NoveLight ™
"…Tch, nothing to do."
Inside the factory, still in the middle of combat.
Hundreds of Shadows roamed around, disabling the factory’s functions, hacking and taking control of surrounding systems, setting up turrets, and constructing temporary strongholds.
With enemies pouring out endlessly, many users were falling, but before long, reinforcements were continuously arriving through the zipline ropes surrounding the factory.
Amid all of this, Rain had been pushed back a little, trying to conserve her strength as much as possible.
'...Well, I figured she’d pull back, but…'
Before fully engaging in the factory, she’d dealt a blow to the shield that had reactivated, but that was the extent of her actions. To fully convert the factory into a railgun, she had to seize control with minimal damage, meaning any tail attack would risk causing a disaster.
For that reason, although she was half-discarded, it didn’t mean she was just sitting idle, wasting time.
"Rain, let’s move. We’ve taken most of the factory, but before the power room self-destructs, we need to secure the surroundings. If the operation ends successfully, there’ll be work to do."
"I’m on my way."
Though she had nothing to do, it wasn’t taking a long time.
Rain started retracing the path the Shadows had gone, looking at the horrific battle scars along the way. Broken walls, countless terrifying scratches on the steel frame, and the destroyed Artemis machines.
But she had come too far to dwell on those feelings. As she moved deeper into the factory, the gunfire grew louder, and the sound slammed into the walls, amplifying into deafening noise that could cause permanent hearing damage to any average person within seconds.
And at the end of that, the ones waiting for her were there.
"Rain, you know how to shoot, right? But you can’t use the railgun."
"I know that much."
"Good. Then let’s go."
Boom!
The massive door opened, and simultaneously, a directional EMP activated, the pulse sweeping across the incoming fire net and sweeping through the area near the power room. Logan and Lorentina, holding shields and file bunkers, along with Eugene, entered first, quickly eliminating the highest-risk enemies.
The tempo was so fast that even Rain had to focus completely to avoid missing anything. She gritted her teeth and followed the three of them, while Kato, Dice, and Harmony, with expressions saying they had expected this, provided fire support for the others.
Bullets rained down from all directions, and each time they hit the Icarus shields, the air shimmered with a blue glow. The shields occasionally broke, but the sheer number of users made it insignificant. The internal structure, which had been moving and transforming quickly, suddenly stopped, spewing smoke.
There was no resistance. To be more precise, there was resistance, but the sheer force of numbers buried it.
About five minutes later, the combat itself began to quiet down.
That was when Eugene called for Rain.
"Are you ready, Rain?"
"…I’m allowed to mess with this, right?"
"Of course. I’ve checked everything, and all the factory platforms operate individually by default. Artemis might try to infiltrate through their network, but they won’t be able to access it directly through the terminals."
Well, who knows.
But one thing was certain: there was no one who could resist turning all of the factory’s available resources into a railgun blast, and that included Rain.
As she placed her hand on the panel, hundreds of pop-up windows and several times that number of commands flooded her screen. A flood of data rushed into the storage device, including blueprints of the factory platform and designs for various weapons.
But she didn’t need to worry about the trivial things. At that moment, the platform’s internal scanning function activated, and Rain’s tail was scanned from start to finish. All the pop-ups were erased except for one.
The answer was already decided.
Rain nodded, and simultaneously, the entire factory platform began to vibrate. Red and blue-colored areas indicating possible movements and areas set for modification appeared. Hundreds of users, wide-eyed, started fleeing, but unfortunately, this was just the beginning.
The rear wall of the factory, which Lorentina and Harmony had crashed into, opened completely, and a massive circular pipe, which they had assumed was part of the factory’s skeleton, tilted and began to spin, locking into place.
Power was connected, and control was handed over to Rain. The enormous recoil control system formed, resembling train tracks. It was a preparation to withstand the massive recoil.
"This thing, does it only work if Rain’s here?"
"Well, maybe, but that’s not really the point. Put it another way: as long as I’m here, we can extract the maximum efficiency, right?"
"That’s not wrong. In that case, let’s get back to work."
The factory walls continued to fold and open to widen the railgun’s firing angle.
Soon, the fresh air of Georgia began to rush into the factory, replacing the metallic, weaponized atmosphere inside. Clear sunlight also poured in.
One, two, three... In the distance, countless factory platforms appeared. As Rain counted them, she began to figure out which ones needed to be destroyed, but Eugene shook his head and pointed out the first target’s location.
Mecha Eugene - Version Omega.
The goal from the start was to neutralize the ion cannon that had once eradicated Eugene’s team on the ground.
"Check the firing angle and load the shells. How long will it take to load?"
"Loading the shells won’t take long, but the problem is the power charge. We’ll need about 3 minutes for the next shot… but if we alternate between the factory’s power source and me, we can cut it in half."
"Alright. Let’s give it a shot."
Whooooosh!
The distance to Savannah was 67 km. But according to Rain’s calculations, it was no problem at all.
Five minutes passed quickly, and the huge railgun, perfectly assembled through an unbelievably complex process, looked more like a howitzer. However, the dozens of power cables connected to it and the lights shining from everywhere proved it was no mere howitzer.
