[Inside the S-Rank Tower of the Panama Canal, on the deck of Illinois.]
“Damn it, how long is this going to keep repeating?”
The Hunters standing on Illinois’ deck wiped the sweat off their foreheads with the backs of their hands, trying to steady their breathing.
No matter how many they killed, the enemies kept coming.
Everyone knew that Illinois had taken down tens of thousands of monstrous birds during the Golden Gate Bridge raid, but standing on its deck now, each Hunter had already slain hundreds of ghosts. It was only natural to feel exhausted.
By now, the gate leading to the next stage should have appeared.
“Damn it, we’re going to die before we even reach the boss room!”
“Don’t say that! It’s bad luck!”
“But at this rate…!”
“Believe in the Master! It’s taken some time before, sure, but have you ever seen the Master fail to clear an S-Rank Tower?”
Tension started to rise among the Hunters, but they chose to put their faith in their track record.
That’s right.
It hadn’t even been four hours yet.
Even though they were exhausted from the relentless battles, whining about it would be disgraceful in the eyes of those waiting outside the dungeon.
“Hold out until the Master finds a way forward! And stop complaining when all you’re doing is landing the finishing blow on what Illinois has already shredded!”
“Well, I mean, yeah, but…”
Reality wasn’t a game.
Just because a high-ranking Hunter had already weakened a monster didn’t mean that landing the last hit would grant them extra experience.
But what about the Tower Coins?
They still didn’t know exactly how to use them, but countless people were investing vast sums based solely on the belief that “one day, they would be useful.”
“If you’re not going to fight, step aside! I’m hunting!”
Every Hunter had to claim their own share.
At first, Illinois had annihilated everything with its bombardments, but gradually, it began dealing just enough damage for the Hunters to finish off the ghosts themselves.
At first, it was exhilarating.
They barely had to lift a finger, yet their Tower Coins and achievements kept increasing.
Even if it was just a number, the footage captured by drones would bolster their public image, making them heroes in the eyes of those watching outside the Tower.
Still, it would be nice if this were over soon—
Flash.
“Huh?!”
“The Safe Zone…?”
The green light that had been shimmering on Illinois’ deck began to flicker.
Then, it pointed in a certain direction, where a new area lit up with the same green glow.
“The back of the ship…?”
“The deck isn’t safe anymore?”
“Should we head for the railing or the stern— Whoa, whoa?!”
Rumble.
Illinois suddenly picked up speed.
At the same time, the ship began to tilt to one side.
“T-The ship?!”
“Are we… running aground?!”
The vessel was slipping.
Though Illinois continued moving forward, its entire hull was tilting to the right.
“I knew it! This is part of the strategy…!”
“Run to the Green Zone!!”
One of the Hunters shouted urgently.
“Just trust it and get to the Green Zone! And hold onto something—tight!”
“W-Why?!”
“I don’t know! Just trust me and hold on! You think the Master would try to kill us all?!”
Should they trust the Master?
Or should they rely on their own instincts, honed through countless life-or-death struggles?
“Ughhh!!”
Both.
The Hunters chose to trust both the Master and their own intuition.
“Screw it, whatever happens, happens! No way they’d just kill us off!”
Even as doubt flickered in their minds, they could tell what was happening.
Illinois was slipping toward what seemed like an abyss, its hull gradually tilting downward.
The green light marking the Safe Zone clearly indicated the ship’s intended path.
Rushing water roared around them.
Illinois wasn’t just tilting—it was riding the current, leaning into the flow as if deliberately steering itself down a massive, cascading waterfall.
“W-What the hell?!”
And then—
Whoosh!
The Hunters felt something… off.
“What’s going on…?”
“Hold on tight!!”
By all logic, the ship should have been plummeting straight down the waterfall.
Yet, as soon as Illinois tilted past a certain threshold, it suddenly felt as if it were sailing normally across a level horizon.
As if space itself had flipped.
What had been a wall just moments ago had now become the ground beneath their feet.
“Are we… sailing normally…?”
“This is insane…”
The Hunters were stunned.
Though their bodies still felt the pull of gravity dragging them downward, Illinois moved forward at full speed, as though unaffected.
And then—
Below them, in the depths of what should have been an abyss, something golden shimmered.
A gate.
Positioned perfectly opposite the one they had entered from, it gleamed at the bottom of the waterfall-like current, waiting.
And Illinois—
The battleship tilted its hull once more.
It was preparing to drift straight toward the gate.
“…No way, right?”
Whoosh.
“We’re really heading there…?”
“Oh, merciful gods, please watch over us…”
“Holy…”
“Mom…”
Some prayed.
Some swallowed nervously.
But all of them clung tightly to the railings, bracing themselves.
“For the glory of America!!”
Screeeeech!!
At the very last moment, just before plunging into the abyss, Illinois rode the currents and tilted its entire hull—flipping over completely.
