I Became a Hive Mind in the Game

In an instant, numerous hunters were sliced apart and weapons were destroyed, but Choi Seo-rin’s mind was rather calm and cool, and at the same time moving quickly to analyze the situation.

She grasped its movements and observed its body precisely. As a result, Choi Seo-rin confirmed that something was attached to its back.

‘That’s…’

It resembled an implant for enhancing reflexes that’s implanted in the human spine, but showed significant differences in its composition materials.

On its back, a structure that looked like it was made of insect exoskeleton and flesh was attached—or rather implanted—along the lower part of the brain and spinal cord, and was partially illuminating like LEDs.

Moreover, these illuminating parts were arranged at regular intervals along the spine, and specific parts turned off and on repeatedly according to the Mountain Lord’s movements.

It looked as if that biological part on its back was controlling the Mountain Lord.

“…No way.”

And if she had deduced this far, it was as good as confirmed no matter how much she tried to deny it.

The Mountain Lord, somehow, had been hunted by the Hive Mind ‘Bomb Spider’, and was now being controlled by the Hive Mind with that biological organ implanted.

‘Impossible… the Mountain Lord being controlled?!’

For Choi Seo-rin, who had lost her lover and comrades while fighting the Mountain Lord in the past, it was a situation she could hardly understand, but the conclusion her experience and hunter’s instinct told her was just that.

“D-damn it…”

“W-w-why is that thing here?!”

And while she was blankly staring at that being. Other hunters fell into panic at the fact that the Mountain Lord, the strongest monster on the Korean Peninsula, had appeared.

Previously, when the Mountain Lord was still staying in South Korea, a total of 9 high-grade hunters, including Choi Seo-rin who was already a high-grade hunter at the time, had set out to hunt the Mountain Lord, but—the result was devastating.

They succeeded in driving the Mountain Lord north and inflicting serious injuries—breaking its fangs and tearing its belly skin—but at the cost of only 3 survivors out of the 9 high-grade hunters.

Moreover, even those two besides Choi Seo-rin retired due to permanent injuries, making the Mountain Lord a being no different from a disaster for hunters.

And now, such a being, the Mountain Lord, had appeared right before their eyes.

In front of a group of hunters who were not prepared at all.

—Slash!

And in that short time, the Mountain Lord once again swung its claws and cut an 8-meter class Giant Armor into pieces.

“Kyaaaaaaaaaaaah!”

Screams erupted at the shocking sight of a heavy armor type Giant Armor, famous for its sturdiness and equipped with a psychic shield, being cut into pieces at once.

It would be a monster-level that even hunters in perfect condition couldn’t handle, let alone hunters who were sufficiently exhausted from the battles that occurred while approaching this place.

So naturally, what they chose was retreat.

“Retreat! Retreat!”

The moment the hunters’ leader—Choi Seo-rin—shouted that, the hunters began to retreat quickly using every method they could.

Of course, it would be a miracle if even one person succeeded in escaping and surviving, as escaping the Mountain Lord’s pursuit is impossible for an ordinary medium-grade hunter.

“…Whew.”

Therefore, Choi Seo-rin decided to face the Mountain Lord and buy time for the hunters to escape instead of fleeing herself, taking a deep breath.

Even for her, surviving against the Mountain Lord would be impossible, but she could at least buy time like this, hoping to save even one of the other hunters.

“I’ll buy time. Everyone, escape.”

After announcing her final message, which also served as her last will, to the hunters, Choi Seo-rin cut off communication and aimed the greatswords in both hands at the Mountain Lord.

Wuuung…….

As she flowed psychic energy into the top-grade weapons made from the Mountain Lord’s broken fangs, the blades began to glow blue and vibrate very finely and quickly.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr…….

And as if noticing that these swords were made from its own shattered parts, the Mountain Lord let out a low growl while being extremely wary—

—Kruryaaaaaaaaaang!!!

“Hup!”

At some point, it suddenly changed its stance unnaturally and charged at Choi Seo-rin with a roar.

※ ※ ※

The Mountain Lord’s strategy was very simple.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

It advanced while quickly swinging its front paws with sharp claws coated with a massive amount of force field, while surrounding its entire body with a massive amount of force field from dozens of bio cores throughout its body.

It’s a very simple method, but conversely, the only way to deal with it is simply stronger and faster physical abilities and firepower that can penetrate the force field and skin.

And now, Choi Seo-rin was dealing with it in a quite similar way.

“—Hup!”

Kwaaaaaaaaaang!

After injecting an enormous amount of psychic energy into the blade made from the Mountain Lord’s broken fang to the point where it looked like it was made of blue light, she caught up with its speed by spewing a vast amount of psychic energy like a booster.

