Chapter 159: Slayer (2)
91st Floor, Snowfield Zone
Whoooosh—!
A total of ten floating ships—including the one carrying me, Heron, Orca, and Belsian, as well as those of my subordinate Rankers—were slowly pushing forward through the blizzard. A single unanimous report came from my subordinate Rankers: 'The weather conditions are poor and we're having difficulty with the search.'
"...Of all days for the blizzard that occurs every hundred years to happen, it had to be today."
The raging blizzard made it hard enough to secure visibility as it was, and looking down at the ground from above, all that could be seen was white. The scenery was spectacular in its own right, but knowing this environment stretched across over thirty million square kilometers made it far less pleasant. On top of that, the snowstorm apparently lasted nearly year-round. Haha, this is maddening. Finding a single building—that would look like a speck from above—in this white sketchbook of a place. And it would be buried in snow, so even the building itself would be white.
Feeling frustrated, I looked toward the exit.
"Heron, open the cabin door."
"Understood."
Whirrrr—
With mechanical sounds, the large cabin door slowly lowered, and the blizzard immediately swept into the ship's interior. I quickly deployed a shinsu barrier to push the external elements back outside, then walked to the very edge of the cabin door and looked down at the ground with nothing blocking my view.
Tch, no matter how much I had a map marking probable locations, there was absolutely no way to find the facility like this.
"You think just staring is going to solve anything?"
Belsian had wandered over, grumbling. There he goes with that annoyed expression again. Even though he always works the hardest when it actually counts.
"...I'm just looking because I'm frustrated. At this rate, when are we ever going to find it?"
"Tch, that's why I said we shouldn't have come here in the first place. What a waste of time. Well, time is all I've got, so I don't particularly care."
"...?"
I really can never figure this guy out. Regardless, as Belsian said, continuing this kind of search was nothing but a waste of time.
"Heron, please turn the ship around. Let's head to a city first. But is there even a city in a place like this?"
"There is indeed a city. I'll take us to Grantic, the nearest glacier city, located in the Inner Tower."
Rummmble—
The briefly halted floating ship turned around and soon flew toward the glacier city of Grantic.
Since it had come to this, Plan A (finding it through brute-force searching) was cancelled—no choice but to go with Plan B.
Thanks to the high-speed floating ship's warp function, it didn't take long to reach the glacier city of Grantic. True to its name, Grantic was a city built atop a massive glacier. Since there was obviously no such thing as global warming in the Tower, this city built upon eternal ice that would never melt had a landscape that looked as if industrialization were in full swing.
We arrived there, booked the most expensive hotel, and settled in.
"Heron, is there no way to find Paradise using advanced equipment or anything?"
"If the Elders built it, they would naturally have taken precautions to prevent tracking. Moreover, we don't have such equipment on our floating ships."
"Hmm... then maybe we could catch FUG members who might know something about Paradise, or infiltrate—"
This time Orca noona interjected.
"How would we know who's FUG? If that were possible, the Zahard Royal Palace would have cleansed the Tower long ago."
"...Belsian, do you have any ideas?"
"Don't dump this on me. Nothing comes to mind, and I have no intention of answering. Figure out at least that much on your own."
"Haha, right. I'm the branch leader, so I should at least be able to—"
"However."
Just as I was smiling sheepishly and about to rack my brain again, Belsian suddenly spoke up.
"I think the approach itself is wrong. Since when did you 10 Great Family types handle things so modestly? Pathetic operations like infiltration are for cute little things like Regulars or penniless beggars. You're from the 10 Great Families—an Arie branch leader and ruler at that. Try using a strategy that befits your station."
"...Ah."
Catching on to what Belsian meant, I let out a small exclamation. How long had it been since I'd shed my Regular label, and I was still thinking at a Regular's scope? What a mistake. Having found a breakthrough, I looked around at everyone and smiled.
"Well then, everyone. It seems we need to scale things up a bit."
....
Flutter, whoooosh—
Without further delay, I went straight up to the hotel rooftop. Everyone who immediately followed me stared at me quizzically. I suppose it might look strange since I was just staring up at the ceiling. However, what I was looking at wasn't the ceiling.
