Above Your Head

“So I can transport a little less than 200 million people at a time…”

Kiiiing!

Click!

I had Napoleon enter standby mode. After kneeling on the ground with one of its knees, Napoleon finally came to a stop. Then, the cockpit turned into the Throne of Honor.

Gwwoooo--!                                                                                   

My depleted stamina and spiritual power rapidly filled. Previously, it felt as if someone was stirring my head with a ladle, but my headache disappeared as soon as the throne appeared. I was quickly restored to my best condition.

- You are currently Challenger rank.

- The rank is decreased to Master rank due to the power consumption!

The rank barely remained Grandmaster, then finally fell down all the way to Master rank. Considering that the total amount of power varies greatly from rank to rank, the rate of falling would only hasten as time went by.

“If I could restore Napoleon’s Iron Heart, I wouldn’t even mind dropping all the way to unranked.”

Iron Hearts could produce an infinite amount of power without any consumption, but there were naturally limitations on how much it could produce in a given amount of time. Currently, all the stored magical energy had been completely exhausted. Production of energy was still ongoing, but it would take a considerable amount of time to recover enough energy to continue the bombardment.

“The Dragon Heart is still alive and kicking, but it’s hard to use.”

I had put in a lot of effort, but I still could not freely utilize the Dragon Heart’s magic. The progress of the sculpting was still only at 25%. Moreover, I could only decipher the progress by looking at its title, but I was oblivious as to its overall structure or principle.

Captain, I’ve finished preparing.

“Perfect timing. Put this body to sleep.

It looks to be in bad condition. I will proceed with disinfection and a change of clothes as well.

I shifted my consciousness to the Unique World while listening to Genie’s words. I arrived at a large building, which was originally a factory used to manufacture parts of Eden. It had been put aside for some time, then refitted as an emergency hospital.

Bed and patients were littered all over the place, and the stench of blood attacked one’s sense of smell. I transformed Shadow Stalker from a watch to a pistol. In the meantime, some patients were moved into the room after being given basic treatment in the emergency room. However, emergency treatment was literally emergency treatment.

All of them were in critical condition and required major surgery. If they were left untreated, they would die for sure.

I pulled the trigger of Shadow Stalker at them.

Click! Click! Click! Click! Click!

I fired recklessly. Obviously, I wasn’t trying to end their misery by killing them. People who were hit by the bullets were frozen in time. As such, I suspended the time of about 1,500 of the patients who were in most critical conditions.

“All out of bullets! Rest is for tomorrow!”

I will take care of it.

The beds carrying the remainder of the critical patients were moved back downstairs. I walked along with them.

“Team 23 is finished! Where to next?”

“The seriously wounded on the second floor, please! We don’t have enough equipment, so please perform emergency treatments to keep them alive!”

“Yes!”

I could see people busily running around while shouting loudly. Medical workers approached the patients lying on the beds, which were arranged at intervals. They provided treatment to the best of their abilities, and kept the injured alive by giving emergency treatment.

Wiiing!

Click! Wiiing!

The beds were controlled by Genie. They automatically classified the patients’ conditions and moved accordingly. Patients needing immediate treatment were transferred to the emergency room on the first floor, and patients in critical conditions, those whose conditions would worsen if left alone, were placed in the intensive care units on the second floor.

Patients without serious injuries were transported to the building located next door and placed into respective rooms. Among those who entered the Unique World, those without injuries, so the low-level players, were being utilized as support staff to help other patients or assist the medical staff.

“Let’s see. I had about 90,000 people brought into the Unique World at first.’

The number of people brought in thereafter was only a little bit more. Same thing happened afterwards. But in fact, that wasn’t even close to the number of people I could have brought into the Unique World. If I wanted, I could have brought in hundreds of thousands, or even up to a million people.

But why did I not do that?

‘Because we don’t have enough resources.’

Bringing people into the Unique World did not solve all the problems. Fundamentally, the Unique World was composed of metals, and was an unsuitable place for life to survive and thrive. As such, I limited the number of humans and brought in as much water as possible. Metals, wood, stone, and soil could be purchased from the vending machine, but it didn’t sell any water.

But now, an additional 200 million people had suddenly entered the Unique World – most of them seriously injured! It was rather natural that the entire world would be turned upside down.

The majority of residents in the Unique World were mobilized for treatment, since it was impossible for the unmanned hospital in Center City to handle all of the medical services perfectly with the new additions.

“Suture complete! Do we have a brace anywhere? A brace?”

“Where would you find something like that! There’s some splints over there. Use a bandage and wrap around it!”

“What kind of a world are we living in? A splint and a bandage…”

“Ugh! I’m losing concentration. Is it possible to change shifts?”

“How many patients do you think there are? Take some pills and hold on!”

“Don’t let them die! Don’t try to treat everyone. Focus on keeping them alive for now!”

The medical staff shouted as they worked. They quickly treated the patients, moved them to temporary accommodations, treated others, and moved them to appropriate buildings.

After the patients were classified,

”Freezer #130 clear! Last inspection please!”

“Make sure to manage the personnel! We don’t want anyone left in there!”

A wizard checked the conditions of the patients at the entrance of the building, then manipulated a device on his arm as he exited the building.

Pushhhkk-!

The huge building was depressurizing.

Freezer #130. Completely isolated. Activating Ice Age.

Ten thousand humans were frozen simultaneously. They were people who had been successfully stabilized with simple surgery and treatment but were still in ambiguous conditions. They couldn’t move around and perform their duties.

