NOVEL NEXT The kingdom faced a crisis situation.
The anomaly that started from the north accelerated the planned invasion.
This was because the phenomenon of turning the kingdom into ashes began pushing down from the north.
The premature attack was sluggish, and the pulsations from the north dealt a fatal blow to the kingdom.
The kingdom turned to ashes.
The kingdom built by gathering countless resources was collapsing.
The precious soldiers gathered over 10 years turned to ashes in an instant.
The patience of 10 years disappeared in an instant.
The foundation to rule the world crumbled like that.
As the domain that turned the kingdom into ashes was gradually expanding, they had to start heading south more urgently.
But the ground troops could not advance, and the kingdom's disguise was stripped off by the pulsations, exposing its entrance.
In the end, they had to evacuate the royal capital and hurry to move south.
'!'
While mobilizing the soldiers to prepare for the evacuation, a foreign substance entering the kingdom was felt.
An intruder.
The kingdom's interior had already been exposed, yet there was an intruder so soon?
The intruder had an overall grayish hue, nonchalantly strolling into the kingdom's interior without paying much attention.
It was unfortunate for the intruder, but the kingdom could not afford it now.
The kingdom's soldiers, with no room to show mercy, began to move to quickly eliminate the intruder.
***
Reaper (MC) POV:
---
A gaping hole leading underground.
A peculiar cave tangled with ice and metal.
Metal powders clung to the cave floor and walls in patterns.
Looking at how the metal powders clung, the cave walls seemed to be powerful magnets.
And occasional flashes of lightning inside the cave suggested high voltage currents were flowing through.
About 1.2m high, a comfortable height to walk through.
A cave with high voltage currents and only 1.2m tall? How would a human explore this place?
But it doesn't matter for me.
Going quite deep underground, a massive chamber appeared where many passages converged.
And there, a large number of ice spiders were waiting.
They clung to the walls and ceiling without restraint, actively utilizing the magnetic cave walls.
Unlike the large humanoid soldiers roaming outside, these were small soldiers only about 1m tall.
It must have been an inevitable choice given the low height of the underground passages.
No matter how numerous, those ice spiders posed little threat to me.
Because they were not Objects.
I scanned them with my eyes to read their destruction conditions simultaneously.
Destroying them was easy if they weren't Objects.
***
The grayish intruder picked up a piece of ice from the floor.
A piece of ice against soldiers in iron bodies and ice armor?
'What are they trying to do with a piece of ice?'
The intruder clenched its fist tightly, then tapped the wall three times - tap tap tap.
It then lightly tossed the ice piece into the air.
Before the ice piece fell, the intruder swiftly took a horse stance and swung its legs in a whipping motion timed to the falling ice.
The kicked ice piece sluggishly flew toward the center of the open area.
It was so slow it could hardly be considered an attack.
The ice piece lightly tapped a metal lump lying in the center of the area.
That metal lump seemed to be the remains of a soldier affected by the pulsations from the north.
One of the ice spiders moved to block the rolling metal lump impacted by the ice piece. 'Is that all?'
Such thoughts came naturally against this opponent. There was no need to be wary of this.
But then, an intense discharge struck that metal sphere in the open area, and everything changed.
The metal sphere exploded like a grenade, and the spiders hit by the shrapnel clumped together and rolled away.
Fragments scattered in all directions from the sphere, some striking where the intruder had punched.
A massive crack started from there, cutting across the area and causing another explosion.
The high voltage current flowing through the passages was the problem.
Normally the passages likely wouldn't collapse from such an impact.
The immense shockwaves accumulated inside from the pulsations originating in the north.
Countless metal powders and fragments derived from those pulsations.
And the intruder's seemingly meaningless actions were timed perfectly to cause a chain reaction.
That chain of events completely destroyed all the kingdom's soldiers gathered in the open area.
A loud rumbling sound of the passages collapsing echoed through the underground.
'...'
The intruder possessed extraordinary abilities.
What was it? The ability to manipulate probability at will?
Whatever power it had, it was clearly a powerful being.
The kingdom's current forces seemed incapable of dealing with it.
However, there was a way to handle such powerful beings.