"...It still doesn't realize?"
Then I'd have to call directly.
"Hoaqin, are you having a staring contest with the ceiling? Why are you so intensely—"
"Just wait. I'm calling right now."
Saying that, I immediately gathered the shinsu in the surrounding area. Pressure from my power was exerted on the surroundings, and cracks began forming in the hotel rooftop I was standing on.
CRACK CRACK CRACK—
High Rankers within the top 100 are each akin to a natural disaster. I, who stood among such monsters, was no exception.
As this city, unable to withstand my power, gradually began to shake, my expression grew a touch anxious as well.
Rumble rumble—
"Wh-what? An earthquake all of a sudden?"
"D-don't tell me the glacier is breaking apart?"
"No way, is it for real?"
Cries of shock from Regulars and ordinary residents echoed from all around the city. Oh right, this was the Inner Tower. Even so, is the city's durability really only this much? It'd be a bit troublesome if the Administrator showed up...
Then again, those were the types who never showed their faces even when I was getting beaten by Rankers as a Regular—they'd probably just watch quietly this time too. Probably.
Reassured by that thought, I continued concentrating my power. And once sufficient power had gathered, I drew out 'that thing' living inside my body.
"Come out, Heuk-rin."
CRACK CRACK CRACK—
As for why it had become Heuk-rin again... setting that aside, drawn by my call, it slowly began to reveal itself. My stark-white body was engulfed in pitch-black dark smoke, and that smoke gradually took on the form of a dragon.
[Grrrrr.....]
"Wh-what is that?! Hey, quick, film it!"
"Insane... shouldn't we be running?"
"...."
Heuk-rin's enormous size was far too visible from anywhere in the city, and thanks to that, it was supremely effective at inducing panic among the city's Regulars and residents.
Feeling slightly sorry toward them, I looked back at Heuk-rin. To Heuk-rin, who had once again taken the form of a black dragon, I pointed my finger at the ceiling above.
"Fire."
CRACKLE—
Purple sparks erupted across Heuk-rin's entire body, and from its mouth, pitch-black shinsu rapidly gathered and condensed endlessly. A sphere of jet-black shinsu compressed to its absolute limit. Once a satisfying amount of shinsu had gathered in that sphere, Heuk-rin roared.
[GRAAAAAAH!]
KABOOOOOM—!
An ultra-high-output purple shinsu heat ray was fired toward the Tower's ceiling. The city was instantly blanketed in darkness, and everyone in the city was stunned by the beautiful display where only the mysterious, otherworldly purple light illuminated the city.
...Including, of course, my companions.
"Hey! Are you insane?! This isn't the 78th Floor, it's the 91st! The ruler is going to—"
"That's exactly the point, noona. If I want to summon the ruler, I'd need to do at least this much, wouldn't I?"
"...What? So your plan was—"
"Yes. I'm scaling things up a bit to summon the ruler. If we can't do it alone, we simply ask for help."
FLASH—
"....."
At that moment, Heuk-rin's breath, which had been stretching endlessly upward, must have finally reached the ceiling—purple and white light flashed high in the sky above. Despite detonating at the unimaginably high position of the floor's ceiling, its sheer destructive force sent a shockwave that reached the city, causing another earthquake.
"By now even the ruler should have noticed—"
"Yeah, I noticed, you little shit."
"....!"
Up above, looking down at me with a thoroughly furious expression, was a small-framed boy. Since the 91st Floor belonged to the Arie Family, he—born of the same Arie direct lineage as me—was approaching me while gripping a weapon that was hard to tell whether it was a sword or a spear. Purple and white shinsu swirled around its blade, and the moment I saw that, I realized my attack hadn't reached the ceiling—it had been blocked by him.
He seemed quite angry, though...
"You rude little brat with zero manners, causing havoc on someone else's floor without a shred of decency? Father praises you so much that you think you can just do whatever you—"
"I sincerely apologize for causing a disturbance on your floor. I will fully compensate for all damages."
I immediately stowed Heuk-rin back inside me, then with a genuinely apologetic expression, bent at the waist and bowed my head deeply in apology. At that, he looked rather taken aback instead.
