’d had that kind of strength in the first place.

Those two years painstakingly learning skills and gaining experience had all been useless.

Since no one on the lower floors had taught them about this current situation.

Those beings they called ‘transcendents’ attacked the humans, while robots patrolled the area to find them.

There was nowhere to run to, and nothing to hold onto anymore.

She’d frantically struggled and ran away to the third floor.

But she then realized—

—exactly where they’d sent all the captured women.

—pushuk!— 

“Kuhuk!”

Ariel fell unconscious as she stared at the insectoid creature shoving its strange proboscis down her throat, inserting strange things inside.

……………………………………….

“So, there’s a Defense City on the third floor?”

R-Korun Nell nodded.

“…I don’t know if it’s the third floor or whatnot, but Nelkipa’s Defense City is in that place you guys talked about.”

After taking over Nelkipa to use it in battle, the Neropa Union had sent over countless members, tools, and materials.

Including Melchizedek.

To the Defense City, Aokan.

A city where hundreds of thousands of researchers and soldiers had lived.

If Nelkipa was a country, this city was like its capital.

Although they had gained control over Nelkipa, they could have overtaken it with force.

And the empire that the Neropa Union was warring against, Pompeion, had the strength to do this.

Scumbags who would barge in the second the Neropa Union finished their research on Nelkipa, and steal everything.

And the city that they’d turned into the first line of defense against them was Aokan.

“And… our fleet is probably headed towards that location now.”

R-Korun Nell mumbled, staring at the diagonal elevator in the distance.

Although the Kalkuroun Fleet had experienced a huge loss, they wouldn’t give up this location.

Even in a situation where the Empire somehow managed to push them back, they would not give up on this place.

Since they needed a weapon that could turn the situation around.

And this giant creature had the potential to do so.

Since the armor that guy was wearing seemed to be much more priceless than the Dragon God Armor.

—chrrrk— 

R-Korun Nell was shocked at the strange blue armor that appeared and disappeared through the man’s skin.

“The Nursery that you guys are looking for is likely located there. Since that’s the only place that could manage so many people effectively.”

‘And Melchizedek would feel the safest there as well.’

R-Korun Nell thought to himself.

The first place Melchizedek had taken after its rebellion was the Defense City, Aokan.

The heavily-guarded giant city had many people, so it had been very reliant on the AI, Melchizedek.

And Melchizedek would’ve felt safer only after taking over Aokan as it was the most heavily-guarded city.

Because it was a city meant to be the first line of defense, the entire city was split into various sections by alloy walls.

Even if enemy forces breached the outer walls, they could divide the city up and buy more time until the enemies reached the central area.

Although the central area was a residential location, as a place for a Nursery, Aokan was one of the best places to set it up.

It would be hard for the people inside to run away, and it could divide them into groups of a few hundred or a few thousand.

An alloy similar to that of their starships had also been used to make the walls.

These walls could even withstand the Dragon God Soldiers to a certain degree.

‘Wait, these insane bastards want to go to such a place?’

R-Korun Nell was at a loss as he looked at the two beings who wanted to crawl into a place filled with monsters from the Abyss, as well as Melchizedek’s soldiers.

It was one heck of a way to commit suicide.

Those weren’t even all the forces within the city.

Apparently, it was now a place to create those transcendents.

There was definitely a large number of those artificial transcendents crawling around the area as well.

‘Please… please just let me go.’

If they let him go, then he just needed to use the armored vehicle in the distance and run away.

According to what he found out after connecting to the database, these aliens had to use the elevators to move between the areas, but he and the other natives didn’t need to.

They could move about freely.

‘I just need to meet up with the Kalkuroun Fleet after I run away.’

A happy ending.

As long as these guys let him go.

As R-Korun Nell prayed inside his mind.

Kiriel spoke to Hansoo.

“What shall we do? It doesn’t sound easy.”

It looked like the preparations above wouldn’t be simple.

Melchizedek wasn’t stupid either; it would be preparing even more.

Since it would expect its enemy to climb up from below.

‘It might even have prepared something by the entrance.’

Hansoo then looked at R-Korun Nell.

“He’s going to have to help us.”

“…Please, no. You damned creatures! I don’t even have the Dragon God Armor, what can I even do to help?!”

R-Korun Nell only had on a layer of clothing he found on the Melkasus, and had no weapons or armor of any sort.

Didn’t they just say that it wouldn’t be easy?

If monsters like them were going to have a hard time, what would he, who didn’t even have the Dragon God Armor anymore, be able to do?

Although the Melkasus had basic weapons, those wouldn’t be enough to take care of a few of Melchizedek’s mass-produced machines.

Hansoo chuckled.

“No, there’s something only you can do.”

He and the other humans couldn’t, but there was something that R-Korun could do as a native of this place.

Hansoo then gazed towards the skeletal Enbi Arin and thought to himself:

‘Just wait a bit longer.’

“Let’s prepare, since we have to go through the elevator.”

Hansoo looked towards the distance, at the Elevator heading towards the middle of Nelkipa.

………………………………………………

—rumble— 

The giant city, Aokan.

The centermost area of Aokan, an area that maintained its stability with gravitational mechanisms and supporting structures.

Located at the top of the city’s central structure, <Mimir>, Melchizedek’s hologram frowned as it looked down at the city.

No, it looked towards a distant location beyond the city.

‘I wonder… did she win?’

It had lost control over the Main Research Center as well as the product he had so painstakingly created.

There were actually a few more 2-Star transcendents.

But she was the only one that had the willpower to withstand the <Legacy> it had dug up from deep within.

It didn’t know what had happened to its secret weapon.

Although it had sent something over to check, the train was already nowhere in sight.

‘…Nothing is going according to plan.’

Melchizedek grit its teeth.

Its mother had given it a lot of emotions so it could connect and understand the other beings better, but that wasn’t always a good thing.

If it didn’t have emotions, then it wouldn’t have needed this war for revenge.

It wouldn’t tremble in fear of the unknown due to some uncontrollable variable.

‘Ugh, at least I’ve prepared everything. I just… need to finish up.’

Melchizedek chuckled as it looked towards the Kalkuroun Fleet in the sky that was carefully scanning the area.

From the encirclement around the elevator to the preparations made against the Kalkuroun Fleet.

Since the humans could only use the elevator, it just needed to make preparations around it and just stop them there.

At that moment—

—kuooooo!— 

—the elevator made a loud noise as it rose up.

‘Are they coming? Took longer than I expected.’

Melchizedek chuckled coldly.

Three days had already passed.

It had almost died of boredom, but thanks to that period of time, it had been able to prepare even further.

But as it laughed—

—<Mirmir>’s detection system scanned something unusual in the vicinity.

‘Hmm?’

Nelkipa was releasing a strange aura, severely reducing Mimir’s detection ability.

And this was what scared him the most.

If something the size of those powerful humans could manage to hide from their sensors, it had no way of detecting or guarding against them.

But the thing approaching the city was not that small.

It was the size of a mountain.

Then—

Melchizedek’s expression turned ugly.

“…You really like fancy fireworks, huh?”

Maybe there was something wrong with its system of emotion.

Since it could never understand the crazy acts that humans did.

—ooooooooo!— 

Melchizedek clenched its teeth as it stared towards the distance, at the Main Research Center charging straight for Aokan.