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Pueong—
KWA-gwang!
Peobeobeong!
Starting with the first thunderous boom, a chain of explosions erupted.
Beyond the Infinite Corridor, fighter jets and drones were bursting one after another in a sky that looked slightly warped.
About a third of the clustered units were completely destroyed. Most of the survivors seemed heavily damaged as well.
‘It’s blowing up even better than I expected.’
The shock radius from the blast was wider than anticipated. The sheer force from an ultra-large frame was beyond imagination.
With the continuing blasts, the status ailment triggered again. An irritating high-pitched beep rang in her ears. She didn’t worry about it.
‘Once the explosions stop, it’ll fade quickly anyway.’
Kaaang—!
Kagang!
Teo-eong—
Wrecked fighter and drone debris fell, making a constant racket. Units fully destroyed and judged “dead” were swallowed by the Infinite Corridor, but anything with a living core was bounced away and slammed into the ground.
“Finish them!”
The rest of the raid party put down the half-alive units that crashed. Booms and shattering impacts echoed nonstop.
The noise didn’t last long. Before long, every aerial unit had fallen.
Even after the sky cleared, the clamor continued for a bit—because they were killing off anything whose core still lived.
“How many are left?”
“T-There! One down below!”
An android that had tried to play dead under the wreckage was destroyed by the team.
‘Must’ve been onboard that battleship earlier.’
“I-Is it really over?”
“For now, there aren’t any enemies left!”
The programmer and the engineer scanned the area with detection skills. There were no living machine monsters left inside the stage barrier.
“We managed to kill them all, but….”
“Will they count this as a clear?”
The team asked while treating debuffs and injuries.
“We can only hope they do.”
Hyeonseong answered, glaring up into the air. The Constellations—who had been tossing out petty chatter whenever you forgot about them—were quiet now.
It looked like even they were debating what verdict to give.
‘If they have any shame, they’ll count it as a clear.’
She didn’t have to wait long for the result.
With the message, the barrier surrounding them dissolved.
Whether some Constellations disliked the result or not, the situation was over.
“Finally… it’s done.”
“Now we can go in, right?”
The team exhaled in relief as they looked around.
“Let’s go in.”
They decided to move quickly while things were quiet. At Hyeonseong’s word, the raid party entered the skyscraper ahead.
Hyeonseong’s eyes swept the first-floor interior. Her gaze landed on a floor directory posted behind the information desk.
The directory listed offices that felt like a city hall—everything from Civil Complaints to the Mayor’s Office.
‘We came to the right place.’
Now they just had to find the office likely to hold the information and functions they needed.
“But… is it safe in here?”
“And there doesn’t seem to be any department that manages robots or the military.”
After looking around the lobby, a few team members spoke up.
“Wouldn’t both of those get solved if we go to the Mayor’s Office?”
One member answered the others’ doubts.
‘They’re right.’
In a field like this, when you’re unsure, the correct move was always to find the big boss’s room first.
‘Whether it’s patrol-robot authority or anything military, odds are it’s there. And even if it isn’t, we’ll at least learn where it’s distributed.’
With no objections, they decided to head straight for the Mayor’s Office.
“The elevator is probably dangerous, right?”
“Obviously.”
“We use the stairs. No exceptions.”
Hyeonseong stated it like a nail hammered in.
‘After what happened on the battleship, the city’s system is still alive. It probably knows we entered here, too.’
Given everything so far, it was only a matter of time before patrol robots rushed them again.
If the city system and patrol robots attacked, an elevator would become the most dangerous kind of trap—an isolation box.
“And we should move right now.”
They had no idea when the next wave would swarm in. Even if they were exhausted, they had to move.
At Hyeonseong’s words, the raid party started climbing. Those low on stamina had to push through with potions and emergency rations.
‘At least I can bring as much of this as I want.’
Whenever someone asked, Hyeonseong pulled potions and rations from the Infinite Corridor and handed them out.
‘It would’ve been nice if we could fly.’
If the building had an open central shaft or flimsy glass, they would have.
But every floor’s ceiling here was sealed. And according to teammates who checked, the windows were so tough they were hard to break even with skills.
‘And with this height, using an A-rank attack skill while hovering… in a situation where enemies could take flight at any moment, it’s too risky.’
Hyeonseong didn’t want to climb on foot either. But this was the best option.
‘At least nothing’s swarming us right now.’
While they had a sliver of breathing room, she needed to resolve a small question. Hyeonseong looked to Kwon Seojin.
“Where did you get that card earlier?”
“That card?”
Kwon Seojin echoed, looking puzzled.