"...? No, if you suddenly apologize that sincerely, it makes me look bad for cursing you out... no wait, you shouldn't have created a situation requiring an apology in the first place."
I raised my head and answered with a wry smile.
"As you're likely aware, I am Arie Hoaqin, ruler of the 78th Floor.
"I committed this rudeness because I had an urgent matter to report to the ruler of the 91st Floor, so I ask for your understanding."
"...Suddenly switching to business mode... anyway, an urgent matter?"
Okay, just as planned. The 91st Floor ruler's attention was now focused not on the havoc I'd caused, but on the topic I'd raised. He must be curious what was so important that I'd go this far.
"Yes. It seems vermin have crawled into our Family's floor, so would you care to discuss it?"
"...Fine. But first..."
Rumble—
The 91st Floor ruler looked up at the ceiling. The clear sky had suddenly clouded over with dark clouds, rumbling with thunder.
"Let's change locations. The Administrator is watching. This is a Regular zone, you know."
"...Fine by me."
....
Three Days Later
91st Floor, somewhere in the Outer Tower residential area
Chaplin, having purchased a large quantity of provisions to supply to 'Paradise,' was manipulating his Lighthouse and deeply pondering something before the appointed time.
"One on the 91st Floor... one on the 78th Floor... the 78th Floor, huh... the White Whale is a bit concerning."
Chaplin was combining and analyzing the information he'd gathered. About the nursery facility, commonly known as 'Paradise.'
The facility that the Elders had built to raise their hunting dogs was currently being used as a FUG hideout. The vast majority of even the 10 Great Families and the Royal Palace didn't even know this facility existed, and even the very few who did would find it far from easy to locate.
This facility was truly equipped with everything. First, the children housed in the nursery—children with talent sufficient to reach Ranker level if raised properly. And by whatever means, their mental states were so clean they could be likened to blank slates, making them supremely convenient to mold as one wished. Those children would become important fighting forces for FUG in the future.
The facility was even stocked with some advanced equipment—weapons classified as confidential even within the 10 Great Families, communication jammers, tracking disruptors, and more. The downside was that given the environment, provisions had to be purchased and supplied... but even accounting for that, weren't the Elders the gift that kept on giving?
On top of that, this place even held the massive slush funds the Elders had accumulated. Truly a tree with nothing to discard—thinking so, Chaplin, a FUG Elder, smiled faintly and continued tracking down where the other 'Paradises' might be.
"...Hm?"
While manipulating the Lighthouse, Chaplin's gaze drifted to the corner of the Lighthouse screen. It was an alert notification that an internet article had just been posted. Normally he would have ignored it... but the article's title caught his attention.
— A black dragon appears on the 91st Floor! 91st Floor citizens in a state of panic...
"...A black dragon?"
The moment he saw those words, a single incident surfaced in Chaplin's mind. Why did that memory come up? Could it be...
Ding—
"....?"
His Pocket's communication alarm rang. With a bad feeling washing over him, Chaplin hastily accepted the connection. And immediately, a cry filled with shock came through.
"Elder! It's me, the Deacon! 'Paradise' has been discovered! Right now—"
KABOOOOOM—!!
Crackle crackle—
A thunderous explosion, and the connection was immediately severed.
"...."
Chaplin's face was painted with shock. What? Who? Arie? The Zahard Army? No, was it even possible to find it this quickly in the first place? A facility that those Elders had deliberately hidden?
After a moment of panic, composure returned to Chaplin's expression. He took a deep breath, put away his Lighthouse, and slowly prepared to stand.
Lord Vertia is there. At the very least, the worst can be avoided.
The chronic problem of the Zahard Army and the 10 Great Families was that they recklessly threw Rankers at missions without properly assessing the enemy. And when there happened to be an upper-tier High Ranker among the enemies, as in this case, they'd be annihilated.
Given the vastness of their forces and scale, that level of loss was negligible, but the important thing was that it gave the enemy time to escape. This time would be no different. Whether it was the Zahard Army or the Arie Family, they'd annihilate them, gather the necessary materials before new reinforcements arrived, and leave.
Just as Chaplin, thinking so, stood up and was about to hurry toward Paradise—
KABOOOOOM—!!
