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‘There has to be a way to stop all of them at once.’
Hyeonseong’s mind began to race.
If anything, it was fortunate the enemies were machine-type monsters. With machines, there were more ways to disable everything at once than there were with living creatures.
KWAANG—
KWA-AANG—
The Infinite Corridor deflected another large-caliber beam. At that moment, Hyeonseong’s eyes turned to the super-large aerial battleship.
‘If there’s any possibility here, it’s that.’
The best-case scenario would be their programmer having a powerful hacking or disruption skill.
But the programmer in their team was B-rank. The signal-jamming skill was impressive, but they couldn’t instantly hack high-rank machine monsters.
That meant the remaining option was to directly tamper with a monster big and high-ranked enough to function as a flagship or command vessel.
‘If we can control that directly, then maybe….’
“Hyeonseong.”
While Hyeonseong was squeezing out a plan, Kwon Seojin spoke to her.
“What?”
Hyeonseong replied, still glaring at the aerial battleship.
“I think we need to do something about that.”
At Kwon Seojin’s words, Hyeonseong glanced to the side. Kwon Seojin was pointing at the aerial battleship. It seemed he had reached the same conclusion.
The fact that their thoughts overlapped felt oddly unsettling, but it was a personal discomfort she had to suppress for now.
“…Do you have a way to get up there?”
Hyeonseong asked. More than anything else, boarding the aerial battleship was the urgent priority.
“Yes.”
Kwon Seojin answered shortly and pulled a single feather from his bag. It was the B-rank single-use item, Icarus’s Wax Wings.
It was notorious for terrible cost efficiency, but for flying from here to the battleship right now, it would do the job.
“Good.”
“Right? Then I’ll be back.”
“Wait.”
Hyeonseong stopped Kwon Seojin as he was about to activate the item.
“It can carry at least one more person, right? Take me too.”
Kwon Seojin hesitated briefly, then nodded.
Even with a weight limit, the item could easily lift two adults. Going up together would be better than going alone.
“Then tell the others and we’ll go.”
Kwon Seojin said that, then looked around and shouted to the team.
“We’re going up there for a moment!”
“Up there?”
Team members nearby asked with puzzled voices.
“Yes. I think we need to tamper with that aerial battleship.”
Kwon Seojin answered immediately.
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
A team member who had just pulled the trigger of a rifle at a zombie’s head spoke.
“There’s no other way to deal with all of this in one go.”
This time, Hyeonseong answered. The other team members seemed to agree.
“Then…”
“Wait—take this!”
One of the team members tossed Hyeonseong a purification device item. She had been planning to endure with antidotes, so this made things easier.
“We’ll be right back!”
Kwon Seojin called out, then immediately activated the item’s effect. The feather scattered into motes of light, and translucent wings formed on his back.
Then Kwon Seojin scooped Hyeonseong up and kicked off the ground. The moment the two of them rose into the air, flying monsters trained their muzzles on them.
Hyeonseong pulled an A-rank old-model barrier card from the Infinite Corridor. It was a skill she had taken from the young Muikryong.
As the skill card vanished, a barrier formed around them. Small-caliber bullets and laser fire were stopped by it.
Then the aerial battleship began focusing energy at its gunport. Hyeonseong’s fingertip traced a straight line in the air, and the Infinite Corridor opened along that line.
PUH-EONG—!
The battleship’s main cannon was blocked by the Infinite Corridor. The redirected beam struck another fighter jet.
“Your angle calculations are perfect.”
“I’ve been doing nothing but this for a while now.”
Hyeonseong answered Kwon Seojin’s admiration lightly. There was still something more important to do.
“Do you think we can board it?”
Hyeonseong asked. As expected, the resistance from the fighter jets and drones was fierce. Breaking through this barrage to climb aboard did not look easy.
‘The barrier’s already fraying.’
“We’ll make it happen.”
The instant Kwon Seojin said that, Hyeonseong’s view flipped upside down. Kwon Seojin had begun acrobatic flight.
The violently tumbling horizon made nausea rise, but she had no choice but to endure. It was a maneuver to avoid being hit as much as possible.
Before long, the two of them succeeded in closing in to point-blank range with the aerial battleship. Around then, Hyeonseong’s inverted view returned to normal.
‘Huh? He’s going straight over there?’
The moment they approached, Kwon Seojin flew toward the “head.” He wasn’t trying to enter through a window or a door—he intended to land on top.
