Rust - Chapter 947



Only Krnovel

RUST -947

Drones and crow units, which had raised their altitude to avoid the biological EMP generated by the ant colony, began bombing.

Within hours, tens of millions of ants were reduced to charcoal by attacks that poured in nuclear grenades and napalm.

The entire atmosphere was on fire, and the ground that was still covered in ice was boiling. Despite the overwhelming firepower, the ants did not run away, but advanced.

Although the blazing flames and hot steam might seem terrifying, the ants moved forward mechanically, seemingly unaware of the fear of death.

“These ant bitches are weird.”

“Oh, right. Why are you doing that?”

Did you take any medicine?

You’re pushing in even though you’re about to die?

It seemed like the will to survive and the fear to live that all living things should have were weakened. It was just a cycle of pushing forward and dying over and over again.

Die.

Die.

And die again.

The deaths piled up and piled up, eventually breaking through the seething mud from napalm fire and nuclear grenades.

Kim Yang tilted her head in confusion at the persistent and desperate march, and the corners of her mouth rose. The nurse held her breath at Kim Yang’s strange expression.

“Don’t stop bombing, keep going. Artillery fire begins.”

[Chiiik- The entire battery- Simultaneous artillery fire!]

At the same time, 155mm shells flew in and began to explode. If people had been gathered like that, it would have been a barrage that would have torn apart a battalion unit, but they weren’t ants.

“It’s weak to fire, but strong against shock and shrapnel? Huh-”

[Chick – The bombardment effect is not as great as expected.]

Certainly the ants advanced, almost half ignoring the bombardment.

“It doesn’t matter. Just keep hitting until you’ve used up all your shells.”

[Beep- Fire all bullets without leaving any residue!]

The most effective were nuclear grenade bombs, followed by new napalm.

‘I still have over 30km to go, so I should try other things too.’

“Bomb the VX nerve gas tanks and switch the batteries to cluster bombs.”

[Chii- Replaced with 155mm cluster bombs. Begin shelling!]

If the effect of regular high-explosive shells is weak, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to try using other shells. Kim Yang started using various shells to attack the ant colony and acquire related data.

‘Huh – that’s weird.’

They’re dying. They’re dying from nerve gas and pesticides. They’re being torn apart by artillery fire, but they’re still advancing?

‘I thought you were going to dig a hole and hide.’

I knew how to approach the tunnel and worked hard to create a defensive line underground, but the ants were just advancing while getting beaten up.

Kim Yang tilted his head again after seeing the footage of drones and crows attacking each other.

‘I can’t even see an ant.’

I thought the ants would send winged ones too since they were bombing with drones and crows, but they just got beaten up.

‘Huh- well. If you keep getting hit, you’ll probably get a reaction.’

huh-

“Don’t stop and keep shooting. If you have any bullets left, just leave them behind and run away.”

[Chiiik- Yeah!]

‧

The ants swarmed relentlessly, but Kim Yang’s attacks were more persistent.

As the ants, pounded by 155mm self-propelled guns and bombs, approached within 15km, 120mm mortars awaited them.

The 120mm mortar, which had a range of about 12km, was improved with new technology to extend its range to 15km. The self-propelled mortar unit positioned between the 155mm self-propelled artillery battalions began to fire.

“Fire the railgun.”

[Chiiik- Start firing!]

Between the bombing, 155mm shells, and 120mm mortar rounds, 20mm railguns began to slam straight into the ground. Kkirrik- kirrik- a swarm of ants, roasted, fried, and pierced before their chitinous shells could even collide with each other.

The overwhelming sight of hundreds of thousands of units being erased like an eraser appeared on the monitor. Kim Yang nodded with a solemn expression.

“When they get within 10km, back off a little before they reach the bio-EMP range.”

[Okay – Okay.]

“Ah- Also- But why do they come in a straight line even though they are hit so one-sidedly? The ants are smart too.”

“In the face of overwhelming firepower, there’s no point in using medicine or a weapon. Yeah.”

Although he answered like that, Kim Yang also knew from the beginning that something was strange.