"Gasp...!"
Piercing through the wall, a weapon whose boundary between spear and sword was ambiguous came for Chaplin's heart, and he frantically crossed both arms to barely block the attack. The shockwave alone blasted away the surrounding area, and blood flowed from both of Chaplin's arms.
Thud, thud—from beyond the cloud of dust, heavy footsteps were heard. Soon, a small-framed boy revealed himself. He looked at Chaplin with a scowl.
"The 78th Floor ruler was right. Insects have been laying eggs on my floor as they please."
"...The ruler, is it? You caught on faster than expected. The location of Paradise aside, how did you know I was here—"
"Yeah yeah, shut up and die, you trash."
Toward Chaplin, the 91st Floor ruler—Arie Nasca—swung his crescent blade without mercy.
.....
Three days earlier.
"...So you're saying FUG bastards are trying to seize the Elders' legacy? And they've already taken one?"
"That about sums it up. That one is right here, in the snowfield zone of the 91st Floor."
At my words, he stared at the map for a moment, then let out a deep sigh.
"...Fine, I get what you're trying to say. But how do you plan to find it? The snowfield zone spans over thirty million square kilometers. How on earth do you intend to find a single facility that would be smaller than a dot compared to that area?"
"We can't find the facility."
"...?"
At my words, Nasca stared at me with a bewildered expression. Right, the facility could never be found. The Elders' precautions to hide it from tracking were flawless. The environment of the region where it was built was perfect for concealment, and the advanced equipment installed in the facility would be perfectly arranged to evade detection.
However—
"The facility may be perfect, but people can never be perfect, right?"
"...What?"
"Could you pull up all the floating ship routes from the past three months? I believe that's one of the ruler's privileges."
"Ah, right. You don't need the warship routes?"
"They'd need to travel quietly—there's no way they could afford to ride something that large."
Whirr—
At Nasca's gesture, a wide screen floated up above us. It displayed every floating ship route that had traversed the 91st Floor over the past three months.
Ugh, how many lines are there? My eyes hurt.
Nasca obliged my request and pulled it up, stared at the screen briefly, and his eyes apparently hurting too, he soon turned his gaze back to me.
"As you can see, there are countless routes. The 91st Floor doesn't get much traffic due to its harsh environment, but there are still that many. Moreover, most of the snowfield zone is still unexplored territory beyond my jurisdiction. I can only see routes in the Inner Tower, the middle area, and parts of the Outer Tower."
"That's sufficient. If the environment is harsh, how do they supply food?"
"Some Outer Tower zones allow large-scale agriculture thanks to the Administrator's grace. There's a city built there, and most food is supplied from it. The city halls of other cities purchase food in bulk and distribute it abundantly to citizens. In short, food is free. Consider it a benefit for working in a harsh environment."
Looking at the location of the city Nasca pointed to, the corners of my mouth began to rise. When you scale things up, the solution becomes so easily visible.
"Other cities need food supplies too, so they'd purchase food in bulk from that agricultural city and have it transported by floating ship or warship, right?"
"Right."
"Simple. Please show me only the food transport floating ship routes among those."
The floating ship routes were significantly reduced. But there were still many. That would change soon enough.
"Among these, please remove all the floating ships that transported food purchased directly by city halls, and leave only the routes of floating ships that transported food purchased by individuals."
"You want a lot. Hold on."
As Nasca used his ruler privileges to adjust the options, countless routes vanished from the screen.
"There. What's left are only the routes of floating ships that transported food purchased in bulk by individuals. There are still a lot though—what are you going to do?"
"As I mentioned, 'Paradise' is in the unexplored zone."
The floating ships transporting bulk food had headed toward some of the 91st Floor's cities. The locations where an unknown 'individual' had purchased food in bulk were three: the glacier city Grantic, the undersea city Salica, and the munitions factory zone Blanc.
Setting aside the munitions factory zone Blanc—
"Please show me all the floating ship routes that departed from glacier city Grantic and undersea city Salica."
"...Don't tell me—"
Nasca, having finally caught on to my thinking, looked at me. I smiled and nodded.
Yes, exactly what you're thinking.