“The first officer’s card.”
Hyeonseong recalled what happened inside the battleship. The appearance of the first officer’s card at that exact moment had been suspicious.
‘The timing was too perfect. And it’s not like there was an obvious place to find something like that.’
“Oh, that one. I found it at the lab earlier.”
Kwon Seojin answered right away.
“At the lab?”
Hyeonseong frowned at the random location.
“Yeah. It was in a room I wandered into while I was lost.”
Even under Hyeonseong’s suspicious stare, Kwon Seojin’s voice stayed calm.
“Just by chance.”
“Right. Lucky.”
She pressed once more, but Kwon Seojin’s response didn’t change.
‘If I keep asking the same kind of question, he’ll just give the same answer.’
Hyeonseong considered whether to dig further or back off for now—
“Enemy signals detected!”
The programmer shouted at the perfect time. With monsters incoming, their small talk was over.
At the warning, the team readied for combat and entered the next floor on high alert.
“Take them down!”
Kkagang!
Chaeng—
At the frontliners’ shout, loud metallic clashes rang out—combat had begun.
“How many?”
“That’s all you see on this floor!”
“Clear fast and move!”
There weren’t many patrol robots. The fight ended quickly, and they climbed again immediately.
The next floor was similar. Patrol robots gathered, and the team destroyed them fast.
That repeated on every floor.
‘At least I’ve collected plenty of scrap….’
Hyeonseong, sweeping up piles of scrap after each fight, narrowed her eyes.
‘Their quality and numbers… it’s obvious they’re stalling for time.’
Each floor spawned roughly ten to twenty minor C-rank and B-rank robots. The intent behind this weak, repeated harassment was clear.
‘They needed time to place the real force on a favorable floor—or right in front of the Mayor’s Office.’
Hyeonseong checked their current floor. They still had more than ten floors to climb.
‘We need more stamina recovery.’
After another fight, Hyeonseong immediately distributed stamina supplies from the Infinite Corridor.
“The real thing will show up soon, so recover now.”
She spoke while collecting the patrol robots’ scrap. Team members drank potions or ate rations as needed.
As soon as the breather ended, they resumed climbing—and the next floor’s fight was much the same.
“How many patrol robots does this place even have?”
“Even for a building like this….”
A few teammates couldn’t hold back their irritation at the constant skirmishes.
“Still, we’re almost there.”
“Just a little higher and—”
“Ah…! Next floor!”
Over the voices, the programmer’s shout rang out again.
“Be careful on the next floor!”
“I’m picking up over twenty signals already….”
“There are A-ranks mixed in too!”
The programmer and engineer reported what their detection skills found.
‘As expected, it gets harder near the top.’
The team tightened their guard and went up.
Pueong—
Pueong—
“Ah—block it!”
This time, they were hit with a preemptive strike before they even stepped onto the next floor. At the frontliners’ shout, defensive barrier skills deployed.
They pushed into the floor while deflecting bullets and laser fire with the barrier, and the battle erupted immediately.
“Push through!”
“Damn it, my mana—.”
After nonstop fighting, someone began complaining of mana shortage.
“Catch!”
Hyeonseong tossed that teammate a mana potion from the Infinite Corridor. Right now, all she could do was resupply and defend using the Infinite Corridor.
“They’re not going to keep piling in, right?”
“None below, for now!”
“So that means there are above!”
“Hold a little longer!”
KWA-AANG!
The racket never stopped.
‘Still… we’re winning.’
Hyeonseong surveyed the battle. Reinforcements were even coming down from above, but the raid party still held the advantage.
They had quickly gotten used to fighting inside the building thanks to the continuous battles from the lower floors.
‘Not sure if I should call that lucky.’
It was the kind of situation where you couldn’t decide whether to call it fortune or not.
KWA-AANG!
“It’s over!”
Before long, every robot on the floor was smashed. They had fended off another wave successfully.
“How’s upstairs?”
While recovering stamina and mana again, teammates asked.
“Right above us seems clear. But a bit farther…”
The programmer looked up at the ceiling. From that reaction, the final force was likely on the floor with the Mayor’s Office.
“How about below?”
“Nothing. At least within detected range.”
“Same here.”
The programmer and engineer confirmed the same.
‘So either there’s really nothing below, or even if there is, it’ll take time to get here.’
In other words, nothing had changed much from before. Once they finished cleaning up, they kept going up.
They climbed five floors with no fighting—mercifully smooth.
Then, the moment they stepped onto the final floor, the raid party faced the last cluster of robots.
“Get ready!”