And the Hunters—
Their bodies twisted with the ship, their grips on the railings the only thing keeping them from plummeting into the depths below.
Flash.
Illinois, still inverted, surged forward, its bow slicing through the abyss as it aimed for the transition array to the next stage.
“…!!”
A dizzying moment.
As the Hunters clinging to Illinois reopened their eyes within the dazzling light—
Whoooooosh!
The world had flipped.
A single, unbroken stream of water stretched ahead.
And within that space, they saw it.
Flap. Flap.
Something enormous rising from the abyss.
“…A clione?”
A monstrous clione, easily 30 meters long, was flying up behind Illinois.
But it wasn’t the S-rank boss that shocked the Hunters the most.
“…What the hell is this?”
“This is insane.”
Despite being completely upside down, Illinois was moving across what looked like the ceiling as if it were a racetrack, seamlessly continuing its advance.
Even with its entire hull flipped 180 degrees, it showed no sign of falling due to gravity.
Instead, it aimed its main guns at the enormous clione-like boss.
“This is….”
“Unbelievable.”
BOOOOOOM!
Illinois’ main cannons roared.
* * *
‘Next time, I should install some railings for the Hunters.’
Piloting the inverted Illinois, I kept my fingers pressed on the controls, directing the bombardment at the enemy boss.
On my smartphone screen, Illinois wasn’t flipped at all.
It was simply racing through this abyssal current as if it were just another battlefield.
The only difference was that the Hunters, who had been standing confidently on the deck, were now desperately clinging to railings and structures, as if hanging from a suspension bridge.
‘I feel kind of bad now.’
The silhouettes of the Hunters on the screen were completely upside down.
They clung to Illinois like they were being sucked into the sky by some giant vacuum cleaner, refusing to let go.
Still, at least none of them had fallen.
Everyone here was C-rank or higher, and their grip strength was clearly up to the challenge.
‘I better finish this before they actually drop.’
The massive clione in the sky flapped its wing-like appendages aggressively.
It clearly wasn’t pleased about a being even larger than itself intruding into its domain.
It began gathering energy, preparing some kind of magical bombardment—
BOOOOOOM!
Too late.
Illinois’ main cannons fired first.
And since I was manually controlling them, the boss’s health bar instantly lost a massive chunk.
[?!!!?!!?!]
The smartphone speakers echoed with the boss’s panicked screech.
It wouldn’t have felt any physical impact.
But this wasn’t a normal attack.
This was—
[SCREEEEECH!!]
Like the monstrous carnivorous plant back in Crater Lake National Park.
The one that had tried to lash out with its massive tentacles—
Only to be riddled with bullets and hacked apart by swords.
“Oh dear, what should we do? It seems the boss is quite angry at you, Commander.”
“My apologies, Master. I seem to have drawn its aggro.”
“I get it. It’s not just some game boss—it’s a living, breathing monster.”
[SCREEEEEECH!!]
At the center of the lake, atop a towering stalk, a grotesque flower with four sprawling petals let out a piercing shriek.
Each petal was at least five meters long.
And inside, instead of stamens, a gaping maw lined with razor-sharp teeth roared toward me in fury.
Elaine and Drei had shredded its root-like limbs and riddled its body with bullets.
Yet the monster’s wrath was directed entirely at me.
Understandable.
While an S-rank battle raged on, every other combatant was fighting tooth and nail—
Meanwhile, one man was sitting back, staring at his smartphone, playing what looked like a game.
‘I may be playing, but this isn’t just a game.’
Whoosh.
The clione turned to flee.
I adjusted Illinois’ course, configuring new weapons for pursuit.
“You’re not getting away.”
The weapons weren’t physically mounted on the ship,
But through magic, they had already been integrated into Illinois’ cannons.
Patriot.
Full salvo, fire.
A barrage of magically-enhanced Patriot missiles launched toward the retreating clione.
BOOOOOM!
The screen shook violently.
The boss’s health bar plummeted, leaving it with just 10% remaining.
SCREEEEEECH!
A shriek—strange and haunting.
It sounded like the clione, but… it wasn’t the clione.
“This bastard—!”
The giant carnivorous plant.
It let out a cry eerily similar to the clione’s, trying to sow confusion.
But—
SWOOOOSH!
Elaine’s sword strike cleaved through its trunk, splitting its massive body nearly in half.
The monstrous plant tilted to the side, beginning to collapse.
SCREEEEEECH.
“Commander!!”
The creature’s immense form began falling toward me, its four-petaled maw gaping wide.
But—
“You dare interrupt me in the middle of a critical fight?”
Without taking my eyes off the screen,
I unleashed Illinois’ final strike at the clione.
BOOOOOOOOM!
A massive explosion.
The clione’s health bar vanished.
And at the same time—
CRASH.
A shadow loomed over me.
The enormous four-petaled head came crashing down.
Maw wide open, ready to devour me whole.