The routes had already been refreshed. As I'd requested of Nasca, they were all routes of floating ships that had departed from glacier city Grantic and undersea city Salica.
Now for the final step.
"Please show me all the routes of floating ships that entered the unexplored zone from there—in other words, the ones whose routes cut off."
"Hahaha! You know how to use your head! I've been doing nothing but playing games lately so my brain's gone stiff—I'll leave it to you."
Whirr—
Nasca burst out laughing and gestured, and the routes I'd requested appeared on the screen. About a hundred or more routes appeared, but this was more than enough.
I expanded the screen to display the Outer Tower unexplored zone—the snowfield—then took out a ruler. Over a hundred routes—from here on out, it was grunt work. But very efficient grunt work.
I pulled out the map Cain hyung had given me. The map depicted the terrain of the snowfield zone, but there were several broad red circles drawn in various places. Those red circles were the areas Cain hyung estimated the 'nursery' might be located.
From here on, I'm trusting you, hyung.
Starting from where the floating ships had been traveling in straight lines and their routes cut off upon entering the unexplored zone, I placed the ruler and extended straight lines to predict the routes they would have taken. After painstakingly placing the ruler against each of the hundred-plus severed routes and drawing straight lines, I was finally able to find it.
Haha, lucky me.
"...There's exactly one."
One floating ship that had entered one of the red circles Cain hyung had drawn. When I extended the severed floating ship route in a straight line, this was the only one that headed into a red circle.
At last, I had succeeded in narrowing down the multiple red circles to just one.
If my gamble was correct and Cain hyung's prediction was right, 'Paradise' would be inside that red circle.
"It should be here. 'Paradise.'"
Food supply. Considering the location where Paradise was built, it was unavoidable. There was no way they could farm there, so they'd have had no choice but to purchase and supply food. With plenty of children to feed, they would have needed to buy in bulk, and since they couldn't have food delivered to Paradise, they'd have had to purchase it in the city and then head to Paradise.
So find the routes where individuals purchased food, find the cities that food was headed to, find the routes departing from those cities, find the routes that entered the unexplored zone where 'Paradise' was located and whose tracking was cut off, extend those routes in straight lines with a ruler to predict them, and among those find the route that entered the red circle Cain hyung had drawn...
Done. Game over.
Despite there being multiple red circles, only exactly one route entered a red circle's range—that was definitely lucky. Well, the red circles were concentrated in zones that wouldn't normally need visiting in the first place.
If they'd been a bit more careful, there was no way such a simple trick could have found them. Overconfidence in 'Paradise's' perfect security system meant the people actually using Paradise hadn't been cautious themselves—a mistake born of complacency.
I looked at Nasca with a sly grin.
"Haha, but the circle is still too wide. I only brought about a dozen subordinate Rankers with me. Only ten floating ships too. At this rate, who knows when we'll find it..."
Nasca, catching my intent, burst out laughing and gave an exaggerated response.
"Hahahaha! Don't worry about that, 78th Floor ruler! Didn't I just mention? The 91st Floor has munitions factories!"
He soon connected to someone through his Pocket.
— Yes, Ruler. What is it?
"The military floating ships and warships that need to go to the main house—put ninety percent of them on standby. How many does that make?"
— That would be 106 vessels.
"Pack them full of soldiers and tell them to head to the location I'll send."
— Understood.
He ended the Pocket communication and smiled with killing intent.
"106 vessels should be enough. If 'Paradise' is so impressive, it should withstand at least one round of floating ship and warship bombardment, right?"
"Haha, surely it could?"
"Then if something doesn't break when we fire, that'll be Paradise."
"Precisely."
And so, the covert and glorious Paradise search operation began.
The ruler seemed impressed that I'd used the shipping routes to pinpoint Paradise's location, and mentioning that with the right approach, a similar method could track down the food purchaser, he disappeared somewhere.
...Leaving me with control over a whopping 106 military floating ships and warships.
And so, adding the 10 warships I'd brought from the 78th Floor, a total of 116 military floating ships and warships lined up in formation across the zone where Paradise was expected to be.