Rain pushed her tail to the end of the railgun and, with half-kneeled, took full control of it. The turret slowly rotated, adjusting by millimeters to precisely aim at the Savannah control tower.
Power charging started, and LED lights, ten in total, began lighting up one by one, signaling the preparation for launch.
Eugene, watching the scene, spoke up.
"Let’s give the third one a taste of the hot stuff."
"...Here it comes!"
Boom!
In an instant, a bright blue light filled the screen, followed by a weak burst of smoke and significant recoil.
The railgun turret was pushed back, but the massive shell flew off, leaving a blue line in its wake. According to Rain’s previous calculations, it would hit the target in about 7 seconds.
And how much time passed?
"...Hit! I can see the sparks from the Savannah control tower!"
"Good. Since it’s a hit, let’s leave the rest to our second rookie. Let’s clean up the ones ahead first."
Lorentina, pointing with her outstretched hand, led the way.
Like a train line, factory platforms stretched in rows, moving 500 meters or 1 km at a time. The railgun slowly turned toward this massive target, one that Rain could hit with her eyes closed.
With a face that showed pure joy, Rain looked at her target, almost like cutting a piece of cake.
"You wouldn’t say you’re unsure, right?"
"Of course not."
With the charging power for the next railgun shot already beginning, Rain adjusted the aim to the optimal angle for maximum destruction.
That day, the Artemis factory platform received three skulls.
"Not much left until Savannah now. Do you think we can solve everything with the forward base alone?"
"That’s the kind of thing you’d expect from someone like an archetype. Thanks to that, the time has come for us to make a decision."
"...Why are you saying that to me while tying me up?!"
"Because I’m jealous."
And so, the viewers' usual mischief continued.
Anyway, it was finally over. The factory raid today, which had been several times wilder than yesterday's, was finally coming to an end. I had just glanced at Olivia asking, "What on earth are you all doing?" I don’t know. It was probably when Shark and Polar Bear got involved.
And true to her word, Harmony’s expression today was like someone who had burned everything to the ground. Sitting on the couch, she had a "ugh" expression on her face, absentmindedly fiddling with Rain’s tail.
Of course, Rain’s body was wrapped up by Jin’s tail. Everyone’s situation had turned into chaos.
"It’s been quite fun after a long time. I never thought I’d be flying in the sky on a bike."
"I’m not doing that crazy thing. If it were me, I’d just ride a tank around."
"Next time, I want to go with Logan...!"
"Hey, don’t call me ‘big sis.’ It’s embarrassing."
"Hee-eung."
Minah, who was trying to cling, was decisively cut off.
Anyway, the work for today was done, and the fact that everyone was standing here in one piece meant they had done a good job today. They could proudly add a line to their resumes for life. Of course, the official career would start in about two weeks, but…
What did that mean? Harmony and Dice’s departure for the US was fast approaching.
That’s why the topic naturally shifted toward that.
"Looks like our young newbies, who’ve grown up well, will be coming here soon. Are you ready?"
"Ugh… ehh…"
"Well, now that Logan and the newbie have stepped back, it’s finally time for all of you. Dice, isn’t it time for you to take first place?"
"...I should, yeah. Honestly, I don’t know if I’ve prepared more than others, but the one thing I know for sure is I’ve prepared everything others couldn’t."
"What about our Minah?"
Finally, this guy is calling Minah’s name properly.
As Logan and Lorentina started playfully teasing my disciples, who were now starting to catch their attention, I quietly moved aside with the Mecha rookies and began to summarize the results of today’s operation.
In-game time: 3 hours. During that time, the number of railgun shots fired exceeded 60, and roughly 30 platforms within range were completely destroyed. The reason they couldn’t break them all was due to the terrain, as more than half of the platforms were obscured.
Jin, who had been quietly observing, spoke first.
"Well, we’ll probably start rushing in now that we have some breathing room. Gamers like to feel joy in reducing time more than having space to relax, so from tomorrow onwards, the platforms will start breaking even without us having to intervene."
"Ugh, I was hoping to get some rest."
Rest might have to wait until after the third one is captured.
Technically, right now, this world wasn’t official, so who knows what might happen after the third one is caught... but, whatever, that’s not for me to worry about. By that time, I’ll probably be having lunch with Henry in New York.
Wait, now that I think about it, it might be Washington D.C. by then. His inauguration is on January 20th next year, so he might be in the middle of the handover process. I doubt he’d need it, though.
I heard that they were making sure the CDC is prepared, just in case some virus reemerges. The Omega virus outbreak a week after his inauguration was a bit much, after all.
Anyway, after chatting about this and that, the second target for our two avatars was none other than Kato.
"Seeing you move pretty quickly today, is the new rookie yours?"
"Well, that’s…"
"Aren’t you joining the final championship? Quite surprising. Dice and Harmony are meeting up in the northern part of New York. They’ll be joining the operation, so let’s let them experience the New York air."
"I’ll… I’ll go."
"Don’t say it like we’re forcing you. Relax."
Ah.
I hadn’t thought about that.