Capitalist Monster Hunter - Chapter 4
Calling for help in a Universe with no Dream or Hope (2)
[Redetecting user’s vital signs. Rebooting combat armor system.]
[Starting system reboot.]
[Recharging energy sword.]
[Activating User Interface.]
[Remaining power 92%.]
[System reboot complete. Welcome, Allied space force Lieutenant Han Yoo-sung.]
There was a female voice coming out of the suit that Yoo-sung was wearing.
“What? What is this?”
There was a starting sound in the suit he was wearing.
[User Han Yoo-sung. I suggest you get out of the transporter quickly.]
“Transporter?”
[It will soon fall down.]
Fall? Down? Yoo-sung turned his head and looked around.
Right now, Yoo-sung was in a transporter that turned into metal scrap. The transporter was dangerously tipping in the middle of the building.
There was nothing to think about. Yoo-sung quickly came out of the transporter.
Clang! Boom!
As soon as Yoo-sung got out of the transporter, the transporter quickly fell to the bottom of the building.
If he took a little bit longer, Yoo-sung would have gone down with the transporter.
“Hey? Suit? Computer? Uhmmm, what am I supposed to call you? Anyway, thanks.”
Yoo-sung thanked the mysterious voice that warned him.
[I’m Eve. I am a multi-purpose supporting AI assigned to help you.]
It was such an advanced universe. It had an AI inside of a suit just like in the movies.
“Wait, if it’s an AI, maybe it will be able to help me, unlike Titania.”
“Uhmm, Eve. Do you know where this is?”
[This is the capital of Planet Caden, Randun.]
As Yoo-sung expected, the AI named Eve knew more things than Titania.
“Then, who am I?”
[That is a philosophical question.]
“No, I mean, can you tell me who I am and why am I here?”
[User Han Yoo-sung. Allied space force Lieutenant. Served one year. Belongs in the multi-purpose special unit ‘Undead’. You were deployed here to retrieve research information kept at Randun Central Laboratory.]
“And how did this happen? Why did the transporter fall?”
[An attack from Evolutionize ‘Killerbee’ made the transporter fall. As you were falling, your vital signs stopped from the shock.]
Crashed by an attack. It was shocking news. Yoo-sung was relieved that there wasn’t a monster in this universe, but it wasn’t time yet to be relieved.
“Then, what am I supposed to do? It looks like everyone here is dead except for me.”
[You need to progress with the mission. You must retrieve the research information on the Evolutionize. Fortunately, the research laboratory is not far from here. I’ll lead you the way.]
“Damn.”
He hoped that the AI would say ‘let’s go back’, but the AI said to continue with the mission instead.
[But, why are you asking these questions? You should be already familiar with all the information about the mission.]
“I-I think I lost my memories…”
[…..starting brain scan.]
Eve judged that Yoo-sung had some problem in his head and started a brain scan. If Eve was a human, it would’ve looked at Yoo-sung like ‘what kind of dumbass is this?’
[There doesn’t seem to be anything wrong. But with all this nonsense you are saying, there must be some brain damage. I suggest you get a detailed examination after you return to the base.]
“…..okay.”
[Then, let’s progress with the mission. There should be a weapon you can retrieve in the crashed Griffin transporter. Let’s retrieve the weapon and be on our way.]
The transporter was at the bottom of the building. To retrieve the weapon, Yoo-sung had to go down the building first.
[There is an elevator that you can use inside the building.]
The AI is the best. Without even saying anything, Eve kindly told him that there was an elevator inside the building.
Yoo-sung listened to Eve’s directions and went towards the elevator.
Yoo-sung pressed the elevator button as he stood in front of it. But no matter how many times he pressed the button, it did not light up. It seems like it was out of power.
“This doesn’t have any power.”
Without power, the elevator wouldn’t work. It meant Yoo-sung had to walk down.
The building Yoo-sung was at was pretty tall with a lot of floors. It would take some time to walk down the building.
[You can use the power inside the combat armor to restore the elevator power.]
“Great. How can I do it?”
[Connect the socket inside of the panel to the terminal.]
Click!
As soon as Eve finished her sentence, a connecting terminal came out from the right wrist of the suit. Yoo-sung opened the panel and connected the terminal to the empty socket as Eve told him.
[Restoring elevator power… Remaining power 73%.]
‘’Didn’t it have a battery power of 92% before?”