As an A-rank emission-type psychic user specialized in the role of a dealer, she could somehow face the Mountain Lord, but the limit was clear.

She could narrow the overwhelming ability gap between humans and monsters by crazily consuming psychic energy, but this also meant that she had no way to counter once the psychic energy was completely depleted.

Kwang—Puk!

“Kuk…!”

Moreover, even if she somehow overcame this difference, she was clearly at a disadvantage.

The fang sword can cut the Mountain Lord’s skin and inflict wounds, and her speed is equal to the Mountain Lord’s, but that’s as far as it goes.

Whoosh—Ching!

“…Kuk!”

The difference in strength is so enormous that her body shakes just from the wind pressure created when the Mountain Lord swings its front paws, and the weight difference is so severe that the ground shakes when the Mountain Lord moves even slightly.

“No, choice!”

Chang!

Therefore, she decided to use a bold move to buy even a little more time.

[Armor purge. Switching to high-speed maneuver mode.]

Since she would die if hit by an attack anyway, she decided to detach the heaviest armor from the 2-meter class Giant Armor and leave only the body enhancement function to counter the Mountain Lord.

Whoosh—Kuuung!

“Ha-ah–ah!”

Chaeng!

And after detaching the armor like this, Choi Seo-rin became able to deal with the Mountain Lord better by moving her more agile body.

She had already discarded one of the two greatswords, and instead was using telekinesis and psychic constructs with that hand to fight the Mountain Lord.

She uses psychic constructs as shields, telekinesis as a tool to make her movement faster, and with the greatsword in one hand, she delivers huge and powerful slashes to leave wounds on the Mountain Lord’s skin.

And as she continued the battle like this and got somewhat used to the Mountain Lord’s behavior patterns, Choi Seo-rin began to think she might be able to handle the Mountain Lord.

She still had more than half of her remaining psychic energy, and the Mountain Lord wasn’t showing the overwhelming combat power it had in the past.

Therefore, just as she was about to move boldly to gain confidence and aim to inflict a fatal wound on the Mountain Lord that would be difficult to heal—

《——Kryaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!》

Suddenly, the moment the Mountain Lord opened its mouth and roared, the roar became a sound wave with physical force and swept away everything in front of it.

“—Kuk!”

Despite desperately throwing herself, Choi Seo-rin was swept by the sound wave and blown back, flying almost hundreds of meters to crash into a cliff.

“Ku, kuuuuuu…… Cough, cough!”

Barely pulling her body out of the cliff where she was embedded, she glared at the Mountain Lord in front, while letting out a pained groan and moving her trembling body.

More precisely, at the Mountain Lord that was opening its mouth wide and releasing sound waves similar to before.

“Uh—”

The Mountain Lord attacked Choi Seo-rin, who had just managed to get up, by spewing sound waves like shells from its mouth dozens of times.

Kuung! Kuung! Kuung!

The shells blew away her body, which hadn’t even managed to deploy a shield, far away, and she was flung away with her bones crushed, her body fluttering like a paper doll.

It was an injury so severe that it would be a miracle if she was still breathing, but… surprisingly, her consciousness remained faintly even in that state.

“………..”

Unable to do anything due to the terrible pain and state of her body, Choi Seo-rin was barely keeping her eyes open, but even that was gradually closing and her consciousness was fading.

“…Ah.”

And just before her consciousness was completely cut off, the last thing she witnessed was—dozens of milky-white tentacles stretching towards her body.

※ ※ ※

Turning back time for a moment, in the southern part of North Hamgyong Province. Somewhere in the Taebaek Mountains, a huge mountain.

Around it, trees boasting heights of tens of meters due to the influence of monsters were growing, and the same was true for the mountain.

On one side of this mountain, which had grown tens of meters larger than the original due to the accumulation of large amounts of bones, corpses, and other inedible things, there remained a cave so large that it looked like a part of the mountain had been carved out.

And the identity of the beast living inside that cave was—naturally, the Mountain Lord.

The ruler of the Taebaek Mountains and, although now pushed back by the Hive Mind of Pyongyang, still the second strongest monster within the Korean Peninsula.

Gyawuuuuuu…….

The Mountain Lord, who had been sound asleep for two weeks to reduce energy consumption, but now it was time to wake up, also to have a meal.

Grrrrrrrr.

Lightly growling to clear its throat that had been closed, the Mountain Lord began to loosen its stiff body while chewing on the monster meat placed right next to it—

Kwagagagagagagagagagagang——!!!!

…………?????

As if to welcome such a Mountain Lord, suddenly an enormous explosion was heard near its ears and its den, the cave, began to shake.