SWNOVELXO Chapter 202
Episode 202. Monkey Spanner (3)
Lee Se-ah set off a smoke bomb and hid again. This is exhausting. At this rate, even if I defeat the monster, I’ll die from exhaustion.
The area around the facility had turned into a muddy swamp due to the thousands of tons of water poured earlier, and monster corpses were scattered everywhere.
There were quite a few casualties on our side too. The biggest problem was the monster summoned by the Moon’s gaze. Even Lee Se-ah felt dizzy looking at it directly.
The regular human security guards probably weren’t faring much better. I don’t know how strong it is, but some kind of cognitive hazard is at play.
Well, only the department head and Dr. Kim had seen the Moon monster up close. The other guards hadn’t come near since one squad was torn apart.
They only attacked from a distance with anti-tank weapons.
But we have a new card to play.
Two Raptors were deployed into the battle. The truck-sized monster, covered in black feathers, boldly charged at the Moon monster, but—
After a brief exchange.
The Moon monster turned its head toward the Raptor, grabbed it like a chicken, snapped its neck, and then tore it in half.
“Oh no, my 10 billion won research funds…”
It was torn apart in one move.
Honestly, it was an expected outcome. But I thought we’d at least buy some time. I didn’t expect it to get torn apart the moment it showed itself.
The Moon monster slowly looked around.
Its ivory-colored body emitted a faint yellow light. It had a bear-like build, but there was no fur or ornaments on its body. It looked like a glass sculpture.
Its face was like a white mask, with no expression or features, just a round shape with two glass bead-like eyes. Calling it a face is just a guess. There’s no way to know.
The Raptor’s blood was drenching the Moon monster. It looked really dangerous.
It might be slow for now, but the monster itself is a cognitive hazard, and we don’t even know exactly what effect it has on the people around it.
At the very least, it’s definitely causing migraines. It got worse when you looked directly at it.
Lee Se-ah kept the Moon monster in her peripheral vision and held her breath, but—
Something started moving under the torn pieces of the Raptor’s corpse. What’s that now?
Small, grass-like things began to sprout, and soon, vine-like plant structures climbed up the Moon monster.
The Moon monster didn’t make a sound, but the vines quickly enveloped it like a net.
The monster disappeared under a wave of green in just a few seconds. Lee Se-ah frowned at the unbelievable sight. What on earth is that…?
I forgot.
The Garden is a terrifying place. The reason the door to the Garden was discovered was because the vegetation around the opened gate was twisted.
It’s no wonder that the biological material extracted from Cernunnos could have some effect.
Judging by what happened here, it seems that even while Cernunnos is imprisoned, it can still exert its power through a medium.
Like all materials derived from divine beings, anything originating from Cernunnos should never be taken out of the Garden.
This could be a disaster if mishandled. In the place where the Moon monster had been, a massive tree that looked thousands of years old had suddenly bloomed.
“Uh, Command Center. Did you see that just now?”
[This is the Command Center. Confirmed suppression of the Divine-Class Entity. Sending a cleanup team to the site.]
Lee Se-ah frowned.
I knew supernatural phenomena were powerful, but it’s rare to feel that power so vividly. It was even more shocking because it was an unexpected situation.
What should I do? Should we cut down the tree?
Is the Moon monster still inside?
It was just surrounded by vines, but I don’t see any reason why the monster would be dead. It’s more likely it’s just trapped in the tree.
We’ll have to think of a countermeasure for that too. Let’s think about it once Dr. Kim returns. It doesn’t seem to be moving for now.
Still. The sky above had returned to normal. The grotesque full moon that had been staring down was gone, and the dizziness pressing on one side of my head had disappeared.
What is Dr. Kim doing?
Now, only the Walpurgis Team Leader remains.
I held the monkey spanner, and my opponent moved to draw the pistol at their waist. But this time, I was faster.
The range of motion for my hand was much shorter. My opponent had to lower their hand to draw the pistol and then raise it again, but I just had to swing.
With a dull sound of bones breaking, my monkey spanner hit the opponent’s arm. They dropped the pistol.
I struck the enemy Special Forces Team Leader’s helmet with the spanner. The helmet cracked in one hit. I struck their head a few more times.