Quite a lot of energy was consumed to power the elevator. The battery power went down from 92% to 73% in just a second. Yoo-sung thought it wasn’t worth it.
If the battery is all used up, the suit’s ability will stop and Eve will be shut down. So Yoo-sung told himself to save energy.
[The elevator power has been restored.]
Yoo-sung went into the elevator and pressed a button with an ‘L’. It was the button to go down into the lobby.
De-ru-ruk! Umoooo!
The elevator closed its door and started going down.
Ding! De-ru-ruk!
Yoo-sung arrived at the lobby floor and saw the crashed transporter. If what Eve said was true, then there should be a weapon inside the crashed transporter.
Yoo-sung carefully came out of the elevator and looked around by turning his head.
There’s an information desk with the wall behind saying ‘Randun Stock Exchange’. The words were in English, but because of the translation magic Titania applied on Yoo-sung, it was like he was reading Korean.
Yoo-sung went closer to the crashed transporter while looking around. Since it was attacked by something called Evolutionize, the back of the transporter was open.
Yoo-sung went inside the transporter through the open part at the back.
“Eww. It’s really messy.”
Due to the force from the crash, the soldier’s body was all mushed up. If it was anybody else, they would’ve gotten frightened after looking at the dead body. But Yoo-sung who was working as a janitor got used to all kinds of stuff, so it wasn’t a surprising thing to him.
“You still won’t get used to it even after looking at it many times.”
However, looking at a dead body always makes a human’s emotions complicated.
“I hope you will go to a good place.”
After praying for the soldier with his head down, he started to search through the transporter. There were some things that looked like guns, but they were all broken from the crash.
“Maybe all the weapons got broken from the crash.”
After searching for a while, he still couldn’t find any working weapon. Yoo-sung almost wanted to quit, when a black box that got out of the transporter from the crash caught his eye.
He felt that there would be something inside the box. After getting out of the transporter, he sat in front of the box. The box was locked, and it seemed like a password was required to open the box.
“Eve, what is the password to this?”
[The user is supposed to know the password. Can’t you remember it?]
There was no way Yoo-sung knew the password. The Yoo-sung from the parallel universe who knew the password was already dead from the shock.
“I can’t remember.”
[…..I recommend using the energy sword.]
Eve didn’t talk for a while, then said that to Yoo-sung.
“How do I use the energy sword?”
[It is already synchronized with the combat armor and the user’s body.]
“So, can you tell me how I can use it?”
[In order to activate the energy sword, it needs to read your brain waves then arm you.]
“It works just by thinking?”
The technology was advanced enough that it couldn’t be that distinguishable from magic. A machine working just because of a human’s brain waves, it’s amazing.
It was like magic. As Yoo-sung thought of using the energy sword, something like a lightsaber came out of the right leg from the suit. It was like the weapon that aliens used in a game he played when he was a student.
“My Life for Aiur*. NFT.”
*Starcraft reference.
[What did you just say?]
“Nothing. Just act like you didn’t hear it.”
For some reason, Yoo-sung was embarrassed. Even though the only one who could understand that was himself, he was still embarrassed.
Leaving his embarrassment behind, Yoo-sung swung the energy sword on the box.
Whip!
Pazzzzz!
There was a trace of fire sparks where the energy sword touched the box. The box was opened in one cut. The cut was clean as if Yoo-sung used a plasma cutter.
“Wow…”
Yoo-sung was awed. The effect was so great. The energy sword was too cool.
Inside the box, there was what he expected. It was a gun. Unlike the guns in the movies, the size was bigger. The gun looked like it could be used in a Sci-Fi movie.
[This gun is ‘M1 Jackal’ from Hephaestus under the Olympus Group. It has a shooting mode that uses a 10mm ultrametal bullet and plasma mode that discharges plasma.]
Eve kindly and slowly explained what Jackal is one by one.
[Ultrametal bullets are very effective against Evolutionize and Plasma is effective against enemies with a reinforcement suit.]
The word Evolutionize came out from Eve again which made Yoo-sung curious. What is Evolutionize?
“Hey, Eve. Evolutionize? What exactly is that?”
[You even forgot about Evolutionize? Evolutionize…is that! Be careful!]
With a hasty voice from Eve, Yoo-sung quickly turned his head. Looking at him, was a giant alien creature.
“I’m doomed.”
He could figure out what an alien creature is. It’s a monster that could easily kill a human.