D.I.O

Chapter 203

Smoke rose from various parts of the city. Accompanied by deafening explosions, buildings collapsed, and mechanical robots busily searched for their next human targets.

“Eek!”

A man holed up in a building screamed. He locked the front door and hid while staying completely silent, but soon, a mechanical robot soldier standing around two meters tall smashed through a wall and broke in. The robot was holding a gun it had obtained from one of its targets. While the T-41 model had its own weapon, its programming directed it to take such action when it ran out of ammunition.

“Someone… s-save me….”

The man implored the robot for mercy, but that didn’t affect the T-series mechanical robot. After all, even the Legion didn’t recognize this mech as its own [Species].

Bang!

Accompanied by a loud noise, the man’s head blew up into smithereens. Then, the space behind the mechanical robot shuddered and opened as if it had been waiting for this moment.

Whirl!

Two magic circles with a diameter of about three meters floated in the air. They stayed there for a while, shedding a soft white light before turning into a single circular sphere, which soon burst like a water droplet and spat out two young men.

“Fuck. What kind of mission needs to be conducted in such a hurry?”

“Still, compared to the difficulty level, they’re giving us a lot of gem points. Oh, is that the objective?”

The men's clothing wasn’t the kind that could be seen in reality, but most, if not all, people would find it familiar. As he wielded a Bastard Sword while wearing plate armor, one of the men wielded equipment that people often wore in the Middle Ages. Furthermore, this warrior was a Westerner, making the image all the more believable. It was as if he’d just jumped out of a medieval fantasy movie. Yet, uncaring of its opponent’s wardrobe, the T-series mechanical robot started to move.

Bang! Bang! Bang!

The mechanical robot tried to fire as it aimed at the man, but the bullets fell helplessly to the floor, unable to pierce the force field surrounding its target, let alone get to his plate armor. The man was employing a type of defensive barrier that absorbed kinetic energy.

Crack!

Immediately after, the man’s Bastard Sword shattered the mechanical robot. The other man, dressed in mage garb, started to complain.

“Hey, you idiot! Don’t break it! Something like that can sell for over five gold!”

“Oh, right… Hey, but now that we’re Level 10, do we have to be so careful over a pitiful five gold?”

“You need to save to live well, idiot… huh?”

As the man berated his party member, a noise like a camera flash sounded out, and a beam of light rushed in after blowing up an entire wall. It was truly a surprise attack, but to users accustomed to various abrupt situations, this wasn’t particularly shocking.

Crackle!

A defensive barrier appeared in front of the two users and blocked the light energy attack. Of course, the shield would break if it were hit by force exceeding a certain limit, but right now, the defensive barrier could handle the oncoming attack’s power level.

“Oh, they’re weak. Probably Level 5 or 6 at best?”

“Mech robots. They’re vulnerable to physical strikes and electricity-based attacks.”

Crackle! Pop!

The warrior grasped his sword, and the mage started casting thunderbolt spells. Although the mechanical robot soldiers were extremely dangerous for modern humans, a single Master could easily defeat a whole army of these robots. Moreover, the mechanical soldiers possessed limited armaments and size, as they were made to be [at or around the level of a modern human’s capability]. Hence, these mechanical robots were no match for the two users.

“How long do we have left?”

“Almost done… Huh?”

At that moment, the mage frowned. It wasn’t because of the bodies scattered everywhere. After all, the users had experienced many encounters with death, and the system’s defensive barriers also protected their minds. However, what puzzled the mage was the fact that the surroundings looked oddly familiar. The city was already in ruins, but he recognized what remained.

“What’s the matter?”

“I… know this place,” the mage muttered to the puzzled warrior.

“You know this place?”

“This… This is the city square with the Liberation Monument. It’s located in the central region of China; I came here when I last visited the country.”

“What are you talking about? This mission’s map is based on Earth?”

The mage tilted his head as his frown deepened. He heard moans from between the collapsed buildings.

“Oh, is that Alaska? What the heck? Are we in-game?”

“… Do you recognize me?”

Alaska was a male mage and a popular user who MC’d for a game broadcasting channel that focused mainly on DIO. When he came upon this unexpected situation, he groaned. In his eyes, the injured man was marked as an [NPC].

“Hey, what is that guy talking about?”

“You don’t understand? Ah, right… You didn’t input Chinese into your interpreter. No… wait….”

Alaska had accumulated enormous amounts of knowledge and entered the realm of an archmage, and he fell into a state of shock and chaos.

“What the hell? What’s going on?”

This sort of situation was happening worldwide. Although Master users traveled all over the universe to conduct missions, it was impossible not to recognize the world they lived in. Even if they considered everything as just a game, the Masters, and the tremendous power they exerted in real life, left a strong impression on the human survivors.

However, this realization wasn’t something immediately apparent to everyone.

‘An EMP, or an Electromagnetic Pulse, attack. They shut down all the electronics around me.’

Yongno- no, Merlin threw away the smartphone he had picked up. The circuit was burnt out, and recovery seemed impossible.