‘Without even checking if we can get in.’
Normally, you checked windows first in a situation like this. If defenses were weak or absent, it was easiest to break through there.
But Kwon Seojin did not check anything. He simply changed direction. Hyeonseong looked at him with suspicion.
‘Does he have some kind of investigation or analysis skill…?’
Whether Hyeonseong eyed him suspiciously or not, Kwon Seojin seemed unconcerned. He stepped onto the top of the battleship’s head, and Hyeonseong also managed to plant her feet safely.
“We break in from here.”
Kwon Seojin said, pulling out a spear.
“From here?”
Hyeonseong narrowed her eyes.
“Yes. It’s obvious we can’t enter from the windows.”
“You say that like you know.”
“Well… I have a skill.”
Kwon Seojin answered immediately, but his tone felt vaguely evasive—whether that was real or Hyeonseong’s imagination, she couldn’t tell.
“…Fine.”
They didn’t have time to waste bickering. It wasn’t as if Kwon Seojin would stab her in the back now. For the moment, she would go along with it.
“Then I’ll pierce through—so you focus on defense—”
“We’ll pierce through together.”
As Kwon Seojin raised his spear to avoid a fighter’s laser shot, Hyeonseong pulled a pickaxe from the Infinite Corridor.
“I don’t know what you’re carrying, but whatever it is, won’t it be faster if we both break through?”
Then she took out the skill card Mad Gatherer’s Eye. With that, Hyeonseong also had everything she needed to tear open the battleship’s armor.
“Wouldn’t it be better if you focused on defense?”
Kwon Seojin asked, confused. It was a reasonable thought—right now, they were barely dodging lasers and light rounds.
“We can both do it. So let’s just do it together.”
Hyeonseong activated the skill card and slipped it into her outer pocket. After confirming the skill was running normally, she lifted the pickaxe high.
‘Let’s see how this goes!’
She swung the pickaxe down with all her strength at a bright golden point that had appeared on the armor.
KKAANG—
A clear, beautiful metallic ring echoed. At the same time, the spot struck by the pickaxe caved in noticeably.
‘As expected, the armor itself wasn’t reinforced.’
From the damage and the feel of the impact, Hyeonseong could tell. Overclock had clearly boosted firepower and skill output—but not the hull.
‘It just cranked up software performance dramatically.’
Meaning, unless it used skills like defensive force fields, the body’s raw defense remained the same.
“Keep stabbing the mark I just made!”
Hyeonseong shouted as she raised the pickaxe again. Mad Gatherer’s Eye had indicated three gathering points.
There were still more weak spots to exploit. The mark she had made could be left to Kwon Seojin.
Kwon Seojin replied that he understood and raised his spear. An orange aura gathered along the spearhead—high-power fire-aspect aura.
KWAANG—!
Just as Hyeonseong was about to strike a different point, a thunderous blast sounded.
The area struck by the spear sank in like a trench and began smoking. The gathering point Hyeonseong had been aiming for was swallowed into that trench as well.
Whooong—
Woooong—
There was no time to be shocked by the power. Fighter jet laser fire was already targeting them.
She opened the section she had been using for defense nonstop since entering the dungeon—and at the same time, ducked down.
Teo-eong—
One laser shot was blocked by the Infinite Corridor and deflected into the barrier. The other grazed past above her head.
“Shall we continue?”
Kwon Seojin asked, regripping his spear. Hyeonseong, wearing an uneasy expression, told him to do it.
‘That was stronger than I expected.’
The “gathering points” Mad Gatherer’s Eye found were, in other words, material weak points. It was natural that strikes there hit hard.
But that was even more powerful than she had imagined. Even if she lowballed the weapon or skill rank, it had to be A-rank.
‘Or both… What the hell is this guy?’
It looked like Kwon Seojin could punch through the battleship’s armor with a single spear. Hyeonseong quietly tossed her pickaxe back into the Infinite Corridor.
It was an A-rank item in its own way, reinforced with molten metal spat out by the Bulgasari—sturdy and strong, but nothing compared to Kwon Seojin’s spearwork.
In the end, Hyeonseong devoted herself purely to defense, just like the original plan. On the bright side, her knack for using the Infinite Corridor as a shield was rapidly improving. She decided to take it positively.
KWAANG—!
“It’s through!”
