Chapter 195

A missile.

Wasn’t it an excessively expensive tactical weapon to throw in just to catch me?

Hmm — now that I thought about it, I had seen scenes in my original world where the U.S. military sometimes used missiles to catch the leaders of terrorist groups. It might have been an appropriate countermeasure in its own way.

“Waaaah!!”

Even while I indulged in that pointless thinking, Ciel panicked and flailed about.

To be fair, that was the normal reaction. Fundamentally, a missile wasn’t a weapon an individual could do anything about.

But by now I had become far too used to being ‘Aaron Stingray’. It meant I was too bold to make a fuss over a single missile.

I was only a little annoyed.

I asked Vladimir Kharitonov in a nonchalant tone.

“How much farther?”

“About 400 km left.”

“Phew……”

Four hundred kilometers was the distance from Seoul to Busan.

Even for an accelerated flying armored vehicle, it would take over an hour of driving, and the thought of missiles coming at us that whole time already made me tired.

“What about the missile defense system?”

“It’s installed. But it’s good for about five uses. After that we’ll have to stop them directly.”

“Then you handle it.”

I buried myself back into the seat.

Vladimir seemed displeased by that attitude; the muscles around his eyes trembled.

Then he suddenly lifted a corner of his mouth.

“Oh ho. What if I just let them hit us by not blocking them?”

“That’s true. We were detected the moment we entered radar range because we couldn’t even properly engage concealment. I’m not sure if an energy shield can hold up.”

“What did you say!? This man…!”

“Are you saying it wasn’t your fault? Ah, then tell them our Stingray-brand radar and missile performance were just too good to stop.”

If that was the case, there was nothing to be done — hmm.

I crossed my arms and nodded calmly.

Then, reluctantly getting up from his seat, he muttered quietly.

“Module online, [Cloud Spider].”

Black armor wrapped around the back of my hand.

Just as I prepared to shoot down the incoming missiles, an invisible force trapped me. When I touched it, there was a crackle! of electricity.

“Don’t you dare move.”

“There’s no need for you to step in. It’s better to leave it to me from the start than to get us all tangled up by interfering—”

“Ugh, be quiet!”

Vladimir forced me back into the seat.

The vein on his forehead bulged; he had clearly heated up. Exactly according to my plan.

Soon the missile drew close enough to be seen with ordinary vision. Of course it still looked like a tiny dot, but that was only for a moment.

The missile from the secret fortress must have exceeded Mach 20 in speed, and in the blink of an eye it reached right in front of us.

And the next moment.

Ssssssh—!

The moment the warhead registered that it had struck the armored vehicle, the missile’s body vanished from view in an instant.

A sonic boom followed a beat late, and the chassis vibrated subtly, but there was hardly any explosion or impact to worry about. Even the noise seemed to have been swallowed by something.

“Uh, huh…?”

Ciel, who had been tearing at her hair in panic a moment before, looked around incredulously, as if she couldn’t believe the missile had just disappeared.

“What, what happened…?”

Her reaction was understandable.

Even my eyes with ultra-high-speed camera functionality could not fully capture the scene. I barely managed to catch the process, and to put that scene into one phrase:

“The missile evaporated.”

Vladimir had deployed a powerful energy shield to cover the chassis. Instead of the missile warhead hitting the armored vehicle, it struck the shield first and literally ‘evaporated.’

From the part of the warhead that met the high-energy shield to the propulsion-equipped tail, the missile vaporized in an instant, like a drop of water on a hot frying pan.

‘Oh. Impressive.’

I admitted it honestly.

I had never seen metal melt and turn to liquid and gas so instantly in my life.

Surely the missile had been made of materials designed to withstand the high frictional heat at speeds beyond Mach 20, yet Vladimir’s module didn’t care and vaporized the missile whole.

Of course it hadn’t been 100% evaporation; some parts that didn’t fully vaporize melted like jelly and struck the chassis. But that was insufficient to inflict any damage on a Militech armored vehicle.

“Huff…… huffhuff…… How was that?”

Vladimir, who had successfully blocked the missile in style, panted cold sweat and breathed roughly.

He was trying to remain calm, but the shield he had just deployed had clearly raised his internal temperature and overload rate considerably.

The cooling system kicked in, and panels on his back and shoulders opened to release massive heat. Dry-ice-like vapor billowed out afterward.

It was a bit ungainly, but no one could deny he had pulled off something great.

‘His maximum performance seemed about comparable to my [Techblade].’

I had once broken his shield by using my [Techblade] against [Cloud Spider]. Because of that, I had underestimated the offensive power of his shield module a little… I would have to revise that thought.

“Very good. I’ll give you that. My judgment was poor.”

“……Heh.”

When I praised him sincerely, he seemed to relax a little. A pleasant curve appeared at the corner of Vladimir’s mouth.

“Then keep it up until we arrive.”

“……Yes?”

Vladimir’s expression hardened at my words.

He had belatedly realized that what he had just intercepted was not the last one. But having already put on a show, he wouldn’t back down now.

I emphasized again.