No one panicked. They had expected this the whole climb.
‘Fewer in number, but the average rank is A… and there’s even an S-rank?’
Hyeonseong checked the monster info. One combat android that looked like the commander had become S-rank due to Overclock.
‘Even so, its base body should be unchanged.’
The fight began. It wasn’t very different from the earlier battles. The main caution was the increased firepower and laser output that came with higher ranks.
The S-rank android was the same. Its cannon output and battle judgment were vicious.
But Hyeonseong blocked the firepower, and the team’s numbers disrupted its decision-making. They cut off every heavy strike and crushed it from all sides—there was no way a hastily boosted S-rank could endure.
KWAJIK!
“It’s over!”
The sound of the last monster being smashed rang out. Now all that remained was to check the Mayor’s Office.
“There really aren’t any monsters inside, right?”
“Right—no monsters. But there is a mechanical response.”
Before opening, they scanned inside with skills.
‘If it’s a mechanical response… is it the city management system?’
Either way, detection said there were no enemies or weapons. With cleanup done, they went in.
“I’m opening it.”
A teammate responsible for frontline defense opened the door.
“That’s….”
The moment it opened, Hyeonseong saw a large machine.
A pillar-like device occupying the place where the mayor’s desk should have been. It was clearly the city’s central management system.
“It doesn’t look like it has combat functions, but….”
The team entered cautiously.
“Yeah. No combat functions. But it doesn’t look like we can destroy it either.”
The engineer said after examining it. He was right. Hyeonseong could see its system notice as well.
‘Basically, an important NPC-type unit.’
It was the kind you occasionally encountered in dungeons—something with life, selfhood, and judgment, but not classified as a monster.
“But it’s a machine. Even if we can’t break it, can’t we stop it?”
Someone asked, pointing at the system.
“Not sure. Whether it’ll be that easy…”
“And even if we can, we can’t stop everything right now. There should still be plenty of monsters we haven’t caught.”
“Alright—let’s confirm what we came to confirm first.”
Hyeonseong raised her voice slightly to refocus everyone.
“Right. We said we’d check the monsters’ positions.”
“And whether we can stop them all at once.”
“Yes. We need that before we decide what to do with this.”
As she replied, Hyeonseong scanned the Mayor’s Office—and spotted Kwon Seojin pressed against the wall.
“This…”
The instant Hyeonseong sensed something odd from the way he was feeling along the surface, Kwon Seojin lifted a section with his fingertips. Part of the wall popped open, revealing a control panel embedded inside.
“Huh?”
“That’s it, isn’t it?”
Team members looked back and forth between the panel and the system.
“Sure looks like it.”
“How did you find that?”
One asked Kwon Seojin.
“There was a strange crack line on this wall. I thought something might be hidden, so I opened it—and this was here.”
Once again, the answer was logically plausible.
“Then… should we try touching it first?”
“Doesn’t look like there’s anything else worth investigating.”
They scanned the room again just in case. The only thing worth trying really was the control panel.
“Alright, we’ll try.”
The programmer and engineer approached. They checked the panel with skills, then began pressing buttons.
“We can operate it, but….”
“Right now, it’s basically limited to checking basic information.”
After a short while, they withdrew their hands. Without sufficient access authority, there wasn’t much they could do.
“But we confirmed the important part.”
Hyeonseong recalled the info they had extracted.
‘To stop the machine monsters, we need to go to the military command center—and the command center is in the city outskirts.’
Of course, the highest authority was the central system. The overall policy for the machine army was set here.
But detailed troop operations were all handled at the command center. So if they wanted to gather all machine monsters or issue a self-destruction order, they had to go there.
“Then is there nothing else we can do here?”
A teammate asked.
“To do more, we need an authority check….”
“And how do we do that?”
“From what I see: biometric code scan, signal recognition, ID card—”
‘ID card?’
Something clicked as she listened.
‘When I swept up scrap earlier, a bunch of things got pulled in too.’
Hyeonseong opened the item list stored in the Infinite Corridor. If she wasn’t mistaken, there were several card-shaped items mixed in.
‘No need to check the early ones.’
If an authorized ID had been scooped up by chance, it was most likely among the most recent loot. She scrolled straight to the bottom.
‘There it is.’
An ID card appeared immediately—one that could act with the mayor’s authority.
“Here.”
Hyeonseong pulled the card from the Infinite Corridor and handed it to the programmer.
“With this… yeah. It works.”
The programmer’s face brightened as he scanned the card into the panel.
“Then we’ll try again.”
The programmer and engineer started operating the machine connected to the central system again.
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