‘Why? Even if they didn’t paralyze our electronic systems and devices, they have the power to wipe out humanity. Are they trying to prevent humans from fleeing in cars?’

Merlin stopped walking. He slowly advanced and unraveled his thoughts and came up with several hypotheses.

1. To prevent the filming of videos and to restrict contact with the outside world.

2. To forcefully log out anyone playing DIO.

3. To prevent anyone from running away.

The first hypothesis was quite convincing. In fact, due to the EMP shockwave, proper military forces couldn’t mobilize. The massive explosions and first-hand accounts could spread, but that wasn’t enough to properly assess and gain awareness of the situation on the ground. All rescue signals and communication lines were blocked.

Besides, it had only been two hours since the first mechanical robots started appearing. State agencies were still caught in confusion, so they were unable to read the situation effectively.

As for the second hypothesis, it was also a possibility. Merlin was convinced that the Noblesse, the group operating and running DIO, were related to this attack. It didn’t make sense that extraterrestrial beings suddenly invaded Earth with no foreshadowing.

Merlin abandoned the third hypothesis. In the first place, these mechanical robot soldiers were agile, and since they couldn’t be fended off without the numbers and firepower of a full-fledged army, setting off a few more bombs would be quicker than casting an EMP shockwave.

Clank!

As he was thinking, a giant mechanical robot stood up and approached Merlin after destroying a nearby building. The robot looked like a human but lacked a head, and its chest opened up as red rays of light began to gather. Without delay, the robot soldier fired a beam from its chest, which possessed enough destructive force to knock over several buildings. The remaining hidden survivors trembled in fear, but Merlin remained calm.

“I request thunder.”

Crackle!

As Merlin muttered, sparks flew from his right hand. A traditional army equipped with modern weapons would find it challenging to handle such a robot, but these opponents posed no threat to Merlin. On the contrary, Merlin found their low power level strange when compared to the severity of the situation.

‘They’re being constrained. There must be a reason why a stronger force wasn’t sent. If they had brought something like a giant ship and started carpet bombing, they could’ve easily wiped out humanity.’

Rumble!

Lightning struck. Like a waterfall, countless lightning bolts flashed down with their high-voltage currents and hit the mechanical robot. This seemed to fry the giant soldier’s system, causing internal errors and instantly rendering the robot immobile and useless.

Gee-

“Do they have a self-destruct function?”

As he saw the fallen mechanical robot turn red, Merlin calmly moved his hands. Instantly, the robot’s body disappeared, having been moved into the basement of a nearby half-destroyed building.

Whirl!

The ground shook from the blast of the self-destruction, but there was no further damage or human casualties. No matter what method the mechanical robots used, they weren’t a match for Merlin.

However, the problem was….

“I-is… is it over?”

“What’s going on… hey, isn’t that Merlin?”josei

“Merlin? Why is one of the Heaven above the Heavens here….”

“Why is an in-game avatar wandering around reality? Also… what were those machines? I’m certain I already logged out!”

“He saved us.”

“Hey, Merlin? What’s going on….”

The people gathered around Merlin. Their eyes were filled with a sense of bewilderment and suspicion.

Poof!

However, the background changed before Merlin could even offer an answer. As he examined his new surroundings, Merlin saw a colossal iron tower collapsing.

“The Eiffel Tower….”

Before he knew it, Merlin was in Paris. This time, he was placed near a gunfight between armed men and a group of mechanical robots. The armed men were clearly losing ground and being pushed back.

“Ugh.”

Merlin sighed as he drew mana and prepared an AOE magic spell. Even if he dealt with these mechanical robots, the situation wouldn’t end. Another attack could be imminent. Second, there were too many people who had seen the Masters’ existence and participation in the fights, which may cause a more significant problem in the near future.

Peace was over.

“I request thunder.”

Crackle!

As sparks flew, Merlin felt the people’s eyes focusing on him. Although he was equipped with an interpreter, he hadn’t inputted French, so all he could understand was their intermittent shouts of ‘Merlin.’

Rumble!

The fight was simple. In addition to his lightning attack, Merlin also used the Irrational Hand Strike to defeat all the mechanical robot soldiers swiftly.

“I shall now return to the house I dream of….”

Merlin mumbled in a whisper. He entered a set of familiar coordinates and jumped through space.

Poof!

“Yongno? You….”

Yongno had been inside when Merlin entered, making Eunhye narrow her eyes and scan him up and down. Since he was wearing a large red hat and a mage’s robe, Merlin’s garb would probably make others mistake him as some sort of fanboy cosplayer.

The destination that Merlin had teleported to was Yongno’s house.

Undoubtedly, this was an unexpected action that the DIO management team probably didn’t want, but for Merlin, it was a necessary process he needed to confirm something. So, he continued without any hesitation.

Click.

When Merlin opened the door and entered Yongno’s room, he saw a young man lying in bed. The young man was wearing earphones and had the same face as Merlin; the only difference between Merlin and the being before him was their clothes.

Merlin gnashed his teeth. He knew that the young man lying in bed was himself, Yongno.

“… Shit.”

He realized once more….

Peace was over.