“It’s no use if they come near. They’ll be met with a barrage of fire from our army.”

The main force of the current punitive force was the new exosuit and the unit armed with the core armor. In other words, the self-propelled artillery and self-propelled mortar that are showing off their firepower now are not the core force, but the railgun, coilgun, laser, and rocket launcher.

If they get any closer, just retreat slowly and pour down your firepower.

Hmm-

Kim Yang, who was leisurely observing the situation, saw a video sent from a stratospheric reconnaissance airship. It was a video of a black cloud suddenly appearing and splitting into two.

“huh?”

“Huh?”

A black cloud appears to be approaching, moving rapidly from left to right in two semicircles.

“Zoom in on the video. Confirm with drone and crow!”

While the assistant AI was expanding the black cloud, the drone that approached the black cloud crashed in an instant. The crows with reconnaissance cameras on their necks also seemed confused and avoided the direction.

[Chiik- The reconnaissance drone has crashed!]

[The Crow Scouts retreat.]

“Eeeeeee- Wings? Where did they suddenly come from?”

“Stop talking nonsense and keep your mouth shut.”

The stratospheric airship was looking at a radius of about 150 to 200 kilometers. Then, it suddenly appeared out of nowhere?

Kim Yang immediately realized what was happening. He had killed a swarm of ants in the tens of millions so far, and they were all bait. The firepower was concentrated in the front, and the winged ants had taken a detour through the tunnels and were targeting the left and right.

‘Did they notice that I prepared for the tunnel?’

When fighting ants, it was natural to prepare for tunnels. When building a base, we prepared for tunnels, but they were sending out wings outside the tunnel preparation line.

‘But still, you’re using tens of millions as bait?’

The calculation methods of humans and ants are completely different.

‧

‧

‧

Na Ju-yeon was observing the isolation room.

“What about the brainwaves? You must be using mental waves, right?”

“Yes. As you expected, it is emitting psychic waves.”

The case of Dr. Jack Neese, who died after being brainwashed, was an opportunity to confirm the hypothesis that prolonged contact with a being with psychic abilities would result in the ability to communicate through psychic waves.

It was the remains of Joseph Meyer who had been cautious for several days even though he had Ki-soon in the next room, and then secretly used the psychic wave.

“What happened to copying the mental waves?”

“It’s still difficult.”

When Maru and Kisun were conducting an operation to attack their stronghold in Japan, there was evidence that they were able to communicate with each other despite the communication being cut off by the volcanic ash and dust.

Kisun reached the Kyushu stronghold first, and as a result of negotiations, the stronghold that Maru and Roy Stern were planning to attack was not actively fighting against.

Na Ju-yeon immediately thought of the ability of telepathy. She could exert control over lower-level entities, whether they were cannibals or vampires.

Although up until now they have only exercised dominance over relatively short distances, it would not be surprising if there were individuals whose abilities had changed to enable them to exercise dominance over long distances.

And if you interpret the dominance as a kind of psychic ability, then there is a hypothesis that it can be used in the same way as long-distance telepathy.

What happens when the hypothesis that prolonged exposure to psychic influence can result in psychic abilities is combined with the hypothesis that it can be used as long-distance telepathy?

Ki-soon already had emotional abilities. What if the ability to see the emotions of others was added to the ability to have psychic abilities?

‘It might be the ability to not only see the other person’s emotions, but also to touch them.’

It wouldn’t be a bad situation for Ki-sun if he could remotely control the emotions of his target, or even if that wasn’t the case, if he had telepathic abilities.

If the results of the experiment show that your emotional abilities change or that you have things like psychic waves or telepathy, then it could be changed to probation.

Because they were not artificial intelligences that would maintain the decision to freeze resources capable of long-distance telepathy.

‘I hope the research goes well.’

From eavesdropping on mental waves, awakening mental waves, long-distance telepathy, to the possibility of transforming Ki-soon’s emotional abilities. This was her chance.

‘If it’s Ki-soon, he would have guessed. Since he didn’t say anything, I guess he tacitly agreed.’