“Freezing them…”

“That’s a hell of a scale.”

“Even so, that’s only 1.3 million people. When will we take care of the remaining people…?”

There was only one reason behind freezing the people.

Lack of resources.

To be exact, there was a shortage of water. The Unique World was home to only hundreds of thousands of people, and it wasn’t suitable for billions to stay in. If we did not take drastic measures, countless people would die of thirst.

“Come on! Let’s continue! We still have a lot of work to do!”

“This is about saving people! We can do this!”

The people encouraged each other before returning to their work. I observed them for a moment before exiting the crowd.

“Well.”

A sigh escaped my lips.

“Even though the Unique World is so big now, it can only embrace a handful of people.”

That’s because your attributes are metal and lightning. The reason this world was able to grow this fast is because we have so much metal. Aren’t you complaining too much?

“Ares.”

A muscular man with gray hair appeared in front of my eyes. I had not seen the avatar in a while.

“Well, you’re not wrong. It was possible to build a city this big because we had plenty of metals.”

The Unique World had become SS rank. Naturally, it was subjected to a tremendous change. The number of humans that could be brought in increased to nearly 200 million every 24 hours, and the planet itself had grown tremendously. The cities fell into chaos due to the changes, since all of the cities, including Center City, were basically floating on top of a sea of metal.

The increased size of the large planet was,

It is 4,000 kilometers in diameter.

“It’s bigger than the moon.”

Considering that the moon was 3,474 kilometers in diameter, the Unique World had truly grown to an enormous size. It was no longer comparable to continents, but rather satellite planets.

There’s something else that’s changed as well.

“There’s more? What is it?”

…anyways.

Ares squinted at me. He looked rather unhappy.

You’ve been having fun without me recently, haven’t you?

“How could you consider a massive battle to be a game?”

Do you not know who I am?

“Ah.”

I could not quite refute Ares’ words. Come to think of it, wasn’t Ares the God of War? Given the chaotic nature of the highest difficulty, it was quite naturally that he would be burning up while watching from the sides.

Well, it doesn’t matter. With the Unique World getting bigger, I figured out a way.

“So what is it?”

You will find out soon enough. I’ve already finished the initial stages. So this was my fate from the beginning. I didn’t expect to go to war in the stage.

I asked a few more times to see why he was so excited, but he kept his mouth shut until the end.

Anyways.

The day quickly passed.

I brought in another 200 million people from the stage. This time, only half of them were injured. Most of them were still in good physical condition, so I had them work for a day before having them voluntarily step into the freezer. Some people refused to be frozen, but I gave them the choice of either returning to the stage or being frozen, they quickly became obedient. It appeared that the bloody battlefield was more feared than the rapid freezing.

Another day passed.

I brought in another 200 million people.

This time around, there were only a few who were seriously injured. Most of them were in relatively good condition. I started at the farthest group from the castle, the Last Bastion, and brought them in. Those who wanted to fight were given new equipment before being sent back to the stage, and those who did not want to fight were placed in the freezer.

I brought in another 200 million people.

There were some additional people this time around. I was referring to the people who weren’t a part of the original billion that entered the stage. They were players who entered the stage from the Cradle of Justice. Some of them performed brilliantly, while others underestimated the stage after only seeing it on video.

Another day passed.

I brought in another 200 million people.

Again, another day passed.

While recruiting applicants to enter the Unique World, I realized that there were less than 200 million applicants this time around. Finally, the Last Bastion was filled with only 100,000 of the elites. Under the rule that the number of spawned enemies will be proportional to the number of players gathered, the Death Knights’ regeneration speed was also reduced to 100,000 per hour.

The progress of the stage started to slow down.

A day passed.

Another day passed.

One week passed.

One month passed.

One year passed.

Obviously, there were casualties in the battles. Even though humanity was fighting in an advantageous environment and the injured were quickly retrieved, the enemies were strong. It could not be helped.

But at the least, the frequency of injuries and deaths gradually decreased. Above all, the players were becoming accustomed to the siege.

Dudududududu!!

Boom!!

Kieeeeng—Boom!

The shots fired form the castle wall devastated the outside. Players positioned on the wall blocked the Death Knights attempting to climb the walls. When the players became fatigued, they switched with the personnel from inside the Unique World at a fixed time. A new wall of steel was erected inside the Last Bastion. It was more complete and durable compared to before. The previous wall had been much too big, since it was being used by 1 million to 10 million players.

10,000 players were left on the stage.

The progression of the highest difficulty of level 14 became even slower.

At one point, Genie suddenly asked.

Captain-nim, please collect all the drops.

“What? We’re not suffering from a huge shortage anymore, right? It’s not even tasty, and I think it might be a bit too much to eat.”

The Unique World had faced a problem of supplies at one point, but it was solved after freezing all the surplus manpower. But Genie seemed to have different purposes in mind.

You can collect everything and bring it into the Unique World.

“But it disappears over time.”

It was possible to transfer food and water from the stage to the Unique World while consuming the allocated transfer quota. I had done it a few times before as well. However, the supplies disappeared over time as the stage updated itself. In other words, it was impossible to store the supplies.

But Genie continued.

We can just have them consume it all. Urine and feces do not disappear.

“…..”

I realized.

Genie’s thrifty, frugal, sim city had booted up once more.

It would be on an entirely different scale from what it had been until now.