Kwon Seojin shouted after another thrust. After three or four heavy strikes, he succeeded in opening a large hole in the battleship’s head.
“Good. Let’s go in!”
At Hyeonseong’s words, Kwon Seojin immediately jumped into the hole. Hyeonseong stood at the edge.
Before jumping, she tossed the now-useless Mad Gatherer’s Eye card into the Infinite Corridor, then threw herself in without hesitation.
The fall was shorter than expected. She landed cleanly without even needing to pull out an air mat.
“We’re lucky.”
Kwon Seojin spoke the moment Hyeonseong landed.
He was right. The area they were standing in had a massive screen and consoles installed—clearly a command or control room.
They had arrived at the exact place they needed in one shot.
“So we have to operate this…”
Hyeonseong placed a hand on the console. Strings immediately printed across the screen.
As expected, it wasn’t going to be simple.
‘An authentication method….’
Hyeonseong looked around the console. She spotted a device that looked like a card slot. It seemed the control system could be operated with a card.
“We’ll have to find whether there’s a card or something—”
“I’ll try with this.”
Kwon Seojin pulled a card from his pocket and inserted it into the slot immediately. Hyeonseong didn’t even have time to stop him.
“Wait. You don’t even know what kind of card that is—”
“Huh?”
With a cheerful electronic chime, authentication succeeded.
“What…?”
“Thank goodness. I was worried we’d have to search for it somewhere if it didn’t work.”
Kwon Seojin exhaled in relief. Somehow, it looked like he exhaled loudly on purpose for Hyeonseong to hear.
“Looks like most settings can be controlled.”
Whether Hyeonseong was stunned or not, Kwon Seojin seemed focused solely on the console.
“…So can you access the authority we need right now?”
Hyeonseong decided to focus on the immediate task.
“Um, about that….”
Kwon Seojin’s hands moved busily, and the menu items on the screen kept changing.
“It looks like transferring overall control requires higher authority. The only things we can control right now are the battleship itself and the robots inside it.”
Kwon Seojin answered after checking the functions.
“So we can’t perfectly stop the other aircraft too.”
“Yes. But we can use the weapons or disruption devices installed here. Even then, we probably can’t bring down every fighter.”
The monsters wouldn’t just sit still while their own battleship attacked them. The moment they fired a shot or ran a disruption device, the battleship would become a target.
‘Manipulating the authority conditions is… If we could do that, there’d be no need to board at all. We’d just need to be within range. So, in the end, we either find a way to authenticate higher authority, or….’
Hyeonseong was just thinking she might have to beg the Constellations for help when the message appeared, making her almost twist her face in irritation.
It would be stranger not to be annoyed when one of the culprits behind this situation was mocking her.
Between the one offering poison and medicine and the one openly taunting, they were all getting under her skin.
‘And I can’t exactly scream profanity at them.’
Hyeonseong forced a strained smile and rejected all their “suggestions” without exception.
“…So do you have a separate plan?”
Hyeonseong asked Kwon Seojin.
“We look for a way to raise our authority level in here.”
Kwon Seojin answered without hesitation. He also seemed to have no intention of asking the Constellations for help or using the Interstellar Network market.
“Then we should leave the control room. There doesn’t seem to be anything here.”
Inside the spacious control room, there was nothing but monitors and consoles. They needed to investigate elsewhere for an authentication method.
Kwon Seojin used the console to check the status of androids and robots aboard the ship. All were in a stopped state.
He additionally cut power as a safeguard. He couldn’t shut down every unit, but he successfully blocked power supply to most of them.
Even if something went wrong, they would only face a manageable number of monsters.
“Let’s go out and search.”
Finally, they checked the ship’s internal layout through the console and left the control room.
They headed straight for the captain’s cabin. Naturally, the captain would have the highest authority level, so searching there first was the right move.
‘If it’s not there, then we’ll have to find the android playing the captain’s role.’
They crossed the quiet interior and reached the captain’s cabin, then searched the not-very-large room quickly.
‘Doesn’t look like there’s a card or any other authentication item….’
They couldn’t find what they needed. But Hyeonseong did find something that caught her attention.
‘A diary? Do androids write diaries too?’
Hyeonseong picked up an old diary. A small question surfaced—but it was quickly pushed aside.
‘Whoever wrote it, as long as it’s a clue.’
If a diary was kept in the captain’s cabin, there was a good chance it contained at least one useful piece of information. Hyeonseong took it with her.
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