Give them a false sense of victory.
Hide the true self and let them delude themselves into thinking they won.
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Preparations began in the kingdom's core to receive the powerful intruder.
***
Reaper (MC) POV:
---
After wiping out the enemies with just a piece of ice, I dusted off my hands and looked around the collapsed open area.
The few surviving spiders were scurrying away, creaking.
It became clear at the point when spider-like beings similar to the outside soldiers appeared.
'There is an Object inside this cave that created the 'Ice Throne of Dobonggu'.'
Tap tap tap.
Making brisk footsteps, I set out to find the Ice Throne of Dobonggu.
Following the path the soldiers fled, I arrived at a massive open area.
Ice soldiers were lined up like servants, and artificial light shone down from the ceiling.
The patterns carved into the pillars and walls had a solemn power that made one feel a sense of reverence, like a shrine.
It was such an impressive space that it made me exclaim 'Wow!'
At the end of this area stood a massive Ice Throne, and seated on that throne was a being clad entirely in black steel armor.
To put it bluntly, an armor exuding a kingly aura was seated on the throne.
This huge hall was decorated with many chunks of metal floating in the air, adding to the mystical atmosphere.
The armor rose from the throne, grasping a massive iron flail, and approached with heavy footsteps.
It was an impressive, powerful entrance, but I paid it no mind.
I just looked around, searching for what I needed to find.
After all, that armor was not an Object.
It was no different from the large, elaborately decorated ice soldiers.
When the annoying armor swung its flail at me, I simply ghostified through it and focused on finding the Object.
The Object was discovered in an unexpected place - on the table next to the throne.
There were many metal chunks floating on the table, and it was one of them.
Disc-shaped chunks of metal, floating like superconductors on magnets.
Among those decorative metal pieces, a single one was the hidden Object.
It was a superconducting frog.
Flattening its body, not moving, just floating around.
'Why? Why a frog?'
The Object that completely destroyed Dobonggu and threw Korea into terror was merely this?
The condition for destruction was such a simple frog.
[It dies if part of its body breaks.]
I had expected it to be quite powerful, if not as strong as Lophiomus. I felt a bit let down.
Seeming to realize I had grasped its true nature, it began attacking by spewing cold air and electricity.
But its attacks, which remained in the physical realm, could not harm me.
Pondering how to deal with this strange lifeform, I picked up the frog with one hand.
However, the superconducting, metallic-looking frog crumbled in my grasp.
It looked like steel but was weaker than wet tissue paper.
***
??? (maybe the frog) POV:
---
It was a monster.
The soldiers thrown as bait could not even bind its feet.
Perfect concealment was easily seen through.
The overbearing monster held my true body in one hand and smiled playfully.
I didn't give up until the last moment, but the pressure of its grip grew stronger and stronger.
'Is this my end?'
Is my eternal kingdom ending like this?
When I heard a crumbling sound, my consciousness sank into endless darkness.
'There is nothing... nothing but darkness...'
***
Reaper (MC) POV:
---
When the frog crumbled, all the soldiers gathered in the square collapsed like puppets with cut strings.
The intruder of Dobonggu District was finally dead.
If I had lungs, I would take a deep breath and feel refreshed.
I felt so refreshed that my body naturally began floating.
'????'
After killing the superconducting frog, I became a superconducting Reaper.
Perhaps due to the magnetized cave, I could swim around like drifting in space - quite an enjoyable ability.
If it was a type that couldn't be turned on/off like the scent of a pig statue, it could be inconvenient, but fortunately that wasn't the case.
As I floated around the cave, a thought occurred to me.
Should I ask Sehee Research Institute to make one of these?
The fun space drifting had to end due to a sudden quake.
The Steel Tower's pulsations had resumed.
With the frog's demise, the ant tunnels began to collapse under the renewed pulsation of Steel Tower.
Escaping the collapse, I ascended to the surface and stood upon the melting Ice Throne.
Looking down on Seoul from the 20m high ice, it seemed chaotic.
A land tsunami threatening Seoul.
Civilization being destroyed.
Facing a threat from the Steel Tower incomparable to Dobonggu's Ice Throne.