It was the same when I got infected with barnacles. At that time, they helped me much better than I expected. They were also very patient. The timing was definitely good···.

“There has been an increase in mental waves on Joseph’s side.”

“Write it down without missing a single one.”

As the data accumulates, we will eventually be able to understand the meaning of the mental waves.

‧

‧

‧

Maru was taking a short break as he had been running wild while exhausted from death and was mentally exhausted from the Ki-sun incident.

Although I was worried about the ant colony’s attack being faster than expected, I trusted Mr. Kim, who was confident that he had 155mm self-propelled howitzers and 120mm self-propelled mortar units.

Although he said he was resting, Maru had complicated thoughts. There was also the AI’s judgment and the issue of moving to the water city.

As originally planned, the conditions for living in the floating city were to be given priority to researchers, technicians, and their immediate families, with the remainder to be limited to military personnel and their immediate families.

The problem was that the size of the floating city was set quite large. A floating city larger than Jeju Island could easily accommodate a population of ten million.

In comparison, the current population of the Holy Kingdom did not exceed five million. The population of Michigan, centered around Detroit, was around one million. The rest were Koreans, including the regeneration and growth units that had immigrated from Canada and Korea.

If we were to filter out the immigrant population as the first condition here, it would not have been easy to get even 1.5 million. In a city that could handle 10 million people, only 1.5 million people or less would be able to enter.

“What happened to the people who were supposed to move in?”

[The researchers’ immediate families are currently preparing for relocation. The relocation of the soldiers and their immediate families is planned to take place after this suppression operation.]

After the ant and spider extermination operation, it was reported by AI Diana that they would start migrating while giving them a vacation.

[The results of the calculation showed that in order to smoothly function as a floating city, the number of robots with assistive artificial intelligence should be increased.]

“Are there really that few people?”

[Yes. If we only look at the current target group, it is difficult to maintain infrastructure and secure quality living services.]

“It’s difficult.”

The problem could not be solved simply by increasing the number of AI robots. Even if robots cooked, there were bound to be people who wanted to eat food prepared by human chefs.

The same goes for other service areas. There were quite a few people who wanted face-to-face human services, such as health trainers, swimming instructors, and Pilates instructors.

Because in Detroit and Windsor in the Holy Kingdom, such living services were starting again.

The Sacred Kingdom was still a stable place, with many famous chefs, including Breadsoonie Roana Blanc, starting to gain popularity again, despite the threat of the apocalypse.

Diana confirmed Maru’s monologue.

Humans were difficult beings. Isn’t food something that can be made according to a recipe? What difference does it make whether it is made by humans or robots? If the ingredients are the same, the food will have a uniform taste. There was no problem.

But humans were different. They were difficult to understand and picky, saying that the taste changed depending on humidity, water, and the taste of the hands.

Food made by robots is considered low- to mid-priced food. Food made by human chefs is considered high-priced food. What is the standard?

It was the same in other living services. It was also difficult for AI Diana to understand why people preferred to be guided by a human instructor rather than a robot trainer.

The same goes for meat. The Holy Kingdom has secured the highest level of cultured meat and alternative meat technology. It means that they can cultivate beef, pork, and chicken of uniform quality. In other words, they are producing the highest grade meat.

However, people with high income levels prefer meat that is uneconomical and difficult to manage in terms of meat quality, such as pasture-raised beef, pork fed organic barley, and welfare-raised chicken.

[A report has come in from the punitive force.]

Diana uploaded the battle report that Kim Yang had sent. Maru’s forehead wrinkled as he confirmed the battle report.

“A bypass attack with wings?”

These ants used a method of concentrating a large number of troops at the front, digging tunnels to approach and launching winged ants at close range to attack encircle them.

Kim Yang also knew that ants have the habit of digging holes and have winged wings, so he must have prepared countermeasures. However, the number of ants continued to increase.

“The composition of the troops is strange. Check the ratio of ants to winged beasts.”

[It was confirmed that the number of winged ants was greater.]

Why did you pluck out so many of the ant larvae’s wings?

Maru’s eyes sank heavily.