They didn’t seem dead yet. I kicked their ankle, and my opponent fell.
“Surrender.”
The Walpurgis Team Leader muttered.
The helmet and gas mask were broken, and beneath them, I could see my adversary’s eyes. I looked around. Are there any enemies left in the operation area?
“Dr. Kim.”
“Yes.”
“Can’t you spare me?”
“It’s possible. Order your troops to surrender.”
I switched to the Gauss Musket and hid back in the bushes. There are still pursuers left. The hunt is still on—
[Ah, ah. This is Kunai-1.]
The radio connected.
It was a bandwidth the Foundation doesn’t usually use. I perked up my ears. Was it hacked?
A mysterious radio message from someone who wasn’t an ally. There was no reason to respond, but I decided to answer anyway.
[Kunai-1. Administrator. Administrator, can you hear me? If you can hear this radio, please respond.]
“Why?”
[Kunai-1. Special Forces ‘Kunai,’ as of this moment, we will cease all hostile actions against the Administrator and surrender. I know it’s shameless, but please allow us to retrieve the wounded and the dead.]
“Understood.”
I turned off the radio and looked down at the Walpurgis Team Leader, who was still sprawled out. The witch had removed her helmet and gas mask.
Her hair was matted with dark red blood, her eyes were bloodshot, and the area around them was bruised like a raccoon’s. Did I do that by smashing her head with the spanner?
I didn’t feel sorry. Aren’t these the people who launched a nuke at my facility? I’d like to kill every last one of them.
“Walpurgis Team Leader. You too, order your troops to surrender. Send the surrender command via radio.”
“Surrender? They’re all dead, what’s the point?”
“Hurry.”
[This is Position-1. As of this moment, we are ceasing operations. Any survivors, drop your weapons and surrender to the nearest Foundation facility.]
I nodded.
“Bring all the wounded and corpses to the facility without missing a single one. If you try anything funny, I’ll use all of you as test subjects, so keep that in mind.”
The situation seems to be settling. I reconnected the radio. The fallout shouldn’t be interfering with the connection anymore, right?
I hid in the bushes and draped the invisibility cloak over my head. There was some static, but the radio connection was successful.
“This is Dr. Kim. Command Center, respond.”
[This is the Command Center. What’s the situation?]
“Situation resolved. ‘Walpurgis’ has been subdued. ‘Kunai’ is requesting surrender and retrieval of the wounded.”
[Confirmed.]
“How’s the situation at the facility?”
[Uh, how do I explain this…? A tree suddenly grew where the monster was, and the monster disappeared. The battle has stopped, anyway.]
It’s a relief that the situation is resolved, but what’s with the tree that swallowed the Moon monster? It’s likely a blessing from Cernunnos.
“Keep observing the tree for now. The surrendering Special Forces will arrive at the scene, so have medical staff and troops on standby.”
[Understood.]
Even if the tree is a gift from Cernunnos, we can’t let our guard down. Ancient gods can be dangerous even when they’re benevolent. Their power is too vast, and their sense of reason is too far removed from humanity.
Their benevolence, beyond human understanding, could turn people into twice-as-large monsters or trap them in eternally happy dreams. The tree is dangerous too.
We’ll just have to ask Cernunnos.
[Noxiraptor]
[Author: Head of Macrobiological Weapon Research Team]
[Hello, this is Lee Se-ah.]
[I told you, it would be useful.]
[Everyone argued that the Raptor couldn’t be a proper weapon, but I was right. Didn’t it fight and defeat one of the strongest Special Forces teams, Walpurgis?]
[There are quite a few Special Forces teams that use close-combat weapons, right? The Raptor is several times faster and stronger than a human. If you ambush them, you can subdue even strong enemies like this.]
[The specific method is simple. Assemble organs cultured in a mold.]
[If anyone is curious about the specific method. We transformed cells extracted from Cernunnos’ horn into induced pluripotent stem cells, then replaced the nucleus with genes from a dominant reptile obtained from the Garden, and added traits using plasmids.]
[Then. Mages gave the assembled cells a name so they could function as a single entity. This part might be closer to alchemy, perhaps.]