Chapter 480 - Last System Error (6)
After he said that, he fired a beam of light at the desk where Sungwoo was hiding.
The desk was split up, spreading the smell of burning in the air.
"Necromancer, you were amazing. Even though the gamblers made a big fuss, our viewers like you more. I'm sure you're one of the most popular characters among us."
The guy began to narrow the distance with Sungwoo while rambling on.
He continued, "Of course, the Necromancer has always been a popular profession, but I've never heard he has maintained such an enormous army. That's why I feel even more sorry for you."
The guy came a little closer, then suddenly stopped. As a result, Sungwoo and Jisu, who were about to attack him simultaneously, had no choice but to hold back.
"By the way, Necromancer? Let me ask you one thing."
"..."
"Where is your army now?" he asked, bursting into laughter. "Isn't it funny you can't do anything now? It's me who has given you such power!"
The desk and all kinds of objects were crushed and exploded when he fired the beams randomly, sending their debris everywhere.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Sungwoo's party couldn't do anything in this situation.
"You've come as far as here after you got carried away with the power I gave you, but you can't do anything like this, right? So you are just characters in the game! You should have stayed put if you knew your place!"
Sungwoo felt helpless after a long time.
'It is true. There is nothing I can do for now.'
But Sungwoo has not given up yet. Although he was powerless, he was different from before because his experience working overtime was still there.
'There must be some way for me to do something.'
Sungwoo looked around. Then, the guy stopped firing the beams, then asked in a mean voice, "Hey! If you have a mouth, curse at me, won't you? Where is your gorgeous army now?"
Right at that moment, someone shouted, "The Necromancer's army is here!"
It was Junghoon's voice. Sungwoo turned his head.
At the same time, there were massive shouts.
"Let's charge!"
"Charge!"
Hundreds of thousands of Sungwoo's allies charged at the guy fiercely.
The whole building shook as if it was to collapse at any moment when their shouts were mixed with their deep anger and murderous spirits.
"We are the Necromancer's army that you sneered at!"
GMs retreated. Junghoon and those from the World Tree camp filled the hallway and stormed into the office.
"Catch them!"
As Junghoon said, people charged at GMs as if they were the Necromancer's army. And there was no hesitation in their advance.
"Charge!"
The difference was that they were not the army of the dead, but the living army, and that they were not run by the power of the system, but the power of human beings.
They were now charging at GMs.
GMs were arrogant. They never expected that outsiders could penetrate this facility from the beginning. And they didn't know that even if they infiltrated this facility, such a large number of people could come in.
They trusted the system blindly, but when the system broke down, they were completely powerless, not knowing what to do.
"Come on, I don't have time, so I won't ask you twice."
The GMs were completely tied up, then knelt before Sungwoo. All their weapons were confiscated by the allies.
"How many more are there in this facility?"
When they pointed the muzzle at the back of his head and put the knife right under his neck, he couldn't help but open his mouth.
"Oh, no more. We are the only people who reside in this facility. Most of the work is done by artificial intelligence and computers."
They were just a kind of managerial people, with multiple supercomputers controlling the system unless it required humans' capabilities, such as planning a scenario like 'Mainstream' or 'World Season'.
"If you mean a supercomputer, is it the sentinel?"
When Sungwoo asked, a middle-aged man named Walter grinned. He seemed to be in charge of this facility.
"That's right. Now that you know it, there must be a traitor who is helping you. Right? I think I know who that person is. Politics is complicated even on our planet...."
Instead of replying to him, Sungwoo kicked him in the stomach.
"Khuuuuuuuuuk!"
The guy was thrown back, but Inho grabbed his hair and raised him.
"From now on, I will pull out your teeth one by one if you smile. Don't show your teeth."
Sungwoo couldn't control his emotions. He should not have held back his feelings, given the heinous actions they had taken until now.
They were not just criminals. They were demons that brought about indescribably terrible calamities on Earth.
"And if you don't answer my questions quickly, let me kill you one by one, starting with the one on the left."
When Sungwoo punched and kicked the guy, he could get some more details.
The 'main core', which the helper told him to destroy, was a kind of computer 'server.' And the 'sentinel', which was said to monitor and control the system, was artificial intelligence, a device that spread across the earth and played a direct role in controlling the game.
"Hey, hey, Necromancer, I want to make one suggestion," Walter said.
Sungwoo stared at him sharply, and he opened his mouth with difficulty.
"You are a huge superstar on our planet. If you return to our Earth with me, you can…"
But Walter had to pay the price for his absurd suggestion.
"Wait a moment!" Sungwoo shouted.
He immediately grabbed the guy's wrist, pressed it to the floor, then swung it down with his crowbar, cutting off two of his fingers.
"Argh!"
Sungwoo grabbed his chin and lifted him, who was groaning in pain.
"Tell me about your damned hometown. Who the hell are you, and why are you doing this crazy thing?"
To stop them once and for all, Sungwoo needed to find out exactly who they were rather than simply breaking the system.
"Yeah, I'll tell you everything then!"
He began to tell Sungwoo about the story of a terrible race.
The so-called 'Zero District', where GMs lived, was like a distant future in the mid-24th century. And their corruption began at the beginning of the 22nd century.
"All the resources on Earth were exhausted, and 13 billion people could not survive on renewable energy alone."
Science and technology did not advance equally in every country, space development was delayed. Obtaining resources from an exoplanet several light-years away was so unprofitable that it could not feed 13 billion people.
Around that time, a 'wormhole' was discovered at the bottom of the Bermuda Triangle.
"The leaders of mankind at the time devised a way to open a passage to another world, so they could obtain resources from a primitive Earth in another world. But they ran into a funny problem."
A major turning point emerged for them.
"At that time, they were inexperienced in controlling the wormhole, so they could not arrive at it at the time we wanted."
The Earth they arrived at first was not the primitive Earth, but the world around the 18th century, when civilization was already prosperous.
"So we agonized about whether to retreat or loot them. But we couldn't afford to think for a long time. We had to make a choice right away."
They had nothing like morality since they were faced with hunger.
"So we chose the best for ourselves."
He said that they had no other choice but to exploit those in the 18th-century world. They had to turn to primal violence to survive themselves.
And their history began to justify their violence through all sorts of rationalizations.