The blizzard made visibility difficult, but the same went for the FUG bastards comfortably holed up in 'Paradise.' Since our fleet happened to be white as well, the 116 vessels floating high in the sky could freely navigate this white world without being detected by anyone.
Advancing one kilometer at a time while carpet-bombing the ground below, gradually heading toward the center of the circle, we finally discovered Paradise.
Time elapsed: 72 hours. A total of three days.
....
"Hold them off! Buy as much time as possible until the Elder arrives!"
"Sorry, but your Elder is busy and ain't coming."
Shwaaaa—
Belsian smiled eerily, told the FUG member the truth, then immediately slit his throat. Behind him, Heron, Orca, and the dozen-odd Arie Rankers I'd brought along plus the dozen or so Rankers Nasca had provided were running wild to their hearts' content.
Belsian flicked the blood off his blade once, then looked at me with a displeased expression.
"Are you just going to stand there and watch?"
"Haha, no. There might still be children here, and if I accidentally lose control of my power, it'd be a disaster. Cut me some slack. I'll go look for the children first."
"Fine. Just a bit more and this side will be cleaned up. I'll kill the rest and catch up."
"Then I'll leave it to you."
After patting Belsian on the shoulder, I headed toward that massive door. A structure that clearly screamed something secretive lay behind it. We still hadn't found the room where the children were, so they were probably in there. Or some other part of the Elders' legacy.
I pushed the massive door open just enough for one person to pass through, and stepped inside.
Beyond the door, a dark, straight corridor faced me. Whether because of the darkness or the corridor's length, I couldn't see its end.
...Does it lead underground? The slope is gradually increasing.
After walking downward for quite some time—
♩♩♩------
"...?"
Piano music?
♬♬♫♪♪♩♪♫♪♩♩♩~
The gradually growing piano music—a beautiful, peaceful melody was resonating through this narrow corridor.
And finally, I could see the end of this long corridor. Along with this 'Paradise's' pianist.
♫♪♪♩♩♪♩♫♪.....
It stopped.
The person playing the piano ceased their performance. Even so, the melody they'd played continued to linger, echoing through this sealed space.
"Phew, so what did you think, kid? It's a new composition I wrote last week. Ah, thirteen days would be last week, right? I haven't been able to check the calendar lately."
"...Are you a member of FUG?"
"Hm? Hahaha... no, as if I would be a mere member of FUG."
"....."
While I narrowed my brows at the unsettling madness he exuded, the corners of his mouth rose.
"Not a member of FUG—a god of FUG."
"....!"
What?
At that moment, he snapped his fingers.
KABOOOOOM!!
Simultaneously, the space where I'd been standing suddenly exploded. Without any warning, without any sign. Just suddenly.
"Kh...!"
"But did I ask about FUG or whatever? I asked how the performance was. Your stage etiquette is far worse than Chaplin's."
"...Are you a Slayer?"
"That's right."
Thanks to throwing myself aside on pure instinct, the injuries from the explosion weren't too severe. The small jeweled chest I'd carefully kept in my coat didn't seem damaged either.
He was still smiling leisurely as he abruptly pressed several piano keys, then snapped his fingers.
KABOOM! BANG!
Once again the space exploded, and the shinsu swords caught in it couldn't reach him.
What is this? Sorcery? No, there was definitely a flow of shinsu. Shinsu that causes sudden explosions without any warning or sign? What exactly is this ability?
"Now then, next I'll pop your head."
The beautiful melody still filled this room.
♩---
....
"High-energy reaction detected in the snowfield zone! It appears that two or more High Rankers are in combat!"
The communications officer piloting the warship cried out urgently. The Zahard Army commander stared at the screen with a rather flustered expression, then turned to Mascheny on another video screen.
"Princess, what should we do? It seems FUG and... some others are engaged in battle."
Mascheny looked down at him as if he were pathetic and snapped coldly.
"What are you hesitating for? Head there. Are you going to sit here uselessly doing nothing?"
"Ah, understood. All forces! Set course for the point where the high-energy reaction was detected!"
Rummmble—
The Zahard Army fleet soared high once more. Mascheny sighed at the quality of these subordinates, which fell far below expectations, and gazed boredly at the blizzard outside the window.
...Something feels...