“Keep it up until we arrive.”

“Y-yes, of course.”

Ha ha.

Vladimir smiled awkwardly.

In the end, Vladimir handled and defended against all the attacks that flew at us until we reached the secret research facility.

As if to say “that first one was only a taste,” the methods of attack diversified the closer we got to the destination.

They ranged from ordinary anti-personnel missiles to EMP warheads, cluster munitions, kamikaze drones, ultra-long-range sniping with anti-material smart rounds, railgun barrages, and even satellite laser strikes.

Because of that, Vladimir had to keep his shield up almost continuously for an hour, barely getting a break, but thanks to him the armored vehicle didn’t even get a scratch.

At last the destination began to come into view in the distance. A vast structure looked like a globe cut in half and laid upside-down on the plains. Countless varieties of defensive systems had been installed on it.

[Arriving soon&@%&!^!]

KWA-KWA-KWA-KWA-KWANG–!

KWA-AANG–! KWA-A-A-A-AANG–!

The driver’s agitated shouting was drowned out by the noise outside. Explosions erupted endlessly in every direction, and the shockwaves rocked the vehicle violently.

The only reason the armored car hadn’t crashed yet was purely because Vladimir Kharitonov was maintaining his shield.

But he was clearly reaching his real limit.

“Haa… haa…!”

His breathing grew rougher, his complexion paler. My sensors also reported that the energy left inside his body was running dangerously low.

“You all right?”

“T-this much… is nothing…!”

Contrary to his words, the shield began to flicker unsteadily. The regeneration rate couldn’t keep up, and several attacks started breaking through the barrier, hammering against the vehicle’s hull.

KWAANG! KWAANG!

Thankfully, the Militech-made armored car was tough. If we’d come here in something like a sports car, even I would’ve been roasted along with Ciel and fallen to the ground as charcoal.

‘I really owe him a big one.’

Even if I had tricked and lured him into this, it was true that Vladimir had been an enormous help.

I’d have to repay this debt somehow later. For now, I should at least treat him a bit more kindly.

[Destination 500 meters ahead!]

“The entrance!?”

[Not visible!]

Under the pouring barrage, the armored vehicle darted around, searching for any gap to break into the interior of the facility. But there was no way there’d be an open entrance welcoming outsiders in a place like this.

Even if one existed, it would have sealed shut the moment we were detected.

That left only one option.

Forced entry.

“Vladimir.”

“W-what… is it…?”

“That’s enough. Take a good rest.”

I unbuckled my seatbelt and stood up. The shaking made it hard to stay upright, but I gripped the handle and steadied myself.

‘If only I still had the [Thousand Pound Weight], this would’ve been easier.’

Well, I’d already given it to Iri Elisbell — nothing I could do now. Besides, one missing tool wouldn’t drastically change the outcome of this situation anyway.

Clatter–!

I forcibly wrenched open the tightly sealed door.

BOOM! BOOM!

The fierce explosions pounded against my body with enough force to tear us apart, but it was something I just had to endure for a moment.

“Module online, [Cloud Spider], [Black Out].”

I immediately activated two Game Changer modules at once. Using two ultimate skills simultaneously burdened even this body — my heart began to pound violently.

But this was the best move I could make right now.

Even if I used the [Techblade] to disable all the visible defense turrets in one sweep, others hidden inside would just pop out afterward. This was the right call.

“Hhup!”

A single thread stretched out.

The fine filament slipped through a crack in Vladimir’s weakened shield and shot toward the research facility. The moment it connected with the wall, I deployed [Black Out].

Sssssrrrrrk—

Dark ripples coursed instantly along the threads of [Cloud Spider]. From the point of impact, they spread to cover the facility’s entire front, seizing control of all the turrets that had been madly firing at us.

[Connecting to data]

【Turret No. 616】

[Serial: HAWEF426363]

[Defense system operational……]

【Turret No. 7812】

[Serial: URFH-621]

[Defense system operational……]

…… …

…… ….

Information from thousands of defense turrets and various interception systems flooded my mind at once.

I shouted to Ciel simultaneously.

“Ciel! Data processing!”

“Y-yes!”

Quick on the uptake, Ciel stepped up and connected a cable.

I knew it would be impossible to handle such a massive amount of data alone with my own computational power. I’d learned that lesson from when I hacked the Motherboard. With her assistance, I began taking control of the massive data stream.

And then, I issued one unified command to all the units.

[Forcefully deactivate defense system]

The turrets engulfed in black waves all ceased operation at once and bowed their heads. At the same time, I fired additional threads and blew open a massive hole in the facility wall.

“There!”

Vrooooom–!

Following my order, the armored vehicle accelerated and slipped through the gap by a hair’s breadth. But apparently no one had thought to slow down — we slammed into the interior wall, and part of the chassis broke apart, spraying debris inside.

“Ow ow ow…”

“Ugh… damn it, Aaron Stingray! You… you maniac!”

The passengers burst out in protest at my methods, but I couldn’t have cared less. Regardless of how it looked — we’d succeeded.

We had finally arrived at the secret research facility.

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